You’ve just won a free boat ride for three. What are you going to do? Write a song about being on a boat, of course! The Lonely Island (TLI), a comedy group consisting of Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg released a song in January that has become a hit.

“I’m on a Boat” is a rap-parody that pokes fun at stereotypes of rap videos and songs – and does it very well. The video follows two of the three as they ride on a pleasure yacht with T-Pain.

The song’s lyrics borderline on outrageous and are what make the song a hit. Some of the lines poke fun at the third member who has been left on shore to his mundane life: “I’ve got my swim trunks and my flippy-floppies. I’m flippin’ burgers while you at Kinko’s straight flippin’ copies” and “I’m on a boat like Leo – if you’re on shore then you sure ain’t me-o.” (Video featuring one of them with his arms spread wide on the bow like Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic.”)

T-Pain sings one verse and fills in background vocals throughout, adding to the very “realism” of this rap song.

TLI prances around the boat in many different sets of attire ranging from resort ware to suits to navy uniforms.

TLI, also known as “Incredibad” and “The Dudes” are not new at comedy or making music. One of their first hits featured Justin Timberlake – “D*** in a box.” Last fall they released the third single for the album “J*** in my pants.”

The trio got their start working with SNL. Many of their videos are featured movie shorts on the show.

So if you’d like to take a quick break and have a good laugh, hop on youtube.com and search for “I’m on a Boat.”

I’ve been trying to decide how I feel about this year’s main artist for Ferris Fest and this is what I’ve concluded: It’s a joke.

There are two things I want to know. First of all, what compelled Entertainment Unlimited to allow Three 6 Mafia on the ballot, and second, how many students actually took their time to vote?

For the sake of EU’s defense, I understand it is impossible to please everyone. I have always supported the organization’s hard work and the events they have made possible for students.

But Ferris Fest has fallen into a trend that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have been at Ferris since 2003 and my first Ferris Fest experience included Fabolous.

Not a bad show. Then came< the anticipated 2005 Fest, where I hadn’t slept for almost an entire week only to find out the day of the show that T.I. would not be performing. That was a crap shoot.

In 2006, Ryan Cabrera performed, and this is where things started going downhill. Cabrera was surprisingly a very talented musician, but the turnout was not that great. Not to mention, the weather confined the show to the ice arena.

I recently read on Bulldog Bytes that Ferris Fest was traditionally a family-friendly event. I’m not revealing any big secrets when I say this, but Ferris Fest is mostly known for its party appeal.

With that said, Yung Joc, Baby Bash, Three 6 Mafia? You might as well pack up Ferris Fest and send it over to the club. How much more party appeal can you put out with artists like that?

I’m not going to argue whether any of these acts are really musicians, because that is for another time and place. But for the past two years, the only real music I’ve heard from Ferris Fest was coming from the second stage acts and the first stage musicians that played prior to the main act.

I think the most we can expect from Three 6 Mafia is 45 minutes of mostly commentary to the audience, combined with 30 seconds of chorus from the most popular songs the group has produced. That might be 10 or 15 minutes of actual music, if we’re lucky. I foresee a little déjà vu from past act letdowns.

EU stated that close to 1,200 students voted. That is fantastic, but that’s not significant at all. Enrollment at Ferrs is well over 13,000 students.

I’m not a math major, but I'm sure that is less than 10 percent of the student population.

It’s fair to say, if students didn’t vote, then they should stop whining. And I commend EU for actually asking students what they want to hear.

But there are two problems I see with the survey; either not enough students are made aware of this voting process or the acts that are on the ballot are so worthless that the students simply don’t want to waste their time.

I agree that Ferris Fest is a diverse event where almost anyone can find an act to enjoy. But, how about making the main act a little more diverse as each year goes by?

And for the remaining 12,000 some students who did not vote this year, I suggest taking a little initiative. Less than 10 percent is a joke, and most of the complaining I’ve heard is from those who didn’t vote.

We do only have one planet and it’s our responsibility to take care of it.

Raising awareness through fundraisers, concerts, community events and rallies is an integral part of not only getting the word out about the importance of protecting our planet, but also guilting those too reluctant to be active into some level of participatory behavior.

We seem to designate at least one day specifically to Earth Friendly related activities. This past Sunday the world observed Earth Hour, an event in which individuals were to shut off their lights and electronics for an hour all at the same time.

Sounds like a good idea. It saves electricity, it brings people together in a form of unity that our great great grandfathers might have appreciated. Candles are lit, guitars are strummed and a generation of faux hippies gathers again for the first time since the Obama rally in their area a couple of months ago. It’s a bunch of people coming together to say that we have to alter our practices to make sure our planet stays beautiful and safe for us to live on.

Of course Arbor Day on April 24 this year ought to be a real hoot. Sure, we can plant some trees. We can talk about the benefits of oxygen that they provide. We can walk through the woods and collect trash that has been blown there by the wind. Sure, if the trees could thank us they would, but they can’t so we are left to assume that their sign of gratitude is in permitting us to chop down those mighty timbers and make IKEA’s new line of coffee tables.

But Arbor Day is just about the trees and trees only make up a portion of what we are really striving for which is a cleaner planet overall. Luckily Earth Day comes along the day after on April 25 to pick up the slack that Arbor Day will likely leave behind. The all encompassing aspects of earth day to promote any activity the will promote a healthful quality of life for the planet or the cessation of any activity that will have a negative impact on the sustainability of the earth.

Truly there can’t be that great of a need for these separate days so close in chronology and with the same general goal of improving the quality of environment life on earth. And three days a year isn’t enough. This process of maintainability is constant and unrelenting in its need for support. For three days a year the world reminds us to take a personal stake in the habitat we call home. The other 362 it is up to us to remind each other that we share an ecosystem that isn’t so infinite and in many ways more dependent on us than we care to recognize.

Three days of dealing with what I think is a general nuisance is worth it if it promotes permanent life choices that will be good for all mankind for generations to come.

As an institution of higher education, Ferris State University is one of the only public college in Michigan that currently does not have an on-campus recycling program. Up until last semester, the Ferris Recyclers RSO were collecting students’ recyclables in the lobby of every residential hall, and outside on the campus Quad. The Housing Office deemed that collecting recyclables in the halls was security breach and banned them from the dorms.

Also, at the beginning of the fall semester, behind every residential hall front desk were three plastic recycling containers: one for office paper, one for magazines, and the last for returnable pop cans. These containers were removed shortly into the semester due to “budget cuts”.

Last year, I personally put some empty boxes in the laundry room of the floor I live on to give the other residents an opportunity to recycle. Once the boxes became full, I took them to the Mecosta County Recycling Center and emptied them. Upon returning from winter break, I was notified that having the boxes in the laundry room was a violation of the fire code and that they were to be removed immediately. The hall staff also added that they did not appreciate stuff piling up in the laundry room.

It is hard to recycle here in Big Rapids because the Mecosta County Recycling Center, which is located on 4th Ave here in Big Rapids, is only open three days a week. They are only open from 9 until 11 a.m. on Monday, 3 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, and 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday. The organization that runs the Recycling Center is comprised of all volunteers, and is a not-for-profit entity.

It seems to me that this university is doing everything possible to prevent the students and faculty from recycling. The Ferris Recyclers are currently in the process of working with university officials to implement a campuswide recycling program that will be accessible by everyone, including students. As part of this process, the Ferris State American Marketing Association conducted an online survey of students and faculty members regarding their thoughts on recycling.

Of the 234 respondents, 46 percent of them stated they live in a residence hall, with another 8 percent living in on campus apartments. One of the survey questions asked about the types of products that they recycle. The most popular were plastic, office paper, newspaper, and aluminum.

Just over 40 individuals stated that they do not currently recycle at all. The main reason for this as stated by survey takers was the inconvenience of not having oncampus facilities. Another reason mentions was that they do not know how or what to recycle.

It is evident that students and faculty members want a campuswide recycle program. I challenge President Eisler to make it one of his personal goals to have a campus wide recycling program in place by the beginning of the Fall 2009 semester. This university should not throw away a great opportunity to become proactive and progressive, rather, it should take the initiative to match other institutions in Michigan by having a functional recycling on campus.

The first thing most people do after I tell them how much weight I lost is ask me how I did it. I find that usually, my answer is off-putting. “Move more and eat less,” is not the answer most people want to hear.

I feel an awkward combination of entertained, sympathetic, and agitated upon seeing the look of disappointment in people’s eyes when they realize I don’t have knowledge of some secret trick or shortcut to loosing weight. There is no way to avoid it, loosing weight requires expending more calories than one is consuming.

But in the American way of things, people want to have their donut-bun cheese burger and eat it too. Instead of good old-fashioned hard work and commitment, most people are looking for the easy way out.

The diet industry is a big business in America and while no government statistics exist that span the whole of the types of services offered, estimates are that Americans spend anywhere from $40 billion to $100 billion dollars a year on weigh loss related products and services (BBC.com). Obviously, most people are more willing to throw money at this problem in attempts to find an easy short cut than they are to start taking personal responsibility for their health.

It is without question that there is an obesity epidemic in America. The percentage of overweight or obese adults in the U.S. was found to be 66 percent by the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). NHANES is administered by the U.S. government Center for Disease Control.

Related statistics are perhaps even more disconcerting when children and adolescents are examined. Data from NHANES surveys (1976–1980 and 2003– 2006) show that the prevalence of obesity has increased for children from the ages of two to five years from 5.0 percent to 12.4 percent. For children between the ages of six to eleven years prevalence increased from 6.5 percent to 17.0 percent. And most shockingly of all, for children between the ages of twelve and nineteen, the prevalence of obesity increased from 5.0 percent to 17.6 percent. All of this information is available at the U.S. Department of health and Human services center for disease control.

The reality of the obesity epidemic has certainly been established though, and these figures are probably not too shocking to most people. But, how do we fix it? What can be done to get America to slim down?

The causes of obesity are highly disputed by various interested parties. And the argument of personal responsibility versus the influence of food-related advertisement is of particular interest to me.

On one hand, it is worth pointing out the billions of dollars spent on advertising per year by food manufacturers and distributors. Consider too, how much of that is directed specifically at children. In July of 2008, the Federal Trade Commission released a report estimating that the nation’s largest food and beverage companies spent about $1.6 billion in 2006 marketing their products to children.

It is near impossible for parents to beat out the messages sent out almost incessantly by fast food companies by simply stressing the importance healthful eating at every family dinner.

Consider also the cost and availability of healthy food such as produce. I can say with complete confidence that I can, at any second, more easily obtain a chocolate bar or a soda than I can an apple or some carrot sticks. I can also claim with absolute certainty that the easier unhealthy option is also the less costly one.

Also, arguments exist, though I have found little primary evidence to heighten their credibility, that state that we are evolutionarily designed to gain weight. The idea is that high-fat and high sugar foods commonly taste better and often lead to a secretion of “feel good” chemicals in the brain. There is an immediate physiological reward when eating high calorie foods.

Finally, it can be argued that in some instances, obesity has a genetic component. The amount of studies showing a genetic predisposition to being over weight can be found with increasing frequency. The statistic stating that the likelihood of being overweight as an adult vastly increases if one has overweight or obese parents is ubiquitous throughout the research I have come across.

All of these things considered though, I am more likely to place the onus of an individual’s weight onto his or her own shoulders.

Reasons or excuses as to why it is difficult to maintain a healthy weight go on forever. And, coming from the stand point of someone who was formerly classified as “morbidly obese,” I will certainly agree that loosing weight is extraordinarily difficult and that maintaining a healthy weight can be challenging.

Although it has recently come to light that genetic contributions may contribute to one’s likelihood to become obese, this does not explain why obesity is only recently becoming the nation’s primary health concern.

I would argue too, that the majority of overweight Americans are not afflicted with a “fat gene.”

I think it is the mindset of this generation that leaves so many Americans with a little something extra around the midsection. The “get something for nothing” and “easy as one, two, three!” mindset, despite what diet industry representatives may attempt to promote and despite what most Americans would like to believe does not apply to loosing weight.

It is not impossible, but it takes hard work and determination become or stay healthy. Gimmicks and fad diets are useless. Eat less and move more.

Mr. Editor,
I recently attended the Honor students’ speech tournament that was held on March 26th. I am writing you and the student body to ask them why don’t they see us as equals? When attending this function, the hostess referred to the general student as a “norm” or “norms” when she made an announcement pertaining to the honor students competing at the campus wide speech tournament next month. She belittled the common Ferris student. For someone to make such a statement is frankly uncouth. The worst thing about her statement was that there was no negative reaction from the students or any faculty in the audience. She did not know what kind of students were sitting in the crowd that night. It was inappropriate for her to say such a demeaning and hurtful comment. I hope honor students realize that the hostess has just put a black mark on your reputation.

Disappointed,
Andy Manardo
President, Ferris Communication Association