Life in the day of a Student-Athlete

Sarah Brown, Outside Hitter. Linn-Benton Community College.

It was right about 5:55 PM, the glass doors on the south side of the activities center’s only hallway swing open and let in a gust of air and springtime sunshine.

In with the wind and sunshine comes Sarah Brown, she is in a speed walk towards the north end of the hallway to meet with her volleyball coach, Jayme Frazier.

As she hustled past me, I decided to wait a few minutes to see if I could get a couple minutes on her way out to talk to her about Volleyball and the day in the life of a student-athlete. A few minutes later, I hear footsteps in the distance getting closer and closer.

Thankfully, she responded to my request with “sure I have a few minutes before I have to go take a test”... It seemed that I was already seeing the fast pace, busy, aspect of her life that I was just preparing to ask her about.

“Life as a student-athlete is definitely not as easy as I make it look” she said jokingly.

I proceeded to ask Sarah about how she copes with the busy schedule she has while maintaining good grades.

“I have learned to prioritize my tasks throughout the day and find time to get my school work done on time”,

says Sarah.

“I spend a lot of time in the library when I am not in class, it puts me in a zone to get work done, which is what we all need sometimes.”

I then asked her a bit about how she prioritizes her volleyball goals and balances those with her school work load.

In response, Sarah states,

“Well now that we are in off-season, school takes precedence over everything else. At least for the last few weeks of the term that is, with finals and all”

“I find time to work on my volleyball goals pretty often, we all have weight training class together and work on improving our game in that aspect, and Jayme (Coach Jayme Frazier) is always available and willing to help us out whenever we have time.”

After only talking to Sarah, a returning outside hitter, for a few brief minutes, I managed to get some good insight into the everyday life of a Linn-Benton Student Athlete.

Eminem's "Rap God" Evaluation

For this blog post I have chose to write about a song that has caught my attention in recent times because of its different qualities than what the artist usually provides. It has been mentioned a lot in recent times in the music world because of its contradictions.

The song I am referring to is “Rap God” by Eminem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cQ3b0iqLo

Above is a link to the audio of the song off of youtube. If you listen to the audio from approx. 3:35-4:00 you will hear lyrics that i will refer to later in this post.

The subject of this post is to focus on some of the lyrics stated in this song that are contradicting to all the work that eminem has done in previous albums. Eminem has never been one to admit failure in the rap game or admit that he is the greatest. However, in this song, he brings out different aspects that I have never heard from him before, and that is coming from a long time fan with many hours invested in listening to his music from the first song of the first album to the final song on his most recent.

In this song Eminem refers to himself as the “Rap God”, the greatest to ever do it. Which, some people will agree with, while some will disagree. However, at the same time, he admits that in recent years he has fell in the rankings of popularity and has noticed it. He admits that he is not nearly as big as he once was.

There is a part in the song, found at the 3:35 mark that goes;

“But sometimes when you combine

Appeal with the skin color of mine

You get too big and here they come trying to

Censor you like that one line I said

On "I'm Back" from the Mathers LP

One when I tried to say I'll take seven kids from Columbine

Put 'em all in a line

Add an AK-47, a revolver and a nine

See if I get away with it now

That I ain't as big as I was”

When I first heard this part of the song, I was shocked to hear that the line about columbine was not edited out like it once was in his song “I’m back”. This really made me think that it is possible that he is realizing that he is not on top of the rap game like he was in previous years. When “I’m Back” was released on The Marshall Mather LP, it raised an unimaginable amount of controversy in the media. The line actually ended up getting demanded to be edited out by the US government leaving every copy of the song with a blank few bars where the line should be. So I am sure you can see why this shocked me when I first heard this song, it shows that Eminem has become less popular and powerful in the game he once controlled, and admits it.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known by his stage name, or in this case, NAMES, Eminem and Slim Shady is one of the most successful hip hop artists in the history of music. Eminem has received dozens of awards for his music and is the best selling hip hop artist since the year 2000. He has been known to be a controversial artist that is not afraid to say what he wants to who he wants, when he wants. Most people do not know that he is the only rap artist to ever go “diamond” in album sales, meaning he sold over 10 million copies of his second studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP.

While analyzing this, it is obvious that the differences far outweigh the similarities in this case, to me at least. The lyrics in his recent single “Rap God” do not compare to any work he has done in the past. While Eminem has admitted a lot of different things in his music, from drug use, to mental disorders, I have never heard him acknowledge that he may not be the best anymore, which really surprised me.

The only reason that this has any meaning in today’s music world and is worth blogging about is solely because for the last few years there has been talk about who is the best rapper to live. It has been a close competition that is overruled by many opinions by fans and artists themselves. In recent years, Eminem has been compared a lot to fellow rapper Lil Wayne, for who is the most iconic and talented rapper of this era. So the fact that he is highlighting his drop in popularity is kind of a big deal in the rap world.

This reflects that anything can change in our culture, from sports franchises rising and falling with each new season, to artists falling in and out of the public eye. This reflects that America is a very fast changing current in terms of media, things come and go with no warning.

This song, as well as the album, I believe was targeting men from age 16-35. These ages seem to be the boundaries of Eminem’s real fan base, and rap’s fan base in general.

This single includes very offensive lyrics, including the line that I mentioned earlier about columbine. The fact that these lyrics are even being presented in the song is the reason I was compelled to write about this topic.

If I am evaluating this song, I would say it is lyrically a very good song although it is different than what I am used to by this artist.

By no means would I ever consider this song among the best pieces of work by Eminem, his career is laced with such success that it will be hard for him to top what he has accomplished in his lifetime.

I expect this song to be memorable due to the fact that is is on the #2 selling album of this year so far, and it is Eminem, people love to love him, and love to hate him.

After viewing several professional critiques of this song, the majority of them focus on some of the alleged homophobic things that Eminem says, not the topic I am focusing on.  

While writing this blog, I went to and played Eminem’s radio station on Pandora Radio for the entire process of writing this blog. This helped me engage with what i was writing about and keep interest, while also being reminded of the work he has done.

In conclusion, the song “Rap God” included a lot of different components that may not be familiar to some Eminem fans. It seems that Eminem has changed in the last few years and while he is still making hits and selling records, he is changing his attitude and perspective on some topics.

Profile Gayle Rushing

In a land where the sounds of copy machines and printers rule the airwaves, where coffee aroma feels the air all hours of the day, you will find Gayle Rushing.

Gayle Rushing is the Secretary of Student Engagement here at Linn-Benton Community College, and has been for the last 14 years. Previous to that she worked in the learning center above the library on the Albany campus for 3 years. Now days she oversee’s more departments than you and i may have every realized, these include Journalism, Music, Health and Human Performance, and Athletics.

Her roles vary each day from checking eligibility for athletes to report to head coaches, to scheduling dates that may work for music events on campus.

“Each day is something new for me, I have a lot of responsibilities, therfore I have a lot of deadlines that need to be attended to for each department. I live my life on the on the edge, of deadlines!” stated Gayle in a joking manner.

Gayle has been an Oregon resident for the last 25 years. She was born and raised in Weston Australia where she lived with her family and attended school til the age of 23.

When she is not working hard to make a large part of the our school operate more smoothly, she enjoys being outdoors and taking advantage of the seasons. She enjoys camping, reading outside on her hammock, and gardening when this Oregon weather permits her to do so.

Dodge Ron Burgundy Commercial

The ad that I chose to analyze was the Dodge commercial featuring Anchorman character Ron Burgundy. It was an add that I saw about two weeks before the release of the 2nd Anchorman movie, while watching the commercial I thought to myself how can this be affective in marketing dodge's vehicles?

I
n this ad, Ron Burgundy, the "star" of the upcoming movie Anchorman 2 endorses the American car company Dodge and its new line of vehicles. The dialog includes nothing more than Ron Burgundy mispronouncing the name Dodge as "Yodge" and claiming it is the correct way it is pronounced. He is standing in front of the line of vehicles placed in a white show room while classical music plays. Burgundy doesn't actually use or even refer to a specific vehicle, It seems to be more of an advertisement for the movie than the vehicles.


Will Ferrell is a big time actor in recent years and is well renown for his roll as Ron Burgundy in the original movie Anchorman as well as its new sequel.

 The ad itself runs for about 30 seconds, and was premeired about a week before the release of the movie Anchorman 2. It was broadcasted on channels such as Comedy Central and MTV, channels that target younger crowds.

The main technique in this ad is the famous-person testimonial. Ron Burgundy marks these vehicles with his stamp of approval and hopes to influence his fans to do the same.


 The ad does not seem to make good use of the broadcasted commercial because there is literally no information presented about the cars, besides the fact that Ron Burgundy likes them. When I first saw this commercial I was upset that they paid so much money to present something that didn't market the product at all.

I think that this ad is new in the sense that it has a fictional character from a movie starring in it. A lot of commercials include the actual actor themselves but it is new to have a character from a movie starring in the commercial.

The Ron Burgundy featured Dodge commercial was made to grab the attention of the same people who have been fans of the Anchorman movies in the past.

While the ad is very un-informing, I do not see any stereotypes or problems within it.

There are several weaknesses that I found about this ad, starting with the pure lack of information. To have an ad run on television and pay a lot of money to have it aired and not give the viewers any information is foolish from any business perspective. It seems as if the directors simply wanted to create the add to make people laugh, and if that was the goal than this was a successful piece of advertisement.

This commercial will no doubt be memorable to those who are fans of the movie Anchorman. The appearance of Ron Burgundy will stick with them as long as the movie does.

I think that ad did a good job of targeting the specific groups of interest. I only saw this commercial on channels that ran ads for the movie itself. It was obvious that the ad was being ran on the popular channels that got the most views from younger to middle age men.

In conclusion this ad was very un-informing and affective in the marketing field, Its understood that it is supposed to be funny but spending all that money for a commercial that lasts 30 seconds with no real information just seems like a bad and useless idea.

Student Coaching at LBCC

LBCC offers a variety of different oppurtunities for students to gain real world experience in the field that they choose. One example of this is student-coaching, which could be a possibility for any student interested in it for any sport offered here at LBCC.

Stehvan Carpenter has spent this year student coaching with the LBCC men's basketball team. "It is a good oppurtunity for anyone that wants to get into coaching at some point.." says Carpenter. "Helping coach practice has opened my eyes to what coaching intails and the responsiblities that it carries" states the student coach. Student coaching is a serious task that requires time and effort in exhchange for experience and connections in the coaching world.

"There are a lot of different tasks and responsibilites that need to be attended to as a student-coach, this could be anything from operating the shot clock, to directing players what to do in practice".  It is clear that student coaching presents many tasks and even challenges to the applicant while at the same time being rewarding and beneficial to your resume at the same time. 

Our coaches for each program here at LBCC are always willing to talk to someone about student-coaching and helping out the team. If you are interested you can contact Athletic Director, Randy Falk, with any questions or comments. 

Linn-Benton Volleyball off-season (in progress)

After a very successful season, the Linn-Benton Roadrunner’s volleyball team will spend the off-season working hard to continue where they left off this season. After finishing 4th in the entire NWAACC’s they have set themselves very high expectations to meet next season.

“Our goal is to be better than we were last year, we want to win it all” says freshman middle blocker Kristen Epps. During the off-season the girls focus on school while getting more athletic and understanding more about the game. Three days a week they go thru a personalized workout routine that keeps them in top shape so that they minimize time it takes to get back into competition shape next season.

“The workouts and routines that we do are all functional for volleyball, we focus a lot on our core strength which is most important in any sport” states Katie Benston, a freshman defensive specialist.

This year the Roadrunners are losing eight sophomores that will not be able to return next season. This gives the current freshman a chance to take control and evolve into leaders on the court. With only half of the team graduating, the Roadrunners maintain a good amount of players from last year that will give them an edge over competitors.