Fox in a Plastic Decade

"Fox in a Plastic Decade" of Ferris in Focus is the eighth episode of FiF's spring 2010 semester. It was scheduled for completion at 9:00 AM EST on April 5th and broadcast on April 10th of 2010.

Big Rapids Life

 * Producer: Ben Wyman
 * Editor: Kelly

P&J’s co-owner Jeff Cauffman came on to talk about his collector’s items shop in town. He considered himself an expert in vintage clothing, as b-roll revealed various fabrics and designer purses in his store. Another shot revealed his collection of vinyl LP’s. Jeff’s favorite aspect of his shop is that young newcomers get to learn what intrigued previous generations, whereas older visitors get to relive their childhood moments.

The store contains relics from thirty-some odd years ago, as well as a few items from the early 20th century. Anything under 100 years old, Jeff considered a “period piece” rather than an “antique.” His preferred emphasis for pieces ranged from 50’s-70’s. Jeff’s primary philosophy is: “If it’s not available any place else, I want it in my store.”

The nearby Big Rapids Antiques was owned by Darlene Novak, who also came on to share her insights with selling antique curiosities in the area. She elaborated on how she was able to acquire a massive antique jewelry collection for her shop. She liked to collect hand-me-down items of all kinds, including family quilts. Lots of old beer signs and bottles also featured in her store. She claimed that her hat collection sells pretty quickly, with hats being bought almost as soon as she gains a supply of them.

Health Matters

 * Producer: Nate Totten
 * Editor: Dominique Gibbs

These tips were provided:
 * 1) Exercise
 * 2) Don’t skip meals
 * 3) Fruits and vegetables
 * 4) Eat breakfast
 * 5) An occasional candy bar is good, but only on occasion.
 * 6) Biking
 * 7) Variety
 * 8) Fitness courses (There is no shame is using the gym at Ferris—since students are already paying for it with their tuition anyway.)
 * 9) Learn to find a routine that’s fun—boredom will ruin one’s fitness schedule quickly.
 * 10) Bring friends to the gym with you.
 * 11) Walk—don’t drive—to the gym.
 * 12) Avoid all-nighters
 * 13) Full night’s rest.
 * 14) Find a sleep schedule and stick to it.
 * 15) Darker and quieter rooms are better than bright and loud rooms.
 * 16) Wash hands often
 * 17) Stay hydrated
 * 18) Don’t go to class if seriously ill.
 * 19) Don’t share drinks.
 * 20) Don’t smoke.
 * 21) Avoid sick friends.
 * 22) Careful with hobbies.
 * 23) Don’t try to do everything.
 * 24) Avoid getting run down.
 * 25) Don’t fight stress with food.
 * 26) Occasional breaks are a good thing.

E-News

 * Producer: Lamarr English
 * Editor: Tabby Young

Mark listed the few teams that were left vying for the Final Four in that year’s March Madness competition. Meanwhile, Ricky Martin finally confessed to the press that he is, in fact, gay. To Ricky’s surprise, pretty much everyone already knew it. However, he claimed that he wanted to wait until he was no longer relevant on the music scene before coming out of the closet; since he didn’t want to do damage to his family back when he was relevant.

Meanwhile, Fox got blasted for killing off two more of its shows just as they were starting to get good: Sons of Tucson and Till Death. A long list explained many other times that Fox was guilty of starting and then canceling before their time. For more, see the list provided here.

Meanwhile, over 300,000 sales of the iPad occurred just a short time after its release. Little did consumers seem to care how soon it’d be rendered obsolete by the iPad 2.

Program Spotlight

 * Producer: Frank Molner
 * Editor: Sara Potter

First to appear on the scene for this piece was none other than Ed Muccio, a professor in the Plastics Engineering Technology major. His first point of celebration was that Ferris was—at the time—one of only six or so schools in the entire country that even had a plastics engineering field of study. Robert Speirs, another professor, mentioned that his specialty was on teaching students about the conversion processes for materials; how they start off with a raw petroleum and manipulate it into one or another type of plastic to be used to make other things later.

The next teacher to comment was Larry Schult. He remarked on how his program came with a practicum for employment attached to aid students further in finding jobs. Matt Sweeney, a student in the field, referred to it as “a really good program.” He liked messing with chemicals and enzymes. Adam Walker, another student, enjoyed the “hands-on work” that he got to try out. He also celebrated the “unlimited” applications for plastic molding and manipulation. Rob went so far as to point out that students leaving Ferris in the plastics engineering major had far more lab work under their belts going into the workforce than pretty much anybody else in the country, with some students racking up as many as 450 hours of experience before graduation. (That averages to just under 3 hours a week.)

Adam rejoiced over the fact that he got to play around in the lab on day one of classes, rather than merely studying theory for a whole semester without once touching a machine.

Students in the program are encouraged to become a part of the professional society involved, and to link up with mentors from various companies that manufacture plastics for different varying reasons. In one class, students are actually required to work as if on a job; and give status reports for their products. One student reported his internship working for a company that made chainsaws. Another had to make a storage area for plastic molds for some company. Students who do well can expect to lands jobs with starting salaries of around $52,000 a year.

According to Larry, plastics are a stable job field. There are precious few industries that don’t require some sort of plastic product.

Bulldog Stories

 * Producer: Megan Barker
 * Editor: David Stiefel

Megan Barker decided to do a piece on Megan Willoughby for this segment. MW is from Shepherd, MI. She had at the point of her appearing on camera been in the nursing program at Ferris for about 3 years. She got into the field because she was inspired by the nurses that took care of her mom when she was young and her mom had cancer.

Next, she touched on her then-fiancé, Ben. He was studying automotive engineering and design at the time, and was also “a huge servant for God” in Megan’s words. The couple married on May 15th of 2010. She brought up on the side that she had two biological sisters as well as three step-sisters. If not for the fact that all the kids in her family are female, her family would have been the Brady Bunch.

She next touched on her involvement in the His House Fellowship on campus; stating that it helped her grow in faith significantly. She also pointed out that the Footprints poem was one of her favorites, indicating that it has been very true of her life. Megan concluded that life isn’t fair; and that she’s thankful that the small number of tragedies in her life have given her the opportunity to offer testimony to others going though worse problems.

Versus

 * Producer: Lamarr English
 * Editor: Tabby Young

The ND did all he could to make a case for why the 70’s were a better decade than the 80’s, with Andrika holding the opposite view.

ND argued that the 70’s had better music: AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Joan Jett were major groups that started then and retained their appeal well into the 21st century. He then went on to say that the only things to come out of the 80’s were A Flock of Seagulls and the Chernobyl disaster, ignoring Journey and Luther Van Dross for the sake of argument.

Andrika countered that the 80’s merely perfected what the 70’s started, showing that Prince and Madonna got their start in the 80’s. Michael Jackson became a big-time star then also. While the ND stood against a disco 70’s backdrop, Andrika stood against an ad for Voltron.

The ND countered that TV was better. The 70’s had Happy Days, Three’s Company, and All in the Family for viewers to watch. By contrast, the 80’s was about nothing but Bill Cosby and his family.

Andrika pointed out MacGuyver, Miami Vice, Knight Rider, The Smurfs, the Ninja Turtles, Cheers, and more. She also argued that the Cosby spin-offs weren’t terrible. She didn’t bother to mention Alf, Duck Tales, or a few other shows that were big then.

The ND pointed out that couples were more interesting in the 70’s: Sonny and Cher were still together and everyone was accusing Donnie and Marie Osmond of incest. The 80’s featured tapes, 8-tracks, and CD players that didn’t work very well. He followed up:

“We all know where those CD players went: to the Internet! Where we can download [the music from them] for free now…”

Andrika came back into play mentioning “what sucks about the 70’s,” aiming at lifestyle options of the time. She first brought up mustaches of the time, then mentioned the Watergate scandal. She brought up shag carpet next, followed by the fact that “almost everyone important in music died then.”

The segment ends with Andrika head-butting the ND offstage.

What Do You Think?

 * Producer: Megan Barker
 * Editor: David Stiefel

Megan asked random passers-by students near the Quizno’s Sub section of the Rankin building: “If you could go back in time to anywhere, where would you go?” This gave the Dozerfleet founder some uncomfortable memories of reading a Cracked.com article about why going back in time to anywhere would be a horrible idea. For example: not being able to eat the food due to having thinner intestinal linings than past generations, thus not being able to tolerate as many impurities in food.

Even so, many students gave their thoughts on the matter. One girl wished to go back in time to meet Audrey Hepburn. Another girl said: “Bible times.” One man wanted to see the 1800’s, and another girl wanted to see the 50’s. Another man said he wanted to “learn a little Hebrew,” so that he could go back in time and hear Jesus actually give a sermon directly. (After his section was recorded, he was reminded that Jesus actually spoke Aramaic.)

Another girl thought the Victorian era would be an interesting time to visit, if only so she could learn what wearing a corset was actually like.

Now Demonstrating

 * Producer: Eric Stacy
 * Editor: Nick Blohm

First things first: students are expected to have a decent resume before they attempt anything workforce-related. Angie Roman of Student Career Services remarked in an interview that the biggest mistake she’d seen of students is mistaking a resume for a portfolio catalog. Another mistake often made is that students show a total history of everything they’ve ever done in terms of work history and community service. However, everyone is encouraged to keep more than one type of resume handy. Each resume should be geared towards showing one’s qualifications towards working one or another specific type of job.

Araxie Zaleski, a Public Relations major, argued that community service is often downplayed by students who have it. Concerning dress, men are expected to wear simple suits. Women have trickier options to sort though. There are pants suits and suits with skirts, as well as other various options. Women are expected to research the culture of whatever company they apply for to figure out how to dress.

Angie went on that one should know what type of interview they’re going to: a one-on-one or a gang-up. Attitude factors in a lot more than it should also.