Ke Alaka'i Homepage

Laughter filled the room at the Seaside Jesters Comedy Club first ever “Night with the Jesters” comedy show. "Night with the Jesters" was hosted in the Brittany Wilcox, a junior from Alaska studying English who performed in the show, said, “We wanted to make everyone laugh but we also wanted everyone to think of us as a super classy thing like ‘Saturday Night Live’. We had tables for everyone and center pieces on them. The different atmosphere put a little more pressure on us performers because it seemed like a much more classy event.” "Night with the Jesters" included a larger venue, a three hour show compared to the normal two hours, and free food provided by Food Services and more improv games played by the actors. The show featured music segments from Trevor McCord and Hannah Larsen and student bands Hoopla and Mixed Plate. The Japanese and Kiwi clubs helped usher, setup and takedown the event. Taylor Countrymen, a sophomore from Laie majoring in computer science, drummed for the band Hoopla. Countrymen said the constant action of the night worked to create a more appealing vibe. Countrymen commented, “It was a relaxed atmosphere but there was always something going on whether it was the show, music, or food.” The students there had a good time and there wasn’t any pressure. People were coming and going throughout the night.” William Walter Arnett III, a junior from Arizona studying music, is one of the club’s presidency members and said, “We played a game that’s never been done in the shows before called ‘Movie Dub’ where a scene was shown from an old film with no sound and we had to dub the voices. In the scene, they cut off the tail of a horse and made it into a wig for a guy and I said, ‘This is perfect for the Führer!’ It always makes me happy when a good Hitler joke is made.” Arnett felt the new area microphones that bordered the stage made “a huge difference. I think that is one of the biggest triumphs of the Night with the Jesters. We were trying to figure out how to truly perform for a big audience. People always laugh, but sometimes it’s hard to get everyone to laugh. At first, we were on the floor of the HGB and it was hard for people to see and hear if they were in the back. It can still be funny but not ‘really’ funny.” Countrymen felt the performance value was heightened by the crowd involvement. Countryman said, “I remember watching ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ with my family and this show was a lot like that. They got audience members to come in for the games and were in the crowd like for 'Sound Effects' where they had two audience members come up and make the sound effects for all the little actions the performers did.” Amber Blair, a senior from Utah studying music and elementary education, said the structure helped contribute to the comedy. “This was the third comedy show I’ve been to and what made this one much more fun was that it was really well put together. I loved the game Scenes from Facebook where the audience posted a topic on the Jester Facebook page and the performers made something up right there on the spot, just like Scenes from a Hat on ‘Whose Line is it Anyways’.” Arnett said the turnout from the community for the Jesters is increasing. “We’re becoming more professional in our comedy and much more popular,” Arnett said. “We’ve always filled up in the small rooms we’ve been in but this was a much larger crowd and venue.” Lindsey Ferrin, a junior from Oklahoma studying psychology, said, “The fact that it was a little more structured and fancy than normal was really cool. I love going and seeing fellow students be hilarious and enjoy themselves and allow us to have a good time.”

Textbooks When shopping for textbooks, look for international editions. According to Abebooks.com, international editions are usually soft cover and printed on softer paper. The front cover may be different but the content is the same.Compare the edition required for class with previous editions and talk to your professor to find out if they are acceptable.Check on the Facebook group “Buy/Sell Your Textbooks BYUH”. Students tend to sell books cheaper than online prices.Compare prices: Copy and paste the ISBN number into a search engine and compare prices. Pay attention to shipping costs.Share the price of the book with someone else that’s in the same class and share the book.The library has most all textbooks on reserve. You can avoid buying textbooks by checking out books at the circulation desk. However, you run the risk of other students using it when you need. You can also only check out one book only for a few hours.Funny but TrueIf you live off campus, instead of buying toilet paper just try to time your bathroom trips so you always go while on campus.Change your clothes throughout the day. This prevents them from getting dirty and so you can postpone doing your laundry.Hand-wash your clothes. This takes a lot more time but saves money over time. You can also dry your clothes by hanging them on a clothes rack. Just be aware of weather conditions for that day.Make friends with someone who knows how to give haircuts. Health/LivingEstablish a normal eating schedule so you don’t randomly get hungry during the day so you don’t purchase fast foods or snacks.Avoid buying soft drinks and junk food.Saving Tips “Trick Change” -Think of purchases in whole values. If you make a purchase that costs $6.49, think of it as $7. When purchasing with cash, put the leftover change in a safe place in your room. Over time you will be more cautious of your spending habits and collect change that will add up to extra money you ‘tricked’ yourself into not having.Set aside 10 percent of your income each pay period into a savings fund. This will be your backup reserve in case of emergencies.DatingTake advantage of the free and cheap opportunities in the community or on-campus for dates and when hanging out with friends. Every week, during the weekend and sometimes on Wednesday nights, BYUHSA sponsors a free movie showing in the Little Theater. Volleyball and basketball games are also free with a student ID.Setting a goal for the amount of money you spend on a date will help you be more creative. Set up scavenger hunts, go hiking and enjoy all of the natural beauty Hawaii has to offer.

The BYU-Hawaii Men’s Basketball team will start off its 2014-2015 on Saturday, Nov. 15 campaign against visiting Saint Katherine College. The Seasiders are coming off a 15-12 record last year and a 13-7 conference record. This year’s team will return a number of players from last year’s squad including senior guard Luke Aston, senior point guard Robbie Mitchell, junior guard Scott Friel, junior guard Pablo Coro, and sophomore guard Cory Lange. Both Friel and Coro were named to the 2013 All-PacWest Team.Along with a number of valuable returning starters, the Seasiders have a number of impressive summer signings. The Seasiders will feature three Division I transfers including Ian Harward from BYU, and Daniel Berger and Jordan Stone from Utah State. Stone is a 6’10” senior from Smithfield, Utah. As an Aggie, Stone played in 93 games and averaged 2.4 points and 2.7 rebounds. Stone will provide the Seasiders with physicality and defensive presence in the post. Berger is a 6’6” senior from Medford, Ore. While attending Utah State, Berger played in 64 games over three seasons, including 30 starts. Berger will provide the Seasiders with a substantial offensive threat, particularly from the three-point line.Harward is a 7-foot sophomore center from Orem, Utah. In one season playing for BYU, Harward had 22 appearances for the Cougars, in which he scored 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. “Ian adds a lot of size and can run the floor extremely well,” said Coach Ken Wagner in an interview on the BYU-Hawaii athletics website. “We are really excited knowing he can shoot, can rebound, and will give us another big man that can play great defense.” The team will have an extremely competitive schedule as it will face Central Washington, Seattle Pacific, and Oakland City. “We have a lot of really good athletes who have special talents and will play key roles on the team,” said Lange, an pre-biology major from Tehachapi, Calif.The Seasiders are picked to finish fourth in the PacWest Conference in the pre-season polls behind California Baptist, Dixie State, and Chaminade. “We feel like we can be very good this year,” said BJ Ford, a junior guard studying exercise science from Payson, Utah. “We expect to win our conference and go on to regionals and nationals.”

Aaron Ng’ambi, along with seven other students, created a non-profit organization called Keiki Books to promote learning outside the classroom. The organization held it first event at the beginning of the month and intends to continue the work.Ng’ambi said, “Keiki Books is about training a kid up in the way that he should grow.” It provides an opportunity for the children to be excited about learning in school, as well as outside the classroom. Keiki Books accomplishes this by helping kids read and encourages parents to read to their children.At its last event, about 13 children came from around the community and TVA to read, draw and write. The BYUH Jesters came and performed some of the books for the children who do not know how to read yet. Ng’ambi said this exposes the keiki to literature in a way that they may or may not have had before they came to a Keiki Books event.Keiki Books recognizes that there are resources out there that are not being utilized. With book donations from the Give and Take combined with community donations, the organization came up with 300-plus books at its last event; way more than was projected, said Ng’ambi.Michaela Tate, a freshman from Mililani, said, “Books have increased my understanding of the world and how to overcome the dark parts of the human mind, using the light that is within all of us. Books are magic.” Keiki Books strives to encompass this very principle in interaction with children, especially those who only know learning to be inside of a classroom.“The young mind is so malleable. It is so very important that we as students, educators, community members, what have you, aid in shaping these young minds by making literature, in all forms, accessible,” said Lanae Pitts, a freshman studying ICS.For more information on assisting Keiki Books in making literature and education outside of the classroom accessible, visit its Facebook page or email Aaron Ng’ambi at angambi@go.byuh.edu.The non-profit organization plans on hosting another event like its first event. Ng’ambi, chuckled and said, “We had no idea what we were doing, but the community came through and affirmed that what we are doing is important.”

Audiences cheered, laughed and cried at the BYUH original play, “One Tattered Angel.” Adapted from Blaine Yorgason’s book of the same title, the play portrays the life of Blaine and his wife, Cathy, after adopting a baby girl, Charity, with no brain in the late 1980s.The climax of the play was a scene showing an intimate conversation between Blaine and Fred, a handicapped man. In their conversation, they reveal the greater meaning behind trials, limitations, and Charity’s suffering. Blaine: “Fred, do you ever wish you didn’t have…limitations? I mean, do you ever think you got handed a raw deal to life? Don’t you ever get tired of things being so hard all the time?” Fred: “When I hurt my head, I told my friend that hurting was very hard. He told me that when things got hard for me, it just meant that Jesus loved me lots.” Blaine: “Wouldn’t Jesus want to help you - to stop your pain?” Fred: “Hurting does help me. It helps me to feel like Jesus felt when He hurt. My friend said that all Jesus’ life he had hard things happen to him, just like me. He told me to remember that Jesus wasn’t born in a hospital like this but in a barn. He was wrapped in ragged old clothes, and they made his bed out of a smelly place where animals are.”Fred, played by LeGrand Lawrence, a resident of Laie, helped Blaine to understand why Charity’s limitations were a blessing. Out of character Lawrence said, “A lot of people said they enjoyed the one scene. One person said it tied everything together. Another told me they cried during that scene. Saturday night they clapped after the scene.” Russel Carlson, assistant professor of Math, said, “Brother [Craig] Ferre did a great job adapting the book. I haven’t read the book, but I was worried because you never know how local adaptations are going to turn out since they’re not usually too good, but I was really impressed. The way he put it together really helped bring the feeling of the Spirit and the message the author was trying to get through and it really did come through powerfully.” According to Ferre, Yorgason was going to attend the play but was asked to perform the endowment session for his granddaughter who is leaving on a mission.Elizabeth Saylor, a sophomore in education from China, who played Yorgason’s friend Brenda in the play, said Yorgason gave the cast comforting words in his absence. “One of the things Blaine said is he knows Charity will be watching as an un-tattered angel, and I felt like every time we were doing it, we were doing it with Charity,” Saylor said. “The Spirit was evident in the reactions of the audience despite the fact that we messed up since we’re an imperfect cast. The Spirit is what reached people, not necessarily our performance.”Performing “One Tattered Angel” at a church university like BYUH brought something special to the play, said Erik Adams, a senior from Oregon studying biology. “The play was different than a normal experience you might get at the theatre because of its LDS themes. You could feel the Spirit if you were trying to and invested in it.”Saylor said not all people were fans of the play. “We’ve had people critique it. The people who had negative critique were usually the kind who watch movies, for example, to critique them and not enjoy it,” she said. “But even then they couldn’t deny how good the Fred scene was.” Kimberly Kitto, a junior from Utah studying psychology, played Cathy, Blaine’s wife. Kitto said she felt like the cast conveyed the message of the play more effectively than they thought. “The crowd responded very positively. We had more laughs than I was expecting,” Kitto said. “I think they just picked up on the human side because there were a lot of situations people can relate to. There was a lot of crying but also a lot of laughter. We did better when the audience worked with us.” Kitto said, “I think [the play] was a sweet reminder. This brought a different experience and message to the theatre program because it wasn’t a comedy and was a real story.”

Taylor Swift decided to break up with Spotify, reports E news online, “and it doesn’t look like the two will get back together. Like, ever.”After recently dropping her new album “1989,” BYU-Hawaii Taylor Swift fans said they are disappointed they cannot listen to her album via Spotify. “I’m a T-Swift fan, and it is annoying...I can’t enjoy her music for free,” said Michelle Chandler, a freshman elementary education major from Utah. Swift said in a Yahoo! Music article that with the quickly changing music industry, Spotify promotes the perception music has no value, should be free and is hurting the number of paid album sales to justify yanking all her songs from Spotify. BYUH user of Spotify, Mason Bell, a junior in exercise science from Utah, said he understands it’s about business, but “fans can’t enjoy the artist’s music if they can’t afford it.”Swift told Yahoo! Music, “Spotify all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment. And I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music.” Melanie Pearson, a freshman in biological sciences from Utah, said she thinks on one side Swift’s decision is about getting paid for the work she does, but “on the other side, I hope other artists don’t follow. I can’t afford to buy every song that I like.”“A lot of people were suggesting to me that I try putting new music on Spotify with ‘Shake It Off,’ and so I was open-minded about it,” Swift told Yahoo! Music. “I thought, ‘I will try this; I’ll see how it feels.’ It didn’t feel right to me. I felt like I was saying to my fans, ‘If you create music someday, if you create a painting someday, someone can just walk into a museum, take it off the wall, rip off a corner off it, and it’s theirs now and they don’t have to pay for it.’ I didn’t like the perception that it was putting forth. And so I decided to change the way I was doing things.”The Wall Street Journal reported Swift asked Spotify several months ago to make her new album “1989” available on the streaming service only outside the United States as she is still trying to expand her fan base abroad. Spotify reportedly denied her request because the streaming service requires all participating artists to make their music available to all 58 countries where it operates.Spotify offers both paid subscriptions and free, ad-incorporated services, and has been criticized over how much it compensates artists and others involved in the music creation process. According to Spotify News blog, “We believe fans should be able to listen to music wherever and whenever they want, and that artists have an absolute right to be paid for their work and protected from piracy. That’s why we pay nearly 70 percent of our revenue back to the music community.”While Swift will keep her music off of Spotify, on Spotify’s blog the company responded to her saying, “We were both young when we first saw you, but now there’s more than 40 million of us who want you to stay, stay, stay.”AP reported, “More than 700,000 people bought ‘1989’ in the first two days it went on sale last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That already exceeds the year’s biggest one-week seller, Coldplay’s ‘Ghost Stories,’ which sold 383,000 in May. Nielsen music analyst, David Bakula, said that Swift, who announced she would launch a world tour next year, is on pace to challenge the 1.2 million copies she sold the first week her last album, ‘Red,’ went on sale.”

While the initial cost of a wedding can be intimidating, though it doesn’t have to be, being married definitely has its advantages – a few of which are financial. The Family Research Council, an educational non-profit organization, reports married individuals earn higher incomes and spend less money on healthcare nationwide. At BYU-Hawaii, married students make up a large percentage of the student population and couple thrive despite the economic difficulties of being in college and living in Hawaii.Home is where the food is...When asked about the financial advantages of marriage, most students’ first response was regarding the cost of food and eating out. Mindy Mitchell, a TVA resident from Washington and wife of Seasider basketball player, Robbie Mitchell, observed, “While my husband and I were dating, we ate at restaurants all the time. Eating out was an excuse to spend time together, away from roommates and shared kitchen supplies. Now that we’re married, we cook at home much more often saving money on food as well as gas, gratuity, etc.” Home-cooked meals also mean a refrigerator full of left-overs unpoached by hungry house mates, saving married couples from expensive on-the-go snacks. What’s yours is mine...Marriage can bring the added blessing of shared material resources, ranging from snorkel gear to Kama’aina discounts. These perks of commitment can save you hundreds of dollars, said senior in psychology from Massachusetts, Catherine Zant. “Marriage was the best thing that happened to me for more reasons than just getting to marry my best friend. I got hooked up with a car, a camera, a surfboard, a go-pro and a ukulele. Not to mention I had barely any money and my husband actually had savings. For me it was all take, no give. I had nothing cool to offer. At least he thinks I’m a cool person.”Uncle Sam...For American students, getting married can mean a change in dependency status – something that can have a significant impact on eligibility for federal grants and loans. In a country where education fees and student debt can be crippling, opportunities for aid are critical. Stephen Adams, a senior in social work from Alaska, said, “I never qualified for any government assistance until we got married. Now my wife and I do not have to pay for tuition. All the money that we make now from working on campus goes to our groceries and other expenses, not tuition.”

Chickens rock the shoot with Ray Banks, a senior in business management from Colorado, whose Kickstarter project to fund a “Chickens of Laie” calendar has earned almost twice its original funding goal. The idea originally started as a Christmas present for his sister. “My sister went to school here before. We thought it was so funny how there are so many random chickens all around town. One time I was talking on the phone with her and saw a chicken - like always if you go anywhere - and thought, ‘Oh, it’d be so funny to make a ‘Chickens of Laie’ calendar’.” Banks said he initially put the project on Kickstarter.com to become familiar with the website for future projects. “Honestly I was just bored in the library and thought, ‘I should put it on Kickstarter!’ I grabbed one of the photos that I had from my project for my sister and put it on there. It was successfully funded. I was only going for $150 - each calendar is $15 so I needed 10 backers - but it ended up getting funded $236!”Paul Wilson, a BYU-Hawaii teacher of digital entrepreneurship, said the success of the calendar was Banks’ ability to transform his idea into reality. “I think the power of his idea is the fact that you can take something that small and have success with it. He needed $150 to throw out his idea - that’s not massive funding. Through crowd funding techniques he almost doubled what he needed,” Wilson said. “I love the story because it’s not outrageous. It’s just showing someone trying something entrepreneurial and going somewhere. I’m curious to know how it turns out.” Banks said he has been thrilled with the publicity his calendar has gotten. “I had an article run in the ‘Honolulu Star Advertiser’ and I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, are you the guy with the chicken calendar?’” Brandon Johnson, a senior in marketing from New Jersey, is a longtime friend of Banks and said the project’s popularity has grown without any marketing or advertising on Banks’ part. “It’s marketed itself because of the humor in it and the geographical location in which he’s doing it. It gets a lot of recognition.”Banks said he believes the calendar will please his customers. “I think it’s going to turn out really nice. All the chickens will have little hats and some costumes that depend on the season or culture of the month they’re featured on.”Banks said the project has already seen a lot of humorous moments. He laughed, and said, “I used my friends DSLR and he had some stale tortilla chips so I just threw those and watched as chickens flocked over to me. One of my roommates was coming back home and saw me there on the ground surrounded by chickens.”Banks said, “To be honest, I don’t really have much planned for selling the calendar because it was just for fun. I might ask the bookstore if they want to sell some.” “At this point there is no way to buy it, but I’m going to put it on baselinebicycles.com which is my own business I started last year to sell my own brand of bikes,” said Banks. “Even though the chicken calendar is totally unrelated, I’m going to put it as a product on there as a preorder for the Christmas season.”