PTK Theta Chi starts out a new semster

Kimberly Sweetman - Public Relations Officer

Hey all,

This is the first post for PTK Theta Chi so I thought I would tell you a little about our organization.  We are a chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society which was founded in 1918.  PTK’s Mission is to “recognize and encourage the academic achievement of two-year college students and provide opportunities for individual growth and development through participation in honors, leadership, service and fellowship programming.”  There are more than 1200 chapters located in all 50 states as well as in other countries around the world. 

Our chapter is called Theta Chi, and it was established in 1956.  There are also other chapters located on the Warrington Campus (Beta Alpha Psi) and Milton Campus (Beta Beta Gamma).

To become a member you must have a 3.5 GPA or higher, have completed 12 credit hours at PJC, and be enrolled in an AA/AS program at PJC either part-time, full-time, or dual enrolled.

There are many great advantages to joining including travel opportunities where you will meet students from around the world, improvement of resume, and involvement in many fun activities.

For more information about joining attend one of our orientations which will be held on

• Thursday, Feb. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in Building 17, Room 1704
• Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 12:00 p.m. in Building 17, Room 1707
• Saturday, Feb. 13 at 10:00 a.m. in Building 17, Room 1707

You can also go to our website at pjc.edu/phithetakappa/.  Our first service project of the semester will be held on Feb. 6.  We are joining with Robinson Honors to work with Habitat for Humanity.  Join PTK Theta Chi and help us make a good impact on our society.

PJC vs. Tallahassee Community College

Click the link the follow our live blog of the game.

<iframe src=”http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=bd639b552f/height=550/width=470” scrolling=”no” height=”550px” width=”470px” frameBorder =”0″ allowTransparency=”true”  ><a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=bd639b552f” >PJC basketball against Tallahassee Community College</a></iframe>

PJC vs. Tallahassee Community College

Click on the link below to view the live blog of the game.

<iframe src=”http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=484d9b7f02/height=550/width=470” scrolling=”no” height=”550px” width=”470px” frameBorder =”0″ allowTransparency=”true”  ><a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=484d9b7f02” >PJC Lady Pirates against Tallahassee Community College</a></iframe>

Allen leads team to national ranking, personal fame

 

Ker-She Dahn

-The Corsair

 

Fouling Deana Allen is danger for any team playing against the PJC Lady Pirates this season; 79 percent of her free throw shots are most likely swishing the basket.
Allen grew up in Houma, La. where she is the oldest of five brothers and two sisters. She started playing basketball at age 6 and would always play with the boys who made her tougher and stronger, she said.
She made her way to PJC in 2008.
“It was a new level of independence when I arrived,” Allen said.
Now, in her sophomore year, she holds a vital role as the team captain.
“Every team has its ups and downs, but we get through ours,” she said.
 Allen is third in the nation in scoring with 429 total points and an average of 21.45 points per game, and was awarded National Junior College Athletic Association Player of the Week twice this season. Not only does she have her own accomplishments, but she has helped lead the Lady Pirates to a No. 2 ranking in the state and No. 4 in the nation.
   “Deana is a beast, unbelievable and very athletic,” Leah Drury, assistant coach, said.
Allen has already had many offers from universities such as: Oklahoma State, University of Florida, Cincinnati, and Ruckus. Her top choices are the University of Florida and Oklahoma State.
She plans to keep up her talent and eventually play for the WNBA. With so much going for her, Allen has to stay focused and be ready for whatever ball life might throw her way or whatever circumstances she might have to dribble through.
However, she is still trying to get the hang of the independent life. In her free time, when she is not playing basketball, she is probably thinking about it, watching a movie, or just “chillin around in the dorms,” she said.
“Deana is quiet, silly and she sleeps a lot,” teammate Jessica Merritt said.

A living legend

Gemalie Perez-The Corsair

Every year a new thread of inductees are selected for the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) hall of fame.

As of the new year, PJC’s athletic director and head baseball coach Bill Hamilton became a living legend when he was named into the NJCAA’s hall of fame on Jan. 7, at their annual meeting in Dallas, Texas.

“It’s awesome; I’m a hall-of-famer. I was so shocked. If it would have been proper, I would have hollered,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton is very deserving of the honor, with 23 years of experience as the head coach at the junior college level, with the last 20 years at PJC.

During his career the coach has earned 675 career wins, surpassing another PJC legendary baseball coach, Buddy Kisner, who was coach for 20 years before Hamilton.

Since the start of his career, Hamilton set out to be the best and succeeded first at the state level, coaching the team to the state title in 2004. They then won the Region VIII Championship and NJCAA District Championship. They advanced to PJC’s first ever JUCO World Series and finished 6th out of 10 teams.

The team was also nationally ranked for six straight weeks in 2008. They finished that year 41-6 and went 2-2 at the State for a final 43-8.

“Coach Hamilton’s baseball statistics are impressive, but it is his love and support of student athletics that matters the most,” PJC President Ed Meadows said.

Hamilton’s leadership has also played an important role in Florida.

From 1992-2002, Hamilton served as chairman of the baseball Panhandle Conference and as a member of several committees such as the State Baseball Committee, the NJCAA All-District Selection Committee, and the FCCAA/NJCAA District Baseball Tournament Committee.

Hamilton will be officially inducted into the hall of fame in May at the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.

‘Doubt’ comes to PJC

Rose Jansen-The Corsair

Auditions have taken place and tickets will soon be available for the next theatre production, Doubt, at the Ashmore Auditorium on the Pensacola Campus. Directed by the Lyceum  Director, Stan Dean, shows will begin Thursday and Friday, February 26-27, 2010 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 2:30 pm.

If you don’t catch it the first weekend, the performance will continue the following weekend, March 5-7. Tickets are free to PJC students but be sure to get your tickets at the ticket office in the Ashmore Auditorium ahead of time. 

Doubt was written by John Patrick Shanley and is set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, where Sister Aloysius Beauvier wrestles with conscience and uncertainty as she is faced with concerns about the principal of the school, Father Brendan Flynn. Sister Aloysius finds herself compelled to challenge Father Flynn after a young nun comes to suspect that the priest’s interest in Donald, the school’s first black pupil, is not altogether wholesome.

Though the play may seem to have a controversial theme “the controversy is between people rather than religious beliefs.” said Dean. “The audience is left to decide for themselves the guilt or innocence of the priest.”

Cast members:

Father Flynn:  Rodney Whatley
Sister Aloysius Beauvier:  Donna Quinn
Sister James:  Kat Cooper
Mrs. Muller:  LaVetta J. Fowler

Stan Dean, Director of Lyceum, received his bachelor of arts degree in theatre from the University of West Florida and his master of fine arts degree in drama from the University of Oklahoma.

Bayonetta Review

by Wade Manns - The Corsair

Bayonetta
by SEGA and Platinum Games
Players: 1
Genre: Third-person action
Rating: Mature for blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, suggestive themes
Release 1/05/10

—–

One genre of video games that I didn’t really think I’d be into is the twitch action genre; in this genre, the player must make split-second decisions to ensure his survival. My coordination doesn’t usually allow me to enjoy those games, but in rare cases a game breaks through the mold and keeps me interested. Hideki Kamiya, maker of two of my favorite game series, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil, has again brought hope to my reflexes with “Bayonetta.”

The protagonist in this game is the eponymous Bayonetta, a 500-plus year old witch (not looking a day over 25) risen after a civil war between her clan, the Umbra Witches and their rivals, the Lumen Sages, sent her into a long slumber in a coffin at the bottom of a lake. Bayonetta, like others of her kind, has made contracts with unholy forces; the rules of her world state that because of this, she is condemned to Inferno. This also means that once she rises, she is the target of a myriad of attacks from the angels of Paradiso, who keep trying to send her where they feel she belongs. Fortunately, her compatriots are never far behind her; in fact, they’re in her hair.

Bayonetta’s “costume” (which looks like ostensibly shiny black leather), is actually cleverly manipulated hair, which she also uses to summon forth her infernal allies, in a technique known as the Wicked Weave. She uses this technique to send those angels foolhardy enough to confront her (who are not necessarily beautiful in form), packing back to Paradiso. She wants the companion piece to her large medallion which she always wears; together forming the Eyes of the World, a quarter of the way through the story, they seem to be a MacGuffin, a plot device the functioning of which is not important but serves as the impetus for the journey.

Bayonetta often finds herself in the city of Vigrid; there, she’s been told, are clues to restore her faded memory. Vigrid is crowded with people; however, they don’t see her, and we only see their shadows, because Bayonetta is almost always in Purgatorio (the parallel dimension in which she fights the angels who try to kill her) and cannot interfere in their affairs.

Aiding Bayonetta on her journey is her bumbling underworld contact, comic relief Enzo, as well as a Samuel L. Jackson wannabe: bald, trash-talking arms dealer, Rodin. Against her, amongst the many angels, are the four representations of the Cardinal Virtues; they take the form of epic boss battles at the end of every quarter of the game. Her main rival, Jeanne, the possessor of the other  Eye of the World, shows up to harass her at several points.

The game has a very music-and-candy-oriented slant; Bayonetta bounces and whirls hypnotically through her attacks, and cutscenes showing off her dancing abilities are common. CDs (or pieces of them) acquired from mini-bosses may be redeemed at Rodin’s for new weapons, and many of the items Bayonetta uses for recovery or augmentation take the form of lollipops or other confections.

The entire game does not really take itself seriously, from its storyline to its flippant yet alluring protagonist and solid supporting characters. The combat is satisfying, the story ridiculously cheesy, and the visuals great. The only minor gripe I may have about the game is that the camera often focuses on the latest and greatest spectacle, of which there are many, rather on what I need it to focus on, namely the ground around Bayonetta and where I need to go next. This doesn’t stop me from giving the game five out of five stars.

PJC pirate basketball against Chipola

Tune in to the live blog

PJC lady pirate basketball against Chipola

Tune in to the live blog

Hope to Harvest

Ansley Zecckine - The Corsair

There’s a certain masquerade of rules that people paint upon the faces of Christians; in fact, even some Christians make a habit of it. In their minds they believe that one must attend every church service, every Sunday school class, and participate in every church outing or function because that’s what a “good Christian” does. With this is the idea that every place in America should be closed on Sundays and on Christmas. Well I have great news to share; they’re all wrong.

There was a time when I had a similar attitude and I would actually feel a sense of guilt for those times when I didn’t go to church but did something else instead. Most often, I would be talking to a friend who needed to talk to me or, on occasion, I’d be involved with work. There are, however, no justified grounds for such feelings of guilt, which can invade and hinder our lives from being lived to the fullest.

Case and point from the Bible: Jesus Christ. He’s the reason we have church today, and yet ironically almost all of his recorded acts were done outside of “church.” The Sermon on the Mount, the Feeding of the Four-thousand, the Feeding of the Five-thousand, and the Feeding of the Six-thousand (if He had done that), are just a few examples.

In addition, his ministry wasn’t limited to just six days a week; he did heal a man on the Sabbath. His answer to the Jews who questioned him on the matter was, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

Jesus lived his life full of compassion for people, a compassion that resulted in acts of service. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I realize that some people offer such great and needed services to our community that they have to work on Sundays and even on Christmas. Nobody should feel guilty about that though; they should all feel blessed, because they are living what Christmas is about.

Do I have a story to share that goes a long with this? Why yes I do indeed, two in fact, and I’m very glad you asked. A friend of mine from church, Mary Ard, is involved in healthcare and she actually volunteered to work on Christmas. When asked why, she said that the sick don’t stop being sick on Christmas; those that need help, still need help. She decided to serve.

The Sunday right after Christmas, another story unfolded in the middle of our church service. The man who goes by the name, “Animal,” was having trouble breathing, and it was so bad that an ambulance was called to bring help. In the end, not only did an ambulance come, along with other personnel, but a LifeFlight helicopter arrived on the scene to get this man to the hospital as fast as possible.

In their efforts they may have very well saved his life, because I was able to talk to him face-to-face at church again that same night.

So to those men and women out there who spent their Christmas in service to the community, and to those who do it from Sunday to Sunday, I say God bless you, for you don’t just celebrate Christmas, you live Christmas. Have a great new year!

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