Asylum

Brick by brick, stone by stone,

The walls here house me still alone,

Drip by drip, night by night,

I dim my eyes to walls of white,

Searching my soul for what I can find,

Waiting, alone, to escape from my mind.

State Street Sparkles

Big city life is amazing. The option to get whatever you want, whenever you want is second-to-none, not to mention the aesthetic beauty of the lights illuminating the entire town in a way that postcards can never quite portray. Binghamton, on the other hand, doesn’t exactly fall under the category of illustrious city.

But, it has respectable quality in its own eccentric way.

Don’t get me wrong, anyone who tells you that this is a great city with a lot to offer is full of it — they’re either the mayor or a deranged townie. Still, it seems like we take Binghamton for granted; it’s a place we never want to leave, a place to which we can’t wait to return.

A main reason that students save a place for Binghamton in their subconscience — and a place for Rasa in their wary conscience — is that despite its visual flaws, it’s a miniature concrete jungle with an adventure behind every corner.

There’s a certain thrill in letting it all go and giving your liver a raincheck. The student-targeted, local-infested bars located on State Street are a makeshift haven for freedom to reign.

Though some Binghamton University students have unfairly labeled these bars “dark and grimy,” I would prefer to paint their reputation as “exciting and cozy.” Every bar has a personality and function of its own, ranging from a sit-around sports bar to a respectable semi-club.

I recently polled more than 50 students, selected at random, for their preferences on State Street. The results showed that from a choice of six bars, Scoreboard and Tom & Marty’s accounted for slightly over 50 percent of the votes.

On average, a third of the bars host over half of all students who are Downtown on a particular night.

I was able to meet with Josh Pouch, the general manager of Scoreboard, in a pursuit to uncover why students are so attracted to the Downtown area.

In regards to the popularity of his own bar, Josh’s persona was that of a genuinely passionate manager.

“It feels great. That’s what we’re striving for, keeping everybody happy as far as BU students go,” he said.

Pouch also mentioned how Scoreboard strives to appeal to a predominantly college-aged crowd. He told me that completing renovations during the school’s vacations allows for a strengthening of Scoreboard’s “crazy-fun atmosphere.”

The bars are blatantly catered to us. They may not be plated in gold or sitting atop Mount Olympus, but the only legitimate complaint students claim is overcrowding, which is only a result of the substantial amount of students wanting to get into a State Street bar.

Rather than complain and whine about the bars as you sit in your dorm room dreaming of dirty shoes, black framed glasses and other hipster delights, take Binghamton for what it can offer and just have a good time while you can. Besides, Starbucks is only open until 11.

Why People Are Assholes

People are assholes. I’m not considering myself exempt, but it’s true nonetheless.

Ever since the dawn of time when the first caveman was forced to interact with his fellow caveman in order to share food or fire, there was conflict. This conflict was natural and progressed for years until it became the cause of the evolution of the modern day asshole.

Unfortunately this evolution has even been able to crawl through the darkest depths of New York to reach Binghamton.

I have a feeling this ideology will reign true over the majority. How often have you heard a story that was entirely derived from someone acting like an irrational asshole?

One of the leading causes of the angered emotions and hasty altercations on college campuses is a result of drinking. Scientists have concluded that there is a very prominent link between intoxication and aggression, but that’s probably obvious to every person that has ever stepped foot on a campus.

There’s nothing wrong with getting drunk and hopping a couple of steps back on the evolutionary ladder to sing and dance like a monkey for a night. There is, however, something wrong with people transforming into careless baboons when they negatively affect everyone else.

These effects can come in many forms that include, but are not limited to, vomiting on your friend’s carpet and the convenient loss of memory during the time in which you were the asshole vomiting on the carpet.

Similarly, many people subconsciously channel their emotions to anger and irrationality rather than happiness because of the attention they gain. People say that there’s no such thing as bad publicity and I suppose that can be applied in many social situations.

For example, nobody talks about the kid wearing the Christmas sweater who baked cookies for their residence hall, they talk about “Billy Madison’s” O’Doyle who threw that kid down the stairs and took all the cookies for himself.

It’s definitely not the best way to make a name for yourself, but it is most definitely a way to do so.

In addition to irrational anger, jealousy is perhaps one of the most irritatingly persistent emotions humans can exhibit.

Although it’s an unavoidable and ingrained human quality, it just doesn’t make sense for people to build such rage and retaliation in response to envying any quality of another person’s life, instead of using that energy to better their own.

When you combine the three qualities discussed, what formulates is a drunk, angry and jealous asshole. It’s as though I was writing about Charlie Sheen the entire time.

I would even be so bold as to say that most people are assholes because they realize that they’ll never quite get what they want out of life, or maybe because they’ve already given up.

The most important thing to do is to take a look back at your actions and think about how many of them actually made you happy. If the answer to this is minimal it may be worth reconsidering your priorities rather than live in anger.

In the end, it also becomes imperative to remember that if anyone ever calls you an asshole, just grab a cup of water and slow down, because it looks like you’ve had enough.