Megan VerHelst
Feature Editor No one is perfect. Everyone has their little nasty habits that, just like the good traits, make them who they are.

I happen to have the nastiest habit of all. Yes, I am a smoker, and while I know the consequences the habit will bring, I don't see it as something I should be ashamed of or scrutinized for.

Last year, Logos ran an op-ed page dedicated to the smoking "problem" on campus. In my opinion, the page was completely one-sided, coming from a typical non-smoker's point of view.

As I looked back the other day on some of the Logos issues from last year, this topic struck a nerve. Why are smokers constantly portrayed as inconsiderate people who have no regard to the wishes and feelings of people around them? This judgment is unfair.

We (as in fellow smokers and I) see the looks people give us as they walk by, and we endure the constant reminders that what we are doing is bad for us. Awesome. Tell me something I don't know.

Still, there are many of us who will go out of our way to be considerate of others when we have that quick smoke between classes.

I like to think of myself as a considerate smoker with regard to the feelings of the non-smokers around me in a public setting.

I know there are selfish, inconsiderate smokers out there. I won't deny it. Usually one can find these smokers huddled around the doors to the buildings giving passer-bys a nice puff as well when there are two perfectly empty benches five feet away.

I am the one you will find sitting on the far side of one of these benches, a good ten feet from the nearest entrance.

Raining or snowing, you will still see me out near that bench because I refuse to smoke huddled near a door. That is just plain rude. Even a smoker knows that.

If someone happens to walk by me on a random day where I am standing around smoking, minding my own business, I will literally hold in my puff until that person has passed by so I don't blow it in the person's face.

My sister hates smoking, and I mean that in the strongest sense of the word. When we went to Missouri a couple weeks back (a five-hour car ride), I did everything short of hanging out of the window when I needed a cigarette. I was crammed up against the window, blowing smoke out the side of my mouth with my arm held up at a weird angle to avoid the smoke going in my sister's direction.

If I am sitting near a non-smoker in the smoking section of a restaurant, I take extra measures to make sure the smoke does not go in his or her face, even if that means fanning the air to clear the smoke from going that direction.

So tell me there is no such thing as a considerate smoker. If the answer is yes, I beg to differ. Smokers are aware of the health problems and complications smoking brings, and there are some of us who do not want to throw some of the punishment in the direction of a non-smoker.

Believe it or not, there are some of us who consider others when we smoke.

Just remember not to judge all smokers as terribly inconsiderate people. I know, until the day I quit, I will respect the wishes of all non-smokers by not forcing my nasty habit on them.

Katie Schmitt
Asst. Editor

"An optimist sees the glass as half full. A pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An engineer sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be."

My sister received this saying on a plaque after completing a summer internship at a computer company called Micron.

It's a new twist on an old saying that basically says that everyone sees the world a little differently.

My sister is a computer engineer. She sees the world differently than I do. She also happens to be older, wiser and smarter.

I really look up to my sister. She was the responsible one when I was in high school.

She made sure I had all the right forms filled out for whatever reason and made sure I was where I needed to be on time because I had a horrible habit of forgetting important times and dates.

I went to her to ask her opinion on just about everything because I knew she would be able to look at the situation in a new light and tell me what I was missing.

It was hard when she moved off to college and suddenly I had to figure out where I had to be on whatever date that meeting was.

I learned to be responsible and keep track of important information on my own but I still wanted another opinion on the shirt I was going to wear tomorrow.

I didn't realize how much her opinion meant to me until she wasn't there to give it. I also have a younger brother who is incredibly creative.

He'll work with a problem long after I would have given up and he can usually come up with a really creative way of solving it.

Though I wouldn't ask him if my shirt went with my pants, he's another great sounding block to bounce ideas off of.

I am lucky to have both a younger brother and an older sister to get ideas from because they see the same thing differently, are in the house when I need them and they are always there for me even if they end up half way across the globe.

But those who didn't grow up with siblings can find this same resource in a good friend or even their parents.

Those with siblings should take advantage of the resource they have right under their noses because, who knows, maybe that brother or sister sees the glass as twice as big as it needs be.

Kaley Nonnweiler
News Editor

Do you ever wonder why we dream what we do?

Or how some mornings we'll wake up and recall several different dreams we had throughout the night while other mornings we think we never dreamt at all?

Believe it or not, we all dream every time we sleep.

I, like most college students, enjoy the time I get to spend sleeping.

Without sleep, we wouldn't be able to function as human beings.

Our bodies need sleep more than they require us to have food to survive.

A lot of college students often find themselves so busy that they don't have a lot time to sleep.

It's important to use time management because students need their sleep as much as they need to get their homework done.

When we find ourselves overly tired, and feel the exhaustion taking over while we're sitting in a lecture, we tend to dose off.

Even dosing off for a while can take one's mind into a dream.

Research has shown there is a difference in the subject matter of dreams between men and women.

After puberty, women tend to dream mostly about nurture; about their roles in life, caring for their families and their friends.

Men on the other hand, regardless to popular belief, tend to dream about violence; about being "tough" and protecting their property.

More often than not, we tend to have reoccurring dreams.

Sometimes we're running away from something, which research has shown tends to mean there has been an unresolved conflict during our day.

Other times we wonder why in the world we've dreamt something we did.

We, as students and faculty, need sleep to function.

Our bodies need rest to maintain enough protein to keep us going throughout the day.

We need to manage our time wisely to allow enough time to sleep because without it, everything can begin to fall apart.

With lack of sleep a number of negative effects can occur.

Performance at work and in school will decrease as well as relationships with family and friends.

So next time you dose off, even if it's only for a few minutes, within a blink, your mind can enter into a dream.

Valerie Brayton
Editor

The world changes all the time. As a matter of fact, change is something that can't be avoided.

While I can adapt to most changes in my life and those that occur around me, there are still some that annoy me.

For instance, rising gas prices and the rise in college tuition are two changes that tend to bother me.

The other day it became apparent to me that I am annoyed by another change.

This change has to do with ten-year-old girls and their desire to buy thongs at Victoria's Secret.

Don't get me wrong, I am not thrashing Victoria's Secret because I have been there and bought stuff, but ten-year-olds buying thongs?

Granted, these girls were not supervised by parents and they laughed for at least five minutes before they could continue their quest for the perfect pair. I feel that, with or without their parents, ten-year-olds shouldn't have a reason to shop at this particular store.

I remember when I was ten, which I should clearly since it wasn't too long ago. Growing up in a town with a population of just under 1200 people, not only had I never heard of Victoria's Secret but I also didn't have to worry about what type of skivvies I wore.

I worried more about scoring a touchdown when the majority of my girl friends and I played tackle football down the street with the boys in my class.

While that could be debated for its content, all I can say is the only thing parents worried about was who was going to get beat up and which group would run home crying.

The other thing that annoys me about the realization that ten-year-old girls are getting more mature and advanced is the fact that their influence over my little thirteen-year-old brother will be increasing in the very near future.

Alex has enough girls interested in him and as a protective older sister, I don't need them thinking about what kind of thongs might impress him.

In the end, ten-year-old girls shouldn't have to worry about what kind of underwear they wear. They need to know that it's who they are on the inside that counts, not what they show on the outside.