The Unusual

I don’t normally study, but when I do, I determine my studying location upon my mood and how difficult the material is.  It all depends on your style and how much noise you can take while trying to concentrate. My top 5 favorite places, run as followed.

5. McArthur Engineering Building

When approaching the engineering building there are three tables under the shade. This is a quiet place to study but every now and then people come in and out of the building. For me, a little bit of noise every now and then helps relieve stress, thus helping me focus better on the material.  The problem with this study spot is that too many people know of it. With only three tables, it’s rare to find an empty place to put your books down.

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Former Cane and current Milwaukee Brewer, Ryan Braun, has been named Major League Baseball’s Most Valuable Player.

In other news, several Unusual staff members went to the gym a couple of times in late September.

Congratulations to Ryan, and really, to each and every one of us.

Because we’re all valuable players in one way or another. Because when one Cane wins, we all win.  Um…just because.

We’re in luck this week…twins!  While these sisters are half the size of their fellow palms, they have nice curves and hang out at the law school.  They’re bound to be smarter than the average gal.

And you know what they say…it’s better to have loved a short one, than never to have loved a tall. 

10. Snakes - I’ve seen a snake 3 times on campus. Now I am scared to walk in the grass.

9. Crowds in the food court or Starbucks - I don’t know anyone who likes crowds.

8. Ducks in the Business School - Those nosy bastards. They are scared of nothing. they shit everywhere and it gets worse when maintenance decides to clean it. 

7. Girls wearing Uggs - We are in Miami, not Alaska.

6. Skaters - If they skate over a pebble and they fall, they deserve it! There is no place for them on those narrow paths.

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Not some club in south beach. Just plain old, unlivable sleeplessness. I suffer from the worst case of insomnia. The type that’s so addicting that the reason why I don’t fall asleep is cause I want more hours in the day. More seconds to ponder, more minutes to wonder, and more hours to simply waste away doing nothing.

My mom used to say that I was little, around 5yrs old, I hated falling asleep. That even when I was “butt-tired”, I would refuse to fall asleep, kick some energy in myself and somehow find a way to make it all the way till midnight. This of course sucked for my mom who worked a rough 9-5 the next morning, even worse for my Dad who back then used to work two jobs.  That’s probably why my parents called me the “devil incarnate” when I was little. See I never was that cutest little girl.I was the devil child who couldn’t wait to do the next thing, jump off the next couch, or go up and down the escalators at the mall. I was probably that little girl that you wished her parents hadn’t sat next to you at Friday’s.

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This past Friday, I did something I thought I would never do. I got my hair cut at a girly salon.

With my hair gone too wild for anyone’s good, I was faced with a decision. I’d heard that you could get your haircut at the Holiday Inn, but that it would be shitty. Supercuts was another option, but a shitty one nonetheless. With neither a car nor the patience to go find another reasonably-priced barber shop, I decided to take the practical course of action. I had a coupon to get a haircut at 20% off at the D&L Hair Studio in Sunset. I called to see if they did men’s haircuts, and the answer was yes. I then grabbed my longboard, and embarked on an unforgettable journey.

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There’s that second. No it’s more like a minute. Nope there’s that hour. That always tears against what I am thinking and what I actually want to write. It’s like the perpetual potential of anything, and everything that I could possible write is stagnant just waiting. Waiting to appear on my blank screen on my three-year old computer. That’s how I tend to feel every time I sit to write something. Some would say that writing comes pretty easily to them, that they can just sit down think about something, become someone else. And phew! An awarding-winning perfectly satirically outstanding piece of bullshit is flashing back at them from their computer. I think it’s because those kids are probably freaks. Or maybe I am the freak because I just can’t find the ways to just write about anything for the sake of writing. So instead, I cringe and suck it up and find some way to actually sit down and write something.

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Name: Can Gulec

Hometown: Istanbul, Turkey

Grade:  Senior

Major: Finance and Computer Science

How did you end up studying in Miami?  It was either LA or Miami. I asked my cousin to tell me where to go. He suggested that I Google Miami nightclubs and LA nightclubs and go to the one that has more search results.

Most interesting person you met here?  Once I met Neal Schon , while coming out from Mansion. The guy is the guitarist of a group called Journey … the band that plays “Don’t stop believing”. 

What do you do when not in school?  I’ve changed so many past time activities while in Miami. I’ve gone wakeboarding, I am doing yoga, I am reading science, I bought huge binoculars to watch the stars, I am programming and working in the school IT department… Recently I started producing songs. I was always passionate about music and I felt that time has come for me to show my talent to the world.

How do you produce your music? Do you have any musical background?  I bought a midi controller a synthesizer, an electric guitar and an audio interface. I am using Logic to build a song from scratch. I don’t have any formal musical background but it’s really not hard to create music if you have the inspiration. Learning how to use all the functions of Logic is the most annoying part, everything else comes from experimenting.

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You should check out this bistro called Mandolin. It is set in a 1940’s house in Miami on the NE 2nd corridor between the Design District and Historical Buena Vista. You’ll feel like you’re in the Greek islands as soon as you walk through the back garden.  There you’ll find a white-washed building with blue trimmed windows, brimming with bougainvillea, sitting in vintage traditional taverna chairs at wooden tables, under a lantern-lit tree.

Meals you must try:

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Hometown: Bergen County, New Jersey

Grade: Junior

Favorite Place at the Food Court: If I’m forced, Niko’s.

Where will I be on Thanksgiving Eve: stuck in Kansas City, Missouri with my fabulous relatives.

Deal Breakers: Guido, if you smell bad, if you’re on roids, if youre not funny, if you have spiked hair, anyone that looks stupid or acts stupid.

Deal Makers: Tall, dark handsome…obvi. Funny, Smart - lawyer, I’m into nice guys. I’ve moved on to foreigners.

What I do when I’m alone: dance around in my underwear a lot.

Favorite drug: if you could mix xanax, ecstacy, coke, and booze in one little pill, go for it. …..kidding, obv. I don’t do drugs. This is just a hypothetical.

What I don’t miss about my ex: Where do I begin…he takes longer to get ready than I do, were always late.

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Why not browse the stuff you’ve missed this week and join us again on Monday morning?

We shall miss you terribly, The Unusuals.

the oasis deli in UC is usually a pretty quiet space to catch up on work in between classes but when you really listen you hear things like…

“i could not shower for three days and i still wouldn’t smell”

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?  Is imitation the lowest form of flattery?  Are UM chicas entirely without self-respect?  These are the questions I spend sleepless hours pondering.  You’d think an environment so affulent would create endless creative possibilites, regarding wardrobe.  But you know what they say: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems’.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a personal crusader for preserving certain styles; I love to channel my favorite glamorous fashion icons and vintage vixens while selecting an ensemble for myself.  But seriously, the saddest day of your life is the day you show up to an important event only to realize that some other girl is ripping off the same idea that you are.  It should be illegal.  Theft is a crime. 

Take, for example, the picture-perfect sexual bombshell and silicone goddess extrordinare, Megan Fox.  In October 2009, she graced the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a curve enhancing, half-see through leotard with the chest basically cut out.  Fucking sexy.  Two years later, my poor eyes have completely OD-ed on this terrible trend.Ladies, Megan Fox is really two years ago.  And ladies, you are not Megan Fox.  To see, precisely, what I no longer wish to see.  Check out the pics after the jump.

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If you don’t know Imri, you should. First off, he’s got this amazingly crazy curly hair and secondly, he’s one of those people who is really going to make a difference in the world. His positivity is absolutely contagious. So when he told me about Jamnesty I had to go check it out.

Imri is the chair of UM’s chapter of Amnesty International. He helped organize and host UM’s first ever Jamnesty, an interactive art festival that combines entertainment with a cause.

The cause being the Santa Maria House Orphanage in Cali, Colombia. It’s an event he’s dreamt about putting together since high school.

I saw Imri’s crazy curls riding around the Rock on a UM beach cruiser. Imri told me about the 8 musicians that were performing rock, hip hop, a bit of techno, and a drum circle. 

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Any Clash fans out there? Paul Simonon, their bassist, was recently arrested for working as an undercover Greenpeace activist aboard the MV Esperanza.

Talk about a dude that never gets bored! Aside from recording a new album with the Gorillaz, he and seventeen other activists found some time to storm the the Leiv Ericksson oil rig in speedboats off the coast of Greenland.

According to Simonon, they said “if you don’t get off … we’re going to phone the authorities in Greenland and say you’ve hijacked the oil rig, and the police will come and arrest you. And that’s pretty much what happened.”

Simonon spent several weeks on board  as a cook…and apparently a good cook at that! After the Esperanza protesters were arrested, Simonon spent two weeks in a cell – still keeping his identity a secret. The food was so bad, we finally got the guards to agree to let Paul cook,” one of his fellow activists said. Apparently, he makes excellent vegetarian food.