6 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 2, 2014 EDITOR MEGAN BOBETSIS lewpoints Pre-made meals only cater to the rich and lazy ouldn’t it W: nice if we all had personal chefs? Hot, tailored, home- cooked meals we don’t have to slave over — sounds ideal, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the money to enjoy this luxury. So what about meeting halfway in the form of a catering service, like the ones made popular by Hollywood A-listers, such as the Zone Diet? Initially, this seems feasible. Most offer healthy options that combine convenience with unique flavour combinations, and could give the home chef a break in the midst of an already busy week. Staying healthy would be a piece of cake (though not literally), with the added benefit of having more time for oneself. Even cost may not be as much of a factor when considering the quality of ingredients, and the time saved. But, I’m not convinced. While it sounds like the epitome of domestic progress, I actually think outsourc- ing — which is essentially what this is — takes us ever further away from being attuned to our holistic well-being. How does receiving a pre-made meal concocted with unseen ingredients packaged in, well, packaging make us any better off, except to shirk our laziness on someone else? If we’re going to be lazy, we might as well be honest about it, and weigh the situation as a whole. And if we’re going to make the effort to pay more to have someone else babysit us and take care of the dirty work, wouldn’t it be better to promote a smaller footprint, and instead make the effort to directly control the food we produce for ourselves? So many trends are popping up around ritualizing back-to-basics activities. Yes, cooking is one of the few that some are loathe to make time for, especially after a long day, but taking a queue from our foodie Mediterranean friends; making it a part of our culture, and something to savour, may make it something sexier than even Hollywood could imagine. OPINION LENA ALSAYEGH We want to hear from you Got a different point of view? Write to us. Think we got a fact wrong? Tell us. Problems with something we've said? Let us know. Journalism instructor Erica Bulman oversees The Voice. Email her at ebulman@langara.be.ca Keep your laptops close elcome to a new year back W: Langara, where you pay seven dollars per day to park your car in a lot that is not even video monitored. School is a place where we expect to be safe from verbal or physical harassment, but is it a place where our belongings are safe too? Langara may be a small campus only catering to about 20,000 students, as opposed to UBC’s 50,000, but that doesn’t mean we only need a couple guys riding around on bikes for security. It’s about time that security cameras were installed, even if they are only facing outwards to monitor the exterior of the building. Even my 65-year-old high school in New Westminster has cameras to monitor the halls, isn’t it fair that a newer campus like Langara would be equipped? Especially when the campus just earlier this year dealt with Tyson Berrow, who is known for taking laptops and phones from post-sec- ondary campuses, including UBC, in the past. Security chose not to release posters warning students about Berrow last semester, but our paper wrote a story about his past offences and his being banned from entering Langara. Campus security encourages students to keep an eye on their belongings and insists that thefts reported on campus are not high, but there’s a good chance a lot of thefts that happen are not reported. The Vancouver Police Department is heading a campaign called “Who’s watching it when you’re not,” that addresses valuables like wallets, phones and laptops being left unattended in places such as school libraries. But in this era of expensive technology, it should be common sense not to leave your valuables unat- tended in plain eV hile itis OPI N ION partly the job of MEGAN BOBETSIS security to make sure the campus is as safe and robber-free as possible, it is just as much the job of the students to be responsible with their belongings. Installing cameras to monitor the parking lots and campus exterior is a much-needed step in the right direction, but when it comes to college, keep your friends close and your laptops closer. MIKE CLIMIE photo illustration Fear of failure is a state of mind 0 you remember what you were thinking before you received confir- mation that you failed? I’ve failed Math 100, a university level pre-calculus course. I almost failed the course a second time, but I passed. Why? My attitude and mindset changed. When I first took Math 100, I simply did not care for the course. OPINION NATASHA CHANG I’m an arts student. Why do I need to know math? The poor marks I received and the difficulty of the subject made me scared. I was afraid of failing and I did fail. The second time I took the course, I wasn’t afraid of failing because I was mentally and emotionally determined to pass a course littered with numbers and graphs. Most importantly, I was finished with being scared to fail. Perhaps with luck, but definitely with hard work and help, I passed and realized that calculus isn’t as terrible as I had initially anticipated. Earlier this year, professors David Putwain and Richard Remedios did a study suggesting that students are generally less motivated and perform badly when teachers use scare tactics on their students. The fear of failure is strongest among students as they’re stressing over grades and job prospects, but they’re also overwhelmed by the numerous courses they’re tackling. We're all capable of striving to be better than the person next to us, yet we think our work isn’t good enough. When a person is over- whelmed by their fear of failure, he or she ultimately sets himself or herself up for failure because they’re crippled by constant self-doubt and pessimism. The Voice is published by Langara College's journalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number. HOW TO REACH US PHONE 604-323-5396 FAX 604-323-5398 E-MAIL thevoice@langara.be.ca DROP-IN Room A226 Langara College There is a mailbox at the entrance to the journalism rooms. SNAIL MAIL The Voice 100 West 49th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. VSY 226 WEBSITE wwwilangaravoice.com EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE: MANAGING EDITOR/ PAGE 6 Megan Bobetsis PAGE EDITORS PAGE 1 Karly Blats PAGE 2 Ben Zutter PAGE 3 Erin Boe PAGE 4 Lauren Collins PAGE 5 Ali Crane PAGE 7 Lukasz Jonca PAGE 8 Mike Hodder WEB EDITORS Chiis Slater Edmond Lu Ashley Legassic Renee Sutton Madelyn Forsyth-Schiewe COPY EDITORS Ash Kelly David La Riviere Edrick Dudang REPORTERS Lena Alsayegh Mary Beach Natasha Chang Vivian Chui Alice D'Eon Charlotte Drewett Melissa Edgar James Goldie Jessica Hovanes Nicholas Johansen Shannon Lynch Sableen Minhas Jonathan Parkin Kera Piwowarski Sandra Powlik Orvis Noel Contact us: Online at langaravoice.com Twitter at @langaraVoice