Culture

Buffalo River State Park: Leave a remarkable summer memory on the Prairie

June 27th, 2018

Buffalo River flowers According to the Buffalo River State Park website, it’s a place where “Trails wind through one of Minnesota’s finest and largest remnant prairies.”

The landscape contains more than “250 species of wild flowers and grasses including some plants now rare in Minnesota.”

The biggest advantage of this park is that not only can you enjoy everything such as art, birding, wildflowers, yoga, hiking and photography but you’re also only 14 miles away from the FM area to experience…

Lindy of the North: Swing Dance Growing in Fargo-Moorhead

June 27th, 2018

Lindy of the North dancers - photograph by Hee Han

Lindy of the North is a non-profit organization promoting vintage swing dance styles in the Fargo-Moorhead area, spreading the joy of vernacular jazz dance in positivity.

Alex Finken, cofounder of Lindy of the North, explained how the organization started up.

“We were looking to build up the swing dance scene in the FM community beyond the college campuses,” Finken said. “Each of us had our start in swing dancing either at the Avalon, now called the Stone Building, where John and…

More Dirt, More Cleaning

June 27th, 2018

It is not expensive to keep various dust removers near your computer to keep the amount of dust to a minimum. When I run out of words for this column, I pick up my duster and clean my equipment as therapy for writer’s block. Writer or not, you should set aside a few minutes before you start your computer session to clean up. Let’s continue our tips for taking care of the equipment:

Cleaning the monitor
Dirt, fingerprints, and dust can make your computer screen difficult to read;…

Dirty, Dirty, Dirty Computer

June 27th, 2018

“Dust isn't just unattractive—it can potentially damage or even destroy parts of your computer. Cleaning your computer regularly will help you keep it working properly and avoid expensive repairs.” I just copied the above sentences from a website. It is a perfect example of “Spin”. Something that happens all the time on the internet and in the media in general. If you clean your computer regularly will it help you keep it working? I clean my computer once a year. Is that…

Dream factory

June 22nd, 2018

By Oscar de Leon
oscarldeleonjr@gmail.com

Tucked away near the rolling hills of West Hollywood, Chris Haskell, a former student at MSUM, makes his usual trek into his office where he edits footage to craft trailers to some of the biggest films coming in the industry. After a long day of breaking down movies, and going over studio notes, he takes his usual route down the palm tree lined Hollywood Boulevard and notices a large mass blocking the traffic.

Spectacularly, he realizes, he is…

Life and Laughs with Brian Regan

June 20th, 2018

Brian Regan Stand-up comedy can certainly be a cutthroat business. Despite the fact that everyone loves to laugh, humor is highly subjective. What splits one person’s sides may offend the other. More than one comic has watched a show (or a career) go down in flames due to their jokes not landing or some public image fiasco.

That makes a comedian being able to succeed at a decades-long career, while generally steering away from explicit humor to boot, an impressive feat. That is exactly what…

Transgender Day of Visibility

June 20th, 2018

Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual event, occurring on March 31st, that aims to raise awareness of the discrimination, violence, and harassment that transgender individuals experience. It also serves as a day for people who identify as trans to claim and give power to their identity. It is day for them to speak up and out about who they are and what they’ve faced.

Transgender Day of Visibility is important because the number of people who personally know a transgender person is…

I might need a service plan for my Laptop…

June 13th, 2018

I don’t think so. You might be tempted to buy a service plan—also known as an extended warranty—on your next laptop, desktop or other electronic gadget. But chances are what you spend will be money down the drain.

Retailers may push hard to get you to buy these plans because they’re cash cows for them. Stores keep 50 percent or more of what they charge for these contracts. That’s much more than they can make selling products. Decades ago when I was selling stereo equipment…

A Cute Little Computer Story

May 30th, 2018

I normally don’t tell stories in this column but I couldn’t resist this one. With Iran in the news, I am reminded of the destruction of the Iranian nuclear development program by a piece of software called Stuxnet. I remember back in 2011 the smartest people in the room commenting about the software and wondering what would happen if that software code were let loose on the world.

It's now widely accepted that Stuxnet was created by the intelligence agencies of the United States and…

A Love Letter to CoreCon

May 23rd, 2018

Professionally people know me as a trans activist, educator, or community organizer. This is often the topic of my Trans Corner column. What they may not know is I’m an incredible geek who spends her time unwinding playing video games, reading books, watching anime, and everything else that made my teenage years a lot more fun and interesting.