1.  Tell us a little about yourself…

Hi! I’m Ryan, a tutor with the LRC, and a math/economics double major. I’m a transfer student who came from Carroll Community College, and am now in my senior year.

2.  Tell us about how you are involved on campus.

I’m president of the Japanese Student Association. We believe in closing the East-West gap one person at a time, by providing language and cultural topics to give students the tools they need to reach across the Pacific. We meet Wednesdays at free hour in Sondheim 112! Come visit us! All right, shameless plug out of the way. I’m also in the accelerated pathway program in economics, a TA for econ 101, and I’m doing independent research in economics, so I’m all over the place.

3.  How long have you been a tutor? 

I’ve been a tutor since the beginning of the year. I came in last semester to tutor economics, and ended up tutoring calculus too. I’ll always remember my very first tutoring session, about trigonometric integrals. Good times.

4.  How and why did you get involved in being a tutor?

“How” is easy:  I filled out the form on their website. They make it super easy for potential tutors to apply. “Why” is a little more involved. Obviously it’s a job so there’s money involved, but that’s really not the point. It helps keep me sharp in subjects I may have taken years ago, it’s a good item for my resume, and of course, the joy of helping people learn is unparalleled.

5.  What is your favorite thing about being a tutor?

My favorite thing is the part, after a few sessions, where you and your student aren’t a tutor and a student anymore—but just friends, one of whom happens to know more about the topic. A close second is when I walk into my tutoring room and find a whole solid piece of chalk, and it practically radiates.

6.  Why should students utilize the tutoring?

Why shouldn’t students utilize the tutoring? It’s free, we cater to your schedule, and there are no obligations except to show up each week. If you want to improve your grades, or even if your grades are fine but you want to make sure they stay that way, come to tutoring. And if you really don’t like it, we can cancel your appointments and give your slot to someone else. (I’ll miss you, though, of course.)

7.  What advice would you give students about how to prepare for a tutoring session?

Make an earnest attempt beforehand to study and understand the material on your own. The lecture sets out the mold, and your studies pour into the mold to create your understanding. Tutoring is a revision process, to fix any problems in your understanding. If you don’t try to understand and come in with specific things you didn’t get, I’ll just lecture, but you already heard a lecture. (Shoutout to all my students this semester for doing great on this. You guys rock.)

8.  When and where can someone work with you through the Learning Resources Center?

I tutor Econ 101 at 11 on Mondays and 1 on Thursdays, Econ 102 at noon on Thursdays, and then Phys 112 at 10 and at 4 on Wednesdays and noon on Fridays. 

I’m always happy to help!

Courtesy of Preservation Maryland via Creative Commons

“Ellicott City: If you lived here, you’d love it!” insists a four-foot plastic sign hanging off a plastic fold-out table. A real estate agent dodges a picnic table covered in empanada crumbs, making small talk and handing out flyers picturing stately, new-looking homes on lush lawns.

Mt. Ida, a mustard-yellow mansion built in 1828 for Ellicott City’s founder’s grandson, casts a welcome shadow over the vegetable tents. The location is temporary, but for the regular produce merchants at the weekly Ellicott City Old Town Market, this Saturday morning is like any other. Local peppers gleam. Local corn costs 50 cents an ear. Local residents share local gossip over stacks of local fruit. A guitarist strums a background hum into a lackluster microphone. Business is good.

But to the left of the farmer’s market, past the concrete parking lot and onto grass humming with mosquitos, the bustle gives way to tired eyes and charity-drive t-shirts inscribed: “RISE ABOVE THE WATER.”

When the “thousand-year flood” claimed Old Town Market’s Saturday parking lot space, it also claimed the livelihoods of small business owners up and down Main Street. The flash flood of July 30 turned the historic mill town into a raging river with water as high as its restaurant awnings. The water gutted some businesses; insurance woes and petulant landlords plagued others.

For these flood victims, each week brings a new headache. But on Saturdays, those that can manage it are here, sitting under red pop-up tents and wiping away sweat and selling what they can.

A sign advertising “Rescue Jewelry: $10!” points customers to a novelty: something that survived the flood. The vintage pearls and sparkling statement necklaces, painstakingly pulled weeks ago from the muddy wreckage of the Vintage Vault, look good as new.

A Journey From Junk is an eclectic clothing shop whose storefront’s sidewalk was replaced by a four-foot ditch. It now boasts two tents at the market filled with dresses, garish Maryland flag bow-ties and socks patterned with pizza and pile-of-poo emojis.

Nearby store Shoemaker Country spreads tables of elegant home decor out in front of the tent. “No adult supervision,” says a painted black placard defiantly, perched against the leg of a fold-out table in the steamy sunshine.

Sweet Elizabeth Jane used to be in an old department store built right over the docile Tiber River. During the flood, that river burst through their floor and wall, leaving a bombed-out skeleton of a building. Today, they wear and sell matching custom t-shirts, five employees lined up in a row like uniformed soldiers. “Flooded with HOPE,” their black shirts say in highlighter blue.

Across the grass, Donna Sanger sits alone, wearing a white “Help Ellicott City” t-shirt. Her store, Park Ridge Trading Company, a gourmet grocery stocking flavored olive oils and handmade pasta, opened only four months ago. Today, she sells the smattering of goods that are left. “It’s amazing, the things that were lost and that weren’t,” she said, gesturing toward a table of glassware. “Our huge, heavy old wood furniture got swept away. But all this glass, we rescued. It’s really amazing.” All sanitized, she assures.

Hilary Brich, owner of yoga store and studio Gogo Guru, sells a round-faced pre-teen a lavender flax-seed eye pillow. Long-haired and bespectacled, wearing her own stretchy black yoga merchandise, Brich folds her tall, thin frame into a too-short lawn chair.

Brich sits by two clothing racks and a single table, covered in orange and red $100 yoga mats and long-sleeved cotton tops ethically made in India. “It’s almost fall!” she insists, wiping her forehead in the muggy summer heat. A girl in a Pokémon cap peruses the jewelry on the table.

Gogo Guru was barely damaged by the flood itself, but that made the space valuable property; the following rent hike was more than Brich’s business could take.

“We’re supposed to be out soon,” she sighed. Higher-paying tenants from the lower end of Main Street will soon move into the studio. After six unsuccessful weeks of negotiating with the building’s landlord, she gave up and went public, posting a plea for fairness and unity on Facebook. “I’m usually the shy, non-political type,” Brich said. “But this is it. I don’t know what else to do.”

Brich listened intently as a man from her yoga class chattered about his back troubles. The lawyers and the paperwork and the tragedy seemed to melt away; her customer had her undivided attention. 

The Ellicott City Old Town Market takes place every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mt. Ida in Ellicott City.

The post Flooded Ellicott City businesses offer rescued goods and hope appeared first on The Retriever.

This past week, the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery held the last installment for the archival project, “Archives Gold: 50 Objects for UMBC’s 50th,” bringing the school’s official 50th celebration to a close. This exhibition, which displayed one new item every week, began its run in Oct. 2015. The collection started off with a brick from one of the original three buildings, Gym 1, which was torn down in 1999 to make room for The Commons.

The previous weeks’ 49 objects that were displayed included campus maps, photographs, the very first issue of The Retriever (previously known as “UMBC News”) and various other memorabilia from past graduating classes. One item – which encompasses the sentimental and “groundbreaking” qualities of a school coming into its own – was a bag of dirt collected from the lot where the campus broke ground to begin construction of the Performing Arts & Humanities building, which was open to students in the Fall 2014 semester.

The last object displayed to the campus which brought the project full-circle was the exhibition book, “Sharing the Past, Building the Future: UMBC at 50.” The book’s title also became the official slogan for UMBC’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

The exhibition book itself contains a variety of photographs, old maps of the campus and features of organizations and groups that have helped make UMBC into the college that it is today. As the last item of the collection, the book brings together a lot of the items that were displayed in previous weeks and is available for purchase in the Bookstore.

There is an online version of the exhibition book which highlights all of its contents, giving anyone who may have missed the original showing to catch up or enjoy looking at the different memories again. There are several themes covered in both the physical book and online, ranging from founding UMBC, student activism and student publications to athletics and campus growth, as well as others.

Just like all of the other 50th Anniversary events that took place this semester, there were key people behind the scenes that made everything run smoothly to add to the celebration. The Library Gallery and online exhibits were put together with the help of chief curator Tom Beck, archivist Lindsey Loeper, curator of exhibitions Emily Hauver, special collections librarian Susan Graham and many others who contributed to writing, researching and organizing with hard work and dedication to celebrate UMBC.

Observers got a look into the past life of UMBC throughout the full exhibit and the final displayed book, with its purpose of helping them feel as if they were a part of the 50 years it helped capture. When the future celebrations of monumental milestones of UMBC take place, whether it is the 60th or the 100th anniversary, current students and faculty can look forward to the many things that will be displayed to showcase their time spent on campus. If those celebrations are anything like the 50th Anniversary, there is no doubt that many will return to see it all come back to life.

The online exhibit can be found at http://umbc50.omeka.net/exhibits/show/umbc50

The post Archives Gold: 50 Objects for UMBC’s 50th appeared first on The Retriever.

I interviewed Jim, owner of Jim’s Smoke Shop and Oddities this past summer and since then, the store has grown tremendously.  He’s an extremely friendly guy with a passion for what he does. When you walk into the store, you have a wide array of glass pipes, old video games an movies, as well as a AMD computer (with the promise of a larger entertainment system and video game consoles on their way to be utilized for game tournaments). Located right on main street Arbutus, only a short walk from campus, I would highly recommend stopping by.

You used to work in this smoke shop and eventually took it over. What made you want to go out on your own?

Well, I have been working since I was 16. The first job I had was pretty cool, it was working for this place called Tropical Fish City. My boss was really cool, after that though I just had crap job after crap job and my bosses never really seemed to care about me as a person. They cared more about how much work they could get out of me and, up until now, the guy I worked for before I bought this place – and this is part of the reason that I actually bought it – he was so willing to work with me and he really placed emphasis on me being okay as opposed to the shop being okay and that’s kind of hard to find in an employer. I’ve also never really taken a big risk in my life like this. I think it was Wayne Gretzky that said “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” This could be either really good for me or it could fail but either way I tried and that’s the important part. A lot of people place too much emphasis on their failure. For lack of a better term, fuck failing. It doesn’t matter. It might suck at the time, but it’s the journey to the failure, it’s what you learned at the time. I’m hoping I’m going to be successful, but if I’m not I’ll take it and use it if I want to do something like this again. I just saw the opportunity and I took it.

Running a small business is difficult. Have you ever felt that what you’re doing just isn’t going to work out?

No. As long as I keep doing what I’m doing, as long as I keep trying to… how can I say this? On a daily basis I am looking on Craigslist and looking at artist forums and trying to get people to get their stuff in here and that is exposure in and of itself. All of those people are going to tell people to come to my shop and get their stuff. I haven’t really advertised yet but I plan on it in the future. Right now I love it. It’s hectic, I’m not just an employee here. I make bank drops, I order inventory. It’s just me and I don’t plan on hiring anyone anytime soon. I like being the face of the company. It’s not like walking into Spencer’s where it’s just some random high school kid they hired for the summer. It’s Jim’s Smoke Shop and Oddities and I’m Jim. You’re going to get the best service from the owner.

How would you define a “head shop?” Would you consider yourself a head shop? Tell me about how you view your business.

I like to distance myself from that term just because of the connotations associated with it. A lot of people are still split on the idea of this stuff being freely available especially in a brick and mortar store like mine. Really I like to call myself a smoke shop – I don’t want to call myself a head shop. I mean technically I am, but in the future I’m going to be getting away from that. I’m going to be getting more into a novelty shop that carries glass pipes and water pipes. Think Spencer’s or Hot Topic with glass pipes and water pipes. Very soon I’ll have sci-fi and horror movies on VHS tape. I might carry them on DVD, but I think I’ll stick with VHS because people are really into that analog stuff these days. I’ll have action figures and t-shirts and occult books, just anything that really catches my eye I’m going to stick in here. Anything that I think is odd or crazy or that you wouldn’t find normally in another store, I’m going to carry here.

What do you and your shop bring to the table that is different from other competitors? Why do you think people should come visit the store and how do you plan to expand the shop?

I like to think I have an edge over other stores. Other stores have employees, you don’t ever really see the owner whereas I personally put forth the effort to give the best customer service I can because I am the owner. How I do directly affects my business, how I treat people directly affects my business. I’m extremely willing to work with people when it comes to prices or any kind of problems they might have with anything they buy in here. Due to the nature of product I carry, I do not take returns but I am willing to work out prices on another item if you wanted to pick up another item, or I’d even be willing to replace it.

In the future, I’m going to be moving into getting VHS tapes, sci-fi and horror movies, t-shirts, occult books, action figures. I might even get into video games a little bit, but it would just be niche stuff. Stuff you would have to import or say retro games like Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. I grew up in the ‘90s, I grew up playing Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo so it’s got a big place in my heart. And I’ve always wanted to work in a retro gaming shop and now I have the opportunity to have my own so maybe in the future I will carry some stuff like that.

You plan to work with Universal Comics, the comic book store right down the street. How will that work and how does this collaboration fit into your plan for the store?

Right now the plan is to carry only stuff from movies. I don’t plan on getting into [comic books] or any of that stuff. They have that cornered and I’m not trying to take money out of their pocket. They’re really cool dudes and they’ve hooked me up with stuff that I’ve just seen in there and I do the same for them. Very soon I’m going to get some flyers printed up and I’ve worked out a thing where they would be willing to do a 10 percent discount in their shop on select items. I think it’s a really good way to bring traffic to not only their store but to the area.

What type of other entrepreneurial experience do you have that makes you confident in your ability to run the store?

I am a musician in my spare time. It’s my hobby, it’s what I love to do. Pretty much I come here, I open up the doors and run my shop then I go home, fire up Q bass and I make it a point to write something whether it’s a drumline, a bass lick, a synth melody. Anything. I always make it a point to write something down so I did something musically. At first I was really into metal, but these days I’m really into making ‘80s style synth music. Think like John Carpenter or Duran Duran or a-ha. Anything like that. I just love that cheesy ‘80s pop music. I actually release my music a little differently than other people do. I release on creative commons. I consume art on a daily basis and it’s only right for me to give back using the talent I have. It’s lead to paying gigs, just with online exposure. I kind of just put it out there and let it do its thing.

For anyone planning to start a business at UMBC, what kind of advice would you give them?

If you’re doing what I’m doing you have to be a people person. You have to be willing to talk to people, you have to be friendly. This is a customer service oriented business. I might be selling a product to my customers, but the only way my customers are going to want to buy anything from me is if I’m friendly and cordial. If I give them good business then they’ll come back, if you don’t then your shop’s going to close. Number one: you have to be a people person, or you work with someone that is the people person and you do the behind the scenes.

What are things that you saw and changed when taking over?

Well the layout of the shop was the first thing I changed and that’s because of the way the shop is shaped. The left side of the shop is actually longer than the right side and when the displays were on the other side, it made the shop look really small and made it look like there wasn’t room for anything. I’m also going to be repainting soon. All the walls are going to be a blackish, gunmetal color and the ceiling I’m going to paint ‘80s neon colors. I want it to look like an ‘80s nightclub when I’m done in here. I want it to reflect me as a person. Everything I love really comes from the ‘80s. Everything about that era is amazing and I want to represent it in my shop. 

Where can people find you and learn more about the store? What kind of promotions do you run to get people coming into the store?

If you would like to learn more about Jim’s Smoke Shop and Oddities you can go to www.welcometojims.com. It has directions, it has pictures of the shop. It’s got store hours and my contact info. You can also find me on facebook at facebook.com/welcometojims or just search for @welcometojims. I give student discounts, show me your college ID and you’ll get 15 percent off. I also do discounts for EMT and police and military, veterans and firefighters, they get 20 percent off. Also, I’m not a retail store. I do consignment on art, glass art, anything I think is cool. Please come to my shop with some examples of what you do and if I’m into it, I will carry it in my shop.

The post Jim’s Smoke Shop and Oddities appeared first on The Retriever.

In the book, “The Maze Runner,” Thomas wakes up in a maze to find himself among other kids called Gladers, who were forced to build their own community to survive. After many dangerously brave antics and innovations, as well as encounters with man-made monsters, Thomas and the Gladers beat the maze only to find themselves facing many more trials and loss as the series progresses.

A new section of the mystery was added to the New York Times Bestselling series, called “The Fever Code” on Sept. 27. As the new and final addition to the series, readers face the last piece that could solve how and why the main character, Thomas, and his friends ended up in the maze and under observation. Readers can only hope now that the new pieces will solve unanswered questions that came about in Oct. 2009.

The author, James Dashner, is a rising name in the young adult science fiction genre. Within the last two years, “The Maze Runner” has become a worldwide movie phenomenon, along with the second book, “The Scorch Trials.” The third movie, “The Death Cure,” is currently on an indefinite filming hiatus, but is expected to be released in early 2018.

Ever since the first book, there have been glimpses and clues into how Thomas is connected to the maze and the group’s ominous observers – whether he remembers everything or not. But there is one thing that readers should know for certain as they begin to see the person he was before his memory was wiped: he worked with the people who put them there.

“The Fever Code” follows Thomas, the other Gladers and Teresa – the only girl who was sent into the maze – as they grow up under the controlling eye of “WICKED,” which stands for World In Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department.

On the inside cover of the book, the phrase, “This is the story of that boy, Thomas, and how he built a maze that only he could tear down,” could easily be the catchphrase for the whole series. With all spoilers in full view, it is made clear that Thomas played a key part in the making of the maze and the experiments, but the degree in which he was involved could come as a shock as more truth is revealed. The shock factor begins in the first chapter, where Dashner starts off by revealing Thomas’ real name and how he was taken by WICKED at only four years old.

Throughout the series, Dashner has created a parallel between readers and characters, having them both experience and witness the hardships before knowing the full backstory – sometimes even allowing readers to know secrets before the characters can solve them. This is the second prequel, the fourth book, “The Kill Order,” being another prequel that showed readers exactly how the dystopian world came into being.

The prequels add an intriguing dimension that allows readers to know what happens in the end without fully knowing or understanding the beginning; that is, until now. The characters, who had their memories wiped before going into the maze, stay in sync with the readers as they learn their past after the fact. Watching the characters come into their own and fight for themselves is a great aspect of the series that readers have become accustomed to, but now they can watch them fight for themselves in a time where they are truly young and watching their whole world change.

The series as a whole brings innovation, heartbreak, twists and turns that mimic the trials that the characters face. The release of “The Fever Code” brings closure to the story that has held countless questions and mysteries, finally helping readers understand the entire journey Thomas and the other Gladers experienced from start to finish.

The post Return to the “Maze” with “The Fever Code” appeared first on The Retriever.

Grad student needs help in Linguistics for TESOL and would like to hire a tutor.

I live in Frederick, so working via Skype or other technology is preferred.

We can work out an hourly rate.

Many thanks.

marshak1@umbc.edu

2016 ADVANCE Distinguished Lecture Series

Against the Odds: How I Became a Computer Scientist

Dr. Claudia Pearce (UMBC MS '89, PhD '94) National Security Agency

4:30-5:30 Tuesday, 11 October 2016 Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn

Dr. Claudia Pearce, UMBC Alumna and Senior Computer Science Authority at NSA, shares a personal story of perseverance in her educational, research, and career journey as a computer scientist.

UMBC-ADVANCE is pleased to announce that alumna Dr. Claudia Pearce M.S., '89 and Ph.D., '94 and 2014 UMBC Alumna of the Year in COEIT is our 2016 ADVANCE Distinguished Speaker. Dr. Pearce is currently Senior Computer Science Authority at NSA, a member of UMBC's COEIT advisory board, and involved in collaborative research with our CSEE faculty.

The event will take place on Tuesday, October 11th and we are proud to incorporate this event into UMBC's 50th Anniversary celebrations. As part of this event, Dr. Pearce will deliver a campus-wide talk on her career trajectory at 4:30pm in the Library Gallery followed by a reception.