In my family, if I wanted anything, I had to buy it myself. I got a job at a local grocery store in the bottle room. Dirty, smelly, chewing tobacco-filled cans and bottles that piled up past my head on the bad days. I stuck with the job, worked late to get them all done every day.

I could not stand this job when I started – I hated it. Whenever my boss came around it seemed that I was always doing something wrong – I was going too slow, I wasn't getting the carts from the lot, they needed me to bag groceries.

Besides learning how to push carts and dig through vomit-scented beer bottles, I learned how to deal with people. I learned how to read my boss’ mood and act accordingly. With the high turnover rate, I learned how to get to work on time.

My summer job during high school required me to hand out flyers for a museum at the Soo Locks. This job taught me a lot more about reading people and how to approach them. Many people would blow me off, while others would take the information eagerly and ask for directions. I figured out which people would be more worth my time to talk to.

Earlier in my life, I took a few summers away from home to work at a Boy Scout camp. I learned how to teach all kinds of people, and how to live with people that I don’t get along with.

The three jobs that I listed above have absolutely nothing to do with my career goals – at least not directly. Related to my major, I worked for a short period of time at my hometown newspaper. When I came to Ferris, this helped me get a position at University Printing and at the Torch. Two of these jobs helped me get both of my internships – the synergistic effect.

Not all jobs will help you get a career, but they are all stepping-stones. Turn on an episode of the “Simple Life” if you don’t think you need to get a job before you graduate.

Scenes like this seem almost believable in the cartoon world of “Beavis and Butthead,” but if you’re a Chicago man with the last name of Palacios, and probably countless others, getting arrested for solicitation could be about as easy helping a woman in distress.

After dropping their six year-old daughter off at school and picking up their 22 year-old daughter to go out for breakfast, Erasmo and Rocio Palacios noticed a woman waving her arms, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday.

The Palacios, thinking the woman was in need of help, went to offer assistance. The Sun-Times reported that the couple claimed the woman leaned in to the passenger’s side of the car, where Rocio was sitting, and spoke to Erasmo, offering him oral sex for $20 or sex for $25.

The couple laughed, realizing that the woman hadn’t been in distress, but that laughter couldn’t have lasted long because, within seconds, police swarmed the car, put Erasmo in handcuffs and charged him with soliciting a prostitute.

Police held him for eight hours, and didn’t drop the charges until weeks later. They also took the family’s 1983 Mercedes, leaving Erasmo’s wife and daughter stranded in Chicago’s November weather. Later, the city demanded nearly $5,000 for the return of the car.

Erasmo was lucky that he had been with his wife, whose statement probably helped him get the charges dropped. The Sun-Times said that he imagined trying to tell her about the situation if she hadn’t been there, saying, “She’d never believe me.”

And it’s a good thing his wife doesn’t have memory loss because neither she, nor her daughter, are mentioned in the police report, which claims that Erasmo asked for sex.

But what about other men who aren’t so lucky? Hundreds are arrested annually in the Chicago area for soliciting prostitution, and now the mug shots of potentially innocent suspects are posted on a web site, in case their reputations aren’t damaged enough by the rest of the process. Many of these people are probably innocent, as they undoubtedly deal with the same incompetent police officers who seem to have framed Erasmo.

Most of these kinds of arrests take place when men’s wives aren’t with them, and, when it comes to one man’s word against the word of a police officer, though the officers have already lied in Erasmo’s police report, the man is not likely to be believed.

And why bother? Blogger Holly Desimone wrote, “‘Besides, ‘there is so much prostitution,’ says one public defender in Chicago, that if you could arrest all of the players, ‘the jails would be huge. If we put everyone in there, we would all be broke.’” That’s not completely true, as the city apparently could make a lot of money holding cars of those uninvolved with actual prostitution.

Unfortunately for the Palacios, the system in which a person has to solicit sex to be charged with soliciting sex only exists in the fictional world of Mike Judge. I long for the day when police in the real world start acting with the wisdom of “Beavis and Butthead.”

I was thrilled to start my new job at the town’s newest entertainment center, but my heart initially sunk when I went in to get my schedule. The title next to my name read “Night Fry.”

Remember how I said I was so desperate for a job I’d do anything? Well, they remembered what I said and due to an error in hiring, I was asked if I could be temporarily moved to a cooking position.

On the first night, I realized how hard this job could be. I had always had expectations of this being an easy job. I had even been a waitress before and I always thought that it could be slightly stressful at times, but all together just a walk in the park. You flipped burgers and you dropped fries into a vat of grease.

But I was very, very wrong. Things got burnt very easily, it was hard to remember everything that was on a five person order, and some items required more attention than fries. Once during the night, we had more than fifteen orders to attend to at one time.

I was overwhelmed. I had never pictured that cooking would involve that much blood, sweat and (near) tears. I then realized that every other job I’ve had has been five million times easier than this one.

Even though the job was difficult, I learned quickly. In general, fried foods float when they’re done. Tongs are your best friend when it comes to fresh-out-of-the-fryer goods. Wear the chef jackets because they protect your skin from fry grease better than aprons.

I’ve been a cook for a couple months now and I’ve made a few pizzas and cooked a couple quesadillas. The job is never the walk in the park I had expected, no matter what role I play in the Gate’s kitchen. There have been many times I’ve burnt myself to the point of blisters and have been so busy I’ve nearly lost my mind.

But there have been many benefits. I’m much more confident with my knife skills. I can now pan flip fish fillets. I can also make a mean chicken alfredo if I do say so myself.

Now that I’m slowly being transitioned into the job I was hired for, I have a new-found respect for those behind the scenes that make the food I give out to customers. I never try to bother the cooks when they’re being swamped and I always make sure I say thank you when the food comes up. I know that in all reality, they’re getting their bums kicked back there.

In an age where the status quo Republican opinions are that an antagonistic, warmongering foreign policy will somehow prevent terrorism, Paul delivers opinions on issues that are sane and refreshing.

Look at some of Paul’s quotes from last Wednesday’s FOX News Republican presidential candidate debates.

“The people who say there will be a bloodbath are the ones who said it will be a cakewalk or it will be a slam dunk, and that it will be paid for by oil,” Paul said. “Why believe them? They’ve been wrong on everything they’ve said. So why not ask the people who advised not to go into the region and into the war? The war has not gone well one bit.”

“We should not go to war without a declaration,“ Paul said. “We should not go to war when it’s an aggressive war. This is an aggressive invasion. We’ve committed the invasion of this war. And it’s illegal under international law. [The Constitution and international law] where I take my marching orders, not from any enemy.”

“When we make a mistake -- when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people, through their representatives, to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake,” Paul said.

Paul’s last quote is exactly what makes him electable. The Democrats were put in charge of Congress in 2006 because the Iraq war had become so unpopular. They were supposed to come in and finally, once and for all, put an end to the madness in Iraq.

Fast forward nearly a year later and they have done no such thing. Even worse, they have made virtually no progress on doing any such thing. And the American people are not pleased. According to a Gallop poll conducted last month, the approval rating of the Democrat led congress stands at a dismal 19 percent.

The American people don’t want to be in Iraq any longer. The ridiculous troop surge fa¡ade is not going to change public opinions on the failed war. Meanwhile, Democrats with their poor showings over the past year in Congress are losing the faith of the American people. This leaves the door open for a Republican candidate who is committed to ending the invasion of Iraq to be elected President.

And that is exactly what Ron Paul is. If he gets the nomination, he would appeal to anti-war voters, Christian voters and fiscal conservative voters all of whom would be well-represented in the voting booths come next November. His strong showing in last Wednesday’s debate will add to his growing public recognition.

In a debate held earlier in the summer in South Carolina, Paul offended self-proclaimed American hero Rudy Giuliani after asserting that 9/11 happened due in part to American occupation of Middle Eastern countries.

“I don’t think I have ever heard that before and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11. I would ask the congressman withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that,” Giuliani said.

Of course, Paul’s “absurd explanation” came straight out of the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission Report. At the most recent debate, Giuliani was seen gawking at Paul whenever he’d speak.

What really deserves to be gawked at is not Paul’s well-supported opinions, but Giuliani’s assertion that he was at Ground Zero “as often, if not more, than most of the workers.”

“He is such a liar, because the only time he was down there was for photo ops with celebrities, with politicians, with diplomats,” deputy fire chief Jimmy Riches, who’s son died in the aftermath of the attacks, said.

“On 9/11 all he did was run. He got that soot on him, and I don’t think he’s taken a shower since.”

Paul is cut from a different cloth than the rest of the Republican candidates. When you offend somebody as egomaniacal and boneheaded as Rudy Giuliani with your comments, you must be doing something right.

For more information on Ron Paul’s candidacy for president, go to ronpaul2008.com.

The only reason I put so much time into the project is because I wanted it to work perfectly – not allow users to input wrong numbers, allow variables such as cost of paper to be changed at a later time instead of being buried into a formula, and making the interface very simple and user-friendly, as opposed to many of my classmates’ projects.

I spend a lot of time and effort when I plan something out that other people will need to use. These are the reasons that I get so angry when I come across something that is poorly built.

One example – Kronos. For those that don’t know, this is the time clock system that Ferris uses. If it takes more than 15 minutes to teach someone how to clock in and out, there is definitely a problem. Kronos won’t display the name next to the job code when clocking in – this could be fixed with five more minutes of coding.

Another thing that annoys me is that stupid buzzer that goes off when you leave the keys in the car and open the door. Since I was the one who put the keys in the ignition in the first place, and the car won’t go without them – I don’t need to be reminded that they are still there. The three Chevy trucks that I owned, I tore the buzzer out and demolished it with a sledgehammer.

One more thing that I can’t stand is cheap hardware like lightweight dvd players, microwaves, or anything that slides around from just pushing the buttons on the front. When I try to open the microwave to cook my frozen pizza and it slides back when I touch it, I want to scream.

Doesn't anyone test these products? Why would anyone produce something like this unless it comes with a 2x4 to prop behind the appliance so it can be opened with one hand like its supposed to. Is all production outsourced overseas only to return covered in lead-based paint?

I might have control issues, but I know good products when I use them. I know bad products when I use them (and some of them end up getting thrown at telephone poles like my Wal-Mart bike). Remember, you get exactly what you pay for.