Personal Disaster Assistant, or PDA, by Queens College alum Chris Ferraro, is a story about a man named Doug Macklin who has to deal with futuristic contact lenses, talking chairs, alien-worshipping terrorists…and camels. After being ejected from an airplane, Doug is forced to journey through the desert where he has several misadventures and is almost killed a few times before being told that he is a contestant on a reality show. The book is a combination of dark comedy and science fiction, and examines how people’s reliance on technology does not answer their questions about life. Ferraro used to write sports and entertainment articles, but always enjoyed writing stories like PDA. He wanted to prove to…
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Severe flooding causes bathroom closures
On Sept. 11, a bathroom on the first floor of Kiely Hall flooded, creating a large puddle of water in the hallway in front of the bathroom. The flooding prompted the closing of bathrooms on the first and second floor, rooms 114, 116, 214 and 216, for the following week. The water blocked access to at least one classroom, forcing people to walk through it or find another way to their destinations. An e-mail sent to students from Denese Gordon, Interim Administrator of Campus Plant Operations, said “The restroom on the first floor of Kiely Hall (114) clogged today, creating the potential for flooding in the area. Our plumbers and custodial…
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Main system crashes on first day
On the first day of the fall semester, CUNYfirst crashed, preventing students from performing various academic activities. CUNYfirst, which stands for City University of New York Fully Integrated Resources and Services Tool, is an online management system that is used by CUNY students, faculty and staff. For students, the primary purposes of CUNYfirst are to add or drop courses, pay tuition bills, see course information (such as the times and locations that they meet), find out which textbooks are required for their courses and more. According to the Office of Converging Technologies at Queens College, the reason for this crash was due to more colleges using CUNYfirst than ever before. OCT estimated that about 5000 students…
