As many of you know the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting was this week.

I am a Virginia Tech Student. I truly love my school and I am very proud to be a Hokie.

Let me give you a little background information you may not know about me:

On April 16th, 2007 I was a resident of West Ambler Johnson; that is the dorm where the first shooting occurred. I lived on the 2nd floor and I knew the RA who was killed that day; Ryan Clark. I remember waking up that day feeling a bit strange, and quite honestly I didn't want to go to class for I was a bit tired. I heard a lot of commotion and saw a bunch of students walking through my hall. It was somewhat early, so I thought that this much noise was kinda odd. I asked someone what was going on, and they said they were not sure, but there are several cops outside. I looked outside and there were indeed several police officers, some of which who were walking up and down the halls.

My friend Rob came to my room and we talked about what was going on. Apparently there were shots fired somewhere in the building. I called my parent's and told them what was happening, and to insure them that I was ok. My Dad told me I should stay inside my dorm and close my door. He also told me I should stay away from any windows. Rob, who was already in my room felt it was best to stay in my room for the time being until we figured out what was going on.

I managed to talk to an officer who was passing by. He told me that "everything was fine." They had been checking people's id's who were coming in and out of the building, at least that was what I heard. Some students were telling me that the Police officers wanted us to stay inside our dorms and that we were not allowed to leave. They were at several of the exits.

After some time, an officer told me "It was ok for us to leave." He gave us the to ok to go to class and to leave the building.

I remember that there was a girl who lived in West AJ that had a class in Norris. I did not know her personally, but I did remember her face, as I saw her often. Had the officers told us that we shouldn't go to class, she would still be with us here today. Unfortunately, like many other students, we were given the ok to leave and most of us had classes that day. I do not blame the officers, the only person to truly blame in a situation like that is the person who committed the shooting.

I remember feeling very sad when I learned one of the victims of the shooting was a girl in our building. I remember recieving a few emails. Please note that my memory is a bit of a blur about the whole incident, but I don't think any of those emails told me not to leave my dorm when the first shooting occurred.

I had class that day, but decided not to go. I just didn't feel comfortable about it and still was not completely sure what was going on.

I turned on the TV, particularly to the news to see if anything was being said.

After some time passed, I remember the local news reporting something was occuring at Virginia Tech.

That is when I found out that there had been another shooting, this time at Norris. I remember hearing the disturbing information. We didn't know how many people were injured or killed. In fact, estimates of those reports kept seeming to climb as time went by.

I decided to visit my RA to see if he knew anything about it. My RA was close friends with Ryan, and he was really affected by the event. This whole event affected so many students because it hit so close to home. I don't think there was any student that didn't know somebody who was killed or injured, or was friends with someone who knew someone that was killed or injured.

Now I have had classes in Norris before. In fact, I had a class in Norris at 2:30 PM the very next day, Tuesday. I am writing this all from memory, so forgive me if this is not completely accurate. My class was located on the second floor of Norris. The shooting occurred in this region. I remember hearing news reports that the shooter had chained the doors shut and shot from classroom to classroom. One of the classroom's he shot into or tried to gain access to was most likely the same class where I had Public Speaking on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When heard that a Professor named Librescu was killed while blocking the door so that his students might escape, I was greatly moved. Once again, I did not recognize the name, but I did recognize the face. He was a professor I saw almost every Tuesday and Thursday. He must have taught a class right before mine. He was usually in the room when I was waiting for class to start. I remember I had either talked to him or had overheard a conversation with him. He joked with our class and seemed like such a nice man. The man is truly a hero. He was of jewish decent and was a holocaust survivor. When I later learned that April 16th, 2007 was holocaust rememberance day, I thought the coincidence was...well I do not know exactly how to describe it, but it was indeed chilling to hear. God bless that man for what he did.

The rest of the day consisted of panic and sadness. There was all kind of emotions: anger, fear, depression, etc and to experience all of those emotions in one day can really take its toll on people.

The worst part was, everyone was using their cells phones so all outside calls were jammed. I tried to call my mom after I heard about the second shooting, but I couldn't get through. My mom knew about the first shooting, but after we got the ok to leave, she wasn't sure if I had decided to go to class or not and I had a class in Norris, and she was probably not sure what day of the week I had that class. When I finally got a hold of her, she was relieved to again hear I was ok, my dad was at work and he had called to make sure everything was alright as well.

Hours past during the day, and soon it was about the time for me to go to work. I remember calling asking what I should do. They told me that I didn't have to go to work today, and that as a student I should probably be with my friends during a time like this. I was relieved to hear this, because I did feel that way, however, when I heard that parents were driving up and to meet at The Inn at Virginia Tech to find out if there daughter or son were ok, I wanted to go. I went to work to help out in anyway I can. I a found out that a fellow co-worker of ours was injured by the shooter, and was recovering in a hospital. Thankfully he recovered, and is doing well today. I remember there being so much press at the Inn, it was insane.

This is something I will never forget, and it pains me whenever I think about it...

I remember working trying my best to help through the disorder. Parents would come in and I would direct them to a certain room, or ask if they needed to talk to a counselor or maybe use a phone.

As I walked by one hallway at the hotel, I saw an older woman, who was obviously somebody's mother. I saw her running down the hallway, screaming and crying, heading toward a room where counselors and therapists were. If this wasn't disturbing enough, I then saw the father.

He was a large man being supported by two others. He was barely able to walk. I remember he had a blank stare, and his face was in disbelief. He kept looking ahead, slightly mumbling with his mouth open wide. He was just told his daughter or son was killed. He had no light in his eyes, and he didn't blink. He just continued staring like all the life in his body had left.

I worked again Wednesday night.

There are many things I learned that day, but one easily stood out: Press will do anything for a story. Now don't get me wrong, there were several reporters there who were respectful. They did not try to enter the therapy rooms or bother parents. In fact, I had a pleasant conversation with one who was very disturbed at what happened. I thought the press were a bit of a nuisance, but they were expected to be here and with all due respect they should be there. However, there was one thing I did not expect, the tenacity or rather the audacity of reporters. I started hearing "the rumors". I spoke to fellow co-workers about what was going on, and they were telling me what some press members had been doing.

Now we were told by the university that we were not allowed to give any rooms to press members. If they asked if we had rooms, we simply said no, for we were reserving all rooms for parents and their family members.

I heard that one reporter had pretended to be a friend of a student and had tried to enter the "grieving room", in a therapy session. That he wore a backpack and posed as a student. Whether this was true or not I do not know. Also, I saw that some press had managed to get a room, not telling the front desk employee they were press, but rather someone grieving about losing a lost one or some other story. Parent's were able to go around without having to worry about camera's, however now there were press near people's room, walking around with camera's.

I was basically put on guard, and was told that I should ask every guest that enters the side of the hotel where there are rooms if they had a room key. If they didn't have a room key, I was supposed to tell them that they could not enter, since were making sure that no press would enter. I was told to direct people to the front desk if there was an exception. It was not an easy job.

I was rather relieved when a police officer approached and offered to take over. I remember when he first was starting, he asked in a rather loud and rough tone "Are you a guest in this hotel? Where is your room key Miss!". The lady looked at him, and then started crying hysterically, her child was one of the victims. Needless to say after that the officer, was more careful in how he asked.

I spoke with several officers during my stay there. Many of them were nice guys. They wanted to be there, they truly did. I remember one of them telling me that there was no other place they would rather be right now than right here with us. Our relationship with the campus police really improved that day I think. We saw that they cared and we felt closer because of it.

I respect the officers because of what they did that day.

I think I remember seeing Red Cross there. They were handing out free coffee, drinks, and food. I talked to one of them, told them I really appreciated them being here. I think they were red cross, whoever they were they were volunteers handing out water bottles to anyone that needed them. The compassion people showed was wonderful to see that day.

Many grieved on April 16th, 2007. Many were sad, and some were angry. All expected emotions. I remember reading a pamphlet telling me how those were normal feelings. I remember the sadness that day, but it is also important to note I saw compassion as well. We became closer with the people around us. For that week, everyone was a Hokie, and we were all a supporting family. I remember visiting Squires, the student center and seeing all the cards and banners being sent by universities. Even our football rival, UVA, sent us letters saying they were hear for us. If you had told a football fan of VT before April 16th that UVA wrote us a nice letter, he or she would have never believed. We got letters from all kinds of places, including international universities. Yes, there was sadness, but there was also overwhelming love. It is unfortunate that a tragedy was what united many that day, but nevertheless we felt their love.

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300...The Video Game?

Apparently there is a video game for 300. It is called "300: March of Glory". The idea of a video game for 300 is an EXCELLENT idea. There's only one catch though...the video game is only for the PSP, which is great...IF you own a PSP. I would love to see a game of this movie on some more powerful video game systems. It wouldn't have to be an exact copy of the movie, maybe some prequel or other Spartan story.

What would I like to see in a 300 game? Let's just say the movie has the great makings of a button mashing game.

Think of Spartan: Total Warrior (Xbox) combined with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Xbox) combat. Then take the vast number of enemies that you would find in a Dynasty Warriors game, with much better AI of course. Hey, I would love a game like that. Maybe they will wise up and make one that more people can play, rather than only PSP owners.

Written for your reading entertainment.

- Jerieth

300

I just saw the movie 300, and I must say...it was extremely good. The movie is currently ranked above an 8 on IMDB.com, which is a pretty good ranking considering some extreme critics who gave the movie low rating and believe it doesn't deserve the respect it is getting. I say most of these people are crazy, but hey they all have the right to their opinion. Hopefully hollywood will make more movies like this one for it has been awhile since a movie has entertained me as well as 300. From the very beginning the movie draws you in...

You are introduced to a society of fierce Spartan Warriors, who's laws govern that they can never retreat or surrender in battle. In fact the mother's of Spartan warriors would often tell their sons to "Come back with your shield, or on it." Essentially saying, come back victorous or die fighting. As you can probably tell by now the main society of Sparta is militaristic, but does have an advanced form of government, at least for the time period. (The movie depicts a counsel, which looks similiar to the roman senate.) I won't go into further detail of the plot of the movie, but I highly recommend it as a must see movie. It has some of the best action scenes you will ever see in a movie.

What would I compare this movie too? It is an unique movie, but if I had to I would say the movie resembles a combination of the best scenes from "Braveheart and Lord of the Rings".
At one point I could swear I hear a scottish accent from Leonidas as he defys Xerxes, the Persian king. (Leonidas can very much be classified as a "William Wallace" type of guy). Even Braveheart and 300's themes are similiar, fighting for freedom and defiance.

How is it like Lord of the Rings? Well, one thing is for sure, the action scenes a very much up to far. The sword fighting is excellent not to mention you can't help, but notice the similarity when Persian warriors ride in on huge elephants and even a rhino (yes...I did just say rhino, hopefully that won't spoil the movie for you...right now there is probably some guy reading DAMN why did he have to tell me about the RHINO!). There is also one character in the movie, which acts so much like Golem you can't help, but think "is this not a scene from lord of the rings?" Though some might be thinking right now..."Why would I like a movie that copies another", well let me set this straight then, the movie resembles other popular action flicks, but it is very much its own movie.

After I finished watching 300 I was begging for more. So I went onto Wikipedia and a few other sites to research some "Spartan History". Let me tell you, the history is almost just as rewarding as watching the movie. Their way of life was very interesting. Even though this movie is primarily based on a comic book, it does have "Some" historical truths, which if you read a few of these articles posted below before watching the movie it will only add to your viewing experience. However, if your new to Spartan history, you might want to watch the movie first and read these later, as some of the articles, at least near the end, do contain some spoilers for the movie.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas

History of the most famous King of Sparta, Leonidas I.

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History of Sparta, much of the article is organized by wars

http://www.sikyon.com/sparta/history_eg.html

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If your still craving more information just type in Spartan in Wikipedia, they will tell you all about their government, respect for women (which was rare back in that day), their laws, and much more.

Hopefully you liked the movie as well.

Written for reading enjoyment.

- Jerieth