Finding Happiness Through Games

I love playing games with my friends and family. Board games, card games, strategy games- you name it. Every year, on top of my Christmas list, alongside books, are board games. Typically, my family gathers on Christmas morning to open presents, and when the ribbons and wrappers have settled, my brother Terence and I are usually found engaged in a new game. Most of all, I enjoy the complex strategy behind the games. I enjoy formulating strategies and searching for tactics to out-maneuver my opponents. Win or lose, however, I like to just relax and have fun playing the game.

One game in particular that I like is Magic, which I’ve played since first grade. Magic is a strategy card game in which the players build their own decks, so the options and the amount of strategy involved are limitless. The cards also have ‘flavor text’- a sentence or two that solely assists the storyline. Terence and I have memorized the funniest of these quotes and often recount them to each other randomly, just for fun. We’ll both crack up and begin reciting others, laughing uncontrollably.

I like to always approach life with a strong sense of humor. As with the Magic cards, Terence and I quote comics; our favorites are The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. Often, when one of us begins a quote, the other will complete the punchline, and we’ll laugh at how we can recite perfect quotes. We also enjoy telling jokes, from clever puns to so-called ‘groaners.’ We’ll occasionally invent our own jokes and recite them gleefully to the groans of the other. This positive attitude helps me in everyday situations; when I find myself on the losing end of a situation, I smile and look for opportunities to improve the situation. I focus on how to make the most of what I have and remain positive.

--Patrick Rabuzzi

Fanfarlo - Not Just For Fans

Fanfarlo's second album, titled Rooms Filled with Light was released on February 28. To give a little perspective, Fanfarlo is an indie folk band hailing from London. They released Reservoir, their debut album, approximately two and a half years ago. Reservoir immediately gained much critical acclaim - at least within the indie world. Now, I was a big fan of Reservoir. It employed a nice mix of instruments that I was continually growing to enjoy due to my immersion in indie folk music- trumpets, violins, clarinets, and more could be distinguished behind main singer Simon Balthazar's unique vocals. Thus, when I discovered that their second album was going to be released in early March, I expected a lot; it did not let down.

Rooms Filled with Light opens up with "Replicate," which feels as if it belongs on a soundtrack to Alice in Wonderland, Alice tiptoeing through the wilderness. One is fully immersed in the song midway through, when the violins make an appearance, setting up the rest of the journey that is Rooms Filled with Light. Next in line is "Deconstruction," which starts off as if it is a song playing backwards, turning upbeat really quickly. "Lenslife" is happy throughout, with trumpets blaring in the background. "Shiny Things," though, takes the listener completely by surprise. In a sharp contrast to the previous two songs, it begins in a solemn and pensive manner, with only the synthesizer playing. The drums enter around minute one, and the rest of the song displays a slightly improved and happier mood, but the calm and sorrow from the beginning is still apparent. "Tunguska" is a mesh of noise that works somehow. There are trumpets playing, what seems to be a metal washboard being scraped, random wilderness and water sounds interspersed throughout, and a woman singing who mirrors the main vocals. "Everything Turns" has intense piano riffs throughout, but it is still somewhat calming due to the consistent melody of the xylophone, and the guitar chords near the end. It's a nice instrumental that prepares the user for the second half of the CD.

The second half of the CD opens up with "Tightrope," which has a catchy beat throughout. Next is "Feathers." The start of it makes one feel as if they are in a mystery movie; this quickly transitions into an 80's feel. The repetitive chorus at the end leaves the listener feeling energized. "Bones" is another calm song amidst craziness. Upon listening to the lyrics, the listener feels more complete, since the song is about looking for clarity and searching for your own answers, ultimately declaring that the answers are already known; they're in your bones. "Dig" is upbeat and engaging, with a fun little violin riff in the middle. "A Flood" is soothing throughout, and is one song sure to make people's "sleepy playlist." Lastly, there is "Everything Resolves," which starts of soft, but gets progressively more powerful in its short 40 seconds, sure to leave the listener on a positive note.

Overall, I would give Rooms Filled with Light an 8/10, sure to satisfy anyone's taste. If you're expecting something completely similar to Reservoir, though, you're sure to be let down. Rooms Filled with Light stands on its own, and it should be appreciated as such. Happy Listening!

Josh Diaz

How and Why Linsanity Became an Event

For a few weeks in February, New York City and the NBA were swept up by the phenomenon known as Linsanity. Jeremy Lin, an Asian American basketball player originally from Palo Alto, California was all anybody talked about in the media and on social networking sites. ESPN coverage reported his story and his stat lines for hours on end. He has been featured on not 1, but 2 Sports Illustrated covers this year. In no time at all, he went from a bench warmer to a starter that everybody in the sports world could recognize. No matter where you looked over this span of time, you would find Jeremy Lin.

Why was Jeremy Lin such an incredible story that seemed worthy of our undivided attention?

First of all, he played absolutely brilliant basketball. In his first month of play, he was averaging 20.9 points and 8.4 assists, a stat line that rivaled any elite point guard in the NBA. Also, there was a certain understated confidence to his game. He never lauded his own achievements in post-game victories, but when the game was on the line during their win streak, the ball was in his hands. However, excellent play in the NBA for short periods of time often goes unnoticed. There are several other explanations for why his play began to come under the microscope of ESPN and basketball enthusiasts everywhere.

One answer is that sports enthusiasts always appreciate the underdog. Lin was not always an underdog as he was an outstanding high school basketball player, but powerhouse D1 schools all passed on his talent until he arrived at Harvard. Despite posting very solid numbers in college ball, Lin still went undrafted. He was finally signed by the Warriors, but did not particularly impress his coaches or the fans even when given playing time. He was even sent to the NBA D-League three separate times. After the season, he was released where he eventually made his way to the Knicks. Therefore, his immediate success as a starter was unexpected. He had always been overlooked when recruited and even when given playing time in his rookie year, he did not exceed expectations. People were utterly surprised by this unknown player’s amazing show of skill during these weeks in February and thus his meteoric rise was even more lauded.

In addition, fans of the NBA and sports in general frequently root for players that they can relate to through shared experiences. Lin played at a superstar level, but did not have a ridiculous contract. For this reason he did not seems too elevated above the common fan, which made him relatable. In fact, he was living on his brother’s couch during his first week as an NBA starter. There didn’t seem to be a barrier between him and the everyday fan. Even casual NBA viewers appreciated his success.

Linsanity has died down in recent weeks, but Jeremy Lin’s story provided the NBA with a great boost in popularity among casual fans and also provided many with the opportunity to cheer for somebody who seemed relatable. The 2011-2012 season of the NBA will be remembered by some for Jeremy Lin’s rise to success and the insane media coverage that followed.

-Pierce Huchton

American Idol: Who Is Really Even Watching Anymore?

American Idol.

Not long ago, this show was the supreme ruler of television. Year after year, it drew in massive amounts of viewers, and year after year, it remained unbothered as the #1 show in the nation with literally everyone watching it. And I mean EVERYONE. My dad, my mom, my little brother, my uncle, my aunt, my first cousins, my second cousins, my great uncle, my great aunt, my grandpa, my grandma, my neighbors, my friends, the popular kids, the nerdy kids, even my teachers. It was one of those special shows that just brought people together in front of a TV screen to watch a regular person perform on a live stage week after week for the coveted crown. And what made it even more interesting was the interactive nature of the show, which allowed viewers to vote for their favorites to move on in the competition.

So yeah, we have had winners like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, and David Cook all achieving great successful careers around music. Even some non-winners were able to achieve success, such as Daughtry, David Archuleta, and Adam Lambert. The show was just so exciting that it captivated a huge portion of America on a weekly basis. Everything culminated in season 5, which had about 37 million viewers watching on average, marking the show's peak performance. But from then on, people became less interested. Some did not tune in on a regular basis. Some were too busy with the everyday trials of life. Some did not like the inconsistencies of the voting basis. Some just found new shows to watch. Then from out of the blue, the mastermind behind the success of Idol, Simon Cowell, decided to leave the show at the end of season 9. And then people just stopped watching the show altogether. Nobody talked about it anymore. It lost that initial powerful spark. And then the show was gone.

But wait. Is the show really gone? NO! It is in its 11th season with new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler sitting along side with veteran Randy Jackson. But why has it disappeared off the map? Where's the buzz? I mean, although the numbers have dropped drastically, it is still being watched by 18 million viewers per episode! But no one talks about it anymore. Why is that?

I don't have a complete answer, but I do know that the public is becoming increasingly bored of American Idol. Nowadays, the market is saturated with many talent shows, including The Voice, X-Factor, and America's Got Talent. People are just overloaded with the amount of new faces presented to them. This sensory overload just puts too much stress upon their minds, causing them to slowly leave the Idol audience. And sadly, American Idol's reign as the #1 TV show for the past decade is about to come to an end. Especially noticeable this season, its ratings have dropped so low that it is almost comparable to The Voice. And as The Voice picks up steam and anticipation, American Idol might not last much longer. But we will see how long Fox can keep Idol above the surface before it finally drowns and becomes lost from sight... forever.

Until then, we can still count on American Idol to produce stars with selling potential. Last year's winner on The Voice, Javier Colon, had a past and unsuccessful history in the music industry. After winning The Voice, he sold less albums than his previous effort! How embarrassing for him! What a waste! Surviving week after week of elimination only to get nowhere in your career. On the other hand, last year's winner of American Idol, Scotty McCreery, became a country superstar. His album, Clear As Day, hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with sales of 200,000 copies sold in a single week. To date, his album has sold over a million copies and has been certified platinum by RIAA. 2 of his songs have gone gold with sales of 500,000+. So yes, although American Idol ratings are plummeting, superstars continue to emerge and have successful careers.

Let's see Idol's trajectory this year. Although The Voice represents stiff competition, Idol can still make memorable superstars. Maybe it will be Jessica Sanchez, whose version of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" has been hailed by Interscope executive record producer Jimmy Iovine as the best performance ever done on the Idol stage. Not sure of her possible talents and future success? Maybe you should check her out for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYNAEs0few

Although it seems like American Idol has long been forgotten in the dust, it still maintains and produces stars with massive selling potentials despite a fall in ratings. The future for Idol is unclear. But one advice. If Idol wants to keep people interested, then tell Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler to actually give real critiques to the contestants because not every performance is "beautiful". If edge goes back into the show, the show might save itself from total imminent destruction. Until then, I hope for the best.

-Brandon Vu :)

Please Don't Trick Me.

Swedish House Mafia has over 2.5 million fans on facebook. That’s 2.5 million people who took the time to search for the electronic trio and press the like button. Swedish House Mafia (SHM) fans are some of the most dedicated music fans around. Back in December 2011, SHM sold out New York’s Madison Square Garden, a venue with capacity of 20,000 people, in NINE MINUTES. That’s 540 seconds. That’s a minute short of our pwr presentations. That’s crazy. And that’s how dedicated SHM’s fans are.

Most of SHM’s music videos have over 1 million views, with “Save the World Tonight,” one of its most recent singles, reaching just over 41 million. On March 12, 2013, SHM released their music video for their newest single “Greyhound.” It is rather safe to say that it will surely reach over 1 million views. I myself have already seen it twice.

Here went my thought process as I watched it:

Oooh. Futuristic race car with girls dressed up in cool/weird costumes, haven’t decided which one. Both?

I wish I had a snazzy butler bringing me drinks in the middle of a desert in a bunny mask. Oh, it’s absolut vodka. Interesting how the camera lingered for long enough for me to notice. Hmmm.

Cool costumes. Definitely.

YEAH. Music is starting.

Music starts building as the race begins. I can dig it.

This is pretty cool. Gonna post it to my facebook.

Wait, did I just watch a 3 minute commercial?

The music video finishes with a still of a bottle of Absolut Vodka, a fancy drink, and delicious looking grapefruit. That lasts about 4 seconds, long enough for the image to register but not quite long enough to seem like a full blown out commercial. All of SHM’s fans that watch this music video will also be left with this image. Unknowningly, they have all been primed by Absolut Vodka, myself included. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. What I do know is that I did not appreciate being tricked into watching this 3 minute commercial. At least at the beginning of YouTube videos when there are advertisements they are clearly labeled so by the word, "Advertisement." Is this the future of advertising? Catching the consumer by surprise? I hope not.

-Marielisa Argueta

Can't Get Enough of Jersey Shore?

Sadly, Jersey Shore is coming to the end of its 5th season, but for those of you who love to watch trashy, orange guidos party hard and make fools of themselves, you're in luck!! There is not only one, but two spin-offs of Jersey Shore that will be making appearances on most likely millions of people's TV screens.

The first spin-off is called the Pauly D Project which is scheduled to premier March 29 @ 10:30 PM. Pauly D fans and girls obsessed with his ridiculous hair, charming looks, and of course tan bod will now get the opportunity to watch a show ONLY about his life and how he became a world famous DJ. From the transition of a typical GTL (gym, tan, laundry), fist-pumping guido to a world-class DJ who opens for Britney Spears (lucky him?) on her international tour. Viewers will get to see his life outside the crazy and wild life of Seaside Heights. Will he continue to bring home grenades night after night who are DTF? Or will he actually grow up and act like a normal 31-year-old man? (Let's be real, that won't happen).

The second spin-off show is still titleless, but will be following none other than Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi,the most famous of them all and Jenny "JWOW" Farley who has had the most plastic surgery of them all. The television series will be like a modern -day Laverne & Shirley they say, but without the working aspect of course because clearly they will not subject themselves to any type of work that will ruin their fake nails or that they cannot do completely drunk. Not only is the name of the show still up in the air, but so is the location in which it will be filmed. The mayor of Hoboken, N.J. denied request for MTV to film the series there. Hmm I wonder why? So get ready for these two spin-offs because reality TV without Jersey Shore casts is now unheard of. The trashy, drunken, tan, buff, fake guido/guidettes will be back. Dont you worry!

Monique Atkinson

Zelda Concert Not So Legendary

Not to be terribly repetitive, but our class discussion on the venue and audience expectations during a classical musical concert left me thinking about the example I had brought up.

A brief refresher: Indelibly dorky though it may be, a few months ago I attended a classical concert in San Francisco that covered none other than the most famous compositions of Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda” video game franchise. While I certainly did not dress formally for the occasion, (as I did not expect the other nerd-fueled concertgoers to) I did expect a certain degree of respect towards the orchestra. Instead what I found was a constant smattering of applause, deep throated cheers, and cries of outrage during each piece of a medley, effectively ruining both the otherwise deep acoustics and general enjoyment of the concert. The compositions alone, when reviewed in tandem and without the vocal audience’s opinion, were at times superior to the original tracks. However, this review stems away from the music itself, for the voluminous surroundings were hardly conducive to hearing the true intricacies of the tracks and dominated the hall as a whole.

Though I could recognize that perhaps not all Zelda fans were attuned to the general mannerisms of a classical concert, I could hardly excuse them, for this had been my first time as well. Afterward, I had hoped that other fans across the globe were a bit less crass during the act, and so I took to Youtube to find the pieces that I had hoped to enjoy live. What I found instead was:

http://youtu.be/Td-ats-QN7A?t=2m26s

and while looking for an alternate version, the discourse on the comments of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWqLvYOeKLM

seems to reflect my disdain for the uncultured freaks who hashed out twenty-five dollars to ruin my experience.

Regardless, when looking at the group for whom the concert was marketed, I could hardly find this surprising. Given that the general players of “The Legend of Zelda” video games are young men my age and a few years above, I’d say that we share in a minimal level of experience in concert couth. Instead, I don’t think it too farfetched to pin more of the fault on the symphony themselves for not expressing the standards expected for those sitting in the velvet chairs before them. Perhaps then I would have been spared the nerdgasmic shrieks of the balding forty-something in front of me. I’d say that my self-respect took a bit of a hit that night.

Fortunately, in a marketing ploy to sell the newest in a series of Zelda games, Nintendo chose to bundle a selection of songs from the symphony onto a music CD to be included with all initial releases of “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.” Devoid of the howling and yelps of the crazed pack of Zelda devouts, I was able to listen to the incredibly enjoyable playlist uninterrupted. (Unfortunately, it didn’t contain the “boss medley” track, which I had searched so diligently for.) Given my experience with the symphony, I don’t think I’ll be signing on to attend the encore tour.

But I digress about my somewhat feigned disgust (but clearly somewhat genuine passion) and concede that the concert was, at least, composed with the best intentions.

-Robert Mata

[ Proof that the concert is, indeed, a real thing: http://zelda-symphony.com/schedule ]

The Woes of Stanford Men's Basketball

The roar of the crowd as each basket is made echoes throughout the stadium. Chants are bellowed at opposing players racing up and down the courts. The student section is chaotic as the game swings wildly with no clear cut winner in sight as the final minute winds down. The scene is what I had hoped to envision of Stanford Men's Basketball ever since I entered as a freshman. And to say the least, almost none of this has really ever happened.

To be fair, Stanford Men's Basketball hasn't exactly been worthy of such excitement in the last few years. But Stanford is considered by many to have the ability to achieve success even against other great teams. Evident of this is Stanford's ability to produce NBA talent in recent years (Brook and Robin Lopez, Landry Fields). Even looking to success in the NCAA tournament in the last decade shows Stanford can succeed in basketball and that Stanford students supported their team. Stanford students used to be rabid college basketball fans as much as fans from UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas, and Arizona. Students even paid for tickets to get into the game.

But somewhere between then and now, things have tapered off. Blame it on the lack of talent coming to Stanford. Blame it on the Pac 12, which in recent years has been criticized over the lack of basketball talent in the last few years. You could even blame it on the resurgence of Stanford Football, which for years had been in the shadow of basketball, until the emergence of stars such as Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck and Jim Harbaugh. Not a single one of these is the true cause, rather, it may just be the attitude of Stanford students towards sports in general.

Stanford is known for being a great school for academics and athletics. We are just known for winning in anything and everything (17 Straight Director's Cups as an example). With 101 National team titles, and a plethora of individual ones, athletes are expected to succeed. These teams sometimes don't even have the fans they often deserve, with very few students in support at home games. If that's the case, I shouldn't expect that for a sub-par team right? For students, it takes a winner to create support, not just any winner, but a surprising winner, much like how Stanford Football is, to draw in the students.

Coming to games, I can't help but feel angry and saddened by the fan support for our amazing athletic teams. Often times, the student section is half filled. What's worse, part of the student section has turned into seats for the general public because there haven't been enough students coming to the games. The game time traditions and cheers are becoming lost as the fans that come don't bother to learn them. The energy is gone. Even with a 21-11 record this year, Stanford basketball isn't feeling the love from it's students. As a part of the Stanford 6th Man Committee, the Stanford Men's Basketball Student Fan Organization, this is a sour position to be in. The picture above says it all. The look of disbelief and the empty spaces in the crowd says more than everything I have just written. College basketball isn't just important anymore to Stanford students. And that's a shame, with great teams from both the Women's team and the Men's team. Why can't Stanford students be as crazy about our sports teams as they are about their academics?


Sumat Lam

6th Man Committee Member
Loyal Stanford Basketball Fan
3:15 PWR Class

Pirates of Emerson Haunted House is a Bust – Oct. 2011 Review by Nathan Polanco

As Halloween rolled around again last year, I became excited to visit the renowned Pirates of Emerson Haunted House again. In the past, I have been very impressed with their sets, actors, and creativity; however, they had this high quality when they were teamed up with Heart Stoppers. This last October, I went out to see them on a Wednesday in order to get the short lines and so the actors would pay attention to my individual group – this way they would have no excuse for putting on a lousy show. As I entered the theme park, I was amazed by the sets and atmosphere that Pirates created on the outside. The entire park was surrounded with buildings that sold food, coffee, and gifts. It looked almost like a Disney Land - but haunted. Tickets were $20 as always – I was glad they hadn’t raised the price. Two years ago, Pirates of Emerson moved from their small haunting field in Fremont, California, to a much larger site – The Alameda County Fairgrounds. With this relocation, they have become much more popular, but I don’t believe that their quality has kept its caliber after the move.

When I stepped into their first haunted house, Habitat for Hags, I was immediately disappointed with the sets. It looked thrown together and the majority of their props included ‘army camo-netting’ which is a generic ‘space-filler’ used to make a scene look overgrown. Furthermore, the actors used only pop-out scares, which I consider to be cheap scares. The actors were clearly not trained and did not know how to creep anyone out. They only knew how to startle people. Lastly, this haunted house was short, and took me approximately three minutes to walk through. I was disappointed but thought that the other ones must be better.

I entered the second, third, and fourth haunted houses to find similar things I disliked. The actors were not scary and the sets were mediocre. I will give them credit, however, for a couple of create themes including their Doll House and their Prison themes. The Doll House was definitely my favorite haunted house with its creative sets, but the actors in the Prison Haunt were the most effective.

I finished all of the haunted houses in approximately fifteen minutes. For the sheer amount of visitors that Pirates of Emerson receives every October, I had expected better. In order to achieve world success and continue growing, I suggest that they receive professional artwork and set designers to polish the show. Lastly, they need better actors. This can be done by training the actors, close monitoring by a manager, and designating a single scare for each actor. It may require much more thought put into the show to incorporate actors so that they can be creepy instead of startling.

I really hope that Pirates of Emerson can bring back the quality that they used to have back in 2008 and 2009. This coming October, I look forward to visiting Alien Extreme, Great America, and the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. Combined with Fear Overload Haunted House, these five haunted houses compete each year to be the best haunted house in the SF Bay Area.

THE OSCARS!!! Dreams of Dressing up
A Timeline
Feb 26: Night of the Oscars
[3 chapters of biology reading to catch up on]
[2 chapters of chemistry reading to catch up on]
[Practice PWR presentation due in 3 days]
[Chemistry problem set due in 2 days]
[Bio 44X postlab write up due in 2 hours]

What I’m doing:

Ahhh….those dresses…Angelina Jolie seems a little off this year…Oooo Natalie Portman isn’t preggers anymore….mmmmm Christian Bale....

All things I noticed at the replay of Oscar night at late night around 2am while procrastinating from my bio reading, and again on Yahoo! when procrastinating on my chemistry problem set. What does it all mean, women in dreamy dresses and men in smart suits, style report cards, bringing up of old juicy gossip? It’s a good distraction for sure. In fact, I used to be more caught up on awards like the Oscars, who would win, etc. (I’d seen almost all the movies- w/ the exceptions for foreign film and sometimes the animation shorts). However, these days, school always seems to get in the way, but not in the small moments when I pretend I don’t have anything better to do than flip through OMG!’s 2 Hot 2 Handle page. Thankfully, I have PWR to appease my guilty distracted conscious.

The Oscars

To be completely honest, I really didn’t have the time to sit through the entire 3 hour and 14 minute broadcast. Instead, I spent 20 minutes watching highlights. I’ve also noticed that because I rarely have time to watch movies and TV shows anymore, to catch up, I will watch the minute long highlights. If the clip seems interesting enough to devote more time to, I will shelve it till the weekend. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed this year I must really have run out of time because the only movie I’ve seen among the nominee list has been The Help.

About 5 Wikipedia movie synopsis’s later, I decide I actually care more about the red carpet looks and hilarious presenters than the winners and thank you speeches. After deciding which look I would’ve sported had I the chance to attend the Oscars- Milla Jovovich’s actually—I return to my psets and readings. What was the meaning of the hour spent on the Oscars? I really don’t know, but the focused distraction gave me an inspiration for this blog post, and I suppose, for now, that’s enough meaning to satisfy me.

Lauryann Jiang - PWR II Monday, Wednesday 3:15-5:05pm

Get Crazy, Get Wild... Get Pregnant?

Everyone knows who Snooki is. Widely acknowledged as the most famous of the Jersey Shore cast, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has ridden the wave of notoriety right to the top, managing to sustain her trademark mix of charmingly quirky, unabashedly clueless, and emphatically party-hard through all five seasons of the breakout show. Snooki enjoys a special kind of renown: far from being a universally adored starlet, she nonetheless attracts a substantial fan base, which differentiates her from other objects of pop-culture ridicule, such as Rebecca Black. People love Snooki’s antics, such as when she sits in a freezer because her butt has a rash, or when she and Deena pull two consecutive all-nighters, enabling them to be drunk for literally two solid days. At the same time, people enjoy trashing Snooki for some of her dumber quotes, such as when she said that “whale sperm is what makes the ocean salty.” Everyone loves to play the critic sometimes, and Snooki gives them ample opportunities to feel superior as they watch her on-screen. While nobody is ever quite sure how much of her comic brilliance is natural, and how much has become spoon-fed to her by the show’s producers, one thing is clear: it makes for pretty darn good TV.

However, recent news regarding Snooki has the potential to permanently change the reputation which the reality star currently enjoys. Snooki is, in a word, pregnant. While she denied the rumors for several weeks, Snooki has recently confirmed that not only has she conceived a child, but that she and her boyfriend, Jionni LaValle, are now engaged. Rumors have begun to flood the news channels with the possibility that MTV will produce a Jersey Shore spinoff, á la Khloe and Lamar or The Newleyweds, which will follow Snooki and Jionni as they embark on their life together. The way in which this show is produced has the potential to hugely impact Snooki’s carefully maintained image. When somebody who is most well known for getting drunk regularly (and engaging in exceptionally entertaining activities while thus inebriated) can no longer drink and party... where will the laughs come from?

As I see it, such a show featuring Snooki has two possible paths before it. One, Snooki can pull together her act, class up her outfits and her attitude, drop the curse words, the baby talk, and the self-centered mentality, and show the world that she has the potential to sustain a marriage and a family. Most people, while they love Snooki as a symbol of pop culture and as a centerpiece of Jersey Shore, don’t actually believe that she will be a good and capable mother, and so a show based around this model would be an excellent vehicle with which to to rebut that notion. However, the other option is for Snooki to stay true to the strategies that have made her famous, and unfortunately, I think that this is the more likely path for the show to follow. A reality show following mature, grown-up adults has never, to my knowledge, succeeded (talent shows aside, and even those tend to attract inordinately dramatic cast members). Therefore, in order for a show, especially an MTV show, to take off, the producers will doubtless encourage Snooki to play up her ditzier, drunker, stupider side. It’s more fun to chronicle a steamy, hot mess of a marriage in shambles and a baby being trucked off to foster care than it is to methodically walk through how to change a diaper.

And while, in one part of my mind, I hope that Snooki says no to contract for the show and to the money, in order to mature and grow in her relationship and prepare for her coming child, the selfish, reality-TV-junky part of me just wants the show to be produced, because I’ll watch it, of course I will, popcorn and pickles in hand.

Laura Hunter