Santa delivers big for some students this holiday season

    A seven-year-old’s worst nightmare on Christmas morning is to open a box expecting it to be the fabulous toy he’s been dreaming about all year, only to discover its disappointing contents: a blue sweatshirt and a six-pack of athletic socks.
    A sturdy sweatshirt and socks are very practical gifts.  The boy would undoubtedly use them almost daily.  But practicality is not on his list of priorities.  His list consisted of action figures and racecars.
    Most people can probably relate to this boy’s disappointing experience.  Unfortunately, it is hardly rare for Santa to mistake your mom’s grocery list for your Christmas wish list.
    Not so this year.  Several GCSU students got creative with their wish lists and Santa finally got it straight.
    Geoffrey Carroll, a senior telecommunications major, loves to play poker.  He also loves Las Vegas.  It all started in 1995 with a family vacation to that exciting city.  Carroll said it was a fun trip, but because of his age, he couldn’t really “do anything” (i.e. gamble).
    This trip reminded Carroll of the movie Vegas Vacation with Chevy Chase.  It is a similar story of a family vacation to Las Vegas.  Chase’s son acquires fake identification and wins several cars.  Carroll wished he had such luck.
    “I want to be that kid!” Carroll said.  “Every time I go I have visions of being that kid.”
    Carroll’s parents, knowing their son’s affection for poker and the exciting lifestyle, sent him and his brother to Vegas this Christmas.  For three days, Carroll gambled and played poker from 10 a.m. until 4 a.m.
    Carroll enjoys taking risks and earning rewards while gambling in Vegas.
    “I like the exciting lifestyle of Las Vegas,” he said.  “I never want to leave when I get there.”
    His favorite part was playing at the famous Bellagio hotel and casino. 
    “This is the place where everyone goes and slaps around $1,000 like it’s nothing,” Carroll said.  “We were sitting there watching people go crazy over it.”
    Another GCSU student who got what he wanted this Christmas is Matthew Perez, a liberal studies major and local musician.  Perez is the bass player in the band Failures of Modern Science.
    What he wanted more than anything this year was recording time in an Athens studio.  Perez and the rest of the band saved up, and with contributions from his parents, they were able to make it happen.
    Eight days of grueling recording produced “A Wheel in the Machine,” the band’s first full-length album. 
    “With 11-hour days we kicked out as much as we could,” Perez said.  “It was a lot of fun.”
    Perez and the band actually wrote three songs in the studio because some of the others weren’t coming together as they would have liked.
    “We had to go back to the drawing board,” Perez said.  “We cranked out three songs.”
    The CD studio release is scheduled for Feb. 15 at Buffington’s.  Perez said this is one of the places where the band started out.  They have also played in Atlanta, Savannah, Macon and Augusta. 
    For Perez, the recording experience was exciting and totally different from playing live.  He said his favorite part was listening to the final product.
    “It brought home the fact that we’re a band,” Perez said.
    Perez’s and Carroll’s stories should inspire hope in those unfortunate victims of lame and uncreative Christmas present-givers and Santa’s wish list mishaps. 

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 19 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry