Search Results for: Ocean Township

“But Those Damn College Kids…”

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Joe

Once again, there are problems in Ocean Township. While the brainwashed masses (which seem to be dwindling) continue to rant and rave about the local off-campus college constituency and how they are ruining their “family neighborhoods,” it looks like those families aren’t so wholesome themselves…

From today’s Asbury Park Press (this has been edited to withhold names):

It might have seemed like something from “That ’70s Show,” but it was no laughing matter to the six people who got arrested, five for underage drinking and a sixth for joining in a scheme to bake marijuana into brownies, police said.

When police were called late Wednesday night to a wall-shaking party on Oakhurst Road, they heard loud music and found Bryan J. K——, 19, hosting a party where underage drinking and marijuana were evident, Detective Lt. Steven R. P—– said.

You know what this shows? That Ocean Township is a regular, normal American town. So for all of those Monmouth University students out there who are either forced to go to these “coalition” meetings or are stuck in a situation where you are berated by police officers when they walk into your home or berated by the local judge in the courtroom, remember this story (and the countless others on this blog).

Some people in Ocean Township will try to make you feel like you are a blemish on their idyllic little community. Bullshit. Their community hides much more than just what you read here – they’re just like everyone else so don’t fall for their holier than thou crap.

But hey…someone better do something about those damn college kids, right?

What a joke.

My Second Day at Work Out World

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Joe

After working out at my new gym yesterday morning, I refrained from writing anything about it on the blog. I did this, mainly, because I wanted to have a second day under my belt before I began to write about my experiences. Some of you may remember the completely ridiculous experiences I had at my previous gym a few years ago – back when I was going to the gym in full swing.

Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for me, I have not had any ridiculous experiences at Work Out World (WOW) in Ocean Township. I’m sort of sickened that I’m going to another gym in Ocean Township since I do everything I can to NOT contribute to the town’s economy (I’ll always be bitter from how they treated my friends and I while we were college students – police brutality and destroying civil liberties definitely leaves a mark on you). The new gym is nice and I’m amazed at how packed it is at 6:30am in the morning.

One of the complaints that I read about WOW before signing up was that there are too many members and that there are times when the lines for equipment are half an hour long. I thought that I would experience this problem yesterday morning when I pulled up to the gym early in the morning and I saw a packed parking lot, but I didn’t have a problem getting on a treadmill at all. The early morning workouts have been nice so far, but I think I’m going to change up my training schedule each week or every other week so I’m not always working out first thing in the morning or later in the evening. I guess it depends on my schedule at work.

One weird coincidence popped up this morning, though. Yesterday I thought I saw some kid (I say “kid” but he’s got to be my age) who used to hang around one of my ex-fling’s houses. He looked different (older), but after Day Two at the gym I’m pretty confident that it’s him. So that was sort of weird.

Monmouth University & Long Branch to Formalize Invasion of Student Rights

Posted on September 27, 2007 by Joe

Today’s Atlanticville had an article about “improving relations” between Monmouth University and its surrounding municipalities – namely Long Branch. I love Long Branch and I think some exciting and creative things are going on over there. I’m also a university alumnus who fought vociferously for students’ rights while an undergraduate. I consider myself privileged to continue that fight as I get older and move up and on through the game of life.

But what always gets me is how the students at Monmouth, by and large, don’t care about this fight. Taken from today’s Atlanticville:

Hayes told the council that the city and the university will be taking their partnership one step further this year and will be sharing information on the addresses of students living off campus.

“We have been able to make some significant headway,” Hayes said at the meeting. “It looks like the university will be willing to share some information with us about where students are housed, for the purpose of safety.”

Anyone who knows the story about the people involved here know that this has nothing to do with student safety. Kevin Hayes is the head of the inspection department in Long Branch. He’s been sued time and time again by local landlords for not granting Certificates of Occupancy for completely well-groomed and maintained houses. And not that it should matter in this particular case, but Hayes’ son was a Long Branch police officer who was one of the major causes of problems between the off-campus students and Long Branch. Hayes, Jr. and another young police officer in Long Branch were shaking down minority students in their off-campus homes and raiding their drug caches…so THEY could sell it on their own!

Of course they got no prison time because they’re politically-connected and this is New Jersey, but it makes me sick to read that the students “get a little better every year” when there are deep, troubling problems on both sides of the argument.

But when you have a student body that doesn’t give a hoot, what are you to do to stop these injustices? Re-read that selection from the article above – that’s illegal, folks. Going to school at a college does not permit that college to share your information with the local police force – especially when that police force has been sued in the past for being overzealous in their enforcement against college students and when they’ve even had to remove officers for shaking students down!

The university surely won’t tell the students anything about this – they relish the fact that 99% of the university community are lemmings who do what they’re told and (even worse) believe what they’re told. This is a tragic reality not just at Monmouth, but many of today’s private colleges and universities. You want to read something even more disgusting?

“If a student is involved in an issue of misconduct off campus, the police will send a copy of the report to us and I will review it,” Nagy said. “We will charge the student under the code of conduct. The student will go through the city’s court and through the Monmouth University court.

“The student is charged twice,” Nagy said. “Just because you do not physically live on campus does not mean you can do whatever you want. A student’s actions affect our reputation.”

That’s right folks – forget about your 5th amendment rights against double jeopardy! You get charged TWICE for the same “crime” in this circus! And having been through that rodeo once or twice, I can tell you that the school’s judicial officers know that this is illegal. Students are often cited by the local police on a Thursday night and expected to go through the university judicial process within a week or two when their actual court date is a month or more away. In essence, the school attempts to find you guilty before the United States legal system!

When you bring this up to the university, they cite their student code of conduct. Most students (with a head on their shoulders) then cite their Constitutional rights. The university ALWAYS comes back with the fact that they are a private university and do not need to respect those rights…which is a lie thanks to President Clinton. President Clinton signed something called the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 which snuck in the provision that if a private university receives ANY federal funding, they MUST respect the Constitutional rights of the students.

That’s generally when you get the university to sit down and start tapping their foot.

But what does it matter? Civil rights have gotten so bad in the Long Branch/Ocean Township area that an article like this can actually be published, describing how the entities intend on destroying students’ rights, and no one will do anything about it. Watch – we’ll get another edition of the Atlanticville next week and there will be no student response…

There’s just no passion any more in undergraduates.

New/Old Gym & Swimming Again

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Joe

For those of you who have been reading this blog for the last few years, I feel sorry for you. Ha ha! You may remember that I used to attend a gym in Ocean Township (I hate Ocean Township) where I was completely creeped out by some of the gym-goers and their gross behavior. I stayed at the gym because they were the only one in the area with a swimming pool and swimming was a large part of what helped me take off all of the weight.

Well, it was about 2 years ago that they closed the pool “for the summer for renovations.” And since no one ever really knows what they’re doing when they “renovate” a property in New Jersey, you can imagine what happened. The summer turned into the fall, which turned into the winter and then the spring and we were at the full 1 year mark and the pool was still closed. At that point, I canceled my membership and joined the brand new gym right on the Atlantic Ocean.

The new gym was fun and it was nice to be at a place that was brand new. But I never really caught on to working out there. Maybe it was the 5:30am workouts or maybe it was the fact that at 5:30am they STILL had the music blaring throughout the place. I’m not sure. What I DO know is that my old gym finally got their stuff together and re-opened the pool. So, a few weeks ago I canceled my membership at the new gym and bought a summer-only membership to the old gym with the pool.

Last night I went for my first swim in the pool. It was great! Of course, there really wasn’t anything major done to the pool in terms of renovation (or at least nothing that I could see). It makes you wonder why they shut it down in the first place, but I digress.

Anyway – I went swimming and it was fun. I win.