Sticky fingers in Sussex: One Man’s Quest to Rob all his neighbors blind

It seems that Matthew Milone-Clapp, age 25, of Hamburg, was on a mission to break into every last one of his neighbor’s houses and make a break for it, as his arrest by Dt. Paul DeMott would prove as much.

Charged with 32 counts in one day in Village Drive where he lived, Milone-Capp was recently released when he promised to appear at his June 5th trial at the Hamburg Municipal Court. There, officials will know why he decided to go on such a strange spree to burglarize his fellow neighbors and also perhaps why he thought he might have gotten away with it.

“He attempted to get into 11 houses,” says Hamburg Captain Jan Wright, who alerted the paper about this felon’s actions. “So out of the four burglaries, the other seven are attempted burglaries.”

His count rate spiked with each individual action he took to intrude on his neighbor’s privacy.

“When he broke into his neighbor’s house, that was breaking an entering. If he stole something, that was burglary.”

And the counts just kept on adding up.

For every house Mr. Milone-Clapp broke into, he wound up breaking something, which adds even more points to his tally. And, when he could, he also stole credit cards and used them the next day, which is yet another crime that won’t be looked upon too kindly come June 5th.

But if anybody is furious about all this, it’s his neighbors, who are more than a bit miffed that one of their own residents is to blame for all these actions.

“They’re not too happy about this,” says Capt. Wright, who can’t confirm whether Milone-Clapp has a previous criminal history or not.

Contra 4 Review

Do you like your Contra hard as Powerthirst infused muscles? Well, if not, then please, turn the other way and close the door behind you, because it doesn’t get much harder than this throwback rehash to the original. Contra 4 is the kind of game that says it has different difficulty settings, but really doesn’t, and instead just offers you more lives when you play it on an easier setting, which means you’ll have even more opportunities to die when a red bullet slowly comes hurdling towards your face.

And when I say this game is hard, I ain’t joking. Just try playing this game for a half an hour without vehemently cursing the gaming god’s names on Mount Konami, as this is the hardest Contra I’ve played yet (I had to ramp down the difficulty to Easy just to get past the fourth level!). Maybe I’m not as hardcore as I once thought I was. Or maybe this game is just too unforgiving for its own good. I don’t know, I’m still torn on that decision.

Also of note is the fact that no matter how many different combinations of the famous (Or is it infamous?) Konami code I tried out at the title screen, I still couldn’t get my needed 30 lives. And for me, Contra without 30 lives is like Mario without mushrooms. It just doesn’t work, Bucko.

That said, veterans of the series will still gobble this one up. Taking place two years after the awesome Alien Wars (Contra 3) and three years before my personal fave, Hard Corps, 4 has you playing the roles of original favorites Scorpion and Mad Dog, and also features Lance and Bill for good measure. The story has them off fighting hordes of monsters and screen filling bosses in an attempt to trounce the evil Black Viper (From Operation C) once and for all.

Storyline aside, though (So, wait, Contra actually has a story?), what gamers are really here for is the take no frills action, and 4 definitely delivers in that department. Staying true to its stalwart 2D predecessors (And let’s not even mention the horrific 3D offshoots, yech!). the differences are what make this game really feel fresh and new.

The DS Dual screen for one, which takes a little while to get used to, adds a whole new dimension to the run and gun thrill as the firefights can get even MORE chaotic than you ever imagined when you now have bullets coming at you literally from all angles.

And the borrowed right out of Bionic Commando grappling gun, which plays a pretty intricate part in the boss battles, makes you feel like it’s a feature that should have been in Contra games YEARS ago; it feels so natural and perfect. One boss battle in particular has you hopping on rungs of a jettisoning rocket while you fight off a giant bug type thingy clawing at you while you rappel yourself up to avoid its swipes. Honestly, if that’s not hardcore, than I don’t know what is.

Actually, maybe I do after playing this game. Abandoning any sort of save feature whatsoever, this game harkens back to an age when being “hardcore” meant you could go to the arcade with a limited amount of quarters and play a game to the very end while still having enough money for the Laundromat to spare. Get to the very end of this game and lose, and that’s it, pal. Back to the beginning with ye. This game actually made me reconsider where my skills must have gone, as I found myself getting more and more frustrated at getting so far only to repeat everything and remember the rote patterns of the bosses and enemies yet again. This game takes patience, which is something a lot of action titles doesn’t ask of you these days, what with memory cards and passwords and the like.

Still, if you have a DS, love Contra, and also are a little masochistic, you absolutely NEED to get this game. Just be prepared not to play it in a swear-free zone as you might find yourself getting fined more than once for obscenities. Contra 4 is not for the poor in heart. Or spirit.

Turning Wine Into Scholarships

By Rich Knight NCAS'06 and Lori Varga RC'04

Back in January, James D. Hamilton NCAS'71, CLAW'74 was honored with the Joseph M. Nardi Jr. Distinguished Service Award by Rutgers' School of Law–Camden Alumni Association. This high honor is awarded annually to the graduate whose exemplary commitment to serving the citizens of New Jersey and the Camden Law community emulates the character of Judge Joseph Nardi Jr. CLAW'56, who died in 2003. Nardi was a highly respected retired Superior Court judge and former Camden mayor.

Hamilton has been deeply involved in the life of the law school and in the local community, providing pro bono legal counsel to area residents through South Jersey Legal Services. His advocacy and leadership have also helped the Camden County Bar Association (CCBA) and its foundation on several other special projects.

It is fitting that Hamilton received the award this year because Nardi was his good friend and mentor. It was in his honor that Hamilton, with Nardi's son Joe Nardi III, established a unique way to raise scholarship funds for Camden Law students and to honor the late judge's legacy. The pair formed the "Justice Good" winemaking group—because it's "just as good" as the commercial stuff. Participants pay to be part of the group; the fee covers all associated costs as well as a donation to the Judge Joseph M. Nardi Jr. Scholarship Fund.

"I think this is a fun way to endorse a scholarship," says Hamilton, who met Nardi Jr. during his Rutgers–Camden days in the '70s. Hamilton went on to clerk for the judge. "Law clerks became such a part of his family," Hamilton says, beaming.

Nardi often invited his current and past law clerks over to his house to see how he made wine, a family tradition that has been passed on for generations. Hamilton appreciated these experiences so much that, for the past 14 years, he has been writing a wine and food column for The Barrister, the CCBA's monthly newspaper. And in the late '90s, Hamilton wrote about Nardi and his love for home brewing, an act that solidified his place in the Nardi family.

James Hamilton works with the Justice Good winemaking group.

"[Nardi] used to love making wine at home, and the whole idea that you can make it easier for students to go to your alma mater [while having fun] is a great thing to do," he says.
And so here is Hamilton, using what he learned in Nardi's basement as a way to support Camden Law students. The Justice Good group first met on May 7 at The Wine Room in Cherry Hill. Using six varieties of red wine grapes from the Curico Valley of Chile, the winemaking process began with the crushing and pressing of the grapes to initiate fermentation.
Four months later, the group, which includes judges and lawyers as well as Dean Rayman Solomon, Chancellor Timothy Farrow CLAW'99, and other law school staff, got to try out their wine and observe the racking of the product while they nibbled on some cheese.
"It's all pretty authentic," Hamilton says.

And authenticity is the name of the game as far as Hamilton is concerned, as he wants to keep everything as closely related to the art of making wine as possible. The main objective (besides raising scholarship funds) is to make a wine worthy of the Nardi name.

And what would a good wine be without a fitting label? After voting on a series of great choices, Hamilton and Nardi III eventually settled on the Justice Good label, created by Nardi Jr., himself.

Hamilton is energized by the idea of raising money for scholarships that will help students attend Camden Law. He says he could have used more opportunities like that when he was a student. "Probably since I was in my junior year in high school I wanted to be a lawyer," he says. "I was [actually] the first to go to college in my family."

Overall, Hamilton and the Justice Good winemaking group are learning and having fun while benefiting a very important cause, something that Nardi valued.
"We're taking something that is so appropriate and hopefully making it into a school tradition," Hamilton says.

To learn more about the Justice Good winemaking group and the scholarship fund, contact Theresa McCuen CCAS'71, GSE'81 at mccuen@camden.rutgers.edu or 856-225-6180.

Find the article here: http://www.alumni.rutgers.edu/news/nl-index.php?show=319&maxdate=2007-11-01

Guitar Hero 3 Rocks You Like a Scorpion Induced Hurricane

With the recent Rock Band coming out oh so very soon, the brand that started it all (Ok, so yeah, Guitar Freaks REALLY started it all, but who plays that crap?) might get looked over by buyers this holiday season.

Sucks for them, as Guitar Hero 3 is just as good as (if not better than) its predecessor, Guitar Hero 2.

The question of the hour is of course whether Tony Hawk mavens, Activision, can take over the franchise properly, as the Red Octane/Harmonix split is sure to ruffle some feathers. But Activision does a great job of mixing the perfect bands (Slipknot, Metallica, Dragon Force! They’re all there) to make for a rich experience where the only thing keeping you back from rocking with your, erm, third leg, out is how quickly you can shift from orange to blue to green to yellow in the allotted time.

Also, it seems that contrary to popular belief, the track listing actually CAN get better than the last game’s, as this list here is much more diverse and spread out (Thanks for not mixing bluegrass with my metal this time, folks!). This makes for a more focused career mode, where you feel that you actually wouldn’t get a raised eyebrow or shrugged shoulders if you played these set numbers in a row at the same venue.

And then there are the boss battles. I was pretty skeptical about them when I first heard they would be in the game, but now that I’ve played them, I’m actually pretty disappointed that there are so few of them to fight through. In a nut shell, your opponent—whether it be Tom Morello, Slash from GnR fame, or even the God of Rock himself—plays a few notes that you follow off in a spiraling duet where you have to knock his rhythm off course by hitting note breakers. These “breakers” can do everything from throwing off his whammy bar, kicking the difficulty up a bit, and even overloading their amp so they get too much feedback. It’s like Puzzle Kombat only with guitar strings. Wicked.

I also really dig how Activision picked up some licensed songs and actually got the original recordings (And also some new, just added ones) this time around. Because really, who can actually match the strained intensity of Billy Corgan’s or James Hetfield’s voices? It was a smart move on their part, especially since Rock Band has a whole slew of them in their game.

But then there are the problems. And though none of them are really tantamount to hindering the game’s awesome experience, they certainly need to be ironed out by the time the next iteration (Or, God help us) side project comes out.

First, I have to talk about the difficulty—it’s too lopsided! If you’ve ever played either one of the games in the famed series, then you’ll realize that medium is the new easy, as the game is just far too slow if you’re actually used to that setting. But when you ramp it up to hard, look out, as said boss battles will KICK-YOUR-ASS (Slash offsetting my difficulty to EXPERT is not what I was looking forward to). Sure, it’s manageable, but as of this time, I STILL haven’t beaten the game on hard. You see, there’s this Slayer song, at the end, and, yeah…

Also, I’m not all that big a fan of the fact that prog-rock band, YES, has STILL not made an appearance in the series (Come on! “Long Distance Runaround,” “Roundabout,” “Going for the One.” All classics!). Of course, this is being really picky, but still. And the co-op mode is still a little lacking, as in, the song list is FAR too short (Also, I’d LOVE to play a whole game on just bass, which again, isn’t an option—I’ll have to wait for Rock Band for that).

All and all, though, these are just minor quibbles to an amazing experience. By all means, get both Guitar Hero AND Rock Band if you can afford both. But if you’re looking for the whole, drums, bass, and vocals vibe, you may want to wait. This journey is gee-tar flicker only.

Educational Maven steps down next year

Dr. Fred Podorf probably won’t get any medals, Nobel prizes, or sashes that say, “All-Star” across them when he steps down from being Assistant Superintendent of Vernon Township at the start of the next year.

But, like many educators who dedicate their entire lives to the grander goal of helping a child succeed in life, Dr. Podorf deserves many of those accolades and more as he departs from the field of education on January 1st. As he puts it, after 35 years of dedicating his life to the children, it’s finally “time to retire.”

Even so, starting out, education was always Dr. Podorf’s dream job, even back to when he was a student himself.

“I remember back when I was in high school,” says Dr. Podorf, reminiscing on his luminous past. “I always wanted to be a school principal.”

He had to go the long route like everybody else, though, and began his career as a junior high teacher in Brooklyn, New York, where he taught English to the youth. This is something he would go on to do for quite some time in other schools for a multitude of children before he would eventually move on to Montville in ’76, and then finally to Vernon Township where he is now.

And where he’s been since 1981.

“I have no regrets,” says Dr. Podorf of his life-long adventure.
But his resume doesn’t just offer a long blank dash from 1981 to now in regards to his 26 year stint in the district. Along with his work as assistant Principal, director of personnel and policy, and assistant Superintendent (which he became in 1995), Dr. Podorf also worked to open a brand new school in 1987 called the Cedar Mountain Primary School, which still stands to this day on Sammis Road.

“My heart is [still there] in the building with the children,” says Dr. Podorf.

Shortly after his stint as principal of the school he founded, the higher-ups came a calling and requested that the good doctor move up a spot on the educational totem pole.

But it wasn’t as easy as just packing up a suitcase and moving on as he had already formed a strong bond with the building as well as the people inside it.

“It took a lot of consideration, but I took [the job]” says Dr. Podorf. “The interaction with the people is what I missed the most.”

Be that as it may, he still stands by his decision that he feels no regrets with any of the actions he took to get to where he is today.

“Vernon’s been very good to me,” he says, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts, “I just hope I did a good job for Vernon.”

With that kind of humble attitude, who needs a sash that says, “All-Star” on it?

Obsessed! Facebook's Fanatic

Since its 2004 inception, Facebook has become much more than just another site to post your picture and hype your candidate. To prove it, Saudia Arabia-born student and Royal Canadian Army Cadet Imran Khan wants to take his love for the social networking site all the way to the Guinness Book of World Records. With over 48,000 members and counting in his Largest Facebook group in the Guinness Book of World Records club, the group has a long way to go in order to beat the current largest group, which already has over a million members. Via inbox posts, SMITH talked to this Facebook fanatic on why he’s hopeful he’ll take his group all the way to the top.

SMITH: When did you first join Facebook?

Imran Khan: I joined Facebook back in November of 2005.

Why are you trying to get the group into the Guinness Book of World Records?

I was speaking to a friend of mine on MSN, and we felt that since we couldn’t find a record regarding the largest group on Facebook in the books, we should create one of our own. Honestly, we didn’t know we would do so well in such a short period of time.

So is this group, then, really, about nothing? Just a large group for the sake of a large group?

No, this group has a reason for being what it is right now. This group represents a committed group of people that are willing to be noticed as they create the largest Facebook group. To me, each and every member deserves to be noticed. For some people, this may just be a large group; but for others, no!

Even so, you’ve got some stiff competition. There’s already another group on Facebook that has a lot more members than yours, not to mention the frenzy around the 1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T Colbert group. How do you expect to catch up and surpass groups these huge numbers?

There are several groups on Facebook that have a lot more members than mine, but I do believe our group can increase. Knowing that the group just started a little over a month ago, I feel it won’t take long for it to get into the record books.

You don’t have a whole lot of customization on your own page. That seems surprising given how into Facebook you are.

There was a time when I was really addicted. But now that school started, I’m trying to tone it down a bit. Exams are here, so I can’t go on Facebook as much.

Fair enough. Back when you were addicted, what your obsession was like?

It was just a crave. I didn’t want to leave my house and whenever I left, I just wanted to go on Facebook. There were times when I was just irritated to leave my home and I would be on Facebook from morning to midnight. But since school’s started, I’ve taught myself to tone it down on Facebook. Life is just too busy now.

With so much going on, do you ever feel an urge to send notes and tell people about your hectic life?

Sometimes. Whenever I was doing something, I would always leave a message on my status board. But now I just try to keep my personal life away from Facebook. I mean, even now I think I have too much personal information on there, like my number and all that jazz.
But what about what’s going on in the Cadet’s?

Do you ever want to tell people what training is like?

Being in the Royal Canadian Army Cadets is more like a leisure activity for me. I’ve been in the Cadet’s since 2004, and I’ll be done in 2008. I go on my usual Tuesday night trainings and attend parades in downtown Toronto for special events like Remembrance Day or Regimental parades. We go on weekend trainings to Base Borden, where we do some skill work for living in the bushes. There is an annual summer camp for cadets and I had been chosen to attend an advance course to the Rocky Mountains, all expenses paid.

That’s pretty interesting. So how come you didn’t put something like that on Facebook?

Even though I spend most of my time chatting on MSN or talking to people on Facebook, I find it a bit too much work to write about myself on Facebook.

So what about the videos you posted, like the guy on the subway train. Why did you to decide to post that one?

I was fooling around with friends at school so we decided it would go up on my Facebook. I was coming from Rogers Centre when my brother, a few friends, and I encountered him. He wanted to tell us a story, so we said, “Sure, go ahead.”

Before he started, though, my brother took out his camera and asked to record him. He refused at first, but then my brother said, “Well, you can’t tell your story then.” So then he agreed to it. We were coming from the Argos game.

How do you think society has changed since community sites like Facebook first starting making waves? Do you think it’s made the world a smaller place or a larger place?

I believe it’s made my world much smaller. I couldn’t believe how many people I’ve found so easily on Facebook. I’ve found many friends that I haven’t spoken to for several (as many as 10) years. At times, I feel that Facebook is something positive because it brings old friends back together again.

What do you think of all the recent aesthetics and additions to Facebook? Love ‘em or loathe ‘em?

I LOVE THEM! Modifying Facebook only makes it more obsessive!

What are you going to do if you do make the Guinness Book of World Records?

I will put all the members’ names in the book. It would not happen without the members. If I can, I will ask the Record Book to send everyone a certificate because this would be a group record, not an individual record…Even if the members just receive a certificate by email, I would want them all to be recognized.

What’s your six word memoir?

Get off Facebook and do something!

To see the article on an even prettier site, check it out here: http://smithmag.net/

Bioshock Staying A 360 Exclusive. PS3 Fans Shrug

According to the new EGM—the one with…Saints Row 2(?) on the cover—Bioshock, the revolutionary underwater first person shooter, will NOT be coming to PS3 as some had once surmised. While this is not so shocking to me, a gamer with the sense to know that Microsoft understands when they have a hit on their hands with sequel potential, PS3 fans holding out for the masterpiece may feel waterlogged with the immensely disheartening news.

But for those of you who have no idea why I’m making such a big fuss over such a little game (and you call yourselves gamers), Bioshock tells the incredibly immersive story of a plane crash survivor named Jack who must work his way out of the underwater society known as Rapture. The story gets all Ayn Randy on you as you wander around a John Galt society gone awry where the best and brightest have gone absolutely off their gourd.

And while there’s much, much more to the game (and also a twist around the end that will absolutely make your watermelon implode), I won’t spoil any of that in case you haven’t played the game yet. Like a good book, Bioshock is better experienced without any spoilers or inklings to the ending (which there are two of, by the way. There, I’ve already said too much!)

Honestly, though, I’m actually a little upset that Microsoft is shilling out so much money to keep 2K from porting it over to other systems. I’m tired of Tony Hawk, and I’m tired of sequels. In fact, let’s just go ahead and link those two sentences together without a comma and say that I’m tired of Tony Hawk sequels, and I’m tired of uninspired dreck. Similar to Eternal Darkness in its engrossing storyline, Bioshock proves that gamers are smart enough to handle a deep, intriguing morality trip, and that not all first person shooters have to be multiplayer friendly. That being said, I hope enough people play this game for a sequel to be made. It’s the least you could do, after all.