A Sunny Day

Let me start off by declaring that it is a wonderful day! The sun is bright and meets your face with a smile and the weather is so warm it hugs you as you walk. It is about time Spring nears!

This upcoming weekend will be the last weekend until I turn 21. Can anyone else believe this? They’re actually going to give me this little card with my picture and information on it, and I show the card to any wine store, and they let me buy wine? Wow… what were these fools thinking? But in all seriousness, I am excited, despite having massive amounts of work to do (for school, military and financial needs.)

In Computer Science class the other day we had an assignment to make a Flash animation advertisement. I made a small, very amateur ad for deranter. You can see for yourself above (if you haven't noticed…) It took me about 20 minutes with all the drawing. (There is no sound, just an animation.)

It's already a pretty amateur animation, and to top it off, I was going for the "amateur/young artist" style... So I guess that just makes it worst!

Not much else to rant about today- got to get things in motion for the “coming of age.” Finally, I can officially say that I love wine and I can drink it. My passionate venture into tasting and wine trade has begun. Watch out wine world, here I come! Cheers!

-Tatum

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The Proposal

This is the proposal I wrote up a few weeks ago for the Wine Enthusiast of Towson University Wine Club I am trying to start. Hopefully everything will go right- I've got the staff advisor, the alumni advisor and a great argument. The only thing that can go wrong is the university blindly denying my right to share the passion and knowledge of wine to Towson University.

In anycase, please have a look for yourself:

Wine Enthusiast of Towson University (Oenophiles)

The Wine Enthusiast of Towson University is an organization that strives to expand the intellectual capacity of students and faculty alike, by introducing them to the world of wine. "En vino veritas," Latin for "In wine, there is truth," is a phrase held dearly by wine enthusiast, also known as oenophiles, worldwide. This club hopes to generate education and passion by exploring the history, culture, trends, oenology and trade of wine, as well as promoting responsible drinking through a social medium to those of legal drinking age.

WETU believes that organizing larger group events involving wine and wine tastings provides a unique opportunity to unite diverse parts of the Towson demographic, including students, faculty and staff, to promote better social understanding and group interaction within the community. This will be accomplished through bi-weekly, club-sanctioned wine tastings, in efforts to explore and discover the many regions, varietals and styles of fine wine. The club hopes to focus on discerning the various complexities of wine through tasting, as well as to also delve into the importance of wine in American culture as well as other cultures worldwide, with emphasis on education and knowledge.

By promoting and introducing the educational aspects of wine to a small group of interested, passionate and wine-knowledgeable members, the club will attempt to emphasize the learning and appreciation of wine on-campus. Furthermore, the University will have capability to organize, sanction and host large-scale events for the campus and the administration with the consultation and expertise of a well-versed wine club at hand.

WETU strives to be founded on the principles that good education, deep passion and fine wine are meant to be shared with the public. It hopes to bring the truth, culture, current and future trends of the wine industry to the Towson University Community by promoting responsible drinking and sensible socialization. Carpe Vinum

Cheers!

-Tatum

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Towson Takes a Big Step

Progress! In life, we strive. We strive and try and strive and try, and if at first we don't succeed, we "try, try again." Well, I am happy to say, this is my first try, and from here I don't look like there will be need for another attempt.

If you haven't realized what I've been talking about then let me state it right out: WETU, or Wine Enthusiast of Towson University. Every step I take seems to get me closer to my goal; to have a fully functional, legitimate wine club for Towson university. So far, each step of the way has been smooth- from writing the proposal, getting Matthew to sign on as an Alumni advisor, creating a rough constitution for the club, coordinating with Rajiv on his opinions, and now a big step for me was to get an adviser to support my idea! Ms. Lynne Dowell, my academic adviser, saw the proposal today and after hearing my little rant about my visions for the club, signed on to be the staff adviser. Furthermore, she thought it would be good to get into contact with high-level administrators to collaborate.

Hearing the good news made me almost leap for joy, as my visions are slowly coming true. I hope by the time I am a junior, Towson University can hold large wine functions, with WETU being the coordinators of the events. I would love to see the students, staff, faculty and community flourish through wine. Wine is all about bringing people together anyway, hopefully it can work its magic on the Towson University community. That's all for now, check back for more good news with WETU. Cheers!

-Tatum
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Why Not Us?

Those of you who are personally connected with me might have already heard me say I was trying to bring a wine club to Towson University. But, as I would do with any young wine, let me pour this rant into the DeRanter to let it open up a bit...

Many universities across the nation, and probably internationally as well, have their own wine club. They have school funding to sanction wine events and spread wine knowledge. So I ask, "Why can't we?" What makes us different than Princeton, Duke, Cornell, Davidson, UCLA, Berkeley, or any other school in terms of wine? Someone from the WLTV forum, Rajiv, showed me the way. He is the founder of the wine tasting group at Princeton. You can look at his WLOG here. He's a chemical engineer at Princeton, so be warned, this guy will probably go over your head! But he has been very supportive of me in my endeavors, and all I can do is thank him. Rajiv, I hope to share a glass of wine with you someday!

I have already got the ball rolling to start a wine club here at Towson. It will be called the Wine Enthusiast of Towson University, abbreviated WETU. I've made a proposal/mission statement, and got myself connected with a fellow named Matthew, who is a TU alumni who has signed on to be an alumni advisor. My next step is to get a staff advisor, turn 21, and then propose this to the boards. If things go as planned, maybe we can have a WETU next semester, and by the end of the year, we can look into getting funded. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I hope to have an argument if they blindly deny my right to start this club, due to it being involved with alcohol.

I will have the proposal up shortly for anyone interested to read. Let's all hope this university realizes that to become better, we need to keep an open mind, even if it is about alcohol. Cheers!

-Tatum Read More!