Nic Robinson is a 20 year old manager at the San Jose Giants minor league baseball stadium. He grew up in Capitola California, just down the coast from Santa Cruz. He graduated from Bellarmine High in San Jose in 2005 and consequently applied to San Jose State. Although accepted and enrolled in classes he soon found out that San Jose State was not for him. He went on to apply at San Jose City College and is currently enrolled there. In 2006 Nic realized he needed a job around campus and proceeded to apply to work at the stadium. Robinson was placed on cashier duty in the hotdog and beer stands.
After the first season was over, Nic was invited back to work as a minor manager for stall “A”. Here he would be in charge of the entire stand including the employees working there. During his second season working for the Giants, Nic displayed leading qualities and an organized work ethic. His bosses were happy with his progress and he was soon beginning to get invited to go drink with the bosses after the games. This apparently is a big step in a San Jose Giants staff career as it proves their trust and hopes in him. At the end of the season he was again asked to return for the 2008 season as a general stall manager. Furthermore Nic Robinson was placed on a fixed salary, which emphasizes the importance and the level of his new position.
As a general stall manager Nic now has the liberty to wear what he wants instead of the assigned Giants “Staff” shirt. However his job is not any more glorified than most other positions. Despite having a higher pay grade and having control over many lower level employees he still has to do basic busy work. As you can see In the photos, he still has a number of “busy work” jobs to do including constant trips to the storage room to restock the stalls, during busy hours he still has to help make hot-dogs and other ball park foods. His most important job however is to count and collect all the cashier money and give it to his boss. All in all he really enjoys the fast paced stressful environment of a baseball game, not to mention that he can sit and watch the games when he has a couple minutes to breathe.

Nic admits that with his new position he is able to tell lower level employees to do what he wants or was instructed to do by his boss. This has given him more time to relax in the back areas of the Stadium during busy games.

During a particularly busy game Nic was instructed to work in the back due to missing employees. Here Nic is cooking up Polish Hot Dogs and tossing them to the front line register workers.

In the store room Nic has to constantly organize boxes and food racks as deliveries are almost daily.

One of the most demanding jobs that Nic has is to constantly move and bring beer kegs from the store room to the barbecue pits on the other side of the stadium. Up to 20 kegs can be drunk during a major game.

Before any cash register employees can go home, Nic has to count their registers and make sure everything adds up. Once the registers are cleared and locked and the entire stalls daily earnings is in a money box, only then can the employees leave.

Once all the registers are counted, and all the stall employees are gone, then as a manager Nic is solely responsible for locking up the food stalls.

Right before leaving, the last thing Nic must do is drop all the money boxes in his boss's office for safe keeping. On a good day, each register can make up to $2000.

Nic Robinson usually leaves the stadium around 10 to 10:30 pm, after all guests are gone and most of the employees too. Living only a mile and a half away, and despite having a car and ample parking at the stadium, Nic usually rides his bicycle to and from work.

After walking through “The person in front of you: Photographs from West Africa” I really feel the sense of isolation and poverty David Pace and Kathy Knowles must have felt in Bereba. For me all the pictures showed a sense of disparity that was contrasted by the opulent display of color, design, culture and complacency.

Two pictures stood out as being particularly interesting for me, but for different reasons. The first picture which incidentally is my favorite, I feel says a lot about the society and economic position many of the West African states are in. It was the picture of the young teenage boy standing behind a makeshift bar holding a small shot glass. From the picture and the boys position in it, it is apparent that he is the bar tender. What I first noticed was his age, which I noted was most likely under 15. In western culture this would seem outrageous and may even be illegal, but in a country swamped with poverty and very slack government laws and rules it isn’t uncommon for young children to take what we consider “adult jobs” to be able to bring more food to their families table. Next I realized how well the liquor cabinet was stocked, many new unopened bottles. This was in stark contrast to the bar itself, showing the hierarchy of needs and priorities to be centered around only the liquor. Another sign of economic struggle was the apparent girls clothing the young boy was wearing. In a time and place where food on your plate is your soul priority, the floral patterns and pink embroidery on a hand me down shirt is insignificant and trivial. It is these deepening contrasting fragments that made this picture so fascinating to me.

On the other hand the one picture that really did nothing for me was a picture of a young girl blowing a bubble with some bubblegum. The close of her face is framed by an orange wall with a few shadows. To me it shows nothing about the society or town, and the bubble covers the girls face so we can’t even tell anything about her. I get no sense of meaning from this shot as its simplicity restrains the potential significance of the shot. But it may be this simplicity and lack of disparity that give us a strong contrast to what may be going on around the little girl. To the girl the only thing that matters at that moment is her bubble gum, and it may be this innocence and contentment that shows the last hope for a safer West Africa.

Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch has used the U.S. government's increasingly lax media regulations to consolidate his hold over the us media and has imparted his far-right agenda throughout his media empire.

The San Jose Giants lead 6 to 1 againts the Modesto Nuts in the 6th inning.

Elijah Nerell works part time at the San Jose State South campus baseball stadium.