Forgetful SLUG

I was so focused on finishing my SLUG worksheet for class tomorrow that I nearly didn't write this before going out. That wouldn't have been a good idea.

Now that I have you confused though, maybe I'll explain what a SLUG worksheet is. It has nothing to do with an actual slug, I promise. Basically in journalism a 'slug' is a short description of your article that you are supposed to include near the top of the page when you turn it in to your editor. In this case it needs to be there when I turn articles in to my professor.

Anyway, we're going to be writing our first articles this coming week, but first a SLUG worksheet has to be filled out. Basically this explains the article idea to Omar, and then he determines whether we can run with the idea or if we have to go back to the drawing board.

I'm really hoping that the idea I've come up with is going to work... Other words I'm not really sure what I'll write about, but I suppose we shall see.

Surreal Ledes

Where did Fall go? It is seriously frigid outside at the moment, and I'm not digging it. At least it seems to have stopped raining for the moment.

Class was kind of... surreal today I guess. I mean it went well, but it was just kind of strange. In my JRN class we have started practicing lede writing, which is essentially writing introductions to news articles. They are the portion of the article that actually leads into the news. So typically the way it plays out is that at the end of a class we write practice leads, and then we spend the beginning of the next class reviewing what people in the class have written.

Essentially we end up critiquing our peers work after our teacher has posted select pieces on the class blog. There is nothing to distinguish them in anyway, so really the only person that knows who wrote the lede is the writer themselves.

This is all fine and well of course, and really it helps a lot. The strange part comes in now though. So we were going over ledes and we got to this one post, where the last one on the page was one of mine. Guess who he calls on to discuss the lede...

Bingo. I got to discuss why I felt that the lede I wrote was effective and I apparently was the only one in the room that was aware that I had written it. That was a little strange. Thankfully though my conclusions were similar to the teachers, so it all panned out.

Michigan Weather and Accomplishments

Time got away from me today. The weather has been atrocious all day. It was threatening rain when I walked to my first class, began to sprinkle as I hurried to my second class, and took up a steady stream once I left my final class.

The rain in and of itself wouldn't be quite so bad if it weren't a cold rain, accompanied by a rather chilly temperature and some wicked wind. I did manage to speak with someone regarding my 'no call, no show' though, so hopefully that madness will be worked out because I've definitely shown up for every one of my shifts.

I managed to get my shift covered for the seventeenth, so now I am all clear to go to Fall Retreat which is exciting. Now I just have one more shift to get covered, and if the powers that be approve of the solution that I've found then everything is set. It's nice when things seem to be falling into place.

I should have read the chapter that I need to have read for tomorrow earlier, but procrastination seemed to be a better idea at the time. Although, I guess I was productive. I found two scholarships that I'm going to make a concerted effort to apply for. I need to get serious about scholarships... Alright, I'm going to read my chapter and then I'm off to the land of sleep.

Clearing Something Up

I feel like I need to clear something up about last fridays post. That was written because I was largely frustrated with myself. Had I been more organized and efficient then I would have had the reading done earlier that day or even the previous day. My frustration with my own action fueled the impatience that I exhibited there.

I don't think I phrased myself very well when I expressed that frustration, but I want to be clear that the true target there was me. I am my own best target. I had options and I didn't utilize them and that was my problem. My frustration was expressed in this medium, solely because it me that I was frustrated with.

I am generally the one that I get frustrated with. I have reading that I should be doing, but I can't find the motivation to get started on it. Actually, I'd much rather reading "Hunting Ground" by Patricia Briggs. I knew I shouldn't have started reading it because of course it's good...

Lede Writing

My JRN 200 class seems to be going well. Today we went over the 'ledes' that we were assigned to write at the end of last class. He put up examples from what people in the class had written, with our names stripped from them. It was a really good way to get an idea of what to shoot for and what to avoid.

Although it was a little embarrassing that one of mine ended up on the screen, because I accidentally typed in lighting rather than lightning. Thank God it wasn't a graded assignment, because that mistake would have gotten me a zero.

At the end of class we did another writing exercises where we wrote more 'ledes'. I think that went well, but I suppose I'll find out next class. The really strange thing was, that I e-mailed my work in to Omar but it didn't register in his e-mailbox. Then the computer wouldn't let us go back and make sure that it was in my sent messages folder.

Once I got back to my room though, I was able to confirm that it was sent out. I guess other people were having a similar problem last class, and their e-mail ended up getting to him a half an hour after they had sent them. It's a little nerve-wrecking when you aren't sure an assignment has sent, and you're in a class with really strict deadlines.

Steak and Twinkies

The following was written as I sat in my Lit/Cultures class earlier.

We are going over the paper that we are supposed to write in the next week and a half. In fact, we are more specifically going over how to write the paper and have been doing so for the past half an hour...

Do I really need to point out that I'm bored?

I'm thinking that since I'm not going home this weekend that Saturday day would be prime time to do laundry. I actually really don't mind doing laundry, in its own way it's kind of relaxing. Plus, doing laundry never feels like wasted time because I can get in some studying while I wait.

Now we've moved on to discussing the reading we were supposed to do today...

I am now back in my dorm room, the rest of this picks up from there. So I don't feel like I've been very productive since getting back from class. I really do have some reading that I need to do, and maybe I'll be motivated to do so after I post this. I woke up later than I had intended to this morning, and then felt kind of crappy to boot. However, I eventually made it out the door and to class.

I debated going, but as it turns out I'm glad I did. My JRN 108 class is always interesting, but today we had a guest speaker and he was pretty cool. He's teaching a class next semester that sounds really interesting, but I don't think I'll be able to squeeze it into my schedule.

As you can tell Lit/Cultures was as fun as ever... Economics was alright, but I definitely forgot to review for today's quiz like I had planned to. That was kind of a bummer, though I don't think I did too badly on the quiz. We shall see I suppose. I have come to one conclusion though. It seems that Economics teachers have an obsession with food. My current professor likes to talk about steak, ALL THE TIME. Which is fine, cool, whatever. It just reminds me of taking Economics in high school where the teacher ALWAYS seemed to bring up twinkies.

Bean Bag Toss

Tonight was really fun. I went to a local elementary school and helped out with a kind of carnival that they were holding for their students in the schools gym. They had different games set up, and the kids would 'pay' with a read ticket to play the game, and then win white tickets in exchange for how well they did in the particular game.

Andy and I were manning the bean bag toss. It was really fun to get the opportunity to work with kids again. I haven't really done a lot of volunteer work since high school, and really I've missed it. There truly is something relaxing about donating a portion of your time to someone else. Volunteering is both something that you do for someone else, but also for yourself and for the feeling that you walk away with.

Another awesome thing about today is that I am caught up in all of my classes. Even just last week I felt like I was drowning in school work, and just so far behind but at the moment that's not an issue and that is an amazing feeling. I love being caught up with everything. It's just too stressful the other way around.

Documentary Night

For the first time in a while I feel like I've managed to get caught up with all of my school related reading. It's really nice to feel like you're ahead of the game, instead of continually behind. I have a few more sections of USA Today to read tonight and then I need to review the AP Stylebook and then I'm done for the night. That is a really nice feeling.

It was muggy outside the majority of the day, which made walking to and from class uncomfortable. I'm glad I had long sleeves though because it seemed like every single one of my classes was freezing.

After class I came back to my dorm and did some cleaning. The sink in the bathroom was getting pretty gross honestly.

Tomorrow I'm planning to Volunteer at a sort of local Elementary school. They're having a "Curriculum Carnival", so that should be interesting. Tomorrow afternoon I have to make a call and confirm that I can get a ride there and back.

This evening though was really interesting. I went to the 'premiere' of a documentary that was produced by a couple professor's from MSU. The name of the documentary is "Arabs, Jews, and The News". The website for the film can be found here: http://www.arabsjewsnews.org/ . After they played the documentary they had a panel with several of the 'commentators'. It was really interesting to listen to.

Something that really interested me about what was said, was the commentary on the media and the way that they have looked at issues currently taking place in the middle east. I do think that the media often gets hung up on portraying situations in particular ways and failing in many ways to be truly objective. What I mean when I say that is they fail to take an issue and look at it from new perspectives.

For example one of the men on the panel was Nolan Finley from The Detroit News. He talked about covering the rallies that took place in Dearborn. He felt that it was very important to cover the fact that there were people there who supported Hezbollah and equated Jews with the Nazi's. Now, perhaps it is a fact that that was taking place as the photographs confirm, but if reports from several people who were there are true those who were doing so were the minority. In fact, it has been said that those who were holding these signs were asked to discard them by others at the event. This could easily have been the focus of an article, rather than merely the fact that those individuals were there.

Sometimes it's about looking for the less obvious angle...

Party People

I have determined that "typical college culture" makes me feel old. I understand that at twenty years old, I'm far from old but honestly...

Last night was ridiculous. I definitely didn't manage to get enough of the reading done as I needed to. During intermission, or rather the brief period that the party next door migrated elsewhere, I got maybe ten to fifteen pages read. Once the party people returned, not only could I hear clear voices and loud music through the wall on my side of the room, but I could also clearly hear the group that had chosen to roost in the shared bathroom. It was definitely too loud to concentrate on my book, so I opted for sleep instead.

It was maybe a half an hour later when my roommate wandered back. This of course was fine, I've told her before that when she gets back to the room that she doesn't have to worry about bothering me... but jeez. So she gets back and knocks on the bathroom door, when she then proceeds to engage the party peeps.

They then all stood there and talked for a few moments before someone goes, "Is your roommate asleep?"

"Yeah."

... The lot of them then continued to talk at full volume for a while longer as I "slept". Egh. It was a long night. My alarm clock went off at seven thirty and I definitely didn't get up, of course that backfired because by the time I did get up and ready I had fifteen minutes to walk to class. It generally takes fifteen minutes to walk there. Finding a seat was annoying since the class is pretty full. Anyway when I sent to sit down the band on my watch snapped and went flying.

That was annoying. Then of course in the two hours between classes I still didn't get my reading completely finished and we had a quiz at the beginning of my Lit/Cultures. The first question I got wrong because of the way the question was worded and the second one I got wrong because it was about the ending and I hadn't read the ending yet.

So I failed that quiz. Excellent.

Then once class was over everyone in the class got up to go even though the professor was still talking. I understand it was 1:30 and the class was technically finished... but really that is so rude. Overall some of the people in there are so rude and it makes me cringe.

At any rate I felt much better once I was on the way home. I need this weekend to recharge my batteries and gain back some of the patience that I've lost over the last few days.

Concentration Fail

So I'm definitely coming down with something, and it better be just a cold. My voice seems to fade in and out, breathing through my nose just isn't an option for the moment, and I have a sore throat. I really don't want to be sick.

I'm heading home for the weekend tomorrow after class. Apparently AT&T have awful communication skills, so my mom and I have to go work out another issue with my phone. My phone number will be reverting back in the near future. Lovely.

I took my first Economics quiz today, and that definitely could have gone better... though it was online so of course it was open book, it was a little hard to concentrate with my roommate and her friend bouncing around the room getting ready to go out. At least now though I have an idea of how the quizzes will go and can be better prepared next time. I now also know to take them earlier in the day.

For the most part though I am caught up on my homework. I have to finish reading House of Sand and Fog tonight for class tomorrow. They way that he had it assigned we were set to read the book in a week. Essentially we were assigned to read about one hundred pages between class periods which occur every other day. I like to think that I will have it read by midnight so that I can actually get some sleep.

It was two thirty this morning when I got in from Fellowship. But I had fun. It was definitely better than the alternative of sitting here and being told that I need to "get out there and meet people". Yeah. I'll get right on that. No, but I really do like going to Fellowship. I feel really comfortable there.

Earlier I went this program going on in my "neighborhood" called the "World News Forum". That was actually really interesting and it's held monthly so I think I'm going to try and keep going to that. Essentially a bunch of us met together and discussed things that are going on in the news at a global level. The program is really well organized and its interactive without being overly interactive. It was actually kind of cool.

Laundry, maybe?

At the moment I am debating whether or not I want to go do laundry. I kind of want to wear one of my hoodies, but they're both due to be washed, so in that respect it would make sense to go do a load. Although I just did laundry last week so I'm not really to the point that it is something I need to do. In fact, it was last Thursday that I did laundry, so it hasn't even been a week...

I'll probably end up going down and doing laundry.

In other news I seem to be keeping up better with all of my reading. I have found that it is all about pacing. I have a chapter and a half to finish in my Elements of Journalism textbook and then we have another textbook for the same class that is referred to as the "big blue book". I have three chapters to read in there.

The nice thing about "the big blue book" though is that the chapters are rather short so at the moment I'm concentrating on EoJ. My goal is to finish reading them by about six or so because fellowship is at seven.

I'm so organized, I even managed to blog this Wednesday! I had my Lit/Cultures class earlier. I tell you what, that class is an excellent excise in wasted time. Oh, and the professor is really good at dodging questions. Basically we spent the whole fifty minute class period going over responses people gave on the online module from the first week of class. We had to critique them and the thing is that even though the names had been removed from the entries they had been written by people in the class.

Thank God for Facebook

My new phone finally got here today. You can't imagine how good it felt to finally be able to 'talk' to my parents. Sometimes conversations in textual format just don't cut it. I mean really thank God for facebook and alternate medium's to voice conversation... but I'm glad that my family is only a call away again.

I have been really sniffly all day today, and I hope I'm not coming down with anything. That would be awful although not all that unexpected. That is the thing about college campuses. Even over the course of one day you come in contact with a ton of people. It's easy to get sick, and I really don't want to be sick...

I have about a hundred pages to read for class tomorrow, and I've to read it several times now with out making any progress whatsoever. I need to get to reading it. I know this, and yet the motivation really isn't there.

Last night I finally finished reading "Skinned", which is amazing. I will at some point review it. But if you've read Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series than you will really enjoy "Skinned" by Robin Wasserman. It's sequel, "Crashed", just came out and I can't wait to pick it up!

Anyway, it's back to work for me.

Phone Shipping

Before I delve into more school related reading, I though maybe I should take a break and write a blog. Classes today started out well and then got progressively boring. Thankfully though I only had three classes to make it through.

I've nearly finished the online component to my Lit/Cultures class. I don't mind analyzing a book, but it's much more preferable to be done in the form of class discussion as opposed to answering formulaic questions online... whatever. I have another hundred pages to read for Wednesday, which I think I might start tonight.

However, that depends on how long it takes for me to finish reading the third chapters in my Intro to Media textbook and MacroEcon. textbook. Hopefully that won't take me too long to read through.

My phone finally made it to my house today, and my mom shipped it out to me. According to the post office it should make it here by either tomorrow or Wednesday. Really, the sooner it gets here the better. It's kind of awful to only be able to text. Grr.

Alright, I am off to go study. Maybe.

Nearly Finished

I am very close to having all of my reading, except for the AP Stylebook read. I am kind of dreading attempting to familiarize myself with the AP Stylebook because it's a lot like reading the dictionary, except it's like a dictionary targeted specifically at Journalists. Egh.

Today though has been really productive, which is good because once I am caught up I think it will be a lot easier to remain caught up. I definitely don't want to feel so buried in homework again because it isn't really any fun.

For Economics we are supposed to read The Wall Street Journal. I can't remember what sections we're supposed to read... anyway my first copy of it arrived in my mailbox this weekend but I don't think I'm going to bother with it tonight. Economics, woo-hoo!

Aside from being able to catch up on homework today I got some much needed sleep. Now all I need is for my new phone to make it's way here... Hopefully tomorrow I can finish reading "Skinned". I started reading it just before classes started and haven't had a chance to get back to it since. I am kind of proud that I've been able to focus in on homework to an extent rather than procrastinating with pleasure reading.

I'm getting better at avoiding procrastination anyway...

Homework and Ebay

I woke up this morning, and the first thing that I did was run my hand across my eyes. When at least half of your face is sun burnt this is not a good idea. So that was fun.

I have finally willed myself to climb down from bed and attempt to finish reading a few more chapters in my News and Reporting textbook. I have to read through chapter five, and plan to manage that before at least one. I then want to read the last assigned chapter in Elements of Journalism. I still have to go over sections A-P in the AP Stylebook but I'm going to have to hold off on that because I need to have one-hundred pages of House of Sand and Fog read for tomorrow.

Today is my day of catch up and making promises to myself that I will stay caught up from here on out, because quite frankly this is ridiculous. It helps that newspaper reading has been suspended until Wednesday.

The phone that I ordered off of Ebay still hasn't made it to my parents house. As of Saturday it left Allen Park, MI so it should be fairly close. Of course once it makes it there I have to wait for it to be shipped back to me. My intention was to have it shipped directly to me, but of course I forgot to change the address and hit send without thinking first. I was then going to see about getting the seller to change the address, but they said that they couldn't for fear of fraud. Lovely.

Soon enough however I will be in possession of a phone that I can actually use. Texting is alright, but sometimes it just doesn't cut it.

Day of Football

I went to the MSU v. CMU game today with Felicia and Danielle. It was a really good game, as in interesting to watch, but it really stunk that we lost it in the last eight seconds. That was honestly awful.

After the game, we had to return the ID's that we'd used to get into the game. We bought the tickets from people who had bought them but didn't want to go, and since they were student tickets they swipe the ID as the "ticket". We were in the upper level of the student section, which is isolated from the "student experience", and yet you could see the entire field.

The sun was a little brutal though.

The day started out foggy, overcast and a bit chilly so I wore I sweatshirt. It become apparent rather soon that I wouldn't be needing that sweatshirt.

Anyway, once we'd returned the ID's we met up with a larger group of people at Pizza Hut and had dinner while we watched the Notre Dame v. Michigan game. We really wanted to see Notre Dame win... It was really fun though. On the way back to 'home' we stopped at a Dairy Store and got ice cream cones.

Now I need to finishing reading a chapter and a half in my "The Elements of Journalism" textbook and consider getting some sleep. It is nine o'clock and I'm kind of exhausted.

Hot Dog Ministry

Yesterday was a fairly busy day. I went to my two classes in the morning and late afternoon, and then by two thirty went to go do laundry. That took me about an hour and half, and during that time I got a fair amount of reading done for my JRN 200 class.

Once the laundry was done I headed back to my room and put everything away, before heading back to a little study area downstairs where I managed to get even more of my reading done. Then it was back upstairs, where while I watched The Golden Girls I also concentrated on my other textbook for that class.

By about seven thirty or so, Felicia came and picked me up and we headed over to the house she's staying at. From there I got a ride from Indigo to go to hot dog ministry. At hot dog ministry we basically stand in front of this Christian Co-op and hand out free hot dogs to people walking by. It was actually a lot of fun, and really kind of funny because a lot of the people were really pretty drunk.

All in all, it was a lot of fun.

Four Post Weekend

I would first like to point out that I am incredibly tired. That out of the way, I feel that I need to apologize for failing to post these last two days. I really had every intention of posting yesterday, but of course intentions can only get you so far. In fact, it was only after I had managed to scale the railing up to my bed that I realized I had forgotten to blog last night.

There really is no excuse for my having missed yesterday, but whatever. I am very close to being caught up on all of my reading for my classes which is a very good thing. Lately it's seemed like I'd never be able to catch up and this is only the second week!

Wednesday was fun. I went to fellowship and ended up staying out out until one thirty, which meant that I forwent a significant portion of reading but since the rest of the day had been devoted to homework I think it's alright. It's most likely something that I'll go to every Wednesday, so I will do my best from now on to blog before I go. I swear, I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things.

Alright, I need to get some reading done and then go grab some lunch before making my way to my last class of the day. Make sure to look out for my four weekend posts!

Technological Woes

My upper level journalism class is going to be the death of me. It has been decided.

I have so much reading that I need to get done in the next couple days it's not even funny. The bulk of the reading is for my Journalism class, which I have again on Thursday, but tonight I have to focus on tomorrow's classes because over the weekend I focused on the Journalism class. It's a cycle, a hole that I'm not sure how to climb out of.

I was in class until noon today, and after class I made my usual walk to the gas station that carries The Lansing State Journal. I swear, it doesn't matter what time of day I show up there, they only every have a couple copies left. I dread the day that they are sold out, because nowhere else ever seems to have it. Why is this paper so popular? Why don't they print more copies to account for the popularity?

Anyway... after grabbing something to eat I had to head off to work which went as well as it ever seems to lately. I'm considering looking into some of the bookstores. I think that would be a much better fit. After work I made the hike to get my copy of USA Today. I now have all three of my papers for the day, but haven't gotten to read them yet. They will be read before I find sleep however. Wish me luck!

For the moment I'm reading chapter two of my economics book. It's thrilling. My phone has decided to malfunction. It was working fine until I got back here, and now whenever I make a call or someone calls me I can hear them but they can't hear me. It's highly annoying, and to combat that problem I have ordered a new phone into which I can transplant my sim card. Thank God for Ebay!

Alright, now that I've gotten this out of the way I can get back to studying.

Rainy Day

Being home for the weekend was nice, although I didn't manage to get as much of my homework done as I should have. I have just now finally managed to get all of my reading done for the class that I have at nine tomorrow. I'm supposed to read sections A through C of the AP stylebook, however it's like reading the dictionary and I just don't think I'm up for doing that at the moment.

I got back to campus around five or so, but by the time I had unloaded my car, and then parked my car and walked back from where I had to park it... it was a little after six o'clock.

My parents tried to call me earlier, but for some reason despite the fact that I answer the phone and can hear them talking they can't hear me. I have no idea what the deal is so at some point tomorrow I get to try and sort that ridiculousness out. Hopefully it will be a simple enough thing to get sorted out.

It was a pretty cruddy day to be driving. When I left home it was pouring rain. Thankfully the closer I got to campus the less rain there was. Rain is so depressing. Anyway, I need to get organized and then I need to start considering sleep.

Just Another Night

For the moment I have managed to finish one of the six newspapers that I had to read. Only five more to go! I'm going to try and power through them tonight when I start watching the MDA telethon.

Meeting Sarah for ice cream was a lot of fun. I'm really glad I got the chance to do that before going back tomorrow. At some point tomorrow morning I have to go to the store. I need a more efficient way to file away my papers for class than binders. Binders are incredibly heavy when you do nothing but walk distances. I also need to come up with a new way to fasten my full length mirror to the bathroom door.

The hooks over the door work, but it makes opening and closing the door a pain, plus it doesn't seem very stable. We'll get the quirks worked out one way or another. For the moment I'm watching a movie with the family, because obviously I haven't avoided homework enough recently.

All kidding aside though, it is really nice to be back to school even if it is taking some time to adjust on my part.

So Little TIme

To be honest today hasn't been the most productive homework-wise... I finished reading the first of three chapters that I need to have read for Thursday, and have gotten out and situated my six newspapers. I plan to read through them once this is written and posted. It is the plan, or at least the partial plan. This evening I'm having supper with my family (chicken and baked potatoes) before going out for ice cream with Sarah. After ice cream I'll probably mosey on over to my sisters house.

I need to focus as getting as much of my reading done tonight before I go to sleep. I can haz focus? You'll be hearing about my success and or failure later tonight, unless I drop the ball and don't blog. I will do my best not to drop the ball!

I also need to re-program phone numbers into my phone before I go back to school. Ah, there is so much to be done and so little time available! I head back to school tomorrow afternoon, and this will be my last weekend home until my cousin's wedding at the beginning of October. It's time to buckle down and work on establishing a GPA!

Alright, back to work!

Story of Success

The drive home went really well. I didn't get all turned around in Jackson like when I was coming home from orientation, and I didn't pass by my last exit like the last time that I came home. Not to mention it was a lovely day outside. I really enjoy driving when the sun is out and the sky is a gorgeous blue. It was the perfect day to be on the road.

It wasn't until I started home that I realized how much I've missed driving. I mean on campus there is no doubt about it, walking is practical, but I used to spend a great deal of time in my car. When I commuted to WCC it was about an hours drive each way, and to go to work it was a forty minute drive each way... I mean, and that's only the obligations I had. I spent a lot more time driving if you count the occasional doctors appointment and general recreational driving.

It felt really good to drive my car today, I'm just saying...

My parents went to the flea market up in Hillsdale this morning, so they weren't around when I got home but Yoda, Coach and Darcy were happy to see me. Yoda especially has been hanging out with me since I've been home. Every once and a while Darcy will wander in the room and look at me with wide eyes. I think she's trying to figure out who I think I am, coming and going as I please. Coach just generally accepts that sometimes I seem to be around, and other times I'm not. To him it is just the way the world works.

This evening was fun. We walked down to my cousin's house and had a cook-out and watched some movie. I know that's real descriptive, but I honestly have no idea what the movie was called. It had already started when we flipped to the channel and we didn't stay to watch it because Dad was having issues staying awake. The house is quiet now, and the quiet is strange because it's never really quiet back at MSU. Not that the quiet is unwelcome mind you!

At any rate, since I have managed to blog on schedule I think today can be labeled a success. I am now off to tackle at least some portion of the mound of homework that I've dragged along with me, an perhaps find sleep. You've heard of sleep right? It's that state of viewing the inside of ones eyelids. It sounds kind of appealing.

Salad Prep

I went to work this morning. Being the brilliant person that I am I was a tad bit late. I was running so late in fact that I didn't even check a mirror before charging out the door. Thank God we wear baseball caps, because I'm sure my hair would have been a mess otherwise.

I was working the breakfast shift, but was back in Salad prep. I started off the shift completely lost... but was eventually relegated to dishing out Ranch dressing. Essentially it was in this big vat, and I had to ladle out the dressing into smaller containers which would eventually make their way out to the line.

Exciting, I know.

Once the dressing was all taken care of, I got to take the lettuce and put it into containers that would likewise eventually make their debut on the serving line. Once that was taken care of my time was spent filling the salad and fruit bowls and just generally carrying things out to the food line. It was a little hectic, and I still don't always know what I'm supposed to be doing.

That's one thing I miss about my former job, I generally knew what I was doing. I really miss that competence. I guess that will come in time though. I hope so... At any rate, I need to shower and get on the road headed home.

Lansing State Journal

Hey, look who remembered to blog!

On the whole it hasn't been too exciting of a day, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I had two classes this morning, with a rather long break between them. During that break I had lunch and picked up two of the three papers I'm supposed to read everyday. I haven't even read the one's that I picked up yesterday yet... Yes, I have six newspapers to read through this weekend. Awesome!

Once my last class of the day was through I made the trek down to the gas station for my final newspaper. This time they only had two left, and I definitely got there way earlier in the day today than I did yesterday. What is it with the Lansing State Journal?

Aside from the newspapers I have at least one hundred and fifty pages of reading to do for my two Journalism classes between the three textbooks. Maybe I'll try and get some of it done before I leave tomorrow... The first football game is tomorrow, so working the breakfast shift should be interesting, and by interesting I mean crazy. We shall see! I am going home at some point tomorrow afternoon, since Monday it a holiday and therefore there is no class, plus the MDA telethon is on!

I just made my yearly donation a few minutes ago. Has anyone noticed that I'm really good at leaving things 'till the last minute? Yeah, huh. Anyway, I got back to my dorm and worked through a very small portion of my homework before my interview with my RA. It was just a kind of "getting to know you, how are you adjusting" thing. No big deal. We had a floor dinner around six, which only about five of us between the two floors went but that's alright. It was fun, if a little awkward.

Newspaper Hunting

I have been tremendously bad at blogging lately and for that I am sorry. Really, I am. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the other day, and so rather than write something up and post it before taking off for the night... Yeah. So you'll be seeing four posts over the weekend at some point assuming that I don't rack up a few more tomorrow... We'll see, I almost forgot tonight, so yeah.

Yesterday was the first day of classes. I was up by seven and out the door by eight thirty in order to walk the fifteen to twenty minutes it takes to get to my first class. I think I'm really going to enjoy my Intro to The Mass Media class. Essentially it looks at the history of mass media.

Once that class gets out I have twenty minutes to make it to my Macroeconomics class, which again is about fifteen to twenty minutes away. It's economics... so I wouldn't put it in the same league as my Mass Media class but the teacher is interesting and it's only about fifty minutes long. We'll see how it goes I suppose.

After my economics class I have an hour before my Literature Cultures and Identities course. That one's going to take a lot of time. In fact I have some reading that I need to finish tonight for tomorrow's class. It's written in english and everything, but it's definitely got an air of academia about it. Several times I've had to reread portions several times to make sure that I'd read it right...

After my classes I came back to my room and worked on some of the homework that we'd been given, and should have blogged but I didn't. I knew that I was going to go to a barbecue and fellowship with a few friends, which is ultimately why I didn't get anything posted last night. It was about one o'clock this morning before I got back, which is quite a bit past deadline. But I had fun, so I suppose that's all that really matters.

Speaking of deadlines, I had my first upper level Journalism class today, and I can already tell it's going to be intense. On the one hand this is a good thing, because like he explained today if it's your job to write the script for the eleven o'clock news and you turn it in at elven oh one... well that's unacceptable because you've dropped the ball. Deadlines are a fundamentally important aspect of Journalism as a field. So the class is going to be interesting, but intense.

As part the class, we are expected to purchase and read three different news papers everyday Mon. through Fri. So after I got out of work at five today I decided to go in search of the three newspapers, figuring that it wouldn't take all that long. In fact, I figured I could find all of them in approximately the same area... Guess who figured wrong? I found "The State News" at the first place I went to, but neither of the other papers were there. So I walked over to the Student Union. They had "USA Today" there, but not the final one. At this point I had two of the three, and figured it would would be easy to come by the third. Not so easy as it turns out...

Everywhere seemed to be out of the "Lansing State Journal". It wasn't until a little after seven o'clock and a good deal of walking that I finally found a copy of it. In fact the gas station I went to only had that one copy left. I'm SO glad I got there when I did, and just think, I get to repeat the process tomorrow!

Moonlight Madness and a Mac

It's not so much that I forgot to post yesterday, but rather that I didn't take the time out of my day to do so. I should have blogged yesterday morning.... but when do I do what I should?

Yesterday was actually really cool though. My Mac finally made it to my house, and so my parents decided to bring it up to me. My dad also left me with his phone with orders not to lose it. I won't lose it! It was a good thing they drove up to, because I got my dad to help me move the TV to it's new spot in the room. We had to go get a longer cord to hook up the cable, but now it's all set. 

Last night the campus had a couple different programs going to welcome students back. There was U-Fest at the Union and then Moonlight Madness at a local Meijer. Basically at either one you could go and get a bunch of free things. I met up with Felicia and a bunch of girls that she lives with over at the Moonlight Madness event and that was really fun. She introduced me to a ton of people, whose names I know I won't know time I see them. Eventually I'll be able to keep all of the names straight. 

Anyway I got back to my room around one thirty this morning, at which point I commenced in breaking out my Mac and getting it partially set up before proceeding to go to bed. I've now been up since ten, and have managed to once again get my itunes set up. Hopefully this will be the last time that I have to tinker with my itunes for a very long while... I think I'll finish reading the first chapter of the Economics textbook for class tomorrow, and then perhaps I'll take a walk and scope out my classes. Class starts tomorrow! I'm so excited!