Week 7: Life Is Good

Do you ever have weeks where it just seems like things are all coming together? I feel like this week was very productive.

I'm really excited to have to just re-launched my book review blog. However, I change up the format of it, so I suppose with the implemented changes it's now more of a blog dedicated to my commentary/analysis of what I am presently reading than it is a review blog.

You can check it out here. I'm hoping to get the first part of my first 'commentary' up in the next day or so. It's already kind of written, so it's just a matter of going over final edits and getting it posted.

It's been a full and busy week, but really I wouldn't have it any other way. Aside from the blog re-launch, I also offered and accepted a new position at work that I had put in for. Plus I got some great news concerning my student loans.

Right now, life is good.

Week 6: I'd be a Champion

If there were an award for forgetfulness... I'd be a world class champ. I very nearly forgot to blog this week, which just so you know, would make me feel like an epic failure. It's not so much the fact that I almost forgot, as it is the fact that I forgot multiple times.

I did in fact remember that I still needed to blog this week, on several occasions. The only issue with my remembering is that not one of those times did I actually sit down and write anything. I didn't write down a single word. So I'd remember, then consider what I wanted to write about, and promptly forget again by the time I was anywhere near my computer.

Now, I know what you may say, I don't really need my computer in order to write. I could easily hand-write something and then re-type it for the purposes of this blog. But be that as it may, I failed to do that too. So, instead of whatever it was I considered writing earlier in the week, and honestly at this point I have no idea... you are left with this sorry tale of my forgetfulness.

Although really this post ties in perfectly with my week, or at least yesterdays Facebook status, which I kid you not read, :"is wondering why I can remember useless information, but can't remember where I parked the car!"

That status by the way, so true!

The End (Kind of)

This is my final blog post that is connected with my year-long project aimed at writing more in the time between my twentieth and twenty-first birthday. It's been an interesting year, full of changes and transitions. While I feel like I've grown in many ways, I've also remained much the same.

As I think about this project, it's difficult to pinpoint any specific changes that were particularly monumental over this past year. If I were a smarter person I would have spent some of my free-time over the past week going over posts from this last year and compiling a list of things to discuss in this final post.

Of course, then I wouldn't be me.

At any rate, I don't want to give the impression that I won't be posting on this blog any more. I still plan to utilize this space although I may not be posting as often as I have been over the past year. I definitely won't be posting daily.

It's been an interesting year, and I've certainly written more than I had in the past several years. I feel like I've definitely taken a major step in the right direction, and look forward to using this experience to jump into the future. I'm currently working on looking into the future and looking for ways to get ready for the future that I want to build. These are exciting times!

Twenty-One

I spent today at work, where I proceeded to have a really good day. It was super busy in the fudge shop, which was good. Personally I enjoy working when it is busy the most. Some people find it stressful, but I think that it all depends on your perspective. On some level, in order to decrease your amount of stress you have to accept that you are only one person and only capable of so much.

It's also good to understand that sometime people are going to be upset with you, you can't make everyone happy and while it's nice in theory to try it is imperative to accept that sometimes, in fact most times, it isn't possible. There are those who cannot or will not be appeased.

I am now home, where we lit candles and stuck them in the cake that my mom made in honor of today being my birthday. I sat in front of the fire for a little while while I ate my slice of cake, and am now watching Law and Order:SVU with my parents and younger brother. This is my favorite way to spend any day, let alone a birthday.

All in all it's been a very good day.

Crazy Dayz

Yesterday did not seem like a Monday, which is the major reason that I forgot to blog until I laid down around midnight, looked at my alarm clock and immediately thought, "It was Monday, and I didn't blog. Crap!"

It probably didn't help much that yesterday was a fairly busy day. I opened at work, which means that I was there from eight to five. It was a good day, as most days at work have been recently. It was actually really busy too. The store was unusually packed for a Monday, which is both good and strange. Today was a similarly good/strange day at work. It's going to be hard to leave it all behind yet again.

Once I managed to get home last night, I met up with Sarah and Nichole and we went and grabbed something to eat. It was nice to get to sit down and catch up. We went to one of the small diners here in town, where the food is equal parts good and cheap. Both of these features are greatly appreciated when you consider that we are all college students.

All in all it's been a hectic few days, and I'm looking forward to working a closing shift tomorrow rather than an open. It's nice to get out of work early, but lately I haven't been sleeping well. It's difficult to get up early consecutively when you aren't getting enough sleep. Now I'm off to read, watch the Golden Girls and maybe think about getting some real sleep.

A Reprieve

It's well after midnight, which means that I'm not anywhere near the deadline that I've set for myself, but for this weekend I am offering myself a reprieve from those guidelines. We just got back from my cousins wedding, which was up in Grand Rapids.

It was a really lovely ceremony. It was great to get to see my family, and celebrate my cousins marriage.

We left for the wedding around one thirty or so, and since it didn't start until five we ended up getting up there an hour earlier than we necessarily needed to. Although, it was probably good that we left when we did just in case there was heavy traffic.

The drive home was a little slow going because it had been snowing for the majority of the time that we were at the wedding and the reception. As we were driving we alternated between driving through areas that had snow falling and areas that did not. Between Brooklyn and Tipton we saw a jeep that had rolled over on the side of the road. A police officer was in the middle of having it prepared to be towed away.

But we made it home safely, and now I can get some sleep before I go about unpacking later this morning.

Finals Over?

I would be perfectly conent if finals week were over and I could go home and get back to work. It's a little frustrating that my exams are so spears out this week.

I guess it wouldn't be quite so frustrating if I actually felt like I needed to study for Friday's exam. I don't anticipate it being difficult whatsoever, and therefore i have excess time that could be better spent at home getting ready for Christmas.

I'm planning to finish reading "Catching Fire" at some point this afternoon. I've got about a hundred pages left to go, and it's really good so far. Suzanne Collins is AMAZING!

At any rate I'm at least I'm doing something productive with my time since studying doesn't really feel like a priority.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Sunday Study Session

I went from not planning to study whatsoever for any of my exams, to spending my evening making note cards and reviewing for my Macroeconomics exam on Tuesday. That is the only class that I am slightly worried about because I didn't always pay as much attention as I should have during it.

I'm really hoping that I did well enough in it that I won't have to take it over again, because as boring as it was the first time around I can only imagine how boring it would be the second time around.

For the most part though I've nearly finished making note cards. I'll probably spend some portion of tomorrow afternoon going back over them, but at the moment I don't plan on devoting an extensive amount of time to it. I've hit that point in the semester that if I haven't gotten it yet, I'm running short on chances to do so.

At any rate, blogging seems to be going well today which is kind of extraordinary recently. I nearly forgot that I still needed to write two more entries to fulfill my responsibilities for the weekend, but I think I've managed to correct that near oversight. Now I am back to studying before returning for one last update.

Four Post Sunday

I forgot that I need to write four posts over the course of this weekend. As it is already Sunday I obviously owe four posts over the course of today.

That shouldn't be too difficult to manage.

This is the final week of school and the. I'm off on break after my final on Friday. Then I get to go back to work which is super exciting. I'm so pumped to be going back to work. I've missed working with everyone and to an extent I've missed the job itself.

Today we're having Christmas dinner with my extended family. It's going to be fun to get to hang out with everyone for the day, plus I don't have to drive back to school until tomorrow morning.

I'm so excited!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Double Fail

I didn't even realize until some point earlier today that I forgot to write anything on Wednesday, and then failed to write anything today. That's alright though, the evening was productive even though I failed to hold up to my blogging plan.

I'm all packed and ready to head for home after class in the morning. The roads aren't too great at the moment, but I'm hoping that by then they'll be better. If not though, it's not like it's the first time that I've driven in the snow. It may end up wearing on my patience but I'll exercise some caution.

Today was my final day in my JRN 200 class, and I think it went well. I didn't end up blogging Wednesday because I was furiously working to finish my final story for that class. As it was, it was four-thirty Thursday morning before I had that and the extra credit article written. Though really it was totally worth it.

I braved the cold to turn in my papers and then have a one-on-one with my teacher about my grade, which I ended up doing very well in that class. I got at least a 3.0, maybe better depending on the grades that I end up getting on these final two papers. It was a tough class, and I'm glad that it's over, but I definitely appreciate the things that I learned in there. It was an important step in gearing up for my journalism career.

However, my three and a half hours of sleep are catching up with me, and if I'm driving home in the snow I need to be awake, so I'll fill the next few days with explanations regarding the last few post lapses.

Passwords

The annoying thing about having to have a password for everything, is that quite often the password that you use in one instance does not meet the criteria for another password that is needed somewhere else. This of course then means that you have at least a handful of passwords to remember at any given time.

I often forget what variation of password I have used where and end up going through some amount of trial and error before arriving at the correct variation.

It would be so much simpler if you were able to use the same password for all of the different sites and whatnot that need to have a password used for them, or at least if everywhere had the same criteria. Although I suppose the easiest way to simplify the situation would be to use the most complex password in every instance. This way it would meet the more complex criteria, as well as the more simple.

I just got back from seeing The Blind Side, which is the new Sandra Bullock movie that's based upon a true story. It was SO good. I know anyone that I've talked to about it has had nothing but good things to say about it, but I don't know that I was really expecting it to be as good as it was. It is such an inspiring story, and portrayed these christian individuals without making them seem outrageous.

It was just an incredibly uplifting story about a guy who went from being homeless and an orphan to being taken in by this family, accepted as their own, and then going on to college and eventually professional football. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it.

Now I have to start working on a book review blog that I'm supposed to get sent in to my editor tonight. It kind of slipped my mind a bit...

The Same Old

I have to decide what book I want to write a review on and post it to my SpartanEdge blog. I'm considering writing something up on one of Maureen Johnson's books. "13 Little Blue Envelopes" is a very good candidate...

I'm also hoping to have 'Liar' finished by Saturday afternoon so that I can write up a review of that and have it be my third review for this week. It's all about budgeting time, something that I have been struggling with lately. But I think after being sick this past weekend I can move forward and use my time wisely.

I took the time I needed to start feeling better, and now it is time to jump in and get this semester wrapped up. The semester is almost over, can you believe it? Sometimes it's hard to believe, but certainly welcome. I've hit that point in a few of my classes, where it was fun but now it's a kind of drudgery. I'm looking forward to doing something different.

I'm really excited about getting back to work during break. I really miss all of my co-workers and it'll be great to get to see everybody again. Even though holiday shoppers aren't the nicest shoppers, it'll still be fun.

What is it about the holidays that brings the worst out in people anyway? You always hear that the holidays are supposed to be about joy and whatever, but the majority of people that you have to deal with at a retail level are anything but. I understand that they may be stressed, but that is certainly no reason to take it out on the people at the store. They are just doing their jobs.

Lame

I have been awful about updating this lately. It was plenty early when I remembered it last night, but I was already in bed and honestly I needed the sleep more than I needed to blog. This coming weekend should go much more smoothly than this past weekend though so I'm not too worried about.

I'm finally feeling better, though I'm still left with some congestion. That I can deal with however. The presentation yesterday went really well. Unless you were a part of our group, I really doubt that it was obvious that we went into it without having all previously met.

Ultimately the project appeared more planned out than it actually ever was, and that is awesome. I would have preferred it if we had had better communication through-out the planning stages, but it ended up working out okay. The whole group seemed to be glad to finally have the project out of the way. It's a liberating feeling.

Flyleaf's new CD came out today, which is really cool, but then it's not because I definitely can't afford it right now. We'll see how things go next pay day as far as that is concerned, though I'm really excited about the new CD. From what I've heard of it it's really good!

I have a newspaper to read, and then I'm getting some sleep. I'm hoping to lose the congestion within the next few days. That would be amazing!

Focus Fail.

For each of our out of class assignments in JRN 200, we have to make it into a blog post. I have a portion of the blog that is due Thursday done, and I think I'm going to finish it tomorrow. I am also beginning to think that I choose a more complex subject for my article than I may have initially intended. However, I am happy to report that my second out of class story seems to be coming along nicely.

I'm also still working on my application for the school of journalism. I just need to finish off my resume, and write the essay about my career goals. Have I mentioned that I'm a little intimidated by the whole process?

I feel like I have a lot of things to get done in the next couple days, but my focus just isn't what I need it to be. Basically, I am aware of all the things that I need to get done, and so so rather than focus on one thing at a time, my mind attempts to focus on several things at once.

Hopefully tomorrow my focus will be where it needs to be. In the meantime I have some reading that I need to get done to be prepared for class.

Deadlines, Yikes!

It took me forever to focus on finishing the module for my Lit/Cultures class, not because it was hard, but because I wasn't interested in focusing on it. The class has the potential to be interesting, and I'm not sure why it is isn't. For whatever reason the conversations that we could be having in that class don't seem to form like they should, I'm really not completely certain why that is.

Anyway, when I was supposed to be focusing on that I couldn't focus, and then once I got that done I decided to put my computer away because it's battery was dying and I'm not near a plug at the moment. Of course at that moment I decided to focus on wrapping up my JRN 200 homework, and was SO FOCUSED on that, that I nearly forgot to blog.

That wouldn't have been good. I apologize for being a little scatterbrained at the moment. I would like to note however, that I'm really enjoying the weather this week. I was afraid on my walk to class this morning that it was going to get cold again, because with the rain it was a bit chilly. However, by the time I was headed to my second class it has already gotten warmer, and the rain has abated.

It's pretty awesome. Now, if I don't hurry up and post this my computer is definitely going to die. Deadlines, yikes

No Fatals!

It is definitely a problem when a paper is supposed to be a minimum of six hundred words long, and you've only managed to write three hundred and thirty words. It's an even greater problem when you aren't sure where else to take the focus.

This does not need to be so difficult, so why is it?

Most likely the answer to that question is that I've waited until the last possible minute to actually get this article written down. That might be why. That's probably why.

Oh well. I will get this done before I go to bed, and hopefully I will be alert enough to edit out any potential fatals. That would be awful if I let a fatal slip through...

I've got things rolling at the SpartanEdge. I've signed on to write a Book Review Blog, and so tomorrow I will finish getting that all set up. Then I'm covering a lecture early next month. Maybe if I don't do too horribly with this article that's due for class tomorrow I'll pitch it to the edge. We'll see.

JRN Pressure

I went my JRN 200's class blog to double check something while writing a practice story that's due by eleven tonight. I'm thinking now that maybe that wasn't the best idea, because the professor has already started posting entries to discuss next class regarding today's exercises. From the tone of the post I'm a little worried about the possibility that that assignment didn't go as well as I may have been anticipating it did...

I have the assignment for tonight all set to go, but I'm waiting to go over it one last time after I post this. I really don't want to screw this class up. I mean, I can't afford to obviously. This class is the first step in a line of classes that lead to my Bachelor's Degree.

I finished reading "Hunting Ground" earlier today, and it was awesome. I love the way that Patricia Briggs writes, because it's really easy to get caught up in the story. She's also really good at incorporating twists and turns that you aren't necessarily expecting.

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.