Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was pretty sure the whole point of "dead week" (the infamous week preceding finals) was to give students an entire week in which to cram a semester's worth of information and work. Well, not if you happen to be a UNK English major with a journalism minor. If you fall into my demographic, dead week IS finals week.
ALL of my English and journalism finals were due this week, including my 15-20 page research paper, my final creative portfolio, a final radio performance recording, and a video commentary blog entry. The only "final" I have next week is a 10-minute presentation over my research paper, and that is only because I opted to do it next week instead of this week. Normally, I wouldn't complain in the slightest about being done with classes a week earlier than most people; while they are cramming away in front of computer screens, I can be outside enjoying the spring weather. However, in the last couple years, I have discovered a pattern in both the English and journalism departments of UNK. EVERYONE makes their final assignments due during dead week.
I'm sure this is done with the best of intentions; the professors probably realize that most students have more than enough to do during finals week, so they up the due date by a few days to give students more time for other assignments. Plus, they probably have their own finals to collect, so why not give everyone a little break? Well, that's great in theory, but what about those of us who DON'T have any other finals? All we have are English papers and journalism assignments, which leaves us in the dead week dust. We don't get an extra week to focus entirely on finishing our projects. We don't get a week with no other assignments due. Instead, we get an end-of-the-semester crunch week where EVERYTHING is due, and we still have all of our regularly-scheduled classes to attend on top of it. Yay us!
So, while the rest of you are dutifully studying away in the library for the remainder of this and next week, we will sleeping. Passed out from sheer exhaustion and assignment-overload in our comfy corner beds until it is time to pull ourselves up, put on the cap and gown, and celebrate the fact that those days and days and nights and nights spent in the library and computer labs really did pay off, and we are finally, officially FINISHED!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Leap, kitty, leap!
Ok, so this video is actually pretty pointless, but it made me laugh, and laugh, and laugh. It even made my two roommates laugh and laugh and laugh as well. So I figured, with it being the end-of-the-semester-crunch, we could all use a good laugh. Even if you don't like cats, you'll love this video--trust me!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Now that's what I call a CATapult!
There. I hope you smiled--if not actually laughed out loud--at least once. Happy finals!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Now that's what I call a CATapult!
There. I hope you smiled--if not actually laughed out loud--at least once. Happy finals!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Take Me Hoooooooooooome: an After Midnight Project review
All it takes is the deep sound of the lead singer’s voice yelling "1, 2, 3…JUMP!"
The riff of a guitar, the beat of a bass drum and the entire crowd is on its feet, pounding their fists in the air, screaming at the top of their lungs. Even those in the stands have to fight the urge to bang their heads to the insatiable beat of the trap set.
The smooth, edgy voice of the lead singer sends chills through the stands as he stretches out the title note of "Take Me Home," and the crowd appropriately screams with all their might to the chorus of "I Scream for You."
That was the effect of After Midnight Project at the Spring Concert Saturday, April 18 in the UNK Health and Sports Center. From their very first song, "Digital Crush," After Midnight Project established a theme of hard rock/punk songs that kept the audience dancing, jumping and screaming throughout their entire set.
Punk isn't exactly my first choice of music genres, but I really, really enjoyed After Midnight Project. They brought a sort of punk and hard rock blend laid over original and poetic lyrics without excessive screaming or overdone musical theatrics. One of the reasons their show was so great was because they really brought the audience into the performance. The lead singer even went into the audience at the end of the show. Everything they did amped the energy up more and more to the point where the band and crowd were just feeding off of each other, making the show that much more intense and enjoyable for everyone involved, whether they were on the stage, on the floor or in the stands.
Although they served as an opening band to the opening band, weren't mentioned in promotional material and their name did not even appear on the ticket, the vocals, lyrics, and overall musical talent of After Midnight Project proved that this band is ready to break out of its small-time shell. Judging from the crowd's response and how quickly word of them as spread in the few days since the concert, I have little doubt that After Midnight Project will very soon be selling out their own concerts and headlining their own tour. Maybe, someday, they’ll come back to our little college town and play the Health and Sports Center again with a couple platinum albums under their belt.
If you don't want to take my word for it, check them out online or hear for yourself:
HELP!!! Seiously!
I'm putting together a list of Top 10 Movies To See Before You Die - UNK Style and I need your help!
I received 10 movies from Dr. Sam Umland, and 10 from my friend Travis Robinson, and now I'm stuck! So, I'm listing all 20 movies and I really want your help! Just write a comment with which movies you would like to see in the list (if you want to number them, feel free, but you don't have to). I also threw in a few of my own picks. Please don't add to the list - I have way too many to choose from as it is! Unless there is one purely iconic film that you feel CANNOT be left off the list - then it's ok.
WARNING: This will only be available until 10 PM TONIGHT! After that I will just have to finish it myself. Please, get as many people to vote as you can! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Back to the Future
The Sixth Sense
Gone With the Wind
I received 10 movies from Dr. Sam Umland, and 10 from my friend Travis Robinson, and now I'm stuck! So, I'm listing all 20 movies and I really want your help! Just write a comment with which movies you would like to see in the list (if you want to number them, feel free, but you don't have to). I also threw in a few of my own picks. Please don't add to the list - I have way too many to choose from as it is! Unless there is one purely iconic film that you feel CANNOT be left off the list - then it's ok.
WARNING: This will only be available until 10 PM TONIGHT! After that I will just have to finish it myself. Please, get as many people to vote as you can! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Back to the Future
The Sixth Sense
Gone With the Wind
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Addicted to Technology
They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. My name is Shelly, and I'm afraid I am becoming addicted to technology.
OK, maybe not really, but I may be showing some warning signs:
As I have said in previous posts, I cannot leave the house without my cell phone or I will turn around and go back. My laptop is my lifeline. If I go more than three days without high-speed internet, I feel as though I've been cut off from the world. I spend hours making playlists on iTunes for my new iPod Nano. My pictures are all tucked away on my digital camera's memory card. I don't remember the last time I actually sent an honest-to-God, hand-written letter; e-mail is so much quicker. Who needs to make a phone call when you can chat online? Who needs to chat online when you can text?
Does any of this sound familiar? Don't worry; we're not alone. This growing technology addiction isn't just something I made up, it's becoming a real disease. We all like to joke about being "addicted to technology" but in today's techno-centric world, it may not be so funny.
So how do we kick this nasty, yet oh-so-convenient habit? The obvious answer would be to abandon technology. Yeah...um...let's call that Plan B. I don't know about the rest of you, but no one is taking my cell phone until they pry it from my cold dead fingers! And don't even think about touching my laptop if you value the use of that hand. Maybe we should try a different approach.
In conclusion, I would like to share a funny-because-it's-true video with everyone. Warning: the content may be deemed semi-explicit, so viewer discretion is advised. I think it's safe to say, this is probably the point where you need to say, "Whoa, maybe I should do something about this..."
Note: I strongly encourage you to check out the articles I linked to. They have some very educational and very entertaining insights. My personal favorite are all the references to the Blackberry as the "Crackberry."
OK, maybe not really, but I may be showing some warning signs:
As I have said in previous posts, I cannot leave the house without my cell phone or I will turn around and go back. My laptop is my lifeline. If I go more than three days without high-speed internet, I feel as though I've been cut off from the world. I spend hours making playlists on iTunes for my new iPod Nano. My pictures are all tucked away on my digital camera's memory card. I don't remember the last time I actually sent an honest-to-God, hand-written letter; e-mail is so much quicker. Who needs to make a phone call when you can chat online? Who needs to chat online when you can text?
Does any of this sound familiar? Don't worry; we're not alone. This growing technology addiction isn't just something I made up, it's becoming a real disease. We all like to joke about being "addicted to technology" but in today's techno-centric world, it may not be so funny.
So how do we kick this nasty, yet oh-so-convenient habit? The obvious answer would be to abandon technology. Yeah...um...let's call that Plan B. I don't know about the rest of you, but no one is taking my cell phone until they pry it from my cold dead fingers! And don't even think about touching my laptop if you value the use of that hand. Maybe we should try a different approach.
In conclusion, I would like to share a funny-because-it's-true video with everyone. Warning: the content may be deemed semi-explicit, so viewer discretion is advised. I think it's safe to say, this is probably the point where you need to say, "Whoa, maybe I should do something about this..."
Note: I strongly encourage you to check out the articles I linked to. They have some very educational and very entertaining insights. My personal favorite are all the references to the Blackberry as the "Crackberry."
Thursday, April 16, 2009
This column is untitled
I wasn't originally going to put this on my blog, but Dr. Hanson said we should never write something we wouldn't publish, so here we go...
4-9-09
Two nights ago, my friend tried to kill herself.
I didn't know this. Her roommate didn't know this. Neither did her mother, her sister, or her aunt who she considers more of a mother to her than her own. Her roommate and I just thought she was sick after she threw up all over their room, but neither of us would have guessed it was her body’s last attempt to rid itself of the more than 40 pills she had swallowed earlier. We didn’t find out what she had done until around 8:00 the following night when her aunt called, asking one of us to go sit with our friend until someone could come and take her home. Since her roommate couldn’t get away from work, I volunteered.
When I walked into her room, she looked up at me and said, “I wish it would have worked. I’m such a failure; I can’t even do this right.”
For the first time in the four years I had known her, I didn’t know what to say. I sat there, holding and rocking my friend while she told me through her sobs that she was so tired of pretending to like her life. She was tired of living for everyone else; she was tired of putting on a mask every day. She just wanted it all to end.
She’d been planning this for months. She was ready, prepared. She had goodbye letters written out to her mother and aunt, and had another with detailed instructions taped to her bed for when her roommate came in to find her lifeless body. She told me she’d wanted to do it at home, but she couldn’t bear the thought of her little cousins or aunt’s foster kids finding her like that.
It’s very difficult for me to write this, just as it was very difficult for me to listen to her talk about how much she wanted her life to end. In October, I lost one of my oldest friends in a car accident. She was 21, on her way to being an elementary teacher, and had two little sisters, parents and a husband who loved her beyond words. A few weeks after that, I came far too close to losing my 19-year-old brother—the number one guy in my life—in another car crash. Last week, my best friend from high school and her husband welcomed their first child, a little boy. I am in awe of his little miracle, and I’ve never seen them happier.
Recently, I was diagnosed with HPV; something that I will never be rid of. I will have this virus in my body for the rest of my life. HPV has been known to cause cervical cancer, and I am awaiting the test results that will tell me if I have it or not. Life has never been more precious to me than it has become in the last year. I want to be there for my friend; I want to be supportive and sympathetic, but I cannot understand why she would do this. Life is so short and fragile as it is; how can there truly be nothing in this world worth living for?
All I can think about is how selfish it was for her to do this to the people around her. Her roommate would have been traumatized thinking that maybe, if she'd gotten there just a little sooner, she might have been able to save her. Everyone around her would have blamed themselves, myself included, and spent their lives wondering if there was something—anything—they could have done to prevent it. I am so angry with her, and it feels wrong. You can't be angry with someone who just tried to end their own life. But how can she take something so amazing for granted?
I honestly believe that somewhere, there is something—or even someone—who can make her life worth living. It wasn’t her time; she must still have a purpose in this world. I hope one day she realizes this as well, because this crazy, heartbreaking, terrible, wonderful race is all we have. And I know it can be worth all the pain, if she will give it the chance.
Since then, my friend has been receiving help and treatment, but she won't be coming back to school, and I doubt we will really see each other much anymore.
4-9-09
Two nights ago, my friend tried to kill herself.
I didn't know this. Her roommate didn't know this. Neither did her mother, her sister, or her aunt who she considers more of a mother to her than her own. Her roommate and I just thought she was sick after she threw up all over their room, but neither of us would have guessed it was her body’s last attempt to rid itself of the more than 40 pills she had swallowed earlier. We didn’t find out what she had done until around 8:00 the following night when her aunt called, asking one of us to go sit with our friend until someone could come and take her home. Since her roommate couldn’t get away from work, I volunteered.
When I walked into her room, she looked up at me and said, “I wish it would have worked. I’m such a failure; I can’t even do this right.”
For the first time in the four years I had known her, I didn’t know what to say. I sat there, holding and rocking my friend while she told me through her sobs that she was so tired of pretending to like her life. She was tired of living for everyone else; she was tired of putting on a mask every day. She just wanted it all to end.
She’d been planning this for months. She was ready, prepared. She had goodbye letters written out to her mother and aunt, and had another with detailed instructions taped to her bed for when her roommate came in to find her lifeless body. She told me she’d wanted to do it at home, but she couldn’t bear the thought of her little cousins or aunt’s foster kids finding her like that.
It’s very difficult for me to write this, just as it was very difficult for me to listen to her talk about how much she wanted her life to end. In October, I lost one of my oldest friends in a car accident. She was 21, on her way to being an elementary teacher, and had two little sisters, parents and a husband who loved her beyond words. A few weeks after that, I came far too close to losing my 19-year-old brother—the number one guy in my life—in another car crash. Last week, my best friend from high school and her husband welcomed their first child, a little boy. I am in awe of his little miracle, and I’ve never seen them happier.
Recently, I was diagnosed with HPV; something that I will never be rid of. I will have this virus in my body for the rest of my life. HPV has been known to cause cervical cancer, and I am awaiting the test results that will tell me if I have it or not. Life has never been more precious to me than it has become in the last year. I want to be there for my friend; I want to be supportive and sympathetic, but I cannot understand why she would do this. Life is so short and fragile as it is; how can there truly be nothing in this world worth living for?
All I can think about is how selfish it was for her to do this to the people around her. Her roommate would have been traumatized thinking that maybe, if she'd gotten there just a little sooner, she might have been able to save her. Everyone around her would have blamed themselves, myself included, and spent their lives wondering if there was something—anything—they could have done to prevent it. I am so angry with her, and it feels wrong. You can't be angry with someone who just tried to end their own life. But how can she take something so amazing for granted?
I honestly believe that somewhere, there is something—or even someone—who can make her life worth living. It wasn’t her time; she must still have a purpose in this world. I hope one day she realizes this as well, because this crazy, heartbreaking, terrible, wonderful race is all we have. And I know it can be worth all the pain, if she will give it the chance.
Since then, my friend has been receiving help and treatment, but she won't be coming back to school, and I doubt we will really see each other much anymore.
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