I should Start Again

For as long as I can remember music has been a big part of my life whether I was just listening to it or even playing. When I was an infant and would get upset my dad would put on some music and dance with me around the room until I calmed down. As I got older I found a cassette player and took my parents old tapes and stay up at night listening to music until I fell asleep. My parents started to buy cds for me and my sister to listen in the car or around the house and I really started to appreciate music.

In forth grade I was old enough to join my elementary school's orchestra. I chose the violin because it was the smallest and I was pretty small. I instantly fell in love with music. Playing the violin wasn't a task and I actually enjoyed it. Even though I loved playing every now and then it felt like a task when I had to record my practice hours. I remember sitting in my basement practicing for what seemed for hours waiting for my mom to come down and tell me that my time was up. My favorite part about playing the violin was when my best friend and I decided to enter a duet contest. The piece we played for it was a little more challenging than we were used to and it was great going over to my friend's house to practice it. For the most part we practiced without supervision and everything would go really well. There is only one practice that I can remember that didn't go well. We had decided to practice outside on the sidewalk in front of my friend's house, I got so mad at her for holding the bow the wrong way that I packed up my violin and walked home. I was afraid that the judge would notice that she was holding the bow the wrong way and take off some points. We had a great time at the competition and I thought that I was going to play forever but then I moved.

I moved the summer after 5th grade and joined the orchestra at my new school. I soon found out that the group that had been playing for a while was more advanced than me so the teacher suggested that I should join the beginners. I had been playing for two years so I did not feel like starting over so I decided to quit.

Since then I have tried playing other instruments like the piano and the guitar but nothing seemed to stick to me in the way the violin had. Now I wish I could start playing again. It would be cool to take a class at The Blue Ridge Irish Music School when they offer classes in the violin or to learn bluegrass. Maybe I can add relearning the violin to my summer to do list.

Woah! This post was going to be about how important music is to my life, how I have been known as the friend to go to for new music and how music is a great escape but it went in a completely different direction. Maybe later I can write about that.

Chapstick

Almost everyone that knows me knows that I carry chapstick everywhere that I go. It is one of the things that I never leave home with. I think my use of chap stick has gotten so bad that it is safe to say I am addicted to it. When I loose a stick I get upset and stay upset until I find it again or until I can buy a new pack. I know it is kind of a silly thing to be addicted to chapstick but some how it has happened in the last few years.

I think it started sometime during my junior year of high school. I was put on this crazy medicine to help my skin. It was so intense that I had to go in once a month to get by blood drawn to make sure it wasn't harming anything internally. One of the side effects of the medication was crazy chapped lips. That winter the combination of the medication and the windburn from snowboarding I was forced to use chapstick for what seemed like every ten minutes because otherwise my lips would hurt too much. By the summer I was off the medication and no longer suffering from windburn but I still felt the need to apply chap stick constantly. I was like that for at least another year and for some time after that.

Today it isn't quite as bad. I still carry a tube with me everywhere I go but I can actually go for several hours without putting it on. Every now and then I go back to old habits but overall I have gotten much better. It is a silly little thing that I'm working on and felt like sharing.

A Big Adventure

In the last couple of weeks I have been trying to help a friend of mine at a different school where to study abroad. She has narrowed it down to either Scotland or Australia and is torn. The school in Scotland is much smaller and has a riding club but Australia is so cool and she won't get many more opportunities to go there again. I have been trying to help her decide but the both us can't decide which place would be better.

This has gotten me thinking of where I would like to go abroad for a semester. It is something that I definitely want to do but I just have no idea where. My friends, roommates for next year, plan on going to Italy one semester together. They told me I could go along. I love Italy but I'm not sure if studying abroad for a semester with friends is the best idea. I feel that part of going abroad is knowing nothing about the area and knowing no one there. It is a chance to really get to know yourself and experience wonderful things. I'm not even sure if I want to go to Italy. I have been there before and think that it might be cool if I go somewhere that I haven't been yet or to one of the cities I visited over the summer in Europe that I only spent 18 hours in.

I guess I will just have to talk to my parents and see what they think. I don't think I'll go anywhere until the fall semester of junior year so I have some time to think it through and really decide if i want to go.

What I Need

In one of my last posts I wrote about how I need to get some sort of journal and keep it at my beside to record my dreams, because maybe one day they could be turned into books or movies. I have decided to get a moleskine notebook to carry around and leave next to me while I sleep.

I plan of making this notebook a scrapbook of my live, my thoughts, and my travels. As well as well as writing out my dream in it I plan on using it to write down any sort of idea or phrase that comes to me during the day. I will put flowers in it and drawings and tape any sort of thing that I find and feel is worth keeping. The book will be a reflection of my life, anyone who picks it up will see the real me, my insides, my mind.

I'm Not a Fan

I am not a fan and waking up that my dream wasn't real. Last night I had a dream that was filled with happiness and haikus and it seemed so real, then I woke up and realized that I was lying in my bed and not sitting on that bench in the restaurant. This dream was an extension of my reality, things I would like to happen, and maybe will. In that dream I thought things had changed but they didn't. It is morning and everything is just the same as yesterday. My location is the same. The work load is the same. The relationships are the same. Maybe if I keep dreaming they will eventually change. I hope they do. Once dreams become reality the day will be great.

Tattoo

For much of my life I have been able to appreciate the tattoos that I saw around me. I love that they are just another way of expressing yourself. They are your own little painting to display to the world to tell them a little bit more about yourself.

Sometime in high school I decided that I would join the masses and get a tattoo. I would get one but I told myself that it needed to mean something and I wanted to make sure that I would still love it years later. At first the only tattoo ideas were silly and impersonal, like a star on the wrist. It seems like almost everyone has a star on them somewhere. After realizing that the star was a stupid idea I was lost for any other tattoo idea. I knew I still wanted one but couldn't figure out what I wanted.

Then last semester a great idea popped into my head. I should get a tattoo of a sea turtle. So I looked online for sea turtle designs and found the perfect one. It is just a solid black figure of a turtle with a spiral as a shell. I have always loved sea turtles. I got a shirt when I was in 2nd grade at the beach with the turtles on it, and now, even though it is falling apart, I still wear it every so often.

Besides just loving sea turtles I love what they stand for. I am very much like a turtle, when I feel threatened by the outside world I withdraw back into my own 'shell'. They also tend to keep to wisdom and knowledge to themselves. Some say that the turtle stands for earthy, grounded, and steady. Three things that like. While they are for land turtles I feel that they can apply to sea turtles, because they are similar (just live in water). Everything I find out about the symbolism behind turtles makes me want the tattoo even more. Maybe I'll get it this summer, I just have to find a way to pay for it.

Maybe I Can't Make It

I thought I could get 60 posts by tomorrow, but I might be wrong. It could get done if I didn't have a test tomorrow but I need to get up to study for that. It feels like the only thing that I have done for the last four hours is sit at my computer and write. I have taken a few breaks, some longer than others, but for the last five or so hours all I have been thinking of is the blog. Maybe I can fit in the next 27 entries in during study breaks. I hope I can. I have really enjoyed sitting down and taking the time to write out my thoughts even though none of it has been profound at all. It has been nice to organize my thoughts but right now I am getting too tired to think clearly enough to write. Almost every day last week I got up before 9:00am and was working on school work, running around the city doing errands, going to class, visiting people, and coming back to my room to do more work until three in the morning only to have sleep interrupted by the temperature changing in the room too much, fire alarms at 5:30 in the morning and my roommate coming back late, making a ton of noise. I can't wait until I can have the chance to sit and relax for more than an hour without worrying about what I have to do next. I just need summer.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I have unexpectedly fallen in love with Richmond. I love how it is filled with people, bikes and tattoos. I have even gotten used to the crazy amount of cigarettes that people smoke. I like going to the river, hollywood cemetery, the national, and just exploring the city. After walks along the canal, pipeline, and through the streets late at night I have strongly considered staying here for the summer. I almost want to stay here this summer but I haven't been able to plan that out yet and feel like my first summer as a real college student I should spend some time at home. Maybe the summer after this I'll stay in Richmond, get a job and take one or two summer courses. My dad the other day told me that he is basically going to force me to do that one summer and I think I am ok with that. My dad took a few summer classes while he was in college and really enjoyed it and I think he just wants me to have just as much fun as he did.

I heard that it might be easier to get into the one photography class that non-art majors can take during the summer. When I first heard that it was going to be close to impossible for me to take a college level photo class, I was really upset but now hearing that there is a chance that I might get into one over the summer makes me really excited.

Home just seems a little to quite and slow compared to Richmond. I know it will be not as busy here during the summer but I think life here will still be more exciting than life back at home during the summer. I know that a slower pace life will be good every now and then but I think I will miss the city too much.

When Can I Move In?

I have been over to my new house several times in the last few weeks and it just makes me want to move in right now! Every time I go over there it feels more and more like my home. I am so excited to live there for the next three years (probably more). I want a cozy place to just chill out and relax, the dorm isn't very good for this. I want to have friends over for movie nights, for dinner, for art projects, and for the occasional party. The dorm just seems so confining. Here I have to sign people in at the front desk, where the guards take our I.D.s and force us to stay together the entire time. I can't even have more than two people over at a time, so i usually don't even bother with bringing over guests. I plan on having my house all open to all friends, if it is ok with my roommates. The majority of my friends are living farther away from campus where as I am practically on campus. I will let them use the house between classes if they do not have time to run back to their house, as long as I am home or my roommates are. At the house I can decorate as I wish, use extension chords, and will have no quite hours to abide by. I will be free to do what I wish (within reason). I just want to move in right now. I have the keys and my mattress is already in the house, what more do I need? I guess what is stopping me is school work and the dorm. School is taking the majority of my free time so I have almost no time to pack, move and clean the dorm. Because it is impossible to completely move over there even if I take over all of my stuff (no internet for school work) I would be back and forth between the house and the dorm constantly and that isn't very fun at all. I guess I will have to wait until my last exam on the 7th to move all of my stuff the few blocks before I head home. Over the summer I will come over every now and then to enjoy the house, but I can't fully enjoy it until August. I guess I am going to have to wait. This isn't fun!

Colors

Oh the colors! It is spring, even though it feels like summer, and the flowers are in full bloom and full of color. It is great to see all of the yellows, reds, pinks, oranges, and even purples all of campus and all over the city. If you just walk through the Fan you fill find gardens full of flowers. These flowers are good for smelling, they are also very photogenic. I just love spring flowers and colors. For easter we dyed easter eggs that were full of color, pretty much the same colors as the flowers. The last large amount of color that I have experienced in recent days is tie-dye!

Last week for earth day i set up a day to tie-dye with a few of my friends. After a lot of planning a few backed out, so three of us were left to color our shirts on out own. I'm used to taking the easy way out when it comes to tie-dye. I have only done the squeeze bottles but have never tried the dip dye. For the first dip dye that I have done I think that my shirts turned out pretty well. They are not as vibrant as I had hoped but I looked up a few tricks to fix that. Until next time these shirts will have to satisfy my need to wear colorful things.

Summer is Here!

Classes are finally over! I just have 3 tests and a portfolio separating me from sweet summer. It will officially be summer May 7th at 11:00pm. The 8th I have to do a ton of packing, but I won't have to deal with too much school work until August. I have a feeling that this summer will be a great one. Last summer started out wonderfully with a 3 week trip through Europe but after I got home nothing was quite as exciting (though I still had fun). I am already thinking of things that I can do that will keep me entertain through all of summer. The first thing I plan on doing is getting my drivers license. I know its kind of ridiculous that I don't have it yet but once I have it I can feel so much better about myself. I will have the freedom of being able to go anywhere whenever I want. I can go to the barn without worry about what my parents are doing, go downtown without bothering friends to pick me up, go to a job, and even come to Richmond to visit all of my friends staying here over the summer (almost everybody is). This summer I really need a job. My mom had a rule that once I graduated high school I needed a real summer job but last summer I left for Europe two days after graduation, so I had no time to look for a job and by the time I got back many of the jobs were already taken. I just ended up working at the barn a few days a week like I have done every summer and even during the school year. I have two places that I am considering for a job, Freestyle (a snowboard shop), and a store called Cha Cha's, where they sell a variety of things from silly chap stick to homemade purses to dining sets made out of recycled plastic.

This summer I also want to adventure. I'll do the usual trip of tubing down the James but I want to do things that are more exciting. I want to go camping or just pack up the car and just drive. Just drive until I find something interesting or a good place to spend the night. I have a feeling that I will be coming back to Richmond a lot too. I don't know if I can go all summer without seeing some of my friends here and I have a house that needs decorating. There are also concerts here that I plan on going to. I already have the weekend of June the 5th all planned out. Go to Richmond sometime in the morning, hang out with friends, eat dinner at their apartment, go to the Decemberists show at The National, go with my friend to get her tattoo afterwards, then just hang out with friends all night. Saturday I hope we get up at a decent time because I want to spend the day at Belle Isle, sitting in the sun and just exploring. One of my dogs will even be with me. In the afternoon I would like to have a cookout at my house in the back yard and tie-dying clothes will be involved too. Maybe we will paint some canvases that I will hang in my room too. Sunday will be a day to do Richmond things. I might go to the dog park if one of my friends is in town and maybe she will cut my hair. It will be a fantastic weekend

Of course this summer I will do all of the normal things like ride at the barn, go to the lake on the weekends and hang out with friends but I want to be sure that this summer is fantastic. I really hope it is!

Vegetables Are Good

Ever since October I have been trying to decide whether or not I should become a vegetarian. While for some people this is an easy yes or no question but I have been debating the pros and cons in my head for a long time and I still can't make up my mind.

Here are a few of the things that are on my pros/cons list

Pros:

• Better for the environment(one of my main reasons)-the meat industry creates so much pollution
• I love animals and sometimes feel guilty for eating them. I often picture a cow before I eat a cheeseburger (not on purpose) and it just makes me feel terrible.
• Tofu is good. It can be prepared in similar ways as meat and is a tasty substitute.

Cons:

• Eating other animals is just the food chain. As the Lion King put it, "the circle of life."
• I don't have the best eating habits, will I get enough protein?
• Some meat just tastes too good.

I know that this isn't a very extensive list but they are the reasons that keep popping up in my head. Maybe I can slowly cut back on my meat intake even though I don't eat it much anyways, or maybe just eat free range meats animals that have had a better life, or just going veggie for a month or so to see how I like it. I've been debating this for too long now, I hope I can finally make a decision.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I finally decided on a major and filled out all the necessary paperwork. I am officially a journalism major! I really hope I made the right decision. I really hate that so early in my life I have to make a decision that could have some serious influence on the rest of my life. I know I can change my major if I decide next year that this is something that I don't really feel like doing any more but journalism and mass communications is something that I am actually interested in and could see myself perusing so I don' think I will change my mind.

After I graduate in a few years I now plan on going to grad school for photojournalism. I love taking photos and telling stories with them so photojournalism sounds like a good match. As I talked about in a past entry, I think it would be pretty cool to work for Rolling Stone. I could take pictures and write for them but I could do this anywhere else. I would be ok with taking pictures for any magazine really. Preferably it would be for a music magazine so I could go to shows and take the pictures of the bands playing but right now I think I would take any offer.

Belle Isle

Friday afternoon, before the show, I went with a few of my friends to Belle Isle. I borrowed an other friend's bike for the trip. We first had a lovely bike ride through Oregon Hill before stopping at the top of a hill overlooking the river to lock our bikes up. We scrambled down the dirt hill, jumped some train tracks, hopped over a fence, and walked across the suspension bridge crossing the river to take us to Belle Isle. Once we got to the island we walked down the trail to find a rock to sit on at the edge of the James River.

It was great to just have a couple of hours to sit in the sun, work on my tan, look for shapes in the clouds, and just enjoy the company of my friends. It was also nice to be near water again. Any sort of body of water always makes me relax. There is just something about water, whether it is in a river, lake, ocean, or even a creek that I found so serene and calming. This was only my second trip to the island, but my first just sitting by the water. Last time we went exploring and wandered around the old factory on the island. I hope I can go back again before I head home for the summer. Maybe I'll go friday. I just want to sit in the sun, listen to the raging river, and relax.

Oh My Wonderful Dreams

I have always thought about keeping some sort of journal at my bedside to write down my dreams that I felt were worth sharing but never got around to buying one and taking the time out of my morning routine (or even in the middle of the night when I wake up) to actually write them down.

After the other night when I had the most vivid dream that had an actual plot but forgot it within a few hours of being awake, I reconsidered getting some sort of journal to keep by my bed. This dream would have made a great science fiction book or movie but the only think I can remember from that dream is a silhouetted figure, that I can assume is me, standing in front a large silver, metal wall or door.

I wish I could remember more of the dream because it could have really turned into a book or movie that I could have written later on. It was one of the first dreams in a long time that actually made some sense. My dreams are often too choppy, where I suddenly change location, or it looks like I do, but I'm actually still in the same place. Like I will be home and some how it will morph into a house that looks completely different but I still understand that it is my home. I even, at times, change characters in my dreams. By writing down my dreams I will be able to remember them better and share them with the people that I know, or even turn them into a book or movie.

There is a short segment from a dream I had the other night that I actually remember. I was having a conversation with a rat. He was homeless and was hackling me to give him some money, in the same manner that a homeless person would. I kept on insisting that I could take him home and keep him as my pet but he was belligerent and refused my offers and continued to ask for money. I think I remember this one the most because it was so strange. It was strange for many reasons, usually I don't talk to animals in my dreams and I was so surprised that he was refusing my offer of a home and love for the streets and money.

Yes I am Crazy

So you might have noticed that I have been writing a tone in the last couple of days. I found that I needed to have 60 blog entries for my class by tomorrow. When I learned of this my entry number was still in the teens, so after that I decided that I was going to write the forty-something entries that were needed in order to reach 60. I am very determined to get this done even though I have a test tomorrow and I would rather be will all of the people taking part in The Rescue but I guess this is what I get for procrastination.

I think if I can stay focused I can get this done. I might not get very much sleep but I have a two hour car ride tomorrow afternoon to help me catch up on my sleep. I already have a list of about 35 entry ideas, a few short, but I think overtime more ideas will come to me. These entries are not from the prompts of the weekly schedule but they are things that I often think about or little tid-bits about myself that I feel are worth writing about.

Oh and some of these might be a little short but I am going to try to get them all done. Hopefully I can write enough about each subject.

The Rescue

Saturday afternoon I went, with a few friends, to an event called The Rescue. The Rescue has been organize by the group Invisible Children to create awareness and support for their cause. The group is trying to stop the war in Uganda and the rebel army of Joseph Kony. Over the last 20 years over 30,000 children have been abducted and forced to fight a war against their will. While many of the children have been returned home there are still kids out there fighting that need to come home.

F0r the event, in 100 cities in 10 countries, thousands of people symbolically abducted themselves. Here in Richmond a group of about 150 people met in Monroe Park and marched down to the state capital holding on a rope. Once we got there we sat in the grass in what was our version of a LRA camp. While at the camp we wrote letters to our senators asking for their support on lobby days and contacted the media hoping to gain some publicity on the event to create awareness. We did get some publicity but not to the extent to which we hoped. So many people were calling the t.v. news stations that they got angry with us and refused to come but we did manage to pull in some newspapers that interviewed the organizers in Richmond. The publicity was also help a mogul come to rescue us. Many people tried to contact moguls but publicity would really entice them. A mogul is either a celebrity or political person. By the 11:00pm saturday night a mogul hadn't shown up. There were a few who were close to coming but none ever showed up. Because Richmond is very picky where people can and cannot sleep outside we had to walk to the convention center to sleep. My friends and I didn't feel like sleeping on a cold concrete floor (and I had to meet my parents in the morning) we walked the short mile back to the dorms. After the brunch sunday morning with my parents and the roommates I went back to monroe park to wait for a rescuer. Because I had a paper due today I grabbed all of my stuff and sat out in the park to write the paper while we waited. Then night fell and we had to leave the park. I went back to my room to finish the paper as well as all of the other work that I had but today after classes I joined them again. After another full day of waiting no mogul showed up but just after I left to study for a test that I have tomorrow reinforcements from New York, Philly and D.C. showed up with one of the head people at Invisible Children. Tonight the group is either spending the night in a backyard in Oregon Hill or at a church to wait for a mogul to show up tomorrow.

As a group we have been waiting to be rescued for about 60 hours now with most of the time spent outside. If I get enough work done in the next few hours I will rejoin the group wherever they are spending the night, if not I'll meet them in the park in the morning and wait for the mogul to show up as I study for my test that is at 4:00.

Rumor has it that Gavin DeGraw will come to rescue us before his show at The National but Killswitch Engage said they would yesterday before their show but they were too busy with interviews. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully our luck will change and we will be rescued.

Updates will come!

INFJ

Several weeks ago I remembered a class activity I did during one of my first semester classes senior year. As a class we took the Myers-Briggs personality test then discussed our results. At the end of the test I learned that I am an INFJ; a person who is Introverted, relies on iNtuition and Feelings and often makes Judgements on every experience they have.

There is no argument that I am an introvert. I have always kept to myself and only had a few close friends, it is just how I am.

As for intuition, I use it all of the time. I tend to rely in my gut feelings rather than logic. I do use logic at times because society often forces me to but I'd rather trust my intuition.

I'm a pretty emotional person so the feeling part makes sense. Almost any movie can make me cry but they can also make me so happy that I will be in a good mood for the rest of the week.

Judging in this case is not what most people think. It is not about coming to conclusions about things before you know everything about it but it is rather about wanting to discuss things with people, such as a movie, to share your opinion. I do this all the time, I have opinions about anything and everything and love to talk about them.

Where Have You Been?

Today I was cleaning up the mess of change at the bottom of my purse and putting it back into my change-purse that had somehow managed to empty out some time in the last week. As I was putting the change away I noticed a penny that looked a little different. It had two stalks of wheat on it. Originally I thought it was a coin from another country that I have collected on my travels but after closer inspection I realized that it was a penny, a penny from 1946. After looking at the noticeable differences, I began to think of the places that this penny has been to and the hands that it has passed through over the last 63 years. I'd like to think that it has been to almost every state and even out of the country. I can imagine that it might have been someone's lucky penny at one point in its life. Maybe they were having a bad day, where nothing was going in their favor, then they spotted this lonely penny sitting on the sidewalk, face side up, and picked it up causing their luck to change for the day. After that day they would carry the penny anywhere they would expect trouble hoping that it would bring them the same sort of luck that it did on the day they found it. I would love to have a conversation with this penny, to talk to him about where he has been and the characters he has met along the way, from the little boy that picked him up at the park to the famous person that carried him around in the bottom of their pocket for a week only to casually trade him off for coffee or cigarettes. This conversation would be the most wonderful conversation but sadly I am stuck in the real world where objects like pennies can't talk to us to share their stories.

First Meetings

So today was the day when my roommates for next year finally met my parents. Overall it went well, it was a little awkward but it went well for what it was. We had breakfast at our house and sat around to talked about next year mostly. About decorating, safety, and pets. All of us really want pets and were worried that our landlord (my dad) wouldn't let us have a dog. He's fine with every other pet we plan on getting, a cat, hedgehog, and a rabbit, but he is worried about the well being of a dog. He doesn't care if the dog scratches up the floors or scuffs up the walls, all he cares about is if the dog is left alone with no attention all day. So today, I think we have convinced my dad that the dog will get plenty of love. We are living so close to campus that even if we don't have a lot of time between classes that we will still be able to stop by for a few minutes to let to dog out into the backyard to do its business, run around and go back inside, until we have time later to take it for a real walk. So the dog we are going to get will hopefully be a corgi. Not my top choice (I would rather have a bulldog or a scrappy mutt) but it will be Hannah's dog and she will get to choose.

woops! the picture ended up being bigger than expected. (i just grabbed it from the internet)

Why Can't I...

Just stop going to school and take pictures. A few weeks ago my digital camera broke. I tried every everything to try to get it to work, I even looked up stuff online, but my camera just wouldn't turn on! After I told my dad about my camera he told me that it would be taken care of, that he would give me his camera, and send mine off to Chicago, to canon to get repaired. While I was upset that I wouldn't have a camera for a week and couldn't take and pictures, I was really excited to get his camera. He has (now I have) a Nikon D70, I finally have a Digital SLR to play around with.

Friday night I took my new camera to the show at The National (Fun and Manchester Orchestra) and have since decided that I just want to go to shows and to take photos of the bands, either selling them to the bands or just working for magazines. At least for a summer it would be nice to either tour with a band or intern with a magazine so I can get a press pass to get closer to the stage to get better shots. I really just love taking photos and to pair that with seeing live music would be the best.

The picture above is one of the photos from the night. Its a pretty good but it could be better. Some things could change, I could have been closer. People were in the way and I was just messing around with all of the settings. If I can manage to get closer, without people in the way, and to figure out the best settings to use on the camera, I could end up with some great photos. After that I just need to find a job that will allow me to just take pictures of the bands for a living.

Presentation Not-So-Flop

So my presentation last week was not as much of a flop as my last one. I think part of the reason was that I was more comfortable with the information. I had done lots of research on AIDS in Africa a few years ago, and even more now, that I have read enough to feel at ease with the information. Though I felt better with my presentation this time, it was nowhere near perfect. I'm sure my body language wasn't the best, that I could have looked up more but I feel like there was some definite improvement from last time. As I have said before, presentations and public speaking will never be my thing. I am naturally an introvert, and getting up to speak in front of any size group will always make me feel uncomfortable. Over time I hope that I can be more comfortable in front of crowds, just enough so I can give a presentation and feel like I did well.

Show Time

So I haven't been to a concert in a long time until last week when I went to go see the Dave Matthew's Band back home. While I'm not an avid DMB fan, I felt that it was my responsibility as a 'Charlottesvillian' to go to the to Dave's first homecoming show since 2006. The music is good, great for chilling or driving, but most of the time I just prefer to listen to listen to other things. Even though I only recognized a few of the songs at the concert, not well enough to sing along, I had the most fantastic time. I even had the worst seat ever but loved every minute of the show. Concerts for me is one of the biggest displays of love out there. Whether it be for a small 100 person show or 16,000, in the case of DMB, everyone is coming together for a common goal; to have a good time and to show their appreciation and love for the music. Standing high above the crowd at the top of the stadium, I got to sit back and observe the love. The entire arena was dancing and having the most real, genuine fun that I have seen in a long time. I could just feel the most positive vibe filling the room. Yes, I know some of the happiness and overall good feelings were aided by outside sources such as alcohol and marijuana but the positive energy was pure.

I have noticed the good feelings at smaller shows too. Friday night I went to go see fun and Manchester Orchestra at The National and the crowd was significantly smaller than the one at DMB but the people were having just as much fun. The entire crowd was full of smiles, as I looked around, I noticed that everyone was allowing their happiness shine through. They were singing along and dancing, just enjoying life.

I had forgotten how much fun I have at shows. While I am not the most expressive person in the room, I still love the entire experience just as much as the guy next to me dancing away. I just like to stand back, enjoy the music, and take in the love.

Sun Overdose

I have forgotten how much sunburn sucks.

Its been a while since my last real sunburn, the last major one I can think of was when I went to Costa Rica for the first time in ninth grade with my family for spring break. It was a pretty bad burn but it was only my face, so it wasn't that bad.

The weekend before last I went down to William & Mary to visit a few friends from home (four of my good friends managed to get in and all decided to go). The weekend was great. Friday night I joined WM's relay for life. It was the first one that I have done and it was really moving; the number of people that got together showed that people still really do care about improving the world. The relay was a ton of fun, but I got no sleep (we didn't get back to the dorm until 7:00am). Saturday was pretty chill because we were so tired but Sunday was the day that I got the most epic sunburn ever.

I went to College Creek/Jamestown Beach with my friends and a bunch of others for the afternoon. After biking the 3 1/2 miles there, we just sat on the bank of the York River for almost three hours. Because I still had some of my tan leftover from Christmas break I didn't worry about putting sunscreen on anything but my face. When we decided to leave the only color change on my body was the slightest pink on the top of my legs (nothing to worry about), then we got to dorm and I started to change colors like a chameleon. My stomach started to look tan, then pink, then vibrant red. As we drove from Williamsburg to Richmond I could feel the rest of me turning red. When I got back to the dorm, I had the worst sunburn that I have ever had.

Sunburn is a terrible thing. I would be freezing cold but my skin would be burning up. Every time I would sit on something, get into bed, or even get dressed it felt like someone was trying to pull my skin off. Showering was worse, it felt like someone was either pouring scalding hot water on me or skinning me alive. No fun at all. I have finally gotten over the sunburn fever and the pain but now I feel like a molting snake with the chicken pox. My skin just keeps coming off (even if i thought it was all gone) and the accompanied itch is unbearable.

I hope I get over this soon. I want to get back to normal but a tanner normal.

(This might have been too much information but it is all I have been able to think about all week.)

Back to Basics: Test Scores Don't Lie response

Never in my life have I experienced the academic environment that Diane Ravitch describes in her essay. She talks about schools where students felt like it was bad to achieve straight As because they would be perceived as a 'nerd' or 'brain', where the cool thing was to do poorly in school. My high school and middle school (same place) was small and competitive. The teachers were always pushing the students to to better as well as the other students. Everyone understood that good grades could help lead to a better future, so a person was not considered 'uncool' just because they did well academically. In college it is sort of the same. The teachers expect the students to to well but the academic and social aspects of life are separated further than they were in high school. All of my friends here want to do the best so when we do well in a class it is thought of as a good thing rather than uncool.

response to "How does starting the research process with a question change the process itself?"

When there is no research question at the beginning of research the results tend to be vague, there's no focus, and once the writing begins the paper tends to lack focus too. By starting the process with a definite, specific question the researcher knows what exact information they need to look at within their topic; instead of having piles and piles of information to sort through, they might only have two. The question adds focus to the process and leads to a paper that is much easier to write.

Writing an Analysis of an Argument

Just like the article says, we are all going to have to analyze a piece of writing that contains an argument, its inevitable. Many of us have already analyzed arguments over and over but the article helps point out what to keep in mind while doing so.

The first thing to do is to look at the author's purpose, where they trying to persuade the reader or just report the facts. If the piece is meant to be argumentative it is sure to have transitions that 'imply the drawing of a conclusion' and verbs that imply proof. Examples of each include words such as therefore, because, and consequently, as well as, confirms, verifies, implies and proves.

The next thing to look at is the author's methods. Does the author offer evidence to help build their argument such as quotes from authorities and other statistics or even analogies. Once the author's methods are know you can move on to your own analysis where you discuss your interpretation of the argument or arguments that the author has presented.

Before you summarize your analysis and the author's argument it is a good idea to examine the authors persona or voice. The persona is how an author decides to present their work and evidence as well as themselves, or better yet, how they wish to be viewed. Authors often create their own strategies in their work that reveals their persona.

(Will respond/reflect on my argumentative essay from last semester when I find it...)

Fantastic!

The stress of looking for an apartment is over! For the last several months my friends and I have been searching all over for the perfect apartment but were never successful. We looked through craigslist, walked through the city looking for 'for rent' signs and even looked at what some reality groups had to offer. We would always get close to finding the perfect apartment or house but there was always something wrong. The places were always either too expensive, didn't allow pets (a must), too far from campus, or just not in the right part of town. Because we were having trouble finding a place to live and we didn't want to end up 'homeless' for the next academic year, my dad suggested looking at some of the houses that were for sale in the fan, because, maybe, just maybe, he could figure something out. It turns out that he was able to figure something out and my friends and I are living in a wonderful house on the edge of the fan, super close to campus.

We've only had the keys for two days, but the fantastic news has made it impossible to focus on anything but the house for the last week. I can't imagine living anywhere else. The house is almost a sage green, but a little brighter, with an eggplant door. The inside has just been redone, the only things we need to add are a washer/dryer stacker unit, furniture, and art for the walls. We even have a small backyard with some grass and a patio! The back yard will be great for our one dog or possible two dogs. The three of us just can't stop thinking and talking about the house, it is just perfect, almost too perfect.

I'm looking forward to leaving the dorms and moving in to a house, a real house with several bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and enough bedrooms for everyone to have their own. I wish I could say that my experience in the dorm has been wonderful but it is almost the complete opposite of that. For the first month or two it was great, I got to have a room all of my own (well sort of, I have a roommate) but I think I was still in shock of just living on my own. After the initial high of a new life wore off, I realized that I was going to have to share a tiny room with someone that I didn't know, suffer through several hours long fire alarms in the middle of the night and return to my room only to discover that my roommate has her boyfriend over. In the house I can decorate as I wish, putting nails in the wall (something the dorm does not allow) to hang my paintings and photographs. A few other great things that I will be able to do is to burn candles and incense in my room, both of which are stress relievers, I've had to somehow manage an entire academic year without two of my main relaxers. I can also bake and cook! Two things that I love to do, it also means no more gross Shafer. We will have pets too! Some of the pets include a dog, cat, hedgehog and either an other dog or just a rat or bunny.

For the next few months I plan on decorating my room, and, with the help of my friends, decorating the common areas. We already have so many ideas, we just now have to make them happen. Some of the ideas might be a little too ambitious, but we're excited and allowed to think big. We have plans for making our house the best on the block. I'm so happy about finally having a house that I could just keep writing what we plan on doing with the house, how happy I am to be leaving the dorm, and the plans we have for next year but I think right now is a good time to stop before I get too carried away.