This is a cool site I just stumbled upon. It's call Learn Something Everyday:
http://www.learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk/
Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
A Piece of My Heart
What a weekend! On Friday I went out to dinner with Gabi and Mandi at Murasaki, a local sushi place. Then I went to Union Jacks with Terence and his roommate for a night of dancing. That was so much fun!
Saturday I had to do a review for The Eagle of a play called "A Piece of My Heart" I'll post a link on Thursday when the article runs in the paper but for now, here's a YouTube video talking about the play.
It was a great performance and I can't wait for my review to be published. I didn't learn that much about Vietnam in school and "A Piece of My Heart" is base off of 26 of 1,500 interviews conducted of women who served in Vietnam as nurses, civilian humanitarians, and intelligence officers. I'm happy I went. I'm also writing a review of a comedy CD, Greg Giraldo. I didn't think he was funny, he was actually really offensive, but it's hard to write that in 600 words. Seeing as I just did it in a sentence. "Don't listen to him. He's offensive not funny." There, I finished my review.
Today I woke up late and wrote my reviews and then, since it was a BEAUTIFUL day, Terence and I went to Mattie Stepanek's peace park. I heard about Mattie when I saw his mother, Jeni, on the news the other night. Her son suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, dysautonomic mitochrondrial myopathy from which he died before his 14th birthday. His mother has just written a memoir about Mattie which is why she was on the news, but her son was astounding. Mattie published poems of peace and advocated on Capitol Hill for peace. Mattie had two other siblings who died from the same disease, and at the age of three, he learned to cope with the death of his brother through poetry. He published five books of poems, some of which were New York Times best sellers!
Mattie and his family live in Rockville, MD. After his death they created a park in his name where a statue of him is in addition to football fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, a massive playground, a dog park, and more. On benches scattered around the park quotes from his poems are posted. It was a fantastic experience not only to see his mother talk about Mattie on the news last week, but to go to the park and see how much the community he lives in still loves him.
I ordered his books through the consortium from school so I'll be sure to share some poems when I read them hopefully next week.
After that Terence and I went to Mi Ranchero (which I'll review on Yelp later) a Mexican restaurant we have wanted to go to since he lived there. It was fantastic. Now I'm winding down the night, posting photos, writing articles, getting ready for the week and getting ready to watch the Eagles game.
Wishing everyone a great week!
Saturday I had to do a review for The Eagle of a play called "A Piece of My Heart" I'll post a link on Thursday when the article runs in the paper but for now, here's a YouTube video talking about the play.
It was a great performance and I can't wait for my review to be published. I didn't learn that much about Vietnam in school and "A Piece of My Heart" is base off of 26 of 1,500 interviews conducted of women who served in Vietnam as nurses, civilian humanitarians, and intelligence officers. I'm happy I went. I'm also writing a review of a comedy CD, Greg Giraldo. I didn't think he was funny, he was actually really offensive, but it's hard to write that in 600 words. Seeing as I just did it in a sentence. "Don't listen to him. He's offensive not funny." There, I finished my review.
Today I woke up late and wrote my reviews and then, since it was a BEAUTIFUL day, Terence and I went to Mattie Stepanek's peace park. I heard about Mattie when I saw his mother, Jeni, on the news the other night. Her son suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, dysautonomic mitochrondrial myopathy from which he died before his 14th birthday. His mother has just written a memoir about Mattie which is why she was on the news, but her son was astounding. Mattie published poems of peace and advocated on Capitol Hill for peace. Mattie had two other siblings who died from the same disease, and at the age of three, he learned to cope with the death of his brother through poetry. He published five books of poems, some of which were New York Times best sellers!
Mattie and his family live in Rockville, MD. After his death they created a park in his name where a statue of him is in addition to football fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, a massive playground, a dog park, and more. On benches scattered around the park quotes from his poems are posted. It was a fantastic experience not only to see his mother talk about Mattie on the news last week, but to go to the park and see how much the community he lives in still loves him.
I ordered his books through the consortium from school so I'll be sure to share some poems when I read them hopefully next week.
After that Terence and I went to Mi Ranchero (which I'll review on Yelp later) a Mexican restaurant we have wanted to go to since he lived there. It was fantastic. Now I'm winding down the night, posting photos, writing articles, getting ready for the week and getting ready to watch the Eagles game.
Wishing everyone a great week!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
It's a Michael Buble and Rachael Ray kind of a day
Wednesdays are my day off but I have this awful habit of making plans on that day, since I have nothing else going on. I played hooky on Monday and skipped work so now I'm making up my hours . . . on Wednesday. BUT I just came from having my senior portraits taken ((AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)). They weren't that bad. The photographer was this lovely woman who laughed at my jokes when usually it's an awkward man who is incapable of smiling. So overall, a good experience. We'll see what kind of ugly mug I'm making in these photos when the proofs go to the house.
I started off my morning amazingly. I realized, while ironing my clothes for maybe the first time, that it was 10:17am and Rachael Ray was on. That show is my secret television indulgence. Today she had Michael Buble on, whose new CD Crazy Love came out on October 9th. Today, as I tuned in, a pregnant woman was professing her families love for his music with her husband. She was saying "the kids run around our house singing your songs and we listen to you all the time. We just love you." Her husband was oddly quiet but what else is he supposed to do when his wife is professing their love to someone else. She told Michael Buble that they were expecting their third child and they sing his songs to the baby all the time and Michael said, "Well, can I sing to the baby?" and the woman absolutely exploded. And of course, I did too. He got down on one knee as her husband pulled out a video camera and Michael Buble sang "I just haven't met you yet" to the baby. It was the cutest thing in the history of television. I love him.
The video below isn't of Michael Buble on Rachael Ray today, but it's his appearance on her show a year ago. As soon as today's show is posted online I'll share because it's just too cute to miss!
Another CD I'm really excited for is John Mayer's Battle Studies coming out on November 17th. I love the new single "Who Says" and from some of the previews of his CD leaked on YouTube it sounds like it's going to be a great album.
I also spoke with my grandma today when I called my mom to tell her my great senior portrait success story. That just made me super excited for Thanksgiving madness!
Happy Wednesday!!
I started off my morning amazingly. I realized, while ironing my clothes for maybe the first time, that it was 10:17am and Rachael Ray was on. That show is my secret television indulgence. Today she had Michael Buble on, whose new CD Crazy Love came out on October 9th. Today, as I tuned in, a pregnant woman was professing her families love for his music with her husband. She was saying "the kids run around our house singing your songs and we listen to you all the time. We just love you." Her husband was oddly quiet but what else is he supposed to do when his wife is professing their love to someone else. She told Michael Buble that they were expecting their third child and they sing his songs to the baby all the time and Michael said, "Well, can I sing to the baby?" and the woman absolutely exploded. And of course, I did too. He got down on one knee as her husband pulled out a video camera and Michael Buble sang "I just haven't met you yet" to the baby. It was the cutest thing in the history of television. I love him.
The video below isn't of Michael Buble on Rachael Ray today, but it's his appearance on her show a year ago. As soon as today's show is posted online I'll share because it's just too cute to miss!
Another CD I'm really excited for is John Mayer's Battle Studies coming out on November 17th. I love the new single "Who Says" and from some of the previews of his CD leaked on YouTube it sounds like it's going to be a great album.
I also spoke with my grandma today when I called my mom to tell her my great senior portrait success story. That just made me super excited for Thanksgiving madness!
Happy Wednesday!!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
There is Good News
I can be a part-time student next semester!!! I can get a jump star on my job search instead of spending this semester or even the summer after I graduate doing it. I did a little victory dance after I found out.
This week is crazier than I expected. I have a final project for the audio section of my Multimedia Production Skills course (we all know how I feel about that one) on Friday and a ton of stuff on my social schedule. But Friday at 2pm I'll be packing to head home for the weekend! Terence and I are going to NJ to celebrate Halloween this year. We're planning on going to Six Flags for Freight Fest! Hopefully the weather is good.
I'm in love with John Mayer's new song "Who Says." It's so therapeutic so I'm sharing some therapy with you.
This week is crazier than I expected. I have a final project for the audio section of my Multimedia Production Skills course (we all know how I feel about that one) on Friday and a ton of stuff on my social schedule. But Friday at 2pm I'll be packing to head home for the weekend! Terence and I are going to NJ to celebrate Halloween this year. We're planning on going to Six Flags for Freight Fest! Hopefully the weather is good.
I'm in love with John Mayer's new song "Who Says." It's so therapeutic so I'm sharing some therapy with you.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Photoblog/Designblog Advice?
I just spend a good portion of my day looking through alternate blogger templates for my photoblog or a possible place to put some of my designs online. Epic fail. Does anyone have any advice?
Here it is . . . the rant
I think I have done a fair job of not completely ranting on this blog. Most of it is mindless updates that probably a very small percentage of the internet community cares about, but for me it's therapeutic. So here is a rare but much needed therapeutic rant.
I have come to find what kind of professors I like and respect and which ones I don't. This semester I am confronted with one I love and some that I could do without. At the University, I have had a fair amount of adjuncts, which is totally fine, respectable even. They are working in the field simultaneously and I think might even have some better insights on the field (in this case Journalism) and how it effects us students today. Some of them are young. This isn't true of all of them, but some. I had a web professor who was amazing. She was young, working for a web design firm and DEFINITELY knew her stuff. I learned a lot from her and am actually looking into some web design classes for next semester. Amazing. Now I have a professor who on day one spent the majority of the class on the don'ts. Don't be late to my class. Don't hand assignments in late. I'm older than I look. My class is harder than you think. 30 seconds matters, seriously, don't be late to my class. Okay, I get it. Having obtained almost a complete college degree, I would hope that I'm not dumb enough to be late, turn in an assignment late and disrespect a professor in the first week, but apparently some professors feel that it still needs to be said.
I thought back to some professors that I love and realized that on day one, they handed out the syllabus, asked for questions and dived right into the course work. Let me fall in love with your class and want to hand in the assignments on time, arrive on time, and respect you before you tell me not to. I'm over 21 and not an idiot. Having been late to my share of classes, I get that it doesn't roll well with the professors, which is enough for me to attempt not to do it.
Here's the kicker. On the second class the professor was a half an hour late. The allotted time for professors to be late is 15 minutes for adjuncts and 20 minutes for full time faculty. Being a sincere person, I usually give all professors 20 minutes because we live in a city. If you miss a metro or a shuttle bus even you're going to be at least 20 minutes late. 30 minutes though? We didn't even get anything productive done with the remaining 40 minutes. We rushed through a program that by the end no one understood but everyone was frustrated.
This, as frustrating as it is, makes me respect the other professors more. One of my friends told me that life happens and some professors just refuse to acknowledge that sometimes it happens badly and to them, to everyone. Don't preach to me about being late and then waste 30 minutes of my time waiting for you. 30 seconds matters. Life happens. Own up to it. In the next class after the tardiness, she had the nerve to stop her sentence and scowl at every person (all 2 of them) who walked in after 8:30am. After that she would forget what she was talking about and hesitate getting back to what she was talking about. That is more of a disruption to my learning experience than them actually being late. Why? Because it's 8:30 in the morning and life happens. People WILL be late. Even the professors tardiness I can excuse, but not the continual lecture even after she herself was late.
Let's all move on and learn what we're here to learn. Which for the record is not how to effectively make someone cry by scowling at them.
I have come to find what kind of professors I like and respect and which ones I don't. This semester I am confronted with one I love and some that I could do without. At the University, I have had a fair amount of adjuncts, which is totally fine, respectable even. They are working in the field simultaneously and I think might even have some better insights on the field (in this case Journalism) and how it effects us students today. Some of them are young. This isn't true of all of them, but some. I had a web professor who was amazing. She was young, working for a web design firm and DEFINITELY knew her stuff. I learned a lot from her and am actually looking into some web design classes for next semester. Amazing. Now I have a professor who on day one spent the majority of the class on the don'ts. Don't be late to my class. Don't hand assignments in late. I'm older than I look. My class is harder than you think. 30 seconds matters, seriously, don't be late to my class. Okay, I get it. Having obtained almost a complete college degree, I would hope that I'm not dumb enough to be late, turn in an assignment late and disrespect a professor in the first week, but apparently some professors feel that it still needs to be said.
I thought back to some professors that I love and realized that on day one, they handed out the syllabus, asked for questions and dived right into the course work. Let me fall in love with your class and want to hand in the assignments on time, arrive on time, and respect you before you tell me not to. I'm over 21 and not an idiot. Having been late to my share of classes, I get that it doesn't roll well with the professors, which is enough for me to attempt not to do it.
Here's the kicker. On the second class the professor was a half an hour late. The allotted time for professors to be late is 15 minutes for adjuncts and 20 minutes for full time faculty. Being a sincere person, I usually give all professors 20 minutes because we live in a city. If you miss a metro or a shuttle bus even you're going to be at least 20 minutes late. 30 minutes though? We didn't even get anything productive done with the remaining 40 minutes. We rushed through a program that by the end no one understood but everyone was frustrated.
This, as frustrating as it is, makes me respect the other professors more. One of my friends told me that life happens and some professors just refuse to acknowledge that sometimes it happens badly and to them, to everyone. Don't preach to me about being late and then waste 30 minutes of my time waiting for you. 30 seconds matters. Life happens. Own up to it. In the next class after the tardiness, she had the nerve to stop her sentence and scowl at every person (all 2 of them) who walked in after 8:30am. After that she would forget what she was talking about and hesitate getting back to what she was talking about. That is more of a disruption to my learning experience than them actually being late. Why? Because it's 8:30 in the morning and life happens. People WILL be late. Even the professors tardiness I can excuse, but not the continual lecture even after she herself was late.
Let's all move on and learn what we're here to learn. Which for the record is not how to effectively make someone cry by scowling at them.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
After thoughts
I haven't written in a while. A lot has been happening I just haven't known how to put it in words.
I find myself in front of T's television watching Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Not a game I particularly care about but I get my personal computer time.
I am well on my way to finishing my Christmas shopping by Halloween. I'm on a massive hunt for dark green wrapping paper. I am done with the major gifts though which is satisfying. Now it's time to hit the books.
I move to the audio section of my Multimedia Production Skills class this week which I'm nervous about. It's like starting a new class again. I hear the professor is intense, but not if you do the work in a timely manner. I am "finished" my web site for the web section. It's due Tuesday morning but I just have a few things to tweak before then (http://eagle1.american.edu/~nk2168a/index.html).
I'm also getting to see Hilary and Mike from my Europe trip this week! A much needed reunion. We just have to find a good place to meet downtown. Suggestions?
Terence and I might also try and catch a Nationals game this week, I think it's their last week. Trying to get in all the fun outdoor activities before it gets a little colder.
I haven't been doing well about uploading my photos to my photo blog in a timely manner, but rest assured, I did take a lot of good ones this weekend. Today, in an effort to up my mood, Terence and I went to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/meadowlark/) which are only four miles from him. It was beautiful.
I think we're going to try and find a drive in movie theater. That would be a cool experience. I found this web site (http://www.thedctraveler.com/drive-in-movies/) with a list of some "local" theaters, most are at least an hour away though. Maybe there are some in New Jersey?
I am going to make a conscious effort to keep up with this and stay up to date. We'll see how that goes.
Have a good week.
NK
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