Sorry...

Posts will be up later, to make up for me being busy or lazy.

First week, or, I am so tired.

First week update.

Tuesday was majorly eventful. Classes started, I met the best Professor ever, and I started work again. Oh yeah, and a new President.

My schedule this semester includes:
English 102
Intro to Comparative Politics
America and the World
Cultural History of the NYPD
and Intro to Digital Photo.

I went to one of each of these classes, before deciding that I hate the TA teaching Intro to Comp Politics. He assigned us three textbooks, which would cost me nearly $300 used. He also told us about some major assignments we would have to do, and he had the most boring voice.

Now, my America and the World professor, on the other hand, is quite possibly already in my top five favorite teachers ever. She's technically a Dr of Political Science, she obviously is passionate about it, and she's funny. And she gave me a special permission code, so I'm switching into her Intro to Poli class. I attended one of her classes later in the week, and it was filled with students who were older and knew their way around the department.

It turns out that I had met my English professor before, when I interviewed his wife for a story on student ambassadors from Syria. He seems okay as a teacher so far, but mandatory freshman writing is boring, so I hope he'll try to make it more interesting than last semester.

Cultural History of the NYPD is already shaping up to be the WTF course of the year. Though there have been a few books written about the NYPD, there are no textbooks, so the professor made two of them from hundreds of articles he wrote and found. The problem: instead of putting them online, he gets them bound by a copy shop. $130 for them. But he makes up for it by teaching a very interesting class. Later this year he will do a walking tour of NYC, pointing out places of violence, riots, and other things of interest to a police department.

Finally, Intro to Digital Photo. This class will be very little "How to use your camera" and very much "How to make pictures look better in Photoshop. Of course, this is cool with me. I know how to do a little in Photoshop already, mostly from messing around at newspaper and from playing with paint.net and Gimp.

Oh yeah, and I started working again, 16+ hours a week. And newspaper. And I attended an RA interest meeting. BUSY BUSY BUSY.

Woo. Paper.

To be honest, I'm not thrilled with my coverage. I didn't have the time or space to cover it properly. http://media.www.rutgersobserver.com/media/storage/paper822/news/2009/01/20/News/Violence.In.Gaza.Sparks.Worldwide.Protests-3590482.shtml

And I'm less than thrilled with the rest of the paper. I miss working with broadsheet. Tabs are ugly. Layout is cookie-cutter, with massive pull quotes instead of art for most stories. Seriously, I'm compiling my ideas, and then I'm going to pitch a redesign.

ALSO: FOR SOME REASON WE DON'T RUN STORIES ON PAGE ONE. THIS BUGS ME SO MUCH.

Getting back

The new semester technically does not start until tomorrow, but I'm already exhausted.

I returned to campus on Wednesday, and hung out with Greg and worked on the Observer. It wasn't until last night I realized how much I missed doing layout. Maybe I should revise my career goals.

I went into the office at eight, spent about a half-hour getting my stuff together and another half-hour working with my photos, then marathon laid out the news section. I was done before midnight, and was pretty satisfied with the results. Sarah, my EIC, said she liked them too.

The hardest part of my position so far was having to make an entire page from scratch when some of the writers didn't produce, in 12 hours. The second hardest was, after deciding that the page will be about Gaza and the protests around the world, summarizing the conflict into three paragraphs, especially after not being exactly up-to-date on what was happening. Hooray research!

One year ago...

I received a thin cardboard envelope in the mail, with the news that I had been selected as one of the Free Spirits 2008.

I set up a facebook group about three hours later.

Today, I got a message from the male Free Spirit from Delaware, asking about the conference. I can no longer remember the whole trip, but so much came rushing back. Crosswords on bus 2, WWII monument in the rain, Betty Baye- "In the dark, he looks like Denzel Washington, turn the light on and he's Flava Flav!", Matt Rist- "I look like Denzel Washington in the dark.", shaking Tim Russert's hand, the Gala, dancing on the boat until the lights downstairs flickered, "Giant Panda", ME Katie and I putting the green team ahead, only to lose every round after, accents, and finally realizing that I was so over high school.

A lot has changed in a year, but the Free Spirit conference cemented one thing in my head: Free Spirits will change the world.

So what have I been up to?

Sleeping. Eating salads. Reading roleplaying books. And knitting.

I would like you to meet the best hat ever:


I hate vacation.

[Sic]: Oops.

Mom: Hey Carol, how come the bathrooms weren't cleaned like I asked?
Me: Oh, I thought I dreamed that conversation.

Apparently, I did not.

Blog Your Passion

For Christmas, my dad gave me a copy of The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. The thing I took most to heart? "Blog your passion."

Too bad I'm not feeling particularly passionate at the moment. People who know me well know that I absolutely love trivia. Any kind of mutinae, no matter how useless, is interesting to me in small doses. This makes it really, really difficult to choose one thing to focus on for too long. I'm considering following in the footsteps of A.J. Jacobs and reading the Encyclopedia, just so I always have something new to talk about. By the way, look at his books: The Know-It-All, about him reading Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Year Of Living Biblically, which is exactly what it sounds like. Both are interesting, humorous, and introspective stories about his quests to find something.

I go through stages in my life where I obsess over something, learning everything I can. Ask me trivia about Harry Potter, Monty Python, the Beatles or King Arthur. I dare you.

So I'm not sure what to blog about, other than the random stuff I am already doing. I'm thinking about a series of reviews of the web comics and serial novels I read, or possibly posting a serial novel of my own.

Any suggestions?

Resolutions!

1. I will post in this blog more. And I will post about more serious things.
2. I will maintain at least a B in all of my classes.
3. I will not miss deadlines for the paper.
4. I will post in my new photo blog Looking Glass Lens at least three times per week.
5. I will see the Free Spirits again.

Wish me luck.

So close to the New Year....

I'll have my resolutions done for a post tomorrow. Tonight is for a party.

Also, tonight is for a little retrospective on the things that really changed my life this past year. I will narrow it down to three.

First, and possibly the most obvious, is my acceptance and enrollment at Rutgers. Throughout high school I was a bit of a slacker, only applying myself to the things I really cared about. College has been good to me and for me. Now, instead of lazing around and letting the consequences roll off my back, I actually do what I'm supposed to. That means balancing a full course-load of school work, a 20 hour per week job, and an editorial position on the newspaper. And I love it. I am not sad to have left high school behind.

After that, I would have to place my time spent with the Free Spirits. I include our flurry of facebook activity as we received our letters of acceptance in this, as well as our refusal to let go. (Oh yeah, and the actual conference.) Journalism, especially print journalism, is not a thriving profession right now. But I sincerely believe that the 102 young adults that gathered for a week in March will change the world.

And, most definately not least, is the passing of my high school journalism teacher, my mentor, and my friend, Jane Hopper. I met her my freshman year of high school, when I was just 14, and all I knew about journalism was that my favorite character on the West Wing was CJ, and all I knew about writing was that I was good at it. I never expected to end up where I am, and it is all thanks to her.

I have tried several times this year to express in writing how much she meant to me and how much I miss her. Ironically, this is the one thing I cannot do to my satisfaction. Nothing works. But I know she knows.

Happy New Year.

Guess what I did today

Sledding: Verb The act of throwing oneself, and possibly others, down an snowy or icy incline, on a specific toy intended for such activity. May result in wet clothes, bruises, and general soreness.

At Em's request I led an expedition to the local sledding hill, accompanied by a few other neighborhood kids. It was massive amounts of awesome, especially because we pulled out the old mini-luge that I won in a mini-luge competition when I was 12. It is still the best sled ever invented. At the end of our quest (when my jeans were finally to soaked for me to just tough it out any longer) we linked two sleds together for the final run.

2 sleds + 6 youths, ages 11 to six days shy of 19 + well-iced sled hill =

Rose, Rising presents... presents

You will, eventually, get the post on Christmas music like a promised.

Last weekend I finally tracked down where and when I can watch the West Wing, Bravo at 8:00 and 9:00 am. So I have been celebrating my new-found "free time" and watching it each morning. It is in season three, at the moment, and today they aired one titled "Bartlet for America." Season 3's Christmas episode.

Besides the festive decor, there is very little separating this episode out from the others as a holiday show, unlike the two previous Christmas episodes. No, it is much more somber, as the characters deal with the outcome of the President hiding his MS from the people.

Anyway, in this episode, President Bartlet gives a present to Leo, a framed napkin with "Bartlet for President" written on it in pen. It is the same napkin that Leo gave him when he proposed the then-governor's run for president.

In the next episode (which also ran today) Charlie gave the President a replica of a map of the Holy Land in the 1700s. Throughout the show, the rest of the cast advises the President to not hang it in the White House, as it does not recognize Israel. He thinks that they are being stupid, as Israel did not exist then. Naturally, as he can use now use it to irritate the other characters, he loves the map even more.
***

So, what is the best present that you have received? I can't decide on one for me, I'll let you know when I narrow it down to three or so.

Holiday Food

Holiday Food

Yes, I said Holiday, and not Christmas. No, this has nothing to do with being a secular liberal and everything to do with celebrating more than one holiday in between mid-November and January 1st. I was thinking about writing about Christmas music, but that's a post far too long to write before the Daily Show comes on. I also need to do more research on it.

So, a menu of goodness that reminds me of of the holidays:

Appetizers:
My family isn't really big on appetizers. Possibly because my mom always buys Girl Scout nuts to put out, and always forgets. Always.

Soup:
My mom usually makes fish pho (said fuh, and is supposed to have a particular accent mark, but I don't know what it is) for dinner on Christmas Eve. But there is a new family favorite. Squash soup. It made its debut this Thanksgiving, and was delicious.

Entree:
There are all the classics like Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas ham. Screw that, I'm going to talk about lasagna. Specifically, chicken alfredo lasagna. My second-favorite holiday dish, it is my annual request for my birthday dinner. (Dec. 27, for those who might not know.) Mmmm, so good.

Side:
This year at the family "What I'm thankful for" session, I was thankful for the mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Seriously, they are the most delicious stuff ever. Easily makes the list as my most favorite holiday food ever.

Dessert: Christmas cookies. You will get a review of them soon, I promise.

Snack: Candy canes! Most years Dad has brought home a box of these sweets that we spend five minutes adding to the tree, and the rest of the season taking off.

Drink: Eggnog! Okay, it tastes like weird vanilla and has the same consistency as melted ice cream. But that's what makes it so good!


In prep for next week's blog, what is your favorite Christmas song?

CORRECTION

In my Dec. 7 post entitled Tree Time pt. 2, I incorrectly identified an ornament as the Starship Enterprise. It is in fact the Starship Voyager. I regret the error.

Promotion!

I am now officially the Observer's NEWS EDITOR!

Tree Time pt 2!

I love Christmas trees, to an extent that will not be made wholly apparent by the random pictures I took before heading back to college today. Even now, as I look back at what I decided to photograph, I wonder why I skipped some of the family favorites, such as our blue hippo. Or covered bridge. OR MY SPACESHIPS! Clearly, this will need to become a three part series, with an update on more family memories when I'm home to take pictures of them.



Here is one side of our tree. Why did I only do one side? I'm not sure. Also, there is an angel on top of it now, but that didn't go up before I had to give Mom her camera back. Oh, and there is a train set underneath, one large enough for all twenty seven cars and five engines we own. We take Christmas very seriously.


The golden pear! Over a decade ago, we had a tree calamity, where the tree fell, and many of the ornaments broke. My grandparents on my father's side gave us a few of theirs after, to help replenish our collection. This highly-reflective pear is one of them, and one of Dad's favorites.
The yellow ribbon in the upper left is one of our oldest traditions--a reminder that not everyone is as lucky as we are to have our family safe and near for Christmas.
The sequined green and yellow ornaments are part of a set of six and are the oldest ones we have. They are from Mom's side of the family, and pre-date her by at least two generations.
On the far left is a portion of a walrus on a motorcycle.


Though the star of this photo is obviously my ballerina, given to me during my dancing days (and lovingly repaired every time her damn arm breaks off) I want to talk about the lower left. I'm fairly certain that it came from a visit to the Capitol building. Every time we go ANYWHERE, we try to find a Christmas ornament, so we can tell everyone stories about that trip.


To help prove my point, we have this guy here, who I found at Medieval Times. He, and two others like him, are the newest of the whole tree, as I bought them on Friday. Behind him is a rather good example of the not-so-elegant fare that also graces our tree: a wreath I made in Girl Scouts.






















I don't even know where to start with this one. Okay, most obvious first. Dead center is a fish catching Santa. I feel like there should be some more description of it, but that is all it is. Slightly hidden above that is the Capitol dome. To the right is one of three kings. To the left is one of at least six panda ornaments. The upper right has a baby bootie, probably from Em's first Christmas, but it might be Dennis's.


This one is featured mainly for the reappearance of the panda, here held by a mother brown bear. (Anyone want to guess why?) To the left is an apple. We have twenty or so apples as fillers, and I ALWAYS get stuck putting them up. There is also a zebra butt, on the far left.



This picture serves little purpose, except to showcase our slightly demonic-looking angel musicians. Oh, and STARSHIP ENTERPRISE!


And here is Santa on a Jeep. He's another one of mine, given to me by my Aunt Claire, who reads this blog and thinks I curse too much. The boys each got one as well; Joe has Santa on a plane and Dennis's is a helicopter. Just to the right of it is a bauble from the Grand Canyon. But what's that, hiding in the shadows on the left? Let's turn the flash on and find out!




NANANANANANANANA BATMAN!

Tree Time

On something that is most commonly called a "whim," I went home today. Dennis and I set up the tree in about 30 minutes, including the time it took to saw off the bottom so it would drink properly, and sweeping up afterwards.

Now, Dennis and I are Christmas nuts. Seriously. So when Mom said if we put up the lights and garland tonight, we can do the real decorating tomorrow, we jumped on it. It took about two hours, most of that dedicated to the longest question ever asked. I'll post it here eventually. But now... pictures!



Here is Dennis with boxes and boxes of Christmas. This photo is actually pretty misleading, the white bag of lights in the foreground is on top of a very large carton, and the green and red tub in the back is on top of another tub. And there is another box behind them.



Dennis and I took our sweet time choosing garland. Yes, we have four different colored garlands (plus a fake fir one) and yes, we pretty much always pick the same ones.




Gold and colored lights rule the day!

Dad was proud. And look, on the right! ANOTHER CHRISTMAS BOX.

More photos tomorrow, as the decorations really go up.

20 in. hole x 30 min. = ?

A pretty decent column, if I do say so myself.
The morality of Prop 8 was discussed in another column, so I didn't touch that part.

Saved the paper tingle

Perhaps the other journalists know the tingle I referenced in the title of this post. It is the one where the problem article crops up at the very last second, and someone needs to do something about it. In my time on the Roxbury Review, it was often up to me to fix it. Guess what happened last night.

As the Oberver is coming out tomorrow, two days after the break, it is reasonable to have a slightly thinner issue. However, do to an oversight somewhere along the way, we ended up with a column that was unprintable, and a huge hole on the one of the Op Ed pages. So, I wrote a companion column to the other one that was running on the page. In less than two hours.

I'm proud of it, though it is not the best piece I have ever written, and I was writing to space, I am proud of it.

I'll link when it is posted.

[sic]: Joe, on dictionaries

Joe: Hey, you have your computer out. Can you look find an alliterative dictionary online?
Me: Strange look
Joe: I guess that would be a regular dictionary.