High school VS College

                I thought I would discuss the connection between Southern and I. To boil it down more, I wanted to express how I see and relate to SCSU. For me, it’s all about the people. I tend to want to express and have input in everything with people. That’s why I was scared people would not take me seriously.

                When I came to Southern, I was afraid it would be just like high school. The typical idea of the group you hang out with (stereo types) and having to watch yourself around people. Yet it was much different. I noticed that here, every one is the same, we just want an education. But at the same time, we all come from different towns, back rounds, and different ideas. There are no boundaries with people here, we are all similar, yet we are all not. There is no such thing as a stereo type, I mean overall, we are just people. Everyone gets along with everyone.

The Mean Girls Map to the high school

 cafe

                We all remember in high school when all the freshmen got picked on by the upper class men. At Southern, this does not exist. I end up meeting new people every day, and it doesn’t matter whether I am a freshman. I’ve hung out with kids in my grade, from seniors to professors. We are all one, we’re all  just college students.

                The other difference I noticed is that everyone is nice. So far, I don’t think I’ve met one mean person. For example, when I walk from Engleman to Morril, a complete stranger will hold the door for me, even if I am ten feet behind them.

                Sadly, there is still that group of people that never quite transferred mentally from high school. However, I am lucky enough to notice this in people, and I am smart enough to stay away. Overall, in college, people are so much more real and honest about anything and everything.

Girl's Night

                I told you guys I was going to give you an update on my plans for Thursday. Since it involved me being on campus at a school event, I decided to make it this week’s campus safari. (Hopefully it is acceptable) Anyways, I’ll discuss my night out. I ended up staying in my friend’s dorm and I went to the Halloween Dance at the student center on Thursday night. I had a blast.

The Girls and I dressed up at the Student Center

                I originally wanted to go out and party with people to get over my fear of crowds and I think I definitely got over it. I’m pretty proud of myself. We all dressed up and went out. At first, there was not a lot of people at the dance but, after about twenty minutes of us being there a lot of people showed up. I was a little overwhelmed when so many people arrived yet I just tried to enjoy myself. My friends know I am not good with crowds so we decided to take water breaks every now and then to get away from the clusters of people.  

                 It got a little over crowded and sweaty, so we left after about two hours. Overall, I am happy with myself because I really wasn’t nervous and I had tons of fun. It was awesome going to such a fun school activity. I never realized the school has so many events (practically every night) for all the students. It’s a great way to get students involved and to keep them out of trouble. Also, I was excited that it was free and we got free candy.

Me going to bed (At 3 am)

                After the dance, we went to my friend’s suite and had girl’s night in because the weather was nasty. We ordered pizza and goofed off all night. We even got in trouble for being too loud. Even though I was tired because we went to bed late, I am glad I made new friends and enjoyed a new experience.

In A Crowded Room

                One of my worst fears are crowds of people. It’s really hard for me because I love music and I attend a lot of concerts. Even though I love going, I get scared because people get really into the music and start acting crazy and start moshing. Before, I have freaked out in crowded places and my friends have had to calm me down.        

                                Now I have realized I am in college now, and I should enjoy myself. I am not a big party person but I think it would be nice to go to a party or club and enjoy myself. I am excited yet nervous. I want to do this because I’ll be 19 in two months. I should have fun, enjoy myself, and not be afraid of crowds.

                So, here’s my plan: I am staying in my friend’s dorm tomorrow night because we are all dressing up and we are going to go out. I am really scared because this is definitely out of my comfort zone. My fear is all these strangers I don’t know all around me. It’s not like I feel they are judging me, it’s more of the mystery of people and how some outburst. I don’t know how to deal with belligerent people that make me uncomfortable. I am sure I’ll be fine because I will be with all of my friends and if anything happens they will be there.

                A lot of people on campus are dressing up in costumes tomorrow night to go out. My friends and I are doing the same. Some of us have our own costumes and others are in groups. My friend and I are dressing differently. I am going as an inmate and she is going to be a Ninja Turtle. Even though this isn’t about the actual experience, I haven’t gone yet and will update on how it went.

VIDEO PROJECT

Link to project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M48N1cbVyBA

Midterm Mazes

     Since it's the peak of midterms, I thought I would discuss how my grades are. I have mainly As and Bs. I do need to bring one grade up but I know I can do it. Even though I need to bring up one grade I am overall pretty happy with my grades. I honestly thought I was doing a lot worse than what my grades reflected because I was lacking a little in effort in all my classes all together.

     But yes, I am happy overall. At least compared to other students. There are some kids I only know briefly, but they told me how they miss class all the time and how they are dropping a class because they are failing it. So, I consider myself lucky and accomplished. All the freshman may have bad grades because it's really hard to adjust from high school to college. But, as time goes on most will get the swing of things like I did.

     I am happy where I am at because I could be doing worse. I am also a lot further along in school so far than I expected to be. Before school started I was actually really scared that I was going to do bad. Even though I am doing good I knew and still know that even though I get all my homework done every night, I still need to work on time management because I still tend to do some assignments last minute. I know that if I do this, I can most likely become a straight A student. My goals for this semester are to bring my grades up to mostly As. I really want to get honors or the dean's list. All I have to do is get better time management and push myself a little harder and I know I can do it.
HERE'S A LINK WITH STATISTICS AND TIPS FOR FRESHMAN COLLEGE STUDENTS:
http://www.anycollege.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/7/29/college-freshman-survival-guide--statistics-social-advice--freshman-fifteen-part-2

Exellent Expo

     For this weeks campus safari, I went with my friends to the majors expo. At first, I really didn't want to go because I already know my major. Yet my friend Cait begged me and I gave in. 

     Even though I didn't want to go, I am happy I went because overall, it was really fun. We visited the tables about Library Science, Psychology, and Social Work. The first table we went to was for Social Work. We went there because I am a Psychology major so it falls under my interests. I asked the professors a couple of questions. I want to become a drug and alcohol counselor and I wasn't sure if it falls under social work, psychology, or both. They said it depends. They gave me a lot of helpful information so now, I may minor in social work. The next table I went to was the Library Science table. My friend and I went because we were just curious. We had both never heard of Library Science. I asked a woman there what it meant. She was very nice and explained the term science was used in the involvement in research and the idea of being able to break down certain search engines. The last table we visited was the Psychology table. (Obviously because I am Psychology major) The people were very nice and gave me a pamphlet about all the careers involving a Psychology degree.

     Overall, the Expo was a lot of fun because we both got very useful information and free stuff.

Timing The Tries and Wins

     For my project, I think I've had really good time management. Last week and the week before, I did most of my interviews. Although, I still need 2 more: one from and RA/CC and I have scheduled an interview  with a professor for tomorrow. This week, I finally got my lap top back. As soon as  I got my laptop back, I worked on my project. I worked on it for 2 hours. I was really proud of myself.  I consider I am pretty much done, the video is already almost 6 minutes long, and all I need is the rest of my interviews to finish the project.

     For the hours I worked on my project, I would say I've worked about 7 hours all together: 

-2 hours interviewing

-1 hour brain storming

-I chose my song immediately :) 

-Half an hour adding materials to my laptop

-Half an hour figuring out the software

-2 hours putting the video together

=7 hours

     I still expect to probably tack on another 7 hours. I still need to add my last interviews and do more editing. Overall, I think I've used my time wisely. I did most of my project in 2 increments. Interviews last week and putting the video together this week. I feel on track because I don't feel rushed and I'm comfortable where I am at with the project. I know that I should've tried to do all of my interviews last week, that way all I would be doing this week is editing. So far I am happy where I am at.

Too Much Overlapping

     I finally downloaded the windows movie maker on my computer. At first, I played around to get to know the program. When I felt comfortable with the program, I decided to upload my interviews on to my computer and movie make. I was successfully able to paste it to a video, then realized I should make the beginning title and 'stars' first.

     It all went well but, when I tried to put up the slide with people names I had difficulty with the back round, so I had to delete it. For some odd reason, the slide with the names had a back round with hills and wouldn't let me change it. When I re-did the 2nd slide something else happened. It overlapped with my first title slide!

     I discovered that this happened because it was on a wrong setting for the transition in between the slides. When I fixed the problem I found my desirable colors, fonts, and transitions. Now that I have that figured out, I am going to try to add some music. (yet I am not sure if I should do the music after the video is finished)

    I'm really excited to find music. I've decided I want use music from my top 3 favorite bands. (All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, and Forever The Sickest Kids) However, I want to find a version of songs without the lyrics because I feel lyrics could distract from the overall project.

    Overall, I was just excited I was able to get the program running. I know in general, that I am terrible in technology. This whole video project is a new learning experience for me and I think so far, it's been a lot of fun. I look forward to learning the new technology, and to come out with a successful and fun project.

Hows It Going??

     When I started my video project last week I had trouble finding a topic but, then I figured my topic out. (the post before this explains the topic) Anyways, when I went on my mission to find people to interview. I was excited to start. The first place I started at was the psychology department. There, I met a girl who said her boyfriemd was an RA/CC. So her and I are meeting up later on next week.  

     Yesterday, I wanted to gather more people, but I was not successful. I went to seven Professors and they denied my request for a video interview. So, today I felt really desperate and decided to go to my teachers. Most of them were either busy or also denied my request.

     To that point, I thought I was going to give up but, my classmate Cait helped me out big time. She was able to introduce me to her INQ teacher who set up an appointment with me for an interview. ( I had to bribe her with chocolate)  After meeting Cait's teacher, her teacher introduced me to another professor who did an interview. He did a great interview and the great part was that he teaches about my video project topic. He was able to explain my topic for me a little better and now I fully understand it. My friend Cait that helped me do an interview too. Her interview was short and sweet. Today, I felt pretty accomplished even though I'm still not sure how to upload the interviews to the blog. I tried different ways and it didn't fit the format. 

     I have a lot more plans for the project including cool back rounds and may some comical interviews. I want my project to be interesting and funny. I want to inform people and entertain them.

Are All People Inteligent In Their Own Ways?

        During the library session on Thursday, I was able to narrow down my ideas for the video project after I got advice from our professor. I originally wanted to do mine on different types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

      After my advice was received, I decided to include the ideas of Howard Gardner to my project. I wasn't sure about what his ideas were, so I took out a book from him called Multiple Intelligences . I skimmed through the book and labeled a few pages. However, I wasn't really able to narrow down on a baseline, so I searched the internet for his summarized ideas. A website I found (web page on the bottom) showed his idea of how all people are intelligent, but in their own ways. According to Gardner, people are all intelligent but in different ways.

     These categories he discusses covers all kind of talents and passions. He discusses the 8 different types of intelligences. They are linguistic, logical, spatial, body/movement, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. ( I know some of these words are not common and you don't know what they mean, but, I will explain)

      So the first intelligence Gardner believes is called linguistic and verbal.This means that you are good with words, writing, and expressing feelings. You are usually good at telling tales. A person that is a good example would be some one who is a professional writer or a multi-lingual person.

     Logical intelligence is a talent in numbers and puzzles. A mathematician or some one who is very good at solving mathematical or complex problems is good example of a person with logical intelligence.

     A spatial intelligence is a talent of creativity, especially artistic creativity. This kind of person thinks abstractedly and is usually an artist. 

     Body/movement is the talent or intelligence of controlling the body's movements precisely in order to cause something to happen. (No I don't mean someone like Matilda) What I mean is some one like a dancer or an athlete. 

     Musical intelligence is obvious, some one who is good at singing or making music. An example would be a music artist, musical prodigy, or a music producer. ( I have an example of some one with musical intelligence. My high school friend Julia Wolfe writes and plays her own music and shes only 17. At the bottom of this post I'll put a Youtube link of one of  her pieces) 

     A person with interpersonal intelligence is some one who is good at communicating with other people. They can sense peoples moods and are good with connecting with others. An example would be a public speaker or some kind of social worker. 

    On the other hand, there is intrapersonal intelligence which is the opposite of interpersonal. This type of person is more if an introvert. This kind of person is more to be aware of situations because they do more watching and analyzing than communicating. ( No, I don't mean a stalker haha) A person like this would be a lawyer or writer.   

     A person with a naturalistic intelligence is very in touch with nature. An example is a farmer. ( Or a hippie)

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! AFTER READING THIS PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL ME WHICH INTELLIGENCE YOU HAVE :) 
         

http://www.youtube.com/user/juliawolfe#p/u/9/Yi16ytqnZjM

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/learningstyles/ss/multiple.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

Safely Safe....In College

     For this weeks campus safari, I decided to hit up the Health Center of SCSU. As soon as I walked in, Tina from our class was there. (Hi Tina!) Any way, I took a Web MD Campus magazine a a bunch of pamphlets on different STDs and ones about basic health.

    The magazine caught my eyes because I saw 2 words no one wants to hear : FRESHMAN FIFTEEN. I read the article in the magazine and it was very helpful. It had four rules: eat, snack, move, and drink water. it discussed that you should eat good filling meals and that you should snack a couple of times throughout the day. It also discussed alternate, healthier foods like fresh fruit, veggies, and non-fat milk.

      Among the pamphlets that I grabbed, there was one about amazing condom facts and it was interesting to say the least. Here are some facts that I enjoyed:

-A condom can be stretched to 4 feet.

-Charles Goodyear had the first patent on a crepe rubber condom. ( Is this the same guy that started the tire company?!)

-A condom can hold about 4 quarts of milk.

-In the 16th century, condoms were made of linen.

(Courtesy of the Incredible Condom Facts pamphlet)

     Another pamphlet I looked at was called Taking Care of Basic Health Needs. It discussed cures for common problems, such as blisters, urinary tract infections, and dry skin. For dry skin, use cream with Vitamin E. For blisters, use proper dressing products, such as Second Skin. To cure urinary tract infections, you should take antibiotics and drink cranberry juice.  

    I learned that this month is Breast Cancer Awareness month and the campus is doing a lot of activities, such as a walk on October 12th. Sadly, I can't make it because I have Spanish class. However, I may be dying my hair pink and purple for breast cancer and lymphoma.

Chill Out!

     You know the feeling of on edge or the verge of snapping. Do you walk away to take a breather? Or do you push yourself through it? 

     Calm down! As much as you want to push through a stressful situation, you should just walk away and take a few breathers. I myself have really bad anxiety but I try to manage it as much as I can.

Here's What I Do:

     -I try to take a break from technology. You know the feeling where you're just tired or a little stressed and everyone keeps blowing up your phone. Turn the phone off for a few hours and take a walk or I read a magazine. Go for a walk with a friend and vent about your stress.  Also, take the night off from Facebook.

      -Try something hands on or artsy. When I'm stressed or nervous, I like to bite my nails which is bad. When I get the urge, I substitute it by making bracelets. This clears my head and keeps my mind off whatever drama or stress that's in my life. 

      - When I'm stressed I like to take a break from everything around me and I just treat myself. I'll either take my self out to lunch all dressed up or go shopping. It distracts me from my life and gives me a boost of confidence.

     -I like to take nights off from everything before I go to bed. It's great to take a nice hot shower, and  curl up in bed. I drink tea at night before I go to bed. Sometimes, I even enjoy those Ramen noodles cup of soup while watching a good movie.

    -I like to take a break, FROM EVERYONE AROUND ME. When you're stressed, maybe you should spend some time alone from your boyfriend, best friend, and girlfriend. Privacy is very important because it gives people a social balance. ( and you may not realize it, but possibly those people close to you could be causing your stress)

"BTW I Have Pink Eye"

    There is a funny explanation to my title. Here it goes: at the end of my senior year of high school one of my best friends and I were sharing a bag of chips in home room. After a few mouthfuls of munchies she looked me dead in the face and said, "By the way, I have pink eye". I'm not really a germiphobe so I didn't really worry. Yet sure enough I woke up the next day with pink eye and the worst part is is that I made myself go to school.

       1st  Rule To Not Netting Sick:  Please wash your hands and if you have pink eye, don't go to school the next day like I did. (because I ended up having pink eye for prom and I passed it to another close friend)

     2nd Rule: If you feel a cold coming on, put down the cigarette and pick up the cough drops. I know every one hates those gross menthol cough drops so I prefer my favorite which is the Luden's cough drops. They are as effective as the gross one but obviously, they taste better.

    3rd Rule: Tea, Tea, and TEA! Anytime I feel a cold coming on, I drink tea every night with honey. I'm prone to strep throat and sinus infections, and tea is my life saver. The honey is soothing for your throat and the heat of the tea its self coats and warms your throat.

    4th Rule: Take it easy! If you have the sniffles, you could make it worse by not resting. Instead of going out tonight, just take a warm shower and curl up in bed. I know a sneeze here and there doesn't seem bad, but, you don't want to feel like you're dying a week later just because you wanted to go out.

HERE'S A LINK TO RECIPES FOR COLDS:

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/chicken_soup_and_recipes_for_cold

The Writting Process or The Blogging Process?

     For this week's campus safari, I decided to go to the library and check out some books related to my courses. I was thinking of getting an extra book related to either my Anthropology class or my Writing lab class. My decision was to look for books that show different ideas about the writing process because this book could help me write any essay which would help me in any class.

     I went to the librarian's desk and she was very nice and helped me look up some great books. One title she found on the computer screen caught my eye which was a book called Landmark Essays on Writing Process edited by Sondra Perl. I immediately chose this book and was sent to the next floor for my search. The librarian had given me a piece of paper with the number and shelve etc. I found the book pretty quickly.

     I skimmed through the book, finding mainly text but also a lot of helpful tables like one on page 66 about The Rhetorical Problem. Also, I found a table with statistics about how much people work on simple steps of writing, like planning,evaluating, revising, and editing. This table was found on page 133. What I really liked about this book was that even though it was a book about writing, it didn't have just text, it had tables. (and I thought tables were used in books such as math books). Another thing I liked about the book was the variety in the chapters. Every chapter had a different author and a different topic. There were chapters about just college essays/ writers, writer's block, drafts, autobiographies, and and even a chapter on the writing process of a 7 year old. I like this book and I may be renewing it!