I'm in the computer lab at school typing up a document when, for the first time ever, I find myself in a situation where I need to use 'i.e.' or 'e.g.' I'm not really an 'i.e.' or 'e.g.' person which is mostly because I had no idea what the difference between them is and I do not want to use them wrong and look stupid.
But it was extremely appropriate to use them in this situation and there was no substitute. So I looked it up.
Both are abbreviations for Latin terms. According to quickanddirtytips.com, i.e stands for id est which means 'that is,' and e.g. stands for exempli gratia which means 'for example.'
You might be thinking to yourself that they mean pretty much the same thing and can probably be used interchangeably. No. There's a difference. Refer to the following trick from quickanddirtytips.com:
Forget about i.e. standing for "that is" or whatever it really means in Latin. From now on, i.e., which starts with i, means “in other words,” and e.g., which starts with e, means “for example.” I = in other words. E= example.
E.g. is used to introduce examples and i.e. is used for further clarification.
FOR EXAMPLE:
I like sugary foods (e.g., cookies, pie and cake).
I hate almost all fruit with only a few exceptions (i.e., apples, bananas and watermelon).
My sugary foods list is not comprehensive, I like many more sugary foods in addition to cookies, pie and cake (examples). My fruit list is all inclusive. The only fruits I like are apples, bananas and watermelon (further clarification).
Also, AP style calls for a comma after the last period in both e.g. and i.e.
If you can't use them right, don't use them at all!
I've recently gotten into crafting the things I see on Pinterest. There's some really cool stuff on there and it's so much more fun than doing homework or studying. Someone pinned a picture for instructions on how to make photo canvases, where you basically Mod-Podge photos onto canvases. They looked super cool and relatively easy, and since I recently moved in my walls were pretty bare, so it was perfect!
How to make them:
Unless your picture is as big as or bigger than your canvas you need to paint the borders in whatever color you think is appropriate.
Cut up scrapbook paper and Mod-Podge it to the side edges of the photo canvas. This gives it a more 3D frame look.
Mod-Podge (matte, not glossy) the photo onto the the canvas and paint several layers of Mod-Podge over the photo on the canvas to make it look like it's actually printed on the canvas.
For these photos, as you can see, I used black paint for the border. I spent awhile at the store staring at all the different types of paint I could use for this project before finally settling on the super cheap $2 bottle. It was definitely not worth it because I ended up having to paint like five layers to make the border look solid black. It took several days because I had to wait for each coat to fully dry and it was super annoying.
I'm making another set of these with my mom's pictures from Hawaii for her birthday. I switched it up from a black border to a pretty turquoise border, so I had to get more paint. This time I went for the slightly more expensive acrylic paint, and I only had to do two coats. It took approximately 20 minutes to finish up all of them and it looked great. This acrylic paint was only a few dollars more expensive, so I'd say it was worth it.
Note: The photo will cover most of the canvas so it isn't necessary to paint the entire canvas.
I used pretty turquoise scrapbook paper to match and I'm waiting for it to fully dry before I Mod-Podge the photos on!
This story goes way back to the year 2007. I was a sophomore in high school and I went to the dentist for my regularly scheduled teeth cleaning. Back then I still lived at home and my mother was able to force me to go to the dentist for these cleanings twice a year, as recommended. This particular appointment went great and they said my teeth looked fine and sent me on my way.
But then, two days later, I got a terrible toothache and had to go back. Turns out, I needed a root canal. Awesome. Thanks Dr. Dentist for catching that the first time around. I'm convinced he put something in my mouth and caused this to happen. They referred me over to Dr. Root Canal and he confirmed I was in need of a root canal. So he drills up my teeth and the whole thing was pretty miserable.
All was well until the end of this summer as I was saying my goodbyes to the wonderful city of London. I only had three days left of my fabulous study abroad experience and I got the worst toothache ever. At first I just thought it was a cavity, but then it got really bad and the pain consumed my every thought. My mom called the dentist who told her it was probably an infection, so my last day in London was spent in agony in the urgent care center as I waited for antibiotics.
To give you an idea of how much pain I was in, just think about the worst pain you've ever experienced and multiply that by 10. I'm surprised I didn't overdose on Excedrin. The pain meds I got from the London doctor helped, but it was still the worst pain I've ever experienced. Once I got back to the States I went to Dr. Dentist who confirmed this was an infection and referred me back to Dr. Root Canal.
Here at the Missouri School of Journalism we're big fans of the Missouri Method. Working in real newsrooms and getting our work published for all the world to see is part of our graded classwork. Pretty much ALL of this work is done outside scheduled class time during newsroom shifts, but all the journalism classes still insist upon holding class for about three hours every week.
So what do we do with all this class time since no real journalism work is produced during this time? We talk about jobs.
It's awful. I feel like screaming, "NO. I still have my youth, it's too early for this!" If you are thinking to yourself, "It's never too early to start thinking about jobs!" you need to stop reading this right now and go read this instead.
I was working with a team of four to live stream Mizzou's homecoming talent competition. We started set up several days before the competition to make sure everything worked and we had all the equipment we needed and all that technical stuff.
We had three cameras. One in the front left of the auditorium, one in the front right, and one up on the balcony to get the wide shot. Each of these cameras had to run a cord to the back center of the auditorium. This is like over 150 feet of cords strung up the aisles and over the balcony. Then we had to have an ethernet cable which was plugged in somewhere far away, I'm not even sure where.
The first day we set up we just practiced laying down all these cables to make sure they were long enough. The next day we laid them down and taped them all to the floor so they'd be ready to go during the actual live stream, reducing set up time before the show.
Well, after we did all that one of the auditorium tech guys was like, "we need about a foot more of the ethernet cable." So we had to rip up all three cables we had just taped down (the camera on the balcony and right side along with the ethernet) just to extend this one cable by a foot. That was annoying.
And then we had to tape them all back down, AGAIN. That was even more annoying. We got a little bit lazy so the end result was a little bit less then perfect.
The moral of the story: triple and even quadruple check that everything is the way you need it before you make it (semi)permanent.
The best time of year is Mizzou homecoming. We started the homecoming tradition 101 years ago and have been celebrating ever since! My friend and I decided that the occasion made this football game great to get painted up for.
In order to get painted up, you have to be one of the first 60 people in line for Tiger's Lair (the super awesome student cheering section). Often, being in the first 60 requires camping out and securing your place in line hours and hours and hours and hours before the game actually starts. Last year, this same friend and I camped out for nearly 20 hours to get painted for the 100th homecoming game.
Homecoming 2011 camp out
Painted up for homecoming 2011
So this year, we packed up our tent, blankets and snacks around 10 p.m. and headed to the stadium to wait in line all night. The only problem was the temperature outside was somewhere around 32 degrees. There was no one else there. Last year by that time, we had been waiting for about five hours and there were at least 25 other people in line.
I was looking for a textbook on Amazon for my online class one day and found it for only $1.99!!!!! I was amazed at this awesome deal and then I went a little bit crazy with shopping. I got a phone case for only $3.48 (the shipping was more than the actual item) and started looking for curtains because my kitchen window was looking pretty bare.
I found this nice looking curtain for only $9.99, which I thought was a steal because everything else was way more. The description said the measurements were 60Wx84L, and my thoughts were pretty much, "Well, that seems big enough," and I bought it!
When it came in the mail, it turns out it was only one panel and it didn't seem long enough to cover the whole window. I didn't have a curtain rod yet so it wasn't really an issue. I gave myself the benefit of the doubt because my arm span is less than the window length and curtain length, so I couldn't tell for sure if it wouldn't fit.
I finally went out to get a curtain rod, and this time I actually measured the length of the window. Turns out it's about 76 inches across. Anyway, I found a nice curtain rod for half off! I snatched that right up, brought it home, hung it up, and the moment of truth:
But really, I'm fixing it. I went back to Amazon and ordered curtains and this time I made sure the description said 'set of two' and the best part is it was only $9.14!
I had a test to be studying for, so I was watching TV. Since I am in my second decade of life I watch really high-end, intellectual shows like SpongeBob SquarePants. This really great episode was on, called The Krabby Kronicle. It basically summed up everything I learned in my semester long Principles of American Journalism class (comparable to my History of American Journalism class) in an 11 minute, 49 second entertaining cartoon.
Mr. Krabs bought an ad in a newspaper to try to bring in more customers, but he soon realizes that the paper he's advertising in isn't selling because "it's all full of boring charts and facts." But the other newspaper, with headlines like 'Fishboy Strikes Again' is selling like crazy. Mr. Krabs asks, "aren't these stories a little less than truthful?" and the answer from the guy reading it is, "I don't know, but they're selling!" This whole scene reflects the fact that sensationalized tabloids, while unethical, are where the money is at.
I will be the first one to tell you that I am definitely not an outdoorsy nature person. It's my fear of bugs that turns me off from most of nature. But I have this friend who loves nature and I agreed to go on this 8.5 mile hike with her.
We woke up super early on a Saturday morning and headed over to the Gans Creek Recreation Area, which is across the street from Rock Bridge State Park (where we usually go, because Devil's Ice Box is there). It was so pretty!
We stopped at a rock/cliff thing overlooking the forest (pictured above) to eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. After we finished we decided to go off-trail and climbed down the rock/cliff, which was way steeper than it looked, and we followed the creek.
I received my very first parking ticket ever the second semester of my freshman year of college, just a few weeks after I brought my car to school. I parked in a yellow zone too close to a fire hydrant, but I didn't even realize I was in a yellow zone or that I wasn't even supposed to park in it. So I learned not to do that pretty fast, but the parking situation only went downhill from there.
I only found out last year that if you park at a metered spot on the street on campus, it's actually considered part of the city and follows city rules. So parking is not free on Saturdays and it's not free until after 6 p.m. (unlike almost everywhere else, where it's free after 5). It took me several tickets to learn that one.
My friend and I decided we wanted to make duct tape dresses to wear to the first football game of the season. It ended up raining and I had to work, so we just pushed it back to the second game of the season (but our first conference game!) against Georgia.
They looked great, but all I have to say about it is never again.
We made the dresses a few days before the game and neither of us had ever done it before. Turns out we did it wrong.
If I wasn't going into journalism, I would be an astronaut, so imagine my excitement when I found out TWO former astronauts teach at Mizzou!!!!!
Naturally, I did what any good journalist would do and went to work setting up an interview. I can now say I've spoken to and shaken hands with someone who has been to outer space.
Steven Nagel is currently an instructor and retention specialist with MU's engineering department and was formerly a NASA astronaut. He retired from NASA in July of last year and headed to Mizzou with his wife (also a former astronaut), who got a job with MU's physics department.
Nagel's story isn't one where he was dreaming of being an astronaut since he was just a little kid because when he was "real small there weren't astronauts." NASA's astronaut program didn't begin until he was in junior high (the late 1950s).
"I started thinking about it since at least high school days," Nagel said, adding that his passion for being an astronaut waxed and waned as his career went on.
But the path to becoming an astronaut is not an easy one. You have to be selected by NASA and go through a bunch of training, but even then you're still only just a candidate.
After years of training the big moment came for Nagel to blast off into space.
"The launch is very impressive," Nagel said. "It's about eight and a half minutes, if you want to count that as take off, where the engines are running if you want to get up to almost orbital speed."
All that is pretty AWESOME, but I have already passed the point in my life where I decided to go into journalism rather than astronomy/engineering/physics. I now have to settle for living my dreams vicariously through others, so the big question was, 'What's it like in space?'
"It's a big adventure," Nagel said. "Your whole living surroundings become totally different."
Nagel has been up in space four times for a grand total of about 30 days. His shortest mission was six days and his longest was 10. He said his trips were pretty short, but astronauts that go up to the space station are there for months at a time.
"I was on two science flights where we carried laboratory on each of
those flights," Nagel said. "One flight we deployed satellites, communication
satellites, and another flight we deployed a scientific observatory,
the gamma ray observatory, which is the second in line after the
Hubble."
Nagel said although he has been to space several times, he's never been out of the shuttle. All astronauts receive training to go outside of the shuttle, though, in case of problems.
"I didn't really want to hope for a problem to go outside," Nagel said. "You kind of do, but you don't. You don't want problems."
Once the mission is complete, it's time to come back home.
My dreams of going into space will be a reality one day though! Nagel said commercial space flights will be a reality some day soon.
You would think after spending all summer in rainy London I would have a raincoat, but I don't. It's really unfortunate, though, because sometimes an umbrella just isn't enough.
For one of my newsroom shifts for class, I went out with a reporter doing a story about high school football games starting early due to rain, and my job was to take still photos to go with the story. It was a lot of fun but the only bad thing was it was raining. We really lucked out though because the first time we went to shoot it wasn't actually raining (just really, really, really, really, really humid) and when we went out for the live shot there was a ledge we could stand under and stay dry.
I thought the overall rain experience was pretty bad, but it was NOTHING compared to the next week.
My photos from high schools moving their football game start times up.
I went out to this SEC JC Pep Rally in Jefferson City with a reporter. I was all excited because it was a pep rally! There would be excited fans, music and cheering and it would so much fun and there would be so many opportunities for great pictures.
And then the storm started rolling in. First step in the field with the potential for rain is to protect the equipment. In case of no rain bags, use trash bags.
Protected camera
Protected backpack (for live shots)
The weather was beautiful earlier in the day, so none of us were prepared for the rain. I had an umbrella, but I can't take pictures and hold it at the same time and I didn't want it to break in the wind, so that was pretty much useless. It started pouring and we all got drenched. There was the live reporter, trying to report live in the middle of a storm, another reporter doing a story for later in the evening, a girl shadowing the live reporter for her class, and me.
The girl who was shadowing was trying to communicate with the producers back at the station, so she was on the phone most of the time. The live reporter's scripts got drenched so he had to read off his phone. Both of the phones ended up broken because of the rain.
I'm struggling with my camera, trying to keep it dry with a trash bag wrapped around it but also have access to all the right buttons. I didn't have any sort of jacket with me so I got super cold and completely soaked.
Despite the miserable situation, I got some great photos, the first live shot went well (the second one ended up freezing on air) and the other reporter's story ended up great as well. And now I know I need a raincoat because the situation would have improved about 10 times with one.
I went on this midwest road trip extravaganza with my parents, and compared to my travels around Europe (staying in cheap hostels, on a tight budget), it was like an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation.
The trip started in Austin, through Oklahoma (with dinner in Muskogee) and we stopped for the night in Joplin. Day two went through Columbia where I dropped off my car and continued on to Champaign, Illinois. On day three we drove the short distance to Lafayette, Indiana to visit my uncle and aunt. Day four brought us to Cincinnati, Ohio, to visit my grandpa. Day five was the end of the trip and we drove through Kentucky back to Columbia, Missouri, completing the midwest loop circle and bringing me back to school.
Anyway, there was a fly in the hotel we stayed at in Champaign, Illinois. No one wants to sleep in a room that has a fly flying around in it, so we had no choice but to kill it. Flies are really hard to kill because they have such good reflexes and it's even harder when you don't have a fly swatter. But it is possible with this technique from my dad.
You have to flick the fly with your finger. You have to wait for the fly to land somewhere and sneak up on it really slowly so it doesn't fly away. You can't aim directly for the fly, because it'll sense your movement and fly away before you hit it. So, you have to aim for right in front of the fly or right behind the fly. That way, when it senses your movement and flies away, you will hit right where the fly is on its way away from you. You just have to become one with the fly and anticipate whether it will fly forward or backward.
Refer to the following diagram and live your life fly-free:
My roommate informed me that parts of Coldplay's video Fix You was filmed on Waterloo Bridge, which happens to be right outside our door. They filmed it way before we actually lived here, though. But still. We were both pretty excited.
What did we do to show our enthusiasm? We remade the video! I think ours turned out just as good as the original, if not better.
Our Remake:
The Original:
Another fun fact, I may have visited Chris Martin's (the lead singer of the band) house! I just looked up the address on Google, so accuracy is not guaranteed. It was, however, the only house on the block that was gated and it had cameras all over it.
The street Chris Martin (possibly) lives on
38 Park Hill Road - (possibly) Chris Martin's house
Every once in awhile I learn something that has some actual intellectual value. This little piece of knowledge was gathered during the time I spent interning in London. It was originally written as a paper for my class.
Never use anonymous sources. Always verify information with multiple sources. Always cite those sources. Always tell the truth. A journalist’s integrity is all they have and one slip up could discredit a journalist forever. These are the things that are drilled into our heads over and over in all of our journalism classes because they are the foundation for journalism. But some people just ignore them, or maybe they never learned about them, or maybe they just don’t care, and these are people who report for and edit tabloids. There are some in the U.S, but there are a lot in the U.K. and they are very widely read.
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the top three most widely read papers in the U.K. are The Sun (circulation 2,582,301), the Daily Mail (circulation 1,945,496) and the Daily Mirror (circulation 1,102,810), which are all tabloids, filled with sensational headlines and questionable news. The top 3 most widely read papers in the U.S. are The Wall Street Journal (circulation 2,117,796), USA Today (circulation 1,829,099) and the New York Times (circulation 916,911), which are all largely trusted papers with high ethical standards. More people read The Sun than The Wall Street Journal. The majority of people who are reading newspapers in the U.K. are getting sensationalized, questionable news.
Last semester in my History of American Journalism class, I learned about how journalism has changed over time in America. It used to be all tabloids and all sensationalized news, but then, over time, higher ethical standards came into place and tabloids were phased out and replaced with ethical journalism. This transition shows how America began to respect journalism as a profession. It seems as though the U.K. is lagging behind the U.S. It’s still in the phase of sensationalized news and tabloids, and over time it will follow a pattern similar to the U.S. and journalism will gain more respect.
I think a major turning point is happening right now for the U.K. with the phone hacking scandal. It seems as though every tabloid in the U.K. was hacking into people’s phones for information. All the editors and higher-ups of these papers claim they all knew nothing about it. One of my co-interns made the observation that if many papers in the U.K. were hacking into people’s phones, it is probably happening all over the world, and even in the U.S. I disagree for several reasons. I think if you know what to look for it would be easy to spot. The reporter would either not cite a source or cite an anonymous source, which would instantly put up a red flag. In journalism, anyone should be able to point to a piece of information and be able to easily trace it back to a source. Also, I think the U.S. is stricter on libel. A person in the U.S. would probably make a huge deal out of their phone being hacked, whereas it seemed to slip under the radar for several years in the U.K.
The popularity of tabloids in Britain shows that the U.K. doesn’t regard journalism as a highly respected profession. In the U.S, journalists go to school for at least four years and take several classes on journalism ethics and the practice before getting a job in the industry. Many people I work with at my internship at CBS didn’t even study journalism in school. I think that because of all the scandalous tabloids and sensationalized news reported in the U.K. many people just don’t respect it. I think the U.S. holds journalism to a higher standard, it’s a respected profession, and regarded more highly than in the U.K.
It started out like any other morning; my alarm went off too early, I snoozed an extra 15 minutes, I finally dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. I pumped myself up to get in the shower and experience the absolute worst five seconds of my day.
The shower in my flat points directly at the shower door, so you have to be in the shower with the door closed when it starts or else it will spray water all over the floor. Like any other shower, the water starts out freezing cold. There is nowhere to hide and escape the water. Every morning I have to count myself down and prepare myself to turn on the water and get blasted by ice for a good five seconds before the water warms up. It's easily the worst part of my day. Good thing I shower in the morning, then, because it can only get better from there, right?
Wrong. This morning continued like normal until I was ready to dry my hair. I let most of my hair air dry, but I have to blow dry my bangs because I straighten them (and they need to be complete dry for that). If I don't straighten them, they become a weird curly mess on my forehead. I turn to my roommate's desk where we keep our shared hair dryer, and it's not there. I look around the room a little bit and it's still nowhere to be found. I go into problem solving mode.
My roommate left for work before me, so if she used the blow dryer she would have done it outside of our room. I go check in all the bathrooms. It's not in any of them. I check the kitchen and living room. No luck. I check our room again. It's gone. Unfortunately for me, none of the other 10 girls I live with are awake yet, so I can't just go borrow their hair dryers.
By this time, I should be leaving my flat to get to work on time. I opt for plan B; I'll run to Boots (the U.K.'s Walgreens equivalent) and get a bobby pin to pin my hair back. Boots is in the train station, so I won't be late. I gather up my stuff and head out the door!
I get there and it's closed. Unlike Walgreens, which is open 24 hours, Boots operates normal ours and doesn't open until 9, which is when I need to be at work. I run back home, and by the time I get there my bangs are dry so I just straighten them. Hair disaster averted, but now I'm going to be about 15 minutes late for work.
I use the tube station across the river when I go to work, because I can take one train the whole way there. If I get on at the station closer to me (the one with Boots in it) I have to transfer lines. I take off across the river, and when I get to the station it's closed. The universe is just not on my side this morning. I head back to the other station, and by the time I get there it's 9 o'clock. I should be arriving at work.
I ended up being nearly an hour late, and my hair didn't even look that good. As for the mystery of the disappearing hair dryer, it turns out one of my flatmates borrowed it last night and never returned it.
I spend all my time in school in rigorous classes learning how to be a good journalist, write in-depth research papers, memorize useless facts out of textbooks and do other pretty challenging things, so my skill set exceeds basic office skills. These skills include things like using the expresso machine (I thought it was as easy has pressing a button, but it's really not), answering/making phone calls (I can never figure it out unless it's my cell phone), and making copies.
The assignment was to make 10 copies of this Jubilee guide for the staff that's like 20 pages long. So that's about 200 copies. Kind of a big responsibility and this internship is kind of a big deal, so I don't really want to mess it up. Or sound stupid and ask someone how to make a copy.
I spent several minutes staring at the Xerox playing with all the settings. I finally get it right and start copying. After awhile I start realizing that this is a TON of paper. Some of the sheets are front and back, so I decide to figure out how to do double sided copies. That only took about four tries, but I did it!
Once all the copies are made, I have about 200 pieces of paper I need to sort into ten separate booklets. I head over to the table in the break room and I start laying them all out. I'm about half way through sorting them and some guy walks in, looks at me, registers what I'm doing and says, "I think the machine can do that for you."
I consider this for a moment. It is a pretty fancy machine. So I just shrug and say probably. It's too late now anyway.
Then the receptionist walks in. Her entire job is basic office skills 101, so she's all, "Oh no!! The machine can do that for you!! It can do everything! It can punch holes, staple, sort, blah, blah, blah, blah," Then she says next time I should ask her. Whoops!
But it's okay, because it wasn't really challenging and I would have had to double check all the pages anyway and the alternative was doing nothing.
One of the classes I'm taking is British Life and Culture, and so far it's turning out to be awesome. In the most recent class, we had a pub quiz (which is a legit thing, I actually looked it up because I actually thought the professor was making it up) about this reading that no one did. Maybe we should have though, because I'm sure all the questions could be easily answered by any British 7-year-old. Thankfully it wasn't for a grade and I actually really learned a lot.
For example, one of the questions was what elements make up the British flag (commonly known as Union Jack -- didn't know that!)?
English Flag +
Scottish Flag
Ireland's St. Patrick's Cross +
= UK Flag!
...and poor Wales is left out.
Also, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament were established in 1999. I was alive then. Why didn't I ever learn about that in school??
Apparently Ireland has been having problems, too. In just 1921 (which is relatively recent in history terms) Ireland was granted independence and only Northern Ireland is a part of the UK. The only thing I ever knew about Ireland's history was the potato famine (which I also learned they never really recovered from the population loss).
I learned about their government as well. It's made up of the House of Lords, Monarchy and House of Parliament. I learned about what they each do and how many people are in each and how they get appointed or elected. I also learned that the Queen is basically the PR person for the UK.
Also I learned all about the Royal Family and I may be obsessed. Apparently, William was just given the title Duke of Cambridge just because Kate (a commoner!) needed a title (Duchess of Cambridge) when they got married. And when queens get married their husbands don't become king, but rather stay a prince (but king's wives would become queen) because a king outranks a queen and that can't happen.
I was being a responsible student and peacefully studying for my upcoming test in the living room the other night. I was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch and using the coffee table to study on, like I normally do. My roommate was in the kitchen trying to make a snack. It was a very peaceful and normal night. Then, I see something out of the corner of my eye and turn my head to look at my arm and there is this huge spider on me.
There are few things in this world that are scarier than spiders. Like giant squids, or getting trapped in the middle of the ocean. Each of which would probably cause death and you'd have to be in the middle of the ocean to encounter them, but spiders can also cause death and they can be anywhere at anytime.
I was enjoying a free lunch one afternoon with my friend when she said to me, "You know, I bet you could get a free meal every day if you really paid attention to all the events on campus." And I was like, "You're probably right." So here it goes:
Monday April 16:
- Business Week Picnic - Free lunch on Carnahan Quad from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Tuesday April 17:
- No free food?!
Wednesday April 18:
- Mizzou Student Veteran Association and Department of Student Life's Operation Free Lunch - Hot dogs, burgers, chips and beverages on Lowry Mall from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- Mizzou Triple A had free Asian food in The Shack at 7 p.m, followed by a free concert by Tim Be Told.
Thursday April 19:
- Today, we starve.
Friday April 20:
- I couldn't find an event, but it's Friday night... find someone to buy you dinner!
Monday April 23:
- China Open 2012 Info Session - from 5 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. in Gannet 85. There's free pizza!
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Artist Reception with Essex Gardner at 5:30 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!
Tuesday April 24:
- Sustain Mizzou is hosting Energy Speed Dating on Lowry Mall as part of Sustainability Week. It's from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and you get a free scoop of ice cream!
- MSA's annual Safety Walk - Starts at 7 p.m. and there is free food afterwards.
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Black Cinema Movie Night at 7 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!
Wednesday April 25:
- Total Cereal is sponsoring a free breakfast at Flat Branch Park from 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. because Columbia was chosen as America's hardest working town!
- True Tiger membership renewal lunch - Free pizza! From 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in Speaker's Circle and the Student Center.
- Journalism Week Franks with the Faculty - Free hot dog lunch on the J-School lawn from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - The Transformative Possibilities of Black Poetry at 7 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!
Thursday April 26:
- Grand Songkarn Festival - Thai food and other Thai stuff on Carnahan Quad from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- Mizzou Mile - You have to pay $10 to run, but I don't know if you have to register to enjoy the free food and music in Tiger Plaza!
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Evolution of Hip Hop at 7:00 in the BCC. Free refreshments!
Friday April 27:
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Life Music Series at 7 p.m. in The Shack with free food!
- Mizzou After Dark's Retro Prom night - Always free for students, always includes food! Starts at 8 pm. in Memorial Union.
Monday April 30:
- It's almost the end of the semester, so find someone with a meal plan who needs to use up their swipes!
Tuesday May 1:
- Today, we starve.
Wednesday May 2:
- End-of-Year Student Life Appreciation Lunch from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Student Center. Unfortunately for most people, this event is invite only.
Thursday May 3:
- Senior Send Off - Free food and beverages (with a driver's license). From 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. on Carnahan Quad. You have have to actually be a senior to get the free stuff, though.
- Spring Farewell - End of the semester celebration on Rollins Street from 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. So much free stuff!
Way back in November 2010 I signed a lease with my friend for the apartment I'm living in now. We signed for a three bedroom and we were just going to go random for a third. It started out okay when we all moved in, but now our third roommate hates us and I think she might be dead.
Really, though, I believe she is now living with her boyfriend. I haven't actually seen her in weeks and usually the only reason I know she's been home is she'll take her mail from her door.
Slowly, things have been disappearing. It started with the kitchen trashcan. She just took it one day (it was hers) and now we only have these little tiny trashcans that hold nothing. Then she took all of her dishes from the kitchen. With each thing that disappeared the frequency in which I would see her just kept going down. The last thing she took was the filter on our kitchen sink several weeks ago, and after that I've only seen her about twice.
My other roommate and I were discussing this in the MUTV office the other day, and the MUTV adviser chimed in about squatter's rights. He explained to us that if we used whatever thing a lot, and the roommate never did, we could actually claim rights to it. Now there are two very important questions: does our roommate know about this or does she just not want us to be able to use her things? And she has ice cream in the freezer, so if I ate it and she sued me, would this argument hold up in court?
My dad is a huge nerd. It was really helpful in middle school and high school because he would help me with my math and science homework (AP calculus, yay!), so it was like having my own tutor but way cheaper and he could help me at all hours of the day. But to give perspective on what kind of a nerd he really is, I will share this anecdote:
I'm in 7th grade, it's the beginning of the year and it's almost open house. My parents ask me what my locker number is so they can go look at it (I have no idea why they even cared, all the lockers look the exact same). I tell them it's number 2048. The very first thing my dad says is, "Oh, that's 2 to the 11th power!" What kind of person has that memorized? My dad. And now me.
Anyway, he always sends me these weird but super interesting links to the most random things. Like this article about The Tau Manifesto and how pi is actually wrong. The most recent link is much more exciting and interactive; The Scale of the Universe. It lists a whole bunch of things in the universe and shows the size of all of them relative to each other, from quantum foam (smaller than an atom), to humans, to states, to planets, all the way to the entire observable universe. I spent a significant amount of time looking at the entire thing.
One of the things it lists is some flower called the rafflesia. It's huge (but actually super tiny compared to the whole universe).
There's also a bunch of nebulas which are huge, like 1,000,000,000,000,000-times-bigger-than-that-spider-crab huge. Nebulas are pretty cool things to look at.
I took a vacation to Memphis, Tennessee with my best friend for spring break. We originally wanted to go to the beach, but for some reason we decided to go to school in Missouri and the nearest beach is over 12 hours away, and that was too far and expensive for everyone. We went through our options for other vacation destinations, and there are a surprisingly limited amount of places to go here in the midwest. My best friend is a huge Elvis fan, so we decided Memphis!
On the car ride there, my friend was reading her Twitter and saw that the PostSecret Live Tour was going to be at the University of Memphis that evening, so we decided we'd go. We got to the University of Memphis (which is a really pretty campus), and had no idea where the presentation was, so we walked into some building and asked the students sitting at the information desk.
At first they had no idea what we were talking about, but then it clicked and they gave us directions to the Rose Theater. We also asked where their Greek town was, and they didn't know what we were talking about then, either. The University of Memphis should really reevaluate who they are hiring to sit at their information desks. But it registered for one guy, and he was like, "Oh you mean fraternities? They're all on that street over there," and he said something about the sororities being in some residential hall on campus somewhere. Then the girl at the desk asks him if he knew why they didn't have sorority houses. He didn't know, so she tells us that they're illegal in the state because it's considered a brothel if more than 9 women live together.
But further investigation into the issue reveals it might be just a rumor. In the words of wikipedia, under the 'Dumb Laws' page:
The law that claims that "sorority houses are illegal since more than a certain number of single females living together constitutes a brothel" has been debunked as fake.
The girl at the desk seemed pretty sure of herself when she said it. We also asked her if there was anything to do around here, since we had no plans after the Post Secret presentation was over, and she tells us, "Frat boys."
The PostSecret Live Tour was pretty awesome, and afterwards Frank Warren, the founder of Post Secret signed books. For the rest of the vacation, my friend and I toured Graceland, laid out by the pool and slept a lot.
I came to this realization when I was falling asleep at work while drinking a Red Bull after finishing my coffee just two hours before. I think it's probably a bad sign when I need coffee and an energy drink to stay awake... and still find myself falling asleep. Then I did research to make sure that I'm scientifically not getting enough sleep, rather than just feeling lazy and wanting to sleep instead of working/studying/going to class.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, there isn't a 'magic number' for how much sleep you should get.
Not only do different age groups need different amounts of sleep, but sleep needs are alsoindividual. Just like any other characteristics you are born with, the amount of sleep you need to function best may be different for you than for someone who is of the same age and gender.
Another reason there is "no magic number" for your sleep results from two different factors that researchers are learning about: a person’sbasal sleep need– the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance – andsleep debt, the accumulated sleep that is lost to poor sleep habits, sickness, awakenings due to environmental factors or other causes. Two studies suggest that healthy adults have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours every night, but where things get complicated is the interaction between the basal need and sleep debt.
According to WebMD, teenagers need about 9 hours and adults need 7 or 8. And Mayo Clinic - which I've never heard of, but their website says, "We comply with theHONcode standard for trustworthy healthinformation" so I'm assuming it's legitimate - says adults need 7 to 9 hours. Both also talk about sleep debt. My conclusion is that I should get around 8 hours of sleep each night, and anything less contributes to my sleep debt while anything more will add to it. It's like the bank of sleep. Lucky for me, I have this awesome application on my phone that tracks my sleep. It's the only app I've ever paid for and it was totally worth it. Basically, it tracks your sleep cycle every night and tries to wake you up at the end of a sleep cycle so you feel more rested. You put your phone on your bed every night when you go to sleep, set the alarm, and the sensors in the phone track your movement. I don't know how accurately it tracks movement, though. I've put my phone on my nightstand before (a solid, non-moving surface) and it's produced a graph. I've also woken up in the middle of the night and moved around and the graph will clearly show that I was moving around. Anyway, the more you're moving around, the less deep of a sleep you are in. You can set the alarm to go off in a window of 30, 20 or 10 minutes, but no matter what it will go off by the time you set the alarm for. For example, if you set your alarm for 7:30 a.m. and it senses you moving around in your sleep at 7:07, it will wake you up (in which case you can snooze until 7:30). Even if that data isn't the most accurate, it's still really cool. It offers much more peaceful alarm tones that fade in, so you're not just all of a sudden woken up by a "BEEP BEEP BEEP" every morning. It also records when you go to sleep and when you wake up, gives you the total time you slept, and collects that data and gives you an average sleep time. I currently have 82 nights recorded, but rather than go through every single one of those, I'll just go through the last week.
This was over St. Patrick's day weekend, so I was in Chicago for a parade. We left Sunday afternoon (this is the night right before), so I actually got to sleep in (sort of) for the first time in forever.
I got an extra 42 minutes over 8 hours, so my sleep bank is up 42 minutes!
Unfortunately, I had a test on Tuesday (which is the day after this), and since I spent the weekend away from school I stayed up late to study, and then had to get up for my 8 a.m. You might think 6 a.m. is super early to wake up for a class two hours after, but I have to catch the bus at 7:10, because the next one isn't until 7:40 and that's not enough time to get to class if there is traffic.
I'm down 3 hours and 30 minutes, so my sleep bank drops to negative 2 hours and 48 minutes.
This is the night right before my test, so I was up really late studying again. Unfortunately I have early classes every single day, so I had to be up for my 9 a.m.
I'm down 3 hours and 30 minutes this night as well, so my sleep bank is negative 6 hours and 18 minutes.
I was up late working on all the homework I had been putting off to study for my test, so I was up late yet again.
I'm only down 2 hours and 50 minutes, so my sleep bank is at negative 9 hours and 8 minutes. I'm down more than a full nights sleep... pretty unfortunate for me.
I went to a Breathe Carolina concert this night, so now I'm just making poor life decisions. It was really fun though, so I think it was worth it.
I'm down 2 hours and 52 minutes, so my sleep bank falls to negative 12 hours.
This is where it gets really bad. I went to The Hunger Games midnight premiere, so I didn't get home until really late, and then had to wake up for my 8 a.m. The movie was SO good, though.
I'm down 5 hours and 1 minute, so my sleep bank plummets to negative 17 hours and 1 minute. It's important to note, though, that the week before this looked about the same, so I didn't actually start the week with a 42 minute excess of sleep. Good thing it's spring break next week. If I sleep through the entire week, maybe I'll have enough sleep in my sleep bank to carry me through the rest of this semester.
