Viral Videos, Podcasting and City Life for Spring Break
Hello DU blog reader! I hope you guys had a great spring break, and are getting used to school again. Well I don’t know how you spent your spring break, but mine was spent with friends having unforgettable times.
First of all, me and my friends jumped on the YouTube bandwagon and made our own Harlem Shake video (don’t judge us.) Here is how that happened. First, we needed a weird way to start off, so we got an orange body suit for a friend to wear, and second we needed a bunch of people in a small crowded room. So, we went around gathered whoever we could find, and danced like crazy. Throw in a couple of weird props for people to wear , and bam internet fame is ours (Yes, it is as meaningless as it sounds!).
Another thing me and my friends did was dive into realm of trying to do a podcast. We experiments by recording ourselves doing commentary over a video of us playing Mortal Kombat. If you want to hear the a full podcast, email me and I will let you know when we post our first episode (most likely it would be through facebook ,so we better be friends).
Finally, I ended my spring break by taking my friends into downtown Chicago. Being the only guy in my friend group who is from the city, makes me realize how complicated the city is. I took my friends downtown, to Chinatown, and Boystown (All in one night!) If you don’t understand what that means, imagine going from one side of the city, and going to the other at night through public transportation ( what’s car?). On a serious note if anyone wants to teach me how to drive, I will buy you a cookie!
The Three Ways to Spend Spring Break
Hey DU blog reader! I came to realize that I’m really good at making a list of things for my blog. So here is the five ways you are most likely to spend your Spring Break .
Traveling: Yay! You’re going to get to travel. If you’re like me, then your going forget so many things to pack, but you will tell yourself that you don’t need things like toothpaste or underwear. Also, when you get back, you’re going to forget things like your charger at wherever you’re staying, but hey, at least you can get away from this crazy bipolar weather.
Going Home: This applies if you’re an on campus resident. So, you get to go home for a bit, and try to forget that you have a six page paper due when you get back. This is usually the time when people take their roommates to their home to prove to their parents that their not living with a crazy person. So, catch up with family, and don’t worry about that paper, it will magically write itself…hopefully.
Nothing: When we were kids, we would complain because we had nothing to do. Now with stressful lives, doing nothing is the greatest gift on Earth. Its like for a split moment the universe decided that you deserve a time for nothing to happen. So, lay back, chill, and try o finish LOST before the universe reminds you that you have important stuff to do.
The Five Ways You’ll Spend Valentine’s Day
Hello readers! I hope everything is going well for you guys. Its February and its time for an obligatory Valentine’s Day themed blog. I’ve been in a relationship for three years now (that’s right do something about it), so I’m pretty much the Jedi Master of relationships. So, here are five ways you’ll most likely spend Valentine’s Day.
1) Giving Gifts: Its Valentine’s Day so its another time to feel awkward about what to get your partner. I personally go for the the generic things like roses, candy, letters, bag of Cheetos, or Ramen noodles. Call me old fashion though. You can also go for something cool and original. One year I bought my boyfriend a custom made cologne with his name engraved on it (its awesome Google where to do that,) or no one gives each other a gift, and you guys can just be lame and bitter.
2) Dates: If you’re going to go on a date, then please make an attempt. Nothing is worse than being like “What are we doing?,” and you’re like “We’ll figure it out.” Then nothing happens, and you don’t go out and you think “WE COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!”…but i digress. Here is a fun idea that I found out: you can make reservations at White Castle for Valentine’s Day…so I’ll let you reader to decided what to with that information.
3) Time at Home: So, you didn’t go out even though that new movie you really wanted to see came out, and we were aren’t even doing anything… (I’m not bitter I swear.) Time home is great; you can do cliche things like watch Sandra Bullock movies and order out. Just remember not to bring up the fact that he/she didn’t want to go out.
4) Fighting: YAY! Nothing says I love you than fighting. You can’t appreciate the good times without getting kicked in the teeth sometimes. Sure maybe you shouldn’t be spending this time fighting, but at least you’re together even though he/she is totally wrong.
5) Alone: So things got out of hand, but you know who won’t get mad at you Nutella and Smash Bros. You’ll get over it in the morning, and thats when you can have a nice day.
Affirmative Action with Jane Elliott
Abel with Jane Elliott
Hello reader! I hope everyone’s doing well. I know I am. The main reason why is because recently Dominican University had Jane Elliott come to present her work in the presentation “Anatomy of Prejudice.” If you don’t know who Jane Elliott is, well first of all shame on you, and secondly here is a link to her famous exercise where she taught her grade school students how it feels to be discriminated against. If you want to watch the whole documentary though, the documentary is called “The Eye of the Storm.”
So, on Tuesday, January 29th, I was able to attend the student conversation with Jane Elliot. If there is one thing I need to put on this blog is this quote that was on her shirt: “Prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance” by Nathan Rutstein. Anyone that was at the student conversation is well aware of how intense, light hearted, serious, and passionate Jane Elliot was. It was experience everyone there would remember, but I know for a fact none of us there would forget the message she was trying to get across: discrimination exists, and its in our lives, and if we don’t want ourselves to be discriminated then we can not allow others to be discriminated. Another point Jane Elliot made clear – and I know that if she was reading this should want me to mention - is the hidden racism in school curriculum today. Right now Google, image a mercator projection map and a peters projection map (go ahead I can wait.) Notice that on a mercator projection map white populated a greatly exaggerated, but on the peters projection map the sizes of countries are accurate. The point here is that the mercator projection map is used in grade schools even though this map is specifically used for navigation. Clearly, there is some form of racism taking place, and I felt this was something that needed to be shared for those who couldn’t go see Jane Elliot.
Later that day I was able to sit with my friend Erica to interview Jane Elliot before she did her presentation “The Anatomy of Discrimination” (I know my day was amazing)! We mostly talked about racism in classrooms today, and how some teachers give up on children. When the topic of cyber bullying came up, Jane Elliot said “People have the right to free speech, but not the right to threaten you.” Like the student conversation Jane Elliot was passionate about what she believed in, and to people who are reading this we have to commit to respecting each other regardless of sex, religion, sexual orientation, or race.
The Three Things That Are Stressing Us Out
Hello readers! Welcome back to another semester of school. I hope you all had an enjoyable break. I know I enjoyed sleeping all day. Anyways, I wanted to start the semester off by talking about the things that are already getting us stressed out and how to deal with them.
1) Books
How much do books cost? A lot! We leave for break, and completely forget the fact that we have to buy those for our classes. What’s worse than finding out your books cost an arm and a leg? The fact that you try going on Amazon and they still cost an arm and a leg. So, here is a great tip that everyone should know. Here in the school we have this magical building called a library that has books (for free!) That’s right reader you can find your books and text books in the library, and if the library doesn’t have your book, then you can try using I-Share – the school’s interlibrary loan system. I know! Its like witch craft. The fact that we can get most of our books, and spend the least amount of money is awesome.
2) Classes
You go to the first day of a class. The course description made it sound pretty simple. You think “Hey, easy A.” Then by the end of the class you’re thinking, “I am going to fail.” Well its ok. Not the failing part. Don’t do that. So, you totally misfired picking a class. Just try to drop and change the class as soon as possible. Hopefully, you didn’t buy the book for the class yet, and hopefully it is was an elective. If not, have fun.
3) Roommate
So last semester you didn’t get along with your roommate. Maybe it was the fact he ate your food, maybe it was the fact he snores a lot, maybe it was because you played XBOX until three in the morning everyday, but that’s not the point. You got a roommate switch. You probably didn’t get the switch until just now. Not this very moment because that would be weird. Anyways, you have to get use to another person. Maybe this time you’ll get along. Hopefully, you just traded roommates like baseball cards, and now you get to play XBOX until three in the morning with a real person, and not those mean twelve-year olds you meet on XBOX live (just saying…)
A Wonderful Time of Year
Hello DU blog readers!
Happy holidays ‘rrrbody! With finals coming everybody is trying to use their to time efficiently to study, cram, and make sure we all pass our classes, but lets face it; our biggest goal is to leave school for a bit and enjoy our break.
The best thing about this time before we leave for break is what we find ourselves doing instead of studying. As I write this at this very moment, I am cutting out snowflakes and listening and singing to Nickelback (ironically!) with a rusty-smoker voice with my friend Tori. Between wrapping christmas presents and having Pandora on the Christmas music station, school is mellowed out.
There are a million effective ways to study, but I only know one so I’ll give you that: space out your studying time. I know what you’re saying, “How is that going to help? plus, “I do better on tests when I cram the day before an exam.” One: stop talking out loud to yourself; you’re freaking out the people next to you in the computer lab. Two: its been proven by psychologists before, and if you don’t believe me, then we aren’t friends anymore because I won’t surround myself with people who aren’t open to change.
That last sentence got away from me. If you’re still with me then you might be thinking “What should I do over break?” If you weren’t thinking that, well you are now. For the people who live in the city or close to the city, you know that there is always something to do. From going to Navy Pier to ice skating at Millennium Park, people from Chicago know how to spend their free time. However, if you’re like me, then you like to sleep all day and party all night (and by party I mean eating and sleeping some more.)
Well readers, good night and if you’re reading this in the morning then please close this and finish reading it at night because I’m writing this around midnight. Remember study hard, and try to mellow out because its the holidays ‘rrrrrrybody (you saw what I did there.)
