Week 15 entry

It hasn't been a fun week. On Monday I take place in a presentation with ambiguous results and ask Professor Dan questions for which I've wanted answers for months. On Tuesday, after work, a late SPSS assignment for statistics, and dinner, I go to the peer mentor to apply what I know to my essay, but am still stuck. I end up changing my thesis a bit, but it ends up with me replacing a paragraph. At the end of the night, I end with the same amount of words that I started with: 350, for a 1200 word essay. This morning I add about 100 more. I go to class, hoping to put my essay behind me and move on toward other projects and finals... and find out that he's extending the deadline two more days.

Campus events

Campus Movie Fest in October was a night full of spotlights, long lines in the dark, funny and dramatic videos, and crushed hopes of winning a raffle prize. Many interesting movie entries, I must say. However, I can only remember a few. The dramatic short "Resistance" had me tense during the whole movie, although its plot was very simplistic. The movie "Fun Scare" (was that the title?) appealed to a lot of students, but I guess I didn't think it was so funny. In my opinion, "The Truthbreakers" is the definition of what comedy should be, but with a clever ironic twist.

Fire on the Fountain was also an interesting event. Even though I did not stay long, I was able to see the fire dancers, who were amazing to watch. And I have to admit, the amount of effort put into the whole event (stage, booths, food, performance) was pretty astounding.

MUSE workshops

During the second-to-last week in October, I attended a seminar ran by the student health department designed to educate us about the risks of alcohol when given the opportunity to drive a vehicle. To do this (here's the fun part), we played Mario Kart 64 wearing beer goggles, which are glasses that distort your vision to simulate the experience of being drunk. Although I repeatedly lost, it was both fun and enlightening to not only hear but experience how dangerous it was to drive drunk.

At the beginning of the same month, my friend Kayla and I attended a less entertaining (and more depressing and scary) seminar regarding domestic violence and harrassment. A panel of 11 people, consisting of judges, attorneys, proscutors, mayors, officers, and sheriffs, who all have had experience in dealing with such offenders. They went over the process of how offenders are tried in court and how victims can get help. The air was dead serious, and I didn't dare get out of my seat.

MUSE interview imbedded

This was the interview that we did last week, with Amirissa and Karimah, MUSE 1.

The audio project

Well, it's unfortunate that we couldn't do the fun and creative radio drama that I was hoping for, but an interview is fine, too. I learned the possibilities of becoming politically active on campus, and that it's never too early to do so, from Karima (sp?). Oh, and Audacity is free. Nice.

The last chapter!

It's about careers.

Taking the end-of-chapter quizzes, one thing I found was what I want out of a career. Some values I chose from a list were having opportunities for advancement, having plenty of time to spend with family, contributing to the welfare of others, and making a lot of money.

There's also a list of my self-management skills, and from that list, I chose sense of humor, ambitious. friendly, helpful, and open-minded. What I noticed were some items that I skipped over, such as completing assignments and being self-confident. Now that I've singled these qualities out, I can work to impove on them.

Chapter 11 is about monneh...

Reading Chapter 11 actually interested me a little bit, seeing that I've been recently thinking about subjects like budgeting and financial independance. Yeah, I'm that boring.

I was NOT going to spend ten minutes sorting a 30 item list of subjects in order of importance to me, but I can make a few comparisons. On the top of my list are a comfortable lifestyle, family activities, friends, independance and security. At the bottom of my list are a new home, shopping, religion, and culture.

I am not a compulsive shopper.

Well, this chapter didn't help me as much as I figured it would, but it helped convince me to keep track of my spendings more. Hell, maybe I'll go find a second job.