The inherent supremacies of higher education OR: Why college is just so awesome

Being relatively new to college life, We freshmen are provided with a unique point of view.  We've been becoming a part of this crazy thing called a college community, slowly being integrated into this lifestyle.  At the same time however, we are still coming in from outside of it, and probably notice more unusual things than someone that has already been here several years might notice.  For me, this point of view is just like having extensive musical knowledge when listening to a song or other musical composition.  It can already be very enjoyable, but the increased awareness of just how out of the ordinary or interesting and different it is can greatly add to the experience.

Possibly the most important and essential factor that makes college that much better than the stages of life directly before and after it is the independence, coupled with the line of support coming from back home.  I'm living out on my own (except not exactly) and making my own decisions, (a very slow, painful process I assure you; I am incredibly indecisive) but at the same time my living costs are being paid for and every 1-3 weeks my mom brings me more groceries. This means setting your own schedules and basically doing things your way.  I'm responsible for deciding when to sleep, when to do homework, and when to go eat. 

Now I'm going to look into just a few of the rest of the many things that make college better than high school in general.  (notice that I'm doing my listing a little differently this time...)

1)  First of all, the classes themselves are more interesting and aren't as inconvenient.  You get to pick all your own classes.  There are general education requirements, but for the most part those can be filled with all kinds of different courses.  They aren't as long either, although the homework makes up for that.  (Also the professors are much more...umm..professional.)

2) You're living at the school with a beautiful campus around you.  This means you don't need to get up and drive to school every morning and stay there for 7 hours before you can get back home.  Your home, your friends, and your school are all in the same place, making everything incredibly convenient and easy to get to.  The campus makes it a pleasure to walk around between these places, and there's tons of places to go to hang out or do homework or something all around campus.

3) The difference in attitude is another huge improvement.  You can be randomly standing in line around campus and introduce yourself to somebody and start up a conversation.  Just try that in a high school lunch line and see what happens.  Not only are people friendlier and happier than high schoolers, but they're more fun!  This entire week there's a war being raged on campus between humans and zombies;  students have bandanas marking their sides and humans have nerf guns to stun zombies with.  (One of my new hobbies is reading the desperate facebook statuses of human survivors) There's also so many interesting people here.  Just the other day I was in the bathroom in the Union when a really scruffy guy with big headphones came in.  He went into a stall, and started playing "Stairway to Heaven" out loud (He must've had speakers as well)  He then proceeded to mumble loudly to himself over the next several minutes, reacting to the music, saying things like "holy shit", "oh my god", and  "that's insane, that's insane, that's insane."


Of course these are only a few of the many things that separates college life from high school, as well as from life beyond college.






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The Fall Break List: things you didn't think you'd need in college, and things that you don't need but can brighten your day with their awesomeness

That might be my longest title to date? I'm not sure; I guess I'll have to look back to check.

Well the time has come for fall break, which for many is probably their first time going home since school started, making it a momentous occasion.  Not only does it give you an opportunity to get ahead on homework and catch up on sleep (Which you've been planning on doing all semester, what makes you think fall break will be any different?)  (I wish you could "get ahead" on sleep, that'd be extremely helpful)  (having big tangents in the middle of sentences is probably not extremely conducive to comprehension) and also get a nice haircut graciously paid for by parents, but it also presents a perfect opportunity to bring another big load of stuff from home.  And now that I've been in college for a good couple of months, I have a lot better idea of what I need that I don't have.

Of course the unintentional result of all of this is that I'm coming home with a huge to do list, which doesn't help with the whole "relaxation" plan.

And now, because I just love lists so much, (It's a little easier to slowly abandon grammar rules without people noticing)  (Incidentally, parentheses are also good for this) and because I want to give myself a break cause its fall break week, here's a list of stuff that's important to have in your dorm, and that I'm probably retrieving or restocking on this weekend.  This includes: 1) some things that I was really surprised that I needed to keep with me 2) some things that are always absolute essentials 3) some things I just really want

1)   Things that I need:

• a pocket knife     (you'd be amazed how useful it can be to have a pocket knife around the dorm.  what do I use it for? well cutting things, silly)
• lots of costume stuff (For Halloween, or just random themed dance parties.  You've got to be prepared, these things appear on awfully short notice.  (It's disco cowboy alien themed?  Okay, I think I've got something--ooh, these bell bottoms fit awfully well over my cowboy boots; now I just need to grow some scales and a third eye and I'll be good to go))
•  guitar tablature paper (makes it easier than just manually darkening lines on graph paper)
• vitamins ( this should be self-explanatory, but for some reason it wasn't for me)
• my passport  (well technically I just need the number, I feel like I shouldn't actually need to bring my passport around with me, I don't have anything to prove...)
• a big portable hard drive (backing up my computer seems like a reaaaally good idea)

2) Things that you know you need and you always need and more of them is useful:

• Clothes. more clothes.   (how independent you are can be measured by exactly how long you can hygienically survive without doing laundry)  (is hygienically a word? I feel like it shouldn't be)
• dress clothes
• toilet paper
• soap
• bathroom cleaning supplies  (I don't feel like coming up with jokes for these, so just chuckle at this please.)

3) Things that I don't actually need at all but I appreciate having:

• harmonica  (partially for the costume thing (I'm thinking of pulling together a Bob Dylan get-up for Halloween (While other people are in the bathroom touching up their costumes, I'll be rolling my head on a pillow and then running around outside trying to get my head to sweat (Oh the things I do to give myself the perfect Bob Dylan bed head... (wow these parentheses are blowing my mind)))) and also partially because I just really want a good harmonica)
• ukelele (Not for a costume, I simply want a ukelele..)
  
• speakers/subwoofer  (So my music can finally compete with that guy down the hall that keeps playing the bed intruder song)
    

Well that's it for this week, enjoy your Fall Break!  (I've been going back and forth about capitalizing fall break or not...)

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Distractions, the indirect cause of all of my problems

In my month and a half in college, I have learned something about myself.  Not only am i head over heels in love with late night/early morning [B]skis, but I am about as attentive and focused as a deaf man at a classical string quartet performance (or a hummingbird in a candy shop) (or a college student at an 8:00 chemistry class) (or a dead beaver).  (I have a hard time picking one metaphor and sticking with it.) (I find that sometimes I get caught on tangents and confuse myself, so sometimes it's just easier to start a new paragraph.)

I have had ADD since I was little, but I've only recently become aware of how bad it can get.  Of course you can focus easily when you're really interested in something, so the key for me is to be able to pretend to myself that something is interesting, which comes in handy (such a weirdly used word) when studying Economics.  If I'm not focused, then anything and everything around me is a distraction.  Of course, boring distractions lead to being distracted by something else, and then I go on a wild path of random thoughts until I realize where I am again.  Fun distractions, however, can lead me to be very attentive, in a misguided way.

Just to share my unproductivityness with you, I thought I'd tell you a bit about some of the biggest online and offline distractions for me.  I hope they suck up your time as quickly and unstoppably as they have mine. This might seem abrupt, but I realize I've taken way too much time already to write this post, for a variety of reasons/distractions.

• Facebook (obviously)   It's far too easy to get sucked into chatting with a random high school acquaintance, catching up on messages and notifications, brainstorming witty status updates, or just scrolling through your news feed for opportunities to express your opinion and remind people you exist.
• The Onion News  (I think I've mentioned this one before..)  I'll occasionally glance at it to see the new front page articles, and before I know it I'm stuck leafing through page after page of random and hilarious news briefs (also a hilarious term)
• Random philosophical or religious conversations in the study lounge   (it is what it is)
• Pandora Radio/music    I get no work done while listening to music.  none.  
• Funny or Die        It's kind of like YouTube, but it's regulated to keep it only funny stuff, and quality controlled to make it easier to find *really* funny stuff.
• Hulu     I love TV,  but I never seem to watch it now that I'm here in college.  Whenever I happen to have a half hour or two free, I can always use it to catch up on an awesome TV show like House, or How I Met Your Mother.
• Wikipedia    It may seem odd, but I find few things more fun than looking up some random band or movie, and then following the links from there, picking up interesting factoids.  This is also where I learn the names of the members of bands I like so that I can be a legitimate fan  (I'm always afraid that I'll go to a concert and something awesome will happen like meeting the band but then I'll be expected to know their names and I won't and I'll look like a loser who doesn't know what he's talking about and only goes to "these kinds of concerts" to look cool and probably doesn't even know any of the songs or even really enjoy or appreciate this kind of music anyway but I do! I do! I swear I love this music I just never happened to learn the names of the band members and I don't see why that should mean I'm not as big of a fan as the next person that's like saying you're probably just acting like you enjoy a movie just because you don't know who produced it) (deeeeeeep breaths... calm down michael)
• Foooooooood
• sleepiness
• Amazon.com       (I like to troll for free stuff, simple enough)
• Youtube     My YouTube expeditions are much like going through the Pit in the middle of the day right after you've had a large cup of coffee and a ridiculous amount of sugar.  There's lots of fast movement between lots of different interesting things.  You keep seeing familiar things or people that you need to interact with.  And you rarely stay for the whole conversation before you're distracted and pulled off somewhere else.  You often pretend to be interested in something because someone you know is at the booth, or they have really good candy.   I feel as if this metaphor is like a pair of shoelaces that I tied wrong: it's a little tangled and confusing, and if I try to move any farther with it I'll probably fall over and hit my head.

Well that's it for this week, good luck getting any actual work done!



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Late Night Franklin Street and Its Varied Culinary Offerings.

Before I came to Chapel Hill, I lived far away in a small town named Raleigh, North Carolina.  You've probably never heard of it; I usually just say I live "a couple of miles outside of Apex." Raleigh is a nice enough place, and

I've enjoyed spending 18 years of my life there, but one serious problem has become apparent to me in my time there.

Imagine that you're living in the northern region of Raleigh, and it's just a little after midnight on a Saturday night.  Suddenly, you a feel a stab of hunger in your gut, and you get the urge to find a delicious midnight snack.  What do you do?

Well obviously you can't just get some chips and some dip out of the pantry, that'd be taking the unsatisfying easy way out.  Therefore, you must go out; fast food is the only option that remains.  This brings us to the problem.  Where can you go?  There are no independent delis or grills within a reasonable distance that stay open late, and almost all of the fast food that you would expect to remain open has closed.  McDonalds, Wendys, Taco Bell: all closed.  The only choice still available?  Cookout.  Now don't get me wrong, as Cookout is incredibly delicious. 
I'd go so far as to say that the only thing wrong with Franklin Street or possibly Chapel Hill as a whole is the absence of a Cookout.  The inspirational and reasonably priced milkshakes of so many different flavors, the revolutionary working man's combo: the Cookout tray, Cookout has it all.

I love Cookout, and I love that it is open until 3 AM in Raleigh, but I also love variety.  Unless I want to drive for more time than I could possibly spend eating, Cookout is the only option. 

Now this is where Franklin Street shines; after midnight, there are still a huge variety of delicious foods available.  I still haven't had the opportunity to try every single one, but I'd like to discuss several important ones.

• Bskis: put simply: simply fantastic.  Only once have I tried their namesake food item, the "ski", but it was extremely tasty.  What I really love about this place is the side items though.  The chicken strips, the huge bag of fries, the cookies and the fresh fruit.  This is all I want when I go to Bskis.  The worst feeling is when you get a craving for Bskis on monday nights, as this is the one night where they close before the AM.
• Cosmic Cantina:  As soon as I got to UNC, I began to hear amazing things about Cosmic's burritos.  The restaurant itself is a little seedy, but this only adds to the experience when you're rushing there at 2:57, to get in before they supposedly close at 3 (don't worry,they stay open as long as there's people there, and there always are).
• Jimmy Johns: A good sub is always delicious, especially late at night, and Jimmy Johns is just a classic.
• Gumby's pizza:  Enjoying amazingly delicious pokey stix and a pizza late at night with good friends: probably less than 10 dollars.  Getting late night delivery from Gumby's pizza: priceless.     Wait I think I did that wrong?
• I Love New York Pizza: greasy and delicious 
• Time Out Cafe (24 HOURS!): supposedly very greasy, and very delicious.
• Qdoba: only open late on weekends.
• Buns: because burgers are a necessity for late night dining in a college town.

That's all for this week, and now there's no reason to be scared when you get hungry at 1:45 in the morning!

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