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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A brief but powerful glance into the probably important but mostly neglected activities in my life

So just the other day I was eating a bag of garden salsa flavored sunchips

Just really, really delicious. Like really.

and watching TV, when a thought suddenly ocurred to me: Wait...don't I have something I need to be doing right now?  I tried to ignore it and go back to watching "Bad Girls Club" with my roommate (Next we planned to watch VMAs over for the 3rd time; I was still pretty sure Rihanna had been out of key for a moment.), but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I had something important waiting for me to remember it.  I tried in vain for a couple of minutes longer, but my heart just wasn't in it and I couldn't keep pretending.

Not knowing exactly what to do (Having responsibilities is still a little hard to get used to), I excused myself to the lounge and resorted to the best organizational device I had available: the notepad in my phone.  As it turns out, there were quite a few things in my notepad to do.

Except it's really, really old now. Like really.

It seems that for quite a long time I've been using my phone's notepad as a mobile to-do list for pretty much everything and anything I need to do.  The problem with this being that I would put all these things in my phone, and then only see them again when I'm adding more things in.

After I was done running around in a frenzied panic and depriving myself of sleep, I realized the incredible randomness and varying degrees of urgency in these many tasks I had hidden away in my pocket to be forgotten.  I thought I'd take the time now to show you some of the more curious items in my notepad, as well as attempt to explain them (if i can).

 It'll help to understand the format if you realize that my phone notepad has limited room.  This means that I worked very hard to minimize the space each item took up, sometimes with disastrously hilarious consequences.

• go thru phone vids/pics     (well this is reasonable, I should probably clear those out, maybe put some on facebook, etc.)
• getnewphone/backup contacts  (my phone only lets me take calls when it's in a very nice mood)
• King olav scholarship  (well it might be too late now?)
• figure out tuition bill (definitely too late)
• read tale of two cities (easier said than done)
• tune piano  (wayyyy easier said than done)
• lego harry potter  ( I wanted to get it as a gift for my brother.... I swear)
• learn2checkdebit  (useful skill)
• learn to tie ties (this too)
• ode to joy guitar  (intriguing...)
• snacks (simple enough)
• cover bush song (I think this is telling me to learn how to play "Comedown" by Bush?)
• fun.  ,all the prtygirls   (i think thats a band and then a song?)
• relafiar? (spanish word)
• crisp (not a spanish word)
• spinal appt? (sounds like it might be urgent)
• meningitis (sounds very urgent)
• Miguelio and the blaze gray shorts (there should probably be a comma in there)
• backup pc  (speaks for itself)
• striped aeropostale mac nd cheese stain (this as well)
• c#c#/cBbmwayupEbmFs2    (I wonder just how small of a space I could fit a random chord progression into if I really tried)

the rest of the list is made up mostly of

• places i have to be
• people that owe me money
• random song lyrics and ideas
• band names (made up and real)
• various chores

and of course, homework.

Speaking of which, I should probably go burn through some more of this list.



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Addressing the youth of the nation: I'm about to drop knowledge

In the past, I have heard people say that the biggest problem with our youngest generation (talkin' bout my generation) is their political illiteracy, and I see their point.  A lot of people don't keep up at all with current events, preferring to stay in the dark about the serious issues affecting our country and our world today.

Naturally, I'd like to do my part to help my brothers and sisters get in touch with world news.  This way they can form their own opinions, rather than just going by whatever sounds righteous.  But rather than trying to just pass on the news to you guys in bite-sized chunks, (North Korea-crazy, Pakistan-dangerous, Russia-scary and Iceland-very nice actually) (I'd try not to show opinions about U.S. issues...) I'm going to just refer you to a web site which will do all that for me! 

This is a very reputable news site, which covers all kinds of current events in and out of the U.S.  This news site is called "The Onion."  It has its own interesting way of looking at things, so keep that in mind as you read.  They have a unique ability to really give it to us straight, because for some outlandish reason they're not really looked at as a real news site.

http://www.theonion.com/ 

The Onion is a sophisticated, textually rich news source, so sometimes you have to do some close reading to really understand what's going on.  They also write articles on all different subjects, so you can search for specific pieces about whatever you're trying to learn about!  The Onion is a very frank, straight-forward news source, so sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the big picture to really understand what's going on.

To get people started, I'm going to give links to several news clips and articles about several diverse subjects, just to give you an idea about their indepth coverage.

Sports: "Lance Armstrong wants to tell nation something, but nation has to promise not to get mad"

The drug war in Mexico: "Mexico killed in drug deal"

Education: "Are tests biased against students who don't give a shit?"

The diamond trade: "Baby skull jewelry may be linked to violence"

The economy: "New law forces ceos to humbly shrug before receiving massive bonuses"

Politics: "Victim in fatal car accident tragically not Glenn Beck"


Not to mention, they do many smaller scope human interest pieces.  This one will just brighten your day!



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Well that's it for this week; have fun filling your head up-to-date knowledge about current events!

To whom it may concern: A topical case study

Being very worldly and up to date on current events, I’d like to weigh in on an important topical issue. This topic is an object of many heated arguments in this day and age, and is fundamentally related to college life and college age persons. This topical topic needs no introduction, so without further ado, I’d like to jump right in and make my contribution.

 “Band Names”
  Or: “how to make your band sound interesting and appealing, but at the same time not sound like a bunch of fascist meth-heads.”

I know this is controversial, but it’s an issue very close to my heart. One of my *at least* three hobbies is creating band names. In doing this, I’ve realized there are a few key types of band names that *most* other names fit into (Some fit into multiple categories or just defy logic). I’ll provide lots of examples for each category. Some of these are real, famous (or not so famous) bands that you may or may not have heard of. A few of them are band names created by me or friends and performed under. However, many of them are random ones that I came up with just for fun.(Try to guess which ones!)

Category 1: ordinary words. This means that you pick a random verb, noun, adjective (or adverb if you’re really getting creative) and make it the title of your band.
• Spoon (I’m still upset I didn’t come up with this one first)
• The Strokes (“The” doesn’t count)(Also, what's the musical connotation of strokes?)
• Incubus
• Detergent (The key is to pick something ordinary, but just random enough that it’s not too boring)
• Filter
• Heart
• Flash Drive

Category 2: Names (of people usually) It may or may not be the name of someone in the band and/or real.
• Kennedy
• Billy Talent
• Frank Tacks
• Kasabian (Linda Kasabian, Charles Manson’s getaway driver)
• The Bellamy Brothers (technically not names, but still)
• Captain Jack (catchy european dance-pop)
• Captain Tobasco (filthy southern garage rock)

Category 3: Foreign Language phrases/words: Now I know that these other categories should all fit for people of other ethnicities, but I’m talking about a name in another language, picked by people who aren’t native speakers of that language. Being a non-native gives you a different perspective on the sound of the words, before you know the meaning. Of course, knowing the meaning just makes it more interesting.
• Lo Que Bueno (that which is good?)
• Luego (then)
• El Contador (the counter/accountant)

Category 4: Made up words/only letters (The letters may actually stand for something)
• Chumbawumba
• U2
• CKY (Camp Kill Yourself)
• VUF (???)

Category 5: Normal phrases, can be colloquial or from pop culture or anywhere. They can also be a normal phrase twisted with new random words in it.
• Sunny Side Up
• Mustangs, Vipers and V-Dubs, oh my
• Lost in the Trees
• Guess Who

·     

Category 6: These band names are creatively random words strategically placed together. This is the catch-all category that covers most other band names. This is also the most fun category.
• Arctic Monkeys
• Hasty Bacon
• Fast cars and fold out chord charts (Too long? Too alliterative? Your choice.)
• Screaming Crayons

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• Ten Cent Tacos
• Clip-on Girlfriend
• Medlab 53 (My brother and I are still playing under this name occasionally, although it suggests two things about us: 1) We play heavy metal. 2) We produce meth. 0-2 so far).
• Best Thing since Tex-Mex (bold claim)
• Hand-to-mouth grenades
• Polyphonic Divergence (very cool sounding)
• Gym Class Heroes  
• The manual abortions  (very nasty and illegal sounding)
• The robust Polynesians  (very vague sounding)
• Hollywood Undead

That’s all for today! I hope you appreciated my analysis of band names, even if it’s a little bit of a simplified version.