GNO

Girls Night Out!!!!

This weekend was the first weekend of the year - VERY SAD - that all four of my roommates were home (in our dorm).  It is so so so weird but so very exciting.  We each have such different lives and hectic lives that it has never worked out, but this weekend it did!  Two of my roommates (the 2 I'm living with next year) were friends coming into this, so it has been very difficult to get myself into their friendship with all of us always being on opposite schedules, but this was great! I have had my doubts for next year, but this really does give me hope that everything will be good.  They're two awesome girls and it simply takes time to get to know each other - although half way into 2nd semester does seem to be pushing it...

Less than 1 week until spring break!! Sooooooo excited to go down to florida and stay with my grandparents! Something relaxing, cheap and warm.  All of the necessities I need.

:D
- miner moments.

APA, MLA, OMG, WTH.

APA, MLA, oh my goodness. what the heck.

Today in class we had a presentation with the writing center, and class over all just blew my mind.  Works Cited - now called "References" - is something I have always struggled with.  I completely understand the reasoning for having a "references" page, because I for sure would not want to be accused of anything along the lines of plagiarizing, however I am completely confused as to why it is done like it is.  Why can we not simply list the website, or book/magazine/newspaper we found it from? Why must we list the organization it is from, the author, the year, etc.  If we supply the general information, why is it not something that if really interested, the author can look it up?
That pretty much sums up my rant for class.

Class was really informational today though.  I did learn everything that was needed in general with regards to citing in APA format.  It was a huge relief when they told us there were so many rules, there was no way we could memorize them - as I am a horrible memorizer to begin with.

Off to finish up my project two and prepare to turn it in - so excited!

-miner moments.

What reflection?

I have never writen a "reflection" article after writing two informational articles.  This is very new to me.  Reading the new article was a complete mind opener for me as well.  If I had not done this weeks online homework, I would have recieved a much lower grade on my reflection article.  I did not realize the amount of information I would be able to put into a paper based off of a paper I had already done.  For me, it has always been write a paper, and then never see it again, so this is something I think that could be really cool, and hope to succeed at it and get a good grade :) (I suppose not much different than anything else we've been doing).  Although I am not a huge fan of homework - not a big surprise there - I really did enjoy this weeks, as I was able to pull so much out of it and learn from it. 
Due date for the articles I feel like I have been spending so much time with is finally this friday which is approching very fast.  I suppose it's time for me to stop procrastinating the part of the work I like least and finish my articles up so they are ready to turn in by the deadline!

-miner moments.

CHI-town :)

This weekend is the annual PBLI (professional business leadership institute), for the business frat I am a part of, Alpha Kappa Psi.  I am so so so excited for it! It's in Chicago, my favorite city I have ever been to, and it's with some of my favorite people in the group.  I am signed up for the sessions, which are held all day saturday, and are there to teach us about becoming not only a better leader in the business world as well as school, but also becoming a better brother.  To add onto that, the rest of the time is "free-time", which means shopping :) It is so fun to just walk down michigan ave and no only people watch, but also window shop. 
Every summer my grandma, sister and myself take the train to chicago and spend the day just walking around - mostly shopping - but also just taking in all of the different ways people live.  Its so incredible the differences from Lansing, to Chicago and then to my hometown, Holland.  It's for sure an eye opener, but I love it any way and would love to someday work and live in Chicago. 

- miner moments.

editer.

Today in class we spent most of the time editng eachothers second articles.  I was for the most part happy with the class day because I enjoy reading other peoples work.  I think it is important to learn from others writting and is a great way to do both by editing eachothers work.  It is so easy to tell what works and what doesn't work by reading someone else's paper, which then helps to write an even stronger paper.  I enjoyed class today.  I felt it was relaxing and useful.  I was a nice spin off of the previous classes where everything seemed to be almost crazy with all of the group project stuff.  This was something I could do on my own, and hold myself accountable for, just the way I like it.  I have also been revising my draft edited by the highschooler, which I have really enjoyed.  I liked that she gave me a little insight into herself and described how my story helped her.  She explained that she had signed over an agreement not to text and drive which is something I find pretty neat. 
No worries, after this week we will have a new project and I will be done going on my rants (sp?) about texting and driving.

-miner moments.

I mean business.

I chose to write my 2 articles about Texting and Driving.  I feel it is important to inform not only teens but also their parents on the seriousness of texting and driving.  After completing the online portion of class and gathering all of my pictures I am again reminded of this serious problem.   I am fortunate not to have anyone close to me effected from a texting and driving accident and plan/hope to keep it that way.  In my house if we are caught texting and driving we get the car taken away for 6 months.  Well that was in high school, but I plan to continue this rule for myself and future family.  It is amazing to see the statistics on texting and driving - where on average, to read a text, for ever 6 seconds you are reading, your eyes are off the road for about 4.8 of those seconds.  Depending on the speeds and area you are in 4.8 seconds is a ridiculous amount of time to have eyes off the road.  I am hoping that with my articles I can get my audience to see that this isn't something to wait and learn from.  This is far more serious and should be treated that way. 

- miner moments. 

Homie Home Home

I finally went home! After going home very often 1st semester, this has been a huge break for me! I love my family and really do miss being home with them everyday.  I often times find myself jealous of my sister for doing stuff with them.  Guess I didn't realize what I had before it was gone.  Either way I still love being at school, I guess I'm just trying to say I realize how much family means to me :)
This weekend is winterfest for my sister so it was really fun seeing her all dressed up! That was one of my favorite parts of high school and look forward to the formal dances my fraternity will have.  My family has also completely redone our family room which is wild! We have lived in this house for 10-15 years and now it is completely different, so it's just something that I can't stop thinking about and is in a way just fun to look at because it feels so different. 
Tonight I'm going out with the boy for valentines dinner :) I think we're going to grand haven for the night so that should be fun - usually is as I'm a very lucky girl :D

- miner moments.

Practice makes Perfect?

Although I believe this statement, I feel that this is not always true.  Sure I practiced my part of the groups presentation, our group met and went over the presentation, and overall, it was going to run nothing less then smooth.  Maybe we should have put 20 people our age that I did not know at all though.  It's a lot different from high school was the main thing I learned on Wednesday.  Peers or not, in high school I still knew everyone and was comfortable because it was normal.  These were the people I saw everyday in the halls so getting up and talking in front of them was not a big deal.  At the end of the day, they'd still be in the hall so it wasn't something I put much time into being nervous for.  College is a lot larger and that was very clear when I stood in front of the people thinking to my self; "I have no idea who anyone is.  No one knows me, and I therefore have no idea how to relate to this audience like I used to." 
I learned a valuable lesson this Wednesday.  Although my project was not up to par, I realized high school was done.  No longer will I be presenting to people I am comfortable in front of, no longer will I present to people I know anything about.  Practicing did not make perfect for me this week but taught me what I did not know.  Although this grade will most likely less than what I hoped, I hope that with this lesson I can bring that grade up in the future and be able to prepare for speeches a lot better

-miner moments.

Ready, Set...

After 5 weeks of class, we are presenting our group projects tomorrow.  I feel as though this has been the longest project ever.  I am really excited however as I believe my group is very prepared.  We ran over our presentation earlier tonight and things seemed to go well.  Although things never seem to go as rehersed, I feel as though we are each strong enough people that we won't break down to peer pressue - or at least I hope :).  Our topic is BlackBerry vs. iPhone which I think students will find interesting, it is technological and used every day by many students.  I have the role of giving the BlackBerry flaws, which was much harder than sounds.  I could easily find information on a flaw in peoples blogs, tweets, or facebook statuses, however had the hardest time finding information from a reliable source.  I sure hope my articles are enough!

Wish us luck on this presentation!

- miner moments.

Olin. AKA My new Job

Work started this week! I mean, i have been training for a little over two weeks, so was very excited when I finally finished and was able to start.  Although it's not the most exciting stuff, its good enough and gives me a check at the end of the week.
I do paperwork, copies, and filing for people that work in the office, and with a little more experience, will be trained to be a receptionist.  Not to shabby for a job during college I feel.

This weekend is Lil' Sibs weekend, so once again my sister is coming up which I am super excited for! Love that girl, she's like my best friend and miss her like crazy :) I love my close family:D

Thats really all.  This week has been crazy and the snow day was amazing however I did not do the work I should have knowing the deadlines coming up :\

-miner moments.

PROCRASTINATION. :(

This week was full of the awful "P" word in which I will not say.  It's friday and I have just finished my article #1, I have been working on it all week but have really been struggling with putting my thoughts onto paper.  I have so much information to share, but just could not figure out an appropriate way to share it - hopefully what I choose was good!
I went with telling a story about a girl who was texting and driving and it ended very badly, I feel as though that is more appropriate for high schooler and the message will be better delivered, where as an informational letter is more appropriate for adults, which will be my article #2.

Still in the process of finishing my group assignments, I guess this is what overwhelmed feels like!
Ready for the WEEKEND :D

-miner moments.

Pre-SNOWDAY

Class is cancelled tomorrow!! SNOW DAY:D - just had to quick share my excitement :P

Just completed the online portion and am getting a little worried.  I really hope that my group gets there stuff together and we can give a great presentation.  I have procrastinated far to much and need to start my article, but am excited about it none the less.  We chose a topic that interests me and I don't know why it has been such a struggle to complete this stuff.  Hopefully my snow day will be productive tomorrow and I can get some much needed time to finish my work.
As far as my article #1 goes, I am also excited for that.  Although I am not completely certain as to what I am writing, it will be about texting and driving, something that I feel very strongly about and want others to  know and share with me.

Other than that, my week has been busy... gotta go :)

-miner moments.