Final Project

I am going to be honest for a moment. My midterm video project sucked. I was not happy with the final results. I know I can do better than that. Problem is I waited too long and had to rush to finish it. And that process caused me nothing but migraines. So this time around I am going to do a whole lot better.  For starters, I gave myself more time. I immediately started filming. One helpful factor about this video is that we got to pick the topic and interviews are not required. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to find people to interview last time. 

 

I am ecstatic that we got to choose our own topic. Last time, when we were assigned one, I really did not care at all about it. Hence my lack of enthusiasm which led to procrastination which lead to my crappy movie. This time I chose a topic that I know and care about. I chose to do my project on the daily struggles of a commuter. I know from first hand experience most of the issues I’m addressing. And I know other commuters who have gone through some of these themselves and can get their perspective on certain issues.

For this week’s blog post we were asked to tell our readers how we plan on stepping up our game a bit and improve our videos. First thing is I made my introduction a bit more interesting. I set it up like the beginning of a True Life episode. I am hoping that this will capture my audience’s attention from the start. And during my transitions I’m setting it up like the transitions in Law and Order. The part where they say “The following takes place at blah blah blah….” and I want to try and incorporate the sound they use to. Another improvement is I have a lot more  actual footage than I did last time. I’m having skits to demonstrate problems like oversleeping and car troubles. I even filmed a car trying to start up with a dead battery and then people trying to jump the car.

I am also going to play around with the sound of the video. I did not have much time during the midterm project so I just threw songs in there to keep it from being boring and quiet.  I want to try to incorporate different sounds that apply to the topic I am discussing. For example: find car horn sounds to play while I’m discussing the issue of traffic. And then I want to add a song for the slides with words.

I am definitely feeling more confident about this project than I was about the last one. I have experience with the technology, I started earlier, I have a topic I enjoy, and I thought of ways to make my project more creative. I mean for my first draft I have over 5 minutes done and there’s so much more I want to add to it.

Video Final

So as you may have already guessed I’m not exactly excited for this video project. But as I said for the midterm, I really don’t have much of a choice here so I’ll just have to suck it up and trudge through it. (Luckily for me there are no required interviews). Our assignment is to basically bring up a problem/solution type situation college students face. And for my problem I decided to focus on something that I find relatable. My project will be issues of commuting.

 

Now this may seem a bit broad, but I basically wanted to go through the daily life of a commuter and the unexpected problems that almost every commuter has faced. From sleeping through the alarm, car problems, traffic, nowhere to park, running late, waiting hours in between classes with nothing to do, and having to rush home due to other obligations and missing out on campus events. I read that Louie is focusing on commuters’ lack of social life on campus, so I won’t go too deep into that.

I’m going to basically have the video run through a normal commuter day, but everything that could go wrong. Then I was going to go through the day and give helpful tips to prevent or fix the situation at hand.

Lecture

A few weeks ago our inquiry professor told us about the author Wes Moore coming to Southern to give a speech. She told us to save the date and highly encouraged us to attend.  The reason why he is so important to the freshman class is because we were given a copy of his book over the summer and very highly encouraged to read it during and after orientation. I did not mind going, but there was one tiny problem. The date of the lecture was my birthday. It was not exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday, but I decided to go anyway.

Now I am going to be completely honest for a minute. I did not read his book. I read the sections I was told to for orientation and then I attempted to read it later. I think I may have gotten through most of the first chapter before I gave up. I had no desire to read on and plus I am in the middle of reading a really good series. I mean, have you ever just got so caught up in a series that everything else you read is just so bland and boring? Well that was the situation I was/am in.

So I drove to Southern to go see Wes Moore and I’m honestly glad that I did go. He obviously talked about his book The Other Wes Moore. For those of you who have not read this book here’s a little summary. The author and another guy share the same name. They grow up in the same time era a few blocks away from each other. They both grow up fatherless (for different reasons). The author became successful and won awards. The other guy is in jail for life for killing an off duty cop during a robbery.

But Wes Moore just didn’t talk to us about his book. He talked to us about life. He said that everywhere we go we’re in a new surrounding and we need to adapt and shine in different scenarios. He also said that what’s important to us today won’t be important to us when we get older. We need to do what we love and makes us happy. Wes Moore wasn’t there just to talk about himself and his accomplishments and promote his book. He was there to share a story and to encourage us to live up to our potential.

Breaking the Shell

I did not get the chance to blog about the last group that presented on Tuesday because they took too long to post their readings and I had work so I only blogged about the first group. The second group covered the topic of dating. I liked that they covered all aspects of dating: on campus dating, long distance dating, hooking up, etc. And all of the dangers of dating in college.

I liked that they divided us up into groups for discussion. They gave each group two dating scenarios to discuss. Then they opened up each scenario for a class discussion. Some scenarios were a bit extreme, but it definitely was not a bad thing. They made each scenario different and took them to the extremes to make sure they covered every possible aspect of dating in college.

This group was also engaging. They asked us personal questions that allowed the discussion to get a bit personal and take it to a whole new level. But they also did not pressure us into revealing details we were too embarrassed to answer. They were not afraid to get personal, but they were not prodding. The group allowed the class to share information that they were comfortable revealing.

This Thursdays group is covering the topic: social life in college. This topic is relatable to everyone because we are all trying to become more social and adjust to college life. And since the majority of our Inquiry class lives on campus, it is a good topic to discuss.

The articles we were assigned to read were kind of interesting. I mean both listed ways to adapt and become more social. Some ways were a bit obvious: like joining clubs or attending sport events. But some were ideas that I never heard of and never would have thought to do. For example:  studying in the library instead of your dorm or hanging out at the gym to meet new people and stay in shape.

I am interested in seeing their presentation, especially since it is the last one. I want to see how they will make their presentation engaging. It should be easier for them because they have already seen each group present. If they were not sure how to make their presentation engaging they could get ideas from other groups and develop them into something different. I am concerned that they will only address students that live on campus. It is a lot easier to be social on campus than it is for a commuter. I hope they give tips for commuters with busy schedules.

Left or Right?

And for this week in Inquiry class one group is doing a presentation on personalities. Now this is definitely an interesting and relatable topic for everyone in class. I’m excited for their presentation tomorrow. With such an interesting topic, they have to have something fun up their sleeves. I hope these guys can live up to the expectations they just set for themselves. But enough about the future and my excitement/anticipation; let me now discuss the articles they had us read.

First the guys had us start off with a personality test. I love doing surveys that can tell me something about myself. I’m amused about how accurate and/or how far off they are. But I’m getting off topic here, back to discussing the survey. The group apologized for the length of the assignment right off the bat, which got my a bit nervous. I was expecting 100s of questions with multiple parts to be answered, but it wasn’t that bad. It was a little lengthy (and I’m making a stretch here by saying this). It only required about 5-10 minutes of my free time. I was able to complete it and get my results while waiting to register for my courses next semester (which took 45 minutes, so I had PLENTY of time).  Some questions I had to reread to make sure I understood what they were asking (and it was 6am and I didn’t even have my morning cup of joe yet). The results were kind of eh, a bit on the dull side, but it has nothing to do with the group’s effort. Overall, it was a fun way to start off this interesting topic.

Next they had us read two articles from the same website: one about the left side of the brain and one about the right. It was an easy to read, interesting article about the different hemispheres of the brain. A basic overview of the articles is they explained what a dominant left or right brained person likes, how they act, etc. and careers they tend to have (of course there are always exceptions to these rules).

Out of curiosity I tried to decide which I was more like and could not make up my mind to save my life. Both sides had characteristics like me and some that were the complete opposite of me. After long, careful consideration I would have to say that I think I’m most likely a right-brained kind of gal. I like art, I’m decent at sports, I prefer to study with noise, and I love cats. There are a few left brain qualities that fit me: liking classical music, likes tracing/copying and filling in details of pictures, etc. I guess I’m about a 60-40% split between the two. If you want to find out if you’re a left brained person click here, and for the right side: scroll to the bottom of the article and click on the bottom link right.

I’m very excited for this presentation tomorrow. I was considering skipping all of my classes tomorrow because it’s my birthday and my first class is cancelled, but I used my better judgment and decided that I have too many important things to do in my other classes to skip. This presentation tomorrow will hopefully make my birthday a bit more fun *keeping my fingers crossed*.  

Health 101

Every month each Southern student receives an email from the health center about the monthly health magazine. I browse through it when I have a free moment, but I never took the time to actually read it.  This week in Inquiry class, as I mentioned in my previous blog, one group discussed nutrition on campus. As part of their research, they went to the health center on campus to get information.  And some information they shared was really fascinating. So for this week’s safari I decided to visit the health center and find out some more information. I guess you can say the presentation inspired me to visit the health center. (Thanks for the motivation).

So I took a trip down to the Health Center (which was closer than I thought. I thought I would have to go out of my way to find this place, but it’s actually right by my friend’s dorm).  I had no idea how much the Health Center has to offer. From the presentation, I learned that you can make an appointment with a nutritionist to have a workout/diet plan made out. This is pretty awesome and I had no idea Southern offered this service. I also learned from the presentation that Conn Hall will make the food that you need for your diet and they will help you with portion control if you make a request to any chef. I always thought that Conn Hall was the enemy. With all that variety of food and it being buffet style, it’s hard not to go crazy. But there are ways to control yourself and not gain the dreaded freshman 15.

But they offer more than just diet and exercise services. They have a bunch of vaccines you can receive for free or cheap. For example: free HIV, gonorrhea, and chlamydia tests. Mumps, measles, hepatitis A, etc. tests for $20. Pregnancy tests for $5 and Plan B for $25. And many more tests and services for equally low prices. Another cool thing that Southern does is loan out crutches and canes. I love this fact because I am a klutz and will most likely fall and break/fracture/sprain/have surgery on some part of my body and will probably need to borrow a pair of crutches because I have no idea where my pair is. I’ve broken/sprained/fracture/had surgery on at least eight different regions of my body multiple times so I can almost guarantee that I will need crutches at one point in my college career.

And the Health Center is like a real doctor’s office. They have appointments and if you’re late you’ll have to reschedule. Of course they respect the doctor-patient relationship and value the confidentiality. This place overall has a lot more than I first expected. It’s more than just a place to get advise on diets and exercise.