Grammarsaurus
September 8, 2009 § Leave a comment
One of the classes I’m taking this semester is Magazine Editing, a major part of which is grammar, because it’s impossible to effectively edit writing without being knowledgeable in the rules of the language.
Spelling and grammar have always come naturally for me because of the sheer amount of reading I did in my younger days. I am guilty of silently judging people who can’t spell — I will never forget when Roomie #2 wrote “whipped” when she meant “wiped” in a FB message — but I also have great respect for those who can carve out beautiful sentences. Because grammar is mostly instinctual for me, I’m not terribly good at diagramming parts of speech and such, so I am learning quite a bit in this class.
While showering on Sunday morning, I had Eminem’s “We Made You” stuck in my head. One line from the chorus kept repeating in my mind: We’re the ones who made you.
I suddenly found myself trying to identify the different parts of the sentence: The independent clause is “we’re the ones.” “Who made you” is not a phrase but a dependent clause, and the “who” makes it relative. What the hell am I doing?
I don’t think I want to do my capstone in magazine editing, but I’m certainly well on my way there should I change my mind.
Homeward Bound
May 17, 2009 § Leave a comment
Going home soon. Usually I’m ecstatic to head back to Nville, but this time my excitement is tempered by many things.
For one, the vast majority of my friends from home are going to be scattered across the nation [or globe]. I may literally have nobody to play with, or I’ll have to make some new friends pretty quickly. As for those who will be in Nville, XZ will be working in the city every weekday, and LC is still undecided on whether to come home or take summer classes in Chambana. There’s no boyfriend to look forward to either [at this point, I really wouldn’t mind having a summer fling. Hmmm but where to find a viable candidate?].
I used to hate being stuck in Missouri [AKA Misery, middle of nowhere]. But I’ve come to realize that I agree with what AM said: being in this environment is much more stimulating than being at home. Despite the restrictive size of this town and my lack of vehicle, there are still new things to experience all the time, new projects to work on, and new people to meet. There are different groups of friends to hang out with instead of the same [beloved] group of friends from middle/high school.
And the thing that I will miss most for sure is the freedom I have here. I am one month from turning 20, and my mother still imposes an 11PM curfew on me at home. Unbelievable.
One thing that I realized recently was that in some ways, I feel more comfortable around my friends here than at home. I feel less judged here at school. I don’t know if it’s because my other friends were from high school [kids are always up to no good] or because we were all Christian — it’s probably a combination of both. There’s always a danger, of course, in getting too complacent [I sure have become a full-fledged pottymouth this year], but I’m enjoying not having to look over my shoulder with every word or action. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to a summer of tennis and [hopefully] Ticket To Ride. Come to me, tank-top-and-shorts weather!
It’s Now Or Never
April 30, 2009 § Leave a comment
I realized today that there are so many opportunities here at MU that I wish to participate in, but cannot because there are only 24 hours in a day, and so I split my time among being a leader at Asian Christian Fellowship, helping out whenever I can with Asian American Association, and occasionally being a student.
I would like to join the feminist organization.
I would like to join magazine club because it would probably offer some significant insight into the industry.
I would like to spend more time with people from my church, because I still don’t know 92% of the people there.
I would have liked to run for an executive officer position for AAA because I know I’d be good at it.
I would have liked to join APhiG, the Asian-American sorority, to befriend a group of women I don’t see very often.
I would have liked to work part-time to obtain extra spending money.
Etc…
But I don’t have the time. As it stands now, I have some kind of meeting every Mon-Thurs night, so there is no available time for another group.
And so I grasp at what little options I have. I am currently working with a conversation partner from South Korea once a week. A friend asked me to join his not-yet-assembled funk band next semester, and I readily agreed. I’m studying abroad next spring.
The impending graduation of this year’s seniors makes me wonder what kind of regrets I will have when it’s my turn to leave the college bubble. For now, I feel at peace with the priorities that I have selected, but what will my future self think? What does God want for me?
Chitter Chatter
April 29, 2009 § Leave a comment
Yesterday in journalism lecture, we talked about what Twitter means for the field of journalism. I couldn’t help but think about how stupid the conversation sounded.
I tweeted during the week. If you’d like to re-tweet that, you could. Who still hates Twitter? There’s an application called Tweety [Tweetie?]. I enjoy using programs like twurl.
Thanks for making us sound like morons [twits? twittards?], Twitter!
At the beginning of the semester, our teacher asked us to create our own Twitter accounts, which is why I have one. I’ve experimented with following different people, most of whom are friends, but also celebrities like Lady GaGa and Lily Allen. I stopped following Anderson Cooper and Ashton Kutcher because they update so often that anything else I was subscribed to got lost in the deluge of their hourly tweets. I started following Shaquille O’Neal after reading a story about how two people found him in a diner via his Tweets and how he was totally cool and personable, and he’s definitely interesting to follow even though I don’t even know what team he’s on.
A surprising number of my classmates voiced their dislike of Twitter, saying that they were uninterested in reading the mundane details of their friends’ lives, or that they already spend so much time online that they could not stand adding another source of information to sort through [teacher called this e-fatigue].
I, on the other hand, am happy to have another outlet. My core internet use consists of 5 sites: Gmail, Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, and more recently, Flickr. I like that Twitter is kind of like a Facebook status that less people will see — I feel free to be more dramatic or random, and can write things that I feel like I need to say but won’t raise inquiries or comments like a Facebook or Gchat status would [mostly because I know less people who use Twitter].
As for using Twitter as a journalistic device, I’m not sure. I definitely prefer to access news in other ways, but I’m sure that there is some way that news organizations could utilize Twitter to benefit themselves. I’m just not particularly interested in that solution.
auradis 