Hey guys, well I had quite a Winter Break and first 1/3 of the semester. I got to see some friends and relatives return, and I spent time with them. The early part of this semester was quite hectic. I had six classes, and decided to drop the one that I didn't need to graduate. I felt kind of guilty about dropping the class, but I was almost going insane and losing sleep at nights trying to do all this work, show up to all of my classes, and take part in other aspects of my life. Sometimes we make ill-advised decisions in life (that's why we need advisors). We make these spontaneous decisions when we think they "sound like good ideas at the time", but in fact, we are not ready to do these things. Sometimes you may have to give up something (even if only temporarily) in order to stay focused on the more essential things in life. I am glad to have most of my sanity back. If you want a more in-depth look on how my life has been going, check out my latest post (and continue looking for updates after) at http://upstateevan.blogspot.com.
The "final" week before "finals"
Well, I can't say too much about this last week...except that I am excited to soon get a break! Last week I've been finishing projects, listening to/watching presentations, getting final grades back, and preparing to write final essays and study for final exams. I did have another get-together with my friends Mitchell and William. Mitchell and I checked out the "last" yoga session for the "first" time. Yoga is a great way to stay in/get in better shape and to relax between studying, working, and going to classes. It's free, and the yoga class generally meets on Monday evenings at 5:15 p.m. to around 6:30 p.m. (sometimes earlier). We also ate dinner at Fuji (great hibachi chicken and steak, and you have to love their sweet carrots) and spent the rest of the evening at Barnes & Noble reading and snacking. Let's go into this final week ready to do our best so we can have relaxing break time.
I hope you all had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving break! Over the last five days, I've had to take advantage of my extra work hours (hey, more $$$) and got the chance to bond some more with my co-workers. I'm thankful for the people I work with; they are such a diverse and creative bunch! (Not to mention, hilarious if you ever see any of their Facebook videos) I am thankful for the extra "revenue" (business-talk here) that came in for me, so I can go spend it with my friends, possibly add to my wardrobe, and buy some new gadgets and what-not. I am thankful for my cousin, Josh, who I (and my family) saw over this week for Thanksgiving. Josh had just arrived home after a one-year, three-month assignment in England, and headed on a two-month trip to Australia on Saturday. (By the way, he is posting his pictures at http://glenraven.wordpress.com/) I am thankful for the rest of my family as well; we have all been there for each other and kept each other entertained since the passing of my grandmother two months ago. I am thankful for people that I have met (and the friends that I have made) throughout my life. I spent some time with a good friend Friday night enjoying some Mexican food, hanging out at Barnes & Noble, and going to a movie. I'm also thankful for other blessings such as being able to taste good food and drink, watch and listen to great films, music, plays, and television programs, read good books (not necessarily most text books), smell great aromas, and feel a loved one's touch. Those are the things in our lives for which I think we can all give thanks.
Well I hope you all make it a good one! I won't be getting too much of a break this week, because I work for a local movie theater. Therefore they need me to work extra hours this week, but I do get nights off to be with family and friends. Plus I will make more money this week. I will probably do a lot of resting on Saturday morning/early afternoon (because I have to work that night, too) and Sunday. Again, whatever you guys are doing for Thanksgiving, make the best of it!
Your blogging friend,
Evan
Well, as you all probably know, this is the second-to-last full week of classes. One class I am in didn't even meet all week. Instead, we worked on an assignment during our "off-hours" and turned it in on Thursday. The other classes consisted of reading notes and watching videos, working on projects, and working on PowerPoint/video presentations. The highlight of my week was our religion lectures, where we spent nearly an entire class discussing excommunication (being ignored by fellow church members for committing a certain sin).
Other than that, if you saw my last blog post, I spent some time with some friends eating Mellow Mushroom pizza and browsing books at Barnes & Noble. This week was pretty legendary for what it's worth!
Hang in there friends.
Friends are there throughout your lives,
Friends help you through school,
Friends study and work together,
Friends meet at the library,
Friends go eat pizza together,
Friends try to go to movies together,
Friends find nothing is playing at the movies together,
Friends go book browsing at Barnes & Noble together,
Friends find other friends at Barnes & Noble,
And finally...good friends call it a good night.
Friends...an important part of your "Senior Experience".
Hank's "Hills" have many suitors
I know this is unrelated to "The Senior Experience", but since I blogged about Fox's cancellation of "King of the Hill", I thought I should post this information.
Reportedly "King of the Hill" is being considered for running on ABC starting in the 2009-2010 television season. This would be one of the rare times that a primetime network show plays on two different networks in the same television season (Fox will finish its run of "King" in the middle of the 2009-2010 season).
http://digg.com/comics_animation/ABC_Might_Rescue_King_Of_The_Hill
Not only is ABC after "King"; Cartoon Network's Adult Swim has grabbed the cable rights for January 2009.
Hey all! This week I am studying Christianity in religion (where I have an extra credit opportunity to do a paper on Mithra), preparing for final projects in Data Warehousing (for which I had to write a three-page paper) and IT Project Management, do some reading for Survey of Mass Communications, and read and write for Writing & Computers (in which I have an optional reflection essay, other extra credit opportunities with wikis, and a final presentation on user-generated content).
I also got the chance to see a few good friends this past weekend. My friends Paul and Trey were here on Sunday from the Clemson area (Paul studies business/finance at Clemson while Trey runs a business with his friends Chris, Dallas, and Adam called ADynamic and works at the local Jittery Joe's coffeehouse). I spent time with Paul and our good friend Gary at Fuji, and then Gary, Paul, and I went to Barnes & Noble where we ran into Trey. I also saw my Project Management professor out enjoying himself. Another friend of Trey's, Robbie, was also there. Then on Monday I tried to go to the free yoga class, but it was cancelled. Later that evening I spent time with my friends William and Mitchell dining at the delicious Hickory Tavern ($5 wings on Mondays). William had trouble finding the Hickory Tavern, so I had to explain to him quite a few times how to get there (it is on the East side of Spartanburg). Obviously we weren't in school this past Tuesday, so I slept late, voted, and got my free doughnut and coffee (courtesy of Krispy Kreme and Pine Street Starbucks). I spent some more time with William at Starbucks and we both headed over to IHoP and met his friend Jennifer. Later that evening, change arose. On Wednesday and Friday we discussed some interesting things in Comparative Religions.
http://tlphillipsjr.blogspot.com/ (Trey's blog)
Finally, I attended USC Upstate's first Media Day on Saturday. Many people working in the media came to speak and share with us their experiences in their fields, including people from right here at USC Upstate (shout outs to Mr. Nick Catto, the web developer who has some responsibility for my being a student blogger, Ms. Natalie Brown, Mr. Catto's partner-in-crime, and Professor/Journalist Mitch Weiss who teaches two journalism classes here-Investigative Reporting and Media Management), The Spartanburg Herald-Journal, The Greenville News, Fox Carolina (another shout out to Mr. Jeff Moreau who not only anchors the 6:30 news and THE Ten O'Clock News, but also taught Speech for Radio and TV for a semester), Spartanburg Magazine, BMW, and 107.3 JAMZ radio. Many students alike were in attendance for the event, whether they are in high school or in college, and whether they are communications majors or not. After the speeches and introductions, the different media specialists had separate rooms reserved for questions on their specialties (Radio/TV, Print, New Media). Afterward, Pizza Hut pizza was served. Thanks to Professors Jimm Cox, Chioma Ugochukwu, and Gary Mattingly for putting this event together for all of us.
http://www.mrcatto.com/ (Mr. Nick Catto's Web Design business)
http://www.uscupstate.edu/press/article.aspx?id=21814
Finally this week if you watch the Midnight Madness video that was made for USC Upstate, you will find me in the clip for a few seconds (at 1:44 to 1:47). Talk about shameless self-promotion!
Well it has been another week of test this, test that, paper this, and paper that. The tests I once again do not feel too confident about (but one I could have done better - Survey of Mass Comm. - if I studied a little more that day instead of napping). The other test was my Comparative Religion test on Judaism. The papers I kind of enjoyed writing (one was a Web site analysis comparing two sites on Yahoo!: "The 50 Coolest Websites" and "25 Websites You Can't Live Without"; the other was a research paper on the definition of user-generated content-for example, this blog I am writing right now). I still have one blog to finish (http://upstateevan.blogspot.com/), some "wiki" writing/editing and Diigo (Web site boomarking) additions to finish, a short (one page) write-up for Data Warehousing on my final project, some Creative Commons Workshop work for Writing & Computers, and reading my chapters on Christianity for Religion.
Now that all is said and done about my academic week, I can talk about how the rest of my week has been. For Halloween I took a night off from work and spent time with a couple of friends. We chilled at the Waffle House, almost went to Hickory Tavern, checked out Downtown Spartanburg, and ended up at the midnight showing of "The Anointing of Dracula" at Converse College's Hazel B. Abbott theater. "The Anointing of Dracula" was a well-written, well-acted, and well-designed play, know where it is okay to park at Converse College, Hickory Tavern's wait staff gave us immediate service before we changed our minds about being there, chocolate chip double waffles with syrup are pretty good, and Waffle House has a new breakfast item called the burger biscuit.
Speaking of which, if you are lacking anything to do on Halloween (or any given night), here are some suggestions for fun places to go and things to do:
- Go to Converse College's "The Anointing of Dracula" (if they do this again)
- Check out Hub-Bub's happenings such as Soapbox Sessions at http://www.hub-bub.com/events/
- Go to Interlude coffee shop; they usually have live music or movie nights
- Go to Wild Wing, Delaney's, Chief's, Hickory Tavern, Nu-Way, Sonny's Brick Oven, Mellow Mushroom, or any other similar place
- Watch a movie at the Spartan 16
- Play mini-golf, arcade games, batting cages, or ride go-karts at Blessed Fun at Funtasia
- Go bowling at one of the local alleys
- Check out an art gallery
- Look for downtown street festivals, such as Music on Main or Jazz on the Square
- Relive your inner child and check out one of Spartanburg County's haunted trails
- Chill at Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Panera Bread, Waffle House, Denny's, or IHoP
- Chill at the public library
- Find events on your campus or other college campuses
- Join a gym, work out, and take some free classes
- Give blood (or help your community out in another way)
- Enjoy a night eating out or having ice cream
- Find free dance classes in your area
http://www.rte.ie/arts/2008/1101/kingofthehill.html
On a note somewhat related to The Senior Experience, many of you may also be as big of fans of the animated series "King of the Hill" as I am. Well, Fox has decided to cancel the series, with their last new episodes airing during the 2009-2010 television season. Many people of all ages loved this show and could identify with propane salesman Hank Hill and his love for and conflicts with his family, his co-workers, his friends, his neighbors, and the many con-artists or otherwise greedy characters who appeared on the show. At least Fox did let "King" run 10 years longer than they did with another hilarious. critically-acclaimed yet low-rated series, "Arrested Development", which can be seen on G4 Sunday nights at 11-midnight. Thankfully "King" has a bright future in reruns for years to come. You can catch the series multiple times a day on cable's FX and weekday afternoons from 4-5 on the Upstate's WHNS-Fox Carolina (Channel 21).
That does it for this week's edition of "The Senior Experience".
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