Ya know it's interesting how people change in the matter of a few months. Yesterday I got a call from a good friend of mine asking if my brother was going to the basketball tournament my high school team was playing in. He of course was because his girlfriend was cheering, and so they decided to go. I went just to get out of my house, and because I hadn't seen her or even really talked to her in awhile. I found that my friend, one I thought that I knew a lot about, was ever changing. It was incredibly invigorating! I mean most people would shy away, but I felt like I was meeting my best friend again for the first time.
After the game was over and she met her boyfriend (one of the players on the team), the five of us (my friend, her boyfriend, my brother, his girlfriend, and myself) proceeded to her house to play a game of Monopoly Lord of the Rings style that I had gotten for Christmas. As I watched the two couples I realized how much I had missed in their lives. It was the first time I had actually seen my brother and my friend truely happy in the whole time I have known them. I mean, yea I felt left out because I wasn't a part of their special teams, but at the same time it felt good to know that the girl who told me she didn't know how she was going to get through the school year without me was actually happy.
When my brother's gf and my friend's bf had to leave, the three of us were just standing around talking when my friend asked if I wanted to sleepover. The question came completely out of left field because I had never been allowed to stay the night before. When her parents said it was alright, my brother went home and my friend and I proceeded to her room.
In her room I could see the glow on her face from the evening events and the worry when she realized her bf might not get home on time. He did get home on time, but it is good to know that she has someone to talk to now that I'm not there all the time. I could tell that this newly budding romance is going to go a long way. I looked into her eyes and saw the stars as she showed me the Christmas gift she recieved from him. It's a beautiful jewelry case in the shape of a heart with an ingravement on the cover.
All in all I guess it was a successful evening. I had the chance to get to know my best friend all over again in a new light and it made me happy.
Tiffany
Ok. I know that Diana's blog centers around quotes, but I was so bored today that I decided it was time I put some of the ones I have found up here for all to see. Sorry Diana for stealing your glory, but as Uma Thurman says, "Boredom is a great motivator."
If you want to look up your own quotes go to www.goodquotes.com.
"I can't carry it for you, BUT I CAN CARRY YOU!!" Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin), LOTR:ROTK
"Not all treasure is silver or gold" Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Pirates of the Carribean
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future," Galadriel (Kate Blanchet), LOTR:FOTR
"I spent all of my childhood pretending I was off somewhere else, off with you on one of your adventures. My own adventure turned out to be quite different," Frodo (Elija Wood) LOTR:FOTR
"It takes a great of courage to stand up to your enemy, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends," Professor Dumbledor (Richard Harris), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
"If by my life or death I can protect you, I will," Aragorn/Strider (Viggo Mortenson) LOTR:FOTR
"Fear of the name, only increases fear of the thing itself," Herminone Granger (Emma Watson), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
"I know what I must do, but I am afraid to do it," Frodo (Elija Wood), LOTR:FOTR
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible," Walt Disney
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake," Napoleon Bonaparte
"In the end, we will not remember the silence of our enemies, but the silence of our friends," Martin Luthor King, Jr.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return," Christian (Ewan Macgregor), Moulin Rouge
"Commit to the oldest sins, the newest kind of ways." William Shakespeare
"I never think of the future - it comes soon enough." Albert Einstein
"Always forgive your ememiee, but never forget their names." Robert Kennedy
"Wise me talk because they have something to say. Fools talk becuase they have to say something." Plato
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." Martin Luthor King, Jr.
"Keep your face to teh sunshine and you will not see the shadows." Hellen Keller
"Boredome is a great motivator." Uma Thuman
"Good judgement comes from experiance. Sometimes, experiance comes from bad judgement." Christian Slater
"If you're going through hell keep going!" Walt Disney
"One man with courage is a majority." Thomas Jefferson
"I'm not smart enough to lie." Ronald Reagan
"A dream is like a river ever changing as it flows, and a dreamer's just a vessel that must follow where it goes." Garth Brooks, The River
"Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart." Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
"Love starts with a hug, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear."
"I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends...I'm surrounded by angels, but I call them my friends."
"All who wander are not lost." JRR Tolkien
"Can it be a mistake that 'STRESSED' is 'DESSERTS' spelled backwards??"
Ok. So I never got around to getting online yesterday to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope you all had an amazing day. New Year's is just around the corner now, so I was wondering how you all celebrated New Years?
Tiffany
You know how in your life you have those moments when a wonderful opportunity comes into your path that just seems too good to be true and then the hook comes into the picture. I had one of those days today.
Last February I attended the National Youth Leadership Forum on Defense, Intellegence, and Diplomacy. I had an amazing time and I was completely fascinated by it all so I asked a lot of questions and did a lot of active participation. Needless to say I got the attention of several of the higher ups in the organization.
Today I recieved in the mail a letter from the International Missions on Diplomacy organization. I was nominated as one of a select few to attend this prestigious event from my performance and grades not only in school, but at the forum as well. I was, and still am, incredibly honored. As I read through the information however I found that no matter which tour I chose (there were five to chose from) I would have to find almost $5,000 to go. That is just a little bit more than a college student can afford at the moment. I hate to say this, but that is just a little bit more than my family can handle right now too. So even though I have the chance of a lifetime to visit Australia, China, South Africa, Brazil, or Central and Eastern Europe, I have to pass.
The honor is there, I know, but I still would like to go. But then such is life. Maybe next year right?
Tiff
The hardest thing in life
Is not all the toil and strife
But the ability to move on
The happiest thing in life
Is not marrying a wife
But the ability to move on
Moving on can be most enraging
Moving on can be incredibly rehabilitating
But is also one step to the future
Moving on can be a path
Moving on can start wrath
But is also one step to the future
The future is what we make
The future is like a cake
But the directions are as we choose
The future is our way
The future is our pay
But the directions are as we choose
Ok. Now if you want to know what was good and what was bad about the movie according to the book visit Diana's blog and read her entry on the movie. I am just going to tell you how amazing the movie was. I am not quite as critical of the movie as other Tolkien fans, but I do have some problems with the way the film order was done. However, the final chapter of this epic drama has come to a close and the films will forever be ingrained in my mind. I never get tired of reading the books so the films brought into my mind pictures of creatures and places that I have only read and imagined.
I want to bring credit where it is due. Peter Jackson took on this massive project and completed it with finesse and style. My thanks, and the thanks of thousand fans of Tolkien, go out to him for bringing to life the amazing adventures of one brave hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring. I also want to congratulate the cast and crew on an excellent job. The characters were amazingly portrayed and the sets, designs, and costumes incredible. I can't say enough about this set of movies and I can't wait for the extended version of Return of the King.
Now I want to say something about fans. I went to see RotK this morning at 10:30. When my uncle and I walked into the theater I about died. The room was nearly filled to capacity, and this was one of the bigger screening rooms in the theater. That has to say something. By the time the movie started at 10:30, the show had to be sold out. As we were leaving the theater I took a look at the board with the movie times on it. RotK was sold out until 4:30 and there is no doubt in my mind that it is sold out for the rest of the day even as I type this entry.
My final words to you are if you haven't seen it already go and see it. If you have go see it again. I assure you I will be.
Tiffany
So every family has their own Christmas traditions that include family and friends, but then again this differs for people all across the globe. I was having a discussion with a friend of mine this evening and he basically flipped out on me when I told him that I was more partial to spending Christmas Day in my room with a good book. What he didn't let me finish was the fact that I only do this after the family festivities have completed. You see in my family we spend Christmas Eve with my mothers family, then I go off to midnight mass to play flute while the rest of my family goes home. Then Christmas morning comes along and we all get up at an ungodly hour because my little brother is still too young to know the value of sleeping in, open presents from "Santa", head off to church, then to my dad's sisters to have breakfast with his family. We get back from their house at around 12ish and I promptly go back to sleep, seeing as I never get much on Christmas Eve, and upon waking I read in my room. Now is that such a terrible thing? I don't think so....
Just out of curiousity...What is everyone else's Christmas traditions?
Tiffany
I was just reviewing my blogs from the last week and realized that I completely overlooked Christmas on the Hill. I was so stressed about events that happened afterwards that I just didn't blog. Well I will have to rememdy that right now!
Christmas on the Hill was amazing. The cafeteria look absolutely beautiful. I had missed light up night on Friday so I didn't get to see the completed cafeteria until the dinner on Saturday. It as georgeous. It really was magical. i had heard upperclassmen say what a good time could have been had at the dinner that I thought they were just trying to get more freshman interest. The food during the dinner was ok, but the chicken was amazing. I really love stuffed chicken and I haven't had any since my mom had surgery so that was an excellent treat. The chocolate moose was also excellent. It was a bit comical at our table during the cutting of the dessert, but all in all it was a good dinner.
After that was mass. I haven't served such a wonderful service in my life. Looking from the alter into the congregation I thought to myself that this is an excellent way to start the week before finals. The mass made me feel tons better as mass usually does and as I helped clean up from the service I could hear the music start in the hall below.
The dance was sooooo much fun. There were some minor problems toward the end involving myself and a few others that I won't disclose here, but it was an excellent time. I found that I was really reading some people wrong all semester. It's amazing what a slow dance with someone you don't really know can get ya.
Then after the dance a bunch of us went and watched movies in Sullivan until we all went to our respective rooms and slept until Sunday when the chrunch for most students started.
There I feel better now...Sorry for the delay!
Tiffany
Why is it that some of the easiest things in life are the hardest to do? Like picking up a telephone to call a friend you are having a dispute with, or saying goodbye to a friend you know you will talk to in the near future. These are two things that I have had to do in the last 24 hours and I found myself not wanting to do either of them
I did not think in my wildest dreams that it would be so hard to say goodbye to friends that I would not see until January. I didn't know that I would have to actually look at them and realize that I might not see that person until the next semester or even never again. I didn't think I had made such a strong connection with some people here on campus.
It's strange because people I didn't think at the beginning of the semester I could ever be friends with are now among the closest and hardest to say goodbye to. Especially one person. You know who you are. At the beginning of the year I couldn't stand a word that came out of his mouth. I thought that he was the most ignorant person on the face of the planet, and now, after watching him drive away to go home, I am actually sad to see him leave. It's not just him I am having a hard time saying goodbye to, but people that live so far away there is absolutely no chance of arranging a get together over break. Like my friends in Maine and New York. Those places seem so close when the people are there with you, and yet they are completely different worlds. Pop is soda, and gumband is rubberband.
I have done a lot of traveling in my life and met a lot of different people and had to say goodbye, but this is a new experiance for me. I mean I am excited to go home, but the closer it gets to 5pm today the more I just want the semester to continue so that there can be more memorable games of midnight basketball or a pick up game of ultimate frisbe. I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I am certainly at a loss as to how I am going to spend my break because all of my closest friends live so far away. Even my high school friends live at least an hour from my house because I went to school in a different district.
As I sit here and type, the snow outside my window is falling, and I can't help but ponder what it would be like to be a snowflake. To fall from the sky in many different patterns, land on the ground and cover it with a blanket of pure white joy, and then only to melt and leave behind the brown, black muck of mud until the next snow fall or spring. Seems to me like a meaningless exsistance, but it kind of reminds me how friendships are formed and kept. During our fall we make friends and aquaintances that may be with us the rest of our lives or we can fall into problems and lose those friends in a heartbeat, just like the melting of the snow. But then there is the blanket of snow that brings people together to make snow angels, have snowball fights, and make snowmen. Snow is a beautiful thing, even if it does sometimes leave behind a mess. Just like friendships.
I wonder what the break will bring, hopefully nothing but good things.
Tiffany
Ok. I know that this is coming a bit late, but I just wanted to say how excited I am that I made it through my first semester here at SHU. Granted, I didn't have any finals thanks to my grade in Journalism and Dr. Jerz's generosity, however I had to stay on campus in order to work, which is another reason I decided not to take the journalism final. My work hours were during the test. So while you were all taking the test I was sitting in a computer lab writing my Letter to Myself, Part 3 for Connections.
Connections is one class I am not sad to see go. I know that it was meant to help us freshman get used to college life and to show us what assets we had available to us here at SHU, but I think the class could have been set up a bit differently. Perhaps if it was a once or twice a month thing people wouldn't be so hateful towards it. They will still not want to go, but maybe they would pay attention more. I know that a couple of times I was falling asleep because I had no interest in what we were learning about. I did however find the lesson the the portfolios very handy. I think that that session could be made into a longer explaination and maybe a workshop towards the end of the first semester for freshman. I know that in my Thinking and Writing class a lot of people didn't even have theirs done until the night before they were do because they weren't really sure what they had to do. We had a massive party on fourth admin in one of the classrooms across the hall from the comp lab to help each other. I of course had mine done so was helping others in their plight.
I am really sad however to see my Contemporary Women's Writing class go. Dr. Lynn Conroy was AWESOME!!!! She put up with a lot from our class and took it all in stride. The class was informative and we had a ton of fun. I think that the fun part had to deal with some key classmates, but all the same it was a memorable class. This class made me realize how happy I was about chosing English as my major. Talking about the literature by the many women authors and how they each put their own personal experiances behind a story really excited me. The authors were from different countries which made the class interesting.
Well, I hope that next semester is as memorable as this one. See ya all later!
Tiffany
You think you know, but you have no idea. OK. So I know most of you don't wonder what happens when you put frustrated college students on a basketball court during finals week and give them a basketball (and two volleyballs). Well, Cara Daley, Lori Rupert, Paul Crossman, Stephan Puff, Andrew Axtell, and I discovered this tonight (12/8/03).
Let us start from the beginning. A whole group of us went to the Midnight Breakfast here on campus and decided that we were gonna go to fourth floor Admin. We proceeded to fourth Admin and Athena, Diana, Amanda, Puff, Paul, and Cara went out to race chairs in the hallway while some of the more responsible students (Andrew, Lori, April, and myself) did work in the computer lab (not really, but we can dream can't we?). Well when that got old and people in the lab started yelling at us to be quiet, we decided that it was time to leave. The six of us mentioned before had no desire to go to sleep or even to work, so we went to Sullivan to try and get rid of some of our anxiety. We went to the gym and decided to play basketball in our socks. The game didn't last long before Puff, Paul, Andrew and Cara started playing 21. This is where the more memorable things happened and you had to be there for most of them, but here are some quotes from the evening.
"AH!...I got scared," said Andrew after dropping the ball during a particularly good shot, however Puff, Paul and Cara were all present to stop the ball.
The next fun thing that happened was when Lori was going after the ball and preceeded to dive for it. She scrunches up into the fetal position and starts to barrel roll across the gym floor into the wall. Puff then goes over and picks her up.
(Shortly after)
Super Andrew, man who can take out two people in a matter of seconds. Now what you have to understand is that Andrew was starting to get frustrated at being in 4th place and having no points. So Cara has the ball and Andrew goes after her and as she going up for the shot, gets body checked by Andrew onto the ground and puts her in a state of total confusion. Then, while he is stumbling around the gym floor, like two seconds later, slides into Paul, who picked up the ball after she dropped it and causes Paul to completly lift off the ground about 2 feet and come down on the small of his back, putting him also in a state of complete confusion. We both got up and were laughing and were like, "Woah, did that just happen?!" And Puff and I are of no help to either of them because we are on the ground laughing our asses off and in the mean time Andrew makes his first shot of the game.
There were so many more memorable moments like when Lori was sitting on the steps out in the starwell and talking on the phone and Cara was like "Hey guys, wouldn't it be funny if we heard a bunch of thumping noises and Lori wasn't on the steps anymore?" So then about 10 minutes later we noticed Lori was missing and Tiffany went after her and upon finding her went back to the game and said..
"I have an announcement to make! Lori was NOT eaten by the steps!"
Lastly, and what we thought would be the end to the injuring was when Cara had the ball and was going to go for a shot and Andrew was behind me guarding her and thought he was going on the right side of her, so she turned to the left real quick and he decided to put his hand out and ended up running right into his hand. She then preceeded to drop to the floor, naturally. Everyone in the gym could hear the slap and the end result was Cara contimplating if the left side of my face was competely swollen or if the right side of her face got smashed flat.
We thought it was all over, but we were wrong, terribly wrong. We all were down in the lobby getting drinks of water after our invigorating game of basketball and Cara was still grr-ish at Andrew and he was being stupid or something so she was going to hit him. But, he decides that it would be really kewl if he opened up his mouth to try and bite her hand. So she goes to hit him and catches her left ring finger on his retainer and it like starts to bleed, while pulling the retainer out of his mouth and hurting his teeth.
So much fun...Wish you all could have been there. I haven't laughed so hard in my life. And oh yea. Puff won first place and second place in the game because after winning the game we decided to play for second and Puff said he would play but from the beginning and he ended up coming back for the second win. Paul however was a very very close third with Cara in fourth and the cheating Andrew in fifth.
So the moral of the story? Don't play basketball during finals week, while tired, at 2 in the morning, and with people significantly taller than you!
(This entry was completed with the help of Cara for historical accuracy!)
Ok everyone, I just thought that I would let you know that the night from hell has ended successfully at 6am. I have completed all that needed completed and managed to blog twice. GO TIFFANY!!!!!
Tiffany
I have one word discribing the work needed to go into the portfolio...HELL. Ok now that that is out of my system I would just like to say that I have never had to do so much work as I have in the last four days. After three straight hours this evening of working on my portfolio I have finally completed it. Now I know some of you may be thinking, "The Journalism portfolio wasn't even that hard." This isn't the portfolio I was talking about. It's that lovely thing we need to graduate that I am talking about.
Let me start at the beginning of this week. I returned from Thanksgiving vacation, having spent most of that break that I wasn't with family doing the loads of homework I had to do, only to get to my room to do more work. Journalism work was on the top of my list, but quickly fell to the wayside when I started to work on my Portfolio. This is the most time consuming project I have ever had to work on in my entire life.
I guess I'm just frustrated. I know that there are only two days of classes left, but it seems like in those two days I have more work due than in the entire semester. The thing is, I don't know where it all came from. I know that I had been working on things left and right, but I still had things that didn't get started or even completed. For example, right now I am sitting on 4th Admin with a lab full of students working on final papers.
In an attempt at having fun while working a group of students and myself have taken over the room across the hall. Surprisingly we are get an incredible amount of work done even though it is 1 in the morning. I'm not even all that tired, I just needed a break from looking at my actual homework and thought that I would share my frustrations. I know that most of you are having the same stress problems as myself so please feel free to leave a comment here on my blog in an attempt to releave some of that said stress.....
Just remember all there are only two days of classes left and then we are home free.
Tiffany
Let me start off by saying that these guys need to get a life and if this is their life they need to get a new one. Eric Alterman, author of “What Liberal Media? The truth about Bias and the News”, did nothing but take what tow other authors wrote and throw it down the drain. Granted he did make a good point about them not backing up their statements with real evidence, but still all he really did was use them as a springing board to help prove whatever point he was trying to make. All I got from his introduction was his dislike for Bernard Goldberg and Ann Coulter.
Alterman however does prove that Goldberg and Coulter did not use evidence to support their ideas. The reading from Goldberg’s book “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News” is nothing but complaining about how people don’t pay attention to the liberal media without using any evidence to back up what he was saying. I think that it was a good thing I read Goldberg’s excerpt before Alterman’s because had it been the other way around I probably would not have been able to read the “Bias…” excerpt. I do not understand how someone can write a book of this nature without backing up what they say with concrete evidence. Alterman showed that with just a little bit of research anyone could disprove a lot of what Goldberg was saying. Another thing I don’t understand is why this book was such a good seller.
It is sort of like Coulter’s many books. How can people think that she was a comedian when she is basically putting them down? She never says anything of real importance except her opinion of many people in today’s journalistic world. To me that is not journalism, that’s just plain gossip.
Tiffany