Bittersweet

It is really weird that classes are completely over for the semester. This school year absolutely flew by for me. It began in London, England which was an experience of a lifetime. That semester seemed like it was the fastest four months of my entire life. Once I got back onto campus I was so excited to see all of my friends it was almost like I got lost in time. All of a sudden I was on spring break, and now I am here. Classes are over, and all I have left is one test and a paper. I do not know what to do with myself since those are not until tuesday. I should probably finish up my blogs... Although I am very excited to get the summer kick started, it is always a bittersweet feeling leaving Wittenberg, especially since a lot of people whom I have grown close to are graduating. Time just needs to slow down so I don't have to enter the real world.

Blog on Blogs

For some reason I never really caught onto this whole blog thing. It wasn't that I never had any ideas, or was worried what other people would think of my posts, I honestly just don't like it. I do see the significance however, and why Mac taught this in class. It is part of the new wave of technology that is hitting journalism. Blogs are all over the internet, and I do read some sports and film blogs. It may just be me who hates writing them or maybe not. If anyone actually reads this besides Mac let me know how you feel about writing blogs. I may be missing something important.

Campus Atmosphere

One of my favorite things about Wittenberg is the overall campus atmosphere. This is one of the reasons that I originally came to this school. Every body was so friendly when I was on my campus visit. Today for the most part my view of the campus atmosphere has not changed. I still see students holding doors for each other all over campus, whether they know one another or not. Things as little as that makes all of the difference to me.
Whenever I visit my friends from high school who go to bigger schools like University of Wisconsin, there is not the same since of community that Wittenberg has. I feel that there is just a general consensus that everyone for the most part keeps a positive attitude toward one another. I know many people will disagree with this blog post, but after having been on many different campuses, there is nowhere that feels quite as welcoming as Witt does. My friend who visited last weekend even described the campus as "homey." To me you cant beat that!

Sigh No More

Although the band name may sound like a construction company out in the middle of Montana, Mumfors & Sons has produced, in my mind, one of the best albums of the year, Sigh No More. Granted I am not anywhere close to a music critic; I turly enjoy every song on the album, and that is a first for me in a very long time.
Hailing from accross the pond in London, this bands unique folk, rock sound is something that I have not ever really liked. Their lyrics differ from song to song, some having swear words in the chorus like in their hit single Little Lion Man, "But it was not your fault but mine, For it was your heart on the line, I really fucked it up this time, Didnt I my dear?" and others such as in the song Winter Winds "Love, it will not betray, dismay or enslave you/It will set you free." I truly enjoy the assortment of lyrics that this album produces. The album not only has great lyrics but it also seems as if it is one continual song. No one song really overpowers the other.
I can't really say much more about the album, because like I said I am no music critic, but I do urge everybody to check out the album if they are into acoustic, bluegrass, folk, or rock music. They do a great job in combining all of those genres together.

Finally done with the semester story

Upon completing my semester story about the social climate at Wittenberg and how it has changed over the course of four years, I am now looking back on the assignment and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Although it took me a while to get kick started on it, this was the first story where the number of people I interviewed was in the double didgits.  Even having worked for a newspaper last summer I did not have over ten interviews for a single story.
Within the fourteen people I interviewed for this story, six of them were either owners of their establishments or an administrator.  I feel that through this story alone I learned a lot about both my writing and interview skills. I think that this was the perfect assignment for the class to reach a little bit out of their comfort zone and interview people that they didnt necessarily ever want to talk to. For me it was Dean Kelly, she scares the shit out of me for some reason.
I am amazed at the amount of work that I put into this article, and I am sure most of the class can feel the same way. This was a great assignment, and it has definitely motivated me to want to interview more people for my stories because it just makes it that much easier to write when there is a pool of quotes to pick from.

Big Story Idea

For my big story I am going to write about the social scene on campus, and how it has changed in the past four years.  I will focus on the effect that the loss of two greek houses had on campus, and I will also look into some of the new policies that Wittenberg has put in place over the past four years that have gone against partying.  I will also interview many students about how they feel the social culture has changed since they have been at school.  I will also talk to people who have graduated and get stories from them about what partying was like when they first got to Witt.  If anyone has any other ideas of who I could contact or what I should focus on that would be greatly appreciated.

Case of the Mondays

It happens to everybody and honestly it sucks.  From the minute I woke up this morning I definitely had a case of the mondays.  I just thought about how much work that I have to do this week because I was completely unproductive over the snow days.  I am completely unmotivated right now to do any kind of school work, I just want to sleep and do nothing all day.

Super Bowl Ads

Watching the superbowl is something that I look forward to every year.  However, this year in particular I found myself pretty disinterested because of the teams that were playing.  Out of the top three teams I hate in the NFL, the Steelers and Packers are both on the list.  This is probably because I am a Bears fan and I am still a little bitter about the NFC Championship.
Although I was not to interested in the game, I was interested in the Super Bowl ads.  They never fail to impress me.  There were two ads that stuck out the most to me.  The first being the Doritos ad where the main character is house sitting for his friend.  Everything goes wrong but when Doritos are sprinkled on everything, all is well.  He even managed to bring back his friends grandfather from the grave.  The other was a car commercial.  I forget which brand it was for, but there was a little kid dressed up as Darth Vader trying to make all kinds of objects move.  At the end the child tries to make the car move using the "force". When this happens his father uses the key to turn the car on and the kid goes crazy.
These are just a few ads that stuck out to me, but the commercials never fail to impress.

New Story Idea

My story topic for this week is very similar to my last blog post. I am going to be writing about how it is for students to come back to Wittenberg after being abroad.  I have already interviewed two people and I am planning on interviewing two more.  I am also going to try and contact Joann Bennett about students coming back from being abroad.  It is coming together pretty nicely and I hope that it turns out well!

The Abroad Hangover

Being back at Wittenberg after a semester in London has definitely been an adjustment. I have found that I now have a lot of down time and I have no idea what to do with myself. London is such an amazing place and there is always something to do, whether it is sight seeing or just hanging out at the local pub. I also literally had no work while I was over there, only a few papers. A test that I had last week was my first test since finals last May. It has also been hard dealing with all of the random drama and bullshit that comes with going to a small school. I feel like if I say something stupid when I am drunk, half the campus will know about it the next morning. I mean it was always there when I left, I guess I am just realizing it now.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Witt. I just feel like it is hard for a lot of people who study abroad to come back and everything is exactly the same as it was when we departed. Being able to travel to places like Munich for Oktoberfest, or Madrid to visit some friends over the weekend was a freedom that I definitely took for granted. 

I have been talking with a few of my friends that also went abroad and they feel pretty much the same way. This is definitely something that I did not expect when I came back to Witt.

After being here for a month I am definitely getting back into the swing of things. My procrastination has gotten a little better (although I do need to do a better job in keeping up with my blog posts) and I have re-solidified the relationships I had here when I left school last May. I am excited for the rest of the semester and I can't wait for it to get warm again. Witt is a blast in the spring!

Racism on Campus

Racism is everywhere whether we like it or not.  Many people tend to look the other way when it comes to this subject, especially when somebody of a different race is in the room when the subject is being talked about.  Lets face it; if there were an African American student in the classroom on friday when we were having the discussion on racism, the conversation would not have lasted nearly as long.  It is not like anyone was being racist in class, it is just a touchy subject for students to talk about in general.  I myself would probably feel a little awkward talking about the "Whites only, No Coloreds" note that was left in tower hall in front on a black student.
We all learn the history behind slavery and the events that happened after it.  I feel like it is now just a subject people tend to try and avoid to not stir up any controversy.  I believe that Wittenberg did the right thing in handling the situation, but where was all of this earlier?  I remember my freshman year when the Gay Straight Alliance float got burned down.  Where was the administration during all of that?  How did they handle it? Another email... because emails solve everything.
Like I said before, racism is everywhere.  We may not even realize it when it happens.  For instance I was sitting in post the other day and I heard one white student greet another white student by saying "What up my nigga?  How you been?"  For me honestly this did not first strike me as being racist.  It was one student whats up to another, maybe trying to be funny.  It took me a little bit for me to realize how repulsive it is to use a word like that in public, let alone at all.  That language is all over the media and I think that students replicate it whether they know it or not.  I really don't think that the student who said that was trying to be racist.  He just did not think about what he was saying and what it really meant.

Brad's Wittenberg News Blog: Mary Jane

Brad's Wittenberg News Blog: Mary Jane: "I personally do not consider marijuana a hard drug. I am in fact not opposed to the use of it at all. Wittenberg is a college ca..."

Mary Jane

I personally do not consider marijuana a hard drug.  I am in fact not opposed to the use of it at all.  Wittenberg is a college campus and you are going to have people that choose to smoke pot and others that are completely against it.  I personally know people that don't smoke at all, people who smoke on occasion and people that smoke every day.  I do not view any of these people different than the other, I view the choice to smoke pot just the same as the choice of whether to drink alcohol or not.  Hard drugs on the other hand is very different.  On a college campus it is hard to regulate what goes on "illegally" whether it is smoking or drinking.  I do not believe that it is an outrageous problem on our campus but I know others will disagree.