I’ve never liked group projects; I feel like I can get things done more effeciently on my own. So I wasn’t thrilled to find out that we would be put in groups for Entrepreneurship to present a company. My group members are Alyssa and Joe and we represent Apple (another thing I was not thrilled about; I don’t know anything about Apple). Our first presentation went pretty well; Joe wasn’t able to make it to our first meeting because his parents were in town, but he showed up to the other two, and we worked everything out.

Now we have another presentation to do. In Entrepreneurship Tuesday, we decided that 6:30 in the library was when we would meet (this is where my story gets interesting). Alyssa and I were on the second floor of the library and decided we would go downstairs now and then to see if Joe was around so we could let him know we were upstairs. At one point, I told a friend of mine behind the circulation desk that we were waiting for someone; if she saw him, I asked her to send him up. She never saw him. Alyssa and I never saw him. We waited an hour and he didn’t show up.

Alyssa remembered that he lived on the first floor of her building. Since there are sometimes names on the door, we decided we would go and see if we could find his room. On our way over, I told her, “I feel like such a stalker,” but we had to do something. So we started walking down one side of the hallway; no doors with the name ‘Joe’ on them. While we were on our way to the other side of the hall, Alyssa asked, “Should we start knocking on all the doors to see if we can find him?” I really didn’t want to do that. So we got all the way down to the other side of the hallway without seeing his name. However, at one door, we heard people talking. I stopped and thought, “Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be in there.” Alyssa apparently thought the same thing, because we both stopped to listen at the door.

We got lucky. We heard his voice (which is very distinctive) and I knocked on the door. Joe answered, apologized for forgetting, and we gave him a run down of what we had done so far and set up another time to meet. But we’re facebook-ing him next time so that he’ll remember. Who knew facebook could double as social networking and a daily planner?

Today is Halloween, but I don’t have the Halloween spirit. I have a seniorita costume, but I don’t feel like wearing it; I have candy, but at 8:30 in the morning; I have something to do, but I’m going to be late for it because of work (I almost wonder if it’s not worth it?).

However, at work I do get to dress up. I think that’s the only part of the day I’m excited about. Since I work in the children’s section at Barnes and Noble, I think my costume is particularly apropos: a child. I’m going to wear pajamas, hopefully house shoes, carry around a little bunny rabbit, put my hair in pigtails, and draw freckles on my face. There is a costume contest for the employees and the employee with the best costume wins a $20 gift card. I would love to have it, but it’s not likely that I’ll win. One girl made an entire dress out of Barnes and Noble gift cards; I think my child costume is pretty likely out of the running.

It’s a shame that I’m too old for trick-or-treating and that I don’t like parties, because then I might have something to do. It looks like I might be spending my night with the most valiant knight-errant who ever lived, Don Quixote of La Mancha.

Just so you know, I love Yahoo! articles. Here’s another one I found yesterday. It’s called “Are They Lying to You?” It describes signs to look for when you suspect someone isn’t telling you the truth. I thought number one was especially interesting, and it is the only reason I’m writing this particular blog. It says that when a person lies, tissues in the nose “engorge with blood.” While I was reading it, I realized engorged = swell, i.e., gets bigger. Whoever wrote Pinnochio was onto something! I never knew there was some truth to the claim that a liar’s nose grows. Of course, it’s imperceptible in people, but on something made of wood, it might be more apparent. Of course now I’m delving into a whole fantasy realm, but the point is, there really is something behind it and I found that interesting. And if you don’t find it interesting, at least the article might be useful!

Aly’s sister-in-law was nice enough to send a Halloween cookie decorating package to us! It has cookies, frosting mix, sprinkles, gummy spiders, licorice, and candy corn. It sounds amazing, right? Really tasty……

Until Aly decides to make it. The directions were simple enough: add water to the frosting mix. How could someone mess that up, right? Apparently, Aly added too much water. Instead of being nice and thick, her frosting had the consistency of slightly colored water. She mixed it around a little and decided she would take the chance and try it. She dips in a cookie and says, “Oh this is so gross!” Naturally, I had to try it. So I dip in a cookie and completely agree with her.

Of course, we didn’t stop eating it. We just thought of ways to make it better as we ate it. I suggested we add the sprinkles to it. I never knew that sprinkles disintegrated in watery substances. The mixture turned black (even though the sprinkles were black and orange). We decided to try it anyway; who wants to waste such a treat? We could kind of feel the new texture that the sprinkles added, but there was no improvement in the taste. We decided to give up right about then. I didn’t even get through a whole cookie (which tasted like gingerbread [the Christmas cookie], by the way).

Then we moved on to sampling the other treats that were part of the package. She took the gummy spiders, tossed them in the air, and caught them in her mouth. I took the candy corn, which, since it was in a bag with the licorice, tasted like licorice. It wasn’t yummy, so I had to stop eating them, too. Then, all of a sudden, I see Aly dropping something into the mixture: goldfish. Just to see what would happen to them. Nothing happened except that the mixture became more disgusting.

Altogether, the package was a failure. I think if someone else had made the frosting (namely me) it could have been  a success.

 I think it’s damaged her brain. She’s singing Spice Girl’s “Wannabe;” a never before heard version of “Wannabe.”  And you don’t want to hear it; take my word on this one.

Just so you know how incredibly awkward I am, let me tell you a story:

I was at the sink, blithely washing my face and preventing acne when I heard my phone (which was on my bed) begin to ring. I knew it was my mom, so I tried to rush over to it. 

A slight crisis occurred about this time. Let me set the scene: On the wall beside our closet and across from the bathroom, we have a stand to store some of our things, like toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, dirty dishes……Aly’s clothes……  Anyway, it’s a little taller than I am, and held together by little black round things with indententations in them that go onto these silver, square thingies and hold them together.

So like I said, I’m trying to rush over to my phone and naturally, I run right into the thing. It was like a giant game of Jenga! The entire structure just collapsed! It was one of those helpless moments where you can do nothing to stop something you see happening right in front of you, so I just stood there and stared, dumbfounded. At one point, I remember screaming. Our neighbor, Ignacio, came over to make sure we were okay because he heard me scream. I guess by the tone of it, he thought there was a real disaster. But there wasn’t. It was just my clumsiness surprising me with its presence after a brief absence. 

So now I have to rebuild the entire thing, which wasn’t fun the first time. Any volunteers to help me?

I was just having a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter (yes, by itself) and I started to wonder: How long would it take for a glob of peanut butter to fall off the spoon if you hold it upside down? If anybody knows, please tell me so I don’t have to do the experiment myself.

Someone (I believe it was our very own Anthony Bosio, who makes our blogs possible) just returned the funniest book to the library. It’s called The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College. It’s by Harlan Cohen, an author and advice columnist. I was caught by the title and started flipping through it. It offers great advice about not only roommates, but also food, money, drinking/drugs, finding friends, getting involved, relationships, sex, the classroom…the list goes on. It struck me how useful this could be for anyone on campus, especially freshmen. It’s filled with humor, true stories, quotes (even one from a student from Lynn, I noticed), and the 107 tips. If you’re interested, you should definitely check it out. It’s worth it.

I’ve been depressed the last two days. I don’t really know why since it hasn’t been an especially stressful week. Nothing bad has happened. There is no explanation for it other than that I am depressed. It’s irrational.

But it’s not the sad kind of depressed. It’s the angry kind. The kind where I hate the whole world for no good reason. The kind where I’m mad at people because they don’t care. Of course, I haven’t told them that I’m upset. It’s the kind of depressed where I expect them to know anyway. I guess that’s how it’s irrational.

It’s also the kind where I don’t want anyone to cheer me up. I just want to stay mad forever. That’s probably the worst kind of depression that exists because you just look for reasons to keep the feeling. And you find them everywhere.

I just don’t want to talk to anyone. I want someone to talk to me just so I can tell that person to go away and leave me alone (of course I never would, but I want to). I also want to tell someone just to have the pity they’ll feel. I guess it would be my way of attempting to get someone to make me feel better just so they don’t get the satisfaction of me feeling better (if that makes any sense?). I would stay upset just to be spiteful. Cruel, huh? 

It’s really hard to go to work and have to smile politely at people for 6 hours when you really just want to go home and dwell on your depression, wallow in it even. That stupid, enduring sense of responsibility!

I guess the good thing is that I never stay depressed for very long, no matter what kind of depression it is. I have an adamant way of finding joy in nearly everything.

I found this article on Yahoo. I thought it might apply to my comments on the iPulse and might help the situation somewhat. Check it out if you’re interested.

I am glad that my blog “The Daily Heartbeat or the Daily Heartbreak?” received so many comments, especially from the Editor-in-Chief of the paper. However, it was not my intention to provoke anger with my blog, nor to tear down fellow student writers. It was unfortunate and I am sorry that it was perceived this way.

I do want to clear something up. I was aware that the members of the staff were part of a class. I also do understand some of the difficulty that comes with producing a student written paper. In high school, I was on the newspaper staff for two years (which was also a class), and I was an editor for one year. We didn’t print a paper every day (for which I applaud the iPulse), but we put a lot of work into it nonetheless. I dealt with the obstacles of people who didn’t show up for class, who didn’t meet deadlines, and who didn’t want to be there. I can appreciate and sympathize with the frustration that causes.

 I want to thank Sarah for clarifying some things and for correcting my mistakes. I didn’t realize that the paper was written on a sixth grade reading level for better comprehension. I now better understand that aspect of the paper. I also did not realize that there had been a previous issue of the iPulse that put more focus on NCAA week. I will make sure to research something like that if I mention it. Thank you, also, for pointing out the errors in my blog. I will endeavor in the future to thoroughly read and edit my blogs before posting, especially when it points out someone else’s errors.

 Now I have some points of my own to make.

Number 1: I used ‘critique’ over ‘critisicm’ because to me, criticism has a more negative connotation. Advice, suggestions for improvement, a way to make the paper better; you can use whatever phrase you like. My blog was not meant to be accusatory or confrontational, and it was my mistake that it came out that way. Honestly, I just want the paper to be better so that I can read it and because it reflects the students at the school I am attending.

Number 2: I was favorably impressed with your writing, Sarah. That makes it more difficult for me to understand how so many errors in the paper are missed. However, I wrote my blog based on my experiences reading from last year and the issue that I happened to pick up. I will continue to read future issues to see if the one I read was a solitary example and whether it was just coincidence that I picked it up on a bad day.

Number 3: I understand that there will be mistakes; there always are. I don’t expect the iPulse to be perfect; that would be absurd. But I don’t understand why, even with a copy editor and an Editor-in-Chief, so many mistakes are slipping through the cracks. Also, the simple fact that I am not the only student who has noticed this makes it apparent that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. I cannot vouch for all of the students on this campus, but I know more than one who is frustrated with the errors they find in the iPulse.

I understand that some members of the staff took offense to what I said because they do take pride in their work for the iPulse. I’m sorry for that because, as I said, a school newspaper is a very good thing. But I would rather they take pride in something more commendable, i.e. a well written paper.