Sunday, April 25, 2010

End of Semester Adventure

I don't think their is a muscle in my body that is not sore. I am exhausted. A group of 13 of us went to the Current River in Doniphan, Missouri for a float trip today. It was a blast. We had students from all over the world with us, most of whom had never experienced canoeing and kayaking before.

That was our adventure for this school year. Not five minutes into the trip YW flipped the kayak he was in. He goes back to the insert point and rides a mile down the river. Josh tows the kayak. En route to pick YW back up JC has some trouble and flips his Kayak. AMo and I go to help him. We get his oar, kayak, and he jumps into the canoe with us. We head to a pier a hundred yards down the river.

The next came with AL and YW when they broadsided a brush pile. The canoe flipped sideways, with the water rushing into the hollow side. YW ends up on one side with AL on the other. The canoe is stuck. Some of us kayak back up to help. JP's kayak gets filled with water. I am able to get some clothing items and an oar. I pass the oar off and by this point have been pushed back some ways.

I decide to paddle over to the island in the middle of the river. I take my life vest off, shirt off and put the vest back on. I walk up the shore and then bail off and swim across the river, washing into the crash site to assist. It took us an hour to release the canoe. JC, YW, and I all three worked on it. We stood in the brush pile, rocking the canoe. There was a large stick up that we rocked it against and it would push one end up some. Eventually wet moved it to the left and it went downstream. We managed to do that without anyone getting tangled up in the old ropes or tarp that was in the water.

JP spent a lot of time towing in rescue efforts. We changed seating arrangements and took rowing privileges away from YW. That put AL, YW, and me in a canoe. We had one kayak left over so JW towed it. He and DJ towed the waterlogged canoe to the nearest bank.

We had a fun-filled adventure, filled with a lot of teamwork. It was an awesome time before the stress-filled week of finals.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The days before finals

Well the semester has almost come to an end. Monday is the last day of regular classes. Tuesday is dead day and then it is finals! This year has flown by.

The weather was bad this weekend but it provided some great catch-up time. Friday I went to the cafeteria and about the time we were getting ready to leave Craighead County went under a tornado warning. It was time for us to leave the cafeteria before they forced us into the cramped shelter area in the union.

So of course-- we go to the third floor of the parking garage and watch the sky. The tornado touched down in Cash, which is on my route home, but is far enough away we never saw funnel clouds or anything. It was clear where we were and we watched the sky grow darker and darker to the northwest. Sure enough it went around us toward Bono and Paragould. The sirens started sounding about the time I drove up into our parking lot. The weather was bad but we had decided to reschedule the float trip until Sunday at this point. I stayed in my room and worked on paperwork for my summer internship. That was boring, but it had to be done.

Today I spent several hours in the library. I got one page of my five page Spanish research paper finished. I completed all but two questions on my HMM study guide a week before the test. I scanned and emailed the paperwork from Friday night. It was a very productive day. After dinner I began the end of the year task: packing. I haven't packed a lot. But I did take most of the things down off my walls, gathered some leisurely reading books that I never got around to reading this year, packed some extra clothes, and gathered other stuff I won't need in the next week or so. I still have a little bit more I can probably pack, but I have a week to do it. My dad will come up Saturday to get it. After he comes I will be left with very little in my room and only a few days before returning to Conway. Then its time to hit the preparation road hard, getting ready for the internship.

Hope to go floating tomorrow. If not it may be another day of homework, or maybe just relaxing outside in the nicer weather.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

University Police Department (UPD)

As students we take a lot of things for granted. Just think how inconvenient it is when we come back from a break and  find the cafeteria is closed. Or when we need something and an office is closed. There is one group of people who remain on campus 24/7 including holidays and breaks. They are the University Police Department.

They often receive so many complaints about tickets or other aspects of their job. But they are here for us. A few weeks ago there was a bomb threat in the library. Within minutes, they had a text message alert out to all of the Emergency Alert System subscribers telling them to avoid the library.

At about 1 a.m. in the morning on Friday they sent another message telling students to stay in their rooms because there had been a shooting on campus. They sent another message about 6:30 a.m. telling students they could go about their normal schedule. I read them both after I woke up, but even though a lot of people were sleeping they still sent the message.

Along with protecting students in these life-threatening situations they also provide other services. When we have car trouble they are there to try and help. When something is stolen we can file a report. They patrol campus for traffic violations, and frequently pull over drunk drivers, making this a safer campus to walk on and to drive on. They walk through the dorms to make sure things are in order.

I even had a police officer banging on my door one afternoon who told me the door was standing wide open. They are here to protect us and help us. They are working hard, even when every other office on campus is closed. They often receive more criticism than thanks. Personally, I think they are doing a great job.

Keep up the good work UPD and thank you for your service to this campus and community.

(Students who are not signed up for the EAS can do so on the university police website: http://police.astate.edu.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Backup Copy

***Update***
After going tot he lab, I found a few files in the trash. I saved them and then opened it on my computer. It worked! That meant that I had to redesign my cover because it was not there, but at least my spread was safe!
I was thinking last night that I needed to come up with a topic for another blog. I thought about it and had every intention of writing about the international community here at Arkansas State University. I guess now I have a topic for the future.

The picture above is a rough draft of my front cover design for my News Design class. I like it. There are some changes I need to make like changing some text, font colors and positions. (Click the image to see the whole image.)

The problem is, I have one copy on my flash drive that is a .indd file which is for Adobe CS4. I have it on my laptop and used it to make the files.

The project is the front design, and a two-page spread. I spent probably five hours or more on my spread and probably three to four hours on my cover design.

When I went to class on Wednesday I did not take my laptop because of the coming rain. I opened the wrong file on the MAC which has only CS3. I did not try to save the file. But when I went back to my computer my file crashes InDesign every time. I have deleted the recovery file and it still crashes. The Recovery file itself crashes it. Yet I can start a new document.

Both my spread and cover are in the same .indd file. To make things worse, for some reason the PDF version of my spread is not even working properly. It shows one picture but no text and none of the other images. I went to a lab today to look at my files on the server only to find I had one copy of the .indd file there and it causes the same problem. My next hope is at 1P.M during open lab in the classroom I have been working. I hope that I may have deleted some .indd files from the server and they might remain in the trash. I've got my fingers crossed. If I am lucky, maybe I won't have to spend the next day redoing a project that I am practically already done with.

The moral of this story: Listen to your instructors. Most of the time they advise you to have a copy of your own, the copy on the computer, and another copy backed up on your personal computer, another flash drive, or an external hard drive. You should have three copies. And now I am a believer. I understand why.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Weekend's Break

There are only a few more weeks left of class! That can be a good thing but it also carries bad news along with it. It also means only a few more weeks to write ridiculous papers, or start on final projects. Most of the time professors mention them at the beginning of the year but fail to provide instructions until the last week or two. That is exactly how my History of the Mass Media paper is.

I have had the topic for a long time now. But the problem is, the guidelines were given to us only a week before the paper is due. It has to be eight to ten pages long, I have known that for a while. Some important pieces of information I did not know include that it is going to be in APA style instead of MLA. I don't know APA style. That is slowing the process down a lot.

I also did not know we would have to have a minimum of five sources. That is 25 percent of the grade. I had two sources. I finally found a third source. The thing is, I could write ten pages with the two books I have easily. But now I have to take the information (that is included in two books) and find it in various other sources just to meet the requirements of the sources.  I could write about a topic completely unrelated to the class and that is only five of the points!

I took a break from it this weekend, though Friday night I did try to order a McNugget Combo at McDonalds with a side of research paper. He told me that if it was on Ronald McDonald he would do it. Unfortunately I chose to stick to the topic, which I may or may not follow the instructions-- I am probably going to fail the class anyway.

But the weather on the other hand was awesome. Friday night we played Ultimate for three hours. It was a huge success this time. There were so many people on the field that it got a little confusing. Had we not gotten colored tape, I don't think it would have been possible to play with so many people.

Saturday morning Yan and I went to the park before everyone else and did a little bit of geocaching. It was nice to get out and have some fun again. While we were walking we saw three snakes. One was in the swamp at the nature center and I think it was a cotton mouth. The other two were probably diamondback water snakes at Craighead Forest park. We had a picnic later on.

This morning I got out of bed around 7:10. We decided to go to the early service at Highland Drive Baptist Church this morning. We had been wanting to go to a traditional service for a while and what better day to do that than Easter. It also saved a few seats in the 10:45 service where they were probably having to use overflow rooms as it was.

After church five of us went to Lake Frierson and went kayaking. It was nice to get out again and be on the water. Luckily no one flipped over or anything. After an hour of kayaking we went to Crowley's Ridge State Park and just sat around for a while. I fell asleep a few times on the picnic bench.

Now I should be writing my research paper but I just don't have the will power. I am not quite a senior but that senioritis thing... Must be summer-break fever or something. I have not been able to properly focus since Spring Break. I might just start working on my Spanish research paper instead. At least I know how to do it.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Happy April Fools Day

As I am sure everyone is aware, today is April 1-- April Fools Day. That means time for some fun. Two pranks that we tried early this morning both backfired a little. The first one was we put mints in the shower head for Derrick. It was supposed to make him sticky, but he took such a long shower they just dissolved with no effect.

The other prank was on Bobby, another roommate. We began around 11:30 PM.  We took strips of duct tape and began enclosing his door. Once we got to the door handle we wrapped it a few times and then took the strand and attached it to the counter and then a drawer handle. Then we continued down the door.

We were three strips away when he finally woke up. That tape was a little too loud coming of the roll. We heard the noise in his room and bolted. Luckily we were almost done. It was a larger success than the shower trick anyway! It took him a minute to exit his room. Unfortunately he did not read the notes we attached to take a picture from the inside.

Happy April Fools Day

As I am sure everyone is aware, today is April 1-- April Fools Day. That means time for some fun. Two pranks that we tried early this morning both backfired a little. The first one was we put mints in the shower head for Derrick. It was supposed to make him sticky, but he took such a long shower they just dissolved with no effect.

The other prank was on Bobby, another roommate. We began around 11:30 PM.  We took strips of duct tape and began enclosing his door. Once we got to the door handle we wrapped it a few times and then took the strand and attached it to the counter and then a drawer handle. Then we continued down the door.

We were three strips away when he finally woke up. That tape was a little too loud coming of the roll. We heard the noise in his room and bolted. Luckily we were almost done. It was a larger success than the shower trick anyway! It took him a minute to exit his room. Unfortunately he did not read the notes we attached to take a picture from the inside.