AugieBlog

Visit to Washington, D.C. and New York

I’m finally getting around to my blog post about my visit to Washington, D.C. and New York. Let’s just say it was amazing! On my trip I visited Georgetown University and American University in Washington, D.C. and Columbia University in New York, which are the three graduate schools I got into for journalism. I’d never been to New York before, so that was an experience in itself.

The first day I was there I went to Capitol Hill to have lunch. Then I went and took some pictures in front of the Capitol and then walked all the way to the White House. Despite the fact I’ve been to D.C. a few times before, taking pictures in front of these buildings never gets old. Then I went to visit Georgetown University and sit in on a class. It was really cool because there was a guest speaker – Asra Nomani – and it was very interactive. The campus for this program is in Virginia, but it’s right next to the red line, which is nice.

The next day I went to the Newseum with prospective students from American University. I’d been to this museum once before, but it never gets old. It’s a museum about the news. My favorite part is this section with newspaper front pages from important historical events. I also bought the mug “Trust me…I’m a reporter,” which I saw two years ago when I interned in D.C. Back then I wasn’t really into journalism. Funny how the times have changed. I also went to see the reflecting pool (which if finally back!), a bunch of monuments, and saw the two trees with cherry blossoms on them. Sadly the cherry blossoms were not fully in bloom.

The next day was American University’s admitted students day. It was really fun because another student from Augustana College was there, so we were able to experience it together. American University’s campus is gorgeous! There buildings are so pretty and the neighborhood is wonderful. I also got to meet with an old friend who used to go to Augustana and tour around town for a little bit.

And then, it was off to New York! I took the WashingtonDeluxe bus there and it was pretty nice. There was wifi, comfy seats, and the ride was only four hours or so. I arrived at New York around 1pm, so I walked to my hotel and then went to Times Square. Times Square is pretty magnificent and super crowded. But it was so nice to finally see a place that I had seen on TV countless times, in person.

That same day I went and saw the Broadway musical Chicago! I’d never seen Chicago before but I absolutely loved it! The nice thing about Chicago was the fact that I was able to get rush tickets (basically tickets the day of the performance), which weren’t too expensive. After the performance I attempted to see the 9/11 memorial but there were subway police issues, so I ended up spending $8 to not see the 9/11 memorial…but at least I tried.

On my final day I went to visit Columbia University. They have such an incredible program and have amazing equipment. I had a lovely tour of the journalism program and a tour of their campus. Their campus is absolutely breathtaking. Their campus is the stereotypical undergrad campus. The picture I have here is of Avery building, which is where Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother “works.” So that was pretty cool. A lot of the buildings on campus exemplify that movie perfect image. They have an underground gym, a gorgeous library, and an impeccable quad. My favorite part was definitely the strong wifi that was everywhere on campus. It was a gorgeous day and I ended up sitting outside for a lot of it, since they don’t really let visitors inside the buildings since they don’t have an id.

I had a fantastic time visiting all my potential grad schools. Later this week look for a blog about where I decided to go to graduate school and what my plans are for this summer!

Posted on April 14th, 2013 by aliciaoken09
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How To Get a Girl To Like You* In Really Confusing, Convoluted Steps

So I was asked recently by one of my friends, “Gary, can I call you Gary?”

I replied, “I prefer Thomas the Enke Engine or Colby JackCheese”

So my friend squeaks, “Ok, man how you gon’ get a girl to go to a formal with you?”

With great knowledge and wisdom I replied to that man with a great ire in my voice, “It’s simple, we kill the bat”.

Many of you are probably preparing for a Prom, Formal, or Daytime Soap Opera marathon that would be made more enjoyable with the company of a significant other.

Truthfully I have no idea about 99% of the things that come out of my mouth but I’m going to make you ( the reader, not the Texas Ranger’s pitcher) believe I know what I’m talking about. The first . . . and only thing I know about girls is that they exist on the same planet as me. I can make words at them sometimes. At Augustana there are many gorgeous girls, none of the ones I know here work at Wendy’s so I don’t talk to them. If anyone know that smoking hot red head Wendy girl who makes the square burgers, awesome fries, and the delectable frosties, tell her to call me on my work phone.

Enough about my love life.

Here’s how I am going to be like your Hitch.

First of all: Be Ryan Gosling. Figure it out or I’ll pour Nickelodeon slime on you, jabroni.

Second, do something romantic. Like poetry and putting a boombox over your head to play her favorite song! If the first thought that bumped into your head was kidnapping her, you might be a red neck. I love Dane Cook’s catch phrases. But don’t do that. Anyways, don’t do anything drastic like tattoo her name into your skin either, unless her name is Helga. By romantic I mean flowers and those things the Germans make. Chocolates. That’s it. I could have sworn it was a plethora of Volkswagen, but it’s chocolates. If you see this girl present them these chocolates in a true Viking manner. Rip whatever shirt you are wearing off, don’t worry about how you will look. The technology of this maneuver that I invented says that upon removal your abs will look like Gerard Butler after a day of slip-n-sliding on bacon grease. Picture that ladies. After you do this she will be more open to accept your invitation. It’ll be like giving candy to a knifebaby.

I did it Star Child and it worked for me! Just Ask my date (Insert Name Here) She totally loved it!

What not to do:

1. Tell her she has a clue on her and then paint a blue paw print on her face. Tried that once and I got a restraining order. Thanks Mom, guess I won’t be coming home for Half-Christmas.

2. Show her your sweet magic tricks or dance moves, to me they are one and the same. You will literally blow her mind and she won’t be able to further her education at this school. Don’t be selfish. Do the Harlem Cake.

3. Lift weights in front of her. She will make you look weak when she grows a beard and shaves it off in a matter of seconds just to show you she’s not one to be trifled with.

4. Don’t look like Gary Miller, don’t act like Gary Miller, Don’t do anything like Gary Miller. Unless it’s everything else I told you. If that’s confusing to you, maybe it’s because I’m still trying to figure out the ending to the last season of The Wiggles. Will Jeff ever wake up? Will Veronica Mars call me?

5. Recycle. Or do recycle I don’t care. (Reverse Psychologogogyzoologicallity).

Follow me on Twitbook.

*Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for any advice I just gave,

Posted on April 10th, 2013 by garymiller11
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Sometimes, Things Just Work Out For the Best

Spring term is busy. That is a fact. It doesn’t matter whether you’re taking three classes or four, if you’re involved in two clubs or ten, spring term is just busy. My senior friends tell me that they have all kinds of banquets to attend leading up to graduation. And, presumably, there’s the job search and/or grad school decisions.

But even for the regular college student, there’s quite a lot to be done. And though all of it is fun, it’s still a little daunting to look at my schedule and see all the things I have to do this week.

1) Alpha Psi Omega pledging

10 pm to midnight, Monday through Thursday, family bonding on Friday and culmination Saturday night. Though I loved pledging last year, we did it in two weeks, which meant that all of us had more time to sleep. This should be interesting…

2) Quidditch team fundraiser

The Quidditch team does a yearly fundraiser where we deliver PB&J sandwiches around campus while riding on broomsticks. It’s good publicity, and we made a good amount of money last year, so hopefully we’ll do the same this year!

3) Siblings weekend

I have no siblings, so normally this wouldn’t make much difference to me. However, this year’s siblings weekend is Harry Potter-themed, so the Quidditch team is organizing some activities for visiting kids. That will be Saturday afternoon. Saturday’s shaping up to be quite the day…

4) St. Baldrick’s

Next week’s post will be about St. Baldrick’s so I won’t give too much away here. But the Roundels are organizing an event to raise money for St. Baldrick’s, an organization that supports cancer research. I and a couple of my friends signed up to raise money and get our heads shaved to show support for cancer victims. The event will be this Thursday, right before pledging.

And all this, of course, is not counting regular homework and work and Quidditch practice.

However, things sometimes have a way of just working out. Symposium Day is tomorrow, which means all classes are canceled. I will still be attending the keynote speech and at least one session, but in general, Symposium Day gives me a little bit more time to do homework and things than I usually have. Also, we’re doing writing workshops this week in my 8:30 am Fiction-Writing course. Since my group did ours today, I don’t have to go to class the rest of this week. More sleep! Hurray!

Though this week is probably going to be a little crazy, I’m glad that my regular workload is a little less. But still, I’d better get back to that take-home midterm I have to turn in tomorrow. See you next week (when I’ll be bald)!

Posted on April 8th, 2013 by Rukmini Girish
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The Easter Bunny is a Time Traveling Warlock

Frake pulled the old Johnny Mago Foot Troll technique on me!

For Easter this year I took a sojourn with Conner Murray to a land called “Frake Farms” (Where they grow corn . . . on the cob) home to a creature known as Kyle Frake. The road trip was filled with solid music, such as that hot new joint by that dude Jimmy from Degrassi. Kyle’s way of playing the right music at the right time made it that much more enjoyable when Kyle hit a cat that tried to jump in front of the car. We learned that the cat had recently lost its job at PETCO as manager and was at the end of his hope rope. Should you believe either of those statements? I don’t know I’m not a doctor.

Pictured here is Kyle “Berrylicious” Frake and Conner “King of Conifer” Murray

The first night was spent getting comfortable with our new surroundings. Me and Conner tried to earn Kyle’s parents love by reading them excerpts from Nicki Minaj’s autobiography Eat Your Heart Out Katy Perry. It worked like a winky face on a text to Tim Maroder.

On Friday Kyle showed us around his town and we came to the startling conclusion that he is the Dale Earnhardt of driving in his town. The weekend had a lot of adventures such as shooting some of his magic boomsticks that fire lightning and scare the bad men away.

There was also fishing, I caught a fish that was this big! Use your ‘magination! Come on! Do you see my hands?

I also have to compliment the hospitality of the Frake family, they took quite good care of us and it was very generous of them to have us over for Easter. Thank you for the amazing cooking Mrs. Frake, Emeril can take his “bam” and go home. Mr. Frake is Superman. That is all.

A commissioned self portrait of me after Easter dinner.

Posted on April 3rd, 2013 by garymiller11
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Sigma Alpha Iota’s Province Day

photo (6) The Delta Tau chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota spent at least ten hours together two weekends ago. And let me tell you, it was fantastic! First on Friday we had a sisterhood retreat. We made some crafts, sang some songs, and did “warm fuzzies.” Warm fuzzies are definitely my favorite part of the sisterhood retreats! They are basically a piece of paper with your name at the top, that gets passed around to the whole chapter. The chapter then writes nice comments or things about you that they like. I’ve included a picture of some of the warm fuzzies I get. My favorite is definitely “If you were president I would not move to Canada.” It was so nice spending so much time with my sisters.

Then on Saturday we hosted Province Day. Province Day is where other Sigma Alpha Iota chapters from the area come together for a day. We sang some songs, listened to some music, could purchase crafts from other chapters (I bought a super cute ring!), listened to a speaker, and ate some food. This day really exemplified why I joined Sigma Alpha Iota in the first place. It’s a fantastic group of ladies who all share one thing in common: music. I’m really going to miss this organization after I graduate – but no matter where I end up for grad school, I am definitely joining an alumnae chapter!

Posted on April 1st, 2013 by aliciaoken09
Filed under: Alicia Oken | 1 Comment »

Django Unchained? A Little TOO Unchained

Easter weekend at home… What does that mean? Watching some movies, of course! My dad and I watched A Few Good Men, in which Jack Nicholson was fantastic as usual, but we also watched Tarantino’s latest, Django Unchained. Now, before you start sniggering at the fact that I’m watching an Oscar-nominated movie this late, this is what my family and I usually do. We do end up having watched a few award-worthy movies before the Oscars, but normally we end up saying, “Oh hey, that was nominated, so we should probably watch it.” Sometimes we get around to it, sometimes we never do. Case in point, The Hurt Locker is still on my to-watch list.

Anyway, this was my first Tarantino movie, and though I’d heard that pretty much all his movies are bloodbaths, I wasn’t too nervous. I mean, I’ve watched war movies, I’ve watched a couple of slasher movies, I can take blood. But alas, Tarantino must have heard me and said “Challenge accepted!” because Django actually made me a little sick to my stomach.

Don’t get me wrong, I started off liking the movie. And even after I finished watching it, I thought Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio all acted well. Sure, there were fountains of blood gushing from anyone who was shot, and there were A LOT of people who got shot in Django, but that isn’t anything new for someone who reads Robert Ludlum. Trust me, in the last Ludlum I read, there were about five deaths in four pages. There was some violence in Django that would probably have been chopped out off any other movie, but I thought that was just Tarantino.

And then I got to the last half hour. The last half hour where I lost count of how many people had died in the first sixty seconds. The last half hour where Django walks through a room with streaks of blood dripping down the walls, and so many bodies on the floor that he has to pick a path through them.

Anyone who watches Django can see that Tarantino is an extremely talented writer and filmmaker with a sense of humor. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a plantation owner named Calvin Candie. His plantation’s name? Candieland. There are moments and scenes throughout the film where you just have to say, “That Tarantino, he’s a genius!” But he also has that little spark of craziness, that little spark that makes him push the envelope just a little further. Some call it genius. It just turned me off. There were at least three points in the movie where I thought “Okay, this can end now.” And it just kept going, seemingly to cram in as much blood and as many explosions as possible.

Django Unchained was nominated for Best Picture, and on the strength of the first 135 minutes or so, I can see why. But to ruin my impression of a movie in half an hour takes talent. And I guess Quentin Tarantino is just a multi-talented guy.

Posted on April 1st, 2013 by Rukmini Girish
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Writing Fellows

Wow, it’s week 4 and I’ve only posted once this term? I’m slacking, aren’t I? The reason I’ve been so terribly busy this past week is because of a program that’s very beneficial for LSFY students, but makes life a little more interesting for tutors at the Reading/Writing Center, where I work.

This program is called Writing Fellows.

Each term, a certain number of LSFY (first-year required gen ed class) courses are assigned Writing Fellows. Two tutors from the Reading/Writing Center work with the class through the term. Students turn in their first drafts to their professors, and instead of a workshop, or written feedback from the professor, the Writing Fellow comments on the papers instead. This happens twice (ie on two different assignements) during the term.

Most professors like it, and the students usually do as well, though, of course, you get the occasional few who just don’t show up to their appointments.

But for the tutors, it can be a little tiring. I spent this past weekend playing English teacher, and maybe it was becuse this is my first time doing Writing Fellows, but it was difficult. I only had twelve papers to read, but man, was I exhausted by the end of the weekend.

It’s been great talking with the students that I’ve met so far. I have four (possibly five) more appointments spread between today and tomorrow. Their papers are all quite interesting as well. However, if I’ve learned something from this whole process, it’s that I don’t know if I could ever be an English teacher. Reading sixty papers in a week, like my high school teachers have to do, might just be beyond me…

Posted on March 26th, 2013 by Rukmini Girish
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Research conference at the University of Oklahoma

Sorry for taking so long to blog about my conference! It’s been hectic ever since I got back. First of all, more exciting news – I got accepted at Columbia University’s grad school! While I’m super excited to be accepted there, it’s going to make my choice a lot harder. But my parents are wonderful and are letting me visit all the schools I was accepted into. So the weekend after Easter I’m traveling to D.C. and New York! I feel like this is definitely necessary – because if I never visited Augustana, I wouldn’t be going here now.

So the communication conference at the University of Oklahoma (OU) was so much fun. Finally saw my first oil rig! The day I got there, I got to meet someone who is going to be the new MJMC professor at Augustana. It was super nice – he took me on a tour of the campus, showed me their downtown eating area, and the weather that day was gorgeous. (I was definitely excited to get off the plane to find out that I did not need a coat.) It was really nice getting to know the professor who will be joining the department next year – they will be in good hands next year.

I can tell you for a fact the campus at OU is huge! Their journalism building is super incredible. They have a billion macs and outstanding video equipment. They have a daily newspaper which was pretty impressive. I can’t even imagine laying out a paper every single day! My favorite part of their campus is definitely the London phone booths. One of them had shelves in it and was used as a book lending space. I thought that was the most awesome thing ever.

The second day I was there was just registration and getting to know the other people in this conference. In the morning I got the chance to meet an old friend from high school who was on the tennis team with me. She’s currently a grad student at OU for meteorology so she took me on the tour of the National Weather Center.

It’s really awesome because the National Weather Center is located on the OU campus! It’s super flat in Oklahoma, so that’s where all the meteorologists come to watch storms. They got some tornados there which I feel would be pretty scary. We got to go to the top of the National Weather Center – you can see for miles! It was a fantastic view.

I also got to see their storm chasing vehicles and all their radars and stuff. This was definitely a memorable part of my trip!

The next day was my conference. It was a very memorable experience…because the fire alarms went off twice while the conference was going on! Luckily they didn’t go off when I was presenting. This was a communications conference for undergraduate and graduate work and it was really cool because most people there thought I was a graduate student. And everyone was from a large university, so I felt honored to be representing Augustana. I met some very nice people who went to went to the University of South Dakota. It was very fun listening to other presentations since they all came from what I would consider the south, so they all had slight accents.

I was very glad with how my presentation went. I wasn’t 100% thrilled with how my senior inquiry presentation went last term, so I was happy that I had a second chance to get it right for myself. The conference had responders who read the papers and gave feedback and my responder had a lot of positive things to say. He said I had a good method of analysis for my topic and should include a few more sources to back my analysis. It was fantastic since all of the people I met love the field of communication as much as I do. I promise I will try to blog another time next week!

Posted on March 22nd, 2013 by aliciaoken09
Filed under: Alicia Oken | 1 Comment »

10 True Things To Tell Recruits When They Visit Augustana

10. Spiders with knowledge of my credit score exist.

If I’ve learned anything from watching television it’s that credit scores are supposed to be feared or something.

9. Kyle Frake has the 8th Harry Potter book signed by J.K. Rowling.

Harry Potter and the Nagging Red-head Weasley and his Two Squib Kids

8. The Augustana Wrestling team has been working on a Ballet,

“Karate Snow Vikings: On Ice: The Musical Hyphen, For Audiences”.

Jake Scholten plays the Tree from Pocahontas if that tree was just a normal tree.

7. Barry Manilow has a message for me on “Mandy” when played backwards.

6. There is a secret Fight Club at Augie, where you talk about fight club.

5. The Olin Stairs make you feel like eating a jelly doughnut wrapped in bacon. To wash it down, a glass of gravy will do the trick.

4. Seminary has ghosts, they all look a lot like Kathy Griffin. Well there is only one. It’s actually Louie Anderson. It’s not really a ghost, he just hates being called John Goodman.

3. There is an Augustana student who breathes extremely loud in the library only when girls complain about it on twitter. That’s the only time he comes out of his natural habitat.

2. Mike McLean has the Eye of the Tiger.

1. Matt Burns became an All American.

I think he earned himself a Doritos Locos Taco

Posted on March 20th, 2013 by garymiller11
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Frank Kalble Had Another Fish Die This Week, May He R.I.P. With Pac and Biggie

I stared into the mirror today with the kind of look that only comes along when you lose your puppy. Not just any puppy, but one you stole from your rich friend because your parents said it’s a big “responsibility”.

Perhaps you’re wondering why I’m such a sad Samantha.

Here are Tres (that’s english for multiple Tre) reasons why I should be more depressed than Prince Hamlet watching a Lifetime movie.

1. I was playing UNO in my room on 1J and lost to myself. I also changed the rules and stopped playing with cards and substituted putting my fingers into a doberman’s mouth. I got to UNO but then that rascal Tim Maroder came in and caught me! I was so close!

2.I adopted four stray hamsters and guinea pigs that were walking the streets of Rock Island. At first our relationship was as smooth as a slip-n-slide covered in oil but unfortunately friction developed. Nobody prepares you for the deep blow of learning guinea pigs can’t talk. They also can’t prepare you for them wanting to pursue careers in art instead of being doctors. I felt like all those years of me pushing them to be the best pet doctors was completely wasted. For shame.

I have to play Peruvian Pan Flute Music to keep them out of my kitchen.

3. Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t want to go on a date with me.

I wish this was a stock photo but this is just what Brett Johnson looks like when he gets upset about me eating his fruit snacks.

Posted on March 11th, 2013 by garymiller11
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