[ Currently Listening: Bird of Prey Matinee by Counting Heartbeats ]
After today’s TWUSA barbecue, during which I operated both the cotton candy machine (and got cotton candy ALL over my arms, shirt, and in my hair) and the burger station, Blair and I went to Ground Level. The headlining band was Counting Heartbeats. So fun! Their music is pretty extraordinary, and they played BIrd of Prey Matinee while I was in the front rocking out. There’s something sweet about dancing to a band in a small setting; you feel so much more connected to the music.
After Ground Level, I went with some friends to see the Dark Knight for my third time. This time, it was at the IMAX theater. Groovy.
[ Currently Listening: Electric Feel by MGMT ]
I am sitting in the TWUSA office during my first TWUSA office hour enjoying a cup of cottage cheese and strawberries (Nutrition Data, my latest fad, tells me cottage cheese is an excellent source of protein). It’s been pretty fun; I’ve met some new people and helped some of them with random services. Making coffee was sort of a gong show and water ended up ALL over the counter.
Classes start today, but I only have one class. I’ll still be pretty busy, though. There’s Convocation Chapel this morning, and then the TWUSA barbecue and carnival/used booksale. Thankfully, I have tomorrow off.
I saw Jessie last night. That made me happy. I’ve been having good days and bad days, and I’m looking forward to being busy again.
[ Currently Listening: The Anthem by Pitbull ]
I just finished my first shift in The Cube, TWUSA’s bookstore service. It was pretty fun. Monica and I just listened to music and messed with someone’s Facebook account (lesson learned: always log out of your FB!). Of course, we worked, too. I got to scan bar codes and charge people outrageous amounts for books. Lovely.
Right now I’m making dinner. Some friends are coming over to my apartment tonight for an ice cream sundae party.
Tomorrow is my last free day before school starts. Oh em gee!
[ Currently Listening: Cream by Federico Franchi ]
I’m sitting in the Trinity Western University Student Association’s office. That’s TWUSA as in “two-sah,” not “TW You Ess Aye” like the U.S. freshmen always think. People are painting our office walls right now, while I’m waiting for our meeting to start.
Today is the last day of Student Leader Orientation Week. After today’s meeting, we have our commissioning banquet and a free day tomorrow. I think Blair and Joel and I are going grocery shopping during our free day. Food is important.
It’s been so busy that I can’t really think straight. I have something very deep and profound to ramble about, but my mind hasn’t fully wrapped around it yet (it’s something to do with the religious talks we have every morning with all the other student leaders).
[ Currently Listening: 16 by Sneaky Sound System ]
This is my first blog entry of the new semester. I flew into Canada on a red-eye on Friday, then spent the day/night at Blair’s house before registering for Student Leader Orientation Week on Saturday. I’m now completely unpacked in my new apartment. Blair and I are in one room, Joel is in the other, and we have our own living room, bathroom, kitchen and an extra room for storage.
It’s been pretty busy. I’ve gone to hours and hours of meetings. Today, I got assigned to be on two of the university’s committees. It will be a hectic semester, but I’m very excited to be living with two awesome guys.
SLOW (my university loves acronyms!) will take me all the way through Thursday. I’ll have Friday off, and then a week of orientation with the new students before the first day of class on Thursday, September 4th. By then, I’ll have spent two weeks in Canada. The nice thing is that I have no classes on Fridays, so I technically won’t have my first full week of class until the next Monday!
[ Currently Listening: Me and Armeni by Emiliana Torrini ]
I am currently home. My last day of work was on Friday, followed by a late night of epic proportions (and a final chance to enjoy some world class mojitos in downtown Honolulu). I packed and cleaned my room on Saturday, then rewarded myself with a quart of Cold Stone Creamery ice cream while watching Charlite Bartlett. Perfect.
I went to see Lucas and Alli as soon as I got home on Saturday. That made me happy, as well as seeing my family.
Since then, I’ve been running errands and just chilling with my brother. I saw the Dark Knight again, and played two day-long rounds of Hawaiianopoly. Tonight, I am going to watch the sunset and eat dinner on the beach with Alli, and then go swimming in her pool. I am excited.
The countdown to Canada begins. I have two full days left before I depart on Thursday night. I don’t want to even think about how this is my last year of university. It’s depressing.
[ Currently Listening: Richman by 3OH!3 ]
It is my last week of work. So far, I can divide the week into two categories:
Pony-for-Christmas-Awesome: It’s my last week. Friday night I’m celebrating. Saturday, I go home to see the family. Next Thursday, I return to Canada to reunite with my friends. I am excited. This week, I also got support from my university’s Environmental Stewardship Committee in support of my little project. Being a part of student government will be awesome!
McDonalds-Giftcard-for-Christmas-Lame: I have so much work to do in my last week. Projects, including last-minute projects that my editors just gave me. I’ll be busy as a bee (which is lame because their lifespan is pretty short). Plus, I’m wrapping up my writing for my summer course. So far, I’ve written 12 thousand words. Be impressed, but it’s still lame.
[ Currently Listening: Winona by Totally Michael ]
In the past two weeks, my articles have been featured on the front page of Associated Content several times. Right now, I have two featured articles right next to each other; one of them has even received the coveted top slot in the Featured box. Wow!
I’ve been writing a lot for AC, so my income from that website has really picked up. I just made Tier 9, which means that almost 200,000 people have read my writing. Just in the past week, 22,000 people read my articles. This basically means that I was read 2400% times more than the monthly visitor count to the website that I write for in my “real job.”
Last year, I won a Top 1000 award from AC. This year, I hope to win a People’s Choice award. Wish me luck.
[ Currently Listening: Don't Stop by Lateef & The Chief ]
I am ALMOST DONE with my essay! It’s just around the corner and I’m so excited. I’ll probably be done in a couple of hours. To motivate myself, I’m eating chips. But the thing is, 12 chips have like, 18 grams of empty carbs and 7 grams of fat. Ew. So, I reward myself by eating one chip every other paragraph. It keeps me writing, and it keeps me skinny. Holla.
Tonight I am going into town after Jasmine gets off of work, and maybe pick up a little something-something at Banana Republic or Armani. Yes.
[ Currently Listening: When The Stars Go Blue by Blake Lewis ]
I just got an email from the director of my university’s Student Life office. A couple of months ago, I proposed an energy conservation program for my entire campus that would pit dorms against each other to see who could conserve the most energy and natural resources. I already spoke to my university’s Housing office, as well as people in their engineering department. Student Life finally got back to me and is excited to support it, as well.
I’m so excited, and I’m also worried that I may be taking on a bigger project than I expected. However, with support from fellow student leaders, and the proper funding, I think this could be an excellent way to promote environmental conservation among Christians (world-renowned for not giving a crap about the earth).
I want this to be an edgy, exciting conservation campaign. Think: Trendy and hip, and borderline offensive. The only problem is that my university can be downright conservative and may shy from what would really capture the student body’s imagination and encourage the students to jump behind the whole campaign.
Contest idea names: “Do It In The Dark,”
It would encourage students to conserve energy using rather snarky, suggestive terms like…
1. Save Water: Take Group Showers. [insert statistic about water shortages, etc.].
2. Save Heat: Sleep Together. It’ll keep you warm, and [insert statistic about energy waste through room heating in the winter]. Similarly, “Save Energy: Be Nude.”
3. Strip: Turn off power strips, because [insert statistic about how much energy is wasted by appliances, even when you’re not using them].
You get the general idea. I’m 90 percent sure I’ll have to tone it down to get approval, but it’s not really bad (it’s only bad if you think too hard about what it “could” mean) and this is the kind of stuff that gets students’ attention.
