Final video draft

14I: The trip home.

The shuttle that drives students to union station picks you up in the parking lot of Moral Hall.  It is small but comfortable.  You have to get to Moral Hall early because the shuttle bus fills up quickly.  

Since it is two days before Thanksgiving break, everyone and their mother is trying to get home.   By the time I got off the shuttle, I only had five minutes to get to the platform. I noticed that the lines to buy tickets was very long.  Thank goodness I remembered to buy a train ticket ahead of time.

The train ride was nice. I managed to find a secluded seat  all the way in the back of the train. I just plugged my headphones in and relaxed. The train is always so relaxing.

At the Bridgeport stop, the train lets you out right by the water. It is just a few feet away from the ferry!  This means that I am almost home!!

14B: Thank goodness.

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving.  It came around just in time this year.  Any longer and, I think, I might have gone crazy.  This semester has been very stressful for me.  Between different/odd teaching styles, midterms, making and keeping new friends and registering for classes for next semester.  I felt like my head would explode under all the pressure.  Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, a good experience, and I have been doing well with all my classes, but, the dramatic change in and of itself causes my head to hurt whenever I think about it.  I just need a few days to chill in my own bed, with my dog, in my natural habitat.  Or, at least, for the few minutes between flashcard.

 

On a more sentimental note, I have realized I have a lot more to be thankful for than I could have ever imagined.   I am not referring to any material object or my high school life style, I am talking about the way I was raised.  I never realized how influenced I was by my family.  Everyone I was with before I came here, were raised similarly to me.  Or, possibly, I just never noticed the differences because I was not around those people 24/7, like I am here.  Everything, from how I act in a sticky situation, down to how I hold my fork, is all thanks to my family.  I have never been so thankful for them.  They gave me the tools and knowledge to survive on my own at school.  I have seen many people here have problems.  Whether they were big problems or little ones, they ended up getting lost in the confusion and worry.  I, on the other hand, almost always knew what had to be done and how to get out of the situation.  More often than not, I was the person they would turn to for help and advice. Everything I know I learned from my family.

14V: Investment

The most recognized definition of Investment is, “the action or process of investing money for profit or material result.” For example, this would be like giving an entrepreneur a certain amount of money to help get their business started.  Once the business starts making money, the money would usually be returned to you with a slight increase.  

A less know definition of Investment is, “an act of devoting time, effort, or energy to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result.” For example, this is like going to a food bank for an hour or so to stock shelves with food, help people coming in to “shop” for food and organizing other donations that were received.  In this scenario, you don’t get anything monetary back for your “investment”.  Most of the time you get paid or receive some other type of compensation, depending on the activity and type of investment.  

14A: Eat, Sleep, Gym, Repeat.

According to the article, “Relax! You’ll be more productive,”  your time will be better spent if you separate your work load into 90 minute intervals. This allows you to stay energized, healthy and focused longer.  I plan on testing this out during break.  

I have a lot to do between studying for finals, getting back into shape, spending time with family and catching up on sleep.  Not to mention, watching all the TV shows I missed out on, but that’s not a huge priority.  Anyway, I have a lot to do and only a week in which to do it.  

So, my plan is to wake up at eight o’clock, just like I usually do, so as to not mess up my sleeping schedule, and begin my day with a nice walk around the neighborhood with my dogs and my dad, if he’s up.  You may think this won’t take 90 minutes but, I live in a large neighborhood and I have four dogs that each have to be walked separately.  Next, I will have breakfast.  Hopefully, the rest of my family will be up by then so we can all chat and catch up.  After that, I will study.  I am only going to study, or work on one subject at a time, just to avoid confusion and to try and stay focused better.  Then, I will do a sequenced workout my brother made for me. With any luck, most of the 90 minutes will be used for actual calorie burning and not me gasping for air.  Next, I will have lunch and maybe even watch a show with my mom at the same time.  Then it is back to the books!

This is when the repeat comes in.  Obviously, I am not going to plan out my day by the minute.  This plan will end up changing and varying, depending on what my family has planned or if friends stop by and I can’t get away.  I will do my best to stick to this routine as much as possible because, I really think it will help me get a lot done.  Even if I am only able to do it for one full day.    

13I: Registration

My roommate and I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, November 18, 2013.  We turned on the lights, opened the window and both made a nice, hot cup of tea.  Basically, we did anything that would help keep us awake and alert for what might lie ahead for us.  As our laptops warmed up, we openly reflected on what we might be in for.  We discussed our worry about not getting into the classes we wanted; the mad rush that might boot us off the website; and, even the slight chance that the internet might fail.  We took turns being the positive voice of reason and the negative nelly.  It is now 5:58 a.m., and we are both silent, staring at our computer screens. We plugged our pin numbers in on the web site and prepared to press send at 6:00 a.m.

When the clock struck 6:00 a.m.,exactly, all hell broke loose.  Both of us were immediately kicked off the web site.  For the next half hour we were both frantic.  We were refreshing and re-logging on, only to be kicked off seconds later.  My roommate began to curse in frustration.  She called her friends that were trying to register too, to see if they were having the same problem.  They were!  I began to pace back forth across the room while pressing the refresh button.

When 7:00 a.m. came around, my pin number was finally accepted.  Unfortunately, I was only able to get into one of my classes. I plugged the rest of my choices in and only two of those classes were accepted.  In a panic, I picked two random classes that fit in my schedule and were in my curriculum.  

At 8:00 a.m., I was finished.  I looked over the schedule that I made and it was terrible. I had a 4 hour class that ended at 10:00 p.m. I also got stuck with a terrible, non-english speaking math teacher.  I knew I had a long week of corrections to make.    

13B: “Bippity Boppity Boo.”

I like to think I am a creative person.  My creative expertise usually lies in the addition, and overuse, of glitter, glitter glue, basically anything that sparkles.  That is more than most people.  Sadly, computers and glitter don’t mix well.  Trust me, I tried mixing them.  So when it comes to video projects, I am completely in the dark.  I can barely add music to my playlist without frying my hard drive.

My main plan for adding a high level of creativity to my final video project was “magic”.  Preferably pixie dust, only because it’s glitters. Unfortunately, in the words of Giselle from Enchanted, “I don’t know where I can find a fairy god-mother at this late hour.” So, it looks like I will be relying on the various tutorial videos found on youtube.

Luckily, I do have a rather interesting plan of creativity and how I am going to get my information across to the audience.  My topic is, “How Southern handles drinking”. So I am going to start my video by displaying Southern’s drinking policy.  Then, I will play, as a voice recording, the opinions of students who like this drinking policy and their reasons why.  After that, I will show a short skit of a real scenario where the drinking policy is at fault.  Next, I will display some research from accredited sources that says what schools shouldn't do, and,  of course, some more opinions from students.  Then, some examples of drinking policies from other colleges that are safer, and more fair.  Finally, more research, and students ideas on a better drinking policy.  

Hopefully, this creative display of information and gradual persuasion will be enough to distract people from the bland background and lack of sparkle.  Not to mention, the lack of decent music and good filming.  I will do my best, and maybe the tutorial videos will teach me something I can use.