30 April 2011

Royal Reality

Yesterday I got up to watch the Royal wedding. It's not like I've had an obsession or anything, but I knew that this would be history and I felt the need to do it. I wasn't sure if I would actually feel like getting up at 3 am, and I most certainly was not getting up any earlier, so I DVR'd the wedding on two channels. It's kind of a good thing I did because I turned the TV on as Catherine was getting in the car. I felt like I had missed a lot, but I saw the important part live.
The whole concept is overwhelming. Catherine is a commoner (which in and of itself is a hard concept for an American to grasp). But, 29 years ago Catherine was born. A year prior Princess Diana married Prince Charles- who was in love with Camilla Bowles, but she was "unsuitable." When Catherine was born, commoners did not marry royalty. The fact that Common Catherine is now Catherine Duchess of Cambridge is huge.
I realize that this does not directly affect me. But, the Royal family is known world wide. And it really is a huge piece of history. And an heir to the throne will not be married now for another 20-30 years. Which means if you missed this one- darn!
Americans have nothing to compare this to. That's what is sad. We have no family that has been historically significant for any amount of time.
But, who could be in Catherine's shoes right now? Would that not be some serious pressure? I personally would not. That is a lot of work. And she looks perfect every time she steps outside. I rarely look "perfect."
But, there is a reality of this whole thing. I've been very intrigued by it all, watching how it came to be and learning some. But then, I realize that I have to come down to reality. And, it hit me today. America is pretty uncouth. It's annoying.
But it also made me see that, I'm 25 years old and it's time for life to start. And it hasn't. It should have started a while ago (oh wait, it did!). And yea, I'm back in school, but I feel no closer to finishing than when I started a year ago. And I haven't been dating. Yes, it was a conscious decision, but now it isn't. And I've made the attempt. But, it isn't.
It's not that I want to have this high profile, expensive wedding that is seen around the world and get a royal title out of it. The point is, I see these two people (whether royal or not) who have been successful and it makes my life feel- stalled.
The Royal Reality of it all is there was this giant royal wedding and it was seen all around the world. And now we all have to go back to real life. Although, I see some girls struggling with that part and continuing to be stuck wishing to be a royal princess.
Not me, I do not want to be a princess- planning that wedding would suck.

12 April 2011

JACC- Part 2 and Looking Forward

As it turns out, I don't feel like outing the offending party. There was some drama, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm glad I went. It was an opportunity that I'm not sure I will get to have again. If I stay at my current school, then I will probably have the chance. But, given that I am applying to three 4-year universities this summer, who knows what my future holds.
I learned some incredible things this weekend. I just wish that I would have had more time to attend more lectures. I got to attend two... two. I'm a bit upset that I didn't get to go to some more. There were some that I would like to have seen. But, now I know for next year.
Yes, next year. If I stay at this school, then I fully intend to write and be an active part of the newspaper.
But, when all is said and done, I am very glad that I went this weekend. It left me wanting to do about 1,000 things. I'm thinking about sports writing. And being a country music reporter. Or still, social media marketing.
They never should have let me go to this conference.
If I knew how busy I would be this weekend, then I would have had my homework prepared in advance. It's definitely not the most stressful week I've ever had at school. But in retrospect, waiting until AFTER the conference was a terrible idea. But, I thought I would have a minute to stop and write part of my paper. Nope. I did get one page read in my communications book. Go me. But, as of now, I am caught up. I have two articles to do this week. So maybe "caught up" isn't the right word. "On schedule" may be more accurate. It will work out alright.

JACC- Part 1

My toes are trying their hardest to defrost, and I've been inside and warm for over two hours now.

I'm in Sacramento, CA for a journalism convention (JACC) and it is freezing. I spent tonight watching the Sacramento River Cats, their minor league baseball team. And then I had to write a story on the game. The main goal is to learn more about journalism and what we need to know. The school paid for us to go- all but $100.

Journalistically its been a great experience. Socially- eh. We all know I have social anxiety, so getting here was a bit of a task. With the Southwest issues going on lately, there was a part of me that hoped that my flight would get cancelled. It didn't. So, then it was me wondering if I really wanted to come. I didn't. But, I'm here. Sitting in the airport, I was by myself for a long time.

I'm getting along with most of the people on our staff, but I still feel slightly awkward. There have been a few issues that have come up. There is a part of me that is fighting with myself, trying to decide if I should post the issue. But, for now, I'm not going to. Let me sit on it a while and cool down from the anger, and then we'll see what happens.

I'm learning a lot. I went to a social media lecture today. But because of the aforementioned issues, I went to the wrong one. But,  this one was pretty entertaining. It was exciting to get to see the real world applications of these things!

Interspersed with the conference are competitions, on-the spot competitions. We have to write articles, quite literally, on the spot. It wasn't too bad. A bit stressful. Though, it was worse writing my lead and deleting it. Then writing it, and deleting it. And over and over and over. The problem was, we had an hour. I was still deleting my lead when people were getting up because they had finished. I now understand how stressful that is (typically, I'm one of the first done with everything).

This was actually supposed to be published on Friday- and it never did. So here it is now.

03 April 2011

Engaged?

If there is anything I have learned today it is that anything posted on Facebook must be true. Isn't it?



Today I posted this picture of a hand with an engagement ring on it and I captioned it "<3". That was it, plain and simple. I obviously had one thing in mind, April Fool's, and I was going to do whatever it took to avoid giving myself away. So, the first few comments were along the lines of "omg! congrats!" But my best friend, Ashley (whom I love dearly for this) posted "^silly people." I, of course, texted her and asked her to delete it (more like told- oops). And she did, I really appreciated it.
But, Ashley had a point. It was silly (not to discredit those who posted because, really, I had a ring. It was a good kicker). But, a few things. My Facebook has said single for years, even though I had a rebuttal for that: "I have been keeping it a secret, because I wasn't sure where it would go."
And then there was the fact that there were no pictures of me and him. I blew off that question. I didn't have a good answer that would actually serve the purpose. Or, the fact that I have never once even posted about being on a date. I could get away with that though.
The biggest reason no one should have believed me, given that it's a transparent prank anyways, it's April Fools' Day. We seem to forget that it is April Fools' Day and I saw a lot of people fall for a lot of pranks, some well thought through and others were not. Four friends announced that they were pregnant (it seems like a lot of women are pregnant on April 1st.. hmmm Valentines babies?), someone was moving and marrying a girlfriend, another was moving to Costa Rica and another's husband was recalled in the Marine Corps.
So why is it that we are so quick to believe what friends post on Facebook? I'd venture to say, perhaps it's the lack of actual communication. Facebook can be defined as Mass Communication because our message reaches a large group of people (depending on how many friends you have). And there is nothing personal about it. Of course we have our close friends that we will communicate, but it's still not personal. This means that when I post an engagement ring, "Jon Smith" whom I haven't seen since high school, has no idea if I am kidding or not. I can't fault him for that, he's going off of what I post.
This isn't a good thing or a bad thing, it just is. It's what our generation is becoming. We've all been guilty of it at one point or another, and some worse than others. I don't think that we know any better. It's become so natural to "communicate" with people we haven't seen in years. 
The other thing is that jokes like this are so much easier to pull off, because they do reach that mass audience. Before the internet and Facebook, if we wanted to pull off the "I'm engaged" prank it took much more work than a picture. But, we live in an era where mass communication is achievable for anyone.
Oh and my prank? Turned out amazingly. A GREAT friend of mine ended up commenting like he was this fiancee. And then my relationship status went from "engaged" to "engaged to..." And all my friends who were in on it, played along.
Thank you to all my friends who played along. And to all the friends who fell for it <3 It turned into an incredible social experiment and an AMAZING experience. I definitely enjoyed it.

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