Friday September 18, 2009 (CSI Miami)

Well, sorry I have not been updating my blog lately. Shame on me! At least the good news is that really nothing too exciting has been going on with me as of late. I went to Boston with some friends a couple weeks ago -- that was hoot! It was a fantastic time, and now being 21, it's even better. The Patriots won last Monday (even though Buffalo probably should have won, but they lost the game for themselves)

For my COMM229 class -- Foundations of Media Studies, I had to read a chapter on Narrative and watch an episode of CSI: Miami. If you asked me to watch an episode of a TV Show or watch a movie for homework, sign me up! I've never really watched the show, I used to watch the original CSI from time to time, but never got into it. However, I did enjoy the episode that I had to watch. The episode related to the chapter we had to read for homework. The chapter discussed how narrative takes place throughout movies, television shows, and the news as well. It discussed some theories which were definitely interesting. Some theories that involve first person which has a voice-over of a character narrating what is going on. Also there is the third person narrative which someone else narrates the story. Other things included narration such as, "Once upon a time..." or "happily ever after...". In general, I definitely enjoyed reading the chapter; usually whenever I read for college, I find a tough time grasping the material or having a hard time staying focused. I usually find myself daydreaming or starting to fall asleep. That used to happen to me all the time; after I switched majors to Communications, I may have possibly found the right major where I can actually read a textbook. *Knock on wood!*

Hopefully as the semester progresses, I will able to read more and more and it will just become easier for me. That's what I'm at least hoping for! I think tonight, I might be seeing The Informant with my girlfriend, so if I'm back on soon, I'll let you know how the movie is. I hope it's good. Other than that, I'll leave you at that, and talk to ya when I talk to ya. Ciao!

Just starting blogging recently, get to blog to earn points!

So for my Foundations of Media Studies class (COMM 229) I have to write a blog and somehow relate it to some type of media that relates to the class or directly mention the class in general. That seems pretty easy, since I'm now getting used to blogging and I love movies and the media, so this should be fun and interesting. For the class, I wrote on the online discussion board and I will be taking our 1st quiz shortly. I'm not sure if I should read any pages in our book before I take the quiz because I'm not sure what the quiz will be covering. Other than that, the class seems good and as long as I keep up with the work I should be good.

Speaking of blogging, I'm trying to decide if I should start keeping you readers updated with any goals I have in mind so you can follow my progress. I think one goal I want to keep you intrigued with is that I'm starting to gather ideas for developing a Screenplay. It's something that has always been in the back of my mind, and I like to think if I set my mind to it, I can create one. If you have any ideas or advice, please don't hesitate to let me in on any inside information that you might hold. I have a couple ideas as of now, but nothing set in stone yet. Let me know what you think!

Work.. ugh!

I got a message from one of my bosses today while I was at one of the two theaters I work at, and she informed me that our VP told her to cut me (not fire me) but take me off the schedule for tomorrow night (Friday) and this Saturday day because I have been working too many hours lately. I have been working around 60+ hours a week for the past month or so. It's just interesting that our VP did it now rather than earlier. I've been doing the same schedule for a month. I was confused because as of tomorrow, my hours will be trimming down to 31 hours. I'm just confused but oh well. I don't want to vent too much about it because I don't want to get in trouble. But that's pretty much my work situation at the moment. It's frustrating at stressful as of now, but I just have to fight through it!

Thursday September 3, 2009

Well.... let me just tell you all that today has been one crazy day. Today was my first day of classes and my classes went well. However, there is one little piece of information that I all let you in on. Today, out of the 4 years I've been in school was the first time that I've missed a class on the first day of classes!! Why on Earth did I do such a thing? Well that might be because I didn't get home from work until around 12:30 and didn't get to bed until 1:30. So I was only able to get 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Definitely not a good idea since today was the first day. I probably would have been better off not going to bed at all! However, I've tried that in the past, and I've come so close, but then I fall asleep (what a surprise!). I set my alarm to 6:00 A.M. and I did wake up originally. But being the idiot that I am I shut off my alarm and lied in bed and low and behold, I fell back to sleep. I woke up again, and I had that same feeling that Dane Cook once said in a comedy bit: "You just get up and your like I'm late I'm late..crap!" Well, I can tell you all I had that feeling once I woke up. I woke up and all I said was "crap" as I was reaching to check the time on my iPHone. Figures that the time was 7:54 A.M., just minutes before my first class was about to start. I quickly jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes and brushed my teeth, and threw on a baseball cap to hide my ridiculous bed hair. If I had decided to not wear a hat, some people might of ran away screaming or brought a weapon because they probably would have thought that some animal was on top of my head.

Fast forward about ten minutes, and I'm sitting at a table waiting for my first class to get out because I wanted to speak to the Professor and apologize for missing the very first class of the semester. As the class filed out, I made my way into the classroom while I waited for the last remaining students to exit the room. I spoke to the Professor and told him the honest truth: that I woke up late, missed the class, and sincerely apologized. Luckily the Professor was very kind about it and told me not too worry and it wasn't a problem. He then handed me the syllabus and a sheet outlining the guidelines for a project due at the end of the month. He seemed like a really nice guy and I promised him I'd be in class on Tuesday. I better be there or else!

My next class, Foundations of Communication was practically over in 5 minutes. Our actual Professor was not able to attend because the stand in Professor told the class that he was away at a Conference in Norway! I really wasn't able to get a feel for how the class will be this semester, since all we did was get handed the class syllabus and taken attendance and we were free to go. I'll fast forward about another hour, because you don't want to hear the boring stuff!

My last class of the day, Communications Studies Theory seemed decent. It lasted almost the entire timeframe. The Professor told us the class will be mostly based on theories and such. What a surprise! She told us that the class is pretty much the oddball of the whole Communications Department, with the class mostly being similar to Philosophy. As long as it's not similar to my old Philosophy class whatsoever, I'm all set! But the class as a whole seemed good. I don't really want to bother all you readers with the details, because that's boring! After she went through all the guidelines, she had us talk a bit about ourselves and tell the class something interesting about ourselves. The thing I chose was that I'm starting to gather information to begin writing a Screenplay. I really am! I've been wanting to write one for so long now. I will probably blog about that project a lot to keep everyone updated. Any thoughts or advice is always welcome! The class seemed very interested about me writing a Screenplay, I always enjoy that. One of the students just said, "That's tight." That definitely made my day at school. After that I went to Student Accounts to gather some money for books, then bought the necessary books, blah blah blah, nothing fun. That's pretty much my first day of school in a nutshell.. however a quite big one!

Wednesday September 2, 2009

This is my very first time created a blog and posting, so bear with me now. Work has been pretty tough lately; I'm working these ridiculous hours for the past month, and I have definitely been feeling the burn out effects lately. Our work schedules go from Friday-Thursday and I'm scheduled for 72 hours this week. Yikes!! I've worked pretty much all day everyday, especially this week. My shifts are 12:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Rough stuff! However, there is an upside...with all these hours I've been working recently, I've been getting some great paychecks. It makes me smile usually and it helps keep my sanity. With all the hours I've been working, I was just recently able to buy a brand new MacBook Pro, and I'm absolutely loving it! Easily the best laptop I've ever had. It can do so many things and it's lightning fast.

My work schedule will be diminishing as of this Friday, and I'm very excited about it. I will no longer be working those gruesome 12 hour days. I really can't take it anymore. It's definitely getting the best of me. However, as of this Friday, I will no longer be working everyday, and my usual 60+ hours a week will disappear and magically become about 30 hours a week. A much better improvement. It will allow me to focus more on my school work and get good grades (I hope!).

I'm going to have Sundays and Mondays off every week from school/work. The main reason I wanted those specific days off is because I will be able to watch the Patriots' games! Going to be fantastic.

My school schedule seems pretty good right now. With classes starting tomorrow, I'm actually looking forward to it because 1.) I feel like I'm finally in the major I want to be in and taking the classes I'm interested in (I recently switched from a History major to Communications major last semester) and 2.) I'm glad my hours at work will fade away. I've been looking forward to this for a while!

But I hope tomorrow goes well and whatnot, but since this is my first blog, I decided to make it terribly long and catch you guys up on everything (Sorry!!)

But I'll get off this thing and let you know tomorrow how my first day of classes went! Senior Year! Ah!