College Fitness, Part Two, and Sustainability

So, last week I talked a little bit about trying to be healthy on campus. I said I'd try to count my footsteps taken during a busy day for me. This won't be happening, as I found my pedometer uses different batteries than are sold at the AS Bookstore. So, I'll save that one for another time.

In the meantime, I can keep going with the healthy feeling and also talk about sustainability and being eco-conscious.

Living in a dorm, you begin to realize that you are disconnected from water utilities, bathrooms, and a kitchen in a way that probably never happened living at home. Every time I make a mess or need to wash my hands, I remember that I have to walk down the hall to get water to clean with. It really makes you realize how often it's needed (depending on how messy you are).

I usually drink a lot of water, just to stay hydrated and healthy. The first week my roommate had a case of water bottles; we'd finish one, throw it in the recycling bin and grab another. After a time, we had very few bottles, so I decided to start reusing mine. Now, I am constantly refilling two, 16.9 fluid oz. water bottles and a bigger one I carry in my backpack--so once every two hours or whatever it is (I haven't timed it), I'm going down the hall to refill these bottles, and clean whatever dishes I've used.

I think this technique is really good, because it keeps me aware of my dish and water-use, as well as what I reuse, recycle, and throw away. It's a pretty good way to stay eco-conscious.

Further use of eco-friendliness is we keep our window blinds open during the day. It's so bright, we don't usually need extra light unless we're doing homework or reading at our desks/beds.

For those that don't know, Western is very much about being green. There are recycling bins everywhere, stickers in bathrooms reminding about water/paper/electricity usage, and even has a small plot of land for growing food on campus.

Also, this happens to be Campus Sustainability Week. See? It all fits together.

College Fitness, Part One

Update: 8:15 p.m.: New stair tallies seen below.

A lot of people are worried about the so-called "freshman fifteen" on campus. A lot of people are going to the gym a lot, others are trying not too eat too many sweets and trashy food, and some just make small adjustments throughout their day.

I'm not one to worry about my diet and my weight. My body does what it needs to do, and I try to balance things out. Of course, having big batches of home-made cookies within arms' reach while I play Halo: Reach isn't exactly helping...but for the most part I try to be more healthy overall than not.

This morning, I decided to take some tallies throughout my day. Originally I was going to track my total number of steps on my busy days (when I have three classes all across campus), but this morning I found my pedometer is out of batteries. So, I decided to count the total number of stairs (up and down) I stepped today.

Total number of stairs: 445
Walking up: 215
Walking down: 231
Overall trend: -16

New Tally:

Total number of stairs: 794

Walking up: 389

Walking down: 405

Overall trend: -16

Due to different routes to and from classes, the numbers are different up and down. Today's trend was I took 16 more stair steps going down than going up. One can say today I was "lazy" but I can refute that saying I didn't take any elevators--and that I go to the fifth floor to two rooms I go on my busy days.

When I first posted this, it had tallies of right after I get off class. I hadn't considered what would happen the rest of the evening--like going to dinner. The overall tally almost doubled, but it's curious that the trend was still sixteen. Must be one of the routes I take across campus that I don't repeat later.

Just keep in mind how worked someone gets when they have to go across campus, and then up at least three flights of stairs; all in ten minutes between classes.

And that's what my busy day feels like. I'm hoping to have a battery by Monday, so everyone can see total steps throughout my busy day.

Long Night

I thought I'd have something substantial to talk about in this post. Basically, I'm bored, and edited some pictures that will be up on my art blog, Northwestern Artist very soon.

Other than that, not much happening. I realized some of my ideas for blogs I can't do until my busy-scheduled days (Mon., Wed.). You will soon know what I mean.

In the mean time, you can share my geeking out over a new way to multiply polynomials, and the very interesting and strange critters in my room.

Enjoy, and keep an eye out for new posts this week.

This was actually created on GIMP so I could share it with people on Facebook. My math teacher put it on the board as an alternative for sketching a square and using the FOIL method. You may or may not really appreciate this.

This strange fly/moth flew in my room, and perched by my light. I just snapped some macros while it was there, and I haven't been bitten by it (yet), so I'm not complaining.

Awarded Works

For all of those curious about my awards at the 2010 Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest, here they are:

All pages are owned by La Conner Weekly News, and used with editor's permission.

When opening and zooming in on files, be patient and let them load completely. The text should be legible, although the pictures seem to degrade in quality in this format.

Second place - Best Story of the Arts: "Giving life to stone"

Third place - Best Government Reporting: "Voters quiz and candidates spar" - cover, cont'd

Third place - Best General Feature Story - Short: "Fire in the blood"

Third place - Best Sports News Story - "A great show at Homecoming"

-Enjoy!

Newspaper Weekend!

Back from my two-day WNPA Better Newspaper Contest conference in Wenatchee, WA.

My English teacher would be so proud, I was making connections all weekend! Oh, and I obtained four awards for my writing with the La Conner Weekly News; but more on that in a little bit.

In English class, we're reading sections of the book The Young and the Digital by S. Craig Watkins. In it, Watkins explains the cultural migration of tweens and young adults to the internet and digital, social media. The concept of the book is that all of this media communication is making people evolve in their communication, rather than stunt it. The internet is just an extension of real-life relationships, and is the next social adaption.

Now, the newspaper industry is going through something similar. As my editor from the La Conner Weekly News said this weekend, "There are some dinosaurs here. We have to evolve from dinosaurs if we want to survive."

There is a migration of news-related media to the internet. I know you're thinking that the big news stations like Faux News and everyone else has already been online. I don't classify "TV news" as actual news, not in the same way as locally-produced newspapers.

At the convention, there were several workshops on various topics, and all of the ones I attended were very informative. The first one was in two parts, and was basically the business plan of the future, and it revolved around the idea that multi-media, internet/social media-driven news sources were the next step in evolution.

It really got my editor thinking, and now they're going to experiment with different things, including more on their blog and starting a Twitter account.

Anyway, the paper won fourteen awards total, with a clean sweep in our group for Best Government Reporting. (The papers are grouped by circulation, and we are in Group I for having < 2,500 in circulation every week).

Of the fourteen, I won four awards:
Second place - Best Story of the Arts
Third place - Best Government Reporting
Third place - Best Sports Story
Third place - Best General Story - Short

Oh, and I was the youngest person attending.

The convention was a great experience for me. I got to hear from long-time industry professionals, learn from these professionals, and meet several interesting people, including the President of the WNPA--we sat at his table and got away with it.

Later this week I'll actually post the articles I won these for. For now, adieu.

Sounds of College

This morning I woke up and decided I needed to do a post about college life; and I had no idea what to do, and then it hit me: The sounds I hear in a day of college.

So, I'll list notable sounds that stuck in my mind today. And I'm using a list just to get the sounds out there. Hopefully by the end my mind will have congealed a few sparse ideas into a clever conclusion. If not, you get to a personal, audio-tour of my day.

*A whole room of people studiously typing on keyboards. Seriously, there was no other noise in the room for like ten minutes. The teacher commented how cool it sounded.

*Guy singing while playing guitar. Some guy was walking around Red Square with a guitar and singing. Couldn't tell the song, but it perked up my day a bit just seeing/hearing him.

*Everyone talking on phones. Just a huge scramble of conversations between classes. Felt very ethereal and white-noise-y when I decided not to focus on any and just hear the chaos.

*Musical bricks on the way to class. Most of campus has laid brick for walkways, and some of them shift when people walk, causing a clinking sound. One area is notable for it, and so it's constantly clinking between classes.

*Bikes flying by. There's a hill I walk to go to the cafeteria, and everyone zips by on the road on their bikes, whizz-clicketing away.

*Hum and buzz of conversation. I like that drone/hum in the air when a lot of people are talking all at once, like in a cafeteria. It feels energetic and alive.

*Soft singing. During a candlelight gathering, a group of people started to softly and somberly sing.

*Group of guys celebrating. A few rooms in my hall got yards and yards of ethernet cables and LAN-lined their XBoxes together in a big match of Halo. The victors ran down the hall yelling and jumped into the room of the people they beat.

*Doors at night. Our dorm doors are very heavy, and if you aren't careful, they slam shut. Of course, when you hear other doors slam, it sounds like deep thumps up and down the hall.

*Trains at night. Like I said before, I'm always hearing trains everyday, but at different times. It's something I missed about Santa Fe, but didn't truly realize it until I started hearing them more consistently.

Yeah...got nothing. Maybe next time. Good night!

Banned Book Week, Again!

[Reposted from my other blog, Seattle Whispers]

So, this year Banned Book Week crept up on me, so I didn't prepare anything big or week-long like I did last year. But, I can still write a little something about it on here to bring it into everyone's view.

I was recently reading Ray Bradbury's A Pleasure To Burn, which is a collection of short stories and novellas with themes, stories, and characters that eventually led up to his classic, Fahrenheit 451. In this book, there's a line that eventually came up, evolved, in F-451, and it goes like this:

"That was the year I came to class at the start of the new semester and found only one student  to sign up for Drama from Aeschylus to O'Neill. You see? How like a beautiful statue of ice it was, melting in the sun. I remember the newspapers dying like huge moths. No one wanted them back. No one missed them. And then the Government, seeing how advantageous it was to have people reading only about passionate lips and the fist in the stomach, circled the situation with their fire-eaters."

-- Faber, Fahrenheit 451, p. 79

 In the story, all books beyond tabloid magazines are banned, but what Bradbury says mid-way through the book is that before that, people eventually stopped reading and being curious altogether, and then the Government made laws to keep it that way.

This struck a resonating chord with me.

I've been writing for a newspaper the past year, and I know this niche is slowly disappearing. I was working for a library, and people have been saying how digital books on Kindle and the iPhone will make printed copies obsolete. I refuse to believe this; books will always remain, maybe not as plentiful in the future though.

In my college English class, we're studying how people are flocking to the internet and digital communication for social connections and news. In a way, it is dealing with the issue that Bradbury was trying to warn us all about: the disconnection from the printed word, and the strongly-bonded sense of imagination and curiosity with those words.

So, for this Banned Book Week, remember how significant written words are, and pick up/check out an old classic that you love, and be thankful you are still able to snuggle up with it and enjoy the story.

College: Week One

This week I have learned about the true seductiveness of temptation. Almost sounds redundant, but it's true.

This week was my first full week of college. Technically. Even though my first classes started on Wednesday, I've been living on campus and experiencing college for a full week. So there.

And speaking of temptation...my roommate and I are tempted by a few things already, including Halo: Reach, snack/junk food, and taking breaks from school work. And we have both given in to these temptations. A lot.

Although, we've both been able to get each other to finish homework, even if it was so we could play Reach online for hours. Some motivation is better than no motivation.

I myself have found and given in to another (cliché) temptation: Going home for a weekend [and getting laundry done at home].

It so happens this weekend was my friend John's family's annual cider day, and I just couldn't miss it. So, I packed a vacation bag to go home (an odd thought/feeling), and then worked with apples all day yesterday. Picking, washing, grinding, pressing, straining, pouring, and finally enjoying all-natural cider. Can't be beat, and it was a relaxing (and productive) weekend. Now, back to school!

Also, here are photos of my dorm, for those that have been wanting a taste.

My side of the dorm. The lofted bed adds a lot of room.

Another view of my side, with more of my work zone shown.

An angle looking out of my window, overlooking Bellingham Bay.

Pretty much exact same view, but at night. I love these orange-laden fog banks at night.

Creative Communicating - Roommates

When you live somewhere, you tend to communicate with those around you out of necessity, comfort, and social behavior. And to figure out each other. With roommates, this talking, with or without words, tends to be immediate. Ground rules need to be established (or gradually learned), especially about sharing things, when to fall asleep/wake up, bringing guests to the room, sexiling, hanging out, etc.

Other than that, the communication between flatmates can be sparse, on-the-fly, and second- or even third-handed. I have one solution.

Recently I MacGyvered a simple device to help with one of the levels of communication with a roommate. Whenever I'd come back to my room and my roommate wasn't there, I never knew quite where he was, other than the ambiguous, "out." So, I decided to make an interactive message system for the inside of the door. You just place your name next to where you'll be.

I dub it the Status Board*.

If I find the time/parts, I want to rig a clock to look like my Status Board, but you move a designated hand to "times," which will be substituted with similar phrases. Yes, I know this is from Harry Potter, but mine won't be magic-driven or self-updating.

Also, I'll soon have a system in place for the outside of the door, with coded signs so that we know if the other person is sleeping--and thus needing to enter quieter than usual--or not enter at all because of being sexiled...it'd all be coded because seriously, the "sock on the door" signal is a little conspicuous and scandalous.

Another way to keep up-to-date with your roommate is texting. I use it the most when I'm out and about because it's almost instantaneous, but the Status Board works best at the times you're just down the hall in the bathroom.

Texting can feel too impersonal and too personal at times.

* - The Status Board is made of a piece of cardboard from a surge protector box, Sharpie, statuses, Post-It Notes, and creativity.

Built Up

I moved into my dorm on Saturday, which wasn't as hectic as we thought it would be. There were the ever helpful HELP squad that would unload cars and carry loads of everyone's stuff inside and up the endless flights of stairs.

I had a hard time sleeping in such a new place. New room, new nocturnal sounds, new bed and sheets. Although, the orange-glowing fog bank coming off from the bay really put me in a good mood. That, and hearing the familiar sounds of the BNSF train--That is the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe line that I heard almost nightly growing up in Santa Fe, NM. It's been so long since I heard the train. And then the people down the street started partying. Loudly. With firecrackers.

Sunday I waited in line for bed parts to boost, for like an hour. People ahead of me kept walking out of the storage room with nothing, so I was really confused and wasn't sure if there'd be parts for me. At the end, my roommate and I did get bed parts, really heavy bed parts.

Just to let you know, building up your beds can be rather difficult. And we had to wait for this tool called a "bed wrench," and they didn't say exactly what it was. There were about six of these being shared between six floors, and almost every room was building a bed.

For those of you coming to Western next year and want to prepare, the mysterious tool is a 1/2" socket wrench with a universal joint. Who knows, maybe you can buy one, and rent it out on Move-In/Build Up Day next year?

Now, our beds are boosted a good like four feet up, which gives us room to put things like desks, fridges, and microwaves under the beds and free up space. Sleeping on them last night was a little scary, as they aren't the most stable structures known to man, but they can handle someone getting up and laying still all night.

Experience (3)

After a long line of waiting, sometimes key pieces like ladders and rail guards won't be available. Also, bed parts are heavy and can be difficult to maneuver. Fortunately my roommate's parents were there, and then my girlfriend and her sister showed up. Even then the beds were a little uncooperative, but we got them up.

Advice (3)

Get in line for parts early, and have people there to help

Get in line early; everyone else seems to do so. Make sure you have two or three people there to help transport and help with building. If you don't have parents or friends with you, call on your hall neighbors. If they're busy building, help out, and then they can help you. Teamwork and community building!