Procrastination, Linsanity and technology

It's always nice having an extra day off school but I don't know why I always think I'm going to use that time to do something productive, because I never do. So here I am, again, on a Thursday night, waiting for the new Jersey Shore episode while doing homework that I've had a week to do. But looking through your guys' blogs, I don't think I'm alone. ;]

In the past two weeks, I've learned more about professional basketball than I ever thought I would know. I'm not one to follow sports, and while I cheered for basketball and football, I only knew the moves that required a cheer (rebounds, free throws, touchdowns...yeah it ends about there) and even then it didn't really mean anything for me. But recently newspapers, blogs, sports pages and tweets have been blowing up with Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks. Normally I'd brush this off, but he is literally everywhere. Turns out, he's been warming the bench on the Knicks for quite some time now, and once the two good guys Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire (had to Google how to spell his name) were out of the game because of injury and family emergency, this Lin guy goes in and totally blows everyone away with his basketball skills. I'm not kidding, he's awesome, and he's from Harvard so he's smart too. I even watched a real basketball game today and was excited about it, unreal. The Knicks played the Miami Heat and lost, but I guess they're really good so I let this one slide.

On a completely unrelated note, one of our readings was 'Rethinking the Multimedia Experience' from Poynter University. I really liked this reading for two reasons. One, because when I did my semester in Vienna, one of my courses was taught by a professor from Poynter and it was hands down one of my favourite classes - he was an incredible teacher, so now in my eyes, Poynter can do no wrong. Two, I think Ferris made a really good point, writing, "We wanted content to drive the stories, not technology, with the end goal being a richer viewing experience for our audience." I think with the constantly advancing technology, many professors and newspapers are focused more on using social media, videos, audio, getting reader comments, etc., than on the story itself. It's important to remember that using technology isn't automatically a plus, you have to use it right.

Blinded by the light

Blogging for a class is always a little awkward, because I feel obligated to keep my posts school related and G-rated, but at the same time no one wants to read 400 words about what makes up a digital camera or why it's important to keep all your files backed up on an external hard drive. Actually, I don't even know what a hard drive really is. Plus if I'm already doing homework and projects for my classes, the last thing I want to do is write about it...and since I haven't yet done my readings for Electronic Journalism (but I'm really excited to read them during new Jersey Shore commercials), I can't even post my reactions/responses to what I read.

In other news, I'm graduating in May which means this is my last semester as a college student, which also means that it's about time I start growing up. I had one of those 'growing up' experiences today. It began in Walmart when my boyfriend and I were buying lamps and light bulbs. We got a little lamp for the nightstand and then a big lamp to put somewhere in the living room. We weren't sure where but I knew we wanted more light, so we got the lamp with three light things and then had to trek back to the opposite side of the store to pick up light bulbs. Being the energy efficient people we are, we got energy saving bulbs. Turns out the watts are different on these lovely eco-friendly bulbs, and when we bought 23 eco-friendly-watt bulbs, they are the equivalent of 100 regular watt bulbs. Surprise, when you put 100 watt bulbs all over your house (and in a little tiny nightstand lamp) you will promptly burn all your retinas out.

So now I'm sitting here blinded by the light, wearing sunglasses inside (exaggeration) and looks like I can't properly do my reading homework because I'll be too busy caring for my injured eyeballs.

But for the record, our living room finally has sufficient light.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -Martin Luther King, Jr.