Spotlight on Christmas

I started listening to Christmas earlier than I usually, which is still later than most people. While I LOVE Christmas time, I have a problem with celebrating it too early.  The season lasts longer than most anyway so there's no reason for decorations and carols before December 1st.  I also avoid Black Friday shopping, mostly because I value my life.

Instead, I've started my shopping in spurts online and in short trips to the mall. I'm not really in any hurry.  But now with one week left of classes and exams to finish soon after that, I'm more than ready for some celebrating! My pre-exam weeks this semester have been a lot more tolerable than some, but the stress is starting to build with last minute assignments and of course the looming exams which seem to only get harder as we learn more and more.

I'm super excited I get to work over break. I know that sounds like a drag, but I need the money. But it will also be a new adventure for me because I'll be employed in the HR department of Shentel instead of Customer Service where I have spent the last year and half.  My new boss actually hunted down Mom to find out my plans for break and hoped to get a hold of me before anyone else did. It's nice to have a GOOD reputation in a place like that. :)

Also, Becca and her beautiful children will be moving back to the states after 3 years in Germany.  While I loved being able to visit her and a foreign country, it will be great having her in the same time zone.  She'll be just a few hours and text message away whenever I need my big sister.  Not to mention, we get watch her kiddies grow up in person instead of Skype.

With a successful and happy Thanksgiving just passed a wonderful holiday season looming, I can't help but smile through these next few tormenting weeks.

Scary Real World

I just spent the last hour looking for and inquiring about internships in Roanoke for next summer. Of course, I'd love it to be a paid internship, but those are rare and very competetive.  However, I need the income to be able to STAY in Roanoke. Also, maybe I'm just full of myself (which is likely), but I feel like I've done enough internships to qualify for a paid position. Too bad the "economy is bad" and no one wants to pay inexperienced and naive college students...I'm starting to see unpaid internships as slave labor.
Companies think they're doing something great by offering inexperienced college students free experience, while in the mean time they're getting kids to do the same kind of work they and their employees would be doing anyway, but for free.

Anyways I'm feeling pretty pumped about the opportunities I have ahead. I'm starting to like typing cover letters and selecting my favorite writing samples to show off my skills. Then again it could just be the delicious pumpkin pie latte coursing through my veins. (Go to Mill Mountain and try one! You won't regret it!)

I guess this will all pay off in a year and a half (that's all I have left of college?!) when I go job-hunting and I have trouble fitting my resume on one page ;) One can only hope...

it's the little things

I discovered today that I can sum up the difference between my younger brother and me in one short conversation:

Maggie -What did you dress up as?
John - A Seal.
Maggie - Oh that's so cute! Are there pictures?
John - A Navy Seal, Mags...

I should have known, of course, knowing John. He loves all things military, orderly and of course, anything but 'cute'. On the other hand, nothing would be more fun to me then dressing as an adorable seal....which I think he should do for this weekend. :D

Sadly this is the most recent picture of the two of us. I guess now that he's 15 and at least 6 inches taller, we're due for an update.

I finally did it

I finally started my blog. I've been meaning (and needing) do this for a while. 1) to get me writing more often and about everything to improve my skills and 2) to get me on my way to a portfolio of web writing.

I just read a very interesting chapter of my math book, Gaming the Vote. While it is required reading and I did it simply to answer the questions on the worksheet, I learned a little, too! I'm learning about voting methods and conditions that sort of mess up voting methods. One interesting one is the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (i.e. spoilers). This is seen most obviously and comprehensibly in presidential elections when there is a 3rd party that gets a good number of votes and throws off the outcome of one of the other two candidates. Probably the most known and memorable in my time is the 2000 presidential election when Nadar joined the race. This got my attention because it then becomes part of the strategy. Nadar could have pulled out, support Gore and maybe had some influence with him. But instead, he got greedy and spiteful towards Gore and didn't want him to win. Also he was hoping Bush would be a horrible president and his failure would push the country left (which basically happened). Pretty neat huh? Didn't know Math 101 could teach me so much about REAL life. I'm becoming a lot more interested in politics and elections now. I may have to do some research on my own.