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How to survive finals week

How
to survive finals week

The most stressful time of the year has arrived and getting through the last five
days may seem harder than getting through the last 15 weeks. Anxiety builds,
headaches throb and eyes grow heavy as most students probably get the least
amount of sleep during this time. I found these tips to be helpful in getting
through tests and projects, which feel like they are never going to end.

  • First
    off, if you’re not going to go to bed early because you’re studying late, make
    sure to have cookies on hand. Cookies taste delicious and they have sugar in
    them to keep you a little hyper and motivated to keep on working.
  • Exercise
    is a great way to relieve built up stress and helps balance out all the cookies
    you’ll be consuming. This doesn’t even have to be an intense hour long work
    out.  Take a study break and go walk a
    few laps on the track around the block. Throughout the week bike in the gym for
    thirty minutes. This helps relax your body and take your mind off the week.
  • I
    know some people like to study for eight hours straight in the library, but I
    have found that just makes me feel crazier. I find that if you study for two
    hours then go run an errand or go talk to a friend for an hour and then come
    back and study for another couple of hours, your feel replenished. This helps
    to study at a fresh start more than once.
  • The
    weekend before finals weeks plan out when each test is and when you are going
    to study for each test. If you have a study schedule it makes it easier to not
    get overwhelmed in lost in the information you have to shove in your head. This
    helps focus on one class and subject at one time instead of just randomly
    choosing and switching between subjects.
  • Taking
    naps even for 15 minutes helps to. This also replenishes and relaxes the brain,
    which is the most important thing to do during this week. Your brain can’t be
    wired for five days straight, you just won’t make it. I’ve even passed out in
    the library for a little quickie nap, no one will bother you.
  • The
    best way I found studying information helps is talking to yourself. This
    probably seems odd, but it helps. You retain information easier when you hear
    it said over and over. I usually pace my living room and read my quiz cars out
    loud to myself until I memorize the whole card. Remembering information in a
    more conversational way helps focus your mind on what you’re doing.

I have done finals weeks many different ways and I have found that these are a
few of the best tips I have discovered to get through the week. Summer is almost
here and all the hard work you have been doing is about to pay off. Relax and
enjoy it.


Six word memoir

When life brings tears, eat chocolate

Photo credit: Alia Gray

Take a chance before giving up

Photo credit : Stacy Pensinger

Always remember: appreciate what you have

Father and daughters

Photo credit: Robyn Consiglio


The girl in the bathroom mirror

She stares into the bathroom mirror. Toothpaste, bobby pins and a toothbrush lay scattered on the dusty tile countertop along with loose hairs from the brush. She criticizes every pore, blemish, frizzed out pieces of hair that have fallen out of her ponytail. Her eyes are hollow, the green seems to be fading from her iris. Her throat hurts. She looks at the complete mess that has become of her. The humming of the bathroom fan fills her ears. The longer she stares the more her head spins. Tears stream slowly down her face as she stares into her red puffy eyes. I don’t know where everything went wrong.

I can’t stop crying.

Every day is a new day that becomes the same as the last. Insecurities lead my mind through the daily routine of walking around like a zombie with nowhere to go. The days are filled with exhaustion and the nights filled with headaches.

 I wake up and can’t move from my bed. A mixture of clothes and shoes scatter my floor. I walk over them and pick my outfit. I’m not sure what the room looks like clean anymore. I know something is off. Usually, I like to smile. I love to laugh. I can’t believe that I’m depressed.

I’m admitting defeat. Something as consumed me and I don’t know what. I have a good life; loving parents, great friends and I am running really well. At least in the beginning of season I was. The injury to my knee was the rotting cherry on top of the awful sundae that has churned my entire body. Running is my life. I eat, breathe and sleep running. It was the only thing I had going for me, but now I feel I have nothing. It’s so pathetic to think. I don’t know what is worse: the fact that I am aware of my depression or the fact I can’t get it to go away.

I’ve tried the counseling center. There is no point in talking to a man that I obviously had no connection with. I have more in common with my nutritionist, but I’m not going to dwell on all my problems with her. I’m not quite sure I why I feel the need to share this with entire world on the web, but I feel that maybe if I accept the actual term depression it will go away. I’m talking it out more or less.

Depression is among one of leading causes of disability affecting 121 million people worldwide, according to the world health organization website. I’m no different than the majority of the world.  I always thought of depression as a person’s excuse to make their unhappiness a reason not to do anything. I still want to do things; it is just a lot harder. If I distract myself with enough things to do I am fine.

My debate the last few weeks is whether I should suck it up and go back to talking to my friend Paul at the counseling center or head to the health center with the pharmacy. Accepting depression has always been a problem for a lot of people and how to treat it an even bigger controversy. I think that everyone is different and it is up to them on how they want to help themselves. I am capable to being aware of it, but some aren’t. Depression can lead to suicide and takes about 850,000 lives a year, according to the world health organization website.

By no means am I suicidal. I love my life. It just sucks right now and I know it won’t always.

 I’m just coming back to the fact that people should realize that depression is real and it’s not something everyone knows how to deal with.  So, be nice to others, show people around you that you care. My dad messages me every day to see how I am doing and it helps. I have always wondered why people are uncomfortable with depression.

I’ll keep bopping my head to the music that follows the flow of my moods and staring at myself in mirror hoping to see a change. Maybe my eyes will shine green once again. At least I’m hoping for the pain in my knee to desist and I can go back to my life of running. That is familiar territory.


Chico’s Australian distance runner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-eQZpdw_eA


Non-Verbal Interviews

Source #1

 A heavier set Mexican student standing about 5 feet 10 inches bobbed his head to electronic music that was blasting through the speakers while he tabled for alternative apparel outside the student services building. He may have stood a little taller if he was not slouching.

 He had long black hair, which fell passed his forehead right above his straight black eye brows. The new spring sun made him brush it back with his hand every once in awhile to get cool air to the rest of his round acne scared face. His eyes were constantly squinted making him look confused because the sun was glaring into his face.

 He danced along with the music and every so often would tap his hands on his belly or pat the upper part of his thigh.  He looked relaxed in a blue tank top, which revealed his very bushy black armpit hair, matched with black gym shorts.  He wore his white socks high right below his knees and black skater shoes. He wore a silver band ring on his middle finger. Although dressed like he would be at the gym, he didn’t have any muscle definition.

He seems to know quite a few people because he stopped to talk and hug numerous people as they walked by. He had a wide charming smile which was rounded off by his thin red lips. He drank out of a reusable plastic water bottle, which went along with the reusable clothing he was tabling for.

 First Impressions

 Obnoxious frat boy

  1. Slouching with don’t give a care attitude
  2. Tank top with shorts
  3. Out tabling…before I looked at what it actually was
  4. Dancing to the music with a “look at me attitude”

 Looking Back

 The details of him being charming and sweet with the people he interacted with. This made him seem soft then a hard dominant frat guy stereotype. The more I paid attention to his face the more shy he seemed. His clothing just made him look more laid back rather than a “look at my arms” show-off style. The detail which made me think he was a obnoxious frat guy was probably the dancing to electronic music and his clothing.

 Source #2

 A light brown skinned girl blabbering on his cell phone came walking up to the benches outside the library and sat directly across from me. She carried a black and white tote bag and a string bag. She was about 5 feet 7 inches and obviously in shape. She had long colored brown hair with light brown highlights strung throughout. Bangs fell to the left side of her forehead and as she sat down she put it up in a ponytail.

 Her big gold aviator sunglasses covered the majority of her done up face. From what I could see her skin was flawless, not a blemish, freckle or any sign of acne. Her eyebrows were colored, probably with a makeup pencil and were perfectly shaped. When she would turn to the side I could see that she wore a lot of black mascara making her eyelashes long enough to be in a commercial for Maybelline. She wore rosy pink blush, which accented her round cheeks. As she chatted on the phone her laughter lightened up the area, which revealed her straight white teeth.

 She wore a blue hooded flannel that was open to her sternum and upper chest. She had a few freckles varying in size along the left side of her neck. She wore that with white pants that were folded up at the bottom with black flats, which she was slipping on and off at the heel.

            After she got off the phone, she pulled out a sandwich and a single serving size bag of Fritos. She slowly took small bites of her sandwich, careful to not get too much on her pouty pink lips. She constantly texted on her cell phone, which she held between her fingers as she ate. She had long sparkly acrylic nails. She had two piercings in both ears, but only had small round black earrings in the upper hole. Her right hand ring finger had a small diamond ring. She sat up straight, which added to her well-kept pristine appearance.

 First impression

 Stuck up rich girl

  1. Big gold glasses
  2. Very done up face
  3. Expensive clothing
  4. Fake nails
  5. Prissy eating

 Looking back

The details that don’t fit her stereotype were the way she talked on the phone, which was nice and polite. The more I watched her she seemed confidently shy. She ate like she didn’t want people catching her with food on her face not like she was prissy. Although shy eating, she was fine sitting alone taking a break between classes. She was wearing nice clothing, not necessarily expensive, but just well kept. We had the same black flats on. The big gold aviator glasses and make up is what cemented the stereotype for me.


Video III Breaking Event

I didn’t think it was too difficult to video tape the weather. It didn’t storm like it was forecasted to, so it was harder to figure out how film while telling a story. It was difficult shooting parts of the campus using different angles without making it boring. Coming up with a story about the weather was hard because it took a lot more creativity then I think it would be if at an actual action event. Editing is where I have most of my problems. There is something technical that always seems to go wrong. It makes it harder to focus on telling the story while making the video.

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VFY7mMDPVXs?hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VFY7mMDPVXs?hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

 Sources

Lauren Moshy

Vanessa Pasa 

Story/story board

 Weather forecasts in Chico predicted tornado storm warnings Wednesday March 23. The Chico State campus cancelled all held events for the day.

Rain and high winds never came down that day and although it was still cold some students still had tables set out in hopes of raising money for help against gun violence in schools.

 (insert interview with Lauren Moshy) “Rain or shine the Alpha Phi girls would have been out here trying to raise money for a cause.”

Others were out trying to get students to sign a petition to have a student voice in building the new parking structure on Second Street.

(insert interview with Vanessa Pasa) “It is important that we get students to get involved with the politics that happen on campus. Students should have a say in new buildings. We would have been out here if it rained. We moved under the library for some extra coverage just in case.”

Rain may have cancelled some events, but small groups of students were determined to continue fighting for their cause.


Just a side street away from school

My Neighborhood

Part 1

First Ave. and Mechoopda Street

My apartment complex is about half mile north of the Chico State campus. It is a square shape area on a tiny side street about 100 meters long. There are two levels of apartments on either side of the entrance with 26 in all. Each wooden red door opens to a two bedroom apartment.

The entrance of the complex looks to the backyards of the houses on the street parallel. A light green house and a small yellow house reside on the other side of the street on the far end closest to the school. Two other small apartment complexes are on the other side of the street that runs perpendicular to my complex.

All the people who live in my complex and on the same street are all college students. Some residents along the street  include baseball players, volleyball women, runners, rugby women and sorority girls.

The walls are very thin thoughout the building and most conversations can be heard on the streets surrounding. I hear a lot of shouting, partying and fighting . The complex has a small gated pool at the back. The street is slightly hidden around a bung of large green trees.

<iframe width=”640″ height=”480″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ src=”http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=first+ave+and+mechoopda+street+chico+ca&amp;aq=&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=18.75264,35.947266&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=W+1st+Ave+%26+Mechoopda+St,+Chico,+Butte,+California+95926&amp;t=h&amp;ll=39.734081,-121.853477&amp;spn=0.00099,0.001717&amp;z=19&amp;iwloc=A&amp;output=embed”></iframe><br /><small><a href=”http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=first+ave+and+mechoopda+street+chico+ca&amp;aq=&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=18.75264,35.947266&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=W+1st+Ave+%26+Mechoopda+St,+Chico,+Butte,+California+95926&amp;t=h&amp;ll=39.734081,-121.853477&amp;spn=0.00099,0.001717&amp;z=19&amp;iwloc=A” style=”color:#0000FF;text-align:left”>View Larger Map</a></small>

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Capturing Conversation

Conversation 1

 “The first time being in the chapel, it just felt right. The physical appearance is so beautiful.”

 “The city poured so much money into it. We got this building back to be a good church in $200 thousand.”

 “Wow.”

 “We eventually paid it off.”

 “Do you still have more construction to do?”

 “No. The building is the launch pad for the university. Four years ago it was awful. It’s a slow transformation, but there were a lot of good people here.”

 “It is the most pro-life area compared to other schools.”

 “We have a lot of kids (students). The illustrations were done from some gals in design.”

 “It’s cool; they’re all involved in it.”

 “It all has to do with the Christianity message. It’s subtle, but it is in the art.”

  • The two people having this conversation were sitting diagonally behind me to my left. They were already on the bus when I got on at the Second and Normal Street bus stop. I believe the one man was new to the church and meeting the priest. I believe they were going to lunch.

 

  • The first man was a tall, average weight man. He was probably in his 60s or 70s and was partly bald. He was wearing a dark button up shirt with a priest collar. His pants were a dark green business pants. He was wearing a nice watch on his left arm.

 

  • The second man was shorter and dressed in blue jeans with a dark blue and light blue striped, long sleeved shirt. He was Asian, dark skin with black hair and brown eyes. He was probably in his 40’s. He had a mustache and glasses on. He was also wearing a watch.

 

  • This conversation was at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, as the bust drove down Second Street.

 

Story Ideas

  1. How much money does the city spend on construction around town? How much has the city been able to up keep with the growing debt in the city? Has there been a lot of help and volunteering from the people?
  2. How has religion impacted college students? Is it a big thing in Chico even though the school is a public school? Have there been a lot of students that become religious in college or is it students that have grown up in religious families? The religious impact on students.
  3. How much do students help out around the city? Are students volunteering through school clubs and projects or on their own? How much put their practice/majors apply to volunteer jobs around the city and if it opens up doors for them in the future.

 Conversation 2

 “It’s a pack of Pikachu.”

 “It’s called a posse.”

 “A pack of Pikachu? What?”

 “I haven’t talk about Pokémon in forever.”

 “Remember when those were big?”

 “I had all the cards.”

 “Let’s not talk about Pokémon.”

 “Why you didn’t have any.”

 “Everyone had those.”

 “They are so lame.”

  •  There were three people having this conversation waiting for the bus stop on Legion and Warner Street. They obviously knew each other and were waiting to get on the bus after classes. There were standing right next to me to my left.

 

  •  The first person was a tall, somewhat slender guy, mid-20s. He was wearing a chargers beanie and glasses. He was dark skinned with brown eyes.  He was wearing blue jeans and bright orange converse shoes.

 

  •  The second person was also tall, average built guy, mid 20s. He was light skinned with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing dark jeans with a blue pull over sweater and black sneakers.

 

  •  The third person was a girl who was shorter and on the chubbier side. She had brown hair pulled back in a bun. She had brown hair and no makeup on. She was wearing jeans and a brown zip up hooded sweatshirt.

 

  •  This conversation was at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 02, as they were waiting for the bus to come pick them up.

 Story Ideas

  1. How hs children games changed with the media today? Do kids have cards or has technology changed the way we grow up playing games? Do games socialize us differently now has children then they did and how does that effect the way we socialize today?
  2. How students express themselves. Are they afraid of talking about certain things because they are afraid of what people think of them? How do we portray ourselves as people when we are around people we don’t really know? What kind of personas do we try to change when we come to college?
  3. Does gender change how we socialize and what hobbies we choose to join? The girl was talking about how she had Pokémon cards also and it made me think of how boys and girls socialize when they are little and if playing certain games changes the way you are when you’re older. Does gender change when having certain hobbies that are more boy dominated like video games or does it not matter?

 Conversation 3

 “Dude I think I’m going to leave Friday afternoon.”

 “Yeah, because it will only take like an hour and a half or so to get there.”

 “I have enough gas in my tank to get there. I’ll fill up before I leave.”

 “Yeah I was hoping they would pitch in for some gas money. I know it’s not that far, but I am driving.”

 “I think we are going to take Ashley’s car because mine is a jeep and eats a lot of gas.”

 “Yeah, man gas is getting so expensive, it’s retarded.”

 “No, no. It will be tons of fun still. I don’t think it will rain too hard.”

 “Oh, it’s supposed to clear up this weekend?”

“‘Cool, cool.”

 “Yeah, dude I’m excited.”

 “Alright I’ll talk to you soon. I’m going to the library.”

  • This was a one-sided cell phone conversation with a guy who was walking through campus. I caught him going over the bridge passed Butte Hall. He was directly in front of me and I followed him up until the library when the phone conversation ended.

 

  • The guy was a college student in his mid 20s. He was average height guy who was a little overweight. He had light skin with a brown hair and brown eyes. He had facial hair, which was passed scruff, but not quite a beard. He was a wearing a darker green hat and white zip up jacket with blue jeans. He was carrying a black backpack. He moved his hand  around as he was talking on the phone.

 

  •  This conversation was at about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday March 2, as he was walking to Meriam library on campus.

 Story Ideas

  1. As gas prices go up do students drive less? How much does it affect a college student? Do college students sacrifice a lot when gas prices go up? Do more people bike when prices are high? How many college students actually pay for their own gas?
  2. How often do students take weekend trips? Do students get out Chico a lot to take vacations to get away from drinking? How often do students visit their friends? Does taking small weekend vacations good for students to get rid of stress? How often do students take weekend trips through campus outings and clubs?
  3. How does weather affect students? Do students suffer from depression from bad weather? How does it change the mood of students? Does it affect how motivating students are for school or to do hobbies?

My Magazine Project

The group I will be working with includes:

Kelsey Eidbo

Anna Fairman

Alia Gray

Julie Ruocco

Our magazine topic is health and fitness. Our mission is to find out how people can be healthy and eat nutritional food on a low budget and when they think they have no time for a meal. Fast food doesn’t have be to bad food. We also want to show how fitness can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle.

We will be presenting our idea on Monday, March 7.


Wildcat Recreation Center Video2 (good technique!)