social networks = addictive?

So recently, my boyfriend has created a Twitter account.  At first I was like… okay, whatever… good for you.  Within the short period of time that he has been on the Twitter network, he has become ADDICTED!! He tweets about everything, including our relationship (which totally freaks me out) and our quality time together had dwindled down to nothing!! Why?? It was bad enough when it was just tweeting from his laptop, but now he tweets nonstop on his phone!!  This is a problem.

A few nights ago, I was over at his place and we were watching a movie.  CORRECTION: I was watching a movie while HE was watching his Twitter feed.  I asked him questions such as, "Do you like this movie?  Did you see what just happened?"  only to get responses such as, "Yeah. Huh?? Oh right, right."  He CLEARLY was not paying attention to me OR the movie!  I expressed my annoyance about his new found love, and said that I felt like he would rather hang out with his "followers" than his girlfriend (which I was TOTALLY serious about).  After assuring me that I was over reacting and that it wasn't as bad as I was making it out to be, I left to go home.  I decided to check out his Twitter page to see just how "bad" it really was (Twitter keeps track of how many Tweets you have).  I can't even tell you how mad I was when I realized he tweeted about the conversation we were having WHILE WE WERE HAVING IT!!!!!!!!!  BIG big problem.

Has anybody else ever been through this????

A time to vent.

I HATE WEEK 10.  Who is with me?  This week is going to kick my butt, literally kick my butt.  But I know I'm not alone.  I think there is a certain mutual sympathy between each and every North Central College student, as we are the only ones who truly understand the frustration and sleep deprivation that accompany 10-week terms.  Our friends outside of NCC, who have the standard 16-week semesters that call us and whine about how buys they are… STOP.  You're not busy.  You have 16 weeks.  Why in the world would you be busy in a 16 week semester?  I understand, because I used to be one of them.  I transferred into this chaos.  But now that this chaos is truly my reality, I no longer pity my 16-week semester friends. 

I HATE GROUP PROJECTS.  My BUS 460 business team did our final presentation last Wednesday.  With jumbo classes, when you only meet once a week… it is really difficult to do a group project due to the fact that we never see each other. This left us with having to schedule times outside of class to meet, which is fine, as long as everyone shows up.  WE, however, did not have one single meeting where everyone showed up. On top of this, during our presentation (which was business professional attire, by the way), one of OUR members showed up with jeans and a disney world sweatshirt on! Oh boy…

Thats all for now :-)
If anyone else needs to vent, please feel free to comment back to me!
Good luck this week!  Here is a little something to make you laugh.

Blog Prompt #4

I found the article about the Music Industry to be fairly interesting.  Stephen Dubner made a few points that I really agreed with.  He mentioned that, "new technology (digital music) may have accidentally forced record labels to abandon the status quo (releasing albums) and return to the pass (selling singles) and states that he sometimes thinks that the biggest mistake the record industry ever made was abandoning the pop single in the first place."  I couldn't agree more!  One of the reasons I download songs from iTunes is because more often than not, I don't like all of the songs on the CD.  And come on now… what is more annoying than putting in a CD driving down the road to listen to 2 songs and then change the CD out for another one 6 minutes later.  The process is exhausting, right y'all??

Koleman Strumpf's response just kind of got on my nerves.  I didn't agree with a whole lot of what he was saying.  He was long and wordy and said a bunch of nothing in my opinion, so I merely skimmed his article.  Blah Blah Blah…

OH! But Fredric Dannen!  I liked what he had to say.  "Consumers of recorded music will always embrace the format that provides the greatest convenience."  TRUE!  Why do I want to get in my car, drive through town in traffic that makes me crazy to find a store that I have to find a parking spot at and then most likely wait in line to buy the stupid thing??  I can buy all the music I want on my COUCH, crazy!! Thaaaaaank yoooooou iTunes!  Forget that!

For your viewing pleasure, I have included a comical image of an iPod in a fighting ring with a CD.  Enjoy!

Blog Prompt #3

The young people of the world, with their knowledge of and capabilities with new forms of media… kind of freaks me out.  So.  I cannot image what the parents of these little people must be feeling.  I have two little cousins, ages 12 and 7.  They both have cellphones.  Not just your typical cell phone… but smart phones…that come with data packages.  I did not get a cell phone until I turned 16, and eve then, it was a very large, very plain phone, capable of making calls and sending texts, that came with 6 ringtones.  You know what I'm talking about.  My little cousins sit on the couch next to each other and text back and forth.  They text from their bed rooms when they are supposed to be sleeping.  They play games.  The twelve year old has a Facebook page that her parents do not even know about.  I think that new media plays a HUGE role in youth's culture today.  I think that it is their main source of communication.  With youth having a curfew and limiting the amount of time they can be out and about, they are utilizing new media as an opportunity to stay social… and social they are.  
In my opinion, this is scary.  The reason I find this to be so terrifying is because the youth, the ones who are so savvy in the new media, are too young to understand the real dangers that are out there in the online world.  My 12 year old cousins doesn't turn down friend requests because her parents have taught her to "be a friend to everyone"…. but she isn't old enough to be able to differentiate between friends in her class and creepers in the virtual world.  They are TOO young to have so much virtual freedom. Here is a link about some dangers to our online youth.  Good luck parents!

GO AWAY Valentines Day!

I really hate Valentines Day.  I hope not to offend the true lovers of Valentines Day, but I hate it.  It is a forced day!  I don't want you to buy me chocolate and I don't want you to buy me flowers just because society says you're supposed to! You buy me chocolates when you messed up and know I am mad at you. You bring me flowers for the same reasons.  Why in the world would I want these things that remind me of  previous times that you bought me flowers and chocolates??  I associate them with hurt feelings!  Plus, then I am going to eat them and get fat!  And then you may break up with me because of it.  Furthermore-  if your guy doesn't bring you roses and candy any other time except for Valentines Day, then I think it's fairly safe to say that he doesn't really want to bring them to you ON Valentines Day, but is doing it to "fit in".  I think it's a joke and I think that it should go away and be removed from the calendar of REAL holidays with REAL meanings.  GO AWAY Valentines Day!  You make me fat and angry!

true romance

"Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots, and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and am amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you're so cool, you're so cool, you're so cool. And sometimes Clarence asks me what I would have done if he had died, if that bullet had been two inches more to the left. To this, I always smile, as if I'm not going to satisfy him with a response. But I always do. I tell him of how I would want to die, but that the anguish and the want of death would fade like the stars at dawn, and that things would be much as they are now. Perhaps. Except maybe I wouldn't have named our son Elvis."

This quote is the final monologue from my favorite movie, True Romance.  You know that movie that you actually went out and bought from the store?  The movie that went with you from home to college?  The movie that you can put on before you go to sleep because you already know so well what is going to happen?  The movie that you could quote frontward and backward?  The movie that you use to write about for all English classes for analyzation?  That movie for me is True Romance.  This movie is comical, intense, romantic, and action packed from beginning to end.  I think you should check this movie out!  I really think it'll be worth your time :-)  

What if all the snow flakes...

 ….were hershey bars and milk shakes, oh what a wonderful snow that would be!

Hello friends!
I cannot believe this snow!  I moved here from Nashville where everything closes down if there is even a flurry…and today?  Well.  Today I found myself making my way to a 2 o'clock class with the snow blowing sideways and fearful that I might fall and get lost and then covered up by a 5 foot snow drift that I heard people say were coming.  I mentioned to my roommate that if we HAD to go to class, we should go on the buddy system.  I told her we were holding hands and wearing whistles on the walk across campus.  But… her class got cancelled, so I made the trip alone.  Does anyone have any big plans for the snow day tomorrow??  Let me know if you do!

Sunday Night Blues.

You know the excitement that comes with Friday afternoons when you have finished your last class, and the entire weekend is stretched out in front of you?  That's an awesome feeling.  Y'all know what is NOT awesome?? Sunday nights.  When the entire WEEK is stretched out in front of you?  Bummer.  You feel completely overwhelmed and perhaps even a little depressed at the thought of another week.  I call them...the Sunday Night Blues.

While you cannot always shake the Sunday Night Blues, there are certain things you can do help.

1. Sleep through it.
2. Make your roommate eat pizza and watch TV with you.  Misery does love company.
3. Enjoy a beverage.  Shake things up with a martini!  
4. Jump on facebook and take comfort in fellow college students' pathetic and sorrowful statuses knowing that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
5. Call your mama.  Mothers always have a way of forcing you to look at the bright side.

Take it easy everyone!  

Google as a lifestyle.

Alarm goes off.  Roll out of bed, wash my face, brush my teeth, fix my hair, decide what to wear.  What is the weather going to be like today?  Let me google that.  For me, googling starts this early in the morning and is something that I continue to do throughout the day.  I use google to find directions, movie times, weather, web pages, songs, lyrics, recipes, and "HOW-TOs" for just about every single thing I need instructions on.

Google has become a part of my everyday life.  Aside from the search engine, I also use google maps, youtube, and gmail!  Multiple times a day.  While I do find google addictive, I don't think it affects anyone in a negative way.  If something works for you...why not keep doing it?  Google is always there to offer solutions to problems you might face everyday, and I am reliant on it's services.  But again... so what??

I would consider Google to be more of a lifestyle than an addiction anyway.  I doubt anyone sits around going through withdrawals if they have not googled anything yet today.  Instead, I feel it is more appropriate to say that as technology of all kinds play bigger roles in our lives today, we are simply changing the way we find answers to our questions and other aspects of our lives.

prompt #1 for Professor Macek

I read through Megan Reardon's interview on why and what she blogs.  I must say.. her viewpoint on blogging is much like my own.  She is intrigued by the blogging process as it almost like reading someone's personal diary.  Who doesn't want to know the secret thoughts of another person?  It's hard enough to get to know people as it is.. if they take their thoughts, put them into words, and post them for you to read at will...it makes getting to know a person much easier.

One thing that I found rather interesting about Megan's interview was that she is not an obsessed blogger.  While her blog is, evidently, wildly popular with some people, she is not addicted to the game.  She blogs about things that interest her.  She blogs about things she wants to remember.  The funny part is... she started blogging to save space on her refrigerator.

She blogs about knitting.  She blogs about baking.  She blogs about what is going on in her head.  She does not worry about posting too much of her personal life, so she does not have to worry about upsetting any readers.  She keeps relationships with her readers by answering any questions that are sent to her.  She keeps her blogs simple, honest, and to-the-point.

With all of the updated technology and new & improved ways to blog.. Megan keeps it simple.  Today she blogs in the same way, in the same format, as she did the day she started.  Simplicity is her style, and it works for her.

Helllooooooo blogosphere!

My name is Katlyn. I'm new to your world.  I am very excite to join the blogosphere and entertain you with my 350 words per week. Check out my facebook page!