Author Archives: Emily Chapman

Busy busy busy!

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Syrup

I learned at my first hall program that syrup comes in cans.

I started off the weekend with my first successful hall program, Banana Splits and Study Tips, so that was heartening. My residents were everything one could hope for–they showed up and ate and asked questions and were generally lovely.

On Sunday, I had an interview for an internship position at OpenStudy, a company that allow students to arrange for study groups with students from all over the world. I was pumped to even be considered for the paid internship position, so imagine my excitement when instead I was offered a job as their copy writer. So, starting sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging and writing company emails and things for the company.

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Paranoia in B Minor

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Avett Brothers Bandanna

The Avett Brothers bandanna, complete with Georgia!

This weekend I saw the Avett Brothers live in concert. It was my first concert at the Chastain Park Amphitheater. It was fantastic–the sound was great and the Avett Brothers did not stop dancing for the entire show. They were fantastic.

I went with my parents. I think I’m at the point in my life where that is okay? I’m pretty sure. Even if it’s not, I have the most excellent bandanna I have ever seen.

Flickr videos of the show are here and here. Blurry and loud and shaky, but that’s the mark of a damn good show.

We’ll See You On Weekends…

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This month's bulletin board.

My bulletin board for September. Theme: iStudy.

Today at the all-staff meeting, we learned that our Assistant Director of Res Life is leaving for a position in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at our central campus. This means that as of now, we have literally no professional staff member (aside from the administrative assistant, who I’m fairly certain actually runs everything) that has been here longer than any of the RAs. The news did not go over well. One of the staff members was close to tears. Another asked, plaintively, “How long have you known?” That was taken up with gusto by the rest of the staff–we wanted to know how long we had been held out on.

He reassured us that he’d only known since last Friday, that telling us was painful. “I’ll still see you on weekends!” he said, like that would make us any less upset. It was like we’d just been informed that our parents were splitting up.

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Take Advantage of Government Apps

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Screenshot of the US government's mobile app page.

Yes we can enter the web 2.0 marketplace. A screenshot of the apps.usa.gov site shows a few of the apps the US government offers.

Yes we can enter the web 2.0 marketplace. A screenshot of the apps.usa.gov site shows a few of the apps the US government offers.There are plenty of things that come to mind when one thinks of the US Government–but “web-savvy institution” probably isn’t one of them, no matter your political leanings. However, that may change with the government apps website. There are six pages of government-sponsored apps to do with national security, BMI measurement, and what’s currently being recalled. For people who need quick an easy access to that information without having to search through government websites, these apps and mobile web pages have the potential to be quite useful. Here are a few of the most interesting offerings.

Read more at HackCollege…

You were named for your Yankee grandmother.

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Today was almost unimaginably lovely. After a Very Long Night (I had RA duty, and a drunk person jumped out of a window to avoid capture), I woke up to the most perfect early-autumn-in-Georgia weather. The sun was shining and there was a breeze and it was maybe 80 degrees outside. It’s not late enough in the year that I’m stressed out about homework. It was good.

I even managed to be appropriately collegiate and go on over to the Student Center for pizza and drinks with classmates for college football season kickoff. (It was for the free pizza, I admit, but still. I went!) I took the shuttle into Atlanta with a friend and went with her and my family to the Decatur book festival. In addition to the perfect festival weather, it was my friend’s first time going to an event like that and it is always so much fun to see people get really excited about these things. And it was fruitful! I got the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? tabs for banjo, and an issue of McSweeney’s (number 33–it’s a several-hundred-page newspaper). We even got to go to a recording of The Moth, which was fabulous. The theme was Southern Gothic, and Hollis Gillespie told a story, as did the founder of The Moth. He’s from Saint Simon’s, and his story was fabulous. Continue reading →

On Mattering

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An abandoned bus.

Buses: bane of my existence. Image courtesy of Flickr user Trey Ratcliff. Licensed under CC 2.0.

Today I had my first big-deal, use-your-people-voice, on-the-job Situation. One of my freshmen residents, on a trip to the Atlanta campus, got lost finding her way to the shuttle station and was scared that she had missed the last shuttle of the night back to Oxford, some 36 miles away. She doesn’t know anyone at the Atlanta campus, and was lost, and was scared. She called her roommate for help.

I was on my way back from an RA scheduling meeting, and happened to bump into the gaggle of my normally cheerful-looking freshmen residents in a group, with a phone on speaker, looking worried–they were talking to my lost resident. They saw me, their eyes lit up, and they handed me the phone. They wanted me to fix things.

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Give Killer Public Presentations With These Public Speaking Tips

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There's no reason to fear public speaking, even if you're talking to the future droids in this lecture hall.

Public speaking can be terrifying–an estimated 95% of people experience some anxiety when speaking in front of groups. Unfortunately for everyone except that lone 5%, college is full of public speaking requirements: speaking up as a member of a club, for example, or having to give the first of many class presentations. However, with these tips you can hopefully reduce your public-speaking stress and give killer presentations.

Be Prepared – Part of the terror of public speaking comes from a fear of screwing up publicly. You can reduce this chance (and as a result, the fear) by preparing beforehand: make a bullet-pointed outline for your speech, for instance. If you’re doing a powerpoint presentation in class, be sure not to have everything on the powerpoint–instead, put bullet-pointed cues on the slides and expand upon them while speaking (it’s okay to have personal notecards with the expanded information on them). This way you’ll look like you know what you’re talking about by giving the audience information that only comes from you, rather than your visual aids. In addition to looking competent, an outline or notecards will give you something to go back to should you get completely flustered.

Read more at HackCollege

Canada trip!

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I just got back from my first trip to Canada, spent primarily in Vancouver and with stops in Whistler and Victoria. The people lived up to their reputation for slightly insane politeness to a degree that was truly astounding; that, combined with the (for the Canadians) unseasonably warm weather made it a lovely trip.

We started off the trip by flying from Atlanta to Seattle. Starving, we grabbed lunch at a Seattle Jack-in-the-Box that happened to be in Seattle’s equivalent of Memorial Avenue. There was a drug rehab place nearby and a woman cheerfully waved at someone she called Candyman. Candyman was 6’5” and looked like he’d seen better days. In addition, the restaurant itself managed to have the strangest menu I’ve ever seen: teriyaki bowls were side-by-side with hamburgers, with funnel cakes for dessert. However, we did manage to get food (after a 4 1/2 hour flight, we didn’t care what it was) and wend our way into Vancouver. At an otherwise unimpressive dinner, I got to drink my first legal beer (Vancouver has a drinking age of 19) and hit up the Lush, so I was happy.

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Dear polos: I hate you.

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Dear polos: I hate you.

Yes, you, you polyblend summer uniform sonsofabitch. In your men’s incarnation you are baggy and, somehow, despite that fact you still manage to make me twenty pounds heavier. How? I don’t know! If I did, I’d sell the technology to some Russians wanting to shame their enemies. And don’t get me started on the embroidered ones of you: either the embroidery awkwardly lies halfway up my shoulder, because polos don’t fit humans, or it lies halfway down my breast, making every interaction with a customer a morass of uncomfortable glances.

But you’re not getting off either, ladies-cut polos. No–if anything, you’re worse. What is it that prompted every polo manufacturer in America to size their polos for twelve-year-olds? They cling uncomfortably up top–both revealing the outline of your bra and giving the general public the impression you are some magical primate with a single breast–and bunch around your stomach. Even Jillian Michaels would have stomach fat the way these things fit. And, unlike the overlarge mens’ polos which give you an extra foot of fabric if you dare to tuck them in, these beauties manage to stop two inches above the waistband of your shorts.

It doesn’t matter what shorts you are wearing.

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On considering staying here

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My sister and I are spending our Wednesday afternoon watching Toddlers and Tiaras (her choice, not mine). A Route 66 sign popped up, because of course that shit is in the Midwest. I asked my sister–who misses Tulsa, loves Tulsa, wishes a little bit that we had never left Tulsa–whether she plans to move back to the Midwest when she finishes school.

“No,” she said, rolling her eyes in the way she does that implies that I’m challenged. “I want to move up north.” I asked her whether she wanted east coast or west–she was pretty certain that she wanted east. Continue reading →