Facebook timeline

As a Facebook user who has not yet switched over to timeline, I have been observing my Facebook friends' usage of the feature. Not the most common thought of going back in time to see what people were like in 2007 when Facebook became popular with our generation, but more so: what they select to be their "cover photo" with the new display. With the size of cover photos being about 10 times greater than the size of profile pictures, I'm curious to see how if and how these images replaces the notion of a profile picture.

This phenomenon interests me because people choose profile pictures where they look good. Eye tracking studies (ironically enough, funded and conducted by Facebook) show that the top left corner of the page, where the profile picture is placed, is where eyes are programmed to look on someone's profile. So now that the profile picture is so minimal on the page, which will be more dominant?

It's easy to analyze someone based on his or her choice of cover photos on timeline. Do these photos display a pretty image? A meaningful one to the person, such as the place they have a lake house or their favorite city? A strong memory with friends? The university they attend? A photo that makes them look popular? Is more than one uploaded? Are they the same as their profile pictures? Will people keep changing their profile pictures....or their cover photos? 

All of these questions have arose, and provide a basis for judgment. I'm interested in seeing the direction they go. What do you think? 

An example from the Web of the new Facebook timeline layout, with the cover photo being a beautiful view

iPhone ownership

I am officially the owner of an iPhone 4S. After holding out on getting a smartphone for the past few years and planning to waiting until after graduation, I gave in and upgraded to the iPhone. 

As I described to my sister, buying an iPhone is not just like getting a new phone, it's like buying a new lifestyle. My dad spent two days setting up his smartphone upon purchase, and I've spent the past few days adjusting. I now have full access to internet with 3G (whatever that means), a GPS, my email, the weather, a camera, apps, voice activation and my own personal secretary...her name is Siri. 

As obsessed as I am with email, my favorite tool is voice activation. I don't have to text and drive anymore because I can dictate what I want in a text message and it will type it for me. You can press a button and ask Siri pretty much anything, and if she (yes, I'm speaking as if it's a person) doesn't know the answer, she'll look it up on the Web. I was Christmas shopping in Target and when they didn't hold the gift that I needed, I asked Siri what the phone number for GameStop in Glenview, IL was and it called it for me. So much for phone books, Google-ing phone numbers or any of that...smartphones do the work for you. 

Half of the issues in my life have now been solved. I can type (or record) a message on notes and it will send it to my computer. I can check my email from the train. I don't have to open my computer and scavenge weather.com each morning. I don't even have to take out my digital camera to take a picture, upload it to my computer and put it online...I can snap a photo and Twitpic it in seconds. There are no PNC banks in Missouri, so I can take a picture with it, submit it on my VirtualWallet app and the check will clear. 

There is definitely a price to pay for the convenience--the insurance for two years costs more than the phone itself (with an upgrade). The cost adds up by the time you buy a phone case, car charger and additional applications. I run the fear every day that I will drop the phone and lose everything. 

But I feel like after waiting so long to get a smartphone, it's acting as not only the gift it is, but a reward. I no longer have to stop in a parking lot and call for directions. Call friends to Google phone numbers and text them to me to call businesses. Mail checks home. Look up Mizzou sports scores. The phone does it all. It's truly fascinating. 

Naturally, I'm pretty competitive, but having the iPhone really is a daily "YOU WIN!" You followed the blue dot on the GPS to find your way to the restaurant, win! You don't have to log on Facebook later because you cleared your notifications, win! Downloaded a new app for free, yay! Look forward to further posts, updates and stories about the usage of my personal secretary and phone that does everything for you. 

iPhone 4S

Turning points

My friend Alex and I are inspirational quote nerds. We love finding amazing words whether they are from Audrey Hepburn, Proverbs, quote books or other inspiring messages. Today, she emailed me this one:

"I found that every single successful person I've ever spoken to had a turning point and the turning point was where they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50 and most never make it at all."

Mine was junior year of high school. I made the decision to get myself organized. I cleaned my room, wrote things down in a planner, decided to work a part-time job in my "free time" and grew up. I worked as an editor for the school newspaper, took my section and myself seriously and continued to work hard at school while doing so. I made an active decision to no longer be a procrastinator who remembers everything in my head. I pursued scrapbooking to keep track of all my high school and life memories from that stage on. It's also when I truly identified the Type A in me and acted upon those ambitious qualities. 

But I urge you to think, what is YOUR clear decision that caused a turning point in your way of life? Have you had it yet? Are you happy with the changes made after that? If not, it's not too late to change that. It requires strength and determination. You have that in you, now let it shine to find your successful qualities.

It's important to note that just because you make that revolutionary decision does not mean you are set up for success. It's all about the attitude you have as a result of the decision. You have to actively pursue things, they don't just come to you. Every successful person was not God's gift to Earth and doesn't go around thinking that. They decided what they wanted, kept a positive mindset and lived with assertiveness. So think about it!

Christmas families

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is spending time with all of the people I call family. I am thankful to have a variety of groups of friends that I consider as my families at Mizzou. Since classes have ended, we've participated in many Secret Santa gift exchanges, family dinners and more, so I have gotten to see all of the friends I call family in the past two days! Here are some holiday card-type photos of the people I call family!

Our dysfunctional but loving Mark Twain 5th floor family

My beautiful Phi Mu pledge family!

The Homecoming Steering Committee family!

The Phi Mu friends family

My soon-to-be MOJO family, team Maven!

And of course, the ACTUAL Artemas family. Sadly enough, this is the last photo we have all together.
At TGI Friday's. In May. 

Facebook irony

This morning, I came across this Mashable article titled: "Facebook's secret to high emotional engagement? Faces."

In a study Facebook commissioned to "display its emotional connection with consumers to advertisers," researchers found that participants responded better to Facebook than both The New York Times and Yahoo websites on a scale of attention, emotional engagement and memory retention. Why? Because of the presence of human faces. The New York Times and Yahoo sites don't have a reason to portray these, because they only really publish newsworthy photos rather than images of each reporter or contributor, nonetheless profiles. 

A.K. Pradeep, CEO of NeuroFocus, says in the article that "The face is a window to the human emotions. Since childhood, we are trained to read people's faces to discern emotion, and that such information is key to survival: Thus the stimulation we experience when scanning our newsfeeds." 

So here's the irony with today's young adults and teens. Faces are the key to emotions. We want that stimulation and emotional engagement, but we don't want it from a face IN PERSON. We want that from an image of someone using impression management on the internet. No one puts up a profile picture of him or herself looking mediocre or depressed. They post nice, happy photos where they feel they look attractive. So why get together in person for emotional engagement in a conversation when you can look through your newsfeed with faux images of people's faces?

It's great that we can have so much engagement online, especially in maintaining relationships with friends and family members across the world. But there are plenty of people like my own sister who sit on Facebook chat for hours at a time instead of calling friends up and inviting them over for the night. Today's youth can have just as much fun sitting on Facebook chat having racy conversations on a Friday night rather than getting together and hearing about the others' lives. They are adjusted to learning about acquaintances' thoughts, feelings and doings from statuses and pictures, instead of the art of asking them about it.

We are losing our value of conversation. As much as Facebook can be emotionally engaging and capitalize on this idea with advertisers, we as individuals should take note of the fact that human contact is a value that will always produce more emotional engagement than a phone or computer screen. 

My first lease

This afternoon, I signed my first lease to live in an apartment near campus next year. And it was one of the most rewarding feelings ever.

My friends and I have been seeking housing since I got to Mizzou in August for recruitment, and I probably have about five Columbia, Mo. landlords saved in my phone. I spent most Thursday afternoons this semester calling landlords, getting the addresses of all of their properties, driving by and taking pictures, to soon be disappointed that all of those properties were getting renewed by their current tenants. I was incredibly competitive with the process, and the one morning we had a solid option of touring two homes, the better one got signed just a few hours before we went to look at them. There were many letdowns.

The notion of the difficulty of feeling satisfied when you have done such extensive research definitely held true in this case, as the expectations and standards were set very high with each place we found. And where did we end up signing? A beautiful, new apartment that is fully furnished. And next door to our best friends. None of us have really settled and everyone seems to be happy with the decision. It's new, close to downtown and close to the J-School (where the majority of our classes are). What more could we ask?

The best part about it: we're living with our best friends. We have all worked hard for the past few years for this moment. Freshman year, all of my friends were in the same hallway- the 5th floor of Mark Twain. Let's face it- the majority of my Mizzou friends happen to be journalism majors, and my dorm friends are all very close. We have other friends, but our Twain relationship is on a different level. We kept our rooms unlocked and essentially lived in the others' rooms. We maintained these friendships the past three semesters, even we stopped living together. Various visits to each other, text messages, long phone calls, Skype dates, walks around campus and crowding into each other's double rooms kept us needing each other...but still loving each other. To me, moving in the same apartment with three of my best friends and next door to two more symbolizes the effort we will have put into the past three years of college before living there.

Signing the lease was like receiving a prize- you win! You no longer need to track each other down! You'll all be here...ALL the time...when you're not at the J-School! It will no longer take countless phone calls, dining hall meals or extraneous difficulties see the other for more than five minutes! It's about time...we deserve it. Needless to say, I'm unbelievably excited for August 14 when I move into my new apartment with some of my favorite people at Mizzou!

A feminist rant

When I return home or am catching up with friends I do not go to school with, one question comes up without fail each time: "What's your boy situation?" Note: the question is not "do you have a boyfriend?" We live in a society where that information is already on Facebook, so since it didn't provide enough information, we need the whole situation. It implies that a situation even exists. Other common questions include:

"How are the boys? Are you seeing anyone? Any interests? Why don't you have a boyfriend?"
And these are completely normal questions to come home to. From friends, family, people at church, etc. And I want to propose a question that stems from this. 
Does a woman's well-being reflect her relationship status? Why should it? I really have tried to see it from both sides.

If you're in a relationship...

• You value another person's life
• Can balance your time well  
• Supposedly have marriage and a future on your radar
• You have another individual to support you, emotionally and in your life  

If you're not in a relationship...

• More time for yourself- independence 
• At times, more time to focus on your education and work goals
• Can emphasize your relationships with friends and might try more to stay in touch with acquaintances

Clearly, these lists are not complete. Either way, relationship or not: you're going somewhere and moving forward in life- whether it be promotions in the workplace, marriage, etc. So why do we judge a woman on whether she has a man to support her?

A woman can be perfectly competent and successful without a boyfriend. A lot of effort, time and energy goes into the obligation to put someone else's life at the same level as yours. But people need to wait for the right person or opportunity to be there and the right time in their life, not just date to say they're dating. We live in an ambitious and goal-driven world; nevertheless, people are selfish and don't always want to date someone just to have someone for mutual support and a relationship. So we should respect the fact that this is acknowledged nowadays and realize that someone's status as a person is not dependent on their relationship status.

Why doesn't anyone ever ask what you are doing with your professional goals or at school? You could be the CEO of a company, and would have to ease that into conversation since you're not talking about a relationship. I guarantee you that people at home don't know that I'm chairing a philanthropy event that fundraises over $100,000, working for a full-service advertising agency and served on the planning committee for my university's Centennial Homecoming. But they do know I am single!

Moreover, how many BOYS are judged on whether they have a girlfriend? Envision this situation. A 28 year-old man comes home to his hometown and shares news that he has been named president of a company. Now picture this- a 28 year-old woman has been given the same title. And people will still say- "Darn, too bad she doesn't have a husband."

I encourage you to look at boys the same way you do with girls as they achieve their goals. I encourage you to acknowledge your friends and family members' accomplishments and life goals just as much as their relationship status. And I encourage all women to realize that they don't need a man to stay stable, and that good things come to those who wait.

PK Problems

Yesterday, after running into many families from my church at a local shopping center, I tweeted under the hashtag (yes, I used a hashtag) #PKproblems, standing for "Priest's or pastor's kid problems." Attending a rather large church where my dad is the priest for the past ten years, this is a common occurrence and I was rather amused and excited to run into all of these people.

When I got home later, I clicked to see if anyone else had discussed PK problems on Twitter. And what did you know, multiple people had! Below is a screenshot of some other "PK problems" identified in tweets. This is an example of hashtags for categorization purposes, but still remains rather hilarious. Check some of these priest's kid problems out!

From college towns to suburbia…the ins and the outs

Every time I come home from school, there are clear differences in the lifestyle. Not as that of a student and of my priorities, but rather in the norms of the suburbs versus that of a college town. I attribute this to what college students deem acceptable and what suburban citizens have overcome, but it's interesting to observe the differences firsthand.

1. Walking vs. driving everywhere

College students are adjusted to walking all the time. To class, dinner, a friend's house...why drive? You have to pay for gas anyway. Walking is keeping you fit and the walking itself is pretty peaceful. But in the suburbs, it's actually abnormal to walk anywhere. That's what 15 year olds and under do....walk downtown. Walk to their friends' houses. It's unheard of to park a mile away and go get it later. Walk somewhere in the snow just to see friends instead of remain in cabin fever. You're crazy if you want to walk somewhere. Tonight alone, my friends got in cars a total of five times to go to a friend's house, pick someone up from the train, drive back, go to get bubble tea, and drive home later. And each of these distances were probably no more than a mile away from each other. Hence, it's sad how suburban people lose the value of walking to enjoy some quiet time and pick people up without wasting some gas. 

2. Overall moodiness of being around college-aged kids

I live in a sorority house. I live in a double room, with a roommate, and people voice their opinions on things. We understand each other, and some things just go unsaid. You can be in a good mood, you can be in a bad mood, and it doesn't have to be questioned. At home, if you seem even the slightest bit off, something is wrong. With roommates, they don't want to hear it. It's just understood...you'll have a better day tomorrow. But you have to state a clear reason for why you are upset or what is wrong...it makes you think. Whether your rationale was ridiculous, or whether there even is one. 

I've experienced this dress-shopping. My mom and I argued over which length and size to get, and I was disappointed after. At school, it would have been perfectly okay to be moody for an hour and get over it later, but at home, I was hammered about what exactly was so upsetting for hours. Thus, be ready to rationalize your decisions for feeling anything in a suburb. 

3. Running into people

On a college campus, you run into people you know all the time. Classmates, people from campus activities, your friend's roommate's ex-boyfriend that you met that one time, the list goes on. But when you run into high school or hometown people, things are slightly different. Since it's not always expected, there's a grunt of "Ugh, I have to impress them right now. Time for small talk." But why don't we feel that way at school? These people will all run into you someday too. At home, it's a burden but at school, it's rather exciting and makes you feel popular to know people. In the suburbs, it's a competition of who is better off at that point in time and if you can't win, you don't want to be in that situation. 

4. Timeliness

In suburbia, no one is in a rush to get anywhere. Rephrase, no college student is in a rush to get anywhere (soccer moms on the other hand...). You have commitments, but you don't have to stick to a strict time clock or else you're looked at as insane. It's not like what anyone else is doing is that important. We told Hannah we'd be over at 7:30? Let's drive over around quarter to 8. At school, if you're late to such plans, you're missing a ride, missing an event, etc...but here, it can wait. 

Overall, these differences do reflect college student norms--being laid back time-wise, wanting attention but not too much attention from running into others, acting moody in front of friends but not family and walking around. Considering the reasons though is quite interesting and makes you think about why these occur! 

MIZ100HC: A Century of Coming Home

A big chunk of my semester was spent serving on the Homecoming Steering Committee for Mizzou's Centennial Homecoming Celebration. In fact, I spent so much time engrossed in Homecoming activities that I barely got to blog about it! Over break, I finally had some time to create a photo scrapbook, but here are some photo memories of the various activities I got to partake in coming from the other side!

Homecoming Steering Committee members doing the MIZ tiger pose before the
Royalty Banquet on the quad!

Andrew, the other member of the merchandise subcommittee, and I making everyone laugh with the prom pose!

We sold over $70,000 in pre-ordered Homecoming merchandise and sorted it into boxes for each residence hall or campus organization.

As a member of the merchandise subcommittee, we sold Homecoming shirts, ornaments and UnderArmour apparel throughout campus the weeks leading up to Homecoming!

Tiger Food Fight, the campus-wide canned food drive, collected over 65,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri!

For Centennial Service Day, I led a group of students to pick up litter at Reactor Field, a popular Mizzou tailgating location.

Over 5,000 units of blood were collected at the four-day blood drive at the Hearnes Center.
Above, the Homecoming girls pose by the Red Cross truck!

Homecoming morning finally arrived!

Add caption

The Reynolds Alumni Center decorated for Homecoming day!

Chester Brewer, former athletic director and football coach, was honored as the Grand Marshall.
A cardboard cutout of Brewer stood in front of the Mizzou Rec Center.

Phi Mu's house decorations on Campus Decorations Night!  I got to walk around with my family and all of my friends after monitoring the streets for a little bit. 

We woke up for an early morning breakfast and got on the firetruck to be in the Homecoming Parade!

At the football game, we got to go on the field and kiss the 50 yard line at the halftime coronation. 

What a great way to close our Homecoming experience! My knees were even grassy after.

After the afternoon game, my friends had a post-game tailgate sponsored by Kathryn's parents, Laura's parents, Sherman's parents and mine! We took pictures of our families and all of the visitors we had- including our siblings, friends, Jenny from American in DC and Helen & Steve from our rival Iowa State!

My family (minus Maria) after the closing committee banquet Sunday morning! Thanks again for visiting!

Everyone after the winners had been announced on the stairs of Jesse Hall

Thanks to everyone who helped to make this year's Homecoming a fascinating experience and one that will certainly live on!

The Hashtag

Ah, the hashtag. #. Pound sign. It means so much to us, but to a non-Gen-Y-er (or non-Twitter user) might mean nothing.

Uses of the hashtag

1. Categorization. The use of the pound sign (hashtag) for categorization was genius, and ultimately, what it was intended for. To be able to tweet an event, conference or international conversation under one name is brilliant. Mizzou Homecoming can be tweeted under the hashtag #MIZ100HC, Mizzou news can go under the hashtag #Mizzou, and news about a celebrity under his or her last name allows you to easily follow a story.

2. This brings us to the use of search relevance. If you are searching news and many have tweeted under the same hashtag, it's easier to find and more credible since one followed to general criteria enough to use the hashtag. Therefore, you have to make hashtags for corporate communication or international news something common enough that people won't change it up, misspell it or do anything else to make it less relevant.

3. Sarcastic attitudes have made the hashtag become a way of expressing one's opinion on something or overall commentary. This is where you start to wonder why it exists. If a tweet is already your opinion or shared knowledge, why not say what you mean? The # isn't supposed to imply sarcasm, so why have we turned it into that? I don't know about non-college towns, but it is pretty common to hear my friends and classmates use the word "hashtag" aloud.

• Hashtag, winning!
• Hashtag, awkward!
• Hashtag, too frat to care!

But what meaning does "hashtag" contribute to this? Absolutely nothing. And I'm guilty of this myself. What did we do before hashtag? Just SAID THOSE THOUGHTS! We have to remember that just because a cool symbol exists to categorize things doesn't mean we have to build its meaning and lose the originality of our comments by branding them to Twitter as a website.

4. Additional emphasis on your thoughts. If you're tweeting, you clearly have a sense of self-importance that outweighs that of those who don't tweet. You think that people actually care about what you're saying, at least enough to read it. That's why this last common usage of the hashtag cracks me up. People want to stress what they say in their tweets in this opinionated matter, using things like #mylife. Please note: I am guilty of this myself, but that doesn't mean I still can't find it funny. #sadday. What you said should have already implied that it's your life, or a sad day. You have 140 characters to get your point across, and you essentially have wasted one of them on a symbol. You really want EVERYONE to know that it's your takeaway point. Hence, we contribute to the #'s meaning by using it so often with the last emphasis tweets.


Therefore, I advise you to monitor usage of "hashtag" allowed and express your commentary in your words, not symbols. If we as a generation began to do this, we would not need signs, symbols and imagery to keep us going and could better define our writing and ourselves by what we say.

Targeted Facebook ads

As a consumer and strategic communication student, targeted Facebook ads fascinate me. My amazement to see what they would come up with and show me what it thinks I want was triggered when I studied abroad, but has continued as I transition from home to Mizzou and go back and forth. It's not only what they can extract from my profile, but what brands are setting in their criteria that helps to target me--whether it be age, network, current location, etc.

Lately, I have felt that after I talk about something with friends, it arises in my targeted ads. I began to even feel like Facebook was listening to me in my daily conversation, which is a problem. In my mind, targeted advertising is comparable to swearing: it becomes an issue if it becomes so embedded in your mind that you are not realizing it. Therefore, rather than giving the internet this much credit, I began to ponder: what does this mean in terms of my internet usage? I deduced three overarching themes:

1. That I have too much information on my interests that are targeting these. New movies that were coming out or music recommendations are based on what pages you have "liked," and they cannot just guess what I liked. I myself have a selective criteria that is evident by the pages I have on there. It's easy to target chick flicks and top 40 music if that's what I have selected. 
2. I subconsciously AM searching such information online, but not noticing it. 

   

   This is clearly from search history, because Lowe's research was a large part of a class project on Home Depot. But do I realize how much I am researching these brands? Not at all.
   
   

   

   Lately, I've been shopping for new jeans and OCJ Jeans are a brand that a Maneater client of mine recently advertised about and we discussed via email. I am crazy to think that words sent in personal emails could be targeted, and am clearly reading into things. But it IS pretty ironic that this specific brand would arise, but showing me that I have probably looked at photos or options for new jeans online lately.  

3. Lastly, I might just be in the target audience by location or demographic and should not worry. I'm reading into things and giving Facebook too much credit. 

   

   
   

   This example probably arose on my profile because I am in the Mizzou network and college-aged demographic, but also have posted statuses about loving Christmas. My immediate first thought, I kid you not, was "It must have known that I created the ornaments for the Homecoming merchandise subcommittee!" Why would it know that? Who has the time to extract such information, especially if I didn't publish it? Nobody, not even a machine. Hence, you have to look at the bigger picture and not feel flattered by such targeting. 

For more information on Facebook's ad targeting, click here. 

Gary Pinkel's DWI

This past Wednesday night (Nov. 16), Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel was arrested for driving under the influence. After being pulled over, he refused to take a BAC (blood-alcohol content) test and pleaded guilty. Ironically enough, he is featured in an "Arrive Alive" advertisement for the state of Missouri promoting motorcycle safety, and with Mizzou as the center of news spreading with the vast amount of journalism majors, you can imagine how fast news spread on this story. Typing in Pinkel on Twitter gave me updates by the minute, from @komuNews, our television station in Columbia, Mo. with information from broadcast journalism students, the Columbia Missourian newspaper and more. 

The articles and jokes began early Thursday morning, expressing disappointment in Pinkel's decision, notices released from Chancellor Brady Deaton and Athletic Director Mike Alden and later, Pinkel's "official apology to Tiger Nation." All expressed disappointment and outrage with Pinkel's decision, acting as a poor role model to his team, the University and the Mizzou community at large. He will be suspended for one week along with other consequences, and donate a week of his salary (over $40,000) to the MU Wellness Resource Center to promote awareness of the mature management of alcohol.

The biggest ethical upset I have with the coverage of Pinkel's DWI is the published dashboard camera footage of his arrest. KOMU news, Columbia's NBC affiliate, obtained the video coverage and uploaded it to its YouTube station itself. This was uploaded yesterday and my friends noticed it from smart phones on our drive back to Chicago from Missouri. I was appalled at the decision to publish this videotape and immediately questioned its necessity. 

Gary Pinkel is already embarrassed by his actions and has assured a horrible PR scandal to both the University of Missouri and our recent conference change to the SEC. As a journalism student currently enrolled in Communications Law, my class just finished a unit on privacy, obscenity and newsworthiness. 

• Does Pinkel have a reasonable expectation of privacy? No, this happened in public and according to the "standing in" doctrine, filming such footage is legal as long as one recorded from a public area where anyone driving by could have seen what happened. There is no issue about the recording or publishing it. 
• Is it of legitimate public concern? Sure, the news has a huge effect on the Columbia area and Mizzou community. 
• The video or news is definitely not highly offensive to a reasonable person, not even Pinkel himself. 

We see that answering the questions of these test, there is no dilemma to posting the video. The story is newsworthy, but here are my questions. 

What does the video add to the story? 

Does it share anything the public needs to know? 

Does it share anything that can't be understood through written words and stories? 

In a world of emerging technologies, news outlets feel the need to post whatever they have as soon as it's obtained. Videos, infographics, recordings, etc... because we have the capability to. But too often, we ignore the question of what it contributes to the story and rush to posting everything we have on the internet and outlets like Twitter catering to the public need of sharing news.

In this case, we have two news outlets AFFILIATED with the University of Missouri (Columbia Missourian and KOMU news) singlehandedly contributing to our university's national embarrassment from this incident. And I would love to say as a journalist and Mizzou student that they are serving the principles of good journalism by doing so, but they are not. The video of Pinkel's arrest contributes nothing to the story that has not already been reported, and until I see a rationale of what it adds, I have lost respect for both of them. 

No regrets

This past weekend, I was conflicted about what to do. There were multiple events scheduled at the same time, and I could not prioritize which I wanted to attend the most. Between my last semi-formal, a Homecoming reunion, a football game, a concert, a brunch, conference in St. Louis and regular student commitments like homework and sleep, I could not make a decision.

So for those of you that know me, you know that I decided to do it all. And it was not the easy choice, it was the choice where I would have the least amount of regrets.

I started at semi-formal Friday night and went to the Ying Yang Twins concert sponsored by two fraternities immediately after, what a night! Ying Yang Twins were actually very incredible live, or they were lipsyncing really well.

Leah, Megan, Emily, Melanie, Alex, Courtney and I!

The Ying Yang Twins at Whiskey Wild's

Saturday morning, Kathryn and I woke up and walked over to the Alumni Center to go to the brunch for the Chancellor's Excellence Fund! We sang a parody for Chancellor Deaton called "The Brady Bunch," since his name is Brady. It was a big hit, an intimate brunch where everyone even introduced themselves and everything went smoothly.

Mizzou Student Foundation members at the Chancellor's Excellence Brunch

After brunch, I grabbed a bag, picked up Karee and drove to Lake of the Ozarks! A member of Homecoming Steering Committee volunteered his lake house for Homecoming members to hang out and catch up for a weekend retreat. I had never been to the lake before, but it's very comparable to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. The area and home were beautiful and the weather was nice enough to lounge outside and enjoy each other's company. We went to a restaurant on the water, the popular outlet malls and back to hang at the house! It was a nice little day trip and really makes you feel away from everything for the day.

Homecoming girls! Morgan, Karee, Hannah, Rachel, Hannah, Rebecca and I

...But just for the day. I headed home around 9 p.m. for Phi Mu's initiation sleepover where my daughter and granddaughter Liz and Melissa slept in my bed! We watched SNL and went to bed early- an ideal night.

Liz and Melissa!

Sunday morning, I arose at 6 a.m. to get in the car to drive to St. Louis University for the Relay For Life Eastern Missouri region (EMO) Collegiate Summit! Thankfully, I got to sleep through half of the car ride, but Bret and Charlie (the other Relay co-chairs) had a great time coming up with hilarious ways to wake me up. Blasting loud rap music was the winner. Sessions like this always excite me for our Relay For Life event on March 16 and deliver loads of ideas for fundraising and public relations. I took more notes than I have in awhile and we learned a lot from SLU and WashU's Relay steering committees! Since they were local, 50 of them from each school attended as opposed to the 10 MU students that could make the drive from Columbia. I ran into a friend from middle school who in on the WashU committee though, which was pretty funny! Some things learned:

• Mizzou's Relay will have the president of Relay For Life and a ton of important staff members in attendance! This will be a huge nerve-wracker for myself and the other co-chairs but we hope to put on a great show and experience for everyone! We met a lot of the executive staff who all claim excitement for our event :)
• Relay For Life of Second Life (see my blog post on http://kartemas.wordpress.com/blog from a few weeks ago) was founded the same year as the first Relay For Life of a prison and Relay of a nudist colony! "It was a weird year for Relay..." American Cancer Society employee and Relay youth coordinator Heidi explained. 

Relay Steering Committee members from Mizzou at SLU's Summit Conference

If this wasn't enough, upon arriving back to Columbia from St. Louis, it was time for Phi Mu initiation! Congratulations to Liz and Melissa- my direct family members- and myself and Dani got to initiate them! Below is our PHamily photo of both branches of our pledge family (everyone and their moms and daughters).

My Phi Mu family!

Overall, was it easy to make plans for semi-formal Friday night? No. Coming up with a game plan for the night was incredibly stressful and I had second thoughts about why I hadn't gone to the lake. Was I tired at the Chancellor's brunch? Yes, but it was enjoyable and interesting. Was I fully awake while driving an hour each way to Lake of the Ozarks? Probably not. But I did what I wanted to do and conquered challenges to do so. I saw everyone I was capable of seeing and the tired look I probably exemplify this week will always be overcome by the satisfaction that I don't have to regret not doing any of these things. Everything is not only represented by my friends, but each commitment was related to a campus activity I participate in. Phi Mu, Mizzou Student Foundation, Homecoming Steering Committee, Relay For Life. 

Therefore, when people say "You can't do it all," they are lying. You CAN do it all, as long as you don't regret or dread some of those moments it takes to put you everywhere. Because if you will, I recommend not doing anything then. You have to be prepared for moments of sickness, car time, stress or momentary freakouts. Thankfully in my case, it was all worked out and quickly evolved into one of the most memorable weekends of college!

Creating a home

Two weekends ago, Shaina and I took a road trip to University of Illinois. A popular road trip destination, this is the fourth time I've visited U of I during college. Shaina's twin sister is there, and some of my best friends are there. Champaign, Ill. bars allow entry at 19 years old, so there are plenty of places to go. Overall, it's hilarious that I love visiting U of I, but love being a Mizzou student. Lessons overall from the weekend:

1. While they are very convenient, I hate GPSs. I'm old-fashioned and like to write down directions and conquer the challenge of the turns and counting mileage numbers rather than listening to a machine tell me where I am and actually mentally have no idea. The GPS told us to go south toward Memphis, and I was convinced that it was wrong because Illinois is NORTH of Missouri. Entrusted in Shaina and the GPS, we followed the direction and were suddenly recalculated. Surprise surprise. Thus, I learned to go with your gut and common sense, not a machine.

2. Shaina and I left early Friday morning at 8 a.m. to catch Meredith before she unfortunately had to leave town at 3 p.m. on last minute notice. Originally staying with her, I now had to find a place to stay. I learned what great friendships I have when within a day, I had four offers. It reinforced the idea that you don't have to talk to someone everyday to be their friend, or keep in touch every week. But if you're on the same page and truly value their friendship, you can meet up for lunch or dinner as if nothing has changed. You can tell when you genuinely still care about what is going on in others' lives. This allowed me to see everyone below!

Below are pictures with Meredith, Elena, Anastasia and Michelle! I also got to see Brooke, Jack, Sara, a ton of Greeks including a friend of Maria's, and GBN and GBS students galore!

3. Walking around campus, I was running into people left and right. I saw two Glenbrook South students at Starbucks that I was acquainted with in high school, met some Greeks at a Greek festival that I have been around in high school, and ran into high school friends who smiled, welcomed me and said hello on the street. One even walked up to my car in the middle of an intersection! This taught me that you can feel at home pretty much anywhere, as long as all the people from there are surrounding you. 

4. When I realized with our good friend the TomTom GPS that University of Illinois was actually closer to five hours away from Mizzou, I was a little shocked. The boy that drove me and Shaina freshman year presented the plan as if it were four hours, so it's forever engrained in my head that Champaign is only four hours away. It's actually 290 miles. Chicago to Columbia is only 390 miles...yes, another 100. And on Missouri and southern Illinois highways, that's practically an hour. So why did I not go home? I clearly miss my family, like Northbrook...why would I not go back?

But as you see from the above three reasons, you can create a home where your friends and acquaintances are. I clearly saw a lot of people I know and love and felt 100 percent comfortable staying with them. It was a great point in my life to realize this and makes me happy that as a college student, I'm capable of carrying on these relationships! I thank all of my friends for a great weekend at U of I and look forward to my next annual visit!

MIZ-SEC

The past month has been filled of press news about Mizzou's rumored invitation to join the SEC, Southeastern Conference for athletics. I didn't know how seriously to take it after last year's discussion about joining the Big 10, as Mizzou was in the Big 12. A series of events from Chancellor Brady Deaton stepping down from the Big 12 Board, to the SEC accidentally publishing and then deleting a post that said Mizzou had been accepted, led to a rally this Sunday that we had officially been invited and accepted the invitation to join the SEC.

Students received an email early Sunday morning about the decision and were invited to a spirit rally at the MU Student Center Sunday afternoon.

A screenshot of the Mizzou Athletics webpage with the announcement

After a 4 p.m. meeting, I walked into the Student Center to see this:

Students filling the student center with SEC Commissioner speaking

It took awhile to get started because the commissioner and University of Florida president's flight arrived late, but definitely was a spirited 45 minutes. Students had signs ranging from "Welcome to the SEC Y'all" to "I still hate Kansas!" The amount of students present, the band and the overall spirit reminded me how exciting it is to be a Mizzou student and glad to take part in this change.

I'm excited to join the SEC not only because it's the south and people think we'll dress up more for football games (ha), but because of its overall reputation. The SEC holds itself to a higher standard than the Big 12 and Mizzou's academics are stunning compared to other SEC schools. We will be in the Eastern range of the conference--playing Florida, University of Georgia, University of South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. And if Eleni goes there, our schools could play each other next year!

Although Mizzou might not win as many football games as we'd hope to next year, it's a change toward better. Our team will strive to beat the reputable SEC teams, they will strive to reach our caliber academically and University of Missouri's reputation will ultimately grow. 

The new SEC logo with all 12 schools

Officials at the end

M-I-Z....S-E-C!!

Polychronicity Research

In my management course, we learned and took a quiz on polychronicity research. The term polychronic is a word for multi-taskers and people that try doing many things at the same time. The questionnaire has you rank between 1 and 7 to your agreement with various phrases, and add up the scores to see if you are monochronic or polychronic.

Naturally, I am polychronic. I'm constantly checking my email while in meetings or classes, texting one person when I'm with someone else or doing work for one activity while working on another. Polychronic people live life continuously, in a cyclical repeating loop, just trying to get things done. But what wasn't determined was whether this was a good or bad thing.

I was pretty flattered while reading the traits summary of polychronic people. Some included:

• Consider time commitments an objective to be achieved
• project-driven
• loyal to customers and coworkers
• high-context and already have information
• are more concerned with those who are family, friends, close business associates than privacy
• borrow and lend things often and easily
• strong tendency to build lifetime relationships 
• friend for life

But on the other hand, I was legitimately upset when I read these traits:

• distractible and subject to interruptions
• change plans often and easily
• negatively correlated with puncutality: the more polychronic you are, the less likely you are to e on time or on schedule.

I immediately tried rationalizing with these to prove them not true. I stay true to my plans! Always try being on time and live under the philosophy that early is on time and on time is late! I live on a schedule and overprogram just about every little thing in! I have some sort of focus...right? 

But no. The test is 100 percent accurate. The research is...RIGHT. You can't do it all, perfection is not an option. You can strive for it as much as you want to but as much as I hate to say it, your best will never be perfect. Not everyone even has the same definition of phrases like "perfect" and "your best." 

I let my friends distract me from my projects so I can remain social. I've had to reschedule meeting up with lunch for a friend for two weeks now because our schedules collide, so we still haven't seen each other. I have become averse to my alarm clock (yes, all eight alarms, and yes, I have tried changing the settings and putting it across the room) and am sleeping through meetings and plans left and right. 

It's not okay. But it's what a polychronic person does. You have to accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and this test taught me that I can't just rationalize with these truths just to make myself happy, but rather, try and fix them. And I can begin to accept that my project-driven, information-needy and lifelong friend personality is okay with being late once in awhile. 

Flashbacks

A year ago today, my family and friends were celebrating Sts. Peter & Paul's 50th Anniversary. This was probably the biggest event I'll go to until my wedding and will be forever remembered. That being said, Happy 51st Anniversary to Sts. Peter & Paul, the parish where I grew up!

The Artemas family dancing together :)

Some of our youth group friends hanging out

Another reminiscent update: Mark Twain, the residence hall where I lived freshman year will be renovated! This was decided about two years ago this month! 

And I look forward to the many things this Homecoming Centennial week will bring and there will be even more flashbacks next year!