Where's the music scene?

It's official. No good bands come to Purdue. Okay so I don't know about the past years but Purdue really sucks at getting any sort of mainstream bands to come here. We had the chance to book some big band for homecoming weekend but did we?! Of course not. The people on the committee who books concerts needs to get it straight in their heads that not many people who attend this university hail from Lafayette. I am fortunate to know that thankfully someone booked two Chicago bands to play in Lafayette in November which I am going to but besides that, I feel like everyone seems just as puzzled as I am as to why no one gets their butt over here! There's no reason students should have to drive to Indianapolis or Chicago to see a good show. What CAN be done is to have everyone go online and vote for Dave to come here! The show would be free which is pretty much amazing. I heard there was a problem that tickets at Elliott would be really expensive, but clearly we have sufficient space to have them outside. Spring would be a good time to have a big name here because everyone is pumped for the warm weather and for school to be over soon. I say everyone should non-stop email their favorite bands to get them to play for us boilermakers.

GO HERSEY!

I wish I could be back in high school right now playing sports. Of course, I don't miss the three hour practices but I miss playing the sport, having fun and being with my team. I played tennis, basketball and softball freshman year but dropped basketball from sophomore year on because I couldn't stand the coaches. Softball was my favorite sport because I was the closest with the girls on that team. I had the better tennis coach (and record) than I did in softball, but the memories and friendships I made on the field were deep. My junior year was the first year I was on varsity and I played second base. I liked the infield because I got a lot of action and was always ready to dive in the dirt. Junior year was my favorite because our team got along really well, we had a ton of pasta parties and we all even hung out sometimes on the weekends and went to the older girl's graduation parties over the summer. Senior year was really chill, as I played second base and short stop. It was nice to be the oldest (and the shortest) on the team and make the younger girls carry your equipment. We lost our first game in the playoffs and it was a real heart breaker. First of all, we beat that team twice in the regular season. Secondly, I went to middle school with a lot of the girls on the other team and wanted to beat them because there was a sense of rivalry between us. Finally, us seniors knew it was really over. I had been playing ball since I was in kindergarten and I could not believe that I just had my last at bat, hit and play that I would ever have while playing the sport. Looking back, I really miss my softball family and always having my girls there to talk to when I was having a bad day. I know I can join a softball club here at Purdue but it would be with a bunch of random girls and it wouldn't be the same as it was back home. I brought my glove and a ball here to school but it has yet to be touched or moved out of my closet.

That's my softball team from last season!

The Fog of War

Lesson #5-Proportionality should be a guideline in war.



This lesson really stuck out to me mostly through the images and percentages which darted in and out during the scene. Many cities were bombed before the nuclear war and the amount of people killed within such little time is insanity. McNamara says that 100,000 people were killed in one night, which is why proportionality should be a guideline in war. It's not right or "good" to kill 67% of the Japanese and then bomb them. Yes, we know that war involves killing but you have to draw a line somewhere that prevents wiping out a population, including innocent civilians. This argument is very persuasive to me. I don't think anyone would say that it is moral to have such a high ratio of people killed compared to the short amount of time they were killed in. If you needed anymore evidence to agree with this lesson, you could talk about the effects of the war veterans that are alive today and how messed up physically and emotionally they are; for example, look how many people were brutally wounded from the war. I think in some ways this lesson contradicts lesson #4-"Maximize Efficiency," for obvious reasons. One last thing, McNamara brings up a good question, "If we lost the war would we be war criminals?"



http://members.aol.com/tjdewey/
Vietnam Vet

Study With No Buddy

Studying is quite possibly the worst thing ever. I have a psychology test tomorrow morning which I have put off studying for for the past week. This being only my second test in college, I really have no idea how to study. In high school, we always got study guides and basically knew exactly what would be on our tests. Now, all I have is a book and a few notes from a PowerPoint that my teacher went through way too fast. Cramming is something no one should ever do. I've learned from experience (over and over again) that you simply can't study for a test, at least I can't, the night before and get a good grade on it. It's impossible and memorizing is not my kind of thing to do last minute. When it comes to nights before tests, I'm the biggest procrastinator ever. I seriously could not sit and stare at my book any longer so I'm writing this blog to take my mind off things. I've also watched The Hills and Life of Ryan, yes, exciting shows, to take a break from reading my book. I wish the stuff I'm learning was half as interesting at the life of Ishmael Beah. Give me a few more minutes and I'm about to fall asleep at my desk. Ugh, time to get back to memorizing the parts of the brain! Later

-Britt

Computer Crack

How many hours of sitting on the computer is too many hours? I thought three hours for me was a lot, but I guess not. A man in China recently died after gaming on the internet for three days straight. Are you nuts?! He fainted and the paramedics came to the internet cafe he was at and found him dead at the scene. I'm surprised I haven't heard of this happening before today. People need to get a life. Yeah, I had friends who would sit on the internet and play their stupid video games or whatever for the whole day, but this case is a little extreme. Speaking of these weirdo people, there's a lot of creeps on Myspace. For instance, a 37 year old bald headed bearded man who likes "having a good time" tries to friend me on Myspace. Do you really think I would want to be friends with you or sit and chat with you on AIM?! Things like this make me want to delete my account. I mean, Myspace was so two years ago (haha). I bet whoever I end up interviewing for my next paper is totally going to think I'm a weirdo because I admire them and they barely know me. Also, I need to meet someone to interview!

That picture is what happens to you after playing Warcraft and DOTA all day.

-Britt

Is that Ishmael?!

Right when the man introduced Ishmael Beah to the audience on Wednesday night, I didn't know how to react to seeing him. After inspecting him and such, I came to the conclusion that Ishmael looks pretty normal. I imagined him being some really tall, skinny guy with short hair. To my disbelief, he was on the shorter side, with a muscular build ( I think ), and had bigger hair! Anyway, he said a lot of powerful things and one one of them really caught my attention. Ishmael talked about how resources at school were very scarce. There would usually only be one copy of a textbook, which the teacher would have, they would share pen ink, and write extremely small and in the margins of their paper. When I heard this, it made me feel bad for always wasting paper, throwing away pens that don't work and wanting to burn my history book. Through his book and speech, Beah has influenced me to not judge people so quickly and cherish everything because you never know when it will be gone; a long way gone. I would like to somehow raise money for education supplies for the children at schools in Sierra Leone. Everyone deserves the chance to learn.

Here's a good quote I found...“I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.”-Ishmael Beah

I found that quote at A Long Way Gone's website...http://www.alongwaygone.com/reviews.html



-Britt

Fall 07-Fall 08

Sitting here sweating in my 90 degree room and studying for my math test tomorrow, I asked my roommate, "Nikki, I have a blog due in an hour, what should I write about?" She proceeded to tell me how I should write about how attractive it is to guys when girls sweat, how funny it is to see someone pop out of a port-o-potty and how angry it makes us when girls on our floor walk around with just their sports bras on. In response, I laughed and said I simply couldn't write about those topics, so she suggested I write about my goals! So here we go. Here are some goals, stupid and not-so-stupid, that I hope to achieve from now until the first day of my sophomore year here at Purdue.
-get an A in Bio 110
-fix my digital camera
-buy a bottle of Arizona Tea that will fit in my fridge
-find a man
-tell my RA that her makeup looks terrible
-go out a few times on Thursday nights
-join some clubs
-go to Indianapolis for the Purdue IU game
-don't gain the freshman 15
-stop eating fried rice (which I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
-stay in contact with my best friends from home
-refrain from dropping my tray in the dining hall
-go to a BEARS GAME
-get a job over the summer
-steal a sweet tshirt from a new friend
-go to class as often as possible
-find an apartment for next year
-GET AN A IN ENG 108



http://www.zaldiva.com/store/product3097.html
I thought this picture was precious

Boiler Blackout

Heres a picture I took at the game. Look at all that black. Boil up!

On Saturday, I went to my first Purdue football game! What an experience it was. I was pumped for the game not only because we played a team from the state I'm from, but also because I know how bad Eastern is at football. Waking up about 4 hours after going to sleep, I threw on a black Purdue football shirt and made my way to meet up with some friends. After getting bored of seeing intoxicated underage college kids fighting to get as much beer from the keg as they could, me and my friends walked to the stadium. (I freaking love how everyone dresses up for Breakfast Club) Sweating profusely after the 843758947 mile hike up the hill to Gate E, we were finally there! The cheerleaders, band, and everyone had so much energy for the game. I searched the field for my friend who's a cheerleader but had no luck in finding her little 95lb body! We were doing pretty amazing when all of a sudden, that black cloud came over us and it starting pouring rain. My phone, camera and gum all got soaked, including myself, but it was awesome to watch the game while getting drenched. We left at halftime and went to Ford to eat. I grabbed some hot chocolate since it was freezing in the dining hall and conversed with everyone about how much fun I had even though the game got delayed and we left. Purdue ended up winning (by a lot) and thanks to the win, I got 35% some Purdue gear at the University Bookstore today, which is pretty rad. Although my parents are going to be here next weekend for family day or something, I'm still super excited for the football game. There is one down side to football this weekend; Da Bears lost to the Chargers yesterday. Oh well, it was the first game!
-Britt

Diamonds

I had almost never heard of conflict diamonds before seeing Blood Diamond. I feel bad that I had no idea of what was going on in Africa or the lives, as well as arms that were being lost to the mining of diamonds. When I was younger, diamonds mesmerized me. My grandma and mother always had them and I couldn't wait to get my own diamond engagement ring. The first time I realized how important they are to people was about seven years ago when I was in Florida on a family vacation. Me and my mother were sitting on the beach when she went to adjust her chair. Then pop, her great grandmothers diamond, which was passed down to her, popped out of the pieces of metal clasping it in, and flew into the sand. Upon searching for it in the sand for two days straight and filing a police report on a missing diamond, we gave up hope on ever finding it. Since then, I'm more informed on how special and important diamonds really are to people. Like every girl, I can't wait until a special someone pops the question and places a diamond ring on my finger. I'm not the type of person who likes flashy jewelry and such, but it's still nice to have something like that to cherish forever. Then again, after being informed on conflict diamonds, I definitely want to know if what's on my finger, ears or even nose cost a little boy or girl an appendage. I couldn't live knowing I own something that caused so much conflict. I know now that 99% of diamonds on the shelves are conflict free so I'm confident that by the time I get married, this number will just to 100. Blood Diamond and Kanye's song effectively stated this very important issue. Counter-storytelling is very effective because it shows that someone cares about an issue and they are fighting back to say what they believe in. Someone as good looking as Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond does a good job pulling in the young women audience to watch this movie.




brysonburke.com/mining_angola.html

"I could have sworn I just went to bed"

So here I am. It's late and I just recently got back to my dorm from spending the weekend at home in Chicago. Not only have I lost an hour, due to the stupid time change right before arriving in West Lafayette, but I am also going to lose a lot of sleep tonight. Why must college start classes at 7:30am?! I know schools who start at 9am, which is pretty late but come on, at least 8am would be a little easier to wake up for in the morning. I go to a Big Ten school which means I'm going to watch football games. I love my Monday night football and how am I suppose to wake up at the crack of dawn when I just watched a football game until late the previous night? Over and over studies show that students perform substantially better in school even when they get that extra hour of sleep at night. You would think responsible adults would get up early to get to their jobs on time but I'm awake a good hour before my mom is even up for work. I am not at all motivated to solve my polynomial at the crack of dawn when there's dew in the grass, I can't keep my eyes open and people walk into my classroom with slippers on. Speaking of, I'm going to sleep. I slept for over 35 hours this weekend. Yes. See you all nice and late on Wednesday!

University of.....undecided

Hello fellow Purdue students. I'm writing this because I need to vent about being really frustrated right now. Rewind one week ago. My mom calls me and tells me that my sister is considering leaving her school. She goes to the University of Miami in Florida and I THOUGHT she loved it there. She's a senior now, but every fall that she was there she said she didn't like it and wanted to come home for unknown reasons. My parents basically made her stick it out and Sabrina (my sister), seemed to be alright and was fine at school. So on the phone with my mother, she is in tears and I'm totally oblivious to what's going. I call up my sister to see what the problem was and eventually, the big argument about why she wants to leave such a great school. My mom and dad did all they could to keep her there but I guess she just wasn't happy and wasn't going to stay any longer. I'm frustrated because that was her dream school and I was so happy for her when I found out she was going there. I feel bad that she was unhappy all these years and never spoke out about her concerns earlier. This past Friday she packed up and drove home. When I got home on Friday, I was happy to see her but sad to see my whole family almost turn against her since she left her school. Also, I bought a plane ticket a month ago to go visit her over our fall break and now that has all gone to hell. Her major is nursing and as of now, she'll take a few classes at the community college by my house this semester and plans to transfer to UIC or somewhere else near Chicago in the spring. I now don't exactly know why I'm frustrated with this whole situation. I just hope and pray that I like Purdue and never want to transfer out. Sorry for being so depressing...

-Britt

(we all have major) PROBLEMS

1.civil war
2.child soldiers
3.inhumane treatment
4.rape
5.illegal exportation of diamonds
6.oil supporting the war
7.AIDS epidemic
8.weapon control
9.hunger
10.families torn apart
11.torture
12.refugee crisis
13.poor economy
14.poverty
15.drugs
16.poor democracy
17.media not covering the real story
18.post war mindset
19.schooling
20.transportation

It was nearly impossible to rate these problems in the "correct" order but i did my best to narrow down the important ones.

I definitely think we can solve the AIDS problem in Africa. I'm not saying we can eliminate AIDS totally or end it by next year but together everyone can slowly help lessen the numbers greatly of people infected. The easiest way to make a difference is to educate people about whats going on. The government or organizations need to hand out flyers, videos, or anything for people to read so they are more informed about how not to spread AIDS, how to protect yourself and why it's transmitted so frequently in their continent. In addition to informing people about AIDS, first they need to know if they have it. There aren't enough clinics or places to have people tested for HIV. Clearly, all this money people donate to foundations and such can go to supplying Africa with more doctors, clinics and medicines. Speaking of medicine, many HIV drugs are being recalled lately. How come HIV drugs never get recalled in the United States? They should have the same drugs as us for treating HIV. Generic versions of these miracle drugs can be made in mass quantities for people. Basically, if people are more aware of what's going on, they will have more knowledge on how to stop the spreading of this deadly killer. The infected need to not be so hush hush on the facts of life. These possible solutions are obvious, but no one seems to care that 24 million people in Africa are living with HIV.

-Britt