One down, three more to go!

Guys, can you believe we just finished one quarter of the program? It feels amazing to look back at how much work we've all just done. It's also a bit embarrassing to look at an early assignment compared to ones we can pull off now.

Here's an inspiring thought for all of us, it's only going to get more crazy! And the busier we get, the more stressed we'll get, but also, the more fun we'll have.

So let's all take a few weeks to re-group, rest, and give our creativity time to refill. Here's to a great term, and another one to come, Cheers!!!

The Barber of Seville Review

Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is an opera that is set in Seville during the 17th century. It is sung in Italian with English translations that appear above the stage on an electrical banner. The story is about Count Almaviva falling in love with the beautiful Rosina. She is under the care of her aging guardian, Dr. Bartolo, who keeps her locked away. Almaviva enlists the help of the town barber, Figaro, to sneak into the house where Rosina lives in order to win her heart. Dr. Bartolo discovers their love and threatens to keep them apart forever because he plans on marrying her himself.

If you think that sounds like the serious, tragic and dramatic stereotypical opera, you are wrong. This opera is damn hilarious.

We are first introduced to Figaro, played by James Westman, when he is not a part of the scene at all. While Almaviva serenades Rosina from the town square, just below her bared balcony, Figaro sporadically appears in openings within the huge, three sided revolving set that is rich in colour and detail. Figaro must be in the limelight at all times.

When Figaro finally has the stage to himself, which appears to be the way he likes it as he frolics from one end to the other, he sings a familiar melody about how if he didn’t exist, half the women in the town wouldn’t be able to get husbands, or so he believes. Westman sings beautifully while making fun of his own song. He makes an exasperated expression while bobbing his head from side to side during one of the many long, multi-note runs, which are typical in opera.

At the end of the first act, after Figaro had snuck Almaviva into Dr. Bartolo’s house, a perfectly choreographed and hilarious slow-motion fight scene broke out. At one end of the stage, Rosina, played by Nikki Einfeld, is fighting off two soldiers by elbowing them in the gut as they fly backward from the force. In the middle, Figaro is flamboyantly dodging swards, fists, and guns.

Another stand-out hilarious scene was after Figaro snuck Almaviva, played by Victor Ryan
Robertson, into the house for a second time disguised as a priest. Somehow, a ridiculous sequence of events starting with Rosina singing beautifully to Dr. Bartolo, played by Peter Strummer, ends with Figaro and Dr. Bartolo kissing. The audience, myself included, erupted with laughter.

The hilarity continued when Almaviva and Rosina finally confessed their love to each other. They sang a beautiful duet with powerful musical phrases, and amazing high notes. I was taken aback as I heard them sing together. However, during this time they were trying to escape, along with Figaro, from Dr. Bartolo. They kept getting lost in each other’s eyes, frozen in love’s spell. Figaro tried his hardest to speed them up, at which point we saw their escape route taken away in the background. The lovebirds didn’t notice. The audience, again, howled with laughter.

The Barber of Seville is an opera that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It will leave you satisfied by both the comedy as well as the caliber of performance. If you ever have the chance to see this hilarious opera, do it!

On Twitter

As of today, I am on Twitter. I just had a crash course on how to use it. The most important thing I've noticed so far is that if you want to know what people are talking about, just go to Twitter and look at the most talked about topics. It's actually quite amazing, Twitter has accomplished making a list of the top ten topics that the public is most interested in at any particular moment. This list in continually updated, so you can literally watch as the top topics change, and gain or lose popularity.

I can't believe I'm only just now being exposed to this! My twitter account is @ErikaAndersen5

Who wants to teach me how to socialize?

Ok, so I know how to socialize. But when I'm put into a room full of people I don't know, I tend to get a little nervous. What makes this even more difficult is when you walk into that room and people have already formed conversation circles; how do you break into those?

I wonder if the talent of "working a room" is natural or learned.

The people who are talented in this area, seem to do it naturally. They appear to be in their element as they pass from conversation circle to conversation circle, joining each with ease.

Sometimes though, I think that watching someone work the room, is like watching someone act. They play a character, adjusting their mannerisms and speaking style as they go along. Does that mean they are less than genuine? Or do they just bring out different aspects of themselves depending on their audience?

Personally, I'm hoping that you can learn this talent. Maybe, just like so many other things in life, it just takes practice.

Student Types Essay

As I watched students arrive at school to hand in a Journalism assignment, I noticed that many of us prepare for assignments in a different way. We hand in our papers in on time; however, our preparedness varies greatly. Some arrive with a frantic expression on their face, hair twisting in every direction after being up all night, and asking around for a stapler in a high-pitched voice. I will name this group of students Team Procrastinators. There are those who arrive in a state of complete calm; makeup and hair done perfectly, no bags under their eyes, and they walk up to the office to hand in their assignment with complete confidence. This group is appropriately named Team Time Management. The third group of students, named Team Slackers, is comprised of the select few in the Creative Communications program that finish their papers in under an hour, fail to edit, and think that their writing is much better after a few beers.

I believe the majority of students fall into the Team Procrastinators category. Some cases of procrastination, however, are much more severe than others. First, we have the students who are organized and care about their work, they simply put it off until they feel the welcome pang of adrenalin that accompanies the pressure and stress associated with the upcoming deadline. Second, there are the ones who are not organized at all; they do still care about their work but often find themselves watching TV. These students waste a lot of their time just organizing their binders in order to find the assignment sheet, and wait until the last minute to get their final quotes from sources. The final group of procrastinators, who suffer the most from this condition, are the students who cannot bring themselves to begin working on an assignment until that pang of adrenalin becomes a stab in their stomach because it is now midnight, and their assignment is due in eight hours.

The second largest group of students falls into the Team Time Management category. Past school and life experiences have taught this group to organize and schedule their time in order to get all that is required done within the appropriate amount of time. The degree of time management differs within this section. For example, some are so organized and scheduled that people accuse them of having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, while others manage themselves well without stressing out over every little thing. The OCD bunch are the ones who on their way up to hand in their assignment are still looking to find an error even though they wouldn’t be able to fix it anyway, while the less stressed group know to not even venture a final glance to avoid the feeling of stress. That is the main difference between the two sides of Team Time Management: one side has learned how to avoid stressing out.

Team Slackers make up the last category of students. These students do the work, but there is no effort or drive behind it. However in my opinion, there are two different types of slackers: the casual and the eternal. The casual slackers, which I admit to being on the rare occasion, are students who mostly have good time management skills, and really care about their work, but every once in a while need a break from school. And because you cannot simply go to the program coordinator to book a vacation, they slack off for a week or two. These people will almost always bounce back from their zombie-like state and work a bit harder than usual for the next while to prove they belong in Team Time Management. But the eternal slackers may be above all help. They grew up with the habit of slacking becoming more prominent as they aged. They learned how to slide by in high school and unfortunately never snapped out of the behavior.

These classifications of students are of vital importance to college-goers today. If you can recognize what type of student you are, you are more likely to tweak your performance for the better. If you are in the OCD bunch of Team Time Management, you may be able to learn how to not get stressed out. If you are a procrastinator, you can learn the errors of your ways and work on your time management skills. And finally, if you are a slacker, you must either snap out of it quickly to give yourself a chance to succeed, or continue to roll the dice on your future.

Parking Tickets

So do these people hide in the bushes, wait for you to park the smallest amount outside of the parking zone, wait for you to get out of your car (even if only for two minutes), then jump out and slam a ticket on your windshield?

I mean, I understand if your parking is actually horrible and blatantly out of a stall, but I was half in the zone, and half out! And by the way, this happened on a side street where there is parking except for 10 meters from intersecting roads. I was only 2 feet into this restricted area!

Oh, and to make matters more ridiculous, I was inside buying a parking pass!

I would like to meet the person who originally decided to charge for parking, and also the one who decided to employ people to walk around side streets to seek out people in violation of parking zones by 2 feet and give them expensive tickets.

I'm pretty sure people like to give us tickets because they find it amusing to watch our faces when we return to our cars only to be met with a glowing, evil, yellow piece of paper.

The Relevance of Blogging

Before I started the Creative Communications program, I had never read a blog in my life. I thought a blog was really just another word for online journal. But now that I’ve had a few months of writing and reading them, I’ve changed my view on what they are and what they can accomplish. Here are just a few of the examples I believe show the relevance of blogging.

First, when you write your ideas and post them for everyone else to read, you’re exposing not only those ideas but also your writing to comments from others. This really helps you evaluate your thinking and writing processes. It helps you to see your views more thoroughly by examining the issue from different angles. Also, you can watch as your style of writing evolves, and which style works best to communicate with the public.

Second, you can really get to know people by their posts. By reading my classmates’ blogs, I’ve been able to see a lot more of who they are. How other people think is an amazing thing and you can see the thinking processes of other people in your class, which is not only enlightening, but also helps you to adapt new ways of thinking for yourself. The diverse writing styles also help to increase your own writing skill set.

Third, if you want to know what issues are important to others, just read their blogs. I think this is very important for anyone in the communications field. We need to keep up to date with how people are getting their information, and what issues they want to find their information on. Blogs are a great way to see trends in how this is changing.

Fourth, blogs can get things done. Just think of the Progressive Winnipeg blog; he writes about issues around Winnipeg that get him and the public angry. His writing and how he relates the issues to the public have even gotten the city to change some things in order to make conditions better for us. Personally, I never thought a blog could have this much power, but as you can see, it can.

I am still quite new to the world of blogging. I don’t have a specific focus yet, or see how my blog relates to other people. But I can say that it is developing into something that will. My biggest take-away from blogging thus far is how to communicate with others online. Not only can you use facebook, and various other social sites, to network with people you meet, but you can also use a venue like blogging to communicate to the world at large. To know that so many people have access to your ideas and writing is a scary, but powerful thing.

Whether you want to improve your writing, learn to see issues through more angles, keep up with changing communication trends, or actually right the wrongs you see around you, blogging can help achieve it. The difficult thing is spending the time required on learning how to do it effectively.

Time Management

So not too long ago, I was sitting at home, stressing about how much homework I had to do. I think it took me a good hour to finish worrying about how I was going to get it all done before I actually started my work. And then, time started disappearing until I had to go to work. At which point, I started to stress again. That was probably two hours that day wasted; I could have gotten a lot done.

Why do we procrastinate so much? Personally, I think I have it down to a science. I've found that cleaning my apartment is an especially prominent procrastination technique. But, I do have many others, for example TV, I don't even watch this show, and I don't care about the content at all, but here I am mesmerized by the moving pictures. Then at the end of the night I wonder where all my time went.

I was inspired the other day to take a good hard look at my time management skills. I was at the University of Manitoba, interviewing Steve Kirby, the Director of Jazz studies when I realized there are a lot of people with more to do than me. He runs the Jazz program, is the editor of a magazine, runs extracurricular music activities, and has two children at home.

But when I asked him if he would have it any other way, he said "if you want something done, ask a busy man."

After thinking about this for a while, I realized It's very true. The busier you are, the more you get accomplished. If Steve Kirby can juggle all that is on his plate, I can examine my own life to find more time.

So I found, even with working 30 hours a week, going to school full time, cleaning, and visiting family and friends, I could still find a lot of time to get the homework done. You just have to do. Sit down at your computer, turn off the TV, turn off your phone, and "Just do it!"

Buyer Beware

How many paper cups do you use every day? According to Reuters' website, "about 28 billion cups end up in U.S. landfills every year." Can you imagine the number if you combined all the landfills in the entire continent of North America?

We are becoming more environmentally conscious every year, but we are also economically conscious. So how do we solve the environmental issues that come with drinking our cup of coffee every day while being cost effective?

A group of us set out to find the answer. Keeping the life of a student in mind, we went out and purchased five coffee tumblers from different providers: Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Superstore, Sears, and Dollarama. We subjected each to a variety of different tests to test leakage, temperature retention, and durability.

So, you're on your way to school, jumping onto the bus, riding your bike, or just dodging traffic while you cross the street, when you finally get to other side and your coffee has spilled all over you brand new scarf. I don't know about you but I'm pretty darn angry. We simulated these situations by shaking the heck out each tumbler. Dollarama - there wasn't even any liquid left, Tim Hortons and Sears - a lot of spillage, Starbucks - two or three drops, and Superstore - earned the perfect store.

When we did the temperature retention tests, we took readings at 15 minute intervals, first sitting at room temperature, then at freezing. The only two mugs that were still piping hot, after an hour sitting at room temperature, were Starbucks and Superstore.

And then we dropped all the tumblers down concrete steps, and again the only two that survived were Starbucks and Superstore, do you notice a trend here?

The thing is, if you have the money to buy the Starbucks tumbler, do it. The stainless steel ones cost about $20 - $22 dollars. It will keep your coffee hot, keep your scarf clean, and survive if you happen to drop it a few times. However, you can buy the Superstore tumbler for about $15 dollars and be just as happy.

It's totally up to you. Personally, I'm gonna stick to the Starbucks label simply because I love them. I've worked there for more than 3 years, 1 of which was spent as an Assistant Manager, so I guess I am a bit biased. But the point is, I was very impressed with the little tumbler that could. Almost enough to buy that one instead.

Disconnecting Yourself

What is it that gives some people the ability to separate themselves from their fear? What gives a person the balls to place themselves in the middle of a war-zone to report on a story? How do you take a leap of faith, perhaps, that you'll survive driving down a road that may be littered with landmines to get a story?

I've always wondered if I would have what it takes to put myself in that position. Maybe it's a bit like when you're in a car accident. A few years ago I was driving to my house in St. Andrews through a snow storm, and my car hit a patch of ice and I began swerving. There were other cars on the road near me, and my first thought was "I'm going to hit these people!"

But a weird thing happened, a shot of adrenaline surged through my veins. I was scared, but somehow that rush helped me focus. I was able to forget about my fear of getting into an accident enough to steer myself into the ditch rather then another car. After it was over, and I was nicely resting in the ditch, fear of what could have happened rushed back.

Is this what might happen when there is gun fire over your head? Does an adrenaline rush take over and you can more easily focus on the task at hand? Do you think that state can last for months at a time, so you don't even realize the danger until you're out of it?

And if this is possible, what kind of effects does this prolonged state cause to you physically as well as mentally? The mind is an amazing thing, and it's ability to compartmentalize your experiences astounds me.

Technology Addiction

Until very recently, I thought I was a person who could survive without technology. Well, let me tell you, that is apparently not the case.

It was a beautiful day at the end of August. I was intently applying makeup, getting ready for a night out. I was preoccupied with what I was going to be doing that night. It was a girls night out, and I was so excited. For many of my friends, prying them away from their boyfriends is tough. So this was a rare occurrence.

I'd just finished my makeup, which I'm ashamed to say took 45 mins, so it was time to start on the hair. As I turned to plug in my hair straightener, my lovely blackberry slipped off my makeup case, and fell directly into the toilet.

I was then faced with a very difficult decision, do i reach into the toilet to save my phone or do i save my dignity?

Well, of course the phone won. (Don't worry, I have since cleaned and sanitized it!)

Did you know, that if you get your phone wet, the ENTIRE warranty is void? Well I do now, so I was gonna have to come up with upwards of $700 to replace it, yikes!! But my dad with his advanced technological abilities took my phone apart, and dried it out with a hair dryer. Its now going strong.

But I was without my phone for an entire weekend. Is it even possible to exist today without your phone? How do you live without it, I certainly can't!

Anorexia Websites

Did you know there are websites people who have anorexia or bulimia can go to for tips?? And not tips on getting through their disease, but tips on how to be better at it!?

On these websites, there are tips on how to hide your condition. Ways in which you can fool your parents into not having a clue as to your state. Just so you can carry on killing yourself slowly.

Also, you can find ways to be a more effective bulimic. For example how to better make yourself through up. Or ways to not eat even more.

Anyone else find this preposterous? These sites should be shut down. I can't believe they've been around for as long as they have been!

You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover!

I grew up in St. Andrews, MB. Living there, you might know one or two of your neighbours, but that's it. My property was huge, almost 17 acres of land. If you don't know how much space that is, trust me its a lot. You might think that much space would be liberating, but I found it limiting.

As a kid, I was surrounded by well-established families. People were well dressed, and drove new cars. Whenever I would drive with my family to Winnipeg, I'd see a person that didn't belong to the particular class I was accustomed to, and I was scared. I couldn't relate to them.

I was sheltered. In my mind, different equalled stay-away-from. My perspective has gradually been changing over the past few years. My recent move to the Ozborne area has provided a great platform to begin the process of re-assessing my judgements.

This past weekend, I went to the Sherbrook Street Festival. There I was amongst a crowd of very different people. Some of which were very similar to the people I saw when I was little, and there I was, mingling. And not only that, I felt comfortable, in my element even.

One of the guys I met at the festival could have been described as a "punk", had I met him a long time ago. But all I think now is that he was an interesting, fun individual with a lot to say. He turned out to be a likable, charismatic young guy with an interesting perspective on life.

I now run into these situations on a daily basis. Yesterday I walked into my Osborne Starbucks and met another great person in line. The thing is, we could all use a dose of open-mindedness. It's amazing what you see and who you can meet if you simply open your eyes.

New to the Area

I have recently moved to the Osborne area in Winnipeg. Living there is a completely new experience for me. During a 5 minute walk, I'll come across the biggest variety of people I've ever seen over such a short time. Right now life is new, exciting, and challenging. I look forward to writing about how my views on the world will change, how they will stay the same, and also what new views will arise.