I'm so adjective, I verb nouns

Ira Glass - the ultimate cartoon character

Oftentimes when I go to a big concert or show, I fantasize about meeting whomever I’m going to see in some random turn of events. I dreamt that I would bump into the guys from Justice while sneaking away to have a cigarette in the alley or that I would inexplicably barge my way into Kathy Griffin’s dressing room while looking for the bathroom. All impossible situations, but a girl can dream.

Well, one of my dreams actually came true.

A few months ago I luckily snagged a few tickets to the live show of “This American Life” at the Chicago Theatre on April 19. A few friends and I met up outside the theater and were a bit perplexed at the lack of a crowd waiting to get in at 6 p.m., when the doors opened. We decided to go ahead and mosey on in to sit down and avoid the crowd that would inevitably show up later. So after marveling at the lobby of the Chicago Theatre (gorgeous, eh?) we went up the first flight of stairs.

Then we turned the corner, and BAM. There was Ira Glass.

I’m a pretty mellow kid in most situations, but when it comes to celebrities or public figures, I immediately turn into a fumbling, drooling fangirl. My body literally stopped working, and I turned and said “THAT’S IRA GLASS!” Looking back, I realize I must have been obnoxiously loud. Whoops.

He posseses somewhat of a Gumby presence—that of a cartoon character. The glasses, the suit, the hair. It begs for a bubble to hover over his head everywhere he goes.

He was talking with a very small group of people, mingling, mostly. We just kept saying “What do we do? What do we do?” before we marched up to him…and waited. Everyone kept barging in and interrupting his conversations with others, so we waited patiently. When he started to inch away from us, we panicked a bit. Finally, and luckily for us, Thomas poked him and introduced himself. We told him we were journalism students at Columbia and that we had studied his work dilligently, to which he found it really hard to believe that there was a class at Columbia based on “TAL” (which there is). Then he showed us his script and his notes for the show and said he was getting really worried about his cues and the music. It was the perfect Ira Glass moment.

I haven’t met many celebrities, but every time that I have, they are never as I had hoped or thought they would be. So this is a first. Ira Glass seems to be everything you think he is, and it’s probably a good thing.

Dear Tumblr,

I am absolutely effing determined to return to you some day. But for right now, you’re on the back burner. Sorry, but the WordPress portfolio site is ugly and severely neglected, as well. And that one could get me jobs. (Keyword being “could.”)

Sorry Tumblr, but you just can’t compete right now. I WILL have a job when I graduate, and then we’ll be together again.

All my love/Hugs & Kisses/Kitties & Puppies/Toodles,

Jess

Post-semester thoughts

I’ve always hated the fall semester. It’s usually never about the classes I’m taking, just the lack of motivation I always have throughout and the ridiculous time we go without a break.

Then the semester ends, and I get all sappy and sentimental. Though this semester was pretty much hell with the amount of work I had to do, it was definitely one of the best I’ve ever had. Every class I took was absolutely worth all of the headaches and sleepless nights.

So…reflection time!

Feature Writing
Agh. I felt so conflicted about this class all semester. I usually dreaded going, as I knew our class was going to be yelled at for the first half-hour or so. Oh, and our teacher constantly singled me out to bring up my weekly column in the paper or point out an idea I had that he apparently liked. I don’t take compliments well, and I hate being that brat in class who the teacher favors. I was never happy with the work I turned in, as I knew I could do better if I just had more time to work on my pieces for this class. It unfortunately was the class that I gave less priority to (there’s always one, right?), and although our teacher was often a grumpy old dude, he’s seriously one of the best journalists out there. So glad I got to meet him and learn from him…when he wasn’t yelling at us or saying incredibly rude comments to someone in front of the entire class.

Radio Narrative
Wow. What a seriously awesome class. I had an unbelievably difficult time making it to class on time at 9am, but when I did, it was just such a chill, laid-back, fun class. It was all about collaboration, discussion, and growth. We got to listen to great radio narratives all day, talk about nothing, talk about everything, and I truly believe my journalistic writing has improved from writing these extremely personal narratives. Oh, and Dave Berner is just a really cool bald guy.

Education, Culture, and Society
Oh, Louis :) Louis Silverstein is definitely an acquired taste. He’s a legend at Columbia (he was dean of the college in the late 60s) and definitely a quirky old dude. He’s so full of knowledge and has many stories and opinions to share. I took his Peace Studies class last spring and wasn’t quite sure I liked him. He can sometimes seem standoffish, but I really learned so much in this class. When he wasn’t telling stories about his sexual trysts with his wife on top of a volcano in Hawaii (complete with a thick Brooklyn accent), he was going off on tirades about the government and the education system. I took everything he said with a grain of salt, but it was really nice to get a different perspective on all of this. I love Louis.

Human Sexuality Seminar
Eep. I walked into the first day of class late (thanks, 624 Mich elevators) and interrupted my classmates reading notecards with questions about cuninlingis. I was all red-faced from running up 13 flights of stairs (since said elevators were ridiculous) and the teacher pointed me out for looking “embarrassed.” It was off to a great start.
Although most of the people in class were incredibly obnoxious and I stayed absolutely mum throughout the entire semester, this was probably my most valuable class, in a personal sense. I learned a lot about myself, others, and sexuality. The class goes deeper than most think (ew, that sounds raunchy)…it’s not all about blow jobs and sex education topics. You talk about body image, psychology, fetishes, etc. Definitely an interesting, stimulating class that I absolutely recommend. (Take it with Korey McWilliams!)

Online Journalism
Well, what can I say. This blog wouldn’t be possible without this class. I wouldn’t have met so many damn cool people, and I probably wouldn’t be the Twitter machine that I am now (both personally and as the Chronicle twitterbot). To keep it short, this is the most relavent journalism class I’ve taken at the college. My resume has expanded 10-fold because of the tools I learned about in this class, and I’m already incorporating what I’ve learned into my job at the newspaper. My group was so awesome, and I’m so excited to see if we continue working on the website now.

So it’s done, it’s over. Now, I’m going to relax for a few weeks, and get really fired up to nail this last semester of college and start job-hunting. It’s going to be stressful, since I really need to make sure I have a job by May (my lease runs up, and I need to decide if I’m going to renew it for another year…which would suck if I didn’t have a job and can’t pay my rent!) But I’m looking forward to it all.

And we all fall down

I’m not sure if it makes sense to say this, but this was the most stressful and heart-wrenching, yet therapeutic semester/few months of my life. I’m speaking purely about academia…I don’t have a social life, duh.

I never thought I’d have to choose between my life and my job/school, but I had to. And it was a good decision. Sure, I lost most of my friends, but it just made me realize they weren’t really friends in the first place. And all of my classes absolutely stretched me to my limit and taught me that I can do a lot more than I give myself credit for. I opened up old wounds and wrote about them. I pondered things I never would have considered while in a dark room with a candle and 20 classmates. I finally became able to talk about sex without blushing because of my seminar class. And I expanded my resume/portfolio pretty much 10-fold because of THIS class. Yikes.

I’ll take enriching my brain over shitty people who never cared about me in the first place and love to see me upset. Good riddance.

Off for a nap, then Jess is gettin’ Business Savvy until 9am tomorrow morning.

Oh hey...

…it’s almost over!

The Great Office War from Runawaybox on Vimeo.

Picture says 1,000 words, and then some

I first saw this photo in the book “The Family of Man” that I just read for my Education, Culture, and Society class. It’s known famously as “Migrant Mother” and was taken during the Great Depression. The photo basically became an iconic representation of the era of strife and struggle.

Well, now the daughter of the woman in photo is 77 years old and says the photo basically tore her mother apart and forced her family to want more for themselves, according to CNN.

It’s an interesting piece that’s definitely worth the read. This one photo that was plastered all over the newspapers and that forced this struggling mother to become the face of the Great Depression affected her and her family so much—for the rest of their lives.

Interesting how powerful a photo can be, yes?

If you haven’t looked through “Family of Man,” I would definitely recommend it. A remarkable book and also an excellent gift for a loved one at Christmas :)

Sum up your life in six words

Try it. Can you do it?

I’m struggling, myself. But according to USA Today, the editors at Smith Magazine have revised the best-selling book “Not Quite What I Was Planning” and expanded it to a deluxe edition just in time for the gift-swapping season. The idea of the book is for people, celebrities and normal folk alike, to sum up their life in six words. It’s supposed to be some sort of therapeutic or just simply entertaining coffee table book.

This is what I’ve come up with so far:

“I will figure it out later.”

“Seriously though, what does that mean?”

“I totally missed that. What happened?”

“On the serious, I love this.”

Thoughts? How would you sum up your life thus far in six words?

Chicago's always two steps behind

Mayor Daley had a nice little celebration today to roll out the new fleet of hybrid CTA buses (all 22 of them!). The city has made plans to have about 150 of the $1 million buses (yes, that new hybrid bus commuters and drunks will pee, vomit and litter on costs $1 million) in operation by next summer.

It’s a pretty neat step in the right direction for Chicago, considering the new buses can hold about 125 people (versus the 80 the old buses can accomodate), get 3.6 miles per gallon of gas (versus the 2.4 mpg of the old ones), and will save the city about $7 million in maintenance costs each year.

But it’s not so neat to think that we’re more than 10 years behind New York City’s efforts to “go green,” something Daley touts more than his grumpy old man temper. GizMag.com quotes a government report that says the current Orion hybrids in NYC (the SECOND generation) are already saving the city money on maintenance from the previous hybrids.

If the hybrids will save Chicago about $7 million a year, does that mean we could have saved about $70 million in the past decade just by getting these damn buses back then? Ugh.

And it’s not just NYC that Chicago is behind in terms of PC transportation. Boston, Wash DC, Toronto, Seattle, and San Francisco have had hybrid bus fleets for years. Christ, even INDIANAPOLIS has a hybrid bus fleet!

I don’t particuarly care that parking meter fares are going up (I mean, that really does suck for drivers, but then again, why are you driving downtown all the time you morons?) and I’m happy Chicago is finally getting on the bandwagon, but seriously Chicago? What the hell took you so long?!

Need a study break? Enjoy.

I have to admit, my biggest guilty pleasure when I’m stressed out/cranky at work is to watch back-to-back YouTube videos of people scaring/pranking other people. The ones where people play that fake maze and get scared by the “Exorcist” girl are some of the best, but this one is probably the best one I have ever seen.

Pay attention around 1:10. And make sure you watch that part again after you get off the floor from laughing so hard.

For all of you who are as stressed as I am, I hope this makes your evening a bit better :)

And as a sidenote, I love this so much probably because I used to dance around my living room when I was little ALL the time when I thought I was home alone. Then one of my three brothers would inevitably watch, scare me to death, and make fun of me for days after. Ugh.

VIDEO: DIY Incubator at Wolfbait

There’s quite an interesting story behind the making of this video (Well, maybe not interesting, but pretty hilarious, actually). DIY Incubator talked to the owners of Wolfbait & B-Girls in Logan Square about selling handmade at local retailers.