Livin’ the Dorm Life: Part III

Good afternoon bloggers! This week is yet another installment of “Livin’ the Dorm Life.” For those of you who are new to this passion blog, it is just a place to read about decorating ideas for college students’ living areas: dorms, houses, apartments. Even though these posts have been addressing dorm rooms specifically, you can always apply it to anywhere you live!

Anyway, the theme of the week is DIY (Do It Yourself)! I love this idea because its both cheaper and more unique than anything you can buy, as along as you have the motivation to do it.  Some issues people have with DIY projects is that you see this fantastic idea online and you try to do it, only to realize that you are not nearly “artsy” enough to do some of the steps involved.  Sometimes there are simply too many steps that its just not worth it. Or perhaps the absolute worse outcome occurs: you do everything they say to do it and it doesn’t look NEARLY as good as their’s does.  However, when you’re not the one who did it, it can be pretty funny…

diy cookie

crayon diy

But don’t you worry, this will not happen to you because my DIY projects are full-proof…well, at least you can do them in a dorm room with supplies available at Walmart!

Project 1: Rainbow Fan

diy fan

I’m pretty sure that everyone has a plain old fan in their dorm room, so why not make yours extra special?  This project is so simple- all you have to do it paint the blades primary colors (add secondary and/or tertiary depending on the number of blades) and then turn it on! One thing to be weary of is your choice of paint; make sure to buy paint made for plastic (A couple brands to look for: Krylon or Rustoleum are both available at Walmart)

Project 2: Framed Quote

diy quote

 

Now for those who want to be seen as both artsy and intellectual, definitely give this one a try! All you do is get an old book (buy a cheap one from the thrift store or just find one around your house the next time you go home), find a random sentence that you like, scribble out the rest with a pen, and frame it. (Once again, go to Walmart to get a small cheap frame.) This project requires absolutely no art skills, but it makes you look creative– what a deal!

So that is all for this week, give a project a try! Few things are better than that feeling of accomplishment upon completing a unique decoration on your own; plus you get bragging rights when people ask. (And they will definitely ask!) For even more neat ideas to spruce up your dorm room on your own, you can always check out Pinterest, but be weary of the projects that seem a little too good to be true…like this one:

diy candle

 

This post claims that there is no wax or wick involved, but upon further investigation, this potentially amazing candle doesn’t actually work.  Okay, now I’m done with the DIY for this week.

~Happy Decorating~

 

 

Posted in Passion Blog | Leave a comment

Livin’ the Dorm Life: Part II

First of all, happy THON everyone! I hope you all get a chance to visit the BJC this weekend, it’s going to be incredible! Anyway, this week’s blog will focus on another aspect of decorating your dorm room, and actually, this can apply to your future apartments as well! Last week was all about the endless possibilities of using various light fixtures, and this week is on how to cover up those boring, old concrete walls.

The classic way to cover up blank walls in dorm rooms is to put up posters everywhere, which can look nice, but I think we can all do better than that! However, if you’re going to stick with the poster route, then try to get a variety of sizes and fit them together kind of like puzzle pieces. I approve of the room shown below; it keeps it simple with the use of only posters, and the combination of different sizes and colors makes it visually appealing.

Dorm Posters

But for those of you who are willing to be a little more adventurous, my creative idea for you all to try out is the use of tapestries to cover the walls! These come in every color imaginable and a variety of patterns and styles. They have recently come into style with the whole “indie” thing happening lately, but trust me, you don’t have to be a “hipster” to try out this trend. They are unfortunately more expensive than the average poster, but you also have to keep in mind how big these things are- they literally take up a whole wall of your dorm! The tend to range from $40 to $70, although I’m sure you could fine cheaper ones on Amazon. I think they are completely worth it because it really adds character to your room and can be a good conversation starter as well. Plus you can use it for years, rather than with posters which generally don’t get as used for long. Here are some examples of my favorite uses of tapestries:

Dorm Tapestry 3 Dorm Tapestry 2 Dorm Tapestry 1

 

With the first one, I really like how the resident was able to drape the tapestry from the wall to the ceiling. The other two both combine the idea of tapestries with light; the top one uses string lights over it while the bottom picture actually covers the entire light on the ceiling. There are just so many things you can do with tapestries, but my one warning with that is that you can only use one tapestry per room. If you had multiple tapestries, the room would feel both too busy and smaller. One exception would be to use a few plain tapestries, which could be a substitution for painting the walls a different color.

With that in mind, keep your eyes out for sales on tapestries!

~Happy Decorating~

 

Posted in Passion Blog | 1 Comment

Livin’ the Dorm Life: Part I

Welcome fellow bloggers to my new passion blog– House Hunters: College Edition! On this first installment, I will focus on the experience that all college freshmen share– living in dorms!! Now I just know that we all cherish our times in dorms and shun the future of apartments… Okay, with that being said I know that most, if not all of us, have issues with our dorms; the biggest annoyance being the sheer size of them! It can really seem hard to share a room with someone else that has all of your belongings, let alone actually personalizing it.  If all you do is put your belongings away in the drawers, it could end up looking like this!

Boring Dorm

Now who would be happy to live in a room like that? Certainly not me! But don’t worry, that’s where I come in to help put a bit. I will attempt to put an end to the days of avoiding your dorm because it simply depresses you with it’s bland walls and barren ceilings. I will show you that your dorm room can be an enjoyable place to spend your time and maybe even have friends over to show off your awesome interior design skills! With just a little advice, and a lot of will-power, one day, one semester, your dorm could look like this:

Cool Dorm

Alright well maybe not quite like that…but that’s okay because I have even cooler ideas to share! First of all, going off of that enchanting dorm room above, the key to an awesome room is LIGHTS. And lots of ’em.  The best place to purchase a variety of lights at a modest cost would be Target! Now being a fellow freshman here, I get that none of us drive cars and the local Target is certainly not within walking distance, but there are still ways to get over there. I’d say the two best options are either asking an upperclassman friend for a ride over there (I mean c’mon, who doesn’t love shopping at Target?) or buy some bus tokens and ride the good ol’ CATA bus up Atherton street. Anyway, back to the lights! Lights is a very broad category, and a solid dorm room utilizes many different types of lighting. Not only will this look cool when you turn off the main light, but it will actually provide much better lighting when you really need it.  Of course the first light you want to buy (and which by Spring Semester, you should already have anyway…) is the classic desk lamp. What I don’t have, but sure wish I bought, is one with outlets in it! My roommate has one and it is just so handy, especially for the girls who need their hair appliances right there.

Desk Lamp

 

Another kind of lights, which is less on the practical side, but more on the fun side, are the string lights! With these, you can either drape them across your ceiling, tape them to the sides of the wall, or just dangle them anywhere. With these, you really can’t go wrong. I’ll show you some neat examples of this that only require some duct tape or a couple Command hooks to accomplish.

Dorm Lights1 Dorm Lights2

And for the fellas out there, don’t think I forgot about you! You can purchase a pack of these playful lights at McLanahan’s.

Solo Cup Lights

Hope I fueled your dorm-room imagination for today!

~Happy Decorating~

 

 

Posted in Passion Blog | Leave a comment

My View On Higher Education

My view on higher education is pretty simple, I believe that every student should have the opportunity to go to college.  Now I realize that this is an unrealistic view and I know that tuition only continues to increase each year, but I believe that if people are able to pay for it with help, the opportunity should certainly be taken.  I believe that college is such a unique experience that pays off in the end, if done right.

So we all know college is expensive, but its all about what you get out of it; college is just one big investment on the rest of your life.  That sounds a bit exaggerated, but I think it gets the point across, which is that never in your life will you have all of the experiences you can only find in college.

What are these experiences I describe? Well first of all, you’re going to get some type of college degree out of it, which can only greatly increase your chances for getting a job out there. And to truly take advantage of what college has to offer, students should try to interact with companies as soon as possible in order to get an internship or co-op.  Nothing looks better on a resume then real-world experience before you enter the actual real world!

Besides building up your physical resume, higher education also helps students mature by forcing them to become more independent.  You might think you’re already independent in high-school (and maybe you are) but when you go off to college, you are forced to make your own decisions and deal with the consequences.  By separating yourself a little more from your family and hometown, you are able to discover what your true values are and grow as an individual.  Of course you’re always learning in life, but I believe this is especially true in higher education.

Posted in RCL | 1 Comment

College Town Issues: When will students learn?

Before I delve into this week’s topic, I want to give a brief overview of what this blog is about, since it’s just under the umbrella of education.  Each week, I’d like to investigate and explore the issues related to colleges and college towns.  I will have more focus on State College, but I will also compare and contrast our town with those of different universities.  Being a student here, I know first-hand how reckless and irresponsible we can all be, so I’d like to explore the other side (of College Avenue)- the town of people that must deal with us newly adults.  Although it may seem that its all negative for the town residents, the students are the ones responsible for fueling a major part of their economy by providing countless jobs. Now I won’t go into too much detail about that, on to this week’s topic!

This week will focus on the “town” side of the issues, specifically State College. From the article “A Drinking Town With A University Problem,” a current Penn State instructor and mother of three, Patty Kleban, focuses on the prominent issue of excessive drinking at Penn State. However, she takes a new look at it by providing a reason why the student’s don’t seem to be “getting the message” about the consequences they could face. And that reason is that there are thousands of new students that come here every year and thousands that leave us.  Due to the constant flow of people to the State College area, the news of past tragedies doesn’t live long here. Kleban points out the phenomenon of “institutional memory,” which is the concept that the history of a corporation, and similar large groups, is passed down from the old to the young.  This occurs through documents and other records, but mostly by word of mouth.  The effect of institutional memory is that there are a set a values and standards incorporated from past experiences and tragedies. Unfortunately, this concept cannot really be applied to the students of Penn State because we’re not a static unit; there are always newcomers who aren’t aware of events more than a few years ago. In the article, Kleban references the the Arts Festival riot of 2000, which apparently was one of the worst riots of State College history and of which I had no knowledge about. Now of course I know what Arts Fest is and how it is another one of the many excuses students find to excessively drink, but I had no idea that there was an actual full-scale riot that occurred! Upon not knowing enough about this riot, I decided to look into this and found that there was an even worse riot two years before that in 1998.

269322_884

What I discovered was just…outrageous. The infamous riot of 1998 occurred at 1:30 AM and lasted for about two and a half hours. It consisted of 1,500 students and alumni on a couple blocks of Beaver Avenue destroying property, starting fires, and some even stripping naked. The reason why it lasted so long was that the police just didn’t expect that to happen and were severely underprepared to stop it so they had to wait until around 4:00 AM for reinforcements, which provided them with “riot gear.” The police had to resort to using tear gas in order to break up the crowd and at the end of it all, twenty initial arrests were made, which grew to over fifty after reviewing footage of the event. The most peculiar thing about this all is that nobody knows how or why it happened. Usually riots occur after something bad has happened to the students, like an alcohol ban, but there was nothing to upset anyone that night.  After reading all about this riot, I really understand what Kleban means with institutional memory, and how we will always lack it in State College.

The permanent residents of State College are always frustrated with students’ reckless actions because it seems like we are always making the same mistakes and never learn from the consequences of all of the previous ones. But the reality is that we are entirely different students from those over a decade ago, most of us don’t remember the mistakes that were made then. Now don’t mistake me here, in no way am I saying that we should just be “let off the hook” for any new mistake. Kleban points out that in order to account for the new students’ lack of knowledge of the consequences, Penn State should better communicate the laws and their consequences so that new students know right away, rather than after they are caught for an underage.

http://www.statecollege.com/news/columns/a-drinking-town-with-a-university-problem,269322/

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archives/article_4740eed7-9c87-5e48-9753-ad2851bd079c.html

Posted in RCL | 1 Comment

This I Believe Draft

The Power of Cliches

“Wow, that’s such a cliché.” “Don’t be so cliché.” “Are you really going to use another cliché?” We are always taught to stay away from clichés; we are taught that they’re overused phrases that have practically lost meaning. You shouldn’t use a cliché– you should be original.  That’s everyone’s goal in life, right? …  Wrong!  Well at least that’s not my goal, and I’m not afraid to say I believe in the power of clichés. I LIVE for clichés.

As hard as it may be to believe, I didn’t always live this way. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t some incredibly shy girl who miraculously came out of her shell. On the contrary, I was just a typical teenage girl: trying to be my goofy self but still secretly hyper-aware of other’s judgment.  I also had the classic high-school boyfriend and at the time I was very happy with my life. However, over time, something changed inside of me; I’m not quite sure what caused it exactly, probably the result of applying to colleges, keeping a long-distance relationship, and having friend drama.  I felt like I was having a mid-life crisis, which is ridiculous because I was just an eighteen year girl, I had the whole world ahead of me! Of course, knowing this made me even more mad at myself and pushed me to a whole new level of stress.

Fortunately, I had supportive friends who reminded me that all I needed to do was take a step back from it all, and that I did.  I came to the realization that I needed to free myself from unrealistic expectations and anything that held me back from being truly happy. And the first thing I did was break up with my boyfriend of almost three years.  Although it was difficult, I made the right decision and was able to focus on my own life.  And here is where I discovered the wonder of clichés.

Of course everyone knew these typical sayings, but I decided to look at them in a different light.  I heard the phrase “the world is your oyster” and I decided to literally look at life like that: I’m about to go to college and have the best four years of my life; the possibilities are truly endless.  And I certainly didn’t stop there, whenever there is any situation in which I’m feeling unsure about, I just remind myself “You regret the things you don’t do more than the things you do,” so why not take a chance and just see what happens? If you make a mistake, life goes on, and you learn more about yourself and others.  When you truly believe in the most overused of clichés, you become free. YOLO.

 

Posted in RCL | 5 Comments

Passion & Civic Issue Topic Choices

Passion Blog:

For my passion blog, I decided to go with Interior Design as my topic! I have yet to think of a creative name for this, but I’m thinking along the lines of “House Hunters: College Edition.” I like the name of this, but it may limit me to only talk about interior design here in State College. But perhaps, maybe I should just discuss the most interesting dorms (and apartments?) in colleges everywhere. When I originally thought of this idea, I was primarily thinking of ideas to decorate my apartment next year, so maybe I could combine all of these ideas. I could accomplish this by varying posts between styles students can apply to their school-homes and actual students’ dorms and apartments to serve as inspiration.

Civic Issues Blog:

For my civic issues blog, I chose the topic of Colleges & College Towns. This was not what I was originally intending to pick, but when I looked at the topic ideas again, this one stuck out at me as kind of different and I’d like to learn more about it. I’ve always wondered what the residents of State College thought of us students, especially as I walk by some houses off-campus thinking “Wow, an actual family lives there.” I’d also like to look at other examples of college towns and maybe compare and contrast it to our situation here at Penn State.

Posted in RCL | Leave a comment

Essay & Blog Topic Ideas

“This I believe” Essay:

My first idea is to defend cliches; by this I mean that I believe that people don’t give cliches enough credit. I actually make most of my decisions with the phrases: “The world is your oyster,” “Carpe diem,” “You regret the things you don’t do more than the ones you do.”  My second idea is learning to let go of people or events that don’t turn out the way you want it to. So pretty much building upon the “life goes on” idea, but in a more personal way.

Passion Blog:

My first idea is to keep my old blog idea, FMOTW (Favorite Moment Of The Week). But with this semester, I would use more of a multimedia aspect to make it more interesting.  My second idea is to write about interior design; that topic has always interested me, but I never really got into it (other than watching a lot of HGTV as a kid) so this blog would be my chance to learn more about it.

Civic Issues Blog:

My first idea is to discuss gender-equality in the workplace since I am planning on entering a profession in which women are a minority: engineering. All of my engineering and math courses are predominately male so I’m already starting to get a sample of what my future will be like. My second idea is to talk about the issue of obesity in America and various ways to approach it and how these have worked out. Since it’s not in any of the provided categories, I’m not sure if it is good enough to write about though.

Posted in RCL | Leave a comment

FMOTW #10

Happy Thanksgiving Break everyone!! We made it! To all of you going home today- I’m incredibly jealous- unfortunately, I have to wait until Sunday to leave. Since I am beyond excited to go home, I’m going to write about my future favorite moment of the week- the entire Thanksgiving Break!

I think we can all agree that we seriously need a break- as much as I love college, I just miss having time to just be lazy and do nothing! The thought of going home has been consuming my mind all week; making this seem like one of the longest weeks here, even though I didn’t have any exams this week. (Sorry to those who did- I have no clue how you did it!) Everyday I woke up thinking it was later in the week, only to get disappointed time and time again. But now the day has finally arrived, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief!

Besides looking forward to sleeping in all week, I am also excited for the time to spend with my friends and family. I’ve been planning out all of the fun things I want to do to catch up with my high school friends for so long- I can hardly believe that I am able to see them! Of course, Thanksgiving is a time for family, so I am also looking forward to just hanging out with my brothers and eating some delicious pumpkin pie! Plus you can’t forget Black Friday shopping! That reminds me, I still have to create my shopping list and plan of attack!

I hope everyone has a fun and relaxing break- we deserve it! Oh by the way- don’t forget about that paradigm shift paper!

Posted in Passion Blog | 6 Comments

TED Talks Review

Today was the last day of TED Talks, yay! Good job everybody, we made it! I think everyone did a great job- of course there are always small mistakes, but the overall product was always good. To reflect on the talks, I am just going to keep it simple with the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff that we as a whole did.

Good Stuff–

-Confidence: Everyone clearly had a solid grasp on their speech, and it showed through to the audience every time, even if the presenter was a bit nervous.

-Content: The topics were both diverse and interesting. Even though I had a very similar topic to Dominique (online dating), I think we still had different enough topics to keep the audience interested.

-Organization: Each presentation had a clear introduction/attention grabber, the “body paragraph”  slides, and lastly the conclusion slide. This made it easier for the audience to follow along with the speaker’s thought process on the topic.

-Creativity: My favorite part about this whole project was just getting to watch how passionate everyone was with their topics and how they made it interesting by exposing different perspectives.

Not-so-Good Stuff–

Speech Flow- At certain points people stumbled over some words (myself included!), but it was never enough to take away from the audience’s understanding of the point being made. Some people started a little off and had to start over, but the second time was always fine. Other times, a speaker would draw a blank in the middle of the speech and apologize for it. It’s obviously not a good thing to get out of character, but again, this didn’t last long enough to take away from the speech.

Honestly, I can’t think of any more major problems that were reoccurring in the speeches because they really did turn out great!

Posted in RCL | 2 Comments