Hey everyone, so I just wanted to say you should stop in sometime this week to room 314 of the Union to give blood! I tried to donate yesterday, and I was pretty excited because it was going to be my first time, and I would be saving lives…or something…. but since I just got my nose pierced I wasn’t able too. I guess the guy at the tattoo parlor might have some sort of disease that he transferred to me when he pierced my nose with a needle that came out of a sealed plastic container using plastic gloves and sanitation goop on my nose. It was pretty risky so I hope I didn’t catch anything. But still, I actually wouldn’t want to risk giving my blood to someone if there might be some sort of complication. Except now I have to wait a year before I can give blood… which really kind of sucks. But in the meantime….while I’m just chilling waiting for a year to pass…. everyone else should go donate!

October in Champaign-Urbana is apartment hunting season, which I actually think is pretty stupid because that’s 10 months before you move in the next year. A lot can happen in 10 months and I know several first hand stories of people signing leases together in the fall who weren’t all that chummy anymore when August rolled around the next year.
But if you get past the ridiculously early signing dates it still isn’t really a walk in the park. It’s not that fun to have to picture yourself living in apartments that probably should be condemned with their bags of garbage everywhere, aging pots of mac and cheese still stuck to the pot on the stove, and questionable spills all over the carpet. And unfailingly, every time you leave an apartment, the listing agent acts like this is the perfect apartment for you and insists that she walk you back to the office to sign the lease papers. Umm, no thanks.
Then once, you finally sift through all the duds and find the one that you love, the troubles still really aren’t over. Last week, we had an appointment to see our apartment again because my roommate’s parents were in town. This doesn’t really sound like that big of a deal since they warn the current tenants ahead of time, but apparently it is to some people. The agent knocks on the door and we are all peppered with a series of f-bomb strewed complaints about how they are always inconvenienced with people coming to see their place and she can’t take it anymore. Obviously we went in anyways but it was nothing short of unpleasant.

So if you haven’t already succeeded in finding your perfect apartment for next year, good luck with your painful search!

I am definitely not an October Lover. I hate when it starts to get cold, the trees lose their leaves and everything just looks dead. Summer is by far my favorite season, which is probably because I’ve lived in the midwest my entire life which has made me cherish the 3 or 4 months out of the year we have nice weather. The only thing I’ve found that temporarily cures my hatred of fall is a delicious apple donut from Curtis Orchard. Picking apples and pumpkins is fun, but I have to admit the only reason I go there is for those scrumptious fried cakes covered in cinnamon sugar. Unfortunately I just ate my last one (or maybe fortunately for my usually healthy eating habits). Now I just have to resist the temptation of eating my roommate’s…

Saturday at the WPGU tailgate I had the pleasure of viewing a Big Fat Ugly eating contest. A Big Fat Ugly is a 6 pound, 20,000 calorie sandwich from Fat Sandwich Company. This sandwich literally has everything on it, just go to their website and look it up. If you aren’t grossed out already, check out these pictures I took.

Helloooo. Ok even though technically this is week 3 of the internship- this is my first post. Woohoo!

I’m Holly (HollyB to those of you familiar with the217’s forum…) I’m 19 and a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism and also looking to pick up a minor in French (possibly).

On this lovely rainy Thursday I am doing my first post here but I am not new to blogging. I’ve had my own personal blog for over a year where I usually just rant about my own life, give people a glimpse of my inner stream of consciousness, and of course comment on observations in life. I haven’t been updating lately because school, homework, sorority, and general life can get in the way but hopefully I’ll be back on the blogging train soon. My blog can be found at www.hahahaholly.blogspot.com

Tuesdays and Thursdays I am fortunate enough to only have one class. Even though it’s a long class (2 hours and 20 minutes) its a fun class. Today we got into groups and went out around campus in search of a story. I’m really getting to know some other broadcast majors and I can tell they will be good friends for all of college.

This internship has been great because we get a little taste of the many different things that go on around the Illini Media Company. I especially liked sitting in with the DJ and wish I could’ve done it a little longer. I also have some good (in my opinion) ideas for fun playlists but I’m sure they would be rejected on the spot (lol). Can I help it that I’m becoming obsessed with Justin Bieber?

With an English midterm tomorrow I can practically hear the library calling my name. See you around the CU.

I don’t know how many of you watch The Hills, but I have been a fan since season 1. Now it’s season 6 and despite the fact that the majority of people on the show have publicly said it’s all fake I can’t help but keep watching! Maybe it’s the ridiculous drama that could never happen in real life, the glamorous Hollywood lifestyles that are portrayed that keep me watching, or maybe it’s Speidi. Let’s be honest, no other couple enjoys promoting themselves as much as they do and it’s hilarious to watch. What are some of your guilty pleasure reality shows?

Well I pretty much just experienced one of the most emberassing moments of my life.
I had to attend a WPGU remote for my 217 internship - which pretty much just means I had to go to the Hockey game Friday night and help out WPGU by handing out cards to invite people to the tailgate on saturday, and ask people to give shout outs to the hockey players. No big deal. And it was pretty fun until half time came around and I was asked to go out onto the ice for WPGU’s halftime give away. So I guess at half time three people get a chance to shoot a goal in order to win some sort of prize. So the person in charge just told me to go out by the goal and stop the pucks with my feet or hands and send them back. Just basically act like a goalie. Ya that sounds simple enough but apparently I am not very smart, because I tried to block the pucks from entering the goal, when I was just really supposed to retrieve the one’s that missed the goal. You think that would be obvious in itself, but to add to my embarrassment, there was a giant block of wood with three small holes in front of the goal … so me trying to block the pucks was obviously unnecessary. Maybe I was just having a blond moment, but I’ll just blame my stupidity on the lack of sleep I have been receiving for the past two weeks. (Still, I’m cringing inside… I didn’t really even want to write about this on my blog…). Basically I looked like an idiot, the crowd booed me, and I got called off of the ice by some angry looking official whose gestures and expression were so pointed and angry which was more disheartening than the booing. Um… what can I say?

And if the night couldn’t get any worse…. we accidentally stole some little kids hockey pucks. The kids were playing with some pucks near the WPGU hockey sticks and we thought they were our pucks. We asked the kids if we could have them back to use for the halftime thing, and they gave them too us, so I mean, we really did think the pucks belonged to WPGU. But when we got off the ice the kids wanted the pucks back, and the only people around were the217.com interns, and we didn’t know what to do. We called the person who was in charge but we thought she said “they are our pucks.” Only, when we brought them back to the lobby we found out that they weren’t actually our pucks. So we tried to find those poor kids to return them but we couldn’t see them anywhere. So we ended up leaving them on the mats in the back where the kids had been playing before… so I really hope they went back to that spot and found them. :/

I couldn’t even go out after the hockey game because I had too much homework that I have been procrastinating on.

It was kind of a rough night.

Hey everyone! My name is Allison and I’m interning with the217 this semester! I’m a sophomore majoring in journalism and I’m also involved in a dance company, Illini N Motion, and my sorority. Speaking of being Greek, this week happens to be Greek Week. For those of you that don’t know, Greek Week is a week long event with fun activities all meant to unite greeks from the four different greek councils. I had the opportunity to go to the Step and Stroll clinic Monday night and I had a great time. The thing I found most interesting was when they told us about the history of step. Did you know it started in early African American slave communities as a means to communicate and preserve their culture? Stepping has evolved throughout history ever since. For example, after World War II veterans added elements of military marching to stepping. Eventually it made its way onto college campuses where it has taken a strong role in the Black Greek system. I was amazed to learn all of this and it definitely made me appreciate more the diversity of the greek system on this campus. We also got to learn a step routine which was challenging at first, but luckily my dancer instincts helped me out a bit and I managed to get a hang of it. Overall, it was an entertaining and enlightening night and I look forward to hopefully seeing more step in the future.

So this is my first ever blog entry… ever, so I guess I should formally introduce myself. Boring right? I’ll make it quick. I’m Britt and I’m a junior in English and Informatics here at the U of I. My three favorite things in the world are my baby sister Kaila (she’s not actually a baby, she’s 17, but old habits never seem to die), my golden retriever Buster, and wearing leggings because it’s almost like you’re not wearing pants at all. Anyways, it’s been a crazy busy semester with classes and my sorority and of course my wonderful internship at the217.com! Woot woot. So that’s pretty much all the background info anyone could ever want to know about me.

Anyways, last Saturday I went to my barndance, which, in my opinion, is one of the highlights of fall semester. Whoever came up with the idea of bussing a bunch of plaid attired college kids who have been drinking all day out to a barn full of hay, gets mega genius points. It was epic.

BUT, if I have one regret from my otherwise staggering night, it would have to be not learning the dance to the Hoedown Throwdown by none other than our very own Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana, of course) before getting on that bus. It was played upwards of like 8 times, and every time I had to stand by dejectedly with the other uninformed barndance attendees while others were partaking in the latest barn-themed dance. Therefore, if I have one piece of advice for you before your own barndance, (and if you do not personally have one, find someone who does as it’s worth it) it’s to take the time to learn this dance. You will not regret it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlnbmZK7GxU

Hey guys! Since this is my first blog I should probably introduce myself before getting to the main point. So… here it goes. My name is Lori. I’m a freshman. I am majoring in History, but I actually really want to double major in journalism and creative writing with a minor in music, which all sounds very complicated, but that’s okay. Right now I am a pretty busy person, what with my internship with the217.com, working for the DI on air and print, going to other clubs, doing homework, practicing my trumpet, hanging out with my friends, and whatever else might come up, but I will find time to blog. I promise.

So, anyway…
My parents came down to visit me this weekend since I haven’t seen them in a month, and I was trying to find something to do with them. So we ended up going to Culture Shock at the Union. There were a bunch of booths and posters, and I tried to read some of the posters to learn about different cultures, but I sort of forgot most of what I learned. :/ But there was also some food and dance performances by some RSO’s… which I uploaded a fun video for.

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So I think the turkish instrument is my favorite. There were some other performances but I couldn’t stay for them all, and I didn’t get to videotape the tango dancers (my dad really liked them) because I was getting some baklava (probably the best sweet ever).

It is kind of like a tattoo, except that it will fade away after a week or so and doesn’t involve needles. One of the booths was giving henna at the culture shock. The goopy stuff dries and then flakes off, leaving a mark.

Um… I actually don’t remember where this is from, but it was delicious.