It's getting down to the end of the semester, and everyone is anticipating being released, or in some cases finishing altogether. It seems that there is hardly a better time for some college-related trivia.
Spring is upon us, and Windex is in the air. This is the season for cleaning, and in my experience, cleaning can be quite dangerous – you never know what you’re going to find. Sometimes we hide things for ourselves or for others on purpose or find things as a pleasant surprise. After all, who hasn’t found a couple dollar bills stashed away or rediscovered something that they believed was lost? This happened recently here at the Library. When rehoming the dust bunnies in our store room, we found some posters for National Library Week just in time to display them. This was a nice find.
It’s time for one of those little-known quasi holidays. May is National Barbecue Month! With the weather starting to warm up, people are beginning to go outside not only out of necessity, but for pleasure. What goes better with tailgating and gardening than a little bit of barbecue? Perhaps ice cream, but the Library doesn’t have a program on how to make ice cream (though we do sometimes let the teens attempt to make the biggest ice cream sundae in the world).
Has it ever occurred to you why some things are what they are? There are so many arbitrary things that we see every day and recognize immediately as symbolizing something else. However, it isn’t always clear why these symbols are what they are. For example, a friend of mine recently was looking at her coffee cup and found herself wondering about the logo for Starbucks.
Oftentimes, the worst results come from the most innocuous actions. We can slice ourselves open with a knife while chopping carrots and not think a thing of it, but paper cuts have us griping outright. Most significant injuries are caused by silly and often embarrassing mistakes, and the things that we think should do the most trauma often don’t.
Warmer weather brings fairer dreams of vacationing to distant, luxurious locations. While I dream of the exotic hills of Ireland, my reality takes me more believably to the rural mountains of North Carolina. This is not the first time that I’ve taken this trip. However, there is a critical difference that changes the way that I approach it. Now, I have no one to take the trip with me. It is a sixteen hour drive from where I live to where I want to go, which by myself is no small undertaking.
As a consumer, it is important to remember that, though we want the best product, the company selling it is out there to do one thing: make money. However, even keeping this in mind, there are conventions that seem like they should not be broken, even just to make a dime.
Pepsi, Chocolate Chips, and Pizza (Or How I Got My Degree)
I soon graduate with my Bachelor’s degree, and that’s no small feat! As an English major, the main facet of my education is reading books and writing papers. On average, I read between 20 and 30 books a semester, depending on the particular courses that I am taking. I average upwards of 20 hours for writing a single term paper; I normally compose about three at the same time. I also work for the Library on my off days. Needless to say, my time is in high demand.
Arguably, the Ides of March is known most for its mention in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Some people are even able to recall the exact date by heart, March 15th. However, knowing the actual significance of the term is a different matter entirely. So, what is the Ides of March?
Academic writing is completely different from any other kind of writing; it requires a type of thinking that has to be learned and developed over time. The first step in writing an effective research paper is choosing a topic. For me, coming up with the idea of what to write about always happens one of two ways; it either begins with a vague thought that develops into a general idea the day before the proposal is due, or it strikes all at once in a moment of manic epiphany complete with excruciating detail demanding to be composed immediately.
