Welcome to My Blog

I knew I wanted to come to Marist from the second I set foot on campus. It was the first school I visited and it was my top choice throughout the college selection process. choosing Marist was one of the best decisions I have ever made because it taught me so much about myself. The curriculum challenged me, however, it is not a “sink or swim” environment. Every professor I have ever had genuinely cared about me, my well-being, and my success. They would take extra time to make themselves available. The classes are tough, yet at the same time nurturing. I have also felt inspired to push myself here, not only academically but by getting involved in many activities. The campus gives me a positive feeling. It has a warmth and happiness to it that not many schools have. Before coming to Marist, I had no direction with what I wanted to do and now I am a confident marketing major and public relations minor. I had also never been outside of the country and because of Marist’s study abroad program, I have now visited 11 countries. This institution has helped me grow in so many ways and I am very thankful. Although my last couple pf months were not what I would have ever expected, I am forever grateful for every day I got to spend at Marist.

I just finished my final project for this course and I thought it would be appropriate to mention my takeaways from the experience. To start off, I am really pleased with the software I chose and the way I incorporated it into my project. Making a movie with Adobe Premiere, while using the background music with Audition just flowed really nicely. Additionally, the Photoshop collages worked really well in the video. It sort of “connected the dots” to the different concepts of the film which I thought was really cool. It made everything come together smoothly.

I decided to take this class mainly to learn these Adobe functions. As a marketing student, I feel that this class should be mandatory for those in my major. I can’t even begin to explain how many times my resume was pushed to the side because I didn’t know Photoshop. I think the School of Management could benefit greatly from adding this course into their curriculum or at least a course of similar nature. Part of me regrets not taking this class sooner, however, I am a little happy that I waited because now this information is fresh in my head and I feel confident in my skills with this software. Lastly, I liked this course because I learned a lot and it was fun. I really valued it and I know it will benefit me greatly in my field.

Believe it or not, people are calling 911 when the run out of toilet paper! It is almost too crazy to be true. However, everything is so insane right now that things are getting stranger by the day. This had been a particular issue in Oregon. Apparently, 911 calls due to running out of toilet paper have become so common that the Oregon police had to issue statements about it. They must continually remind residents that lack of toilet paper does not constitute an emergency…especially when we are in the middle of a pandemic!

Although this story is so strange it is almost comical, it is also quite inconsiderate to the first-responders and essential workers who are risking their lives by going into work and answering those 911 calls. I understand that quarantine is boring, but this should be a time of thankfulness for what you have. The fact that police have to remind residents to not call 911 from running out of toilet paper is rude and ridiculous.

Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande dropped a new song Stuck with U on Friday and it was instantly a huge hit. Because of the quarantine, they weren’t able to film the music video as they usually would. Instead, they had celebrities and fans send in videos of them dancing to the song. However, there was controversy because Carole Baskin her and husband, from the hit documentary series Tiger King, were featured dancing in the video. Ariana Grande had not approved Baskin to be in the video, but Justin Bieber must have been unaware of her request. He tweeted a promotional clip leading up to the video’s release which included Baskin. A lot of fans were disappointed because many were not pleased with Baskin after watching the documentary. Ariana publicly responded saying that she was completely unaware of Baskin’s appearance and told producers that she did not want Baskin in the video when the idea was suggested. Whether or not Grande supports Baskin, she knows that she is a controversial person. I agree that putting Baskin in the video was not a wise decision. Who knows…this could have all been a trial balloon-type publicity stunt to get people talking about the video!

If you are serious about the song itself, here is the Soundcloud

Now that I am a senior at Marist College, I am unfortunately spending my final days of college in quarantine rather than on campus. Since this situation is making me a little sappy and nostalgic, I am going to reminisce about all of the places I have lived via Marist housing and evaluate them. I want to begin with freshman year where I lived in Leo Hall. I lived on the top floor, and the elevator was really slow so constantly taking all of those stairs was a nightmare but I avoided the freshman fifteen so that was nice! Overall, it was a nice dorm but by the end of the year I was ready for something with more space.

Sophomore year I lived in Lower West Cedar – a townhouse with seven other people. I knew all the girls except two of them who were selected randomly, but we all became really close and I am so happy that they lived with us, as we are all still great friends. This was definitely the most fun place I have ever lived at Marist and I loved it. Additionally, when two of our housemates moved out to study abroad, no one new replaced them in our house which was nice.

I spent the first semester of junior year living in Florence in a beautiful apartment in the center of the city. It was convenient and I loved the people I lived with. Not to mention the house was amazing with two full bathrooms for four people, large rooms, a kitchen with full amenities, and it even had a skylight.

The second half of junior year I lived in Building A (now called Tom and Mary Ward) of New Gartland. I also had two really nice roommates. We had a corner room so it was just us three and our house had great views of the river. Senior Year I lived in Building C (now O’Shea) of New Gartland with my sophomore year housemates and we had a blast. Our house was decorated for every holiday and it really felt like home.

Anywayyy….that’s a little about me and my time at Marist!

So this weekend was the first hot and sunny weekend of the year. So, naturally, I got sunburn and I got it bad. Now this is not really much of a surprise, considering I do not wear sunscreen as often as I should and I have a very light skin complexion. However, it got me thinking. I always hate sunburn and I wish there was a better, more efficient way of dealing with it than constantly applying aloe gel. So I researched some other home remedies and even tried some of them because I was bored and curious.

The first one I came across was just to drink water. I don’t think this would help cure the burn in any way, but staying hydrated especially while tanning is very important. It is also important to keep your skin hydrated, especially after being burnt.

The next one was milk which I thought was really strange but I have heard of it being used in for reactive skin before so it kind of made sense. I soaked a few cotton balls with milk and placed them on a small portion of the burned skin. The results weren’t a tremendous imporvement but it did soothe the burn. However, It wasn’t practical to apply.

The last remedy was shaving cream, but it had to be a specific type with aloe. I have heard of this remedy several times and I have heard that it is completely false so I went it thinking it was ridicolous and I was right. It did absolutely nothing.

Basically, I have come to the conclusion that aloe gel is still the best remedy. Also, it is just better to wear sunscreen or stay in the shade.

As crazy as it may seem, there was a time when a typewriter was used as an instrument. Some researchers say that musicians were trying to link the type writer to different notes and the letters and words you type would be the composition of the music. However, the videos below use the typewriter as an actual instrument rather than a composition tool. The famous pianist or in this case “typist” is using the typewriter in a percussive manner, incorporating the typing, dings and slides of the machine into the music. The orchestra plays around him as he carries the beats with his typing. The orchestra’s rests are for his typewriter to ding. It is all very bizarre. Although this may seem like a crazy point and time that was never revisited again, that is not the case. Like most obscure concepts, this typewriter instrument had a sort of cult following in the music world. Below the original video, there is a modern version of an orchestra and typist playing the same piece in Vienna.

As the stress of finals and COVID-19 begin to settle in, I thought I’d examine something interesting this week (or at least, interesting to me). I was fascinated as to why toilet paper is such a top selling item that should not be in as short supply as it is. It is understandable that people would want to buy hand sanitizer, gloves, and masks, but the toilet paper scare took everyone by surprise. Yet, every person who scoffed at how ridiculous it was has also been frantically searching for it at one point in this virus because supply is so low. Therefore, I wanted to see what the buying trends were for the average American at this time to determine if there were any other odd purchases.

This chart taken from CNN, demonstrates these current buying trends. The top four items are not surprising, as they are considered essentials. However, I am surprised that clothing and beauty products are so high in the list. No one is going anywhere, so buying clothes, jewelry and other products seems strange. I also assumed electronics would be higher, along with toys and games. Parents with smaller children would want to keep their kids entertained, so I do not understand why there was not an increase in those buying patterns. Overall, this chart was pretty predicable but some of the trends took me by surprise.

No one knows for sure just how COVID-19 started but there are actually some theories that it involved this creature. Pangolins are said to carry a similar strain of the coronavirus. This got me thinking about how similar this creature is to a human. It looks completely different, yet it can carry the same virus that is spreading so rapidly. I wondered what other similarities we share with it, so I researched some pangolin facts. To begin, they eat very differently that we do. They don’t have any teeth and they use their long tongue to slurp out ants and termites. They also walk differently, on their hind legs, digging their claws into the ground and walking on their knuckles. However, they share some reproductive similarities to humans. Male pangolins only have a male sex organs and female pangolins only have female sex organs. Therefore, it takes both a male and a female to reproduce, and the female carriers the baby for about five months. So even though they seem very different, there is more to them than we think. Even if this pandemic was started by pangolins, the result is actually helping them. They are a highly trafficked and endangered species and they are not being sought out during this time.

The song I chose to review is If the World Was Ending by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels. I chose this song because things have been so crazy lately that at times it does feel like the end of the world. Additionally, this song was released in early 2020, right before the coronavirus affected our everyday lives.

This song is alludes to an earthquake or some kind of disaster that has happened. It is two people who stop caring about their complicated relationship throughout the years and just want to be together. It like this song because it is about what is really important in life. It hints at grudges being held with loved ones or concentration on materialistic possessions or whatever seems important to you that feels like life or death. However, when in a life-changing situation, where people are dying and everything you’ve been doing comes to a grinding halt, you realize that those things that seemed so important actually don’t matter at all. Even in this quarantine, I’ve noticed how happy I am for little things, like eating my favorite snacks or appreciating the fresh air on a nice day. We take these things for granted and although we are all in close quarters with our families and probably driving each other crazy at times, they are what matter most. That is the meaning of this song. Forgetting about everything and being with the one you love during the times that matter most.

If you just want the audio, here is the soundcloud