The Carrie Gold Freshman Experience version 2.1.349 revision 2a

Don't Call it a Sign Off

2010-04-29T21:40:00.000-04:00

To those about to rock:

Today is Thursday - exams began today. In about two and a half hours, it will be Friday. There will be a weekend, and it will be Monday, just like every week of every month of every year for infinity. Whether or not time runs like this everywhere else doesn't matter - we're here today and gone tomorrow, no matter what parallel universe we're living in. So right now, I'm sitting in the library "studying" for an anthropology class, when really I'm blogging and listening to Brahms thanks to Pandora. It's rather dramatic.

This will be my last post as a freshman. I don't know what great knowledge I should share with future freshmen. I guess one thing I could say is that I haven't drastically changed. I'm not a dramatically different person, however, if I was a lump of clay before I came to Appalachian, you could say that now I have become a more defined piece of artwork. So when you enter this life and are intimidated by upperclassmen, don't fret - because they don't change, they just shape-shift, and soon enough you will too.

Be who you are - make friends like you've always made friends - don't jump into some off the wall group just so you can identify yourself as "that person" that hangs out with "that group." You don't need an identity, because you already have one and you've always had one - and that is your family and friends and experiences.

Don't be close-minded. Think before you speak, before you jump, and before you sign up for that 8 AM class. And have fun, because you can only do this once.

Vive la ʻohana

2010-03-22T00:10:00.001-04:00

I don't speak French, and I don't speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, but I like to combine them.

In theory, it means "Long live ʻohana." What is ʻohana? Let me tell you a story.

Jenna was new on our hall. She just popped up after Christmas break, and I thought Jenna was cool (and I guess she still is). One snowy day, Natalie, my friend who lives in the room beside me, decided to make potatoes out of a box, and Jenna went with her on this potato adventure. They were downstairs in the kitchen when I ran into them.

We all decided to wait for the potatoes to bake, and while we waited, we watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The show happened to be at a house in Hawaii. I think it was a house that had been ravaged by some horrible storm or natural disaster. Like every episode, the entire community helped in repairing and rebuilding this torn home.

It was a struggle - a struggle for the family who had seen their home become just another ruin of a storm, and it was a struggle for those who worked tirelessly to rebuild the house. Ty Pennington, the host of Extreme Makeover, made a statement about this - he said that the people who struggled together, the community, the family - they were ʻohana, as it is said in Hawaii.

I turned to Jenna. "We're ʻohana."

She looked at me funny. "What?"

"We're ʻohana."

"Okay, Carrie." It seemed like a bizarre statement, but there was a mutual understanding.

We live and we go through struggles together, so we, the girls who live on and around our hall, are ʻohana. It's unconditional. When we can't sleep, we talk it over. When we can't study anymore, we press on. When we're stressed, we split a roll of cookie dough. When we cry, scream, laugh, or stumble, we do it together, because we're family.

Like Lilo and Stitch once said: "ʻOhana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind."

Who's your ʻohana?

Blizzard Part 2

2010-02-25T17:34:00.000-05:00

Honorary degrees in computers. I don't think they have these, but they should. Every student has computer troubles - you can be the most tech savvy person in the world, yet something will plague you. It doesn't matter where you get the computer from - you're just going to encounter problems - and somehow, you - the student - are going to figure out exactly how to fix this complex problem through a series of Googling and visits to a manufacturers website.

I live for computers. I love computers. My life consists of: the little screened notebook, food, and Thursday nights (that's when The Office comes on).

Yesterday, my roommate ran into our hall lobby and started to tell me about the strange sounds my computer was making in our room and the smoke that was coming out of it. I almost started to cry - and then, as I darted for my room, she ended her panic with "just kidding." Sam, if you're reading this, don't think I'm not going to get back at you.

So today, I am in front of my beloved blue rectangle blogging at the student union with my headphones in listening to MSTRKRFT. I'm looking outside, and if I walked out there I imagine I would only be able to see five feet in front of me. I can only compare this wind and snow to the great blizzard. And you know what, it figures that my first year in college would mark the resurgence of horrible winter weather. I think someone up there is just trying to make up for the many years I missed out on snow in my life. Okay, thank you Mr. Cloudy Sky, but seriously, I think I've had like a good three years worth of snow withing a couple of months.

It's funny because the first night it was supposed to snow after we got back from Christmas break, I told everyone on my hall that we should do a rain dance so that we wouldn't have classes the next day - so we looked up rain dances on YouTube, and none of us had the guts to do the dance or say whatever it is the dancer was saying, so we just danced to some rap music instead. I guess it worked because the next day, school was canceled, and we didn't go into class until 11:00 the next day. The next week they called for a blizzard - and now the sky looks like chaos. I regret any rain dances that we unintentionally performed, and I would like to apologize to the general public.

At this point in my blog, I would like to mention two things. First, this year has broken many winter records for the town of Boone, and this weather only occurs in 50ish year cycles, unless some drastic global warming crisis takes place in the next couple years. Second, I get all my Boone weather from Ray's Weather. He's a computer science professor here, and we blame him for all the bad weather we get (not really). All of his stuff is so accurate, it makes you wonder if he's causing it... Suspicion...

An Introduction to Apocalypto

2010-02-21T20:56:00.001-05:00

I hate to hate on movies, but there comes a time in everyone’s life where one must watch a historic adaptation. Most children start with the lovely Disney classic Pocahontas. I loved Pocahontas. I wanted to be Pocahontas. I had Pocahontas pajamas – but I wanted to be the Disney Pocahontas – the less than real Pocahontas, where John Smith was in love with you and your grandmother sometimes took the form of a tree.

When I entered the third grade, history, in my book, was rewritten. Pocahontas had been a key part of establishing good relationships with old world immigrants, but the rest of the Disney story had been total crap. John Smith and Pocahontas had never gotten together. Trees can’t talk.

One may argue that the essence of the story had been preserved, but I thought the singing and dancing had ruined it thus far. If everything had been hunky dory by the end credits, then why have millions of Native Americans suffered (and still suffer)?

So this is about as far as I’ve gotten on my paper that is supposed to be about the Maya. Yes, now you might see my problem. Pocahontas was not living in the post-classic Mayan civilization. I love Tchaikovsky.

Snow, Saints, and Gas Laws

2010-02-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, it snowed.
Today, the Saints won the Super Bowl.
Tomorrow, I have a chemistry exam.

The fate of the world lies in one weekend.

...What they do.

2010-02-01T23:23:00.001-05:00

If this entire post gets censored, I apologize - that includes you Clarke and Meredith.

Let me tell you about where I'm from.

Greenville, North Carolina is a funny town. It's centered in the Eastern North Carolina Bible belt. Its temperature can only be compared to hades - and the surrounding Baptists are convinced that this rise in temperature correlates to the morality of the college students at East Carolina University. Anyone under the age of 23 is considered a heathen unless they have attended private schools for the majority of their life and they have perfect church attendance (that means both Sunday services, Bible study, and the Wednesday night service).

So my parents were very much aware of the religious craze in the quiet town, so they attempted to find a church (because they liked the God aspect, not the religious one). We found one, and I still attend this church, but then this church formed a little private school - the school I attended for four years.

Well, as I was at the normal private school, I was able to avoid any kind of total indoctrination, however, I always received an extremely skewed view of things - and today I write to tell you the story of the visiting scientist.

Since we were at a Christian school, it was mandatory that we all agree that the world was less than ten thousand years old - no matter what kind of evidence was out there, it was demanded of us that we agree that global warming doesn't exist (that's another story), and the world is about 6000 years old.

Now I was in the sixth grade, and I was in love with science (both my parents had scientific and medical backgrounds), and when science said the world was billions of years old, science was going to be right. So secretly, in my mind, I disagreed with everything my teacher said. Had I stood up for science, I would have been considered a heretic, and Miss. T would have sent me straight to the principal.

I suppose it was the principal who brought the guest speaker - the lone scientist - the one of maybe ten scientists who agreed with the under 10000 year earth idea.

It was a special event. The school and the church was invited for an special evening "lecture" where the scientist would prove that the earth was a mere six thousand years old. It was funny, because it was this older man and his dedicated wife, and I guess they had never used power point, because he rolled into the lecture with a giant easel made of great prints of graphs and pictures of fossils.

The only picture I really remember was of a fish type creature giving birth to a smaller fish and I suppose the umbilical cord was still attached. The scientist told us this fish had rapidly fossilized, proving the fact that fossilization couldn't happen over millions of years. As he was saying this, my twelve year old mind imagined a fish (an angry mother fish in pain) giving birth to another fish at the foot of a sea volcano. Just when mama fish thought it was over - bam, she gets hit by a volcano eruption. That took two seconds. Maybe that explains the rapid fossilization.

The mother fish had been the scientist's final argument, and as he finished, everyone leapt to their feet in applause, like the hope they had held onto for so long had just been confirmed - that the world was only six thousand years old, and all because of one fish. Being the follower I was, I stood up with them too, confused but overtaken by the emotions incited by a birthing fish. It was a beautiful thing. I think my teacher, who sat maybe two or three feet away, was letting tears roll down her smiling cheeks.

In the end, I convinced myself he was right. I told myself that if the group of 60 people watching the scientist were impressed, I should be impressed too.

I see the mistake of my actions, and I think after the ridiculous performance, I swore to question everything. So that is what I do now. I question things, because nothing is worse than putting your faith in a female fish.

I am by no means calling people out on their beliefs, nor am I putting any system down (other than indoctrination), but I am just showing you where I came from and how it shaped me. I just would like to make the point that there are bigger things to fight over, like world hunger and poverty.

Put your records on - it's FRIDAY!

2010-01-29T13:30:00.007-05:00

At this very moment, students are getting concerned phone calls from their parents - and most of the calls sound like this:

"Did you know they're calling for more than ten inches of snow?"

"Yes, mom. I live here."

"You know you're not going to be able to get out anywhere, right?"

"No mom, I planned on riding my tauntaun* to Wal-mart."

"What's a tauntaun? Is that slang? Are you doing drugs?"

"No, mother."

"Well go to the grocery store and get lots of canned food and a flashlight - oh, and do you still have that first aid kit I sent you?"

"I ran out of supplies when I fell down three flights of stairs in front of Eggers**."

"You fell down some stairs!?! Why didn't you tell me?!?"

"Okay mom, I'm going now... I have, uh, class."

"I love you! Don't do anything stupid on the ice! Call me first thing in the morning!"

[click]

*tauntaun: A camel-like creature from the hit movie The Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker rides one at the beginning of the movie. Here's a picture, and here's a video if you're even more interested.

**Eggers: The dorm with a lot of stairs in front of it. I know someone who tumbled down those stairs.

Update 1/30/2010: You can watch some of the snow here:

What are you gonna do with your life?

2010-01-26T14:48:00.002-05:00

People ask me that question a lot - you know - what's your major? What do you want to do? What field do you plan on entering?

And sadly (or curiously, depending on your outlook), my answer to that question has not changed since I entered high school at the great age of thirteen: I don't know.

I don't know what I want to do. I don't know my major. I don't even have plans for the future. Some people find it "noble" to live the life that "rolls with the punches" or that plays by ear. I find that the more I play by ear, the more lost I tend to get.

Don't get me wrong - the spontaneous life has its advantages. I am stress free most of the time. My friends tell me I'm very open and accepting because I'm never tense about, well, anything. I'm good at being without stress, and I guess if there was an occupation for that, I would succeed. Sure, I could take on a high stress job and live without having a heart attack, but it would hardly be a passion if I wasn't invested in it in the first place.

So what is my passion? Let me tell you: I like stories.

Today, as I was watching Jerry Springer in between afternoon classes, I had a brilliant idea. I was going to write a book about a young adult trying to get on the Jerry Springer show. Here's the plot...

Sherrie is an eighteen year old musician living in the small town of Boone, North Carolina. She has a wonderful boyfriend, and she is content with studying and playing at local shows - that is, until she is discovered by the legendary record label Jive (of Nsync and the Backstreet Boys). Her trip to Hollywood (without her boyfriend - she breaks up when she knows she's going big) is filled with publicity, booze, recklessness, and atrocious Lady Gaga-like fashion.

When her friends abandon her, she feels lonely, but her heart hardens like the Pharaoh. She goes on for 3 years after her rise to stardom, thinking she has conquered her loneliness and her conquest has made her stronger, but suddenly, her label drops her, because her genre (which was a dying genre to begin with) is no longer popular. She tries modify herself, and redefine herself into what is now popular, but it's too late, because she doesn't remember who she is anymore.

She now recalls the love she lost those years ago in Boone. The boyfriend who supported her - and the friends who loved her - they were gone now. Her skin had gotten thick. Her crutches - the money and the fame - were gone. Sherrie was now confined to a one bedroom apartment back in Greenville, North Carolina. She started out again. She started playing shows at the local hookah bar, but she still longed for people in her life.

She needed an audience again. She needed to tell the world that she still loved and cared for her friends. Sherrie called Jerry - Jerry Springer that is, and asked to do a spot on his show. He consented, because at this point in the future, he was no longer allowed to have opposing groups on television, after someone was killed on a live edition of his show. His show was now reserved for the likes of Sherrie, musicians who had lost their spark.

So that day, when people are usually taking their post-lunch nap, Sherrie told the world how she felt. She apologized to her friends. She told her ex-boyfriend that she still loved him. She told her parents she missed them (sorry, I just needed three elements so I thought I'd throw her parents in the mix).

So, in a Deus ex machinae turn of events (look it up), and since the show was still Jerry Springer - Jerry had a surprise up his sleeves. From behind the set walked the boyfriend (his character has no name), Sherrie's friends, and even the family dog, Sparky! They were all reunited on the trashiest show in America. Sherrie went back to school and did a show every now and then. The boyfriend stayed with her and supported her - and eventually he won the lottery, so they were filthy stinkin rich. The end.

So there, Ladies and Gentlemen, is my talent - my passion. I like making up ridiculous stories that have a distorted moral and where the ending is that of a Bollywood film (no offense to the genre, but they do end the same). I dedicate this post to my friend Meredith, who inspired me to write senseless stories, even when I do find them enjoyable to write.

Much love, peace, and Bojangles,

Carrie Gold

A Guide to Hallway Drama

2010-01-23T19:42:00.001-05:00

It happens to everyone. There is drama everywhere - in classrooms, in households, in workplaces, in EVERYWHERE.

I came to Appalachian for a variety of reasons, but one of them was to escape the drama of Greenville, North Carolina - to escape all my acquaintances that would end up going to college down the street at ECU. As it turns out, there is no escape. Your only escape is to know how to handle yourself.

Anytime I think of drama or of a fight, I think of a scene from the movie Mean Girls:

It is too bad we can't just fight it out, right? I mean, things would be so much simpler if after someone threw a few punches, it was all over. People would take sides and winner would take all. Punches or no punches, there is a serious problem on your hands. So today I have made up a step by step guide to clearing the area and avoiding a all out riot.

1. Keep your lips sealed.
>That means don't talk junk about your opponent, not even to your side.
>Don't tell new people about your situation unless they are a person of authority or they have some kind of key to ending the drama.

2. Stay cool. Don't cuss. Don't punch. Just stay cool - it's the biggest challenge, but if you succeed in doing so, it shows your opponent that you have strength.

3. Confront. Unless you are physically threatened, don't bring the whole posse.
>Make sure you've covered steps one and two before step three.

The 3 worst things on the internet.

2010-01-23T19:06:00.000-05:00

3. Pornography

2. YouTube celebrity gossip shows. People who have no insight on anything are starting to judge people that have no insight on anything. Wow.

1. Advertisements that tell say you will get something for free. Like the little flash target that lets you hit three ducks and you get an ipod.

Those are the three worst things on the internet. The end.

Things I Should Not Say

2010-01-22T01:50:00.001-05:00

Have fun storming the castle!

Internet things that shouldn't be allowed:

10. Sensitive women on Facebook.

9. Bad Websites, like a site that sets you up with inmates. Does Not Equal Prison Break.

8. Myspace: It's over.

7. Yahoo Mail. They promised spam protection but there's this Nigerian prince that still needs my 200 dollars!

6. Pictures with animals and captions. Lame.

5. Dancing Baby is too old too fast. I think it turned 10 years old a while ago.

4. Viral videos of cats unless you're these guys!

3, 2, 1... To be continued.

Hello.

2010-01-21T14:17:00.000-05:00

I'm between classes right now. I have awkward breaks because I made sure to schedule my entire life to start after 11 AM, so that I will never have to wake up at 7:30 to get to the CAP building again.

Skipping 8 AM classes really takes a toll on your grade.

Sometimes when I'm bored, I rearrange the furniture in my room. I don't think my roommate likes it, but seriously. If something is left in the same spot for too long, I get annoyed with it. It's not like there is a lot of room to be moving things around. I know people who have closets bigger than this, but maybe I'm expecting too much. I do get free cable.

Whatever will I do...?

2009-11-12T13:09:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I get bored.

Let's face it. I get incredibly bored when everyone is in class and I'm the only one on the hall who doesn't start class till 2 PM on Thursday (which I highly recommend).

Do your homework when you're bored. Just do it. Especially if it's English. Why should you do English when you're bored? Great question.

If you're researching, and you're having the doldrums, there is no better way to cure those doldrums than to dive into and surround yourself with lots of information. Clearly, your mind isn't occupied by anything else, so it will just work out.

One more thing, if it's night time and you get bored, go see some live music, because it's playing like every single night. Here's some right now.

Work that gym

2009-11-06T10:54:00.000-05:00

The freshman 15. Well, I denied it at first, but...

It's about as real as those Snickers rappers in my trash can.

The SRC is this large and intimidating looking recreational building on Rivers Street. It has a rock wall, a track, and probably everything else you ever need to get your heart rate up and your muscles contracting.

Sadly, I have never been to the SRC. I have lived here since August, and I don't think I'll ever go to the SRC, because it is about a 15 minute walk from the east side of campus, and I live on the east side (I gotta represent). I don't like heights, so I won't be climbing any 50 foot walls any time soon.

So you might be thinking, how in the world is this girl going to get any kind of exercise if she doesn't want to walk to the gym?

I found the student union!

Okay, everyone knows about the student union. Every college has a student union. Well get this - there's a gym on the third floor of our student union. It's a five minute walk from where I live.

I went every day this week. That's about two pounds lost. So take that you fifteen pounds!

Homework

2009-10-09T10:58:00.000-04:00

Appalachian State.

I go to school here. I like it here. The weather is slightly bipolar, but other than that, everything's perfect.

Before I came here, I got speeches in High School - you know, the horrible ones that start with "College is a very different bla bla bla." Alright, I admit it. It's different. I have to walk to the dining hall in order to eat. My mom doesn't have a home-cooked meal waiting for me in the oven. I do my own cleaning. I even have to force myself to study.

I'll tell you what's not different. The teachers still want you to succeed. Your friends still want to hang out and do crazy things on the weekends. Your parents still worry about you. You still text during class - I mean, I don't, but...

So maybe your a youngin (and by youngin, I mean not in college), or maybe your an anxious parent, or perhaps your just some guy who stopped by this blog because he searched the word "homework" in Google. Wherever your from, there's absolutely nothing to worry about at ASU.

But here's the stuff you should be worrying about that I chose not to worry about, mostly because I'm lazy:

1. Scholarships/Financial Aid
-It may take days out of your life, but do it, because full tuition sucks. And maybe you can afford full tuition, but not having any spending money because all your funds have been invested in tuition is no fun.

2. Grades
-Yes, that last minute F can bring you down a letter grade. It's tempting to goof off. Don't do it.

3. Go See the World
-I'm not accusing anyone of living in a box, but we all do sometimes, don't you think? You have just spent a year filling out scholarship forms, admissions applications, and scantron sheets. Once you graduate and you have that big summer to lounge around and watch cartoons on the couch, do something! Broaden your horizons. Go walk dogs or start a frisbee team or leave the state/country. Get independent, so that when mom and dad leave you in your 15 by 15 block of home, you know a little bit about yourself already.

Things We Do

2009-09-20T23:37:00.000-04:00

In Cannon, my dorm, rainy, boring days tend to turn into something interesting. This for example:

The Olivia and Carrie dance
by homemadevoodoo

2 Weeks Into This

2009-09-10T13:08:00.001-04:00

Like I said, I'm a freshman at Appalachian State University, home of the Mountaineers and funny little puns on the word "Appal" and "Yosef." Now, I'm not even making this up. When you live on campus or walk around campus, you will find these puns everywhere - in the post office, on the bus, in the dining hall...

Since school has just begun for many college students and high school students, let's start with a little ASU vocabulary lesson, shall we?

Appal Cart: It's not a cart that carries apples! It's the bus that carries students and Boone residents for free!
Appol Corps: It's not the annoying seeds and tough "stuff" inside your apple! It's your freshman orientation group!

And

Clean up after Yosef!
Treat Yosef!
Give Yosef a break!

Here we see that Yosef (our little Mountaineer mascot), is being used in place of the word "yourself."

These are things that you really need to know. Otherwise, you'll be hunting for the Watauga County bus line or an oversized shopping cart filled with apples, when no such things actually exist.