Terra Incognita

will you bleed for me?
The annual Homecoming Blood Drive is today and tomorrow. If you don't have alcohol still coursing through your veins after this weekend's celebration and if you don't carry the possible threat of Mad Cow disease, you should give. (I fit in the latter category. Three months+ in London and I'm ineligible the rest of my life.) The Red Cross will be at the Hearnes Center Fieldhouse from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. today and tomorrow. Go and tell them you're supporting Alpha Chi (because you know you love it).

more greek news
It happened in New York. It happened in London. It happened in Italy. And this morning it happened in Greek Town. A power-outage today meant that too many girls couldn't blow their hair dry. The out-of-commission minifridges meant this morning's beer too warm, leaving many a frat boy without breakfast. What a travesty.

maybe i was spoiled
Jamie Weaver, a senior at my high school and sister of a friend of mine, visited Mizzou last week, interested in the J-School. The wonderful ambassador the the Missouri School of Journalism that I am, I showed her around, answered her questions and introduced her to some people. Our discussion about our high school's newspaper, the Mentor, made me realize how great a background I got in journalism in high school. Especially compared to some of the high schools I'm working with for my job. I create custom, half-page ads for high school publications in the St. Louis, Chicago and Dallas areas. Some of those people -- advisors as well as students -- have no clue what they're talking about. An all-too-common response from a student: "Dimensions? You need to know exact dimensions?" My gut reaction when the adviser would give me an unclear submission date, "What do you mean you don't know your publications schedule and if you're going to have an October issue?!?!?!" The school at the top of my bad list right now is Kirkwood. THEY GAVE THREE DIFFERENT DIMENSION SPECS IN FOUR DAYS!!!! That's enough to drive a girl nuts. And communication between the adviser and the student business manager was messed up, leaving me to chase dead-end phone calls, faxes and emails for three weeks. Other schools on my hit list: Ladue Horton Watkins in St. Louis, and Chicago schools Hinsdale Central and Adali Stephenson.

Allow me to brag about the Mentor for a bit. Even though I was on the yearbook staff, I was in the journalism room enough that I felt like I was just as much a part of that publication. The Mentor is weekly. It's online. It's on real broadsheet newsprint and has real news, sports and feature coverage. Mrs. Wika may have been eccentric, but she gave us good experience.

ps
Jamie talked to Dean Brooks (no not me, silly) who told her that she'd be part of the J-Scholars program and could participate in that FIG (FIG 59, what-what!). So I showed her Mark Twain where she'd live. She thought it was the coolest dorm ever and was ready to move in immediately. I tried not to laugh too hard. Mark Twain, tut-tut. We all know the hard-core J-Scholars were when the FIG was housed in McDavid.