Link Lovin’

Hi, guys. Thanks for checking in! I know I haven’t been posting that often.

It’s because:

a) I’m on SUMMER BREAK!!!!!! WOOOO!

b) I’m busy with my internship! I work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day! WOOOO?

c) I don’t know whether I should be putting my opinions on this blog. My journalism classes and experiences have got me thinking. Everyone always says to manage your online presence, right? Well, my online presence is pretty clean. I don’t swear online, I don’t post inappropriate pictures to my Facebook and the most profane Tweet I’ve ever published was about a delicious midnight snack.

But here’s the thing. I’m a reporter right now, which means people are counting on me to be as objective as possible. Is it okay for me to have a blog where I say what I really think? I’m a pretty opinionated girl, and my views make up the majority of my posts, which was cool when I wasn’t trying to make a name for myself as a fair and unbiased person. But now, no matter how much I moan and groan about something in real life, I need to think twice about whether it’s okay for me to put on my blog. Online is forever, you know?

But isn’t that self-censorship? As a journalist, I am definitely against censorship. And I don’t ever want to misrepresent myself. Maybe I just need to put a disclaimer on the top of my blog.

Anyway, let’s talk links.

One of the best things about my Orlando Sentinel internship is how much time I have to get caught up on current events. Basically every second I’m not writing stories, I’m reading them. Which means I’ve read some fantastic content lately!

Here are a few of my favorites:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2006/07/the-monster-of-florence/4981/

http://www.salon.com/2012/07/05/thank_you_for_killing_my_novel/

http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/emma-stones-spidey-sense.html

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201103/channing-tatum-wild-one-jessica-pressler

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/anderson-cooper-the-fact-is-im-gay.html

http://deadspin.com/5912230

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Unabombers-Pen-Pal/131892/

And, of course, if you’d like to read any of my stuff, please go right ahead. Here are some of the ones I’m most proud of:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-04/news/os-lk-flag-store-20120704_1_american-flags-flag-day-hot-sales

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-26/news/os-lk-dora-canal-cleanup-20120626_1_dora-canal-cleanup-stumps

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-08/news/os-lk-leesburg-lightning-20120608_1_leesburg-lightning-coach-david-therneau-buddy-lowe-field

Oh! And I can’t forget the best Link of all:

All I’ve Been Doing These Days

is thinking.

Thinking about everything and anything over and over again.

Thinking about how much I want a doughnut right now. Thinking about the cinnamon-sugar bagel with honey almond cream cheese I’ll get at Einstein’s before class tomorrow. Thinking about the stories I write every day. Thinking about this summer, thinking about next year. Thinking about what classes I need to register for. Thinking about how I’m going to get through these next few weeks. Thinking that I need to start my research paper. Thinking that I need to be more and do more. Thinking that I’m not good enough. Thinking that I’m going crazy. Thinking that I need more sleep. Thinking that my computer seems slower, thinking that the hours are flying by faster. Thinking about meals I want to cook. Thinking about how many times I’ve replayed this song – “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri. Thinking how much I want to see The Hunger Games. Thinking I need to update my blog more often. Thinking how much I wish my hair was wavy. Thinking about how badly I need new clothes. Thinking about money (all the time). Thinking about the book series I’m in the middle of, thinking about which books I want to read but I don’t have time for. . .

See what I mean? I’m thinking everything all the time, and I know it’s become over-thinking, but I don’t know how to break the cycle. I need to quit thinking and start doing, and believe me, I have. I think maybe too much doing is causing the too much thinking, but how can I even know for sure? Summer is endlessly daunting and terrifying and nerve-wracking, so I can’t even think of that as the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing these days.

I’ve also been doing a ton of editing, a ton of writing and a ton of bookmarking recipes I want to make with Jeremy.

Like, I saw something called Oreo Butter today. So you’ve heard of cookie butter? It’s that, but made with Oreos. You basically blend up Oreos, heavy cream and canola oil, and it becomes spreadable. Sounds like something he would like, right? We’ll see.

I want a food processor.

My bad habit of chewing on the knots in my iPod headphones has finally broken one side of them, so that kind of sucks. But I guess I brought it upon myself.

Also, if you’re wondering what I’m thinking about the Trayvon Martin case… all I have to say is that I’m watching from a safe distance. From a journalism student’s perspective, it’s truly very interesting to see the media coverage and how the story has spread from Sanford to beyond! People are talking about Sanford – my Sanford, where my elementary school chorus went to sing for a holiday parade, where the mall is, where I grew up – nationally, which is super weird. I wonder if all of the people buzzing about Sanford remember that it used to be the celery capital of the world?

I’m clearly trying to waste time. But truth be told, it kind of feels good to write about myself. Don’t misunderstand me – I spend most of every day talking to fascinating people about the fascinating things they’re doing, and I love it. It just feels good to write what I want, you know?

I’ll stop rambling now. You should spend your time reading something of true value, like this hilarious story about drunk texting. It seriously had me giggling in the library. Enjoy!

Spring Semester So Far By the Numbers

1 exam

1 Signing Gators meeting

3 quizzes

4.5 hours spent coaching Reporting students

7.7 MB of data in my SPRING 2012 folder

10 new Facebook friends

13 credit hours

17 stories edited for Her Campus

19 stories written for The Alligator

20 copies (of the paper in which an obituary I wrote appeared) were picked up by the partner of the late UF director

21 stories edited for Live Music Guide

$82.72 spent in FlexBucks

150+ emails sent

400+ emails received (I wish I was exaggerating)

2011 in Summary

Things I did in 2011:

Learned American Sign Language.

Went the hospital. (Was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis.)

Wrote as a stringer for The Alligator. (Became a *~staff writer~* for spring 2012!)

Made the front page of The Alligator.

Won a scholarship. (Plus the renewal, I guess two, actually.)

Beasted Reporting. (Earned an A!)

Met Forrest Kline of Hellogoodbye. (Saw Hellogoodbye in concert.)

Worked at Math Monkey alllll summer.

Volunteered a whole lot at Heathrow. (You’re welcome, Mom.)

Spent a beautiful week in Murphy, NC with my favorite people.

Celebrated my four-year anniversary with my wonderful boyfriend, Simon.

Cooked a whole bunch of delicious food. (Most recently, baked bacon macaroni and cheese.)

Got tired of writing out my accomplishments. (Incidentally, that is now. Happy 2012, everyone!)

Portrait of a Girl Studying for Her Art History Final

Julia Glum, Smathers Library East, 2011. Photograph. Miserable.

They say that some people find themselves in college…

… I have found Nutella.

Or, rather, rediscovered – my dad made Jono and I sandwiches solely of the spread for a few months in elementary school before we got sick of it – Nutella.

Now, at the recommendation of what seems like the entire world, I have given it another try. I now put it on saltine crackers whenever possible.

Nutella. Nom.

Sophomore Year So Far

Dear blog readers,

I regret to inform you that not much is new in the life of Julia. I’m still stressed, still a Journalism major and still hungry at inappropriate times of night. In fact, I’m ripping open a sleeve of saltine crackers right now.

The biggest thing happening at the moment is the fact that I have a blackhead that seems to be centered directly — and I mean precisely — between my eyebrows. I would measure the tiny distance to emphasize this fact for you guys, but alas, I do not want to leave my warm bed to find a ruler.

In other news, I’m getting published pretty regularly (!!!!!!). Please don’t underestimate my enthusiasm for this! I’m just trying to keep my blog focused on what you might not have heard about me. My family tends to spread information (read: gossip) quickly, so I figure you know most of what’s been going on. Also, to be honest, I write all week long so I don’t ever really feel like blogging.

If you want to catch up on the proof of my prolific-ness (not sure that’s a word), look below. I’ll paste links to everything since the beginning of August.

Her Campus – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Live Music Guide – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

The Independent Florida Alligator (oh yes! I’m a stringer! Sometimes I’m even in print! This is big news! That’s why I’m using so many exclamation points!) – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

See? I’m working hard. Reporting is tough.

I need to go study for my art history exam now. It’s on Thursday, but it’s one of the three grades my professor takes, so I hope I can nail it.

Yours in infrequent updating,

Julia

Summer job recap

So at Math Monkey, we have a set of rules.

They are really just guidelines — you could probably call them strong suggestions — that we use to keep the students from climbing the walls while we’re trying to teach them Magic of 11. The rules are simple, and should be reviewed before each class so as to preemptively nip the mischievous ideas the kids are having before they have time to whisper the plan to their desk partner.

The rules/guidelines/whatever are essentially as follows:

1. Only squeak once. (Context: we have these dog toys that the kids use to ‘ring in’ when they have an answer.)

2. Keep your shoes on at all times.

3. No talking unless hand raised.

4. Ask to go to the bathroom or to get water.

However, after working there for three months, I feel as though the rules should be changed a bit to include more… specific scenarios. You see, the problem with general blanket rules like “no talking” are that the students feel free to interpret them however they want. When the details of a rule are not explicitly explained, their brains think that basically anything goes.

Take the squeakers, for example. They are little gorillas, like this:

The students have at their desks squeakers, a dry erase marker, a dry erase board, and an eraser. Now, the logical combination of those items is marker/eraser/board and then squeaker. However, since there is no rule concerning squeakers except to only squeak them once, the kids make their own combos.

And by that, I mean they draw on the squeakers. During my class. While they are supposed to be paying attention and not destroying the equipment that I am responsible for cleaning with all-purpose bleach Lysol. And by cleaning, I mean scrubbing.

I hope I’ve made myself clear. For the kids who still don’t understand, I propose a new set of rules.

Julia’s rules for Math Monkey classes (MUST BE FOLLOWED AT ALL TIMES):

1. Don’t draw on the squeakers.

2. Don’t draw nipples on the squeakers.

3. Don’t draw smiley faces on the squeakers.

4. Don’t draw mustaches on the squeakers.

5. Don’t draw hearts on the squeakers.

6. Don’t draw polka dots on the squeakers.

7. Don’t write your name on the squeakers. (Seriously, does this even make sense? Now I know who did the crime.)

8. Don’t wear flip flops to class. You will end up trying to fling them across the room for the duration of the class, and I (the teacher) will be angry at you.

9. Don’t spin in your chair. When there are 8 of you spinning in different directions, I feel like I’m going to get seasick.

10. Don’t draw on your board while you’re supposed to be doing math.

11. Don’t walk up to my big dry erase board and rake your fingers through the problems that I’ve written. (WHYYY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THIS?)

12. Don’t ask me how many points you have in the middle of class.

13. If you have something irrelevant to say, like “Today is my aunt’s birthday. She lives in Connecticut and she has a cocker spaniel dog named Charlie and sometimes when we go to her house I get to play tug of war with him and he slobbers on me,” just tell me after class.

14. When I ask you what the answer to a question is, don’t say “diaper.”

15. When we’re skip counting, sit criss cross applesauce.

16. Sit criss cross applesauce.

17. Did you not hear me? I said stop trying to do cartwheels and sit criss cross applesauce.

18. Don’t draw on the squeakers.

Thing(s) That Are Rocking My World Right Now

(Or Have, While I Have Not Been Blogging)

1. The new ABC Family show Switched at Birth

This is, in fact, the motivation behind this blog post. I’m not exactly sure what else is rocking my world, but I wanted to talk about this to someone and my mom doesn’t want to watch it with me.

Admittedly, the premise is pretty cliche – two girls from totally different worlds that find out they were switched at birth. One’s rich with a perfect family, the other is poor and lives with her single mom and grandma. Blah blah blah, typical ABC Family drama (I mean, I guess I can’t exactly expect serious television from them, as they are family-oriented… but man, I love Pretty Little Liars).

Here’s where it gets good: one of the girls is Deaf!!!!!! The actress actually is hearing impaired (and super pretty, although that’s not particularly relevant).

As [most of you] know, I’m taking ASL at UF and I love it. My professor is so awesome (to learn more, watch this. That’s actually the room I have class in!). Look, I’m even on his website – http://drsign.com/storytelling.html (I circled myself, here. I wore my hair wavy that day). That’s why I love this so much!

Seriously you guys, DEAF CULTURE IS SO COOL and that’s what makes this show interesting! (That, and the mom is Marty McFly’s mom from Back to the Future. But back to the point) Like, they showed a scene of the girl at her Deaf school. They showed her mom signing to her while she was driving – with one hand! I always wondered how Deaf people do that! The girl talks with an accent and SimComs with hearing people. She even has a Deaf [boy?]friend. And the show is teaching all of the hearing viewers about Deaf culture! I’ve only watched one episode, but they’ve already talked about namesigns and how it’s taboo to ask for one (or give yourself one), the cochlear implant controversy, and lipreading. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

2. “Tonight, Tonight” by Hot Chelle Rae

Yes, I know that this song sucks. Yes. Yes. Yes. I know that this is not musical brilliance. The lyrics are not particularly impressive. The lead singer’s voice is nothing spectacular. I’m not even sure if you can count the shouting in the chorus as singing. All of that aside, I love it! It’s my jam. Plus, Chord Overstreet is in the music video. What more can a girl want?

Ummm. Okay. I’m tired of listing things for now. I’ll let you know when I think more things up.

So, summer.

I think (????) I may be done with this semester, and therefore, this year, and therefore, my first year at UF. Wow.

Right now is not the time for reflection, though, nor going through pictures. I’m too sick of this semester to do that right now.

Instead, I want to blog frankly about the beginning-of-summer feeling.

It’s so weird. It’s the same every year, you know? And I guess it has been the same every year.

It’s this feeling of crazy hopefulness. It’s this I-can-do-anything-over-the-next-three-months feeling. It’s this combo feeling of warmth and anticipation, it’s this picture in my head of freedom, it’s all these idealistic, optimistic, probably impossible goals constantly flitting in and out of my mind. It’s sweet and sad and crazy and wonderful. It’s unpredictable yet so predictable.

It’s indescribable, I guess is what I’m trying to say. There’s nothing like it. Spring Break is no substitute for this feeling. I don’t think about it all year, but as soon as I’m experiencing it, it’s like, “Yeah, well, that’s spot-on.”

I’ve blogged about it before – here and here and probably elsewhere but it’s 2:02am and I’m not in the mood to do hardcore searching.

Summer also seriously intimidates me. I hate change, and that means that this summer is probably going to be really hard. I feel like I’ve just gotten things under control here, and now I’m expected to leave? (Not that it’s too much different. Right…?) My mind is going to explode.

I just feel like that over the summers — while a lot of stuff admittedly falls together — so much falls apart. I’m so intensely worried about all of that stuff that I can’t sit here and revel in my summer-just-started high because of everything I need to face when I get back home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pumped to go home. I miss having my own room and I REALLY miss my family. But I also don’t miss a lot of things. :\

But hey, good things happen in the summer, right? I don’t need to be totally depressed? I mean, there’s like, vacation and stuff, right? And pool time. And getting tan. And cooking summery foods.

Half of me wants to make some giant list about my summer goals, but the other half says that no way should I, because it’ll just be unrealistic expectations. There are a few things I want to do, like clean my room ASAP and go grocery shopping for good ingredients and stuff.

But really, I’ll tell you what I want: I want to drive around with my boyfriend with the music up really loud, singing along to the songs with the windows down. I want to go on adventures with my friends (and Simon). I want to get tan and go to the beach way too much. I want to make and eat good food and have dozens of playlists and take hundreds of pictures. I just want to be happy.

However, if anything, I become more prolific in the summer… I started blogging four years ago at the beginning of summer.

Crazy, right? We’ll see what happens!