Maximize Madison

Growing up is not as fun as it sounded like when we were younger. I'll take a one way ticket back to 9th grade please!

Over the past few months after graduation I've been realizing that I'm pretty darn miserable in this thing called the "real world." The bills are unbearable, the stupid jobs are tiresome, the close friends are scarce, the amount of alcohol consumed is nearing empty, and the numbers of hairs I've pulled out of my head from frustration of living at home is slowly making me bald.

In Dr. Warner's Leadership class when it was nearing the end of the year, he told us that JMU, while being the best place on earth and a great time to spend your undergraduate career, should not be the "best years of your life" forever. He told us there was more to come, and that there will be better years down the road. Now, I love you Dr. Warner, and I hear ya, but frankly I just don't see that anytime soon. I can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel that supposedly leads me to my better years. I know I just recently graduated and I'm still in recovering mode, but the possibility of having "better years" in my near future is looking positively bleak.

I hate being a pessimistic patty and all, but I guess my message here is that JMU will be some of the best years of your life, so don't waste them. Don't waste them by getting wasted to the point of oblivion every weekend, or not showing up to class, or sitting in your room every night playing world of warcraft. JMU offers so many amazing opportunities for you to grow, meet new people, have new experiences, try out things you never thought you would, challenge your academic strength, and build truly lasting relationships with peers, teachers, advisors, administrators, and many more. Take advantage of that and make the most out of your Madison experience. I'd be a hypocrite if I said don't ever drink and don't ever skip class (sometimes we just need to unwind), but definitely expand your horizons and take more risks - college is your practice for the real world, and trust me, you are gonna need that practice.

Good luck JMU students this year, us alumni are out here waiting for you and we are rooting for you every single step of the way. And please take care of J Maddy for us, we don't want a repeat of April 2010 ;)

Peace & Love,

Candace

Internet Addiction Hypocrisy

When you point a finger, 3 fingers are pointing right back at you.

I am really sick and tired of people judging me and calling me an "internet addict" and that I "have a problem." The reason it bothers me is not because I don't agree that I love the internet and use it every single day and depend on it. I don't know what I'd do without my email, or my internet. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't gchat everyday, or browse the web on my droid. I do depend on it very heavily - but I'm not the only one.

It's funny to me that you judge me saying that I'm on facebook too much or that I love the internet too much, you, the person with the iphone, the droid, or the blackberry. You, the person who wakes up and uses the internet to check the weather and the news. You that uses the internet on your phone or your computer to look up a funny quote or look up a picture. You that checks the movie schedule for the theatre online. You that updates your fantasy football charts online. You that youtubes your favorite shows and videos for a good laugh. You, that lives on the internet in just as many ways, if not more, than I do.

People complain to me saying that I tweet too much or I use facebook too much, and that I'm way too addicted to the internet, but the fact of the matter is that they are giant hypocrites - and that's what I absolutely cannot stand. Everyone uses internet differently: for me, I prefer to use it for social media because I love to connect with many friends. I'm a personable person, so I enjoy contact with people that I cannot physically meet all the time. That's the beauty of the internet - staying connected with whoever and whatever at all times. So whether that be staying connected with the college friends you miss now that you graduated, or staying up to date with your favorite football team, or staying current by reading the news, or watching your favorite old TV shows - it's all the internet, and we all need it. We all couldn't live without it. We all have the right to use the internet for what we so choose, and we all should be given the freedom to do that without being judged or hassled for it.

That's my stance on the issue. I'm very passionate about this because I am constantly fighting with people about it. Get your hands off my facebook and off my twitter, they are mine to enjoy and you all can truly go screw yourselves if you have a problem with it.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Favorite Droid Apps

advanced task killer - kills apps

car home - helps you get what you need while driving

bump - exchange business cards by bumping phones together

barcode scanner - scans items

DC metro transit info - DC metro info, when buses are coming, etc.

calorie counter - helps you map out your diet and exercise

fandango - see what movies are playing

food finder - see what restaurants are around you

fxCamera - really cool camera effects

Google Goggles - scans items and gives you google results for what they are

iheartradio - listen to radio

Key Ring - scan barcodes of your rewards cards and store them in cell

imdb - info on movies

PicSay - photoshop for your phone pictures

pandora - music

places - look up something near you, store, restaurant, etc.

online banking (for your own bank) - do your banking via cell phone

skype - can talk for free! and video chat!

shopsavvy - scan items in store, see prices and info, see which stores surrounding you have the same item for cheaper

shazam - listen to a song and it will tell you what the song is

ringTone - download free ringtones

speak pad - speak what you want it to type, notepad

tippy tipper - tip calculator, really neat

twitter - duh

tunewiki - best music playing app (in my opinion)

youtube - obvi

wikidroid - wikipedia

Double Dominion Titan!

Today I got a call from Christie in the Loudoun County Public Schools Personnel Office to offer me the teaching assistant position for ESL at Dominion High School!

Sure, it doesn't pay too well, and sure, it's not a full teacher position YET, but it's a foot in the door in education and hopefully this time next year I can be prepared to teach in my very own classroom. I'll start off teaching English as a Second Language but eventually I want to be a Spanish teacher. I'm definitely enjoying the comfort of being back at my old high school because I already love my principal and I always have, and I love a lot of my colleagues because they were my old teachers, and I'm obviously loving the 2 minute commute versus the 3 hour commute I was making everyday to Maryland!

So my journey begins on September 1st. I will make my mark in Loudoun County and hopefully prove to them that I am competent enough to be a teacher someday. I may have had to put my dreams on hold for a minute, but I'm not letting them slip out of my fingers forever. Afterall, I just graduated from college a few months ago, I've got lots of life to live and you better believe I'm gonna live it well.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Blocking the Bill collectors

So, I'm pretty much like the real life Rebecca Bloomwood from the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic.

I have a lot of bill collectors calling me all the time, and I just simply don't have anything to give them being a recent college graduate. On top of that, I have the payday loan people calling me every 5 seconds because I (like an idiot) gave them my number thinking it was going to be important since I desperately needed that money, but in the end I never took any money, and now they're begging me to take it. Talk about annoying!

But luckily, mama's got a new droid, which means I can BLOCK calls that I don't want or just send them straight to voicemail. Talk about convenient! So now, I can live spammer and bill collector free. Oh and p.s., I put the bill numbers in my phone as Derek Smeath from Confessions of a Shopaholic - if you get that reference I'll give you $1,000 - oh wait, I'm broke, I forgot!

Peace & Love,

Candace

Transitioning the new Student Body President

Today I met with Andrew Reese, James Madison University's new student body president for the 2010-2011 school year! Andrew is also known as my "little brother" as we created a sister-brother relationship this year in the SGA. I'm so proud of his accomplishments so far and I'm really excited to see what he does with the presidency.

After talking to him today I got a really good vibe from him and I think he's got the tools, the drive, and the skills to make it through the year. But don't think he's doing it all alone, because I equipped him with his very own Student Body President 101 Binder filled with a womping 72 tabs of useful SGA information, along with many google docs, emails, and files that will accompany him into the new year. We've started calling this massive book the "SBP BIBLE" because of it's massive size.

Please note: the student body president has rarely ever had a transition binder in the past, but this year I made it happen, and it took everything out of me! What an exhausting amount of materials to collect! But now he's all set and here's the happy face and the SBP bible to prove it:

Good luck Andrew, make big sis proud this year! And remember, I'm only just a phone call, email, or facebook wall post away :)

Peace & Love,

Candace

10,000th Tweet Celebration!

Today, I am celebrating my 10,000th Tweet!

About 35 tweets ago I noticed I was approaching this momentous mark in my young 2 years of tweeting and I got really excited, but worried that my tweet would be insignificant and that I'd forget about it.

... which, I did forget about! But LUCKILY it was actually a good tweet!

I was so happy when I got a text from Rheanna telling me that I finally had my 10,000th tweet. You know someone's a good friend when they remember the little things that make you happy!

Peace & Love,

Candace

The Sun will come out, Tomorrow

I've had a crappy week, but finally, it's tomorrow and Annie, the sun is coming out.

I recently had a lot of trouble with money and my job, and frankly none of it ended well. But I feel brand new now. I changed my bank, I am buying a new phone, I'm changing my life around, I'm organizing my finances, and I'm starting to get healthy. I am also very lucky to have the friends that I do, because when your family sucks it's always nice to know you can turn to your best friends. I think of the word "family" very loosely anyway. I'm finally starting to feel like me again, which is good because who doesn't want to be themselves? :)

Peace & Love,

Candace