Last Post

This is my last post for the semester. It has been quite the ride here in CreComm. I never thought I would make so many great friends and never thought I would be challenged is so many different ways.

This semester has been quite emotional. I even saw some people tearing up in journalism class today as our instructor talked about the end of the semester.

I feel sad to leave my new class behind and nervous for our new class. However, a very nice fellow CreCommer helped me with an assignment yesterday that is in my class next semester which makes me know it will be okay.

Have a good break everyone! And here is a video that is sure to make everyone feel good no matter what feelings they’ve had about the semester or our new classes.

Book Reading

On Tuesday, November 30, 2010 I attended a book reading of Colleen Sydor's new book for young adults: The McGillicuddy Book of Personal Records at McNally Robinson in Grant Park.

The reading took place in the Prairie Ink restaurant. The crowd was mostly older people, and a large portion seemed to know Sydor personally. 

This is the first novel Sydor has ever written. She described how the story had become the boss of the book in her process of writing it. She also described the eerie feeling that she got when she wrote the book that she had written it before in a past life. She felt like she was more remembering the story than making it up. This experience confirmed her belief in reincarnation as she feels she writes this same story every lifetime. "It might be up there with War and Peace," one lifetime said Sydor.   

Sydor was dressed in head to toe black as she dedicated the reading to all the dogs the people in the audience had. 

The main character of Sydor's new book, Lee is a 13-year-old boy who tries to set personal records. He also collects personal quotes. He tries to set personal records because he is waiting for something to be good at. 

My favourite scene Sydor read was when Ronda, a young girl in the book, is trapped at the bottom of a well and Lee is trying to pull her up by a rope. The interesting thing was the Lee was describing a scene from Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." The clear connection between the current scene in the book, Lee holding a rope, and the old man holding a rope with a large fish on the end in Hemingway's novel. I think it is a clever spot in the story and introduces the element of allegory to young adults, the intended audience for the book. 

I also enjoyed the fact that she started and ended each chapter in the book with quotes from E.E. Cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sue Murphy, and Robert Frost. 

My favourite quote was "You can't win 'em all" which was very true for one of the sections of the book she read and so true in life. 

Be Bad Smell Good AND be hip

Here are some ads that I made in my Desktop Publishing class. These were surprisingly very fun to make. I am by no means an expert at desktop publishing, but I am glad that I am starting to get a hang of it. I think the best part about it is the sense of accomplishment: the fact that I came up with an idea, designed and created it, and have a finished product to show. I hope you you enjoy :) And please let me know what you think of them - good or bad.