Life In The Post Graduation Real-World: Phase II

Well, it has officially been one week since the 2010 General Assembly session adjourned Sine Die and I moved home from Richmond. Thus, I have officially been unemployed for one week, as well. On that front, I had an interview in DC last week and should hear back something from them later this week, and I also have an interview in Richmond this week, so please pray that God creates an opportunity for me wherever I am supposed to end up. :) The upside to not finding a job yet is that I have plenty of time to catch up with family and friends, sleep in, and just relax in general. :) On another optimistic note, spring is here! (hence the pastel spring colored theme change on my blog :) I've been enjoying all of the driving that I've been doing lately, thanks to the gorgeous warm & sunny weather! The coming of spring also seems to have helped get everyone past the gloomy winter blues and into their happy, smiling selves again, which is certainly a positive transition to witness!

I spent yesterday evening enjoying the gorgeous weather with a good friend at the charmingly adorable Charlottesville Downtown Mall. At the suggestion of my friend, we started with dinner at Downtown Thai, which I eagerly agreed to (FYI, I love Thai and Indian food!). We were seated by the window, which was the perfect spot to watch passersby on the street outside while we enjoyed our dinner. I highly recommend the Drunken Noodles with Tofu....absolutely delicious! Afterwards, we went for a stroll around the mall, which was filled with other people who were also out enjoying the beautiful Saturday evening. For dessert, we ordered crepes with strawberries and white chocolate from a little crepes stand that was tucked away on Water Street, but it was certainly a nice find! (I would have never discovered it on my own, but luckily my friend graduated from UVA Law, so he knows many of these hidden treasures that the city has to offer). Needless to say, they were incredibly tasty, but countered the 3.5 mile run that I went on earlier that morning. So much for that Post-Richmond detox diet that I keep saying I'm going to start....maybe tomorrow's the day....haha. Anyway, we had tickets for the Carbon Leaf concert at the recently renovated Jefferson Theater, and had been anticipating the show for several weeks. Having just recently become a fan of this Richmond based band, this was my first time seeing them perform live, and I must say that they put on an impressive, high-energy, toe-tapping show! I will definitely be on the lookout for any of their nearby shows in the future.

On that note, having just gone to the John Mayer concert at JPJ earlier in the week (the tickets were a surprise birthday present from my awesome brother... Mayer was every bit as amazing as I expected, by the way), one of my friends mentioned this morning that I go to a lot of concerts. This led me to take a minute to think back over the concerts that I've been to within the past year and this is the list that I came up with (starting with the most recent):

Carbon Leaf (3/20/10)

John Mayer w/ Michael Franti & Spearhead (3/16/10)

Daughtry (11/09)

Jimmy Buffett (11/09)

Journey (9/09)

Counting Crows w/ Augustana and Michael Franti & Spearhead (9/09)

The Doobie Brothers (8/09)

A Capitol Fourth w/ Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Natasha Bedingfield, and The Jersey Boys cast (7/4/09)

I guess it's pretty obvious that going to concerts is one of my favorite hobbies, but I mean, what's not to love? Nothing beats a night filled with live music & dynamic performances from my favorite musicians...an awesome experience that is shared with family members and/or close friends, not to mention the dancing, singing along together, and fun memories that result! However, as I told my friend, frequent concert-going is an expensive hobby, one that I will unfortunately have to give up should I not find employment soon. This helped me realize my dream (although incredibly farfetched) career.....an entertainment critic! I mean seriously, how cool would that be?! Get paid to attend concerts, plays, films, you name it, and then write a column about it. That would quite possibly be the most enjoyable job that I could ever imagine. Sooo if anyone knows of any newspaper/online blog producers who might be looking to fill such a position, please send them my way!!!! :)

Don't worry, I'm not giving up my day job (er, make that job search) anytime soon.

Hope you all got a chance to go outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather that we were blessed with here in the Valley this weekend! :)

Take care until next time....

Snowed In....Might as well post something

The Virginia Capitol after last weekend's snow

For the second straight weekend, I, like most of you, am snowed in once again. My weekend thus far has consisted of napping, laying on the couch, listening to music, wasting time on Facebook, reading, going to the gym, and oh yeah, eating....A LOT. I returned from the gym earlier (after feeling really guilty about that dark chocolate peanut butter that I scarfed down at lunchtime), with the mindset that I was going to be good for the rest of the evening and save those burned calories for tomorrow's Super Bowl watching party. But, as soon as I got back to the apartment, my roommate says "We should order pizza!" I thought that sounded like a fabulous idea, but was reluctant to admit so at first, as the guilt hit me again, so I attempted to dance around the subject by responding with "Do you really think any place is delivering in this weather?" Well, to make a long story short, it turned out that Papa John's was indeed delivering (and the 2 hour wait that we were told to expect turned out to actually only be a 30 minute wait!). So, 2 parmesan garlic breadsticks, 2 slices of green pepper & onion pizza, 1 container of that infamous garlic dipping sauce, and 1 Diet Coke later (as if the Diet part is supposed to balance out the rest of that meal, ha!), I am again slammed with that guilty feeling of wasting my time at the gym. Maybe I'll order a salad while watching the big game tomorrow....but then again, I wonder how many cheese fries or nachos will be consumed in addition to that salad? Hahaha....okay, enough about food....you know you must be bored when you blog an entire paragraph about eating.

On a random note, one amusing discovery that my roommate and I made a few days ago (and have been enjoying ever since) was that among the plethora of digital cable channels we receive, there's a channel called CMT Pure, which plays country music videos 24-7. (You remember, like the original CMT used to do before it got all corrupted with random TV shows that have nothing to do with country music). This has taken me back to my roots and gotten me back on a country music kick....which makes me miss singing karaoke even more than before, but alas I'll hopefully get a chance to get back to that soon!

Switching topics entirely, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life once session ends in mid-March. I'm not usually one to plan things too far in advance, but having a job is kind of important, so I've been trying to act like a responsible adult and have been working on job applications....so far I just keep hearing back that most stations aren't hiring and won't be for at least several months, and even then, they want someone with "experience." I've decided that "experience" is one of my new least favorite words. In college, everyone advises you to get an internship, because apparently that's supposed to count as experience. So, I heeded their advice, applied to the NJC, got accepted into the program, moved to DC, and completed the internship, (while having the summer of my life in the nation's capital!). I came back to JMU last fall to finish my last semester of undergrad, thinking that I now had the "experience" that I needed to get a job. I mean, I worked for a TV news program in DC, and have lots of hands-on video/studio experience from SMAD classes...that should count for something, right? Well, apparently not....I'm sorry, this wasn't intended to be a rant about my fruitless job search. I'm more than grateful that my current boss so graciously offered me this position, and I realize that many December grads still haven't found even a temporary job yet. It's just discouraging to realize that I'm stuck in a loop wherein I need experience to get a job, but I need a job in order to get experience. In the meantime, I can feel my videography skills getting more and more rusty with each passing day....okay, that may be an exaggeration, but seriously, the saying goes that "if you don't use it, you lose it," and I certainly don't want to lose the skills that my parents paid 3.5 years of tuition for me to learn.

Okay, on that note, I think I'm going to go enjoy a cup of coffee while getting back to more country music videos. Enjoy being snowed in and be careful if you have to venture out in this weather!!!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.....Go Saints! :)

Inauguration Day Pics!!!

Inauguration Day festivities were a blast! I thought I'd share some of the pics I took for those of you who couldn't be there.

Lt. Governor Bolling takes the oath of office.

Governor McDonnell takes the oath of office.

Governor McDonnell gives his Inaugural address.

Fife & Drum Corp. marching in the Inaugural Parade

MRDs!!!!!

First Week of Session Down....Inauguration Day Ahead!

Wow, what a fun-filled first week of working at the GAB! It's been a great experience thus far, although I'm still trying to learn my way around the building and remember whose office is where. LOL. My roommate and I went to Lt. Governor Bolling's Inaugural Celebration at the Science Museum of Virginia on Thursday evening. It was a very nice event and we had a blast....not to mention the fact that it was free, which is always an added bonus! In a little bit, I'll be heading back to the Capitol for Governor McDonnell's Inauguration, followed by the Inaugural parade, and then a celebratory reception at the Marriott sponsored by Americans For Prosperity. It's a happy day for Virginia Republicans, (and we need a morale boost after losing that Senate seat earlier this week)!

Well, I should probably go finish getting ready for the festivities ahead! Have a wonderful (in some cases extended) weekend everyone! :)

A New Year's Resolution....To Post More Often...Ha!

Happy 2010 everyone! I suppose a New Year deserves a new blog post…hopefully now that I’ve graduated I’ll do a better job of posting more frequently, especially since I no longer have the excuse that I’m too busy studying for exams, writing papers, or pulling all-nighters in order to finish final projects. With that being said, I’m in the process of packing up to move to Richmond where I will be working as a session aide for my state senator. After thoroughly enjoying my experience living in D.C. last summer, I'm super excited to move to another capital city where I can observe the legislative process firsthand (not to mention the fact that Richmond has considerably more options for twenty-somethings to spend their free time than my beloved H-burg). I'm also really looking forward to learning more about state government, and can't wait to meet new people! Of course, I'm going to miss everyone back home, along with my JMU friends (it's such a weird feeling not to be getting ready for classes when everyone else is coming back to start a new semester). Alas, I will return in two months and go back to the drawing board in my job search, but that's not even on my radar screen right now....I'm too excited about (and very thankful for) my current opportunity and hope to make the most of it!

On that note, my room currently looks like my closet exploded, so I should probably get back to the packing process. Expect another post once I get settled in at my temporary new place. As always, thanks for reading, God bless, and I hope 2010 is treating you well thus far! :)

The beginning of my last semester at JMU....and the job hunt begins!

Well, I have officially completed my last "first week" of college ever! It's an exciting, yet bittersweet feeling, but I know the battle of conflicting emotions will only increase as the semester progresses and brings about many more realizations of "lasts" as a JMU student. My professors have certainly wasted no time dishing out assignments; I have 6 chapters of assigned reading to complete this afternoon, along with writing a news brief, and getting started on a video project. So much for a gradual transition back into the typical college workload. That's certainly one thing I already miss about my "real world" internship experience in D.C.; when I left the office at the end of the workday, the evening was mine to enjoy (well, with the exception of several reading and reporting assignments for my NJC internship component, but those assignments were nothing compared to a semester full of coursework)! Getting re-acclimated to this concept of having massive amounts of homework is proving to be rough thus far. Then again, I've survived the same transition at the start of every semester for the past 3 years so this should be no different, however, this time there's an added component that I hadn't fully considered until a few days ago: job hunting!

Throughout the summer, I was continuously presented with this seemingly simple question: "So what are your plans for after graduation?" Not being the type of person who plans my life out in advance, I usually responded with something along the lines of "Oh, you know, I'm just gonna look for a job in TV news, or maybe something in politics if the media market still isn't doing any better by then." And so it went that I would provide this rather vague response time after time, taking relative comfort in having the padding of one more semester at JMU standing between me and the real world.

Then, last week, I had a few extra minutes to spare in between classes (but not enough to warrant starting on any homework), so I stopped by the office of someone who has become a mentor-like figure to me over the past year, with the intention of catching up on each other's summer experiences. Well, the conversation quickly turned to him asking me: "So, you're graduating in December...how many resumes have you sent out so far?" I stared back at him with what I'm sure was a comically blank expression on my face. "Well, just one so far," I replied. "But I don't graduate for several months and the jobs that are open need to be filled now; nobody is going to even consider my resume when they see that I can't start working until January!" He then started shaking his head and provided me with some insight that somehow hadn't occurred to me previously: It's better to have your resume on file now so that employers might make note of it if a position opens up when graduation time rolls around, as opposed to receiving and seeing your resume for the first time in January along with 15 others who are applying for the same job. This seemed logical (and I don't have a logical mind, hence why I probably hadn't thought of it before, lol), but despite being the typically relaxed, take-life-as-it-comes-at-me kind of person that I am, now I felt like I was already behind on this whole job hunting process.

Thus, I spent some of my spare time this weekend perusing numerous career search engines and relevant websites, looking for leads on media or political jobs. There doesn't appear to be anything out there currently, unless you have at least 3-5 years of experience, but of course, I'm going to keep looking and praying that the right job will be waiting for me when I graduate. In the meantime, I get to teach myself the art of balancing school and job hunting, without letting senioritis kick in and destroy my GPA. Ha!

Sorry for the rambling personal narrative....I'll aim to post something of actual substance soon! As always, take care and thanks for reading! :)

“From Mean To Green: Why Conservatives Should Conserve”

If you scroll down through my posts to the one about Joe Scarborough’s book promotion event at the NPC, you’ll see that I promised to share my reaction to The Last Best Hope. Well, I know it’s long overdue, but I had a pretty busy summer and now that my internship is complete and I have a few days until classes start up, I’ve had some free time to pick the book back up. Yesterday afternoon, I picked back up where I left off in chapter two, but once I finished reading that chapter and turned to the first page of chapter three I literally started jumping up and down with excitement (this is not an exaggeration, either! LOL). Joe’s clever title gave me the only details I needed to know before reading it that this would be my favorite chapter: “From Mean To Green: Why Conservatives Should Conserve.” Before I read any further, I ran to my desk and grabbed a notebook and a pen. Now, anyone who knows me very well is aware of the fact that I rarely even take notes on reading assignments for my classes, much less on a book that I’m reading for enjoyment’s sake. So, that should give you an idea of how excited I was to learn what Joe had to say about Republicans and the environment. As it turned out, I wanted to jot down nearly every sentence in the chapter and refer to it in this post (yes, it was really that good)! However, that would a) be an infringement of copyright law, and b) take entirely too much time, so I forced myself to narrow down the points/ideas that particularly resonated with me. Alas, here is my summary/review/praise for chapter 3 of The Last Best Hope.

Scarborough begins the chapter with a quote from Ronald Reagan, which begins “What is a conservative after all than one who conserves….” One thing’s for sure, there’s no better way to grab the attention of a devout conservative than by mentioning the Gipper. Great way to draw them in to the topic, Joe! Another effective approach he uses is to state up front that he has no intention of taking a stand one way or the other regarding “global warming, carbon footprints, or how human activity is altering geographic patterns.” Scarborough goes on to say that “those debates only distract from my larger point, which is that now is the time for American conservatives to go green” (99).

Joe argues that “despite the misuse of the environment to promote a radical agenda, now is the time for conservatives to claim the cause of conservation….Why? Because it is both morally right and politically smart” (101). I couldn’t agree with him more! This is exactly what I have been trying to tell my fellow Republicans, though mostly to no avail. But then again, I’m just an ambitious college student, therefore I guess they think that I don’t have enough life experience/knowledge to know what I’m talking about. However, since Joe has a pretty impressive resume, including former congressman representing the first district of Florida, it is my hope that our fellow GOPers will read his book with an open mind, consider his points, and finally come to embrace his views on conservation. Regardless of whether or not our political cohorts will actually step up and join our cause, I applaud Scarborough for his well-versed arguments and his efforts to bring others onboard.

On a related note, Joe also discusses how John McCain’s pro-environment values, once reflected in his senate voting record, were forced to take a backseat after he secured the GOP presidential nomination. “When winning the hearts of his party’s true believers required a shift on the issue, John McCain forgot he was an environmentalist” (106). Scarborough urges a need for this to change, and reminds his readers that if members of today’s Republican Party would stop and trace their roots back to the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, they would realize that conservation has not always been an unpopular concept in the GOP. And when it comes to voter opinion regarding the issue, he points to his own experience as a “green” congressman: “I doubt I ever lost a vote on the right for my environmental stance. But I certainly picked up moderate voters en masse” (110).

Well, with that, I'm still not quite halfway finished with the book (although it's going to be awfully tough for the rest of it to compare to chapter 3 in my opinion, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it nonetheless), but I just had to stop and share my excitement/echo Joe's points/cheer him on while the material was still fresh in my mind. Now, I'm off to resume my reading with chapter 4! :) As always, thanks for reading and please visit your local bookstore to pick up a copy of The Last Best Hope, and when you finish reading it, share it with a friend so the message will be spread far & wide, and then we can get our party back on track!

Well-known Economist Offers Advice For “Winning Back Prosperity”

Last evening, Wall Street Journal economist and editor, Stephen Moore, warned a gathering of several hundred college students about the “axis of evil."

However, he was not implicating the threat of nuclear attacks or terrorist activity from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Instead, he urged a pressing need to defeat the health care, cap & trade, and card check bills-- “three most dreadful pieces of legislation”--that are presently before Congress.

These keynote remarks were directed at an attentive audience of conservative students that filled the grand ballroom of George Washington University’s Marvin Center. The banquet concluded a full day of events that kicked off the beginning of the Young America’s Foundation’s 31^st Annual National Conservative Student Conference.

The conference brings together college students from across the country, and even a handful of international students, to the nation’s capital in order to train them to uphold the conservative movement by spreading its ideals throughout their respective college campuses. Speakers such as Moore provide critiques of liberal policies and aim to motivate students to action.

In his address, titled “Winning Back Prosperity,” Moore discussed the history and implications of the current economic crisis. He even pointed a finger at Republicans of the Bush administration era for squandering away the $200 billion surplus that had been accumulated by 2000 as a result of the effective budgetary policies of the 1994 Republican Revolution. He suggested that Republicans are in disfavor with voters today because “they were supposed to give us limited government, but instead they decided to spend money like drunken sailors."

Moore also took this opportunity to make a case for tax reform, complementing his speech with various charts, graphs, and economic statistics. In order to provide an illustration to demonstrate his point that the rich pay more than their fair share in taxes, Moore presented a relevant scenario to the students.

“Let’s use tonight’s dinner as an example. So let’s say I split this room in half and everyone sitting on the left side of the podium makes up the rich 1% of the tax bracket and all of you on the right side are in the bottom half of the tax bracket. Then, if I divided the bill between you based on the current tax system, the group on my left would have to pay 97% of the tab, while those of you on my right would only have to pay 3% of the whole bill.”

He wrapped up his speech by offering three suggestions for fixing the economy. He called for an 18% flat tax in which everyone, regardless of income bracket, would pay a fixed rate of 18% on income. Second, he encouraged a cap on government spending, and his final proposition—followed by cheers from obvious Ron Paul supporters in the crowd—is for the US to return to the gold standard.

Attendees showed their support with a standing ovation following his remarks.

In addition to Moore, other notable speakers scheduled to address conference attendees this week include Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rich Lowry, Monica Crowley, and Ann Coulter.