No Risk No Reward

So today I finally got up the nerve to buy some DJ speakers. I took a cab all the way over to the mall and back and pretty much emptied my entire bank account but I got them. I booked a gig at a fundraiser about a week ago and I discovered that it's pretty much impossible to conveniently rent audio equipment in a city like this without a car so I decided to just jump in and buy my own. These speakers are self powered which means that I can just plug them in and they'll run so I don't have to use an amp. This also means that they're really easy to carry around (they're only 47 pounds each) and set up and tear down. If all goes according to plan, they'll pay for themselves in the next couple of months. I also signed up for a car-share service here that lets me rent cars for around three to six dollars an hour. It's a nonprofit organization so they can afford to keep the prices low. This is awesome for me because it means that now I (and my equipment) have a means of transportation from my dorm to pretty much anywhere on campus.

I've been canvassing the frats and other clubs and assessing the need/demand for DJs. From what I've seen, it's actually pretty healthy. So hopefully everything goes well and I now have a new job to replace my old work-study job that I can't do anymore because my work-study money ran out.

Later,

-theFroshPrince

We Now Return

So fall break was pretty nice. I got to go home for a few days to relax and eat real food again. My friends who go to school in-state came down as well which was also nice. We hung out all day Saturday and then went to go see a movie that night. Afterwards we hung out at my house for a while and then they all went home and then back to school,  leaving me at home alone for the rest of the break. The next couple of days I just spent eating (home food is sooooo much better than cafeteria food), hanging out with my family, and enjoying my old room and bed.

While I was home, I also got a chance to stop by my high school. It felt weird being there as a visitor and not a student. I went and saw all of my old teachers and did the whole "How've you been?" thing. Then I came home and got ready to leave for my flight which left at 6 in the morning. And now I'm back, ready to tackle the insane amount of work that I know I'm about to be bombarded with :-)

-theFroshPrince

Please Pardon the Interruption

I'm going to be on my fall break for a few days so I'm going to be on hiatus for a bit.

I'll be back though so don't get in a tizzy.

-theFroshPrince

?uestlove

For those of you who aren't really into big name djs and stuff, this story may not be as exciting to you as it was to me. But it happened so I'm going to tell it. There is a weekly dance party down the street from my dorm once a week and every week they get a different dj to spin for about 6 hours. The party lasts all day and there are people in the street getting their groove on and stuff and it's pretty awesome.

So last week I was walking around campus and I saw posters for ?uestlove who is the drummer for The Roots (a rap group) and also a crazy awesome dj. So I decided to go to the party that week and was just blown away by his skills. I got there a couple of hours before it ended and was just assaulted with an overload of funk. If I didn't know any better I would say that he transported the dance floor in a time machine back to 1981. He was mixing all sorts of crazy disco/funk/late 70's/early 80's disco fusion and he even did a 20 minute Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 montage which was one of the coolest things that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing live. It was awesome.

So afterwards he went outside to go take pictures with people and during that time I snuck a look at the playlists that he made in Serato (the dj program that most djs use nowadays). I noticed that in one of his end-of-the-set playlists he had the song "Convoy" by C.W. McCall. Now this seemed rather odd to me because that is a very, very strange song to end a set like his with. So when he came back in I asked him about and we had a conversation for a few minutes. Then I asked him to sign my iPod. He ended up signing it and also his pick (one of his trademarks) which he promptly gave me (he said he hadn't given anyone his pick before but he was giving it to me because I knew what Convoy was). I had intended to ask him some questions about mixing and where to find music and stuff but I was so excited that I ended up leaving really fast and running back to the dorm to show off my newly acquired treasure.

The moral of the story is that now I'm all excited/motivated about dj'ing again and now I'm going to go work on a mixtape to send to the frats because my work-study is almost gone and I need another job.

-theFroshPrince

You Are Getting Sleepy…

Sleep in college is different than sleep in high school. I think the recommended amount of sleep is somewhere in the vicinity of about 8 hours a day. In college, not so much. The way that classes are spaced out throughout the day makes it possible to get by on 4 to 5 hours of sleep. By this I mean nightly. For example, I typically go to bed anywhere from 3 to 4, and then wake up at around 8 or 9 to go to class at 10. I couldn't do this in high school because I had so much stuff to do all day and if I got that little sleep I would probably die from fatigue. The great thing about college is that classes don't take 7 hours a day. In fact, I only have class for about 3 to 4 hours a day. This means that on average I have 21 and a half hours a day to do whatever I feel like, including napping. Naps are awesome and much more doable in college. You can nap before class, or when you get back from class. Napping in class isn't really viable or necessary in college which is also a change from high school (not that I slept in class or anything…). There are some people who sleep in class, but those are typically the people who were unfortunate enough to have class at 8 in the morning. It's ok though because the people who schedule their classes at 8 are usually the ones responsible enough to learn it on their own outside of class. I'm not that responsible so I start later so that I can stay awake in class and absorb those bountiful nuggets of knowledge.

On the off chance that you were wondering why I decided to write about sleep, right now it's about 2:45 in the morning and for some reason my body doesn't want to go to sleep. It may be because I took a 2-hour nap a few hours ago (I forgot to mention that napping can seriously mess with your sleep schedule). But regardless of the reason, I have decided to make efficient use of my awake time to write this and then maybe even to get ahead in my sociology reading. Maybe.

Sweet Dreams,

-theFroshPrince

Midterms

You always hear people talk about how bad midterms are but you can never really understand it until you get to college and have to deal with them. Midterms stink because they make up anywhere from 10 to 30 percent (or more) of your final grade. And unlike tests in high school, you don't have a lot of midterms. So basically it's this big test that you have to study really hard for because if you don't you're going down. Most of my friends didn't do so hot on their first midterms and have been predictably bummed for the past couple of days. I didn't do so hot either but I like to see the bright side of things. The bright side of my situation is that I finally got the kick in the face that I needed to get motivated. Right now I'm in the process of getting a tutor for a couple of my classes and also for time management. I'm a chronic procrastinator but luckily they have people here who can help alleviate that problem as well. All I have to do is call and set up an appointment and the rest is history. There are all sorts of resources here that I haven't taken advantage of yet and I feel bad because I wouldn't be in this situation if I had.

Oh well, better late than never :-) 

-theFroshPrince

Making Movies

I'm in a film class and it's awesome. There aren't any midterms or tests to study for, we just make movies. And since I love making movies, it's a perfect fit. Don't get me wrong, this is only Film 101 which is just the intro class, but still it's awesome. We don't get to use the really good cameras until Advanced Film, but we do have access to all of the editing software. Our first assignment was to make a short 2-3 minute piece on a place. It could be any place and basically we were supposed to capture the essence of the place with the camera and then cut it all together and add a soundtrack. I did mine on the building that houses our business school because it is notoriously evil. I spent the majority of last week shooting and cutting it all together but it was totally worth it because it's awesome. If I didn't have to remain anonymous I would post it on YouTube but I can't so you'll just have to imagine how great it is :-)

-theFroshPrince

1in4

I interviewed for a group called 1in4 today which is a rape awareness group that has chapters at campuses all over the country. Basically what they do is give presentations to college kids about rape and sexual assault. And while that may seem like kind of an iffy subject, the approach that the group takes is really non-confrontational and effective (a study has shown that on campuses where this presentation is given, rape has decreased by 70 percent), which is why I decided to try out. The group is made up of guys from all grades and most of them are leaders on campus, whether it be student government or political clubs or whatever, most of the male leaders on campus are members. So I had my interview today and it wasn't bad at all really. They just asked me a few questions, had me deliver a short scripted presentation (they emailed it to me ahead of time so that I could prepare), and then the president of the club interviewed me after that. I think it went well and I really want to be a part of this club so I'll let you know when I find out.

-theFroshPrince