There's Something About Sarah

I realized this afternoon that I'm leaving for home in 19 days and classes end in 11 days. It's kind of tripping me out how fast this year went by and that I'll be halfway through college in a few weeks!

I am not even close to being ready for finals and moving out of my room so I'm thinking these last few weeks are going to be pretty crazy. 

Last Thursday I had my last physics lab ever. I'm not going to lie... it was a pretty good feeling. I am officially done with my science course labs for (hopefully) the rest of my life. I just need to get through finals and I'll be done with science courses forever. Can I get an Amen to that?!?

Next week I have my final project due in my Accounting for non-business studentsclass. My group is doing our project on Apple Inc and we've come up with a really awesome investment show to present to our class all about the company and whether or not to invest in it. Last week we filmed our Apple vs PC and Apple vs Blackberry commercials and I'm thinking they are definitely YouTube worthy. It's been a really fun project to work on, but it will be a relief to finally get it done.

Can't wait to see what next semester's classes are going to be like, I hope they're as fun and challenging as the ones I've been taking this year. 

So I recently discovered the epic world of Twitter. I had heard about it before but I didn't really know what it was all about until last week. I made the plunge and got an account and I have literally been hooked ever since.

It's basically just a social networking application that lets you send updates (kind of like facebook statuses) to everyone who's 'following' your page, and then you receive other peoples updates that you are following. It is a pretty simple program but it's simply genius. I'm totally hooked. 

It's become a pretty huge thing and you can follow a bunch of cool people to see what kind of lives they lead day-to-day. I am following Pete Carroll, Steve Jobs, Dane Cook, and a ton of other famous people. Pete Carroll's last update was "Just finished talking ball with Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini in my office..." 

Oh the wonders of modern technology....

Anyways check out www.twitter.com it's pretty fantastic!!

Spring break 09 was way needed. The relaxation by the beach and the family time was just the thing to get me through the rest of the semester. Only 7 weeks left and only 50 days till I'm done with finals!! (yes I counted...)

So pretty much the only interesting thing that happened to me over break was getting pulled over by a cop in Florida... I was going 91 in a 70 mph zone... not my proudest moment. Luckily I just got a warning, apparently the feminine charm actually does work :-)

Also, as a side note, Gossip Girl is good tonight! 

Today I got to check out the computer science Gamepipe Lab and it was ridiculous. Basically students that are taking different computer science classes or who are just interesting in programming and designing computer games can use this lab to make them. They even had a big TV and pretty much every game consul you could possibly imagine so that you could play different games while working on making your own to get creative ideas and to do 'research' on how to design the games so that they're playable. Basically these students get to spend a semester building their own game! 

Apparently they're even starting to build iphone applications and games and then they're selling them on iTunes. I just think it's so cool to get to work on a project with other students that has a tangible end product that you could actually market and sell. 

Maybe I should have been a computer science major.... (but actually... thank goodness I'm not)

I went to Arizona this weekend on the Campus Crusade Spring Retreat. It was absolutely incredible.

First of all, it actually felt like winter there... there was actually enough snow on the ground to make snowmen and have some pretty intense snowball fights!

Secondly, we went to the grand canyon and it was absolutely gorgeous... It is by far the most beautiful place in the United States. If you haven't been GO!

And lastly, it's always a good time hanging out with 50 friends away from USC and just relax and have fun!

 Too bad I now have three midterms this week. That's going to be a blast...

I really hope next semester's classes are better than the the last two. I really don't think I can handle any more physics or math classes. As fun as those three hour physics labs are at 8 a.m. I'm over it. Last semester I took Probability Concepts in Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Calculus 3, Physics 151, and my Arts and Letters GE. This semester I'm taking Statistics, Differential Equations, Physics 152, Database Operations and Management, and Accounting for non-business majors. Can you see the theme? A lot of math and science and very little reading and writing...

Though, I'm still really stoked to be in engineering, I think I'm starting to get burned out on math and science classes. I love reading and writing, learning about social and political issues, and studying history and art. I feel like this year I haven't had enough time to take classes that challenge other right side of my brain, the creative part. 

Hopefully, next semester I will have more room on my schedule to take fun classes outside of the engineering field.... 

This morning, like I do every other morning of the week, I woke up at 7:30 a.m. to get a jump start on my day and go to the gym. However, this morning I had an unsually hard time getting out of my top bunk and going to the bathroom... mostly because I couldn't open my eyes. It took me no time at all to realize something was wrong so instead of going to the gym I made an appointment with the University Health Center.

So to make a long story short.... After waiting 30 minutes at the health center I saw a doctor who only had to look at me for five seconds to realize I had pink eye and write me a prescription. Apparently their new policy is to send the prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy on-campus and then the student must call the pharmacy and make sure the prescription is filled and find out when they should pick it up. So, as soon as I left the doctors I made the call to the on-campus pharmacy and of course... no one answered. I waited an hour and called again and after going through 5 different phone menues and being on hold for 10 minutes I finally get to talk to someone in person and only to have them tell me that the pharmacy hasn't received a prescription for a 'Sarah Miller'.... SOOO I then have to call the Health Center and go through another 5 phone menues and wait on hold for another 10 minutes only to talk to a women who supposedly 'cannot help me' and has to transfer me to another work station that goes straight to voicemail and I am suddenly disconnected. I go through this horrendous process two more times before I finally get a doctor to send over the correct prescription to the pharmacy. At this point I'm starting to think that I'm probably more sick, tired, and frustrated AFTER seeing my doctor than I was before... 

Moral of the story... don't get pink eye, it's a real bummer. 

That story didn't end up being very short after all....

So this weekend I decided my roomies and I needed a new music mix to pump us up during our study breaks and before we go out on the weekends....

I thought about maybe doing a current mix with all the popular songs on the radio right now but then I decided that was a little lame... besides... we could just turn on the radio and listen to all of those. SO instead of doing physics homework I spent an hour compiling all of the old classic songs of the 80s and 90s that we all know and love. 

We're talking... Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney, Blink-182, and Barenaked Ladies, we're talking 50 classic songs of our childhood.

If you're interesting in creating a similar playlist for yourself here's a few ideas for you....

Independent Women- Destiny's Child

Bye Bye Bye- *NSYNC

Oops!...I Did It Again- Britney Spears

Father of Mine- Everclear

Every Morning- Sugar Ray

Try Again- Alliyah

So last week I went to this AfterDark thing at Bovard. Jon Mclaughlin played and he's the John Mayer of the piano and it was amazing. He's my new musician obessesion...

I've also been having these weird desires to get back to my Texan roots and have been listening to Taylor Swift. Her new song Fearless is awesome. She's the type of singer that I like to dance around to with all of my roommates! 

Anyways check out thes other songs I've been rocking out to this week:

Just Dance- Lady GaGa

Live Your Life- T.I.

Renegade- Styx (they're playing at the house of blues club on sunset blvd in a couple of months!!)

Electric Feel- MGMT

There are way too many students at USC who go home every weekend. Even if you do only live 30 minutes away, you still shouldn't be going home every weekend. Though it might be really appealing to have your mom do your laundry and get a home cooked meal, it's college and the weekends are when you should be enjoying USC the most!

That being said... I'm going home this weekend! I haven't seen my family in 2 and a half months and I'm soooo ready for my dad's famous breakfast omlets and not waking up to SAE blasting music across the street! I'm from Texas, so getting to go home for a weekend is a rare treat. A ton of my friends are from just and hour or two away so they get to go home every once and while. Sometimes it makes me jealous that they can get away from the campus madness anytime they want. But, I also think I appreciate seeing my family more since it's so rare that I get to see them...