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Name: Andrew
Birthday: 9/7/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: Journalism, sport watching, apparently political science (who knew?), naive idealism, Christianity (I like-a the Jesus), classic literature, the campus hot chocolate, playing with my little cousin Annica, Ben Folds, folk rock, obscure bands, sleeping, eating, sleeping some more, ummm....I am interested in the ladies, if that counts, too. I am also interested in defeating the Huns. No one likes the Huns...
Expertise: I am the world's foremost authority on the life of Andrew "Scoops McGee" Nash. I am an expert stair climber, a professional journalist, Su says I am "surprisingly emo," I am the Lord of the Awesome, a poor college student, poker player extraordinaire, a stealthy ninja, an awkward speaker, I have a brown belt (it holds up my pants), I know lots of random crap. I once stole a girl's heart. I gave it back. She was pleased. Umm...I'm an expert on obeying the instructions on shampoo bottles (lather, rinse, then optional repeat). I'm also available for kicks and giggles (mainly giggles).
Occupation: Student
Industry: Media
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  abnashman
Member Since:
7/1/2004
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| OK, this post is going to be long. So for my readers who don't like to read, here's the summary: spring break was cool, I have a girlfriend now, I probably have a job and I am a month from graduation. Henceforth, I will provide analysis and explanation.
Spring Break: Our group of 5 girls and myself went to Colorado. We took two cars, and on the way up, the other car hit a dog and messed their car up a bit. I used my automotive knowledge (ha!) to determine that the tire skirt was out of place. So I pushed that on through and solved that problem. The only other problem was that the door wouldn't open. So I got a trusty Leatherman tool and worked on the door a bit to bring it back to normal. Simply put, I fixed a car. Me. Yes, sound the horns of disbelief if you will, but I have witnesses. 5 of them. And some random people in Texas. Anyway, we got there with little other problems of note and we played lots of board games, watched lots of Scrubs and The Office, went to town (Breckenridge) several times, hiked in waist-deep snow and generally had a great time. It was a fun week.
Job: The Wichita internship was really a good plan and I really wanted it and they wanted me. However, when it came down to paying me, it turns out they couldn't. So that avenue closed and I was feeling pretty frustrated. Then Pittsburg, KS, called me. They needed an online director. Temple, TX, also called. I visited both. Pittsburg offered a management position. It has vision, dental, health and life insurance that start after 2 months. It's between KC and Norman. The job would pay in the "30 thousands" and would come with about 9 paid days off this year. The Temple job would be a copy editor position with a rather old paper, and would come with health and life, but only after 5 months. It's between Waco and Austin, TX. The job would pay a bit over $24K and I would get no days off until January. Guess which one I'm planning on accepting tomorrow? Plus: Pittsburg has opportunities for advancement, a relatively young staff and a good corporate backer, all of which Temple could not provide. This also means I might make trips to KC a little bit more often.
Month from Graduation: ROCK ON! I am pretty much done with my Mass Comm. Law class, except for showing up. I am done with my Advanced News Editing class, except for the final, which I'll probably ace. My honors project is coming along, and I should have it done within a week and a half. Modern East Asia is the only class that is undecided. All those others should be As. East Asia has a 6-page paper left and a massive final. So that's the only one that could affect my GPA. And it looks like if I get an A in that class, I'll graduate Summa Cum Laude. If not, then I only *please note I'm being sarcastic here* graduate Magna Cum Laude. I think I'll live.
And now for the most important thing to me, the girlfriend: OK... this will be a longer paragraph. So I have been hanging out with this gang of awesome girls since about September. In fact, they're the group I went to Colorado with. And this one girl, Alyson, has been really good about getting me to open up and she's just been a very good friend for a long time. I just say all that as lead-up. I've known her for a while, and I really had no romantic intentions with her, because I wasn't letting myself think about romance. But she was one of my really good friends. And after we came back from Colorado (where there were admittedly a few flirtations, but nothing concrete), we started flirting on AIM one night. I don't think either of us really knew if were flirting for reals or not, but at any rate, she invited me over to watch a movie (like we often do). As soon as I stepped in the door, she told me "We need to talk." That's always a fun set of words to hear. So she sat me down and told me that she really, really liked me (Official quote: "I really, really like you.") She explained that she has liked me for a while and she just needed to know where I stand so it wouldn't be awkward. And, like a raging idiot, I didn't know what to do. She explained that she really knew me and she liked me. That was pretty impressive. I started to bring up the subject of graduation (which I thought was a big deal) and she said, "I know, and I don't care. You make a bigger deal of that than anyone else does." And then I started to protest something, but she pretty much shot that one down like a champion. So I told her to just let me think a second (again, I am pretty dumb sometimes) and I told her I liked her, too (which I did). But I was still nervous about starting a relationship. At any rate, sitting there thinking about it, I quickly realized that I was making a mountain out of a molehill, and finally just pulled her close and said OK. We sat for 15 minutes just hugging before either of us moved or spoke. And since then, it's been fantastic being with her. She goes to my church (first girl I can say that about) and is already one of my best friends. And it's really strange that the more I discover about her, the more I like about her. We have the same taste in books, humor, and just about everything. My Mom has met her (My mom visited the weekend after Alyson and I got together) and my mom approves (which is good). It is just a relationship that fits like a glove. I can't tell you how great this relationship is. It's so refreshing to be with someone like her. I'm trying to keep myself from being too head-over-heels too fast, but sometimes I don't know if I should try to stop myself on that or not. I think that's going to take some introspection. But I am really happy and I thought you all should know.
Anyway, that's enough for April. I'll update probably one more time before graduation. Ta-ta for now.
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| I hate Korea. Let's just get that out of the way. Stinkin' Koreans. We'll get to why later.
Anyway, it's kind of weird/strange/frightening/traumatic/holy-crap-what-the-heck-is-happening to realize that I graduate in two months. Graduate college. In two months. And unless God comes down on high and decides that journalism majors need graduate degrees (they don't, I've checked.... numerous times), then I'm done with edumacation for good. Egad. That, I think, is scarier than anything. Not that I enjoy midterms or finals or term papers or projects I haven't started yet, but I value education and it's hard to come to terms that I'm done with that. At least formally. I know that sounds backward from, well, everything, but after just about 15 years of formal education, it's weird to near the end. It's strange to go from "What do you want to be when you grow up?" to "Holy crap... I'm grown up."
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Classes right now: so-so. I finally got started on my honors thesis, and I'm about halfway done with that. It's going to be the easiest honors thesis ever. As for my journalism classes, they're going well. Advanced News Editing is getting its socks rocked off by me. Except that is in the passive voice and should be: I am rocking Advanced News Editing's socks off. There we go. And Mass Comm Law is alright. Kerr's a good professor, and I'm getting As on the exams... it's just I haven't even started my main project and we need to have a subject for that chosen by Wednesday.
Then there's my lone history class. Remember, the one I took because it's 1000-level and a history class and interesting? Well, it remains interesting. And today we had our mid-term, and I'm telling you: I hate Korea. I studied harder for that test than probably any other in years (maybe even my life). We had to know 142 terms. I knew almost all of them. So I rocked the essay portion about the Imjin War and the Opium War. Heck yeah for knowledge about wars! Anyway, then we had the old "Identify 4 of these 6 terms" section. I knew 3 of them solidly and destroyed them pretty well. One I had no idea. The other two were Oboi (regent for Chinese emperor Kangxi in the mid-1600s, but that's literally all I knew about him) and Yi Pang-won (explanation will follow). I was pretty sure that she would have wanted more about Oboi, and I didn't know any more. So I went with Yi Pang-won and talked all about how he's this great leader of Korea and such. Turns out I confused Yi Pang-won with his dad, Yi Songgye. Anyway, I have a really detailed answer about Yi Songgye, except she asked for Yi Pang-won. If I'd been able to tell one Korean named Yi apart from his Korean son named Yi, I would have known to write about the other Yi (or at least write the little I knew about Oboi down, because that turns out to be all Oboi ever did... so I would have been right). Then, on the 4-question map section, one of the places we had to label was "Hanyang". I narrowed it down to Korea somewhere, then labeled Seoul and Pusan (only two Korean cities I knew), then just put Hanyang on one of the remaining cities. Turns out: Hanyang is another name for Seoul. Crap. So the best I can expect on this test is a 90, and I'm kind of hovering around that mark anyway. I blame Korea for all of this.
I am trying to pursue the old "getting a job" thing right now. Tulsa seemed interested a few weeks ago in hiring me for a copy editing job, but I haven't heard anything from them in like, two weeks. So I don't know what's up there. And then I have an interview in Wichita this Friday for a summer internship. Which is great, because I love Wichita and the Eagle is a great paper. It's really kind of a dream job for me. But I have to get it first, and until I do: limited worrying. Then there's all the fun pressure I get from people (who are NOT my family.... notice the NOT is intended for sarcasm) who are all "What if you don't get a job? What if you end up homeless and eating Cup-O-Noodles? What if you have a flesh-eating toxin destroy your face which makes newspapers not want to hire you?" That's a lot of fun. I kind of wish I had a job already and didn't have to deal with all this and could just relax.
I'm going to spend spring break in Colorado with my homies (By homies, I mean friends. By friends, I mean: group of girls who happen to be my friends.). This makes me the only guy going, which would normally be a pimp-tastic thing, but this is more like in high school when I went to a Homecoming with a group of friends, all of whom happened to be women. You know what? Ignore everything I just said. Let's just say I'm a one giant knight of a man who can share a Breckenridge condo with five women. Yeah, let's go that way. So, in that vein, HECK YEAH!
Random lyrics of the night by the Postal Service (I want this CD), "Such Great Heights":
"They will see us waving from such great
Heights, 'come down now,' they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away,
'come down now,' but we'll stay..."
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| Alright, so here's the update from me, since I've been kind of lazy and don't update this but once a month now.
School's going alright. I only have three classes. One is Mass Comm. Law. I have had two exams in that class so far. I got a 100 on the first and a 95 on the second. I think I'll be alright in that class. Advanced News Editing seems to be a lot of going-through-the-motions. I haven't really had to try very hard yet in that class, but that's ok. I'm sure I'll do a lot more later on when we get to design and Web design. Then there's East Asia since 1600, which.... I only took it because it seemed easy and fit my schedule. All those dreams have been met so far. I even read a semi-interesting book about samurais for that class. But seriously? It's easy.
Work at The Hub has been going alright, with a few funny exceptions. My OU e-mail has been down for about a month and a half now, and OU is finally getting active about trying to fix it. However, from what I can tell, both times they have tried to fix my e-mail, they have inadvertently shut down the OU server, causing OU e-mail to crash for all students, as well as shutting down The Hub. It's irony at its finest, ladies and gents. Anyway, I'm at least getting the e-mail now, but it's through another site, so... yeah. At least I'm getting e-mail now, but the e-mail still isn't "working." Hilarity abounds.
In more serious stuff, I'm getting frustrated about trying to find a job. I finally got in contact with a lady who is helping me greatly. She has given me a list of about 20 places that are interested in stuff gleaned from my resume. UNFORTUNATELY, I still don't know what I'm supposed to send to these places. I get conlicting messages about what I should and should not send. I finally switched to a one-page resume, only to find that a one-page resume is now "old school." So now I am going to switch back to a two-page resume. Also, no one has a consensus about clips I should send. Some say I need to only send about 6 headline clips. Others want 2-3 byline stories with them. After I wrote the lady to ask what I should send, she had a guy e-mail me, and he said I should send 18-24 clips, including 6 headlines, 2-3 stories, 4 page designs, 2-3 Web designs (I don't have any), and 2-3 before and after edited stories. Sigh. Seriously, I honestly don't know what to do. I think in some ways I'm darned if I do, darned if I don't. I'm kind of frustrated because I need to start sending things out, yet I don't know what I should be sending out. Ugh. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.
And then there's the personal life. It seems every time I run into a cute or interesting or genuinely sweet woman, she is either a) married b) engaged or c) in a long-term relationship with someone. Crap in a hat. It's seriously getting ridiculous. Since when did every cute girl get snatched up by age 21? I mean, I can't believe the world's nice/cute girl supply is running dry already. Add to that the fact that most of my friends (mostly female) are now hooking up with guys, it's just... a bit panic-inducing, you know? It's like: wait, when do I get my nice/cute girl? Some days, it's just a bit hard, you know?
Anyway, that's about all I've got from here. Not much else. In a few weeks, I've got substitute teacher training. That could be fun. I need the extra money, so... we'll see how that goes. Here's this week's Random Lyrics of the Post, by Ben Folds in "Learn to Live with what You Are":
"There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you/While the world is watching
/All you need is the thing you forgotten
/And that's to learn to live with what you are/ So freak out if you wanna
/And I’ll still be here
/Don’t call me for years and when you do
/Yeah, I’ll still be here"
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| Well, it's time for a brief overview of the last month, in quick fashion: Classes ended, 4 A's and one B (TV News... meh)...... made lots of cookies.... went home... went on a cruise for Christmas, and hilarity ensued... went to Atlanta for a church conference, and God ensued... went home for like, 4 days, and family escapades ensued... then came back here to Norman. Oh, and hanging out with Paige, Sonya, Caitlin, Mark, Bryce and others.
Anyway, let's review last year for a moment: Spent all year as online news editor or some title like that. I went just about all year without a girlfriend, which marks the first time since I started dating that I've had a long gap like that. Not that I'm complaining. I'm not. I like being single. It rocks. Um... had a rockin' internship and met some badass friends over the course of the training for that.
This year's prognosis: Life changing year, probably. I graduate, I go out in the real world somewhere, I start kicking rear and taking names.
Anyway, that's all I've got, except for this line from "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You" from the new Ben Folds CD:
"Smile/Like you've got nothing to prove/No matter what you might do/There's always someone out there cooler than you
I know that's hard to believe/But there are people you meet/They're into something that is too big to be
Expressed/Through their clothes/And they'll put up with all the poses you'll throw/And you won't
Even know/that they're not sizing you up/They know your mom f'ed you up/Or maybe let you watch too much TV
But they'll still look in your eyes/To find the human inside/You know there's always something in there to see
Beneath/The veneer/Not everybody made the list this year/Have a beer
Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall/But there's always someone cooler than you
Yeah, you're the shit but you won't be here for long/Oh, there's always someone cooler than you/Yeah, there's always someone cooler than you"
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| Alright, here's the scoop: I don't have a scoop. I know it's sad, but... fine, you coaxed me into it with witty repartee.
School was cancelled Thursday and Friday in what Oklahomans like to call a "miracle." That's right, it snowed so much that they were forced to... how much you ask? well... it was... 3 inches. Yeah... 3 inches. I'm convinced that school officials thought it was cocaine was falling from the sky and ordered students to stay inside. Oh well.
As far as school is concerned, I'm officially done with all assignments for TV News. So that's cool. And we are meeting once in that class for reals (for reals, tomorrow) and then once for lunch on Wednesday. But that class is as done as a well-cooked steak. My history class is over. I worked my tail off (bet you didn't know I had a tail) and finished my 11-page history paper before Thanksgiving. So in response to completing that, my professor promptly gave us our take-home final. It is what the professor calls "the question from Hell." I don't disagree. He expects it to be 7-10 pages. Dag, yo. He's not having lectures anymore so we can work on the final. So we aren't having class anymore, so that's somewhat good. That final is due next Monday morning when the final would have been held. Slightly more urgently, I have a 12-page research paper (5-page easy part already written) due for my Honors Music and Culture class. I have to give a 5-8 minute presentation on that on Thursday, so I'm going to try to have it done by then. Officially, it's due next Monday morning as well. In my History of Journalism class (current grade: over 100), I have the final and one more quiz that we'll do on Wednesday. Then that class is done. In Reporting for Public Affairs, I still have one more reporting assignment left, as well as the final on Friday. To recap the bad news: I have 5 remaining finals/assignments and one presentation in roughly the next week. The good news: I will be done with it all by noon next Monday. Sweet.
At work, I'm officially the online copy chief next semester. Accordingly, I have put posters up and applications are available. They are due tomorrow at 5 p.m. As of now, less than 19 hours away from the deadline, I have received applications from the following people: .... ... ...... yeah, no one's applied. Umm.... so... yeah. I don't know what to think about that.
As far as the Chiefs go, I am so conflicted. We can beat Denver and San Diego and Seattle, but we can't beat Miami and Cleveland? Someone could explain that to me, but I'm to enraged right now. You have to beat those you're expected to beat. Grr.... *head explodes in sports-related anger*. But in good sports-related news, the Oklahoma Sooners won the Big 12! Yes! Sweet Ambrosia of the Gods! And we did it without our best player. Double sweet!
Random Lyrics of the Week, Jimmy Eat World's "The World You Love":
"I got a story it's almost finished/all i need is someone to tell it to/maybe, that's you./our time is borrowed and spent to freely/every minute i have needs to be made up/but how?/i'm looking for a nice way to say/"i'm out."/i want out/
i fall asleep with my friends around me/only place i know, i feel safe/i'm gonna call this home/the open road is still miles away/Hey nothing serious/we still have our fun/oh we had it once/Windows open and close/that's just how it goes
(CHORUS) don't it feel like sunshine after all/the world we love forever, gone/we're only just as happy/as everyone else seems to think we are
i'm in love with the ordinary/i need a simple space/and rest my head/everything gets clear/well i'm a little ashamed for asking/but just a little helps/it gets me straight again/helps me get over it (over it)/it might seem like a dream/but it's real to me
CHORUS
you should see the canals are freezing/you should see me high/you should just be here/be with me here/it doesn't seem theres hope for me/i let you down/but i won't give in now/not for any amount
CHORUS"
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