I know... I haven't been posting lately due to an increase of school obligations and zoning out when I don't have those. I have really been left brian lately and haven't wanted to think when I don't have to. Hence the re-watching of Doctor Who and White Collar. Well, I'm going to bullets to update you all on what I have been doing.

• I planned and successfully pulled off a holiday party for my internship for the Career Services office at the school. At the party I made a floating Christmas tree for decoration. I decided that if I was going to throw the party I wanted to become a legend. Which the tree did for me! I also made an assortment of decorations for the party.
• I was promoted at the paper last week to Editor-In-Chief of my school newspaper. This means more responsibility, more editing, and more stress. I'm excited to help out, but am sad that my time as Editor-In-Chief won't last that long, only 10 weeks. Still as everyone keeps telling me, this will boost my resume. Which I will  be busting out to get a job after this quarter is over.
• I pulled out all A's last quarter! This I am very proud of!
• Since Monday, December 5th I have been soda free and drinking lots of water! I am having withdrawal, but reducing caffeine will help me in the future with not relying on it to keep me going all day.  
• I'm taking my first art class since high school and a yoga class. (More Right brian centered!)
• Still single. 
• I started reading The Game of Thrones on my last trip home before Thanksgiving. I spent Thanksgiving in Peoria with Katie Rose and her family. Which was great and hopefully one of the last times I spend that holiday away from my own family. 

Well that is about all the new thing that have happened to me. Nothing exciting has happened. My goal for while will be to update this blog at least once every two weeks and my book blog whenever I finish a good recreational book I'll write a post. I'm starting small so that it will be achieved sooner and make my goal to get it down to once a week by March of next year.

If you want to read more of what I have been writing, aka the school paper, check out this link: the Eagle Online Editions

Till next time!

Toodles!

Finals are OVER!

I just finished my last final and have a few sentences left in my final paper for my online class. I am so happy to be done with these classes. These classes have been working on my last nerve, but the information that I learned is useful and will probably be worked into my career one day. I think of stats as help for menu design and CIS as help for understanding how my computer and it's network function. I knew the basics before and now I fully understand it, besides the anagrams. Those always trip me up. Right now my grades are in the in between stages, like could be an A or B all depending on how well my finals go.

My mother is a saint! I thought I could wait till November to get the next to Potter's. She has sent them to me and I should be getting them tomorrow! I'll have nothing to do with the lack of homework and I'll be reading and finishing up Kingdom Hearts II possibly tonight or tomorrow.

I am going to see The Lion King in 3D today! I can't wait to see it. I remember going to see it in theaters when it first came out with my mom, sister, and someone else I can't really remember. I loved it and now I get to re-experience it.

Have a wonderful day!
Toddles!

Two Weeks Left In My Last Summer Quarter

My summer classes are coming to close, so my life is boring. I have finished all my projects for two of my classes and I'm not stressing over the finals for them. I just have presentations in all my classes and one paper for Shakespeare and its all over! I picked up some books from the library today to pass the time in the coming two weeks. I also think I'll be writing reviews on them and posting them, when I finish. I'll also be spending some quality time on my books in the coming weeks. Time to sit and focus.

I think next week I will go see The Lion King in 3D! I can still remember the first time seeing it in theatres. The theatre right off the highway and when I go home I see it and think of the movie that my mother took me and my sister to go see. That was a rarity for us as a family, but it was great.

I just got some new music, which I am loving! I got the White Tie Affair, new JoJo single, Disaster, and Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All. Plus a lot more. Ever since I had to transfer everything off my internal hard drive to my external I have been lost in my iTunes without playlists or the number of times played. That's how I could tell I like certain songs, because I can't remember names of the good songs!

Have a good day!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

This past weekend I was able to go back to Blue Springs and see my parents. It was pretty nice to have a weekend away from my computer and busy life in the city. I enjoyed the peace and quite of the small town, and have made a plan to bring it back to Chicago with me. I feel like a few nights in, with some good movies or tv shows.

Today is the start of my last few weeks in this quarter and it is now crunch time. I have put together a list of objectives I want done in the next week and one of those includes looking up job opens for when I graduate. I have thought about doing the Disney internship if I don't find a real job before I graduate. I think it would give me experience I need and also great for my resume. Plus, I would really like to go to Disney World or Disney Land and enjoy without kids of my own.

I also was able to get my review book review site on blogger started. I will put a link on the side bar for those of you who read this. I just finished Bitter is the New Black, which I have to say was pretty good. I hope to get that review posted in the next few days, along with my review of Nefertiti.

Have a great week!

Starting to Write Again

I figured it is time to start writing for fun again. I hope that one day someone will pick up something that I wrote and find a little piece of happiness in the book. That is if I ever finish anything I start. I have put writing time into my google calendar, now lets hope this helps me finish this sooner rather than later. I can't really say want I'm writing about but I promise it's something you don't want to miss out on, if and when it gets published, even if I need to come up with a pen name. I should start thinking of a cool one. If you have any suggestions, please put them in the comment box. I would love to see what you all come up with. Now off to writing!

Crazy Life

I know it's been a while since I've written, but my life has picked up right where they left off after I was sick for about two weeks after coming home from Paris and then dealing with a dysfunctional computer. School and newspaper is my life right now, especially the weekend after mid terms. I rocked them out this go round. I was very excited when I found out that I got an A on the hardest one. My reward is roasting a chicken tonight while I write a paper, my life isn't that exciting. I have been reading more, which is amazing. I just finished Nefertiti by Michelle Moran, there will be a review posted soon. I just posted my review of The Boleyn Inheritance, which was an exciting historical fiction. I loved it, a personal perspective of one of the most notorious womanizer in history. Check them out here.

I get to go home for labor day, so I'm making plans to see everyone that I have missed the past few months. My main goal for that weekend is to enjoy wonderful company and tell fun stories of Paris the entire time! 

A Week Back

I have been back in Chicago for a week now and really miss my home in Paris. I have so many good memories from the trip that I could fill a book! Now is the time that I start to filter through them and start the process of saving what I want to keep in physical forms. I went to TJ Maxx and found the most adorable boxes that say Paris all over it to keep all of my little trinkets from there. I now get to print out pictures and all my blog posts to keep in the box for my children to go through when I get older.

Being back has it's advantages though. I have missed my lovely friends and now get to talk to them whenever I want to and get a response in minutes! Yesterday I was able to recreate the yummy tzatziki sauce that I was able to get in Paris. I made so much and it was so easy! Once I get the recipe written I'll think about posting it on here, only if I get a comment saying that you want it.

What Happened to Goodbye

Hello all, I'll be posting on this more after I get back from Paris. I just want to inform you about my new book review on My Crazy Bookself. Check it out! Also check out my Paris blog. Nicole In Paris.

Getting Prepped for Paris

Alright, so I'm not going to be posting on here for a little while because I have a blog for while I am in Paris. I wanted to give you all a heads up to where you should be looking for new posts. I have already a few posts over there so I encourage you to read them for now.

My Blog for Paris:
Nicole In Paris

Now when you get bored over there check out my book reviews over on Tumblr!

My Book Reviews:
My Crazy Bookself

Non-Smoking by 2020

Remember the days when at a restaurant you were asked smoking or non smoking? I do a little, but it is a fuzzy memory that the next generation will not have. When I worked at Golden Corral people asked to be placed in non-smoking, even though there wasn't any smoking on premise. When the bans started I was happy, because I didn't like the amount of smoke that filled the entire restaurant ruining the experience for the non smokers. I believe smoking should be left to the out doors and personal houses and homes. 

I just read an article that says that the CDC, Centers of Disease Control, is predicting by 2020 every state will have a smoking ban. The pressures from the public officials is the main driving force behind the bans. Studies have been done since the beginning of the bans that have shown a decline in childhood asthma and adult heart attacks. This is has only been in the last ten years. It is astonishing that in such a short time there is a significant change. What will happen when everywhere has the ban? Maybe a huge reduction in lung cancer cases because people aren't smoking the same amount or even being exposed to the second hand smoke. 

Click Here for the Original Article

Cleopatra and Vegetarianism

Today I'm watching Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor for the first time. I'm about an hour into the movie and am enjoying it. This is a great way to end this week with. Cleopatra was such an impressive Queen of Egypt, she did whatever she had to do for the throne she desired, even killing her brothers and sister. Being the last great ruler of Egypt, she did her best to keep the Romans at bay by creating relationships with Caesar and Mark Antony. Making sure that her country remained what she loved and cherished. The costumes for the movie are amazing, the colors and fluidity are beautiful. 

Enough about Cleopatra, now on to my possibility of becoming a vegetarian or more specify a Ovo-lacto vegetarian. This is where I am able to eat eggs and dairy products. I figure that I am basically a vegetarian because of being a college student. I love meat don't get me wrong, but I love vegetables too! I want to be able to have more good vegetables than have a little bit of meat. Poultry might be in my diet sometimes, but not as prominent like before. Today I went without meat without intention, so going without might not be that hard. I will not eat tofu though. 

If more people started doing this, the problem of bad animal care might be more manageable. The less animals we eat, the less animals being treated badly and easier it would be to stop the bad companies and encourage the proper healthy ones. I'm not going to preach about how everyone needs to eat in this manner, but that everyone should look at what kinds of meat are entering their bodies. Most of the meat is raised in unhealthy situations, shown in movies like Food Inc. and King Korn, which is why meat is cheap. The better meat is usually more expensive, but the taste and impact to the world are better. 

VIA Brownies

Today I finished Onward by Howard Schultz, and I loved it! I now want to work for the wonderful company of Starbucks! In spirit of finishing the book I decided to make brownies with VIA, instant coffee from Starbucks. The story behind VIA was so touching. The driving force of VIA, aka JAWS to him, was a man named Don Valenia. He worked on JAWS (Just Add Water and Stir) for 20 years, his team helped create the bottle Frappacino and Coffee Ice cream. He died right before the product officially was announced and released to the public. I added my review of the book to my tumblr for reviews. There is a link on to it on the side bar of this blog, and I hope you like My Crazy Bookself. I know that the name is cheesy but I love it. 

This week has been crazy, but yet what week hasn't. I didn't receive a title which stung a little, but I'll survive. The paper had yet to be printed. We just started rowing all eight, but we didn't go out on Monday because our cox slept in. That's just a start of it.

Enjoy the pictures of my brownie making!

Toodles!

Two Weeks Left

Today I counted and I only have two weeks left of rowing, then finals and my trip home. Time is going by so fast. Then after I get back there is about three weeks of nothing and then PARIS. Thinking about it still freaks me out a bit but I get a little more excited. This week the new paper comes out and I have, I think, FIVE articles in it. One is front page and one is on the back! I have taken over the paper it seems. I keep wondering if I'll be gaining a title this week or not. I hope I am, but only the Editor In Chief and our Faculty advisor know at this point. I'll keep everyone posted! 

In the news today I read that even ancient Egyptians had clogged arteries, even though they thought it was a recent disease. Now the researchers are on a mission to figure out the other cause of heart disease, because the ancient Egyptians didn't have a fatty diet like we have today. Part of me just wants to say that it's apart of how we age as humans, because if they found it in the ancient Egyptians who knows who else had this problem. Maybe in the future they can find a cure to heart disease, but right now people just need to eat the proper foods to keep nature in it's place. I'll be trying to eat better, but as everyone knows its easier to say it than to actually do it. Wish me luck!

Toodles!

Missing Flight

The Spring Quarter is almost done...Less than three weeks till the end! Then I leave for Paris at the beginning of June! I am getting more excited everyday but I'm going to miss all my wonderful friends here in Chicago. I'll be missing Panera Wednesdays with Katie. The weather here is crazy! Everyone keeps saying that it's supposed to  rain, but I haven't seen a drop. I just want it to rain and get it over with so that the summer will be here! 

So yesterday, April 5th, it was announced that they found the missing plane from June 2009 on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It still amazes me that it was just lost with no idea what happened. Hopefully they can get the black boxes to tell us what the last moments were like. I hope that they leave the remains of the passengers where they are, they are in their resting place for two years and shouldn't be disturbed. It reminds me of what happened with Titanic. We left those remains where they were, so why not with the flight. Only time will tell us what will happen with the remains. 

This happening worries me about my flight over to France, but then it gives me more confidence on how they are conducting flights. Mistakes are how we learn and how we adjust. Without them life wouldn't be exciting, even though this flight was tragic we hung on to every word when it was announced.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat!

Rowing is one of the best things that happened to me, even though we are going on the ergs more than what we should be due to the lack of a cox. A cox is the in boat coach and steers the boat. We have had a cox, but she isn't working out every well. The last time we got out on the water we learned how to feather, which is when the oar is out of the water and parallel to it. I'll be looking forward to the fall because we recruited a cox, that knows what is going on, that will be LOVELY! I'm not liking how this one keeps running us into trees and walls. She is getting better day by day but the learning process is slow, if she would show up on time then there wouldn't be such a problem and I really wouldn't be upset and I would understand. 

Being on a team is hard, but no matter what I'll always be on a team, either working, rowing, or just being in a group of friends. Friendship is a team of people getting together to accomplish a goal, like going out to dinner or a vacation to Miami. People can't live without friends, even Sheldon has friends. Being part of a team is inviable but you can make it bearable by surrounding yourself with the right people in all scenarios. I am glad I've surrounded myself with incredible people that keep me motivated. 

Starting to Update More

Since I am going to Paris in about 8 weeks, I decided to get back to my blogging so that everyone that reads this can see what is going on!

Here's a quick recap of what is going on in my life so far:

• I am now on the advertising team for my school newspaper.
• I wrote my first front page article for the April Issue.
• I have a tumblr for my book reviews, but I will also post them here.
• I have an awesome new camera that takes great pictures. 
• Rowing has started back up and there is a possible race this spring,

Sorry my life isn't exciting, but this is my life and I am enjoying the crazy.

Its been a while....Sorry

Well I've been using Tumblr instead of this to document my time in Chicago. So feel free to visit the new site!

koskovich.tumblr.com

Hope you like it!