Great Goobers Think Alike

This marks the blog's 100th post! Thanks to all of you that read it, there must be at least 4 of you!

I was just reading Travis Cottrell's blog about 5mins ago. His entry was on his new bunny t-shirt. Well, about 4mins ago I went into my closet, and put my bunny shirt on. About 3mins ago I took a picture of it. About 2mins ago I uploaded it to iPhoto. And about one minute ago I began typing what I was doing five minutes ago.I feel like THE MAN right now. My nerdy bunny shirt has now become about 6000x cooler, because Travis Cottrell has the same shirt.

Some say great minds think alike. I don't know how great your mind has to be to where a shirt like this, but I don't care, because Travis Cottrell wears it, and I own it, which makes me feel like the man.

thanks for reading, and Travis, thanks for making me feel like THE MAN.

Tommy the Rescue Pug

My mom volunteers for an organization called Pug Rescue of NorthWest Arkansas. She could explain better what they do, but here's how I see it:

There is money to be made by breeding dogs. There are already more dogs out there than there are families to keep them. So, dogs are killed, by the hundreds, everyday. But, people keep breeding them anyway to make money, and other people keep abandoning their dogs out onto the streets, to be picked up by dog catchers and shelters.

There are probably 2000 dogs in dog shelters all over the state right now. About 15 of those dogs are most likely Chinese Pugs. There are not 15 Arkansas families that want to adopt a Pug right now. More importantly, there are not 15 families in the exact towns as the 15 Pugs.

A few may get saved, but most will likely be euthanized by the pounds. They will be killed because the shelters simply can not keep a dog for the 3-6 months that it takes to get adopted. The odds of families wanting Pugs just are not that good.

This is where Pug Rescue comes in. They swoop down and snatch up the Pugs, and take care of them for however long it takes to find a family. They have a website built to help match potential families with their Pugs. They are only a middle man.

My mom found a Pug named Tommy at a Hot Springs dog shelter. Tommy needs to be brought up to NWA to be taken care of until he can find a home. This could take months. That is time that his current shelter does not have, leaving Tommy only a few weeks before he is given up on, and killed.

I drove to Hot Springs on my way home Friday, and picked up Tommy from his 2x2x3 foot cage in Hot Springs. I just set him in the back of my car, and he rode with me up to Bentonville, where he was handed over to the craziest group of Pug-Lovers I've ever seen. That dog has just gotten saved from likely death by injection, and moved up to a loving bunch of people that are going to spoil him rotten, and then adopt him to a forever home of a caring family.

Check out the Pug Rescue site that they have built, it's a good source of information. Also, if you'd like to know more, email my mom (PugMomma72712@yahoo.com), she would LOVE to tell you about what they do, whether you're ready for a Pug or not.

Tommy was very polite for me, and a good boy for the ride. Whoever gets to eventually adopt him is in for one heck of a dog. Once Tommy gets a good bath, and gets rid of all his crazy fleas in a few days, he's going to be set for life.

(thank you, by the way, for the increase in commenting lately. to comment, simply click the "# comments" button just below this sentence, select "NAME/URL", and enter your first name only. thanks for reading!)

the Drive

Today was a pretty rushed day.

I had my first Biology test this morning. If you called my nerdy voicemail yesterday, you already knew that. I've called people before, and got stuff like, "Hi, you've reached George Bush. I'll be in the office today from nine to five, and be in and out of meetings all day. Sorry I missed you!".

Well, I kind of like that, so I'm going to try it. Every morning. We'll see how it goes. I've already gotten "the business" about that multiple times, so we'll see if it lasts...

My last class was 1pm-1:50pm. I wanted to get on the road to Bentonville ASAP, so I just took my dirty laundry to class, for a quick get-away. I got "the business" there, too. We'll see if I ever do that again...

I'm back in Bentonville now. Sitting in the living room with the parents, trying to relax. Tomorrow will be a day packed full of cheerleading college try-out videos.

HSU Oracle: International Writing Centers Week

This week the Writing Center will host it’s annual “International Writing Centers Week” celebration.

Martha Cooley, Writing Center Director, said “This is always the second week of February – Valentines Week,”.

The celebration is a chance for Writing Centers at colleges around the world to have open houses, offer prizes, and publicize their missions.

The worldwide event, which began in 2006, was originated by the International Writing Center Association.

According to the HSU Writing Center’s Mission Statement, “The HSU Writing Center supports HSU’s mission statement by encouraging students to analyze, synthesize, and articulate the materials they have read, enabling them to produce creative and scholarly papers that are logical critical, and effective.”

Writing Center tutors do not proofread papers. The Writing Center focuses on helping students improve their writing, not on merely fixing one individual piece of writing. The goal of the Writing Center is to produce better writers. Writing Center tutors consist of qualified undergraduate students and Graduate Assistants. The tutors help to identify areas of students’ writing that may need to be improved.

The Writing Center hopes that this special event will continue to bring new faces into the center. The event is designed to show students what the Writing Center has to offer, in the attempt that they will return for tutoring sessions and become better writers.

“We usually have our regular students and other students and faculty who have not been before, visit during this week,” said Cooley.

The Writing Center will still be accepting regular appointments during the week. To schedule an appointment with the writing center, drop by McBrien 108, or call them at (870) 230-5357.

Appointments are recommended, but not required, by the Writing Center staff.

The Writing Center limits their tutoring sessions to twenty minutes. They have found that longer sessions are not effective, and recommend scheduling multiple appointments if more time is necessary.

The HSU Writing Center is open 8a.m.-4:30p.m. Mondays, 8a.m.-5p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, and 8a.m.-3p.m. Fridays. The center will maintain these hours during the week-long celebration.

The goal of the week-long celebration is publicize the Writing Center and its services to students.

The Writing Center team is set and prepared for the week to hit, and has already began dreaming about next year. “I have thought about sponsoring a poetry contest next year and awarding the prize at the end of IWCA Week,” said Cooley.

Three names will be drawn each day for great prizes from the HSU Bookstore and candy.

Cooley said, “It was a big success last year, and we hope to have even more visitors this year.”

I am going to New York City

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Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

Thank you for the over-expected response to the NYC advice plea. I spent the day thinking about it, and have made my decision.

I am going to New York City. And I'm going for free.

Thank you Henderson Oracle for offering me to join in on the trip, late. Thank you Dad for so willingly offering to pick up the plane ticket.

My friend sent me this video, about Apple's new MacBook Wheel.

That was so well done, you'd almost think it was real. Go to Apple.com and look for yourself, there is no MacBook Wheel. But, that video was hilarious, so it had to be shared.

Today was busy, with one newspaper shoot, and one fun shoot. The newspaper shoot was fun too, but not classified so, as it was required.

I pushed a button a few times to snag some Swim Team photos. Henderson calls our team the "Red Wave". I uploaded my favorites to my Flickr Page (the link is always at the top right). You can click on any photo on the blog to get to my Flickr page.

The other shoot was some engagement photos for two of my friends here on campus, Taylor Wood and Jaime Moore. I decided to try something different, and share the button-pushing duties with my friend, a much better photographer, Austin Walker. He has already picked his favorites from the day, and blogged them here.

I've got a newspaper article to write. Thank you for your flood of support about going on the trip. I really appreciate all the comments!