Plans for World Domination

1. Purchase copious amounts of hair dye.
2. Find friends who will allow me to dye their hair.
3. Dye their hair funky colors.
4. Take over people's blogs.

This blog has been taken over by a special guest blogger, Andrew (who has a blog here) . . . Nicole is currently up to her hands in hair and hair dye. She is currently dying someone's hair blue. She just finished up with Erin's, a friend of ours. She might be doing mine next. Not sure. I'm debating it. It's temporary and wouldn't be much hair that was dyed. Plus, I've wanted to do stuff with my hair for a while. It is almost the end of semester too, so a change would be amazing to start Finals Week off with a bang.

Nervous

1. Let someone hack your computer or smart phone. It's interesting to see what they do.
2. Don't let anyone who you don't trust hack your computer or phone.
3. It really is quiet on campus with all the choir kids gone.
4. Don't let nerves get the best of you.

Last night, I had a meeting at my church for a trip I am taking next summer. When I got back to my dorm, I found I had a new text message from Megan: "hey, wanna help me with my speech?" Unlike me, Megan has terrible stage-fright and today, she had an eight-minute speech to present to her oral communications class. We ended up spending about two hours practicing, critiquing, and fixing her speech.

When I ran into Megan this morning at breakfast, she was riddled fear and nerves. Her leg was twitching, her fingers were tapping on the table, and her eyes were darting every-which way. "Megan, what's wrong?" She then looked up at me and said something along the lines that she just wanted it to be over. I found this whole situation to be a bit funny - all that she was doing was giving a speech to her friends on a topic she was passionate about. What was there to be nervous about?

I guess I am coming from the perspective of a person who has spent the last seven years performing on stage and competing. But I wasn't always this way...I used to be scared of even talking with people. I was afraid I was going to stumble over words, then people wouldn't understand me and then I wouldn't be able to get anywhere. I now know this is completely untrue - I was going to stumble, but all I needed to do was start again and not worry too much about my mess up.

Whenever I help someone with a speech or performance (or even when I practice things), they react to their mess-up by either making a funny noise, cussing, or letting their shoulders slump. This does not help with the nerves...it only perpetuates it.

Nerves aren't just present in speeches...they're present in life. Right now, I am heading into finals week. I only have one final, but that's Spanish and I'm not ready at all. I also have a ton of projects to do (a scale-model of a set, a lighting design, a final paper, a revision of a paper, another final paper, and a Spanish oral exam). There is a lot for me to be nervous about. If I don't use my time wisely, I am afraid I won't do well in the class.

But letting myself be nervous about it all won't help. Like Megan has said before on a this post, you have plunge yourself into your work. Nerves get you no where - all it does is take up your time and create a mess of problems you don't need.

Don't let nerves get the best of you.

Peace!

-Nicole

Hack Attack!

1. Smart phones are fun.
2. Trust me.
3. It's so quiet without the choir kids.
4. Speeches are not fatal.

I just hacked Nicole. She's paranoid now I think...

Have an epic day!
-Megan

Best Facebook Hack Ever

1. 3 hour naps are glorious.
2. Twizzlers are yummy.
3. Don't leave your computer open...your Facebook will be hacked.
4. Sometimes crazy things happen.

So Megan left her computer open in my dorm while she ran back to her dorm to grab a few things. So, I hacked her Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. (A 'hack' is when you pose as a person on their profile, often done when the person is gone.) I took my opportunity to write something on her Facebook. So instead of writing another post, I thought I would share what I wrote. Here you go.

Hello world. I am Nicole and Megan made the mistake of leaving her compute open in my dorm while she was running back to her's to grab some stuff. So, I took this opportunity to hack her Facebook and post something for the world to see.

Let me start off by saying it's been quite the adventure the past few months of college. I grew up near Concordia (only about 15 minutes away), so I didn't expect to experience too much change. But boy was I wrong. I grew up an only child living with just my mom. Now I am living with 30 girls, sharing one bathroom and having to figure out a balance with them. I have met people who I never would have had the opportunity to meet otherwise, even though I am only 15 minutes away from home. One of those people is Megan. Megan and I were talking a few days ago about how we probably would have never been friends before college. We aren't completely sure why this is true, but somehow the circumstances and timing were right to make this friendship work.

So here's my little message to you: sometimes crazy things happen. Sometimes you end up tackling someone to the ground and think that now that person is going to hate you...but then you end up connected at the heart and spending hours talking about anything and everything. (Yay Megan!) Or maybe sometimes you are at a football game and you are a little too hyper for your own good and the person next to you leans over and says, "Do you speak whale?" and then you end up being "those girls" on your floor that everyone has to tell to shut up because you are laughing too loud. (Yay Melissa!)

The thing is all this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't let myself be a bit crazy. Maybe sometimes you need to be a bit insane to become sane...who knows?

Well, Megan's back and is currently sitting on a bed, writing what I'm sure is an poem or thought. It's really cool to see - she's sort of in her element.

Ok, that's all I've got. Thanks for reading my hack note.

Peace!

-Nicole