Greek Life

Some people believe that sororities are full of partying, “buying” friendship, and it is the equivalent of a cult. The term sorority is defined as,  “A chiefly social organization of women students at a college or university, usually designated by Greek letters.” But in reality it is so much more than that. I am a pledge right now in Gamma Phi Beta and I absolutely love it. A sorority is not about partying or buying your friends, it is deeper than that. It is comparable to a team sport in high school. You are with your sisters multiple days a week for hours upon end and form a strong connection. Being in a sorority is a way to get involved and make the huge campus of Tech seem smaller. Whenever I am walking around campus I always see multiple girls from my sorority and even if I am not good friends with them it is a familiar face with a big smile stretched across it making your day a little brighter. I came to Tech with being friends with around 5 people here, and I am pretty good friends with the girls and boys on my floor in my dorm, but being in a sorority forces you to meet new people and make new friends from different backgrounds which is always great. A sorority typically has 1-2 socials per week with a fraternity where they meet for dinner earlier and then the fraternity hosts an after party later night. This gives us a chance to get connected and form friendships with the other fraternities. One huge component of a sorority is philanthropy work. Each sorority participates in a philanthropy and hosts events for a week in order to raise money for whichever program they are involved with. For example, this week the sorority Delta Gamma is hosting events for their philanthropy, which is called Anchorsplash. The money they raise through other Greek organizations participating in their activities goes toward their goal in helping the blind in the community of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Gamma Phi Beta participates in these activities as we are doing a dance in the talent show this Wednesday at Burrus and it is $5 to attend so come out and support Delta Gamma’s philanthropy! There are several other events that we are participating in as well, but this is a main one.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sorority

Birthday!!

So today is my birthday and I turned nineteen! It was a pretty good day, especially since there was the first snowfall of the season today. This weekend was pretty fun with my friends being here to celebrate my birthday with me. Turning nineteen is very pointless in my opinion. There is nothing special about turning nineteen except for the fact that it is one step closer to turning twenty-one. Every year on my birthday at home my mom stays up late putting streamers up around the house and also blows up balloons and tapes them on the ceiling and the doors, so that when I wake up the whole house is festive. My mom also bakes a vanilla cake with buttercream vanilla icing that is to die for, it is delicious and my favorite. Being away from home on my birthday was not weird but just different of course. Instead of waking up with streamers I woke up with my friends around me and a sign on my door with balloons. Since my mom is not here to bake a cake, she surprised me with ordering campus cookies for me. It was so cute. She got me balloons, a cookie cake, brownies, various cookies, and cookie dipping cups with milk. So this was pretty much my dinner tonight, especially since I did not want to make the hike to a dining hall in the weather. The weather was very surprising considering that yesterday there was a high of 55. I’m not going to lie, getting out of school tomorrow would be great so that I could get some extra hours of sleep. According to the weather channel, there is going to be an additional 1-2 inches of snow tonight, but tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 44 degrees (Weather Channel). Hopefully it warms up tomorrow but to the point where there still is some snow!

Whitney Houston

            There are many amazing and gifted singers in the world. One of my personal favorites is Christina Aguilera. Her personality is a little off par as demonstrated by the way she acts on the show, “The Voice,” but I think that she is one of the most talented and gifted singers of all time. I really wish I could sing but like most people I sound horrible. There are and have been many talented vocalists and musical artists in general our generation. Mariah Carey is one, along with Céline Dion and many other boisterous voices. One artist whose popularity peaked in the 80s and 90s was Whitney Houston. She died yesterday and was found submerged in water in a bathtub in a hotel with multiple pill bottles on the counter. Reports say that she had been drinking the night before and she was taking Xanax and mixing alcohol and Xanax causes drowsiness. The final autopsy is not being revealed until there are toxology tests conducted on her body. Houston’s death on the eve of the Grammy’s stunned all of the celebrities attending and performing since this was a shock and totally out of the blue. The President/CEO of The Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, exclaimed in a statement "Six-time Grammy winner Whitney Houston was one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time who leaves behind a robust musical soundtrack spanning the past three decades.” (Fox news) She is going to be greatly missed by the music industry and her fans and the public. The classic song “I Will Always Love You” is one of my personal favorites and is a very good breakup song I might add. My roommate and I tried to sing this today and let’s just say it did not go so well. But Houston was very talented and it is a shame to see her go.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/02/12/whitney-houston-dead-prescription-drugs-drowned-autopsy/#ixzz1mEgIsudN

Superbowl...

            I am pretty convinced that my dad wished I were a boy instead of a girl. Ever since I was a little girl, around the age of 4, I have been sat in front of the TV every Sunday for football. Both of my parents were born and raised in Pittsburgh so I was bred from birth to be a Steelers fan. There is a home video that my mom has of me when I was two and I had a mini Steelers jersey on with pom-poms and some black and yellow face paint, so I had no choice but to bleed black and yellow growing up. I absolutely love football and I actually want to be a physical therapist for a college or professional team one day hopefully. So being a football fanatic, of course I watched the Superbowl today just like most of America did. I was mostly unbiased going into the game but I wanted the Giants to win so I am happy that they did. However, I wish that the game was more eventful. I have to say that I nodded off a few times in the middle and it did not get intriguing until the last two minutes. Another reason of why I was not impressed or excited during the game was due to the halftime show. I give Madonna props and kudos for looking that good for the age that she is, which is 53, but I just thought the halftime show in general was a little weird and not entertaining. I was thrown off by the Egyption sort of theme and then the other artists who sang along with Madonna. On Twitter there were mixed emotions on the halftime show. Some people liked it but then others did not. According to an analysis by a company who uses a computer algorithm to detect emotional words in social media posts, people on twitter most commonly used the words ,“’amazing,’ ‘great,’ ‘good,’ ‘best,’ ‘bad,’ ‘hating,’…’old,’ ‘seriously,’ and ‘retire,’” when describing their thoughts on the halftime show towards Madonna’s performance (Welsh). The commercials during the Superbowl are typically on point but this year there were only a few that really stuck out to me. I love football and this Superbowl was a bit disappointing. But hopefully next year will be more exciting!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/02/madonnas-super-bowl-halftime-show-divides-twitter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ShowTracker+%28L.A.+Times+-+Show+Tracker%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher