Nicki's Sweet Thoughts

Group projects are never something I look forward to. Sure it’s fun to socailize with the people in your group, but normally you get stuck with some bum who never shows up, never has any ideas when he is there and sits there while everyone else works. We’ve all experienced that kind of group partner and I’ll never forget the time I busted a guy because I wasn’t about to let him take advantage of all the hard work I had produced.

It was in my Abnormal Psychology course back at Oakton Community College. The class was small so everyone knew this kid was lazy and good for nothing. There was no attendance rule at Oakton so I think he came to class twice (just to take the tests), that’s fine and there’s nothing wrong with that and I’m sure I would do the same thing BUT if you are paired with a group to work on a project you better make sure to pull your weight.

I was in this group with 4 other people including him and each person had to come up with a 15 minute presentation because we were working on different parts of a disorder. Well, nobody could get ahold of this guy when it came to the time we had to do the presentation. The night before I had to stress out and prepare his part of the presentation for him.

The next day he strolled in expecting us to have done his portion for him. I laughed in his face and told him to leave. I don’t like to be a nark, but that guy was bogus. He failed the course, and I’m glad. Peace out group projects.

My friend Todd and I usually get together every now and then, listen to music drink some wine and he plays the guitar and sings. Last night we did the same thing but for whatever reason I decided to join in. Now, I’m a very outgoing person as you all might have noticed, but I’m totally shy when it comes to singing infront of people.

I seem to think I’m pretty good. My singing voice is very similar to Sheryl Crow and also Fiona Apple. I’ve learned to mold my voice to mimic others. I’ve never sang for anyone before, just based on the simple fact that I get all shy about it.

Well, last night the wine was flowing and my confidence was up so when Todd heard me singing along with him to Champagne Supernova he stopped dead in his tracks to listen to me finish out the chorus. His eyes kind of bulged out of his head. He goes, “you sing? I’ve known you for this long and I haven’t heard you sing? This a problem.”

Then we proceeded to pull up lyrics and chords for Sheryl Crow songs and we were jamming the night away. I got a text from him this morning telling me once again how stunned he was with my singing ability. He plays in a band with his friends and maybe we could have one of those chick bands like Paramore or Flyleaf. Hey, dreams can happen. Maybe I should just put this writing thing to the side. Kidding. But I think it would be fun to do some open mic nights. That sounds like something fun for the upcoming weekends. I’m totally down. You can get my autograph now folks..before I’m famous =)

Have you ever seen anyone eating Pork Rinds? When riding the bus this afternoon, I witnessed an actual person consuming them. There are several myths about how the ingredients react to the human body so I thought I would do a little hunting to find out some dirt on this mysterious snack.

Pork Rinds, known to the English as pork scratchings and pork crackle in Australia are made from the skins of pigs. Isn’t there something really odd about that? Yuck.

I can imagine the dialogue right now:

“What are you eating?”

“Well, I’m consuming the skin of a pig”

That’s real appetizing…

As if that’s not bad enough, apparently, any fat that is attached to the skin is cooked right in with everything else. So basically what these Rinds are is 100% fat which means 100% clogged arteries. Not only are these Pork Rinds sold as a snack, in the form of a crispy chip, but I guess you can serve them warm as well. Interesting.

When George H. W. Bush was president, he once said Pork Rinds were his favorite snack. He must have been a real healthy man. Maybe that’s part of the reason why his son turned out to be such a bumbling idiot.

No, in all honesty here, I know that most everything these days will give us cancer or some crazy disease. We are constantly being told, this is bad for you, this will give you cancer, this will lower your fertility rate, you might go blind from eating that.

There are just some foods out there that are just too gross to even look at. We consume enough sickening food here in the United States, lets just take Pork Rinds out of the picture, along with Spam. Done and done.

I’ll never forget the day I found out that people used this thing on their computers called the World Wide Web. What is this? I wondered. At first, I was totally addicted to downloading music online. I couldn’t believe this was possible! The idea of not having to download the entire album was seriously amazing. Sitting in front of my computer for 30 minutes just waiting for one song to finish downloading was like a living hell. I was insanely addicted to AOL and talking to my friends online.

My obsession got so bad that I would wake up in the middle of the night and sneak online (since I was only allowed 30 minutes a day). My parents actually had to take the internet away once because they thought it was the devil. They didn’t understand why anyone would need to do anything online. E-Mail? You can just send things through the mail Nicki! Instant messaging? Call them!! This was of course before texting and all of those other things that take over my life now.

If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have believed my eyes. The fact that I seem to spend the entire day online is kind of scary. There’s always something to learn, something to read, something to laugh at. Of course I spend a huge amount of my income on downloading music off ITunes, but everyone has their vice right? Anything I would ever want to know I can find out in a matter of seconds and a click of the mouse. Needless to say I don’t talk to my friends online anymore through instant messenger and even Facebook is starting to get old but I love the internet. When I’m not at home on my computer, I’m on my Blackberry on the internet. It’s rather sad.

In a lot of ways, I think the internet has made us lazy. I read novels sure, but when I need to look up information I rarely use books anymore. Sure, there’s a lot of faulty information out there on the web, but you just have to know what’s useful and what’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who just locks themselves in their rooms. I spend a lot of time doing other things too. Sheesh, it’s not that big of a problem, but the first thing I do when I get home is jump on the computer. There I said it. Internet, I love you.

Drew Peterson feeds off all of the attention the media is giving him so we need to take the spotlight off him. He wants the interviews, he wants the stories, he wants the cameras in his face! NBC did an exclusive interview with both Peterson and his current 24-year-old fiance. Stacy Peterson has still not be found so I don’t see why this young woman would put her life in danger by being with this man. There’s something wrong here. I think the whole situation is fishy and the girl is a complete ditz. She can’t even give solid examples of why she thinks Drew is innocent. I believe a lot of the instances that have occured since Stacy Peterson has gone missing have been publicity stunts.

First of all I find something wrong with a 24-year-old being with someone who could be their father, but that’s a whole other story. Last week the big story was that her father helped her move out of Peterson’s home and now this week she has moved back in. Nobody supports this relationship so why would she still consider to date this man?

She describes him as caring, loving and sweet. It’s always the psychopaths who are able to fool everyone into thinking they are the nice guy. Look out there little lady or else you’ll end up in a body bag. Nobody wants that.

I always enjoy holidays. They give me a reason to act silly, dress silly and just plain have fun. Valentines Day is no exception to this rule. I think I’ve had an actual “Valentine” once out of all my years on planet earth. Having a Valentine is not what makes Valentines Day special, I think it’s just being around people who you love.

I like hearts, I like drawing them, and I enjoy the color scheme. I will wear heart beads to work this weekend and I’m sure everyone will be jealous. The one thing that bothers me about Valentines Day is the fact that I always get asked by at least a handful of random people, do I have a Valentine? Who cares! Half the time I want to smack that stupid smirk right off their faces when they ask me, but that would be mean right?

This year, my dog Minnie is my valentine, so why don’t I just take a picture of her, cut it out and paste it to my shirt with a pink heart around it so people stop asking useless questions. That sounds like the perfect plan.

If you really want to know how I feel about the actual idea behind Valentines Day then I will tell you. I think it’s an ungenuine time of the year when people who are in a relationship are forced to go along with society and pamper their significant other. Every day should be Valentines Day when people are in relationships because every day should be special. If the bum you’re dating isn’t doing anything special for you all year round then why be with the shmuck? Sure, VDay is a chance for all these men to redeem themselves, but it’s one day out of the year!

I will give you all an example that I feel suits this arguement very well. My roommate and her boyfriend. I have the unfortunate pleasure to live with both my roommate and her boyfriend..actually, they live with me, but that’s neither here nor there. So, they have been dating for close to 3 years now and I think he’s a total loser. Of course she thinks he’s great and I keep asking her to give me examples of why she feels this way. All they do is lay around the house together. Apparantly that constitutes a good time. Whatever. He never does anything fun with her, or suprises her with flowers or little things or takes her out to dinner. He just doesn’t try. For Valentines Day he goes all out though, and I know it’s to shut her up for all the things he “doesn’t” do throughout the year. There are so many red and pink nic nacs around the apartment right now it makes me want to vomit. She has been raving to me all week about how he sent her flowers at work. Big deal! Why don’t you tell him to treat you right all-year-round and forget all the stupid shit on Valentines Day. At least that way I wont have to look at all this clutter everywhere.

Bottom line, I think of Valentines Day as more a fun holiday. I get to make heart shaped cookies, wear pink things and cut hearts out of colored construction paper and hang them on the walls. Oh yes, and Minnie is wearing a pink heart sweater right now. Priceless.

As the months go by I feel less and less inclined to take a job in the journalism field. The job cuts, the shrinking newspaper/magazine companies, the madness. Sure the economy is bad, but there are still jobs available. Jobs are shrinking in this field particularly though. I feel that journalism is changing. Now that people can get the news through their cell phones and on the web, most of them are opting out of newspaper subscriptions and purchases.

Big advertising companies who threw their money like it was nothing at these magazines and newspapers are now having to cut back drastically with their ad dollars in this state of economy. Ads are what drive income for publications. Do you know how much it costs to run a full page ad in Cosmopolitan? THOUSANDS of dollars.

With less ads, that means less revenue for publications, less money to pay their workers and less money for opportunity to grow. Job cuts means that the remaining employees are thrown an even larger workload and not compensated for it.

The good thing about this generation of journalists that will be emerging from college is that we are a group of people who know how to do many things. We are not only learning to write, but we are learning how to design websites, how to do HTML formatting, video among other things. We are more computer savvy.

In the future, there will still be magazines and newspapers, but I also see a huge majority of them moving to online only. That’s where I get all of my news anyway, but it will be strange to not hold a newspaper in your hands. At least it would be better for the trees.

I have a Yorkie, Minnie, who is 7 months old and at this point I believe she’s out to ruin my life. Having a puppy is almost like having a child, maybe it’s even worse than that. For the past few months, I’ve been determined to help her master the skill of using the toilet outdoors.

This morning is the perfect example of why I might go insane and suffer from cardiac arrest by the age of 30. I’m sitting on my computer reading the news of the day, sipping my freshly brewed Starbucks Coffee out of my favorite pink heart mug when I see it. Minnie crouches down, and lets it loose. Tinkle.

I think to myself, WOAH…this can’t be happening!! I just let you out less than 15 minutes ago. What is wrong with this situation here?

It’s almost certain that I wont be getting my security deposit back from all the pee stains in the corner of my room by the door. The next apartment that I look for must have wood floors. That’s one the few requests that I have. I like to keep a tight ship, and clearly this furry little monster is throwing all that out the window for me. Shoot.

Potty training dogs is hard, I admit. Potty training “little dogs” is a task which is very hard to complete without pulling hair out of your head. Not only is her bladder smaller, but her attention span is close to zero. All she does is bounce around the room like she’s on crack. 24/7. It never stops.

I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself. Has she tried the puppy pads? YES. I have. She chose to use them once in awhile. When she felt like it. Yorkies are demanding and they seem to think they rule the house. Well, at least that’s what my mom tells me, (she seems to think of herself as a dog expert). She tells me, “Nicki, you must not be training that dog correctly. She’s just not learning!” Well mom, I have news for you. You should take my dog for a week and see how frustrating it is.

Do they make diapers for dogs?