Viva La Viv

This past weekend the “ONU Holiday Spectacular” toured to the Lima Civic Center for our second weekend of shows. We had our first weekend at the Freed Center before Thanksgiving break and got a nice week off before going back into tech for the Lima shows. This show is put on every year in Ada and Lima so luckily it is a well-oiled machine. However with live theatre there is always something bound to go wrong. As I mentioned in my previous blogs I was a swing for this show. That means I learned all the female ensemble tracks and was ready to go on for any of them if they were unable to perform. Unfortunately one of the senior girls got very sick during our last dress rehearsal. I got a text at noon on opening night telling me that I had to perform the majority of her track at that night's show. This was very nerve-wracking because her track had a lot of extra things in it including jumping rope while tap dancing, rollerblading and a small group number. Additionally when somebody wit...

This past semester I have learned so much from our social media simulated internship. While at times it could be challenging I felt that it was a great way for us to apply what we have been learning in class to a realistic situation.  My initial thoughts during the first round of the internship were that it was extremely well-organized and instructive. I was nervous going into it because I wasn't sure what to expect but the program is set up well with many instructive videos and resources. It made completing this internship fairly easy. I appreciated that this internship touched on all the different aspects of social media marketing. It was interesting to learn the difference between organic social posts, paid social posts and influencer posts. Now that I have completed this internship I feel like I am well suited to help others complete it as well in three easy steps.  Step 1: Make sure you watch every video and read every set of directions. The directions are crucial to unde...

Last week’s break was exactly what I needed. I had been feeling extremely anxious and overwhelmed leading up to it. There were so many things going on with my classes and the “ONU Holiday Spectacular” that I felt I couldn't catch a break. Thankfully a week off gave me some much-needed rest and recovery.  My grandpa passed away last month so we decided to visit my grandma in Kansas for Thanksgiving. Since they live so far away we don’t see this side of my family very often. My grandma seemed sad but I think having people in the house really helped her. She also has two cats to keep her company. Their names are Shadow and Skittlefritz. We spent two days relaxing with her before heading over to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving. My grandma is in a phase where she is giving away all her jewelry so all of us cousins got a nice surprise when we arrived. It had been so long since I had seen them that I almost couldn't recognize a few of them. I’m not great at talking to new people ...

In class this week we watched “The Social Dilemma” which was a thought-provoking documentary about the effects of social media on society. I found the dramatized fictional additions to the interview style documentary to be very interesting. They helped to emphasize how torn and out of control our world has become in recent years. The thought of social media taking over got me thinking. I have often heard people discussing the possibility of robots and AI eventually overtaking humanity. They describe it as apocalyptic and invasive. When this is talked about it is often implied that this would take hundreds of years. However this documentary got me thinking that this apocalypse has already happened. If “The Social Dilemma” is correct and society is already so susceptible to being addicted, manipulated and controlled by technology then it doesn't seem like we have much further to go before we can count it as a complete takeover. I liked that the movie emphasized that technology can be...

With opening night tomorrow I can’t help but feel that I am perpetually in tech week. There were four productions this semester and I participated in three of them. I feel constantly exhausted. It feels like it's been months since I’ve gotten the proper amount of sleep to sustain the lifestyle of a musical theatre major. I am extremely excited about Thanksgiving break because it means I might finally catch my breath. Of course I am also excited to see my parents again since I haven't been home since the summer. I think a big hug from them might solve most of my problems. We are flying to Kansas to see my grandma so I’m hoping the week is relaxing enough to rejuvenate me. Immediately after we get back from break we dive into tech week for the second weekend of shows in Lima. These rehearsals are especially exhausting because they include travel time to Lima as well. The nights are sure to be extremely long and sleep will be hard to find.  Nonetheless I am so excited to open this...

When Musical.ly first rebranded itself as TikTok many people were against using the app. I however was very excited to see the new opportunities it offered. I was not disappointed.  I use TikTok daily for various purposes. One of the first ways I use it is to stay updated on the news. I am not the type of person who likes to read an article or watch the news on TV so I often don’t know when something big happens. TikTok has helped me become more up-to-date on current events. I can look something up and get a quick 30-second summary of the issue. I like that I don't have to spend a lot of time searching or watching to understand what's going on. It's both quick and convenient. Another major way I use TikTok is to get reviews for products. Whenever I am shopping for something and I don't know what brand to get I look on TikTok to see what other people recommend. I love that I can see multiple reviews for almost any item all in one place. This has been extremely helpful fo...