Emily is my Buddy

So...Emily made me this photo album before I left for North Carolina that literally brought me to tears. I mean, I was really emotional! It chronicled our life together from girl scouts to college, showing images of every school play, cookie party, and college party in between. Then it hit me - Emily and I have been friends longer than most people in our generation will be married (sad, but true). I wanted to repay in my own geeky way so I made this Prezi...Enjoy, Emily!

The Amazing Adventures of Emily and Denise on Prezi

Embunny: The Art of Unemployment, Hereafter Known as "Postgraduate Bliss"

While Oolong is busy preparing to save lives, Sammy to save the physical world, Grass to save the internets and North Carolina, and Chris Seale to save.... academia?.... Embunny is busy with some of her own, equally challenging and blissful activities:

Saving postgraduate hope and quality of life.

Embunny finished her indentured servitude to the

Alumni Association mid-June, packed her bags, and moved back to her family home of 16 years. Severing ties with Charlottesville (minus midsummers, Grammy, and necessitated returns for OSG family dinners), Embunny felt free, free as could be. She ignored her inbox. She went museum-hopping. She gave her lifesamples blog some TLC. She caught up on America's Next Top Model reruns, 2009 and 2010 blockbuster hits, and developed a new addiction to HGTV. She embraced new culinary endeavors, branching out of the baking realm and touching raw meat for the first time... ever. An ill-fated "pita night" aside, she cooked dinner for her family each night and embraced her true calling as a

housewife. She traveled from city to city, across Virginia, living out of her car and visiting friends. Ferry rides, fruit picking, water aerobics, zumba classes, Trader Joe's, a weekly kickball and flip-cup league, going to the lake, 1000 piece puzzles, and a nightly glass of wine have made up the majority of Embunny's time.

That's right, all you world-saving, employed, salaried, studious, educated, driven, and going-places-in-life OSG followers - you're jealous.

Now I'm off to paint a wardrobe and cabinet with a nice nightcap of Cabernet Sauvignon.

As you all can tell, the majority of OSG are truly enjoying their summers... Some of us thought it would be a good idea to put off writing our theses until the summer after graduation so that Finals Week and graduation and job searching and last hurrah's wouldn't get in the way. Sounds like a great idea, right?

WRONG!!!!!!! When you walk that stage at graduation, all motivation, at least of an academic nature, is completely shot for the next three months! Don't even think about planning an enjoyable post-grad summer spent leisurely churning out pages of your thesis in between responding to job postings and weekend visits to family and friends. It just doesn't work!

If you're as foolish as some of us, you will be spending countless hours trying to rekindle that spark of academic achievement that you know is still somewhere inside of you...it just may take a while to muster the motivation to find it (i.e. it's so much more fun blogging and surfing the web...). You may just end up with about a week left to finish your thesis, while you still have yet to complete an entire first-draft...

One might ask how one deals with such an overwhelming problem. Well, personally, when I start to get down on myself, I like to sing a "happy" little song:



Well, that's it for now. It's time for Chris Seal to waddle back to his dark cubby and spend countless hours coding data on conflict and Schengen treaty membership, while also expanding upon the theory of return migration...whatever that means!

Tune in next time, when sanity will have become a dream of the past, and at which point, I will have slightly changed my tune:

my family summers in bora bora.

Gentle Reader,

Here's a quick update of things that have happened to the loyal members of OSG this summer.

Oolong is idling away the days before medical school starts in August.  She learned to scuba dive in Arizona, and that is pretty much the only interesting thing she has done.

"I am so ready to see some underwater plants!"

Sammy has entered the Real World: Charlottesville.  But unlike the MTV show, her life is empty of drugs and sex with strangers, and instead is full of salt and metal samples.  Sammy likes this much better.

 "I am motivated to make a career out of corrosion!"

Grass is in Boston, learning to save the world, one media outlet at a time.  Everyone else looks at her pictures of her internship longingly and misses her when they are all together.

 "Look at how much fun my new friends and I are having!" ...sniff :(

Embunny is at home with a plastic dinosaur as a companion.    We hope that she will not abandon us and this blog for her other interests (see life samples).

"These large orange pants fit me and my velociraptor friend!"

Chris Seale is battling his thesis...still.  Unlike all the rest of OSG, he decided to "finish undergrad early", and is reaping the reward.  Chris Beale, on the other hand, continues to "leave" Charlottesville, toying with everyone's emotions as he "says goodbye"...over and over.  It seems, like his birthday week, every day is his last chance to drink with you.

 "Government and politics...arrghhhhhh!"

Oldies but Goodies

Behold, the best of OSG:

Lizzie's Bday @ Tyson's.
The 1st year Vagina Boy fist pump at graduation =) Go, Chris Seale.
Evan went out! Once...
No words...

So many words!

Beautiful blondes, Valenines 2010
BAK 2010, 29 West
First weekend as 3rd years
Bar hopping 4th year.

I miss you all! Sending love from afar!

honors of Honor

We did it!  Oolong, Sammy, Grass, Embunny, and Chris Seale all graduated this past weekend.  We are scattering ourselves far across the globe in the next year.  Actually, only Grass will be leaving us--the rest of the OSG team will probably be together or at least near each other.

Oolong can hardly believe it's been four years since we all met.  Together we conquered (or at least bravely battled) frat parties, first year awkwardness, all-nighters in the morgue, tequila night, guilty-pleasure-club meetings, the bathrooms in Lambeth, living in our own apartments, being RAs, all-nighters in Clemons, the Beer Olympics (all four years of it), knitting, an addiction to Glee, the Virginian elite, our theses, fourth-year slump, and one last brutal round of finals.  Group hugs all around, and here's to new beginnings!

THESES CONQUERED!!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

It is done! OSG has emerged victorious from our distinguished majors projects. Many sleepless nights, gallons of coffee, tears, and blood went into the finished products. Now (in case you're interested) we can be contacted in case you have questions concerning...

1) Corrosion - Sammy will tell you everything about how things rust, especially on boats. This is very practical. No one I know likes a rusty boat (especially the Navy).

2) Digital News and Copyright Framing - I (Grass) could tell you a few things about "news remixing," news commodity misconceptions in U.S. history, and the problem with using fun words like "pillaging" and "piracy."

3) Blood Glucose Levels in Different Environments - Live in a city? Live in the country? Apparently Oolong can now explain some very interesting things about the red stuff running through your veins.

We are living in a post thesis world....and what a beautiful world it is!

*And yes, "theses" IS the correct plural of thesis.

Eyjafjallajokull

That may sound like a made-up name... but never fear, it's just Icelandic! Embunny has enjoyed following the story of this rebel volcano that shot so much ash into the sky over Europe that all air travel was cancelled for 3 days. She wants to harness that power. She also wants to photograph volcanoes one day. Here, it has been captured with aurora borealis (that's the northern lights, for all you humanities majors like myself that had to google it). Who knew molten lava and ash and deadly toxic gas and fire could be so attractive?

Spring has Sprung

Ah, it's Springtime in Charlottesville. Is there anything more beautiful than magnolia trees, dogwoods, a green Lawn, and severe allergies? I don't think so. I will miss this next year!

Breaking News: EmBunny is all grown up now! She turned 22 in April, not only celebrating the 1st anniversary of her 21st birthday but also the 15th year we (EmBunny and Grass) have been birthday buddies. As children I always invited her and she always invited me! Now we're in college and can't kick the habit. Below are pictures from her daytime dessert party/cocktail celebration.

Yummmmm

Between finishing our theses, wrapping up course work, and securing our futures, OSG still finds time to do completely useless things. Some examples include:

- communal napping (note the quote at the bottom of this post)

- guitar playing on the Lawn

- Karaoke

- celebrating Easter!

- cooking for fraternities

- listening to Chris Beale gossip(and by Chris Beale I mean James)

These activities keep us sane. Just about a month until graduation! How the time flies...

Quote of the season:

"I'm taking this nap seriously!"

We will update more often, and maybe if we're lucky Sammy will write her annual, brief (but wise) blog post. Our next post will probably be about our futures. How exciting! Til then, stay cool.

love, OSG <3

Some General Nonsense

OK, so OSG has not been together in quite sometime. Oolong is enjoying a real Spring Break on a BOAT, Sammy is visiting Grad Schools, and I (Grass) am stuck in Charlottesville writing my thesis (or at least pretending to). I am writing this blog not only to communicate with my friends, but to further procrastinate. I've gotten very good it at. Also, I think its ironic that I am writing my thesis on news remixing, copyright, and blogging and choose to procrastinate by...blogging. Winner! Does this count as research?

I really have nothing to say. I am in the reference room of Alderman Library with about six other students. Fun fact: If the Library of Congress was compromised in some way, Alderman (see below) is our nation's official second string. Cool, uh?

Someone else took this picture, posted it on Facebook, and tagged everyone he sees there on a regular basis. I, of course, was one of the shamed.

Here are some recent pictures. We all generally look the same, though it has been a long time since we've posted. Sorry!

For fun, I thought I would post our personal definitions from urban dictionary. To avoid confusion I've decided to use our real names. Following the definitions I added our likely reactions to these words in italics.

Joceline (Oolong) - "cute, amazingly funny, perfect girl. Easy to fall in love with and huggable." **Does a back flip, winks, and shows her high school spirit fingers**

Mara (Sammy) - "completely stellar. If found, keep her away from jello shots. Irresistible voice known to be a siren luring poor emo kids to death by pleasure. MAD SEXY." **Blushes and averts her blue eyes towards the closest emo kid...**

Denise (Grass) - "Do you know a Denise? Because if you do you sure are a lucky citizen! A Denise is one of the most amazing things you can have in your life. Denise's are very talented, not to mention gorgeous. Cherish your Denise for life." **Waves at her adoring fans**

I'll end with a video I found from forever ago, but never posted. This blog has seen so much snow, but a bit more can't hurt. This video was taken during the first snowfall of the season - when the concept was still novel. Please disregard my girlish giggling.

Snow Day? [S]no[w] Problems!

(Just to clarify, Embunny and Oolong came up with that title)

Virginia isn't supposed to have this much snow, right? Oh well. Oolong, Sammy, Grass, and company managed to do absolutely no work today. Instead of studying and rushing (bleh), we played in the snow, drank wine, chilled, and knitted. It was pretty sweet. Below is Oolong making a snow cupid.

Chris Beale is with us, by the way (and by Chris Beale I mean James). We are all in my room. Highlight of the day? Watching a daytime snow streaker running by without shoes. I would put up pictures, but children might be reading this blog and I see no need to terrify them.

Oolong's words: Below is evidence that I am actually 1) a kung fu master, and 2) headless

Wisdom from the day, Embunny: "Beer is the new hot chocolate."

More lessons of the day: we know better than to be friends with boys with girlfriends (most of

the time). We have to go sing kumbayah around the fire now - peace, love, and snow.

Oh and Embunny found 20 dollars. (But really). Best day ever!