Library - 12:57 AM

You know when you watch a movie and there's that scene at the beginning when the main character is walking down the streets of New York City and the whole world is zooming around them?

That's how I feel right now sitting in the library. I've been in the same seat for hours, and the people have changed, the murmur of the room has quieted and the sky has turned dark.

But I'm still here.

First Blog

Is this going to work?

I used to be a paid blogger. Just putting it out there.

Welcome to mah worlllld!

What kind of car could your tuition buy you?

Could the economy be affecting students' choice in college? Seems like it. According to an article by neighbor school San Jose State's newspaper, the California State University system has already received approx. 50,000 applications thus far, a 21% increase from last year. According to the CSU website, in-state tuition for SJSU, including all fees, room & boards, books, etc. is roughly $20,000, while the cost to attend Santa Clara University is roughly $50,000.

Update with Santa Clara application numbers to follow soon...

Ivy Leagues Debate ROTC Program

After Barack Obama and John McCain spoke at Columbia University in September, controversy regarding bringing the ROTC program back onto Ivy League has been at the forefront of students' minds.

Both candidates criticized the universities for banning ROTC programs on-campus, which is partly in reaction to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This article, published in Dartmouth's student newspaper, provides a pretty good explanation of the situation.

Sure, I can do that too...

I'm going to be honest - I'm blogging in class.

But I'm also listening to a great lecture, taking notes, texting with my friend, reading about the economy on CNN.com and... yes, I'm also checking Facebook.

There are about twenty students in my class, and at least a third of them have their laptops open and are attempting the same multitasking routine as myself. Yes, our ability to click between screens is amazing, but are our non-plugged-in classmates learning more than us?

Who knows. But I was inspired to google "college students" and "multitasking", and ran across an article published in TIME magazine in 2006. Pretty interesting, especially this statistic:

Today 82% of kids are online by the seventh grade, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And what they love about the computer, of course, is that it offers the radio/CD thing and so much more--games, movies, e-mail, IM, Google, MySpace. The big finding of a 2005 survey of Americans ages 8 to 18 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, co-authored by Roberts, is not that kids were spending a larger chunk of time using electronic media--that was holding steady at 6.5 hours a day (could it possibly get any bigger?)--but that they were packing more media exposure into that time: 8.5 hours' worth, thanks to "media multitasking"

I rarely even sleep 6.5 hours a day.

New reporting crew

It's a new year with a new team of Streetbeat Reporters ready to start blogging. Introducing...

Sophie Asmar: Back in action after blogging last spring. She's interested in profiles of photographers.

Katie Powers: New to the team. She's from Omaha. She's interested in personal essays and interviewing seniors. She's concerned about finding a job in journalism.