Life in Minneapolis is great – the atmosphere, the friends, the experience. As of Spring 2010, I have been officially accepted in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication – something I could only have dreamed of about a year ago.

Despite the fact that I’ve almost completely shrugged off this blog (I always start them with the best of intentions and end up giving up once nobody comes), I found it surprising when I was looking at the stats. There has not been a single month where my blog hasn’t had hits from viewers. True, December bottomed out at an all-time low of 1 viewer, but it’s one viewer, nonetheless. My all-time high still remains March 2009, when I blogged and Twittered heavily about the floods in Fargo and the experience of living in such a place.

I don’t have much else to say at this point. I might start re-writing in this blog soon, but it really depends on my interest. If I do start writing in this blog again, it might lead to a complete revamping (mostly clearing out some of the personal stuff and using it more as a semi-professional blog), but that’s still to be seen.

For the one or two souls who read my blog, if you’re interested in seeing a slightly more active place for my blogging, please check out my school blog. It is a requirement for my JOUR 3101 (News Writing and Reporting) class wherein I’m required to make 6 entries every week – five reporting interesting news and one analyzing certain aspects of the news. Not particularly exciting, but feel free to read if you’re so inclined. You can find it here.

A few days ago, my family made the switch over from Verizon to AT&T so I now have an excellent iPhone. I love it very much and haven’t had any problems yet. *knock on wood* There is even a lively little WordPress app that I am currently on as type this. It’s pretty nifty and because I’ll be able to carry WordPress around in my pocket, I hope it gets me blogging a bit more.

I know this post (and my last few) have been relatively fluff-filled. But I figure since this blog is mostly read by myself, I can write about this all.

Hope the beginning of summer is finding you well!

It’s crazy to think that I’ll be out of NDSU in less than two weeks. Next Friday marks my last final and then after that, I’ll be a UM student. Crazy stuff!

I’ll probably be updating soon, however I don’t have much content to talk about at this time. Hopefully I’ll have something to write about soon, though!

One thing I do have to mention, however, was today was “Flood Effort Appreciation Day” or something like that. Essentially they held a little get-together at Memorial Union praising us for all of our efforts. They read a letter from a lady who lost her house to the flood, but was impressed by the efforts that NDSU students put in right in her own backyard and the example they set for her children. It was actually quite moving. I was proud to be a Bison at that moment. Even though I’m leaving NDSU soon, I leave happy that I was here this year. Yes, there were times when I wanted to quit and wished I had chosen somewhere else. However, the massive effort with the sandbagging, hanging out with some of my (admittedly few) friends, and crazy football games all bring back nostalgic memories of good-times past.

I will miss NDSU, and I leave with a feeling out gratitude that I got to experience this year first-hand in a school I respect very much.

Pictures are included after the jump.

The Red River Flood of 2009 in pictures

I had a lovely four-day Easter vacation. I hope you all did as well. When you get older, the Easter bunny leaves less candy, but fortunately more cash. Very useful for a poor college student.

During this break, I realized how fortunate I am to have amazing grandparents. Money is tight in this economy and so I have very little to spare (and the same goes for my parents). My grandparents, therefore, were extremely generous when they offered to pay my confirmation fee for the University of Minnesota. I was extremely pleased, especially since they’ve taken to being strong supporters of my transfer. They will be key in making the transition work. After they had paid for my confirmation fee, my grandpa kindly slipped me some extra spending money that he said was for “postage” for mailing in my confirmation fee. And as I left, my grandma gave me two bag filled with freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies. They were more than kind for all of this, and I am very grateful.

I am currently working on uploading my flood pictures. It’s a tedious process when they’re all on my cell phone, so I’ll probably have to take some time with them. By the time they’re ready, I’m sure very few people will be interested in seeing the pictures (especially due to their poor quality), but I feel that they’ll be a good addition to my blog.

Expect the pics up in the next few days.

I’m currently sorting through all of my rather shoddy pictures of the sandbagging effort and trying to pick a few that are actually worth looking at. Since all of them were taken with a camera phone, they’re not excellent – especially since my camera tends to err on the side of extra poor.

There has been some news I’m very excited to announce. Today I received an email from the director of the Leaders in Transition. In the email, it said that I had been accepted into the program. This is excellent! Because I was accepted, I am guaranteed housing – something I had been very happy about because very few transfer students get this opportunity. I would prefer to be on-campus rather than getting an apartment because I don’t know the area very well. Also, this transfer house might help me make friends since they encourage community and leadership skills. Oh…and I get a single-occupancy dorm! That’s a nice break from sharing a room!

Because I’ve been accepted, I am now almost completely guaranteed to go to UM next year. Everything is falling in line and things are going the way they should be. I can finally breath easier.

The amount of hits I got over the two day period, where my last flood/sandbagging post was hot, was absolutely amazing. So far, it has been view around 140 times – not bad for a blog that just started and is only sending out a few nudges to Twitter!

NDSU today called everyone via NotiFind and told us that campus is closed for another week. They say:

In order to allow NDSU faculty, staff and students to attend to any flood issues they are facing, and to allow other members of the NDSU community to continue to volunteer, NDSU’s Fargo campus will close until Monday, April 6, 12:01 a.m

This is slightly worrying, however, since they also mentioned that they were discussing how to cope with the two weeks of lost time in the semester. I’m praying that they don’t lengthen the school year. I have made several plans for the weekend after finals were supposed to be scheduled as well as the week following. Hopefully it all works out. As of now, I will be leaving tomorrow morning for home – hopefully I’ll get a few fun days with friends before I have to go back to class. I don’t know how I’m even going to function.

I should be updating with more of my sandbagging experiences very soon. I snapped quite a few pictures I’d like to share and the next post about it might contain quite a few pictures. We’ll see.

As a final note – Fargo seems to be coping okay with the flood. The river may have already crested…and well below the level they thought it would be. That is good news, but we can only hope we don’t experience the wrath of Mother Nature…snow is expected to be coming Monday…again!

As many people in the United States (and probably Canada, as well) know, the Red River is flooding, affecting large swaths of the states of North Dakota and Minnesota, as well as certain areas of Canada. Add to that the fact that a large snow-storm came through in this middle of this week during this whole process. I’m currently going to school in Fargo, so it’s been quite an interesting week.

Because of the flooding, I got back from spring break this last Sunday, only to be told that NDSU would be closed “until further notice”, which told me that it would be several extra days off. This was excellent because it allowed me to sleep in and relax much of the day. However, they were requesting students to go help sandbag, which was taking place right on campus. For the first few days, I didn’t go. I had nobody to go with and didn’t think I had proper clothing. Fortunately, I found that I did, in fact, have some old, tatty clothes that I could wear. Though I couldn’t find anyone, I finally went out last night.

At 10:00pm I headed out and checked in at the student union, which is now a 24-hours-a-day emergency sandbagging center check-in and lounging area. I walked up to the Fargodome after that where the sandbagging operations were actually taking place. My friends had told me I would be in awe of the immense work that was going on and indeed I was.

[Pictures included after the jump - please ignore quality, they are cell phone images]

The Fargodome is normally where the football team plays, a huge indoor stadium right on campus and it was brimming with more activity than I had ever seen. In the stands were hundreds of people relaxing after working, munching on snacks and getting brief rests. The floor of the Fargodome was bare concrete with hundreds, if not one thousand, people bustling around. Semi-trucks filled with sand were dumping huge piles, forklifts were carrying pallets away stacked high with sandbags, etc.

Though nobody was giving orders, there was definite order to the place. After a pile of sand was dumped, shovelers piled sand into bags held by somebody. Once the bag was full, the person holding the bag would pass the bag back to somebody who would tie it shut. From there, a person would grab it and pass it down a line of people until it arrived at a pallet, waiting to be piled into a huge tub that was fitting thousands of bags. A dumptruck’s worth of sand could be bagged in thirty minutes with proper help, and there was plenty of that.

Sandbaggers working in the Fargodome to help keep the city from flooding.

I was able to do quite a bit to help. At first, everything seemed to be working so smoothly, I had a hard time finding where I could go to help instead of simply getting in the way. Finally I found a spot where I would grab the bags from an elderly lady who was tying the bags shut. After that gigantic pile was finished, I moved on to a very long line that was simply passing sandbags from the pallets to the giant tub. That lasted for quite some time, but even that eventually came to an end. After grabbing some water to rehydrate, I sat around for a while, absolutely exhausted.

When I decided that I had rested long enough, I worked my way back into the sandbagging process. This time, I took over as a person who ties the bags. Though it’s not as difficult as shoveling, it can still be quite tedious and tiring. When that had finished, I finally met up with a friend who joined me in once again tossing bags and grabbing them from those who were tying them.

I officially worked from about 10:00pm until 1:30am. Yet time seemed to go by so quickly. The fact that I was able to help people was amazing.

A truck dumps sand onto the floor of the Fargodome to be shoveled into bags.

I felt like I was actually doing something that was worthwhile for both the community and myself. Not only that, but it was also a great workout. As I type this the day after, I’m extremely stiff from bending, lifting, passing, throwing, standing around, moving around, etc. But those aches and pains sort of feel good in a way – almost as if they are a mark that I’ve done something that can go and help contribute to things that are bigger and better than the individual. It seems the entire community is involved in this. If a citizen of Fargo has their house flood, it’s as if our own house flooded. People from all walks of life are here and involved. From small children to people well into their elderly years, everyone is here. White, Black, Native America, Asian – everyone is helping. Even prisoners were brought in to save the community. I worked alongside one who, while remaining silent, was among one of the hardest workers I saw all night. Even those in trouble with the law want to help.

While I leave with aches and pains, helping with this project has been among one of the most intrinsically rewarding things I’ve ever done. If you happen to read this and you are in the area, I urge you to come help – the city of Fargo needs you, as do the various other communities along the river. President Obama has declared North Dakota a federal disaster zone, which points out the obvious – this is a serious problem that needs helping hands.

In five days, Fargo has filled more than 2.5 million bags of sand, but more will probably be needed for the cresting of the river, which is due on Saturday. Volunteers can only hope and pray that enough is being done to keep the city safe.

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that it’s not nearly as long. My Christmas Break was a month long, thanks in part to the fact that I didn’t have any finals scheduled for finals week. They were all the week before, so it was lovely to go back home quite a bit earlier than everyone else.

But this semester, I am actually enjoying myself. Maybe that’s the problem. Most of my classes are either interesting or sort of fun. I really enjoy Philosophy and Human Communication the most. Understanding Media and Social Change could be exciting, but the teacher doesn’t know how to teach. For the first time in years, I am acing my math class. Public Speaking is a waste of time, but it’s certainly better than last semester’s computer science class.

That said, tomorrow I’ll be going to the Twin Cities to meet up with friends and some family to go shopping and spend the night in Minneapolis, exploring and eating. It should be a blast – certainly the most fun I’ll have during this break. My only gripe will be an empty bank account.

On another note, I should be getting an email confirming or denying me for LIT housing at UM. It’s a program for transfer students and I really hope I get in. Wish me luck!

Much of my absence has to do with continued drama currently going on in my life, though that’s hardly of importance at this moment. Instead, I thought I’d bring up an interesting article I read just a little while ago.

The recent outrage over AIG (American International Group) and their enormous bonus packages has left the country thrashing, kicking, and spitting. And for good reason – rich executives are getting huge cuts of money footed by the taxpayers of this country that is supposed to help stabilize a company that is “too big to fail“.

Fortunately, the public outrage has ignited the capital and, whether out of principle or just to get reelected, politicians are giving AIG a run for its money. With the POTUS putting pressure on them to take back the bonuses and the New York Attorney General is subpoenaing the company and individuals to find out if they were among those who lead the company to failure.

It is disgusting to think that a corporation could be so greedy to uphold the bonuses. However, they argue they are legally bound to uphold these and that they cannot get out of it without being taken to court. Fortunately, with the full force of the public expressing anger over the topic, the Attorney General is looking for ways to see if the bonuses are fraudulent.

Although I realize that many people, some of whom are innocent and/or struggling might be affected negatively by this (if they lose their bonus, for instance), the government needs to find a way to recoup the costs from the company. AIG failed to remain stable and last quarter had the biggest quarterly loss in history. Now they expect taxpayers to bail them out and show how little they care about how for several generations, people will be paying the debt they got us into for their own failures. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t.