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I'm not sure if you noticed, but it's pretty cold outside. Yesterday morning, I drove home from an all-night mid-term-athon at 6:30. Even after the engine had been running for almost 10 minutes, I could still see my breath. Needless to say, when I crawled under my six (yes, count 'em, six) blankets, I didn't want to get out of bed until spring sprung out in a flurry of bunnies, flowers and butterflies. If you're like me, though, you get kind of bored just burrowed under your blankets after a day or two, so I've selected some of my favorite things to keep myself - and you, if you're interested - occupied and warm until Spring Break. Crocheting - Knitting has been getting a lot of love lately, but I'm a fan of crocheting because it seems a bit simpler for those of us with hand-eye-coordination issues. This hobby also has the added bonus of creating things that can be given as gifts or used to keep warm. I made two scarves during winter break, and I'm working on a blanket right now. Hulu - With hundreds of TV series and movies and high-quality picture this video site has become my new favorite way to kill time. They offer clips as well as full episodes and movies. More content is added all the time, though some TV shows like Psych and Family Guy have the last few trailing episodes of the current season and then a couple rotating episodes. Hulu's best feature is the queue, which allows you to browse for videos and put them in a saved queue. If you start watching a video from your queue on one day and come back to it another day, Hulu saves the spot where you stopped watching and automatically returns you to it. Hulu isn't as complete as SideReel, and videos for some shows redirect you to the network's video site, but where else can you watch all 50 episodes of Young Hercules? Baking - After a stressful week of exams, nothing is more satisfying then fresh baked goodies. Whether it's cookies, bread, brownies, cake or pies, there's something cozy about baking. It could be the oven heating up my apartment, but I get a warm and fuzzy feeling every time I bake. If you're stuck in the dorms or too busy to bake, you can achieve the ooey-gooey freshly baked feeling with store-bought goodies tossed in the microwave just long enough to warm them. Making collages - Like all my decorating solutions, making collages is a low-budget, haphazard affair. I dig into my pile of magazines and cut out words and images that interest me or fit some sort of mood or subject that I'm into at the moment. Then I weave them together in a mishmash of tape and glue. I make a new one every couple months or when I feel artsy-crafty. Savethewords.org - This Web site is absolutely fascinating if you're a word nerd. With a mission to save obscure words by reintegrating them into common usage, the site's home page features a collage of abandoned and forgotten words. Clicking on the word gives its definition and urges you to adopt this word. I took advantage of their adopt-a-word feature and adopted the word prandicle, a noun defined as a small meal. I actually ate a prandicle while I wrote this. My adoption certificate includes a solemn promise to use this word as frequently as possible from this day forth in conversation and correspondence. If Angelina Jolie can adopt a small clan of orphans, then certainly we can all do our part to save words like homerkin (a liquid measure of beer) and magistricide, which I know many students contemplate during midterms. Nicole Franz is a senior studying journalism and managing editor at The Post. She has a wicked recipe for chocolate mint cookies that she's willing to share if you e-mail her at nf131905@ohiou.edu. |
4 Opinion
Nicole Franz
