SO! There’s been quite a bit going on this side of the Hudson lately! I feel like I owe an explanation for the lack of activity. Maybe not, but here’s my life within the past few months anyways:

• Ahmadinjad came to Columbia University amidst great controversy. I had a few hearty political debates with around three cameras in my face at all times (as did every other student that day). Check out some interesting photos from the event.
• I got through my first semester of college! Woohoo! And no. Unless we’re Facebook friends, there are no “interesting photos” so see from that.
• I have reaffirmed my belief that New York City is the best city in the entire world and that every undergraduate who isn’t attending college here is seriously missing out.
• I interned for two months at College Humor as a web developer — owned by Connected Ventures. I subsequently learned that working for free is not cool.
• I became online editor at The Columbia Daily Spectator. Since the beginning of the semester I have launched an entirely new blog network — entitled SpecBlogs — completed many upgrades for the publishing company’s websites, and have many big plans in place! (Including some super awesome web applications never before seen by any other College Daily… no Harvard… not even your “Crimson” will be putting out stuff as cool as us.
• I hatched up a brand new business plan… which involves fashion and websites; these are very obviously two things I truly enjoy. More on this possibly soon…
• I bought a black fedora and I wear it everywhere.
• … because I have finally started to take on new projects at Blog What? Design and will hopefully be blogging quite a bit more after the semester settles in.

And life couldn’t be happier :) Anyways, that’s it for now!
<3 Lara

During the fall semester, students help to construct–and then quickly devour–a mile-long sandwich known as THE BIG SUB. [Wikipedia]

There’s a college on a hilltop,
That’s very dear to me
And a certain group of women
With ties of camaraderie

So we’ll sing to dear old Barnard
And loyal be and true
As we show to coming classes
How we love to EAT REALLY BIG SUBS.

The Barnard song actually finishes with “How we love the white and blue.” Then it repeats. It’s very nice and sweet. But not nearly as sweet as our mile long sub.

Yes, I must admit that the women here at my beloved school sure know how to eat. So much, in fact, that nearly the entire school joins in on the ritual of spanning this sub all the way from our quad, down the campus, past the gates, and into our mouths.

I haven’t experienced this fantastic phenomena yet as I’m a first year… but, I can tell you this much: I couldn’t be more proud of my dining service people. You guys are the greatest!

Enjoy the photo at the top right. It’s some strange illustration I found while Google-imaging “largest sub sandwich in the world.”

As any of you all may or may not know I currently run a web publishing company over at Blog What Design. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but like any employee, it is important to separate “fun time” and “work time.”

I love the internet, browsing blogs, and finding new things. I love reading, making online scrapbooks, and (of course like any highschool/college student’s vice) Facebook. However, my kind of work requires this kind of computer and the internet activity as well.

This means, (unlike many students my age), I have to set aside some computer time for a “no IMing, no celebrity blog reading, no message-boarding” session. Since our launch in November, I’ve learned to do this quite well. I come home from school at around 3:00 and work starts at 4:00. From four until dinner time, it’s work time! After dinner, I’ll relax, check my personal e-mail, and do things you’d find any other senior high school student doing. (For example… no homework.) After I’ve taken care of all my personal “stuff” I will continue to tie up any work-projects for the day, maybe throw in a little bit of blogging, and take the time to do some organizational company work.

Weekends are generally off-limits for work. However, in my attempt to be a normal business owner, I’ve found that I really can’t do things this way. I’m at school for nearly six hours every day, so that chops off QUITE a bit of time. (College, here I come!) So, I often times find some weekends overwhelmingly work-filled, and some not.

However, in the end, it always all seems to healthily balance out. Excuse me now… it’s Sunday after-noon veg-out time!

Not surprisingly, this year was the most competitive for high school seniors graduating into Universities across America and the globe. Topping the list for the worst acceptance rate was Columbia University:

Applications to Columbia numbered 18,081, and the college accepted 1,618 of them, for what was certainly one of the lowest acceptance rates this spring at an American university: 8.9 percent.

The New York Times has the fully story here, but if you step into a high school anywhere the senior situation is grim. Many of my fellow classmates (valedictorians, student government presidents, yearbook editors) were outright rejected from many schools even though they had perfect grades, (perfect SAT scores) and a plethora of other accomplishments.

However, I was able to win the “game” as they call it – I will be choosing from my top three choices of Barnard College at Columbia University, Cornell University, and the Gallatin School at NYU. I am excited to visit all three and am extremely thankful for receiving acceptances at each. Good luck to all of those still waiting, and best wishes to those deciding on which college to choose! College weekends… here I come!

Just so cute, I couldn’t pick one! From The Daily Kitten:

Nyan: “Here’s Nyan, a two-week old kitten. She was very sleepy for some reason, and instead of finding a comfortable place to curl up, she just settled down right where she was on my kitchen floor. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of her ball of sleepy cuteness.”

Guiness: “This is my friend’s cat Guinness. He’s very clumsy and overwhelmingly cute and thinks fluffing himself up is intimidating.”

Stuart: “He was given to us by a family friend. His name is Stuart because he looks like Stuart Little. He’s bright white and has two different colored eyes – blue and green. What a fiesty little guy!” Keep reading this »

How many times do you hear someone fighting over the events of Harry Potter? Well, this lovely bunch does (and they’re my friends.)

Know the answer? (No Google cheating!) P.S. They’re talking about Cedric Diggory.

Our Christmas tree, with Blacky (our black cat) basking underneath.

So I think it’s pretty clear that I’m obsessed with Christmas at this point haha! Just launched the new design here… adding on to my Christmas design festivities over at Blog What.

So… I’ve been slacking off terribly on my blogging duties! The entire college application process has taken up much of my time along with a BUNCH of projects over at BWD. Have no fear though! I’m going to try harder to get stuff up here! I even have a few half finished stories too ;) Plus a few minor changes and tweaks to this design.

There are some fun new additions to our blog radio:
Elvis: Blue Christmas
Let it Snow
Silver Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Chestnuts Roasting
Have A Holly Jolly Christmas
Frosty the Snowman (A Personal Favorite haha!)
Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Anyways. Here are some fun and funny holiday pictures… Keep reading this »

I would like to make a little personal welcome to Danielle at “A Little Lucky” into the blogosphere! I just finished up her design at Blog What, and everything has seemed to turn out just right.

Danielle blogs on everything and anything a girl could wish for. She features unique items, fitness tips, and a whole bunch of other cute lucky finds. Go drop her a line!

Work requests have been non stop at Blog What Design! It’s great to see so much support!
Thanks!

*taps microphone* HELLO! ahem…

I would like to introduce Blog What Design to the official world of blog design studios out there. Over the past month, I have been working non-stop to launch the site (funny I’ve been blogging more because of this eh?) and now it’s DONE.

So give it a whirl… I bring you:
BLOG WHAT DESIGN!
What will you blog today? (WWYBT?)

So around earlier this past October I was sitting in our living-room on the couch and catching up on some reading for class when I heard the faintest “scurrying” noise. I ignored it, but then nearly catapulted off the couch when I heard a little chirp and some more scurrying. I jumped onto the sofa and picked my feet up and down in the regular girl-who-screams-at-the-sight- of-a-mouse fashion, and looked around.

The coast was clear for quite a while, so I set off back up to my room. A few weeks later during my 18th birthday party, we were all waking up the morning after when we SAW it. It turns out it was a chipmunk. An enormously LARGE chipmunk that the cat’s had brought in (we have three.) Oh joy.

Since then, it has been feasting on the cats’ food when we no one has been looking, and evading ALL attempts made by us to catch it. The thing is invincible. We decided to fire our cats, my mom then went out to the hard-ware store to buy a freakishly large mouse trap. (The thing was the size of a squirrel at this point.) We then thought that we didn’t want to really get rid of our cats that much and realized that the trap could probably take off any of their arms.

Plan B: The BB gun. So we have the entire living room torn up (cat food and chipmunk poop were everywhere behind the furniture) and my dad decides to set a stand up from the second floor (it’s a cathedral ceiling type thing) to shoot the chipmunk from there. Although he was number one on his high school rifle team (yes, I said high school rifle team) the thing STILL managed to evade us.

So, by this time we’re just fed up and tired. My mom went out to the hardware store and bought one of those $30 “Have a Heart” traps. Why won’t the chipmunk have a heart and leave my home eh?

We catch it. We release it. Next day. IT’S ON THE CAT’S FOOD. My dad managed to release just close enough to the home so the cats could bring it back in. We saw Blacky playing with it today afterwards.

We’ve re-caught it and it’s sitting inside the cage right now. We’re not touching it, and waiting for my father to come home to release it.

Looking for a laugh? Watch the video from the day after my birthday of my friends attempting to catch the evil chipmunk… here.