On no longer being SLAMmed

Yesterday was my school's first ever undergrad research symposium, oddly named SLAM. I'm not the world's best public speaker, and yet I did a presentation. I can practice for hours, and I did, but then I step out on stage and my mind goes completely blank. Somehow I managed to survive the presentation without a) running out of the theatre, b) having another mini-breakdown in which I questioned my sanity, or c) making people fall asleep in their chairs. My good feelings about my presentation kinda evaporated after the college sweetheart gave her presentation, but hey, that's life. I'm kinda glad that we were presenting in the same session. There would have been a lot less people there without her.

Our keynote speaker was, pretty much, the world's foremost scholar on hip hop. Visit her website, she's awesome! Hip hop and rap aren't my favorite genres, but after hearing Dr. Rose's lecture, I was struck by the urge to start listening to more rap and hip hop. Funny how easily something/someone can come along and change your entire opinion.

It's also funny how an entire college campus can piss and moan about having to go to all the presentations, but then have no problem showing up for an iPod drawing. Ahh, people.

Looking back over the last 48 hours, it's really amazing how college students from around the country have joined together in solidarity for the students of Virginia Tech. Right after I heard about the shootings, I joined a Facebook tribute group of 17,000. A day later, the group had grown by 100,000 people and is now 250,000+ strong, and has branched off into a number of websites. And while it would be awesome for people to simply remember the victims without getting into political pissing matches, it's never that easy. Right now, as more and more details are coming out about the perpetrator's nature, one has to wonder why no one saw that there might have been a problem in the making and done something about it? Okay, maybe the guy did obtain those guns legally according to VA laws, but come on? If gun control laws can't be made stricter, then maybe make people with clean records looking to buy a gun undergo a psychiatric exam. It's a start, you know?

Everything that happened is so pointless and sad, and people are right, it really could happen anywhere. Will this finally be the straw that breaks the camel's back and forces our government to look at our gun control laws and realize that this kind of thing cannot keep happening!