Yummy...

Yummy...or not. I've got a friend that has promised to try this creation if he finds it. I'd rather not...



It's a Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt. That's a burger sandwiched between two (yes, TWO) grilled cheeses. A whopping 1500 calories. You can read all about it on Slashfood.

Adam

Preface: Almost four months ago, I lost my dear friend and coworker Adam Kazery. This post is way overdue — I’ve been working on it for two months and still can’t make it “perfect.” There’s just far too much to say about Adam! I’d love for you to read The Reflector's news story about him here and the editorial that our editor Kyle wrote here. I’d also love for you to read what April (the 2010-2011 Reflector editor) wrote here. This post is long, but it still doesn’t even begin to do him justice — trust me.

There are certain people I think about every day. Adam Kazery is one of those people. It’s amazing what little things make me think of him — the Spell Number app on my iPhone, a Radiohead song, breaking news stories, photography, big black trucks, any technology updates/gadgets, yellow Post-It notes, pianos, Sundays at 5 p.m., MSU maroon “Bully Bikes,” Naked Juice, and countless other things.

Adam’s dad asked us (those that worked with Adam at The Reflector) for stories about him. I feel like I have enough stories about Adam to write a book. With the help of The Reflector staff, I’d have enough for a series. All the “little things” I mentioned above have a story hidden in them:
-The Spell Number iPhone app: Adam installed this application on my phone for me. He used to send the funniest text messages with these hilarious emoticons and icons. When I couldn’t get the application to work correctly, he took my phone and figured it out (all within a span of about 30 seconds…of course. He was a genius with anything.)
-Radiohead songs: Adam loved Radiohead, and the Radiohead bear (see the image above). He had it on his desk at work, on a vanity plate on his truck, as his Facebook profile image, as his iPhone background, everywhere. He even stamped a bunch of one dollar bills with the bear symbol and gave me seven of them saying, “I want these to end up in all 50 states. See how many places you can spend them.” (For the record, I got them into four states: Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas — now, I’d do anything to have one back.) After his death, our Chief Designer Carl created a Radiohead bear badge that ran next to the dateline on all our front pages for the rest of the semester — a small tribute to Adam. I’ll forever associate the Radiohead bear with Adam.
-Breaking news stories: Whenever something big happened, Adam knew about it. If it was in Starkville, Adam was on it immediately. One of my last story memories with him was following up on a rumor about a rape in town. Adam drove me to the jail, sat with me as we waited to view the jail log, and almost had to help me sweet-talk the officer into letting me view the log (since it was past viewing hours).
-Photography: If anything big happened, Adam was there with a notepad and a camera. We never had to call him and ask him, he just jumped right into the action. He also took amazing candid shots and won journalism awards for his photography. (You can see some of his work here.)
-Big black trucks: Adam drove a big black Nissan truck. He never wanted anyone to walk home after work, so if anyone stayed later than he did at the office, he took them home. I can’t even begin to count how many nights Adam kept me from walking to my apartment!
-Technology updates: I’ll never forget telling Adam, “Hey, Verizon called me. They offered us a free advance trial of two Android phones. Would you be up for playing with them for a week and writing a story?” He was so excited —he looked like a little kid on Christmas morning! He had a great time playing with the phones and learning everything about them (of course, he had already researched them and knew all about them before he picked them up for the trial). His story was great and still remains as one of the top-read Reflector stories of all time. (You can read it by clicking here.) That’s just one of a million stories I could tell about him and technology…seriously. He was an Apple guru and loved anything related to Macs. I’d love to ask him what he thinks about the new iPhone.
-Yellow Post-It notes: Adam was great about writing little encouraging or funny notes to people in the Reflector office. He’d write a brief message on our yellow Post-It notes and stick one on your computer screen when you weren’t looking. They were simple and yet encouraging. I’ve saved mine and will treasure them. His last one to me: “Aubra, Keep being awesome. Adam.”
-Pianos: Adam played piano, even though he didn’t tell a lot of people about it. During he last semester, he was taking a piano class. He played by ear and told me he wanted to take the class to learn how to read music. I told him he was truly lucky and gifted to be able to play by ear. He shrugged and said, “Yeah, but I want to be better, and reading music will make me better.” Typical Adam — always looking for a way to improve!
-Sundays at 5 p.m.: The Reflector editorial board had meetings every Sunday at 5 p.m. Often times, many of us were late. Adam was always prompt and we could always count on him being there. We weren’t always happy about coming back to work after the weekend, but Adam was there with a smile ready to get back to work. He was quiet during meetings, but never ceased to keep us entertained. He loved sending funny texts to us to make one of us laugh and also loved taking candid photos of us and posting them to his Twitter account.
-MSU maroon “Bully Bikes:” Adam loved his vintage bike, but he always found something goofy to do with MSU’s Bully Bikes — like the night that he found one on campus and rode around on it in the Reflector office to make everyone laugh.
-Naked Juice: Occasionally, Adam would show up to work after class with a treat from the State Fountain Bakery and a bottle of Naked Juice. I loved Naked Juice and hated it when the bakery stopped selling them on campus. Adam made my day once by telling me, “Hey, you do you I’m buying these from that new store inside the Union, right? Let me go get you one.”

Though I still miss him, this week was the first week that I didn’t shed tears, bite my lip or freeze when I heard his name. Two weeks ago at Target, I smiled through my tears as I heard a young mom gently say, “Adam, please stop playing in the clothes rack and come here,” to her skinny, grinning, adorable 6-year-old son. One week ago, I swallowed and let a tear fall on the phone when the Census Bureau dispatcher said, “Thank you for returning our call, Ms. Whitten. My name is Adam and I’ll be asking you some questions today.” This week during my new intern training for RUF, a fellow intern turned to me and said, “Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. My name is Adam.” Without any hesitation or tears, I immediately smiled and extended my hand. “Adam, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Aubra.”

I don’t know exactly why it finally “clicked” this week, but I’m thankful. I’m not a tearful person, and I know Adam wouldn’t want tears or sorrow from anyone. He’d be glad that I smiled with genuine joy at meeting another Adam this week. (Don’t worry, Adam. No one’s ever going to replace you — I promise!)

He’s far from being forgotten by any of us. I do still occasionally start to text him when I hear a rumor about a new Apple product. He was the second number I dialed in late April when a fire broke out at my complex. (Had he been around, he and his camera would have been there in five minutes!) In March and April, I sometimes had problems at 4:50 a.m. while doing the website; my first thought was immediately to call or e-mail Adam. I don’t dwell on those dark, sleepless, draining February days anymore — I smile when I remember him and still laugh when I read our text messages and Facebook posts to each other.

Throughout this whole ordeal, I came to appreciate Adam more. I knew he was amazingly gifted and talented, but I didn’t know just how gifted and talented he was. At his visitation, I listened as friends shared about his many gifts, ranging from skateboarding to piano to graphic design. When Kyle and I were forced to quickly pick up the Reflector website duties, we learned what a genius and mastermind Adam was with our site — we ran our site through a publishing platform, but Adam had skillfully modified parts of it and created custom HTML code to help the site work and look better. He was humble and quiet — he never told any of us that he created custom codes or reedited our works to make them optimal for online purposes. He did all of that without asking because as he once told Kyle, “I just want it to look good.” Kyle and I initially struggled with the website, especially during the first night without Adam, but we got it working. (I know he’d be so proud of us for figuring out how to activate the site and how to modify the HTML code to keep everything running properly!)

Adam was an incredibly hard worker. I knew this, but I didn’t fully recognize it until I became Managing Editor. As Online Editor, Adam was the last one out on production nights — he stayed later than me most productions nights! He graciously put up with the staff’s procrastination, last minute changes and crazy HTML issues. He never complained about being the last one out of the office, nor did he complain about waking up at 4:50 a.m. twice a week to activate the website. (That’s another example of his humility: until I mentioned the early morning aspect at our end of the year banquet, his own mother didn’t know that he had been getting up at 4:50 — he never complained about it, even to her!) When someone else didn’t do his or her work, we sent Adam to do it — and he always did a great job. Adam saved us on countless occasions. He had a great eye for page design, knew AP Style, re-edited photos, fixed bugs on the pages, created house ads at the last minute and caught countless errors. When Kyle asked me in January who I thought should get the Editor of the Year award at our annual banquet, I immediately said, “Adam. He’s saved us so many times, and he never takes credit for it. It should absolutely go to Adam.”

Adam was funny and knew how to make your day. One of his responsibilities was to lay out and run the bulletin board/ads page. As Managing Editor, I had to proofread and edit all the pages for every paper. One night, I was really behind on editing pages and Adam knew I was in bad mood. He came up and slipped his page to the back of my stack of pages saying, “Just read it when you have a chance. I’ll wait.” I finally got to his page and broke into laughter. He had changed the whole page into Russian! I looked over to see him grinning at his desk. “You needed to laugh,” he explained with a grin. “And don’t worry — I didn’t save it in Russian. I’ve got an English version for you right here.” I could tell stories for hours about how he made us laugh!

Adam constantly thought of others. He knew when one of us was having a bad day, and he did whatever he could to cheer us up. He’d bring you a treat from the bakery, leave a Post-It note on your computer monitor, or simply come by your desk and say, “Do you need anything? Let me go get you something to eat.” (In fact, the day that he went missing, I had brought $6 to work because I owed him for buying of us Abner’s on a particularly crazy production night.)

After the almost 24-hour period from Adam going “missing” to finding out what happened, I remember sitting at my desk waiting for Kyle’s phone call. I’ll never forget the tone of his voice. I’ll never forget my fellow editors staring at me as I clung to my phone. I’ll never forget standing the middle of the newsroom, clutching my desk counter and delivering the worst news I’ve ever given. I'll never forget calling former editors and writers as I re-delivered that terrible message over and over again. I’ll never forget holding another editor tightly, watching tears run down her cheeks as I wondered, “We’ll never be able to replace Adam. How in the world will we ever make it without him?”

In the midst of intense sorrow and pain, God reminded me of His sovereignty and providence, whether in the form of text messages, scripture, hugs, phone calls or food dropped off at the office. Within an hour of telling my newsroom staff, I had friends text me saying, “I love you. I’m praying for you and the staff” and “I love you. I know it’s production night. Hang in there. Can I bring y’all dinner?” Though there were many scripture passages that spoke to me, especially during the first few weeks, I found one passage that I hadn’t really noticed before (and yes, I know the verses are out of order — I kind of took rearranging liberties):
“When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul … If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would have lived in the land of silence … But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.” (Psalm 94:18-19, 17, 22)

I won’t say that I know why God allowed everything to happen this semester. I’m not God — I’m human and will never understand His plans fully this side of heaven. I do rejoice in the fact that the Lord is gracious and compassionate and has brought healing and restoration — and He promises that He will continue to do so, never forsaking those that He loves.

I’m thankful that I have so many great memories of Adam. I’m thankful for how despite a hard situation, I bonded with my dear coworkers and Reflector family. I’m thankful for a great advisor who forgot about herself, going above and beyond the call of duty to check on us and watch over us. I’m incredibly thankful for Adam’s amazing family, who has been such an encouragement and inspiration to all of us. I hope that someday they will know how the Lord has used them to bring each of us much hope and healing. Above all, I’m thankful that I have a God who knows exactly what He’s doing and uses all things, even hard situations, to glorify Him. I can’t wait until the day when I can finally see and understand His plans and reasons for this last semester. Until that day, I’m going to wait patiently.

(Oh, I think I’m going to find a Radiohead bear sticker to put on my car. I know Adam would definitely approve.)

RUF Training

This week, I've been in Atlanta for my first week of training for my new job — being the RUF intern at MTSU. I'll be updating my blog with more information on my job and how you can get involved with the ministry, but just wanted to blog about a couple of things so I don't forget them.

Top four things I've learned (so far) this week:
1. Having people donate money is going to be hard and humbling experience. I have a hard time learning to accept and receive from people. I can give all day, whether it's time, work, service, whatever. I have a hard time receiving. I'm looking forward to the Lord changing my perspective and learning that because He's given, I need to learn to accept.

2. My fellow interns are a wonderful group of people. I am not a fan of shallow conversation (though I'm pretty good at it). I want to know what's really going on with you below the surface. If I can't get below the surface with someone, I really start to wonder what's going on or what's wrong. I've shared so much (and interns have shared with me) and already been challenged by my "pledge class" (as one of our teachers has nicknamed us). I look forward to what the Lord has in store for all of us.

3. I have generous friends, family, supporters and a church family. It has been a blessing to log in to the RUF staff portal and see that people have already donated to me (and I'm just getting started). I can't wait to see how the Lord continues to provide.

4. This summer and this job is going to be challenging. There's so much I could say about that, but it would take me entirely too long. I am really looking forward to this job and am always up for a challenge. I am looking forward to the Lord getting me out of my comfort zone and stretching me. I feel like I've been comfortable for far too long. This last semester was a stretching experience, and maybe the Lord was using that to prepare me for this coming semester — who knows? Either way, I'm excited to see what's in store.

Quick question

Does anyone on here know how I can change my blog URL (address) without losing my blog? I really want to change it to aubrawhitten.blogspot.com, but I've searched the Google archives and can't figure out if it's possible to do that without losing all my current data. If anyone has an idea, please post! Thanks!

Searching

In approximately two days, I get to go searching...for a new apartment in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Lord willing (assuming I raise at least 85% of my budget by August), I will be moving to work at MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University) for RUF (Reformed University Fellowship). I am so excited about this opportunity and can't wait to see what's in store for the next two years.

Having said that, I have absolutely no idea where I'll live, and that's very strange and maybe a little frightening? I'm currently scouring Craigslist (much to my mother's chagrin). I'll be calling a realtor's office shortly to see if they can meet with me Thursday and maybe show me a few places. I'm one of those people who isn't picky about a house or apartment, but I'd like to be close to campus, have a decent kitchen, and have wireless Internet and utilities included. We'll see what I can find...

The whole reason I get to go apartment-looking is because my brother's team made it to the state championship semifinals (held in Murfreesboro on Wednesday). He just graduated high school, so I'm glad he's getting his final chance at a state championship with his team. If they win Wednesday, they'll play Thursday for the state championship.

On Friday, the entire Whitten clan (minus a few, who already had other plans or had conflicting plans) will be traveling to Townsend/Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for a family reunion. We're staying in cabins and just hanging out, cooking, eating, hiking, and being together. It'll be great to see everyone. I haven't met my cousin Julianne's husband, Matt, nor have I met my cousin Allison's second baby, Cole. (Secretly, the whole family really just wants to get together to see Jake and Cole...but don't tell anyone!) We'll also be taking my mom's mother to Oak Ridge to visit her sister, which will be fun, but always adds to things. It's hard when you've got someone who can't do much walking or stepping up and down anymore. I know Grandmother is excited about finally getting out and doing something, so I'm looking forward to seeing her happy again.

Alright, enough procrastinating on this apartment thing: the search must continue. Until next time...

Wondering what to drink to stay awake during finals week?

Last semester, I volunteered to try energy drinks and write a column about it for The Reflector. As exam week has rolled around again, I thought I'd shamelessly promote myself ... I mean, provide advice and enlightenment to the masses. To save you the effort of clicking a link, I've reposted my column here (but you can also click here and go read it directly on The Reflector's site).

And, why yes, in case you're wondering, I'm currently drinking Mountain Dew Code Red (Diet) as I study for my Mythology and Writing for the Media exams.

Many energy drinks exist, but not all worth benefits
The Reflector, November 24, 2009

It's exam time, and that means several things: time to stop procrastinating, start looking at grades and get ready to become dependent upon caffeine and sugar-laced beverages instead of sleep.

To help readers in their studious endeavors, I volunteered to try multiple kinds of drinks and report on the taste, effectiveness and side effects.

However, I'm no expert in this, so I used Twitter to ask the Mississippi State community: "What kind of coffee concoctions, caffeinated sodas and energy drinks do you recommend?"

I received simple and complex responses, everything from "gas station black coffee" to "Well, you can't find this in Starkville anymore, but…"

I had every intention of trying all the beverages people suggested I try. I was fine until I started the energy drinks - I was willing to drink them, but apparently my stomach didn't like them.

So, here's my warning: If you haven't consumed energy drinks on a regular basis, please don't start during exam week. Your stomach may hate you, and being sick is the last thing you want to happen during exams.

Having said that, here's the list of drinks I tried, in order of least to most potent. This is how I thought the drinks affected me; it's not a scientifically-based list. See the graphic for those numbers:

1. Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino (bottled): Don't have time to wait for a drink or can't make up your mind? Grab a bottled frappuccino and go. It's really not any source for energy, but it tastes good and hey, drinking something cold helps keep you awake.

2. Diet Coke: Carbonation can help you wake up. For those of you who drink a cup of coffee or a coke a day, the minute amount of caffeine or sugar won't affect you - you might as well skip on down to No. 4 or 5.

3. Cap'n Crunch Latte from Strange Brew Coffeehouse: This wins the award for best coffee drink. There's a good balance of sweetness while maintaining a distinct coffee flavor. It didn't have much caffeine in it (I finished it off around 11 p.m. and was still able to sleep) and kept me in a much better mood as I studied for a test. Plus, Strange Brew gives you a freebie with your drink - a chocolate-covered espresso bean.

4. McDonald's Caramel Iced Coffee: If you like drinking syrup, this is your drink. I could hardly taste any coffee; in fact, it's kind of like melting a bunch of your grandmother's Werther's candy and pouring it over ice. If that's your thing, go for it. I had no sugar crash after drinking it; however, The Reflector assistant news editor April Windham reacted differently. In her words: "I got really hyper, then I got really tired, then I got hyper again! Then I jumped around and stood on top of a chair at the office, and then I got really tired and went to sleep." Yeah. Just know how you react to sugar before drinking this.

5. Mountain Dew Code Red: It's my favorite soft drink: gimme that high fructose corn syrup and that fake cherry flavor. Carbonation always wakes me up and for some reason, my body seems to think the drink's got a lot of caffeine in it. (It doesn't: a 12-ounce can contains 54 milligrams.)

6. Monster Energy Lo-Carb: I'll be honest: I couldn't even finish this one. I think I drank a third of it. I hated the taste and the aftertaste. Maybe the regular Monster is better, but I can't stomach that blue stuff again. I felt like it had the potential to give me lots of energy, but I couldn't drink it all to find out for sure. More power to all my friends who can drink several a day and function normally - more than one would kill me.

7. Starbucks Doubleshot Regular: What makes this tiny beverage so tasty? Espresso and cream. It's definitely strong, tastes like coffee and is slightly sweet. Don't shoot it, though; enjoy sipping on it (or chug half, wait a few minutes and chug the rest). There's also a light version of this drink with half the calories and a third of the total carbohydrates. Both have the same amount of caffeine (130 mg).

8. Chaser 5-hour Energy Shot: This is the only energy drink my mother and nursing student friends have recommended. Why? It doesn't have any sugar in it, is only 4 calories and contains B-vitamins, amino acids, nutrients and 138 milligrams of caffeine. Its Web site says the caffeine amount is equivalent to a normal cup of coffee, but in my opinion, these 5-hour shots work way better than coffee. Who knows, maybe Mom was right by making you take vitamins? Anyway, this is a drink you shoot and it comes in four flavors. There's also a caffeine-free version. Warning: Vitamin-laced shots like these have been known to cause upset stomachs, especially if you're not used to the ingredients. And don't drink more than two in 24 hours.

9. NOS Energy Drink: Good gracious. This was the biggest mistake I've made all semester. Kids, DON'T DRINK THIS. A 16-ounce can contains 54 grams of sugar and 260 milligrams of caffeine. It tasted great and smelled good. It didn't even seem to affect me right after I finished it; however, several hours later, I got a massive headache, my fingers started trembling and my stomach wanted to kill me. I did sleep that night, but I felt worse the next morning. My hands and legs shook the whole time I was in class and I felt nauseous. The massive headache came back and wouldn't go away. The label on the back of the can reads, "CAUTION: POWERFUL." If this is how NOS affects everyone, then that's the understatement of a lifetime.

Again, don't try energy drinks for the first time on exam week. Study hard, don't procrastinate, get some sleep, and remember: please drink responsibly.

Mini review

Scroll down to "April" in this post to see what this photo's all about. (And I'm sorry it's so tiny — Blogger keeps compressing it.)

I shouldn't be updating right now, but I just looked over my blog and realized I haven't posted since January. (YIKES! That's terrible, especially for a journalism student.) It is definitely an indication of how crazy this semester has been for me — I honestly did not anticipate this semester being crazy. I knew I would be busy looking for work and facing graduation, but since I only had four classes, I figured work would be my main time-consumer (and it certainly was, but there were lots of other things...). Here's a quick run-down of my semester, and I promise that more will be coming!

January:
-Started the last semester of my senior year at Mississippi State University with four classes: Elements of Persuasion, Writing for the Media (both of those are upper-level communication courses, which is all I need to graduate), Civil Liberties/Constitutional Law and Classical Mythology (which are two classes to keep me a full-time student). I quickly realize I'm not thrilled about my communication classes, and at least three classes are going to be much harder than I anticipated...so much for an easy last semester.
-Continued as Managing Editor at The Reflector. We had a huge staff changeover in December (our editor in chief resigned, sports and entertainment editors and several senior staff writers graduated). First month wasn't bad at all, once we all got used to new people in the office.
-Prepared to take my second LSAT.
-Turned in my paperwork to be considered for the RUF internship.

February:
-Already feeling a little senioritis...and realizing it's way too early to be feeling that.
-Took my second LSAT, which was much easier than the first LSAT in December. Unfortunately, we had a lot of problems with our proctor (including being shorted on time in one section and being interrupted numerous times). I figured this might affect my score, so I went ahead and filed an irregularity report...which meant that LSAC delayed my score for three extra weeks. Not exactly what I was hoping for since I was already entering the law school game a little late.
-Had my world absolutely ripped from under me when I lost my good friend and coworker Adam. (I plan to devote a whole blog entry to this topic sometime soon, but I need a while to write it so that I do it justice.) Without going into detail, it was an extremely traumatic situation, and I was the one who had to break the news to our newsroom crew. I never want to see the looks that I saw on their faces that day ever again. It was truly one of the darkest days of my life, and just one of those times where no matter how I cried out to the Lord, I didn't know how anything good would come about through this situation. Although I'm still struggling with all of us and still miss Adam terribly, I am thankful for how it brought our newsroom together. I knew I worked with talented, funny, smart people, but when all of this happened, it really bonded us all together and we started to get past the surface with each other. I have the utmost respect for our crew and I'm glad we were all in it together.

March:
-Got my LSAT score back and went up five points, despite the crazy testing circumstances! Finished off my law school applications to UT Knoxville, Ole Miss and University of Memphis.
-Went before the RUF South committee to be interviewed for an RUF intern position. I passed, and waited anxiously for my assignment...
-Had a GREAT roadtrip across my homestate (by myself!) during spring break. Those of you who know me even just a little bit know that I'm terrible with directions. Mom gave me a Garmin unit for Christmas, and that little thing has empowered me! Love it. I won't be scared of getting lost anymore. I visited my sister and Belmont RUF in Nashville for a day, drove to Chattanooga to see dear friends from church (got to see Bryan College and then spent the night at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia), drove to Knoxville to visit the law school and hang out with friends from church and high school for two days.
-Started dating a boy...and yep, that's all I'm telling you for right now. :)
-Heard back from RUF — my internship assignment is MTSU! I don't think I could have been more excited. I wanted to go back to my home state and be close to Nashville, but I never dreamed they would actually place me there.

April:
-School is really in full swing and crazy. Oh boy.
-We had TWO apartment fires in a span of about two weeks, including one at my complex! My building wasn't affected (although it still smells like smoke), but several of my friends lost everything they owned. I just so happened to be on my way to church when I saw a cloud of smoke — like I told another newspaper editor, "I turned right back around, put my Bible down and grabbed my camera." You can read my fire story here and see the Facebook album of fire photos here. What a crazy day. I am so thankful that the Lord spared every life in those two buildings that day!
-I finished my job as Managing Editor at The Reflector. It's been a good four years there, but I am ready for a break from the newsroom. I've been in and out helping the new staff, and I've stayed on as a writer and spot photographer, but no more eidtor position. :)
-I've started raising support for my RUF internship! Be expecting to see a lot more posts about that very soon.
-School's killing me. I'm having a hard time focusing (two papers, one presentation, some reading, four exams and one honors thesis project away from graduating) — I graduate in 9 days! Please pray for perseverance.