Veggie Vay-Cay

Well, it's that time of the year again...
Spring Break is right around the corner, and for some of you that means fun vacations to exotic lands (Cabo, anyone?), slipping into that little polka-dot bikini (gulp!), sipping on fun drinks, and chowing down on delicious grub (hey, you are on vacation!)


And for those of you going somewhere snowy and bundling up with hot cocoa, skiing and staying warm with the company of loved ones, that doesn't sound too shabby either.
So in these wonderful vacay situations where we find ourselves surrounded by tempting fresh fish or big ol' hunks of steak, what's a veggie to do?


Fear not, my herbivore friends, for there is a way!


First off, there's a vast number of hot spots just for vegetarians, and the Vegetarian Travel Guides gives a nice list of places to go, as does The Vegetarian Resource Group. Places they mention that are close to home (for me at least!) include fun weekend getaways like the Oregon House Workshop and Retreat Center in Yachats, Oregon "overlooking a cliff, and offers both personal and group retreats". They even stress relaxation (hooray!) and massage and healing treatments are available. And vegetarian and vegan meal options are always available. 


But when we're in other places that aren't meant for veggies, there's still hope. You can:

• Stick with salads
• Ask about tofu options at restaurants
• Try soups
• Vegetarian sandwiches are very easy to find
• Loads up on vegetables (you know you love them) and whole grains
• See if any legumes are offered when you're out to eat, they're a great source of protein and usually are included in a variety of different kinds of cuisine

Here's a fun video of the "Traveling Vegetarian", Yvonne Smith, visiting Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville, NC:

And she's got more videos on her YouTube channel if you want to see more.


Stay strong veggie ones, but I know it won't be that hard because (as I have showed you over the past few weeks), the benefits of sticking to a meat-free diet are endless.


Catch you all after the break, till then....

Switching Gears: How Social Media is Changing Journalism

Last Wednesday, my reporting class welcomed guest speaker Matt Neznanski.

Neznanki is the Director of Communication for Brass Student Media and a former reporter for the Corvallis newspaper The Gazette Times. 

Before I get into what he discussed with us, let me just point out (although he didn't really talked about it) the fact that Brass Student Media is SUCH a good idea.  

What BSM does is helps teach students about how money. How to save it, what to spend it on, and so on in a comprehensive way: through a magazine. 

Here's a video about their student program:

Honestly, this organization seems so obvious, but it's probably the only one of its kind that I've heard about. And I know from experience: most students do not know what the heck to do about saving money; let alone credit, equity, mortgages, retirement funds, credit cards, etc.

So basically, Brass Student Media helps students with that. And its great. 

OK, moving on. 

In class, Neznanski explained to us how the emergence of social media (like facebook, twitter, and blogs) has been "career changing" for him, and how he has had to learn to adapt. 

Let me note here that this necessity for adaptation isn't going anywhere: technology and media is constantly evolving, so even youngsters like myself are inevitably going to have to learn something new (and I'm still not even comfortable with Twitter yet!) to keep up with the pace of society, and in journalism, readers and/or viewers. 

                                                             ^^^ This is me^^^

Nothing like good ol' technology to make a 21-year-old feel like a grandma. 

Neznanski, who is also a former Gazette Times reporter who had the opportunity to interview President Obama (cool!), noted that in this new ecosystem of news, you have to use the tools that are out there and "start thinking about your audience, the people you're writing to and about, and what they want to know about." 
But I like to that's how journalism has always been. 

And even though I know  I'll probably have to hop on the Twitter train eventually, I'm just not ready yet. 

Good news for me and my resistant attitude towards Twitter/Flickr/Whatever-the-new-thing-out-there-is though. Neznanksi explained that while "Twitter may come and go, the concept of 'microblogging' [ex: the College Herbivore] isn't going anywhere."

Whew