Please read the statement below and complete the following survey:

The ASASU’s President Council has proposed increasing the student programs fee from $25 to $75 per semester for full-time students. This is a $3.13 increase per week.

– The fee for part-time students will increase from $12 to $38 per semester, an increase of $1.56 per week.
– Students in online programs will not be subject to the fee increase.
– This increase would bring in a calculated $6 million in new revenue.
– The breakdown of the new revenue is as follows:
26%, $1.5 million – Associated Students of ASU branches funding
16 %, $1 million – Programming and Activities Boards
50%, $3 million- intercollegiate athletics improvements
8%, $500,000 – Sun Devil Spirit Club
-These are the proposed allocations. The MOU is currently fluid and the allocation of funds is subject to change depending on negotiations.
– According to the proposal, the funds that would be allocated to the student governments would allow for increased initiatives and events to take place.

Prior to now, have you heard about the proposed student fee increase of $25 per semester to $50 per semester?
[] Yes [] No

Did you know that you currently paid a $25 per semester student fee?
[] Yes [] No

Do you want to see increased programming and services on the Downtown Campus? [] yes []no []maybe

Are you for or against this student fee increase?
[] For [] Against [] Unsure

Why? (OPTIONAL)

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RESULTS

429 students completed the ASASUD student fee survey today, yesterday and last week.

The results are as follows:



NO- 66.6%, 286 students

Unsure- 16.7%, 72 students

Yes- 16.5%, 71 students

Fun fact: I once took an online quiz that promised to tell me what my hobby was. After twenty questions all about my likes and dislikes, they asked me to pay $9.99 for the answer.

So I remained hobbyless (nope, not a word. But a small perk of being a blogger — and yes, I AM a blogger now — is that it is my prerogative to make up words as I deem necessary).

But after looking up the definition of a hobby (yeah, I’m THAT girl right now), I think I might actually have one.

…

It’s something I do in my free time.

…

It’s relaxing and enjoyable to me

…

Is the suspense killing you?

…

…

READING BLOGS!

(I know, right, how full circle was that?)

The second I get free time, it’s straight to bloglovin for me. There’s nothing like posting up in bed, computer on my lap, catching up with my favorite blogs.

Most of the blogs I follow are fashion blogs (insert cheesy “fashion is my passion” quote here).

Now, I’ve been told by a handful of people that they just don’t think reading blogs is a hobby. These people, in my most humble opinion, are wrong. And here’s why:

• Reading a blog is similar to reading a magazine or newspaper. Both are published and read periodically. Both contain useful information (I consider the fact the ombre hair is in style to be very useful information — even if it did result in The Horrible Hair Fiasco 2010).
• Though bloggers don’t have traditional (if any) editors for their work, many of them are experts in their field. Whowhatwear has a team focused on identifying exactly what someone is wearing; Frugal Fashionistas shows you where you can get something similar for a fraction of the price; Rumi Neely’s face now graces Times Square as a part of her Forever 21 campaign. 13 year old Tavi Gevinson sits front row with a very large bow at many major fashion shows.
• It’s an interactive hobby. Just as Luke plays cribbage with a partner, Conor can jam with fellow musicians and Brittany will shop with anyone who is around, I am a part of a community of blog readers. We comment to the bloggers, we comment to each other, we make up a network.
• It’s the 21st Century. Times are changing. Hobbies are changing. Getwitit.

(Exciting side note: Just yesterday one of my favorite bloggers, Geri Hirsch from Because im addicted actually tweeted me back and yes, I had an embarrassingly star-struck moment.)

So yes, reading blogs is a hobby. Reading blogs is my hobby.

Few things make me laugh harder than a perfectly delivered why-you’re-celibate-this-week joke from the Man Repeller . (I promised myself I’d only reference her twice. So there’s one. I adore her. I really do. Even if she becomes the Hanelli of my blog, then just like her adoration of Hanelli didn’t fade, neither will mine).

Few images make me stop dead quite like Tommy Ton’s fashion photography (If there’s just one link you click on during this post, I hope it’s this one).

And if, like me, you’re addicted to Tommy’s photography, I have some good news. Style.com has employed him for all of fashion month with more amazing photos!

I sound like a fashion blog groupie, don’t I?

Few tweets make me feel like I’m in the center of all the fashion chaos quite like bryanboy’s.Bryanboy was one of the first fashion bloggers to really make a name for himself. He has been a part of the shift from socialites and celebrities in the front row of shows, to bloggers. A change Vogue spotlighted in a March 2010 article.

But enough of my school-girl-crush adoration of the people who I think are bringing fashion to the masses.

Personally, I think the amount of excitement I have when I talk about how much I love reading these fashion blogs is evidence enough that blog following (and now, for me, blogging) is a hobby.

So, pending approval from the official board of potential hobbies, blog reading is my hobby.

And just because I promised myself two (and I rationed these out very carefully): Man Repeller.

She actually told me to open my blog this way, just plain and simple.

Brittany Martin’s hobby is shopping. Also on Britt’s hobby list? Dancing, sleeping and eating (she tells me through a mouth full of chips and salsa she uses to wash down her burrito) but shopping is definitely high up on that list.

Brittany and I work together at a boutique clothing store and in the two and a half weeks since I joined the team I have probably given her the do-you-really-NEED-that look  about twenty-something times.

More times than not though, my looks and attempt at logically explaining that if she already has too much in her closet, she doesn’t need more, just don’t cut it.

“I shop as often as I work. So five days a week,” Brittany said.

Diagnosis: Shopping Addiction.

Things I have watched Brittany consider (and most of the time decide on) buying:

• Two pairs of 7 For All Mankind jeans
• Two pairs of Joe’s Jeans
• A grey sparkled “going out” dress (though she already has too many going out clothes she never wears–her words, not mine)
• A pair of Steve Madden wedges

And those are just in the shifts she and I work together.

As much as I love clothes (and believe me, I do), I have never really been a big shopper. I can appreciate them, constantly wish I owned more of them and throw a fit over them every time I can’t find the right thing to wear (i.e., every day I have to stray from cheer shorts and an oversized t-shirt) but shopping isn’t really something that I would consider my hobby.

Up until recently (recently being when I went off to college and was forced to be a grown up and pay for myself) my favorite kind of shopping was grocery shopping (By the way–feeding yourself, not so cheap. How my parents ever fed themselves, my sister and I and my garbage disposal of a brother, I’ll never know).

Spotlight Shift: Back to Brittany

Britt has a closet that chronicles some of the best clothing we’ve sold over the last three years. But our boutique doesn’t make up her entire wardrobe. Guess, Bebe, H&M and Victoria’s Secret are among the other stores she enjoys shopping at.

Brittany could even be considered a shopping expert. As the assistant manager to one of the busiest boutiques near campus of the largest public university in the country, Brittany has some authority on the subject.

She sifts through other stores’ clothing just like she sifts through a new shipment to ours. She has to look at every piece, never knowing what she’s looking for but when she finds it, she has to have it right then. And no amount of attempted persuasion from me seems to convince her otherwise.

Since working at a boutique, Britt says she finds herself more critical not of the clothes at other stores, but of the people working there (Customer service is a HUGE part of what our store is about).

When I worked in a restaurant, I realized what made a good customer and what made a bad one (in the eyes of the serving staff). Now that I’m working at a retail store, I realize what makes a good shopper, and what makes a bad one (again, in the eyes of those who work there).

This has affected the way I shop (clothes and hangers all face the same way, hanging things back up properly–meaning with those clear straps, usually–is a must). And it has also affected Brittany.

Now she tries everything (and believe me, I do mean absolutely everything) on before buying. She didn’t used to do this.

Maybe the shopping addiction disease is contagious and the longer I work at the boutique, the more susceptible to it I will become. My fellow employees seem to have lost any immunity. Maybe I’m next. Maybe shopping will become not just my job, but my hobby.

So far, it seems like the one hobby I am most identifying with (No offense, cribbage or guitar). And one I wouldn’t mind trying out a few more times, you know, just to see if it’s the hobby for me.

I mean, if it’s for the sake of research….

Still, I knew it was one of his hobbies was playing guitar. He plays a little bit every day, whether it’s for five minutes or if he has more time than that.

Conor began playing guitar a little over four years ago. A family friend sparked his interest in guitar when he came to stay with them.

Conor’s first song: 3AM by Matchbox Twenty

Conor’s second song: Howie Day (per his mother’s request)

I can’t say I’ve never picked up a guitar. My sister has one. A Christmas gift she just had to have but didn’t follow through much with. But I don’t know any songs…or notes…or chords.

I don’t think of myself as particularly musically inclined. I played piano for a year or so before my teacher decided that she had too many students and it was time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Disclaimer: It wasn’t that I was bad at piano, I was actually not bad at all. It’s just that I never practiced. Anyone who has ever been forced to practice scales will tell you—they’re boring.  I only ever wanted to play the fun songs. But Christmas carols in August aren’t exactly well received (especially after six months straight of them) in the Makinson household.

And every time I played “I will Always Love You” (the Whitney Houston version , of course. I know you did it first, Dolly Parton, but Whitney did it better…Whitney always does it better) my mother would bust out her best Whitney. So that was a bit of a deterrent.

Back to Guitar: So after watching Conor for a bit, I was itching to try. He had some trouble placing my sparkle-nailed fingers on the proper chords and I had some trouble holding them down (my mother jokes that I have bird hands, you know, hollow bones, like a bird?).

But after finally get the C chord to sound right, I was feeling pretty well accomplished (for all of you who are not completely guitar fluent–much like myself–that’s one of the easier chords).

The other easier chords: G chord and D chord. Which are also the other two that I learned.

I don’t know how Conor does it. My fingertips started aching after those three chords–I can’t imagine playing a whole song. But he has the calluses to prove his dedication.

Calluses that I can’t say would look good with my sparkle nails (I call them my Lady Gaga Bad Romance nails. An ode to both the wonderful artist she is, and the genius who created her look for that video-Alexander McQueen–Long live, McQueen, baby).

Hmm…maybe I should pick up the piano again. I remember the first five notes of the Star Wars theme so that’s a good start…right?

All photos property of Olivia Makinson

Halfway through the first round of Cribbage I began wishing I had started with a simpler hobby for my first blog entry.”It’s a thinking man’s game,” Luke (@lukewalkitout)  warned me before he started rattling off a series of rules and numbers.

A BRIEF synopsis of the rules (because it would be a form of cruel and unusual punishment unfair to subject you to the extended and intricately complicated full version…you probably don’t even need it, you probably already have a hobby, don’t you?):

• Usually two players, can be more if played in teams, two teams.
• Each player moves his or her pegs around the cribbage board twice. First player to get around twice wins.
• You move your pegs according to how many points you receive from creating combinations with your cards. (Key combinations: 15, pairs, 31, straights).

This is really all I can tell you without having to introduce you to the “cribbage frustration forehead wrinkle” (a term I have coined and am hoping will catch on in the inner circle of cribbage players…also known as “The Cribs”…again a term I’m lobbying for).

But I wouldn’t want to do that to you. I like you.

And why do I like you? I like you because you have somehow stumbled across my blog and given me validation in life a page view, so thanks for that (I currently have three. Three of which were me).

And if you’re actually reading this far into my blog, then I’d say it’s safe to assume you’re my mother. And you, Mom, gave me life, so I like you and I thank you too.

Back to cribbage: Now it may have just been that I was tired or that a fast-paced series of simple math and memorization (That card means you can move your peg two spaces; Aces equal one, not ten; have to say “go” to continue) wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing at 11:00 on a Tuesday night, but I’m not sure cribbage is the game for me.

All photos property of Olivia Makinson

Luke assured me the game was usually more fun (an insult I shrugged off/pretended not to notice).

I can understand where he is coming from, though.

I kept messing up the math, going when it wasn’t my turn, forgetting to move my pegs, taking a very fairly long time to move my pegs when it was my turn (the tiny holes were hard to count and I have bad vision, I’ll show you my prescription, I swear).

All in all, I wasn’t even kinda sorta close to being the best cribbage player (and probably not on my way to being inducted in as one of “The Cribs”…which is ok, I look better in red anyway).

I’m going to have to give it another shot (any takers?) and maybe that’ll turn my opinion around. But as of now, I am perfectly fine if I don’t have to hear Luke tell me to “peg it!” for quite some time.

On to the next one…