Between semesters

The fall semester has been over for almost three weeks now.

The bookstore just posted the list of required books for next semester which has brought me back to reality.

I have really been enjoying winter break. It is one month of not having to worry about classes or homework. My time can be spent preparing for other things, like my hobbies. Last year I attempted to complete the Project 365 and failed. For anyone that doesn't know about the various 365 groups or won't click the link, Project 365 is a photography project wherein the participant takes a picture everyday for a year. I was going strong last year when I unknowingly dropped my camera in the snow. It was not long after that when I discovered what happened but could not find my camera. A few weeks later my camera was found and returned to me but I had already missed a few days and had to start over. This year I will be starting on January 1st like many other people. Many of the photos from my first attempt involved school. The new attempt will be no different except that it may be my last semester.

Boozel Dining Hall has been closed for renovations since the end of last spring semester. It is scheduled to open on January 9th, just in time for the semester to begin.



This will make things vastly simpler concerning food. Boozel is the closest dining hall to almost all of the dorms. That is actually why it was being renovated. With the construction of the new dorms, Boozel was often reaching capacity. Now, it will be able to handle many more people dining and will be serving an improved menu.

Almost There

The end of the semester is within sight. Most of my classes have final projects and papers due next week. I wish it was all over. I wish I didn't have to do it at all.

In my last post I said that nothing went awry with regard to my scheduling. Just after that something almost did. One of the classes I signed up for was under-enrolled. When that happens the class is most often canceled. The last time this happened it was a class which included a trip to London that was canceled. This time it is the very last class I need for graduation. Luckily it is the same for everyone else in the class as well. The provost has graciously allowed the class to continue with only 5 people.

The weather here still has not made up its mind as to what season it is. One day it is closer to summer the next it is back to winter. The past few it has been snowing so I think that it might be winter to stay pretty soon.

I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving. It's my second favorite holiday, the first being St. Valentine's Day. I have not been home since fall break at the beginning of October and am looking forward to seeing my family again. This is actually the longest I've been away from home. Before, I went home monthly for various reasons. Now I simply don't need to and haven't been going. It's definitely going to be nice to go home.

Tonight is Slippery Rock's Light Up Night. It starts about an hour from now, but I'm not sure if I'm going to go. Even though it is beautiful outside, I have a ton of work to complete. Most of it due Monday. And I know I'm not going to have time this weekend to do it. On Friday night I am participating in a fund raiser for St. Jude Hospital called Up 'til 2 For St. Jude. On Saturday I will be celebrating a friend's birthday (not all day so I will have some time). Also, sometime this weekend an old friend will be visiting. Then finally on Sunday is the Gym Class Heroes concert. I just bought my ticket yesterday, and was surprised that they haven't sold out already. I also have a meeting Sunday immediately after the concert which will take up the last moments of my weekend.

First Snow

Last week was the first snow of the season here in Slippery Rock.



Two years ago when it snowed in the spring semester the snow didn't melt for two months. If you don't know, there are only three seasons here in Slippery Rock. One is summer. It doesn't last very long. The second is winter. This lasts considerably longer than the others. The third is actually just a transition between the two. Also the weather seems to jump between the seasons whenever it wants to. Last week it was snowing, this week it's almost 70, and next week it is supposed to snow again.

This week also marks the beginning of scheduling for the spring semester. I scheduled myself earlier yesterday. Just on a side note, scheduling has never gone smoothly for me. Something has always gone wrong. Most often it is a course that is filled by the time I register. This time nothing has gone wrong. It's about time.

Homecoming

This past week was homecoming. For the first time, one of my friends was on the homecoming court. Campaigning for someone on court is quite exciting. For about 2 weeks you can brag about your friend as much as you want. It also means that voting was easier for me.

Throughout the week there were homecoming related events all leading up to the parade and game on Saturday. The pep rally and concert were the largest of these and a lot of fun. The concert this year was Day 26 and Live In Color. I am not familiar with them but tried to go see tham anyway. People started lining up several hours in advance. I didn't show up till about an hour before the doors were supposed to open. The concert was delayed 45 minutes though, so since I was tired of standing in line I left before going in, but heard that it was amazing.

Two nights ago was my event as house council president. We organized a paint a pumpkin event for Watson Hall. W e bought 100 pumpkins for the residents of Watson to take and paint for halloween. We also had pumpkin pie, apple pie, and apple cider for everyone. At the end we had only about 30 pumpkins left. Everyone who attended had a good time, or so I hear.

Fall Break

Just as I begin to get comfortable in my routine and recover from all illness comes fall break.

It is what I consider the most pointless break of them all. It is only two days off just as everyone becomes acquianted with the semester.
I am looking forward to going back to school though. That is because when I get back the trees will be changing colors to show off their autumn splendor. The view in some parts of Slippery Rock, and even some places on campus, is extremely beautiful. The campus really looks beautiful in every season. (Winter has the added benefit of more cancelled classes than the others) I especially like Autumn though because as a photographer I prefer more colorful pictures. There is about a 1 week window in which the foliage will look its best. During that week I tend to be happier as the campus just amazes me.

I'm really excited for homecoming this year. Many of my friends are on the homecoming planning committee this year. They are trying to make homecoming a big tradition here on campus. Even though I'm not on the committee I am doing everything I can to help them succeed. Also, I know half of the homecoming court again, so I will have to base my choices for homecoming king and queen on more than that. Regardless, I'm going to be in the parade again this year. The parade is a big part of the community and I feel great to be a part of it. The only downside is that I will have to get up really early on a Saturday to prepare. After that, it is an awesome time.

1 month in

So, it has been quite a while since my last post.

My fall semester has since started, and it is quite different from all the ones prior. I started off being so involved on campus this semester that I didn't really get anything done. I just went around from one meeting, to class, back to another meeting, then to lunch etc. This continued for about 2 weeks and now I've quit several activities. One class and a handful of organizations and I plan to continue to quit more. The reason being that three of my classes are 400 level and demand so much of my time that I need to quit practically everything else. Computer science students are not commonly involved on campus. The professors know this and assign projects with that in mind. It really bothers me because I care more about the organizations I am involved with than my classes. I know that some people will think that I need different priorities but what I'm doing for the organizations is so much more rewarding than class.

I have so busy that my hobby of photography has even lost some attention.

This is one the few pictures I have taken since starting classes.

Some of the things I've been doing for years are beginning to be replaced. I started with WSRU radio my freshman year. Back then it was still WRSK. Now I have quit it and moved on to other things. Before I was in it I never thought I could be on radio. But now I am struggling to get by without it.

This year is going to be the most difficult for me to get through. Partly because some of my best friends graduated last year and I will not be seeing them nearly as often as I would like. But also because I will have to actually focus on my classes. That might not seem so difficult until you understand that I hate computers. They are so difficult to work with. That is the reason I am a computer science major, because I want to make them easier to use.

In other news I have a new blog for Slippery Rock University admissions. They are featuring it on the Rock Blogs page. I will be posting back and forth between these two blogs now. One post there on here.

I wish I had something more interesting to say here but right now I am being inundated with classwork.

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And We're Off

So here's an idea. Why not have actual students tell about what it is like to go to Slippery Rock? That is the whole premise behind this blog. A student of Slippery Rock University describing my experiences in college.

But first, a little about myself. I am a senior Computer Science major. I also have a minor in Information Technology and am considering a minor in Philosophy. I am also involved with several extracurricular activities on campus. My favorites are the Honors Program, and Student Government Association. A lot of what I do is related to the honors program. I have found it to be one of the best things to be part of on campus. My favorite thing to do is photography. I take more pictures than everybody else that I know. I will probably feature a photo here from time to time.

But wait a minute this is about my experience at SRU, not about me.

We're now a month into the fall semester and my classes are becoming quite regular. That is to say that I know what to expect of each of them. My computer classes are my difficult classes, but I enjoy my liberal studies so much more. A few weeks ago I had a problem which landed me in the hospital for a few hours. There was nothing they could do about it, so I ended missing a few classes while I recovered. Stuff began to pile up rather quickly and I was having trouble dealing with all of it. Now I am almost completely caught up with the exception of one class. A few more days should be all I need. Normally those days would be a weekend, but this past weekend I went to Camp Allegheny to do some community service for the honors program. Many other members of the honors program went as well. We did a lot of painting for the camp. This wasn't the first time I had done community service at Camp Allegheny, but it was the most enjoyable.

Back to School (soon)

My summer is almost over even though it just started.

I highly doubt that I am going to go on a vacation this summer. Normally I go somewhere over the summer. This year it looks like I won't even make it to Kennywood. My summer break is actually going to be shorter than my winter break.

Since my last post I have finished the last summer class I was taking. I am pleased to say that I got all A's in my classes for the semester. That bumps my QPA up to 3.25. That is nice since technically that is the minimum required by the Honors Program (original site design by me). Speaking of the honors program, this year I am being a mentor for one of the newly accepted students. The purpose of the mentor program is so new students can easily join the program. Not that it is more difficult to join than be in the program. It's just that if the program staff had to answer every question from the new students they would not have much time left to run the program.

This year I am going to be a check in assistant. That kind of requires that I be there when other students come. Because of that I need to be there earlier than just about everyone else. That is nice since I will be with almost all of my friends but without the worry of class. The only other time that happens is during finals week, and everyone else is usually too stressed out over their finals to have fun (not me, finals don't really bother me).

Congratulations to Krista and Steve Winslow on your marriage. Take care in Florida.

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Decisions Decided

My summer should be half over by now.

I was really relieved when I got two more A's for this semester. That bumps my overall QPA up to about 3.2. If all goes well that will be up to 3.5 by the time I graduate.

I didn't really do as much celebrating for Independence Day as I normally do.This was the first year I can remember watching fireworks on TV. I usually go out see them live. But it's OK the shows on TV are good too.

I am now two weeks into my third summer class here at Slippery Rock University. That's a funny story actually. I had originally planned on taking painting as this third class. When deciding what class to take I didn't really want to take painting. It was one of three prerequisite options for a class needed for my second major (Information Technology), the others being ceramics, and drawing. I would have prefered drawing but I was taking my more important animation class at that time already. On the first day of painting I went to class like a dedicated student. When I got there I realized there was no way I was going to enjoy the class. On the Friday beforehand I had decided to drop my second major and switch it to a minor and then also pick up a philosophy minor. That means I didn't even need to take painting any more. So not only did I not enjoy it I didn't even need it. Later that morning, a good friend of mine (and wonderful roommate by the name of Joe) came to visit. He suggested that I take Chemistry 2 instead. I hadn't thought of this since I had planned on taking Physics 2 instead since I only need one of them for my Computer Science major. Not only does it satisfy more requirements, but I will enjoy it immensely more than painting.

I also picked up the iPod Touch 2.0 firmware. I decided to forgo the January update half expecting those features to be built into version 2.0. I would rather wait and pay less than get things right away. Now I can finally experience what everyone else has since January and more. I don't know why location awareness is available to apps since as far as I can tell the iPod Touch is not location aware. What was excited to see was the official Pandora application. I imagined listening to Pandora on it ever since I got it. I haven't paid for any applications yet but if I do the first will be Super Monkey Ball.

Because my class is only 2 hours every day with only about 1 hour of homework per day I have a lot (a ton, too much, excessive amounts, etc.) of free time on my hands. I've been filling some of that time with leisurely reading. A few hours ago I finished Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It made me really think about things in life. For my next book I'll have to pick something else of Lifehacker's list of books that changed lives.

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Summertime

So much has happened since my last post, which was only a week ago. Not all of it pertains primarily to me.

First off, the next major version of Firefox was released. It's now up to 3! There are thousands of improvements over version 2. But the most convincing reason to upgrade is probably the stability and performance enhancements. Firefox 3 will crash less and use less memory all while performing faster.

Firefox's release was mere hours after the release of the Spore Creature Creator. The creature creator is the precursor to the actual game which is scheduled to be released on September 7. I am really anticipating the release because the game just might be the most difficult undertaking by any game producer.

In other news my Chemistry professor told me without looking at his records that I probably have the highest grade in the class. That means that I can relax and possibly worry less this final week.

A few months ago I was participating in the Flickr Project 365. The premise of the project is to take a picture every day for a year. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish due to losing my camera for a few weeks. I plan on trying again sometime soon, hopefully starting on July 1. Regardless, one of my friends was inspired to try the same concept with songs. He has started a MySpace page dedicated to his project known as SongProject365.

It is also now officially summer here. Which means I am officially missing out on summer to take classes.

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Unwanted Variety

Things Happen.

Last week I started my next summer class, Chemistry. I haven't had any chemistry classes since 11th grade in high school. It was quite a shock when I started the class. I was nice and comfortable with my art class having no homework. Now I have either a physical or online assignment due every day. That hasn't discouraged me though. In fact I fear that I may be a little over confident. The first exam went extremely smoothly but I haven't received the results yet.

My little brother graduated high school on Friday. Both him and I attended North Allegheny. For me that meant an opportunity to take lots of pictures. Given the size of his graduating class it lent itself nicely to panoramic photos. I don't get very many chances like this to make panoramas. If anyone is interested, I use ArcSoft Panorama Maker for stitching the photos together.

How much money is Apple making? You don't have to answer that in more detail than 'a lot.' So why do they keep charging for upgrades to the iPod Touch? They treat the iPod Touch like the ugly step-sibling of the iPhone. I appreciate that there is development on the platform, but it only seems like there is because of the iPhone.

I recently started playing Okami. I must say that it is the most artistic game I have ever seen. I know it's been out for quite while for PS2 and Wii, but I only bought it recently.

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Animated

I'm beginning to settle down here.

Today I finished my animation. Well, technically I finished yesterday and it rendered overnight. When I started taking this class I was not expecting to make anything 3D. But when he said we could do something in 3D for our projects I couldn't pass it up. I spent about the first week of class getting acclimated to the program I was using (Strata 3D CX). The following two weeks I spent creating this animation. By the end my professor said that for the time in which I worked on it I have learned a lot about working in 3D.

This also marks the end of my first class this summer. My next one is Intro to Chemistry and it starts on Monday. I haven't taken any chemistry classes since the one in high school just over 4 years ago. However I did get one of the highest grades in the class so I'm not too worried about it.

Just after my last post I opened up Wii Fit. The first thing it wanted to do was measure my BMI. Luckily it said that I am in the normal range. When you start off it asks you whether you want a male or female trainer. In video games I like to explore all the options, so I tried both. The guy just seems really weird. Afterward I went through the rest of the activities readily available as some need to be unlocked. It really seems like a lot of fun.

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Comings and Goings

So it finally feels like summer here in Slippery Rock.

It feels just like a continuation of last summer. My class then was in the same room with the same professor. The difference now is that my course number is 214 instead of 114. My animation is coming along nicely. Watch for it here soon. It's nothing really impressive, mostly just me exploring what is possible with 3d animation.

I was supposed to celebrate four birthdays this weekend but only ended up celebrating two of them. We went shopping on the south side of Pittsburgh to kick things off. The first thing that we all did together was go to the Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon laser show at the Carnegie Science Center. Some of my friends went about two years ago and really loved it. I didn't get quite as much of an experience as they did, but I still liked it. My favorite song, by far, was Money. The next day one of the birthday girls had to go to work at the mall so we decided to go visit her. Since it's the mall we also went shopping. Most of my clothes are very simplistic and cheap, but for some reason I felt I needed to buy an outfit that is out of my ordinary. (I've been feeling I need a change for a while.) High end clothes are not really my thing, so when I bought an outfit at Hollister I surprised even myself. All I need now is people to see me.

I also figured out why I need a change. For the past 3 years I've attended SRU. The last time I attended any school for more than 2 years was elementary school. I guess I'm just not used to staying in one place for such a long time.

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First Post

I recently started summer classes at Slippery Rock University. The nice thing about it is I might be able to graduate with only 1 extra semester under my belt. The bad is that there is nobody else around. The town is primarily made up of students who go home for summer. There is pretty much nobody left here. there are about 20 students living on campus with me. Needless to say I am really bored.

My class is an art class, Art Synthesis Digital Media. It lasts for 2.5 weeks. I am already a few days into it. I don’t have any homework because the programs we use are very expensive. Most students in the class are using Photoshop and Illustrator. I, on the other hand, decided to do some 3d animation for the class. The only 3d modeling program they have is Strata 3D CX, which runs for about $700. There is no way to assign homework if it is highly unlikely that I don’t have the necessary programs.

Later on in the summer some of my friends will also be living here in Slippery Rock. They are orientation ambassadors to new students and their families. I expect that when they get here things will be a little more lively here.

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