Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day and I thought I could contribute.

This year's topic is climate change so I will be talking about the environmentally friendly movements in Slippery Rock. Some people think it is quite difficult to do anything beneficial to the environment or that nobody will listen about the environment. Slippery Rock is proof that this is not true.

Slippery Rock University campus has a large campground on it. This camp has a long history at the school. The major attraction in the winter is the giant ski hill which people go sledding down whenever they feel like avoiding classwork. Accompanying this is the ski lodge. It holds many facilities for making the ride down the hill more enjoyable like a fire, picnic tables, and shelter from the all too common wind. All of this was threatened by a proposal to turn the campground into a parking lot. When the students got wind of this they were outraged. They formed a group called Leave It Green which voiced to the university that the students wanted the campground to stay even if it meant having to walk an extra half mile to the parking lot.

The campground is here to stay but Leave it Green didn't stop just because it was secure. Almost half of the students at Slippery Rock are commuters. A lot of them live just barely off campus (think across the street) and drive to class everyday. To curb this behavior the Green Bike Initiative was started by Dan Wilson. A bunch of bikes were brought together and made available for anybody in the slippery rock community to use. These bikes are still in use today, but the system has changed only slightly. The Green Bike Initiative also accepts bicycle donations for use in the program. And yes, all the bikes are actually green.

Recently, environmental friendliness has become a major affair on campus. To help with the movement the Green Fund was started. Every semester $20,000 is set aside to help projects which are environmentally friendly. One of the recent projects to receive some of this money is the NextBus GPS tracking system servicing the shuttles. There are two buses which drive campus and the community for the students to ride. Often times it is slightly off schedule. The NextBus system provides a website and phone number for students to check arrival times for each stop. The idea is that if students can more reliably predict when the bus will come, then they won't resort to driving everywhere.

That's all for this year's blog action day. Don't forget, everyday is an opportunity for change.

Autumn in Slippery Rock

Dang, I sure messed up that more posts thing.

I wasn't quite prepared for how much work school was going to be. This year I have an apartment with one other person. I don't really want to talk about the situation, it's a sore subject. Anyway, I advise anybody looking for a place to live in Slippery Rock to stay away from The Ivy. I strongly doubt their ability to count above three.

This is my first time ever taking a photography class. Results have been mixed. The first critique resulted in my photo being related to dying dreams and the death of Santa Claus. The next one consisted of two photos, one which was basically perfect and the other somewhat mediocre. Since I am not in the beginner's class I feel like I'm doing just fine. The true test will be when I must use film. I began photography when I bought my first digital camera and have never used film. While I'm curious about it, the thought of photos being related to my grade scares me. This isn't the first art class I've taken, but it is the first that I began learning outside of class. One of my photos is used by a website/blog on average once a week, which to me is a testament to my ability. (Flickr also lists me as one of the featured photographers of Slippery Rock) Hopefully I don't end up hating photography because I'm taking a class as has happened with every other hobby I took a class for.

There are lots of topics which I thought about putting in here, but I didn't write them down and I can't remember them. I typically use Evernote for this type of thing. Speaking of Evernote one use I have found for it is making a playlist for my school radio show. Whenever I hear a song which fits into my show I add it to the list to look-up in the station's library.

This Summer

So this summer wasn't an entire loss.

The Starlite Car Cruise, which claims to be the largest car cruise on the east coast, takes place every Friday during the summer at the North Way Christian Community Church. It has been a staple of my summers for the past few years. They have everything from the Model T to Lamborghinis, but mostly classic cars. If you have ever seen a classic car driving around western PA on a Friday chances are that it was heading to/from this event. The best part is that it is sponsored entirely by local businesses so everything is free (except the food). There are even prizes for cars of the weekly theme. The theme when I attended was horsepower but all cars are welcome. The photo above was taken there. Some of my favorite photos over the years have been of cars at the car cruise.

Shifting gears, I have been working on a facebook app for quite some time. When I first started I was quite enthusiastic about it. Unknowingly at the time, I made a poor decision about my hosting provider. Being a cheap college student I went with a free hosting provider. After making a ton of progress and just before release the provider closed down with no warning. Everything which was not backed up was lost, that constitutes everything I made because I hadn't backed up any of it. All the code along with the entire database was lost. That happened a little over a year ago. This story should be a lesson about backing up data and free hosting providers. Since then I have found another free provider (don't say anything) with a better record. Now the application is up and running better than before. The first version did not use any javascript. The new version uses it with plans to use more. The Facebook Javascript (FBJS) sandbox is more capable than I had originally thought. I didn't even have to deal with the nitty-gritty of AJAX. FBJS has a high level AJAX class to handle everything! For those wondering, the application allows one to give nicknames to his/her friends. It's called My Nickname. The next feature to be released is a profile box.

The other major achievement of my summer is the understanding of the impact of people in photographs. If you know my photography habits this goes without saying, but I like candid photos. The problem with that is most people in candid photos don't like them. My habits saw a shift this summer. I now take hardly any photos of people, and when I do they are usually small and far away. Replacing candid shots is macro shots. Macro pictures don't typically work with people. So I have taken drastically fewer photos of people. Looking back at the macro photos I keep thinking, "ok it's cool, but not engrossing." When I go back to school in a few weeks I will be working on photographing people. (Roomies be warned) This was all made possible by the Project 365 which I am participating in. If you have no clue what that is go read my post just before starting it.

Side note: The frequency of these posts is lower than I like, that will be changing.

The Heat of Summer

A rose from my grandmother's garden.

This summer has been quite different from previous ones. Most notably is that I'm not taking any classes. For the past two summers I've been taking classes at Slippery Rock University. A year ago I made a 3D animation.

I know that for some people getting a new phone is not a big deal. For me it is. That's because four years ago I got my first cell phone and have been using it ever since, until it just up and died. Nothing came in or went out of my phone. So I got a new phone the day after I realized it was walking, but not talking. My new phone is the Samsung Alias 2. It's a pretty cool phone. The keyboard uses what Verizon calls e-ink. The proper term is organic LED, the same technology which the Kindle uses. I quickly realized that it was not functioning properly and returned to the store for a replacement. Hopefully this one will last until Verizon gets the iPhone. (More on that later)

About a week from today I will be halfway through with my Project 365. For those readers who don't know what Project 365 is here is a little description. It is a photography project in which the only requirement is to take a picture everyday. My first attempt lasted until I lost my camera in the snow. This time I'm not going to let something like losing my camera stop me, though I really hope that doesn't happen. The picture featured above is one of my recent submissions. I hope you like it. Doing a project like this forces me to be more creative by making me look at everyday objects differently.

Until next time

Summer is Calling

Bad news first
The year is coming to a close and what should be an exciting time is not going to be. I should have graduated at the conclusion of the semester. Originally I was to be a student for 4.5 years. But last summer I jumbled classes so that I could graduate in  May this year. It looked like everything was going well until this semester when I was just overworked and could not give enough time to all of my classes. I have to go back to the plan of graduating after 4.5 years. I was rather disappointed when I realized I had to go back to that plan. I can still be happy for my friends though. My best friends are moving on to the real world and while I wish I was joining them I can still give them an encouraging send off.


Just below Slippery Rock Falls

Earlier today I went to Slippery Rock Falls for the first time ever. It was just to help somebody whose car would not start, but I had the opportunity to spend some time at the falls. The water was freezing cold since it is only the start of warm weather here. After 5 seconds of my feet in the water it was painful. I am told that the water levels are lower in august so that people can walk out into the middle of the creek and swim in the warmer water. I almost fell into the creek twice from (of all things) slipping on a rock. At least now I can claim that I slipped on a rock while at Slippery Rock. Anyway, we finally were able to start the car and return to campus.

This is likely my last post of the school year. Feel free to leave any questions or comments anytime though.

Back from D.C.

Not long after going to San Francisco I went on a trip to Washington, D.C. The trip was sponsored by the honors program. Every year they have a trip during the spring semester shortly after spring break. Last year it was to Savannah, GA. This year it was to Washington.

We left on Thursday morning taking a bus to our hotel in DC. We arrived later that day after a quick stop for lunch. Into the evening we had a trolley tour of the city stopping at some of the major sites to take pictures. We drove around the capitol building before coming to the Jefferson Memorial. That was the first location which we got off the trolley to take pictures. After that we went to the Iwo Jima Memorial. We spent a long time there and even so I was not able to check everything I wanted to. After that we went to the second most important place for me to see, the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president in history. From there we saw the Washington Monument across the reflecting pool. Later we went to the White House. I got some sweet pictures of all of these places.

The following days consisted mostly of free time to do and see whatever we wanted in Washington but there were also some guided tours of the city.



My favorite place which I wasn't expecting was Arlington National Cemetery. I have great respect for the military personnel. The cemetery was very moving for me. Only the Holocaust Museum was more emotional.

I enjoyed this trip as much as any other trip (except perhaps the honors trip to Savannah last year). These trips in my opinion are the best benefit to being n the honors program.

Back From California

Slippery Rock just doesn't compare to San Francisco. I went there for spring break to do what is known as service learning. A group of students from SRU went there all together to do community service insead of a vaction, we call it Care Break. Even though it rained on more days than it did not we all still enjoyed it. If we had stayed in Slippery Rock it probably would have rained every day anyway.

While there we stayed and worked at The Presidio, one of the Golden Gate National Parks. We stayed in one of the old army barracks in the park. The Presidio has a popular volunteer program which people participate in every Wednesday and Saturday. We worked on many projects that the volunteers work on except we did it everyday for a week. Mostly we planted native plants and pulled out a week called oxalis (aka Bermuda buttercup). While we did that we learned a lot about many of the native species. My favorite was Miner's Lettuce. It is called thus because miners in the area during the gold rush ate it. I tried some and it does actually taste like luttuce. I loved the trip more than any vacation. It actually felt like a vacation because of the atmospere among all of the people who went. I suggest to everybody to attend a trip like this. My favorite part of the trip was working oin the coastal bluffs around one of the old army batteries. From it we could see the Golden Gate Bridge and had a beautiful view of the ocean. My only regret was that I had not done a care break earlier.

Almost There

This semester is going by faster than any other.



A lot has happened since my last post. This semester really did take me by surprise. I had to take some time off from posting while I got things under control. Hopefully it will stay that way.

The biggest interuption was the Mathematical Contest in Modeling. It is an international contest which takes place anually. The premise is that each 3 person team has 120 hours to solve a problem and write a paper about it. Last year, I competed for the first time and my team placed in the top 13% worldwide. The problem was to come up with a way to gerate sudoku boards. This year, the problem was to come up with a system wich can determine the best traffic flow control within a traffic circle. I won't find out my place this year until after the end of the semester (and hopefully graduation). Even with all of the prestige which comes with the competition I doubt that I will ever do it again. Both times I was left stressed because I was missing out on everything else happening while I was stuck working on this math problem.

House council has been a very big part of my life this year. That should be expected as I am the president of the Watson Hall house council. But it wasn't until now that I felt as though I was actually getting anything accomplished. We have some big plans for house council for the remainder of the year.

Midterm recess is approaching quickly (next week). Most people call it spring break, but I don't as it is not yet spring. Normally I just take a week off, go home, and relax. This year I am going on a care break. For anyone that doesn't know, a care break is a trip to another city in order to do community service. Slippery Rock University has a long history of participating in care breaks. I am going on the care break to San Fransisco. While there we will be doing landscaping at the Presidio. This trip has been the best thing to look forward to all year so I am looking forward to it more than anything else.

Next time you hear from me I will be back from California.

Spring Semester should actually be called Winter Semester

There has been snow on the ground since the start of the semester.



It is so cold that for the first time ever I witnessed pond hockey in Slippery Rock. This weather is not condusive to learning. Classes were getting cancelled for pure fact that the wind chill was 20 below. This does make for a lot of fun outside of class though. The ski hill is getting a ton of use along with the ski lodge. Sometimes there is even free hot chocolate in the ski lodge for everyone to enjoy. The hot chocolate really hits the spot when it is this cold out.

Classes this semster really took me by surprise. They started so suddenly and with so much work. This just makes me want to graduate even more just to get it over with. Luckily there are only 3 months left.Then I won't have to worry about classes anymore. After that I'll just have to worry about the real world. Some my friends who graduated last year are still surviving out in the real world so I figure it can't be so bad.

Just as a reminder feel free to leave questions/comments here and I'll get back to you ASAP.