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.

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.

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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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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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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