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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