Hello world. I hope everyone has been surviving in this snow globe of a place lately. The MSJ community was graced with another snow day on Monday, thanks to white death part deux. I kept hearing that it was coming, however I was unimpressed with the slight dusting that was on the ground around 5am that morning. It must've just been dumped on us like a five-year old with a bucket of Legos, because the next thing I know, it's 9am and there's snow up to my knees. Hey, I'm not complaining. 

 

Alright so this year has been quite different for me schedule-wise than my freshman year. Actually, it's almost opposite. Last year all my classes were during the day, usually beginning at 8:30am and ending around 2pm or 3pm. Typical day, much like a high school day or some work days (yawn). When I started to schedule for this year, things began to get trickier and more limited because there were less sections being offered for the classes I need to take for my major. When all was said and done, my schedule consists of classes that don't start before 1pm, and night class 3 days out of the week. To some, this would be a dream schedule! Sleep in...wake up in time to catch lunch...awesome! However it has its downsides to it as well such as today, when school was closed until noon because of the white death. That really didn't help me much, but everyone else seemed to be thrilled. I also hate knowing that at dinner time while everyone else is unwinding and filling their bellies up for a night full of studying and ping pong, I'm mentally preparing myself to sit in a classroom for three hours straight without completely losing it . Either way, I have found that my night classes are filled with more adult students which sometimes has the potential to make the discussions and learning atmosphere more serious and stimulating than a room full of freshman and jocks during the day (no offense). Night classes are not for everyone, however I have started to adjust and almost acquire a liking for them.

Hey everyone! It’s October here at the Mount! You know what that means?

Well it means a lot of things, but most important to students here, it’s advising season. And that means planning for the next semester! I’ll let you guys in on the process, especially since I have an appointment with my advisor tomorrow!

Here at the Mount we register for classes online. Our personal schedules, as well as the class schedules for the entire school, are made online. We still have course books that are printed on paper, but I’ve heard the school is in the process of phasing those out, which I think is a good thing. Because the moment those books are printed, they’re out of date. Classes here at the Mount very frequently change information in the middle of the advising season. In fact, course times and classrooms can change all the way up to the day before that class begins.

That’s not to say that changes happen like that a lot. But I very frequently have at least one course that has changed rooms from the time I set up my schedule to the time the class actually starts.

After we pick out our classes, we meet with our advisor, and they review our class choices. If they agree that we’re taking a schedule that’s right for where you are in your degree, then they approve that schedule.

After that, you get online and you fight to the death for your classes!!!

No no, not really. Each class has a specific day to register. For example, I don’t know the exact date, but the senior class? They’ve registered already. I’m a Junior, and my day to register is this Thursday. The computer does a random lottery, and half the class gets to start registering at 6 am and the other half at 6:30. Awesomely for me, I got 6 am this time, where I’ve usually gotten 6:30 in the past! You wanna be earlier rather than later, because classes fill up to their capacity, then close! So if enough seniors wanna take a specific class, it makes it hard to get. For example, Ceramics with Professor Korte. EVERYONE wants to take that class!  If you’re a freshman, you’re not going to get in. That’s the way it goes.

Speaking of classes and everything! I still gotta finish off my own schedule before I meet with my teacher! I’ll see you guys soon!

I decided to stick with the biology, however I'm probably going to study under Dr. Sachs with piano which I'm excited about. Anyways, all the other bloggers have been posting their schedules and I can't think of anything to blog about this week. Finals and projects have been keeping me pre-occupied. Well here's my schedule.

First Semester 2010 - Undergraduate

Course

Sec

Title

Instructor

Building

Room

Dates

Days

Beg

End

Hrs

Syll/Pre

BookNow

BIO 150

LA

Dinosaur Biology

KRITSKY,G. Email

SC

201

10/21/2009-12/09/2009

---W---

06:00p

09:30p

4.00

Additional meeting information for BIO 150-LA

SC

212

10/21/2009-12/09/2009

---W---

06:00p

09:30p

BIO 201

01

Anatomy & Physiology I

MURRAY,E. Email

SC

206

08/24/2009-12/11/2009

-M-W---

01:00p

02:50p

4.00

BIO 201A

01

Human A&P I (LAB)

MURRAY,E. Email

SC

217

08/24/2009-12/11/2009

----R--

09:00a

11:30a

0.00

MTH 174

02

Statistics I

WIDMER,L. Email

LIB

16

08/24/2009-12/11/2009

-M-W-F-

09:00a

09:50a

3.00

MUS 140

02

Piano

SACHS,D. Email

08/24/2009-12/11/2009

-------

00:00a

00:00a

1.00

PHI 140

02

Phil Point of View

SONTAG,M. Email

LIB

12

08/24/2009-12/11/2009

--T-R--

02:15p

03:30p

3.00

SOC 103

02

Intro to Sociology

CARLSON,M.

CL

102

08/24/2009-12/11/2009

-M-W-F-

11:00a

11:50a

3.00

I have been awake since 6am this morning going through e-mails, papers, binders, folders, books, web-sites, phone conversations, and everything else possible! Lets start off with the first two hours of my day. I spent two hours this morning putting together information for an interview that I would have for Kiss 107 about my involvement through the Mount on www.collegeweeklive.com. I then got ready for the day and went to my 9am class. Afterwards I spoke with Cliff about the semester so far and picked up my the Flip Video Camera to start taking more footage for the video that will ...eventually... be up on this blog page. He also had mentioned some ideas for the phonathon job just so many hours later. I then had just enough time to stop up in my room to check e-mails again before my tutoring for ethics. My tutor helped me pitch some ideas for my last ethics paper for the semester. I finished tutoring and made my way up to the room to yet again CHECK MY E-MAIL for more updates for the day and this week. ((I feel like I get 10 e-mails every hour - I'm too involved.)) I then rushed my lunch in order to once again check my e-mail so I can be ready for another interview for the day. I was able to speak with Shane Fero for an hour today about glass art. He is the president of the Glass Art Society and has created some amazingly beautiful pieces and has been able to present, lecture, demonstrate, and teach the techniques of flameworking. I had this interview with him today because of a research paper that is due on Thursday for my flameworking course. We have to research the technique and history of the glasswork as well as an artist who uses the technique and their thoughts and experience with it. I chose Shane Fero because of his magnificent work but never expected to be given the opportunity to speak with him directly about his fabulous work! The best thing I got from the interview was this direct quote from him. His words are inspirational:

“Coming from a traditional background, you learn by practice. Somebody that is coming from a background doesn’t have to have huge skills to make something beautiful. You don’t have to have incredible flameworking skills to make incredible art.”

I've been in a great mood ever since! But still tired because there has been more to add on to the day. After the interview I had voice lessons and then had to rush up to the theatre lobby for the campus ministry leadership team bingo event. I was unaboule to stay for the whole thing however because of choir. Of course after choir, I went up to my room again to CHECK E-MAIL AGAIN before dinner in which i rush in order to get to work on time. Working the phonathon was of course slow tonight because its the last week of calling and we were calling some of the more difficult customers. We made it through though and ended up making it over our goal for the semester. So it overall was a big success. Well after work I had another meeting with campus ministry to talk about the bingo event earlier in the day, as well as the trick or treat for canned goods event. They were BOTH BIG SUCCESSES! We are really excited about it. We also began talking in to more details about upcoming events for the semester. This includes shanty town in which any of the mount students/faculty/staff etc. can build a place to stay for the night of november 19th out of cardboard boxes and sleep outside. it is a big part of our homelessness awareness week! we talked about more details within the week about movie events, speakers, and more. i'm really excited about it! we have more events coming up as well, including a night hike on december 2nd that is welcome to all. after the meeting i was finally able to come back to my room FOR THE NIGHT and get ready for bed. and so now i'm here. writing this blog, tired as can be, and still having to work on more homework, including that ten-page paper that my interview was for. thankfully i have more than enough information to feed off of. its just a matter of whether my brain is too fried to work on it much tonight before i sleep.

well either way, thanks for reading my blog again!

Hey Folks, and hello again from the art building of the Mount!

Right now up in the art building we’ve got the senior thesis show for the Graphic Design students. All you future Graphic Designers out there, you ought to stop by! You can see what the students here have managed to accomplish in their years here at the Mount. I have to say, I’m sitting out in the gallery, and I’m looking at the work now… and I’m very impressed. I look forward to when I get up to where these students are, and I can create displays like I see here!

I was gonna tell y’all about Oklahoma!, but I can see that my buddy Andi has that covered! We still got a few shows, tonight and tomorrow! You can come see Andi and I in action over in the college theater tonight and

Anyway, I’m here watching the gallery and I was working on my class schedule! I’m certain some of the other students have told you about class schedules, but any one out there coming to the college for art? I can tell you about that!

Everyone here in the college has an advisor, and it’ll usually be someone in your major. For me, as a Graphic Designer, my advisor is Professor Dan Mader, and he teaches 3-d Design here at the Mount. So he knows quite a bit about which classes I should take!

Every major here comes with a sheet of paper they give you when you begin, and it tells you what classes are recommended you take each semester, to keep you on track for graduating in four years. There are some classes you can trade around and take different semesters, and there are some that you really shouldn’t! For me, in my BFA in Graphic Design, I have to take a lot of Art History. I can move those classes around, though, and catch up with them later in my college career. I’m also hoping to take classes over the summer for one or two years. But I also have six Graphic Design classes. Graphic Design I all the way though Graphic Design VI! Now those I can’t switch around! If I skipped those, I’d never be able to graduate in four years!

There’s also extra classes I’d like to take, because I just love traditional art! I’m hoping to take a glass-working class next semester, but I’ll have to talk with my advisor. That’s an awful lot of credit hours if I do take it! I’m also really looking forward to taking Photography next semester! I’ve always wanted to take Photography in high school, but I never had time in my schedule. But now I finally get to take it! I’m looking forward to it very much!

Well, I gotta get back to arranging my classes and trying to make it all fit! And trying to make sure I don’t have to get up too early!

See you all next week!