I know I've been slacking the past week with blogs. The last few weeks of school are always the busiest. I've been working a lot of hours in the dining hall to pay off the rest of my school debts. I've been preparing for next year, trying to get all the financial aid figured out. I've been looking for a summer job. And top of that I've been preparing the final events for MGL, prepping up for springfest, and studying for final tests and papers. I have a lot on my plate right now. Like always, I will pull through.

In the next couple of weeks MGL will be hosting a variety of events. Next week, we will be hosting a LazerCraze event which should be pretty fun and exciting. Not a definate date yet but it should be sometime next week in the old gym. We'll also have a booth set up at springfest. The members and officers and I have come up with some pretty cool ideas for a fun and interactive booth. And one last gaming night will be planned as well. So check your emails for more info in the coming final weeks. Oh and I didn't get the RA position . Kinda bringing me down but oh well. I'm going to be dorming with two close friends of mine next year. It should be fun.

Last weekend was spring formal....Here some pics.

• Airborn Controllers: There's nothing worse than a flying controller. Whether it's launched through frustration or carelessness, the result's the same. Wear your wristbands andmake sure the kids do too. If you're playing a particularly frustrating game, take a break every so often. Both your console and your mood will thank you.
• Leaving it on all the time: Be honest. Have you ever left your console on for an extended period, rather than quitting your game properly? Why? Do you want to wear out your console by increasing strain on its (albeit few) moving parts? Do you own shares in your electricity company? Do you just hate this mean old planet that much? You'll have a hard time playing Halo XXIV when the melting polar icecaps have submerged your house under nine feet of water. Haha just kidding, taking the greener approach to your gaming will pay off with lower bills, longer-lasting consoles, and a happier planet.
• Modding: Modding consoles allows players to play pirated games. It's as simple as adding an internal chip to bypass ts hardware protection. BAD IDEA. At best, you'll void your precious warranty. Once you're spotted playing pirated games online, you can be permanently banned from its online service. It also leaves your platform completely useless. It's not worth the risk.
• Not using a surge protector: Yes, your console needs electricity to work. But too much of a good thing can be dangerous. Plug in your consoles without using a surge protector  or with one that's not connected to an adequate ground and you're playing Russian roulette with its precious, oh-so-fragile innards. One random lightning strike, and zap: game over. Literally. Grab a decent surge protector and enjoy some peace of mind.
• Dust: Dust does a pretty good job of choking your console to death and producing more heat. Clean it and it will live longer.
• Heat: Nothing kills electronic devices better than excessive heat. Take the xbox 360's infamous "red ring of death" issue. A set of design and manufacturing faults left the machine vulnerable to heat buildup and drove it to a failure rate that reportedly topped 50%. While those flaws have been fixed, the lesson remains: Minimize heat, and your console will live longer. Make sure it's not basking in the sun, keep it off the carpet, and make sure it has enough air space around it for proper circulation.

            Last Thursday was our first practicum experience in AED210.  All of the teams went to Our Lady of Lourdes to teach our first lessons.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I was EXTREMELY nervous!  I knew we had prepared for it, I knew our lesson plan was strong and that our unit was exciting, but I was still extremely jittery.  I really couldn’t explain why though… I work with children on a regular basis and I am completely comfortable with them.  When I walk into “my” classroom at St. Joe’s I’m at home and I’m excited to get started with the tasks for the day.  It’s not to say I wasn’t excited about being at Lourdes, because I was, but part of me was dreading stepping foot in that classroom and having to take charge.  It was really the strangest feeling!

            Jamie and I rode together from the Mount and we talked about how we were going to introduce ourselves since I was the main teacher for the day but it was also our first day and the kids needed to get to know Jamie and Rachael as well.  On the way there we realized we hadn’t packed any paper in our supplies bag, immediately following that realization there was an emergency text sent out to Rachael whom we were hoping and praying would still be at home… phew!  She was still home and she had grabbed a stack of computer paper.  Jamie and I were the first to arrive at Lourdes and we were 15min early, but we were warmly welcomed by the secretary and we signed in and wrote out our name badges.  We sat outside the office, Jamie trying to talk to me and me trying not to talk at all… within 5min Rachael arrived.  We ran through things one more time and in the process realized I had left the book I was going to be reading from in Jamie’s van… save number two of the day for Rachael!  At this point I was SO glad we were in teams, otherwise I would have been a COMPLETE basket case.

            After everyone else showed up and the kids switched classes it was time for us to start… somewhere between walking into the classroom and the first words coming out of my mouth I found my comfort zone… from then on out it was smooth sailing!  I loved this experience; it was great for me to work with kids that are very different from the inner city children I have daily exposure to.  The difference between Lourdes and St. Joe’s (as two private Catholic schools) was just astounding to me… but I loved the kids and I felt comfortable with them and I am really very excited about continuing our unit with them next Thursday!  This will help me in my future career as a teacher because I think it will be easier for me to get through the “first day jitters” now… the nervousness of not knowing the kids that will walk through my door and having a whole new set of brains to engage won’t be nearly as frightening for me since I have done this practicum.  The experience as a whole will, in conjunction with everything else I am being exposed to here at the Mount, supplement my own personal desire to teach and drive to be better in more ways than I can possibly imagine now as a sophomore.

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.

So this week has been quite an eventful one the country hasn't it? I heard on the news that 49 out of the 50 United States received some amount of snow in one way or another this week. Hawaii was the only one who didn't. I read somewhere that DC had, what, 39 inches of snow? My uncle who lives in the middle of Penn. said they got 27 inches on one day! And one cousin who goes to school in Maryland near DC said they ended up getting a snow week instead of a snow day! They had Friday the 5th off for the first wave and then just proceeded to get one day after another the next week until his school just shut down for the rest of the week! A pre-spring break break. Geez.... :)

Let's see, we had school last Friday but classes on Saturday were cancelled which, unfortunately, didn't benefit me at all but it was nice for those students who do dread Saturday classes. Then Monday we all crossed our fingers for snow and get a snow day and fortunately enough we did! Then Wednesday we weren't sure what would happen but we did get a delay until Noon so I got to miss four classes over that period and one practicum opportunity. Once we did get out onto the roads, they really weren't that bad and I was happy that we got a small break nonetheless.

Of course that meant bright and early on Thursday morning I had to get back into the swing of things and actually make an effort to try to get back to normal. Hard to do when you sat around doing nothing for almost 48 hours straight. I can only imagine how my cousin feels on his snow week. I also heard that we are supposed to get another 2-4 inches on Sunday night into Monday morning so maybe another snow day...? :) Wouldn't that just screw everything up. Most places are closed on Monday already for Presidents' Day but the Mount will be open for classes and whatnot so if we do get a snow day that'll benefit us but no one else really. lol :)

I started my practicum last Monday, before all the snow, and I had a great first experience there but then they had no school on Wednesday and they have no school for the holiday on Monday so I'm missing another two opportunities to go so I'm not sure at this rate if I'll get in my 50 hours or not. I'm sure I can find other times and dates to go but Mondays and Wednesdays just work best. But we'll see... It's just hard to have a routine down, get something introduced, then have weather interrupt everything everywhere, and then trying to get back into it. I really don't like. If the federal government can get a snow day, shouldn't the whole country get off as well? Thank you Ellen for that comment. :) Love that show! lol

But we have our Mid Semester break on this coming Friday and that'll be nice to have a scheduled break, not that we really need it considering the break we just had in the middle of the week. We'll see how it goes though. :) I really want to go visit a friend at UD either that weekend or the next when she has her mid break but I'm not sure when it'll work out, if it does at all. But I hope so. :)

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, or as Sam calls it "Singles Awareness Day." lol That's just when we need to put all the singles together and then they won't be single anymore! lol The guy I've been seeing has something planned that day for us but he won't tell me what it is so I'm in for a surprise. I'm not really into surprises so I'm not sure how I'll react. lol But to you all, Happy Valentine's Day in advance. :) Hope its a fun pink and white day! <3

Starting this Wednesday is College Week Live. It is a virtual college fair set up online. There will a ton of schools, organizations, companies, and anything else associated with going to college. You can talk to reps from schools, current students, financial aid advisors, banks, scholarship organizations, and other personnel about anything you may need or want to know about a college or school or program.

The College of Mount St. Joseph will be hosting a booth at this fair and will be manned by yours truly along with a couple of other bloggers and students along with some faculty and staff of the Mount. Come and ask us questions, peruse the information of our college, check out the pictures and grounds of the buildings, and other things.

This whole experience is meant to put you at ease about college and helping you choose the right school for you. You get the opportunity to "visit" schools that you may not otherwise be able to visit, such as those across the country that would not be worth the cost to check out for one day in person. At least you can visit that school online in this virtual college fair and be able to find out almost anything that you would want to know.

It starts on Wednesday, November 4th and ends Saturday, November 7th. This is the web address for the college fair: http://www.collegeweeklive.com/. It is highly recommended that you check us out on the web and ask us questions using the Click Here: Live Chat button on our booth (College of Mount St. Joseph). The Mount offers "Get Acquainted Days" every few Saturdays or so and that can be helpful to be able to visit the campus itself but if none of those dates work into your schedule, at least this week gives you a chance to know us a bit better when you have a bit of free time. Here's the link on the main site of the Mount for ways to visit us: http://www.msj.edu/view/visit.aspx.

I hope we see you- or talk to you actually- at the College Week Live event this Wednesday through Saturday. It should be a fun time to learn more about the Mount and our community. Enjoy!! :)

So its that point in the semester to say good bye. We are finishing up the semester with exams this week and by noon on Friday we have to all be moved out of the dorms (except the graduates who have to be out by noon on Sunday). It's kinda sad really...

I've moved most of my stuff out of the dorms already. I took the tv and its stand home on Saturday, along with the two grey IKEA shelving unites, and my 5 armed lamp. My couch is currently in the middle of Shiv's floor since she's agreed to adopt the couch for the summer. It'll move into my dorm room next year in August. She's so nice for letting me do that :) Thanks Shiv!!! What I have left is a lot more than I realized. I have at least 4 boxes of "stuff" (or choose another explicative word since it would prolly be more appropriate to all the stuff I've accumulated over the year) that I have to get home. Along with my DVD rack, two mirrors, two trash cans, my fridge- oh I forgot about that thing o geez, and two full suit cases- the big ones too. I haven't even gotten to ripping off my bedding yet either. Wow... Should've taken Maria's advice and invested in tubberware (spelling?)- those huge plastic containers you store "stuff" in. lol. Then again, I am a pack rat most of the time. ^-^

But when all is said and done, whatever I take home has to find a place in my room at home. Thank God for the attic. Most of my stuff has already found it's way up there- three boxes already I think. Not to mention, I have to go back through all this stuff and find the things I want to put actually back in my room and the stuff I wanna take with my to London- 10 days!!! I haven't finished deciding what I'm taking, what I need to pack, what I need to buy, what I need to... do. It's all stressing my out a bit actually. And the fact that I took my TV home already doesn't help since I don't have anything to really distract me at the moment. Ugh...

And I think back to what I did today, Monday, and I haven't done anything of consequence since about 10 AM. I took my Phonics exam at 8:30 AM and that I thought was fairly easy so some of the studying that I did manage to get in kinda helped me out. But it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Oh well... I'm done already so it's now a matter of getting things together to really move out on Wednesday morning. Maria moves on Thursday so this should be an interesting next few days getting all of our "stuff" out.

In the end, we say good bye to the Mount for the summer, good bye to our friends who don't live near us, good bye to our memories we've made, and good bye to those we may never see again. I'll keep tabs on my life in London for you and give you some of my pics while I'm there so I'll be around this summer if you ever wanna check up on things that are going on around here... lol But first. One day at a time and let's see where it takes us. Life is a ride that never stops no matter how slow I want it to go when I see I'm going too fast. Just remember to stop and smell the roses and have fun! :)

Remind to defrost the fridge before I attempt to hull it into my car... that's an accident waiting to happen...

This weekend CAB hosted Spring Fest- the Mount's annual "festival" of sorts that features the clubs and organizations of the school along with music, food, games, and fun! It was on Friday night from 4-10 PM and it was a BLAST! 

A lot of the clubs had interesting and recognizable activities, such as musical chairs, pop bottle ring toss, corn hole, hillbilly golf (or ladder golf or Chinese golf or however one may call it lol), throwing a ball into fish bowls (but sadly there were no fish to win), fortune telling, and balloon popping. There were also tshirts you could get done with your name, get a caricature done, or get a henna tattoo. There were also the inflatables! There was a bungy type thing, a moon bounce, and a mechanical bull. It was pretty awesome! 

We also had three muscial acts. The first was a band out of Chicago- "Made Avail"- who played a mix of indie, rock, and pop music. Following them was Atia Evans and then K Drama- both rappers. It was an interesting set of musical artists but it was nonetheless fun! I had to help set up the stage and sound equipment at 9 AM on Friday and that was a lot of lifting way to early in the morning. But I survived and I got to see the artists taking advantage of something I helped build with my two hands. It was pretty awesome! 

We are now down to our last week of classes followed by exam week. I cannot believe how fast the semester has flown by! It seemed just like yesterday that we just started but now by the end of this week we'll be in May already! Amazing... I also leave in 2 1/2 weeks! Now that! has flown by and I can't believe it!!! I am so excited but so nervous to go to London for 7 weeks... geez! This is just flying by and I just cannot believe it...! I have finished all my projects so far and have only one more paper to do but I have yet to receive the prompt on it. I also have two exams- a playing one for my music ed class and one real big test for my phonics class. Then I'm done! this is just so awesome...! So off to do some final tweeking on my other projects... have a good day and a good week!!! 

The band "Made Avail"

Shiv with the band "Made Avail"- Jon, Kent, Tyler, Shiv, and Luke

Our cool henna tattoos we got- me on the left and my roommate Maria's on the right

Me and Neil- Neil will be the Music Chair of CAB next year

Me and Shiv- a fellow blogger :) 

the CAB Exec Board

So this past weekend was Spring Formal for the Mount at the Newport Aquarium. It was SO much fun! There was an excellent dinner, great desserts, and dancing ALL night long! I ended up in one main group of friends, Shiv (a fellow blogger!), Anthony, Anna, and Joe. Tom (blogger!) was my date for the night but he and I ended up splitting ways into different groups which was fine since we still had fun together during the night at different times :) We even ended up petting a real live penguin! No, it was not some man in a tux lol like some people think when they hear I got to pet a penguin lol :) But the penguin was so cute! And she was so soft! It was AWESOME!

I don't think I've danced that much ever! Normally I don't like dancing at school dances or whatever because I have absolutely no rhythm but that night I was just having so much fun that I couldn't stop jumping up and down with my friends and attempting to scream the lyrics to the songs I knew (which were few and far between). lol :) But we had SO much fun! I've put a few pics down below for you :)

After the dance, though, Shiv, Joe, Anna, Anthony, and I went to B-Dubs and had some fun playing with the Photo Hunt game in one of those booths with the computer game screen and we put up three different high scores as a group (AJASA, Shiv Andi An, and Joe Anton are the names of our scores if you happen to be in the same booth we were in and play the same game we were playing at the same B-Dubs we were at... which is very unlikely :) lol). Then we went our separate ways but in the end, I started getting ready at 4 PM on Saturday and went to bed at 3:30 AM Sunday morning. It was a blast and my feet were killing me but I wouldn't trade any of it (except maybe change my shoes- it's Monday and my feet still kinda hurt)!

This coming weekend is Spring Fest, the Mount's annual festival! Booths set up by clubs and organizations will be there along with live music, games, food, drinks, and fun! :) I am so excited for that too! Yay fun times to end the year! Only two more weeks of classes, one week of exams, and then I leave for London! This is so awesome! I don't think I've ever had such an exciting end of a semester at the Mount! YAY!!!

Tom and Me

Sam, me, and Shiv

Katie and Me (we're going to London together!)