Live-in's and Link Charts

Hello!

This is my first blog in a little while mostly because of how busy this week and last week have been for me. This weekend was pretty fun though because of the awesome Laker-Live-In event Mercyhurst hosts every year. It allows accepted high school seniors to visit the college, meet with the departments of their major, and they get to stay overnight with a current freshman. There are also plenty of activities for the Live-In's and their hosts to go to; this year featured the great dance/comedy act of X-clusive and the dance party in Warde Hall on the second floor. My Live-In was Jon from Massachusetts who was a really nice guy and he fit right in with myself and my friends! Laker-Live-In was an excellent experience of what college is life for the accepted seniors and was defiantly fun for all of the hosts as well!

However, all the fun from that weekend was cut a bit short by the link chart that I have to produce for my advanced intel class. It's a ton of work and has me working at the lab for around 6 hours a day. I wish we had more time to work on it (it's due on Monday) and I wish i didn't have my other two classes to worry about but it really is enjoyable work and it's a very rewarding getting it done as well. In fact, I'm off to go work on it now so I'll have to end this here.

Thanks for reading!

Springing Ahead

Hello everyone!

I've been through my first full week of spring term here at Mercyhurst and it's been going great! Though, I can't say it really feels like spring term...more like a second winter term.Thursday night we got a solid 4-5 inches of snow and I (much like the rest of the campus) was less than thrilled. The snow wouldn't be quite as bad if I didn't have to trudge 10 minutes through it to get to my 8AM advanced intel class. But the trip is surely worth it because it's probably my favorite class this term. This is the class where intel majors work on their infamous country study that has been known to stress and overwhelm many students. My country is Turkmenistan, a former Soviet Bloc state that borders Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. So far it has been quite interesting doing all of the research and I hope to stay on top of things as the deadlines begin to creep up on us.

My second class this term is European History Since the Renaissance. I'm a bit of a history nerd so I'm probably bias but I really find it enjoyable too. Our teacher, Dr. Howarth, is really funny and is engaging when he lectures to us. He also looks exactly like Steven Spielberg. I'm not kidding look:



Dr. Howarth



Steven Spielberg





                                       Also notice Dr. Howarth has a Indiana Jones type hat on. Coincidence?!? I think not!!!

My only other class is Religious Persons an Traditions, which I can't really judge fairly right now because we haven't really had a lecture yet or read the material. I think it should be fun though.

Tomorrow is also exciting do to the fact that we have Spring Tea for Ambassadors to cap off the long and difficult pledge process. It will be nice to finally get the green jacket and I'm sure the singing will be just as entertaining as it was in practice Thursday night. I'll likely post any pictures and comments from spring tea later this week so like it or not you will be hearing from me again!

Thanks for reading!

Final Countdown

Hello everybody!

Things have been going well since my last post (except the results of the Super Bowl >:/ ). It's almost the end of the term amazingly and finals and such will soon descend upon us all. Also tonight is the last step in my pledging tprocess for Ambassadors! The test tonight should not be as bad as the first one (or so I have heard) so I'm not that worried. Some of my friends are a bit worried about how they'll stack up in the end but I personally feel pretty confident after a solid solo tour and a really good speech! After Ambassadors wraps up then I get to turn around and worry about final tests, quizzes, and papers in the next two weeks. Trimesters really move fast around here but as long as you're a diligent worker you can always keep up with it. I'm excited for the early spring break but it'll be annoying not to see any of my friends from my home town who will be off at college and it will stink not to see my college friends either! If I have any complaint about trimesters it would be this particular break but honestly the benefits of less classes at once at a faster pace is worth the costs! Well I have to look over some info for my test tonight but I'm sure I'll post again before break starts in 2 weeks.

Thanks for reading!
Brendan

Post-After-Break Blog

Hello all!
Sorry not to be updating the week after break, it was a very busy/stressful week. But now that I've adjusted back into college mode after Christmas break things are going better. That is the one and only thing I haven't enjoyed about trimesters here at Mercyhurst, that we come back from Christmas break right in the middle of the term! Otherwise it's a great system. I was home this previous weekend so there aren't any pictures or exciting stories from the past weekend this time but having three full days off this coming weekend should prove for more fun and exciting times.

But for tonight I'll be eating some wings and watching the BCS National Championship with some of my friends. Oregon and Auburn should make for a good match up but I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Cam Newton's so I'll be rooting for the Ducks!

Thanks for reading,
Brendan

I'm Back!

Hello all!
So its been a while (sorry Lindsay!!!) but I am back and blogging. Since I've last posted the terms have changed, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and new classses have started up. Oh and I have also passed the first term for Ambassadors. The second term looks to be more riggorous but I'm still feeling confident about my chances :) I also have a 4.0 GPA after last term, so I'm feeling pretty good about this whole college thing!

The weather has been...well...Erie-like ever since December rolled around. I'm accustomed to the snow and cold being only an hour away from here but I never had imagined the wind that comes off the lake! But the campus does look lovely in the winter when it isn't snowing sideways. Its really a pretty picture.

Speaking of pictures, here are some of my friends and I last weekend:

Christmas Tree outside of the Union

Cookie Icing!

Gingerbread house!

It was a pretty great time. Not sure what we all have planned for this coming weekend but I'm sure something will happen. Until then thanks for reading!

Brendan

Final Papers, Ambassador Speeches, and Troubles With SAC

Here at Mercyhurst it has been a rather uneventful Monday but a rather busy previous week and weekend. Most of the previous week was consumed in work for my final research paper for my Intro to Intel class. Luckily I had worked on it already in the previous weeks and it was rather manageable. College has so far been very much akin to my advanced placement classes in high school: do your work ahead of time and it is all very easy and mostly stress free. Work is only hard for those who fall behind or procrastinate. My friend across the hall had the same project and started working on it the day before it was do. He got it done on time but he didn't leave his room until dinner Sunday night and he wasn't totally finished until 11 at night! College is really only as stressful as you make it. If you work hard and work ahead it should be a breeze.

But one thing that is always at least a little stressful is public speaking. And that's exactly what my fellow Ambassador pledges and I had to do for at least 3 minutes last Wednesday and Thursday. I've grown comfortable with public speaking, so it wasn't a huge issue...but i think even the best public speakers have to have a few butterflies in their stomach before they speak! My topic was the history of Ambassadors itself and i felt that i did very well. We'll have to see what the Ambassadors say in the end but i feel confident at this point. The key to doing well is making sure you don't have too much or not enough information and to practice your speech in front of people as much as possible. The overall content of the speech and the comfort level of the speaker seemed to be the most important factors that separated the good speeches from the rest.

But despite all the work, there is still plenty of fun to be had at the Hurst...well except when the SAC cancels open skate at the ice rink! (Though for the record SAC rarely disappoints and I love most of their activities!) Whoever planned the event failed to notice there was a club hockey game booked at the same time as the open skate hours. To their credit they hoped to just push it back to after the game but when the game went into overtime they decided to scrap the whole event. It was disappointing both for my friends (especially my one friend Jess who was a former figure skater and had been looking forward to it all week) and all of the other students who didn't go to one of the many Halloween parties over the weekend. Parties aren't really my style so I was stuck with very little to do this weekend. It is a simple fact of college that parties are all around you and it all depends on how you react to their presence. Though one shouldn't be too quick to judge people who party or people who don't. I know many people on both sides of the fence and I would miss out knowing a lot of nice people if i only dealt with one side of of the spectrum. It's a personal choice that you should respect even if it is not the choice that you would make.

But that's enough of me rambling about the realities of college for this post! I'll be back with anything interesting I experience this week.

Thanks for reading!
Brendan

2:40 AM Saturday

When story starts that late (well technically early I guess) it has to be interesting.
So my roommate and I had been up late and by the time 2 AM rolled around we both decided to call it a night. I was in that place somewhere in between sleep and awake when I heard an alarm from somewhere. I looked at my phone thinking it was my alarm I had just set for tomorrow morning and, seeing that it was not the source, realized it was the fire alarm from outside. Neither of us were totally aware of what was going on before a vicious pounding came from the other side of our door followed by our RA, Ashely, shouting:

"GET THE [expletive] UP! THIS ISN'T A DRILL!!!"

If you don't already know what goes in the brackets, ask your parents.

So I managed to find my pants, shoes, and phone in the dark as we were all orderly hurried out of the building. As we descended the stairs, the overwhelming aroma of burnt popcorn filled the stairwell. As the entire population of Warde Hall stood in the parking lot with only pajamas to hold off the cold Erie wind we all thought the same thing:

What idiot makes/burns microwave popcorn at almost THREE IN THE MORNING?!?!

Here are some images of the early morning's events:

Of course, the fire department eventually came to take care of the microwave and we all got to head back in some 20 minutes later. When i reached in my pocket to find my room key, I realized I had forgotten it on the way out. All I had in my pocket was the paper from my fortune cookie that I got with our Chinese take out earlier. It stated:

"You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily"

When I opened it at dinner it didn't make a lot of sense but by the time I got back in my room this morning it somewhat did. I had changed from sleepy, warm, and comfortable in my quiet room to the exciting, cold, uncomfortable and noisy parking lot before I could finally get to sleep that night. At the time the irony was too much for my tired mind but in retrospect it was pretty funny! At least I got a blog post out of it :P

Thanks for reading!
Brendan