Jump to content

methodwriter85

Editor
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,391

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by methodwriter85

  1. methodwriter85
    So I spent basically five hours in the ER with my friend Josh and this guy, Steve(no, not Stoner Steve or Long Island Hipster Steve). Steve was a guest at Josh's party in the University Courtyards at Newark. I didn't know him, but Josh somewhat knew him. A bunch of the guests decided to hop the fence surrounding the UC pool for a late night swim. To impress some pretty girl, Steve decided he'd do a cannonball into the pool- only he did it at the shallow end. He got a gnarly gash on his head and apparently broke the sixth vertebrae in his neck.
     
    I found Steve on the balcony of the apartment and he looked like he had a small gash at his hairline, so I took him over into Josh's room so Josh could put a bandaid. That's when we saw the large gash on his scalp, and realized that he needed medical attention. The dude's friend, who was there at the apartment, seemed more interested in getting back into the pool than his bleeding friend. I felt bad for Steve so I went with the contingent that took him to the hospital. We got there at 4, and stayed there until 9, when his parents got there. He wound up needing to get two staples in his head, and they said he was going to have to stay there to get a consult for surgery.
     
    My sister was working in the E.R., so I had to get her to promise not to say anything to my Mom because knowing my mom she'd overreact and accuse me of being on drugs or something. We were up so late that I couldn't drive by the time we got back to Josh's apartment, so I had to crash on the couch for two hours, with the lovely smell of cheap alcohol wafting in my nose.
     
    It was a crazy night, and it just seemed so stupid- this guy wanted to impress some pretty girl, and now he's in a neck brace for a month. He's damned lucky that he didn't die or get paralyzed. It made me think about this line I heard from the tv show Girls - "You couldn't pay me to be 24 again." It's seriously a wonder that we survive our 20's at all- we make so many dumb mistakes and stupid decisions.
     
    Is it my 30th birthday yet???
  2. methodwriter85
    I earned a 3.66, with my final cumulative GPA as a 3.75. Nice.
     
    I spent high school and college(that's 11 years), freaking out about grades and hoping against hope I'd pull out a passing grade. It's weird to be past that now.
  3. methodwriter85

    Graduation

    By methodwriter85,

    It went off pretty well, for the most part. The departmental ceremony in the morning was nice- it was kind of weird in a way. I remember at my departmental ceremony for my UD graduation, noting when the M.A. students graduated, just how small the group was. And then two years later, I was on the other side, with my two other fellow masters. (Other people graduated, but they didn't come.) One of my professors joked with me that I was graduating despite her best efforts, but then congratulated me on the fact that I was able to pull together that fall seminar paper together at the end. I was also able to talk to the professors that really meant something to me, especially the head of Alternative Spring Break. I told him how going to ASB was one of the best things I've done in my life, and that definitely seemed to please him.

     
    There was a bit of a snafu with the large graduation, as I and one of the other grad students accidentally lined up with the bachelors. I didn't realize my mistake until the master students stood up and walked to the podium. I remarked on this to some girls I was sitting with, and they said, "Run!" So I basically rushed the stage, got behind my friend Seth, and walked across the stage all out of breath. I completely ruined the order doing this, but at least I made sure I graduated with the other masters. Apparently Melissa realized the mistake when I ran up, because she said she ran after me and got in line with people who were getting their MBA's. After that happened, I sat with my friend Seth and joked about how IUP really needs to co-ordinate their graduations better. Later on, I threw my cap up in the air, but no one followed- I guess it's not a tradition in Western PA to do that or something. LOL.

     
    After the graduation I joked and laughed with some people about the whole thing. I mean, on one hand it kind of sucked that I didn't get to be all dignified for the second graduation and really savor the moment of walking across the stage, but I got to have that for the departmental, and secondly, I have a pretty funny memory. And it allowed me to sit with my friend Seth instead of whoever I was supposed to be lined up with.

     
    It wasn't perfect, but it was my moment, and it was a great one. In between the small graduation and the big graduation, I talked to one of my friends who was a first year graduate student in Student Affairs. She's getting kicked out of school because her GPA was below a 3.0. She was bawling out crying. I had told her, way back in September, that I thought she was taking on too much extracurricular activities for a grad student instead of focusing on school. I didn't remind her of this, of course, but talking to her made me glad of all the times that first semester of grad school where I turned down socializing in order to study, giving me that cushion so that I wouldn't need to pull off a 4.0 GPA to stay in. I had a bit more fun this second year, but I had earned it by that point. Talking to this girl who will never graduate from IUP made me appreciate the moment a lot more, I think.

  4. methodwriter85

    Day 53

    By methodwriter85,

    Day 53, May 8
     
    I'm nearing the end of Box 1 and therefore the end of processing this collection.
     
    I found one book that was in french, and depicted how the various planes in various countries looked. That was pretty interesting, since World War I was the first war that was really fought in the air as well as on the ground.
     
    I also found a 1902 calendar, which was cool, but didn't really fit in the scope of the collection. I talked to my adviser about that, and she agreed. It was put in an envelope and was likely going to be put in storage with other old calendars. That really emphasized to me how much of a judgement call you have to have when it comes to collections- you can't just turn down a collection, but a lot of times, people will just throw in things without really questioning how important something is within the context of the collection.
  5. methodwriter85

    Ghost Hunting

    By methodwriter85,

    I went on a ghost hunt at IUP this weekend, over at Keith and Leonard Hall. It was cool- last Halloween I went and nothing happened, but this time around, we had some experiences! Using a flashlight that would turn on and off by itself as well as a K2 meter, we had several ghosts communicate to us. One was named Danny- he had identified himself as a founding father of IUP, and had been around during the 1870's and 1880's, and died of an illness in March. I had literal chills going down my back when we communicated with him, and one of the other investigators told me that they pretty much think he was right behind me the entire time we communicated with him. Another was a professor at IUP up to about 1975. We figured out that when we stood up in the doorway of the room, he'd turn the flashlight on and refuse to turn it off, because he thought we were students trying to sneak out of class. We also talked to a woman, who would get excited and turn the flashlight on whenever we called her awesome.
     
    I definitely had an amazing experience there!
  6. methodwriter85

    Day 16, Day 17

    By methodwriter85,

    Day 16, February 14th
     
    I continued working on Box 5. I found a couple of pamplets that discussed gas warfare, as well as trench warefare. Those were the two big hallmarks of the Great War, because they were such new ways to fight in a way that still believed in the Romantic Napoleonic way of fighting. I wonder what it must have been like for the soldiers who read these pamplets to get a sense of what they were going to face.
     
    I looked up the online orbituary of Colonel Richard W. Watson, the man behind the collection.
     
    http://post141indian...p?id=2&number=2
     
    He was born in October 1878, and died in February 1961- living for 82 years. He was in the National Pennsylvania Guard starting with the Spanish American War. Richard Watson had been a laywer, but it looks like after he got discharged he never engaged in an active bar association. His passion had been for military and the American Legion, apparently, which definitely showed. He got married and had his son pretty late in life, which was pretty interesting for the era. In general, Richard Watson came from a lawyer family(law is pretty big because of the county courthouse), and lived a life where he was concerned with civic affairs and the life. Not a big showy life, but that's what I love about public history- learning about hte people who DON'T make the history textbooks, and the stories they tell.
     
    82 years. I could not imagine what it would be like to have been alive for 82 years; the kinds of things you must have seen in such a long life. I guess, fate willing, I'll be able to answer the question
     
    Day 17, February 15th
     
    I read a letter that Richard Watson had sent to his father from France, dated November 24th, 1918. The copy wasn't that good, so one of the volunteers created a better copy by lightening it up so that you could read the text easier. The letter was fascinating to me. It was written because they had been told that they should write letters to their dads for Christmas.The war was officially over, but they weren't in any way getting sent home- Watson explained to his father that they were still much left to do, such as making sure that the treaty got enforced. When I thought of Armistice Day, I kind of figured that all of the soldiers involved pretty much just got to go home at once. It was surpring to learn that these guys still had a job to do. I could not imagine going to war, seeing an Armistice signed, and still having to stay around to help clean up for weeks or even months afterward.
     
    Here's a quote from the letter:
     
    "The war is practically over, but peace has not been signed and the conquered territories must be policed and garrisoned for many months in order to enforce our terms, and you may be sure the 28th will do its share of the work. Our hopes ran high for a few days and visions of home, turkey, pumpkin pie and Christmas trees, with all the comforts of civilization, fairly dazzled us and I fear caused many a pang of homesickness throughout the A.E.F.. But our dreams were rudely shattered by actualities and we are resigned to the inevitable."
     
    People back then...when they wrote letters, it's amazing the amount of passion they had.
  7. methodwriter85
    Day 4- January 21st
     
    I finished processing Box 6, which was nice.
     
    Day 5 - January 24th
     
    I was about to go through box 7, but it was crammed full of personal military service records from World War I. I decided that it was a box that needed to have someone process it for the entire semester, rather than just being given a cursory glance through. The military records were held together by rusting metal clips, and will hopefully be preserved much better. It was fascinating to look at a few of the records- one was a William Sharp, who was an 18-year old knitter from Philadelphia that was drafted in 1917. I wonder if he survived and went on to have lots of grandkids, or if he died in the War.
     
    The box also included a book about the psychology of returning servicemen from 1945, and talked about combat nerves. The book didn't include a date, and I assumed judging from a photo of a soldier in the back that it was a 1950's book, because the soldier's hair seemed a little long for the 1940's, but I turned out to have been wrong once I looked the book up on the internet. The bit about combat nerves was interesting- they knew that soldiers were getting traumatized by war, but it was way before the term "post-traumatic stress disorder" was formed.
     
    My favorite part of this box was seeing a journal that held advertisements for a hotel; that I know now as the Pita Pit that I've gone to a couple of times. That's what I like so much about Indiana- rather than tearing down all of their old buildings like Newark, DE has done, they're still around.
  8. methodwriter85
    Alright, so I have to do a journal for this college internship I'm doing. I figure I might as well post stuff here, and then print out the entries later on.
     
    Day 1- January 18th
     
    I started my internship at the Indiana County Historical society today. It's a small museum, much smaller than when I did my internships at Hagley and the DMNH. It's a pretty friendly, laid-back place. The staff has been pretty helpful. I'm working on the Watson Collection, which has to do with World War I. I'm going back over the boxes, looking at what they have in there, and assigning a number to each item within the box. This is not intended to be a full-blown finding aid, but will help whoever wants to fully process the collection. I worked on Box 11 and Box 12. It's mainly a lot of books about the military and the like. I found one book that talked about the sons and daughters of Indiana, PA who served in the war. It was pretty cool.
     
    I wrapped tissue paper around some of the books that were rotting pretty hard, to prevent the dirt from getting on the other books.
     
    Day 2- January 19th
     
    I went through box 13 of the collection. It held a lot of maps. One interesting thing that I found was an atlas that showed all the theaters of war during the World War. It was printed by the Johnstown Ledger. The cover had all the kings of the different empires that had gotten involved with the war. The inside included all of these facts and figures about each country in regards to things such as trooop strength and the amount of arms each country had, which was pretty cool. One map in there was in really good shape, for something that had to be about 90 years old. It's amazing how well-preserved some things can be.
  9. methodwriter85
    At University of Delaware, there's this tradition that the graduating seniors jump into the water fountains on the last night, before graduation.
     
    It's graduation weekend, and I'm spending my night at Kildare's. After getting a slice at Margherita's on Main Street, I walked back up to my parking space at the Trabant Parking Garage. I was ambling up Delaware, then I decided to walk on the pedestrian bridge at Gore to get to the quad between Ewing, Smith and Kirkbride. There's this water fountain there, and low and behold these kids were jumping around the water fountain. They implored me to join them, and a part of me really wanted to...
     
    But the other part, the louder part, was telling me that I couldn't do this, because it wasn't my time anymore. Last year, I took part in the UD tradition by jumping around in the water fountain, with a bunch of other people, on South Green by the library. I had that experience. It's a much nicer, bigger fountain and there were at least 12 people in there. I pretended I was on the opening of Friends when we did that. It was a really fun experience, but doing it again would have been just another re-hash of my past. And it would have felt phony, in a way, because I'm not a UD senior, and to take part in the celebrations for the class of 2011 would have just felt wrong, in a way. I'm not even sure I can describe why that would feel wrong, but it just does. I mean no doubt when I graduate from IUP next year I'll be right with the people in celebrating, but to intrude on these seniors celebrating the end of college just didn't really feel right. Because I'm not one of them anymore.
     
    It's been fun being back, going to my old college hangouts, but at the same time I just keep feeling like something's different. I thought things would be the same....and the places are, but the people are different, and I'm different. I was walking down Main Street and I ran into this notable party guy from college that I'll call Russ. Dude was BIG into partying, and he was about as close to a real-life Van Wilder as you can imagine. He'd graduated in '08 or '09 and he was still living in Newark when I was a senior, last year. When I chatted with Russ a little bit, he was telling me that he felt old as shit still going to the bars around here, and that this was his last year of still hanging around Newark. There's no real point in him coming out here anymore because of all his friends graduated and moved on. I'm not quite at that point yet, because I still have friends who are going to UD, but...it hit home with me.
     
    I mean, I'm still going to go to Newark because I like Kildare's, Deer Park, and Homegrown, but...it's really lost its luster to me. I suppose at some point I'll need to start going to Trolley Square with the rest of the mid-20's to early 30's people. LOL.
     
    You ever just have that experience of going back to a place that meant so much to you during a specific period in your life, but it just doesn't hold the same magic it used to hold for you? That's how I feel about University of Delaware right now. It's kinda weird.
  10. methodwriter85
    I pulled off a 4.0 this semester. Yes! Now my grad school GPA stands at a 3.83. I'm pretty happy, since getting a 4.0 was on my bucket list. I came close to that with winter session '10, and I was disapointed when it didn't happen. But now I can say I had a 4.0 semester. It gives me some wiggle room to deal with the third semester, which is going to be a bitch. I'm taking a seminar with a professor who is a notable badass. Plus I have a 10 a.m. for the first time in a year, and I don't have a single day off from class.
     
    But now I'm just going to enjoy summer. I think I'll go and hang out at the pool or something.
     
    In other good news, UD nixed their plans for the totally unneeded law school. Thank god that in one case, common sense prevailed!
     
    UD Nixes Law School Plan
     
    Thank god.
  11. methodwriter85
    I had a somewhat odd experience tonight. I went to see the seminal 1990's band, Stone Temple Pilots. They were performing at the convention center at my grad school.
     
    But here was the weird thing. When I came in, I managed feeling very young, because a lot of the people there were in in their mid-30's, maybe even early 40's. Which makes sense, because the peak of the band was in the early/mid 1990's, which is about 15-20 years ago now. I saw some young kids there, but they were mostly outnumbered by the oldsters around their mid/late 30's. I definitely had this moment of going, "Wow, I'm still young compared to most of these people!"
     
    But then as the night wore on, I also felt old as dirt. Because...I kinda came to the realization that STP is basically turning into a nostalgic band before my very eyes. The '90s are now twenty years ago now. Their biggest target audience- the kids who went to college in the 1990's are now middle-aged, or rapidly approaching it. There were so few people there, and it made sense- STP is a 90's band, and they're no longer revelant to current college kids. As all the current college kids were born in the '90s for the most part. And it was startling to realize that Stone Temple Pilots, which was so huge to high school and college kids not that long ago, has become the band your parents like.
     
    Time sucks. Time makes you old. And it made me feel young and old at the same time. It just depresses the hell out of me to think that the mid-90's were 15 years ago, and none of these college freshman I meet can remember that era. It was such a huge era to me, and to these current 18-year olds, 1996 is just history to them. Which makes sense, since they were four years old in 1996, but you know what I mean. It's amazing the way time just flies, and won't stop flying, until one day you look in the mirror and you see a 40-year old staring back.
     
    STP wasn't quite the band I grew up with- I was more of a fan of Blink 182 or Linkin Park, but that experience made think about the fact that not that long from now, Blink 182 concerts will be full of 35-year olds wanting to capture the nostaligia of their youth circa 2000. And I'll be right there with them, 35 years old and singing about damnable things like I'm fourteen with them.
     
    I felt like I was basically seeing my future- ands it was really unsettling. I did have a lot of fun at the show, but it just underscored to me, "Oh hey, the 1990's were 20 years ago."
     
    And thus I felt very young and very old at the same time. Odd, odd feeling.
  12. methodwriter85
    I had a good weekend. I didn't go crazy and rage- I just had a couple of drinks with my friend Seth at this nice little bar on Philly Street. Sang some karoke and all that fun stuff. The next night I went out to Wolfie's and danced. Friday night I got to see the Plain White T's, and that was fun.
     
    But the best part about this weekend was the sense of utter contentment I had. I've made some choices that have left me satisified about where my life is headed, and I just feel good.
     
    Sunday afternoon, it was beautiful day out...I walked around IUP, marveling at this rare nice weather day. I stopped at the Oak Grove, which is the campus quad full of big old oak trees. I saw all these people out, enjoying their own day...friends lying out on towels and blankets, enjoy each other's company. I saw little kids playing with one another, next to what I'm assuming would be their parents. I saw people sitting on benches, quietly reading. It was all ordinary, yet extraordinarily beautiful.
     
    So here I was, observing this beautiful day. I sat down over by a bench, and I was just overcome by the beauty of everything that surrounded me...I started crying tears of joy. At how wonderful the world can really be, when you stop to really look at it, and how lucky I am that I'm still alive and able to experience it.
     
    And this sense...this sense of "I was right to come here" just came over me. Yes, it would have been cheaper to have gone to Del State, yes I might have been better served by getting a degree from Wilm U, but yeah....I really do feel like I made the right choice in coming to IUP. This place just feels like home, and that's the first time I ever truly felt that, deep down in my gut. And realizing that I moved on; that I can be happy in a life outside of being a University of Delaware guy...well, I really did need to learn that. Because when I was a senior in college I thought the best part of my life was over when I finished UD. And I realize now that I was wrong; that I still have a lot great moments of happiness left even though I'm no longer a crazy UD college kid.
     
    I hope of all you get that kind of experience every once in a while...the only I can best describe how it feels would be the words of Louis Armstrong:
     
    I see trees of green, red roses too
    I see them bloom, for me and you
    And I think to myself
    What a wonderful world
     
    I see skies of blue, and clouds of white
    The bright blessed day, dark sacred night
    And I think to myself
    What a wonderful world
     
    The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
    Are also on the faces, of people going by
    I see friends shaking hands, sayin', "How do you do?"
    They're really sayin', "I love you"
     
    I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
    They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know
    And I think to myself
    What a wonderful world
     
    Yes, I think to myself
    What a wonderful world
    Oh yeah
  13. methodwriter85
    I talked to my advisor today, and told her that I was planning on dropping out of graduate school.
     
    Going back over my blog, all I ever do is worry about school, and how hard it is, and how much I need to get my grades up. And for what? To service some future self? Become chained to the hell that is academia for another year of my life? I've been in school since 1991. Maybe it's time to finally say good-bye to it all?
     
    I was watching an episode of this show called Greek, and the character of Casey decided that she wanted to leave law school, and just go off to D.C. and find herself there. It made me think about my own life, and how maybe, just maybe...I can just go off to a new area and find myself without worry about grades, or papers...and just...be.
     
    I plan on selling everything I have, buying a beat-up old van, and traveling the country. Work some odd jobs here and there, and just enjoy my life. I might get into street performance art...
  14. methodwriter85
    I have some acquaintances from high school. One got an article write-up about landing a role in a professional production of Romeo and Juliet. The other one, who works tech, is apparently going to work scifi effects for a Disney movie. Another hasn't had anything big happen, but she is really working toward her goal of breaking it into the movie business in Hollywood. It just had me thinking, about when I was fifteen years old and really wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be in movies- maybe an indie film star with a career as the quirky supporting character. Or, in a dream fuled by my visit to NYC, an actor living in some hip artist colony. Roughing it out in some starving artist studio, living on nothing but dream and ambition as I moved from audition to audition. At some points we'd break into song about our inability to pay rent for our outrageously overpriced apartments.
     
    I used to read monologue book after monologue book...poured over acting tip help books, and I even majored in acting during high school. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to make magic...be something bigger than I am. I wanted to take an entire crowd of people and move them so much with my acting that it'd stay with them for awhile.
     
    Somewhere along the line, it dawned on me that it wouldn't happen. I'm an okay actor but nothing amazing, and to be honest the lack of stability would have driven me crazy. The history field isn't exactly booming, but if you keep searching for a few years, you'll find something. Acting- you can be in there for a decade and get nothing booked. I didn't want to take the gamble, and I found that in the end, doing the history field fufilled me in a way better than trying to be an actor would have been.
     
    Still, every once in awhile...I see friends who are out pursuing dreams we all shared when we went to high school together, and there's just this little twinge. Likely envy, possibly regret...but mostly pride in these people who took a gamble and are doing what they can to make their dreams come true.
     
    Any of you ever have this feeling? It's kind of an odd feeling and I'm not sure I'm describing it correctly, but there's something about seeing people you grew up with really chasing the big dreams and lofty ambitions that you once shared with them. I'm glad for them that they figured out what they want out of life and are going for it...but it makes me wonder what my dreams are now. I don't really know anymore. I'll try to keep you guys posted when I figure mine out.
     
    I'm curious to see if anyone's been in a similar place.
     
  15. methodwriter85
    I had my talk with my advisor with my proposed plan for the second year of grad school.
     
    Some things came clear. I won't be doing a thesis. I might work on some publications, but it's not really where I want to go.
     
    I also don't want to go into a PhD program, at least for a few years. Which pretty much means I really don't have a chance of working in the community college scene because the job market is so bad that PhD's are fighting over jobs in that field.
     
    I want to work in a museum, or I want to try consulting. And it might turn out that I'll get into something that I never would have thought I'd get into.
     
    Another thing that became clear is that I really won't be able to keep sleeping in until 11. I'm taking a 10 a.m. class next semester, which means I'll have to wake up at 9:30 a.m. or earlier. Ugh. I haven't had a class before 11 a.m. since fall semester of senior year. I told my professor this, and she pretty much ripped me for not wanting to wake up at 10 a.m. She had a good point, and I will take that class.
     
    It's scary to think I'm almost done. It's scary to think that I'm graduating in a dismal economy with a hefty student loan debt. And it's scary to admit that I'm 25 years old and I don't really know exactly what I want to do in my life. What I do know is that I'm interested in a lot, and I want to be a guy who can do a variety of things in a variety of fields.
     
    It's just weird. I came into grad school thinking I'd have all the questions figured out at the end, but I'm finding out that I pretty much don't know. I have no clue. Which is why I'm pulling back from trying the PhD track, because I think I need to have a better clue of what I want out of life before committing myself to 7 more years of school.
     
    Part of me thinks that I need to embrace the fact that I'm going to run out into adulthood with no clue about where I'll end up. The other part just wishes I could go back to my junior year of college where my biggest concern was whether or not I'd find a good party.
     
    I'll try and stay optimistic, but god. It's really hard to be, with this economy and with the knowledge that I'm in a field that's getting clobbered.
  16. methodwriter85
    I was at a bar tonight. Some DC business dudes noticed my University of Delaware flacco sweatshirt. I got it back in fall '09 when I was drunk at Homecoming. This one guy wanted to buy it off of me, because the Baltimore/DC area apparently doesn't sell Joe Flacco UD swag. I wound up selling it to the guy for forty dollars. Plus the two drinks I got, and the tip I would have given the bartender, I wound up clearing about 48 dollars.
     
    The best part is that the sweatshirt had almost little to no sentimental value- I enjoy Flacco and all that, but I can easily get UD Flacco swag when I get home. A new jersey with his five number would cost 35 dollars there. And I had the sweatshirt for almost two years, so even if I had payed over 40 dollars for it(I can't even remember what I paid for it because I was drunk when I bought it), it's not really worth that now. My actual, sentimental University of Delaware hoodie is at home.
     
    It's just one of those things where you wanna laugh and go, "One's born every minute."
     
    Seriously though, that was pretty cool. I heard that Ravens fans really wanted to get their hands on Joe Flacco UD gear, but I'd never really experienced that until tonight. The whole things a win/win- I get money that I need to replenish my stock after having spent so much money on spring break, and when I'm home and have some extra money, I can just buy a new Flacco t-shirt or something for 15 dollars.
     
     
  17. methodwriter85
    Just when I thought UD couldn't come up with even more inane ideas...they proved me wrong.....
     
    UD Wants to Close Academy Street
     
    See, I get the principle of what they're trying to do- they're trying to create a more closed, Ivy-League like campus(like say, UPenn), and what they have to do to achieve that is to get rid of throroughfares.
     
    Still, Academy Street is just way too critical north-south route to close like, especially when you consider the fire station and the ambulance station that use Academy.
     
    My belief that the university is doing everything they possibly can to discourage people from commuting to campus just grows more and more- between closing down parking lots and now this? Traffic in Newark is already a nightmare. I can't imagine what it will look like if they got rid of one of the few things that relieved congestion on Main Street and Delaware Avenue during peak school hours.
     
    UD pulls crap like this that shows just how much they don't care about the students in the pursuit of looking like an Ivy League college, and they wonder why applications are down 5 percent despite the national commericials they spent loads of money on doing?
     
    Between this completely unecessary project, the completely unecessary law school plans, and the millions of other projects they're doing, I'll be shocked if President Harker doesn't drive the school into the ground.
  19. methodwriter85
    Alright, so it's the new semester. I have a job on campus at the student dining hall. Work is work, but this time around I'm getting more hours. And to be honest, I really don't like two of the shifts I have- I don't like the pace, and while I know I could get used to the duties over the semester, I just don't feel like $7.25 an hour is worth getting aggravated trying to get used to something when I've got two other shifts with job duties I'm used to having. This week I'm working somewhere close to 20 hours, and I'm just feeling like it's too much for me. I'm considering dropping back down to about ten, getting rid of the two shifts I really don't like having, while being open to "sub" in for other shifts.
     
    I totally thought I could work about 12 to 15 hours, and I don't know if I can really do it. On one hand, I really like making extra money, with spring break coming up and everything. On the other hand, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting stretched thin- not there yet, but when the academic workload really starts coming in I don't know how I'm going to feel. I feel like the hours are already cutting into my study time.
     
    I hate feeling like a quitter, but I really don't know if I can carry this kind of job workload all semester. My gut feeling is telling me to cut back on my hours, but I'm worried about how that will make me look, as well as lost money opportunities.
     
    What do you think?
  20. methodwriter85
    I started my second semester of grad school this week. The workload is pretty intimidating, but I think I got it down by this point. I hope, anyway.
     
    One thing that struck me is how much more relaxed I feel as opposed to that first week of grad school. Everything- god I just felt like I couldn't breate. I spent the night before my first classes that semester reading the reflections of a woman who dropped out of her PhD program. I was positive that I would flunk out. And I did pretty well.
     
    I think that's given me a confidence going forward. Now I just have to recalibrate and figure out how to balance this new semester schedule.
  21. methodwriter85
    I got 2 A's and a B. That brings my grad school GPA to a 3.66. (IUP does not do A- or B+ grades like UD, so there's a little less inflation here.) I was really hoping I could pull off a 4.0, but eh...I'll live. I have some mixed emotions here- I really did work my ass off in all the classes. I really was hoping for a 4.0. And the B kills it, and makes it impossible for me to ever have a 4.0 accumulative in grad school. I'm pretty disapointed, but I also know that I really did all I could do.
     
    The funny thing is that I got the B in the class I thought I'd get an A in, and the A in a class I was sure I was getting a B in. I think if it had been the other way around I could handle this better.
     
    Still, it's a good semester, and a 3.66 GPA is pretty good, considering the grading scale at IUP, so I am pleased with myself. I made it through that first semester.
  22. methodwriter85
    My undergrad, University of Delaware, wants to start a law school by 2015.
    University of Delaware's Law School Aim
     
     
    I can't tell you how bad of an idea I think this is. Delaware's a small state, and it already has a law school, Widner. Delaware's strength is based on the chemical engineering and business program, and I can't see how adding a law school would do anything to enhance the university. Programs are already getting cut- like the journalism major- and I imagine that will only get worse if they go ahead with the idea.
     
    The greater Philadelphia metro area is already so saturated with lawyers. And think about it-Penn, Virginia, Georgetown, GW, Villanova, Temple, Rutgers, American, and the NYC schools (NYU, Columbia, Fordham) are all a train ride away. There are so many top-notch law schools in this area that I can't see how a law school at UD would be anything but a third-choice back-up plan. Plus, University of Delaware no longer offers in-state tuition rates, so why would any state resident want to pay 25k a year for a law school program when they could go somewhere established for not that much more money?
     
    University of Delaware is ALREADY planning on building a medical campus(allied with Jefferson), an expansion to the football stadium, expansion to the student gym, a new dorm, a new science building, a new dining hall- all within this decade- and now they want to do this? If UD ends up bankrupt I wouldn't be surprised. I just feel bad for the kids going/will go there who are having to pay for all this stuff. If UD experiences an enrollment drop because of the 1990's baby bust, they're going to be SCREWED.
     
     
  23. methodwriter85

    Twenty Five

    By methodwriter85,

    So I'm five and twenty now. Crazy, huh? When I was seventeen, I used to look at 25-year olds and think of them as wise sages who were so full of life experiences from which I could draw important life lessons from. Now *I'm* the 25-year old, and it just feels weird. I was a guy who thought 19 would be forever, and now I'm halfway through my twenties.
     
    This night a year ago, I was getting drunk with my buddy Steve at my favorite bar. Now I'll be spending this birthday pretty much just writing a paper for a class. I'll do the real celebration this weekend plus a family dinner when I get home for Christmas, I think, but still...why the hell did my birthday have to fall on a Tuesday? *pouts*
     
    24 was a pretty good year. I had some great memories....the last semester of senior year had some great memories. The final Skidfest felt like closure for me. Hanging out with Steve at Buffalo Wild Wings, Deer Park, and La Tonaltecca. Then chilling at Dickinson. Vic's graduation party also brought some closure. Italian with Justin. The fun of my public history senior seminar and the internship at Hagley. My seminar with Heyrman. Graduation. My end-of-summer hangout with Steve, Justin, and Tony at Cleveland Ave. Getting into grad school, and starting anew. The new challenges and the new friends and new situations in a new place...not all good, but definitely not all bad.
     
    I took a leap of faith after graduation and picked going to this school...and so far, it's worked out pretty well. So now...I just look forward to seeing how 25 rolls out.
  24. methodwriter85
    I came this article in the News Journal today. It's about the sentencing of a former UD student, who got put in jail for 10 years for his assault on a WVU student named Ryan Diviney. The article focuses on Ryan's dad, Ken, who has devoted his life to taking care of his now-comatose son.Former UD student gets 10 years in VA assualt.
     
    I thought I'd post this up and all that because I was just reading it, and I was so incredibly moved by the father. He's put aside his entire life- everything- so he can take care of his vegetative son. Mr. Diviney refuses to give up on him despite all logic dictating that he's fighting a losing battle, because it's his son and that is the power of his love for his son.
     
    It's amazing to think how strong the bond between father and son can be, especially if you've never experienced it for yourself.
     
    I'm pretty stressed- I'm sure most of us are- being this time of year and all...but reading this article made step back a little and think...don't sweat the small stuff. I'm lucky that I'm alive, I'm lucky that my brain is still functional, and I'm lucky that I'm sitting in my dorm stressing out over how to get the comparative book review done than sleeping in a vegetative state on a hospital bed completely missing out on life.
     
     
  25. methodwriter85
    I'll be working for Habitat for Humanity for spring break '11 in Winter Haven, Florida. We get a pit stop in Atlanta, and we also get that Friday off to go to Daytona Beach.
     
    No alcohol, which is a bummer, but overall I'm really excited. And this should go great on my CV.
     
    I have never been to Florida in my life, so I'm really excited!
×
×
  • Create New...