spring – SUNY Oswego Student Blogs

Wait, what month is it?

Jon Zella — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:41:08 +0000

When I started Graduate School in late August of 2012 graduation seemed distant. Now, in the midst of my second semester, it seems to be coming up quicker than I thought. Though most people will explain Graduate School programs in years, 1-3, in the grand scheme of things Graduate School is only 4 semesters. When you break that down, it’s easy to lose track of time when you think of how the semesters themselves get fragmented with school work deadlines and, before you know it, it’s the end of the semester. 5 months flew by and you can barely remember what you did. This made me think about what was important to me, what I needed for professional development, and what I just needed to do to survive.

It was a hard decision to stop doing certain things that I had become accustomed to doing here at SUNY Oswego for the last few years (I received my Bachelor’s Degree from here, too.) I realized that in order to stay sane it was important that I did things that I wanted to do for me and stop thinking about the big picture 24 hours a day. Professional development is important and taking time out to do that is something everyone should do. However, sacrificing happiness now for future happiness wasn’t how I wanted to live my life. So I changed it. I left some things behind, adopted a new attitude, concentrated on a few things instead of a handful, and opened my self, and my schedule, to new experiences. One of the most important things that I’ve picked up along the way is that personal development, learning more about who you are, will help you in the long run when developing yourself professionally. With a more relaxed schedule no longer filled with the stresses of simply too much to do, my spring semester has slowed down in comparison to the fall of 2012. I take my school work one day at a time and leave enough time for me to relax, go nuts, enjoy food, favorite sporting events, and well- anything else I want.

SUNY Oswego Presents: Lupe Fiasco!

Joshua — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:17:23 +0000

Whatsup bloggers?

The time has finally come! The artist performing at this years Spring Concert has been announced! I’d imagine you’ve all been as excited as I was for this huge announcement. As stated in the title, this years concert is to be put on by famous rapper Wasalu Muhammad Jaco–Better known by his stage name: Lupe Fiasco. If you remember, we voted on who should play this concert a few months ago. Personally I’m very happy with this outcome. For those of you who have never heard of Lupe Fiasco, I suggest you take the time to look him up. Lupe’s lyrical style is quite unique; he focuses most of his music on controversial political and social issues such as war, poverty, prostitution, terrorism, and religion. Lupe is also strongly opposed to censorship, and believes that it only blinds and deafens people from the truth. He currently has released four studio albums including “Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor”, “Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool“, “Lasers”, and “Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1”. Now I bet you’re wondering about when and where you can get tickets, so here are the details:

The will be held in the Campus Center Arena on April 20th, 2013
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. ; The show starts at 8:00 p.m.
Ticket prices are $10 for SUNY Oswego students and $20 for the general public
Tickets go on sale for students on March 25th, 2013 and can be bought at the Campus Center Box Office
Tickets go on sale for the General Public on April 1st, 2013

Too Much Homework!

Christopher — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:12:27 +0000

Does anyone else feel the same way? The semester is nearing an end, so everything is beginning to come an end, and it’s pretty overwhelming. There is simply too much to do as you look at your semester agenda and realize that April and May both mean that a lot is due, and no matter how hard you try to stay on top and get it all done as soon as you possibly can, you find yourself frustrated because the amount is simply too high to successfully accomplish that. You get something done with ten other assignments still ahead of you. That’s how I feel, anyway.

I am doing a relatively good job, mind you. I got a great deal of work done over Spring Break, work that wasn’t due until April, but to help exemplify my point, I still did next to nothing this past weekend except a lot of homework. I worked most of my day yesterday (Saturday) and all of today so far, and I’m still not done. There are so many papers and so many reading assignments. It just gets so tiring.

On a good note, April is almost here, and while that does serve as foreboding for me in a sense (since it means summer is approaching, and I don’t want to not be here), it means that warm weather is on its way. I was expecting weather in the 50s and 60s already, since it’s near the end of March, but instead, the weather has been really cold, which has been kind of ridiculous. Ray and I still really have not explored the town on foot, and that’s something that we really want to do. I can’t wait to walk into town, just take a day to explore the town and visit shops, go see a movie, and so forth; that’s why I can’t wait until April. Also, April 13th will mark two years that we have been together.

Right now, I’m just trying to get through as much of this work as I possibly can while still enjoying myself. I can’t really say that it’s a challenge, because I do love being here, and I love this campus, but I am definitely ready for Spring. I do know of some crazies who love Winter, but I am not one of them (I am here, to make a long and repeated story short, because I didn’t have much of a choice, but don’t get me wrong – I love Oswego). I find Winter to be so exhausting and numbing, and I’m sick of it. Luckily, calendar-wise, it’s gone. I will be writing again soon.

Enjoying the Good Weather

Christopher — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:51:27 +0000

Am I the only one who is really happy that Spring is pretty much here? With any luck, we won’t get any more snow in Oswego, because I hate Winter and really love Spring, especially in Oswego, as Oswego is simply beautiful in the Spring. A really close friend of mine came to visit last year, and he was here from April 1st to April 11th; during that time, it tended to be pretty hot during the day, usually in the 80s, and that’s not too far away at all, so I’m keeping my head up and my fingers crossed.

I have, for the most part, enjoyed my break, but I really can’t wait to get back to school. Now that I have my boyfriend Ray here, I am so happy to be in Oswego, because I can have the best of both worlds. My break got off to a rough start, but it quickly got a lot better, and I also got a considerable amount of work done; I figured (as did Ray) that I have nine days away from everything – I’m going to take advantage of that and get work done, so I actually got work done that isn’t even due until mid-April or so. The more that I get done now, the more relaxed the rest of my semester will be, and relaxed is always a good condition when the weather is beautiful.

April 13th will be two years that I have been with Ray, and there is so much that I would like to do with him on that day, so hopefully, it will be all shine, no rain. I would definitely like to walk into town, get food somewhere (which might be tricky, seeing as how we are both vegetarians), visit the river, and so forth. It just sucks that it is on a Wednesday, not only because that’s a school day but because it is a really rough day for him (he has class until 7:45 p.m. on Wednesdays), but I really don’t have a problem celebrating the following weekend.

I don’t want to say that I can’t wait for the semester to be over, as that is far from the truth. I love being in Oswego; I just don’t like all of the work. Some people say that they work well under pressure, and that just isn’t me. I need to feel relaxed to produce good work; pressure makes me feel very chaotic and tends to make me focus more on quantity, not quality, that is, consider it more important that I get an assignment done than that I do it well, and that’s certainly not good, but I usually manage. For now, I need to run, but I’ll be writing soon – next week at the very latest.

Spring Is Finally Here!

Christopher — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:53:50 +0000

It’s funny to think about how drastically my mood changes when the weather starts to change, when winter starts to become spring. The temperature begins to increase, and more importantly, the snow goes away, and you can start to dress lighter, finally. My Spring Break was great, despite having a lot of work to do. I had so much homework to do for my Lit 396 class, which involved a great deal or reading and writing, I began reading the Sookie Stackhouse series (on which HBO’s True Blood is based) a few weeks ago, and I am still on the first novel, Dead Until Dark, because I have no time to read for pleasure. I was going to bring it home for Spring Break, but I’m glad that I didn’t, because I wouldn’t have had time for it, anyway.
It’s all right, though. Summer is coming really soon, and some of my friends are talking about the possibility of taking online courses, something that I don’t see myself doing. I will most definitely be fully prepared for a three-month break in May when school gets out, and I actually have an exciting plan in motion for July. My boyfriend Ray and I are going out of state (West Virginia, I believe) to go ghost-hunting, and we will be stopping at an old prison that is reported to be haunted in Moundsville, West Virginia. I am really excited and will definitely be blogging about that really soon.
Other exciting news is that on April 1st, my friend Fady from California will be coming to visit and will be staying here for a little over a week. I am really excited about that, because we have been trying to get together for quite a while now, and finally, it’s happening. I can’t wait to show him the lake and take him around the city. He lives not too far from Los Angeles, a suburb of Los Angeles, actually, so he is used to a really busy, chaotic setting, so this will be kind of new to him, as will the weather. It will be sixty to seventy degrees here while we’re outside in shorts and a t-shirt, and he’ll be “freezing” cold since he’s used to really hot temperatures. It will definitely be a really fun and interesting experience, and I can’t wait.
Also on April 1st is the return of my favorite TV show, Fringe. I am really excited about its return; it is returning what looks like an incredible episode titled “Peter.” If you’re someone who doesn’t follow the show, then feel free to tune me out for a few seconds here, but I love the show, and I would even go as far to say that I have an unhealthy obsession with it. I pretty much always love anything that J.J. Abrams does. I loved Alias when it was on and still do. I watch LOST, and Cloverfield is an amazing movie. If there is anyone who is interested, I am starting a Fringe blogsite,
Let’s see, what happened over break? I went to see a school production of Godspell with Ray, which wasn’t bad. I thought that it was really preachy, but the singing and everything was really good. I also got into a musical duo called Nox Arcana. It’s definitely not music for everyone, but there is a lot of piano and organ, which I love, and also a lot of Medieval influence, which I love. It is primarily instrumental music and is very dark and dramatic. I just absolutely love it.
Wednesday, I begin the second day of my Practicum, and unless I am placed into a different classroom, it is primarily going to consist of observing a study hall again, since, as I said in my last Practicum Journal, Corcoran High School used a Block Schedule method, so my Practicum teacher has an English class in the afternoon every other day, which means that every other Wednesday, I observe a study hall. I will most definitely be posting my Journal again, though, so be on the look-out for that, since I will try to post it Wednesday.