Technology is great huh?  In the past few days, I have have a lovely experience with technology.  First, My sister Christina received a Wii for her birthday and we had tons of fun.  We played Crash Bandicoot, Bowling, Tennis, Baseball and Golf: blastie-blast.  But it gets better, because my sisters, parents and I all made Mii’s.  That’s right -Mii’s! When you own a Wii, you can play Wii sports and certain other fun-fun games using a specific character, or a “Mii.”  At first I was skeptical, because when we were choosing all the eyes, eyebrows, noses, hair, etc. nothing really looks like us. But when it was all said and done, we had six Mii’s that looked like my family and I: Success!  And what’s more is, I kicked some butt in Bowling and Golf : D.

Another technological treat that I have recently experienced is the new iPod touch and iPhone.  Santa was very kind to me this year and gave me an 8 GB iPod Touch -Delight! Yes, I already had an iPod, but I wanted the iPod touch because it had more memory and WiFi.  And let me tell you, the WiFi on that little Gizmo is lightning fast!  It almost competes with my MacBook (…which is really lightning fast!).  In any case, I have had a ton of fun with it and it’s not even the New Year yet!  And, again, I know what you’re thinking: what about the iPhone?  Well, I recently met up with some visiting family members from California, and my Uncle Phil has the new iPhone.  He says that although its WiFi is slower than the iPod touch (no joke -I was there, I know!) it is still lightyears faster than the Blackberry Storm!  Which, as an Apple products fan, I was very proud to hear.  Apple has really done well with the iPod touch and the iPhone.

As for other Christmas gifts, I gratefully received some iTunes money and I hurried to buy:

John Mayer “Hummingbird,”

John Mayer “Tracing (Acoustic),”

John Mayer “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,”

Coldplay “Prospekt’s March” Album

Peace,

Matt

: D

Hello there readers!  It has been quite some time since I have blogged, and it is STILL the most wonderful time of the year!  I just love it!  Since Thanksgiving, school has been crazy busy with finals, 10-20 page papers, and presentations, in addition to end of the year parties and get togethers, and programs and meetings.. but I’m done!

Finals went well!  Now, I am getting antsy waiting for my grades!  I actually think I enjoy the end of the semester- it makes me feel like a college student.  For the past week, I practically lived in the basement of the library, coming up for some air in the Late Night Study Room to grab some coffee and check my e-mail.  As much as it gets tedious to study study study, I may be alone in saying this, but I actually really like it!  Overall, it was a challenging, but good semester.  I am proud of the academic work I accomplished, and I feel like I learned a lot.

My second favorite part of the end of the semester was.. the first snow!  Well, the first two snows!!! The first snow occurred this past Tuesday, and it was fabulous.  In Deyo, we were hosting a “Midnight Breakfast” for students who were up late studying for finals.  We had bagels, eggs, waffles, and pancakes, and just as everyone was leaving, it started to snow.  INSTEAD of studying, I ran outside with everyone and it was sooo great!

Then, on Friday, it snowed again.. This time, almost a foot!

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Until next time, Enjoy (the most wonderful time of the year)! -Jessie

Today is Friday, December 19th and it is snowing!  Luckily for me, I am all done with my finals -and may I say that they went very smooth this year.  I prepared myself with a proper amount of studying, and healthy meals and plenty of cozy sleep.

ZzZzZ…

So, all in all I’m feeling good about this semester, and I can only hope and pray that next semester is either as great or better.  Speaking of which, I can’t believe this semester is over already!  I have completed three semesters of my college career, and by this time next year I will be an upperclassman on my way out

…Scary.

And what’s more, is that there are students that I know that are graduating.  Whether in this semester or next, a chunk of my fellow staff members will be leaving New Paltz -that’s how I know I’m getting older.  I guess it’s just the cycle of life and life’s experiences: beginning and end, new and old, nostalgia and nervousness.  Another indicator that the cycles of life are moving right along is that it’s that time of year again.  As per usual, I have been listening to tons of holiday music in anticipation of Christmas.  And yet, I have also been listening to a lot of Dane Cook… It all started when I needed to wind down from finals stress and it continued through today.  Anyway, I can’t wait to see my friends and family at home and get crackin on NOTHING!  I would like to do a little summer job search and sit around -that’s it.  After all, I think I deserve a little down time between busy, busy semesters.  Unfortunately this snow is keeping m here another day, but I love it anyway.  I just wish I had good food and family to enjoy it with -soon enough.

To all my readers:

Enjoy your break adn the holidays

and a happy New Year! (Holey Moley!)

Holiday Tunes

Matt

: D

With finals over, I can’t wait to go home an take a month-long break! My brain is fried from all the studying, papers and presentations I had to do, so I don’t think I could go to another class even if I wanted to. On a side note, I wanted to inform you all that I wont be studying abroad next semester due to a fall through in a scholarship, but I will hopefully be deferring to fall 09, but I will be sure to keep you all updated. Yes I am disappointed, but I am trying to see the plus side to staying in New Paltz another semester and there are many events I can’t wait for! There’s drag ball with Queer Action Coalition, this allows me more time to apply for internships, more time spent with friends, and I can attend Rock Against Racism and Take Back the Night (my 2 favorite concerts in New Paltz)! So I’m finding the bright side of the unfortunate news and looking forward to returning to live with my roommate Jenna again and hang out with new and old friends. Happy Christmahannakwanzakkah! Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Uhhhhh I feel horrible right now. I can’t breath out of my nose. My throat hurts. It hurts when I swallow. My head feels like a balloon and it’s making my ears hurt. I can’t cough because that hurts too much but I want to cough because my chest is completely congested. And apparently I sound like Amy Winehouse, minus the British accent.

I’m going to the Health Center at 10 to get checked out. Normally, I would just sit it out and wait until whatever I had disappeared but I have to be here until Saturday because I’m a Resident Assistant and then after that I’m going home for my winter break, AND I do NOT want to be sick when I’m at home so I’m hoping they can give me a lot of medicine or something! I betchya they won’t though because I have this inevitable feeling that it’s just a cold.

After a sleepless night (NOT BECAUSE I PROCRASTINATED ON MY PAPER BUT BECAUSE I”M SICK), I just finished my research paper for my seminar class on the Psychology of Media. It was a doozy and I’m glad to say that it is offically over. I researched children’s media and its portrayal of mental illness and whether those images and what not have an effect on how children view those with a mental illness. I found some pretty interesting information so I think I’m going to research this further next semester when I do my independent study.

I wasn’t really planning on updating today but since I’m all done with finals and I can’t sleep I figured I would just complain in here. Alright, Adios!

-Kevin

Ah welcome. It’s a Monday, the first official day of finals week. This week is usually one of the most horrifying, stressful weeks of the entire semester. It’s a time dreaded by all students. It’s the point when ALL of your classes conveniently assign papers, projects and finals within the same proximity of time, counting for a large portion of your grade. Whoopee! That’s only a tad bit nerve-racking and anxiety ridden, am I right college students…EVERYWHERE?

Sorry to sound so bitter, but I want to be able to watch Christmas movies, make snowflakes, spend time with my friends and family, go Holiday shopping, bake cookies, sing Christmas carols, and anything else that could get me into the holy jolly spirit. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” but how can you enjoy it with all these due dates breathing down your neck? The last thing I want to do a week before Christmas comes is hibernate in the library with my books, trying to cram my brain with information we’ve been gradually learning since August; and the whole while trying to stay optimistic about the situation so the waterworks don’t turn on due to the mountains of stress. I mean, everyone I talk to is doing well, but tired, stressed, busy, or anxious. Everyone just wants to go home and relax! I don’t blame ‘em! As a matter of fact, I just so happened to be scanning my Facebook, la de dah, and reading my friends statuses. It’s just an automatic habit now. Anyway, I’d like to share some of the following statuses I’ve read (without stating who they belong to): “Needs to get home ASAP. She needs to get away from school for awhile.” “Is thinking school is going to be the end of him.” “Is home on thursday and is sooooo friggen excitedd!!” “Is back to studying.” So as you can see, it’s a common feeling amongst students.

So good luck everyone with all that overwhelming work you have to get through. I just like to think of it as one last push and then we get to relax and have fun for an entire month! ONE WHOLE MONTH! So just do it, as Nike would say, and you’ll feel 100 times better about 1. being productive and 2. being successful! You can do it! And for those of you who are already done with everything…you lucky stiffs.

Anyway, after that little rant, I’d like to share some of the events that went on this past week. Some of them were quite lovely, and not solely stress-tastic. I’ll put them in another blog, since this one is long ’nuff!  Stay smiley and remember the good times are just around the corner!

It’s finals week! MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR!!! not. I just finished my first final so now I only have 2 more tests and then 2 “class periods” or whatever you want to call them where I hand in a paper and watch presentations. I already presented for both classes though so I have nothing to worry about. sa-weet.

I’m a little worried for my Introduction to Communication Test. Sounds easy right, not so much. There’s A LOT of information and at this point of the semester my brain can’t carry it all.

Plus I’m sick. Figures, right in time for finals. I have no idea where this came from. I was fine all weekend, then on Sunday I woke up and my chest was all congested and my voice sounded really weird and my throat was a little sore. I woke up today (Monday) and it was even worse, so that makes studying and caring at all that much harder…

Hmm let’s see, what else can I discuss. This weekend I lived in the library for two days. I’m a frequent visitor to the library because I can get all of my work done there and it’s just an all around nice, study conducive environment. I always think it’s funny to see how many people are there the weekend before finals. I mean the library is usually pretty always busy but it’s nothing like finals weekend. So crazy there!

This past Friday, I had my Student Ambassador End of the Year Dinner thingymajig! It was nice just to gather as a group, eat some free food, and chat it up. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to some of our Ambassadors, Matt who is graduating, and Angela, Jamie, and Brittney, who are all studying abroad in Italy, London, and Spain, in that particular order.

What else? This past Thursday I went to the final Absolut Acapella/ Sexy Pitches concert. If you don’t know, they’re two of the acapella groups we have here on campus. Absolut is mixed and the Sexy Pitches is strictly female.. No pictures or videos though because my good friend Alan, former NPblogger, stole my camera chip so I’m basically camera-less. It didn’t even matter though because it was so packed you couldn’t even see anything. I could hear though, and what I heard was excellent!

Okay that’s it for now because I really need to take a nap and then study some more for my tests!  Good luck everyone!

-Kevin

Okay, so it has been a while since I’ve really posted mostly because this semester is coming to an end and that means all last minute work has to be completed before finals and such. Of course it’s the most stressful time of year, at least in my opinion, because it seems that EVERYTHING is due on the same day! Why is that? I hate it, but whatever because today was technically the last day of classes for me and my fellow students here at New Paltz. What a joy!!!! I basically just finished my last presentation which for some reason was giving me the most anxiety I’ve ever felt. Even though I feel much better that it’s done, I STILL HAVE SO MUCH STUFF TO FINISH FOR FINALS. But, I don’t care because I am officially done with classes and now all I have to do is sit back, study, write my 15 page paper (eek) and then I will have completed my first semester of my Junior year. WEIRD! It went by so fast, I don’t even know how that happened. By far this was my hardest semester yet, and I don’t really know why. I think it had something to do with me being an Orientation Leader this summer. Although I loved it and I recommend it to everyone who is interested, it was very tiring and draining, and as soon as it was over I had to come back to school for RA training, and then of course classes. So, I feel like I have been here exerting so much energy non stop since June 8th ( The day I moved in for Orientation Training), and to be frank I’m a little burned out! I’m mostly looking forward to going home, spending time with my girlfriend, family, and new nephew, sleeping in as late as I want, watching movies, pigging out, and basically just relaxing. I think I also have to get my wisdom teeth out because they’ve been growing in since this summer but I never had the opportunity to get them taken out so that should make my vacation that much more enjoyable :/

Okay, my ranting/ stream of consciousness is over for now. Good luck with finals everyone!!!

-Kevin

Saturday was a day of orientation and a night of music.

From 10 until around 2pm I was in the Lecture Center, going over all the necessities for studying abroad. I am studying abroad, but unlike NP blogger Holly, I will not be spending the entire semester abroad: merely a 2 week intersession. The actual program is called London Theatre Seminar, where we are in London for two weeks, seeing productions and special exhibitions such as seeing Stonehenge, etc. This orientation was a definite wake up call: my mind hasn’t been thinking about any of those nitty gritty details such as packing, money exchange, getting a converter for my cell, photocopying my passport….oh dear. I’ve just been trying to focus on finals, final projects, and papers, and I’m having a hard enough time with that! AH!

Well my parents came up at 11:15 or so to the orientation as well. Mom, dad, and I learned all important info! GAH! We all ate our boxed lunches that they handed out, and went into a smaller room to discuss our particular trip (since all students studying abroad through New Paltz were at the orientation- they had to break it up into sections.) It made m really excited, because I love traveling and seeing/experiencing different things. However, it also made me kinda stressed. Thank god I’m not studying abroad for a semester right now, although I want to do so in the near future, very, very badly! I’d be no where near ready!

Right after the orientation session my fam and I had to book to Albany, because my bro Kyle was in an a capella concert. This particular concert had a theme of everyone having awkward moments, even Earth Tones. Therefore, the title of the Performing Arts Center performance was called The Earth Tones: In Real Life. So we gots dah inside scoop of Earth Tone shenanigans. It was a great time! I was so proud of Ky and all the Earth Tones!

You betch-ya I took loads of videos. Don’t feel pressured to view em all, but they’re all pretty darn good, and there are even some funny skits in here. For example, this 1st clip is….DISTURBIA! My bro is the one in canary yellow, b.t. dubbs. Look out for him. His shirt says, “What happens at Karaoke, stays at Karaoke.”

Here’s my bro singing “Two Princes” with Eric Limer. This song went over reaaaaally well! GO KY!

Here’s this song, called “Only You.” The soloist, Christian Rodriguez, has such a deep, rich voice. I pretty much love it. When the Earth Tones visited New Paltz last semester, they sang this song.

“Everybody knows, I’m in over my head, over my head.”

2 guys are driving a taxi and decide to mug their passangers, but 1st…a little trivia. It’s all a lovely Earth Tones skit…an act if you will.

This is a combination of “Stand by Me” and “Beautiful Girl.” You know that song, right? Some of the lyrics are, “Back in ‘99, watchin’ movies all the time…” haha or more commonly, “You’re way too beautiful girl. That’s why it would never work..”

This song is called, “I’m in a hurry,” and the boy who sings this song, Chris Wagner (Qwags…spelled correctly?) has an amazing voice!

This song is “Accidentally in Love” by the Counting Crows. I heard this may be the last time this song appears, so here it is on tape for all to enjoy!

AND THE NIGHT ENDED WITH THIS THRILLING ENCORE NUMBER! I BET YOU KNOW THIS SONG!

All right, I bet you’re all a cappella-ed out! I hope at least one of those videos peaked your interest! I know I posted a lot, but that’s so you can pick and choose from the various songs I’ve taped!

I’ll let you know more about the London ordeal and all that jazz soon. Right now I actually have an a cappella rehearsal of my own to attend to. Then I’m just gonna hit the sack early, since I received a maximum of 3 hours sleep last night. I just didn’t want to stop doing this project. Well I’m paying for it now, lemme tell ya! Nighty night kiddies! Try and stay stress-free, or somewhat?

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Friday night was a lovely break from all these homeworkassignments, finals, papers, projects that we’ve been bombarded with lately.

Friday night I had the pleasure of witnessing Once on this Island, presented by the Miami Theatre Players. If you’d like to find out what Miami Theatre players are all about, as well as Once on this Island, here’s the article about them in our SUNY New Paltz newspaper, The Oracle.

http://oracle.newpaltz.edu/article.cfm?id=3831

The performance was completely free, which was wonderful!! So I sat in McKenna theatre, watching a free, student run performance of a musical I’ve never seen before, with the choreographer Renee Levine, and my roommate, Samantha Lynn. I hope everyone on campus was able to see it before it closed Saturday night. I would put up video or pictures, well, if I could have taken some in there…but that’s not allowed. Sooo hopefully your visual appetite was quenched with the performance itself and this handy, dandy article here. I just want to commend the cast and crew for all their hard work!

Later that night, the theatre department put something on called Midnight Theatre, at 11:30 (you would think it would start at midnight, but alas, one of the many conundrums of our time.) There are 2 Midnight Theatre’s a semester, usually after one of the mainstage productions is completed. This was the funniest, most committed, Midnight Theatre I’ve seen in ages. I think I can speak on behalf of the entire audience, that this was quite a successful show. I took several videos and pictures, so please, let me show you some!

ALL THE SINGLE LADIES! IF YOU LIKED IT THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT A RING ON IT!

From left to right, is Denise Townsend, Stephanie Spohrer and Flannery Spring-Robinson.

Here is a dance that was being prepared for Freshdance this year, which is a Dance recital which is staffed with student choreographed and student participates. It’s quite a lovely show, and I hope to see you all there come February. This is a segment from the rock musical: Hair. Enjoy! I was supposed to be dancing in this, but I was content taping!

LET THE SUN SHINE IN!

This is another dance that was getting ready for Freshdance. This was choreographed by Simone Bart. Herself and Allen Davidson are the one’s featured in this dance. Go on and check it out! It’s beautiful.

Here’s Russ Dembin performing Alice’s Restaurant, all from memory! Quite a miraculous accomplishment, but it is long, so there are 2 videos.

Now…some pic-chas!

And now, to end this blog with the last moments of Midnight Theatre!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I have another blog about yesterday (just this Saturday) that will be right around the corner. Hang in there all you stressed out studiers. We’ll be spending the holidays with our loved ones before we know it!

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