AHHHHHHHHHHH, SO it’s the end of the semester and I’m in the RA office right now helping people check out and GO HOME!!!!

Everyone’s leaving and it’s actually kind of sad because it’s a reminder of how fast this year went. I really can not believe that I’m going to be a senior when I return for my last fall semester. Time goes by so fast. Have fun kids because before you know it, you’ll be getting ready to graduate and move on from New Paltz.

This was such a great year for me and I really don’t know how to sum it up in words. So……… I’m not. I did a lot though; I met a lot of new people who have definitely impacted me in many ways; and I had a lot of fun along the way.

I’m looking forward to this summer though. As I mentioned, I’m going to NACURH which is being held in Arizona. I hope I don’t get the swine while I’m there because a week after that I’m going to Disney with Tarah for 11 Days. Then after that I need to find a job for a bit, go to the beach and Montauk a lot, and get really really tan.

So, with that said, enjoy your summer vacation!!! I hope that you were able to get a little taste of New Paltz from my blogs. If not, then I hope you just laughed a little bit from my weirdness. Good luck to all of you new, incoming New Paltz students!

See you all next year,

KEVIN

This is my new favorite game ever:

This has been my life the past Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and now that I played it for 4 hours straight today, Tuesday. It’s all good though, because this past weekend I finished my last paper and I’m basically done for the school year. I have one more presentation to do and then it’s just waiting for finals for me.

What’s even better is that I get to play on a really big, flat screen HD television. BEST. Every residence hall on campus has one in one of their lounges AND where I live ( in Scudder) we have a Wii system which we allow residents (and RA’s) to borrow. I’ve become addicted but I got so good because it’s the only thing I’ve been doing with my life. Sounds sad but I don’t care I’m a college student. The game really does bring out the worst in me though but I’m sorry I can’t help saying bad words and being mean when I’ve fallen into Bowser’s lava 40 times. Okay enough of that.

Besides playing video games, giving tours, and doing homework this week, I also volunteered at the Institute for Disaster Mental Health 2009 conference: In the Wake of Disaster: Effective Mental Health Interventions. As a volunteer I didn’t really get to learn much because I was mingling with guests and running the show the entire time but it was still a nice time. I met with a lot of government leaders and whatnot so that was pretty cool and the conference had a very high attendance. Everyone who I spoke to really enjoyed themselves so that was good. The guest speaker whom I assisted was actually a professor of psychology in London, England. There was another guest all the way from Israel as well. Good stuff.

Hmm what else…the new orientation leaders were chosen for Student Orientation and Registration 2009. Congrats everyone! It’s a little bittersweet for me because I’m happy for everyone who got it but I have to say that I am sad I will not be a part of the program this summer. It feels a little weird because it’s like we’re passing the torch over and I don’t really want to yet :) However, to all the prospective students out there who will be attending SUNY New Paltz for the Fall of 2009, you have a great group of students who will be your mentors.

Here’s one last time to SOAR ‘08:

Okay, I’m off to try and do something productive other than Mario Kart!

Kevin

So is starting off a blog. Especially this one. I think it’s usually because I don’t have anything specific to talk about. I just ramble and ramble and ramble and ramble… My apologies too because I don’t think this blog will be ”New Paltz” related.

 This weekend we had a nice little extended weekend/ break. No classes Thursday and Friday!! So I went home Wednesday evening after my class (as did a lot of other people)!

All in all it was a great mini break. On Friday it was my girlfriend Tarah’s 21st Birthday. Birthday Shout-out! Happy Birthday Tarah!!! We ate a lot of good food and then saw that movie Adventureland. It was really good, I thought it would be funnier but I think I just didn’t understand the jokes. They went right over my head!

Saturday and Sunday was basically just a double celebration of Easter, one with my family and the other with Tarah’s family. Then we went back to New Paltz to finish up the last few weeks of our Junior year. I’m excited.

Okay the main point of this blog::::

I HATE THAT NEW SONG FROM THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS…I think it’s called “gives you hell” or something. I normally play my i-pod when I’m home or driving and whatnot but this vacation I was too lazy so I just listened to the radio. What a mistake. Every single radio station plays the same music over and over again, ESPECIALLY THAT SONG…It made me so mad especially when there was a good song on or a few good songs in a row and then that song came on and it just ruined everything. By the way, I’m sorry to anyone who actually likes this song. They just overplay it. That’s my issue.

Since I kind of vented, feel free to vent about other songs you don’t like that they constantly play on the radio. I know you know ‘em!!! Let me know!

That’s all I got…See, pointless blog. This week should be really busy in terms of work. This week we’re also hosting a Disaster Conference which takes place on Friday. I’ll be sure to blog about that once it actually happens.

Enjoy the nice weather everyone,

Kevin

Hey everyone…The last few days have been so fun and eventful that I don’t even know where to start..I’m just going to ramble on about some things, probably in no particular order.

First! I applied for the NACURH 2009 national conference which is going to be held in Arizona and I found out that I was selected as a member of the delegation who will be attending. Words can not express how happy, excited, and ecstatic I am for being given this opportunity. I can’t wait!

What is NACURH you ask? Very good question. In a nutshell (and correct me if I’m wrong or need to add anything else NCC’s Tif and Christina), NACURH stands for the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. Essentially, they recognize living on campus as a major part of the college experience and put on regional and national conferences. At these conferences delegates get to meet other people from schools all over the country, share programming ideas and resources, and show their love and spirit for their school.

I’m so excited because I’m sure as you can tell I love New Paltz and I can’t wait to show my school spirit and go crazy for a few days. I’m also really looking forward to the programming aspect of the conference because I really want to learn new ideas and thoughts from other schools so that I can come back and use them at New Paltz and everyone here can enjoy them!

Okay, moving on for now! The last few days have been so productive and great. I’ve gotten all of my homework done on time, I’m getting good grades in all of my classes, I’m actually doing things for my internship, my tours have been excellent and I’ve been meeting some really nice people who are prospective New Paltz students. It’s so weird that all of these people I’m meeting are going to be First Year Students and I’m going to be a Senior. I never thought the day would come. Weird!

This past weekend I attended an Acapella invitational concert put on by our two groups on campus, Absolut Acapella and the Sexy Pitches. There were also three other groups that performed from other schools: Nazareth, and two different groups from SUNY Fredonia. Everyone did amazing. Unfortunately I didn’t have my video camera on me so I wasn’t able to take any videos and of course my camera died so pictures were a no go too! Npblogger Kristen, you got any???? Here are some that I stole from a friend and photographer Chris Thurston:

Call4Backup from Nazareth

The Gorillas from SUNY Fredonia

Our very own Sexy Pitches

Premium Blend also from SUNY Freddie

Absolut Acapella

After the performance I had to head out to the College Terrace for an Open Mic night where the Orientation Leaders and First year students were being RECOGNIZED. It was fun to see almost everyone (minus Felipe who was celebrating his 20th birthday at home, Happy Birthday OL Felipe!). When the night was coming to an end the ol’s put on a final performance of our SOAR ‘o8 lip sync, which turned out to be really bad but funny because we’d forgotten it. Here’s a pic that I thought was really funny:

Okay so that was my fun weekend and good news.

I hope everyone has a great week.

To all those prospective SUNY New Paltz students, I hope to see you at Accepted Students Day Open House this upcoming Saturday. Feel free to say hi if you recognize me.

Bye all,

Kevin

Uh so I’m back at school after a much needed spring break. I basically just hung out, went to the city with my parents and Tarah to see Guys and Dolls, went to Montauk, ate good food, and watched the Food Network like it was my job. I really do love New Paltz but I’m so sick of schoolwork it’s not funny. College would be so much better if there were no tests to study for or papers to write but we know that’s never going to happen.

I came back early today with the intentions of doing the homework I was supposed to do over break but somehow never did. Of course, once I get to my room I can’t get myself to do my work so I try my best to find a way to procrastinate. That’s why I’m blogging right now. That’s also why I just made my schedule for next semester. My favorite time of the semester, when the classes for next semester go up…isn’t that sad that that’s my favorite time of the year? It’s not really my favorite, but it is up there. I guess that is the inner school counselor/nerd inside of me.

Speaking of which…I no longer know what I want to do with my life again. If you recall one of my blogs from the past I had mentioned that I wanted to be a school counselor but then changed my mind and decided I wanted to get my PHD in Clinical or Counseling Psychology. Well, I have changed my mind once again. Now I’m reconsidering the school counselor thing simply for the reason that I’m really not a fan of research, and that’s all you really do in a PHD program (from what I’m told???)

I think I’ve also decided that I want to go out of state for grad school. Originally, I wanted to go back home to Long Island, but now all of  a sudden I think I want to leave. Nothing too far, just something different. I feel like it can’t be that bad because at this point in my life I only want my Masters Degree, and that should only take 2 years. So what’s 2 years of my life in a different state? It could be a really great learning experience and it could just be fun to try some place different.

I change my mind so much with everything I do in life. It seriously is crazy. I can’t even make decisions or think about something because as soon as I do I change my mind again, but oh well.

Okay that is enough ramblin’ from me for now. I NEED TO DO WORK!!!! I hope everyone had a great spring break…

Kevin

So hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed your weekend. One more week until spring break, I’m so excited.

I’m not really going to post anything right now, I just wanted to put up the lip sync video. The quality of the video kind of stinks because of the lighting but you’ll still get the point…

In case you didn’t read my last post this was from the Residence Life Conference I recently attended in Cortland, and SUNY New Paltz won! Go us.

Alright, that’s it…Until next time,

Kevin

Wow! It’s been a really long time since I blogged last. I don’t even have an excuse, I’m sorry. I guess I have been somewhat busy though this semester. I really didn’t think that I was going to be this busy but it’s a whole bunch of little things that just add up. My workload for my classes hasn’t been to bad, except for my independent study. That’s where all of the little things are coming from because it is a lot of reading and writing and researching. Sometimes it’s a bit tedious but whatever, it’ll look good on my resume.

This past weekend I attended a Resident Assistant conference which was being held at SUNY Cortland. 11 other Resident Assistant’s from New Paltz and I, as well as our two Resident Director advisers, left Friday afternoon in our athletic vans and journeyed up north to our destination. Sometimes I like car rides because I love singing obnoxiously and then sometimes I don’t because I get nauseous. This ride was a combination of both. Anyways, once we got there we checked into our hotel rooms and then went right to the Cortland campus for the Role Call competition which we all worked so hard on. We thought we weren’t going to have enough time to practice but fortunately for us when we got there we were able to get one more practice in.

Essentially, the role call was an opportunity for your school to show off a little bit but then also tie in the theme of the conference which this year was “Walking the Red Carpet,” so basically anything to do with fame, celebrities, and glamor.

We (as in the RA’s representing New Paltz) decided to do a lip sync where we would give the crowd a taste of New Paltz. It was supposed to be as if the audience were on a tour and we were the tour guides. The tour started off with us talking about our distinct location, then going into a song and dance section with music that related to our location. So, we had “Ain’t No Mountain High, Ain’t No Valley Low,” “New York, New York,” and “She Thinks My Tractors Sexy” (since we’re kind of located in the country). On our tour we also mentioned how we’re known for our Arts and Academics, our diversity on campus, and naturally that we were the Hottest Small State School in the nation (which tied in the whole fame theme).

We went first and then had the opportunity to watch other schools. They were good, but I have to be honest and say that they didn’t quite bring it like we brought it. I’m sorry, that’s just my opinion. Anyways, afterwards they informed us that we’d have to wait until the next day to find out who the winner was. So, we waited, and waited, and waited.

FAST FORWARD TO THE NEXT DAY: Woke up, got breakfast, listened to the Guest Speaker (who was really good by the way) and then started our programming sessions. This served as a way for other schools to attend other schools programs and share ideas and learn and whatnot. They were all pretty good and I think I definitely left with some good ideas for the future.

Finally it was lunchtime and the winner of the Role Call comp. was about to be announced………………………………………………………….DRUMROLL PLEASE……………………………………………..WE WON! It was so exciting and we were all so happy because we put a lot of hard work into it and we really only had less than a week to prepare for it. VIDEO OF THE LIP SYNC NEXT WEEK SO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR IT!!!!

Afterwards we did an Encore performance, went to more programs, attended the closing, and then peaced back to New Paltz.

Overall it was a really great trip and I think I got a lot out of it, not only program ideas, but also from meeting and getting to know other people, especially those I attended the conference with. I think it’s safe to say that we all had a blast with each other. So, shout outs to MATT, DIANA, LORRAINE, ZURI, COLIN, LIZ, MARTHA, BIG KEVIN, VARESSA, SAMI, and KIM. AND special shout outs to our Resident Directors: KRISTEN and CORRIE! Thanks for a great weekend.

Like I said once I get the video of our lip sync on my computer I’ll post it up here.

Have a great week everyone and good luck with mid-terms all you New Paltz students

-Kevin

So this semester I am interning at the American Red Cross in Kingston as part of my Disaster Studies Minor. We haven’t done much so far because I’ve only been there for 3 full days. Mostly just prep stuff, like when you start a new job or something. First day we basically filled out all of our information and got our ID cards, second day we did something called a Disaster Table Top which is a group assignment where you guessed, we sat at a table and basically went over a disaster scenario (Where was it? who was affected? how were people affected? where would we set up a shelter if it was necessary? stuff like that). On the third day we met with someone from the Disaster Action Team where we were entered into the DAT team (extra “t” I know, I questioned that right away when I saw it). So, if a disaster ever happens which hopefully it won’t because that usually means suffering for someone I’ll be able to go to the disaster scene and represent for the Red Cross. We also learned the necessary paperwork to fill out when responding to someone who has just suffered from a disaster. It basically just lists their name and information, a description of the scenario/disaster, and a whole bunch of other stuff. From there you’d refer to a little chart that shows you how much of a monetary donation clients will receive in order to get them going for the next week or so. Although it’s not a lot of money that the Red Cross provides it’s still something, and no amount of money would probably ever bring back the things people have lost.

Anyways, when we ( myself and my fellow interns Jen and Rose) were about to leave we were asked if we wanted to fill out some of the paperwork with a client who was currently there. We all replied no because we had only just learned how to do it but we all wanted to watch to see how this typically goes. So we went into the room with the client and her friend, and someone from the Disaster Action Team and we observed.

It was so sad. The client had been at work one day and came home to find their apartment in ashes with all of their belongings inside, including their pets. It was awful to watch this but after I left it really made me remember how grateful I have to be for everything that I have. Sometimes I forgot how easy I have it and I get caught up in everything that’s going on in my life that I begin to take things for granted. So, I’m going to try and be more mindful this semester, especially while I’m interning at the Red Cross because unfortunately I’m sure I’m going to be seeing a lot more situations similar to this.

Sorry if this was a little depressing. Although it is, it is a very good learning experience at the same time. Hopefully I come out of this a more appreciative person. To change the subject a little, I really like my internship so far and I really like the other interns that I am working with. The car rides are fun since we carpool and we’re going to try and get KFC after we get out from work a lot, which I have no problem with, even though my wallet and body will occasionally.

I think that’s all I really wanted to mention about my internship for now. I’m going to go do mail for my Residence Hall now and then off to Psychology of Infancy and Childhood. Then HEROES!!! I don’t know why I use exclamation points when I mention HEROES because I’m not that excited for it since it’s dumb now. Maybe tonight’s show will make me change my mind.

Okay Later,

Kevin

Hey so it’s Tuesday and I have the whole day off. I’m going to get some work done that’s due later in the week, do my laundry, and possibly go to the gym because I really need to. We’ll see how that goes.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. It started off Friday night with some bowling. This year we have something on campus called First Year Fridays where they have a variety of programs throughout the semester. It’s directed toward first year students, but of course it is open to everyone. So anyway, this past Friday there was a trip to the Kingston Hoebowl. For ten bucks you got transportation, 2 hours of bowling, shoes, pizza and snacks. I chaperoned the trip and some of my friends were there so we basically just had a good time. Here’s some pics:

This year the college is also doing something called Saturday Nights at the Terrace where they host different activities over in the College Terrace. That’s a weird sentence. Anyways, this past weekend we hosted Amy Anderson, a really funny stand up comic. The events take place every Saturday night I believe at about 9 or 10 0′clock and it’s free. I know sometme in the future there’s going to be some Rockband competitions there and an Open Mic night so I’m really excited for that. Keep on the lookout New Paltz students!

Okay, workout time.

-Kevin

Hello everyone. I am back from my vacation from blogging and I am ready for a new semester. Winter break was awesome and well needed in my opinion. I honestly did nothing special but I think it was the best winter break I ever experienced. I hung out with my girlfriend a lot, ate good food, played some Xbox 360, saw some friends, and most importantly spent quality time with my family and brand new nephew. He’s so cute and I can’t believe I’m back at school not seeing him. I’m going to try and go home at least once a month so I can see him grow up

Let’s see, what else? This is probably going to be one really long/ random blog because I have to fill you in on so much, but I’ll try to do it as condensed as possible.

I saw Gran Torino while I was at home, and once more with my RA staff when I came back to school. Best movie ever. I did not want to see this movie at first because I thought it was just about a car, but it was so much better than that and it’s now my favorite movie ever. I don’t think I’ve ever cried during a movie, and I still didn’t cry over this movie but I was so close to tears (I might have had a few in my right eye).  I’m so pissed that it was not nominated for an Oscar. Clint Eastwood was screwed in my opinion, but what can you do. See, I told you this was random.

Okay fast forward a little bit, even though we kind of already did. I came back to school early because I had RA training and it was really nice to see my staff that I had not seen for about a month. I missed them. We all have so much fun together just joking around and making fools of ourselves.  So yeah, we did the whole training thing, we made our boards and door tags, and we got the rest of the building ready for the arrival of our residents.

Let’s fast forward to this past weekend. First off, it was Welcome Back Weekend. It actually started on Friday with the first Buzz karaoke of the semester. I did not attend but I heard great things from everyone that went. On Saturday there was an outdoor ice skating rink set up which people could try and skate on. I personally like regular ice skating better but it was still a fun time.

These are just a few pictures I stole from Chris Thurston

Afterwards I took a little break from Welcome Back events and went to a chili festival/cook off with Tarah, and friends Abbey, Chris, Cody, and Liz. I should have taken pictures but it was way too cold outside. My hands were out to eat and then went right back in my pockets. The chili was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good though. I love chili so this was really nice. #2 was the best and they won and they totally deserved it too.

After the chili, we peaced to Kingston to go to Liz’s art gallery closing show/party. Unfortunately when we got there they informed us that we were a week early for her party but it was still a nice time anyway. At least it wasn’t crowded and awkward.

Alright, that’s it for my ramblings now. Expect a lot from me this semester because it’s going to be a busy one. There’s a lot of events coming up, and my classes/internship should be keeping me on my toes. Good luck with classes all you New Paltz students and Congratulations to everyone who is currently receiving their acceptance letters!

See ya,

Kevin