Friday, February 26, 2010

Digging out!

The snow began for me about 6AM yesterday morning and has yet to stop! I heard most areas started out as rain then turned to snow, but not good old West Milford! As most of you know by now, GMT campus was closed yesterday and will remain closed for today. Campuses are scheduled to reopen tomorrow, weather permitting of course! Below are some pictures I would like to share! The snowman below is no longer a snowman after looking outside this morning, he is covered for the most part and only has a head. Looks like I will be building a new one! Where I am, we have well over 2 feet and the snow drifts and about 4 ft, so you can imagine the digging out that my family and I will be doing today!

Photo Time!

I will post more pictures once I venture outside again to help with the shoveling and snowblowing! I plan on building an igloo cause the snow is perfect for that! Who knows, maybe I'll get creative and build something totally unexpected! We will see!

So since classes were canceled yesterday, I got out of a test, but now have a 2-4 page paper to write. I find that easier since I am more comfortable with writing something rather than taking a test, so I am glad I can focus more on that and do what I can. I also have an extra credit paper of 3-4 pages to write about the Benefits of Competition. It adds 5 points to my grade in microeconomics if I write it, so why not! It's due on my birthday, but believe me it will be submitted by then! Week 8 was a short one and now we are slowly winding down to the end of the quarter! Woo hoo!

Oh, so I never got on after the play, but I recommend if you haven't seen it to go! The show will be on Saturday and Sunday (the last two performances!!) I helped out on the Monday night performance and we had about 30-35 people show up. I brought my mom along with me because she likes the plays and was interested in coming. I give it two thumbs up and all together the show runs for 2 hours, each play is 1 hour each! Then we have an intermission between the two plays and there is some yummy food! Again, its open theater so everything is free to you!

Good luck to everyone with digging themselves out and hopefully the snow will taper off sometime this afternoon!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday, Sunday!

Right when I want the weekend to last forever, I wake up and it's already Sunday!! I just finished pulling all my assignments off Blackboard for my online classes for this upcoming week. I have math problems to work through, another math paper to start looking over, a quiz in microeconomics, and of course the discussion board questions. It's not all that bad! I just keep telling myself, 4 more weeks! On a brighter note, 21 days until my birthday! YAY! Yes, I start my countdown and it's not even March yet! I really don't know why I am counting down this year, I'm leaving my teenage life and will be boring old 20! :)


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I wanted to bring up the Virtual Career Fair that is taking place now until March 1st. If you haven't done so already, I really suggest that you check it out. All you need to do is log into Blackboard, go to your CAREER SERVICE TAB, and click on Virtual Career Fair. Once you get to that point, they will guide you through the rest. I personally have not checked it out yet, but I plan on doing so either some point today or during the week. This is such a great opportunity especially for the online students who are unable to make it to the Career Fairs that Berkeley hosts at hotels around the campuses. I know Garret Mountain has them about 10 minutes from campus, so it's very convenient.

If you are on Blackboard and have a few minutes, just check it out!

Since we are soon approaching the end of the quarter and you need to pick up your grades, I would advise you to take advantage of the tutoring that Berkeley offers. It could be help with math, or help with a paper, but go see someone. The worst feeling would be to fail a class that you could have had help in by the wonderful tutoring services. It never hurts to ask your Professor either! They are always there to help you unless they strongly advise you to check out the ASC.

Time to go enjoy some Sunday morning coffee and make some breakfast and get going on the day! Everyone enjoy their day and get ready for more snow this week!

Friday, February 19, 2010

TGIF!

Woo hoo! End of Week 7 and it's officially FRIDAY!I have some wonderful news to share! My best friend gave birth to her beautiful daughter yesterday morning! I was getting ready to walk out the door to go to school and my phone was connecting for a picture message. I didn't expect it to be the baby yet, but sure enough it was! That made my whole day! Here are some pictures! She is absolutely adorable!!!
(8 lbs, 2 oz and 20 inches long!) Congratulations to Marybeth and Kip!


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How was everyone's week despite the snow? At my house, there is no where to put it anymore and we are suppose to get more next week???? GREAT! I will tell you though, I have icicles hanging around my house and they look so pretty! Here is a picture of some:

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I was suppose to be heading into work this morning, but my mom hasn't been feeling well and is feeling dizzy so I will be taking care of her. I am the only one who can stay home with her so I have no problem doing that!

As for my school work, I pretty much finished everything up. I just need to review some things in economics and then I will be good for this week. Week 8 is approaching now and I have a quiz next week and I think that's really about it, I hope. Things will start to get crazy again since we are now approaching the end of the Winter Quarter!

Since we are reaching the end, some of you may need to rebundle for the Spring Quarter, so make sure you complete and FASFA and stop by Financial Aid. If you do not have that completed, you will not be cleared for the Spring Quarter, so remember to do so. Then of course it will be bill time again, so stay on top of everything before you end up paying that horrible late fee!

I also want to make note of something. On Tuesday in my Global Social Change class, we had a lady come in from the library to go over some researching guides and let me just tell you, there is so much stuff you can do, that I didn't even realize. If you ever get a moment, I advise everyone to check out the online library catalog. You can search for terms directly, you can change the search to include the world "And" so that it brings up two topics, or you could put the word "or" so that you can limit the amount of resources you get back to research. There is just so much you can do and I really benefited from seeing this presentation. Every quarter, the library is usually in one of my classes just going over the basics, so I was glad this was different and not the stuff I have heard already. That class I am in is also a 400 level course, so research is key in that class and finding acceptable/credible sources is something that my Professor looks for. We have another paper coming up and after that presentation, he said he is going to surprise us! That means endless researching I bet! Oh no!!!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Let's hope some of this snow will melt and that next weeks storm passes! Also, the play starts this weekend, so if you are interested, please check the dates in my previous post! Thanks! :)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Snow, Snow, Go Away!

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That picture above is from when I was driving into the Garret Mountain campus yesterday afternoon. Everything looked like a winter wonderland! Luckily, the roads weren't as bad as up by me. I had a few scares on my way to school, but I made it home safely!!!

Hopefully everyone dug themselves out by now. Up in West Milford, we got another 10.5 inches, so you can only imagine the snow piles I have since that fell on top of the 12 inches we got previously. So much for 4-6 inches that was expected!

Anyways, I need to have a little vent here for a second because something happened to me today that I never expected to happen. I was at work and decided to log onto Berkeley real quick on my break and see if anyone had responded to my initial post. I saw that someone had posted so I went to read their post. As I am reading, I thought to myself, "Wow, this sounds very familiar!" It turns out that someone copied my post and used it as their own. I never really expected this to happen, but it did, so I had to report it. So just a little advice, anyone taking an online class, pay close attention to your posts and make sure you don't run into a similar issue like this. I am not sure what is going to happen, but something needs to be done!

Besides that, my day was pretty good. I finished most of my homework. I have my first class canceled tomorrow since my Professor is getting prepared for the play that is coming up this weekend. I will post the dates again below for everyone to see. If you are interested, please come!

Saturday February 20 at 2PM
Sunday February 21 at 2PM
Monday February 22 at 7PM
Tuesday February 23 at 7PM
Wednesday February 24 at 7PM
Thursday February 25 at 7PM
Saturday February 27 at 2PM
Sunday February 28 at 2PM

Let's see what the rest of the week has to bring. It's been pretty quiet for me. I've also been having some problems with my internet, but I am finally back up and running with that!

Time to go watch some American Idol now! :)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day! (one day late, I know!

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Happy (one day late) Valentine's Day! I meant to get on Saturday and give some last minute gift ideas, but I just ran out of time to do so! Since the holiday is over, my ideas wouldn't really be of any use, so we will just scratch that idea!

Happy President's Day as well!
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I hope everyone enjoyed their day off today and who knows, tomorrow might be another snow day, so wear your PJ's inside out and hope for one! It's always constantly changing so who knows what will happen!

So over the weekend, I did the traditional celebrating of Valentine's Day! My boyfriend and I decided to stay in this year and cook dinner together! We ended up making chicken divon, which was delicious. Then, we consumed our time by playing Super Mario Bros for Wii. We have been trying so hard to beat it so once you get started, you really can't stop until you get so stressed that you literally have to throw down the controller and walk away. Overall we had a nice day and he got me beautiful necklace as well as a rose and a box of chocolates (YUM!)

As for this week, I have a midterm tomorrow on two stories. I am suppose to write two well detailed essays so I am hoping for the best on that one! We had to read one other story today in preparation for tomorrow. It was called "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" by Irwin Shaw. It was basically about this married couple who gets into an argument because Michael, the husband, is seen looking at other girls in a sexual manner and the wife, Frances, is not so happy about it. He claims he would never touch them or do something, but she just shakes her head in disbelief. He ends up explaining how he is attracted to these other woman that he sees and that he can't be stopped. He is acting very immature and disrespectful towards his wife. This then leads to Michael saying that he probably will end up touching another woman. How terrible! After Frances has been willing to do everything for him and be his one and only, he turns around and says he isn't sure if he can stop himself from looking at these woman. It doesn't phase his the least bit of his wife's feelings about this. Seems like its too much to ask for to be loved and appreciated by your significant other in this story. If anyone is interested in reading it, you can find it online.

That is one thing out of the way, well at least when the exam is over it will be out of the way.

I just had to contact the helpdesk to reset my password and since no one was available online, I had to call. I got disconnected the first time and they never called back, yet they had my number, and then I called back again and finally had my issue resolved. Note to self: don't type in the wrong password and lock yourself out! This has happened far too often for me because I have all these different passwords for my emails, for school, and for work. Sometimes I think I am logging on there, and it just so happened to be blackboard that I was logging onto with the wrong password this time! Lucky me! An hour later and I am up and running!

I hope everyone has a great week! Wish for a snow day but don't get your hopes up!!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Classes Resume!

Some of your professors may have given you another day off, but for the most part everything was up and running again on the Berkeley campuses! My first class was canceled today and we were given an online assignment which was pretty convenient for me since for the most part I was snowed in still from the night before!

I have one last assignment to get done and then I am finally done for the week! Time to relax and enjoy Valentine's Day! I have to work all day tomorrow though since I wasn't able to get into work on Wednesday and the last time I was at work was last Wednesday, so I have a lot to catch up on and also have to make those favorite phone calls of mine!

Hopefully I'll catch some dinner and a movie afterwards or just go home and relax. Who knows, depends on how I feel and how tired I am after this long exhausting week!

What is everyone's plans for Valentine's Day?!


Some exciting news is that I received my President's List letter the other day! I have been doing really well with keeping up my GPA so I have to give myself a pat on the back for that one! It's just hard to believe I am halfway through now!

I was talking to a lady today at my mom's work and her daughter went to school for marketing as well. It's amazing how many different jobs are available when you get into marketing. Her daughter is working for a pharmaceutical company in the marketing department and is looking to get herself more involved, which is a great thing to do. I am getting more and more nervous, but also excited at the same time! I just want to get out there and start using the best of my creative side!

I want to bring up another thing real quick and that is that it's almost my one year anniversary on being part of the student blogging! It's been such a great experience and I just want to thank everyone for continuously reading my blogs! I will recap the whole year of blogging as that day comes closer, but for now I will save that till the week of the 28th, which is when I started my blog!

Enjoy your snow free Friday, well besides the snow on the ground of course!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Snow Day!!!

How about that? A nice relaxing day without having to work or go to school! Either way I didn't have classes today, but I was suppose to work. I got the call from my boss around 8 this morning, telling me he was closing our office for the day! YES!!! So here I am, snowed in and sharing my snowed in day with everyone!

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I kept thinking, oh man we aren't going to get any snow because that is what they said last time and we didn't see one single flake, but this morning, it was a whole different story. I was watching Good Morning America the other morning and Regis and Kelly were picking on Bill Evans because he said we were going to see significant snowfall from that previous storm, and we got nothing. What they ended up doing was telling Bill Evans that if it doesn't snow this time, they were going to put him in the dunk tank, and he agreed! So lucky for you Mr. Evans, you will not be going in the dunk tank!

Since I am snowed in, I have been finishing up some homework. I was also looking over a few things for the new Blackboard platform we are getting ready to switch to in the summer. Dean Smith, who use to be at the GMT campus and now deals with the online campus, asked me if I would be interested in doing a Pilot training course for the new blackboard platform. It's basically a phone training course and I will have to go to the online site, which is about 15 minutes from GMT and complete this training. I will review all of the information and provide some feedback about the new platform. I took a look at the platform, and so far, so good. As with every new thing, it needs to be tested to make sure it is functioning properly. That's where I and a few others come into play. There are a few openings for students who would want to complete this training as well, so please let me know if you would have any interest in doing so. If not, then you will see it all soon enough in the Summer!

I also would like to make mention of the upcoming play that will be at the GMT campus. There are several dates, which I will list below, so you have many opportunities to see this play. As part of my fiction class requirements, Professor Farrington, who deals with most of the productions, has asked his students to see the play and to also help with ushering people in. I will be doing so on February 22, so maybe I will see some of you there!

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Here are the dates:

Saturday February 20 at 2PM
Sunday February 21 at 2PM
Monday February 22 at 7PM
Tuesday February 23 at 7PM
Wednesday February 24 at 7PM
Thursday February 25 at 7PM
Saturday February 27 at 2PM
Sunday February 28 at 2PM

These are two American Plays, one called Ludlow Fair by Landford Wilson and the other is called Trifles by Susan Glaspell, will be presented at the Garret Mountain Campus in the Knupple Hall Community Room. This is an open-door theatre production.
Hope to see you there!

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their snow day! I will be sure to take some pictures and post them after all is said and done!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Good Luck On Your Midterms

Believe it or not, we have approached midterm week. By now most of you have probably been studying your heads off and making sure that you cover every important detail you have discussed so far in the quarter. I had my first midterm this afternoon, but it wasn't set up like a normal midterm. We ended up splitting up into teams of criminals and police force. I happen to end up on the criminal side, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Basically we were all given 6 million dollars (in fake money of course) and we would use that money to buy items. Since I was on the criminal side, I had the opportunity to buy weapons, cocaine, a boat so I could smuggle away with my cocaine, bling, and a key. Now, the other team, which was the police force, was setting out to bust the criminals, which was my side. If an individual on our team got busted, they had to give up everything they had.

It pretty much went back and forth like that and we had to hold our own for the whole game. I thought it went pretty well and it was definitely the best midterm I have ever taken! It was beneficial though, because we got hands on experience throughout the game of how things went down with crime back in the day.

As for my other classes, I do have tests, but they aren't midterms, which I was pretty happy about. In my Fiction class, we have a midterm next week, and then all this extra worrying and stress can be let go of.

Now that I am home, it can snow all it wants! I plan on being snowed in tomorrow, which could be both fun and not so fun. I have a math paper that I will be finishing up hopefully this afternoon and getting some of my other work out of the way.

I do want to wish everyone good luck on their midterms and remember to stay calm! The worst thing to do when taking a test is to panic, believe me! Been there, done that!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Weekend!!!

Happy Weekend! Luckily, my area didn't get any of that snow, well so far at least! For once it was nice to wake up and not have to worrying about shoveling out my car and having to be somewhere! Things could change, so I better not press my luck just yet!

We have successfully finished week 5, now moving on to week 6...dun, dun, dun MIDTERM WEEK! I have a new type of midterm that I have never had before, but it's actually an oral group midterm. We are either going to assume the role as a criminal or assume the role as fighting crime. The professor is going to assign us groups and we will fall into either one of those categories. I never had a midterm like this so I can say I am both nervous, but excited at the same time. It's better than being singled down to a piece of paper with questions that will determine one's full understanding. Of course a single grade will play a part in our participation with this exam, but it feels a little more comforting knowing that I am not going into this all alone!

As for my fiction class, we will be having our midterm the beginning of week 7 because we need next week to finish up interpreting a story. It's a difficult story so we are working on breaking it down and making the most of it.

Lately, I have been in this reading mood. I actually just finished a book this morning, which was the Lauren Conrad, L.A Candy book. I personally liked it and on my adventures today, I am going to pick up the new book she just released called Sweet Little Lies. I previewed it online and it sounds just as good and intriguing and the first one! I also plan on seeing the Dear John movie today, so I have a lot to look forward too. I wanted to read the Dear John book before seeing the movie, but didn't get the chance. From the reviews, the book and movie are different, so I will end up reading the book as well.

Not really sure what is happening as far as midterms for my online classes, but I am sure I will hear more about that when they post everything tomorrow morning. I just can't believe we have 6 weeks left. My best friend who is expecting her child any day now, were just talking about how fast everything has been happening and passing us by. I just wish it would slow down a tad bit! Reality is kicking in that's for sure!

So that's my little weekend wrapped up in a nut shell. I hope everyone has a great weekend and if anyone sees the Dear John movie, let me know your opinions, but not until at least tonight or tomorrow! I need to see it first!!! :)

Have a good one!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

6 more weeks of Winter! What a bummer!

I totally forgot today was Groundhog Day until my mom walked in and was like well the groundhog saw his shadow! My first reaction was well what else is new! It seems to be the same every year so who knows! It's still 32 degrees out and we are expecting snow tonight into tomorrow...when will Spring arrive?! Not soon enough!

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Luckily I had no problems getting to class today! No snow to ruin my parade! I had two tests so that really bummed me out! One I did really good on, the other, let's just say, not my best! That's ok though, I have plenty of time to correct that. Next week is midterms, which I guess I will find out more about on Thursday since none of my Professors have said anything about them yet! That's a little nerve wrecking, but hopefully it won't be so bad. Just need to push through them! I can't believe it's already going to be halfway through the quarter. It's driving me crazy how fast everything is going. Now that I'm working a lot more and going down to campus, my days just fly right on by. I feel like I can never get anything done, but I manage too, which is pretty good for me!

I ended up getting most of my online class work done this afternoon when I got home from my campus classes. It will feel nice to just relax now and watch some American Idol, get a work out in, and then call it a night. I have work tomorrow as long as this snow doesn't stop me from getting there! I heard it's not going to be so bad, which is good news to my ears!

For the rest of the week, I really don't know what to expect. All I know is that I am test free for the time being until next week rolls around and mid terms ruin my life! Just kidding! If anyone needs help with mid-term studying, make sure you check your blackboard email about tutoring. The ASC is very helpful around exam time, as well as any other time that you need assistance. This is a free program offered to Berkeley students, so please take advantage of it! No matter what type of question it is, someone is there to help you understand the material! It never hurts to ask for help. You can always ask your professor to clarify things if you are unsure of how to solve a problem or what a certain term means.

Enjoy the rest of the week and remember 6 more weeks of this terrible cold weather! Hang in there!!!