Celebrate!

Yesterday marked the last day of classes and today I was up at 4:30 to travel to Philly for a job interview. After a full semester which culminated with a chaotic week topped off with that interview, it was time to kick back. From my interview I headed straight to the beach. I'll be back in NY tomorrow to buckle down on work for finals.

This is going fast.

It's That Time...

I am officially done with my classes for the semester. Okay, okay, so officially might not be the right word. Technically I have class on Monday Night, but my dads 51st birthday is more important and so im saying techincal schmechnical. I mean if the semester is supposed to end on December 10th, and Friday and Monday are 'reading days' then why is it that night classes are still in session until Tuesday? So I could have a Final at 1:30 and then have class that night? That does not seem right. Like the budget, just another thing that did not really add up this semester here at Fordham University.

Ah well - official or not - classes have come to an end and all I owe this school is 8 hours (max) of finals before I can relax.

A little dissapointing...

So last night I decided my picture for today would be of my printed out cover to my final paper which is due tomorrow. I knew it would not be out of the question to finish it and at a decent hour since i had already found the studies I was going to use and this paper only had to be 7-8 pages unlike the last one that was both in unfamiliar territory as well as longer.

Unfortunately, I did not finish. To clarify, the paper is complete text-wise, just not formatting-wise. I still need to do all the in-text citations and such before I can click print.

I am also putting my social anxiety to the test. Out of annoyance with the second part of the assignment 'i think itd be great to have everyone give a 5-10 minute presentation on their paper so that the whole class can learn about what you researched and what you found' sure on some level itd be nice to learn a few things the class never covered but wait a second that means more work. Specifically it means adding a class presentation to a research study. Instead of putting in all the hours it would take to prepare a formal presentation and powerpoint slideshow I am just going to wing it. I mean its part of the paper grade so how much could it really hurt my grade?

*Collar tug*.

See you tomorrow night when I can officially say 'I am done with classes for the semester'
Only get to say that one more time. For now I'll leave you with 'Last Day of Classes!'

dangerously doodling

you definitely dont shout 'i am paying attention and know what the answer is' to your teacher when he walks by you and the picture below is how your notes look. note to self - doodle smaller.

another celebration

a little while ago i celebrated my 100th blog post, and today I have reached another blogging landmark. today is the 100th post for my breadcrumb project. back in july i decided to start making a post once a day of a picture that in some way related to the days events whether it was something i had done, somewhere i had been, something i had seen, etc. Today marks the 100th 'breadcrumb'.
Recently I realized that I would be coming up on this post and decided to figure out both when it would be, and to see some of my past posts by starting from the beginning and looking through them. I realized that somehow the quarterly posts all, by chance, happened to be noteworthy pictures or events.

Breadcrumb #25 - Picture of the photograph of my grandparents framed in my house

Breadcrumb #50 - Philadelphia Eagles home opener

Breadcrumb #75 - Where The Wild Things Are midnight release photo

Picture 100 then was pressured because after realizing these pictures happened to coincide with those posts I thought about what I could have as my 100th picture while still wanting to not plan it out. Ultimately I decided not to plan it and see what I came across today. I took and am posting this picture because while it may seem mundane it has significance. This captures the final roster for my final semester at Fordham. Having registered this morning, I felt like it made sense to use this as my 100th image. How did we get to be choosing our final 4 or 5 (or less if you are that ahead) classes of our college careers already?

registering

even thought is is senior year and i only have one semester to go there are still so many classes that i am interested in. i have 3 spaces open and i have 14 classes i find interesting on some level and thats just within psychology. i didnt even look at anything else.

by the way - john Q and the negotiator are very very very similar movies. although to their credit in the negotiator they turn off the heat for the building, and in john q its the air conditioning.
am i knocking them? maybe - but when one of them comes on TNT im glued for 3 hours.

flashbacks

no this is not lost or opposite day thus being about flashfoward. intstead it has to do with todays picture which felt like i was in high school again but not necessarily in a bad way.

anyway - today was alright. had an interesting experience with the ram van that ultimately boiled form 'the van is broken they're sending another one' to 'the van needs maintenance - someone is coming' to 'theres something with the keys' which eventually was made clear by the fishing of the car keys out of the storm drain on the street. there was a lot more involved but i dont feel like typing it out.

as much as i would like to regress to that of a 10 year old and ignore decisions and responsibility and all the ugliness ahead and instead run outside and play, i cannot and as such just purchased "Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology: 2008/2009 Edition" by recommendation of Tracy Prout.

Looks like there is no turning back after all.

edit: decided not to include said picture. instead i am replacing it with one i took earlier in the day. i like it more - fits more with the whole wanting to return to 10 years old. and don't worry - i joined in after taking this.

uphill battle

so today i realized something. i am not who i was in 8th grade, or high school for that matter. what i mean by that is - when i played sports whether it was soccer or what i very rarely came out of the game. not because i was the star or anything like that but because i never needed a break. i remember in indoor - i subbed out once and recalled it had been the first time all season (this was like one of the last games) that i actually came off the field.

tonight we played a 'half-court' style game of soccer and within 15 minutes i had a severe cramp that wasnt just like a strain but a sharp very debilitating pain. luckily after a lot of nonchalant playing it passed and i was fine, but that is a bad sign. i never claimed to be in any kind of shape but that is also pretty bad. hopefully this soccer thing will work out to be more than just something fun to do.

had my last of my first classes today - my biopsych lab. so far i'd say that the majority of the psych courses here have been friendly. mainly reading heavy in the assignments and very rarely more than one big paper and the mid term and final. biopsych is not friendly - it will be a real real challenge but one im excited for because this is basically what the biology course should have been for psych students instead of learning about kingdoms and extinctions.

also - im happy to see so many new posts today. id link them in here as a shout out but no one who id link isnt already reading/aware of the other peoples blogs so its really not worth it. it is however nice to have so many different new blog updates at once.

last bit - ran in to mike deasey prior to the soccer match. was coming from class and was wearing like non-mesh shorts and skate shoes and thought - ok i dont think i can get away with this, but deasey isnt probably serious about this so im sure ill be fine in this if hes coming - he was in shorts and a t-shirt and a pair of tigers - he informed me that he had to get changed for our scrimmage - apparently that wasnt sports-ready so i quickly realized that my skate shoes and non-mesh shorts wouldnt fly. so i donned the most sporty pair of shoes i had - my tigers. apparently not sporty enough for deasey but they are the best i got. and theyll do for the season - minus a slight traction problem. i did fall a bunch. but i've recently been told i seem to be off-balance alot so maybe its not the shoes.

the wonders of a trail left behind

i got a package from home today delivered. i found out that even if it isnt fedex the delivery man will buzz up and see if anyone is home to retrieve it. on the positive side - it was successfully delivered. on the negative side i still dont know what happens if no one is here to receive it. hmm.

more classes, more beatles rock band. had to fight the urge to follow the twitter feed and run from LC to 42nd street for an advanced and free screening of Zombieland. instead i sat in a 2.5 hour lecture on the history of trauma. im proud of me too.

finally - theres a place called The High Line. I guess its not so much a place as it is an old rail line that runs from below the numbered streets to 34th street around 10th ave (aka the west side) It was no longer being used and in jeopardy of being removed/knocked down - how ever you want to phrase it and people spoke up saying it could be used for other things - and that meant less costs for the city. In June of this year it was reopened as sort of a walking park.

I originally thought that the reopening combined the overgrowth and decay of the railroad with some new construction and planting, but I was wrong. Looking at photos they actually cleared the entire track and reconstructed it to look like, loosely, like an overgrown railway. While it is partially upsetting that the original track and the natural overgrowth was all removed, it is probably due to the lack of safety that probably existed with using a naturally decaying place as a park.

Info on the place can be found at The HighLine. There is an Images tab that I suggest you check out - documents in thumbnails different eras of the train: when it ran, from 1999-2006 in a gallery documenting the remnants and natural overgrowth taking place on an abandoned area an then the documentation of the clearing, construction, painting, etc of the new park. This is a place to visit for me before the weather makes it less desirable to walk around in the city for long periods of time.

it left as quickly as it arrived

During my 3rd class today, and probably sparked by what we were talking about at the time i had an idea. every so often i sorta get an idea in my head and run with it almost essay like on a specific topic or societal 'given' just kinda reflecting on it whether to just take a step back or to put a spin on something. sometimes i write them down, and unfortunately this wasnt one of those times. by the time i could have written it down i couldnt remember even a second of it. like when you will wake up from a vivid dream and 5 minutes later you cannot even recall any of it other than maybe the mood of it. those moments are almost maddening at how quickly it escapes you. i remember working in early highschool and coming up with a task to occupy myself and before i got to the back of the store or where ever i needed to go to start it i would forget what my intentions even were. scary.

anyway classes started for me today. my first teacher was wearing white jeans that were probably too tight given he was a male of probably his early 40s. either way he was a good lecturer - first days are tough because theres no 'pick up where we left off' smooth contiuation of sorts, no one has any texts, and a lot of the time you have never seen this person, heard their speech, watched their mannerisms and that first hour can almost set the tone and make up your mind for the semester. he looks to be really. my other classes followed suit (is that the right spelling?) and i got out early of my night class which was hell to get to. after having our internet/cable transfered from across the hall the wireless wasnt registering and i had about 10 minutes to print my course schedule and show it to the ram van people to get my passes for the semester before the van would leave and i would definitely be late. after taking care of all of that i realized that i didnt even know what room the class was in and knew no one taking it.

for the most part though everything worked out. as i said - we got out early. the ride back was great because i ended up chatting with a friend who ended up emailing me later a list of about 20 places i could volunteer for psych experience. got back to fordham during the opening montage of UP and was thrilled to not only be back in time to watch but also to find out that a large chunk of friends were already set up dead center.

night was topped off by 2 separate Cmaj chord progression medleys with me and my roommates encompassing the greater bit of the 90s hits but also including some throw backs like ABC and even a bit of RESPECT at one point - the longer of the two jams clocking in at almost an hour, the other close to 40 minutes. its amazing how many songs you will realize fit over the same progression. if you doubt me - start with Allstar by smashmouth, head into Closing Time by Semisonic and your on your way to singing all your favorite 90s songs until your arm or voice get too tired.