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I Love Homecoming
As I said Monday this week is Homecoming Week and it is by far one of my favorite weeks of the year. I am a rabid JMU Fan, not just football but everything about JMU, and being able to celebrate that with everyone else is one of the highlights of my year. Tonight is Sunset on the Quad which is an event that I am helping out on. I am on the Suset Committee, so for the last 2 months we have been getting together to work on what events we're going to showcase. This year we have decided on several of our extremely talented a cappella groups including Exit 245, Madison Project, our JMU Step Team as well as many other acts. The night is always a lot of fun, so I am really looking forward to it.
On another note I am also registering for classes next week, and it's kind of depressing. To even think about going into my last semester is awful, although I am looking forward to the classes I am going to take. As of now it looks like I am taking ALL geography classes which is giong to be amazing. I am only taking one right now and it's not affiliated with my concentration, GIS, so I am really looking forward to applying myself to GIS a lot more. The classes I am taking are Advanced Remote Sensing (I'd rather take Advance Cartography but unfortunately it's not being offered next semester), GPS (a class I am VERY excited about taking), Cultural Geography, and Wilderness Techniques. I am particularly interested in Wilderness Techniques because the class pertains to a lot I would like to do with an internship I am applying for next year.
The internship is through the Student Conservation Association. The one I am applying to takes my two greatest interests I have had in college and combines them together - one being GIS work, and the other working with people. The job description states that I would be working with groups and leading discussions/meetings, as well as working with GIS programs, and making presentations. We'd be working on conserving several species of plants that are indeginous to the Rockies. Oh yeah, that was the other amazing part of the internship - I would move out to COLORADO! I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but it's such a great feeling to be so excited about doing something so different. Plus the idea of not having any more classes is really attractive to me right now. School is harder than ever thanks to Computer Science. I'm still doing well, I think it's just a lot of work, and I think I'm coming down with Senioritis. It's terrible, I know. I really need to fight through it.
Well that's all for now, make it a great day!
Posted by Simeon on October 26, 2005 09:41 AM | Link | Email Simeon
Great Weekend AND Great Week Ahead
Hello everyone! Well another weekend has gone by and this one was extra great for many reasons. First off, it was Fall Break, which at JMU means that everyone gets Friday off. It was really nice because I think everyone has been swamped by work and mid-terms lately. I know I have! Well usually everyone really looks forward to Fall Break, but I have to admit that I'm a little spoiled because I actually don't have any Friday classes, so every week for me is a fall break. None-the-less I took complete advantage of the day off and did absolutely nothing all day except watch the movie Rocky and eat spaghetti. Now I know you're all thinking, "Wow, this kid has no idea what it's like to work, why does he deserve such a nice day off?" Well in case you haven't read all my blogs before I am an extremely busy person. Most of my days begin at 8am and don't stop until 11pm. Not to mention the extra hours I have to put in for homework, projects, meetings, and practice. It becomes very hectic, especially since I continuously try to keep my school work as my highest priority.
This weekend was also our water polo tournment. It was our last one of our regular season in the Atlantic Division. It was hosted here at our UREC, and we were really excited about it because we knew we had a bunch of tough games ahead of us. Our first one was against UVA, who is hands down our biggest rival. We came in really amped for them, and played like it. It was definately an extremely physical game and I came out exhausted. And we won! It was a big victory for us because every game we have with them we know is going to be a hard fought one. The final score was 15-11, but we try not to celebrate it too much because we're going to have to play them again in just 2 weeks for our championship tournament. Saturday we played 2 more games and split the decisions there by beating NC State, but unfortunately losing to Duke who is ranked 18th in the country. And we lost in double overtime to another one of our larger rivals, Virginia Tech. It's alright though, because in 2 weeks everyone starts with a clean slate to see who's the best team in our conference.
I was not there for our Saturday games though because I was at a wedding this weekend. I went to what I call my first "adult" wedding because it was two friends of mine who graduated from JMU who got married. It was really hard for me to grasp it because I've known both of them since my Freshman year, so to see them get married was really crazy. I had a great time, like most weddings are. Not only was I so happy to see two good friends of mine get married but I also got to see so many alumni that I haven't seen since they graduated in the last three years.
Speaking of Alumni, this week is Homecoming Week and I am really excited. As a senior, I am taking the initiative to have the absolutely best week of my life. This is my last homecoming as a student at JMU(tear) and so I'm going to make it as worthwhile as possible. During Homecoming there are a bunch of different days with different activities going on that are part of the tradition here at JMU. Today was our banner contest day where dozens of different organizations on campus make a banner and the student body votes on which one they like best. The banners this year look incredible and its going to be great to see them hung up on Saturday when we play Richmond. I'm also looking forward to Sunset on the Quad, which is like an evening long concert held on our quad, as well as Commons Day, which is like a big carnival held in the middle of the afternoon on my favorite part of campus, the Commons. I'm so excited it's ridiculous. I'm wearing JMU apparel everyday from now until Sunday when Homecoming week is officially over in my mind. Today it's my JMU Football shirt.
Well that's all from me. Expect more action packed blogs about this awesome week!
Posted by Simeon on October 24, 2005 02:03 PM | Link | Email Simeon
Tis' The Season...To Get Sick
Well this weekend was a great one but an exhausting one as well. This weekend my water polo team had our annual inter-team scrimmage against each other. We split our team into two seperate teams named Team Purple and Team Gold. Usually during Family Weekend we have a scrimmage against each other that we play for our parents. Well, since we had a tournament at UMD during Family Weekend we had our game this past week and it was a lot of fun. The game is always really competitive which makes it even more fun, and this year it was really close and balanced as well. Team Gold (my team) won the game in overtime. Because our team is smaller since we divide it in two, I had to play the entire game which would make me tired on any day. But this weekend it made me particularly tired because I have been coming down with the cold.
Once the cooler months come around it's always expected for more people to get sick, but on college campuses getting sick is the norm. Living in such close conditions and always being around each other, not to mention the lack of sleep we give ourselves, getting sick is inevitable it seems. It's not bad but it is annoying. We have another Polo tournament this weekend at home and I want to be healthy for it so I can contribute to the team as much as I can. Also, I have a mid-term tomorrow in my leadership class so I want to be focused and ready for that, which is sometimes hard to do when you can't breathe through your nose. I've been drinking tea like it is my job, as well as getting a lot of rest yesterday, and taking my vitamins. The sleep alone has really helped me bounce back so I'm feeling much better today already. I could be healthier but I'll take it one day at a time.
Also this weekend my best friends from home all came to visit me. It was an awesome time. I haven't seen my friends because of all our different jobs we had this summer, so it was great to see them again and just catch up with all of them.
Well that's all for now have a great day!
Posted by Simeon on October 17, 2005 02:16 PM | Link | Email Simeon
Enjoying this weekend
Whew! I have been one crazy busy college student this week! So this weekend it will be nice to just stay here in Harrisonburg and relax for once. Not to say that I'm never in Harrisonburg, it's just that I'm always busy, but I'm making sure that is not the case this weekend. All I'm going to do is catch up on my homework and reading and sleep...A LOT! The golf class I have been taking these first 8 weeks of class ended this week. It's a block class so it only is held for half the semester. I'm kind of sad to think that I won't get to play free golf whenever I want, but at the same time it will be nice to have some more time to really focus on everthing else I'm doing. Also, without this class I'll be able to move my work schedule around wherein I'll have larger blocks of time so that I'm not running around campus like a chicken with its head cut off. So the transition I think will be a nice one.
In my Sustainable Housing class with Dr. Tacy, my group and I are working on our water presentation which we will be giving to the class in about 3 weeks. We've made a distiller already to provide some fresh water and are doing research on other methods which we could extract fresh water for the citizens on the Haitian island of La Gonave. It is an incredibly difficult task seeing that we're trying to find methods which the citizens can afford, considering these people have almost nothing. But we are hopeful that we will come upon something soon.
Well that's all I have, hope you all have a great weekend!
Posted by Simeon on October 14, 2005 02:31 PM | Link | Email Simeon
Enjoying it all
This weekend I had a Water Polo tournament at the University of Maryland where we went a very succesful 3-1. The pool we played in was an Olympic sized facility, which our team was not used to playing on. So needless to say I was extremely tired by the end of the weekend. This is not to say that I didn't have a great time. It's always fun to just not think about anything and play sports, especially after the week I had last week.
click to enlarge
I also got to see my family and visit home for the first time since early August. It's funny, I never really consider myself a homebody, someone who always wants to go home, but when I do get there I really love being there. Just being with my dogs and sleeping is something I don't get to do at school a lot so taking advantage of it at home was great. Not to mention the incredible home cooked dinner my mom made!
Coming back to school though I had a bit of a work load due on Monday. In Computer Science we have program assignments due. These are different from labs where we also write programs. I had to write one up, but luckily I'm finally catching on to the class and I was able to write the program in just 2 hours. This is a huge improvement from 6 hours like last time. I feel like I'm a slow starter but once I get started I do well. I also had my first exam in Computer Science on Thursday and I did well. I kept up with the class average, so even though this class has been extremely challenging it's nice to know that when I put in the hard work and focus on my studies then I can do well. So let this be a lesson that anything is possible!
Well that's all for now in my life, I'll update you all much sooner. Have a great day!
Posted by Simeon on October 12, 2005 12:05 PM | Link | Email Simeon
Time for me to breathe
Wow it's been forever since I've given you all an update on my blog, but I have plenty of good reasons. And I mean plenty. This has been my hardest, most packed week since I've been back at school. I've had my first two tests of the semester this week, as well as several labs due in my Computer Science class, project work in my sustainable housing class, my final for my Golf class, and a ton of reading in my Leadership class. And most important of all is the research I've been doing lately for my senior research project with Professor Dan Shaffer. Also this week my fraternity, Phi Sigma Pi, had our semi-annual sleepout wherein we stay on campus for 24 hours to raise money for research to fight Multiple Sclerosis. It's a wonderful cause for a terrible disease that doesn't get the exposure that I feel a lot of other causes do. I've been in the fraternity since my freshman year and have never slept out so I decided to stop holding out and see what it was all about. Well lack of sleep is all I experienced, but it was a fun adventure. And on top of that add the hours I work on campus, and water polo practice. So in short it's been quite a week. I've had a lot going on and a lot more to do but I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wish sometimes my schedule could space itself out a little.
On another note, I was honored by my fraternity as our nominee for Mr./Ms. Madison. It's a great tradition here at JMU that takes place over homecoming. It's kind of like Homecoming King & Queen, but it's more significant because students are recognized not by popularity but by their contributions to the school. More than anything it's just a really fun aspect of Homecoming, which I am getting incredibly excited for. It's hard to think that this will be my last one as a current JMU student. Most likely I'll never get to do any of the activities that go on throughout the week again. It kind of makes me sad but I know I'm moving on to new adventures and that is always exciting. For Mr. Madison I had to fill out an application, but I didn't get nominated until Sunday so I had to really rush my application. I put as much time into it as I could so hopefully everything will turn out for the best, but if not oh well. It was an honor to be nominated by my friends in the first place.
Well I have my last test of the week in a couple of hours so I guess I should start studying. Computer Science is not my forte so we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!
Posted by Simeon on October 6, 2005 04:29 PM | Link | Email Simeon
