Really?

I find it incredibly that even with witnesses people try to get out of things. Sir, these people saw you in the truck, and they were the ones you shot at and even if they didn't get a clear look at you then you still are in trouble for running from the police and you were hiding out in a trailer...duh. You can't get out of this. By the way this is my hometown and I am just so proud...


http://www.eveningtribune.com/features/x229298303/Two-suspects-apprehended-in-Wellsville-in-connection-to-Hornellsville-shooting-not-charged-yet

Comparison piece-Pre K students dropped from program

The piece that I have been following for our comparison assignment is about 20 Pre K children being dropped from their school program after already attending for the past couple of weeks. 20 families in Los Lunas, New Mexico got the call that there child ‘no longer fit the requirement’ for the special education program.

I caught this on TV but it was only a brief piece. Told the location, what had happened and the reactions from the parents but that was it mostly. I find it that way for a lot of pieces on TV so therefore I end up going online to learn more. Watching a news program on TV can be very helpful and full of detail but only if it is a big news piece, something smaller like this generally doesn’t get much if any air time.

When I went online the first thing to pop up was cnn.com. The article had much more detail and explained why these certain children were dropped from their programs. I tend to prefer online news sources simply for the reason that there usually is more detail and it is right in front of you with links to follow up stories or similar stories.

I am also a fan of print news. I like to read the paper, I always have. However, with space limitations and only higher profile pieces getting the front page it is hard for a newspaper to cover some stories with the full detail that they deserve. In a small town like mine the local football team tends to gain more newspaper space than anything else.

There are some very distinct differences. I personally feel that online news sources are most times the best to go to. You get a lot of detail and multiple links. Television can be harder, you could miss the newscast completely, come in at the end or only hear a chunk of it. Newspaper would be second for me, having something there in your hands where you can turn the page and read over every detail that they can give you.

Football and Facebook

Bills, Bills, Bills, Raiders, Jets, the Pats suck, screw you Brady….who needs to watch Football when you have Facebook? I was away this weekend at a Benefit in Corning for one of my Sorority sisters’ father. It was a lot of driving and by the time we got back I wanted to see what I had missed then go to bed. As soon as I got onto my Facebook I was bombarded with posts about what had apparently been the biggest upset of all time! Or at least until another team wins or something. It got me thinking, why bother to watch the games when everyone is just going to give you the play by play on Facebook or tag it on twitter? Sure, I like watching a football, I find that yelling at the TV can be a pretty good stress reliever but then to have to get online and relive it all over again? The only people you are telling are your friends who have already watched the game and are only commenting to most likely piss you off anyway. How about we just start saving that for TV viewing instead of blowing up newsfeeds?

Strange World

As I was reading Emily's blog about how much athletes get paid and it got me thinking about a few other things. Not only do they get paid an outrageous amount but what about the people that deserve to get paid more but don't? Military personal for starters...if you can get paid millions to catch a ball and run with it why wouldn't you get paid that to get shot at and avoid bombs everyday for at least eight months at a time.
Teachers, the ones that parents trust to get there kids through school and on to college and then on to a great job? Horrible salaries. Emily brought up the fact that salespeople work on commission and in today's economy that can't be nearly enough for some of them but athletes can go and spend their time traveling the world in the off seasons and not even have to blink at the bill.
I just think that we live in a strange place where if you can catch, run and so on you can live an incredibly comfortable lifestyle while there are people who work their asses off every single day struggle to make ends meet.

Rude

I will admit it to you all right now, I am sitting in class as I write this blog but what can you do? I guess what I don't understand is why teachers think that can say and do whatever they want. And I am not talking about getting to much homework or too many test or whatever, I am talking about being plain rude.
It can be argued that I am in fact being rude right now by typing this in class and you are right, I would totally agree if it wasn't for the fact that we aren't doing anything of importance in class right now.
Anyway, back to my original topic, rude teachers. I am the person that gets along fine in classes, I get along with teachers and classmates and I just sit by, do my work, get my grade and peace out at the end of the semester. Of course you aren't always going to get along with certain people or you will have different beliefs and so on but you bite your tongue. It's fifteen weeks not a life sentence. In life you won't always agree with what someone says but when it is a teacher you really can't say anything.
However, when a teacher tells you that it's not his job to motivate you, that if you don't understand what he just taught you then you should go back to high school and my favorite, if you don't answer an email in a timely fashion he'll give you an F for the semester that biting your tongue gets hard to do. If you aren't here to motivate us to get to a better place then why are you here? I could be totally wrong but I thought that the mark of a good teacher was that they did motivate you, not berate you and make you feel like an idiot for not fully understanding something that you just learned. Usually for me the fifteen weeks fly by but right now it is week five and it feels like it is dragging.
Like I have said in previous blogs I like to vent and this is one of those times that I really needed to vent. I'll keep biting my tongue because I need to graduate from Canton but if I don't vent at all then it most likely won't end well, I blame my Irish temper for that one. I don't meant offend anyone with this particular blog, just a place to let off some steam so I can go back to smiling and nodding and so on.

See, students can give back

While browsing through the Washington Post website I came across an article called 'When Given the Chance, Students Will Give Back.' It is a guest post from the President of Marymount University in Virginia. Over the past weekend more than 110 students split off into groups to do volunteer work at many different sites in Alexandria. I think it's great that he wrote the article and people got the chance to see that college students do more than sleep and party.
Being a Greek on Canton campus I see/deal with all of the stereotypes everyday. Yet I take part in multiple community service and fund-raising events. Perhaps if there was more articles out there showing the Philanthropic sides of the students on multiple different campuses people would have a different outlook and parents would think differently when sending their kids to College.
"Students have shown that, given the opportunity to get involved and make a difference, they will rise to the challenge. Armed with the energy and idealism of youth, they are eager to step up. And we should be eager to encourage them, for engaging in volunteerism during these formative years can establish the foundation for a lifetime of service and civic engagement."
I agree with the above statement and think that more campuses should start taking a bigger role not just in community service but also by showing what it is that they do.

10 years yet still so many questions

It has been 10 years since the towers fell. Part of me can't believe that the time has gone so quickly while another feels as if it has dragged. It was ten years ago today that my friend Zach was 11 and on that day he knew that nothing would stop him from becoming a US Marine. He made that goal happen in 2008, leaving for Basic Training after his high school graduation.
In July 2010 he married the love of his life, December 2010 he was deployed a week before Christmas then 38 days later his mother, father, brother, sister and wife had to answer that horrible knock on their front doors.
It's been ten years, ten since the towers fell and yet today, we are still losing loved ones, parents are still burying their children and children are growing up without their parents. It angers me to no end and I will always be asking myself why. Why we are still there, why over 6,000 families are now feeling incomplete...just a lot of why.
It's been 10 years since the towers fell, it's been about 20 months since Zach died. No, we didn't lose him on that day in 2001 but it was that day that cemented his decision, it was that day he had in mind when he joined and it was that day he had in mind when he deployed.

Homework Blues

Homework, homework and more homework....that seems to be my life these days. Once I get something done I remember something else that I have to do. It is my fifth and final year of school, my second at SUNY Canton...and I am about ready to just go and sleep for about five days straight. This isn't really a typical blog....just me coming in and doing a little complaining. I don't even look at the blogs as part of homework anymore just a chance to come in and vent, read about what is going on with the others and a nice break from everything else.

Netflix and Homework

More and more these days I find that if I am sitting in silence...I absolutely can't get my homework done. The silence is too...deafening. I absolutely hate it. So, I have kindly taken over my sister's Netflix account. Hey, I just think that she should be getting her money's worth each month and I am more than willing to help her out with that. Anyway, I have fallen into a new pattern, find a show or a movie to have playing while I am doing my homework. I actually get the work done faster and it gets to be pretty entertaining watching something new.

Community Service

I am part of Pi Nu Epsilon sorority and one of the things that we require each active member to do is 25 hours of community service each semester. Today, my sisters and I joined all of the other recognized Greeks from SUNY Canton at the Newman Center for a Steak Bake. All of the girls went to the kitchen to clean and make the salad while the boys were outback playing Ladder Ball and Texas Horse Shoes (Typical, the brothers making us do the work). Anyway, I got to thinking about it. We are all willing to come together with the promise of full-filling our hours but if it wasn't for being Greek would we be there?
We had a good time, got to hang out and laugh and joke around together. We did something good for the community and we got to show them that Greeks can in fact work together and do some good. It makes me think that I should do more and not just because I need to fill a requirement. Community service is a good thing that helps out the community and the people. So maybe I should start doing more of that on my own time.

September Already?

I guess when I looked at my computer today and it said that it is in fact September I was surprised. Sure I had known that it was coming up but really? September already? Where did summer go? Perhaps since I spent mine working two jobs and not really doing much else I wasn't really paying attention to how fast the days seem to be flying by lately. It seems like my first year at Canton was over in a blink now that I look back on it.
Now that I am in my final year at Canton and it seems to be going just as fast as my first it's getting a little upsetting. I am always one day closer to being done but that also means one day closer to Graduating, finding a job, moving away from home, living on my own and all of those other things that I have been dying for/wicked nervous about.
Oh well, it all comes down to the fact that I need to grow up because it's going to happen whether I am ready for it or not. I supposed another year in school would be an option...but a sixth year of college sounds WAY less appealing than getting a big kid job.