Making Strides

I have a couple of things to catch up on here. First, for purely academic purposes I went to play bingo a few weeks ago, and look, I won a game! I wrote a paper for my American Studies class about bingo players and their routines. It was an interesting paper to do research about. I play bingo a lot, or as often as I my bank account will let me. It was nice to be able to take something I enjoy doing and write about it for a class. I submitted my topic suggestion for our second paper, we needed to pick a movie and talk about a social problem or statement. I chose Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (we had to focus on one), and I’m going to (if its accepted) talk about the family theme. Harry’s parents were killed when he was a baby, raised by an aunt and uncle who didn’t really want him, then finds out he’s a wizard and makes friends in that world that become like family.

This past weekend, as one of our community service events for this semester, blue and white society participated in the Making Strides walk for the American Cancer Society. It was raining, and a bit cold, but otherwise not a bad walk. It was the first 5K I’ve ever done, and I made it the whole way, so yeah, it wasn’t bad. This is the sign we were given to carry, Cori donated her blue and white ribbons to help decorate it.

As you can see, I’ve been using links to twitpic for pictures recently. That just makes it easier to cross-post them between my twitter and my blogs (and facebook if I remember).

I had planned to write something in the Chris Brogan blog topics, but I don’t see a way to work in the one I picked. I will get back to that. But for now, I have a meeting in a few minutes so I better get to that.. soo till next time!

United Way Fun Day

Today is the United Way Fun Day, I will be outside most of the day at the Public Affairs balloon dart table. I was there last year, and was recruited again this year to help them. It should be fun. I need to buy my raffle tickets, I’ve seen the baskets and there are some REALLY nice ones.

Classes have been under way for a few weeks now, things moving along smoothly I suppose. No real complaints, yet.

Today the people in my office surprised me with a birthday cake and a card, my birthday was sunday. They’re crazy, but they’re the greatest.

To fit this in with my Chris Brogan blogs, I have decided to talk a little bit about the wordpress plug-ins I use.. but then I realized I was thinking about the widgets I have on this blog – so I’ll talk about those. I believe I’m using flickr and twitter. I use the flickr feed widget to share pictures without actually having to insert them into a blog page. Now that I need to use my flickr for one of my classes, I might have to explain some of those pics in my blog (for anyone that sees them) but thats ok because it’ll give me something to write about. And twitter, well I’m just all-around addicted to twitter. Its bad. lol

Maybe more later, I have to get outside.

Book Shopping – Buy These Books

I realize its been more than a week. I can’t even say I have been overly busy, I guess its been kind of the opposite, there hasn’t been much to write about. Yesterday was the first Lion Ambassador meeting with all the new members, it looks like we’ve got a good club this year. I don’t have a committee yet, next week when the meeting breaks out into committees the new members can file in to the committee they want to join. I hope that I have at least one 4-year person that I can pass Boobies Ball along to, either that or at the very least a really good 2-year person that will do a good job next year.

I wanted to write an entry, so I was looking through the list of (Chris Brogan) blog topics I haven’t written about yet and chose this one about books. I often write about the books I’m reading, books I want to read, books I bought just because the title/cover looked interesting. Truth is, I am a book-aholic, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I have over-booked a bookcase (that I still haven’t replaced.. I’m afraid. lol) yet I buy more books all the time.

The latest book I bought is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I read the preface, and its good so far.. I mean as good as 5 pages or so can be. It does seem like its going to be an awesome book, I just need to continue to make the time to read it before I go to bed. I thought The DaVince Code was awesome, but I haven’t finished Angels and Demons. I started A&D twice so far but I’ve always put it down and got side tracked away from it, its not that its bad or anything, I just have so much going on its hard to make time. I also ordered 2 more of the World of Warcraft books, plus the ones I either bought before or got from the paperback swap. I am still looking for some kind of list as to the order to read them in, I’ve seen a couple but some are missing titles.. some are in disagreement with others. I could look at the copyright dates and just read them in order that way, I guess thats the easiest. I also dug out my copy of Dracula (Bram Stoker) because Halloween is comin up and it might be nice to read that sometime in october..

So, to wrap this up, a list in really no order because they are all very good books/series that anyone should buy/borrow/somehow read:

Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling – ALL of them

Vampire Chronicles – Anne Rice (there are like 10 or 11 of em, including some “new tales”, I’ve read almost all of them, I have the last 2 to finish and one of the new tales that isn’t connected to read.. but really, good books. the best are the first 5 though, but the later ones are good too).

The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton (and oldie but a goodie, I love it!)

The Davinci Code – Dan Brown (just awesome)

Sweet Potato Queens – I forget the author, but there are a bunch of em. Good stuff, funny reading. There is even a cookbook!

Thats all for now, I’m sure I’ll be re-visiting this topic frequently, I talk about books a lot.

You Are Here

It has been a hectic few weeks since my last post. At work, I was trying to work through the web server issues and get last minute updates for certain departments that wait until the last minute to realize they needed anything done. And then, I had to get ready to start classes.

Classes started last monday, and after a week of classes, I’m not too frazzled yet. I’ve had a couple homework assignments to do, mostly intro stuff. I am taking Discrete Math (monday and wednesday), Statistics (tuesday and thursday), Network Security (wednesday night), Systems Analysis (thursday night), and 2 online courses – Pop Culture and Popular Music. Not a bad schedule, I still have decent work hours.

Getting back into the swing of things hasn’t been too hard, I mean I never left campus really. I just have a new time schedule. I have been keeping up with my few homework assignments, I know its going to get harder as the time goes on though.

So, I called this blog entry you are here. This is a continuation of my Chris Brogan blog topics (its #63 on his list, I am skipping around now). You may be asking, where is “here”. Here is Penn State Harrisburg on the 7th day of classes. Today is Club Fest, I’ll be going outside in a little bit to support both of my clubs – Blue & White Society and Lion Ambassadors. Can’t wait to see how many new members each club gets. It should be a fun year, it is my senior year, so I am going to try to enjoy as much as possible that isn’t just school work. I’ll probably also start tagging entries senior year so that if/when I look back on these later I can see how I spent my senior year here at PSH.

I went to convocation last week, it was a pretty formal welcoming event. I always like listening to the chancellor speak. This year she spoke about the penn state family, and making use of the professors and adivsers that are available, and that those people will be the ones that are remembered, so make use of them. She said something about how no one will remember her specificially, but they’ll remember their professors. Of course, I have a different outlook, I will remember the chancellor because she is so pro-student, especially involved students. I’ll remember her speeches, my favorite is still the Pride one. Of course there are professors I’ll remember, as well as the people in the Alumni office who I’m sure i’ll be in contact with long after I leave here.

But, I’m still here, and I’m going to make the most of it. If YOU are here, let me list out some things you should definitely do while you’re here so that you can make the most of it too.

1. Join a club

2. Get involved, even if you don’t join a club.. some events are open to everyone to participate in.

3. Know your adviser. They are extremely helpful. My adviser is great, I had him as a professor as well. Great guy. I highly recommend. For IT folks, if you’ve got the option, Jesse Middaugh.

4. Visit the Learning Center for help if you need it. There are math and english tutors, I believe chem and stat and language tutors as well. You can schedule an appointment online, or go there and make one, or go during the open hours. Most classes where tutoring is offered, the professor will give out a sticker with the hours for that course session on it. Put it on your notebook.

5. Form study groups. Its one thing to go home and make sure you do your homework, but sometimes it helps even more to get together with another person or group of people to work on assignments. As an IT major most of my core courses have required a group assignment, I’m sure other majors have that in their courses as well. Its helpful if you get used to working in groups that you LIKE before you get heaped into one you don’t… and I’ve had my share of group issues.

6. Have fun. Whatever you do here, enjoy it. Make the best of it.

Career Services, not Job Hander Outers!

Yesterday there was talk in my office about a news article about someone suing their college because they couldn’t find a job. So, I had to find this article and read it for myself. I hit up Google, and with the little information I knew I was able to find the CNN posting of this article. Alumna sues college because she hasn’t found a job, go check it out. It opens in a new window, so you can read it first and then continue on with my comments.

A quick summary, this 27 year old woman graduated from a New York based college with a B.A. in Information Technology this past April and hasn’t been able to find a job. Therefore she is suing said college for $72,000, covering her tuition for the time she was there plus $2000 for the stress she has endured over the past 3 months of not finding a job.

This entry is going to fall under Chris Brogan’s blog topic number 10, Somebody Has To Say It. I’m sure a lot of people are saying it, but I have quite a bit to say about this.

First, allow me to point out that this person is just one year younger than me, has earned the same degree that I will be getting in May, and has somewhere near the same GPA that I have now (although I am hoping to improve on that over the next year). Saying that, I wouldn’t dream of saying its Penn State’s fault if I don’t walk out of here with a job right away. The economy sucks right now, companies aren’t hiring, the job market is rough, the 2009 and 2010 classes are going to have the hardest time finding jobs in their fields of study. The best we can do is get out there and go to job fairs, submit to listings on-line, through career services, and in the newspapers. Nothing is guaranteed.

Now, onto the article itself.I’m going to pull a few quotes out so you get a feel of the tone of this woman.

“Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through.”

“They’re supposed to say, ‘I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right — can you interview this person?’ They’re not doing that,”

“The office of career advancement information technology counselor did not make sure their Monroe e-recruiting clients call their graduates that recently finished college for an interview to get a job placement. They have not tried hard enough to help me.”

“It doesn’t make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald’s and Payless. That’s not what they planned.”

So basically, in saying she held up her side of the job search thing, for 3 months, she’s sent resumes and called places but has only gotten 2 interviews that never resulted in an offer, yet the career services people have failed her. And, she believes that her 2.7 gpa and attendance record should have any “reasonable employer” ready to pounce and hire her.

News flash. The office of career services at ANY college or university is there to HELP and GUIDE students in preparing for the job search, the interview, the follow-up, everything they need HELP with to find a job. They do not guarantee that EVERY student will find a job within a week of graduating. They can help with a resume, make sure its written correctly, not overloaded with uneeded information, no typos, etc. Most have some kind of online job search/application system that holds a list of employers for students to search through and contact. This system ALSO does not guarantee a job! Those listings aren’t “clients” of the college or university, those listings are places where students from that college have been hired in the past, or places looking to hire college graduates. Its like Monster, pacentral.com, phillyjobs.com, careerbuilder, or any other job search site that companies can list on. None of those sites say “apply here, job with in a week, guaranteed!”, nor does any career services listing of jobs.

The end of the article, where she was asked if other students should consider suing their schools if they don’t get a job, she says yes.. and that last quote I have up there, about working at payless or mcdonalds not being what someone plans after 4 years of school. Someone HAS to work at those places or they wouldn’t exist. Payless runs because a manager is in charge, and cashiers keep the place organized and customers happy. On the corporate level, Payless exists because someone had the idea for an affordable shoe store, and the business state of mind to make it a success and turn it into a widely known chain of stores. ALL of these people are important and have various levels of education. You can bet the CEO of Payless has a degree, and that he didn’t stumble onto his first job overnight, nor did he become CEO overnight. The same applies to McDonalds – a world wide chain, mind you.

This person sounds like she feels entitled to a job just because she completed her degree. She also feels that the career services office should be calling businesses and telling them to call or hire her. It sounds as if she believes that the purpose of career services is to hand students job offers. That it is the responsibility of the counselors in career services to call places that have openings and get her a job. This is NOT how it works. NOT how ANY type of career services works.

To further make my point, and show an example of someone who HAS stressed over getting a job after getting his degree, I’ll tell you all about my friend and her boyfriend. The boyfriend graduated from Penn State this past may. He’d been applying at different places prior to graduation. Once he graduated, he went home (somewhere north Pa) and worked at the farm he’d worked at for years during the summers he’s been in school. Not what he wanted to do, but what he had to do until he found something. He continued to apply at places in Harrisburg (where my friend is still at Penn State Harrisburg for another year), places near where he lives, places in Maryland (near where he had a summer job before), and I believe places in the upstate NY area near the PA border, near where my friend’s family lives (which isn’t all that far from where his family lives). I don’t know how many total application/resumes he sent out, how many total interviews he went to, but I do know that he DID get a job in Maryland. Yes the search stressed him out, I heard about it through my friend, it took a little while, and he got a couple rejection calls or no call back at all, but he dealt with it and continued. Never did he decide to blame Penn State for the fact he wasn’t getting hired. He kept trying.

My point is this, the job market is tough now and probably will be for a little while. None of us with college degrees are entitled to a job right after graduation. All we are entitled to is the degree we worked for. Some students will get lucky and get hired by their internship, or get hired quickly after visiting job fairs, others might take a little longer to find something. It really depends on the area a person lives in and the area they are willing to work in. Some will relocate to where the jobs are, others don’t want to. It also depends on how hard someone works to find a job, waiting for someone else do do it for them won’t help.

So, Ms Thompson, your law suit is is an example of you taking the easy way out. Putting the blame on someone else, and trying to get them to pay you. You paid for an education, NOT a job. It is true that people that have a degree have a better chance at getting a job, but your diploma is not a golden ticket for a job. You are not the only one attempting to find work. You graduated with a couple thousand other people, they want jobs too, think anyone is handing them work on a silver platter? Get online, Get a newspaper, Get to a job fair, whatever you do, just GET OUT THERE and apply for jobs and STOP waiting for someone else to do it for you!!

And as a side note, please stop making college students look lazy and like we expect things to just be given to us. We aren’t all like that, some of us want to earn what we get. Sometimes we get such crap for just BEING college students, we don’t need someone like you making us look bad.

Blog jumble

I’m going to start to do the blog topic thing a little different. Looking at the list, the next one in line is something I don’t know much about. So I’m going to skip it for now and pick one on the list relevant to what I’m doing now or something I know about, or fits in with what I want to talk about. I’m going to print the list so I don’t end up forgetting which ones I’ve done and repeating myself (I’ll probably do that anyway, even with the list, but I’ll try my best).

Its the beginning of August, which means that exactly 3 weeks from yesterday classes will start. I’m so happy, I really can’t wait to get my senior year (my LAST senior year as an undergrad) started. Stores are starting to have their back to school sales, Office Max has loose leaf paper for 10 cents this week. I think I’ll go pick some up. I don’t really need to do much in the way of shopping for supplies, unless someone wants something specific that I didn’t think of. I already have binders, a calculator and pens/pencils, I’ll get more paper and I’m sure other things. I tend to go overboard when it comes to office/school supplies. I like to be prepared. I might get a new laptop mouse.

I still have 2 laptop skin things that I can print, I just haven’t made one yet. I have something started in paint shop with twilight vampire baseball, but I have been thinking about taking a screencap sometime while questing in world of warcraft, there are so many nice scenes there – the art is amazing. Actually now that I’m thinking about it, I could use a couple screenshots to make the covers for my binders so I can tell them apart. Network Security – image of my druid in front of one of the castles with her weapon out. Statistics, image of druid bear form lookin kinda mean (I hate numbeeerss!!). Other IST course that has somethin to do with integration, image of my druid with some other guild members.. integrating LMAO (hanging around or fighting the same monster, something.. oooh fighting that could work for security too. *note to self.. start working on this now, 6 covers need to be made*

And today’s Brogan Blog Topic is number 9 on the list, How I Find Blogging Ideas.  Which kind of fits in to the beginning of this post.  I don’t always know what I’m going to talk about. That is why I googled “blog topics” and found chrisbrogan.com and his list of topics. I sitll want to try to hit all 100 over time, the ones I don’t know about I’ll have to research. Other times, I’ll talk about whatever is going on around campus. That is why this blog was created, to give possible students and their families a little peek into the life of a college student here at Penn State Harrisburg. And often in talking about those things, a ilttle of my personal life and interests comes out – my interests and hobbies, things like that. I will talk about Harry Potter, and Twilight, and World of Warcraft – it is bound to happen. These things keep me sane. Once the semester starts, readers will see why. I’m taking 18 credits, including 2 online classes and 2 night classes.. and statistics. I will be going crazy, therefore I’ll be counting down to the New Moon movie release.. the HP part one of deathly hallows (although I forget when that is..)

How Flikr Did It Right (blog topic)

So its been a few days since i’ve done any blogging. Todays topic is about Flikr. I gotta say, I don’t really know much about flikr, aside from the fact its a photo sharing website. You upload pictures, tag them, describe them, and then they’re there for all the (cyber) world to see. I like that wordpress has a flikr widget so that as I add pictures to it, they show up in the sidebar of this blog. The widget makes it easy for me, that I don’t have to load each picture I want to show in my post window. My most recent uploads show in the widget, and visitors can click it to see more.

It other fun stuff, I just signed up for a Pandora account, thats free internet radio. You can create stations or search for stations. Its kinda neat, I’ve just started playing with it. Gives me something to keep me awake/break the monotony of sitting at my desk working.

Technology That Empowers Me (blog topic)

Getting back my regularly scheduled programming of the next blog topic on the list of Chris Brogan’s 100 blog topics to write about. I’m going to start just using the subject or title in the subject line and slowly phase out (blog topic), all of these entries will still be tagged Chris Brogan and Chris Brogan Blog Topics.. and any other relevant tags.

All technology is empowering. The simple fact that I can write my thoughts about any given topic and post them for the world (ok, internet blogosphere) to see is empowering. Right now I don’t know how many readers I really have, if any are repeat readers, on any of my blogs.. but still, its fun for me to write.

I enjoy all types of new technology. New computers, cell phones, software, websites, plug-ins, pretty much anything. If I can get my hands on it, and its compatible with my laptop, I’ll play with it.. try to figure it out.. and make it useful, or at the very least useful to me.  Like TweetDeck, a program that allows users to check and reply to their twitter messages (and facebook) without having to go into the website. I hardly use it, but it is nice.. facebook and twitter in one area, customizable user interface, nice to put on a flash drive or something if needed.  I hardly use it because I always have a web browser open, and twitter open in one tab (and who knows how many other tabs open).

Last night I helped a neighbor set up Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Last weekend I installed it for them, had to do a little google search and windows patching to go along with it, otherwise it installed like any other program. The set-up is pretty straightforward, but she still wanted my help just in case. Not the most technologically-inclined person. I don’t mind really, gave me a chance to play with the program. I had a version of Dragon a long time ago, I don’t even remember which version. It was good for what I used it for (dictating letters to pen pals), fun to play with. I  hadn’t used it in forever. Her daughter has autism, and uses writing stories and drawing pictures to illustrate them as an outlet. She would either write her stories, or until recently have her sister type them. For reasons unbeknownst to me, she fired her sister. Not quite sure why. So her mom bought this software. The new version has lots of stuff going on in it, really really nice interface, and its customizable. So, I ran through the set-up just to make sure everything worked. It did, so I created another user and her mom ran through it in hopes she’d be able to have her daughter use it without trying to get her to read the prompts to “train” it. Something I hadn’t thought of. But, once her mom got through the training, and went into Word to start playing with it, and got it working.. the daughter was able to talk to it as well. It will probably adapt to her voice as it compares to the original trained voice. That was nice to see. So now, she can dictate her stories right to the computer without having to have a middle person type for her. Talk about technology empowering someone!  Of course, now I want to get a copy so that I can play with the other features, such as opening programs and documents and searching the internet. Not because I can’t do them with a mouse and keyboard, but just to see how it works. And of course, I could dictate my papers and blog entries, but thats really just a bonus. I saw a really good price on this one student software discount website.. I might just be purchasing that.

Harry Potter and the blog topic – A Community I Love

I finally saw this movie. Well, in its first weekend, at midnight.. just not the first midnight showing. Overall it was a good movie. I need to see it again to let all the details sink in, I’m sure I missed something in amongst all that was going on. I will be seeing it with my boyfriend at the imax when it comes out the end of the month.

I will post some initial reactions and link to them so that no one accidentally gets spoiled.

And now, to tie harry potter into todays blog topic from Chris Brogan’s list of 100 blog topics – A Community I Love.

If you are a Harry Potter fan, you are part of a huge community of people that span the entire world. It is a community  of people where things like age, gender, nationality, religion, and other things like that don’t matter. Everyone has one basic thing that ties them together, and that is the love of a story and set of movies about a boy wizard. The internet is full of fan sites and forums, on which you can find many ways to interact with other Potter fans. I’ve been visiting 2 fan sites for a couple of years, probably the two most well known, Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron. I also listen to their respective podcasts, Mugglecast and Pottercast. I don’t think i’ve ever sent in anything to either one, but there is contact info where you can send them questions or comments and they read them and respond during an episode. Its just fun to listen to their comments and discussions. Recently both sites have released their own HP themed social networking pages, Mugglespace and MyLeaky. These are pretty cool.

Even though all of the books have been released, and the last movie is filming now, the fan community is far from dying. There is always something to talk about, always some new way to look at things that happened, and believe it or not always something to argue about (in the nicest way possible).  These books will be popular for a long time, new generations of kids will read them and discuss them just like we do now. The community will always be there. Unlike some other fan communities I’ve seen go quiet over the years.

Blog Topic – Should My Town Use Social Media?

Wow, I got 8 hits yesterday and 5 today so far. Thats really good for the summer. Keep in line with my Chris Brogan Blog topics, today I’ll be answering the question- Should my town use social media?

In short, I will say yes. I believe that the everyone can benefit from social media. To make sure I was thinking correctly, I did a quick google search for the term social media, and this is the Wikipedia page that explains social media. I will be using Middletown, Pa as “my town” because that is where I am right now, at work, on campus.  I don’t know all that much about the local area, I don’t live in Middletown. I only know about things that are close to campus.

For starters, I believe that the campus at large could benefit from social media outlets such as Twitter and YouTube. Right now, I know of one Academic School that uses Twitter and a club that has a YouTube Channel.  I have talked to teh secretary in Marketing about using Twitter to get the Weekly (a weekly newsletter sent through email with news about things going on around campus and the psu community) out using Twitter. Right now, there is no Weekly, because its summer. But when the fall semester starts, Weekly will be back. I read it, every week, and I use it to advertise events. I know over half the student body does not read Weekly, I’m willing to wager that they don’t know about it because they don’t check their email as frequently and aren’t sure who or what that email is so they delete it. I am also willing to wager that more people would read it, if there were a Twitter that people could follow that would update when a new Weekly has been sent out, with a link to the catchy-est story. I think it would draw people in, and once they’re there, they’ll look at the rest. Another good use of Twitter would be Admissions or some department to manage a general PSH Twitter… this could be used to advertise things going on around campus or in the community, or events open to the community. We want the community to know we’re here, and that we want to get involved.  A YouTube channel would be more specific, I think Admissions would benefit from using youtube to post little videos of events around campus, such as Undergrad Open House or a quick tour highlighting the main areas of the campus. It could draw people to come see for themselves. The Admissions Office has already decided that blogs are a good idea (you’re reading this one, aren’t you?) to reach a younger and more technological crowd. I thought that some faculty were supposed to keep blogs as well, now that would be interesting.  Another interesting thing, I’ve started to see it on Twitter and the one Harry Potter fan site that I visit, is vlogs, or video blogs (on twitter theses are called bubbletweets). These would be a fun thing to use along with blogs, maybe once in a while post a video blog, so it seems a little more “interactive”. It could also be fun to conduct an ‘interview’ with an Admissions person and post it in vlog form, there is so much that can be done with that for the benefit of campus.

In the wider community, I know the Pizza Hut (sorry.. The Hut) uses their website to allow people to place an order for delivery. Thats not really social media, however, since they’ve already got access to email in their store (to get the orders), they’ve got internet. They could use Twitter to post about lunch specials, daily specials, coupons, new promotions, new menu items, and so on. It could bring them more customers, or repeat customers who may not always think about going out for lunch. A coupon or special might entice me to get out to The Hut for lunch.

The local Giant could do the same thing, throw up an add on twitter about the new sale ad, or a coupon, or a reminder about earning gas points or how to check your gas points online.

Any of the local businesses could make use of twitter to promote their businesses. Being so close to Harrisburg, I’m sure there are local politicians. They could make use of social networks like facebook, or blog sites that lean more toward a professional type blog like WordPress or google’s Blogger, to get their message out to the public. Maybe even a youtube vlog would make local voters feel as if the person is reaching out to them for their vote.

In other blog insight, tomorrow night I am going to Philly to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with my friend. I am looking forward to it, I have been since last November when it was supposed to come out (the earlier twilight release band aid worked for all of a week).