UIS - The Real Deal

Technology Journal Blog 1

2009-01-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Technology Journal Blog 1: In 200 words or more, describe what issues you expect to be addressed in this course in consideration of teacher or student use of technology and media. In other words, what are you expecting to learn in a course entitled Technology for Teaching?

It is commonly thought that teachers' understanding of technology is behind the knowledge of their students. Classes such as Technology for Teaching are meant to inform teachers on effective ways to use technology and teach skills relating specifically to subject matter to enhance learning capabilities in their pupils. I expect that the purpose of this class is also to encourage lifelong learning in teaching through technology, keeping up with advancements in an attempt to teach students with the very best technology. The resources that my school used as I grew up have changed significantly. From Oregon Trail on Apple computers to cds with math concepts/games to Microsoft word, excel, power points, and making our own videos, education has made enormous strides to improve the way students learn through resources such as these. I have not taken a computer class since high school so I expect at least a few challenges and surprises along the way. However, I use technology very frequently in my everyday life so I feel that I may have some skills that will relate to this class. For example, I was selected to be a UIS Blogger last year and since have become very familiar with the site. I'm excited that we have this opportunity to use technology to creatively express ourselves while accomplishing the goals of the class.

Wild Wild Fest

2008-04-13T23:01:00.001-07:00

This is a continuation of Spring Fest. These are just a bunch of pictures taken over the week...

Me, Kevin, Kelsey, Sarah and Colin at the dance.Aaron rockin out our flag!
Badass Buckaroos won the flag portion, great job guys!
The Ra Ra's flag was very cute. What can I say? I'm a sucker for sparkles.
Cowboys and One Indian had a pretty cool looking flag too.
Cowboys and One Indian playing sand vball
Anna milking a cow in true Astoria fashion, lol.
The A**Less Chaps
The Crazy Doggz at tug of war
The fought hard!
Kelli got down and dirty!
The Ra Ra's!
The A**less Chaps
Kelsey and Justin after milking the cow. Chicago kids can't quite do it like the southerners.
My team, Top Gun preparing for war!
Okay Colin, you pinned Travis once, but he came back to win it!
I love this picture and this team! They were really fun to play with, great sportsmanship!
Here are the "Five Year Olds With Sticks" in Tug of War
Me and "Crevis" (That's the combo of Travis and Craig) before the dance.
Jeremy and Michael prepare for cheeseball beards of shaving cream.
What a random relay race... Travis and Colin are going at it now!
Yeah Travis! Score Top Gun!
Justin milks his first cow. Not gonna lie, I've never milked a cow before. We did place first in the Relay Race, so kudos to everyone!

Top Gun

2008-04-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Springfest was amazing this year! My team, TOP GUN, had a blast although it was a long, hectic week. For those who don't know Springfest is a week long event with tons of teams competing to be the champions. The first night was Scavenger Hunt, over 300 items were on the list including places we had to take photos at.
Justin and I were on picture duty, we had to find the sundial, the lime green grill, the NAIA Soccer Champions sign, the Chancellor's parking spot... etc.
The next night was Trivia Night and after that was the Flag and Chant. Teams must make up a chant that is creative and includes the team name, color and the theme of Springfest. Our team did a scene from the movie and then a Wild Wild West remix.

We won the chant competition. The next event was attending a speaker event and after that was the Springfest Dance. The last day was sports day, which was freezing cold, but we still made it fun. It included kickball, volleyball, football, ultimate frisbee and a relay race.

Charlie's Angels
The guys of Top Gun
We ended up finishing in 4th place out of 22 teams, not bad. I'm going to put up a blog just of photos from the week, so stayed tuned!

It's Been Awhile

2008-03-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my long absence. I've been a busy girl! I just finished my play for Playwriting class and that has been exhausting me this week. Now all I have left are a lab, 3 papers for CAP, two tests to study for and a presentation to put together. All due next week!

I'm really excited about finishing all of these academic burdens and doing something fun for a change! Springfest starts 2 weeks from now and my team Cool Runnings is ready to compete. Also the Verbal Arts Festival is fast approaching and I will be performing in one or two plays chosen from my class. The Alchemist Review is set to be released at the festival. The Alchemist Review is a 30-year literary tradition at UIS, published each April and celebrated at the annual Verbal Arts Festival. All UIS students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited to share their creative writing projects. To prepare students for further publishing success, those guidelines reflect those of other peer-reviewed journals. Yours truly will have a short essay published in it!

Sorry this blog isn't mind blowingly exciting. Spring Break and Easter were pretty uneventful... I found 20 bucks in my closet when I went home... that was cool. Updates coming soon featuring Spring Fest and The Verbal Arts Festival.

Can I Get a Drumroll Please?

2008-03-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

Now presenting, the first ever, UIS CRIBS! Actual UIS students showing their "crib" aka dormroom and/or townhouse. Check out Aaron, Kevin, Sam, Anna, Rosanna. Amanda, Tabatha, Priyanka, Justin, Terry and Mike's Cribs.

Kevin O'Connor

2008-02-20T22:26:00.001-08:00

This blog is called Kevin O'Conner for no real reason, he just wanted a blog with his name as the title. That's him looking all weird in this picture. This was Girls Night, except we ended up inviting the guys, that's the view from the upstairs.This is during that super awesome snow storm, labs got cancelled! (Not that I didn't want to go to lab Dr. V, I was truly looking forward to it...) I love this picture though, Kelsey and Tabatha are so cute, and look at all the snow!
Valentine's Day was pretty fun, I got some really fun stuff! D-Rok left us all roses when we woke up, it was sooo sweet! Idris and David got us flowers and candy, our secretary at work, Lori, got us fake tattoos, bubbles, candy and play-do. It was so cool! I don't know what I liked best, I really love bubbles and Justin never had play-do before.

Where Is The Love?

2008-02-19T21:50:00.000-08:00

In light of all the chaos that has taken place over the last several months, and more recently this week, I've decided to blog about the shootings that have or were threatened to have happened. NIU was a horrible tragedy, and knowing that the killings were completely random put fear into us all. I mean, as bad as it sounds, I think we all would have taken just a little bit of comfort if there had been some sort of reason behind the slaughter. You hear about it happening in other schools, its only logical to question the probability of it happening to our own. I'm left to wonder what I would do in similar situation, would I be able to keep myself alive, would I risk my life for the life of a friend? I honestly don't know, its a question that you can never really answer unless you're unfortunate enough to face those terrifying circumstances. I'd like to think that I would be brave, but at the same time I know I would be to frightened to think.

My brother told me about an incident that happened at SWIC (South Western Community College). A student threatened to kill everyone in the school who wasn't quote "emo."

A Southwestern Illinois College student faces charges after police said he threatened to shoot students on Friday at the Belleville campus.

Steven E. Ellis, 21, of 300 Warrensburg, near Belleville, was charged Saturday with one count of falsely making a terrorist threat.

Ellis approached another student Friday and attempted to recruit him in a plan to shoot SWIC students in a plot similar to the shootings at Northern Illinois University the day before, St. Clair County Sheriff's Department Capt. Steve Johnson said.

'The individual that he spoke to didn't want anything to do with the plot and immediately told the college's Public Safety Department,' Johnson said.

Officials in the department then called the sheriff's department, which immediately sent investigators to the campus to pick up Ellis for questioning, Johnson said.

Investigators said they did not know whether Ellis was serious about his plans, but that they were taking the threat seriously.

While Investigator Mike Hundelt interviewed Ellis, other investigators searched Ellis' home, Johnson said.

'We found nothing to substantiate the threat,' Johnson said, noting that, if any weapons or plans were found, Ellis could face a stiffer felony charge that carries a possible penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

Ellis remains in the St. Clair County Jail on $100,000 bail. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

SWIC officials released a statement Saturday regarding Ellis' arrest:

'Southwestern Illinois College has a comprehensive safety policy and procedures in place that brought this to light in a most timely manner,' the release stated.

'This case was handled successfully because of the cooperation of the Southwestern Illinois College Public Safety Department and the Sheriff's Department,' Johnson said. 'We don't want people to be afraid to send their kids to classes; that's why we will act aggressively in pursuing threats at college campuses.'

Further investigation revealed Ellis, who wore black and dressed in 'gothic' fashion, stated he wanted to shoot 'everyone who was not gothic,' Johnson said.

The goth subculture began in the 1980s as an offshoot of the punk music scene and has influenced fashion, hair and makeup styles and music.

The day before police said Ellis made the threats, five students were killed when Steven Kazmeircak, a former NIU student, walked into a geology class and started firing a gun.

In July, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville student Olutosin 'Tosin' Oduwole was charged with making a terrorist threat after police said he ordered several semiautomatic weapons and then found a threat scrawled on a piece of paper in his car, threatening a 'murderous rampage.
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So hearing all of these stories of violence has been making me question human nature. I know I sound like a hippy when I say this, but why can't we all just get along? Where is the love? I've actually heard of a proposed bill to increase student's access to hand guns in light of these events. Uh huh.. that makes so much sense! Let's increase the amount of ammunition that we can posess! I'm sure that's going to make things better... (obvious sarcasm there). I seriously don't understand why humans should be using these weapons on other humans. This issue has been heavily debated for a long time, there will probably never be an agreement, but I just thought I'd share my views on the off chance that I could convince someone else to agree. The violence must end, it's just that simple.

UIS Vs McKendree

2008-02-10T20:42:00.001-08:00

Man, what a long week its been. I've been so busy, with exams in BioChem, Playwriting and French, plus tons of homework and working in admissions I've hardly had time to breathe. Today we had a Snow Sculpting event in Housing Commons, we used this fake snow stuff, it was so weird but fun! I wasn't feeling too well though so I fell asleep, haha, my first real nap in like years, it was weird. It was so cold outside, I don't think anyone wanted to leave their beds this morning, especially me. But anyways...

Last night UIS played McKendree, our school rival, in basketball. I don't even like basketball but this game was so awesome! The score was so close the entire game, the Stars continually traded points with the Bearcats. But we finally prevailed in the end, UIS won!
Here's a picture of Jordan, Liz and I in the stands.
They look like TeleTubbies in their new UIS hoodies, hahaha.

Spare Me

2008-01-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Preview Day at UIS. My job mainly consists of pointing.
Too bad there's no sign to do that for me.. Poor Justin doesn't know where Preview Day is!
I love Preview Day and my amazing boss :-) Yes, Kathryn reads my blog...

I demonstrate my tour guide skills.
Justin and I got bored.. hence all the pictures.After Preview Day we all went out for Priyanka's Birthday. Our first stop, Fridays. There were so many of us we filled three tables, I'm pretty sure we annoyed people, but it was such a blast!
The really cool part was that my roommate and I got the opportunity to host a prospective student for the night, so she could get a taste of what life is like at UIS. Lauren was so much fun to hang out with and I think she had a good time with us.
Kelli, me, Lauren and Tabatha.
Me and Kevin (my bff) He gave me cheesecake after this picture, good guy.
And then we went bowling at this really crazy place, I think it was called Strike and Spare. It was all black lighted and the balls glowed in the dark. I got a 106, the highest score I've ever gotten! And Tabatha ended up winning anyway. Oh and Kevin got in last, just thought I'd mention that.

Home Suite Home

2008-01-20T22:32:00.000-08:00

I'm so so happy to be back in LRH after a long break in New Athens. I really missed my friends and was ready for classes to begin again. I'm most excited about What Is Power? and Playwriting. I've had a lot of reading assigned already and I was very glad to go to the spa today to help me relax. 20 UIS students won the day at the spa where we got massages and hair and make up consols. It was really interesting, I had never been to a spa before, too expensive. The massage felt amazing especially since I was sore from working out at TRAC.

After that some friends came over and played Sing Star, my roommate Danielle got it for Christmas, it is sooooo much fun! You have to match pitch with the song and are ranked at the end. Needless to say I've been somewhat distracted from my studying..Steph and Ryan rock out! I think they're singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time"

Back To School

2008-01-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

This week I had the opportunity to return to my old school to observe my favorite teachers, Mrs. Dooley and Mrs. Weible. To be accepted into the teaching program at UIS I need to record 30 hours. So far I've gone two days, it's so funny how similar and yet different it seems to me. The 6th graders are still studying the 7 Wonders of the World (which I proudly remembered).The 8th graders are reading my favorite book, Watership Down. It's so cool to see the teacher's side of learning and being more of a collegue with my former teachers. A lot of them have left since my graduation, but its fun to catch up with the ones that are still around.

Classes at UIS will resume very soon, and I've already got homework (which I'm already procrastinating on). I'm excited to see everyone again and to be back in LRH. This break I did get to visit a lot of my friends from UIS, that was so awesome getting to just chill without worrying about homework or meetings. Ahh, enjoy it while it lasts, less than one more week!

Here We Come A Carolling...

2007-12-26T17:50:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone is having a good winter break! Just thought I'd let you know what I've been up to.My friends and I decided to go Christmas carolling the other night after making up some harmonies for some of our favorite Christmas songs. I guess we were pretty good because we made $150.00 between the five of us! It was a pretty fun night and my aunt recorded a couple of the songs...

O'Holy Night

Jolly Old St. Nicolas

Winter break is an entire month long and it's kind of hard to keep entertained during this time. I waitress at a bar in town and I'll be going back to my old high school to observe my favorite teachers, Mrs. Weible and Mrs. Dooley. I still need 30 hours of classroom observation, to take the basic skills test and I have a few more classes to take before I can even get into the program. It's a lot of work, I've been going to school during the summer in hopes of graduating on time. Time will only tell, in the meantime I'm gonna keep working hard and hope for the best. Happy Holdays everyone!

In Memory

2007-12-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

It was with great sorrow that Kelsey Stumpf passed away yesterday in a car accident. A former UIS student, many are experiencing the loss of a good friend.

Illinois State Police were releasing few details about the fatal accident that occurred Thursday afternoon north of Lebanon.

The accident involved a car and a semitractor-trailer hauling cars.

The two-vehicle crash occurred about 2 p.m. about 1 1/2 miles north of Lebanon on Illinois 4.

A car lost control and smashed head-on into the semi, police said. The car ended up in a ditch along southbound Illinois 4.

The crash resulted in restricted traffic for several hours on Illinois 4 from U.S. 40 to near Lebanon.

Kelsey was a part of the UIS cheerleading squad last year. She was a great athlete and friend.
It is truly a shock to learn of someone dying so young, I offer my deepest sympathy to her family and all of those mourning her loss.

Icy Adventures

2007-12-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a cold few weeks in Springfield, but totally worth it experiencing the beauty of mother nature. UIS sparkles under the snow and ice, the trees turn to frozen statues of their former selves, the leaves encased in ice are like shimmering fossils, capturing the magic of winter. Frozan leaf!

Steph, Kelli and I took pictures of the campus on our way to our cars.We really got into the Christmas spirit during our shopping adventures.

Finals just about over, a bunch of us decided to go ice skating! For some it was the perfect way to end the semester, for others it was a break before studying all night for Biochem. It was Michael's first time ice skating.

Justin and Pavan, yeah you too are so cool... losers.

Some of us need hugs for moral support during finals week.
Aaron doing a 360, is there anything this guy can't do?

Michael is not so talented... on the ice anyways.
Oh yeah, me and Ian rockin out on the ice.
More hugs.. it's gonna be okay Snuggle Bunny.
The sophomores girls, where's Priyanka?

Amanda and I.. well we're professionals.

Volleyball Tournament!

2007-12-09T09:24:00.001-08:00

You can register this week Monday, Dec 10, to Thursday Dec 14th in th PAC from 11am-12. Captains must pay up front and sign the rest of their team in.

Parlez Vous Francais is raising money for our trip to Quebec, we would really appreciate your participation in this event, it's going to be a lot of fun!

Roll Dice!

2007-12-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a pretty busy few weeks. Finals are coming up and all of us are stressing out! Last night the peer mentors put on a Blues Breakers program with free food, guitar hero, twister,coloring, play-dough, and catchphrase (which if you ask me is even more stressful.) I was working during all of this in the UIS online chat, it was... interesting. Kevin and Matt decided to impersonate me asking potential students, "any sports fans up in da hizzy?" Yeah.. didn't really sound like me, but whatever, it was a fun night.

It snowed that night and all of the lucky people who didn't have labs the next day went outside to play, I was very jealous working on my BioChem presentation, but we did kick butt on it today. Tonight I went to Casino Night where I lost horribly but luckily I have nice friends who gave me their chips! THANK YOU IAN AND MIN! You guys rock!

Black Jack, I say it was rigged...
Roulette
Me and Mary Kate getting our groove on!
Look at the snow!

Work today was really fun, we didn't really work that hard, it was food day! That means Kathryn's jumbalya... yumm. Justin and I decided to rank the counselors today out of boredom from coolest to least cool. Denny got the #1 spot because he dresses so pimp and he never gives us banner :-) The rest we ranked just randomly to make Brian mad (he was ranked 11 of 9) haha. So then they decided to rank the student ambassadors. Needless to say, I was ranked 10 out of 6 :-( They wanted revenge.

Everyone fights for food! Jordan just smiles :-) She was ranked the #1 ambassador.

The Breakfast Club

2007-12-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

Aaron and Kevin decided to start living healthy and began The break FEAST Club, every morning they get breakfast at 7:30, it's sooooo early. My suitemate Kelli asked me to come and I said, "Thanks Kelli, but hell no." I decided to go anyway however, this was the first time I woke up before 8 in a LONG time. My classes don't start until 10.

Yawn The only ones in the Food Emporium

Coffee time.
Soo early!

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Today we decided make Puppy Chow.
Tenor Michael! Aww
Justin doin his Abercrombie Model pose, with Puppy Chow in hand.
Aaron rockin out on the vaccuum.
Suite Action!
DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION! I just love Kevin's expression. I'm pretty sure Matt and Aaron failed that song.
We all need a bit of practice.

As The Leaves Change

2007-11-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving break, while a relaxing week away from college life, comes with good and bad. Last year coming home was very different, all of my friends had changed and I felt like I hadn't at all. This year I'm a bit more prepared for all of the changes, I know my friends will not be the same as they were last year, or even last September. As the seasons pass, we grow more mature (most of us), we make mistakes and we accomplish things we didn't believe we could. It's all a part of life, the sooner we accept this, the faster we can move on and take the bad with the good.

The weirdest part is that I'll be returning to my high school in January to do my teaching observation, I am required to be in a classroom for 30 hours to get into the teaching program. I'll be observing two of my favorite teachers, both were huge inspirations to me, motivating me to be come a teacher. Mrs. Dooley, my Jr. High reading teacher and Mrs. Weible, my world history teacher. I'm really excited to finally be making progress in my future career, to know what its really like, to see the other side of education. At the same time, its going to be so surreal being back, without my old friends, without the people who made my high school experience what it was.

I was one of the rare few that actually liked high school, I loved volleyball, choir and my AP English class. My circle of friends consists of a future microbiologist, a nurse, an artist, a translator, an art therapist, and a meteorologist. Maybe those goals have changed, it will be interesting to find out, I'll be seeing a lot of them for the first time since I left for Argentina tonight. Most of us have been friends since kindergarten, they are all very important to me and I'm really excited to see them!

So far break has been pretty boring, I've mainly been play guitar hero with my brother and catching up on homework. The first night I was back I entered a ping pong tournament with Richie, I beat one guy, but I didn't make it to the next round. I guess I have some practicing to do. Well, that's all for this post, I'm going to start making my famous cheesecake for tommorow. You gotta love Thanksgiving! Of course, Fourth of July is my favorite holiday, there's nothing quite like laying under a blanket of stars and watching the fireworks erupt in the sky on a cool July night. Oh summer, how I miss you!

Aaaaaaahh!!!

2007-11-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

My life is complete CRAZINESS at the moment, always the joiner I have been very busy attempting to go to events around campus while keeping up with work and still finding time to study! Here are some of the events that went on last week, it was such a fun time!

Diwali, sponsered by the Indian Student Organization
Santosh, Matt, Pavan, Justin and Michael all danced at the event.
Mohini, Priyanka and Thiyumi looked AMAZING
This is just a random pic waiting for the dancing. It was pretty cool!

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The Black Student Organization sponsered a Fish Fry later that week, My suitemate Kelli and I went down to the Great Room to check it out and found our selves in a rare moment of being in the minority! We had to take a picture to capture this momentous occassion.There was plenty of good food and music to keep students entertained the entire night.This little guy was Djing, it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. Me and Kelli... again. Me and Kelli!
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Later that night I went over to Housing Commons to help out with Bingo Night and "Mocktails" (non alcohalic drinks). It was a good time.
Chase: "I 29, as in I LOVE BINGO!" Charles cheated and I have proof! Hahahaha.
Justin and Pavan were very determined to win the Rubix Cube, while enjoying their mocktails. Justin: Too much tini, not enough apple.

Charles, Elise and I, the Bingo Losers.
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Speaking of losing...
This week has been a bit harsh for me. I lost in the expert bracket of the Guitar Hero Tournament. But.. at least I have a life that doesn't revolve around a video game.

Also, my intramural volleyball team, "It's Just Too Easy," played some tough games Monday night and with two of our players on the DL (Disabled List). Yeah, we made it to the championship but sadly tasted defeat in the third game to a bunch of soccer players. Still, it was a ton of fun and great competition.

I'm just happy that I finally finished my Cap paper, and all I have to do for the rest of the week is one class, work, rehearsal and teacher observation at Christ the King. I'm really excited about the chance to explore my future career and interview the teacher who's already gone through everything I'm going through.

Pumpkin Pie = AMAZING

2007-11-08T15:12:00.001-08:00

The annual Scholarship Banquet took place this afternoon, and we all know what that means... FREE PUMPKIN PIE!
Lol, but in all seriousness, the banquet is such a cool event for scholarship recopients to meet the generous donors who awarded them. Unfortunately, my donor Dr. Shiner couldn't make it, luckily he teaches here sometimes so I do get to see him occasionally. The theme this year centered around quilts, each seam and square take time and effort, but in time those seems for a work of art that also provides warmth.

Updates and Such

2007-11-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

So, after the HRC meeting last night I got the feeling like student life events are all trying to cram there way into the month of November before we all leave for break, which is AWESOME! Because there will be tons of things to do. Here's what's going on..

Thursday, November 8th, SAC has sponsered a comedian from 8:30 - 9:30 and HRC will be hosting Thirsty Thursday (with "Mocktails") and bingo in LRH Great Room.

Friday, 7pm, November 9th the Indian Student Organization will be hosting Divali, The Festival of Lights. There will be tons of dancing and food so come on out.

This Saturday at noon begins the Guitar Hero Tournament! I am soooo excited for it, I've already entered on the expert bracket, I'm sooo ready! Also my RA, Pavan is sponsering Trilogy of Trilogies which will run movies from Friday until Sunday.

Other events coming up are the Hunger Banquet (to promote Hunger Awareness Week), which involves students randomly choosing identities. Depending on which you draw, you will be either a rich person or someone living in poverty, depending on your social economic status you are given a spot. The poor people sit on the floor, covered in hay and are given rice, while the rich people enjoy the perks of money in a fine dining area complete with a 4 course meal. Shana Stine will be speaking at this event, she went to Kenya this past summer and will be relating the truth about how the other side lives, those who are not as lucky as we are.

Fall Feast (sponsered by HRC), will be offered the following day complete with everything that comes with a traditional Thanksgiving meal. All that we ask is a $1.00 donation or a canned food item which will later be donated to charity.

November 30th is the annual Fall Showcase for the music ensembles on campus, featuring the UIS Chorus, Band and Blue Rhapsody A Cappella!

Guy Love

2007-11-02T16:47:00.002-07:00

I was youtube surfing today and I came across a clip from my favorite show, Scrubs! Watching it made me remember all of the times my friends and I would watch Scrubs at 2am, back when we were energetic little freshmen... sigh. That seems like so long ago, back when all of my friends and I had spare time. Sophomore year is so hectic, trying to keep up with grades, clubs, our jobs and our friendships from high school as well as here at UIS. Just a couple more weeks until Thanksgiving Break and some much needed days off!

Monster Bashing!

2007-10-23T22:24:00.001-07:00

Monster Bash went very well, HRC miraculously put it together in about an hours time. While we had some minor issues (The fog machine making the fire alarm go off for 20 minutes), it was still a good time! Luke, the disciple; Kasey the Ninja
Priyanka the racecar driver, me the hippy!
Chad was an awesome DJ/Spartan warrior.
These girls danced it up all night( Oh and Chase) ! Cool costumes!
My favorite mobsters!
After the Bash all of the wings rushed to finish decorating their respective lounges for the Halloween decorating contest. Sass fell asleep, poor thing was exhausted! But... I couldn't resist a picture.

David shows off his kitty cat costume.

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I f you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball

I can not stress enough how many opportunities we have as students on campus. Some of the freshmen decided to start a dodgeball club and they've recruited tons of students to take part in the chaos of the game, here are some fun pics I took.

Intensity

Colin and Alex are ready to attack!

Yay Labuda! Loud and proud!

A Tribute To Highschool

2007-10-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

My friends and I grew up in a village of about 2,000. I've been visiting high schools lately for work and for class and I've been sorta missing my friends! It's pretty hard to find ways to entertain yourself in such a small town, here are some things that we did to pass (waste) the time. A Million Ways To Be Cruel, OK GO! (Yeah, we probably spent like over 20 hours rehearsing this) CSI: New Athens (This took a long time too..)

October Fun

2007-10-17T11:00:00.001-07:00

The count down to Halloween night is on, where will you be that weekend?
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This week has been pretty intense for all students on campus. In addition the stress of midterms, scheduling classes for spring semester and keeping up with work and organizations, "Assassins" began this week. This is a game played in LRH where participants draw the name of their target. Each person has a tube sock and must wear it at all times, assassins wishing to "kill" their prey need only to steal the sock. However, participants are given safety boundaries in their own rooms as well as the Food Emporium and classes. I myself did not play this year, last year was way too stressful, I was always looking over my shoulder wondering... Not cool.

In other news, my intramural sand volleyball team won the championship last week and we will continue our reign for indoor volleyball next week! Also, Preview Day was last Saturday and I thought it went really well, there were many students who ranked UIS at the top of their list. Anna and I gave a tour to about 40 people, try fitting that group in a dorm room... it's pretty tricky. It was really interesting to be on the other side of the spectrum, no longer the prospective student, I was the one answering countless questions and trying to soothe the worries of many parents. It was really funny to see how embarressed the prospective students got when their parents would talk, hahaha. Yeah, I've been there.

After Preview Day I headed down to Camp Cilca in Sherman for the 2West Service Learning Retreat. It was nice to get off campus and walk through nature. I was running late so I missed the Challenge Course that my fellow volunteers did. They told me what kind of things they did to improve their trust in one another as well as teamwork. There was canoeing, and some odd sorts of challenges that required group collaboration .

In addition to the team building excercises we played games, discussed volunteer opportunities in the area and events that we will hold this year for Service Learning. Hunger and Homeless week is coming up and there will be a Hunger Banquet (more details to come) as well as opportunities to go down to Washington Street Mission and serve food to those in need. If you're interested in being apart of Service Learning or just want to help out with an event contact, SStine1@uis.edu.