Hey, guys!

Yesterday, I realized that my time management skills are terrible. And when I say terrible, I mean hideously, ridiculously, inexplicably awful. I’m serious. In an effort to be completely, honest with you, the student body, I am willing to tell you that today I opened my Biology 101 textbook for the first time. I literally had not taken the plastic wrapper off of the book until 11 am this morning; and we are in week 7 mind you.  

Now, I realize that this is nothing to be proud of (and let me tell you, I am sooooooo not proud of that) but up until today I really have not had a need to open the book….my biology professor is fantastic, and I have been able to keep up with her lectures and my notes.

However, that is simply not enough.

If you are like me, then you have goals and dreams for yourself that are at least 10 miles high. In order to achieve these goals, it is important to take school work, class time, and participation seriously. Let’s be serious for a minute. Every college student on this planet procrastinates. I don’t care if that was an extremely broad generalization, it’s true. Whether you are a freshman or this is your last semester at GCC, we have all had that thought in our minds of, “well… I don’t really feel like doing this now…I’ll just do it the night before.” Or maybe for you it was doing it tomorrow, or the next day, or this weekend, or the weekend after that. All-nighters are part of the college experience right? Heck, before I was a college student the thought of staying up late with a bottomless cup of coffee and a group of friends, all working on a project sounded like fun. Might as well take advantage of the free time, right?

Wrong.

Papers and projects completed at the last minute are prone to mistakes, and often recieve bad grades for which we as college kids rationalize in our brains. Have you ever thought to yourself, “I’ll accept the C… I didn’t have enough time to work on it any way…just as long as I didn’t get an F.” Wrong attitude!!!!!

We college kids need to strive for excellence in everything that we do!! If you want to achieve your dream, no matter what it is, make today count. Do your homework! Do your reading! Email your professor back!! If you do not take advantage of the oportunities you have now, you will most certainly regret it later in life.

Make your dreams your reality, guys 🙂

Until next time,

Emily

P.S. this post is for me just as much as it is for you. Let’s turn over a new leaf together!

My Handprint

By: Genevieve Scholl

On move in day, I signed a handprint (pictured at the left) to show that I support anti-bullying. As you can see, many others signed them as well. The program is called “No Place for Hate” and is sponsored by College Village.

“We had the students sign handprints and footprints when they checked in if they were for anti-bullying and a safe environment.” Said a representative at College Village.

I think it is a very smart and wonderful program. Have you signed a handprint or footprint? If not, maybe you should go show your support at College Village today!

By: Genevieve Scholl

Ancient Egyptian Dog

My fellow blogger, Emily, wrote about sharks today and it gave me an idea to show you what I support. Animal Abuse is a horrendous act and should never be tolerated. Animals have been by our side for years and years. They have been loyal, kind, loving and protective. Yet, some of us, do not return that loyalty, kindness, protectiveness, and love.

There are hundreds of animals in the world that are like family instead of pets, but there are also a lot of them that are treated like victims. Cruel, mean, rude, vindictive, and unfair abuse is given to these living beings. Sometimes their lives are taken away before they really have a chance to live. I mean, I ask of you, look at the picture of the cute little puppy to the right… Could you hurt this creature? Could you bring pain to this puppy by your hand? I couldn’t.

Animals are like our children. They count on us to feed them, bathe them, play with them, and love them. They depend on us for warmth, affection, and survival. I don’t know about you all (though I hope you feel the same as I do), but I couldn’t raise my hand in a threatening move to my “child”, let alone actually bring them pain. Would you want to live your life afraid that everyone around you was going to strike you at any moment? Would you want to be beaten and not be able to tell someone about it, because you don’t have a voice?

Let us be the voice for the animals of abuse. Speak out if you know of any abuse! Save the defenseless animals from a life of pain and suffering! See this little baby bunny to the right? This bunny was near death when he was found in Upstate New York. Now, one month later, he is a happy, well fed, and fat family pet. See what a difference it can make when someone takes initiative and helps a furry animal?

It isn’t only pets that get abused. Farm animals are constantly abused like they don’t matter. Farmers only see them as meat instead of a living breathing being. Please help to stop this violent act and contact the authorities below.

http://www.aspca.com

Good afternoon, fellow GCC-ers, Emily here!

Today as I was getting my daily “news fix,” I stumbled across a story that really piqued my interest. The story was about a mother who is fighting new regional campaign that PETA is putting together in Florida, after a recent shark attack near Anne Marie Island. Her twenty-one year old son survived being  bitten on the leg by a bull shark while he was spear fishing.

PETA is capitalizing on this incident by using it as a platform for their latest “go vegan” campaign. They are looking for an area in Florida to post this billboard:Now, let me tell you something.

I think that this is attrocious.

I will admit, right from the get-go, that I am slightly biased on this subject. I have been in love with sharks since the age of 3. I could not get enough of shark books, shark documentaries, shark cartoons, shark pictures….you name the shark product, I loved it. I remember walking through the old video store in Attica (back when I lived there) and seeing the cover of JAWS for the first time. I was 4 years old and I begged my mother to watch it. Of course she didn’t let me…snif, I am still a little bitter about being forced to wait 6 years until I was 10, snif, snif (insert pretend tears pooling in eyes).  Because of my love of sharks, I dreamed of being a marine biologist and studying my favorite of all sharks, the Great White, from the ages of 5-14. I still, secretly, would love to be a marine biologist….

But, seriously, I get very defensive when sharks are painted in a bad light (despite my favorite movie still being JAWS). I read alot of shark conservation blogs and support orginizations like the Shark Free Marina project. So when I see a billboard like the one above, I feel sad. Not only is PETA capitalizing on a tragic accident it is perpetuating the myth that sharks are “man-eaters” and they only have a taste for human blood.

The ocean is a sharks habitat. Think about it. A poses very little danger to us on land; our territory, where we are most comfortable. In the same way, we humans pose very little danger to sharks in the water; their territory, where they are comfortable. Every swimmer, fisherman, spear-fisherman, snorkelor, diver, etc. knows that there is a great risk in swimming in the ocean because the fact is that humans resemble a sharks main source of food when they are in the water, seals. Its not their fault. They are programmed to eat their prey, they are not out to get humans.

For PETA to try and say, that sharks are taking revenge on humans who eat fish by attacking them is ridiculous and sick. There are better ways to get their message to the masses then by perpetuating a myth, and exploiting a man at the same time. I don’t know where they get their nerve.

I will post the link to the article below so that you may read it and form your own opinions. Remember, our generation is next in line. We are the decision makers, we are going to suffer the consequences of the choices that our leaders are making now. Know what is going on in your world.

Until next time,

Emily

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/29/mother-shark-attack-victim-says-peta-campaign-is-over-top/

By: Genevieve Scholl

Bus Drivers Take People To Their Parking Lots

This past weekend, The Barn Festival of the Arts took place in Remsen, NY. Remsen is my hometown and the one place on the planet where I feel like I amd “home”. Even though I live in New York Mills, NY normally, Remsen is the place where I grew up and the place where everything feels in place and just right. Earlier in the semester I blogged about going home for the weekend and this blog is a follow up.

Every year during the last weekend of September, The Barn Festival of the Arts takes place along Main Street in Remsen,NY. It is about a mile long and has everything from delicious food to homemade towels. As you walk along the festival, you smell the amazing aromas of hamburgers, kettle corn, and gyros. There is even cheesecake on a stick!

Cheescake On A Stick

Homemade Chairs

There is also fun things to do, like face painting and a corn maze! The corn maze is a challenge where we pay $5 to spend an hour or so inside a field of corn, that has paths cut out of them to make a maze. We have to find four markers within the maze and place a colored dot on the map where we believe we are at the time and if we are correct after we “escape” we get a prize. IT is a lot of fun, especially for children. This year’s corn maze was a castle, knight, and swords. Unfortunately, I do not have an image of this year’s maze, so pictured below is the one from 2008.

As sad as we are to see it end every year, during the rest of the year we grow anticipation for the next one. It is free to attend, unless you are parking in one of the designated parking lots which cost money (usually about $5 per car), and I hope that some of you will make the trip next year (even if it is three hours from school) and attend the event that is so important to me, my family, my friends, and my town.

My Favorite Food At The Barn Fest

Hey guys, Emily again.

Some days it is just not your day. Today is not my day. It started off really good. I had a field trip with my Biology 100 class to the Genesee County Park (I live 10 minutes away from said park so, yay, I got to sleep in a bit) to look at biodiversity and natural habitats.

I arrived at the park feeling sleepy but not overly terrible. I had been to the park a few years ago and was interested to go back and see if anything had changed.  I soon found out that it hadn’t. The park still looked the same as it had the  last time I was there, however, there was one thing that had changed.

I was no longer feeling well.

Now, for at least a week and a half, I have been suffering from a “college cold.” We college students, as a general rule, do not eat healthfully, do not get enough sleep, and do not get enough exercise. With the exception of not getting enough exercise (I teach dance 3 times a week and am a proud gym member [go me!!]) I fall into the college kid mold of not eating right and not getting enough sleep. Because of this, I usually spend the majority of the semester sick with college induced colds.

This weekend though, my college kid cold has gotten worse. With the exception of Sunday (My Bills won……I have been a die-hard fan of the Buffalo Bills for 20 years now….yesterday was the greatest game of my life) when it looked like football might cure me of my weirdo symptoms. I had been suffering from a psuedo-headcold (stuffiness without congestion + dizziness and exhaustion) and a chest cold (shortness of breath + pain and congestion).

Today, it returned to my body with full force.

Now, I’m not a wimpy chick. I’ll come to work without feeling 100%. In fact, I sit here typing this at my desk in Student Activities. If you happen to come to the office for whatever reason and you see a blonde girl sitting behind the desk looking like she is dying A: its me and B: no worries, I’ll make it.

But its annoying to suffer from “college colds” because I know that I did this too myself.

As college students we need to take a greater responsibility in keeping ourselves healthy. We pay good money to receive a great education, so why do we jeopardize our chances with bad health habits? We need to start saying “no” to things which are going to perpetuate the cycle of getting sick, getting run down, and getting discouraged. There are many resources available to us college kids that can help us achieve a healthy lifestyle so that we can achieve our goals.

If you are not feeling well physically, feel free to talk to our nursing staff. The Health office is located at the bottom and to the right of the steps that lead from the cafeteria and into the Student Union. The nurse will be able to help you to understand what your illness might be and how to help your symptoms.

Maybe you are feeling sad or lonely. There are counselors available in the Dean of Students office that are there to talk to you. Their offices are safe, confidential places for you to discuss what is going on in your life that might be bothering you. All of our GCC counselors are kind, friendly people who you can trust to be professional and helpful with whatever you may be going through.

There are also many resources on the Internet that can be just as helpful as talking to a person one-on-one. I have found two very helpful sites and will post the links to them below. Please, feel free to check them out if you’re not feeling well like me, or maybe even for future reference.

Remember, it’s only Monday, your week can still be fantastic even if your Monday was not!!

Until next time,

Emily

http://www.zencollegelife.com/99-cheap-and-easy-ways-to-stay-healthy-in-college/

http://www.collegetips.com/college-health/

By: Genevieve Scholl

On Tuesday, I started a new class. Composition of Natural and Social Scienes with Mrs. Susan Zuris. It is an English class that teaches us how to write for these specific areas. In our second class, on Thursday, we learned a way to avoid “writer’s block” (which Mrs. Zuris does not believe exists). Take a piece of paper and write your topic at the top of the page (if you do not have a topic you can use this same proccedure for finding a topic as well) and underline it three times. Thinking about the topic in general, start writing a “random, sloppy list” of words or phrases that come to mind when you think about said topic. After your list is generated, start to attach your senses to these words or phrases. For example, instead of just saying that the smell of kettle corn was in the air, you could say “The salty sweet aroma of kettle corn wafted through the air, tempting my taste buds and somehow magically pulling me toward the booth.” See how different you picture this when you add observational features? I have found, in my writing, that this process really does help with “writer’s block”.

Nature

Which brings me to my second part of this post. Have you ever just stopped at thought about what was around you? Now, don’t just say “well, there are clouds and the sky and birds and… blah blah blah”. I am talking about really stopping your life and the world and just watching and listening. Think about the jazzy music that the birds make as they chirp their greetings to the world, think about the whispers you can hear when the wind gently blows against your skin, and when you’re hearing the click click of a keyboard in the library, don’t think about it as annoying, think about how you are hearing every second of the education that is going into that person’s brain, or think about how each click represents the advances we have taken in technology. After all, without the click click, where would we be? Chew on that for a little while 🙂

By: Genevieve Scholl

The Hill at Night

Just a short little tip when walking the campus at night, especially the hill from campus to college village.

1) Always try to walk with someone, NEVER walk alone unless you have no other choice.

2) Be aware of your surroundings, especially other people.

3) Do not linger on the hill or on campus, in dark areas, longer than absolutely necessary.

4) Have your key card handy for quick and efficient access to your building.

5) For extra protection, keep your keys in your hand. (Do not engage in violence unless in self-defense)

6) Have campus safety’s phone number on your cell phone’s speed dial. (585)343-0055

7) Do NOT listen to your IPOD or cell phone with earbuds. Obstructing your hearing could be dangerous to your safety.

8 ) Do not engage in any type of conflict. If you see something illegal or upsetting going on, please contact campus safety from a safe distance and avoid eye contact with the people involved.

9) Get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.

and 10) If you are attacked, do not try to fight back unless serious injury is imminent. The worst thing you can do is do or say something that encourages the attacker to become more violent or vicious. If you are attacked, take a deep breath and scream as loud as you possibly can. This will deter the attacker and will alert someone that you are in danger.

If you follow these tips, you will be safer while you walk the grounds at night. I know that when I walk back from my 6PM-9PM class on Thursdays, I follow every single one of these guidelines and feel confident and safe as I walk back to my dorm.