Well the fort building, unfortunately, was an epic fail. Whether it be the rare opportunity in the middle of the week or during your weekend, free time is something that any college student enjoys. The majority of this semester has been constant work, including the weekends, so what have I decided to do this Friday night? Clean!! It is extremely beneficial not just to finally find your floor but it’s a stress reliever like no other. I find it my own way of Feng Shui. I love reorganizing my room and moving furniture but just cleaning alone helps me to organize my life. The thought process of being alone in your room and going through everything helps me BREATHE!

well i can't pass up this opportunity - since its for the southside where this Irish girl is proudly from.

I saw the news yesterday and got so excited because its just one other thing to consider for a post-graduate option in this horrible economy. Plus the fact, people deserve to see what the real southside of Chicago is like, not like the Jersey Shore where only one of those single cast members is actually from the state of New Jersey. Those are fake portrayals of the Jersey Shore life and I don't wany anyone getting a fake idea of real Southside life. So what happened when I heard of this fabulous news? I tried out of course! In less than 24 hours I put together a few pictures of my life as a southside girl and gave a brief bio of myself as a true Chicago SouthSide Irish Woman. here it is:::

As a real Chicago southsider, I am proud to say that I do not obsess with dressing up and tanning and working out. I live the real southside life and proudly drink as an Irish girl in her early twenties wanting to have fun with life.

My name is Siobhan Ryan. I'm currently in my last semester of college and prepared to graduate with a Bachelors in Art. I was raised on the South Side of Chicago in a truly Irish family with many Irish traditions. My siblings' names are Mavourneen, Deirdre, Conor, and Liam. I am 21 years old and enjoy the real Western Avenue as much as anyone else does but enjoy it the right way as an Irish woman.

My sister and I both worked at Village Video.

The attitudes of Jersey Shore are not like what I experienced when I visited my boyfriend, a true native. It's true that they don't pump their own gas, but they don't pump fists. They love being outside with family and friends.

As a very-near-future college graduate I have considered many options for my future, including doing a year or more of service. I have been active in Habitat for Humanity for three proud years now and would love to broaden my experience with dedicating service to others.

The only tattoos I've ever considered getting are a Celtic Cross I designed on my back or a shamrock on my ankle with my sisters.

How about getting some more background of my life? My entire family has lived the Chicago life and we can truly represent the Chicago culture, especially the southside. We consist of the Ryans, the Conways, the Maloneys, and the O'Sheas. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day the right way wearing as much green as possible and drinking as much green beer as possible, starting in the morning. We eat true Irish soda bread and Corn Beef and Cabbage. My father used to work for Beverly Bank and Mt. Carmel. Him and my brothers are each alum of Mt. Carmel. My mother worked for McAuley and each of us kids have been to St. Barnabas and Sutherland. We are true Irish Catholics. I've marched with St. Rita in the st. patty's day parade. I've watched the 4th of July fireworks from Beverly Park before celebrating my birthday the next day.

I love running in to old classmates on Western Ave, even family members who only live a block away. My sister is marrying an O'Shea who grew up only a block away from us at 103rd and Western and my cousins only live further down that same block.

I have long dark hair and blue eyes. I'm tall with size 6 feet. I'm not skinny but I'm healthy. I don't run but I love to run around with kids.

A friend of my father is the owner of a bar, Rosie O'Boyle, and had interviewed my boyfriend asking every question that is essential to the Chicago SouthSide lifestyle. Unfortunately he's Italian but he's got the right head on his shoulders.

So why should I be on this show? What makes me different than any southsider? I'm real. But I'm unique. I don't bring attention to myself by dolling myself up every night and drinking my life away. Rather, I take the initiative to have relationships with my friends and family and I'm not afraid to take on a challenge and make the next big step in my life.

I'm not perfect.(and neither is this audition material) I make mistakes. But I learn from them.

so for any of you that have not experienced Chicago life, I hope this was beneficial to you. If and when this new show reality show comes out I hope it DOES show the REAL southside life and doesn't mislead you to think we're really like the jersey shore cast. but of course you can't really experience it until you visist for yourself!

What’s up my MSJ fans? This is your main man Najeeb signing in to drop another intriguing blog. If you don’t know already I am from Chicago, a city that literally breeds phenomenal basketball players. The reason is because growing up all we do is hoop and for some individuals in the inner city of Chicago, basketball is the only way out of the “hood”. I’ve seen some amazing talent in Chicago so to say that Michael Romes, a Kentucky baller, has really impressed me like no other is really a bold statement. For those of you who don’t know who Michael Romes is, well let me just say he is the greatest player to step foot on the courts of the Harrington Center.

Romes is from Villa Hills, Kentucky and is Beechwood high schools finest. Michael is an Athletic Training student like myself and he has aspirations of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. That’s just a little background information to show what kind of focus this guy has. What many people don’t know is that despite playing at a D3 school he has offers to play basketball professionally overseas and after a whole season of practicing with him and watching him abuse other teams during the season, I think he should continue his basketball career and pursue a professional career overseas in Europe. Michael is a 6’4 215+ SG whose game is extremely crafty. His jump shot is pure and his work ethic shows that he is the hungriest player to win every game bar none. So if you see Michael Romes tell him he should go overseas to hoop and if you have a facebook page join my fan page for Michael Romes. That’s all for now folks until next time peace.

So this week has been quite an eventful one the country hasn't it? I heard on the news that 49 out of the 50 United States received some amount of snow in one way or another this week. Hawaii was the only one who didn't. I read somewhere that DC had, what, 39 inches of snow? My uncle who lives in the middle of Penn. said they got 27 inches on one day! And one cousin who goes to school in Maryland near DC said they ended up getting a snow week instead of a snow day! They had Friday the 5th off for the first wave and then just proceeded to get one day after another the next week until his school just shut down for the rest of the week! A pre-spring break break. Geez.... :)

Let's see, we had school last Friday but classes on Saturday were cancelled which, unfortunately, didn't benefit me at all but it was nice for those students who do dread Saturday classes. Then Monday we all crossed our fingers for snow and get a snow day and fortunately enough we did! Then Wednesday we weren't sure what would happen but we did get a delay until Noon so I got to miss four classes over that period and one practicum opportunity. Once we did get out onto the roads, they really weren't that bad and I was happy that we got a small break nonetheless.

Of course that meant bright and early on Thursday morning I had to get back into the swing of things and actually make an effort to try to get back to normal. Hard to do when you sat around doing nothing for almost 48 hours straight. I can only imagine how my cousin feels on his snow week. I also heard that we are supposed to get another 2-4 inches on Sunday night into Monday morning so maybe another snow day...? :) Wouldn't that just screw everything up. Most places are closed on Monday already for Presidents' Day but the Mount will be open for classes and whatnot so if we do get a snow day that'll benefit us but no one else really. lol :)

I started my practicum last Monday, before all the snow, and I had a great first experience there but then they had no school on Wednesday and they have no school for the holiday on Monday so I'm missing another two opportunities to go so I'm not sure at this rate if I'll get in my 50 hours or not. I'm sure I can find other times and dates to go but Mondays and Wednesdays just work best. But we'll see... It's just hard to have a routine down, get something introduced, then have weather interrupt everything everywhere, and then trying to get back into it. I really don't like. If the federal government can get a snow day, shouldn't the whole country get off as well? Thank you Ellen for that comment. :) Love that show! lol

But we have our Mid Semester break on this coming Friday and that'll be nice to have a scheduled break, not that we really need it considering the break we just had in the middle of the week. We'll see how it goes though. :) I really want to go visit a friend at UD either that weekend or the next when she has her mid break but I'm not sure when it'll work out, if it does at all. But I hope so. :)

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, or as Sam calls it "Singles Awareness Day." lol That's just when we need to put all the singles together and then they won't be single anymore! lol The guy I've been seeing has something planned that day for us but he won't tell me what it is so I'm in for a surprise. I'm not really into surprises so I'm not sure how I'll react. lol But to you all, Happy Valentine's Day in advance. :) Hope its a fun pink and white day! <3

Hey guys!

So wrestling is wrapping up….and I don’t know how to feel about it. There are all kinds of emotions mixed up with it. We had our last regular season competition this past weekend up at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.  This particular tournament was a meat grinder and always is our last competition.  It consists of about 30 teams and takes two days to complete. We had two guys place this year, myself and Tim Pope, our 165 pounder. 

After this, we have our conference tournament in Wabash, Indiana which is this upcoming Saturday.  Then, next Friday is our conference dual with Manchester. THEN COMES REGIONALS. The whole season comes down to the regional tournament.  If you don’t win your weight class at regionals, you don’t go to nationals. There are 5 “wildcards” that are given to five wrestlers that can go to nationals, but other than that, if you don’t win, you don’t go. And obviously nationals is the main goal. So these next few weeks are going to be nerve racking to say the least.

So these next few weeks are going to present a lot of emotions. My body is TOTALLY ready for wrestling to be done. 16 years and two torn shoulders later, it’s saying “I’m done.”  But my mind is addicted. I love this sport and I love the spirit of competition. Where else can I legally get to beat someone else up and get congratulated for it? It’s going to be a crazy few weeks and I’ll be more than happy to share my experience. Enjoy the ride!

See ya!

>Eric M.

my intro to sociology course has given me a lot of material to work from outside of the classroom; and i'm a senior art major. Dr. Brandon Hofstedt assigned the class a final research paper focusing on private troubles vs. public issues. when i was looking through some of the sample topics i didn't exactly feel pulled to any of them to write a paper on. and so i looked in to some options with my excel tutor. after looking through some material she has on the subject, i had started thinking about  my lack of knowledge on politics. then the light bulb hit: well of course that is a public issue. think about the amount of young adults you know. now think about how many of those peoples voted in this past presidential election. now do you feel that they were fully educated on every important issue in the candidacy. i can tell you that i did vote, and am proud to say that i did. however, i do not feel that my decision was based on the proper education of the political issues, rather just focuses on opinions i had heard from those around me and the media.

 the purpose of the paper is to form a better developed sociological imagination. we have to be able to idenifity a social issue that is problem for not just ourselves as individuals but for an entire group and apply the concepts and theories from class.

what's really interesting about this, is the reasearch i've been finding. we spent an entire class period with someone from the mount's library on tips for our paper topics. i've been able to find material on political participation, civic disengagement, knowledge, education, virtues, equal opportunity, and more!

i'm hoping that this material will not only help me get a perfect A for the class but also increase my knowledge for what i feel that i lack in.

 wish me good luck!!

Hey guys!

Student Teaching is almost here! As some of you may know, I am an Education major. As part of your education here at the Mount as an Education student, you need to complete 12-15 weeks of student teaching, usually to be completed the last semester of your undergraduate career. To prepare you for this, you spend 100+ hours in a Practicum.  The Practicum places you in a classroom like one you will be teaching (mine is a high school history class at Elder High School) and allows you to get comfortable in the setting through observations and a handful of lessons that you teach.

But student teaching is something that is pretty intimidating.  For the 12-15 weeks, I will need to be in the classroom every day and teach at least one class a day. Now I’ve only taught three official high school classes and the thought of teaching everyday for 12 weeks is NUTS! Ha. But it will be okay because you clear your schedule completely, so normally you don’t take any other classes with the student teaching. Or at least that’s the way it’s typically done. Of course that’s not the way I’m doing it though. I have a class I still need to get caught up on, but it’s only one class and it shouldn’t be too bad. The one thing that does worry me is the fact that I’m going to be wrestling at the same time as the student teaching.  That is going to be a little difficult to handle. If anyone is reading this that has dealt with student teaching and sports at the same time, please drop me a comment and offer any advice to ease my mind a little!

See ya!

>Eric M.

Starting this Wednesday is College Week Live. It is a virtual college fair set up online. There will a ton of schools, organizations, companies, and anything else associated with going to college. You can talk to reps from schools, current students, financial aid advisors, banks, scholarship organizations, and other personnel about anything you may need or want to know about a college or school or program.

The College of Mount St. Joseph will be hosting a booth at this fair and will be manned by yours truly along with a couple of other bloggers and students along with some faculty and staff of the Mount. Come and ask us questions, peruse the information of our college, check out the pictures and grounds of the buildings, and other things.

This whole experience is meant to put you at ease about college and helping you choose the right school for you. You get the opportunity to "visit" schools that you may not otherwise be able to visit, such as those across the country that would not be worth the cost to check out for one day in person. At least you can visit that school online in this virtual college fair and be able to find out almost anything that you would want to know.

It starts on Wednesday, November 4th and ends Saturday, November 7th. This is the web address for the college fair: http://www.collegeweeklive.com/. It is highly recommended that you check us out on the web and ask us questions using the Click Here: Live Chat button on our booth (College of Mount St. Joseph). The Mount offers "Get Acquainted Days" every few Saturdays or so and that can be helpful to be able to visit the campus itself but if none of those dates work into your schedule, at least this week gives you a chance to know us a bit better when you have a bit of free time. Here's the link on the main site of the Mount for ways to visit us: http://www.msj.edu/view/visit.aspx.

I hope we see you- or talk to you actually- at the College Week Live event this Wednesday through Saturday. It should be a fun time to learn more about the Mount and our community. Enjoy!! :)

within the last three or four years there has been a great deal of progression in my art work. my freshman year, in a non-prerequisite basic design class, i felt out of the loop; not having much skill in applying my creative abillities to my assignments. i've always been interested in the aspect of design and have utilized my creative abiliites. however, whenever i am working on an assignment and am given specific guidelines, i tend to hit a road block on my creative side. i've made a great sense of progression since then. not only in a matter of basic design but in a means of my photography as well!

i took a picture of my friend peggy for my first photography class:

one of my more recent photos:

i'm taking a photoshop class right now and i'm still learning the basics so i'm really excited to increase my ability in photography!!!!