Hey all!

Man, life’s been crazy! Can you believe it’s almost the end of the semester? We have *counts on his fingers* Only 10 class days before the semester is over! Woah! Can that be right? *counts again* I think it is!

Everything is winding down. We’re done with our readings in Glassblowing class, and I finished my HUGE paper in there! (It was pretty good, I thought!) We’re done with individual assignments in Typography. We’re wrapping up our last book in literature class. We only got a few more exhibits to review in Art Criticism. Dateline, our school’s newspaper, is working on it’s last issue for the semester. Things seem to be slowing down

But that’s only half of what goes on at the end of a semester around here. Some things pick up the pace! We have finals coming up. Finals are a big deal at the Mount, and they can account for HUGE percentages of your grade. I know for a fact that in many classes your final can be 50% of your entire grade or more.

Now, in most core classes and seminars (Science, Math, Psychology, etc) the finals would be an exam. I’d say most classes are that way. But in my case, as an art major, most of my finals are actually final projects. In Typography I have to compile all of my work into a handbook I’ve created, along with a history of typography. That’s huge part of my final grade. In Graphic Design, I’m sure I’ll have to design a project, and it will have to encompass all the things I’ve learned over this semester (Which is A LOT!).

In glass I have to design a final project of glass, which has to be something more difficult then everything we’ve done so far. I think I’m going to fashion pumpkins out of glass, and try to put them all on the same vine. That’s gonna be so hard, because you can’t let glass get cold. It’ll crack! And by cold, I mean you might have three minutes after you break the glass off the pipe to get it in the oven, or it’ll crack, sometimes even explode into pieces! I’ll have to keep it warm somehow! We have plumber’s torches, which are these huge things hooked up to propane tanks. Maybe I’ll have someone use one of those.

Well, I have more work to do guys! I’ll be sure to let you guys know how the final project comes out! Hopefully I’ll get pictures.

I’ll see you guys soon!

Hey all!

Can you believe it’s already almost Thanksgiving? This semester is flying by! I honestly don’t know where the time went. We’re already starting to work on our final projects in glassblowing, and we have final papers due in there. We’re working our tails off in Graphic Design, and we’re already compiling our final projects for Typography. We’re on our last book in lit class.

I’m running out of time to chase down my sanity!  

Anyway, I had two important things to tell you guys.

NUMBER 1. I wanted to let you guys know that my library got me my book that I needed for glass blowing in an amazing three days, from the library at the University of Cincinnati. I got some pretty cool pictures for my glass paper! Go back a few blogs and check my blog about the Alter Library. I was hoping to get the book on Friday, and they beat that by a day. I got it on Thursday! Woohoo!

NUMBER 2.  My glass blowing video is up for all of you to view! Check it out! The link’s right beneath my picture on my blogging page! It’s super awesome, the creator did an amazing job putting it together!

Go watch it right now! Post a comment telling me what you think!

I’ll post a blog for you guys later this week I hope, and I hope I’ll have heard from a few of you by then!

Hey all! It’s very late on Tuesday evening, and I thought about writing this earlier today, but I decided to wait until now, after the election is pretty much over. Around 11pm tonight, Barack Obama clinched enough electoral votes to win the election to be our next President here in the United States. I’ve been watching coverage all night.

Whoever you supported in this election, I cannot help but feel we must be proud at this moment to live here, and see our country come together in such an incredible way. There were people out in my neighborhood encouraging people to vote by going door to door until 7 PM! And the polls closed at 7:30!

In my small corner of Anderson Township, our voting precinct has approximately 350 registered voters. Well over 300 of them came out to vote. We won’t know the full figures until tomorrow, but it’s estimated that 80% or better of voters in all of America came out to vote.

Way to go America!

For those of you that went out and voted on Tuesday, thank you from the bottom of my heart. For those of you that may be too young to vote, thank you for reading about the election, for watching news on television. To all of you, thank you for reading our Mount blogs. Thank you for being involved!

In the years to come, I hope we all can feel proud of what we accomplished today. Our country is in a rough spot, but if we work together, we can pull out on top.

Thank you again. Go America!

Hello, gang!

I hope you’re all having a more peaceful week then me! I can’t escape the busyness! The weekend before last I had my sister’s baby shower, which I was very involved in the planning of, and then this past weekend I had to take the kids (some very good family friends of ours since I was about 6 years old) out to buy pumpkins and apples and apple cider to celebrate the season. Somewhere around all of this I’ve managed to do my assignments, including a HUGE paper I have for glass blowing.

This glass blowing paper is tougher because it’s my first real research paper this semester. But never fear the College of Mount Saint Joseph Alter Library is here! Your complete source for all your research needs.

If you ever stop by the college, make sure you visit the library! We’re very lucky to have the Archbishop Alter Library. We have a huuuuuge collection of books considering the size of our library. I used to work there, and it’s a pretty cool place! Our collection of books has almost every subject you might need. Don’t quote me on the number (I seem to remember hearing this from the library) but I’m pretty sure we have around 100,000 books! Our stacks are over three floors, and we have bookshelves going the entire length of the reading room on every floor.

But what’s that you say? The book you need isn’t in the Mount’s collection? Well fear not, for the Mount is part of Ohiolink! Ohiolink is a group of private libraries in Ohio that will share all their books with one another. So you can get online and check out the entire ohiolink catalogue, and if another school has the book you need, like UC or XU, you can request the book. Then that school will get the book off the shelf, bundle it up, and mail it off the next business day. The time it takes to get to you varies, but it’s usually pretty quick!

Today, I requested a book on Steve Klein, a glass artist I’m doing a paper on. Ohiolink said it was a collection of photos, so hopefully it’ll give me a little bit more insight into the way that he works. I hope it gives A LOT more insight into how he works. I have to write a paper on it! Like, a loooong paper on it.

Anyway, I’ll get on later this week and tell you how fast Ohiolink shipped me my book. I’ll bet you it gets here before the end of the week! When it gets here the library will call me, and I can walk over and pick it up!

In addition to books, the Library’s website can get you articles from other libraries’ collections. Those libraries will photocopy articles from their collection and mail it to you. This is the only part of everything I’ve explained so far that’s not free… but articles cost anywhere from a quarter to like $1.50. While I was working there I think I saw a HUGE like 70 page article that cost like $3.50. But seriously, could you print it out anywhere else for that cheap? Kinko’s? I think not.

Speaking of all this research talk, I need to get back to… well, researching! I only have papers and art to do this week… my kind of week, to be honest!

I’ll catch you guys later!

Heeeeey everybody!

Welcome to my time of night! I don’t have to be up until noon tomorrow, which gives me valuable quiet time to myself late in the night, which I use to catch up on work while everyone else is sleeping. Not to say it’s for everyone, but I get more done when I can’t see the sun.

Haha! I rhyme!

Anyway, it’s about time for me to send my weekly email to health services, and it occurs to me, I haven’t told you about them, have I?

Well if you’re sick while at the Mount, you don’t need to hike out to some new doctor’s office, far away from home. We have our own Doctor’s office right here on campus! And you can get everything here that you would get from a regular doctor’s office, from check-ups to prescription medicines to your yearly flu shot.

We have a nurse on campus every weekday until 5pm that can take care of most all of your needs, and I believe she has the ability to get you prescriptions. But in case you should need to see a Doctor specifically, a doctor comes into the office every Tuesday. You can see him for a 5 dollar co-pay. If you’ve seen the bill from your family doctor’s, I think you’ll like the 5$ co-pay as much as I do!

The big benefit for me is that I don’t have to hike for a 40 minute drive all the way back to my side of town to get my allergy shots, which I get every week. I get my allergy vials from my Allergist, and I bring them over to the Mount. The health center keeps them for me, and the nurse gives me my shots every week, saving me tooooons of time and untold amounts of gas money.

My medical stuff is taken care of at the Mount. Aaaand I like it that way!

By the way, we did get around to making cups in Glassblowing and mine came out greeeat! The instructor told me that he’s never seen a starter cup come out as good. Wooohooo! I’ll have to take some pictures of it and post them next week!

Well, even for someone like me, there’s a time to sleep, and that time is about now! Hope you guys have a great week, and I’ll see you soon!

Hey all! And hello once again from the Mount!

I sat down to write today, and it occurred to me, if there’s one thing that a college student really loves, it’s food. Don’t worry, at the Mount we got it covered!

We actually have three places you can go to get chow here on campus. Our main one is the Fifth-Third Dining Hall. (No deposit slips, please) This is the main place where students go to get our food. It’s open Breakfast, Lunch, and a little bit longer for dinner. They always have a main meal, and almost always have an alternate meal for anyone who might not like what’s up on the main plate for the day. And supposing you still don’t like that, there’s always Deli-style sandwiches, soup, and a salad bar, every day!

In addition to the dining hall, there’s also the Food Court (which is in the process of being updated to be even better, by the way!) The Food Court is for students who eat between times that the dining hall is open. It’s got hamburgers, chicken patties, fries, salad, fruit, and drinks, perfect thing to grab a snack to take to class!

Then there’s the Starbucks Gallery. The Starbucks Gallery is a small place over by the theater. They serve a fixed menu often a sandwich and a side, and they always serve coffee and other drinks, for those of you who need a pick-me-up before class. :D

Also, the neat thing about the food service is that they will work with you if you have special food needs. I myself have a digestive disorder that won’t let me eat anything that’s got more than 30% fat, and I can’t eat anything that contains any milk. (Bummer, huh?) Thankfully, the Dining Hall works with me. All the servers know my name, and they know what I can eat. Anytime I need it, they’ll cut me a piece of chicken and grill it for me. They also have soy milk and turkey burgers that they keep in just for me. It makes it so much easier for me, because I don’t have to try to keep in so much food for myself in my dorm room!

If you have special food needs and you’re considering coming to the Mount, go ahead and contact our food service. I’m certain they’ll be more than happy to sit down with you and discuss your options for food at the Mount. ;)

Well Folks, I have heaps of homework, so I think it’s time for me to get back into it! I hope you all are having a great week! We’re going to blow glass cups in glassblowing tomorrow. I hope I can hop on and tell you how it went!

Until then!

Hey all, once again!

School this year has been really hectic, and I’m still adjusting to having more credit hours than I ever have before. Really though, I’m so happy with school this semester! This has been the most fun I’ve had yet in college!

Last week, I told you all a little bit about what it was like to be a general student at the Mount. I thought this week, I’d tell you a subject that I’m really an expert at: Being an art student at the Mount. :D

My major is Graphic Design and I’m really starting to get into it my sophomore year. Art courses here frequently have a lot of homework. I spend at least 5-6 hours a week out of class working on my projects. When you’re an art student, most of the classes for your major will be what we call ‘studio classes’. They’re much longer than your regular 50 minute classes. My studio classes are all at least 2 hours long and frequently they come with lots of outside work. But still, these classes are my favorites! It’s true I have homework, but I get to put on my headphones while I work on it! You can’t do that with Writing homework!

I have never had a test in any of my art classes. Your artwork is your test. In place of tests, we have critiques. Critiques are where the entire class gathers around the work, and the students will describe their work and their process. Then the teacher will talk about the work, what parts the professor thinks worked and what parts the professor thinks aren’t as effective. Your grade on a particular project is usually based on the artwork itself and your presentation of you artwork in the critique.

(If you sound really good, sometimes it can save your grade!)

One of the downsides of art is that it does come with long supply lists. Especially the traditional media classes, you often have to buy your own charcoal, pencils, paper, drawing boards, and whatever you might need to work in and out of class. The good side of this is you get to keep all your own stuff. (I kept drawing over the summer. I still had plenty of charcoal and pencils left!)

Also, sometimes art classes (like my glassblowing and Art History class… any Art History class will be the same, I’m sure.) come with a lot of reading. I have a few hours of reading for my Art History course and my Glass Blowing course each week. Art isn’t freeform here at the Mount, it’s very structured, and you learn a ton of stuff! Like any other major, it takes organization and some self-discipline to make sure you get everything you need to do done.

Well, I’m going to have to leave you folks now. I got Graphic Design homework and I’ve left all my Glass Blowing reading until the last minute! I hope you all have a great week, and I’ll write again soon!

Hello again, gang!

Man, this year’s been going ridiculously fast! We’ve already been in school for more than a month. In some ways, it feels like it’s been a lot longer than that since school started, but it doesn’t feel like we’ve been at the classes all that long! And I received an email today that the schedule is already up for next semester! That means it’s already time to start planning for the second half of the year… gah!

Anyway, in light of all this craziness, I thought I’d tell you a bit about what I get to experience the very most attending college here: The experience of being a Mount student! Want to know what it’s like? Come along!

I can’t tell you exactly what everyone’s experience is going to be like, as I don’t take every major. (I almost never even go in the science building, I’m an art major!) But I can tell you a couple of things that are true across the board. Hopefully over the next couple weeks, I can tell you guys what it’s like here at the Mount.

Firstly, for anyone who’s new, the College of Mount Saint Joseph is located on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio, and we’re right on the side of Delhi road. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the center of downtown from here. My permanent home is on the east side of Cincinnati, off of Salem road. It takes me 35-45 minutes to get to the college from the east side of town, depending on traffic. If there’s no traffic at all, I can make it in 30 minutes!

For those who have the opportunity, if you live as far from the Mount as I do, I’d highly recommend looking into living on campus. This is my second year living on campus, and I’m very glad I do. I have friends that attend the Mount that live close to where I live an commute, and it seems pretty stressful, coming through downtown. I’ll write a blog all about it later this year, but if I don’t wake up till 10 minutes before my morning classes, I can make it on time!

I’ve been asked by a great many people this one very simple question: Why the Mount? Why didn’t I go to University of Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky University? Wouldn’t those have saved me money?

It’s true that the Mount is going to be more expensive (generally) than those schools. But there’s many things to consider about the Mount where the Mount’s got lots of stuff to show off, in my mind!

First, after my presidential scholarship from the Mount, my actual tuition is almost identical to what I’d pay going to UC. The Mount gives out a ton of scholarships. I really don’t know a single person that goes here that pays the full amount for tuition. So go ahead an apply, you never know what might happen!

Secondly, the Mount has a ton of stuff that UC or NKU can’t really offer me. They’re both good schools, but here’s a few reasons the Mount won out!

A big reason for me was that the Mount, being a much smaller school, had time to treat me much more personally than UC or NKU did. The Mount toured my mother and I around the school one on one with a tour guide. At UC I was in a 30+ person group with one tour guide. Also, class size at the Mount is waaaaaaaay smaller than the bigger schools. My brother attends UC, and he frequently has seminars and other basic classes that have anywhere from 50 and frequently up to 500 or more students. Here at the Mount, my general freshman courses, which are the biggest I’ve had so far, had about 30 students each in my Art Seminar and my Freshman Seminar. The smaller school affords you more of a personal presence on campus. For me personally both the head of the Art department and the head of the English department (The heads of my major and my minor) both know me by my first name. That wouldn’t be terribly likely at UC.

As the next few weeks go on, I hope to tell you more about the specifics of what it’s like here at the Mount. And the longer I’m here, the more I’m beginning to love it! I hope you guys will tag along as we go through this year.

It’s gonna be a blast! Stick around, folks! I’ll write more next week!

Whew! It feels like forever since I’ve talked to you guys! I hope you all can forgive me. I have an excuse this time! There’s a good reason! Well, actually there are about nine good reasons, but I won’t bore you with all of them here. I’ll tell you about the two most important ones.

Late on Monday night, my brother flew in from Germany. He was co-oping with an engineering company in Wiertzburg (I probably spelled that wrong) as part of the University of Cincinnati’s International co-op program. So he speaks fluent German now. That’s what half a year will do for ya! Anyway, my brother’s been gone for a whole six months! It feels like foreeeeeever since he’s been in the house. But finally, he’s come back. I went to pick him up from Covington international airport. And it’s really a relief to see him again! I’m starting to feel left out. I’m about the only one in the house that doesn’t speak German! My mom and dad took it in high school and still remember a great deal of it. My sister is required to be able to read and write German as part of her Master’s in Art History. And…I sorta speak Spanish! But that doesn’t really help. My sister speaks some Spanish, as well as her German, and French!

Oh well, back to business!

Also, at 11:30 am on Monday morning, September 22nd, I became UNCLE Tom! My very first Nephew, Matthew Joseph, was born at Christ Hospital on Monday morning. He’s 9 lbs. 3 oz. and 22 ½’’! He looks like a six-month old! I’m very pleased to say Mom and baby are doing well, and went home from the hospital early Wednesday morning. I was over at their home, house-sitting all Monday night. I felt bad because I was doing my Typography painting on their really nice counter. Don’t worry, I didn’t make a mess!

This is also my parents' very first grand child! We're all very excited. I'm told little Matthew is settling in at home just fine, and he finds the cat facinating.

Anyway, I did get to visit Matthew and his mom on Monday night, and I got to hold him for a half-hour. It really makes you think about life a little more, holding such a tiny human being in your hands!

I was gonna try to get pictures for you guys, but I couldn’t get the camera off my mom, so maybe next time!

There’s so much going on this year and I haven’t even gotten the chance to show you the half of it! Stick around, there’s so much more to tell!

See you guys next week!

I waited and waited to write this blog, waiting for the perfect moment in which to tell you all about ALL the exciting things that have happened to me since the beginning of this school year. But the exciting things just kept piling up and up and up! But finally, I think I’ve managed to wrap a bow around one set of exciting things so that I can mail them off to you, and begin working on my next set of exciting things.

Where to begin? I can tell you all everything about everything! There’s simply too much to tell. But perhaps I can tell you all a little about everything. And perhaps that will do.

Move it went of basically without a hitch. It never goes perfectly, and I don’t think I want it to, but it went as well as I could hope for it to be! Jimmy and I used a big dolly that folds out into a cart to tote all our stuff up to our room, and it worked very well! (I might add, it’s extremely fun to get pushed around on. Though slightly horrifying when Jim picks up his feet and we accelerate unchecked straight towards other parents’ expensive cars) My room is still slightly messy from things I’ve yet to find a place for, but I’m starting to work out my system. Hopefully it will be clean before too long.

A couple weekends ago, a bunch of us Mount-ers, and a few non Mount-ers, managed to traverse downtown to see this years WEBN fireworks! For those who aren’t from Cincinnati, it’s an amazing show, and they manage to dazzle me every year! It’s a great time, and definitely something that college students should attend. We managed to find a great parking space this year, saw an amazing fireworks show, and went out to IHOP afterwards. What’s not to like? ((I included some pictures below of the gang and me!))

And since I’ve talked with you last our first football game has come and gone! It was a great game, and it was so much fun to watch our running game work so well. We trampled the Wilmington Quakers, 21-7. ((Below I included a picture of my fellow blogger, Andi, and I at the game!)) Go Lions! If you’re a prospective student of the Mount, I’d really encourage you to catch a home football game if you get the chance. It’s not expensive at all, and the Mount crowd always shows folks a good time.

Oh yeah, and our football team is really good. ;)  I think we lost once last year!

This year I’m taking some great courses. I’m taking a course called Contemporary Perspectives, which is a literature course. I’m also taking Graphic Design 1, Typography (the study of how to use type as an art form!) Art Critique, and my faaaaaaaaaavorite! Introduction to Hot Glass! That’s right, I’m taking a glass blowing course this semester!

Glass has been really great so far. I’ve gotten to learn how to ‘gather’ glass from the tank (which is a 2100 degree furnace!) and take it back to the bench and form it! Last time I burned my hand (I grabbed a 700 degree punty rod with my bare hand. It was quite hot, I discovered) but that felt better by the next day! I’m looking forward to going back again this Wednesday, we’re going to learn how to transfer hot glass from one pole to another, which you need to do when you’re making blown pieces like vases or cups. ((I included some pictures of me blowing glass down below!))

Well that’s all for this time folks! Don’t worry, I’ll be back very soon. There’s always things going on here at the Mount. It won’t be long before I can’t resist coming back to tell you more!

See you soon!

This is all of us down at the fireworks! A nice lady used Andi's camera to take this picture for us. From left to right: Jim, Kristy, Me, Chris way up top, then Andi, and Nick!

 

Andi and I showing our Mount Colors down at the Football game!

 

 

Here's me using a sort of wooden spoon called a block to shape a ball of hot glass that I've just gathered from the tank, a 2100 degree oven!








Here's my glass instructor, Aron, giving me some pointers on how to better shape my glass! That rod that the glass is on is called a punty rod. It's a steel rod that doesn't have a hole through the center to blow through. I put my right hand on that pole about a foot behind the glass, and that rod and the glass had just been in a 2100 degree furnace! I burned my hand, but not too bad. It was my fault: You're never supposed to touch the punty rod while you're sitting at the bench. I broke the rules! And it's a rule for that reason!