Clete’s Blog

My first impressions of Mansfield are great. I’m really enjoying my classes, especially Computer Science. I’ll speak more of classes in the coming weeks once they become more advanced.

The facilities here are always well-kept and clean (at least so far). The bathrooms are kept nicely and all buildings are cleaned regularly (even though I never see maintenance, messes are always gone by the next time that I walk by them). The food here is great and has good variety. The only thing that I am not enjoying is walking up huge hills just to get to classes. Cedarcrest (the dorm I am in) is the farthest down the hill from all classes. On the plus side, I am getting a lot of exercise.

As promised, I have posted a few pictures here.

More to come later.

Today is my first day of actual classes in college! I’m majoring in Computer Information Systems at Mansfield University in northern Pennsylvania (Google Maps Link). It’s been interesting, but the bulk of the work will likely pick up near the end of the week. Things are going well here in Mansfield.

Here is a glimpse of what is going on at school. We smeared warpaint on my face in the form of ketchup. Click to enlarge the camera phone picture:

More pictures to come! The campus is beautiful and on a mountain, so I will have some scenic photos soon (hopefully!). I will try to blog more often.

P.S. The weather is drastically different here from that in Columbia, SC. In Columbia, it’s hot (95-100 daily) and extremely humid. The weather here is much more dry and much cooler. The past few days have been in the lower eighties, which is above average. It will begin to cool down starting next week. We are looking at weather in the low to mid seventies. I’m thoroughly enjoying the weather.

MySpace has been the “thing” to do for the past few years. To most teenagers, it’s a novelty and an exciting new venture to “own” a small piece of the internet. Millions and millions of teens have signed up to join the MySpace fad in the past few years. MySpace was created to be a place for people to reunite with their old friends from years past and to meet new friends, but it has taken a turn for the worse. Just as YouTube has turned into a festival of the idiots, MySpace has degraded greatly in quality over the years as tons of people join together and show off their pages, which remind me of the animated .gif phase with .midi files playing on the page. MySpace is essentially what AOL was: a haven for “scr1pt k1ddiez” and a bunch of teenagers who think they are cool because they can omit many letters and all punctuation from their sentences. “y cant u type write” “r u dum” — these are just a few examples of what you may see in comments on MySpace. There is also a growing problem in our nation with indecency. The cause, you may ask? Rap music and the artists that are spreading its atrocities. Now, not all rap music is bad. Some is constructive, but I am referring to the rap music that is morally and ethically degrading. The rap music that will only refer to women and “bitches” and “whores”. It’s the rap music that is degrading the nation’s youth today. We need to stand out against this “gangster” revolution. We need to put an end to the sloppy clothing, the nasty slang words, and the horrible message that these “artists” are sending to the youth (and yes, I realize that I am part of the youth, but I am proud to not be a part of the “gangster” movement). …sorry about the rant. Back on topic.
Today, I closed my MySpace account. The only reason I kept it running was to unite with friends, but when it turned out that I was never united any more by MySpace, I decided to cancel my account.

My question is: When will MySpace fall? When will people realize that MySpace is full of this junk? I estimate that it will take a few years and that MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube will fall. Something else will come along. I sure hope that whatever is next turns out better.

I know that I haven’t posted in a long, long time and I also know that not many people read my blog, but for those of you who do, here’s an update for you.

I have been working in electronics at Sears a lot. I have also been away to Pennsylvania. And lastly, I had my tonsils and adnoids removed yesterday, so I am in a good bit of pain from that and will be at the house for a week or two.

That’s all for now. Maybe I’ll post something interesting later.

P.S. For you laptop Linux users, Intel PowerTOP is a good application to find out what is eating your battery. A discussion has been created on the Gentoo Forums for it. Click here