College and How to Build a Dorm Room

I remember when July was ending and August beginning my parents took me out and asked, "What do you need for your dorm room, Samantha?" and, in typically fashion I responded, "Why, I have no idea?" I had no plan nor did I have any stuff. So, I have decided to help out all you incoming freshmen with a small list of good ideas. You can't get this from a magazine!

Okay, here we go:

1) Privacy is something we all strive for a dorm room. I suggest bringing something with you that you can put stuff in and lock, like a trunk. Important things, expensive things, stuff that has no where else to go can go in a trunk and be locked away. It's like having your home room in a box. Lock the door and nobody can get in. It's also a safety thing. Your in a dorm and as safe as they are, sometimes they just aren't safe. Rooms do get broken into, usually by a roomies own stupidity of not locking/closing the door, and its another level of security.

2) Clothing is nice to have on campus but you do not need your entire closet. When doing your own laundry you quickly discover that hand wash fabrics are not suitable for a college lifestyle. As a college student you can still dress nice just in the same jeans you had on yesterday. Bring one nice outfit and leave it at that because anymore and you are just wasting closet space.
And on the subject of laundry; at OWU you can put money on your ID card to do your laundry but don't rely on that system to be up and running every day. Last year it wasn't and I was cursing the laundry gods. Have some on hand quarters, just in case.

3) Always include a little of you. Pictures, collectables, colors, posters, just something that screams you. For the next nine months that cardboard box of a space is your home and you should make it yours. I decorate with newspaper clippings and I brought two tassels from my tassel collection. It was uniquely me.

4) Good extras: a calender or date book of some kind, an alarm clock, hangers, a first aid kit (or kits for the accident prone), towels (not ninety-six, three is a good number) shampoo soap toothbrush/paste, organizational materials, etc.

If you have any questions about necessary items drop me a message or as a current student if you would like to add anything. Please note I am doing a separate post on tech. items due to the length of it.

Have a great one.

Book Advice

What to write in a blog about my summer which has been spent making money to send me back to school next year. I know my books are going drain the little money I've made and that my dear readers is only the first semester. But that is not something special to OWU. Any university you go to makes you buy way-too-expensive books and half the time they sit unused in a desk drawer. I guess you should read them but sometimes you only need one chapter for one project in a four month semester. Or read-learning just isn't your style. Trust me, I understand and I am an English major. Some books are worth the price though and I have enjoyed a few of the reads for college. Those within your major are usually handy to hold onto.

My recommendation, especially for something outside your major, find out if the book is reserved in a library and if it is not reading intensive I suggest using that copy. It saves you money and for a college student that is always a plus.

I am wearing a shirt that says I love moose and I do. Katie got it for me up in Maine (where she goes to college) and its nice. Soft too. It was a Christmas present. I gave her and OWU Rugby t-shirt because she plays rugby in Maine.

My kitties are good. They like to eat grass. Lots and lots of grass. I don't really like it though. And Spencer rolls in the dirt. I like rolling in the dirt. And, as a follow up to a previous entry, I find that Spencer does not have allergies nor does he get any kitty illnesses. :-)

Have a great one.

Picture the last is of my face after eating grass.

Olivia Pressed on her Face and Passed Out

No kidding, a bird just flew into my window as I was trying to decide on a title. I heard a thunk and saw this very crooked bird start toward one of the trees in my side yard. I don't know what kind of bird. It was big enough to make a loud enough thunk to make me jump but not so big that is scared Mr. Simon the cat who is sleeping at the end of the bed.

Jeez, now I'm distracted.

I just wrote in The Quote Book with a flat pen. It is the kind of pen that you can clip to the page of a note book and close the book and it is flat and won't disrupt the pages at all. I have a whole set and they are very handy for the notebook bookmark but pen. The one in The Quote Book is pink and orange. I was remembering some that Olivia said yesterday that was definitely worthy of remembering.
A quote book is a neat idea for any group of friends. Liv has been wanting to start one since our freshman year of high school and we just got it started a few weeks ago. It is a neat memory keeper because you read one quote and it immediately reminds you of what you were doing, why, and then you laugh and laugh or in the case of sneaky incidents it makes you remember a very good time. We currently have thirty quotes. Magic that its an even number like that huh?

Katie gave me a bracelet that is actually a spoon just bent like a bracelet. I gave her a cow that when you press the button in its head it moos and its nose glows flashlight style.

I just finished reading East of Eden by Steinbeck. It is my second reading and while I enjoyed it the first time I really enjoyed it the second time. I find that I grasp stories and novels better when I have the opportunity to read them a second time. I have friends that are one read people but I benefit from two. And I was able to find time to do such, last semester. So if your a two read person, no worries! you can find time . . . or maybe make time is better but there is enough time.

Have a great one.

Two Hundred and Thrity-One

Happy 231 birthday America.

Compared to other counties around the world, America is the toddler. Japan had a founding date of 660 BCE and, while there is debate, in 871 Alfred the Great named himself the first king of England. Even Kenya beats us by a couple hundred years with an official colonization date of 1505. And aren't we a trouble maker. Born of civil war we immediately decided parent didn't know best and decided a quest for juvenile freedom was better. Break away we did and we learn the price of freedom was actually very expensive so we decide that perhaps and alliance with parent country isn't a bad idea. Now we are again exploring our individuality and breaking away from our friends.

We are going to discuss pictures now because that will help illustrate my point. Again these were taken with digital technology beyond that of anybody. It is so ahead that it was personally developed by myself. Picture number one is our flag with one dot representing the country before it was state-ified. Following that is the thriteen colony flag and then the current American flag. Please ignore the stripe count because I only want to focus on the stars or in this case the dots.

Okay, flag one has one dot because before the exploration of America started it was one country with no division. Then we split into thirteen and then into fifty. While we all still answer to one government I'm afraid that the division has had an interesting effect on the human psyche. When asked where you are from Americas don't respond America or the United States they respond Ohio or Florida or etc, like each state is its own country. I am guilty.

Can we get back flag number one?

Last picture is of the firework I saw. Color breakdown: green is a symbol of envy and purple of royalty. They do make the sky very pretty though. I like the ones that look like weeping willows myself.