We are the music makers...

Back in Business

2008-09-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks I have been at RA training, so it is good to be back on campus full-time. During RA training we went to camp in Maryland where we were able to go canoeing, play basketball, and make smores. We also had an RA talent show which I organized and hosted. We had a good amount of talents and a fair share of odd skits. It was a good break in the middle of training. I met a lot of great people and am excited to be working in North Hall this year.

Anyway, I am back in classes for my last Fall Term here at Drexel. This term I am taking Principles of Human Resources Administrative Management, Marketing Research, Planning and Control of Operations Management, and Linear Modeling for Decision Making. All of my classes are business classes and one of them doesn't have any exams. Though my classes are may be a little easier this term, I have a ton of extra curricular stuff going on: SigEp, Student Ambassadors, intramurals, and RA. Nonetheless, this should be a great term

I have already met all of residents and a ton of freshman. Fall is always a great time to be on campus, because everyone is so excited to be here. It just feels good to walk around campus.

I need to schedule gym time into my actual schedule because I don't have a lot of free time during the day. It's days like this that I wish I had a gym in my own building. Oh well, it's only a block and a half away.

Anyway, I need to go buy waffles and iced cream for my floor meeting tonight, so I need to stop writing. Here is a picture of me one of the RAs took of me at RA camp. I think I look good in it so I am going to post it. Be back soon.

Reading is Fun...

2008-08-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

It's Week 9 of Summer Term here at Drexel, and I couldn't be happier. I only have a few papers left until finals. I have been filling up my free time with working out at the DAC (gym) and reading. I decided instead of sleeping all day, I will try my best to get in-shape and read all of the books on my must-read list. I used to hate reading in High School, because it was mandatory. Now that I can read for fun, reading is actually fun. Over the past couple of weeks I have read Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, and Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I am currently reading Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy and plan on reading the Watchmen by Alan Moore. I don't know why, but I am on a reading binge.

Besides being studious, I have been enjoying my summer. Monday was my birthday, so I am officially 23 years old. I had doctors appointment back in Reading, so I was back in my hometown for my birthday. I was able to see my grandparents and even went to a Reading Phillies game with my Pop Pop. It was cool because Pedro Feliz from the Philadelphia Phillies was in Reading for a rehab start and hit two home runs. To bad they were the only runs the Reading Phils scored.

The other weekend I went down to Old City for First Friday. All of the Art Galleries were open for people to view for free. There are local artists all over the streets of Philly showing off and selling their work. It happens every first Friday of the month and is always a good time. If you are ever in Philly on the first Friday of the month, head to 2nd and Market and start wondering.

Dillon Scissor-Hand

2008-07-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

So the last few weeks has been a struggle because of my hand surgery, but I am finally out of my cast and more mobile. I can use my hand for simple things but can't lift weights or do anything to crazy. My goal is to be able to hold a briefcase in my fingers and I am slowly making progress. My hand therapist is a faculty member down at the Center City Hahnemann Campus. I go down there once an week and each week she has given me more hand exercises. Currently I have a six exercises workout which takes up 30 minutes at a time, 4 times a day. Either way, I am sticking to schedule because I don't want to re-injure my hand. So about 6 weeks down... 3 months to go?

I had all 3 of my midterms over the past two weeks. I had my last midterm tonight in Criminal Law. It consisted of 18 essay and short answer questions and almost took me 3 hours to complete. Even though the test was so long, I enjoyed taking it. The test had a lot of scenarios for which we had to develop the best defense or prosecution. I usually don't enjoy taking tests, but I really enjoyed this one. Who knows kids... maybe one day you could enjoy taking a test?

Speaking of tests, Friday I will be taking the GRE tests. The GREs are basically the SATs for college students. I thought I was done with standardized testing once I left high school, but I am still studying vocab words and analogies. Please, wish me luck!

So, lets move on to the highlight of the week. The Philadelphia Soul won the AFL Arenabowl Championship! The Soul was the best team all season and they finally brought a championship to Philly. It may not be a World Series, Stanley Cup, or Superbowl, but its something. Another huge advantage to the Soul winning is that Jon Bon Jovi is going to play a free concert in Philly since the Soul won. For those who don't know, Bon Jovi owns the Soul. So if you're a Bon Jovi fan, keep your ears open for a free concert.

Anyway I need to get back to studying... or watching TV... no wait, studying.

Brewing and Philosophy

2008-07-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

So this week I had two big projects due, one in Business Planning and one in the Philosophy of Ethics. My project for Business Planning consisted of a paper and a presentation, and Ethics required only a presentation. Both were due on Tuesday... TUESDAY! So I stayed up quite late on Monday to finish them.

The business my group is creating is a Home Brewing store located in the University City, were individuals can come to learn how to brew and bottle their own beer. The presentation went well and it seems to be a promising idea, at least for this class.

In philosophy we had to present on the Ethics of Professionalism. We took about an hour to review the subject and play a number of entertaining youtube.com clips. We raised a good number of questions the class debated. I didn't understand some of them, but at least there was discussion.

I had a long week full of restless sleep, but I'm excited for this weekend because I have nothing due next week and I get to go play with my girlfriends two year old niece. If you ever get a chance to play with a two year old who is talking up a storm, do so. It's a lot of fun, especially when you can go home afterwards.

Well have a happy Friday.

4th of July in Philly

2008-07-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

So I had a chance to relax this weekend. Friday was the 4th o July, so I slept late, BBQed all day, and then went to the Art Museum to see the fireworks. Last year the fireworks were canceled because of rain, but the rain held off enough this year for a great show. John Legend performed on the parkway earlier at night, but I didn't feel like battling the crowd to see him.

On Saturday a bunch of Sig Eps and I went to the Bridge movie theater down on 40th and Walnut to see Handcock. All in all it was a pretty good movie. After the movie my girlfriend and I went to Marathon grill for dinner and then went to Ben and Jerry's for dinner.

Today I just hung, out watched baseball, cleaned up a little, and watched Harry Potter on TV. I need to do some homework tonight. I have 2 presentations on Tuesday; one in Philosophy and the other in Business Planning. Hopefully I will be able to sleep tonight and tomorrow night. Wish me luck.

It's been a while...

2008-07-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I haven't updated this in a while, so it's time to catch up. Let's do this in a abbreviated mode.

Greek Week:

Sig Ep finished 2nd place over all. We placed 2nd in stroll which disappointed me because we finished in first last year. We won volleyball after finishing 2nd last year and made a good run, but just finished short. We didn't place in the talent show but we had a great time changing the words to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under The Bridge." Made it to the semi-finals in football during with I hurt my hand, but we will talk about that later.

If you want to see our stroll videos here are the links:
2007- http://youtube.com/watch?v=BZ2wldUdwa4
2008- http://youtube.com/watch?v=UDuTLXqG0CE

Spring term:

Finished the term with a 3.73 GPA, so I was very happy about that. I took 20 credits so it was a lot of work and I was worn out by the end of the term. (Macroeconomics, International Business, Intro to Entrepreneurship, Intro to Finance, and Organizational Behavior.) My hardest class by far was my Management class, Intro to Entrepreneurship. I was selected group leader, so I had to make sure that each assignment flowed and was submitted on time. It also meant that I would be up till 2 AM every night before the assignments were due. We had to complete a Feasibility study for a Kinetic Cell Phone Battery. After 6 weeks of assignments ranging from presentation, elevator pitches, and 40 pages pages, our team was ranked first and we received As. Thank God. My favorite class was Macroeconomics thanks to my professor Maria Olivero. If you ever get a chance to take a class with her, do it.

The highlight of the term was on the softball field. Sig Ep with me at shortstop won the IFC Softball Championship for the first time ever. We finished in 2nd last year so it felt great beating both TKE and Pike each by one run on the same day to win the championship.

Break week:

So I went back home to Reading for the break week and decided to finally get my hand checked. During Greek Week, I jammed my right ring finger in the final down of our flag football game. It swelled up and I simply assumed that I jammed my finger. A week or two later when the swelling went down, I couldn't bend the tip of my finger. It didn't hurt and I had finals coming up, so I let it go until term break. Well when I got home, I got an X-ray and the results showed that I had fractured the top joint in my right ring finger. I went to an orthopedist to get an opinion and they sent me to a hand specialist. It was there that I found out that I also torn the tendon in my hand and would need immediate surgery that would take 4-6 months to rehab. So I had the surgery and will be spending summer term without my right hand... AWESOME!

Summer term:

So summer term has started. I only have 15 credits with classes only on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Even though I have a bum hand this term should be fine because none of my classes require much writing. My classes are interesting and the term looks to be a relaxing one. I looked at the classes I have left to graduate and I only have 11 classes left, let the countdown to graduation begin.

~352 days and counting

I'll tell you all how the rest of the term is, hopefully more often. Have a good one.

Back to school... to prove to Dad that I'm no fool!

2008-04-01T08:38:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my first day back in classes after Co-Op. It was a very uneventful day, which was amazing. I only had three hours of class and had large breaks in my day. I was able to watch some Opening Day baseball games and play soccer out on Buckley Turf. I feel asleep and missed the end of the game I was watching, but I was still happy because I actually have the ability to nap. As mentioned before, sleep was a commodity that I was lacking.

Anyway, I just finished my first Finance class. I think I will enjoy Finance because it is a mix of Accounting and Statistics. I wasn't a huge fan of STAT but I love Accounting so I think this will be a great class. I am about to head down to the dining hall before I have International Business. I will fill everyone in on all of my classes later.

Zach Braff = Awesome music @ World Live Cafe!

2008-03-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

So Saturday night I attended the Hotel Cafe Tour at World Live Cafe, which is a small venue a block off Drexel's Campus. The tour featured Ingrid Michaelson, Eric Hutchinson, Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin, and Meiko. It was basically a group of singer songwriters having a great time. The artists rotated coming on and off the stage, playing 3 or 4 songs at a time and then switching. Each artist came out and sang with the other artists. It was just a great show and it looked as if the artists really enjoyed performing for us. The venue was small and comfortable, making the show extremely personal.

I found out about most of these artists thanks to Zach Braff. The Cary Brothers and Joshua Radin are on the Scrubs soundtrack as well as the Garden State and Last Kiss soundtracks. Colin Hay who also appeared on the Scrubs and Garden State soundtrack is coming to World Cafe in April too. So thank you Zach Braff... Thank you for introducing me to these great musicians!

Quick Catch-Up

2008-03-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

So it's been a busy few weeks and I just wanted to mention a huge event that happened a couple of weeks ago.

On March 6th, my fraternity held the First Annual Sigma Phi Epsilon Charity Concert for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. St. Baldrick's is the world's largest volunteer-driven fundraising event for childhood cancer research. Thousands of volunteers shave their heads in solidarity of children with cancer, while requesting donations of support from friends and family. We had done this event last year but at a much smaller scale. This year we had over 60 people (two of them were women) shave their heads. It was an amazing event and to date we have raised $18,324.51. I am proud of my fraternity for accomplishing this amazing task, and I am even prouder for having taken part in this event. I have attached a before and "somewhat after" photo of me from the concert.

If you want to learn more about St. Baldrick's you can check out our team page: http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/event_info.html?EventKey=2008-890 ricks.org/events/event_info.html?EventKey=2008-890

Finals Week, please be over...

2008-03-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

Even though I am on Co-Op, I decided to take a night class. Over Co-Op you are allowed to take a free class as long as it is 3 credits or less. I decided to take an Electrical Engineering class (ECE 200- Digital Logic). My final is tonight and I couldn't be happier. I realized now that I should have asked around before taking this class, because I didn't understand circuits very well my freshman year and this is the basics for circuits and computers. Either way, I studied until 3 AM last night and am confident in the material.

Next week is Drexel's Spring Break. Some of my friends are headed home. Others are headed to exotic Islands. I am working. WHOA PARTY! Oh well one more week of getting paid is always a good thing. Though Co-Op is a great experience and I am thankful for all the experience I gained and people I met... I really just want to be able to sleep in during the week. Sleep is a commodity that I currently do not have, and I want it back.

Scholar's Day / Duct Tape Your RA

2008-03-03T08:38:00.001-08:00

So this weekend were our two Scholar's Day events. All students who received an AJ Drexel Scholarship were invited to Drexel for more information on the College and their planned major of study. I had to work at the events from 8 AM till 4 Pm both Saturday and Sunday, but the event ran very smoothly. I had a chance to meet a lot of potential Drexel students, while also hanging out with some Student Ambassadors I haven't met yet.

The most interesting part of my weekend happened last night. The Calhoun Hall RAs have been raising money over the past week for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The four RAs who raise the most money get duct taped to the poles in the Calhoun lobby. There were cans at the front desk all week where residents could donated money to get their RA taped to a pole. Until Sunday afternoon we had only raised a total of about $80. With 1 hour left, all of the residents banded together to try and get their RA taped.

In the end 4 RAs were picked, Brent (3rd floor), Aditi (7th floor), George (4th floor), and myself (8th floor). Between 8 PM and 9 PM we went from having $80 in donation to almost $400.

I will admit, being duct taped to a large concrete poll is not the most comfortable experience, but it was for a great cause. I was proud of my residents for donating their money (which college students usually do not have much of) to get me taped. It was a great event and was for a great cause. Yeah Calhoun!

It's Snowing!

2008-02-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's just me, but whenever it's snowing I think of the movie Hook. The reason for this is at one point in the movie, that crazy old man playing Tootles yells, "It's snowing!" and slams the door in Robin Williams face. I know it's odd, but it's snowing in Philly today and I am loving it.

Classes weren't all cancelled, but some students were lucky enough to get emails from their professors cancelling class. I have work all day, but I can't really be upset cause it is snowing. It doesn't snow much in Philly so any day it snows is gonna be a great day.

When I was a sophomore and lived in my fraternity house, we made a huge slide from all the snow on our front lawn which started on our porch and led down the sidewalk. A bunch of the brothers, some girls from the sorority next door, and some neighborhood kids rode cafeteria trays and sleds down the slide. The problem was that most people could not stay on the slide for the entire ride. They either fell of their sled or slid of the slide all together. Though some of us ended up getting a few bruises from a runaway sledder, we had a great time.

So this weekend I have a lot to look forward too. Tonight is my fraternity formal so I will soon be getting all dressed up for a night out. Tomorrow I have fraternity bowling, followed by one of my best friend's engagement party. Sunday I have a basketball game and another round of fraternity bowling. I have a lot to do, so hopefully I will actually be able to rest this weekend.

Let's hope...

Taxes and the weekend...

2008-02-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

So this weekend I was planning on heading home to do my taxes... WOOOOO!!! Unfortunately I wasn't about to borrow a car to make it home to reading so I will have to stay here in Philly and do my taxes with my mom over the phone. I wish that I had time to go home, but I have so much going on here at school that I don't have time to get home until March. I need to get my FAFSA done ASAP and in order to do that I need all of my taxes done. I wish that this was like Star Trek and I could beam home and then beam back as soon as I am done with all of that. Though I like going home, I am looking forward to my weekend here a little bit more.

My Schedule:

Friday-

Go Shopping Down Town
Watch Lost
Hangout with Dustin and Al

Saturday-

Bowling
Rambo
Epsilon Initiation
V-Day Dinner
Zach and Rich's B-Day Party

Sunday-

Floor Hockey
Confirmation / Free Confirmation Dinner

I think taxes can wait...

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-02-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

This week so far has been jam packed with things to do. Yesterday in particular was pretty crazy. I was up late Tuesday night because I was on duty in my building (duty = RA on call), and got into work a little late Weds morning. There was a group visit so I had to talk to 40 freshman and Sophomore High School students about Drexel. After that I had an interview and finally got a chance to take a lunch break. I decided to eat something unhealthy and ordered a pepperoni cheesesteak from Pete's Lunch Truck. When my order came up, I received a regular cheese steak with onions and ketchup. On a normal day I would have just been fine with it and taken the order to save time, but yesterday I really wanted my pepperoni cheesesteak. So I waited another 5 minutes while they prepared the correct order for me.

Now lunch was when I started to get anxious. I was anxious because I had a midterm at 6PM for ECE 200 - Digital Logic. Now, I felt comfortable with the material, but I had no idea what the professor was going to put on the exam. We have had only three weeks of night class and I have not gotten two of my homework’s back. So though I thought I knew what I was doing, it didn't mean that I did. Nonetheless, after work I went right to CAT 070 and prepared to take the test. Professor Katz handed the 3 page paper to me and I thought, "Hey this is pretty short it can't be too hard." Then I opened the test and all of a sudden my mind went blank. Why is it that whenever you put down your guard, everybody attacks at once? I felt relieved and then immediately panicked. I looked through the test... there were seven questions. I knew three of them immediately and began to work. Once I finished the questions I knew I began work on the others. After working for about five minutes I realized I was an idiot and that this was the easiest digital logic test ever... since it was the only digital logic test I had ever taken it was easy to label it that way.

After the ridiculous experience which was my first digital logic test, I went back to Calhoun Hall to run my staff meeting for the first time by myself. Amy, my AD/RD, was down in Florida at a conference, so since I am the Head RA in Calhoun, it was my job to hold the meeting. The meeting went well and we had a carton of gushers fruit snacks for everyone to eat. After the meeting I settled in to go to sleep. Before I went to bed I visited the bathroom to wash up and brush my teeth. When I returned to my room... the door was closed and locked. Apparently if you leave a window open in a Calhoun room, the wind like to blow them shut. So I was locked out, and did I mention I was in nothing but my boxers. I knocked on one of my residents doors, demanded a pair of pants, and went down to the front desk to get my spare key. It was way to much work for just going to the bathroom.

Tonight should be much more entertaining. Of course the night will start with Thursday Fun Foursome Bowling League. When I get back on Campus, all of the fraternities on campus are hosting an event call "Best Pizza on Campus." At this event students can go from house to house and taste pizza from all of the local pizza shops. If you visit and taste all of the pizza, you will be eligible to vote for the "Best Pizza on Campus." It should be a good time with lots of free food. So it should be a pretty good time...

Night at the Movies

2008-02-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

So I went to see Cloverfield the other night, and we pleasantly surprised. If I never saw The Blair Witch Project the movie would have been amazing, but the first person point of view thing had already been done so it was simply entertaining. I felt dumb because apparently I missed a very important shot at the end of the movie... oh well. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and don't think I will be going to NYC anytime soon (just in case).

After the movie, my girlfriend and I went to Marathon Grill. I wasn't in the mood for anything on the menu, so I made my own salad. The salad consisted of baby spinach, grilled shrimp, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, and fresh mozzarella cheese. It was delicious. After dinner I went home, plopped on my couch, and played NBA Live 2003. Over all I had a very relaxing night.

First Post- Thursday nights... always a good time.

2008-01-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

So since this is my first post let me start by introducing myself. My name is Dillon. I am 22 years old and I live in Philadelphia. I attend Drexel University at which I am a Business and Engineering major, a Resident Assistant, and a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. These are all important facts to know so I don't have to start every entry with... "So I am an RA and last night someone duct taped someone's door closed." Not that that happened or anything. I just wanted to give a good example. Anyway, I wanted to lay some groundwork so I could just go for it...

Thursday Jan. 17th-
Thursday is probably my favorite day of the week. Not because the week is almost done, but because it is bowling night. Three years ago, two of my fraternity brothers and one of my brother's girlfriends (now fiancée) joined a bowling league in Mount Laurel, NJ. Mount Laurel is about a 30-minute drive outside of Philly so we switch driving each week. We initially joined this league because we wanted a night to just hangout and have a good time. Each week you pay a fee for the lanes and then some of the fee goes into the winnings pot. At the end of the year each team wins a certain amount of money. The better you do in the league the more money you get. There are about 30 teams in the league and we have finished in the middle of the pack the last 2 years. This year on the other hand we are doing extremely well and last quarter finished in 2nd place. Needless to say, the fun has turned to a competition and we are trying to win more money ($=good for college student).
But I digress; bowling is my stress relief for the week. It is important that everyone in college or working in the real world to find something they enjoy at which they can clear their head and have fun. Whether it be the gym, the outdoors, if you're like Ren McCormack and you like dancing in wearhouses (which is not a crime), or singing in the shower... make sure to find that one thing so you don't good too crazy.

I have recently seen the movie Once and I have had the song "Falling Slowly" stuck in my head for days. If you haven't heard it definitely check it out.

I don't know how to end my first entry... so why not stop in the middle of a ....