Yeah that's right, I turn 19 this week, WOoOo Me!  Anyway this is my last blog and I wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and have a good break. Anyways I wrote a little something. See you in January!

Driving down a highway
For perhaps the thousandth time
In a past  few years of life
I hear her voice in my mind
Fresh as if I recorded her whisper
From many yesterdays ago

To wonder how long
Such occurrences have consumed me
As sites of lush green hills
And police men with radar guns
Repeat themselves like an old storybook

Parking the car a crow flies overhead
Never grow old of tracing its path
With my eyes wondering if it sees me
As free as I see it

A cold winter air bites through wool cloth
Hugging me like a loving mother
Perhaps not knowing of its effect
Refusing to let go out of fear

Retreating into a classroom
Surrounded by some dozen students
I'll wonder just how many share with me
This bitter sense of monotony
Perhaps I'll meet a pair of wandering eyes
And know my answer

Yet I'm fearful of the future
Letting go of what I've known
Maybe I've yet to realize
Its let go of me

Suppose I am just not yet comfortable
With my sense of everything I've lost
Of love and friendship and simplicity
If I ask you to do your best to help
Will you walk with me farther into confusion
Hoping to find an exit

Clock bells toll as my feet shuttle me
Towards an uncertain structure of time
So I may sit idly not knowing what to do
As my thoughts struggle to catch up

When they finally do
I pick up a pen and paper
Trying my best to recall who I am
But the best I manage
Is to remind myself not to take this so seriously

Tomorrow might see me an old man
Longing for memories of laughter and joy
To replace a failed construction
Of a perfect tale

College can be stressful at times and people need to just relax and enjoy their college experience and go out and do things they love to do. When work gets hard you vent on what you love most. There are plenty of things to do around the Campus and Delhi.

Some of the things I do around the campus usually does the trick of rehabilitating myself. I love to go up to the sixth floor of the Seton building and get out on the roof just to look at view. You get this amazing glance at the entire Cincinnati area. You see the airport, Newport on the Levee and I'm pretty sure even Price Hill. When I'm out on the roof, it's easy to recollect myself. The other thing that can bring me to my spirits is playing the piano. I love hearing myself play and it just calms me down anytime I'm aggrivated with life. The last thing is I love to lift in the Harrington Center. When I'm really angry I like to cool down by keeping fit.

ScallyWag Tag is fun place to go to relive those childhood memories. It's a lot of fun and cheap. On certain nights you can get lucky and pay $15.99 for three games. I discovered this new place the other day BuyBacks. They sell used movies, games, and cd's as low as $.99. My friends and I love to watch movies on my 32 inch HDTV in my room and that store is the perfect place to get good movies at a convienent price. One place I love to eat and clog up my arteries happens to be the closest fast food place to the college and that would be White Castle aka Sliders. I get the cravings from time and time and I'm lucky enough to live a mile away from one.

Well those are the things I enjoy doing while living on campus here at the Mount.

I was up late last night studying for psychology while eating a nice hearty bowl full of ramen and a spark of interest came into mind and inspired me to write this:

Spread your wings out to fly.
Jump out into the existence.
Sweet misery tastes anything but sweet.
Disaster can only come so many times.
You will learn.
There's a way.
only one.

When you're viewing the world from heights unknown.
Vision suddenly is clear, the big no longer command.
All your mistakes are yours to own.
But make no mistake, they don't end up in your own hand.
Clarity is always one step to the left.
Misery is straight ahead.
Behind you is a world conquered.
Above. that's where it begins.

3 years that will test.
1 for the preparation
1 for the experiment
1 for the conclusion
Knowledge grows. Stupidity follows.
Here's to the finale.
I wish you the best.

So as the days pass by the cold sweeps in. It's been really cold lately and what's worse is I can't fit into any of my cloths. I've already gained my freshmen 20! I've been surviving off of these two pairs of sweat pants. And My roomate has a passion for the cold, he turn the cool air on even at cold temperatures. Now I've been keeping myself pretty bundled up. If you see me, I'm the eskimo.

I'e had some other downsides in life lately too. My computer's keyboard is broken and I don't hae enough money to fix it. There is one specific button not working and I'll let you try and figure it out yourself. I'm going to collect some loose change to get it fixed or it's going to be ery diffcult to type my papers.  

 I hae some good news though, I'e connected with ery old friend of mine. I lost touch with her when I moed out here to the Mount. I'm lucky to become great friends with her again.  It makes me happier than a fat kid at a buffet. 

Well today is election day. I've been glued to the tv all day excited about who the new president will be. It looks to me like Obama will be our next president. I was expecting McCain to win but both candidates look very promising.

Well now I'm more than half way through the first semester and I've learned a lot on surviving college so I thought I might share my college survival guide.

1)Don't skip class

2)Lock your dorm

3)Study For Tests

4)Don't Overestimate yourself

5)Don't stress, you can always bring your grade up.

6)Eat breakfast

7)Manage your time wisely

8)Get plenty of sleep

9)Facebook=bad

10)Join clubs and study groups

11)Don't Procrastinate

12)Don't play too many video games

13)Stay involved

14)Manage money Wisely

15)Work a part time job or on Campus

16)Stay in Shape

17)Go out and just have fun with your friends

18)Stay Connected with family

19)Get close to your advisor

20)Don't Give up!

Alright so a lot has happened in the past few weeks. I had dorm wars which was really fun. I had the homecoming dance which I will provide pictures . I volunteered in the haunted woods. And I went to sawfest on newport on the levee. Sawfest was this marathon of saw movies a group of friends and I went to. We were prepping up for saw V. I've been a fan of the saw movies for years now and its been tradition for me and my friends to go out and see the midnight release. The newest saw was pretty gory and was very different from the others. The ending was phenomenal. But I don't give away the ending. I highly recommend watching it if you don't know what to do for halloween.

These Pictures are kind of blurry since I took them with my cell phone

So we're half through the semester which means we're one fourth of the way through the year and one sixteenth of the way through the my four years and so on. Anyway I've learned so much already. These liberal arts classes have made me think differently about the world and its surroundings. I've been learning to think critically about stuff I never thought I would think about. Like society and politics and other world issues that never use to concern me.

Recently, I just scheduled my classes for next semester. It looks like its going to be another tough four months. I'm taking Biology 112, Chemistry 112, Piano II, Masterworks in Music, Philosphy, and DINOSAUR BIOLOGY. I'm taking a lot of tough classes. I'm not big fan of Chemistry so hopefully I get my study habits and my schedule worked out so  that I can be prepared for next semester.

Alright enough about school, its almost Halloween! This weekend I've been working at the Williamsburg Junior Athletic Association (WJAA). Every halloween, my father and I and about another other sum people work there to scare the heeby jeeby's out of people. We work out in the middle of the woods with about 50 different other skits. It's a lot of fun. I dressed up as Jason from the the friday the 13th movies.  I loved getting in people's faces when they don't expect it and watch them jump. That's pretty much the highlight of my weekend. I would also like to note that SAW V is coming out next weekend, it's been a tradition of mine to go see those movies opening night. I'm also pretty stoked about homecoming but I will talk about that in my next blog, with PICTURES

                So the other day I went to Alan Drew’s presentation.  He talked about his book called Gardens of Water. It’s a very powerful book about two conflicting families who live two completely different lives. There are two families who live in Istanbul living in the same apartment complex. One family is American.  The other is Muslim Kurdish. There is strong tension between the two. One is Christian and the other was Muslim. The Kurdish family is opposed to American’s because they supply the Kurd’s enemy with weapons. Anyway, he wrote about a very  important message from the book that I would like to share.

“There are so many reasons, Sinan canim,” his father said. “Many complicated reasons that make no sense. People are afraid to lose things-power, land, oil, money- and all these people- the Turks, the Iraqis, the Iranians-think we’ll take those things away from them”. “I don’t understand.” “You will”, he said. “But for now, before it becomes confusing, remember one thing. None of these people are your friends- not the Arabs, not the Turks, and not the Americans.” “I don’t understand. The Americans are far away, across the ocean.” “No, they’re not. They’re in the guns the Turkish paramilitaries fire, they’re in the money they give to dictators like Saddam Hussein, they’re even in the ground, pumping out the oil.” His father smiled, but not a happy one. The Americans are never far away” (Drew 146-7).

Car troubles seem popular right now, the high volume of friends complaining about running me everywhere and high prices on gas. See the problem is I don’t drive. I can’t afford a car, especially when the gas prices are almost four dollars a gallon. Its trouble finding a decent car the runs on good gas mileage, and the fact that I’m having a hard time trying to get a job while working my tail end off on my studies. It’s kind of hard getting a job when you don’t have a car. It would take me fifteen minutes just to walk there. That’s if I got a job down in Delhi Plaza.

Also, my girlfriend drains me of any cash I do have, whether it’s on buying her gifts, taking her to expensive fairs, paying people gas to see her, or supporting her filthy smoking addiction. Once we went to the brown county fair and I spent nearly fifty bucks on a stupid balloon game while trying to win her a big stuff animal.

Anyway back to the point. I’m starting the matt rose fund to try and get my car purchased. I’m going to place banners all around the school and jars with my name on it labeled as; “Matt's Car Fund”. It would be unacceptable if anyone put pennies in it. I only accept cash, though plastic works great too. I hope through this fund that I can raise 15,000 dollars so that I can get a nice new car.