By the way, my name is Megan Kerr and my screenname is megannnkerr.

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12/6/05

Students Go All Out for an Orange Bowl Matchup. Penn State students are willing to go broke to get their hands on a ticket to see Penn State in its first ever appearance in a BCS game. With costs of tickets, transportation, lodging, and general expenses the numbers are racking up. Students who are not able to get student section tickets from the Bryce Jordan Center tomorrow are willing to go on E-bay and pay up to $250 for one. As much as I would love to be there, I don’t think I’d pay a penny more than $200 for a ticket. My brother, a junior here at PSU, just bought two tickets for himself and my dad at $450 a piece. Basically, he is nuts. It may be a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” but is it really worth emptying your bank account?

12/5/05

I read an article in the Daily Collegian way back at the end of October/beginning of November about causes of sickness in students that really pertains to these upcoming weeks. The article stated that many sicknesses this time of year were not so much weather-related as they were stress-related. Many students are under a lot of stress right now due to the upcoming of finals, end of classes, and the holiday season. Everyone is working towards finishing up projects, studying for tests and final exams, doing last minute homework, writing papers, and even shopping for the holidays. All of these activities put together can really stress a kid out. The article I read said that stress often leads to a lack of sleep because there is not enough time to accomplish all of the activities we want to in a day. This lack of sleep leads to a weakening of the immune system when in turn leads to susceptibility to disease. At a time like this, that is the last thing I need. If only the colleges would just lessen the workload of the average student towards the end of the semester…but that will never happen.

12/2/05

Winter has set in and so has the Christmas season. Yesterday’s Daily Collegian featured a main article about the fraternities decorating their houses for the holiday season. The featured fraternity and winner of the Intrafraternity Council (IFC) light contest was Sigma Pi, 303 Fraternity Row. Three other beautiful decorated and historically built fraternities that will join Sigma Pi in this year’s showcase include Beta Theta Pi, 220 N. Burrowes Road, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 200 E. Beaver Ave., and Theta Delta Chi, 305 E. Prospect Ave. Last night, three friends and I decided to go take a look for ourselves to see how fairly the houses were judged. Being huge fans of Christmas decorations, something like this was right up our alley. We found that Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi were the two most elegant frats. SAE went for a more traditional and classic look while Sig Pi decorated in complete white lights. Both were absolutely gorgeous and the pledges and brothers deserve a lot of credit.

12/1/05

I woke up at 7:30am this morning so I could get down to the Commons Desk and do an open room exchange for next semester, only to find out that someone had already chosen the room I wanted. Normally, this wouldn’t be the biggest deal for me. However, I think the system is somewhat flawed. My roommate is moving onto her sorority floor and the girl I wanted to room with next semester has a roommate who is transferring schools. Wouldn’t it make sense to allow me to transfer into the room with my friend, leaving a room completely vacant for those girls in supplemental who want to move but don’t want to leave their roommate(s)? But no, Penn State insisted on letting the supplemental girls choose first so they’d have to split up and I couldn’t get the room I wanted. This is so frustrating.

11/30/05

A lot of students have been complaining about the system the Bryce Jordan Center is using to sell bowl game tickets. They’ve decided to go with a wristband method in which they hand out wristbands numbered from one to whatever amount they decide to give out on one day. They next day at 8am, the students show up and a random number is drawn. The student with that number wristband gets to be at the head of the line with the consecutive numbers following. Students argue that this is unfair because they think they need to miss class to go early and get a wristband. However, a student made a good argument in the Opinion section of today’s Daily Collegian, stating that you don’t need wristband number one because you are just as likely to get a ticket with wristband number 2,000 because the random number they choose to head the line might be 1,002. For students who camped out thinking they’d be the first to get tickets, well that’s just tough luck. At least you can still get a wristband?

11/29/05

Should I get my tonsils out over Christmas break? I wasn’t going to because I didn’t want to miss out on Christmas dinner and celebrating New Year’s Eve. Instead, I was going to get my wisdom teeth out since that only takes a few days, whereas tonsillectomy takes about two weeks to recover. However, today I had to go to the doctor again because my strep throat came back for the fourth time in eight weeks. If I ever want to get better, I guess the best idea would be to suck it up and get my tonsils taken out over winter break. This is honestly ridiculous because I think the people at the University Health Services know me by name now since I’ve been in there so many times. If I get the surgery I could probably save myself a lot of money too from all these doctor bills. Anyone have any better ideas/arguments?

11/28/05

The Daily Collegian had an interesting article about Black Friday today. It was titled Costs outweigh benefits for Black Friday shopping trips and actually took a stand against Black Friday. Most people adore the day because there are thousands of sales and they love the atmosphere of everyone out shopping for the upcoming holidays. I, on the other hand, am not like most women because I hate shopping. The occasional spree is fun, but most of the time I would much rather stay away. In this case, I agree 100% with the author. There is no need to be up at 5am, waiting in traffic and cashier lines for hours, just to get a few deals. The author states it perfectly when she says, “Go out on Saturday, Sunday, take an occasional trip downtown to your favorite store. Maybe one night after class, run out to the mall. It makes the whole process more relaxing and more fun.” Black Friday is crazy; stay away from the malls!

11/22/05

Who honestly has fire drills at 1:30 in the morning? I understand that we have to be ready in case of an emergency, but seriously, we’ve practiced fire drills since kindergarten. Everyone came out dressed in pajamas, rudely awakened from being asleep to stand outside for 20 minutes while they tried to figure out how to turn the alarm off. It was just so pointless and annoying. And now I’m wide awake at 2am with nothing to do but sit here and blog.

11/21/05

I’ve decided it’s a bad idea to have a car on campus, especially as a freshman. This weekend I was driving my friends all over the place, and let me just say that I hate driving on campus during the daytime. Friday, I had to drive one of my friends to Walmart to pick some things up and then I took her to Starbucks and drove her to class. Right before I go to drop the car off, my brother calls and tell me to come pick him up. It was the most stressful ride trying to maneuver around all the kids going to class. Then on Sunday, I had to drive to Bloomsburg at 9am to pick up my friend whose ride fell through. Having a car on campus is way too stressful and your friends take full advantage of it. I completely understand why first year students aren’t supposed to have cars on campus now.

11/18/05

It’s not even Thanksgiving and we’re already celebrating Christmas here at Penn State. Last night was the annual lighting of the Christmas tree at the Allen Street Gates according to the article titled Turning on the holidays in today’s Daily Collegian. My family is the kind that starts decorating, shopping, and making Christmas cookies the day after Thanksgiving but I was surprised to see the festivities beginning so early up here. Even though I think it’s still a little early to be decorating for Christmas and buying Christmas trees, I do like the fact that Penn State is trying to get everyone into the Christmas spirit early because everyone usually just seems so much more cheerful and friendly around the holidays. Mmm…I can’t wait for Christmas break and the holidays, except for the fact that I’m getting my tonsils out over Christmas break. :(

11/17/05

Want to hear something odd? I have five friends with birthdays today, November 16. And surprisingly, there are also two with birthdays two days ago and three with birthdays tomorrow. Why were so many kids born in November? If I had to take a guess, I would say that they were all conceived on Valentine’s Day. I mean, seriously, nine months ago today would be February 14th. That’s so weird to think about. But, anyways, happy birthday to basically everyone I know.

11/16/05

In the Collegian today I found an extremely interesting article that grabbed my attention right away. It is titled Rituals common before exams. The author talks about how some students have superstitions and rituals that they do before a test in order to help them prepare or convince themselves they will do well on the test. One boy wears his favorite light green American Eagle polo shirt to every major exam he takes. “Prayer and sleep were among the most common habits -- 11 percent of MCAT takers said a prayer before or during the test, while 8 percent of LSAT students did. Students also like to wear lucky socks and do boxer impersonations, according to the study,” the author noted. Although I do not wear something specific on days of big exams, I do understand what these kids are doing. I am extremely superstitious but normally only when pertaining to sports. Last year, during field hockey season, I believe the only reason we lost the 4 games that we did was because of doing our pre-game warm-up differently than normal. Sometimes I think following superstitions are a good thing because they give you more confidence.

11/15/05

In my seminar class, we have been working on a diversity unit. Last class we watched a movie called Crash with Sandra Bullock, Brendan Frasier, and a few other major actors. The whole movie deals with diversity and race issues and after watching the movie we had an entire discussion about those topics. For my soc class, we also had to participate in something of the sort. We signed up to take part in the “Race Relations Project” where we basically just talked about race and diversity in small groups of 10 or so with an extremely open atmosphere. I think that everyone on campus should have to go through this because it is a great experience and it really opens your eyes to what is going on in society and what the major issue are in the world. However, if you are not taking the business seminar class, sociology, or psychology, you probably will not have to go to these events. I think the University should include them in all seminars though because it would be good for all students to have awareness of these issues.

11/14/05

In today’s Daily Collegian, the issue of the definition of marriage and the decision of whether or not gays and lesbians should be allowed to get married was raised in an article titled Specter: Senate should vote on marriage. The article begins by focusing on U.S. Senator Arlen Specter’s, R-PA, opinion of the proposed amendment that would define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Surprisingly, since Specter is Republican, he opposes the amendment. Although he disagrees with the amendment, he thinks that the entire Senate should vote on whether it should be sent to the judiciary committee to be reviewed. For once, I agree with him. No where in the Constitution is marriage limited to solely a man and a woman, and if you want to take the standpoint of religious beliefs, you would be violating separation of church and state. There is no need for an amendment just because some people dislike the lifestyles of others. If that was so, we might as well rewrite the Constitution and laws because I could come up with hundreds of lifestyles I don’t agree with.

11/11/05

Although I am very excited to be going home this weekend to see a doctor and relax a little bit, I’m a little upset that I cannot participate in the canning for THON. Being sick, it is probably not the best idea for me to be outside for hours at a time in this weather, but it is for such a good cause and I think it would be a lot of fun too. Two of my friends are going with Women in Business to Downingtown to can and they asked me to join them, but unfortunately I will not be around. Apparently many of the clubs, frats, and sororities are doing the same. I love how Penn State is so involved in this cause. Being able to raise so much money for the cancer patients is absolutely amazing. My mom had cancer twice, and with it being genetic, it means a lot to me to see people becoming extremely active in a cause like this. I just hope I am able to take part in THON in a different aspect.

11/10/05

The big issue in today’s Daily Collegian is the “Facebook Fallout” article. Facebook.com is a website for college students to post profiles about themselves and interact with other college students around the country. Recently, however, the police have been using this website to track down students who rushed the field after the Ohio State game. There is a group called “I rushed the field after the OSU game…and survived!” Many students who joined this group also have pictures on their website of them on the field after the game. Police have been using these pictures to identify suspects and charge them for violating the law. Though the process is legal, because any public website is fair game, it seems unethical for police to use this method. They may not actually be invading privacy because just about anyone in the country could see their pictures and profile, but no one would have ever joined facebook.com if they knew they could be putting themselves in potential jeopardy. They rushed they field over a month ago…do we really need to arrest students now for such a simple offense. And if you are going to charge them, you should make sure you can charge all 5,000+ fans that completed the action. Using Facebook is just plain ridiculous.

11/9/05

With yesterday being Election Day, the Daily Collegian’s front page would obviously have an article pertaining to the elections. Today’s paper includes the article “Few students report to polls.” It states that although the turnout of voters at the HUB yesterday was the highest in the past four years, it is still low compared to how many registered voters there are here. There were only 110 voters and there are about 5,000 registered voters in the HUB precincts. Being a voter myself, I understand that it is important for everyone to get out and vote. However, as a freshman, I don’t know much about State College, the representatives, or the problems here. I do not feel the election was publicized very well either. With these reasons, I did not want to go out and vote uninformed. I think it would be worse to vote uninformed that not vote at all. So in the future, I think the issues and candidates should be more publicized to get younger students more informed and convinced to vote.

11/8/05

It’s November 8th and I am now going on one entire month of being sick. I’ve been to the University Health Services five times in the past four weeks and have been diagnosed with Strep Throat group C three times. I would love to know what is causing this resistant strep. Obviously, the actual cause is the streptococcal bacteria, but why haven’t any of the antibiotics I’ve taken killed it yet? Penicillin and Keflex must have been too weak of drugs to do the trick. The medicine I am on now is supposed to be so strong that it will kill any and all bacteria in my tonsils and throat. This issue just boggles my mind though. What causes this resistant strep and why can’t I get rid of it?

11/7/05

The cover of today’s Daily Collegian, as well as the cover of the sports section of the paper, is almost completely devoted to Penn State football and the game this past weekend. And rightfully so. Saturday’s game wrapped up the final home game for the 2005 season. It was also the last home game many of the players would ever get to participate in. After coming off of a few bad years and bad records, this year has been a huge step up and a memorable experience for those departing seniors. To win the final home game against a team that is somewhat highly revered is one of the greatest feelings an athlete can experience. Being an athlete myself, I too would hope to see multiple articles in the paper covering my final game and outstanding performance.

11/5/05

This morning, around 10:00am, I went through and commented on two of my classmates proposal drafts. I commented and raised counter-arguments on BloNdieProposal and ClarkieProposalDraft. BloNdie's proposal dealt with the dealth penalty. It was a well written proposal, but the topic itself has thousands of counter-arguments to raise so that is why I picked her blog. ClarkieBlog's proposal talked about abortion. This topic is another one like the death penalty, where many counter-arguments can be raised.

on another note:

LET'S GO PSU FOOTBALL! BEAT WISCONSIN!

11/3/05

As I said in my last blog, my topic for my final paper is ethics and why it is important to uphold the laws of ethics when constructing a research study. The need for this paper is to inform people of what is right and wrong and what they need to keep in mind when doing a sociological or psychological study. I will discuss the laws of ethics and how they are violated in hopes of making people aware of what should and should not be done. It is a feasible project because it is a simple process of opening the eyes of others and giving them important information. I will be doing this by using examples of studies such as the Milgrim Experiment, the Zimbardo Experiment, and the Humphrey Study.

11/2/05

The topic I hope to be writing about for my final paper deals with ethics. Ethics itself is not exactly what interests me, but how it is used in sociological and psychological studies. In high school, my two favorite classes were sociology and psychology. Here at Penn State, I am currently taking another sociology class which interests me greatly. In all three courses, I have learned about three main studies that question the ethics of the researcher. These experiments include the Milgrim Experiment, the Zimbardo Experiment, and the Humphrey Study. In my paper, I hope to define what ethics is and how it is to be used in sociological and psychological studies, and then research each of the above studies to prove that each was unethical.

11/1/05

An article in the Daily Collegian stated that BusinessWeek ranks Smeal College No. 8. This ranking is of the business college programs in the entire world. The study surveyed directors from 163 companies in 22 countries and Penn State and Smeal College came out on top. Penn State University was ranked eighth worldwide and third among public universities. For students like me, enrolled in the Smeal College of Business here at Penn State, this is wonderful news. With ratings like these, internships and job searches after college are going to be much easier. Companies will be looking for students coming out with a great education and this is the place to gain that education. After hearing this, I believe I am on the right road for success after college as long as I continue to do well here.

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