Brent M

The Jumpstart

Hey there loyal blog fans. It's been a long time; a really, really long time--over 2 months long! I honestly apologize to all of you who keep up with my blogs; time just really got away from me after being swept up in finals, I guess. No matter, though, because this is the Jumpstart Post!!

Yep, it's coming back. On Feb. 1st (Friday) I'm going to jumpstart 2 of my blogs: this official/casual SHU blog, and my Creative Writing blog that crashed only a week into its existence back in mid-October (mainly due to poor planning and writer's block). The Spanish blog may or may not come back depending on how well managing these first 2 goes, but if it is brought back it'll be a week or two after these first 2 are re-launched!

Thanks for sticking with me guys, it means the world to have people actually semi-interested in my thoughts, opinions and experiences. Here's to a new, awesome and consistent year of blogging! I promise I'll never let you guys down again.

Cheers from Ireland, Brentamillion Pegasus

Die and Decrease the Surplus Population!

What up SHU! How're you all doing this holiday season? With only 3 weeks of school left (2 of classes and 1 of finals) it's pretty easy to cast schoolwork to the side and start getting excited about the impending Christmas season. So, I decided, what better way to fuel this desire than with a list of some of the best Christmas movies ever with some of the best quotes from those movies!

BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER w/Quotes (in no particular order*)

A Christmas Story

Classic.

 

Home Alone 2

Kevin McCallister: "AHHHHHHH!!!!"

 

Rugrats Christmas Special

"Hold on a second...You're not the real Santa!!" --Angelica

 

Elf

Tell 'im Buddy!

 

The Santa Clause

"Charlie: Whoa, Dad! You're flying!" Scott (Dad): "It's okay, I'm used to it. I lived through the '60s."

 

A Christmas Carol

"Portly Gentleman: (About child labor shops) Many would rather die than go there.
Scrooge: If they'd rather die, then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population. Good night, gentlemen.
[walks away, then turns back]
Scrooge: Humbug!

 

It's a Wonderful Life

Zulu Bailey: "Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings."
George Bailey: "That's right, that's right."
George Bailey: "Attaboy, Clarence."

 

The Polar Express

"Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see."--The Conductor (Tom Hanks)

 

Peace & Love, Brent

And You Don't Stop!

Hey guys! I know it's been another 2-week gap then the usual weekly post, and I apologize for that--life kinda got away from me for a little while. But here we are again!

So as you guys all know (or not, if you don't go to Sacred Heart) we've been having a ton of renovations going on in the past couple years. The recent list goes:

• Chapel, 2009
• Library reno, Summer of 2011
• Student Commons (Linda's),  late Spring of 2012 
• New lounge/offices in main building, about a month ago
• Mahogany Room reno, about a month ago
• + other small things like new furniture in classrooms, newly paved sidewalks around campus, etc.

There's this awesome feeling of newness aroung the school, especially for upperclassmen who've been here to see evertying come together over the years. Now to the main reason for this post--the new stuff! 2 new buildings and 1 major renovation are currently in the works:

• Huge reno to the Edgerton Theater (the whole front of the building will be transformed, craziness!!), starting work late Spring/early Summer, will be finished by the end of summer
• Beautiful new Health and Wellness Center (to replace our current little sad one), they've already started working on it (right next to Roncalli!), due to be finished sometime in the Spring

• New Academic Building containing the College of Business & the College of Education (plus another library and dining area), breaking ground by Spring, no estimated finish date yet.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty pumped. The concept art of what the new buildings will look like (you can check out what the new theater will look like in front of Hawley, no pics online yet) look amazing. The only thing I'm kinda worried about is how long the new academic building will take; SHU doesn't necessarily have the greatest track record when it comes to completing construction on time.

In any case, there's definitely a lot to look forward to both this year and whenever the new academic building gets finished. I still think it would really lend to the atmosphere Sacred Heart's trying to create to renovate the floors and at least repaint the walls of the main building--perhaps more stone, or just a new flooring, either might work well. Anyway, have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Pce & Love, Brentasauras

Fun Fall/Winter Times

Hey guys! Sorry it's been 2 weeks since I last posted instead of the usual weekly post--I lost power last week because of Hurricane Sandy! Then again, we also didn't have school for all of last week either...quite the trade-off eh? 

Well now that we're only 2 weeks away from Thanksgiving break (I know...tell me about it) and then about 3 weeks till xmas break from there, things are really calm before the storm right now. After we all come back from Thanksgiving it's going to be a lot more hectic, not to mention stressful...but the excitement of the holiday season should still keep everyone going, eh? And so in light of this, I decided to make a list of awesome things to do around campus to really get into the late fall/early winter spirit! It reads thus, countdown style:

5. Start your days off with some hot spiced tea instead of the usual coffee! If you bring/buy a mug or thermos, that'd be even better.

4. Start casually interrogating your closest friends as to what they might want for Christmas this year. Remember, the key is casual. "Oh hey Jenny, I noticed you staring at those jeans in Express for over 20min.! Do you like it?" --Not a good strategy.

3. It might be a little early for this already, but heck, why not? Gather some friends together (hot cocoa is a must) snuggle up and watch some classic Xmas movies! (Another post on legendary Christmas movies later on)

2. Take a walk (while it's still not TOO cold) around Fairfield and enjoy the fall scenery! I just went for a pretty amazing one yesterday. Go out like you're going to Roncalli, but turn right before you cross the street and head into the golf course. Follow that road and enjoy the adventure! (Yes, yes, it's still in Fairfield, not Bridgeport)

1. Actually, that was my #1! Get out there and take a walk with a friend! You'll be amazed how nice of a breath of fresh air it'll be from staying on campus all the time--it definitely was for me.

And there you have it guys! Hopefully I helped you out a little with enjoying the season around campus. I'm about to head to my 9am with my thermos of tea right now! Cheers!

Peace & Love, Brent-amillion Pegasus

Grades

Hey there guys! So as it turns out, I'm especially loaded this week. The blogs, papers, club activities, midterms and general failings at sleep and time management have me reeling to get back into the academic game. I almost never miss an assignment, but I've been coming pretty close lately, so something has to change. So although this is going to be a rather quick and hectic post, I decided that it definitely has to be meaningful. And that's why this week, I'm gonna talk about grades.

Grades are essential to many of us as students, and to most of us have been a subject of tremendous importance out entire lives. Whether it was getting that E for Excellence in elementary school, feeling those knots of despair in your tummy when you had to hand your parents that first D or F in middle school, or spending hours upon hours wasting away studying for the SATs and contemplating your imminent doom upon bombing them, grades have always been a part of our lives. Some of us excelled under the pressure to get all A's or A's and B's, and some were crushed by it and remained content with C's and D's, or simply stopped caring about school in general.

Now we're in college, and it's gametime. This is the kinda place kids all around the world dream of coming to, the kinda place where we're given the opportunity to learn about the world around us and discover new and life-changing things about ourselves and others in ways that we could've never imagined back in high school.

This is also the place, however, where students have become total slaves to a few letters of the alphabet.

We've gotten to the point where the very idea of an F (forget the simple image of the capital letter on a surface) strikes terror into the minds of kids everywhere. Every day I sit in my classes and either see the almost childlike anxiety when professors talk about giving back exams or papers, or true fear when they talk about how poorly the class did overall.

I've already gotten a bit swept up in my passion for this issue, but I'll just say this: enjoy learning while you can. Don't become enslaved by the ideas of failure or self-worth being determined by what grades you get on assignments, please. I know that grad school looks at your grades and test scores, but you don't have to have amazing marks to be successful or happy--which is what really matters in the end. I'm not saying to stop caring about schoolwork, but just to recognize it for what it's there for: to give you knowledge, not to make you miserable or stressed. 4 years is an awfully long time to be constantly stressed and worried over something that really means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Imagine you're driving home one day over Thanksgiving break and you get hit and fall into a coma or die. Would you want your last thought to be stressing out over the text you have when you get back? Of course not! That's just silly. Why waste so much time on something so transitory?

Just saying friends, knowledge over grades. Love to learn, relax and enjoy it.

Until my thoughts become clearer, Brentillion-rex.

Lace Up

Hola readers! It feels like it's been ages since I've posted on here, but in reality it's only been a little over a week. Man, talk about being in a time warp.

A lot of things have been happening over here at Sacred Heart as usual--from SHU HOOPS (huge pep rally to kick off the basketball season), to D1 Field Hockey and Soccer games this weekend, to an esteemed novelist and short story writer from the Fairfield U Masters Program coming to our library to give a lecture on his latest book. But that's not what I want to talk about this week; this week I have a story for all of you.

This August when I came back to campus to start off the new semester, I knew that this year called for a change. Last year was fun, life-changing (in a few different ways), and somewhat rocky, as I think most Freshmen years at college are. As a Sophomore this year though, there was no excuse; it was time to make my mark. While I was in China I had started writing a novel before I got lost and caught up in the tangled mess of reality that is teaching English in Beijing. When I came back I realized that starting a novel cold (without any real foundational storywritting experience) was kinda silly. I then got caught up in the first month of school and after awhile I'd completely forgone any writing practices at all (not even poetry!!)

Then one day one of my suitemates, Ed, announced that he'd finally gotten a career to the suite. Everyone was confused. "How??" "What?" "Where?" "What're you doing?" He looked at us, grinned, and declared "I'm an artist." I stared at him dumbfounded. He was majoring in Fine Arts! Of course he was an artist! But when I persisted he responded, "Yeah, but starting this semester I'm officially an artist. This is it." And from that very moment, he began drawing something different every day. Originally inspired, I agreed to write a poem every day along with him. Immediately after, however, I found that I'd become rather consumed by my everyday life; I always had spare time wherein I could've and should've worked on even a short piece, but the thought never even crossed my mind. Instead I'd goof off, watch YouTube, work on assignments that weren't due for weeks, daydream, etc. Then when I'd come home (always late after midnight because I was so busy) Ed would excitedly offer to show me his work and ask for mine, to which I always had the dissapointing answer of "Awww man, I forgot!" or "Shoot. Sorry man, I don't have anything. Next time though!" And I never managed to fulfill that promise. 

Three weeks later I was talking to another one of my suitemates, Matt. We were having a normal general conversation, and then I said something along the lines of "Man, I really have to start writing again, it's been months!" Matt replied, "Ahh yeah, Ed was just telling me the other day about how disappointed he was that you haven't been writing at all. He thought you guys were gonna do this together." I was surprised at how guilty I felt. Man, I thought. What've I been doing?

As it turned out, the answer was "nothing much." Thus, this past Sunday I launched my very own writing blog entitled The S.S. Imagination (http://theimaginationlife.blogspot.com/). I launched it with something of a preview of my first every serious short story, tentatively named Night Owls. I've decided that every Sunday I'll be posting a chapter or section of a short story  on it, and every Thursday I'll post a poem. No "buts," no excuses, no nada.

The lesson here is this: start working towards what you want to do later now. I wanted to be a writer, but I wasn't writing. If you want to start a business, start one now. If you want to be a doctor or nurse or therapist of any kind, start doing independent research projects (on the side, not school-related) and try to make a breakthrough now. If you want to teach a foreign language or be an artist of any kind, practice every day. Whatever you want to do, start it now. There's always enough time; you just have to make it.

Peace & Love, Brentiffer

 

P.S.  Everyone in these pics either started their careers while they were in college or before they turned 20, and have been wildly successful. We're next.

1. Christopher Paolini, writer of the Inheritance Cycle (most famously Eragon)

2. Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook

3. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google

4. Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, Firefox

5. Ryan Higa, YouTube comedian (Channel: nigahiga)

Changes

Welcome back friends! It's been a pretty hectic week, but a lot of stuffs been going on both around school and perceptually.

First off, SHU finally got the new website running. It was due mid-August but was pushed back till Oct. 4th. But it was finally released Thursday, and it's beautiful. They still have some tweaking to do over the next couple months, but it's generally looking pretty polished right now. Even though, you know, the Student Blogs are pushed off into a little corner...but look for us under the "Come say hello!" tab.

 

Other small and seemingly insignificant changes that've been happening around campus:

• The Spectrum (school newspaper) is now only 12 pages instead of 16
• The Prez starting tweeting (if ya didn't know) @SHUprez
• Faith Sharing started up again--I haven't been yet, but I hear it's a small get-together where students go over about the scriptures for the upcoming Sunday and discuss their spirituality
• Our football team started winning games
• The new Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies offices (where the bookstore used to be) are almost done...maybe 2 more weeks?
• The deadline for applying to study abroad was on Friday, but they might extend it
• We might get a doctoral program in education in a couple years
• The bookstore got in these really sick new SHU jackets, but they're $65
• ...and now when you get a sandwich in the Commons, it's no longer self-serve on the chips--they dole 'em out onto your plate instead. Now how am I gonna justify paying $6 for a sandwich??

It's probably kinda sad that I listed all that off the top of my head, huh? Ohh well. In other news, I'm starting a 3rd blog (besides this one and my spanish blog http://shuvagabundo.blogspot.com/) called "The S.S. Imagination" (http://theimaginationlife.blogspot.com/) where I'm challenging myself to write a short story every week and post it on the blog. I've been really slacking off with my writing lately, especially since I'm only taking Lit survet courses now and no actual Writing courses. In any case, I'll also post the occasional poem up there too, so if you're into writing and ever get bored, check it out!

 

That's about it folks. Thanks for tuning into the Brent Middleton blog. I'll see you next week.

 

 

Peace, Brent

When College Life Stresses You Out...

Bury your head in the sand and let the grains absorb  your bitter tears.

No! Of course not. Just find a nice relaxing spot on campus to settle down and get away from the hidden horrors of college life. Here I present you with:

The Best "Secret" Quiet Study Spots on Campus (yes, they're still secret since no one reads this blog anyway...I think...besides you, Alexis)

5. The Learning Center (in the library) at night--No one's there. Ever.

4. An empty classroom. It can be kinda creepy if you're there alone (at least it is for me at night) but it's the perfect place to sit down and get work done in silence.

3. The Student Services lounge on the 2nd floor of the Student Commons in the back corner behind the column. It's comfortable, you have a nice view of the bookstore downstairs, there's a little surface table for your books or laptop attached to the chairs, and even though it can get a little noisy, it's still a nice little nook to get away from it all while not feeling too alone, if that makes any sense.

2.The presentation room on the first floor of the Commons (when you walk in and make a left, past the elevator). It was just recently unlocked a week ago, so no one really uses it. It's full of comfy new leather sofas and armchairs, and if you put the automatic window coverings down (sometimes they already are) its a nice little secluded safehaven. Plus, there are plenty of outlets.

1. The Chapel--Sometimes it gets locked at night (which is really silly), but usually it's always open and the near-perfect place to study (esp during finals week)! It's super quiet, there's a beautiful mosaic to look at when your mind starts to wander, and there're water fountains and bathrooms that're probably the least used on campus. The only drawback are the hard wooden pews--the tops of them make good surfaces for your laptop, but the actual seats get really uncomfortable after awhile! Maybe why mass is only an hour?

Hope these helped you guys out! Definitely take advantage of them. Until then my friends, just know that big things are coming...keep this bookmarked! It's gonna be a big year.

Peace & Love, Brent

Great Expectations

There's something about living in the slums of downtown Beijing for a couple months that really puts things into perspective. A year ago I first started off my college career at this school and among the excited "I'm finally getting out of the house!" and "Is the ratio really 70-30??" thoughts, there were also a few "Man, this campus is really small..." and "I'm sharing this little room with how many people?" It's totally different looking at it after a year of eye-opening experiences. Coming back, I love how small the campus is--it's crazy convenient when you're running late for class, a club meeting or w/e else. And the room sizes? If you guys think the dorm rooms are small, check out some of my photos from Beijing.

The outlook is just different guys. Now instead of comparing SHU to Brown or Harvard (making comparisons is always our downfall anyway) I'm appreciating our school for what it is: not just the least affordable school in the US--pretty hilarious--but also one of the most intimate and comfortable environments at a university. Where else can you can get up at the crack of dawn, head over to the library, grab a fresh newspaper and a cup of Starbucks and snuggle into a leather couch for a few precious minutes before class? Where else can you greet the Pres. on his way back from lunch and then later connect with him through Twitter (true story)? And where else can you drop by the chapel on a Sunday night after a long and tiring week and be greeted by packed pews of SHU students that laugh and make cheerful small talk for nearly a half hour after services end? Very few other universities can effectively provide this kind of community. And even though you might feel lost sometimes and looked over (trust me, I've been there too), sometime you just have to look for it. If you seek, you'll definitely find.

For all those wanderers out there, this was Brent.

Keep searching

Life on Campus (+ other stuff!)

Hey friends! Welcome home.

So it's been a few weeks into school and I've already been kicked out of the library four times in a row for staying there until it closes at 3am. I also work here now, so the library's basically become my second home. I leave the suite in the early morning and return in the early morning. Fun times at college!

Besides no sleep, a lot else has been going on around here recently. There was Fall Fest yesterday, and it was actually pretty nice. Free pizza, donuts, cider, ice cream from the new place that's going in Roncalli, cow bells, water bottles and photo magents all abounded! And the weather was perfect. The live music by some local bands was also pretty good, especially the VIPZ towards the end. There were also some softball games and an Ultimate Frisbee tournament! Then today there was a club soccer match (which was really fun even though we weren't able to pull it together in the end) and a home women's rugby match, which we won!

If I could give you any advice this week, it'd be to be proactive; don't wait until graduation to make something of yourself! I'm really pushing for student projects this year--but that's another post for another time. All I can tell you for now is to pursue your passion right away and come swinging out of college! They won't know what hit 'em.

Besides that, take care guys. I'm really looking forward to the new website to hopefully gain some more exposure. Here's to a blog taking over the school!

Peace and Love,

Brentadelic