I was trying to find a fun quote that would make sense for today’s picture.  Did you know when you do a Google search of “Big dog little spaces” you will discover a huge list of suggestions of how to successfully incorporate a big dog into a small apartment?  This is not exactly what I was going for!  I found myself thinking of a quirky way to incorporate the nonsense at my house to something happening on campus, and I came up with nada.  So all I have for my readers today is the straightforward statement sharing a window into my personal life.  Saturday afternoons can mean a great many things, I may be working on some projects for the house, I could be shopping, I could be hiking at a local park, supporting an SU event, or finding myself sharing the couch with a napping significant other and my 84 pound bundle of joy.  Why Kulani didn’t want to nap in a more spacious setting is beyond me.  She has a chair in the living room dedicated to her, a plush dog bed, a large bay window sill, and an entire first floor of carpeted bliss where she may nap.  But instead my sweet Lani Bear chose to squeeze in the twelve inches of available space on the couch to snooze while I caught up on homework….

Not only were members of our Stevenson Community dressed up, our campus buildings were as well!  Check out this “Celebrate” sign hanging in the Brown School of Business

There was a clear sense of excitement and positive energy swirling in the air!  How could any visitor to campus not immediately feel excited to become part of the Mustang Family when these two dancing Ambassadors were the first people they encountered after parking their cars?

I look forward to seeing these students and families again in August for New Student Move-In Day!

Lindsay Thompson, Associate Director, Publications, and I show off our Oriole’s Orange Pride!

Did you enjoy the three day weekend?  I know I needed the extra day to recover from the excitement of the RAVENS winning!!!  I have so many not nice things I can say about the Patriots and that silly Tom Brady, but I will refrain (check my facebook page for some fab memes though!).  While I enjoy a long weekend just as much as the next person, I think it’s always a good idea to reflect upon why were are given the extra day.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was obviously an incredible role model for so many of us.  A few of my favorite quotes of his include:

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Since it is a cold, rainy, gloomy day, I thought I’d share this funny peek into my life.  As many of you know, Kulani, my dog child, is an overly active pup.  Well last night while I was motivated to do exercises on the commercials of the Biggest Loser and apparently Kulani thought it would be fun to do them as well! 

She dragged her yoga mat…aka her bed…. over to where I was working my core, and “planked” alongside of me.  Over the years Kulani has been an outstanding workout partner!

This led me to think about the importance of having a workout buddy!  They can assist with keeping you motivated, accountable, and focused!  Plus it gives you someone to talk to while burning calories!  Here at SU we have amazing fitness centers, however I know the “long walk” from the Residence Halls can distract students from reaching them.  If you have a workout buddy you instantly have someone to walk down the hill with and keep you motivated!  I often talk to students about the importance of working out.  It not only benefits your physical health, but your mental health as well!  Having a bad day?  Try shaking it off, literally, with Zumba!  Or pounded the pavement!  Feeling stressed and overwhelmed, perhaps a session of yoga will help!  No matter what you prefer the bottom line is to get out there and get moving!  And if possible, enlist a friend to be your workout buddy!

It has  been  a BIG weekend around here, where do I even begin?  First of all, a HUGE congrats to the Baltimore Ravens!  Despite the increase in blood pressure, unnecessary consumption of football snacks, and the panic that lead to me biting off my nails, I am so pumped that they took home the W last night!  I didn’t lose faith, and I’m pretty sure I was screaming at the television, “I believe in you Joe, I believe in you!”  I’m excited we are continuing to keep the Super Bowl Dream alive!  Let’s do it for Ray, boys, let’s win it!

After the game, we hit the town to celebrate my beautiful sister Quinn’s Birthday!  Thankfully I had squeezed in a Zumba workout class earlier in the day so my dance moves were up to par and I could still hang with the younguns. 

The third exciting event of my weekend was upgrading my phone.  Most of you who know me, have been in my office, or have heard the rumors know that I was living in the dark ages and still rocked the flip phone.  For the record, I love my flip phone!  I have had the same phone for almost four years.  I have sent countless text messages and enjoyed hour long convos with my dear friends and family using that phone, however it was time to upgrade.  In case you were wondering, if you send a group text from a smart phone to my phone the message came up blank.  The first few times this happened, I thought people were playing a prank on me.  Oh no, they were not, just trying to make plans, yet I couldn’t see the messages!  A few days ago, John said to me, “I think it’s time…we need new phones.”  So on Friday evening, we confidently walked into the Verizon store and proclaimed, “We would like iPhones!”  Well lucky us, we scored the last two iPhone 5s in the Greater Baltimore area, but they were at a different location.  So after visiting two Verizon stores we left happy campers.  John and I stayed up WAY past our bedtime on Friday playing with them and checking out the cool things we can now do with our fancy high tech phones.  We certainly didn’t figure everything out, finding Siri took two days, and I couldn’t figure out who I had missed calls from at first.  But we are on our way to being in the know!

My old school phone, isn’t it cute?

As I have spent the weekend getting used to this new phone, it dawned on me why so many emails I receive from students sound like text messages.  Duh, they are sending the emails using their smartphones…the same phone and same keyboard they use to write texts.  Well friends, here’s the lesson in today’s blog.  Even though there are many similarities between texts and emails, you really should not write them the same way.  Texts do not need a greeting or a subject, however emails do.  Texts do not need correct grammar, punctuation, or capitalization, but emails do.  Tests do not need to be formal, emails do.  So not matter how cool and hip the faculty or staff member you are writing an email to may seem, please remember to use proper email etiquette

]]> http://morgansomerville.stevensonuniversity.org/2013/01/13/techno-thoughts/feed/ 0 http://morgansomerville.stevensonuniversity.org/2013/01/11/did-you-know/ http://morgansomerville.stevensonuniversity.org/2013/01/11/did-you-know/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:48:45 +0000 morgansomerville http://morgansomerville.stevensonuniversity.org/?p=910 There are approximately 625 student positions on our campus.  Everything from working in the Admissions Office, Library, Science Labs, to being the Mascot Wild Stang.  We offer both work study positions and non work study positions to our students and a little known secret is our awesome off campus work study positions.  I am pleased to say that more than a quarter of our Work Study Funding is used to pay our students to work at off campus non profits.  The two most popular sites are the Irvine Nature Center and the Humane Society If you have an interest in educating youth about nature, assisting with planning events working at Irvine might be for you!  if you enjoy playing with adorable puppies and kittens–I mean seriously, who wouldn’t?!?-the Humane Society Position might be up your alley.

Don’t let these amazing opportunities pass you by!  if you have been awarded work study funding as part of your Financial Aid packet stop in my office or send me an email to apply to work with one of out Community partners!

I enjoy this saying because it is very true, on your Birthday you wake up excited for the day! The anticipation of cake and presents gives the day an extra boost!  Plus it’s a day dedicated to you, so what’s not to love?!  So in honor of my sweet pup who loves life and for my amazing sister Quinn who’s actual birthday is today-Happy Birthday Quinny!  I will try to start my day on an excited note and will try think positive happy thoughts every morning when the alarm goes off!  I encourage you to do the same, even if you don’t receive any cake or presents