PSU as a party school

Although Plymouth State my not be the number one party school like Penn State we do have many of the same problems with partying around our campus.  As a student here I have been witness to Friday classes that nobody comes to.  I've seen the kids who get drunk and urinate in public, and I've seen ones get arrested for doing so.

However i also disagree with the community and schools response to Plymouth making the party list.  I've heard from both teachers and from students that there were less kids running around the streets all loud, and less kids being loud and causing problems in the streets in past years before the police began enforcing more strictly.

By the police kicking students out of houses and frats they are just putting the kids drunk and stoned on the streets looking for other parties, which usually means walking all over the town on foot being loud and annoying. How is this helping the situation for the residents of Plymouth or making it any safer for the students?  Putting a large number of young people on the streets drunk, stoned, or both is not exactly safe.  It splits up groups who are looking out for each other, and walking around on the streets at night in that condition isn't exactly safe on its own.

The first week of school after quickly throwing on a nice shirt and a light jacket I headed out for the night with my new group of friends.  As freshman who had barely met each other, many of which were yet to meet more then a select few upper class man getting into a party was more than a challenge.  So as many freshman at many schools across the country do, we headed to the nearest frat.  Once we entered we realized there were actually well over a hundred kids packed into every room of the first two stories of the frat and shortly after packing into the frat the police arrived.

After the police kicked the contents of the building out we found a long train of students heading across campus and across residential areas to the local pizza places; PHOP and Latenight.  Even then, before i realized how much of an effect the parade of college students who nightly headed across campus back and forth between parties and restaurants had on the community, i saw that the police were being ineffective.

I am not sure if there really is a correct response to irresponsible drinking, under aged drinking or the things that are caused by them; but the steps being taken currently are ineffective and if anything making matters worse the students and no better for the community.  What happened that first week i continue to hear stories about happening every single night of the weekend, and even on many Thursday nights.  Students on the streets is no safer or better for the students then the under aged drinking or house parties that continue to go on to spite the attempts to tame them.

Looking at the future today

I wake up to the same sight as always, a shoddy white night table by the side of my bed with a small round clock perched on it ringing like an army of squealing mice. I hit the top of the clock to silence it. The routine of waking up every morning to go to the same place and do the same thing has already damped my spirit. I feel as though I've been tied down and latched in a place that I only meant to be for a short while. Sure work pays well, and its not to bad hours; but when will I be young enough to travel again and really enjoy it? To do all the things I dreamed of in my innocent youth?

I'm almost thirty years old now and I feel as though I'm the old man reflecting to grandchildren and great-grandchildren of my childhood. Weren't we all told to celebrate life at one point? To live life to the fullest and to chase our dreams. I know I never had a dream of waking up everyday to crunch numbers in some twenty-story office building with large tinted windows, if anything I feel as though I'm in a nightmare. I think its time to take leave from work for awhile, I think its time to take a break from the hassles of life that bound and gag my dreams and shove me into a world I don't enjoy. I stumble down the squeaky aged wood steps. In the kitchen my laptop is already open, waiting for me to make my next move. I pop open a window and head to a site I had seen advertised on the web the night before.

Its all come down to a call to action. How soon should I schedule my leave? how long should I leave for? And more importantly where should I go? I continuously click on page after page of resorts all over the world. The clocks ticking makes me nervous, I should be getting ready for work.

As the steam from the showers raises my brain for the dead like the Frankenstein monster I begin to ponder my choice again. Are my friends from college in the same position? Have they been waking up every morning thinking the same thing but not done anything about it? I'm going to call them, make this our road trip after college. I haven't seen some of them in almost two years now but there is still that key website that has made it through all the changes.

When I finish my shower I log in, “you have 56 new notifications”, social networking has lost its big attraction. Nobody I want to talk to, what a surprise. I click to my friend Drew's wall. I start off the message with a “YOOOOO” followed by a couple of inside jokes. I finally set it in motion, that's enough for one day. I grab my keys off the hook and wander out the door.  The day is brighter, everything seems better in an unexplainable way.  Everything seems different.

The Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburg Steelers went head to head today in the forty-fifth annual Super Bowl.  The outcome, the Green Bay Packers taking home the trophy and of course the Super Bowl rings running in a close win over the Steelers thirty-one to twenty-eight.  The game started off in favor of the Packers when they took their second interception into the Steelers end zone to put them up fourteen to three in the first half.  The key to the game from the beginning was the zone defenders on the Packers who were able to get in front of the Steelers receivers and intercept the ball.  It was so key in this game over past games because of the tight defense played by the Steelers.  The Steelers defense held off the Packers offense the entire game by playing tight on players and pushing as hard as they could to the arm of the Packers quarterback in order to prevent the offensive push.  Going into the game the Packers finished off their season eleven and one, while the Steelers only finished their season off twelve and two.  Going into the game the Steelers had two defensive injuries on their team while the Packers had two offensive injuries.  As for the players that stepped into those positions as the mid game footage showed they were told they were gonna need to step up for the game, and on both teams you could see those players stepping it up, and playing there A game.  Although the Patriots did not make it into this years Super Bowl it still affected there fans quite a bit.  As i was told many times during the game if the Steelers won this Super Bowl they would have as many Super Bowl wins this century as the Patriots.  Which Patriot fans did not want to happen.  One of my friends even went as far to say as the only reason many Patriot fans would ever vote for the Green Bay Packers would be to keep the Patriots on top which came true.  Although the half time show was less than enjoyable this years Super Bowl was a close one, and was enjoyable to watch no matter which team came out on top.  And as always the Super Bowl commercials never fail to please.  Personal favorites for the Super Bowl commercials go to the Sleepy's commercial which was unbelievably obviously sexual. And to the commercial for the Hyundai commercial that had the optical illusions circling around the screen.  As for the half time show I think Fergie needs to cut down on the drugs or take a vacation or something because her singing was beyond terrible.  Black eyed peas were not on there game as a band either.  Slash coming through the floor into the performance was unexpected and pretty cool.  Usher's performance was also very good but it looked like he may be lip-sinking in the beginning which always makes live performance seem worse.  Watching him carefully I'm pretty sure at one point his lips are not even moving at all.  I hope that I'm wrong but that would be a very disappointing thing to have come out later on.  All in all super bowl never fails to spice up a Sunday and entertain the millions of people who attend and watch it online and on television.