Os-Way We Go!

Last year around this time, when my cousin was going off to college, I was bantering my mom about what I’m going to do when it’s my turn. She said it would be a while away and that I need not worry. Well it’s now that time and now I’m worrying. I’m concerned with the fact that I may not have or will get all the necessities I need for college.

Of all the people who are helping me gather the huge list of things I need for college, it’s my grandma “Bubbie”. She is a 74 year old lady who runs around like she is in her mid 20s. She never stops helping me out especially being a guy and being completely irresponsible with the most basic tasks. Even during some of the dumbest things I’ve done, she has always been there to help me out and make me a better person.

Look, it’s the beginning of June, and I still didn’t even finish high school yet, and Bubbie is already having a panic attack about items for college. Maybe her inner clock and calendar are off, but the beginning of June for college supplies? You’d think this lady is nuts, but she is only doing this out of the goodness of her heart. We went out already and she has already made me get the bare necessities such as shaving cream, deodorant, and oh, I can’t forget this one, a green toothbrush because Oswego’s color is green. I think we got into an argument over why I needed a green toothbrush and then I realized that: A. Can’t argue with grammy, she’ll pull some embarrassing story on me that I want no other human being to hear and B. I’m a broke teenager who spends his money on stuff from Amazon and grandma drops cash on me like a tree in the fall losing its leaves which in my case is money.

I cannot forget my good old pal Jordie who is like an older brother to me. He’s been my family friend ever since I moved into my current neighborhood and have been friends since 2002. Although he is 23, and actually just graduated from Florida Atlantic University, we somehow just click. But besides all the background info, this older brother of mine is a clown, but a great one. He calls me up one day and asks if I wanted to use his egg crate that he used all four years, you know the thing that makes your bed turn from a rock into a cloud. I said I’d take it and that my mom would pay for the shipping. Well, oh well, what a character he is indeed. I come home one day from school, about a week after we last talked and I see this monstrosity of a clothes box barely taped shut and I instantly knew what it was. Now Jordie always has to make it extravagant and not in the way you are thinking of. As I opened it, I called him up and the first thing he told me was not to open it, oops. He told me he had to do unimaginable things to get that gremlin inside that small box. The guy at the USPS store said he had never seen something packed with that much tape and barely inside the box. That’s Jordie for ya!

Many around me have said, including myself, that I have a crazy family with even crazier friends. But not necessarily in a bad way. A lot of my friends have said they wanted someone in their family or a friend to be there like mine are. Even though I don’t see it now, down the road, I’ll be thanking the crazy lady with the out of whack inner calendar. And also that older brother, who isn’t my brother, who I call a brother.

If anyone wants to contact me my email is lpatmore@oswego.edu and my Instagram, which I live and breathe, is: @LJP1203.

Peace current and future Lakers!

~Landon | ‘19

 

It's my sister's room.

It’s my sister’s room.

Jersey or “Joiesy”?

New Jersey… supposedly the dump of New York is where I am from. My name is Landon and I’m going to be attending Oswego this coming fall semester. I will be majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Forensic Science because I’m slightly crazy when it comes down to technology. This summer I am going to be blogging to you all about what I’m doing to prepare for college. What I want to do first is tell you about myself.

I first want to get this out of the way, we DO NOT say New Jersey as “New Joiesy”, that is just some stereotype that everyone thinks we do. On the other hand, we do “butter” and “water” as “budder” and “wader”. I am from Manalapan, which is a town in Central New Jersey next to Freehold where George Washington actually came through which is crazy in itself! I was born in Freehold but moved to Manalapan when I was 5. My parents are divorced but not like the crazy parents who throw their kids in the middle of every single argument they can think of. They are both good friends to this day and I can call myself one in a million to be blessed with a gift like that. I get to see both of them every other day which is awesome and they only live about 10 minutes away from each other. (Barely use any gas especially being the typical broke teenager.)

As for being a technology nerd, I can’t remember the first day I saw some type of technology because my face had to have lit up like the sun. My mom tells all of her friends how I always have had a knack for all technology. She told me that one day the VCR broke (what is a VCR again?) and I was so frustrated that it didn’t work that I took a toy hammer and hit it a couple times and I somehow actually fixed it. I am always keeping up with the latest in technology and I’m so crazy that every year since the iPhone 5, I’ve stayed up until 3 a.m. just to get the first batch of new iPhones. I’m the friend that everyone comes to for their questions or problems with their devices.

At Oswego, I’m looking to actually concentrate on Cybersecurity/Cyeberwarfare and hopefully work for the government when I’m older. But I’m not there yet and I have no idea what the future holds for me. I know that Oswego was the right choice for me the moment I stepped foot on the campus after driving for 6 hours straight. If anyone wants to contact me my email is : lpatmore@oswego.edu and my Instagram, which I live and breathe, is : @LJP1203. As with my buddy Collin, I am going to the July 12-13th orientation and hope to meet a lot of you there.

Peace current and future Lakers!

~Landon | ’19

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My first impressions of Walmart

For years I had always heard Walmart referenced in movies and pop culture and I was always so intrigued as we have nothing quite like it in Australia. The college is really well serviced with public transport so getting to Walmart was not an issue. My friends also had never been to Walmart before so we decided to make a day of it.

As expected it was huge. I had built it up so big in my mind, however it really wasn’t as incredible and exciting as I had expected. It was underwhelming to be completely honest. It was just like several stores in Australia combined (Woolworths and Big W). I was really impressed by how inexpensive everything was, especially makeup. I was able to pick up lipsticks which are usually around $17 in Australia, for $6 at Walmart. I also loved how friendly and willing to help all the folks there were and the great range of cheap, American candy.

Sweet selfie we took

Sweet selfie we took

New Page: Humans of SUNY Oswego

Modeled after the very popular Humans of New York page, SUNY Oswego has a new page that’s getting some major attention.

Humans of SUNY Oswego is a photography post project on Facebook that aims to photograph students and briefly interview them for a photo caption to tell a story. The goal of the project is to raise awareness of the age old saying “everyone has a story to tell”.

I’ve been a fan of the HoNY page fan for a while and enjoy viewing the interesting photos that the photographer posts.  Even better than the photos, are the short stories that the brief interviews tell. Regular people have spectacular stories of love, loss, dreams, war and everything in between.

I love the idea behind the project; to showcase that everyday passers-by on the street are all dealing with something or have been through something. It’s so easy to get caught up in our lives and problems and forget that the world is so much bigger than just yourself and your own daily struggles. These simple photos and brief interviews are often inspiring and thought provoking.

Being a Social Media intern with a love of photography, I wanted to take this idea and bring it to SUNY Oswego. There are over eight thousand students on campus and undoubtedly a lot of interesting stories to be told and heard. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I get lost in my own little world when I’m walking across campus with my headphones in and music turned up loud. But imagine, if you truly looked around at everyone and thought about their lives, what they’ve been through or what they are currently dealing with. These thoughts make the world (or the campus) seem a lot bigger than just ourselves and our daily lives.

As one of the photojournalists for the Humans of SUNY Oswego project, I aim to take photos of interesting students and share a line or so that they have shared with me about themselves or their life. I will be posting these photos on the Facebook page.

If you, or someone you know has a story to tell and would like to be featured on the site, please contact me by sending the page a message or emailing me at kburke2@oswego.edu

 

Hack Upstate, Fall ’13

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”  -William James

Hi Readers,

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a local engineering event open to the public (provided advanced registration was duly made online) called Hack Upstate, which this year, was held at “The Tech Garden” in nearby Syracuse. This was a gathering of bright minds from all over New York state, who got together with the sole purpose of seeing what kinds of crazy projects could be attempted (and even more, completed!) over the course of an ever-so-short 24 hour window. The word “hack” in the name might imply a certain affinity for computer programming, and while there were certainly a majority of code projects on display, the competition is not limited to them in any way. There were some incredible feats of electrical and computer engineering accomplished for such a short amount of work time, and that is just the tip of the iceberg! The purpose of the competition is to utilize existing technologies in interesting ways – apart from that, there are virtually no restrictions on what can be attempted.

The Gathering Room

The Presentation Room

There were people from all walks of life present – even non tech-oriented types who simply had ideas they wanted to see realized. It truly was a melting pot for innovation. One group materialized a web-based game utilizing the popular Bandcamp website, wherein players could vote on randomly generated bands in order to find the so-called “best band on Bandcamp”. Another group created a website where stories are dynamically created by the users of the site – any user could add new branches or alternate endings, etc.. to an existing story, at will. Cool stuff.

Now, this probably sounds like all work and no fun, right? Think again! Organized by the show-runners of Syracuse Startup Weekend, Hack Upstate is a less formal event that takes place twice a year, and is a rockin’ good time meant to encourage interaction amongst the participants in fun ways. It starts with idea pitching, where anyone can come up in front of the audience and try to sell their idea to everyone in the hopes of finding talent to help work on it. After the competition begins, its just a party, with practically unlimited pizza and subs and free reign to do pretty much whatever you want. (There’s even an award given to the most social/engaging group of the competition!) A few of us groups got together and decided to go to a local venue nearby and do work while listening to some live music – truly a memorable experience.

Funk N Waffles

Enjoying some jams at Funk N Waffles while coding away!

Repping Oswego was myself and recent alumni Nick Poorman, a former Computer Science major and founder of Regattable, a startup operating out of the Tech Garden in Syracuse. Being a relatively new event with little publicity, it is understandable that not more of us techies from Oswego showed up. However, I am going to go ahead and use this as an opportunity to call on all tech majors at Oswego (Computer Science, IS, ECE, etc…) to bring yourselves and your “A” game to the next event in the Spring! So, join Hacker League today and keep an eye peeled for the upcoming Hack Upstate in Spring 2014. Hopefully I’ll see you all there!

Any questions or comments you have about the event, its organizers, or who the winners were, submit in the comments below!

 

Oswego Students Set out to Make a Difference

 

TKE (3)

Many times college students have a reputation of not being beneficial to their communities or active participants towards making a difference. However, I, along with the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity have set out to prove that this is simply not the case here at SUNY Oswego.

Oswego Community Cares Day, being held on October 13th at The American Foundry (behind Fajita Grill), was conceptualized in May of last semester and has grown ever since. Hundreds of volunteer hours have been dedicated to this project; which raises funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. St. Jude’s mission is advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

With the brothers of TKE, I have set out to create an event that is appealing and friendly for both the SUNY and City of Oswego communities. In addition to raising both awareness and funds for an amazing cause, the event serves to bridge the gap between both entities.

As a college student, it is important to get involved in any way you can, and use your skills to help others around you. We may feel secluded and as if we are not a part of the Oswego County community as a whole; but the SUNY campus is a huge and key part of the city in my opinion.

There are many volunteer opportunities available through the plethora of organizations on campus. One way to find out when these opportunities arise is to sign up to get emails from the Volunteer Opportunities list by going here. You can also find additional opportunities on the new Laker Life website.

Personally, I have seen firsthand the graciousness of members of the community when I have volunteered at events such as BucFest at Oswego High School or through programs such as Adopt-A- Grandparent. Our help and time truly means a lot to those in need.

It is easy in life, especially in college, to get sucked into the thought that we are in our own little world and nothing else matters.  Volunteering and helping those in need is a great way to be reminded that the world is bigger than the problems we are all dealing with in our daily lives.

I have always had a passion for helping others and using my Public Relations talents and skills to promote events to raise money for good causes. Event planning has also been a way I have been able to help others. Working on Oswego Community Cares Day with TKE has been a pleasure and I look forward to the event!

It would be an honor to see a great turn out at this event, which is next Sunday, October 13th at The American Foundry (right behind Fajita Grill) from 4-6pm. Tickets are just $15 which includes a delicious Chicken BBQ dinner and raffle tickets. Amazing prizes will be up for grabs including a signed Macklemore CD as well as many gift cards from local establishments.  Entertainment will be provided by Oswego student performers. Tickets can be purchased online by clicking here or at the door the night of the event.

 

For more information, leave a comment below or email foretheecause@gmail.com