First Show

Well, monday night/tuesday morning was my first radio show! I ended up showing up to the station at around 10 or 11 monday night and just worked there, while burning cds to my computer and getting ready. When I was finally up, I was really nervous, but had a few things scripted out, as well as a rough idea of what songs I was going to play. So you all know, there are some basic things that I have to do during my show in order to keep the station legal. On the top of the hour and the 1/2 hour I have to read a station ID, which is simply "K-W-U-R 90.3 Clayton FM". Then after every 15 and 45 I have to read a public service announcement (PSA), and if I'm going to be playing songs that say expletives, I have to read a disclaimer that basically says this may be offensive and does not represent WashU or KWUR. Then finally, I have to log every song I play into the computer system called Unicron.
During my show, everything was going well, but I was really nervous, so I kept on butchering artist names, making nervous mistakes, and falling behind on logging the songs I played. But I was having a ton of fun, and apparently it sounded really good. But then about half way through my show, Unicron crashed. I had no idea what to do then so I kind of freaked out. I ended up just writing down every song I played and when I did PSA's by hand, which was exactly what I should have done. It was still really stressful and not a great way to finish off my first show. But all in all, for my first show I was really happy with it.
Unfortunately though, when I woke up tuesday morning (11am...) I felt really crappy. I had been fighting a cold for a while, but I think staying up till 3:30am gave the cold a bit of an upper hand. Luckily I only had a physics lab, which ended up only taking an hour or so, so I was back at my dorm around 4 and then slept till 7. During that time I was fairly feverish so it wasn't very fun. And to make matters worse, that was the night of my interview for EST!
For those of you who I haven't told about EST (which is pretty much everybody...), EST is the Emergency Support Team, which is the on campus, student led emergency responders. I decided to join the 100+ freshmen who apply (only freshmen and sophomores can apply, and sophomores can only if they already have their emt certification), and try to make the team of 14-18 people. Last night was the first of the interview process and, despite me feeling sick, I think I did pretty well! With a little bit of luck, I'll get called back for the second round of interviews (and then the third, if necessary). If I do end up making the team, then I'll have to take cpr training this semester, then next semester I'll enroll in a 3 credit class, which turns out to be around 8 hours a week, which will prepare me for the emt certification test. Also part of this, will be 40 hours of on site training, which means either riding in an ambulance on calls, or working in an ER.
It's all pretty intensive, but I think it'd be an amazing thing to do, so I really hope I make it!
That's all for now,
-Brendan

Busy Busy Busy...

The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. The dust from choosing classes is finally starting to settle and I'm establishing some semblance of a routine, but everything is still pretty rough. I haven't really explained my schedule too well yet, so I'll give y'all the run down. Mondays Wednesday Friday I get up around 9, take a shower and get ready to go. I'm out the door around 9:45 when I'll grab a yogurt and bagel or apple or something to munch on as I walk to my first class, Intro to Psych. A girl on my floor, Sarah, is in that class as well, so we normally walk together. That's an hour long lecture class, but it's been quite interesting so far. After that, I have a seven minute passing period to book it to chemistry lecture. The professor is good fun, and randomly engaging. Example: one day, randomly, a bunch of people from Red Bull (the drink) came and were giving out red bulls during lecture. Why? Not really sure... But it was funny to watch Professor Loomis react. After that I have a two hour break, where I'll get a quick lunch then work in the library, normally getting ahead in reading or physics. At 2 I go to writing which is my only non-lecture class. It's small and okay, but it's in the basement of the engineering building for some reason, meaning it's in a small, white washed, windowless room with very artificial lighting that steadily crushes your soul. But despite this the class is fun, with good talkative people! After this I have a short walk to Physics, which is really fun lecture class, that is more supplementary to the reading. My professor tries not to teach us new material (yet) but rather correct misconceptions, and clarify how we think through and conceptualize problems. By then, it's 4pm, and I'll either do some more work at the library, or (more commonly) go to KWUR to work or rip cd's or something.

Speaking of KWUR (I'll talk about my Tuesday/Thursdays next time... gotta have something to keep everybody coming back!), the schedule was finalized, and my show time will be 2-3... am... Tuesday morning. And I know what you're thinking: "OUCH!" Sure, this is kind of a crummy show time. But it does have some good merits. First and foremost, I'll be able to survive this time, because I only have classes every other Tuesdays at 1pm. Also, this is pretty much the only time slot in which is still Safe Harbor Hours (which allow me to play expletives). So in short, I can play anything during these hours.
If anybody wants to listen, you can go to www.kwur.com, and then on the left side of the screen, click "128k" Under "Listen Live". You may need itunes or a similar application... I'm not really sure. But if you're not feeling up to listening at midnight (for you west coast people), don't fear! KWUR automatically records and stores every show, so I can upload an mp3 of my show to a website and let anybody download it. Sure it won't be quite the same as listening live, but at least you won't have to stay up so late! I'll get more details when I know exactly how its all gonna work!

More cool KWUR news is that I joined the production staff. The production staff is in charge of getting bands who're coming to town to come into the studio and play a short set for us to broadcast live, and then give a short interview. So last Monday after classes I helped out for three hours as three artists came through and played. It was very cool, even if they were artists I had never heard of.

One final bit of particularly noteworthy news is that I went to one of the practices of the water polo team! It was very intersting, but I don't think I'm going to continue with it. For one, every other person there had at least swam in high school, and was in much better shape for the kind of activity that they were doing. I think what I'll end up doing is trying to swim and work out during open swim at the Athletic Complex, getting me in better shape. Then next semester/year I might try again. I haven't entirely decided, but even as a club sport it seems very intensive and I don't know if I'll have the bandwidth for that.

But oh well. I do believe it is time to start the mini-essay I have to write. I'll try to update this more often (I know, I know, I've been slacking).

I love you all and can't wait to see you (eventually)!
Love,
Brendan

First Week

Well, I'm finally done with the first week. It's been busy and hectic, but a load of fun. First and foremost, I finalized my schedule. It took a couple of talks with my adviser, emails to heads of the physics and chemistry department, and a meeting with one of the physics professors, but I finally decided to drop calculus, and instead take intro to psychology. That means my schedule will be writing 1, general chemistry, physics and intro to psychology. I'm really liking this schedule. A couple of reasons: First of all, my earliest class is 10 am, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also, my only classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays are either lab sections or discussion sections. Labs meet every other week, so most Tuesdays and Thursdays I won't have much to do. Finally, the physics class I'm taking is geared towards possible physics majors, so people who actually like physics, as opposed to those just taking it as a pre-med requirement or something. This means the class is much more logic and conceptual based, and prompts more discussion, which I think I'm really going to enjoy.
After all the stress of changing around my schedule, I'm finally getting into the groove. I'm loving my professors, too. My intro to psych teacher is a really interesting lecturer, and I can tell I'm really going to like that class. My chem professor is a crazy guy, but clearly very smart. Any time somebody asks a question, he makes them introduce themselves, and any time he draws a graph or pantomimes a motion, he insists the whole lecture hall (300ish people I believe) use sound effects. My writing 1 professor is a English grad student, but she seems to be a decent professor (although we haven't had much interaction). My physics professor is one of those guys who clearly loves his job, and can explain very complicated things well enough to be understood by, say, a freshman in a 100 level physics class.
But besides classes, I've been keeping very busy. Thursday, for example, I didn't have any classes (because discussion sections/labs haven't started yet), so I did all the homework/laundry/miscellaneous housekeeping that needed to be done. Then at 5:30, I went for a run with running club, got back in time to take a shower and eat, then rush off to juggling club briefly before going to the exec staff meeting for the radio. Exec staff is basically the leaders of the radio program, who make sure all the little things get done. It was interesting to sit in on the meeting and hear all about the inner workings of the radio, and the pre-orientation kids even got introduced and it was all very cool.
Other than official meetings and classes, our floor has been doing a huge amount of bonding. Pretty much every other freshmen floor is jealous of Ruby 1 (my floor), and how close everybody is. Whenever people are in their room, the doors are propped open, and everybody is welcome to wander in and hang out. This Friday, we were just hanging out, and then somebody mentioned how classy Ruby 1 was. That then prompted us all to dress up (ranging from me in shorts, a polo and a tie, to a guy in a suit and bowtie), and then have a dance party in one of the triples. I have some pictures on my FaceBook, and I'll try to remember to email out some pictures for those of you who are not on there.
I think that's about all for now. Today our plan is to head over to the zoo as a floor, so that'll be good fun! Love and miss you all!

-Brendan