On Central NY's Failure at Producing Frozen Precipitation.

My friends, I now live in the snow belt of New York.

Today is November 1st (Yes, this post was scheduled).

YESTERDAY was the first "snow."

     Ok, there's nothing wrong with that (all of you snow-haters are probably huffing and puffing about those flurries) but I think that it's about time for a couple feet of the white stuff. Even if it is November
    
     I love the snow. I think it's fun to throw snowballs I love to make snow sculptures (or just snowmen). I love to rush inside for delicious hot cocoa. That being said, when my college choice happened to be in Syracuse, I wasn't too bummed. I mean, I hear the word Syracuse and immediately think: SNOW.
     When I got here, I expected it to be a whole lot colder than down south a.) because it's at a higher latitude and b.) because it's in the snow belt. Doesn't that automatically make it a colder city?
    
Apparently not.    

     In the last month or so I've realized the city certainly isn't colder than my hometown a couple hours south. Up here, while leaves were still in the opening act of their colorful performance, they were completely shed from the trees at home. I would hear about frosts and freezing cold weather (once, even snow) that happened at home while I was enjoying the low fifty-degree weather.
     Of course, this is all attributed to the Great Lakes and the whole concept that the air upwind from Syracuse is extra-moist. This gives us lots of precipitation, which, combined with the slightly more temperate climate here rather than in the surrounding areas, means there's more lake-effect rain than lake-effect snow.
     Don't get me wrong, I'm in love with the warm weather too. I love being able to wear my shorts and sandals just a little bit longer. However, when it gets to be this time of the year, when the weather can't decide whether it wants to be snow or rain, I don't enjoy it so much. Especially when faced with making difficult decisions every morning (umbrella or parka?).

Well, overall, it IS Syracuse, it WILL get cold and I'm sure that, if I give it a couple weeks, the weather will finally stick to one form of precipitation and it'll snow like the devil.

Kudos to You, Wonka

On Sunday, I was sitting on my extra-high-XL-twin-size dorm bed, working tirelessly on my chem lab report due the next day. It was Halloween, so to boost my creative juices.... or rather... just my motivation.... I grabbed a box of nerds from the awesome care package my mom sent me.
After spilling a few, eating a bunch, and putting my tastebuds into deliciously tangy overdrive I noticed the side of the box:

** Want to know where Wonka candy comes from? Read all about it in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. By Roald Dahl http://www.roalddahl.com/ **

It seems as though society hasn't gone too far down the drain after all. Good old Willy Wonka, promoting a BOOK on his candy box.

:)

One More Post of Guster

Here's a little tidbit from the concert I went to last Monday. I have to say these guys are almost better live than they are on CD. If you ever get the chance (and if you like their music of course) go see them! My tickets were a little over $30 and I would have gladly payed double for what I experienced.  Heck, the main singers had colds and STILL sounded amazing.

Ok.

Enough gushing.

Here're the pictures:

That's right. Front. Row (ok there was ONE person standing between me and the stage). Check out the drummer, and his bongo-drum set. And yes, it was in Ithaca, that's why the piano-with-a-chalkboard-front says "Scooter [he helps play percussion] is GORGES."

That's all for now.... ; )

Just So Wonderful and Easy

  
     For the longest time I've been dying to write about some of my favorite things. So, in order to provide myself some more blog fodder, I'll (hopefully) be writing a series on my fave's.
    
     Today's Favorite is in music- namely a fantastic little group called Guster. I had only heard of them last fall, but they've quickly become my favorite band. Not once before have I come across CDs in which I enjoy listening to EVERY song (when it wasn't a "greatest hits"). That's exactly what happened to me on Ganging Up on the Sun and they're newest album (as of last Tuesday) Easy Wonderful. If you're into rock and alternative music, these guys will definitely catch your interest.  Plus, I love that they're still going strong after nearly 20 years!
     To me, the songs on Easy Wonderful are more blast-on-a-rainy-day type songs while those on their previous ones are nice to relax to. It's really cool how the drummer uses a congo-drum-set (congo drums instead of toms and a bass) and that the group incorperates all sorts of instruments (always a plus for me).

These are my reccommended Top Five:

1. Satellite
2. Do You Love Me?
3. What You Call Love
4. Bad, Bad World
5. Ramona

That's a general list, depending on the day they can go back and forth, and Long Way Down, Ruby Falls, Amsterdam and basically the whole Easy Wonderful album can be thrown in too.

Anyway, I hope you check them out, they're certainly worth it!

More Views of Syracuse

Yep, I haven't bogged in forever, I know. It's just, this whole college thing really sucks the time out of me! I can't believe I'm in my 6th week of 15 already! The weeks go incredibly fast and it's amazing that it's already going to be the second week of October! Anyway, things are going good and the only downside is that I kind of miss my family and friends. :)
Anyway.... I figured this post would be about posting some pictures of my lovely school :)
Enjoy:

On Weekends at College

      Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was a three-day weekend for me. All week I was so excited (two three-day weekends in a row?! How awesome!) The first weekend was really cool, because I got to go home and enjoy REAL FOOD and see everyone again. This weekend, however, was the polar opposite.

      Ok, it wasn't terrible, only as terribly boring as sitting in my room all day, everyday. At first, I thought it was awesome that I wasn't required to do anything those days.

      Then came Saturday.

      I had all of my homework done and was basically surfing Facebook and eating meals. Thank goodness my mail was actually contained some pretty awesome stuff (laptop bag, letters and a care package from Mom containing comics from the paper, carrots and my Seventeen magazine) or else I possibly would have gone crazy.

      I finally went ice skating around two o'clock to get some excersize. And let me tell you. It's definitely excercise! I went by myself to the indoor rink that's up on the hill behind my dorm and walked from the sunny seventy-degree weather into the cool, crisp 40-50 ish degrees inside. I rented my awesomely cheap skates (four bucks!), put them on, and glided out into the unpopulous ice. I was the ONLY one out there- which made it so much better because I could flail my arms and not hurt anyone skate wherever I wanted, whichever way I wanted. It was only the second time ever that I had been skating and I'm proud to say I haven't fallen yet. Lost my balance, yes, but never fallen.

      After a refreshing forty-minutes-ish, I went back to my cave-of-a-dorm room, sore ankles and all, and continued doing nothing. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE doing nothing and it's no problem... but given the last year I had and the non-existant summer vacation, I'm not used to doing nothing. Let alone three days in a row. Once I get everything done, there's no point in doing nothing, so I figure I should go out. If only I had something to do, energy to do it... and money to spend! Oh money to spend would be wonderful right now.

      Really though, I don't mean to give anyone the wrong impression of college weekends (heck, all of my followers have already experienced them) and I'm sure my definition of this weekend was far from the stereotypical one. Honestly, though, I know they'll get better (next week I have a freshmen retreat to a ropes course!), especially once I get that energy to get up and go do it!

      But now it's Monday, the weekend is over and boredom ceases to exist... for the most part. Today, Monday activities call (Woodsmen's practice anyone?) so I must depart from this rather non-exciting post.

Peace!

Sharing Biology Class: Part II The Galls

 It's time for the second round of the Biology Class series!

This lab that my class and I did last fall had to do with a certain natural phenomenons called "galls."

What are galls you ask?

Galls are those swelled, green balls found on Goldenrod stems. For class the friday before lab that week, our homework was to go out and collect galls. They are most usually found in the giant gatherings of goldenrod (not on singular stalks in the middle of nowhere) and our job was to grab 'em, tag 'em and bag 'em. ....Ok, so tagging didn't happen but all of us brought in twenty or so galls that Monday morning for dissection.

Dissection you say? The whole reason that these galls are in existence is because of the parasitic Gall Fly and Gall Moth. These two insects spend their larval stage inside the galls. Eggs are laid inside the stem, and the gall forms as the eggs grow into maggots. The white plant tissue surrounding the maggot's little hideout serves as it's nutrition and protection (although one type of beetle can sometimes burrow into a gall and feast on the white grub within). Eventually, the maggots mature and emerge from the gall as adults to start the cycle all over.

Anyway, back to dissection. Our job was to take scalpels and cut open those galls. It was a relatively fun class, interuppted here and there by occational cheers along the lines of "Hey guys! I DIDN'T accidently cut through my grub this time!"  We basically had to measure the galls, count the ones that had maggots in them, and examine the inside nutritional tissue.

All in all, galls are pretty cool. The grubs aren't slimy and discusting (they're more like really, really short white earthworms) and I was happy to finally learn what the heck those swollen lumps were on the flowers.

** Thanks to http://www.gpnc.org/goldenro.htm and http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/goldenrod_gall_fly.htm for helping me remember some information!