So during Thanksgiving Break I've been playing around....

During Thanksgiving Break (two weeks, THANKS RIT! lol) I've decided in true RIT spirit to install Linux onto my laptop. I'm not a big computer person, I don't play video games... the best program I ever wrote said "Hello World"... etc. I enjoy the freedom assiociated with it, i just came too close to throwing my laptop out the 8th floor window of my dorm way too many times when Vista crashed. So I started with Fedora 8, dual booting it with Windows Vista (fresh install).

Fedora was a little tricky for me, I guess the Linux learning curve was a little to steep for me. So I switched to Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon". After spending hours with Fedora and Ubuntu getting my NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS graphics card drivers installed. I could enable desktop effects in Fedora 8 and Compiz in Ubunto. I set up compiz to true RIT fashion! Supporting RIT Crew (I'm an RIT Crew member), and Engineering House, the special interest house I live in.

Learning to install programs and such has been a huge issue but finally getting more familiar with terminal commands and things like that... again I'm not a geek about computers, this was really really really hard for me to learn!

So throughout the duration of my break, I will be learning to use Ubunto, setting it up to my likes, and most importantly... having fun doing things that don't involve computers!

RIT: End of the First Quarter

Well RIT a.k.a "Brick City" is an amazing place to be, I have never had a chance to be bored. The first quarter alone has been fast paced and ultimately challenging. Finals week is next week, It's 4am on Wednesday morning on the last week of classes, and I've been working on an essay of Winston Churchill for hours.

The academics have been great. My College Chemistry class is challenging but also taught very well by Professor Collison. Writing Seminar as been a laid back learn to write in college, lets have great conversations type coarse. Calculus A has been my biggest struggle, I love math, well to a degree... but have always struggled at it. The past weekend I spent about 12 hours studying for a test the following Monday. It payed off! The course instructor Olles is a great math teacher with skill in showing every possible way to solve a problem, tons of examples. Modern European History is well history, its somewhat interesting, but there is a reason I'm studying engineering! Finally, Freshman Practicum for Electrical Engineering has been a great class, haven't learned all that much, I've already done a lot of my own building above the scope of the class, but its fun to play around with circuits none-the-less.

Engineering House has been a great adventure and has provided a community to live in. It really helps the social experience of college when we have a unified floor to live on. Our doors are always open when we are on floor, constantly hanging out with each other. Gracie's and Commons runs as we call them, get a large number of us to eat together. RIT would not be as much of an adventure without the experience.

RIT Crew, one of the best decisions I made when I got here. I am proud to have earned a seat in the Mens novice boat, seat 2. I row port and have raced once in the Wiley Coyote Chase Regatta on the Genesee River. We won 3rd overall but 1st in our division! Crew is a physically as well as challenging sport, the type of sport I love. The friendships and bonds from being a part of the crew team are irreplacable. Crew is simply amazing!

Overall, I have come to a conclusion that RIT is NOT a dead campus. It's been reiterated to me countless times. Rochester Institute of Technology offers students activities and opportunities to partake in. RIT students need to take advantage of them! As a student who is almost done with the first quarter, I am glad I decided to attend RIT!