Peraner, Jared L: October 2011 Archives

First things first, I know I didn’t write a blog last week. I went on a road trip to “Happy Valley” aka Penn State University to see a friend. Sorry, but I’m not sorry. It was a great time and you should have been there! Also, the Patriots had a bye week, so I believe I am also entitled to a bye week. Also, by having a bye week that allows me, the writer, to have an extra week of preparation for my next post.

So here we are, Halloween weekend! Naturally, you’ve spent the last month watching Hocus Pocus, Halloween Town and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (If you haven’t heard or seen any of these then you should have a serious talk with your parents and ask what the *bird noise* they were thinking when they raised you). Either yesterday or today you will have carved your pumpkin and no matter how many other carvings you see this weekend, you’ll consider your own the best. You spent the first 25 days of October trying to think of what to be this weekend and then it hit you that you actually need to come up with something so you panic because, let’s face it, no one wants to see you as yourself.

You’ll spend roughly the next ten days eating the left over candy from trick-or-treating, or steal your siblings when he or she isn’t looking. Then afterwards feel disgusted with yourself and want to eat better and exercise more. Only problem is Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, so you’ll wait and start after Thanksgiving break. Then you’ll mull it over and think to yourself, “you know what, Christmas is only a few weeks away so I’ll just wait until after New Years.”

AMERICA

As for myself, I’m going to dress up as a student this Halloween and spend October 31 in my night class from 6:00-9:00. Isn’t an education truly the best treat of all? (I’m fluent in sarcasm)

“It’s a full moon tonight. That’s when all the weirdos are out.”

I feel as though we've gone astray from the focus of this blog, which is me. So today I’m going to redirect the blog and talk about one of my favorite pastimes, film.  The film industry plays such a major roll (get it like a roll of film!?) in our culture. I say film because we are talking about more than just movies, television is film as well.  Films are the subjects of conversation, methods of communication, and forms of inspiration. Characters we see on screen play a role and they then serve as role models for some of us. Some characters, the exact opposite. Film brings people together:

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, a colonizer and a navigator. He completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean leading to the general European awareness of the American continents in the western hemisphere. The results of his voyages and efforts to establish permanent settlements initiated the process of Spanish colonization foreshadowing the general European colonization of the “New World.”

Jared Peraner is a student, an engineer, a role model, a brother and friend to all. He completes voyages across the Merrimack River daily leading to the general student body awareness of his presence on North Campus. The results of his daily voyages and efforts to establish a strong presence in the Plastics Department have initiated continuous progress for the student body as a whole as they learn, develop and prepare for the “Real World.”

As you can see Chris and I have a lot in common, we’ve made several voyages across bodies of water, and have had substantial impacts on our separate communities. So in a sense, I’m enjoying this long weekend because of all my hard work and effort. So should it not be called Peraner Day weekend? Or even Peraner-Columbus Day weekend, OR EVEN Columbus-Peraner Day Weekend (respecting the order of the alphabet).

How about we all just enjoy this long weekend, especially all you engineers out there who work so hard day in and day out.

“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.”-Christopher Columbus

Over the course of my tenure here at UML I’ve noticed a particular pattern that each semester follows.  Professors tend to ease us students into the beginning of the semester by starting off with the syllabus, gradually moving into lectures and assigning homework, then the exams start. Now this seems pretty straight forward for any academic course except that all my courses seem to follow this pattern identically, meaning all of my exams will be in the same week. So right now I’m in what I refer to the “calm before the storm,” just waiting for it.

Then comes next week, exam, after exam…after exam.  

It is one brutal week and then back to the same routine, until in about another month the “storm” will hit again. This seems to be the common trend in engineering, at least for myself. I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it is and I’m used to it now. So I can guarantee that you will find me in the library on North next week at a table scattered with notes, textbooks and my good friend Arnold Palmer

With September and the first month of senior year concluded, I would have to say I’m pretty pleased. It’s nice to have a schedule where I do not have to wake up Monday through Friday at 8:00AM, but also not finding myself in class everyday till 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening (I mean seriously I might as well establish residency in Ball Hall with the amount of time I spend in that building). Also, I’ve made a decision on my capstone project and will be working with a pair of exceptional Plastics Engineers.

#I<3North