Blog about Blogging.

As of right now, the head of this whole blogging endeavour (Sara Fowler, Marketing and Communications Editor) is planning on hiring on at least one first year student on each campus to be a student blogger next year, so as summer gets underway, I thought I'd write about what it has been like to be a blogger for Colorado Mountain College.

It all started for me in the cafeteria of the Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs. I was eating late night dinner with some friends when I noticed these signs and posters about a program called iBlogCMC. I figured I'd read it to see what it was all about, and turns out it was a pretty sick deal. According to the cards, you could get paid by the hour to write blogs about life at CMC. I thought, why not, so I found out where to apply and gave it a shot.

I've had a bit of experience writing in high school, but I had no idea it would be enough to become a blogger for the school. The application process was similiar to that of any other job. You had to list previous work experience and any writing experience and things like that, but you also had to write a sample blog to show you're writing style, so I thought what better than to write about what would eventually become the story behind the title of my blog; me breaking my collarbone. Maybe I got some sympathy or it was just a well written blog (probably not the second one) but I got chosen and became an official CMC blogger.

Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of paper work involved in actaully becoming a blogger, but once all was said and done it was very worth it. I was most excited when I found out CMC bloggers got paid $11 an hour for writing, and you had to write a minimum of about two hours per week, but if you had a ton to write about that week, you could certainly write more. I would typically try to write more than two hours per week, one because the money is always nice, but two there just ended up usually being a lot going on around campus. After winter break rolled around, Sara gave all the bloggers at the various campuses the option of staying on for second semester with a generous raise, so as I'm sure you're all aware, I definitly decided to do so.

So there you have it, just a little glimpse into what it's like being a blogger for Colorado Mountain College, and hopefully a few of you out there have some interest in doing this as well. Thanks for reading these over this past year, and if you really liked them that much, you'll be happy to know I'll be doing this again next year. Take care and have a great summer. Peace.

First Year is a Wrap.

I'm back home in Minnesota now after a crazy first year at Colorado Mountain College. This semesters' finals were pretty tough compared to last semester so I thought I'd write about how everything shaped up.

Product Design was probably one of the tougher finals of the semester. The first part of it was a presentation where we had to describe our company and show off our products. For the presentation, we had to have all the pages our our catalog done, so that was definitly a lot of work. The second part was a paper about the company, pretty much taking the info from the presentation and putting it into a paper. Being the president of the class, it was a lot of work organizing everything on top of writing part of the paper and making pages for the catalog, but everything came together and we actually ended up with the best catalog Mike Martin has seen in the class, so that was awesome.

Definitly the toughest final this semester was Business Communications. Throughout the course, everyone had to write a 15 page paper on a certain topic assigned by the teacher. Mine was on healthcare and definitly took a lot of work/research to put together. After that, the final final was a 20 minute presentation on the topic of the our paper, which ended up being almost as much work as the paper. Foruntately, I think it went really well, so hopefully I'll end up with a good grade on that one.

Since I had already taken the Tuning final, the only one left was Microeconomics. Luckily, it wasn't a cumulative final, it was just on the last 3 chapters. Like the other tests and quizzes it was again online, so it ended being the easiest final for me this semester, although it was quite a bit a studying.

On top of final tests, I had to think about going home. It ended up being a lot harder than I thought to get all my belongings into boxes and bags and clean the whole room, which was a lot dirtier than I thought. Luckily my dad drove down to pick me up and help me with the cleaning and packing, so after we were all checked out, we had a great dinner at Old West Steakhouse and headed to the hotel to get ready for the long drive ahead of us.

The next morning we started out early to a much longer drive than we anticipated. Once we were in Nebraska, we realized that since we were sharing the driving, we could make the 16 hour drive in one shot instead of stopping for the night and getting back on Saturday. So by 1:30am early Saturday morning, I was back home in Minnesota. I was really stoked to be home to so I could hang out with friends and family for my birthday.

So now I'm home for the next 4 months after an awesome first year in college. It feels great to be home, but I'll definitly miss Steamboat and all my friends there. I'll try to write some blogs over the summer about how awesome Minnesota is, but now I'm going to bed so I can get up early and try to find a job tomorrow, but thanks to everyone for reading and hopefully I'll keep writing these next year. Peace.

The Final Wing Night.

Last night marked the last time for a lot of guys that they'll be going to the Taphouse for 33 cent wings on Tuesdays, so I thought I'd write about it.

It actually started off with an wings appetizer, when RHA hosted a free Red Bull and Wings study session. As expected, no one was actually there to study, but just enjoy free wings, red bull, and a break from studying. Sorry it is pretty weak but hopefully this picture gives you an idea of how popular it was.

Unfortunately, since it was so crowded, my friends and I only ended up getting about 2 wings each, and most of us no Red Bull, so we knew we had to head to the Taphouse for one last time this semester.

We all crammed into Josh's big jeep and headed down the familiar drive to the Taphouse. We were greeted by one of the waiters we have had many times throughout the year, placed our usual orders, and enjoyed the familiar taste of 33 cent wings. All of the guys I usually go with are heading to the Summit CMC campus next year, so for them, this was the last time they would get Taphouse wings. Fortunately for me, I plan on continuing the tradition next year with whoever wants to go.

It was definitly a nice break from finishing up my final Business Communications presentation, but it is now ready to go and I'm sure I'll blog soon about how all my finals went. Peace.

Pictures to Go Along With Back to the Basics Blog.

Here a few pictures taken from Nate's sick iPhone to go along with the blog I wrote recently titled Back to the Basics about skating now that snowboarding is over. Enjoy.

Josh doing a rock to fakie on the spine:

Josh stomping a fakie ollie to rock:



Nate sticking some tail stalls:
Jaryn throwing a huge fakie rock n roll

So there's a taste of our skating adventure and a nice little break from working on stuff for finals, which I'm sure I'll be blogging about very soon. Peace.

The Best Late Night So Far.

Tonight was a special finals week addition of late night dinner, and definitely was the best one yet. It was a pancake breakfast late night dinner with much more than pancakes.


It started off at 8pm in the MPR room in the dorms with an RHA coffee and donut event to help everyone studying hard and late for finals.



Then at 9 like the normal time, late night started, but it was so much better than normal late night. For starters, the food consisted of many breakfast foods besides pancakes. There were quiche cakes, and althought they were excellent, I have to admit they weren't as good as my grandma's quiche. Also, there was a tray of fruit such as cantelope and strawberries along with sweet fruit dipping frosting. There were scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, and as for the pancakes, if normal pancakes weren't good enough, they had ridiculously good chocolate chip pancakes.



On top of the food, local band Jebus was playing providing some smooth jam band entertainment. The singer is actually the head librarian and the lead guitar player was head of the cafeteria, so that was pretty cool. Hopefully this terrible phone picture gives you an idea of what they were like.

Besides the food and entertainment, the cafeteria was decorated up with big sheets of paper on the table with crayons and markers for students to go nuts, which Jeff and Josh took full advantage of.

If all that weren't enough, students could fill out a survey and get a free Nalgene water bottle, and be entered to win buckets of candy, although I'm not sure when they announce the winner.

So there you go, just another event that CMC puts on during late night. Peace.

New Dorms.

Next year, Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus is providing students with the option of off campus dorms, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you all about them.

Off of Hwy 40 not very far outside of downtown Steamboat, near the smoothie shop Freshies and the Core Trail, is the Iron Horse Inn. The Iron Horse Inn consists of two bulidings with rooms, and the left building is turning into the new off campus dorms for next year. It's pretty cool because it gives you a chance to live off campus but still not have to worry about a lease, especially if you don't stay in Steamboat over the summers. Plus, unlike the Hill Hall dorms, you are able to stay at the Iron Horse over winter break if you need to for a job or something.

Staying in these Iron Horse dorms gives you access to some things the hotel has to offer including a community kitchen, laundry rooms that happen to be cheaper than the Hill Hall laundry rooms, as well as parking and bike storage. Each room comes with a microwave/refrigerator, private bathroom with bathtub, all the necessities of a normal dorm room such as two beds, desks, and chairs, as well as wireless internet, local phone service, and Direct TV.

However, being that there will only be 50 people living in these off campus dorms, it will be tougher to get in, especially since first priority is given to returning and older students, but it would still be worth it to apply for a room. Also, being that you are off campus, students living at Iron Horse are only required to purchase a 10 meal plan for the cafeteria unless you want a 19 meal plan, while residents in Hill Hall are required to have a 19 meal plan.

So there you go, hopefully this gave an idea for another option if you are looking to come to school out here in Steamboat Springs. Peace.

Back to the Basics.

Since the mountain's been closed, some friends and I have finding other ways to shred, so I thought I'd write a blog about a skate adventure we had yesterday.

Before I start I do have to say that there are pictures to go along with this, but I'll post them once Nate uploads them from his iPhone.

The adventure started with a call from Jeff telling me to grab mine and his decks and come down to the mini ramp where some dudes were skating. So I grabbed them as well as Steve's camera and headed down there. Once I got there, we headed down the hill to the skate park in town. We crossed Lincoln Ave., skated down the path along the Yampa River, crossed the birdge, and were there.

It was a pretty popular day for the skate park and quite a few local kids were there skating. When we got there and I pulled out Steve's camera, we found out it was dead, but fortunately, Nate's iPhone has a sick camera so I was able to get some good shots of the mini-ramp before skating myself.

After awhile, Jeff and Steve went to watch some crazy kyakers in the Yampa River, and eventually, once it started getting dark, the rest of us headed out after a fun, long session. We skated down the Yampa trail for a ways and made a pit stop at Soda Springs, which apparently is one of the oldest hot springs in Steamboat, but all it really is is a gross looking, foot wide hole in the ground with a gazebo built around it, but it at least was a nice place to rest. So after chilling there for awhile, we headed back up the hill to school, but the skate adventure wasn't done yet.

On the way up the hill, Nate and I decided to session the mini-ramp on campus for awhile, since we still in the mood to skate. Even though it has gotten pretty dark, the lights in the parking lot light it up well enough to skate. After sessioning that for ahile, and both of us sticking the tricks we were working on, we decided to call it quits.

Fortunately, it was time for late night dinner, so we grubbed out after a long day of skating. Hopefully that gave you an idea of the fun still to be had on board, even when the mountain is closed. And again, pictures coming soon. Peace.