Thoughts on being home.

I realized something rather odd the other day. Right now, I'm just who/what I wanted to be...back in high school. Make what you will of that. Now I just need to work on being what I want to be in college before it's time to leave that, although I think it might be a while.

Being home has been awesome so far. Hanging with friends, working on some stories and drawings, and so forth have been chief occupations of my time. I picked up the Puppy album by Fluke, which has a very cool sound. We've been cooking things as well, and my yummy olive balls are gonna get made soon for Christmas...I may have to post the recipe later for all the aspiring cooks out there.

Today my uncle Stuart, aunt Megan, and cousins Jono and Livvie got here from Montana and brought some most excellent vennison with them taht we ate for dinner...and aside from keeping the kids motivated--Jono in particular reminds me greatly of Edgar Poe--we've already been sledding and ice skating. The skating was sweet--Had to go get some skates and shovel off the ice, but it's good ice. This is the first ice worth skating we've had in years, even if it's a bit thin right now (it kept forming cracks through our skating area)...We have a small barn with a wood-burning stove to keep it warm where the iceboat lives and so forth, and it has a light on it to illuminate things for night skating. We may get back out there again.

I can't wait for Christmas...not so much for the presents, which I frankly don't mind any which way about any more. I just really enjoy being together with everyone. I can be a very social creature, even if I like having time to myself too. Well, I'm sure you knew that.

I shed a single tear...

The semester is over. Man, I fought for it, and I fought pretty hard. It was a protracted battle of sleeplessness and heartache against the terrors of schoolwork and exams; no quarter was given or received. But in the end, one of us lay dead, dusty and bruised, and it was not I.

I'm about an hour from leaving school right now, having bid all but two members of the quad goodbye already and all but one Mullet. I hate spreading out all the goodbyes like that. It's hard for me...I really do love the people here. I love them like my own family.

Now I head home for three weks and I am excited, so very much so. It sounds like most people have already gotten home safe, so that's an answer to prayer. I intend to make this a very good break.

Ooh!

Hurray for quizzes.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

IT'S OVER!!!

Well, it was a semester I could liken to many things, like having my fingernails extracted by a dentist.

Well, the schoolwork was.

On most other fronts, like learning life lessons, getting to know my friends better and making new ones, playing paintball and skateboarding, and other stuff like that, it was pretty good.

But praise God, it is DONE, and I can get on with things that matter to me more. Three weeks at home with my family is not going to be sufficient...I know that...but it beats a kick in the teeth. (Although that might level up your head...hehe....figure out the reference to that!)

I saw people packing cars today.
Man...I'm not remotely packed out, and I don't care right now. Packing up, finishing the TPA jersey, finishing a Shadowfolk page, registering for classes, and drawing some kids a Grim Reaper logo comprises the entirety of my itinerary between now and Saturday morning.

Time to be lazy and sleep in for once!

"Anything worth doing is worth doing well."

But sometimes we can't...Sometimes we won't...help!

Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-18.

(From From Trivia to Truth by Char Decker)

"We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; perecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

bah!

Well, three down thus far. Thermodynamics was pretty bad, it was mean, and it was NOT what I expected. I have no idea how I did.

And now I suspect that Fluids is going to punch me in the face. I thought I was okay til I started going back through the older material and found I really didn't know how to do the differential stuff any longer.

It's also interesting the way I'm not entirely bothered. Maybe it's because I wrote off this semester about halfway through and then managed to get my grades back up anyway...I don't know. I'll be ticked if I worked so hard just to tank on my engineering finals. Well, I doubt I'll tank, I just...yeah, not as good as I wanted. We'll see.

Here goes nothing.

You know it!

NINJA: I never saw you. You're a professional,
but you don't get to take the credit for your
work that other assassins do. The night is
your only ally, and you wouldn't have it any
other way.

Which Type of Assassin Are You? (With Anime pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla


You know it! :D
Well, I've done one exam so far--Instrumentation and Measurement--and it was alright, I think I did well enough. 4 to go...

I know, I know!!

I know what I want for Christmas!

I want a 12" Blimpie Meatball Sub on chedder/jalapeno bread with provalone, oregano and jalapenos! Right now! If you don't know what I am talking about, you owe it to yourself to go locate a blimpie (might require some travelling for you southern types) and get one. Or phone a buddy in a better state than yours and have him/her mail you one.

Hm. Classes are all over, which rules. Exams still to come...but if I can live through Monday I'll be okay. Three exams that day, starting at 7:30 (!) which is earlier than I've even gotten out of bed in about a month, more or less. But I'm still all like, yay! But not really the bouncy sort. Mostly...just I sorta realize it.

When I get home I'm taking a bubble bath, followed by a trip with mom to Schuler's for some reading material, followed by a trip to Blimpie for one of those aforementioned delicious yummy subs of awesomeness. And jalapenos-ness. Then some other time I fully intend to get to Panera and also Qdoba, though not at the same time.

Anyways, I spent a healthy chunk of my afternoon skating the amazing Nate Todd today. It was therapeutic. When you're skating, you think about skating. It's not that I'm trying to forget anything (it's not something I generally practice) but you just have a good time and stuff. We even got pictures! Here are the good ones:




We're flying!!!

Oh, and in case you needed more proof concerning who has the awesomest room-mate ever.


Ben says, "RAWR!!!!"

Fun fact: When I spell-checked this post, it wanted to replace "jalapenos" with "Calvinist"! That made me smile. Silly spell-check!

Almost...there...

Tomorrow's the last day of classes, and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could, but it would involve a lot of much more unrealistic terms and conditions.

The pop in my fridge keeps disappearing.

Granted, it is for sale...however, when you get down to it, I can't drink the little piles of change that pop up on my desk in reparation for said cans of beverage, and sometimes money isn't everything...especially when I'm thirsty for something cold.

Something that's been made increasingly clear to me of late is that sometimes, oftentimes, your heart really goes out to someone in need and you want to help them, and then you realize that all you can do to help them is to pray for them. And you know what? That's enough. God is enough for all needs.

Here's a beautiful shot of me to take home and show all your friends.

if quizzes are quizzical...

sorry, I won't complete that thought :D

Looking over my quiz results, it seems that a lot of people know me reasonably well. Although...One dude from school here that I've hung out with at least a bit managed only to guess what I was growing in my window, while a dude I've only ever talked to on the internet (and not about me that I can recall....) only biffed one question...

And by popular consensus I apparently like nothing better than to cook Ramen...hehe. And most people guessed that either I don't like salsa, of if I do, I like chi-chi's. Actually, I hate chi-chi's salsa...it's not good stuff.

Well, I've as of now got two assignments left in the semester, although right now it's looking like only one of them will get done because the fluids is due in half an hour and I have NO idea how to do it. Dig this problem...

The performance characteristics of a certain centrifugal pump are determined from an experimental setup similar to that shown in Fig. 12.10. When the flowrate of a liquid (SG = 0.9) through the pump is 120 gpm, the pressure gage at (1) indicates a vacuum of 95 mm of mercury and the pressure gage at (2) indicates a pressure of 80 kPa. The diameter of the pipe at inlet is 110 mm and the exit 55 mm. if z1-z2=0.5 m, what is the actual head rise across the pump? Explain how you would estimate the pump motor power requirement.

You might not get any of that (maybe you do) but I don't either...We've never covered this in class and the reading is boring and unhelpful (and also only found on the CD that came with the book...since the class isn't actually intended to cover this...) Anyways, it's this stuff that keeps me up nights and takes the time that would typically go to doing kewl comics. blaaaah.

The time is come

Something that happens to me at school, though lately in particular, is that my perception of the flow of time gets messed up. Within a given day I'm alright, but ask me when somebody said so-and-so, and if I happen to remember the incident at all, I find that all too often I have no idea how long ago it happened. Sometimes my inaccuracy has been in the week range.

This often comes into play when discussing intramural games, where the canceled/still on status can alter by the minute; somebody thinks the game is canceled and I think it's still on, and neither of us has any idea who heard what most recently.

It's dry enough today that I think I'm gonna try to have a skate session tonight if Nate Todd is up for it. I've got Jimbo's camera right here...so...maybe we can get some pictures. That'd rock.

oh yeah...

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

Can you hear the burning grades?

They sound really similar to the sounds of Nintendo. Actually, Friday and Saturday I got in my fill of '64 gaming too. Friday was mostly hosing people in Mario Kart (I'm not undefeatable, but that night I was darn close...), and Saturday I played Wipeout 64. I'm not sure, but it may be the best racing game there is, other than the shortness of it. There is just something about the combination of awesome music, sweet-looking (and flying) ships to race, and LUDICROUS SPEED in that game that gives me the chills sometimes, it's just that good. Flying through a crazy loopy race track, barely scraping the walls and hitting every boost, maintaining psycho speed that you're just barely in control of...mmm...I guess it's worth watching because I usually wind up with an audience. And Mario Kart multiplayer obviously can't be beat...Last night, about half the floor was in the next room over playing gamecube (monkeyball 2 and Mario Kart DD)...But I got them out at about 1:30 so Ben and I could sleep.

Hm, anyway. Saturday night I helped G2 with their Christmas floor decorations. What is up with that...I had a great time, but where was the rest of the floor? Most of the time there were all of three or four people helping out that were actually from G2. We painted, cut canvas "grass," and eventaully I was asked to return later that night to help paint some doors. It's okay to ask me, really--It's Saturday night, it's not like you're imposing on me, so if you want me to...say so! Pfffft. Yeah, I was on one side of this big fabric barrier, painting, and The RA showed up, and was asking if there were boys...I kept my gob shut, and the RA left so I could finish up...heheh. Yay for minor infractions that you don't get caught at. I love G2 too...and apparently my sister lives on a floor called 2G (second floor of Gerig building) over at Taylor...so that is pretty coinidental. At least I'll be able to find her if I ever visit.

Ah yes...Our team had a paintball Tournament in New Orleans this weekend. We were going to leave Friday night and get back Saturday night...but twenty minutes (not kidding) before we left, we found out it was canceled. Texas A&M canceled (it is a long drive for them, I mean, it's 6 hours for us even and they're further away, but they're still jerks for doing it XP) and LSU's team president apparently died this semester in a wreck so they weren't coming, and UNO (who was running it) canceled the whole tourney. I'm kinda dissappointed that we didn't get to go play, because I know we would have done well. I also wanted to advance our team ranking (Since we're 17th/180-some teams...in the whole US! I feel so cool). But on the other hand, I got my weekend back. Saturday felt like vacation and I actually got sleep...Well, I got sleep by accident this morning too...they played some quiet, pleasant Christmas music for my alarm, and it was so quiet and so pleasant that I slept through it for forty minutes.

I finally bought some actual CD's recently, though only one has gotten here by now.
Moon Safari by Air
Numero Duex by The Dining Rooms
and something by Loop Guru. I guess I'm just not into pirating music no more.

Now I just gotta read 150 pages of Lucado for a paper due tomorrow. Rock on.

Stupid, stupid things.

Well, a lot of good things happened today , but the best thing of all happens to be that I still have two eyes.

Mom, don't read this or anything.

So it's 1:30 am and there's something going on in the hallway and Turns out, a bunch of guys are using a dremel to spin CD's up to a few thousand RPM's and then releasing them so they roll along the floor down the hall at incredible speeds. Most of the time, they seemed to be going over various objects and jumping way up in the air.

To be fair, it was pretty cool.

But I'm kneeling next to hazel to watch from his end, and he didn't aim well, and the CD hit the door frame and exploded, really exploded, and the next thing I know I feel some sort of opening in my face, and cold blood on it (blood is about as hot as your skin so you can't feel it right off but then it cools a little...) and I wasn't sure about how bad it was, hoping it wasn't gonna be stitches, and I was demanding to know how bad my face was bleeding, kinda freaking out here, and then I notice that I can only see properly out of one eye, and I take off my glasses and there's only one lense. Something hit my glasses lense hard enough to take the lense out without taking the frame off my face. I could have lost my eye just that fast, look up and bang it would be over, sorry James, ya didn't take good enough care of your eyes and now one's gone, sorry, get your unfortunate butt over to the ER and die already.

But I had my glasses on and once again my eyes are okay. The bleeding was just from a little hole by my nose, a little deep I guess but it bled out so I think it'll be okay. My lense popped back in. However, I am shaken, and feeling more than a little queasy now. Dear, dear Lord. I love having two eyes. I was already praising God for how well things have gone today, and now I praise Him more for this. I'm pretty livid about the whole thing though. I mean, nobody told me that the thing would explode like that...I was about thirty feet away.

But anyway. Also today, I won a Paintball logo contest where the prize was about $150 in paintballs, and made a cloud in a bottle, which was nifty nifty. Anyways. I'm gonna sleep this off, because I gots things to do tomorrow.