The Interestingness of Clint's Life

Improvement

2007-06-12T17:16:00.001-04:00

I've been subjected to long time periods on train rides across Europe that have allowed me to read, listen to music, talk, or just think. While I've participated in all of them, I've focused on a couple of them: reading and thinking. The reading I've done hasn't been reading done for the sake of entertainment, but to grow as a person and learn some skills to succeed in life. I realized that it is an untapped resource from the most brilliant minds in the world and that I have to take advantage of it or I will get passed up by those that do. Some of the books I've read have inadvertently led me to realize things that I do that are actually serving to hinder my ability to be great. This, in turn, led me to a lot of thinking about ways to improve myself. Many writers have always said that the way to be great is to constantly questions your beliefs and evaluate yourself and change accordingly. While I've always had this open view about myself, I have failed to notice some of the things that I may have done or currently do that slow down my progress.

Debate in high school taught me how to look at both sides of an issue and be able to coherently argue that side of it without bringing in too much emotion. It taught me how to organize ideas well. I have the ability to take someone's argument, analyze it, and dissect it on the fly. While there are some benefits to this, there are also many downsides. I can argue from dawn 'til dusk on a given topic with someone, but the average person won't give up their stance even in the face of opposing evidence. Why? Pride. This isn't ever covered in debate or in any class in public school systems. Debate works when you try to convince a third party of a given side of a topic, but will hardly ever work when trying to convince the opposition. A famous quote rings true, "One convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." I have taken the long road to discovering this. In countless arguments with friends, family, coworkers, and sometimes complete strangers I've proven them wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt with evidence, examples, etc and still they wont budge from their opinion. All I succeeded in was causing resentment. This is not the way I want to continue with my life. It will not lead me to success in any area of life.

I've began paying attention to how I approach a conversation. I love discussing controversial topics. I will change my opinion if someone proves my own wrong. I will change beliefs if I find that my own are lacking support. I am the minority when it comes to this mindset. Not everyone thinks like me. I've taken a more open and less direct approach to discussing controversial issues with people. I am now on set on becoming the guy that people love to discuss issues with, not the guy they hate discussing issues with. I need some help from some of you though. Some of you have known me throughout high school and from debate and others of you have only known me since college. I want everyone that has been around me for any period of time to tell me some things that I might have done that put you off, offended you, or you just flat out didn't like. I don't want things like a specific opinion that I might have, but more about how I approached you when talking. If I did something that seems to be a good lead in to bringing up the opposing side of an opinion, let me know about that too. That way I know what I need to improve on and what I need to strengthen.

The days of my harsh, "you're wrong because of blah, blah, blah," debating is over. I'm sure some of you will be happy about this ;)

Let me know!!

Thanks

Europe!!! (I know I said I'd post more)

2007-05-09T08:48:00.000-04:00

So I know I said I'd post a lot more, but I've been out having a lot of fun and not spending much time on here. I have been posting lots of pictures on my facebook photo albums though. The link should be over on the right somewhere.

Anyhow, Europe has been an absolute blast so far. I've been here for about 5 or 6 weeks so far! I left the U.S. on the 28th of March from Chicago to fly into Amsterdam, Netherlands. Grant and I spent 4 days there seeing more of the city and just hanging out. We hopped a train to Esslingen, Germany on the 1st of April. Once we arrived in Germany we spent the first week going through orientation and hanging out with the other kettering students and other international kids. The first weekend was a long 5 day one, so 9 of us decided to go to Paris, France and the beaches of Normandy. The trip was awesome!!

The following week was the first week of classes. I'm taking Feedback Control, Computer Simulation, Fluid Dynamics, German History, and German Language. Some of the classes are a joke, but none are too bad.

A week later a bunch of us decided to go to Munich, Germany. We took a free tour to learn about a bunch of the history of Munich! It's such an important town in history...kind of a dark history though. While up in Munich we took a little day trip to dachau concentration camp...it was unsettling for sure...especially standing in the gas chamber.

The next weekend we all decided to stick around germany and check out what Esslingen and Stuttgart had to offer. It's really nice here! We also had a field trip to a bunch of castles around germany with our History and Language classes.

The last weekend of April 4 of us decided to go down through Italy for the weekend. The first night we headed to Venice...really cool city, but not much to do. We spent most of the time in Rome. I wasn't much of a fan of Italy, but the sites and history were amazing! The people were really rude and the cities were really dirty though. We weren't able to go into the vatican while we were there though, so we're headed back down there for a day later on in May.

This last weekend I met up with Nikki, whom I hadn't seen since high school, and went to Geneva, Switzerland. The weather was kinda crappy, but Switzerland is amazing! Again, there's not a lot to do, but it's incredibly beautiful! It also felt nice to be somewhere where the money was worth less than an American Dollar.

This next weekend we're just sticking around Germany so we can go to the last day of Frühlingsfest and study for our Computer Simulation midterm. We also need to save money for our 10 day Greece trip starting on the 24th of this month.

Anyway, I need to get back to paying attention in this boring class. Check out the pictures!! I have a ton more to show once I get back to the states...I'm not about to upload 2000 pictures!

Busy Busy

2007-02-08T12:37:00.000-05:00

So I haven't posted as much as I'd like to, but I've been incredibly busy. I knew classes were going to be easy this term, so I volunteered for a lot of stuff with the school. I think I may have overdone it, but luckily it's only for a short period of time. The fraternity has been keeping me pretty busy too. I've been working on setting up our semiformal in Canada. That's pretty much all wrapped up now. The semiformal is good to go the end of this month! I can't wait!

The last thing taking a bunch of my time is the business I started. It's taking off right now! I never expected it to go where it has already gone. Gotta love good business plans!

Anywho, I'm sitting in a student senate meeting right now, so I've gotta cut this short.

Autoshow!

2007-01-15T13:58:00.000-05:00

This past weekend went pretty well. A couple highlights from the time are the movie and the Detroit International Auto Show. I went to go see Stomp the Yard, which was actually a pretty good movie. The big part of the weekend was yesterday though. Adam and I went to the Detroit Auto Show to see what they had to show. There were some pretty sweet cars and trucks there, but the best part was that Adam and I were in the BMW VIP lounge most of the day getting free things to drink and a bit of free food. We got to overlook everyone while we chilled up there. Surprisingly, the couches and chairs were actually really comfortable.

Today isn't so exciting though. I have to do some Machine Design homework, do my house chore, and go to the meeting with my brothers. The meeting shouldn't be too bad, but the chores and homework sucks. So because of all of that, I'm getting out of here. Have a happy Martin Luther King Day!

Amsterdam and Back to School!

2007-01-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a month since I last posted, but it has been one crazy month. Being home for Christmas was awesome. I got to spend a lot of time with family and friends. Hanging out with JJ and Donnie was an absolute blast. Hopefully they can get their asses up to michigan to come hang out.

Amsterdam was an absolutely wild 8 days. Sweers, Shane, Corey, Marcin and I had the time of our lives over there. I posted up over 100 pictures on my facebook photo album (like on the right) if you want to check it out. I definitely recommend that place if you want to have a ton of fun. I'm not going to post any stories here because they just wouldn't do the trip justice. I'll tell some of them to some of you if you want. Here are a few pictures of the trip and a video from some random person of the New Years party we were at.

Here's a video of the crazy ass new years party...and it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how crazy it was there.

This is just scratching the surface. There were about 30,000 or more people packed in just the square, the rain was pouring, the music was soo loud that you could feel the bass from a mile away...it was just freaking amazing! Everyone was just bouncing up and down listening to the music not caring at all about the rain. There were fireworks going off all over the place. It was an unbelievable experience! I wish I could get some better videos of it. We were way up by the stage where it was even more crazy than where that video is taken from.

Anywho, outside of the best 8 days I've had in college, I've made my way back to Flint for school. Classes this semester are a joke. I'm taking marketing, management, accounting, computer aided engineering, and machine design. I've had a blast so far though. Adam is back at school, we have a huge pledge class full of awesome guys, and Hannah and her friends have been over hanging out. Just a great start to a term so far.

The detroit auto show is this weekend and next, so I'm going to head down to that. I'll definitely post up some pictures from that in the next week or so.

I'm heading out to go have some fun...I'll be updating more now that I'm back at school with easy classes.

Holiday Plans!

2006-12-12T21:19:00.000-05:00

I am currently in the last week of work for the term. I'm not used to being so busy on the last week, but I've had a lot to do here lately!

Right now the plan is to head to Denver on Saturday to have lunch with some of the family, then to Grand Junction after that. Once I get in I dont' know what I'm doing, but the rest of the week seems pretty full. Things to do with people as of right now are:

1. Hang out with JJ and Donnie ... not sure of exact things, but we'll be hanging out for sure
2. Movie night, club, archery and more with Kim
3. Hang out with all the speech kids
4. Party it up with Brenna and them
5. HANG OUT WITH FAMILY
6. Whatever else anyone wants to do

On the 26th I'm flying back to Detroit...still looking for a place to stay when i get there.

On the 27th I'm flying to Amsterdam

On the 5th I'll be back in Detroit

No specific plans from there on out other than starting school on the 8th, which should turn out to be pretty easy this term. I'm taking marketing, management, accounting, computer aided engineering, and machine design.

Let me know if you want to do something next week!

Answer to the question in the prevous post

2006-12-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

The answer is clear when you think about the problem. Since the wheels are not what powers the plane forward, the treadmill has no effect on the plane moving. The jets are what push forward and there is nothing to counteract their force. If you're not convinced, I can post some examples of what I'm trying to explain.

Airplane on a Treadmill

2006-12-06T13:40:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick brain teaser for all of you that some how found yourself at my blog:

A plane equipped with fixed horizontal engines and wheel landing gear is placed on a huge treadmill runway. The treadmill has a clever design and always matches the speed of the plane, but runs in the opposite direction. Will the plane take off and fly or not?

I'll post the answer in a day or two.

Oh yeah...new news...I'm planning on heading back to GJ on the 16th rather than the 19th. Hit me up if you want to hang out!

Wow...now this is bullshit

2006-12-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

Associated Press
Supreme Court Looks at Race and Schools
By MARK SHERMAN 12.04.06, 12:07 PM EST

The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled with voluntary integration plans in public schools, asking whether Seattle's "Open Choice" program is an acceptable move toward student diversity or another name for illegal racial quotas.

At the start of two hours of argument, the justices referred repeatedly to a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that permitted the limited consideration of race to attain a diverse student body on the college level.

Does Seattle's program go too far in assigning some students to schools they didn't request? the justices wanted to know in questioning lawyers for the school district, the Bush administration and white parents whose children were assigned to high schools with heavy minority enrollment.

Justice Anthony Kennedy was among those expressing deep skepticism about Seattle's program.

The district seems to be telling its students that "everybody can get a meal," but that only certain people can get "dessert," Kennedy said. Justice Antonin Scalia said it was as though the district was saying "you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs."

The justices were referring to the fact that some students have been assigned based on their race to schools they didn't ask to attend. The question, said Kennedy, is whether a student can get into the school the student really prefers.

Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern about making school assignments "based on skin color" and not "any other factor."

Attorney Michael Madden, representing the school district, said race is but one factor, that it is relied on only in some instances and then only at the end of a lengthy process.

Madden drew a distinction between the Seattle school program and the subject of the court's 2003 decision, which narrowly approved the University of Michigan law school affirmative action admissions program.

"This is not like being denied admission to a state's flagship university," Madden told Roberts. The Seattle students are "not being denied admission, they are being redistributed."

Parents in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle are challenging school assignment plans that factor in a student's race in an effort to have individual school populations approximate the racial makeup of the entire system. Federal appeals courts have upheld both programs.

Amid the oral arguments, pro-affirmative action demonstrators bearing "Fight For Equality" placards marched on the sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court in a brisk wind. A parent-teachers group from Chicago and several civil rights groups were among those sponsoring the demonstration.

Demonstrators chanted "Equal education, not segregation" and "We won't go to the back of the bus, integration is a must." Some held signs that read "Stop racism now." Among the crowd were representatives of the National Organization for Women, the NAACP and students from Howard University.

Though outnumbered, there were some in the crowd from the other side.

"Regardless of how well-motivated, allowing the state to engineer racial mixing only creates racial stereotypes and increases racial tension," said Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm. "The court needs to put an end to state-mandated tinkering with race."

The school policies in contention are designed to keep schools from segregating along the same lines as neighborhoods. In Seattle, only high school students are affected. Louisville's plan applies systemwide.

"The plan has prevented the resegregation that inevitably would result from the community's segregated housing patterns and that most likely would produce many schools that might be perceived as 'failing,'" the Seattle school district said in its brief to the high court.

The Bush administration has taken the side of the parents who are suing the school districts, much as it intervened on behalf of college and graduate students who challenged affirmative action policies before the Supreme Court in 2003.

In 2003, the court upheld race-conscious admissions in higher education in a 5-4 opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

The cases are Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 05-908; and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, 05-915.

__

Associated Press reporter Matthew Daly contributed from Washington

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

A month later...

2006-11-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last updated, but I've been pretty busy having fun and working. I promise to update more often...I found that it's harder to write posts after a month because there's so much I want to write, but I don't have the time to cover it all.

Three weeks ago JJ and Donnie came up to the Springs to hang out for a weekend. It was probably one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time. The weekend was full of getting girls' numbers, clubbing, and screwing around having a good time.

Another highlight of the past few weeks was going home for Thanksgiving this past weekend. I got home Wednesday evening after dealing with a couple traffic jams and crappy drivers. That night JJ, Donnie, and I went over to Doug's (friend of JJ) place to hang out. After a while there we went to JJ's place and crashed. The next day I got up and kinda helped around the house to get everything ready for Thanksgiving dinner. 18 people ended up showing up for the dinner which was awesome. It's not too often I get to see much of my family and I probably won't get to see them again after Christmas for nine months or so. Friday was the fun day. After spending a bunch of time looking around for different trucks with my dad, I met up with JJ and Donnie again to go to the club. Good night to say the least. The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. Saturday I went shopping and went over to hang out with the debate friends. Sunday consisted of breakfast with the family, driving for 5 hours, and hanging out with friends when I got back into Colorado Springs.

Outside of all of that junk, not a ton is new. I got reservations for a hotel with my friends for the Amsterdam trip! I can't wait. I also received a $1000 scholarship for study abroad that I'm doing in April. Oh yeah...one of my good friends is coming back to Kettering in January. It should definitely be a good time.

I can't wait to be back at school!

If you want to check out any pictures that I've taken lately, click on my facebook photo album link on the right.

I'm so freaking excited!

2006-10-31T19:42:00.000-05:00

I just bought tickets to Amsterdam for new years. I take off from detroit on the 27th and return on the 5th! So far 3 others from my fraternity are going with us, with another 2 or 3 strongly thinking about it! The worst part is that I have a 14 hour layover in DC...the good part is that I might be able to get out and see part of DC during that time. This was wayyy to crazy of an opportunity to pass up!

Halloween and Blizzards

2006-10-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a little while since I posted last, but I have good excuses for it. First off, I've been kinda busy with this stupid orientation class for taking online classes at baker. They're actually making us write papers and such...complete bullshit for an orientation class.

Anyhow, in bigger news, Colorado Springs got hit by a good size storm on thursday. We got around 20 inches of snow in under 12 hours. IT was sweet!! Jake came and picked us up in his Xterra...those things impress me more every time I ride in them. We 4wheeled up hills covered in snow and had no problems whatsoever. The other parts of the day we spent making a big pile of snow in Jake's back yard to snowboard off of. Definitely a good day. When we got back to the apartment, we noticed a big snow statue behind our building...it ended up being a giant penis statue, so we got some pictures with it. I did not help build it as many people seem to believe!

Work has been going pretty well. My boss was out all week last week, so that was nice. I got quite a bit done with my other projects which made me happy. Nothing else really new with work outside of that.

Friday night Brittany and I went out to a sushi place together. It was awesome...we had a good time together and the sushi was amazing. After the sushi we headed to the movies to see Running with Scissors. I really don't know how to describe that movie. It was very different. Around 10 we headed to the other side of town to meet a bunch of friends from work at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Brian's birthday. Note: going out with Brittany was NOT a date...just roommates hanging out.

Saturday night was a blast. We all went to Jake's house for a Halloween party. Most of the people at the party were coworkers, but all are around my age which is cool. We had an awesome time. I ended up going as a paint baller because I wasn't planning on being around this weekend and didn't have another costume. It ended up turning out alright. Some fun stuff happened at that party and I met some cool people. ;)

Oh yeah, I forgot about Saturday during the day. Tamara and I headed up to CSU to meet one of her friends to go to the CSU football game. It was a blast!

Anywho, that's what's going on with me right now. The only major near future plan I have right now is a possible trip to Amsterdam for New Years with Sweers, Shane, and possibly Camilleri and Choda. It should be an amazing trip if we get it all worked out!

I tried uploading pictures for this, but the picture upload junk isn't working right now. Most of the things I talked about have pictures posted in my facebook photo album which you can find via one of the links on the right hand side of the page.

The Craziness of Colorado Springs

2006-10-17T21:25:00.000-04:00

So I just had to write about the crazy weather here. It has snowed 3 times in the past month here in colorado springs. I wasn't here for the first snow, but in the last two weeks it has snowed twice. The first time it snowed it melted within a few hours. Today it started snowing around 2pm and by 5:15 it was 3 or 4 inches deep. It's just kinda crazy how big the weather swings are here...or maybe I'm just used to Michigan.

In other news, things seem to be going pretty good. The roommates and I are still getting along quite well. Work is going alright. I'm working on a couple projects. One I hate and the other is awesome. Sadly, the one I hate is the project that takes priority. Oh well...I guess that's how work goes...

Luckily, I won't have to work a full week this week. Halfway through the day on Friday I'm heading back home to GJ to go hunting with my dad. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I haven't been hunting since my senior year of high school. I just hope to get something bigger than my last buck...which had a gross score of 193 7/8.

Outside of all of that, I'm always looking for something to do around the area or up in the Denver area. If any of my friends that read this are nearby and want to go do something, hit me up. I'm up for just about anything.

I'm back

2006-10-10T19:59:00.000-04:00

So I decided that I liked Blogger better than my other blog because of the power I have over HTML and such on this site. Anywho, expect more posts on here since I don't have to be on my Mac to update it. I plan on making some changes to the site in the next week or so, so check back!

New Blog Started

2006-05-31T20:35:00.000-04:00

http://web.mac.com/lucidcoercion

New Blog

2006-05-30T12:08:00.000-04:00

It has been forever since I've posted anything new one here. I haven't really been too busy lately...just too lazy to write on here lol. Just a quick rundown of what's new with me:

-I will probably not be working for Polaris anymore after this term. Last weekend I was flown to Colorado Springs by Spectranetics for a job interview. They have given me an informal job offer. I'm waiting for the formal offer this week. Got to see Heather while I was out there too. It was an amazing weekend!

-I'll be home in Grand Junction by the 23rd of June for a week and a half.

-If you're around the northwest Iowa area, you should stop in and hang out...the lakes are awesome right now!

-I can't wait to get back to school...the roommates and I are always fighting with each other....really annoying. Seems like one of them has his priorities all fucked up.

-I'll have some new pictures up on my new blog

-New blog! I'm going to be building a new blog through software suite called iLife from Apple. I'll have it on my .mac site soon. I'll post the link and a redirect as soon as I get the new blog up and going.

A NY Times Editorial

2006-05-06T14:18:00.000-04:00

Editorial
Veto? Who Needs a Veto?

Published: May 5, 2006
New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/opinion/05fri1.html?ex=
1146974400&en=9944ed0b3a5f414e&ei=5070

One of the abiding curiosities of the Bush administration is that after
more than five years in office, the president has yet to issue a veto.
No one since Thomas Jefferson has stayed in the White House this long
without rejecting a single act of Congress. Some people attribute this
to the Republicans' control of the House and the Senate, and others to
Mr. Bush's reluctance to expend political capital on anything but tax
cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq. Now, thanks to a recent
article in The Boston Globe, we have a better answer.

President Bush doesn't bother with vetoes; he simply declares his
intention not to enforce anything he dislikes. Charlie Savage at The
Globe reported recently that Mr. Bush had issued more than 750
"presidential signing statements" declaring he wouldn't do what the laws
required. Perhaps the most infamous was the one in which he stated that
he did not really feel bound by the Congressional ban on the torture of
prisoners.

In this area, as in so many others, Mr. Bush has decided not to take the
open, forthright constitutional path. He signed some of the laws in
question with great fanfare, then quietly registered his intention to
ignore them. He placed his imperial vision of the presidency over the
will of America's elected lawmakers. And as usual, the Republican
majority in Congress simply looked the other way.

Many of the signing statements reject efforts to curb Mr. Bush's out-of-
control sense of his powers in combating terrorism. In March, after
frequent pious declarations of his commitment to protecting civil
liberties, Mr. Bush issued a signing statement that said he would not
obey a new law requiring the Justice Department to report on how the
F.B.I. is using the Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize
papers if he decided that such reporting could impair national security
or executive branch operations.

In another case, the president said he would not instruct the military to
follow a law barring it from storing illegally obtained intelligence
about Americans. Now we know, of course, that Mr. Bush had already
authorized the National Security Agency, which is run by the Pentagon, to
violate the law by eavesdropping on Americans' conversations and reading
Americans' e-mail without getting warrants.

We know from this sort of bitter experience that the president is not
simply expressing philosophical reservations about how a particular law
may affect the war on terror. The signing statements are not even all
about national security. Mr. Bush is not willing to enforce a law
protecting employees of nuclear-related agencies if they report misdeeds
to Congress. In another case, he said he would not turn over scientific
information "uncensored and without delay" when Congress needed it.
(Remember the altered environmental reports?)

Mr. Bush also demurred from following a law forbidding the Defense
Department to censor the legal advice of military lawyers. (Remember the
ones who objected to the torture-is-legal policy?) Instead, his signing
statement said military lawyers are bound to agree with political
appointees at the Justice Department and the Pentagon.

The founding fathers never conceived of anything like a signing statement.
The idea was cooked up by Edwin Meese III, when he was the attorney
general for Ronald Reagan, to expand presidential powers. He was helped
by a young lawyer who was a true believer in the unitary presidency, a
euphemism for an autocratic executive branch that ignores Congress and
the courts. Unhappily, that lawyer, Samuel Alito Jr., is now on the
Supreme Court.

Since the Reagan era, other presidents have issued signing statements to
explain how they interpreted a law for the purpose of enforcing it, or
to register narrow constitutional concerns. But none have done it as
profligately as Mr. Bush. (His father issued about 232 in four years,
and Bill Clinton 140 in eight years.) And none have used it so clearly
to make the president the interpreter of a law's intent, instead of
Congress, and the arbiter of constitutionality, instead of the courts.

Like many of Mr. Bush's other imperial excesses, this one serves no
legitimate purpose. Congress is run by a solid and iron-fisted
Republican majority. And there is actually a system for the president to
object to a law: he vetoes it, and Congress then has a chance to
override the veto with a two-thirds majority.

That process was good enough for 42 other presidents. But it has the
disadvantage of leaving the chief executive bound by his oath of office
to abide by the result. This president seems determined not to play by
any rules other than the ones of his own making. And that includes the
Constitution.

A Democratic Dictatorship

2006-05-02T13:46:00.000-04:00

Excerpt:
'No one can deny that we now live in a country in which the ruler has the omnipotent power to send the entire nation into war on his own initiative. To use the president’s words, when it comes to declaring and waging war against another country, he’s the “decider.”'

In my life:
Not much really new here. I was recently talking to Apple tech support about an issue with my laptop (minor issue regarding the first run off of macbook pros) and they were amazingly helpful and nice. I have NEVER talked to tech support that comes even close to the quality of Apple's.

Since the last time I posted, I did go see a new movie. If you get the chance, go see Thank You For Smoking. It's funny as hell.

For those of you back home that read this: I will most likely be in town the last week of June into the first couple days of July. Let me know if you want to do something.

Also, paintball has been getting a ton of airtime on tv lately. Support the sport and flip on the tube to either espn or espn2. It's on monday nights and different times on sundays.

For those of you that know much about paintball, I'd love some feedback. I'm looking at getting one of these guns: dm4/5, Angel 4 fly, Angel G7, or an Ego. I've shot the DM4 and really liked it. The angel 4 that I shot was nice, but it didn't have quite as comfortable of a fit as the dm4, but it is easier to take care of and has a lot of extra features. I haven't shot the Ego, but having spent lots of money and time working with Planet Eclipse products and was impressed with their quality and ease of use. The teams that have been playing with them seem to have nothing but good things to say. Have any of you shot one? Let me know!

Other than all that randomness, I don't have much else to say. I'm sure I'll update again soon!

Again, it has been a while

2006-04-22T20:19:00.000-04:00

I'm too lazy to go back and read my last post to see where I left off, so I'll just throw some stuff out.

Work:
So far it seems to be going pretty good. It has it's slow points, but overall, I seem to be doing a pretty good job this term. So far I have figured out how to save one of the assembly lines in our plant about $22,000. The goal given to me by my boss is $80,000 by the end of the term. I should be able to pull it off.

Working out:
This seems to be going really well so far. My clothes are starting to fit looser and I'm getting more energy. I've been watching what I eat really closely and have been going to the YMCA after work. I've been focusing mostly on cardio, but am also working on the abs quite a bit. I will lose the rest of my weight.

Social Life:
Seems to be going pretty good so far this term. Lee, Max, and I have been hanging out a lot with Dani and Krista. They're both a lot of fun. Things were going well with Krista and I, but I could tell and she let me know that she's just not ready for anything right now because she just broke up with a really close boyfriend of over 2 years. We still hang out pretty often, but nothing more than that. No problem though, I totally understand what she's going through. Even if nothing comes of it I won't be upset, because either way, I gained a good friend. They actually both came over and helped us out with cooking on Easter and shared Easter dinner with us. It was definitely nice to have them here. We went to go meet Dani's parents last night. Her mom cooked us some really good spaghetti. Her Dad, the girls, the guys, and I all played some pool for a while then we headed back to our apartment to hang out and check out Lee's new Hookah. It's fun, but definitely not something that we would do a lot. It's a casual thing. Tonight Max and I are headed back over to Dani's house to hang out and play some more pool then cook some smores and such. Should be a good time.

Other:
Get a MacBook Pro. They are amazing. I've had mine for a couple months now and coule not be happier with it. The money I shelled out for it was definitely worth it.

New pictures are posted...check the link on the right.

Wow, it's been a while

2006-04-02T17:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been pretty busy the last few weeks of school and didn't have internet for most of the last week. I'll skip over st. patty's day, as many people already know the story. There are some pictures posted online from the parties and such...check out the link on the right.

I'll start out with finals. I had 2 on the thursday before last, one on the following friday, and the last one the next day on saturday morning. They all could've gone either way, but I'm hoping I did well. I do already have 1 of my final grades back. I got a 95 in my Applied Electrical Signals class, so I was happy about that.

This last week consisted of driving and being lazy. Monday and part of Tuesday I spent hanging out at the fraternity house with the few guys that were still around. Nothing exciting, just relaxing and having fun. Tuesday afternoon Lee and I headed to Michigan State University to hang out. Met up with some friends there and just sat around, talked, and watched movies. Again, a good, relaxing time. Wednesday afternoon we headed to Grand Rapids to stay with Lee's grandma for the night. She makes excellent food. Thursday morning we got up early and headed out to Iowa State Univ. in Ames. The drive was about 7 hours or so. It was beautiful weather until we hit Iowa. From then until now, it has been overcast and really rainy. We got to ISU and met up with the guys that interned with us at Polaris the last two terms. Went out to dinner and partied a bit at his place out there for the night. Friday morning we got up decently early and cruised into Okoboji, which is about a 3.5 hour drive. Since then, we've just been hanging out here at the apartment and getting stuff set up. I'll have pictures up of the apartment soon.

As for everything else, things seem to be going alright. Not really looking forward to getting up ungodly early tomorrow morning for work, but it's worth the money. I am taking a prob and stats class online over the work term here to get that out of the way. That should be pretty easy.

I'll try to update as often as I was during the school term...only problem is that there's not quite as much stuff going on over work term.

What a weekend!

2006-03-12T16:02:00.000-05:00

I'll start off with friday night. I wasn't planning on going out at all, but a few of us ended up at the greenhouse. Nothing big going on over there, but it was still fun. Played some beerpong and hung out. Most of us didn't party too hard since we had to get up the next morning and be on the bus by 7. That's where the fun starts. We all pile on the bus early in the morning for our trip to Lexington, KY to go to our fraternity headquarters. The ride down was a pretty good time. We watched some movies and just hung out. We got to our hotel around 2 pm, but didn't have to be ready to go to headquarters til around 5. We just messed around in the hotel and walked around...nothing big. After 5, we headed to headquarters to check it out and to initiate the pledges. The place was awesome, especially the museum. There was quite a bit of history in there that's associated with our fraternity. After initiation we all packed back into the charter bus and went to this really nice restaurant. Most everyone got this 4 course prime rib dinner...good stuff. Nice thing is that it was free! After dinner it was a free-for-all. People scattered all over the place. Since I knew Katie was in lexington for school, I decided to go hang out with her and talk since we haven't seen each other in a while. It was definitely good to see her. After Ivory and I left there, we ran into Zac and Grant, who were going to a club called South of Broadway. The place was alright, but what happened was funny as hell. It's a decently long story, so if you're curious, just ask me and i'll let you know. The rest of the night consisted of waffles at 2 in the morning with all the field secretaries and such, then watching about 7 firetrucks get lost on teh way to a building that was on fire in between the waffle hosue we were at and our hotel. It was a good time. Today we had to get up all bright and early to head back to Flint. The bus ride home was pretty good...just watched a bunch of good movies on the bus. Now that we're back, all that seems to be left to do is study for tests and such that I have this week. Oh well...

Long Weekend and...

2006-03-02T18:49:00.000-05:00

no plans :( No one seems to know what to do this weekend. I'm guessing it's going to be pretty similar to most other weekends...just playing it by ear. Either way it's going to be relaxing, which is all that really matters.

I really don't have a whole lot to write about...nothing new with school, nothing really new with the fraternity....just hanging out and having a good time. Politics have been pretty interesting lately...if you have read either of my last two posts. Since I have nothing else to talk about right now, check this out:

I'm not sure if you've heard, but President Bush has been exposed as a liar (well, again). It's because of video footage just released by the Associated Press that proves he deceived the public when he claimed to have had no idea what Katrina could do.

You can see the video, here:

http://colorofchange.org/bush/video.html

I've joined ColorOfChange.org's campaign to call on Congress to censure the President for misleading the American people. I'm inviting you to join me:

http://colorofchange.org/bush/?id=2080-69805

The day before Hurricane Katrina hit, experts personally warned Bush about the coming disaster. He knew the levees might fail, and he knew the Superdome might not be safe. But he did nothing.

Four days later, Bush pretended that there was no way to know the devastation Katrina would bring. He said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." While Bush failed to act, 1,300 people died, and thousands more suffered unimaginable trauma and loss.

It's unacceptable. Using the ColorOfChange.org website, I just sent a letter to my representatives in Congress demanding that they censure President Bush. This means Congress would officially denounce the President for his failure to protect the people of the Gulf Coast--and his failure to be honest about it afterwards.

I wanted you to know about this effort, and wanted to invite you to join me. It's easy, and together we can make a big difference.

Please take the time to read this...

2006-02-27T23:52:00.000-05:00

Please do not disreguard this post because you are not a resident of South Dakota. This is an issue that will most likely hit the nation on the appeals.

"If you’re a woman in South Dakota or if you have a daughter, wife, sister or mother in South Dakota, you might want to turn an eye to Pierre.

Because whether you consider yourself pro-choice, anti-abortion or somewhere in-between, things are not right in the state’s Capital.

The bills being passed and the bills being rejected show a startling disregard for the health, safety and intelligence of South Dakota women."...read more from the link below.

READ THIS ARTICLE! It does not throw judgement at their viewers, just the negligent decision making in government:

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com

Good Idea

2006-02-27T19:18:00.000-05:00

From a political blog (http://www.politics1.com/blog-0206a.htm..0227):

GAY ADOPTION. State Senator Robert Hagan (D-Ohio) says he will introduce legislation to ban Republican couples from adopting children. According to Hagan, "credible research'' shows that adopted children raised in GOP households are more at risk for developing "emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities." Hagan agrees there is no scientific evidence backing his claims about Republican parents -- just, as Hagan notes, there is none backing State Representative Ron Hood's (R) bill banning gay parents from adopting. Hood claims children purportedly suffer from emotional "harm" when they are adopted by gay couples. Hagen admits he created his proposal to mock Hood's proposed ban on gay adoption in a way that people would see the "blatantly discriminatory and extremely divisive" nature of the bill. The GOP House leadership does not support Hood's proposal.

The End of 7th Week Already??

2006-02-24T13:33:00.000-05:00

Well another week is just about over. It seems like this term is flying by crazy fast. It has been a really good time though. I didn't write much about semiformal afterwards, but all-in-all, it was a very fun time. Kim and I had a great time together. For specific stories, just hit me up on the phone or online or whatever.

In other news, I have figured out most of my grades. Right now I don't have less than a 90 in any of my classes, so I guess that's good. This term is going pretty well.

The pledges are closing in on their initiation. I can't say what we do, but it should be a really good time this year. It'll be interesting to see it from the other side this time.

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to take out an awesome girl named Kellie. I met her last summer at a sorority BBQ. This term she's been around Kettering a lot and around the Fiji's a lot because her best friend was kinda with my big B Grimace. Well I was able to score a date with her, which I was really happy about. Since we were both pretty busy this week, we just went out to dinner and decided to go do something more fun when we both have more time. She said she's up for a second date, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. She's a lot of fun.

So Steph (friend from new york) and her friend Jen might be coming out the weekend of the 3rd to hang out and party. I met her last summer when I was out there hanging out with adam for the 4th. Hopefully they make it out!

That's about all I have for now...I just wanted to try out my blogger widget. Those of you that are windows only users wouldn't know... Things are so much easier on a mac...and cleaner!! That being said...get one!

I Love Apple

2006-02-21T22:03:00.000-05:00

The new Macbook Pro is the sexiest laptop available. I absolutely love my new one. There's no need for a review here other than that it is simply amazing. I didn't know the first thing about Mac OS X, but in a matter of minutes I was finding my way all around it and doing everything that I could ever want to do. It's clean, fast, user-friendly, and something that all you windows users don't have: solid. The thing doesn't crash. Gotta love the Unix framework it's built on. BUY ONE! It's worth the $2500

Evolution or Intelligent Design

2006-02-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

The controversy between evolution and intelligent design continues to grow through the country. While most people are taking strict sides to the debate, I somehow find myself somewhere in the middle. I have researched both sides quite a bit and have found that it takes more faith to believe in complete evolution than in an intelligent designer. To preface my argument, I'd like to point out that I am not religious and am not talking in favor of intelligent design because of any religious group. My feelings against evolution and somewhat for intelligent design come from my own research into the topic. In this post I plan on pointing out the flaws in evolution as well as the flaws that I see in intelligent design as it is presented today.

Evolution, as it is taught today, is the idea that all living things on earth today evolved from a single cell organism that was created through the random chance of the right proteins falling together to create the cell. Text books in American schools are quick to point out evolution as a fact, without discussing the fallbacks of the THEORY. This is where our school systems are going wrong. In the following analysis, I'm paraphrasing the test of Lee Strobel. In the text, Strobel has interviews with a number of prominent figures in evolution's corresponding fields. What he finds is that evolution's four basic premises are flawed.

The first basis for Darwinian evolution is the Stanley Miller Experiment. The aim of this experiment, conducted in 1953, was to artificially produce the building blocks of life. The atmosphere of primitive earth was recreated and electric sparks were used to simulate lightning. The "lightning" produced a red goo containing amino acids. This experiment is now featured in almost all textbooks discussing evolution. In the 1950s, scientists believed the atmosphere was a hydrogen-rich mixture of methane, ammonia, and water vapor. What's accepted in the scientific world now is an atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor. The newly accepted model for the atmosphere still creates "organic molecules" as text books vaguely put it, but they're far from being life supporting organic molecules. The experiment produces Formaldehyde and cyanide. This is not even close to the right ingredients needed to produce life. But even if you still think Miller had it right, the only thing created was amino acids and proteins...not whole cells. For them to fall together and create a cell would be like throwing all the parts to a bunch of different cars into a huge gyrating pile, then after awhile a fully put together, shiny new car would come out. The odds of the amino acids getting together to form a cell are astronomical. Like I said earlier...more faith required to believe in evolution than an intelligent designer.

The Stanley Miller experiment is only one of the four icons of evolution. The second is Darwin's Tree of Life. The tree of life is a sketch in which life is depicted as a tree, starting with an ancient ancestor at the bottom that grows into limbs, branches, and twigs. This view requires physical evidence, which the fossil record would have to support. Since this theory has been proposed, we've had over a century of fossil discoveries. Strobel asks Jonathan Wells, PHD, PHD (undergrad degrees in geology and physics, with a minor in biology, doctorate in religious studies, and author of the book, Charles Hodge's Critique of Darwinism) if the evolutionary tree held up. Wells answered, "Absolutely not. As an illustration of the fossil record, the Tree of Life is a dismal failure. But it is a good representation of Darwin's theory...In fact, Darwin knew the fossil record failed to support his tree. He acknowledged that major groups of animals--he calls them divisions, now they're called phyla--appear suddenly in the fossil record. That's not what his theory predicts." Since his time, the fossil record has shown that the "Cambrian explosion" (the rapid appearance of phylum-level differences) is even more sudden and abrupt that scientists once though. The fossil record uproots Darwin's tree and turns it upside down. There is very supporting evidence that I won't go into right now that shows that it's very very unlikely that many new fossils will be found to support the tree of life.

The third icon of evolution is Haeckel's Embryos. These are images that depict the embryos of a fish, salamander, tortoise, chicken, hog, calf, rabbit, and human side-by-side at 3 stages of development. The illustrations support Darwin in that they all have striking similarities, which goes to show that we all share a common ancestor. The first problem with Haeckel's embryos is that the drawings in the early stages were faked. He doctored the drawings to make them look more similar than they really are. The problem is that textbooks today still use the illustration to support evolution. The second problem with Haekel's ebmryos is that he cherry-picked his examples. He only shows a few of the seven vertebrate classes. "He stacked the deck by picking representatives that came closes to fitting his idea--and then went further by faking the similarities." Wells, being an embryologist, points out that the most dramatic problem is that what Haekel claimed to be the early stages of development is nothing of the sort. It's actually the midpoint of development, He tells us that if you go back to the earlier stages, the embryos look far more different from each other.

I could go on into the 4th icon, which is dubbed the missing link. It discusses the archaeopteryx. Like the other icons presented, this one too has many faults. My goal with this post, however, is just to throw some brief thoughts out there about evolution. Lee Strobel in his book The Case For a Creator investigates evolution's origins and its faults then proceeds into argument towards intelligent design. I have not finished the book yet, but it has opened my eyes to the American education system and how it presents very unfinished theories as facts to the children of the country. No wonder we rank so low on international education system comparisons.

As I said earlier, I want to discuss intelligent design. Many see it as a creationist theory in disguise. The fact of the matter is that it is as scientific as evolution. The problem that surrounds ID is the pressure from the churches. They see it as a way to open the school system up to creationism. Intelligent design is simply a theory that says life today is too complex to have happened by pure chance and must be the work of an intelligent designer. Saying this in a public school does not establish a religion or prohibit the free excercise thereof...which is the law that a lot of people try to call "separation of church and state." As long as our government doesn't endorse and make a national religion, we're not establishing a religion and as long as intelligent design doesn't prohibit free exercise, which it doesn't, it should be mentioned. It is just as viable of a theory as evolution. What has to be watched and regulated is the churches' influence. They distort the aim of intelligent design. Overall ID should be looked into and researched by the general public before it is dismissed.

I encourage everyone that reads this post to look into both evolution and intelligent design. I challenge you to do it with an open mind as well...something that most will have a hard time doing. You may be surprised as to what you may find out there. I know that I used to be a major opponent to intelligent design and a proponent of evolution. Allow change to happen...don't be stubborn.

The discovery institute is a good place to look to if you want information on intelligent design. They are a Seattle based think tank that is a prominent face in the on going debate. I would also highly recommend Lee Strobel's book. It'll open your eyes to a whole array of issues that everyone should know about.

Anyways, I just thought I'd post something on this since related topics have been all over the news lately. That's it for now...

I'll have a new update on wednesday to let you all know how the new MacBook Pro performs in the hands of me!

A good start to the weekend

2006-02-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

Last night was a good time. I wasn't planning on going out at all, but I ended up going to the greenshouse where there happened to be a lot more people that I expected. I ended up inviting over Hannah and her sister and friends. It was nice to get to see her and talk with her. Kellie also called and asked if they could come over. Of course, I couldn't resist, so I let her know that she's always welcome. It was a good time hanging out...until about 3:30 this morning. Kellie and Steph ended up coming back to the fiji house because I wasn't about to let them drive. It ended up working out alright...except getting up at 10 this morning to take them back to the greenhouse to pick up their car. It was a suprisingly good time last night.

Friday was also pretty sweet because I'm pretty sure I did a good job on my differential equations test. Hopefully it comes back with a good grade on it. I also got my Vel Crowe Johnson cd in the mail yesterday. His cd is fucking awesome. It's a different style of hip-hop that you don't hear very often. You can only order it straight through him though. Search for his name on google and you'll find his site where you can order his cd. I highly recommend it.

So I guess my lack of patience paid off with my laptop. I'll have it in my hands by sometime next week. I can't wait!!

The rest of the weekend should be pretty fun also. We're (my fraternity brothers and dates) are all getting ready to go to semiformal up in canada. Tonight is going to be a blast. VIP passes to clubs, rented out banquet rooms in the hotel, a huge block of rooms for us, girls, dancing, alcohol, downtown Windsor, etc. It's definitely going to be a night to remember....for those of us that will lol. Tomorrow there will be a ton of new pictures posted from semiformal as well as pictures from last night. If only I could post video too...i have some funny stuff there. If you need to get a hold of me while I'm in Windsor, you probably won't be able to. Just leave me a voicemail.

I'm out...

Patience...or lack thereof

2006-02-15T14:06:00.000-05:00

So I ordered my MacBook Pro the day after they were annonced by Apple, which was the 10th of January. They said they wouldn't be shipped until February. Upon ordering mine (the top of the line one for $2500 with student discounts), I find out that it wouldn't be shipping until the 15th of february. So yesterday I log onto apple's website to see what they have to say about my order only to find out that they upgraded my laptop from a 1.83 Ghz Core-Duo Intel processor to a 2.0 Ghz one. It was awesome to hear that...better processor for the same price...no problems there. The crappy thing is that my ship date also got pushed back almost 2 weeks. It doesn't even ship until the 28th now. I'll probably see it the beginning of march. I hate having to wait, but the huge upgrade to the processor makes it seem a little better. I'm sure it'll be awesome....just really really sucks having to wait so long for something you paid that much for. oh well...that's my rant for the day.

For your amusement from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:

Jon Stewart: "I'm joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?

Rob Corddry: "Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Wittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.

"And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face."

Jon Stewart: "But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak."

Jon Stewart: "That's horrible."

Rob Corddry: "Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know 'how' we're hunting them. I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little 'covey' of theirs.

Jon Stewart: "I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob."

Rob Corddry: "Well, whatever it is they do … coo .. they're cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.

Jon Stewart: "Okay, well, on a purely human level, is the vice president at least sorry?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, what difference does it make? The bullets are already in this man's face. Let's move forward across party lines as a people … to get him some sort of mask."

Laid back weekend

2006-02-13T22:39:00.000-05:00

Well last week ended pretty well. On friday I found out that I got a 20/20 on my signals exam, so that made the day that much better. Friday evening was awesome though. Kim and I took off to great lakes mall so I could get some stuff for semiformal. All I really needed was a new pair of dress pants and some new dress shoes. After I found out that express didn't have the pants that I wanted, we went around until we found S&K menswear. I went in to get some pants and ended up getting two suits, 3 ties, a shirt, and some dress socks. I actually have to go back tomorrow and pick them up...they were being altered. Once we finally got out of there, we headed to guess. They were having an awesome sale, so I ended up buying a couple polos. Once I was tired of spending a lot of money, Kim and I headed to a restaurant and got a bite to eat.

Once I got back to flint, I dropped Kim off and went over to the greenhouse. From there jonesy and I went to the Pike pledge party where there was pretty much no one. We decided to leave there and headed to the Sigma Chi foam party. That had quite a few more people at it. We partied there for a while then headed back to the house at around 3 or so.

Saturday night a bunch of grad brothers came into town. We all went over to the greenhouse at around 8:30 or so. AFter a while, all of the older guys, including the grads, decided to go to the bar. Once they left only a few of us were at the greenhouse, so we played beer pong, euchre (i learned how to play) and other random games. A few of us decided to walk down to Lambda Chi for their rooms party. WE hung out there for a while and picked up Shane. We headed back to the greenhouse to have an awesomely good time for just the few of us. It was definitely a good time.

Sunday was much less fun. From 11 till about 11 at night I was studying for my social science midterm. I think it paid off though. The midterm was today and I was able to write quite a bit from memory. We had to write 3 essays in 2 hours at "no more than 700 words." He was orginally going to make us write 4 in that time. Thank God he decided to change that.

The rest of this weeks is going to be pretty easy. Not much going on except a differential equations test on friday. This coming weekend is going to be a good time though. Semiformal in Canada!!

Some people really miss the point

2006-02-10T21:01:00.000-05:00

"Anonymous said...

wow, way to make yourself look like an asshole. i thought you were a nice guy...but i guess it was "self proclaimed" huh?"

I looked like an asshole? Who's the one that came onto MY site and flat out told me that something I posted was total bullshit, then didn't have the balls to let me know who they were? I'm more than a nice guy, but when it comes to people challenging opinions with absolutely NO WARRANT, I become extremely annoyed. I'm extremely open minded and will always listen to someone else's opinion, but not when it is presented as disrespectful as yours.

Who agrees with me here?? Am I not a nice guy because I think someone should address someone with respect and backing for their opinion when they are arguing with mine? I want all of you reading this to tell me what you think. I really want to know.

Opinions

2006-02-09T18:32:00.000-05:00

I completely understand that people have their own opinions and views on things, but when they challenge someone else's views, they should at least have some sort of warrant behind their claim. Examples of a warrant would be evidence, empirical examples, etc. The person that posted this:

"Anonymous said...

I'd tell you the same thing if we were in person: that article was full of bullshit. Full of uneducated rambling."

in response to my State of Illusion post, is obviously lacking warrants in their opinion, while what I posted was full of empirical examples.

Also, if you're going to come onto my blog and tell me things that I post are "bullshit" make sure you leave your name, so I know who the fuck is challenging me. Did you not leave your name because you really don't know what the hell you're talking about, or is it because you're just a mindless drone that believes everything that he/she hears from our oh-so-great leader and his cronies? At this point, I would have to say that the one that has the most convincing argument for being right about the topics discussed in State of Illusion is the author of it, not someone that says it's bullshit rambling. If whoever posted that and the other comment about the article would actually like to discuss the ideas presented, I'm more than happy to, but don't be a bitch and hide behind the internet's cloak.

B-L-O-G

2006-02-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days, but in those days I had a ton of fun. Lets start it out with friday night. I cruised on over to the Greenhouse pretty early on. It was slow for a while, but then a bunch of delts and their friends showed up. We had an awesome time dancing, drinking, and talking the entire night. I took a ton of pictures of which 55 are posted in my picture album (link on the right).

Saturday brought another fun day. I decided that I was going to skip the first film of the day that I was supposed to go to for the global issues film festival and go paintballing instead. It was awesome to get to play again. I miss it a ton. The place we went was called The Bunker and it was one of the nicest places I have ever played. I was really impressed with it. I plan on opening my own place in the future and this is the type of place I would like it to be modeled after. After playing for a couple hours and getting my phone shot/broken, I busted ass back to school to catch the second film of the day. I ended up getting there right when it started. I didn't know that it was a two and a half hour documentary though. It just kept going and going...it sucked. After that I grabbed some food, took a shower and headed over to the greenhouse with Shane and Dan Freshman. We got over there only to see the greenhouse crew (matt and purdy) cleaning. We just sat around talking for a while then all of the sudden a bunch of people showed up and the party took off. Two girls from Alma got crazy. AFter a while they weren't even dancing...they were pretty much just dry humping all over the place. It was a good time. At about 3, Shane and I left the party and took a trip to McDonalds to get him some drunk food lol. I made sure to have some fun in the 6" of new snow that fell that night in his car too. Pictures from saturday are also posted online.

Sunday was a good day as well. The morning was slow and full of chores and homework. The afternoon was a different story. Our pledges put on a Super Bowl party and invited over one o the sororities and got a bunch of food for everyone. We all chilled around the big screen and watched the superbowl. It was a decent game overall, but the officiating officially sucked. I think that made the game what it was. There were a few shitty calls...like the offensive pass interference, the "touchdown" by the steelers and the illegal blocking call...made during a tackle!! It was bullshit. The commercials kinda sucked too. The only good ones were first and second quarter. AFter that they were boring as hell. The halftime show, National Anthem, and pregame show kinda sucked too. I was rather disappointed with most of the superbowl experience on tv. Hopefully it'll be better next year. After the superbowl, I didn't do much but homework.

This week is looking to be pretty difficult. I already gave my presnentation in Social Sciences, but I still ahve a book review to do in there, a test in differential equations tomorrow and a test in Applied Electrical Signals on thursday. so i've got quite a bit of work to do.

In other news, I got a new phone today. It's pretty sweet. It's called the SLVR from motorola. It's actually thinner than the RAZR. I'm still waiting on my laptop though. It should be here in a couple weeks...sucks having to wait this long for it damnit! It'll be worth it though!

This next weekend will be a nice time to relax. I'm thinking about going down to MSU to hang out with a friend. That's still up in the air right now though. One thing I'm doing for sure is hanging out with Shana! I'm still trying to decide what we could go do. I'll think of something fun.

So I've been trying to listen to different music as much as possible. Lately I found Vel Crowe Johnson. He's a former metal artist that is now a hip-hop artist. He has some good stuff. I'm in the process of trying to get a hold of one of his promo CDs as he doesn't have anything for sale to the general public yet. Click the link I posted and it'll take you to his myspace music page. Out of his 4 songs on there, I really like 3 of them. You can download them or just stream them. Check it out!

State of Illusion

2006-01-31T15:05:00.000-05:00

Many Americans have this sense of profound malaise. Of course, that's the ailment that dare not speak its name (and not just because it's French).

Check out the Article...the link is the title of the post

Crazy Week

2006-01-31T02:02:00.000-05:00

Well, this last week was pretty interesting. It was full of a lot of school work. I had two tests...one in Signals, which I got a 17/20 on and one in differential equations, which I don't know my grade on yet. I'm pretty sure I did alright on it though. The weekend was a great time...Friday night especially. Randy Krug, one of my good friends that I go to school with, recently got put on the high alert list to be sent over to the middle east...again. So friday night we had a big party in his honor. Being the awesome guy he is, he cooked 10 of us a prime rib dinner, with carrots and scalloped potatoes. It was awesome. Following the dinner, everyone started to show up for the party. There were quite a few people there. It was an awesome time. Like all parties, there were a lot of pictures taken....same link to see these pictures as all the other posts. The night ended pretty well. Saturday was less eventful..pretty much just hanging around the house with the fraternity brothers. Sunday was packed full of homework, but overall it wasn't bad. Today I found out that I have a book review, presentation on that book, and a film festival to attend and take notes on all due by Monday. The film festival starts wednesday and goes through saturday...which is dumb...and we are required to go. The book review and presentation are both for the same class and are due on monday as well. So I have a lot of work to do with that. Luckily I don't have any big tests this week...just a quiz in solids. On a more fun note for the week, I'm hanging out with Kim tomorrow. We're gonna go look for a dress for her for semiformal then I'm going with her to get her tattoo that she's been wanting to get for a long time. It should be fun to hang out since we haven't had too much of a chance lately with our schedules and such. Tonight was a lot of fun. I went over to the phi delt house to hang out with a bunch of friends. We sat around and talked about all kinds of crazy philisophical stuff and religion...it was a good time. Tried a hookah too...it was alright, although the flavor we were using wasn't the best. It was just cool to hang out and talk about crazy stuff. So far this term has been a lot of fun...it's awesome. I should get some sleep though...just thought I'd update for all of you that just might be following my life for some sort of entertainment or whatever lol. Be sure to check out the pictures though...there are some good ones for sure...I made the title of this post a link to the pictures too if you want to click that for some reason.

Some Interestingness...

2006-01-24T17:07:00.000-05:00

So, like predicted, the weekend went quite well. The delt party was a ton of fun. I got to see and hang out with a bunch of friends I haven't seen in a while. During the time of the party, I noticed some really weird weather that I'm not used to. We get slush on the ground after stuff melts and such, but I don't ever recall it falling from the sky... Anywho, saturday was probably more fun for me than friday night. A small amount of the guys and some of the pledges went to the greenhouse and had a good time. We put on some good music and some of it was the type you stand around and sing...good times all around. I also stood outside and talked with Lesko for a while...always nice to just sit and talk about random stuff.

Standing Around Singing

Eye of the Tiger was on...

Who knows...

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful...just a bunch of studying. The week has been that way too. The rest of the week is probably going to be pretty similar. I have 2 tests this week, so I've got to buckle down and git er done.

Friday night will probably be just hanging out at the greenhouse. Satuday night I'm planning on driving to MSU to hang out with someone I met there last term. I'm looking forward to it...should be a good time.

So Kim and I are doing pretty good now...we both accept quite well what the situation is and what we want. We're just sticking to casual friends, which I am completely ok with now. She is going with me to my fraternity's semiformal up in Canada in a few weeks though. It'll be a lot of fun, I'm sure.

Well, I've got a bunch of stuff to do...I'm out!

What's New?!?

2006-01-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

Not too much actually... This is has just been one of those typical weeks so far. Had a couple quizes, did well on one (I think) and bombed the other. Luckily the professor I have for the one that I bombed is letting the whole class do it this weekend at home. He told us that it does no good for us to take a quiz, get a grade, and move on, because that doesn't make sure that we learned the subject matter. Instead he's going to make sure we get it right by taking it again over the weekend on our own time. I wish more professors were like him.

This week has been very flintastic though... The delts, phi delts, and my fraternity have had cars broken into the last few days. I think we have a liscense plate on the asshole that is taking shit. They're going down!

Yesterday was the shit! We had pledge initiation for the new guys. I got a little B now! It's pretty sweet. We all call him Italian Matt. He's all into paintball and such like me, so it should be pretty cool. I was just happy that one of them wanted me to be their mentor in the fraternity.

Tonight should be pretty fun. The Delts are having their welcome back party. So far they have invited around 500 people or so. It should be pretty wild. Not everyone will show up, but there will still probably be around 300 or so throughout the night. No drinking for me this weekend though...I have just as much fun without needing to do that. I feel better when I know that there are a decent amount of sober people around too.

So I think I found one of my next investments. (down the line a ways, if I get back into it as much as I used to.) The DM5 paintball gun is now only around $900 because they came out with the DM6. The gun is amazing. It would be a nice switch over my current gun simply because autocockers require a lot of tinkering and I don't have the time to do that when I go play now. When I used to play 3 or so times a week, I could just sit around and get my gun tuned perfect, but I don't have that luxury anymore. Here's a picture of my current gun then below it is the Dye DM5. Both are semi-automatic guns capable of shooting around 30 balls per second. The fastest that I have been able to pull the trigger on my gun is 16 or 17 times a second. I'm a bit higher on the DM5. Either way, they both rip like nothing! If anyone is interested in buying my current setup, leave a comment. I'd probably sell it for around $600 or so...which would be incredibly difficult since there is around $1200-1300 into it. I love autocockers, but don't quite have the time to mess with them.

In other news, I watched Lord of War the other night again. The movie is great. It puts you into the heart of the arms trade. Really strong movie...sure gets you thinking. I'd recommend it.

As for music, Adam introduced me to an awesome group called Thievery Corporation. The music is different...iTunes labels the genres on their three cds as Reggae, Electronica/Dance, and World. The electronica cd I don't like as much, but the other two are awesome. Check them out...just click on the link I posted there.

So I'm kinda bummed that my new laptop doesn't ship until the 15th of February, so I have to wait in suspense for almost a month. I think it'll be worth the wait though...it's going to be awesome.

Other than that, I don't have much else going on. If anyone wants to do something this weekend, give me a call.

What a Weekend!

2006-01-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

Lets start at thursday night. Adam came into town the night before and were already wondering what to go do. Well we heard that Sigma Chi was having a rooms night party at their house on thursday.

I called up Kim and he called up Hannah. We drove out to their house and had a good time out there. It was kind of a bummer by the end of the night because Kim was dancing with another guy for a while (i didn't mind that), but then when I wanted to dance with her she just told me that she was tired. I just ended up dancing with a girl I met last summer named Kellie. We had a good time. Friday night we went to the greenhouse after Hannah, Adam and I went to Sommerset mall near detroit. The green house was off the hook that night.

People everywhere! It was a ton of fun. Saturday night was about the same...just hanging out over at the green house. Yesterday Adam, Lee, and I took off down to the Detroit International Auto Show. It was sweet. The girl I sat next to on the plane when I flew back to Michigan was a BMW lady! She gave us our own personal tour and hooked us up with a press kit. Sweet deal for sure. That night we ended up heading to the Phi Delt party house and hanging out with them. Overall, a pretty good weekend.

In other news, I have no clue what's going on with Whitney...for some reason she won't talk to me. I wish she would, because I have no idea of what I did. She said she had such a great time in Colorado and after she left I've talked to her maybe a total of 5 minutes.

I just found out that my laptop doesn't even ship until the 15th of February, so that sucks. I can't wait though!

Here's a link to all my pictures:

My Facebook Photo Albums

NEW LAPTOP!!

2006-01-10T23:03:00.000-05:00

So the new Apple top of the line laptop dubbed the MacBook Pro was unvieled today and like I said before, I was probably going to get one...so I did. I ordered it today, but they won't ship until February...so I have a bit of time to wait. I was just really happy about that, so I thought I'd share. Here's a picture of it.

Class and Dreams

2006-01-10T11:36:00.000-05:00

So yesterday was my first day of class in three months. It was actually decent. Two of my classes are going to be pretty easy. The other two are probably going to be pretty difficult. I have a presentation due on thursday in intro to social sciences already...doesn't that just suck. It has been great to get back though. All of the guys are finally here. We've been chilling listening to music, playing video games, fucking around, playing ping pong with kitchen utinsels/pots and pans lol. It was a good time. I am definitely looking forward to this term...by the end of the term we'll hopefully have around 10 or more new brothers.

On the subject that I usually complain about, I'm not quite sure what to say. I have absolutely no clue what's going on with Whit. Seems like anytime she is close to a guy back home she all of the sudden can't even call a friend. I haven't heard from her in a while. I actually had some really weird dreams about her last night. Basically along the same lines of what always seems to happen with me and her. I get left behind when she gets close to someone back home. It was almost a nightmare, but suprisingly close to what she does in reality. Fuck it is all I have to say about that. As for Kim, we've been having a good time. She came over to hang out last night. She got to meet a few more of my brothers, so that was cool. I can't wait to go to a party with her...that's when we definitely have some fun. We just hung out and watched a movie and talked. I definitely love hanging out with her. It would be amazing if things progressed, but until then (if it happens) we're still going to hang out pretty often...no pressure. Hopefully the end of this month we can go to a pistons game...if I can get the tickets. That was my Christmas present to her (she loves basketball.)

At any rate, I'm looking forward to this weekend too. Adam is supposed to come into town and go down to the auto show with me. That should be pretty fun since I haven't seen him since last school term.

For those of you that actually read all the way through these, please sign my guestbook. Thanks!

MICHIGAN!!

2006-01-07T15:51:00.000-05:00

Well, as most of you know (maybe), I flew back to Michigan yesterday. I caught a flight out of Grand Junction around 6:30 in the morning yesterday. The flight to Denver was pretty boring, but short, which is good. I had a nice breakfast in the Denver airport then hopped on a plane to Detroit. The flight was long, but really good. I sat next to a couple cool people. The one work talking about was a girl named Sarah. She was actually flying to Detroit for BMW to work at the auto show for 17 days. She grew up in the Laguna Beach area and knows the father of one of the main girls on the show Laguna Beach...craziness. She was really nice and fun to talk to. She actually gave me her card for her massage therapy deal (she's liscensed in that too). So that was fun. I got into detroit around 3 pm and got a ride from a friend of mine to my car. I then had to drive an hour into Flint. It was nice to get back. I got most of my stuff unpacked then went out to eat with a few of the guys. A while later Kim came over! It was awesome to see her. She helped me get a few things set up in my room, then we headed over to my friends' party house. We watched part of the Piston's game and played some texas hold'em. I almost one :( Kim did get second though! After that Kim and I went to taco bell then to her house. Ate there then headed back the fraternity house. Along the way we talked a bit about her situation with Shawn (the guy she's into.) I guess they got in a fight the other day because he doesn't want her hanging out with other guys...which is complete bullshit. Well she hasn't talked to him hardly at all since then. Well tonight after work she's going over there to talk to him and help him paint his room or whatever. I want it to work out for her sake, but at the same time it's incredibly hard to watch that happen. Anyone that has read my blog for any amount of time kinda knows how I feel about her. I would love to have something more with her. She's fun, smart, nice, and beautiful. It's her decision though. After she goes over there tonight she's probably going to come hang out. Maybe I'll hear good news. I'm wondering just what it is that I'm not doing or don't have to be able to take this further. It just freaking sucks when the two girls that I really like both want different guys. Guess that's how it has always been for me.

Anywho, this weekend is my last before school starts. This term should be pretty good for me. I have good teachers for the most part. I'm taking Solids, Signals, Differential Equations, and Intro to Social Science. I'm also looking forward to seeing all of our pledges initiated. I'm looking forward to this term for sure.

I know I've asked a lot, but very few of you that read this have signed my guestbook. The link is right over on the right. It's simple to do and I would appreciate it.

Last night in Colorado

2006-01-06T01:09:00.000-05:00

So I'm laying in bed not able to go to sleep. Why? I'm not quite sure. I'm excited to get back to school and see all my friends. I don't think that's why I can't sleep though...I think I just have too much shit on my mind...like the freaking girl situation. Fuck 'em. I don't even like talking about it anymore. I look stupid when I talk about how I stay with them or keep liking them when I'm just a friend when it's convenient for them. I'm not going to go into detail on either of the situation with the two girls. All I'm saying is that Whit seems to have forgot I exist and seems to be talking to her asshole ex again. As for Kim, I'm not quite sure. She's still always a good friend, and I'm not quite sure what to expect. She's got a thing for the controlling "bad" guys. No room for my type in there. Oh well. At least I'm supposed to hang out with her tomorrow and possibly saturday. Maybe things are just fine and I'm just paranoid...seeing as how things never have been just fine for me with similar situations in the past. She always told me to not compare our situation to other experiences, so I'm not going to and I'm going to see how this goes. I hoping/wishing for the best.

Well, I've got a flight at 6:30 in the morning so I better get to sleep. I'll be in detroit at 2:45 eastern time and flint around 4:15 or so just in case you're wondering. Can't wait to get back!!

Late night thoughts...

2006-01-04T00:54:00.000-05:00

First off, before I go into my rant or whatever you want to call it, I just thought I'd throw out what my day/week has consisted of so far. Monday wasn't that exciting. I did to go a movie with Ashley. Narnia was suprisingly good. She's a cool girl and fun to hang out with. Other than that I did pretty much nothing except for talk to friends online and surf the web. Today was pretty good even though my parents went to work. I ended up going out to lunch with my grandma, cousins, and aunt. I hadn't had olive garden in a while, so that was nice. After that I bought Wedding Crashers and took that back to my grandma's house and watched it. Great movie. Tonight was just hanging out on here and talking to friends online. I talked to Whitney a bit...I want to know what exactly is going with her and her feelings. Ever since she left here I have barely talked to her. I'm probably just over analysing things...I tend to do that a bit. I'm pretty sure nothing is going to happen with her...even a ways down the road. I just don't see her going in my direction. At least I have her as a friend. Keeping it at that is the best for me for now. Keeping it that way will keep me from screwing up other things, that could be something. Is there a possiblity with Kim? I don't know for sure. I hope. All I know is that she's great and I get to hang out with her a bunch when I get back to Michigan. She means a lot to me!

Anyhow, on a different note, I hope I find some more fun stuff to do the last couple days I'm in Colorado. I have absolutely nothing planned tomorrow, so hopefull something comes up. Thursday should be fun...gonna hang out with my friend JJ...probably just go do a bunch of random crap. Who knows. On friday I have to get up early and get my ass on a plane back to detroit...then drive into flint and get moved in. And see Kim!!

I'm gonna have to run a few errands when I get back on saturday...spend some money! I have to find a pier 1 imports and get a papasan chair (the big bowl looking chairs) for my room at the fraternity. They're super comfortable. Then I have to run to walmart and get some random crap. Probably run by the mall and spend some money and buy some new polos...could use a few new ones. Then if the new apple powerbook comes out this next week I might just have to buy one of them...depending on the reviews on them. Hopefully they're good. At any rate, it's going to be great to get back. Most of you by now probably don't even give a shit about all my random babling, but oh well.

I need sleep. If you're so kind, I would appreciate some recommendations on some good new music.

Happy New Years?

2005-12-31T18:36:00.000-05:00

I'm psyched that it's finally New Years Eve, but I've been thinking about what I have to show for this year. It was a pretty good year overall, but it was definitely full of it's hardships.

I've had a few downfalls this year that I want to fix/never do again, but some I don't know if I can fully control. I found that my biggest problem and biggest reason for being down in mood at all this year was my take on girls. There were a few this year that I liked, but was not able to gain something more than friendship with any of them. Regardless, I am still grateful for that. Two girls stick out in my mind right now.

First is Whitney. She is one of the most amazing girls I have ever met. I fell for her over the phone ...long distance. I tried and tried to push it away. After being hurt a few times from it I was able to let go of it...until a few days ago. She found some time and the ability to come see me. I don't even know how to explain how I felt being around her. Everything seemed right. Everything about her was amazing to me. Again I find myself longing for something more, knowing that the chances of her going along with that are slim to none. She said she had a great time and it looked like she had a good time, but all of her thoughts and feelings I will never know. What she thinks about me, what she wants to happen...all up in the air. One thing is for sure...I am damn glad I stuck though the hard times. Even though it was only a couple days with her, it was unforgettable. There's nothing else I would've rather done. I'm not going to pressure her and I'm not going to ask for more. If it is ever going to happen, I want to know that it's true and that it's something she really wants. So if it happens, it is her doing.

I also found myself falling for Kim. The end of last school term I was going on numerous dates with her and had a great time. She's really fun to hang out with and very pretty. We've talked about a relationship and know that it probably isn't going to happen anytime soon if it does. She's not ready for one. I haven't got to talk to her as much lately as I would like to, but she promised me that she'll be there to greet me and hang out when I get back to Michigan on friday. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her and hanging out again.

The reason I found myself down in mood from girls is because I find the girls that I like a lot, but what I feel never seems to be mutual. I fall for girls way too easy...probably for the longing of something close. I'm away from home the vast majority of the year and don't get to see my family. It's like I want someone to fill that gap when I'm gone...someone that I can love and be close to. Maybe I'll figure it out someday.

School had it's hardships and it's good times this year. January through March was awesome. I got initiated into the best fraternity in the world (Phi Gamma Delta), worked out and got myself looking better, spent a lot of time with my fraternity brothers having an awesome time (SC road trip, initiation, Delta week, etc) and I did well in my classes. April through June was also a good time. I was out in Iowa for my job with Polaris and one of my best friends Lee. I know I complain about Iowa a lot, but where we are in the summer is a huge tourist hot spot and there are a ton of fun things to go do around the lakes. The 4th of July weekend was definitely a good time too. Lee and I took a road trip to Buffalo, NY to hang out with Adam. We partied it up, went to Canada and Niagra falls, and went jet skiing on lake erie in PA. Following that was school term...July through September. That was my first full term in the fraternity house. The term wasn't quite as much fun simply because of the classes. I had a very bad professor for calc 3 and physics 2 is just hard as hell. Outside of those two classes, the term was pretty fun. Then work term came around from October-mid December. It was an alright time. The two highlights of that time were halloween and our beerpong table...and getting busted by the cops and going to the Sage Francis concert in Minneapolis. Both were a ton of fun. Since I've been home, I've posted everything I've done here in the last few posts...all of which has been a good time.

I know I am definitely looking forward to the new year and this next school term. It should be a lot of fun in the fraternity. I hope this next year things go better for me and the girl situation.

My new years resolutions: Take the rest of this weight off (not much more to go), make dean's list both terms, and to not fall for girls so easily. They're going to be difficult, but I'm sure I can do them.

What an Amazing Week

2005-12-30T12:30:00.000-05:00

I couldn't have asked for a better week. First thing was the date with Ashley. I had a great time going out with her. We went to the Whinery (really nice restaurant in GJ) for dinner and had a nice talk there. Following that we cruised on over to the movie theatre to see King Kong, not knowing until just before we went that it was 3 1/2 hours. We decided to go for it. It actually turned out to be a pretty good movie. We didn't get out of it until around 11 or so. We were both kinda tired so I took her home. We're going to go out again and play pool and such. It should be a good time. She's a really pretty and nice girl.

The next suprise was amazing. Whitney called me and let me know that she was going to come visit for a few days if I didn't have anything going on. She got in Wednesday night. We sat and talked for a bit then decided we wanted to go bowling. We got to the bowling alley only to find out that there was a 45 minute wait. Instead of waiting we went and rented The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I hate horror movies too, but she insisted. We watched that then went to bed. Yesterday morning we got up decently early and drove to Glenwood Springs to go to the caverns and the lodge. It was a great time and I got some good pictures. Following that we headed back to Grand Junction and went to the mall to hang out and do a bit of shopping. We both bought a few things then headed home for a homemade steak and shrimp dinner. It was great. After dinner my parents, sister, grandma, whitney, and I played a game of cards. I ended up getting a call from some friends to go see if I wanted to come see the producers with them. Whitney and I both were wanting to see it so we headed out to the theater. It was a great movie...very funny. We didn't want to go to bed when we got back, even though it was almost 1, so we decided to put on a movie till we fell asleep. This morning was hard. I knew she had to go and I didn't want her to leave. She's an amazing girl and a few days isn't enough to catch up on 12 years of not seeing her. I'm going to try as hard as I can to see her as much as I can.

As for everything else, it seems to be going pretty good. I don't have any plans for New Years yet, but I'm banking on something good coming up. Even though I've had a great time here I still can't wait to get back to Michigan to see all my friends and Kim. I miss her a lot and am looking forward to hanging out again.

Well, I think I'm heading out for the day. If anyone wants to hang out, hit me up!

Christmas!!

2005-12-26T21:36:00.000-05:00

Well being home has been great. I've got to see a lot of old friends and even meet some new people. I've been pretty busy since I've been back. A lot of hanging out with family too. The highlights of being home so far have got to be (in no particular order)

1. Going to lunch with Heather.
It was amazing to get to see her. I missed her a ton. We went out and got sushi and talked for a few hours. It was great. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

2. Hanging out with debate friends.
Got to hang out for a night with a bunch of my debate friends. Playing xbox, debating affirmative action, playing ps2, eating pizza and such, etc. It was nice to see all of them.

3. Hanging out with family.
I've got to see a bunch of family and have got to do a lot of fun things with them. I saw most of them on Christmas, which I'll go into a bit later.

4. Hang out with Ashley
So Mike (a friend of my parents) has two daughters which I've known since I was really little. Well I haven't seen one of them since we were 10 or so. Well she decided to come along with her dad to lunch the other day and we both were a bit attracted to each other. Every time Mike has come over to hang out with my parents, she came along. So tomorrow we decided we wanted to go out and do something fun...just us two, so we're going to go get a bite to eat, see a movie, and go play some pool. It should be a good night. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

5. Hang out with JJ
We've been friends since we were really young, but didn't hang out much in high school. Well this break we started hanging out a bit. It's nice to see him and look back on old times and such. We still have to get out there and do something fun before I go.

6. Christmas
Christmas was great this year. I got to watch my sister open her gazillion presents and have a good time. I also got some good stuff: new cordless keyboard, new bottle of my armani cologne (acqua di gio), sirius satellite radio, handheld cb radio (for the long road trips), fraternity polo and a new beard trimmer. I'd say I made out pretty good this Christmas. It was awesome to get to see a bunch of my cousins, aunts, and such. It turned out really well.

As for the rest of my break, I still have some things I'd like to do. I want to travel up towards the vail/snowmass area and get some good pictures...maybe stop and see Emily and Mark while I'm up there. I also want to hang out with some more of my friends such as the delta girls (sarah, emily, and tara), Becca, JJ and Mike, Justin, and hopefully Whitney (if she can make it into town.) I still have a week and a half or so, so hopefully I can see all of them.

All you friends back in Michigan that are reading this, I'll be back soon. I'll be back in flint the afternoon of the 6th to move into the fraternity house.

I know it's a little late, but I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I'll try to update again before the new year and let everyone know how the date and everything else goes. I'll also post some pictures from the break. I got some good ones of family and such!

If you made it this far, you deserve to sign my guest book...the link is over to the right. In the mean time, if you're done on here, you can check out my other webpages over under the links menu on the right.

Give me a call if you're in Junction or close and want to hang out!

Home at last!

2005-12-18T21:01:00.000-05:00

Well the last couple days have been pretty tiring. Lee and I took off after work on Friday and drove to Rockford, IL. It was pretty much smooth sailing the whole way until about 30 miles from Rockford. We hit some traffic jam in them middle of nowhere...not sure what the deal was, but there were cops, firetrucks, and a few semis off the shoulder of the road. We did finally make it in around 11:30. I pretty much just crashed after that.

The next morning I got up around 7:30 or so, jumped in my car, and drove through the heart of chicago on my way to Tecumseh. I was suprised at how smooth the traffic was. I ended up getting in around one or so. It was really nice to see Jeremiah and Amanda. I just hung out with them for the night then crashed around 9 or so...I had to get up early today.

So this morning I woke up around 5:30 or so and go dressed and such. Jeremiah took me to the airport (about an hour away). After that it was just flying back. Both flights were good, although my layover was so short in Denver that my bag didn't make it all the way with me. Still waiting on that as I write.

Anywho, now that I'm home I have some things to do. I have a bunch of people to see and hang out with, on top of a lot of Christmas shopping to do (no place to do it where I was at in Iowa.) It should be a nice stay here...Hanging out with old friends like JJ and Mike. I might get to see Whitney this time around. Heather Cover (don't know her new last name) is going to be in town. I can't wait to see her...it's been way too long. I'll hopefully get to see Becca, too. Along with all of them I have all my other good debate buddies to hang out with. Family too of course.

For those of you back in Iowa, I'm gonna miss you. Keep in touch and have a Merry Christmas and an awesome new year.

And those of you in Michigan (Kim especially), I can't wait to get back up there to see you all! I hope all of you have awesome holidays and all that good stuff. See ya soon!

About my last post

2005-12-16T07:51:00.000-05:00

So apparently someone got offended by my last post. They left me this comment, "That's really sad that you'd compare something wonderful to a BEER! But, you're a man!"

Now let me clarify some things here. I did not post that actually believing in it. I don't even like most beer. I just found this posted on a friend's facebook wall and found it humorous. Nothing wrong with posting a joke from time to time. So whoever left that comment, just know that IT WAS A JOKE!

On another note, I'm just bored here sitting at work. It's my last day and there's not a whole lot I can do. I have a meeting with the plant manager later on, but other than that I pretty much just have to clean my desk up and wrap up the ends on a few projects. I'm going to be on the road to Chicago around 4:00 central time. Feel free to call me or text me. Just know that I probably won't text you back if I'm driving...that is a hazard.

Have a good Friday!

Beer vs. Vagina

2005-12-15T19:36:00.000-05:00

1.Beer is always wet. Vagina needs a little work.
One point to BEER

2.Warm beer tastes awful.
One point to VAGINA

3.A really cold beer is satisfying.
One point to BEER

4.If after taking a swig of your favourite beer you find a hair
between your teeth, you may vomit.
One point to VAGINA

5. If you get home reeking of beer your wife may get mad, make a
scene, kick you out, etc. If you get home reeking of vagina your wife
may get mad, kick you out, even leave you. There's definitely a point
to be had here, depending on your point of view and personal
circumstances. I'll just call it a DRAW for the time being.

6. Ten beers in one night and you can't drive home. Ten vaginas in
one night and you don't want to drive anywhere. One point to VAGINA

7. If you have a lot of beer in a public place, your reputation may
suffer. If you eat any vagina in public, you become a legend.
One point to VAGINA

8. If a cop stops you and you smell of beer you may get arrested. If
you smell of vagina he may buy you a beer. One point to VAGINA

9. You normally don't find old beer.
One point to BEER

10. Too much beer and you'll think you see flying saucers. Too much
vagina and you'll think you've seen God. One point to VAGINA

11. Ripping off a beer bottle label is boring. Ripping off panties is
fun. One point to VAGINA

12. In most countries there's a tax on beer.
One point to VAGINA

13. If you have another beer the first one never gets pissed off.
One point to BEER

14. You can always be sure if you're the first one to open a bottle or a can.
One point to BEER

15. If you shake beer it'll get all agitated but eventually it
settles down. One point to BEER

16. With beer you always have choice: clear, dark,
pilsner,ale,lager,etc One point to BEER

17. You always know how much beer is going to cost One point to BEER

18. Beer doesn't have a mother
One point to BEER

19. Beer never expects to be hugged for half an hour after you
drink it
One point to BEER

FINAL SCORE: BEER: 10 VAGINA: 8

That's it! The matter is settled, the clear winner is: BEER

PS: If you are a woman and at this point feel angry, degraded or
discriminated against, just remember that Beer would experience none of those feelings, let alone express them, an extra point for BEER

1 Day Left

2005-12-15T18:40:00.000-05:00

Well after two days of packing up and getting my car loaded I'm definitely ready to get out of here. Tonight is my last night in Iowa...thank God. I'm gonna get up early in the morning, put the rest of my stuff in my car, go to work, then leave with Lee afterwards. We're planning on staying the night at a friends house outside of Chicago. It should be a good time. I don't know if I'll be able to update over the next couple of days, but I'll definitely try. For those of you that know me, give me a call tomorrow after 4 central time. I'd be happy to talk to you on my way to Chicago.

About you...

2005-12-13T17:34:00.000-05:00

This seemed pretty accurate for me. I don't like being alone and I wouldn't consider myself emotionally unpredictable or temperamental, so it was wrong on that. Other than that it was pretty much right on target. For reference, I was born in July.

JANUARY:
Easy to talk to, though hard to understand. Thinks far with vision, yet complicated to know. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite and soft-spoken. Having lots of ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Has that someone* always on his/her mind. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Abiding. Able to show character. one guy/girl kind of person. Loveable. Easily hurt. Prone to getting colds. loves music. pretty/handsome. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Sensitive. Down-to-Earth. Stubborn.

________________________________________________
FEBRUARY:
Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizing dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.Is horny most of the time.
________________________________________________
MARCH:
Attractive personality. sexy. Affectionate Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. AND ALWAYS HORNY!!!!
_________________________________
APRIL:
Active and dynamic. Decisive and haste but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people's problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Usually you have many friends. Enjoys to make love. Emotional. Stubborn. Hasty. Good memory. Moving, motivates oneself and others. Loves to travel and explore. Sometimes sexy in a way that only their lover can understand.
_________________________________
MAY
Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children. Hardworking. High spirited. Totally BADASS. Best person you'll ever meet!
_________________________________

JUNE:
You've got the best personality (bar none) and are an absolute pleasure to be around. You are probably a massive Burzum fan, and more than likely have an a very attractive partner. It is also more than likely that you have a massive record collection (that is better than anybody elses from any other month). YOu have a great choice in films, and may one day become a famous actor yourself - hell, youve got the looks for it!!! You are definitely more metal than anyone born in February (especially Simon from Seventh Cross).
_______________________________

JULY:
Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people's feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. spazzy at times. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. HOT. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover.
_________________________________
AUGUST:
outgoing personality. takes risks. feeds on attention. no self control. kind hearted. self confident. loud and boisterous. VERY revengeful. easy to get along with and talk to. has an "everything's peachy" attitude. likes talking and singing. loves music. daydreamer. easily distracted. Hates not being trusted. BIG imagination. loves to be loved. ~Best sex partner anyone could ask for ! hates studying. in need of "that someone". longs for freedom. rebellious when withheld or restricted. lives by "no pain no gain" caring. always a suspect. playful. mysterious. "charming" or "beautiful" to a special person. stubborn. curious. independent. strong willed. a fighter.

_________________________________
SEPTEMBER:
Suave and compromising. Careful, cautious and organized. Likes to point out people's mistakes. Likes to criticize. Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk well. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal and always honest. Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive. Positive Attitude. Thinking generous. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Must control oneself when criticizing. Able to motivate oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around. Secretive. Loves sports, leisure and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Very choosy, especially in relationships. Systematic. sexy but has brains.
_________________________________
OCTOBER:
Loves to chat. Loves those who love them. Loves to takes things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn't pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Brave and fearless. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care to control emotions. Unpredictable. Extremely smart, but definitely the hottest AND sexiest of them all.
_________________________________
NOVEMBER:
Trustworthy and loyal. Very passionate and dangerous. Wild at times. Knows how to have fun. Sexy and mysterious. Very skilled at making love. Everyone is drawn towards your inner and outer beauty and independent personality. Messy, playful, secretive. Very emotional and temperamental sometimes. Meets new people easily and very social in a group. Fearless and independent. Can hold their own. Stands out in a crowd. Essentially very smart. Usually, the greatest men are born in this month. If you ever begin a relationship with someone from this month, hold on to them because their one of a kind.
____________________________
DECEMBER:
This straight-up means ur the most good-looking person possible... better than all of these other months! Loyal and generous. SEXY. Patriotic. Competitive in everything. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Changing. Fearless

Bored at Work

2005-12-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

I really don't have much new stuff to talk about, but oh well. So lately I've been talking to Whitney a bit. Things are great...I think they're going to work out just the way they should now. She left Eric for a guy that she works with that she says treats her extremely well and is good to her. This is all I ever wanted for her and it's what she got. I'm happy for her. The downside is that I guess he's leaving to a different school up in Maine in not too long. Hopefully they work something out. I like seeing her happy.

I have no idea what's going on with Kim lately. I never hear from her anymore. Last time we talked she said she's really busy, so I figured I'd let her call me when she's not busy rather than interupting whatever she has going on.

In awesome news, I'm almost out of this winter wasteland called Iowa. I got a lot of my stuff packed up and am heading out friday after work.

I can't wait to get home and spend time with family and friends...for a lot longer this time!!

So this last weekend my roommates and I went to go see Aeon Flux. I thought it was a pretty good movie. It had some good actions scenes and had a pretty original plot as far as I know. Charlize Theron isn't too bad on the eyes either.

I discovered some pretty good music...well not really discovered it, but finally listened to it. Jack Johnson has some good stuff. It's calming and just overall a good experience. I recommend it.

Anywho, I better get back to work. In the mean time I would appreciate it if you sign my guestbook. I've noticed a few more in there...thanks! Have a good Tuesday!!

Almost Done

2005-12-07T22:38:00.000-05:00

Well work term is coming to a close. Next friday is my last day here. It's going to be really nice to be home for 3 weeks. I have a bunch of friends to see and a bunch to do with the family. Until that time I'm just going to bum around my last week and a few days. Work is going slow and pretty boring. They suck when it comes to helping with housing. Other than that it has been an alright term.

This last weekend was pretty good...went to go Christmas shopping and ended up buying a bunch of stuff for myself and figuring out exactly what I want to get family and friends (which would be easier to buy when I'm home.)

As for girls, the situation seems to be alright. I like Kim a lot, but we've talked a few times and she has made it pretty clear that a relationship isn't going to happen anytime soon. She did inform me on sunday that there is a guy that she found out likes her and now she is feeling the same towards him. She told me that she doesn't want a relationship, but that she can't keep pushing the guys away. She said she doesn't know if anything will happen with him at this point, but if he's not ok with us two hanging out just like we did before then he's gone. Hopefully she sticks to that! I like her too much to lose the friendship.

On another note, I heard from Whitney today...she said she'd call. I didn't get a call, but it was still nice to hear from her. We aren't bitter towards each other, but it does seem like there is quite the gap there now. I still wish that things would be like they were, but I don't see that happening. At any rate, I'm pretty much over things and don't worry about it too much. She still crosses my mind pretty often though. I wonder what she's feeling towards all of this.

Today is kind of a sad day in other news...tonight was the last episode of Southpark till next season. I would say that this is one of my favorite seasons though...it was freaking hilarious.

Anyhow, I should probably get to bed...have to get up for work early...dangit.

Thanks everyone that has signed my guestbook. I urge the rest of you to follow their lead. I just am curious about who all is reading this. I get a decent amount of hits for a personal blog, and I'm just wondering who they all are. Thanks.

Good ole' Iowa

2005-12-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

I did finally make it back to iowa...after 3 days in different aiports. When Tuesday rolled around I had to get on a plane to chicago then make a connection there to sioux falls. Well, as my luck would have it, my flight to Chicago got delayed by about 3 or so hours due to mechanical and hydraulic problems on the plane. I ended up missing my flight out o sioux falls, so had to stay the night in the chicago airport...it sucks. Wednesday morning I was able to catch a flight to sioux falls. I finally made it in around 10:30. The place looked like Siberia...flat, cold, snow covered, and windy. I made the drive back to spirit lake and decided to stop into work to see what I should do about my missed days. They ended up working me the rest of the day.

Today is going well...about 6" or so of snow on the ground and work is keeping me busy. No really big plans today. I think Ashley is coming over to hang out for a while after work. It should be a good time.

As for girls in general...I think I'm going to try to stay away from any sort of committment or anything close for a while. Seems like every time I do, I end up getting hurt or wasting a ton of money. It's a distraction anyways. I do the romantic stuff only to find out that they only like me as a friends, or I try to just be a friend, but that seems too hard for them too. So, as of now, I am no longer going to initiate anything with any girls except old friends...and that would just be to hang out when I get home. No more trying to get numbers or anything like that. If a girl finds me and likes me for what they see, then I might take a chance, but a few things have to be present. I want a girl that has an intellect that "threatens" my own...one that stands on the same level or higher. I want someone that I'm able to have intelligent conversations with, not just some conversation on what happened in the last OC episode. She has to be open minded...dead deal if that's not there. Honesty is also a must...I want a girl that's honest with herself as well as me and others. Lying gets people nowhere fast. Those are my big things...past that, it's up in the air.

In other news, you should definitely check out southpark...the new one last night was awesome. I highly recommend it.

and PLEASE sign my guestbook

Gotta love the weather...

2005-11-28T22:45:00.000-05:00

So today I was supposed to fly back to Sioux Falls, SD then drive 100 miles back to Okoboji so that I could go back to work tomorrow. Well as my luck would have it, I got to the Denver airport and was waiting for my flight out there only to find out that all flights to Sioux Falls are cancelled. They told me I could fly out to chicago tomorrow afternoon then to sioux falls from there...depending on the weather again. If they flight takes place, I won't get into Sioux Falls till 10pm tomorrow. Then I have a 100 mile drive to the apartment. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

On another note, Whitney and I are talking again. No, she didn't completely leave him yet, but I think we've found a good middle ground...where I've wanted to be since the whole thing started. I just want to be a good friend and not someone she completely ignores one time and talks to all the time the next. I think this time things might actually go well.

Kim and I have been talking a lot. We're doing great. Looks like we'll be hanging out a bunch when I get back up to michigan. I can't wait. She's going to come to my semiformal too, so that'll be awesome. She's great.

Anywho, I have a long day tomorrow. Hit me up on the cell...I'll be stuck in airports for most of the day.

COLORADO!!

2005-11-26T17:09:00.000-05:00

So as I had mentioned, I'm in Colorado till monday. It has been pretty good so far. Flew in early morning on tuesday. Went out to breakfast with my parents and sister. For the rest of the day we just drove around and checked out my town that I haven't seen in way too long. Tuesday night I went in to see my debate team. It was like a huge reunion. A bunch of guys from when I was on the team came back too. We all talked and helped out with the new team. Wednesday was pretty good. Went to town with my mom and spent $400 at the buckle. Lucky jeans are nice, but pretty expensive. Didn't do anything really really exciting though. Family came in from Denver that night, so we spent time with them. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. A ton of family came over for dinner. A lot of them I haven't seen in years. The day was pretty long, but well worth it. Friday was alright again. I was supposed to meet Whitney for dinner in green river, UT (can't believe I thought that it might actually happen), but she called and told me that her work schedule changed and the weather was supposed to be bad...whatever...i don't even care anymore. Grandma came over last night and we played cards and games. It's nice just to hang out with family. Today I haven't done much...just hang out around the house. A bunch of the guys are coming over in a couple hours to hang out. It should be a good time.

In other news, things with Kim and I are going great. Like it was before our little deal that was going on a few weeks ago. She seems to be doing pretty good. I just can't wait to get back up to michigan to see her and hang out.

Anyways, I would love it if everyone that reads this would please sign my guestbook over on the right. So far only my aunt has.

Words

2005-11-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

frus·trat·ed
To cause feelings of discouragement or bafflement in

Hurt
To cause mental or emotional suffering to; distress

An·ger
A strong feeling of displeasure or hostility

desolate
crushed by grief

These are the only words to describe how I feel towards her. No sorry, you're right, I won't do it again, or anything is going to change this now. I wish I would've never found her. Maybe someday she'll find herself. Maybe she'll realize what exactly it is that she just lost.

What a weekend

2005-11-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

Got up at 5 AM on saturday to tag along with the Okoboji debate team. Went to sioux city all day with them. It was a good time and I met a lot of awesome people.

What I want to write about, I really can't on here.

What I am going to write about, I'm not sure about. If you read the comments on my last post you will see people telling me never to talk to her again. Then the last one is from her...saying I was right.

She tells me that I was right and that Eric fucked up and hurt her again. I knew it was going to happen, but I decided to ignore that and hope that she was right and that he was actually good for her....to just get over it. Well, I decided to ask about it. Turns out the only reason she wanted to talk was to tell me I'm right and that she wants to be completely alone for a while, "to figure things out." I don't understand it, but I'll honor that. For some reason I got my hopes up immediately when I saw that comment. I'm wondering why though...this is just like all the other times. What will make it any different. She wants her alone time, so that's how it's going to be. I'm not going to let myself fall again.

On my mind...

2005-11-19T06:27:00.000-05:00

So it's been nearly 2 weeks without a single word being spoken, but I still find myself thinking about her all the time. I desperately want something back...the her that I got along with so well. If I keep my mind on other things to stop thinking about her, I end up seeing her in my dreams. Should I keep pushing it away or should I try to make things better? Or is that even my choice now?

Guestbook

2005-11-17T22:05:00.000-05:00

I just added a guestbook to my site so that I could see who all is checking it out. I'd love it if you signed it and maybe wrote something cool. The link is over on the right just below the counter. Thanks!

4 more days!

2005-11-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

Almost time to fly home! I can't wait. Sucky part is going to be getting up at 4am to go to the airport on tuesday.

If you want to hang out while i'm out there, give me a call.

SNOW!!!

2005-11-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

So today it has been snowing all day. It's awesome. Kinda crappy compared to colorado snow, but it's snow nonetheless.

In other news, I finally have some cool projects to work on at work. Nothing huge, but they're still fun, somewhat simple projects. Better than line layout work.

I've been working with the Okoboji debate team lately. I'm really liking working with them. They're open to help and they're already pretty good, so it makes for a good time.

As for the other things I've been posting about lately...Kim and I have everything worked out and are on good grounds...just like before :) As for Whitney, I don't even know. I'm over her now, but I'm not sure how things are going to go as far as just friends...although even that was part of the problem before. I pretty much quit talking to her a while back. We talked once in the last couple weeks and I haven't heard from her since. She must be happy...i just hope she doesn't expect me to be waiting with open arms when he fucks up again...just like the other 3 or 4 times he did in the past. But that's obviously none of my business and not something I really want to be my business anymore. She made her decision. I guess that's the end of it.

As for Thanksgiving...Tuesday i get in early on. Probably go around and see family. Tuesday night I'm going to stop by and see my debate team and coach. Wednesday I'm going out to lunch with Heather! I can't wait...i haven't seen her in forever. The rest of the time I don't have anything specific set in stone. I know i'll be hanging out with sean, kellen, richie and all of them at some point...we just have to figure out a time and day. Let me know guys. Hopefully I'll get to see Emily too...haven't got to see her since I was in Salt Lake.

Anywho, I'm tired. Good Night!

A Poem by Kimberlee Wilson

2005-11-12T19:15:00.000-05:00

From the time i met you

There was something there

I can't seem to describe it

But i know its there

I hate the fact that

I can't be mad at you

Some of the things you do

I can't seem to understand

There is always something

Pulling me back to you

What is it about you

It just won't go away

I just wish you would

See me the way i see you

I wish you knew how great

it could be, if you let somebody in

Have your fun now but,

I can't wait forever

Maybe you'll come around

Before i'm swept away

Leaving no chance of you and me

Thanksgiving

2005-11-11T10:20:00.000-05:00

I can't wait til Thanksgiving. I'm getting up at 4 in the morning on the 22nd to drive to the airport to fly home. I'll be getting in around 9:30 or so. I don't have any real plans for any of the days that I'm there other than Thanksgiving day. I plan on meeting Heather for lunch on the 22nd or 23rd. I'm really excited about that because I haven't seen her since graduation. I'm going to be in town till the 28th, so I'll have quite a bit of free time. I'm sure I'll be spending a bunch of time with family and a day or so with Sean, Kellen, Richie, Keith (?), and them. It'd be cool to meet up with Becca and Emily too...I haven't seen either of them since june of 04. So many people to see in such a short amount of time. If I don't meet up with all of you that week, I'll also be back in town for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Years. I know I'm going to be busy tuesday night...I gotta go see my team and coach and see how the debate team is holding up. Sounds like they're doing pretty good. I better get back to work. See all of you soon!!

I don't know what to do...

2005-11-10T08:37:00.000-05:00

It's like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I haven't talked to Whitney in I don't know how long and it hurts just as bad as when I do. I'm torn in two different directions and have no idea where to go from here. I think what hurts the most is that in all that time, the most I got from her was a Hi on msn. Two weeks ago when I tried to just end it all and try to get out of the situation she did nothing but call and text wanting me back. Saying she didn't know what she had till she lost it. The following week was great...until he came back. I thought the words that she said that week were sincere and honest, but they seem so far from it looking at things now. They only seem true when she has no one else to look to. It's like I'm the fallback guy. I want so bad to talk to her, but at the same time I don't at all. When things are going good with her it's incredible...an awesome friend. When things are like they are now I feel like I've lost part of me that I can't seem to replace.

Gotta Love the Radio

2005-11-09T11:24:00.000-05:00

Yet some more lyrics...just the chorus of a song I heard.

Because when he's holding you,
Know that it's killing me,
Let my memory be the reason girl
That you can't sleep
And everytime you feel his touch,
I pray to God it's not enough
And that I've touched your heart so deep
Girl, you can't shake me
Cause I love you,
Yes I need you,
Miss me baby.

Miss me baby,
Until you can't take it no more
Miss me baby
Pack your bags and hit the door

Fix You and Bless the Broken Road

2005-11-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
I will try to fix you

Tears stream down on your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down on your face
And I

Tears stream down on your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down on your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

________________________________________________

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you
Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

What I think

2005-11-09T07:22:00.000-05:00

So an interesting comment got left on my post from yesterday.

"so aparently I am not the only one? Guess there are two bitches in the world. Or maybe just one. I'm sorry.
*w*"

Bitches is a really strong word that doesn't describe either of you. And like I said before, and i'm sorry if it hurts, but I'd believe the sorry a lot more if you didn't keep saying it with no change.

Here's what happened...

I meet Kim and start taking her out on dates a lot near the end of the last school term...as friends. I've met her family and friends and seem to get along with them pretty well. She's a nice girl. I wasn't too worried about things and I was fine with the situation. During that time I was talking to Whitney a lot too. Just over the phone and online. Haven't seen her in person in years. The problem is that I became really attached. School term ended and I left for Iowa. For the first couple weeks I regrettedly didn't call Kim and talk to her as much as I should have. Finally I decided that I was screwing up there and started talking to her more. Just in talking to her over the phone I started to fall for her. I was able to keep it under control for however many dates we went on, but I finally started to lose it. Around the same time I also got cast aside by Whitney...or so it seems. I know Kim wants to not be tied down, and we've had the conversation before, so I'm ok with that. I don't want to lose everything I had with her. If things even stay how they were when I was up there, then I'm a perfectly happy guy. As for Whitney, I feel like I kept getting pulled in then cut off. She appologizes and says she doesn't know what she wants. It just hurts too bad to keep holding on. I'm not quite sure what to do with her. There's no normal to go back to with her. It has been like this since day 1 with absolutely no change what so ever.

That's a brief overview of the entire situation. I'm being 100% honest here. If either one of you read this, so be it.

...

2005-11-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

I give up...

What does it take to win? Really? Seems like it has to be the hard to get jock, drunken, cheating asshole. I'm never going to be that guy. I don't want to be that guy. I'm always the one people could see having a great relationship with, but yet it never happens.

I should stop trying to fool myself into thinking these girls are going to actually live up to that.

Am I destined to be "just a friend?"

At any rate, I'm still thankful that I'm atleast still a friend. She's great and being a part of that will still make me happy. Let me know what exactly you want out of this Kim.

Monday...

2005-11-07T22:34:00.000-05:00

I don't know what to write. I don't know exactly what to think about the situation I'm in. I can't wait to get back to Michigan though...hopefully it will solidify my decision.

Only one...

2005-11-06T21:25:00.000-05:00

My downfall: I become too attached too easily.
My solution: Forget about it all.

I've been looking abroad when she has been right under my nose...

I'm sure everyone that reads this is going to be confused but the one that I'm talking about. Hopefully she'll be at semiformal with me.

I'll leave it at that.

Thinking, Hoping, Wishing...

2005-11-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

Is it getting better or am I just setting myself up again?

Halloween Weekend

2005-11-01T16:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I'd say my weekend was pretty interesting. Friday night was boring and depressing for me. I realized a few things about a couple of the things that are going on in my life and am now trying to decide what exactly to do about them. I'm not worrying too much about it though.

Saturday night was the fun time. Max, Lee, and I spent all day saturday gearing up for our halloween party that night. We got our beer pong table all painted and finished, got chips, and set up a kick ass music playlist. Little did we know that the damn music would be what would get us in trouble. AS the night progressed, we ended up with 8 people over hanging out. The neighbors ended up calling the cops on us. To make a long story short, jason jetted, and the rest of us played innocent and the cop let us off.

The rest of the night it was pretty calmed down...everyone but ashley and Sam (girl) left to go to spencer to round out the night. The girls and me climbed into my bed.

Sunday was rather uneventful...

Monday was boring as hell...

today is pretty boring so far...

Pictures from the weekend.

Long time no post...

2005-10-27T17:27:00.000-04:00

Quite a bit has happened since the last time I posted...

Here's the rundown:

Week following Minneapolis wasn't too exciting, but it got better as the week went on. On Friday, Ashley, a girl I met at the beginning of the term, had her 18th birthday and invited Max and me out to dinner at a really nice restaurant on the bay. Turned out no one was planning on buying her dinner that night, so I covered her and max...after all, you can't go out with a girl, especially on her birthday, and make her pay. Dinner was pretty good. The best part was hanging out there talking for nearly 3 hours. AFter dinner we decided to drive to Spencer and go to see Domino. It was a pretty good movie. I recommend it. That was it for the night.

Saturday was a rather boring day until the evening. Max and I ran to walmart and watched movies all day. Around 8:30 or so Ashley and 2 of her friends came over and hung out for a few hours just talking and telling jokes and such...

Sunday was pretty uneventful also. Just watched movies and caught up on missed sleep from the night before. I had some problems with Whitney and flat out decided not to talk to her anymore. More on this when I get more into this current week.

This week:
Monday was boring as hell. It really sucks having to get up for work at 6 in the morning. That night after a day of texting and trying to call and such I finally give into Whitney and talk to her. She seemed pretty sincere with her apology.

Tuesday-Today:
So Whitney and I had been talking a lot, but today brought back my feelings that i had last sunday. It's a long story. Here's what I don't understand at all...and this doesn't just have to do with her: Why do girls go after the guys that don't give a shit about them...the guys that continually hurt them, the guys that probably cheat on and lie to the girl?? It hurts me more than anyone can imagine to see a girl that I like or even those that are just friends to be continually hurt by the same guy. I can't wait till the day when they get the courage to leave that guy. When that time happens there life will be one hell of a lot better. I've seen it happen and that's how it is every time.

Anyone who happens to be reading let me know what I should do. Do you stay and keep waiting, getting continuously pushed to the side, just to watch them get hurt again or just cut your losses and get out of it and not have that shit to worry about?? The problem is that she makes me feel like no other girl ever has. Such a hold on me...

In other news, work has been really boring this week. I'm doing in line audits and time studies of stations on the line. It has to be done, it's just slow, time consuming, and boring. Oh well...i'm getting paid well for it so I guess I can't complain.

Plans for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend:

Friday: nothing planned

Saturday: Judging debate in spencer and getting paid for it!!
Saturday night: Halloween party at our place!

Sunday: No clue

I can't wait for Thanksgiving...I haven't seen my family in a long time and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus I miss Colorado a ton.

Good music artists to check out:
Sage Francis, Cunninlynguists, Eyedea and Abilities, Dayton Family, Nickleback

I'm out for now...those of you that know me...hit me up sometime...i'm bored as hell out here.

Webshots Pictures

2005-10-16T15:37:00.000-04:00

I've got some pictures uploaded...check out the link above

Music and Minneapolis

2005-10-16T13:59:00.000-04:00

So since Iowa is so incredibly boring, Max, Lee, and I decided to take a road trip to Minneapolis to go so Sage Francis, Sol.Illaquists and Sole in concert. It was amazing. If you're into rap, check out the real stuff...these guys are it.

As far as Minneapolis, that city is amazing. It's clean, big, and full of culture. I love it.

When I Look Into Your Heart

2005-10-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

When I look into your heart
I see us holding each other
I can finally see forever
When I look into your heart

********************************
I've seen the moon dance on the waters
Watched the morning sun slip through the trees
But the sight of you is the vision
That takes me to my knees
********************************
When I look into your heart
I see us holding each other
I can finally see forever
When I look into your heart
********************************
I've never known such comfort
And I've never felt such release
I've never felt so connected
And I've never known such peace
********************************
When I look into your heart
I see us holding each other
I can finally see forever
When I look into your heart
********************************
I can finally see forever
When I look into your heart

Seems like a good time to throw this up again...

2005-10-11T09:58:00.000-04:00

I don't know what I do wrong or what I don't have, but I'll still be standing there...someone to talk to...someone to lean on. Maybe someday I won't finish last. I've posted the following before, but to let you know, I don't agree with it 100%...most of it seems to be a pretty accurate description of how things go for me though.

Ode to the Nice Guys
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

About you...

2005-09-28T01:42:00.000-04:00

1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written!!!

DO IT IF YOU KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR YOU... please?

On another note, I'm headed to Iowa tomorrow. I have an appointmet to get internet setup by 3 cst on friday. Call me and keep me company till then ;)

I'M DONE!!!!

2005-09-24T15:05:00.000-04:00

This term is finally over. I passed all my classes, but I feel like a piece of shit for how crappy I did in two of them. For those of you who don't know, to pass a class at Kettering you have to have a 70 or better in the class. I got 2 grades around 75. The crappy part about it is that most of it had to do with the teachers. One teacher couldn't even speak english or understand it any better than my little sister. The other one only teaches well half of the term after half of her class drops.

Anyhow, finals are done.

No big plans now until I leave for Iowa on wednesday.

Hit me up if you want to hang out or talk or anything...

Semester is almost over!!

2005-09-20T17:25:00.000-04:00

Only finals left...

Calc 3 on thursday
Statics on Friday
Physics 2 on Saturday

THINGS TO DO IN A FINAL EXAM (courtesy of Tamara)
-Bring a pillow and fall asleep.
-Read all the questions out loud and then debate the answers with yourself out loud.
-Bring a GameBoy and play with the volume at max.
Do the exam in crayon.
Come to the exam in slippers, a bathrobe, a towel on your head and nothing else.
-As soon as you get the exam paper, eat it!.
-Every five minutes stand up, collect all your things, move to another table and carry on with the exam.
-Every twenty minutes stand up, throw the paper on the floor, shout "FUCK THIS!!", pick the paper up again and carry on with the exam.

Heading back to Iowa next wednesday...looking forward to the relaxation...not looking forward to getting up for work at 6 every morning

Last week of school

2005-09-14T23:49:00.000-04:00

So this week is the last full week of school. I have/had a test in every class this week. It really doesn't make any sense because finals are next week. Anyways, I have 2 down and 3 to go. I kicked ass on my physics 2 test with a 93%. Not sure how i did on my phys 2 lab practical, but i'm pretty sure it went well. As for the other 3 tests, they're the ones I'm worried about, except for my statics one. It's tomorrow...shouldn't be too bad. The calc 3 and humanities test are over a lot of material, so i'm kinda worried about them.

I am looking forward to friday though...going out with a few friends to dinner then to that new movie where that dude falls in love with that ghost girl...can't remember the name of it.

So since school term is coming to an end i'm going to end up back in iowa in about a week. It'll be nice just becaue I won't have to worry about homework or any other responsibilities for the most part. The downside is being away from most of my friends and being in a small town where nothing happens in the winter. My roommates and I are going to have to find some parties or something.

I plan on going home for thanksgiving. I can't wait...I'll get to see my family...which i haven't seen since Christmas. I'll also get to see Whitney for the first time in about 10 years or something crazy like that. I can't wait!

For all of my friends that are just starting the semester...good luck. For those of you in phys 2 or any class like that...I mean it!! Or at least be glad you have a good teacher if it's easy for you.

I want to play paintball....

Only 4 more days of actual class!

I miss debate...hopefully I can help out in iowa over work term!

Recommended Movies: Hitch, Batman Begins, Wedding Crashers, 40 Year Old Virgin, and some other random ones that I can't think of.

Good songs lately: Sugar we're going down, badd, we be burnin', happy, calling, brother, the best of you, helena.

September 11th folks

2005-09-11T01:55:00.000-04:00

Pay your respect! I love this country to death and will never forget that day. Show your support for everyone that was affected by that awful day and also to the on going problems created by hurricane katrina.

On another note, I'm going to be back in iowa in a little over two weeks...looking forward to no more homework and worries. It should be nice. When I get back get ready to see a lean Clint...I plan on working out as much as possible when I get back out there!

Labor Day Weekend...

2005-09-05T16:34:00.000-04:00

What a great weekend...I haven't been able to relax and sleep like I did this weekend in a long time. I didn't have much homework, so I saved that for today. The rest of the weekend I just chilled watching movies, hanging out with my roommate and talking to people online. Met some cool people back in iowa off of myspace..one of them is in debate. Hopefully I can get in there and judge or maybe help the team out.

Whitney called me thanking me for the little gift I gave her out of the blue. She's a good friend and she's been under a lot of stress lately so I decided to buy her a gift certificate for a massage at a spa near her place.

Got some new music over the weekend...gotta love the new stuff coming out lately. Taproot, Trapt, Rihanna, etc. Some of the stuff is pretty good.

Mind of Mencia on comedy central is funny as hell...I recommend checking it out

I'm gonna be 34" waist by the end of november...have a deal with Whitney

People who are bitching about racism or what have you because of the hurricane need to shut your mouths and stop causing divide in america and start focusing on helping the people that are in trouble out!

I've got some homework and chores to do...

Happy Labor Day!

Nice Guys: Listen Up!!!

2005-08-30T13:08:00.001-04:00

Ode to the Nice Guys
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

This is pretty crazy

2005-08-30T08:31:00.000-04:00

check out the link up above...

Wow it's been a while...

2005-08-11T23:25:00.000-04:00

So lets see, I left off the weekend before the 4th of july. Well for the 4th I went to see my friend Adam out in New York. We took out his jetski on lake erie, went partying, went to canada, etc. It was a good time.

Got back and found out a girl that I like more than any other girl I've met decided that she didn't want to fly out for my birthday. For a month we didn't talk much, and now we're back where we were. She's great.

School has started. The phys 2 grading style is kicking my ass...not the material. Calc 3 russian teachers suck. My other two classes are easy.

Fraternity stuff is going full swing. Been partying it up, meeting freshmen, having tons of rush events...on and on. We just gave out 16 bids today to awesome freshguys. Hopefully we'll get most of them back. Had some hard times with the guys, but 99.9% of the time everything is awesome.

The 29th of july was my birthday. Started the night over at the greenhouse. Had a great time partying with all my brothers. From there we left and went to the Pikes' fluids lab party. It was packed so we decided to go to theta xi's south seas party. It was awesome. I met this really cool girl named Mina. I wish she wouldn't have been drunk when i met her though. Anywho, the night turned out to be awesome.

I'll try to keep things more updated. I've got a lot of shit to get done right now though...

out..

Independence Day

2005-06-30T23:22:00.000-04:00

So as you all know from my previous post, i'm now back in Flint. Since I've been here i've done pretty much nothing. I've started working on the new FIJI website. It seems to be coming along swimmingly. The biggest thing that sucks since I've been back is that I'm the only a-section guy living at fiji till tonight. Now that I've made it to friday...or close anyhow, I'm heading to buffalo, NY for the weekend and for the 4th. Going to chill with Adam and Camileri. Saturday and sunday I'll probably end up on a jetski/tube somewhere in new york or pennsylvania. It should be a good time...I'll let you all know what went on when i get back.

Happy Independence day everybody!

Booya!

2005-06-27T22:00:00.001-04:00

Back in Flint baby!!

I thought I'd fill this out...

2005-06-24T17:49:00.000-04:00

BOOKS
1. Library or Store Bought? Story Bought
2. Sci-Fi or Fantasy? sci-fi
3. Mystery or Adventure? adventure
4. Comedy or Romance? comedy
5. Happy or Sad endings? both
6. Classic or Contemporary? contemporary
MUSIC
7. Moody or Happy? a little of both
8. Classical or Oldies? oldies
9. Choir Music or Holiday songs? holiday songs
10. With or without words? with
11. Lyrics or the sound of the music? both for sure
12. Slow or fast? both, depends on my mood
CLASSES
13. Math or Science? both, unless it's physics
14. Art or Auto Shop? auto shop
15. English or History? history
16. Choir or Orchestra/Band? band
17. Business or Gym? business
SPORTS
18. Football or Basketball? football
19. Ice Hockey or Soccer? ice hockey
20. Dance or Figure Skating? dance
21. Volleyball or Tennis? volleyball
22. Golf or Lacrosse? golf
23. Snowboarding or Skiing? being from colorado...i've never done either
PRESENTS
24. Cds or Tickets to a show? depends on the artist
25. Money or a gift? gift
26. Something Lasting or Easily Used? surprise me... i like KIm's answer
27. Something Special or part of life? part of like
28. Value or Deep Meaning? usually not mutually exlusive
MOVIES
29. The Matrix or XXX? matrix
30. Pirates of the Caribbean or Sinbad? pirates of the caribbean
31. The Ring or Panic Room? panic room
32. Sweet November or Maid In Manhattan? neither
33. Spiderman or Daredevil? spiderman
CANDY
34. Chocolate or Hard Candy? hard candy
35. Reese's or Butterfinger? reese's
36. Mike and Ikes or Hot Tomales? hot tamales
37. Sour Skittles or Shocktarts? shocktarts
38. Hershey's or Crunch? hershey's
JOBS
39. Janitor or Fast food restaurant clerk? janitor
40. Businessperson or artist? businessperson
41. Teacher or Computer specialist? computer specialist
42. Writer or Musician? writer
43. CEO or Independent worker? CEO
44. Police Officer or Reporter? police officer
PLACES
45. Paris or London? paris
46. Egypt or Saudi Arabia? egypt
47. Russia or China? russia
48. Republic of Congo or Ecuador? ecuador
49. Mexico or Canada? mexico
50. New York or Los Angeles? new york

Nickname: Clit, uno, Cap'n
Age: 18...19 in a month
School: Kettering University
Location: Grand Junction, CO; Flint, MI; Spirit Lake, IA
Color Of Eyes: Green
Height: 5'10
Shoe Size: 10.5
Brothers/Sisters: 2 sisters
Who Lives With You: Roommates from school
Whens Your Bedtime: 10:30 or so during work term and none at school
Do You have any piercings or tattoos? nope

------------Have You Ever------------
Been So Drunk You Black Out: no
Missed School Cuz it Rained: no
Put A Body Part On Fire For Amusement: no
Been Hurt Emotionally: yes
Had An Imaginary Friend: probably at some time
Wanted To Hook Up With A Friend: yah...thats for sure
Cried During A Movie: no
Had A Crush On A Teacher: yah
Ever Thought An Animated Character Was Hot: some could be lol
Had A New Kids On The Block Tape: nope
Been On Stage: many many times...
Cut Your Own Hair: no
Been Sarcastic: you know me guys...

----------Favourite----------
Shampoo: that $1 a gallon stuff
Soap: AXE or Old Spice
Colour: blue
Night/Day: day
Summer/Winter: summer in the spring and winter in the fall
Lace or Satin: lace
Chartoon Characters: Cartman
Fave Food: Sonic
Fave Advertisments: Fake ones and those airfreshener ones
Fave Ice Cream: can't have that stuff
Fave Subject: technology courses
Fave Drink: water..ya ya, i know
Fave Person To Talk To Online: all my friends

--------------Right Now------------
Wearing: quicksilver button up and undershirt, bullhead jeans
Hair Is: messy/gelled
I'm Feeling: excited/pumped
I'm Eating: nothing
I'm Drinking: nothing
Thinken 'Bout: the date i have in a half hour
Listening To: Lee bitch and moan
Talking To: Lee

------------Last Time You-----------
Cried: don't remember
Worn A Skirt: ummm...never
Met Someone New: everyday
Cleaned Your Room: 2 days ago
Drove A Car: 1 hour ago

------------Do You Believe In-----------
Yourself: for sure
Your Friends: always
Santa Claus: hehe
Tooth Fairy: not too sure about that one
Ghosts: nope
Angels: don't know
UFO's: hell yeah...i've seen em'

---------------Friends And Life----------
Do You Have A Boyfriend/Girlfriend: nope
If YES, Who?:
If NO, do you have a Crush? DEFINITELY
Who Have You Known For The Longest Time?: couldn't tell you...i have a lot of old friends
Who's The Shyest: Ivory?
Who's The Weirdest: Ding Ding?
Who Do You Go To For Advice: depends on what i need advice for
Who Do You Cry With: no one
When Did You Cry The Most: a while back
Whats The Best Feeling In The World: being accepted/loved/liked/listened to
Worst Feeling: letting someone down, being lied to
What are you doing next?: going on a date

That's Naked!!

2005-06-21T18:32:00.000-04:00

Cruisin' back to Michigan on Sunday...hell yeah!

I love you Gram

Okoboji

2005-06-12T22:44:00.000-04:00

2 weeks
4 girls' numbers
1 invite to go out and get drinks

Not too bad so far...

WTF?!?

2005-06-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

HOW THE FUCK DID GEORGE W. BUSH MAKE THE TOP 25?!? He's one of the worst presidents we've ever had in the history of the country. What happened to Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, etc...hell, even McCain deserves it more than G.W. Bush.

The people in this country...

2005-06-05T21:51:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting here watching Discovery's top 100 most important americans. They're in the top 40 right now and in the 30s these people appeared: Arnond S., Hillary Clinton, Condoliza Rice. I see a few problems with this. 1: The history books for them haven't been written yet...they're impact hasn't been truly seen yet. 2: There are much more important americans that should be in those spots. 3: Nothing major was done by either one of them.

I guess we can see the ignorance of america in this show...

Oh the fun that Iowa is!!

2005-05-18T21:21:00.000-04:00

Figure that it's about time I should update. Nothing new is really going on here. Maybe this weekend though. My roommate and I and possibly Jason are thinking about going to check out Mt. Rushmore. It should be a good weekend trip. As for work, things are going quite well. I'm working on some awesome challenging projects...not stupid shit like papers and reports and stuff, but actually designing things. Not quite mechanical engineering, but a lot of manufacturing and industrial engineering.

On another note, a bunch of my friends from high school just graduated today. Most of them are probably going to stay in colorado for school. A couple at CSU, some at DU and some at CU. All very good schools...should be able to call on them in the future if I need a lawyer or something!

I'll get to go hang out with them later on this month...actually less than 2 weeks from now I'll be home! Gotta go see the delta girls and hang out with all my debate friends and such. Possibly a day of 4wheeling too...haven't done that in a while.

Back home there's actually some more places to go shopping, so I know I'll be buying even more new clothes and such for summer and just to have...I'll be big pimpin'!

so yeah...

2005-05-08T01:04:00.000-04:00

I'm really bored sitting here in iowa this weekend. The weather had been pretty crappy...i'm talking 3/8" hail or bigger. Massive thunderstorms too. So I was online most of the day...the highlights were when I was talking to Whitney. She's so great! We've been apart for a long time, but it seems like we haven't been away for a single day. We've clicked so well. Will anything ever come of it? I have no idea, but if it doesn't I won't care...she's amazing. At the end of our conversation today she sent me this quote...really hit home with me...I'm going to make sure not to read into it too much...don't want to set myself up for a huge disappointment.

"Well, it seems to me that the best relationships--the ones that last--are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is suddenly... the only person you can ever imagine yourself with."

Anyhow, just wanted to write something...

Oh yeah!

2005-05-04T20:53:00.000-04:00

Figured I'd give a catchy title to this so you'd think some super awesomely cool thing was going on. Anywho, nothing incredibly exciting is going on here except for that I met my best friend from back in 1st grade for the first time in almost 10 years. I found her on thefacebook.com and got a hold of her. It's almost like we weren't gone form each other for that long. She's super nice, not to mention intelligent, fun, honest, open minded, and absolutely gorgious. The coolest thing about it is that she wants to come hang out this next school term.

Other than all that jazz, I've just been working, fishing a little, watching tv, and hanging out with lee. This weekend is the walley opener here in Spirit Lake, so I need to go get registered for that. They release 6 $10,000 tagged walleys into the 3 lakes right near wear we live. If you don't register and catch one you're out the money. The release a bunch of other tagged fish for other prizes too. Hopefully I'm lucky enough to catch one. (I highly doubt it...these lakes are pretty damn big)

So I've been getting kinda bored with what I've been listening to lately, so if you hae any good songs to try out, leave them in a comment or hit me up on AIM or MSN or something. Same goes with movies.

I get to go home in a couple weeks!! I'm flying home from the 26th through the 31st of May. Planning on going out with a bunch of friends to a drive in or something to hang with the delta girls and some of my other friends. Kellen's birthday is also that weekend so I've gotta get something for that. Can't forget the family either...probably going up to my uncle's place and having a decent size family get together and having a BBQ or whatever. It's always a good time up there...watching the deer and elk and such.

Movies that are decent enough to see at the theatre: XXX: State of the Union (better than the first, but still has those 007ish stunts that are incredibly unrealistic), Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (different but pretty good movie.)

I need new clothes...Ivory has a bunch of mine because I forgot them in Michigan and I've lost enough weight that a bunch of my other stuff doesn't fit anymore. I'm comin' back to Michigan in style ;)

Comedy Central kicks ass...check out Gabriel Iglesias - he's funny as hell.

Well, I don't know what else I can put on here, so I'm out...I'll update again when i have something new to say...that doesn't happen too often here in iowa.

So I figured I should update...

2005-04-19T09:35:00.000-04:00

For those of you that don't know, I'm now back in Iowa working for Polaris. It turns out that I actually did well enough this last school term to make it on the dean's list again. I did drop my overall WAG though...overall right now I have a 93.63. This last term I got a 92.12.

The way here from Michigan was pretty uneventful. Valentine 1 radar detectors kick ass...saved me a couple times driving here.

Here in Iowa things are looking a lot better than they did last work term. It's warming up and all the lakes are open. The fishing is awesome and there's actually stuff to do around here. This last weekend was pretty cool. Lee and I went fishing thinking we'd do pretty well. The only fish that we caught that we were able to keep was a smallmouth bass. I caught it by accident. I went to cast my line but screwed up and let the lure fall in the water about 2 feet off shore in a bunch of grass. The second that lure hit the water the fist was on it. If only it was always that easy.

In other news, the second week of the term my roommated desided to let his appendix go bad in the middle of the night. He didn't even wake me up to take him to the hospital. He got up and drove himself. I found out at work the next day. He's just not having the greatest luck this first couple weeks, but at least he somewhat likes it here in Iowa.

So I found out yesterday that www.thefacebook.com finally added Kettering. In only one day I already have 22 friends on there!! The coolest thing is that I found a girl on there that I was best friends with way back in the day. We pretty much lost contact about 4 or so years ago. I messaged her...just waiting back for a reply. I was pretty happy about the site. Make sure to go check it out and SIGN UP.

I thought I'd also let you know that you can get a FREE IPOD by going to this site. It's really simple...just complete one of the offers and then get 5 friends to sign up under you and each complete an offer. Once you meet those requirements you get a FREE IPOD. I'm almost there...help me out please. The offers are pretty straight forward and you don't get a bunch of junk email or anything. I signed up for a credit card. You could sign up for something like BMG music service or even something that doesn't cost a dime...like a credit card. If you don't want a credit card, just sign up for it and when you get it cut it up. Here's the link to the site: www.freeiPods.com/?r=12724142 .

DO IT!!

Well, I better get back to work

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!

2005-03-26T14:20:00.000-05:00

Finals are over, classes are over...I'm a sophomore now!

Phys final...kicked it's ass, but not sure what my score is

Calc 2 Final...97.6 BIOTCHES...Ernst told me I got a 94 in the class (dean's list here I come)

Mech...Final project went well!

Comm...Mid to high 90s for sure

Damn I'm good...

Oh Yeah!

2005-03-24T12:04:00.000-05:00

Physics final down (i kicked it's ass for the most part), calc 2 final to go (I'll kick it's ass too). Oh, and i have a mech final project to finish up.

Courtney is coming down tomorrow!!! I can't wait!