I love warm weather!

Hey look!! I'm posting again in the same week!! Everyone pinch yourselves, because you must be dreaming!! LOL, I'm sure no one really cares, with the exception of my mom. It's been a fun week so far. It's FINALLY really nice outside. It's supposed to hit 70 today. It's amazing what warm weather can do for one's well being. Tearing around campus, windows down, music blaring, ahh it doesn't get much better. We played frisbee on Wednesday night. It was a lot of fun. We lost, but it was still a ton of fun. I got another astro-turf burn, but not as bad. When we were all leaving, all the students that live on campus were walking back to their dorms and it was on the same street that I take to go to the Basslers. So I pulled along the curb, windows down, music up, and rolled along with them as they walk. A few of the guys jumped on my hood and the trunk. The best part was that as we pulled up to the stop sign, a cop came out of the parking lot next to us. And we scattered. It was hysterical though. I thought the guy was gonna pull me over but he didn't. Anyway, I'm ready for the weekend.

Mondays Are Better Now

Hey!! Guess what!! I haven't updated this blog in a long time!! What a surprise! That's never happened before! Anyway there hasn't been a whole heck of a lot to report lately. Lets see. I played drums on Sunday for worship. That was fun. But, boy does it get hot in the "cage" especially when all the people get there. :D It went well, no serious flubs, at least until the end. We were singing Perfect Lamb of God after the message and if you know that song the third verse is a half verse. I totally forgot and did a frantic crash into the chorus. Otherwise it went well. I had a lot of fun. Oh, I don't know if any of you out there knew, but new TV series premiered last night called Drive on Fox. It stars none other then Nathan Fillion, ie Captain Reynolds. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend you all watch it at it's regular time tonight at 8pm. I think you can watch the first episode on www.myspace.com/fox. Definitely check it out. Um, other news . . . I have a splitting headache today and I had one yesterday. Very unpleasant. Thankfully aspirin seems to help quite a bit. I actually just took one, and I couldn't swallow it because I didn't take enough water. I didn't feel like getting up to get some more so I just chewed it. Ugh. NASTY I can tell you. Oh yes I forgot. I finally got my accounting test back that I took like a week and half ago. The professor took forever grading them. I was talking to a girl who sits next to me about how bad the class is and how the guy treats us like we're stupid. I mentioned that I thought the class was pretty easy nonetheless, and she was like "Well that's cause you're a *bleeping* genius." When we got our scores back I got a 91. She asked me what I got, and when I told her, she was like "You *bleep*." It made me laugh. Oh yeah. I broke my cell phone. I left it on the floor and stepped on it by accident. It stills makes calls but the screen is cracked and I can't do anything besides answer calls and punch numbers in manually call them. I'll try to check my voicemail regularly since I can't tell I have unless I actually call it. I'm gonna look into getting a fairly inexpensive replacement.

Fading into Mediocrity

It's been a rather uneventful couple of weeks since spring break. Yikes, it's been two weeks. That went by fast. It's been very nice weather wise since spring break, which is very sweet. Driving through campus with the windows down and blasting music is a lot fun. We've played frisbee twice since then. The first time was on the fields next to the stadium. It was very very muddy. We played on the stadium football field on Sunday. It's very nice to walk and run on, but take a dive on it, lots and lots of pain. I have a habit of sliding onto my knees after a running catch. That kinda rips the skin off your leg. I did it last year, and you think I would have learned, but nope, I did it again. I now have 3-4 inch diameter burn on my leg.
In other news, I had to withdraw from a class for the first time. I was failing badly. It was a really strange situation for me. I was really disappointed because that means I have to be here at IUP for classes over the summer, for both sessions. I really wanted to be back home over the summer, so it's very disappointing. If I can I'm going to try to come for a week or two at some point, but I can't manage more then that.
If you guys think of it I could really use prayer. I've been really struggling with trusting God especially with the recent class situation. It's been very hard not to become depressed. So if you could be praying for me I would appreciate it a lot.
It was a very interesting day today. It was visiting day, ie tons of highschool kids with parents taking up precious parking spots, plus there were 4 notable alumni, including Chad Hurley, who founded YouTube. And you know how much IUP tries to milk non-famous alumni for all they're worth, so famous ones get pumped up a lot. It's kinda annoying. I mean he was addressing the business college, and he graduated with a freaking Fine Arts degree. C'mon.

Today is a good day. . . to live

Wow, have I been neglecting this blog lately. I know I sound like a broken record, but I've been very busy. And next week is going to be a dozy. I have four exams, two essays, a group project, a group presentation, and thirty-five some odd statistics problems. However, for today, it's all good. Yesterday REC (the church's college age ministry) had a hot chocolate outreach. I was helping to get it setup and as we were boiling water and beginning to mix the hot chocolate, I tasted the results and found it to taste really, well, bad. I thought perhaps that it needed to be stirred more, but after an extended stirring, it still tasted bad. I looked at the packaging and realized that someone got Nesquick powder, which is to make chocolate milk. Not good for water. So someone ran to the nearby Giant Eagle to get the proper stuff. After that I had to go to class, and then returned after it was done and had fun hanging out with people and giving out hot chocolate. But I didn't get back to the Bassler's until around 5:30pm and I had left for class at 7:30am. So I was on campus for about ten hours, and I was running all over the place so I was really tired. I went to bed pretty early. This morning I went to accounting class and got my first test back. I was rather disappointed when I got an 85. But, apparently 80% of the class failed. Badly. I was going to say something about how I was a bit disappointed, but as people began saying what they got (15, 10, 39) I figured I should keep my mouth shut. The teacher is a bit of a jerk, and basically said he didn't care. He's not all that bad of a teacher, but his opinion is that students are lazy stupid idiots. Which, may be somewhat true, but it's a little stereotypical. Class ran for about 15 minutes, then some woman came and the professor had to leave. He has missed 2 classes already, so my opinion is rather low of him. Anyway I got to leave early and it's a gorgeous day outside, so I'm in a pretty good mood.

So much time, so little to do (I wish)

Yep, it's been quite a while since I updated this. Sorry about that to all my rabid fans. I've been extremely busy the past week and a half. I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch all week because I ran out of food and I haven't had time to go shopping. I had 5-7 page paper about Taoism due on Monday. Sixty some odd problems for stats class that take 10-15 minutes a piece. A quiz on Wednesday. Lots of random stuff for my hardware support class. Two exams on Thursday. The kicker was that the one exam was scheduled outside of class time so that meant I had class from 8am-11:15am, then a little break, and class and an exam from 1:15pm-4pm then another exam from 6pm-8pm. The second exam was for stats class. I didn't really study for it. I get there and it's in Stouffer Auditorium and he is giving tests to several classes at once. We line up and he hands out the appropriate test. I started the test, and started panicking because it was really hard. I was like "I am so studying much harder next time." I got about half way through and for some reason I looked at the front page and realized that he gave me the wrong test. No wonder it was so hard. I walked up and he gave me the right one after apologizing. Ah, there we go, much better. A lot easier. I finished it in like 15 minutes. So then I got back to the Basslers, and pretty much just crashed and went to bed. I had been getting up between 3-4am to work on homework and I was really tired. Fortunately I had nothing due for today so I got to sleep a bit. I'm planning on hitting the Walmart after class.

Thursdays Are Fun...not

So since I haven't had anyone comment and it's been like a week (hint, hint) I figured I would update again. It's been a very busy week so far. Quite miserable actually. It has snowed nearly non stop since Friday. I mean EVERY single day. I am very sick of cleaning my car off 3 or 4 times a day, slick roads, and slow traffic. Yesterday, I had accounting and history class. My history teacher is crazy. You know Vizzini from Princess Bride? That's him. Doesn't look like him, but sounds just like him. Today was quite a day and it started a lot earlier then I planned. My nightstand is rather close to my bed around 3 inches or so. Last night around 2 am I rolled over in my sleep and smacked my head on it. Hard. I shook it off and started to go back to sleep when I noticed my fingers after they had touched my head where I smacked it. There was blood all over them. Blood was all over my pillow as well. So I got up and held a tissue on it for a few minutes, and then put a band-aid on it (which was a little awkward given that the wound was in my hair). I got up later and went to school. It was snowing hard. Again. In my second class, stats, about a half an hour into it someone walked by shutting all the classroom doors. The prof looked oddly, and one of the girls near me explained that a girl had passed out in the bathroom. What was really weird was that I recognized her. I'm pretty sure she was in my math class my first semester at DCCC. I couldn't figure out why I recognized her until our prof was talking about SATs and he asked her when she had taken them. In 2003. That click it together. So then I left class and went to the computer help desk to have my WebCT password reset so I could log on. After that I went to my final class, in which we installed windows (snore). I walk back to my car in the cold windy snowy outside, get in, turn the key and. . . nothing. I left the lights on. So I asked the next guy if I could get a jump, and he finally agreed (I could tell he didn't want to). So 15 minutes later I was finally headed back to warmth. Stupid snow.

Whew, glad that's over!

As some of you know already it's be quite a week for me particularly over the weekend. I'll start at the beginning though. I went home for Christmas break without meeting with my adviser, primarily due to the questionable finical status I was in. I was unaware however that I could not register at all until I did. I found this out when I tried to register about 2 weeks before classes started. So I emailed my adviser but she didn't get back to me until this Thursday a day after classes had started. I went in on Tuesday and Wednesday to see if she was in and she never was. I talked to someone in the department and was told that only my adviser could help me. She had office hours on Thursday so I thought I would run in then and try to get this sorted out. Unfortunately I didn't remember her hours right and I missed them. So I sent another email, which she replied to and told me that I wasn't on her list. She sent a email to the department secretary and after confusing me with someone else they figured out I was right. So she set up a time to meet on Monday. So then came the weekend. Friday night at six o'clock was the rehearsal for Ryan Joseph and (now!) Shelsy Joseph's wedding and I was a groomsman. So I google mapped it and left around 3pm. After about 30 minutes I realized that the directions were sending me in the complete opposite direction. So I turned around and started the other way. Realizing that I was going to be late I began to go a little fast. Problem was that it was snowing pretty hard. After about 20 minutes I was going up a hill and as I crested it I lost all traction and spun off the road into a snow drift. I was stuck. Fortunately a guy with a big pickup truck saw me and turned around to pull me out. I was much more cautious after that :-) I arrived about an hour and change late but so was everyone else so I pulled in just as they began rehearsing the procession. I jumped in line coat and all. Afterwards we headed for the rehearsal dinner. After following Angela all over Williamsport because she doesn't know her left from her right ;-), we got to the restaurant and enjoyed a very nice meal. All the groomsmen were housed in the basement of Shelsy's aunt. The room was a literal shrine to the Miami Dolphins and Dan Marino. Posters, wallpaper, lamps, everything. But the really cool thing was that there was a huge home theater system, which meant lots of late movies :D. So the day of the wedding came and it went quite well. Our tuxes were so great. We all wanted to keep them. The reception was good, aside from an embarrassing dance with the bridesmaids. And my trip home was pretty good as well. Whew, that was a lot of writing. Sorry to babble I'm sure it was pretty boring but hey.

Winter Wonderland

I have finally caught a breather in homework and school related stuff. I've been very busy this week and haven't had much time for anything, much less post in my blog. But I finally finished my big paper and took the big calc quiz so I have a little time for this. The big news right now is that it is snowing quite a bit here in Indiana. Since so many doubted me the first time I will again provide photographic evidence of this. I think there can be little doubt that it is indeed snowing. I am very glad that it didn't get this bad while I was wandering around campus earlier. However it was snowing enough for my black hoodie to turn white. And that's the excitement for today. Tune in next month for; Eating Snow: Cold Killer or Cool Life-Saver?

Down with the sickness

Here I am sitting in front of my computer. Mostly because I got the flu pretty bad. It started on Sunday, just a headache. Monday I felt a little off, a major headache and a little bit of a fever I think. I got home from my 9:15 class and slept most of the day. I thought I was feeling better by the evening but not quite. Yesterday I got up in the morning with a severe headache, sore neck and back, a fever, and some weird rash/blister things. I downed a couple of ibuprofen and manged to get through my classes. I got home around 2pm and started to get severe chills and sweats, along with the other things. I lay in bed sleeping or watching Family Guy for the rest of the day. I woke up this morning not feeling any better, but I had an exam for my first class so I had to go. I figured I would take ibuprofen and get a long hot shower, and then get the exam done as quickly as possible. As I was taking a shower I started feeling dizzy and nauseous. I began vomiting, or at least trying to, but there was nothing to throw up. I got out of the shower and pretty much collapsed on the floor because I was so dizzy. After leaning on the toilet for about ten minutes, the ibuprofen kicked in, and I was able to get to class to take the exam. I've been feeling a little better, but I think only because I have been taking ibuprofen every 4-5 hours. Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow, because I can't really afford to miss more classes. Yeah, not exactly thrilling, but hey, there's my life so far this week.

Nothing New November

Since mother has been complaining that in fact it is now November, a fact which I must admit that is quite true, I guess I owe you all a new post. So here it is. Actually, it's mostly because I have nothing better to do (homework not included). So let's see. I got a 93 on a Calculus exam that I took last Thursday, and with the curve it's a 99. And I didn't even study...haha Gen. Just kidding. About the haha that is. I had a group presentation that day as well. I came up with the idea for the game we played, which was Balderdash. Can you believe not one single person in the class had ever played it? Wow. Very very sad. It went pretty well. Hmm, I can't think of anything else to relate in school stuff. Oh, man Sunday was a really weird day for football. Dallas lost to Washington. And Chicago lost to Miami! I came down in the middle of the Pittsburgh game and watched for a bit. The scores were scrolling on the bottom of the screen and I was befuddled. Ah, good word. Lode Runner is the jam. I washed my dishes today. I'm sure you all were wondering. REC is tonight, so I'll be going to that. I think that I have covered most of the interesting things so ah, yeah.

Wait, It's Still October!

While finishing up dinner here, we looked outside and we beheld this:

Yep that is snow. It's snowing here in Indiana. Sigh, guess I should have expected this, but hey one can always hope. Anyway, I'm glad to have had today off and that I'm tomorrow as well. My parents were here over the weekend. It was great to see them all. Oh, by the way mother, I looked at the schedule and it looks like I get the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and on off, so I'll be down over that weekend. Not much else going on. I went to the Kim's to watch the game on Sunday which was fun despite having to watch a rediculus game. 62 yards! I mean, come on, the guy has missed extra points. Unbelievable. Anyway, enough on that score. I did very little today, despite waking up around eight o'clock. Just sitting around watching a movie, listening to music, surfing the 'net etc. Pretty boring actually. I suppose I could have done the little bit of homework that I have due on Thursday, but it's too soon for that. It's never good to have homework done too soon. It's too intoxicating. However, laundry might have been a good idea, but no avail. I think REC will still meet tomorrow though I think it will be a social type since many students are at home over fall recess. I think I'll finish this post now. :-)

Sidewalk Etiquette

This is something that has been bothering me for a while now and I'm going to go on a little rant. I've noticed recently a glaring lack of regard for the rules of sidewalk etiquette. There are some very basic unwritten rules when using a sidewalk.
1. Always stay to the right side unless passing. This allows for maximum traffic flow, and leaves room for faster walkers to pass slower ones. 2. Never walk shoulder to shoulder with a friend on a normal width sidewalk. This prevents faster people from being able to pass and can cause various emotions of a negative sort to be released. If you must talk with someone, the right most person should walk off the sidewalk to allow room for passers. If there is no room to walk next to the sidewalk, simply discontinue the conversation and move into single file. Under no circumstances should three people attempt to carry on a conversation or walk together while using a sidewalk.
Now I've noticed these rules being broken quite a lot in my travels between classes on campus. You're late for class and there a big group of friends walking slowly along, blocking the whole sidewalk and preventing you from being able to pass and get to class on time. You show up late, the prof gets angry, you are already angry and the whole situation goes downhill fast. Your whole day is ruined single-handed by a group of rude people.

How About Them Eagles!

Well things have calmed down enough for me to have a chance and be in the mood to update my blog, as some of you have been whining about (Ryan). In case some of you didn't know, a friend of mine whose name is Ian Murphy was in a serious car crash on the 30th. He suffered a severe trauma to the side of his head and was expected to die within two days. Needless to day, I was not really feeling like bothering with blogs. Good news is, he is still alive, and while still not out of the woods, he is moving in a positive direction. That has been the big thing this past week and a half. Um, I can't really think of a good segue to more trivial things, so I'm just going to jump in. Classes are going great. I actually have all my eight o'clock classes cancelled for the next three days, so I get to sleep in a bit. Ahhh. Yesterday was a great day. I got to mix for church which was quite fun and something I haven't done in a long time. Then came the Eagles game. I got my McNabb jersey and sat down to watch some football. Man, what a great game. I was very, very, very into the game. Yelling, praying, running around the room on good plays, you name I was doing it. Our defense is so much fun to watch. Boy, that last drive by the Cowboys was INTENSE. I was on my feet the whole time and like a foot from the tv. On that 4 and 18 play where Lewis interfered I was screaming NOOOOOO!!!!!! Pacing back and forth, muttering, "C'mon, C'mon." And then Lito intercepted. The instant I saw it, I ripped my jersey off and ran and jumped around the room waving it in the air screaming like a banshee. Was I glad that all the Basslers were out of the house. I was insane. I have a picture that might give you an idea of what I was like:And that about wraps up my week. :-)

I love the smell of cancelled classes

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I've been sort of busy. Mostly I'm just not in a mood to sit and write something. But I am now so here goes. Things are pretty usual. Classes are going well, not much to report on that score. I did have a class canceled today and I found out last night so I got to sleep in a little bit. Very nice. I actually have a class cancelled tomorrow as well, so I'm having a good week. :-) I'll be going to band practice for a bit tonight before heading to Frisbee. Man I cannot wait. I haven't played for several weeks and I'm really looking forward to playing. I'm gonna have to go shopping again tomorrow. I'm running out of food. So yeah it's gonna be fun shelling out again. Blah. Um, not much else to report. I went to the Kim's caregroup last night. It was ok. Ben and John go to that caregroup as well. I'm getting pretty good at getting around town. I actually learned a back way that avoids the main road in Indiana (Philadelphia, no less) . It's not really faster, but driving down that road is a bit risky because people never pay attention to when they open their doors into traffic. In my Bus. Calc. class we were talking about if you could get 1% of the sales of one NFL logoed teams merchandise, which five teams would you pick. So of course the Steelers were to first to go on the list, and the Giants, Cowboys and Patriots made it. I thought Eagles, as well as the Packers were good choices but no one agreed. So today the prof. brought in the actual data from the last two years. Steelers were frist, and guess who was second. Yep, them Eagles. The Giants were like 8th and the Packers were 6th. The Eagles were actually first the year before. I was rather proud. Anyways enough babbling from me.

The End of Week 2

So the end of the second week of classes has come to a close. So far so good. I did have a bit of fun this morning. I went to the Wallworks (no comments from you mom :-)) to watch the Steelers game last night. I got home and realized that I had totally forgotten about a paper due at class today. And it was the eight o'clock class so no chance for a break to write. I got home around midnight and a set the alarm for five. Needless to say I keep hitting the snooze button for about an hour. When I final got myself out bed I scrambled to get the paper written as quickly as possible. I managed to get it done in about fourty minutes. It was only a two page paper and it was talking about myself so I had a pretty easy time just coming up with random stuff to say. So it turned out all right in the end. I can't really think of anything else that happend that is interesting to say. I am looking foward immensly to sleeping in tomorrow. Oh hey, I don't know why but the comments was set to bloggers only for some reason. I fixed it so anyone can post now.

Post Class

So I've started class and have so far been to two days worth. So far I actually like the classes. It's really cool to be going to a college that I know people at. I've run into people from church everyday. We've actually had time to hang out and stuff. I really enjoy it. I've been pretty successful at finding classes as well. I did get stuck at one point but it turned out that I was right there all the time. My professors seem pretty good. And the class should be interesting except for Bus. Calc. and Music History. Those I think will be the two classes I won't enjoy much. I learned very quickly that if you get a good parking spot in the morning you do not give it up. The first day of class I got there pretty early and found a good spot. I had to back to back classes and then a five hour break. I made the mistake of going back to the Basslers. I was informed of some people hanging out and I left to go back to campus. I spent probably 45 minutes looking for a place to park. Lesson learned: Don't leave unless you have to. Anyways that's the story so far.

Nothing to Report

Well, not much has happened since my last update. I figured I better keep my one reader happy and post new stuff. Oh wait, I forgot, I got engaged! It's pretty sweet. I still haven't found a job, so prayer would be great. Um, I did do some work for Steve Murphy, who flips houses. I work on the house that they are renovating. Plus we got paid for travel. Other then that not much to speak of.







In case you were wondering/stupid, I was joking about being engaged.

The arrival

Well folks, I've made it to Indiana. I'm pretty much setup and good to go. The house is fantastic. I couldn't have found a better place. God is soo faithful. I'm about five to ten minutes from campus which is great. I took some pictures for you very own wish fulfillment. (Not really ;-)

This is the front door and the stairs up to my part of the house:

This is the hallway at the top of the stairs. Immediately to the left of the picture is my room. On the right is, grandson's play room, bathroom, and kitchenette, moving toward the couch:
This is the bathroom:
This is the kitchenette:
And this is my room. Note the queen bed :-)
Anyways that's where I'm staying. The Basslers are really nice, and Mr. Bassler is a fan of Firefly! Woohoo!!

Leaving

Well guys and gals I've finally found a place to stay in Indiana. A family had been praying about it and they agreed to let me stay with them. Sweet! They're a couple that has had their kids move on. There's two upstairs rooms that they don't use except for when they are babysiting their grandchild who is 3. So basically I would have the upstairs to myself for the most part. The room is already furnished which is nice. There's actually a kichenette with counters, a small fridge and a mircowave so I could be fairly self-sufficient. I'm really excited because it was getting down to the wire there for a moment. We still have to work out the details because they went to the worship conference so until they get back we can't do anything. But it looks like maybe Tuesday or Wednesday I'll be moving out!

The Beginning of the New

Well, this is my new blog I created. As no one has seen it or knows about it I think it would be pointless to post a long message. However I will give some info as to why I started this blog. I mostly just wanted a way to keep my friends informed of what was happening in my life as I move away to school. So there you have it. Boring right? Ah who cares? It's as much for me as anyone else.