Basically all of October

So, I know I’ve been slacking big time concerning my life documentation. I feel like I’ve had no time this past month, but at the same time, I don’t know of any real time consuming things that have been going on.

I got initiated into Pi Kappa Phi. That was probably the biggest thing that happened this month. I’ve got my letters on now. I find it interesting that I’m advertising for my fraternity. I don’t even advertise for the Army. I’ve got veteran plates on my truck, but that’s about it. I guess I used to wear army shirts and whatnot, especially back when I was a private. Maybe it’ll be the same way with the fraternity. You might ask why I don’t like to advertise that I’m in the army. Well, here it is. I don’t want to be prejudged. I am a very atypical army guy. Its magnified by what people think a typical army guy is. Having grown up in the mountains of North Carolina, I have a bit of a hippie nature to me. I like to keep an open mind and accept radical ideas if they make sense to me. In the army, that is ridiculous. It’s all about perspective though. They always say, “you F***ing hippie..” It’s not meant in a mean way at all. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that I have that mentality. I remember telling a girl that I went to high school that they think I’m a hippie and she just started laughing.

That actually brings me to a good tangent story. I met this girl, Alex Ivers, in my junior English class and immediately started liking her. I know it’s hard to believe with how much of a charmer I am now, but I was definitely a geek in high school. So anyway, I was talking to her on the phone, and decided to just be up front about it. So I flat out said, “I like you.” She thought that was funny, so she said she couldn’t hear me and made me repeat it. Then in true Alex Ivers style, she started laughing. Turns out she liked me too and we dated for a while. For a successful moment, that was probably one of the more embarrassing times of high school. Luckily it wasn’t in front of a lot of people.

So, what else has happened this month? I finally brought my bass in to the shop to get repaired. Its going to be around $250. Gag me. Worth it though, I guess. I can’t play until its fixed. Cagney is coming in January so I have to get back into the groove before we jam. Speaking of which, I got my plane ticket to go back to NC at the beginning of January. I feel bad cause I’m only going to have 10 days to spend there. I don’t think that’s going to be enough, but its better than nothing. I’ve not been since 2004, when I worked at Gwynn Valley.

Other than that, I started flying this month, but I still haven’t been given clearance to film the birds, so once I do, I’ll start putting some of that stuff on.

I hope to do better at writing this month

The Life; Busy Weekend

I didn’t sleep a whole lot this weekend. I had too much to do.

I really don’t remember what I did on Friday. Maybe I just went home and relaxed.

NO! I remember what I did. So I start working as a server at Outback pretty soon. I thought I was supposed to go in for training last weekend, the 3rd and 4th. Turns out it is actually this weekend, starting the 9th. So all day I was trying to get stuff done for it. Got my food handler’s card, found some dickies, made an appointment for the liquor certification. That was about it for the day. I found the paper that showed my schedule, so for the rest of the day, I just studied.



Saturday, I played with Brock all day! He beat me up, made my tongue start bleeding. Then in the evening, I got ready for my blind date to the ADPi formal. I timed it. I ironed, showered, shaved, got ready in a shirt and tie and was out the door in under 20 minutes. It turned out to be a very good night. I was really skeptical going into it as I had never actually danced at a dance before. Moe, my Pi Kapp big brother, was asked to go to the formal and his conditions were that I went along with. Hooking me up. We waited at the ADPi house for a long time, people were just chilling mostly. There were about 11 Pi Kapps there, as well as other fraternities. The other guys reminded me why I thought I’d never join a fraternity. By the time we got to the Hilton, I was relatively relaxed with the group I was with. Once there, we had salad, chicken and dessert. I didn’t think we were getting an actual meal, so I ate my dessert before my chicken. It was good though. Immediately after eating, we went out to the dance floor and went crazy until it was time to leave. I met a guy there that told me he’d hook us up with rooms if we would get him into some of the Tempe parties. We’ll see what happens I guess. After several changes to plans, we ended up at an apartment in vista. I brought my hookah out and Moe and I had some amazing deep conversation until 4am. Once that ended, I slept.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning came way too early. I got up after 3 hours of sleep and knocked out a rough draft of our next project in English 101 and studied history and information on Pi Kappa Phi. I missed our first meeting and got behind everyone else in that study, so I feel like I’m trying to catch up to their knowledge now. In the afternoon, I went and got some Ted’s Dogs and then headed to our meeting. I had to leave early though since I had a non-date to go on that evening. I was having trouble finding a date for it, but Shannon, a girl in my ASU101 class, is not only a female engineer, but also a Star Wars geek. I convinced her to come with me to share my excitement. It was so cool once we got there. There were not as many people dressed up as I expected. Mostly it was kids in Star Wars pajamas. It was a orchestral concert that played a handful of John Williams Star Wars songs. There were Lasers, Fog, Fire, and amazingness. After the first song, the Phantom Menace, I was yelling and cheering. I got pretty darn pumped. Music does that to me. Anthony Daniels, C3P0, narrated the entire event. There was also a choir in the back of the orchestra. I really want to figure out what words they actually sing. I wonder if they have to memorize gibberish. After the concert, I made sure we snapped a pic with Chewie, and then we headed home.

That was the weekend. Hanging out with Moe and the Star Wars concert really made it super. Moe and I actually figured out our costumes for Halloween, but that will be revealed later. I’ll for sure be putting pictures of it up.

This week I think is going to be all studying and paper writing. Then the weekend, I’ve actually got the Outback training. Hopefully I don’t bomb it.

The life v. 2

Today has been kind of weird. I went to a party last night after our initiation for Pi Kapp and as I didn't leave there until 2, I decided not to try and sleep for 3 hours. I just sat on the couch. Might have drifted a couple times, but I was sitting up the entire time, and I know I was awake for most of that stretch. I took Brock to the park again at 5, and we were the first ones there. I think 4 showed up eventually. I worked on some MATLAB stuff while he played. MATLAB for those who do not know is a program to make scripts and programs. I think anyway. I'm just learning it. We had to go back around 630 so that I could make it to school in time to print some stuff off and get to class. I made it there in time, did the class, then went straight from there to the institute building and started writing more for my english class. I had critiqued my peers' essays, but I didn't actually read the assignment prior to that, and when I did, I realized it had to be 250 word minimum critiques. Not too big of a deal, but I was low on time. Turned out, I got those submitted with 10 minutes to spare, then high tailed it over to the classroom. I think I'm getting better at using blackboard because I did it without any flaws this morning. Once the 30 minutes of English was over, I had to take an online exam for philosophy. A guy in my class was kind enough to give me a copy of his notes as mine were on my mac. Even with those though, I did much worse than I had hoped. I think it was the Venn diagrams that kicked my butt. That was the last academic thing I had for the day, so I went over to help clean up Parker's place. When I got there I asked what he wanted me to start on and he said just go where it needs work. I got the bathroom done first. I'm pretty sure it hadn't been cleaned for a while, but it looks nice now. I definitely felt like a pledge in a fraternity. Back to being a private, scrubbing the floors and walls with a toothbrush. Thats not just a saying either. Once Terrence, Matt, and myself had finished that up, I just went back to campus to wander around for a little while. We had a Time Capsule meeting at 4. I guess our sites are going live tomorrow. As of right now, the only people that know about them are the ones we've told. Maybe I'll make business cards and hand them out. I truly believe that the more people I have with feedback, the easier it will be to write more. Plus, its nice writing while I'm at the parks. Right before the meeting started, a possible job came onto the horizon. Since my very first job, I have not worked for a non corporate company. With a little luck, I could be a waiter for a “mom and pop” place. Cross your collective fingers. I got home as fast as I could after the meeting and picked up Brock for another round at the dog park. He hasn't really played with anyone tonight, but there were over 15 dogs in the run at one point. We've been here for a while, so maybe he's tired. Right now he's starting to warm up to some of them and run around. Its pretty interesting. Most of these people here know each other and know each other's dogs. I was here before they all showed up, but They all sat on one end of the run and I'm on the other. Brock has been staying over on my side, so maybe thats why he hasn't been as social tonight. Because I haven't. Maybe we'll see tomorrow, depending on what time I get done with duty. This weekend is drill weekend, so I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

Tangent for today. Its September 11th. My Dad's birthday, and the day of the twin towers attack. I didn't expect people to really remember forever, but I would imagine it didn't even cross people's minds today. To be completely honest, I saw a flag at half mast today, and didn't know immediately what it was for. Just a little side thought on how short our memories really are.

The life v. 1

I haven't posted as much as I would have liked. We will soon remedy that. I had 3 posts ready to go a couple days ago. Mostly they were just about how last week went, and since last week was fairly uneventful, I'm not going to try and recreate them. The biggest thing that happened last week was that I got sworn into the AZ National Guard. I joined a MEDEVAC unit that I'll be meeting this weekend. I'll post the video in on my site.

The reason I no longer have those posts is that my laptop got stolen. Honestly, I don't mind that it did. I had set my backpack down in the bushes and walked about 15 feet away. I was with the Pi Kapps at the sorority bid day thing. When I came back, the backpack was unzipped and the laptop taken out. The think that frustrates me is that it was password protected and they didn't take the charger. I have insurance on it and I still have the computer I got for the Time Capsule, which incidentally is growing on me. What gets me is that they aren't even going to use it. I mean I could be wrong, but I envision getting to the password and not being able to get in, then tossing it. I wish I could have kept my files.

I submitted a first draft project for English 101 on Sunday. Not sure if I am just being ridiculous with Blackboard, but I am constantly having trouble with it. So I emailed my teacher to see if she could send me the file I submitted so that I could print off some hard copies. What she sent back to me, I couldn't open. I spent that morning from 430 to 630 trying to get my computer connected to the internet, and then recovering the file. I gave up around 630 and brought Brock to the park. While we were there, I started writing a new draft so that I would have at least something to turn in that day. Around 800 words in, Ms. Hooper emailed me letting me know she had recovered my file and turned it into RTF format. I stopped writing immediately, but I'll probably go back and merge the two to get the best from both.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. ASU 101 was very nice. We went on a field trip to the library. A few of us left the group and were playing around with the moving bookshelves. Humming the Indiana Jones theme song, we were imagining the shelves closing while trying to run out. Eventually, we figured out that the safety mechanism was in the floor. Guess there will be no last minute hat saves from a closing trap door.

After school, I took Brock to the park again. Then went to the mall to get a haircut. My last haircut, I was told, was the worst I've ever had, so I was glad to be rid of it. I had a formal dinner to go to, so I wanted to look sharp, even though it was with a bunch of guys. It was the preference dinner for Pi Kappa Phi. I find out later today what fraternities I got a bid with. Anyway, after driving around on low gas for a while, I got there and hung out with them all. I am starting to get to know them a lot better. Even the new guys that are freshmen like me and just rushing are pretty darn cool. We'll see what happens.