About the Droid

So my time with the Motorola Droid is coming to an end. I am thankful for that. I know its the latest and greatest, but I really wasn't a fan. This may be the first time i don't appreciate the newest technology.

Don't get me wrong. There were some really cool features about it. The coolest thing I liked was that I could search online and download a picture, then send that picture in a message.

Here are the problems I had with it. Some greater than others.

The biggest thing was that every so often, all of my text message conversations would disappear. It was frustrating when I would have information saved in them like phone numbers or addresses.

When I transferred my contacts from my blackberry to the droid, a lot of the phone numbers were listed under home instead of mobile. You can't make a new message and type in their name unless they have a mobile number listed for their contact. I would have either had to change everyone's number to mobile or what I ended up doing was going to their contact, then sending a message. Just annoying.

It would often crash.

I couldn't send mass texts. Maybe I could have found and paid for an app for it, but that's just silly. I think they forgot that it was actually a phone.

There really were a lot of cool apps. I could play NES emulators or any number of card games. If I wanted a gaming system though, I could use a PSP. I like having keys to press. I like being able to turn the phone off with a key instead of touchscreen so that when it crashes, I can turn it off.

The last thing that really bugged me is the battery cover. It would always come off in my pocket. For anyone who saw me often, that is why I went without a cover for a while.

All I'm saying is it will be very nice to get a Tour back. I think I may be a converted blackberry user for life.

full of life

For being quasi-unemployed and having all online classes, I have found myself super busy. Maybe I am just that bad at time management. I like it though. I feel like I'm not wasting any time, so that's keeping me pretty happy.

Last week someone stopped me by the MU with a flyer. Generally I give people the time to deliver their spiel (JUST learned how to spell that) and so I stopped to listen to him. Turns out, he was recruiting for a movie focus group. The biggest thing that caught my ear was $75. It sounded interesting, so I signed up and went up to scottsdale Wednesday afternoon. I showed up at the building about 15 minutes early, but couldn't immediately find the office. Everyone in the building was in suits and french cuff shirts. Nice place, but here I was in a tshirt and jeans asking everyone where suite 380 was. People told me it was on the 3rd floor, seriously thinking they were helping. I might be an young college freshman, but I'm not stupid guys. It was pretty cool once we started the meeting though. There were 2 walls with the 1 way glass. Microphones in the ceiling and a panel behind the mirrors, our opinions mattered.

We watched about a dozen different trailers for "Shes out of your league." After each, we talked about the good, bad, and ugly. We watched a few on Shutter Island and I think one on Avatar: The last Airbender. I saw a trailer for Shutter Island and Avatar on during the Superbowl commercials and both were reflective of our thoughts. I thought that was pretty darn sweet.

Friday, I took a girl out on a date. I really like coming up with cool dates, and I think this one worked out well too. She said it was the best date she had ever been on, so I feel pretty good about it. I drove up to campus and walked to her dorm. We walked up to the lightrail and took it downtown. The rail was not too packed on the way there, and the police came on during the trip to check tickets. One guy across from us was being ridiculous. Just screwing with the cops because he wanted them to have a bad day. They took it very well. I couldnt do it. He probably would have gotten under my skin. Once we got downtown, we realized it was actually First Friday. We walked around that for about 5 minutes, but then went over to the Fair Trade Cafe. They were hosting this weeks Black Pearl Poetry. This week was the Treetop Slam Competition. It was a regional competition to see who would go to nationals. Denver won the first bout, and the Tuscon group won the second. One of the girls on the Denver team is actually the World Champ in slam poetry. She'll be coming back in march and I'll be sure to be there. Tuscon was my favorite. Their poetry was funny and unique. Hopefully I'll be able to get to another one of their things.

Saturday I flew. I was so exhausted that evening that when I got home,I fell asleep before even turning my truck off. I woke up after about an hour and stumbled into the house and onto the couch and passed out for another couple hours.

Time to rest now.

Been a while

So I'm apparently horrible at keeping on top of this. Going to have to think of new methods.

I'm taking all online classes this semester. So far, I don't like it at all. Luckily, I have the guys in Pi Kapp to keep me sane. If I didn't have them, I don't know if I could do only online at all. There isn't any social interaction.

I intentionally skipped the introductory essay, just to see how my opinion is taken when my fellow classmates know nothing about me.

The reason for the online classes fell through recently. I was supposed to get a civilian job with the Army. I was told and believed it was a sure thing. Well, I was tricked by them again. Apparently although the facility commander and head crew chief want me there, HR says I'm unqualified.

Today I'm going job hunting. In fact, I came to the COMP COMM to use Microsoft Word and tweak my resume. After this, I'm off to some restaurants. Yay for the job hunt...

Christmas Song

In light of the Christmas season, I thought I’d share my favorite Christmas song. I posted it to my video page, along with the lyrics, here.

Christmas is by far my favorite season. Not only does it have both my birthday and Christmas, but it also harbors love between all peoples. I haven’t really felt it this year that much though. A lot of that is probably my own fault. I haven’t played much Christmas music nor do I have a Christmas tree. Maybe I’ll fix that next week. I get my bass back this week too, so maybe I’ll just play my own Christmas music.

Listen to the song. Especially the lyrics. It is amazing.

Degree Change

Because this weekend was so awesome, I was going to write about that. Sitting down to do it though, something else comes to mind. So, until I get the video of our choreographed dance, I’ll just leave it at this. It was one of the best weekends of the year.

I changed my major this morning. Not entirely sure how I feel about it though. It puts me on a much different course, but I think it may be better. So, my major yesterday was Mechanical Engineering. Today, it is Philosophy. I like the idea of both, but I don’t know whether or not I actually like both. Sitting around a hookah with 3 or 4 people discussing philosophy and life is one of my favorite pastimes. Will being a philosophy major detract from the ability to do that? If my companions are not, it may be too much of a difference in thought processes. If that makes sense. Still the idea of learning more about the philosophical points of life is intriguing.

Engineering fits as far as the mechanical aspect. I don’t know that it fits my goals career-wise. I want to be able to travel, I want to have a family, and I want to be happy. Money isn’t really an issue as long as I can support the family. I don’t know that I would have time or the ability to take my family elsewhere on that route.

As far as the military is concerned, it doesn’t matter what degree I have as long as I have a Bachelors. To become a pilot, I don’t even need one.

I should also note that with the philosophy degree, I’d be doing a concurrent major of Poly Sci and a minor in Chinese. That would give me the opportunity to work for any 3-letter-agency. So with the polysci/philosophy/Chinese route, I could do pilot, 3-letter-agency, or get a teachers certificate and go live on an island to teach. There’s always the option of a combination of the 3.

So anyway, I guess I’ll have to wait til after next semester to really say whether or not it will be a good choice. I will be loading up on political science classes and philosophy classes. That will be a better determining factor. I have a friend though that took the logic course that I am in now then took intro to philosophy. Talking with her today made me nervous. She liked the logic class, but very much disliked the philosophy class. Hopefully we think differently.

That’s about it for my ill-phrased argument. I know it’s more lopsided to the Philo/PoliSci degree, but that’s because that’s what’s been on my mind today.

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

Friendly or Friends?

After getting my morning cup of hot chocolate chai from Cupz, the coffee shop on University and College, I was thinking about writing a blog and how I would refer to the guy that I talk to every morning I go in there. I don't know his name, but we talk more and more as though we are friends. That led me back to an idea I've held onto for a while. What makes someone a friend, best friend, or just friendly?

A friend recently told me about the secret garden on campus. Ironically, there is a small sign on the ground with an arrow pointing inside that says, ‘Secret Garden’. It is such an escape from campus. This is my first time actually coming here to write, but it’s quiet. When I first got here, I was the only one. Since then, a few people have walked through, but there is only one other girl here on her computer. So for those of you who have not seen it, I took a few pictures.

This is what you see when you first walk in.

I’m sure you are dying to know how I define friends. Wait no longer.

Most people I know are in the friendly category. People I see at school, work, church, or coffee shop, are all friendly. Until we both make an effort to hang out outside of our usual place of contact, we will only be friendly. This is important simply because once people know you they are generally nice. It doesn’t mean though that they want to hang out with you in their free time. A friend would.

Being a friend is a two way street. Both people need to be willing to make time and hang out. If there is one person always asking to hang and the other always too busy, something is wrong. I have been on both sides of it, but it really works best when both are mutual friends.

I have 3 best friends. For me, I will do anything for my best friends. None of them live in Arizona, but if they needed me, I’d drop everything and go to either Utah or NC. Come to think of it, I think only one of them knows that. All are guys, which makes sense. In fact, if I move out of AZ, 2 of the 3 have offered and want me to live with them. I think it would be amazing, obviously. So really a best friend is someone you love.

What do ya’ll think? Do you hold your definitions differently? Do you care what you call people, whether it is friend, acquaintance, or best friend?