Filling Tires: A Learning Experience

     When I got back from my trip last week (that'll be a separate post) my dad reminded me to check my tire pressure. My front left tire has a leak in it, and needs filled up every so often. I haven't been home for a while, so I haven't had the opportunity to fill it up at home. I knew this day would come, but I had hoped to put it off indefinitely. I knelt down to check the pressure, and my knee went right in a puddle of mud. This should have told me that I was about to have a bad time. It didn't. I checked my tire, and it was low. Really low. Scarily low. I So, I hopped in the car and drove off to the gas station across the street from campus. I went inside to buy a red bull and get some quarters for the air pump machine thing.

     I came outside and it was raining. Hard. I had only been inside for a minute, but it was pouring. I should have seen this as an omen for the upcoming events, but I'm dumb and decided to proceed onward. I put my $1.50 in quarters into the machine, and it started making noise, so I connected it to my tire. The pump had a pressure gauge on it, so I periodically took a look at that to make sure I didn't inflate it too much. I noticed something odd though. Every time I looked, it showed less pressure.

     I'm no mechanic, but I had a hunch that something wasn't working. The pump was making sound, so it couldn't be that. I knew I had to act fast, because I had a limited amount of time. I took a quick look at the label to see how long I had. "CAR VACUUM. $1.50 FOR THREE MINUTES." Oh. That's probably the issue.

     Sure enough, I had definitely put money in the vacuum. Remember, it's pouring rain, and I am now soaked. I looked around hastily and found where to put money in for the pump. It needed $1.00 in quarters. I emptied my pockets and found $.50. I got lucky and found a quarter on the ground, so I only needed one more. I checked in my cupholder, where I keep all of my loose change. There was probably $50 in pennies and dimes, but not a single quarter. I checked under the seats. Not a single quarter. I checked under the pedals, not a single quarter. Finally, I looked in the side of my door. One single quarter.

     I put the money in the machine and filled my tire, and I went on my merry way. I learned a lot of things that day. I learned to read labels before putting money in things. I learned to keep better track of the change in my car. I learned to fill my tire with air. But most importantly, I learned that you WILL get a cold if you leave your jacket in your dorm and spend 30 minutes kneeling down in the rain.

Homework, Homework, Homework

     The title of this blog explains why I haven't written anything in a while. I have been bogged down with an incredible amount of work, and I've been spending my precious free time trying to catch up on sleep rather than write.

     Saturday, we celebrated my dad's birthday. He didn't know I would be joining the family. I thought it would be a nice surprise, so I told my mom that I would be coming to surprise him. Spent the day catching up with everybody (it was the first time I'd seen my extended family since I started school) and enjoying everyone's company. It was a nice day.

     Sunday, I had a pretty busy day. I had an appointment to get some touch ups on one of my tattoos, which was as fun as you can expect being stabbed with needles repeatedly is, and I had a job interview at Gamestop. I hadn't really had a job interview up until this point (McDonalds hired me over the phone after applying online) so I was pretty nervous. It actually went incredibly well. The manager that was interviewing me had tattoos all over both arms, and he noticed the saran wrap peeking out from under my sleeve (tried to hide it, failed) and that broke the ice right away. It was a pretty casual interview, and things went really well.

     And then I did homework. Pretty much nonstop from then until now.

     Wednesday morning I had my one on one conference session with my writing professor. I can't remember if I mentioned this, but he takes time out of class twice per semester to meet with each student individually and discuss their writing and how they have improved. It had been nearly three weeks since I'd seen him (felt like a lifetime) and I have never been really confident in my writing, so I wasn't exactly excited.

     He loved it. All of it. He said I have a knack for writing short but powerful pieces (clearly he's never seen my blog) and have a great understanding of the principles of grammar. The only grades from the class come from these conferences, so there was definitely some pressure, but he ended it telling me that my writing is at A+ level and to keep doing what I'm doing. He also told me to feel free to tailor the upcoming assignments to what I feel will be beneficial to my career, because he cares more about the students getting what they need out of his class than strictly following the syllabus and curriculum. He's awesome.

     Since I don't have any interesting stories or funny jokes, I'm going to end this one off with what I feel is one of the better pieces I've written for that class. We had to write a poem. I honestly don't know what inspired this one, it just sort of came naturally.

The binding agent of the soul

The light in total darkness

It provides a map when lost and damaged

It opens the door when there is no way out

 A rescuer of the captured

A hand extended for the fallen

When there is nothing left

It is all that remains

Hope.

Busy Week

     It's been a while since I had a chance to sit down and make a blog post, so here goes. Sorry for the delay, I've been keeping busy.

     Last Tuesday, I took a test to skip Elementary Programming. I know how to write code, so that course was completely unnecessary for me. The test was 90 minutes, so I was a bit nervous I wouldn't have time to finish it. Turns out, it was actually only 9 questions. I was done in 15 minutes. I got the results a couple of days later, and I passed.

     Had an exam in Criminal Justice on Wednesday. I absolutely love that class. I did decently well on the exam (93.06%). The professor used my name in one of the questions. I stole 700 fanny packs. I got a good kick out of that.

     Friday night was the first competition for the Cyberdefense team. I knew basically nothing. I spent most of Friday and part of Saturday looking over shoulders learning what people were doing. It seems like a great learning experience, but I don't think I'll be able to balance it, school, and a job, so I'm not going to be a part of the team this year. Might do it next year. We'll see.

     Went home on Sunday to pick some things up. I needed my Wii for a project (trust me. It's for school) and figured I'd pick up some games and my guitar. A friend of mine is teaching me to play guitar. Hopefully I'll be able to play soon.

      Monday I had a meeting with my advisor to discuss next semester. It was supposed to be 30 minutes, but we talked for well over an hour. We discussed a bunch of things: studying abroad, graduating early, getting my Master's, what classes I need to take over the summer. I've got a pretty good grasp on what I need to do to finish this all up as soon as possible. I'm going to be taking an extra class next semester and a few over the summers, and possibly some extras next year. I'm definitely graduating a year early.

Movie Day

     Another title for this could have been "The Big Assignment Due Tuesday and My Excuses For Not Doing It".

     For reasons completely unrelated to procrastination, I decided to make Sunday a movie day. I woke up at 3 in the afternoon, and made this decision completely unrelated to my upcoming project proposal. I ended up watching four movies and doing zero homeworks.

     I started of with the best movie of all time, Die Hard. Easily my favorite movie. I've probably seen it forty times or so. I make a point to watch it every few months, and every Christmas. This time was just as enjoyable as every other time. I considered watching it twice in a row, but I ended up moving on to something else.

     There was a Reddit thread a couple days ago about the best movies, and while my choice of Die Hard was quite popular, The Breakfast Club beat it out. I'd never actually seen that movie, but I had noticed it was recently made available for streaming on Netflix, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It was actually a lot better than I expected it to be. It's not quite Die Hard, but it was an enjoyable movie that I could see myself enjoying again.

     I watched Die Hard a second time. Deal with it.

     Up next was Hot Rod. It's a stupid movie with a premise similar to Napoleon Dynamite: awkward kids do things. Specifically, an awkward kid wants to jump his moped over fifteen busses. I watched this movie for the first time a few years ago simply because Andy Samberg is in it and he's a comedic genius, but I really like it. It's a really easy movie to watch, and the writing is just fantastic. It actually rivals Die Hard in my mind.

     I almost watched Die Hard again, but I saw School of Rock in my recommended viewings, and I had to end the night off with that. I hadn't seen that movie in years, so I didn't remember how good it is. I had fun.

     So I guess I'm spending this evening doing that homework.

School Activities

     Most of this week was pretty dry. The last two days were not.

     I went to Gamestop. Again. I've been to six different Gamestop locations since moving. I might have a problem. I grabbed my game, and while I was paying, I casually asked the employee if she knew if they had any positions open. I mentioned in an earlier post that I left my job back home, and I still haven't gotten a new one. I hit a stroke of luck! They are actually hiring a bunch of people. She gave me an application, and told me to come back in two weeks for open interviews. Wish me luck on that one, I've wanted to work at Gamestop since I was a kid.

     Yesterday, there was a meeting for the school's Cyber Defense Team. I had been really interested in this when I heard about it at orientation, so I stopped by. It seems like it'll be a blast, even though I don't really know anything that will be helpful (yet). They've got training sessions for new kids every Tuesday, which I will definitely be attending. There's also a competition next weekend that I'm going to go to. They said that, more often than not, the new kids end up being useful for these ones. I also spent some time on their IRC channel chatting with the members and getting to know them. Everyone seems super eager to teach the new kids. I'm very excited.

     Super Smash Bros is one of my favorite games. There's a new one coming out next month. I am VERY excited. Nintendo released a limited access demo yesterday. I didn't get it. They gave out four codes to everyone that did. I DID manage to get a code from a friend. Excited to finally get to play, I booted up my 3DS, only to find out that it doesn't work on the wifi network in my dorm. Some issue with the security settings. Not about to be defeated by this, I walked across campus to a different wifi network. At midnight. I sat on a bench alone in the dark for half an hour as this demo downloaded. Worth every second.

     I walked back to my building to play the game, but I noticed it was a really nice night out, and there were people playing volleyball outside, so I sat down on a bench outside my building across from the volleyball court and booted up the game. After about 15 minutes, a cop drove by down to the parking lot. He got out, and walked up to where I was. He stood there for a minute, looked around, and then approached me. Apparently, he had gotten a report about suspicious activity in this location. I explained what I was doing (there isn't any sort of curfew, and tons of people were out) and told him I hadn't seen anything since I'd sat down. I offered to go inside, but he told me it was fine for me to be out there. He went on his way, after watching me play a match of Smash. Guess he's a fan too. 

     I ended up going inside shortly after, because I didn't want to cause any more issues (if the call had been about me sitting on the bench. The world will never know). I ended up staying up until 5 playing. 

     Didn't wake up until 2 or so this afternoon. I had decided to clean my room this weekend, so I got on that. It actually looks really good now. I finally got my posters hung up, and my desk is cleared off. I vacuumed up the place and it looks really nice. 

     I collect a lot of video games. Sometimes this involves tracking down copies of rare games. It can be really difficult to find certain games, and it can be even harder to find them for a good price. I have a multipage word document of games I've been looking for. Since I'm a bit away from home, I figured it couldn't hurt to see if I could get any of them. Much to my surprise, one I had been looking for for over a year was at a Gamestop about fifteen minutes away. 

     Needless to say, I got lost. Very lost. I did end up finding it, but not after walking around for twenty minutes. What was supposed to be a quick pickup turned into an hour long journey. I'm glad I finally found a copy of that game though. 

    

Cleaning Day

     Dorm inspections are this week, and my room was a total mess. Naturally, I had to clean it. I didn't expect it to take four hours. I had five bags of trash to take out. Taking out five bags of trash is hard. I wasn't about to make two trips though, so I struggled all the way to the dumpster. It was worth it.

     My carpet needed vacuuming. Turns out, I'm really bad at vacuuming. I don't know how, but that alone took an hour and a half. I don't have a big room. I don't know where that time went.

     While I was vacuuming, I noticed dust collecting in the vents of my consoles. I didn't have a can of air with me, so I grabbed a friend and drove to the nearest Walmart. He had been wanting me to take him to the store because he doesn't have a car. He just needed to pick up some snacks. He grabbed a cart, and I followed while he walked around the store putting things in the cart. Of course, I also put $30 of food in the cart (to be fair, $15 of that was a 10-pack of my favorite flavor of Monster). We could not find the cans of air. We asked someone, and he directed us to the air horns. I didn't need an air horn. I needed a can of compressed air. I guess an air horn is technically a can of compressed air, but I needed a different kind of can of compressed air.

     We had to ask four workers, but we finally found it. At this point, I was done with Walmart, so we went to the self checkout to pay for our items and leave. I was unaware you had to be ID'd to purchase cans of compressed air. The checkout kept saying someone would be over to assist me. No workers were to be found. We waited for almost fifteen minutes before someone finally came.

     When I returned to my room, I noticed a ton more trash sitting out that I must have missed. It can wait until tomorrow.

Pocket Check

     I did laundry today for the first time. Nothing major happened. My clothes are still the same color and size as they were when I put them in the machines, so I'm counting it as a success. That is, until I returned to my room.

     I folded all of my clothes like a pro, and sat down to enjoy a nice cold IBC rootbeer and an hour of Minecraft. Within seconds, I was wearing the rootbeer. I was drenched. Nothing good happens on laundry day.

     When I locked myself out earlier in the year, I began checking my pockets every time I left any place. Wallet in back left pocket. Phone in front right pocket. Keys in front left pocket. It quickly became a ritual for me to do this check constantly. Today, I decided to go for a late night jog. It was around midnight, but I was bored and had nothing else to do. So I slipped on my running shorts and my sleeveless shirt and went. My running shorts didn't have a back pocket. Locked myself out again.

     For whatever reason, I grabbed my Playstation Vita instead of my phone. This left me unable to call anyone to let me in. I got a kind stranger to let me into the building and my hall, but I needed my own key (or a roommate's) to get me into my actual room. Luckily, the Vita has a facebook app. Unluckily, the app is garbage and barely works. After struggling with it for a while, I finally got a message through to my three roommates asking if anyone was around to let me in (yes, I did try knocking first). I waited and waited and finally got a reply. "I'm at Applebees, I'll be back soon." (I'm reminded of something my parents said about nothing good happening at Applebees.) I responded with gratitude and told him not to rush. I had my Vita, so I wasn't terribly bored. Until it died. Right away. 2 AM rolled around, and he arrived.

     And now I'm sitting here, waiting for 3 AM so I can get breakfast from McDonalds, because this incident left me very hungry.

Drunken McDonalds

     This week has been rather uneventful, so I haven't had anything worthwhile to blog about. I have begun getting grades back, and I've got 100's in every class so far, so there's an update on how school's been going.

     I am still absolutely in love with my writing class. My teacher is in the process of publishing a novel, and hearing him talk about it kind of makes me want to write one. I know it's something that I'd never end up sticking with, but it sounds really fun.

     Spent the majority of my free time this week playing video games with my friends. No one should be surprised about that.

     Wednesday was meat day. For dinner, there was brisket, ribs, and philly cheese steaks. I had a cheese steak, then decided I wanted some brisket. After that, I got ribs, and then another cheese steak. By the fourth plate, the server laughed when I said I wanted more. I didn't think I ate an unreasonable amount of food, but he probably did. (Side note: I've actually lost weight since moving down here.)

     Apparently some glass exploded in the Student Union today. I wasn't there, but my friend told me it just sort of shattered because of a combination of the hot sunlight and the AC. I really wish I could have been there so I could tell my grandkids of the time the stairs blew up in college.

     By far, the most interesting event of the week was my trip to McDonalds tonight. One of my roommates asked if I was hungry and wanted to go get food, and I went with him. We got to a McDonalds, went inside, waited for 15 minutes, and then someone came up and told us they were closed. She didn't seem happy that we were inside her store. The doors were unlocked and the lights were on, so I'm not sure how we were supposed to know they didn't open until 5. Also, it was 3 AM. I cannot understand why workers were there two hours before open.

     We were not going to be defeated quite so easily. We went to another McDonalds, and they were actually open. We placed our order and waited for the food. While we were waiting, a man came in, clearly very, very drunk. It seemed like he had something under his shirt, which my roommate also noticed, so we backed away. At this point, I didn't care about my food, I just didn't want to be involved in a robbery. Turns out, he was hiding his buddy's hat under there. Apparently there had been a fight at the Waffle House two buildings down and he took off with the hat. He we to great lengths to tell us about the fight he was in. Evidently, the cops arrived at one point, and he decided to lay face down in the rocks by the road. He claims he was laying there for an hour. I kinda believe him.

     After telling us his story, he asked us if we could drive him across town. We said no. He begged. We said no. He asked if we could just drop him off at the exit and he would jump out of the car while it was moving. We once again said no. He was beginning to get angry, and I was beginning to become a frightened. My roommate told him that we actually snuck out after curfew and had to get back before our RA figured out we were missing. He seemed to believe that, and left. Only then was our food ready. We went to our car, keeping an eye out for the strange man, and drove back discussing the events we had just witnessed.

Busy Week

     I apologize to all of my loyal readers for how long it's been since I've made a post. I know that this blog is brilliant and probably the highlight of your day, but I've been very busy. Turns out there are things to do at college. Wish someone would have told me.

     When I wasn't in class or doing homework this week, I was either hanging out with friends or playing tag with the IT department. I had expected my chat with them to fix my issue. It did not. Nor did the next chat. Or the one after that. I finally gave up and called them, and the line was busy. They called me back while I was in class. This went on for pretty much the whole week, until I finally got ahold of them. I am very excited to say my problem was resolved, and I have wired internet in my room. About time.

     I have spent most of my downtime in my friend Tristan's apartment. It's got tons of space for a few of us to hang out and play games or watch TV or whatever we want to do. No one else seems to share my passion for watching poker and boxing.

     My roommates were going to the midnight launch event for Madden 15, so I tagged along with them. The clerk was pretty confused when I asked to buy a game other than Madden. Apparently when they have a midnight launch event for a certain game, they expect people to buy that game. Regardless, they sold me the other game anyway. I was a very happy nerd.

     I got my first college grade. It was a 100%. I was happy. The assignment was a lesson in following instructions and creative problem solving. My instructor was amused by how I managed to turn it into a lesson in doing as little work as possible. My one paragraph load of crap well thought out explanation for how I completed the task was convincing though, so I completed the assignment correctly, and received full credit.

     I worked my last weekend at McDonalds. I'd been there for about a year and a half, and it had been a great first job. It wasn't the most enjoyable work, but it was a great place to work and I'd grown close to a lot of people there. I'm very excited to move on to new opportunities, but it still sucked saying goodbye. I'll miss that place. I didn't think I would, but I will.

     And now I'm writing this blog at 1 AM waiting for a playstation conference to start so I can watch it and be a nerd. I'll try to update this thing on a more frequent basis this week if I can.

The Year Long Slumber

     I had a pretty busy weekend, so when I got back on campus (after driving around lost for half an hour) and taking care of some stuff, I decided to take a nap. It was about 5 pm at this point. I woke up this morning at 5:45ish. I guess I needed sleep.

     I had purchased a dozen chocolate donuts. I was going to eat some for breakfast this morning. I was really excited about these donuts. Apparently I was more excited for these than I thought, because I woke up and they were gone. All of them. Also a lunchable and three twinkies. I'm a little bit sad that I didn't get to enjoy these snacks consciously, but I'm pretty impressed with how much I managed to eat in my sleep. Especially because it was all in a plastic tub under my bed.

     My dream was really uncomfortable. I went to Red Lobster and was looking at the lobster tank while I waited for my table, and fell in love with a lobster named Mary Sue. We got married. We bought a house in China. We adopted seven kids.

     I had sushi for lunch again today. I found out that there's a box of sushi that is cheap enough for me to get free every day. I will very likely get this box of sushi every day. It's not even great sushi. But it's free. I like free.

     I have to wait until 10:30 for the sushi place to open. JUS101 starts at 11. This gives me 30 minutes to inhale the box of sushi and hike across campus and up five flights of stairs. I decided to take it slow today. I made a mistake, because someone had arrived early and taken my seat. Joke's on some other loser, because I took his seat. Show up to class early, dingbat.

     Speaking of JUS101, the professor learned my name. I don't know why my name was one of the first ones she learned, but I do know that I am going to get called on every time she needs a volunteer now.

     It's been over a week. My wired internet is still not on. I am becoming more than a little bit frustrated. Running out of options, I googled around a bit to see if others have had any problems with it and found a live chat with the IT department. They couldn't escape me any longer. They guy on the other side said they'd been swamped with requests, but he put in another ticket and marked it as a priority, so it should be up tomorrow. He also gave me a number to call if it isn't. I'm going to get it one way or another.

     There was chicken fried steak for dinner tonight, and I ate four. That is all.

The End of A McEra

     On Fridays, I get out of classes at noon, so I had initially planned to drive home every weekend and work. I realized pretty quickly after moving in that that was a horrible plan. Nevertheless, I was committed, so I got in my car and drove. I had discussed the way to get home without getting lost with my parents when I went home for lunch on Wednesday, so I felt pretty confident in not using my GPS this time. I got lost. Less lost, but lost.

     Made it home safely though, and that's really all that matters. I relaxed for a little bit, and got dressed for work. I went in and immediately put in my two week notice. It was a bittersweet feeling. Working down closer to school will be a much more convenient way of living, and there are tons of new opportunities. Besides, it's always good to shake things up. On the other hand, I really kinda liked that job. It wasn't great, but people were nice and the hours were flexible, and I was really good at it. I've been at McDonalds for 15 months now, 14 months longer than I had intended to work when I first applied, and it was a great experience.

     I realized when I got home that I left my phone charger in my room back at school. I went over my room three times because I had this aching feeling that I had forgotten something, but each time I didn't find anything that I would need at home.

Groceries 101 - An Intro To Shopping For One

     Classes went as planned, Won't be writing much about those unless something unusual or interesting happens, because it's boring to write about, and I can't imagine it's any better to read about.

     However, after my Principles of Informatics (INF128) class let out, the professor invited us all to go grab some lunch. I went. No one else did. It was neat interacting with him in a less formal setting. I like that about college. It's easy to get to know the professors.

     After my last class let out, I decided to run to the Kroger right off campus for an umbrella. It had been raining all day, and a friend of mine told me umbrellas cost $20 on campus, so I decided not to buy that. Scott and I hopped in my car and drove right down the road. I figured I'd get some food while I was there, because I had done a good job of eating through everything I brought. I grabbed a cart, and decided to make a lap around the store and pick up whatever sounded good. I found Jones soda, so I bought some Green Apple and some Creme. I found Hostess products, so I bought some Twinkies. Found chips, so I bought some. Found Lunchables, threw a few in the cart. Donuts, same as above. Day old canoli's from the bakery? Into the cart! Headed to checkout, got a Kroger card, and put all of my stuff in the car and drove home.

     Went to dinner with a group of friends, some from high school, some new, and ate an absurd amount of loaded nachos. And buffalo chicken sandwiches. And cherry pie. And a lot of other food. Seriously, I had 5 plates by the time I was done.

     Went back to my new friend Tristan's apartment with the guys (I want an apartment next year) and watched some Netflix for a while. We ended up watching a lot of really stupid youtube videos, but it was a great time. Got a text from my mom asking if I got the umbrella. Oops.

     I headed back to my room, did homework and played video games and all of the other boring stuff I'd been doing. Talked to a friend who's a senior in high school over Facebook (I'm really starting to appreciate Facebook now that I don't see everyone I know for 8 hours a day 5 days a week). He'd been thinking about NKU, so I gave him my two cents.

     Sat down to write this blog and got a knock on my door. The guys in my dorm that use the other bathroom (there's four of us and two bathrooms) had somehow managed to break their toilet, and the maintenance guy wanted to borrow my plunger (I was the only one that brought one). Figured this was a perfect time to ask about that maintenance ticket I put in 5 days ago for my wired internet. As I expected, it wasn't his department, and actually has to shuffle through three departments before reaching anyone that can take care of my problem. Apparently IT has been swamped and is still working through tickets from before I moved in, but it should be up soon. As long as it is up before next Tuesday, I'll be satisfied. I have more digital games that I preordered (That's a total of 6 since I moved in) and I would really like to play them.

     Two people on campus told me they've read my blog. As of now, I have 400 views on it. That's 400 more than I had planned on. I am considering selling the rights to make a movie based on it.

Homeward Bound

     I love my writing class. It is, without a doubt, the most positive environment I've ever seen. I actually volunteered to read my writing in class, something I never did in high school. Ever. The professor is incredibly encouraging and I will definitely do well in that class.

     Criminal Justice is interesting, but the class is going to be a piece of cake. 

     Speaking of CJ, my book finally was delivered. To my house, not my dorm. So I needed to go get it. I'd never made the drive home before. I knew the general idea of how to get home, but I had never done it before. I turned my GPS on just to be safe. It did not take me where I thought I was going. I got very lost. I also got stopped by a train. The train took 16 minutes. I counted. It wasn't a fun drive home. Went to lunch with my mom, picked up my book (and my copy of season 1 of Smallville that was in at the library) and drove back to school.

     Built a computer in my crappy CIT course. It was a trainwreck. They didn't have enough screws, and they gave us a bunch of incompatible parts. We had to go back to the cabinets and get parts a dozen times. We got done an hour early though, so we got to leave.

     Nothing really happened the rest of the night, I hung out with friends and ate food and stuff. I noticed while writing this that I was referring to campus as home, so I guess I'm a college student now. 

Second First Day Of Class

     Didn't have my first class until 11 today. Had a very vivid dream of the noise from the trash pickup the night before, so I woke up at 7 anyway. Hope that doesn't become a recurring thing. Got breakfast (biscuits and gravy every morning. Here's to gaining 50 pounds) and headed to my first class, Principles of Informatics. It's a very large lecture with over 100 people and 4 professors. Looks like that one will have the most homework of the five, but it still really doesn't have too much. It was mostly going over the syllabus, so I don't have an opinion of this one then.

     Met a friend from high school for lunch. There's sushi on campus. Really good sushi. I ate a lot of really good sushi. I had a two hour lunch break, but he only had one hour, so he headed off to class and I went for a jog. We agreed to meet up after classes were over to hang out.

     Media Fandoms and Transformative Works. Sounds like the stupidest class ever. It is, but I like it. It sounds like we're going to cover a lot of interesting topics, and I am pretty excited for it. We went over the syllabus and got let out 45 minutes early. I'm beginning to like the teachers that finish what they need to finish and then let us go. Wastes less time.

     Since I got out early, I had 45 minutes left to wait for Scott to get out of class. I decided to watch poker, but Fox Sports South was only showing reruns. Who wants to watch reruns of poker? You already know who's going to win. I watched 45 minutes of reruns of poker.

     Scott got to my room and we headed out to Gamestop, because I had a coupon that was only good this week. The coupon was buy 2 get 1 free. I had a very specific set of three games I wanted to get. Gamestop had two. I asked the man at the counter if he had the other one in the back, and he gave me the BEST service of my life. He told me they didn't, but a store 15 minutes away did. The other store didn't have the two games I wanted that this store did. He got a rep from the other store on the phone, and they worked out a deal where I bought those two, and returned them at the other store, only to repurchase them and use the coupon. Seriously incredible service. Also, the guy at the other store had a pin on his lanyard of one of my tattoos and gave it to me. That was cool.

     We got back and Scott's friend Tristan wanted to get dinner, so we got dinner. Then we headed back to my room to play games. Four hours later, Scott went home, and I fell asleep writing this blog, which is why it's being posted in the morning. Oops.

First Day of Class

     I opened my window again last night because my room is still way hotter than the others in the suite. We agreed that I'll be a little bit hot in the summer and they'll be a little bit cold in the winter. This deal seemed fair enough, I have a fan and a window that opens.

     I awoke to a loud banging and assumed the purge was happening and someone was dying outside. I've been hearing about that happening, and that was immediately where my mind went with the incredibly loud noises. Turns out that trash gets picked up on Monday mornings, and the dumpsters are right below my window. I had planned to get up around half an hour after this nonsense, so I just went with it and watched some boxing until I had to get ready to leave.

     Fair warning, the next few paragraphs will be pretty lengthy. This won't be a normal thing, but I have a lot of thoughts to put down about these three classes.

     I decided to skip breakfast since I was still full from my 6 reasonable number of McDonald's cheeseburgers. Got walking to my first class, Honor's Writing, and found it without any trouble. The class actually went well. It's a small group setting, and mostly discussion based. The professor is an older man with 12 published books and over 200 published articles. He introduced himself by his first name and told us titles are just formalities. He emphasized how he cared just as much about us enjoying his class as he cared about us learning, and how his class was more about learning to effectively communicate than anything else. He is, without a doubt, the most positive and encouraging person I have ever met. He went around the room, asked where we were from and what our major is, and spoke a bit about all of the great things going on in the field of that major. We were given a book of paintings and told to "just write about whatever one of these paintings makes you think about." The instructions were vague, but I found a painting (this one, to be exact) that made me think about the imprint people leave on the world, and wrote about what I want mine to be. He gave us three minutes to think and write, and then randomly chose a few people to read their answer. He went on and on about how wonderful all of these answer were, and pointed out a ton of things he liked from them. He told us he left the prompt vague intentionally, because interpretation is key in communication, and he will continue to do this with every assignment. He fully expects everyone to interpret assignments differently, and wants us to just go with out gut. He told us we will never interpret anything in his class incorrectly, just differently than others. Class ended with him telling us he will finish teaching one week before finals, because when he was in college he hated all of the cramming, and him leaving us with a quest to complete before next class ("homework" and "assignments" sound so negative, and "quest" better describes the growth he wants us to experience through his class). I like him. I like his class. I've always hated writing, but I'm looking forward to this class.

     As class ended, I got a text from a member of my orientation group asking if I wanted to hang out. I needed to print off the syllabus for my next class, so I told him to meet me at the library. It was cool catching up with him and looking through the syllabi for our various classes. The syllabus was 15 pages and cost me 12 cents to print. I get $1.20 of free prints every semester. Thank you, professor, for blowing a tenth of my printing money on the first day.

     My friend had just purchased an outrageously priced water bottle, so we went looking for a water fountain. Finding a water fountain was a lot harder than I had anticipated it being. We found one, though, and headed off to our next class.

     My next class, Criminal Justice 101, was a lecture. There was probably 80 people in there, and we ran out of seats so a few people had to sit in the aisle. The teacher was a young woman, and I liked her immediately. She referenced The Office on the first slide of her presentation, so she instantly became my favorite person on campus. She continued to throw out references throughout the rest of the class. Her class is structured so that we have three tests, seven quizzes, and a presentation. She told us that the class before tests and quizzes, we will be given all of the material that will be on the assessment, and she will spend the entire class answering any questions. According to her, as long as we show up to class, it will be hard not to get an A. Great to hear. The class material seems interesting enough, a unit on policing, a unit on courts, and a unit on corrections. She let class go twenty minutes early, because she isn't here to waste any of our time with busywork. I REALLY like her. That class will be fun.

     I have three hours off after JUS101, and not much to do. I decided to go grab some lunch, and ran into some other guys from my orientation group. I learned that the dining hall always has sausage pizza, and it has red pepper flakes to put on it. I love sausage pizza with red pepper flakes. I grabbed two slices of pizza, and a spoonful of pepper to sprinkle on it. I learned today that if you grab a spoonful of pepper, no matter how hard you try to just sprinkle a little bit, a spoonful of pepper will be on your pizza. I still ate it. It was still good.

     I was going to go to the gym, but I had an email saying a water main had burst and it was closed indefinitely. I just jogged around campus instead. This was my third or fourth jog so far, and I pass a lot of the same people while I'm out. Some of them are nice and greet me. One group of people has taken to calling me Green Bay, because I'm wearing a Green Bay Packers hat. I guess I can live with that.

     Came back to my room and showered up after my jog. I still had a while until my next class, so I watched boxing. I've never watched boxing before moving down here, but I'm beginning to really enjoy it. It makes me want to learn to box. I also don't want to get hit. It makes me want to learn to box someone who will stand still and not hit back.

     My last class of the day was IT Fundamentals. I assumed this would be my favorite class. It's the only one today that related to my major. It sucked. The information covered in the course is very basic, and it was a 2 hours of learning the parts of a computer. We're building a computer on Wednesday though, so that should be fun. Looking at the syllabus for this class, I won't learn much that I don't already know, but it'll be an easy A. Almost all of the grade comes from labwork like building the computer.

     Went back to my room and watched poker for two hours. I had no idea how much fun it is to watch poker, but I got really absorbed in it. Poker ended and MMA was coming up next, so I decided to run and grab dinner before that started. Got a burger and managed to not screw it up.

     So, yeah. That was my day. Sorry again for how long this was, I'll try and keep them shorter when the new-ness wears off. I did also learn today that we cannot put screens in our windows, so I'm accepting bets for how long it takes me to fall out of my third story window.

Waffle House and Other Short Stories

     I did decide to go to Waffle House last night. It was around 2 AM before I got out there. No one else was awake, so I went by myself. Ate too much food. Had great service. Waffle House was a really popular place at 2 AM. It's kind of out of the way (gotta get on the highway to get there. And everywhere.) so I figured most students would go somewhere closer. Nope. I got the last open spot at the counter.

     Made it home from Waffle House a little after 2:30 and decided to go to bed. Laid tossing and turning for a while, wondering why I couldn't sleep. Figured it was probably nerves or something. After all, college is a big change. Then I remembered I drank 4 cups of coffee at Waffle House. That was probably it.

     

     Even when it's 3 AM when you go to bed, it's completely possible to wake up at 7. Without an alarm clock or anything. I didn't know this before, but I do now. Woke up to rain, which was awesome because I never did get that window shut. Struggled for a while with it, and I finally got it to shut. The only fitting end to my struggle with the window would be for the rain to end just as I got it shut. That's exactly what happened. I'm not amused by this window. It's my rival.

     I got cleaned up and walked to the dining hall for some breakfast.  Hopped in line and got an omelette with the works. It was amazing. Something finally went exactly how I wanted it to go.

     Went back to my room, played some video games, watched some Netflix.Asked the front desk about wired internet, they said I have to contact IT. Instead of giving me a URL or a phone number, they gave me some keywords to google to find out where to go. Top notch IT. My wired internet will be activated in 2 to 28 days. Hopefully sooner rather than later, I would really like that.

     Almost forgot about convocation this afternoon. Almost. I made it to the spot we were supposed to meet up at just in time. This was the point in time where I realized that "mandatory" mean different things in high school and college. No one told me that. I probably wouldn't have learned if even one other person from my group came to the "mandatory" convocation. Nothing blogworthy happened at convocation.

     After convocation, there was a tailgating party for the soccer game against UK. I'm not an athlete. Everyone that knows me knows that. Not even a little bit. I grabbed a can of Pepsi (this school serves Pepsi instead of Coke. I'm considering a transfer.) and headed for the door. As I was walking back with a few other like-minded individuals, an interesting vehicle drove by. One of the people I was walking with noticed me watching it drive by, and explained that it's for an engineering competition where teams across the country build and compete dune buggy-esque vehicles. I don't really want to participate, but I DO want to drive that thing. 

     I continued talking to the gentleman and found out he actually works at the Baptist Ministry building on campus. I had met with some students from this organization during my orientation. I was interested in learning more, so I asked him when the next event was. I expected him to just tell me when to stop by, but instead he opened up the building and showed me around. He was especially proud of the new arcade machine they recently obtained. It was built by the father of one of the girls, and it holds 300 games. We played Contra for a while (I played Contra for a while. He ran out of lives on level 1) and talked about old video games the different things the Baptist Student Ministries (hereby referred to as BSM) does. I told him I'd be back on Tuesday, the next time they meet that I don't have class, and I went back to my room.

     I finally remembered to put in the support ticket for wired internet. 2 to 28 days. Hopefully by Tuesday. I preordered some digital games that I have to download. They come out Tuesday. At least I can play my Playstation Vita. I sat down to do that before dinner, and the next time I looked up, the dining hall was closed. It normally closes at 10. It closed at 8 today. I forgot about that. 

     Since I missed dinner, I decided to go out. After all, I eat a lot. I wasn't about to skip a meal. Sent a facebook message out to some of my fellow CS majors asking if anyone wanted to get wings around 11, and one guy said yes. Everyone else was going to bed before that. Something about classes starting in the morning. Who knows?

     10 rolls around. Facebook message pops up. He wanted to go to sleep too. Said what everyone else did, classes tomorrow. No idea what they're talking about. I still needed food, and I remembered a McDonalds next to Waffle House, so I headed there. As would be expected based on the last two days, my order was wrong.The parts of the sandwiches were also assembled in the wrong order, but no one other than me would ever know that. Ever. I saw they were hiring, so I talked to the manager, and they do need more kitchen help. Hadn't really planned on leaving my job, but it's definitely something to consider.

     Came back and everyone was playing NBA 2k14 in one of my roommate's bedroom. I brought a chair in and played. I mentioned earlier I'm not an athlete. This extends into virtual sports. I lost 60 to 111. The rest of my roommates moved in earlier in the week, so they'd gotten to know everybody, so the conversation was basically me introducing myself. They were a bit blown away by the amount of games I own (I swear it's normal). We had some decent conversation and agreed to meet up for breakfast in the morning before classes start. 

     All around, today went a lot better than yesterday did, not that yesterday was bad. I have learned a lot already, and while none of it is related to my major, most of it is probably much more valuable knowledge. I think I'm going to like it here.

Move In Day

    I just moved in. First thing to on the agenda was to open the window, because my roommates have it way too hot in here, and one thermostat controls all four rooms. The window was stuck. I fought it and won. Can't get it to close now. Leaving it open for the rest of the year. 

     Obviously, the next thing that needed done was setting up my game consoles. My PS3's wifi is broken, so I need to connect to the internet via a cable. The cable on the opposite side of the room, under my bed. Awesome. Managed to run the cable around the edge of the room, behind my chair, fridge, and dresser, and it just barely reached my PS3. The PS4 was set up with no obstacles. 

     I decided to watch some TV, so I flipped through the channel. Four channels had golf, six had soccer. Three disney channels, four other kids channels. Five news channels, two weather channels. The TV guide, ESPN, and Fox. A few channels showing some crappy movies from decades ago. Three more Fox Sports channels. I am not going to enjoy TV here. Settled on watching boxing on one of the Fox Sports channels. 

     Around this point, one of my roommates decided he was too hot, and instead of battling his window, he just walked into the common area and turned the AC up. I'll never know why I didn't think of that, but my window still won't come down, so I'm living like this from now on. 

     After all of this, I decided to relax with some Call of Duty on my PS3. The wired internet wouldn't connect. Tried connecting it to my PS4. Still no luck. Tried both ports on the wall. Nothing. Sent a facebook message to my friends on campus in STEM majors asking if they were having similar problems.

     I had ordered my textbooks to be shipped to my house. Some were, some were still listed as on hold. I went to the bookstore to ask about them. "Oh we shipped them today." A trip home is in my future.

     Since I was already at the bookstore, I decided to walk a lap around campus. It's bigger than I remembered. I am out of shape. It was a long walk. Campus is really pretty though. Took some time to walk around the lake. Got a reply to my facebook cry for help, saying "You have to go to the front desk and request them to turn it on." Feeling like an idiot for not trying that, I decided to head back to my room.

     Which way was my room? Another lap around campus it is!

     No one was at the front desk. Looked around, and no one was to be found. Decided I'd just wait until later, and go take a shower for now. Those two laps around campus really wore me out. Walked to the elevator, passed a vending machine that sells energy drinks, went to buy one, realized I didn't have any singles on me, and returned to the elevator. Got up to my room, pulled my wallet out of my pocket to grab my ID to swipe myself into my room, had a very vivid image of me leaving my ID on my desk. In my room. 

     I was lucky one of my roommates was in the room (with his girlfriend WOAH) to let me in. I headed to my room quickly, hoping I didn't interrupt anything. Grabbed a change of clothes and headed to my bathroom, only to be disappointed yet again by campus life. The shower head is just about my height. I'm not a tall man. Why isn't it higher up? Also, the kid who I share a bathroom with (not the one now locked in his room with his girlfriend) put the shower curtain up when he moved in earlier this week, and it is also about my height. I'm not a tall man. Why is the shower curtain not higher up? 

     The water seems to be either ice cold or pumped straight from a volcano, with no apparent in between. That was possibly the most uncomfortable shower of my life. On the bright side, it won't be for long, because I get to repeat that uncomfortable shower for the next year. 

     Sat down and played some video games for a while. Nothing eventful happened until I had a pizza party/welcome to STEM meeting. Saw a couple people from high school, and a couple from freshman orientation. Ate some crappy pizza. Then they had a scavenger hunt. Teamed up with the guys from high school, found a few of the items, and then got bored and went back to our rooms to play more video games. 

     There was a mandatory meeting with the RA this evening. I went to buy a Rockstar from a vending machine (having newly acquired singles) and realized while I was buying it that I didn't know where the meeting was. Asked the front desk, and they kindly pointed me to the meeting. I arrived on time and was a little confused. None of the people living in my hall were there. Asked the RA that was giving the meeting, and I was on the wrong side of the building. So I walked across the building. Meeting was waiting on me. Great.

     Came back from the meeting and that roommate from earlier had a different girl with him. Just thought that would be fun to know.

     Some sort of ruckus was happening on the soccer field when I got back. A couple of people were playing instruments and singing. This wouldn't have bothered me, if the soccer field wasn't right outside of my window that I still haven't gotten closed. The music was not good. One band played a song that seemed to be a loop of "I'm going to kill you" in a really melodious tone. Struggled with the window for a while, gave up. 

     Helped my roommate hook his TV up to the cable. He couldn't figure out how to use the cables. You plug cables in. You're an adult. You should know this. Said the guy who can't close a window.

     A whole lot of nothing happened, so I decided to go for a late night walk. Came back, and he had both girls with him this time. He's been on campus for two days. Dude moves quick.

     Me and my roommates were going to go to Applebees, but everyone lost track of time and it's 1 AM now. They're all going to bed. I just drank a red bull. I'm hungry. All of the restaurants on campus are closed. There's a Waffle House about 10 minutes from here. Probably going to go to Waffle House.

     Wow, this post was long. Most of them won't be like this. It was just a very eventful day.