School Begins and my Birthday!

Well, school started this past Monday! Don't get me wrong, I'm not excited or anything. This semester, I'm taking Engineering Chemistry, Calculus 2, Cultural Anthropology, Beginning Swimming for my Kinesiology class, and Symphonic Band. Mondays and Wednesdays are my hardest days. I have Calculus at 9:10am until 10:00am then I have an hour and a half to eat or work an hour, which my supervisor has basically forced me into as of today. After that, I have 3 classes in a row. All three are on separate sides of the campus. I have 20 minuts to go from the Band Hall on soutside to the Rec Center on westside, then I have 20 min. to get from the Rec Center to Heldenfelds for Chemistry which is kinda southcenter campus. That and having to lug 15+ lbs. of books and lugging my sack of swimming clothes for my swimming class makes for antaxing and tedious trip.

This past Tuesday was especially hectic. I failed to register at Blinn Community College on time, so I had to physically go over there. Before I continue, I need to clarify why I'm taking a class over there. Recently, Texas A&M has implemented a flat tuition rate for students taking between 12 and 15 hours a semester. If you take 12 hours, you get charged the same amount for tuition as someone taking 15 hours. It's supposed to be a plan to "help" students graduate on time. It's more like a plan to bull crap and scam students. I guess I shouldn't be suprised A&M did something stupid like this, after all they increased tuition again in addition to the flat tution rate and increased all the other fees too. I'll get off my soapbox now. The reason I'm taking a class over at Blinn is so I can get under the tuition cap.

So I went over to Blinn Tuesday to get help picking a class that I needed and would also for sure transfer over to Texas A&M. To do this, I had to meet with an advisor which became a major ordeal. I got there just in time to be told the morning session was closed and I would have to come back in the afternoon and take a number. So I did and ended up waiting a whole hour to see someone. Finally did, figured out what I was gonna take, and went into the computer lab to register. Well, lo and behold, the server was so busy it wouldn't let me register. By this time, I had about 40 minutes before registration closed, so I had to go find the place to register in person. I found it in time, so I was able to register in time but not for the class I wanted. Thankfully, the class started later that afternoon, so I didn't miss anything.

With that finally done, I returned and continued my day. It's been nice the last couple of days because most of the profs that give homework have given it optionally, so I've not had as much pressure trying to get it done by a deadline. Any assigned work isn't due until next week, so I've been able to just do practice problems and read to prepare for the actual assignments. It hasn't been an all bad start. Just really really busy.

In other news, today is my birthday!!! As of 6:26pm August 31, I am no longer a teenager! To be honest, I feel no different. But as Lydge said, it takes a whole year to get used to being a year older.:D I've nothing planned in particular since today was Wed. I'll prolly do something Fri. night. Don't know exactly what, but we'll see.

Hope all is well with ya'll and hope you're glad to be back at school....because I sure ain't!:D

Something That Needs to be Said....

I just looked at one of my friend's blogs and something she said really has put something on my heart to tell. God has been so good to me and sometimes I wonder why I forget it. I suppose it's because of my carnal mind. So many times when things are going well, I fail to give him thanks. It's those times when things get tough that I remember him. It's rather strange that to he that is my best and most dependent friend, I go to when I need help and fail to talk to him or thank him when things are going well. It's a fault that I've had ever since he came into my life.

It was in high school that I endured one of the hardest trials I've ever experienced. Now that I look back, I realize what a state I was in before that trial began. I was very haughty and all I wanted to do is please my peers; I wanted to be popular. That was what I put my stock in, not Christ, not the church, but man. At the time it was very difficult for me, but now I know why he did it. He took away that very thing that I cherished and coveted above all else. He took those friends away, those in school that I strove to please, those that I tried to be like. It was the exact opposite of what I should have done. I should have strove to please the Lord and strove to be more like Him!

When he took them away, I realized I was all alone. My friends deserted me and all that I put my stock in came crashing down. The very friends I had claimed to be my best threatened to kill me and constantly attacked me verbally. You see, when you put your stock in man and things of this world, you are going to lose! If you were buying stock, would you buy stocks in something you knew that wasn't going to last? Would you buy stock in a record company or would you buy stock in gas? Would you put your trust and all that you hold dear in this world when you know it's not going to last? Well my friends, that's what I did and you know what? That's exactly what He took away. He took it away to show me that I could not stand on earthly things that shall pass away.

Throughout the trial, he slowly began to show me where to place my trust and showed me someone who would never leave me or forsake me, someone who loved me so much that he stooped low enough to come to earth and die for my sins. Now why would he do that? I don't know! What did I do to deserve such love?

It was a tough lesson to learn, but looking back I know it was for the best. I was all alone. I had nobody, but through the darkness of so great a trial, I saw the Lord. He came to me with open arms and showed me the greatest love that can be bestowed upon a man. He wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'll never throw things at you, I'll never spit at you, I'll never threaten to kill you. When the whole world turns against you and no one is there to comfort you, I will be there."

It is truly this kind of love that is beyond comprehension. I got to experience firsthand the love of God. After that ordeal, I could truly sing with feeling and understanding:

The love of God is greater far than tongue nor pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair bowed down with care, God gave his son to win;
His erring child he reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the oceans fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure, the saints' and angels' song.

It's Finally Friday!!

Well, folks! It's finally Friday! After a long, hard, tough week it's now time to relax and have a little fun before school starts Monday!:-P I haven't quite yet decided what I wanna do tonight. I've asked someone out to supper, but I've gotten no response yet. I'm also toying with the idea of going to see the new movie Red Eye with her. I've heard it's really good. If I don't end up doing either of those, I may go over to a friend's house for a end of the summer party. Those are my choices. Any suggestions?

Busy Week!

This week so far has been the busiest in quite a while! Monday, I had to work until 7pm then I had to move out of the attic room I was in into the same dorm on campus that I was in last year. Work was rough because the dorms just opened so people are moving in. On Tuesday alone, 12,310 students moved into their dorms. Every single student has to come to the SCC to activate their accounts if they are new students. If they are returning students, they have to reset their password to login to the computers. I've been doing that all week. Anyways, after a day of that, I had to move into my dorm. I got help with the big stuff, but after that, I was on my own. It took me from 8pm to about 11pm to get done. I was so tired, I could hardly walk! I hadn't eaten either, so I parked the car and walked to Dominoes on Northgate, got some cheesey bread and hot wings and walked back to the dorm.

I slept until about 12pm and started unpacking while Texas A&M did their little virus scan and registration on my computer before I could get internet access.:-P This took more than an hour and then it was time to got to work again. I got to work and there was a constant flow of traffic from the time I got there about 2pm to around 5:30pm. We closed at 7pm, and I was able to relax a while in the dorm. After a while, my roomate and I went to one of his friend's dorm room to play Halo 2. I played every single person and won every time.:D I guess I'm getting a little better now!

Today, I slept until 1pm because I was up until 4:30am. I ate some Chick-fil-a and watched some Red Skelton shows. Then it was off to work again. For some reason, it's not quite as busy now. It may be the fact that the server crashed for about an hour. By the time it was fixed, a good portion of the crowd had left. So now I am awaiting 7pm so I can leave!

Hope ya'll are doing well and for those of you who have started school already, hope everything is going smoothly!

Birthday

Well, it's about that time again! Time to get another year older. I decided to go up to West Texas to see my folks and visit some friends this past weekend because I didn't have to work. I drove all the way up there and we ended up having a sort of birthday party for me! I dragged out my smoker/cooker from the garage and mesquite-smoked us some burgers with my special blend of spices and seasoning. It was great! I got some Dr Pepper, a few movies, and some money for presents!

The cake was really good! It was made with Cool-Whip icing!:D There was smoke all over the place from the candles! It sure was good and I had a great time! My thanks to my parents for putting up with me all these years and thanks to my siblings for the same thing!:D

The Meeting, The Move, and The Toilet Seat!

I returned from the Oak Hill meeting in Austin, TX (It was awesome by the way!) this past Monday. As a quick note before I move on, a Southern Baptist minister visited Sunday morning during the meeting and his children did not want to leave!! They loved the way we sing acapella. The Southern Baptist preacher was really moved by the singing we did during church and after church. Everyone had a great time!

After the meeting, I returned Monday afternoon only to have to immediately begin packing up to move out of the condo (fourth picture you see below). The initial packing didn't take too long because half of it was never unpacked in the first place. I just got what I needed whenever. I moved all my stuff into the living room because i had to vacuum.:-/ So, I vacuumed and was informed by my "Old Lady" that I had to clean the bathroom sink and the kitchen floor. So I got my paper towels and some lemon smelly stuff and had at it. I don't know if things got all that clean, but it sure smelled perty.:D

So I got everything "cleaned" and gathered up all my stuff into the living room. Then I loaded up the car with my first load and headed to my temporary residence. All the while, a nasty-looking supercell was heading for College Station, so by the time I got to the place, it started sprinkling and I had to grab stuff and run to the door! Then, I had to take everything up to the attic room where I will be staying. Meanwhile it was pouring outside. I had previously informed my "Old Lady" that it would be raining soon and I may be later getting out than I thought (you see, I was supposed to be out by Tues. morning). I decided that since it was raining, I would head over to the plasma center to give plasma and use the money to payoff one of the last bills for the condo.

After I was stabbed with a 16-guage needle and blood taken and the plasma taken from that, I got my money and went back to the condo to resume moving since the rain had stopped. I took another load of stuff and arranged with a friend to come over with his truck to get the big stuff. By this time, it was about 10pm. We got back and unloaded the stuff and collapsed in the floor! It was about 11pm. I had been at it since 3pm. I got online briefly while surrounded with boxes and random stuff stacked up in the attic room. Finally ate, too. When it was nearly 12am, I went to take a shower, but the Mrs. Williamson that owns the place with her husband decided to change the toilet seat at that exact moment, so I had to wait about 20 min. while she searched for a wrench and a screwdriver. But finally, she successfully replaced it and all was well with the world!

Picture Day!

Today I decided to scan in some pictures from my dorm room during the Spring and Fall semesters, to my weird but genius C++ Programming prof, to the Texas A&M campus, to my summer residence. Enjoy!

This is the entrance to the dorm I stayed in during the Spring and Fall semesters.

This is to the right as you walk in. Nice and tidy! It's my roommate's fault.

This is where I laid my head every evening around 2am. It just looks messy! I really knew where everything was! But is anyone interested in being a maid?

This is my current residence. This is just my room. There's also another room, a kitchen, a bathroom, washer & dryer, and a living room. I still know where everything is!

This is the entrance to the Student Computing Center on Texas A&M campus where I work. It's 2 floors and houses over 500 desktop computers! Guess who got to do inventory??

This is Sbisa Dining Hall. Yes, it costs as much as you might think. Right now it costs nearly $8 for all-you-can-eat supper! Now you know why I live on Hot Pockets and Ramen Noodles!

This is the university watertower. Pretty cool, eh?

This is the famed Century Tree. Legend is that if you walk under it alone, you're destined to live your life single. If you walk under it with someone of the opposite sex, that's the person you're destined to marry. If you look closely in the second picture, someone is getting their wedding pictures taken. In case you're wondering, no I haven't walked under it yet!

This is the celebrated Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup creator and implementer of the C++ programming language. I had him in my ENGR 112 intro course to C++. Intro my foot! His class obviously was no picnic and even though it was only a 2 hours class, it took up my entire week to complete the labs and whenever I had trouble compiling the code in the text, he assured me it was my error and not his! I learned quickly that all the Engineering department at A&M cares about is weeding out the slackers!

Saturday

Once again a busy week is drawing to a close. I oringinally had no plans for Friday night because I got off late, but I got invited to a friends house to relax. So, I took him up on his invitation. It was a lot of fun! We played a lot of Halo 2 and just had a good time forgetting about work and enjoyed relaxing for a while. It became a textbook example of how time flies when you're having fun! It was past 5am before I got back to my place! I got up this morning about 1:35pm. Since then I really haven't been doing much. Just typing up some thoughts on "recent events" and chatting with a few friends. Before the day is out, I think I'm gonna be taking my "Old Lady" (roommate) to the grocery store since I'm the one with the car. According to my "Old Lady", it's my turn to buy the toilet paper so I can't really refuse. That looks to "wipe":D out prolly an hour of my afternoon, but it's not like I'm gonna be doing anything constructive anyways. Once I get back, I'm toying with idea of ordering Cheesey Bread and Hot Wings for supper and watch a movie. Nothing definite, though.

Another Day

I stayed up really late last night chatting. It was well worth it, though! But then Friday rolled around and once again, it's off to work we go! I got to sleep in til 12:35pm, so I'm pretty excited! I get to work until 11pm! The one good thing about Fridays is my supervisor usually buys us supper, so I get a free meal!:) Other than that, I really have no special plans for tonight, except maybe a movie or something.

All in a Day's Work

Howdy! This is me where I work at the Student Computing Center on Texas A&M University campus. The green vest means I'm a student worker and I get to answer everyone's questions. The place I'm at in this picture is called the Information Desk which is positioned at the front near the entrance of the SCC. This is where all the new students and their parents come in with bewildered looks. Then the parents ask these really crazy questions while their kid is shaking his/her head and will then tell them "I told you so" once I answer the question.

All in a day's work!

Howdy!

Just doing the same old same old today. Got up at 7:15am and went off to work. Got off at 11am then started washing clothes and watched Constantine. Then I went back to work. Not a very eventful day...

Howdy!

I am a Computer Engineering student at Texas A&M University. During the summer I will be working at the Student Computing Center.