Blast

So school's picking up now. Got my first string of problems sets/hw/ hours to ponder over stuff due this week. And I reckon the pace will only pick up as the semester progresses. I haven't started my Engineering labs yet. Fortunately I only have 6 of them this semester, but they account for more than half of the class grade. We'll have to see how that goes.

Been doing a lot of stuff this weekend. Went to my friend Carolyn's birthday party. Of course, we did what any group of college-aged students would do on a Friday night: we played Guitar Hero and Cranium- SOBER! It was fun.

Went with my aunt to celebrate her birthday the next night. We went to that nice restaurant down at the Desert Diamond Casino. Not bad, but my steak was a little too charred on the outside and a little too pink on the inside. I felt like I had to be uppity, though, and I even asked the waitress if they had any "fountain drinks" because all they showed on their menus was their wine list. Granted, we were at a casino, and BAC = $$$. So then I went in with my folks and did what we could with 20 bucks each. I plop myself up to this one machine, I have no idea how the thingies worked or how you won or how you bet. But it had a picture of a wolf, and I like wolves. So I put in some of my money, push a few random buttons. And it starts to spin. Nothing. Push it again. Nothing. I notice I'm spinning at 60 cents a pop. Eh, I say, one more.

And then I win 50 bucks. All the little tiles start glowing and the little credit counter is shooting through the roof. I have no idea what I just did, but try to act surprised and excited so the guy next to me who had been playing for who-knows-how-long doesn't get angry at me. He looked mad enough as it was. And then I come and win 50 bucks in like a minute. Craziness indeed. I figured to pocket that 50 and just play with what remained of the 20 on a few other machines. The rest just ate me up, but I guess my first time at a casino was a success. I don't think I want to go back, though. I hated the environment. And the smoke. It felt like Golf'n'stuff but instead of tokens and tickets in exchange for small prizes you get secondhand smoke and lose your money. They even had ashtrays right next to the urinals, that's how much they cater to smokers. Gah. I couldn't stand it.

So the next night I came close to campus to hear my friend Zach play in his band. I don't like the band name, and I'm pretty sure he hates it too, but they played all right. The main guy was trying too hard to be like Axl Rose or something, and that turned me off a bit, but Zach's a good drummer. So that was fun to watch. If they go to the next round of the band competition I'll probably go.

And hooray for impromptu earplugs!

But now is the time to buckle down, open up these textbooks, and figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be learning.

A lot of things to think about

So, school has started. Yay, I guess. Classes don't seem to be too bad so far. My favorite classes so far look like my Stats and my Physics class, or in other words, my non-Engineering classes.

My aunt's place is nice, but it doesn't feel very home-y yet. Plus I feel like a chore boy on the weekends. Granted, it's a modestly sized place, so I need to pitch in my part, but I just miss the good ol' days of living with my roommates and not cleaning the bathroom and NOT getting any kind of South American disease.

I'm signed up to take the GRE at the end of Feb, so I better get to studying. Hopefully I won't need too much practice, probably mostly verbal practice. I suck at vocab. I don't know good words. That and all the prospects of grad school. Where? What to study? Who to get rec letters from (I'm probably a lot better off with that question on Math than in Engineering. Of course, being in classes of 120 people don't help at all.) It's a mess.

My VERY tentative list of places I might apply to:

for Mechancial:
here, Arizona
Maryland

for Math:
here, Arizona
New Mexico
one of the Cal schools

this should be a class all on its own. And you should get credit for it!

I need to go see movies.

bored

If only I could get my check from the U, that would be good. I'm tired of being broke and bored out of my mind. If it weren't for mario galaxy, I'd have gone crazy. Being way up in Oro Valley is turning out to be a royal downer. Plus I still need to ascertain a permit. Ugh.