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.