On a dark, and lonely night...

Well, it's been a long week or so. Let's have a bit of a synopsis shall we...?

Classes have been going well. I'm still acclimating to the larger amount of work, and I'm doing better and keeping up with my homework (or so it seems.) My next project is to go and rewrite my notes from all my classes properly so I can pass my exams. I'm a tad disorganized right now. Once that's done though, I should have an effective system. Another good school tactic I learned was the discovery of Coffee on morning where I have 8:00 lectures. Other caffeine such as Mountain didn't seem to cut it, but Coffee kepy my mind clear and unfoggy this morning, rather than sleeping through half of class. It was nice, especially now that my Engineering class is actually building something.

Heading over to ROTC, everything is still going well. I'm getting better at the various protocol and drill, and I'm really enjoying my experience. Last Friday we had something called Warrior Spirit where the POC (Professional Office Course) put us through an intense inspection then sent us ona bit of PT and group building under slightly more stress than usual. It was a learning experience, and I guess I can say I enjoyed it. This Friday, I have what's called a Dine-In with the rest of the Detachment. I finally will get the rest of my uniform, and we'll go as a group to a hall near MSU to meet with their cadets and have a dinner-type-thing. I'm not too sure what that will entail.

That leads into my only complaint for the week. As some of you may know, this Saturday is the Michigan vs. MSU football game. It starts at 12:00, as does the tailgate with the rest of my ROTC group. It sounded like fun. Yes, sounded. I used the past tense, because I will not be attending. You see, my genius professor for Engineering 100 scheduled the Balloon Competition/Presentation on Saturday. At 12:00. His response when I asked him about it?

"You're engineering students."

[Insert Swear Word of Choice.]

Anyway, besides that, everything has been going pretty well. G'Night all!

Busy, busy!

Well, I'm off to the football game today, but I'll make sure and tell y'all how the week has been once I get back. Ciao!

[Silence]

No blog is heard today, only the sound of a shovel digging through piles of homework.

Happy Birthday! To me!

Well, thanks everyone who has called me so far (and who have yet to call!) and to my friends and my family who visited for the weekend. It was pretty fantastic.

Anyway, after thoroughly enjoying the weekend, I'm about to dig back into to homework. Before I do so, I'm playing with my schwanky (fancy) new digital camera. Thusly, I present.... my Dorm Room!

With classic... wood.... furniture, It is truly a cozy place at 11 ft by 12 ft! (Just ignore the pile of birthday cards on the floor...)

Here's my side of the room, resplendent with a TV, fridge, and desk conveniently stocked with books just MADE for learning! (Along with this very laptop!)

Here's my closet! That's... about it here.

Oh, and this is Mike. Hard at work, he ponders some deep problem that the rest of us may never understand. Bravo Mike. Bravo.


And that's all folks! Expect some pictures occasionally now that I have my very own camera! Until then, G'Night!

Tired... Hungry... Brains...

I feel like a zombie. Minus the eating brains part of course.

It's not all the time, but last two days I came down with a cold of some sort. That combined with me catching up on homework and it coinciding with an 8:00 class day+PT day... I'm feeling kind of... bleh. And yes mom, I am making sure I get enough sleep.

Got some auditions tonight for an Improv group... or two. At the same time. Should be fun.

Now for some headlines from this comedy newspaper I found...

"Amateur crastinator turns pro."
"Blue goes."
"UM welcomes record large freshman class in anticipation of Heavy Swine Flu losses."
"Study shows you won't read past this emboldened headline."
"Students from same Michigan town meet at party, talk about hometown."

And more!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Had a nice afternoon with ROTC today. We went to a field on South campus and had pizza and messed around with some touch football and volleyball. It was nice to not have to deal with all the 'Yes sir' 'No sir' and all that fun stuff.

Anyway, wanted to post tonight, because my Flight (Equivalent of a Squad) Commander Mr. Luckey sent us this link as 'motivation' for PT tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXKP04Gqb94

Yup. Makes me want to go run right now!

Weird Dreams...

So. Whether it was from the excitement last night or something was wrong with the pizza, I had an incredibly vivid and somewhat odd dream last night.

Somehow, I was back in Bay City at a party. Two things wrong with that. One, I'm in Ann Arbor, and two, I don't do the whole... "party" scene. Somehow my brain still thought it was real so far.

I find myself heading home, then somehow stopping on the side of the road, sitting on Adirondack chairs with a couple other guys who are drinking. A moment later, I take a sip of what I assume must be beer. The weird part was, I turned to the guy next to me and asked, "When did I get a beer?" Not gettin a satisfactory answer, I suppose I kept drinking.

After that, I was driving (Yes, driving!) home, drunk. Having never been drunk, I have no idea what that's like, but my brain did a pretty good approximation of it, I think. It kept thinking in circles, I couldn't remember anything.... I can't remember anything specific, but It was decidedly creepy.

The dream ended on an even weirder note, because I thought of my ROTC and went "Oh crap, I just broke the rules didn't I?" Then I lay down to sleep and worried about a hangover in the morning.

At THAT point, the weirdness continued. It felt like I was slowly sliding out of reality, and my bed changed underneath me. I opened my eyes, and found myself in my dorm room. Only THEN did I realize it had all been a dream.

I still have no idea where this came from.

It's Great, To Be. A Mi-chi-gan Wol-verine.

Game. Fantastic.

Voice. Hurts.

Wooo!

Adventure!

So... tonight. It was fun, I suppose, if you REALLY like walking. Mike and I went to a mass meeting for a comedy group, then proceeded to explore downtown. He'll blame me but... I hadn't been walking all of downtown before. It SOUNDED like a good idea...

Anyway, here's the route we took. It's a rough draft, and the first half actually went to the Michigan Union on State St. first.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h297/Baycitypak/TheScenicRoute.jpg

The time on that walk is about right, by the way. Owie.

TGIF... even if it's only 12:39 a.m

Well, it's been an interesting first couple of days here at the University of Michigan. I've already had bits of homework thrown at me, had Calculus I understood in high school twisted into misunderstanding, and missed lunch today. A summary ensues.

So, Tuesday rolls around with my first day of classes. I check my E-mail only to find that my Engineering 100 class has scheduled a special class at 5:30 that night. Joyful Day! There goes normal dinner time. Anyway, when class finally ends, the teachers decide to give us a little homework. A 2 page essay due during the next lecture. Which happens to be... 8:00 am the next morning.

There went my night. Got it finished though.

As for the Calculus, well the teacher has a strong Mexican accent and takes stuff I thought I knew, and somehow makes it hard. Oh well. Practice makes perfect. At least I have all weekend to finish the work.

Chemistry has also been easy so far, though I have my first date in-lab tomorrow/this morning. We'll see hwo that goes. What's been fun about Calc and Chem so far is that both have discovered the joys of online homework. It may seem like you're getting nothing in class but... then it ambushes you. Bam. A lot of stuff is hidden online now that I have to dig for. It's certainly useful, but also a bit annoying.

And finally, missing lunch. I had a Calc class this morning 11:30 till one. Breakfast (A granola bar and juice) was at 10:30. After class finished, I wandered the joy that was Festifall, a mass of every single student group on Campus that filled (and more!) the whole Diag. From guys with signs saying "Talk to me about Socialism!" to the group that ha a pile of medieval weapons on the table, they had everything. (Did you know a crossbow bolt can punch through CARS? Plural!) Anyway, that led into a 2:30 ROTC class which kept me busy till 6:30, followed by a MANDATORY Sexual Assault thing that lasted an hour. My stomach was unhappy, especially when it was told to leave the dining hall mid dinner because it was closing. (At 8 o' clock.) *sigh*

Anyway, it's late, and I should be sleeping, but I'd have to climb into bed... that's work. Ciao for now!

-Paul

Updating...

Well, I've been a bit busy the last couple days, but here's the rundown.

My last post was Tuesday the 1st. Since then I've completed my ROTC Orientation, visited the Crittendens with my parents, and relaxed at home for two days to grab a few more things and hang out with a few friends before I head off again to college.

ROTC Orientation went well. Day 1 consisted of some basic briefings, designed mainly to instill some of the necessary protocols in us cadets. Basically, I learned that every time I see another military member I'm supposed to greet them based on time of day, and that I'm going to be saying "Sir" a lot. Nothing too weird. Also on that day I took the AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualifying Test.) Four hours long, it wasn't too hard, but it certainly wasn't a walk in the park. It was like the ACT but tested quick thinking as well as regular knowledge. We ended Orientation for the day with some basic drilling on standing at attention, saluting, and the like.

Adding to the adventures of Wednesday, boredom led me to leave my room with a few guys from my hall. We'd reached the other end of central campus before meeting up with a guy who was also apparently from our hall who was heading to a frat party. I was bored, and figured such a party might be interesting provided I avoided the prodigious amounts of alcohol in the are. Luckily for me, the place I went to was not having a party and what I got instead was a tour of a 4-story mansion. Biggest frat house I've ever seen. Strongest scent of alcohol and stickiest floor I've ever experienced as well. Was an interesting experience though.

Thursday was similar to Wednesday, albeit I replaced the 4-hour test with several other information briefings and some team-building/leadership type activities. We drilled a bit more, then marched as a group to the Arboretum where, in a large field, we enjoyed yet more team-building activities designed to make us think a bit. It was pretty fun, and we marched back and finished out the day pretty simply.

Thursday night was much less exciting, the high point being me wandering the Cemetery near our dorm to pass the time. We got a bit lost.

Friday was... interesting. Getting up at 7:30, we went straight into a Warrior run. We ran, did some pushups and situps, ran, did a stair run that combined with leg exercises, and then ran some more. Maybe a mile and a half total. Good news is, it was fairly easy, though my legs were a bit tired. I filled out some paperwork after for my scholarship, then was officially sworn in to the Air Force. You may now call me "Cadet." It's my official title, and my pay grade is E-1. Yes, I'm getting paid. We ended the day meeting the Crittendens, and a few other friends of my parents. I might have enjoyed it more if I didn't sleep for small pieces of it several times throughout the night. I was pretty darn tired.

And thus, my first week at Michigan ended. I'll be heading up tomorrow to help Mike move in, and then classes will begin the day after.

HOO-A!

Operation Move-In: Complete

At 1200 hours, a crack squadron of a student, his parents, and his roommate-in-arms proceeded to take control of Reeves Room 4216. Operations were successfully completed, with the unloading of important material successful.

Alright, enough of that. Today I moved in to my room with the help of my parents and my roommate, Mike. After some basic setup and some distribution of (heavy) furniture, it was done. We wandered the town a bit after that, picked up some Jimmy John's... you know the deal. My parents left midafternoon, and since I've been hanging out with people from my hallway.

There is a surprising amount of engineers here, although a few others have said to be from LSA, either Political science or undecided. All in all, a nice group of guys. We somehow snagged the private dining room at the Hill Dining Center, where I ate enough food for a family of four. Since then, I've been having fun trying to get the internet up and running.

This is Agent Paul, reporting in. If you'll excuse me, We have to go beat 3rd Reeves in a game of Ultimate Frisbee.

Ciao.