Holla!

It is so fun being able to come back to this blog and write.

Anyway and moving on. Yesterday was so exciting for I got to spend a majority of the day with Phylicia a good best friend. We had so much fun going to Churchland High School and then to the Red Lobster for lunch. It was quite entertaining and I didnt quite expect to eat all this food.I had ordered French Fries, Grilled Steak, Garlic Shrimp Scampi, and Grilled Salmon while she ordered Grilled Chicken and Rice Pilaf. We got the Ceasar Salad and the famous Biscuits. For drinks I had Raspeberry Limonade and she had a Strawberry Smoothie. The meal was quite great and we had some interesting conversation. Hopefully the next time I come home for Spring Break we can meet up again.

That night I spent it watching American Idol (as I did tonight as well). I managed to help a friend with his Chemistry homework as well. Chemistry is really starting to bite me in the back as it requires so much time and dedication. But I guess, as everyone says, that it will pay off in the end. I just have to continue to progress versus always giving up and settling for less (my previous homeworks assignments have been close to 60-80% versus last times 98%). I need to get 100% like a large majority of the class versus giving up and calling it quits when I dont get it. More of the Chemistry homework opened up on tonight so I will probably try to start the parts that I know how to do on tomorrow. Tomorrow I also have to start reading the chapters for the Cell Biology quiz that comes up next week. I had to print out 25 pages for a chapter today because we are getting notes from another textbook while at the same time reading a part of the chapter for another part (confusing I know). But this is Cell Biology and I do find all this studying for it, enjoyable and relaxing.

One more on the assignments business side is that I also managed to finally go through and read all four chapters that we have covered and are going to cover in the next week. It took some time but I did it and I even wrote the vocabulary words down so that I do know what he is talking about when I go into that Introduction to Geography class. There is one more assignment that I may or may not do and that is the Chemistry lab one. The thing that is annoying about that class is that the assignments never at first make sense. The math is usually so involving yet simple that at first glance you think that you misunderstood until you put your pen to the paper and really look over it. Of course I have to look over it again and again and this will be on Sunday night and then I will get all tired and annoyed. Luckily there is Monday night that comes before Tuesday so then I have that night to do it as well.

Currently I have little to no plans for the rest of the week as of yet. Just more studying and to read the chapters since I put them off so much. Tomorrow I am going to probably ship the broken Nintendo DS Lite off to Nintendo so then that can get fixed for no charge. Lord willing, I should have it back in less than two weeks and then I will be able to enjoy my Meteos puzzle game and Diddy Kong Racing game again.

Home At Last

Well I ended up finishing packing to go home on Friday night. I was going to go back home on Friday but I decided to stay at school for a little bit longer. I managed to get a test done on Friday day after I came back from doing a tour. Further beyond that I was bored out of my mind because around three o clock everyone left the floor. I stayed with a few people until they left at seven. From then on out I was basically the last person on the floor. Some people trickled back in later that night and that was a bit dandy. Beyond that I saw a few of them return in the morning for the later hours. We all mainly left out at about 11-12 because that was the latest we could stay for the next day.

All in all I managed to get several things done while I was there, including packing my stuff. I did do a bit more than that such as completing the test. When I got home I did managed to force myself to do some of the Chemistry Lon-Capa assignment which was and seemed like a piece of cake with a small tutorial video incorporated into it.

This morning started off with me at church. It was quite enjoyable and I really was excited to see all of the members of the church once again. It was a great experience.

Time Goes On

Time continues to move at an accelerated pace. At one moment the clock said 10 the next moment it almost approached the wee hour of Midnight. Sure I should have expected it, but I guess time does go faster when we study. I managed to get a bit of stuff accomplished as usual. More studying was done for two test tomorrow. I hope to do well on the Lab one at 8 in the morning, lets just pray I make it to class on time. The next is a quiz in Cell Biology. I studied more heavily for this one since it is more interesting than a few chemical reactions. Why do we need to be tested in lab, it serves no point. Now if they did lab safety and procedures than I could understand but about the chemical equations themselves, dont those have to be given to us?

Well tomorrow I am going to go to the first of my Honors Seminars, let just hope that I get credit for it or am at least able to even remember to go to it. After that is a meeting to be one of the Student Orientation people over the summer. I might decided to do that as well, however I dont know how I am going to be able to do it since I live quite some distance away. Hm, now that I think about it, I really cant because I wouldnt have anywhere to stay. Maybe I will consider it the year after. I think that I am going to do that, plus it gives me back a few hours in the evening, no doubt for more work and studying or even to relax. I could even wash clothes. This is good planning to seize the next day already. I am too excited for this.

Well I guess I will go now and think of something I am starting to get tired already.

Life Goes On

Life continues to move on at a strange pace. There just seems to be loads of time in one day, but the time is always filled with stuff to do. We have to study, take care of business, and go through loads of discussions with people all to no avail with one thing accomplished. Then we wake up the next day with tons more work to do. The cycle just goes on and on. There just never seems to be any end to it all. There is no end all.

But anyway though we live in this cycle new things seem to pop up that always diverts our attention away from these things. I guess because we go through this endless cycle anything that disrupts it seems to be interesting and attention grabbing. We will go ahead and do it and risk the consequence of having to do what was planned at a later date or even not at all. Anything, and I mean anything, that diverts our attention.

I have sadly fallen victim to this cycle and am currently struggling to regain my place in it. Really though, I just have one assignment to do but I keep delaying it until the deadline on the 11th, which I need to go ahead and take care of. Other than that my other work gets done at a steady pace.

My goal for this semester is simple, I just want to get an A in all of my science classes. That looks fairly positive as long as I can raise my Chemistry grade to above C status on the next few tests, manage to maintain my High B in Cell Biology as well as figure out someway to get through Chemistry Lab. Luckily we have one test this week so we get to see how they play out in there. My Calculus class is coming along well. I have managed to get an A in there and am working towards keeping it so long as I continue to do the homework at a reasonable pace.

In other grounds, I am steadily limiting my participation in student activities to only a few. I need all the time I can get at night. I am really only going to keep the ones in which I have nice friendly relationships with the people (ideally Student Ambassadors, Alumni Ambassadors, APB Cinemas, and Aletheia). One of my favorites this semester has been Aletheia. It is really interesting in there for we get to share the Word of God to others and we get to hang out on weekends and at their house for nice food and fellowship. I love being around them.

Well that is all that has been happening. Later days and I hope to write more often.

The New Week

The new week say the onset of the results of a fruitful period of studying. After going through and looking over my notes on the weekend, I went to one of my professors offices on today and sought her help on Replication and the Packaging levels of Chromosomes. I managed to get to see just how nice and kind she is, and it really helped for now I understand it a little bit better. I was able to at least show some knowledge, because I had studied I understood exactly what she was talking about. She is slowly becoming one of my favorite professors/instructors. It is kind of amazing.

Chemistry I worked on a lot today. I worked on it since I came back to the dorm and until about 10 at night. The LonCapa problems (online homework) is so annoying. At times it seems to not even have anything to do with what we are doing in class (answers and helpwise). This section I got two questions wrong, as I didnt understand what they were asking for while I got the other main problems right. Someday I hope to get a one hundred on an assignment.

Life continues to move along at a formidable pace. Everything still goes by as if there is an endless cycle of things to look for. Of course there are many things to acquire, but I am trying to figure out does this education in school really matter. Why cant we have a system in which doing this stuff was more interesting that that which we are doing now? There is always this issue resounding in our minds.

Recent Happenings: Class Review

Lots of new things have been happening since the beginning of the month. Amazingly nothing has been too profound or difficult during this semester. Although some things have become and turned out to be quite difficult, I have managed to be able to handle it. The most difficult work has happened in my Cell Biology class and my Introduction to Human Geography class. Cell Biology is a tad bit difficult because we have to remember some of the most meticulous stuff to such a comprehensive degree that it demands that we study and go over it daily. There are study sessions for the class, but because of laziness, a lack of initiative and incentive (0.5 points on the test is sadly not that much of an incentive), but there isnt anything to go to them for. I have began to implement a plan to be able to go over this material daily for hours so that I can manage to handle the work and material. I do hope that I can get it all under control so then I can pass the test admirably. Introduction to human geography is mainly hard because of the fact that we have to memorize these tiny places all over the world and be able to remember their capitals and then their tidbits of knowledge. I may complain about it, but it really isnt that bad. If I remember it is only a tiny portion of the grade that doesnt really compute to anything that tragic. Especially considering all the other things that the class entails.

In my other classes we have done some phenomenal things. Today was the first time that I got up in front of the lecture class to work out a problem. Sadly to say I confused myself and didnt even manage to get past the first step because of the confusing way that people did their work. But nonetheless, it did pass the time and when the teacher worked it out I understood everything completely. So it was a win-win event. One of the major things that has happened in the class recently is that there have been several rising of talking and email sending about it. It was so bad at one point that the instructor had to get the teaching assistants to stand up and monitor the class at one point. We [the class] managed to calm down on that day and she hasnt had to do it again. When the student sent the email out, I responded back to it, urging her to tell the instructor, and I guess that she did.

For general reporting purposes we have done two labs in Chemistry lab. We have done the Acid Rain lab in which we produce Sulfuric, Nitric, and Sulfuric Acid and immerse those (along with Hydrochloric Acid) in water to produce Acid Rain. This week we have also done an experiment in which we have to discover the limiting reagent in the experiment with some green substance and other substance that makes it turn from green to purple. It is quite amazing really, I wish I had my camera in class. I need to start bringing it no doubt.

Outside of the class front, I continue to pursue exploring various campus groups. I have taken a sort of backseat role in some while increasing my participation in others. For example, I am now nearly at all of the Aletheia events with these awesome people who are all about loving people and bringing about God's Holy Word. They are quite nice and seem to be living like the bible says. As I have said I have been inspired many times by them. Well it is getting quite late and I have more homework to do, so until next time.

Snow Day

No we did not get out of school today. Rather we had a short lived snow event. It was enough snow to get into the mouths and to stick on the sidewalks but I believe that there wasnt enough moisture to make it last long. Oh well, we did get a wish, a chance to see some real snow. However, but now during this break time we could see ice, freezing rain, and sleet which is horrible but lovely.


The past days have been spent emerged in homework and the reading of dull textbooks. They have some interesting spots but mostly, no doubt, they are dull. One of the highlights was doing a lab experiment today in which we were able to make the gases that are in acid rain. We even made acid water as well for Chemistry Lab.

Back on Track

VCU is finally back in session and we are ready to take names and kick some tails! Well things have been going on alright for now. Mainly I have been spending more time in the dorm room and getting to know more of the people on the hall. I think so far that about each weekend I have spent with at least a few people constantly and stayed up late talking to people. They are so interesting that I put off my tiredness just to talk. I dont know, I guess that there is some sort of hidden feeling in peoples minds that they just dont want things to end. But alas we all have to meet that thought.

Apart from taking and focusing on my classes diligently, I have also began to spend a bit more time on the bible and looking and studying it. There are strange stories in there that always have messages that pertain to the world at hand. Not only that but many of its claims are true and it seems to provide us with the only hope for a neat future and a fulfilling life. I wont get into details though.

I will make every effort to come back and post just dont think that it will be as often as it was last semester. I am out of class in the afternoon, which for me, is the laziest time of the day, as I will just sit in the room and stare at a screen constantly or lay down. The evening is when I am most productive, but strangely I havent been able to focus that much as there seems to be no point in studying if the test is in 20 days. But yeah, I am out.

The Year in Review

The Year in Review

I do not know how long this will turn out to be so I will definitely partition it into several parts. 2006 was quite the year for nearly me and everyone else I know. Perhaps the two most important events in our lives was graduating from high school and then the matriculation into college. These were two of the greatest events of the year. However, notwithstanding or overlooking the other things, there were other major things to have happened to me this year. Perhaps it was more of a transformation into an even better person or perhaps the realization that the small things in life really matter, versus trying to attempt to begin a changing of the world. No matter what it was though, I cant pinpoint it right now, truly great and marvelous things did happen. I will probably go into much detail perhaps but that doesn’t matter, it is good to be able to remember some of the good things that have happened to us and me in particular.

Winter 05-Winter 06

While in high school during this time we experienced many things. Perhaps the most important to me was the opportunity to finally finish sending out all of the applications to my colleges. Applications were sent to Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Notre Dame, Temple University, Winthrop University, Florida Institute of Technology, Norfolk State University, Jefferson Scholars at University of Virginia, and I believe that is all. I also sent many applications for scholarships from various donors. Apart from the college scene, I also continued to actively participate at school in several capacities for volunteering efforts and extracurricular efforts. School was fairly great, though Calculus began to become more and more of a chore. Once I got to Physics, I decided that that part of science wasn’t for me. I struggled to maintain an A.

Customers and Wendys

I am slowly developing a fear of people! From working at Wendy's, I am beginning to lose my mind. The people are so rude at times, they treat me like I am an inferior being, and to top the cake, they have the most ridiculous and impossible claims for their food. Perhaps the most disturbing thing to me is that 1) They think I cant make their orders when I am looking right at their receipt and 2) They are so rude, how in the world can they not know how to ask for food.

My Wendy's is a great place to work and all because of my friendship with the workers with my shift (the same few of us from when I first worked there are still there at night), but the customers make it quite the horror at times.

Ultimately speaking, the customers always make me mad with their rudeness. When they come in to order and get to my register nearly everyone goes "I need a 5 Piece Chicken McNugget (notice that I work at Wendys and they ask for McNugget or even a McFlurry or sometimes a Whopper!?). Now you may not see anything wrong with this, but when you come to order you dont need to say "I NEED this or that. If you needed food from Wendy's than I highly doubt you would order one of the most expensive things on the menu. Rather you would get a cup of water for that is one of the only needs in life that Wendy's will supply. I usually correct the person spontaneously (you know because i take hundreds of orders I am like a robot now (except to the regulars, I love them with their same orders and $6.11 prices), but I usually correct them by saying "No, You would like to order or have" usually people smile and immediately become super nice and say "Thank You" and "Youre Welcome". Other things that are rude are when people will throw all their change on the counter, not place the money into my hand, or even eat their food right on the front counter in front of other peoples orders (this wouldnt be a problem if they were neat with eating, but eating with your mouth wide open!).

The next thing that people do is that in the dining room they fail to realize that we arent a fancy restaurant and love to leave their trays full of food on the table, or even they will leave everything on the table and leave. I am like, there are four trash cans all within 10 seconds of your seat and you cant throw it away. Leaving food on the table is nasty and makes the dining room look messy and not only that, we didnt put trash cans in the dining room for now reason. People will also leave and spill all of their food onto the floor, under the table, drop and spill their drinks all over the table without saying a word, spill their drinks right in front of the counter, stack their trash ontop of the trash can versus dumping it, and even dragging tables all the way across the room and not push their chairs in {this is a problem because the chairs will be left in the middle of the floor in peoples way!}

The last and final thing that people do is that they make these wild claims about their orders. First off they will beg for the hottest fries. Usually I give them the fries that just come up from the fryer and give them to them. But the people will insist (now get this, they are watching the fryer the whole time and see that I get the fries that have just came up cooked) that the fries are cold. Sometimes I just want to yell at them and go "No they arent, the fries are scorching hot because they are burning my hands, which is why I threw them into the bag unneatly". But loe because I am a kind person I still give them newer fries three minutes later. Other claims include that the meat that just came from the grill is cold (yet again imposible, the meat that is on the grill cant be cold, how is something coming right off the grill going to be cold). I usually tell the people that they are touching the lettuce and other condiments, but no they insist that the sandwich is cold! People will sometimes even say that their stuff is cold after they have sat in the dining room and havent touched their fries after 10-20 minutes or their sandwich in that time, I have even watched them do this and had to strain really hard to not tell them why.

The requests people make are so outlandish. Instead of asking for stuff they like to say that we "Failed" to give them barbeque sauce, sweet and sour sauce, salad dressing, salt, pepper, or other minor things. They even get angry and yell at us for not doing it. How can we give people stuff when we dont even know that they wanted it.

Although the people do, do these things, there are some happy moments at time. I love seeing the regular people whose orders I already know. I enjoy seeing old classmates and such. I really enjoy the kind people or the people bringing their kids. Shorts orders are wonderful. Cleaning the dining room is sometimes enjoyable. Taking orders is sometimes excellent. All in all, the job is quite great, it is just that the customer factor seems to drag it to the slums at time, if only they were nicer or actually used their brains {How much is you 99 Cent 5 Piece Chicken McNugget?, am I really supposed to answer this question!?!?!} they make me want to laugh sometimes.

Christmas

The week leading up to Christmas Day was filled with rampant working at Wendy's (growing number of hungry customers each day, sometimes they grew even more and more agitating with their ever increasing silly founded complaints), locked out bank accounts, the ordering of new bank cards, the receipt of a few gifts, and the shopping on the day before the day before Christmas. Christmas was an excellent break from this hustle and bustle.

Christmas Day for the third year in a row according to my memory was quite rainy. The rain grew torrential as the day started. It was quite unpronounced really because of how much rain fell (there was even a tornado watch). Usually when we get up we are in a rush to open presents, but because of some unknown reason, we didnt do that. Rather we left the tree as it was and continued to go on about our day.I managed to run into the room and capture a picture of the tree with the presents underneath. Because we did our shopping so late, we already knew what was in each. Well my parents were suprised with the card and gift card that we gave them, but other than that the stuff under the tree was just clothes. The clothes were quite fantastic and I cant wait to wear mine.

I spent the majority of the day playing Yugioh GX Tag Force on the PSP. Later on that day we journeyed over to our Aunt's house for dinner. Usually it takes place at my Grandma's house, but this year they changed or rather alternated and did it at her nice new looking house. I spent the time playing Air Hockey, watching Deal or No Deal, the football game, and then eating. I kind of got way too much food and spent nearly an hour trying to eat it all. My grandma and a relative wouldnt let me throw any of it away saying I shouldnt have gotten so much. Next time, I will just get a small bit and then go back for seconds or thirds.

All in all Christmas Day wasnt as hyped up as it usually is, which is probably due to me going and buying all the game that I wanted before Christmas and thus having only clothes to get. Perhaps the only tangible gifts (other than the clothes and a coat and a hat) are my gift card to Barnes and Noble, a Visa Gift Card, a Check, and some cash. Perhaps this year was to make us really realize the true miracle of Christmas that we had heard about in Church on Sunday (the conceiving of Baby Jesus and not the Christmas tree). All in All, it was a relaxing Christmas and a great break from hectic Wendy's.

The Weekend

Whoa it seems like it has been quite some time since I came and actually updated this. If I can remember the last time that I did was on Sunday and that was about what Thursday night and day entailed. To get us up to date, I will provide you with a sort of list of what happened (yes another one of my faithful up to date lists.

• Friday was a short type of day. All that was accomplished was simply massive gaming on the Gamecube.
  
• Saturday consisted of the same thing
• Sunday was perhaps the more important day as it was the return back to the home church. I love Fourth Baptist Church. Sunday service began with my parents teaching the Teen Bible Study class. It was quite an interesting lesson about false teachers in Paul's time questioning the life the Jesus. Paul had to remind them that he had seen him with his very eyes. After learning that lesson for Sunday School, I immediately proceeded to go and sing in the Youth Choir, just like in old times. It was quite entertaining as we sung "If youre Happy, Say Amen" "Go Tell it on the Mountain", "Love is Everlasting", "Patiently Waiting," and lastly "Who Could Imagine a King". It was a truly amazing service. There was one tragic point to it, when a girl who was an usher had a black out, though she didnt fall but the pastor noticed it.
• Sunday Afternoon was the Christmas program. Various people performed and it was truly special. I loved the song Joy, my brother spoke, and other youth spoke.
• Sunday night was more of a resting night and we managed to finish a bit more of the Tales of Symphonia.

Back to Fourth Baptist

When I arrived back home on Thursday, my first stop was Fourth Baptist Church. It was a nice place to arrive immediately after a short break at the house (because I had run out of coins for the laundry machines at VCU, I had to immediately wash some clothes at home for the next day). Although most people dread the fact of going to church immediately coming home, I seemed to love it. It had seemed like it had been many years since the last time I had been able to be in the Fourth Baptist Church. Not only that but it had also been a long time since I had seen some of my friends in the church.

Thursday night was the second day of Youth Choir rehearsal, so I had a near guarantee of seeing some of my friends. Immediately upon walking through the door, I was greeted by some of them. They gave me many hugs and surprised looks. I think the most surprising thing to them may have been the fact that I was actually looking forward to talking, laughing, and joking with them as I had done so in the past few months. I guess I missed them so much that I had spoken more than I had before leaving off for college. Time quickly rolled around to rehearsal time, so we couldn’t really talk that long.

Rehearsal was quite entertaining as I was able to sing some of my favorite songs from the past. We went over the following songs “Its better than life”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Patiently Waiting”, “If Your Happy”, and “Who Would Imagine a King”. Many of these songs were favorites and I enjoyed singing them. I couldn’t believe that I still remembered them, and most particularly, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, as the last time I had song that was nearly 12 months ago. The normal church Christmas Tree was set up as well.

All in all Thursday night was quite great. After rehearsal we sat and talked for awhile (we had to wait for our parents who were at the Christmas Choir rehearsal or with the Men’s Fellowship at a dinner place). That night I got home really tired as we stayed at church until nearly 10 PM.

Exam Troubles

Wednesday started off quite horrible. I woke up and discovered that I had missed my Religion in Contemporary America exam. I couldn’t believe that I had done something that foolish. What’s worse is that I had even stayed up all night studying for that silly exam! It was such a horrible thing that I woke up late. So now, because of me staying up studying for a test, and then waking up late, I have to get a dreadful 0 on the test. This now means that I get a D in the class! What a crummy morning.

Immediately thereafter I decided to go out and try to figure out someway to not have that 0 appear on my record. I went all the way to my professors office to try to find him, but to no avail he wasn’t there. I decided to call his phone and try to schedule a make-up time. I left the professor a message and then sat and waited. He called back around 3 and told me that I could take it on Thursday at 1 PM. This was the best news that I had heard all day.

I spent the night studying for the Religion test. First, I began by reading the tragic and hilarious book “Inherit the Wind” which was a play on the trial in a small county about the teaching of Evolution in a highly religious community. It had its funny moments and quotes that I may post up somewhere later on. I also went over a few of the notes that night as well. Wednesday night also saw me packing up my stuff to go home. I couldn’t believe the massive amounts of stuff that was in the room. But I managed to clean it all up and make the room look brand spanking new looking.

Thursday, I woke up with a fresh outlook on life. Today would be a wonderful day because I would be able to remedy the situation from the previous day. It was quite excellent the morning I had. I studied more for the test. Test time quickly drew close and was it surprising.
The test was unbelievable difficult. I was expecting a multiple choice test, but to my horror and disbelief it was a short answer one. Even worse was that it wasn’t one of those “put what you just learned into practice ones” but rather a define these three things. All in all, I think I did quite well even if I did struggle on two of the questions.

The day ended in a reasonably wonderful fashion as I was able to leave VCU and go back home.

Weekend And Exam 1

My weekend and week so far has been spent studying in excess. Over the weekend I dedicated tons of time to playing my PSP. Not only that but I also spent a majority of it in the computer lab doing math homework. It was brutally long and tiring to do that entire math assignment but I managed to do it from 12 Noon until 4 the next morning. It was a good thing that we didn’t have class Monday morning for I was able to sleep late.

Monday I went on a tour with a friend and then I went back to the library to do a bit of internet catching up. Monday night, I spent studying for a bit and making a note sheet while also listening to a bunch of noise. It seems that since there aren’t any classes during the daytime anymore that people are staying up all night and going to sleep in the daytime. It has always been this way in Johnson Hall, especially my floor but even more this week. I guess it is because there really isn’t anything to do.

I received my results for my Ethics Class and here are the grades: Test 1 82, Test 2 92, Paper 88, Test 3 88, final Grade 87.48 B. Hopefully I will do that good in all of my other classes.

Time Well Spent

This week has so far been quite well. Although it has been quiet in the realm of any sort of student activities it has been busy in the academic realm (which partially explains why I have not been updating).

Everyday this week has been dedicated to intense studying and volunteering at the Alumni House for the Student Alumni Ambassadors. Our mission this week was to pass out the Survival Kits that parents were able to purchase for their children in the school. There were over 200 made and we had to get them out.

Each day I spent about four hours in the Alumni House passing out these bags to them as they trickled in. During the slow times (usually only 5 people came an hour), I would study my Ethics work or play my PSP. I managed to get a whole lot accomplished in both things. Wednesday night was my Ethics exam. I was slightly frightened about it. Although it was just a normal 25% test, it could make the difference between a B and a C, I assumed. When I went to calculate it though, it turned out that if I received a 60 (F) on it, then I would still pass the class with an 80 B, so that isn’t too bad at all and made me feel less stressed about it.

I managed to also catch up in a few mere things. I managed to finally call a friend that I hadn’t talked to in a while over the weekend. I was also able to write my grandparents a letter that I continued to put off. I am most likely going to start adding all of this to my schedule book as it keeps me in track all the time. And so that was what I have done this week.

Saturday and Sunday Fun

Saturday was quite the day. I woke up and journeyed to the library early. I planned to study for my Ethics last test on this coming Wednesday, but I got sidetracked due to loads of conversations on the internet. Needless to say, my friends invited me to come to lunch with them, so I followed. So all in all I did get any studying done at all.

They decided to eat at Subway, so I followed them there. It was a great meal and I managed to eat greatly. I was disappointed because they didn’t have anything to put our drinks in and wouldn’t let us substitute so I just wasted a meal swipe on just a sub and no drink. No matter though, as I had Orange Tea in my room and Orange Juice. We went back to Johnson Hall and watched both Harry Potter (Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets). It was my first time seeing them, so I was totally into the movie. I had a tough time with remember events that happened in the books, but the movie did a good job of refreshing me.

Sunday opened up with a bit more promise. I still journeyed over to the library to study. However, I quickly lost focus and put it off. I will just catch up during the week and do two days before it. As long as I can get a B, I should be fine.

Friday Fun!

Friday was a great day with several events. I woke up immediately at 7:30 and was able to watch my shows. I went to go to my two classes and was able to get caught up on the day of Religion class that I missed. Thanks to the power of perhaps Ultimate Concern, they hadn’t advanced past the place where we were on Monday. So because of this I was glad, the only thing that I perhaps missed was just signing the sheet for attendance (which partially serves no purpose in the class, just for minor grading purposes).

Introduction to Life Science class was next. I was debating whether or not to go to class but I decided to go, it would be an easy grade that I would pass up on if I hadn’t gone. Life Science class always consists of an introduction period in which the Graduate Student asks us how our week went or some other discussion. Immediately thereafter, we do a period of presenting different news articles for discussion. The discussions are sometimes interesting and at other times it is quite boring. Perhaps the most interesting are those that involve the Environment or even those that involve vegetarianism in class. It seems to be that people let their own interests get involved in this class, thus resulting in a good talk. If it interests them greatly than it is a great discussion, if perhaps they are not into it than they will leave us in a dead silence. I wont go into the topics that were discussed, but I can say that of them, I was most interested in the one about the absorbtion of heat by gases in the air.

As a desire to become a more service orientated person, I went to the far away Office of Student Health Promotion. Why did I go here? Well I went here to go and make some Quit kits (which are free kits) for those that desire to quite smoking. I proceeded and managed to make several of these bags with another person from the office. We put loads of candy in them, straws and papers, and even sunflower seeds, for them to have as alternates to smoking. I believe that this was a wonderful idea as “for no cost at all” with this amount of goodies in a bag, then it will definitely persuade them to quite smoking.

Friday night consisted of two events. The first and most important event was my trip to the Cheesecake Factory. For an event for this month, the Student Alumni Ambassador organization that I am apart of decided to go to someplace to eat at (at no cost to us because the alumni paid for us to eat anywhere). We left the Alumni House promptly at 6:30 in place of somewhere to eat. Our destination was set for the Cheesecake Factory. When we arrived there I was met with one of the most amazing sights ever. The place appeared to look like it was an oriental type setup however, I thought it was mixed. Shouldn’t the Cheesecake Factory look like a more modern restaurant building or at least a tall sort of building and not an oriental genie type look? Needless to say, we didn’t eat there. There was apparently a wait of about three hours and we couldn’t endure the wait.

We left from there quickly and went over to another restaurant that I had never been to. This time it was the Red Robin’s place which featured hamburgers and other meals of that sort. The wait here for our party of 10 was only 15 minutes. We were ecstatic and decided to endure the wait. What ended up occurring was that we were seated accordingly. We got seats in the middle and was met with one of the most friendliest servers.

I ordered quite a bit of food actually. I started it off with Very Berry Raspberry Limeade, which I drunk quite a bit of. It was too utterly delicious but it still pleased the taste buds (although the limeade was a bit strong!). Next I ate a moderately sized Caesar Salad. It had the tastiest croutons ever. I loved the salad and can quite greatly remember the taste of those savory bacon bits. For my entrée, I ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger with Steak Fried Fries. It was the best sandwich that I have ever had in the world with the best fries ever. What made it super tasty was the Red Robin seasoning. The carton was full but I used nearly an eight of it that night (and let me tell you, there is a enough of it for 210 people). The seasoning tasted great on the fries and moderately good on the sandwich itself.

After that event, I proceeded to another one with Aletheia. This one was a party at their apartment headquarters place. I found it to be quite entertaining as we spent the evening decorating a Christmas Tree with Popcorn, ornaments, and other things that could be personalized (such as an ornament with our pictures on it). We read the Christmas story from Matthew that night. It was a great and memorable night and I almost fell asleep while there.

All in all, Friday was a great day. I loved having the chance to meet with my groups again, I loved the task of being able to go to places, and most importantly, I loved the task of finally having something to do other than Cinemas.

Filled Days

It seems that due to a strange turn in events, my dates for blogging are completely not correlated (sorry for this vocabulary it is salient for the explanation). As you have noticed, I have been posting things long after they have actually transpired. But alas, today I shall catch up, not in list format again.

Wednesday opened up with me oversleeping in a sort of way. Because I didn’t get to bed until 6 o’clock that morning, I decided to stay in bed and miss my 9:00 Religion in Contemporary America class. Now you might say something about missing class, but I had it covered. The instructor had already given us the notes for the day (for the entire year), so we could virtually miss all the classes and still do well on the tests. I woke up at about noon time and quickly washed up and got up. I went straight to the Shafer Dining Court to eat. I decided to have a health conscious day, so my lunch consisted of no meat at all. (Well I would probably have gotten meat if the Beef soup wasn’t so red and the lines for the other entrées weren’t miles long). I got a huge bowl of salad and loads of juicy pineapples (which are second to my favorite only to Kiwi Fruit!).

I left Shafer and went to the Commons for a meeting with a counselor. We talked about our wonderful Thanksgiving and a few other minor things that I won’t mention here for the sake of time. The Cancer Awareness Team meeting commenced immediately after that. At the onset of the meeting I went to try out this Rice Bowl from the eatery in the same building. If it hadn’t been for my need to spend 80 meal swipes that remain on my meal plan (which is equivalent to $7.03x80) then I wouldn’t have gotten it. I did and had a ball. The bowl that I got was a very spicy chicken bowl. I nearly cried when I first began because it was super spicy (not the chicken but the rice and the sauce). Because it seemed like everyone was staring at me, I ate it slyly.

My Introduction to Life Science Class commenced after this. This was perhaps the most phenomenal moment of the week, I guess we could say. Class period consisted of a marvelous lecture by an Instructor about the joys and case studies of Clinical Laboratory Sciences. I found it to be very interesting. We examined cases of Transfusion Medicine and Hematology (a person experienced liver problems and it was believe that they had perhaps contracted Hepatitis B from the received blood, however we found out that it was a result of Acetaminophen). There were a few other cases examined that would be too detailed to list, but each one continued to grab my interest. I think that it was this day that I found out that which I wanted to do with my life after graduating. I would be in a medical/non-medical profession and be able to change people’s lives through discovery and prevention of disease. I continued to listen in closely and began to wonder if I should change my current major to Clinical Laboratory Science or to add it as a double major so I left it at that.

That night was another one of my classes, Ethics and Applications. Because we hadn’t had class before the Thanksgiving Break (the instructor was sick) and then we had Thanksgiving Break, we hadn’t met in nearly three weeks. That night was our final lecture period and we covered two topics. The first topic involved “The obligation of Children to their Parents” and the second topic was basically “The Absurdity of Life” from Nagel [Absurdity of life argument was kind of interesting because it stated that life is absurd because we can see ourselves through both an external and internal eye, the further we go out externally the more and more we see that what we do doesn’t change the world, thus giving us a nihilistic view of the world (for those that don’t know nihilistic view is quite believable in that it sorta states that nothing that we do will matter and on a moral view there is neither right and wrong in a sort of way), if we were to abandon this external view than it wouldn’t be absurd, however the only way to do that is to have a lobotomy surgery. However it did state that even though life is absurd that that isn’t a bad thing for if seeing ourselves externally does make us re-evaluate events in our lives]. Class lasted for about 3 hours and then we were released to go.

Thursday opened up with similar results as Tuesday. I managed to follow my plan of waking up (though at 9 rather than 6:45). I went to the Welcome Center to give another Tour of the Campus. This time I made another dumb and embarrassing move (on Tuesday it was completely blanking out). This time immediately after I had explained the busiest street in Richmond, I ran right into a Fire Hydrant, hurt my leg, and nearly fell over right as everyone was laughing. Luckily, I thought it was funny and managed to keep myself from falling. Boy did I feel so bad after that!

After the tour I managed to check my email for important updates. The most important one that I would love to share is the fact that my adviser told me that I could add Clinical Laboratory Science to my program, but it would be a sort of Double Major. I was ecstatic. The previous night I had reaffirmed to myself that I would go ahead and get it added on to my program schedule. Many of the classes that I am taking and will take can be tailored to both programs as they both involve virtually the same things. This is quite amazing!

That day I met with an instructor from VCU with a friend and discussed some sort of research plans. There is currently a program called BioBike that needs a bit of help done on it. It is a program that is tailored to high school students and professions. If one were to understand the program (both definitions of program are used here, program as in pure computer program and program as in it does something), then it could virtually be used for all sorts of Gene Research. Where the problem lies is that many people do not know any sort of programming language nor do they know how to actually get the program to give them what they want. It is logic lead and is on its way to becoming less of a pure code codec and more of a user friendly extremely visual program. What me and my friend's goal is, is to perhaps help the researches (who are mainly foreign and non native English speakers) make this easier for the high school students and non biology students to understand so that they can put it into practice. We will receive some monetary reward for this task as well as a trip to some place in the United States.

That night was another meeting with the Aletheia organization. I got there a bit late and was feeling a bit tired but I managed to hold and pull through. The discussion was really interesting this time. We discussed a bible verse that I had previously read and could still remember (the story of the workers who all begin at different times and get the same wage, it is the story “of the last shall be first and the first shall be last”). It was a great discussion and it left us with a thought on our hearts.

After doing a Calculator based lab in the PreCalculus class that I take [my instructor wont be here next semester, oh no!] me and a friend went over to the Shafer Court Dining Center for their Fine Dining Program. There was massive imbroglio (confusion) and a lengthy line. We were nearly the last few in line and sat there for nearly 2 hours waiting to order. Now if we had something to do we wouldn’t have waited but I think because we were the last few that it would have been a bit pointless to leave. There were about 39 people in line in front of us and a few going in to sit down. They stopped allowing people in to sit down and couldn’t take any more people in the to go line because they weren’t expecting so many people to turn up [lets try to figure this out, there are approximately 30,000 students and Faculty at VCU, of those quite a large portion have some sort of meal plan or meal swipes, and of those few about 10,000 (which is quite large) live on campus. So at this point in time, we can safely assume that if it were some major event then they should expect to serve 10,000 (which is unheard of by the way). Furthermore, of those 10,000 that could live on campus many would opt for other dining options than something so expensive and could go out to eat buffet upstairs, or at the other places on campus, so we will be generous here and perhaps eliminate 9000 people leaving us with about 1000 or so people to eat, and of course with people factor incorporated I would even take it as low as 600 people max that could come)] So knowing this why would they be not prepared to have this number, it just seems so strange that they would have been this massively unprepared! People sat and waited, sat and waited, sat and waited, and virtually at 11 that night (hours after our arrival at 8 (don’t forget there were 30+ in front of us who were waiting even longer), we get our food out of order. (People in front of us were still there when we left!). Next time I am going to make a reservation for eating in.

The final thing I would like to point out of my day was that when I got back to my dorm I nearly went supernova. From about 12 until 3:30 in the morning, there people in the hallway being ridiculously loud. At night you are supposed to at least be quiet to let people sleep, but no, the same people (this has been going on for quite some time at many hours of the day) continue to use their outside voices (to sound elementary for a bit). They shout and they are all in the same room, they purposely laugh too loud, and even more they shout, yell, and make all sorts of loud noises during even the middle of the day. It is entirely pointless and not even needed for me on the complete opposite end of the hall to hear these people! I would personally rather hear loud music than constant bouts of this talking! Can I just have one night of silence, please?