Hi!

Hi, and welcome to my blog-turned-place where I post my writing. This is my outlet to put them up, which was radically different from the blog that this started out as. I hope you'll have a good time reading my blog/place where I post some poetry and some short stories. I try to cover a variety of topics in these works of mine, so I hope any readers will enjoy it. I'm not an English major by any stretch, but I enjoy writing. Critique would be nice for my writing, cause lord knows I could work on it. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Random thought on the snow fall

You know, seeing this snow fall earlier this afternoon makes me really long for somebody I can curl up with by a fire, maybe under the mistletoe. Somebody to keep me warm, in that way. Just wishful thinking on my part, but I guess being single for Christmas break has its pluses; as my friend Alex points out, less things to get for Christmas, among other things. Oh well, maybe next year. (This goes out to all the ladies out there. Just an FYI. I'm single.)

Snow!

IT SNOWED TODAY!

First semester grades are in...

...and I have a 1.7 gpa =((((((((((. I'm pissed, as I should have done way better; like, not failing Stat for one, given my background in that subject. My first year seminar and my History 131 classes came as a surprise too, as I wasn't expecting C's in both those classes. Thankfully, the parents knew that I had tried and studied a ton, so they actually were really sympathetic. But you know what? It's up to me to kick some freaking ass next semester, as well as the next three years at UMW!

Alumni Panel thing today

As the title indicates, I went in to Lake Braddock today to serve on an alumni panel for the seniors in the government classes. Now, initially I was skeptical of it, as I kinda wanted to sleep in and whatnot. However, it was pretty fun, and totally worth having to get up at 6:30 (oh how I remember those high school days). It was nice knowing that I, as well as my alumni peers, may have helped these current seniors look at college a little bit differently. Also, I felt very special because you have the college experience, which helps others learn that stuff. Being able to relate my experiences with the seniors and to get a chance to publicly share that, I felt powerful. Great experience, and I'd really want to do that another time!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Book Review #2

Okay so I just finished reading a great book today, entitled One More Day Everywhere: Crossing 50 Borders on the Road to Global Understanding, by Glen Heggsted. It's about his journey obviously through 50 borders throughout the world, on a motorcycle. The reasoning behind that was, he was captured by Colombian terrorists when attempting to motorcycle through South America, so he took this trip to essentially stick it to the man.

It was riveting, his book, as you really were there for him on his journey; the way he narrated it, it was if you were biking with him. It was cool how he described every country that he was with, as it really showed the rest of the world in a different perspective, more than we normally associate with. Also, the fact that he was doing this by himself and really not much outside support, it added a sense of danger to his trip. I mean, I was rooting for his two year-long journey to go off without a hitch, so I was especially riveted to his journey. It probably also helps that I'm a sucker for these kind of stories, but it definitely would appeal to any other interests. I highly recommend this, but you need to budget some time to read this, as it's very riveting. 5/5 stars is the verdict.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Semester in review

Now that I'm home for a month for Winter Break, it marks the ending of my first semester of college. I figured that in commemoration, I'd do a celebratory look back at the semester it was. Without further ado, I present, in no specific order (though I'll try to), some of the memorable/significant/random/fun events of my short college career so far. Enjoy!

- Moving in on Orientation Week, and being scared/excited to start college.
- Meeting Eric and Chris, my roommates. The initial couple of days were a bit awkward getting to know each other, but we've since hit it off.
- For that matter, meeting my fellow freshmen. It was a bit awkward, as we all were like "Hi, I'm..." but tons of friends were made. Finding out that a lot more people from Fairfax County and/or NoVa than you'd expected to be here was a pleasant surprise too.
- Getting totally bitched out on the first night of orientation for our mandatory dorm meeting. Totally bitched out. And then finding out later that it really was just for show; the R.A.'s really didn't mean half of what they said, and were basically required to bitch us all out.
- Living on the party floor of the party dorm, aka 4th floor of Russell Hall. And conveniently, we're kinda isolated on campus. And we're also right behind the campus police station. Irony, much?
- The freaking heat. You all know how it was the hottest Summer we've had in recent memory? Yeah well we had to live in our dorm (a few others had it) without A/C until at least September. And I was on the top bunk.
- Starting college classes for the first time, and being rather intimidated until after the second week or so.
- College food
- Eric and I checking Chris' closet for one whole week to establish that his towel actually was wet from showering. (We established, for the record, that it was dry the whole time, at least that we could see.)
- The drunk kids. Lots of them.
- Mahmood getting high/drunk...the first night...of orientation. That kid has issues, seriously.
- Because of him and the other drunk kids, we all were taking bets on who would be the first person to get kicked out. More on that later.
- Our side of the floor being the better side
- The destructive side of Dalton Echard. More so when he's drunk.
- "Trinkle"
- "Dimples"
- The small, yet dedicated and passionate music department
- Being the only student trombonist in Concert Band. Come to think of it, I was the only trombonist in that band until Dr. Bartram enlisted the services of a player from the community to play with me.
- Jazz Band being super chill and a blast.
- Symphony (what I call it), or Philharmonic (what they officially call it), being a new thing and pretty rewarding.
- Sleeping for 70 minutes in one symphony rehearsal, cause they were playing a song that I really didn't play. And they were constantly rehearsing a couple of sections that I didn't play on.
- Sleeping on two chairs in the back of the room in said rehearsal
- The sleep, or lack of, at times
- Speaking of sleep, the fact that nobody had to wake you up and the revelation that you technically didn't have to go to class and could sleep in was a definite wakeup (haha there's a pun there) call that Dorothy, this wasn't Kansas anymore.
- Chris staying up 'til god knows when at night/the morning, on his laptop, doing god knows what on it
- Both Eric and I swear that Chris watches us leave in the mornings for class
- Chris' hygiene. Or lack of. And his aversion to Febreeze and anything else that would make the room smell less pungent.
- Keegan and his frosted tips
- Me being known as the dude who always plays NHL 11 downstairs in the common room
- Carolyn and her "meth lab"
- Being told that if you're a rookie drinker, don't, don't, don't drink anything from Ben's room. Note that while he has a roommate (there's a story about that, actually), it was colloquially known as Ben's room.
- The parties, of which I've heard stories of.
- Coming back on the Friday before Halloween and having my glasses fogged up due to the massive amount of body heat in Russell, thanks to our Heaven or Hell party that night.
- The completely random late-night chats with friends that came out of absolutely nowhere. They're honestly one of the best parts of college, those late night chats/doing random stuff.
- Speaking of that, we've had some very intense Sporcle games, ranging from 11at night to after 3 in the morning. Trying to think of things very late at night is very fun, and very frustrating at times. But totally worth it.
- Doing laundry on the weekends, and it being very quiet, due to everybody being too wasted/tired/hungover from the previous night.
- Having my first drink. I don't drink, let me just say, but I've had half a cup of whiskey twice with Keegan. The first time, I couldn't really drink too much. The second time, he mixed it with his Mexican Coke (stuff's dee-lish) and man, that stuff is good. And I was sort of buzzed that night.
- Keegan's Mexican Coke is the best Coke I've had, barring the whole sketchiness of what that must sound like.
- Watching Caps games with Keegan, as he gets progressively more drunk.
- Eating Swedish Fish while slightly buzzed while watching the Caps game on Thursday night in Keegan/Isaac's room, with Keegan, Isaac, Sandra, and Bob. Such a great night. =)
- The random conversations I've had in Keegan/Isaac's room with them
- Austin and his suicidal drinking tendencies (7 beers
- Strip foosball. I need more practice, let's just say.
- Yes, we do have a foosball table that we rescued from the destructive other side of the hall.
- The furniture wars we've had.
- Stealing back a couch from the other side of the hall, with Eric and Bob. We felt like ninjas afterwards.
- Heading out to lunch one Saturday morning to find two chairs and several mattresses chucked outside the dorm. And of course, it was the other side of the hall who did it.
- Apparently my name, courtesy of John C., is Cone-tin Smeedy. And I'm honestly kinda proud of it.
- Bob Ericson. I love that kid.
- Hearing Cooper get extremely pissed off when playing Gears of War 2 online
- The first thing I heard in Jazz Band was Piccolo (he's a trombonist player, which is hilarious and ironic) tell James that "he waited the whole year", being a week or so, to tell him to "suck his dick". I love Jazz Band.
- Joe and his beard. And his hairy chest. No homo.
- Making a ton of amazing friends.
- Being a college kid.
- Seeing a ton of kids on campus that you don't personally know but you recognize, and being attached to them just cause you've really seen them a ton.
- Playing some freakishly intense street hockey in the rain for an hour and a half and getting totally soaked, but it's all good- you felt like a boss afterwards.
- Winning our Eagle One Cup (as named by me) in our championships for our street hockey club
- Making that at Matt's house, and actually eating real barbeque!
- My average breakfast on the weekend was cereal, mostly Fruit Loops, and Mountain Dew.
- Sleeping in on the weekends, procrastinating, and doing work you should have done like a week ago.
- Professors that are not only chill, but they really know their stuff.
- "Studying" with "a friend"
- Getting far to distracted on Facebook to do work; you will then regret being on Facebook when you're doing a paper at 11:30 at night.
- "Beijing" setting off the fire alarm cause he was a retard and forgot to put water in his Mac 'n Cheese.
- The next time the fire alarm went off and wasn't a drill, somebody on the third floor burnt popcorn
- Somebody on the guy (go figure) side of first floor burnt popcorn; we're now waiting for second floor to complete all four levels of complete microwave stupidity/incompetence.
- Passing our only fire drill to date
- We then proceeded to fail our next 5 fire drills after passing the first one. The first time we failed, it was around 4, and the head fire marshall was there to see us fail that one.
- The fifth time we failed, it was before the Thanksgiving break, meaning hardly anybody was there to fail it for the five people still there. And they fined all of us for that, apparently.
- Some moron slept through one of our drills at the wee hours of the morning, and thus led all of us to fail it.
- Our head R.A. has vodka in her room, which partially would explain the very lax enforcement of underage drinking in our dorm.
- David Justis did a reverse strip tease for the Mr. Russell contest. It's funnier when you take into the account that he almost always is shirtless, and wears those short runner's shorts. He didn't win the competition in case you were wondering.
- Stephen getting kicked out essentially, for lighting paper towels on fire in the bathroom. He actually got hauled off by the cops, too. Shame, I'm really gonna miss that kid.
- Finally, the fact that I realized that some people I know might/will transfer schools/dorms/dorm rooms, and that I won't be able to see them and hang out with them while doing/talking about quirky/stupid/weird things. I'm really gonna miss all of you.

Musical Note (haha there's a pun)

Yes, I just pulled off a pun there. But still, I've been in a very military march mood, thanks to studying for finals; they really got me focused, so they helped. Now, I've still been listening to a ton of them on YouTube. The ones I've really been listening to have been mostly German/Prussian/Austrian marches, with a few other English and French ones mixed in. My personal favorite so far has been Oh, du mein Osterreich, with The Men of Harlech closely behind that. Unter der Doppeladler is a great one, too. If you're interested, this is what I recommend listening to, in no particular order:
- Oh, du mein Osterreich
- The Men of Harlech
- 99er Regimentsmarsch 
- Präsentiermarsch des Wachregiment
-  Marche de la Legion/Le Boudin 
- Königgrätzer Marsch 
- Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse 
- Preussens Gloria


Try not to get too inspired after listening to these

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Oh man, this isn't good-Campus alert

A student reported seeing an individual in possession of a handgun on campus walk near Simpson Library late Sunday evening. The individual was described as a white male with a black goatee and stocky build, about 5’5” tall, and wearing a dark hoodie shirt with red lining and blue jeans. He was carrying a backpack. Students and staff are being advised to shelter in place, be alert, and practice good situational awareness. The individual is being sought by campus police for further investigation. If you see an individual matching the description, please contact campus police and do not try to engage, stop or question him.

Life insight, courtesy of Twitter

Saw this and retweeted this on Twitter:
Top 5 Dispute Levels: 5-Divorce Court; 4-Political Campaigns; 3-Land Wars; 2-Religious Wars; 1-Sports fans on message boards

You may argue with this, but I've been around enough to verify this; politicians and their followers are strongly dedicated to their cause, but sports fans are just nuts.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Common Room Chair Wars

'Round 3 today, Eric, Bob, and I stole back a chair from the other side of our floor's common room. We were hanging out in the room across from us, watching them play Zombies in COD: Black Ops, when Eric just walks in and was like, "Hey, you guys wanna help me steal a chair from the other side?" This was in revenge for the stealing of one of ours that occurred around midnight. Revenge is sweet, and we all felt like ninjas afterwards. Win.

Fire, Fire, Burning...Black?

This morning, I got up to go to the bathroom. Guess what I found in there? Charred remains of paper. All over the floor. And even in the showers. Needless to say, it was pretty disgusting, and the cleaning people were not happy at all. In fact, it was a felony and the police arrived to investigate. Around 1, I tried to go to the bathroom, but was told that I couldn't, and that I had to go to other bathroom. Meaning, this stuff was getting serious. Though later, I learned that the person in question, who I'm friends with, got hauled off by campus police. Must be a fun Friday for him, then.