I am so glad to be finished with English and speech classes.  They were some of the most difficult and challenging courses I’ve taken.  Grades should be post by the end of this week.

I can apply for my Aggie Ring as soon as the credits get transferred to Texas A&M.  Once ordered, I will receive it in November.  I am taking 15 hours this fall, and my parents agreed to purchase a sports pass this year, so I plan on going to as many games as possible.

Today, tropical storm Edouard came though town; I’ve seen more water come out of a sprinkler system.  I was very disappointed; I wanted a drenching thunderstorm.

I think I am going to redesign my blog this month, before school starts up.  But don’t hold me to it.  Trying to do things when working 40 hours per week is not always as easy as it seems.  I like when school is in session, because I feel like I get more done.

Synopsis of my grades for the last semester of junior year.

I attribute the iPod as a leading reason for the decline in “howdy’s” that I hear.  The popularity of the Apple iPod and other mp3 players lead to people wearing headphones to and from class on campus.  Listening to music, Aggies are less likely to spout a brief “howdy” to the person walk by, and if you walk by someone wearing headphones/earbuds you are less likely to say “howdy,” as not to disturb them.

This is a sad trend here in Aggieland.  I hope the new classes admitted will push to bring back “howdy” to the levels it once was.  I’ll do my part and say “howdy” to everyone I pass.

At work, I was able to complete or, at least, send several ISER’s on their way (positive).  After 5 PM, I worked on a project to upgrade all of the PC’s in one department to Office 2003.  This involved uninstalling Office 2000, installing Office 2003, and running an audit program that scans the PC for software.  All of the PC’s except one were updated and most PC’s had successful audits (moderate positive).  I’ve almost completed that project task (positive, I really like completing things, it gives me a sense of accomplishment).  So, I was able to leave work at 8:30 PM (moderate negative, it could have been later), totaling a little more than 22 hours for this week (positive).

I made it home in time for Battlestar Galactica and I will watch Battle 360° when it repeats at 1 AM (positive).  When I checked my email, I discovered that I might be getting a second job as a web designer from my former boss (major positive)!  This has really got me excited!

Later this evening, I’m going to take a hot shower (positive) and go to sleep for close to 11 hours (big positive).  I hope everyone had and will have an excellent day!

All Week: The weather is unseasonably sweltering. It is so hot and humid!

Monday: I had to turn in two projects for different classes. I found out how bad I did on my exams. I thought I would do pretty well, but I’m in the mid-80s range. Not good for me. I also found out that I had an exam this week, that I had forgotten about.

Tuesday: I had PSYC 107 class. That’s bad enough to ruin anyone’s day. The power then proceeded to go out with an explosion at a sub-station near College Station. The power was out for up to 5 hours. Several people got stuck in elevators on campus. That might be fun if you were stuck with someone to talk to.

Wednesday: I wasn’t able to get into a study that I need for psychology class. On the way home my air conditioner in my car decided that the switch would break. Now, I can’t switch it off of defrost. The cold air still comes in, but in window and not the front vents. I don’t have the money to fix this right now!!

Thursday: I had an exam in Management 211 (my business law class) which turned out to be not so horrible; we’ll have to see how the grades describe the difficulty. Fortunately, I’m having dinner tonight with two friends from calculus class later year. Hopefully everything will work out right.

I have a question that somewhat bothers me, but not really. Is it sadistic for me to enjoy stepping on acorns and cracking and smashing them into the ground. I also like the sound it makes.

I do believe this culture of ours is overly stimulated and hyperactive. We always have something to fill in every last minute of our days. I’m guilty of this for sure. I have podcasts that fill up my “free” time. We all need to step back and just think; not about anything in particular or specific, just mentally float.

Something you may already know if you know me personally is that I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m the one who wants the guy to get the girl. Lately, I’ve just had a strong concern or desire to find a woman to complete my life. I want to find a soul mate to share everything with. I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about marriage lately; maybe it’s because I’ve been too busy to do anything social, but getting married has always been a strong desire of mine. Yes, I know, this is really deep so I’ll be moving on now.

I’ve had a pretty continuous argument with my dad about Wikipedia for the past couple of years. He says that it can’t be used for anything, because it is unreliable. I don’t believe that to be true. There have been many, many times that Wikipedia trumps any other place to find info for my college homework or studies. You have to take the info with a grain of salt, yes, but you have to do the same thing with college textbooks which are written by individually biased, intentionally or not, professors. Every time you go to a lecture or read a page out of a textbook, you are taking the word of the author that the information is accurate. With Wikipedia, you are taking the word of groups of people who have edited and are re-editing the page. Along with that, I believe that the history of the edits is available so viewers can go back and compare the different entries for false information or back and forth changes of a controversial issue. So, to sum all of this up, where ever you get your information, you must look at the source to verify accuracy.

Also, I still am in pain with my teeth, gums, and cheeks. I am stilling eating really soft foods. It hurts to smile. I don’t handle swallowing pills very well. (My subconscience keeps my mouth and throat from allowing the pill down.) Hopefully, it’s healing correctly and as fast as it can. I want to be done with it all!

One thing that hasn’t been so great is that I can only work 2 hours a day at my current job, because of the travel. I may have to get a different job sooner that I thought.

Tomorrow, I am going in for oral surgery to remove all four of my wisdom teeth. Two are coming in sideways and the other two are twisted really badly. Because of this I will be missing Thursday and Friday’s classes. Fortunately, I’ve talked with all of my professors and I shouldn’t miss much. I’ll just have to get notes from a classmate when I return on Monday. Now is better than later when they might really hurt badly in the middle of finals.

Update: I’m officially a sophomore with a 4.0!

It seems like this is going to continue to be a pretty easy class after having calculus. If it gets hard, I’ll let you know.

Update: I made a 95, missing only one problem, but there was a 9 point curve so I made 104.

At school in my classroom, I was able to download a video file at 4.8 Mbps! That’s an insane speed. Something that would take one hour at work, took 30 seconds there. I’m very hooked to the high-speed!

Tonight, we are going to shoot off a bunch of fireworks. It’s been very wet this week which is great for us, because we don’t have to worry so much about catching stuff on fire. I’ll put some photos up soon. Happy 4th!

The grades are official! I still have a 4.0! That is such a relief. I was worried about Calculus.

Update: I made an 88 on my calculus exam. I am so glad.