Scattered Thoughts

I must apologize for my lack of posting in the recent weeks. The reason is simple. I don't have much free time and I really like spending my time with Erin, so the free time that I get is spent with her in one way shape or form, hence the blog getting ignored. I will make an honest effort to update more often during the next couple weeks.

This last weekend was possibly the BEST weekend I've ever had. Thanks to Erin and her totally awesome brother, Kevin. He came down for the weekend to hang out, and to be honest with you all, I was very nervous about meeting him. But as soon as he and I made it through the akward first ten minutes, we got along famously.

If you could imagine me as a twin, that would pretty much be Kevin.

So here's the weekend's events:

Thursday, I chilled with Erin after I got done with work, we talked, chilled. that's about it. That night I get a call from none other than the famous Michael Mojonnier. Let's just say he wasn't quite himself. For being the first time he talked to Erin, he left quite an impression. I'm sure they'll get to know each other better this summer.

Friday night was the best. We sat around, got wasted and danced around Erin and Shae's place all night. No drinking games were needed, we all were ready to get smashed. The events of the evening unfolded and eventually Kevin ended up dancing with a stick, diving from a packet-of-something gernade and talking to me about my choice in vehicles (which he approves of, btw). Shae and Erin tried to do a step dance, which ended hilariously… and the best part is I HAVE VIDEO OF ALL THESE THINGS! They will be posted, somewhere at some time, and the links will be here.

Saturday morning was the traditional KEGGS AND EGGOS party at 322. For those of you who don't know, it's the pre-race drink fest. It was a bit lame this year, partly attributed to the folks who were there and the festivities that were set-in-stone planned.

Naptime ensued.

After naptime, dinner and then more drinking. We played drinking games, watched Robbin Williams Live on Broadway and watched as Kevin went Kung-Fu on the moths that decided to join our party.

That very night, the famous Michal Mojonnier tried to call me again, only I didn't hear his phone call.

Sunday came around and everything was over… Erin Kevin and I went geocaching, a sport that he wishes to beat me at now. We went out to the Haunted Cemerary in the Morgan-Monroe. On our walk up to the cache, we walked past the graveyard, and got yelled at: "Brian" – random guy, "Nope, not who you're looking for" – me. On our trip back, these dudes were in a circle around a fire in the middle of the graveyard with their hands to the sky…

We definitely interrupted something that we should not have seen.

As we were walking out of the graveyard, more people showed up. These guys would bring the total up to near 20. They weren't as "friendly" as the other folks. They were rude to us as we were walking back to my truck.

When we arrived at the truck, we definitely heard a guy scream… loudly… from the graveyard…

Needless to say, we hopped into my truck as fast as we could, and drove off…

On our way out of the forest, we notified the proper authorities and they checked out the situation of suspicious people…

That's all for now…

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown

Song of the Day – Get Back – Godsmack

Heroes of the Weekend – Erin, Shae and Dan for making my weekend awesome.

Hero of the Indefinite Time Period – Kevin for putting the "icing" on the weekend. It was awesome to meet him, and it's even more awesome that he's my girlfriend's brother

Quote of the Day – "MY TEXT IS VISIBLE! MY LIFE IS AWESOME! I LOVE YOU!" –Erin after I explained to her how to change the foreground color using CSS.

Current Mood – – Elated. What an awesome weekend!

Until the next post…

Well, yesterday began mating season here on the Bloomington campus. The awesome weather and end of the year stress combine this week to promise skipped classes, random hookups and copious amounts of alcohol for most.

Yes, it is once again the week before the Little 500 and the orange plastic fences have sprouted around fraternity houses as if they were spring flowers awakening to the warm weather. This is truely the week before the "World's Greatest College Weekend". Students opt out of classes to lay out in the sun or play ultimate frisbee on Woodlawn Field or throw a baseball back and forth on Dunn Meadow.

Everyone already knows how their semester grades will turn out and how much work they need to put into them, but most decide to 'take it easy' for this one week. Every night, the bars are packed to the walls as if it were a Friday or Saturday night, taxis look as busy as bees as their drivers direct them through the already packed streets.

This week leads up to a little known event called the Little 500, a bike race which celebrates the beginning of spring along side physical activity. Since 1951 the race has been held every year, the same weekend at the beautiful Bill Armstrong Stadium, home of Jerry Yeagley Field. The event, rich in tradition, was founded by Howie Wilcox and the IU Foundation as a way to raise scholarship money to help students pay their way through school. The event has since become the greatest collegiate cycling event surrounded by a week of festivities.

I've had this post drafted for a while because I can't figure out how to finish it, so this is it. THE BIG FINISH.

yep… that's a big finish you may say…

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown

Song of the Day – No Rain – Blind Melon

Hero of the Day – The 2004 Ransburg Reservation Staff. I'm all excited about the summer now!

Quote of the Day – "I'll have some blueberry pancakes with maper syrup." – John when he saw that I was making breakfast.

Current Mood – – Excited for the week and weekend.

Darwin Award Recipient for the week beginning April 11, 2004
Cami for not knowing the difference between an Opthamologist and an Obstetrician. It had to be explained to her before we went to dinner last night. Granted it happened this week, but it's worthy of an award.

Until the next post…
peace out!

What a beautiful day! The sun was shining, the birds were chirpping, the streets were filled with the smell of flowering trees and plants. Who could ask for anything more?

Yesterday was quite eventful and so was today. As some of you know, I had to take my truck to the mechanic on Wednesday to have new rotors and pads put on. That's costing me $350, but Chris, the mechanic, said that my tires were dry-rotting. I remember thinking "Great… that's yet another $500 or so that I need to spend".

Well, I called my parents and talked to them about it. They told me to do some looking, find a nice off-road tire that I want (both my dad and I want to put some nice tires on it because of the gravel/mud road traveling that I do) and they would see about getting them put on while it's in the shop. That, above all else made my Wednesday awesome.

I spent a majority of Wednesday night talking to John and searching online to find a tire that I wanted. I ended up deciding on exactly the tire that John has on his Rubicon, the Goodyear Wrangler MTR. They're a little pricey, but the parents agreed to have them put on. $963… Someone is getting an early Christmas gift.

Chris, the mechanic, told me today that the depots in Bloomington and Indianapolis do not have the tire on hand, but the one in Louisville did. My new tires are on a truck on their way to Bloomington Those of you going to the staff weekend will get to see them, maybe.

That is by far the most interesting thing that's happened to me this week. Just thought I'd share with everyone.

I've been feeling the need to be creative lately. I don't know what it is, but the need t write something creative here. Something that is enjoyable to read yet has some deep inner meaning, some insight into my life. John, I know what you mean by suffering from Writer's Block. This isn't the first time I've had it, and I'm sure it definitely won't be the last, I just hope it doesn't last too long.

I apologize to those of you who read looking for entries like this. I'm not too keen on writing them, because it's blogging. At their inception, blogs were meant as a medium to exchange ideas and views on particular subjects. Now, I DO write about my daily life and my personal feelings in my live journal, but it's friends only, so you have to have a LJ to read my LJ. I would have it be public, but there are things that I write about in there that I don't want the general public to know. It's just one of those things.

Alright, I've made you all read enough for the night, I'm done.

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown

Song of the Day – Dry the Rain – The Beta Band

Hero of the Day – Erin for letting me borrow her car for the night while my truck is in the shop.

Quote of the Day – ATTACK OF THE KILLER SQUIRRELS AND THE ATOMIC ACORNS! – Me, after Jeremy put an acorn and a squirrel in the chat tonight.. yes, I know, I'm a tool. Who has squirrles and acorns as emoticons anyway??? That's right, we do, here at STC

Current Mood – – Anxious to get my truck back and drive it with my new tires

Until next post…
Don't talk to strangers, they may be terrorists.

So, I didn't really want to wake up this morning, but now that I'm awake, here I am. This post is just a bunch of random thoughts that were running through my head while I was at work today. So let's use the ordered list tag to make my entry look pretty…

1. Teach for America – Throughout the last few weeks, I've been trying to figure out more of what I want to do when I graduate. I have definitely decided (a couple months ago) that I want to go to graduate school for something. The current options are 1) Informatics of some kind, 2) Outdoor Recreation (probably administration or something of the like) 3) Education or Education Administration. Right now, I'm leaning more toward some kind of education. Since my GPA isn't looking as good as it should be, I'll have to find an alternate means to get into graduate school. Kirstee introduced me to the Teach for America program about a month ago. I've been doing a lot of research about the program the last few days trying to find out what it would entail and the more I look at it, the more I want to do it. Check out the site if you want more details. Basically, I would like to go to either Baltimore, DC or Houston to teach soon after college. This all depends on if I get accepted and if I don't find another job first.

   What better way to spend two years of your life than to help out some less fortunate children?

2. Rockstar Parking? – I saw the coolest sticker today. Ok, maybe not the coolest, but it was definitely worth noting. It was on the back of one of those power chairs. The sticker was blue, had the handicap parking logo on it and said "Rockstar Parking". It made me chuckle
3. Cares? Don't Cares? – And the Don't Cares have it. At least in my current academic situation they do. I just do not care about a couple of my classes. I know this is dangerous especially sicne I want to get into some graduate program somewhere in the country, but I can't help it. I've tried to care, I just can't. I have an assignment due today that I have half-assed my way through and an exam this evening that I haven't started studying for yet. I definitely have senioritis, and I have one more year of studying. I think I posted about this in my LJ a while ago, but not here, so this is to enlighten those of you who don't read the LJ. If this is a duplicate topic, I'm sorry.
4. The Ransburg Countdown – Oh how close it is, yet so far away. I look at my calendar and it says "Move to Ransburg" three and a half weeks away, but then I look at my school and work schedule and it says "You are never going to get out of this semester alive". I just want to get this semester done with so I can go be refreshed and hopefully care more next semester.

I think that's all I should ramble about in this post, it's already pretty long. I'm starting to turn into pinKUS.

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown

Song of the Day – Good Day Sunshine – The Beatles

Hero of the Day – The weather, I dont' think anyone will argue about this one with me. The weather today is beautiful and it's only supposed to get better as the weekend goes on. Staff weekend will be amazing!

Quote of the Day – "She thought you were just trying to get her off… of you." –Erin

Current Mood – – Extremely Happy

Until next post…
later days

For those of you who keep yourselves sheltered from all national news, there is an interesting debate going on in the Supreme Court right now about the words "One Nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. An atheist named Michael Newdow sued his child's school system in California for making his child say the Pledge of Allegiance saying thta it was against his freedom of religion to proclaim that there exists a supreme being.

The federal appeal's court upheld a ruling in his favor, and the case has since been raised to the United States Supreme Court for a final ruling. The debate has been going on for some time now.

This is what I think:

I agree with the appellate court's ruling. These words do, in fact, infringe on some Americans' first amendment rights. To athiests, ones who deny the existance of a God, it appears that the state is forcing a religion onto them; forcing them to believe in the God that our forefathers believed in.

This brings up another intersting point. Some may argue that to ban these words from the Pledge of Allegiance is to deny a portion of our history. This is in no way true. The words "One Nation under God" were added in 1954. The main argument brought to the floor in Congress was that communist nations do not believe in an individualist society governed by God. Again, not true. Their society is not individualist, but that does not mean that they are without a God.

Leaving the words out of our Pledge of Allegiance would not in any way detract from the founding ideals of our society nor would they take away the meaning that is associated with the Pledge.

Here is what the wording should be:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which is stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty, equality and justice for all."

I could stand by something like that. Of course, I would want a clause thrown in that prevents dumbasses from being elected as President, but that wouldn't get approved by the congress.

For more about the hearings, see this website.

And now…

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown

Song of the Day – Moonage Daydream – David Bowie

Event of the Day – Easter Dinner with the family. My uncle is a riot.

Hero of the Day – Luke for talking to me some over the graveyard.

Item of the Day – O.K. Cupid for hours of graveyard fun.

Quote of the Day – "The surest way to steal the meaning, and therefore the power, from religion is to deliver it to politics, to enslave it to public life." –Leon Wieseltier

Darwin Award Recipient for the Week Begining April 4, 2004
The building services staff at Indiana University. Most of them are not the brightest individuals on the face of the earth. Every time I see one of them they're on break or otherwise loafing around. I'm going to make a big sign, like the one Strong Bad has, that says "NO LOAFING" and I'm going to hang it in the Information Commons.

Current Mood – Exhausted…

Until next time…
later yo

Check out The Photoblog. Today's pic will be updated as soon as I get a chance.

Also, check out MY FIRST FIRST TO FIND GEOCACHE! Get excited!

That is all.