The Week...Etc.

So I had no idea how good last week was. I had some early week work (it gets piled onto monday and tuesday this quarter it seems) and then actually got to go to Athens Thursday night to spend time with Kelley. It was a blast and we saw In Good Company this weekend. It is actually a good movie, for people with the same sense of humor as me. Which most of you fit that quality, but whatever. I'm not going to spend too much time on here tonight but I might have a long entry because I've got some serious bitching to do. Anyways, the rest of the weekend was ok. I did very poorly at the magic tournament, going 2-3 in the pro tour qualifier and 2-2 in a side event. Tom played the same deck card for card (which I did well with last year in this format and I was the only person on our team to do well) as I did, and he went 6-1-2, losing in the semifinals barely. Had he won that macth he would have own the whole event I am pretty sure, and I would have to watch as he got the pro tour again. As it is I am just disgusted about the fact that he always seems to be more lucky in pro tour qualifiers. We play against the same people, we both play flawlessly...and I lose because of luck. Guess that's the game and I'm not really that pissed in retrospect. Just irritated as usual, same as always when I'm doing horrible at my hobby. The boys are going to Boston this upcoming weekend. I wish I could, but I bought my laptop so I have no money (personal choice and I LOVE my new laptop so it makes up for it lol) and I cannot go anyways due to school obligations on next Monday. Oh well the way my luck is going I'd probably suck there anyways. And I will go home to spend time with Kelley this weekend for sure...I just hope I do not have to go right back up after church since I want to watch the super bowl with my mom and my fiancee before I come back up. We have our senior design midterm oral and written reports due the next day so that's why I might have to come back. I feel so guilty about never doing enough work on that over weekends so far, but that's the only time I live since school sucks up most of my life here. The only things keeping me sane here are the occassional Xbox game, my Chi Alpha guys, and Magic on the weekends. If it were not for Kelley I do not know how I would stay motivated. Anyways, I did not do well at the tournament. Today I woke up late around 11 and basically did no good work until 5. 6 hours wasted...I mean 1.5 of it was a little cleaning up and eating and another 2 was spent on the xbox...but I still wasted time today. Guess that's life. I started working on my NE 735 hw tonight and only got about half of it done in 5 hours. I hope the rest of it goes quicker. On the bright side I am learning a fair amount about the material, but it seems like a lot of bullshit to get us there. That is due Tuesday at 7:30 AM. I will have 4 days a week of 7:30 AM every week for the rest of the quarter, and staying up late like tonight will kill me. I'll learn or I'll cope. I just cannot get my body to relax and go to sleep earlier some nights. So back to the complaining. I watched Eyes Wide Shut (effed up like all good Kubrick movies) with the guys while doing some hw on the laptop for the rest of the evening.
What I have to do this week is the following. I have to get NE 735 HW done by Tuesday morning and I already explained how much that sucks. I also have to update and revise an entire presentation on electrical systems of nuclear power plants for the same class by Tuesday morning since I am presenting that material to the class on Thursday. I still have no clue what I am talking about in that area and I haven't even started to update the slides. Tomorrow will be interesting just with that. But to top it off, our third teammate on the senior design project will have undoubtedly spent a lot of time over the weekend on the project which will make me feel like a slacker for doing nothing (Berens did not do anything either). I also have to pick up CAI problems to grade (money money money...thank god I get paid for something) god knows when this week. I will also have a one-on-one with Ken and this will suck because he cannot come to small group bible study on Wednesday. Which means I will have to lead it by myself for the first time. I am not ready for this, and so did not want it to happen on this week. I also have a length ME 571 HW and lab report due Wednesday. Funny how I really only have 2 classes worth of work (senior design is pretty independant as you can tell by our group's slacking and my other nuclear class has had 1 hw assignment and nothing else all quarter so far), but yet I find a way to screw myself being busy. This week if I survive through the presentation worth 30 PERCENT OF MY DAMN GRADE in NE 735 on electrical systems AT 7:30 IN THE MORNING on thursday, it will be time to catch up on the grading I will ubdoubtedly neglect over the week and try to get some of next week's work done before I go home for the weekend or else....I'll be back up here to watch the super bowl by myself.
Another bitch...when I was doing work tonight Tom called me and I was pretty short as I was working. The same thing happened when Kelley called...but more because Shep and Akil called during that phone call so I was balancing two calls at once and doing HW at the same time for whatever reason. I ended up being short with everyone I think. Why do I distance myself from society and the ones I love when I do work? I can be such an asshole. I guess I'll just try to do better but I realized I was such a jerk after hanging up with Kelley. And she was the only person I did not really get snappy with! She was the bright point of my day when she called me, and all I can do is be pissy. Her stepfather is being a real a-hole to her right now...she does not need that. I wish her family were less dysfunctional, as they make my family look somewhat normal (ha maybe not). While I'm on complaining about others, why the hell does my nuclear professor assign so much busy work over a weekend? Why does my dad completely ignore my emails about him helpng me pay for law school applications? Why did my old boss not at least give me a call back to tell me whether he wrote a letter or recommendation for me or not? Why can't the same company send me a W-2 for the second straight year? Why is my roommate borrowing money to pay the rent again? Why why why why why....
On another note, while I'm feeling depressed I'd like to take the time to mention how guilty I've been feeling about being overweight. My Mom is losing weight successfully, Kelley is on drugs which will help her...and I am just being a lardass. And it's because I'm lazy and do schoolwork all the time. When I'm not doing schoolwork I'm not out jogging, especially this time of year. I probably overeat...or if I do not then I eat on an unbalanced schedule which probably is not good. I'm 250-255 pounds...and I almost still look normal. I cannot suck it in like I could 30 pounds ago (a year and a half ago). I do not really have a huge belly, but my thighs and butt are so large that my size 38 jeans sometimes feel so tight. Sometimes they feel loose, but I should be wearing 36's or 34's easily. I have motivation...it's right in front of me. And I want to be the best looking guy for Kelley because she deserves someone much better than me, at least in appearance. Self-worth issues I know I know. I just cannot shake the feeling.
I've been stuffy in the nose all week and it's getting worse. Not a cold but just messed up stffiness and blah because of it all day. I'm so sick of it. Screw this Ohio weather.
Then tonight Kelley gave me a snippet of her latest private OD entry. BAsically said her fears about me finding some chic at law school and leaving her. How her life would be over and she would have to start from scratch. I made a committment...a lifelong committment to her. I'm not one to break promises like that, and anyone who knows me knows this is true. I will never cheat on her because if I do then I deserve a ruined life for giving up the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm in a true loving relationship. We are far from perfect, we fight, we have our problems...but we communicate and we survive this long distance well. That made me beleve I want to be in the foxhole with this woman for the rest of my life, and I can only hope to give her what she deserves in a man. I have no diea where I will be for the next three years, but I know we will make it. I will not leave true love for probable failure at the hands of some lawyer girl. I just hope she understands that while she was into me way deeper than I was into her sophomore year before we got back together...I am just as invested now as she is in me. If something happened to her I would be devastated. She is one of the only reasons I have motivation every day to finish work and be a good Christian man. And I hope she understands this and takes hope in it for the future. I love my princess, and I will spend the rest of my life with her no matter what happens.
I don't think I have much else to complain about. I mean life is so good at college, but I yearn for a day where I can spend time with Kelley every day and not worry about homework catching up to me and killing me all week. And I only have 2 heavy workload classes! I feel like I'm such a lazy-butt. If I make it out of this week I'll be ok. I just need to calm down and go to sleep. Getting this off my chest has helped...any comments appreciated although I do not know if anyone could make it through all this bitching. I thank you if you did. Have a good week.

Weekends

Man I hate leaving Kelley. Gets harder every time. At least we see each other about every week. First PTQ in Extended tomorrow...praying the elf mojo from last season continues and I can repeat my two top 8 performances. Except this time I want to win the event and go to Pro Tour Philadelphia of course. More updates tomorrow.

The Weekend of Betrayers

This was pre-release weekend for "Betrayers of Kamigawa" in case you wondered about the title. But since you all probably ignored the last entry (and rightly so because it was more for me)...let's review the rest of the weekend. Definitely did not get much work done, so I'll be working like a dog over the next week. That's school. So anyways Friday was not bad except Kelley was not able to come up until way later than we had planned. We still went out to Lone Star for dinner and out to see Coach Carter. Coach Carter is not bad...here's my review written for my Chi Alpha webpage: "Well a mediocre movie at best here guys. The gist of the story if you could not tell from the obscene overhyped commercials is a retelling of a true story of a high school basketball coach who locked out his players and forfetied some games when his team was undefeated and looking for a state title. Of course while set in Cali, the main problems the players have other than grades is discipline outside of school. We have a drug dealer, a player who is dealing with his girlfriend being pregnant, and other less impressive people. A cute premise for a based on a true story movie, but as a rule those movies usually suck. Although Eric is all about telling you how much sexual content or f-bombs we have in the movie, I generally do not care enough to warn you. Obviously if I go see another pulp fiction then I'll let you know but don't shy away form the story if you are interested. Samuel L Jackson makes this movie not just watchable, but enjoyable. You really feel like he is the main character turning these boys around into men. Some decent plot twists arise, but nothing you will not expect. The best scenes are seeing how the parents react to Coach Carter's tough resolve in the first weeks of practice and the scenes pertaining to the relationship between a player and his pregnant girlfriend. The one other point I would bring up is that the movie pace is dragging a bit, clocking in at almost 2 and a half hours to cover a story better said in 1:40. So I give Coach Carter a 4 out of 10, which on my scale is just out of buying range when it comes out on DVD." The dinner was expensive but very good at Lone Star as well. I love a fantastic steak dinner and it had been over a year since I went there (I had never gone to the one in Ohio but used to go every sumer in Iowa at least once). So Saturday we hung out, went to Old Navy, and went to the hockey game. Well at least no Michigan team left Ohio with a winning record this weekend. OU choked at home to Eastern Michigan 1-0 on Friday but won Saturday 3-2. OSU beat Michigan 4-1 Friday but lost 3-6 on Saturday when we went to see them. Man that walk from the campus parking lots across the river to the Schott was absurd with the wind and snowstorm and cold. The game we went to was scoreless after one period and then Michigan went ahead 5-0 in the second. Our team looked so bad it was pathetic. In the third period we came out swinging and got it back to 3-5 with 8 minutes left and a full power play ensued right about then. We had about 4-5 great shots but could not cut the defecit to one. Michigan put in one more in irrelevant time to ice the victory. It was fun and hopefully we will get to use our tickets to the Miami game since neither of us can make it to the Bowling Green game in February. Well that's about all to say because then Kelley left for home and I went to Tom's tok playtest and hang out with the boys for the rest of Saturday night. Then came Sunday and the pre-release which I described already. So there ya go. Hope you start your week well everyone and I'll see you sometime.

Pre-Release

I'll try to catch the rest of the weekend up later, but I wanted to write about the Magic pre-release today. We played in the team event, and for the first time in 5 tries we did not get top 4 and prizes. I went 5-0, 10-0 in games over the day so it was not my fault since I was having an absurd day playing. I even won in our between round playtesting for next weekend and found the old cards I needed from people trading (I thought I might have some real trouble finishing my deck)...yay! But round 1 Tom and Shep lost (the team was not good but the stuff they opeend in their sealed deck was amazing (we registered those cards)). Round 2, 3, and 4 maybe lasted 15 minutes apiece as we swept 3-0 every time quickly. Round 5 we were playing for the top 4 against our nemesis Vegeta (they have played against us the last 3 pre-releases and were 1-2 against us in that span) and Shep and tom got mana screwed. Both of them...I watched it. So we finished 3-2 and 7th place which is nothing. Very disappointing, but I hope my absurd luck continues into next weekend's PTQ and beyond as I have not had good luck recently (until today anyways). Our whole team walked away with NOTHING in this 2-day pre-release and other than Tom Saturday and our team today, nobody even came close to winning prizes. First time that's ever happened...we usually all walk away winners because of the low skill level at these events. Oh well it was still a blast and the new set is not too shabby. Moving on...

Chi Night

So how is everyone? Don't be afraid to note...I'm always interested to meet other diarists and I swear I will not bite :-)
Well I think senioritis has hit full swing. I stay ahead some on some things and on other things I don't want to touch them until the last minute. I seem to get everything done, so let's hope that continues. I'm going to busy playing a lot of Magic and seeing Kelley this quarter on every weekend (no kidding....it's either one or the other or both every weekend but that's good because that's getting to spend my fun time with my guy friends and my fiancee). So last I left you we were going into the short week, but it certainly did not seem short. The Tu-Th class I have at 8 or 7:30 AM every other week sucks because it is every other week. In two weeks I have to give my class presentation on Electrical systems of a nuclear power plant and it is worth 40 percent of my grade. Can you say stress? After I get that done the rest of that class comes in little manageable chunks (like 20 percent tests etc). I also feel like the least experienced out of the 6 people in the class by far. 3 are graduate students, 1 girl I cannot tell, and my roommate who has taken at least one more class in NE than me. My other nuclear class was bearable this week but I still do not really understand the messy formulas he explains in the notes...but at least the first HW has been easy. Speaking of HW for nuclear, in my every other week class we have about 18 written problems and my presentation which all has to be turned in Tuesday Feb 1 for review...let me tell you that's a lot of stupid HW. Hopefully I'll learn something and it still is my favorite class. Almost wish we had it every week, but at a different time. Overall my classes are going well...our proposal presentation for our senior design project was so much better than the other 4 groups in our class. (And the powerpoint slides actually worked this time around, but we had my laptop just in case lol) So classes have kept me busy, but I've actually had a little time to breathe this week. The big thing was getting the law school applications done, I've seemed so less busy since then.
Today was a good day but I woke up at 7:20 for my 7:30 class. Let's just say we were not quite on time but close. It stared snowing again today and the weather people say perhaps 6-8 inches in accumulation more. I love snow and it is fun to drive in it with my truck (I fishtail at will basically). I hope it snows enough this winter quarter to keep it white all the time...makes me feel happy for some reason :-)
Tonight I finished watching Welcome to Mooseport. Just like most comedy movies in the past year, it unjustly got hammered by the critics. It was very funny and not horrible at all. Then I went to Chi Alpha and that was ok. Nothing special, but Jeff preached that Jesus is The Light of The World tonight and gave us some interesting ways to look at that simple lesson that is so common in church. I love it when he puts a good spin on things and makes us all think a lot. Looks like I might be leading our small group sometime this quarter and maybe take on leading a 1-on-1 with one of the guys in our small group. Basically we have a small goup which is a bible study for 5 guys (for now) every week and we are a closer group of friends within the large Chi Alpha fellowship. Then our small group leader Ken meets with each of us one per week for lunch or dinner just to chat and go over whatever we need to address spiritually. It's good times, but beginning to lead these somewhat freaks me out. I'm sure I'll adjust to it as Ken and I started the small group together and he took the leadership role only because he has more time to lead it this year. But that's what consumes my mid-to-late week evenings and I'm living it up. Go God lol.
Well off to popcorn and perhaps a little grading papers before bedtime. Have a good one.

A Monday Off

Well let me start by showing you the pictures of my new laptop I am working on now. I will get to know this baby very well over law school when I plan on using it a lot. Also shown is my new desk area after I moved my desktop monitor over. It is SO NICE to have space to work finally.
Anyways, today Kelley and I woke up really late and finally got a move on for a late lunch. Moe Mondays is 5 dollars for a big burrito and chips and a drink. Then we went to see Phantom of the Opera. Musicals are not my cup of tea really, but this was really good. I enjoyed it but pretended not to just to bug Kelley :-) It really was a good story...kind of wished I could have seen it for the first time in a Broadway setting, but oh well. Eventually we'll have the money to go do stuff like that quite often (and hopefully we will be in a big enough city to do such things). We'll be the only couple I know who is just as likely to go to a heavy metal concert as go to a Broadway show. But I recommend seeing Phantom if you are in a big enough city to see it (limited theatrical release). Next weekend I will bring you my review of Coach Carter. I was going to go see Elektra this week but it got abysmal rottentomatoes ratings. So then we go to Old Navy for over an hour. My God Kelley can shop at that store all day, but she gets so many good clothes for so little money. She even got me another hoodie for being her shopping cart around the store. I like it because it is exactly like my favorite old navy hoodie except this one is green instead of maroon. Then we went out to dinner at TGI Friday's and are now lounging on my bed because it snowed and she does not want to drive in it until morning. So she will leave Tuesday morning and come back Friday night...some weeks are good :-)
So we are watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding tonight...our wedding will be crazy like that but in a different way I suspect. I better get off here since I have early class tomorrow and the next couple days. TTFN.

MILK Weekend

Well I guess you are wondering why my entry is titled like it is. Well on my planner it looks like it says MILK weekend and so that's what I call this extended break from work and school.
So anyways, my classes seem kind of hard this quarter. I have Nuclear 708 - Reactor Theory which is a really boring mathematical based class. Nuclear 735 - Power Plant Operations looks like a cool class because it has a great professor and we get to run a simulator at a power plant for 2 days in late Feb early March. The buildup to doing this seems like a ton of memorization and reading...so we'll see how hard this gets. Mechanical 571 - Automatic Controls covers how feedback control systems such as flush toliets and cruise control and thermostat-furnace systems respond to certain inputs. This is also a math based analytical class but not as boring except it is at 730 AM. My last class is Mechanical 564 - Senior Group Design Project. We are designing a lightweight portable crane to lift roofing shingles or something onto house rooves. We must build it so that it can hold 500 lbs up to 30 feet in the air and 15 feet horizontal reach. Oh and the crane has to be mounted on a regular or superduty size pickup truck (AKA not my Ranger). It should be a lot of fun for a design project even though we do not get to build anything, but it is a lot of paperwork and presentations and BS. Should be an interesting quarter but now you know the background info in case I start complaining. Oh and I have a weekly lab with ME 571 which will suck but not like last quarter...and this is my last lab ever.
So I did get my law school applications out this week. I will keep you updated as well as my webpage on whether I got into the schools and what kind of financial aid I get. Should be an ineresting next 3 months or so as I decide just where the heck I will be for the next three years (including the first year I am married).
Last team PTQ of the Pro Tour Atlanta qualifying season was yesterday. We went 1-2. On the whole the season was bad for The 888 Collective (Shep, Tom, and I) as we won a Grand Prix Trial (went 6-1) in Columbus, went 1-3 at Grand Prix Chciago, went 5-2 and missed the top 4 on tiebreakers with insane decks at the PTQ in Chicago, and 1-2 at a Detroit PTQ. Overall record on the season was 13-8...and we got crappy luck every ime except for the grand prix trial. Our main local nemesis from Detroit got 5th at GP Chicago carrying away an invitation to the pro tour in Atlanta and $900...and we beat THEM in the trial handily. Oh well. Next week is the pre-release of the new set and for the first time in a long time (since Torment came out in January 2002) I will only be playing in one event over the 2 day weekend. The 888 Collective will try to defend our absurd pre-release dominance and we'll actually have our usual team of Tom Shep and I to do it. We won the Mirrodin team event, won the Darksteel team event, got 4th in the Fifth Dawn team event, got 3rd in the Champions team event...so we are 4 for 4 for winning prizes at these events. Extended season started today with a grand prix trial in Delaware. I did not go because Kelley is here with me and I do not want to win byes to Boston as I decided to not go due to money (new laptop, cruise, summer, Origins, truck tune up, law school apps, etc) and school (midterm report and presentation due monday morning for senior design project after that weekend) and other reasons (Super Bowl Sunday, going to Boston for spring break). Anyways, 7 teammates made the trip and 5 of them made top 8 which is very impressive. Apparently Tom W (trinity) and Burton (goblins) did not make it at 3-2 as well which means the whole team had winning records on the day. Tom L (tog), Shep (trinity) lost in the quarterfinals. Villa (goblins) lost in the semis. Chris P (desire) beat Akil (new rock) in the finals for the byes which means he will go to Boston and he did not plan on going initially. Assuming Chris N. and the BG boys made it down for the tournament, they probably go thwacked by my teammates since so many of them made top 8 and all of them did well. Of course it had to be funny if Chris N played Shep since we all drafted together all summer in Marietta and we all go to school across the state from each other. After the pre-release the next weekend is the first PTQ for Philadelphia pro tour and I will be there. I love this format and this is the only format I have ever made a top 8 playoff in (twice last year). We'll see if I can finally make it to the pro tour...it's my last big goal as a Magic player. I love the game and it will be hard but eventually I will have to give it up. Well that was more than enough magic wasn't it?
I see all 4 top seeds won in NFL today. I hope Pittsburgh beats New England and Philadelphia again for the title because I really do not like anyone left except them. I was cheering for Indianapolis but they cannot seem to win at New England ever and my Packers got canned by the lowly Vikings last week (and my other team the Buffalo Bills just missed the playoffs this year). Should make for an interesting couple of games next weekend.
So the rest of the weekend has gone well. After the PTQ I stayed at Tom's for a bit and we all played MArio Party 6. Very impressive new version of the game. Today I went in to the lab to work on our senior group project for 3 hours and then Kelley came up. We watched football while she played on her laptop and I graded my large stack of papers for the first time this quarter. Tonight we went out to Mongolian BBQ and while I was full I did not kill my belly and steps like this are good for my losing weight. I want to get more healthy but I will struggle because I have no motivation yet to excercise and eat better. It doesn't help that I look a lot better than I am. I am so far overweight and most of it is in my legs so I do not look too bad at all. Just don't want health problems...and I'd like to do it for myself and for Kelley. Then tonight we've been playing on our new laptops on the bed for a couple hours like a married couple lol. A good day overall. Chris P cancelled the practice draft we were all doing tomorrow before his trip to Japan for the pro tour next weekend so Kelley and I get to hang out all day. I only have 571 HW and our proposal and oral presentation due for our senior design class on Wednesday this week (I have all the other work done) so I can probably not do much tomorrow and be fine this week.
We are watching legally blonde right now. I giggle whenever I think about the main character sending in a video personal statement. It's so unrealistic but the movie apparently started a short fad over the past few years of people doing just that instead of an essay. Anyways, I probably should get off here since this is getting long. TTFN.

Finally an Update!

I think I'm going to try and write in this just a little more lol. I got my law school applications out this week and I really have no clue where I will get in. I think I have the qualifications and good essay to get into all the schools, but they are looking for perfect fits or gaps in their classes to fill. We'll just see where I fit in according to admissions councils. I am guessing I will get into 2 of the 4 great schools (Northwestern, Chicago, Michigan, and Notre Dame) and both of the OK schools (Ohio State and Cincinnati). Then I'll have a decision to make. Well for magic team limited season is over as of today. We basically had a disappointing season with a complete failure at the GP in Chicago and again today at a PTQ. On to extended, the only format where I have top 8'd a pro tour qualifier...I'm hoping I will make it at least once more this season. Things with Kelley and I are going well...we are trying to see as much of each other as possible around school and my magic and her choir/church obligations. This weekend we had the PTQ in Detroit, then Kelley is coming up tomorrow afternoon after our senior design project meeting and hanging out until monday early evening...then we are helping Chris P do one more draft before he heads to next week's pro tour in Japan. Somewhere in there I'll get my work done LOL. I got a laptop this week...I love it. It's a dell with a red cover. Maybe I'll post some pictures on here later. School is going ok...but this quarter looks like it will be relatively tough. All of the professors seem to expect quite a bit, so we'll see how haggard I am by spring break. At least I have my weekends with Kelley and lab reports and the guys. I need to update this more...so hopefully I can do it at least every other day or so...would like to remember all of this jazz when the work seems ridiculous next year. Have a good weekend everyone! Happy MLK Day!

Finals Week and Xmas Break

Hey not going to talk for long (when would I?), but here's the scoop for those who read my diary. Finals week went well. Got the final graded and got paid for my job. I really must have done a poor job of managing my money this quarter or I just don't realize how much fun money was spent...but Xmas is always a hit and I only ended up down 100 dollars for the quarter. It's just I usually gain 2-5 hundred from work and scholarships minus school, living expenses, and whatever I spend on me. Oh well...I'll just keep working grading jobs to save up for the cruise and laptop. I think I am going to try and put all the money I get from my job away into my savings account next quarter so that I will not touch it before those things are bought. Fun fun fun. Souinds like we are doing same exact cruise as last summer which kind of sucks but I'd rather do that than spend 200 more or drive an extra 3-4 hours down to Miami. We should get the full cruise this time, no hurricane season lol...so that's a plus. As for the rest of finals week, Kelley was up here with me so it went very well. I probably did well on my finals as I got A's in both of those classes and another A and A- to finish off my grades for the quarter. I want a 4.0 one more time before I graduate...but if I don't get it oh well. Now that I am applying to law schools the GPA is virtually set where it is and nothing can change it too much. Speaking of, that's not progressing well. Hopefully with some time in Iowa I can focus. My big interview with Northwestern is Friday...any tips? I'll just try to show I can be a team player with job experience even coming straight out of undergraduate because that is what they like. Engineers know nothing about teamwork...ha! The past week was spent at home in Ohio. My Mom and Kelley will miss me bunches while I am in Iowa Christmas day, but hopefully I'll be back at a decent hour Sunday evening to spend time with them (and the whole next week). I'm already missing Kelley but hopefully this weekend will be busy enough to keep my mind from it. This weekend goes like this. I leave tomorrow at 9 AM Eastern time to go to Chicago Ohare airport around 2 PM Central time. Then I will meet my Malaysian relatives who are flying to Miami but have a bag to give me to take to my stepmom in Iowa. Then I will backtrack to Valparaiso Indiana hopefully arriving at 5-6 PM (originally planned to be there at 4) to visit my Uncle Jack and aunt Peggy on my mom's side. Then Friday off to Northwestern and U of Chicago for visits and then off to Ohare around 5 to a local hotel where the Magic Grand Prix is this weekend. Saturday and Sunday will be spent playing cards with the guys (The 888 Collective is the team name if you want to follow the live coverage on magicthegathering.com), and then Sunday night to Iowa. Sometime next week I will go back to Ohare to pick up relatives and take them back to Iowa. Then day after Christmas I come back form Iowa to Marietta in the marathon drive. I will probably not be back online until then so have a good one guys. Have a safe and Merry christmas, and don't forget the true reason for the season. God bless. -DFitz PS - 7/7/07, cannot come soon enough :-)

Sorry...

Hey guys sorry for not being on here as much as I should be. Right now let me summarize the past couple of weeks. Had a lab report which about killed me last time I talked to you. The test did not go well but hey that's old news. For Thanksgiving weekend I wanted to knock some things off my to-do list for the rest of the quarter. Here it was. Me 570 HW - did it at home Friday and at apt Sunday Nuk 606 HW - did it at home Friday Nuk 606 Extra Credit - did it at home Friday Grading Job - did it at home Friday, got a whole new batch now due Wednesday ME 570 Lab Report - last one, slaved over it until 2 AM last night. ME 570 Lab Oral (Design Project) Presentation - this is complete crap. I spent 4 hours on this tonight, probably 2 more than I should have. Hopefully I will be competent enough to pull an 80 percent on this one Nuk 606 CHPPRep - easy stuff did it Friday at home ME 563 Group Design Project - yeah haven't done much on this but it is due Thursday so hopefully the 4 of us can pull it together in time ENGRAPH 410 Drawing Project - 8 detail parts of a lamp, I've got 7 built. No working drawings or assembly yet...I'm seriously worried that I will not be able to get this done correctly or with enough detail to suit my professor. Argh! On the bright side, other than the grading I do every week I only have to give my lab presentation tomorrow night (it is done though) and finish up my 2 last projects for the quarter by Thursday. Of course I also have a final exam on Thursday too, but the project is worth 4 times as much as the in-class final. In conclusion, mechanical engineering school sucks. I cannot wait for Thursday after turning in my 2 projects and taking my final that afternoon...I'll be basically free until finals which shouldn't be too rough this time around. Wish me good luck and sanity! BTW, Thanksgiving break was very great. Very relaxing. I should have done a little more work, but I love to procrastinate on these projects. And it was a very relaxing time...get to spend more time with Kelley starting Sunday until I leave for Chicago. More details later on my Xmas plans...but anyways, I cannot wait to spend two more weeks with her. God, it's getting so hard every time we say goodbye whether it is for 2 weeks or a week or a couple days. 7/7/07, you cannot come with more haste than I want :-) Oh and one more rant...law school applications, will I ever get them done? I'll probably interview for Northwestern before I submit my application...oh well. And one more thing. MP3 player, so cool!

Screw Lab

This sucks. I just wanted to write. I am going to bed just about now and I just finished my lab report at 6:35 AM. Ugh! And I haven't even studied for tomorrow's midterm yet. I'll be getting some limited ZZZ's before waking up to cram and go to class and lab for my hell day. Wish me luck. I even started this lab report early and yet still it takes me FOREVER. 2 PM to 6 AM with not much for breaks...I need sleep. This ME bullcrap is so bad sometimes...oh well. At least I did not learn anything at all from doing this lab report. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday...hopefully I'll make it through the midterm and final lab of the quarter unscathed.
-DF
PS - I will be waking up to go to class around this time every day next quarter. How utterly absurd 7:30 AM class is.

The Week That Was...

Welcome back. I will have to run through things quickly as I do not quite remember details so well and it has been a while since I talked on here. The past week and a half went well. The Indy tip was fabulous...a great time and some good HS band music. Our alma mater did not make semifinals (top 30-34 out of 95 bands) but oh well they are not as good as they used to be. Went and saw "The Incredibles" that weekend too, it is great. Go see it if you have not because it is actually worth that high cost for a ticket. The City Center Mall there in Indy was fun to walk around...Kelley's shopaholic father and grandparents walked out of ONE store on two days combined with 12 bags of stuff...big bags. Even I bought wine glasses for Kelley at that store. The only other purchase I made was an Indy Hard Rock Cafe bear. I now have 12, 10 of which I went to in person. Las Vegas (one I did not get in person), Paris, London, Kuala Lumpur, Memphis, Washington DC, Denver (the other not in person), Cleveland, Chicago, Indianapolis, Orlando, and Berlin. Quite a spread of worldwide cities...so pissed the one in Nassau in the Bahamas was boarded up when we went on the cruise. Oh well. Anyways, off on two tangents now.
1. If I want another HRC bear form the Bahamas...I guess I'll just have to go back on another cruise :-) And speaking of, I guess the current plan is to go right after my graduation again this summer. Kelley is going to run with me around the world again but it is so much fun! And we are considering a spring break trip to Boston, somewhere I have never seen.
2. I mentioned those wine glasses...well they are the tip of the iceberg. Kelley and I now have a complete starter bar basically and have been mxing our own drinks some nights. It is a blast. Anyways, we have like5 different types of glasses for different liquors (wine, champagne, beer, hurricane, etc). and about 13-14 bottles of good hard liquor. If only my Christian group could see me now. ;-)
So anyways back to the story. So finals at grand band nationals was amazing, as the bands are so big and the concepts so cool. Then we drove back to Columbus, and I was struggling the last 30 minutes of the trip but we all made it back OK. Then Kelley and I did not do much on Sunday but we relaxed and had a lot of alone time. She finally made her way home Monday and I had another stinky lab report to crank out in a day. I wonder why I always wait until the day before it is due to crank those out? It sucks...but I get it done anyways. So then the normal humdrum of classes this past week. I had to hold office hours for the class I grade papers for since there was some bitching or questioning over my grading of their misterm exam. We got it all cleared up though and it was better than I expected initially. I am doing so well in all of my classes, definitely have gotten an A on every midterm so far and have a 4. at this later point in our quarter. I could still mess it up really badly though...but it's better than usual even for me at this point. So I'm not worried about my bad work habits...I am organized enough to get everything done. Now if I could just fit in some guitar practice and law school application paperwork...oh wait I remember I played Halo 2 all week. OK maybe not all week, but definitely Wednesday and Thursday night on Xbox Live. It is so much fun. But anyways, classes are moving out of midterms and going into final projects and finals...I actually have 3 projects to muster this quarter. I'll explain more in later entires, but it is not all that bad.
So Friday I have this information session job interview with a relatively unknown company. Turns out they are a stupid pyramid scheme and I would be the middle link between the painters (hard labor) and the masterminds. Umm no thanks...although I would be interested in painting and being the low man on the totem pole. They earn 10 dollars per hour just like I would as their crew leader. We'll see as I would love to stay in Columbus for the summer but I'm not turning down Prosonic if they have the best offer on the table again. Kelley would love to move in with me for two months in the summer too...but I do not know how that would fly with my roomies even though she would pay her way. And don't even get me started on parents and landlords...ugh! At least in the summer work generally doesn;t chase me home to ruin my fun time :-)
Kelley came up on Friday and we had a sort of date. It turned out to be us going out to the closest Nextel store (in Newark, a damn hour away from OSU!...no wonder my phone roams here) to get our phones exchanged since they were broken. So now it works again...let's hope it stays that way. We had dinner in Newark at Olive Garden and I got the usual Tour of Italy with a frozen Tiramisu as a dinner drink/dessert. So good. Then we went home for a little while and then later went to see the late showing of Friday Night Lights. Eh, not so good...kind of slow and pretty predictable. Then we came back home and had a LONG sleep to make up for all the time we lose in sleep over the weeks at school. Speaking of, she's done with her quarter this week basically...how lucky!
Kelley left Saturday (boo...I hate that we have to leave each other, only 940-some days until it will be done) and Shep showed up within a half hour of that. We watched the first half of the OSU game (which of course they lost to Purdue and they earned that loss) before going to my Christian group's Halo 2 launch party. This wa snot advertised well at all and turned out to be only about 16 guys. Shep squeaked out wins over the best Chi guys all night so I guess his group is slightly better than our Chi Alpha group...but I suspected that. I've gotten a lot better as well which makes it a lot more fun. I love that game. But I'm not addicted like some of my friends already are. I guess I have a life or schoolwork or something like that. Today (well yesterday by now) Tom Shep and I played in the GPT for Chicago in Columbus. We wanted rating points to qualify for the pro tour that way, we wanted and needed experience playing this set together, and we wanted to win another bye in the Grand Prix in December (we had one on rating but if you win a trial you get 2). Well we won the whole thing to keep a long story short, and it is the first thing I have won since the Darksteel team pre-release event. Magic has taken a huge backseat over this season, but winter quarter will have a few more intriguing tournaments thanks to my favrotie formats being in season (Team Limited and Extended). Then I came home and worked on stuff. Another lab report but this one got started on Sunday...I just did hardly anything so it's like I'm starting on Monday again. At leas tI have the grading done and all I have to worry about other than this lab report is the my final midterm exam I have on Tuesday right before lab. Should be easy but I need a review. So it's back to the old grindstone. Have a good one!

Halo 2

You know I wasn't going to play Halo 2...and then we decided to fix the problem with our box not being able to connect to Xbox Live. Then I got to play with people from around the world. Can you say new addiction? Wow it is so cool...anyways, I'll update this for real tomorrow.

First New Entry

Have not figured out if I am backing up my entries this time on diary X or just on my own computer. I'll probably just plug it all into a big word document and keep them that way for reposting in case I lose everything again. Let me just describe how much that sucks! Screw the hackers! So anyways...
Life is OK in my world right now. Things would be going perfect if I could only get my butt in gear on these law school applications and personal statements. Basically I think I am going to write a special closing paragraph for each school to put on the personal statement so that it personalizes each one a little bit. Of course I have to write said personal statement first. We had a law school fair today and ALL 8 of the schools I am considering applying to were there. That was so cool getting to talk to admissions officers from each school all at one time. For those interested, the definitely applying to list is U of Chicago, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Michigan. I will probably apply to 2 of the following 4 as well: Notre Dame, Case Western, Indiana, and Cincinnati. In other words I will be spending my next 3 years in Chicago, Indiana, or a big city in Ohio. Wish me luck and any advice is appreciated!
Since I last talked to you my Buckeyes have ruined and then reclaimed some joy in their football season. Dropping to 0-3 in the Big Ten was rough, but our play merited just that. I went to the Iowa game and visited family so that was fun going with dad despite the Bucks getting killed 33-7. Got to see us play Indiana and Penn State though and we look fundamentally better. We shall see with road tests at a pissed off Michigan State this weekend and a slumping Purdue next weekend. I think we will get the big win number 6 this week, but not by much as MSU is playing sharp. Only 2 and a half weeks till THE MICHIGAN GAME yay!
The election had some surprises for me. I voted for Bush and I am very happy he won the election as he earned a shot to fix his problems in office in my opinion. Not to mention how awful Kerry was as a presidential candidate...can we get Edwards or even Howard Dean please? My two states Iowa and Ohio ended up being the critical states come election night, and the lines outside our Columbus franklin county polling places had the feel of a 2000 florida recount disaster written all over it. But in the end Ohio did elect Bush and considering the 3 million margin in popular vote he deserves the job. gore at least had a legitimate claim to fight 4 years ago, Kerry just lost in every sense. And today he made a classy exit without draggin the country in the dumps again. We will see if Bush can reunite the country and regain respect in the world...it will be tough. Also Issue 1 passed 2-to-1 to ban gay marriage in Ohio. While I am happy to see our state has a lot of people with the same moral values and beliefs as myself, I feel the bill was too strongly worded and I am stunned it passed. I, as a dead-red conservative republican, voted against this bill. Based on the percentages alone, 20-25 percent of the voters in Ohio voted to ban gay marriage and put Kerry into office, and that seems like an odd couple of decisions. Oh well at least it is over and while I'm happy Bush won, I really hope he can become a better president in the next 4 years.
Life at school is well. My grades are better than usual, but I do have a pretty easy schedule barring my one lab class which is the toughest ME department has to offer I hear in undergrad anyways. I could get a 4. for the first time in a few quarters and after last quarter's mess, I'd love to get it back on track. I still stress out over getting everything done, but at least I seem to be getting results for hard work and going to class. We shall see as I have 3 projects this quarter which just started up and will be occupying my time. As for extracurriculars, I really have plugged into Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship more than the last two years while pretty much neglecting everything else. I occasionally make it to a Block O or NSCS meeting, but I can barely call myself active in those.
Got a random email today from a Columbus businessman who owns his own company and wants interns for next summer from OSU. I'm going to go see what it entails in an info session but I'm not too worried about it because I do have my Prosonic job to take again if I want it. This one pays about 75 dollars more per week than Prosonic so it seems worth looking into. I will keep this updated to see if this pans out. I love random internship opportunities OSU sends us.
Things with Kelley are so good right now. I feel bad because I called her tonight after she went to sleep but I did not know that because she was home and had no AOL message up. I get to see her tomorrow and all weekend as we are vacationing in Indy for HS Band Nationals. We'll see if Marietta can pull a miracle semifinals berth out of a broken season. I doubt it but we'll see. Kelley has went off birth control to try and get her weight down to use the patch and get ready for the wedding, but it will be slow. She is considering a tummy tuck I guess but she has not talked to me about it much in a while. I guess I understand if she wants to do it but I worry about any surgery complications. I just want to spend 50-60-hell 80 more years with Kelley (as long as we both shall live) and don't want to lose her to something silly. I'm sure it is safe but then there are the disadvantages like going out to eat will suck. In the end I understand because I am too overweight as well and cannot get my metabolism to make it up right now...I wish I could get things back on track myself. That's another project though.
My mom got in a car wreck last weekend and is just now stabilizing emotionally and still hurting physically. She calls me every night just to hear my voice, so I know this is tearing her up inside. Pray for her healing and easy settlement with insurance. At least that finally started working today as she is driving a 2005 Cadillac Deville for a couple of days until they can get her a smaller rental car. Speaking of car wrecks, one of the approximately 50-55 students in all my ME classes died in a car wreck this weekend. I do not see any open lamentations or anything but I am sure his closer friends will miss him and it sucks to lose one of our classmates. I'm just happy I did not lose my mom or anything like that.
Looking forward to Christmas break already as classes are kind of winding into projects or boring stuff leading into finals in 4 weeks. I get to spend some time with Kelley and I cannot wait. We are seeing each other a lot now that HS band season is wrapping up. She has a sex drive again (something she lost on depo) and that is cool...but without birth control it means we have to be very careful. I know that;s TMI already so I'll leave it at that :-)
I finished Stephen King's Dark Tower book 6 today and am starting book 7. The final book in the series is very long, and I cannot wait to get into it. I even got Kelley to read the series and so it is a great read for anyone who likes an epic story. It's a mix of horror, western, and lord of the rings. I played some Magic in the State Championship a couple weeks ago and then at the Pro Tour in Columbus (side events) last weekend. That was cool as I had never seen a pro tour and my goal is to play on one before I retire from the game. Tom won states and was the first of my friends to Q for the tour and specifically for the Columbus one. He lost horribly though. ChrisP is Q'd for the next PT in Japan and he is making the trip so that's cool. The next PT is a team event in Atlanta and hopefully Tom, Shep and I can break through to the PT this year. Part of that will be doing well at Grand Prix Chicago in December, another great fun road trip. Of course I will not be wasting the trip as I plan to visit Northwestern and Chicago Law Schools on that weekend as well and head to Iowa for a week of christmas after the GP ends on Sunday. Speaking of Iowa, it was so cool to see CJ play soccer for her school as I really have no way to get out there and see the kids play in their school sports normally.
Note to self: if December rolls around I don't know the guitar...it's time to buckle down and use my break wisely. Especially after I get done with law school applications, then I'll have less to do and worry about.
I've written more than enough for now. Please let me know how you are doing out there! Have a good weekend as I will not update this again until Sunday after we get back from Indy.

Engaged and Underage?

OK so maybe that title is misleading, as that MTV show is not around until 2007 (when I am re-creating this most important entry from my blog that was deleted). The story of Kelley and I.

So back in my school days I went to Iowa every summer to visit my Dad. This got loads better over time but this was also back in the days of no computer, internet, cell phones, etc. I was barely allowed to use the phone due to long distance, so I always tried to coax my friends into writing me letters. Some did occasionally, but not much. So junior year of high school I wanted to go to the prom, but I had not dated much if at all since high school began (the whole Annie situation at freshman year homecoming and her pregnancy with some other guy 3 months later kind of messed with me). I had a couple girls in mind but did not want to be rejected coldly like homecoming that year so I asked my friend Tracy first. She then surprised me by saying yes. As it turns out, Kelley was one of Tracy's best friends and did not have a date, so she came along as a "third wheel." Now I look back and realize how pimpin it was to have 2 dates to the prom, but I was a little naive back then. I was not really into Kelley as we had very different interests and did not know each other, but Tracy kept pushing us together all night. At some point during the evening I let Kelley know about the letter-writing thing and after prom we traded addresses at some point. She was the most loyal writer ever and we wrote each other numerous times over the course of that summer (asking each other a list of cute questions like what's your favorite band or vegetable or anything...we had like 200 questions over the course of the summer from letter to letter). She decided to throw a picnic for me when I got back to Ohio and I was a little embarrassed because I was new to dating. We started dating shortly thereafter.

So we had a nice 6 months or so, and Kelley breaks up with me between Valentine's Day and our 6-month dating anniversary. I tried to salvage the relationship a week later but that did not work. At the time I could not have understood, but I was a real stuck-up asshole. I pretty much deserved to be single again. Still, we needed the time to grow up, be mature, and experience life outside of Marietta. We had agreed to go to senior prom together if we found nobody, but I of course asked someone else (and had a poor time with Sarah W. instead of having a decent if not good time with Kelley).

After two years of staying in touch and finally becoming friends again, we started to get personal with each other and I was slowly won over to dating again. We dated for a little over a year before I realized this was the girl to marry. So I set us up for a dream date, or at least what I could make happen in Marietta.

It was Fourth of July weekend, and the first time I was ever not in Iowa for a significant part of the summer (thanks to my engineering internship at Prosonic)...so the first time I could go to Marietta's 4th of July fireworks. I decided to take Kelley on a horse carriage ride, out to dinner at our favorite Olive Garden, and then fireworks. Seemed like a solid plan after buying the ring. So...the weather looked poor for the day-of so the horse carriage ride was nixed. Ended up at Olive Garden and got a brand new server, clearly his first day. Kelley and I switched up what we always order for the first time ever (her fav Chicken Marsala for me then, and my Chicken Parmisean for her). Turns out they were out of the Mixed potatoes and grilled veggies that come with Marsala, so they ask if I wanted french fries. Yes, they have french fries at Olive Garden and my curiosity got the best of me. They were awful. In fact the whole dinner was cold and awful, service terrible. We get done with the food and my one pet peeve is waiting for a check after telling a waiter I am finished. We waited over 30 minutes because the kid forgot us. I finally got a manager and all but told her off about the service, but we finally got out of there. So much for proposing in a carriage or at dinner. So we get back to my Mom's apartment and her fiance Louis is there...and he was a real prick, so he just glares at us for having the gall to show up AT MY OWN HOUSE...he's being real mean as well. So I just get exasperated and grab a couple lawn chairs to drag Kelley out to the softball fields down the street to watch fireworks. We do, and they were not good...but at least the weather had let up to have fireworks. We go back to the apartment and thankfully my Mom and Louis were gone, so Kelley and I sat on the couch and watched bad late night TV (cheaters anyone?). As she was sitting in my arms, I just finally realized it was the right time and tried to smoothly grab the ring out of its box in my cargo pocket. Unfortunately I snapped the box on my finger and she knew what was going on before I got the ring out of my pocket. But it just fit with the night, and of course she said yes.

So that's the story of our engagement. You have to know the full story or else it sounds crummy. If I just told you I proposed with her in my arms sitting on the couch at my house watching late night TV...you'd think I was a schmuck. It was romantic given the hellish day we had though. The rest is history as you'll see in the blog I re-started in November of my last year of undergrad. Some days I wish I had these older entries, but there's not much to recall from undergrad. Back to today!