temporal periods

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: "Rockin' Into The Night" by .38 Special

Jason asked me yesterday if I had any plans for this semester.

I pondered it for a moment...and I think my biggest plan is to stay on top of everything! I've finally gotten most of if not all of the things I'm shooting for, so I'm going to try to hang on:

*Improv with the Ship of Fools
Wes is back from Texas and I can already tell this is going to be a grand semester before a lot of the Fools depart into the real world. We have a giant crew of nine, and have plenty of shows planned, including dorm shows, Relay For Life, the Andy Ober Orchestra performance, the Grand Alternative, and hopefully a return to Miami (OH) for the improv comedy weekend. Our callout is this Friday if you can make it! John and I are trying to fill comically large shoes.

*Miscellany of Sorts
I will try to read more this semester. I've got a few books from home, including the final book of the Age of Unreason series, plus three Ringworld books from John. I also want to play D&D Monday nights and possibly some Saturday afternoons. I am almost considering doing Pugwash or maybe some AAE groups, but I might be too busy and would kill myself. So there's that. I think video games and tv are still out, and there's no major sports going on this semester.

*Hillenbrand Hall Student Office Staff
I tried to cut back and reorganize my hours for this semester, and came up with 15 hours in a dual week cycle (6 hours week A and 9 week B). I should be open a little bit more this semester as far as weekends go, for more shows and trips, as well as a little relaxing time. This comes of course at the cost of money, but books have been paid for this semester (only about $285) so I have very little to worry about. Mostly I'm saving up for this summer (XBox 360? Car??) and my occasional McD's breakfast or dinner with the Fools.

*Jennifer Wilson the Girlfriend
I try not to flood my journal with the ups and downs of my love life, so to speak. That said, the company of Jenny is something that is still new to me and also something I would very much like to hold onto. We met at the SOF party on Halloween and have been dating since. It feels very nice to be in a (hopefully) healthy and stable relationship with somebody that laughs so much with (at) me. It has been a long while since I've felt this way, and I'm enjoying every moment. I spent the three day weekend visiting her family and friends in Kokomo, and it was fantastic.

*Apartment of Foolishness
John and I are planning on living off campus next year with Alex Barnett. It's sure to be an adventure, what with the CPT (some computery thing) major, the nuke engineer, and the aero engineer, all trapped in one house. So far, I've tried to increment my college experience, first year with improv, then adding a job the second year, and now living on my own the third year (I hope). Needless to say this house will be a veritable sanctuary of studying, DDR, improv, video and computer games, studying, jokes, movies, science fiction, nerd-dom, studying, and board games. Too bad I'll have to ditch my desk job at The Hill. Note to self: win lottery, or find alternate income.

*Summer Conferences
I'm trying my best to find something to do over the summer. Right now I'm looking at working here at Purdue. I could either work full time as a conference assistant (Hillenbrand Hall becomes a hotel over the summer months) or assist part time and take more classes. I would live in the dorm for free, get some free meals, and either reduced tuition for the summer or a generous stipend. I would be like a summer RA for church groups, conferences, and camps. At any rate, it would save on moving costs, make things easier on transportation and my personal effects, and I wouldn't need a car. In short, save money, and keep busy- and stay in Indiana. With the right recommendation from the office, this could be big (or I could procrastinate the application and miss it entirely, and go back to the kitchen in Cincy?). At any rate, I don't think I'm ready to work at an internship or lab job...yet.


finally, there's

*Rocket Science 101

Finally, three grueling semesters later, I'm in aero. I've waited and wanted and worked a long time to reach this stage, and it feels good to escape this crushing pressure to reach a certain number, EAI, GPA, to get "in". Mentally, emotionally, and internally, it has been a struggle. Obviously GPA is important, but as so many of my friends have told me, "from here, just worry about passing your classes." I still am trying to sort things out with perhaps some of my counselors and teachers as far as a possible switch, but for now, I'm living it up and enjoying a sense of optimism I haven't felt in a while. I made it!

It scares the shit out of me to be taking double math and double aero classes, to be honest, but here I am. I expect most of my classes to get much harder (a stunning revelation, I'm sure). The merciless return of MATLAB. I'm going to do my best, as always and I think that after this semester I will have a much better feel for things. I'm surprised and excited that I know so many people in my major already, from past classes, improv, and other things. I can't deny I like telling people my classes:

AAE 203: Aeromechanics I
AAE 251: intro Aerospace Design
HIST 387: The History of the Space Age
MA 261: Multivariate (Vector) Calculus
MA 265: Linear (Matrix) Algebra

I have a lot of math homework to do. My history class is sweet because I *own* some of the textbooks, and I know so much of the lecture already. Lots of math. My design class has no final exam, just a 40 page research proposal.

Oh. Thermodynamics is looming on the horizon...