April 18, 2006
The time for adieus draws near, friends and neighbors, this is the last journal entry that I'll write coz next semester I'll be halfway through my sophomore credits. Oh, well, it has been fun for me, guys, and judging by the number of emails I've been getting from people around the world, it's been informational for you guys as well, which is awesome, hope I was able to help most of you over the course of the year!
Anyway, to wrap things up on the job front - I have picked up a job that is both fun and much more monetarily beneficial, valet parking at the Hilton on Beachside. It's great, because I get to drive expensive Mercedes', Audi's, Jaguar's and Cadillac's all day long. I also make a more than decent amount from tips, and its fun driving back and forth. That's my idea of a job, having fun and making money, all at the same time. Funnily enough, most of the newer cars have park assist (that's nice), and some Acura vans actually have cameras showing you the rear of your car (that's insulting my intelligence), which makes my job that much easier. I'm working 32 hours a week at this job, and over the summer I'll probably go the equivalent of full time which means I'll be raking in the greenbacks. Hey, fine by me!
The job is so great that I quit Cold Stone's and my tutoring job. Plus, this journal writing gig is ending after this entry, so it leaves me with two very nice paying jobs, valet parking and card dealing.
This summer, I'll be taking EGR 120 and Statics (that's summer A), and Humanities and Psychology at Jacksonville (Summer B). Things have been hectic getting ready for this and I'm moving off campus with three friends by the end of this semester, can't wait! Also, finals are coming up, Physics and Math, hopefully I'll be able to keep up my A's with the time I'm putting into my new job!
Wish me luck with that, this is Junior's Jiving Journals signing out, happy Easter to you all, and I wish you all success!
April 6, 2006
Hey there, journal readers! Wow, three quarters of the way through the spring semester already, I can hardly believe how fast time is flying! Seems like spring break was just yesterday too, test schedules are flying and teachers are handing out assignments left and right. In another four short weeks, by the end of this month, I'll have one whole year of college behind me! Damn, this year's flown by; it's been so much fun! I already have plans for next semester. I'm joining the Avion and the Riddle Players, writing and movie making are two of my great interests and I think its time I indulged myself, hehe. Also priority registration has come and gone. I had a bunch of problems registering because of pre-requisite requirements, but then Dr Gurjar generously waived the pre-req for his class to a co-req, so I was able to register! Hooray! I've signed up for EGR 120 and ES 201 at Riddle over Summer A, and they've already slapped me with the bill (ouch). Over Summer B I'll be taking Psychology and HUM 2211 from the Florida Community College at Jacksonville and that'll bring me to a total of 12 credit hours over summer.
I've also overloaded my schedule for Fall, with 19 credits, because I don't want to take more than 12 over Field Training Preparation semester next spring, but I do want to graduate in four years, so its necessary. Sigh, it's going to one heck of a Fall, I'm going to be chasing my own tail, but I think it will be worth it, so wish me luck! At the end of that semester, I'll have Junior standing, which means if all goes as planned and I don't have to audit any class, I would be one whole semester ahead because I came in with no credits, but I would have four semesters worth of credits under my belt at the end of three. Which is perfect, it puts me right on schedule for graduating in four years. It's like an unreachable goal, almost, so few are able to finish a BSAE in five years, but it's been done and I intend to do it too!
I've been up and down the state of Florida for my blackjack dealing job, and my good ol' car has made it worth it, with its awesome gas mileage. I love road trips, and I get paid to have fun while dealing, so this job is definitely my favorite out of all four. A close second is tutoring with First Year Programs, though when there's no one who needs help I just surf the internet and have fun doing my own thing, which is cool.
Air Force is getting better, I've managed to stay out of trouble reasonably successfully so far, and I'm just hoping it will last up to the end of Spring, which is so close! Unfortunately, it won't be much of a summer vacation for me, as I have 12 credits of schoolwork to attend to, but I'm determined to squeeze in a trip back to California, I miss my home boys and girls back in LA! No place like Los Angeles is what I always say, and nothing gets rid of the Riddle goggle syndrome faster than a flight into Hollywood, oh yeah.
Well, guys, that's all I have for right now, hope I'll be able to send in another journal before Finals are upon me! Good luck to all of you guys applying to Riddle out there; it was around this time last year that I got my "Congratulations! You have been accepted" letter and I hope that all of you who tried got in! See you guys in the Fall and peace out.
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
March 27, 2006
Whaddup y'all, just thought I'd drop a line now that classes are about to begin tomorrow (sigh, back to the grind!). Spring break was great; I had some fun, though it wasn't nearly as exciting as I would have liked it to be (!). I'm thinking I should have maybe gone back to Los Angeles as I was invited to, but it just wouldn't have been worth the drive (and I don't have enough credit card miles to fly back for free just yet). So yeah, I was in Daytona Beach over Spring break. I slept past noon every day, ate dinner at about 2 AM (I-Hop and I got to know each other very well), then went out with a couple of other guys who were hanging around here too, and did random stuff in and around Daytona. I think I'm about ready to go back to classes and face another month of classes and then I'm free!
Anyway, an annoying thing about my scheduling came up over break. Priority registration for Honors students begins the first day of class (which is tomorrow), so I wanted to lay my schedule out. Unfortunately, because I audited EGR 120, I now can't take my Statics ES 201 class as I had planned. And without ES 201 I can't go into Fluids, Dynamics and Solids (ah, the much hated three headed dragon). If I take Statics in the Fall, it will push the dragon into Spring '07, which is the semester that I'll be going through Field Training Preparation for the Air Force. Field Training is possibly the junction point for ROTC cadets, as it's when we go off and live on an Air Force Base for a month. It's a high pressure environment, designed to test your training, physical limits and mental mettle, at the end of which you move up from the General Military Course to the Professional Officer Core. It's like boot camp for officers, and training for it is going to take up most of my time during Spring 07. If I have to deal with nine credits of Physics as well, either my grades or the Air Force is going to get second priority, and I'd really rather that didn't happen.
So I'm going to have to take summer classes here at Riddle. So it happens that I can't take Statics or EGR 120 at any other community college. And since they aren't co-requisites but prerequisites, I'm going to have to take EGR 120 over Summer A and ES 201 over Summer B. That'll unlock the dragon for me in Fall 07, and I'm in the clear come Field Training Semester. Oh well, long as I get to go back to good ol' Cali for a while and refresh myself, I'm cool. Daytona is a lovely place; I really don't mind staying here over the summer. The only thing that kinda sucks is that I'll have no real vacation and I'll be taking six credits from ERAU as well as six humanities credits from a community college and I haven't decided on which one yet. Twelve credits over summer, nineteen planned for Fall, then cutting down to twelve (the bare minimum to keep me a full time student) FTP semester.
All right, well, that's my sit as of right now, guys! Classes start tomorrow (I'll be missing ROTC because I've gotta drive to Orlando for a job), and hopefully I'll be able to keep it together for a month. Ciao, y'all!
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: 'Almost' only counts in hand grenades and nuclear warfare.
March 7, 2006
Hi there, journal readers! Hope everything is going great for all you guys and gals out there on my side of the spectrum, things are looking good but not as good as I had hoped. Frankly, I can't wait for spring break, just two short weeks away and then I can kick back and unwind for a little while. I think I've been working too long, and the stress of having four jobs, school work, ROTC and all the little things that come with being on your own have been getting to me. A little vacation would do me good and then I would be fresh and ready to go at life again.
This semester it seems like I can do no right at ROTC, which sucks. I've been getting counseling after counseling for little stuff like wearing a braided belt instead of a plain one, and for missing a spot of stubble under my lip, which is fine, I know it's to be expected; I just wish I could stop making it happen so often! Anyway, I'm well over the limit of three counselings in a semester. This week I had a meeting with the CW/IG, the head of the Inspector General's Staff, and next week I have to meet with the Vice Wing Commander because I've been getting that many counselings. Then I got stuck in the terrible bike week traffic and missed an appointment with my APAS which is a huge no-no, so I had to reschedule for today, and I'm pretty sure I have another counseling in the works for missing that appointment.
Also, over the weekend, one of the senior cadets was killed in a motorbike accident. Traffic here is absolutely terrible right now. The worst part is that I work down at Cold Stone Creamery's, which is just by the beach. The beach is where traffic is the absolute worst, so there's no question of me simply not using my car on Bike Week. Biketoberfest had about 200,000 bikers come to Daytona and for Bike Week, it looks like its going to be close on half a million. It takes me half an hour to get anywhere, and you always have to watch out for the bikers, they just don't care!
Also, just last night, I dealt my first game of blackjack! It was at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in Orlando. The good thing was, I found a bunch of guys going to the same event, and we all drove down together. I didn't even know they were going until I walked into one guy's room to borrow a pair of cufflinks and found out he was going to the same place as I was! That was good, because I had some experienced dealers with me, to clue me in. But I needn't have worried and it all went great and I'm pretty pleased with the check in my pocket!
Just had a Calc III exam, and got pretty heated up at myself about that, because I expected to score 100%, but I overthought a problem, thought I saw a trick question, and answered it a bit too cleverly. Turns out the straightforward answer was the right one, and I lost points on it. Damn, that annoyed me (after all my devious thinking!). My COM class is starting to annoy me too, we recently had to write out a detailed instruction manual on how to assemble a Lego all in words, no pictures. Try it, why don't you. You'd chuck the damn things at the wall in five minutes.
Anyway, I can't wait for spring break. Time to unwind. Relax. Ahhhh. I'm going to break this off on that happy thought, and bid you guys adieu.
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: You might be an engineer if you think Spring Break is a metal fatigue failure.
February 23, 2006
Wow, so much has been happening I really don't know where to start! Life's just streaking by, class and ROTC are great, with the exception of EGR 120. Yeah, I know it's dumb, but I can't win with that class. And when I got in my first test and received my first ever F, it was like the world had stopped spinning. I was in one heck of a depressed state for like a week, because just the day before I had been a straight A student. I decided to cut my losses and yesterday I audited the class. I'll still attend class and learn stuff, but it won't affect my GPA. I feel kinda bad that I flushed down 3 K, but better that then flushing my GPA. I guess I'll work on it over the summer, and retake EGR 120 next fall. By that time I'll have enough practice to be able to manage.
Yeah, that was like a major bummer (I'd never failed a test before in my life), but the next week something better happened. I got myself a new car! It's a Saturn SL, and it gets an obscene gas mileage of 40 miles to the gallon. My suitemate Ben drove me to Orlando and stayed with me the whole day while I ran from pillar to post to make the sale legal and get all the paperwork in order, then I emptied out my bank account and drove my baby onto I-4! It feels so great having my own car, I'm now free to go where I want, when I want. I'm planning to change the lighting, put in new speakers and wheels and perform a couple of upgrades before the summer is out.
Anyway, ROTC is going great, we had a Physical Fitness Evaluation and I got into a friendly competition with another flight mate of mine. We ended up pacing and ultimately trying to beat one another, and achieved awesome run times! Guess all that gym time is paying off.
And just about three days ago, I actually had five jobs! One was journal writing, of course. The other was Math and Engineering Tutoring, down at First Year Programs, I think I mentioned that one before. But since I now had a car, I decided I wanted a job that paid better (insurance still has to be paid!), so I went off campus and got myself three jobs.
The first was a temp job at a flower shop nearby. It was almost Valentine's Day, so they were drowning in calls for roses and bouquets and lilies and teddy bears and candy boxes and anything shaped like a heart. I worked about twelve hours there on the computer, typing up orders that came over the Internet, entering it into the database, typing up Valentine's Day cards (if I ever write "I love you, Poopsie-woopsie" to my girlfriend, shoot me, please, I swear you'll go to heaven) and inflating giant balloons that say 'Be Mine', 'I love you' and 'Happy Valentine's Day'. On February 14th I made even more dough by delivering flowers to ladies across Daytona, Holly Hill and Ormond Beach. I was very happy because, thanks to Google Maps, I had no problem finding my way around town, and because of my Saturn's mileage. Most people spend more on gas than the gas allowance the store gives them, but I pocketed 60% of my gas allowance, because I didn't use that much gas!
Then I took my money and git, so that isn't a job any more. I also went to Port Orange and attended a training session to be a blackjack dealer. It's a sporadic job, and they call you when they need you, but the money for one night's work is excellent. Several of the events I would deal cards at are in Orlando and Jacksonville, so the farther away it is the more I get paid, so that's pretty cool too.
The third job is going to be my bread and butter; pretty much it's a job at the Ocean Walk theater complex, at a novelty ice cream chain called Cold Stone Creamery! I'm serving ice cream to all the kids who come down to watch movies, and I make tons of money. Tons of money always improves my mood.
So that's five.
This last weekend was a three-day weekend, which I wasted completely and happily, chilling out, going to the beach, doing random stuff with people on my hall. Classes are going well, I now have to work on a mere fourteen credits, so I have a lot more free time on my hands, which is nice. I find myself often driving down to the beach in the middle of the night and just to spend some quality time with myself, and get my thoughts in perspective. It's been pretty cold out lately, but I'm hoping it will warm up soon. Spring break is almost here, and I can't wait!
More next time, dudes! till then, chillax, and keep Jivin!
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: Tact is the art of making guests feel at home, when that's where you wish they were.
February 9, 2006
A lot's been happening over the last two weeks! First of all, I took my first ever flight in a small aircraft. I know, it's ridiculous. I'm in an aviation university, and I've never flown in anything smaller than an Airbus. My suitemate, Scott Hasbrouck, is a pilot (he had his pilot's license before he had his driver's license, his parents had to drive him to his first solo!), though he's studying aerospace engineering, same as me. He needed to keep current, so he took me up with him as an observer. We flew in a tiny Piper Aero that weighs less than his car!
Anyway, it was the most magical thing. For those of you out there already flying, more power to you dudes! I loved every second of that flight. Amazing! In almost no time we were bumping up against Cape Canaveral's restricted airspace, then we turned back toward Orlando and Daytona Beach. Along the way Scott put us through some very sharp banks, and 2-G plus forces, and allowed me to take the controls for a while. Wow! The view was incredible, and though I've flown before, its been only commercially, and there's a certain feeling of liberation that comes with flying a mile high in a tiny little aircraft that you just can't get with a plane weighing more than a fleet of semis. I've always ribbed my other suitemate, Ben, who's studying Aeronautical Science, saying that people like me build planes, monkeys like him fly them. But after that flight I sure envied him! Pretty soon I decided that if I could get the funds together, I'm going to try and get a minor in Flight. After all, I'm at the world's best aviation university and why not take full advantage of it? And I'm sure flying skills would not go unappreciated in my job and after all, it is the Air Force.
Okay. The dreaded EGR 120 test came and went, leaving me with a 51. Yeah, it was that bad. I'm going to have to do something about that, or my perfect GPA is going to get flushed, and after what happened at the AFA luncheon, I'm not eager for that to happen.
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Or was I saving it for effect? Anyway. Last time I wrote that I was awarded the General Spruance Merit award for being ranked the No 1 Freshman cadet in the detachment for Fall 2005. I was told that I would get the opportunity to meet General Spruance and receive the award from him, in person. We even have a building here at Embry Riddle named after him and if you're coming to Riddle, you'll come to know Spruance Hall very well, it's where you go to wrestle with all kinds of red tape, ha ha. I thought hey, that's pretty cool. Little did I know that I would not only be meeting General Spruance, but the former Chief of Staff, USAF Four star General John Jumper!
January 26, 2006
Hello, everyone, welcome back! Junior's Jiving Journals are back for another semester of rabid fun and wisecracking! Spring 2006 is here, it's the start of a brand new year, and all is well with the world. Now for the bad news.
Nah, just kidding. Last semester was great and I was able to achieve a 4.0 GPA, and I really hope to be able to keep that up this semester too! I found out at our very first AFROTC Lead Lab that I had been awarded the General Spruance Merit Award, which carried a cash prize of 1,000 dollars. I was the only AS 100 level cadet to be selected for this prestigious award.
This semester in ROTC I've been placed in Bravo Flight. Ours is easily the best flight in the detachment. Our new flight commander, C/1st Lt Hibshman, seems pretty cool and laid back, which is great. As a flight, we're pretty motivated. During the past few weeks we've had quite a few flight meetings (last semester we could barely manage any) and I'm pretty sure we're going to win the Spirit Rock contest this week and we've been competing against Charlie Flight, who have (aptly) nicknamed themselves 'Charlie Cows'.
About my classes, I've had trouble where I least expected it, and found none in the areas I thought I would. I anticipated that MA 243 and PS 160 would be troublesome, but I find that Calc III seems even easier than Calc II, and PS 160 hasn't gotten complicated in the last two weeks of class. EGR 120 is where I'm coming up against a stone wall. Most people have problems later in the class, when we begin CATIA, and find drafting a piece of cake. But not me. Drafting is pretty much engineering drawing. Right now we're doing exercises where you're given three views of an object, top, front, and one of the sides and you have to draw a three dimensional sketch of the body. Sound easy? It probably is for you. I'm sick of people pointing at my workbook and remarking "I totally loved that class, dude, it's so simple."
It's not!
Okay, it's not for me. I just can't do it. Don't ask me why. All I know is that whenever I sit down with my drafting workbook I feel like I missed the bus. I sketch for about an hour, then triumphantly ask Cameron if I got it right. He takes a look at it, says 'Nope' and goes back to his work. Another buddy of mine looked at my efforts, picked up a piece of paper, sketched for a few seconds, and showed me a drawing that didn't look anything like mine. 'That's the answer, dude,' was his response.
I have a test next week in drafting, and I'm going to fail it. What makes it even worse is that it's the simplest damn thing in the world. Everyone can do it, even an eight year old kid. And I can't. It's not even something I can learn, or practice I just don't get it. I have a genius level IQ, and I can't draw a three dimensional sketch! Apparently I can't 'see' things in three dimensions. One girl on my hall has an IQ thirty points above my own, and doesn't let a day go by when she doesn't remind me of that. I bet if I could do this I'd have a comparable IQ, coz if I remember correctly, there are a few 3-D visualization questions on an IQ test. But then again, they say your IQ never changes, which would imply that I can never learn how to do these drawings.
Okay, maybe that's a bit paranoid. But I still can't do it! I'm gonna try and attend to that this weekend, and hope for the best, I guess. It's just extremely annoying when something so stupidly simple is the hardest thing for you.
I signed up this semester with Riddle Players Theatre Company at the Activities Fair. I think I'd like to go in the direction of Riddle Productions, a film making offshoot off the Theatre club. I've always had an interest in that kind of stuff. In fact, in the ninth grade, I once invited my entire class over to my house to try and film an 'action movie' on my camcorder. It didn't work out quite as I had planned, because the story line got 'lost in translation', but you get the point.
I've also got myself a different job, tutoring at First Year Programs! The Honors Director, Dr Kain, recommended me last semester and I got the job and I start Monday! Guess a 4.0 can come in pretty useful.
I'm also looking into living off campus next semester. I think it'll be pretty cool, in addition to saving me a heck of a lot of money. Also, I'm checking out community colleges around the country. I wanted to take some humanities courses at DBCC over the summer, to stack up credits and save money, summer school at Riddle is ridiculously expensive. But apparently Riddle won't recognize that credit, or that of any community college within 50 miles. The administration feels that if you are within 50 miles of Riddle over the summer, you might as well take classes at Riddle. Apparently it would be equivalent to 'cutting their own throats'. That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard, and it pissed me off for quite a while, until I began to see the positive side of it. I'm now free to take classes anywhere I want as long as I have a car that's able to survive a cross country drive. So that's what I'm going to do this summer I'm going on, you got it, ROAD TRIP! I've always wanted to drive around our great country, just see the sights and now I get to do it while collecting credits. Right now I have my eye on Santa Fe, NM and Jackson, MI, though that will most likely change. I'm thinking one six week summer course in Santa Fe, pick up six credits; then drive north and do another three. There's a lot to America, and I want to see as much of it as I possibly can!
Anyway, all that is in the future, so let me not jump the gun. So far, except for EGR 120, all's well on the studies front. Next week I'll start my new job, rejoin the Campus Radio station and start out with the Riddle Players. NASCAR is going to kick into high gear as well. Wal-Mart already has NASCAR posters and overpriced memorabilia on the shelves, which means it's officially race season! I can't wait to see the races it's pretty much the biggest event to hit Daytona Beach, so that's where I'll be. Happy New Year to everyone out there, by the way, and keep it chill, dudes!
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: Love thy neighbor ñ tune thy piano.
January 12, 2006
Greetings to all in the New Year 2006! Hope all of you guys and gals out there had a great time these holidays! Ah, the time draws near, when the fun stops and the buck drops. The beginning of the new Spring '06 semester is here. I used to hate the end of vacation time, because it meant dragging my sorry ass through another semester of high school, but now (much to my own astonishment) I find that I am actually looking forward to college starting up again! While I can't say that I am sorry the vacations are over, I am not completely bummed out at their conclusion. I expect the coming semester to be a lot easier than the past one, first of all, simply because I'm used to everything at Riddle by now, and I've crossed the bridge from high school to college; and secondly, because this semester I am taking 6 credits of humanities and 3 credits of CATIA, which is computer drawing. Pretty much, I'll only have to work at Physics and Math, I guess. Of course, those words could also be on my tombstone, so let me not shoot my mouth off too fast.
Also! I recently found out that I aced the placement test that I took at the end of the Fall Semester to jump over MA 242 and go into MA 243 and I was quick to drop 242 and get myself into an available 243 class. I'm happy about this because for one, I've saved myself 4,000 bucks in ultimate tuition; and two because I've saved myself a semester of Math I already know. This was possible only thanks to the generous help of Dr Nirmal Devi in the Math Department, who set aside time to make, administer and evaluate the placement test to me. Calculus III is pretty challenging so I'll have to work at it, but at least I'm learning something, not sitting in class bored out of my mind.
Well, about my winter vacation, then! I didn't do anything exciting just lazed around, did nothing most of the day, and enjoyed it completely. After the hurried hassled days of college, when every hour of every day was budgeted out, it was nice to chuck my PDA aside and know that I had the entire day to myself and the day after that, and the day after that as well. Ahhhh, the bliss of being lazy. Those idiots who say hard work is the only way are just that, idiots. I shot some pool, watched the NFL football playoffs, fooled around on my computer and lay in a semi-comatose state in front of the TV for hours and hours. I think I must have watched every episode of FRIENDS there ever was, because I worked my way through about 40 DVDs of FRIENDS episodes.
Anyway, I'm not really being sequential about this so, when the holidays began the dorms began clearing out, people driving and flying back home. I had break Housing till the 23rd of December, so I stayed behind until there was no one left. Now that was weird. I was so used to the usual commotion and activity in the halls that when they were left empty it didn't feel like I was in the dorms at all! But I quickly got used to it. I slept real late, lazed around, and played computer games on my suitemate's computer.
This break was really a lazy one for me. It was so nice to not have every minute of every day planned out. I decided that I would have maybe three things to do that week and I would do them, but then again, if the mood settled on me, maybe I wouldn't! I don't care what any one says, lazy breaks are the best kind.
On December 23rd I drove down to Holly Hill and stayed in a motel there for five days. I made it a point to run on the beach every morning, and I spent a good part of Christmas Day lazing on the beach. I also drove up to Tampa Bay one day. After those five days I drove to Orlando and picked up Dan, just off his flight back from New York, and stayed with him in his Port Orange apartment for the rest of the holidays. We certainly did NOT get drunk on New Year's Eve and we did NOT hit on some lesbian chicks at a club we went to.
The playoffs began the next week, so I watched some very entertaining football, Dan's a Giants fan and when Eli Manning got sacked three times in the last half of a game he was about ready to explode. Just before the holidays ended his roommates Megan and Ben drove down from Maryland too.
And then it was time to go back to the dorms. Like I said before, usually I hate the end of break, because it's time to go back to the drudgery of school. But this time, to my surprise, I didn't feel that way. I was actually looking forward to going back to school! Not that the break sucked either, because I certainly had some good times. I just didn't feel bummed out that the vacations were over, I didn't mind going back, really. I'm enjoying my life here so much, why would I want to be away from it for longer than I have to?
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: Save a cow. Eat a vegetarian.
December 22
Well…it’s hello and goodbye from me through this journal entry
– the holidays are upon us!
After a full semester of hard work
it’s nice to be able to wake up in the morning when the sun is
shining and there’s nothing really pressing to stop you from
being utterly lazy. I love the feeling – I’m already addicted
to it.
The results of Fall 2005 are in and….***drum roll***…FOUR POINT
OH! Yes, I know it is shameless of me to gloat, but what the
heck, I’m gonna glorify myself anyway. A perfect score! I am
currently sitting on a 17 credit 4.0, and it feels goooooooooood.
A copy of my first semester transcript is posted below, for those
of you who are curious to know what a 4.0 looks like on paper
-
I managed to secure an A in every class I took. Air Force Leadership Lab was
a pass or fail course, and as my transcripts reflect,
I did pass.
Next semester I’ll be taking 6 credits of humanities
and CATIA, so the workload should be a lot less. I
feel most gratified – at least my 17,000 was well spent. Of course
the trick is to keep it up, and hopefully I’ll be able to do
that.
And it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! All the stores,
of course, have their decorations up, and Christmas music piping
from every nook and cranny in the mall – it’s that time of
year again! I love Christmas. Personally, it is my favorite
time of the year, and not just because of the one month vacation,
though that does have a lot to do with it!
I’m pretty much alone in the dorms right now – I’ve gotten
Break Housing up till the 23rd of December. It seems so strange
– there’s no roommate (Cameron has gone back to Canada), no suitemates
(Ben flew up to California yesterday and Scott’s visiting
his girlfriend in Kentucky), and no one on our usually bustling
hall! It’s a sensation I haven’t gotten used to just yet,
but I’m enjoying it alright.
Well, that’s it from me for this semester – I’ll be back in
the spring with more jiving journals! Hope you all out there
have a great holiday, don’t forget to hang up your stockings,
and I’ll talk to you again in the New Year 2006. Peace out, dudes!
MOTTO FOR THE YEAR: HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW
YEAR!
December 1, 2005
Well, it’s getting toward the end of my first semester at Embry Riddle – and how fast the time has passed me by! It’s really quite amazing, now that I stop to think about it…anyway, let me not go off on a tangent – I will remain completely focused on myself.
A lot’s happened this past fortnight. Let me start with a weekend trip I took with forty other AFROTC cadets up to South Carolina and Ohio. We visited Shaw, Charleston and Wright Patterson Air Force Bases from Thursday to Saturday, and did and saw so much that I don’t know where to start! I got a first hand look at real active duty Air Force life and jobs, and after seeing it, I’m doubly proud in what I’ve chosen to do.
Anyway, to start off, we departed from Embry-Riddle at 4 in the afternoon, aboard a bus. It was a long six hour drive up to Shaw Air Force Base, SC. We had to take our PT uniforms, SS Blues and the Det T along with us for the trip as well. We arrived at about 10:30 PM, and drove through the base to our quarters. We were put up in temporary residential quarters run by the Air Force Inns. I got on the bus in humid 75 degree (Fahrenheit) weather and got down in 26 degree winds, with a wind chill factor of 10 degrees. Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, which is what I wear every day in Daytona Beach – with a thin jacket on, I emerged into below freezing weather! Oh yeah. Doesn’t say much for my common sense, I know, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. To those of you hailing from places that get snow regularly, let me tell you that this was the first time ever that I had experienced to below freezing weather! Unbelievable, I know, but there it is. California weather is just like Florida, and India is eight degrees from the equator, so when I got to South Carolina, I felt the cold! I don’t think even veteran snow boys would brave that cold in shorts. To cut a long, freezing story short, I waited for what seemed like forever to grab my bags and ran off to find my room. So it figures that I wouldn’t be able to find it quickly. That’s Murphy’s Law for you.
The next morning I was up long before the sun would rise, because we had to do Physical training with the 682nd squadron, whose job is to back up the US Army on the ground if the need arises. So 0540 found me out in even colder weather, clad in a very inadequate PT sweatshirt and pants. To say that I felt cold would be a woeful understatement – I would have gladly rushed into the nearest KFC and asked to be put in the pressure cooker at that moment. We waited for what seemed like hours before the entire group assembled and Capt Chivington, our APAS, led us to the Dining Hall, where I actually enjoyed scalding my throat with hot coffee. Then we drove down to the PT Pad across the base, where we split up into four groups and PT’d with the 682nd squadron. They gave us quite a workout, and for once I wasn’t grumbling – in fact, I was cursing the fat kids for not allowing us to do a full sprint. Ahhh, the warming wonders of a run for your life.
We then returned to our rooms, showered, and got dressed in our SS Blues uniforms for a day-long tour of Shaw Air Force Base. We were going to get briefings from people all over the base, in various jobs and capacities, to get an idea of what our day to day life in the Air Force would be like. Our uniforms had to look impeccable, so I spent some time ironing it (again), and even if I say so myself, it looked pretty damn fine.
We were scheduled to receive a brief from the Shaw Wing Commander, who is pretty much the Head Honcho on the base, but he was engaged in a war simulation and couldn't make it. The PA officer and a Sergeant on a flight crew spoke to us, as well as an engaging Colonel who was an F-16 pilot. The pilot wanna-be’s got their fill from him.
Next on the itinerary was a static, up-close display of a real F-16 fighter, which is based at Shaw, which is also the headquarters of USCENTAF, the 9th Air Force and the 20th Fighter Wing. It was completely awesome! We even got to climb up to the cockpit, though pictures of the cockpit and the flight line were forbidden, as they are classified. It was so cool, to be able to see those massive beasts sitting on the tarmac, cockpit open – ready to fly out at a moment’s notice.
(thanks to Chris Higginbotham)
Throughout our day at Shaw, F-16s roared above, roaming the skies, flying on a leash because they can’t release their massive potential above CONUS, or the continental United States. We saw the training arsenal the F-16 carries – Sidewinders, HARMs and cluster bombs – it’s incredible to think that those tubes carry tons of explosive death…
The rest of the day we received briefings from members of the Operations squadron, and ‘shadowed’ members of several on-base professions – men and women of varying ranks and personalities, such as weather. At the end of the day I was pretty tired, having stood on my feet all day. The last brief of the day came from Maj. Gen Forsythe, a man who left a deep impact on me. He was matter-of-fact, no BS, and just invited us to ask us questions. As he admitted, ‘I’m not full of shit. I know most generals are supposed to be (and I know a few who are, though I won’t name names), but I’m not. He’s flown in Vietnam, aboard most aircraft the Air Force has or had. Anyway, there was one story he told us which really struck home. He’s been moving from base to base all his life with his family, and the entire family has to uproot itself and grow new roots. Anyway, he has a daughter who, naturally, grew to dread and hate the day her father would come home and announce in a falsely cheery voice, ‘So who wants to come to Wal-Mart and buy jumbo cartons?’ As she grew into the teenage years, of course she found her true love, and of course Daddy General had to move – as you may have guessed, they didn't have the most Brady-ish relationship.
There was a boy at her high school who was making fun of this General’s daughter because her father was in the military. He kept needling her, and one day she decided she had had enough. She printed out her pop’s biography, listing all his meritorious achievements, and got up in class one day and read it aloud to the class. When she was done, she said, ‘This is what my father has done for this country’. She made such an impact on her class that after the bell had gone, a group of guys took the kid who had been badgering her and beat the crap out of him. When Gen Forsythe was telling us about this, he choked up and started crying! He was embarrassed about it after ward, but that human touch was what lit up our interaction. He made me, and I'm sure all of us there, proud of what we’re about to do for the country we love.
 (The AFROTC gang with Maj. Gen. Forsythe)
Dinner at Cici’s was informal and interesting, as you can probably see…the next day we were up at 4 in the morning to board the bus to Charleston Air Force Base. Stupidly, I didn't have my government ID on me, but they accepted my photo credit card as ID and let me through. We waited for what seemed like hours in the terminal (I hate airports after I had to wait 72 hours in Bombay’s Sahar Airport to board my plane to Daytona) and then took a C-17 Air Force plane up to Wright Patterson AFB. Flying in the C-17 was the coolest thing ever! We were lined up facing each other in chairs of webbing, the massive bay doors to our left. Some Junior ROTC kids and a few other enlisted Air Force personnel were also on the plane with us. I was pretty damn excited about flying on a military plane, to be sure!
Well, she revved herself, pawed at the ground, and heaved her great butt into the air. I got to go into the cockpit and check out West Virginia from 28,000 feet – the Interstate Highway looked like a noodle.
As we were landing and taxiing to a halt, the pilots opened the bay doors, so we could see the earth rushing by just beneath us. Now this was cool, no doubt, but what with the relative motion and the ten degree winds, I quickly decided Ohio could keep its weather to itself, thank you very much. Cold!
 I was glad when we got into the Air Force museum, which was a short drive away from the airport. I saw loads of cool planes, including the prototype YF-22, the B-2 (which struck me as strange at first, as its cockpit is still classified, until I realized of course they’d have removed the avionics (duh) before sticking it in a public museum), the Titan ICBMs, the Black Widow, the A-10…name it, it’s probably there. Which is why I was kind of disappointed that we had just under two hours to go through the three enormous hangars – they were big enough to hold the B-52, so you can imagine their size! Seeing as we flew across the country on a military transport, they might have given us a bit more time.
Oh well. Back to the C-17 – but not before I bought a ridiculously priced ear muffler from the museum.
Hey – at least I didn't feel like I was wearing icicles on the sides of my face when I got back to Wright-Pat (!) We took off on the same plane we came on, heading back to South Carolina, and weather only a few degrees below freezing. Whoopee.
On our approach to Charleston, I was awakened from a doze by a drawling Yeager-style voice over the intercom, languidly informing us that we were about to take a 10,000 foot dive to liven things up. Shortly after that the plane slid forward and we began shooting toward the ground at an incredible speed. Wow, that was fun! We all lifted our hands and legs into the air, and experienced a novel sensation – of near-weightlessness! I was kinda disappointed when it was over! The JROTC kids didn't take it so well, though – a couple of them were really petrified and I think a few threw up too.
The pilots wanted to show off, and they certainly made an impression! I heard that they actually wanted to just surprise everyone with the dive! Half the people were asleep – we had had an early start – and they wanted to wake us up with a free-fall. Picture it. You’re fast asleep on a plane and when you wake up it’s plummeting at a frightening rate. What would you think? OhmigodwearecrashingIAMGONNADIENOOOOOOOOO! I think it would have been awesome, but the pilots were dissuaded on the grounds that there might be panic.
Darn.
A long drive later, we were back in Daytona Beach.
This past fortnight two of my courses ended – EGR 101 and UNIV 101. I’m thankful, because it means that my schedule is going to be that much easier! Not to mention less homework! I had an Air Force Lead Lab final, have a GMC AF class final coming up, as well as two papers, a 1500 line C/MATLAB project, four assignments and I’m afraid to think any more, because I’ll remember pending work and panic! The next two weeks will be crazy, but it’ll be worth it.
If you wanna check out more of our photos, they’re on http://students.db.erau.edu/~higgi1fc/basevisit. This semester has been a blast so far, and I have no doubt the others will be too. Cheers, dudes, and have youself a blast too!
MOTTO FOR THE SEMESTER: Diplomacy, ladies and gentlemen, is the art of saying “nice doggy” until you can find a rock.
November 17, 2005
Hey, everybody! Well, I don’t have much to report, really…these past two weeks I’ve been trying to study and catch up with my work. I’m trying to skip ahead a math class, for which I have to take a test immediately after Thanksgiving break, so I’m frantically trying to do a semester’s load of work in about two weeks.
This fortnight I went to two events with the Honors Student Association – a visit to the Orlando Philharmonic and a day of rock climbing near Lake Mary. The Philharmonic was beautiful – the orchestra played some wonderful music. Toward the second half I found myself dozing off, though – I had been up all night the previous night and the soothing music sort of sent me over the edge of drowsiness into slumber – but the music was beautiful all the same. No, really, it was.
Rock climbing was real fun but real exhausting. It ain’t as easy at it looks! By the end of the day my fingers and arms felt dead, but it was pretty fun.
I also went to the Daytona Beach Film Festival, where I saw several interesting things. The Student Film festival was held right here at Embry-Riddle, and I was interested to see exactly what kind of films kids my age were putting out there. Several were kind of weird, with emphasis on what I call ‘artsy’ kind of shots and angles, some were stereotyped and ridiculous, but others were funny and often thought provoking. I didn't stay to the end – it was a bit too…pointless for me. You can’t really tell a story in fifteen minutes unless you cut out the artsy stuff and get down to it – and none of them tried enough, in my unlearned opinion. Guess I’m just too used to action movies.
I’m also working on my final programming project, which I have chosen to do in C rather than Matlab. So far it’s 2800 lines and doesn’t do what I want it to. Definition of irritation? The urge to smack your computer upside the drive for showing you unlimited streams of rubbish values. Ahhhh, the agony. I’ve gotta get this in order before Thanksgiving or I’m screwed. It’s only due in early December, but my memory is terrible and I don’t wanna have to pull another all nighter. Luckily I’m a psychic amnesiac – I know in advance what I’m gonna forget.
Anyway, between making up missed job shifts every day from 6 to 10 PM at the Annual Fund, my C project, studying a semester’s math while trying to balance my current math load, two papers due this week, staying up all night playing multiplayer computer games with my hall-mates and a physics test day after tomorrow, I haven’t had much time to do anything else. I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people around the globe, that’s pretty cool - I hope I’ve been able to help – keep ‘em coming and I’ll keep answering. My AIM is vedanayakjr and you can also email me at nayak48c@erau.edu or vedajr@gmail.com. Later!
November 2, 2005
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Junior's Jiving Journals! The midpoint of the semester is past, and now the finish line is within sight...two of my courses are ending in two weeks, and then my days will be so much easier - I can’t wait...
This fortnight has been a heck of a lot of fun. I finally got my new computer! I had been planning to buy a laptop for quite a while, and I was getting a bit tired of having to borrow Cameron’s computer or run to the library every time I wanted to look something up. I now have a neat little Toshiba laptop, and I am so pleased with it! I carry it to every class with me, and take notes on it – who needs notebooks when you have a notebook computer?
Well, a LOT has been happening this past week, not only for me but also for Embry Riddle and Daytona Beach as a whole. This fortnight, two big events for Daytona took place - Biketoberfest and the Florida Skyfest, sponsored by Embry Riddle.
Guess I'll start with Biketoberfest, seeing as it came first....during this week bikers (and biker chicks) came from all over the country and congregated on Daytona. AS the week progressed toward the weekend of Bike Fest, I saw all kinds of bikes, of all colors, designs and engines everywhere. Traffic was a nightmare. Outside pubs you could see bikes stacked side to side all the way down the block – you can get an idea of what it’s like from the picture, taken by my suitemate Ben.
Then came the Florida SkyFest. From 11 AM to 4 PM on Saturday and Sunday pilots flipped, rolled, dived and pulled negative G’s all around Daytona Beach International Airport and Embry Riddle’s adjoining campus. There were some pretty entertaining acts – like a wing walker, and a truck with jet engines on it, which raced a plane down the runway with twenty feet long tongues of flame propelling it! In addition to this military jets were parked on the tarmac – F-15s, F-16s, F/A-18s, A-10s, cargo planes…I was thrilled to be so close to these awesome beasts, who can spit out thirty foot tall afterburner flames and stroll at a speed faster than the speed of sound.
I think that if I couldn’t fly a fighter but I could fly any other Air Force plane, I’d fly the A-10 (even though the Air Force is phasing them out), just for the chance to fire that incredible gun in it’s nose, around which it’s literally built.
Despite this, I hear it was not as good as the previous years’, and I can believe that. SkyFest was definitely fun, but it definitely needs work. First of all, it got boring. Not to say that the pilots up there don’t have skill – they risk their necks every second they are in the air – but when you see the same dives, fly-bys and spirals time after time, only with different pilots, it starts to get tiring. The Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels weren’t there to alleviate that. One wonders why they don’t condense the show to about two hours duration – but then one remembers that for the first time ever Embry Riddle charged its own students for admission to SkyFest, and that there are booths set up with ridiculously overpriced eatables, which would definitely not be very popular if the show was a short one. I know I would never have paid $7 for a hot dog and a bottle of coke if I could have gotten out in two hours. And then one remembers the tuition at Embry Riddle and one does think – hmmm….now, what’s wrong with this picture??
Anyway, the first day of SkyFest I was a spectator. The second day I was a worker. I had signed up with AFROTC to help them at SkyFest, and ended up making and serving those very expensive drinks and food to people all day long. By the end of the day it was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a plane diving straight at us, no biggie’. I think military displays would definitely have made it a LOT more enthralling – but only the A-10 did a few flips – the fighter jets parked there just sat there, for the kids with grimy paws to sit in and make loud noises in. Previously, Embry Riddle had arranged military displays, but now that they are charging admission, they don’t seem to find that necessary any more.
All the same it was fun, and the pilots were certainly skilled, no doubt about that. Well. Back to the story…since I last wrote in I also spent an entire day at Universal Studios in Orlando. That was pretty fun, but again, it got boring – we spent about half an hour waiting for every three minute ride. One thing can’t be disputed – a LOT of money has gone into that place – it is a theme park in every sense of the word. One amusing thing was that after every ride we exited in the back of a store. For example, after the Hulk rollercoaster ride, we got off and came out into a shop selling – come on, guess it quick! – Hulk memorabilia. T-shirts, caps, cameras, ridiculously overpriced figurines…surely no one would fall for such an obvious marketing ploy but – yeah, you got it, there are always suckers. They’re like – wow, that ride was awesome! And look, souvenirs, why how very convenient! On the count of three, draw your MasterCard and – BUY!
As I mentioned last time, I have Honors pre-registration, and I was able to get all my classes exactly how I wanted them. I have almost nine hours of back to back classes on Wednesday but I have just one class on Thursdays and I can sleep late on days I don’t have ROTC, so I am quite pleased – it wouldn’t have been possible without the pre-registration perk, that’s for sure! I’ll be taking Calc, Honors and Physics II, CATIA programming, Honors technical report writing and Air Force II.
Before I leave you, I should probably put in a word about Homecoming. During Homecoming 2005 at Embry Riddle, I attended an outdoor concert conducted by the band Recycled Percussion, and a comedy show by Carlos Mencia after the Airshow on Saturday.
Recycled Percussion was a fun event, mainly because of its novelty. The band literally 'rocked their junk'. The rhythm and tempo they achieved while pounding on dustbins, microwave trays and ladders was definitely unusual, to say the least. I especially enjoyed their rendition of the beats of popular songs by AC/DC, Nickelback and others. Some of their stunts even failed - like when they tossed drumsticks to each other and couldn’t catch them like they were supposed to - but that only made us cheer more when they pulled off a stunt (though I wondered if that was more fluke than skill!).
Frankly, Homecoming at Embry Riddle was not what I expected, simply because, to my mind, Homecoming is associated with football. The very concept of 'Homecoming' originated from the returning of athletes to their school after a victorious tour. But at Embry Riddle there is no connection between sports and Homecoming. They brought in a racist comedian - another thing that struck me as unusual, as the focus is usually on sports during this season. Mencia was funny, to be sure, but somebody needs to tell him to grasp his ears firmly and pull hard – maybe then he can remove his head from his ass. But that's not to say that he was not entertaining! To sum it up, everyone worked very hard to make Embry Riddle's Homecoming a grand success, and that effort went a long way!
Motto for the Fortnight: If God had intended man to smoke, He would have set him on fire.
October 20, 2005
Greetings from the beyond! How are ye all doing? Hope the past
fortnight has been good to y'all, as it has been to meeee......
But before I begin this edition of Junior's Jiving Journals, I'd like
to remember herein Vinay's dad, who died a few weeks ago of cancer.
May his soul rest in peace. Vinay was a classmate of mine back in
India, and let's all hope he's on his way to recovering from that
loss.
Right. So what have I been doing this last week? Hmmm...well, let's
begin with the military. Unfortunately, I fell ill because of
something I ate - fever, cramps, puking - the whole gross nine yards.
It figures that the next day I would have to take the PFD for AFROTC -
that's the Physical Fitness Diagnostic, in prep for the very important
PFT - Phy Fit Test. You have to do a minimum of 33 pushups, 40 situps
and run a mile and a half in about 12.5 minutes at the crack of dawn.
Okay. Got up at 5 AM and puked. On an empty stomach. Ever tried that?
Jogged over to the PT field and felt the sensation of Deja Fu (The feeling
that somehow, somewhere, you've been kicked in the nuts like this before). As you
can probably guess, I didn't do my best. But considering how I felt, I
did alright - I passed everything except the pushups - and missed the
cutoff by just two. Just recently I took the PFT, and got a score of
90.5 out of a 100.
Which is not bad at all.
As for studies, things are settling down now. the trick is to stay
ahead of your homework, then there's plenty of time left for study and
ROTC...and if you procrastinate, a bit of fun. But dates on the
calendar are still closer than they appear!
I'm working on a design project for one of my classes - we design a
payload of photography equipment and a rocket to take it into space.
And when I say design, I mean design. Right from the CCD material to
the rocket pad and fuel ejection systems, we design every nitty gritty
detail and chalk our rocket together. It's not easy - there's a
sh**load of calculations, parameters, integrations and factors that
have to be taken into consideration.
Last weekend I saw a coupla movies, including BATMAN BEGINS in the
Student Center and FLIGHTPLAN, which was not bad. I'd recommend it.
Dan Ahdoot, a comedian, performed in the Student Center this Friday. I
went to the beach a few times and chilled. Also my Air Force
instructor has arranged visits to two Air Force Bases in November -
Shaw and Charleston. We get to fly in Air Force planes on the way, so
that promises to be a lot of fun.
I also went to DJ training this week but I wasn't able to follow it up
with the required three hours of training with another DJ while he's
doing a show - my schedule always conflicts...oh well, I'll manage it
sometime soon.
BiketoberFest is coming up soon, next weekend. People who were here
last year say that if you can get out of Daytona, do - or buy yourself
very expensive earphones to drown out the bikes! Gas prices will shoot
up, Main Street will be snarled in traffic jams, motorbikes will be
stolen...Homecoming is on October 28th, so there should be something
fun to report there!
Also, as an Honors student, I have priority registration, which begins
next Monday, so I 'll get first dibs on whichever class I want to
take...no standing in line, no finding that a class I really want is
full, no having to settle for classes at inconvenient times...I'm
really bummed about my schedule this semester, so I intend to have all
my classes in blocks that'll allow me to sleep the hot afternoon away.
Dont ask me what made them schedule a class from 4:45 to 5:45 PM - all
I can say is that while some people drink at the fountain of knowledge
- others only gargle.
Well, I think I have to study now (on a Saturday night!), so I'm gonna
sign off with my motto and say goodnight. Keep those questions coming,
and I'll help out best I can... nayak48c@erau.edu, vedajr@gmail.com or
AIM me at vedanayakjr. Goodnight, everyone...peace out!
VJ
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: Show me a man with both feet planted firmly
on the ground and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.
October 6, 2005
Hey, hey, hey , it's time for your fortnightly shot of Junior's Jiving
Juice from yours truly, Veda Jr. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....
Whoops. Wrong reel. Backtrack...
Embry Riddle. Well, these two weeks sure have been momentous. I don't
think I ever realized how nice things like sleep and regular meals
are, and I no longer remember what leisure time means. Sound familiar,
anyone?
Earlier I had written about the AFOQT - my scores recently came in.
Well, they aren't great. And compared to my SAT scores, they're
dismal. But I'm pleased as punch, coz I expected to do much worse,
what with time playing hide and seek so's I can't study. Free Time.
It's like a mirage. You think you see it, it almost
crystallizes...then you realize you really imagined it. Well, I never
wanted to be a pilot or nav, so that didn't matter to me.
Anyway...The AFOQT consists of five subsets, each independent of the
other. Pilot, Navigator, Academic Aptitude, Verbal and Quantitative.
Their purposes are self-explanatory.
The scores are in nationwide percentile, and mine were - Pilot 52, Nav
71, AcApt 90, Verbal and Quantitative 86. I was pretty happy with the
Pilot score - I'd have probably gotten a large zero if it hadn't been
for Cameron - he has a Private Pilot License and he gave me a crash
course in how to interpret gauges and some common aviation FAQs, and I
didn't do bad at all. Nav was brilliant, donno how I managed that! I
expected higher in Verbal and Math, but oh well.
Okay, another word before I quit about my military career. We had an
'Ability run' last Friday - we had to join a group based on how fast
we could run 1.5 miles, or 2.4 kilometers. I joined the 10 minute and
30 second group because I thought I was in shape - on my scholarship
PFT I ran it in 9 minutes so I thought it'd be a breeze. Guess what?
WRONG! Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant. But
just this morning I ran the same distance in just over
nine-and-a-half minutes. I've vowed to train regularly...if time
doesn’t play truant again.
Hmmm...speaking of time, very early after my last entry I realized
that I had tried to swallow an elephant, when I could only chew a
chicken. My schedule got so frantic with ROTC, work, studies and all
the clubs I had joined that I just had to dump some. Either that, or
dare gravity from my fourth floor window. So I didn't pursue either
Arnold Air Society or the Motorcycle Club. I really want to join the
AIAA, but their meetings are on Thursdays and I have to work
Thursdays, but I'm hoping to resolve it somehow. As for the ISA, I'm
dithering on that...maybe I'll attend one of their meetings and then
make up my mind. But I am definitely going to pursue being VJ the DJ!!
Hopefully, as a second hand musician, I will be found noteworthy!
(yes, the pun was deliberate) First training session is this weekend,
so lets see what happens.
The day after I went to Ponce Inlet Park near Ormond Beach for the
honors student association picnic. It was fun. In the wake of Rita,
the waves were awesome...some were almost 5 feet above my head! I
was half scared I'd drown coz I had just one week's experience in
staying afloat, but I quickly got the hang of riding the wave and
letting it carry you toward the beach. Awesome! I can't wait to learn
swimming better so I can have even more fun diving into the waves.
Had my Math and Physics exams this week - I did okay, I've already
done it all back in India. I also attended the Embry-Riddle chapel this
Sunday - I guess I have a lot to be thankful for.
I have a job at the Annual Fund of Embry Riddle - the pay is
marginally better than most jobs on campus. We call alumni for four
hours a day, three days a week, including a compulsory Sunday, and ask
them if they want to donate money back to our school. Money we get is
used to help and enhance the experience of the students, and several
student clubs and organizations depend on Annual Fund money to run and
conduct activities. To my surprise, I made 2100 dollars in my first
two days, which is some kind of record.
It's a demanding job. It can get really boring at times, meeting the
same responses, saying the same things. Well, if I had to relate all the anecdotes from my job at the Annual
Fund, I'd be writing for ever, and I'm sure you have stuff to do, so
I'm gonna sign off here. For those of you too lazy to scroll down, my
contacts are vedajr@gmail.com, nayak48c@erau.edu, AIM vedanayakjr (I
don't use Yahoo or MSN - too much spam). If you have
any questions at all, do contact me and I'll be glad to help out best
I can...till next time, cheers, dudes!
VJ
Motto for the fortnight: Always borrow money from a pessimist. They
don't expect it back. And if you do a good deed, get a receipt...just
in case St Pete is like the IRS.
September 22, 2005
A big hello and welcome to Junior's Jiving Journals, everybody! Join me as I take you through life here at Embry Riddle - and hopefully the ride won't be too bumpy!
So let me introduce myself, take my bows. My name is Veda, aka VJ, and to those unfortunate people who feel like making a 'Darth Vader' joke (you know who you are), do yourselves a favor and don't. That said, I am originally from Torrance, California, though I have lived for several years in India, near Bangalore, so I guess you could say I'm from either place. I'm in aerospace engineering (if you haven't already gathered that). So far my activities include Air Force ROTC, the Honors Society and Student Association, the Indian Students Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, working at the Annual Fund, learning to swim, skate and keep ahead of the workload here at Riddle.
Now, onto the main event...
Well, where to begin? I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. That first week of college rates as one of the most disorienting yet exciting times of my life. It's all about how many roads you travel down before you admit that you are lost! It was especially so for me, cause I couldn't attend most of the preliminary introductory stuff that happens over orientation, which began on the 24th for US citizens. I had a problem with my exit permit while leaving India, so I couldn't fly on the 21st as planned and I missed Orientation ( Maybe that's why they call airports Terminals). But I managed to get a flight to Chicago a week later, and landed up in Daytona Beach on the 27th local time, jet lagged to hell and back, but very excited at my first real taste of American life all on my own.
Well, because I arrived late I found I was behind on quite a few things, most of all on ROTC. So that meant running around...then running around some more...
Anyway, I got my Eagle card, checked into housing, met my roommate Cameron (who's from Canada), and ran around campus like a headless chicken chasing down one thing or the other. But the fun began on my very first night at ERAU - we went to a show by a hypnotist, Tom DeLuca. I didn't think I'd really see much that would impress me, cause I knew and I still know that it's all one big trick, but what I saw there was so good it made me wonder just how much the hypnotist had paid his volunteers to make them do the crazy stuff that they did. It was the best hoax I have ever seen in my life - and if you weren't as cynical as I am you'd have believed it, it was that good.
He sort of hummed to them (with a lot of flamboyant hand gestures for theatric effect), then for almost 75 minutes made them do and say and act out the nuttiest stuff.
He made one girl unable to say her name, another believe she was the 'Chief of the Fun Police' (she screamed obscenities at the crowd for laughing) and another to forget the number six. She knew she had ten fingers, and kept counting them, but got eleven, because she skipped from five to seven -and if it was an act, her perplexed face was pretty well rehearsed. Loads of other hilarious stuff too...in any case, trick or not, I laughed pretty hard, which made it an entertaining evening for me.
Well, the next big event was AFROTC. The others had started training and drill and gotten uniforms - there were loads of rules and protocols to be learnt. But I guess I was lucky - we're all divided into groups called flights; my Flight Commander called me up and gave me a rundown of all the rules, and helped me out with the drill.
There's still a lot I don't know and a hell of a lot to remember or you get your hair yelled off (whatever's left of it after the regulation haircut), but I think I've gotten the hang of it. And I donno about you, but I find a weird pleasure in yelling GOODMORNING, SIR! at the top of my lungs. And when you watch us practice, all the flights together, it does look impressively military.
Okay. So the first week, I was exhausted. I mean bone tired. I had been getting up at 4 AM to be at drill by 5:15, and going to bed at midnight so I could catch up on all my homework and studies. I had been going on all cylinders. I had put my head together only to find the rest of me had fallen apart. Monday was Labor Day, so I was looking forward to the extended weekend. But on Saturday I got an email saying that the Detachment was organizing relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They would be filling up a 53 foot tractor trailer with supplies - mostly water - for the victims, and they needed Cadet Volunteers to drive around town from 1100 on Sunday and request local businesses to contribute money or supplies to help those poor people.
I got up at 10:00 AM (after my first eight hour straight sleep in a week) and read the email at 10:30. I gotta tell ya, I felt like ignoring it. What the heck, I might never have read it. Besides, it's voluntary, right? And I'm weary, I haven't eaten, and I just don't feel like trudging around town in the stifling humid weather and asking people for money. But then I thought of all those people in New Orleans - I think we all have - and who knows - some day a hurricane could strike Florida and I may be stranded without help. So with a few others I drove around a part of town, and solicited local businesses help. There's a lot of community spirit, and I think people really are helping the best they can.
A quick word about my classes - I'm taking Honors Humanities, which is good because Prof Kain's classes are discussion based and really stimulating. Also I don't have to take COM, a basic writing course - instead I'll be focusing on Transhumanism and humanism with reference to Frankenstein, Goethe, Bacon and Sophocles. I'm also taking Calc I with Spradlin, Intro to Engineering (EGR 101), Intro to Computing (EGR 115) with Kindy, ROTC, Physics 150 and UNIV 101 - which is a class about making it through college, attending classes, that kind of stuff. I don't think I really need to be told that - I'll be spending almost a quarter of a million for that unique ERAU education, and since I'm not made of money (like some lucky folks), I don't think attendance will be an issue with me!
Embry also has some awesome equipment in the Lehman Building and I can't wait to get in there and try it out. I also learnt to swim! Yeah, I know it's unbelievable that I didn't know before, but Cameron's a champ swimmer, he competed at the Junior National Level in Canada, so I learnt pretty quick. I also intend to learn skating, cause it's just such a pain walking across campus from class to class.
I also went to the Student Activities Fair last week. All the clubs and sororities and fraternities set up booths along a long walkway, and you can walk down, see what you're interested in and sign up! They have clubs for everything - from flying to Japanese sword fighting, from space payload design teams to a model UN...and everything in between.
I joined the AIAA, the Indian Students Association, the Motorcycle Club, Arnold Air Society...and...the radio station! That's right - if my application is accepted I will be on the Eagles Radio waves as VJ the DJ! Everyone here at Riddle is so busy, but if enough people call in I'm thinking of doing a request show or something. So you all better tune in and jive to my music and tell me if I suck or not (Statutory Warning: If you think I suck I reserve the right to tell you to stuff it in a possibly graphic manner).
Recently I went with the Honors guys to the beach - we had some fun, swam in the waves, surfed, played beach volleyball, pigged out and stuff like that. I wanted to go along with some pals to watch LORD OF WAR but couldn't...because I had to take the AFOQT the next day. That's the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test, which you have to take if you wanna be a fighter jockey or wizzo...or graduate as an officer, for that matter.
Despite the crazy schedule, the humidity, the lack of sleep and the irregular meals - I'm enjoying myself, I'm happy, and hey, what more can you ask for!
Well, that's it from me for now - I'll be back in two weeks with more! You can catch me by email at vedajr@gmail.com or nayak48c@erau.edu. My AIM is vedanayakjr, although I'm not on AIM very often. So if you have any questions, comments or insane ravings to share, do feel free to get in touch, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Till next time, keep jiving, dudes!
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: Beware of the toes you step on today...they may be attached to butt you'll have to kiss tomorrow.
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Name: Veda 