One Storm Down... A Zillion More to Go

I survived my first North Dakota rain/freezing rain/sleet/snow/bizzard storm, but just barely. So today as the sun poked out for a few hours I decided to dig out the car, praying that it would start. I dont think the auto has adjusted quite yet to the cold windy weather of the Dakotas. It has the hardest time getting started. My mum says that I need to at least start my car every 5 days or so just to keep the battery charged up and working properly and so the oil doesnt get all sludggy and thick and nasty.

I knew I had parked in a certain lot and in a general area, but I completely forgot where I actually parked. Seeing that my car is white and snow is 'white' too, I nearly had to pee until the snow didnt turn yellow in order to find my car. But I found it and it was well coated. My car was coated in an inch and a half of ice underneth a couple of inches of snow piled on top. I had to run my credit card down the door jams because I kept pulling and pulling and nothing was happening.

As I am working at scraping the ice and snow off my car, a dozen people walked by smiling and snickering to themselves. This one guy even stopped to make conversation. His first comment, Welcome to North Dakota. Get use to spending half your days out here scrapping. And all I can think of in my head, Fucking North Dakota Winters. I managed to eek out something along the lines of yeah, this sucks.

Finally after working at unfreezing my car for over 35 mins, it was to the point of driving. But after my hands turned purple from defrosting the car, I gave up and went back inside. I really do need to get direct deposit.

Have Fun Mum and Dad!

Maman et le Papa anniversaire Heureux. Today is my parents 25th wedding anniversary. I think my parents are more in love now than they have ever been. They should be proud, they have raised to great boys, and they have a great family. Having that said... it was quite funny on how this trip to Paris for the two of them was planned.

My mum wanted to get remarried underneth the Tower to my dad. How romantic is that? Mum wanted to keep it a surprise and well she did an excellent job, thanks to me. She came to me for some help with scheduling and booking some flights. I did some good fiddling and ended up getting her and dad a good booking. I chipped in some of my miles on Qantas/American and got mum and dad economy tickets upgraded to business class.

Meanwhile dad called me up a few days later asking to keep this a secret but he wanted to take mum to Germany for a week in December, since she loved it so much. So I did some more fiddling with dates and times and ended up getting them a fairly good deal to Germany. I helped book them a nice bed and breakfast near the Rhine River. I am sure it will be absolutely beautiful with all the recent snows. My dad is such a romantic at heart. And yet again, being the good son, I chipped in the rest of my miles and got them a nice upgrade.

I have absolutely no miles left but I couldn't think of any better way to spend them, but on my parents.

Uni Is Quite Quiet Today

Here we are the last full week of uni, and whether it be people's choice or more likely the wintery weather, the university is only running at half full today. Oh look at me, all optimistic and shit. I've heard rumours around campus that nearly 2,000 uni students from Grand Forks and Fargo are living in the Minneapolis airport for the next few days seeing that United and Northwest have cancelled all flights in and out of the two cities.

Although some of the reasons Northwest is giving for the cancelled flights is not very good. Non-weather related machanical issues are really starting to out-number weather related cancelled flights. Not good. Just a bit of information, when you fly Northwest, you really are taking a chance that the plane will basically fall out of the sky. Thats why I always will perfer the hour drive south to Fargo and hop on board the United shuttle, rather than any kind of NWA jet.

This really is a big winter storm for me. I am not use to the inches apon inches of snow and ice. An inch of snow will cancel schools in St. Louis for a few days. Here if you live in the country, no school, but if you live in the city, you better start walking bitch cause with that stiff northerly wind at 40 mph, you are going to have frost bite in 30 mins.

At this point in time... we have an inch of icey/ sleety rain on the ground with about 2 inches of snow... and its still coming down.

Uni Is Quite Quiet Today

Here we are the last full week of uni, and whether it be people's choice or more likely the wintery weather, the university is only running at half full today. Oh look at me, all optimistic and shit. I've heard rumours around campus that nearly 2,000 uni students from Grand Forks and Fargo are living in the Minneapolis airport for the next few days seeing that United and Northwest have cancelled all flights in and out of the two cities.

Although some of the reasons Northwest is giving for the cancelled flights is not very good. Non-weather related machanical issues are really starting to out-number weather related cancelled flights. Not good. Just a bit of information, when you fly Northwest, you really are taking a chance that the plane will basically fall out of the sky. Thats why I always will perfer the hour drive south to Fargo and hope on board the United shuttle, rather than any kind of NWA jet.

This really is a big winter storm for me. I am not use to the inches apon inches of snow and ice. An inch of snow will cancel schools in St. Louis for a few days. Here if you live in the country, no school, but if you live in the city, you better start walking bitch cause with that stiff northerly wind at 40 mph, you are going to have frost bite in 30 mins.

At this point in time... we have an inch of icey/ sleety rain on the ground with about 2 inches of snow... and its still coming down.

Civil Dinner Conversations

Last night I went out on the town and had some dinner with an aviation mate who stuck around in good ol' GFK. We went out and had drinks and dinner at one of the nicest places in GFK. And it really is saying something of the location of the town, when your drinks and dinner and tip just barely skims 20 bucks. And I was being quite generous with the tip too.

The Thai Shrimp Lininugi was well, not stellar, the Long Island was quite strong though, so that was a plus. The conversation ranged from turkey day celebrations to how unattractive NoDaks really are. But mostly the conversation revolved around aviation and more specifically airlines. It really is nice to just talk to someone who really does share the same interests as yourself.

Most times I just humor people and tell them about aviation and they give the traditional responses of oh thats nice, thats cool, etc. But it is just nice to have a civil conversation with others who know that you can catch a United B777 from Chicago to Denver, or who know that USAir and United code share.

God, I am such a nerd.

By the way, nothing happend after dinner. I knew all of you were thinking that. You go to dinner with someone, have a couple of drinks, the conversation is great and next thing you know the neighbours are calling campus police because you are making too much noise.

It didn't happen that way, at least this time.

Thanksgiving 2005

This years Thanksgiving was less than stellar. Hours apon hours of "Lifetime" and a dinner that well was not turkey and pumpkin pie



24 boneless chicken wings (mild) standing in for turkey and gravy. Pop-tarts and a 3 Musketeers standing in for pumpkin pie.

I did however get to talk to mum and some other relatives. I hate... well hate is such a strong word, I LOATHE being handed around on the phone. You get the same question over and over again.

How is school going?

I give the traditional, oh you know it's going fine. Just three more weeks until holiday break. I think most of them would be surprised if I actually gave them a truthful response.

Oh it's definitely not a place I want to be. I hate the landscape, the city is too small, the people are hicks, the weather is less than attractive, the smell is odd, drinking is the only thing that keeps me sane, and I want to smack half the idiots that attend class upside the head with my laptop, but other than that... It's going FANTASTIC! How is your day?

Podcasting Coming to UND

Podcasting is coming to UND!

Recently, universities across the United States have been taking advantage of a new technology called podcasting. Podcasting enables people to create their own digital recording and distribute it via the Internet. A proposed service, Luxetlex.com, hopes to take advantage of this technology by providing podcasts that supplement student learning here at UND.

This could definitely be an added tool in the process of learning, but the one issue that I have is the added cost. In order to get podcasts, the company, Luxetlex, will be charging for the service. They have not decided on whether to charge per download or a monthly service fee.

Luxetlex.com realizes that getting students to pay for a supplemental podcast may be difficult. It has yet to be decided how UND students would pay for the proposed service. The cost of the service would be the biggest concern for students, and some may not be willing to pay for educational podcasting.

"Due to rising tuition and gas prices it would be difficult for me to justify paying for podcasting on a minimum wage salary," said Dave McGatlin, a senior majoring in Air Traffic Control.

Quotes via "Dakota Student"

Turkey Din Din

Well SFND has a great night last night. He attended a Pilgrim and Indian Feast with some aviation buddies. SFND has a great time. Boys really do know how to cook. The turkey: Yum!, the potatoes: Fantastic!, the stuffing: oh so delicious! Well you get the point. Although SFND got a bit sick, he ended up eatting way too much turkey, and when I say I ate too much turkey, I mean 2 bottles of wine. Yes, it was not a pleasant outcome that night, but the entire night up to that point was quite fun.

Break Out The Alcohol

SFND's brother is a jerk. SFND was suppose to spend the winter holidays in Cancun, Mexico with his brother but instead he is NOT. The story starts when we were planning to head to Cancun for a week over Christmas while the parents were in Europe. We had everything set up. I was to the point of punching in credit card numbers and all of a sudden, instead of a brother holiday it now, can i bring along my girlfriend?

Uh? I thought this was brotherly bounding time? Apparently not, he wanted to bring along the girlfriend cause she has always wanted to visit Mexico. After much inner conflicting with myself, I crumbled under the pressure and allowed the girlfriend to tag along on our brotherly holiday.

I get a call last night around 11pm,...

The girlfriend cannot go, so I am not going. I am not going to Cancun. CLICK.

Uh... well fuck a duck! Now I am ultra pissed. I get to spend the first week of my winter holiday entertaining my grandmother. Not that I dont like my grandmother but her idea of fun and entertainment is sewing I love CHRISTmas sweaters. Seriously where is the rope so I can hang myself now?

*this is not whining yet, me venting... I'll be okay in a few days*

Ground Rules

I've been avoiding the updates on this blog like crazy for a few simple reasons:

1. SFND's uni schedule has become so hecktic lately that he doesn't have the time to keep up with writing about stupid North Dakotaians.

2. His other aviation based blog, has kept him busy and his writing needs sufficed for the time being. Thus Stories From ND gets neglected.

3. And probably the most important, SFND doesnt want this blog to become all depressing and whiney. SFND has decided to just not post if he feels that the subject content will be "I hate this, life sucks, etc..." SFND is having enough problems with adjusting to North Dakota and he doesn't feel like he should burden others with the overly simpified pace of life up here. So SFND will not post anything unless it is at least semi upbeat or at least nothing depressing.

So, in other news, SFND spent all day Friday in the ATC (air traffic control) lab just mucking around with the simulators. Good stuff I tell you. I was invited to give an upper class run a go on the simulators. Seeing how I am a lower skills level uni student at this point, I thought I would give it a go, really what is the worst that could happen?

I guess I could have crashed all the planes, but thankfully for the 'fake passengers' I somehow managed to naviage 35 planes without crashing. "My airspace is finite!" (Yeah only if you are an aviation nerd or a Pushing Tin fan will you understand that quote.)

Southwest 3-26, one five miles from Woody turn right, heading three one zero, maintain 3 thousand until established on the localizer, cleared I-L-S approach two eight right.

American 14-47, acedemy approach, decend and maintain one zero thousand, reduce speed to 2-5-0, turn left heading 2-8-0. Vectors for approach.

Yes, the inner nerd has come out! Don't you just love it? I know I do! I spent a good 5 hours in that lab on Friday just mucking around. Well mucking around for me, getting some practice under my belt. All air traffic control is just one big video game. The only thing that is different, no reset button. How cliche is that? That saying just wants to make me throw up in disgust. Uh that American you just turned right has 428 passengers on it. That Northwest has 327 passengers, and that Southwest has 159 passengers. Just a bit more than a video game without a reset button. But in order to stay sane you must think of ATC as a video game.

Let It Snow

Winter is coming! The weather men say this could be one to watch. They say between 4 and 8 inches. I call that a bloody huge storm but I am from the southern part of the midwest, where one to two inches shuts down everything!



Pictures taken at 11am cst, University of North Dakota, Swanson Hall, Grand Forks, ND.

Oyi! The 8am girl didn't show. So I am stuck pulling a 12 hour shift. YAY for sleep deprivation!

Winter is Coming

The weather up here is odd. On Friday we broke a record high. We elasped the old record by 2 degrees, taking the new record to 64 degrees. Yeah, 64 degrees F. I know it doesn't sound warm at all, but we were a good 30 degrees warmer than normal that day.

Well I have said we were going to be punished for our stretch of warmish temperatures in the 50's and so we are this week. Reality Check 101... Winter is never kind. Today we topped out around 37 degrees and had a nice beautiful day of rain, sleet, freezing rain, thunderstorms, snow, and wind. Oh yes, the wind is horrible up here. Locals consider 20 m.p.h. a light breeze. A normal day could see the winds up in the mid 20's. The other day we had winds gusting to 65 m.p.h.! Uh thats just 9 miles per hour short of a hurricane.

I have this weather.com weather bug on my desktop for general reference for temperatures. One might believe that the normal colour of the weather bug would be red up here because it seems like we are constantly getting severe weather advisories, watches, and warnings. Oh on the contrary, apparently the weather bug is blue! Who would have thought!

It is funny how you go from one advisory to the next without any laspe time. For instance:

We went from a high wind warning to a winter storm watch, to a winter storm advisory, then to a high wind warning and finally we are at the winter storm watch. All of this occurred in roughly a 60 hour period.

I JUST LOVE THE WEATHER IN NORTH DAKOTA!
(did you get the scarcastic tones?)

Is That Flakey Hair? No, It's My White Hair

I didn't want to acknowledge it to myself but now is as good of time as any other. When I am in the bathroom I notice the sink is becoming more and more full of stray hairs. When I was at home I would blame it on my brother's stray hair, even though he has blonde hair and my hair well isn't blonde. Now that I am here with no roommate, it is kind of hard to blame the stray hair on them. I know that losing hair is part of the whole process of replacement, but with the amount of hair that is falling out, I could donate it to charity and give cancer patients several heads of hair.

I am a walking future stock holder and purchaser of Rogaine. I would rather spend every last dollar on Rogaine and hair replacement than have bald spots. Now some people look damn fine with no hair, or very short hair. But not me. I am the kind of person that needs to keep their full head of dark hair. I just wouldnt look good with no hair. It is a simple fact.

I have also noticed that my widow's peak is becoming very pronouced now. I can definitely deal with the widow's peak. I think I look pretty good with it. It makes me look younger, I guess one could say. And if I ever needed to look older i could do a certain style of hair and the widow's peak disappears.

Our dog at home has these semi long white hairs. His name is Kody and he is an American Eskimo. I always blamed the spots of white hairs on him. ~You know he sheds, so some of his hairs would get mixed up in mine and well thats why my hair has white spots~ Well, its been several months and still his hairs that he is shedding are making their way 1300 miles to my dorm room. Well at least that's what I keep telling myself. But the truth be that I am extending my widow's peak and my hair is turning white. Great. Damn you genetics!

Just Something About It

Working the weekend night shifts allows me plenty of time to engross myself in film culture. Courtesty of Netflix, I am able to watch quite a few movies. I normally watch action adventure, comedy, and even sci-fi.

But this weekend I tired something a bit different. I watched a few movies that would make anyone cry. Here I am on video camera at my job, balling like a 3 year old that just got their toy taken away. I was so engrossed with the movie. I have to admit I am a softie when it comes to romance and stories that pull on those strings. I try not to cry, trying not to let them get to me. I keep telling myself that they are purely in a fictional state. But I become so entangled in the movies that I feel as if I am there, whispering the answers in the character's ear. I feel myself just sitting there, feeling sad, feeling hatred, feeling in love, yet I am very much unable to convey my feelings and let everyone know what is going on.

Why is it that some movies are made to pull you in, forget what is going on around you, whilst others have the problem of turning people off? Why is it that I can be so taken in by one movie yet be so ashamed to even mention I watched the other movie? Am I just more prone to want to feel for certain characters? Is it because I can understand what those characters are going through?

No Title

Macquarie Uni Bar (2005)

Where did all those months in Australia go? They seem like such a distant memory now. Just 2 months until Aussie Reunion in Minneapolis. Just one year until I plan to go back. The suspense is killing me. Is it 18 December 2006 yet?

No Scholarships This Year

Well that was no surprise on my end. Two months ago I applied for internal scholarships for the next year within the aviation department and more specifically the Air Traffic Control department.

"Dear SFND:

When we received your application for the student scholarship program, we here at the aerospace department laughed histarically. We thank you for letting us release our built up stress and tension. We even let out a little dribble of pee, your application was that funny! Thanks to you we have been able to elimate the need for stress balls during registration time, thus reducing the budget and allowing more money to be freed up for the scholarship program. Unfortuntely, you don't get any of that money.

We do however love that you are continuing to pay out-of-state fees here at the University of North Dakota. But we need to be able to offer our local students even cheaper in-state costs, so they end up paying nothing while your debt balloons. We just love to see student's debt become so large that the interests on the loans is so overbearing that you will never see the light of day.

We see that you are tops in your Aviation classes and even more highly rated in your ATC courses, but we regret that we can not offer highly motivated and intelligent students any money. On the bright side your Friday night on awards night will free, so may we suggest that you pick up that extra shift because now you will need the extra cash.

Oh by the way, we decided to increase your tuition for next semester. Good Luck!

Sincerely,
Aerospace Department
Air Traffic Control"

Although the letter does not actually say that, basically that's what I got out of it.

Winter Holidays Approaching

I was so bored at work tonight that I decided to just go ahead and book my holiday hotels for the roadtrip back home after this semester is completed. I would just love to fly home and not mess with all the issues that arise when traveling by car. But unfortuntely for me, my car registaration is due back in my home state. I could have just registared the car here in North Dakota, but I don't want that fucking ugly licence plate attached to my car. So I will be driving home this year for the holidays.

I like the fact that when you travel by air, you normally make one purchase for the whole trip: the airline ticket. Plus the fact that I can be home in 3 hours, including a layover in Chicago, makes flying home much more appealing. When you drive you have to add in the cost of fuel, right now it isn't too bad but that could change come December. You have to add in the cost of stopping at McDonald's or Burger King for some food. You have to add in the extra costs for hotels, because driving the 18 hours straight thru is just not an option, especially since I wont be leaving until noon at the earliest because of an early morning final. I just can not sit in the car for 18 hours. It is just impossible. I only have so many songs on CD and that drive thru North and & South Dakota, Nebraska, and Middle Missouri are just killers. So basically 92% of the trip is so boring that I just want to stab myself with the rear view mirror. And since it will be December when I leave and January when I return, it may be -20 degrees F outside with blinding snow storms along the way. That could add considerable time, maybe even days to my trip. Not a pleasant outlook. I wold rather be stuck at the airport in Chicago than in some backwoods motel out in the middle of wheat fields in South Dakota because of a snow storm. At least the airport would have indoor plumbing. That is just my personal opinion.

But since flying is not an option this year, I will be staying at a very nice hotel in Omaha. I don't have those big bucks like some of those other bloggers out there, I make 30 cents over minimum wage, so I couldn't stay at the US$300 a night place. However, I will be staying at the Doubletree in Omaha. It is definitely not Texas' finest like this place, that Sam stayed at, but it will sufice for my needs: a comfortable king bed, a tv, and a shower that drains, so I dont have to stand in water.

Why Do I Work The Weekends?

Work is killing my budding social life. Every time I get asked to go out to the bars, movies or dinner, I am stuck working the bloody night shifts. Everyone asked me, why are you working on your birthday weekend?

First, I completely forgot this weekend was actually my birthday weekend. Seeing how my finances are not the brightest, I picked up a few extra shifts this weekend too. Thus making my work schedule larger this week of my birth.

Second, birthdays are not that important to me. It's like, let's celebrate the exit of my tiny body from a whole half the size. I admit it is an amazing feat but do we really need to get wasted and create fire hazards just because we had a grand exit? I really think that birthdays are just the chance for the average person to have their claim to fame, their 15 mins of fame.

Both of those reasons are why I am working on my birthday. But I really don't mind. I wont get anything special in the real world anyways. I highly doubt they even give out birthday holidays anymore. I'll probably work my birthday when I get my job out there with the FAA, so why get use to taking it off now? I am quite content with just getting the friendly Happy Birthday messages on Facebook.com, greeting cards, or even those small gifts from closer friends and family. Which I must say are coming in quite handy this year. I have falling completely in love with my new hoodie my bro sent me. My other gifts, I hope I sure don't have to use soon but I wouldnt mind giving them a test run. (I got new gloves and a scarf.)

Wishful Thinking

Just one of those days in which I wished I was back there.

Advising x 4

The good part about being a double major is that you have four advisors at your bek and call whenever any problems or situations arise. I was running from one end of the campus to the other end of campus meeting with all my advisors today since I will be registaring for next semester in a week or so. As you can imagine, things are quite hecktic around campus regarding the advisors. It is a busy time of the year for them. They have papers to get signed and sent in, students racing to drop/change courses at the last moment before Friday's deadline, and most importantly, they have to help advise students on their upcoming semester.

I sat down with my Aviation advisor today. As we are walking back to his office, he asked, where are you from. I stated St. Louis. He quickly shot back, another question, do you know Lisa there? Actually yeah, she is an ATC at Spirit, right? Yeah!

He shot back another question... So who are the greatest hockey team. Not knowing what to say, I shouted off our school, the Sioux!

Wrong answer, I knew that as soon as I walked into the office. Gopher stuff plastered everywhere! Now, who is the greatest hockey team, he asked again.

The Gophers!

He is an awesome guy. We shot the shit, talked about uni, I am apparently invited to go golfing, even though I wouldnt know the first thing about golfing. But he is going to make some calls before I go home for the holidays and make sure that Lisa and some other people are able to take me up into the Towers and thru the Tracon, and possibly tarmac side tours.

I love him already!

I thought I talked fast when I talk. No way! This guy is speaking as fast as Page, if not faster than her. She is from that television show from the early 1990's, Bloosom. Remember that? The guy just kept going. I guess that comes with the many years as an ATCer.

Birthday Surprise

My birthday is quickly approaching. As of the date of my birth my heart would have beated 832,943,520 times. I would have taken 173,529,900 breaths. Pretty impressive that nothing has broken down yet. I would like to thank all of those for the kind words and gifts. Much thanks is given to Scottie for starting off my holiday weight gaining season earlier this year. He opted to win over my love by sending me Tim Tams from Australia.

For all of you not fimilar with Tim Tams, they are manufactured by Arnott's in Australia. They are the among the many gifts given to the world by the Australians. The best part is that all the information regarding health concerns are written in kiljoules and grams, and being that I am still on the dirty American scales, I have never learned those fancy metric meausrements. So I do not have to realize that they are actually just as fatty as several Big Mac's. I could/would just sit down, open a package and eat the entire thing before Neighbours was over when I lived down there. Every American that was down there ended up hording and taking back dozens of packages to their family... most of the time the Tim Tams never made it back to the US mainland, but for those few that have sampled Tim Tams, they are a irresistable treat that is all consuming.

So yes, I ended up eating several packages of Tim Tams that Scottie sent me. And all of them are starting to migrate their way down. I have received several nice cards, some from people I really didnt expect to get ones from. But it is nice to see they actually take the time to run to the store, write something vague and nice about me, slap their name on it, and throw it in the mail.

For me, birthdays are not important. It's like, we celebrate a sucessful ejection of your body from the womb of your mother. But then we get the stories, I was in labour for 23 hours with you. You were a bitch. You didnt want to come out. I had the weirdest cravings while pregnant with you. You made me eat pickles and horse-radish sause ontop of pickled beets. They wouldnt give me an epidural with you. For a tiny thing when you were born, you sure made it feel like it was a tight fit when you were coming out.

Thank god I am 832,943,520 heart beats old and I can drink.