It's Good To Be Home Again....

Now I remember why I hate this place so much.

I was already to hang out with friends, catch up with each other, and just sit around and chat. I had arrived at the resturaunt already, got a table for 5, and was sitting there for 30 mins when I get this SMS.

From S***** *(Dec 27, 2005) 11:45am: We are not going to make it to lunch. We are not going to be at dinner either. We already ate lunch and we are shopping. Sorry.

Right... I remember how flaky and fake the people are here. That SMS was the third time someone cancelled on me since being back home.

Well Fuck them. I hate all this political backstabing. I hate all this jocking for position within the group.

A Bit of Everything

I really dont have much to report except that Airblue.org landed me a paying job! I am very excited about that. Dan sent me the first section of the contract, and will be sending me the rest of the contract as soon as they get my web domain up and running.

How exciting is that????

Unfortuntely, Airblue will probably suffer a bit in content and posting because of copywrite and legal issues of me not being able to post the same information at both blogs. But if given the choice of posting at Airblue and not earning cash per post, and posting for KMM for cash per post, I am willing to let airblue suffer a bit in content.

I've been taking a more indepth look at their website and some of the editors/contributors history and background. I am already feeling overwhelmed and undereducated. These guys have 10+ years in the communication and internet sectors. They've earned MBA's and BA's and have been running internet companies that have been bought out by big names.

That being said, they contacted me. They expressed interest in my site. They believe that I have the skills, the insider knowledge and the drive to be able to publish aviation related events every day.



In other news: Kody Bear is doing just fine. He is actually sleeping on my feet right now. He is a nice blanket sometimes. Keeping my feet so warm. But damn he snores louder than myself. He prances around now because he thinks he is almighty. He has this new bandana around his neck. It has snoopy on it with christmas trees. He just thinks he owns everything in the house because he has some bling on.

Quick Overview

So I finally arrived home. Bout time too, that drive seems so long! I guess it seemed longer because I couldnt speed because 80% of my trip encountered snow and stupid drivers. The latter being the more difficult to deal with.

Here are some of the major headlines

1. Been spending some time with the parents. I think they are glad to have me home for the holidays.

2. Been helping clean up and do a few projects around the house before the grandparents and aunts and uncles arrive for the chrissie holiday.

3. Been spending some great times with the doggie. I missed him greatly.

(side note, I am mad at my mum, she thought it would be best if she didnt tell me that Kody has cancer! She said she took him to the doctor and apparently its so bad they can not operate. He has lost a lot of weight too, which is quite sad.)

4. Went gift shopping for dad the other night at Best Buy and the sales guy was an ass, so my brother and i went to circuit city and bought 1,000 dollars worth of car stereo equipment. That will teach him to judge a person by what they are wearing!

That's about all...

One of Those Things...

I got tagged from Jetboy. Since I have nothing to do today, I thought maybe this might relieve my bordom for a few moments.

The rules for this particular meme are as follows: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot

Annush
Vince
Spider
Jetboy
SFND

Now I have to pass it on to 4 individuals...It was suppose to be 5 but I got lazy.... hmmm....

Adam
Matt
Sam
Scottie

Right, let's begin... shall we?

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Let's see, I was on the verge of entering manhood. I was growing my first hairs in places, I didn't realize got hair. I was the fresh meat in junior high. Let me tell you, 6th grade was hard! Lockers, moving classes, and all those people, oh MY!

What were you doing 1 year ago?
At this point last year, I was working full time in a god awful factory forging metal parts for refridgators. The only hope in my life was the fact that I was about to move 15,000 kilometers away to a place that is considered upside down world.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Tim Tams!
2. Rice Krispy Treats
3. Apples
4. Oranges
5. Popcicles (winter and summer)

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1. "We're in Heaven" by DJ Sammy
2. "Hello" by SugarBomb
3. "The Trouble With Love Is" by Kelly Clarkson
4. "Holding Out For A Hero" by Jennifer Saunders from Shrek 2
5. "Why Do You Love Me?" by Garbage

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Go to Uni in Australia.
2. Travel with the boy
3. Share some with REAL Friends and internet acquaintances
4. Build a GIANT heat lamp for Nodak, so it wouldn't be so FU*KING COLD!
5. I guess save some for later...

Five bad habits:
1. I don't exercise enough
2. Bite my nails
3. Obcess over small things
4. Complain a bit too much sometimes... well often
5. Not holding the lift for people when they say hold the elevator.

Five things you like doing:
1. Listening to approach control at the airport. (*NERD ALERT*)
2. Watching planes landing at the airport.
3. Going to Uni
4. Making fun of NoDaks
5. Watching the ocean waves crash on-shore

Five things you would never wear again:
1. That purple shirt my grandmum gave me that makes me look like Barney
2. Penny loafers
3. My Halloween Custome when I was 3, pink bunny outfits are not cool!
4. A one piece snow suit... I look like a Starfish!
5. Horizontal strips, they make me look FAT

Five favorite toys:
I really don't have any toys...
1. The laptop computer
2. Transceiever
3. SimCity 4(SUPER NERD ALERT)
4. Digital Camera
5. Wireless BroadBand router...

Those answers for favourite toys were lame!

New Toy!

Now I know where my housing dollars went too! They just installed our new 50 inch flat screen tv in the lobby.

It is so beauitful.

All the guys are down there playing with it right now. So I haven't gotten a chance to inspect it closely but I am pretty sure it is a Samsung. It's so nice cause they hung it from the wall. Leaving more room for chairs and a couple of sofas, of course. Now all they need to do is relax the upper dorm alcohol policy and all will be just jazzy. I am sure the station will be constantly stuck on ESPN, if the guys have anything to say.

UPDATE: Ended up eating puppy chow, soft pretzels, apples and oranges, and having a bit of lemo to drink whilst lounging in front of the new tv. A couple of guys and I ended up watching A Christmas Story. That movie is great! Apparently here is the story with the tv. Each residental hall gets a certain amount of money each year to buy stuff. Most halls buy game tables, new kitchen stuff, etc. But since our hall is one of the newest ones on campus, all of our stuff is pretty much brand new. The way our hall is designed, we really dont have one common area that we could put any gaming tables either.

So our hall government didnt know what to get. Since a TV would be beyond our budget we had no clue what to get this year. Well the guy that doles out the money was nice enough to give us a few extra dollars (1500 bucks) in order to purchase a tv for our common lobby area. So now we have a very nice flat panel to gather around to watch hockey games, football games, basketball games, and whatever our little hearts desire!

Nearly Done

I finally finished up French. Let's just say I will not be enrolling in the second semester of it. I gave the French Language a go but decided it was not for me. I will just stick with keeping up with German. I found the French accent and their ability to run the sounds of letters together a bit over my head. French and English have this basic difference. The English language is very choppy. Sometimes sounds are short and cut off while other times the sounds are stretched out. Where as the French language is very wavey. Everything seems to flow in patterns of waves with crests and troughs.

I do believe that it is a great language. It can not be that bad if it is the 3rd or 4th most commonly spoken language but I believe if people are to learn more than one language it is something that needs to be taught from a younger age. Trying to learn another language at an older age is difficult to say the least. So when people learn 2, 3, 4, 5 different languages and know them quite well, I am very much impressed.

And we all know I find intelligence to be attractive.

So I probably will just keep up with my German. Maybe take a class here or there. Or even spend a few weeks traveling there sometime in the near future.

ATC final: check
Aviation final: check
French final: check
Geography: final today @ 10.15am
Meteorology: final Friday @ 10.15am

Snow Messages

It snowed again last night. It was so pretty. The light snow dancing in the air. A favourite past time here involves writing messages in the snow.

Student Government Meeting @ 5.30pm

It's cold here!

Merry Xmas

Etc...

But this greeted me outside my window today.




It really could mean anything. I am taking it as the place where the campus crusades for christ are airlifting in reinforcements. We will make them use the phrase Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays! This is Christian country not a jew loving paradise.

Should I Stay, Should I Go?

Well Fuck a Duck! The first signs of real friendships here at UND and the asses get the nerve to move to different unis. Please take me with you!

Several of my neighbours which I have been getting alone with splendly have decided that they are going to give up on the city of Grand Forks, the craptacular weather, and the Nodaks and move the hell out of here. I really dont blame them. I would be out of here in an instant but I need to seriously start to buckle down and get this bloody degree. If I dont start to really work towards it I will surpass the age maximums and I will not be able to be an air traffic controller.

"M" is moving to Michigan to be closer to the future miss "M". He can not blame his decision to leave this place on the weather being that he is from Buffalo. The snow there is 1000 times worse than here. Apparently Western Michigan is a good school for aviation too.

"J" is moving to Norway. Apparently the Nodak winters are not brutal enough for him. I feel sorry for "J's" girlfriend here, as she will be stuck here for many many years. I guess we could complain together!

"A" is giving up and saying screw the Dakotas, screw the fucking horrible winters, and screw UND all together since she will be moving back to the Twin Cities.

"R" is moving back to Oregon to go to school there. The winters got to him. Enough said there really.

I however will stick it out here. The university really is a great uni, the location just gives it a HORRIBLE hand. As much as I want to go HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE, I will just stay here . Although UND is much better than those rich snobs down HERE.

So next semester will be full of more friend making chances since others have to fill their rooms.

Odds and Ends

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! My car finally started. Thanks to the help of John's Jeep which Matt has been driving the last few weeks. My dad said as soon as I get home he is going to install a very powerful battery which is suppose to be good in cold weather. I just can not believe that only after a year the battery just dies on me. I guess that is what cold weather will do to chemical objects. The sun has actually peaked out today, and the temperatures have been climbing all day. We are up to 14F after starting out at -5F today. That fucking wind is a killer though. Out of the south at 20 m.p.h., making it feel like -10F. Eh.. I'll take any kind of 'warmer' weather I can get.

In other news, Praise JESUS! no more class! I just have to study up for three finals and I am all set. They shouldn't be an issue. I have to work this weekend, so I will have PLENTY of time on my hands to do a bit of reviewing and studying. You don't know how much I want to go home right now, and I am NOT a homebody kind of person.

In todays stupid NoDaks update: I saw a guy wearing shorts and a light jacket the other day. He was walking around campus like it was south Florida. Yeah I seriously hope he has to chop off his legs because they were so frost biten that they turned purple and blue.

Stupid Stupid Stupid Nodaks!

I Said Brrrrrr!

As much as I dont like it when I whine, HOLY FUCK it's cold outside! I think we bottomed out somewhere around -10F with a windchill somewhere in the -20F range. My car. HA! I went to try and start it today. I got nothing. It won't even turn over. I'll give it a few days to warm up. It is suppose to get a bit warmer in the next few days. I think we might get above 5F today!

Is it 16 December yet?

University is NOT Affordable....

I just got my last online bill from the University of North Dakota. They finally owe me money! Not much but I will take what I can get. I get a massive 3.78 back! I was looking back at how much money I really spent with the university this last semester. Because honestly when you make payments you don't stop and think how much is really being spent. You just see total due this payment period and you go, oh well that's not TOO bad. You whip out the debt card and go about your business.

When I actually looked up online how much I spent and what I spent it on... I died a little inside. Here are some random samplings of the cost of university.

02/22/2005	Application Fee	35.00	USD
08/19/2005	Orientation Fee	15.00
08/19/2005	Swanson Hall	1,274.00
08/20/2005	10 Meal Resident Fall	1,324.00
08/22/2005	ARH Academic Year	29.50
08/22/2005	Barnes/Noble Bookstore	235.20
09/08/2005	Student Health Services	72.25
09/20/2005	Swanson Hall Double as Single	1,861.68
10/02/2005	ID Card New	15.00
10/05/2005	Aerospace Laptop Rental	450.00
10/05/2005	Aviation ATC Sim Course Fee	400.00
10/05/2005	Mand Fee Connect ND	81.00
10/05/2005	Mand Fee NDSA	0.36
10/05/2005	Mand Fee Technology	50.00
10/05/2005	Mand Fee Wellness Bond	50.00
10/05/2005	Mand Fees McCannel	15.00
10/05/2005	Mand Fees Student Fees	235.14
10/05/2005	Mand Fees Student Union	14.50
10/05/2005	Parking Fine	30.00
10/05/2005	Tuition MHEC Undergrad	3,292.00

For a GRAND total of US$9,480

If you add in my parking permit fee, the odds and ends you need when moving in that you buy from Target, the week of fast-food I had to eat because the dining centers were closed for breaks, you can easily see how one semester can be well over $10,000. My insides just died. I even get discounted tuition too. I dont pay the full out of state costs because of some Midwest program to promote Midwestern Universities to students.

What makes it worse... the fact that studying and living in Sydney only cost me US$9.500. My heart just exploded in despair. I just want to cry in the corner and go back.

And to make things even more heart crushing. No scholarships this upcoming next year. No RA position to help with housing costs for next year. And my federal loan dollars decreased because my parents, who still claim me until 24 under the law, because they actually increased their tax status last year. By the way, my parents in no way helped pay for the last year of my university study. They believe that I could have got my degree finished in 3 years and thats all they chipped in.

Just three more years...

Mum You Try Too Hard

Mum and Dad have returned from their little romantic getaway to Paris. Mum had hundreds of stories. She told me about how it was snowing when they arrived and that the weather was so magical. She told of of how they (my parents) walked along the river banks, watching the birds swimming down the river, while the snow waffled from the sky. She said it was one of the most romantic things the two of them had done in years. I am sure the pictures will be worth a thousands words. I can not wait to get home to see them. She said the flight was flawless and that business class was a very nice gift.

YAY for me!

But she had to open her mouth about christmas and her little party that she is throwing. This year she is having a holiday party at the house with all the other doctors and nurses from the Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit. I LOATHE these parties but since I am the good son, I surface from depths of my brother's bedroom in order to mingle with rich snobby people.

Most years I was not old enough to drink so it made the night even more unbareable but this year, 22 baby! I'll take 2 eggnogs, an appletini, and several glasses of wine thanks! But my mother had to push the issue. She had to invite me a date.

"She is a pretty little blonde. She is a freshman in college now. She is real sweet. I remember you meeting her once, right?"

Uh... (dead awkward silence)

"Anyways, she asked for your cell phone number, so I gave it out to her. I thought the two of you could talk and make catch up. She went to your high school. Don't you remember her?"

Uh.... (yet again... more dead awkward silence)

I didn't want to ruin my mother's natural high and I certainly didn't want to ruin her beloved party, so being the good son that I am, I managed to eek out something along the lines of...

Oh yeah, we've met before. We always have some good conversations. When will she be showing up at the party? And will I be able to get her wasted and talk trash about her parents behind her back?

Le Sigh! At least I get to dress up! I love to dress up. I get to wear the black silk button shirt, my black pants, black socks, and my shiney black shoes with the silver buckels. And to top it off, a nice silver silk tie. About the only thing I have to really decide in respects what to wear, is contacts or glasses. Do I go for the smart look or the cute son of the hostess?