I'm Stuck In Kansas

Merry Christmas, everyone!

2005-12-26T17:43:00.000-06:00

I'm back! Sorry about the long absense; updating my blog didn't seem very thrilling for the past two months for one reason or another. After having an awesome Christmas, however, I've decided to come back. You're welcome.

So yeah, Christmas was pretty cool. We drove out to Colorado to spend it with my relatives, and I'm updating this blog on my grandparents' computer as we speak. Presents were great, family was great, food was great- pretty much amazing over all. And the best part? I'm not even done yet! We didn't "do Christmas" at my house yet, so when we arrive back home on the 29th, there's going to be a Christmas tree full of presents waiting. Sweet!

I'd just like to say I hate textbooks. School starts on the 9th or something, which means I should start looking around for books to buy for my classes. The online bookseller our school uses, MBS Direct, always overprices their stuff, so I usually hunt around on Amazon Marketplace or Ebay to find stuff. Even then, though, buying books still runs me a nice huge bill. It's greeeeat.

Nothing else, really. Chipolte is really good, and I really miss The Tattered Cover. They should open a store in Omaha, because I don't think we have any cool local bookstores.

Fall Break

2005-10-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Fall break is approaching, and as I think I've mentioned before, I'm going home for it. Now you all may be wondering? What am I going to be doing for fall break?

Hopefully, not a lot. I've had my fill of "doing stuff" this first quarter, and it'l be nice just to lay around the house or find some high school people to do stuff with. My high school's homecoming is this weekend, too, so I might even have a football game to go to.

Or not. Who knows?

I'd like to personally thank whoever thought up the idea of fall break, because it comes right along at the perfect time. After slogging through midterms and endless days of homework, the light at the end of the tunnel approaches, manifested in four days off from school. Sweet.

Of course, I still have three tests left, but I can look foward to feeling free, can't I? And at least one of those tests isn't in Discrete math...

Status update!

2005-10-11T17:04:00.000-05:00

I joined the theatre department's fall production a few days ago. I didn't have the free time and commitment required to do an acting part, but I was able to hop on as a stage crew techie, which means I still get to be involved but not nearly as much as an actual role would have.

It's kinda fun, being on crew. I've never really done it before, so it's interesting to see everything from a new perspective. I also was shown how to do cool stuff with the lights, which is always a plus.

There's a discrete math test tomorrow that I'm dreading. Pray for me :
Um, that's about it. Peace, everyone.

Look! It's two months later!

2005-09-28T20:06:00.000-05:00

Okay. So I know I say this a lot, but I’m really really sorry for not updating my blog in forever. I actually had an excuse for a while (the internet wasn’t working in my dorm the first week and a half of school), but that excuse ran out more than two weeks ago. Yeah, sorry guys.

So basicly I quit my job, started school, and am taking a bunch of classes now. Oh, and I bought that mac that I said I was going to buy; I’m typing on it now. It’s purty.

The freshman orientation (“ROC Week”) went well. I had fun. My freshman weren’t terribly responsive, but apparently that’s kinda normal. I made some friends in the freshman class, though, so that’s always cool.

Family Weekend is this weekend. My family is visiting- they’re coming Saturday and leaving Sunday, I believe. They haven’t actually seen my room in it’s final arrangement, so I’m kinda excited to see what they think of it. I should probably clean or something.

I think I’m going to do a Discovery Day project. It’l deal with Apple OS X desktop widgets, and shouldn’t be too hard to do. I don’t really even need funding for it. For those that aren’t in the know, Discovery Day projects are projects that students can undertake to research something. A faculty sponsors your project, you present the idea to the Discovery Day board, and then you go and do it. You then present your results on Discovery Day, which is sometime in April.

Doing a Discovery Day project is completely optional, but I think it’l be a good learning experience for me. Now, since I’m making it for Macs, it’s going to be useful to like 10% of computer users, but hey, who cares? The whole point is to learn something.

That’s about it... Oh, I promise to update more, too. I swear.

I'd never driven a jetski before!

2005-08-10T11:03:00.000-05:00

Yeah, sorry about the lack of posting- I'm lazy, what can I say.

McConahaugh was a great time. We went camping on the shores of the lake, and rened a pontoon boat to put out in the water. We even rented some jetskis to drive around!
Some of my relatives attempted to fish while we were on the boat, and others just enjoyed being on the lake. Me, Sarah, and Peter traded off floating in the innertube attached to the boat; it was a lot of fun.

So yeah, the vacation went real well. I'm guessing we're going to be visiting the lake again sometime.

Since today is my day off from work, and since I only have like three days left before I go back to school, I'm spending all day today shopping and packing. Man, the summer has gone by amazingly quick. It felt like the 4th of July was last week!

I'm buying my new computer on Saturday in Kansas City, before I check in. The reason I'm doing it in KC is because Omaha doesn't have an Apple Store, and I wanna buy a Mac for school, so we're going to stop down there for a bit before I go over to campus.

Short update, I know, but I should probabally get going so I can get all the stuff I have planned done today...

It's closer than I thought

2005-07-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

So appearently I have to be at school on the 13th- that's only like two weeks and a day! I was like, "woah...". Appearently summer '05 comming to an end closer than I thought.

The most annoying part of this whole thing, though, has to be the packing. I just unpacked my stuff three months ago, and now I have to do it all over again! Stupid personal belongings.

Ooh, I got another set of 100%'s on my QA scores yesterday at work, so I'm pretty much set to be paid 13/hr again for the next paycheck. Or the one after that, I can't remember how it works. The crazy part about this one was that instead of buddyjacking (the QA person plugs their headset into the jack along w/ yours and listens next to you) they monitered me from the QA room- I was getting scored and I didn't even know it! I felt a huge amount of relief when the told me I got good scores anyway, because I was starting to freak out, because obviously when I'm not being watched I'm not the most perfect as I am when they're next to me, scoring me.

Well, anyway.

Vacation's almost upon me! We're leaving for the Big Mac later today, and meeting up with a bunch of relatives there. Good stuff!

I know I'm a nerd,

2005-07-22T21:43:00.000-05:00

but J.K Rowling rocks.

Can't wait for the 4th book to be out in movie form in November!

Broken promises and pay raises!

2005-07-18T18:40:00.000-05:00

Hey, everyone! Yeah, yeah, didn't post about the 4th of July like I promised. Sorry about that. Basicly, to boil it down a bit, lots of fireworks were involved.

Appearently my family and some extended family of ours are all going out to camp out over at Lake McConaughy. Sounds like fun.

So yeah, the way things work at West, there's a Quality Assurance team that listens to your calls on occasion and scores you based on what they hear. There's a set of guidelines you have to follow and things you have to say on a call, and QA makes sure you're doing/saying them. The cool part that is, depending upon your QA scores, you could get temporary pay raises on your checks ("temporary" because what your raise is depends upon your averaged score for that pay period; if you get a bad score for a period, you'll get paid less). And dude- I got a $5/hr raise! I'll be paid $13/hr on my next paycheck on Friday! Pretty good, huh?

Sweet. Now I can get that computer.

2005-07-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I'll make a longer post about what all I've done to celebrate later; right now I'm sorta in a hurry.

Enjoy the fireworks!

Ono it's the Martians!!!

2005-06-30T12:42:00.000-05:00

I saw War of the Worlds yesterday with one of my brothers. I wasn't terribly excited about seeing it at first; I'd never read the book and the previews made the movie look kinda boring. "Oh, no! Aliens are coming to kill us all! Again!"

Actually, it turned out to be decent. I'm not going to get into specifics about it because I don't want to ruin the movie for y'all, but needless to say, the robots and special effects were awesome. One part that bugged me a bit was that the movie had some strange and large plot holes, but in the end they didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the movie anyway.

After that, I went out to a friend's house and launched a bunch of fireworks. Fun, that, and strangely satisfying ;)

Yep, well, that was pretty much most of my day off. So today, I get to work. Yay.

Good job car :\

2005-06-25T10:54:00.000-05:00

My car didn't start after work yesterday, so I called AAA and a guy came over over an hour later and jumped it for me. He told me the battery needed to be replaced, since it was old as heck.

Okay, fine. Stupid car. So now I have to go get a new battery for the thing before work starts.

(deep voice) "I'm Batman."

2005-06-16T12:25:00.000-05:00

Rob sez the new Batman movie is good and that I should go see it ASAP. Critics seem to agree. Fortunately, I've got my paycheck here and today off; I guess we all know what I'm going to be doing later today!

[creative title]

2005-06-15T02:10:00.000-05:00

So remember how I'm a student ambassador? Yeah, so I was emailed by the two leads, Tala and Jon, and was asked by them to co-MC the Traditions Workshop during ROC Week, along with another ambassador! Yes! I get to be the center of attention again!

Actually, the whole thing sounds like a lot of planning. So how about we just add "planning for ROC week" to my Long List of Things To Do Before the Summer Ends, shall we? Yay for responsibilites!

On the work front, nothing new really. Last day of On-the-Job Training tomorrow, if I "graduate". Graduating requires various things; 10% sales and boring stuff like that. I think I'll be okay. Maybe...

Podcasts are cool. They're like blogging, except audio. It's awesome. I've just started to get into the addicting habit of listening to some. Podcast Alley lists a bunch of casts (numbering in the thousands), but if you don't want to look for yourself/are too lazy to do so, you can just look into the ones I keep coming back to: Catholic Insider is an interesting podcast by a Catholic priest out in The Netherlands. The Daily Source Code is a podcast by Adam Curry, an ex-MTV vj and podcast pioneer, and the Daily Sonic is what could only be described as "NPR for hip people". Quick note: the last two have the tendancy to release the occasional explative at times- you're forewarned ;)

Of Wierd Callers and Geek Bands...

2005-06-07T12:52:00.000-05:00

After two weeks of training on my West job, we finally went to the phones for the first time on Sunday. At first it was nerve-wracking- I sat down at one of the computers, nervously put on a headset, and prayed no one would call me. That didn't happen, of course. After about ten minutes of stressing out in front of the workstation, a caller came in.

There's a scripted greeting we memorized in training for when callers come in, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was. Now faced with a real live person on the line, all my training flew out the window. This must have been expected, though, because pinned up on the cubicle was a yellow sheet with the very greeting I had managed to forget. I took a mental breath and plowed ahead.

"Hi, thanks for calling AOL. My name is Paul, are you calling to sign up for your free trial today?"

Things got easier after that. After all was said and done, I got something like four sales that day, which is actually pretty normal for the amount of calls I had recieved. Lemmie tell ya, though, after only two days of calls I've already gotten some wierd ones. Like the lady who called in looking for eBay help. Or the people I've gotten who don't even have checking accounts (!!) to pay for their service.

In other news, I've recently discovered the band Weezer. I guess "discovered" is a bad word; I mean, I've known about them for a while, but never really listened to a whole lot of their music. Well, they recently came out with a new single, and intrigued by it, I went and investigated the CD that came with it. I was impressed! Once I get my paycheck, I'll probabally end up using part of it to satisfy my newfound Weezer needs. There goes another twelve bucks..

Your own moblie radio station

2005-06-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

Looking around the internet, I came across this thing called Roadcasting. Roadcasting would let people essentially become their own mini-radio stations; the equipment would let you broadcast a music stream over some existing tech like WiFi. Any one with the recieving tech could listen to the stream and enjoy your music. Don't like your music? Then listen to what the car in front of you is!

Cool, huh? I like it, anyway, and honestly that's all that matters.

That's really it for today. Peace, brothers and sisters.

Looks like high school is next up

2005-05-26T00:04:00.000-05:00

Happy 8th Grade Graduation, Peter!!

Gettin' paid to learn, so far!

2005-05-24T01:14:00.000-05:00

So I finished my first day of work today. For those that don't know, I now work at West Corporation. West handles call center stuff for their clients, and I'm working on their AOL line. Basically, if you call AOL help, you'll probabally be getting us.

I thought it would be boring, but the first day wasn't that bad. These first two weeks are going to be devoted to learning about the system, so it's just like school all over again, 'cept I'm getting paid this time around ;). I've met some nice people, too, so it should be fun. And even if it isn't, I'm going to be there for only like three months, so it's all good.

Um, yep. Seen the new Xbox 360? Or the Nintendo Revolution? Or how about the PS3? Oh my. Decisions, decisions.

One Week Later...

2005-05-19T16:54:00.000-05:00

went to a bunch of high school graduation parties on Saturday, and then another one on Sunday. And I've still got more to go. It's fun, don't get me wrong; seeing all these people and "making the rounds" with friends is fun. It's also depressing, though.

I mean, to think that all these people I knew will be leaving Skutt forever is kinda depressing. You sit there, watch the graduation videos, look at the photo albums, scan over the scholarships awarded and awards given, and think the whole time that you probabaly won't be seeing very much of this person again. If ever. The whole thing reminded me of last year, when I was doing the same thing with my class.

I hate endings. And yes, I know, for the class of '05 it's just the beginning. For me and my relationships with them, however, it's the end.

But I don't mean to put a sober note on all that. The future for the people I will always remember as the juniors will be very cool. Believe me, college is like high school x 10. Good luck, Skutt's Class of 2005!

On a completely different note, I saw Episode III last night. I had a sudden urge to watch it at midnight a few days ago, so I bought some tickets for me, my brother, and some friends. It was great watching that movie with a theater packed with Star Wars fans, let me tell you. Laughter. Tears. Booing.

The movie was pretty good, too. I won't spoil anything if any readers are planning to see it, but I do want to say that Episode III, in my opinion, beats the crap out of I and II. It is way better. It puts all the pieces together, too, so everything makes sense for Episode IV by the end of it.

And Darth Vader, by the way, is evil.

Paul = no money, unfortunately

2005-05-12T00:47:00.000-05:00

Look! Pope trading cards! Looks like the consumer world will jump on any bandwagon, huh?

Home!

2005-05-11T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm back at my home in Omaha! Yesterday consisted of packing, saying goodbye to everyone, and then heading on the road for around three hours. The trip went a lot quicker than it usually does, because my parents went out and bought XM radio for the van! Coooooool. 80-something channels of music, with no commercials. It's awesome.

Next up is applying for a job at West Corporation, this company that contracts call support for other companies. It pays great, like $9.50/hr starting, which is why it would be cool to get the job.

I'm also being considered for an internship at the place my Dad works at, Northern Natural Gas. I think my interview is next week. Wish me luck on that one, guys!

Psych 100 is firmly behind me!

2005-05-03T21:00:00.000-05:00

Today was my last day of Freshman classes here at Benedictine! Kinda scary, actually. It's only seemed like a few months have passed, and yet now 1/4 of my stay here at BC is gone. Freshman year is pretty much in the past now, forever in the realm of reminiscing now...

On a happier note, howvever, this also means there won't be any homework or studying hanging over my head for three entire months. It'l be beautiful. I can just hang around the house at home, probabally get a job or something to be productive, and not have to worry about the 5-page paper due by the end of the week.

Okay, I'm ready for summer now.

Habemus Papam! (and stuff)

2005-04-25T23:58:00.000-05:00

I know it's old news, but we have a new leader of the church! And it's the good old head of the Inquisition himself, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger! So cool.

Honestly, I didn't think he would be picked. I remember looking at all the candidates and thinking "This guy's good, but it's too bad Ratzinger won't be picked." I thought he was too old and too conservative to be chosen, but I guess the Holy Spirit doesn't really care about things like that, huh?

In other news- I won! You're now reading the blog of the Sophomore class President of Benedictine! Just feel the power, huh? I guess this would count as a political blog- should it be titlesd "Benedicipundit" instead, you think?

And in other news, the Student Ambassador retreat was last weekend. During the reatreat, we picked the theme for ROC Week, made t-shirt designs for it, and did various other things like setting class goals and whatnot. It's certainly going to be a lot of fun being an ambassador, let me tell you, and plus, I get to go back to campus a week early! Not that I hate Omaha or something :)

That's all the major stuff. Paul out.

It has begun!

2005-04-18T17:35:00.000-05:00

I was wondering when the Conclave would start their selection of a new pontiff, and I got my answer on Fox news.

No one yet!

Whoops

2005-04-13T11:26:00.000-05:00

I just lost my cellphone last night. Darnit.

They Played "Unchained Melody"

2005-04-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

Spring formal, everyone, was awesome! It was like prom, except more relaxed and cheaper. The food was good, too; they not only served dinner, but breakfast afterwards! Plus, the entire reason for going: non-stop dancing all night to music I would never listen to on my own- was great fun, too. One kid did a perfect Michael Jackson interpretation during "Thriller". It was cool, in a retro-cool sorta way.

I signed up to run for Sophomore class President! I tried the same thing last semester for the freshman position, and failed to make it; hopefully things go better this time 'round, huh?

Did anyone watch the Pope's funeral? It was beautiful. Poor Cardinal Ratzinger looked like he was almost to tears during the homily.

One more thing- I'd like to thank God for friends. Things have been especially fun over the weekend, and it's all their fault.