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.

Classes/Ambassadorship!

2005-04-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

I made Student Ambassador! Cool, huh? Yeah, well, I think it is. Jerks.

I also turned in my schedule for next semester, and I'm probabally going to do the deed and declare English and Computer Science as my two majors so when people ask what I'm majoring in I don't have to add "Well, I'm planning to major in" or "I want to major in"- now I can just say them without adding wishy-washy sounding adjectives.

Along with the Student Ambassador acceptance letter I also got this spiffy-looking crucifix knecklace thingy. Appearently the monks try to give one to every incomming freshman and transfer, and on top of that it's blessed, too! It's sitting around my kneck as we speak/type.

The Pope's funeral is on Friday. I think I'll watch it.

The passing of a Pope :(

2005-04-02T14:49:00.000-06:00

News of John Paul's passing just reached me a while ago. Honestly, I don't know what to say; I know it's crazy, but I never really thought that this day would come. The idea of losing John Paul II, the only Pope I've ever known, was something that I knew would happen eventually, but I always just considered it an event far off in the future.

Well, the future's here, I guess.

One thing I am thankful for is being here on Benedictine's campus when it happened. After I learned of the Holy Father's passing, I walked over to St. Martin's chapel to pray; while I was walking over, the abbey and parish bells began ringing, and a big black cloth was being hung at the Roost. I could also see a group of people forming around the Marian statue up near the Library. All these events were a wonderful reminder of how much John Paul will be missed. He was such a holy man, and I feel sorry for all of us down here that now have to live without him.

Pray for us, John Paul II, and smile down on your flock down here as we continue on our Earthly journey.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of they womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death.
Amen.

Easter Sunday arrives!

2005-03-27T00:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter, everyone! I just came back from Easter Vigil at my parish, and it was (as usual) so cool.

Y'know, usually I don't pay much attention to one of the most important parts of the vigil: the second part, when the elect and chatecumens become full members of the Church. I think it stems from the fact that back when I used to alter serve at Sts. Peter and Paul, all that would happen in the back at the font. Only the candle bearers actually went down there, so the rest of us servers were left on our own up in front at the alter. With al l the people in the way, we literally had the worst seat in town.

I'm no longer a server, and no longer at good old SPP, but lately I haven't been paying much attention to the second part of the Vigil anyway. Tonight, however, seeing those elect get baptized really hit home to me how cool it was to be Catholic, and how cool the sacrements were in general. There they were, recieving an indelible mark on their souls, and you couldn't even tell it. I kept wanting explosions to happen or something.

One other part that I enjoyed of the Vigil was the Exsultet, the Easter proclaimation. It's such an amazing poem, and sung on top of it:

"This is the night when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night when the pillar of fire
destroyed the darkness of sin!

This is the night when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin
and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness."

I like the alliteration. There's one other stanza that I also like:

"O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!"

The seemingly contdradictory phrases "happy fault" and "necissary sin" are so darn cool! God bless that deacon that decided to improvise one Easter vigil mass so long ago, thereby giving us one very cool poem (no really, it was improv)!

Anyway, everyone have a wonderful and holy Easter! I'm off to sleep, because I'm tired as heck!

Text for the Exsultet found at Catholic Culture

Good Friday/Easter Triduum

2005-03-25T23:43:00.000-06:00

V/. Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi.
V/. Quia eduxi te de terra
Aegypti, parasti crucem Salvatori tuo.

C/. Agios o Theos!
Sanctus Deus!
Agios ischyros!
Sanctus fortis!
Agios athanatos, eleison ymas.
Sanctus immortalis, miserere nobis.

V/. Quia eduxi te per desertum quadraginta annis, et manna cibavi te, et introduxi te in terram satis bonam: parasti Crucem Salvatori tuo. C/. Agios o Theos!

V/. Quid ultra debui facere tibi, et non feci? Ego quidem plantavi te vineam meam speciosissimam: et tu facta es mihi nimis amara: aceto namque sitim meam potasti: et lancea perforasti latus Salvatori tuo. C/. Agios o Theos!

V/. Ego propter te flagellavi Aegyptum cum primogenitus suis: et tu me flagellatum tradidisti.

R/. Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi.

V/. Ego eduxi te de Aegypto, demerso Pharaone in Mare Rubrum: et tu me tradidisti principibus sacerdotum. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego ante te aperui mare: et tu aperuisti lancea latus meum. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego ante te praeivi in columna nubis: et tu me duxisti ad praetorium Pilati. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego te pavi manna per desertum: et tu me cecidisti alapis et flagellis. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego te potavi aqua salutis de petra: et tu me potasti felle, et aceto. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego propter te Chananaeorum reges percussi: et tu percussisti arundine caput meum. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego dedi tibi sceptrum regale: et tu dedisti capiti meo spineam coronam. R/. Popule meus.

V/. Ego te exaltavi magna virtute: et tu me suspendisti in patibulo Crucis. R/. Popule meus.

-----

V/. O my people, what have I done to thee? or wherein have I afflicted thee? Answer me.
V/. Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, thou hast prepared a cross for thy Savior.

C/. O holy God!
O holy God!
O holy strong One!
O holy strong One!
O holy immortal one, have mercy on us.
O holy immortal one, have mercy on us.

V/. Because I led thee out through the desert forty years: and fed thee with manna, and brought thee into a land exceeding good, thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Savior. C/. O holy God!...

V/. What more ought I have done for thee, that I have not done? I planted thee, indeed, My most beautiful vineyard: and thou hast become exceeding bitter to Me: for in My thirst thou gavest Me vinegar to drink: and with a lance thou hast pierced the side of thy Savior. C/. O holy God!...

V/. For thy sake I scourged Egypt with its first-born: and thou hast scourged Me and delivered Me up.

R/. O my people, what have I done to thee? or wherein have I afflicted thee? Answer me.

V/. I led thee out of Egypt having drowned Pharao in the Red Sea: and thou hast delivered Me to the chief priests. R/. O my people...

V/. I opened the sea before thee: and thou with a spear hast opened My side. R/. O my people...

V/. I went before thee in a pillar of cloud: and thou hast led Me to the judgement hall of Pilate. R/. O my people...

V/. I fed thee with manna in the desert; and thou hast beaten Me with whips and scourges. R/. O my people...

V/. I gave thee the water of salvation from the rock to drink: and thou hast given Me gall and vinegar. R/. O my people...

V/. For thy sake I struck the kings of the Chanaanites: and thou hast struck My head with a reed. R/. O my people...

V/. I gave thee a royal sceptre: and thou hast given to My head a crown of thorns. R/. O my people...

V/. I exalted thee with great strength: and thou hast hanged Me on the gibbet of the Cross. R/. O my people...

Text for The Reproaches taken from Confessions of a Recovering Choir Director and Shrine of the Holy Whapping

"Palm Sunday Compromise"

2005-03-21T01:27:00.000-06:00

President Bush Signs Schiavo Legislation

Well well - things are looking up.

That's right! 8 am is early for me!

2005-03-19T14:29:00.000-06:00

The opera, basicly, was cool as heck. The sets were amazing, the voices were amazing... the whole thing was pretty darn cool. I looked at the schedule that the Lyric Opera was doing, and sometime later they're putting on an opera even I've heard of: The Marriage of Figaro. You know: "Figaro Figaro Figaro!..." The music is done my Mozart, too. I'm definately going to the next one.

Sitting in front of us were a bunch of Rockhurst students. Rather than make fun of them for going to a Jesuit college (didn't seem appropriate at the time), I made some small talk and discovered one of them knew a high school friend of mine, Aubrey Thorburn. It's a small world, ain't it?

On another note, spring/Easter Break started on Thursday for me. Aah, the freedom of sleeping in forever, instead of having to go to an 8 am almost every day of the week. Muaa.

To the Opera!

2005-03-14T16:34:00.000-06:00

I've decided to shirk my scholarly duties tonight (aka homework) and go to the opera instead. The Masked Ball is being shown in some Kansas City opera complex thingy. That I've never heard of the thing isn't important; what is important is that through some finanglings of the Student Activities Board, the event is free for BC students. A free opera? Why the heck not. Plus, there's this tradition of going to Waffle House afterwards. Mmmm Waffle House.

I'll tell you all what the generic-sounding opera was like tomorrow, after I've had time to digest it as well as my fried egg sandwitch.

More like March and lots of February

2005-03-14T15:00:00.000-06:00

*Dusts off blog*

Okay, now that it's been more than a month, I think it's time to update my blog! Hi everyone! Long time no post, huh?

So yes, now begins the Chronology of March. A lot happens in 31 days, so I'll see what I can remember:

Chapter One of the Chronology of March: Oklahoma!

Skutt's drama and music departments put on their annual collaberation earlier this month. Deciding to continue their trend of picking rediculously impossible-sounding musicals, this year Oklahoma! was picked. Actually, it was pretty good. My sister, having stole all the acting talent in our family long ago, of course did perfect as one of the leads, Aunt Ellar. The aging makup looked funny on her; of course, aging makup makes pretty much anyone look kinda goofy, so it makes sense.

Chapter Two of the Chronology of March: Little Siblings Weekend

Chapters are short in the Chronolgy of March. Anyway, Little Siblings was a few weeks ago here at BC, and so my family came up to hang out with me. It was a lot of fun! There were parties, jugglers, movies, late night dougnuts- all kinds of stuff! It was great.

The other great part of the weekend was getting to meet my friends' siblings; it was kinda funny how the family resemblance was so obvious with them! I mean, yeah, that's expected, but it was still really wierd.

Chapter Three of the Chronology of March: BC Musical

I feel like I'm skipping stuff here, but this is all I can remember. Right, so the Benedictine musical was this weekend. Chuck chose "Once upon a matress" this year; I decided not to audition because I can't sing, as well as actually wanting some free time for once.

Originally I was just going to go with a bunch of people on like Sunday, but then Sarah expressed intrest in seeing it. So, sure enough, Sarah, Peter, and my friend Joe all came down last Saturday to see the musical. The plan was to see the play Saturday night, go to mass the next morning, eat brunch, and see them off (Joe's mom's birthday was on Sunday, so he wanted to leave at like 11 am).

The Plan was followed pretty closely (plus some movie watching and late-night doughnut run), and on Sunday Sarah and company got back in Joe's car and drove off. They all said they had a lot of fun, and I did, too; the musical was a riot, and my siblings and friend greatly enjoyed the company of my friends here at BC. All in all, it was a great weekend.

So there you are. March, in real big summary. I did some other things (visted Janet and Truman, watched a hockey game in Omaha) but I can't remember if they were in March or not...

Doug Adams has this quote about deadlines

2005-02-03T13:53:00.000-06:00

Back in high school (I love that I can say that now) announcements and whatnot were usually broadcast over the school PA system in the morning, after prayer. Most of it was relatively useless, but after four years of it most seniors had learned to train their subconsius to pick up on anything that actually required their attention. For me, words like "Remember, Play rehersal is at 3pm today-" would trip mental alarms in my head and tell me to listen up. Us seniors got pretty good at it; I could be in the middle of conversations and suddenly focus in on the announcement about what lunch was today or something.

Anyway, I digress. Well, this being college, PA announcements don't exactly happen; the closest we get to that is people talking into the PA in caf/just shouting as loud as possible during lunch for the real important announcements. You know, FOCUS-sponsored parties and stuff. The only other medium of communication about campus life is the random flyers that are stuck all over campus announcing happy reminders like "HALO meeting Feb. 12th" or "Remember: Last day to change meal plans is Feb. 8th!"

Right, so a few weeks ago Loomings reminders started appearing, telling people to start submitting their works of art/fiction/poetry etc (Loomings is the campus English publication thingy). Noticing them while on the way to Intro to Comp Sci II 115 or something and remembering I wanted to submit some fiction, I mentally filed it away to recall for a later and more convienient time (I find that trying to be creative while hurring to an 8 am class usually doesn't work). Okay, skip ahead a few weeks.

I'm going up to some other class of mine in Admin when I check the Loomings flier again. Previously-unnoticed due dates jump out at me: they want the written stuff in by February 4th! Oh crap, that's like 5 days from now! Faced with an impending deadline, I resolve to start someting tonight.

I don't, of course, and now, here I am, February 3rd, with nothing to show for it. Darnit. I usually give myself weeks to write stuff, and now I have like a day! Stupid, stupid Paul. And now, here I am, wasting words on a blog! Crap again!
------------------

On a completely different note, my brother's getting confirmed on Sunday! Congrats, little brother! I'll be seeing you on Sunday!

Completely different note deux: I'm going to the Student Ambassador meeting tonight. The SA's get to lead ROC week, that kinda-cool orientation they had for us freshman at the beginning of the year. It sounds like fun, so I'm going to go investigate.

Oh, and please don't make the mistake of attempting to memorize a monologe for Fundamentals of Acting during the class before, Intro to Theology. It doesn't work. K thx bye.

2005-02-02T11:45:00.000-06:00

Alright, alright, I'm sorry it's been many a day since I posted. I've been busy, and stuff, okay? Anyway, I know you all are itching to here about the march, so I'm here to deliver.

So we packed and boarded the bus at Benedictine around 4 pm the friday before last. Rearing to go, we prayed with Father Minerad, sung the fight song, and headed off. The drivers were scheduled to trade off every four hours, so the next stop was going to be somewhere in St. Louis for dinner.

The trip there was loads of fun! I got to know all kinds of upperclassmen that I never would have on the bus ride: Kahki, Brian, Bryce, Tom- really good people that I didn't really know about. I had a friend that was taking a plane over to DC for the trip, and at first I was kinda wishing I was taking a plane ride too; after the bus ride, though, I wouldn't ever trade the bus for a plane.

Anyway, a full day later, on Saturday, we arrived at the Holiday Inn near the National Airport. We checked in, and Rob and some friends walked down to a Chili's for dinner. After some food and picture taking, we went back to our rooms and I learned how to play Phase 10.

The vigil mass for the march wasn't until 8 pm on Sunday, so we essentially had almost a full day to do whatever we wanted. Me and Rob woke up around 8:30 the next morning, and then met up with some other freshman before heading over to the Metro station nearby. (the Metro was lots of fun, by the way!) We all rode the blue line down to the Smithsonian area and went to our first stop, the Holocoust museum. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever been to the Smithsonian Holocoust musem, but it's a museum I won't be forgetting any time soon. The four floors of the permanent exhibit chronicle the the opressed under Hitler's Nazis during World War Two. It was pretty disturbing what happened, and I'm glad I got to be reminded of it all. Actually, the whole thing reminded me of why I was here in the first place: So do you think, years and years from now, people will be walking through a Smithsonian dedicated to the culture of death?

Sorry, sidetracking! The Musuem lasted about four hours or so, and afterward our group rode the Metro over to Union Station for lunch. Boy, lemmie tell ya, food in DC isn't cheap at all! The steak sandwich I had was tasty, though, so I guess the rediculous amount of money was worth it!

After we ate, we went back to the National Mall for some more sightseeing. We stopped at the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and various war memorials. It was freezing cold outside while we were doing this, so we tried to do it as quick as possible. We also stopped at the brand new WWII meorial, which was very cool. I'd never seen it in pictures or anything before, so the whole memorial was completely new to me. I liked it; it seemed like a fitting memorial for the biggest war in history.

After a quick stop at the hotel to change, we all headed over to the Catholic University of America campus for mass at the National Shrine. I've been there before and remember it pretty clearly, but it was still very cool to see again. By the time we got there, the entire upper lever was packed; we were forced to go sit in the Crypt Church, where they had some tv's set up to see what was going on upstairs.

The March started the next day, and apperently BC has a tradition of getting to the rally really early, so after some dinner, we all went to bed. The plan was to check out the next morning and pack the bus, so that we could eat lunch and then leave straight from the march.

Everything worked according to plan, and on Sunday we arrived at the march a few hours before the rally. After some rosaries and chatting with other groups, the whole event finally started. The rally mainly consisted of some congressman coming to speak to us, a call from the President, and some singing. Before the march actually started, Norma McCorvey- The Roe of Roe vs. Wade - made a short speech, encouraging us in what we were doing. We got a blessing from one of the bishops there, and then were off!

The march proceeded up Constitution Avenue, curving around Congress until it ended at the Supreme Court building. It was a lot of fun, and really cool seeing all these pro-life people marching down the heart of Washington, DC. I'll never forget it.

There was some more rallying at the building, and then we all went down to Union Station for lunch before leaving. Almost as cool as seeing the thousands marching was seeing those same thousands in the Union Station food court all at once! The place was stuffed full of people- bathroom lines were rediculously long, there was barely any open floorspace to sit (sitting on actual tables was out of the question), and getting food took at least ten minutes at pretty much any of the stands. I decided to wait out until the bus made it's next stop.

The drive back was relatively uneventful, although I do know how to play spades now. Completely different from hearts, that game. It was fun.

All in all, I had an awesome time. I definately am planning to go next year, as well as bringing some more friends, so we can all enjoy the March for Life and what it stands for.

it's 48 hours total on a bus

2005-01-18T14:14:00.000-06:00

As a sort of last-minute decision, I'm going to Washington DC for the March for Life!! A Benedictine-sponsored group of us is leaving on Friday afternoon on a big charter bus. We're going to stay over at some nice hotel there (can't rememeber the name), hang out around DC, go the the vigil mass at the National Shrine, go to the march, and then go home. I'll come back to campus around Tuesday afternoon.

Guys, I am so excited! It's going to be so much fun!

if anyone else is going, e-mail me at onethousanddollars@yahoo.com, so we can meet up.

I'm so excited!!

I can't believe I spent 6 bucks to see it

2005-01-15T21:28:00.000-06:00

Aah, Kansas City. When you live in Atchison, with not a whole lot to do in the general area, KC is definately the place to go. Being a town of a few million, they have all kinds of diversions: stores, arcades, skating rinks, and, of course, theaters.

On Friday, me and a bunch of my friends decided it would be a good idea to go see a movie. I've been wanting to watch The Life Aquatic ever since I first caught wind of it, but I've discovered a long time ago that I have an odd taste in movies, so I wasn't suprised when no one else wanted to see it. Ok, fine, so what movie did they want to watch? Coach Carter, appearenlty. What? Coach Carter?! A friend of mine, Claire, has been wanting to see that stupid movie ever since she first saw the trailer back in like November. I've been telling her since then that the movie looks like crap. And here they are, my friends wanting to go see a movie that I've been resisting for months. So what do I do? Go, of course. Curse you, peer pressure! I thought I had seen the last of you in high school!

Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the movie. Joey loved it, but I've long been suspicious of his sanity. Okay, here's a basic idea of Coach Carter: take Remember the Titans, give the players a basketball and take away the winning the championship part, and make a movie out of it. This stupid movie is like every other "sports drama" out there. Ugh. And to make it worse, the movie quietly supported abortion!

Hooray for wastes of time and money. And of course, after all this, I still haven't seen The Life Aquatic. Stupid peer pressure. It's all good, though, because it was fun being able to hang out with my frinds out in good 'ol KC. Plus, the Chinese food we ate for dinner was pretty darn good.

Next weekend, though, I swear I'm going to find some way to watch The Life Aquatic.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, never today...

2005-01-07T13:51:00.000-06:00

"Vaporware", for those who don't know, is software that has been promised to be released and even given a release date, but still hasn't been published yet. Well, Wired's Vaporware Awards 2004 is out. Duke Nukem Forever technically isn't eligable, since it's recieved the Lifetime Achievement Award (first hinted at being released in 1998, DNF has been in development for over 7 years), but there are some other good ones in the bunch.

The sound of my voice over 6000 watts

2005-01-06T22:08:00.000-06:00

I was on the radio today. Sounds cool, doesn't it? It actually wasn't terriby amazing, but it was still a blast. Spirit KVSS is the local Catholic radio station, and they have a weekly teen program that my sister is a part of. Well, this week they wanted to interview an honest to goodness College Student™, and I was laying around not doing a whole lot, so they used me.

The interview lasted only about five minutes (there was a Creighton hoops game to be broadcast up next) and consisted of a bunch of easy softballs, but it was still really cool being inside a radio station. I mean, they've got all this stuff. Big, huge, mics each on its own swinging contraption thing, computer screens spitting out all kinds of information, and huge boards with buttons and slides and switches and stuff. It was, like I've said numerous times, cool.

Forget programming, I wanna be a dj now. Mass Communications major, here I come...

Take the Updater to warp 6, Number One!

2005-01-05T01:02:00.000-06:00

As my friend Katy points out, everything has been pretty silent on the blogging front during these last few holiday weeks. My blog especially. It's been over a month since I last posted, and I apologise. Hey, I get lazy, and then extended family comes over and wants to do stuff, okay? You'll be happy to know, however, that one of my new year's resolutions was to blog more, so we'll see how that goes.

You've probabally noticed the new look of my blog. I took one of the existing templates available and messed around with it a bit; I don't know a bit of CSS but it was pretty simple. Next I think I'll go formally learn myself some CSS and see what I can cook up for a really cool and unique blog. This one's not too bad, though. The blue appearently is a bit girly, but we all know I'm a guy, and I'm secure enough in my masculinity to let comments like that slide ;)

Okay. Heavy with the responsibility if this being the first blog of 2005, here goes:

-- My birthday passed by recently (Dec. 21st for those who can't remember), complete with all the celebrations of being 19. It's occured to me recently that in one more year, I won't be able to call myself a teenager- very scary thought for someone who's always been pegged as one for 8+ years. "Yep- there goes one of them dang teenagers again." I can just feel the weight that comes with living as a "young adult". Jobs, responsabilities... ugh.

I didn't really throw a party, because, like I've menioned in other posts, I'm lazy. We were driving to Colorado for Christmas anyway, so it wouldn't have really fit in. The people at Applebee's did give me a brownie-ice cream-thing and sing happy birthday to me, though! Probabally the best part of the whole thing, however, was all the calls I got from friends! People were calling me starting at midnight the night before to wish me a happy year older!! Thanks, everyone- you made me smile.

The gifts were great, too. Mom and Dad went and bought me a snazzy leather jacket, as well as a brand-spankin'-new cellphone. Now I can take pictures with it. Oooh, coolness. My littlest brother, John, drew a wondeful picture for me. He's a budding artist, you see. Peter, my other brother, gave me a sci-fi book that I plan to start soon here, as well as some tasty rootbeer. Pretty good stuff for having a birthday mere days before Christmas, huh?

-- Christmas was really cool. Being a transplanted Coloradan, most of my extended family on my Dad's side live in the Boulder area. It's long been a tradition to spend Christmas with them, so a few days before we packed up and headed over. It was great seeing all of them again, and even more great hanging out with them- losing yet another game of pool to my grandfather or one of my uncles, or playing some complex card game with them. They have a thing about card games. Yes, there were gifts exchanged as well, but I think the biggest gift was just being there.

We headed back around the 27th, since Dad had to work the following day. Christmas still awaited at our house, however, and we opened our gifts under the tree when I got back. I recieved some CDs, books, games, and posters; all kinds of stuff to keep me occupied before I go back for my Second Semester as a College Student!

-- I originally planned to go to Saint Louis for New Year's- I have a bunch of friends who live there. Parents didn't like the idea of me driving for 8 hours around that time of year (probabally a good idea), so Plan B was just to stay at home. Fortunately, it didn't end up like that. After seeing some fireworks launched by the city downtown, I counted in the new year with some friends from high school at a get-together. It was fun, and probabally more fun than Plan B. Sorry, parents ;)

School starts back up for me on the 9th, so until then I have free time beyond my wildest dreams. It's kinda nice being able to sleep in until like 11 and having no responsabilities, more or less. Well, except this thing.

That's all I can think of. Okay, now I've officially caught you up, right? And really, I promise to update I'm Stuck in Kansas an absolute ton more. It's actually kinda fun.

Cheerio, everyone!

St. Joe isn't good for a whole lot else, however

2004-11-24T23:00:00.000-06:00

Last time I ice skated was at Skate and Create, a little almost day-care program run by the City of Fort Collins over at the EPIC Center (don't ask what EPIC stands for, I can't remember). EPIC had, among things, a skating rink, and I can remember learning to do the basics with a bunch of other little kidds. After we moved, I pretty much stopped ice skating all together. Until last
Sunday, that is.

Benedictine put on this ice skating thing, and for like five bucks you could rent crappy skates at this rink in St. Joseph (St. Joe is this medium-sized town in Missouri like half an hour from campus). So, not having much else do to, me and a bunch of friends piled into a few cars and rode off.

Once I touched the ice, it immeadiately became appearent to me how long it had been since I had done this. I couldn't remember how to do a thing. I could stand, but that was about it. And to make matters worse, pretty much everyone else in the rink knew what they were doing. So there I was, the only newbie in the entire rink.

My friends were great about it, though, helping me along during the entire night. Eventually I became proficient enough that I could move on my own without being held the whole time. I was making good progress, appearently, but I still felt stupid going a long at the molassas pace I was going.

Fortunately, Jimmy arrived a little bit later. Jimmy was only a little bit more seasoned than I was, so we were able to keep each other's slow company as we went around the rink. It was fun.

The rink closed around midnight, so after that we all went to Perkins. Lemmie tell ya, milkshakes taste that much better after murdering your ankles in rentals trying to learn how to gracefully move on ice. Mmmm strawberry.

My memory's like swiss cheese, I swear

2004-11-19T01:10:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, I tend to be kinda... forgetful. I have a habit of forgetting dates and information, loosing random things I need, or not remembering to set my alarm clock. Well, my good ol' forgetfulness struck once again last Tuesday: I lost my backpack.

Of all the things I could loose, my backpack is probabally the worst. It has all my books, all my noteboooks, and all my assignments. I loose that, and I'm in trouble. I mean, yeah, misplacing my jacket is pretty stupid, but that just means I have to use my winter jacket instead; loosing my phone would be a real expensive mistake, but I can always replace that one, too. Replacing my World Civ notes, however, wouldn't be so easy.

The fact that I had actually lost my backpack wasn't fully revealed to me until around Tuesday night, when I had decided to start doing some homework. I went into my room to take my homework over to the roost, when I realized my packpack wasn't actually in my room! "Odd", I said to myself. "Where the heck did I put it?"

I looked in Bobby's room to no avail. Jimmy and Joe didn't have it, either. Where was it? I mentally attempted to through my day, to try to remember where I last had it: I remembered waking up, taking a shower, and grabbing my backpack to head off to Greek. I remember setting my backpack down in 402 for my hour-long Greek lab. I remember going off to the caf for lunch, carrying my Greek textbook.

Wait a second- lunch... I wasn't carrying my backpack! I'd left it in the Admin building! Of course, by the time I had come to this revelation, it was locked up, so I couldn't do anything about it. "No problem," I said to myself. "I'll just get it tomorrow morning during Greek."

Well, the night soon ended, and morning came. Much to my dismay, however, no bookbag of mine was present in 402 over in Admin the next day. Okay, now I was a little bit worried. The caf didn't have it, either. Where the heck had my backpack gone?!

Another day passed with me backpackless. I checked over my and my friends' rooms multiple times after classes, but still that stupid backpack failed to appear. I was still worrying about it when I was sending Rob off to Texas after lunch today. A group of us was standing in the Bishop Fink parking lot, waiting for one of Rob's Texas buddies on campus to pull over in his car. Among the group waitng was Katie J., who had just come back from getting her work study assignment from Operations.

"Paul!"

I looked over. "Yeah, Katie?"

"I checked with Operations, and they have your backpack. Some security guard picked it up at a classroom in Admin after you lost it."

"I'm saved! My backpack! Now I can... do homework.. yay..."

A lesson well learned, folks. Never loose things that are important, like homework. Now I kinda wish I had actually managed to loose it...

We usually end up frying one of the turkeys

2004-11-12T14:10:00.000-06:00

Okay, first I wanna apologize for not posting in more than a week. There's this huge Greek test I'm freaking out about, so I've been diligently studying all week. Don't worry, though, the test is gone and done as we speak, so things should return to normal soon here.

So I spent the weekend in Omaha with my family and some friends, and guys, it was great! I miss the place a lot, and it was fun to stay at my house for a weekend like I did. See, last Saturday was the date for "Cabaret Cafe", Skutt's music department fundraiser. It was a lot of fun; I got to see the show choir, the girls show choir, and the band do the pieces they've been practicing for various events. My sister, always the overachiever, was in all three, so she was pretty busy during the performances.

Although going to Cabaret Cafe was fun, it's also kinda depressing. Seeing everyone at home made me wish I was at Skutt again, driving me and my little sister to school at 7 am so she could go to show choir practice. Even though I was only there for one year, it was a great time, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Just to be a senior again, walking through the halls, arguing about whatever with Joe B, or discussing computer science stuff with Ben... high school, I've decided, isn't so bad, even when you have to move right near the end of it.

Ah well, times change. Luckily, though, I'll be stopping back home for Thanksgiving break in a few weeks, and then not only will I get to see my family and Omaha again, but a great big chunk of my extended family. It's gonna be crazy. When our family gathers together under one house for thanksgiving, we have to cook two or more turkeys just so we can have enough for leftovers. Lefovers, of course, being one of the best parts of Thanksgiving.

There's a group of people going to the Kansas City Opera to watch "Of Mice and Men", and I'm considering going. On the other hand, though, there's a movie being shown in the Tower Classroom tonight, too- "Arsenic and Old Lace". I saw a play production of it, and it was a riot. So now all I have to do is decide which one to go to...

Decisions, decisions. Later everyone.

There goes twelve bucks

2004-11-02T14:03:00.000-06:00

Homecoming wasn't really anything big in high school; there were special theme dress days and maybe a dance at the end of the week. All in all, it wasn't that exciting.

Enter college. Homecoming week around here was amazing! Bonfires, bed races, parades... there was all kinds of stuff going on! It was great. I missed some of the stuff because of the radio play, but still got to catch the parade and the dance, so yeah. The dance was pretty cool, and since it was close to haloween we all dressed up. My costume really only consisted of a pirate hat and an eyepatch, but hey, what can I say, I'm lazy.

The radio play ended last weekend, too, and I'm glad I got to participate in it. It was cool to see everything come together like it did in the end, and people who watched it said they enjoyed it. The only bad thing that came out of it was the extra pair of black pants I have, but I'll survive. Chuck had told us, you see, that we needed to dress in black for this performacne; me, thinking I didn't own any black pants, went off to Wal-Mart to buy a pair on Saturday. Picture the scene: there I am, putting these slacks on before the performance, when my eyes wander over to my clothes. Things seem perfectly normal, except for the darn pair of black pants I appearently already had sitting underneath some jeans. I couldn't believe it. It might have been a good idea to actually check to see if I hadn't brought any black pants instead of just asumming, huh? I'll remember that next time.

Oh, and National Novel Writing Month officially started yesterday (http://www.NaNoWriMo.org for more info). I've only cranked out like 500 or so words, so I need to get crakin'. I'll tell you all more about my novel later, but for now I think I'll take a nap.

So, how many super-seniors does it take to screw in a light bulb?

2004-10-27T17:50:00.000-05:00

The spiffy course catalog was in my mailbox today, and I think I have a rough schedule worked out for next semester. The only question is, should I take Logic and Nature or Intro to Theology? If I take Log & Nat, I'll be free after lunch Monday, Wendesday, and Friday, but if I take the intro class, I'll have a break from 9-9:50 so I can like eat breakfast or something.

Decisions, decisions. I should probabally pick my majors out, too. Computer Science is a definate, but what about English? Or Theatre? Or heck, Education? So many choices... maybe I should just quadruple major and be at BC forever. They call students who're on their 5th year 'super-seniors', so I'd be like a super-senior^4. w00t.

- Paul

Never did see the arch, tho

2004-10-26T20:32:00.000-05:00

First, I want to apoligise to my family for not comming back to Omaha for fall break. I really did miss you guys, and I'm sorry I sorta blew you off like I did at the time. Don't worry, though, the weekend of the 6th should be fun.

Okay, so if I didn't go to Omaha, where did I go? For fall break, I spend last weekend in St. Louis, Missouri. I knew a bunch of people who lived down there, and they were planning to do some fun-sounding stuff, so I went with them for a few days of fun in some city I'd only driven through. And lemmie tell ya, the 4-6 hour drive there was worth it!

I got to see friends of friends, families of friends, and the sights at St. Louis. There's this thing called the "City Museum", for example, that is basically an adult playground. Someone decided to renovate an old building downtown, and the thing now has 3 stories of slides and other crazy things. It was great. I also got to experience the Loop, a cool shopping-type area kinda like Old Market in Omaha or the 16th Street Mall in Denver. The place that we ate at, "Fitz's", seriously has the best rootbeer I have ever tasted in my life. You have to try the stuff to experience it.

I also got to learn this crazy new card game. I can't remember what it's called, but it's... unique. Knowing how my extended family like I do, I should probabally try to remember it soon here so I can teach it to them.

Fall break was a blast, everyone. I don't think Bobby reads this here blog, but I want to thank him and his family publicly for letting me stay at their house. Oh, and having some real home cooking was a nice break, too.

That's about it... Oh yeah, fun news: There's a world civ 'midterm' on Monday, and she only told us about it yesterday. On top of that, I swear we like just had one.

Don't worry about it tho; I'm certainly not going to loose any sleep over it. History's pretty easy as far as essay writing goes, and this is like the squillionth time I've studied the Romans, so things'l work out.

I also promise to blog more. No, really.

- Paul

Not only was it a ghost, but a "sad" ghost too

2004-10-16T02:38:00.000-05:00

Theatre, everyone, is great. It's hard to explain the rush of adrenaline you get before walking onstage for your first cue opening night, and I think it's that feeling that makes people like me want to keep doing it. What does this have to do with anything, you ask?

Easy. Ya see, Benedictine is putting on their production of Women of Troy on during this week, and I'm in it. Yes, I'm only in it in a really minor way (my character, "Guard 1", not only doesn't have a proper name but doesn't have more than four lines), but it's still exciting to be involved in something as fun as a play. Plus, no matter what role size you get, that rush of adrenaline always comes along right on cue.

Small shift of gears here, because I want to talk about how high school and college productions are so different. High school productions always seemed kinda amateurish, because with limited high school budgets, large elaborate productions weren't really an option. Collegiate productions are definately something else entirely; because of their much larger productions, professional-level theare can be approached. Mood lighting. Believable sound effects. Spectacular stage effects. The difference just has to be seen to be believed.

While in the midst of the BC fall production, I also got a chance to audition for the 'radio play' planning to be put on around Haloween. Auditioning for a radio play was something I'd never done before, and the experience was interesting, to say the least. Voice acting is the name of the game here, so being able to speak well and believeably is emphasised a lot more than it usually is normal acting. The only vehicle radio plays use to deliver content is sound, so it has to be as perfect as humanly possible. Oh, and I also got to moan like a sad ghost, as well as scream like a monkey.

- Paul

College is sleep's enemy

2004-10-11T15:13:00.000-05:00

It's funny how well you get to know people around here at BC so quickly. I've only known my friends here for a few months, and yet it seems like way longer than that. I think it's because I spend so much more time with them than I did my high school friends, out of the mere fact that we all live in the same area. I see all my BC friends constantly; I can't even avoid them at mealtime!

Avoid is definately the wrong word, though, because I enjoy every single moment I spend with them. Last night was a good example of this. Because of various things, my day wasn't going horribly well, and after 9:30 mass I was just planning to get my homework done quick and just go to bed so Monday could come quicker. Fortunately for me, my friends at Benedictine unwittingly changed my plans for Sunday night.

I ran into Tamara a little while after mass. Tamara and I hung out in the same group, so we decided to find Bobby, Rob, etc. and see what they were doing. My guess was that they were over at the McDonald suites somewhere, so we headed that way. Along the way, I had a nice long talk with Tamara about various things. It was good to know there was someone I could talk to, and I cheered me up a bit. We ended up talking for a good 40 minutes, and by that time curfew was approaching (Guys aren't allowed in the girls' dorms after the curfew, and vice-versa). We guessed, then, that they must've headed over to the Roost, and headed in that direction.

Tamara actually decided to go to bed along the way, so I grabbed my homework (yeah, still had some) and headed down to the Roost. Sure enough, Bobby, Rob, Karl, Jimmy, Claire, and Maria were there, all under the pretense of doing homework. We did homework for a while, but mostly just ended up hanging out for hours on end. I know I'm not going to hear the end of this from my parents, but me, Bobby, Rob, and Maria ended up staying up and hanging out until like 5 am. It was fun. Lots of fun. It put me in a much better mood, too. Being in a good mood and at the same time tired as heck is something you can only experience first hand, guys.

Thanks, guys. It's good to know I have friends out there who I can hang out with until the wee hours of the morning. You made my day, probabally without even knowing it.

- Paul

Floyd needs new strings

2004-10-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Mmm, rain. I woke up this morning to the leftovers of a nice big storm, so it was wet and kinda cold outside when I went to breakfast this morning. I like it like that, though, so it's all good. Actually, the rain is why I'm blogging right now: it's raining again as we speak, and I don't feel like going outside. "So why not blog?", I said to myself. I agreed, so here I am.

Not a whole terrible lot has happened since Family Weekend. After my family left on Sunday, I went down to Maybee Theatre in the Administration building to watch a movie. Maybee is actually a theatre in the sense of the performing arts, but there's this big retractable screen in front of the stage that can be used to watch movies. The film club, of which I am a member, meets here weekly to watch various films. This week was a film called Donny Darko. Don't worry, I'd never heard of it before, either. Appearently it was released in 2001, though, so it's a relatvely recent movie. But yeah, this was one strange movie, guys.

Strange in a good way, though. Fun strange. Unique strange. Cool strange. I liked it. It was especially fun watching it in Maybee on the screen thing. Next week's The Nightmare Before Christmas, another one I've never seen before.

Other than the movie, not a whole lot has happened. I do want to thank my parents, though, for bringing up Floyd and Stan for me. Floyd and Stan, you see, are my two guitars; my mom and brother named them early on, and they sorta stuck. I actually stopped playing guitar more than a year ago, but after seeing people busting out guitars all over campus, I decided i'd be fun to take it up again. An you know what? I guess I never really realized how much I missed doing it. Playing the guitar is fun, guys! I can feel the caluses on my fingers returning already.

Oh, I also bought this cool t-shirt from the Student Government Association. SGA needed money, and I liked the shirt, so hey, why not? It has a pic of the Raven mascot on the front, and a speech bubble with the letters "5, 6, 7, 8...". On the back is our school fight song. Okay, everyone say "ooh" and "aah" with me now: OOH, AAH! Yeah, you know you want one.

Yeah, so that's about it. I'm considering checking my snail-mail now, since I haven't for like a week. That darn rain, though, is making me reconsider. Get wet and get mail, or stay dry in my mail-less room? Hmm. I'll have to think long and hard about this.

- Paul

applauds by snapping fingers

2004-10-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

Family Weekend was a blast, guys. It was cool being able see my family for three days, especially since I hadn't seen them since I moved onto campus. They got to see what things were like for me, and I got to catch up on a first-hand basis. Oh, and they also got to eat caf food. Mua haha.

Friday was the beginning of this whole shindig, with a 'poetry bash' occurring at the Roost at 8 pm (The Raven's Roost is this new-ish gathering place the college has. It has study areas, a pool table, the Campus Grill, a sit-down restaraunt named "The Monte Cassino Inn"). A group on campus- the English Club, I think- got this jazz group to play music for the event. It was great. Not only did they play some really cool live music for us, but they also played music in the backgroud while people read their poetry. It was fun. I felt like a beatnik, but it was fun.

The poetry was good, too. Let me say, there are some real talented poets on campus, and I envy them like I envy Arnold's Schwartzzeneger's accent: me and poetry don't get along too well, and I'm always impressed by people who can pull it off. These guys did it with music, too.

John, my youngest brother, is a gregarious little fellow. I think having three older teenage siblings explains why he talks so much, but he definately likes to chat. After reading a sweet poem he made about me, as a matter of fact, the leader of the jazz band gave him a signed copy of the group's music. Holy crap, I don't have a single signed free cd, and I'm in college. He's six.

Anyway, the day pretty much ended after the poetry thing. Saturday was definately the full day, guys. There was all kinds of stuff: speeches, talking to teachers, football games, gambling, movies... We were basicly busy all day in a whirlwind of activity. On top of that, after working it out a bit, my brother got to sleep in my dorm room with me, and my sister got to stay with a friend! It was fun. Peter and Sarah got to hang out with all my friends, watch a movie with them, eat donuts with them at 2 am, etc. etc. It sounds like they had a blast. Plus, they got to do all this while my parents went back to the Ramada in St. Joseph. Benedictine > Ramada.

Sunday was a little bit simpler, with mass followed by brunch in the caf. 10 am was the scheduled mass to go to, and lemmie tell ya, I don't think I've ever seen the Abbey Church so full. People were packed like sardines in there! It was cool to see all those familys together at chuch, however, so I shouldn't complain.

Brunch was right after mass, so you can guess that the caf was full, too. It was fun. I got to eat and chat with my family a bit more, introduce them to some more friends, and talk to Rob's (Rob is a friend of mine) parents some more. Plus, I think the eggs were real this morning.

At around 1 pm-ish, I waved my family goodbye. My poor sister Sarah was in tears seeing me leave again, dispite the fact that I'll be seeing her in two weeks. I love you too, Sarah!

Family Weekend is a great idea. I'm glad BC came up with it. And now that it's over, I think I'll take a nap or something.

- Paul

I'm finally cool now that I'm blogging, right?

2004-10-01T19:42:00.000-05:00

I hate e-mail. I'm always forgetting to e-mail people back, and then my friends and family start thinking that I hate them because I didn't respond to that message that they sent for one measly month. Oy. What's a guy like me to do? And then, one afternoon, it happened: I saw a campus friend's blog, and it struck me like a ton of bricks: the solution is to blog about my life! Yes, it's shameless idea-stealing, but it's a good idea so it doesn't count. Hah. So there. Wanna know about my life, huh? Well then read on, dear readers!

I'm actually not entirely sure who will be reading this, but hopefully it'l be a nice combination of family, extended family, Machebeuf kids and Skutt people (Skutt- Machebeuf was my HS in Colorado. Machebeuf- Skutt was my HS in Omaha. Shake hands and meet). Be warned, however: I'm definately not going to be updating this daly or something, so don't hold your breath. A few times a week will be my goal, however, so you guys can 'keep up' with my way cool life in mighty Atchison, Kansas. Feel free to make comments, too, so I know I'm not talking to thin air, or worse, myself...

Okay, time for the blog part:

Family Weekend starts today at BC. I don't know if you college friends out there have anything like it where you are right now, but it sounds cool enough. You see, the campus has all kinds of activities planned for this weekend; everything from poetry bashes to football games. So instead of seeing what college life is really like, my family gets to have a bunch of fun with me for three days! Sounds good enough. I hear the caf is busting out the good silverware for the weekend, too. Rumors of decent food are also floating around campus, although those are probabally unfounded. Since I haven't actually experienced Family Weekend yet, there isn't a whole lot to tell about it. I'll make sure to keep you all on the "DL" once it's over, though, so don't worry.

Anyway, I've completed my first goal: Actually posting my first entry for this blog. Next up is posting every few days. We'll see how that one turns out.

- Paul