HE CONNECTS, IT'S GOING, IT'S GOING, IT'S GONE!!!!!!!!!

I just got back from watching the Presidential debate at Purcell Hall. It was great. I think John McCain did a great job. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he'd spent the past 3 days preparing for it. McCain was on the offensive all night, and Obama couldn't do anything except for be on the defensive. McCain really knew his stuff, and Obama was still skating around the questions. Unfortunately, most of the young vote is uneducated in politics, and is going to vote for Obama because he isn't a Republican, not because they actually know he will do well. I'll probably be venting my frustrations on this topic. Barack Obama wouldn't have come even close to getting the Democratic nomination if he'd been white. Now, I'm not racist, but let's be honest, a white person with Barack Obama's experience wouldn't have done as well as Joe Biden in the primaries. I'll get off this topic now before I really start offending people by becoming completely politically incorrect.

I'm so glad that it's the weekend. I really need to get some time to sleep in. It will really do me good. I've got to go to my job at the Phonathon on Sunday though. I was trying to give someone my shift, because I have a Venture Crew (co-ed 14-20 yr old section of the BSA) meeting to go to. I guess I'll just have to show up late. They won't mind, the actual meeting won't start until I get there, they'll be having a cookout/pool party before. I'm still sad though, because I'd really like to just hang out with them, instead of being the guy who just shows up for the business part.

I can't attend the first Honors Discussion dinner, again, because of work. It sounds really interesting, it's about the problem of evil in recent films. Focusing on The Dark Knight and No Country For Old Men. It's so disappointing that I have to miss it. It would be extremely interesting to get the takes of other Honors students on this topic. I also really loved The Dark Knight, so a discussion about it would really be enjoyable. I guess I'll just have to settle with watching it over the Halloween weekend. I'll probably watch it at least 3 times. It is such an excellent movie.

MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!!!!

As Mondays go, this one hasn't been so bad. It's been long, that's for sure, but it certainly hasn't been boring or difficult at all. It wasn't that hard to wake up this morning. And I didn't even come close to falling asleep in any of my classes. I really enjoyed Origins of the West today, we started learning about the Romans, which is one of my favorite points in history. At 4 I had Mock Trail practice, we were learning about evidence and what should and should not be allowed. We learned about the rules to cite when the opposing council is using evidence it shouldn't. Then I rushed to dinner so I could make it on time to the College Republicans meeting. I'm pretty excited about it actually. I like being politically active, and this will certainly help.

I got a job on campus calling people for the Phonathon. Basically we call alumni and ask them for donations to the Annual Fund. I start tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not really sure why, but it will be earning me money, so I can't really complain. Money is certainly one of the necessities to a college student, considering the amount of things that require money. Like food and gasoline.

Speaking of gasoline, I'm going down to The College of William & Mary at the end of Autumn break. I'll be visiting a couple of my friends who go there. I'm really excited. I love Williamsburg. It is one of my favorite places to go. I'm not sure if I'll be driving, or if I'll take a train. It really all depends on how much it costs. I think it might be less to take a train, but I'm not sure. I've been doing some calculations, and it will cost about $90 for round trip train tickets. But I'll probably have to fill my gas tank twice to get down there. Once to fill it up initially, then again on my return trip. This will cost close to $120 if I completely fill my tank. I'll have about a half tank left, so that would bring the cost of the actual trip to $90. Making it even with the train. It really all depends on if my grandmother takes me out to lunch/dinner one day before I go, and fills up my gas tank. This would then mean I would only have to spend $60 of my own money. I guess it all depends on what happens. Although, I must say, I love taking the train.

I JUST LOST A PINT OF BLOOD!!!

I donated blood for the first time, yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm glad I did it too. It's a good thing to do, it is a very rewarding experience. I know it's cliche, but it really does save lives. I was relieved that I didn't pass out or have any problems. I was really worried about that. I think that I'll continue to donate blood for as long as I can.

I think I'm going to watch a movie tonight. I'm not sure what to watch though. I might just watch episodes of Scrubs. I have all 6 seasons on DVD. It's such a funny show. Probably one of my favorites. Although I might watch The Matrix. I've been wanting to watch that movie for a while. It's a very good movie. The use of Computer Generated Images (CGI) is incredible. The Wachowski Brothers are such pioneers in that field. The Matrix movies are their most famous works, however they recently were the creators of Speed Racer. Although on campus tonight they're showing Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so I might go and watch that instead. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Maybe I'll watch both movies, and a few episodes of Scrubs.

I didn't do very well on a German quiz today. I should really buckle down and study for German. I'm not very good with languages. I was able to get by when I took Spanish in high school because we went pretty slow in comparison, and we spent a lot of time on the vocabulary so I was able to learn it without doing any other studying besides what we did in class and for homework. I guess that's just study lesson number one for college. You have to do work on your own or else you won't succeed in everything.

I'm still alive!

I bought the new Metallica album on Friday when it came out. It's called Death Magnetic. It's really quite good. It's kind of a mixture of the best qualities of their music from the 80s and 90s put together making for an incredible album. I'm very happy with my purchase, especially since Wal-Mart had it for less than iTunes, which usually doesn't happen. I was pleasantly surprised because the price tag said that it was $13.88, which isn't bad for a CD, but is still more expensive than downloading it from iTunes. Then when I checked out, it came to $9.35. I'd saved a good 4 dollars. It was spectacular.

I didn't get much sleep Saturday night. I had to stay up and read part of Barack Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, for my Presidential election class because I wouldn't have time to do so on Sunday because I went to the VA Scottish Games and Festival with my Mom, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin. It was a lot of fun. It was really hot out, but there was plenty of shade, and a pretty steady breeze, so it didn't get that bad. There were some really cool vendors. One was selling high quality kilts made in Scotland, one in the USA tartan and another in an ambiguous tartan that had the Rampant Lion incorporated in the pleats in the back. It was really cool, but also $425, just a little out of my price range. Too bad, I would have loved to buy it.

I'm starting to feel a bit homesick. I think I know why too. I live close enough to go home quite often, so I take advantage of that (not often, but I have been home for at least a couple hours every weekend since I started). It's making me stronger though, I know that. Because I'll have to live completely independent of my parents eventually, and so it's good to, for lack of a better term, ween myself off of independence from them now. I'm getting a campus job, so that will help with my independence as well. Hopefully I'll stop regretting living on campus every time I leave my house. Although I have to say it's hard when my sister says, "No, you can't leave, I miss you too much." I think she's having a harder time with the adjustment than I am. I pray that God will help us get through this difficult time, and make it easier. I know he will answer my prayer.

What is my passion?

I don't know. I went to the "Passions and Professions" talk with Johnny Hi-Fi this evening. They told us that you should pursue your passions, but make sure you have a profession that allows you to do so comfortably. That made sense to me, but then I started thinking. Do I have a passion? I don't really know. Sure, I love history, and I love to read, but would I really mind so much if I couldn't do those things again? Would it hurt to not be able to practice those things? I don't think so. They described the difference between a "hobby" and a "passion" and basically what the difference is, is that a hobby is something you do, but it isn't something that would be hard to give up, and a passion is something that you love to do, and if you couldn't do it, it would cause you to suffer, emotionally or physically. Like I said before, I don't think I have a passion. I might, I just haven't discovered that it is a passion yet. I'll have to keep searching.

I'm not going to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow. Not enough people could go, so everyone decided that we'd try to go another weekend. I hope it happens. If it doesn't, I'll go to the RennFest with my family at some point. So because I'm not going to RennFest tomorrow I'm going to go to the VA Highland Games on Sunday with my mom and sister. Tomorrow I'm going to do all of my homework, and then in the evening I'm going to go to the comedian that is coming to campus. I love stand up comedy. It can be so creative. In fact, I'm watching Friday Night Stand Up on Comedy Central right now. Chris Rock is such a great comedian.

I watched The Godfather the other day. What a great movie. Francis Ford Coppola is such a great director. Not to mention the great acting from Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and Robert Duvall. I think I'm going to watch The Godfather, Part II tomorrow, or maybe even tonight if I can stay up late enough. I love Francis Ford Coppola. Not only is he the mastermind behind The Godfather Trilogy, but he also directed Apocalypse Now. That is a great movie. It also has Marlon Brando in it. Brando plays a fictional Army Colonel, Walter Kurtz, during the Vietnam War who goes crazy and thinks he is a messiah, and he is able to convert his regiment and some locals to his new "religion". The main character Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, is sent to find and kill Kurtz. I won't go into more detail than this, but let's just say this is the movie where the famous line, "The horror.....the horror" comes from.

Why am I so tired every morning?

I have no idea, it's somewhat annoying actually. If I don't take a shower, it's impossible for me to become alert, but I'm so tired, I don't want to get up to take a shower. It's a lose-lose situation. Especially because I don't want to get addicted to caffeine drinks (coffee or energy drinks). I guess I'll just have to keep prying myself up in the morning to go take a shower. Otherwise I'll start falling asleep in my first class of the day. Which would not be good.

I'm going to the Maryland Renaissance Festival this Saturday with a friend of mine from camp. We were trying to get more people, but with everyone away at college, it's harder to get together and do things. I love the RennFest. It's so much fun. I like watching all the strange people who dress up in historically inaccurate costumes. Why can't people realize that there WERE NOT pirates during the Renaissance? Or at least not Jack Sparrow-esqe pirates. The creative anachronism is quite funny. This weekend is Scottish weekend. It's going to be so much fun. Albannach will be there. They are a really cool Scottish band that plays the bagpipes and drums. They are able to take traditional instruments and fuse traditional sounds with their own unique sound. I'm so pumped, I've never seen them in person, but my mom and my sister did, and they bought me a CD, and I've wanted to see them ever since.

I went to the first History Club meeting today. It is going to be a lot of fun. I was able to input some good suggestions for trips and for movies we'll watch as a club, then discuss. I suggested Williamsburg and Harpers Ferry for trips. I love those places, they are so much fun to visit. I also suggested The Seven Samurai and The Kingdom of Heaven for movies to watch. Both are extremely good. I hope we get to watch The Seven Samurai though. I really enjoyed it when I watched it last year in Film Studies, and I know I'll understand it more when I see it again. It is a movie made in the 1950s in Japan about a hodge-podge group of Samurai going to help out a village that was being attacked by a group of bandits. It's a compelling story, and after a while, you don't even notice that you are reading subtitles.

What can you do?

What can you do when a friend has something that is bothering them, but they refuse to tell anyone what it is? I can't tell him that everything will be alright, because I don't know what is wrong in the first place. I can't sympathize with him. I can't console him. I can't do anything except worry. He hasn't even really admitted that something is wrong, but I know that something is wrong. I know him too well to overlook this type of behavior from him. It's starting to worry me. I feel so useless not being able to help. I guess all I can do is wait for him to finally admit what is wrong. I don't want to press him too hard on the subject, because I don't want him to keep it bottled up longer, and that's just what will happen if I try to pry it out of him.

I'll just wait and see. And pray for the best.

Learning Curve

I'm writing now, because I have nothing else to do. I don't know what I want to write about, so I'll just keep writing. I've never really liked writing. I'm not sure why. It's never been something that amused me. I never really hated it either, it just wasn't something that I would do for fun. Now I'm starting to like just writing whatever is on my mind, whatever it happens to be. It's relaxing, and is a good outlet, because I don't really like to verbally talk to people about what bothers me. I'm not really sure why. I think it's because my mind goes faster than my mouth, but I'm able to slow it down for my fingers when I'm typing, or I can just type faster than I can talk. Either way, I'm able to convey what I mean more when I write/type than when I actually speak. I'm a horrible public speaker, I'm bad when it comes to speaking in class, too. At least I feel that way. I feel that I'm not able to always vocalize what is on my mind. I'm joining the Mock Trial Team here at Mount St. Mary's to hopefully help me with my oratory skills. I'll need them if I really plan on becoming a lawyer, and possibly a politician. I'm also planning on joining the Philosophy Society, they sponsor many debates, so hopefully that will also help.

Speaking of all these clubs, I went to the Student Activity Fair this afternoon. In addition to joining the Mock Trial Team and the Philosophy Society, I also joined the Irish Club or Ireland Club, whatever it's called. Either way, it's a group that takes interest in Ireland, it's people and it's culture, and many of it's members will be studying abroad in Ireland in the Fall 2009 semester. Hopefully I'll be able to do this as well. I'd love to go to Ireland for a full semester. I love Ireland, although I've never been there. I love what I know about Ireland, and I love being Irish. I love Ireland's rich history, and I love Ireland's food. I really hope I get to go on this semester abroad. It would really make my college experience complete.

I also signed up for the History Club. I love history (European history the most). It's so interesting. It surprises me how people can't be interested in it. However, people who love math and science are probably surprised how little I am interested in those subjects. Back to history. It's such a fun thing to study. What small things influenced the big things that everyone knows about? What is inaccurate about the latest history movie that Hollywood just had to take artistic license on? I love these things. Learning, and then sharing what I learned. It's very rewarding, although I still don't think I'd like to be a teacher. Sure it's fun to impart knowledge on to others, but I don't think I could do it all day, every day like teachers do. It would get frustrating after awhile. Especially if I got stuck with the dumb kids, like what happens to most new teachers. I would go crazy trying to teach the kids who just don't want to learn. How they expect to make anything of themselves when they are older is beyond me. Without knowledge you have nothing. And with nothing, you can go no where. Just "hanging out" all the time, and not trying to learn is the biggest waste of your own time, not to mention your teacher's time. One good thing about college is, everyone (ok, most everyone, some people are here because their parents are making them, let's face it) wants to be here, because they like learning.