One month later, I get around to updating.

Sorry for my absence. I've been somewhat busy with other things, but I don't have a very good excuse for going so long between entries.

Follow-Up
As I noted last time, I quit Cock of the Walk. I continued working somewhat sporadically after my official resignation, and I expected to work there every now and then, but I haven't worked there in around two weeks now. One frustrating aspect is that I've lost a lot of the time that I used to hang out with Kevin, but I haven't really had as much work-related stress. I regained the flexibility that I missed.

In school news, French and Italian look to be easy As. My Thermo class is still going a bit roughly, and I almost dropped it, but one of my friends in there has insisted that it'll all work out in the end. I'd really like to pass the class. It's one of those one's where I can study for hours, get to the test, and still be lost.

As for Electromagnetics, I studied pretty diligently for our first test and made a much lower grade on it than I expected. I felt like I understood the material fairly well and demonstrated that understanding. Basically, I got screwed over on partial credit. That said, I talked to the professor after class and he asked a few questions. "Who'd you have for X class and what'd you make?" "I think I made a B." "What's your engineering GPA?" "I believe it's a B." "Well, you're not dumb." While amusing, that reassurance was somewhat helpful. Every time I bomb a test that I study hard for, I feel like an idiot. Anyway, carried on... I've struck up conversations with the professor a number of times since then. In one case, we talked for an hour after class about various subjects. I think I'm getting brownie points. I've never been one to engage science/math/engineering professors, but I think it might really help in this case.

Direction
I also recently looked over my upcoming semesters. It looks as though I'll be taking a couple of summer classes, and I should finish up next spring. I'm considering tacking on another major (Wireless Engineering). It wouldn't take too many more classes above the ones that I've had or will be taking, and it likely wouldn't alter my graduation date.

That said, I've been getting a lot of "So, what are you going to do?" lately. I'm not fond of the question. There's a lot that I would like to do. That hasn't stopped a number of people from "You know what you should do... " I'm not completely sure what I should do right now. I would like to go to graduate school eventually. I would like to get business experience with my dad. I would like to travel and learn more languages. I would like to play p-game on a larger scale. The fact that I'll be applying to work as a counselor at Maranook next summer helps me delay finalizing plans.

Not Cloysters... Boysters
In the social scene, nights aren't quite as active as they once were, though that's being remedied somewhat in recent weeks. The annual Super Bowl party went off without too much of hitch - though there was a bit of personality balancing and mediation that's always necessary when you bring together a diverse group of people. Dave brought a pot of chili with a glass lid that turned into a nice little biosphere after a couple of days on the stove. I also made a random hors d'oeuvre that I'm calling boysters. They're broiled oysters with bacon wrapped around them. I thought they turned out pretty well.

My sleep schedule has been somewhat chaotic. When left to its own devices, that's what usually happens. I'll stay up for 20 hours and then sleep for 12. If only there were 32 hours in a day, it'd work out perfectly.

I haven't seen too many movies lately, but I have managed to catch a couple. Sara and I watched "The House of Sand & Fog" a while ago. It's a very dark, but well-filmed movie. The scenario is a little bit over the top, but it's somewhat plausible, and the characters are drawn well. I'm not sure that Sara particularly liked it. Don't watch it if you can't handle a down note.

I also finally got around to watching an early Bond movie. Will and I caught "Goldfinger" late one night. I thought it was quite good. Connery plays an excellent Bond, and the story is more epic than I expected. I'm not quite sure why I avoided watching them for so long.

Other Stuff
Now for bits of randomness...

In my Italian class, our professor is teaching us tongue twisters. I decided to make my own. "Il russo rosso russa davanti al ruscello." It means, "The red russian snores in front of the brook." I just like the sound of it in Italian.

I also penned a bit of Seussian/Carrollian prose:

"He slinkled to the libratory with a swazzitude in his treps. Scurtling the cloudpoker, he thwamped into a bellificent maiderina and her barkalot. Rembtookled, he sorried to her and reflettered his rambunkle. As he chussled along the pavewalk, he sook upward to the plog that ensettled the garmamantic stereoliths."

What amazes me about language is that all of you can get this gist of what's going on in that scene despite the fact that you've never seen those particular nouns, adjectives, and verbs. It makes me wonder whether it's something peculiar to English or whether it extends to other languages. I can't imagine trying to read and interpret the Spanish equivalent.

Upon going to the emergency room with Scotty the other night due to his kidney stone, he took some pain killers and was feeling much better. I remarked to him that I might have a kidney stone one day. He noted that it'd probably be like Mountain Dew rock candy. I thanked him for the image.

Finally, I'll leave you with two verbs: Dance, Jump.