Hello, everyone, welcome back! Junior’s Jiving Journals are back for another semester of rabid fun and wisecracking! Spring 2006 is here, it’s the start of a brand new year, and all is well with the world. Now for the bad news.
Nah, just kidding. Last semester was great and I was able to achieve a 4.0 GPA, and I really hope to be able to keep that up this semester too! I found out at our very first AFROTC Lead Lab that I had been awarded the General Spruance Merit Award, which carried a cash prize of 1,000 dollars. I was the only AS 100 level cadet to be selected for this prestigious award.
This semester in ROTC I’ve been placed in Bravo Flight. Ours is easily the best flight in the detachment. Our new flight commander, C/1st Lt Hibshman, seems pretty cool and laid back, which is great. As a flight, we’re pretty motivated. During the past few weeks we’ve had quite a few flight meetings (last semester we could barely manage any) and I’m pretty sure we’re going to win the Spirit Rock contest this week and we’ve been competing against Charlie Flight, who have (aptly) nicknamed themselves ‘Charlie Cows’.
About my classes, I’ve had trouble where I least expected it, and found none in the areas I thought I would. I anticipated that MA 243 and PS 160 would be troublesome, but I find that Calc III seems even easier than Calc II, and PS 160 hasn’t gotten complicated in the last two weeks of class. EGR 120 is where I’m coming up against a stone wall. Most people have problems later in the class, when we begin CATIA, and find drafting a piece of cake. But not me. Drafting is pretty much engineering drawing. Right now we’re doing exercises where you’re given three views of an object, top, front, and one of the sides and you have to draw a three dimensional sketch of the body. Sound easy? It probably is for you. I’m sick of people pointing at my workbook and remarking “I totally loved that class, dude, it’s so simple.”
It’s not!
Okay, it’s not for me. I just can’t do it. Don’t ask me why. All I know is that whenever I sit down with my drafting workbook I feel like I missed the bus. I sketch for about an hour, then triumphantly ask Cameron if I got it right. He takes a look at it, says ‘Nope’ and goes back to his work. Another buddy of mine looked at my efforts, picked up a piece of paper, sketched for a few seconds, and showed me a drawing that didn’t look anything like mine. ‘That’s the answer, dude,’ was his response.
I have a test next week in drafting, and I’m going to fail it. What makes it even worse is that it’s the simplest damn thing in the world. Everyone can do it, even an eight year old kid. And I can’t. It’s not even something I can learn, or practice I just don’t get it. I have a genius level IQ, and I can’t draw a three dimensional sketch! Apparently I can’t ‘see’ things in three dimensions. One girl on my hall has an IQ thirty points above my own, and doesn’t let a day go by when she doesn’t remind me of that. I bet if I could do this I’d have a comparable IQ, coz if I remember correctly, there are a few 3-D visualization questions on an IQ test. But then again, they say your IQ never changes, which would imply that I can never learn how to do these drawings.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit paranoid. But I still can’t do it! I’m gonna try and attend to that this weekend, and hope for the best, I guess. It’s just extremely annoying when something so stupidly simple is the hardest thing for you.
I signed up this semester with Riddle Players Theatre Company at the Activities Fair. I think I’d like to go in the direction of Riddle Productions, a film making offshoot off the Theatre club. I’ve always had an interest in that kind of stuff. In fact, in the ninth grade, I once invited my entire class over to my house to try and film an ‘action movie’ on my camcorder. It didn’t work out quite as I had planned, because the story line got ‘lost in translation’, but you get the point.
I’ve also got myself a different job, tutoring at First Year Programs! The Honors Director, Dr Kain, recommended me last semester and I got the job and I start Monday! Guess a 4.0 can come in pretty useful.
I’m also looking into living off campus next semester. I think it’ll be pretty cool, in addition to saving me a heck of a lot of money. Also, I’m checking out community colleges around the country. I wanted to take some humanities courses at DBCC over the summer, to stack up credits and save money, summer school at Riddle is ridiculously expensive. But apparently Riddle won’t recognize that credit, or that of any community college within 50 miles. The administration feels that if you are within 50 miles of Riddle over the summer, you might as well take classes at Riddle. Apparently it would be equivalent to ‘cutting their own throats’. That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard, and it pissed me off for quite a while, until I began to see the positive side of it. I’m now free to take classes anywhere I want as long as I have a car that’s able to survive a cross country drive. So that’s what I’m going to do this summer I’m going on, you got it, ROAD TRIP! I’ve always wanted to drive around our great country, just see the sights and now I get to do it while collecting credits. Right now I have my eye on Santa Fe, NM and Jackson, MI, though that will most likely change. I’m thinking one six week summer course in Santa Fe, pick up six credits; then drive north and do another three. There’s a lot to America, and I want to see as much of it as I possibly can!
Anyway, all that is in the future, so let me not jump the gun. So far, except for EGR 120, all’s well on the studies front. Next week I’ll start my new job, rejoin the Campus Radio station and start out with the Riddle Players. NASCAR is going to kick into high gear as well. Wal-Mart already has NASCAR posters and overpriced memorabilia on the shelves, which means it’s officially race season! I can’t wait to see the races it’s pretty much the biggest event to hit Daytona Beach, so that’s where I’ll be. Happy New Year to everyone out there, by the way, and keep it chill, dudes!
MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: Love thy neighbor ñ tune thy piano.
