Hi readers!!!

.. Well, as you all may realize, this is my final journal submission for this semester until next semester in January.

Classes are over, most of everyone’s final exams are over, everyone’s in the Christmas spirit packing up to head back home. I must say, watching everyone leave was very saddening. For some reason, I will miss this place terribly for the short 3 weeks I will be gone…but first, let me talk about the end of classes and final exams; and there’s a little surprise about me at the end of this journal.

All classes were completed on December 7th and finals were to begin on the 9th. I must say, I was very sad that some of my classes were over because they were so much fun and I will miss seeing all my friends that I have made more often than I used to; but some other classes, I am extremely elated that I don’t have to go to anymore! But overall, they were all good classes.

Ok, now let’s talk about finals. All of mine are done (YES!) but they weren’t that difficult, which was surprising considering I didn’t do much of this material before. I managed to pull all A’s and B’s and NO C’s! YAY!

But one thing is for sure, I studied really hard to get the grades, and the occasional distraction by going downstairs to grab a sandwich, friends spontaneously taking me out, get-togethers at my friends’ houses. All this put together had officially made me nocturnal; I no longer slept at night and I slept most of the day, woke up to go do my exam, then back to sleep for the rest of the day, then study and stuff all night again. It threw me off my regular scheduled life here at Riddle, but most of the upperclassmen said that that happens only at finals period, so I should be back on track soon….hopefully! haha.

So now you know what to expect when you have to do final exams here! But don’t worry, it’s not only you- the rest of the school does it too. I am anxiously anticipating next semester because since I now am familiar with most of how this place works, I will be more settled in and I have new people and activities to look forward to.

For instance, my roommate is moving out (*sad face*) because he found a cheaper place off campus, so I will be getting a new roommate..exciting! But I will miss my roommate a lot when he leaves. Also, the spring term freshmen will be coming in and I know a few that I get to meet for the first time, so that’s something to look forward to as well. Oh, and I managed to get all my classes that I wanted next semester. So, I am excited to return here in January.

Well, some of my friends have already started to leave Daytona Beach destined for home in different directions. It may seem silly to be sad about them leaving just for 3 weeks, but I will miss all of them for the Christmas holidays. But all of them will be in my heart and thoughts throughout the season. We all exchanged Christmas cards and bid each other adieu (goodbye) until next semester. I had a blast with all of you guys this semester and I love each and every one of you guys!

Anyway, moving on to the end of this one. Well, I had a lot of fun sharing my life with all of you around the world this semester and I can’t wait to continue next semester. I bet all of you just can’t wait to know how my holidays were (haha). Also, thanks to all of you out there who contacted me. I will see you soon!

So, I wish all of you out there a WONDERFUL Christmas 2006 and New Year 2007 and thanks for reading! God’s blessings to you and your family and friends! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Goodbye!..hope you all get what you wished for this season!

OH wait, my surprise…ok, so it’s not that big to you guys, but it is to me.. I changed my major from Aeronautical Science to Aviation Business Administration! YAY!

Ok, I’m really gonna leave now (hehe)

Well here it is at the end of the semester and I still can’t believe that I am at Riddle and done with one semester. I have officially finished all my classes and I am pretty sure I got all As and one B, which I am very happy with.

I found that Riddle is a challenging school, but it is something that I have great interest in so I found it pretty easy to do well. I picked my classes for next semester and I am pretty happy with the schedule. I’ll tell you what it is and all that next journal, but for now I’ll talk about the past two weeks and what not.

So, I guess we’ll do something different and start with classes . . . Speech- I am now able to speak in front of large groups because I am a master speaker. Well, not really, but I can prepare a speech about skydiving and be somewhat entertaining. I finished everything I was assigned and I got an A in the class. All in all, I don’t know if I would want to do it again, but I am glad I took the class and I think it will help me sometime in the future. Oh, and since my group debate was my final, I don’t have any other test, so that’s a plus.

Physics- We have been reviewing for our final this past two weeks, and that’s pretty much it. I will take the final on the 12th and then I will be done. Not only with physics, but all my classes. So that is something to look forward to.

Business- My group that I was in had to do a presentation about what we learned in the class and it was more or less an excuse for me to go up in front of 40 other people and make an idiot of myself. I find it hard to do an entire presentation without any laughing, so I always try to make it interesting. We did a skit that showed the difference between manipulation and influence and I was the crazy person who manipulated people. It was fun and I am pretty sure our professor liked it, which is usually a good thing. We have a final on the 10th and it is the type of final that you can’t study for so I’m not stressed about it.

Basic Aeronautics- We took our 3rd exam last week, which was kinda like our final. We only had 3 exams and we aren’t scheduled for a final which is good, kind of. My first two exams weren’t bad, but I could have done better. And since they weren’t the best, it was really hard to get an A in the class so I ended up with a high B. It’s definitely not the end of the world by any means, just next time I will make a little more effort.

College Success- Haven’t had this class since Thanksgiving, so nothing really new. There is one thing though . . . I used to go to Einstein’s before class and get a delicious turkey and cheese sandwich on a bagel, but since I don’t have that class anymore, I don’t go there anymore. I think I might go grab one for lunch soon though. MMmmmmmmmmhhhhhh, delicious turkey cheese bagel treat. . . . . . . . . .

Meteorology- We took our 3rd exam in this class as well and we also have an optional final. But unfortunately, I don’t need a final in meteorology; I need one in basic aeronautics. I have an A in the class and I got a 94 on the last test, so I won’t be taking the final, unless I get really bored. But even then, probably won’t.

Flight- I have been progressing along in a reasonable fashion and I have been enjoying every second of it. It is frustrating at times, but it is so much fun. I have been building up to my solo and every lesson I get a little bit closer. Well I have reached a big point recently, which is my check ride. A check ride is a flight right before you solo that is with an instructor that is certified by the FAA to determine if you as a pilot are capable of flying alone. Well, I just had my check ride and it went alright. It wasn’t too good, but not too bad either. I made some mistakes but I definitely learned from them and overall it went pretty good. I ended up passing which means I am almost going to do a solo flight! I have one more activity where I review some basic things before I solo. So, I should solo in the next week or so!!! I still can’t believe that I am going to solo soon, but it will hit me soon enough.

I have been pretty busy with classes lately, but they are winding down and finals are approaching fast. A lot of my friends have early finals and they are already on their way home. As for me, I should be here until the 14th. Even though finals are coming up and last-minute projects are trying to get down, my friends and I still try to have fun.

In other news, one of my friends has been playing the lottery a lot. He would always go to the 7-11 and spend any where from $10 to $50 on scratch-offs. He usually never wins, and if by the off chance he does, he just spends the money on more scratch-offs. At first it was kind of funny watching him walk around saying “I’m gonna go play the lottery, anyone wanna come?” He would get so happy but never win. Well eventually, some of my other friends and me told him he needed to stop wasting money and if he was going to waste money, waste it on something entertaining. So with that in mind, we decided to go to the local dog track and waste some money there.

All in all, we had a nice dinner and lost $5-$10 a piece and had fun. The way I look at it, we could have seen a movie, but instead we saw dogs run around a track. So I guess the lesson learned is that there is always a funner way to lose money than you are currently wasting it. And I was going to say “more fun” but “funner” just works better. After our fun time at the dog track, myself and two of my friends headed up and over to Gainesville to visit some friends that attend the University of Florida.

I don’t know how many people are into sports, but the Gators are going against Ohio State in football in January and the entire city of Gainesville went crazy when they found out. We were visiting and just checking out the huge campus of UF and everyone was going crazy about their football team. At Riddle, I don’t really feel a sense of strong school pride when it comes to sports, but we do have some good teams. But the Gators worship their football team and they were very excited when they found out they were going against the Buckeyes. My friends were probably the most ecstatic and even a week after the news they are still talking about it nonstop. Anyways, we had fun in Gainesville and it’s always cool to see other college campuses and there are a lot around Florida.

On another totally random topic, I went with my step-brother to see George Carlin perform in Clearwater (right outside of Tampa). If you don’t know who George Carlin is, I suggest you stop reading this and go Goggle George Carlin and read everything you can about him. He is a comedian in his late 60s and has been in the industry for nearly 50 years. He has always been one of my favorite comedians and I am so glad that I got to see him. Although his comedy isn’t for everyone, I think he is very insightful, thought provoking, and downright hilarious. Also, it was nice getting to see my step-brother who is also a freshman and attends UCF in Orlando.

Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to February when I will go see Ron White with my step-brothers and family. I don’t know if there are any Ron White fans out there, but I am a huge one and you will definitely hear about the show come February.

A couple days ago I got an e-mail asking about meal plans, roommates, and stuff to bring to Riddle. I thought I’d go ahead and just post it in my journal in case anyone else was curious.

Meal Plans: As a freshman, you are automatically enrolled for 14 meals per week. This means that you can use your card at various locations to get a meal which can be big or small depending on where you go. Once you have used all your meals for any given week (Sunday through Saturday) you have $100 in Riddle Bucks which is just like cash at any food location. So if you use all your meals you can still buy food with Riddle Bucks. From my own experience, I have found that 14 meals per week is too many for me. I personally don’t eat breakfast all the time and some times I will go out to eat with my parents or friends, which means at the end of the week I have extra meal plans that I can’t save. So if you think that you will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday at Riddle, you might want to get 19 meals per week, but I personally wouldn’t get the unlimited one, because the unlimited one is only unlimited at the buffet style place. Pretty much you can go there all you want and eat all you want, but I can use 1 of my 14 meal plans and go inside and eat all I want anyway. I’m not sure if that makes sense but the buffet is all you can eat no matter what, you just have to stay inside the dining area, once you leave you will have to use another meal to get in anyway. So in conclusion, I think that 14 meals is plenty because I don’t know anyone that uses all of them. Also, you can always upgrade once you get here to anything. If anything is still unclear, just let me know or go here . . . http://www.erau.edu/db/dining/meal_plans.html

Stuff to bring: First off, I would highly recommend bringing a computer. Although there are several different places around campus to use a computer, having your own is the best. Other than a computer, I have some small storage bins in my room along with some small little bins. I find out that these come in handy when you are organizing stuff and they are good storage under your bed. I bought these from the Target up the road for a couple bucks, so no need to bring them down unless you really want to. You do have a desk with drawers and a dresser that can store a lot. Also, there is some room in the closest for storage bins and stuff. A list of common things can be found here http://www.erau.edu/db/dorms/housingfaq.html. I have a laundry hamper thing that helps with keeping my clothes off the ground and helps when I go do laundry.

In terms of dorms, I personally wanted to live in Doolittle and it just so happens that’s where I am. I’m not sure if I requested it or not, but you could call housing and ask them. (386) 323-8000 or at dbhousng@erau.edu. If you want an ROTC roommate, you will probably have to request it, but I’m not sure. Just contact housing because they will know better.

Hopefully that will answer anyone’s questions about meal plans or stuff to bring. Once again, if anything is unclear, feel free to shoot me an e-mail and I will do my best to answer any questions.

You won’t be hearing from me until early next year, but feel free to e-mail me at any time. I check it daily and will try to write you back as soon as I get the e-mail. As for the next couple weeks, I plan on working a little bit to get some money saved, going on my solo, spending Christmas with my family, snowboarding in New Hampshire with my friend, and going to Los Angeles to see Bob Barker and the Price Is Right!!!

I should be busy, but I will try to write down everything that happens so I can post it next Journal! I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe holiday season and I will see you guys next year!!!! Adios!!! -Blake

e-mail: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com aim: wasteofsoap

I have been SO sick the past few weeks. The illness kind of passed through my dorm in a wave, so I’m not the only one who was miserable. I visited health services, but I don’t think they could do much for me. It’s a virus, so it just has to kind of work its way out. I just wish it would work a little faster. Today marks the two week point. But I AM getting better. TIP: When you come to college, bring lots of medicine with you. I had no medicines, and no money to BUY medicines, so I just used what health services gave me until it was gone, which was about a week and a half ago. A better tip: Stay healthy, don’t get sick, and don’t share food/drinks with anyone.

As you can imagine, Riddle has been pretty busy the past few weeks. Lots of people were taking tests, preparing for exams, and Cassie and I had to do some shopping – we made little gifts for our buddies on the hall. That really made me feel all Christmasy. We just got them lots of candy and some personalized ornaments and holiday stickers. I think they liked them.

I’ve been really anxious to get home the past week, probably because finals have been kind of stressful. And I miss my family and friends back home.

I actually spent almost an entire day studying last weekend… Crazy. But it paid off. And now all my finals are DONE and I can relax at last. So my first college exams experience was tough, but not traumatizing. I was exempt from a few exams – If you are not persuaded to do well in classes just to do well, or to please your parents, or because you want a great GPA, then DO IT FOR THIS REASON!!! There is nothing better than having an idle exam day to just sit around and do nothing, especially when you know you will be cramming the next day.

First semester is over. I think I did really well. But everyone says the first semester is always REALLY easy, so I’m a little scared about next semester, especially since I will have a demanding course load. Overall, it was a success: – Made a lot of friends – Became familiar with Daytona Beach – Managed to keep myself out of trouble – Got a good job – Established myself as a good student – Didn’t gain the “freshman fifteen” – And most importantly… I made a lot of really great friends.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Welcome back my virtual friends and thank you for joining me once again for the last leg of my Riddle Experiences in the year 2006.

That’s right, the countdown is on. T- 3 Finals and counting. We are in our final days here just waiting for the end to come at last. As I write this, I have already taken one final that was easier then I expected. It was a departmental final for EGR 115, which is a C programming course. I was very pleased with the ease of this exam because it was a multiple-choice exam.

Let me tell you a little something about department exams. They aren’t your friends. Lots of times they are multiple choice exams that allow no room to earn credit for all the work used to solve a problem. There are also too many discrepancies between classes. Some classes cover too much, some don’t cover enough. My personal opinion is that all classes should have finals tailored to what was covered in that specific course.

I understand that in some courses, like lower level calculus and physics, the departments need to make sure that every student understands basic principles before they can proceed. Hence, a standardized, department final is applicable. However, I think that in some cases a class may be rushed to cover enough information, if they were moving slowly in the first place, and the students may not be able to fully comprehend the vital principles if they understand them at all.

However, at the same time, this is college. Part of the challenge behind college is not only learning all the details about your field of study, but also learning to deal with a bunch of crap throughout the process. This is just one of those situations. That’s just my two cents. What’s the lesson to be learned here: Go to class, study hard and pray you have an easy finals week.

So in my last entry I said I would have some tips and advice for how to keep yourself moving in the weeks leading up to finals. First of all, listen to me now and hear me later: You need to keep up with your classes all semester long.

Many of you freshmen will be enrolled in an introduction to engineering course that does involve a project or two. Do not wait to work on those. I have many freshman friends on my hall. Some of them worked on their projects all semester long and were fine. Others waited too long and regretted the decision later. I myself pushed back a final programming project and ended up sitting in the programming lab for 11 hours straight. Not one of my finer moments.

Here at Riddle you will learn to pull through no matter how much you procrastinate but believe me, the road is much less toilsome if you stay on track from day 1. Hell, even day 2 or 3. Just don’t wait until day 30 or 35 to start trying. That goes along with what I mentioned last journal about managing your time. Keep yourself balanced and on track.

Some other advice is never work on one thing for too long. This especially applies if you are having trouble arriving at a correct solution. Lots of times you need to take a step back for at least a couple of hours. If you are having problems, set down whatever it is you are working on, get some shut-eye and then try working on it again.

I was working on my Fluids project. We were trying a solution with an equation that should have been correct but our answers kept coming out wrong. It was late and we were tired so we decided to call it quits for the night. We came back to it the next day and realized that our equation was off because it was including a portion of area that we didn’t need examine. Sometimes all you need is a little rest.

Once I got past those weeks, I got a little break and we all had the opportunity of a lifetime. As you may or may not know, STS-116: Discovery launched this past Saturday. It was the first night launch in over 4 years.

It was actually scheduled for Thursday night but was scrubbed because of weather restrictions. Okay, first of all, to see any launch is an amazing event. We were lucky enough to witness a night launch, which was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. From where we were, we could see the lights from the pad, but it was still pitch black outside. The anticipation was incredible. Everyone around was totally stoked to be there and ready for the launch. The show that preceded the ignition of the main engine was incredible. At first, fire and smoke shot out sideways for probably the most expensive fire show to ever exist, and then the sun rose over the horizon. No Joke. When the shuttle was full power and beginning to lift off, I could have believed that the sun was rising. Night turned to day and the shuttle went rocketing into the night. If you ever get a chance to witness a launch, do not miss it. You will totally regret it if you do. I would not have traded this experience for anything.

Well, for this semester I think it’s time to bring this entry to a close. I have to finish preparations for three more exams. Oh, and for those of you who remember, I was moved off of Wood Hall into Adams this semester. As of the Spring Semester, I will again be a resident of Wood Hall. Exciting stuff for everyone involved. So I also have to go start packing.

I hope you have all had a prosperous year and happy holidays. Next we meet, it will be the year 2007 and I look forward to the opportunity to write about my holiday adventures.

My best wishes for a happy holiday and a wonderful new year.
Respectfully, Steven von Kriegenbergh

It has been brought to my attention (thanks Carlos) that I have been neglecting my journal. I will apologize for that.

I got Philanthropy Chair in the sorority. I am pleased that I got that position. I love working with children. It will also help me become familiar with what is in and around Daytona Beach. So far the only thing I have lined up is Relay for Life in March. I wanted to do some sort of egg hunt for the children, but we will see because apparently someone else might do it and we don’t want to take their event away from them.

Health wise (sp?) I am much better. I went to the doctor last week and she gave me more medicine. She said that if the cough still persists that I may have to have a chest x-ray. I am hoping I get better within the next couple of days.

School has been on the hectic side. Everything seems to be on the same day. I have been trying to keep up with everything but at the same time I feel that I am falling behind. I have managed so far to stay on top for the most part.

I had a test, a paper and two presentations due on Monday. I also had a test last Tuesday and 3 tests and a paper on Wednesday. I also missed 3 days of work because of the schoolwork I had. So far, I have gotten 2 A’s in Psychology and Business Management. I took a final in Meteorology and I need a high B/low A to get an A in the class. He’s planning on posting the grades tomorrow. I have to be patient and see what I got on my final. I have one more final to go and that is in my Safety Science class. After I finish this journal, I get the privilege of studying for this final.

I have been going out even though I have had exams, finals, and projects due. I just make sure I study for a certain amount of time. Also I am the type of person that goes out at midnight instead of going out at like ten. I have also been meeting many people here at ERAU. It’s good to give your brain a break.

Currently, I do not like work. I am doing teacher evaluations, but the machine keeps on breaking. Also some people don’t follow directions. Some people do it in pen, don’t bubble it correctly, etc. So I have to start the class evaluation a couple of times before I can even get anywhere. Today the papers were also getting stuck. So hopefully we get another little machine soon because we have a lot of names to go through. I never realized how many classes our department offered until now.

Also, apparently, the school is raising their minimum wage. I’ll be getting paid more next semester.

Oh yes, congrats to everyone planning on attending ERAU this spring.

HOTELS There are a couple of hotels around campus. The ones I can think of right now are
the Courtyard Marriot,
the Residence Inn,
Hampton Inn,
Studio Plus and there are a couple more.

APARTMENTS Some apartment names that I can think of right now are
Forrest Lake
Lake Forest
Indigo Pines
Indigo Plantation
Carolina Club
Sun Pointe
Sutton Place
Misty Springs
Island Club
Indigo Lakes
The Anatole
Here are some of them. Also keep in mind that some apartments only accept low income. I am not sure which ones are those but just try to find places on the internet to give them a call. I hope this information helps. I hope you have a great couple of weeks and happy holidays.

If you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them.