Hey, everybody! Well, I don’t have much to report, really…these past two weeks I’ve been trying to study and catch up with my work. I’m trying to skip ahead a math class, for which I have to take a test immediately after Thanksgiving break, so I’m frantically trying to do a semester’s load of work in about two weeks.

This fortnight I went to two events with the Honors Student Association – a visit to the Orlando Philharmonic and a day of rock climbing near Lake Mary. The Philharmonic was beautiful – the orchestra played some wonderful music. Toward the second half I found myself dozing off, though – I had been up all night the previous night and the soothing music sort of sent me over the edge of drowsiness into slumber – but the music was beautiful all the same. No, really, it was.

Rock climbing was real fun but real exhausting. It ain’t as easy at it looks! By the end of the day my fingers and arms felt dead, but it was pretty fun.

I also went to the Daytona Beach Film Festival, where I saw several interesting things. The Student Film festival was held right here at Embry-Riddle, and I was interested to see exactly what kind of films kids my age were putting out there. Several were kind of weird, with emphasis on what I call ‘artsy’ kind of shots and angles, some were stereotyped and ridiculous, but others were funny and often thought provoking. I didn’t stay to the end – it was a bit too…pointless for me. You can’t really tell a story in fifteen minutes unless you cut out the artsy stuff and get down to it – and none of them tried enough, in my unlearned opinion. Guess I’m just too used to action movies.

I’m also working on my final programming project, which I have chosen to do in C rather than Matlab. So far it’s 2800 lines and doesn’t do what I want it to. Definition of irritation? The urge to smack your computer upside the drive for showing you unlimited streams of rubbish values. Ahhhh, the agony. I’ve gotta get this in order before Thanksgiving or I’m screwed. It’s only due in early December, but my memory is terrible and I don’t wanna have to pull another all nighter. Luckily I’m a psychic amnesiac – I know in advance what I’m gonna forget.

Anyway, between making up missed job shifts every day from 6 to 10 PM at the Annual Fund, my C project, studying a semester’s math while trying to balance my current math load, two papers due this week, staying up all night playing multiplayer computer games with my hall-mates and a physics test day after tomorrow, I haven’t had much time to do anything else. I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people around the globe, that’s pretty cool – I hope I’ve been able to help – keep ‘em coming and I’ll keep answering. My AIM is vedanayakjr and you can also email me at nayak48c@erau.edu or vedajr@gmail.com. Later!

Whats up?!?
I hope everyone is excited about upcoming Thanksgiving. We here, cannot wait because that means we get a week off! A week off from school here means its like a month off. We are all really excited and can’t wait.

My days here at Riddle have been the same. In every class, my grades have been improving which is excellent! I have two exams coming up this week and have to get ready for because I need to get B¹s in them! Our Embry-Riddle Soccer Team is hosting the NAIA¹s this upcoming week and it will be massively crowded. But since it will be during the Thanksgiving break, many of us will be home and attendance will not be as big as it should be. We just collected for the third time the Regional Championships this Sunday in Georgia and are playing our opponents which we beat in the finals in the first round.

I really feel like playing soccer. This weekend they had a tournament with about 10 teams nine on nine with a registration fee of $100. I had a few good players but that’s it, didn¹t want to get embarrassed and therefore didn’t end up playing. I usually play every night some soccer either across the Street at Daytona Community College or here at Riddle on their fields.

I was looking around for a job because sometimes we really get bored, and I found myself a job near NASCAR as some customer service agent with my friend. I will be starting around December, but hopefully he will know that I will not be here during that time. I have been recently getting many e-mails from you guys! That is excellent and I do not mind one bit to answer any questions, feel free to contact me anytime. I will be undergoing a few changes here and moving to a different room because of some problems in my room. I will be moving 3 stories down as I am on the 5th floor, and I’ll be living with a buddy of mine which will be fun.

Recently I got back from Winghouse here, I¹ve been starting to eat those hot wings, they are so goooooood!!!! Sunday is the day here everyone gets busy with schoolwork, but still there are many that don’t and receive bad grades in school. Monday is my bad day, I gotta wake up at 7 am because I have a lab at 7:50. I had an exam on Friday in my AS120 class and I got a 84. I was disappointed because I was sure I got an A. But I will see my mistakes tomorrow. It was mostly about Air Traffic Control and some weather stuff that was not easy to get. I think the most I got wrong was about the Weather. I went out and played soccer again that night before the test, I was dead tired that night but still had to study for my test. I studied from like 11-3, but there were like 3 questions that I knew I had a 50-50 chance at. Overall, I did good.

So this Thursday, I will be leaving home because on Friday I have to give my Fingerprints to the FBI for citizenship. Then I will be here on Monday and Tuesday then back off home!! I can’t wait to get back home and see my family and dog! I also can¹t wait to hang out with my friends a little bit.

Ok, guys Good luck with everything E-mail me if you have any questions. I¹ve been continuing to answer all your emails and will so. DinkoResidovic@hotmail.com AIM: Mafia6663

Hey again, readers! I’ve gotta admit all I can think about right now is going home for Thanksgiving. I was originally going to be staying here until we got out for Christmas break, but now I get to leave as early as the 20th, so a week from today I’ll be back on the West Coast. Yay! Since I’m leaving early I’m going to be missing three days of school, which is kind of going to screw me over, but I’ll just have to study hard when I get back. One of those three days that I’m missing is going to be for the base visit, which I decided to do. I’ll update on that more after it actually happens, but that should be fun. I think that’ll probably be the most traveling I’ve ever done in one weekend: Daytona to Charleston/Shaw to Dayton, OH to Charleston/Shaw to Daytona, THEN to Orlando (and briefly Atlanta) then Seattle. So I’ll say I’m just pretty stoked in general. Sadly, I think I’m probably more excited about flying and transferringplanes and stuff in the airport than I am about actually being home. It’s going to be fun though, I’m excited to see some of my old friends and go to familiar places.

When I was getting ready to come here, I remember thinking it would be kind of a relief not having a lot of girls around because guys are generally a lot easier to get along with. Now, that I’m here though, there’s a lot of stuff that I really miss doing with girls, like getting pedicures and getting your hair done and all that. Guys suck at gossiping, too, sorry. NICE gossip, though 😉 Girls can be pretty mean to each other, so that makes it a little intimidating to try to strike up a friendship with a girl you’ve never seen before.

In other news, classes are about the same as usual. I’m not doin’ too great or anything, but I usually manage to pull everything up before the end of the semester. The weird thing is, this last week, I felt like I totally got electricity, and ended up doing pretty bad on that test. Then in my regs class (FAA regulations and all that good stuff) I hadn’t been paying any attention at all and had basically given up even passing that class ’cause I just thought there was absolutely no way I could flat out memorize everything right before class when I’d been basically sleeping with my eyes open throughout the period since we started that unit. Well by the grace of God, I didn’t do that bad at all. In fact, I did a lot better than some people who thought they knew everything way better than me. So I think I witnessed a miracle this week.

ROTC’s pretty great as usual. A lot of times I wish it was more intense, but whatever, I’m not complaining. Tomorrow morning all cadets, whether or not you’re usually morning or afternoon lead lab, have it at 5:30 AM. We’re supposedly doing some parade thing, but no one I’ve talked to really seems to get why, since only the crazy people will be up that early.

That’s all for now, email me if you have any questions (kenyonj@erau.edu) , and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Alright, peace out, guys!

Hi Everyone!
The semester is going by so fast that I just can’t believe it! My flight home is already just a month away! I can’t wait to see my family and friends and especially Doug. I’ve been getting really homesick lately, but I found that the best cure for being homesick is to do something fun. My roommate, Marjory, and I like to go to Olive Garden for lunch once in a while and to the mall just to be girly. We live in a man’s world down here with so many guys on campus. Oh! That reminds me! Marjory and I are going to be official members of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority on Monday. (That’s when the new member’s ceremony is). I never thought I wanted to be in a sorority until I went to the Tri-Sigma ice-cream social and I had a blast! They made my laugh so hard and I love hanging out with just girls for a change too.

My classes are going really well. I don’t know what my current grade is in most of my classes, but I’m sure I have an A or a B for all of them. Chemistry is still my hardest class, but at least I’ve learned a ton in that class.

Well, I think I will be staying here for Thanksgiving break so I can study for finals. I wish I could go home but it’s not worth the time and money for such a short break, especially when I am coming home only two weeks after Thanksgiving. But, I’m really looking forward to five days of no class. Marjory is staying over Thanksgiving too, so I think we will find some fun things to do. I hope the weather will be nice so we can head to the beach and go home tan!

Have a Great Day!
~Sara~

Hey, guys!! I hope all of my readers have had a great past two weeks. These past two weeks have been extremely busy for me. So busy, in fact, that I lost track of time. So, I’m sorry this entry is a bit late.

Last night, I had my first experience scheduling for classes. It is NOT easy.. some classes are closed, some aren’t offered for the spring semester, prerequisites aren’t always met.. it’s a mess. But, needless to say, I’m currently registered for 9 credit hours worth of class for the next semester. I’m taking AT 300 (air traffic control), COM 219 (speech), and WX 201 (Meteorology 1). A few things have changed since I last updated. I audited my Calculus 1 class. So, now I have to re-take pre-calc and calc. However, I changed my area of concentration from research to media. So, I no longer have to take math at the engineering level. I’m also going to minor in ATC. I hear it’s a great fall-back.

As far as my other classes are coming along, things are going pretty well. I’m definitely struggling through IT 109.. I do not like Access. And I don’t know the members of my group for my PowerPoint project. My grade is definitely dropping in there. My AS 120 grade is on the rise, though. And hopefully I can pull through this IT 109 class.

Tonight, I’m leaving for OH. But I’ll be back, this weekend. Already, I can’t wait to be back.. I don’t know how things in OH are gonna turn out. I miss everyone, but I love the girls, here. Bridget, one of the AZD alumni, is driving me up. I’m hoping to fly back on Friday!! We’ll see how that goes.

I’ve been really busy with the sorority, lately. We’ve had so much going on because initiation was scheduled for this Friday. However, it’s been rescheduled for Dec. 3 due to my trip home. Thank you SoOo much girls for holding off. I owe you all SoOo much.

Right now, I’m about to head over to Kelly’s room in O’Conner. We’re going to get a banner made for the AZD Holiday Dinner. Then, I’m coming back to get a shower and pack for the trip home. I’m not bringing much, if anything. We have a family dinner for the sorority at 5. Then, we’re going to take a nap before Bridget and I drive up. I should be home sometime tomorrow evening!!

I have so much more that I’d like to share with all of you, including pictures from formals. So, I’ll see what I can do about posting an extra entry over Thanksgiving Break or sometime when I’m less busy!! Hope ya’ll have a great Turkey Day 🙂

Hey Everyone!
Wow, the past two weeks have seen this campus abuzz with so much excitement. If there would be a theme for this entry, it would be activism. Activism can be so many things, but what it comes down to is that in order to accomplish your goals in life for yourself and for any group you may be part of is that you have to do something about it. Sitting around, gets absolutely nothing done. Get out, be active and let yourself be heard.

The reason I bring this up is because the past month has seen an issue develop on the campuses of Embry-Riddle. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s long term decisions are made by its Board of Trustees, which since the 1960s, has a student representative from each residential campus and a faculty representative from all three campuses. The BOT was recently given recommendations from an independent consultant to remove these votes and a committee proposed new bylaws without these representatives included. This caused much distress on campus, because no one wants to lose their representation on a board that makes decisions about them. Students banded together positively, organizing a massive campaign to let the BOT know that we do care about the long term future of the school and want to keep it a great school for the people who are here now, to the people reading this journal and also the people who will dream of attending Embry-Riddle twenty years from now.

This campaign included a mass petition which received almost 2,000 signatures and an all day rally which saw 1,600 students over the course of the day, of which some pictures are posted below.

The rally and the whole campaign were successful to a degree. This past Friday, the BOT voted to push back the vote on the new bylaws to the spring, citing more time needed to make such a decision.

On another SGA front, Task Force One is coming really well. Rockin’ the Holidays has hit a bunch of stumbling blocks, but these obstacles are teaching us how things work in the Student Government Association. Hopefully we can overcome these obstacles and put a good show. We are really working hard at this and we hope to become closer to the SGA in our relationships with the Student Representative Board, the Student Finance Board, and the Student Court. If you are at all interested in student government, next year Task Force one will be the place for you. You will be finding out much more about TFO in the months to come. This is what a TFO meeting might look like, just with less people than you should have next year (hopefully!)

On the school side of things, I have a LOT of work to do. Professors went project happy the last two weeks and I’ll be working until I leave Daytona on this Friday for home (yay!) and while I am home. Although I did know of these projects because I received a syllabus, you can’t really do the projects until you learn some skills in the class so you can’t really do them until the end of the semester. It’s a real catch-22 situation.

This past Friday I did absolutely the coolest thing of college so far. I attended the National Business Aviation Association 2005 convention in Orlando and had a blast. It was reported that approximately 30,000 people attended this convention centered around corporate aviation. Quite a few ERAU students attended and there was even an Embry-Riddle alumni booth. I saw a lot of new planes, met a lot of people that work for industries you take for granted and don’t realize their services are necessary for a plane to work, or look really nice. These kinds of things are important because networking is an important part of college, especially at a school like this. Once again, I’ve added some pictures from NBAA. The picture of me on the fake horse was just one of the many fun things that were at each booth.

So it’s time to bring this to a close. We have learned some things today, like get involved and do things that make you happy, but I think the prevalent piece of information is that I really like pictures. On that note, here’s one more of the people on my floor at our trip to Wing House, a restaurant here in Daytona Beach.

These past two weeks have been some of the busiest most fun times I have had in Daytona yet. We just had homecoming and it was so much fun. My Fraternity built a float on the back of a Ryder trailer and we made it into a pirate ship. The theme of the homecoming parade was “Once Upon a Time,” so we did Pinocchio. For some reason we all dressed up as pirates and had one person wear a long nose to represent Pinocchio, but it was a lot of fun.. When our float went under the walkway near the student village, our mast on the pirate ship hit and snapped in half, it was really funny and the crowd was very amused, but duck-tape did the job to get it back up. We didn’t win any awards for our float because some of the other organizations went through extremes in decorating, but the surf club won the best on-campus sign.

Besides the parade, the Touch and Go production team hired Carlos Mencia to do a show one of the nights and he was really good. He is the comedian with his own show on Comedy Central “Mind of Mencia.” This past week was also Sky Fest and Alumni weekend for my Fraternity besides the entire school. We had a big BBQ right along the airport and watched all of the aerobatics and fighter jets perform their shows right above our heads. They even had a jet engine mac truck rip down the runway. My favorite part of the show would have to be the A-10 doing low fly-bys simulating air-to-ground bombings with actual pyrotechnics and fire. It gave me the chills every time the A-10 would fly over because I am sure it has been the last thing many people have seen who fight against the US. After the BBQ that night, everyone got together and we all partied ³responsibly² with the Alumni. Pledging is still “going,” but there is only 2 more weeks I have to make it through until I am done.

As far as academics are going, I just survived my second series of major exams which all happened in to be in the same week again. I did really well on every one of them and am really getting motivated to keep up the good work. Going to class ever day is becoming a bit of a challenge now, but since I am doing this good so far why waste my previous effort by being lazy? In my ATC classes we are going over a lot of familiar stuff to me since I am already a pilot, but reviewing sectionals and basic navigation could never hurt. I am so excited to be going to Embry-Riddle for ATC, I just finished scheduling my classes for next semester and the ATC ones look like so much fun.

That’s is it for this entry. Keep the questions coming those of you who have been sending me them. Until next time work hard and stay out of trouble.

Hi Everyone!

Wow! So many things have been going on around here lately. On Monday classes were cancelled because of Hurricane Wilma, (which was so much fun!!), and so we only had three days of class this week. (We got Friday off because of homecoming.) My roommate and I were asked to have our room on the list for tours during open house, which meant we had to clean it and “disappear” for the day. So, we went shopping at the Volusia County Mall, and out to lunch at the Olive Garden. It was so much fun because I haven’t been shopping at a mall in months! Sometimes I feel like I live in a man’s world with the ratio of guys to girls being like 7 to 1, and I needed to get away and do something girly for a change.

This week was also the career expo at the IC center gym. It’s mostly for upperclassmen who are looking for jobs after graduation, but my EP 101 class went to make some connections and find out about internships and co-ops. I found out about many opportunities available to me, but only a few really interested me. I think I was most excited about an internship with the United Space Alliance, and a co-op opportunity as a counselor for Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Since I transferred in credits, I’m really not that far away from being eligible to apply for them. This made me really excited but also a little worried because I have so many other things I want to do before I graduate and I really want to fit it all in.

Next week I will be registering for my classes for next semester. I can’t guarantee I will get all the classes and times that I want, but so far it looks like I will be taking Physics, Physics for Engineers Lab, Calculus II, Machine Shop Laboratory, Introduction to Computing for Engineers, and Engineering Drawing.

Monday, (Halloween), we are going to have little kids coming to trick-or-treat in the residence halls and I can’t wait for it! They will be so cute in all their costumes!

Happy Halloween!
~Sara~