We flew to St. Louis on Thursday morning. We didn’t get into St. Louis until the evening. We were all tired of flying all day. We went to the hotel and went to the welcome reception. We met a couple of people from different chapters.

On Friday, we were at sessions all day. It was actually pretty exhausting, but interesting. The sessions covered many different areas such as membership, graduation, taking the ASP and CSP tests. They also talked about many different areas that you can do with a degree in Safety Science. The people in this organization are willing to help you out in anything you need.

On Saturday we had more session to go. We had an open forum and played a game which tested our knowledge. I am just in my introduction class so I didn’t know much. Some of the questions were specific to certain courses like fire protection etc. We managed to get contact information from other chapters because they heard that we just got our student section running again.

If any of you want to join ASSE or want to know more about it let me know. I would definitely recommend joining this organization.

I am still sick and I went to the health center. They gave me some meds to see if they make me feel better. I have two tests that I will be missing this week (Business Management and Meteorology). I have already talked to my professors about it and I will be making them up next week.

I took a Safety Science test on Tuesday. I passed.

The reason I am going to be missing my tests is because I am going to the ASSE Leadership Conference in St. Louis, MO.

Halloween is just around the corner, so you know what that means. Well, you might, but I’m not sure. I’m too old to trick-or-treat and I am too poor to buy candy and give it away. I’m right in the middle. Oh well, I’ll figure something out. Anyway, since it is the end of October, that can only mean one thing . . . Biketoberfest is over!!! For those of you who don’t know what Biketoberfest is, you can find out some stuff here (http://www.biketoberfest.org/), but its pretty much thousands of bikers riding through Daytona and hangin out. There was some pretty crazy stuff going on.. There were so many bikes everywhere. I have lived in Florida all my life and have yet to go to Biketoberfest until this year. The reason being is that it takes so long to get anywhere because there are way too many people in one area. But me and my friends wanted to go check it out, so we drove down there to see what it was all about. There were definitely some sick bikes there and a lot of crazy people. Walking down Main Street in shorts and a collared shirt, I couldn’t help but feel that I didn’t fit in. Nevertheless, we had fun and I look forward to Bike Week which is another biker thing that will go on in a couple of months.

Now I’ll do a little class update:

Speech- I gave my informative speech just the other day and I think it went alright. It was definitely informative, but not very humorous. It was entertaining because I showed the video of me going tandem and a lot of crazy pictures of me in the air. My favorite part about the speech was that on every slide, there was either a picture or a video of me. I like seeing me.

Physics- A quick story before I talk about physics . . . My girlfriend Rebecca is a lot smarter than she gives herself credit for. Often times she’ll take a test and before hand she will say that she will probably fail it and that she’s not ready. Then she’ll take the test and not only get an A, but the highest grade in the class. Well, in physics, I pulled a Becca. I thought that I was going to fail and I ended up getting the 2nd highest grade in the class. Go figure.

Business- Not much has changed since last time. Still pretty much the same class, except there have been two occasions recently where I wake up at 8 and go to class and when I walk all the way across campus, I find out that class is canceled. That usually isn’t a good way to start the day.

Basic Aeronautics- This is still one of my favorite classes. My professor is pretty crazy and I always find myself laughing at something in his class. We have a test next week, so I will most likely be studying for the next week or so. I feel confident with the information we have learned so far, so I think I will do fairly well on the test, but we’ll see what happens.

College Success- I finally know how to succeed in college, but I can’t say because it is a secret.

Meteorology- I have a test next week or “exam” as they call them in college. I got a 90 on the last one, so hopefully I can pull another A this time.

Flight- My flying has been going alright this past two weeks. You are supposed to have an activity roughly 3 times a week, but I have only had 1 for the past couple of weeks. I have a flight block Monday, Wednesday, Friday and my instructor instructs Tuesday through Saturday, so I only have an activity 2 days a week. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to fly twice a week because of weather and plane malfunctions, which leaves me with 1 day a week. But my instructor is trying her best to schedule me on different days so that I don’t fall behind.

So all in all, college is still much better than high school in my opinion. But all those of you out there that are in high school, just hang in there because we all had to do it.

When I’m not doing things related to school, I’m trying to have fun and so far I have been succeeding. One thing that I have been having a blast with is skydiving. I finally got certified and I did my first solo jump! It was about 5 weeks in between my lessons, so I needed a refresher course, but I did all 7 jumps with my instructors and 1 solo jump. For my first solo jump, I dove out of the plane then did a front flip followed by a back flip. I then started tracking which is when you bring your arms to your side and fly more horizontally (gaining distance on the ground). Then I did 4 or 5 spins to the left and 4 or 5 back to the right. Then I pulled at about 5500 feet and cruised back to the ground and landed right next to the target. It was one of the craziest things that I have ever done and I can’t wait to go again and again.

On a less exciting note, I cleaned my fish tank.

On a slightly more exciting note, I bought a long board. I got a Sector 9 from a place called Maui Nix. It’s a pretty sick board. Two of my friends got one too, and it’s pretty fun just riding around campus. Also, it’s a breeze when I have a class that’s on the other side of campus because I can make it 10 times faster than if I was walking. So that’s always a plus.

On Sunday the 29th at 3:00pm, my intramural volleyball team (The BAMFs) played the first game of the playoffs. At 3:37pm, The BAMFs were promptly eliminated. Our record for the whole season was 0-4. And for the playoffs, all we did was added 1 to the 4. So all in all, we were 0-5 which isn’t all that bad when you think about it. Oh wait, it is. Oh well, we had fun. Every game we had the other team, the spectators, and the referees not only laughing at us, but with us. So even though we didn’t win a single game, I am fairly confident that we had the most fun, aside from the ultimate winners of the season. Next year will be different though, I have a feeling . . .

Other than that, homecoming weekend just happened and I’m not really sure what happened. I know there was a parade and a tailgate party type deal, but other than that I have no idea what happened. So if you wanted to find out about all that stuff, you might want to hit the back button on your browser and look at other student journals. Sorry that I couldn’t be of more help in that area, but eh. All I do know is that I saw Jamie Kennedy along with loads of other people, and I was a little let down. I have never been a real big fan of Jamie but I thought that I would give him a chance. Some of the stuff was funny, but he rapped at the end and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. In my opinion, the guy before Jamie Kennedy was twice as funny as him. Oh well, though, maybe next year will be a better year.

Well I think I should probably go study for my upcoming tests. Hopefully everyone out there is enjoying themselves and reading all my journals. If you do read all of them, and can summarize all of them and right back to me, you will win a prize. Something like a Gatorade or a soda. I’m on a college budget so I can’t go too crazy. Stay tuned for the next journal!!!

-Blake

Welcome back to Steven’s extreme collection of tremendous Riddle experiences. That’s right, you have returned to the one stop shop location for daily life encounters of an Aerospace Engineering major at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I have definitely had my share of college life these past two weeks. Unfortunately, they have not all been fun experiences. This was mainly due to the compacting of many University events packed into one week. I’ll get to that a little later.

Let’s go back one week and I’ll walk you through the crazy happenings of Biketoberfest! First of all, you have to understand that I love this town. Daytona Beach is a small, quiet town where you can do just about anything you want 11 out of 12 months of the year. There are, however, two exceptions. One is during Spring Break Season when every college student in America floods Daytona Beach. The other is during Bike Week in October. If you like motorcycles, then this is the week for you. I have never seen so many motorcycles in one place in my entire life. It is the motorcycle gathering in America. I couldn’t go more then 50 fifty feet in any direction without seeing a motorcycle when I went out with friends. I personally am really into motorcycles and plan on getting one soon, so this was a great weekend. To my surprise I didn’t spend any time at the racetrack checking out the booths or dealers. However, a bunch of friends and I did head out to Oceanwalk on Saturday Night to see The Prestige, but we were too late. So, we went to Main Street instead and I am so glad we did. It is right off of AIA and it is packed with motorcycles. I am talking curb completely packed for 7 or 8 blocks on both sides. There were several concerts going on and people everywhere. I have never seen so many interestingly dressed people in my entire life. We stopped off at some small concert and listened to the band for a while and they were laying down some cool beats. After a while of walking around, we decided to head back to the dorms and call it a night by just hanging out with everybody else back on campus. Oh, by the way, parking at Oceanwalk that night was just retarded. We went to enter the structure like we always do from the North and we found that the entrance was blocked for Lord knows what reason. So we have to wait for all the cars behind us to back out and then we have to back out ourselves and try and find parking somewhere else. We end up circling around to the South side of the structure only to discover that it is open and there are plenty of spots. It was just a terrible situation and that should explain why we missed our movie.

This past week has been a living hell for me. This is where I describe all the events that made this week crazy. Let me start off with my personal schedule. I had three exams this past week. I had a programming exam on Wednesday and Dynamics and Differential Equations on Thursday. That equates to me having a whole lot of studying to do this past week. To top it off, the university planned Open House, Homecoming and the Career Expo all for the same week. Now, open house and homecoming were not a big deal for me, but the career expo was crucial. I am now a junior and that means that an internship is a very important thing to get involved in at this stage of college. The key to making that happen is at the career expo. Some tips, go to the expo very year and get to know how things work. Meet the recruiters and make yourself known. These things will make the really important years that much easier. So, how did I prepare for the expo? I bought a suit! To some of you that may seem stupid but this is the first suit I have ever owned so it was awesome for me. So a couple of days before the expo I went to the mall to visit a few different department stores and low and behold, JCPenney has the best selection. After some time there, and a little help from Cat, Cassie and the very nice lady at the store, I picked out a snazzy, pinstripe suit. I also got a new shirt and tie and I was ready to go.

The next step was preparing my resume to hand out to all the recruiters. Start working on your resumes now. Write down every little award you ever get, every bit of community service time you earn, and any job you ever work at. It will make the resume writing process much easier down the road. The Expo itself was a trip. There were so many companies there and so much to look at. To be honest, the Expo is really focused towards pilots and engineers but if you look really close there are other opportunities as well. I stopped at couple of different locations. By the way, Cat came with me and walked around the fair with me and it was extremely awesome for her to help me get around faster and more efficiently. You should all do yourself a favor and make a friend like Cat because besides the fact that she is totally awesome to hang out with, she is always there when I need her the most. She is especially awesome during the tough times. She’s like that Chevy commercial. “Like A Rock!” . . . . or something like that . . . you know what I mean. She is just an awesome friend. By the way, she is the journal writer that is right above me on the previous webpage and you should definitely check out her journal if you haven’t done so already. Anyway, my key stop at the Expo was with Boeing. After exchanging a couple of words with a nice lady, she invited me back the next day for another interview. Go back and read that again. I Got An Interview With Boeing!!! How sweet is that! I swear to you I was on cloud nine. I’m not going to speak much more about that other than tell you that my interview went really well. I don’t want to jinx myself though so I will keep you all updated as soon more develops.

The other congested part of this week that I mentioned was homecoming and open house. I was not personally involved with these events but the company I work for was catering all the events this week. So I was working ridiculous hours on top of having to study. It just piled on and this week became a sleepless nightmare. I barely slept at all and it was really a bad experience for me. There is a lesson coming up here so pay attention. You should know that this job was not making me very happy at all. The environment was not always a positive one and the demands of the job as far as hours go were not worth it. The other down side was that I was told that I would get the opportunity to meet high officials from the university and I actually ended up missing three opportunities. To top it off, the hours of the job on top of coursework was definitely taking its toll on me and making it very hard for me to perform in classes. What I am getting at here is that I unfortunately ended up quitting my job. After two years of college, I know my limits and I know that I must maintain an equal balance between work and education. However, education always comes first. So, I made a decision to keep my education my priority and the focus of my goals. On the happier side, my exams did go very well and I currently have two job opportunities on the line that require less of my time while still allowing me to accumulate enough hours to make some money.

After that hectic week, I finally got a chance to relax. This weekend was tons of fun and I think I earned it. First of all, Friday was a University Day and all classes were cancelled. So other than my interview, I had the whole day to sleep in, relax and enjoy some quality time with my friends. That evening we actually did something that I haven’t done in a long time. We went roller-skating. I am really good at roller blading and it was a lot of fun for me to get moving again. Some people in our group weren’t as good and spent of lot of their time hugging the wall but I am pretty sure they had fun too. We were planning on sticking around later in the evening for the dance part of the night, but soon realized that was a bad idea when everyone around us was still in middle school. So we headed out for the night and chilled back at the dorms. The next day we slept in and then left for Orlando. We had bought tickets for Halloween Haunt at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The roller coasters were slamming and the haunt fest was a lot of fun too. The haunted houses were a bit lame but walking through the streets was creepy and exhilarating. Other than the fact that we were freezing our rear ends off, it was really an awesome night with friends. If you want, you can check out pictures on my Facebook.

We crashed that night in a hotel in Orlando and drove back the next morning. A little more relaxation and then we were off to watch the Steelers game at a place called Steel City Pizza. The people there had one thing in common with my friend Matt: They were obsessed with the Steelers. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. So, to be troublesome, myself and Dustin from 4th floor Wood decided to root for the Raiders. To our surprise, the Raiders beat the Steelers. Kind of sad for the Steelers to lose to one of the worst teams in the NFL but that’s how it goes sometimes in the RAIDER NATION!!!

Anyhow, that’s all for now. Time for bed. I hope everyone had a good past two weeks and I wish you all the best in the next two. Be sure to check back for more updates and use the message boards. All the journal writers are there to help you.

Until next time, You stay classy Planet Earth!

Unfortunately I am finally sick. I have a very sore throat. Currently, my voice is gone. I have a presentation to give for the sorority and I have a speech presentation to give. I am thinking of going to the Dr. tomorrow and hopefully she gives me something that will work.

On Friday, I was tired because my roommate, Dave (Cheese) and his friends were being obnoxiously noisy. I was going to say something but of course one of his friends convinced me to go to Denny’s. Even though I wasn’t hungry, I ordered a meal and his friend paid for me. Since I was still mad, I decided to join Amy (my other roommate) and some of the APO brothers at that Teeter Totterthon. Alpha Phi Omega and Tri Sigmas do it as a fundraiser to give money to help children. It was good to see Amy, since we have opposite schedules we don’t get to see each other often. I caught up with her for a bit and caught up with the other APO brothers that were awake at 4 am.

After talking to Cheese, we made a deal to hang out that night. I left the house and got ready for the parade. Our float theme was firefighters. We teamed up with the EMS club. It was fun. We did a dance and threw candy at people. I think we won something, but I am not sure what.

I hung out at the Tailgate Party and they had tons of food. They were giving out corn dogs, chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, and fries. They also had games such as rock climbing and bungee jumping except you jump on a trampoline and do flips.

Afterwards, Isadora and I went to the Basketball game. We, of course, won. The Homecoming King was Izzy. The Homecoming Queen was Kerri. She is a nontraditional student like me. I personally think that’s awesome.

I hung out with my roommate at one of his friend’s place. The next night, we went dancing at Aqua. Vick needs to turn 18 so he can get into the clubs. I was really looking forward to hanging out with him.

Now I have to study for my tests that are coming up. I have Safety Science on Tuesday, Speech presentation on Wednesday, Meteorology on Thurs, and Business Management on Friday. I’ll be in St. Louis on Thurs and Friday for the ASSE conference. (ASSE = American Society of Safety Engineers) I guess I have to make up the tests either on Wed or next week. As of right now, I don’t feel ready for any of the tests. I just want to sleep and hope I feel better.

Hopefully, none of you are getting sick. If you are, get well soon. Have a great two weeks and get lots of candy.

Last weekend I worked ALL WEEKEND, 23 hours total. It was tiring, but I was grateful to have the hours (since I don’t work that often). The great thing about working long hours is that I get lots of money which means more money to have more fun.

Last weekend was Biketoberfest, too. It was pretty nuts and very loud. It was actually pretty exciting. My roommate and I went down to Main Street where most of the festivities occur, and looked around. And although it smelled like beer and smoke and exhaust, it was kinda cool, I have to admit.

Visited the mall a few times and I like the mall here. It’s big and there’s a lot of stuff to eat (I like to eat, what can I say?). This includes a candy shop. Yummy. However, it’s not good for dress shopping. I was shopping for dresses because I’m going to the military ball next weekend. I’m really excited, I’ve never been to one before, but everyone is telling me that they are a lot of fun. One of my friends from work who is in Navy ROTC invited me. AAAAND that’s enough from my inner personal life.

Classes have been going very well and I got a great grade on my last speech in COM 219, which I’m really happy about. However, I would like to say that the speech class is a little more difficult than I originally thought it was going to be and don’t just assume that because you can talk, or because something was easy for you in high school, that it’s going to be just as easy in college. It’s not like that. There are exceptions, though, and I guess that kind of depends on what kind of classes you take in high school and what kind you decide to take in college.

My friends and I found a really good pizza place, it’s called Giuseppe’s and you can get a 2foot 4inch (in diameter) pizza there. Which we did. And it was good.

OH YEAH Homecoming was this weekend. In high school, homecoming is centered around a football game, and there is a dance where everyone dresses up really nice (girls love an excuse to dress up). Here, homecoming is a little different. First of all, we don’t have a football team, so the game that homecoming built up to was a basketball game. There was a parade, a tailgate party (with free food, by the way), a talent show, and lots of other stuff that escapes me right now. I missed the basketball game because my friends and I decided to go ROLLER SKATING instead. That was kind of a bust and there were tons of obnoxious kids, and I don’t particularly like kids.

So, to conclude, when in Daytona, don’t go roller skating.

Hi everyone!..

Well, once again I grace you (the world) with my wise (yeah right!) words here on Embry-Riddle’s website.

The last two weeks have gone by really quickly and so much stuff happened that I seem to forget some things that ever happened at all! Classes were at their peak where all the professors are already discussing end of term examinations and final project assignments! It’s a scary thing, I tell ya, when all that work is given simultaneously and you got close deadlines for every assignment, but it’s not all bad since there’s a lot of help from the professors themselves and upper class friends. Oh, one thing’s for sure, you should definitely have higher class students as friends..they’re really helpful when you need assistance in doing things that they have already done, not just academically. But generally, they’re obviously more experienced here at the school, so they would let you know the good and bad about anything. With that being said, I don’t think I left any of you with my contact info..eh, I’ll put it at the bottom of this entry.

So, anyway, the main thing I wanna talk about in this journal submission is Homecoming weekend!!! Ok, so the theme for this year’s homecoming event was “Superheroes”..yes, superheroes like superman, batman, captain planet and the ever-so-legendary Mario brothers.

So, the events kicked off on Wednesday night with the “Superman Returns” movie on a HUGE blow-up projector screen out on the lawn..Thursday night was the student talent show..that was a blast. Friday afternoon was the parade with all the different floats created by all the student clubs and organizations on campus; the winners were Riddle Players in second place and Caribbean Student Association in first place with their theme “Swat Katz”!!! Both clubs of which I am damn proud to be a part of! Yay me! Ahem, so anyway, Saturday night was awesome. Comedian Jamie Kennedy visited and gave a wonderful comedic performance. I think Riddle needed some laughs at that point being that everyone was stressed out from class and homework and stuff.

OH and how could I forget..all the Halloween parties were this weekend..my costume was kinda like a Zorro-slash-devil lookin thing. I really haven’t figured out what I was, but it was black and red..oh well.

Ok, so the other thing I wanna mention is the school play, acting is difficult, yes, but what’s worse is having to build up the stage set every time we need to rehearse..!..the play is in less than a week and I must admit, playing the role of a cheating husband is actually very interesting every time we do rehearse. So, I don’t mind the construction.

And once again another stressful week at Riddle has begun. I must say though, with all the work that is constantly being laid upon me, I still manage to have a lot of fun with my friends..and to me, that’s important when you’re alone in college. Having good, genuine friends who care about you and stick by you through everything..so, thanks a lot to all of you guys..

Well, I know this is being read by many prospective students of Riddle, so I would just like to leave all of you my contact information if ever anyone has a question or comment, post it on the discussion board or my email address is pundib07@erau.edu

AIM screename is: xtriniboix

Anyway, it’s been fun and hopefully it’ll continue being that way for me and all of you out there!

Keep safe and good.

Hit me up if anyone needs anything.

Once again, thank you for flying VickAirways

(Quote of the week: “does anybody need my extra nut?”)

School has kept me busy. Most of my tests are coming up within the next two weeks. I was supposed to give a presentation but we ran out of time. So I don’t give my presentation until Nov 1st. I just hope I remember what I was going to say.

I went to the job fair for a bit. I need someone to look at my resume. I missed the Career Center’s resume critique times because I was either in class or working. One of the Boeing interns critiqued my resume and said it was more like business instead of engineering. Her comment made me think about what field of safety science I want to work in. I am still exploring and trying to figure it out.

We also did the sorority sleepover and got a lot of the work done. The only thing I would like more than anything in the world is sleep. I have been sleeping four hours each night and I am pretty tired. I would like to be able to sleep more than that. There’s a lot going on this weekend, but I might just sleep. I don’t want to get sick because I have been pushing myself.

I went to the Chapter Retreat and I had a great time. I found out who my Big sis was. My Big Sis is MC. I have been curious this whole time who my Big sister was.

I went to the Phi Delta Theta Camping trip. This time I slept in a tent with Isadora. We got the tent from the ICI center. It was exciting to meet a whole new set of people. Isadora had never had a smore so one of the boys made her one. She liked it.

This week is the week I have been waiting for since it is the week I get to find out who my Big sister is. Each day this week, I’ll be getting presents and clues from my Big sis in the sorority. I am excited to get my clues.

My Big sis gave me so many exciting presents on the first day. I got chocolate candy, a picture frame, a disposable camera, and a photo album. Of course I didn’t know who I had at first. I think I am going to figure it out though. Isadora told me whose handwriting it was. The Bigs are sneaky and they have other people write the notes for them. Other presents I got were flowers, more candy, a CD, a candle, t-shirt, Channel Chance perfume, and a blanket.

I went to MC’s house to watch the ending of Project Runway. While I was at the house I was looking around her apartment for clues to see if she was my Big sis. I just wasn’t sure.

It’s weird but I also never get flowers and this week I got flowers twice. One set of flowers came from my Big sis. The other set came from a girl named, Joy. She was thanking me for finding her ID card and credit card.