Well time is definitely flying by . . . I can’t believe that it’s already Thanksgiving!!! I have really been enjoying life down here in Florida. I mean I always enjoy life, but this past two weeks have been something else. I have had a fun-filled, very packed past two weeks and I can’t wait to tell you about them. Well, I guess I’ll wait until I tell you about my classes. . . . .

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – As I already told you in a previous journal, this class is half lab, half lecture; however, the labs are only worth 20% of your final grade. We take three tests which account for 60% of the grade, and there is a project that is the remaining 20%.

Usually the project is a big long paper about something weather related and most of the time only mildly interesting, which is why I’m glad they decided to change it. Instead, the project consists of making a webpage that is weather related. I like this project for two reasons:
1. I enjoy working on the computer a million times better than writing a paper.
2. It is very practical. I am almost done with the project, and once I put the final touches on it, I will put it online. So now when ever I have a flight, I can just go on the website that I created and gather all the information in one place! And I know that it is all the information I need because I created the website!

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – Well, since we have this huge paper due in a couple of weeks, we haven’t met in class that much. Instead, we just meet in our groups and try to work on the paper. I’ve got to say as much as I dislike writing huge research papers, I have really enjoyed researching my topic (Boeing’s new 747-8). Out of all the things that I research in high school, this is by far the most exciting for me. Just the engines alone I would read about for hours. Technology is getting pretty crazy; just check out the 747-8 engines here http://www.geae.com/education/theatre/genx/

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – I am definitely learning a lot in this class, and I think I really lucked out with my professor. I haven’t heard a lot about the other teachers that teach this course, but I am so glad that I got the professor I did. I actually signed up for a class next semester with my professor (Professor Harmon) and I’m looking forward to it.

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – We took test number 4 out of 5 last week and I got a 98. Definitely happy with that, but my stupid friend Aaron had to go and get a 103 just to prove no matter how smart I am, he’s still smarter! Well, good for him. He is majoring in Air Traffic so he should be better than me, because I am only minoring in it.

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – I am at the point where I have learned almost everything about Instrument flying, but now I need to study and practice everything to get better. It’s cool to see how much aviation has changed in the past 30 years. I have been practicing different approach procedures and some were used 50 years ago and work, but aren’t very accurate. And sometimes I practice with GPS which is amazingly accurate. You go from one extreme to the other, and it really makes you appreciate how much easier it is getting to navigate in a plane. I know I’m glad that I have GPS!!!

Well since I only have classes Tuesday and Thursday, I obviously don’t have class on Thanksgiving, which is good. However, for some reasons my professors decided that we should start our vacation early and take Tuesday off! No arguments here! So now I have a full week off, but loads of homework to do.
Oh well, welcome to college.

Well I have been having a lot of fun this past two weeks. It all started with homecoming and its festivities. There was a lot of stuff going on, so I’ll just touch on the stuff I did.

There was a stunt pilot who graduated from Embry-Riddle years ago and he now is a professional stunt pilot. He came and did a quick show over Daytona’s airport and it was insane. I was actually getting ready to go on a flight with my instructor when the show started. We ended up just staring at the sky for 15 minutes. The stunt pilot shot across the ground and went straight in the air until he stopped, then he started falling back down backwards. Then he twisted out of it just feet off the ground! He was doing some crazy stuff, much crazier than the stuff I get to do!

There is always entertainment during homecoming, and this year we had some country singer whose name I already forgot, and Pablo Francisco who is a comedian. I actually have been a fan of Pablo for a while and that was real cool to be able to see him live. He had an opening act that was pretty funny too. He’s most known for his “movie-guy” voice, and I still laugh every time I hear that joke.

Along with the homecoming activities, I have been doing some other things as well. For example: There is a place about 45 minutes away that has indoor rock climbing, and I went twice this past two weeks. It is a whole lotta fun. You pay around $15 and you can climb until they close. They have over 30 walls with different paths on each wall, so you never get bored. Also, they have bouldering, which is where you don’t get hooked up to a rope, and you just climb stuff that is right off the ground. Overall it is definitely a work out, and a fun one at that!

One thing I was real excited about was the fact that I got to see my favorite band in concert, Slightly Stoopid. I have been listening to Slightly Stoopid for a couple years, and they continue to be my favorite band. They came out with a CD a couple months back, and I actually saw them over the summer down in Boca Raton. They are constantly on tour and they always make a stop in Orlando! I’m already anxiously awaiting their next visit!

So rock climbing, Pablo Francisco, seeing my favorite band live, you would think this week couldn’t get any better. Well guess again.

I got the chance to see my favorite comedian as well, that’s right; I got to see Dane Cook! I went with six other friends to Orlando and we saw Dane Cook in his tour, “Rough Around the Edges.” When I first found out about the show, I bought tickets 10 minutes after they went on presale.

The seats we got were pretty good, but not the best. There is the stage, all the floor seating, then the lower bowl and finally the upper bowl. Well, we were in the second row of the lower bowl. We were a little to the left of center stage, which I was bummed about at first, but then I realized that just to our left, Dane Cook would be running out from behind stage.

When the time finally came, he walked out with SuFis blazin’ and for just a second he turned to his right and looked right at me and my friends. He just stared as we gave the SuFi back and then he ran up on stage. He did all his jokes and there was laughter after everything. It was so cool to see him on stage and in person. After he finished all his jokes he ran off right by us again and I reached out to give him a five, but I was just short. Then, the arena got so loud I thought I was going to go deaf. A couple seconds later he ran back on stage, passing right in front of me and my friends again. He did a couple more jokes and then he thanked the audience and it got even louder. Then he tore his shirt off and threw it into the crowd and started running off stage. I tried one last time to slap his hand as he ran by, but this time I overshot. I leaned too far forward and grabbed his shoulder by accident and he kinda stumbled past me. I was so excited, I mean I know it sounds stupid, but I’m a huge fan of Dane Cook and now I can say, “I touched Dane Cook!!!!!”

Well I think that’ll wrap it up for this journal. I am exhausted after this past two weeks and I am looking forward to relaxing, eating turkey, and seeing family. I hope everyone has a safe holiday and I look forward to sharing my next two weeks with you!

See ya later! -Blake

email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles

It’s been two long weeks since my last entry and a lot has happened!

On the fifth I attended this lecture by Dr. Kevin Trenberth about global warming and how it’s inevitable. He’s a famous person in the subject of this and it was cool to hear his opinion about it. His presentation though was so fact based and had a million different graphs that I’m assuming most of us didn’t understand. It was still decent though. The next day, to fulfill a requirement of one of my classes I attended this presentation by PenAir and he was talking about the company and then about one of the recent disasters that happened. As sad as the disaster was, it was fascinating hearing about what they found, or didn’t find and how different clues would help them figure out how the accident happened. The plane had crash-landed incredibly fast into ice throwing the pilot and the only passenger hundreds of feet away and in a mangled way. The plane had practically blown up but different tests said the plane was functioning correctly. It was captivating even though the accident itself was terrifying.

I worked out every day that week, which was good because I didn’t have that much work to do. We had Friday off for homecoming, which was sweet. The career fair was also this week. It was huge! There were so many companies present and all of them obviously related to the Aerospace industry. I asked around to see if any offered internships for freshman but not many did, which was a bit disappointing. It was still useful to see all the different companies present and get a feel for how the expo works.

That weekend was homecoming so campus was active with different things going on like the parade and different activities going on like a chalk art contest and sign building competition. Since we don’t have a football team we have a homecoming for the basketball team and we creamed the other team.

Life continued as usual and my first class of my freshman year ended today (11/19). It was EGR 101 and we completed our last project and hopefully did a fantastic job on it. Yesterday my friend and I had our long-awaited eating contest. He thought he could beat me in eating ice cream, but my mom and I know no one can beat me in eating ice cream. We had the contest planned for a few weeks and we were going to see who would have that one more scoop. We ended up eating ice cream for an hour and a half before the buffet closed and we had to leave. I won though, because he came upstairs and threw up for an hour and I had practically forgotten that I had 47 scoops of ice cream. I don’t know what it is with ice cream and me but I really can eat a lot. I gave him a bottle of Pepto and he’s fine now =]

I’m going home tomorrow! I’m so excited. I’ll be back next Saturday, so it’s a bit of a short trip, but at least I get to go home for a little while.

Finals are fast approaching and it’s really strange for me to start studying for finals when it feels like the semester just started. I have a quiz early in the morning tomorrow and then am catching a flight out of DAB to Newark! This week is pretty packed, filled with visiting family, eating a lot of Indian food and meeting up with friends.

I know this entry is much shorter than my usual, but as eventful as these past three weeks have been, they’ve lead to a lot of homework. I have a few tests the week I get back from home so I’m making every effort to start studying, so I don’t have to go crazy that weekend.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Don’t forget about black Friday! I know I won’t  ;]

Btw – I’ve added pictures (career fair  + volleyball) ! Check them out

Spree

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is doing well. I must say that I definitely have more to tell you this time then I did last time. These past two weeks have been crazy, fun, sad, heart-breaking and enthralling, all at the same time. One thing that you will learn when you get to college, whether it’s Riddle or not, is that emotions change in an instant. It is not unheard of to wake up happy, and by the end of the day, be crying yourself to sleep. Those are the rough times, but let’s talk about some of the good things that have happened.

So we start with Tuesday, November 6th. This was a great day for me, not only because it was an all around nice day, but for the fact that I got my first opportunity to go into an ATC simulation lab. It was so much fun. The ATC Organization went into the lab to just goof off, but I got to go on the Controller head-set and someone else was on the pilot’s headset and I gave instructions of what the pilot should do, and then it was just so awesome to actually see the simulation move with your instructions. I mean, I know that’s what it is supposed to do obviously, but it was a phenomenal experience, and I DIDN’T CRASH ANY PLANES!!! YAY ME!

So the following day Wednesday, November 8, was ERRSA election for positions in our Hall Councils. I spent that afternoon preparing to give my speech for my bid as Governor of Adams Hall, and I had it all planned out, but when it came time to give my speech I totally blew it. It was by far the worst speech I have ever given, but the good news is that I still won the position. So now I am the Governator!!! Just Kidding! Also, we had a member of the Executive Board drop out of the organization so there was an empty spot to fill for this HUGE conference called the South Atlantic Affiliation of College and University Residence Halls (yes I know that is a mouthful to say) but the Executive Board chose me to fill that spot. It was a great honor to be chosen, considering the fact I was running against 11 other people. You will hear more about the conference later in the blog!

So Thursday came and that was the Talent Show that I had told you last time about. So for my act with my friend we sang “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera, and with the AcaFella’s we sang Happy Days. What was ironic about the two performances was that they were both for the same category, so I was pretty much competing with myself. Well the act with my friend went really well, I had been having trouble getting some of the harmony for the song, and I messed that up when we performed, but I covered it by just singing the melody. So, both performance went really well and my friend and I won 3rd place, and the AcaFellas won 1st.

That weekend was the conference I was telling you about and I must say that it was a lot of fun.  The conference was held in Gainsville, Florida, and we left on Friday afternoon to drive there. At night we didn’t do much besides hear a keynote speaker who was absolutely phenomenal, and we also got some dinner and just hung out at the hotel. Saturday was filled with different workshops to go to, all about how to make residence life better and how to strengthen the organizations that we are affiliated with. I learned a lot by attending this conference and I had a great time!

This past week and weekend was not so hot. I found out on Monday that we were going to have to put my dog down, because he had gotten so sick and he was in pain. That was the start of the week and by the end of the week it just progressively got worse. By the weekend it was almost unbearable just to wake up, it seemed like everyday just got progressively worse. I got sick on Friday, and Saturday was just the worse day ever. On Sunday things progressively started to get better and I hope that this upcoming week will be a lot better than last week!

Well that all I have for you for now. I’m sorry it was so long, but I hope that you enjoyed reading and that you will be looking forward to my next blog. As always, if you have any questions please email me or Instant Message me on AIM. “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss, no other road no other way, no day but today” –Rent

Until Next Time,

Joe Jaworski
Email: Jaworksj@erau.edu
AIM: HYPORBOY226

Greetings from chilly Daytona!

Seriously, it has actually been quite cold lately, especially in the morning and evening when the sun goes down and a frigid breeze passes by! It makes me feel excited realizing that being home where it’s expectedly cold really isn’t too far away.

Plus, I’m already encouraged by being able to see the end of my classes. If that wasn’t perfect enough, I also had a wonderful time with my Daddy! I had been awaiting his arrival for so long, I could hardly believe it had actually come!

But, to go back a little, I had an insanely busy few days getting ready for his coming. I didn’t want to have any homework or loose ends to fix so I could fully enjoy the 4-day visit. I’ve also put a few more things into my daily schedule. I try to exercise 1-hr a day and it’s been going well so far! Doing the bike or elliptical in the comfort of Tallman Commons or the sparkling new Fitness Center is a joy. My friend Alex got me into reading while I bike. It certainly helps to pass the time and she practically brought a library down with her, so I am well-supplied. Plus, for my Honors class, we finally get to read one of my favorite stories, Pride and Prejudice. I honestly have never read the book before, but I’ve seen both the 6-hr BBC version and the new with Ms. Knightly. Sad, I know, but now I have read it, so no worries.

Drinking tea is a daily thrill. I can get some lovely English Breakfast at Einstein’s and I got Green and Bubble at a store on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. I’ve had a cold I’m just about over and it’s cold outside, so it’s just what I need! 🙂

Working in SPRL is already getting more interesting. The last 4 hours I spent in the lab were doing more secretarial things, which I love. I typed up an inventory sheet and quickly whipped up a sign-out sheet for people who wanna borrow a book, tool, or folder. My fellow EP major worker and I were also able to get a closer look at some of the instruments. A lot of the words went over my head, but I still got a general feel for it. Maybe someday I’ll be designing instruments like them! My next task will be coming up with a catalog system for all the data with one of the older workers in addition to continuing to analyze the data set I’ve been given. The graphs I look at were taken in 2003-2004 in Norway. Cool stuff!

Just as a follow-up on the STS-120 Discovery, when I was walking to Graphical Design, I heard a loud “Bo-boom!” and a guy in front of me said it was the shuttle re-entering the atmosphere. Pretty cool since I saw it go up too!

Speaking of Graphics, I’ve been enjoying it so much more now since we moved on from views. I so love the dimension/extension work we are doing now. We have an extra credit quiz on Monday, so I should be able to recover from an earlier bad quiz.

One of the exciting things on campus has been the 12 Angry Men play. I finally was able to go last night. I’d never heard of the story, but it’s apparently a very classic film. My mom says we’re watching it when I’m home! I only knew of two of my friends, but actually five of them were in the play. I was surprised that I know so many people already! Everyone did an excellent job! I hope I can get involved in Riddle Players one of my semesters here!

Another big event was the College Career Expo. I went mostly to get a feel for internships and Co-ops as well as watch the older students interact with prospective employers. I saw some of my favorite companies like Boeing, Cessna, and Piper, and was introduced to others like Honeywell, United Space Alliance, and Lockheed Martin. The summary? Internships are around six weeks; Co-ops a semester. But, Co-ops have benefits, internships don’t. Finally, almost everyone does business and hiring online. I did pick up a few tips about applying for Boeing internships, so I’ll remember that next time I apply. I’ve already sent in my resume’ for 4 summer ones. I love that I live so close to their Everett plant! I walked out of that fair with a crazy amount of free stuff, looking forward to the future I could have in the industry! It truly is amazing that our school can draw so many huge aerospace companies. We don’t have to go anywhere except across the street and we can get great jobs!

One of the funnest things I’ve done in the past two weeks apart from my adventures with my dad (which I will discuss soon) was going to the Latin Dance class! I have always wanted to learn some kind of dance and it was so much fun! Once we got over being a little embarrassed, my friend and I had a great time. We were already picking up the tricky spins and getting used to the beats. I just don’t have those amazing Latina hips like some of the girls we met, but they so kindly helped me learn some steps so I didn’t look too ridiculous. It was good exercise, let me tell you! Regardless, I can’t wait until the next time! It’s so nice to have the Fitness Center and all of the free classes!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for- the homecoming weekend stories! On Thursday, my lab partner and I had everything go wrong. Thankfully, one lab is going to be thrown out. To brush off the bad hours, my partner drove me to her new apartment and we ate dinner with her roomie before going to Marble Slab and then the Homecoming Talent Show in the Student Center. It was so hilarious!! I loved the dancers, juggler, and many more. We even got free Homecoming t-shirts and cups. That was the only Homecoming thing I was able to experience ’cause my dad was coming the next morning. I made sure everything was packed, but I was still so excited, I ended up staying up pretty late with Alex. We drank tea, read books, drew pictures, and listened to music. Fun times!

The next morning, he was here! When I walked down to the circle drive outside Tallmans I couldn’t keep the smile in. We had a little white Pontiac rental car. I brought my daddy up to my room to help me get the bags down. Then, we walked over to Propeller’s to eat. I had a Caesar chicken wrap and my dad got a cheeseburger. I’ve actually never eaten there before… It was so nice to just sit outside and talk while planes flew overhead. Our next stop was the UC (Student Center; don’t ask me why we call it that!) to use up my 7 meal plans. We got plenty of good stuff for the weekend and then jumped in the car to go. It was off to Orlando! We stopped by our nice hotel only to find it wouldn’t be ready for several more hours. But I did get to pick up my no expiration, hopper 10-day Disney World ticket. That means I only pay $35 every time I go (I’m already going twice this year at least) instead of $70. So, it’s a perfect deal. We found the Mall at Millenia to visit. I loved all of the beautiful Christmas decorations! I flew in and out of the stores, only finding things at Urban Outfitters. It was fun just to be with my dad. For dinner, I decided it would be really fun to eat at Hard Rock Café. I saw a brochure at the hotel for a free gift with $25 purchase, so off we went. But, unlike Downtown Disney, you have to pay to park to even get near Universal City Walk. We paid the ridiculous $11 charge and parked in Jurassic Park 505. I really want to go to Islands of Adventure sometime. I’ve got 4 ½ more years to do it, so… We ate at Hard Rock and got a tasty appetizer mix and salad. When we finished, I got a free pin with a wee guitar on it. I like it! The rest of the night we wandered stores, got ice cream at TCBY, and made the long trek back to the hotel.

We were so tired on Saturday that we decided to get up when we got up and then go to Disney World and the Magic Kingdom. Even agreeing to that, we ended up making it to Disney 15 minutes after it opened at 9.
This is significant because we stayed until 15 minutes before the park closed, 11:45. Phew. Long fun day! We made off like bandits in the morning going to rides like Pirates, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (we did a funny pose for the camera and Dad bought it for me to have in the room), and Haunted Mansion. For lunch, we ate in Liberty Square at the Plaza restaurant. We both had delicious sandwiches. I loved the sweet potato chips too. We would throughout the day stop in little shops. I eventually got a cute rainbow Mickey bracelet and tea. Our fastpass for Space Mountain was valid, so we went there. I took video, but it’s mostly just black. I might use some parts in a video collage though. Next, since we were in Tomorrowland, I went on my favorite Tomorrowland Transit Authority, the new Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. We also found a cool Kodak picture area to take funny shots. We used fastpasses to the max and also went to Mickey’s Philharmagic and TIki Room Under New Management before going on the Train around the park. We decided to take the monorail to the Contemporary Resort and catch a bus to Downtown Disney. We were going to eat at Rainforest Café but the wait was 2 hrs, so we ate at Planet Hollywood instead. We stopped in a couple stores and got some nice gifts and such. When we finally found the restaurant, we relaxed.

That place is so funky, but fun! We had a delicious plate called LA Lasagna and I had a Home Alone smoothie in honor of my dad (he loves that movie). After returning from our Downtown Disney adventure, we went on Teacups (I haven’t done it since my very first time at Disney World and this was my 5th). We accidentally went on Snow White because we were enjoying the big fireworks show and then found ourselves in the line for it. The witch was so scary!! 😉 Small World was next. I taped the whole thing to torture others online. We went on Thunder Mountain and Pirates again, then I tried another old ride, the Astro Orbiter! We also went on the Indy Speedway. I drove and it was easy since both of us weighed down the car it couldn’t go very fast! Finally, as per my tradition, we finished the night with one last Space Mountain. My favorite!

On Sunday, we got all the stuff together to check out of the hotel. It was a Wyndham like the crazy nice one at Ocean Walk, but a little more laid back and less fancy. It was still very nice, though. We stopped back at the school to pick up my Crop Walk donation envelope. We waited for Casey, Josh, and Chris from CFC in the chapel and then followed them to Westiminster-By-The-Sea Presbyterian Church. They had free hotdogs, chips, and rice krispies with plenty of drinks. We also got a Crop Walk t-shirt. Josh designed it and it’s burnt orange. We walked along the beach and enjoyed the really nice day. It was fun to joke around with the guys too. My dad is so funny! We never ran into the 1-mile marker table the head guy talked about so we ended up walking 6 miles total. Whoops. On the way back to the car parked at the church, I saw a giant inflatable gold fish at a garage sale and we got it for my room. It’s hilarious! Back in the car, we decided to go stop by our new hotel. Then, we went to Ocean Walk. It was tough to find a parking spot as usual. We went to Bubba Gump’s and enjoyed a shrimp platter and hush pups. It was so beautiful sitting outside and looking out at the ocean. We walked along the beach to kill time for our movie that didn’t start until 7. It all of a sudden got very dark and windy. The clouds looked very ominous! Next, I got pumpkin pie in the sky from Coldstone and Dad got a Starbucks drink. We sat in comfy Starbucks chairs and listened to a guy sing Hotel California while teaching a teen how to play. Finally, we could go on up to the theater to watch Fred Claus. It was very cute and fun. We always tend to watch Christmas movies together… I feel like it’s here already because of all the trees, decorations, and music! So early!

On our last day together, we thought it would be fun to go to the nearby Museum of Arts and Sciences on Nova Rd. I found out that students from a DBCC and Riddle get in for free. I had no idea. Cool!

They had a crazy Coke collection, Teddy Bears galore, pretty art, amazingly old pots and jewelry, cool trains, and giant fossils. I want to go back for their Christmas festival of lights thing this weekend.

After that, we left and went to a few stores like Wal-Mart, the record store, and Office Depot to get last-minute stuff done. I even got a cool Christmas star light for the window. We ate at Sonic before coming back to my dorm room for the last 30 minutes before he had to leave for the airport. I wanted to cry again, but I held it in as best as I could. It’s not really that bad- I go home in less than 30 days.

And I only have 17 school days left. Only 1 final during “finals week”. Not bad at all! I spent the rest of the evening unpacking, fixing the Christmas lights, and doing the Chemistry group quiz.

Well, I had originally thought that this would be a short entry, but then I had too much to say about the long weekend. Sorry! 🙂 Oh well… You know the drill: please e-mail me if you have any questions and enjoy the pics and video I put up!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I know I for one will be counting my blessings and be praising God for his awesome work. I have such wonderful family and friends not to mention an amazing opportunity to go to a school like Riddle!

Tell at least one someone how much you love them this week, ok?

Until Next Time,
Natalie
spencern@erau.edu

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Florida does not stay warm all year long!  On Friday morning during PT, it was 40 degrees and I was still freezing in my sweats.  Back home in Illinois I wouldn’t have considered that to be cold but here you expect it to be warm and in the 70’s, so it was a definite shock.  Speaking of PT, a couple of Wednesday’s ago we got to run on the Daytona Speedway!  I was excited to see the inside of a racetrack; however, I would have had a little bit more fun had I been driving a racecar instead of running!  I love being in AFROTC because we do things other people just dream of doing!

Homecoming was two weeks ago and I had a lot of fun!  Last year, I was here for my campus visit during Homecoming so I had an idea of what to expect.  There is a parade and this year the theme was television shows, so each club that participated chose a TV show and had a float.  The Airport Management Club turned a car into a Southwest airplane and I helped spray paint the cardboard.  I was holding the spray paint and thought the nozzle was pointed at the cardboard, but it wasn’t—instead my finger became a nice bright blue color. Also, country singer Keith Anderson came and gave a performance before the basketball game.  Don’t forget to check out the pictures on my website.  The basketball game against Viterbo was more intense than the last one but we still won.  I had a good time and can’t wait for next year’s homecoming!

Well, I have finished the Associate Process of Silver Wings and am now a member.  Last night, we had our Initiation Banquet at the Daytona Beach Resort.  Everybody was all dressed up and the colonel was there and gave a presentation.  Two weekends ago, I had my interview which was a little intense because there were seven interviewers sitting behind a table and then me sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.  I did well though, and am glad I had to do an interview because the more you practice the better you get.  Silver Wings is a great club and I am excited to be a part of it.

I got my low quarters (shoes) on Friday!!  I can now wear the real Air Force uniform and just in time because Monday is the Air Force Finals.  We will be having one last inspection for the semester and cadets have to brief upperclassmen on what they have taught us.  I will be sure to let you know how it goes in my next entry.  I have to shine my low quarters and thankfully, I have other cadets on my floor who have been willing to help me because I have never shined shoes before.  Yesterday, I found a video on the Internet that showed how to shine shoes and that was helpful.  For all future AFROTC cadets, buy Kiwi Black Shoe Polish because it is what everyone uses.

My classes are going well and I am excited to be getting close to the end of the semester.  I only have one big presentation left and it’s in my Principles of Management class.  All of my other classes have had the projects due throughout the semester which is nice because it doesn’t get all dumped on you in the end.  I am not going home over Thanksgiving so I plan to get some homework done and just relax before finals.  If you have any questions about ROTC or college in general, shoot me an e-mail.

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

Well two weeks have past and I know you all have been anxiously waiting for journal number five. Well lucky you, because today is your lucky day! I have a pretty good past two weeks and I know the fun will continue for the next couple weeks. By next journal, I will have gone to a concert with Slightly Stoopid (my favorite band) and seen Dane Cook (my favorite comedian). So I am definitely looking forward to that! This past week I got the chance to visit my sister at her college, which is actually in New York City! So that was a blast. I’ll tell you all about that right after I give you the 411 on my classes.

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – We took test two the other day and I got a 94! After I finished I wasn’t feeling too good because there were a lot of questions that I wasn’t sure about, but as it turns out, I got most of them right! Our teacher gave us a study guide and I didn’t start working on it until the night before. He gave it to us on Friday, but I was in New York from Friday to late late Monday night, and the test was Tuesday. So I was up till about 5:00am finishing the guide and studying, then I got a good two hours of sleep and took the test. It ended up working out pretty good, but next time I’ll try to manage my time a little better so I can actually get some sleep.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – Well, my group and I are finally making progress for our huge writing assignment. We had to turn in a summary the other day, and so we had to organize how we would structure the report. So I feel much better because at least we have a general direction we’re going in now. But there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. It gets kind of scary just thinking about all of it. Oh well, welcome to college.

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – We finished up talking about all the approach, departure, arrival, and holding procedures and then we took the test. I ended up getting a 90, which I’m happy with. I studied a lot, and I’m glad I did because it was a pretty tough test. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be talking about cross-countries (flying to airports far away) and weather.

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – We took our third test and this time I only got an 87%. I’m not complaining about an 87, but there is a little competition brewing with my friend Aaron. He’s an AT major and we have the same class together and we always compete. The first test we took, I got a 98 and he got a 100. The second test, he got a 98 and I got a 94. Now he took the third test and he got a 96 and I got an 87. So now I’m determined to beat him at least once. We have two tests coming up, so I gotta get on my game. We’ll see how it goes.

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – Well as I was saying before, the way it has been going lately is that I learn something in my Intermediate Aeronautical class and then I practice it with my instructor. This is still true because now we are practicing approaches and let me tell you what, there are a 1000 things going on at once. When you are going for your private pilot’s license, you think there is so much going on at once. Well once you start your instrument training, there is everything that you learned in your private course plus three times more. I have only just started with the approaches and I have to admit, it’s already very difficult. I have gotten overwhelmed numerous times and have forgotten basic things that I never forget. I am trying to practice as much as I can on my own so I can try to get use to the high work load. I think I’ll be doing better in a couple of weeks when I get some more practice.

Well, that’s the classes. In other news, the BAMFs are officially practicing for next season, partly due to losing two more games and being eliminated from the playoffs. I have to admit, this year we should have won several games and when we did lose, it was only by two or three points. So that means next year we will win a lot. So get ready for that.

Well as I mentioned above, I got the chance to go to New York City the other weekend. I left on Friday morning and got back late Monday night. My sister goes to the Fashion Institute of Technology and that is located right in Manhattan. I flew into Newark on Friday and took a cab into the city. Currently, I’m 19 and I have done a lot traveling by myself, but I have never traveled into New York City all alone. It was pretty intense. I rode in the cab for 45 silent minutes, and got dropped off at 27th and 7th. I got out and met my sister and put all my bags in her room, but then she had to go to class. So I just started walking around randomly. I ended up walking around for three hours aimlessly until my sister was done with her class. When she got back we met up with her friends and went to a nice little Cuban restaurant and had dinner. On Saturday we woke up and took the Subway downtown and walked around for a while. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance) and then walked over to Ground Zero where the Twin Towers use to be. I can remember seeing the twin towers years and years ago with my dad when I was little, and it was pretty intense seeing the huge site with nothing there now. After that, we walked over to Wall Street and then down to Canal Street (China Town). We walked around China Town for a while and let me tell you what, that is an interesting place. I definitely have a couple stories that I could tell, but it might be best if I just keep those to myself.

After walking around some more, my sister and I met up with my uncle who lives in the City, and we went out to dinner. We went to this awesome place, but I can’t remember the name. Basically, you sit down and you have a coaster with a red side and a green side. If the red side is up, you just sit there, but as soon as you flip it over to green, there are 50 people walking around with various foods that seemed to be on Samurai swords. They walk over to your seat and tell you what they have, and you say yes or no. They had anything you could imagine and they keep bringing it until you flip the coaster to red. I will tell you this, if you are on a diet, you should stay far away from this place. You could sit there for hours if you wanted. After dinner, we walked over to Times Square and were tourists for a little while and took pictures. The next day we took the subway to a bus stop, hopped on the bus and went to Staten Island. I didn’t tell my sister the real reason we were going because I wanted to surprise her. I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with a place called Moe’s, but if you aren’t I suggest you do so immediately. Moe’s is a Mexican-type restaurant that makes delicious food fast. Check them out here: http://www.moes.com/ Anyway, my mom got my sister and I addicted to Moe’s. There is a Moe’s about 5 minutes from my apartment, so I can get it anytime I want. However, my sister isn’t so lucky. She thought that there wasn’t a Moe’s anywhere near her, so I found the closest one and we went there. I told her that I wanted to go to Staten Island and go look around and she just went with it. When we got off the bus, I made her close her eyes and we walked into Moe’s. One more thing about Moe’s, when ever you walk in, they yell “WELCOME TO MOE’S!!!” so when we walked in that’s the first thing she heard and opened her eyes and was so surprised. It was a lot of fun. After Moe’s, we went back to the City and then went over to the Empire State Building. We went up to the 87th floor and looked out on the city, and I have to say that it was incredible. You could walk around to get a 360 view of the city, and I couldn’t believe how windy it was. It literally felt like I was skydiving. People were constantly losing their balance and everyone’s hair was in disarray. We went up at the perfect time too. The sun was just about to set, so we got some good sunset pictures. After that, we grabbed some dinner and went to bed. Then on Monday I flew back to Florida. All in all I had a blast and I can’t wait until I can go back up. It was very nice to see my sister and I look forward to seeing her again at Thanksgiving.

Well that was the highlight of my week, and not too much else happened. I did see a good movie though. American Gangster just came out with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and I thought it was an awesome movie. It is definitely intense, and long, but very good.

Well I guess that’ll wrap it up for this journal. I will be posting the pictures from New York on the web within the next few days, so stay tuned for those. I am definitely looking forward to the next couple of weeks! School is going well, my flying is coming along nicely, and I am finding entertaining things to do, so life I going well! If anyone has any ?s or comments, feel free to shoot me an email! Until next time . . .

-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles

Hello Everyone! How is everything going? Well, I will start off by saying that both acts that I tried out for made it into the talent show and the show is this Thursday (I’m getting nervous!) But anyways, it has been crazy hectic around here. Last time I wrote to you it was a good hectic, and this time, not-so-much. I have been absolutely swamped with work and tests. I think I have had 7 or 8 tests in the past week and a half alone! That’s a lot of studying and a lot of late nights. For the most part, it all paid off though! It never seems like I have enough time to get things done. Like my time management skills are so off. I used to have a set pace and a set timetable of when things will be done, and now it’s more like, I’ll get to it as soon as I can! Other than school work, nothing much has been going on around campus or anything. I will tell you guys about a few things that I have been doing and then I will wrap up with my “encouraging words of thought”

So I worked Open House for all of you who came! I was giving tours of the Residence Halls! I had such a good time, it seemed like a lot of people were interested in ATC which I thought was really cool. It was funny to see their reactions to the rooms and stuff like that, because I was the same way, it seemed like they were so small, and while they are not huge, they really do accommodate you for what you need! It was a great experience and I hope I get to do it again next year.

I have also been preparing a few things for ERRSA. I am currently working on writing a Code of Conduct for our Constitution, which I think is just awesome. I’m having fun being able to write the rules for how people should behave! I’m also working with a committee to write a newsletter to past members of our organization, so I think that will be a great success. And finally, I have finally finished my bid to run for the Governor of my Residence Hall. Elections are this Wednesday so I will keep everyone posted on that!

I’m really sorry that I don’t have more interesting things to talk about, I really wish I wasn’t so swamped with work and ERRSA so that I can actually have a life!! LOL.. I hope you all are doing well, and as always if you need to talk to me, either Instant Message me or email me. Please ask away, that’s what I am here for. Keep your hopes alive, and your visions clear and in the end you will make it through!

Until Next Time!

Joe Jaworski

AIM- HYPORBOY226

EMAIL: Jaworksj@erau.edu

Hi everyone!! Yesterday while walking to the gym I remembered that another journal entry was due on Monday and I was like… “I don’t think anything has happened that’s worth writing about” but then… My friend was like.. LOTS has happened and rambled a list of things to refresh my memory.

Last entry I mentioned I was going to see the rocket launch. I posted pictures of it that day, but never got to tell you how amazing it was! We were in Titusville, about an hour away from Daytona Beach. It is supposedly the best viewing spot aside from the KSC itself. We’re hoping to get bleacher seats for the next launch.

Halloween, of course, was fantastic. We had a little party on our floor and I dressed up as my opposite door neighbor and vice versa, ton of fun. My roommate and I supplied the chocolate because we just had so much to spare. A bunch of people watched scary movies after our party, but I’m too big of a chicken to watch scary movies, they give me nightmares, so I opted out of that and stuck to a bag of M&M’s.

The Saturday after Halloween, I got to give my open house speech to like 800 people. I got to meet the chancellor and many other people who work in undergraduate admissions, so it was definitely a lot of fun. I want to be a tour guide sometime lol. After I presented my spiel, I went on a tour with the largest tour group and spent the day answering questions from eager parents and children. Most of the people present during open house were either from Florida or New Jersey, which wasn’t all that surprising to me. It feels like Riddle attracts Jersey kids like no other. If you were at the open house, shoot me an email, I’d love to hear what you thought about your day at Riddle! I ended my work day only to find out that we had a review session in physics for the test that Monday, so I practically ran (still in my work clothes) to the session so I wouldn’t be late. I spent the rest of the weekend pretty much studying for exams, working on a project and eating when I could.

I’ve gotten active with TFO (Task Force One) lately. We scrounged up materials for our homecoming float, which has to be completed by today. We also participated in a charity even for Palance Powell. Palance is a dining services worker who got hit by a car when he was riding his bike. Embry-Riddle has made an effort to help his family out through various fundraisers. TFO baked cookies and cakes that were sold for donations. FYI, if you’re doing a bake sale, depending on your crowd, sometimes it’s better to let them take as many cookies as they want and mention that it’s a “by donation” basis. Some people donated $20 for a cookie or two, much more than we would’ve gotten just selling the cookie by itself. We were present during the women’s volleyball game and I’ve posted a bunch of pictures up of our team so check them out on my pix site.

This weekend is really busy. I have to write a paper, write this journal entry, work out, write a mini paper, and do my math and physics homework. Phew, that was a mouthful. I’ve been working out a lot lately! I can see calf muscle and I’m hoping to get abs very soon. Working out is really relaxing for me, it’s definitely a good way to get frustration out and is a major stress reliever even if it’s just for an hour and a half every other day.

The semester is almost over, as crazy as that seems. We’re being assigned our final projects, our final exams and it’s all happening so quickly! Mom warned me about this and that’s why I’ve been trying to make sure I have time for everything I need to do and actually get it done. Life is hard especially when your friend can watch movies all day because somehow they got a free weekend and you’re bombarded with work knowing your friend is having way more fun than you. haha, that takes a lot of self control right there.

Have a good week everyone!

Spree

Hello again everyone and a Happy November to you!

I have to admit that I have pleasantly surprised with many things this past two weeks. The first thing being that fall feels like fall. What in the world can I mean by that? Well, let me explain:

Thanks to hurricane Noel being close enough to send gusty weather our way, I get to see leaves swirling and feel the cool wind on my face. I finally believe it’s actually fall. Sunny skies and palm trees don’t exactly match what I’m used to back home, so this new weather pattern is a nice change. Also, the stores around town are very festive. And my room has followed suit thanks to another care package, this one from my grandma. It had delicious shortbread and lemon cookies, chocolate, a cute ghost, and a nice shoebox-size Halloween teddy bear box.

I even got to go to Starbucks for the first time in weeks. For a Seattle-area girl, that’s just torture to get nice frappuchinos so rarely. And I don’t even like coffee. (Blended cream frapps, tazo tea, and caramel apple cider are my favs.) It’s great to see stores with leaves and such in the windows, but I can’t believe how many retail clothing places in the mall have heavy jackets and sweaters. I certainly don’t need them here! Although, someone did recently tell me that we had an abnormally warm October. Go figure.

Having the Omega Pi/Wood 5 Halloween party also greatly helped. It was pretty hilarious. Most of it was eating, talking, laughing, and taking pictures. Also included was walking on different floors and around Tallman Commons to see how many strange looks we could get (Because it was the Friday BEFORE Halloween and a whole lot of people were downstairs for the DDR and Guitar Hero competitions.) I even gave in to watching Van Helsing, the closest thing to a scary movie I’ve seen. It was more action than anything else with a touch of the Mummy’s grossness. When you combine werewolves, Dracula, Dracula’s wives, Dr. Jeckell/Hyde, Igor, and Frankenstein, what do you expect?

Another pleasant surprise I’ve had recently is my scores in Chemistry.

We had a take-home group quiz that we solved in minutes. The entire assignment was extra credit, so 10 pts for me! Then when I got the dreaded test scores back, I saw a beautiful 88 on the top! But, even better, he said to add 6 points to that number. I got a 94!!!!! I went from a 69 last time to a 94! How cool is that? I was so tired, I couldn’t even get that excited, but I was very happy inside. This third and final section will be tough, but my grade may actually turn out to be pretty good. And speaking of tests, I’ll just throw in that I got 104/105 on my math test- hooray! Studying works wonders!

Yet another positive was going to see the STS-120 Discovery launch!

Three friends and I had a fun ride down and finally managed to find a nice spot by the water in Titusville. Three of us climbed past some grass and found a nice rock and wood to sit on. No one was in front of us and we were low so people standing behind wouldn’t get mad. Right when we heard heated arguments a few rows back, it all of a sudden took off. It was tiny, but definitely easy to catch on video. Very exciting to see my first shuttle launch, especially when they’ll be retired in the coming years. Plus, we all got free souvenir coins from the Walgreen’s across the street. They’re cheesy, but I’ll keep it for memory’s sake. One side has the mission info and patch; the other’s about their 1-hour photo. 🙂 Before heading back to campus, we had a nice picnic lunch under some trees. Great experience!

I also had another great opportunity when the women’s program on campus sponsored an “Evening with Jo” event. It was free and very enlightening. The dinner was very nice- Olive Garden catered. I really enjoyed hearing from Jo Ames. She is a mechanical engineer – basically, but she does all kinds of interesting jobs on the defense side of things. She was even in charge of painting the inside of the air lock that astronauts use on the ISS for space walks. She works for Boeing right now so she’s not that far from me back home. I got some good tips about internships from her too. I’ve been sending my resume’ to different Boeing internships online for this summer. It would be so nice to work for them and they’re only 15-30 minutes from home!

One weird fettish I have to tell everyone about is getting mail. Yes, I have gone to great lengths to purchase (Good deals, mind you! I always get things on sale and “shop around”!) DVDs and Christmas gifts online mostly so I can have the joy of getting packages from the campus post office. Plus, my parents sent me a care package, two grandparent sets sent me a letter or card, and a good friend in Germany sent a letter, too. But, don’t worry, I was faithful to pass on the fun excitement by sending several “thank yous”, a couple of “happy birthdays” and even one “congratulations” to friends and family. I love writing and sending cards!

On a final, very positive note, I will give you the results of my SPRL (If you didn’t read my last blog, it’s the Space Physics Research Lab student assistant job) aspirations. As I worked hard to finish the homework assignment, I kept having problems because I’m used to C++ and not IDL. But, I finally found a very helpful worker and I finished it up. I called the hirer to come see my work and he asked a few questions then shook my hand, “Welcome to SPRL!” So, yes, my good friend and I both got the job and started our graph analysis. For the first semester or so, it’s just “grunt work”. But I’ve found it can be very relaxing and the entire experience will open several doors even if it just looks nice on a resume’. Plus, if I do well enough and stick with the program, I might even get to go to the South Pole some summer. Wouldn’t that be an experience?

As evidenced by all of my happy paragraphs, God has been very gracious to me! I’ve really enjoyed fellowship with His people every Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. After church one day, my small group went out to Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was so much fun and I even found great Christmas gifts in their Country Store. My leader then took me to Target and JCPenny’s so we had a great time just talking and shopping.

Apart from chatting, I have also been learning from church, Christian Fellowship Club, and my Bible study. From watching Facing the Giants at CFC, I discovered that I have to be faithful to “prepare the field”. Then, God will send the rain. In other words, I can’t just do what I want or sit around and expect Him to bless me all the time. I need to prepare my heart and mind to be a great servant of His and if I am open, humble, and willing, He can use me. I want to greatly impact those around me.

Well, believe it or not, I do have homework I need to tackle, so I’ll say goodbye for now. I’ll tell you all about my fun weekend with Dad next time!

Natalie Ann

spencern@erau.edu

Happy late Halloween!  For Halloween, I went to the Star Shelter with Silver Wings and we all wore costumes to be festive.  I decided to be a witch and another student from my floor was a cowboy—the picture is online.   We passed out candy to the children and then some of them got their faces painted.  On campus they were going to have trick-or-treating, crafts, and a haunted house in one of the residence halls and the whole community was invited to attend.

Now that I have covered Halloween, let’s back up to the week before and those events.  I had Air Force Mid-Terms, the Physical Fitness Test, and I participated in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot I played flag football and came very close to scoring a touchdown!  Unfortunately, someone had to tag me right before I crossed the line, but I think my team still won!  For Air Force Mid-Terms we have an inspection and are supposed to wear our official uniforms, but l still don’t have a complete uniform so I am continuing to wear the t-shirt and jeans.  We also had to take a test and some of the questions I knew right away and others I couldn’t remember so I still need to study.  The Physical Fitness Test was on a perfect day because it was cool and the humidity wasn’t super high.  Since the beginning of the semester, I have shaved almost a minute off of my run time.

The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk that I participated in with Silver Wings, all the money we raised was for the American Cancer Society.  I thought the walk was really fun and we got to walk over this huge bridge.  In my pictures you can see the bridge and the enormous amount of people that participated.

This week I attended another women’s event—“An Evening with Jo” and all of the women attending were asked to dress in business attire.  I was so glad that I had another reason to wear the suit I just purchased.  The evening included dinner from Olive Garden and a talk from Jo Ann Ames.  She works for Boeing and talked about her job and some of the challenges women face in the workforce.  Everyone should take advantage of these events because it’s a great way to network and there is always free food!

In addition, the College of Business hosted a seminar talking about consulting work.  The speaker works for a small consulting firm in Chicago, IL and gets to travel all over doing work with airports.  Before I went to the event, I was thinking that maybe I would like to be a consultant.  Afterwards, I realized that consulting is most likely not the right job for me.  I am glad I went to the event because I learned a lot of new information about airports.  Make sure you always check out the bulletin boards in each building because that is how I find out about all these events.

On Saturday, I went with my Honors class to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and then to my professor’s house for lunch.  When we arrived at the lighthouse, we got our own tour guide and for about three hours we learned all about the lighthouse and the buildings around it.  I have only been to one other lighthouse and I didn’t get to go inside of that one.  This one you can climb all 203 steps and we all did, including our 86-year-old tour guide and it was his second climb of the day.  After eating lunch, we went to the ocean and the waves were pretty rough looking.  I had a wonderful time and was glad to get off of campus for the day!  We are supposed to get to go sailing soon and I am looking forward to that.  I put some pictures of the lighthouse online, so don’t forget to take a look!  Saturday night I went to the basketball game and we won!  We played the College of the Bahamas and the score was around a 100 to 50.  Next weekend is homecoming and hopefully the competition will be a little bit better.

Last entry I mentioned that registration for spring classes was starting and that I would keep you updated.  Well, I was able to get my advisor and Honors advisor to sign my schedule on Monday and then I took it to Records and Registration.   I was expecting a long line but surprisingly there was no line at all!  The whole process took about five minutes and when she was done I got a printout of my schedule.  If you go early everything works out!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu