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

Hello, all!

Next week is shaping up to be a tough one, but certainly manageable. I have my second Chemistry hourly exam, my second Calculus test, and I find out whether or not I am accepted into the Space Physics Research Lab program (SPRL). To explain what SPRL is I’ll catch you up on the last few weeks:

I might as well start with that tough class you always hear so much about from me: Chemistry! Many things have improved. Right after my last journal entry, a miracle happened- I finished a quiz. And it had the RIGHT ANSWER. Gasp! I was ecstatic! I drew a nice sunny scene on the paper to celebrate. Professor Cameron gave me a teasing smile as he collected the quiz. The next week, we had another quiz. I did my best to relax and when we got the paper, I easily completed the problem. But he had also added a short answer question. The problem was I hadn’t studied bond types yet, so I was just “shooting in the dark”. Then, when we turned it in, I realized I had made the stupidest mistake of my life! I answered the bond question pertaining to the problem on my quiz instead of the one written on the board. As I found out later, he was compassionate with me and gave me two points for the answer I put. Amazing. So, that quiz became an 8/10. Then, last Friday, we had our last individual quiz before the test. Somehow, I had missed hearing about it, so I didn’t have time to be concerned. I got a beautiful 10/10 again! I love heat transfer! If improvement on quizzes wasn’t “happy” enough, we also have an extra credit group quiz to do this weekend. +10 points! I will also give 100% as I study for the test. I think I can do really well!

Christian Fellowship Club has been fun and uplifting as usual! We learned about Moses one night before going bowling. Last weekend, we had the annual picture scavenger hunt. It was great fun sprinting all over the campus. My team managed to win and get some great photos out of it all, too!

Another thing that makes weekends so wonderful is the time! I have time to rest, exercise, and do laundry. I also do that on Tuesday and Thursday since the class load is much lighter. I started an exercise routine that I’ll try to do Sun, Tues, Thurs, and maybe Sat. I bike for 15 minutes at whatever speed I can take. Then, I stretch a ton (I don’t want to get tight, bulky leg muscles!) and do some crunches to get that proverbial flat stomach (might take awhile…). Finally, I do a 1-mile jog at 5.7 miles per hour. The little exercise room by the Student Village bridge is awesome. It’s usually deserted and I can leave the lights off to have a cool, peaceful environment with the iPod groovin’.

Many changes on Wood 5th have occurred since I last wrote. My room is decked out in fall/Halloween decorations from a package my parents sent. It had a cute light-up pumpkin, Snoopy with a pumpkin costume on, candy corn, and a pumpkin/cinnamon room spray. Pretty cool stuff! I also got a Halloween card from them and one from my grandma. The final, best touch was putting fabric leaves on the door and TV. I suppose the decorating got me in a cleaning mood because I decided to clean and organize my roommate’s stuff. She always talked about picking-up but is perpetually too busy. Navy ROTC is tough! So, as a gift to her during difficult times, I attacked the mounds of stuff.
She went home for the weekend, so I had plenty of time.

Before I got too far, Spree (another journal writer) knocked on the door. Her dad was visiting and he wanted to take some of our floor out for dinner. Seven from Wood 5 came along. We stopped at Chili’s, but they couldn’t adapt to the water problem so they were closed. (Just in case you didn’t hear, in Daytona, we had a water main break, so we couldn’t drink water except bottled for several days.) So, we walked over to a favorite of mine, Buca di Beppo’s. The chatter, laughter, and eating was a very special time. Spree’s dad was so nice to pick up the bill for all of us! Crazy!

When we got back, I talked to my best friend for an hour on the phone. Then, I heard the 4 people going to Alabama (One guy was taking three others to visit his home) out in the hallway, so I went out to say “Bye!” I ended up staying out there and talking until 3:30. I’ve never stayed up that late here! At least I can sleep-in to my heart’s content on Saturdays.

On Saturday, I had even more fun with floormates. We shared vacuums, coffee, and even flying Styrofoam airplanes. Another project began when I decided to clean the bathroom. It took a bit of time, but it looks great now.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived. I was so nervous about my roommate’s reaction that I went into the study room. Suddenly, she came in and gave me a big hug. She was very excited. I’m so glad I could be an encouragement to her. If only we can keep it looking this clean! The rest of the night we heard the stories of the four that went to Alabama, ate some southern banana pudding, looked through magazines, and chatted away. Wood 5 Rocks!

We also made our own fraternity several weeks ago. No one told me about it because I was somewhat of a hermit in my room. But, now I officially “joined” and am in Omega Pi. It’s hilarious. The slogan?
“Honor. Brotherhood. Baked Goods.” We have random meetings and give people bizarre titles. They include Supreme Baker, Founding Father, Iron Chef, and Schnitzel. I want to be the Crust Coordinator or perhaps Director of Flavors and Fillings. Hmm…

Our very own Schnitzel took things a bit further and set up his own psychiatry office. Dr. Schnitzel is very professional. He has the glasses, crackling fireplace (A life-like animation on his computer!), secretary, comfy “chair”, appointment sheet, door sign, and credential list! Many Wood Fifthians (as we like to call ourselves) have benefited from this wise Doctor. Yes, we’re weird like that, but it’s fun!

Speaking of having fun, my lab partner invited me to “hang” with her friends and her. We went to Moe’s for dinner (tasty Mexican) and Ritter’s (best ice cream ever) for dessert. Finally, it was time to shop! They all needed nice dresses for a sorority event. Ironically, I was the only one who found stuff! Always fun to get new clothes and good deals!

Back to school updates, I can tell you all about the Spring 08 Registration. The perfect phrase to describe my pursuit has been “running around like a chicken with its head cut off”. Why? First, I talked with my 1st Year Advisor, Jenny, and she helped me know which classes to take. Then, she called my EP advisor, Prof Wanliss, to make sure he was available. So, I set off to get signature #2 (Jenny signed my schedule first). Wanliss was very nice and listened well. He approved of the classes I chose and signed. Next, I sat down at a very wobbly table and planned out my schedule. I had to go down to the first floor of the Engineering building (where I currently was on the third floor) to log onto ratemyprofessor.com to pick my physics and honors professor.

It’s foolish to take every word seriously, but I like getting a general feel for the teacher as well as seeing what type of student I need to be (i.e. study a ton, take notes, ask questions, go to his office…). I decided on everything, filled in the paper, and showed it to Dr. Olivero. Finally, I ran it by Jenny one last time and went to have lunch before Chemistry. The last two steps are getting Dr. Kain to sign on Monday and then running it over to records and registration! It’s only this complicated for first-year honors students. Normally, you only need one person in your major to look at it.

And now, to my last description, I will share what SPRL is! The Space Physics Research Lab is all about compiling and organizing data that students and faculty collected while at the SPRL research station in the South Pole. I’m not the best at explaining it, but from what I can gather, they analyze spacial and solar particles that enter the earth’s atmosphere at the magnetic south pole. If I botched that explanation, I’m sorry! I will be glad to amend it if I do get the job. It requires going through a 1-week training session and then if hired, working eight hours a week in the lab. It mostly deals with programming, but you may get to be part of the trip to the Pole the next summer. I will do my best at the training, and if God wants me to be in the program, I will be in the program. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t at least try to be in such an exciting and valuable experience. Plus, I manage my time well, so I do have several hours available to devote to such an endeavor. And for next semester, it looks like I will be taking 14 credits since the only other class would make it 17 and I can’t go over 16. Now would be the best time to get involved in this before my classes get harder!

As usual- write me with any questions! Hope to hear from someone soon!

My e-mail:spencern@erau.edu

That’s all for now! Time to study chemistry!
Natalie Ann

It’s that time again! Here we are with number 4 of the journal series written by me, Blake Guiles. Life is going good right now and I have no complaints, well . . . maybe a few but overall it’s good. I’ve been staying busy with school and just life in general. I went to Halloween Horror Nights last week, I celebrated my girlfriend’s birthday, and I did a whole lot of school work. I’ll give some more detail later, but now it’s time for my wonderful, always exciting classes!

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – Since I have this class two days a week, it is broken up so that I have the lecture portion on Thursday and the lab portion on Tuesday. On Thursdays we discuss a certain topic and on Tuesdays we have a lab on what we covered last Thursday. For example: We just had a lecture on turbulence this past Thursday, so this coming Tuesday we will have a lab that involves turbulence. The lab will most likely consist of finding different reports of turbulence and analyzing our findings. Once again, it’s nice to learn something that directly relates to what my career will be. Finding turbulence and staying away from it is important!

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – We’ll, I have finished 3 projects so far and I’ve gotten Bs on all of them. I’m pretty happy about that, but my happiness quickly vanishes when my professor assigns our final project which is a mega-huge-enormous paper that will most likely be the death of me. I have been able to do all the other projects, but this last one is going to be something else. I have 2 partners and we are doing a paper that compares the Airbus 380, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the new Boeing 747-8. It’s exciting to do all the research regarding all 3 of these awesome planes, but we have to organize all this information into a 20-24 page report . . . and we have no idea where to begin. I know as time goes on I will lose a little bit of stress because we will know what we have to do and how to organize it, but then my stress level will increase when we are approaching the deadline. I’ll keep you updated.

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – The past couple of weeks we have been talking about approach, departure, arrival, and holding procedures. All these procedures are usually encountered on every flight and it is pretty important to understand how to use them. My professor has been good at teaching the material and making sure that everyone understands it. He assigned several worksheets and there were a couple of questions that I had so I went to see him in his office and he was very helpful. He stopped right in the middle of what he was doing and made sure that I understood the material on the worksheet. Most professors will do this and I’m glad they do otherwise I would still be confused!

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – If you are an Aeronautical Science major, I highly recommend having an Air Traffic minor. Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers have to have a lot of the same knowledge, so part of this class is a review while the other half is stuff that I will learn soon. For example: We are learning about enroute charts for smaller aircraft and next week I will be covering that in my intermediate aeronautical class. So, once again, an Air Traffic minor is definitely a good idea!

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – Well last week I did some holding patterns and they went perfectly! I was getting nervous about them because there is so much going on at once, but when I got up there I stayed calm and did a very good job. I was on my way to the holding pattern and I was trying to do some things inside the airplane, and then the Air Traffic Controller came on the radios. He was supposed to say, “Riddle 1-2-3, advise when ready to copy holding instructions.” When he says this, the pilot has a chance to get caught up on things before he has to copy a whole bunch of stuff. Well, instead ATC told me, “Riddle 1-2-3, turn to a heading of three one zero, fly to Ormond Beach VOR track outbound on the three four two Radial from the station, maintain right turns at two thousand feet, expect further clearance at twenty-two thirty.” At which point I said, “Uhhhh, could you repeat that for Riddle 1-2-3.” Then he did and I frantically scratched on a piece of paper, “R-342 / R / 2000 / EFC 22:30.” So that caught me off guard, but instead of getting flustered, like I normally do, I just calmly began the proper procedures and decided I needed to do a teardrop entry. I entered the pattern and established a wind correction angle and flew the pattern a dozen times or so. It went pretty smoothly and I was pleasantly shocked! Next on the agenda is how to navigate in clouds without your primary flight instruments . . . that should definitely be interesting! If you want to learn more about holding patterns, check out this link: http://www.pilotlist.org/zahar/howto.htm

Well, that’s how the classes are going. If you are a loyal journal reader (which I’m sure all of you are) then you know about the BAMFs and their volleyball season. Well we played in the first week, and then didn’t play weeks 2-5, and now it’s week 6 and we are scheduled for games on both Monday and Wednesday. Something happened with the list of teams and since there was a weird number, certain teams couldn’t play every week, but for some reason we weren’t scheduled at all so they are trying to make up for it now. After our next two games the playoffs begin. Woohoo.

I mentioned last week about going to Halloween Horror Nights with some friends. We ended up going on a Thursday and we had a blast. My friend John and I took our girlfriends and it was so funny to watch them get scared every 10 feet. They have people dressed in all sorts of costumes jumping out at you and trying to scare you. Every now and then they would try to scare me or John, but 95% of the time they tried to scare the girls, and 95% of the time they succeeded! We went through a couple different haunted houses and saw a couple of shows. Overall it was fun to walk around and see these creepy looking goblins chasing after screaming girls. I plan on going next year as well!

I’d like to say sorry to all you Cleveland fans and congratulations to all you Boston fans. I’m not a major fan of baseball but, eh, I try.

Well, once again I have managed to survive one of Daytona’s world-renowned activities . . . I, of course, am talking about Biketoberfest! For those of you who don’t know about Biketoberfest, please learn more about it here: http://www.biketoberfest.org/ Well last year I did go down to Main Street and check out the bikes, but this year I decided to stay far away from all the festivities. I think I’ll wait until March when Bike Week rolls around. That’s the good thing about living in an apartment. I live in Port Orange (just south of Daytona) so I’m still 5 minutes from school but I manage to dodge all the heavy traffic of bikes. If I choose to, though, I can take a quick drive and immerse myself in the culture!

Well, I usually don’t watch too much TV (except Family Guy, the Simpsons, and Southpark) but there is a relatively new show on CBS called Kid Nation. In a nutshell, it is a show that puts 40 kids, ages 8-15, in a small town with no “grown-ups” and they are expected to . . . survive I guess. If you haven’t seen the show yet, I recommend watching at least one episode just to see it for yourself. You can watch past episodes on-line here: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/kid_nation/ Just watch one episode and tell me what you think: Anger? Sadness? Laughter? Maybe all of these combined?

I know last journal I talked about The Heartbreak Kid staring Ben Stiller, but this past week I saw a movie with George Clooney titled Michael Clayton. I have to admit, I am a fan of George in just about anything, but this movie was something else. I don’t think there was one aspect of it that I didn’t like. It was well written, all the actors were very convincing and I never saw the ending coming. I will definitely be buying this when it comes out on DVD.

Well I think that will end it for this journal. Sorry to be plugging so many things. I swear that my intent for writing these journals was to give you a look into a sophomore’s life at Embry-Riddle and not to advertise movies and TV shows. Oh well, you should check ’em out anyway. I hope you all are doing well and stay tuned for the next journal when I advertise other TV shows and movies! It should be fun! As always, any ?s feel free to e-mail me anytime! See ya!

-Blake

email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com

pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/

videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles

Hi all my Journal readers! Just to let you know, it’s okay to email me and ask questions about whatever you’d like. I got my first email response from a reader who was concerned about my physical fitness after the whole kickboxing incident. It was great! It’s nice to know someone’s reading, other than my friends and mom. lol

These past two weeks have been great! …. and then not so great. I’ve had my share of tests and quizzes but got to see the coolest thing ever! On the 10th, there was a rocket launch and we got to see it….from the engineering building! How cool is that? Actually being able to see the rocket launch from campus! It started out as this tiny speck of orange light in the distance that blended in with the lamposts and turns into this quickly rising blob of orange light that you could see for almost 5 minutes. It was amazing, I’ve never been that close to a rocket launch. On the 23rd (tomorrow!) space shuttle Discovery is set to launch at 11:38AM and I’m going to be there!! A bunch of us are heading down there because it works out so well between classes to have just enough time. I’m so excited. I’ll be sure to take pictures so everyone can see!

The night of the rocket launch, there was a show put on by Mike Super, an illusionist. He was so cool; it was great. He made a girl levitate, a guy be affected by voodoo magic and did some cool card tricks too. I’ve taken pictures and posted them on my site. As engineers, we couldn’t accept levitation and “magic” as reality and throughout the show, we kept pointing out the quirks in his tricks that made them work and we figured out a majority of them too, just by being attentive. That too was a lot of fun.

Every week here passes fairly quickly, every test and quiz springs up on you if you’re not ready, so when you get here, start working day one, or it’ll be much harder to catch up. In some ways, college is easier for me than high school and in some ways, it’s much harder. Here, especially being away from home, causes so many more distractions. We could go out to lunch at the buffet downstairs and take two hours just eating and talking. I’ve learned to control that over the past two weeks and make sure I stay a max of 45 minutes, less if I have to get work done. It’s also not a wise idea to cram before a test because a lot more material is covered in one test. For example, in my physics course last year, we spent at least a month on Newton’s Laws and forces. Here, we’re done with the section in about two weeks and keep moving because the test doesn’t span just one chapter, it spans four. College, I’ve learned, is all about balancing your social life with your academics, while keeping in mind that you’re not here for the social as much as you are for the academics, especially at Embry-Riddle, a school with a far from partying atmosphere. I’m not saying we don’t have fun, there are people who like to party, play board games all night and those who like to watch movies late at night.

Last weekend, my dad came to visit! He was in North Carolina for business and flew in to Daytona before going back home to Jersey! It was great seeing a really familiar face again, because there’s no one more familiar than your parents. When he came last Friday night he took a bunch of my friends and me out to dinner. Nine of us crammed into a five-person sedan and piled out at an Italian restaurant, it was a sight to see. Dad was pretty impressed by my friends, yay. After dinner, I went back to my dorm to sleep so Dad and I could go shopping in the morning. We basically spent the day from 9-4 shopping, eating lunch and fixing some things in my dorm. We bought another full-size mirror (the first one broke :x) and dad fixed it in a way that it would be impossible for it to tip over, which is definitely a good thing. He left Saturday evening after a trip to Starbucks! I bought a new watch that weekend, because my old one was so rusted on the inside from the terrible rain a few weeks ago, that the battery practically exploded, it was gross.

This past week went by really quickly too. We were assigned a new project in my Intro to Engineering class and this one is to design a launch system mount. We learned about orbital heights and velocity first, then designed a satellite, are now designing the mounting system and rocket to put it in orbit and then going to design the plane that will transport the satellite in the near future. Exciting stuff isn’t it?

This weekend is Biketoberfest! Oh my, it’s scary outside. You can hear the bikers “vroom”-ing their bikes and there’s so many of them, too!  They’re everywhere, making a lot of noise. I heard bike-week in March is ten times worse than this and I’m not looking forward to that, I’m scared already. Speaking of scared, Halloween is coming up soon and I’m not excited. I don’t like Halloween, especially now because we can’t go trick or treating and eat a lot of candy.

My opposite door neighbor and a few of his friends were going to a Garba in Tampa on Saturday and tried so hard to convince me to go too. But…not only did I not have Indian clothes with me, but Tampa is two hours away and we wouldn’t be back before 5 in the morning. For those of you that don’t know, Garba is an Indian dance that comes around this time of the year and lasts a few weeks. It’s usually a lot of fun, but the ones back home are only 5 minutes away. That night I got some work done and watched a movie with some friends, it’s was low-key, I’d say.

Alex and I rearranged our room like crazy to make a big open space in the middle. I put pictures on my website. There’s plans to buy a mini trampoline ($15 on e-bay), to put in the open space, so we can workout and jump on it to let out frustration and have fun. I’ll let you know how that works out.

My plans for today include studying for my physics exam next week, writing a paper and completing my part in that Launch mount system project I mentioned earlier. Sounds like it’s going to be a long night.

P.S – I’ve added new pic’s on my website. Some of the rocket launch, the Mike Super show, our newly rearranged room and, when I get them, pictures of the shuttle launch.

Until next time!

Spree!

Hello Everyone,
Well, I must say that I have appreciated all of your compliments through email and AIM, you guys make it worth my time to write and I thank you all for reading my blogs. SO ANYWAYS, this month has been so awesome in so many ways. It has been going by so fast, I can’t believe we are already past midterms and that we are now in the second half of our first semester. I have done so much and I have gone through so much in such little time. I have grown as a person, through leaving my family, starting this school, meting new friends, and just being involved on campus. It’s been such a great experience. So there is my little preach before I tell you about all my excitement this month.

I’ll start with school first. School has been getting intensely difficult, it’s been highly stressful, but all at the same time I feel like I’m actually being challenged and I love it. I have not been doing good in my Business class, just for the simple fact that I don’t care about that class. That’s really bad to say, and I hope it doesn’t happen to any of you, but I just don’t understand what the teacher says half of the time, I don’t understand the class, it’s so early in the morning, and I really believe that it’s just not my strong suit. I really am enjoying all of my classes though. I will tell you all one thing though, this school is not for slackers, if you think you can get by like you did in high school and not do homework, and study maybe for an hour before an exam, then you are sadly mistaken. My example, I studied for 8 hours for my exam and I only made a 73 on it. This is not cake work and you’re not just going to skim by on going to class and getting extra credit. This is YOUR future and you’re going to have to work for it. In this industry, they don’t hire you by if you went to class or if you did extra credit to raise your GPA, you’re judged on everything you do. Please, keep that in the back of your mind!

So onto some fun things that I have done – Kennedy Space Center: This was by far one of the greatest things that I have done. I absolutely loved it there. We got to see the Space Shuttle Discovery on the launch pad getting ready for its launch, and we got to see the part of the International Space Station that is going up in a month and a half. The history behind space flight was just so intriguing and to see how far space flight has come was just amazing. We got to go on the new Shuttle Launch Experience, and that was just the craziest thing ever, it was so much fun. If you go onto my blog site, you will see pictures from the trip and I hope you all enjoy them.

Some other things that I have done recently – I went to Universal Studios for my first time ever for Halloween Horror Nights. That was so much fun, too. We did The Mummy ride, Earthquake, Men In Black, and a Haunted House. It was just for a few hours so we actually go to do a lot more then we thought, and it was A LOT of fun!!! This trip was with ERRSA, and I have to say that ERRSA has been the best thing that has happened to me since I have been at ERAU. The President of ERRSA has become someone that I can look up to as a mentor and that in the little time that I have known her, I could trust her with my life. She really is an inspiration to everyone who meets her, and she has given me so much already that I can’t wait to see what else she can teach me, and where she can lead me. Some of the greatest people run ERRSA, Puga (VP) Dave  (Treasurer) CJ (PCC) Erik (Riddle Vision Coordinator) Pulkeshin (CCC) and Dustin (NCC) they are some amazing people and I have also grown to respect them and I am now close with a lot of them. I hope that they will become some of my closest friends. I really don’t know what I would do without this organization. I plan to run for the Governor of my Residence Hall and, by doing that, I hope I can gain leadership skills and learn Parliamentary Procedures in order to pursue my interest in ERRSA to an executive board level, so that everything I learn from the Executive Board this year, I can carry with me and do them proud my keeping all they have done alive and keep the organization as strong as they have made it.

So my final piece of news is about me! I am auditioning for the Talent Show. I am auditioning with the AcaFellas and we are going to sing Happy Days (since our homecoming theme is Primetime TV) and I am also auditioning with my friend Kelly to sing All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera, so wish me luck!
Hope all is well with everyone, and keep all your hopes alive, because the dreams that you wish, will come true! (mine have)

Until Next Time,

Joe Jaworski

Hello!  These past two weeks have once again been packed full of adventures and I am excited to tell you all about them.  First of all, I did get back my AFOQT scores and I am happy to report that I passed even without the calculator!  Next, the Student Center is going to be renovated over the summer so next year we will have a Chick-fil-A and a smoothie place.  I am pretty excited about this because although the food is good, you do get tired of it.

On October 9th, I went to an event called Tuesday’s Treasure sponsored by the Women’s Center and The Office of Diversity Initiatives.  Every month they bring in different women to talk about what they do and their experiences.  This month was Mrs. Arleen Smith who is the Assistant to the Director of Aviation—Coordinator of Airport Security at Daytona Beach International Airport.  I decided to go because I enjoy learning about airports and one day I hope to be an airport manager.  Her talk was really informative and I learned some interesting facts about the Daytona Beach Airport.  Also, on Friday of that week I went to another women’s event—Chat-and-Craft for Charity.  We made Thanksgiving table decorations for the local children’s home and we had snacks, got to know one another, and watched a movie.  These programs are a really great way to meet other women here on campus!

Recently, the ROTC programs here at Riddle competed against one another for the Commander’s Cup.  Army, Air Force, and Navy compete against each other in a run, pull-ups, tug-of-war, and other categories.  I know for sure that the Air Force won the run and the tug-of-war categories.  One of the other categories was school spirit and we cheered the women’s soccer team to victory.  The Navy had won the Commander’s Cup last time, but the Air Force won the trophy back.  I had a fun time just cheering everyone on!

PT has involved a lot of running because we are getting ready for the physical fitness test which will be this coming Wednesday.  I have never really enjoyed running, but as time goes on I find myself not disliking it as much.  Maybe by the end of the school year I will be able to say I like running or better yet, that I love running.  One morning we all met at the beach and ran about three miles.  When we got there it was so dark that you couldn’t even see the water but by the end of the run the sun was up and shining.  I liked running on the beach because it was nice to have a change from running in circles on the track.  Soon, I think we get to go running on the racetrack at Daytona Speedway and that will be exciting.

As part of Silver Wings, I went to the Star Shelter this past Saturday.  Our job was to hang out with the kids for a couple hours and we decided to color with them.  Several of the kids were really creative and made Halloween masks or pictures to decorate their rooms.  I had fun helping a little girl glue streamers onto a paper crown.  A Silver Wings member helped a little boy make a Frankenstein mask and a paper hammer.  The boy had so much fun chasing people around and scaring them.  We are planning on going back to the shelter and building a gingerbread house with the kids for a local contest.

My classes are going well and I have been able to get all the projects done.  Each class has one big project that you have to complete either by yourself or in a group.  For example, in my Management class we have a group paper where we have to analyze a company following the outline the professor gave us.  My group chose to do Walt Disney Corporation and we had to have half of it completed by last week.  For my Macroeconomics class I had to do a paper and presentation and in my Honors class I have to do a presentation and numerous papers.  The only class I have without any projects is my math class.  If you don’t have PowerPoint on your computer when you come here, make sure you go to the library and get it installed because you will definitely use it.  The library has all kinds of computer programs you can check out and install on your computer for free.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Biketoberfest!  For all of you who don’t know, Biketoberfest is like a mini bike week because it only lasts for four days and there aren’t as many bikers.  I have seen some pretty cool bikes, but I definitely won’t be walking anywhere off campus until it is over because the traffic is crazy!  Registration begins on Monday so in my next entry I will be sure to tell you how it went.

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

Well hello to everyone!!! Hope your day is going favorably and that you are enjoying the wonderful World Wide Web! That’s what the www stands for in the internet tool bar up there ^. Anyway, I’m enjoying life down here in wonderful Daytona Beach. I would like to tell you about all the fun things that I have done this past two weeks, but to be honest, I haven’t really done anything exciting. BUT, I do have some fun things planned! So I’ll tell you about those things instead of what I have done. But first . . . classes . . .

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – So far so good . . . I got a 90 on the first test that we took, which isn’t too bad. I still think 8:15 classes are pretty early, but I’m glad that I’m getting out of bed and being active. As much as I enjoy just sitting and doing nothing, it’s good to get up and feel productive. Otherwise the class is going good. We’re learning about some turbulence and then some thunderstorms, so it should be interesting.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – So this class is my hardest class this semester, partly because I don’t enjoy writing. We finished our first project and when we turned it in, my professor immediately assigned the next project. And half way through that project he assigned our third project! So I have been doing a lot of writing and so far I have made Bs on my papers. My professor says average work gets a C, good work gets a B, and excellent work gets an A, so I’m surprised that I got a B. But I’m still pushin for an A, so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – My professor once again lightens up the class and generates a good mood from all my classmates. We’re starting to learn the specifics regarding all the technical aspects of instrument flying. We are going over departure procedures, arrival procedures, holding patterns, and tracking navigational aides. All in all it’s pretty exciting learning about all these procedures that thousands of airline pilots use on a daily basis!

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – We took our second test and I got a 94, so I’m pretty happy about that. This class is sometimes a bit dull (because a lot of the information overlaps with my other classes) but my professor does a good job of lightening up the atmosphere. We were just learning about aircraft recognition and what distinguishes similar looking aircraft. We talked about an airplane called a Cessna Skymaster and our professor told us a pretty funny story. When he was a controller he saw an airplane coming in that was far away, but he thought it looked like a Cessna Skymaster so he talked to the pilot and asked him, but the pilot wasn’t in a Cessna Skymaster and he didn’t know what a Skymaster was either. So he asked: “Cessna 213 are you a Skymaster?” And then there was a long pause then the pilot responded: “No, I’m a student pilot.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I don’t know if you’re laughing, but I am!

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – My instrument rating is coming along nicely, but it gets tricky at times. I thought there was a lot going when I was a private pilot, but it gets a lot busier when you go for your instrument. There is a thousand things going on at once and it gets pretty stressful. That’s why I’m glad I have my instructor with me because this is a walk in the park for him. I can’t wait until I get to that level and I don’t have panic attacks! My instructor and I are getting along well and we are always laughing and having fun. This week I will be flying some holding patterns which should be fun. I just have to remember how to enter the pattern, which direction to go, and for how long and I’ll be fine!

So my classes and flying are going along nicely. Other than that, it has been an uneventful two weeks. I have been working a lot to get some money, which doesn’t grow on trees as I just found out. But other than work and school, there’s not a whole lot goin’ on. I would tell you about the success of my intramural volleyball team cleverly titled the “BAMFs” but unfortunately we haven’t played in three weeks. Not sure what’s happening with that, but apparently they just haven’t scheduled us for games so we haven’t got the chance to play. Oh well, it would have been unfair if we got to play because no other teams would even have a chance! (Sarcasm)

So now I’ll talk about the future instead of the past. Coming up on this Thursday I will be attending Halloween Horror Nights which is at Universal Studios in Orlando. It’s basically a big scare fest with creepy goblins and ghosts that walk around scaring people. I’ve been in the past and had a great time so I’m looking forward to it this year. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it next journal. If you want, you can check it out here http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando/index.html

Ohh! Switch back to the past. I saw the movie Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller and I thought it was pretty funny. It’s definitely an “adult” movie, but I haven’t seen a movie where I laughed that hard in a while. Okay, back to the future.

So coming up in November I am going with some friends to a comedy show in Orlando. It’s in an arena that holds 17,000 people, there’s only one comedian, and his name is . . . well I just had it. I keep forgetting . . . Let me just flip through my calendar . . . Oh yes! That’s his name. You might have heard of him before, but I doubt it . . . his name sounds like Cane Dook. Yes, its DANE COOK!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry for the stupid lead up, I knew who it was the whole time) So Mr. DC is a hero of mine (despite his recent movies) and I have seen him live twice in my life and now I am going to make it a 3rd time. He is going on a 25 city tour (Rough Around the Edges Tour) that starts in November and goes to mid-December. I suggest that if you are a fan of Mr. Cook that you go to his website (DaneCook.com) and buy tickets immediately! Or if you aren’t a fan, don’t go because that wouldn’t be a smart thing to do really. He’s coming to Orlando on November 14th and I am psyched! I will definitely be counting the days off until he arrives. So be sure to stay tuned to my journal because I will definitely be writing about that and posting some pictures on the website.

Well, I guess that’s about it. I’ll try to have a more exciting week or two so I have something to write about. Maybe I’ll win the lottery or get chosen to represent America in an egg throwing contest! (Kind of random, I apologize). Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and I will be back in no time. Ah, and don’t forget to check out some videos and pictures that I have posted, and not to mention the other student journals. I was reading them, they got some good stuff! Until next time!

-Blake

email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com

pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/

videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles

Hey Everyone,
Hope you are all doing okay! If you have been following my blog posts you will know that I have been “On Trial” for the Acafellas and I just wanted to let you all know that I have officially made it. I must say that this group is amazing, they are the funniest yet nicest guys in the world and it’s such an honor to be a part of them now.

So I’m now in my new Residence Hall in Adams Hall. It is a Freshman Residence Hall but it is actually really nice. It’s fairly spacious and it is right in the Student Village. The Village is a large building with 4 Halls in it. There is O’Conner, Adams, Wood, and Stimpson, along with Einsteins Bagels and The Buffet! This is also where the ERRSA office is located and the Housing office!

So for the Acafellas, we were able to sing the National Anthem at the Heart Walk and it went really well, we all did really good and it was near perfect! Otherwise, it has just been crazy as usual, lots and lots of Homework, lots of tests, lots of studying, and NO TIME!! Trust me when I say that your semester will FLY by (no pun intended) but I think it is a good thing. Whenever I get free time, I tend to find myself thinking about and missing home which is never a good thing, because then I get depressed and just don’t feel like doing anything. It is good to keep yourself busy, maybe not with as much stuff as I do, but it really is a good idea to be involved. You should never be bored on campus, and I know I have said that in my previous blogs but it is sooooooo true.

Classes:
AT302— Air Traffic class is going well, we took our first test and it was fairly difficult but all the same we are really getting into very interesting things, such as sectional maps, special ops, airspace, and all that fun stuff!!! I actually look forward to this class, despite the fact that I have it at 8 in the morning!!!

MA006— Math is soo much fun, the teacher is great, the class is easy, it’s just an all together good class! I believe I have an 87 in the class currently which is fairly good due to the fact that she is a very hard grader. I know I said the class was easy, but she doesn’t believe in partial credit, which means if you forget a negative sign it’s totally wrong. I don’t really believe in that type of grading but whatever floats her boat!!!

PSY101— Psychology is a great class. There is really not much to say about it, but its very interesting and it’s an easy “A”

BA201– NOT SO MUCH!!! Not a fan of this class AT ALL… it’s really boring and it’s an 8 am class! The class is a bunch of following Powerpoints and class work that is irrelevant to anything that we are learning. I try to get interested in it, but it really is just a boring topic to me. (BA201= Business Administration)

WX201– Meteorology is a hot/cold type class! I Love the topic and I love to learn about weather, but we aren’t really learning about…. well weather…. I mean we are but we aren’t. It’s the basics of weather, so we aren’t into anything substantial yet, it’s a lot of Air Particles, Air Pressure, conversions, and BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! It’s a really fun class to be in but it’s actually really HARD. The average score on the first test was a 68, just to give you a visual on how hard it really is!

So that’s about all for now, If you look at my pictures there are pictures posted of the First Acafellas performance of the National Anthem and such. I hope all is well at school for all of you, I hope you are all doing good, and as always, never hesitate to contact me for ANYTHING!!!

Until Next Time!

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

Hi everyone!

The journals were finally posted this week, yay!

These past two weeks have been chill. I’ve been working harder than I think I ever have in high school but also have more time to do everything. I’ve officially joined the clubs I want to and here’s the final list… Task Force One, the Society of Women Engineers and the Honors Student Association. All three together offer me a good balance between some leadership, fun, academics, and career opportunities. Both TFO and SWE are planning a homecoming float, the theme this year is something from a TV show. I’ve never been to a homecoming, or seen a homecoming parade (other than on TV) because I went to a small school, where our pep rally’s lasted all of 30 minutes (it’s okay though, we loved it). Homecomings during the end of November, so I’m excited!

I finally booked my ticket to Jersey for Thanksgiving! Yayy, I’m excited to have a break and see some extra familiar faces, like my parents for example!

Last weekend, a bunch of us saw the movie, ‘The Gameplan’. It was pretty good. Later that day, we walked outside and could barely stand up straight because the wind was blowing so furiously. I held on to my friend, hoping that both she and I together won’t fly away; it was crazy. The best part was that the wind wasn’t cold. If it ever gets windy in New Jersey, you’ll feel your nose stuff up and turn into an icicle. Here, it was windy as anything, but you didn’t even need a jacket to survive it. This past weekend, I went bowling with the Society of Women Engineers and had fun. By the end of the night, it felt like my fingers were going to fall off but I didn’t come in last in a few of the games. Yay!

I realized I never mention anything about my classes and I should, because they’re cool this semester and you’ll definitely want to know which teachers to take to make sure your freshman year isn’t harder than it has to be.

Here’s a list of what I take:

EGR 101-Honors Intro to Engineering w/Mrs.Lisa Davids

–          This is one my favorite classes. We always do extensive projects and the people in my class make it so much better too.

EGR 120 Graphical Communication w/Ms. Elaine Weavel

–          This class is a drafting class. We use Catia here and it’s similar to AutoCAD, if you’ve used that before. Drawing by hand is a bit challenging for me, but on the computer, I love it!

HON 150 Honors Seminar w/Dr. Barbie

–          You won’t be able to take this class unless you’re an Honors student but it’s awesome! It’s a class about analyzing different forms of rhetoric, oratorical, media and print. It’s great.

MA 241 Calc 1 w/Dr. Mancas

–          This professor is great. He makes sure you understand everything and will do absolutely everything he can to make sure you get the grade you deserve (and want).

PS 150 Physics w/Dr.Barjatya

–          This class is possibly my most challenging class, only because we go at a really quick pace. The professor is new, but I like the class because it keeps me on my toes at all times.

That’s all the classes I’m taking my first semester. It’s a total of 15 credits. FYI, if you can (as I did), ask to see if you can get out of University 101. It’s a one credit course that meets twice a week and can be not worth all the effort, or so I’ve heard. I’ve gotten my first paper this past week and it’s for the Honors Seminar. It’s a rhetorical analysis of any historical speech I want to do and I’ve chosen to analyze the President’s address to the nation on 9/11. It should be interesting; it’s one heck of a speech.

Jill Meridith, who makes these handy journals available to you, gave me awesome news the other day. She asked me to be the student representative speaker during the prospective student orientation! I get to get up on stage, introduce myself, tell everyone something about myself, and then am available for the rest of the day for questions etc. The orientation is on Oct. 27, if you’re attending, be sure to look out for me and wave hi. You are also always welcome to ask any questions you may and expect an honest answer. I’m really excited; it should be a lot of fun.

These next two weeks should be fairly normal. Dad might come visit next weekend, so that should be cool. The 22nd, is the first day of Priority Registration for the Spring Semester, so I’m hoping to have an outline of all the classes I want to take that semester by that weekend at the very least.

That’s all guys. I’m ready to open my calc book up and get my homework done, still aware of the fact that it’s a Saturday night. Btw, don’t forget to watch Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights, the new season so far is awesome.

Until next time,

Spree!

Email:shankars@erau.edu