Hey Readers,

It has been such a long while, and I apologize, so many things have buried me in Microsoft Word and Excel, I have been tons of places around campus, and I have been working on things for my residents. The upside to this is, you now get to read about all the things that I have done!

I’m going to categorized this and then sort it in chronological order, so you’ll be going back to three weeks ago after you read about something that happened yesterday, so also forgive me for that.

Student Government has been absolutely amazing the past few weeks. Representing the College of Business is a really tough job, but compared to the representatives of the other colleges, I know most of the people I represent and I am beginning to see the effects on them personally. During the week of Homecoming, (October 23-28) big things were happening with the COB. First and foremost, the administration hosted a huge groundbreaking ceremony for the new academic building that will house the College of Business. It will be a two floor complex, having lots of space for the offices of all my professors, who are now spread around what we call alphabet soup, but more officially know as the Lindbergh Academic Complex. It is a bunch of buildings with letters as their names, hence the soup analogy. Anyways, the new building is coming along well; the foundation is pretty much starting to be laid. I will keep you updated, and when there is something to take a picture of, you will be the first to see it.

The College of Business Industry Advisory Board was also around during the week of homecoming, the highlight of which was a panel discussion in which 90 students attended. They offered great insight on where the industry is headed, if companies are hiring and how the growing economy is benefiting the aerospace industry. I also got to spend some time with them at a dinner for them, the staff, COB administration and selected students at Daytona USA. It was an amazing experience, getting to know them and building contacts with all of them.

More recently, along with my partner in crime (fellow COB rep) Evan, we hosted the fall COB social, a lunch for all the students in the COB, to get out and meet the professors, and for business focused clubs to show off. We got about 54 students to show up, a huge accomplishment! Free food drew them out, but the social was so successful and the spring social should be even bigger.

Moving on to my 24/7 position, residence life is going great. I have really gotten to know my residents over the past couple weeks, and we’ve been having fun and getting through this semester. We have been doing lots of things, such as decorating the hall, going to events on campus. Just this past Sunday, I hosted an early Thanksgiving pizza dinner, in which to get a slice of pizza you had to say what you were thankful for. I heard a plethora of responses, from being thankful for Pizza, to being thankful for a fiance, and even thankful for such a great RA. As much I appreciated that, I still have Health and Safety Inspections this week. (Some of my residents read this consider yourself informed).

A really fun thing I did during Homecoming was being a student host for Open House. I hope some of you made it down here for it, because from what I saw and heard, some great information was given out and people were drawn to the school. Of course, I had my speech, and of course I blundered when I left out a crucial word. Please if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to stop me. (Kinda left out the hesitate part) It was really fun though giving tours and answering questions and I got to be on a COB student panel.

Classes are wrapping up and I’m doing really well! I have been really happy about the classes I chose, most especially Corporate Finance. It is such a cool thing to learn how to value stocks and bonds, and what everything on Wall Street actually means. I got a 97 on my most recent test, which surprised me, but a group study session the day before really helped me and everyone in the group. Decision Math, my last ever math class is really cool. It is the reason I have been buried in Excel forever. Figuring multiple linear regressions by hand isn’t really my idea of a good time. Excel handles it for you, but you still have to enter tons of data, and run the programs, and then my very excited professor makes you interpret all the output and formulate tests to see if the things Excel gave you are useful.

Thanksgiving approaches and that means there are lots of things coming up. This weekend, I will be attending my second Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida Student Alliance (ICUF SA) Conference. It is composed of most of the student governments of the private colleges and universities in Florida. It takes place in Orlando, and should be really beneficial for everyone involved. I will get you update in my next entry.

The next thing after that is I will begin announcing the ERAU Hockey Team’s home games. This is a work in process and the first game I do will be after Thanksgiving, so excitement is building for it.

Ok so finish your college apps, and hope to see you all soon. Don’t HESITATE to Email me at Carlos.Williams@erau.edu, and I will respond to you ASAP.

Aim High,
Carlos

Well, last weekend I went to the military ball with a friend of mine. It was an interesting experience and if you ever get the chance to go, I suggest you do it.

This past weekend I went home again. I’m not sure if I’ve already delved a bit into my nostalgia, but here it goes again: One of the best things about going to school far away is how wonderful it is when you go home. Home is always there and it might be changing a little while you are gone, and the people are still living their lives without you there, but it’s there for you. Home doesn’t discriminate- it always welcomes you back, regardless of your grades, or how many friends you’ve made, or the decisions you make at school.

In case you haven’t guessed- I really enjoyed being home. It had been two months, and some people might say “so what – I don’t get to go home until Christmas”, but I don’t know, I like going home as often as I can. Moving away from the sappy stuff.

A lot has happened to my home since I last visited. I live in the sticks (country yeehaw) and the land behind my house is starting to be developed (BOO!!!). My mom did some landscaping, my dad closed down his pool for the season, all the leaves were red and orange and it was nice to see fall, a definite change from Daytona’s eternal summer, my brother grew a beard, and my dog gained some weight. A close friend of mine also gained some weight, but that is due to her pregnancy. I was very glad to see her looking healthy and with a big round belly. Her son is due in December.

I wasn’t ready to leave Virginia this time. When I go home, I sometimes don’t really feel like I’m home because I spend so much time running around, trying to see people that are important to me. So, I didn’t really have much time to relax. Fortunately, I get to go back in a week and a half for the Thanksgiving break, and I’ll get to take my time seeing friends and family and eating as much turkey as I can handle.

Which will be a lot.

School’s being going well. I had a speech and presentation due, which went well, I think. I believe this is the quiet before the storm. Finals are approaching FAST, and I have a feeling I might be more bogged down as they get closer. DUN DUN DUN!!!

Email me if you need anything at rumbebb5@erau.edu or post your questions to the ERAU discussion board.

Woohoo! The end is in sight!

Welcome Back To Riddle Folks! The end of the semester is fast approaching and it shows in every person on campus. Everybody is looking forward to Thanksgiving and their chances to go home for the holidays. However, it is a sad time for some students including myself. I will not be able to attend Thanksgiving back in California with my family. Unfortunately, the round-trip ticket to get home and back would have cost about $700. Don’t get me wrong. I love my family and they love me, but not that much. On a serious note though, I will miss my family this season and I look forward to getting to see them over Winter Break. But have no fear my online journal friends, 2,600 miles and $700 is not going to completely ruin my Holiday. There are many other students staying on campus including my totally awesome friend from Bulgaria, Boris. It will be his first Thanksgiving and we plan to show him all the traditions. We will also probably spend time hanging out around town and playing video games because video games rock! After Thanksgiving, our sights will be set on Winter Break, which I am very stoked about. Why? Because winter means snow and snow means snowboarding. That’s enough of that for now because it is making me wish I were back on the slopes already.

On to current events, I was moved off of Wood Hall this past week. I am officially a resident of Adams Hall 3rd Floor now. To be completely honest with you, I am split about how this situation was handled. For those of you who don’t know yet, many of the rooms on Adams and Wood Halls were tripled at the beginning of the semester. Throughout the semester the Department of Housing and Residence Life has been “de-tripling” the rooms and moving students around. I personally do not agree with breaking students away from their halls and the relationships they have built because it breaks up the social fabric for that student. However, I understand that they are trying to give each student what they paid for and that includes a room with only two residents occupying it. The other fact is that the policy states that whichever student turned in their paperwork last would be moved. So, I understand the situation and it teaches me to get my paperwork in order sooner next time. It was an unfortunate situation but I feel I am adapting well. I spend a lot of my time back on Wood Hall 5th Floor still because that is where all my friends are. I will admit that I do enjoy having more space in my new room to store all my stuff. I do not feel as cramped anymore and I am sure that this whole situation will work out for the best.

As far as the past two weeks are concerned, not too much has been happening. ERRSA just finished Residence Hall Week where we planned a weeks worth of events for the students. We have gone out and about around the city on the weekends. I have been looking into off-campus housing for next Fall. On-campus housing is not that bad, I am just used to having my own room and being able to do what I want, when I want. Hence, next year I will be living off-campus.

I also have been preparing to register for my classes for the Spring Semester. This is actually a very exciting time because I really feel like I am starting to get away from the general education part of college and into the meat and potatoes of aerospace engineering. My planned courses for next semester are Technical Report Writing, Advanced Engineering Mathematics I, Aerodynamics, Thermodynamics, Solid Mechanics, and Space Mechanics. Picking which courses to take is the easy part. Now I just have to find a schedule that is not too taxing on my health (by that I mean 8am classes) and with highly recommended professors. I will let you know how that all goes next journal entry.

Oh, and a side note. You should see The Prestige. That movie is freaking awesome. If you like movies that make you think, that movie is for you. I liked it so much, I am now reading the novel it is based on.

That’s all for now. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving Holiday. My next journal entry will be delivered right after the Holiday. Enjoy your family and make sure you take the time to acknowledge all the wonderful people and advantages you have in your lives. Never take your loved ones for granted and make the best of every thing and second you have.

Make sure to check back for my next entry. Same Bat Time! Same Bat Channel!

Hola, mundo! (that’s Spanish for “hello, world!”..I think)

Wow, I feel as if I haven’t written one of these journals in such a long time..reason being these last two weeks have taken a long time to pass by, which is very weird. Well, let’s see..my life within the last 2 weeks.

Ok, so the first of the two weeks was EXTREMELY tiring and busy! I had 2 exams (one for basic aeronautics class and another for physics) and a huge project is due soon for my business management class. Also, we had rehearsals every night that week for the play the following week. That entire week was such a blur. I had SO much homework for every class and tests for most of them; I didn’t find any time to even breathe. Together with flight, I have been getting less than 6 hours of sleep every night, so I am really exhausted sometimes during the day..but I manage! Like I said, and will continue to believe in, is that friends will always help you through hard times..so, I thank all of my friends for being there for me these past 2 weeks!

This last week got a little bit calmer since some workload was off. Projects and exams were still on, but there was less homework and stuff. Oh, and on top of all of that, the play finally commenced. Opening night was Wednesday the 8th, and it was a huge success!..A lot of my friends and other students came and enjoyed it so much, that they returned for the Friday AND Saturday nights’ shows. All those hours of rehearsal and stage set-up paid off well. However, we still have this week’s wed., fri. and sat. shows to do and it’ll all be over. I must admit despite all the pressure and occasional arguments with the other members of the club, I had a wonderful time in Riddle Players; made lots of new friends and enjoyed doing something I loved.

So, the week was finally over and I got most, if not all, my school work out of the way by Saturday. So, my friends decided to take me out on Sunday to Orlando. They took me to Universal Studios and Downtown Disney! LOADS of fun! Again, THANKS GUYS! If it weren’t for you, I would be a mess!

So, basically that’s what’s been happening with me recently. Exams are still in progress and all of campus is busy studying, so it’s really kinda stressful these days. Things should settle down and get relaxing by the end of this week since Thanksgiving break is next week.

Oh, and I’m also excited because I will be heading back to Trinidad in about a month from now to see all my friends and family! Missing them SO much and I can’t wait to go see them! Love you guys!

Oh well, guess that’s about it..

It’s been fun to share my life with all of you.

Take care and remember, fly high with the eagles!

Quote of the week: “don’t forget..8 hours from bottle to throttle!”

Numero Cinco

If I had to sum up the past two weeks in one negative sentence it would be: I got into a car wreck and totaled my car, my fishes died, I fell off my longboard, and I only got to fly twice in the past week. If I had to sum up the same two weeks in one positive sentence it would be: I still can’t believe that I am really at Riddle having the time of my life! Although this past two weeks has been hectic, I still love it here. I’ll tell you what went down this past two weeks, but first (as usual) a class update:

Speech- I just got done preparing my final speech, which is actually a debate. I am in a group of 4 and we are debating on Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles. I don’t really know much about the UCAVs but I think that I’ll do alright. The debate is our final exam so hopefully I’ll do well.

Physics- Nothing new in this class. I have my 3rd exam coming up and then I have a final. I have an A in the class and I actually enjoy it. The teacher actually teaches, which is good because some teachers don’t actually teach. So I’m happy about that.

Business- Nothing really groundbreaking in here either. Classes are still short and my group has started working on our final which is a presentation that we have to give to our class. We are supposed to present what we have learned in the class and our group is going to try to do something along the lines of Office Space. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Basic Aeronautics- This is still one of my favorite classes because I enjoy what we are learning because I apply it when I fly. I am actually learning things that apply to what I want to do when I’m older. That is something that never happened in high school.

College Success- Good news: Only two more classes than it is done with. We have a class on Thursday and then next Tuesday and then it is over. I must admit, the class had its ups and downs, but overall I am pretty happy that it is done.

Meteorology- Once again . . . nothing really new in this class, but I am starting to work on my term paper. Everyone is required to write a 5-10 page term paper about a weather related subject, and I choose to do it on tornadoes. So come next journal, I will be able to blow your mind with various facts about tornadoes, so stay tuned for that.

Flight- Unfortunately I have only flown twice in the past 2 weeks which is somewhat below average. I am getting ready for my solo by reviewing everything that I have learned so far. It is pretty much all the basics that you learn first like stalls, traffic patterns, basic maneuvers, etc. One of the hardest things to do though is communicate with everyone around you. You have to talk to 10 different people in order to legally fly in Daytona, which is in Class C airspace. It can be stressful at times, but it is still pretty cool to be able to fly all around Central Florida a couple of times a week. I still am trying to grasp the concept of me flying a plane for a living because that sounds like a dream!

So, this past two weeks had its ups and downs and part of the down area is the fact that my car was totaled. A quick background to how it happened: I was driving down the road (imagine that!) and I was in the left lane of two lanes. Up ahead there was a traffic light where people were turning off of their road and onto my road, going in my direction. 3 or 4 cars were turning and right as I went through the traffic light one went from right lane into the left lane, which was my line. I locked my brakes up and honked my horn but I still slammed into him. My airbags didn’t explode out of the dash and I am fine. My car (a 2000 Nissan Maxima) really took all the damage. I was going about 35 when I hit him and my car just folded. So unfortunately my car is totaled, but I am 100% healthy which is a good thing. If you check my pictures album I will put up some before and after pictures of my first true love (sorry Rebecca).

Other than that, all my fishes have died. I started with 5 and just recently I was down to 2. I was cleaning my tank and I put my fish in a small cup. Well one of them jumped out and tried to commit suicide, but I quickly put him back in. So I covered the cup and cleaned the tank. When I was done I went back to see a small hole where the cover started to slide off. Sure enough the other fish managed to find that small hole and completed what the other fish tried to do earlier. I went from 5 to 2 and now I was at one. Well when I looked back in the cup to see the first fish, I saw that he was upside down. I am neither a fish expert nor a marine biologist, but fish don’t usually swim upside down. So I put him in the new tank and he was still upside down, so I banged on the tank and he started swimming around real rapidly like he just consumed all of the world’s coffee and ran right into the side of the tank and floated upside down. He didn’t really move anymore after that. So in one fell swoop, I lost the 2 closest things that I could call pets. So I had a mini ceremony and now I must move on. I can’t live in the past. I must accept the fate that has been chosen for those fishes Rockey and Morris.

On a slightly more positive note, I looked like an idiot in front of 20 or so people on the sidewalk last week. I got the bright idea to hop on my long board and have my friend pull me with his bike. Well everything was going fine until I was going a little fast and someone rapidly changed their course from out of my way to in my way. I snagged the bystander’s ankle and flew off my board to get a little bit of road rash. My legs and arms are healing, but my pride is wounded. I always get made fun of by my friends and my RA, but I guess I deserve it.

Other than that, I have been practicing this new thing called time management which is where you do stuff way before it’s due so you don’t have to do it at the last minute. It’s pretty cool because you feel real productive and your stress level goes way down. I recommend it to anyone who is up real late doing things that were assigned weeks ago and that have a high stress level. It really does feel nice to not wait until the last possible seconds to complete something. However, I have procrastinated all my life so once I started to manage my time more effectively, my brain freaked out. So to make up for it, I spent last weekend doing absolutely nothing, I mean nada, zip, zero. I was doing so well, but then I stopped working and now I am kind of regretting it. Oh well, I was doing good for a while. Hopefully I will start to manage my time a little better and get back into that habit that makes me feel so good.

Well hopefully in two weeks I will have some more positive stories that I can share with all you guys, but for now I must end this journal and do some other work. Maybe next time I’ll do a break down of what goes on hour by hour for a couple of days just to give you some insight on what a typical day looks like. I dunno, we’ll see what happens. I hope that everyone enjoys there time where they give thanks (or more commonly referred to as Thanksgiving) and I will do the same. See you later readers!!!!!!!

-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
aim: wasteofsoap

We had a sorority brunch today. We set up the whole room with decorations and we made the food for our bigs.

I also got ready to go to formal. I took my roommate with me as my date. It was at the Daytona Speedway. It was a nice time. Also some of the alumni came into town for this event. I had a great time. Afterwards we went to Mai Tai’s to meet Cheese’s friend.

This week we are entering Initiation week so I’ll be busy for the rest of the week. I am excited to officially become a sister. I have been working on a couple of projects for the sorority. I am also working on my Bigs present.

This week I have a test every day except for Thursday. I have to make sure I do well on all my classes and pass all my tests. I went to the Doctor on Monday and on Tuesday. He gave me prescription which cost me $75 to fill. I have been looking at insurance companies, but I have no idea what to get. I have to see which one is going to accept me first.

I have been trying to go to work, but since I am sick, it’s been hard showing up. I hardly get sleep because I spent half the night coughing my lungs out. I feel like a slacker since I have been missing everything.

My professor accidentally put in the wrong grade on blackboard. So when I checked it, all I saw was that I failed it. I was so devastated because I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was just trying not to freak out and was trying to figure out how I had failed the test. I knew I hadn’t studied that much the night before because I had been working on getting some couches for the apartment. I also had gone to Matt’s apartment around midnight to study for the test. Finally, I decided to go talk to the Professor but checked my information once again and it said that I had actually passed the test. My week ended on a good note.

I also had a sleep over with my big (MC), my twin (Ashell) and my lil niece (Isadora). It was so much fun playing a joke on MC’s boyfriend.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now I’ll do a little class update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Blake