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| I'll miss you Frank...http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/13/boyle.obit.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories | | |
| Something random just because it's been so longI like the little footprints thingy Xanga gots. I figure I'll give the people that keep looking on here something new to read. That, and I haven't made a Xanga e-mail in a long time, so I'll write a little something.
Been a very shitty semester, but thankfully it's getting better. Some of you know the story, most don't, but oh well. Getting back to happy, or at least content. Went out drinking last night. Got entirely too hammered. When you're already drunk from beer (a mix of Bud Light, Sam Adams, and Guinness), don't accept the Cafe's Lemon Drops. I had two, and felt each one hit. Then proceeded to walk back to Washington Hall from the square. Had to walk back today to get my truck. LOL But I had a blast. A super, awesome, just plain fun last night. First time this semester. For fun, and for drinking. And I needed it. Other than the whole school thing, things are going pretty good. Got my niece's birthday party next weekend. That means a trip home and a purchase of something Dora related. I'm looking forward to it. It will be a nice, voluntary, stress-free weekend home. Well, maybe not totally stress-free, but I will keep certain people's time limits low. LOL The semester is almost over though, and I'm looking forward to break. Should be a fun-filled, lazy, video game month. I picked up a X-Box 360, so that should get a few hours put on it over break.  Well, nothing else really worth the pixels, so it's time for me to be off. Need to get some food. Enjoy everyone, and have a great week! | | |
| Faith restored in Geology field tripsI had an absolute blast this past weekend. Most of you know I had a geology field trip going on this weekend, and it turned out to be one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I have a hard time remembering what day we did a lot of stuff because it just doesn't seem like it was only 3 days.
I got up on Saturday morning, ate breakfast at Sunrise (of course I had to get some breakfast  ), then got to Tillman's parking lot about 8ish. We all piled into the 15 passengar van and took off. I was the only relief driver for Dr. Mayborn on this trip, which means I took over the keys and finageled my way into driving pretty much the entire weekend. I love to drive; even 15 passengar vans. We stopped somewhere south of St. Louis for lunch. Dr. Mayborn and I got McDonald's while Allie, Athena, Dana, and Nathan got Steak and Shake. I scarfed down my greaseball-burger while B.S.ing with Dr. Mayborn, and now it's a definate: I'll be doing a Petrology research project with him next year.  It'll be awesome. We finally made it down to the Fredericktown, MO, area and made our one and only geology stop for Saturday. We set up camp at the Silver Mines Campground in Mark Twain National Forest, then grabbed some food at Pizza Hutt. Dana and I luckily talked them into getting two large pizzas, as opposed to the one large and one medium. I think him and I put away a full large by ourselves. LOL We all enjoyed "blending in with the natives," and basically making fun of some of the locals. We had the hardcore smoker-teenie gang out front, along with the pregnant woman with the pack of Marlboro's that Dana saw. Our waitress also was our "goth" type representative for the town. She was pretty damn hot.  And I also did my best to get as many different songs stuck in Ali's head as possible while eating pizza. LOL We pretty much then went back to the campsite and crashed after a bit of campfire.
Stormed all night Saturday night, which made for some superb sleeping. I love thunderstormes, especially when I'm sleeping in a tent. Continued to rain a bit throughout the morning, but that didn't dampen our spirits (get it, huh huh, "dampen? Rain? Hehehehe.... LOL). Me and my old man self ended up being the alarm clock on the trip, as I was the earliest riser. So I got to wake up Dr. Mayborn all weekend. I saw the sunrise both Sunday and Monday mornings. In the woods. Sunday consisted of stop after stop of looking at outcrops, either along the side of the highway (if you can dodge a car, you can dodge a ball) or in other campgrounds or parks. The parks were gorgeous, and I think I may have to go camping again or visit them before Field Camp during my week off (anybody up for a camping trip?). We ate lunch and looked at rocks at Elephant Rocks State Park. Nathan got a few picturs of Dana and I "holding up" ginormous granite rocks. And I'm sure the three of us are now responsible for some little girls injury and her parent's subsequent animosity, as this little girl saw us climbing all over the place setting a great example, and continued to try to follow us when it really wasn't a good idea. When asking how she was supposed to get somewhere, irritation in the parent's voices very apparent, the little girl would end up quoting one of us on where to go. At one point, her mom actually asked her, "Now what are they going to do?" during a point where I thought we should take an alternate path to keep from putting any more good ideas in the little girls head. LOL At the end of the day, we all ate lunch at a half-priced steakhouse I saw across Pizza Hutt. For half-priced, it was really good. The waitress combined Nathan and I's order, so when the steaks came, he was left emptyhanded, and I had a steak that was smaller and way more done than what I wanted. No worries though; garbage disposal Andy finished off Dr. Mayborn's steak, the gristle left from Dana's porterhouse, and Nathan's fries (when his food finally came). I can only say no to food (especially steak) so many times. And Athena told me to grab a waitress. The way it was said and in our mindset, we all lost it, with many a comment about me going to jail or something for sexual harrasment. Dr. Mayborn's face was priceless. When we got back to the campgrounds Dana, Nathan and I headed down to the stream/river at the camgrounds (oh, by the way, the campgrounds were packed when we first got there Saturday, as a kayak clinic was going on this weekend; there wer kayakers everywhere ). I had put on a pair of shorts, and Nathan stripped down to his skivvies, and we took a dunk in the river just down from the dam. It was hilarious watching us trying to stand on the slick, algae covered rocks and slowly get into the very cool water. The rocks were all at an angle, so I basically ended up standing on them, then slid all the way down into the river untill I hit a boulder with water up to my waist. Then Dana did the same thing, and he got a little too close; uncomfortably so. He tried walking away, and slid right back next to me. It was like turning into Brokeback Geology or something. LOL So I swam a little ways away and proceeded to get some of the sweat and grime from the day off. Afterwards we all three just laid on the granite and air dried looking up to the stars. It was definate communing with nature and geology bonding. LOL Then went back to campsite and slept through the badass thunderstorms that rolled through the area.
Monday I got everyone up really early, and we headed to the Fletcher Mine of the Doe Run Mining company. Something like a thousand feet underground or something, in the bed of a pickup truck, flying down pitch black mine tunnels doing about 40 or 50 m.p.h., is fricking awesome. They mine copper, chalcopyrite, and galena (for lead) down there. We got the whole miners lamps and things. This was a definate "you had to be there" time. There's no way I can describe it. I didn't want to leave the mines.
The mines were our only stop for Monday, so afterwards we headed back to the campsite, packed up, and started the drive back. I drove the entire way back, and had to pee from Springfield to Macomb (thanks to the 44 oz. sodie I got at the start of the drive). We unloaded everything at Tillman, and Dana gave me a ride back to the dorms. All in all, an outstanding weekend. One I need to do again soon. Total rock count that I carried back is like 11 or 12 fairly large and/or heavy rocks. About 1/4 of my dresser top is now covered in rocks. LOL People should come by and check out my rocks. | | |
| WOW! It's been a while...Damn... Three months without a post. I kinda havn't been paying attention to this now, have I?
So, yeah, today I was bass-ackwards. If you've been in Macomb for pretty much all day, you'll know this morning was cold, cloudy, and kinda dreary. Now that it's afternoon it's getting pretty sunny and warming up to our high of 70's-ish. So what did the genious Andy do today? Left the room before 8 in the morning in shorts and a t-shirt with his sunglasses. Glasses didn't get used once and I had permanently diamond-hard nipples (there goes that shirt). So what did I do? At lunchtime (after my haircut) I put my sunglasses away in my room and put on long jeans and my hoodie just in time for my heater-like body to burn up and get blinded by the sun. LOL I have fashion dyslexia. I just thought that phrase up this instant, by the way. Hehehehehe... Thought I'd share that funny little story with ya'll.
But yeah, three months, long time. So much and so little, all rolled in one. Lately just havn't had anything to put in here. I can post schedules and what I did, but that gets boring, both for the reader and the typer. Nothing really profound... most of the time. Don't really know what to put in here anymore.
Currently blowing off work that needs to be getting done. All the end-of-semester boo-ya that needs to get done. Things due shortly: Petrology lab for tomorrow (barely started), Seds paper outline due today (so already past due), Calculus Exam tomorrow in class, and Seds paper Draft Uno due Friday. Not really stressing about much though. If you know me, you know I really don't stress too much (but when I do it's HUGE). It's just the normal hum-drum of daily in and out, go to class, come home, life. Nothing really wrong with that though. I'm usually in a pretty damn good mood. I've become a morning person (ick!!! kill it!!!) in the past month or so. Somehow I finally tricked my body into it through getting up for a while, then making sure I'm in bed at a decent time, and then (and here's the kicker) started heading religiously to the REC. Yup, that's right, I make it almost every day (except every Wednesday due to work, or days after a night of drinking LOL) to the REC for about an hour workout at 5:30 a.m. You read it right: A.M. I know, that's when most of my fellow college-goers are heading to bed, and I've already dissapointed many with my 10 o'clock bedtime, but it's helped in improving my mood and motivation (ain't I blowing off a lot of work?) and I feel really good during the day. It's also helped me with my eating. I no longer (brace yourselves, as I will now send you into shock) eat to get miserably full. I'll let that sink in for a second. Yup, I don't even eat to get full. I eat a little bit, usually lately been a lot of salads, maybe a chicken breast, mostly healthy stuff. Don't get me wrong, I still love my greasy crappy kill-you-at-30 foods, but they're now few and far between. Gotta make baby steps. I'm actually getting doggie bags at restaraunts now because I can't finish my meals there.
Other than that, like I said, hum-drum every-day life. Starting to get that feeling of wishing this limbo of college was over. I'm pretty much done in my head. Kinda wishing my time was up, get out, and move on to the whole job and real life thing. Tired of having weird schedules, one-room homes, moving stuff in and out every 9 or 3 months, etc.
Kinda getting tired of my dependability and expectations of me that are undeserved of me. Most of you know that I'm a pretty damn good student. I got a really good GPA and a "bad" semester for me are B's barely outnumbering A's (before I continue, yes, this is going to sound like annoying undeserved self-pity ). My Seds class this semester is probably my best example of this. I currently have an 85% in there, and on her curve that's basically a 95%. I'm one of the top four in the class (none of know where we stand with each other though). Problem is: my grades don't reflect my actual knowledge, not to mention my lack of caring or ability. Hell, I wouldn't be able to pass a Geology 110 intro exam. I can take a test, vomit what I think you want on there, and get a great grade without really knowing what the hell I'm talking about. So now I got some of my professors thinking I'm super student or something when in actuality there's plenty of others that are more deserving, hard working, and have a much higher ability (not to mention interest) in it than I do. And all this comes back on me like my Seds Field Trip Report: I got a 71% on it (translation with curve: an 81%) and I got the "I expected more from you on this and I hope I see better on the final report project" comment from the teacher. I know my paper was crap; I wrote it. My field work/notes are crap. It's written on that. The field work is where you actually use what you know and apply it. I don't know what my grades reflect, so I have crappy field trips (multiple examples of this). Meh, oh well.
Well, I think this is why I have long periods of nothing on here. I get on here and text-vomit all over Xanga. LOL Oh well. See you all back here for another suprise once you think there will be no more entrys. Buh bye! | | |
| Lord, I’m walking your way. Let me in, for my feet are sore; my clothes ragged. Look in my eyes Lord and my sins will play out on them as on a screen. Greet them all; forgive what you can and send me on my path. I will walk on until you bid me rest. | | |
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