Well its been 2 months since my last update. Things are going pretty well. My classes soo much easier and I've got much better professors that actually want their students to do well in their classes, which is a much needed change from last semester, when I do believe I had atleast 2 that really did not care, but yes, classes are going well, though I do have a test tomorrow and friday and next week... hope I do well on them! Spring Break is now only 2 weeks away and I'll be going skiing in Snowshoe,West Virginia. That should be really fun.

Greetings one and greetings all!

I am back from New Orleans, and all I can say is wow. It was an amazing and eye-opening trip, that I can't really do justice with words, but I will try to describe. First off we left Saturday morning at 630 am and got there are 430..as we were driving into New Orleans we crossed the bridge going over Lake Ponchotran which had been partially destroyed by Katrina, huge portions of it were just gone, and they were working on rebuilding it. As we drove in we just saw massive destruction, trees toppled, fences taken out, brick walls ripped apart, the along the side of the interstates covered in trash, signs ripped apart. We stayed at the Baptist Mission, which was interesting in itself, we slept on what are comprobable to military barracks, and took showers in open community showers with one nossel on it that ressembled a faucet from the outside of a home, in which the water either scalded you or froze you, never before have I realized how thankful I am for a comfortable bed, and controllable water temperatures.

Sunday we went to church at First Baptist New Orleans, and it was a good service. This church is heading up all the disaster relief efforts down there, and after church we went to work on a house... all I can say is wow. This home was soo messed up. There was crap pushed up against every door, and just stuff all over the place. everything made out of wood just would fall apart in your hands, the doors were rotted out, the walls covered in mold and mildew. I have never seen anything like it before in my life... no picture or video can do it justice. We were working on the East side where it was the hardest hit, and there was NOTHING open in the general area.. everything was sooo messed up. There was not one home in the area that was habitable. Its so bad that there are talks that the entire east side of new orleans is going to be completely bulldozed and demolished. We worked from sunday afternoon through Tuesday midday, before getting shutdown basically because a federal loan guy came and said it was unsafe to be there, because the pollutant levels were soo high..something like 11,000 over what it should be, and how the EPA was coming out witha new study, so we came home early.

New Orleans is still very desolate and deserted by most, because businesses are not open due to lack of customers, and/or lack of employees. Alot of people in the city are still gone, and may never return. The guy, whose house we were working on said, there are still 450,000 homes that are still unhabitable... Truly this trip was an eye opener and makes me realized how good and blessed I truly have it.

Update on Grades:  Intro to Earth Science Lab - A

                                Macro Economics- B

                               Intro to Literature- B+

                              Intro to Earth Science - B

                              Micro Economics - B

                              Finite Math - B

Not bad for a very difficult semester =)

Prodigal --

Living on my own, thinking for myself
Castles in sand, temporary wealth
Walls arefalling down, storms are closing in
Tears have filled my eyes, here I am again

And I've held out as long as I can
Now I'm letting go and holding out my hand


Daddy, here I am again, will you take me back tonight
I went and made the world my friend, and it left me high and dry
I drag Your name back through the mud
That You first found me in
Not worthy to be called Your son
Is this to be my end?
Daddy, here I am
Here I am again

Curse this morning sun, drags me in to one more day
Of reaping what I've sown, of living with my shame
Welcome to my world, and the life that I have made
WHere one day you're a prince, the next day your a slave

Hello All,

Lets see... last week was a pretty good week, with things getting somewhat back to normal and me getting back in my regular Matt mood haha. Anyways so Wednesday I get a phone call from Steve, who tells me he has tickets to the Tennessee Notre Dame game if I want them, so after much debate, thinking, etc, my dad and I decide to make the trip, tried talking my mom into coming too, but she wouldn't, so it was just me and my dad.

My dad and I left friday around 1230, and got to South Bend,Indiana around 930, which was around 7.5 hours from home, just stopped to eat and such which I don't count on drive time.  It was a good ride up, and was great to spend time with my dad, cause we don't spend nearly as much time as we used to. Considering at one time my dad and I went to breakfast together every Saturday morning, it was really good to spend time with him.

We got up Saturday morning and toured the historic campus. Wow is all I can say... it was amazingly beautiful. The atmosphere was something special. We saw the famous ND dome, and saw the big basilica. We saw the infamous "Touchdown Jesus" and just alot of cool stuff. The people at the school were so nice, and friendly. It was like Southerns in the north.

We went up there for the game, which didn't ever go Tennessee's way, but it was still a great game, and atmosphere for a football game. If ya ever get the chance to go to the university of ND I strongly reccommend it.Well thats all for this post I suppose.

This week is going to be a bit hectic, but should be an ok week.. only 4 more weeks of class til finals. Got a bit of work to do in a few classes to get my grades up.

"Touchdown JEsus"

To the Left..Famous Basilica...   On Right (Gold Dome), Famous Dome building,which is the administration building.