some things i learned this week:

• the SEC officials haven’t quite got the hang of those little yellow flag things yet (no, silly, they’re not kleenex)
  
• engineering homework is relentless
  
• fundamentalism, or the discussion thereof, generates a flurry of interesting response
  
• the new version of iTunes, despite mixed reviews, really does kick butt at organizing media
  
• i am deeply saddened by my lack of recorded music output for 2006
  
• senioritis, or, the desire to graduate, sets in very quickly and stays put
  
• there are more things to say and less time to say them in

that is the title of the book that my fiance and i are supposed to read.

from the moment it touched my hands, i knew i wasn’t getting my marbles back. There it is. on the front cover. Marriage? For Keeps? you betcha.

i should hope that people who are old enough to be getting married in the Catholic Church at least had somebody clue them in on the church’s doctrine regarding divorce a lot earlier in life. in fact, i’m certain that if there actually was somebody who slipped through the educational cracks, the weighty meaning intended by “For Keeps” would pass way beneath the radar.

On the other hand, if they would have put, “Marriage: Shackles, Locks, and Chains, Oh My! The Story of When Two People Become One Flesh, Forever,” we’d have a lot fewer Catholic marriages, simply through initial intimidation.

Of course, there are a lot of other important things to read in the book besides that particular topic, but verily, i say to you, every time i read that petty, simplistic title, i can’t decide whether it was meant to be a joke, or they were trying to be serious. And that is exactly the opposite of the author’s intentions, i should hope.

Strange that I haven’t written much about my life post-LSU as thinking about it consumes roughly 80% of my non-school related mental activities. Oh wait, I think technically that is school related so maybe it’s a different percentage. Anyway, you get the drift. Graduation is HEAVY and it is weighing down both Dave and I and all of our possible-graduating friends. In fact, if I posted links to all of my friends blogs that I read who are seniors in college this year, almost all of them would have posts in the past week which concern issues related to college graduation. Woa. If everyone was thinking this intensely about other important issues I bet we could have world hunger solved in like a week.

Maybe not. But that’s still alot of thinking and deciding.

However, I refuse to stress too much about all of these decisions. You know what? I am 22 years old. I’ve got a long way to go before I can justly consider any life choice a “really bad decision”. As my wise mother says, “There are no wrong decisions here son. Just different paths which lead down the road.” So down the road we go.

Coming Soon (but not reall real soon):
Posts about computers, musical influences, and grandparents.

i took a look in a book and i came to the same claim that i had before.

i can probably finish school in december of 2007. probably. i should take some summer classes and ease things up a little bit. but i _have_ to work this summer. i need to.

Here’s what would be perfect: i could take 3-5 summer classes (all humanities/social science/freshman courses), perhaps some in session A and some in session B, that way, i would have at least part or most of the rest of the summer day to work. And it would be even perfecter if i started the engineering business next summer at PreSonus. That would be perfect. Should i bank on that? if i don’t take said summer classes, i might have to stretch out my graduation another semester while i take said classes as a part-time student in spring 2008. What’s better, graduating sooner, or getting the all-important engineering internship before i graduate?

At this point, i say graduating sooner, because once i get that degree, i’ll at least be able to land a phat job somewhere. sigh.

rainy, dirty morning, homework in every class, and somehow i didn’t have a conversation (as in, a dialog) with another human all day, perhaps save for ordering a big mac.

gross.

in my solid state class, my professor sometimes brings samples of actual silicon wafers and crystals that we can take a close look at. Today, he brought a semiconductor mask, which is basically an extremely precise piece of the semiconductor fabrication process. It was suspended inside a sturdy frame, with both sides shielded from oxygen and air by an impossibly thin plastic film. He had just finished talking about how expensive they were to make (tens of thousands of dollars). Although it was a demonstration piece, it still was fragile. Ok. I did not think he was going to actually pass it around. But he did. He said, only handle the frame, because the plastic film is very thin, and under tension. It can easily break. Whoo. i almost don’t want to breathe on it. About 10 minutes later, class is finished, and this chinese girl walks up and gives it back to him, and over the din of everyone getting their stuff together to leave, we hear “Oh… you broke it!! What?!? Both sides!??! You broke both sides!!! Why did you do this?? I was very specific!! I am Very Upset!!!” I did not stick around to see the carnage. i inhaled deep and fast, and i ran out of class. after thinking about it all day, and from my experiences with her, i think she perhaps has poor comprehension of spoken english.

But wow. that was terrible. ugh. i can’t even shake the feelings of disaster even now. i have dealt with professors who were disappointed in the class before. but never have i had to witness a professor become livid after a student destroyed his personal property.

what a monday.

My birthday has now officially come and gone. My last as a college undergraduate. Glad I had so many friends and family to celebrate it with.
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