Righteous Indignation

So I realized (after my mom had called me) that I totally forgot to actually post the last blog I wrote.... But now that I look back on it, I realize that it still pertains to now so I'll just summarize it here as well.

Recently I've had a huge burst of righteous indignation. For those who haven't heard me use that term before, its a trait I have that I'm told comes from my mother. Not that I mind it though. When I see something that I perceive as being unacceptable happens to me (or one of my friends) I tend to fight for that side and harbor very strong opinions on the matter. Plus, I really hate keeping my opinions quiet. Sometimes its gets me into trouble, but more often than not it makes things easy because you'll always know what I'm thinking.

There's also that whole "I go do something about it until I feel I've done what I can to help" part of it. However, rather than becoming angry and tactless I tend to become more eloquent in my speaking and drive right towards the heart of the problem when dealing with these types of situations. People are much likelier to hear you out if you have well developed ideas and concerns while speaking than if you come in with a set of demands. So I usually go in with a plan and knowing exactly what I want done in order to rectify the problem.

Two problems have currently caught my attention: the Honors Program and UAF Intramurals.

(Stop reading here if you don't want to hear my opinions).

Last week I had a meeting with Dr. Gary Larsen, the current Honors Program Director. Why? Because, in my opinion, the Honors Program took a turn for the worst this year. They chose to make some decisions that benefited the program and some that harmed it. I really like the fact that there are a wider variety of classes that are offered for Honors students now, that more students are being involved in the program, and the fact that, by fiscal means, the program is trying to give more opportunities to students. But these things came at a steep price that I'm not willing to pay. I gave this as one of my opening arguments: "I joined the Honors Program here at UAF to feel like an individual in a group of like-minded individuals within an ocean of students. Now I feel as if I'm a student in a sea of students within an ocean of students." Basically, its lost the individualism that I had experienced in my first year of being in the program. I used to be able to walk into the Honors House and have the staff know who I was, what I was like, what I did, and some facts about me. Now I walk in and nobody knows me. When I went to schedule my meeting with Dr. Larsen I had to introduce myself for the sixth time. That's unheard of. There has also been a flood of students, but not for the reasons which I felt the Honors program embodied. It was once a place for those students who did the research to find out how to enrich their learning. While the applications were open to anyone (assuming you met the criteria for entrance) they also required you to find out what the program was about. Now, due to some unsightly advertisements, the quality versus quantity debate began. I'll never say that these kids are bad students, but I do think that a fair number of them came in for the designation rather than the learning experience. The other thing that REALLY bugs me about the program is how fiscally oriented they are. Its all about the money no matter what. About half of the emails I receive on the listserv are about ways to earn the program money. My question: do you really need that much money? The one event that pushed me over the edge though was the sponsored "party" to eat pizza and send letters to the legislation for more money. I mean, its one thing to ask for the money as a program, but its a whole new issue once you have the students doing it as well. I do believe that if you receive a gift, you should thank whoever gave it to you, but asking for more immediately afterwards seems ridiculous. So I had a chat with him and it seemed to go well.

As for the intramurals, I feel as if my problem with it is a bit more pressing. It seems to me as if in every sport there's always "that team." What I mean to say is, there's always one team which has the bad sports or the violent students. This year there are a couple teams in particular which have caught my attention. One is in my soccer league this season (and last season) even though we switched the days we were playing. They're notoriously dirty players and it creates this huge feeling of animosity before the game even starts. Yet the worst part is the senselessly violent style of play. The best example of this that I have happened last semester. Their dirtiest player was coming down the side of the court at full speed with the ball before it took a quick skip ahead of him. Our captain (right defense) stepped up on it in order to knock it out as the striker powered up for a shot. She knocked it away, yet this striker continued his motion even though there was ample time to stop. I've watched his footwork. I know he has control, but he still followed through with a strong kick right into her ankle. This put her in a brace for two weeks with trouble walking for the next couple days. This isn't the only example of this team being brutal either, its just one of the worst I could think of offhand. The best part of this team though is their sportsmanship. The two dirtiest players refuse to even acknowledge our team after the game during the post-game handshake. Rather than being sportsmanlike and even walking through the line, they choose to walk off and leave the building. This the recreational league of soccer. Is that really necessary?

If you notice though, in this last bit I have referred to "that team" but I only have problems with two of the players. This brings me to my next point: it sheds a bad light on the decent players who are part of these teams. I know I'm a stronger defensive player with a strong team mentality so I definitely stick up for my team physically when it comes to a dirty game. Its a problem created by dirty players in high octane games and I know I'm part of it. Retaliation though hits harder than the initial problem though because of those good players who end up in the cross-hairs because of bad teammates. This hits EVERY team too. Most games have nice teams on both sides and there isn't a need/want for retaliation, but once you find that bad team everything goes to hell.

This is the primary problem I've observed in the Quidditch league this quarter. Last year Quidditch was introduced during the year and made its official debut during SpringFest 2011. Now, for Spring 2012, Quidditch was introduced as an intramural for people to play in a more public setting. Sure its mostly comprised of those students who helped with it last year, but its still a step in the direction of expanding its influence on campus. But again there's "that team," or more accurately "that one player," who is undermining the progress of the sport. I was invited to play on a team for Quidditch, but after seeing who was playing on one of the teams (and how said player acted during games) I turned the offer down. I prefer not to be severely injured during sports if I can help it. How do I know this if I don't play? I know this person pretty well, but more importantly I've seen the damage firsthand. Quidditch games are usually before my soccer games on Mondays, so I head down a bit early to watch. Every time I see "that team" though there's always violence. The worst I've seen was a deep cut on an eyelid. But seriously, deep cuts in a game with foam dodgeballs? I've even heard that there was almost a fight during one game with this team. Factors like that make players wary of playing. Why would you choose to play a sport in which you had increased chances of being physically abused? I know I wouldn't.

So sometime this week I have a meeting scheduled with the intramurals coordinator to hopefully iron out some of these issues before they become larger problems. Intramurals are meant to be fun not painful, so if I can find a way to make life better for me and my friends in our respective sports then I'll do it.

And there isn't a soul who can stop me. (Okay I promise my rant is over now)

Securing the System

I've really started to enjoy my System Security and Administration class. I'm actually learning a thing or two about Linux operating systems. That and I'm also getting some hands on experience in a class that actually has something to do with my future career plans. Too many classes require me to just sit in a room and listen to a professor speak at us about whatever subject the course is on. But this class, its a whole new type of class.

Since its a Tuesday/Thursday class its even separated quite nicely. One day is in the lower lab working on concepts/homework and the other day is spent in the upper Linux lab applying what we're learning in class on Tuesdays. They actually let me do things with what I'm learning! For instance, right now I'm writing a program using the fork() function call that creates a denial-of-service attack by exhausting a computer's resources. Then I'll take that and upload it to one of my virtual machines that I'm running and see it take its course and figure out how to monitor it using some of the other commands that my instructor provided us with.

How cool is that?

Simplicity

So classes are going pretty well, but that's not the inspiration for this post today.

No, today it comes from Wind Symphony. I've been doing quite a bit of work with music in the last 3 or 4 months and I'm really happy that its starting to pay off. For one, I've been recreating some Zelda music to play in a horn quartet and I have 3 of the pieces done that I want to have for a horn medley. I hope to have songs like:

-Ocean Theme (Windwaker)
-Zelda's Awakening (Windwaker)
-Ballad of the Goddess (Skyward Sword)
-Departure (Windwaker)
-Windmill Hut (Ocarina of Time)
-Midna's Theme (Twilight Princess)
-Temple of Time (Ocarina of Time)
-Zelda II song (Zelda II)

And include them all together into a horn quartet medley to be performed towards the end of the semester. Hopefully I can get it done... But its a huge undertaking.

Also, towards the end of last semester I approached our director with an offering of music to play. As the nerd I am (if you couldn't tell from above) I asked if she would take a look at Fountain of Dreams from the Kirby series. The reply was that it was too simple for our ensemble to play, but that another song may be able to fit the part. Today I received an email with a site full of music and a question about One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII) by Nobuo Uematsu.

That's a win. An awesome win.

Now to get that done!

Going full circle

Hooray! I know I'm a few days late on this, but my blog has made it a full year with me actually updating! How odd. I don't really see it as something that a whole ton of people read, but its still a place for me to share some thoughts about my life and just have them out there. The implications of this kind of blog are interesting though... If you think about it, I'm writing all of this personal information in a public reading space. Honestly I don't mind though. I don't put anything TOO personal in here (I don't think...) but I'm sure if I did my mom would call and tell me (yes I know she reads this often). As for this post, I should really try to sum up my first week of school now that the "blogaversary" has been properly celebrated.

Classes this semester are great. I've got a much more balanced schedule in terms of the actual scheduling (time) of the classes and the credit/time ratio. Last semester I was taking 8 classes for 15 credits and this semester I'm taking 6 classes for 14 credits. See a better work load there? My favorite thing though is easily the fact that none of my classes start before 11:30am or end later than 6pm. I get to work and sleep this semester! The classes themselves are awesome too. I have 2 computer science classes, 2 English classes (bleh), and 2 music ensembles. It's looking like a bright semester.

Work this semester will be a little different too. We had to say our goodbyes to Kristine as she moved away to another building while we happily welcomed Ruby to the Skarland team. My admin job for the building also changed which I'm a little sad about (in a joking way). I can't call myself "The Keeper of the Keys" anymore.... Now I'm just the guy checking the work order request lists and processing those. It's not a bad gig, but I have yet to assign myself a pompous title yet... So I'm having a little less fun with it. But only for now I promise!

Here's a couple other fun work facts. I had the first Skarland situation this semester and, on an unrelated note, I got to drive a bus! Since I can actually talk about the second one, I'll do that. So I signed up for 2 shifts of the Nanook Express which is basically an airport shuttle for students that Residence Life puts on as a service to students. I think its awesome personally. But back to the important part, they let me drive a bus. Through a town. To the airport. To pick people up and drive back through a town. How awesome is that??? I was pretty stoked and honestly it was one of the funniest things I think I've ever done.

My bus. It was awesome.

Here's another thing that has become a point of interest to me. By now I'm sure everyone who's going to read this has heard of it, but I'd just like to put on the record that I oppose the SOPA/PIPA legislative pieces. Rather than babble about it I'd advise you to look it up for yourself, but its pretty terrible and I hope nothing like that ever manages to pass... Ever.

Last but not least, I'm doing the unthinkable tomorrow. I'm..... COOKING. In my house for about as long as I can remember I've been a notoriously crappy cook. Baking isn't so much of a problem, but when sustenance is on the docket everything seems to crash and burn. Last time I tried to make the dish I'll be preparing tomorrow night my chicken was frozen on the inside, the lettuce of the salad wasn't cut through all the way, and the pasta was permanently bent and hardened at 90 degree angles... But, like the fool I occasionally am, I'm trying again. I even bought a full 18 piece cookware set at the store today so I can make it! Considering the fact that a pretty girl will be eating this food as well, I really hope I don't watch my meal crash and burn again... Here's to hoping that whatever minute culinary prowess I have decides to work for me!

FOOD FOR THE FOOD GOD!

A strange Muppet fetish

So today I finished my first day of the Spring 2012 training for my RA position. It was a long day, but luckily I like this training MUCH more than the training in the Fall. For some reason it seems a little faster paced, a little less boring, and a little more kind. Now we get to wake up by 10 instead of 8! That's a huge improvement for a night owl like myself. Although there is something odd about training....

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is Muppets.

You may be wondering "What does that even mean???" Well, it means that our schedules are based on Muppets. Our new door decs from Res Life are Muppets. Our pens have Muppets taped to them. Our notebooks have Muppets taped to them. Our presentations have Muppet-themed pictures. Our plates for meals even have Muppet designs. EVERYTHING IS MUPPETS. As Jamie put it "We will shove Muppets down your throat!" What has caused this is still a mystery to me, but at least its entertaining.

Plus, this time around, training is only 5 days instead of 2 weeks and we already know quite a lot of material, so its more laid back than it was before. Here's for hoping I manage to survive round two of training. Don't worry, its not that bad.

As for the past few days I've just been relaxing in Fairbanks and I finally got to go skiing when it warmed up to 20 from -30 for just a day before getting cold.

Now to sleep for another 11 hour day of training tomorrow.

Cleveland: A week and 3 days

So I've started to settle in to Cleveland a little and I'm enjoying myself. As I said in my first couple posts, my aunt and uncle arrived here a couple days after I did and I'm really glad they're here. I enjoy spending time with them and my family. It gives me a chance to just sit down and relax for a while unlike my last winter break.

I'll put that little bit in perspective. I'm staying here in Cleveland for 16 days of my winter break, then I head back to Fairbanks for a few days before I start Spring Training for my RA job. While in Cleveland, I'm relaxing, spending time with family, reading, and getting the chance to explore a new area. I'm DOING things with my time or intentionally not doing things.

Last year I was in Valdez for 28 days before coming back to Fairbanks for the opening of the dorms for students. Starting the day after I got back I worked 40 hour weeks at the schools in Valdez doing IT work for the entire break. My average day consisted of: wake up, go to work, come home, nap, eat, play video games, sleep. It was hellish, but I made some good money and had been used to waking up at 7am.

And I like it.

Christmas was a fun time too here. Everyone was super excited to open presents and I have to admit, I really like the stuff that I got from my family. Sport socks, a 15-plug surge protector, brain teasers, and a Nook Tablet. I. Love. New technology. This handheld device does a million things that I love. I can use it to remote-desktop to my computer, listen to music, browse the web, play games, and read. Its been so long since I've had the time to just sit and read and now I realize that I missed it. I missed it so much that in the 5 days since Christmas, I've read 5 books: 2 books from different Halo series and the entire Hunger Games Trilogy. That series is really good and I can't wait to see the movie now that I know what the books are about.

As for Cleveland, I've seen a little of it. My favorite trip I've taken so far has been to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens because they were amazing. Something like a living museum. I promise to have pictures up eventually, but at the moment I'm too lazy to get them off of my phone... One of the drawbacks to consistently doing nothing I suppose. I also haven't spent much time on the computer (hence the super late blog update) which I suppose is a good thing considering my conditions here. It's better to spend what time I have not being on my computer.

I head back to Fairbanks in 6 days though and I'll be glad to be there. I miss the cold, the people, the dorm, the classes, and my job. As of late I've also missed the time zone... Q has been keeping me up playing Scrabble until the wee hours of the morning. I'm the competitive sort of fellow who won't just stop and forfeit a game. In our Scrabble series (with the rate that our current game is going at...) The score will sit at 3-2 with me in the lead. I'm losing this game.... BUT I will win the whole thing using that obviously rational 3am brain I have... (Elika and Denali: you can't judge that :P)

So that's my life in a nutshell for now.

Cleveland: Days 2, 3, and 4

Its Christmas Eve! Here in Cleveland, its still green... But there was snow on the edge of the car window this morning! It was about a millimeter high and totally see through. So in all reality, there is no snow.

Also, here's a list of some of the observations that I've made here:

1. Drivers in Ohio are TERRIBLE. I see them cut corners, almost hit each other, and just generally miss the lines in the road entirely while driving. This is why I refuse to drive here.

2. Having the ability to just go to stores is pretty awesome. I finished shopping for a few people today and it was rather amazing that I could do it all within an hour and have it in my hands.

3. My family really hasn't changed since I last saw them in June. For better or worse, they're the same.

Wednesday night I had some delicious Thai food at a local place and last night I had a home-cooked meal that was made up of steaks, mussels, garlic bread, and salad. Now that was a fantastic meal! It was also my first home-cooked meal in over a year. Yep, a whole year.

And now its time for dinner again. 11 more days until my departure from here back to my frigid home, and back to my friends and school.