Full Throttle

No Giving Up Yet

I thought for sure I'd never come back to this blog. I had walked away and slacked off so much that the blog was medically dead, no amount of CPR could provide restitution. However, this crazy, stressful semester is almost over and I find myself longing to write and think like a man might pine for Hedi Klum. Finals approach and while always a guarantee of stress and crazy, they signal the end of what has been the most... different semester and the beginning of some actual damn freetime. I had wanted to write about my experiences as a freshmen consoler but it's proven way too weird to actually write up; there are things that are just better left unsaid and unrecorded.

This semester has been incredibly stressful. The job has demanded much different time schedules then I originally expected, wrecking my sleeping patterns and eating gobs of time I had expected to invest in other projects. The classes I had were much different then anticipated. Most of all, my attitude has been one that can be summed up quite easily: burnt out. I have way too much college in front of me and I've done way too much college already. It's tough to summon up the will to keep the GPA at a 3.5 when it appears the parade of classes are never-ending.  However, it's necessary and needed; I've rearranged stuff and struggled on to keep the all-important GPA from taking a massive hit.

This semester has had a number of interesting spots. One is that I've met a number of exchange students who've provided a pretty interesting look at another side of the world. We've taken up snowboarding and it's incredibly fun. Good way to blow off steam and pick up speed. I've bought some kites for kiteboarding, which is also both incredible and fun. Another spot is that I'm becoming increasingly libertarian. Dealing with immense bureaucratic institution that do nothing but flounder around, sinking further in the mud, has convinced me that what America needs is a good solid cutting down to size. 

It's also been an interesting semester due to some relationships that have completely died out and some relationships that have, slowly, been born again. It's not what I've expected at all. Individuals from the old circle of friends have disappeared, others that have disappeared have reemerged and some have not changed at all. Every single one was not the person I had expected either.  It's a shame to lose old friends but new ones are always around. This semester has had a plethora of that. I always seem to be lucky (or blessed) to fall into circles of good people no matter where I am. Throughout highschool and the first few years of college I always had good people around and this semester has been no different.

I've also laid down some framework to very interesting organizations. The University Media Group is showing incredible promise and we have numerous projects that are upcoming. UMG put on a 24-Hour Film Competition, in which you had 24 hours to write, film, edit and produce a five minute movie. The result was incredible with fantastic entries. My team (comprised of distant voice actors and Russian students) suffered a corrupted file and a backup only yielded a short entry so a short entry is what we yielded.  You can view  it here:

Thanksgiving was good; I brought over a number of good friends. Students from Russia, it was their first time experience a real American holiday. Being with these students has been a great experience. Not only have I learned that I am Koly the Kroota, how to speak and write a bizarre Martian language and that Russia really IS all about vodka and fighting but also that Stalin the Superman is the funniest thing ever.  It was an interesting Thanksgiving. After the holiday, we did Black Friday shopping and hiked the Butte. All was successful. Next weekend, I am going to the production of the Broadway classical The Producers with some lovely ladies, followed by Neon Bowling at an extreme bowling alley/club and snowboarding on some slopes.

Ahh, college. How I hate and love you.

Speaking of college, here is my new class schedule for Spring:

Tuesday-Thursday 10:00-11:15 Econ 324 Intermediate Macroeconomics

Tuesday-Thursday 11:30-12:45 Per 141 Beginning Basketball

Tuesday-Thursday 2:00-3:40 Span 201 Intermediate Spanish I

Monday-Wednesday 1:00-2:15 English 307 Lit of the United States II

Monday-Wednesday 2:30-3:45 Math 272 Applied Calculus

I might be adding a dance class to that, depending on a few scenarios. I am a classy individual and the ability to sweep someone across a dance floor in a tuxedo all but confirms such adjectives.

- Caleb (Kolya)

Updates

I am a now a Peer Mentor for the University, living in the freshman dorms and providing social and academic support for students as well as manning the Hall's information desk. I'm looking forward to the job, I know a lot of the incoming freshman from my work with New Student Orientation and it's a good bunch of kids. I'm already starting to pack up to begin moving, I only have about three weeks to move.

Still working on getting www.neuralanvil.com up and running. Webdesign is both grueling and boring. I've been so busy with both summer classes and our orientation weeks at the Office that I haven't had any sort of time. Now the office has given me both a statistical database project and the project of handling more marketing for their publicatio I've also got an appointment with a guy from the National Guard, considering the possibility of joining the Army Guard next year or so to help college pay for itself and to rack up those military experience. 2nd Lt. Caleb Lovelace, I like the sound of that...

More later, I think. I really need to get cracking on some video projects, an offer came down from a community filmmaker to put some stuff on a local cable channel that broadcasts local filmmakers. Opportunities, opportunities everywhere and not any time to think!

- Caleb

The Minors

Work has been extremely hectic. My major project, creation and publication of the UAA freshmen booklet called the Paw Print and it finally got back from the printers. I did the covers, complete layout, numerous logos and over a dozen pages of content on the inside. All together, it's a 63-page softbound book. It was a good project, it added Adobe InDesign CS2 to my portfolio and expanded on my capabilities with Illustrator CS3. I then shifted to making contact with incoming students, providing advice on what their next step is now that they started the admission process and pushing them towards signing up for orientation. I got around 30 students clocked into orientation, the office staff joked that I should be a telemarketing.

What a lofty ability.

Now I'm looking at running the entire office tomorrow as we cram to get ready for our next set of orientations. Confirm participants and speakers, working on creating placecards for our resource fair, running the other orientation leaders through our introduction routines and selecting videos for our entertainment section all has to get done tomorrow. Working late again. Grumble.

However, I'm getting good training. They sent me to a several-hour seminar on Final Cut Studio Pro 2, talking about the new features in it and how to use them. I now really want the new Final Cut Pro, especially the color-grading tool they just released called Color. That's awesome. Next few weeks I'm going to get training on Banner, the Oracle software that we use to track the database of all incoming students. Now I can assist students in their academic status and admission process when I'm talking to them on the phone. Eventually I'll be focusing on the major project, the huge video resource they want done that covers a "virtual orientation". That's going to be a major job.

But that's boring. What's exciting is I finally got all my paperwork in for my major, and now I'm also in the Honors College. An awesome guy in Enrollment Services, with a click of a button, destroyed the roadblock that was keeping me from being approved. I've chosen to get two minors, one in Spanish and one in History. This adds over four Spanish classes, three History classes and four Honors classes. I'll be here three years instead of the two I wanted but eh, it's not so bad. I'll be coming out of UAA with the education I want and the means to go to Graduate School, so perhaps it is all for the best. I shifted my schedule around to create an extremely busy semester now. Insanity will be my watchword. Plus, factor in workouts, College Republican meetings, Union of Students meetings work at New Student Orientation and Alaska State Defense Force unit drills.

 

Monday: 10:00pm-15am Modern Economic History

     11:30-12:45am [Honors] Enduring Books: Churchill's Marlborough

Tuesday: 8:30am-9:45am Trigonometry

                4:00pm-5:40pm Elementary Spanish II

Wednesday: 10:00pm-15am Modern Economic History

      11:30-12:45am [Honors] Enduring Books: Churchill's Marlborough

Thursday: 8:30am-9:45am Trigonometry

                 4:00pm-5:40pm Elementary Spanish II

                 7:00pm-8:40pm Fingerstyle Guitar I

 

I've also decided to run as a Student Senator and start assisting the student government here. The University is essentially controlled by a single fraternity and for the past seven years they've placed their people in student government as student president. With the election of John Roberson, a non-frat president, it appears that the balance of power may be shifting. So, it should get very interesting.

Well, that's pretty much what's happening right now. At some point this blog will be more then a simple recap of my life but for right now it is merely a pool in which I leak my wonderful life.

I've leave you with that wonderful mental image.

Would You Say I Have A Plethora?

For I do indeed have a plethora, a plethora of topics to touch upon! I will start off with the humdrum and from there slowly build a torrent of awesome so at the very end your mind will explode, spraying forth a mass of what was once your brain. So pop on Tribute by the D and listen to my tale.

Classes

I finally got all my classes figured out for the Fall. A major problem that sucks is the current error with Enrollment Services (go advisor for not telling me my paperwork for admission into the major program was never done) will prevent me from taking any upper-level classes this semester. Frustration! My academic career keeps getting extended....

However, I get to pack my schedule with the last bit of lower-level classes that are left! My current schedule is pretty good, with a lot of room to work 20 hours a week which is needed. Hopefully I'll be with the University still or moved onto the Transportation Security Administration positions they got open.

Monday: 5:30pm-6:45pm Introduction to Statistics for Business and Economics

Tuesday: 8:30am-9:45am Trigonometry

      2:30pm-3:45pm Computer Concepts in Business

                4:00pm-5:40pm Elementary Spanish II

Wednesday: 5:30pm-6:45pm Introduction to Statistics for Business and Economics

Thursday: 8:30am-9:45am Trigonometry

       2:30pm-3:45pm Computer Concepts in Business

                 4:00pm-5:40pm Elementary Spanish II

                 7:00pm-8:40pm Fingerstyle Guitar I

I'm pretty pumped about learning guitar. I've wanted to do that for a long time and it'll be nice to finally learn it. I've also decided to re-pursue a Spanish minor to add to my attractiveness in the Law Enforcement fields. Once these classes are done, all I have left is the Intermediate Micro and Macro sequence, Calculus, six upper-level Economics classes, and three upper-level Spanish classes. Also packed into that is my Honors classes (assuming I decide to enter the Honors College). I probably won't graduate until '10 or even '11. Not too bad, really.

I'm also thinking about taking next semester off and only doing Calculus (which will be a lot like this), Spanish and one Economics course while I do an EMT I and Wilderness First Responder certification courses. Plus, next year I can start doing Reserve Police Officer stuff, which will be very nice.

College Republicans

Jaren Hoffman, the Chair of the Alaska College Republicans, asked me to be his Vice-Chair of the entire state. I'm pretty excited about working with the Statewide organization and we've got a lot of stuff planned. UAA's Chapter, of which I am the Chair, is plugging along, with Erik Swanson agreeing to be our Chapter Vice-Chair. I've formed a rough agenda for the Fall Semester and have a few club officers picked out. We are going to be pretty active! It's turning out to be a solid group of guys and gals that have signed up so far. I think it'll be great.

We just now got a MySpace profile up at www.myspace.com/uaacollegerepublicans. Feel free to add us or shoot us an email at [email protected]. I am really enjoying the opportunities the College Republicans present and I think I can work to present Republicans in a different light then they are right now (yes, we actually DO believe in smaller government!). Hopefully my Economics professor Larry Ross will agree to be our faculty advisor.

I need to get business cards and a vinyl banner made up for our chapter still. So much work to do, so little time!

I'm also going to try and run for USUAA Senator, to help the guys out in student government. With Roberson as the USUAA President I think it'd be a blast to start working with everyone in there. I'm going to pass around the petition packet over the summer and hopefully get the 120 signatures I need to get on the Senate. 

Microsoft's Surface

Ok, by now everyone should have seen this. Popular Mechanics has been talking about Surface, the new multi-touch technology from Microsoft.

Gattis took out a digital camera and placed it on the Surface. Instantly, digital pictures spilled out onto the tabletop. As Gattis touched and dragged each picture, it followed his fingers around the screen. Using two fingers, he pulled the corners of a photo and stretched it to a new size. Then, Gattis put a cellphone on the surface and dragged several photos to it — just like that, the pictures uploaded to the phone.

This is pretty neat. I've been waiting for something like this for awhile. This is really the advancement in technology, seamless integration. It's the future of computing. However, it is unrefined and as is, not really all that incredible as it seems. While everyone is going nuts over this, there are a few things to point out:

• As a table, your ability to use it is limited. It's basically quick interaction device and will not replace any form of computing we currently have. Drop a camera on there, play with your pics or check out a video and that's it.
• Only super fancy clubs or restaurants will have these and really, how will it impact your outing experience in it's current form?
• Don't expect to see this everywhere in your house like everyone's been saying for at least another thirty years.

Look at television. That started out in the 50s and it wasn't really until the late 90s that pretty much everything had television built into it. While Surface might be the shape of things to come, that shape is still in the early process of molding.

That being said, it sure is damn sexy.

I've got more I wanted to cover but it's late and I need to press on. I'll try and get some more writing done tomorrow about all kinds of stuff. For right now, I want to point you to a really good site ran by a friend of mine. http://www.socialstrategist.com/ is a great site focusing on innovation in communication. I highly recommend subscribing and checking it out, it's a fascinating read. In fact, it is so highly regarded that corporations are now hiring him merely to write words packed with the power of incredibleness for their corporate needs.

That's pretty cool.

Victory!

Pinging your Tung

I love my mathematics professor. A Chinese immigrant (who's been in the US for dozens of years) named Ping-Tung Chan, he's like the superhero of this tiny crummy commuter college. PT, as he's called by everyone, is all about the students and whatever it takes to help us. Thus, the faculty and administration hates his guts and all students love him. It's pretty awesome, however, as he doesn't believe in homework only "learning". No pressure!

I'm here until 5:15, at which I promptly leap from here like a gazelle from danger and flee towards my paycheck. In which I plan to pick up an item (DVD or game, not sure) and head home to face homework, not being sick and then some more homework with a few tidbits of hardcore gaming. This is my life, unadulterated and unfiltered. Raw, for you. Gaze into it and weep in the dawning realization that you are a mere tiny speck compared to this fully armed and operational battle station. Ignore the innuendo that has been crafted with that statement and move on.

I found something of suitable quality to absorb my time, it is a truly hilarious. A man, nay a genius, on some forum created a Sims 2 family based on various forum members. He then lets the game simulate the entire thing while recording the consequences with a well-written diary. The result is pure, unbridled hilarity and you should all go read it right now (foul langauge warning omg-u-kiel-baby-angles-if-u-reed-it).

NFL Season starts today and it's about time. Real men, doing manly things like hitting each other. Honestly I don't know how I get by without my dose of football, it's the miracle of our time. Steelers play the Dolphins today at Detroit, 4:30 Alaska Time. I'm hoping to catch most of it via the radio while making the commute home. I really want to see the Seahawks return to the Bowl but with the jinx... I dunno...

Anyways, that's all for now.

- Maddog

my balls, balls, balls

The Fair: Conclusion!

I am finally done with the Fair work. Overall, pretty fun. I got to meet lots of cool entertainment types from some pretty big bands and saw first hand how it all roughly works. Plus the pay wasn't bad at all, $8/hour with overtime. Hopefully I made a pretty good bundle. The idea is that this will fund my PSP repair and possible expansion of my PSP library. It also will create a stockpile of potential resources to exploit when the inveitable, delightful Wii launch steamrolls into everyone's pocketbooks.

Turned out one of the clown chicks I was doing the sound for really liked me. Even my boss said so. They were a couple of sweet gals, gave me a big box of cookies and a card for doing almost all of their shoes and all their barking for them. They were pretty happy with that, even joking around that the reason I got sick was from all those "hot makeout sessions", since they had a similar disorder of the health. If that's not a hit-on I don't know what is.

Speaking of sick, my voice is absoulty gone in all sense of the word. I have been rendered mute, as weird as it is, applying that adjective to me. In Biology class today, the professor called upon me only to have me attempt to explain my current predicament in the delicate langauge of waving hands around wildly. Been running a fever today too. Just wonderful modifiers applied to my daily routine. I need a steam bath desperatly to cure me, I have complete and total faith in the healing powers of steam. It has knocked out every cold ever.

I should have taken a tougher Biology course, this one is mind-numbingly stupid. A tougher Biology course would have meant taking an additional Chemistry class and both of their respective labs, creating a rather complex and hetic schedule. So I'm cramming it all in next semester. Public Speaking appears to be extremely easy, the teacher is rather... simplistic in her expectations. Classmates appear to be all pretty cool as well, which means (hopefully) very few speeches that cause you to desire tearing your ears out.

I think I really want to focus on Cellular Biology as my education focus, it's fascinating. And the more I think about it, the more I want to swap my Spanish major for a PoliSci and simply take it as a minor. Oh well, I'll make that call when I end up at Michigan (or where ever the hell my money supply takes me). I'm out,

- Maddog

and this is how it should be done