New job. Things are looking up.

A couple of days ago I started a new job. I am now staff at my university, supporting about 200 machines. This is a dream job for me! I get to pick my own hours, I get up to 20 hours a week, and my work is always done between 8am-5pm. I don't have any pushy bosses, and the work atmosphere is great. Thank god for IT jobs.

School is going ok. I hope it's going well. I'm not entirely sure how this semester will turn out! I know I have an A- in my 1cr course. I am hoping for a B~ in Chemistry. Really hoping for a high B or low A in Geology104. And no clue what I'm going to get in Geography. B-/C? I need to study for that more. Nice thing is, now I have work out of the way during the day, can study at night, and CAN'T PARTY AT NIGHT during the week, because I need to be up for work at 8am. This should work :)

re-invention

"The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for."
--Oscar Wilde

Once upon a time, there was a shy teen-aged boy. He liked to read, play with computers, play Magic: The Gathering, and play Dungeons & Dragons. Rather than going out with friends he would prefer to have LAN parties, or play one of the aforementioned games with his friends. He would play on a MUD (online, text-based game.. think World of Warcraft, but with text descriptions) and would rather go to a virtual Halloween party there, than go to one in real life.

Time passed and his priorities changed. He started to morph. Realizing that girls were more accepting if you dressed well, he took more of an active interest in his appearance. Realizing that things like "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Magic: The Gathering" -- his old favorite pastimes -- didn't fly with the 'popular kids' made him abscond from them. It was a long cocoon-state, but he ended up going to school for fashion design and moved into a huge city (Chicago!). Chicago was a great city, and loads of fun. Not easy on the pocketbook though, especially when the middle-classed boy was thrown in with the group of rich kids who would regularly spend $600 a weekend on an outfit to go out in one time. He realized that fashion design -- or maybe it was the lifestyle -- wasn't for him.

He moved back to his home state, to Madison. He found a fledgling fraternity, not yet having stretched its wings and taken flight. He joined in with the affable fellows and helped start this fraternity, let it take its first flight at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He was more himself now, he felt. He held onto a little bit of his fashionista tendencies, but eventually these were subdued. It was at this point that the once-shy-boy discovered alcohol.

Ah, the miracles of alcohol. Lower inhibitions, everything's fun, everything's funny, not a care in the world. He would run around drinking, laughing, and singing with the rest of the boys (and girls) 'til the morning came. It's hard to abstain from something when nearly everybody you know -- and all the people who are close to you -- are doing it. The boy jumped into this fraternity lifestyle. He underwent the metamorphosis into a Fraternity Man. He went to his classes and worked. Then he mostly went to work, due to money trouble.

He found a good, salaried job, with tremendous benefits. He worked there, and stopped drinking, picking up other substances instead. He left behind the shell of the Fraternity Man and became a Working Man. However, being a working man is no way to spend one's life -- even if it is at a great job. He went back to school. He started drinking again, but not as often. Soon after, he finished up his Associate degree... roughly 3 years later than he should have.

He moved away to another school to pursue his Bachelor's Degree (and with luck, his PhD). Here in this small school, far away from the larger bastions of civilization, he found the drinking tradition alive and well. He spent the first couple months of his life there pursuing this ancient tradition. He made new friends, and acquaintances. He put together a new crowd of friends. And then, he realized that many of his 'friends' were really more or less drinking buddies. Understandable, perhaps, because there isn't much to do in small-town-Wisconsin, save for drink.

After coming to this realization, he started hanging out with friends from clubs that he was in (such as fencing). He started to remember that there was a time before drinking, when hanging out did not involve getting shit-faced drunk or spending the night at the bar. He remembered something that he had forgotten for the most part -- that your friends don't have to drink with you. That you don't need to drink every weekend. That Friday and Saturday are not necessarily nights that you get drunk. That it's okay to stay in on those nights, and you will in all actuality probably not miss out on ANYTHING.

He has started to read more, to study more, to get back to doing things that he actually enjoys, and to spend more time realizing his true self.

Stevens Point - Part I

I moved to Stevens Point at the end of August and live with my friend Rachel right next to campus. I'm still not quite adjusted to living in this town. I guess maybe I'm just not embracing the whole 'back to a smaller, calmer town' aspect of the situation. Really, it would be a great time to focus more on school and take a break from partying all the time. Maybe that's what I'll settle into eventually, but right now, in a town where drinking is the foremost and favorite pastime, I don't feel that it will happen.

I'm taking some fun classes this semester. I have Chem 105, which is by far my most challenging class. It also makes it more 'fun' to learn -- I mean, at least I don't get bored by it. I'm taking two Geology classes - Physical Geology (104) and Earth History (106). There are some truly amazing aspects to geology, but a lot of it is kind of dull. Still for now, that's what I want to major in. I'm also taking a Geography 101 class. It wasn't required by my Geoscience major but I wanted to check it out regardless and see what it was like. I really like undestanding the geophysical processes that shape our world. I feel like this semester is really helping me understand the Earth's geophysical processes and biological processes.

I've been toying with the idea of quitting drinking. It is definitely a destructive drug. I've definitely spent a lot of time and money on it (all those weekends, all those nights during the week... they add up after a few years). And, I've definitely made my share of bad decisions because of it. However, the primary reason I haven't done away with it is because in this town bars are the main social settings and they are little more than glorified beer dispensing holes in the wall. In Madison there is at least a choice of atmosphere, choice of crowd, and plenty of things to do if you didn't want to while away your night by smoking cigarettes and seeing how drunk you can get before you piss your bed.

But I'm not in Madison... When in Rome...

The (failed) Alaskan Expedition

I'm republishing this from Facebook, which is where I originally updated the story.

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 12:07am
As you all probably know, we didn't exactly make it to AK. In fact, we made it about halfway. To leave out a few details, we got turned around at the Canadian border, and decided to hike for a few days in Glacier National Park. We met some girl on the hike who was working in a town nearby, St Mary, at the lodge/resort there.

Having no chance of making it to AK and being in a beautiful area, we decided to get jobs here instead and work for a while so that we could hike/backpack around Glacier more.

It's really beautiful here. Freaking magnificent. Mountains all around. Big horn sheep, mountain goats, deer, bear, moose. Glaciers. Lots of glaciers. Waterfalls. Freezing rivers.

On a three-day hike we crossed over a mountain pass (Triple Divide Pass), 2 smallerish glaciers and a few streams.

So, anyways, we're living in St Mary, Montana now. We're housed in the employee village, with around 100 other college students. The cabins hold 8 each, and the girls cabins are on one side of the village and the guys are on the other.

It's fun. Way too easy to spend way too much money on beer, as there's really nothing else to do in the evening except for get drunk and party. I just got bitched at by a customer while writing this. Wow, this job sucks.

I might be back in about a week. Things have come up which require my attention and I've found some people who want to catch a ride back. It's up in the air at this point, but I'm sure I'll see you all in the nearish future -- between a week or two from now. Perhaps AK next summer. Perhaps.

Miss you all. Hope all is well.

Ciao.
Paul

Expedition to Alaska

After telling everybody about our plans I usually get one of a few reactions.

The first reaction, common to people my age, is to ask about starving or referencing "Into the Wild" (a movie where the protagonist goes to Alaska and then starves).

The second reaction is that of disbelief or incredulousness (if that's a word). I guess it does sound a little ridiculous.

The third is common to older men, or even just men who have settled down, and that is that they're jealous and that they think it sounds like a lot of fun.

Planning our trip in just a couple of short weeks has been exasperating and trying. I've considered and reconsidered going a million times over. The money involved, quitting my very nice salaried job, and heading out for the unknown are all factors. The fear that we may be stranded by rising glacial-fed streams also crosses my mind.

However, the more planning we get done, the more equipment we amass, and the more we talk to people who know about this stuff, the more it seems like it's really possible.

We now have most of our equipment. We have good clothing, good boots, good guns. We have GPS devices, map & compass, we will soon have a satellite messenger.

We're looking at food right now, and how much we can take with. With dehydrated foods we should be able to carry plenty between the three of us. I have a 6500 ci pack and by the looks of it, it can easily hold over a month's worth of dehydrated food.

Water won't be an issue as there are streams all over and its simply a matter of boiling it or dropping in an iodine tablet to purify it. We can also use these streams to catch fresh Salmon.

There is still a bit of equipment to pick up, and still a bit of planning to do.

On the plus side, gold is edging towards $1000 per OUNCE! Remember, gold is dense -- denser than lead even. Even a few ounces would make our trip worthwhile, and we're planning on prospecting for about a month in areas that we know have gold.

More to come.

coming changes

I'll be moving to Stevens Point this fall to attend UW-Stevens Point.

Last week I fulfilled my graduation requirements from MATC in Madison and now have my Associate of Liberal Arts degree.

bandwidth

w00t!

life

work continues on. I have been accepted to UW-Stevens Point, which shouldn't come as a surprise, as I'll soon be a graduate of MATC and I believe they have a guaranteed transfer program.

I'm waiting to hear from UW-Madison still.

My options for next fall are as follows:

1.) UW-Stevens Point: Take classes. The cost of living up there is insanely cheap. Like $250/mo rent. 50 cent beer nights. I'd also be away from Madison, and the temptation to spend lots of money. They have a fencing club and rock climbing group. Plus, they're close to some good snowboarding hills AND they're still not too far from Madison.

2.) Steamboat Springs, CO: I could just take a season off, and wait until I'm able to receive more in loan money (need to be 24 by a certain date in order to be independent and get the higher loan amounts from FAFSA). Plus, I'd be snowboarding all winter long on a beautiful mountain with possibly the best snow in America.

3.) UW-Madison: So, if I'm received into UW I'll probably stay here for a little bit longer. I'm growing restless right now, but majoring in Geology at UW-Madison would be amazing. I'm crossing my fingers, but won't be terribly disappointed if I don't make it.

By May or June I should have everything paid off, if all goes as planned. By August I should have a few grand saved up.

Will update as I decide.

....

Other than that I've been snowboarding a lot lately. At least once a week. We've made a terrain park in our back yard, with a rail, a box, three jumps, and a couple of ramps (one large and one small). Hopefully I will have pictures soon.

snowboarding, colorado, work, and school

We (Junch, Pannell, Sagar and myself) went on a road trip out to Steamboat Springs, CO a couple of weeks back. We stayed out there for a week, taking in the sights and snowboarding. Well, I snowboarded, the others went skiing. It was a blast. I am giving serious consideration to moving out there to live as a ski bum (or in my case, a snowboard bum? doesn't have the same ring to it).

Snowboarding has really struck home with me. I love it. It's so much fun. Surfing through the snow down the mountain. Picking up speed and diving around the track down the hill. I'm not terribly good yet. I can switch my feet and ride fakie while riding down the hill, and do little things, but nothing fancy like rails or halfpipes. I think I'll try the rails out next time I go (every tuesday at Tyrol and maybe more often if I can help it). Jake, my roommate, has also gotten into the sport more, and I've met a coworker who boards as well.

My work schedule is changing. As of 14 minutes from the time of this writing I will be done with this current shift. On Thu night at 4p I start my new shift -- 4pm-12a, Monday-Friday. Classes during the day on MWF.

I'm in school again, this semester full time (14 credits) with harder classes. Intro to Human Bio, Native American History, American Lit 1, and Fundamentals of Speech Comp. Last semester went decently. I got 2 B's and 1 AB. I blame one of the B's on the fact that I overslept my final, and got to it an hour late without a chance to study beforehand as I had planned.

I'll have graduated with my associates this May/June and from there will be attending either UW-Madison or UW-Stevens Point. If that falls through I'm defintely moving to CO. Maybe gaining residency so I can go to school at University of Co - Boulder.

First snow of the year

It started snowing yesterday afternoon. I believe its been snowing on and off throughout the night, but I can't be certain, as I've been inside working. Tomorrow I head down to Chicago, to meet Jhani's family and have Thanksgiving dinner. I'll be staying there for a couple of days before returning.

I'm very excited about the snow. Global warming has caused increased precipitation. Hopefully this year there will be tons of snow.

I'm going to be going snowboarding and possibly skiing more often this winter. I'm getting a good camera (Panasonic DMC-LX2K). (Image here)

My friends and I are planning a ski/snowboard trip out to Colorado in January. I can't wait to have money again.

Oh, and to top things off I have my finances planned out that I am completely debt free by June.

Update 26 Oct 08: I come from the future! It did indeed snow a lot last winter. In fact, we had record snowfall in Madison. Go me!

Things I Like/Hate About Modern Society

...or, Things I would and wouldn't miss if society were suddenly to collapse.

Things I would miss (in no particular order):
-portable music
-Wikipedia
-instant worldwide communication
-sharing of media (photos and movies)
-constant accessibility to good food and clean water


Things I would NOT miss:
-polluting
-corrupt politicians/leaders
-bombs,fighter planes, tanks, and other instruments non-personal combat
-hectic, busy life -- schedules
-television (ok, I might miss this a *little* but we'd be better off without)
-pop-up (or under) ads

Back to School (Part Deux)

School is now in full-swing, and I have good news. I am doing swimmingly well. And well at swimming (it's late/early). My Beginning Swimming class is a blast. I love to go swimming and it turns out that I do it fairly well. I'm the top swimmer in my class.

All is well in English 2 also. My teacher used my essay intro as an example for the entire class, put it up on the overhead, and raved about it for a good 15 min. We even had a class discussion on the parts that they liked and the parts they thought I should change. He even posted it to our class' discussion board. It was a little embarrassing, actually. However, it is a good sign.

I love my Earth Science class. I am sure that I want to do this type of stuff for a living. Rocks and the Earth fascinate me. And, as my teacher says, "Geology is a good excuse to travel and go hiking and camping." Sounds like my kind of profession. Granted, there's not much money in it, but I plan on getting my doctorates eventually.

This leads me to my next part...


COLLEGE APPLICATIONS!

Holy Shit! I'm filling out applications and writing essays. Well, ONE essay, which I'm using for multiple University of Wisconsin schools. I am applying to UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse, and UW-Stevens Point. UW-Madison would be nice because it is a prestigious school. However, I'm kind of getting tired of Madison. I want to meet new people. This will probably change if I got into UW-Madison though. I will be meeting tons of new people. UW-Stevens Point seems really cool. I went up there earlier this week and had a blast. It's only 2 hours away from Madison, and 1 from Devil's Lake. I felt good about the town (unlike the vibe I get from UW-Platteville). UW-La Crosse has a great Archeology program, and it seems to be a nice school. The only problem is that my brother, and tons of people from my high school go there. I don't want anything to do with that.

So I guess I'm hoping for Madison or Stevens Point. I'm really excited about possibly going to Madison. It has literally been almost a lifelong goal - albeit not always my foremost goal. But...I almost want to go to Stevens Point more, just to be in a new place and meet new people. Also, it's slightly slower up there which I kind of liked. I must be getting old. The nice thing is, that even though it's a smaller school, it wasn't so small as to be confining. Most people up there also seem to be of the slight hippy persuasion.

I will be sure to post here as soon as I hear back. I haven't even sent them out yet (probably tomorrow). I'm more than a bit nervous and have spent hours on my application essay. However, if I do well this semester (and it certainly is looking that way) and I do well next semester, then I think I will make it.

Cockblocking yourself

I'm a master of this. Sometimes the greatest obstacle to getting with a girl(s) is yourself. These are two examples from years ago:


1.) Two skinny blonde twins are over at our house after bartime. I'm drunk off my ass and walking around without a shirt on. One of the girls says "look, he has hip lines". The other joined in saying that they wanted to see me naked. I said, "nah, that's okay." One of the twins says "We could do it in your room? We'll get naked if you get naked." I drunkenly replied something to the effect of, "No, it's not worth it," and stumbled off.

2.) I was at a bar and ran into this girl that I had been friends with for a while and had a thing for. She gave me a kiss on the lips as a sort of hello. She said, "There's so much sexual tension between us." My shocked response was, "There is?" (I meant to agree). The smile disappeared from her face and she disappeared a few moments later.

Those are the two main ones I can think of now.

working out, school

So it looks like I won't be getting into my preferred classes. I'm tempted to still show up and try to get in, even though the odds are very small that I would actually get in. I'm 3rd in line for Earth Science, with the entire class still showing as filled. I'm 3rd in line for the regular English 2, with 2 openings. And for Beginner Swimming I'm in 1st place on the wait list, but the class is still full.

At the least I'm enrolled in intensive study English 2 course, which will help me get that much closer to finishing. If I go full-time next semester I think I can finish it off.

...

Exercising has been going well. I'm starting training for a 10k sponsored by my workplace. I ran for 15 minutes today. My friend Mike from work has suggested an easy-to-follow plan. I will run every other day. Each week I will increase the time running by 5 minutes. So this week I'm running 15 min/time, next week 20 min/time, and so on. By the time of the 10k run I'll be used to running for about 75 minutes, which should let me do alright. Looking at various sources on the internet, it looks like even jogging for 15 minutes would average you about 2 miles. So, jogging for 75 minutes would be equal to approximately 10 miles -- more than enough for a 10k. Then I will work on getting my speed up to par.

I bought some whey protein mix to help with the muscle-building. I don't always eat the best foods, so hopefully this will help. I've also started taking daily multi-vitamins. It seems I started too late -- I've come down with a gross throat/nose cold. Sneezing and runny nose, sore throat. Ugh. I'll have to try and burn it out of me by working out extra hard this morning when I get home.