IT'S FRIDAY! thank goodness.

so this morning i rode my bike to class since it wasn't raining. i was running a little late, but thats ok. i actually made good time on the bike, i just left the house late. well i like to park my bike outside the rec center, (my bicycle that is. i'm still trying to talk my parents into the idea of a motorcycle), but the rec center is a ways from the rest of my classes. well, i look at my phone after i chain up my bike, and i have five minutes till class starts, but a good 10 minute walk to get there. well about a minute into the walk my friend texted me to infor me of a pop quiz we were having in class today. so i took off running. i was sweating so much by the time i got to class. i'm not forsure if you are familiar with UT's campus, but it's up hill both ways to class. well the quiz wasnt until the end of class. so it wouldnt have mattered if i was a few minutes late. oh well. it was funny. and nice of her to make sure i was coming to class.

well thats my anectodote for today. i'll finish the post with another story later.

so not having cable is a good excuse for not watching the DNC. but then again, we bought one of the digital tuner boxes. basically it's a set of the rabit ear antennas that also pics up HD channels. we realized the other night if we had just gotten that thing in the first place instead of waiting on comcast, which we are still doing, we could of watched the olympics. i can't even explain to you the range of emotions that i felt when we realized that.

well, i was about to say i wish the DNC was a replay of the 1968 DNC, then i would watch it, but in reality, i dont wish that. that was a hard time in American history. I have watched a little bit of it, but it kinda makes me sick to my stomach. Next weeks convention will probably make me sick as well. just not quite as much.

so the first full week of my senior year is over. it went fairly well. had two quizes. they went ok. rowing practice started back up, that went ok as well. except for the rain. just like last year at the beginning of the season, i'm having doubts as to whether or not i want to continue to row. i was telling my friend samantha the other day, who is also on the team. that if i decided not to row no matter the reason, i wouldnt have any hard feelings about the time and money spent on the rowing team. rowing was there for me in a tough time in my life an has provided many good friends and memories. but i'm pretty sure i'm going to stick with it. we'll see. the reason i would not row is because so many people come and go every year, that alot of my close friends are not on there anymore. which is ok, but the new guys on there are kinda.... well, pricks. sorry to say that.

one of my classes is ridiculous. i cant remember if i told ya'll about this or not. the teacher doesnt even teach. the students do the teaching. i dont understand. no one understands. but the class is required. the part that i am excited about is the service learning opportunity. we can either write a ridiculous research paper which requires us going to a government agency and interviewing everyone in the department and talking about their problems, or we can go to the local schools here in knoxville and mentor kids. basically just hang out with them. the principles of the school came to our class the other day and described it all to us. it's very exciting. our teacher wants us to do this instead of the paper. you can tell when he describes the paper to us. haha.

the principles said "if you here of anyone that has a gun or weapon, let us know immeadiately". that kinda let us know the real situation. i dont know if you heard, but there was a shooting last week at one of the knoxville high schools. apparently it's common.

i'm going to give you an exceprt from my teachers email. this will let you know how the class is. somewhat...

"The beginning of the semester is always chaotic. You don’t know what you’re doing; you’ve never had any class like this previously, Things are disorganized; we’re all getting different information. No one is happy about paying $38. People are stuck in nether land in adding the class. When they add they cannot get on Blackboard immediately. Memos, memos, memos; reflections, reflections, reflections; what’s the difference? What are the readings and Where are the readings located? What are the mentoring options?"

i just thought this was funny. especially from a 70 year old man. we had to do a project in class. who could stack sugar cubes the highest/quickest in the class. my group came in third after like 6 rounds. one of the rounds we all had to have out eyes shut. pretty crazy.

anyways. you probably dont wanna know about all this. i'll finish with another story.

so it finally stopped raining sometime yesterday so when i had to go back over to campus i was going to ride my bike. well i was moving along pretty well, which was probably too fast for the greenway which has alot of people on it. well the section that breaks off to go to campus curves around and... goes up hill, like most things on campus. well i didnt slow down and i was doing like 20 mph. since it cruved upwards, my peddle hit the ground and my bike did a 180 and just about ripped the back tire off. the tire went flat of course, but i'm just glad i didnt go flying down the side of the hill. that would of been bad. but i picked up my bike and started walking the rest of the way to campus. i had to get to a metting. luckily all that was wrong with my bike was a flat tire. an easy fix.

i'm hoping to do a bike race in atlanta next weekend. it's a 24 hour relay race. should be a fun time.

hope ya'll are doing well

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due to the lack of internet/tv at my new house here in knoxville, i did not know that it was going to rain today for the first time in about a month. though we do need it so that the earth can be replenished, i'm not happy about it. i rode my bike to school today, which i have been doing for the past... 4 weeks. but then it started raining after my class started. so, oh well. i think God is just telling me to get some work done here in the library. especially since i have the internet to be able to do it. most all of my work is on the computer. i could care less about the tv, except for the fact that it is election season and i'm missing all that stuff. but alot of it is the same 'ol same 'ol. they dont say much new, especially one of the canidates.

i read some good articles, though be it they might be a little bit biased, they were written by a Harvard professor who is African American. so atleast it isn't biased based on race. i'll have to post the links when i find them again. but he was saying how we shouldn't have this thought process of, "lets be more like the europeans". did you know in european countries, with their all great "socialized health care" that everyone else wants, it takes on average 6 weeks, at the quickest, to get a damaged ACL fixed. thats a pretty common injury here. here in the states your fixed up and back home in less than a week.

even as it is, your insurance rates go up when they find out your doing certain things that are more risky. say you have a motorcycle, your health insurance increases. so, this is just me talking but i feel it makes sense, the government may not allow you to do certain activities because they do not want to pay the extra cost when you get injured. which could lead to mandatory health programs to reduce obesity/heart disease. it's a gurantee that you will not be able to do certain things with your health if this system ever does get put into place. such as you could only get one or two x-rays a year. a female probably couldn't get a mamogram on a regular basis which is pretty important.

the change that is coming needs to be thought through before it is enacted.

anyways. thats my rant which was probably uncalled for.

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well i made it home alive, somehow. from the two day hiking trip that is. we almost got eaten by a bear two different times and saw a third. pretty crazy. and we hitch hiked again.

i'll write more later, but i need to go study now.

hope ya'll are doing well.

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so i finally moved out of my apartment and into a new place this past weekend/week. it's pretty cool. the internet is getting installed on sunday. i'm at the library now, and the main reason i came to the library is so that i didnt have to be at the house by myself. call me a wuss, but the neighborhood is kinda scary. i mean, i usually try to find the good in everyone, cause it really is there. but sometimes, you gotta stay on your toes you know. my roommate went home for the night, thats why i'm by myself. oh ya, and we think the a/c is broken, cause it is HOT in the house. haha.

and i dont feel well. ugh.

oh ya, and i made and A in my public budgeting class. according to my teacehr, i barely made and A, but hey, if you win you win. so now i just have a final to do tomorrow.

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