This is your life. Good to the last drop.

17 November 2007

6:01 PM

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've written anything about my life here in LA. I hope I can recount all of it...

I didn't do anything for Halloween, which disappointed me. I'd have gone out to do something, anything, if I didn't have an essay due the next day which I still had to write. Ugh. I hate teachers who give due dates like that. The weekend that followed was homecoming weekend, so everybody was busy. On Saturday, I walked around campus before the game. There was so much going on. Tents were set up everywhere for organizations to use. The ones in the quad were all taken up by fraternities and sororities. I've never seen so much beer pong played in one place, haha. I didn't feel comfortable trying to get in on a game with a random frat, but I did find a guy I knew from my Writing class, and he set me up with one of his friends to play a game with his frat. I played pretty well, considering I hadn't played in awhile. I actually kinda carried the team. I brought us into overtime on redemption, but then we lost by a cup. By then, it was time for the competition cheer squad to perform in front of one of the libraries, so I walked over to check it out. When I got there, they were just setting up, so I helped them lay out the mats. Their performance wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing, either. Afterward, I helped them carry the mats back to the building they came from, which gave me time to talk to one of the girls about possibly trying out next year. I was told that if I could find more guys who were interested in it, then they'd have coed tryouts. I hope I can find more people.

When I got back to the tent of the frat I was playing beer pong with earlier, they were finishing up because they were running low on beer. It was a small frat, and they didn't have a house on the row or anything, so they were gonna take all of their supplies back to this guy Nate's apartment. Well, they didn't have enough people to carry everything, so I helped them carry stuff, too, kind of as a 'thank you' for letting me drink their beer, haha. The apartment was probably about a mile from mine. They left to go to the game afterward, so I went the other way back to my apartment to watch it on my TV because I didn't have a ticket. I found a few of the guys on Facebook, and on the following Tuesday, one of them invited me to go with them out to dinner. I was pretty excited about this, because it was a chance to get a little farther away from campus than I've been able to go without my own car. We met up on campus, piled into two cars, and drove north. We passed the Staples Center on the way, which I thought was cool, because I had never seen it before. We went to Roy's, a restaurant with Hawaiian fusion cuisine. Apparently, I met these guys at the right time, because on this particular occasion, it was one of the guys', Avi's, birthday, and even though his parents weren't with us, they were generous enough to pay for the entire meal. Long story short, I had an amazing filet mignon dinner with pork ribs and other delicious appetizers for free, and I met a group of guys who are hella cool. We went back to Avi and Matt's apartment after dinner for dessert, which was like, Oreo ice cream cake. Their apartment is pretty nice. They have an XBOX 360 and a Wii hooked up to a huge HDTV, and each guy has their own bedroom. It was Tuesday night, but that didn't stop anybody from drinking a little bit. I stayed sober, but a couple guys took drinks every time they died while playing Halo, haha.

Wednesday was when I found out about Victor, which I wrote about in my last entry. Thursday was uneventful, but Friday was kind of interesting. I went out to the quad again to tumble. I was doing what I normally do out there, but I this time my tumbling encouraged someone else to tumble. I looked over and saw this really cute girl do a roundoff followed by two back handsprings. I applauded her, and she smiled and waved back, so I decided to have a mini battle with her from across the quad. I did a roundoff with like, seven back handsprings or so, so she did the same thing. I didn't really count how much either of us did, but we both proved that we could do a series without struggle. Then I did roundoff, back handspring, back tuck, back handspring, back tuck, back handspring. I'm sure she could have beaten me if she had been practicing every week or two like I have been doing, but when she went, she only did roundoff, back handspring, back tuck. Regardless, I was impressed, so I went over to her and asked her name. Michelle. I asked her if she was a cheerleader, and she said she did it in high school in Texas. I told her that we should tumble together once in awhile, because she's the first person I've found who tumbles who's not on the squad at USC, and I've been looking for someone to tumble with since I've started out here. I didn't want to be a bother by talking too much, so I gave her my card (haha), told her to add me on Facebook, and went back to my own business. I would've looked her up on Facebook myself, but she added me before I got a chance, which I was pretty stoked about. It turns out she has a boyfriend, but it's her boyfriend from high school, who goes to UT. I'm not one to try to break people up, so I'm not gonna push anything on her, but if we hang out every once in awhile, I'll let her know that I'm interested in her, and that if she ever breaks up with her boy, I can always be her rebound ;-D

After talking to Michelle, I stopped tumbling for a bit and joined a couple of guys who were playing frisbee. We tossed around for a bit, but after awhile, one of the guys asked if he could try out my Powerizers. I told him it was fine by me, since I had all of my protective gear with me for him to use. He strapped up, strapped in, and that's where the comedy ensued, haha. He could barely keep his balance without one or two people near for him to hang on to. He fell a couple of times and then decided he'd had enough, and took them off. I put them on after him, and showed him that with a little practice, you get the hang of it, and explained to him that I was just as clumsy when I first started.

Matt texted me that Friday night to let me know that people were going to be drinking at his place later in the night, and that I was welcome. I took a shower, loaded my shoes and ping pong balls into my duffle bag and rollerbladed over to his place. The night started out nicely. I gave Matt $20 to cover beer for the next few times I drink with them. Beer pong was set up out on the balcony. We played 15-cup with two 16-oz. Colt 45's first, and my partner was Brett, the guy I played with in the quad over homecoming weekend. We got ahead at first because I made a bomb (same cup made by both players; counts as the cup made plus any adjacent cups, up to four additional cups), but then the other guys took the lead. We came back a little bit, but I think we lost by two or three cups in the end. Brett was trying to take things slow, but I was still game, so I played Matt heads up in 10-cup, two 12-oz. Coors Light. That game was really good. We went into overtime, and I only lost by one cup. While we played, we talked quite a bit. It was good to finally converse with someone. Usually, Charles and I don't talk that much. I still think it's because he's like, hardcore asian, and speaks Chinese the majority of the time. Anyway, I took a break for the next game, but then Matt and I were teammates against the guys from upstairs, who came down to challenge us. We played with the setup I first played when I started playing beer pong - six cups, one beer per person. I remember that they won the eye-to-eye shot to see who went first, but I wrote it off by saying "That's okay. It's the only shot you'll make all night." Of course, Matt and I dominated that game. We won by at least four cups. We played another game after that, which I think we lost, and after that, I was too wasted to care. I ended up puking in the trash can by the end of the night, and I crashed out on the couch.

I woke up in the morning to loud fucking music blasting through the stereo, which could be turned down not by remote, but by my getting up and turning down the iPod that it was connected to. That pissed me off, but at least I woke up early. Matt was asleep in his room, but he had left a cup of water out for me to drink when I woke up. Being the only one up, I cleaned up the apartment. I grouped all of the plastic cups together and put them in two even stacks on the beer pong table, emptied all the beer cans and started a pyramid with them in the corner of the balcony, and even got bored enough to evenly space the XBOX and Wii controllers on the table, along with the bottles of water that were still partially full. I discovered that I didn't quite manage to get everything in the trash can the night before, so I cleaned up my puke on the chair and carpet as much as I could, but I didn't want to use any towels that weren't meant for that kind of cleaning, so I resorted to using paper towels. I explained my cleaning methods in a note, left it on the chair, and then packed up and went back to my place, where I spent the majority of the day feeling like shit. I puked after I got home, too, which was not nice. The next week in class, Jonathan (the guy who introduced me to all of his frat buddies) told me that my note was framed because, haha. I haven't been over to Matt's place yet, so I don't know if he's bullshitting me or not.

The past week, all I've been doing is schoolwork. There was so much due this week. That's why I couldn't write in this blog. The midterm for POSC which I didn't think I did that bad on... I got a C- on, 73.75%. The last Writing assignment, though, Assignment #3, got a B, which I got pretty excited about. My second midterm in Calculus got a 60%, which was still above the average of 53.76%, but was much worse than the 83% I got on the first midterm.

I go home this week. I'm pretty excited about that =D
Chris reminded me about www.megabus.com, where I bought my bus tickets back for Thanksgiving weekend for only $60. On a non-holiday weekend, I can actually get bus tickets home for only $30, and in the middle of the week, I can actually got home for only $16. I doubt I'll ever go home in the middle of the week, but that's still really cool. I'm gonna try to take my Powerizers home with me to show everybody. That should be fun.

They finally replaced my broken refrigerator yesterday, which started malfunctioning two weeks after I got here. I'm really glad that they finally did. Now I can have cereal for breakfast every morning, like I used to.

That's it.
Bye.
Vaniah Juniper Schwenoha

You never expect it to happen to you

7 November 2007

11:07 PM

I suppose that can be said of anything.
You never expect to get in a car accident.
You never expect to fall in love with someone.
...You never expect to wake up and be told that your brother was seriously injured.

My sister, Angela, called at about 10:00 this morning, which woke me up. I was pretty drowsy, so I accidentally hung up on her while fumbling with my phone. She texted me, I explained what happened, and she called back. I wasn't really sure why she was calling, so I thought it odd for her to be calling me so early, when normally she'd call in the afternoon to talk or she'd just text me. Obviously, family matters are too urgent to send in text messages. Here's how the story goes...

My brother Victor flew in to Vegas on Tuesday because his friend Walter's dad had recently passed away, and Victor wanted to pay his respects. He was only supposed to be in town for a day, and fly back on Wednesday (today) because he had a meeting or something important to attend. Well, I guess he went out last night, to Walter's house. The way Victor told it, according to my dad, was that Walter's dog, a basset hound, hadn't seen Victor in a long time, so it was uncomfortable around him, and growled at him all night. Victor was just petting the dog, and all of a sudden, it freaked out and bit Victor's face. I would never expect a basset hound to really be capable or likely to cause that much damage, since it's not a particularly tall or aggressive breed. Apparently, though, the dog's bite went through Victor's cheek, and sent him to the hospital, where he received numerous stitches. Angela said he got 23, but my dad said it took 29 to patch him up. Either way, the wound is obviously large. My dad emailed a picture of it to me. If you want to see it, IM, email, or message me on MySpace or Facebook. I'd rather not just post it in here for anybody in the world to see.

Victor's still pretty woozy right now, from what I hear. If not from the sedative they gave him while he was at the hospital, then from the pain killers he was prescribed along with his antibiotics. My dad says his lips are so swollen around the wound that he can't close his mouth, and thus can't even suck anything through a straw. Chewing's out of question as well, so until the swelling goes down, he's going to have to get his nutition from some liquid superfoods that my sister bought for him. He has to stay in Vegas until at least next week, which must have a large impact on his studies and plans back in Fremont.

Angela said my mom's been really brash about the whole situation. She thinks the dog should be put down. I'm not sure how anybody's going to go about that situation. She also thinks Victor's going to need plastic surgery to make his face look the way it used to. My dad called about plastic surgery, but they said they typically wouldn't look at what needed to be done until after the wounds subsided. Angela says that the doctors who stitched him up would have suggested plastic surgery if they thought it necessary.

Angela's pretty rational when it comes to just about any situation. She's capable of looking at the big picture before deciding on a plan of action, as opposed to always acting on first instinct. I really wish I were more like that. She's the one who suggested to me that filing a claim with the insurance company for my stolen computer probably wouldn't be of any use because the cost of the parts wouldn't reach the deductible rate. She's also very educated, which helps in situations like the current one. She went out and bought the superfoods, some mineral water that's better for Victor's healing, and I think some ointments or treatments that will reduce the visibility of the scar. I should start reading into things like that - thing with practical uses - in preparation for unexpected things like this.

Thinking about it, my siblings have been through some painful experiences in their lives. I think my oldest brother Richard was the one who broke his collarbone when he got run over by a motorcycle (I think the story I've heard actually somehow places my other brother David on that motorcycle =x). My brother David crashed his motorcycle when he hit a pothole. That was when I was young, and I remember I would piggyback on him while he would do leaning push-ups against the wall with one arm while his broken arm was recovering. Angela was in a hit-and-run accident when I was very little that put her in the hospital, and she also got pretty banged up when she was riding on the back of a motorcycle with a guy and they ended up crashing. And now Victor's been in this incident, which could result in a significant change in appearance that can't be concealed as easily as the asphalt in my sister's knee. Though, thinking more, I realize my siblings are all very lucky in that things could have turned out worse. Victor could have lost an eye from that bite; Angela and David could have had the same fate as CJ. They are alright, though. They are still capable of using both arms and legs, of moving all fingers and toes. Through it all, my family members have been quite lucky in regard to their injuries.

Well, I wanted to write about some other stuff, but it doesn't really fit the mood of this entry, so I'll save it for a later date. It's better that I got this important stuff down first. I actually wrote a lot more than I initially thought I was going to.

Until next time.
Be safe out there.
Vaniah Juniper Schwenoha

WRIT 140 Assignment #3

Vaniah Schwenoha
Stephan Clark
WRIT 140/POSC 130
Fall 2007/Section 64180
1 November 2007
Assignment 3

The Internet Can’t Make It Uphill In Neutral

Holden McNeil, when attempting to explain the concept of the Internet to his oblivious friends in the adventure/comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, states, “The Internet has given everybody in America a voice.” If only the Internet were as simple as Holden summarized it, there wouldn’t be controversial debate concerning the methods in which people should be able to make their voices heard. In truth, the companies that control the usage of the physical resources required to transfer information over the Internet – the broadband providers – are responsible for the distribution of information from those who host web sites – the content providers. Broadband providers control bandwidth – the speed at which information reaches those who access it – in two different ways, both typically based on price. First, they charge different rates for different bandwidths to those accessing the information, which is generally seen as fair because each person is granted equal opportunity to decide which bandwidth to use. Second, broadband providers charge different rates for different bandwidths to content providers, thus deciding how fast information gets out to those who access it. Because, in the latter of the two methods, end-users aren’t given a choice of bandwidth for the information they’re trying to access, there exists the debate on equality of voice. Advocates of what has been fittingly named “network neutrality” desire for everybody’s voice on the Internet to carry equal weight, and want to implement laws that would ensure such equality by requiring broadband providers not to allot higher bandwidths to wealthy content providers simply because they can pay more for it. By establishing uniform rates for all content providers, broadband providers would thus remain neutral in information distribution, and would give end-users the freedom to choose which Internet applications and sites to use, as opposed to choosing preferred applications or sites because they load faster.

The concept of net neutrality seems at first glance to be as straightforward as First Amendment rights to free speech, but in fact, the issue is extremely complex, and requires one to consider many aspects of broadband Internet usage. For example, opposition to net neutrality comes from those who claim that equal bandwidth for all would be economically unnecessary for many content providers and would diminish the overall efficiency of the Internet because of the limited resources available to handle bandwidth distribution. Politically, these proponents of a tiered bandwidth system are in favor of more lenient regulations, while advocates of net neutrality are on the offensive, pushing for broadband providers to have less discretion in the distribution of their bandwidth. Ideally, net neutrality would benefit all users only if the resources available could supply the demand for bandwidth and if those resources were reasonably affordable to be used by all content providers. Until those criteria are met, however, employing a tiered system of bandwidth usage to the Internet serves as the most efficient method of distributing information.

Having a broadband Internet connection simply means having a high-speed Internet connection. Technological advancements yielded the broadband movement, which enabled information to travel across the same copper-based phone network at higher bandwidths. However, the Internet is expanding continuously, and in most areas, technology isn’t. Consequently, the same bandwidth must accommodate greater amounts of information. This dilemma makes net neutrality difficult to accomplish. If it were implemented, bandwidth would be distributed evenly among all available content. Opponents of net neutrality argue that many of applications on the Internet, such as text-based content and still-image websites, don’t need the level of bandwidth they would receive by taking away from the more complex applications, such as streaming video and real-time gaming environments. Taking bandwidth from applications that need it would result in a diminished “quality of service” guarantee between broadband providers to content providers (Singer 36).

The next flaw in net neutrality concerns the economic injustices of sharing bandwidth. In the tiered Internet system, broadband providers can establish contracts with content providers such as game companies to ensure that an enhanced quality of service is upheld, and that applications intended to run in real-time can remain usable (Singer 36). Net neutrality calls for broadband providers to “Enable any content, application, or service” to be offered in a nondiscriminatory way, “including with respect to quality of service, access, speed, and bandwidth,” which would result in voidance of such contracts and decrease profits for broadband providers (United 2). Further, net neutrality would prohibit broadband providers from implementing different rates in the first place, since no content provider would receive higher bandwidth priority than any other. To put it simply, net neutrality would require a broadband provider to charge the same fee to a large content provider such as Google or Amazon as it charges to small content providers, such as a local retail business. As a result, one of two consequences could occur. Either, charges for smaller content providers would skyrocket to compensate for the money lost through lowering charges for large content providers, or all bandwidth charges would disappear entirely to accommodate a non-discriminatory Internet environment. In the first case, the small content providers would pay extra money for bandwidth they don’t need while large content providers would receive lower bandwidth than demanded for their applications. Content providers then would “cause content providers to reduce their investment in new [quality-of-service]-needy content,” which would lead to a large technological step backward by getting rid of many real-time and high-definition applications (Singer 40). In the second case, broadband providers would suffer economically, which seems harmful to only them until the resource factor is considered. The broadband providers are the ones working to expand bandwidth capabilities within their networks, and will fail to advance in doing so if their economic resources are cut short. By keeping a tiered system of bandwidth distribution now, broadband providers can keep economic burden off the small content providers and still acquire the funds needed to support projects to expand network capabilities, such as building Verizon’s fiber optic network, which “is… capable of offering bandwidth pipes much fatter than DSL and potentially cable (Weiss 22).” Then, after new lines have been laid down that can support high-speed data transfer for all, net neutrality principles can work efficiently.

Most of the net neutrality debate centers around businesses, but in the end, the end-users are the ones who may be affected most. Under net neutrality, broadband providers would have to minimize services because of resource restrictions, which would result in a deteriorated Internet experience for end-users, who often desire content of the highest quality, such as high-definition video and cutting-edge applications, such as real-time interaction. Economically, net neutrality could place burdens on individuals as well. Consider the two alternative consequences of net neutrality mentioned above. If the first case were to occur, small content providers might need to charge more to those who access their information in order to compensate for their raised costs of service. By retaining a tiered system of bandwidth distribution, only end-users who use the most bandwidth-intensive applications, such as real-time video games, would need to pay premium rates, while those who only access information from “content providers who do not require higher [quality of service], which is the majority of sites out there right now” would only need to pay for their initial service, the price of which being determined by the end-user’s choice of bandwidth (Singer 40). If the second case were to occur, end-users might expect not only a deteriorated Internet experience because of bandwidth restrictions, but possibly also raised costs in initial service, instead of costs set forth by content providers. Broadband providers would lose revenue from contract holders under net neutrality, and might decide to make up for the losses by raising bandwidth charges for consumers. Though, the consumer market wouldn’t stand for costs as high as the $140 proposed by Richard Clarke for Internet service, much less the $466 proposed for Internet and HDTV service (Singer 39). Therefore, prices would go up and disturb end-users, but the increase wouldn’t nearly make up for the money lost through voided contracts from content providers with quality-of-service-needy content, and the hope of laying down lines with fatter bandwidth pipes in the near future would simply turn into another pipe dream. The only way to work toward a more capable network would be to keep a tiered system and keep profits flowing in.

Network neutrality looks like a great idea on paper, but so too do many other systems which do not succeed in practice. With the somewhat chaotic expansion of size and amount of content on the Internet within only a couple of decades, the concept of regulating such a massive collection of services and applications is difficult to go about doing. It seems that, until technological capacity surpasses content capacity, net neutrality will not yield positive results for any particular player in the Internet game, from broadband provider to end-user. Still, there may be hope in the future for net neutrality. Until technology advances further, however, the voices Holden McNeil claimed everyone has will have to range from yell to whisper.

Come Together

28 October 2007

3:51 PM

Well, I was right about last weekend. I just watched the football game on Saturday afternoon, went to Smart & Final and Ralph's to get some groceries, and sat around the apartment the rest of the weekend, partly just slacking off and chilling, partly trying to read some of the material I should've known about for my midterm. On Monday, I took my Powerizers out again, just for the hell of it. I took them about half a mile away or more to the closest McDonald's, where I had lunch. It was the first time I had taken them outside the apartment complex and not fallen. I was pretty stoked about that. Though, I will still be wearing protective gear when I get it, just because I don't like being scabbed and bruised everywhere. Later in the night, a friend, Kathy, and I made plans for dinner. When she came over, we didn't know what we wanted. We were gonna order something from http://www.dormroomdeliveries.com/, but we couldn't decide on what to get, so we ordered a pizza instead. We ate it while watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She said she wanted to watch it because her boyfriend was reading it, and always talked about it. I lent her my copy of the book to read, too. I should probably re-read that novel, because I can't remember all of it. I think I a lot of the book was in the movie, but I don't remember if the endings were the same. Even though I probably would've been better off reading and studying instead of watching a movie and chit-chatting, I enjoyed the company.

On Tuesday night, there was another presentation in Bovard Auditorium that I had to go to for my WRIT 140 class. Well, since I didn't have to carry anything with me to it, I decided to take my Powerizers, haha. Because so many people ask about them when I go in public with them, I made some sort-of unofficial business cards to hand out so people could remember them more easily when they wanted to look them up online. Here's what they look like:
I cut out about 25 of them initially, and I'm down now to about 3, haha. However, with as many as I've handed out to curious people, I haven't seen any of them add me on Facebook or MySpace yet. That kinda sucks, because I'm still looking for more friends, but whatever. When I got to the auditorium, I was allowed in with my Powerizers, but when I got up near my seat on the top balcony, I was asked to leave them with the ushers so they wouldn't take up a lot of space around me in the seating area. Well, the presentation was alright. It was about rap and hip-hop music, like the last one, but even though this one had more variety in it, like a DJ, some interpretive dancing, and a fellow Trojan singer, it didn't interest me as much as the debate from last time. I think it was partly because the acoustics on the top balcony aren't that great, so I couldn't clearly hear everything the speaker was saying. Last time, I was way up in the second row, and could hear everything.

After the speaker series, I went down to Parkside to get dinner before going back home to study. Handed out some more cards to people I passed, talked to one guy who had seen them before and claimed he's wanted a pair for awhile, and gave him a little demonstration as I jogged away. Dinner wasn't bad, but I didn't get to finish, because there was a fire drill. Ugh. They gave me a ticket so they would know that I was there initially, and not to charge me for another meal, but I had eaten enough by then, so I figured I'd just go home and have some Easy Mac or something if I got hungry again. Plus, with so many people outside because of the fire drill, it was a perfect time to strap up my Powerizers and strike interest. I didn't stick around long after I got them on, but I could tell everybody was staring at me... Mainly because I was standing at least a foot above everybody else, and could see their faces, haha.

Wednesday was fun because it was the first day I took my Powerizers to class. Well, only one class... I went to Calc and Intro to CECS in my rollerblades, but then came back for the hour and a half between Intro to CECS and my Engineering Freshman Academy class so I could take them. I took what I thought I might need in a small briefcase, but from now on, if I need to take anything, I'm going to try to wear it on my back, because the briefcase kept getting clipped on the 'risers whenever my leg came up. Hopefully I'll gain more stamina as I use them more and more, because so far, I haven't been able to run for long periods of time without having to stop and walk for a minute to catch my breath. I also work up a good sweat whenever I run a lot, so I need to figure out how to go out on these and not show up somewhere dripping wet and smelling like shit. I kept my 'risers on and sat on a table near the door until most people in the class showed up, just to spark some interest, haha. The professor thought they were awesome when he saw them, and said he wanted a pair. I can't wait until a few weeks from now, when I can take the class outside and demonstrate a flip or two.

Wednesday night was where the school week started going downhill fast. I tried to read up for my midterm, but couldn't keep my mind on what I was reading because I was so tired, so I took a nap for an hour or two, woke up at about 11:00 or 11:30 at night, and then read and studied until about 4:00, when I finally went to sleep. I then woke back up at about 7:30 to study some more. Luckily, my WRIT 140 class was cancelled because we were doing conferences this week with the instructor, so I had an extra hour to study before POSC, and the dreaded midterm. Overall, I don't think it was as bad as I was making it out to be. I failed to mention a few key terms in my identifications, but I think I also hit on a good majority of the material that I was expected to know about. I debated going to Calc afterward, but went anyway, just to hand in my homework. Honestly, I don't have to pay much attention in the lab sessions for Calc if I finish my homework beforehand, because the TA pretty much just does our homework for us on the board. I didn't do anything for the rest of the day, because I wanted to wind down a bit before going straight back into work. I even went to the engineering school's talent show at 6:00, which wasn't bad. Most acts were singing, instrument-playing, or dancing, but a few acts were decent. One of the frats had a bunch of engineers come and crank dat Soulja Boy as an act, which was kinda funny, but I don't think anybody really knew what they were doing well enough to make it look good. After the first two runs of the chorus, the entire thing fell apart because the music changed beat and the dancers didn't. It was really poorly organized. Whatev. At least I got some free nachos and cotton candy.

At night, I napped again, then stayed up late researching and prewriting for my net neutrality essay, taking naps somewhere in the middle. I just about finished everything I intended to have ready for the conference by about 11:00, but was too fed up with my work to go to class, so I skipped Calc for the second Friday in a row and took another short nap. Then I got ready for my conference, which was at 12:50. I'd say the conference went well. The instructor changed the schedule around so each student would have a 20-minute conference instead of a 15-minute one. Last conference, I don't even think I made it to the end of 15 minutes before I was out of stuff to talk about, but this time, I was surprised that I had taken up the entire 20 minutes, even though I told him at the beginning of the conference that because of all the studying I had to do for POSC, I had only started researching and writing the day before/morning of. I think everything went better because I'm way more interested in net neutrality than political cartoons. I'm sure it's an engineering thing, since this new topic atually has something to do with computers.

After the conference, I dropped my backpack off in the apartment and headed down to the E-quad (engineering quad) for Viterbi Spotlight, which was this thing for freshman engineers that promoted each engineering field with the intent to gain interest from people who weren't sure what they wanted to do. I only checked out the computer science, electrical engineering, and industrial engineering booths. Electrical engineering seems pretty cool. One of my professors who was there said that if I really wanted to work with hardware fabrication, I could go either way, into CECS or EE. After I finished checking out the booths, I grabbed some free food that they had. The event was catered by Earle's Grill, and I had a cheeseburger and some chili-cheese fries. They were pretty good. I talked to one of the Freshman Academy coaches, Harry, who graduated from Clark High School in '06. He said he's not going back to Vegas for Thanksgiving, but his roommate might be going, so I might be able to hitch a ride home with him, which would save me a lot of money. We'll see how that turns out.

After the barbecue, I came back to the apartment to drop off my rollerblades and strap on my Powerizers again. I went down to the quad on them and then took them off to tumble in the field. The grass was wet, which wasn't nice for tumbling, but I managed. Eventually, some familiar faces came by with frisbees, and I threw around with them for at least an hour. I'm getting a bit better at throwing with different techniques, which is cool. After everybody left, I went to Jamba Juice and then back home to shower and rest. I kinda wanted to see Saw IV, but really was okay with going out to see any movie at all. Jourdan was down to go, but of the three movies playing at the closest movie theater, she wanted to see The Comebacks. We waited until the next showtime to go, but when we finally left, I double-checked Fandango and found out I was wrong about the time, and that we were half an hour late for The Comebacks, which started at 9:30, and actually on time to see 30 Days of Night at 10:00. Well, she was fine with seeing that movie, but our plans went to shit once again when we got there to find out that they only took cash. This was a problem because I didn't have enough money in my bank account to make an ATM withdrawal and she didn't have enough cash to spot me, so she returned her ticket and we just headed back to my place and watched Chasing Amy. Afterward, we were gonna drink, but with it being just us two, it didn't really seem like a fun idea, so we just talked and hung out until we got tired. She crashed out on the couch, and left in the morning sometime.

Woke up on Saturday and watched the game, which I usually do whenever it's televised and I don't have other plans. We lost again, which sucked. I was sore from the previous day's activities, so I didn't plan on going out to do anything, but I eventually ended up going out. Alex, Dallas, and Alexa drove out to go to Knott's for the annual Halloween Haunt. Since Knott's is only 25 miles away from me, they came and picked me up to go with them. I was still broke, so Dallas paid for all of my stuff. I'll pay him back within the next two weeks. We had a bit of trouble getting in, because Alex, Dallas, and Alexa had tickets, but the event was sold out by the time we got there and I was too sore and too much of a chickenshit to try to sneak in and make a run through the crowd to avoid getting caught by security. Dallas and I walked around the entire park looking for an entrance, to no avail. As we were scouting, though, some guy walked by, saw what we were doing, and offered us his extra ticket for $40. He was with some kids, and looked honest, so we followed him to the entrance, where Dallas got some cash from Alex to help pay for it, and we all went in.

Knott's was packed! Like, too crowded to be able to sit against a wall without having to bring your feet in close to avoid getting stepped on. We only really went on one ride, and the rest of the time, we walked through the haunted mazes, which weren't bad. We also got some funnel cake right before the park closed at 2:00, which was delicious. Afterward, we took Alexa to Alberto's because we thought we were going to sit down and eat with her sisters and cousins, but it turned out everybody just went through the drive-thru, so that was pretty pointless. Finally, we left Alexa with her family, and Dallas and Alex took me back to my apartment before they started their drive home.

I'm glad they decided to pick me up and take me with them. It's always really fun to hang out with friends from Vegas whenever they come out to visit. It would've been more fun with more people, but oh well. This visit was still fun, and very much needed after such a long week of schoolwork.

I talked to Dallas about the whole situation with Niki while we were waiting in line for a haunted maze. He said he plans on helping Niki pay back his mom and Sarah, but he doesn't have the money right now. I'm glad I asked him about it, because Niki's been too much of a titch lately to ask about it. He said he doesn't like asking people to pay him. Luckily, I don't give a fuck, haha. I'll probably talk to Chris soon about giving Dallas the $25 I transferred to his bank account to pay for the parking ticket they got last time they were here. If Chris is going to hound Niki for the money for Maricella's birthday party, he better expect me to hound him for the money he owes to people. I don't even know if he kept his word and gave my router back to my dad yet... I'm getting kinda critical of others now =/ Maybe a little bit of Niki rubbing off? Haha. I'm over it. Lately, Niki's been my only feed into the lives of everybody back in Vegas, so I've only got his view to go off of.

Well, this entry's getting long enough. I think it should be enough to keep you busy. Special birthday shoutout to Sarah =D Hope your weekend with Niki, Rachel, and Salome was a blast =)

Hands held high,
Vaniah Schwenoha

P.S. ~ I spent the past week listening pretty much only to the Minutes to Midnight and Across the Universe albums, so that's where the title and outro come from.

A Trojan with a giant Achilles tendon

20 October 2007

1:59 PM

That's how the guy in this video referred to them - as a huge Achilles tendon.

Well, I got my Powerizers exactly a week after I ordered them, on Tuesday. They are really hard to use, haha. Something about the way they're positioned causes them to knock into each other every once in awhile. Also, you have to make sure to lift your foot high when you take steps, because if your foot's too low, it's kinda like dragging your foot, but the foot of the Powerizer will catch the ground and result in a stumble. Those are the main reasons I've fallen on them so far. I took them on campus for the first time on Thursday afternoon. A few people asked about them, which was cool. On the way back, going though the parking lot, I figured I had space, so I'd try to get a small run in. Well, that ended up being a bad idea, because like I said, something got caught up in the middle of it and I toppled over pretty hard. I found out that when I fall, I turn onto my left side, haha. Right now, I have bruises on the palms of both of my hands, my left elbow, and the under-side of my right knee and I have both scabs and bruises on my left knee and my left shoulder. I'm gonna wait for those to heal, and for my protective gear to show up, before I try anything else on them. My parents gave me $200 to buy gear, and I spent about $150 on some stuff at http://www.getjumpingstilts.com/, but I need to find a couple more things too, like wrist guards and maybe even shoulder pads.

The other guy I know at USC with a pair of Powerizers sent me a video last night of him at the track field learning front flips on his. His look a lot easier for him to bounce on than mine are. Hopefully mine get broken in soon, because I can hardly bounce on mine right now.

I'm really gonna have to watch myself on these things. I just turned on the TV and caught the end of a program before the football game. The program was about a BMX biker who bailed during a competition and ended up a quadriplegic. It made me think about how something like that can happen at any time. If I'm not careful in what I do, tumbling or using my Powerizers, I could end up the same way.

Yesterday was probably the first day in a little over a week that I've hung out with anybody outside of class. I went to Parkside restaurant with Jourdan, and I also hung out with her later on in her apartment. We were both doing homework, so it wasn't really exciting or anything, but it was nice just not to be alone. I don't expect to do anything big this weekend because I have a midterm in POSC 130 on Thursday to study for and I need to get some research and prewriting done by Friday for my third assignment in WRIT 140. My second assignment for my Writing class got a C/C+, whatever that means. I forgot to post it in here. Maybe I will soon. Oh well. I figure it's just too hard to get good grades in my GE's, so I'll let my other classes make up for it. This next essay should be more interesting for me because it's about restrictions on the Internet. I'm going to cover net neutrality, I think. I should get a lot of work done as soon as I can on that because my brother might come visit sometime within the next two weeks because his term is almost over.

I talk online with Niki like, every night. I enjoy it, because I don't keep much contact with anyone else from back home. I wish I talked to more people. That's partly my fault too, though, because I don't make many efforts to get in contact with them. Niki really wants Chris and Dallas to help pay his debts to his mom and Sarah. I asked Chris about it the other day and he said he might just do it gradually by paying for little things like meals and movies. That may be a way of paying Niki, but it doesn't do much to pay the people Niki owes, who really should get the money. Even with the way Chris talked about dealing with it, it didn't seem like he meant it, because he expected Niki to pay him back money that he spent on Maricella's birthday party last week.

I'm out of things to talk about. Sorry most of this is just facts, and not really thoughts. Hopefully I can write more about how I feel about things when I get some more time to think.

Have fun
Vaniah Schwenoha

Urgh

13 October 2007

11:58 PM

I can't wait until I have my car. I'll be up in Vegas once every other weekend, and I won't be fuckin' down all the time because I'm missing out on good times with my friends...

Vaniah Schwenoha

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

12 October 2007

11:02 PM

Academic update: C on my first WRIT 140 essay, C+ on my POSC 130 essay.
I'm totally over it. I'm just gonna let my GE classes fuck my GPA. But they can't be so screwed that I don't get the MGM Mirage Family Scholarship next year. My mom needs all the help she can get to pay for my tuition =/

I only managed to squeeze out a little over four pages for my essay about political cartoons that was supposed to be 5-7 pages long. Most other people I talked to had trouble writing a lot, too. That's good for me because I won't be the only person who failed to meet the length requirement. I'm just glad I got anything written down after putting the thing off for so long. I started writing the essay at like, 5:00 PM the day before it was due. I might've worked on it over the weekend if my friends weren't in town. Speaking of... Let's move on to the fun stuff =)

I stayed up pretty late on Thursday night waiting for the guys to show up, but not late enough, since Dallas' car was running too hot on the way here, so they had to drive slower, and since they got a little lost just before they got here. They woke me up at about 4:20, when they were outside. They parked in one of the lots that required a parking permit, and as a result, found a ticket for $50 placed on the windshield the next day =x. Whatev. We decided to split it four ways to make it even. We chilled in my apartment for a couple hours before going to sleep, getting set up with the bed situation and whatnot.

When I woke up Friday morning and got ready to go to Calculus, it definitely didn't look like anybody was willing to go with me, as they had all planned to. The only one consciously awake when I left was Dallas, who would've gone if I didn't have to be in class in ten minutes, or if he had had his own transportation (I was in my rollerblades, as always).

I should mention here that a couple weeks ago, I replaced my rollerblade wheels and bearings. For the first couple weeks, the back wheel on my right skate rolled funny, like it was lop-sided. I just figured it had slid too much once while breaking, and that part of the wheel was worn down too much. After long enough, however, it became apparent that the case was not the condition of the rubber, but of the wheel itself. The plastic casing was actually what was broken, causing part of the wheel to bend in every time I put weight on it. Eventually, the break in the plastic got worse, and it got to the point where I couldn't take it. So, I borrowed Charles' bike and headed out to Sport Chalet. Keep in mind that Charles' bike was designed for children under 4' tall, that his front tire was flat when I first got on it, and that the area around USC isn't the safest place to be traveling alone. I rode the bike to the nearest car wash to fill the tires up on air, and then proceeded to ride the rest of the 7.2 mile journey to Sport Chalet. Crazy, I know. It wasn't a good idea, considering I don't know the streets in LA at all and by the time I left Sport Chalet, it was already dark. I think it was good for me, though. It got me out of this little bubble of a neighborhood I've been in since I moved here, and it helped me gain some knowledge of the businesses around here, not to mention I have new wheels that are about two centimeters wider than my old ones, which makes going over cracks in the sidewalk a lot smoother.

Well, now that I've gone completely off topic...

I went to class, bought some milk on the way back so the guys could have breakfast, and then hung out in the apartment for awhile. After everybody had showered and gotten ready, we left for the movie theater to catch Across the Universe. Well, we got kinda lost on the way, and since it is LA, we hit decent traffic, so we didn't make it to the movie theater on time. Once we got to The Grove, where the movie theater was, we decided to go instead to see Resident Evil: Extinction first, and then movie hop to Across the Universe. I really enjoyed both movies. The plots of the Resident Evil movies are decent, and those movies are filled with action and sexy actresses, so I don't have anything to complain about. Across the Universe was really, really good. I know I always say I'm an Elvis guy as opposed to a Beatles guy, but this musical-movie was spectacular. It made me wish I listened to more Beatles music, because if I had, I'd have understood more of the little quirks that related to the Beatles. Maybe I will start listening to them more.

After the movies, we came back to my apartment, hung out for a bit, and then went to Parkside Restaurant for dinner. On the way there, I made a deal with the guys that I would pay the share of the parking ticket to the person who stole me the most silverware, because the silverware I currently had had already rusted. It was a fair trade, getting silverware for $12.50 plus the $36 of my meal plan's dining dollars I had to pay to get the guys into the restaurant because they wouldn't let me use my meals on anybody but myself. In the end, Dallas, with 21 pieces of silverware, lost to Chris, with 24 pieces. Though, it was an even closer call than that, because Chris took two soup spoons, which I totally don't think I'm ever going to need to use, haha!

While we were eating, we talked about a lot of stuff. Nothing really specific - nothing that stuck out in my mind - just talked. We joked around a lot, and couldn't stop laughing because of it and because of the noises that Dallas and Chris' pockets were making with so much silverware in them. I think it was at the table that night in the cafeteria that I realized how much I was enjoying myself. I hadn't been that happy or had that much fun since before I left Las Vegas. It made me realize that these guys will always be my best friends. No distance or time interval between our visits will limit the amount of joy we bring each other by just hanging out and being ourselves. It gave me a real feeling of security.

After dinner, we laughed our way back to the apartment, Chris and Dallas' pockets jingling all the way. The initial plan was to find some parties on Friday night, but we were a little worn out from the day by the time night rolled around. Dallas fell asleep early, followed by Chris, and I crashed out waiting for Niki to finish his online poker tournament. The next day, all of us but Niki were up by noon, and went to Chipotle for lunch. We brought Niki back a burrito, but he didn't eat much of it, so he left it in the fridge for me to finish off. It was a good thing that I didn't invite a whole lot of people to my place to party that night, because we decided instead to go visit Dallas' cousin Chris O in Mission Viejo. We drove the 60 miles out to his house, met up with him and his friend Ashley, and then drove out to T-Street, the beach relatively nearby. It was kinda fun trying to catch waves on boogie boards, but I think I enjoyed tumbling on the beach the most. The last time I had gone to the beach, I could do a standing back tuck, but I couldn't do many back handsprings in a row. I think I did at least seven or eight in a row on the sand.

After the beach, all of the guys quickly showered at Chris O's house and then we went to the football game at Mission Viejo High School. The home team was playing a team with a higher rank than theirs, but everything about the game was impressive nonetheless. The stadium seats were concrete, as opposed to the really shitty ones at Durango High. Since the other team was nationally ranked, the game was nationally televised. The field was a rich green and it was painted with just as much vibrance. The marching band, which Chris O tells us is the best high school marching band in the nation, was amazing at the half-time show. The cheerleaders were pretty good, too. I didn't see any of them do any fulls or anything like that, but I'm sure they could have if they wanted to, because their back tucks were really high.

Shortly after the start of the second half, we all decided to leave because the game had already been lost to the visiting team. We went back to Chris O's, all but Chris and Ashley went out to pick up Taco Bell, and after we finished and Chris O's parents had gone to sleep, we started to drink the Bacardi and Skyy I brought. Chris went to sleep, because he didn't want to drink. I played a little ping-pong, which was fun, but nothing was really that interesting while it was just Niki, Dallas, Chris O, and me drinking. Later in the night, Chris O's friends Bryce and Kaya came over with a couple of girls, Michelle and Allie. I thought Allie was pretty cute, but by the time everybody showed up, I was too drunk to do anything about it. We drank a little more, then decided to go down the street to the park by Chris O's house. I got the bright idea in my head to do more back handsprings, which went well... until I collapsed in the middle of one and bit the inside of my upper lip/lightly scraped my upper lip/nearly broke my nose. Haha! I also participated in a foot race at the park, for some reason; don't ask me why. After heading back to Chris O's, I don't remember much at all. I woke up the next day and asked everybody to assure me that I hadn't puked at any point last night. Chris O told me I snored so loud that people left, haha. Niki also said that I got in some kind of dispute over which Soulja Boy dance is better. After I woke up, I was still a little drunk/hungover, and it showed when Chris O's mom talked to me about my SAT's and I couldn't quickly add up my score from the first time I took them. Other than the addition, I guess I managed to hold a decent conversation.

We drove back from Chris O's, everybody grabbed their stuff, and we headed out to Dallas' car to say our goodbyes. Once packed up, however, Dallas' car wouldn't start. We couldn't tell what was wrong with it, but eventually, after letting it sit long enough, it did start. We said goodbye one more time and they were on their way.

That entire weekend was the best I've had in a long time. I can't wait until I have a car. Whenever I get a weekend that isn't too restricted by homework, I'm going to drive up to Vegas to hang out with my friends.

Well, here it is, October 12th, and I've kept my word from a couple entries back. After all was said and done, I managed to maintain my financial goal. After transferring $25 to Chris for the parking ticket, paying for the things I did over the weekend, and transferring $10 to Niki to protect him from overdrafting, I had $233.26 left in my bank account. My mom added $200 to that on Tuesday, which made just enough to buy my Powerizers for $429.99. I ordered them as soon as I got a chance. They're in transit now. By the next time I post, I should have a little bit of practice time in on them. I'm pretty excited, heh. Until next week, though, I have to manage not to spend anything, because I only have $3.13 left in my bank account ($0.14 to Chris to save him from overdrafting).

My tumbling gets better every time I go out to the quad. Yesterday, I did a standing back handspring, back tuck, back handspring, back tuck, back handspring, and I think I did a few good X-outs, too. I also joined some people yesterday who were playing frisbee, and caught the frisbee once in mid-backflip. Though, I for sure need to get better at throwing frisbees, haha.

I went to this thing in my RA's apartment last night that was kinda about the Islamic celebration of Eid. The only informative thing about it was contained in a couple of printed pages that explained it, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. At first, people were waiting for others to show up, so a couple of guys and I started a small poker tournament - no money involved, just chips. I played a fairly tight game, and ended up in second place. I probably could've won if the other guy and I had played seriously at the end, but by then, there were enough people there to be, as Anthony Cools says, 'sociable,' so I just ended it. I met a lot of Pakistani people and others, most with names I couldn't say correctly at first, much less spell. One girl reminded me a bit of Nikita, with her sarcasm and such, but if I got to know her more, she'd probably turn out to be cooler, probably because Nikita's a titch. If I can find her on Facebook, I'll talk to her - if not in pursuit of a relationship, then just for another friend around here, which I still need more of.

I'm done writing for now. I hope you enjoyed. I certainly did.

Be easy
Vaniah Schwenoha

Preparations

2 October 2007

10:09 PM

I was just down at Parkside restaurant - the cafeteria embedded in one of the residence halls here - and something very interesting happened. Being the bit of a loner that I am, and being that it was 8:30, and most people I know had already eaten, I sat down at an empty table by myself to have dinner. No later than 30 seconds after I sat down, a man at the table next to mine turned around and introduced himself - Garland. He asked my name, asked how to spell it and what origin it held, and proceeded to introduce me to a couple of his roommates/suitemates. Now, I don't necessarily see myself as a particularly outstanding person when it comes to physically attractive features, but this guy had an attitude that just seemed too friendly to me. Naturally, I started to worry that I was being hit on, especially after his friends left and he stayed to chat with me a little longer. I never found out whether or not he was gay. What I did find out was that, seemingly innocent in his initial background questions toward me, he was really setting up the conversation for something very influential in his mindset.

When I told him my name, he asked where it came from. When I told him it was from the Old Testament, he took note of it, and shortly after, he picked the topic back up by asking if I followed the Bible. He found it particularly funny when I replied with "Not really... I'm Agnostic." After he expressed his amusement, he tried to correct me by changing 'not really' to 'definitely not.' I told him it was a better response than telling him I was an atheist, and he asked why. I made the distinction between the two by claiming that an atheist denies existence of God whereas I, an Agnostic, just don't have any proof that He exists.

And here's the prestige!

Continuing conversation, he admitted to me that he was a big follower of Jesus. He said he didn't believe much in following the Bible because of all of its tradition and pickiness, but that Jesus was the best 'drug' he could possibly be on. Throughout the rest of our conversation, he tried guessing some things about my familial lifestyle, and when I asked him if he was trying to be psychic, he simply replied that he was channeling Jesus, and trying to listen to what He was telling him. Soon, our conversation was done, we shook hands, and he left. Just left. He said he'd pray for me tonight - for me to find the 'proof' I'm looking for, and to eventually find Jesus.

It may not strike you as particularly intriguing, but en medias res, it turned out to be a very peculiar and interesting experience.

Moving on...

It appears that the bulk of my time spent on homework isn't evenly distributed. The most time-consuming assignments come from my Writing and Critical Reasoning and my Law, Politics, and Public Policy classes, primarily because they are the ones that require me to write essays. I wonder if I'm the only one who finds it especially pointless that my efforts are concentrated on the only two classes in my schedule that don't directly relate to my intended major. I suppose my real argument here is this: I know how to write. I choose my words carefully and I try to support my arguments. However, these characteristics of my writing style are more prevalent in works that I choose to write. It doesn't seem right to be grading me on an essay based on a topic that I didn't choose to write about - that I don't care to write about. Whatever. Fuck it. If I can make it through these two classes this semester and express myself in the manner the instructors expect me to express myself, I'll try to avoid taking two general education classes in one semester ever again. In the mean time, I have to figure out how to 'make my ideas flow together' when I'm writing about the extent to which political cartoons offer an effective political critique. Ugh.

I got a haircut today. I really like it. It feels so nice to have short hair because (1) I don't have to spend as much time in the morning futzing with it and trying to get it to look decent, and (2) I think short hair makes me look cleaner - better. Long hair on me usually equates to big hair, and usually causes me to think my face looks wider and less appealing. Hopefully this new confidence staring back at me in the mirror will carry out into the classroom and within large groups.

In a little more than two days, Niki, Chris, and Dallas will be on their way down to LA to pay me a visit.
=D
I'm pretty excited about that. I talked with Niki a lot last night about planning, and it actually took me a little too far from my studies and homework. Whatever. If I told you I cared about school more than hanging out with my best friends after a month and a half away from them, it'd be a lie. Niki and I figured that we'd go out looking for parties on Friday night, but then have people over to my apartment on Saturday night for a kickback/mini-party. After I finish this post, I'm going to get on Facebook and start inviting people. We're gonna go see Across The Universe this weekend, too, since it's not playing in Nevada. Hopefully that happens Friday afternoon. We might to go the beach at some point. I'm not sure which one; we haven't really decided yet. Oh well We can't possibly plan every event to take place this weekend, 'cause that's just not our style.

Hmm... That seems like the bulk of things I had to write about.

"I will follow you into the dark"
Vaniah Juniper Schwenoha

Well, I expect that type of language at Denny's, but not here!

30 September 2007

4:06 AM

~sigh~ Flanders... Gotta love the Simpsons


As of now, I wrote more entries in the first month I had this blog than I've written in all of 2007. Funny how that works out.

~Caution: Graphic and potentially disturbing content. Skip forward if you're squeamish.~

I was getting a little tired of my bruised purple toe, so I took a pair of nail clippers and cut a small piece of skin off. This caused it to drain of all the blood/puss within. I have to say that that's probably one of the most disgusting things my body's ever done. The next day, I kinda did the same thing, but I cut off all of the skin in front of my toenail and ended up with a space between my toe and the nail. I've been putting peroxide in it periodically to prevent infection. It's all dry and safe and uninfected now, but there's still a big enough space for me to fit the tip of a butter knife into. I don't expect it to really go away until the nail grows completely out. I'm kinda surprised the entire nail hasn't fallen off by now. It's interesting how the body works.

~End graphic content~

Last weekend, I decided to stay in and read what I could for my Law, Politics, and Public Policy class. That plan probably would've gone well... if we hadn't had a kickback on Saturday night. Charles had some people over to watch the football game, which we dominated, and afterward, more people showed up and we drank. Because all but one of the guests were Charles' friends and my guest, Phyllis, is from Beijing, I was the only one who didn't speak Chinese. Haha. It was kinda interesting. Instead of being too drunk to understand people, I was simply too white. What was even more intriguing to me was that not a single person present had ever played Kings before. I ended up typing up the rules and printing them out to put on the table for when people forgot what a specific card value meant. In the middle of a game of 'Never Have I Ever,' someone said they had never been to a club. Not thinking about the fact that I've been to a strip club, I left my finger up. That's when everybody wondered aloud how I knew so many drinking games if I had never been to a club. Apparently, people play drinking games in clubs in Asia, lol.

So we barely made it through a single game of Kings, and it took forever to do. After that, we decided to play a free-for-all Beer Pong game. The way it went, we set up a pyramid of cups up to seven in a row and all shot at the same pyramid. If someone made a shot, the person who shot before them would have to drink. We would rerack after the number of cups in the largest row had been made. Somehow, even though I played a super-clutch game at that swim team party a couple weeks before, I managed to not make a single shot all night. I was pretty upset about that.

After all the beer was gone, everybody left. Some people went home; some people went to find parties. I stayed home, cleaned up the apartment, and went to sleep. Thinking about it, I'm not really sure why I didn't leave with everybody else. Maybe it had something to do with all the work I still thought I was going to do that night and the next day. It must've been that. I stayed behind so I could read the first 20-30 pages of To Kill A Mockingbird before I went to sleep. God, how much of a loser am I?

I tried to read as much as I could the next day, but only got within 100 pages of the end of the novel. I finally finished it on Monday night, didn't do much on Tuesday, and read a lot from the course reader Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, at about 5:30, I started writing the essay that was supposed to be due at 9:30 the same day. I skipped my 8:00 Writing 140 class to finish it. That's what was in the last post - that disgusting, horrid jumble of words I claimed to be an essay.

After struggling through that assignment all through Wednesday night and Thursday morning, I decided to go unwind in the quad by tumbling. The muscle in my leg had healed, and my toe wasn't giving me too much trouble, so I just chilled out there for a good two hours. I got pretty close to landing an aerial and I believe I executed a flash kick at one point. I was pretty sore the next day, but it was worth it. On Friday, I went to my single hour-long class from 11:00 to noon and then went to the quad again, but this time to check out this thing that this guy from my apartment complex had told me about earlier in the week while we were playing 8-ball in the CSC. It was called 'The Business of Gaming,' and there were booths setup from companies such as EA Sports, Activision, and Panasonic. Helio had a booth, too, and I finally got to check out the Ocean phone that they offer, which is pretty fuckin' sweet.

When I first got there, I was fortunate enough to get in line early enough to receive a free burrito from Chipotle, since they were kind-of catering the event. I also saw the world's largest plasma television, which has a 103" widescreen diagonal, and is made by Panasonic. A Guitar Hero tournament was played on it, and I'd have joined the competition, but I totally suck at Guitar Hero compared to some of the guys that played. They ran out of time anyway, and eventually cut the tournament short. The winner got a new guitar controller for the game and other players got consolation prizes. I stayed around until the end, and because they had some extra prizes left, I got a dual-controller USB charger for PS3 controllers. It doesn't to me much good right now because I don't have a PS3, but the two USB cables that came with it can be used for anything that fits them and I'll probably be able to make use of it when I get a new PSP in a few months because the new model, along with its capability to output video to a television, will be able to be charged through the USB port.

The rest of my Friday was fairly uneventful, and the only other thing that happened was that this girl Jourdan from the other apartment building came over and we hung out in my apartment for a few hours, just talking and stuff. she fell asleep on the couch, and I eventually crashed out in my bed, and when Charles came back with his friends in the middle of the night, I think she left. I remember Charles' friend Katie sleeping in Charles' bed, Charles being out in the living room until after Katie left in the morning, and when I woke up I found another one of Charles' friends lying across the four dining chairs that he had lined up to make a makeshift bed.

I pretty much did nothing today (Saturday). I watched the USC at Washington game on TV, and because Ron goes to UW, we made a small wager. Because my team won, he has to go to the book store at his school and buy me some kind of souvenir. I was pretty lucky in this bet, considering USC played a pretty bad game this week. We were favored to win by three touchdowns, but we only won by three points.

After the game, I got ready to go out, because I wanted to look for a good party place for when Chris, Niki, and Dallas come down to visit next weekend, but I didn't end up partying because I couldn't find anybody to go with. I got hungry at one point, so I called up Phyllis and we went to Denny's for a late-night meal. In the middle of our conversation, I mentioned that the guys are coming down next weekend. This is where she mentioned that her boyfriend is visiting next weekend. This was the very first time that I was made aware that she even has a boyfriend.

...

I can't wait 'til the day I snap.
...and fuckin' choke a bitch.

Whatever. My friends out here are pretty limited thus far. I need to meet more people. Lots more...

I just about had enough money to buy my Powerizers this week. I was gonna skip a week in paying Niki and pretty much spend absolutely nothing in order to get them. However, after looking online, I decided it would be better to save up and get the newer model of them, so instead of buying what I had in mind, I paid Niki anyway, bought some cologne for Victor for his birthday, and decided to save for another two weeks to get them. No matter what, I will fucking order those Powerizers by the 12th of October.

I dunno what else to write.... Actually, I do, but I better save it for later. It's getting pretty late.

à demain.
Vaniah Juniper Schwenoha

Fucked

27 September 2007

8:37 AM

Well, here's my first written assignment to be turned in for my Law, Politics, and Public Policy course. To be completely honest, this is the absolute worst essay I've ever written. I read as much as I could to try to gain some background before I started, but I really just couldn't generate any ideas. I'll be lucky to get a D- on this paper.

[I'll replace this line later with the prompt]

Vaniah Schwenoha
Professor Jeb Barnes
Law, Politics, and Public Policy
September 27, 2007
Critical Book Review Assignment

The Limit of the Law

Throughout our lecture and discussion sessions, we established that the law and courts are constrained by many factors, and that the promise of the law and courts is consequentially limited by these constraints. By taking these constraints into consideration, we can effectively analyze Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird and the reasons why producing social change is so difficult.

In the novel, the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama is home to a strong prejudiced community where only a few good people treat blacks as equals and the rest of the population treat them like dirt. This racism plays a very significant role in the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man who is falsely accused by Bob Ewell of raping his oldest daughter. Though Mr. Robinson’s intentions were anything but corrupt, and though Atticus Finch’s presentation of evidence thoroughly disproved the possibility of Mr. Robinson’s guilt, the strong bias among Maycomb County inhabitants yielded his conviction simply because he was a black man, and in the Deep South, a white man’s word was always believed over a black man’s word.

The trial itself was greatly influenced by public opinion. Because the community was such a racist one and because a black man is never trusted as much as a white man, no matter how low-class that white man is, the court stood no chance of employing an ‘all men created equal’ point of view, especially with an all-white jury. This illustrates the limit of the law by cultural constraint because judicial power is hindered by strong local convictions.

Further limit is put on the law by doctrinal constraint. Because trial by jury is a constitutional provision, there was not much Tom Robinson could do to receive a fair judgment of the evidence because his jury of supposed peers was composed of white men. Atticus Finch was confident that he would be able to get an appeal after the initial trial, but when Mr. Robinson decided that he was “tired of white men’s chances and preferred to take his own,” (236) he gave up the possibility of having a more reasonable trial and sealed his own fate instead.

The trial did not trigger an immediate change in the community’s treatment of black people, but it did influence the views of a few citizens. Before the trial, Scout Finch’s aunt Alexandra displayed a strong distaste for blacks when she objected to allowing Scout to visit Calpurnia’s house (136). After the trial, however, Alexandra’s concern for Tom Robinson showed her less scathing view of blacks (235). This change in Alexandra’s views was minor, however. Even with her slight increase in sympathy for Mr. Robinson, she still obviously held social standards among classes, as shown when she lashes out against Scout when she talks about wanting to become better friends with her classmate Walter Cunningham (223)

The events surrounding the trial were too influential in some way to members of the community. The night before the trial, when a mob of men went down to the jailhouse to attack Tom Robinson, they were willing to go through Atticus Finch to do so. Scout’s confrontation with the mob, and particularly with Walter Cunningham, however, was enough to make the men think things over. After the trial, Atticus revealed to Scout and Jem that part of the reason the jury was in deliberation for so long was because a relative of Mr. Cunningham’s was on the jury, and Walter’s new respect for the Finch family led that jury member to sincerely consider the facts of the case, as opposed to immediately ruling in favor of the white man. In fact, Atticus Finch’s argument was so strong in this case that many of the jury members could not reach a verdict immediately. I suppose it may have been Atticus’ extensive experience in court, or his status as a repeat player, that resulted in his being named by Judge Taylor to defend Tom Robinson because Atticus was the only man who could keep a jury out so long in such a case (215-216), even if the final verdict was inevitably reached.

Still, some other Maycomb residents were untouched by the court’s attempt to provide equal justice. It seems that those less acquainted Atticus Finch held no sympathy for Tom Robinson’s decided fate or the unfair treatment of blacks in general, as portrayed at the end of the trial when the Finch family made its way through the cheerful crowd (212). Later, too, Scout discussed the hypocrisy of her teacher Ms. Gates, who she knew to be against Hitler, but who she also heard walk out of the courtroom saying, “it’s time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they were getting’ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us” (247).

In the particular case against Tom Robinson, there was not much that could have been done to change the community’s moral tact. Perhaps if the plot had taken a different direction after the trial, Atticus may have been able to appeal and overrule the verdict reached in Judge Taylor’s court. Maybe then would a prominent social change have taken place in Maycomb County. The case would have suffered from less doctrinal and cultural constraint because the ‘referees’ in the logic of the triad (Barnes 9/4/07) would be more detached from the community of the alleged crime.

Reflecting upon it, however, an appeal could carry the possibility of clearing Tom Robinson’s name, but would it really have initiated a community-wide change in social class structure? Without the influence of other institutions, I think not. Similar to the case of Brown v. Board, institutional and cultural constraints would cause a need for congressional and executive intervention (Barnes 9/13/07) to produce a significant change in social norms.

Based on the examples above, we can conclude that the law itself cannot bear social reconstruction simply because it is too restricted. Rather, we must conclude that the law in conjunction with other political institutions stands a better chance of producing the desired result.

Upsetting People

23 September 2007

8:00 PM

So... That last entry touched upon the nerves of a good few people, and it showed when their latest entries included a disclaimer at the beginning telling me to fuck off. That's what I should've expected, really. If I'm going to single them out, I better expect them to single me out. I definitely deserve it. Hopefully nobody holds it against me when we run into each other in Vegas around the holidays. That would make me sad. It would be wrong to regret writing that last entry, however. I promised myself many entries ago that I'd be as honest as I could in here. I'm not gonna blame the criticism on my drunken state, but I will say that it made the criticism a lot more scathing.

Before I left Las Vegas, my friends and I kinda tried to see how many friendships I could ruin prior to my departure. It seems that rant about writing may have done more damage than what I did in Vegas =/

It's really not as disturbing to me as I made it sound, guys... It's just a pet peeve of mine, just like the ones you guys have/had. Sarah used to get mad at me when I would crack my knuckles. Marlena would get mad at me when I'd pick at my scabs. Nothing was ever worth ending friendships over, though. I hope everybody can see that.

Still love you guys, no matter what
Vaniah Juniper Schwenoha

Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth!?!

23 September 2007

1:24 AM

I've wanted to write about this for about a week now, so it should be good that I do it now.

I started writing in my blog again after I left Las Vegas because I kept reading my friends' blogs. That's honestly why I feel the need to write in here. If I'm going to be reading into the lives of my friends, they might as well be reading into my life.

The one thing that gets me though... Almost every blog I read from another person... has some kind of spelling or grammatical error in it.

I realize that people get kinda lazy when they type online, and it makes me seem like an asshole when I correct people, but... I really don't give two shits about being an asshole right now. You guys... You're college students. If you're prestigious enough to get accepted to a university, don't you think you should be capable of proofreading your own writing? You're posting your shit online. Shouldn't it be easy enough to navigate your web browser over to dictionary.com to make sure your word is the correct word? I do that all the time. I know that I'm not superior when it comes to spelling, but at least I verify that I'm using the right words. If you think this is too general of a message, I'll give specific examples. Jessica Williams, they weren't at 'Savors,' they were at Savers. And to Sarah Williams, the monkey is clapping his cymbals together, not his 'symbols.' The only other person that I'm sure checks this when he can is Niki, and I tell him directly when he's got something wrong.

This isn't intended to discourage you guys from writing. I love reading about your days... your nights... your feelings. I just think you should get in the habit of expressing yourselves clearly. When I started emailing people back in the 6th grade, I typed like an idiot. I shortened words from 'to' to '2' and all that jazz, but when my sister finally saw what I was doing, she pointed out that typing in such a way is absolutely pointless. If you're going to communicate with someone, try to make yourself as understandable as possible. It eliminates confusion, and prevents your readers from getting lost in translation, even though you're speaking the same language. Further, you don't have to switch between writing styles when you write essays for class if you practice proper writing techniques outside of class.

What I've also noticed in multiple peoples' writing is the misinterpretation of the words 'then' and 'than.' Please keep an eye on that(, Sarah).

There's a distinct tone in my writing here. If you haven't been able to tell by now, I'll let you know that I've had a little bit of alcohol tonight. Regardless, this is really what I think. I'll write more about myself soon, I suppose.

Sorry if this upset you.
Sorry if I singled you out.
Sorry.
Vaniah Juniper Schwenoha

Systematic

21 September 2007

12:04 AM

I haven't really done anything out of the ordinary lately. It's really making my life a little dull.

A couple weeks ago, I went to the quad and did some tumbling. The people passing by seemed pretty impressed with the simple things I could do... I was, too. I hadn't tumbled in awhile, but somehow, I was able to pull standing back tuck just fine, and for the first time ever, I managed seven consecutive back handsprings from standing position. I also played frisbee with these people when they showed up, and eventually, there were enough people to play a game of frisbee football. After all was said and done, I had probably done about 2½ straight hours of physical activity. Needless to say, I was sore the next day... and the next day... and the next week.

Maybe if I had stretched more, drank more water, taken a hot shower afterward... I'd have recovered faster. I think it was the day after that I was walking down the stairs and my right leg nearly gave out on me completely. I walked it off like it was nothing, but I think that in that stairwell, the strain on my sore leg was too much, and that I pulled something. It's still a little bit sore today, and it was very hard for me to tumble last week. I started taking arnica montana again to try to help it heal faster. I also started taking it again because, on my way to class on Tuesday, I tried to go up some steps in my rollerblades before I had slowed down much, and I stumbled pretty hard on one. I tripped, caught myself in pushup position, picked myself up, and went to class. I didn't get to look at my foot until after I got home later that day, but throughout my classes, I could tell something was wrong. The big toe on my left foot is a very nice shade of purple now. It doesn't make it any easier to rollerblade, either. Most of the time, I crinkle up my toes to take off any pressure directly on top of my toenail.

It's not so much the trouble walking and rollerblading that I have a problem with. I'm just a little disappointed because I can't tumble. I don't know the facilities around here, so I don't know where to find a trampoline I can jump on; it'll cost me $15 a session if I want to dive at the pool near my apartment; There aren't any padded floors around at my disposal that I'm aware of. Tumbling in the quad is really my last resort for satisfying my desire to do flips. At least, it's my last resort until next week, when I'll likely have enough money to buy a pair of Powerizers. I'm definitely looking forward to that. If you don't know what they are, look 'em up on YouTube.

I'm procrastinating right now. I'm probably at least 100 pages behind in reading that needs to be done for my political science class, not to mention that I need to read To Kill A Mockingbird again and write a 4-5 page essay on it. It's okay, I guess. I'll get around to it sometime this weekend.

Brittney Rufkahr texted me earlier. It was rather rude of her. Here's how it went:
§
~Me and all ur friends are in a movie lol miss ya
•Fuck you lol
~Hahaha sorry USC man
•Yeah, well, just remember that I'm the one that informs everybody about these tickets
~Huh? lol
•You saw Eastern Promises, right?
~Yeah, but I got the tickets from my mom
•Everybody else usually gets them from the promotions I tell them about
~Lol well you aren't here V! =P
•Thanks for elaborating on that, cunt, lol

That doesn't mean I don't still tell them about things
~Ok vagina
§

Funny how she QQ's about how she had to stay in Las Vegas for college, yet taunts me by rubbing it in my face that I'm away from my best friends.

My brother Victor's birthday is on Monday, and I don't know what to get him. I asked what he wanted, but the only thing he suggested was that I come and visit. I don't know if I can afford to do that right now. If it happens, it won't be this weekend.

My roommate's going out with this asian girl from the other apartment building. Her name's Chihiro. They're pretty cute together. She has a boyfriend back home, in... Japan?
=X
I need to ask my roommate how he enticed her. I may attempt a little of the same approach with that girl Morgane. I'm not countin' on anything just yet, though. I still need to meet and hang out with more people, period.

Well, I'm running out of things to talk about.
Auf wiedersehen, Mieke.

Vaniah Schwenoha

Moment of truth

18 September 2007

9:16 AM

Well, I just turned in my first collegiate essay for a grade. I hope it does well. I figured I'd post it in here just so everybody could take a look. I'll let you know what kind of grade it receives when I get it back. For now, enjoy.

Liberty and Justice for Me

The law, as defined by Aristotle, is “reason unaffected by desire” (Aristotle 3). This definition describes the standard under which legal systems should be based, but is hardly a truthful depiction of the legal system in America. Opposition to Aristotle’s claim is present in media characterization of the legal system, and is often the focal point of many story lines of movies and television shows. Movies such as Fracture and The Shawshank Redemption are prime examples of movies with characters who let their desires interfere with their roles as preservers of the law. Characters like these, who rank personal satisfaction above unbiased justice, diminish our confidence that the American legal system is capable of treating all judicial cases equally and seeking the truth in order to identify the guilty without punishing the innocent.

Legal procedures are systematic, and are designed as such to avoid inconsistencies in legal cases. Aristotle’s perception of working law implies this. For a society to secure equal rights for its citizens, procedures must be implemented that ensure fair treatment and protection from extreme measures. The legal system provides orderly dispute resolution as an alternative to self-help, which often plays off of emotions and individual perceptions of justification, as opposed to the law’s neutral views of justice. American people need to know that the law has regulations in order to confide in it to settle their conflicts with others.

Ideally, the attributes described above help describe a perfect legal system. However, as many know, we do not live in a society with a perfect legal system. Popular media suggests that, in an economically motivated society, even our supposed protectors of the law are willing to trade money for justice.

In Fracture, DDA William Beachum exchanges more challenging cases with coworkers for his own benefit. He claims that his exchanges are justified because, for every case he passes to someone else, he picks up two or three cases in return, thus lightening the load for his fellow associates (Fracture). In all actuality, even though Beachum picks up more cases and makes more work for himself, the alternative cases are easier to win. The real reasoning behind Beachum taking his associates’ cases is that, if he can trade off one tough losing case for a couple easy winning cases, he can still make himself look good. With a higher conviction rate, Beachum lands himself in a position at a new law firm that pays more and gives him a better image.

William Beachum’s methods may help him financially, and they may also bring forth justice upon the criminals he convicts, but his passing of tough cases to those who might not be as prepared or experienced as him also carries the possibility of obstructing justice. The law promotes equal rights for all, but cannot provide absolute equality when more capable lawyers pass on cases simply because they desire not to damage their political careers.

Similarly, money tempts members of the legal system to abolish moral values and judicial ethics. Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption does so when he denies further investigation into the murder of Andy Dufresne’s wife solely because Andy runs the warden’s books and launders the money made through deals between Norton and labor companies (Shawshank). As a result of Norton’s desire for money and a competent accountant to handle it, the law’s objective of uncovering the truth is brushed aside. This, along with the example of William Beachum’s personal interests in Fracture, adds to the popular characterization that members of the legal system are concerned less with equality and justice and more with earning a quick buck.

Further than the aspect of selfishness in regards to being money-driven characters, popular media also depicts protectors of the law as people who seek their own personal satisfaction when dealing with court cases. These individuals disregard the systematic procedures inherent in equal justice and also act against advisement of their superiors because their egos interfere with their conduct as professionals in their respective fields of work.

After William Beachum secures his seat at a new law firm, he gets lazy about his duties under his current employer. In court, the defendant, Ted Crawford, manages to surprise Beachum with shocking information that destroys what he thought was a textbook murder case. As a result of his humiliation in court and Crawford’s aggressive taunt tactics, Beachum refuses to be taken off the case by his boss. He just can’t let himself be played by Crawford, so he risks both his current job and his new job for a chance to prove himself to others as the man who can convict Crawford.

With this, popular media introduces a haughty characteristic of lawyers, thus portraying them as men and women with a desire to validate their capabilities among themselves and others. This can bring down our view of the legal system because lawyers who seek solely to test their skills could be in over their heads, and thus less capable of working effectively to uncover the truth.

Fracture contains yet another exposition of selfishness, present in the character of Lieutenant Robert Nunally. As the secret lover of Ted Crawford’s wife, Jennifer, it is understandable that he be particularly aggressive when restraining Mr. Crawford after discovering the woman’s lifeless body. Though, when the police prepare to take Crawford’s confession, Nunally insists on being present, regardless of the possibility that the confession could be considered a coerced one, and rejected by the court as evidence. Here, emotion plays even more of a role than in the previous examples and arguments. Lieutenant Nunally loved Jennifer – so much so that he couldn’t put his mind to rest without being witness to her killer’s written confession. Due to his desire to satisfy his emotional needs, Lieutenant Nunally neglects routine procedures and defaces possible evidence. Ted Crawford is later able to claim that he was under duress when giving his confession because the man who had just beaten him was in the interrogation room.

The lieutenant meant no harm to the judicial process by being in the room while Mr. Crawford gave his confession, but as stated earlier, the law has strict regulations that attempt to prevent false conviction. Because duress is addressed in these regulations, this popular characterization of the legal system affirms that cases are treated equally, but surely negates confidence that the legal system seeks the absolute truth. All evidence initially perceived to be “pretty damning evidence” (Fracture) turned out to be useless in this case, all because of one man’s desire to appease his grieving soul.

When Aristotle made his claim about the law, it was profoundly idealistic. Realistically, however, law is reason bombarded with desire. Genuine courts in America may not be as dramatically affected as the courts depicted in popular media, but through analysis of movies like Fracture and The Shawshank Redemption, our confidence in a consistent and pure legal system in America is surely diminished by characters who base their actions on personal wants and desires.

Works Cited

“Aristotle.” Wikiquote. 8 September 2007, 16:55. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 September
2007. .
Fracture. Prod. Charles Weinstock. Dir. Gregory Hoblit. Perf. Billy Burke, Ryan Gosling, and
Anthony Hopkins. DVD. New Line Cinema, 2007.
Shawshank Redemption, The. Prod. Niki Marvin. Dir. Frank Darabont. Perf. Morgan Freeman,
Bob Gunton, and Tim Robbins. DVD. Warner Home Video, 1999.

College

16 September 2007

3:53 PM

*Disclaimer: Make sure you have time to read all of this. It's 5½ pages long

Let's pick things back up where we left off.

Niki lost the money. You can read about it in his blog if you want. That is, if you know where his blog is... Oh well. I still think we should've given money to my mom after that so she could win some for us, but I guess after losing so much money, the group was in no position to put up more. I called Chris a couple days after they came back and he told me that Niki just said he had it under control. I don't mean to be calling my best friends inconsiderate, but I really think Chris and Dallas should be helping Niki come up with the money to pay his mom back. I mean, his mom's the coolest, and she was generous and understanding enough to rent us multiple hotel rooms over the past few months. On top of that, Niki's even more pro. The least we could do is help out. I guess I'm the only one who sees it that way. I'm transferring him $100 a week until I pay him $500, and I might even put up more than that if what he tells me is true, and he's going to end up paying his mom $3500-$4000 in the end. Meanwhile, Chris just bought an XBOX 360 and a 32" HDTV. I guess that's cool and all, and it's something Niki gets to use too, but... I dunno. I just feel like my friends gave Niki the ass-end of the stick here. He doesn't deserve that, and I thought I knew my friends better than to do that to him.

I can live with not confronting them about it, I guess. I figure I'll write all my stuff in here, and if they read it, then they'll know, but if not, then... ignorance is bliss.

Okay, back to the whole "I'm not in Kansas anymore" aspect of my life...

Two days before I left, I started packing all of my stuff. I had a lot more to take than I thought. I spent that entire day and most of the next day packing. I told Laura I'd make time to see her my last night in town, so nearing the evening, I cleaned up as she was on her way over. However, I also told Joey to come over and pick up his computer before I left. He said he'd come over with Mike Neel on their way to The Spot, the hookah lounge near my house. Well, I get out of the shower to find Mike, Joey, Chris Yi, Brennan, Justine, Sarah Fulco, Soli, and Laura all in my room. Don't get me wrong... I love my friends... I just didn't expect them to stay so long while my girlfriend was over.

We chilled for awhile, but after I realized that nobody was planning on leaving soon, I just snuck out of my room and into my brother's and texted Laura, telling her to join me. We hung out as long as we could, but eventually, she had to leave and try to make it home by her mom's set curfew. That was the last time I saw her in person... I remember seeing her car stop at the end of the street for longer than it should've. In my mind, I just see her breaking down, like I did when I wrote my last post and thought about everything I was leaving behind in Vegas. I really wish I could say she never did that. I don't want her to feel like that.

After everyone left my house, I finished packing. I couldn't possibly fit anything more into our rental car than I did. And to think.. I was thinking about taking a desktop computer with me as well. That would never have fit. In the middle of the night, with my dad asleep and my mom at work, I left the house in the rental car. I went first to Mitch's house, to pick up my stereo's subwoofer, to drop off some of his stuff, and to say goodbye to Mitch and Sexton. We caught up on some stuff while I was there. They told me they've been offered full-ride scholarships to go to college in Hawaii for cheerleading. That's awesome. I like to think I contributed to their continued education by being the first of us to become a cheerleader and breaking the barrier. But that's just arrogance.

I left Mitch's house and went to Dallas' to hang out with him one last time. Nobody realized I was leaving so early in the morning.. Neither did I, until my parents told me they wanted to. I took him back to my house so I could finish packing, then I had to take him home. We said our goodbyes, and as I drove away, I could see him in the mirrors, just sitting outside his front door, losing it.

That was it. That was my last day in Las Vegas.

My parents and I loaded up everything and drove off. I fell asleep before we were out of town and I woke up in a new city - in a new life.

Checked in, took my stuff up to my apartment, met my roommate. He's pretty cool. His name is Charles, and he's from Singapore, but he went to high school in Monterey. He seems to come from a wealthy family. He drives an '07 Range Rover, which helps me because I have no car. He also has a Bathin' Ape polo. I thought that was pretty pro. He's an economics major. Not too bad.

The first week here was Welcome Week, full of all kinds of activities to keep the new students busy. I'd have to say that the best things were the dance in the quad, the concert with June, The Higher, and Mae, and the comedy show with Ant and Bobby Lee. It was good to hear a hometown band playing here. The Higher's last song was Insurance, and recorded it for my friends. There was a good looking girl at the concert - Morgane - and I stayed until the end because I wanted to talk to her. In a new place like this, where nobody knows anybody, I figured it couldn't hurt to approach anybody without feeling like a creep. After the concert ended, I walked up and told her I couldn't help but notice her. I asked if she wanted to go to lunch sometime. She told me she had a boyfriend, but we agreed to be friends if nothing else, so we introduced ourselves. As soon as I got back to my apartment, I looked her up on Facebook. Turns out we live in the same apartment complex.

The first week of classes went well, I suppose. We didn't really do a lot of work. Apparently, when events go off on the calendar on my cell phone, they disable the alarm. As a result, nothing went off on Thursday, and I woke up at 9:00 when I had a class starting at 8:00- Writing 140. I also had to turn in a diagnostic essay for this class, which I had stayed up to finish the night before, so as soon as I woke up, I printed my shit out, threw on my rollerblades for the first time since I've been here, and rushed down to the classroom. I showed up just in time to walk with the class to see where my instructor would be holding his office hours. As we walked, I turned in my paper. It was lucky that my Law, Politics, and Public Policy professor had cancelled class this day, because otherwise, I wouldn't have had the extra hour to go back and shower before my next class.

My classes are alright. I have:
•Calculus I
•Introduction to Computer Engineering/Computer Science
•Engineering Freshman Academy
•Law, Politics, and Public Policy
•Writing and Critical Reasoning

The first three aren't bad, but the last two are my GE classes. I'm required to take courses in given fields in order to graduate. There are six categories, but political science and writing courses are linked, so I guess it's good that I'm taking care of them now. I get the feeling I'm going to do worst in these two classes, especially since there's so much reading to do for them. I was thinking about transferring out of Calc I into Calc II because I scored higher on my placement test than this other guy I know here, who's in Calc II, and because I'm kinda bored with what we're doing in Calc I, but I figure it'll be decent review of everything I learned last year and it'll get me more acclimated to college courses because it involves more proofs than we did in high school. Besides, it's only a semester.

Well, let's talk about the party scene here...

The first Saturday after classes started was the day of our first football game. It was a home game against a team we were guaranteed to beat. Apparently, we haven't lost a single home game in years. I walked over to campus to check things out, and it was exactly as these upperclassmen in my apartment complex told me. The entire campus is a party. People are setup everywhere with TVs to watch the game, lawn chairs, barbecues, and drinks. I could've gotten a few beers if I wanted, but I wasn't really feelin' it at the time. It's okay. I made up for it later in the night.

Charles, a couple of his friends, and I went back to my apartment to watch the game. Decent-sized TV and surround sound stereo ftw. Later on, Morgane and her friend came over to watch some of the game, too. We won, but we didn't beat the point spread, so it was an okay game. Mind you, the point spread was -48 for USC, and went up to about -50 or -51 at half-time. I'm glad Niki got me into betting on games for that little bit of time during junior year, because I felt pro explaining the concept of the point spread and the over/under, and I felt that I needed to be the one to explain it, since I'm the one from Las Vegas.

Eventually, we got bored of the game we had already won, so we decided to leave and go to frat row to find a party. We got lost a bit.. walked too far north and not far enough east. We finally got there, and walked to the Beta Omega Phi house. This house is the asian frat house. It's pretty much the farthest house east on the row, so it was farthest from my apartment. We got there, and the girls got in free, but they were charging $30 each for the guys. Charles and I only had about $11 each on us, so we had to walk all the way back to our apartment to get more money. After we picked that up, we decided to drive back. I thought it amusing to find out that my roommate, who went to high school in California, doesn't know how to parallel park well at all. He ended up getting out and letting me park his car. It's a good thing I learned how to drive in reverse so well back home.

We parked pretty far from the Beta house, but it was still better than walking the entire way from the apartment. When we got back to the frat, I told the guy at the door, "for $30, I should be getting valet service and a shoe-shine." That's when the guy told me they were now charging $60 each to get in. Yeah, I know... Even I was getting stretched at $30. There was no way I was going to pay $60. Luckily, nobody had changed shifts, so the guy at the door was the same guy who told us we needed $30. He knew we had to go all the way back to our place just to get $30, so he let us in for that much.

Fuck paying that much to get in there. They have people behind tables running the drinks, so I can't just take what I please without feeling like a greedy asshole because I have to ask for it before I get it. Granted, I can probably ask for whatever I want, since the cover charge is so high and they told me at the door I could have unlimited drinks, but still... And even though they've got a pretty decent dance floor and a DJ to go with it, the girls there like, don't dance with people unless they know you. I got bored after 15 minutes, so I went back out to the front yard, then decided to go toward the back of the house because I saw a game of beer pong going on.

Well, it was easy to get back there, but it turned out that behind the frat house, there are four apartments connected to it that just get rented out to whoever. These people playing were cool, though. They said they used to be part of the frat nextdoor, but they got kicked out at the semester. Since I wasn't having much fun inside the Beta house, I just chilled with these people and watched them play. They were already all wasted, and I wasn't even buzzed, so I didn't really start having fun until I got in on a game. The frat party was over before my games, so I told Charles to meet me and join a game. Turns out, this guy's never played beer pong before, either. I had to explain the general rules to him.

The rules here are a bit different than the ones I've played, at least at this particular place. In Vegas, girls can blow the ball out if it's spinning around the cup and guys can finger it out. Here, only the girls can blow, and fingering isn't allowed. Here, there's a rule that if you shoot and the ball rolls back on the table and you pick it back up, you get to shoot again, but you have to shoot behind the back. I almost made a shot behind the back. It actually hit the cups, which I guess doesn't happen often here. In Vegas, you start with ten cups, re-rack at six, and then re-rack after each cup is made. Here, you only get two re-racks per game, but you can do them whenever you want. I saw a team re-rack at seven, with a pyramid and one attached to a side. It was weird. In Vegas, if both teammates make the same cup, that's game over. Here, it's a bomb - the cup made plus the adjacent cups, up to four extra. Then there were some other little things like having to say "I'm warming up" after you make two cups in a row and then "I'm on fire" after you make three in a row.

So, at the end of the night, these guys let me drink their beer through three games. I owe those guys. Charles beat me because he played basketball in high school. Fuckin' hustler, haha. We finally left late into the night, and Charles didn't want to get caught driving drunk, and wanted to walk home, but I convinced him that we could just take the backstreets and we'd be fine. We were fine, but the funny thing was that in the parking garage, he parked, but then wanted to straighten it out, so he backed up... and just lightly scraped his driver-side mirror against a pillar. I lol'd. He said the next day that the mirror was fine. I wanna throw in here that the parking garage in my apartment complex scares me. The clearance is only six feet, so when I run through it, I feel like I'm going to slam my head into a pipe or something. When I was moving in, my dad's friend Les and I had to stand on the back of the Expedition when we drove through the garage so it wouldn't scrape the pipes hanging down.

Anyway, that was two Saturdays ago. Last Saturday, I went with this girl Jourdan to a party that the swim team was having. It was pretty cool. It wasn't too crowded at first, but near the end, it was extremely full. They must've gone through five or six kegs while I was there. I got one fuckin' game of beer pong in with Jourdan as my partner, but she wasn't that good, so we lost. I was actually doing really good that night. When our last cup got hit, we had two left on the other side, and I sank the first and hit the second one, so my shot was going pretty good. If I had brought us into overtime, I would've shit myself.

We lost two these other two freshmen, who happen to be members of the dive team. I talked to one guy about his list of dives, and it very much discourages me to have ever even thought about being good enough to make the team. My list has a front 1½ with a full twist, a front 1½ pike, a front 2½ tuck, a back 1½ pike, a reverse 1½ tuck, and an inward 1½ tuck. His list has a front 2½ pike, a front 3½ tuck, a back 2½ tuck, a reverse 2½ tuck, an inward 2½ tuck, and I think a better twisting dive than I have. I was looking around on Facebook and I found out that my dive coach over the summer actually knows this guy. She dove with him at Mission Viejo.

Well, the swim team party got broken up by DPS (USC's Department of Public Safety), so Jourdan and I walked down to frat row to find another party. On the way, we ran into this girl Andrea, who lives across the hall from Jourdan. We all went to see if those guys from the week before were playing beer pong, but nobody was there, so we just went to the Beta party again. I only had $21 on me, and was only able to get $10 from Andrea, which I still owe her, so they let me in for $31 instead of the $40 they were charging this time. My roommate said he was there earlier in the night, and they were charging $25. Gah. Well, this time was better, because I was already decently tipsy when I got there, we had a few drinks inside, and I danced with Jourdan for quite awhile. Things went pretty well. We walked one of the girls' friends back to her place because she would've been alone otherwise and it was farther than our place. We hung out there, stole some condoms from the bag outside the RA's door there, and walked back to our apartment complex. I said goodnight to them and went back to my place to call it a night.

Well, there's the summary of the last few weeks for you. Let's get a little more into the other stuff.

Laura has been having a really hard time being away from me. She left a voicemail the other day crying. I feel really bad for her. I mean, I miss her, yeah, but there's not a lot I can do about it all the way over here. She gets frustrated when we run out of things to say to each other, and she keeps asking me the same questions for the sake of keeping contact with me. A few times a week, she'll call or text me at 11:11 and tell me to make a wish. Every time she does, my wish is that she'll find another guy to be happy with, because being bummed out all the time really isn't good for her. Like I said before, I want her to have the best senior year, to make up for how much time I wasted during mine, all cooped up in my room doing homework and not going out with my friends.

Thinking about it, I kinda do the same thing here. I stay in the apartment most of the week trying to do homework, and I stay in much of the weekend, too, just because I want to get things done. I'm gonna try to change that up a bit. I need to go out to eat more on weekdays, so I can go with friends and hang out. I need to start going farther from campus to learn more about the area, but I need to go with friends so we have strength in numbers and don't get mugged or shot at or anything like that. I also need to know more about the surrounding area because I don't want my friends being bored here in the apartment if they're gonna come all the way down here to visit sometime in the next month, like they say they want to.

If I can think of more to say, I will. But for now, I've been writing for the past two to two and a half hours, so this should be enough to hold you over.

Best regards,
Vaniah Schwenoha