Sunday Bloody Sunday

No, nothing is wrong; I just recently listened to this song is all haha. New developments:

1. Finished my UCR app
2. Submitted my final paper for the publication in the Journal of Peace and Terrorism Studies
3. Did my taxes (got 400$ back, thanks Obama!)

Slowly working on my thesis... My goal is to finish it by February 5 and give my committee 2 weeks to read and review it before the first formal review is due. Watched the OZ Open Final last night and Federer beat Murray in straight sets, so congrats to him on Grand Slam #16, what a great achievement. Speaking of tennis, played the last 2 nights and playing again tonight, fun fun stuff.

My Aunt Nasty sent me 3 new books that I am really looking forward to reading, but like ME2 they will have to sit on my desk until I finish my thesis. Not much else new to report, just trying to stumble through this thesis and get it done.. what a relief it will be. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well.

New post already???

Haha, not sure why I am posting again so soon, I feel like a lot has happened in 3 days I guess! I have a few new developments: first, I decided to apply to ONE LAST school as a backup college so I am applying to UC Riverside. Not sure if I would go if it was the only place I got in, but hey why not.  Second, I got an email this morning notifying me that a paper I wrote on arms control measures in West Africa had been accepted for publication in the Journal of Peace and Terrorism Studies. Really exciting stuff, they are based out of Syracuse University in New York and if I want to, I can present the paper at a conference they are having at the end of February. I just need to check my schedule and see if I can get some funding and I might consider doing it. Their editing board ripped my paper apart pretty good, so I am in the process of fixing it and hopefully resending it back tomorrow or the next day.

Monday, I went quadding with my pops for the first time in a few months. We had a good time playing in the mud (it recently rained down here) and it was nice to get out. Quadding has always provided me with some of my best thinking time, my body is so engaged with the environment and controlling the quad that my mind becomes super clear and I can really focus my thoughts. Kind of a strange phenomenon because I really zone out, which could be a bit dangerous while riding but oh well lol no accidents yet right? Tuesday, I put in a good day's work on my thesis. I consolidated most of my writing from the summer and am at 54 pages. My target is 80 so I'm hoping with my introduction, literature review, cleaning up the body, transitions, and thesis I will be close to that target. Also, got my books for my class on Tuesday which look pretty interesting.. I'm looking forward to reading them.

I watched the Pianist today (great movie) and Obama's first State of the Union. He said all of the right things, I just hope there is some substantial action behind it. Our country really is in a tough position and I hope he can provide the leadership and strength the country needs right now.

Ran 1.5 miles on Sunday and 2 miles today without any pain in my left knee/upper shin. I am going to really ease back into running, and only run on the track. I think I would flip out if I got hurt again.. but I felt good overall. My cardio is pretty decent because of all the tennis, but my legs are definitely out of long-distance running shape. Suppose to play tennis manana, but never heard from John, so maybe I will just work out in the morning. I hope some people watched the quarterfinals of the Oz open.. there were some great matches. Oh yeah, My sister and her fiance bought me Mass Effect 2 for Christmas which arrived in the mail on tuesday. The game looks so fun, but I think I won't be able to play until after I finish my thesis. If it is anything like the first one or Dragon Age (made by the same company: Bioware) it will consume all my free time. So that is just sitting on my TV stand and tormenting me for the next few weeks I'm afraid.

On a more personal note: Stacy bought her ticket to come down here from February 12 (night)-16 (morning). Needless to say, I am ridiculously excited for this.

Where did January go?

Hey everyone,

Been a bit between posts but for good reason. I spent January 17-22 up in Sacramento with Stacy which was really good. Did some fun stuff, walked around Old Sac, went to a drive-in, had dinner with some friends, watched a lot of movies, and just got to spend some good time together. I also got to see my uncle and cousin, and another friend that I coached with at Colfax. Definitely was tough to leave, but she will be back down for Valentine's day weekend so in about 18 days or so.

Finished the essay for the Magdoff book, so I am officially done with my independent study. All I have left to graduate is one class and finishing my thesis. Today, I caught up on all my reading for the class (I skipped both classes last week while I was in Sacramento) so I should be all set with that. Starting this week I really need to treat my thesis as a job and put good, solid hours of work into it. The first review reading or whatever is February 19th.. so its coming up in 3.5 weeks. I also finished my Oxford application, so I am completely done with apps since I decided not to apply to SOAS. Now I just have to play the waiting game until March to see if i get in anywhere.

Got my school money, which was nice. Catch up on some stuff... also I got 240$ back on my credit card from my bank. When I originally bought patriot tickets in December a guy tried to burn me by not sending the tickets so I was able to cancel that transaction thankfully. I need to buy my books for class on tuesday.. I only need like 3 and they are only going to be like 60-70$ which is nice.

I haven't played any tennis in about 8 days since I was gone, I was going to play last night but had some miscommunication with my buddy. It worked out though I had a really good in-depth talk with my dad for about 3 hours which was nice because it doesn't happen often. I have only seen like one match in the Australian Open too, which is already halfway over but Ill get to watch more this week.

Things are awesome though, everything is great. Hope everyone else is good. Take care.

2010 has the start of a wonderful year

First things first:

On January 7, Stacy and I decided to officially start dating. I am extremely happy about this and very excited for the future =).

Quite alot has been going on the past 8 days. I finished the second of my economic independant study essays, so all I have left is Harry Magdoff's Imperialism without Colonies. I had my first paper presentation at a conference last Saturday ... it went pretty well, it was more laid-back then I thought. There was about 15 people in the audience and all you do is read your paper to everyone. Its good though, you get some good feedback from people and get experience presenting things to people you don't know. I also was able to have dinner with my buddy JB and hang out with my friend Mike for a few hours while I was down there, so it was a good trip.

I started class last night... my only class of the quarter and my last quarter hopefully!! Its an economic class, I think I will like it and the teacher seems nice, if but a bit boring. My Oxford app is due on January 22, so I need to finish that up. I think that will be my last application (I don't think I'm going to apply to SOAS in London; don't really want to go there). Been having some issues with money; work hasn't paid me on time, my school grant got delayed by a few weeks, along with having to pay for a stupid speeding ticket. No big deal just kinda weird how everything hits at once. A friend who owes me 150$ though is about to pay me back so that will be good.

Tennis has been really good lately too. I experienced the best 2 week stretch of playing I've ever had. I won at least 1 set for 9-10 straights days of playing. Yesterday, I didn't play that good, but hopefully tomorrow Ill pick right back up where I was playing.

Got a few things to take care of.. Sunday as soon as I get off work I'm driving up to Sacramento spend 4 days with Stacy. Its going to be awesome, I can't wait. Need to get my hair cut, finish the last economic essay, and.... I think thats it lol. Anyways, hope everyone is good; Im doing great! bye bye.

Welcome 2010!

Well I have to say it was a good start to the new years. I spent a wonderful weekend with quite a special person :). Miss Stacy came down and we had a great weekend together, hope everyone else really enjoyed the kickoff to their new year as well.

Got a bit of a busy week coming up: I finished the first of my three economics essays (15 pages!). Paul Baran's Political Economy of Growth was challenging. Next up is Andre Gunder Frank's Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America that looks to be more of the same. On Saturday, I am presenting my Rwandan Genocide paper at the conference in San Diego. I finially heard from the professor who heads the phi theta alpha chapter and im a little more at ease.. I thought it had to be this big presentation but she said most people just straight up read their papers, which sounds boring to me. I imagine ill talk about the more interesting parts and maybe ready some direct quotes from the paper, should be a good experience. So I'll head down there friday night and chill with Mike and then probably hang out with him on Saturday after my presentation.

Watched Boise State beat TCU last night 17-10... really good defensive game. Chris Petersen and Boise never fail to amaze me; they called this fake punt on a 4th and 9 from their own 30 when it was tied at 10-10. Great stuff, makes me really miss coaching. I have been playing a lot of tennis lately too and quite well I might add. I think I have one a set for 3 or 4 straight times. Last time I should have won 2, but the lights shut off right as I was about to serve and completely screwed up my momentum. Im going to play today and we are at 4-4 in a set with me serving again so we will see how that goes. Been eating a little better, need to keep working on that, and I really need to start hitting my weight machine blah.

School starts next Tuesday, somewhat excited for that. A little anxious though because I REALLY need to get going on my thesis and I just haven't had the chance with these economics essays and my applications. I really hope I can knock this thing out because the first reading is mid-February :\. Other than that I just have one class so the school stuff should be fairly simple besides finishing my thesis.

Lifes great and today is beautiful. Wish the best for everyone. Speak soon.

Merry Xmas and here comes New Years!

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a great xmas, I sure did. I got: A vest (grandma), 50$ (mom), 25$ itunes card, 100$ jcpenneys card, a tomtom, axe stuff, a new racket (which i returned and got some other tennis stuff since I already have 2 rackets), and some little stuff. The rest was all from my dad, who always hooks me up on christmas. My older sister and her boyfriend got me something too, but I wont get it until the end of January... pretty sure it is Mass Effect 2 though which is rad because that game will be epic. My dad and I went and saw Sherlock Holmes on xmas too, which was pretty good I thought, I haven't read the books but I know it was a lot different from them. Santa brought my dad a bunch of movies which is always good for me since I am a pretty big movie buff.

I had a quick 2.5 day trip up to Norcal last sunday through wednesday. Monday night we had a huge party of like 25 at Chevys, which was fun because one of my best buddies Brett was in california from florida with his girlfriend and I havent seen him in forever. I got to see some other friends I hadn't seen in a while either which was good. Afterwards, we went to Club Car and Pistol Petes (2 auburn bars). My other friend Matt and I shot some pool and then my friend Stacy met us there and we played for a bit. The next day I got to visit my friend Kyle and see my cousins Kari and Kelsi, who were in town from Minnesota and Oregon. They were both home from college. That night, I went out with Stacy and had a blast at the Auburn Alehouse and Petes again. Then, early wednesday morning, I left and drove straight to San Diego and watched Cal play Utah in the Poinsettia Bowl at Qualcolm; shoutout to Ernie for hooking me up with tickets. Mike went with me and afterwards we got some pizza and I drove home. I was pretty tired given I had only slept 4 hours the previous night.. just a whirlwind few days.

Im really excited for New Years; Stacy is coming down to spend a few days and we are going to have a great time. We will be going out to Palm Springs to kick it with my Uncle and his gf and some of their friends. It will definitely be a good time. Hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays and speak soon.

Its beginning to look alot like christmas..

Hello all,

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Where to start? Well I got A's in both of my classes, which is awesome. My independant study will be done by january 1 (my self-imposed date for finishing my essays). So basically, I am 3 essays, 1 class, and 1 thesis away from my master's degree. Exciting stuff huh? What else.. oh yeah I now officially have 7 of my 10 applications submitted. The next one is for Leeds Uni on January 1st as well. Today I submitted my arms control paper to be published and accepted at a conference at the end of February at Syracuse Uni, so I hope it gets accepted.

I had a great trip to the east coast: 2 days in NYC, 1.5 days in Boston (got to see the patriots live WOOO), and 2 days in Manchester, CT (my former old town). The picture above is of Grand Central Station on Manhatten, then the patriots game (our seats were 7 rows back from the endzone!), then me and kaat at the game, the old north church in boston, and finally my old house in manchester. Got to spend some time with Kaat, a friend I met in Spain, who is studying in NYC and we had fun going to the patriots and walking around Boston in the rain. Then in Manchester, I spent most of my time with Jon Phelps, who is an old football buddy. I also got to see my friend Mike Goldstein for a few hours and my last relative in Connecticut, a cousin named Val. All in all, great trip! I had some transportation issues in the form of delayed flights, missed buses, and missed trains haha. It all worked out good though, except for my patriot ticket fiasco but I don't even want to get into it.

It was a short trip, but a good length althought I forgot how amazing boston is. If I ever move back to the east coast, I will definitely be moving there. What a great city... it just felt like home. Id like to take a trip back and spend 3-4 days in Boston and another 3-4 in Connecticut. Got some good reading done on the trip too: Superfreakonomics, The boy who harnessed the wind, and Open (andre agassis biography). All 3 books were really well done and I enjoyed and recommend them all. Tomorrow night, I am heading back up to Norcal for a few days to see some people. Then wednesday I am suppose to go to the Cal vs. Utah bowl game, but my friend hasn't let me know if he was able to get tickets yet or not.

Things are going pretty good, I really need to stay focused on school and I completely failed at that today haha oh well. Playing tennis tonight which is a plus! Oh yeah, saw Avatar last night.. really cool movie with the best CGI effects I have ever seen. Pretty soon they won't even need actors. Anyways, take care and speak soon.

End of the Quarter is so close!

I submitted my app to UC San Diego last night, so I'm officially done with 4 out of the 10 apps. The next 3 (Harvard, Yale, UCLA) are due on 12/15/09. I need to finish these by thursday night, because that is when I am flying back east for 5 days and I don't want to worry about it while I am out there. I also submitted my paper for Geography 600 tonight, so I am officially done with Geography. I should easily get an A in the class I only needed a 70 out of 100 on the final paper to do so. I finished my paper for Poli Sci 622 completely too, so I will just do one final readthrough and edit tomorrow or thursday and submit it on thursday. That class I have an A in, so if I get an A on the paper I should get an A in the class. My goal is to finish one of my three essays for my econ independant study. Even though my professor said he would extend it into the next quarter, its probably a good idea to get one of them done. Then, I can finish the other 2 over break and focus on my thesis.
Today was pretty productive, I edited 2 papers for a friend for his classes. Also, I saw slumdog millionaire.. GREAT movie I highly recommend it. Really powerful and just the flow and style of the movie were great. Also, my buddy Garrett and I beat the new Halo ODST campaign woohoo it only took us like 2 nights lol its pretty short, but fun. I bought my patriots tickets today, booked the hostel in Boston, and got things cleared up with Kaat. Really excited to go back east for a few days. Speaking of that, I got a surprise call from my buddy Jon who I will be hanging out with. I played football with him in Connecticut and have not seen him in like 10 years!!

I finished fast food nation yesterday, pretty good book. The author's writing style is a little repetitive, but the message and information were really sound. On the flight over to NYC, im planning on reading SuperFreakonomics, the sequel to Freakonomics. The first one was really good, so Im excited to read this.

My dad brought home the Xmas tree today and I decorated it.. always good times and memories. Ill have to take some pictures and post them. Anyways, happy holidays to everyone and god bless....

PS: Oh yeah! It is Jimmy V classic Week on ESPN for College basketball. This is my favorite charity and supports cancer research. PLEASE go donate something, anything!! It is the best charity ever!!!!!

Crunch Time

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I sure did; spent a week in northern california with friends and family. Played some tennis, met with some old friends, made a few new ones.. always a good time. Oh yeah, I bought a few books before I left: Fast Food Nation, The Gathering Storm, Open, and SuperFreakonomics. I'm about halfway through Fast Food Nation so far and it is really good; its about how the fast food industry develped, does business, and spread across the country. My Aunt Nasty gave me a book too called "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind", which looks really good too.

So I am done with 3 of my 10 applications. I submitted to Cambridge, Stanford, and Berkeley. The next group are due in about a week. School-wise Im done for the semester except for my 25 page paper which I havent started yet.. Yikes! Other exciting news is I got Netflix today and LOVE IT. All Ive done today is watched movies: Nick + Norah's Infinite playlist, 10 things I hate about you, Mall Cop, Phenomenon, and now im watching the Never Ending Story. Its 9$ a month, I get 1 disc for free at anytime, plus through my xbox there is 100's of movies you can stream instantly.

When I was up north I played some tennis with my buddy who works for Berkeley's football program.. it was so cool I got to tour the football facilities and even met some coaches. I have definitely been missing football lately.

Tomorrow I need to mail some writing samples, and work on my paper. Oh yeah my East Coast trip is coming up in like 10 days super excited for that too! Hope everyone is well!

Happy 1 year blogging anniversary!

Well its been about a year of blogging! So I decided, Hey! Im going to mess with the blog, change the layout, the colors, the font.. ya know jazz it up a bit. Well I spent an hour messing around with it just to realize that there really isn't much I can do and I already like the way it looks haha.

Finally slogging through the end of my application process. Let me tell you, it is a royal pain to apply to graduate school, much less 10 of them. Essays, Letters of rec, GRE scores, filling-in-the-blanks, research proposals. Im glad this is almost done, because its definitely taken a lot of my time and energy. This quarter is quickly coming to a close. Im pretty much done with my classes besides 1 powerpoint presentation this Tuesday and then some papers.

I finally bought the Roger Federer racket this past week.. so stoked about that. I played with it for a couple hours but I have shin splints so couldn't do much. Got some greaty poly strings on it, I also bought new shoes (K-swiss) and an actual tennis backpack for my racket. Hopefully later this week my shin splints will be gone and I can play.

Thats about it... Still playing Dragon Age a bunch.. great game. Still thinking about buying some winter clothes and some books. Take care all.

Hi All

How is everyone? Good hopefully. Im doing well, starting to get very busy though. Halloween was low-key although I did win 100 bucks playing black jack at a casino. I got a new video game to be my distraction about a week ago after beating bioshock (excellent game by the way), called Dragon Age Origins. This game is utterly massive, Im already 32 hours in and maybe a third of the way through. I love fantasy RPG games sigh... I literally played all day today.. its all I did.. really... Anyways, everything school-wise is coming together quite nicely. I got my Letters of recommendation all lined up, so pretty much im done with my US applications, I need to upload transcipts and write my research proposal for the UK schools and I will be done with those as well. Tomorrow I'm hoping to be productive since I was utterly unproductive today. Playing a bit of tennis lately which has been nice, although my legs killed when I played yesterday, must be time for new shoes.

Biggest news is that Im going to NYC, Boston, and CT in December, Ill be gone from 12/11 to 12/16 visiting friends and doing some stuff. I might make it up to a Patriots game, which would be glorious. Im starting to get excited for Thanksgiving as well since I will be going to Northern California for a few days and that is always a good time. School-wise I am down to a presentation, a 10 page paper, and a 25 pager. Then I have my independant study papers, which hopefully Ill finish 2 of those before the end of the quarter.

For some reason, I have had an urge lately to go clothing shopping. I can't really afford it, but I want some new WINTER clothes... problem is.. not much of a winter in southern california. I really do need a peacoat/coat thing though, so I might just go ahead and get one. I have a jacket and plenty of sweaters and long sleeves. My shoes are getting a bit beat up.. I don't think I will go with airwalks again.. I've had these a year but they just seem weird I don't know. I've also had a strong urge to do some recreational reading, but between playing Dragon Age and school work, I have plenty to read.. hmm...

Ive been thinking a lot lately... just about the future and what I want. I think im really excited about pursuing a PhD and its coming quick. I hope that I get in somewhere, and also I think I really would be ready and prepared to move to England. Something about that just feels right to me... I don't know how to explain it. Also, have been thinking about Africa a lot... I really feel like I made the right decision in choosing to specialize in it. Its just such a massive, diverse place that is super important. It almost has a magical aura to it, although Im pretty sure its just because I haven't been there. Also, I get this charity magazine and it had a bunch of articles on it.. I don't know just excited and anxious to do more research on it. I really feel like I am ready to move on and advance myself academically. I just hope I get the opportunity.

Anyways, like usual, missing my friends a bit. Its been tough not having a lot of friends around. Just got to suck it up a little longer. Well, I guess thats it.. Don't want to ramble on too much haha. ^_^

U2 Woohoo!

So I have had a fun and busy 10 days. Last week on Monday, I saw the Yankees and Angels play in Game 3 of the playoffs for baseball! The above picture is one of Alex Rodriguez from our seats. It was my first postseason baseball game and even though the Yankees lost I had a really good time. Then on tuesday, I went down to San Diego for a couple nights. I spent the first night with my buddy Mike and went hiking at La Jolla. The picture above is from our hike right next to Torrey Pines golf course.. it is so beautiful there.The next day I met up with my old friend Andrea and hung out with her in Ocean Beach. It was really nice to catch up with her and get back in touch. Then, the next day I had lunch with one last friend who happened to be in town as well which was nice. Then, the night I got home after school; my friend Matt drove out from USC to hang out. He hung out for the night and then drove home the next day after I got off work. His brother Steve drove out from USC friday night like right after he left and we played tennis which was a lot of fun. Then, we went and picked up my buddy Matt Christopher who I haven't seen in about a month. The 3 of us went to Fridays and had dinner and a few drinks it was a good time. Steve drove home that night and Matt went to work with me the next day.

We invented the best darts game in the history of the world. We came up with a darts football game including scoring, kickoffs, and everything. It was so much fun we pretty much played all day long. Then, that night we decided to go down to hollywood and hang out with a couple friends from high school. It was a blast, we hit up some really cool bars, and didn't get back home until 5:30am lol. Well I had to wake up at 9am for work which wasn't much fun, but no worries. Luckily for Matt, he got to sleep all day. Well Sunday night, we went and saw that man right above there.. thats right Bono. We saw U2 perform live at the Rose Bowl!!! It was such an epic show, the Black eyed Peas opened for them. My dad went with us, and I sold the extra ticket I had to make some of my money back. The picture of the top is a picture of the "claw" or massive structure that U2 hauls around on their tour acting as a stage. It was truly one of the best concerts I've been too.. BEP played for an hour and U2 for 2 and a half hours. It was such a trip to see 100,000 people rocking out to the same U2 songs. They even streamed it live on Youtube and are making the show into a DVD; ahh it was amazing!!!

Anyways, so I slept another 3.5 hours on sunday night since I had to take matt to the airport at like 6am. I went home and slept for another 6 hours and just kinda hung out all day. Yesterday though I slept in and got recharged. Most importantly, I FINALLY FOUND MY MOTIVATION. I finally got my school grind back together again, I have been struggling so hard to find it. I worked on my thesis prospectus yesterday and today I pretty much finished all of my statement of purposes for my applications. Im nearly done with US ones since I already got transcripts and GRE scores. I just need to get my letters of recommendation in order now.

Anyways, played some tennis this morning, it was super windy not a lot of fun and I got my ass kicked by John. Going to finish the SOP's tomorow and maybe start of my research proposal for the UK school's apps. Things are going good though, Steve is coming out friday night to play some tennis and chill for halloween on sat night. I think we are just going to hit up a bar, I dont feel like getting crazy. Hasta Luego everyone.

Fall Quarter 2009

Hey everyone,

How is everyone doing? I'm doing well, but things are starting to get busy. I have 2 classes (which I am not really enjoying, but hoping they get better) and an independent study. For the study, I have to read 3 economics book and write an essay about each one. I have also started my college apps (I'm applying to 6 schools in the US and 5 in the UK). Im in the process of writing the statement of purpose and research proposals for those. I need to order my GRE scores, transcripts, and contact my professors for letters of recommendation. I also need to keep working on my thesis, which I have failed to do so... definitely a lot of stuff to do.

I started back to work, in fact this is my third weekend back and it is going well. I have been running and playing tennis again, so its nice to be getting back into shape. My body feels pretty healthy, and I have been trying to eat healthier too. I have also started playing my xbox a lot lately, which I am sure is detrimental to my studies but oh well. I bought assassins' creed and beat that in a week. Its a great game, lots of fun, and im looking forward to the second one which comes out in a month. I also bought Bioshock, which is a really unique first person shooter. I am about 4 hours into it and it is a great game about an underwater city. I also bought the new Halo and have only played the firefight mode but it is just a blast. After beating assassins' creed, I took it back and reserved Dragon Age. Dragon Age is like a massive RPG set in the medieval/fantasy realm and is suppose to have 80 hours of gameplay. Im sure my life will truly shut down after that.

I have some exciting events coming up too. Tomorrow, my dad and I are going to watch the Yankees vs. Angels in Anaheim in game 3 of the conference series. Im really stoked about this as NY is up 2-0 after winning a marathon game in the bottom of the 13th inning last night. I have never been to a baseball playoff game so it should be exciting. Then, next sunday, Im going to see Black eyed peas and U2 live in concert WOO! I bought these tickets like 6 months ago and I can't believe the concert is finally here.

I think I might be going up to Santa Barbara or San Diego for halloween. I haven't completely decided, but I want to do something fun. Anyways, thats about it from my own. Take care everyone.

What a great second half to the summer!

Well, the two pictures above are the beach in Barcelona and Picasso's Guernica in Madrid. Just a small example of the amazingness that is Spain. I'm not going to write about my trip, I did that on my travel blog, which you can read at http://worldswerver.livejournal.com.

Read a few good books since I last posted: Freakonomics and I hope they serve beer in hell. Freakonomics is about the economics of everyday life and situations. Really interesting, I highly recommend it. The latter is probably the funniest thing I have ever read and is about the exploits with women and drinking that a former Duke law student has gone through. Very offensive to women and digusting, but unbelievably funny. Kinda stalled on Milton about 45 pages in, somewhat difficult reading, but I will get into it.

I had my first class on Thursday night, Im excited to get back into school I think. It will be nice just to have some interaction. I also start work next weekend which will be good as well. I have also bought a reverse blade sword like Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin so Im really excited for that to get here.

Overall, life is pretty good. Im definitely missing the traveling and the new friends I made already; but such is life. Oh yeah, I spent 2 days in auburn and saw the Killers live. They put on an awesome show, and got to hang with some friends. Hope everyone is well.

Its been a great month!

So, I just got back 2 nights ago from my fortnight on the big island of Hawaii. I put up a few pictures I thought really highlighted the trip. The first picture is the view from my friend's house that he is building. He is at about 1,200 feet of elevation and I worked construction there for him for 10 days while I was there. The second photo is Hapuna Beach, which is constantly ranked in the top 10 in the entire world. This was about 40 minutes north of where they live. The third picture is me on Hapuna Beach. The fourth and fifth pictures were from about 100 feet away of the lava that is going into the ocean. This was on the southwest part of the island and was absolutely stunning to see. All in all, the trip was amazing. I got spoiled rotten with my own condo, not having to buy food or drink, getting to snorkel and do other amazing activities. The Morrisons were the perfect host and they even paid me for my time. I hope I can repay them for their hospitality someday. The money I made will pretty much pay for me entire trip to spain, which is wonderful.

Not much besides that. Yesterday, my first day home, I went to Magic Mountain with my buddy Mike. He had never been and I hadn't in 3 years. It was perfect, we zipped through every ride in about 2 hours until the last one which was about a 1.5 hour wait. It was worth it though, we were able to blaze through the park and it was a lot of fun. Then, we went and saw inglorious basterds, which was a true Quentin Tarantino masterpiece at its finest. I highly recommend it, especially if you hate the Nazis and Hitler, than I REALLY recommend it.

I haven't worked on my thesis at all, Im hoping to organize it a bit before I leave for Spain. I bought my books today for the quarter, I only needed four and got them all for a little under 100 dollars. Still waiting on Professor Toruno to email me the reading list for my independent study, I sure hope he hasn't forgotten. I also had a really good phone call from my boss today and touched base. He is looking forward to me coming back to work so its nice they are still missing me. Another good thing is that I haven't run or played tennis in 17 days or so, and I won't for at least another 17 so I am hoping that a month will be enough time to completely heal my left knee.

Well, I am probably going to take the train back to USC on saturday again and stay with the Ragusano brothers for 2 nights before I leave. Then, im gone for 2 weeks in Spain and 3 days in Auburn. Its going to be really hectic. I booked my train from Madrid to Barcelona today and about half my hostels. Im staying close to the nightlife in some "fun/party" hostels. It should be a really good time and I should meet a lot of people hopefully. I haven't talked to Irene (my friend in Spain), I need to write her and see if we are going to be able to meet up.

Started reading Milton's Paradise Lost, really good so far. The flow is very different and the content is heavily biblical but I am enjoying it so far. I think I will leave you with that, I have some more to say; but this is long enough ha. Good night!

Whew... Good week!

Well, here are some pictures of me playing tennis, my buddy was nice enough to resend them to me in jpeg format.

All in all, this was a damn good week. I worked out twice, and Im going to work out for a third time here in a bit. The Yankees have won the first two games over the Red Sox in their 4 game series. I checked my financial aid crap on my school website and found out the disbursement is September 14; right in the middle of my Spain trip. So, when I get home I will be ballin' haha. This is good because I can start planning a few little trips I have up my sleeve for the fall and winter. Also, I learned a few new songs on the keyboard. Parts of the Speed of Sound and The Hardest Part by Coldplay. And........ the Harry Potter theme song! Ta-Da haha. Its really easy, so it was cool to learn it.

Most importantly, I was SO productive on my thesis. As my last post stated I started this week off at 20 pages or so. Then, I proceeded to write each day this week: Monday= 5.5 pages, Tuesday= 5 pages, Wednesday= 2.5 pages, Thursday= 4 pages, Friday= 2 pages, and today=4.5 pages! So basically in 6 days I went from 20 pages to around 42. So unbelieable what you can do when you really set your mind, not too mentioned I worked through about 6 of the 13 books I had; so I've completely gone through half of my initial sources which is good. I've also started making chapter titles and somewhat moving things into place. My goal now is to have over 60 by the time I leave for Hawaii in 9 days, which I think I can really do! 60 pages of body will be really good and will probably be most of it minus the transitions and polishing up.

So, my dad and I are going to Pismo Beach super early tomorrow morning to go ride and camp for a night. Im pretty excited, Ive never been to the Central California coast and you get to ride right on the beach! It should be a lot of fun. We are coming back monday late afternoon, so I won't get to work on my thesis that day but I wasn't really planning on it anyways. The only thing is that one of my books is due back that day so Im not really sure what im going to do lol I guess it will just have to be a day late.. oops!

Life is really good right now.. I definitely have no complaints. Hawaii coming up, thesis is trucking along, Spain after. Not too mention 2 of my best buddies just moved down to USC and are only an hour away. Its been really nice too because of Nicole. That is my new friend who I connected with that I wrote about in my last post. Pretty much amazing, definitely makes life better when you have someone you look forward to talking about on the daily.

Anywaysssssssssss, Ill probably post again mid- next week unless something crazy goes down. Hope everyone is doing good.

Time to be productive!

Well after not doing much the past few weeks as far as thesis writing, I am definitely trying to put in some work. I wrote 5 pages today to bring me up to roughly 25.. so worst case scenario I am like a quarter of the way done. Its exciting because I'm getting to the point where my sources are referencing each other in their work and starting to overlap meaning: 1. Im actually learning this stuff and 2. Im working my way through the material and 3. My topic has finally become specialized on democratic consolidation. My goal was to write another 20 before I left for Hawaii which is in TWO WEEKS oh boy! Hopefully I can stay motivated and somehow write 5 a day mon-fri which would bring me up to 70 before I left haha. Fat chance but its nice to dream yes?

Been playing a bit of tennis too which has been good. Actually my tennis buddy is gone for the week in Vancouver so it will allow me to focus on my thesis more. We went out and set up his camera on a tripod and got some pretty cool actions shots of us playing. I was trying to upload a few but since he has a mac, they are in the PICT format which is recognized by nothing. I need to find a way to convert them and then I will upload a few in my next post.

I went quad riding with my dad yesterday which was a ton of fun! I haven't been riding since we went to Ocotillo Wells on Easter I think. It was definitely good times and my back is a little sore since its not used to the vibration of riding. It would be nice to go more often but its pretty hot now so no dice I think.

The other big news is that I have been playing my keyboard everyday for the past, oh I don't know, 8 or 9 days. I hadn't realized how much I miss playing music. I listen to music pretty much all day nonstop but I haven't played my keyboard since last summer :S. Its been a lot of fun though, Im learning a lot of Coldplay songs seeing how I have been listening to them so much lately. Also, I am learning the first movement of Moonlight Sonata which is just a gorgeous piece. Anyways, it has been really relaxing and soothing. Maybe if I get a few songs down pat.. I only have like one or two right now, but if I get a few more I will make a video and upload it. Would be kinda fun.

And of course, there really is nothing like meeting someone you didn't know before and realizing how awesome they are. I recently reconnected, well really connected for the first time a girl I went to high school with and she is really cool. Its so nice to meet someone that you share so much in common with and connect with.

Anyways, on the whole, life is pretty good right now except for the fact that Im super broke haha. I just need to wait for school to starts because Ill be working again and get my living expenses loan I took out (just a small one). A bit of a long post, but I had a lot to say. Hope everyone is doing well and take care =).

Fun times with the family!

Well the house is super quiet now, I guess that is what happens when it goes from 7 people being here to 2. I had a great time with all the family. Played lots of ping pong and video games with Rob and Shannon. My niece Madi is absolutely adorable and a joy to be around. She is always smiling and laughing, when she isn't crying or sleeping haha. It was awesome to see my mom and little sister too since I hadn't seen them in a little over a year. Cleaned up today, did laundry, and the house is pretty much back to normal. Played tennis the last 2 days and worked out today; trying to get back in the groove of things. I also wrote 2 pages for my master's thesis, so I'm up to 14. I got 3 new books via Interlibrary loan(ILL) that should really help me. The ILL system is brilliant as it lets you borrow books, articles, and other things for free(usually) from almost any library in the country/world. Its very helpful.

When everyone was here we went to Palm Springs, Huntington Beach, LA, bowling, saw the new Harry Potter movie which rocked! It was weird knowing the story beforehand since in the past I had never read the books, but its cool to see how they translate it to the big screen. Also, last Sat. night I took my friends Jessica and Amanda to see Coldplay and oh man did we have a good time. They put on such a brilliant show, they definately rank up their with the best bands I have ever seen. It was by far the biggest concert I have ever been to, there was so many people there.

Well the big news for me is that I am definitely going to Hawaii! I bought my ticket yesterday from August 17- September 1. The cheapest listed price to Kona from LA right now is 550$, so I gave priceline a go and got one for 450$! 100 bucks cheaper! I guess priceline does work (this was my first time); its good for last minute and really expensive trips. Good connections and it is on United so good deal all the way around. The Morrisons are kind enough to split the cost with me and then they are going to pay me to do work out there for them. Sounds glorious.

Well the pictures above are of my cute niece and the coldplay concert. I guess this is all for now, hope everyone is good.

Viva Las Vegas

Well,

I had a pretty fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas. It was super packed because they had a UFC championship fight over the weekend too. It so hot too, we couldn't really walk around during the day since it was like 108 degrees. I had a lot of fun gambling and checking out some of the clubs though. I lost 150$ the first night, but won 100$ the second night; so I only lost 50 for the trip. Not too bad I think.

I bought and read the last Harry Potter book last week. I have to say that J.K. Rowling was able to do what few others can. She made each book progressively longer and better, and she did a really good job of tying everything together in the last book. I'm really excited for the Half-Blood Prince to come out on Wednesday.

In family news, Meghan (sister) and Maddy (niece) fly in tonight. This should be really fun, a lot of family is going to be coming here in the next week and it should make for quite a merry household.

I need to get working on my thesis here, Im going to go on Worldcat and order some books today. Worldcat is a wonderful thing, through the school library I can borrow books from universities all over the world. Its either free or for a small fee. Pretty helpful stuff eh? UCLA will definitely have a lot of good books, they have a huge African studies program. It should be free too since they are so close.

Have a good one.

Fate will not be denied

Congratulations to Roger Federer on winning his 15th Grand Slam! He outlasted Andy Roddick in an epic 5 setter at Wimbledone: 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14! For those of you who know tennis; Wimbledon does not do tiebreaks in the 5th set, which means the two players had to go for an eternity with Roger finally prevailing.

Well, I have the fortune of having a very active family member who I have yet to meet on my mother's side of the family, who decided to set up a family blog so everyone can post and keep up on each other's news. I think this is a brilliant idea and have been actually contemplating doing this for my dad's side of the family. So depending on the success of this new blog, I might do it as well. I might also have some people visiting my blog now. This has served as my own personal journal for the last 8-9 months, but I definitely wouldn't find if people were reading it and keeping up on me and my life.

In any case, I think I will go blog over there in a minute and introduce myself to some extended family. Its crazy how you can be related to people, but never have met them or even know they exist. Family is truly a wonderful thing.

Heres to a beautiful day and a beautiful life.