Fire Academy?

So I am getting close to getting my degree now, within a year and a half if I am able to stay motivated and get things done, and starting to look at jobs and careers that interest me.  The jobs that interest me the most would require me to be outdoors and doing things in the mountains and forested lands around the country.

Unfortunately these jobs don't pay as well as the job that I am currently at, but they do have more options for advancement which would be a great benefit to me and my future family.  Now I was thinking in order to set myself apart from the rest of the field and give myself the boost that is required to get one of these jobs would be getting my entry certification as a wildfire fighter.

So now that I am in the process of working towards finishing my degree I am thinking of taking a week long course at some point during the remaining schooling to get me the certification required to become a member of the forest service or a like-minded agency later on in life.

What do you all think?  Is this something to look at or is it just another opportunity for me to waste money and prolong actually entering the work force?

Resume Building

I write this as a way to get my ideas on paper.

So I have been looking for replacement jobs for a while and after being employed for the same company for almost 12 years it occurs to me that I have not had to write or use a resume in a very long time.  I don't even know where to start, in fact I am so close to paying $50 so that I can take an online self guided course on how to put together a great resume.  Is this a good idea?  Is this something that any of you have had the chance to do over the years?   It is almost more stressful to research and write a resume than just staying at my dead end, no chance for promotion, job.

So as I go through and realize that I am nearing the end of my schooling and doing the things that I need to do to become a better member of this society, I realize that I am stuck and unable to really get out without basic business education.  It is almost as if my entire school experience has pruned me into not being able to do much with it afterwards without the basic writing skills that are required in order to be the best that I can be.  

Okay so my rant is over.  It is time for me to start researching and figuring out how to write a killer resume and become not just another brick in the wall, but a stand outside the wall and on my own two feet.

The Automobile Idea

This week I have been working on a research proposal for an ecology class as well as thinking about Earth Day which is coming up tomorrow.  I will be spending Earth Day playing a round of golf after work, in case you were wondering.  But that is besides the point of this short blog post.  

Traffic was horrendous yesterday and it took me an extra 20 minutes to get to school, which put me in a bit of a sour mood but it was no big deal.  As I was taking the bus looking out the window trying to figure out why traffic was so bad, other than the fact that it was 420 and all the potheads and stoners were out and about, I realized that almost every single vehicle on the road that was not commercial in its use was occupied by a single driver.  There were no passengers anywhere to be seen.  

This fact got me thinking about the traffic issues that face the greater Denver area, what if people actually carpooled, or better yet took the same public transportation that I was taking at that very moment.  So I did a bit of a thought experiment.  I thought of the most common places of work in the Denver area and realized that there are really only three, so the chances that a neighbor or even an acquaintance would be working within the same area were pretty high.  This led to the next phase of my thought experiment which had me counting private vehicles that had just the driver in them.  I counted 55 out of 56 cars had only one person in it.

What would happen if just two people drove together every day?  I thought maybe, just maybe traffic would be cut by 50% during the rush hour time slot.  In my mind this alone would cut travel time by roughly 5 minutes each way saving you and your new carpool buddy 10 minutes of aggravated driving each day and if the work week was 5 days an entire 50 minutes per week.  

Now let's think about the old carpool ads from the early 90's where every seat in a vehicle is occupied by coworkers all traveling with their coffee and breakfast alternating who drives each day.  So that would be 4 people per vehicle during the rush hour time or a whopping decrease in vehicles on the road by roughly 75%.   Now we are saving 8 minutes each way and a giant 80 minutes each week!  Now we are talking.  I am not writing this with the environment in mind even though that is where this all started, but what is the biggest cause of delays on a commute besides volume?

Road Construction.  If everybody just carpooled the need to widen the roads would not be there since the amount of cars would stay low.  This means that big construction projects at least for the near future would not be happening.  Road maintenance would not be as frequent since the normal amount of vehicles on a road would be a lot less as well.  

So to look at the overall outcomes of just carpooling or taking the many options for public transportation we would have a happier, healthier community.   Let's all do our part.

Back to the world at large

It has been a weekend that has been so much fun that coming back to the daily grind of work, school, and taking care of the housework has been hard for me to come back to.  For those of you that are not following my other blog, "Weights and Games" I just got back from Utah where I stayed with my grandmother and uncle while also attending a wedding.  I love going out to the town where they live as it is a step back from the city, a slow pace where I am able to think without feeling the rush of people or commitments all around me, it is an oasis of thought in the middle of the desert, not to mention a really cool little community where everyone waves at you and is pleasant on the outside.

Now  I sit here thinking about what to write for my other blog, reread journals on the feeding habits of coyotes in the south eastern portion of Utah, and wait for my turn to go back to work and think of the joy that I feel when I am able to step back and take a hard look at the world as a whole from the bubble that is Emery County.

I guess my putting thoughts here is a way to get my creative juices flowing as I try and make the other blog more of a professional branding blog, and to keep it free of the randomness that encompasses me as I write down just feelings, events, and daily life here.

I will continue to propose school projects here as a sounding board, will continue to put a few little tidbits of my side projects here, and will continue to make this as much of an intellectual pursuit as I can, for example I have just begun reading "The Prince" and will be discussing thoughts and learning here for the world to digest it with me, but it will also be a safe place for me and anyone else that wants to comment to discuss the events of the day and how they impact the life at large.

I guess these last four paragraphs have really been just me saying...  I'M BACK YA'LL AND LOOK FORWARD TO WRITING AND TALKING WITH YOU ALL ONCE AGAIN.

Football Manager 2013

As promised it is time to rant and rave about Sega's Football Manager 2013.  Since my last post my steam account tells me that I have put in 68 hours on this game.  It was not because it was great, or a must buy, in fact if you do not like football/soccer I doubt that you would find it interesting. It is the business side of football, so you don't even get to play the actual matches.  The makeup of the game is: you get to pick your squad, setup training schedules, arrange friendlies, trade and cut players, as well as everything else that a manager does in real life.  The business aspect is very well done and something that makes the game feel real in a way that I haven't experienced for a while.  The interface can be translated into English, Czech, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian, which makes the game accessible to many from all over the world.  The game starts in one of three ways, one can pick their favorite club and take them to glory, once can coach a national squad as well as a club, or one can start unemployed.  I decided to start unemployed and got a coaching job in tier 3 Norway.

The game is fun and sucked me into it like I did not think that it would.  I played through three seasons and ended up staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning on many occasions.  The newness of the game has finally worn off and I am able to get some sleep once again.  Now time for my good, bad, and ugly that I started with the first game I ever talked about on this blog.

The good:

Immersion- you can take a club from the bottom tier to the top.  The game has almost all the tournaments that real life has as well as the possibility for international call ups during federation cups and world cup play. The transfer window is only open during the actual time for the league that you are a part of and if you want to bring a player from a country that your nation does not recognize they must obtain a work permit before they can play for you.  (I have had three transfers declined because the Norwegian government would not allow a work permit for the players, very upsetting when you have spent three game weeks negotiating with agents for this player.)

Database- I am playing on medium database and have over 50,000 players that are in the database.  I even looked for random youth and reserve players that nobody really knows and was able to find the actual player.  Very impressive for the ultimate coaching experience.

Game Play-  Pretty easy to pick up, yet there are a lot of things that I still have not learned about or utilized.  (Good thing I am still playing tier 3)

The Bad:

This might be a first but I have nothing that goes into this category.  It is a solo game so I can't even complain about trolls in this section so I have to give it a stamp of approval for not having anything in the bad section.

The Ugly:

Processing speed-  I put this here instead of in the bad because it takes a lot of time to manage all the job opportunities, games, player moves, and general news to come up on the computer screen.

Match View-  If you want graphics on par with what is coming out right now this is not something that you would like.  I have seen better soccer game graphics on a virtual Foosball table.  Not a highlight, but the pixelated players are good enough for the player to understand what was going on and how to make changes to his/her tactics in order to improve or decimate chances of success.

Funny moment in real lower tier football

Game Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcyHvtTqcd4

I would recommend this game to the soccer nut who thinks they can do any head coaches job better than the real person.  I will continue to play this game and may even try and achieve glory.  

Good luck to all you future or current managers out there and I hope that you have a lot of fun building your team from the bottom up.

*Just learned from a friend that this game has a tool from steam that allows you to change the database and create your own team, I haven't played around on this but I will let you all know how it works if I ever get around to it.

**sorry for any spelling mistakes I was listening to a Danish morning show on the radio while writing this and was having a hard time going between the two languages.  I probably would have written this in Danish but I am not yet proficient enough to do so and make it pass.  If you want to listen to the station I was listening to you can go to:   www.anr.dk   and click on (lyt om anr) under the radio tab.  It is a fun mix of pop and top 40 music.    (There I gave you my plug maybe you'll get some more listeners....... or not....)  

Four Brand New Games in the Works

It has been a while since I have done a video game blog, and my audience usually isn't the type of audience that goes for that type of thing, so I wanted to warn you all that if you are not fans of video games you have every right to turn away for the next four blogs and join back in future.

For those that are interested the four games are:

1.)  Civilization V: Gold Edition

2.)  Grand Theft Auto IV

3.) Football Manager 13

4.)  Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I may do some others on DotA 2, Team Fortress 2, and Just Cause 2, but I downloaded them and then stopped playing them just as fast.

My Last Essay from Sociology

So this is my last essay from my Prejudice and Discrimination class.  I think I did a good job even though I only had a day to complete it.  I guess that is how the teacher tested us to see if we payed attention to the different theories surrounding the topic.  I hope you all enjoy it and remember I enjoy comments, even if you want to give me a negative critique I will learn from them.

Muslim Americans

To be Muslim in America today is not an easy thing.  On September 11, 2001 one of the worst orchestrated terrorist attacks came at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist group Al Qaida.  This group has origins in Arabia which has led to manly believing that all Muslims are Arab, which in turn has led to many to think that all Arabs are terrorists.  The truth is that terrorists make up such a minute part of the Muslim population that to say that all Muslims are terrorists is extremely inaccurate.  According to the textbook “Racial and Ethnic Groups” of the Muslims in America 20-42% are African American, 24-33% are South Asian, 15-22% are white/Hispanic, and only 12-32% are actually of Arab descent.

            According to Schaefer there are 5 characteristics of sub ordinance which lead to further subordination from the dominant group.  The first characteristic is the experience of unequal treatment.  Since September 11^th Muslim Americans have experienced a loss of constitutional rights.  When the US government passed the Patriot Act, suspected terrorists can be imprisoned without trial indefinitely.  With racial profiling in practice this tends to affect Muslims and Arabs more than any other group today.  The second characteristic is a shared physical or cultural characteristic.  The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, is written in Arabic and through education and religious practice most can speak and or at least understand the Arabic language.  The third characteristic is involuntary membership.  Even though Islam is a religion and can be thought of as voluntary, the way Muslims are treated and perceived gives them an involuntary membership into a subordinate group.  The fourth characteristic is a strong sense of group solidarity.  The rigid doctrine of Islam, which involves Friday services, strict diet, and obligatory prayer, leads to a sense of community within the group.  The continued prejudices towards the followers of Islam take the sense of community and make it stronger.  The final characteristic of a subordinate status is in-group marriage.  In the Muslim tradition Muslims must marry Muslims.  This means that one must be part of the faith or convert to the faith in order to marry a member of the faith.

            There are two theories that can explain why Muslim Americans are placed in a subordinate status.  The first is called Social Learning Theory, which states that people learn from one another in a social setting.  In other words what people initially believe and embrace comes from observing the behaviors and attitudes of others.  After September 11^th the media covered the Arab world concentrating on terrorist activities, and the perceived threat of the Islamic religion.  This media coverage placed a lot of prejudices and stereotypes in people’s minds.  These prejudices are then passed onto others through the Social Learning Theory.

            The other theory that could explain the subordination of Muslim Americans is the normative theory.  This theory states that norms, which are behavioral expectations, are situational and socially constructed.  Anything that goes against social norms is usually mistrusted and those breaking norms are placed into a subordinate status.  The norms that dominate American culture have deep roots in our forefather’s Christian roots.  The Islamic faith is very different from the Christian norms of today.  It encompasses a Sabbath on Friday instead of Sunday, five obligatory prayers towards the holy city of Mecca, strict moral codes, as well as a diet that forbids alcohol, swine, and any substance that could prevent one from practicing their faith.  Because of these differences many view people of the Islamic faith as a threat to their very way of life.

            The future is not as bleak as the current situation makes it appear, in fact the future could be bright for Muslim Americans.  Most have a strong familial structure, which provides a strong support system within the home.  There is a strong emphasis on education, with many college graduates and post graduates within the community.  Many new immigrants have upper college degrees and are a viable resource to the American Labor Force.  According to “Racial and Ethnic Groups” many Muslims have set up companies and businesses in America that have become very successful and play an important role in the American economy.  The aspects of the Muslim faith which help lead to a subordinate status help build strong communities which look out for one another.  All these aspects help strengthen Muslim Americans and in the future could help them rise above their current status of subordination.

If you have reached this point you have read my essay.  I hope that you enjoyed it, maybe learned a bit from it, and that it at least put things in perspective.  Thank you for reading.

Critical response 2

I wrote this paper for class and thought I would share it with everyone.  Yes I tried to be as accurate with the amount of information that I could but I thought it would be fun to put it on the internet so that I can share with everyone.  I have blocked out some of the names and locations to protect those that do not want to be found.  I ask my family that they read over this paper and let me know if I made any mistakes so that I might be able to fix them and give the correct story.  Thank you.

Steven Olsen

Prejudice and Discrimination

C.R. #2

                In my life I have been placed in a spot of preferred treatment as well as a place of being prejudiced against.  My family comes from two main regions; the British Isles for my mother’s side of the family, and Denmark for my father’s side of the family.  Having my roots where they are I am part of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority of the United States.  I also come from a Mormon background, and when my father passed, a household headed by a single female.  These life experiences have put me in a subordinate status to some, from an at risk child in the school systems to just being prejudiced against for my religion.  My family’s migration story puts me in a majority while the religious culture puts them in a minority.

            My mother’s family history is one of preferential treatment for the most part.  There is one line in our family tree that can be traced back to the 1300s.  This line has been linked to the Kings and Queens of England, which puts them in a socially dominant class.  The immigration of this family came in waves, where the first waves came in the 1600s landing in the New England area and the Jamestown settlements.  I had family that fought on both sides of the American Revolution with some of them returning to England after the war, only to return to the states after the civil war. 

            In the 1800s my family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) and through increased discrimination they started the movement west.  They were kicked out of many settlements and states because of their faith.  Things got bad for my family when their church leaders were assassinated at the hands of a lynch mob and their house of worship was burned down.  They continued west beyond the U.S. borders, after the Mormon Extermination Act was enacted in Missouri, which eventually took them into Utah where they finally found some peace from persecution.

            My father’s side of the family has a different immigration story all together.  It started with Henning Olsen-Ungermann leaving Åstrop Denmark in 1861 to come to the United States.  He and his family had to leave Denmark when they converted to the United States, which was illegal under Danish law and the Church of Denmark (Den Danske Folkekirke).  Henning lost most of his family on the journey to the United States including all but one child and his wife.  He buried his wife in Nebraska where the people that he hired to dig the grave took all his money because of his inability to speak and understand English.  He made his way to Utah where he married a young woman he met on the boat to America.  A little later the church called (told) him to take a second wife, polygamy is no longer legal practice within the church but its legacy leads to much prejudice still today.  It is from this second wife that my family comes from.

            My familial background places me right on the edge of dominant and subordinate status in America.  My roots are in the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) majority which places me in the socially dominant group.  I will not have a problem finding work, housing, or education.  This privilege lasts until my religious background comes up.  Once people learn about my Mormon background those around me tend to guard their conversations, I am no longer invited out with these people, and am a part of the group but always on the outside.  Comments like “I can only socialize with one Mormon at a time” and “How many wives will you take?” though meant in jest are constantly being said, which is a way to keep those of this faith in a subordinate status.  This cultural group that I am a part of gives me a subordinate status, though I will never know what it is like to be a person of color, a female, or a homosexual; I try and continue to try and treat all people as people and try to avoid placing anybody in a subordinate status.  I can relate to both sides of subordination, I am a member of the majority with a subordinate grouping within that majority.  

One Final out of the Way!!!!!

It is really not like me to pat my own back, or do anything like that, but I am officially done with Gen. Chem. Lab.  Woo Hoo.... It was a semester of doing more math than I thought I liked, calculations of molarity, titration, purity, and yield kept me on my toes.  From experiment one which was basic calculations to the last experiment which involved natural logarithmic functions and basic molecular kinetics, I am not a physicist so these were hard, it is over.

Now it is on to cellular biology and discrimination in contemporary society.  Woo Hoo Anthropology here I come.

Weekly Update

So another week has come and gone, and I am into the swing of finals week.  I have picked up a few more games to try out and review, as well as a book that I will be reviewing in a couple of days/weeks.  The biggest thing is that I don't have as much time to do things for this blog when I have so much to do in the real world.

1. I wrote a little about the Defiance world a little while ago, so far both the game and the series are coming together quite nicely.  The new patch has changed a lot, and the server problems that the game experiences after a new patch are making it hard to play and get into it.

2. My World of Warcraft account got hacked and I have not logged in because I am too lazy to reset my password and see what kind of damage was done to my account.

3.  Sims 3:  My new favorite.  I will always have a soft spot for the Sims, and will write a quick review in a couple days about the expansion packs that I have and what I like/dislike about them.

4.  The Host:  I avoided reading this book for a very long time and now that I am half through it I am looking forward to finishing so I can tell you all about it.

5. Chemistry:  I have a lab final and the ACS final coming up in the next two weeks.  I will be working my butt off to get these done and get good grades on them.  I will let you all know about those in the future as well.

6. Life- we have a new dishwasher and dryer now, and they are amazing.

That is what is on tap for the future and I look forward to writing about most of these items.  I hope all my readers are having fun reading my updates and I look forward to giving you updates in the future.

Defiance the Game

To go on with my current path of thought I felt I should write my early impressions of the game "Defiance".  So far it is an interesting idea, with great voice actors, and incredible graphics.  The world is well made and missions are straight forward with a clear objective in mind.

The Good:
Graphics- I got so lost in the game last night that I forgot that I was straining my eyes at a computer screen and not actually in the action.

Story Line- The story line follows another aspect of the show.  Instead of St. Louis you are in San Francisco and following the plights of the people there.

Controls- Playing on the PC I can say that the controls are pretty easy.  Buttons to walk, run, jump, crouch, etc... as well as the mouse movement that points your weapon and lets you click to shoot.  The only negative is the movement of vehicles but I'll get to that in a bit.

Actors-  The speech and dialogue is for the most part on key with what is going on in the game.  The voice actors they hired are incredible and the sound mixing seems to be flawless.

Price- I know that $60 is a bit pricey for a game.  Especially for those that don't have expendable incomes, but this is a good thing because, as of now the servers are free.  There is no subscription for the servers and the one time payment is not bad compared to the constant subscription fees of other MMO games.  My hope is that they are able to continue the free servers, but we'll have to wait and see how the game reacts once more players are playing it.

The Okay-

MMO-  This is a question mark for me as I have not joined a "clan", really grouped up with anyone, or done any co-op maps.  What I can say is that it is nice to have four or five other players going for the same objective since some of the bosses are difficult to handle on your own.

PvP-  This will be covered in two places, here and further down the page.  If you like the Halo style, run and gun, with limited skill..... this game is for you.  If you want something a little more lifelike I would stay away from PvP.

The Bad-

Server-  This game has instances that happen real time anywhere in the world.  These instances draw anywhere from 2 to 25 people to them and once all those people come together the lag starts to happen.  (I guess this is one of the drawbacks of having a free server).  The cut scenes are flawless but the load rate on some of the heavier populated portions of the world cause skipping, or jarring in the graphic quality.  My suggestion play late at night, or during the day when all the kiddies are at school or asleep.

The Ugly-

Mobs- There is limited artificial intelligence to this game.  The bosses stand in the open but are so nerfed that they take forever to kill, the mobs don't coordinate and just fire blindly into your character.  The worst part is that they hit you every time, no matter how much you dodge, cover, hide, etc...  The mobs accuracy is impeccable.

PvP-  I told you this would be covered here again.  The matchmaking is a little off on this game.  Something I know the developers are trying to iron out but it makes the game not very interesting when you are going up against someone not only a higher level, but with such good gear that you stand no chance in open combat.  Best bet is to duck and kite those players but right now PvP is more broken than World of Warcraft which is saying something.



I hope that you all like the review.  I actually think I would recommend this game to anyone that wants to give it a try.  It is not a must have but definitely fun and worth a look into.  I plan on playing this game throughout the television season and will write updates to this blog as new patches and content is released.  I hope that it continues to keep my attention but we'll see how things go.

It has Been a long long time

For the amount of time I think about making posts here, compared to the amount of time actually posting here, this thing should be way full of everything.  Unfortunately time and resources create a lag in actually following through on my plans.  I decided today that I would start posting on this again and make it worth reading for any and all that may be intrigued by the what I have to say.  Since I left you last I have started to embrace my inner nerd.  I have played my World of Warcraft, I have read some comic books, some science fiction, and even started to watch a new show called Defiance.  On top of all these extracurricular activities, I have been going to school, working two jobs, and hitting stress levels that should not be hit by anybody at any time.  I think I would like to take this post and turn it into a review of SyFy's new TV show "Defiance".

Defiance: my thoughts and reactions:

There is a lot of mumbling from the community at large that there is not enough back story, that the use of terraforming creates a misconception of the actual events,and even that the character development sucks.  I am going to disregard all these comments being made and tell you what I have seen.

The show is very complex.  There are too many different types of races/cultures in the show, which leads to a very complex back story.  I am not too worried about this not being covered in the pilot, especially since the show has a bit of time to develop the story as it runs.  The idea of a video game that tells half the story as well as a series that tells the other half is amazing to me.  If they can do it right this could be either a great success, or a terrible failure.  As far as the characters, from what I have seen so far (two episodes) the main character has a lot of depth and intrigues me. He is a war veteran, drifter, and likes to live on the edge of society.  He is also somebody that stands up for what is right and will not back down from wrong actions in any way.  As far as the female lead, I do not know.  I think nobody knows about her at all, she is someone that continues to elude words.  She comes off as rash, and for lack of another word, "Bitchy".  But she may be the key to all that may lay ahead for the series.  The look and feel of the show is great.  There seems to be a great budget which makes the show feel real, and believable.  The one draw back is that SyFy is known for ruining shows, and cancelling them too early (Battlestar, Caprica, Eureka, etc...)  this could cause problems for the soon to be loyal fan base this show will eventually draw.

The potential is huge, the budget is too large, and the actors are great.  All equations for a quick cancellation by the money hording directors at Syfy. I hope they prove me wrong, but who knows.  I will continue to add blurbs as things come to me through watching this show.  I will also do a quick review of the game, which I sadly bought after watching the pilot.

More to come soon, as well as a review on "The Host" once I finish reading that.  I see big things for this blog and will do my best to keep it as up to date as I can do so.

Happy Searching ladies and gentlemen.

Introductions

I realized a while ago as I was going through the family blog, as well as the many blogs that I am a part of, that I have not written on this one for a while.  I feel bad about that, but hey life catches up with the best of us right?  So a quick update, I am entering the meat and potatoes of my degree which means that this blog may take a very analytic/scientific approach.  Constantly thinking in this way throughout the week really does lead to this.  It is with great pleasure that I let you all know that I am doing really well in school, and that I am also so busy that there is no possible way for me to get into any trouble whatsoever.

Current reading list:
Chemistry: A molecular approach ~ Nivaldo Tro
General Chemistry Laboratory procedures and methods ~ assorted college staff
Genome ~ I know that I have read this before but I love the simple straight forward way the author shows the reader the information
The Hobbit ~ JRR Tolkien  *After watching the movie I had to read this again.

I know that these books seem a little strange, but hey that is my life at this time.  I enjoy the challenge of reading so many books, but my for fun books may take a back seat as I tackle Kinetics, electrochemistry, and radiology.  Should be fun right?

Chemistry Class:
This is the last of my generals before I get into the real science of my degree.  From here I go onto Organic, Biochem, and Analytic chem.  As well as cross cultural communication, virology, molecular biology, etc....
This semester has an interesting start: Kinetics... the study of movement.  At the molecular level this gets very heavy in physics and calculus, two of my weakest but most appealing subjects.  Needless to say this leads to an excessive amount of math each night.  On top of that I have the opportunity to put what I study into the practicum through lab work.  One of the biggest parts of the lab is the necessity of completing prelab, postlab, and all of your reports within a week.  That adds up to about 15 to 20 hours of homework during the week.  The one thing that I am most excited for is the fact that this lab is treated as a professional lab, and not a learning lab, which means that all of our labwork (including notes and notebooks) are technically part of the scientific community.  They can be published, confiscated, sent to the government, etc...  that being said everything must be done in ink with no erasing or whiting out of mistakes.  When we make a mistake we are required to strike it out with a single line through the work, initialed, and dated.

I guess this is to make sure we are diligent in our calculations, as well as honoring the scientific method which allows for some deviation but for the most part each experiment should be done the same way to either add further evidence to theories and laws, or possibly create a discrepancy in the currently held thoughts regarding what we are doing.  I know that a general chemistry lab will not be life altering, or lead to any sort of discovery but still to know that this is a professional lab and our work has the chance to be scrutinized by the scientific community is really kind of cool.

Extracurricular activities:
I have started a running program to help my body get to the best that it can be.  I am excited every day by the progress that I make and the ability the human body has to improve.  I can't run far or even that long, but hey I am getting better.

I also enjoy video games.  I know what some of you that stumble upon this blog must be thinking, a science nerd that likes video games who would have though, but hey we all need our outlets.  Currently I have been playing World of Warcraft, a time consuming/life stealing game that lets you be whoever you want to be and pretty much do whatever you want to do.  Now that school has started up I probably won't be doing as much on this game, but it is still being played pretty regularly as of right now.  I am still a total noob at it and but try my best to understand the mechanics of the game so I can join an arena team and move up the ranks.

Purpose:
I have decided the new purpose of this blog is to organize my thoughts and let people see who I am.  I will post my thoughts on books I've been reading, rants about other players and myself on WoW, as well as books I'm reading, current events, and really anything that strikes my fancy.  I hope people read this and enjoy the day in the life of a thirty year old professional student.

Come follow me on my journey through life.

Steve

Workouts

So today was my third day going to the gym.  What fun!!!!   I don't know what it is that keeps me from working out but I have actually been enjoying my time at the gym this time around.  Maybe it is because of the amount that I have let myself go since college, maybe it is because I have nothing better to do over the summer.  Whatever it is I have enjoyed every minute of this enterprise.  I also just finished the second book of the Brotherband series which was very entertaining.  I'll do a full book report on it later on but all I can say is I'm really pulling for these outcasts...

Been A Long Time

I was thinking about everything that I was planning on doing, which included keeping the blog up to date.  I know that sounds silly but it was one of my goals.  Unfortunately I have not been able to, or more truthfully not been willing to, write.  This is ridiculous since I absolutely love to write and I have actually written a lot in my little pieces of notebook and notebook paper all over the house and in my room.  So a quick update and more to come this summer since I absolutely want to continue all that I can do.  I just completed my Associates degree from Front Range Community College, with a 3.25 GPA.  Not honors but not bad either.  I will be moving on to Metro State University of Denver in the fall and working towards a degree in medical Biology.  I can't wait to start that. More to come in the future but that is the quick note about what I have been up to.

Brotherband

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog.  I know I have been slacking off but I decided that today I would write a quick book review of "Outcasts"  the first book in the new Brotherband series. 

I enjoyed this book a lot.  There is something about the mix of fantasy with historical context that just makes me feel like I am part of the book.  The characters were very relate able and believable, just a little bit too fantastic for real life though.

Premise:

This book follows young Hal as he enters manhood.  His father was killed in a raid and Hal never got to know his father who was one of the most esteemed warriors in all of Skandia.  Hal is unlike the other Skandians though as he was born of a slave mother and is always considered Arulean at heart and not Skandian.  Hal is also extremely smart and likes to create new inventions throughout the book.  His ingenuity both help him and hinder him as he completes his brotherband training. 

I won't give away the end of the book since it is still extremely new, but I just wanted to say that this book is probably one of the best young adult adventure books that I have read.  The training sequence alone made me want to go back to the weight room and regain what I had before I discovered the joys of sitting in front of a TV or computer and couch potatoing out. 

Det har været et stykke tid siden jeg har skrevet indlæg på denne blog. Jeg ved, jeg har været slacking off, men jeg besluttede at jeg i dag ville skrive en hurtig boganmeldelse af "udstødte" den første bog i den nye Brotherband serie.

Jeg nød denne bog en masse. Der er noget om den blanding af fantasi med historisk kontekst, der bare får mig til at føle som om jeg er en del af bogen. Tegnene var meget relatere dygtig og troværdig, bare en lille smule for fantastisk til det virkelige liv om.

Premise:

Denne bog følger unge Hal, da han kommer ind manddom. Hans far blev dræbt i en razzia og Hal aldrig kom til at kende sin far, som var en af ​​de mest ansete krigere i hele Skandia. Hal er i modsætning til de øvrige Skandians skønt, da han blev født af en slave mor og er altid betragtet Arulean på hjerte og ikke Skandian. Hal er også meget smart og kan lide at skabe nye opfindelser i hele bogen. Hans opfindsomhed både hjælpe ham og hindre ham, som han afslutter sin brotherband uddannelse.

Jeg vil ikke give væk i slutningen af bogen, da det stadig er meget nyt, men jeg ville bare sige, at denne bog er formentlig en af ​​de bedste unge voksne eventyr bøger, som jeg har læst. Uddannelsen sekvens alene gav mig lyst til at gå tilbage til last rum og genvinde, hvad jeg havde, før jeg opdagede glæden ved at sidde foran et fjernsyn eller en computer og sofaen potatoing ud.

One Day before Travel

Well instead of shopping or doing what I am supposed to do I decided to make a quick entry into the great world wide web.  Kind of funny that you are able to talk about almost anything you like and people may actually read it.  Today I found that work is driving me bonkers... quite literally I have no idea which way is up and which way is down.  It is almost like being caught in a rip tide and moving away from the beach.  The washing machine motion turns you all sorts of ways and at the end of the churning backwash from the tide you finally rise out of the sea and notice that you are a long way from getting back to shore.  That being said I believe it is time for a vacation, a time to relax and recoup. 

If you read yesterday you know that I get to go on a train tomorrow.  A great way to travel if you don't have a time crunch since the Rocky Mountains are a very unforgiving environment and can take their toll on any form of transportation.  During this train trip my goal is to actually start the novel that has been working its way around my head and take time to relax and not be anything for anybody.  The week that I am away will be fun, but so full of activity that the idea of over ten hours where I don't have to do a thing is really kind of a fun idea. 

My nephew and niece are coming up from Las Vegas for the week which should be a lot of fun.  My nephew is really into dinosaurs now and the eastern Utah desert is a great place.  With places like Cleveland Lloyd Dino Quarry and the CEU museum he has so much that would be fun to see.  My niece enjoys life and would be a hoot to accompany us on these excursions. 

Tomorrow is the day of travel and many a good book to read on this journey. 

Time for travel

I have reached the point in the preparations of traveling that I can't stand.  It is now about 36 hours til I get on a train and head to the fabled spot of Huntington Utah.  A small quaint arid town at the foot of a beautiful mountain range, made famous by mining for the mystic emery county coal.  I said that I can not stand this part of the preparations and now I get to explain why.

First:  Work, I have one more day of work and I already know the hardship that comes with the last day before an extended break (people working for the schools do get these every now and again, but definitely more often then those not employed by the schools).  The kids will be a little on edge due to the great week off called thanksgiving break.  One of the few breaks that actually has a holiday name in it by the way. 

Second:  House-  this one is strange because there is so much to do.  I must pack and clean all that I have expanded into.  The basement currently looks like a donation center store room with no organization due to the expansion of clothes, books, gadgets, electronics, and magazines that have found their way out of my room and into living room, laundry room, store room, and bathroom (don't ask).  This leaves me only tonight and tomorrow night to get these things in order and finish all packing before the big travel day.

Third:  The travel day.  I don't know why but I get very anxious about travel.  I know that modes of transport today are safe and that really isn't the problem, it is the idea that I have to get out of my comfort zone and make my way to a new destination.  One day I will be okay with changes in my norm but today is not the day.  Not to mention that we get to take the train.  A great way to travel through some of the most beautiful country in the United States, but 13+ hours on a train with many strange and fascinating people.  It is a long time for somebody that has self diagnosed ADD to stand.  There are only so many computer games that one can play before boredom sets in, as well as so many pages of a book that one can read before they lose interest.  I am blessed with the ability to not sleep or get comfortable in confined spaces and as such usually have a hard time traveling for long distances in anything. 

There is my apprehensions for Saturday.  I am excited however to see family and friends.  Yes I am friends with my family, as strange as that may sound.  The best part about traveling is reaching your destination and getting to enjoy the company of good people that you know and trust. 

Big Bang Theory

So recently I have been reading Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time."  I picked it up thinking it would be an interesting read, and one that might keep me intrigued to the end.  So far it has definitely lived up to those expectations.  In the first three chapters Hawking writes a short discourse on the different views of the universe.  From the Geocentric to the ever expanding universe he has covered it all.  Anyway at one point he was talking about the big bang and how it may have been started and what could happen at the end. As I was reading this chapter I started to think about what was being said, and thought well I may have a theory that could go on after the big bang.  I was thinking that the natural state of matter is entropy, or a form of chaos.  Nothing in the physical world is without entropy, be it a child's bed room to the bits of the human cell that are striving to break out of the cell membrane and leak all over the place.  Everything involves entropy at some level.  This made me think that the most chaotic place, theoretically, was the universe pre big bang.  Even though the theory of relativity claims that time does not start until the big bang actually commenced, many scholars have talked about the universe being about the size of a pin head before the big bang happened.  I digress, if all this energy and matter were condensed into the size of a pin head it would not take much to make it want to expand or explode.  But the natural state of things is a state of entropy so as the universe expands there will be less and less until the universe stabilizes.  From what I know, which is not much ergo why I am reading about physics and what not, this stabilization could start the big crunch.  Once all matter is stable and no longer moving away from each other could gravity or some other form of force eventually bring the universe back to the state that it once was?  I guess that was a long winded version of my theory but there it is.  Chaos to Order to Chaos again. 

By the way, if one were to adopt the idea that the natural state of matter is a state of entropy one no longer needs to worry about cleaning or keeping order since that is natural.  Just joking of course.

Decided to rebound and restart.

A couple of days ago I made the decision to go ahead and erase everything on the blog and start anew.  So today is the day that I get to restart and create an online journal of thought, action, and story.  Actually what a blog is supposed to be I presume.  Anyway  I decided that on this go around I would spend some time looking at science, pop culture, what I'm reading, how I'm feeling, etc...  So Posting will come as I decide I want to share and may come a lot at a time or very few at a time.