Sigh... The weekend has disappeared so fast. I don't have a whole lot of great and wonderful things to talk about about, but I'm trying to maintain at least one post per week.

Midterms - lots of them. One on Thursday, two on Friday, and one tomorrow. Fun stuff and actually not too bad or stressful. The good side of midterms is that there is relatively little homework to do.

Mail - got a package with goodies (popcorn, tea, hot chocolate, etc) from home! And sent off a package to somebody special for her birthday (which starts in about an hour).

Mobile - I lost my mobile phone Thursday night and I fear the worst. I think it may be somewhere in the great outdoors under a pile of leaves or something. Honestly can't think of how I lost it, but maybe something will work out - maybe someone will find it. Sad...

Parties! Went to a Halloween party the other night at Brook's house, met some new people, ate junk food, and just enjoyed not doing the midterm cramming and calculus homework I was supposed to be doing. Tonight was the "Barn Party" for all the college students and it was... ok. The costumes were fairly impressive, there was free snack food, but in general it just felt like a lot of random people shuffling around. It felt shallow.

That's about it I guess. Hard to believe I'm already half way through the quarter... Anyways, this week gets a 7.3 out of 11. Not too shabby! Too tired to add a picture right now, but I hope to add one soon. Miss all my friends - Daniel, Kristin, Sharona, Jason, Barrie, Phil, Jenkey, Kel, Jeff, all you fine friends, and particularly a special girl named Michelle... Thinking of all of you!

Well, the excrement has impacted the rotary oscillation device... This week has been packed with various assignments and I've lacked the time/energy to post new and interesting material (exactly as I feared when I contemplated starting this blog). However, I am not complaining - this week has been quite good actually!

SO! Last weekend was great - I caught a last minute excursion to the nearby hiking area with some engineering students: Jay, Sarah, Chris. We hiked straight up the side of one of the hills which proved much more challenging than I expected. Great weather, great view, great exercise and thus a potentially bland Saturday was saved! (Coincidentally, I went again THIS weekend and climbed with Chris, Christa, and Kent - awsome 4 hour hike!) Pictures of both hikes can be found here: Hike Photos

On to the other big news of last weekend - I've been officially assigned a roommate! The details behind it are not very interesting, but the point is that Zane Bischoff - sophomore nursing student is now rooming with me. Big props to him for finding an awesome room (305) for us here in the Meske dormitory. It is "technically" a single room, but basically it is two rooms linked together like some hotel rooms. This means we have a room for beds that is separate from the room with desks. Therefore (hmm, I'm slipping into calculus vocabulary now...) one of us can study without ruining the sleep of the other... AND it has carpet, mobile reception, and wireless internet reception! AND people secretly (and no so secretly) envy us...

I upgraded our room even more this week by purchasing a hefty 7' comfy couch for our study area - for the low low price of $50. (thanks to Grandma for funding some dorm furnishings!) It's comfy, relatively clean, and smell-free!

Class of the ... fortnight: Assembly Programming - learning about Two's Compliment, MIPS instruction set, and using the PCSpim simulator! (besides, Nelson is just a very entertaining lecturer).

Random quote of the moment: "Create in me a clean heart, O God" Psalm 51:10

Saturday night I enjoyed long conversations with Jodi and Kristin about travel and global issues - a significant part of that was sparked by the film "Born into Brothels" which we watched late that night. It is an Acadamy Award winning documentary about a group of children in the red light district of Calcutta, India. I would recommend watching it sometime if you have the opportunity.

Just the night before, I had begun a blog entry bemoaning my large load of homework over this past week... After watching a young prostitute's daughter (Kochi or Puja - I think?) basically say "Sometimes I wonder what I could become if I could get an education...", I quickly realized that I should be thankful for all the homework I get. And it really wasn't so much the things the kids said. It was the message they conveyed in their eyes.

The woman who began filming the documentary realizes how hopeless their futures are unless she can help them into boarding school. She connects with them by teaching them photography and giving them their own cameras to document the life around them. The children's pictures have become famous since then - shown in art galleries and are even featured on Amnesty International's new calander.

The point of all this is that once again I see how bad the world is in some areas of the world and how just a little bit of action can make a huge difference to people. Go check it out here: http://kids-with-cameras.org/home/ This along with what I'm learning from Amnesty International continues to impress upon me the importance of making a difference somehow. NOW!

Brandon the PIG (that's for the one and only Kelly Schulz)

SO!! On to the obviously interesting event of the weekend: the Mudbowl! Here at WWC there is an annual event which involves tackle football in a giant field that has been flooded in advance. The result is massive amounts of mud and lots of fun :)

I wasn't intending to play, but when I got down to watch the game and take photos, I got suckered in. I played defense on the wing for South team and the game was excellent - tied 7-7 until the last 2 seconds. We had the ball near their goal at the 4th down, but North team intercepted an endzone pass and ran it back all the way for a touchdown! Great game and a good excuse to get covered in mud... Apparently I'll even get a t-shirt for free tomorrow just for participating! (check out more interesting photos of the event here: Mudbowl photos )

Now for the less obvious but even cooler news: KRISTIN VISITED!!! She came Friday night and left sometime Sunday morning which was obviously too short, but it was great! We spent many hours at Jodi's house (a mutual friend of ours) - just talking about all sorts of things (politics, avondale, the future, the past..) The funny thing is that all three of us (and even Jodi's flatmate) are all in long distance relationships, so it was nice to commiserate for a while ;) It was great to talk with great friends and it had been waaaay too long since I'd seen Kristin...

CRAP, I just realized that we never had the Milo that Kristin brought! (For the less informed, Milo is not a dog - it is an Australian drink powder similar to hot coco without as much sugar).

Anyways, the weekend has been great! I got to spend time chatting, webcamming, and talking with Michelle and I even finished a little bit of homework.

The Top Ten Reasons For Procrastinating:
1.










(seen on a t-shirt today)

<>WhooHA! I have survived week 1 of college... The amount of homework is rather surprising I must say, but I'm staying ahead of the game so far. Except calculus. Calculus is the giant wave building behind me as I swim hard for the end of the quarter. Nobody really knows yet if the wave will drown me first or not...

In an effort to stay sane, however, I've been getting involved in NON-homework related activities. An example would be Amnesty International! More will be said on this subject later, but we had our first meeting (over tea, cheese, and crackers) and I'm downright excited about it! I am officially the Administrative VP of the club here, but I have yet to determine exactly what that means. In any case, I'm ready for it!

Another example would be Salvador. This is a fairly well known band in Christian circles - a bunch of Hispanic guys from Texas with great music! I was loving the trumpet and bass guitar particularly. The atmosphere was great - a strong sense of cultural diversity. Half the songs were in English and half in Spanish. I was enjoying the music next to my friend Riki (from Jamaica), a huge group of Hispanics, and many other cultures!

Last example: Lake Jubilie (see picture at top). I am part of the biology club here at WWC (stop laughing - I joined because it is apparently the most active club around for field trips and stuff). Saturday afternoon, they had a trip out to Jubilie Lake in Oregon. I won't get TOO detailed into all that happened, but the important parts are:
-It was raining at college.
-It was 60F at college, so I wore sweatpants and a light cotton shirt.
-On the way to the lake, we (Donny, Stephanie, and myself) drove through snow/sleet.
-It was 36F at the lake (up in the MOUNTAINS - something I didn't realize before).
-It was raining at the lake.
All of this led to a VERY cold afternoon, but on the whole quite enjoyable. The scenery was great, I got to meet some new and old friends, and there WAS a fire (along with hotdogs and smores). I even paddled out on a canoe for a while :)