I most definitely am going to have a fantastic semester.  One of the classes that I am super excited about is my Forensics class, with Dr. Robert Baker.  He is the program director for Global Security and Intelligence Studies, and is working on a new track for students in GSIS called Security Operations.  Here is what the Embry-Riddle website says about him: 

“Professor Baker served four decades in law enforcement, corporate security and government security positions and is a expert in aviation security.”

And he’s my teacher.  Awesome!  My first encounter with him was last semester, at the 6th Annual National Security and Intelligence Symposium, where he addressed the audience with a speech on airport security which I thought was very interesting.  Now I get to have a class with him!  A class that is VERY interesting.  So far we’ve learned about fingerprints, their types and how to fingerprint someone.  Last class period, my friend and fellow teammate on the volleyball team Darja and I got to dip each others fingers in ink and actually fingerprint each other.  The ink wouldn’t come off of my hands for about twenty-four hours, but that’s okay!  I learned that I have loops on my fingers, and Darja has whirls.  Those are the most common.  My little brother (who is ten and brilliant) told me BEFORE I even took the class that he had arches, and told me only about 5% of the world’s population has them.  And… he was right.  Of course.  Good job Levi!

I’m pretty sure that Dr. Baker has this exact same picture hanging up in our Forensics room.  Pretty sure.  Then again, fingerprints kinda look the same when you’re just starting to learn about them… Haha.

This is definitely something that I like learning about!  I can’t wait to go to our crime scene during the class and look for fingerprints!  Oh, how I love my school.

“Don’t wait.  The time will never be just right.”

-Napolean Hill

We are already 3 weeks deep into the spring semester! The workload is steadily increasing and classes are gradually getting harder. Last week in Digital Circuits we had our first lab where we learned how to use proto-boards and from there on we constructed a light flashing circuit. It was a great lad except for the fact that we had to figure out almost everything on our own because our professor failed to explain the basics. In EGR 200 we finished our first small project last week and started learning the basics to CATIA. It is a neat program and there is so much to learn about it. Other than school I am currently working on the Embry-Riddle Jet Dragster and have been since my appearance here at Riddle. Over winter break I was fortunate enough to obtain a generous cash and materials donation from Airtech international which will be put towards further developing and expanding the project. We have made great progress in the past couple months, especially when Chris Larsen Owner of Larsen Motorsports came out here last November. This past weekend a couple new members joined for the semester and we will be holding interviews this coming weekend if anybody is still interested. We are currently working towards making a mold that will be used to shape our fiberglass nose cone.  Also with that we will be developing a mold for the jet inlet which we will bake in order to obtain a carbon fiber Inlet. The inlet and the nose cone happen to be our 2 biggest projects as of right now. The Embry-Riddle Jet Dragster is by far one of the most exciting projects on campus and I am proud and fortunate to be part of it.

I am taking my first night class here at ERAU and it actually is not that bad despite the long hours and cold outside coupled with the deserted dark campus. It is SIS320, or Topics in Global Politics, History and Culture with my favorite Dr. Stephanie Trombley. The topic this semester is: GENOCIDE, so although the class might be depressing because it is both a night class and 2 and a half hours long and about genocide, I like it. Today we talked about the Armenian Genocide that occurred in the 1910’s and discussed the fates of the government and collapse of the Ottoman Empire. To me the class went by really quickly and during the break that we had in between the class my friend Lauren and I ran and got some coffee from Outtakes. I don’t know what coffee I got because I’m not really into caffeine, but now I’m wired and my roommate Josh is tired, plus we have PT tomorrow so this isn’t a good mix. Anyway, tomorrow is my birthday and at least I don’t have to take the pt test, or APFT, tomorrow morning because that would be a bad start to the day. I took it on Wednesday with the rest of my platoon and got a score of 292 or something. Considering the unholy amounts of goldfish and Oreos that I consumed over break and the fact that I did not run once during my free time, it is pretty good. My run time was awful for me but at least it was in the maxing category. For the rest of the day today I ran around doing errands and talking to professors and then went to my MSL class. Joe and I fooled around and make a duck with the bills of our hats and later I was talking to one of my friends back home via text. We still have a good work ethic even though it sounds like we were goofing off, even if it was only for a little bit. I’ll put a picture of them up here again just for kicks because it is a good photo too.

sorry its sideways, our duck

So it’s been like 2 weeks since the semester started here at ERAU and I am already tired. I have had so many things to do and my house is still not fixed so it is just getting tiring. Thank god for the people that are letting me stay at their places, seriously, I would have not known what to do without them. Anyways, enough about the downer mood.

Classes are off to a great start. I am only taking 4 of them since they are the only ones required in order for me to graduate from every program I’m doing (AS major and ATM minor). The only classes I have Tuesdays and Thursdays are Air Traffic Management labs which are fun because you get to see flights and “control” them from an ATC perspective rather than inside the cockpit. Another is Personality and Profiling, which we are looking into criminal profiling. I like to think of it like a “Criminal Minds” class so that’s pretty cool. The last class is going to be the most fun I think as it is my Airline Crew operations class, which is the class that we get to “get our feet wet” with big airline part 121 operations. The cool thing is that we get to fly the Airbus A320 full motion Level D Sim at U.S. Airways. This time is time that I believe that we could log into our log books giving us a little bit of an advantage of knowledge over other people. The homework is not bad but then again its homework I want to do because I want to learn more.

I like the way that this semester has started so far, well not counting the house problem. Everything Embry-Riddle however, has been really cool and really fun and I look forward to a good if not great semester.

Christmas break was fantastic.  I loved being able to rest and relax for a change!  I got to see all of my family and friends and I had a great time.  I even got a little George Foreman grill so I could make yummy dinners at my own apartment!  (Last semester’s dinners included, well, frozen dinners.  That is not so this semester though!)  My family and I had a fantastic time hanging together.  Too bad it didn’t snow until New Year’s, but, better late than never!

This semester is going to be tough, but super fun!  I am taking Personality and Profiling with Dr. Bloom at eight a.m.  I have a good feeling about that class.  We start off listening to music that will wake us up, such as Dr. King’s Memphis Soul Stew!  (that was this morning!)  Then we have discussions about really interesting topics.  That class is stuffed!  You’d think that at eight in the morning, there wouldn’t be a lot of people.  WRONG!  There are 60 people in the class, with more trying to register!  It’s insanely packed.

Next I go to Chinese 2, with Yang Laoshi.  It is lots of fun.  This weekend we’re taking a field trip to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix!  It is going to be a blast.  Then comes U.S. Foreign Policy, then Forensic Science (we get to do fingerprints on Thursday!), then Observing Asian Cultures.  All of these classes are going to be amazing, to say the least.  I also feel more comfortable in my classes, because I know most of the people in them.  That’s the good thing about being a sophomore in the GSIS program… we all take most of the same classes, so you get to make lots of friends and you see them EVERYWHERE.  No joke.  So that is my Spring 2011 semester!  I’ll keep you updated when I think of tips and lessons that I am learning here at ERAU. 🙂

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”

-Lloyd Alexander

I came back on our road trip on Saturday the 8th a few hours before the shooting happened. We drove through the same intersection that Gabrielle Giffords would later be meeting with people but crashed into three separate comas once we got home. When we finally woke up, I checked my phone and saw that I had gotten a text from my friend Becca saying “CNN reports: Giffords confirmed dead.” Right away, I went into the family room and saw my parents watching the news breaking story. Sure enough, the media distorted and tainted the news with false facts and infuriated the whole city. As developments finally came through the biased and inaccurate reports of the media, we learned the identity of the killer and it shamed the whole city that one of our own would do something so horrible. To aggregate the matter, an NBC reporter claimed that “Tucson doesn’t really have a sense of community, so the mourning shouldn’t be that difficult on the city”. I won’t even get into what the Tucson residents did after this was announced, but rest assured, city limits are still in use and yes, some people are not allowed inside them.

It was hard coming back here to Embry-Riddle because I know how my city is suffering and I wish I could have gone to the memorial services and prayer sessions that were going on when I was gone. I talked to some of the others from Tucson who have to be here and we all agreed that we’d rather be in Tucson to hear the President’s memorial speech and with our families during these tough times. I looked through some of the back pictures that my friends took during break and realized that we have to move on with these people in our hearts and minds so that we can prevent another tragedy. I had some fun times during break and that happened on that Saturday was not the best way to finish off the break. Despite this, I had some great times with my friends, including going to Winterhaven, the hilarious road trip, and New Years! I’ll put some pictures up so that we can look at something besides that creepy mug shot of the killer that’s been posted all over the news.

This creepy skull that Kara and I found

Our group!

So it is that time of year where I have to return to Embry-Riddle for school. This will be my last semester and I am so glad that the classes I have are going to be for the most part easy but very interesting and enjoyable. These include my last 2 Air Traffic Control labs, Airline Crew Operations, and Personality and profiling. I am also going to be doing my Certified Flight Instructor license with the hope of being hired at ERAU as an instructor pilot.

As you know, I had to drive back from Denver, CO. It’s not a bad drive, only 12-14 hours. I got back to Prescott and found out that 3 pipes had burst in my house flooding half of it. The leasing company had been working on it but it is not done in time for school. So for now, I have to shack up with a friend of mine.

That’s one thing I want to emphasize about ERAU. There are so many great people here that you will meet and be friends for life. As soon as I told my friends about my house, at least 3 people offered their place to me. Everyone is so willing to get out of the way to help you that it still makes me feel welcomed here at ERAU even after 4 years of being here. I am really glad that this school attracts such great characters from all traits that will be life long relationships.

Anyways, I really hope my house gets fixed soon. As for now, it’s time to prepare for the first week of school.

Classes started today. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  is what most of us are thinking, and I’ve already shared my rather hectic schedule. Just to reiterate, I’ll mention again that I am taking seventeen credits again and I have no choice but to pull off all A’s again so that my GPA remains as good as it currently is. This might be difficult because along with the busy academic schedule, I have to maintain my position in the Army ROTC and a social life in addition to being a student employee and justice on the Student Affairs Student Conduct Board (we should change the name). Today I went to my first class, Personality and Profiling with Dr. Bloom who is a favorite from my World Philosophy class last semester. That class is going to be an adventure for me because I already love everything about it! My second class was U.S. Foreign Policy with my favorite Dr. Trombley, and I can tell that this class is going to be a reboot of World History but from the American perspective. My last class of the day was Social Psychology, which sounds a lot like the Deceptions class that Dr. Lohn also teaches. I am looking forward to these classes even if it means a hectic schedule and even more work to deal with.

We had our first PT session this morning with a company run and some simple situps and pushups. It was interesting getting back into the physical loop of pt because I most definitely did not exercise for pt standards over break. The last time  I did pushups and situps at the same time was about a week ago when I went on a road trip to California with my two friends. Usually I am organized, uptight, stingy and don’t really know how to relax but this trip was all about spontaneity. We had no plan and just a cooler full of unhealthy food and Bobby’s miracle of a phone that got us to our destinations. We took turns driving, and I would reveal everything that we did on the trip, but then that would make it less special of a memory. In a nutshell, we went to San Diego and entered a pizza eating contest (actually, I chose to watch Bobby and Aaron stuff themselves silly with nasty pizza and was left with an ordinary behaving bowel for the rest of the trip) and then went to a casino to make ourselves feel better. We all lost money there, and I admit to fabricating the tale of how much I actually lost in an attempt to make the others feel better but this was counterproductive. The next day we managed to get to Coronado Beach and ate a ripe pineapple for breakfast before exploring the Del Coronado Hotel, which was pretty cool. We spent a lot of time on the beach and that’s where I got to do some situps and pushups, which was a bit uncomfortable in the sand. We drove all the way to LA, which is far more sketchy than New York apparently, and we met up with Bobby’s sister Therese and my cousin Beth near Disneyland! They were there for our high school choir’s annual trip to Disneyland and it was really great to finally see my cousin.

We drove through LA and saw downtown Hollywood and eventually made it to Knott’s Berry Farm. I haven’t been there in years so it was a whole new experience and I’m glad I got to experience it with my friends instead of having to wait in long lines with people who didn’t want to be there. We must have gone on eighteen rides apiece and made good money out of our discounted entrance fee of a mere $24.99. We went on every ride and managed to get a few videos of us riding and almost throwing upside down. We then spent the next day recuperating from a severe lack of sleep and then headed home on Saturday, the same day as the Tucson shootings. That was a summarized explanation of our trip but there is a LOT more to it that I choose not to mention here. It was a blast and a great way to start off the new year, with two Way’s. Eh nobody will get that, but it was fun and I hope to do it again sometime.

30 in pizza

Hotel Del Coronado

On the Silver Bullet at Knott's Berry Farm