Brando's Blog

My birthday was great. I went to the bar with Adam after dinner, just for the novelty of the thing. We stayed there for about an hour, then we left to go to our friends house. When we got there the guys there were waiting and all yelled happy birthday and stuff. Then Lindsay and Brandon and all my other friends showed and told me that they had planned a surprise party for me. It was so great. The guys who lived there (Dan and Shaggy and Matt) were all jumping around on the trampoline and mattresses they had in their living room. Dan was wearing a "fat suit" which consisted of some XXXL clothes he had that were stuffed with pillows and blankets and stuff. It was pretty hilarious. All in all I had a great birthday. I can't wait to see everyone so I can celebrate with you!

The Halloween party was awesome. Lindsay was a mummy complete with rotting flesh on her face and I was Space Ghost. My costume turned out awesome. It looked pretty goofy so everyone laughed and told me how much they liked it. I got a picture but Dan, the guy whose party it was, hasn't emailed it to me yet. I'll post it as soon as I get it. The party was a lot of fun. Music and video games. That was about it. I've been busy as of late so it's taking a while to post. Aunt Les, I'm sure I answered some of your questions from the email but not all. I'll respond more completely later. I've got to go work on a project for physical geology. See you all soon. Oh, Ma, I'll be calling you to make arrangements for this weekend soon. Love ya all.

Today is my easy day. I'm doing laundry right now. I'm going to go to the gym when I'm done. Later I've got to fix some computers for my RNA job. Then I go to The Rocket.

Saturday I'm going to a costume party at some friends' house. It should be lots of fun. I'm going to dress as the cartoon character Space Ghost.




I'm going to make my costume from stuff bought at walmart. I'll be sure to get a picture and post it. Earlier Saturday I'll be doing volunteer work with Blue Key. Just an hour or two this time.

Anyhow, that how my week will be ending. I'll post again soon.

My weekend is over now. As is half of the week! I've been a little busier, hence the lack of recent posts. The benefit concert on Saturday went well. I got to see a good band (they played lots of hits that were a little before my time but I knew them) and was basically a roadie when they were done. No biggie. They were appreciative and very nice to us. My dinner at Rachael's Saturday night was just plain awesome. I had a steak that was done to perfection. I had a sweet potato and a bowl of chili too. All of it was great.

Sunday was the Special Olympics. That didn't go as well. When we arrived at the games they informed us that we wouldn't be inside as we were told, but we'd be outside (well, some of us were inside as we had two stations). I, unfortunately, was left out in the cold. I stayed there for about 4 hours. Then myself and the other Blue Key members decided that we'd had enough and joined the inside table. When the organizers of the games realized this they came to us and very snootily told us to go back outside. We refused. They left us alone after that but it really irked me that we were ordered around and that they wanted to make us spend 8 hours sitting out in the cold. That's a little excessive. I'm sure there are other causes that will not be as unappreciative in my future service.

Tuesday was pretty eventful. I had dinner with the president of the university, along with the rest of The Rocket staff. He's very nice and genuinely cares about the students. We had hot dogs and hamburgers (it was planned to be a cookout but the weather didn't permit it). It was fun. Then I went to a Blue Key social meeting where we met a new prospective faculty advisor. Our current advisor won't lift a finger for us and is hardly ever reachable, so we're searching for a new one. We met with Dr. Andrew Colvin who is a new professor in the philosophy department and and all around nice guy. We played a few games and talked about Blue Key. I also got to show of the new website which most of our members hadn't seen yet. Everyone liked it a lot.

Anyhow, that leaves me with today, Wednesday, my busy day. Classes straight through except for lunch and dinner. I have night class so I don't get done until 9:30 or so. No fun. That leaves Tuesday and Thursday pretty open for me though, so it's a necessary evil. Talk to you all soon.

P.S. GET WELL UNCLE BUCK! YOU TOO NANNA!

I've got a pretty planned out weekend this weekend. Saturday I'll be volunteering with Blue Key at a benefit concert on campus. Then Saturday night I'll be going to Rachael's Roadhouse to spend the gift certificate that I won in the Bard Hall Poker Tournament. I'm going with a bunch of the guys from my floor so it should be fun. Then Sunday I'm volunteering at the Special Olympics basically all day, with Blue Key again. Should be a lot of fun. Busy, but fun.

There are tons of Blue Jays here now. The same has happened the past few years. I love it. I almost never saw them at home but there's tons here. There's at least 4 that live in the tree outside my window. I wonder if they're migratory. That would explain the sudden jump in population. Anyhow, that's all I've really got to say today. I'll be doing a new Rocket later. Other than that, not much is new. I was to the gym the other day and that was fun. I'm working on a big computer science assignment now so I should get back to it. Talk to you soon.

Uncle Buck commented on the blog! I didn't know you were reading it. That's great. Thanks for the compliment on the article and I hope you continue to comment. I don't get to see you so often to it's nice to hear from you.

If only I could get Dorothy and Pete to comment, too...

Camping with the Frasers was fun. We stayed at a cabin in Keystone State Park. I went on a hike with Alex, Linds' 11 year old brother. We went way back in the woods. It was fun. They we had dinner around the camp fire and a rowdy game of Monopoly later in the evening. Friday night I went to some friends' house. We played horseshoes for awhile and then just sat in the back yard and talked for a bit. Some of them were doing crazy flippy stuff with a trampoline and some mattresses but I opted not to take part in that. Though I'm sure I am smaller now I still don't fell very flight-worthy. Now I've got to hit the books to get ready for tomorrow, so I'll talk to you all soon.

Hi, all. A new rocket came out yesterday. I've got an article in this issue. It isn't as good as the last one. Oh well. Linds and I are leaving to go camping. I'll let you all know how it was when I get back. See ya.

Newly prioritized

1. A new hard drive so I don't lose all my data again


2. a new camera so I can put pictures on my blog


3. pants


4. pants


5. pants
   


6. an mp3 player


7. some new speakers

**I'll have to update this with my new pant size b/c I don't know it yet.

I'm currently reading a book about the first Mount Saint Helens book and studying the current activity for my Honors Physical Geology class. It's pretty neat that this is all in the news now, during my class. My profession has been really good at making sure we know all the ways volcanoes are monitored before an eruption. I can say I totally understand what all of the information about the volcano in the news means. Here it is if you'd like to check it out for yourself: USGS Mount Saint Helens update page.

I promise my birthday list is coming. As of now it is incomplete because I don't know what size pants I wear anymore. I'm going to Walmart this week and I'll figure it out there. Once I know that, I'll post my list. Thanks to everyone for expressing interest.

Next weekend I'll be going camping with the Frasers. They go camping every year and this year I am invited. We are going to Keystone State Park and will be staying in a cabin. It should be a lot of fun. I've been getting a lot of opportunities to go camping this year and I'm pretty happy about it. I wanted to camp while I was at home but it rained :(

This weekend was awesome. I got to see Ma, Joe, Jocelyn, Jordan, Dad, Judy, Nanna and Poppop. Sadly, Evan was not home. But that's okay, I'll see him next time. While at home I had lunch at Rookies' with Nanna and Poppop and the twins. I also watched movies at "the ranch", Ma's house in Duncannon, with Ma, Joe and Jordan. Jocelyn wasn't there because she was at a boy's house (don't worry, he's got Ma's seal of approval). Sunday I went to church in Duncannon and the ladies from Kindred Place, where Joe works, all came along. We all met back at the ranch for a picnic afterwards. I got to work the grill and had some mighty fine food. It was great to get to see everyone and to take a break from my busy schedule here at SRU.

I did The Rocket last night, so naturally I'm pretty beat this morning. At least they got it done in a timely fashion this time; I was only there until 2:30 a.m. I'll be heading home around 4ish today. I've got to drop Linds at Natrona Heights, so I expect getting home between 6 and 7. I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to do laundry, so I've got weekend plans now :) Reguarding my birthday: I have a list but I haven't had time to post it. When I get back next week that will be the first thing I do. Everyone at home - See you soon. Everyone else - I'll keep in touch. Till next time.