Well it’s that time of the year again. No, not the time where we make resolutions and move into the next year. Well, that’s true, BUT, there’s a whole lot more to this day that just being the last day of the year. It’s my birthday. I’ve survived another year of life here on this earth … that brings me to a grand total of 19. The funny this is that this day, at least this time, doesn’t mean a whole lot. Last year, when I turned 18 was a big deal – I’m now considered an adult by the government and stuff so I could open a checking account, sign everything for myself, and so forth. But, to get any more privileges, I’ve gotta turn 21, and that’s still two years away. The big privilege there is drinking and I’m not a big fan of alcohol, so that’s not even going to be a big deal. It just sounds all big and mighty because it’s 21.

Anyway…enough rambling about all that. Stan‘s gonna come by in a little while and we’re gonna head out to good ol Portillo’s and get some food.

So last night I hop out of the shower, go into my room and check my email and IM a person or two and then I hear a knock at my window. Stan and I had planned to hang out, but he fell asleep and I couldn’t get ahold of him. When he finally woke up at 1am, he came over to my place. We went out in search of some fast food, but Wendy’s was closed and the Taco Bell closed a few minutes early. Too bad for them – there were about 10 cars that wanted food from there but they lost business because they closed early. As we passed by the drive up window, Stan stuck his tongue out at the guy who was telling everyone they were closed, just like a little kid would do. It may not sound funny, but coming from Stan at 2 am, it was. Then, we hit up Steak n Shake, who ripped me off and didn’t put bacon on my burger, and then ate that at my house, after which we headed back out to cruise. We decided to go to Chicago, since I’ve never driven downtown before. So we went there, drove around for an hour or so and then came home about 6am. I slept until about 12 and then woke up.

Here’s what Christmas is really about…

Luke 2:1-21 ESV
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Stan wrote a good short but indepth article on the meaning of Christmas … check it out!

Because of the unique spelling of my first name, ever since I showed up here at MSOE, my peers have called me e-Rich. If you can’t tell from how that’s typed out, the pronunciation is similar to that of e-Mail, e-Commerce, and so forth…e-Rich. With the exception of, I believe, one telemarketer (who pronounced my name “Ereesh” or something like that) everyone has always pronounced my name as it should be pronounced – just like you would pronounce Eric, Erik, or Erick. That is, until today. I walked into Technical Composition a few minutes before 4 this afternoon and my teacher called roll. When she got down to my name, she said with a bit of hesitancy in her voice, “e-Rich.” This really threw me off guard, as she not only was the first teacher, or person, for that matter, to seriously pronounce my name like that, but she also pronounced it correctly on Monday. I politely corrected her and noted that she could call me e-Rich if she wanted, because all my friends do.

Anyway…I thought that was pretty funny. I’m always bad at telling stories so it probably seems dumb to you. But that’s okay. Deal with it!

Upon arriving back at school after a relaxing and enjoyable 9 1/2-day long Thanksgiving break Sunday night, I received my grades for the first quarter. While I was pleased to find that I received an A in Microeconomics, the course about which I was concerned the most, I received an AB (Somewhere between 89% and 92%) in my Composition class. I found this a bit odd, seeing as my professor told me toward the end of the quarter that I was one of his best writers and he seemed to like the compositions I had written. Oh well…I won’t complain too much. If the only non-A I received was in Composition – a general education class – then I can’t be doing too poorly.

Monday, my new set of classes began. I had Differential Equations and Technical Composition. Despite the fact that everyone says Diff Eq. is quite difficult, I don’t think it will be extraordinarily challenging, as I’ve always excelled in Mathematics courses. I went to Technical Composition at 4pm on Monday and when I saw all that we’re going to do this quarter (actually, it’s more the types of things we have to do, as opposed to the quantity) and that gave me somewhat of a bad perspective on this entire quarter for school in general. I think if it weren’t for that class, my quarter would go fairly well. Not that I like my other classes a whole lot, but I think they’re going to be bearable. I have a new teacher for HU-100 (Contemporary Issues in the Humanities) and though this class sounds like it’ll be a lot like high school classes, I think I can get through it without too much difficulty. I went to the first lecture of my Physics of Mechanics course yesterday and it was extremely boring – I don’t think it’s a good thing to judge the entire quarter of a course based on the activities of the first day. We discussed SI units or something like that and how to convert between different measurements – all this basic stuff that has been covered in several courses of mine in the past. Since I already took Physics in high school, I think much of this course will be review, but will use Calculus, as opposed to the basic math we used in high school Physics. Lastly, I’ve got CS-285, Data Structures. Dr. Rothe seems to be a good professor – he already involved the class quite a bit in discussion yesterday. Also, the topics covered within this course don’t appear to be too difficult, so I should enjoy that class.

Some of you may have heard of my “cancerous” cell phone. Well, Monday I received a package with a replacement phone. I charged the phone, but when I hit the power button, it wouldn’t turn on. I finally got the phone to turn on using a different method, but have determined that the END/Power button is bad – I made a phone call but when I pushed END, nothing happened. That explains why I couldn’t turn it on either. Oh well, I’ll make a call to Sprint sometime and see what I need to do to get this issue resolved. Do you realize that that’s my third phone … all THREE have had problems. The first phone’s power jack for recharging broke after about a week, the second got the “BLOB,” and the third’s power button doesn’t work. Maybe my fourth phone will work properly.

Well I’ve got some stuff I should do this morning before my 12pm Physics Lab.