CMU Part I

I decided since my time as CMU is quickly coming to an end I should write a little about my time here. This is part 1, I'm not sure how many parts there will be. Some things may be detailed, others not. That's because I'm just writing my memories and a lot of stuff here wasn't very memorable. I'll be posting this along with my usual crazy posts, so bear with me.

I applied to CMU on a whim, because I saw their business department was ranked pretty high and it seemed like I could get in. Before reading the college rankings for 2 minutes at Borders (too cheap to buy it) I had never heard of it. If I hadn't gone here, I probably would have gone to Umich or McGill in Montreal, most likely the latter because I wanted to go somewhere where few people from my high school would be. Almost everyone in the top 50 went to Michigan, not a bad school, would have been a lot cheaper, but I think it would have been too big for me. Most importantly, only McGill and CMU allowed me to get into a business program immediately instead of waiting 2 years like Umich.

So I got the "big envelope" from CMU, I figured it was a good school and enrolled without even visiting campus, though I talked to many people about it. People from my high school were pretty impressed. I had wanted to get into Duke or Northwestern, but I don't think I would have liked it much in those schools. Regardless, they don't have business programs, so I would have been econ which I have learned is not for me.

I arrived at CMU about two days before orientation started. I was in a small-ass dorm. My first impressions were that everyone seemed nice. The first night there I made two friends who would become good friends of mine for a while, and we went to some frat parties, back when they were still good here.

Everyone seemed really nice, I think it was mostly because not many people knew anyone at their new university and wanted to put on their best faces to find friends...the "real" people would sometimes emerge within weeks, months or even years. One of the people I met after playfair was Sergey who remains one of my best friends to this day.

Playfair was weird, definitely unforgettable. We ran around and acted like idiots. It was really pathetic, we tried to find people with the same birthdays as us at one point. I didn't meet anyone new there, hopefully they get rid of that someday.

My roommate back then was also a really good guy and I still talk to him. He came back drunk many times and woke me up, but was also a great help to me in many of my classes.

I also thought the campus was nice. It isn't too big or two small, about 5,000 undergrads which means you can meet a lot of people but not have to see them everyday.

I learned not to like the bus system here quickly, it was never on time, it was crowded, and I saw a woman shit her self on the bus seats. Not good.

I also was required to enroll in the campus dining program, which is the worst food in the world. They don't care about it because all freshmen HAVE to pay for it; almost nobody continues using it, so they are guaranteed new customers every year. Quality sucks, the people who work there are nice except the managers who seem to treat their underlings like shit.

Those were my impressions of CMU during orientation for the most part. Not too much happened that really sticks in my mind when I first got here. Part II will be posted sometime later...

Is Earth Day Dead?

Today, as many of you probably didn't know, is Earth Day, which was begun about 35 years ago in the United States. Today isn't the real Earth Day. The real one is on March 22. I think we should leave the date on this up to the UN, because in more ways than the USA they span the globe and that organization is useless enough to be associated with Earth Day.

According to the current CNN online poll, only 12% of respondents plan to do ANYTHING for Earth Day. I plan on doing nothing. Maybe I'll try not to through any debris onto the ground or something, but I'm not going to change my life because some liberal will feel better seeing me do it. Besides, the biggest polluter in the United States is the Federal Government and I doubt that they are going to change any policies today. In my opinion Earth Day used to mean a lot more, but has become so politicized that it is not worth it anymore.

Sex Offenders

New legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives in an attempt to prevent repeat sex offenders from being able to harm children. Specifically the law would increase penalties for sex offenders who fail to register at their new addresses.

The State of Florida has gone a step further, with legislation that would give much longer sentences to child rapists and mandate that they wear a GPS enabled lo-jack device for the rest of their lives.

I personally am against both laws.

There is one way to ensure that there are never any repeat sex offenders: mandatory execution. You rape a woman, a man, a child and it is confirmed with DNA evidence you should automatically be executed. If the DNA proves it, appeals could probably be limited.

And fuck that pussy-ass lethal injection. Some type of mutilation followed by hanging would be preferable and would probably serve as a quite a deterrent. Prison and death may not scare some people, but seeing someone's penis lopped off and fed to the pigs while he's let to slowly bleed to death for hours might do the trick.

DONE!

Well finally the all-nighter homework is done... enough. It took a little while to figure everything out, but I learned some of the concepts a few years ago in my optimization class. Remembering that stuff is what was hard! Now all I need to do is have the motivation to drive to campus and turn it in...unless I can find someone nice enough to do that for me. Or else I'll lose 10%, which sucks, although I've done that with a few of the homeworks already.

All-nighters

I think that staying up all night is a unique part of college. It is now 6am and I have been up through the night, doing homework and helping a friend out with some career related issues. I've become almost nocturnal lately, though I don't sleep more than "normal" people. Too bad my future job isn't the nightshift, I sometimes feel that I think better at night, due to the lack of distractions. Or I'm just an insomniac, though I doubt it.

My Favorite Magazine

I have recently added a link to my favorite magazine, Reason. This magazine focuses on current events and politics but has the distinction of being the most widely read libertarian leaning periodical. They bash the democrats and republicans equally, have interesting stories in sections in every issue I've purchased, along with lists of attrocious things that governments all over the world are doing. It is very well-written and has been named one of the best magazines by several major reviews (I believe it was the Chicago Tribune, but I may be wrong). The magazine only costs about $4 at the store, but you don't even have to buy it because they let you read their articles from previous issues FOR FREE online, so I suggest anyone interested to check it out.

< 10 days left

So there are now less than 10 days (excluding exams) left of my undergraduate career. Its going to be very relieving to be done with it all. My classes this semester haven't been too bad, but I feel like they are teaching me the same things over and over again, especially the business courses, but that might be good since it's unlikely I'll forget at least the main concepts (though I doubt I'll be able to price an option in 10 years). The whole experience here wasn't too bad and I'll probably be reflecting on it in the coming days. Right now I'm just trying to get my last few homeworks, projects, and exams taken care of so I can have a month of rest before I start my career over in Fairfax, VA.

Domestic Terrorism

Yesterday was the 10th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing in which the Murrah federal building was leveled by a bunch of diesel fuel and shit mixed together in a Ryder Van. This was the worst bombing in the United States since another nutcase blew up a school in Bath, Michigan over 50 years ago.

The Oklahoma City Bombing was a terrible thing to happen and many peoples' lives, including a lot of childrens', were lost in this attack. However, as Mad Ogre correctly points out, yesterday was also the 12 Anniversary of the federal governments act of terror against a religious sect living in Waco; this was the provocation for the Oklahoma City Bombing. In both tragedies there was a senseless loss of life (including dozens of children), but in some ways Waco was worse because instead of two whackos calling the shots, it was the government (especially Janet Reno) using its unlimited power to squash a few people who mainly wanted to be left alone.

Read Mad Ogre's post, he hits the nail on the head.

Heil Pope!

The Holy See has elected a new pope, Joseph Rotzinger (now Benedictus XVI), ironically a former Hitler Youth. Maybe that isn't so ironic though. Considering that the Vatican treats women and gays with about as much respect as Saudi Arabia (minus the beheadings) and has created more wars and deaths than Der Fuhrer could ever dream of. Sure, the Catholic Church has toned it down quite a few notches since the crusades, but it still controls over a BILLION people. Since most delusional (read: religious) people will usually hold their god above their country, it isn't going too far to say that this ultra-conservative pope has control over a good portion of the world. Thankfully out of those billion people a good portion live in the Western World and are less attuned to religious thought (it was widely conjectured that the new pope would be from a third world country, since poor, uneducated people tend to be the most religious)... Alright I'll stop with the religious cynicism for a moment. How the hell can the Holy See imagine to hold on to all these followers while they bash minorities, treat women like dogs, and tell everyone else they are going to hell?

Now everyone thinks that John Paul II was a good guy, but he was a little too prude for most of us, now wasn't he? Women have had the right to vote and property in almost every country for the last century, yet the Catholic church finds them so repulsive that they are denied all higher positions and their beloved clergy are forbidden to dirty themselves by sleeping with them (so they turn to little boys, who they hope to convert to priests someday...). It should be noted that the new pope blames the priest molestation charges on the media, not the church's rules.
Thankfully to those who would like to see major changes in the Catholic Church (since, unfortunately, it isn't going away soon), Ratzinger is the oldest pope in over 250 years so he will hopefully meet his god sometime soon.

Links Section

I have added a links section to my blog on the left. Any link I mention in my posts that I really like will probably be there for at least a while. Check 'em out, I prescreened them for you.

Carnivale Weekend

CMU had its annual Carnivale weekend from Thursday-Sunday. As usual there were a lot of lame events; basically all of the frats and sororities and other special interest groups design "booths" which usually contain some kind of games. They also compete in a soap box derby called "buggy." I didn't really experience any of these wonderful (ha) events.
Carl flew in on Thursday and spent the weekend here. It was really fun. We went bowling at Forward Lanes, a pretty retro place. We also went shooting at Anthony Arms. I had never shot a revolver before, it was a lot different from my semi-auto. I didn't shoot too well in it, but I did pretty well with my P-01 (see a previous post for that). We also partied hard on Thursday and Friday. Carl drank a lot of cheap vodka. I stuck to mixed drink and beers. Everyone had a really good time chillin' at Danny's. I slept most of the day Sunday after Carl left because I was pretty exhausted. This was definitely one of the best of my 4 Carnivals here, but I can't say I'll really miss the whole thing.

CMU gets campus outrage award

The folks at Campus Magazine have given CMU a "Campus Outrage" award for 2005 (on the website look for third place). The award was given for my university looking the other way while a racist "New Black Panther" leader, Mr. Shabazz, brought weapons onto campus (something I can't even do though I'm licensed by the state...), discriminated against all non-black students, and made racist comments about white people. I urge anyone reading my blog to send an email to CMU president Jared Cohon (go to cmu.edu/directory and type in his name to find his email) congratulating him on this award.

New Forum

There's a new forum for those (like me) who like CZ firearms: www.czshooters.com I recommend anyone interested in them check it out. Looks a lot better than the "official" CZ forum and is growing everyday. Join up, its free!