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Merula83
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Name: Ben
Country: United States
State: Indiana
Gender: Male
Interests: Camping and outdoors activities, sports, reading, sleeping, and anything intellectually stimulating.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message me
Member Since:
1/14/2004
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| Hey, so, I've honestly almost forgotten about this blog...because I use facebook almost exclusively. For the past 4 months I was in Rome, Italy, doing a semester abroad program through University of Dallas. It was the most amazing experience of my life, and I can say that in complete truth. I got to see some of the most famous and amazing art and architecture in the whole world, some of the most ancient cities and monuments in the whole world...and I got to experience many different cultures and try new and exciting things. I would not trade these past 4 months for anything. In all, I got to see Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, and Greece. They were all amazing.
If you have facebook, friend me and you can see several gigs worth of pictures from Rome and the rest of Europe, including ones of me and my wonderful girlfriend Michelle...(I wonder if she reads this lol)
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| Hey, it's Christmas. A good time to resurrect my xanga self and say something very unprofound. I guess I really don't check this very often at all anymore, facebook is a lot better.
So college is good, keeps me busy...break is better. Next semester I'm headed off to Rome...I'll get to say hi to the pope. Sweet.
Nothing of life-changing importance to report since August. I'm just 4 months older and 4 months dumber. (you know, the more you know the more you know you don't know) Oh and I might be changing my major to physics with a minor in classical languages.
Life is good. Take care of yourselves and don't do anything stupid, everyone.
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| It's amazing how hot this summer has been. We've had two one-week periods that were extremely hot, and many other days that it's just been hot. From roughly July 13th or 14th to the 21st, the temperature hovered at nearly 95 degrees every afternoon, with dewpoints from 75-80 degrees. That's pretty humid. 4-H fair week fell right smack in the middle of that mini-heat wave, and I was helping with my church's food booth out there, working in the kitchen at the deep fryer, making taco-in-a-bag, taco salad, whatever needed done...that was hot work. Then from about the 26th of July to the 2nd of August the hot weather returned, with temperatures comparable to the first time and reaching 98-99 degrees on a couple days. The funny thing is...I got used to it, and it didn't seem so ridiculously hot after the first few days. Working outside was a little more difficult than usual. I mowed the lawn and was drenched with sweat when I was done. 
If nothing else, extreme heat makes us appreciate air conditioning, fans, cold treats, and cool weather a lot more!
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| Okay, I'm back again.
Let's begin with a rant, shall we? That's always a good way to start. Why do body washes for men have to smell weird?!? They all have a very heavy, mysterious sort of scent...like you've just entered the contamination zone of a chemical spill. What if I don't want to smell like Axe all the time? Is it a conspiracy? I'll never know.
I have to say, I've really enjoyed summer so far. I got to do more traveling than usual, saw many relatives I haven't seen in a while, and I've been able to get some reading done. My todo list isn't very dented, but I always make unrealistic goals, so I'm not surprised there.
Back in June I was able to attend a mini-Islas reunion thingy in Ohio at the Gardners' house. I'm really bad with names, but I know Mag was there and another teacher...and a bunch of people Rebecca knew. We played Islas Jeopardy on friday night, then played in their backyard and had a wonderful cookout for lunch on saturday. It was nice to see my old Latin teacher...I got a picture with her while she was holding the urn, too! It was a new urn, a gift from the Gardners...and the first thing Mag did was lift the lid and say "Yep, Lafe Gildemaster is still down there...I don't think he's ever getting out." That made me laugh. 
From June 28th to July 4th we traveled out to Missouri to visit cousins in St Louis and then attend my uncle's wedding in St Joseph. That was the funnest trip ever! I was an usher in the wedding, so I got to dress up and order people around, lol...I even wore my black sunglasses. After the wedding we went to up Maryville to spend some time with my grandma. I love it up there...the town is quiet (at least when the college students aren't there) and the countryside is so green and wide open...it feels like home away from home.
Oh yeah, the evening of the wedding while we were at the home of my new aunt in St Joseph, (the old part of St. Joseph is really cool, btw) we noticed an advertisement for Riverdance in Kansas City. So the 5 oldest of us kids randomly decided to drive down there and see it, b/c the tickets were cheap and KC wasn't far away. We had a fabulous time, proving that spur of the moment decisions can be good!
Going back east toward home, we stopped in again at the cousins' in St Louis for the night and next day. I got to go up the Arch, something I hadn't ever done. (isn't it funny how I switch from "we" to "I" and back again?) The view from the top was pretty spectacular. Later down by the riverfront, I found a toy zebra in the water! It's only about 3 inches long...but I kept it, and now it's my souvenir from the trip. It's sitting on my desk right now. We had a July 4th cookout with the cousins', then came home in time to see the nighttime display of fireworks here in town.
Sunday the 23rd of July we drove up to South Bend, attended Mass at Notre Dame, then spent some time with my brothers there. Then for the rest of the day, we hopped the state line and had fun at Warren Dunes state park in Michigan! They have some incredible sand dunes along Lake Michigan there...we climbed the tallest one and had a gorgeous view of the lake and beaches and the woods behind us. I swam in the lake, but not for long, it was kind of cold.
So there's an account of the major excursions of my summer, now on to randomness. How about...a political commentary?
So here's the deal. "The American People" are fed up with Bush, Iraq, the economy, gas prices, etc etc etc, and as a consequence, the Democrats will gain a major advantage this fall in the midterm elections. If true, this is disastrous. Many of the advances that have been made on moral issues (though admittedly small advances) might be totally reversed if Democrats gained control of the House and Senate. While I have no doubt that Bush would veto anything major, it's the small stuff hidden in spending bills and other bills that worries me...funding for the UN to push its abortion/contraception agenda abroad, for example. (actually, I'm not sure that the US doesn't already do that) In my opinion, the Republicans have become just as bad as the Democrats in their spending, taxation, expansion of government and government programs, and foreign policy (let's not even touch immigration), but at least you can usually count on them to vote the right way when moral issues such as abortion or gay marriage come up. I think some Republicans are already caving in that regard, but for the most part they are still reliable. So even with all their numerous faults, it is imperative that Republicans (or the right Democrats) be reelected in the fall. I sure hope the pollsters are wrong.
I hate ankles that hurt. I got shin splints several months ago, but they cleared up. I was even able to run a 5k on July 15th, recording a time of 24:41. (pretty bad, but I had not been running at all for a couple months) Now, I apparently did something to my left ankle, I know not what. It just hurts. Maybe a tendon or ligament...grr. I like being able to run, and this stinks.
I bought a new laptop!! I figured I would want something lightweight before my semester in Italy in spring of '07 (and I wanted to get a laptop anyway), so when I saw a sale at Best Buy this past Sunday, I jumped on it. Only $399.99, and it comes with:
14" widescreen XGA
1.46 Ghz Celeron M processor, 533 Mhz FSB
Intel 945 chipset, same one as new core duo processors...so I could upgrade the Celeron later
512 MB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
60 GB SATA 5400 rpm hard drive
DVD/CDRW drive
It even came with a remote control for watching dvd movies from across the room...nice.
The only gripe I have is that the Best Buy employees were WAY too eager to sell me an extended 2-year warranty for it. I said no at least 4 times! Sheesh.
Well there you go. Another edition of the boring life of me. I know I had more to say, but when I sat down here to type this, it all left me. Hopefully some of the better stuff leaked from my brain into this, though. Have a great weekend, and remember, there's nothing better than cold applesauce at 2 am. Or orange juice. That's good too. | | |
| I'm not liking my first experience with daylight savings time here at home! All my usual routines are messed up! I was used to darkness coming at 8:15-8:30 in late spring/early summer, but now it's an hour later. So now my whole sense of time is messed up...I look out and it's light and I expect one time but the clock says another. I also have less time in the evenings, because when it's light I like to either be outside playing or inside by a window reading, and don't really get around to doing what needs to be done till it's dark. I suppose I should just change my routine, but I'd rather they got rid of daylight savings time. (why mess with the clocks, anyway? Why not invest in research to find out how to move the sun?)
Know what's cool? My roommate's dad (he's from Texas) has been to my town before, doing a gig at the high school performing arts center. He mentioned being impressed by the orchestra pit that rose up to crowd level while they were playing at the begininng of the performance. He also said he didn't get much of a feel for the area, but his most vivid memory was a very good pork chop dinner with "good old red and yellow Indiana tomatoes" that he was served backstage.
I did my good turn for the day a few days ago. I saved a baby robin from the middle of the road. It was just sitting there stupidly, and only moved its feathers a little when I touched it with my foot to see if it was alive. I picked it up and moved it to the neighbor's garden where I hoped it would be seen by its parents or something. The bird snapped out of it a little when I picked it up, so at least it wasn't half-dead or diseased. Later I saw an adult robin fly over and feed it a worm so that made me happy. And I also noticed that the nest was on the rim of the neighbor's basketball goal - what an odd place for a nest! (they hadn't used the bball goal all spring, don't worry)
The post office stole my 20mm artillery shell. Grr. I obtained it at the army surplus store in Irving and put in a box of stuff that I mailed back but when it came I noticed the box had been opened and taped shut again and the shell was missing. Probably they saw it in an xray machine and took it out of the box, but come on! Are security rules that tight? The shell didn't have any powder in it, it was just the casing! rowr.
this is an uncharacteristically long post for me, I better stop before I ruin my reputation. | | |
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