Pat's Taking the GRE Today!!!

Everyone keep Patrick in your prayers! He's taking the GRE today. Then it'll be time to turn in those applications to the schools I mentioned. EEEEK! Big steps! The future is really close now.

Our Baby Making Project! (Yipee!)

So me and Pat are trying to have a baby. Being the thorough people we are, we had read that you should get a physical before you start trying to see if everything's working okay and what all you can do for a healthy start to your baby's life. So I went and got one...

Here comes the good part.....



I might not be able to have kids.



Yeah. I just wrote that.

PAT GOT A YOB!!

Yes! Pat got a job as a customer service representative at the BYU Independent Study Program. He has 20 steady hours and decent pay. Thanks for everyone's prayers, we're grateful.

SOC 320G: Race & Minority Relations

Okay. Please note the blog title. This class is about race and minority relations. This is definitely NOT my favorite subject. I thought that this would be a great class about how different cultures and races interact with each other. BUT NO. It's all about "White Man's Guilt". I'm so sick of having slavery and it being "my fault" shoved down my throat. It's complete bullshit. My ancestors were Irish for crying out loud! They were slaves at one point too. AND it's not like slavery was started here in America. Freakin' eh! Why don't people ever read. Slavery was going on THOUSANDS of years before America was even an accident in a Italian sailors head. GRRRRR. I mean, who do people think built the freakin' pyramids? Huh?

Most of the slaves we got from Africa heer in America were captured and sold by their OWN PEOPLE. Yeah.

I was a minority growing up also. I mean, I attended, for the most part, a very rural elementary school where most of the students were the children of migrant field workers. Where's the sympathy for me. Nowhere. Why? Because I'm White. People are such complete hypocrites!

So, I think the most racist person in my class is my professor. No, really. The first week of class he was telling us how he adopted a little baby boy.....who was Black. He couldn't just adopt any kid, he specifically wanted a Black baby and made a point of telling us this. And then he proceeded to tell us of the problems he faced with society because of this choice. (This was during the 1970s) I personally think that he knew what was going to happen to him and purposefully made himself a martyr. Ugh.

But, yeah. This is the class that is a REQUISITE for my degree. I'm grinding my teeth even as I write this blog.

Mediating (Please repeat: "It builds the resume!")

So, this semester I was looking at classes to fulfill my upper level elective credit requirements, and I realized that while Legal classes are offered, they aren't really offered....I know...you're probably scratching you head. After a lengthy discussion with my adviser, she informed me that classes are offered, but there's either nobody to teach them, or there isn't enough interest to keep the class open. I was pissed, to say the least. So I had very few options open for upper level classes. Mostly because they would require that I take the pre-requisite classes just to take them. That would just keep setting me back. I try to avoid set-backs if I can. So, of the few classes available to me, I chose to continue with the Mediation Program. Whatever. It fulfills my requirements.

SO....I really don't like mediation. Not really. BUT, I figure it builds the resume, so why not continue with it. I am currently in the Advanced Mediation class. I have to conduct a project where I monitor Fundamental Mediation students' progress, advise the Fundamental Mediation students, and overall help them with their mediation techniques. It should definitely be interesting. My professor told me there's an opening for a project at the Orem Small Claims Court. I hate court mediating. It's probably the most intimidating thing I've ever done. I'm not looking forward to it, but maybe I'll get a good partner for my project and we'll do some good work. Maybe...

Halloween Time at Wal-Mart (Good Times With Caitlin!)

Ahhhh yes...these would be pics from the wonderful 2 hours I spent at Wal-Mart, being bored and playing around. Yes....I still play around at Wal-Mart. Some things you just never grow out of. I personally think the clown pics are the funniest.

Candace's Homecoming Dance

These are just some pics of the hair and makeup I did for my sister Candace for her homecoming dance. I think I could have done something a little lighter with the eyes, but she liked it, so that's what counts.

Rocky Mountain Rendezpoo

So this past weekend I (Patrick) went out to Laramie, Wyoming to attend a job fair. It was put on by the University of Wyoming. The whole point of the things is for oil and gas companies to come and interview prospective students for internships and jobs. I was excited to have the opportunity to get an internship, so I decided to come out of my comfort zone and go to it.

On Friday the 2nd I got up early and loaded up in a van, (by loaded I mean there were 6 people in a 12 seat van), and we drove 6 hours to Laramie. The drive wasn't bad since I guess I was asleep for about 2 hours of it. Anyways we checked into our hotel and went to the university campus. This day of the "job fair" was a resume and interview workshop. The 4 hours I spent sitting and listening were pretty insightful. I was able to fix a few errors on my resume, and now it it a shining beacon of what future employers will learn about me when I am looking for a job. It was a good experience for me, and I hope I will be able to use what I learned from it in the future.

Ok, so after that we went back to our hotel and chilled, after we had dinner at Wendy's. MMMM Jr. Bacon Burger with Crispy Chicken Nuggets and a Frosty. Yum. The next day wasn't too exciting for me. Everyone else went on the field trips that were being put on by the oil companies. I had to stay behind because I had some homework I needed to do. Plus I didn't want to miss Saturday college football. It took me awhile to finish the assignment I had because I would work on it for like 10 minutes then go back to watching the game that was on at the time. Don't worry I eventually finished it.

Sunday wasn't a big day either. Basically I walked around looking at the various booths that the companies had set up. Most of the booths had sign up sheets for interviews, but only 2 of them were accepting undergraduate interviews. The rest of the companies were only interested in graduate students. Boo. Anyways I was able to talk to some of the recruiters there and give them my resume for future use. The rest of the time I spent sitting around doing nothing. They did have a dinner that I attended, but half the food was spicy, so I couldn't eat it due to my colitis.

The next day wasn't any better. In fact I would say that it was worse. The undergrad interviewers never showed up, so my only chance at getting an interview was destroyed. So me and a couple other guys left after we found out that they hadn't shown up. We left Laramie around 9 in the morning. About 11 a.m. we came to a dead stop. Turns out two semis had collided with each other blocking the whole two lane highway. It took two hours for the mess to get cleaned up and for traffic to start moving again. To make matters worse, an hour later we hit another traffic jam. They had shut down the highway due to a "car wreck", whatever that meant. So it took us an hour to get to the exit they were forcing everyone to get off at. Then we turned around and took the detour route. Instead of being able to head west on the I-80 we had to head south on the 191, loop around through Vernal, Utah, then head west back through Heber-Provo Canyon to Provo. In the end we basically doubled our travel time, spending 11 hours on the road.

All in all the experience wasn't that great. I understand that times are tough economically, but it would have been nice to know in advance that the companies were only looking for grad students. Basically I spent 50 bucks to go to a resume/interview workshop and spend 17 hours on the road.

COMING SOON...!

Alright, so this really isn't a "post" post, but more of a "coming soon" post. I haven't had time since the beginning of school to post anything, so I will have to catch up on things. On the list of blogs to come are:

- Palmer Reunion over Labor day weekend

- Candace's Homecoming game

- Halloween time at Wal-Mart (Good times with Caitlin!)

- Clarissa's faux B-day! The big 1-9!

- Mediating (Please repeat: "It builds the resume!")

- SOC 320G: Race & Minority Relations

And hopefully I'll get those up in the next two weeks. Maybe. We'll see.