nice weekend

well... I thought it was about time for a blog update. This weekend
was really nice, it started out not looking like I was going to do
all that much (which to be honest actually sounded nice) but I ended
up deciding to go down and visit Kathryn and her family and to attend
a fundraiser for a short film that's being done by her dad and the
guys i've been working with for the past 2 years. It went really
well, there was great food, great company, and of course I got to
spend the evening/night/all day today with my wonderful girlfriend.

I went to 5p.m. mass this evening with my family and kathryn and then
went home with the fam to have dinner, visit for a while and then jet
back up to school. It was really nice to see the family, (even though
its only been a week since my last visit) I miss them a lot now that
I've been at school for a little over a month.

Also new in the world of james.... JAMES HAS A BIKE!!! wooo hoo... I
can now make it from my apartment to the cafeteria and back and not
have to set aside a full hour to do so (Thanks Dad!!!)

as for the rest of life up here... its still pluggin right along.
Nothing super new or exciting except for loads and loads of
homework... but i guess that's to be expected.

Anyways, Until next post...

James

Dad's 50th Birthday!!

Well... he's hit the half century mark... I know, isn't it amazing! Hahaha, well I came down via the train on Sunday afternoon and spent the afternoon/evening with my family and Kathryn celebrating at Fisherman's Restaurant on the SC pier. Here are some pics:

USC vs. Nebraska!!

...some pics from the game and Kathryn's visit :-D enjoy!!

mmmm... a little bit of humor for your day :-)

This clip needs no explenation... (nor do I believe one is possible). Enjoy!!

Rich Kids....

Well, I thought I'd been successfully avoiding it, but it was
unavoidable. Tonight as I walked home from the Parkside Diner I saw
several hallmark signs that I am attending the university of spoiled
children. These signs came in the flavors of a souped up infinity G35
coupe (and i mean REALLY souped up), a BMW 760Li (yes the v12 one
that costs over $100,000), two Porsche 911 Carerra 4S's and a BMW M3
SMG convertible, all being driven by students who could not have been
older than me (except for one who looked like he could have been
24-25 ish).

Ah... well... I shant be jealous, after all, I've got my skateboard :-).

New camera!!

Ok... well I received my new camera today (thanks mom and dad!!!) and
it's really really cool. I've taken some 16:9 videos already and they
look amazing! My first little project is a slideshow of my walk to
school (or in today's case skateboard to school). An interesting
little tidbit of info... the first picture in this slideshow was the
first picture this camera ever took, and on the 1MP setting that i
took all of these pictures on i can fit almost 3000 pictures onto my
camera before my card fills up! Oh, and for the parentals -I took
some pictures of the catholic center that you're always asking
about. Anywhooo... enjoy the slideshow!

Early Morning

So, This morning I had an early morning (well... early for me at
least) I was up at 8:45am to go get my new camera from CSC. I just
returned and am unpacking it now :-) its REALLY REALLY cool. I'll
start posting pictures as soon as the battery charges. Now its off to
do some last minute homework before i go to class at 12.

Jihad!!!!! (a new form of bio-terror at USC)

Well, it appears (actually more like smells) that our brothers of
middle eastern decent are taking the holy war to a new level - right
under our noses. In the week or two leading up to this 5th
anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks I have noticed a
distinct increase in the number of middle-eastern men who completely
wreak of body odor. I'm not talking about a whiff or two as they walk
by, oh no, I'm talking about a 30-foot radius zone of gaseous death!
You could seriously slap a bio-hazard label on them and it would
shrivel up and dissolve in about 10 seconds.

Now that we have reached the anniversary of those infamous terror
attacks, it seems that they're once again pulling out all the stops
(though our watering eyes plead with them to put the stops back in)
in an all out bio-terror attack. EVERY single male of middle eastern
decent that I walked past (or had the misfortune to ride the bus
with) today has wreaked to high heaven of body odor. Now, I do not
presume to be so much of a racist as to believe they're all
terrorists who are out to get us... but seriously, this is just too
much.

I really feel the urge to run around spraying them with a super-
soaker 10,000 full of 99 cent Big Lots perfume screaming "Jihad."

miserable day

Well... apart from being visited by mom and dad, today was completely
miserable. I consciously pushed away the girl I love, thinking/
believing that it will all turn out for the best in the end. I really
hope what I did was right... I feel like crap.

Soooooooo tired!

Well... class this morning was great as usual, we had some excellent
conversation about media ethics and what should and shouldn't be put
in newspapers. I must say, It is refreshing to have 3 other guys in a
class of about 15 girls... they get way to "politically correct" for
my tastes, the guys bring it back into the "painfully obvious" mode.
Our teacher is great, he provokes many a heated argument just for the
sake of expanding our viewpoints and a few of us (I will include no
names) have become quite adept at pigeonholing him into his own
arguments, forcing him to concede defeat -which I believe he quite
enjoys.

Jumping topics to activity updates - the swelling in my ankle has
subsided to the point where I can walk comfortably again so I'll be
able to resume regular Ultimate Frisbee practices with the team. I
ended up turning down an internship offer from Motive in favor of
pursuing other options (this was highly recommended by my teacher and
the school at large). We are encouraged to have multiple internships
for DIFFERENT companies in order to foster diversity and provide the
optimal conditions for getting hired straight out of college.

I'm debating doing one of these online promotions to get a free Dell
24" HD monitor. One of my friends from downstairs has a roommate who
just received his free monitor in the mail last week, It's
incredible! The catch is you have to complete 6 promotions (netflix
trials etc.) and have one other person complete 6 before you can get
the monitor... and of course to complete these promotions you need a
credit card. I'm still deciding if its worth the trouble, or should I
just go spend the $750 to buy the monitor when I get my new computer.

Things in my "personal" life really suck right now... as you may have
noticed from last nights post. I am really quite hurt by what
happened, I thought things were going great between Kathryn and I,
but apparently I was wrong. It was really nice to have Kathryn as a
pillar in my life -something I could rely on in this constant barrage
of new crazy things that I'm getting up here at USC. I guess she just
needs to move on and see what other guys have to offer. It's really
weird to think of life without her - and even harder (if not
impossible) to imagine life with another girl. I guess It's just one
of life's pains that I'll have to accept and learn from. Now... to
start looking for new girls *attempts putting on game face* - wish me
luck.

Ok... i'm done for now, if you have any specific questions or would
like me to include tidbits on certain things that I'm not regularly
including... just email me and ask me and I'll be sure to talk about it.

Meh....

Ok... well i was planning on updating tonight... but I'm not really
feeling like it. I do have one announcement though, I am officially
single (again) for the second time in two weeks. I was dumped this
evening. Thankfully I have some caring roommates who gave me a
shoulder to cry on and a beer to drink. More on USC stuff tomorrow.
Good night all.

busy busy busy

Sorry everyone for not keeping my blog updated over the past few
days, I've been really busy. I'm just sitting down to do some
homework right now so I'll sign back on after it's done and write a
status update. Hope all is well in all of your various corners of the
world.

James