Elections

This being the first presidential election that I will have a voice in, I have been paying attention to the different candidates to find which ones I think I could vote for. To be honest I have been fairly disappointed with the slate, as I really felt that there weren't any major candidates that I could vote for, leaving me with the option of trying to find and independent I agree with or not voting in the presidential election. Last week my mother suggested I at least look at Huckabee and after reading his website and looking at his position on many things I care about I think I have found someone to vote for. While he is still more fiscally liberal than I might go for, I like his stands on changing tax law, national security, and foreign diplomacy. He is also a supporter of Fair Tax which would greatly improve the tax law in this country. You should go take a look at his website.

Winter Break

Oi! its been a while. Winter breaks is over half done and I find myself looking (somewhat readily) to the start of another semester. I have been spending a bunch of time with one of my friends who just finished basic with the Air Force and has two weeks leave for Christmas. He back to tech school tomorrow, and then off to his post and new life. It is strange to see many of my friends taking off into their lives leaving me behind. Soon (or something) I will be graduating and heading off to my own life. But right now I must worry myself about more mundane things like buying books for the next semester and co-ordinating drill weekends. Here's to life dragging on.

Grades came out yesterday. They weren't too bad, but it was apparent that this was by far the hardest semester I have had. It didn't help that my measurements prof decided to give me a "c" in his class. On the plus side, I now have completed 95 hours and will be eligible to get my Aggie ring. I will be in the second round of people to receive their rings in my class as my buddy got his this semester. So I will be getting boots and my ring in one semester; that's something to get excited about!

One more day!

Us Aggies are sitting here on the brink of the start of Christmas. The weather has been beautiful (75 and muggy) and most of us are happy but still stressed out as tomorrow is the last day of finals. Some of us will be moving on to bigger and better (possibly) things. For the rest of us, we will go home, play a little, sleep a lot, and return in January ready (not really) for another semester of school. I personally have one more exam after which I will be jubilantly returning to the piny woods. Here's to a month without circuits, fluid flows, sensors, and weird greek symbols!

Finals

Its been a while since I last posted, but not much as happened. We are now in the middle of finals (hence the long break from posting) and its gotten rather difficult to focus on school anymore. I just got back from my National Guard drill. We had a Christmas party for the entire unit and me and the other A&M cadets got to wear our A&M Corps uniforms to the party. One of the A&M cadets is a senior so we even had boots there. Its was pretty fun. I got to show off all the different parts of my uniform to several of the soldiers which was interesting as there is little correlation between the Corps and Army uniforms. Capt. Singleton (out CO) is doing what he can to make out drill experience as useful as possible by giving us different assignments and relating what we do back to the active duty experience. So far the National Guard has been good for me.

Elephants and Bonfire

It was an eventful Tuesday! First we had elephant walk. Elephant walk is a long standing tradition at A&M where the senior class walks around the campus like dying elephants, visiting all the important places on campus. The significance of this walk is that once they graduate they will not stand in the student section of the stands ever again. What this event means to us juniors is that '08 has died and that we are very close to taking the reins of the Corps from them.

Later that night, thanks to some much needed rain, we got to burn bonfire. As the bonfire is no longer built on campus, we have to deal with county regulations and such to be able to burn it. It has been so dry here that Robertson county had enacted a burn ban and only lifted it because we received three inches of rain over the weekend.
Despite bonfire being off-campus now, it continues to be a great unifying event for all those that participate in cut, stack, and burn. It gives students a chance to get out and work (rather competitively) towards a common goal every year. As we do as much of bonfire by hand as we can, it requires a massive effort from many students to successfully build.
There seemed to be a good turnout to burn and everyone had a good time. We should beat t.u. this year as the centerpole stood past midnight thanks to the more stable design that is used to build bonfire now. I hope everyone is having a good thanksgiving and standby for another post after we beat the hell outta t.u.

Bonfire Rembrance

Today eight years ago at 2:42 am, not a mile from my dorm, the bonfire stack collapsed leading to the death of 12 Aggies. This morning, at 2:42, Aggies gathered at the Bonfire Memorial in the cold and wet, to remember those Aggies and to comfort their families. One of those Aggies was a freshman in my outfit. He had relieved his old lady on the stack just minutes before the stack collapsed. As rescue workers attempted to free trapped students, he lay on the stack severely injured, directing the workers to others students. He told them "I'm alright, go get him out" until he was told that they needed to move him so that they could save others. He died in the hospital a day later, the last of the twelve. As the years roll on, the memory of Bonfire has faded and the size of the group at the memorial has shrunk. If you are a student here at A&M, don't forget those Aggies, and remember that Aggies are known for what they do, not for themselves, but for what they do for those around them.