summer...the back half on a concussion

disclaimer....i am writing this while on strong pain killers....enjoy (thats for you mang

Holy crap its been a long time since i ve written but i figure the summer is over and i m back in DK so its high time i get my act together and metaphorically scribble down some jibberish.

Ok so I was in NYC for about a week chillin with my Pops. It was probably the best time of the summer for me. Dont get me wrong...hanging with g-mang, kicking it in DK with nice weather, my brosef c-dizzles wedding, golf with the step dad, wii with the family, a week in c-town, beers at kells and then running drunk in the streets, or any of the other plethera of activities that i partaked in were all fun, but I ve spent way too little time with my Pops over my lifetime and lets face it my Dad is cooler than yours and you can only deny the thruth of that statement.

So NYC was pretty sick...I got to see a show on Broadway...hit up all the major sights, run through the burrows of the city and see the Yankees lose! Sorry Pops, but you know I m a Bosox fan. A couple of other things that were nice was I got to see an old friend from my exchange. We had a nice dinner and some conversation afterwards. And after 3 years she was still as beautiful as I remembered her. Secondly I got to go to an Adidas Y3 store....which there are only around a handful of in the whole world. It was unfortunate that prices were way higher than I expected and I was unable to afford anything. But afterwards I went the the village and drank with my Pops and had some awesome guac and nachos while we people watched for many hours. Unfortunately as always my time was too short with Pops and I was off to see the rest of my friends and family that I had left behind a year prior.

It was nice to see oregon even though the summer there sucked pretty hard weather wise. Too much rain for sure. I pretty much spent the time there driving my car around seeing friends that I had been missing. It was great to reconnect and catch up. Eventually it seemed like much hadnt changed as I found myself quickly falling back into the old routine. I guess thats when you know when you are actually friends with someone. You can be apart for a long time but then its comfortable again when you meet again.

I was able to show my family how much i can dominate them on the wii. They have had it for like a year and i had played maybe once before. I owned

I also got to see a new niece, spend time with my stepdad who had brain surgery, see my sisters and brother in laws....and of course have my mom try to set me up with a russian girl.

Oh so at home i was able to get my fractured wrist situation taken care of....that was nice. I shot a bunch and got into my old high school when they opened for registration and used the gym. Also found out my old english teacher died. That was sucky news....she wasnt really that old. I went to the memorial service and it was pretty sad. I saw some old classmates and teachers etc. So that was pretty cool. Would have been better under different circumstances though.

Well soon enough I was headed back to DK to start my last year of school....unless i get the itch to go for a phd.....but lets face it i am pretty much out of money for more academic endevours and I think my thesis might kill me first.

So coming back was hellish...regarding the jetlag. It took me about 4 or 5 days to get over...ugh. But school started only a few days later so i was forced back into a routine quick. Basketball has started again and we are a ton of guys....we had a coach for about 2 practices then he quit cause he wasnt getting paid. Oh well. School has been a load so far because my schedule is quite loaded the first month and then it drops off to 5 day weekends. I ve been back to work as well....catching up and trying to start posting lots of hours so i can afford to live. Books have taken a dent into my savings so I am opting to sell my car so I dont have to worry about anything and maybe i can take a trip as well. I havent traveled much and I get a bit cabin fever in the winter months. It may even allow me to come home for christmas or something like that.

In other news I totally got a concussion this past monday. Heres the story

I went to bed sunday night feeling fine and dandy....2 hours i woke up and was shaking quite badly and couldnt warm myself. Shortly after my head began to hurt and my eyes were really sore. Somewhere after 8 I got up to use the bathroom and as I was standing there I began to get light headed. I figured the time to finish was right then so I pulled up the shorts and tried to grab onto something.....well that something was thin air and I woke up on the floor. It wasnt all bad unless the toilet breaks the fall for your neck and head and the sink for the elbow. Not quite sure how long i was out but i was definitely not a happy camper. Turns out my fever was about 41 degrees celcius or somewhere in the neighborhood of 104, 105. I dont remember the conversion. I did probably a not so smart thing and went to sleep for like 7 hours instead of getting a ride to the hospital....wont make that mistake again. So oddly enough I wake up the next day and feel fine. Go to work for a number of hours and then head back home and chill for the night. Next day...wednesday....It all sets in. Headaches, nausea, loss of appitite, inability to focus, sore eyes, sore back....etc. I make it to about half a class then head to the hospital. They dont really tell me anything i dont already know from wikipedia but I have post concusion syndrome. Fast forward til now and the headaches are still there and some of the other stuff but i m hoping by chilling this weekend the symptoms will fade.

So odd that finally get back to normal then my world gets fucked!

But the plus side is that I can take a break from drinking and can focus on my health for a change. And I can catch up on things like writing in my blog for you...the reader. I mean cause thats why I am here.

Thats if for me...I m outta here


PS....i watched 6 full seasons of scrubs, caught up on greys anatomy and currently am working on weeds....soooooooo good. I love tv!

Taking it easy

So only a couple days left in Copenhagen until I head back stateside for a month. Last week I worked everyday but took a couple half days so I could take advantage of the fantastic weather that descended upon Denmark. I spent a few days at the beach working on my tan and swimming in the ocean. Its been quite a relaxing summer here in Denmark and I have fully enjoyed the nice change of pace compared to my previous summers that consisted mainly of work.

Went out on Saturday night with some friends. Kinda my last night out until I get back from vacation. Had a pretty good time and ended up getting more drunk that I had planned/anticipated. The events of the night were quite unexpected and I m sure later down the line they may be brought up again. Its probably a good thing that I am leaving for a month. Maybe I need to clear my head and gain new perspective on different situations...and at the very least give time for things to blow over if need be.

Garth you should have been here....would have been night ride part quatro

Batman

I also took time out of my not so busy schedule to see the new batman movie. I am a big fan of super hero movies in general and have grown up watching the transformation of the dark knight on the big screen. I think my expectations were too high from the start. Critics had been raving about the movie and it broke the opening weekend record. I did my best to stay away from trailers and sneak peak clips in order to be fully surprised when I saw it. Anyways so overall I thought it was an entertaining movie however I was pretty disappointed at the predictability. I found myself at time being completely sure of what would happen sometime 20 minutes later in the film. Dont get me wrong I liked the story line and was surprised at times but after watching Batman Begins today I think that I almost liked that one better. One thing I am glad for is that the batman cash cow has been reestablished meaning there will most likely be more to come...unless studio heads are fucking retarded.

Ramble of the week

Another week down and only a short time til I m state side. This past week wasnt too exciting compared to the ones which preceded. I spent all 5 weekdays in the office. I did take a half day to go and hang out with one of my basketball friend. Spent a few hours shooting around and doing some conditioning drills trying to get a head start before practice start. I also decided to go to danish conversation class on wed. Danish class was good for the first hour and a half, after that my vocabulary failed me. I left at the break to go have dinner with Jens and Natalia. It was perfect timing because as soon as I arrived the food had finished. It was our last dinner and visit before we all went on vacation for some time. They headed down to Italy and I will be leaving for the US before they get back. It was a nice night.

Friday night was another dinner with a few of the basketball girls before we went to free concert friday at tivoli, L.O.C was playing. We had spagetti which was quite delicious with the homemade sauce Jasmina whipped up. After dinner I introduced the girls to the good old american tradition of beer pong. My team won of course. No actually it was really close and I was quite impressed with their skills. Because it was getting late we only played one game and then headed to tivoli. L.O.C who I had seen a few weeks prior at roskilde festival put on another great show in front of a massive crowd.

Saturday was pizza with philipp my german friend and then beer pong later when some more friends showed up. We called it an early night as most of us were tired and not in the mood to go into the city.

Sunday was pretty much a lazy day. I did make it to the gym to do some cardio and lift legs a bit but mostly a lot of laying around and watching tv.

No major plans for the week but i m sure some work, danish class and shooting will be involved as well as a trip to see the new batman movie which premiers here on the 23rd.

So it seems everyone is leaving these days. Its either vacation or heading on exchange. I had to say goodbye to more friends this weekend and frankly it sucks. I have pretty much been dealing with this sort of thing my whole life but normally I am the one doing the leaving. Saying goodbye doesnt ever get easier though.

Saturday was a lot of fun though. I met some new people and got to hang out with people that I havent been able to spend much time with as of late. Just too bad that some are leaving til next year or perhaps not coming back at all.

Last days

So this last week was pretty decent. I slept most of Monday after my week in Roskilde. Tuesday was spent dealing with a few urgent emails from work but mostly hanging out with Garth. The weather was kind of dodgy but I took him over to the Marble Church and to Christiania anyways. It rained pretty much the whole ride into town.

The Marble Church is a pretty massive cathedral located a stones throw away from the queens palace. It also has the 5th largest dome in Europe. I ve been there a handful of times but only while making the tourist loop. I m not an avid church goer. Anyways next stop was to Christiania. The sun was nowhere to be found....but dont worry the rain had us covered.

For those who dont know, Christiania its the hippie like community where most people go to buy pot/hash and smoke weed. Although its illegal in Denmark its been fairly relaxed there over the years (until recent). We pretty much just walked around a bit. There isnt really a ton to see over there in my opinion but I guess its interesting if you havent ever been there...or you like to smoke. They restrict cameras there which is kinda too bad because they have lots of murals on walls and buildings that are kinda cool. We only stayed for about 20 mins or so and decided it was about time to head home as our day was put on hold due to a rain delay.

Low and behold...as soon as we made it home the rain stopped. I dont remember doing anything much after that except eating some delicious chicken sandwiches. Pretty sure we stayed close to the apartment the rest of the day.

Wednesday I was back to work. Garth set out to Hillerød to see a castle. We met back up in the evening and cooked some dinner. Since it was Garths last night in town we ended up hanging out at a friend of mines flat and drank some beverages. What was meant to be a low key night got a bit crazier than expected and a drunken night ride landed us home at around 4am. Garth had to be up at 5 to catch an early train at 630ish. Lets just say we were a bit surprised when we woke up right when his train was pulling away from the station. It wasnt the best way to start the morning but I had a good laugh about it. He gathered almost all of his things and headed out the door to catch the 730 train to Århus. I went back to bed for a bit and then had to work.

It was a bit strange coming home Thursday evening because my apartment was virtually empty with exception of my roommates brother. He left shortly after I got home to go on vacation in Ecuador. My roommate had also left earlier in the day to go to Spain with a friend and then of course Garth had already left. So basically the apartment has been quite vacant and besides seeing some friends for a short time Friday night and a good by party Saturday night I have been really bored.

Roskilde - The Finish Line

Ok so I spent the last week at the Roskilde Festival here in Denmark. It was my first experience at a multiple day music festival. I ended up working the festival which came with some nice benefits ie. free entry, restricted campground with free hot showers and nice toilets, also entry into the actual festival area before the music started and discounted beer at the volunteers section. It turned out to be quite the blessing even though the work was extremely boring. In the public camps there was tons of noise all night long, some robberies, random people having sex in random tents, trash littered everywhere, the constant smell of urine, tents being tagged/slashed/destroyed/pissed on and lots of other things.

Anyways the music was pretty great. Although there in previous years have been better lineups, this year was still good. I was finally able to see Radiohead, The Streets and Jay-Z. Those were the big 3. Radiohead headlined the first day and put on a very technical show. They were no frills but still played a great show. Friday The Streets headlined and put on the best show on the main stage. They worked the entire crowd and had people taking there shirts and spinning them over there heads by the end...I was instantly reminded of a rap song. Jay-Z closed the festival and kept the hits coming. There was a slight rain (only rain of the festival) that delayed the start of his performance. He took over the stage 30 mins late but brought a full band and a guest to finish the festival in style. I also watched some Danish bands/rapper/singer songwriter - Tina Dickow, L.O.C, Veto. I also saw Chemical Brothers, Neil Young, a bit of Slayer and Judas Priest among others. The surprise band of the festival for me was definitely a British band by the name of Enter Shikari. They mixed some punk rock/screamo with sampled dance music. The music was amazing and the stage show was pretty insane. I ve never seen a drummer leave the drums so many times to go to the front of the stage to show off his dance moves. It was quite amazing and I would definitely see them again.

Overall the weekend was quite exhausting and extremely dirty. There was trash everywhere after the first couple days of camping. There were many port-o-potties but that really didnt matter because people pissed everywhere imaginable. This was not reserved for men...I saw my fair share of females squatting it out. It was hilarious and disgusting at the same time. By midweek the whole place smelled of baked urine and beer. Speaking of beer, according to the roskildefestival website over 1,000,000 liters of Tuborg was sold. This is between 33cl cans and .5l cups so to put that into perspective around 505,050 six packs of beer. So considering roughly 90,000 people were there (23000 volunteers, 67,000 people who paid for tickets) that would mean that every single person drank a bit over 5 six packs throughout the week. Its more likely though that many people actually didnt drink and the amount consumed was 2-10 times more for those who did. Basically people would get drunk and pass out, wake up and drink more. I heard a guy talking to his buddy about the thursday night and didnt realize that it was saturday and that he had missed all the music on friday. Basically for most it was a week of drinking with some music mixed in. For me it was quite opposite. I drank one night...mainly I was too tired after walking and standing on my feet all day. By 1 or 2 in the morning after the last bands had played I was ready for bed.

All in all it was a pretty great festival and I would do it again....perhaps next year if there is a good lineup.

Roskilde: The Warm Up

My first Roskilde Festival experience is about to commence. If you consider the packing portion then it has already begun. My bags are packed and in an hour I catch the train for a week of music and mayhem. Even though I have known this was coming for quite sometime, I havent really readied myself properly. My mental state has been questionable and I have often thought of backing out of the whole thing. I m working the festival campground J so it puts a different dynamic on the experience compared to if I was simply going for the classic sex, drugs and rock and roll. I generally dont like backing out on commitments so I decided to stick it out. I m glad for that too because I m getting excited to see the massive fields of crazy people from all over the world united together for the glory that is Roskilde Festival. Since I am working the festival I have free entry to the show and special perks like a restricted camping area and access to special employee sections. It somewhat separates me from the common concert goer, but puts me with people who are in the same situation as I. This way I dont have to deal with the few douchebags that you will find in every crowd. Anyways all that aside....Radiohead will be my number 1 must see. Jay Z is number 2 however I will only be able to catch a short portion of his set because I will have to work. Some of the others include a danish band called Veto, who I saw open for Smashing Pumpkins. The Streets are also a must see for me....the first time I heard them I hated them but time has been kind and now I find them quite good. Definitely a change of pace from some of the other music I listen to. I m sure I will also hang with g-mang and see some metal bands along with the Scottish band Mogwai who I have seen once before at the WOW Hall in Eugene.

Well I m ready for the music....so until next time...

Return to Glory

So the second of 2 days in Stockholm was a bit better. The problems that I experienced on day 1 did not repeat. It was still a long day of training and meetings. Nothing made me happier then when the clock hit 5pm and I was released from the grips of the IBM machine. I pack my stuff up and headed straight for a changing room. I shed my corporate attire for my everyday uniform of shorts a T and my ever beloved flip flops. The only thing I was sad to leave was the gorgeous receptionist who I had a couple of friendly conversations with. Besides eating an ever so delicious chicken teriyaki sub from subway, she was definitely the highlight. After leaving the office I hoofed it to the train, trained it to the plane and got the hell out of dodge. Stockholm is a great city but Copenhagen is still where I like to lay my head. I get a huge grin on my face every time I leave and come back. Theres no better feeling than living in the happiest country in the world.

As for today, I went into work for a few hours in the morning and now I m ready to kick it with g-mang and relax for a week of music at the Roskilde Festival.

Exhausted in Stockholm

Day one of two in Sweden. Woke up at 440 so I could catch a 7am flight. Got into Stockholm around 830. I took a train into the city center and checked into my hotel. I made it to IBM around 10 and waited around for a bit until I finally met one of the girls I was training. Once that happened it pretty much turned into a huge disaster. I couldnt get anything to work and access to certain programs was suddenly denied. It was pretty much a huge headache. It really made the second half of the day seem very quick and condensed. I finally got out of there around 6. It was pretty much the longest day I have worked since pulling a triple shift at dixon. Tomorrow isnt going to be nearly as long but its going to be just as difficult. I have to try and explain the hardest processes well enough so that when I leave in the afternoon they have an ideal of what they are doing. Pretty much 2 days of training isnt nearly enough. I have been doing my job for 6 months and still learn new things....so trying to speed train people really isnt possible. The worst part about it all is that I will have to be in the office the rest of this week for at least a few hours so I can have conference calls with my trainees. Ugh. I m wishing I had more time to go around the city. Stockholm is a really nice city especially because there is nice weather. I think I will have to take a trip over here again with a friend.

The Stockholm Syndrome

Well its been set. I am off to Stockholm tomorrow to help train a couple of people. Its amazing how much money that is being wasted on my 1 night 2 day stay. I get to stay at the Radisson right in the middle of the city....cost 250usd per night. I m sure it will be lavish and ridiculous compared to the hostel I stayed in last time I was there. I have also been granted an expense account which is pretty cool. The huge downfall is leaving at 7.20am tomorrow morning. That means that I have to be there at least an hour before. That means I m up probably around 5 at the latest to make sure I can catch the right bus train etc to make it to the airport. Many would say...big deal....but considering I havent been getting up until around 10 pretty much for the last month its definitely going to be a challenge. I will then be required to work all day long. Ugh...no nap...then I ll have to schmooze with some of the other employees/trainers. I mean its going to be fun but I know that when the evening comes my ass we be dragging and my eyes will be falling out of my head. The dollar is still rather strong in Sweden though so maybe I ll be able to do a bit of shopping......mostly though, I m praying for a subway so I can get a sweet onion chicken teryaki sub...mmmmmm. Denmark doesnt have subway.

Paris

So a few weeks ago I had the great privilege to go to Paris with my basketball team and the rest of CBS Sport. In total we were about 60 people or so. The main reason was for a huge sports tournament including many other universities around Europe. The tourney was held at HEC Mercuriales which is the top ranked business school in Europe. The school is actually about 40 mins outside of Paris in the small town of Jouy en Josas. Its situated in the hills of France and is pretty much like something you would see in a movie.

I took a flight on Sunday the 18th of May with one of my teammates Jonas. We arrived in Paris around noon. Once we got our luggage we ate some lunch and caught the train towards Jouy en Josas. The directions we had were a bit unclear and the estimated time of 45 minutes was way off. We ended up having to switch trains a few times and because of all the delays we didnt get to our stop until around 330 in the afternoon. By the time we arrived at the campus we were dead tired. This is probably because of the mountain we had to walk up dragging our luggage. After finally finding the building where we were suppose to check in we located the rest of our team and were ready to get our rooms. We had to share a room so Jonas and I paired up. Our accommodation consisted of a 1 bed dorm room with a sink, shared shower and bathrooms across the hall. Besides the one bed they put an army cot in order to make the room usable for two. The army cot itself however looked like it was used during WWII. It was old and green....despite this I had many good nights of sleep. But lets be honest it was probably because I didnt sleep one sober night on it.

Our team drew the toughest side of the bracket which consisted of 3 other teams. These teams placed 1,2,3 the previous year. We played our first game against the Germans on Monday the 19th. We started off great converting on many shots but the frustration of how absolutely shitty the refs were really took us out of the game mentally. To further our frustration, right before halftime there was a clock malfunction which allowed the Germans to convert on a 3 point half court shot that should have never counted. Although we still held a slight advantage we had already mentally take ourselves out of the game. The second half was much worse than the first as the Germans opened up a double digit lead. The worse part of the game was when I hurt myself intercepting an outlet pass which prevented and easy layup. I went up to grab the ball with one hand but my momentum and the force of the ball propelled me too far back so my feet were not underneath me when I went to land. So in the air I twisted to my left side and put my arm out to brace my fall. I ended up jamming my wrist but played on. After the game my wrist swelled substantially and then turned purple. My cure for this was the dynamic duo of American pain killers and French beer.

The next day was a day off which was nice because it gave my wrist a chance to rest. The color and swelling remained but on Wednesday when it came time for our double header I was ready to go despite the obvious injury. After the two games I went to the nurse to have it checked out. She merely wrapped it with a bandage and told me to come back later to see the doctor. Well the French being French....the doctor never showed. I figured I might as well suck it up for the rest of the week and then get it checked out if it still bothered me when I went back to Denmark. The rest of the week was pretty much nothing but partying. We watched some of the other teams play in various sports and made a trip into Paris one of the days. All in all it was loads of fun and I cant wait until next year to do it all over again.

The Aftermath

So after an exhausting but extremely fun week I returned home to normal life again. That meant catching up on work and ultimately realizing that my wrist needed to be checked out. Eventually I convinced myself to make an doctors appointment which went something like this.

Visit to my personal doctor. Verdict - not broken - fracture not suspected
Referred to the hospital for xrays

Visit to hospital for xrays. Verdict - xrays came back negative. No break but fracture still possible
Referred to the emergency room to speak with a hand surgeon

Visit to the Emergency room. Verdict - possibility of a fracture even though not shown on xrays
Treatment - big frump cast to the elbow for 2 weeks. (I took it off after 5 days)

Visit to the Hospital after 2 weeks for more xrays. Verdict no fracture. Case closed

Next day.

I receive a phone call from the hospital. They say that the rechecked my xrays and believe there may be a fracture.

Visit to the hospital.....again. Talk to my 3rd hand surgeon. He says there is a fracture in my wrist. Looks at the 2 sets of xrays and say....."Wow...how did they miss that?".....my reaction is....you have got to be fucking kidding me.

Needless to say I am now in a cast for the next 6-8 weeks. The icing on the cake was when the doctor left me with the nurse and said "have a nice summer" Seriously! My reaction. Fuck YOU!

I pretty much hate every single minute of the days this cast is on. I have to bag my arm when I shower, refrain from doing any activity that is going to get my arm wet or sweaty (i.e. swimming, running, sweating...etc) I cant wait to go back to the US so I can get this thing off and have the proper treatment from skilled doctors back home.

Work - 6 months of IBM

So I have been working at IBM since January of this year. I wasnt too sure how I would like it when the job was first explained to me, but at the time I was in desperate need of a job and the paycheck that comes along with it. Over the last 6 months I have really started to enjoy my job even though it can be tedious at times. In the last 6 weeks or so my work load has increased substantially. I along with my other American colleague Jenni have been put in charge of the subcontractors in the Nordic countries. These consist of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. We mainly work with other managers in these countries to make sure when a new subcontractor is hired they are given the correct resources in order to perform their job. The amount of responsibilities have begun to pile and at times I feel quite overwhelmed. The job that Jenni and I do at time requires more time than each of us has to give. Trying to balance work and school has sometimes been a challenge. Some good news came a couple weeks ago in form of an email. It turns out that we will be trying to ship our responsibilities to India. This is a blessing and a curse. It will be nice to rid ourselves of the tasks we have been doing however coordinating the training session has been utterly disorganized at times. This is in part due to complications with the lack of knowledge of the subject in regards to the people coordinating the training sessions and organizing a face to face training session with our Indian colleagues. Finally a 2 week training session has been put together in Sweden. I will be headed to Stockholm, as of now, Tuesday to help assist with the training as I have more specific knowledge and 6 months of experience working with the different processes. I am excited to go because it shows that my manager has complete faith in me and because of the great learning experience. I m just not looking forward to the coordination and excess of email that I will be dealing with over the next days, weeks, months.

School - A year reflected

Well school is out and summer has been in full swing for the last few weeks. I made it through my first year of graduate school. The first year has been filled with a mixture of highs and lows.

The first semester went fairly well and started off with meeting many new people from all over. I got involved with some group work with a few friends and wrote a marketing that was epic to say the least. It was a great experience writing with others on such a detailed document (50 pages). I will say it was by far the longest project I have ever had to write and was basically a warm up to my eventual 80 page master thesis. Other than that it was great getting to know many people and building new friendships through various social activities. The semester ended and grade wise turned out fairly well for me as I scored above average on most of my exams.

This last semester has been a bit disappointing considering the expectations that I had after the first semester. The classes that I was enrolled in had an interesting subject but due to poor teaching they lacked all around and I often found myself very unmotivated in every way. I would say that because of this my grades fell slightly compared to the first semester. The grading in Denmark is extremely subjective compared to what I have experienced throughout my entire schooling career. Compared to the multiple choice format that most of my undergrad consisted of, the Danish system of 1 final exam for your grade is pretty crappy. It is my belief that the Danish system tests not your knowledge of a subject, rather the speed in which you can recall the knowledge. I found this to especially be true for the 2 oral exams that I had. The type of questions they ask you are sometimes difficult to understand right away or often require some sort of deeper thinking. However since these exams have such limited time, if you do not fire answers out quickly then the censor and examiner do not think you know what you are talking about. They then precede to ask you extremely easy questions and do not really challenge you. This results in a low grade.

The second semester also brought much frustration in form of a 60 page business project. I worked with the same group from the first semester however due to difference of opinions the group felt much tension. I felt that I spent more energy at times trying to keep the group from fighting or biting my tongue than actually focusing on the task of writing a great project. The longer the project went on the worse is got and by the last week it was practically pure torture for everyone. The end result had very brief flashes of greatness but overall was a flaming piece of shit that our adviser and censor described as "unrealistic" and "in need of a reality check". Needless to say my frustration peaked shortly after my grade was given. I could easily pass blame but really at this point there is no point. I know that working with others cant always be sunshine and rainbows and I just need to move on from this. There is no point in ruining friendships over a project and in the future I will just choose to do more on my own or find a different group.

I guess the importance is passing. As I have always believed that although grades are important in certain aspects, they are not everything. Common sense and life experiences are just as if not more important. Often it seems those who bury themselves in books get top grades but miss out on the rest of life. As I do not think I have ever been in danger of not passing a class and that I have gained knowledge and learned some things throughout the years, I will continue with this belief and personal philosophy. So its safe to say I have not wasted my time or money.

I am looking towards the fall which I think will be much more exciting. I will be taking classes of my choosing which will consist of 3 classes surrounding business sustainability and 1 class that deals with how consumers remember advertising. It is more of a psychology business class. It instantly caught my interest as I wish I would have minored in psych during my undergraduate studies. Anyways the year is over and all I can do is move on and try to better myself and continue to improve and create study habits that will allow me to succeed next year.