Hello, Trojan Times Reader

Q: What do gangsters love best about PowerPoint presentations? A: The bullets.

I don’t know if you read the Trojan Times. I skim through the occasional issue. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with The Trojan Times. Mostly hate. Of the three or four articles that I have submitted (including a small advert for our lol cards), only one was ever published. The others received no explanation; they simply didn’t make it into the paper. So, let’s just say my readership is glancing at best.

Last week’s paper was no different than the rest. Nestled amongst such gems as “Twenty best excuses for calling in sick” (which was taken from the internet and includes my personal favorites of I eloped, My monkey died, and I had to ship my grandmother’s bones to Indie (note: she passed away 20 years ago)) are the occasional article that catches my attention. I would to say that it’s the biting social commentary or a poignant real-life story, but it usually isn’t. In this issue, it was the word “blog”.

The article was titled “Blogging gains popularity at Dakota State”, and it was decently short, so I scanned it. By “scanned” I mean, I read the author, Matt Paulson, and then I looked at the end of the article. It was there that I saw a link to Matt’s personal site, MattPaulson.com, and I said (probably outloud), “Some people are shameless.” Then I scanned backward and came upon a surprise. I saw “www.milesrausch.com/” in the second column. Then a previous conversation came back to me where Matt said, “I mentioned your blog in an article. You don’t mind, do you?” I forgave him.

So, to that one reader that followed that link, I salute you and welcome you. I normally post more often than I have this week, but I’ve been busy, and I will thank you very much for not making a big deal of it.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras. Oh, it was also my birthday. The day went well. I got some nice presents and quite a few phone calls.

Presents (from):

• The Fantastic Art of Beksinski (me)
• The (British) Office Collection DVD (Holli)
• The (British) Office David Brent “Shoot.” Poster (Holli)
• Chicken Alfredo (Holli)
• Clipboard (me)
• Visor (me)
• Script for The Actor’s Nightmare (Susan Conover)

Phone calls (from):

• Mom
• Tony
• Bryce
• Molly (who I mistook for Erin and then Britt)
• Grandma and Grandpa
• Dad
• (Cousin) Brenna, Katie, and Greg

Then my phone died.

There was also, that day, our first rehearsal for The Actor’s Nightmare. It went well. I’m a little worried about my part. When we first read it, I felt I had most of the inflections down. But that was only the first read through! I think that I’m going to try a lot of different approaches to some lines and then see what works best instead of just going with my first interpretation. But, I like the piece, and I look forward to further rehearsals. I play George Spelvin and Holli plays Meg, the stage manager.

Wednesday began Lent. I decided for lent that I would give up swearing and attend all of my classes. And this Lent is sure to kick Ash. First off, I was worried. I hadn’t ever called David and told him church times or offered to go with him. I thought of it twice that morning, but seeing as my phone was dead, I couldn’t call him. I didn’t remember again until I was sitting in church. I was in a slight panic until communion when, walking back to my pew, I spied David. Almost as a reflex, he showed me peace, and I pointed at him. All was good.

After church, Holli and I ate in the TC for my one meal. Then she had rehearsal for the other play “Who Am I This Time?” (what a busy girl!) and I went back to my apartment to do homework before bowling. Holli got done, we did homework, then we swung by and picked up David for bowling. It was decided that Cherry Lanes isn’t a very good place. They also changed their policy for Wednesday Night Bowling. It’s $6.00 in and then $.25 for each game. Apparently it’s normally $2.40 a game, but as such, we played two games, and left $.20 ripped off. Holli had to do the turkey walk once, and I almost got three strikes in the final frame of our last game. I broke the “No Swearing” rule a couple times at bowling.

Thursday was a crazy hectic day. Tuesday-Thursday is always busy for me, and I get only a couple minutes for lunch (or I have to take it in class). John Webster asked me to talk to my TAPpin’ class as a substitute teacher sort of thing. I had done this last week Thursday as well, but this time I didn’t know what I was going to say until 20 minutes before class when he called me at home. I normally like a little more time than that, but I made it work. The class went well.

The other hectic thing was regarding my WAPII class. I had an assignment due, which I had gotten done already, but I figured I could print it in the 10 minutes I had before class started (which is right after Choir gets over). I was wrong. I didn’t get done printing (because my tablet is a stupid machine) until 20 minutes into class. As I was walking over, I realized that we had a test today, and that I was 20 minutes late for it. As such, I got the assignment handed in, the test taken, and the programming part of the test all complete and (mostly) correct. I think the professor was impressed that I managed to get it all done, but I haven’t really found this stuff challenging yet.

Holli had to work, so we didn’t really hang out much. I spent that time getting really indepth into my Advanced Discrete midterm. Most of the midterm was actually fairly easy. Practical problems in math always are. It’s the proofs that cause troubles. I was very pleased with the answers I came up with for those. They made sense, seemed to answer the question, and I hope they’re right. Proof math is by far my weakest point, and I usually need a lot of help getting one figured out, either by internet or group work. So, we’ll see.

This weekend Holli and I are Huffing it to Hawarden, IA. It should be fun. I’m still nervous with her family, but if all goes well, her family will like me, her sister won’t think I’m a loser (that’s all you can hope from teenagers), no one will get hurt, and then on Sunday on our way back, we’re going to have supper with my grandparents and Aunt Karin and Erin. It should be nice. Then it’s Spring Break! Time to stock up the keggers and make alcohol bongs!