Fun day with AAA

This semester is really light so I had today pretty much compeletely off from school. I went to Tyler today to see what it was going to take to go to UT@Tyler to do some of the killer engineering courses like Statics, Dynamis, and possibly Thermodynamis. Fun Stuff. Well, my trip there was non helpful because the person that I needed to talk to was out for the day. Rats, oh well. So I went down the road to my church and chatted with our asistant pastor. We talked for a long time. Then I went to Red Springs and visited my friend http://joeyseverydaylife.blogspot.com/ We chatted for an hour or so, then I went home and ate lunch around 1:30 or so. I chatted with mom for a bit, then went to Lindale. I chatted with many old friends in Lindale, ate dinner and left Lindale around 6pm.

Now for the whole reason I decided to post

On the way home, about 6:45 I stopped to help a poor guy with Canada plates on his mini van. He had been there for about 40 min or so trying to flag someone down. No problem, I let him use my cell phone and he called AAA. Huge mistake. Don't ever, ever, ever call AAA if you want help within less than 3 hours. Okay, I exaggerated , it was only 2 hours. He called AAA and when they asked for directions to give to a tow truck driver, I told them the mile marker that I was at (which was not 40 feet from where we were), the closest exit (Barber Road), and that we were on the east bound side of I20. Simple enough no? I decided to stick around because I had a gut feeling that not all was dandy. After an hour, I got him to call back. They could not find where we were. I was then given the phone again, and she told me the directions. She said that we had said that we were 10 miles from Winona. So, I repeated the directions to here again. She repeated them to me. 10 min later I get a phone call from the wrecker service asking for directions. I repeated the directions again to him and he wanted to know why I did not tell AAA those directions to begin with. Apparentally, AAA ignored my directions and gave them the stupid ones that had them looking on the Tyler side of Winona instead of the Longview side of Winona. Grr.

So here is the correct way to get road side assistance. (outside of East Texas)
1. Call up someone that you know has internet access.
2. Google roadside assitance for the closest town pased
3. Call first tow truck or assistance provider to see what your options are

It is that simple, or if you are in close to LETU or Tyler call my cell phone number. I leave it on my away messssage enough that you can write it down for future refrence. BUT, NEVER EVER call AAAA unless you are despirate, but 911 would probably be quicker and safer. (In the Texas driver's handbook thing that you are suposed to read, it actually says to call 911 in its newest edition.)

Anyway, in all it was a fun day that I was able to get 2 job leads that might be of some use if I turn in applications. Anyway, calc, circuits, and physics need to be done. Later

Snow

The picture that my Uncle took was the last time it snowed and really stuck to the ground. The pines in the picture were ruined. Most of them were missing their tops and the ones that were not, ended up crooked. My grandfather went out there asap and straighted up most of the trees on the 98 acere tree farm. It would not have been so bad had we of had a wetter spring and summer so that the trees could have been a bit stronger, but hey, due to my grandfather's unwillingness to give up hope for them, they will be ready for harvest in about 8 to 10 years depending on what they look like. IM me if you are really board and want to know what I know about tree farming, which I will warn is very little.

Taken by Tommy Martin. See, it does snow every once in a while in Texas. I want to say this happened in Winter of 2000 or 2001. This picture can not be COPIED or REPUBLISHED WITHOUT my uncle's permission. 

Lumber

The picture below has a little story behind it. Luckly I was not fined for it, yet. As you can tell, we were cutting up logs for lumber and there had been a recent logging in the bottom where we were cutting up the loggs. Well the loggers had let several of the marked trees get damaged by unmarked trees resulting in the loss of the tops of several marked trees. So, I noticed that there were several of these and proceeded to cut them down. I was having chain saw problems and the wind went the wrong direction at the wrong moment, and the what was left of one of the tops just touched the power lines. The lines touched each other causing 2 fuses to blow. That is why you see the power company truck in the back ground. Fun stuff. The tractor is dad's new toy. That is what he got for Christmas, santa was nice this year. Even gave dad the payment book to go with it. I was hooking up the trailer to the tractor because the trailer was just about full and we were ready to call it a day on the cutting so that I could take the lumber home and stack it.

Picture that my Grandmother took.

This is a picture of the saw mill, a few logs, the trailer, and myself on the tractor 

Another Test

So I did not go to sleep and I have yet to study, but here is something that I did. I am not sure if it is good or bad, but here we go:

Congratulations, Daniel!
Your IQ score is 126

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Facts Curator. This means you are highly intelligent and have picked up an impressive and unique collection of facts and figures over the years. You've got a remarkable vocabulary and exceptional math skills — which puts you in the same class as brainiacs like Bill Gates. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.

This is a little test that I took. I did everything in my head. I could have done better if I had used a piece of scratch papaer. Later

People and my reactions to them

I know that most of you will not care about this, but this is why at times I may seem a little distant.

I have come to the conclusion that the people are hard to understand, and talking to them over instant messanger makes it even more interesting. See, I bring many, many assumtions and understandings to my conversations. I have learned of how much I have come to rely on facial expressions to try to understand what people are thinking or what I think that they are thinking. The fun thing is when the "girl" or "female" factor. You see, it is hard to comprehend their reaction to what you are going to say when talking person to person, and even harder when talking over an instant message or letter. That is why I don't ever send letters. I hate them. I don't like them becasue anything can be written inbetween the lines, even if you did not mean it that way. That is also another reason that I do not like to talk on the phone for extended periods of time. I can try to picture what they are thinking, but there are no guarantees. Most people don't know exactly what I am thinking at any given moment because ..... I really don't know. I guess it is because I am afraid that I will offend them. On some subjects I am willing to make myself the fool just to make sure that someone halfway understands my point a view, but for the most part, I try to keep my mouth shut because I know that I am not very good at phrasing things and that I will make a fool of myself or that I will offend someone.

Well, I have classes tomorrow (in a few hours) and a "wonderful" circuits test. I hope that I did not "complain" too much. Anyway, later.

Tests

Well, my roommate found this and I took it and figuired that I would share.

You Have A Type B+ Personality

B+ You're a pro at going with the flow You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done You're passionate - just selective about your passions

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

I semi sorta agree with everything stated, but the polititions stuff has to go. Being lumped into the politian group is pretty much an insult. More later, I have an abstract that I have not really started so I have to run.

Happenings and anime

Well, this weekend is Heratiage weekend and there are all sorts of parents and previewers here. The wierd, but good non the less, thing that they did last night was to have steak at SAGA. Now don't get me wrong, it was goos stuff by SAGA standards, but the previewers and most of the parents ate at a diffrent loaction. All the same, I have been doping okay. I am loking at my hw stack and not looking foward to completing it. I have been watching anime a bit this semseter. I found a series called "The Scrapped Princess." So far it is a pretty good series. It is one a the few series that I would not mind showing to my parents. The problem with most anime is that the Japanese culture is alot diffrent than Americans, and especially those of the Bible Belt. Japanese tend to include many things about sex and relationships. Most characters do not wear much clothing and somethimes if they wear clothing it is not for long. I try to stay away from the types of anime that I just described. There are many series of "good" anime that have interesitng plots and interesting meanings. One of my favorite examples that makes anime interging is Evangelion Neon Genises. I will try to describe it with out giving everythig away, but it is a good example. The series has alot of moral debating on the inside about everythig from religion to cloning. There are all sorts of things that can be read in between the lines, but there are all sorts of things that they come out and say. Then there are sereis like Witch Hunter Robin. This series is of course about witches and it is a little along the boarder line on what is being taught. I would not recomend it to someone whom can not discern fact from fiction because they talk alot near the end of the series about the devil and stuff of that sort, but it does teach about treating people equaling, even if you do not understand them. Well, I would like to tell you more about the diffrent series that I have watched, but my hw is calling and I am going home for the weekend. Later.

Desicions

Well, I have till Friday at noon to make a huge set of desicions. I am considering signing up for the RA position on 41 next semester. If I go with this route, I will have to go to LETU next semster (obioviously). My grades here are not as good as they need to be. I am bringing them up, but that is still not good enough because I still have 3 of the hardest classes left to go: Statics, Dynamics, and then Thermodynamics. After those three classes, mechanical engineering classes are suposed to be easier. Any way I look at it, I have 2 years left. I have been considering changing majors, but I would not like doing that due to the pay loss in the real world. That brings up an interesting point though, am I doing this for the money? I don't think I am, but after spending so much money, I might have to find a way to pay it back when I graduate. I know how to live off of no money. I can do work on the side. 80 hour weeks are not foreign to me, I did that working at the grocery store and road service. Ah, those were the days. Wish I could go back to them. Things were alot easier back then. I worked, changed clothes, bought gatorade, went back to work doing all sorts of stuff. When the phone stopped ringing around 4am, go to bed and wake up around 6am and return to the grocery store( of course this was during the summer). On days off, it was not uncommon for me to have several thousand in the bank and atleast 400 in my pocket. Wow, collge and vehicles eat up money. So, back on subject, what should I do? I need to decide. I also consided going to UT Tyler to finish my degree, but the more I look at their stuff, the more that I see that they are not where I need to be. There are many engineering colleges out there, but I like LETU, even if it is harder, requires more, and doesn't have any PCA church (not a requirement, but would be nice to have friends with closer to the same beliefs) attending students to my knowledge. Anyway, it is way later than I intended to stay up, so I must go to sleep. Later.