Parents weekend was last weekend, and to show my parents a good time, I took them to the symphony. Trinity students get into the symphony for free, so I frequently go, but LUCKILY Beethoven's Fifth was being played and I knew my parents would enjoy that. So we went down to the Majestic Theatre (which is amazing inside) and all three of us absolutely loved it. The symphony was great as usual, and the best part was, we all got in for minimal cost!

Then, last night, my mom and I went to the "Lord of the Dance" (also at the Majestic). It is similar to Riverdance except Lord of the Dance has an actual storyline. Not just different dancing scenes. Okay, so back to the performance, one word: amazing. The Irish music, dance, folklore, etc were all perfectly balanced and infused with one another. The performance was so good that I went and bought the CD on iTunes. Do it, you'll love it. :)

Okay, so, here's the deal. Trinity gives out lottery numbers to people and that is the order you sign up for rooms. I was the last pick. Okay, fine there was one more person after me. BUT, luckily, my suitemate had number 16...!!! So I lucked out! :)

Anyway, I wanted to live in Prassel because of the nice rooms, the parking garage, etc etc, but it was a bit too far away from campus. So we decided to live in Thomas. As our number was called, we went up there hoping to get Thomas 8th Floor (the top floor). As it turned out, there were two suites open, a regular one, and then one with a triple room. Well, I didn't want a triple because I only wanted two people in the room. BUT, they offered us the room but only allow two people to live in it! So guess what?! Yea, you guessed it, that's my room. Myself and my roommate will live in a triple room next year, we have a LOT of space, three desks, and our private balcony. It is room Thomas 866. It's the one given on the Trinity website as an example of a Thomas triple room.

So yea, I'm excited, and cannot wait to move in! :) :)

But it was really fun, somewhat relaxing, and filled with flying.

My friend Javi from Ecuador (we'll be roommates next year) came in town to Scottsdale, AZ and we hung out, saw local sites, etc... and we went flying, a lot. I put close to 11 hours on the airplane over the break. We flew to Taylor, AZ to get fuel, Flagstaff, and around the Arizona North. While in Flagstaff, we went to the Grand Canyon and saw that. It was a lot of fun. I'll leave the details out simply because there were so many things! But it was all fun. And I hope everyone else had a great, relaxing or exciting Spring Break.

In the meantime, school is back in session, everything is back to normal; and my first final is in only five weeks! Gotta get studying!

Okay, so talk about busy... wow, I have never been so busy in my life! The weird thing, though, is that I enjoy it! I spent about nine hours yesterday/last night/this morning in Murchison study lounge studying for my Modern Europe Midterm. It was actually fun, i enjoyed it.. :) The midterm was two parts, on Tuesday, we had a geography test (part i) and it encompassed the maps of europe, asia, and africa from the French Revolution (mid-1800s) to present. It was intense. And today we had the historical part of the mid term. I enjoyed taking the test because I felt my studying had paid off.. :) But we will see when I get my grades back next week or so.

In my Philosophy class, we had our midterm last week, which I did fairly well on. Philosophy is one of those courses that one might not want to take, but trust me, it is REALLY interesting and intriguing. The critical thinking can be carried over to other subjects as well. Luckily, my Discrete Structures class studies logic, so I knew all about logic and Modus Tollens, etc before I relearned them in Philosophy. Amazing how subjects seem to overlap...

Tony Blair is coming to speak tonight, and yes, I am attending and I will post about that tomorrow or so.

This weekend though is Trinity 360. The program for admitted students who have committed or still aren't sure about Trinity. My friend Libby and her family are coming in town, so I get to play tour-guide for the weekend. Libby has been here before, but her family has not. So i'll be sure to give them the grand tour on saturday... Should I take them to see the awesome dorms in Prassel? Or the Chapel? Or Northrup...? hmm, how about all of them! Too many places to choose from, so I guess they will see them all. :]

I'll update on Tony Blair later, until then, see ya!

Mark

So on Monday, I scheduled a meeting with the physical plant to inspect a spot in my room (where the top of the window meets the ceiling) because it had some very minor mold in it. It turned out that they just needed to recalk the spot and that would do the job. Anyway, in the process, Mr. EJ Johnson (right) and Mr. Yevgeniy Stepanenko took the liberty to repaint a wall and my air conditioner... both of which I am very thankful for. The wall looks brand new and so does the air conditioner.

As they were painting the wall, we had some fun talking about other dorms etc, so I thank The Paint Shop and Mr. Johnson and Stepanenko for spending a portion of my morning with me! It was very enjoyable, thanks guys!

So yea, the physical plant rocks, too... :)

Here's a picture for y'all... (click on it to see it bigger!!!)

So, this semester is awesome. Mainly because I love my classes, and my professors. I am still undecided for my major, either Computer Science or Urban Studies. I know they sound like two completely different academia, but apparently, the CS and US departments work together and have some sort of summer program or internship. I'll find more information on that later!

Anyway, my classes are: Discrete Structures (CS), Principles of Algorithm Design (CS), Writing Workshop, Modern European History, and Philosophy.

Yea, those are some fairly diverse classes, but I love them all. My Modern Europe class will probably be the most demanding because of the memorization of the history of Europe from 1800-present, BUT, the Computer Science classes are going to be WAY hard. Additionally, Philosophy is challenging in of itself because it teaches you to think different than you normally would. Lastly, writing workshop will be fun because I enjoy writing. So that is good!

The weather here is so nice, I like it at least... it is overcast and cold and kind of rainy. But come on! It's winter! It's supposed to be like that! Honestly, it is so much easier to sit down in the library with some java and read a book in this weather. My IQ will definitely increase if the weather stays like this! ha

Golf season has more or less began. I have practiced a little, but am feeling under the weather (a lot of us are... :{ ) So as soon as I start to feel better, I'll be out at the golf course!

One last thing before I go... I am rejoining the Civil Air Patrol here in San Antonio. Now that I have my pilot's license, I think more opportunities will be available while enrolled in CAP. That will be fun. I'm still awaiting a call back from them to see where I am to go, and all that good jazz. So when I find out, I'll post it!

That's all for now! brb.. ha

Oh my... well first off, happy holidays to everyone! Break is almost over, I have one more week until I fly back to San Antonio... I have mixed feelings about going back: I want to get the semester started, and I want to enjoy spending time with my friends, but by the same token, Arizona is amazing and I want to continue to be with my family. Nevertheless, Sunday is fast approaching!

Now, what have I been up to over the break? Well, I have been studying. Studying, and more studying. Oh yea, and waking up really early (like before sunrise... while I'm on break. Yea, weird, I know). But for whattt...!??! Ha.. for my private pilot's license of course! My dad is a pilot and he and my flight instructor (a family friend of ours) own a plane. So I train on that, and have been since I was probably 10 years old. But I finally decided that I would spend the break to finally obtain my license. The first thing I had to accomplish was to complete ground school (all knowledge pertaining to flight, navigation, flying, airplanes, ratings, regulations, maps, etc, etc...) So that took me about two weeks, I read a few study guides (like those AP Barron's books, but for the PPL test) and I also watched a DVD ground school course. Finally, it was time to take the test. On the 2nd of January, at 7:00AM at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, I took the Knowledge/Written test for the Private Pilot's License. So the next step was to continue my training and solo. On the 5th of January, I soloed the aircraft and I made three nice soft landings. For most student pilots, their aircraft is considered standard, the one I train in, a R182, is classified as High Performance (over 200 HP) and Complex (retractable landing gear). So when I was calling the Ground Controller for clearance, the controller somewhat sarcastically told me 'good luck'... but I showed them.. hehe

In any event, I flew today, did 18 landings, and if weather permits, I will fly again tomorrow. Strange, Arizona usually warrants 330 days of good flying weather a year, and when it counts the most, it rains.... =( Oh well. Hopefully, later this week, I will go on my checkride with an FAA Examiner and pass the Practical and Oral tests (the checkride).

Here's a picture from the cockpit in-flight enjoy! (Click on it to make it larger, come on, you know you want to!!!)

I'll post back soon!!!

PS. I passed the written test, in case you were wondering. :D

So I have been lucky... I had one Micro Econ final last week, two projects for my Urban Studies classes, and a regular test tomorrow for American Politics. Not too bad for first semester finals! But no, that's not the good news. Nor is the fact that I will be home for break in two days... not at all.

The good news is: *drum roll* one of my best friends just got accepted to Trinity! That makes five students from my high school to have enrolled here at Trinity in the past four years. But why? My sister is a senior here at Trinity, but that did not influence my decision to come here. No, I came because of the small town atmosphere, big city accessibility, small classes, liberal arts education, and many other aspects. (Including the dorms, yes, they are really nice!) Libby also enjoyed her visit to Trinity and cherished similar requirements for a university.

I'm rather excited, it'll be fun! I'll take a picture of the Cactus Shadows HS gang here at Trinity when I go home... I can't wait!!! :D

Simple! When I was in second grade, my best friend at the time, Paul, had a little brother named Mark. For some reason Mark, with binky in hand, called me Bob. So the name just stuck.

Feel free to call me Mark though... ha

The first post is so difficult to word correctly. It is rather easy to simply write, hey all! What's up! But on the contrary, if I were to start off with a long verbose introduction that somewhat dodged the intended message all together, well then that's not good either. So I'll just stick to the norm...

My name is Mark (but some here at Trinity call me Bob), I was born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale is known for its golf and sunny skies... therefore I consider myself a golfer and a pilot. I started golfing when I was three years old and -- believe it or not -- began flying when I was hardly seven years old. I remember I would bring along two or three pillows so I could see over the dash. It was fun! In addition to golfing and flying, I enjoyed the normal stuff: spending time with a few friends, going to the movies, and In-N-Out Burger (yes, it finally made its way out of Cali and into Arizona, yay!).

At Trinity, I am studying in the fields of Urban Studies and Computer Science. I am only a First Year so I do not have to officially declare a major and minor. But if I were to right now, I would major in Urban Studies and minor in Computer Science. I am currently a member of Trinity's Entrepreneurship seminar, the first of its kind. Succinctly, sixteen students including myself assimilate into four groups of four people. Then, each group is given $1,000 a year for four years to conceptualize, design, create, and pitch a product. The most important aspect of the seminar is to assist in developing the creativity in all of us. Thus far, the class is intriguing and very fun. The seminar was one of the reasons, amongst others, why I chose Trinity.

So that's me... I don't want to post too much now, because there are more to come!! :D Oh yea, as a side note.. if anyone has any questions, comments, anything, whatever it is, really, anything, any comments, then please let me know! It'll make this whole thing more fun, right?!? :)

PS. I forgot to mention that I love to travel and my friends say I am a bit sarcastic. I don't know what they're talking about... ;)