That, quite obviously, did not happen. Calculus, among my other classes, quickly started kicking my ass and soon it was the choice between blogging and calc homework. Homework won, and rightly so. Now I'm back to school in Fall 07, and I want to give this another shot. I have a new major, philosophy, a new kid on the way, but the same outlook. My ambition is get high grades did not pan out as I slowly lost interest in econ and calc, and my grades suffered. Now I'm in a major I know I love, so my ambition to succeed with high grades has returned, though this time I have the experience to know what that is going to take. Last year I came in with the goal of graduating with honors; unfortunately that is probably not going to happen. So my goal for this year is to get my GPA above 3.0, not stress out to much, and try to have as much fun as possible in my final college year. These are realistic goals.

A woman in her 20s suffered "grave injuries" after jumping off the driving level of the Washington Avenue Bridge into the Mississippi River on Tuesday, said University Police Chief Greg Hestness.

About 3:15 p.m., a boater on the water hoisted the woman into the boat and took her to shore, where emergency personnel got her into an ambulance, Hestness said. Upon entering the ambulance, she was alive but unable to communicate, he said.

In other news, I’m a bit more optimistic about calc today, as we went over stuff I remember fairly well and am sure I can do. Ironically, it’s on a much harder level than line equations, but I can deal.

In philosophy we did small group discussions all hour. I guess that is what the majority of the class time is going to consist of. Today was reading over some history and selections of Socrates, and what it means to live ‘the best life possible.’ More on that later.

I’m going to work some on calc now so I don’t have to worry about it tonight. I’ve got some reading to do for Scientific Thought that should eat some time later.

Speaking of my Stat class, I just got out, and I think Calculus has been confirmed as the boar of this semester. Stat looks like it is going to be fairly easy. The prof said that it was fairly math-lite, and it’s more learning how to use a variety of formula’s, when to use them, and simply plugging numbers in.

I just found out I have quite a break between classes on MWF. My Stat gets out at 10 and my next class, Ancient Philosophy, doesn’t start until 1:25. So I’m going to do a bit more exploring of the East Bank, specifically the Walter Library, rent a locker from Coffman Union so I’m not carrying books I won’t need everyday (i.e. The Basic Works of Aristotle,) and work on the second section of my math homework. I only got one section done last night, and it was discouraging because it was doing simple stuff that I should remember but I’m having a semi-hard time with it. For example, I had problems remembering what the point-slope equation and slope-intercept equation formulas were, or used for. It will come back.

Anyway, I’m going to get over to the library. I need to print some stuff of for my 2 Philosophy classes, then get that math section done.

I had three out of my four classes today. First was History of Ancient Philosophy, where among other things we discussed our favorite flavor of ice cream and the TA attempted to convert all to the philosophy major. Seriously though, we did get the syllabus done and some reading assigned. Also, more interestingly, I have to learn the Greek Alphabet. So I have that to look forward to. More immediately I have to get 4 chapters read in one of the books, Philosophy Before Socrates.

Next was Scientific Thought. This was a very cool intro to a class, as the prof took about a half an hour explaining how he went from hardcore science geek to philosopher, or at the least professor of philosophy. I have to read an essay titled ‘Understanding and Evaluating Theoretical Hypotheses.’ The prof seems like a fun guy, and I think this will be the class I most look forward to.

If Scientific Thought is the most looked forward to class, Calculus will probably be the least (I haven’t yet been to my Statistics class!) I am dreading working my brain back into this mode after having nothing like it all summer. I couldn’t even remember the basic forms of functions when asked (i.e. the linear function is y=mx + b.) However, the work will begin tonight as I have 2 sections to look over and work through.

I now am sitting in Coffman listening to some incredible pianist (at least I think she is good) and will soon get on the bus for the ride home. I hope to get some of the Philosophy read on the way home.

My commute goes something like this: I leave my apartment and hop on HWY 110 in West St. Paul. I take that over to the Fort Snelling 'Park and Ride' for the Light Rail. HWY 110 might turn into HWY 55 somewhere there, but it is pretty much a straight shot. I park and walk to the station. Thanks to my U-Pass I don’t have to purchase a ticket, and I can hop right on, as I did this morning. Right when I walked up to the station the train arrived, which really cut some time off of my commute. Had I missed that one it would have been at least another 10 minutes. The train was fairly full when I got on, as there were no seats available, and continued to fill as we traveled towards downtown Minneapolis. By the time we got to the Metrodome it was quite full. I get off at the Metrodome to catch a bus, and this morning there was a bus waiting for the train. 3 minutes later, and 35 minutes after I left my apartment, I was on the East Bank.

I think my commute this morning was a best case scenario, and I still plan to leave around 7:45 every morning to account for hold-ups. Also, it gives me time to get my stuff together, maybe check e-mail or something, every morning. Right now I’m sitting in Carlson, about 50 feet from my class that begins in 2 hours, with nothing to do. My first class is History of Ancient Philosophy at 11:15. I’ll just start skimming the books.

What is my major, and what classes will I be taking? Well, I am currently after an economics major / philosophy minor and my class schedule looks something like this:

STAT 3011 - Intro Statistical Analysis - 4 CR - MWF 9-10 and Thursday 11-12.
Describing data/relationships. Discrete/continuous random variables. Sampling distributions. Confidence intervals. 1-/2-sample significance tests. Simple linear regression.

PHIL 3601W - Scientific Thought - 4 CR - TTh 12:45-2.
Introduction to philosophical issues concerning the nature of scientific knowledge. Reading of historical and contemporary sources that describe major scientific achievements and controversies.

PHIL 3001W - History of Philosophy: Ancient - 4 CR - MWF 1-2 and Tuesday 11-12.
Major developments in ancient Greek philosophic thought: pre-Socrates, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic thinkers.

MATH 1271 - Calculus I - 4 CR - MTWThF 230-330.
Differential calculus of functions of a single variable. Introduction to integral calculus of a single variable, separable differential equations. Applications: max-min, related rates, area, volume, arc-length.

One thing you may be wondering: if I’m going for Economics, why no econ classes? Good question, and the answer lies within the halls of Calculus I. I can’t take Intermediate-Micro econ withour Calculus, and I cant take any (most) other econ courses without micro/macro. So I’m getting Statistics and Philosophy out of the way. One other thing. I haven’t yet met the language requirement (I’m still 2 semesters short) but I couldn’t get in this semester because everything was full. So that set me back a bit, but I’ll get another Philosophy class in now.

Till Tomarrow.

I haven’t finished the ‘about me’ articles, and I won’t be doing that now. Since I published the second part my life has been crazy. I worked almost right up until moving day(s), which was last Wednesday and Thursday, and have been moving in since. We moved from Brainerd to an apartment is West St Paul.

Moving was nuts. I rented one 12 X 6 U-Haul trailer for the move, and with 5 other vehicles (including the one pulling the trailer) hauling stuff I figured it would be enough. We only had a 2 bedroom apartment, there couldn’t be that much stuff, could there? Well, never underestimate the extent of your wife’s stuff.

So we get our trailer, get back and finish packing up. We pulled out around 1 PM, and arrived at our apartment around 4. We spent the rest of the evening unpacking what we had in our vehicles, while Ethan spent the night with Grandma. However, while we were unpacking, the U-Haul guy called and said that we had the wrong trailer and that it was supposed to go to Missouri the next morning, The lights weren’t working very well on it either, so my dad didn’t want to drive down, unload, then drive back up. So he and my mom unloaded everything at their house, packed what they could in their already packed vehicles, and drove down the next day, Friday. Michelle’s parents drove down Friday as well with the trailer, and we spent almost all Friday unpacking.

My parents spent the night on our hide-a-bed and we went to the state fair on Saturday. They went back home that night, filled up their van with the stuff still in their house, and drove back down yesterday. Now, were almost completely moved in, albeit with stuff lying everywhere.

So I began attending CLC in the spring of 2003. I still wanted to go to the U in the fall, and I was making plans with my should-of-been dorm mate to live off campus. Things were going fine, not really trying to hard in any of my classes, skating by with B’s. You know, taking it easy. Then in March, over spring break, I met a local high school senior named Michelle Kienholz. We hit it off immediately.

Fast forward to 2003, and suddenly there is this girl who I like and get along with very well. What’s a 19-year old guy with almost no previous relationship experience to do? Go too fast. And that is exactly what happened. Soon we were talking of moving in together, the future, how many kids we wanted (!!!) Moving to the cities and the U of M was long forgotten. I paid my friend lip service that, yes, I was still coming down but deep down I knew I wouldn’t. I had a lot of fun that spring and early summer, but by the end of summer I started getting burned out. I tried to change some things, slow down a bit, but by that time it was too late: In August I found out that she was pregnant.

Things fell apart a few times between us that fall, but by the end of fall semester we were still together and mostly acting like nothing was different. I still lived with friends, she still lived with her parents, and we both attended CLC. My grades struggled a bit, as they dropped from A’s and B’s spring semester to B’s and C’s fall semester. At this point I had no long term goals. How could I? My son was due that Spring, and I had no idea what would happen. I planned to go to Saint Cloud State University in the Fall, but I had no idea what my situation with Michelle would be. The U was no longer even on my radar.

That Spring of 2004 everything really fell apart. We broke up, seemingly for good, in January and classes held little interest for me. I coasted along until April, when Ethan Douglas Paulsen was born. After that what little attention I did pay to classes completely evaporated. I finished the semester with 3 D’s and a couple dropped courses. My cumulative GPA was a lowly 2.5.

Things looked up a little after Ethan’s birth. Michelle and I began to make inroads towards each other and by June we probably could be considered ‘dating’ again. One other notable event occurred that Spring: the day before my sons birth I was put on ‘Alert’ status to deploy to Operation Iraqi Freedom. This meant that an upcoming deployment was likely, if not certain.

The summer of 2004 passed fairly easily. Michelle and I talked somewhat about getting married, but had no solid plans. I was fairly certain I was going to get deployed in the Fall, so I had no school plans. Then on July 31 came the official deployment order: I would be deployed on September 10th. At that time I knew I would get married, for better or for worse. I felt obligated to care for her and I felt I could best do that being married. On August 12th, 2004, we were married by a Justice of the Peace. Then on September 10th I deployed to Fort McCoy, WI, and then later in November to Fort Benning, GA, both for training. I came home for Christmas and New Years, but I was called back to Benning early on the 29th of December. On December 31, I landed in Kuwait.

My plan was to attend Minnesota State College – Southeast Technical with a goal of an AAS in Computer Programming – Microcomputer in the fall. That didn’t happen. I returned from Basic a week late and I didn’t want to rush down and try to attend after missing the first week. So I laid around my parent’s house for a few weeks, and then went to work at Crestliner, a boat builder in Little Falls, MN.

When I enlisted into the National Guard, I did so under the ‘split option’ program. Under this program, which is usually used for high school juniors, a recruit attends Basic Training one summer, then the second part, Advanced Individual Training, the next summer. It allows a junior to attend Basic between his/her junior and senior years, but it also can be used if the recruit enlists during his/her senior year and wants to attend college in the fall. This is what I did. With the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn’t do this again. (Not just because it didn't work out, but also when I did go back the next summer I was in a different mindset and slightly out of shape.) The reason I did do it though was because my mom didn’t want me to miss a semester as she wanted me in school right away.

So I was working at Crestliner, and it didn’t appear that I was going to Afghanistan anytime soon (this was the fall of September 2001,) so I started looking at what I was going to do about school. The obvious option was to go down to Red Wing, but my heart was kind of out of that. I started to get this Crazy Idea in my head to attend the University of Minnesota, a small change in ambitions from a tech school. My mom wanted me to apply for the spring semester or attend CLC for a semester, but I resisted. I had been talking to a good friend from high school who was in his senior year and was also planning on attending the U in the fall of 2002. So I continued working through the spring of 2002, both at Crestliner and later at a dairy farm.

I had thought my ship date for AIT (Advanced Individual Training, the second part of Basic) was in the end of May. In April I asked about the exact date to firm things up and was surprised to find out that my ship date was actually June 24. Knowing that my school was about 12 weeks long did not make me feel any better, as this put my completion date around the end of September. I tried to change it, but to no avail. So on June 24, I headed for Fort Lee, VA. Shortly after arriving, my fears were confirmed when I found out my graduation date was going to be October 1. There was a small ray of hope, though. There was a way to go home up to a month early to attend school while still graduating. I began the initial process, but soon I had a dilemma. I was leading my class and was well on my way to graduating at the top, at being the Distinguished Honor Graduate. If I went home early, I would merely just graduate.

I made the choice to stay, and indeed I did graduate as the Distinguished Honor Graduate. Yet once again, and for no particularily good reason, I decided not to start spring semester at the U, but instead I went to CLC for the spring semester to take some generals. And that is when I met Michelle…