Promises I Can't Keep

Today I rolled my BDU sleeves up today. Simple enough, BDU stands for Battle Dress uniform, an is the forest green camo worn by part of the military world. It is one of the benefits of attending a Senior Military College, because once a week I get the chance to wear, camo and have a perfectly valid reason to do so. The one thing that I do not exactly like about it is that BDUs are not the unifrom I will be wearing when I go out into the fleet after commissioning. The United States Navy currently issues Navy Work Uniforms, or NWUs, which is the blue digital camo that would do nothing if one fell into the ocean, cause what good would that do? Anyways, I am excited for Spring Semester when I shall be issued my NWUs, and will be allowed to wear them rather than BDUs.
Now back to the rolling up of my sleeves. It in fact was my first time, and it felt like a win. First off, it was quite warm in the Chemistry building, and I for once desired to roll up my sleeves. It felt kinda cool to do so while in my Chem Lab, and afterwards I did not want to pull them down, so I just left them up. Note, it was somewhere between 48 to 35 degrees outside, so it was slightly cold. It wasn't all that bad, I might add, and I do enjoy cold weather. Despite probably some glances at me, conveying other's thoughts of my insanity, I must admit, I am really glad I did it. Rolling up my sleeves did in fact make me feel good, and was a nice pick me up.

Goodnight Moon

Some parts of my day, I spend watching music videos on Youtube. And a lot of what I do enjoy listening to are the covers that are performed by members of the Youtube universe. I found myself like several channels that perform really good covers, that do the original justice. There are times when I find a cover for a song that I have never heard of before, which can possibly lead me to look up the original, and sometimes think that I prefer the cover over the original. Well, the other day I was watching a music video for a cover of a Gym Class Heroes song I have yet to heard. Needless to say, I loved the cover, but even more so, I really enjoyed the special effects used in the video. I do not really believe I have seen anything like it.

Trying To Keep My Chin Up

I have not been exactly going through the best of times lately. A lot has changed in my life in the past couple months. Pretty much all of this revolves around the whole concept of going to college. The academics side has not been the easiest to transition to, as college work is plenty harder than high school. At least I have grown used to it and have found my groove. Things no longer throw me for a loop as I can now go with the flow.
Outside of that good, things are not always great. For one, participating in a military program at a public university is not always fun, and in fact can be kind of stressful as well as tiring. Although the regimented lifestyle does keep me in line, I now realize that I used to take certain freedoms for granted. At least their are some benefits to the Corp of Cadets. I have done some cool things such as run an obstacle course, and do a forty foot rappel tower. As well as getting to wear a cool uniform, the Corp is probably a good decision with several benefits, and I am getting better with coping with the stress.
Now recently I have reached a sad point in my life, and it seems to be hard to go on in college. I am a person that looks forward to certain events, and doing so gives me more strength to make it through the days. Losing a large part of my future plans, I somewhat find it hard to get through the day and even a part of me loses motivation. And to try and get me through these next couple weeks till Thanksgiving, and the couple weeks following to Winter Break, I did take some times to find some quotes.

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." -- Wayne Dyer

"Do you know who you are? Don't Ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Either you run the day or it runs you." -- Jim Rohn

"I don't believe you have to be better than anybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be." -- Ken Venturi

"If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud." -- Emile Zola

Let Us See Where We Go From Here

My name is Kris Rodriguez,
I am who I am.
Nothing in world can change that,
As it is a matter of fact.
I am a swimmer,
I am a sailor.
The water is where I belong,
It is my domain.
I am a Midshipman,
In the United States Navy,
Greatest force on, in, and around the water,
Ever known to man.
My job is to learn,
Go to college,
Get a degree,
To become an officer.
I am a Hokie,
Gobble gobble.
There is more to me,
Stuff that I might not,
Be able to comprehend,
More that can be seen.
But I am me,
And I know who I am.
But do you know,
Who you are?

My Stroke Of Genius

This week in my guitar class, as sort of a final project, I was assigned to begin work on a song, focusing on creating a melody. Right off the bat I came up with a simple five note traverse and just went from there. I had the idea to drop it down a bit and then run back to the original start with a G scale.

And that be it, including tabs, for those who dare try it. But the thing was, I liked its simplicity and the G scale run, but I did feel it was missing something. In all honesty, I'm still not to sure what its missing, maybe I'll come back to it, or not, only time will tell.
So I sat there today, just messing around, finger picking, and I stumbled on something, and I just ran with. I feel it flows well, has a good backing, and works well. It may not be my masterpiece, but its got a way to it that just fits me.

I honestly could help but write it down, because it was my little journey to write something worthwhile. Maybe I'll extend beyond this, make a full song, add lyrics, and have it all done. Only time will tell, and I will be waiting to see what I do with it.
*Edit* Oh, by my pure mechanical error, the Bs in the third and fourth measures are Cs, and also, rather than play this in six eight time, just play it as in four four, with all the eighth notes as quarter notes, and the two quarter notes at half notes. My apologizes as I have not had a chance to fix this.

For the ease of guitarist, the song is structured around the chords, G, C, and D
Now, I came across a video that is somewhat insulting, and I advise that you watch at your own discretion, but this video is truly genius. And it can be somewhat true.
*Edit* For the third and fourth measures, rather on the B string, rather than open fretting, use the first fret to maintain a C chord patter.

Gonna Write A Song

Alas, for the first time have I come across this situation. My presence on two swim teams has now caused for me to have two meets on the same day. Of course, my loyalty remains more so with my high school team. But then again, I do enjoy swimming for the Y with less pressure.
Now, to my faithful readers, you may be wondering, "What in the name of Jupiter he going to do?"
Don't worry though, because I would reply, "I have a plan" and yes, I would in fact tilt my head when I say that for italicizing effects.
To continue the conversation, "Whatever shall you do?"
"Ah Ha! By the sheer force of coincidence it seems that my meets start at different times."
I have gotten lucky as to have a 11:00am start time for my high school meet. While it shall hopefully end by 2:00pm at the very latest, that means I should be able to make my other meet by 3:00pm, only missing the mixed medley relay due to the large amount of events there shall be.
I honestly do not know how I shall fare. I have never had to pull two meets in one day so maybe I'll find some Zen zone that will propel me to some success or I shall face crushing defeat by exhaustion, either way it will be fun. My only sadness lies in the fact I will be missing the relay because I tend to get the Fly leg which I really do love.
And good news, for my fellow seniors as well as myself. We have reached 150 days till graduation, give or take depending on the school. Also, this past Saturday was the typical deadline for college applications. There is something about the relief of knowing no matter what happens from here on out, it is out of your hands to decide really what to do. Second semester is almost upon us and whatever happens is what happens. So I guess, just run with it.

Now I've heard this song on the radio at least a couple of times, but as most music heard on the radio, it just slips into the back on my mind. But today, by the good graces of those at iTunes, the video was placed on the free downloads page. Which made me decided to watch it. To my amazement, NINJAS! Its not that I have anything great to say about the song. It is slightly catchy and I do like the sound of it. Plus I kinda like the cream colored electric played by the lead singer but would never buy one. But because of the NINJAS! I had to post it.

Two-sday

Finally, today in physics class, I was able to shoot off my catapult. Despite leaving my catapult in class before the winter break, now with school having resumed, we did the measurements. My catapult was able to fling the ping-pong ball a distance of sixteen feet. Maybe not much, but I do know that it was my catapult that I built on my own.
Swim practice resumed today for both my high school team and my Y team. Having a two week break made it hard to get back into the routine but it did end up feeling good. Of course, my masochistic side was happy as various abdomen regiments and push ups were added, the pain can feel really good.
I received an awesome addition to my couple of stickers placed on the rear window of my car. First off was the one stating, "Instant swimmer, just add water." Also, I received another saying, "Its not how fast you swim, its not how far you swim, its how far you swim fast." Of course that was a tribute more so to a distance swimmer, but the motivational level did make it necessary to add it as well.