Obama is Coming! (Part 3) 15 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: obama, school
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So they really did reserve a number of tickets for students. (How nice of them; it’s our school, so they reserved us tickets. My faith in humanity is almost restored. Almost.)
They reserved 150 tickets for Mines students. 150 tickets for distribution — somehow — to approximately 4300 students. I stood in line at lunchtime to put my name down for the lottery. Alas, I was not one of the lucky 3.5%.
My name’s still down for a press pass, though. Don’t know if it’ll actually go through, especially since they say they don’t give credentials out ahead of time (you need to pick them up at some sort of media registation table), and they only contact you if you are denied. I suppose the fact that they haven’t called or emailed me is a good thing, but not having some sort of confirmation is still rather disconcerting. I really hate leaving things to chance.
Obama is Coming! (The Continuing Saga) 14 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: obama, school
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The Campaign for Change started handing out tickets for Obama’s speech this morning at 10 AM. There were four locations. One was even near me.
I got up at 6 AM, walked 2 miles down Route 6, and stood in line for 3 hours. It was 45 degrees out and raining and miserable. They ran out of tickets in 20 minutes. Guess who didn’t get one.
But then I saw just how many Mines students were left standing in the line and I thought: this isn’t right. It’s our school, and maybe a dozen students actually got tickets.
Problem. But I have a solution. It came to me after about two hours standing in the rain.
Obama’s speech is at 9:30 AM on Tuesday. I’m a DJ. My show starts at 9:00 AM on Tuesday. I made some phone calls, went back to the campaign, begged my case. After sweet-talking several campaign workers (though I might’ve overdid the Southern drawl), all I’m waiting for now is a call back about my request for a press pass. The suspense is killing me.
Obama is Coming! 13 September 2008
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: obama, school
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Barack Obama is coming to campus.
Nobody is more surprised than the students. After all, nobody ever comes to the Colorado School of Mines. Hell, most people are like, “the school of what?”
(OK, that’s not entirely true. Al Jazeera showed up two weeks ago to do a broadcast. But, generally speaking, nobody of note ever comes to Mines.)
So anyway, Obama is coming! I’m a little excited. I’ll be taking the bus into Denver tomorrow to pick up some tickets. You’d expect them to have tickets available here at school since we’re hosting him, but no — I actually have to go several miles off campus to get tickets.
My suitemates are all bummed out since he’s talking at 9:30 AM on Tuesday and they all have class. I actually have a radio show from 9 to 10, but I think my listeners will understand if I ditch them….
On Idiocy 4 October 2007
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: general
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Yesterday my best friend calls me up. She’s 1500 miles away from me, back in my hometown, and I haven’t talked to her since I left for college.
“Hey!” I say, happy to talk to her for the first time in several months. “What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing much,” she replies casually. “Got arrested yesterday.”
I sort of paused, trying to reconcile the phrases ‘nothing much’ and ‘got arrested’. “OK…” I reply slowly. “What for?”
Truth be told, I honestly expected something stupid. Like jay-walking. Washington DC, where they actually ticket you for jay-walking, is only a $7 train ride from Baltimore after all. Or maybe petty theft. She works full time at an ice-cream shop and is trying to save up enough money for college. The temptation is always there when you’re strapped for cash.
Her reply? “Oh, grand theft auto, arson, …”
There was more than that, but I sort of lost her on ‘grand theft auto’ and ‘arson.’ Now I was standing there, trying to come to terms with the fact that my best friend for seven years had been busted for grand theft auto. What ever happened to the mild-mannered girl I knew, who loved to ride horses and wanted to be a vet? For heaven’s sake — I’d only been gone for what? two months?
Bit by bit, I got the story from her.
Two of her friends had been approached by a man and offered a sum of money in order to torch his car. The guy apparently needed money. What better way than insurance fraud?
So they took the car out to a field and as they were setting it on fire, the cops arrive. All three of them ran. My friend managed to get home. She waited a bit, and then went back for her friends. Since the cops had seen her car near the scene it had been flagged as a suspicious vehicle. Now, when they pulled her over and found her with their two arson suspects, well….
To make a long story short, she spent 28 hours in jail before being released because she didn’t have a record.
She asked me for help, and I said sure. What I really wanted to say, but I didn’t, was — how could you be so stupid?
I know teenagers get a bad rap, but stuff like this isn’t giving us any better of a reputation! First of all, a crime is a crime. If they (all three of them) knew the man was trying to commit insurance fraud, and they helped him, they would be accessories to a crime. Arguably, if the man gave them money to do it, and they didn’t know about the insurance, then technically they could be blameless for that. But that’s pretty flimsy, and probably wouldn’t stand up in court. After all, if he paid them to do it, why did he report his car stolen? It’s not grand theft auto unless the car’s been reported stolen.
And you never run from cops. It’s dangerous, and the chances of succeeding are very slim. And if you run, it’s all the worse if they catch you.
And if you’re ever being interrogated, always ask for a lawyer. You have the right to an attorney. Never say anything to a cop — you never know what they’re really investigating and what it may be used for.
I knew this by the time I was 10. Most people I knew in High School knew this. Why, then, do teenagers insist on ignoring it?
Why do we act so idiotic? Why do we do retarded things? Why do we burn cars, grafitti buildings, throw huge loud parties with alcohol and drugs, hold up convenience stores? And then why do we act so stupidly afterwards? Why do we run from cops, attack the arresting officers, hide drugs in our lockers at school, set trees on fire (or cars)?
Maybe we think we’re invincible. That it’ll never happen to us, because we’re too smart. Or maybe we think it’s only bad if we get caught. Well, sorry — if you’re having a huge, loud party in the middle of a residential area, it’s kind of hard NOT to get caught.
Or maybe we’re trying to enjoy the last shreds of our childhood, of our dependency on our parents, before being thrust into the big wide world. Good grief. At this rate you’ll be dead or in prison before you ever get out there.
This is my plea to my fellow teenagers — for your own good and the good of the rest of our generation. Please think. I won’t tell you not to drink or have sex or whatnot, because you won’t listen to me anyway. At least be smart about it.
And please don’t call me asking for bail money when you’re caught.
Welcome 1 October 2007
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: general
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Welcome to Don’t Stress It, my truly irreverent and politically incorrect observations about life, the universe, and meatballs. (I couldn’t very well say “and everything” without violating copyright, you know.)
My name is Mila Rodriguez and I will be your host for as long as you care to put up with me. My qualifications are none. I’m a college student with nothing to my name, except for a set of 100 B-movies that are all out of copyright anyway, and include such gems as “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Though I can’t tell you who my local Congressman is, I can tell you that it is possible to fit 14 passed-out drunks in an elevator.
The focus of this blog is not going to be politics, national news, or why we shouldn’t be in Iraq. Chances are it will be more on my addiction to Mountain Dew, strange things going on about campus, and book reviews. (And maybe some segways into the cool stuff I’m doing in my MNGN333 Explosive Engineering class.)
I, personally, would not read my blog. But that’s just me.
11 February 2009
Posted by The Flightpath in Commentary.Tags: general, school
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So I got to the cafeteria and there was a line at the cashier. I stood behind a young alumn and her son. He was about five years old and very fidgety.
After a few minutes in line, the mother tells her son to tie his shoe. So he bends down and slowly starts to arrange the laces. I watch him for a few seconds and realize that he’s chanting a rhyme under his breath — over, under, around and through, that’s how Baloo ties his shoe. Not the one I grew up with, but amusing all the same.
So he finishes up and starts fidgeting again. As I’m standing there wondering why in the world the line is taking so long, I happen to glance down and realize that my sneaker is untied. I bend down to tie it. About halfway through, I suddenly realize that I’m muttering the same rhyme. That startling realization causes me to pause halfway through the exercise.
Just as I’m hoping that nobody noticed, the little boy turns, pats me on the head, and says, “Don’t worry, I always forget what to do there too.”