Check out the Mars Rover Blog, it’s a blog written by the first person point of view of the rovers. Now of course it really isn’t written by the rovers themselves, but it’s really cool to think that it is. The blog goes through the daily activities of the rovers on Mars, what scientific experiments they are up to and posts any pictures they have taken lately. It’s a great read.

Cookies for breakfast, that was my well rounded meal this morning. Somewhere on a 2000 calorie a day diet, I’m feeling I’m halfway there. But these cookies are great, Ashton made them for us, and now they are gone, in my tummy! I need more sleep, ah, but no time for that, I must complete my studying. How long can I maintain I wonder? How long until I start raving and jabbering about bats and huge manta rays coming down for the sky? What will happen then?

- Vellux ® Blanket with unique hypoallergenic fabric and millions of nylon fiber bonds for that deep, soft, velvety fabric feeling, sure to keep you warm on those cold nights next to the window.
- Deep Fit extra thick mattress pad with a deep style Spandex for a great fit and soft polyester fiberfill for supreme comfort when your so hung-over.
- Full body pillow with added plushness and flannel pattern 100% cotton liner. If you can’t get a girl/guy, you can always curly up and snuggle with it, but please, no pillow talk.

Generalists were the way of the Dot-com era, and that is dead. I?m adding new check points to my two, five and ten year plans that are going to be extremely difficult and costly to accomplish, but, if I can do just that, I will be able to do what few in the business and technology world can, and I can almost guarantee myself lifetime employment.

I?m not sharing my goal with you, not because I don?t want you to know or I think it?s highly secret, but I?m at a point in my educational career where others are going to start clawing and scratching for ideas as the end of college is near. One of my new short term goals is to look around my class, see what everyone is doing, see what is most popular, and do just the opposite. I will become a specialist. Has this picture distracted you enough to where you’ve forgotten what I’m talking about?

My first and foremost goal is to make sure that everyone around me and I am happy. That sounds a little stupid and sophomoric, but it?s really a goal I believe in because it seems to me that when you are happy, well, things just workout better.

So last Friday I stayed awake in be pondering the question, ?Am I Happy, Am I Happy at Auburn?? The answer is no. I would have been much happier had I chosen to go to school with my friends back in Indiana. It sounds odd for me to say to myself that I?m not happy, because it means I?m failing at my primary goal.

Yet, I believe my decision to come to Auburn and take a completely different route than that of my friends was the absolute best decision of my life. Why? Because I am out on my own, I am doing my own thing, writing my own story and living my life they way I want to. And that, that makes me happy. A contradiction in terms, yes, but a great one at that because I believe it can only have a positive effect/affect on me.

I?ve been using the word sacrifice lately, and I believe it?s a really great word to use in the fact that it implies both losses and gains at the same time. This is what I?m doing at Auburn, giving up something that I love, my former happiness, to gain and understanding of myself with the goal of being a happier person. That is now why I attend Auburn University.

Furthermore and looking toward the future I’m going to have to cut back and remove myself from some of the things I really want to accomplish. The world is so small when you are young, but everyday I grow older, it seems the world gets bigger and bigger. As well, I know I’m also going to really have to discover what it is I want to focus on this semester. I’m breaking it down to the moral fibers of my life to ascertain what it is will make me happy and that I will enjoy doing. Maybe I’m doing this all wrong or trying to hard, or I’m not trying hard enough.

Now you have to understand when I yell, I just rant what?s on my mind, but I really don?t raise my voice, I will just over express what I?m saying. So I get all angry at her for the simplest of all reasons, which I believe she?s throwing her life away. I don?t understand it, this is one of the smartest, most amazing girls I?ve ever know who has their shit together and she is unhappy. Not only she unhappy, but she is miserable and it seems every time I see her it is worse and worse, so I was at the point where I had to do something.

I went against all my morals and told her something?s I could never agree with, but if they made her happy, I think that?s what she needs to do. That is where this girl is at; she just needs all positive things in her life right now, because it seems that everything is bad. For one she is having sex, which I now have learned through my experience and maturity, you should only do if you are in love. Sex is for love. For myself, that?s the only time that I can truly enjoy it. I tried to get that into her head, but I?m sure I failed.

However, I did manage to piss her off. That wasn?t a goal of mine, but you know what, I know she will be thinking about this night a long time from now. How can I let someone I once loved and greatly cared for let herself degrade who she is? Every time I see her I can only ask myself that question. I just want to see her happy, I can only wish and hope that she will be, and I will do everything in my power (which is very limited now) to make sure that happens.

By Patrick Rice – Assistant Online Editor
As Published in The Auburn Plainsman on October 25, 2001

It’s a fact college students face the daily danger of drugs, alcohol and unprotected sex. Everywhere you turn, there is sex, violence, lying, slander and other forms of unpleasantness.

But thankfully, at this University, some of our incoming students could care less. Why? Because they don’t have to worry about these problems, as they have parents to make their decisions for them.

What is the answer to this problem?

Answer E: None of the above.

I’m talking about our first-semester freshmen. These people have it made all the way through high school doing nothing, why not go all the way?

For the first 18 years of their lives, they didn’t have to worry about making any choices at all. They had wonderful, loving and caring parents to live their lives for them.

They had ample time to plan ahead for the more important things in life, like figuring out how to join the Wednesday Night Drinking Club, what their Rho Chi group was going to be like and SEC football.

Think of it this way: Sometimes in a textbook you’re told to do a homework assignment by a teacher and he may say to do Chapter 2, Unit 4.

Well this is Unit No. 1. The philosophy of today’s incoming freshmen is that this is still high school, just with bigger and better parties.

However, many in our freshmen class, while having the time of their lives now, will discover what college is come December when grades come out and they notice their parents can no longer make their decisions for them.

To aid this problem, here are five steps that every college freshman should know by now.

5 steps to success
1) High school is over! Auburn University is unlike high school in that the philosophy from high school is very democratic: Everyone in our modern society is given access to a high school education.

But the university is an inherently elitist institution. You are only here because you met a demanding set of criteria, and you will only remain here if you work hard and continue to meet an increasingly demanding set of criteria.

Word to the wise: Work now to play later.

2) You must work! Abandon the idea that you’re “entitled” to a certain grade in a course because of the amount of work that you put in (many students bring this idea with them from high school).

If it takes you 20 hours to perform a certain task, and someone else does the same task with the same results in 5 hours, you will both receive the same grade. Just like in the real world, what matters at the university is not effort, but results.

3) Take at least 12 hours! If you allow yourself to fall behind, you simply may never catch up. I know too many freshmen who are no longer full-time students because they dropped classes.

College is a blast, but the sooner you get out in the world, the better. If this applies to you, plan on freshmen classification again next year.

4) Don’t fail your core classes! Regardless of your major, remember that your core courses are the essential part of your education.

It doesn’t matter how good your high school teachers thought you were; they only had time to give you a very superficial introduction to the basics of science, history, literature and art that are essential to becoming an educated member of our society.

Get your core classes out of the way early to focus on your major. Do this to have more time for the better things in life, like Wednesday Night Drinking Club and SEC football.

5) My ID is a credit card? More than ever before, freshmen walk around town using their Tiger Card, and who is picking up the bill?

Mom and Dad, so what’s the problem? The problem is decision making is one of, if not the most important, skills a child can learn (and must learn, if he or she is to become a successful adult).

If you haven’t already maxed out your Tiger Card, learn to spend what you have. It’s a great habit that will come in handy for the long run.

If any of this applies to you, please consider it carefully. Auburn University is one of the finest schools in the south, and it is that way because of the people who go here.

Let’s keep that tradition alive and you a part of it.