Something's happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear

This is my last post of the year 2010. Coincidentally, it is also my first post in quite a while. I apologize if I have any faithful readers who were disappointed in my absence but I am back.
Recently I made one of the biggest decisions I have made in a long time. I finally changed my major from communications to industrial engineering. It may seem strange or silly to change to something so radically different, but I assure you that I am more confident with this decision than anything I have don in a long time.
For starters, I was really not very happy with the direction my career path was headed in. I've been doing school newspapers since my sophomore year of highschool. I have enjoyed it for the most part but I really don't think it is something I want to do for the rest of my life. It is fun to do it part time but doing it full time would be way too stressful and probably not worth it. I know I would enjoy working with math and science a lot more.
The other reason I am switching my major is because I think it will have a more positive impact on the world. While the world needs good journalists, I think the world also needs good engineers. Right now I am looking at two options I really want to do when I graduate. I either want to join the peace corp for a couple of years or I want to join Engineers Without Borders to go help people. I am still a long way from deciding any of this though.
But enough about that.

Normally I would go through and list all of the great experiences I've had over the year. I probably won't do that here; mostly because I just don't feel like it. I will say it has been quite a year. Surprisingly, it seemed to last longer than I would have thought.
As a gaze down the long and dark road that is 2011, I am surprisingly optimistic, considering how usually cynical I am. I really think things will be getting better from here on out, at least I can't see them getting much worse.
So to all of you, I wish you a happy new year. I wish you all the best.

Goodnight, and travel well.

you were the people that I wanted to know, and your the places that I wanted to go

This weekend was a blast. I wasn't exactly looking forward to a the three day weekend for reasons other than getting out of school but I loved every second of it. Everything worked out.
Last Friday I only had one class. It was a french class and it got out at 11:30. After class I went over to the athletic center and played a game of pick-up basketball. I don't want to brag but I was on fire. I made all of my shots and hopefully earned the respect of some of the hardcore players out there. It was a good way to start off the weekend.
Later that night my roommates had a bunch of friends over. It was great. We have a pretty big house and it is great to actually put it to use. The best part is they were people that I knew so it wasn't awkward. Some of my best friends from high school were there. We went out back and me and some of the guys constructed a pop pong table out of some paneling, two-by-fours, and some wooden horses, or whatever you call them. It was ghetto but it worked. We played a couple games of pop pong and it was a lot of fun. We also went to the front and played cards. That same night we crashed a party at a frat house and went to an Ihop at three in the morning. Overall a great night.
The next day my dad came by at ten o'clock to pick me up to go to Kansas City. I didn't know what time he would be coming so I was asleep and he woke me up. we went to Kansas City and I slept on the way. That night we went to a KC Royals game. It was great because I hadn't seen their new stadium yet and it was beautiful. The royals lost but that's okay, it was kind of expected. I did get to see Kai'ahuie get a homerun though.
The next day we went to church in the morning and then went to the plaza to eat lunch at the cheesecake factory. It was delicious. Not long after that we went home and they dropped me off in wichita. The same night we had another get together involving freddy's frozen custard, more cards, and more pop pong. It was great. My friends stayed the night and it was amazing.
That was my weekend in a nutshell. I hoped you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about it. Now I have to get ready for class.

August and everything after

I would be less bored in Winfield than in Wichita.
I never thought I would say this. It took me a while to come to that conclusion but I am really bored. I have not accomplished anything in the last two days. I have literally just lounged around my house and either read, done homework, cleaned, or surfed facebook. Here I am at the end of the weekend so I guess I will at least tell you what I have done this weekend.
Last Friday I went to see the Last Exorcism. I still want my money back from it. It was horrible. Later that night me and my roomies stayed up til midnight making pancakes. I still don't really know why. It was incredibly random but it was really fun. On Saturday I did nothing.

wsu so far

This post is going to be short because I have class in twenty minutes.
A lot of stuff has been going on lately. I could bore you to death by telling you all of it but I'll spare the details. School has started up, I've moved into my new house and things are going good for the most part.
So far my classes are pretty easy. I think that I might actually get some get grades this year. I decided I'm going to put forth an extra effort to get good grades. I say that every year but I'm really going to try this year.
Newspaper is probably either going to kill me or take twenty years off of my life. We have to write three stories a week. That is an insane amount of writing considering that I only wrote usually two stories every two weeks for the cowley press. The editor is high if she thinks that all the stories are going to get in on time. Then again I might be high for joining newspaper in the first place. I guess the point I'm trying to make is don't do drugs. It makes you do stupid things like write for college newspapers.

Who says you can't go home

“There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again.”- Bill Bryson
I consider this statement to be true. Although you can always go back to the place your home was, you can never go home because it always changes. The people change, the times change, the buildings change. No matter how you try you will never see things the same way you saw them when you were young.
Right now I am preparing to move away from home. The plan is too move away on Thursday, the first day I start classes. I'll be moving into a house with four other friends of mine
I'm kind of depressed about moving to WSU. It's not that I'm not excited, because I am, but I feel like I haven't taken full advantage of my time here. I didn't have the best summer, my grades at cowley weren't the greatest, and my last semester there could have been better. I still feel like there are a lot of friends I should have met and a lot of things I could have experienced.
Right now I am really looking forward to the new challenges a bigger school and a bigger town will bring. I'm looking forward to the people I'll meet and the person that I will become. But at the same time I know that I will never forget where I have been. This place has become a part of me. I everything i am to the towns of Winfield and Ark City and there is no way I could not love this place.

wisdom teeth adventure

You aren't supposed to do certain things twenty-four hours after being under anesthesia. Some of those things are driving, operating machinery, and as the disclaimer from the dentist put it, "making important decisions". I don't know if writing a blog falls under the category of important decisions but I'm going to update any way.
This morning I woke up at about 9:30. Getting ready was hard because I couldn't eat or drink after midnight. I took advantage of the rules and ate at about 10:00 last night so I wasn't very hungry. I got dress, took a shower, watched a special on the science channel about some guys building and tunnel, and then left with my family to go to Wichita.
I won't bore you with all the formalities I had to go through before so I'll just skip to the surgery. Unfortunately the surgery isn't any more exciting since I don't remember it. They hooked me up to the IV, put in the medicine and I was out. I was under anesthesia for about hour and I woke up. My jaw hurt a little bit and I had gauze in my mouth. The nurse helped me into the waiting room where I could recover. I stumbled a lot and barely got there. I recuperated for a while and then went home. I slept most of the way.
For most of the day I've just been sitting here watching TV and playing on my computer. I wish that this story could have been more interesting. You would think that getting teeth cut out of you would be a more interesting story but it was really just like taking an hour long nap. Sorry if I bored you with this entry.

The awkward times of Eric Paul Smith

I have pink paint on my shoes.
Your probably wondering why a manly guy with testosterone throbbing veins like me has pink paint on his shoes. Well I'll get to that later in the story.
I recently found out that a friend of mine will not be going to WSU with me next year but will be going to Cowley for another year. This is sort of a big deal because we were supposed to get a house together. In fact the only reason I found out about the open room in this house is because of the said friend. I respect his decision and I don't blame him for doing what he is doing but I will miss him.
The biggest reason why I am going to miss him is because I don't know anyone else in the house that well. I haven't even met one of the girls yet. I went to high school with all of them and they are all very nice but I do for-see some awkward moments in the future. This shouldn't be a problem because my entire life up to this point seems like it's been one big awkward moment.
Last Saturday we had a painting party at the house. There were probably twelve people there total, all of which I went to high school with. They are all friends with each other and I felt a little left out because they would joke around with each other and listen to music that I had never heard of. It wasn't bad but it did get awkward. The good news is we were able to paint almost the entire upstairs. We even painted a vanity room for the girls. The color was pink. I stepped in some of it.
With all of the being said I am really looking forward to moving into the house. It will be a new experience with new people. I'm sure that we will get along. If nothing else I will have an entire room to myself so I can invite friends over whenever I want and not bother any one else. It will be an improvement from living in the dorms with a stranger.

On an unrelated note, our neighbor is a suspected drug dealer. We live in a somewhat sketchy part of town and my friend Beth said that there are times when a bunch of cars will park in front and then leave quickly. I did talk to him though and he seems like a nice guy.