Warrensburg, Missouri, November 1-16, 2012

On the first day of November as I was getting checked in at the cafeteria at breakfast, I heard that Esther’s, the check-in lady in Ellis, brother-in-law died recently and I was asked to sign a card for her.  I did and during my Screenwriting class I did an in-class exercise.  After class I found the name of a class that I thought looked interesting called Alaskan History and Myth.  I thought this stuff seemed interesting because of a Buddhist scholar Tom Lowenstein who I read since I was twenty who also had an academic interest in the Alaskan Inuit myth and ritual.  I know myths of various peoples of can provide a good source for a film.

                I saw Esther at lunch and told her I was sorry for her loss and after lunch I went down to the library and checked out a Lonely Planet book on New Zealand which I thought looked like a good place to travel because of the Lord of the Rings being filmed there and after Cassie hearing Cassie tell me about her study-abroad semester there.  The next day I went into town with Hillary, Philip, Kayla, and Sheldon and Philip showed us a wonderful looking Italian restaurant his uncle owned.  That night Mom called me saying she had my ballot sent to her and asked me to tell her what to put for me.  I did and she said she would send it tomorrow.  I watched King of the Hill on the treadmill that night and I saw the Spanish spoken in there and realized the maker of the show must know it as he’s from Ecuador.  It’s true what they say: you should write what you know.

                The next Monday morning I had a dream that Cassie’s father died and I went to his funeral, just as I had done with Jack for his mom and Elizabeth with her father.  For a while I resisted recycling the card Jack’s father sent Mom and I thanking us for supporting them, which simply stood on my desk, as it had some much meaning.  But then I remembered what the Buddha taught about letting things go so reluctantly I recycled it.  I know the card was only a symbol of the appreciation Jack and his father had for my mom and I, not the feeling itself.  The next day an idea suddenly came to me that the dream I had about Cassie’s father might have been saying that I comfort her, especially now with her school and work load being stressful.  That same feeling that I had when I sat with her and Mckinsey was there again.

                I saw Cassie in the cafeteria that day and learned she took a day off work to get caught up on her homework.  The next day I made an appointment with Krisana West who I met with last year about my courses for next semester on Friday at 10 and I saw Cassie in the cafeteria the next day as I went there to fill up my coffee and we said hello.  I realized she might have another class to take before she does her practicum as I remembered last semester she had to talk to the head of the Social Work department to get into a class she didn’t have the prerequisite for.  But if she did I knew she could use that semester to take courses towards a Master’s or graduate degree in Social Work and finish earning it at the University of Kansas City Missouri or Columbia University.  I also decided that whatever it was I wanted with Cassie could wait, if it came at all, until she was settled into the social work world.  I really just wanted her to be happy.

                The next day when I saw her at Einstein’s I noticed her hair was losing some of the black dye she had put into it a few months ago but I didn’t say anything.  I practiced for my speech and I bought a blank CD from the vending machine to put my powerpoint for my speech on.  I remembered how in my last speech I lost points because I didn’t have a drive for my powerpoint.  I saved my powerpoint onto it and I gave my speech the next day.  After that I went to my appointment with Krisana and I signed up for a University Library and Resource Skills class and a Geology class and lab.  After that I went down to the Union where I bought some poster board to use to make a bottle cap sign with all the bottle caps I had collected since I started collecting them a few months ago and I saw Cassie from a distance in the bank.  I went down there to say hello and told her I noticed something was different with her hair and that I liked it as I always do.  She said, “Thank you, I appreciate that.”  I also noticed her hair was wavy and not in a ponytail the way it was when I first met her and always liked.

                That night, Tyler went down to the Rec Center with me along with his trainer Cody.  He had been trying to lose weight for quite some time and I told him it was all a matter of continuing to exercise.  By the end of our time there he lost one and a half pounds.  Tyler and I got back to our dorm and we watched Family Guy Blue Harvest which he had brought with him to school.  The next day after reading about the mud-brick mosques, fortified villages, painted facades, and palaces and forts in West Africa from my Lonely Planet book, I made plans in my travel journal to go visit them.  The next day Tyler joined me while I meditated and I found out he meditates by watching his thoughts just like my dad does.  I also worked on two friendship bracelets.

                The next day I went to the bank and found out I had no money in my account at school because two dollars had been withdrawn for my statement fee but the woman at the bank told me I could sign up to get it on-line free of charge so I did that.  I also started using my bottle caps to make a sign that says “Om mani padme hum” on the poster board I got with the sticky stuff I use on my dorm walls.  The next day when I saw Cassie down at Einstein’s I told her if she had another semester to go she could use it to get credits towards a master’s degree in social work and she said she didn’t know what she was going to do and she was just trying to get through her classes.  I decided to make my bottle cap sign say the variation of “Om mani padme hum”: “Om mani peme hum,” because that’s the only version that would fit on my poster board and I rearranged my mani stones in a way I thought looked better.  The next day I practiced my flute for half an hour and called Hen House and asked for Phil and they said he’d be in the next day.  I also read about the ancient Nigerian city of Calabar in my Lonely Planet book and I made plans to go visit it.

                The next day I worked on my self-evaluation paper for my last speech in my Public Speaking class and I practiced my flute for half an hour.  I had some ribs with spices for Native America Heritage month, the first time I had tried ribs, even though I had eaten plenty of barbeque over my life and I called Phil and told him I would be available to work from the 17^th to the 24^th and he said he would try to put me on the schedule.  That night Tyler showed me how to make a root beer float in the cafeteria by getting some root beer and getting vanilla ice cream from the soft-served machine.  Then the next day Granddad came and took me home to my mom’s for Thanksgiving break.

Warrensburg, Missouri, October 28-31, 2012

The day after I got back I made a mani stone from the pebbles in my collection which I have found in Warrensburg. Basically, that is a stone that has the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum (Hail, Jewel in the Lotus) carved, or in my case, painted on it, found throughout Tibet and parts of the Himalayas. I used my watercolor pencils and wrote it in Tibetan like the stones I’ve seen in books, and put it with my other mani stones. I decided to print off some of my sources for my Public Speaking class today and the rest the next day because the Lovinger computer lab only allows twenty-five pages to be printed of a day and I had to print off my outline for a screenplay for my Screenwriting class. I returned my books that were due today and I checked out Lonely Planet books on West Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania again and a Rough Guides book on Zanzibar.

                During my Transition Planning class I did some corrections on a homework assignment which Mr. B let us do. The next day when I saw Cassie at Einstein’s, she seemed happy to see me. I also wrote up my outline for my next speech and submitted it on SafeAssign and printed off the rest of sources. I talked to my mom that night and told her I had my voter registration form at home and she said she would look for it and try to send it. Early in the morning the next day I read that the voter registration form can be faxed so I wouldn’t have to worry about mailing it before the deadline. I called my mom and told her that you can fax the voter registration form and she said she would do that when she found it.

                I talked to Teresa during my Person Centered Planning about my confusion over the fundraising aspect of starting the UCM Autism Spectrum Support Group and after talking to her I realized I could talk to the Office of Student Activities about that. I also mentioned that I wanted to find peer mentors, people who modeled good communication for the group and help them if people came to them with a problem and realized I should talk to the head of departments. That night my mom called and said she’d faxed the form and I went to the THRIVE Halloween party wearing a cowboy had I’d got at the last minute and just saying I was Indiana Jones. In order to throw less away I took the Styrofoam plate I used to eat off of and cut out bits of it and made it into a decorative plate which I hung in my dorm.

Kansas City, Kansas, October 26-28, 2012

I got home with my mom that night and she, me, Dave, Cam, and Graham ate at Elsa’s Ethiopian restaurant. I spent the night building some of my Lego sets, looking for pieces to them in the bucket of Legos and putting megablocks pieces I find with the other megablocks pieces. The next day, my mom and I went into the Plaza and I got some new shoes which adjust better to the heel of my foot and I looked in Barnes and Noble at the Lonely Planet books in the travel section. That night I went with my dad, Cam, Sherry, Grandmom, and Granddad to eat dinner at a steakhouse in Overland Park. I came back that night to my mom’s and we watched the movie, Memento, one of the films mentioned in my book Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies, as I want to write Buddhist themed films and think it’s important for me to learn from those kinds of films. The next day I took Wally and Lulu for a walk while some people came to buy one of our puppies. Then later on I went back with my mom to school.

Warrensburg, Missouri, October 1-26, 2012

On the first day of the month (a Monday), I took my first exam for my Public Speaking class. On the whole I thought it went pretty well. The next day I got an e-mail from Andrew Lyons from the Muleskinner asking me if I could attend a presentation sponsored by Queers and Allies for my article and I e-mailed him back to say I could. I got permission from Keke to do my study hall the next night and I went to the presentation in the Union. The presentation was by a man named Ryan Sallans and it was about his transition from female to male in Aurora, Arkansas. I took notes and I got back and got g a call from Matthew Hutchinson saying he could do the interview on Thursday at 2:00.

The next day I found out I got one hundred percent on all the exercises for my Screenwriting class and a eighty-two percent on my exam and printed off an absentee ballot form and filled it out. I saved some snickerdoodle cookies from the cafeteria and put them in my altar bowl. I also went to Walgreens and got some more shampoo and I donated a candy bar. I worked on a lot of my article for the Muleskinner and I read in my Lonely Planet book on Mongolia that Mongolian students often wish they could forget Russian (their colonial language) and “learn useful European languages.” I remembered what I read in my Lonely Planet book on Mongolia and realized that since Mongolia was never colonized by wealthier European nations, t never learned their languages and could never do business with those countries. Afghanistan, Iran, and Ethiopia were three countries that were never colonized and suffer for similar reasons, although Ethiopia probably benefits from its native Amharic language because they can learn Arabic which is similar to Amharic so they can do business with them. I did realize that countries that weren’t colonized can do well, however. Thailand was never colonized and it does well for Southeast Asia, perhaps because it is part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, many of which speak French.
I went to study hall that night as I planned where Andrea from my Public Speaking class was volunteering and after running on the treadmill for about an hour I realized Tibet could do well economically if they throw off Communism because they will know Chinese. I guess the reason the former Soviet nations have such unfree economies is because the only non-native language they know is Russian so they can’t develop business relationships.
The next day worked on my travel plans to Mongolia and I interviewed Matthew over the phone and he answered my questions. I typed them when I got back to my dorm and sent them to Andrew.
On Friday I did my laundry and I ran into Cassie, Mckinsey, and Tyler at lunch and sat down with them and we had a good time. After I got back to my dorm I started my outline for my next speech in my Public Speaking class and I made another friendship bracelet.

On Monday I got back my exam for my Public Speaking class and found I had gotten a C which wasn’t bad. That day and the next day I practiced my speech for my Public Speaking class and on Wednesday as I prepared to give it, I felt nervous but I realized that’s helpful and it’s normal. Then I gave my speech and it was pretty good. The next day I worked on my travel plans and the day after that I had lunch with several THRIVE students, including Jack, and I took the trash in my room out.
The next day Tyler’s parents and his paternal grandfather came to visit. I noticed how they turned on the television to watch football while I was still in bed and Tyler’s father asked Tyler to come out to the hall with him. Tyler came back and told me his parents wanted him to remind my they have their own routine when they visit. Tyler’s dad asked him to come out with him again and I ended up getting fully dressed with Mrs. Weekly in the room. Tyler apologized for the confusion and told me his grandfather had Alzheimer’s.
I went to the library and checked out a Rough Guides book on Kenya where I learned about an interesting Iron Age site. I saw a picture of a Kenyan tribal elder which suddenly made me see things about Tyler’s grandfather’s problem. In much of the Third World, elderly people are honored and still play a role in society, unlike the West, so they don’t go their life without using their mind a great deal. I also picked up a Lonely Planet book on East Africa and checked the two books out.
I worried about Tyler getting Alzheimer’s due to his genetic history and the fact that he has Down Syndrome but I talked to my granddad and he said they might have a cure for Alzheimer’s by that time. I got a package from my mom which included some lip balm, some nail-clippers, and some Russell Stover’s chocolates. I also learned about Shiva Caves on the coast of Kenya, with carvings of the Hindu gods Shiva and Ganesh and I found out about some Swahili ruins.
That night I watched the movie Nim Island with Tyler and the next day my granddad came to visit. He gave me something, a bag of old coins that were his father’s and we went down to Crazy Dog’s. After that we went to Hasting’s and he got me the fall issue of Buddhadharma magazine and a beginner’s yo-yo kit and I introduced him to Tyler, Kriti, and Kimmie. That night I decided I might like collecting yo-yo’s since I now have so many of them: the one’s in the kit, plus the one Hillary gave me last year, and a yo-yo that use to be my brother’s and I found with his old stuff and the surface shows a map of the world. I also set my alarm for an hour and a half before my class starts each morning on my cell-phone so I don’t have to set it every night.

The next day I learned about some more ruins in Kenya and I made a table out of construction paper and the box lid of the kit my granddad got me and put my alter on the top and my glasses case and valet on a rack below. I also realized that my laptop might not be coming on because the cord isn’t working so I called my mom and asked her to send me a new cord for my laptop. The next day I did my self-evaluation paper on my last speech for my Public Speaking class and I filled out a survey on Sudexo which if you do they donate to Habitat for Humanity.
The next day however, I got sick and I e-mailed my instructors, Andrew, and Teresa to tell them. I did however get my new cord for my laptop in the mail and it let my computer turn on. Tyler let me drink some of his Pepto-Bismol and I went into town and got some Seven Up. The next day I felt better and went to my class.
On Friday I saved a coupon for ProCuts for my next haircut and the day after that I learned more about the ruins of an ancient Swahili city-state called Gede in Kenya. On Sunday I typed up my paper for my Public Speaking class on what my next speech topic, for a persuasive speech, would be which was going to be getting people to consider traveling to sub-Saharan Africa.

On Monday I got back the results of my last speech in my Public Speaking class. I would have done better but I accidentally forgot to submit my outline for my speech onto SafeAssign so I got a fifty-five percent. Better than nothing. The next day in my Screenwriting class, the teacher gave us all a copy of that month’s American Cinematographer and the next day I went to the Dollar General Store, where shampoo and dental floss were cheaper, and got some. I also got a new yo-yo for my collection there and I got a cowboy hat at Hasting’s for my Halloween costume. Mom called that night and asked if I wanted to come home for the weekend and I said yes so the next day I rode home with her in her car.