A Constant State of Exhaustion

The morning of old tags

2006-09-25T03:07:00.000-05:00

No, I’m not talking about an old license plate that had the prefect combination of letters and numbers, or a custom plate. Nothing like that, not car tags are being mourned here.

I’m morning the loss of the old style of dog tags.

The metal oval ones that about two inches wide and little over an inch tall. That’s what I’m talking about.

Now, I’ve never served in the military, but I’ve had a fair share of tags. Mickey’s Surplus, an Army/Navy like store not far from my parents’ house makes them while you wait. You used to have to send off for them from there, but now they take about ten minutes and you can wander around their now expanded store. You can touch things now and not have a deep-seated fear that everything is going to collapse on you. I mean everything.

I barely remember the old Mickey’s before the expansion. I couldn’t tell you where things were or anything, but I remember being told, constantly, “Don’t touch that, you’ll make everything else fall down.”

The only thing you were allowed to touch was the basket of fake worms and stuff for fishing.

At the house, when we were old enough to ride our bikes away from the house, you got a set of dog tags. They had your name, phone number, address, and allergies if you had one. And this was like a big thing. You couldn’t wait to get your own set of dog tags. It never once entered your mind that the purpose of them was for body identification and retrieval.

It was just cool! You had real military dog tags! You got two identical tags, a long beaded chain, the short beaded chain, and two black silencers, for around $8. They were required to be worn while we were out riding our bikes, or doing other activities. Especially when we were out on our paper routes.

I’ve had several sets since I was nine and got the first set. Mickey’s expanded and they were able to make them in house while you wait. You’d fill out the form and go and wander around the store and you could hear the big clicks and thunks of the monster typewriter machine that made them.

Ten minutes later, custom tags, and a shirt or boonie hat picked out, you’d pay and go home and everything would be good until you like lost both of your tags or something, then you would go and repeat the procedure.

For years I have always worn one tag. It was just something I did and got used to and never thought much of, unless I didn’t have it on for some reason. I felt, and insert the eye roll here, naked without it on; off kilter if you will until I put it back on.

Since my knee surgery in February, and subsequent really bad reactions to some meds, my mum has mentioned several times I should go and get a second set of tags made, and put the allergies on one, and contact information on the other.

Finally did that last week, I ordered tags and I got them today. There’s just one problem, these aren’t like my old tags. These are like really light and embossed instead of imprinted. It’s weird. Yeah it’s easier to read the embossing than the imprinted ones. The metal they came one isn’t even that strong, I could bend it without any effort, my old ones, took a hell of lot of effort to bend them in any amount.

They just look like, funny. It’s not the same as the imprinted ones. Very toy like, and the weight is funny, and I keep looking to see if I actually have them on. They are like whimpy. I want my old styled ones back. They looked strong and permanent, not dull and pretty, like toy.

So, my rambling on basically comes down to, I don’t like this new embossing style tag, bring back the imprinted ones!

The only upside to this set, was that there was an option to order other colors of silencers than just black. The blue and clear are awesome, a friend of mine suggested I get the neon greenish ones, as they would match my bathroom rugs. :: eye roll ::

Scrubbing Bubbles Girl Attacks

2006-08-30T12:51:00.000-05:00

So, while the justice system has not failed me, the Financial Aid office has. I have no money because I'm a GA. And because I'm a GA the University pays for my tuition therefore I cannot get the loan money that is set out for tuition. Fair enough.

Not fair though that after they reassess how much money I'm allowed to borrow they just stop. They don't disburse the money to Revenue. They pay my Perkins Loan to Revenue, but they don’t do anything with my Stafford Loans.

So yesterday, I went and asked how come my loans weren’t disbursed to Revenue so that I can receive my refund and pay bills and buy food. Their answer: I’m not sure. That’s what the lady told me. Then she printed off a sheet of paper and walked it over to someone’s office. She comes back telling me to come back on Thursday to see what they found out.

So tomorrow, Scrubbing Bubbles Girl will go to Financial Aid with her trust can of Scrubbing Bubbles, lemon scented at the moment, and handy Mr. Clean Magic Reach stick thingie and do battle with the evil human form things that work there.

Rar!

Just stuff of the long winded boring variety with a life lesson from Battlestar Galatica

2006-08-29T13:53:00.000-05:00

Our Lovely Network and Computers.

So, I'm sitting here at work waiting on my boss to get in so that I can be added to the most recent Blackboard Section so as to set it up for the student who will be in it. We have a whacked network system in all ways possible. We have run out of IP addresses so we cannot let some computers login. And, anything you save in My Documents or on the desktop is not saved to that machine you are working on. It’s saved to a folder on a server, which is why if the servers are down you cannot log in at all. Even if you don't want the internet it just freezes up.

Genius isn't it?

It also means it's like impossible to delete anything. The next time you login it pops back up. Bloody annoying. But this is what led me to finding something that I didn't know I still had. Which is cool I guess. A Word file containing two pages of something I wrote while at my former job of being an Office Assistant and working graveyard shifts. It's like the wax on wax off thing of sledding.

And what do I do with this? Leave it in the “My Documents” folder for it to be there forever? For some student worker in the IT department to find when they are board and sifting through throngs of old information many years from now? It would just get tossed to the side as they find another account that has much more juicy content that was acquired in ways that fall under the 'inappropriate use of educational resources' column.

Maybe I will post it. Maybe. It'd have to be like beta'd and stuff. There has to be something wrong as there is not a thing underlined in red or green when I view the file in Word. That like never happens. Word always has a fit over everything as it thinks that it's smarter than humans. Okay, so some humans it's smarter than but not all. Not that I take Word's opinion as the word of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or anything. I just find it oddly disturbing that it's not lit up like a seasonal celebration to inform me that I have sinned agains the Microsoft Office way of writing.

The Revenue Office Blunders

Today, in all its cliche-ishness, should be a wonderful day. Last night the Revenue office was going to do direct deposits of excess funds to checking accounts of students who entered their checking account information into our new Banner system.

Yes, that's right. Students have to enter the information. Students who have probably never written an actually check in their lifetime thanks to the invention of the Credit Card, Debit/Checking Card, and online bill pay. They are trusting us to enter the correct information.

What?

Payroll doesn't even do that! Payroll wants a copy of a voided check along with you writing down the appropriate numbers to verify all this information. All the jobs that I have had where we did direct deposit it was the same way. Fill out the worksheet and attach a voided check. If you didn't, you weren't getting paid.

I think Revenue is just asking for trouble. Yes, the first semester that we are using this new, do everything on one system called Banner method, they want to direct deposit excess funds into our accounts instead of issuing checks or leaving the money to sit in our Revenue accounts. Which is nice because then you can buy things in the scalper's bookstore or in the computer store, both in the Union, and say that you want to use financial aid.

So while I'm waiting, completely impatiently for my money, well actually your hard earned money that was given to the Federal Government in the form of taxes, to come to me, I can't help but think that it's all not going to work and that tomorrow, the really long line at the Revenue office is going to be going all the way back through the hallway that connects Grinstead to Administration full of hot and bothered college students who didn't get their money like they were supposed to.

Science Fiction has good lessons in it.

There's this show that is currently being retold called Battlestar Galatica. It used to come on back in the 70s or 80s, I don't remember, but it comes on the Scifi channel now. In the first episode of the new version, they are outfitting the Galatica to be a like museum and someone is trying to convince Adama to let them install these networked computer terminals on the ship.

Adama refuses. He says that the ships computers weren't all networked together for a reason. That it slowed the spread of viruses from the Cylons and that the Galatica should be now as it was in battle. That's the jist of the conversation. He has a point. Maybe networking everything together isn't the grand idea that everyone thinks it should be.

We were doing just fine here when we had different systems for payroll, enrollment, and revenue/bill pay. Everything worked good! Sure each system had its quirks, but they are a lot easier to navigate, and understand. Now, while everything is on one system, you run into the problem if one thing goes down, everything goes down. Insanely frustrating.

Maybe the officials here should of watched Battlestar Galatica. They would of learned that networking everything together isn't neccessairly good.

I am Scrubbing Bubbles Girl! Rarrrrr!

2006-08-24T11:29:00.000-05:00

I’m not a squeamish person. Or a squirrelly one; at least not generally. Oh I have my hang ups, everyone does even if they don’t admit it. My one sister is the complete opposite, she cowers in the face of tiny spiders and calls for her son to come kill them. He’s been doing this since he was three. He is seven now.

After all I live in University provided housing, bugs are a given. Huge Honkin space cockroaches that you find usually belly up in the stairwells or along the walls. Or real living ones that stick their faces out from beneath washing machines.

I’m not afraid to kill bugs, or huge honkin space cockroaches. Last spring I was the hero of the tornado party in the basement as I killed two by stepping on them really, really good.

And yes, last week I did scream/screech (I didn’t know I could reach that high of pitch until then) when that wolf spider invaded my space when I was going to hang out clothing on the solar dryer clothes line. But then I killed it and went on my merry way.

However, last night, I hid out in my living room, scared to death to go into the other room and go to sleep because, as I was laying in bed at 2315 or so, a winged nocturnal rodent went flying by me.

Jumping Jesus On A Pogo Stick! That’s a good non vulgar expression to describe what I said when the bat flew by me. I jumped down from my bunk I sleep on the top bunk as it makes me get up in the morning and turn off my alarm thus improving the chances of being on time to class, work, and appointments, grabbed my sweatpants and high tailed into the other room shutting the door behind me. Probably pissing off the people living above me and below me as the door rattles the walls if it is shut hard.

Called Public Safety to come and catch it and they did. Unlike the last time, and oddly enough my previous post on here, only one officer came. I asked him about it and he said that he was brave enough to handle it by himself and that the other two were just wimps.

So today, when I’ve had to enter the other half of the apartment, I carry with me a Mr. Clean Magic Reach stick thingie as it was the first thing I found. My broom and Swiffer thingie are missing somewhere. Maybe the bats carried it off as a preemptive measure to prevent bodily harm coming to them.

So now I will be known as Scrubbing Bubbles Girl who carries around a Mr. Clean Magic Reach stick thingie as a side arm and does battles against bats as a training method for when the justice system fails me.

Holy Frackin Bats Part Deux

2006-07-10T02:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, so today, well in the last twenty four hours,

Fire alarm complete with a ton of smoke and fire department here.

Followed by another set of fire alarms right after the fire department left

and now,

I just had to call Public Safety because there was a BAT flying around in my apartment.

Two officers show up, who look remarkabley like tehJerry it was scrary, and they go "Here you go" and hold out a net. I go "In there" and point to the bedroom door. They go "In there?" "Yeah it came out here flew around, almost hit me, and flew in there so I shut the door." Officers: "Oh." (add a little bit of paniced look on their face). They were brave and went into the bedroom, one of them scaring the crap out of the other one when he informed him it was right above his head.

They left with the offending bat, and you will be pleased to know that no Scrubbing Bubbles was spraryed nor thrown at the bat. (Unlike on the first incident I had with a bat in November where my Dad thought I THREW the can of Scrubbing Bubbles at the bat and it caused much confusion. I sprayed Scrubbing Bubbles in November.) Though, I did swing a broom at it when it came by me. (I was cleaning in the kitchen).

But that little thing called sleep? Yeah, not happening anytime soon. I have so much fracking adrenaline going through me along with caffienne(which doesn't really act as much of a stimulant on me all the time) that I don't think I'll be getting tired until it's almost time to get up. Perhaps I will snatch a nap later in the secret room with comfy couches in Grinstead. But there will be no sleeping in apartment tonite/this morning.

New Fic!

2006-06-14T16:14:00.000-05:00

Linked to mine LJ for now until I get it up on mine site: The Art of Breathing by Crash

Title: The Art of Breathing
Status: Completed
Category: Angst, H/C
Pairings: none
Spoilers: Non-plot give away spoiler for Fragile Balance
Season: 7ish
Rating: 13+
Content Warnings: Language
Archive: Incoming Wormhole, Cartouche, AG
Summary: SG1 and Janet Frasier run into some trouble on their way back to the gate.
Disclaimer: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
Lucy Van Pelt, Peanuts Character, belongs to Charles Schulz

Rube, George, and reaper info belongs to the people who own Dead Like Me, Showtime, MGM, and them other folks.

Author’s Note: I feel strange quoting South Park but it works. Thanks to T for the beta. T, Dee, and Aniko for the encouragement.

Written for elements challenged posted on Tok'ra Flats. I chose number three, thanks to the recent viewing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and got the element of Air.

Linked to mine LJ for now until I get it up on mine site: The Art of Breathing by Crash

A possessed posse could be dangerous

2006-06-13T12:14:00.000-05:00

Wow. I have not posted in over a month. O_o.

Not much has happened. Finals came and went. There was commencement which I did actually attend. I started my Assistantship in the Technology Internship Office. That's going okay, except for the amount of just annoying people I have to deal with. Ones who can't follow directions on how to name their files. Forty three people submitting files named 'professional development plan.doc' does not go over well. It's not that hard to stick your last name in there. Really it's not, and the world won't come to an end.

But my assistantship requires that I read a ton of papers. Professional Development Plans, Periodic Reports, and various other things. It’s driving me nuts. Their word choices, repetitive use of terms and descriptions, lack of commas and periods, and the over use of punctual marks such as semi-colons and exclamation points.

The lack of proper formatting too. Not indenting to start a new paragraph, not double spacing, completely missing the forming of paragraphs. It’s mad, oh so mad. I have an entire stack of papers that I have to grade that I dread looking at. Sometimes I wonder if these people even managed to pass comp class, and if they did, what kind of suck ass teacher did they have.

Many hours later after catching up on my grading I find that there are a few grammatical things that bother the crap out of me more than anything else. Not that I'm the grammar god, oh so far from it. The same with spelling, and I get hung up on proper word usage from time to time. However, I like to believe that I’m aware of this and try my best to double check things by consulting style guides, the dictionary, and having someone else proof read for me before I turn things in. Interns have apparently not learned this.

Four things bother me the most

- The absence of the Oxford/Harvard/serial comma. (The comma before the conjunction at the end of a list. Like the one after yellow in the following sentence. Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are the four printing primary colours.)

- Punctuation outside quotation marks

- Excessive use of ‘and’ to start a sentence with.

- Incorrect word usage when trying to say you possess something

Posse - a group of people summoned by a sheriff to aid in law enforcement.
Posses - multiple groups of people summoned by a sheriff to aid in law enforcement.
Pose - to place in a specific position
Poses - multiple specific positions.
Possess - to have as property, to own

You do not posse skills. You do not “currently poses skills that need to be improved upon.” And on it goes.

You don't even have to know how to spell dictionary to look up the words on the internet. Merriam-Webster fixed that with http://www.m-w.com.

What’s the most worrying is that most of these students/interns are either graduating with the completion of their internship, or will graduate in the next year. Their written communication skills suck, and they are going to go out into the world and that’s a little worrying.

And G, if you are reading this, I know you are cheering. It seems I have an English teacher side after all, but I think I shall stay in complete denial of this.

Shamelessy I ripoff Wash!

2006-04-22T04:33:00.000-05:00

edit: 29 April 2006 2048

The following is an announcement from the Yllek 'Oh god, oh god we're all gonna die' broadcasting system. Beware much bitching and moaning follows.

Fourteen days until Graduation

Seven until I have to turn all this in

~~Estimate #9~~
~~Clip and embedd video for MGT presentation~~
~~Write abstract for MGT presentation~~
~~CEPS paper~~
InkJet Paper
~~Estimating Paper~~
~~Print black ink on press Fingerprint~~
~~Print 4/c cards~~
~~Print 3/c cholorplast poster~~
~~Print backlit sign, (if someone will tell me screen rulings!!! as I have yet to find a screen printer still doing them who would help me out here. GRR)~~
~~Estimating Final~~
~~Presentation Graphics Assignment for CG~~
~~Webgraphics for CG~~
~~CD casing Design for CEPS~~

Sixteen days until I start my Assistantship

So basically, I'm in this major state of freaking out. And, to add to the list of assignments above I'm still waiting on or need to do:

~~Go to Housing Office and sign my contract for my apartment for this summer though May 2007~~

~~Get accepted into Industrial Management Program~~

~~Fill out Program Verification worksheet for Financial Aid and turn in Pink slip from line above~~

Get contract-like forms from Graduate School, which is waiting on CAST I believe so that I will be able to get paid this summer

Get reply from Financial Aid about this summer.

Whatever else I'm forgetting.

:: head asplodes ::

I wanted a vacation this summer as I will have about two weeks off from assistantship duties. One week will be spent getting wisdom teeth out. The other, probably doing absolutely nothing as I will have no money. le sigh

I just feel like screaming, banging my head against the desk, something anything to make it all just stop for just a few minutes. My mind goes so fast that I can't keep up with it.

My apartment is a mess because I was about halfway packed up monday when I found out that I would be staying here for the summer.

And my team for that MGT(management) class presentation SUCKS

:: repetitiveheaddesk ::

Thirty Days!

2006-04-06T11:50:00.000-05:00

Yesh! Only thirty days until graduation. Three weeks and one day of classes followed by a week of finals. So I guess that adds up to four weeks and two days until the offical end of the semester. I still have two papers to write and four projects to print. iSlacker. While I will be off to print soon it's not for any of my four projects.

Nope! I'm off to print my graduation announcements. I ended up with the same wording as Bailey as we sorta needed to output film yesterday so there wasn't a lot of time to come up with something. Our original plan had been to have the school seal foil stamped on the front, but our new kluge die cutter/foil stamper isn't up and running yet.

But here's a sneak preview for anyone who cares.

Bailey took and then photoshopped that picture on the front.

The pink/magenta on here will actaully be PMS200 aka CMSU red. It's just easier when outputting film to make it 100%magenta. Doesn't matter what color you toss on press.

Or if everything goes well the CMSU text will be foil stamped in red.

the inside will be...the inside.

And, now I must go. We are supposed to print at 1ish. dot dot dot.

"You! You ruined my zen."

2006-04-01T21:04:00.000-06:00

So, Toni and Dee were off to Germany for most of the week and I went off to Kansas City. It's not as exciting as one may think. I'm from Kansas City, and i's only an hour of away from wee Warrensburg were I go to college at. And it was't like I got to take the days off while I was there. No, I was babysitting on day and was a driver another day. But, I got to go to a Starbucks and feed my slowly growing coffee addiction. Until now I always preferred my caffeine in the cold beverage form. Which ultimately led to my coffee addiction through frappuccinos.

I had a lot of time to think while traveling between here and Kansas City, and even more time while I was in Kansas City. Thinking is always dangerous. My mind works a bit like a pinball machine. Only with more then one pinball flying around and hitting things and with more flashing, blinking lights, and bells and chimes. It's hard to follow, even for me and it's my mind. But occasionally the balls get stuck, and have to wait for the table to get pounded or shoved hard enough to unstick them and perhaps this is the most dangerous part. It leads to long, and possibly deep thoughts on topics. I think I avoided those though. Mostly I had thoughts about the oddly little crap that goes on around me.

I realized a long time ago that the world is full of stupid people, and that even non stupid people will have moments of stupidity. I also realize that I am keenly aware of the population of stupid people. I am also aware of my moments of stupidity. I put together this little 'theory' here after running a red light on 7th Street on the way home from Costco with my mum.

I kept this in mind as I was driving to Kansas City last Wednesday. I went home the southern route, despite knowing about the massive construction on I435 between Metcalf Ave. and 69HWY. The sole reason for turning left instead of right in Lee's Summit would be because I like driving on a certain part of I35 near my house. Driving can be oh so very zen sometimes. It's the only reason I'm happy that I got my license last year. Well, that and not having to depend on anyone else to get somewhere at home, if there's an available vehicle that is.

Anyways, while driving on I470, some driver behind me decides he wants to pass. Okay, sure go ahead, and I waited to see if they would go to my left, like a normal person, pass then slide back over. No, he goes to the right, speeds up, passes, then slides back over in front of me. What the fuck mate? It's not like there was someone blocking the left lane and you were in an emergency or anything. It's not like it was the usual two vehicles going around the same speed and one naturally passes the other. It was a blatant pass.

I wanted to shout at them "You! You ruined my zen!"

But they wouldn't hear me and I would look like a total jackass to the other drivers for having my face all screwed up and all for no apparent reason. I would be labled as one of them road rage infested like drivers who are always screaming at someone. But I digress. (Thank you Mr. Barabas)

So one stupid person okay, but as I went through the Grandview Triangle, where there are bridges that go no where, and on to the aforementioned 435 there were a ton of people doing this. People passing on the left, people passing on the right. It's like the entire four-lane interstate was infested with these passing on the right people. There can't be that many people from the UK and other places that drive on the other side of the road here at once.

But honestly all the UK people here who have driven in Warrensburg don't have this problem. They adapted quite quickly to driving over here and stuff so t hat couldn't be it. Unless you are Jake, but he's very special and just not worth going into. I entertained the thought that maybe I was like not going fast enough. Nope five miles over the posted speed. So just WTF? You know? It's bad enough that I'm used to watching people change lanes from the left that now I have to watch out for the right too because who knows!

And yes, I am guilty of passing on the right. But at least the left lane was like not an option to do so, or the idiot who I was passing was going way to slow in the left lane. I also apologize for the massive use of road designations that mean nothing to you all, unless you are visiting, then god help you. Hire a local for a driver.

Swapping gears here. You ever think that something is lame, geeky, stupid or whatever you would like to call it. Then, you catch yourself doing that exact same thing? Good. I'm not that only one now. I usually laugh at people singing along in the car to the radio. I have no idea why. Then I caught myself doing it. Nothing to say now except:

:: headsteeringwheel ::

Note: Blooger spell checker does not recognize fuck as a word. Instead it recommends one of the following: Fuji, fuzz, fuss, fuse, face, foci, buck, puck, FCC, bucks.

^ Header ^

2006-03-25T04:49:00.000-06:00

So I worked 10pm to 2am last night at the front desk. I get back from work and everything is quite and I figure that I'll be able to get right to sleep. I'm tired by this time on Friday night/Saturday morning, because if I didn't get a nap on Friday I'll have been up for 24 hours.

But, yeah, things didn't work out quite like that. My neighbours, all 3 apartments between me and the stairwell, have been a pain in the ass. I got about 20 minutes of sleep before the trash cans were being tossed down the hall. The big trashcans from the stairwell.

Anyways, seeing as I was up, and Toni was messing with templates, and I wanted something new, I made that header thingie up there. Figured out how to edit the blogger templates and such. Not sure about it so, please comment and tell me to keep it, loose it, or anysuggestions.

Iron Fists, Marketing Campagins and Writings on the Wrapper

2006-03-22T07:06:00.000-06:00

Guys, turn back now. You've been warned.

(this was once posted on my other journal. It's since been beta'd and added to a bit.)

Who ever says that a girl, getting her period is a wondrous event in that person's life has it all wrong. In fact, it probably wasn't even a woman who said that, not a normal one anyways. If it was a woman, it was one of them steroidal girly women that are bouncy and happy and are just begging to be shot. So, counting out the now shot steroidal girly woman, maybe it was a man? A guy who's left all alone to deal with a raging hormone infested daughter? He was probably fiercely looking for a copy of the Chilton Manual for Daughters so he could figure out what to say, only to learn that it's not covered in the manual. Evidently, the Haines manual doesn't cover this either.

It's not a wondrous event! It's a sentence to many years of PMS, hormonal mood swings, and the iron first of womanhood twisting your guts inside out, while your already suffering enough in esitmating class! No pain, no gain my ass. What am I gaining other then affirming the fact that I am NOT pregnant!

And for the love of tampons! 'Feminem Hygiene Producut' makers. Stop changing the damn colours on the packages! Two am at the Walgreens, sorry Teoh I wasn't walking to Wal-mart, is not the time to have to read all the packages for what you are looking for because someone got a bug up their butt about the colour choices and changed them! That, or the pressmen cannot read the docket and used the wrong inks and instead of reprinting it their amazing cost saving idea was just to run with it. Odds are the companies that make of this stuff are run by sadistic people. Probably some woman who thinks that all women should suffer like her. Doesn't violate that whole personal/work line we are supposed to keep? But then in that line of work it would probably be hard to keep that separate....

What? You were expecting me to say it's run by a sadistic man? Hell no! Everyone knows women are more vindictive. A guy would be to lazy to think of changing the colours.

And, get the damn 'Tips for life" off the wrapper. It's not like it's helpful advice. That's if you can read it to begin with. If you find the English version you will read such tips as:

"Drink 6-8 glasses of water daily to help keep you hydrated and feeling fresh."
"Avoiding caffeine may help reduce cramps and headaches."
"Staying active can help reduce cramps"

Tell me, do you feel fresh during this time of the month? NO. It's impossible to! I won't even go into the specifics for that's just, I don't want to think about it. Drinking 6-8 glasses of water just makes me have to go pee more often. That's it! Avoid caffeine? WTF are you people thinking? Avoid caffeine? If I'm not caffeinated I get homicidal, down right murderous. My friends? They aren't much better. They threaten murder if you touch their coffee cup before they have inhaled it all.

Tips were probably written by some woman who paid off the iron fist of womanhood so that she could side step the whole twisting of guts thing. Because if you can tell me how to stay active when you cannot even stand fully up right without pissing off the iron fist that has your innards in its grip I'll gladly listen.

Oh. And the 'Shhh' stay quite pouch? It's not quite! It doesn't matter if you are trying to hide it from everyone else in the women's restroom. Everyone will know what that velcro-ey sound is! Just get over it! I don't care what the package is, it's not exactly at the top of my priorities. It's not like the other women in the restroom don't know what's going on.

So, until such time that this torturous time period, no pun intended, of my life is over, stop changing the packaging, stop giving useless tips on the wrappers.

GAHHH!

English, tornadoes, and a rant on campus newspapers

2006-03-18T17:48:00.000-06:00

Thursday I received the email edition of the Muleskinner, our campus newspaper. I was reading through the articles and what not trying to get the total scoop on what had happened in the last week with what the tornadoes and all on Sunday. There was one article about it. It starts off:

"Students coming back to Central Sunday had to drive through heavy rains, high winds and even hail. Between the hours of 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., students had to evacuate dorms four times as tornado warning sirens went off."

Can anyone tell me what is wrong here??????????? If you've never been through a tornado you should be able to point this out as well. Tornadoes come from really, uber strong storms. So there's rain and wind before hand. Hail too. Hail's a good clue because it can tell you the strength of the updraft by the size of the hail pieces.

Now, I ask you, would you want to be outside during a storm that has really strong winds, near zero visability with the rain, it's hailing, and warning sirens are going off. No. I didn't think so.

Then why is the Muleskinner telling us that we evacuated the dorms four times Sunday night? You don't EVACUATE. (Needless to say I'm excluding the people who went outside to see if they could see the tornadoes) You don't leave the building when the tornado sirens go off. If you're outside generally you seek shelter, inside a building or in a ditch. Building preferably.

And I thought well maybe I have the wrong definition of evacuate. Yeah, I didn't think so either. But to be fair I went and looked up the word on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary at m-w.com and this is what they had to say.

Main Entry: evac·u·ate
Pronunciation: i-'va-ky&-"wAt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -at·ed; -at·ing
Etymology: Middle English, to draw off morbid humors, from Latin evacuatus, past participle of evacuare to empty, from e- + vacuus empty
transitive senses
1 : to remove the contents of : EMPTY
2 : to discharge from the body as waste : VOID
3 : to remove something (as gas or water) from especially by pumping
4 a : to remove especially from a military zone or dangerous area b : to withdraw from military occupation of c : VACATE

Did we empty the buildings?
Did we leave the buildings void of live human bodies?
Did we remove ourselves from the building? Or pump ourselves out?(not sure how you would do that)
Did we leave a military zone? Dangerous area?

NO. One could argue for dangerous area but in all honesty you'd have to leave the area way far away to be out of the dangerous area, simply relocating from your room or apartment to the lowest floor and away from windows doesn't count. You're just moving your location within the dangerous area.

So why did the author use a word that means the exact opposite of what most of us did?

Maybe it was an accident? They happen. You can't expect everything to be peachy keen kosher all of the time. Things will slip every now and then. I was going to let it slide. Really I was. But then, six 'paragraphs' later, it happened again.

"Students working on their studies inside the library were evacuated to the basement until the 'all clear' was given. "

The students in the library left the building to go to the basement. Perhaps they mean they evacuated the building and told everyone to go home! Go home now! But they wouldn't do that, they can't make you go to the basement, but they can't kick you out.

It concerns me when I read a published newspaper article and the author uses the wrong word. Usually, the article is seen by at least one person, an editor, or someone like that. And, you would hope that this person is well versed in the English language. After all, isn't the editor like the Beta-reader in the fic writing world? I'd expect my beta reader to catch a mistake like this. Using the completely wrong word.

Now, I'm not a master of the English language. My spelling sucks, and I have a thing about comma's, and various other issues. But I do know the meaning of the word evacuate.

And I didn't evacuate my building Sunday night.

/rant

A early morning tangent

2006-03-15T05:43:00.000-06:00

For some reason I decided to bring estimating homework to the orfice this morning. No, not orifice. Orfice. An orfice is like an office. But with only one f and an r instead.

Estimating is the evilness. It makes your eyes bleed as you stare at the numbers prancing around on the page and doing acrobatics. They taunt you. Even worse is the answers in the back of the workbook. You peek back there and find out you've done two problems ENTIRELY wrong. And realize that you have to do the job planners version of an contortionist's act to correctly do one of the problems. Honestly, all that trouble for ONE MORE out is just, nuts. Insane. Not a gamble that I would want to take. We all clap and cheer for you getting not 10, but 11 pss out of the pars.

All they are doing is causing more trouble for the job. Yes, it's good that you are getting the most out of the parent size sheet. Paper like makes up 50% of the cost of a job, yeah get the most out of it. Go you go!

Just remember though, it's only beneficial though if it works out. In a case like this where you have a dutch cut, sometimes referred to as a bastard cut, you better hope you have a good cutter operator. If not you will hear the operator yell, "BASTARD," the second they drop the blade and realize that they just ruined an entire lift, if not job, because they weren't paying attention enough to realize that there was change of direction. (This is my theory on why it's sometimes referred to as a bastard cut. It got named that from the number of times jobs have been cursed at becasue of this)

Then, they have to fill out the "I ~~fucked~~ messed the job up by:" paperwork which puts them in a bad mood for the rest of their shift there by putting more jobs at risk of being messed up. Of course they have to inform their supervisor of this, which doesn't make the supervisor's day. So the job goes back to reprint. And, you, your company, eats the cost of reprinting the job, which doesn't make anyone happy and makes your reprint percentage go up. Not to forget the meeting in which this particular job will be brought up and everyone will be reminded AGAIN to check the docket/ticket and pay more attention to what they are doing. So spare us all the agony and remember just to KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

And I know that you all just LOVED this little impromptu printing lesson. Most of you probably didn't make it this far. Eh, I don't blame ya. Run. Run away. And I'll take some cheese with my whine please. After all cheese is the devils play thing. Which would be exceedingly helpful as knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard, be evil.

Ork done! Food now!

I'm running away...

2006-03-14T01:49:00.000-06:00

I just like did grown up bank stuff.

My knee surgery royaly screwed me over. I missed 14 hours of work because of it. Thats $72.10 that won't be landing in my bank account on Wednesday. Then of course, I work for the university. Last week was spring break. Which means I didn't work at all so there's 12 hours of work that I don't get. It would have been my turn for weekends so an additional 8 hours. So up to a total of 20 hours that I won't get paid for on the 31st.

On the other hand, April is looking up, MANY hours for the April 15th pay period. that's a month away though.

I know a lot of people were excited when we changed pay periods this year. Last year we got paid ont he 20th of every month. So on March 20th you got paid for all of February. I wish we still had that. They wanted to make it easier on people who lived paycheck to paycheck or something like that was the rumour. But all it has done has made my life a hell of a lot complicated.

And, before I'm fed the same rhetoric that everyone else tells me about just wait until you get out in the real world and crap like that. I am in the real world. I juggle work, school, and bills all while wishing I was allowed to work more than 20 hours a week, 80 a month.

I need a second job like.. NOW.

I'm going to go bash my head in now in attempt to forget about it for a while.

Fruits of Labor

2006-03-11T10:42:00.000-06:00

So this is more to show off then anything. Pictures of my shirts that I made. Well, I made two of them. Bailey made the other. Just click on them for a larger view.

The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy - Bailey's 4 colour shirt w/ underbase

my 6 colour shirt w/ underbase

made this one after Dee from Random Musings of a Stargate Junkie saw one like it online

Sixty-Two days and counitng until Graduation.

2006-03-03T10:33:00.000-06:00

A while ago I was saying how I didn't have a clue as to what I wanted to do when I graduated in May. Spent three and half years earning this degree and I didn't know what to do with it. Well, I still don't know what to do with it. However, I do know what I'm going to do when I graduated.

And I will graduate. I’ve been given the thumbs up from the Registrars office. w00t!

I'm going back to school. Grad school to be exact. That's right. I can't wait to get out of school, to graduate and be done with the place that I'm coming back in the Fall for another two years, go me go!.

The longshort story is as follows.

I was in the screen printing lab last week helping out a classmate while I finished making my screens. My screen printing professor asked what I was planning to do when I graduated. I admitted I hadn't a clue and he asked if I had thought about grad school. Which I had. I've just been so burnt out on school that I wasn't really up to entertaining the idea. And, I couldn't pay for the last three years of school, why do any more?

My professor mentioned that there was going to be a CAST Grad Assistantship opening if I was interested. It paid full tuition for graduate level courses plus a stipend.

So after much debating, and threatening by other people. I decided to go for it. All paper work is in just need things to get official, official. And it doesn’t look like there will be a problem, but still just need the deans to say yes.

So, no more job searching for the time being. Fall will start two more years of school for a Master of Science in Industrial Management. :: headdesk ::

The knee thing.

2006-03-03T10:26:00.000-06:00

So, what was supposed to be a simple in and out fix my knee issue surgery, ended up being simple surgery wise, but ended with bad reactions to Fentanyl and Versed, a trip to the ER, and four days trying to come down off of them. Now, just fighting off upper respritatory infection. But knee is doing awesome. Almost back to normal activities.

And, Spring Break started over an hour ago when I got out of class. Yey!

Head asplosion postponed

2006-02-17T02:21:00.000-06:00

That's right. My head did not asplode. Tho sure felt like it would. Knee doing good. Little sore and stiff as to be expected.. the rest of me is still trying to get horrible Fentynal out of its system. So I'm about 24-36 hours behind the usualy post-op schedule I'm on.

And, to help counter act the evilness of the Fentynal, they have me drinking Dr. Pepper for the caffine... Hence why I'm up at 0221 attempting to make sensible blog posts.

BTW, shold be back in Warrensburg Saturday sometime.

Back to sleep. -_-

Head asplosion eminent x_x

2006-02-13T04:36:00.000-06:00

I don't think that I'm going to have to wait to get rid of my eyeballs by sporks in estimating class. I think my head's going to asplode. My entire face just blow off like a man hole cover from way to much excess steam build up below. The top of my head too. It will be like one of them old cartoons with the steam out the ears and everything.

And while this is all happening, I stare mournfully at my bottle of ibuprofen. Which, I'm not allowed to take. Haven't been allowed to for the last week. Not allowed any ibuprofen, naproxen, asprin, etc because of knee surgery tomorrow. Only Tylenol which isn't working. Gah. I feel like House, only it's not "Love Thy Vicodin," it's "Love Thy Ibuprofen."

So please, until I tell Gas Passer John, or which ever notriously nose anesthisologist I get tomorrow afternoon, to put me out of my misery, someone, please, catch my brains if they leak out, and any other projectile body parts. Ears especially. I'll even provide the hazmat suits. :: hands out hazmat suits :: Thanks, just put it in the tupperwares in the kitchen.

x_x

It's all about the SWAG

2006-02-10T06:12:00.000-06:00

...and no I don't mean scientific wild ass guesses.

I'm talking about the free stuff.

That's what it's all about. Especially when your opinions of the companies at the career expo isn't all that high. This year, this last Wednesday, we didn't call each other on our cells to excitingling in almost valley-girlish ways to tell each other what companies where there. Nope. The first things that we talk about is the free stuff that we got. Don't get me wrong. We had good companies there, just none that I was really interested in. However, we played nice and we really wanted to see what cool stuff was being given away.

The LED pen, mini stapler/stapler remover/letter opener, and hackey sacks from Henry Wurst. The polycarbonate waterbottles from Burns and McDonnell. Popcorn and water bottles from PrintLynx. Pullstring bags from Banta. Cool shiney stuff and airplane pictures at the Boeing booth.

I will say, that the coolest booth I have stopped at the last two career fairs was the Williamson booth. Last semester, no swag from them, but they had the best print samples laid out. Liquid foils, and raised UV inks. Most importantly, the representitives didn't care that we hung around for ten minutes looking at the stuff, and answering our questions. They even had the balls to tell us that they didn't know all the answers.

But all the free stuff getting handed out, it's got me thinking. That shred of whatever that hasn't been destroyed by the real world and cynicism and sarcasm. Maybe is it a bit sad that it's come to that. That we go into these events looking for the free stuff. That with out the cool stuff people won't go and visit your booth. It reminds me of my high school teachers constantly asking my classes why we expected things in return. Tangible things, not grades and words of praise. Anytime we were asked/told to do homework, in class work, behave, someone always asked, "Well, what will you give us?"

It's like the entire system of good motiviation is gone. It's about bribery now. But, perhaps this has come about through a system of being forced to do 'optional' things. Like being forced to attend a career fair as a requirement for class.

And as much as I really don't care about what happens after I leave. Some tiny part in the back of my head that sounds like a cricket, one that is very hard to kill by the way, convinced me to give it a shot. To go to the career fair and play nice with the employers, ask intelligent sounding questions, and seem genuinely interested in working for their company. Handout resuemes, and collect business cards, taking the moment to look at them before dropping them into my bag. And maybe, by doing this, they will continue to come back to another Career Expo/Fair, and some poor sap in another graduating class can interview and be hired.

However, I will still enjoy the rewards. Honestly, that pen from Henry Wurst kicks ass! And the mini stapler combo jigger, solves the problem of hauling around a stapler in my pack. I'm not up to hauling around my0 Swingline, it would probably be considered a concealed weapon.

/ramble

Just one last note:

My Swingline is not red.

< sigh >

2006-01-26T02:53:00.000-06:00

So I graduate in May. The 6th to be exact even though I am done with finals on May 1st. Many people know this, and they all ask one question:

"So," and that's a long drawn out so, but I'm told it looks amateurish to write/type Soooooooooo dot dot dot.

So, they go "So, what are you going to do when you graduate?"

They expect me to have an answer. Some great, awesome sounding position at the same some great, awesome company. Well, I hate to disappoint you. It's nothing like that.

I don't have a clue. I really truly don't. I haven't a clue as to what I want to do when I graduate other then get a job. Grad school has been mentioned but I'm kind of burned out on school.

Oh, and I'm not a people person. I don't work well with others. And I'm easily distractible.

Three checks in the wrong column.

But, on the other side is the write column where I am a fast learner, can multitask, prefer evening and night shifts over days, don't mind getting my hands dirty.

So, you know you don't realize how much that word is used in everyday language until you write something like this. So this... So that... A long drawn out so... So on and So on.

So, I'd rather have a production job than an office job. I write better than I speak, including typos, misusage, unclear tangential thought trains and an almost intense avoidance of commas.

And when I've tried to explain this people, as in professors and the so called older and wiser adults who are supposed to offer sound advice, it's like the proverbial parent talking to a teeenager. The parent's speaking the teenager looks interested, but is not paying attention. Only in reverse. This time it's the 'teenager' talking to the 'parent' and the parent is letting it all just flow past them and narrowly hanging on to the notion that their 'kid' will go on to have some fabulous job at a big time company.

I'm back to where I started.

One hundred days until I graduate with a Bachelors of Science, with a Functional Major of Graphic Arts Technology-Management, and I don't know what I'm going to do.

Fic Announcement: Broken Hallelujah

2006-01-17T09:44:00.000-06:00

Just finished this on Sunday night, and posted to lists yesterday.

You can find it here on my website http://incomingwormhole.com/broken.htm

Title: Broken Hallelujah

Author: crash

Email: the.yllek@gmail.com

Status: Complete 1-15-06

Category: Angst, Vignette.

Pairings: none.

Spoilers: Anything up until Threads in season 8

Season: 8

Sequel/Series Info: none

Rating: Mature

Content Warnings: Language!

Archive: Incoming Wormhole

Summary: Jack's had a rough year or so. Tag to Threads.

Disclaimer: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Author's Note: Music is such a big part of my life that it does influence most of my writing. Once again it was a song that inspired this one. Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah as performed by Jeff Buckley. Jeff Buckley has such a beautiful voice it's a shame he died so young. Thanks to Aniko who got me started, Hoo who kept me going and Steph for always willing to give Chris coffee. Dee cheered and beta'd and any other mistakes in the fic are my fault!

The original character of Chris, was first introduced in Whisper on a Scream. He can also be found in the Caesura series. None of which need to be read before this one. Chris is just a good friend of Jack's and has been for a long while.

http://incomingwormhole.com/broken.htm

Follow the Leader...to sledding

2006-01-15T10:41:00.000-06:00

This turned out to be longer then I thought... and I don't know how to do cuts, if there are any, on blogger. So my apologies...

Follow the leader. That’s another popular child’s game. Though it never lasts long, there’s always a coup within a few minutes. Eh, shrug. I’m following the leader. This whole thread on red light green light, hide and see and various childhood games got me thinking.

How did we turn out even slightly on the okay side of the line? We as the people I grew up with. The games we played. The stunts we pulled. Honestly I look back and don’t know HOW I survived my childhood. For example, in the winter, sledding was taking your life into your hands, more so than the average sledder.

Now, I lived in Kansas at the time, and regardless of the rumor that it’s flat, not all of it is. I lived at the bottom of one hill and at the top of another. My house was two and half stories in the front, three and half in the back. We also lived one road over from the emergency snow route so we always got plowed.

For sledding we usually went down a block to the church that was there. It had a short, but good hill for sledding. You could get good speeding going down and as long as you tipped over by the time you hit the walk you were okay. Sometimes the walk would be shoveled, and if it was well you stopped the moment you hit the cracked, uneven concrete. If you didn’t stop by then, you had about twenty more feet before a four foot drop off a retaining wall.

On the other side of the retaining wall, a pulverized blacktop and gravel alley with broken bits of glass, nails, and other stuff you find in the alley. If you missed that? Damn, you got some good speed but there was a two foot cinderblock wall that lined the edge of Stan’s property and the rose bushes that hung over it. Basically the laws of inertia make either of these things suck, and once you go flying over, you never do it again.

So that’s pretty tame. But that’s what we did while our parents were at home. Or while waiting for the school bus, or right after getting off the bus. The real fun was on snow days. My parents worked and would leave me home with two or three of my older siblings.

I mentioned before that my house sat on a hill. So with the back yard lower than the front we had steps that led to the back. But not just simple average steps. My dad put them in. They were long wide steps. Each ‘tread’ close to probably four foot square, and maybe four to six inches high. A nice gentle slope compared to the retaining walls and steps my neighbors had.

We got a lot of snow one winter, and one of the snow days after going sledding down the middle of the side street (I lived on the corner), we got the brilliant idea to try sledding down the stairs into the back yard. There was enough snow that we didn’t have to worry about bumping too much on the way down. There was railing on the left to keep us out of the flowerbeds, and railroad ties on the right that lined the way from the side slope and old strawberry patch. And the best part, a clear shot to the chain link fence that kept us from crossing the alley and dropping four feet into our neighbor’s yard.
It was awesome.

With a little shove you’d got flying down the stairs and off across the back yard and nose first into the fence. The old wooden sled with metal runners would hit first, the fence would bulge outward, scraping the alley’s asphalt, and your body would fly forward in time to get shoved back into the yard by the fence returning to its rightful place. Very sweet. But that was only the first day.

The second day, the melted snow from the day before had frozen over night, giving the snow covered stairs a hard shell. Perfect for my friend Stephen’s plastic sled. Also, learning from the previous days mishaps of smashing into the railing posts and head first tumbles into the side slope we brought some snow down from where the snow plow piled it on the front walk, and from what we shoveled out from around the cars, and built it up on both sides, forming a crude gauntlet.

It wasn’t enough though. Not enough speed. The ride too short, and you didn’t always make it to the back fence. Riding down the middle of the unplowed side street was more fun and challenging. After all there were cars to dodge and the big plow created snow bank at the bottom, right before the bust Metropolitan Avenue.

And yet, another brilliant idea came. Why just the stairs? Why not the entire walk to the back yard? The concrete and stone path that led down to the stairs. It led from the front porch, curving slightly around the corner and flowed down the side yard, meeting up with the stairs about mid way between the front and back of the property. Again, with the help of enormous snow banks from the plow we fixed up the path to try and guide us to the stairs. It was tricky, a narrow window of opportunity. You either made it, therefore continuing down the stairs, or, you said hello to your unforgiving friend inertia.

The ultimate rush, for an eight year old at least. Flying down the front walk, the adrenalin going, an extra shot of it as you reached the rendezvous of path and stairs, and the final part of the flight, that ended in a crumpled heap, or stuck under the fencing.

For every successful run, there were two or three failed attempts. Loss of concentration causing you not to turn just right and a collision was unavoidable. Snow maybe very forgiven, 4 x 4 inch wood posts and aluminum poles weren’t. Railroad ties, which broke so easily when you jumped on the edges, or whacked them with a bat, held solid when you were flung into them.

It didn’t stop us. Crash after crash we’d get up, plod back up the hill, and do it again. And again. And again until we had to worry about parents coming home and noticing what we were up to. I’m sure my neighbor who lived behind us, the one on the other side of the alley that the chain link fence prevented us from landing in her yard had called our mum to tell her what we were doing. I’d be more surprised if she hadn’t.

But if mum knew. She never said anything. Perhaps thinking that if she acted like it didn’t happen, she could get rid of the fear of the call she’d get during the day saying that one of her kids were in need of the KU emergency room again.

Snow days never lasted long. Two in a row was an oddity. So soon we were packed off back to school for the day. And, on the weekends, were restricted to the now more sedate ride down the church hill, novice considering the gauntlet we had created.

Do I really trust you?

2006-01-13T13:23:00.000-06:00

Say you are friends with someone for close to 3 years. You used to hang out together with mutual friends. Watch movies, eat pizza, order crappy chinese food, play video games on outdated gaming systems. Harass those who aren't as intelligent as you, and thoes that are, it's equal opportunity. Take road trips two hours south just to eat at a restaurant.

You start to drift apart because of one friend's fiance. She gets in the works. Relentlessly talks through the movies, thinks you think like she does, whines, tries to take charge, tries to control lives, does not appreciate the humor that was once present, and ultimately becomes more of a fun vacuum, than person we originally designated person was.

Your 'friends' pass that fine line from friends to over bearing friends, and you spend an entire semester trying to make them understand that your life doesn't revolve around them. This fails. So you move across campus.

Campus isn't that big, but unlike the friends you have more credit hours, and outside projects to be working on. You'd rather spend your time writing, which they don't really understand, then playing video games. Your friends fiance doesn't like that you are friends with her former suitemate. So you spend less time around them.

Then comes your final semester at school. A simple class load, and graduation to look forward to. You run into one of your friends in the computer lab while there with another classmate. He asks if you are going to be at the next movie night and you say you don't know. You get to talking about last semesters and finals and you say what day you are done with, which happens to be Monday.

He says "Well you have finals on Friday."
You say "No I don't"
He says "You have a 8am computer graphics and 11am special projects."

You know the only way he would know this is if he had your schedule. A schedule you've never given to him, or any of your 'friends' that he knows. You find out a few minutes later that he pulled up everyones schedules.

This friend works in the information services area on campus as a student worker. Has in various offices since he was a freshmen. He's a computer information systems major, and basically computer guru. He has more along the lines of admin rights to areas on the university network. And he's just used that to pull up your schedule. Something you should only be pulling up by your username, or university official.

Your friends don't trust you enough to ask you when you have classes. They feel that they have to be sneaky and underhanded and go behind your back to find out. To the point of using access to university network information, for non university work.

He did something unethical. And it wasn't the first time. The first time, a year or so ago, he used his access to the student database to find my room number and phone number, which was marked private, not available to students through the public search.

In the grand scheme of things this is a minor violation. Schedule and room and phone numbers. Small ethical violations. But, don't lots of things start small and grow big? If you are doing this how do I know your not doing something else that could be construed as nefarious. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's a major violation too. More then violating some contractual clause that says you will not abuse network privileges, your trust, a founding block of friendship, was broken.

Blargh.

2006-01-12T15:55:00.000-06:00

So it's been a month since I've added anything to this blog. But nothing has really happened. Sure the semester started again on Monday, I'm poorer then I was last semester and desparately seeking another job, but due to mobility issues am seriously being hampered.

I wrote quite a few things but they are worse than any of the essays I wrote on my on the spot during American Lit. exams after having not read either of the selections mentioned. So they will continue to stay holed up on the hard drive until I get around to messing with them.

The Genuis of Central

2005-12-12T08:14:00.000-06:00

Today, finals have begun. Actually they start right now with 8am MWF classes taking their finals at this very moment. I don't have a final until 11am. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Why the hell did we have to change class rooms for our final? Not that this happens in every class. I've never had this happen to me before in my previous three years attending this 'fine institution.' Usually finals are in the same room that you had class in. But this semester they changed the location of my Prod. Anal. Final.

And maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it was in a building like Wood or Martin where it's rather easy to find you way around. There's only one hallway, except on first floor where the two buildings connect to the theatre, but even that is easy to find. Nope, the class that I have the final moved for is held in Grinstead.

One of the worst buildings on campus. It's so twisted and convoluted we clap when we see first times emerge after entering for their first class. Want to know how screwed up this building is? When I had my first class in that building i walked around for almost 30 minutes and couldn't find a damn stairwell. I had walked right past two of them, more then once. So moving a final to a different room is just wrong. Especially to a room that we've not like had class in before and that's in GRINSTEAD, the hall of doom.

Now the prof did a wonderful job of telling us where to take the final. Told us room number and that it was inthe northeast corner. None of us know our directions once you get in there. You loose all sense of north-south east-west. I'll be amazed if the class all manages to show up in the correct spot.

Why the...

2005-11-27T20:23:00.000-06:00

... Frack does someone take their 8-year old to see a rated R movie?

Some lady brought her 8-year old to Jarhead last night....

A whiney post for no reason other then to be whiney.

2005-11-22T09:23:00.000-06:00

This is just a senseless post where I’m being very whiney.

So yeah I’m working 6am to 11am today. And it's 930 only hour and half left but I got like no sleep in the 6 hours between my shift last night and coming in again this morning. Lovely people were running up and down the hallway screaming their heads off for no reason. And I was late this morning anyways so I didn't get chance to get any food. All I have is a bottle of Dr. Pepper and right now my stomach is yelling at me to put food in it. It will probably have to wait until almost noon as I go right to class from here.

And with it being Tuesday of Thanksgiving week there's nobody here that I know to stop by and talk to me and keep me from dozing off and steal me food out of the mess hall that’s across the hall. So now I’m going back to watching Pirates Of The Caribbean for the 2nd or third time this week! And it's only Tuesday!

So I’m cold, hungry, sleepy, and I really gotta pee. Damn the no leaving front desk rule!

I think I may have to stop by Taco Bell on my way to class and beg Salena or Anna for food. Can always get in and out of Taco Bell in the Union uber fast. They numberone Taco Bell for a reason.

College sucks.

Lesson One: Bake and Broil are not the same thing

2005-11-20T17:02:00.000-06:00

While Paul G. is off learning about bachelor life I'm off learning about college life.

Well... not really, this is my fourth year so it's not like there's a lot of new stuff happening. But I did move out of the dorms and into an on campus apartment. The university took one of the dorm buildings and converted the suites to apartments. They come furnished which is cool because without that I'd have a TV stand, two bookshelves, a folding camp chair, a mattress on the floor, and possibly a desk (which would be dependent on me disassembling mine at home as it won't fit through the doorway and down the stairs (there's a 90-degree turn involved.) otherwise.).

So, living in a building with a lot of other college students, each with their own stove has been quite the learning experience. Yes let your imaginations take you away it really is as bad as you think. The university however, must have taken this in to consideration when they placed the new smoke detectors in the rooms. Unlike the ones in my old building I can't drape a damp washcloth over this one if I want to burn candles, or cook anything. The ones in my apartment hang in the middle of the ceiling.

So I've learned a lot about cooking this year so far. There are a lot of guys on my floor, some of you have heard me mention Jake, the Englishman that's the only other person I know of who puts curry on popcorn. That's just sick by the way.

Lesson one:

Bake and Broil are not the same.

Jake has been the source of many educational visits. Like how to cook a pizza. Naturally, Jake blames this on American ovens. I think he's male and just didn't read the directions and pay attention to where he turned the knob.

One of the earliest encounters was when Jake was trying to cook a frozen pizza. The kind that you bake at 425 degrees F for 11-13 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Jake put the pizza in the oven, even managed to take it off the cardboard and on to a pizza pan. Ten minutes later, as I'm sitting in my apartment with my door open and yelling things down the hallway to him I smell something burning and I hear, "Hey Kelly, you gotta come see this." in the same tone of voice that my redneck relatives say "Hey, hold my beer and watch this."

The pizza is on the top rack of the oven, the heating element on the bottom is off but the one on top is bright red and there are little blue flames dancing on top of what used to be a pizza. Jake had broiled his pizza instead of baking it. It was now a flat piece of carbon that was used as a frisbee. We put the fire out first.

Holy Frackin Bats

2005-11-11T18:37:00.000-06:00

Yes!

Bats!

B
A
T

No not the wooden or alumnium kind. I'm talking about the furry winged creatures.

This morning I went in to the bathroom before I left for class and I hear this fluttering noise and I thought it was just the ground crews cleaning up leaves outside. I feel sorry for the leaves the ground crew keep sweeping them up and chopping them up. It's like leaf genocide.

But, then I see the Walmart bag, that's fullfilling it's life as a trash sack, is fluttering. So I figured it's getting moved by the wind. But, there's no wind, and we have steam heating so no vents in the bathroom.

My first thought is, Aww crap someone in the building has mice and has shared. It takes a few moments but I summon up the courage and peak into the can.

George: "Jesus Christ!"
Mason: "What?"
George: "Jesus Christ!, Jesus Christ!"
Mason: "Don't get loud, what?"
George: "Those are dead people"
Mason: "No shit."

"There's a frackkin gorram bat in my trash can. Holy frackking shit!" and I jumped back whacked my head on the door and retreated to my room to try and figure out what to do.

After all it's not everyday you find a bat fluttering in your trashcan. I walked back in with an old box in my hand, and honestly what's a box going to do against a bat, but they've never covered this situation in any class or training thing I've been in.

When I get back into the bathroom I sneak in on it and look at the box and yeah i think WTF am I going to do with the box. And the damn bat is still fluttering around and I have to be in Prod. Anal. in like fifteen minutes, so what am I supposed to do?

I took a page out of the 'How To Battle Cockroaches And Live To Tell About It' manual, and picked up the bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles that was on the shelf, actually bleach products work better on cockroaches but improvisation and all.

Sprayed the hell out of the bat and it fluttered and wings curled in and just shuddershudder ick. Left it there and called the apt manager while I was on my way to class. It was gone when I got back so who ever came and took it or whatever.

But now, I'm completely paranoided about going into my bathroom again. Especially as I can't figure out how it go in there to begin with. shudder

..adding insult to injury....

2005-11-07T11:18:00.000-06:00

My little cheeseburger bites, that I was going to have for lunch and have looked forward to forever, have asploded, their insides spattered all over the spaghetti stained interior of the GE 700watt microwave.

what next? what will the day reign down upon me next?

I am so Fracked.

2005-11-07T08:46:00.000-06:00

I am so Fracked that it's not even funny any more.

I just learned via Casey C., as he lives in the dorm that I work at the front desk at and is in my classes, that we are having another quiz in Prod. Anal. at 0900 sharp. I didn't know about this as I wasn't in class on Friday I was busy getting lost in Liberty, Missouri as I turned right a mile to soon and had to drive 5 miles to find a parking lot to turn around in. That's how come I couldn't hack it in the country. Five miles for a parking lot? (None of the driveways were conducive to turning around in.

Anyways, apparently this is a retake of the quiz, that I argue is an exam not a quiz, quizes shouldn't take 45 minutes to do, we had last Wednesday as it appears everyone bombed it horribly bad. Out of 40 points I think only one person got about 30. Much eekness.

Though, honestly, I thought something was fishy when I came up with needing 115 plates for the second problem.

So yes, I'm Fracked.

Now, I shall pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that I may do well on this Production Planning 'Quz'. And on the make-up exam for Oral Interp at 1100.
Ramen.

Mondays Suck

Fic Announcement

2005-10-30T19:49:00.000-06:00

finally! i finished part three. only took a year to do the entire thing. so here it is. the header atleast follow the link at the bottom or here. Caesura: Passacaglia

Title: Caesura: Passacaglia

Author: Crash

Email: the.yllek@gmail.com

Status: Complete 10-28-05

Category: Angst; H/C

Pairings: none

Spoilers: none that I can think of for sure nothing from seasons 7 or 8

Season: Early 7ish, before Heroes (I finally figured it out :D)

Sequel/Series Info: Read Caesura: Gortoz A'Ran-J'Attends and Caesura: Tear Upon The Rose, before this one or you maybe lost.

Rating: 17 years and older for language.

Content Warnings: Language! Jack has such a dirty mouth. Chris ain't much better, he may be worse come to think of it.

File Size (kb): 109

Archive: Incoming Wormhole - http://www.Incomingwormhole.com

Summary: Part three of Caesura. Daniel comes to terms with the last mission, his place in the world, and himself, with a little help from Chris and Jack.

Disclaimer: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Author's Note: Many thanks to T, who's been there since part one, helped conceived the entire idea of this three parter, fed the dialogue muse. And who, essentially, gave me Chris, wayback in Whisper on a Scream. And thanks to Dee for kicking my ass, repeatedly. Heads up to the cheering section as well, Steph, Aniko, Holly, and the rest.

Passacaglia is by Bear McCreary and is from the Battlestar Galactic Season One Soundtrack. Even if you don't watch the show they have some really good music.

Caesura: Passacaglia

Let's all clap for Classes

2005-10-27T14:28:00.000-05:00

I would like to present my fine work from class. After struggling for twenty minutes to be able to connect to our server I found this picture and had fun. Yes, your state tax dollars at work.

i will go and be productive now..as prof's paying attention now

mmmm pizza.

2005-10-21T13:49:00.000-05:00

Pizza. A staple in a college students life. Why? Probably because it's cheep and can get delivered as late as 2am, participating restaurant locations only. There's nothing better then taking a bite of freshly delivered pizza. Perfectly melted cheese and other toppings if you want them. Except for, perhaps, cold pizza. Sometimes, it's better cold then hot, but I don't know why.

It's perfect in the winter if you do not have a fridge, which in today's world isn't very likely in a college dorm room. Most of us cannot live with out fridges, microwaves, and other housing deemed illegal appliances, cable tv and high speed internet in our rooms. But, for the two weeks I was with out one in the winter, my roommate and I kept our pizza wrapped in foil on the ledge outside the window. Of course that all depends on your windows but that's another discussion.

But keeping it on the window ledge worked really good. Except for the one time we got six inches of snow while we weren't in the room and we had left the windows and for some reason the screens open and came back to find snow IN our room. In the process or brushing it out the window, we hit the foil wrapped pizza, sending it spiraling downward to land on top of one of the maintenance vehicles. Rob, the driver of said vehicle and pipe guy for our building, thought it was hilarious.

(It might have been trash day and as we lived nearly right above the dumpster we tended to drop the bags out the window, and both of us had a habit of running late for class so probably forgot to close screens. hmm. )

And while I'm on the pizza theme, something odd happened last week. While walking to my noon class, eating a piece of left over pizza and listening to my cd player, I had set my piece on top of my cd player using the player for a plate. That doesn't work so well as it went sliding off, landing on the walkway on the opposite side of the railing and flop over, landing on a car below. Thankfully not on the windshield, just on the top of a cab of pick up truck.

And what do you say? What do you do? Your pizza, your lunch, only food so far that day, half eaten just went flying off the pedestrian bridge and on top of a moving vehicle. Well, I tell you what I did. I said nothing and walked on to class, only to be subjected to 53 minutes of lecture on offset presses and various food analogies to go with it.

Thoughts on writing...

2005-10-08T21:29:00.000-05:00

The worst part about writing—maybe I should say hardest, not worst—is trying to acurately discribe something you can see in you head. Especially now a days with television and movies you can picture the scene so clearly and think "Damn if only I could just film this." But, you also know that that takes away from the grace of writing. To film something would be easy and people wouldn't have to think when they see it. It's all laid out for them.

Rather when they read they have to think. they take an active part in it. They have to picture the scene in their own minds. And it allows for the reader to relate with it more then with a movie. Readers, whether they know it or not, insinuate their own 'texts' into what they are reading. (A person’s text is their own story, their life.) I believe that viewers do the same with film, but I don't belive that it happens on the same level.

This is all toni's fault

2005-10-08T19:15:00.000-05:00

you hear that toni!!! it's all your fault. i couldn't comment in yours with out a account! oiy!