Yesterday I returned from my two weeks on a roadtrip to Sweden. Three things I've learned: 1) While I was enjoying the calmness of the Swedish sjön, the institutions that are supposed to complete my graduation were also doing absolutely nothing. Which means that I now have just over a week to 'validate my appropriate pre-education' for the master's degree I want to start August 31st. A process that normally takes a month or more and should have started weeks ago, but wasn't because my final grade wasn't in the system until two weeks ago. 2) While I was carefully managing the budget of the roadtrip, the institution that was supposed to give me my student loans managed to fail completely at the one task they're supposed to do. Which means that I missed out on over 2k of payments that I now need to retrieve because they made a typo with my bank account. 3) Okay, enough ranting. The road trip itself was superb. Five of my best friends and I, one big van and plenty of roads for us to discover. It went much better than I'd hoped for - great weather, it was cheaper than expected (less than €400 total cost!) and camping in the wild was really nice. Not a single fight or argument. I've learned that the right kind of people and the right kind of planning can make a world of difference. Obligatory pictures:
Beautiful. Sounds like an amazing trip. What is that pic of machinery?
That was one of the coolest surprises of the trip. We were just looking for a supermarket in a very tiny village when literally across the road there was an old paper factory abandoned in the seventies that artists took over and opened to the public. Basically, urban exploring light:
What parts of the country did you visist?
We were very cautious not to go over our allowed mileage limit, so in the end we did the relatively small loop of Denmark - Goteborg - Ulricehamn - Vanersborg - Dalsland - Malmo and back home. Nonetheless some beautiful scenery there, especially Dalsland.
That part of Sweden is very pretty, I haven't been in it much - I live a bit farther up north and usually go even farther north on vacation.
Congratulations from a fellow fresh student. Remember to keep cool and have fun there. If it's your first time to receive higher education, it might be tough on you the first year or so. I have no idea - I've only lived through a year previously - but people say that beyond that, things get a lot easier.
All four years were super hard for me. I had no fun at all. I think many people have trouble staying organized and on schedule because there is so much more freedom and so little oversight compared to high school. For me at first I had a tough time because I had absolutely zero study skills and then later it was because I was in the wrong program (they belled the grades, only awarded 1 or 2 As per class and 33% were forced out of the program every year). I knew I wanted to go to grad school so had to get that A in every class. Surprisingly enough, grad school was so much easier and so much more fun.
Good luck with college. What awesome things do you plan on doing in college?
Nice! Have fun shopping. What's on the list of things you need? What sorts of things are considered priority items for a dorm room? You know your roommate?
Remember, if you don't have a weird roommate, then you're the weird roommate. Have fun! This is a cool time for you!
That is awesome. Congrats. What State are you moving to? Are you living in a dorm? I have never heard of a dorm for three before. Kids these days getting to stalk their roommates on social media. pfft
Alright, so give me just a moment to brag about my gym-going. My squat and deadlift are finally over two hundred pounds, and my core lifts are all above 100 lbs. I'm so unbelievably proud because I really had no support at the gym, and the person I was suppose to be going with started flaking mid way into our second month. The consistency has honestly kept my head straight... Thanks for listen. Also, checking in arguewithatree! Keep pushing forward! In other news, my last year of college begins in a week or two. I'm not sure how to feel about it honestly.
Hey if you ever need advice, form checks, or anything like that feel free to message me. I'm a competitive powerlifter (have two meets coming up before the end of the year) and would love to help anyone who's interested in the sport or just strength training in general.
Wow that is freaking awesome. Let me start off by saying good luck with those two meets. I actually had a quick question about squats ( I squat from the lower back position). I watch other people squat (people in much better shape than I) and they go down pretty far on their squats I'm just wondering if I can get lower with my squat by like stretching or is that a form issue? Anyway, I might take you up on that form check soon. Thanks.
I'm a low bar squatter as well so right on. I'm always going to recommend someone to squat to competition standards which is below parallel. Parallel being the crease of your hip dips below the top of your knee. Many people have issues hitting depth because of mobility. Best way to fix that is stretching your hip flexors, ankle flexibility helps as well. Also taking a wider stance with your toes pointed out (if you don't wear oly shoes) will help a ton. My favorite video to show off on how to squat correctly is Alan Thrall's video here. And thanks for the good luck, I'm hoping to take my states Junior 83kg records this year.
I want to add another video that Ed Coan (quite possibly the greatest of all time) did with the Super Training Crew. See it here. Major take away for me was to open up your taint. A lot of people will say push your knees out but this cue helped a lot more than any other I've tried.
that's awesome! i'm just trying to get my squat over 100 bc that's where I last left off #smallbabylifterlife I went over the weekend and the university gym was supposedly closed for cleaning and renovation but the door was open and the lights were on so i went in and lifted in an abandoned gym and it was A W E S O M E that said my squat-morning syndrome is SO BAD rn. worse than it has ever been. but bad hip flexors is my middle name so it's not surprising. something to work on.
YAS!! All I have to share I can in small figures: - I had an excellent mid-year review today. - They have drastically slashed the workload of my worst project - They are giving me more of the project I am really good at - I have 6 days of vacation beginning today - RIGHT NOW - me'n'm'fam we gonna get unlimited crabs FUCK YEAH - I got a PROSE piece accepted for publication, bitches, woah
FUQ YA EVRY1 2DAI IZ FRAIDAZE Everything is coming up refugees and roses. kleinbl00 all my thinking last night actually ended up a help. I know I overthink things sometimes esp those things, but no. I realized my decision was even more justified than I was giving it credit for. No one likes to hurt anyone but this was a good move. it's a hubskier's birthday today (not mine) y'all go off and sparkle now, it's gonna be a great day
- I'm going to the mother fucking beach in the next six days hellz yeahs. (ok this one feels like gloating sorry)
For a super great update, I took the fucking GREs today and got back my math and verbal scores immediately. For verbal I got a pretty fucking totally AWSOME 165/170 (95th percentile). Did not do quite so hot with the math coming in at 151/170 (which is like an upper 40th percentile) but frankly could not in general be arsed to care very much at the math. The writing portion will be graded by real people and so we'll have to see. However, I finished all sections with time remaining, and made sure to structure my writing portions with 5 paragraphs, thesis statement, topic sentences heading each paragraph, and conclusions. It wasn't exactly inspired writing but it was complete. Hope I didn't completely bork it, at least. The crazy thing is that I didn't actually remember what the score frames were (like, mix, max, what is good) so when I got my scores back I had no idea if they were decent and was afraid to send them to any universities. So I'll be doing that from my GRE account later today. Watch out world cuz here undeniably brilliant comes.
That's awesome ref, I am glad you are pleased with the results. I know you've been heading down this path for a while, or at least contemplating it for a while. What's the program you want to get in to? Is it an MFA program? Last time i was in Michigan I had dinner with mk and gq and we discussed what we would do/say to our daughters if they said they wanted to go to school for poetry. We sort of agreed on what our response would be, I'll echo it here: "What's your goal? What do you want to achieve by doing this?" This isn't asked to be contrary, I'm genuinely curious. Is it to teach somewhere? Is it to up your writing abilities? Will it help get you in journals that otherwise are difficult to get in to? Is it an accomplishment thing? you know... a goal you've had for along time, an itch you have to scratch? Will your emphasis be poetry or something else? Lot's of questions. But yeah, if my daughter wanted to go to college to major in poetry, it would warrant a discussion. Is that odd? If she wanted to study economics it likely wouldn't. Strange. Maybe I need to think on this more.... Either way, you are a badass and it's now been quantifiably established via your GRE. Nice work! Whatever your motivations, I wish you nothing but the best, which is what I fully expect you'll receive. -I'll raise a glass in your honor this evening!
Yes, I will be applying to MFA (Poetry concentration) programs. It's a long path, let's say that :) Assuming I get into a program under the conditions I want, (which is looking more and more like a good chance) it will still be another year and a bit before I am enrolled and taking classes anywhere. Well, you know, I'd like to first say that I think while I understand all your feelings in that regard, the conditions under which any of your children might choose to go to school for poetry probably would matter more than maybe you guys discussed at the time. For instance, are they going for a BA or MFA? In my opinion what you get for your BA doesn't really matter as to what your future career may be. A person who was going for their MFA straight out of school, now that I definitely could see feeling like you'd want to have a conversation. People who stay in academia without a break between the BA and more advanced degrees tend to have a different experience of life in general. I wouldn't say it would count against you, but for an MFA candidate, it's not a mark in your favor. It's quite common for students to take time in between the two. It may be different for an MD or eventual Dr in Engineering or the hard sciences, though, I'm sure. As for why I want to go to grad school, I want to be the very best I can be at poetry. That's the simplest way I can put it. My dream job would be to teach English and related topics at the collegiate level. However, I know that's a shit shoot. I know that you can't possibly hope to get a job at a university and make above the poverty line - that is, unless you are undeniably good. That is, that you are so good at writing that universities want you because it will add prestige to their insititions - that you are so good that they are courting you. Otherwise, from what I can tell, you're going to be an adjunct forever making less than 10k a year teaching at 3 universities. But if they want you, if they are jockeying for you, then - well, then, tenure, you know. I think it's ridiculous to hope or plan for that happening for me. It's just such a low chance, for anybody. I know the young poet enrolled in an MFA program right now that I think is amazing and mind-blowing - his name is Danez Smith, and he's already been published in some of the most prestigious magazines out there. He's a Cave Canem fellow, which means that for a while a bunch of people gave him money just so he could write poetry and live. (That's, btw, another post-grad-school option, if you are undeniably good.) I like, fuckin, basically worship Danez Smith in a lot of ways. I just think he's brilliant. I'm no Danez Smith. An MFA could help me teach at the high school level if I wanted, but I'm not sure I'm interested in that. It could help me lead classes at artist communities in my part time, however, if I wanted to, which I haven't really thought about but is a possibility. I want to be the best I can be, and I believe that being in the immersive environment of an MFA degree, with teachers who know way more than I do, I'll be able to get better way faster and broadly than I will on my own. I believe I don't know what I don't know, but hopefully my teachers will. That's the gist of it. I don't think it will necessarily help me get published speaking in terms of having those letters after my name, but I think it would help me get published in that it would help me become a better writer. But publishing is painful, an up and down rollercoaster. Sometimes it's really rewarding, like my prose piece I actually worshopped for a bit with the editor who took it, and that was really cool. But mostly it's agony, waiting, and then nothing, or a slight rush when the poem goes out. I don't know how many people read any magazine I've ever been published in - I don't know what my traffic stats are, so there's no real way to get a reward there besides just seeing it for myself. Thank you. I am celebrating in the ways I can as well. :)
I will let you know when it is out - I expect around December. It is a print-only magazine called PRIMITIVE done by a press called Anklebiters which is closely associated somehow with Whatever, Mom. What is really cool is that both my brother and I will have work published in the issue. It's a Science Fiction Double Feature! In fact, to shamelessly plug something I think is really cool, Anklebiters and Whatever, Mom worked together to create and publish a book-ish that my brother created. It's up at their store, called New Sky. In my totally unbiased opinion, my brother has been doing some really cool things with media/mixed forms in his creative writing work. Skymall, or "New Sky" as they've called it, is one example of that - he took Skymalls, cut them apart, and created collages from various images. Interspersed between the collages are some of his poems (which are not very much like mine in style). My brother has always tended towards political and/or social commentary in his writing whereas that type of writing has always proved difficult for me. The best thing about "New Sky," though, is it's in color. His first Sky Mall he entirely produced himself on copier machines and such and it was all black and white. The color makes a huge difference and is just really cool for someone used to seeing his magazine without any. I kinda have been wanting to plug "New Sky" on Hubski but wasn't sure how. In fact, here's a sneak preview. Just look at it. Think about it. Check it out. (But seriously tng I'll let you know when Primitive 2 comes out and such.)
Well my friend made history this week. Still freaking out about that. My boyfriend got promoted. He really deserves it, I'm so happy his boss came through. Another friend of mine's wedding picture is getting passed around the internet on a lot of blogs. It's a great shot, happy to see her get the PR.
I mentor a high schooler who is graduating today from her summer code bootcamp. Excited to see her present her final project, it's pretty kickass. I'm just running around in circles panicking about Burning Man planning and some family stuff. I'm surrounded by incredible people, sometimes I have to remind myself the bar they set is high.
Thought you may be interested in this article: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/08/20/women-didnt-get-easy-pass-says-us-rangers-commander.html
Burning man! What are the dates this year? What are your plans? I've always wanted to do it, my dad has gone a handful of times, but I sometimes wonder if it's past it's prime. But I also suspect that that supposition could be completely baseless. Have you been before? I have to second what everyone has said about your Ranger buddy -- how cool. And your friend is beautiful! What a great picture. You're right, you've got some incredible people around you.
It's the first week of September, we leave next Friday! It's my first year so lots of stress. I'm staying with Time Colony, a historical pre-enactment society. There's a joke the burners toss around "Last year was better". I don't really care if it's past it's prime, for me I'm going for an interesting life experience. If it is getting slowly changed into something far from the original ideals, all the more reason to go sooner rather then later.
Freshman move-in day is the worst. Watching the throngs of wide-eyed- bushy-tailed losers followed around by wealthy helicopter parents that did half of the work for them makes me sick. Had to grab stuff from Target and it was like the running of the bulls in there. So many kids buying useless shit they don't need. Platinum blonde hair everywhere. Coldplay blasting seemingly from nowhere. It's an existential nightmare. The food at the cafeteria was actually good today. Hope the freshmen don't get used to that. To be fair they've yet to be crushed by four to five years of time-consuming, grating, isolated hell, but also most of them probably won't. They'll have 4 booze-filled years of fun, find a perky orange-tan girl to court (or a muscular dude, I don't judge), get into their daddy's company, marry, have 2.5 kids, and then raise those kids to do the exact same thing at the exact same school. There's nothing sillier than seeing a grown-forty-something-old man wearing a cap from my university...except for when that man is wearing jorts.
I was visting a school I'm looking at for next year today, where it was also freshman move in day. My dad and I were super confused when we drove up and there were all these chairs in front of the chapel. After seeing some people dressed up, we figured it was the wedding. Nope. That would have been too easy. It definitely made for an interesting visit experience, seeing everyone have no idea what was going on. That's life though. Some of the appearal was pretty amusing. Like shirts that are just grey with the school name. Why would someone buy that? I think I'm gonna hate orientation, but at least then it's over with. Hopefully I have a bit better time overall than you seem to have had.
You will. It's just easy to become illusioned by the almost-cult-like behavior. People love this school. They'd die for it. I've been given shit for just opening my mouth and saying I dislike it. "Why don't you just go somewhere else if you don't like it here?" without realizing that their wealthy asses could go wherever they wanted if they wanted to. I didn't just fly out to California like you, assholes. They'll be smiling and hanging out on the same field where an 18-year-old male gets beat by "7-9" people the night before. Talk about how safe the place is when the university itself declines to be a part of a nation-wide-sexual assault survey. And I'll leave the other stuff out. Basically what it comes down to is mindfulness. Acting like they're the shit when they're just as bad as everyone else. You can like it here. I like videogames, I like chocolate cake. But unlike most of the kids at my school, I can understand their flaws, too. Videogames can waste time. Chocolate cake can be unhealthy. And my university is just as primed for sexual assault, violence, and stereotypical bull as anywhere else. So this, if you want a condensed video (and this isn't my university...but I'm not about to give you mine, lol):
It was about five and a half hours journey by coach to London, I pottered about for a bit and then went to find MS office, only to find they weren't expecting me. So a few frantic phone calls and I finally got waved through, we didn't really get to see much of the building and went straight into interviews but I did find out they have a Showcase Classroom where teachers can bring their students to play with all the cool MS tech so I definitely want to do that. The interviewers were lovely and it was really easy, just questions to get an idea of leadership and teaching ability and gauge passion of the subject. So naturally I passed and have been awarded the scholarship. What. This is genuinely freaking me out, I've been told I'm clever and "good with computers" all my life with no real direction to that energy and knowledge. But in the past few months I've been told I'm a good teacher so many times it's absolutely thrown me for a loop, and this is now like... an official "We think you'll be a good teacher, have some money and tell everyone else how to teach" scholarship that I have no frame of reference for how awesome it is. I was gobsmacked to have been accepted back in to the schools for my experience program, to get onto a teacher training course was amazing, to get a scholarship for this is just... I don't even have a word and none of the synonyms provided by Google seem weighty enough. It's mindflogging spragtastic!
The British Computing Society Teaching Scholarship, it gives me more resources to be a computer science teacher and I will work with industry so that I can keep things up to date and relevant etc. I'm really excited about it and have seen quite a few positive experiences come out of it.
It was my birthday on August 19th! I was in Emerald Bay, Catalina where there was almost no cell service and literally no internet service. I got sporadic texts throughout the days I was there. It was pretty great. randomuser and my parents hung out on the boat and relaxed, read a lot, and ate good food. I read the first 3 volumes of Transmetropolitan. And I got about 1/4th of the way through American Gods. Here are some photos: I've also been working hard on getting MyEtherWallet better and better. We just launched Augur Rep purchase (because goddamn they made the crowdsale contract hard for average users.) We're not investing anything in Augur though. Nor have we sold any Ether yet.
It's one of those "I need a beer" in the middle of the the day days. So a couple months ago I order a recombinant protein for my research. ~$2000 and some time later, the protein finally arrives. Turns out that the mass of the protein is wrong, because the affinity tag couldn't be removed. So here I am, with a protein with the wrong sequence, having spent two months desperately trying to avoid doing nothing more than twiddling my thumbs, and uncertain about how to progress. On top of that, I recently saw in a new issue of a popular journal, a highlight on a research area that is very much related to my own (we're talking less than 5 labs in this topic) that has conveniently avoided citing my research. Even worse, there is an article in the issue on the same topic which has also conveniently avoided citing my research when it was entirely appropriate to, whilst citing lower impact research from a lab that could be said to be competing directly with what I do. Screw academic politics. Academia has nothing to offer new scientists. The "freedom to choose what you work on" is a myth when the reality is that you work on what funds grants. The "job security" line is BS when political whims can wipe out entire labs. Then you have to deal with experts of the field that work like insular clique-y children when it comes to determining factual data. On top of it you are expected to work more hours for far less pay than any respectable job to do it. Forget advancement of knowledge, ethics, or professionalism, academia is a lord of the flies shit show. Big pharma, big oil, government agencies, come swallow me up. I'm not going into academia.
I've been trying to stick to a good writing schedule. About 2-4k a day, if I can swing it. My goal was to hit 75k words on my current project by Sunday and it's looking like it should be pretty attainable. Might even be able to squeeze in a little extra if I'm lucky. The guy I'm working on it with will take his 'shift' afterwards and then...well, I think we should have our first draft of about ~90k words done in a week or two. I'm really excited; I think we might have something special. And hey, even if it doesn't go anywhere, it was great practice for next time and the next one. Been studying Mandarin every day now for about a month and I'm already pretty impressed with how far I've come. It's a strange, weirdly logical language but I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully by the time I start my Masters I'll have a decent head-start.
On the luxury side of things, I've been watching a shit-ton of cartoons with my sister. Just wrapped up Steven Universe and almost down with season 1 of Gravity Falls. Not sure why, but I honestly love animated shows. I think their potential for story-telling on a 'mature' scale is actually pretty high, and I want to see more shows like Steven Universe and etc that do a good job of remaining kid-friendly while still venturing into interesting story-lines and world-building.
Great progress! Mandarin is no joke. I've been stalled on learning Macedonian just because I need to sit down and learn Cyrillic, I can't imagine figuring out Chinese. Gravity Falls is the show we watched the first time my friends and I got high together. Love that show! https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9woqfRjD01r8eipqo1_500.gif
Haha I can't imagine what watching the show is like while high. You should definitely check out Steven Universe as well! Pretty phenomenal. Yeah I think the most daunting thing about Mandarin is the lack of a proper script. I was learning Japanese for three years for before this so I know some of the characters but often times they mean completely different things. I basically have to sit down for 2 hours everyday to get anywhere and to make sure I remember what I've learned. I suppose that's probably the only way to learn any language, though. Keep going with Macedonian! The Cyrillic script has always seemed incredibly beautiful to me.
The current series of Adventure Time comics is being written by one of my favourite web-comic people Christ Hastings who does Dr McNinja
Well Hubski, it's finally time. I leave tomorrow for the long trek to Ohio. I'm scared about leaving my family behind here in Texas, but at the same time I'm excited for all of the new experiences that await me at college. I've been procrastinating packing for the last month because I've been seriously scared about going so far away; I don't want to leave everything that I already know. Almost all of my friends are going to schools in Texas (specifically Baylor and UT), but I'm going to be all alone. At the same time, I know I should cherish this opportunity to go out and make new friends and discover new things. I'm a pretty social person, so this isn't something I'm scared about, and OSU is so big that I know there will be people that share the same interests as me, but I'm still nervous. I'm gonna miss my dad, my sisters, and my brother. I already miss my girlfriend, and she only left yesterday. I'm conflicted though. Everyone asks me if I'm excited and I tell them yes because, well, I am, yet I'm also sad. There have been so many emotions going through my head these past weeks that I've started being unable to make heads or tails of them. I guess I'll just have to make the best out of any situation I find myself. If any of you have any advice for someone leaving their family for the first time please tell me. Tomorrow's going to be hard.
I spent my master's degree in Ohio, in between Cleveland and Columbus. It's nice there, and I've got some tips. 1.) make your way up to Cleveland at least once, and make your way to Cincinnati at least once. Both are amazing places with lots to do, and It's great to explore Ohio. 1a.) if you're driving, buy snow tires. they're worth their weight, especially if you're from a place where it doesn't snow often. 2.) Cuyahoga Falls State Park is fucking gorgeous. go in the fall. 3.) When you're old enough to drink legally, go to Hofbrauhaus in Cinci. Enjoy the beer and the Schnitzel, as well as the beer hall atmosphere. Play along, dance on the benches. In regards to Uni in general; 4.) Say YES. Go on trips, try weird foods, participate in things. 5.) bring your study notes into the bathroom. read them instead of your phone. 6.) do your work daily. Keeping up is WAY easier than Catching up. It also means that you have more time to do more things, and will be less stressed about missing things when you do. 7.) GO TO YOUR PROF'S OFFICE HOURS. for the love of all that's holy. If your profs know you, and see that you're engaged, they will be significantly more invested in you and your future.
Don't worry about leaving your high school friends. I did the same thing -- was the only one from my high school to go to the college I did. You'll make tons of awesome friends in college. Whether you keep up with your high school friends or only hang out with them once every year or two, it'll be okay. You might even find you have less and less in common with them as time goes by, and that's okay too. Going away to college is a big life change, and it'll feel like you're leaving a part of yourself behind. But you'll pick up new pieces to add to yourself and life goes on. Damn this is hitting me right in the feels. I just moved away for grad school and I'm feeling a lot of what you're feeling right now.
Formerly_Me, caeli is right, what you are feeling is pretty normal given what you're about to embark upon. I'm a bit envious, its a simultaneously terrifying and exciting experience and that can be a pretty kick ass combination. Good luck. Also, I look forward to Michigan kicking OSU's ass this year in football :) Man, I can't stand OSU, but then I grew up in Ann Arbor. It's actually a fine school, I'm sure. Have fun there! Winters are going to be a new thing for you. Brace yourself.
So after my baby was born I fell out of my exercise routine. Well I just did the second day in a row today and feeling pretty damn good about it. At the moment it's just 40 minutes of stationary cycling but it's a start. Anyone have any good anime recommendations? I typically watch 2 twenty minute episodes and just finished FMA Brotherhood so looking for something new. Got tickets to a Mastodon concert. Getting tickets soon to Dillinger Escape Plan. And got some fore the Vienna Boys Choir. So got a pretty stacked concert line up for the new few months.
You should try Net 10 phones, I had one for years. Never had any service problems. I am going on GA, but I am taking too many classes to get help with food. I told my Mom, I had applied at Jo-Ann fabrics and for an AmeriCorps job. She asked me 20 minutes later if I have heard back about the jobs. I had been on the phone with her the entire time. "Yes Mom, I was hired, they sent a singing telegram, didn't you here them." I then proceed to make more jokes about skywriters. She was going to help with groceries, and I was looking forward to a compulsory diet, but I might need to find a job sooner. Good luck.
I'm settling in to my new job and it's... different. I've been pushing for this position for a year and a half and now that it's here, everyone is amazed. My company hasn't moved much in the past two years and the fact that I made a new position has garnered me a reputation as a miracle worker. The spot I created is a training position and it's been needed for a while, so everyone is freaking out about it. All of these things are moving the bar higher and higher and almost to unrealistic levels. I've been spending the week resetting expectations and making sure people know I'm just some guy. It's one of those "problems" where everything is great and really difficult. I certainly can't complain about it in the office, so here I am complaining to all of you. It's good though. I'm getting a lot done and there's a lot of momentum behind the project so things keep moving.
Currently in computer limbo with a tablet as my most powerful full-fledged pc. Ordered some parts to fix and upgrade an older laptop which will be fun. Hopefully my nice laptop gets back from warranty service before I go off to college next week. I'm going to be a freshman, and outside of the one tour and orientation I never got a proper feel of the the classes so its going to be a little scary until I catch the flow of the place. Still, very excited to go off, even if I am dorming in a double with a sophomore. Going to try to use this chance to instill better study and personal fitness habits for myself. Although, I feel the pressure now even before I go off to college as I'm riding a scholarship (Which is apparently considered a form of financial aid rather than an award) that pays for my tuition, but requires me to maintain a certain gpa, which increases each semester. So if I screw up, I basically lose my opportunity to get some form of higher education without copious amounts of debt. Switching back to technology crap, I got a pair of a900x last week. These cans are pretty awesome for $150. Sounds great on any high quality input, while okay on low quality input. I guess it is true: "Shit in, shit out". Referring back to the death of my ssd, I've been looking into building my own nas. I could throw something together for about $500, but it would lack server grade ram, and only give me 2 1tb hdds. While one layer of redundancy is better than none, I'd personally like to get more (the case I've been looking at is 4 hot-swap disks) and larger capacity disks and run them raid 1 + 0, or all in raid 1. One gives me a bit more storage while two disks are in sync and two more are also and together they form a larger volume, while the other ensures I'll have my data for a pretty long time. I think I should hold off longer at this point to see if I can get more higher quality parts for cheaper when the holidays roll around.
School starts on monday and I'm actually kinda exicited. I'll have to start a new class, with people who are actually my age and not a year older since I'm re-doing this year. I'm not super pumped about that - I'll miss my friends and I wont be going to university for another two years. Hopefully this year will be less stressful -I've done it before. Mostly. After getting sick this winter my doctor recommended slowly going back to school and that's what I was doing this term. My results of course suffered a bit since I wasn't focused on studying but I didn't fail any classes and the decition to redo this year was mostly becuase I really did not want to be stressed out of my mind. So academically I think it'll be fine. I think it will be fine socially to - I've gotten better at interacting with people and also my school is such a nice and friendly place that I feel comfortable eating alone in the cafeteria. So it'll be fine. But I actually feel exited to go back to school and I haven't felt like that for a couple of years. So it feels really nice to be looking forward to school and normal life starting than to already be counting the days until next summer. My joints have been a bit troublesome for the last month or so and that really sucks but I've been better prepared this time.
The Imposter Syndrome is real as hell today. Also someone stole my bank info and drained it to go to Busch Gardens. That's getting fixed but it's still a shitty way to wake up.
I'm obsessively watching weather forecasts for my hikes planned Sunday/Monday. The current forecast looks ok. I'm doing some summit hikes, and the Monday plan puts me on a bald summit on the second highest point in New York. Rain and wind would be annoying, but lightning would be flat out dangerous and force me to take a lower route. Right now the summit forecast for Monday is 10-15 mph winds and clear skies. I'm hoping it holds. I'll do a #tripreport when I get back.
I'm debating approaching some of the local breweries and/or coffee shops (the ones that do their own roasting) to see if they could use any help on weekends. It's not that I need the money, but I'm becoming very passionate about these things and want the connections and experience. Good idea, or bad idea?
It's mostly fitting it in my schedule. Work schedule is this wonky thing where I'll be working 12 hour shifts 3-4 days a week on an alternating schedule. But the benefits of actually getting into either of those places as a side-gig far outweigh the risks for the time being.
Well the best news if that my nephew is here for a 3 week vacation so I get to do a lot of things 16 year old boys like eg. junk food, go-karting, waterparks, etc. I love it when he comes to visit, which he does at Xmas, March Break and sometime in the summer. Also had a great night last night having dinner and drinks with 3 very good friends who I almost never get to see. There was 5 of us that always got together for a cottage weekend once a year for the last 15 years or so but for some reason we forgot to plan that this year so this was a proxy evening. It was kind of bittersweet though as we were missing the 5th dude who added so much to our meetings. He is the first of my friends ever to die of a disease and his funeral was a couple of months ago.
Being responsible for a mess is never any fun. Being responsible for someone else's mess is less fun. Being made responsible for someone else's mess is less fun still. Spent the second half of my day addressing lots of little problems that have been stewing since before I actually started this job. If I had been made aware of the problem(s) when I started I could have addressed it in a few minutes and saved myself and my supervisor a rather sizable headache. Dinner tonight is a bloody steak topped with asparagus and eggs. And probably a good chunk of the gallon of hard cider I brought back from my fishing trip. Cheers all.
Digging up more and more questions, I want answered. I am going to go the school that I am not starting until spring, to pick professors brains, about starting nonprofits, and working with the government. We might need to grow more slowly, since our goals have more to do with building a wide user base, than making money. My partner is looking into taking out veterans administration loans, instead of a kick-starter.
I did end up getting to spend the weekend with my boyfriend, we went boating on the lake with his parents. We got along, even though we all drank a fair bit.
Cleaned his house before the first day of my (kinda) stepsons school. Wanted to make him feel at home, and keep it cleaner than the normal frat house atmosphere.
Started the swimming class today, it is the stereotypical old ladies club. There is only one other college student in the class. It tired me out, I just started off with heavier weights. I am not ready for lap swimming, yet. I will go, since I care more about grades than fitness. Much less bored, now that I have homework again.