Domestic Geek

Jack Lemmon died yesterday. He was one of my favorite actors. It's sad to think that all of the big male stars from the "Grumpy Old Men" movies have passed away. First Burgess Meredith in 1997, Walter Matthau almost a year ago and now Jack Lemmon. You know you're getting older when the people you admire start passing away.

I am really dreading going back to school on Monday. I have no desire to face the idiots that run that place. I stopped in today to see what classes are being offered next module (as classes start Monday) and there is NO SCHEDULE POSTED!!! That means Monday morning will be a zoo. Yay. This is all doing wonders for the apathy I feel about CollegeAmerica right now.

During the two weeks I took off I realized that the things I really want to learn about are not taught there. I want to learn about UNIX/Linux and I was told that "maybe" Unix 3 would be offered in September (my last month). I was told there wasn't that much interest in that class being offered. BULLSHIT! I know many people who want to take it. I want to learn more about web programming, ie. Javascript, Perl, CGI scripts, Cascading Style Sheets, Photoshop, etc. You can take javascript, but only after you finish the other programming classes. I have no desire to learn those. I'm not going to use those. So, looks like my 18 grand was pretty much wasted. I've taken four networking classes and can no more administer a network any better than I could have last June. The hardware stuff I know Marcus taught me, cuz I sure didn't learn it in the hardware classes. I may be A+ certified, but I can't fix a computer. I've been working on Visual Basic 3 for two months now. I got a letter from the librarian wanting the book back. I don't even want to finish it, I'm so fed up. I like programming, mind you. It's like solving puzzles or playing games, but I know I'm not going to do this for a living and it's pretty much a waste of my time.

I really want to learn networking. There are only 1 or 2 more classes offered and I know I'm not going to learn what I want in those. I want to learn about network security and firewalls, etc. We briefly read about those, but how can you do it if you've never had hands on practice? You can't. Oh, well.

On another cheery note, sales are sucking bad at both stores still. My paychecks on the 5th are going to SUCK! How am I supposed to move when I can't even afford to buy groceries right now? Do I need to find a part time job or start selling my plasma again? It's looking like it. So, I guess now I'll start selling some of my crap on eBay and get some other stuff ready for a garage sale. I'm also not extremely happy with Marcus, either, but that's not a story I choose to share. Boy, life is fun right now.

The alumni lists on our old high school's web page were actually links for places like classmates.com and such. I'm sure that somewhere along the line my sister must've signed up with one of those. Had me worried there for a second. I've thought about signing up with those, but the people you really care to hear from again are never the ones that are looking for you. That's one of the reasons I have no desire ever to attend one of my class reunions. The people I want to see never come (too busy, better things to do). Another reason I'll never go is that if I really cared how these people were doing, I would've tried harder to stay in touch. The final reason is that most of my friends were either younger or older than I was and would not be at my reunion anyway.

South Park was pretty cool, as usual. I had a hard time enjoying it, though, as a severe storm was passing just to the west of us. The town of Watkins got pounded with hail really good. I guess golfball to baseball size hail rained down. Lots of damage. Watkins is only about 21 miles to the west. Denver International Airport got hit pretty good, also. The hail damaged planes and many people ended up stuck at the airport. I was watching the storm moving south. I hate it when the sky gets that eerie greenish color. That always means trouble.

Spent the whole day with Dad again today. We were waiting for the AT&T dudes to show up and install Dad's cable internet connection. Cable rocks! Better than the 19600 bps dialup I was getting earlier. Connected at 36000 now. Whoohoo, I'm zipping along now!

Dad tells me that some guy my sister and I used to know contacted my sister the other day. Turns out he got her email address through our old high school's website. Shouldn't the people who set this site up be required to get the email owner's permission to publish the email? What if someone is stalking you and you don't want your email public? I'm going to look now and see if I'm listed.

Well, I was right. I'm $20 poorer today than I was yesterday morning. Oh, well. I had a pretty decent day, though. Some of the casinos in Blackhawk got some new South Park slot machines. They were hellacool. Speaking of which, there is a new South Park on tonight. Sweet!

Anyway, it was cool hanging out with Dad all day. I can't remember the last time I spent that much time with him. That's something I'm going to have to rectify. Marcus sold Dad his eMachine computer. He's having AT&T @Home installed on Thursday, so I'll have my hands full teaching him how to use the computer. It should be fun.

I know I should be doing some Visual Basic or Access or something, but I'm just not in the mood. I've lost all desire to go to CollegeAmerica. I had these delusions of perhaps earning a double degree: one in Computer Technology and one in Programming. There is no way I'm going to get all of the programming classes I need in three months. These next three months are going to seem endless. It's not that I don't want to learn, just the opposite. I know that WHAT I WANT TO LEARN will not be taught at that school. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I'm either going to have to learn on the job (scary), taught to myself, or take more classes. For instance, I have been waiting for UNIX 3 to be offered. The last time they offered it, it conflicted with one of my networking classes (which was a waste, by the way). I was told last week that there are no immediate plans to offer it because there hasn't been any interest in it. Well, who asked me?

Things at Blackjack are getting worse. I knew sales would drop again after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, but I had no idea they would be this bad.

I'm watching an ITT-Tech commercial with a girl named Stacy, a Network Admin, that exclaims "I LOVE MONDAYS!" The commercial has "testimonials" from bosses and coworkers extolling her virtues. I WANT TO BE THAT!

Wow, it was so nice today. Since I've decided to go ahead and take two weeks off from school, I don't have to drive to town at all!!! My poor car will be so happy. It's also going to get a bath this week. I haven't had time to take care of it, lately, and it shows.

Dad and I are going to Blackhawk/Central City tomorrow. He and I haven't had the opportunity to do much together, lately. It will be nice to spend the day with him. I lose track of weeks at a time with school and full-time work. I feel bad for him. He's never been one to have many friends, and after Mom died and my sister moved to California, he really didn't have anybody except me. Going to Blackhawk has been good for him. He's met so many people and he always seems to have a good time. He always seems to come back with a little more money than he left with. I, on the other hand, always manage to come back poorer. That's why I never take more than $20 and I always stick to the nickel machines.

Turns out that the smell on the dog yesterday was from rotting weeds he was eating in the bottom of the wheelbarrow. GROSS! Now the dog is sick to his stomach -- serves him right. Marcus caught him trying to do it again this morning. I can't wait until the trash men come to empty the dumpster so I can get rid of those weeds. That is one of the bad things about living in a mobile home park. Everyone in town seems to thinks the dumpster is "theirs". Never mind the fact that there are 20 units in here that need to use the dumpster and it only gets emptied twice a week. On top of that, a couple is moving out of their house this month, and that always generates a lot of extra trash. I swear, people can be so thoughtless.

I know I was going to do a lot of schoolwork while I stayed home, but it's not going to happen today. I've been cleaning my kitchen all morning (how does it get so dirty when I am hardly ever here?), trying to get my financial records caught up, and my animal's cages need some much deserved attention. I should also try to find some stuff to sell on eBay. Studying Visual Basic or Access is not really high on my priority list today. I'm rather enjoying just sitting on my butt, for once. Too bad this is the only day this week that I can do that. Tomorrow it is back to work. I thought about taking some time off from there, too, but I just can't afford to do so at this time. :-(

Marcus' mom wants us to move to Tennessee. Hah! It's around 90 degrees here today with no humidity and I still can't get by without the swamp cooler running full blast. I am such a wuss.