I don't care how you vote

But please watch this before you do...

Not my finest Hour

So today was my second class at City. I got on the coaster, caught the trolley no problem. I was walking, thinking about the shortest way to get to class and apparently I completely missed the curb. Yep I fell off a four inch curb.

I hobbled up to my class and turned in my homework and then hobbled up to the infirmary. They put ice on it and told me that I needed to get it checked out.

So I called my roommate. Oh and it's his birthday, his day off and he'd been out late drinking. So I feel like an ass asking him to drive downtown to come get me (not very close) and then take me to the doctor.

So nothing is broken but I have a beautiful golf ball size lump on my ankle, no 'real' drugs but lots of Advil and ice. I have a note through next Wednesday but I am going to try to go to class on Tuesday.

So yes, I sprained my ankle falling off of a four inch curb. I did feed my roommate and bought him a tank of gas, but he really was above and beyond today.

Tax Plans

I've had a blast this week so far watching the Democratic Convention. Something that comes up a lot is taxes, who is going to raise your taxes and who is going to cut them.

Some people I know have put together a pretty unbiased calculator to see whose proposals will save you what. It's not guaranteed, and says as much, and it put together by Obama supporters, but the source is unbiased.

http://alchemytoday.com/willobamaraisemytaxes.html

There is another one that is a bit more biased and asks for donations

http://alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut/

But it all uses the same information and gives sources. If nothing else it helps show that Obama isn't going to raise everyone's taxes.

Classroom Chairs

I had forgotten how incredibly uncomfortable classroom chairs are. I bought a huge bottle of ibuprofen because I'm going to need it. There are a few flights of stairs, but I go up in the beginning so I can do those. It's sad but going down is when I'm going to need the elevator because sitting on those chairs had me in real pain, and we only met for less than two hours.

I have the paperwork to get on the disabled list, I may need to actually fill it out. By doing so and getting a doctor's approval I can ask for a foot rest or something. I don't know if I can make it through this without something to change the angle of my hips, today didn't work. Thankfully Thursday is only just over two hours, next Tuesday is the five plus hour (including a lab) class. Hopefully the lab will entail moving around a bit, that will help.

Class isn't going to be a problem, I just have to remember how to do trig again. I swear the harder Calc based one might be easier for me, but it doesn't transfer over so I didn't take it.

Donate to the Troops for Free!

http://www.hbo.com/generationkill/

Click on the 'Support the Troops' link and there is a place to have HBO send stuff to the troops. They want your information, so be prepared for that, but it looks like a good cause.

I had my sound off when I went there so I don't know if it's got a loud intro, just be prepared if you're at work or something.

Physics, City College and Bus Passes

So, I have one undergrad GE left that I couldn't get waived, freshman Physics. It's not offered at NU when I can take it so I am taking it at the local Community College. Well at least that was the plan.

Unfortunately the only section offered when I could take it is down at City College. City is downtown which is not close to where I live. To top it off the lab on Tuesday doesn't end till 4:30pm. I have class at NU at 5:30 on Tuesdays and the traffic will be such that there is no way I'd get home in time.

So I figured I'd get a transit pass and take the Coaster/Trolly to school! I can get a discounted pass from the school and then I drive about 20 mins to the coaster station and then the stress of travel is greatly reduced.

It wasn't that easy.

I went down to City College today to get my textbook and orient myself. My first impression was, parking sucks (thus the need for the pass) and the campus is really kind of dirty and downtrod looking. So I find a parking space, and the meter is broken. I get directions to the bookstore and the place where I can get the bus pass. I find the bus pass place first.

The pass is 154 for the semester, and they wouldn't take a credit card or check. They actually wanted me to bring them 154 dollars in cash. Yah not so much. So, already annoyed, I walk over and get my textbooks. 150 dollars later (whole other rant) I find out where I can get a parking permit. Again, no cards are accepted, but that one I can get online. Ok fine, I just want to go home.

After I get home I called Miramar, the college just down the road. They said they'd absolutely sell me a pass with a credit card, just come on down. I drive the less than five mins to the college and am struck how much nicer it is than City. The buildings are newer, everything is cleaner, and it's a much friendlier place. When I told them the trouble I had at City they were amazed. The difference was, they wouldn't take a credit card for a parking permit either but they had computers for student's use right there so they could buy the parking permit online right there.

It was just night and day, and I'm really kind of sad that I have to deal with City College for the next four months, but I'll live.

So this pass. It cost me 154 and is good till the end of December. It gives me free bus and trolley travel and gives me a 2 dollar discount on the Coaster. If I take the bus over the Coaster I go for free, but coming home on Tuesdays the bus won't get home any more quickly than I would, so it's definitely the Coaster then. Since I have to drive to the Coaster station I might as well cough up the 6 dollars round trip twice a week and ride in comfort. I figure I have to leave at 9:15am to catch the 9:45 coaster (traffic is going to suck) and hopefully I'll be home by 5:30pm. Tuesdays are going to suck.

No wifi on campus, well nothing obvious. I'll find out tomorrow but I'm guessing I'll be limiting myself to notebooks and my iPhone. It would be nice to have wifi but I'm 'old school' and can't take notes on my laptop anyway. I have to write it out, Luddite that I am.

The bright side of all of this is that I have free trolley and bus travel all semester. Free trips to the airport!

One of those days

Usually when I think about having 'one of those days' it's when everything goes wrong. Had one not too long ago with exploding feather beds and dead car batteries.

Well today is one of those days, but it's completely opposite. Everything is going right, to the point where I"m kind of hesitant to make plans or anything so nothing goes wrong later to ruin a pretty much perfect day.

Finally got a few hours of sleep, so still not enough but I don't feel like my head is full of cotton. I got on the scale this morning and I am now lighter than I've been in literally a decade. Not by much and I'm not sure it will stuck, but it was awesome to see a new lower number on that scale.

I made lunch plans with a friend, was nice to get out of the house. On the way I got the mail and there was a check. I expected it but not this soon, and when you're living on student loans any checks are very happy news, so my credit card is paid and there is a bit of cushion for next month.

I come home and my University is considering (no guarantees of course) of switching around the electives as no one wants to take them and asked for suggestions on new classes. I may not have to petition for Independent Study after all. Also my tuition was paid for September, I got confirmation that that cleared, and my textbook for October is here.

To top that off I ordered very cheap (less than six dollars shipped) wine glasses from Amazon.com, they were having a sale. When I got them last week two were completely smashed. I called and they offered to send me a whole other set (of four) and I didn't have to return the not broken ones! Those came today so I now have a set of six wine glasses for less than a dollar each. They're not crystal or anything, but they're dishwasher safe (a vital thing around here) and they've got the wide opening suitable for red wine.

I don't want to push my luck so I may just hole up on the computer for the rest of the day, but damn, good days really do happen!

Not much going on really

My lack of blogging is more due to my totally boring class this month, more than anything else. It's pretty much independent study as it's really superficial top level type stuff and we're going through it very very slowly. Being a total insomniac isn't helping much either. I can't sleep but I'm wiped during the day so not much gets done, and I can't nap. I got a good night's sleep the other night but it was Advil PM and that isn't something I want to do every day, gets expensive if nothing else.

Olympics have been entertaining me, the US Women's Water Polo team got a silver medal today! Three Olympic medals is an amazing accomplishment, I'm so impressed just watching them, I can barely swim and these women are literally jumping out of the water and they're not touching the bottom. It's completely amazing.

Anyway all is good, I'm just in a blah time as school isn't keeping my interest. It's been beautiful out so that is nice, I'm enjoying the perfect weather and playing in the garden, but you can only prune the rose bushes for so long each day.

Oh, so far so good on the indoor composter, I'm still getting used to what I can and can't put in it so I'll let you all know after my next 'batch'.

Fanatic Clinton 'supporters' get a smackdown

David Schuster was hosting Hardball on MSNBC yesterday and they had two people who represent groups that are freaking out because Clinton won't be the nominee. Clinton has even mentioned one of these groups by name telling them to chill out and stop.

Schuster gives them a HUGE smackdown making them look like morons, it's a beautiful thing.

Class is moving on....

Midterm this weekend, it's apparently right from the book but the professor said 'just looking things up won't work, you have to actually know what the material is'. Fair enough, the book is pretty straightforward. It's actually refreshing to have a textbook that makes sense. Now it's giving an overview of a lot of information, it will get in detail in the second half, but still it's nice.

Fan Faire this weekend in Vegas. I'm not going (obviously) but I hope for drunken text messages and reports of debauchery and revilery.

Money situation is actually alright, next set of student loans comes in this month and I redid things so I'm not freaking out quite so much about money. I figured at this point the extra debt isn't going to change anything in the long run and me having significantly less stress in my life will.

Water Polo is 1-0-1 so far!

Found an advantage to Water Polo not being in 'prime time'

I get to actually watch it live! The women are playing at 2am Pacific tonight (tomorrow) and you can watch it online. I do hope it gets more popular coverage but I'm happy being able to watch it as it happens. Can't really do that with a lot of these things, even if it is live on the east coast it's all tape delayed over here.

And that is really annoying, if anything should be broadcasted live, even at weird times, it should be the Olympics. I'm all for the condensed versions in prime time, but don't make me wait and watch it three hours late, chances are I'm going to know what happened before I get to actually see it.

I want to officially apologize

.... to anyone that I've annoyed by having 'all the answers' in class.

This is going to be a LONG month.

Why would you piss off the Hiltons?

McCain made a poor taste commercial talking about Obama is a celebrity and had Britney Spears and Paris Hilton appearing, without their permission apparently.

Well Spears is useless but Hilton's family is a huge McCain donor and are pissed. First of duh, you don't piss of huge donors, I don't care how easy it is with their kids' behavior.

Anyway Paris did a response, and even though I'm sure she's reading from a teleprompter she does it better than a lot of politicians I've seen.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Water Polo Schedule

Go Heather!

Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

Being Computer Savy Important to being the President?

There is an article in the New York Times about McCain's self admitted lack of computer savvy and if that matters in his ability to potentially be president.

It got me thinking, does it really? I'm kind of torn to be honest, and I'm very much not a McCain supporter. The fact that someone using the net is more 'in touch' with how people live today, which I agree with, but I also don't want my president surfing the net while at work. I mean, and I freely admit that my understanding of how the White House works is solely from Aaron Sorkin, but the president is given information, he doesn't go looking for it. I have a HUGE issue with Bush who doesn't read the papers or watch the news, and relies solely on what his people give him, but I also don't expect him to be spending hours a day reading blogs.

There is also the factor that digital information isn't as secure as a folder that is kept in someone's possession, so a lot of what the president sees probably shouldn't be digitized.

All that being said, the Bush administration has shown (giving them the benefit of the doubt, which I am hesitant to do) completely incompetence when it comes to digital communication and back ups. For the record I don't believe that the IT guy for the White House was that incompetent, but it's not worth stressing over. Also McCain has shown a great ignorance about the 'You Tube Generation' where things he said are all available to everyone and will come back to haunt him. He can't say 'I never said that' when it takes a few clicks to show everyone that he did. This is relatively new for politicians and I think it will take some getting used to, but also only benefits the public, well the public that are on the net.

I see computers and the internet as tools, important tools, and as time goes on I would absolutely expect all of my public officials to be familiar with these tools. However I don't think McCain's ignorance about the capabilities of the internet automatically disqualifies him for the job of President. However the next President will have no excuse.

Pets are expensive

Well blind dog just cost me a bundle and may not be done. I need to
bring the diabetic cat in as well. Oh and teeth were mentioned. Omg
there goes any extra money this month. They're worth it but damn

From my iPhone

Ester

GPA progress

Ethics brought me up a bit more than I realized, I'm at an official 3.33

3.5 might be doable!

Now off to the vet, cuz blind dog is having issues with his foot. This is going to be expensive I'm sure.


edit: ok I did the math and I can get a 3.50 if I get A's (not A-'s) in the next six classes. Yah I'm not getting a job this fall. I have exactly enough 'room' to do this, but one A- and I'll only be able to claim a 3.5 if I round up.

Rounding isn't horrible :)

Here goes nothing

And it's another A

Yeah! Just heard back from my Ethic professor, apparently even when checking myself I can't spell, but I got a 90 on the final and an 'A' in the class! Hello bringing up the GPA a bit.

I only have six classes left that effect my GPA and I really want to try to get it back to a 3.5. To do this though I can't even get B's, and that isn't going to be easy. But, as long as I don't crash and burn I'll be a 3.0 or better (I'm at a 3.3 before this A) which is nothing to be upset about.

Very happy with the grade though, those hardware classes were hard, it's nice to have something better to go into the final stretch with.

Another class done... and garlic

Ethics is history. Took the final and turned in the last homework assignment. Our professor was planning on doing grades kind of quickly so I should know soon.

I have always said that you can never have too much garlic. I think today I proved myself wrong. I made a wonderful pizza, totally from scratch (including the sauce) that had garlic in the crust. But then I chopped up a clove and put it on the pizza. Now this wouldn't normally be an issue but it wasn't a very large pizza. I may have actually had too much garlic... who knew!!

So now I"m completely 'off' till Tuesday and at that point I expect things to get hard again. Today I did some cleaning and gardening, tomorrow is my first ever trip to Ruth Chris!! Just kind of chilling, the 'calm before the storm' so to speak.

Things are a bit quiet lately, the weather is beyond beautiful and my roses are doing well. The dogs are dogs, they sleep a lot. Banshee is fat and lazy and currently on the couch downstairs. Just kind of calm, which I am savoring while I can.

I want

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/posters/a76a/