January 2005 Archives

I can't believe how busy I am this semester, so I haven't had as much time to e-Byron as I would like. Classes are ploughing along at an amazing pace. Its only the end of week three, yet I already have written a paper and have a presentation and exam coming up this week.

In other important news, the Cubs traded Sammy Sosa yesterday, but the details are still sketchy. Also, I went to the convention last weekend and enjoyed myself. Unfortunately there was a snow storm and I missed the entire Saturday of the convention. Very Frustrating.

Well, I have five minutes until my shift is over and then I have to get the car emissions tested so that we can get a new license plate. Uggh, life is just too complicated to be a student and keep up with everything else. OK gotta run.

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This post was originally written long-hand while bored in class on Thursday, Jan 20.

I went to lunch today at the Gresham food court. I was hungry, but didn't want the Aver's pizza being sold for lunch at the bagel stand.

So, I walked up the hill for a 'healthy lunch.' In the food court, I settled on a baked potato, added some nacho cheese and a few tomoato slices and headed for the checkout.

After weighing my potato and adding in my half pint of milk, the bill was $4.49! I couldn't believe it. Moral of the story? IU rips off its students at the food court... and the baked potato wasn't all that good.

In other news, I am just finishing up week 2 of my nearly last semester. I still feel like I'm taking one too many classes... but this feeling of living on the edge has forced me to actually stay on top of my classes. This semester has included a lot more reading than previous semesters, and I'm trying to keep up.

Anyhow, Mom and Wyatt came to visit me/IU this week. Wyatt is looking at colleges and visiting IU, Purdue, and Calvin College this week.

They came down late Tuesday night and then spent Wednesday talking to IUcrats most of the day. I gave them a walking tour of campus and then had dinner with them Wednesday night. They stayed over and left early in the morning on Thursday.

I really enjoyed seeing Wyatt, whom I hadn't seen for nearly a year, and he seemed to like IU. Unfortunately, I can't give him an unqualified recommendation to come to IU, there's just a lot of things around this place that stink... like $3.80 baked potatoes.

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Six nights ago I wrote about how I didn't want to start classes again... and my sense of impending doom was pretty much right on.

This week has been one for the ages, and I have a sneaking suspicion the next sixteen weeks will have as much in store for me as I can handle. Yes, this is me flipping out in my first week of classes.

This semester's load includes securities (F335) and Tech something or another (S400) on Monday/Wednesday. In addition, I'll be doing my K201 tutoring on MW too.

Tuesday/Thursday is a doozy and will be for ten plus weeks. I start with Auditing (A424) and Advanced managerial accounting (A437) before lunch. Then I have International Finance (F494), Career Planning lecture (X420), intermediate financial accounting II (A312), and then X420 lab/discussion.

My T/R schedule runs from 9:30 a.m. to 6:45 with one thirty minute break, and the rest are 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly fly by.

OK, its late and I'm needing to get out of the living room... I'll update later tonight. But I'll leave you with this... my car won't start... the story has just begun.

Eleven hours of freedom... and I'll probably sleep through nine of them. I've got the same feeling I had when I was 10, the night before classes started... trying so hard to squeeze every last minute of enjoyment out of my freedom, that I'm not even having all that much fun.

I just don't want to have to set the alarm and show up for class tomorrow at 9:30. I don't want new professors, more homework, new groups, new classmates... I just want to spend the next 60 years of my life on Christmas break... or better yet, summer break. Oh well, there is really nothing I can do, so I'll go to bed early and pray I wake up with some really nasty exotic illness.

Today was one of those anonymous but eventful days that make up life. I woke up and went to work in Swain East today. Problem was, the lab was closed and the phone number I call in such situations wasn't being answered. Much meaningless frustration and stress followed, and an hour and ten minutes later, I was sitting in a very quiet Swain East for the next five hours. Still, I was close to spending five hours in the library dealing with all the 'go-getters' busily printing schedules and otherwise needing assistance.

Not that this is a bad thing, and most days I'd rather work in the IC where you are busy instead of bored, but I was hesitant to work today, and only decided to knowing that I would have six hours of websurfing at $8/hr.

So, needless to say, the lab changing was enough to cause me the stress I was trying to avoid.

After work, I went to Church and had a great time. I am considering going to San Francisco over spring break on a missions trip, but I haven't decided if I want to go yet. I went to the call-out/informational meeting and didn't know anyone... which probably means I should go just to meet people, but I don't know. Street evangelism just isn't my thing.

Other than that, the day has been rather unremarkable. Carlos Beltran signed with the Mets, extinguishing my hopes that the Cubs could somehow land him. My milk froze in the fridge again... that always sucks... especially when you find out over a bowl of Crispix... and I'm listening to Pearl Jam a little too loud... so a normal day through and through... which is just what I didn't want the day before classes start.

I should probably start a countdown til I'm done at school, I'll bet its about 175 days.

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I live in a two-bedroom apartment. I've spent three hours cleaning, and I'm not yet half way finished. Now, I typically have a pretty high 'dirty tolerance' yet even my tolerance for entropy has been challenged since the tail end of finals week.

Anyhow, I had planned to clean before I went home, but I ran out of time, and only managed to throw out old food and things that would stink if left alone for three weeks.

I have done some work throughout the week, but the job kept me busy, so today was a day to clean.

Anyhow, the kitchen is mostly done, and the bathroom is a 7 on a one to ten scale of nastiness. It was a 17 before I got going, so if it had started as merely nasty, it would be sparkling... alas its just disgusting now.

Most of the day has involved sifting through a semester of papers and throwing out those that need it, and keeping those that don't. My computer desk has also been unearthed, and that is always a difficult and time consuming task.

OK, enough about cleaning. This past week has been rather relaxing and I've managed to get a fair amount of sleep every night, so I'm heading into the semester well rested.

The textbooks that I purchased online are slowly starting to stream in, and I might have about half of them before the semester starts. A new record if there ever was a record to set.

Last night, after work, I had a good 'old fashioned' night of CivIII. I played the conquering of Japan scenario. It was enjoyable, but not nearly as good as the 'WWII Pacific' scenario or 'Napoleonic Europe.' However, the Japan scenario had some really cool units. The problem I found was that the units improved too quickly. I had units with attack ratings of seven while all of the computer civs will still playing with your standard 1 attack, 1 defense, 1 move unit. Essentially, it was too easy.

I also received a boxed set of Harry Potter books in the mail the other day. I ordered them with a text-book to get the free shipping from Amazon, and because those books are so good, I just need to own them. So, the plan is to put a bit more mileage on the 'Enron' book I need to read for a class, and then knock out 'The Chamber of Secrets' within a week or so... I'll read all five again this year.

Speaking of which, I probably ought to re-read the Lord of the Rings books again. Those were really good.

OK, if I don't keep cleaning I'll stop for good, and then Thomas will have 'justifiable' to tack on to his homicide defense :)

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Hi folks, I am nearing the point of insanity. I have sat in this exact chair for 19 hours in the last three days, and another chair a stone's throw from here for another 8 on Monday.

Working at the computer lab over the break has been murder by boredom. Still, the paycheck will be nice as the bills keep piling up for another semester of classes.

I started re-watching "Band of Brothers" two nights ago, but only made it through three hours of the ten hour series before I decided that I didn't want to watch guys legs getting blown off. If you have never seen the mini-series, it is worth the ten plus hours it will take to watch it, however its very powerful, and the camera work does an excellent job of conveying the brutality of the scenes.

Anyhow, thirteen more hours of work over the next two days and I'll have clocked 40 this week. For some reason, even though I spend at least 40 hours on classwork during the semester plus my job, it seems that I have less time when you work a real job (as in showing up someplace for 8 hours straight.)

twidle my fingers clockwise
twidle my fingers counterclockwise
clockwise
counter
clockwise
counter
aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggggg!

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Well, I'm back and its time to get busy with life again. I had two wonderful weeks of enjoyable relaxation. It was so great, I only had to set the alarm twice... to wake up each Sunday. Of course the first Monday of my break also involved the alarm clock, but not because I wanted it to. Then went it went off, I could figure out how to turn it off, so I unplugged the clock and went back to sleep.

I would guess I averaged 9 hours of sleep per night during the break, and now I'm pretty well rested. I simply need to concentrate on not giving it all back in the first few weeks of the semester.

After reading "The Last Juror" right before going home, I polished off "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" during the break. I read these three in that order, so it went five, four, three... which may have been a little confusing trying to remember what happened in what book, but a little variety is the spice of life, no?

Last year at Christmas, I got hit hard with the flu and spent a week doing nothing but sleeping, puking, and reading all five Harry Potter books (for the first time) in six days. I loved the books, and the stories were great, but I missed some of the finer parts of the books because I read through them too quickly.

Having taken a bit more leisurely pace this year, I really got a chance to enjoy the intricacies of the plot, and spot some of the foreshadowing and literary technique. Now, I doubt anyone is calling these books literary masterpieces, but the writing is excellent, and J. K. Rowling does a fantastic job of maturing her writing to match her readers (most of which aren't 22).

So, why am I writing about Harry Potter? Well, cause I love Harry Potter now! I liked it before Christmas, I love it now. If you haven't read the Harry Potter books, go to the library and check them out!

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