Dear Blog: College Week #1

While my first week of college doesn't end until tomorrow, I only have two short classes then, so it doesn't really count. So anyway, I'm not quite sure where to start. It's all so different from what I've always done before that I'm sort of numbed by all the new things. Sure, classes at the career center were a bit of an adjustment toward regular school life, but all of a sudden I have 17 hours of lectures every week, not 12.5 hours of lab time.

I've been decently busy the whole week, finding errands to do and stuff. I'm a bit concerned that I won't have time to do anything but school and work once my job starts on Tuesday (things like, for example, getting a haircut or something). However, it'll only be ridiculously busy for 5 weeks, then I'll have 3 hours to spare whenever I need them during the week.

So, academic stuff... well, with all the classes, I'm being forced to quickly adjust to taking notes, which is something I'm not experienced with. But I think I've figured out how to put down what I figure I need to know. I guess we'll find out when I take exams, eh? Programming is really easy. Too easy. But since I don't have time for more than I'm doing now anyway, I won't complain too much. Calculus is, well, calculus. The professor in that class has a really strong Asian accent, so I hope I don't get completely lost once we get a bit deeper into the material. Spanish will probably be my toughest subject. Memorization = bad. History should actually be a lot easier than I figured it would be. The teacher has some nice (and simplifying) methods of telling us how to get ready for exams. And there's english... I don't want to write 7 pages! *whines*

Waking up at 6:30 is really messing up my internal clock, too. I keep waking up at about 3:00 AM, jumping out of bed, and getting all set to eat and go to school before I figure out that I still have 3 more hours to sleep.

And, still haven't really "met" anyone yet. I went in assuming that I'd be put in classes with the same people for a bunch of time, like I was at the career center, but I guess I didn't realize that when the whole class is pretty much lecturing, there's not a lot of time for talking to classmates. I'm kinda assuming that once I figure out who the other computer science major people are, I might find some people with common interest to hang out with on campus. But I don't really mind stuff like eating lunch by myself... I'd do it at home anyway, the fact that there are a hundred other people in the room doesn't bug me that much.

And, that's all I can remember to talk about at the moment.

Dear Blog: Classes and textbooks and jobs! Oh my!

Well, today I packed my 50-pound bag of textbooks and tried to get a decent solution to my laptop carrying case problem (wonderful macbook is too small to fit in my old Toshiba bag) before "opening day." Opening day was, ehh, acceptible. Nothing tremendously special. My day consisted of sign-in, lunch, fancy little "college starts, parents go away" ceremony, dinner, and some introductory class type things. I kinda feel a bit "left out", I guess, as a commuter, even though about half of the students at Walsh commute. It would be fun to share a room with someone for a change (assuming they didn't play rock music all the time...) but I guess I'm probably a lot better off financially and morally as a commuter. No stupid drunk people parties every weekend.

Oh, another thing that happened recently, though everyone who reads this probably already knows anyway, is that I got the "technology assistant" position at the library. It's a nice career-related job with great pay, but it'll be 30 hours a week. So I'll like the job, I just won't have any free time at all. At least for this semester. But it'll be worth it in the long run, hopefully.

Classes start on Monday, and I have more orientation stuff tomorrow. None of it is really making me nervous or excited or anything... maybe just because everything is flying by too quickly to pay attention to.

Ok, time for sleep.

Dear Blog: Life as of 8/15

Hmm. My weekend was decent. I actually did something fun, other than poke around on my computer all day (instead, I poked around on my computer while Brian also poked around on his computer in the same room). Windows is stupid. Then we watched a Mythbusters about diet coke and mentos. (Fun!) I'll have to try making a bubble tower with helium sometime.

Then I stayed up until about 2:30, so I didn't wake up until 11:30, which was too late to go to the latest mass at our church, so I went to a 5:15 mass in Barberton. It was interesting... it was full, but there were a lot of people who didn't really seem to care, and a lot of teenagers too... or maybe I'm just contrasting it with St. Andrews, where the average is age is probably 60 or so. 5:15 must be the usual time for people who sleep until 1:00 PM or so.

Tomorrow (Or today, I guess) is my first day off work (excluding sunday) for a while. 38 hours doesn't last nearly as long as I thought it would. But it's my last week being an official page at the library... kinda sad, but I just keep hoping I'll get one of the other jobs. The director is on vacation in Canada (where he can't be reached) until next monday, though, so I won't even find out if I get an interview or anything until after he gets back. Gah! Anticipation!

And then I got "Fun with Dick and Jane" from the library and watched it tonight. It was hilarious, despite a couple unnecessary stupid scenes. And at the beginning of the credits, they say "special thanks to:" and then list a bunch of the infamous CEOs and other executives from companies that had big money scandals (which was a recurring theme in the movie). Adelphia got in there a few times... maybe stuff like that is why Time Warner bought them out.

So, enough mindless rambling. Time for sleep. (in 80 degree humidity! Whee!)

Dear Blog: Almost forgot...

Whoops. That's right... new macbook! Ok, so I need a laptop for college. I didn't really want to use the stupid slow useless Celeron laptop. So, I went for a wonderfully white, shiny new MacBook. Apple had a couple great deals too, so I got a free $180 iPod, and only paid $60 for a $160 printer/scanner/copier. And to top it all off, I ordered the stuff on Friday night, and on Saturday it said they shipped it. It then came on Tuesday morning. Pretty nice for 5 day shipping!

Do yourself a favor. Get a Mac! ;-) 

Dear Blog: Ohh, I have a blog to update...

Whee! I'm posting from a Blogger widget on my new MacBook. New MacBook? Well, I guess a lot has happened since I last posted.

Vacation was really fun. It was nice to have a break from craziness for once. Though my mom would have liked me to be outside the whole time, my idea of vacation also inclues a sufficient supply of Super Smash Bros. Melee on our GameCube, sleeping in, and avoiding bugs as much as possible.

Then I came back, and helped for a few of the five days that our church has vacation bible school. That's always fun, especially since I don't have to worry about leading bunches of little kids around all over the place anymore... I help with skit setup and stuff, and then just stand around and eat while all the kids are at various activities. But I couldn't be there the last few days because of work and a LAN party. This LAN party was also great fun, though we played a bit much Halo for my liking. (And I kept losing... imagine that!)

I finally got my schedule for Walsh, too. And then I told my boss at the library what the schedule was like. So, we concluded that I'd have to resign from my position there because the times that I couldn't be there needed to be filled, or something. So that was unfortunate, and I was pretty depressed about it until three days later, when I came in and saw that another position was open. The Technology Assistant is leaving. I applied for the same job in February, but didn't get it because the director didn't want to hire someone who might go away to college in 6 months anyway. How ironic.

So, I applied for the technology assistant job. It would be 30 hours/week, but they're fairly flexible, so it could vary from week to week. It would be absolutely nuts for the first few months of college because I could barely even be there for the 30 hours. But, it's about 13 dollars/hour, so I can hardly afford to pass it up. I also applied for a job at the front desk, which is 20 hours a week, but $10/hour and not as flexible. It would be a lot more fun, though, since the people I'd be working with are all fun. So, we'll see which one I get.

And, that's been my life for the last few weeks.