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January 31, 2008
T-Shirt Time Redux
Forever ago I linked to a video demonstrating an awesome method for folding a t-shirt. Yes, I realize it was a totally derivative post back then, and that it remains so now. :P Anyways, the trouble with the original (for me, linguistically speaking) was that the girl demonstrating the process was speaking Japanese, and I sadly don't speak Japanese (but I may soon have an opportunity to learn Arabic--total non sequitur, I know). Anyway, here's a link to an explanation in English of said folding method. While it lacks the perky enthusiasm of the original link's hostess, it does an excellent job of revealing the mystery of how to fold a t-shirt in the blink of an eye. Okay, maybe two blinks. Do I hear three? Three? All right, we're agreed. Three blinks. :P Laundry day may never be the same! <.<
Posted by Tacitus at 09:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Maccy Goodness
It has arrived! My
I've been really good so far; only loading things I need for school. All right, I admit it, my World of Warcraft discs are in storage so I can't install it until I locate them. :P
Anyways, I'm looking into ways I can develop in C# and java on MacOS X. So I'm reading up on Mono for its .NETiness, and NetBeans and such for java. My system knowledge is by no means expert, and it's been forever since I've worked with anything *NIX-based (and even then I was at most an "intelligent" user), so I have some work ahead of me.
*sigh* If only I could find a free weekend between now and May to really dig into this stuff. Se la vie. At least I'm once again on a Mac!
Probably the biggest question is what to name her. And, yes, she is she. :P
Posted by Tacitus at 08:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 26, 2008
RwlRwlRwlRwl RwlRwlRwlRwl
Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftan! *headbang*
Posted by Tacitus at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2008
Assisted Living
So in the Fall of last year--yeah it's already "last year"--I ditched my career of twelve years to go back to school full-time to earn a masters in something so totally cool that it surely will offer me a glut of new and improved opportunities when I get done--that's my fervent hope--if I can manage to not slip back into obscurity--I'm a total fucking wallflower business-wise.
My energy comes in cycles. When I'm up, I'm up. When I'm down, I vanish. Even when I'm up, I'm just doing an awesome job as a team member, propping someone else (deserving or otherwise) up into the limelight of recognition. With luck (it's happened more than once) they get swooped up onto a higher path to success while I, you guessed it, vanish. It's even questionable whether or not I was ever actually seen in the first place. Despite my best efforts, I am a master of obfuscation.
So here I am: unemployed and going to school full-time and with a family to feed. You know, typical American dream stuff. :P On top of that I'm paying out of state tuition rates which amount to about US$10K per semester! Talk about negative income! So I saddled myself with more of the "D" word: debt, student loans out my-- You get the picture. Loans offset the cost of paying for school, while my savings races toward $0 at unprecedented speed; budgeting be damned. Sooo glad we ditched the NJ house; heaping loss or no. I paid for Spring semester the same way: loans. Then a happy thing happened. I got an assistantship!
What is an assistantship you might ask? It's a position with an academic department at a university for graduate students. At least that's my understanding. In my case it's a research position. Or as my sister so cooly called it: a "working scholarship". Fuck yeah! I've got a scholarship! That sounds so much better than on-campus-department job, because it is! But the coolest thing about this is my tuition costs are reduced to US$25 for the semester! I'm thinking, "Fantastic!" at this point, but wait there's more. I draw pay too! All right, not a lot. But if you count the tuition waiver as income--and I'm sure Uncle Sugar sure as hell will--it's a nice chunk of change especially for the area.
My only concern now is if I can do the job being asked of me. I've yet to fail in this capacity, but there's always a first time. :P So I'll do my best, and I'm sure things will be all rosy soon enough; one way or another.
Woot.
Posted by Tacitus at 12:04 AM | Comments (5)
January 15, 2008
Requiem for The Dreamer
![[image: Martin Luther King, Jr. modified from source: http://www.princeton.edu/pr/mlk/images/mlk_mainpic2.jpg.]](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/tacitus/mlk_jr_smiling.jpg)
Requiescat in pace.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968
Posted by Tacitus at 12:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 07, 2008
Two Weeks in Review
Got my grades: 3.61 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). Not bad for not having done the school thing in forever, that and royally fucking up all of my finals. I kid not. Though I was shooting for a 4.0, I thought was on track for a 3.7 realistically, and feel I fell short by a bunch. What a little over-achiever-wannabe I am! :P
Spent Christmas at my sister's in Tennessee. Daughter was sick just days before and delayed our arrival there. But Santa got the relocation notice in time, so the kids were relieved. As for me and my love? I still don't think they like her. I really don't. But whatever. With each passing year I/we seem to become less and less and less like my family in almost every way.
Back home, partied New Year's with friends until 5:00 AM, which made my head cold worse. Blech. I'm still getting over the thing. I'm in the unenviable "everything smells/tastes like snot" phase. >.< Just thought I'd share.
What else... Ooo! Kids got head lice! Hurray for bugs... on your head! -.- Not sure from where, but that doesn't matter. Special shampoo and a fine toothed comb and they're gone.
Registered for classes. Didn't get an assistantship this semester either, so I'm still paying full price... at the out of state rate... meaning zomg fucking expensive! Student loans to the rescue; putting me once again up to my ass in debt. This educational gamble better pay off in spades! With enormous wheelbarrows of cash: non-sequential, unmarked, greenbacks (or Euros or whatever; bearer bonds are good too) preferred. Although thinking on it, briefcases of said payouts would be easier to transport; you know, the kind with the cool handcuff thingy.
*sigh*
Pitching my career and going back to school full-time has me feeling more than a little inadequate as a bread-winner. We're living off of savings and what we got from the sale of the house. Yeah... each day a little more of that "equity" gets burned to keep us warm. (Luckily it's t-shirt weather here today.) Sooo need my love to step up and start keeping me in the lifestyle to which I'd like to be accustomed. <.<
Posted by Tacitus at 03:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack