Third day of class

I don't think I'll do an "'every day' of class" blog. It's just too time consuming for me. I've got work, school, being a parent, being a husband and playing video games to do. Somewhere in there I'll fit rest and relaxation but it's usually an afterthought. I'm also sure no one wants to be bored to death hearing about English rhetoric.

3rd day of class I was about 3 minutes late. I can't always leave my office exactly in enough time to get to class on time. The prof has a policy though that if a student gets 3 10-minute tardies, it will equal one absence. I think that's bullshit because, really, what is 10 minutes out of 1 hour and 50 minutes of class time? It's not a big deal because I don't plan on being later than 3-5 minutes if at all but it's not like I'm a "normal" student who is coming from a dorm or apartment.

Any-hoo... I got into class and the moment I sit down, the prof is handing me a quiz. A quiz!? Holy spandex, Batman! Luckily, it was on the story I had actually read and I just spent the late night of Monday to the early morning of Tuesday perusing for quotes and examples for my paper. This quiz was mine! She was timing the damn quiz too! It was easy but still a 15 minute quiz?

Damn, college sucks! LOL! I took the quiz, turned in my paper, and then the prof started going over the quiz questions after everyone turned the quiz in. She went over the first question and on a technicality I missed it, along with a few others in the class, but she said she would give us credit. She's so nah-eese!

After the quiz, we had more lecture over the story and then we were given ANOTHER paper assignment. I guess this falls under one of the three "outside of class" papers. The one I just turned in was probably considered homework. What the hell! It's all papers to me whether it is 1-2 pages or 3 pages or more. It's tough for this old man who hasn't seen English rhetoric in about 10 years! This paper is due on June 6th. That's basically in one week. Jeez, I'm going to drop! NOT...yet! LOL!

Did I mention how much I hate school?

So, tonight will be filled with me having to read yet another story and thinking about what I want to write on for the big paper due in a week.

This is madness...pure madness!

Memorial Day weekend

Just like every red-blooded American I was looking forward to some good times on the water of the local lake...NOT! I'm lucky if I could afford an innertube for just floating in my pool (well, my rented condominium's pool).

In my self-centered way, Memorial Day basically means a 3-day weekend and a 4-day work week to follow. Don't point your self-righteous finger at me! You know you look at it the same way. Tell me, did you plan to attend the Memorial Day parade in your city's Downtown area? If so, was it really to honor the veterans or for the funnel cake and cotton candy? Reality man! Live it, don't lie about it.

Basically, my holiday weekend was fairly uneventful. Friday night, I stayed up until around 1am. playing a computer game so nothing exciting to report.

Saturday, I played tennis from about 8 a.m until about 11 a.m. when it started to poor rain. I returned home from tennis around 12:30 p.m, which is normally about a 25-30 minute drive, because of some stupid 21-year-old driving in a little truck who decided to start his Saturday morning with a few (quite a few) drinks of alcohol. In his drunken stupidity while driving, he cuts off a tractor-trailer hauling 3000 gallons of fuel. Said tractor-trailer tries to avoid the piss-ant truck, runs off the highway and hits a column support for the overpass. BOOM! We have one dead guy, one drunk in custody and a shut down highway. Hence, I had to find alternate routes back home, in the pouring rain. I get home and the wifey has a play to attend with a "colleague". She's not a friend or acquaintance. She's a "colleague". That's what you are called in academia when you have reached the PhD pinnacle, I guess. The kids and I just hung around the house being bored...well, they were more bored. The wife came home around 5:30 p.m. and my nephew came over around 7pm with his wife and twin kids (1-yr olds). Our lifestyle has slowed so much that we played dominoes! That is definitely an old person's game. We also played a card game called "contract rum". It's pretty fun but long. They left around 11:30 p.m. The wife went to bed and the kids were already there around 9:30 p.m. I went to my office and played more computer games. Before I knew it, it was 3:30 a.m and it was definitely time to call it quits and hit the hay!

Sunday, I woke about 11:30 a.m. The wife and kids were already awake. The kids are always awake early. No peace and quiet for the working parent on the weekends. It's okay. As they say, "I'll get all the rest I need when I'm dead!" I had a roller hockey game at 4 p.m. and another at 8 p.m. I got home from my last game around 9:30 p.m. I gave the wife a peck and a "Hello" and then kissed my sleeping children. I tried to watch a little of "Grey's Anatomy" - it was a rerun - but finally had to take a shower to get the hockey stench off my body. Sometimes the hockey stench is better than smelling salt! After the shower, I hit the computer games again until about 1:30 a.m. because I was planning on playing tennis Monday morning since it was a holiday for me from work. That was about the extent of my Sunday.

Monday, my alarm went off at 8 a.m. I hit the snooze bar and it went off again at 8:10 a.m. I turned it off and laid in "bed" for a few more minutes until I decided that I would just go back to sleep. I was too tired. I say "bed" because I wasn't in a bed. I was on a pallet of pillows and blankets that I slept on because I didn't want to wake my kids when I left for tennis. Anyway, I really wanted to play but I was really tired from staying up late the previous nights and getting up early the next morning. I dozed off and on until about 11:30 a.m. I got up and asked the wife if she wanted to go to our friends' who invited us over for a holiday cookout. She said she didn't want to because she had work to do and the kids wouldn't have much fun since it wouldn't be a good swimming day. Our friends' next-door neighbors were out of town and they have a pool they offered for use to our friends but it was overcast and our kids would freeze, though they would swim until they felt miserable from being so cold. Anyway, to shorten a long story, she didn't want to go there BUT my niece called to say she was going over my parents' house to visit my brothers and my two nephews that live there. (Sidenote: My parents passed away but it will always be their house no matter who in our family lives in it.) My niece just had a baby within the month and we hadn't seen it yet. So, I guess this was as good an opportunity as any. We spent from about 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. over there. We had a cookout with some teriyaki brisket, Caesar salad, rice and macaroni and cheese. It was a fairly nice time. It was freaking muggy though because my oldest brother who lives there refuses to turn on the air-conditioning until the last possible moment which is about the time the summer changes to fall and artificially-created cold air is no longer really needed. No big deal, I don't pay those bills so it's up to him if he wants the air on or not. My niece's daughter is a a cute baby. She was good too. I hardly heard her cry or anything. It's so cool to see them that small, to see their growth as a parent and to now know they get bigger and louder. If I didn't have my own children, I wouldn't care but it's cool now because I've been there, done that. Anyhow, we got back home around 830-9 o'clock just in time to put the kids to bed before it was too late in the evening.

So, did you notice that in my weekend recap there was no mention of the paper writing assignment I was given in class on Friday that is due Tuesday, May 31st, when I get into class? That's because I procrastinated as long as I could until 9:45 p.m. Monday night. Good times ahead...I typed it and my wife proofread and edited it and I typed some more. Finally, I felt that it was complete around 1:38 a.m. which would be Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was going to be a long day.

The Omnipotent Patrick Swayze

Have you ever noticed, in all of his movies, that Patrick Swayze is an all-knowing philosophizer?

Think of it. Roadhouse, Point Break, Dirty Dancing. Is he not always spouting a "Confucious says"—type words of wisdom?

So, not only do stupid Americans icon-ize celebrities but now we are to take their scripted wisdom with the Pepto Bismol we are already taking from a bad movie they may have made.

I guess there may be more "philosophers" but I just happened to see the movie Point Break before I started typing this.

Damn, I'm tired

The title says it all but that's what I get for staying up late, getting up early and playing tennis for three hours for the first time in a long time.

I decided to play tennis today because it has been a long time since the last time. No, it is not because I am a lazy ass. I admit that. It is because I broke my middle toe on my right foot about 3-4 weeks ago doing something foolish that I won't bother to explain.

I've been playing roller hockey on my broken toe but it is different because the boot of the skate is solid and doesn't allow my foot to bend. My tennis shoes on the other hand allow this bending which is very uncomfortable and painful, at times.

Anyway, I've been bored on my Saturday morning because I've played tennis just about every Saturday (only missing here and there for various reasons) for the last 10+ years.

I used to play Sundays as well but my wife got pissy about all the time I had to myself on the weekend mornings to do what I wanted while she was home, all alone, with the kids not getting to do what she wanted to do. Wah! Wah! So, like the good, whipped husband I am, I caved and no longer play tennis on Sunday mornings. Of course, now I play roller hockey on Sunday evenings! Woohoo, for me!

Nah, really I stopped playing on Sundays because one of my friends goes to church so he isn't out there to play. The only reason it's important for him to be there is because I enjoy having the opportunity to peg him with a tennis ball when he's on the other side of the net. We're good friends, huh? It's all in fun. I would genuinely be concerned if I hurt him but, come on, it's a friggin' tennis ball. At most, he'll get a bruise.

Also, my wife wanted to be able to go to church. Now, my not being there didn't keep her from going on her own with the kids but that's the point...she wanted me to go with them as a "family." Holy crikees! Like my kids really care if I'm there or not. Not the point, really. Perception is the key. If I think it's important, they'll think it's important. I won't go into why I don't think it's entirely important. Save that for another blog entry, another day.

So, back to the tennis...It was enjoyable. I didn't push too hard like I wanted to and would have if I didn't have a good handle on my urges to run down a drop shot or a lob. Unfortunately, it started raining but not before I got to play for a few hours.

It was really refreshing to be able to be in the hot, humid air of Texas playing tennis. Ah, good times.

Second day of class

The second day of class wasn't too bad. We had an assignment to at least start reading a short story. We were going to discuss it in class, which we did. The teacher gave us an assignment to take home. Can you believe that, an assignment the Friday of Memorial Day weekend? What the hell is up with that? Anyway, it's supposed to be a 1-2 page, double-spaced, typed paper. It shouldn't be a problem. If I was smart, I would have started and finished by the end of Saturday. It probably won't happen. I'll probably end up doing it Sunday or Monday because that's the kind of procrastinator I am.

I was a little later to class than my classmates. In fact, I was the last one to show up. I had to stop and get breakfast on the way because I was hungry and knew I'd be starving for the next two hours of class. Anyhow, I got a chance to glimpse my classmates.

I previously mentioned the "worried about his B-" jock. There is another jock that sits behind him that isn't as vocal as his buddy. In fact, I don't know if all four pistons are firing in this boys motor. He seems like a nice guy, just slow, really slow.

Jock number three is a black guy. Turns out he plays on the football team too. I would have pegged him for more of the short forward on the basketball team or a lacrosse guy. He's not very big but not many of our football players are. We found out today from the vocal jock that this guy has NFL lineage in his family. His grandfather played in the NFL and his father retired in like 1994 from playing with the Dallas Cowboys.

Girl number one is Asian. She's the smoker. She's pretty thin and wreaks of the cigarette smoke. She's always checking her cell phone like she's expecting a very important call.

Girl number two is blond and Caucasian. She's kind of plain Jane looking but she's very participatory in class. She's not much of a looker but seems pretty nice.

Girl number three is your typical campus "blond" and she's also Caucasian. She could be fairly cute but with all the fake blond hair and the fake-baking it's hard to tell what she really looks like. She seems pretty nice. She also seems to be your typical party girl who attends the jock fraternity parties. Today, she had my favorite "hot chick" sweats on. I can't really describe what they are but maybe I'll be able to post a picture later. They are sort of terry cloth looking material but I doubt they are. Yeah, a picture would probably be best.

After class, I went back to work. Asian girl disappeared like a ninja. "Plain Jane" was walking in front of me for a while but then she headed in a different direction. Jocks one, two and three walked with fake-bake in yet another direction.

How exciting my class day was, huh?

English Rhetoric II

1302 English Rhetoric II - Immigration, Ethnicity and the American Identity...

That is the official name of my class. As I sat in it today, for the first time, it felt more like a history course on the second wave of immigration into the United States. Not to say that class wasn't interesting, so far, it just didn't feel like an English rhetoric course. I'm sure with 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it will get into feeling more "rhetoric".

The professor seems energetic, at times overly so, but it's better than some boring, old, bump on the log who has one of those mouths that seems to always be frowning whether they are smiling or not.

There are 4 males and 3 females in the class so far. There may be more students tomorrow since it's the last day to add/drop. A couple of the girls are fairly cute. One smokes so she went down on the cute scale. One of the guys is a football player. He asked the teacher during a break if she would let him know if he was in danger of going below a B- because that's they new standard for the football players on campus to be eligible to play.

So, after he asks and the film starts again, he goes back to "drawing pictures of mountain tops with him on top, lemon yellow sun, arms raised in a V". (in case you didn't get that, those are lyrics from Pearl Jam's Jeremy song).

Point is he was worried about his grade but didn't pay attention to the film. I wasn't really either but I'm almost double his age and work for a living, so I have an excuse. With the other guys, there wasn't much to observe other than they probably are jocks of some sort too.

I think I may be able to pull this class off with a 'B.' I wouldn't mind an 'A' but let's not get too excited about that possibility. Barely flying under the radar, that's the way I like it. Here's the grading breakdown:

• 3 out-of-class papers: 40%
• 3 in-class exams: 35%
• Homework/in-class work: 10%
• Oral presentation: 15% (hehe, she said "oral")

Like I said, I think I can do it. If not, I have a wonderful, live-in English major and essay writer. The Doctor! She may not be able to drive or spell well but she can write a mean paper!

First day of class

Today, I take a step back into the collegiate world (as a student) and attempt to complete my undergraduate degree. As previously mentioned, I am an academic slacker. I am attempting to complete said degree in 20 years or less.

Summer school is Monday thru Friday for two hours! That means I should hit burn out by the 3rd or 4th day instead of 3rd or 4th week. :-)

Actually, I like the everyday schedule. It should keep me disciplined. I just don't like the school work!

I'll let you know how the first day goes and every day (hopefully) after that until I can take no more and end my suffering by getting the ever familiar "WP"!

Proper props to the wife

I must apologize to my wife for the previously half-hearted congratulations blog post regarding the completion of her PhD. She's really done a phenomenal job in completing this degree while being a full-time mom, a Brownie co-captain, a college tutor and college professor. She even managed to have a few occasions of free time to go clubbing, dancing and drinking with her friends...much needed breaks for sure.

Although I may not tell her, she truly is an inspiration. Not just to me and her two children but her mother, her father, her sister, her entire family and anyone that has the luck to be graced by her presence. The discipline and intelligence she showed to complete her masters and then her doctorate within a year of each other is truly inspiring.

I'm an unfocused slacker when it comes to my college education. I've been on the 10 year undergraduate degree — not completely caused by my lack of educational ambition — and probably about to enter the 20 year track for my undergraduate degree.

My hopes are that our children get their educational drive from their mom. Not because I think that a college degree will bring them great monetary rewards but because I think it will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment. I know that if, when, I get my degree it will be quite a personal achievement that pigs will fly and Hell will surely be frozen over.

So, before I blow too much smoke up my wife's back side, let me conclude by giving her a final, huge congratulations! It's well deserved, Doctor!

More Revenge of the Geeks

Just a quick blog for all the Force seekers out there who don't need a reminder but are going to get one anyway...

STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH!!

Premiers in 4 more days!

Later!

Congratulations to my wife!

My wife had her graduation ceremony today for the completion of her Ph.D. in Psychology!

Congrats to her!

It's been a long, time-consuming road but she finally completed it. If only she got the money from a job the degree deserves, I could hit my early retirement plan!

I can dream....

I need to get a life

Last night, Friday, I didn't get to sleep until almost 3am. Hell, I guess that was this morning, Saturday. I totally planned on getting to bed early. Well, earlier than 3 a.m...way earlier.

I was watching television and creating some web pages for my "home server". I call it my "home server" because I run it off an older machine (PIII 450mhz, 256 RAM) through my network on my DSL connection. It's actually pretty cool to do this on one of my home computers because I'm not using it for anything else. The only problem is it's not quite as fast as I'd like it because the machine isn't that fast and I just have the slowest DSL speed because I'm poor and I really don't need the faster speed for 2x-3x the price. Maybe when I win the lottery. Of course, I've got to play the lottery to win the lottery. Anyhow, I was making some edits to my web pages. I also had to upload them to my Geocities web page and modify them to work there. Geocities is very specific about the naming scheme. I create the pages on my home server and it doesn't matter if I reference folders or files as say, page.htm - Page.htm - PAGE.htm. Geocities however is very picky. If you saved an HTML file as page.htm but reference a link to it Page.htm, it will give a "page not found error" page because the name has a lower "p" but the link is with a capital "P". Anyway, I spent some time on that until I finally decided to take a break.

I was watching some television while doing my web edits. I was watching reruns of CSI. Don't say it... I am not a CSI whore. Yes! I am! I also like Law & Order but the original just isn't the same without Lenny. I haven't watched Trial by Jury but a few times. It just doesn't captivate me like the others have. I typically watch Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit - mostly reruns on USA or TNT. I just can't get enough of my crime dramas!

Around 10pm, I decided to get off my ass in front of the television (I was using a laptop with remote desktopping to edit my server files) and put it behind my gaming machine. I started playing Medal of Honor: Spearhead. I bought the game shortly after it came out and I already had my DSL connection. I've played Spearhead online or on my local home network (it's been up to 6 computers but now just two gaming machines) but hardly ever the single campaign missions. I started them once but only played for about ten minutes. Anyway, I played Spearhead for about two hours. Then I switched to an OLD game called Sid Meier's Civilization II. I played that game until almost 3am. I know I need to get a life. Leave me alone!

I guess you could say that I have an addiction complex...and I like it! I can't have just one Mr. Goodbar miniature or one Hershey's Kiss or one M&M or one Oreo Cookie or one can of Diet Dr Pepper. It's a damn good thing I don't drink or smoke or I'd be dead before my 68 year deadline - I may explain this deadline in a later post.

So anyways...I get to bed and I don't sleep through the night too well. I try to stay asleep until late in the morning but to no avail. I ended up awaking around 9am and couldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried. Sucks!

I've been thinking about blogging all day - not in an addictive way, more of a "what's the point of creating a blog if I'm not typing in it" way - but I just now got around to it. I was reading other people's blogs to see how uninteresting mine is(n't). Luckily, there are other blogs out there that suck just as much as mine but something favors me...I've just started and I assume it'll get better with time. These other sites I saw have been blogging for months even years. Some are writers, journalists or natural yackity-yackers. There may be hope for me yet.

Well, I'm watching Saturday Night Live now. Johnny Knoxville is hosting. Who would have thunk that Jackass star Johnny Knoxville would be hosting SNL? Now, of all the Jackass-types from MTV, you know them - Steve O, Bam Margera, etc - Knoxville seems like he could be the most normal, semi-intelligent one. I mean you don't see Bam or Steve making a go of it into "mainstream" movies. Anyhow, System of the Down is performing right now. I only know like two songs of theirs. The one they are singing (BYOB) I've heard on the radio. It's repetitive. I think it could have been 45 seconds long and still been just as "good".

Well, I'm going to go play some Spearhead before I get to bed. I'm shooting for 1am at the latest. It's 11:08 p.m. now.

Oh yeah, by the way, they had a CSI (repeat) at 7 p.m. and a CSI: New York (repeat) at 8 p.m. on CBS. I watched them both.

Put me down now as you would a gimpy horse - end the insanity.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

I don't have a lot of time to type since I am still at work but I just wanted to say... Two more weeks for...

STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH!!

Man, I sure hope this movie doesn't bite! "Phantom" and "Clones" were good movies but I think Lucas put too much into the CG instead of making a great quality movie. The story lines were thin as well. It may be just that I'm an oldie fan and used to quality and style of episodes IV, V, and VI.

I'm still confused about how ALL of the Jedi were killed - except for Obi-Wan and Yoda - when there was a whole temple of trained and untrained Jedi. I mean I know some were still pretty wet behind the ears but wouldn't you think ten good Jedi are just as good if not a little better than one great Jedi. And Mace Windu, he's supposed to be an expert...master Jedi. WTF happened to him?

I guess I'm just wondering too soon about "how" and not being fulfilled by the assumptive answer before seeing the movie. Hopefully, this movie will calm my Jedi instincts and remove my doubt so I don't veer towards the dark side!

Peace!

Am I a television junkie?

It's Monday at 9:35pm. CSI: Miami came on at 9 p.m. Once again, I find it difficult to pull myself away from watching. Call me a CSI whore! I was planning on going to bed early tonight too! Little hope of that happening at this point.

I also had to flick back and forth to The Inferno II on MTV. It's getting closer to the finale and the teeth and claws are appearing more often. About 10 minutes of flicking back and forth, I decided to just watch CSI: Miami because I can always watch Inferno II on the weekend. They usually have a Saturday marathon on MTV for those of us that are too busy watching other shows...because we have no life! It's sad that I know when they rerun marathons air.

I'm pathetic!

Now back to CSI!