Category: Life

It’s funny how I ramble on about things that don’t matter on this website, but when something really important happens to me I forget to even mention it.

Just in case someone is reading this who hasn’t seen me in a few weeks, I got a little trim.

The nice lady who cut my hair asked “How do you want it cut?” To which I replied “Short.” I think she did a pretty good job.

Of course, the next few days were kind of strange. Paige said it was like the phantom appendage thing that people get when they have something amputated. I kept reaching for my hair even though it wasn’t there.

Also, everywhere I went people said things like “Hey, you got a hair cut!” I guess they thought maybe I hadn’t noticed. Then they usually said something like “I really like it.” Then, afraid that I might be offended, most people quickly followed that with “I liked it long, too.”

I was a little worried that all of my technical skills were in my hair, but thankfully they were not. The rumor at work was that I got my hair cut because I was looking for a new job. Only time will tell on that one…

Wednesdays are the worst for me. I’ll drive around 200 miles before this day is over. I came to work at 8:00am this morning. I’ll leave work at 11:30am to go to class in Commerce, then come straight back to work at 2:30pm. I’ll leave work again at 4:30pm to go back to Commerce for our CSCI 440 class meeting. That meeting is over at 8:00pm, which means I’ll be home around 8:45pm tonight.

The good news is it’s October now and I graduate in December. Only 9 more Wednesdays to go.

How would you like an MIT education? What if I told you it’s free?

MIT has a new program called Open Course Ware. At this site you can find free information on 500 different courses. This includes a syllabus, lecture notes, problem sets, and even the textbook in some cases.

Keep in mind that you won’t get a degree from this, but some of us like to learn things just to better ourselves.

I hesitate to even mention this here, but there’s such a fuss being made about it right now it’s unavoidable. The Paris High School band put on a show Friday night called “Visions of World War II”. During the show, songs were performed representing all of the countries involved in the war. While these songs were being played, flags representing each country were displayed on the field — including a nazi flag.

Unfortunately, last Friday was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, and some people found this insulting. So far, we’ve been mentioned in just about every newspaper in the country as well as on MSNBC and CBS News.

It’s really sad that people are getting so upset by this. The whole point of the performance was to be patriotic and to honor the veterans of the war. All of the countries from the war were represented as a sort of history lesson. Out of the 7 minute show, the nazi flag was only shown for a total of 14 seconds. The show ended with a collection of patriotic American songs and the flying of the U.S. flag.

Of course when the media got a hold of it, the entire point of the show was lost and we ended up with headlines like this – Texas band performs with Nazi flag on Jewish new year. This has obviously led to a lot of misinformed people calling the office today. One man even demanded that our “nazi band director” be fired.

Oh well. Luckily, Americans as a society probably have the shortest attention spans in the world. Most people wake up in a whole new world every day. I’m sure that tomorrow everyone will find something else to scream about and Paris High School’s 15 minutes of fame will be over…

Well, it’s almost here. In a little over 2 months I’ll be graduating.

I passed my Intro Sociology CLEP test on Monday with a score of 74 (out of 80). That means I have all the hours I need to graduate in December. I turned in my graduation application on Wednesday and paid my $20. I guess that means it’s official. It’s strange though, it hasn’t really soaked in that I won’t be taking classes in the spring. Luckily, I have plenty of other things to occupy my free time.

I’m in charge of the PHS Robotics Club now. We’re competing in the BEST Robotics competition which will be a lot of fun. The only bad part is the meetings are every day after school until 6pm. So most days I don’t get home until about 6:30pm, except for Wednesday when it’s more like 9:00pm.

The reason I’m out so late on Wednesday’s is because that’s when we have the meetings for our CSCI 440 Project Development Class. Basically, we’ve started a software company called and we’re developing a system for school nurses to use to keep track of student health information. Unfortunately, the instructor decided that the scope of our project was too small, so now it’s grown into a monster that no school nurse would ever want to use. Oh well, as long as I get a grade I’m happy.

The good news is, my presentation went well in class today. I showed off the forum that I mentioned in my previous post. Now all I have left in this class is the final on next Thursday. After that it’s just one more semester and then I’ll graduate in December.

Now for the bad news. Since summer’s almost over, that means all of the students will be coming back to school soon. We only have about two weeks to get labs set up, user accounts and directories created, software loaded, and everything else that has to happen before students can be set loose on our computers at work.

I guess it’s not so bad. The fall semester always seems like a race to Christmas break. Since I’ll be already getting my degree this December, who knows what else Santa might bring me…

I just got 3 hours of college credit for typing 62 words on a computer. How is that possible, you ask? Simple, I typed those 62 words in one minute… Texas A&M – Commerce gives credit for the keyboarding class to anyone who types over 35 wpm and pays them $25.

This is why I don’t go to Baptist churches anymore –

Damage to a church in Forest, Ohio, is estimated at $20,000 after a preacher asked God for a sign.

I’ll bet they passed the plates around twice that day…

It’s kinda funny, my last post was about the great lack of vacation time in the US and now I’ve got a week off from work.

Everyone thinks that you get tons of vacation time when you work for a school district, and they’re half right. There are several weeks during the year that I don’t work. The trouble is I don’t get paid for those weeks either. As far as paid time off is concerned, I get just about as many days as anyone else.

Oh well, at this point I’ll take what I can get. I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. I know we did. It seemed like three straight days of cooking out and fireworks. Paige was nice enough to buy me a new charcoal grill a few days ago, so the cook outs will continue.

There’s an interesting article at ABC News titled Vacation Deprivation about average vacation times in the US compared to the rest of the world. Here’s a nice quote:

If it feels like you’re stuck behind your desk on a sunny summer day while the rest of the world is on vacation, that’s because you are and it is.

I’m using all of my vacation days this summer to attend classes, so I can relate to this.