The End

So I'm going to try to write something in a form that can be sent off to someone else who may be able to publish it. Why not dream big? Also, this blogging thing makes me too lazy. Instead of using good sentence structure, I revert to typing as I would speak. Another reason to stop blogging is that there are just too many issues that make me angry lately. I can't compartmentalize them properly. All of my anger is mushing up into one big dark cloud over my head.

When I first started, this helped me to get things out in a form of venting. It made me feel better to type them out. I need to move on now and find another form. There's a very good chance that I'll never finish or that I'll fail miserably but there's also a chance that I won't.

At any rate, see ya later.

Penny for the song, Gov'na?

I've wanted so much to sit down and type a very large amount of words out in an orderly fashion but haven't had the time. Alas, time is flying by and it's almost my birthday. Here's my annual birthday wish list:

1. Money
2. Money
3. Money
4. Free tickets to a Ka-BAAM show
5. Money
6. Money
7. A Home Depot card
8. Money

Thank you and good night.

Oxygen tank anyone?

You know how I said earlier that I could walk to work in any weather? Well, that's kind of true. I can be perfectly warm in cold temperatures but I can't breath very well. One must bundle up so much that movement becomes increasingly restricted to the point where lungs cannot expand appropriately. This causes me to pant. Panting is embarrassing. Now that I'm here, I'm exhausted and would really like to go back to bed for 10 hours.

I'm going a little stir crazy. My house is small but I think even in a house three times the size I would still be going crazy. Once this day is over and the temps go back up, I will be spending as much time outside as possible. In fact, this weekend, don't bother stopping by the house, I won't be in it. I'll sleep there but that'll be about it. I must have an area with no walls for a long duration.

Before that can happen though, I have to get through the checklist of items need for next week's budget discussions. How enchanting.

Crank Up The Air Conditioning!

Although I mentioned a post on the concept of a paperless society (which will never happen), I'm afraid I can't deliver because I'm just too damn lazy...and cold. I know, that last one is a shocker, isn't it? All I have for today is that I made it to work this morning so now I can never wake up in the morning and think it's too cold to walk so I'll sleep in and drive. I don't get that option anymore because I know it can be done.

I think TCF Bank should have thrown in some fireplace installation in staff offices in return for forever having the name of a bank associated with an academic institution.

No, That's Not What I Said

A communication gap; a grammatical dispute; whatever you choose to call it, I had it yesterday with the IT representative. I was told on Wednesday that 15 minutes of my computer time would need to be allotted to said IT rep to encrypt my computer. She hopped on and realized that I didn’t have Vista, so she couldn’t encrypt anything. This brought up another issue of finding time to install Vista, then encrypt. This process was to take approximately four hours, or half of a theoretical work day. I was also informed that it would need to be done before the start of spring semester, which is Monday.

There was going to be no ideal time for this type of hourly realignment, so I just decided to get it over with as soon as possible and signed up Thursday morning to be the crimp in my workweek. After agreements were made to the start date and time, I asked if I needed to do anything with my computer beforehand and was told “No, everything on your computer will stay as it is”. I somewhat happily hand over my computer at the end of Wednesday and tried to figure out how I’d accomplish what needed to be accomplished with very limited computer use the next day (see future post on paperless society).

I returned to my office on Thursday after scrounging for food at Coffman (if you need anything during winter break, you better not plan on finding it on campus) and joyously greeted my computer as if it just presented me with a document forgiving my college loans. My usual routine (ritual, some may say) after logging on is to immediately go to iTunes and find the classical station. I can’t stand to be in an office with no music. Ninety percent of the time it has to be instrumental otherwise I get too distracted. After finding the iTunes “button” and realizing that there would be a learning curve as I discovered where all of my icons were now hidden, I was frozen in space as I stared at a blank iTunes page with the pretty multicolor lines resembling the old green-bar paper where my music titles used to be. No titles. No printing of any kind. Nothing. Screaming commenced. Okay, screaming on the inside.

After resolving to remain calm, I searched around for my dearly loved files finding nothing. NOTHING. I then politely emailed the IT rep lamenting that I may be missing a few music files and would she know where they might be? She replied with revealing that if they were on my c: drive they are now wiped out. I quickly reviewed the previous day’s conversation: “Do I need to do anything specific before you install this?” “No, everything on your computer will stay as it is” “No, everything on your computer will stay as it is” “No, everything on your computer will stay as it is”. LIARS!!!!! FUCKING LIARS!!!!

This scenario points out a common scene that plays out every day in every work place and every gas station around the world. There are concepts that people within certain groups assume everyone else outside of their group will now come to realize as a given because it’s been long enough now that this concept has been known. When I asked if I needed to do anything specific before they violated my computer, they assumed I already knew to back up my hard drive. To me, my hard drive is the computer. If I stick a CD in to save something, then it’s not on the hard drive. If there’s no CD or other magnetized form of media emblazzened with my choice of information, then it’s on the hard drive, aka the computer. I now understand that my computer is made up of a network which will always be okay but which everyone has access to, and the hard drive which is mine alone but also mine alone to back up. Fuck.

Why did I mention gas stations earlier? Because now when it is stated that one can use a credit card to pay for gas, it is implied that the credit card will be inserted into the gas pump and not brought into the store to be held by another human. I watched as a woman older than me was trying to grasp this concept while the store clerk was trying to lead her back out to the pump to show her. She couldn’t understand why someone just couldn’t take her credit card right there and just pay for the stuff. They’re right there, why can’t they do it? Good question. Because the new store financial system doesn’t allow it. You know the one, the system that is supposed to make our lives easier (also expanded on in the future post referring to paperless societies). Does anyone know where I can get a cheap flashdrive?