Tuesday, August 30, 2005

And the second realm of classes...

Well.... yeah.

Comparitive Politics is hard. Like, take what you think hard is and multiply it by 5. :( First day of lecture was spent trying to keep up with what the prof was saying because he talked so damned fast about God knows what. It was fairly interesting when he made it interactive with like "name a country that exhibits _____ " because I can do that! Other than that, it's going to be hard. Already got my first paper assignment. :(

After that, I killed 2 hours by BSing with a friend I know from work (that was coincidently in my politics class) and then went to Astronomy at 1:00. It's going to be a cake walk, I hope. Judging from my score on the "pre-test" she gave us all today (in order to see if the math/physics is too challenging for you), yeah, I think it's going to be. The only interesting that about that class is there's an optional lab that you can take for one credit. It involves going down to the Allegheny Observatory every Monday night and look / take pictures of various things in the night sky. I think I'm going to do that because that's pretty much my only interest in Astronomy. Unfortunately I gotta enroll TOMORROW to be eligible for it. :
Then I came home and slept for about an hour and then played pool with my dad. Then about 5:00 rolled around and I drove back to Pitt for my 6:00 French class. I'm one of 2 guys of the 38 people in the class, which is a great thing, but the class itself is going to be bad. Prof talked completely in French (didn't even understand very much English) and he didn't seem very approachable at all. Toward the end of class he partnered everyone up and gave us an assignment that's due on Thursday and it was to encourage partners to meet outside of class and get it done. The girl I was partnered up with was UBER cool and I thought "wow what a great opportunity to meet someone new and sharing my interest!" Well yeah, she decided to drop the class. Sooooo I'm now the odd-man-out in the group and have no idea how to complete the assignment (it was to interview your partner and present them to the class on Thursday). Blah. Guess I gotta somehow email the guy.

Got a lot of studying that I gotta do in Politics and that will be done in my free time tomorrow! I'm going to enjoy my last night of nothingness for like.. ever.

Yeah so um *bang*. Oh here's one for you: Weatherman: STFU BITCH! And Halapy, stfu right now with your God damned liberal joke. ;)

Monday, August 29, 2005

Ugh

What a shitty day, huh? I hate rain. Worst thing is that it's going to be like this for the next 5 or 6 days. That BLOWS! Days like this always give me headaches and make me depressed. Ah well.

Today was the first day of classes and it was alright. I only had two. I got to Pitt this morning around 9:05, and with my first class starting at 10:00, I had a bit of time to kill. So I sat in McDonalds drinking coffee and reading the paper until about 9:45 and then I hiked it to Sennott Square for my first class: Web Design and Development. I was all prepped to learn how to enhance websites and build on my already pretty good knowledge of server side scripting and such when the professor walks in and goes "Okay, Good Morning. I want you all to login and open the internet." At that point, my jaw kind of hit the floor and I began smacking myself. Somehow "Web Design and Development" must mean "Find the Big Blue E 101." The rest of the class was spent tuning out the prof because when he showed us the syllabus, the only thing I don't know how to do too well on there is the very last chapter with cascading style sheets. Sigh. Easy credits I suppose, but I was really looking forward to this. :(

And then at 12:00 I had my Comparitive Politics Recitation which was eh. It was in the Cathedral of Learning and that place is so stuffy that you feel as though you should crawl out of your skin. The graduate student leading the discussion was from Uruguay and had the biggest French accent I've ever heard in my life. It was so hard to understand him because you could tell at certain times he was at a loss of words: "blah blah... uhhh.... umm.... blah....... uh...." Ah well, at least when I actually have the COURSE tomorrow, it'll be a little less lecturing and a little more discussion next time I meet with him.

And that was my day pretty much. Around 12:30 I caught a bus back into town and then I waited for about 1/2 hour to catch a bus home. I had such a headache too and all I wanted to do was sleep. It was raining like a mother too. Did I mention I hate rain? I felt so yucky when I got home so I just crashed and burned.

Tonight I'm going to go to Best Buy to buy new headphones since mine mysteriously decided to die last night on me. Makes me sad. Tomorrow's going to suck.

Oh, and God speed those affected by Katrina. :\

Sunday, August 28, 2005

In 16 hours and 25 minutes...

I will have my first college class and will totally embark on the journey that is adulthood. Heh, kinda freaky when you look over it like that. Anyway updates? There aren't really any.

Saturday I worked 8am-7pm. From 8am-10am was mandatory Safety training, where we essentially learn how to put out fires, work A.E.D.'s, break up fights, etc. if, God forbid, we ever would need to do something like that. It was a really small class, which was a surpise, because the last one I went to had over 40 people in it. This one, I can count, had 8. It was kind of nice having a small class, though it was reeeeeally awkward because Sat. was the day the director of the Science Center, Ms. Jo Haas herself, had her safety training. She is actually a really awesome person, and I definitely scored some nice brownie points by talking to her like the entire time. Heheh... what was the dude running it going to say? "HEY YOU GUYS! SHUT UP!" I mean, it was with the big boss herself! And I mean, everyone who works for the science center, no matter if you're a presenter, janitor, cook, whatever; you are under her. Heh, fun stuff.

Then Sat. night I rode with this dude I work with up to Pitt and we hung out for a few hours. There wasn't really anything going on, so I went home around 10:00 and then to sleep around 10:30.

Today I worked 10-5, which wasn't too bad actually. Was kind of funny because a really famous person was there as a visitor today. I put the dude on the roller coaster and said to myself, "hey he looks really familiar." Though I couldn't match the name to the face, ya know? So when I was on my break with 4 other people, I brought it up and EVERY ONE of them said they did the exact same thing! Luckily the name clicked into my head: Turns out it was Tommy Lee Jones; ya know, the dude who played opposite Will Smith in Men In Black? Oh yeah. He was the CSC today. So as we were closing, he walks back in (him, 2 kids, and this other guy... Tommy Lee Jones is gay, you heard it here first :P ) and literally every one of the staff just like begins staring at him. Finally when he was near the rock wall, this one chick I work with goes up and is like "Are you Tommy Lee Jones?" He kinda pauses and doesn't really say anything. Then I do my thing where I'm at, and I look back and he and this girl are just chatting it up. I ask her after work and she goes "Yep. Was him!"

So there you have it folks! The CSC isn't that bad of a place to be... *cough*

Comp Sci tomorrow at 10! Wish me luck!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Last Weekend

Yup. This is the last weekend before classes start. :
Anyhow, when was the last time I updated. Wednesday, OK. Wed. night went over to Emily's and we watched an episode of Family Guy and the Daily Show before we were kicked out. Bleh, what a way to end it, huh? Well not end, but ya know.

Yesterday I did nothing. Today I went to Pitt for some required orientation things. I met with my advisor at 9 this morning and then went to a Political Theory class from 10-11. Talk about hard shit. It was to try to prep you for taking notes in college and such. It was really interesting, though I think after just an hour in it, my brain was about fried. Ah well. After that, Darby and I walked to Starbucks where we sat and BSed a little. I haven't seen her since 5th grade, and all that... heh. Fun times. Then we rode up to the 36th floor of the Cathedral of Learning for the hell of it, but we couldn't get any higher. Wrong elevator or something and neither of us had the initiative to hop on another. Then we walked to the library, which is REALLY nice. I'm going to be spending a lot of time there, methinks.

Then about 2, Haley called and asked if I could meet them (him and Andy) for lunch. I definitely obliged. So I bid farewell to Darby and met them at Subway. We sat and BSed while Andy told us horridly sick stories of Holly sleeping over his dorm one night that week. EEEEEEW. Yeah, just about kicked his ass then and there. Then we walked back to Haley's dorm at CMU, which is actually a lot further than I thought from Pitt, but it's because I didn't realize how far Pitt actually extended in that direction. Pitt is HUGE. :( So that was about a 10 minute walk. I met his roommate. Nice kid. But he's a lucky bitch because he gets a big ass dorm and a BATHROOM! Blah. Then we went down into his lounge thing and I schooled them both at pool. :)

Then, since Andy was coming home for the weekend, he asked if I wanted a ride. Since I really had no desire to ride the bus I agreed and got dropped off back where I parked my car and got home around 5:30 or so. All in all it was a pretty good day, I suppose. I just wish I could have went back to a dorm tonight rather than coming back here. The second I stepped foot in my house, my mom just began berating me and telling me how to run my life. This time it was about band, and when I CALMLY said, Mom, if I want to do something, I'll do it. Yeah, shit hit the fan then as she began accusing me of telling her off and what not. Screw this man. I don't care what's offered to me in 2 weeks, I'm taking it.

Now I get to sit here all weekend with nothing to do but work my ass off. Fuckin 14 hours tomorrow and then 7 on Sunday. It really isn't worth it anymore.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The Days Keep Ticking Down

Ain't that the truth huh? I'm bored now so I'm going to update. Yesterday was just work. Uneventful. Today is also shaping up to be a boring day.

This morning I got up real early (6:15) and caught a bus into town. There I caught one to Oakland and got to Pitt around 7:15ish. From there I went to where they have the Housing stuff and filled out an application for student living. My rationale is that even if I don't get one this semester, I will be one of the absolute firsts to receive my room next semester. And since today is move-in day, that's the reason why I got up so early heh. It wasn't crowded at all, but The X was broadcasting from Towers. Yeah I went up and waved to Alan Cox. Freaky kid.

Then I caught the bus back into town and took the slow bus home (no "express" one running out of town that early in the morning). I got home around 8:30 and went back to bed until 11:30. Now I'm kinda just sitting here waiting to hear from my friends with whom I'm going to do stuff tonight (another last hurrah, heh).

I definitely envy my friends who are already in their dorms and I wish I could be there heh. Ah well.

I'm cold. The end. :)

Monday, August 22, 2005

Stuff

Heh, the weekend was pretty much uneventful. Since Thursday, nothing really has happened. Friday-Sunday I worked 10-5, and after it was done yesterday, I couldn't be happier. That was my last big stretch of work until possibly next year. Now I just work tomorrow 11-7 and I will be done with weekdays. That's something I'm quite happy about.

Anyway, today I go to my old homepage (www.willsubersite.com) to find it hacked by some kind of Muslim extremist. My friend managed to catch a screen shot (Will find a host somewhere). It was kind of, erm, surprising, considering it was placed on a left-leaning blog, heh. Oh well. Something similar to that was placed over Infoceptor a little while ago. Oh well, must be doing to a lot of insecure sites. Then I got an email from 1and1 saying that my site will be taken down shortly due to warez files getting hosted... right. But I knew it'd happen eventually. After all, it was free.

On Friday, I think it was, this dude from work and I were talking about living on campus (he's going to pitt too) and it was brought up how he had a single room and how he was looking for a roommate. I figured I'd look into it, because, after all, I really would much rather live on campus. So my dad called Student Living early this morning and they said that I'd need to fill out a bunch of paper work and have him sign a bunch of paper work agreeing to move to a double room, and then I'd be able to live there. Cha-ching! That's always a good thing, I suppose. I'm just hoping I can get in touch with the guy tonight, because I DO NOT want to be up there when people start moving in. 15,000 people crammed in Oakland = NOTHX. Yeah, it always helps if the person you're talking to about this whole thing IS WILLING TO GO THROUGH IT. Ass...

Also Thursday night we had a LAN at Haley's. It was kind of spur of the moment, but despite that, we had 14 people or so! Most ever I think. It was fun-- Hot, but fun. Spent the night gaming and talking to people that I won't see for a long time (i.e. the Haley Family). I started packing up around 12:30, and Halapy and I talked outside of Haley's driveway for a good hour and a half. Just bullshitting about the future and the future of everyone we know and such. It was fun. We said our goodbyes to everyone as they drove off, wished them all luck, ya know. I'm gonna miss them all, though a large get-together like that was definitely better than not having anything when people you knew very well are all going their separate ways. But it's expected, and we'll all move on to bigger and better things. I'm just hoping that it's not the end, ya know? We still have weekends and holidays, and I'm sure we'll be keeping in touch online.

And last night was my last big hurrah with Dan. We've been damned good friends since 8th grade when he moved to Montour and since he's going to PSU Behrend, he'll be rather far away. So we partied and both got a little too intoxicated. Heh, fun times that I can't really remember. Today kind of hurts, but it was rather worth it, in my opinion.

Well we're in the home stretch of a huge transition period. Good luck everyone!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Meh

Well with college fast approaching, I'm kinda starting to look forward to it. What sucks is not having friends readily available first thing, ya know? Like we were trying to get some kind of last hurrah together, but it kinda fell apart due to everyone working and the fact that 2 of my friends need to be up at school this fucking sunday. But oh well. We'll hopefully have more time to hang out and it will be valued more and what not.

Anyway I started taking the bus to work this week since I can take it free with my Pitt ID. It's not a pain by any stretch and it saves a bunch of money on gas which I'm thankful for. My only quam is the fact that I have to get up 1/2 hour earlier and I end up getting to work 1/2 hour earlier too, due to there being no bus that leaves downtown later than 9:20. But hey, I actually get home faster since the bus just hops on the HOV lane, as opposed to me sitting in traffic on the parkway during rush hour, which is not fun. Other than that, I have no beef at all. I mean, the bus that takes me downtown stops at the exact stop that the bus that takes me to the CSC picks me up. No walking or anything, and it surprises me how efficient the Port Authority is. For all those knocking it, try riding a few busses.

Other than that, nothing really interesting going on. I'm in the middle of an 8 day straight work week. I work every day til next Wednesday, all day each day. But meh, it'll get me some money, which is always a plus. On that issue, I discovered last night that with the big things I want to plan for over the school year / next summer, I will probably need to find another job. I figured I take home about $195 every pay when I work solely weekends, which is okay, but when all of it sans a few goes toward college stuff, it amounts to a not-so-flexible spending budget. So I was discussing with my parents some other stuff that I could do. Freelance computer technician came to mind. With my mom being a secretary, she meets and gets to know quite a few people, and could probably put a word out for comp help or what not. Since most of tech support on computers is pretty much running ad-aware-type programs, it shouldn't be that hard I don't think. It's stuff that I have to work out the logistics of, but it shouldn't be too bad of a thing to do I don't think.

But my parents did say they'd have no problem signing a loan to help me study abroad. I'm really thinking of doing something that would get me travelling the world, especially in a government-type position. Ambassador, translator, etc. I might really push myself through French in college to see if that would help any opportunities open for me. Other than that little inkling, I still have yet to know what I really want to do with my life. Bad thing? I think not.

So how 'bout them gas prices? Sheesh... ah well. That will be a discussion saved for another day.

À la prochaine, mes amis...

Thursday, August 11, 2005

And, a kick in the balls.

My Aunt's car broke down 2 miles from her house. She's not coming. We're not going to New York. Fuck the world.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

An Update... Finally.

Yeah haven't had very much time to update as of late as I've been working my ass off. Before yesterday, I worked 7 days straight, with no less than 7 hours on each day. Last Tuesday I had 12 and Saturday I had 13.5. Those are INSANE hours to work and I'm an idiot for choosing to work them, however I did manage to get overtime that week. It's small, but $10.62 per hour for 3.75 hours is a nice addition to my paycheck.

Anyway I got home at around 3:00 today from Cedar Point. I had a blast. Lines were horrendous, but we rode every roller coaster in the park (sans one which was broke). My personal favorite was the Millenium Force, however the new Top Thrill Dragster, came in a very close 2nd. With the Dragster, it was definitely one of the most interesting experiences I have ever felt in my life. 0-120MPH in one second and then spiralling up 420ft. just to spiral straight back down again at ~120MPH is just so awesome. We were so enthralled by it that we spent the next 5 minutes just shaking from the adrenaline.

Anyway, then we spent the night at a kinda crappy hotel. It was alright. Only one bed, which I managed to get. No 'beverages', unfortunately, as my contacts didn't come through. Oh well. I definitely loved the freedom though, and it made me wonder why I didn't go on trips with my friends any other time.

College starts in a little over two weeks, and I don't think I'm quite ready yet. Wanna try and get at least one more thing in with my friends before we go.

Ah well. My aunt's coming in tomorrow night and then we're heading to New York early Friday morning. Hopefully this weekend should be wonderful as NYC is supposed to rock hard.

Until next time compadres!