stripethree

January, oh January, how busy you have been. Here I am staying up past my bedtime to blog rather than get the sleep I probably need. The first couple of weeks of the year have been fun for the most part, and, as I said, busy. I recently finished putting a ton of work into the Schnell website that everyone seems happy with and should set us up nicely for 2006 and beyond. Go visit it dammit (hey, if the server’s down, it’s not our fault, email Globat and tell them how much they suck). It went from a completely static site to a database driven beast with quite a listing of extra management and cool-ness features. Definitely something I will be adding and discussing in the online portfolio I am finally (as I should be) putting together for future web site work on the side. I picked up some nifty new tricks as well, always good to learn something. I also recently completed a smaller endeavor, a site for a highly modified Corvette and its owner(s).

A small site, and admittedly, not very similar to the car I get around town in, but it was cool to see what someone in another, different part of the automotive scene does with their ride. Hopefully this will be the start of something, as in more web design projects. It can be stressful and a pain sometimes, working on ‘work’ when you get home that isn’t your regular forty hour a wee job, but I still found it to be fun. That is because I am a nerd. Like I mentioned, I am beginning to finally put together a portfolio of work so I have something to show off for potential, new gigs. We’ll see where it goes from there, as there also might be more work from the same source the Corvette site surfaced from.

Next Monday I will be back in class, Cryptology on Monday evenings and Web Application Development on Tuesday evenings. I’ve heard Crypto can kick one’s ass, and I guess I’ll find out. I’m still aiming to finish by July 2007, maybe a little eariler if I can swing it. This also means I have started researching into the wonderful world of student loans, as JHU wants a lot of money (not as much as Uncle Sam took from me, but that’s another story. Look for a taxes rant sometime soon, unless I miraculously don’t owe the entiretly of what I have in savings). The following Monday Kharissa leaves for Kentucky and is gone until almost mid-March. A blower, but not much that can be done about it; just have to make the most of the time now, and it is just a month. This will be like the warm up of sorts, as I know there will be times she’s going to be away longer than that in the future. Things with Kharissa are fantastic though (oh, but you’re just saying that because she can read this!), ah, no. Really, they are, I’m very lucky; I’m glad I can make someone so happy, and vice versa. What is this sappy talk that has found its way into my blog? Gah, beer, football, :burp:, cars. (Love you babe!). Heh, I did get the best fortune ever at PF Chang’s the other night, “You will soon bring great joy to someone”… in bed. Score. Thankfully I didn’t laugh out loud at this at the table, seeing as how I was at dinner with my parents. That would have been fun to explain.

Oh yeah, sort of speaking of things that are completely not sappy at all, ever. Carly pointed me to this podcast a while back when it started, called GuyCast. Hilarious. Pretty much two college-age guys bullshitting about what every (normal) guy bullshits about. Plus they did a show (episode 10) completely plastered and in a shed. That, my friends, that is quality entertainment. There are on MySpace, their site is GuyCast.net, and you can find their podcast in iTunes. Check it. I havent gotten into the whole podcasting thing, just because there isnt a lot of content I feel like listening to in this manner other than stuff like SportsCenter, which I watch all the time anyway, but this one has stuck around. Im running out of excuses for busting out laughing at work while listening to GuyCast through my headphones though (by the way, the site and show are not, how we say, ‘work safe’, hence, the headphones. Think of how often you hear the word fuck in Boondock Saints and youll get the idea of how much these guys curse). Righteous. Oh, and for the record, don’t make the fucking show go clean! Boooooo!

Anyway, thats all out of me. Im tired and its only 12. Im old, I know. Depressing in that I dont think I have had anything to drink this year since New Years Eve. Paging CP Dubs?

Good night bitches!

… fuck fall! Hahaha. Thank you Lewis Black. Man, another month has gone by already? Wow.

Last time I checked in here I was just about recovered from H20. It’s been a busy month since then. I signed up for classes yesterday for the upcoming spring semester. I will not say that the semester off motivated me to go back to class, but I think it was enough of a break where I can focus and work my ways towards finishing the graduate degree. I basically came to the conclusion that I might not get any better opportunity, for a variety of reasons, to do this other than now, so I should knock it out. I signed up to take Cryptology, a class I wanted to take at Maryland but just never fit in my schedule, and a class on Web Application Development. So every Monday and Tuesday starting at 7:15 from the end of January until the end of April I’ll be at APL gettin’ my learn on. The job has been decent, I mean, work is work. A couple of very cool things did happen though, one of them being getting my name on a couple of patents from work done on a previous project. From the purely geek standpoint, that’s just fuckin’ cool. Whoever says I haven’t networked enough here, well, I disagree, because I also got a freelance web design gig thrown my way. Very cool as well; starting out small, but could be big. There’s another one that got discussed with a separate party that could get thrown my way as well. Again, very cool. See, I have been busy. Nothing much went on with the car this month, it got dyno-ed again back on the 15th and showed decent gains from the addition of the exhaust. I have no further plans for the car right now, other than resolving ongoing issue with the headlights. I almost, almost made it through the entire month without spending any money on parts for the car, but I didn’t make it. One of the R32 forum members on Vortex is producing some very nice billet door lock surrounds (I don’t know what else to call them) and I couldn’t resist. What can I say, is it the least amount I’ve spend on the car in one month in I don’t know how long. My long term goal is to save the money for the VF2 kit as a grad school graduation present to myself in 2007. I did buy something for someone else’s car this month, but that doesn’t count. Speaking of which, yeah, how lucky am I that I stumbled (literally) upon someone who I happen to get long with great, wanted to talk bout GTIs up and down, and… I could go on and on, but she knows. So many other things. =) She’s even a Boondock Saints fan. What more can you ask for.

Anyway, that’s all there is for now. I’ll try not to make it another month before I think of something to say and am not too busy to say it.

With class that is. Feels sooo nice. I need the break. Will I go back? That remains to be seen. I don’t want to feel like I’m ‘quitting’, but I still wrestle with the fact of how much it will benefit me. We’ll see, I don’t have to think about for a while, registration for next spring is way, way off in the distance. I was letting class stress me out way too much, no more.

I keep having the recurring thought to ditch my efforts at getting a masters degree. The first two classes I finished, I didn’t feel like I got a lot out of because most of the material I already knew through undergrad classes, my internship and my job. My current class is a similar deal, but I’m getting a little more out of it that the previous two. Not getting much out of it is not a motivator to continue with this at all. After the current class, I’d have seven more to go, and I’d would probably up to taking two a semester just to get it over with quicker. I barely go to this class now, and I just find it hard to be motivated to put down the effort; it just doesn’t seem like this is worth my time. It will benefit me salary-wise at my job when I finish, but not an amount that is life changing and not immediately (first annual assessment after completion I’d see it take effect). I know a number of people at work that have gone plenty far on just their bachelor’s degree and various certifications. I could shift my efforts to getting certifications that would probably benefit me more knowledge-wise and would also help salary-wise in a similar respect. The other thing, and this may sound dumb, but the time spent is taking away from other things… nothing that important, mostly car stuff, trips, etc. but I just don’t feel like I’m doing what I want to do with all my time outside of work. Maybe I’m just burned out because I took no break after undergrad. Maybe I should have skipped a class during the summer months with car shows and everything else going on. The money I have to throw towards grad school is ridiculous as well, if my company weren’t picking up some of the tab I’d never do it. And that’s part of the reason I think maybe I should stick it out… I might not have this opportunity again, and most of the people I know that did grad school in their late 20′s or after say they wished they’d done it sooner. I also don’t want to feel like I’m ‘quitting’ at it, if that makes sense. I started it, I’ve put time in, and I feel like I should finish, but in the meantime I’m missing out on other shit now because of it. Maybe I’m just nuts.

I should probably wait to think about this again after the week is out and I get through the current project in my class. This week has just brought on a pile of frustrating and stressful situations in many respects and I need to get through it before I go off and make a snap decision. I feel like I am overwhelmed in the things that I have committed my time to, and while my priorities might not be 100ght, more school is the one thing that I see that I could give up, be even happier than I already am, have more time to do the things I really enjoy, all those things, but with the catch that it might be an opportunity I can’t get back. I can take a step back from other things, specifically car stuff but I already feel like I waiting so freakin’ long to get involved in that stuff and I love it, I don’t want to give it up. It might sounds stupid, but it means a lot more to me that some piece of paper saying I suffered through more class.

Until july 12th that is.

…but for me, not the last day of class.

Weird.

Going through the normal day and saying bye to people like it’s just another day but you have no idea if and when you will ever see them again. It’s amazing how much it can be taken for granted the people you see on a daily basis.

It’s really hard to concentrate.

It is an odd feeling how this semester seems to have crawled (the work/school weeks) and flown (awesome weekends) at the same time. I keep thinking that once this semester is over, I somehow want to keep up the photography stuff. We (photo class) went on a field trip to Glen Echo Park, which houses Photoworks, offering classes and open darkroom opportunities. A bit of a drive, but very well worth it if happens to be the only place of its kind in the area (I have yet to research this more). I keep thinking of more little projects (see this) I would like to do with the stuff I have taken from classes as well. ::Gasp!:: I would really like to mess around with digital video stuff a lot more, especially if Mic I am not going to tell what the plan is, what fun would that be?

I have realized that I am putting a lot of expectations up for how things will change once school is over and done, specifically, with time and how I hopefully will be able to do a lot of things I have been wanting to do and just have not had the time to plan and execute. I held back from forming a whole host of expectations for this current semester, and I know I am having a better time as a result. Lofty expectations are not getting let down. I let myself slip into the expectation of the change after school, basically because the part/full time job that is class work outside of class will be gone. It is kind of scary, but what if that falls though? Major disappointment. Worry about that when it comes about, next thought.

May 20th. August 20th. Soon.

I [very] recently discovered this song, and keep coming back to it

This is my life
Its not what it was before
All these feelings I’ve shared
And these are my dreams
That I’d never lived before

Now that we’re here
So far away
All the struggle
We thought was in vain
All the mistakes
One life contained
They all finally start to go away
Now that we’re here, so far away
And I feel like I can face the day
I can forgive
I’m not ashamed
To be the person that I am today

Sue me, I discovered it through the preview for The Punisher, which by the way, I can’t wait to see. Anyway, I’m one of those people that really does listen to the lyrics of a song, and occasionally hunts them down, and this one… they strike me. Not to mention that I happen to be writing my short proposal for my final photo project in which I have chosen to do something introspective blah blah blah you don’t care. Well, you might, and I don’t want to share. Ironically, that’s why I want to do something introspective… and now I have lost you.

I have lost me too. Mentally, I’m not here, when it comes to school at least. I’d blame it on senoritis, but I really can’t. I’ve been out and about plenty this semester and you’d think I’d be able to balance it with actual productivity at some point. Apparently not. Maybe I got spoiled. Maybe I’m counting the days until May 20th and August 23rd. Maybe my thoughts are going a whole lot faster than the rest of me. None of those things would at all be a surprise.

I have to finish this “midterm” and procrastinate on studying for another one. Wasn’t this post about a song?

…my opinion of Networks remained neutral. Now we have our usual seething hatred, as one would expect with any, especially 400-level, Computer Science class. [note time of post]

I did get a spiffy drunken phone call that vaulted to the top of my short, but distinguished list of such calls I have ever received. Excellent.

My mind is so many other places than on computer science classes it’s not even funny. I’m staring at two rolls of T-Max 400 on my desk and subconsciously trying to figure out exactly how much time remains before I can develop them in Tuesday’s photo class. I’m trying to figure out a simple domain name I’d like to snag to use for all sorts of crazy things, like all those projects I wrote down last month but am still thinking about. Oh yeah, and it might come in handy for that Capstone project thing because I think I know what I am going to do. Notice I did not say what I want to do, because I just don’t have the time resources to undertake something extra-intense. So rather than entertaining the thoughts of dropping the citation all together, I’ll settle, I guess. Ha, you thought I was going to actually tell you what I’m planning?

I should definitely be working on my graphics and/or networks projects, but I’m just not feelin’ it. I did get my ideal setup for graphics though, even though it took two reformats of the cube and, because I am stupid and was doing this at 3:00am (ask/find me for the whole story) loss of all my documents previous of this semester. Not a tragedy, but a definite “awwww shit”. Life goes on. Why’d I go though all this? Well, because I’m stubborn and want to program the class projects in Java and on my machine as opposed to the labs. Will this cause me more headaches in the end? Yeah, probably, but I don’t care – call me stubborn, call me crazy, I’ve heard it all before. Both of the CS classes are interesting, well, mostly – networks lectures… words do not describe the degree at which this class does not keep my attention. I know though, once I get off my ass and start working through the projects I will get into it, which for graphics better be tomorrow night, as well, Tuesday is this little thing we call a deadline. Whoops.

Now that I’ve bored you with all that technical crap… I’m going to try and not cough up a lung (what the hell?) and get some sleep.