Of course, I didn’t exactly expect anyone would actually take me seriously. Now I know better. Guy gets in some hot water for drinking at a beach where alcohol’s not permitted. Okay, slap on the wrist, you’d think–this is Canada, after all. Except rather than give his actual name, he gave the name Andrew Moron instead. And was promptly fined for impersonation. I’ll now make the obvious suggestion that perhaps this guy should go right ahead and legally change his name. In the meantime, have a moron of the month award. No, it’s not named after this guy.
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I always said there should be a law against morons.
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Now I remember why I avoided highschool math. Ow, my brain.
Because I didn’t need a grade 12 math credit to graduate from highschool, I didn’t take one. Because I didn’t invision me ending up going to college to put on paper skills I’d taught myself in recent years, I wasn’t overly concerned about it. Oopsies. Now, I get to enjoy the result of that oversight. I spent today going through well over 100 algebra-related equasions, getting progressively more painful as I did so. I’m nowhere near finished, and will probably have to devote tomorrow morning to the awesome that is Google in order to wrap my head around stuff I’ve probably completely forgotten in the nearly 10 years since I even cracked open a math textbook. All for the sake of demonstrating on Monday I’m not, in fact, completely math useless. I sincerely hope the 45 hours that will be the math course that’s apparently part of this program are worth it. Otherwise, I see a generous glass of vodka in my future. Possibly more than one. Now, excuse me–I need to go fix my brain.
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Take it easy for a week and it all catches up.
I’ve been talking off and on about doing the college thing. I even went so far as getting set up to apply. Yes, 2 months ago. Things finally got rolling on that prospect around the beginning of June–after finally, after much arm twisting, getting my transcripts back from the highschool of doom. Application was sent off, money I didn’t have was paid, got the standard we’ll get back to you response, yada yada yada. Fast forward to this morning.
I get a letter from the college in my mailbox dated June 29. It’s all official like, and I consider that I might have actually been accepted to the course I’m considering taking. Get it open, have a read, and okay, there goes that idea. Instead, they’re requesting and requiring my presence to take a math assessment before they decide whether or not to accept me into this course. And, in typical Algonquin College fashion, this pre-admission assessment requires I pay them more money I don’t have. Woohoo–I struck gold. On top of that, because I’m not yet done receiving the wicked awesome news, the course I’m looking at starts at the beginning of September. Tuition for courses starting in September is pretty much due on Thursday. The second career program, who’s epic failure of logic I’ve already mocked, wants proof of acceptance before they’ll cough up a red cent towards my confirming my current education. I see a small problem here.
The problems just keep adding up, though. Lady I’m talking to has very little to no info on the course I’ve applied for. Indeed, most/all of the questions I asked her received as a response a simple “I’ll get back to you”. This includes how/when we might discuss the possibility of tweeking the course in such a way that I might actually be able to take it without inflicting a small series of strokes on me, the professors, and the folks over at the disability center–of which there is apparently only… um… two. Most if not all of those answers I am now waiting on depend on her getting in touch with someone involved with that program–who’s availability is, at the moment anyway, questionable at best. And who’s availability will probably be questionable at best for the next while. All this for a course starting in September.
I inquired on a precautionary basis about the possibility of shoving my effective application date back to the winter session, as they appear to offer a start for that particular program in that particular semester as well. And, again, she’ll get back to me after she gets a hold of mister questionable availability. That’s becoming the new catch phrase. And I think I’ll slap the next person who says it.
So, at the end of all that, I’m no farther ahead except I have one more phone number to add to my list and a whole lot of rather off-pissing questionmarks. The only potential bright spot in this one is she’s pegged tomorrow as when she expects to get back to me. At which point we can probably just do this all over again.
I was telling Jess earlier this afternoon it’s a very good thing I haven’t gone anywhere near politics–the burocracy would drive me to drink long before anything else did. As it is, the average joe burocracy that goes with doing just about anything is making me consider going postal. Fortunately I won’t have to debate doing just that for another day or two. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting on someone who’s waiting on someone else so I can tell someone else to stop waiting on me, and then wait on them to get me money so I can eventually, finally, get this whole being educated thing over with. Can it get much more messy?
I’m not exactly sure what my dream job is, but I know what it’s not–any job that largely depends on having to rely on other people. That, if things like this are any indication, would just succeed in pissing me off to no end. And inducing that small series of strokes I’m still trying desperately to avoid.
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Sleep schedule? What sleep schedule? I have no sleep schedule.
From the “that didn’t take long” department, my newly re-screwed-up routine. And it only took about 2 or 3 days after the departure of the girlfriend–er, oops, I mean fiance. Personal record for me, I think. Further proof I’m a goner schedule-wise? I was in the middle of reading something yesterday afternoon, and next thing I know it’s 4:00 this morning. Naturally, I’m all sleeped out at this point, so I’m up and mobile. At 4:00 this morning. Did I mention I’m not supposed to be an early morning person? On the bright side, I did have a couple things I needed to get done today so at least I haven’t reached the level of screwed up in which I wake up at 6:00 PM. But, really, 4? AM? Really? Yeah, clearly I have no sleep schedule. This is not cool.
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Happy heatwave day, Ottawa!
Or I guess heatwave week would be more appropriate, what with this apparently going to be the norm for a while. Nothing says welcome to a Canadian summer quite like stepping outside and getting slapped in the face with it. At 10:30 in the morning. And yet, there’s a nasty rumour floating around they’re calling for thunder storms.
Saturday, it was tolerably hot. Yesterday was irritatingly hot. Today is just plain OMG hot. And we aren’t cooling off any time soon. Happy heatwave day, Ottawa. May your AC not suffer a catastrophic failure. And may all your beer–if you’re a beer person–stay cold. You’ll need it.
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Random distractions are random, and other assorted bits.
It’s official as of an hour ago. Jess made it to the bus station in one piece. We got there about noon, and roughly half an hour later she was boarding. We stuck around long enough to see she got off alright, then it was go time. Of course, it wouldn’t be a family outing if we didn’t spend most of it procrastinating. Enter the obligatory stop at Costco.
We managed to kill the better part of an hour there, just browsing and picking up a few things. Bright side: I got to demonstrate that geeky son is geeky. Dad’s been looking for a new laptop, so we took a walk through laptop central, which consisted of a small handful of units, some of which I promptly steered him very far away from. We didn’t end up buying one, unfortunately, but I do believe he got plenty of education. And for free, even.
After that, we finally got the hell out of Ottawa, stopping for lunch in Armprier at a local truck stop there. That chopped off another hour. Now, it’s go time for real; this car won’t stop until we hit my apartment. Which is more than I can say for the line of cars 8 km long we just drove past going the other direction. All told, I think this was a productive week. There were more than enough surprises for the both of us, and plenty of fun to go around. Already, we’re talking about my going down there for an engagement party. If it goes anything like the last week, I may need to sleep it off for a few days. And, if it’s anything like last week, it’s going to be awesomely worth it. We’re closing in on Pembroke, so if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go lose consciousness now.
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Small note to @twitter.
Twitter, you’re awesome. Brilliant, in your own way. But, please, for the love of god, stop failing. I haven’t seen my mentioneds in two days, and I know you’ve gone hours without showing me anything else. And that’s just Today. Fix yourself, now, for crying out loud.
No love,
MePS: this includes whatever you did to the API limit. Again, stop failing.
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My positivity pisses people off.
I have this nasty little habbit of trying to find an up side to most situations–particularly situations that seem to centre around me and my current, shall we say, life related stresses. Jessica and I were actually talking about that during our all-night session of playing cards last night, and I’ve come to a sort of decision. This particular trait? Yeah, it pisses people off.
I always get questions from folks about what will I do if x, y and/or z happens, aren’t I worried about this thing, how do I handle that other thing. My typical answer to most of those particular questions? This is life. I have no control over it. Fussing around with it’s not gonna do anything more than give me a series of small heart attacks, so I just can’t see spending the time. Stuff doesn’t bother me like it does most people, probably for that very reason–I really can’t be bothered with it.
Yes, losing my job at Dell in 2008 kind of sucked. But a month later, I was in a relationship. Yeah, leaving Ottawa wasn’t exactly a highlight of my day. But, I’m close enough to do things like have a Christmas with my family with a minimal amount of inconvenience factor. Would I go back to Ottawa? Would I go back to working at Dell if they reopened and offered me my job back? Sure. But since that’s not exactly very likely, thinking about it and getting all uppity over it isn’t gonna do a damn thing. Instead, I’m trying to get my foot in the door at the local branch of Algonquin College. I’m still looking for work. I’m spending time with the nephew when I can. And I’m enjoying this new being engaged thing. That keeps me busy enough.
I could choose to have time to stress out about it. I could choose to make the time to consider the fact my bank account’s heading in the wrong direction. And I could probably make the time to have a small panic attack about it at least monthly. But why? Even if I did, I’m still unemployed. I’m still steadily getting slowly closer to broke. Flipping my lid over it won’t make me any less of either. Not flipping my lid over it won’t do it either, but it’s just so much easier–and, well, I’m lazy.
Much of people’s reactions are fairly predictable. They either don’t believe me, are confused for a few minutes, or end up getting irritated/pissed at me because this kinda thing doesn’t bother me. I can’t seem to wrap my head around why that is–although, granted, I also haven’t exactly been trying very hard. All I really know is I have absolutely no shortage of what I like to call realistic optimism. And, inexplicably, my positivity pisses people off. But, I’ve also come to another, slightly related decision just while writing this post. I won’t be finding or making the time to worry about that, either. Which, also, may end up pissing someone off. In a couple words, oh well.
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Popular posts (June, 2010).
Always up for a party, we ended the month–and began this one–with several smaller ones. If you’re not in a party mood and aren’t up for the whole Canada day thing, sit back with something cold and have a look at what people nearly as bored as me found of interest this month, as always, courtesy of Google Analytics.
- The line about being a geek in training isn’t exactly an inaccurate one. So when Linode cellebrated its birthday, of course I took advantage of what they were offering. It also reawakened the age old migration debate–and generated some interest among people wondering if they should, and how to do it. In answer to the first question, yes. In answer to the second? If you know, drop me a line.
- Local politicians are a tiny bit idiotic at times. Specificly with regards the new copyright bill being pushed through in Canada’s parliament. I’ve tried offering them a clue by four. My new favourite to target with it is minister Tony Clement. Sadly, I’m still failing. Oh well, maybe his replacement will catch on.
- It had to happen sometime, or so I’ve been told. It happened last Saturday. It was posted about on Tuesday. I ended up engaged, just in case you missed the half a dozen announcements we’ve been tossing out.
- And, because it wouldn’t be my blog without at least two techy entries, here’s your second. Twitter’s reply and conversation tracking features are good, but could benefit from some improvement. I have an idea how that could happen, not that I expect it to go anywhere. It’d still be wicked awesome if it did, though.
- And making a return to the popular posts list, my attempt to beat an answer out of Ontario’s government re: the current situation with the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is generating a little more interest. After trying to get answers from folks and getting absolutely nowhere, I resorted to a couple somewhat strongly worded open letters to the premier, and leaders of all 3 major provincial parties. The first one’s over here.
Edit, 3 days later: I fail epically at HTML. Also, I fail at noticing my HTML related failures. I should stop doing that.
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My thing against Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods is an awesome golfer. No doubt he’s already found himself a spot on the history pages next to that other awesome golfer man. Good for him. Now, here’s the problem. Ever since he got caught in someone else’s bed, it sort of seems we hear more about him now than before.
The guy just got a marital slapdown of the highest order. He just paid out 750 million dollars in a divorce settlement. And if he sneezes the wrong way off the field, and sometimes on it, he gets twice as many cameras stuck in his face.
My only problem with Tiger is there’s way too bloody much of him. He’s still a great golfer. He’s still a legendary figure among his fans. And he still isn’t any more or less a jerk for what he did to his family than anyone else. Turn off the damn cameras already. Let the man do his thing. Let the golf specific media and fans follow him around if they choose to; meanwhile, don’t we have a politician to take a crack at ruining? Hey at least that hasn’t been overdone. Oh, wait. Nevermind.