Thursday, August 26, 2004

wow, time is scarce

I thought all this cool college stuff would leave me with just gobs and gobs of time just sitting in front of a computer hacking around and stuff, but today is the first day I have been on for more than like 30 consecutive minutes. I think that once classes start and all I will be spending more time studying at my desk (I should hope so) but I guess we'll just have to see about that. Basically, I am pusing back the deadline for the completion of this website until I have a free day or two to sit down and just do it because I want to.
Anyway, short post because... well, I have things to do!

oh, yeah, and on a side note, calculus REALLY sucks. I think I am going to drop down a level. Anyway, later.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

classes start tomorrow

My first real college class starts tomorrow. The last five days have been basically screw around days on campus, basically meet people hang out, etc... I have been having a blast with it all. We went swimming yesterday with a bunch of people, cramming a bunch of people into the back of my car. I don't know, I guess it's just a lot of fun here. And I haven't even been to a party.
Funny thing about parties. I don't know if I want to go to them. I see my roommate and others go to parties, come back shitfaced and talk about it for days and how "cool" they are for doing it. See, that kind of stuff doesn't appeal to me at all at the moment. I'd rather find people who i can just hang out with and be myself around without having to fuck myself up in the process. I have found some people like that, and it is just a lot more fun just hanging out, ya know? Like last night, we just went downtown and had ice cream and watched the olympics in my dorm room, and just hung out, talking and stuff, no alcohol or drugs involved. I would just rather do that than go to a frat party like my roommate did and come back not knowing which way is up.
But then again, I'm just in my first few days of college... give me a minute :)

heh, I just went into the bathroom and on the inside of one of the stalls someone carved "fuck frats" ... Need I say more?

Anyway, like the title states, tomorrow is the first morning of classes, my first starts at 8AM [edit] 9AM [/edit]. I am in the process of writing a PHP script that says waht class I am in, and which I have next, so look for that in a week or so after I can get it working and all.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

college

So here I sit in my very own dorm room. My roomate just woke me up about fifteen minutes ago (well, his cell phone did) to go to breakfast, so here I sit alone. I am in college. In my own dorm room. Classes start on monday. Shit.
Ya know, college is something always looming in the distance. Of course, my parents both got degrees, both of my sisters are working on them, and so I felt a bit obligated to at least give it my best shot. Well, here I am, and you know what? It's more personal now. I am in college for me. Because I don't have to be here. I don't have to stay. I can leave, tell my parents to f off and go my own way. But I won't. I don't know, I just kinda have a different mindset of this whole college thing now. I am interested to see where the next four years of my life take me.
Anyway, I just woke up and havent peed or eaten, so I'm out.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

no more work

Today marked my last day of full time employment for the company Shasta.com. This is way cool for the fact that I don't have to wake up early until school starts, but sucks because that is my last paycheck for the summer. Oh well.
Notice, however, I did say full time employment. Everyone I talked to (All three of my bosses) want me to do part time work when I go to Chico. I am stoked about that, not only as a fun job that I can actually get in to, but also for the part time paychecks :)
But anyway, I was freaked out today, because one of my bosses (George, the general manager) wanted to have an "exit meeting" or whatever before I left so he could figure out all that I did this summer and how I documented everything and all. I was nervous, because he is not a programmer by any means and couldn't realy appreciate everything I had done. Well, I went in and talked to him, and it turned out to be a huge motivational speech about life, the universe and everything. He told me all about how to be a successful businessman and salesman and everything; we wound up talking for the better part of a half hour. He gave my my final paycheck (all four days worth) and direct deposit reciept (all 2 weeks worth :) and shook my hand. And that was it. Out the door I went. I gathered my things and said my goodbyes, and here I sit, unemployed, waiting 6 more days for college to start.
I just wanted to say that working for Shasta.com was a really good experience. I learned alot about not only computers, but the business world and all that good stuff. Anyway, that was the better part of my day, so now I am going to go out and party the night away because... I DON'T HAVE TO WAKE UP AT 7 TOMORROW!!!

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

work sucks, but for how much longer?

I walked into work 10 minutes early today, armed with a quadruple shot jimi beans coffee. I figured that going to bed at 3:45 AM warranted spending my poker earnings to splurge on it. I walk in to see my boss talking to Matt, as usual. Whatever, I sit down at my desk and unlock my computer, start doing my morning thing. I get one of those looks from my boss. You know, one of those looks. Whatever, it's cool, I continue, and he turns his chair so he can talk to me. I turn, and we look at each other. He says "so when are you out of here, Stillman" or something to that effect. I reply "probably Thursday", because we had already talked about it on a few occasions before. He was all "probably?! Lets get this settled! Is it Thursday or not?!" getting a bit upset almost at my joke. I told him, yes, indeed Thursday was my last day. He said "David, I've got work to do, don't f*ck with me". He was dead serious.
Yeah, that changed the tone of the conversation a bit. We moved on to what I should be doing to wrap up my last few days, documenting my work, etc... I told him all was good and I would do everything he needed me to to make my work easily accessible when I leave, etc... Then he said "You know, David, I had higher hopes for you this summer". I kinda knew what he meant when he said it, but it still cut deep. He did his best to recover by saying "This is not on you at all, this is all on my shoulders" and how it was a "lack of management" on his part, etc... I know why he said it. He didn't know how to use me. He gave me hourlong projects and expected it in a week, and if I got done early, he would wonder how on earth he would find something for me to do. I was way underutilized at the company, and everyone knows it, but nobody wanted to do anything about it. And if they did, they were too lazy to. So I don't really care that he put me down like that, he wasn't dissing my skills, my motivation, or anything, but just that he hinted that I was at fault for his mismanagement. I don't think that's cool.
He proceeded to talk about how they might hire me out for projects as I went to school, but that I should "focus on my schoolwork first". I took that as kinda me getting the shaft. I am not going to go out of my way to call them next school year, and I have a feeling I won't be getting called either. Whatever. I told him that I fully intended on putting my schoolwork before everything else. My way of acknowledging what he said.
So my last day is Thursday. I can leave this place and not look back if I want. Don't get me wrong, I love working here, but ... I just don't think I am fully cut out to do corporate work just yet.

8 days and counting.

Friday, August 06, 2004

wrapping up the summer

Yesterday marked a week from my last day at work. It's only like 12 days or something until I move into the dorms at Chico State. That's less than 2 weeks. And I still haven't once been in the lake. I haven't gone wakeboarding or anything!
Anyway, I guess the summer is starting to close for me. The days are getting shorter already, and the ceremonial "Joe take the person from work who's leaving out to lunch" day was yesterday (we went to subway). Even my boss is in on it. He walked up to me yesterday and asked, "Hey, Dave, how do you like getting your ass kicked?". I think I replied "Only if it's by you, George." He walked away laughing, nodding in agreement. I only hope that Chico is fun, which I know it will be, but I am just waiting. I'm not nervous or anything, it's just that it is college.
Both my parent's have degrees. My mom has a masters, my dad has 2 masters, an MD, 2 residencies, etc..., so he is quite the overachiever. Why do I hate this? They expect the same from me. First, some people look at me and say they "hate spoiled little bitches that get everything from daddy and everyone else in between", which is shitty enough for me, especially when people say that stuff without having any sort of backing whatsoever. As if I could choose my parents. But now I feel I have to fit my dad's shoes. And the way my schooling has gone so far, I have quite a ways to go.
So I am not nervous about college, per se, but I am just waiting to see how things go.

Monday, August 02, 2004

the house hates me...

Well, I got pretty much everything dried out as best as I could. I actually went to Hokema's Vaccuum place and rented one of those steam vacs to assist in getting the water out from the carpet. It did a pretty good job of it, because I must have taken out 2 gallons of water from that damn carpet. The wood floor appeared to have dried up nicely without warping too much.
Until I woke up.
I walked out into the kitchen, and suddenly I almost fell over. Now, I am not the brightest of people in the morning, and I usually like to think that the ground I am walking on is safe, flat, and dry. Well, it was dry at least :) There is now a HUGE bulge in the middle of the kitchen's beautiful hardwood floor about 3 feet long and a foot wide. It bulges up quite a bit, enough for the planks (?) to start separating.

My dad also came up from San Jose last weekend, and picked up my sister from Davis on the way. I think he was planning on coming up anyway because my mom is in North Dakota at a family reunion, but he turned it into a "scan the damage" trip. He woke me up at around 11:40AM and we walked into the kitchen. He was suprisingly docile and didn't even give the impression of being mad at all. He called the realtor who happens to live up the street, and we all met and had a pow-wow in the middle of the kitchen and discussed what to do with the house.
It looks like we are going to completely replace the kitchen floor, and just clean the carpet instead of replacing it as well. I found out that this was just kind of an add-on for my dad, who already put down a very large chunk of change to get the deck replaced (two levels, wraps around a 3300 sq. ft. house on a hill... you can imagine...) as well as some other asthetic things around the house. Did I mention that I found out my shower leaks the day my parents moved? Heh, just one more thing to add to this ever growing list of fix-its on the house.
So my dad was at that point that is like "It just doesn't matter anymore" so I think that my parents are going to drop the price on the house significantly to get it to sell and just be done with it. Oh, did I mention that if it isn't sold in eleven months, my parents have to come up with $200,000 cash for the payment on the house they bought in San Jose?

One crisis at a time I guess. Thank you all for your support as I continue to rip my hair out.

In the good news secion: My last day of work is Thursday, August 12th. I move in to the dorms at Chico on the 18th, and school starts the 23rd. Now if only I can make it that far...