Month: September 2007

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I’ve had a Darth Vader-like week. No, I’m not evil, or, if you accept the prequels, tragically depressed, and conned by Palpatine. I’m speaking more of Darth Vader’s respiratory issues, although mine this past week weren’t nearly as bad. Perhaps my situation was more closely related to Lost’s late Shannon Rutherford. Luckily, no asthma attack, but I now think I know how it is to go without my medicine for a while, which is strange, since I’ve never been without for more than a day to a day and a half.

Basically, it all boils down to insurance. I was previously on the state’s HUSKY plan, which ended when I turned 21. Now, I don’t have the money to pay for insurance, but neither do my parents. So, I’m on my own. I took a lot longer than I probably should have to consider my options. I had two viable ones:

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Hear me out before you attack me as some neocon (which, from anyone who’s read this blog, knows is not true).

Was the report the entire truth? Maybe not, though it’s tailed some of my own views on the situation in Iraq. Apart from the fact that I don’t like attacks against our soldiers fighting overseas – even if Petraeus may not be doing any actual combat work, he’s helping plan the fight – I like to consider his position.

Did the Democrats really expect Petraeus to waltz on to Capitol Hill and paint a dark, grim picture and say that we need to pull out tomorrow?  I hope not, or they’re clearly deluded.  I don’t know if Petraeus thinks the current strategy can work (that’s what some pundits says), but what ever the case, he was ordered to tell the war, at the very best, like it is, and at the worst, like the administration wants it to be.

I think Petraeus needs to stay in Iraq, because as long as we’re there, we need a competent leader for our troops.  This is what Petraeus seems to be.  If he went out on a tangent, he might end up fired. Then we could end up with someone incompetent there, though a loyalist to the administration.  We don’t need someone who’ll fight this war to his dying breath on a bad policy to try and prove a point.  We need someone who will competently lead.

The MoveOn ad was shameful, regardless of what I might think about the situation.  You don’t attack an active military man like that.  Just my thoughts.

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It’s six years after the attacks of 9/11/01. I’ve spent some of my day thinking about where I was that day, and how I felt. I was in study hall, and after a teacher from across the hall came over to our room and spoke our study hall teacher, the teacher turned on the classroom television. I had been studying for a vocabulary quiz before then, but after the TV was turned on, I couldn’t seriously do anything but gaze at what was unfolding before me.

All of the 9/11 days in the years since the attacks are special, and worthy of thinking back on that day, and the good people who died. However, I think this one is extra special because it is the first Tuesday, September 11th since the one on which the attacks occurred. So, some day, month, and day of week since it happened.

R.I.P. All Who Died on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001

In honor of all who died on the day, and the soldiers since then who’ve died in Afghanistan and Iraq, this, and all future 9/11 entries will go under the “Independence Week” category.

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That is, I’m loving my new computer.

NO audio issues, for one. I could deal with any of my other needs and/or wants if only my other computer wasn’t having such crappy ass audio. I mean, I guess I could live with it, but it wasn’t only the audio. Whatever the issue was was causing whatever video might be playing (if any) to freeze momentarily whenever the audio popped/scratched/whatever. It was just annoying.

There’s other benefits, too, though. No more do I have to worry about the whole Express Card issue, since this computer includes Firewire ports! As you can see from below, they’ve come in useful. And besides that, after unsuccessfully trying to to capture that video with USB, I now fully understand why USB isn’t used in the video production field.

Besides that, the new computer is faster, with more memory and faster processor, so that should help a bit. It’s certainly give me some more latitude over choosing which editing program I’ll eventually use. As for that option, I’m not going to go for a high-end solution, but keep with something that’s decent, but not Movie Maker craptastic. It’ll probably end up being Adobe Premiere Elements. I’d like to get Pro, but that’d require a sound and video card that are not built in.

Now off to the flip side (of my TV/computer monitor) to watch Stewart and Colbert.

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Speaking of parties, yesterday, my Dad and I stopped by a bar on the way home, since he had noticed my uncle was there on his way up to get me.  It only dawned on me, as I was drinking my beer, that it was my first time drinking at a bar.  In the U.S., anyway.  I’d already been to a couple in Greece.  But, I digress.

Now, as promised several days ago, I’m going to discuss how the Democrats and Republicans handle scandal.  As I see it, anyway…

*P.S., like my new post image?

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I was just catching the end of Hannity and Colmes.  Hannity was promoting a video that’ll be on his other show on Sunday, saying it’ll EXPOSE THE HYPOCRISY OF GLOBAL WARMING TOTING LIBERALS!!!!!1  Colmes was trying to get Hannity to explain if the video is going to disprove human-influenced elements of global warming, and Colmes would not answer the question!  He just kept promoting the video.  I think it really shows who’s in charge of the show.

Why is it when liberals swerve around a question, a conservative will call them on it, and sometimes viciously.  But, Hannity can do refrain from answering a simple question?  There’s hypocrisy if I’ve seen it.  Yea, democrats attack people on swerving away from a question, too.  But, it seems that conservatives, especially Fox News conservatives, really go after people for it.  Can’t wait to see the video in any case.  Probably it’ll attack some rich person who’s an environmental preservation champion,  but lives in a mansion.  John Edwards by any chance?

On the home front, I’m now well settled back into my dorm.  There’s not so much hypocrisy going on here as there is incompetence.  For the second year in a row, I’ve been robbed of my payrate.  I was supposed to be making $9.65 an hour at my work.  Well, I have my supervisor sign my authorization form, and bring it to student employment.  They tell me I’m not hired.  Well, I know that’s not true, since my advisor sent in his paperwork, and told me so.  So, I go back to him and tell him what I was told.  He calls SE, and they tell him I’m not hired since I’ve gotten a raise?  “What raise?” he says.  “I’m hiring him at the same rate as the new lab assistant.  Some bologna about work study (which I now hate…I’d much rather be on operating fund).  So, after all that talk, I’m back at $9.00.

So, I got thinking the other night.  Who cares how much I’m making an hour?  With work study, I can’t make any more money than has been allocated, anyway.  What does it matter if I get to that amount on $9.00 an hour or $9.65 an hour?  Apparently, Student Employment does.  I just wish there was some way I could be put on operating fund.  Someone else can have my work study, I don’t care.  I just want to make $9.65 an hour, like was advertised for the position.  This is the second year you people have taken money away from me.  Try pulling that kind of thing in the so-called “real world,” and the labor boards would eat you up.

If getting “punk’d” out of pay wasn’t enough, the cable company decided they weren’t greedy enough already, and had to pull something, too.  Usually, they come to campus the first week to sell cable service to students.  Unlike UConn, we don’t have it incorporated into our tuition, though it’d undoubtedly be easier that way.  Last year, they were in the support services building (home to the infamous Student Employment).  This year, they had some really good deals, compared to previous years.  Well, what do I have to do to get these deals?  Not go to support services like last year, but to the parking lot of the baseball field.  Not, unlike most campuses, they baseball field isn’t on the main campus.  Instead, it’s over a mile away, separated by a major U.S. highway off-ramp.  Not that you’ll get killed passing it on foot, but come on!  If they want to get the most students for their time, they should actually be in a location that’ll get them out and buying cable!  Going to the baseball was stupid, although from what I overheard, it worked for the most part.  Luckily, I was able to get a ride there, so I now have cable.  But come on Charter, don’t be stupid again.  Not that I care anymore personally, since this is the last time I’ll have to get it myself.

Also, can’t wait for tomorrow.  New computer day!  Finally, I’ll have Firewire ports, and am looking into getting some kind of editing program.  Something better than Windows Movie Maker, anyway.  Probably it’ll be Adobe, but we’ll see.  Sony’s express Vegas program is looking pretty nice, too.  I am a little worried about how long this computer will last (since people seem to say it doesn’t live up to how much it costs), but I consider that the computer has had both memory and hard drive replaced in not too long of a period, and that gives me some hope.  Not that I like that two major hardware components were replaced in a relatively short time.  On the other hand, I know they were replaced with quality components, so we’ll see how things go.

Time to get ready for bed.

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Any proper move requires the mover to pack the essentials – thing they require when going to a new home. You know, things like shampoo, soap, your bedding. Can’t forget about food either. Then there’s entertainment stuff like your TV, VCR, and computer. So, when moving back up to campus, I definitely had everything…or thought I did.

I had most of my stuff, including my computer. Then, as I was feeling around my suitcases, I realized something: I forgot an ethernet cable to connect to the Internet! Yes, in my rush to not need to pack anything else after getting home from a family function last night, I forgot an essential. How was I to do homework, check my email, forums, or dare I say it…blog on Dymersion? Well, I can do the latter three with mobile web on my enV, but it’s easier to do on a computer, see?

Well, when I went out with a friend, I made a pit stop to the building where the IT helpdesk is, but it wasn’t open today. Luckily, my roommate had to go home, because he forgot his as well, and had a spare. It’ll suffice until tomorrow when I can get up there. When I went to the bookstore, I noticed that the rack with ethernet cables was nearly empty. Fools! They can get one for free, and they skip off to the bookstore instead! Ack! Silly things…

On a side note, I’m getting angry because I keep putting my cursor in a different position, because I’m using my laptop’s trackpad. I forgot my mouse as well, so I’m forced to use this for four days. Four days of randomly moving cursor horror!

Anyway, time to eat.

P.S. Also just realized I forgot my box of Eastern Expedition tapes.  I really am an idiot!  Luckily I’m going home this weekend.

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Ever need to pack for a trip, and you find yourself doing something else instead? Or, college students: packing for college and you get lazy?

That was me for much of yesterday and today. I’m mostly packed now, but it took two days to do what I probably could have achieved in one. I definitely want to get back to campus, but going upstairs and downstairs to round all my stuff up seems like more effort than it’s worth. Therefore, I think it would be really cool if people could use the ‘pack’ spell from Harry Potter. Just take out your trunk, pack, and everything would go into it, neatly if you got the hang of the spell.

If only, right? Well, off to pack the rest of my stuff. Or more likely, to finish the movie I was watching.