Army Weekend

It never ceases to amaze me how far technology has advanced.

I have wireless internet. In some really old barracks. On a national guard post. And it is actually a pretty decent connection!

The last couple days were filled with adventure and excitement, and a lot of down time in between. But I don't really care, it's hooah and it's army and I'm here to do my job and have fun.

I did have to get up at insane o'clock yesterday morning so we could get all of our gear in order, draw weapons, and get on the bus so we could make it to our destination in Montana in a timely manner. They just issued a weapon to us, and the supply sergeant was about to take one of the 16's out and give it to me and I noticed they skipped over a weapon. I was trying to figure out why when I noticed it had an extra attachment on it. An M203. Sweet.

So I asked if I could have it. He said sure, but asked if I was expecting to qualify. Why the heck not? I've never actually fired a 203 as an M16 before and was curious about it, so I got the 203.

Maybe not the wisest choice, as though the 203 is basically an M16 with a grenade launcher attached, the added weight of the launcher coupled with a different placement of the hand on the barrel (the bottom of the barrel is 2 inches lower), well, I now had to get comfortable with it.

But no harm done. Except for some reason I decided to volunteer for various tasks so I wouldn't get voluntold to do something I had no desire to do. And I got tasked with teaching how to evaluate a casualty, so I was lugging around a dummy with me. And I somehow stupidly enough volunteered to be Guidon Barer. What the heck was I thinking? I haven't done guidon in years, and as an E5, technically I'm not supposed to do that.

First thing this morning, I delegated that task out as quick as I could. One day was enough for me.

The range was fun though. Although I found a host of other 'excuses' for not doing as well as I usually do. On account of qualifying on a '203, my kevlar was to big, they made us fire in flak vests (which I hate), they changed the qualification round on us, we had to load and reload automatically, we only had ten round magazines, the sun was too hot, my foot was hurting, venus was out of alignment, so on and so forth. It took me far to long to zero, as I had to get used to the placement of my weapon in the prone position and get used to not really requiring a sandbag. Hell, I was all over the place, but once I got the thing zeroed, I took it and wandered over to the qual range.

We used to fire in the foxhole supported and the prone unsupported, 20 rounds in each position, but recently they decided to make the qualification range more in tune to how we actually fight in war. And, well, from what I understand, we really don't use Foxholes anymore. So we got rid of the foxhole position, and now its 20 Supported Prone, 10 unsupported prone, and 10 kneeling. A lot of people didn't really like Kneeling. It took me missing two targets (including a 50 meter, GAH!) to get it, but I loved kneeling. Prone Unsupported got me this time, like it usually does. But not for the reasons it usually did.

Well, usually we have a transition time when we qualify before, but this time, they just said get into your positions automatically. Given two ten round magazines, we had to change them out between shots and you move and your firing position changes. Then you had to quickly reload another magazine, move to the unsupported and engage the targets with only a few seconds to get comfortable. I had to constantly shift between targets until I got a good sight picture. And then its off into the kneeling position.

I qualified 26 the first time, which was qualified but considering I usually smoke the supported position and this time I flubbed it, I wasn't happy with my score (but I was happy I qualified first time considering all of my 'excuses'!). So I decided to see if I could go again, get a better score. I did, and I improved it by 2. Eh, Marksman for me.

Fine, I'll take the *%^$@# Marksman. *grumbles*

Other high points of the day included Hip Pocket Training in regards to me teaching how to Evaluate a Casualty. Except some other guy from one of the other companies got tasked for the same topic. I taught it once, then learned that they had the SAW range open so I went over there.

SAW is fun. I got in line and waited for my turn, then got a 25 round clip and got a quick refresher training on the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (er, the technical term for SAW) and went 'yay!'

I got down in the prone position, tried to get comfortable and my stupid kevlar flopped into my line of sight, so I was sitting there fidgeting around until I got a decent site picture waiting for the tower to give us the go ahead.

What I got was something like this.

"Engage your tar- CEASE FIRE CEASE FIRE!!!!"

A flippen dear decided to take a stroll across my lane at that precise point and we were forced to wait until it ambled on past. I had a perfect line of shot for the sucker to, but that would be a bad thing as deer are plentiful yet a protected animal on post. So once it had passed (we hurried it along by flopping up the pop up joe targets) I engaged my targets.

It took me a few shots before I got a decent site picture. But I took out the 100 Meter target, and the 200 meter. And a couple of the 600 meters. :) SAWs are fun.

However, my favorite range of the day was the 9mil. Usually I'm not fond of the M9 qualification range because usually you just shoot at a paper target and you have nothing to really gage your score against, so you can be consistently missing and you won't know this because you can't see where your shooting until your done.

This is the first 9mil pop up joe range I have ever seen. And it was a freakin' blast!
I'm not sure the precise range, but they had a slew of targets ranged from 15 Meters to 40, or so. Like I said, not precisely certain on the distances. The firing range was a little eratic, we had to practice dropping a magazine and reloading another magazine quickly. Sometimes just five targets popped up, one time ten, all in all thirty targets in all.

For having brief experience on that range, I took people's advice from the past with my handling of handguns and instead of leaning back with a pistol, which threw me off balance, I leaned forward and suddenly I realized that I LIKE handguns! I was getting comments that I was smoking that thing left and right. A couple of targets I might have hit if they stayed up a split second longer, but all in all, I qualified first time and I was getting a couple comments that I should look into getting into competitions.

Whatever the case, I loved that range, I wanna go again!

When we got back to garrison, we were then treated to a Urinalysis. Yay us. . .

Tomorrow should be rather exciting, with a lack of flak vest wearage. I think I need to get a few different poses with a 203 and make more 'Girls With Guns' Comic Book Covers.

Stupid Thing Happened Yesterday

I was at work after stocking some Cds and when the cart gave me a flat tire that caused me to nearly lose my shoe, I looked down and realized that I was wearing an old Nike Tennis shoe on one foot and a new Sketchers Sneaker on the other.

Fortunately my pants were covering them up for the most part, so they weren't entirely noticeable, but it didn't stop me from laughing at myself and showing a couple of coworkers my error. They laughed with (or maybe at) me. Doh.

I get to be gone for the weekend, away from a computer, but things should be fun. I actually was on top (for the most part) of my homework this week and its all done so I can focus on playing Army all weekend. I should have a post up by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, detailing my adventure.

In the meantime, I leave you with another piece of art I did in Illustrator. Not perfect, I understand, but still fun and I used a couple of techniques to do the lineart and it has become a thing I can do a lot more with. I think I will be using this particular program more and more. Now that I actually comprehend how to use it, I can see it coming into a lot more use.

YouTube Finds

One of my favorite comic strips of all time is Calvin and Hobbes.

I laughed so hard when I saw this on YouTube.



The untold story of Calvin and Hobbes, courtesy of Robot Chicken.

Ok, that show is seriously messed up.

Homework Update

So, remember the post of me with the bigass gun that I did in illustrator a few days back?

Well, let me finish the assignment for you.

See, we had to take a picture of us and convert it into a super hero pose, and I decided to do a girl in a post apacolyptic world. So I stripped her down to just grey BDU bottoms and a tank top, and gave her a scar and some tattoos (that's to seperate this fictional alter ego from myself) and then I slapped a horrible background onto it because I suck at backgrounds and this popped out.

I had to give it a comic title name, so its a comic called "Girls with Guns", until I could think of something more clever, which I didn't by the time the assignment needed to be turned in.



I've grown a little attached to Illustrator now. Excuse the abnormally long neck and the strange shape of the left pantleg, I took the bottoms directly off the other picture and I'm actually not this skinny so it looks a little. . . weird.

Eh, but not bad for a person just learning how to use Illustrator, eh?

Virginia Tech -

Virginia Tech suffered a tragedy this week. Total dead has reached 33. I even remember hearing something about it on the news before the second shooting.

Whatever the case, I thought I would say something in regards to this. Not so much about the shooting itself, or why the kid did it (or maybe I am), but rather I thought I would talk about the coverage of it.

Before I get started, I think it is awful what happened to these people and my condolences go to their friends and families. That said, this will likely be talked about on the news for at least a couple of weeks, in lot's and lot's of detail, I'm sure of it.

Anybody wonder why school shootings seem to be happening more and more? I'll give you my hypothesis. If you look at the scenerio behind these kids who shoot up their schools, they tend to fit the same basic profile. And if a kid is suicidal, why not go out with a real bang? Literally? It's a way to immortalize yourself, if you are the cause of some major tragedy, the whole nation will be talking about nothing but you for weeks.

That was exactly what this kid was thinking. I mean, he mailed a tape to a news station explaining himself, he was suicidal and he didn't want to go quietly. He wanted to be remembered. Immortalized in a way.

I've noticed when any major tragedy happens, the media runs it into the ground, and if you think about it, with these kinds of tragedies, that's exactly what the perpetrator wants us to do. Just dwell on every little detail of it, which makes them that much more famous, even if it is posthumous.

I would suggest, in the future, that if another shooting were to occur, sure, spend the day talking about it. Pay respects toward the dead, give the public the information they NEED to know, and then move on, recapping on certain events as they unfold. But don't spend the next month discussing it. That's exactly what encourages these kids to do something like this. Becuase they know it will get a lot of attention. If we don't give it as much attention, detailing every single detail out, I'm thinking it might help deter some of these mental cases from considering doing something like this.

But that is just a hypothesis.

Again, my thoughts and prayers go to the friends and families of the victims. But there is still other news out there. Like, what is Sanjaya doing now that he finally got the boot off American Idol? We haven't heard enough information about him!

Blue Star on eBay!

Hey, I just got a blue star on eBay, which means I must have hit an important milestone or something, so much so that eBay even sent me a certificate that I can print out congratulating me on achieving 50 positive Feedbacks. Wow, I think I'll hang it on my wall!



I guess some people actually think this is a big deal or something, I just found it to be a little lame. Seriously now, do I really need a PDF that awards me a friggen' blue star?

Well, it only took me three years on eBay to get it. Shows you how much I actually use it, doesn't it?

Super Hero - HAH! (work in progress)

So, for my current homework assignment, I have to take a picture of myself or somebody I know and convert it into a digital illustration, or more specifically, a super hero.

Huh?

Well, I got the converting part down at least, and so I've been playing with the illustrator software and I must admit, I'm not in love with it. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm kind of getting the gist of it.

So, back to the 'super hero' assignment, which had me scratching my head. When I first heard the assignment, I wasn't aware of it being an assignment converting a picture into a super hero, and I was thinking of doing something with a ferret (I have plans to do a spoof comic with ferrets, its not a long term thing by any means) but alas, I got the memo that I was to use a picture for this assignment.

Well, I need a lot of work, but after fiddling with it, I got, something?

What picture did I use you might ask? Why, the one that I ran into the ground about two years ago.



It's still a work in progress. I've got to find a way to make this all super hero-y. But I just converted the bare basics.


I even thought about giving myself long hair with it down, but, well, that would feel weird because I'm in uniform, so in order to make that a go, I have to ditch the uniform. And its so baggy that I'm having trouble trying to figure out where my limbs are underneath.

Maybe I should get another picture instead? Ah, but it's so much fun!

GrindHouse

Just FYI - Grindhouse totally rocked my world!

I don't know if its just the style of movie, the fact that it was a Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration, or the fact that they have a chick with a machine gun for a leg, but this movie(s) flat out rocked!

Planet Terror was a perfect mix of humor, action and zombies! Gotta love zombie movies! Where as the second picture was a different pacing, they fit together becuase they both had the same kind of feel to it, a throwback to the grindhouse picture of the seventies, complete with typos and conveniantly missing reels. And some interesting fake trailers, like Werewolf Women of the SS, or something bizarre like that.

Some people didn't seem to like Death Proof, as it is heavy in dialog and slow at times, but for some reason, I liked it, even with all the dialog. There is one scene where there are four girls just sitting in a restaurant having a conversation that feels completely natural, and it never cuts the entire time, which I noticed.

So I liked it. But not recommended for kids, or parents for that matter.

Part Relieved, Part Distraught, Completely Unmotivated

So, I've got a little problem currently.

A few months back, I was set on what I wanted to do, I knew what I wanted to do, and was just working on getting there. A few things came in the way and I adjusted fire and everything was looking good.

Well, suddenly, things aren't looking so bright anymore. I'm frustrated with school and feel like I'm not learning what i need to learn with my current program. Suddenly I realized that school isn't working. I'm not learning anything, and furthermore, when I'm not having a good day, I tend to get into a mindset where I just don't care anymore. And with the events of the last few days, and heck, over the last week, I've realized that I'm just, well, bleh. I don't care. I'm not motivated. I don't know what I want anymore.

Good news is my foot should be completely healed in four weeks, and I can work on it as much as I am comfortable. Just no heavy running or jumping or other forms of impact on it. Sounds good. Which makes that it is a good thing that I'm going to DSS in July instead of May, I wouldn't be ready.

Strange, right now Drill Sergeant School is the only thing I'm realy motivated about. School is no longer keeping my interest and I've got this feeling that I'm going to be stuck working a mediocre job for the rest of my life if I don't get my attention focused again.

I think I need to call about that one job again. Find out where that's going.

And maybe, just maybe, I can find a way to recover some of the info on my two hard drives that won't end up busting my bank.

But strangely, a part of me feels relieved that the information is gone.

Another part is a little distraught.

Silver is Deader then I Thought

So, yesterday was Friday the Thirteenth, and this now makes sense.

My laptop is under warrenty, which is lucky for me because the issue I was having with it was not a software issue, it was a hardware issue. So fixing it is free.

Unfortunately, data recovery is expensive. I can basically consider all the information that was on it to be gone unless I want to shell out some hard earned cash.

So anyway, I took my laptop in and they ran a diagnostic on it to see how bad it really is. They also took my external hard drive in, the one that I brought up as being shot a few months ago.

Apparently, there is three levels of data recovery. The first one is when you have a computer that you just want to transfer information from, but otherwise everything appears to be in working order. Or something. Quite frankly, from appearances of what I know (and granted, with this sort of thing, it ain't much!) this level seems to be something most people could do themselves.

The second level is system error with the hard drive or some technical terms, but the hard drive can be reformatted or repaired easily enough.

The third level is the hard drive is dead. Kaput. Done. They have to send the thing in to a clean room and crack it open to get the information from it.

My external hard drive appears to be a level 2 data recovery. My laptop hard drive is level three.

Fortunately, I have all the stuff I need to restore my computer so they are going to replace my hard drive, as it is still under warrenty. So I'm just out of a laptop for the time being, and I should get it back in the next couple of days. But it looks like all of the information on the old hard drive will have to stay there until I can fathom shelling out the money required to get the information from it.

And aside from some pictures and a few stories I wrote, I cannot see myself doing this any time soon. Maybe the price will go down a few more hundred dollars, or I'll inherit a bunch of money from a long lost relative (yeah, right), or something. But in the meantime, well, so long hard drive, you will rest in peace at the bottom of my drawer until I can come up with the means to revive you.

Sims Self

Ok, so I didn't go see a movie. I just spent a bunch of time on my other computer, playing Sims2.

I swore that I wouldn't get a game on this computer, the internet is finicky enough as it is, but it runs programs really smoothly. Like Photoshop and 3DS Max, and those kinds of things.

Well, I got hooked on the sims, so sue me. I even attempted to make a Sims Self. Unfortunately, I don't think I can do anything to get my eyes right. And my face isn't round enough. But, eh, close enough.


For some reason Sim Kami has a long face, and I don't. But dammit, well, I tried!

I got her to do all sorts of things that makes you think that, yep, she could be me!



Like lack of table manners.



And sleeping on the couch regularly.



Furthermore, I have some other sims that I was playing with, one of them goes by the name of Todd (and ignore the outfit) and I invited him in and tried to get the two sims to be friends, or SOMETHING!



I tried to give him a hug, he wouldn't take it.



Later, I tried to play Todd and invite Kami over, but Kami shot him down. No, they don't like each other, at all.

I made comics out of the Sim characters, three of them are based off my Webcomic (to include Todd), which you might have to read in order to get the full gist of what's going on.

Silver is Dead, Long Live Silver

I have not been having very good luck lately.

My laptop (which I have dubbed Silver) crashed. And when I say crashed, I mean it is not functioning. At all. I can't even get it started in safe mode. It just restarts and goes back into the safe mode screen again, asking me how I want to start it. I'm thinking some whammy of a virus hit it or something.

Fortunately, I have my new computer as backup so I can still work on homework and all that jazz.

Unfortunately, the new computer is glitchy when it comes to all things internet. As in, it will freeze up when I'm online for no reason what so ever. I can't figure it out, but I should have taken it back the moment it started doing this. Its a good computer once I have the program running, but internet, well, tough toledos.

*sighs*

I will be taking my computer in first chance I get next week. This might be a good time to try to get the external hard drive recovered too.

Whatever the case, right now I feel a strange and urgent desire to get out of the house. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I just want to get away from the stupid computer.

If you want to hear me rant, here's a video for you to peruse!

Hair Blogging - It's about that time again

I've made up my mind that I need to do my hair every three to six months. Its been a year since I colored it and it was starting to show a need for a trim, and some color, or something.

Ever since I've hacked my hair off at the beginning of 2005, I've decided I'll never wear it short again (mostly because though I like it short, I HATE that growing out phase, fortunately I did it through a deployment instead of in the real world where I actually give some care to how I look) but it was getting to a long and hacked up phase where it was stringy and it, well, DESPERATELy needed a trim.

So I drove up to the sister's place and asked her if she would color my hair. She was gracious enough to help me and of course, I decided to post the before and after pics for you.


Ignore the hideous cape thing I'm wearing, as this is just to protect my clothes. My hair hasn't been touched for about 13 months, and it was due for something. You can see my natural hair color and how much its grown since the last time I did anything with it. And to think, I actually TRIED to style it that day! It's just looking dead and needs to be freshened up, considerably.

Coloring consists of mainly just doing highlights, which works well with me. Though I've posted pictures of me in tinfoil before, it never ceases to crack me up. The things a girl will go through to get beautiful! Hah!



This could be the look of the future or something. Kind of have stringy hair just spilling out everywhere. This is time consuming, but the results always turn out well.



Color and a trim. It does wonders to anybody.

Of course, the only people who seem to notice are the ones who are related to me. But then, that's usually the ones who only notice when you do something like this anyway.

The Path to 2008 - The Democrats

I mean, we're only in April of 2007 and we're already talking about who's going to be POTUS! Why do we do this to ourselves? Do we purposely like to drive ourselves bat wild? I don't know, but I guess because 2008 is completely wide open, we just got to suck it up and get on with our lives.

So, I decided I would look at each candidate for a moment and see what they have to offer and if they even have a shot. Or basically, my own rambling on them.

John Kerry
John Kerry, the Democratic nominee of 2004, has suffered a series of set backs to include making bad jokes at our trooops expense (and how was that supposed to be a jab toward a Yale Graduate now???) that he's, well, he's not a contender for 2008. However, I'd keep him on the radar for 2012 or 2016. This guy really wants to claim that oval office, he's just wisely decided to back out of the race for now.

Hillary Clinton
Wait, wasn't she President for 8 years already? Isn't there a law against this?

Furthermore, do we really want to start a trend here with Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton every four to eight years? Jeb for President in 2016! Chelsea in 2024! Barbara and Jenna can run on a joint ticket in 2032! It's madness I tell you! Madness! This will lead to a path of chaos that will end in our country blowing itself up in the anarchy!

Besides, do we really want another polarizing President in the office? You can't get more polarized then Bushes and Clintons in the office. A third of the country can't stand them, another third loves them, and the remaining third don't give a damn/don't follow politics enough to know the difference. I'm telling you, we really don't want another 8 years of Clinton.

Besides, I don't trust her. Everyone knew she was eyeballing the presidency for the future in 2004, she wouldn't admit it.

Barack Obama
This young charismatic candidate from Illinois has exactly two years of Senatorial experience and he's got the entire country buzzing. The question is, well, is he ready for the Presidency? What has he done and what does his experience say about him? Truthfully, I think he'd be a stronger candidate if he waited for 2012 or 2016, because I don't exactly know where he stands on things except to know that he's an eloquant speaker and therefore he knows how to play politics.

Still, I'm thinking I'll take eight years of Obama over eight years of Clinton. I'd say look at this guy on the ticket as a vice presidential candidate, which if the democrats win, sets him up for the presidency in 2016.

John Edwards
Yep, he's back, fresh off the Vice Presidential ticket in 2004 and ready to try for the oval office again for 2008. And he doesn't have the negative stigma of bad jokes that Kerry somehow managed to find. He's got experience in the senate as well. And his wife will help win the sympathy vote.

Except he's a trial lawyer, and he's got a record as a trial lawyer of big massive lawsuits against evil doctors and malpractice. I do have a problem with some of these malpractice suits, some of them are deserved, yes, but people win the lottery on them and it puts Doctors out of business as they can't afford their practice.

Still, as a guy, Edwards seems likeable and poses a chance. If he can find a way out from under Clinton's and Obama's shadow.

Dennis Kucinich
Is this guy for real? Seriously.

I mean, does this guy even have a sporting chance? Not likely. He was trailing the pack in 2004. What does he have to offer in 2008 that makes him a viable candidate?

Al Gore
Gore hasn't declared his candicay, yet, but hot off an Oscar win and with a passion for Environmental Protection that has Hollywood worshipping him, this guy has to think about the possibility of a run for president. Every major website listing contendors for 2008 has him on it as undeclared. And right now, in the liberal circles, he's very popular despite his fallout in lack of personal hygiene after he lost the electoral vote in 2000 to a bunch of Floridians who didn't know how to read a butterfly ballot. He's a contender, its just a matter of if he wants to give it another go or not.

Joe Biden
Ok, I'll admit, I don't know much about this guy, though 30 years of senatorial experience does give him an edge over some of the leading candidates. And to tell you the truth, that might actually help him with the moderate voters who are looking for a fresh face in the mix. But still, under the shadow of heavy weights like Clinton and Obama, he's got to find a way to make his name known to get the nomination.

Chris Dodd
Like Biden, I don't know really a whole lot about this guy. He's got a lot of years in public service, plus he's got a military record to help with the military vote and some of the moderates (but look what that did for Kerry!), so he's got a history to back him up.

Mike Gravel
I have absolutely no idea who this guy is, but he's taking a shot at the presidency and declared his candidacy nearly a year ago. He's got a diverse background in the Military, Business, and Public Service and has even written a couple of books and appears to be a worthy candidate by all appearances if he could find a way to get his name out there.

Bill Richardson
The Governor of New Mexico is making a bid for the Presidency.

Other then serving in Clinton's cabinet, I don't know anything about this guy. Hmm. . .

Summary - In my humble and far from expert rambling opinion, I would say for the Democrats, Hillary is the person to beat. But after a far from successful second term for Bush, do the Democrats really want to nominate a person that is just going to polarize the nation that much more? There are people that just don't like Hillary, and no matter what she does to try to improve her image, they are still not going to like her. It looks like Barack Obama may give her a run for her money however.

If the Democrats are smart, I think they should find a decent candidate who can appeal to the moderate vote. Avoid the double speak of 2004 because seriously, if Kerry had run with a plan and a purpose instead of just fumbling with the issues and not having any clear agenda, he would have won easily. This is a wide open election, its anybody's game really.

I'm just hoping the Democrats nominate somebody OTHER then Hillary.

Pictures and info courtesy of WashingtonPost

Webcam!

It's been a while, but I now have a webcam and a functional computer to use it with. . .

This should prove interesting. Some of the most bizarre things I have ever recorded involved me and a webcam.

Demon Spiders

I picked up the cold, a couple days ago I tried to go to work with it and I had both a cough and a sneeze. Plus the runny nose, the whole thing and as the day progressed, I realized I just wanted to go home and sleep the thing off. I told my coworkers I was sure I had Asian Bird Flu or something, because I haven't had these kinds of symptoms for a long time. They looked at me weird.

A friend of mine posted a picture of a huge spider that came from China in a warehouse box and she mentioned how she can't stand to look at it but wanted to get more information on it. I have a little entomology background on account that I used to be Preventive Medicine and I thought I would take a look at it for her.

I'm tempted to say its Lycosidae, which is a wolf spider, but I can't confirm this because all I have to go by is this picture and a few descriptions she has given. Apparently, its about the size of a fist, though I'm not sure if that includes the legs or not. However, when you do Taxonomy on arthopods, you tend to need a little more information to confirm this. Like, what kind of web does it weave, or does it even weave a web? What does its eyes look like? Can we get a better view of the pattern on its thorax and abdomen?

Entomology was one of my favorite subjects within my job as Preventive Medicine, I loved it. Unfortunately, it was one of the areas that tended to be contracted out to the civilians.

I do know a couple Entomologists, I was thinking of passing the spider along to them to see what they could find out, however I'm sure they would need more information then what is provided here too.

She thinks its disgusting. I think its kind of cool. But then that's just me.

Spring Quarter

So this quarter started off rough enough, but now I'm starting to get in the swing of things again and its not that bad. In fact, I'm actually learning something.

The first class is Intro to Business, which truthfully I've been dreading because I'm not really interested in business that much. However, this class is actually coming in handy and I'm even learning a thing or two that will probably come in handy later on down the road. This kind of stuff will actually be useful if I go into freelance work. Indeed, this could be useful!

The second class is Public Speaking, which got off on a really rough start but now I'm starting to get the hang of it. I had a couple of technical issues abound that didn't help things out either, and part of the assignment is giving a speech in front of an audience of five people and gathering five people to sit there and watch as I try to give a speech can be a little frustrating at times. I could have been a bit more prepared, but now I have to come up with an idea for an informative speech.

I'm thinking about doing one on Ferrets. :) I will post it when I finally get around to giving it.

The third class is on Digital Illustration, which is all about learning Adobe Illustrator, which I must admit, has had me scratching my head for some time. I never truly got it. But I'm picking it up pretty quick and so far am acing the class. But I've been acing all of my core classes so I'm not suprised really :) Now that I'm on top of things, hopefully the rest of this quarter will go smoothly.

I'm still debating on what I'm going to do with next quarter, whether I'll be transferring to another school or sticking with Westwood. I should know the answer to that in a couple of weeks.

On an eBay Kick

You know, eBay is kind of fun! Addictive, can get expensive, but its fun. You sit there, bidding on something, refreshing the page and you're quite certain you have the item in question when WHAM! Somebody outbids you. Out of the blue.

*laughs*

I'm on a TMNT kick, one of those people that jumps on the bandwagon when something is popular. Though there was one aspect of the fandom that I never got into before, and that's the origins of it all, the comics. And there are gobs of them.

I found some alternative methods of purchasing the items I'm looking for, which would have been helpful to know about before I started buying on eBay, but its quite a large collection and I've got a lot of gaps to fill. And if I get extras, I'll just turn around and sell them. On eBay!

In my haste, I ended up buying things I didn't need. Twice. Yep, learning how to use eBay all over again.

Endulging in my inner dork is something I do every now and again.