Category Archives: Personal Updates

Leaving Las Vegas

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If I told you I was going to send you on a trip that would involve spending a week in New York City followed by a week in Las Vegas you’d probably think that was going to be pretty cool. I sure did. For a while there it was. I can honestly say, though, that after two weeks I’m ready to go home.

I’ve been taking part in some pretty intensive training to help me get up to speed on some of the technologies that we’re adapting at work. I spent five days in New York learning about C# and 7 days in Vegas learning about accessing data and building web applications in Visual Studio 2010 with .NET. The New York leg of the journey was pretty awesome, both from a learning and playing perspective. Vegas, however, has completely kicked my ass. 10 hour days on stuff that’s either really difficult to wrap your head around or mind-numbingly easy mixed with the insanity that is the Las Vegas strip. The resort we are staying at is right behind the Hooters hotel on the South end of the main strip, and the whole environment outside of our little resort is just nuts. Hell, it’s a little crazy here. I’m sitting right next to a window that is looking out over the pool in the resort, and as the week went on the parties our there got progressively louder and more raucous (I note with no small amount of amusement, however, that so far it’s pretty dead out there on this lovely Sunday morning…I guess everyone is still recovering from the parties of the previous evening).

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Here there be cactii

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Sometimes I worry that I’m a bit too much of “that guy.” I’m currently sitting pool side at the hotel I’m staying at in Phoenix, Arizona for the NOREX International Roundtable. I’m wearing the standard black t-shirt with the nerdy saying on it, working on my computer, and sitting in the shade. I haven’t gone anywhere near the water or the pasty older folks who are part of the conference and frolicking in it. I’m not even drinking right now, settling instead for a tasty bottle of Fiji water.

Truth is, though, that even sitting here in the shade with my sunglasses on I’m getting a headache. That might be a result of trying to strain through my sunglasses to see the screen, or it could just be because I’m slowly but surely turning into Gollum.

Time will tell, precious.

From a “fun things to do when not in the conference” perspective this trip has kind of been a bust. My foot is currently gimped thanks to the fact that I was running with the wrong shoes for several months. I have inflamed tendons in my left foot and I’m wearing a compression sock and a splint. I can’t run. I can’t even walk all that far. I am surrounded on all sides by beautiful desert landscape and I can’t explore any of it. That, of course, is also part of the problem. I’m surrounded on all sides by desert. The only thing here to do is go to the casino next door,and I’m not really a gambler. I’ve been spending the daily credit that they gave me, but that’s about it.

Oh. I’m also not in the pool because I forgot my swimsuit and all I have is my cargo shorts and that’s really kind of ghetto.

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Cable Anxiety

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I recently made the decision to cut the cable cord in our household and convert all of our televisions over to internet and over-the-air programming. By dropping cable television and our cable based phone service (all four of us have cellular phones) I’ll be saving about $135 a month. I spent about $300 on equipment needed to facilitate this transition, which I figure I will make up in about 4 months of not having to pay the monthly bill (I will still be paying $20 a month for Netflix and Hulu Plus).

What’s surprised me the most about all of this is how much anxiety the decision has caused me.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? I’ve had cable television since I was very, very young. We were one of the first families on our block to have cable, and it has never been an option NOT to have cable in a household I lived in. I’ve lived with having cable so long that I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like it’s something I “have” to have as opposed to something I “want” to have.

Isn’t that strange?

I’ve actually found myself wondering if I’m doing the “right thing.” Yes, those exact words went through my head. The “right thing.” Like it could possibly be some kind of monumental mistake to cancel our cable television and phone service.

I wonder if it’s not one of many signs of how hard we’re pushed to consider these kind of things necessities by “the man.”

In any case, the transition continues apace. I have one more television left to hook up the antenna to and after that we’re pretty much done with cable. I’ll just need to return the equipment. We will undoubtedly miss having access to Bay News 9, but I can no longer justify spending that kind of money for 10 minutes of news every night. Besides, I’ve already found a 24 hours weather broadcast channel from one of the local stations.

A Puppy For Christmas

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One year I asked my Mom to get me a dog for Christmas.

I don’t remember how old I was at the time, but I must have been fairly young. Young enough that the memory of that particular Christmas is the only crisp one I have of that particular time in my life. You know how there are certain memories you have that are so bright and vivid that the minute you think of them you feel like you are there in the moment all over again?

Yeah, this is one of them.

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Winding Down

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2010 is drawing to an end, and in only a few days we’ll be hosting our last (and biggest) party of the year with our annual Nightmare Before Christmas party. As I sort through the various Christmas Cards (none of which will be reciprocated this year – sorry folks), I stumble across the occasional Holiday Letter. This is kind of a tradition on the Andres side of my family. I have quite a few of the ones that my Grandmother sent out, and every year my Mother and Uncles do their own versions that they include with their Christmas Cards. I even did a few myself, but with my immersion into the world of blogging it seemed like most of the people who I would send out that letter to would already know what was going on. When you consider the fact that I kind of suck at getting out cards to begin with, putting the additional pressure of writing a letter to include with them on myself seemed kinda pointless.

So it goes.

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Putting on the rose colored glasses

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I had a thought this morning. I wanted to write something, but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to write about. I did some work on other things for a few hours, figuring that perhaps at some point during that time period I would have an idea and I could subsequently transform that idea into words.

It didn’t happen.

So, I thought, I’ll dig through the photos on my computer until I find a picture that I haven’t posted before that inspires me to write about it. I did some digging, and I came up with the image above. Technically speaking I have posted this image in the past, but it was on my old web site that has now been completely retired so for many of you this is “new.”

The picture is of my old boss, Brian.

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Playing Dressup

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It is October 31st, 2010.

Halloween.

In the grand scheme of things, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It is, however, also a holiday that often makes me feel very awkward when it comes to actually participating in the traditional method of celebrating it.

I have costume anxiety.

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Sometimes I really hate my brain

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So.

It is almost 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning. I should be sleeping. I wanted to be sleeping. Instead, I had a nightmare that got me out of bed about 30 minutes ago. One of those nightmares you don’t even want to tell the details of because they are horrible and embarrassing. I’m awake now, and sitting here doing that I’m almost always doing at this time on a weekday. Drinking coffee, eating my breakfast of two frozen waffles with peanut butter in between them, and drinking coffee.

If I didn’t have an insanely long (and mostly self-imposed) to-do list for the weekend I’d be even more upset about that.

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USFiasco

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I’ve been doing mini-rants on my Twitter/Facebook feeds about a letter I got from the University of South Florida for the last hour or so. I have decided to encapsulate my frustrations and conclusions here to spare anyone additional spam.

I received my Associate of the Arts degree from St. Petersburg College in December of 2005. I graduated with a GPA of 3.241. Shortly after graduation I applied for admission to the University of South Florida, but I never actually finished the application process. Life got a bit on the busy side, and I let things slide for a few years.

I recently applied again, hoping to finally start working on my Bachelors degree in the Spring. A few days after applying I went to check on the status and was greeted with a “you will be notified by mail of our decision.”

This is never a good sign. I’ve heard that statement far too many times when applying for credit. It always means “we’re telling you no, but we aren’t going to tell you to your face. We have to put this in WRITING.”

So the letter arrived today. Sure enough, I have been rejected. Why? I have completed less than 60% of the classes I have attempted in my post-secondary career. When I first read this I was livid. I ran the numbers and they didn’t add up. I was sure they had made a mistake.

They did not.

I have left a message with the Dean of Admissions, but after pulling transcripts and doing all the math myself here is what I have come up with. I have attempted 135 hours. I have completed 79. This means I have completed 58.51% of the classes I have attempted. In order to be eligible for admission to USF I need to pass 7 more credit hours worth of classes before I am eligible for admission. I am going to discuss this with them and get definite numbers, but this looks to be the position I am in.

I am angry, hurt, frustrated, and annoyed by this. I will not, however, let it defeat me. I still need to get my foreign language requirements in. I have a few grades on my transcript that are F’s that do not need to be taken for my degree. I have some classes I can take to give them what they want, and I will do so.

I will be a USF student one day. I will get my degree. I will not let this hold me back from improving myself.

I won’t.

UPDATE (3:58 PM EST)

Well….This sucks a big bag of flaccid manhood.

Apparently USF counts all attempts toward taking a class in figuring out your attempted to completed ratio, even if you’ve taken the class over again for credit. Saint Petersburg College does not, so those numbers weren’t being figured in to the ones I was working with.

Here’s what I’m facing with USF…

Total hours attempted – 143

Total hours completed – 76

Percentage – 53%

In order to be CONSIDERED for admission under the standard guidelines I need to take and pass 23 credit hours worth of classes. In order to guarantee it, though?

Another 60.

Anything less than 67% requires review by the admissions panel.

I have been told that I would be accepted at any of the other USF campuses. The major I wish to take is only offered at the USF Tampa campus. My only course of action at this point is to write a letter of appeal to the director of undergraduate admissions.

I know for a fact that I can get 16 hours of work in that I NEED to have done for my BA at SPC. Beyond that I am unsure.

This requires some additional thought and decision making.

I’m afraid of Americans

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It is currently 7:30 AM on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010. I am on vacation, and will be until next Thursday. Krystalle, Rafe and I will be leaving very early Thursday morning to drive to Atlanta for Dragon*Con, but for now I am simply taking some time off and generally trying to relax.

I am…restless.

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