Alright, I know I’ve promised several times that I was going to fill everyone in on my Thursday night spent in Columbia, and I promise I’m still going to, eventually. I’ve got most of a rough draft on the story done, but there’s a good bit of psychological stuff in it where I analyze myself, so it’s taking a good deal of time.
Anyway, I’ve been writing a lot of code lately. My IRC bot is pretty well complete at the moment, including a “Fark Notifier”, which parses out the Fark [fark.com] RSS feed and displays a notification every time a new entry is posted in our IRC channel. Also, I’ve been reading a lot of Maddox [maddox.xmission.com] and Tucker Max [tuckermax.com] lately. They’re both incredibly funny guys with some great shit on their sites. I can’t wait for both of their books to come out!
Aside from that, it’s been pretty boring, just busy. I’m cramming knowledge about our phone system into my little brain at work. Our phone system expert, and the guy who sits across from me at work, is going to Iraq to serve as a consultant in Baghdad. It’s certainly going to be different without him there to talk to all the time. I’m going to be quite lonely sitting alone in our area, but I’m sure he’ll have a great time and that this’ll be an experience he remembers for the rest of his life. I told him to keep his ears open for any other job openings over there, and that I’d seriously consider them. If it weren’t for all the people like my Mom that would freak out, and how lost they’d be at work if they lost both of us at the same time, I’d probably eagerly drop everything and do it. I’m really pretty jealous of Michael at this point.
Everything lately (both the trip to Columbia and Michael going to Iraq) has made me take a hard look at my life and the direction I’m headed in. My Mom and I had a long discussion at lunch yesterday about school. I think she’s finally beginning to realize how much I honestly hate and despise it and how unhappy I truly am with my life in general.
We talked about Certifications vs. Associate Degree, and she told me that as long as I did my research and was sure that’s what I wanted to do, that she would support me 100%. She also said that I’d have to talk to my boss and convince him and see that he’s going to help pay for it. That’s the hard part. Everyone (and by that I mean the world at large) seems to have this plan for my life that parallels everyone else in the world. People just expect you to graduate high school and go on to college for four years, then get a full time job. Well, of course this isn’t the plan for EVERYONE, but for people of my intelligence and type, it’s expected. I don’t think anyone realizes that that’s not what I really want to be doing, and I’m sick of vainly trying to convince everyone that I have my own plan for my life and that it’s the one I really want to and should be following, not the accepted standard.
Even though I supposedly have her support, I think I’m going to stick with the Degree, simply because I’m so sick of arguing (well, not really arguing, but fighting in a metaphorical sense) with everyone about it. I’d rather just be miserable for another year and a half and finish it, even if an Associate Degree isn’t going to get me a whole lot.
That brings up another reason I hate school so much: All the useless classes you have to take (the “humanities” as they say) that have nothing to do with real world jobs in the industry. That’s why I think certifications would be a more valuable application of my time. Regardless of what people think, at least I would be able to more closely match them with my interests and obtain valuable information that actually applied to my field of study.
Oh well, woe is me. I guess I’ll just be miserable even more and eventually look back on the entirety of my teenage years with hatred, bitterness and disgust. I have decided that when I eventually have kids, I’m going to fully encourage them to go off to college. I don’t care what it takes, but this working full time and going to school online stuff has been one of the worst experiences I can remember, and I have no desire to see my children go through it as well.
Wait, when did I start thinking about having kids and the future? Maybe this is what happens when you sit next to a guy who’s still running around pretending he’s 23 when he’s actually closing in on 40 (although few know that. He tells most people he’s just passed 30).
Speaking of Michael, we had a conversation today about age and how irrelevant it really is. He’s a firm believer that the important thing is not how old you actually are, but how old you see yourself. He, of course, sees himself as being in his mid-twenties, which leads to his erratic lifestyle. I, on the other hand, can’t wait to be in my 30’s so I’m not the “freak” in my circle of friends that has the full-time job and always has money. I’d love to be wild and crazy like Maggie and Ryan and all their friends at USC, but since that’s obviously not going to happen, let’s get it over with and move on into middle age with some grace and dignity. I’ve accepted that this is going to be my life for the next (probably) 50 years, and I’m ready to get on with it.
Oi. Something else I learned today was about Jessica (she was my last real girlfriend, over a year ago, for those who didn’t know). After we “broke up” (since I just kinda stopped paying attention to her, I guess it still qualifies), she joined what’s been described as a “cult”, and married their “leader”. I’m not 100% sure, but apparently now she’s pregnant (I’ve pieced it together from various comments and such made lately), and her husband thought she was a virgin until he came along. Heh. What an idiot. He couldn’t be further off. Hell, she wasn’t a virgin when I came along.
And on to other girls. I also can’t stop thinking about Katie lately. Ever since we saw her at the oyster bar, I have been trying to get back there and see her again (now that it’s been all of an entire week). She’s just so cute and sweet, and I really miss seeing some of those people that I went to high school with. For some reason, that’s the kind of girl I see myself in a relationship with (yeah, what relationship, I know.). Maybe that’s just wishful thinking or my dream world influencing my subconscious. Blah, I dunno.
Welp, I’ve babbled on long enough now. Thank-you, thank-you! You’ve been great.