Random Thoughts of Mine

So my quest to return to college full time is on track now. Remember how I said that I decided to do a test to see if I could handle going to school and took two courses? Well, it worked. I passed both classes.

For my Pre-Calculus course I got a C in the class. I would have done better but I screwed up on the exam and wasn't in class half of the time because my club I'm in, the Satanic Mechanics Shadow Cast at the University of Maryland. Still I feel it is good since I didn't want the class in the first place. It won't count for anything since I just needed the credit to take Calculus. My second course was Sociology, the teacher was hard as anything. If I knew he would be that hard I wouldn't have taken his class. However, after working my tail off I got a B in the class which I'm really happy on. With those two classes taken I have now signed up for four classes for Spring 2012. I will be taking them on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

On Tuesday and Thursday I will be taking Calculus, Intro to Engineering and Intro to Chemistry. Chemistry will be first then Calculus, while I wait for my Engineering class to start I'll do the homework for Calculus and then do Engineering class. However, I have to do my Engineering class at one of the college's other campus at Arundel Mills to do that class. It was the only one I could get. Saturday I have my English course. (Three hours like my Sociology class) Though I might change this depending on what I need.

If I pass all four of these classes while my hours are reduced at work, then I'm well on my way to complete my Community College and get into University of Maryland by 2013. For one, I know that I can do these classes and I might reduce my hours at work even more or do a work around with work so I can take more classes but still show up to work. Once I get into Maryland I'll be living on my own at College Park (most likely with roommates in a apartment or housing) So yeah, so far it's all looking up.

This semester in college has been crazy. Every day I have been busy except Sunday. Monday and Wednesday I have night class at AACC for Pre-Calculus. On Saturday mornings I have Sociology which is a bit harder then I thought. It is two classes but that's fine since I also work 40 hours a week. However on Thursday's and sometimes Monday's (depending on when Monday class gets out or if it is canceled) I have the "Satanic Mechanics" or SM meetings at the University of Maryland. So with the homework in the classes is that I'm busy is a understatement. I've been so busy with work that I've had almost no time to do much since I'm normally studying or working. This is one reason I haven't texted many people this time around because I don't have the time anymore.

This morning I almost had a fit with my mom over being busy. On Sunday mornings I sleep in since it is the one day I do not have to wake up. The past week to two weeks I've been sick. I got sick about two weeks ago (in which I had to go to class on Wednesday with a 102 degree temperature to take my mid-term) and took off work on Thursday to get some rest. It reappeared on Sunday of that week and I took off again on Monday. For two weeks now I have been coughing. I also believe this has to be due to the new cats we just got in our house (I am allergic to cats and take medicine but take it in the morning). The reason being is that when I'm out of the house I don't cough as bad till I am home.

Anyway, last night I was up a half hour past my normal bedtime since if I sleep in I can not get to sleep so I stay up a little bit longer to get sleepy. If I go to bed earlier I don't sleep. However, with me being busy I have not been screwing up my sleeping schedule for the most part (except sometimes when I stay late with SM on Thursdays) and have been going to sleep normally on time or even earlier.

So my mom gets on my case this morning just because she saw me up late at night. Keeps saying I need to stop it or I'll end up in the hospital. I told her first off I've been up that late on Sunday's for the past couple of years, second of all this was the rare time I was up that late (I later on found out it was even later then I thought. I was just going to the bathroom at the time and I left my PC on all night because my iPhone was syncing up and sat down to check on it later on) and third that I feel just fine and have been for a while except for the cough. I at least made an appointment with the doctor for the cough but if it gets better before I see him then I'll just cancel it.

So last week I just got confirmation from work about my hours next year. That means I am going to college full time in Spring 2012. While a part of me is really happy that I am going to college in the spring, another part of me is scared.

Right now I am taking two courses, Pre-Calculus and Sociology. The only reason I have to take Pre-Calculus is because I wasn't allowed to take Calculus due to some credit mix up (I have the credit but not the class). So right now I have class on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. I've also joined University of Maryland's Satanic Mechanics which is great and meets on Monday and Wednesday (I have to skip Monday's meeting so I can go to class). Until this Saturday I started to worry about Spring 2012.

If taking the classes will only be a waste of time and I'll start to fail again like I did in the past. I've noticed that night courses are easier then normal day courses at college. Because I've noticed that most people in the classes (including the teacher) have full time day jobs. The homework and tests they give are in fact a bit easier then normal. I do have a plan however. I'm allowed to take off every Tuesday and Thursday for classes. I take three courses on Tuesday and Thursday and one course on Saturday. This would give me the credits to count me as full time in college. On the Tuesday and Thursday classes I would do my homework that day (most likely in the Anime Club) so I will not have any on my off days when I'm working. This would allow me to work on my Saturday homework during the week. Hopefully I can maintain a full college and part time work. I am hoping that I will finish all my classes by 2013 so I can transfer to University of Maryland. To pay for this I am taking out college loans and my father has said he will pay for half of my college classes.

Now I was worried about going to school since I will be doing a ton of work. The reason is because my Sociology teacher, he is a real teacher and is really tough on students. He wants all grammar and spelling correct and as you've noticed already in my blog that I'm really poor at grammar and spelling. It's a long story as to why I am really bad. Now, I had 5 papers to do for an exam. 5 subjects, each 200 words long and had to be done in a week. So I worked on it and worked and got a B+. Not bad I thought then I was worried as we had an exam by hand, same type. Now I was worried to death since I am really bad at getting my point across and that I skip around on a paper. However, just this Saturday I got a B on it. So now I'm not as worried before. If I can get a B out of this class then I know I am ready to go back to school.

So yep, I'm going back to college this Spring to finish up Anne Arundel Community College and transfer to University of Maryland by 2013. I know I can do it this time and will.

PS: I will be posting my con reports from Dragon*Con and Otakon from this past summer in a couple of days. I've been so busy I haven't had time to really do anything.

So I'm here sitting in my hotel room at Walt Disney World and have been thinking of the future. Don't ask me why but I have been. Honestly, I have been thinking about the future for a few months. Where am I go? What am I doing? I turned 29 years old last month, something that makes me a bit sick. I'm just doing nothing. Well, I've decided that in Spring 2012 I will be returning full time to college.

I would do it this fall but I need to pay off the rest of the debts before I can go back. Since my parents won't pay for it but only part of it. I'm going to be taking out college loans and apply for Scholarships so I can finish up with Anne Arundel Community College and transfer to University of Maryland in a few years. It was only earlier this year that I found out that a lot of the classes I took for the past couple of years aren't counted towards transferring to UM for my degree. While I can transfer for General Studies, I can't for Civil Engineering which is what I am planning at this time.

While I have most things set for it, one thing that I need to work out is in fact work. I currently work full time 40 hours a week. I want to cut my hours in half and not work Tuesday & Thursday. Now, I am the only one at work who hasn't taken a pay cut and I need to ask them if I can. Have the classes during those days. Now first things first I'm planning on doing a "test" during the Fall with taking 3 classes and see if I can handle the work load again while I'm working full time at work. If I can then I will do it in the spring.

What happens however if they decide that they won't let me cut my hours. I've also decided on what to do there. Quit. While I would hate to do it, since I do have health insurance and I have a nice paycheck (even if I cut my hours in half I'll still be making a nice paycheck.) and to think about the future and work on my future. I would work somewhere else where I can work after school or work only part time. Anyplace just to pay for my car insurance and some for college. This isn't a "What if" kind of thing. I have decided to do it. I want to go back full time and I am going to. Look Out and here I come.

For a while now, I have been hanging out with my friend/cousin Keeley a lot. We've been seeing each other about once a week or more sometimes in fact. Lately we've been hanging around University of Maryland, College Park at night. Last night, we were there again and we got to talking.

I've been going to a lot more things now a days. During St. Patrick's Day I went drinking and got really drunk, I don't think I've been that drunk. Things like this I didn't do in my early twenties. I was too busy trying to find a job and working in college at night that I couldn't hang out with friends and do this type of stuff. I didn't do anything for the past 8 years. I didn't go to parties, I didn't hang out with friends much (part of it was cause they weren't around much) and I didn't even date during that time. Though, now I feel like how I should have felt then. It might also be because of my small social problems.

As I said before, my social skills are lacking a bit, I get a long with people who are a lot younger then me. It is mostly because growing up I had problems talking normally. It didn't get normal till Middle School and even going into High School it was still far behind. I'm about 4 years behind in my social skills. Which hurt me growing up and into college I felt how lacking my skills were.

Anyway, enough of that. Talking to Keeley, we are going to start walking in College Park at least once a week and I mean really walk (we were doing nothing but walking for almost 3 hours in College Park, a lot of it at University of Maryland). Originally we were going to run in DC every weekend but my back problems seem to have start returning so I'm putting that on hold till I go back to the doctor which happens tomorrow and see what I can and can't do. He told me before that I shouldn't run when the problem starts up so I'm just being careful. I still have the dislocated disk in my spine, I can't fix that without surgery but I can do other stuff to get rid of the pain. Which worked for about a year. It just started to hurt so I'm getting it checked out before it starts to cause my pain like it did before.

It seems this summer I'm going to be really busy. When Summer officially starts I'll be gone in Florida. I'll be in Disney World for about 2 weeks till July. After Disney World with the family, the next event is Otakon 2011. I already have my hotel room with my sister at the Days Inn and it seems I might have Keeley and a friend of hers with us but we aren't sure yet. After Otakon it will be DragonCon in Atlanta, GA with Keeley and friends for 4 days. A huge geek fest. When I heard Christopher Lloyd was coming to the con I said, "Yep, I'm going." However, my sister isn't going with me for this con so it will be one of the few times and I will have a hotel room. I feel I can really unwind and do stuff that I couldn't before. Even go to the rave, I've only been to one rave before in my life back in High School so it will be... fun, yeah, fun.

Anyway, hope everything goes well with the doctor tomorrow and hopefully go see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the University of Maryland this Saturday. Then go to a friends house watching Doctor Who all night with drinking Sonic Screwdrivers. Oh yeah.

I recently got into Doctor Who a few weeks ago. I was bored one weekend and watched the 5th season of the new series on Comcast. It was so great I felt that I kept watching it all weekend. When the 6th Season came on I started to watch that. Just last night I got the first season on DVD and started to watch it tonight. It's a bit different due to the Doctor who is playing him in the first season, which is the 9th Doctor since they have had 11 different people play him but are all the same person but all the people who played him are written in the story too. The 5th and 6th Season is the newest Doctor, the 11th Doctor. I'm really enjoying the series and I'm going to pick up the classic series soon and Season 2 when I'm finished with Season 1.

Damn, I seem to have wrote a lot, so I'll just leave it as that. I still have a few things to do and there is something I need to tell someone. So for tonight, lets just leave it as that.

こんばんわ

Well, the spring classes are here and for the past few weeks I've been taking Japanese 111. So far we've had two quizzes. While I sucked on the first one because I studied the wrong information and had to relay on my memory and that didn't go well. I got a low grade in it. The next test was ひらがな test. I did that tonight and I'm pretty sure I did well on it, I mean, I was able to finish the test before せんせい had a chance at putting up the answer key. I now know all the ひらがな letters. Yes, I can read most ひらがな now. I was able to also figure out how to type in　日本語 on my こんぴゅた. Yeah, having a bit of a problem learning how to spell it but it's all good I guess as long as I look it up. If I see the word I know what it is. I'm taking the class with my いもうと this time around. So both of us can help each other in class and what not. One way I found out how to do ひらがな was to take a few of my 日本語 まんが I had lying around my room and translate those into romaji to help learn how to write ひらがな. Plus I also copy the ひらがな down so I can learn how to write it. It's not as easy as it sounds... yeah, it doesn't sound easy.

Anyway, enough about that. Katsucon is coming up this Friday and I'm about ready for it. I'm going as Minato from Persona 3. Got just about everything together. My wig came on Thursday and I'm finishing up the Evolker this week. The thing is just getting the first coat of Silver paint. It's looking really nice. Who would have thought that a pile of foam would turn out like that after working on it for the past couple of weeks. Tomorrow I'm planning on setting my outfit out to see if I need any touch ups on it. Turns out that I've lost weight since I've ordered everything so it's somewhat loose on a few things. The only thing that seems to have been a bit small still for me is the main jacket. It seems to have come one size too small, doesn't matter as it somewhat fits. Can't do any "Hulk" poses or it will rip.

Today doesn't seem to be a very good day for my car. After going to work, my car battery died on me. I had to wait for AAA for about an hour but then I find out the battery was totally dead and couldn't give me a jump.

Then when they try to replace the battery the stupid thing was under the air filter and since I never changed the battery in this car before I couldn't get it off. Called a tow truck, waiting another hour, to get it at home, missed a whole day of work when I got home. Then after I go online to find out how to change the battery to the car. You have to pull the whole air filter out of the car to get to the battery. Really, you almost rip it out to get to it. Once I get the air filter out I start to remove the plugs to the battery and get my wrench stuck in one of the nuts. I almost was about ready to throw the car down a ramp in the woods after that.

Once I get most of the battery out I decided to take a bike ride to go grab some lunch in Deale. It was nice but the route was longer then I thought on bike. So I had lunch and came back home to relax, this was about 2:30pm while I wait for my mom to get home with a car that works. I feel asleep during this time cause I was so worked out from working on the car. After waking up I got the rest of the battery removed and took it with me to go get a new battery. Then once I came back after spending 90 dollars for a new battery. After getting help from our neighbor on getting the nut out of the wrench. I put the battery on. I needed my mom to help cause it was dark at this time. Put the battery in, air filter on, then the connections need to go on. Turns out I should have put the air filter on LAST. Take the filter out again, put the connection on and the connection was loose on the - so place it down and turn it a bit more. Placed the filter back on and closed it up. I'm just not having a good day today... ugh.

Christmas is over... going back to work tomorrow... taking down the tree. Sad, Sad...

Gah, well... where to start out on everything.

I got my results back from college. All A's so I'm happy with the scores... I was worried for a bit but hey, whatever works.

I've got about 90% of my Christmas Shopping done... the problem is I haven't gotten some of my gifts though the mail yet which is pissing me off. I ordered them 2 weeks ago and I hear nothing from them. At least I was able to send out my Christmas cards and if you had a message that your gift didn't get in time, well there you go.

On Saturday I went to Hack and Slash Christmas Special.... In Color. It was pretty much a comedy variety show of Christmas. It was really funny, my sides and face was hurting so much cause I was laughing so hard. I think the show ended at midnight. Had tons of fun watching it.

On Sunday I met up with my "cousin" Keeley in Washington DC. Just a note, we aren't cousins. Her mother and my mother have been friends since they were in Middle School and her mother is my godmother, I've pretty much known Keeley all my life. So to both Keeley and me it's easier to just call each other cousins. It had been a lonnggg time since it was just her and me together. We met each other in Chinatown for some lunch.

We went to a Irish pub to eat lunch. I've been to it a couple of other times but she loves the place so we ate there. After that we hit the Metro to Union Station. I hadn't been in Union Station in a few years when I had to do research at the DC government for my work (they later on moved) and took Metro to the location since last time I went there by car I ended up in Arlington VA, don't ask I'm still figuring out that one. After pretty much walking around the place and holding Keeley by a "short leash" so she didn't end up buying hundred of dollars worth of British TV shows, we left and walked around DC. We first hit the Capitol Building. Now this was about 5:30 at night so it was really dark but the lights were cool. Got to the front steps and walked around to the Capitol Christmas Tree. Then we walked down towards the Mall towards the National Christmas Tree. It was so cold too that night, keep trying to stay warm.

Once we got to the National Christmas Tree at the White House, we walked around for a bit looking for a Starbucks since we were COLD to warm up. However, I was sad since everything ended up being CLOSED!!! Darn it, so Keeley said she knew a place in Dupot Circle she knew would be open. So we hit a Metro ride and got to the cafe. It was pretty nice, sweet local art on the wall and the warm drinks weren't that bad too. A little pricey I thought (worst then Starbucks) but I had a fun time relaxing. Had a lite dinner after that (quick sub from Subway at 9pm, ugh) and got home. I had to stop at the store on the way home so I didn't get home till almost midnight. Plus I had to work today. Ugh.

Work is dead... though this time of year it's no surprise. Every year, during these two weeks, Christmas and New Years, our office is dead, nobody is thinking of doing surveying work. Even when we had a ton of work it would be like this. So it's no surprise but we use to have a back-up of work we could do during this time, not anymore. What makes matters worst is I seem to have twisted my foot yesterday night walking so this morning I couldn't walk on my right foot. Such a pain...

UGH, I feel like I have so much work to do lately.

Earlier this week I handed in my term paper for my class. It's funny how crappy the very first draft was till I got my sister and parents to help work it up and finish it up. That took what felt like forever to write. I'm glad I got some of my friends who live in other countries to help with it and tell me how everything was there. It was the Health Care problem in the United States.

I also still keep painting my Grandmother's house on the roof eves. The mortgage company doesn't want to give her a loan till those are fix (we are also having to deal with HUD) but as soon as she gets a loan those eves are coming down and being replaced with plastic like we have at my house.

Today I'm going to be changing the oil in the cars while my dad gives my sister some "instructions" and teaching on how a car fluids work. How fun it will be. This is how it goes now, I'm under the car working while he is up talking to her. He does almost nothing to change the car anymore but hand me tools. That is how it is.

Tomorrow I'm most likely going Christmas shopping. Hit the Annapolis Mall first then run up to Arundel Mills to pick up a few things at FYE I had ordered for me last week that they didn't have in. I've been trying to find my father Doc Hollywood for my dad on DVD widescreen for the last couple of years for Christmas (great movie BTW) and they got it in yesterday. Since I'm busy today with the oil and what not I'll do it tomorrow and I can finish up some more Christmas shopping while I'm up there since I got paid.

I'm also been studying the whole time too for my finals. It's been crazy and what not but Tuesday is the last final so after that I'm finished with college for the rest of the year.

Wednesday I'm seeing Andy after work, Thursday I'm seeing Amanda after work, then Friday I'm trying to get together with Ryan but I'm not sure at this point how it's going. Ugh, I'm just glad I got all of this scheduled after my finals or I'd be dead right about now.