Yesterday, not so fun

Title says it all. Basically, a bunch of stuff happened, I found out I was more in debt than I've ever been, and that I need to find out what monies I'll be getting back from rebates and whether I should just return the stuff rather than selling it, and I got home late from school and found out I had to pick my brother up from his Wednesday night group, I didn't get to talk to my girlfriend as long as I wanted to because we were working on school, I found out I'll be working early on Saturday morning, and as I was getting into my car earlier, my watch band broke, specifically the plastic loop that the strap goes through to hold it as the Velcro folds back on itself, snapped. (Did you know that Velcro is a proper noun? Google does.) Luckily I have come up with a solution for that one. Now I just need to find a paper clip or two. Why can't God give me just one thing to deal with at a time? /end rant.

-Gilligan(moving on, over burning bridges)

Money and me, they don't mix.

I need money!

Ok ok... so I don't really need to buy the stuff I bought. But I got great deals on them, and I'm going to get rebates and sell them for more money than I ultimately paid. But that doesn't help when I've got insurance and phone bills to pay for, gas to buy, as well as payments on a computer and paintball gun. (Although I think the gun is completely mine now...) PLUS a whopping speeding ticket for more money than I've had in my account over the past month.

I'm a spender. and a bad one at that. I NEED a budget, but I never keep up with it. I've tried several times, to no avail. I just need to not buy anything except for gas, and fast food maybe twice a month. Maybe I'll skip the burgers... (But Five Guys is sooo good.) I'm a college kid, and I'm turning into a poor college kid. I wasn't rich before, but now I'm in debt. A lot. Not cool at all.

Gilligan(3rd Steward)

Epic fail.

Never... I repeat... Never assume.

Especially when your girlfriend sends a pic. To your phone. After she's was just talking about trying an outfit. And you had just mentioned taking a pic. And especially when the pic is nothing like what she described because that's not something she'd take a picture of anyways. Always take your time looking at the picture before you reply. If anything... even the slightest bit, doesn't look right, or like what you expect. MAKE SURE you know what you're talking about in the next text.

Ok, that was a random rant that nobody knows the context of and nobody needs to. I'm fine, she's fine, and I'm going to bed. Right after I finish my term project.

Gilligan(hasty judgment never wins)

Mint is awesome.

Well I finally set up Mint, a clean, easy interface for your finances. It's pretty great. I did have to hack my online bank account to get all the security questions it needed, but once I got that out of the way it's a piece of cake. Mint shows you your account balances, spending history, alerts you to over budget spending, and even gives you ways you can save (or earn) money, by switching to another account or bank. One of my savings accounts isn't earning any interest at my current bank, so Mint suggested that I move it to a different bank with 5.01% APR interest! Pretty snazzy, I'd say. I'd love it if you could compare banks arbitrarily, but the different systems are probably closed and difficult for an independent company such as Mint to get into. Such is the world of banking.

There's your brief update for today. Have a great rest of the month! And if you use online banking, check out Mint today!

-Gilligan

Well that stinks...

This thanksgiving was good, except that I was so distracted by work and play that I forgot to blog. ...ever-forgetful, that's me. Oh well, and I was going to win this one too! :-p

Word from the wise: Life is tough. If your girlfriend is being vulnerable with you, choose your words very carefully, or your attempts to help or think things out or be logical will only feel like daggers to her beating heart. And don't even think of asking her to be strong, because she needs you, not a stone wall.

Gilligan(wandering and rambling)

Contacts

Well, I changed my contacts today. This may not seem like a significant event, especially considering they are monthly contacts, which means I'm supposed to throw them out every month and use a new pair. However, this is the 21st day of November, and I've been using this pair of contacts since a week or so into October, and, I haven't taken them out of my eyes for the past three or four weeks, with little to no ill effects. In fact, my eyes felt dry, naked and unprotected without them. Perhaps that is an ill effect. But I can see!

Now, I'm not completely sure this is healthy, so I'll ask my optometrist about it after the holiday, but I do recall hearing her mention that some people can wear their contacts day and night without worry. I believe I am one of those people. Yay for non-stop semi-clear vision! I may need to get my prescription readjusted... but they're difficult to perfect, and I've still got six pairs left or so, so I'll probably just have to deal with a tiny bit of blurriness.

-Gilligan(mostly-clearsighted)

Headache.

I've got one.

No post tonight. :-/

-Gilligan

Elevation and Expectations

Ok, so I just found out that my city's elevation is 33 feet above sea level... 33 FEET! Whereas my girlfriend's parents' town is more than 3000 feet above sea level... And I'm going up there for New Years... Dang... it's gonna be cold, and I won't be able to breath. Sounds like an awesome plan. :-p

Oh, and my girlfriend is turning into much more of a planner than she used to be... it's fun watching (or rather, listening to) her go at the calendar and scribble scribble scribble... :-)

Which I should be doing much more of... homework and all that. Meh. Tomorrow is another day, and aside from hanging out with friends for a while for lunch, I think I'll try to get something accomplished.

-Gilligan

Thank God I have a girlfriend

If not, I wouldn't be updating this every day, and I'd be out of the running for NaBloPoMo. :-p

Also, I wouldn't have someone to talk with late at night... or flirt with... or go to Candy Mountain with... Oh, wait. That's later. DANGIT!

Anywho, I love my girlfriend, and she loves me. We were recently talking about how our relationship (of approximately 7 and a half months) has lost its luster, so to say... "It's not shiny anymore." I blame it mostly on the fact that we're talking about serious things most of the times that we do talk, because we don't really have time to talk about frivolous things, since we're FREAKING 1,000 MILES APART! *ughsigh* I want her... rather, I want to be with her... next to her... to see her... Oh!

Speaking of which, she just recently got a laptop with an integrated webcam. Unfortunately, it's an HP pavilion, and she doesn't know if it will work under Linux (of the Ubuntu 7.04 variety), which she promptly installed after receiving it. I think it will, it will just take some finagling... and then I need to get a webcam myself. hmph. Got any ideas? I'm sure my vast readership of 5 might have some ideas... :-p

In any case, I shall sign off, and mention that I myself run Ubuntu 7.10. Go Linux!

-Gilligan

Birthday!

So, it's my birthday in a month... I'll be the big 2-0. Yippee.
Even better, I'll be two weeks away from seeing my love!
Yay!

No blog?

Blog!

I got a speeding ticket tonight.

In other news, I'm stupid.
This news bulletin brought to you by Harford County cops.

The end (of my spotless driving record).

Too much to do

Not enough motivation to do it all... Or rather I'm feeling like a lazy bum. Guess that means I'll just be working more this weekend. As usual. :-\

I really feel... drained. I don't know. Probably because it's nearing the end of the semster, and I'm stuck playing a little bit of catch-up, which is never good, and I'd told myself I wouldn't put myself in this situation again. *sigh* Oh well. Here it goes! See you all in the morning.

Oh Lordy...

Whatever am I to do? Here's little young me... wanting ever so much to be finished school and on to the next stage in life... and also wanting some of that stage to be near. I love Laura... and it hurts. It hurts to be so far away, and to not have the warmth of her smile, the twinkle of her eyes, even the coolness of her tears nearby, that I might partake in their beauty, in her, every bit... Lord thank you for beauty.

I am a wistful soul, torn between father and lover. Sounds like a Shakespeare play, doesn't it? Thank you for wit, Lord.

I want to take charge, to head in a direction and have God lead me on from there. I think that' what I'll do. I just need to pick up the map and go. Well, first I need to draw out a map, make up my mind on a direction, and then go. God help us, please?

As far as directions go, I've got a dozen and one ways to go about it, and none of them match up with either Laura's plans or my dad's plans... They're all (mostly) somewhere in between. Lord help me plan.

The bible says to "commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:3, NLT) Well, I'm committing my actions!

Psalm 37 is also rich with guidance...

Psalm 37:3-5 (NLT)

3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.

5 Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.

Psalm 37:7 (NLT)

7 Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.

Psalm 37:23-24 (NLT)

23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
24 Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Well now... what am I supposed to do but act and pray God leads me on the right path? My plan now is to continue progressing through school, pick out a couple important times and start planning for them. If God doesn't want me to, then He can show me.

Signing off - The Beaver.

Post.

Blegh...

Hello again

Goodness.... we're halfway through the month, and I'm running quickly out of ideas... stories... anecdotes to fill the blathering pages of my withering blog...

Anybody got any ideas? Stories you'd like me to make up? Advice you'd like me to give? I'm almost desperate...

Oh, school. Yeah it's alright. Got a quiz in History coming up on Monday. Fun fun.

I'm still talking with my girlfriend... she's still awesome.

I'm still running Ubuntu on my laptop, and it's working well. I haven't gone back to windows for much of anything... Though I will have to clean everything out eventually.

And life marches on. Sorry tonight isn't much of an update... I'm in a bit of a dry spell. Better luck tomorrow! Leave comments!

Gilligan

Awesome mice

I got myself a new mouse for my laptop. It rocks!
It's small, wireless, and turns itself off after a time of disuse.
And it was only 30 bucks! (I unfortunately missed the $20 rebate by a day)
No, this isn't a product placement, I just don't have much to report on my life today.

I talked with my parents about school and stuff... How I shouldn't multitask while doing homework, and that I shouldn't stay up late on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. *sigh* They have a point.
Grr on graduating late.

Aaand tomorrow I get to have breakfast with Dori! Yay!

So, there's my brief update... Tomorrow is school, so I need to head to bed.

Darn blisters...

Well, it's a known fact: Blisters are annoying. I wish I had a pic, but my camera has gone into hiding, probably anticipating my very thought of taking a picture of the thing on my hand. It actually isn't horrible, it's just a little sore, and should be gone in a month and a half.

Meanwhile, I shall listen to music and ignore the homework I should be doing. No, wait. I guess I'll do some while I wait for my girlfriend to get online.

I do way too much planning. I love it. I'm already thinking about when Laura will come out next August, and I've only just figured out the plane tickets for New Years when I go out to California and meet Laura's family. :-)

It's getting colder outside... currently 35 degrees Fahrenheit... dang. Could be seeing snow in a couple weeks. Oh boy...

Well there you have it, several random thoughts for the day. Wish I had more, but it's late. Maybe I'll blog twice tomorrow, once after church and once at night. Perhaps...

Anywho, Gilligan signing off.

Move to the beat

I enjoy music. Anyone who knows me probably knows this. In fact, I like music so much that I've got more music than I've ever listened to on my hard drive. Actually, most of that stuff consists of albums I've heard one or two tracks from and decided to get the whole album. I think I'll have to go through and delete the stuff I really don't listen to anymore. I mean don't get me wrong, most of it's good, but it just doesn't hold my interest. Also, I'm running out of room. I need to do a full system clean out anyways. Items on that list?

1. Wipe Windows partition, start afresh, possibly in a Virtual machine


2. Increase Ubuntu Partition, or separate home partition


3. Go through and clean out all:


• Documents,


• Videos,


• Pictures, and


• Music


4. Properly tag and organize my music


5. Install native EvE Online client on Ubuntu


6. And maybe even install Kubuntu

Notice the technical nature of all of those? Yes. I am a geek. And sorry ladies, but I'm already taken. :-p And she loves me!

Have a good weekend all, I shall wake up in the early morn (after getting an hour extra sleep) and go to work. The rest of you will have a wonderful Saturday I'm sure.

Gilligan

Phantom Cell Chargers

Have you ever experienced the phenomonon where you lose something, then buy a replacement, and immediately find whatever it was you thought you'd lost? Well, that happened to me yesterday... I had lost my phone charger, and after looking most places I thought it could be... I went out in desperation and got a car charger.... and when I got home, I look in a box in my room, after merely glancing at it and noticing a suspiciously familiar looking wire... what do you know, it's my wall charger! *Doh!*

So, now I have two chargers... one of which I will return once I upgrade my phone in less than a month. *sigh* And of course, they don't have the phone I wanted... they've moved on to the newer model... Oh well. Maybe I can find a cheap one online that they'll activate for me.

Ta till next time,
Gilligan

Blood, Needles, Warts, Ice, Blisters, and pain.

Yesterday was interesting... And yes, it involved everything mentioned in the title, and my Uncle too! I shall expound.

I had a Red Cross blood donation appointment at 12:15, no big deal, get there, read the paper, get pricked (in the finger), get blood pressure tested, get a drink (of orange juice), sit in a chair, rest your arm on one side and hold your drink in the other, and you're ready to go! Well, then there's everything leading up to the needle stick, and the pumping and squeezing of my hand, and then it's all over (in 6 minutes! Hurrah!). Then they take the needle out, put gauze over the puncture wound, have you hold it high for a minute, and bandage you up. Here lies a problem, at least on this particular day. My arm didn't want to stop bleeding! I had to hold my arm up with pressure on it for 30 seconds or more, at least three times. And then she did it for me once or twice until it finally clotted and she could wrap my elbow with no fear of me spilling any of my life force upon the street. Wouldn't want any leaky humans out there... bad rep for the Red Cross. How do they get away with poking people full of holes (ok, it's only one) and then sending them off, seemingly unscathed. Oh, right, the amazing human body. Where was I? Oh, right. Blood. Mmm...

Luckily for me, this nurse knew some tricks, one of which was a bag of ice, which she promptly wrapped on my arm on top of the gauze pad and told me to leave it on there for ten minutes. I did so, and gorged myself on cookies and pretzels while I waited. Fun times. I had a nice chat with one of the volunteers who was working there. She said she'd been doing it for the past 16 years or so... After having retired, and apparently still married. A sweet old lady... had a lazy eye, minorly unnerving, but still nice to listen to and quite friendly. Then I took the ice bag off and left the building, taking my papers, a sticker for my shirt and a calendar reminder (I'm eligible again on 1/1/08! Woot!), as well as two bags of cookies and a bag of pretzels. Yay munchies. What can I say? They had chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and wheel pretzles, I couldn't resist.

Ah yes, then came the wart. This one also involved ice, but in a different sense. I had a dermatology appointment at 2:15, for the removal of one itty bitty wart on my palm. It's been bugging me for a while and I finally told my mom about it. The appointment consisted of me signing in at the front desk, sitting in the office, sitting in the patient room, chatting with the doctor, and getting an area about 4 times the size of the wart frozen by liquid nitrogen from a can. Unpleasant at best. Though I can say that the most pain was felt as all the cells being frozen screamed in horror as they gave up their last... breath?.. of life. Now I've got a nice blister (which of course the doctor warned me about) the size of a pencil eraser on my hand, and an appointment in 7 weeks for a follow-up. She also looked at some moles on my back and scars from moles removed, as well as a few pimples on my head, and said I was a-ok. End of appointment, pay the front desk and be on my way. The co-pay was only $35, so I am very glad for insurance. (Must needs get some o' dat before, or shortly following, marriage.)

So, that's it for the title credits, now for some bonus material. That evening, I went out with my Uncle to chat about life and school and women (one in particular to me), and see how things are going. He gave me a few pointers and tips on how to take better notes in school, edited one of my programs, and encouraged me to have some backup plans if my original plan doesn't work out. I pray that it doesn't, because even though my school schedule is pretty packed from here on out, it looks like I won't be graduated until Fall of '09. Not a bad thing in itself, but, considering other plans I and one other have in mind, it might push things back a little. That will certainly be a point of discussion shortly.

Speaking of which, he gave me several things to consider and focus on in my pursuit of my current relationship and the progression thereof. In short, he said waiting is better, but every situation is unique, so counseling is best no matter what. We need to consider many things and bring them to light before they might become points of division. And yes I'm being vague, because at the current time, those who understand this paragraph are the only ones it matters to. More will be revealed at a later date.

And now that I have reached the end of this post, I shall sign off without further ado.

Thank you all,
Gilligan

Shoot, Y'all

I gotta go to bed... I'll blog in the morning, here's just so I've updated my blog on the 6th day.

Ha! 11 o'clock!

Welcome once again to my humble ablogode... great, I'm making up works now. Did that even make sense?

So, here I am once again, starting my blog entry late at night... though not as late this time. 10:15. Let's see how far I can get.

Anyways, back to the glorious wonderful tale of one lone college student's journey through the day. It started just like any other normal college student's day, sharply at 6:30, no, 6:45, no... just a few minutes longer... 7:10. CRAP! A quick shower and shoving of books into a tattered backpack and I was off. Made it to class on time. No thanks to the commute and parking, though I got a fairly close spot today. Note to self: Small campus is a blessing. Being able to WALK to class and be there within 10 minutes is AWESOME. Having to drive 40 minutes, on a 20 minute commute, because of rush hour, and walk another 7-10 is not. (Let me know if those commas are confusing.)

So, I'm in class on time, the prof is 5 minutes late as usual. As he sets up his folder of notes, he "reminds" us that there will be a quiz on Wednesday. On the notes from last week, and the book we're supposed to be finishing shortly. One thing he must surely have forgotten was that I got up too late to get to class on Wednesday AND Friday of last week. 8 AM class... Sorry. :-/ Oh, and that book we're supposed to have read? I haven't even cracked the cover. I need to find it before tomorrow... and I've got a blood donation appointment, a dermatology appointment, and a meeting with my Uncle tomorrow. Lots of time for reading... Yeah right.

So, tomorrow's shot. Oh, and I need to drop off some papers at work tomorrow before 11 as well. Double shot. And not the espresso kind either. I highly dislike coffee. Unless it's merely a flavoring. Moving on.

Hmm... so, after class, I asked the dedicated note-taker for the notes from the classes I missed, so I'll get those before class on Wednesday. Which means I'll have to leave half an hour earlier than usual, which means 6:30. Which means actually getting up at 6, showering, dressing, and getting out the door at 6:30. Quite a feat. I'll have to go to bed at 10. Eeesh... Sleep at 10. Means I probably won't get to talk to my girlfriend that night. Poo. AND I still haven't found my cell phone charger.

Yeah, I lost my cell phone charger, and my phone is dead. Has been since Saturday. Not fun. Need to get another possibly without spending a fortune... and I'm eligible for an upgrade next month (I DEFINITELY want one). Figures.

Well, looks like I got a good two paragraphs in, so I think I'll stop for now. The rest of my day was kind of bland, and it'd take way too long to describe it all. Have a good night people!

-Gilligan, Gorilla of the night.

Greetings once again!

Ok, hey there. Here I am... 11 o'clock again... At least this time I was working on homework. And talking to friends. And watching Dane Cook videos. And Diggnation episodes... Ok, so homework was a tertiary activity... but I'm working on it!

I don't have any major projects, except for one presentation... online... for Computer Information Systems... Luckily it's just a powerpoint due before the beginning of class, and it's at 12:30pm. So, I've got at least 4 hours to work on this thing.

And less than 15 minutes to finish this one. Drat. Got distracted by my girlfriend. Oh well. Not complaining. :-)

Well, looks like today is especially boring. Kind of like this morning's church service. (Sorry Pastor Don, but your voice is so soothing... I nodded off a few times, luckily my mom was there to tug on my hair to keep me mostly awake.)

And that's me. On Sunday. Have a good week!
-Gilligan

Randomosity of Life

Ok, so, I'm in this one blog post a day for a month thing and goshdangit if I don't start procrastinating... Starting at 11:30ish... Alright, we'll see how it goes.

Turns out the guys at my work are participating in the Novel-in-a-Month thing (NaNoWriMo for the uninitiated) that inspired this activity, which I thought was kind of cool, and unrelated, since I got my inspiration from RachelSkirts. (You go girl!)

Today was a good day at work, life went smoothly, and there were many (paying) customers.

In other news, I have an online presentation due in Computer Information Systems on Monday that I need to pick the topic for... It has to be a new technology or an innovative use of existing technology that will help change business or improve it somehow. There are already a bunch of topics chosen, so if you tech-savvy ones out there could lend me a hand and toss out some ideas, I wouldn't mind it one bit.

Heehee... I've had a good hearty chuckle in my time, but this one strikes home pretty well. :-)
If you want to see why the LeTourneau Campus makes fun of the LETU Security, this is a prime example: http://letu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008894&id=159101477


Ok, so there you have it, a fairly random selection of highlights from my day. Oh, one last thing... My car won't start. Again. It's got enough to turn on the headlights, radio, dome light, etc, but not enough for the starter to turn the engine. All it does is click repeatedly when I turn the key. :-/ So it's still at work, I got my Cousin/Manager to drive me home. Please pray for the car, that it would be repaired easily (such as replacing the battery) and/or inexpensively.

Gilligan, signing off
(perhaps I should use better links, or fewer... they seem to be getting simply gratuitous.)

NaBloPoMo?

Ok, so apparently November is National Blog Posting Month... Which I just found out about through Rachelskirts, and unfortunately, I've almost missed the first day. :-/ Oh well. I said I'd kick up my blogging pace a bit, so, here's an excellent opportunity. I guess I'll make up for it by posting really early in the morning. This morning, in fact.

Well let's see, where shall I start? Well today I found a stack of about 5 burned CDs in the center console of my car, just begging to be played, so I obliged. I stuck the first one in... and after a few seconds of reading, the player spat it out. "Ew... this one has no flava!" it seemed to say. So, I set that one on the passengers seat along with my hoodie and a stack of school books, which are there for the simple reason that I am lazy and didn't put them in the bookbag. Anywho, back to the CD's.

I stuck the next one in, and lo and behold, it began to play! I believe this one was labeled (oh so professionally; with a sharpie, thin tip) "Christmas", so I wasn't too surprised to hear Christmas music. I suppose it's appropriate to start thinking about Christmas music on the first day of the month before... right? Well, I'm not sure if it's music from the Broadway Christmas Spectacular Shindig... (real name obscured to protect the innocent, and cause I'm too tired to remember it or look it up) but it sure could be.

And the rest of the day has gone quite smoothly. Hope your's has too. More from my life as an average Gilligan later. ;-)

-Gilligan, you're trusty... wait, no, that doesn't work.
-Gilligan, you're sometimes blogging, but now more often, friend or acquaintance.
(Love that Firefox 2.0 inline spell check feature!)