---

(Wednesday)

It's the same kid who tried starting the political talk in class... the one who wanted to get the "last word" in.

Today in lab the teacher went around to each student to discuss what we're planning on putting on our story-boards for our flash project, and to discuss our grades on the "home page" assignment.

(personal note... that kid prolly had a better grade on it than i did. i got a 0 cos i uploaded the wrong file. thankfully it didn't tank my grade at all... and i know what i did wrong, didn't even try arguing)


the kid tried.

The class is too hard
The curriculum is only teaching people how to use dreamweaver & software
The class is macintosh based.
He doesn't have a mac at home.
The deadlines are too close
He doesn't have the time to spend in lab to work on it
He has to drive 30 minutes to get here.
The curriculum is bad
He doesn't feel comfortable with the Mac or the level of the class.


The entire lab could hear him, could hear him *raising his voice* (almost shouting) at the teacher. I was trying to ignore him (and failing) so I could concentrate on doing the storyboard and Lab 3, both are due tomorrow.

The teacher pointed out to him that he KNEW he didn't have the pre-requisites for the class and he CHOSE to stay in it. (Very true, first day she said it to everyone... that you can take the class without the pre-reqs but that she doesn't recommend it)

He wouldn't hear any of it. Kept going back to his list, raising his voice.

i managed to ignore him for a couple of minutes here... but not for long

A few minutes later she was helping another student.
The kid started complaining again about something at the teacher.

"I'll be with you in a couple of minutes," she said.

He kept on talking to her anyway.

Again I got to ignore him... actually think he left or something...but

Yeah he came back.


This time he was yelling that an employee "PUT HIS HANDS ON ME!!!!! HE APOLOGIZED BUT I DON'T WANT TO TAKE THAT FROM ANYONE!!!!"

The lab assistant (helpful friendly guy) was shocked and told him to call security. I think he was a little overwhelmed not knowing what to do for the kid.

The kid complained again that, "Well he's running away now! I can't go after him to defend myself!" Then he stormed out again.

The Lab assistant still sounded worried...

Teacher: You told him to call security?
Lab assistant: Yes
Teacher: Then don't even worry about it.


personally... no i dont think anyone assaulted the kid. i could be wrong but i think someone who worked there probably did something like touching his shoulder while trying to tell him to calm down and stop yelling or whatever.

i could be wrong... but after todays series of outbreaks... i don't think anyone's gonna want to talk to him. (and believe me i wanted to tell him to shut up)

He's jsut so full of anger and blaming everyone and everything else for his problems... he pretty much seems out of control.

---

(Thursday - today)
Well... it might be quieter in class from now on....

Today, before class, one of the other students asked the kid what had happened yesterday. I'm sure she read my face when I was thinking, "O gawd..." but I said nothing and tried to not even look in his direction.

Kid's story... apparently he was so angry yesterday he was thrusting through doors... and he shocked one of the guests. (We have a small convention on campus at the moment). I'm thinking the guest must have put his hands up in shock & defense.. and that's when he "touched" the kid.

Kid: *chuckling about how the man was looking for some place to hide from him*

And again the list... everything wrong with the class, the teacher, blah blah blah
That he's going to talk to the teacher's supervisor about her... he doesn't care if she's the department head, he'll talk to her boss...

And we haven't even started class yet.

We had about 30 minutes of lecture and then we hit the lab.

And again the kid starts in on complaining about everything.

Now I'm trying to ignore him. The one thing I have against the teacher is that her printed instructions are very awkwardly written. They take some concentration... I'm barely started on the day's lab - we have to do the lab and start work on our flash projects.... and already Kid is talking about something with a loud voice.


The only sympathy I have for him is ... he claims he thinks his dad has swine flu. If that's true then I do hope his dad gets better.

Teacher: If you think you're sick, then don't come in.
Kid: I'll come in anyway. I don't care if I get others sick!

Some girl (not in our class): *joking voice* If you get me sick I'll kill you.

Kid: *GLEE!!!* DID YOU SEE THAT??? SHE THREATENED MY LIFE!!!
Girl: *apologizes*
Kid: I DON'T CARE!!!!111!!! *still gleeful* I WANT TO TALK TO THE DEAN! I WANT HER EXPELLED!!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm not kidding about the glee - I swear he was HAPPY that he had someone that he felt he could legally attack. And yes, he really wanted her expelled for it.

on and freakin on.

In my opinion he started threatening HER... all about how his dad is a cop, how she's going to pay for what she said, etc.

One guy even said what I was thinking... The teacher basically told him to stay out of it, and Kid tried engaging the guy in raised-voice conversation too.

Kid took off for something but then came back, still going on and on and fucking on. I literally started plugging my ears, trying to concentrate on the assignment. But it didn't work well... started wishing i had my good headphones cos they block a lot of noise

By rights he can talk to the VP & they tell him... So he gets her name and goes off to bitch about her.

Girl: *looks worried and very contrite*
Teacher (2 of them actually): You might get spoken to but no, you shouldn't be kicked out for that. *and basically i think they'll speak up for her if it comes to that*

Teacher: *to everyone there... basically to behave in class and not attack others and to stick to the course material etc*

It quiets down - mostly because Kid isn't in class. Work goes on... Kid comes back.

Teacher: Any questions? (meaning the coursework)
Kid: Yeah, you'll be my witness to that right?
Teacher: We'll talk about this outside.

They were gone at least 10-15 minutes, if not longer. I have a pretty good idea of what was said... but all I know is that I was on the other side of the lab and could hear her yelling at him, and hear him trying to raise his voice. I think a few other teachers got involved too.

Inside the class the students were like... "WTF? what is his problem?" and basically agreed that he came to school today looking for a fight and that he has mental issues.


I, for the most part, just kept my mouth mostly shut throughout ALL of it. I did look at one woman who had headphones and lamented, that I wished I'd brought mine. But that was all I said about it.

I already had a feeling that he was just an angerbomb waiting to explode and didn't want to be someone he noticed.


Oh but... after the "meeting" with the teacher... he left and did not come back.

I don't know if he's been kicked out of class. It's a possibility because of his attitude... but knowing how the teacher is... it's not something she'd tell us.

Just have to wait until Monday to find out.

I'm feeling: Tense

I found a baby bird outside the apartment just a few minutes ago. I thought it was a rat at first, but when I looked closely I saw it was a bird.

I used a paper plate to scoop it up and saw it was still alive and wiggling. I know it won't live outside of the nest.. the workers must have opened the grating and knocked the nest.

Still... I couldn't just throw it in the trash, so I put it in a tree. I know it won't live but... maybe it will have a chance.

And just because it's going to die doesn't mean I have to destroy it. Poor little thing. Wouldn't mind raising it but I don't know the first thing about feeding a wild bird.

I'm feeling: sad

Just thinking of the followers I've picked up on twitter recently...

maybe it's from follow friday... I'm just boggled that people want to read my crazy posts.


but the funniest was when i started picking up environmentalist followers from some of my posts...
like about earth hour (though I also posted 'drill baby drill' in the same tweet), my solar lights on the deck, walking instead of driving to class...


the biggest irony though is... i'm not an environmentalist.

if anything... my reasons for all of that have nothing to do with the environment and are in fact very selfish reasons.

1) Earth hour.
Eh, no biggie for me cos i don't use more lights than i need to. ... it saves on electricity. though every so often i sleep better with light on, especially when i'm sick with a migraine.

2) solar lights.
Sure i think it's cool that my string of lights don't use any electricity and don't run my bill up... but the main reason i got them ... There's no outlet on the deck! So that left me with only two options - keep the sliding glass door open and run a power cord outside, or use a solar one.

3) walking to classes instead of driving.
I simply saw my gas milage... 14 miles per gallon when i drive to school cos it's so close. That's a lot of gas money! so by walking... i get some exercise and don't spend as much money on gas.


the fact that these three things are kind to the environment?... um. cool, but that was never my primary goal.


you'll also never see me buying "green credits"
biggest crock i've ever heard of...

to me that's like someone saying... "if you eat cookies... just buy *product x* and it will offset the calories that you eat!"... doesn't make it true or actually do anything about the calories you ate

but it does make the people who sell product x rich.


likewise... people who sell green credits will swear that buying them will help offset your "footprint" ... because if you believe it, you'll buy what they're selling


and i'm done for the night :p

I'm feeling: snarky

Your results:
You are Derrial Book (Shepherd)

Derrial Book (Shepherd) 75% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 70% Wash (Ship Pilot) 70% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 65% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 65% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 45% River (Stowaway) 40% Alliance 40% Inara Serra (Companion) 25% A Reaver (Cannibal) 25%

Even though you are holy you have a mysterious past.

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

I'm feeling: That's kinda cool :)

Well I've done my database project three times now... Oy!


Oh, well before I get into why I had to do it three times I'll explain what we had to do.

We had to create a database containing a list of five Home owners, what houses they owned (had to have at least 2 each), a list of 4 realtors, and a list of 4 people looking to buy the houses.

So from that we had to create enough tables to hold all of the data, and take into consideration of little things... Like, each person may be looking to buy more than one house, each house may have more than one person looking to buy it, etc.

From that I made 5 tables and was just working on setting up some of the database relationships. I was having trouble with one, and the teacher was just about to come over to see what was going wrong... and apparently to bring up a couple of database things we had to consider.

I heard the sound of monitors shutting off across the lab.

Looking up, I saw that one of the students by the door had gotten up and bumped into the emergency shutoff button. Now this part is a bit of the school's fault.

1) Having an emergency shut off button is fine. Having it stick out of the wall where someone can bump into it is not fine. They should have a cover over it, so that you can only trigger the button when you're actually trying to.

2) The button is only suppose to kill power to the monitors. Apparently the computer I was working on had both the monitor and the tower plugged into that circuit, so the computer shut off too.


Oh and I haven't mentioned yet, the computers here all have something called "Deep Freeze" installed. The college got tired of cleaning up computer settings after countless students messed with them nonstop, so they installed this ... After you log off, or when the computer reboots, everything is returned to default settings and nothing is saved.

Yes my computer was powered off instantly and about an hour and a half of work was tossed down the drain.

Although I was pissed at the guy who tripped the button, there wasn't anything I could do about it. Yelling at him wouldn't get me my database back.

So I went back into Microsoft Access 07 and started the database for a second time. The teacher told me to swing by his office today to go over it and see if I had any trouble still.


I stayed until I had it finished and turned the project in via the web drop-box. Instead of getting out of class at 1430 or even 1500, I didn't get out until almost 1700 (that's 5pm). When I spoke to the teacher today, he was impressed that I finished it, but... he brought up one factor... There's no rule that says each owner has to use the same realtor for every single house. And while working on the database... I'd accidentally corrupted my Houses table.

With having to fix two issues, I realized it would just be better to start over again because a lot of the queries would be changed.


So... Database Project 3.0

At this point it was a lot easier. I found out that there were no constraints - we could use SQL or Query Design - for the queries, what mattered was getting them right. Another hour, hour and a half of work, and the new database was completed, including a bonus question I'd ignored before.

So... I'm sure I'll have a great grade in that.

And I'm thinking... Databases are boring. But apparently I'm good at them.
I might end up going that direction

I'm feeling: busy
Listening to: John Michael Talbot

Yeah. What a weird dream.


I dreamt I was a servant in a Castro's home working (when he was younger), hoping to be eventually freed. Apparently I was US military (Navy I assume) who'd been taken prisoner.

My job was... very much the assistant. I picked up mail, stayed out of his way etc... Oh and part time spy.

I headed out to the mailbox - which looked just like my front yard from when I was growing up - and attempted to balance out the giant pile of official documents, spy stuff, and school text books. The boots they'd tried to send off were still there & I hoped Castro wouldn't blame me for that.

On the way back in some kids were running around... one of them tried selling me fake money... like artistically fake. I spoke to one of the mothers and mentioned that I didn't scare the kid off like I could... I did know how to use guns of course. This spooked the mother somewhat.

Then I ran into Tasha Yar or Starbuck - whichever, doesn't matter - and chatted. I tried to ask her if she knew who I was but she thought I was just some crazy and ignored me. Almost gave myself away there... she'd notice that I stole her spy ring from later I was sure, but at the moment she didn't know... and didn't know who I was.

On the way back in I encountered the ghost of his wife who thought herself very much alive. At the moment Castro was having an important political meeting so I could not bring him the mail until it was finished, so I spent the time talking to the ghost.

When I finally realized it would be safe to take the mail down, she took some of it and said, "Let me. You can take the rest."

Um... that's not going to work too well. I can't remember if any of the rest of the family knew the ghost was there but... yeah it might not work well. So I told her, "It's ok. You know you get tired in the afternoons..."

She nodded and suddenly looked very weak. I lowered her to a couch carefully to let her "rest" ... it was as if her spirit somehow knew she was really dead and unable to stand suddenly. Then I collected the mail, leaving behind the bulky text books and descended the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs Castro was yelling at one boy (a son) for playing too much and not doing his homework. Then he turned and yelled at a little girl (a daughter) for the same thing. She looked up at him and showed him that she was reading a school workbook, "Here are my notes, sir." He was happy then.

I gave him the mail and included that there were several school texts as well and some novels (science fiction, I explained when he asked). Then I retreated to my room, still alive.


I had one of the more unusual rooms in the house. It had windows that were open to the external grounds, one of the few people who didn't care about security risks. I just wanted to see what freedom looked like and hope in secret to get it myself.

My room was also ... either open to a stairwell or very close to one, but I could always hear when someone was coming so that was ok. And apparently I was one of the longer-lived servants. Many died opening the mailbox because of sabotage, but I seemed to have a lucky touch.

Tags: dream journal
I'm feeling: sleepy

This time I was in a college level writing class.

There's a lot of little details that are at the back of my mind, like taking an elevator and being late...

What I remember the most though is that I had a book of stories I'd worked on and I had passed out copies to all of the other students... Actually that was something we all had done. However in the last copy, the copy I had turned in to the teacher I had put in one extra story.

The story was... a bit of a robot story, although it wasn't clear until the end. In fact the robot in the story was basically Star Trek's Data - or rather somewhat paid homage to him.

I slipped the extra story into my booklet because ... our substitute teacher was Brent Spiner.

The other students were a bit confused when reviewing my story since they didn't have copies of it, so they just listened to it being read.

And then when handing out grades, he asked me to stay behind. Apparently my story was one of the best he'd read and he wanted to discuss my career path with me.

Then I woke up.

Tags: dream journal

So the work continues for the room we're rehabilitating in the woman's shelter.

Before I continue though I will mention M who is the man behind the project. He's about 20 years old and seems a little shy and quiet, but he's the man behind the program. He raised money at the college for this, and took a summer job to raise the rest of the cash himself. Yes, he's a young college student who's putting his own money and effort into turning these two rooms in the shelter into a place someone would actually want to live in.

So here's my blog tribute to M - you're teh bomb. :)

The work's almost done. There's still a few little things left that the designer wants to do. Oh yes, we have a volunteer designer who's a returning student at the local college. Basically everyone involved is a student or returning student or a relative of someone involved.

Over the next couple of days we'll probably finish the curtains, put up a couple of swing rods above one bed (to make privacy panels and put the molding back in.

Originally the rooms were industrial style... Tile floors, old paint, etc. I'm not sure what condition it was in exactly because I wasn't there on the first day.

But now, the walls all have fresh paint in various colors, the doors and closet have been painted, and ... not just fresh paint, but style added as well. The tile floors have been covered with this kind of hard cardboard (I'm not sure what it's called but it's pretty solid and dark & you nail it to the floor) and on top of that is vinyl wood, placed to make it look like a regular wood floor. There are several fabrics for the curtains, a creative sideboard made for the bed, and funky and cool mirrors and discs along one wall. Plus the baby's room has a painted-on chalkboard (yes you can buy chalkboard paint), a cool squid-like lamp, an interesting cloth lamp by the blackboard, and really pretty curtains.

By the time we're fully finished it's going to look nice.

And the room will be used for a place where a mother can live with her child in safety while she works to get back up on her feet from whatever life gave her.

And knowing that is making the job fun.

:-)

I'm feeling: Accomplished

This was several years ago.

I was joking with a co-worker that she should run a request chit for maternity clothing allowance as an April Fool's Day joke but we both agreed ... no one would believe it. She'd always said how much she didn't want kids and she was pretty thin.

So we decided that I would do it instead. I wrote up the request, found a picture of a sonogram online and printed it up.

I handed the request to my supervisor who brought it to the chief, saying, "I'm not touching this one with a 10 foot pole!". I hid in the hallway, trying not to snicker out loud.

Supervisor told me that the look of shock on the chief's face was priceless. One of the other chief's was there but he kinda figured it out (he'd seen me giggling silently in the hallway).

After they realized it was a joke, they walked it up to the Officer in Charge and gave it to him. Yeah, they turned around and pranked him with it! Again a look of shock before realizing it was April Fool's Day.

Then they saved it... the command Senior Chief wasn't there so they gave it to him on April second. I guess he swore a lot at first, until he realized it was a joke. Senior was cool about it though; "You got one over on the Senior Chief! haha."

I never did out-do that one. Too priceless to ever duplicate. :)

I'm feeling: giggly

And I like it.

Two dreams.

1) Dream 1. I'm not sure. I think I was having a dream about Coraline, but the book version not the stop-motion version. I wasn't fully asleep though, so I tossed & turned a lot in my sleep. Yeah, I could tell. Anyway, inside I joked that it felt like I was fitting my dream to 140-character posts.

I blame Twitter for that. Oh and the Coraline part ... most likely cos I was listening to the audiobook while painting yesterday.

2) Dream 2.
I don't know if I recognized anyone in this dream... maybe the parts where I was on board a ship - probably the Kitty Hawk.

I remember going to the ship store but it was almost wiped out of goods, and looked slightly like the aft store, but the counter was in the wrong spot.

Then I was on the flight deck... only it was really close to the water. Over the side of the ship we could see thousands of sharks. I tried taking a photo but one of the guys was getting in the way of my shot, somewhat on purpose.

Then ... then well it was odd. It's like we went back into the 1940s almost. We were suddenly marines and we had a troop of German woman joining us ... except they were ... well maybe it wasn't 1940 then cos these women seemed more like they were from England. One of the women made a comment about them in English only to have one of them reply in English, with a warning of "be careful what you say, you never know who can understand you". Sound advice anyway.

They all had their hair up in like beehives and stuff like that. Someone suggested they pull it down cos it's going to get in the way during a battle. So one of them did, only to show that her hair was suddenly super short but she was beautiful so she shouldn't have been embarrassed. She did however put her hair back up, using some kind of cage to arrange it properly.

Then we were in battle. We had to take a hill but one of the men stepped on a trap. I looked up and instantly knew the hill would avalanche on the troop. I grabbed one man - he must have been injured - and he was the phone talker.. I said "get on my back" and proceeded to run with him on my back to safety. It wasn't easy but I did it. I also think I got shot before that but... didn't care to let it stop me.

We ran into several traps throughout the evolution. It was training but... they had no issues with using live gunfire and live grenades on us. And finally, in the end we won.

Good thing too cos... at first we thought we'd lost and that the scaffolding we were on was going to tumble into the water... but yay we won.

On the way back, we met up with some more troops and some guy who was spouting how women should be there, how fragile we were. He didn't like hearing me point out that I'd carried a man to safety myself and he challenged me to say if I'd send a man into death, if I had the strength too. When I said yes, if it was necessary and that I'd cry about it later when I had time, he was pretty horrified and still didn't believe that women could do it. He left in a huff.

Some of the women there laughed after he left.

Then it pretty much faded until the alarm went off.

Tags: dream journal
I'm feeling: awake