Gigantic Housefly

There is a ginormous housefly in my apartment. I'm not entirely sure how he got in, but he's been here for several days and has evaded my attempts to either squish him, or shoo him out the door.

Maybe I should just name him Skippy.

He seems to be learning, we had a discussion about my laptop screen and how, if you land on it, I am going to do my best to smush you, and he hasn't landed on it again. Same with the tv.

He has, however, developed the habit of attempting to dive bomb behind my glasses and into my eyeballs, or buzzing my ears.

This fly, no joke, is probably the size of a horse fly. When it comes diving towards your face it looks as big as a buzzard, and it sounds a small prop-plane going by your ear.

I think Skippy just likes to see me jump.

Books!

I have books!

I have $308.54 worth of books. Thank goodness for financial aid.

And two of them are going to be excellent references even after I graduate, so bonus there.

I also got my student ID fixed, since they didn't have a line halfway down the hall for the registration process, I just popped in, explained to them what the problem was, and they fixed it right up for me.

They seemed surprised that I wasn't more upset about it, and that I hadn't run right back in and demanded that they fix it yesterday. I got grateful smiles all around when I thanked them and told everyone to have a nice day on my way out.

Makes me wonder what kind of spoiled brats they've been dealing with. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Neighbors

Having neighbors as close as I do now is a new and interesting experience for me. I don’t mind people being in my near vicinity, I don’t even mind that a couple of the people down the hall look a little shady.

I do mind that the pleasant Hispanic/Mexican couple across the hall have relatives in on what appears to be at least a bi-weekly basis.

Now, mind, I only mention their heritage because it bears on the story, they’re very pleasant people from what I’ve seen of them and their baby is just cute as a button.

However. Once in a while baby’s Abuelita comes to visit. I’m not even sure which one of the couple she’s related to, but when she comes to visit, it’s a riot of kids in and out of the apartment, stomping up and down the stairs, and *every* time the door opens, it sounds like the Spanish-Language network version of Jerry Springer on Location over there.

Abuelita apparently doesn’t approve of a lot of things across the hall.

Seeing as how my Spanish is limited, I don’t understand all of it, but the tone is pretty clear.

Things just aren’t up to her standards, over there. And she’s letting them know about it.

Fun stuff...

So, I was flipping through the mail I'd gotten from the college that I'd brought with me, and found the orientation schedule. Thanks to that bright yellow pamphlet, I realized that the student services center was open today, so I went down and got my student ID, parking pass, and hiring packet for my work study.

(Edit: I just realized that they got my name wrong on my student ID. If they're not extremely busy tomorrow when I go in for my books, I'll get it fixed. If they are, I'll worry about it when they slow down.)

I also got my book list. I thought I'd be smart and look the books up on Amazon, see what kind of prices I could get. One problem, apparently my school uses esoteric textbooks. So, I'll hit the bookstore tomorrow (10:00am-2:00pm) and pick up my books. Thats what the financial aid is for, after all. I just thought I could be cheap on it.

I also have to hit the bank Monday and set up a checking account for my work-study earnings to go into. Payment is by direct deposit only. Blah. So, I'll get all the paperwork filled out and have it ready as soon as I have an account number.

I'm getting kind of amused at the sheer amount of paperwork that the Department of Defense is getting on me.

Or maybe you don't know about that.

A lot of jobs nowadays require a Department of Defense form to be filled out. You have to have copies of your driver's license, social security card, and fill out the form so that they know you're you and that you aren't a terrorist about to blow up the highway/school/whatever is handy.

The last three jobs I've held, Combined (insurance, I have no freaking idea why I had to do it on this one) the job on the road (I had to do it when I renewed my flagging certification) and now the work study job, which basically is me being employed by the college, have required the same DOD form.

Not that I've got anything to hide, as the background checks for the insurance job and my concealed carry permit show. I just amuses me a bit that the Department of Defense probably has a file with my name on it somewhere, accumulating these forms.

Its possible, although highly unlikely, that when this newest one crosses someone's desk they'll say "oh! she got a new job.. at a college?"

What? So I'm easily amused, so what?

WTF?

My loving grandmother bought me a brand new printer for my new apartment. She bought me extra ink cartridges (which is a good thing since it only came with a color cartridge.)

One small problem. For some reason, the folks at Lexmark didn't think it was necessary to include the USB cable with the printer. So, I'll have to pick one of those up. I also need a USB hub, because, well, I have a lot of USB stuff. My wireless mouse, the power source for my external speakers, my external hard drive, and now my printer. And only two USB ports on my laptop. Yeesh, I need a desktop machine.

What ever happened to the box including everything you needed, though?? I mean really. Used to be when you bought a piece of computer equipment, inside the box was everything, cables, all of it. In the case of printers, there would be one of each type of ink, if it used more than one.

I don't know about ya'll but I'm not keen on using only a color ink cartridge. That gets a bit expensive.

So, here in a bit I'll get motivated, get dressed in something other than pajamas, and go to Wal-Mart.

I want to print out some more pictures for my walls, anyway. That is, if the Kodak Photo Printer has *paper* in it today....

I have TV!!!

So, thanks to the generosity of my parents, and the good graces of T, who hauled it up here for me, I have another TV now. All for the low low price of a couple of slices of leftover Pizza Hut for the delivery boy. This one works, so I have DVDs to watch. Granted, a small number of DVD's but it's better than what I had.

Classes are just around the corner. My nerves are starting to run amock, but I'm getting settled in in the apartment, so at least that's good.

My horse comes up the weekend of the twenty sixth... which kind of makes me sad, I wanted to start riding right away.

My alternate academic advisor, (Read: The head of the Ag program, I love my small college) advised me not to get all of my books right away, but to see what use each instructor plans to make of the books, and see if I even really need one.

Seems weird to me, going to school without books. But, I guess if I don't really need them, it'll save money for other things.

First thing Monday I go and get my student ID, and my parking permit. First thing Wednesday, I have class.

Folks, I gotta tell you, there have been times that I never thought this day would come. I'm finally continuing my education.

... I get to LEARN! From BOOKS! Books that don't have the words "Lane Closure," "Warning Signs," "Emergency Flares," or "Cone Disposition" in them.

I'm downright giddy about that.

Geekdom

Our society is home to several different classes of geeks. I'm not using geek as a derogatory term, as many people use it, but rather as a descriptive, and often as a title of respect.

See, to me, being a geek means you're into something, be it Role Playing Games, computers, console games, comic books, books in general, sports, sport statistics, or whatever. I've run across geeks of every imaginable interest, either in my "flesh" life or online.

Being a Geek, with the capitol letter, means that not only are you into something, you're very very good at it.

I'm a book geek. I read constantly, and although my selections are rarely the classics: Jane Eyre, Emma, any of Orson Wells's books, I do try to read a few, or re-read my favorites, every year.

Like so many others around the world, years ago I was caught up by the Harry Potter craze. I'd heard a lot about it, but hadn't picked up an actual Harry Potter book until after the second one came out. I finally decided to check it out of the school library, and see what all the fuss was about.

I was hooked. And shortly, so was Farmmom.

We've kept up with the books and movies ever since.

Tonight, we're going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It'll be the first Harry Potter movie we've watched in a theater. We've always waited until they came out on DVD so that we could own them and watch them a couple of times in a row, once to see the movie, and once to point out all the flaws and missing pieces from the book.

And of course, if Daniel Radcliffe's run of Equus is ever filmed and released in the US on DVD, we'll probably own that too.

What can I say... he looks yummy in the publicity photos.