Old Stuff

Below you'll find my old posts from LiveJournal which I copied over the best I can to my new blogspot site. If something's missing, well, it probably wasn't that interesting anyways.


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28th December, 2006. 12:22 pm. New Post, New Editing Tool


Downloaded a new blog editor to my browser, Firefox.  I can just type a quick message and send it to my blog from my browser, instead of going to the LiveJournal home page and logging in.  I think I may try this.  Hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season!




15th September, 2006. 11:19 pm. Not that long...


Well, it's only been 1 year, 7 months, and 15 days since I updated my blog, but who's counting?

How do I sum up 1 year, 7 months, and 15 days and still get to bed in five minutes? Let me try...

Went to grad school. Completed teacher certification program. Got secondary education teaching certificate in social studies. Starting substitute teaching. Interviewed for two jobs. Got neither. Accepted job as special education teaching assistant. Working my butt off to pay my bills and get by.

That about covers it, talk to you later. Oh, I'll try and fill that in a little if I can find the time. :-)




31st January, 2005. 9:29 pm.


Alright folks, I know it's been a bit since I've updated, but I've been so crazy with all this school stuff I just haven't had time.  Still don't have time, but at the prompting of one of my eager readers (of the 2 that I have) I've decided to write a BRIEF update. 

Grad school is harder than I ever thought it was going to be.  I know that people have always said that grad school is hard, but I also know that I've always been the type of person who could float through school, with only half an effort, and still make decent grades.  I never had to work at it before.  This is something totally different.  I feel as though if I'm not totally on top of my game, all the time, maximizing my time management, my studying, etc., that I may not be able to complete school successfully.  That is something totally new to me, and a bit frightening. 

So I'm attacking it like I have a bad case of OCD - I've organized my schedule, I've written down assignments and due dates, and I'm methodically plugging through assignments based on when they're due - those due soonest I work on first.  I think I've got about a week padding now (things I'm working on now aren't due for at least a week), but I won't be happy until I get at least 2 or 3 weeks padding.

I really wish that I had the time to stop and enjoy this process; in the very few moments of reflection I get I am consistently amazed by the things that I am learning, but I'm afraid it's all going to rush by so quickly, in such a haze, and I won't be able to appreciate the actual learning until it's long past.  I sure wish I could enjoy it more in the moment, ask questions, contemplate the conplexities, digest the information, ponder the possibilities.  But I'm under so much pressure and strain, afraid that if I stumble just a bit in my studies I'll never recover, that I focus almost completely on those and neglect everything else.  Sigh...

Alas, I must sign off for now, I'm going to try and get a wee bit more sleep tonight than I normally do so that I'm fresh to work on homework for a few hours tomorrow. 

Oh, and to top it all off, I'm starting to get sick.

Hope everyone is well, and as always, feel free to reply (hint, hint).

Mazal tov.



13th January, 2005. 11:41 am. The continuing saga of grad school....


I'm at work seeing if I can update this from here, so I'm going to keep this brief. I had my second and third classes last night, which are taught essentially as one huge class instead of 2 different ones. Class meets from 5:30 - 10:00, and the same teacher teaches both classes. I guess my first week of grad school is now complete, and my impressions are thus - after my first class I really wasn't looking forward to stumbling my way through this as I felt the instructor didn't really explain anything sufficiently so we would know what was going on. Last night, however, the instructor explained alot more things, both about her classes and the whole process, in alot more detail. And judging by the number of people who had questions, I suspect they were in much the same place that I was after monday's class.

The one thing that really worries me is the amount of homework. Obviously I knew that the requirements for grad school would be more intense, but I guess I never raised my expectation high enough. Classroom obersavations, readings, papers, and presentations - there's alot to do! Well, I guess I just start plugging away at it one assignment at a time and see where we get.

I'll update again soon.



11th January, 2005. 9:08 pm.


Sunday, August 15th.  Looking back at my last post on this here blog, that's how long it's been since I posted.  Wow.  It's been a while.

Well, it's getting a bit late, and I'm utterly exhausted, so I'm just going to write a bit and then head to bed.  Since August I finished my SIUC class and met all the requirements to start Grad school and last evening I took my first graduate level class.  I would love to share my impressions of it with you, but that would take some time and as I said before, I'm exhausted, so it will have to wait.  I've taken on new responsibilities at work, and because of my limited availibility due to grad school, I won't be out videotaping depositions anymore.  Mostly, I'll just sit around the office taking care of all the daily grind stuff that needs to be done.  I've also adopted a cat, whose name is Rocky, and who is sitting on the back of my recliner right now being a lazy butt. Sounds like what I'd love to do.

Anywhoo, I'm going to head off to bed, right after I email off to everyone letting you know that I've updated my blog.  I'll try and keep it more updated from now on, albeit with shorter posts.  Hope everyone is well, and please, please, if you read this, comment so I know you're out there.




15th August, 2004. 8:42 pm. The Summer is Almost Gone!


At the request of my lovely female cousin who doesn't live in Okra-Ville, I am finally taking the time to update my blog.

So let me start off by giving a big ol' shout out to the crazy nocturnal ying to my yang, Amy Evah.  She's plugging away at one Southern Illinois University campus, and I'm at the other.  Look out now, we've got em surrounded!

While I'm giving a shout out to one of my cooky cousins, might as well send another one out to her cooky sister and her brood.  :-)  Just kidding.  How is life in Okra-Ville these days?  Post a comment to this and let me know, okay?

Anyways, what's been up with me, you ask?  Well, since you asked, let me tell you...

I've compeleted one of my summer classes, the Modern Chinese History class that I was taking at Govenors State University.  I actually finished all the homework except the final with a perfect grade, and in order to get my work done for my other class I skipped the final, which caused me to take a B in the class.  Not bad, if you ask me.

As for the other class, well I've taken the first two tests and written the book report for that class, and I have two tests to go.  I was going to take one of them this Monday night, but now I have to go pick up my new car Monday night so I think I'll try and take the test on Tuesday.  Then maybe I can squeeze in the next one by the following Saturday or Monday, and then I'll be done with my summer classes.

At that time, then, my application for Grad School will finally be considered, and I'll find out if I get in for either the fall or winter quarter. If/when I do, that's when the real fun begins!

Whew, I suppose there's alot more stuff that's been going on, but I need to get things settled down around here and get to bed in a bit.  I guess I'll try to update this in a few days with some more information.  I know, I know, I've promised you that before.  But please baby, give me one more chance, I didn't know she was your sister.

Uh.. what's that?  Wrong post?  Oh..  Just ignore that last line.

Hope to talk to you soon, and feel free to respond, I am curious to see who actually reads this thing....



Tim aka iTm aka Where the heck did the summer go?




26th June, 2004. 5:32 pm. Whew, another two weeks


I never actually wound up playing online golf, do you hate me for lying to you?  I'm so sorry, I never meant to baby.  This thing we have here means the world to me, so please don't go.  Don't Go!  I promise I'll never lie to you again.  Today.  I'll try not to tomorrow too, okay?  Thanks baby.

I have discovered, however, online bingo on www.pogo.com which can be a tad bit addicting.  It's hard to get into, usually all the available rooms are packed, but if you are lucky enough to get in, Bing away!  There's a strange sense of accomplishment in being able to mark off those numbers on the card, I'm not quite sure why.  Then a thorough sense of failure when somone else calls Bingo and you wind up losing.  You feel the same things, right?  It's not just my pyschosis at work here, is it?

So, what's been going on with me in the last two weeks?  Well, as I wrote earlier, I've finished CoD and now I'm plugging away at my Governor's State homework.  I've turned in 2 of the 6 or 7 essays, so I've got that under my belt.  I'm working on the third now.  I've not yet started my SIU homework, and that frightens me.  I'm afraid, since the class is totally independent with no structure, that I will end up not completing the coursework on time and not completing the class.  So this morning I went out to CoD to see if they can function as a Proctor for my tests through SIU.  They can, so I'll get them set up, then try to work some free time into my GovSt schedule to do some SIU work.  Hopefully I'll be able to knock it down.

So, if you're reading this, and I know that in the past at least two of you have because you've responded (hint, hint), put in a good word for me with the Man upstairs so I make sure I get this stuff done.  As always, I'll try to update as often as I can.

Peace out, word to mutha!




14th June, 2004. 11:16 am. Two Whole Weeks! Holy Cow!


Wow, it's hard to believe its been two entire weeks since I updated this thing.  I guess life really does get in the way real easy.  Well, lets see what happened in the last two weeks -

My collegiate career at College of DuPage is over, and that with a perfect 4.0 GPA.  I took my last test for geography on Saturday, and my last Econ homework was turned in last Tuesday.  I've spoken with my professors in both cases, and I know that I'm getting "A's" in both classes.  That rounds out all five classes that I've taken at CoD with A's, a perfect GPA.  Go Me! It's my birthday!

Ok.  Enuf of that.  So now it's on to Modern Chinese History at Govenors State Universtiy, and the History of Religion in America at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  We'll knock these two out over the summer, then it's off to National-Louis in the fall for the Masters Program.

I took the day off work today because I've got some personal bid-ness to take care of late this morning/early this afternoon, then who knows?  Maybe I'll go see a move tonight with Myria.  Maybe not.  I rented the final Matrix movie last night since I never saw it in the theater.  Good thing I didn't waste the money doing that, because it was almost as bad as the second one.  No nasty city wide group orgies, but it sucked nonetheless.  My brain is fried, I can't think of anything else to share, so I'm going to go play some online golf now.



30th May, 2004. 11:59 am. Finally, a free moment


I talked to my professor for my Chinese history class and worked out a schedule where I can delay turning in those assignments until I finish up my stuff at College of Dupage. Thats a huge weight off me. Three college classes while working was just too much.

So now I hope to have a bit more free time to keep this updated. I did get one paper for Chinese turned in, and I have one more unit of Econ and then I'll be done with it. I have one more geography test and I'll be done with that too.

The last two days I've been relaxing pretty hard, I've spent about 12 hours playing a game on the internet, called Scorched Earth. It's basically a game where you are the pilot of a tank, and you try and blow up other people driving tanks. It's stangely cathartic.

I got my apartment cleaned up yesterday, got some laundry done. Was supposed to go to a cookout today, but because of the weather I don't think that's going to happen. Headed down to my folks house tomorrow for the holiday.

Can't think of anything else to add right now, so maybe later I'll add more...




24th May, 2004. 6:33 pm. There went another week


Wow. Time does fly when, well, always I guess. It's been a week since I updated this thing. I wonder how people find the time to keep them updated all the time. Maybe after my schooling stuff calms down I'll be able to update a but more regularly. Got my Chinese paper turned in Friday night, just under the gun, and now I'm working on Econ to get done before Thursday morning. The minute I get that done, it's back to the Chinese homework for the next paper. Sheesh... Okay, gotta go scarf some dinner, then try to get done with Econ. Night y'all.....




18th May, 2004. 9:03 pm. Tuesday Already?


Wow - now I know how difficult it can be to keep these blogs up to date. Before you know it, life gets in the way and so many things need to get done that you just don't have time for everything. I know, more stunning revelations from me, right? What's next, am I going to predict the demise of black and white TV?

Well, suffice to say that I will be crazy for the next 4 weeks or so trying to take 3 college level classes while working full time. Until my semester at College of Dupage ends and I can focus on just my summer classes, I will be running around like an idiot, with no time to do much of anything else.

I had a thought on the way home today about a movie. They were playing 1980's at 8 on the radio station WTMX, The Mix, in Chicago and some of the songs they were playing were reminding me of some great movies from that time, not the least of which are the brat pack movies. And I was thinking that it would be a really interesting idea to sort of remake one of them, The Breakfast Club. I found this description on a website "During Saturday detention, they come to grips with their impressions of one another, of the roles they each shoulder within the social strata of society, and how their individual worlds aren't really as different and alien as they thought." If you've seen the movie then you're probably familiar with the general geist of the movie, as well as the resolution. I was thinking that the same big picture themes that made it applicable back then might make it as equally applicable today. Obviously, however, the social classes have changed somewhat, and exploring the new social classes that kids inhabit, I think, might make for a really interesting update.

The basic structure, however, I think could be left intact yet still make a really compelling movie. A group of kids, from all walks of life, thrust together in a situation in which none of them wants to be in, learn throughout their time together that each of them is so much more than the stereotype the others had originally first pegged them at, and also realize that while time and place may be different, many of the stresses and challenges they face are the same, just sort of fine tuned for their social status. What I think would be so compelling about it, and interesting enough to make it worthwhile to make a movie out of, is the exploration of today's social classes for kids that age. I mean, what sorts of stereotypes do we have today that we classify kids into? We still have jocks, we may still have the princesses, but the "criminal" class represented in the movie by Bender has sort of been replaced by the Punk/Skater/Rave class of kids. An intersting new class may be the violence prone inner city kid. Too often a character that fits that stereotype is used in film as a crutch, a cliche, and I think that it might be a really interesting thing to explore the depth of that character, his motivation for being that violent prone kid, much like TBC did for Bender.

I guess to try and sum up what I'm saying, I'll put it this way. Lots of things have not changed. Kids still have social classes, people still stereotype, and people can still encapsulate so much more than you first peg them at. But what I DO think has changed, the class definitions, the world these kids live in (where shootings in schools are commonplace) has changed so much from TBC's days that remaking the movie now, true to today's youth, would almost constitute making an entirely different movie than you did back then, because things are so different, and that new movie, that new exploration, would be equally as enjoyable as the last one.

Okay, signing off for tonight now.





16th May, 2004. 9:55 am. Saturday Night Fever


I went out with my sister last night to see the movie Mean Girls, about a bunch of kids in high school and the cliques that exist there. It was written by Tina Fey, who does the Weekend Update sketch on Saturday Night Live. I was eager to go out and see a movie just to get out of the house. There wasn't a large number of films out currently that I had any desire to see, so we just sort of picked one that sounded okay. I must admit, it wasn't too bad of a movie. I probably would have watched it on a Saturday afternoon on cable, but I'm not sure it was worth $9.50. And though my sister may tell you she paid for my ticket, after I chipped in for popcorn, then went back and bought a second Coke, I ended up spending $9.50 anyway.

I also tried to make homemade salsa last night. I've made mango salsa before which was absolutely delicious, but I've never tried to make regular salsa from scratch. Basically, I just made it like I would mango salsa but without the mangoes. I used about 3/4 of a medium sized onion, two good sized tomatoes, most of a whole jalepeno pepper, some cilantro, then I added some honey, olive oil, corn syrup and red wine vinegar. I just threw it all in the food processor and hit the "pulse" button a few time to chop it up but not turn it too mushy. Of course, I pulsed it just a bit too long, so while it's not mushy, the tomatoes did get cut up very small, instead of retaining a nice chunkiness. I let it sit overnight in the fridge to let the flavors mix a bit, then I tried a bit on a taco chip this morning. It was pretty good! There isn't alot of heat to it, so now I know I can add more jalepenos next time I make it. I was afraid of putting too many in and making it too hot to eat, so I was a little cautious on the peppers. Next time, I'll be certain to add at least an entire jalepeno. Also, that recipe makes about 2-3 cups of salsa, quite a bit for a single guy like myself. And to think I've still got more tomatoes, cilantro, onion and jalepenos in my fridge.

Oh well. I suppose I should get on to my homework, but it just seems too early to function properly. I'm watching E.T. on the Sci-Fi channel, which, oddly enough I don't think I've seen in its entirety since I was a child. I didn't catch it from the beginning this time either, but its got me hooked. I know everyone always talks about it, but I didn't remember it being this good. Ok, enough for now, E.Timmy. has to phone home.



15th May, 2004. 4:43 pm.


Had the cable guy out today to look at my internet connection. It appears that there was no problem with their equipment, the problem was with my computer. For some reason Norton firewall was blocking any access into or out of my pc. I'm going to have to get a new firewall sometime soon. I started reading my modern chinese book, then I took a half hour nap on the couch. I'm afraid those two are related.





15th May, 2004. 6:42 am. No snooze is good snooze


Nothing exciting appeared to have happened overnight, which given the rate of casualties in Iraq is most definately a good thing. Guess it's back to homework.
Nothing more to say for now, signing off...




15th May, 2004. 6:37 am. ZZzzzzzzzz


Woke up at 5:30 this morning. No idea why. It's incredibly frustrating. I hardly get any time to sleep in as it is, having the few precious hours that I DO get to sleep taken away from me is annoying. I suppose I should take my Econ test now. I started reading my Chinese book. Besides some spelling/typographical errors, it seems to be starting out well, albeit I'm only three pages in. Hopefully geography won't be too boring today. I wonder what happened in the news overnight? I'll go check news.google.com...



14th May, 2004. 9:44 pm. News, News, and More News



I plan to comment quite often about the daily news, seeing as how I am a voracious consumer of news both from television and the Internet. However after looking over the current headlines on www.news.google.com, I find myself much too tired to comment on anything I see there. I suppose in a short 24 hours something new will happen in the world that will count as news, and some idiot somewhere will say something I disagree with, and I will have enough energy to bother posting something in response. As for right now, I'm too tired and need to start reading two chapters on Modern Chinese History so I can write a paper by next Friday. I think I'm rambling. Does blogging equate with rambling? Maybe I'll not be sharing as many existential thoughts as I had previously thought.



14th May, 2004. 9:26 pm. Hmmmm.... Now what?


I suppose for people to read this blog I need to let them know it exists. Who shall I share my existential thought processes with? What lucky folks get to bask in my greatness? Probably none that plan on sticking around too long if I keep referring to my existential thought processes and my greatness. What a prick I'm turning out to be.




14th May, 2004. 9:21 pm. Blog me hard, baby


Well, here goes... My first attempt at blogging. I figured that so many people are out there, contributing so many thoughts, that I might as well be a sheep and hop on the bandwagon. After all, I'm sure I've had a pretty profound thought myself once or twice, why should I deprive the entire internet community of my brilliance?

Thanks for visiting.