August 6, 2002

03:37

Two more exams to go, I tell myself.

Thing's I've been up to:

• Trying not to study for ECE 204 - Numerical Methods.
• Working on a prototype for a redesign of dune.net.
• Slacking.
• Taking lots of photos for gallery.ardant.net.

Two more exams, I tell myself. I'm done on Thursday. I'm moving out on Saturday, and life seems to accelerate from there.

I've been conscripted to go on a cruise in August. Unfortunately the idea of sitting on a boat with old people for a week doesn't entertain me at all (stereotypes, I know). Atleast I'll have a digital camera to take pictures with. Who knows, maybe by then I'll have bought that blackberry that I've been wanting to buy.

Now, back to exams. I want to get this over with.

August 8, 2002

05:27

So it is possible to learn a course in a night. I think.

Oh well, we'll find out in just a few hours. Full story later.

August 10, 2002

23:59

Four months, six finals, and one crazed night of packing later, I'm finally home.

Packing as usual began at some ungodly hour of the morning, and was accompanied by frequent attempts to download as much anime as was possible (my connection at the university was quota. I got a certain amount of quota every week; I was just burning off all the quota I had saved up over the term, so I was dragging in about 800kps sustained over the course of 12 hours. Do the math.).

So there I was, throwing my stuff in boxes and downloading anime off of IRC.

A few hours of sleep here and there and then we're on our way home. Some interesting notes:

I still hate customer service (even though a large portion of my role with my company is handling the support). I called up a hotel today, in an almost futile attempt to call someone staying at the hotel (names changed to protect the innocent):

Operator: Hi, my name is [inaudible blabber], how can [inaudible blabber]day?

Me:Hi, I was wondering if I could be put through with one of your guests. Their last name is Foobar. F-O-O-B-A-R.

Operator: What's their first name?

Me:I don't know which first name they registered under [Ed Note:True, it could have been any of the family.]

Operator:I'm sorry sir, I'll need to know the first name.

Me:I don't know the first name, the last name is Foobar, F-O-O-B-A-R. Can you please look them up?

Operator:Do you know their room number? Do you know their first name? There are a lot of people staying at this hotel, and I need to know some information about them before I can put you through. [Ed Note: The ubiquitous 'sir' disappears from this point forward. About time.]

Me:How many people with the last name of Foobar, F-O-O-B-A-R, are staying with you tonight?

Operator: *clicketyclickclick*

And without a word I am connected and their phone starts ringing.

On another note, I got a new compact flash card for my Canon S110 Camera. It's sweet - I can take over a thousand pictures on this ONE card! Hopefully I'll come back with tons of pictures from my cruise in Europe. It's less than two weeks away, and I can hardly wait.

Still working on the dune.net webpage revamp. More info later.

August 23, 2002

17:42

In about 6 hours I'll be on a plane flying to sunny Majorca. See you in a week!

I'll try to pop on now and then and post a little travel-o-blog update of my journeys. And plenty of pictures to look at when I get back :-)

I decided to call my credit company. After all, I -am- going on vacation, and it'd be nice to actually use my credit card (instead of dealing with local currency in every country all the time. [Ed Note: Going to some non-Euro European countries too. ]). And so I call them up, and there's always the ubiquituous question from the credit officer:

Are you currently employed?

This is always a touchy question. I'm a co-op student (and trust me, co-op students -hate- explaining what co-op means and why we're not 'normal'). If I answer 'Yes, I'm unemployed', the was-friendly credit officer hangs up the phone on me and tells me to go away. If I answer 'No, I'm not unemployed', the was-friendly credit officer asks for my job title, my employer, and phone numbers so they can check on me. Considering my co-op term starts in September, so legally, I don't have a job now.

And then there's always Dune Internet. But it's a small company -- two people. And most of the time I do work just to make the company better -- and I actually enjoy it. But how to explain what I do? "I, uh, host websites and talkers and MUDs on a Linux server, out in Colorado. No, I've never seen the servers. Yes, it's over the internet. Yes, I know it's not a real job."

So, I answer. "I'm a co-op student. I'm starting my next job in September."

To which they reply. What's a co-op student?

"A co-op student is a poor soul who has to move every four months. We work and go to school in alternating terms. We go to school for four months, and during this time, we find a job for the next 4 months of work. Then we work for four months and then go back to school. And so on and so forth."

To which they reply. So you're a student?

"Yes."

So you're unemployed?

pause ... "No."

But you don't have a job right now?

"Well, I'm starting one in September."

Well, sir, I can't raise your credit limit unless you have a job.

"But it's a job! I start in September, I'm going to be a software developer, working for [major computing company]."

Sorry sir, you need to be currently employed.

Fine. It's time to try the longshot attempt: tell them about the fictious-sounding job in the States. "I have a part-time job. I work for a company in the States called Dune Internet. We do web and application hosting."

What's your job position, sir?

"Director of Operations."

*clicketyclickclick* Thank you sir, I've raised your credit limit.

And there I am, holding the phone, dumbfounded at how fickle the world really is.