something

I need a faster internet. And I need to go to the library more. And I need a new job. I'm really starting to hate my job. Plus I need a job with benefits. I was sick all last week and the week before so I had to spend most of the money I had left on a doctor's visit. *sigh* Such is life I guess. Oh well. Maybe some other time.

it's been awhile..

I know, I know, it's been forever and a day since the world last heard from me. I've been working all summer, most of the time all day long, and all I wanted to do when I got home was...nothing. I wanted to sit and do nothing. Didn't want to nap (well, sometimes I did), did want to eat, move, check e-mail, didn't want to do anything. Well, summer's over and so is my crazy work schedule. So why haven't I been blogging more since then? AOL 9.0 Optimized, which is code for Craptimized!!

I hate our dial-up service. Don't get me wrong, I completely enjoy not having to pay for my own internet service (thank you, Daddy), but the word "optimized", when used by AOL, means "we've added tons more features, but we haven't added anything to increase the speed. We just have a lot more things running on your computer at once to make it poop out on you. Plus, you're paying us to do so!!" But never fear, I have found another way.

Who knew that living in McKinney would have some perks. There's a library here that has internet access. Fast internet access. And a library card is all you need (plus signing an "I will not look at bad stuff...." waiver). The best part is that the much-needed library card...is FREE!!! So, I get off of work at 1 a few days a week, go to the library for a little while, then go home. NOTE: This is not a guarantee that I will be blogging 5 days a week or anything. But I think once a week is feasible. At least for now.

Not much to write about this week, but next week is the start of swim lessons. That should be interesting.

certified

it's been a long week. a really long week. I was in a WSI (water safety instructor) class all week long. Monday through friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was an hour away. That meant getting up every morning at 6 a.m. I usually don't wake up until noon. I'm burnt to a crisp, even though I applied SPF 30 Coppertone Sport several times a day. But when you're outside for most of the day, the sun just finds a way to get through. but at least I passed everything and I am now certified. if anyone wants private swim lessons and has a pool, gimmie a call. I'll work out something reasonable for ya.

there's no place like home

I did it!! I graduated!! I have never been happier to see a "C" in my life! So, I know have to become a responsible adult. We'll see how that goes. As for the job front, I have a summer job lifeguarding in McKinney, but still no "related to my degree" job yet. I saw one listing that I would've been perfect for. It was something I would have enjoyed, it was in New York City, I met all of the experience/skill requirements. Except one. I don't speak Greek. Oh well, something will come along eventually.

Oh yeah, Taylor, my G5 arrived. haha. But seriously, you can come check it out in a couple weeks, once I've broken it in. Oh yeah, we can watch a DVD on my 23" cinema display, too. :o]

it's over!!!

Well, I just took my finance final. I don't know. I skipped about 10 questions, then went back to them. Hopefully I will never have to endure Business Finance ever again. I hope to never have to come back to UCF. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my experience here (for the most part), but I'm ready to leave. I want to go home. The finance test is out of my hands now. I just ask that God help my answers be the right ones and that by some miracle I get a C in the class. That's all I need; a 70. Then I can go home in a week. No use worrying about it anymore. Now I can worry about other things, like finding a place to stay next week in case I don't get a C in the infernal Finance. But we'll pray that doesn't happen. The "not getting a C" thing, not the "finding a place to live, just in case" thing.

Today

wow. I can't believe it has been seven years today. At times it doesn't seem that long, at other times it seems as if it's been longer. Last year was hard because I was far away from home. This year is hard again. I'm halfway across the country from home. Both of my roommates moved out this weekend, I don't have a bed anymore (one roomie was loaning me her bunkbeds), and I have a huge final tomorrow night(prayers are GREATLY appreciated). Plus, I just really miss Mom.

If I get a C in the aforementioned class, I will be graduating on friday. I'm walking either way. This is another graduation where my mother can't see me walk across the stage. Not by sitting in the arena/auditorium anyway. Kyle and Kristen had Momma there at their high school graduations, but I didn't get that honor. They can somewhat understand where I'm coming from, but it's different for me. I just wish she were here.

I wish Momma could see all the things I've accomplished, all the video/audio projects I've done, what I look like, my boyfriend (getting her opinion on him as well), her granddaughter, her son-in-law, her daughter-in-law, Kyle, Kristen, Daddy, what all of us are doing with our lives. I wish I could just talk to her, hug her, brush her hair (a favorite memory of mine), play my music for her, and be with her. People say as the years go by, it gets easier. I think it gets harder.

My senior year in high school we had to write a paper on a memory, any memory. I wrote about the day Momma died. You can read my paper here. It's attached to my old website, which will be coming down over the summer. I can still remember everything about that day so clearly. God gave me a photographic memory. A blessing and a curse. Sometimes I wish I could forget, but I hope I never forget.

So, it's not the easiest day, but I'll get through it. Happy Bitsy Day to you all.

Momma, I love you.

I'm a horrible person

Yeah, it's been a month (or more) since I blogged. I'm a horrible person. Well, maybe I'm just a horrible blogger. But these things happen when only one computer in your college apprtment can connect to the internet. Yes, my 'puter is still, in the words of my roommate Erin, "broken." It works, but things on it still don't work. Like my soundcard, modem, network card. But I can play tetris! Oh well, hopefully for graduation I will be getting a new Mac G5 (sorry Taylor) and then problems will be solved. At least that's what I'm telling my self. Joshua, if you find time this summer, let's sit down for a "blogger tutorial" so I can make this thing look like it's Katie's Blog. That would be cool. Then I would be a better blogger because I would like the way my blog looked. Oh yeah, it's all coming together. Now if only I can pass my finance class with a C....

*sigh*

This has been a very blah week. I know I haven't posted in awhile. It's just one more thing I have to do. The end of my (hopefully one and only) senior year in college is winding down, but the course work is building up. I am currently working on four video/editing projects for my one post-production class. One is due monday, the other wednesday, the next one a week from wednesday, and the other one in about a month. That's just one class.

I have a group project in my other class, a couple audio projects in another, and two more wonderful finance tests to look forward to. I love finance. (Note: use sarcastic tone when reading previous statement). On our last test, not a single person passed. Then he gives us a bell curve. So while the person who failed by only a few points gets 50 points added to his/her test, I only get 30 points added to mine, not even giving me a C. And we have another test in two weeks over three chapters. We didn't even cover half of one chapter this past monday.

It's at times like these I begin to wonder, why me? I mean, I have been working for four years to graduate in only four years. I worked hard to make sure all my credits transferred correctly so I wouldn't have to retake any classes. And now it seems as if this one class is going to keep me from that. I studied the entire weekend before my test and it did nothing. My teacher isn't even a professor, just some guy with years of business experience and negative years of teaching experience. I almost want to quit.

I'm tired of it. I'm tired of school, I'm tired of being taught book knowledge, I'm tired of being in Orlando. Though I still haven't been to Disneyworld. Instead of telling me how to use a computer-based video editing system, show me how. I'm tired of reading all about "what makes a nicely framed shot." I could do all the things a book tells me and still not have a good shot. The only way to know is to go out there and shoot. Books are fine, but hands-on, real world experience is better.

I am running sound for the news show at school and I hate it. The "talent" never gets there on time. I'm setting up all the sound equipment then I wait around to do mic checks and levels. But they don't get there when they are supposed to so I'm running around until 2 minutes before the show starts trying to fix problems and running out of time and then I get "yelled" at after the show because sound stuff wasn't right and told I need to look over my script before the show. I would if I got the script more than 15 minutes before the show and had time to look over it and fix problems. I hate news.

I'm also running sound for some live field productions, like sporting events and concerts at school. That's fun. People are there on time, doing their jobs and I'm getting real-world experience. Sure, the days are long, but they are fun. It's always different. Why can't I just be graduated already? Just let me pass finance and be done with school. I don't want to go back. Once I'm done, I'm done. Only 41 days to go. They can't come fast enough.

does not compute

K, so I reformatted my hard drive cause it kept getting stupid programs on it hiding themselves from termination. Well, I don't have those little pests anymore, but apparently my computer doesn't seem to recognize that I have a sound card, a modem, or a network card. So until I get that all up and running, I have to take time and go up to the labs at school. I hate my computer.

U Can't Finish = UCF

i hate school. No, really. I hate school. I only have three classes this semester. Not hard, right? Shouldn't be too bad, right? Wrong.

My video post-production class isn't so bad. Didn't do well on the test, but did well on the first project. Tests only make up like 20% of our grade, it's the projects that carry the most weight. And I tend to do well on my projects.

My media class, piece of pie. I got a 93 on the first test without even trying, and an 83 on the second. If I actually studied for that class, I would make even better grades. And studying for it isn't so hard. A couple of chapters and most of it is stuff I've heard before in my other classes.

Then there was finance. I'm the only person in my finance class (or the only person with enough guts to say so) who hasn't had a statistics class and is not a business major. My teacher is under the impression that statistics is required for the class. It's not. I checked. He even has the prerequisites listed on his syllabus and there's no statistics listed there. It's not even required for the minor.

So we get back our first test and because of a 12 point curve (to benefit, not punish, yeah right) I got a 69. That means I would have had a 47 if there was no curve. Did he teach us anything that was on that test? No! All he does is tell stories of how he married a woman 23 years younger than himself, about the time he went golfing with the CEO of International Paper Company, and so on. When he does actually talk about financial stuff, he uses terms I've never heard before, and yet won't explain them. I talked to him after class last week for about 20 minutes explaining to him that I didn't understand even half of what he was saying and asked what I could do, or if he could explain things. He said "I've found that the first 60% of the class students will struggle with the terminology." I'm thinking, if you know we won't understand what you're saying, why say it without explaining it? He also told us before the test that only 20% of the class, if that much, would get more than half of the questions right. Why give us the exam if you know most of us are going to fail?!?!

The highest score on the test (before the curve) was 28 out of 40. The lowest was 12. Average was 19. I only got 17 out of 40 right. Less than half. And that was the easiest test we were going to have? What's wrong with this man?!?!?!

So I go to the finance department today and explain that I am not understanding anything my teacher says, that he just tells stories, and he's expecting us to have had statistics. I ask if I can get switched to a different teacher's class so I can actually learn the material. It's apparently too late in the semester to do that. The said there's a help desk for this course, though. I thought great!! My teacher isn't even using the same book as all the other teachers, which is the book the people at the help desk use. I'm beginning to wondering if my teacher knows that my class is the introduction and overview to finance. Then I thought, the help desk could be beneficial, they said they could still probably figure out what's being covered in my class. But if I don't know what we need to know, how am I going to get help with those things so I can pass the class? What if the things I actually do understand isn't on the test? I feel helpless right now. I feel stupid in my class because I don't know what's going on, and I am so tired of school; I just want to be done with it.

UCF. No wonder they call it U Can't Finish.

i hate windows

Somehow my Windows operating system seems to be constantly allowing programs to load themselves on my computer, making it impossible for me to access the internet from my computer. So until I wipe out my hard drive, this is the last post for a little bit. This also explains why I haven't been able to post for awhile. I need a Mac.

Whoo-hoo!!!

I just bought tickets for Third Day!! May 7, 2004 is my favorite day of the year!! Happy Birthday to me!! Thank you, Daddy! Third Day is the best band ever!!! Finally something goes right for me. I'm going to see Third Day!! Whoo-hoo!!!!!

Orlando Weather

10:30 a.m. - I can't get the a/c in my car to start fast enough.

7:30 p.m. - I can't get the heater in my car to start fast enough.

And I thought Texas was weird.

H2O

So I'm trying to find a church out here in Orlando. I'm only going to be here for a couple more months, but I figure it's something I need to do since leaving the church I was attending.

I went to H2O, a church currently meeting inside of a movie theatre on sundays, and I enjoyed it. A very casual church. I could go in my big camo pants if I wanted to and not feel out of place. Worship was interesting; it was like being at UBC where David Crowder leads worship, only David Crowder wasn't there. His songs were, though!!

I enjoyed the sermon, too. The pastor wasn't a shouter. I don't like shouters. Anywho, it was cool. We'll see what happens.

getting started

Well, I've finally signed up for this thing. Who knows, maybe I'll actually keep this one updated. Doesn't sound too difficult. My old webpage hasn't been updated in about a year. At least this is a step in the right direction. Right?