Wow...can you believe there is only 125 days left until Christmas? Ack! Quick!! Start shopping!

Heh. I know the 2 of you that are reading this are probably sittin' there in shorts (unless you're my mom) and thinking "OK, he's off his rocker". Well, OK, yeah, so I probably am. I just happened to be looking ahead in my calendar, figuring out when my classes were in such, when I decided to count the days.

One of things that bothers me about the holiday season (OK, one of many, but I'll wait until it gets closer to talk about them all) is when people ask me what I want. I have a pretty standard answer: Gift Certificates. I love getting gift certificates, because then I get to choose exactly what I want, the person shopping for me doesn't have shop for hours, and everyone is happy. Who wouldn't love getting gift certificates? I love getting gift certificates from Best Buy, Barnes & Nobel and Borders. Those are probably my favorites of the "Brick and Mortar" crew. I love Amazon gift certificates as well.

While waiting for my pathetically slow Windows machine to build, I decided to write this entry. I did a quick bit of upkeep on the front page, namely taking off the hoopty cool fade on the buttons. As I've been using Mozilla more often, and it doesn't support that sort of thing, I found it more annoying than cool, so I did away with it.

I've also been using my Powerbook G3 a lot more. I could really get to like OS X. And at work, I burned out the video card on my older Mac desktop, so they gave me a new "Quicksilver" model. Woo...damn sexy beast of a machine. I love it! I might seriously consider getting a Mac for my next home computer. Who knows, maybe you'll see me on a "Switch" commercial.

My thoughts have been on home more than usual lately. Home being Arizona of course. I may have lived out here in Virginia for almost 4 years now, but AZ will always be my home. After this summer, I would gladly go back to 110 degree heat, as long as it meant not having to deal with 80% humidity on top of it. It's one thing to be 100 degrees. It's another to be 100 degrees with 95% humidity. I don't know how people stand it. Aside from a few short days last week, it's been like that all summer. Ugh. So yeah, give me the dry heat of the desert, or better yet, the cool air of the mountains. Man, I miss home.

Yes, it's true. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel called Spring Semester. One more class (English) to go, and I can call it quits for the summer.

After spending about 2 weeks on my presentation for my business class, it turned out that we simply didn't have the time. Half the class didn't get to give their presentations. Personally, I was kind of put out. I would have liked to present my nifty-keen Power Point presentation on Harley-Davidson. As it is, I made the teacher watch my intro anyways. Ah well, she seemed to like it. After that, we graded our finals. She had us trade with one another and then we grade that paper. Right off the bat, everyone got 5 points because this was an older quiz she hadn't had time to update, so some of the questions weren't in the chapters covered. Then after the grading, we discussed some of the questions. In all, she gave everyone an extra 8 points. So my grade on the final? Out of a possible 100, I got 106.

Go figure.

I'm 99.99% certain that I have an A in my Business class. My English class, which I have my final in this Monday, I'm not so certain. I'm thinking I'll have a B...which, in reality, isn't a big deal, and might even be better if I DID get a B. I think it's cool having a 4.0 and all, but I don't want to kill myself just trying to get a 4.0. I just want that piece of paper that says "I'm Smart! S-M-R-T that spells Smart!" As long as I earn my degree, I'm not going to worry if I have a 4.0 or not.

Trying to finish something I've started seems to be one of my biggest flaws. I never finish anything, whether it's a webpage I'm working on, a certification I'm going for, school, something at work...whatever. I find it extremely annoying, and dis-heartening. I know it's not good for my self esteem, for my work ethic, even in general.

I promised myself I would try, that I would at least finish one project. But then I think about it. And I get listless. Or something more important pops up. Or I have to do something else. Or I need to watch the paint peel. Get the picture?

I tease Gail and call her a freak often, because she works at a new age store, and she is interested in crystals, and tarot cards and stuff. She gets her fortune told, and her palm read. But I have to wonder some days. She had a reading done for her last week, and the lady doing the reading told her that I wasn't happy where I was, and that when an opportunity came, I should take it, even if it means leaving my place of work. I've been here for over 6 years. I'm familiar with it, and I'm content. Not necessarily happy, but content. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't go to work each morning dreading the time I have to spend sitting at my desk (well, at least not that often).

But I'm not passionate about it either. I don't find myself ever saying "OK, what cool thing am I going to do at work today?" But is that a bad thing? I can honestly say I don't know that many people who are absolutely content AND happy with their jobs. I think most people work at jobs that are so-so, but they do it, so they can have the money to do the things that make them happy when they're not at their jobs, whether that's going on vacations, going to the movies, out to eat, to the bookstores, whatever.