Fear the Crab

It seems the more I work, the less time I have for journal entries. Of course, playing Animal Crossing and Legend of Zelda doesn’t help. Anyway, I got my first project for The Office, and it’s a simple thing every new student programmer gets. It’s supposed to let me apply what I’ve read towards “real world” applications. Right now I’m creating a simple program that will let a user input a first name and age, then store that information in a separate file. When storing, it should save it in alphabetical order, and upon a command be able to display all the names that are saved. I need to also enable the program to be able to delete names. I haven’t done that part yet, but I believe I got the first two (input and save) down. There are three parts to this project, and I’m still on the first, but this part isn’t due until April 9, so I’ve got some time. Plus, I’m in the office for a good 8 hours, which gives me an opportunity to fully concentrate on it.

I’m a bit worried about how the summer session will go. I’m taking that class I dropped this semester, ICS 212, which is C and C++ programming. It’ll be the only class I’m taking, so perhaps I’ll fare better this time around, but the class starts at 1730 and ends at 1930, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll have time to make it with my current work schedule, but what I’m mainly worried about is the amount of time I’ll have to do the homework. Hopefully I’ll be disciplined enough to ignore the GameCube.

Well, the campaign has started. There’s not much to talk about that hasn’t already been talked about. Maile asked why I continue to listen to the news radio and watch CNN, and I told her it’s because 1) I want to know, and 2) I want to listen to what the media says and where the veil of truth may lie. In other words, I take whatever the media says with a grain of salt, trying to see how their choice of words and images can or could influence those watching/listening it.

In the meantime, life goes on as usual here. I still have a job to do, actually two jobs to do, and they’re not going to give time off just so I can sit and watch the news and write my thoughts in this journal.

So far my Perl learning is progressing. I’m still at that “simple program” level, making Perl able to say “hello world” and other such things of that sort. At least I have some of the basic concepts down, and I can always refer back to the book for when I ultimately get a programming project from The Office boss.

I’ve just received word that I’ve been accepted as an undergraduate classified student for Fall 2003. This is good news, because it means I’ll pay less tuition and be able to register earlier. Of course, I’m also considered a “new” student, so for Fall I’ll still have to register late, but once that’s done, I’ll have seniority. It seems UH@M has classified me as a “second degree” student, which I think is a bit higher, if not equal, to senior status. So I’ll really register early, and possibly have an opportunity to get a parking pass.

Driving for The Lab is starting to become second nature now. I’ll be expected to do slight office work, mostly logging in whatever I bring back from the dentists’ offices. And if they don’t have anything for me, I can go home without worrying about making my 20 hours a week; they’ll take care of the medical regardless. That’s good news, in a way, because it means I won’t have to worry and count hours all the time. It also means I won’t get paid as much on the slow days, but I’m fine with that, because I’m mainly interested in maintaining my medical, not getting money.

I mean, I could always use the money, but at this point in my life, school is the more important issue, so I want to concentrate on that.

It took a while, but yesterday was my second day at The Office. So far I’ve just been sitting around for eight hours each day reading a book on Perl, a programming language. I think Perl is what the department uses to program, so naturally it follows that I should learn it. The people there are pretty cool. In fact, one staff member went to the same high school as me, and was on the bowling team, and played in band. Small world.

Meanwhile, it’s my third week at The Lab. I’m still trying to get the hang of which dentists are open at what time, but at least I know my way around town. The funny thing is, I need 20 hours to qualify for medical, but the courier position sometimes gets done early, meaning I have to find some way of busying myself. I figured I’d learn how to do die work, which is making a hard mold of the impressions so the techs can work on fitting a crown or bridge (or whatever). But I just found out that the boss doesn’t want me doing die work. So what will I do to make up my hours? I have no idea. They’re supposed to talk to me about it, work up some sort of arrangement, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

It’s been a hectic week. I started training as a driver at The Lab. Most of it is pretty straightforward, so the real trial is just figuring out which dentist needs something delivered by what time, and what time does their office open. It seems there are some dentists that open at 0800 and expect their deliveries at 0800. Just yesterday, in fact, two dentists opened at 0800 and had cases due at 0800, and they were on opposite sides of downtown.

I managed to work out an arrangement for The Office position. I enrolled at Leeward for three one-month courses, all dealing with e-commerce. I’m not sure what will be involved with those classes, but they’re online, and I have a feeling they involve spamming people with advertisements and constructing mailing lists. I have to take three courses because they’re all 1 credit each, and I need 3 credits to become eligible to work. UH Student Employment doesn’t seem to care that the classes are only one month, as they are more interested in whether I have a total of 6 credits. At least, that’s the impression I got when I showed my tuition receipt to the SECE office. They cleared my hold, so now my application for that student programming job is underway and looking okay. I’m still pending approval, but according to everyone I’ve spoken to, I should be in the clear.

Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that yesterday I changed the oil in my truck, all by myself (thank you very much). Since I’m not that mechanically inclined, that was a real feat for me. I also gave my truck a bath, and later that night I went out to D&B’s with a bunch of friends for a little get-together. Maile, James, Mary, Irene, Tolkien, George, Rei, Min, and Maile’s brother Keoni all joined me there. I ate the Jack Daniel’s ribeye steak, and it was very nice. Rei bought me this drink, I think it was called a crowntini, which is like a martini except they use Crown Royal. At least, that’s what I thought I heard above the noise and my inebriated two-beer state. And I don’t know if it was just the way D&B’s made it, but it tasted really strong, like I was drinking a shot of some kind of flavored whisky.

The bad news. I just discovered that because I’m only taking one class this semester (I had dropped ICS 212, if you recall from a previous post), I am not eligible for that student programmer job I was offered. This sucks, because I had already filled out the I-9 and W-4 forms and quit DFS so I could get this one. Now they tell me I can’t have it. I replied to their email notice and explained my situation, what led me to dropping the class, and how I am now unemployed, and asked if there was anything I could do to save this opportunity. One of The Office guys suggested I talk to one of the community colleges and explain my situation, and ask if they can recommend a 3-credit course that I could take, if there is one with open enrollment. It’s already halfway through the semester, though, and I’m worried that even if I can get that extra course, if I’ll be expected to catch up on the workload for that course. People are already taking midterms, so I’d be hard-pressed to make up that much work in a short amount of time. Not to mention the possibility that I may have to attend the class; that would severely cut into the hours I’d have for jobs. Maile is going to try and ask today if there are any courses, and I’m going to call later on my own, so hopefully a clearer path will open up before me once the end of the day draws near.