Old Blog Jones

ARGH! What's *up* with blogger

ARGH! What's *up* with blogger today? Sometimes it won't let you scroll past the end of the sidebar, and I have no idea why!!

::rocks back and forth in tears in the corner::

::sigh::

This is really cool. Apparently

This is really cool. Apparently Iraqi's (policeman and the like) are not only being paid more (Up to $275 a month from $25), but also prices are coming down because there are currently no "customs duties, import taxes, licensing fees, [or] similar surcharges." "The US led coalition's order on June 7 that suspended such charges has made Iraq a virtual free-trade zone, at least until the end of the year." Amazing what free trade does for a country.

Also, I really like the new Iraqi finance minister, Kamil Mubdir al-Gailani, mainly because he imposed a 15 percent flat tax. Um, Kamil? When you're done over there, would you like to be our Secretary of Commerce? Please?

Yuck. This explains a lot.

Yuck. This explains a lot. (I wouldn't be surprised if the BJU dinning common contracted out to this guy. j/k)
Via Dave Barry

Whew! Sorry I haven't been

Whew!

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like, but today is the first time this week I've been able to get online. College is much busier than I remembered! I've been spending nearly all of my time engaged in various responsibilities; I've had next to no online time at all, until today.

Thank goodness for weekends!

Thursday night we had our first Artist Series program. It wasn't as bad as I had expected. To those of you who don't go to BJU: an "artist series" is a musical or dramatic production that you are forced to attend, under penalty of lots of demerits. It's also intended for dating, however I did not ask any young ladies to it.

Anyway, this semster's first Artist Series was the "Burning River Brass." It was named after a river that cuts directly through... Cleveland? Anyway, at one point, the river was so polluted that a spark from a passing train would actually catch it on fire. And it did so three times before the Clevelanders cleaned up their river.

Anyway, it's a brass ensemble, and it really isn't too bad. I'd really have enjoyed it if I didn't two and a half hours of homework left to do. Oh well, I've caught up on it now. I might even get some of my points back if I turn it in late. :-)

Anywho, happy surfing, and I'll try to write more often.

This is odd.

This is odd.

Well, I finally had a

Well, I finally had a chance to go onto the Bob Jones wi-fi network today. (Weekends are so nice: no homework to worry about the next day). Wow. I love this. I wish I could get this for my house without great expense. Problem is, I'd getting high-speed internet access would be expensive, then I'd have to get a router (or whatever it's called), and probably a couple of access points so I can get the network throughout my whole house, and it'd be nice to have a desktop with XP (instead of ME, which is the worst software Microsoft ever coded) on it to run as the central computer. One thing leads to another.

I did check on whether or not my blog makes it through the network; or rather, I checked to see if Dave Barry's blog will make it through the network. As I feared, it did not. So... If I'm going to do this so that my dorminated friends can see this, I'll have to move the blog to its own server.

sigh

Oh well. But the weird thing is that I can edit my blog on campus (I used BlogThis! a couple of times), but I can't view it. Which will be nice, should inspiration ever strike me.

But it would be nice to be viewable on the dorm networks. Maybe I'll consider the Movable Type thing, but I really don't want to spend any more time on the non-writing parts of this than I have to. Normally I like computers--I loved my class on Visual Basic--but this needs to be as non-frustrating as possible.

There's only two features that I want: Compressible posts (you know, like Venomous Kate's "Hold On! I'm not done hissing yet..." links), and bloging via e-mail. I just think that that would be cool, although BlogThis! seems to do the same thing.

Mmm. I wish we had

Mmm. I wish we had these in South Carolina. We're so far behind, educationally, technologically... the only wi-fi spot I know of is at school, and now I learn we don't even have meat shakes. Sad...

Via Ipse Dixit, with whom

Via Ipse Dixit, with whom I totally agree: If Bush vetoes this law, I will not vote for him. Maybe Howard Dean will have more respect for my civil liberties.

Scrappleface has a brilliant post

Scrappleface has a brilliant post about revisionist history. Read it now.

I've been meaning to blog

I've been meaning to blog this for a few days. Ooops. It's also true.

I found this in the

I found this in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal today. It's nice to know that our federal baggage screeners are doing such a good job.

Truth about taxes.

Truth about taxes.

I've always loved the Northern

I've always loved the Northern Lights. I've never seen them, but I think they'd be absolutely fascinating to watch. I might have to go to Iceland just to see things like this. More photos can be found here.

Whew! It's been a long

Whew! It's been a long week. Sorry to my entire readership for the nonexistent blogging. And it will be light tonight; It's 11:40 and I have places to be tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to the new school year. I've gotten to go to one each of my new classes, and I think most of them will be interesting at least. A rundown of the classes:

Principles of Management: (MWF) Taught by some guy who knew my mom when they grew up in Houston. He seems like he'll be a great teacher, so long as I stay on his good side. It didn't help that I was late the first day of class, but I blame than on my inexperience in arriving that early (it's my first time with an 8:00 class, and I have a 45 minute - 1 hour drive before that), and on the irritating public safety officer who directed everyone else at a four way stop to go before me. And on Academy (the BJU high school) traffic.

Microeconomics: The most boring-looking of my classes. I thought, looking at the bulletin, that it would be very interesting. Hopefully the teacher won't be as boring when he gets to the material as he was the first day.

Principles of Accounting: The freshman level course I'm taking as a sophomore. There are two or three women and about 20 other guys in the class. Scary, that. It's taught by a man who was some CFO or something for... I think Prudential insurance agency? Anyways, if you're that high up in a company, you've got to know your stuff, right? Anyways, if he accomplishes his "Course Goals," I'll be happy with the class.

The Life and Ministry of Christ: My mandatory Bible course. It's taught by a guy who teaches seminary level stuff. He's good. I'm looking forward to the class.

Expository Writing: which I am taking for my minor of Public Relations Journalism. I've always liked writing, and this is a class designed to improve my writing in general, by the looks of things. I have a paper due on Tuesday. That was quick. :-) It's worth 0 points; it's just designed so we can get back into the college writing swing of things and learn how he grades. But, we do have to turn in the paper, even though we don't get credit, or else we fail. And our final paper is a revision of the first or second paper (which is also worth 0 points), so there's some worth in doing it well. You know, besides the whole "do it with all thy might" thing.

American Literature: (from 1865-present) It looks like we're actually going to get into modern stuff towards the end of the year. This is good.

Anyways, it's late and I'm tired and have written more than my typical bite-sized chunk of writing anyways. Good night.

I just finished the registration

I just finished the registration process at Bob Jones a few hours ago. When you register, you are required to sign a form that says you've read the BJU handbook that year. Well, I realized late last night that I had completely forgotten that requirement. Which was extremely frustrating, given the fact that I had spent my evening installing Visual Basic.NET on my computer and reading a novel while I waited for it to get done. So, this morning at breakfast, I was frantically skimming the book. I eventually got through the parts that applied to me (I see no reason to waste my time on things like the cuts restrictions for cosmetology students). Then I had to (even more frantically) fill out the stupid 80's/achievement test fill-in-the-bubble forms. I had planned to leave the house at 8, and I actually left at 8:30! (Augh!)

Fortunately, I arrived just barely on-time. You may wonder how I managed that: Well, I had planned to leave with lots of time to spare, as is my custom: I don't like hurried efforts like this morning. I like to be able to take my time. So, I had allotted an extra few minutes to my travel schedule. Also, I was speeding, which I don't typically make a practice of. This is why I've never been given a ticket by any state, local, or federal police officer, and why I've never wrecked my car. (Yes, I did get a ticket from the Bob Jones Public Safety Dept., but that was for a parking violation that I wasn't even aware I was breaking)

Registration is like the DMV, only with longer lines, but much faster. As we stood in line, some official guy had us make sure we had what we needed, then hurried us on to the different stations. The first few stations basically check to see if filled out the forms properly, then they feed your "bubblesheet" to a computer and have you wait for a short time. Then you get a schedule of classes and a list of the books you need. If you need to, you then register your car with Public Safety and get your hideous little stickers to put on your windshield. Mine is the shape and color of a yield sign, but with a number instead of the walking people.

Very professionally done: I got through in less than fifteen minutes, and had no conflicts with my schedule. But these books now... You know, for a Christian university, they certainly charge some ungodly prices for books. I have three books that each are over a hundred dollars. And classes start on thursday so it's difficult to get them online in time for classes. I do have some prospects lined up for getting some of them used, though.

Anyway, I apologize for my verbosity.