Journal Entry

Tuesday, August 29, 2000

Today was a day for a lot of walking. Back and forth. Quickly, no less.

Up again for the 8:00am class. Once finished, I made my ritualistic beeline to the Math department. Success. One person ahead of me in line. I win. The 10:00am opening in Lecture & Section 09 is mine. I claim it. I hath stabbed the flag of Zahrowski right into their stoneage methods of record-keeping Goodbye, Math admin office. May we never cross paths again.

That said, I'm now officially enrolled in the 10:15 class. Amen.

Around 9:30 this morning I touched bases with Bill, my contracted Dell repairman. We scheduled for 12:15, right after my CS lecture. The lecture itself was pretty much 50 minutes of course mechanics--the details of how the course will run, what will be covered, and basic concepts to begin thinking about.

Right after the lecture, I got in touch with Bill, and he said he had just pulled into the parking lot--great. So I walked a ankle-jarring pace back up to Donlon to meet him. Hot and sweaty as I was, I led him up to the room where he immediately started disassembling my computer.

The fact is, you really can't predict your own reaction to seeing your computer lying on a desk in 5 million tiny pieces until you actually see it for your own eyes. It's unnerving. Insanely tiny screws sit precariously on the desk edges, the display is disconnected sitting on the shelf, and highly sensitive computer parts the size of playing cards are lying around in no particular order. What's worse, he informs me halfway through the procedure that this is the second computer of its type he's ever taken apart.

He's got it all disassembled and I have to leave for my CS section. When I return an hour later, he's almost got it all back together. He informs me that he had it all finished when he noticed he forgot to transfer the PCMCIA card facing onto the new motherboard, causing him to basically pull everything back apart again.

I run the machine through its paces to make sure it's all functional, and he departs. The error still occurs though, so I call Dell. The first time, a message informs me that the entire Inspiron support team is in a department meeting. Wonderful. So I call back in 15 minutes... doesn't even ring. My call is answered, and I scramble to find my service tag number.

For whatever reason, the system reports that the audio card passes. And I test it about 5 different times in different audio/power configurations, and it still passes. Wonderful. I power up, and the sound is WONDERFUL. Ahhhhh. Well, for whatever reason, the error appeared again. So that is tomorrow's job. Not to mention the fact that my system reports an invalid Suspend-to-Disk file, which in theory is supposed to be recreated automatically by Windows 2000 when necessary. Also for tomorrow.

After dinner at the RPCC/RPU/RPQ, I report to Uris Library for the viewing of "The Outer Limits," a required video for my first-year writing seminar. Pretty cool, and it finishes by 8:30. No homework... simply discussion for tomorrow's class.

Tomorrow's way-cool events: A real, relaxed shower and breakfast. A 10:00am math class. Chemistry where we learn about element mass. And the EMT course, though a long, brisk walk from chem.

And, yes Andrew, I think we have those Cicadas here too. Either that, or crickets on crack. They seem to hang out in the trees here. And unlike most noise-making insects, these make noise all day, every day. Just wait for winter, guys, cuz the serenity of a snow-covered landscape also brings about silence among this species.

Another college tip building on Andrew's: Wherever you are, you're in the wrong place. Because, at any given moment, you're needed somewhere else. If you're ever in the wrong place... don't fret. Because it's probably closer to where you need to be than if you were where you think you needed to be in the first place. And if you're ever late, don't rush. It doesn't save time--it just makes you tired.

Aaron