Today was my first official day of my new job at The University of Toledo Lab Attendent for the EIT department.
I was scheduled from 3—5pm in Carlson Library Lab B2. Yes, 2 hours is pretty pointless and a waste of gas, but with gas as low as $1.859, why not?
Anyways, I was ready for duty, but unfortunately duty was not ready for me. I didn’t have login information for EIT’s “Headcount” system, so I wasn’t able to “clock-in” and “clock out”.
I met a fellow lab attendent, who was on duty the same time I was, and her brother. They were very nice in showing me some of the things I had to do, and some of the experiences they’ve had. It seems as though people can get pretty beligerent, like when they are asked to put away their beverages or when Word crashes and their work is lost. Something to look forward to.
I only ended up doing two major things in my 2 hour shift, which should net me around $9, after taxes:
- Refilling a ream of paper in the laser printer, and
- Calling “This lab closes in fifteen minutes” at 4:45pm
I never thought I’d work in a technical support position but this is really just a springboard to the Lab Support position I interviewed for earlier: they require experience on the front lines.
Well, the summer is here and most (Northern) Ohioian’s minds turn to thoughts of Cedar Point. I am no exception, I am really looking forward to going this year, as I wasn’t able to make it last summer.
Anticipating going at least 3 – 4 times this year, Jennifer and I splurged and bought two season passes tonight at Meijer. For $89 we get to go as many times as we want. It may sound expensive, but considering tickets are normally $40/ea. going three times pays for them easily.
I’m excited!
Well, the final nail in TechTV’s coffin was driven in today, as TechTV and G4 offically merged to form G4techTV. My DirecTV already shows Channel 354 as “G4TV” and the TechTV website, www.techtv.com, now redirects to g4techtv.com, the new network’s “official website” (which is all G4-ish and shows no traces of the TechTV website’s look). Also, all the great content from the past years of The Screen Savers and Call For Help that lived on the web, is gone (except for in the Google cache.)
As a long time fan of shows like The Screen Savers and Call For Help, and people like Leo Laporte, this is a pretty sad day. The only remnants to survive the tragedy are The Screen Savers and while Patrick and Kevin are pretty great, they will probably not be around for much longer (they’re already been fired.)
I still remember TechTV back when it was called ZDTV and The Screen Savers were Leo Laporte and Kate Botello (I can still hear them chanting “DirectTV Channel 273!”) and there were shows like Internet Tonight and The Money Machine.
Lets have a moment of silence for the once great network. (Shuts off TV.)
Wow, a lot has been going on in regards to this site and I’ve been so busy with them, I’ve neglected to write an actual post about them. I’m sure you’ve noticed the working links at the top and other things, keep your eyes open—there will be more to come. My head has been racing with neat things to put up here, I hope I can make it happen.
I am quite excited about this whole blog thing, which is odd because of the numerous times I’ve tried it, I never really was. I think it’s partly due to Textpattern and some extra free time I’ve been ejoying.
I’m also proud to announce that I am one of the ‘VC200’ member’s that has invested in Textpattern (a great deal consisting of what is essentially top-notch hosting for life, for $200).
So, on June 1st this site will be moving to a new space, off my Linux box and out of my attic. I’m going to miss doing it, it has been really fun keeping up the server. I am planning on still using it for some things though, just not the main kevinmarsh.com page (that sound you just heard was the sigh of relief coming from Buckeye Cablesystem’s NOC).
Most of the old content from KevinMarsh.com has been imported into Texpattern. There are now a grand total of 23 entries here, including this one. I really need to write more (frequently).
The good thing about not updating your blog a lot is that importing is not such a chore.
After a short hiatus, KevinMarsh.com is back and better than ever! I’m now running the great TextPattern blog software.
I’m still adding some stuff and changing bits around, but I thought I’d let my 2 fans continue to read the site while I do so. :)
I’m still working on importing all my posts from my old system to the new one, so all the history may not be there (yet.)
If you see any bugs, please drop me a line and let me know. I am aware of the broken links at the top, however. Thanks.
Update: Fixed some of the glaring bugs that I haven’t been able to nail down, thanks to the base tag and more! Yay Permalinks!
I’m working a little on getting TextPattern going. Yeah, I know. I was working on my own homebrewed PHP scripts but it just got so boring, cause I’ve done it all about a million times. And Dean has really done some great work here. The whole system is really great. MovableType, watch out!
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the switch-over.
I’m glad to announce that KevinMarsh.com now offers an RSS feed of full blog posts. The RSS feed is perfect for those users of great RSS readers.
Did I get more than the usual? :)
Update: It looks like this is/was a known bug with Gmail, and is being/has been fixed.
I think there is a problem with my Discrete Math and Linear Data Structures grade. It is way lower than I expected. I got a perfect score on 3/4 projects, did reasonably well on the tests, and thought I did a good job on the final. The professor has been quite distracted lately so I think a mistake might have been made. I emailed him but it is really making me wonder about how I approach school (that coupled with a very low grade in Calculus).
Next semester, I have to work about 5x as hard to bring my GPA up. I also have to prove to myself, I think, that when I put my mind to it I can do well. I think my biggest problem is procrastination.
While it may seem like an excuse, working while going to school is extremely hard. Too much time is demanded of the college student and working takes away valuable study time. But what else can you do about it?
Well, exams are over and while I await the backlash of grades, I am thinking about what I’m going to try to do/accomplish this summer. I’ll be working, of course, but I also want to try to do some other things, including:
- Spend time with my lovely girlfriend
- Clean up/organize my room
- Read up/practice some programming stuff
- Get outside more (bikeriding)
- Take lots of pictures (see above)
- Get motivated for a successful Fall semester
- Brush up on things I probably should’ve learned this semester
- Organize the files on my computers (both laptop and Linux box)
- Work on this more (add portfolio, resume, archives, searching, and some other random features)
I am starting to think everyone in the world is not greedy and looking to make a buck—that there are actually nice people around!
Update: kevin.marsh at gmail.com
I’m really trying hard to get a GMail account. I got no love from Blogger (guess I’m not “active” enough) and I tried contacting some people who were fresh out of invites.
It looks so cool and I want it so bad. :(
