This Sort of Thing Never Happens!

Not in Northern Virginia at least. Places with monsoon seasons, totally reasonable. But not here.

It's been raining for the last 20+ hours. Not just a sheepish drizzle like what happens over in Blacksburg (think gray and miserable and depressing and you're on the right track), but real steady rain. At times like a downpour. Weather.com is screaming about flood warnings, but let's hope nothing too bad comes.*

Good thing it seems to be settling down. Hmm, now onto random subjects.

So, I harbor some sort of pure absolute disliking for cell phone companies--that is, more so than usual. Apparently, someone sat down to do the math and found that it costs less money per megabyte (MB) for beautiful pictures such as this and this from the Hubble Space Telescope to be sent to Earth than it does for you to say "sup?" to your friend in a text message. How much is the difference? Easily than four times as much and up to forty times as much. Ridiculous? Very yes. Doesn't it make you want to yell at your provider?

In other news, it seems something on the AOL front has gone wrong (um, again >.>). For those of you who just recently tuned in, last summer I interned over at AOL, my first real full-time job. It was actually a blast and I learned much more than expected. Anyway, they had me working the entire summer on a gadget for iGoogle (kinda like Netvibes), one which I'm now embarrassed to be associated with. Somehow in the last year it has gained a few thousand users, along with a poor rating from several of them. The system for retrieving mail is slow, and the code which I wrote--code that initially worked--is broken. Hmmm...

A sternly-written letter is in order!

Ever the procrastinator, I found something else to distract me from my work.** Installing another operating system! I hadn't booted into OpenSolaris in forever, so I basically had an open partition on my hard drive. That and the fact that I've never given Gentoo the true attention it deserves and thus I jumped on for a third attempt. The difference this time was that I tried to configure the kernel (the core of any modern linux distribution) to the best of my abilities. And two and a half hours later I was done and compiling--yum! But, an experience much like my first encounter with linux and later Arch, I soon found myself unable to get past having a base system installed. This morning, from nine to noon, was spent in a futile stab at getting my wireless to work. *grumble grumble* Ohs wells, probably time to get to work anyways..

After that letter, p'raps.


*Dad says some people who work with him lost power at their homes.
**A four page paper for a program that I'm applying for. More later(?)

PS: As predicted, the rain has stopped, huzzah!

The Rants, They Just Keep Coming

I feel like blogging about nothing and everything. I do have, and have had, four unfinished posts in the works, but those are not time-dependent and can be finished at my leisure.

Now, starting with complaints.

It seems I'm doomed to have lotsa complications to deal with (and none of them the fun kind). Two days ago was my last final exam--statistics, yum!--which meant that that afternoon I would be leaving for home. Problem was the amount of packing I had to accomplish in a three hour period. But, a frustratingly undisclosed amount of time later I was finished and ready to leave! My parents and I hopped into my mom's RAV4* and, following a quick stop at the BP on South Main, proceeded on back to NOVA.

Once home, I began the tedious process of unpacking, which somehow takes multiple days no matter how much or how little I had to unpack. Stopped after getting the basic necessities and slept. Next day--yesterday--I had to get up bright and early to go to the doctor, who happily made money for seven and a quarter minutes with me and for providing a referral. Afterwards a bevy** of phone calls had to be made to surgeons, American Airlines, my dentist, and a few other odd places. Hmm, you know, after interacting with so many receptionists/secretaries I've realized that it would be pretty kickass to have one. *adds to list of things to do* I don't care if my occupation doesn't require one, I will make sure to keep one around. Anyone looking for a job?

Mmm, got off topic again. Sorry. So, lesee.. this Friday I have a four page paper due for this program I'm applying for, still unpacking, and meeting with the general surgeon tomorrow to see when I can get surgery. Oh, and I gotta figure out if--though most likely yes--and when to I will be moving my trip to Puerto Rico. Originally the plan was to leave the fourteenth and return the twenty-ninth, but all that looks like it'll be changing. Yeah..

So, summer just started and it seems as if it might be as busy (and definitely crazier) than the last. Good and bad, just hoping things turn out all right. Oooh, and in mid-August I'll get to start moving into the house we're renting next year. Many fun things in store, just gotta live through these next couple weeks.

Oh, and for those of you wondering, I have a hernia. No, I didn't do anything to get it--that I know of--they can apparently just happen sometimes. But yeah, this has been the undoing of my summer. The wrench in the machine.

I have no clue if that last sentence is even a phrase. *shrug* Ohs wells.


*The one that just so happens to drive like a dream.
**YES! Finally got to use it.