Long time no chat, blogosphere.
I don't really have anything to say now, either. I just feel bad that I haven't posted in so long. My life has been pretty dull lately. I mean, what with buying a house and getting a permanent job offer from my company...Mom being in the hospital for three days...eh - what is there to talk about?
I guess it's because I spend all day in front of a computer at work. Eight hours staring at a screen, you don't really want to go home and stare at another screen. Plus, Miss C and I are trying to start up a workout regime (keep up with it on our blog!) and I am trying to unpack, even though I never have any free time to get anything done!
My photographer friend, along with her husband and their roommate, came over Monday night for spaghetti and The Avengers. Yesterday Miss C and I walked the dogs then got down to the very serious business of watching stupid stuff on TV. Love It or List It, TMZ, Tattoo Master, and some sort of tattoo show like Restaurant Nightmares or whatever it's called. Tonight is more dog walking and hopefully some exercise, instead of reverting to our natural state (vegetative).
October 10, 2012
October 5, 2012
Bit of a Scare
Dad calls me at 6:00am yesterday. I honestly didn't think about it - Sister said it freaked her out immediately. I'm generally oblivious at 6:00am. Well, anway, Dad says "I took your mom to the ER this morning - just a bit of a heart thing." Well now I'm awake! He told me they were transferring her to the hospital an hour away from my hometown (two hours away from my now-town) because the doctors there were more specialized. I asked if he thought I should go to the hospital and he said "Oh, no - carry on with business as usual."
Now, my dear darling father is terrible at letting you know about serious things. Mom was in the ER a few months ago and none of the kids knew until THREE DAYS LATER. So I had no idea how serious this was. I sent Sister a text along the lines of "What are your plans with this Mom thing? Should we go see her? Did you get more from Dad than 'It's a heart thing'?" Sister calls me about 30 minutes later almost in tears. She's talked to Mama N who talked to our parents' pastor who had actually seen Mom in the ER. He said she didn't look good at all and they were originally planning on airlifting her, but it was too foggy.
So of course we decide to go.
Apparently she felt bad all day on Wednesday and noticed her blood pressure was a little high before she went to bed (she's been monitoring it for her Primary Care doctor). She woke up with a bad headache around 4:00am and took some medicine. At some point she stopped being able to breathe. So they finally decided she should probably go to the ER. And not tell their children for about two hours. 8P
By the time we get there (the story could be much longer and less interesting - you're welcome) Mom is feeling much better. They have her on oxygen and she's able to breathe and talk without any problems. They determined she had fluid on her lungs. Sister was guessing (I'm not sure if a doctor every confirmed this) that Mom had had fluid on her lungs for at least a couple of months - Mom has had trouble sleeping for awhile.
We sit around all day and finally a doctor comes in. He listens to her lungs and asks her a bajillion questions. He tells her the fluid is the main concern - her inability to breathe probably caused her to panic and then raised her blood pressure. They need to figure out what caused the fluid and she will most definitely be in the hospital all weekend. Then Sister, Dad, and I all leave. Dad has to go pick up some clothes and stuff for Mom and Sister and I need to get back home.
On our way home, Mama N calls us - another doctor came in and checked Mom out. He said the high blood pressure strained her heart and caused fluid to build up on her lungs, so all they need to do is straighten out her blood pressure and she should be fine. She should be able to go home today (Friday, that is). So...who's right? Mom's going with Doc #2, because she wants to come home. :)
They did an echocardiogram on her this morning but I don't think they have the results back. I haven't heard anything, anyway. So still no work on if she's going to be in the hospital another day. Mom's feeling fine, though. Said she thinks she's all back to normal. Which, with Mom, "back to normal" still isn't all that great. ;)
Oh, hey - I just realized tonight is homecoming at my old high school. I was going to go to that. Mmm....I don't think I am anymore.
Now, my dear darling father is terrible at letting you know about serious things. Mom was in the ER a few months ago and none of the kids knew until THREE DAYS LATER. So I had no idea how serious this was. I sent Sister a text along the lines of "What are your plans with this Mom thing? Should we go see her? Did you get more from Dad than 'It's a heart thing'?" Sister calls me about 30 minutes later almost in tears. She's talked to Mama N who talked to our parents' pastor who had actually seen Mom in the ER. He said she didn't look good at all and they were originally planning on airlifting her, but it was too foggy.
So of course we decide to go.
Apparently she felt bad all day on Wednesday and noticed her blood pressure was a little high before she went to bed (she's been monitoring it for her Primary Care doctor). She woke up with a bad headache around 4:00am and took some medicine. At some point she stopped being able to breathe. So they finally decided she should probably go to the ER. And not tell their children for about two hours. 8P
By the time we get there (the story could be much longer and less interesting - you're welcome) Mom is feeling much better. They have her on oxygen and she's able to breathe and talk without any problems. They determined she had fluid on her lungs. Sister was guessing (I'm not sure if a doctor every confirmed this) that Mom had had fluid on her lungs for at least a couple of months - Mom has had trouble sleeping for awhile.
We sit around all day and finally a doctor comes in. He listens to her lungs and asks her a bajillion questions. He tells her the fluid is the main concern - her inability to breathe probably caused her to panic and then raised her blood pressure. They need to figure out what caused the fluid and she will most definitely be in the hospital all weekend. Then Sister, Dad, and I all leave. Dad has to go pick up some clothes and stuff for Mom and Sister and I need to get back home.
On our way home, Mama N calls us - another doctor came in and checked Mom out. He said the high blood pressure strained her heart and caused fluid to build up on her lungs, so all they need to do is straighten out her blood pressure and she should be fine. She should be able to go home today (Friday, that is). So...who's right? Mom's going with Doc #2, because she wants to come home. :)
They did an echocardiogram on her this morning but I don't think they have the results back. I haven't heard anything, anyway. So still no work on if she's going to be in the hospital another day. Mom's feeling fine, though. Said she thinks she's all back to normal. Which, with Mom, "back to normal" still isn't all that great. ;)
Oh, hey - I just realized tonight is homecoming at my old high school. I was going to go to that. Mmm....I don't think I am anymore.
October 3, 2012
This is (Part 3 of) a Story of a Girl
Alright, Parts 1 and 2 should be linked now...
So....this is how our (mine and MC's) “friendship” ended:
My office was on the fourth floor of the building. His was on the third, where all our classes were. Often when our last class would get out at 7:30pm, I just wanted to go home. Screw walking up an entire flight of stairs - I would just leave all my books and stuff in his office and pick them up the next day. Well, on this fine day I went to his office to get my laptop, or something. His office was open, but he wasn’t inside (this NEVER happened). I walked over to get my laptop and realized his computer wasn’t locked, either!! Mind. Blown.
I get on his IM account and message our mutual friend Cheese. I’m like “CHEESE - WHAT DO I DO?!?!” Cheese, realizing this is a golden moment that may never be replicated, is on board and suggests I rearrange his office. Brilliant idea, Cheese! As I’m chatting with her, I notice his browser is open to a page explaining the difference between the two...terms?...e.g. and i.e. I’ve never understood the difference, so I was like...whatev - he probably needed it for something and who just knows that off the top of their heads? WEIRDOS.
Since Cheese and I were in agreement, I decided to rearrange his office. All the chairs got moved to the center of the room...I put all the small items in either the fridge, microwave, or filing cabinets. And honestly that’s about it. I had no idea when he was going to show back up and I didn’t want to get caught. At the beginning of the semester he had gotten into my office and screwed with my monitors so badly it had taken me like 30 minutes to get them straightened out. We all had dual monitors - he had switched mine so left was on the right and right was on the left, turned one vertical, and I don’t know what else. I say that just so you know why I thought this kind of joke would be okay.
Anyway, I go back up to my office and log on to Facebook. And there in my newsfeed is a post by Mr. MC himself, discussing his thesis. It was some pompous status about how great his thesis was. I don’t remember the exact wording, but he used either e.g. or i.e. (I’m sure he used the correct one, too.) I was like “teehee” and commented along the lines of “Is this why you had that “e.g. vs. i.e.” site pulled up on your computer?!” See what I did there? I let him know that *I* was the culprit behind the office destruction. I’m so clever!!
Well, anyway. He’s a douche, so his rebuttal was something about how he wanted to make sure he did things right, but a good example of failure would be some of the homework assignments I had turned in. Well now. I told you before how he was pissing me off more and more frequently the last year or so we were friends....and this really pissed me off. So I cut deep (and spoke the truth) - I said a real example of failure would be his own personal life. Ooohhhhh......ouch. So that pissed him off. He deleted all my comments. (HARSH MOVE, MAN!)
I forget where he posted it, but he said that his retaliation against me would happen soon and you’d know it when I started freaking out. So I vowed right then to not let anyone know when it happened. Especially him. Later that evening (or maybe the next one), I was working on a project for one of my classes. I finished it up and a few minutes later someone asked a question, so I opened my file back up and showed them what I had done. Then I just left it up for awhile and did some other stuff...eventually went to close it and my default close was a save and close (“:wq” in VIM - took a long time to break that habit when I started my all MS all the time job). Well it said I couldn’t access the file anymore. I was like...that’s weird...but figured it was just because I had left it open so long my session had timed out or something.
The next day Little Hippo came up to me and told me MC had told him what he’d done. I guess it had been too long without any acknowledgement, so he had to tell someone. He had logged on to Ranger as root and removed all the permissions on all my files. Instantly pissed - I realized that’s why my file had messed up the day before. If he had done it 15 minutes earlier, I would have been working on that file and unable to save my work. Remembering my vow, I said not a word on FB or to MC. I got with my non-douchey-but-smart office-mate and we got it all fixed in about 20 minutes.
But....I kept thinking about it, and about how much he could have broken. And just kept getting more pissed. I had already had a bad semester with KC - reached a breaking point and emailed the head of the dept about him....so maybe I was just in a tattling mood. But I emailed the CS Lab Admin and told him the whole story. And he got super pissed, too. Told me MC could get expelled for such a serious abuse of power. Instead, he decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and removed all his privileges on Ranger.
Well, what the lab admin didn’t know was that MC had a big demo of his thesis project on campus the next day. It wouldn’t affect his thesis or graduation or anything - it was just a way for the best and brightest of each dept to show off to the uppity-ups of the university. He had won it the year before. I guess he didn’t test anything prior to his demo, though... When the dean of Basic and Applied Sciences showed up, MC tried to show him stuff his account was blocked.
MC texted the STUDENT lab admin (not the one who had blocked him) with the succinct text of “Fix my accounts - now.” And this guy (the one who is married to my photographer friend, actually) had not a clue what had happened. So he was like...f you - you’re not my boss. And ignored him. So...I’m guessing MC didn’t win that year. :D
A bunch of stuff happened after that, but none of it memorable. I had to talk to the CS Lab Admin and the chair of the dept, explain my side of the story. It was so stupid. I fluctuated between feeling bad that it had all gone down (feeling like it was my fault) to being pissed that MC had taken it that far (feeling like it was his fault). I really regret not having balls enough to break off our friendship years before when I realized he was a douche.
I finally sent an email to the chair, the lab admin, and MC apologizing for things getting so out of control. No one responded to it, but later the chair thanked me for it. The lab admin told me MC never admitted to having any blame and instead tried to push it all on me. And MC never talked to me again. So.... That took care of that! No more worrying about being MC’s friend.
Then I hear that he’s telling Cheese that she shouldn’t go to grad school. That there are some students who do well in grad school and some that just “get by”. And she’d obviously be one of the latter. Apparently he’s STILL telling her that. Luckily she’s ignoring him and starting grad school in the fall. Unfortunately, she’s still TALKING to him. He has told her that once he starts making friends at his new job (Oh, you didn’t hear - he’s working at Google now. Did you miss the hour-long presentation he gave about how awesome he was??) he’ll stop talking to her. I wouldn’t hold my breath on all those new friends, MC.
And finally...we reach the end of my tale (saga?). This is the reason I started writing this blog. Beardie, MC’s friend from before MC was my friend, sent me a FB message saying “I was talking to MC and he said you tried to get him kicked out of the department? That’s all he would tell me. I’d love it if you gave me the full story.”
Oy. Alllll that rage came back. So I told Beardie the full story. His reply?
So....this is how our (mine and MC's) “friendship” ended:
My office was on the fourth floor of the building. His was on the third, where all our classes were. Often when our last class would get out at 7:30pm, I just wanted to go home. Screw walking up an entire flight of stairs - I would just leave all my books and stuff in his office and pick them up the next day. Well, on this fine day I went to his office to get my laptop, or something. His office was open, but he wasn’t inside (this NEVER happened). I walked over to get my laptop and realized his computer wasn’t locked, either!! Mind. Blown.
I get on his IM account and message our mutual friend Cheese. I’m like “CHEESE - WHAT DO I DO?!?!” Cheese, realizing this is a golden moment that may never be replicated, is on board and suggests I rearrange his office. Brilliant idea, Cheese! As I’m chatting with her, I notice his browser is open to a page explaining the difference between the two...terms?...e.g. and i.e. I’ve never understood the difference, so I was like...whatev - he probably needed it for something and who just knows that off the top of their heads? WEIRDOS.
Since Cheese and I were in agreement, I decided to rearrange his office. All the chairs got moved to the center of the room...I put all the small items in either the fridge, microwave, or filing cabinets. And honestly that’s about it. I had no idea when he was going to show back up and I didn’t want to get caught. At the beginning of the semester he had gotten into my office and screwed with my monitors so badly it had taken me like 30 minutes to get them straightened out. We all had dual monitors - he had switched mine so left was on the right and right was on the left, turned one vertical, and I don’t know what else. I say that just so you know why I thought this kind of joke would be okay.
Anyway, I go back up to my office and log on to Facebook. And there in my newsfeed is a post by Mr. MC himself, discussing his thesis. It was some pompous status about how great his thesis was. I don’t remember the exact wording, but he used either e.g. or i.e. (I’m sure he used the correct one, too.) I was like “teehee” and commented along the lines of “Is this why you had that “e.g. vs. i.e.” site pulled up on your computer?!” See what I did there? I let him know that *I* was the culprit behind the office destruction. I’m so clever!!
Well, anyway. He’s a douche, so his rebuttal was something about how he wanted to make sure he did things right, but a good example of failure would be some of the homework assignments I had turned in. Well now. I told you before how he was pissing me off more and more frequently the last year or so we were friends....and this really pissed me off. So I cut deep (and spoke the truth) - I said a real example of failure would be his own personal life. Ooohhhhh......ouch. So that pissed him off. He deleted all my comments. (HARSH MOVE, MAN!)
I forget where he posted it, but he said that his retaliation against me would happen soon and you’d know it when I started freaking out. So I vowed right then to not let anyone know when it happened. Especially him. Later that evening (or maybe the next one), I was working on a project for one of my classes. I finished it up and a few minutes later someone asked a question, so I opened my file back up and showed them what I had done. Then I just left it up for awhile and did some other stuff...eventually went to close it and my default close was a save and close (“:wq” in VIM - took a long time to break that habit when I started my all MS all the time job). Well it said I couldn’t access the file anymore. I was like...that’s weird...but figured it was just because I had left it open so long my session had timed out or something.
The next day Little Hippo came up to me and told me MC had told him what he’d done. I guess it had been too long without any acknowledgement, so he had to tell someone. He had logged on to Ranger as root and removed all the permissions on all my files. Instantly pissed - I realized that’s why my file had messed up the day before. If he had done it 15 minutes earlier, I would have been working on that file and unable to save my work. Remembering my vow, I said not a word on FB or to MC. I got with my non-douchey-but-smart office-mate and we got it all fixed in about 20 minutes.
But....I kept thinking about it, and about how much he could have broken. And just kept getting more pissed. I had already had a bad semester with KC - reached a breaking point and emailed the head of the dept about him....so maybe I was just in a tattling mood. But I emailed the CS Lab Admin and told him the whole story. And he got super pissed, too. Told me MC could get expelled for such a serious abuse of power. Instead, he decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and removed all his privileges on Ranger.
Well, what the lab admin didn’t know was that MC had a big demo of his thesis project on campus the next day. It wouldn’t affect his thesis or graduation or anything - it was just a way for the best and brightest of each dept to show off to the uppity-ups of the university. He had won it the year before. I guess he didn’t test anything prior to his demo, though... When the dean of Basic and Applied Sciences showed up, MC tried to show him stuff his account was blocked.
MC texted the STUDENT lab admin (not the one who had blocked him) with the succinct text of “Fix my accounts - now.” And this guy (the one who is married to my photographer friend, actually) had not a clue what had happened. So he was like...f you - you’re not my boss. And ignored him. So...I’m guessing MC didn’t win that year. :D
A bunch of stuff happened after that, but none of it memorable. I had to talk to the CS Lab Admin and the chair of the dept, explain my side of the story. It was so stupid. I fluctuated between feeling bad that it had all gone down (feeling like it was my fault) to being pissed that MC had taken it that far (feeling like it was his fault). I really regret not having balls enough to break off our friendship years before when I realized he was a douche.
I finally sent an email to the chair, the lab admin, and MC apologizing for things getting so out of control. No one responded to it, but later the chair thanked me for it. The lab admin told me MC never admitted to having any blame and instead tried to push it all on me. And MC never talked to me again. So.... That took care of that! No more worrying about being MC’s friend.
Then I hear that he’s telling Cheese that she shouldn’t go to grad school. That there are some students who do well in grad school and some that just “get by”. And she’d obviously be one of the latter. Apparently he’s STILL telling her that. Luckily she’s ignoring him and starting grad school in the fall. Unfortunately, she’s still TALKING to him. He has told her that once he starts making friends at his new job (Oh, you didn’t hear - he’s working at Google now. Did you miss the hour-long presentation he gave about how awesome he was??) he’ll stop talking to her. I wouldn’t hold my breath on all those new friends, MC.
And finally...we reach the end of my tale (saga?). This is the reason I started writing this blog. Beardie, MC’s friend from before MC was my friend, sent me a FB message saying “I was talking to MC and he said you tried to get him kicked out of the department? That’s all he would tell me. I’d love it if you gave me the full story.”
Oy. Alllll that rage came back. So I told Beardie the full story. His reply?
Wow.... well I guess my original guess of "sexing up an undergrad in his office" was WAY off. That all sounds really awful.lulz - everyone hates you, MC. Even your friends. Get a new personality.
He also treated me like sh!t. As soon as we graduated I pretty much discontinued any contact. We only bumped into each other a couple of times on campus after that... or rather... he came and found me when I was practicing in the music building... I must have still been driving my old car. How else would he have known? He would just tell me about all these things he was doing.. conferences I guess? I don't know. His friendship was a pretty toxic one. I avoided any ACM things after we graduated just so I wouldn't have to be around him...
Well I apologize for him being a tool to you. I honestly thought most people in the department liked him... Congratulations on graduating and finding a job!
October 2, 2012
September 26, 2012
This is (Part 2 of) a Story of a Girl
If you missed Part 1....hopefully I remembered to add a link to it before I published this one. ;)
By the end of my undergrad career I had become really close “friends” with MC. I hate that he’s the focus of my CS story, but I want to be a warning to other people out there. Don’t be stupid like me. Sometimes I feel like I got out of an abusive relationship, lol. Not physical - he’s CS for crying out loud. But by the time our friendship was over I had zero confidence in myself in the one area of my life he had any influence - CS. I can’t imagine what he does to the women he dates.
Everyone else in the CS department is great. I mean...there are some weird ones. Well, some REALLY weird ones. We’re all weird. But most of us are the kind of weird that we can accept. Maybe no one outside of us can...but we do. There are some that we can’t even tolerate. But I’m not here to make fun of the freakiest of the freaks. That’s just mean. But try to tone down your weird, guys. Just a little. For me? Please?
So, anyway. By the time I graduated I was friends with most of the department. At least the group of people who were as far along into the program as I was. Three of us stuck around for grad school. I thought that was a lot. But this past year? I think EVERYONE stuck around for grad school. It amused me. Leave the nest, little birds! But I still visit campus...so who am I to judge?
Gah! So off-topic! Grad school. It was fun. Mostly. I think what detracted from it was my friendship with MC. By now he had made me dependent on him, school-wise. If I didn’t understand something I’d ask him for help. “Well how do you think you should do it?” I explain my thinking and am called an idiot and told how to do it - his way. I can’t emphasize this enough:
DO YOUR OWN WORK.
It’s tricky, because you can obviously get help from people. Every other friend I’ve had in the department I’ve been able to work with and still learn. So I guess I should say....always make sure you understand what you’re turning in. Don’t just let someone tell you how to do it. And if anyone EVER makes you feel stupid for not understanding something - get away from them. I don’t mean those people that are so freakishly smart you can’t believe they’re actually human. I mean people who purposefully insult you for not being as smart as they are.
He was constantly telling me I was dumb - telling other people I was dumb. He told me if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have made it through grad school. But you know what? I had classes without him. And I made perfectly good grades in them. And I actually KNEW the stuff I was doing. Well, except for Networks. But that class is BS. All the classes I had with MC...I don’t think I learned anything. Other than how worthless I was.
By the end of grad school I was sick of it. He was pissing me off on a weekly basis. No, daily, probably. The only reason I stayed his friend was because I knew after graduation we wouldn’t talk any more. I didn’t want him to think I was only his friend so I could get help from him. And I wasn’t brave enough to call him a dick. Well, that’s a lie. I think I did call him a dick a lot. He just didn’t care. Any time you call him out on his BS he just assumes you’re jealous.
Part 3 (the final part) should be posted next week. Stay tuned for the cluster f*ck that was the end of our friendship!! :D :D
By the end of my undergrad career I had become really close “friends” with MC. I hate that he’s the focus of my CS story, but I want to be a warning to other people out there. Don’t be stupid like me. Sometimes I feel like I got out of an abusive relationship, lol. Not physical - he’s CS for crying out loud. But by the time our friendship was over I had zero confidence in myself in the one area of my life he had any influence - CS. I can’t imagine what he does to the women he dates.
Everyone else in the CS department is great. I mean...there are some weird ones. Well, some REALLY weird ones. We’re all weird. But most of us are the kind of weird that we can accept. Maybe no one outside of us can...but we do. There are some that we can’t even tolerate. But I’m not here to make fun of the freakiest of the freaks. That’s just mean. But try to tone down your weird, guys. Just a little. For me? Please?
So, anyway. By the time I graduated I was friends with most of the department. At least the group of people who were as far along into the program as I was. Three of us stuck around for grad school. I thought that was a lot. But this past year? I think EVERYONE stuck around for grad school. It amused me. Leave the nest, little birds! But I still visit campus...so who am I to judge?
Gah! So off-topic! Grad school. It was fun. Mostly. I think what detracted from it was my friendship with MC. By now he had made me dependent on him, school-wise. If I didn’t understand something I’d ask him for help. “Well how do you think you should do it?” I explain my thinking and am called an idiot and told how to do it - his way. I can’t emphasize this enough:
DO YOUR OWN WORK.
It’s tricky, because you can obviously get help from people. Every other friend I’ve had in the department I’ve been able to work with and still learn. So I guess I should say....always make sure you understand what you’re turning in. Don’t just let someone tell you how to do it. And if anyone EVER makes you feel stupid for not understanding something - get away from them. I don’t mean those people that are so freakishly smart you can’t believe they’re actually human. I mean people who purposefully insult you for not being as smart as they are.
He was constantly telling me I was dumb - telling other people I was dumb. He told me if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have made it through grad school. But you know what? I had classes without him. And I made perfectly good grades in them. And I actually KNEW the stuff I was doing. Well, except for Networks. But that class is BS. All the classes I had with MC...I don’t think I learned anything. Other than how worthless I was.
By the end of grad school I was sick of it. He was pissing me off on a weekly basis. No, daily, probably. The only reason I stayed his friend was because I knew after graduation we wouldn’t talk any more. I didn’t want him to think I was only his friend so I could get help from him. And I wasn’t brave enough to call him a dick. Well, that’s a lie. I think I did call him a dick a lot. He just didn’t care. Any time you call him out on his BS he just assumes you’re jealous.
Part 3 (the final part) should be posted next week. Stay tuned for the cluster f*ck that was the end of our friendship!! :D :D
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