Dysmey Post Archive > Pages for 2004 > Mid-April Edition
I fasted during the morning of Good Friday, abstaining from food and not taking my morning dose of metformin. After I resumed eating this afternoon, I tested my blood sugar, and found it shot up. After resuming metformin in the evening, my blood sugar went back down.
I used Dr. Snyder's prescription to get more metformin at Wal-Mart, where (as she had told me) the cost was less than half that of CVS or the local pharmacy. Ah, the power of buying in bulk!
Easter came and went. For Sunday dinner I had roast beef instead of ham (which I had last Sunday). This Easter differed from others due to all the chatter about the Mel Gibson film.
Erin stopped over to borrow my Snappy video capture device. She used a video camera to get pictures of visiting Japanese students (bishônen, mostly) because her own camera broke.
The sewer that serves my house is not connected to the town system, but drains into a nearby leach field that the town maintains. The sewer pipe passes near some trees, whose roots threaten to clog the pipe. Thus I need to put salt into the intake opening to kill any roots inside the pipe.
On the Thursday before Easter I decided it was time for some salt. So I went to the store, bought a bag of salt, carried it home, and poured it into the intake. The bag of salt weighted forty pounds (eighteen kilos); it's a half-mile (800-meter) walk from the store to my house; and I carried the bag in my arms all the way home.
My arms were tired for the rest of the day, but I was no worse for wear. I carried monitors that heavy when I worked for the bank.
The computer science department of my alma mater gave its first alumni reunion on 3 April 2004. Nobody I knew came. (It would have been nice if "Corwin" showed up; I owe him a lot.) I didn't recognize my old professors at first; that's not surprising given how much time had passed since my graduation.
The morning had a continental breakfast paid for by Eli Lilly, followed by morning speeches. Then came a brief tour of the new campus on the way to lunch. Lunch at the Student Center was provided by Red Sun Buffet, a local Chinese restaurant. At this point, since the afternoon had amateur music and more speeches, I decided to leave early.
The morning speeches were either motivational stuff or the 'here is what I do' type. It's hard to stay awake during them, especially as I had no caffeine that morning. The only exception was a remembrance by Ms. Datar of Eli Lilly, who described the hard work she put forth in order to get her degree.
The Friends of the Bracken Library had its annual dinner on 7 April 2004. Mrs. Powers, the mother of my friend DeAnne, was there because one of her student workers won an award for good grades. The dinner was a salad with strange greens, grilled chicken, rice, zucchini and a tasty dessert of fruit and cream cheese. The after-dinner speech was by retired doctor/poet who is a fount of both humor and invention.
Ball State's rep as a party college is ending.
The murder of a student by city kids last month brings a crackdown of large off-campus parties by both the University and the city of Muncie. Over a hundred students are ticketed, and one social fraternity was put on probation. This in turn results in protests by the students, who complain that they are being picked on.
The City, for its part, replies that they are (at long last) responding to complains of noise, vandalism and hooliganism from residents of neighborhoods with lots of students.
The University has set up a campaign of posters, ads, and what amounts to internal spam warning students about off-campus parties. It has done so in response to the murder and to the death of another student, who drunkenly tried to break into a house, then attacked a cop and was shot dead.
Both claim that they are doing what they have long been empowered to do. The BSU dean of student is "getting upset" about the complains. I don't know what his problem is: I'd have thought it comes with the job. I can understand the mayor's, though: The party-school rep of Ball State and all those rowdy students are a drag on a city with enough on its plate: loss of jobs, loss of citizens, a crumbling infrastructure, and querulous morons for politicians at the city and county level.
I attended an educational seminar on 6 April at Ivy Tech Marion. I had hoped to get my CCNA there. I was referred to a Mr. Morehead in Marion, whom I talked to on Friday (he had gone for a few days). He told me that I can get the CCNA only in Muncie due to Cisco requirements for labs as well as instructors. So I went to the Muncie Ivy Tech (two hugh prefab buildings south of the city) and talked with an instructor.
There are four classes that divide the Lammle CCNA book into networking basics, routing/IOS, LANs and WANs. They make up the heart of an Associate in Applied Science degree in CIS/networking.
I made copies of the Ivy Tech application, filled one out, and compiled transcripts and copies of my certification papers. To that I added copies of the FSFA (free student financial aid) form I mailed yesterday. I will be talking with the head of the regional CIS department about this tomorrow.