Dysmey Post Archive > Pages for 2004 > End-Of-Year 2004 Edition
I forgot to mention that I was dinged for that job at University Computing Services. I don't know why I was rejected (they never say), but I can assume that there won't be another job opening there for the next six months or so.
In June I got a part-time temporary job working on making content at the University Libraries available for mobile devices. There is a whole lot more I like to do with that job (e.g., I can't take surveys to find how students or faculty use their mobile devices). Otherwise, I am happy with it.
Despite a scare last week — my boss thought the position might end in April, the month when the grant from the Indiana State Library was awarded — I am looking forward to accomplishing more in the next six months.
Also in June my ex-employer got its annual auditing out of the way, and I was able to cash out my ESOP. It is enough to sign up for classes at Ivy Tech without taking out any loans. I had planned to take classes in the fall to get an associate's degree in network administration. Then the core classes were closed due to lack of participation (only three people signed up). I had planned to sign up for those classes in the spring; but when I checked the classes, I found they were filled up!
A pox on Ivy Tech! I think I will just study on my own.
While I was waiting for the spring classes at Ivy Tech, I took an introductory accounting class at Ball State on audit. "On audit" means you can attend classes, take the tests, but don't get any grade. To audit a class, you wait for an empty spot and pay a fifty dollar fee.
For something as supposedly staid as accounting, the textbook is large, colorful and profusely illustrated. It also comes with a CD, but I didn't use it because all its files are in Quicktime format.
I would lie if I said I would miss this year. There has been nothing good at all about it. I was diagnosed as diabetic and forced to change both my routine and my diet. Then I lost my job. Well, that was not all bad: After I got over the dread, I've gotten more exercise and less easy access to food. I'm now down to 200 pounds. I used to be obese, but now I'm just overweight.
Fairmount is doing okay, but the area around it. The big reassessment may mean higher property taxes but no additional revenue for cash-strapped schools, cities and counties. We here didn't know for a long long time because the assessor took a long long time. Now the big bitching among county officials is exploding into an expensive lawsuit filed by (zounds!) the assessor. The county council took a clerk away, and he didn't like it!
The state of Indiana is in worse shape because it was overreliant on manufacturing jobs that have fled to Mexico and China. Well, at least Indiana isn't as distressed as a certain town east of Ohio. ;-)
And the Son of Linguini Spine hid behind flag-waving and paeans to freedom to clean up his father's mess in Iraq. On the plus side (and it's not much of a plus), a less than ½% fatality rate since the start of the Iraqi war is not all that bad; the yearly car-crash fatality rate in this country is three times greater. I say "not much of a plus" because it becomes very bad indeed when it's your kid that gets blown up by one of Saddam's goons.