Happy St. Patrick's Day

An Irish Toast to Friendship Here's to you, here's to me, the best of friends we'll always be. But if we ever disagree, forget you, here's to ME! Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day

There are two types of people in the world: the Irish and everyone who wishes they were.

So, I'm a quarter Irish, and proud of the fact. My mom is half Irish, and my grandmother and her whole family are full-blood Irish. Needless to say, there's always a nice big celebration on the 17th of March for my family; typically Uncle Bob and Aunt Marylou (Grandma's sister) have people over to their place for lots of food, family, and beer, which is what a good Irish celebration should be. St. Patrick's day was always fun at Uncle Bob's.

This is the second year that I won't be out there for it, and while it's not at the same level as missing, say, Christmas, it's still a little disappointing. Thankfully, though, this will be the last year, at least for some time I hope, that won't be there, and that thought's kind of encouraging. Unfortunately, that thought also reminds me of the staggering amount of work that needs to be done, by me, in the next six months. I'm not really concerned, I'm sure it'll all work out fine in the end and that, for the most part, everyone out here is trying to help me succeed (and I'm not doing too bad myself). But it's enough to frighten me a bit.

This evening a group of us are getting together at Ed's place, Steve is going to make more corn beef and cabbage, and we'll have some beers. It'll be alright. Hopefully Brian (if he shows up) doesn't get out of control like last year, and Marcin forgets about the work he needs to complete in the next three months long enough to enjoy himself.

Last night, before FNM, I went out with a few of the guys from the card shop (Rob, Bruce, and Childers) to the Crown and Anchor, my preferred bar. We had burgers and some beer, Rob and I did car-bombs (Oh how I've missed those), and we got souvenir glasses and t-shirts. Two-hundred and fifty years of Guinness.

Anyways, happy St. Patrick's day, everyone.

Help you help me.

So I've made it possible now for any of my friends (that's you) to add (existing) tags to my entries. I keep trying to tag my entries appropriately, but sometimes I get side-tracked or busy or whatever. So, if you see an entry and think of a tag it could use, tag it; if I don't have a tag you're looking for on a given entry, suggest it to me via comment. And if you really love me, you'll go through my Old Entries and help me tag those.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I hate Finances

So I've been back here in Monterey for three months now. And things have been alright. Finances are annoying. It doesn't help that we're paid every two weeks; we don't have a set time durring the month when we get paid. Sometimes I'll get paid on the 1st and 14th, or on the 14th and 28th, or just about any combination in between. It probably doesn't fluctuate quite that much, but it's significant, and I've found my paycheck to be several days late relative to my bills several times, and at least a couple times it's been as much as a week late. This period is one of those times: I'm effectively broke until next Friday.

I say effectively because I do have a significant amount of money in savings. My mom is quick to note that, at my age, dad had a wife, too kids, they were living in an apartment in San Diego and living paycheck-to-paycheck, without anything to speak of in savings. I'm single, no kids, living in a room in a house, with almost a month's pay in the bank. So I'm doing alright.

But I still don't like messing up my finances, and this month I really have. I've had to dig $700 into my savings this month because the money wasn't there when the bills came, and I can't quite recoup that and finish paying my bills even when my next paycheck comes. My first paycheck in April comes on the 7th, and if I watch myself I think I can right my accounts shortly thereafter, but I don't like it. It's frustrating. I can't stand feeling disappointed in myself.

My friend Laurel sat down with me this afternoon and we went over what I get paid, what I HAVE to pay out, and what I'm left with to do as I will. She used a preset Excel template and we covered all the bases; the 'money paid to myself' in lower than I'd like, but a few of the entertainment and luxury bits she put in are higher than I think I ever spend. I'm gonna go around with a notebook through April and keep track of where my money's going and adjust my budget respectively. I really think that, when I started in January with my very informal budget, I forgot significant bits; like, hundreds of dolors of bills I have to pay each month. Sloppiness on my part, but it would explain why my finances are broken right now. That it took three months to crop up just says how flexible my banking can be, I guess.

I hate finances.

The Root of all Evil

So here's a wonderful little thing I just learned: the administration has been lying to us from day one. And, in all likelihood, they're still lying to us about any number of things.

See, they've been telling us this whole time that the program gives us six quarters worth of money, which they dole out on a monthly basis. We've been making plans for schedules and internships and being pressured on thesis to get done in six quarters -- and it turns out that, in fact, the program grants us enough money for eight quarters. That's another six months of money, somewhere on the order of $12,000 per student.

I found this out because my buddy Marcin is seriously afraid of failing a course that won't be offered again until after he's supposed to graduate, and I figured big deal, they can't make him stay longer, right? Well, he says that it turns out they can because of this extra wad of cash they have left over, presumably which they pocket whenever we graduate 'on time.' This explains all that bullshit they fed us about "making allowances" if things with your thesis don't go right, or you can't find a job right off from graduation.

I can't express how angry this makes me. Despite the fact that I *really* want to graduate in September and move on with my life, part of me wants to drag my feet out of spite just to deny them pocketing another $12,000.

And part of me is now afraid of messing up and unintentionally staying the full term.

Music Meme

Yoinked from mmeubiquitous

Rules:
1. Have your music library ready.
2. Choose one (1) song from your music library whose title starts with the first letter (or number) of your screen name.
3. Repeat this process with each successive letter (or number) in your screen name until you run out of letters (or numbers).
4. Post up your results.

J - "Jabberwocky" by Cruxshadows
A - "Almost Human" by Voltaire
C - "Codemonkey" by Johnathan Coulton
K - "Killer Queen" by Queen
O - "One Child" by Savatage
F - "Further" by VNV Nation
A - "Another Day" by Dream Theatre
L - "Last Comfort" by ThouShaltNot
L - "Lonely Lonely" by Feist
G - "Ground" by Assemblage 23
E - "End of Creation" by Psychecorp
E - "End" by Linkin Park
K - "Kissed by a Rose" by Seal
S - "Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche