I Wonder Sometimes

Been a while? Yes it has. Campbell internet has slowed down tremendously this year, and it has become very frustrating to download anything or even visit websites with too many pictures. I've heard recently that this might be due to a wide use of Ares, a Kazaa-like peer to peer file sharing network that can't be so easily detected by campus computer personnel. Great job, guys. You weren't caught. But take a look at these internet speeds. They're agonizing! My neighbor across the hall told me it took him twenty minutes to download a song off of Ares that should have taken less than two. There is a reason why file sharing programs were outlawed on campus.

I'm incredibly excited about my free iPod! I finally got enough referrals, and I my account is under review at this very moment. In two weeks, the review should be done, and I should be able to order my free iPod! I don't know if I'm as excited about the actual iPod as I am for FINALLY having achieved a long-sought goal. Back when I was a skeptic, I promised a friend that if he actually got a free iPod from this scheme, I would buckle down and get one too. Well, he got it, and now I have come through on my promise. Once I get my iPod in my hands, I think I'll go for the shuffle (seems like it would make a great gift). Also, I will advertise with my freeipods.com T-shirt that comes with he iPod and try to help out my friends who are still working toward their five referrals. If one of my referrals turns out to be invalid (an unlikely outcome) I'll dive back in head first until I get my free iPod, darnnit! Getting stuff from Freepay has become somewhat of a hobby, I guess.

I'm so, so happy to be back at school for that long, long summer. I'm starting to settle in, and I now have most of my books (save for microbiology). I've tried much harder this year to decorate my room and really make it a comfortable place for me to live. The smell of cinnamon welcomes me every time I open my door in the coldest temperature I can squeeze out of the AC system. Artwork, posters, and random junk adorn the walls, and my surround-sound system, though not great for DVD's, is excellent for playing music. I had a jig-fest to it just last night. The winds of change blow down the new walkways and through the orange plastic fences as things are built and renewed all around campus. I'm very happy with my school right now. This is a year to look forward to, I think.

Still, I keep having this feeling of angst concerning my major course of study. Is biochemistry really my calling? Are labwork and memorization really my passions? Should I change majors? Should I shift? Should I just stick it out and hope for the best? I don't exactly know how to feel. It's not that I'm bad at science, or that I feel this major is too much to handle, but what about other options? Dr. Jung impressed me when he said "...always have a plan B. And plan C and D." He went on to say that Chemistry wasn't even supposed to be his field of study, but look at him now. About of third of the Department Chairmen didn't major in the department they're chairing. Jung was referring to Pre-pharm majors when he said this, but I took it to hear--maybe because it was what I wanted to hear. I'm seriously thinking about shifting my major. It feels too bold and rash, but I can't help but ponder the possibility. Maybe a Chemistry major with an English minor. What I'd really like is the other way around. Maybe an art history minor. I'd definitely like to take the class, but Biochemistry doesn't leave much room for electives, let alone minors. If you don't want to be a chemistry-Biochemistry double major, it seems your out of luck. Before I make any decisions, I definitely want to fist talk with my advisor and see if a change is even possible at this point without an extra semester. The thought of switching majors weighs on my mind more than any other. I'll have to finish my semester out, anyway, so we will see how it goes.

The New Face of Higher Learning

I changed the template of my blogger site! I think I did it because I stopped liking the feeling I got when I looked at my page before. Too many browns, perhaps. I also now have a links sidebar, and that is a plus too, I suppose. I enjoy the feel of this template, and I think I'll be glad I moved away from the old one.

I posted a very long entry a few minutes ago, but after a shower, I decided to delete it. It wasn't particularly personal or poorly written; I just didn't get the right feeling when I wrote it. I felt it was generic and didn't really express anything. Not anything genuine, anyway. It does bothers me sometimes when I delete an entry like that, though. I feel like I'm trying to hide something. The entry I deleted was mostly about Truth and how I felt about it--how highly I esteem trust and how much it means to me that I am or become trustworthy. It is important to mention these things, I guess. There does seem to be a lack of people to trust anymore, but I'm very glad that I have friends I can truly say I trust. But trust is such a broad term, isn't it? I think what I mean is that I can open myself up to them without fear of being torn down. I feel assured that my opinions and feelings matter and make a difference, and their complements aren't simply empty courtesies. That may be over-simplifying things, but it's just a re-cap of what I deleted, after all.

I've had some bad days at Andy's before, but today absolutely takes the cake. See, our opporator, Angie, quit without warning a few days ago. She just up and left, and I dont' know why. I mean, I'm sure she had her reasons, but it turned the whole store up on it's heels. Today was our new operator's first day on the job, and the transitions he wanted us to make coupled with his relitive inexperience and my absolute lack of talent on the cookline sent the lunch rush into a fiery tailspin of utter chaos. We had, I'm sure, ten or more orders up at a time, and we were putting out absolutely unacceptibly long tickets. Up to 30 minustes, so I'm told. I mean, it was pandamonium! I was on the verge of tears as I rushed and busstled, trying my best to make put out orders as fast as I could. We even had waiters and waitresses coming back to help on the cookline. I have NEVER seen such an utter catastrophe in all my days at Andy's, and I've never felt so close to hell on the cookline. I kept my cool as best I could and calmed down the frustrated helpers working around me who were nearly ready to quit right then and there. I must admit, I even throwing down my aprin and walking out the door myself. Mounds of food was being thrown away, and many orders were given to the customers for free just so they wouldn't curse our store to the grave. And even though we were busting our tails and customers were getting angeryer by the minute, the tickets just kept coming up! It was like an endless line of thick-needed shots--like flys we could't swat away! As chaotic as it was behind the line, it was naught to compair to what the poor waitresses has to deal with. To the customers, the waitress was the face of evil that kept their food from them. It made one particular waitress almost collapes in a nervious breakdown, and she is no easy nut to crack. Staff who came in just for a meal ended up putting on hats and getting to work clock in street clothes off the clock. I believe that if there was ever a special place prepared for me in hell, it would have me working like this every day and sleeping every night in the first night of the SUV contest. There was simply nothing to compair it to. I pray--I PRAY--that I Wednesday is nothing like that. If it is, I seriously don't know what I'll do. I guess I'll try my best until the cheeze slides off my cracker, so to speak.

I have many more things to recount, but I really should be getting to bed, but let me at least say that by the end of today, I felt it was all-in-all a pretty good day. The Andy's ordeal was just something I NEVER want to go though again. O heavens! I hope I don't have nightmares about it...