So, being as it has been a mere 2.5 months since my last post, I had better attempt to fill in the gap. The fall 2009 semester has started and I’m already aghast that enrollment for next spring is starting soon (October 30!).

This semester I’m in:
- ANTH 618: Religion in Culture – really, really interesting class. I have found, however, that the majority of students seem to be anthro majors and therefore a lot of the terminology and such flies way over my little CIS head. Not to mention that I’ve been trained the last two years to think of everything in sequence and logically – and things don’t always go that way in class (not that that’s a bad thing). Studying culture is entirely different than computing, that’s for sure.
- DEN 325: Personal & Professional Development – dumb requirement we have to take in order to graduate. Yes, some of what we discuss in this class is worthwhile – but I was told in class that I needed a $400 outfit with a designer purse to get job offers. I’m not kidding.
- PHYS 114: General Physics II – getting the class-with-a-science-prereq out of the way. It sucks, and quite frankly I probably won’t use anything from this class afterwards. I’m also not really digging the abstract-ness of the concepts (flux! Henrys! DANGEROUS ELECTRICAL CURRENTS!)
- CIS 501: Software Architecture – I’m really enjoying this class. We hadn’t really been taught previously how to lay out programs before coding and although it was awkward coding from diagrams the first time, I can definitely say that it’s a time saver and makes things so squeaky clean it makes my nerd knees week (say that ten times fast). We’ve been using StarUML to draw up the diagrams, which is a free solution for those interested.
- CIS 308: C/C++ Programming – I’m actually retaking this, as I had dropped it halfway through last semester. I should have this bitch knocked out though because I’m having an easier time this go around. I still hate C, however. If the devil went down to Georgia, C would be in the back seat with a baseball bat smacking little old Grannys’ mailboxes and kicking puppies. Srsly.
- STAT 325: Intro to Statistics – This has been pretty easy so far and I actually had my first exam tonight. I’m pretty certain I did really well but as always I’ll only know for sure once I see my grade online.

My course load has been pretty bad this semester, but not nearly as bad as fall 2008 (I shudder at the thought). That’s one of the reasons I haven’t been around here… the other reason is severe stress in other areas, namely some personal issues with family members that I won’t detail here. I don’t really foresee things changing until Christmas break, but at which time I’ll likely be working 40 hours a week again so who knows. I’m not making any promises.

The photo isn’t random here, these are just some books I’ve been poking around in lately. I haven’t got very far as of yet but I’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t claim to be knowledgeable about religion unless you start probing around in areas you previously had overlooked. I’m hoping to pick up some other religious materials soon… preferably over those I’m not too acquainted with, like Islam, Buddhism, etc. Any recommendations would be nice – although I would prefer ones that at least try to be academic – I’m not amused with Crocoduck reasoning.

Anyway, I’m still active around Twitter (@heatheronnen) and Facebook (I don’t add you unless I know you, but you can try if you really want to) if you’re interested. Hopefully it won’t be another 2.5 months before my next post…

Oh, and for some reason I’ve suddenly fell in love with Fleet Foxes.

As I was reviewing my financial aid statements today (which are better than in years past) I realized that I’ve accumulated quite a bit of debt in the form of college loans. I always knew I had quite a bit, but I guess I never fully realized how much it was. I don’t particularly regret it because unfortunately my financial situation didn’t allow me any other option but loans. All the same, though, it sucks to see that I’m already in debt to the tune of $10,000 with two more years to go. At least it seems like I’ll have to take little to no loan help this year because I’ve finally been able to move into a much cheaper apartment which saves me about $2,000/semester.

I’ve begun looking through my stuff for things I might be able to eBay off to put towards paying some of the loans off. We’ll see how that goes — eBay is scary, and I hate the fact they charge you to list items* and then again when you sell them. Amazon might be the way to go, I don’t know.

[Edit] * Apparently eBay lets you have 3 free listings a month. I’m trying it with one item to see how it pans out.

How did you cope with your college debt?

I’m going to be moving into an apartment soon, and I thought that I’d help out any incoming freshman (at any university) who may be considering staying in the dorms. Here’s my top reasons why I cannot wait to get the hell out of here. This is based upon dorms that are set up in what I’d consider the “classic” way – you share a single room with one other person with community bathrooms.

1. No matter what they tell you, your room will not be that big. Especially when you consider that you are sharing the room with another person, and more than likely you will both bring lots of crap, and all of these things will result in a very limited amount of space.
2. You will have to deal with another person who will, unless you’re very lucky, have a schedule unlike your’s and you will have to deal with them waking up much earlier than you, trashing the room, coming back to the room drunk (and I’ve heard stories of drunken roommates barfing all over the room). In my case specifically one of my former roommates was a theatre major who, forgive me, was obviously in a much easier curriculum than me, who is in the college of engineering.
3. Your roommate will probably not have the same standards of cleanliness as you. My theatre roommate that I mentioned previously was especially nasty – and I have photos to prove it. She would leave pizza containers and food on her desk for literally months, and only cleaned up when she had to before breaks when the RAs would check the rooms.
4. Your roommate will probably not have the same standards of decency as you. For instance, my theatre roommate liked to sit around the room with only a shirt on. She also liked to talk loudly on the phone about her sex life, and proclaim that all women felt like she did. Hmm.
5. Your roommate will probably not like the same music as you. Since my theatre roommate is making such a good example, I will use her again. She absolutely loved musicals. I think musicals are the spawn of satan. I would be listening to my music, she would come into the room and start blaring her shit at top volume with apparent disregard for whatever I was doing.
6. Most dorms are completely overpriced, no matter what they tell you at orientation, tours, whatever. I found out that my dorm equates to about $800 a month (but this includes food and all utilities except for TV). However, I can get an apartment for $200 a month that includes all utilities except for electricity. Unless I’m eating $600 worth of food or using $600 electricity, I fail to see how that’s a bargain.
7. Dorms force you out on breaks. Nevermind that you’ve already paid the monthly ‘rate’ in the form of a massive prepayment at the beginning of the semester. This makes it hard to get a job if they know you won’t be there for a month over Christmas break, and Thanksgiving break, etc.
8. The cafeteria is hardly ever what it’s cracked up to be. Our cafeteria in particular has okay food, but you have to wait in horrendous lines and deal with crappy hours. You end up scheduling your whole day around what time you can manage to go and eat there, and get the food you had already paid for. I should also mention that the food is grossly overpriced: a meal at our cafeteria equates to $8. For a ham sandwich, milk, Koolaid, and chips. What a bargain.
9. Freshman congregate in dorms. I don’t like to stereotype by age, but there are a larger number of freshman in the dorms who have their parents pay for everything and this generally equates to them being spoiled brats who care nothing about others around them. No, RAs will probably not come to your rescue when they decide to rampage up and down the halls at 4 a.m. screaming, and when you ask them to be quiet because you have a 7:30 a.m. class or work, they won’t give a shit – or at least the spoiled brats in my hallway never did.
10. The dorms reek of the same sort of crap you’d have to deal with if you had stayed at home to go to college. I have to ask permission to use the kitchen, I have to sign in guests (it’s my room that I’ve already paid for, why do I have to ask permission if I can have someone in the room???), I receive a penalty if I lock myself out of my room too many times (nevermind the fact it costs them nothing to loan me the key so I can get my key out of the room, as long as the spare is returned there is no cost involved), the entire floor gets called into a meeting if a few people decide to do something stupid like smoke weed in the trash room, and if I come back to the dorms too late I have to “check in” with the front desk even if I was just gone for 10 minutes to get something from the quick shop. Oh, and we have to have all pets registered with the front desk, we have to have our computers registered before we can connect to the network, and you’re supposed to get permission from your roommate before you have any friends over to the room. If I wanted to deal with so much permission-asking and general crap I would have stayed at home.

Some people have tried to tell me that the dorms are a “learning experience” that is or will be very valuable later. Total bullshit. Having to put up with the crap listed here inhibits doing what you came to college to do – learn about your field. The stress I’ve had because of this stuff only makes it harder to focus on your classes and do what you need to do. The only thing the dorms have that is positive in my opinion is that they make it easier to meet new people. However, you can do that at the student union any day and not have to pay upwards of $3,000 to do so.

One more week until spring break in San Francisco, California… hooray!

The good thing is, unlike in previous semesters, all of my exams fell 2 weeks away from spring break so that I’m not scrambling to study before break. My next clump of exams aren’t until March 26/April 1/April 3 so that’s pretty sweet.

I’ve recently discovered that I have an interview with a company for an internship on Tuesday. I’m hoping it works out, but if it doesn’t, then I already have another job lined up doing web development. It’s pretty much a no-downside situation which is a first, haha.

Anyway, it’s rather late and I’ve got a 7:30 a.m. class tomorrow so I’ll make some sort of effort to update more frequently. I’ll be sure to update this blog with pictures from my trip.

Thanks to Kimm for donating money towards cancer research in Relay for Life!

This site is pretty much suffering from a whole lot of neglect. I guess that’s an unfortunate side-effect of being an overworked college student but there you are. Tomorrow (er, today) is March 1 and I can’t hardly believe it. Spring break is March 16-20 and I’m completely excited because I’m going to San Francisco, California to see my sister Candace. It’s going to be pretty much amazing. I just have to last through two more weeks of classes and such and then I can take an ever-so-short break. Hoorah.

On a sidenote, I’ve begun tentatively looking for another camera. Not that there’s anything wrong with mine, I’d just like a point-and-shoot with some manual capabilities, with the obvious good quality pictures. I would really like to play with manual settings but my current camera is lacking. Any suggestions?

PS: I’m still trying to garner some donations for cancer research for Relay for life if you feel so inclined.