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plunkybugFirst, I have *got* to stop taking my decongestant before I go to bed. I keep forgetting that it keeps me up all night, or I just toss and turn and wake up often without getting any good sleep. I think entirely too much when this happens. Though I have been thinking a lot these days as well. I have a few projects and tasks I want to accomplish, and my plate seems it will be getting fuller in the coming months. As a result, I may not be on here as much anymore. I think I may have to do a friends cut soon. I keep falling criminally behind even if I have to skim posts sometimes. Most of you who are reading this shouldn't be affected, but there are a few people who don't post anymore or that have created more than one account but only update one that will probably be cut. Maybe a few people who I tend to skip their entries lately and they tend to skip mine, or at least haven't commented to any post in ages (like over a year), will be cut too. If you think that you're one of those people, who read but don't comment, now would be the time to say hey, I am here and I read, but don't cut me. This won't affect the reading load that much, but it will be a start. But I have plans for the next coming months...projects you could say. And I will need time to dedicate to them that I am currently using up by being online so much, trying to check email and posts.
I am actually in the first of these projects. Through work I have the ability to take classes to enhance my skills with a program called NCTI. It is a class where I am sent a manual and basically teach myself, and if I need assistance, I can get help from a manager or call someone from NCTI for help. It is a $450 class, being deducted from my paycheck in $8 deductions, though I have had the book since I came back from vacation and it wasn't deducted from the last paycheck I got. We'll see what happens next week. In any case, I get all I spent on it back once I complete the course and pass. I have chosen the High Speed Data (HSD) Customer care book, which seems like a good foundation to support the knowledge I already know. I think, I hope, that the certification will help me in the future. The thing is, I have until the beginning of August to complete it, and I haven't studied in any kind of fashion much in the last 10 years, especially on my own. But I think that in the end, it will be worth it, and pay for itself.
I also want to continue my desire to learn File Maker Pro. Since I got my little book last year this time, they have gone from version 7 to version 8. I have no idea how much has changed, and whether the project in the book is essentially the same for each version or not. I have somewhat procrastinated with this for a few reasons. One reason was my whole job change thing. I was rather pre-occupied with learning stuff for my new job that I was not in a position to really focus on it. The main one being that I don't have a copy of the program, and that I am not sure it will run well enough on this old machine, although the demo version might. But of course now comes the issue of which book to follow and which version to use. But something else has come up too. I think it would be best for me to have my own laptop that I could have the program on, and that I could carry with me to places to work on it. The computer I am on now *is* a laptop, but the battery is dead and so it needs to be plugged in all the time to work, so not very portable. Also, it is an older machine as I said before, and Chas has sorta rigged OSX on here. There are just some things about this computer that I don't know how to work well, as for the rigged bit. And it is bigger and heavier than most new laptops. I kinda regained my wind for learning FMP when a friend said he was going to sell his G3 iBook, and I volunteered to buy it, but then Chas' brake system needed overhauling and there went the money I would have spent on the laptop. But even so, Chas said there was a better laptop at a better price at his store I should get instead. Only now that one is not available. I don't know how to contact the other guy about the laptop as he is one of Chas' clients. Even do, Chas says he wants too much for it although this guy hadn't actually given a price he wanted to get for it. All he said is that he wanted to get something back for it. I had thought I could pay up to $500 for it, though I never said any price either. In any case, he said it was mine but we haven't really got in contact about it. Even though Chas doesn't think it iw worth it for what he wwnts to get fot it, I think that Chas and I should still contact him back, and try to negotiate a price from him, as I am not likely to get a laptop at a low price if I don't go through a friend, and Chas can check it out more to see what it is worth. I don't need something super duper up to date, but I do want something inexpensive to start with that is lighter and more portable (and newer) than what I use now. I can upgrade later, once I am in a better position too, but I honestly think that I need the laptop to be able to really get involved in the learning process of this program. To jumpstart the process, because now I need to work with the program now I have read teh project book as far as i can without having done any of the project yet. I know my brother had once offered to help me out with classes or something online for it too. But again I say that I think the laptop is the next logical step to my learning process. The emerging geek in me also wants a Blackberry, but I don't think I have a legitimate use for it right now, and I like my Nokia 3220. Lots of people who have seen it like it. They even like the lights which I thought were rather high school at first. I admit I have kinda grown fond of them in the last 6 months since I got the phone. And I want my own digital camera too. :)
Of course I can't just leave it to learning about 2 different things, though both are rather geeky in nature. Oh no. As part of the trimming down and cleaning out of apartment, so we won't have as much junk to put in storage or move with us when we move (which will no doubt be to a much smaller place than we have now), I have a few projects in mind there as well. One of these is to go through my cooking magazines, maybe a few books to, and my loose recipes, and put them into one or two small books. I have one of these notebooks that I had intended for another purpose, but I don't need it for that purpose now, and I think I could turn it into a recipe book. But I haven't totally thought it all out yet. I am not sure if I should just copy all the recipes into the book, with no particular order...just an index or something, or if I should go the extra step(s) to sort and arrange the recipes in some fashion, or if I should get multiple books, and make each one a different kind, like side dishes, appetizers, desserts, etc. The books are smallish, so having 4-6 of them wouldn't be nearly as bulky as having all the magazines and such. This last way would also allow me to add to the books in the future. But I just don't know yet. Another so called home improvement project is to condense a bunch of photos into albums. Right now we have a huge box, somewhere in the apartment, filled to the brim with photos...some loose, and some in envelopes. Many of them are from my childhood, and many are from Chas' travels. We don't want to get rid of them, or leave them behind, but they're doing nothing right now either. I think that if we had albums we could take up less space. Of course the idea of digitizing them is there too, I can't do that without Chas' help, as I don't know how he operates the scanner, or which drive he uses on the external hard drive. I could ask him, but he'll likely be too busy, so I say get them in albums for now. Another concern to think about is our extensive music library. We've got over a thousand cds, maybe more than 1500 by now, and they take up a lot of room. So I have thought of getting those large cd carriers like this one, but at ~300 cds per case (no liner notes), we'd still ned 5-7 of these things, so would it really save us much room? It might save more room in the sense it would take up less wall space. So this one I am not sure of yet. I know I need to go through my closet and get rid of anything I can't fit into anymore, or simply don't wear anymore. I also need to got through the bathroom, hall closet and so forth to get rid of what we don't use or need. This cleansing process will not be easy, but it has to be done.
And I also need to take care of getting a new birth certificate so I can sponsor Chas so we can move to Canada in the future.
And just like me, amidst all of this, I still want to read for pleasure! I am in book 7 of Lemony Snicket, working my way through the set so I can finally read the latest book that came out last year. I want to re-read all my Harry Potter books in order again and there are other books I want to buy and read for pleasure as well.
Well, I guess I should eat, check my cell to see if it is charged, give Kris a call (the munchkins miss me, how sweet!), and maybe start to go through my clothes, or read more of my NCTI book.
I am actually in the first of these projects. Through work I have the ability to take classes to enhance my skills with a program called NCTI. It is a class where I am sent a manual and basically teach myself, and if I need assistance, I can get help from a manager or call someone from NCTI for help. It is a $450 class, being deducted from my paycheck in $8 deductions, though I have had the book since I came back from vacation and it wasn't deducted from the last paycheck I got. We'll see what happens next week. In any case, I get all I spent on it back once I complete the course and pass. I have chosen the High Speed Data (HSD) Customer care book, which seems like a good foundation to support the knowledge I already know. I think, I hope, that the certification will help me in the future. The thing is, I have until the beginning of August to complete it, and I haven't studied in any kind of fashion much in the last 10 years, especially on my own. But I think that in the end, it will be worth it, and pay for itself.
I also want to continue my desire to learn File Maker Pro. Since I got my little book last year this time, they have gone from version 7 to version 8. I have no idea how much has changed, and whether the project in the book is essentially the same for each version or not. I have somewhat procrastinated with this for a few reasons. One reason was my whole job change thing. I was rather pre-occupied with learning stuff for my new job that I was not in a position to really focus on it. The main one being that I don't have a copy of the program, and that I am not sure it will run well enough on this old machine, although the demo version might. But of course now comes the issue of which book to follow and which version to use. But something else has come up too. I think it would be best for me to have my own laptop that I could have the program on, and that I could carry with me to places to work on it. The computer I am on now *is* a laptop, but the battery is dead and so it needs to be plugged in all the time to work, so not very portable. Also, it is an older machine as I said before, and Chas has sorta rigged OSX on here. There are just some things about this computer that I don't know how to work well, as for the rigged bit. And it is bigger and heavier than most new laptops. I kinda regained my wind for learning FMP when a friend said he was going to sell his G3 iBook, and I volunteered to buy it, but then Chas' brake system needed overhauling and there went the money I would have spent on the laptop. But even so, Chas said there was a better laptop at a better price at his store I should get instead. Only now that one is not available. I don't know how to contact the other guy about the laptop as he is one of Chas' clients. Even do, Chas says he wants too much for it although this guy hadn't actually given a price he wanted to get for it. All he said is that he wanted to get something back for it. I had thought I could pay up to $500 for it, though I never said any price either. In any case, he said it was mine but we haven't really got in contact about it. Even though Chas doesn't think it iw worth it for what he wwnts to get fot it, I think that Chas and I should still contact him back, and try to negotiate a price from him, as I am not likely to get a laptop at a low price if I don't go through a friend, and Chas can check it out more to see what it is worth. I don't need something super duper up to date, but I do want something inexpensive to start with that is lighter and more portable (and newer) than what I use now. I can upgrade later, once I am in a better position too, but I honestly think that I need the laptop to be able to really get involved in the learning process of this program. To jumpstart the process, because now I need to work with the program now I have read teh project book as far as i can without having done any of the project yet. I know my brother had once offered to help me out with classes or something online for it too. But again I say that I think the laptop is the next logical step to my learning process. The emerging geek in me also wants a Blackberry, but I don't think I have a legitimate use for it right now, and I like my Nokia 3220. Lots of people who have seen it like it. They even like the lights which I thought were rather high school at first. I admit I have kinda grown fond of them in the last 6 months since I got the phone. And I want my own digital camera too. :)
Of course I can't just leave it to learning about 2 different things, though both are rather geeky in nature. Oh no. As part of the trimming down and cleaning out of apartment, so we won't have as much junk to put in storage or move with us when we move (which will no doubt be to a much smaller place than we have now), I have a few projects in mind there as well. One of these is to go through my cooking magazines, maybe a few books to, and my loose recipes, and put them into one or two small books. I have one of these notebooks that I had intended for another purpose, but I don't need it for that purpose now, and I think I could turn it into a recipe book. But I haven't totally thought it all out yet. I am not sure if I should just copy all the recipes into the book, with no particular order...just an index or something, or if I should go the extra step(s) to sort and arrange the recipes in some fashion, or if I should get multiple books, and make each one a different kind, like side dishes, appetizers, desserts, etc. The books are smallish, so having 4-6 of them wouldn't be nearly as bulky as having all the magazines and such. This last way would also allow me to add to the books in the future. But I just don't know yet. Another so called home improvement project is to condense a bunch of photos into albums. Right now we have a huge box, somewhere in the apartment, filled to the brim with photos...some loose, and some in envelopes. Many of them are from my childhood, and many are from Chas' travels. We don't want to get rid of them, or leave them behind, but they're doing nothing right now either. I think that if we had albums we could take up less space. Of course the idea of digitizing them is there too, I can't do that without Chas' help, as I don't know how he operates the scanner, or which drive he uses on the external hard drive. I could ask him, but he'll likely be too busy, so I say get them in albums for now. Another concern to think about is our extensive music library. We've got over a thousand cds, maybe more than 1500 by now, and they take up a lot of room. So I have thought of getting those large cd carriers like this one, but at ~300 cds per case (no liner notes), we'd still ned 5-7 of these things, so would it really save us much room? It might save more room in the sense it would take up less wall space. So this one I am not sure of yet. I know I need to go through my closet and get rid of anything I can't fit into anymore, or simply don't wear anymore. I also need to got through the bathroom, hall closet and so forth to get rid of what we don't use or need. This cleansing process will not be easy, but it has to be done.
And I also need to take care of getting a new birth certificate so I can sponsor Chas so we can move to Canada in the future.
And just like me, amidst all of this, I still want to read for pleasure! I am in book 7 of Lemony Snicket, working my way through the set so I can finally read the latest book that came out last year. I want to re-read all my Harry Potter books in order again and there are other books I want to buy and read for pleasure as well.
Well, I guess I should eat, check my cell to see if it is charged, give Kris a call (the munchkins miss me, how sweet!), and maybe start to go through my clothes, or read more of my NCTI book.
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Date: 12 Mar 2006 03:38 (UTC)but i can't justify it, either. argh!