Tag Archives: school

Personal

“This is not a test!”

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So it’s a Saturday night before school starts… I just had gotten done playing a game online with some friends and I was about to hit the hay and suddenly at 1:30am I hear sirens blaring. I also see the annoying strobe to boot… Then I could hear the hall staff on the intercom system saying “This is NOT a test! Report to the safe areas! Do NOT use the elevators! Use the stairs as instructed!”.

Naturally… I dreaded the stairs… I had been using the elevators to stave off from tearing any more adipose tissue as move in tore more than its fair share. Unfortunately, I had to shut out the poor screams of my muscles and power through the suffering. I took another descent down 9 flights of stairs just to wait at the gravel parking lot. From there, I waited until my hall assistants cleared for us to return. It was about a 20 to 30 minute wait. They had the police and fire department down to investigate too. I could hear many of the other students panicking with lines of “Damn… I left my laptop, iPod, camera, etc in my room!” I am basically texting my closest friends saying “So yeah… I lost sleep from this…”

After they came to a silent resolution… We were cleared to return. The staff was silent as to what happened, but every door marker had a hang tag that had a check mark (as far as I knew) for floors that I assume were clear. I would return to my room, but from the increased blood flow to my torn up legs to being amped on having to “haul tail” down from the fire alarm… I can’t sleep… Let’s hope I can exhaust myself to go to sleep.

Personal, Site News

48 Hours until Academic Battle Phase is Initiated

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So I got my financials taken care of at school and it was quite simple… Just a reminder that my interest is 6.00% both on unsubsidized and subsidized loans and not to “eff up” (for slang) my work or I will once again be chased by the feds again. It was my first bad encounter to and from school with rainy roads while fending off wacky drivers at 100+ miles per hour in my soft shelled drop top in a long while. It was a fun journey, but I will say that having great tires means I have great traction for gear transitions.

The last bit of financial junk I need to resolve is paying the school $536 that the loans didn’t pay out. I guess one could consider it as Uncle Sam’s “Are you serious about school?” fee. I should be able to muster out the cash with no issue… However… I also need to get my PSP and DS sets sold off to generate repayment capital for my boon of luck from my family.

I still can’t believe that in about 48 hours I pack my crap up and drive out to my dormatory. It’s daunting, but exciting at the same run. I will be packing modest, as with becoming mobile… I don’t have much crap for save a printer, laptop, phone, and bags. It’ll be interesting being type-cast into the category of “starving college student” with my life on campus and coming back to town to work at the office… but for me, that’s more than worth my time! It is much like my philosophy, sometimes legends are born from a blank slate. This semester is my carte blanche, I will make a new legend for myself!

As far as the new site relaunch… That may be delayed for a while… In the mean time, I will probably search for a temporary lay-out that announces who’s writing what articles at ZeroXR.com so that when Wyno’s writing bug bites her, no one will assume it’s me! However, the new “About Zero” revision is underway and I have to thank my friend Nikkie for going out of her way to do that with me. Expect a very light hearted interview as it’s going to share a side of me that few get to know.

With this, I bid you all adeau so that I may walk into the office.

My "signature"
Personal, Rant

[Mini Editorial] Gotta love the Feds sometimes…

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Financial aid is quite the “clusterfuck” as my former boss mentioned the quoted term.

A while back, I had a personal set-back and a medical condition that ended up being the one-two punch that basically had me dropping out of college while on a federal Pell grant. Let’s just say the Feds were awful quick to scream “ZERO!!!!! WE WANT OUR MONEY YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!” in a proverbial sense and they were aggressive as hell (like calling the day the semester ended). Once I paid them back… They conveniently kept a record on their files saying “Zero has paid his dues in full” however, the forgot to put it on my FAFSA file saying the same apparently all summer… I had contacted them about this flag since February, with various agents going “It takes time for the computer to flag an account as paid.”

Chain reaction: My school basically found that same flag and said “Zero, we can’t offer you any financial assistance cause your file is flagged as you have not paid the Feds their due cash.”

Cue this morning: I call the Feds up this morning and met with a amicable agent on the phone. Got hit with the standard gauntlet of questions to verify my identity of Zero, so after that I fire off my query of “Is there a way I could get my status immediately send over to my school for verification purposes and have my file cleared?” Sadly, I got the standard “It takes up to 2 business days for us to fax that to your educational establishment…” line from them.

That’s actually a bit ironic as when you ever owe the feds cash, they will hunt you down like a pack of bloodthirsty rottweilers. On the converse, when you pay them off… They just silently clear your file and set you free, while not updating anything else vital. That is almost a tactic that the nefarious credit companies would pull to try playing the game of “Oh… you still haven’t paid up” and conveniently putting off to the side you’ve paid in full.

Ugh… I hope the document updating my status shoots over sooner than “two business days”. We live in an era where electronic facsimilies are possible, it should not be that hard to pull up my file, drop in my financial aid office’s fax number, and then say “Send to this number.” I think I am going to be feverishly worried for a good while until my school goes “You’ve been verified and here is your financial assistance eligibility…”

Personal, Technology

[Linux Related] A parting of ways?

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My time in Linux has been great. It’s shown me things that I never knew about my machine and even educated me on how the circuit boards on my machine interact with an operating system. Just with how the latest Ubuntu 8.04.1 release has been… It has not been very well to me. My machine sadly runs as hot as it does in Windows and uses just as much battery power. This is a downer as I Ioved how Ubuntu side my laptop could outlast the Windows side… Stability has been ok. I have run into moments where Evice (sp?) Reader for PDFs would crash on me and even Firefox too, which it’s not as bad as Windows… but it was the same stuff I was trying to get away from initially.

With me starting up school again, I have to worry about the proprietary school devices and software being compatible with my machine or it could mean an academic demise for me. This is concerning as I remember when I had my Mac Mini and some of my programs were “Windows only”, I basically had to borrow a friend’s computer to finish some of my assignments… So for me being so close to finishing school, set backs and delays are no longer an option.

Where does that lead me?

I have considered a few options… The ideal has been to eventually get another laptop dedicated to Windows duties so I can entertain myself with games when there’s down time and also use my school programs when required… which in turn would allow me to use Suzaku (my current laptop) as a Linux test machine to play with new distributions and really rip into building a machine from scratch. Though with school coming up soon… I am more under pressure to have a cleanly running machine with little time for experimentation when I am just so close to attaining my degree. I may just bang around with Live CD’s for any Linux play time fun that I wish to have and just leave the machine as a Windows one until I can get my gaming/school apps machine.

I just converted Suzaku back to Windows XP Media Center Edition with a slipstreamed copy of Service Pack 3 as I still have my machines OEM key for the license. I wish I had a copy of XP Pro, but I digress. I will hold hope that I can still get a dedicated Windows machine so I can officially retire my laptop Suzaku to Linux/editorial duties.

Personal, Site News

Soon to Come, Slowing Down, and Sexy Parties.

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College is a time when things like getting prepared for the new curriculum and other such items are a chaotic universe. We have to fight through the chains of financial burden just to make an investment in our education. I know I have been busy on multiple fronts with college prep, fighting a battle ground at the offices of my daily grind, and trying to find time for myself to relax from the chaos.

What’s happening here at the desk of Zero? I have a few articles I have been working on from my phone when I have down time at my daily grind or out and about town. One of them is actually pretty good with regards to content. I have found a potential editor for my new site revamp, so unless that falls through… I just need to find a photographer to fashonably capture me in my best and enjoying life, my pursuits, and good times. I hope to have the revamp up by end of July as well as my interview.

With school on the horizon, I foresee myself writing significantly less due to buckling down to finish the last of my pre-pharmacy course work and hopefully hit out to pharmacy school and take my PCAT’s. I’ll definitely try to put some fuel to the fires of ZeroXR 13mg, but I will not lie when I say it’ll be one hell of a battle. My offer for a guest editor to the site is still valid to anyone who wishes to make articles within my vectors. If you are interested, please send your inquiries to me again to info@zeroxr.com.

Lately, I have been thinking of doing another big “meet-n-greet” event for ZeroXR 13mg as well as a “Farewell to Zero ’cause he’s going to Commerce” party for my friends. I know some were excited to hear that I am leaving for school, but at the same time sad to hear that I will probably be obsessed with work and school. My party will probably be held closer to early to mid August before everyone else starts heading back to college as well. Cousin Sol will be dragged out to this event for sure… but I will blanket friends with the invite once I have everything penned down. Expect the place for this event to be both refined and fun… and possibly involving sharp pointed objects!

Speaking of sharp pointed objects… I am trying to possibly flesh out details for Cousin Sol’s 21st birthday. I do need help on one vector… Friends to come out to the event. Many of my loyal readers have heard the tale of my 21st birthday being the one blemish on my life I wish I could undo… but in light of that, I would like to make Sol’s 21st a fantastic one so he can at least have a smashing good time. (No pun intended of course…) I would like to be a brother to him and give him a gathering that would be impressive no less. Due to his love of medieval and feudal culture, I have had my mind set on Medieval Times in Dallas for the location. The time… That will be dependent on our school schedules.

Personal

The Journey East: Unlocking Limits at A&M Commerce

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Well… It was a fun journey. Sol and I had arisen from our sleep at about 5:50am yesterday to go east. We both couldn’t really sleep from how we both have messed up our sleep cycles. The first stop of course was to 7-11 for early morning refreshment and food. I had my 710mL can of Monster Lo-Carb with a croissant while Sol got a English muffin with a can of Rockstar Light Vanilla. After we scarfed down our food and all… The GPS from my phone got a lock on the location and directional data… We proceeded onward!

I will admit that 380 from Mckinney through all the way up to Greenville is horrible boring. Lots of boring roads and a whole lot of nothing. There was the lake, but I quote Sol on this one:

“What the hell dude… It looks murky and with the branches sticking out of the waters… it looks almost like a marsh!” – Sol

We did however see lots of fireworks shops setting up their booths and trailers for the upcoming event of the Forth of July, sadly none were open… $3 artillery shells does sound awful tasty in retrospect. On jumping off of 380 to I30, we saw probably one of the greatest “1337” sights ever however the worst crime of it all was we were too damn far to take a damn picture. There was an Asian grill called………. Ninja Grill. For this infraction, I will post the address here for those who want to either pass by it, dine there, or phone them up:

Ninja Grill
1218 I 30
Greenville, TX 75402
903-454-0102

Running I30 to 50 was another boring stretch of road again… but then again… so was running 50 until I finally was reunited with the “Welcome to Commerce” sign and the sight of Whitley Hall (my dormatory). This time around, the campus was rather busy with summer students living off campus and attending classes for the summer time. I would seek out the Agricultural Technologies building for the Arts and Sciences advisor to unlock my holds and sign up for classes. The surprising thing to find was the fact that I am basically a little more than half way done with my education. Take into consideration that I had been side tracked for almost 4 years and even quit school for nearly 2 years, that’s really impressive. I was eligible for an astounding 19 hours, but I decided to take a modest 14 hours just to keep things tolerable and try to merge in work. I will definitely have to see how my employment will work… because I know for a fact that I will have to seek some employment to finish the last of my car note.

I also managed to talk to my housing committee about my meal arrangements and reduced my plan to a lower scale one factoring that I will be completely on campus 4 days out of 7 days a week as well as buying bulk snacks and supplies. On top of that, most of the construction has finished compared to when I was at Commerce in January so I was able to take a look at the mess hall and Mane Card Office. I ended up getting my ID made so I could have it then and there rather than wait in a line to get it.

Other than that… The dates are settled. August 20 I am extracted out to Whitley Hall to commence preparations and acquaint myself to my surroundings. August 25th is my official “Mission Start” date for school and classes. I definitely like how my classes are configured… Sure, I have to rise at the tip of dawn, but to be done by 11am (save for Monday and a lab course that lasts until 6pm) is a fair trade. That gives me time for school work and working out which is ideally what I want. I know working full time and then carrying an encumbering debt was the main issue that hindered my education, but to be free of the encumbering debt is quite liberating.

Logistically speaking… Dorm move-in for the university begins 8/20/2008. Classes begin 8/25/2008. My assumption is that I am to make my final move on Sunday 8/24/2008. We will see how things hold up. I know for one… I do hope to keep ZeroXR 13mg in good shape.

Personal

A Ray of Hope and A Journey East

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Well… Today’s been interesting. Found a decent little car windshield mount for my phone for cheap and I rather like it. It has my phone oriented in a way that can present my GPS clearly, which is very important for when that need arises. It didn’t cost me much coin and that made my day a little brighter. I will be testing it out on the open roads tomorrow.

Work at the office was rather relaxing for once and not at a frantic pace. I did however wire myself up with a 700mL “can” of Monster Lo-Carb and the reaction of my boss looking at the monstrosity of a can was priceless!

“Really dude? Really? Thing looks like an oil filter.“

Then my subordinate eating ice cream with chopsticks took the cake for the day… Yeah… A sad day indeed.

Things picked up knowing that Sol would be awaiting me at my residence. He will be accompanying me to my journey to Commerce.

My colleague wanted to meet up on launching himself as a brand on the web, so I would meet him up for food and drink while bantering about things. I did manage to network with him so it may lead to a tangent here on ZeroXR 13mg for a potential set of fashion and men’s care segments to keep unique content rolling. Rest assured, I will be playing with Linux distributions, games, and other technologies as well still. I am looking into the male fashion and care tangent as some have rather liked my work on straight razor shaving and anything for geeks looking into being stylish is always a good thing!

In 6 hours… I will awaken to drive to Commerce, Texas to discuss with my school about what I need to do before I may register for my classes and such. I know for sure that I hope to be back in the burg of Dallas by mid day to talk to banks and financial establishments on procuring monies for school. Let’s hope that I can hit the tasks I need to complete before everything surges at me like a river. I may have Sol assist me in logging my adventures tomorrow, so don’t be surprised if you end up seeing a few quotables from him.