"At least he died doing what he loved"

While that phrase (see title) sounds pretty good, it has really annoyed me since someone made me think about it. If someone is doing something they love, especially as a professional, they shouldn't die while doing it. To die that way means they screwed up and did something stupid. I'd rather not be remembered for that!

The reason this comes up is because I've heard/read/seen several comments that people had expected Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, to die by a croc. First, let me say that I am greatly saddened that he's gone and I feel for his poor family who had to lose him so young. From everything I viewed and read, what you saw on TV was what you got in life. What I saw was an intelligent, passionate, and good-hearted man who was fighting to make people care enough to protect the environment. I hope his message has been heard by enough people, and those who are willing to carry on the cause.

Now, back to his dying by a croc. I find that an insult! Everything that I saw about him says that he read and understood animals, especially crocs, better than humans. I really doubt that he would have died by a croc because it would have meant that he did something stupid. I think he was safer on land, and with all the variables and unpredictability of the ocean I am not terribly surpised now that it's mostly sunk in that he's gone.

I hope his family can find peace and the strength to carry on his cause. :'(

Updates

I was just thinking the other day that I haven't been updating this as I had originally intended. My plans for this blog were to post what's going on so that people who don't talk to me regularly can at least know the happenings. I do a lot, it just doesn't seem worthy of documentation.

So, here's some stuff I never mentioned but I guess is worth saying!

We moved...I never finished trip details. Oops. We're adjusting; I get homesick (for the Bay Area) sometimes but since we still want a house we won't be going back to live there (99.99999999% chance against it, but I don't want to say never).

Job...is boring. Lots of the same stuff every day. Sometimes I make mistakes because I wasn't trained properly, which results in brief excitement while I try to internalize the "fix" but then it's more monotony. Currently I'm temping for an unnamed BROWN company where I data enter information pertaining to shipment and billing information for ocean freight coming out of Asia. I like the people and it pays the bills, but I doubt I'll stick around to be offered a permanent position.

Wedding is coming along. 14 days to go and YES I know how close that is. Beeeeeliiiiiieeeeeeeve me, I know how close - I'm planning the damn thing, and several of the details are last minute. I know very well how much time I don't have, and thank you kindly for not reminding me. Sorry Kristen, I know I did the same to you.

School is coming along also. Had a bitch of a time getting an answer out of my financial aid counselor because apparently I speak English and she speaks....?? Not-English, I guess. About 10 more days left in my VERY LAST marketing class, woohoo! I'll be degreed in no time if all goes well. We have to settle my debts there and pay the grad app fee, so once my grade posts for the final course I can get started and hopefully have my degree before Christmas. That would be swell!

Other work - I am a Creative Memories consultant now. If you want to know just what that is, you can go to my website: http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/argturpin

That's about it for now - I'm tired and my stomach hurts.

'Til next time!

Dee-dee-dee, Carlos Mencia-style

I caught this on my phone while waiting in a turn lane back in July - I just never retrieved the photo. Can you tell what's wrong?










The single car in the far left lane is NOT in a legal turn lane - notice the pretty double yellow lines. :) I guess they thought we were all dumbasses to wait in a long line to turn left when there was an open lane. Too bad they're color blind, or just plain blind...double lines usually mean "DO NOT CROSS". *rolls her eyes* Dee-dee-dee!

Did I mention I'm tired of school?

One more week in this class...then one more marketing class and a capstone course. One more week in this class...then one more marketing class and a capstone course. One more week in this class...then one more marketing class and a capstone course. One more week in this class...then one more marketing class and a capstone course. One more week in this class...then one more marketing class and a capstone course. One more week in this class...then one more marketing class and a capstone course.

Well, I'm still sick of school but it makes it easier to think about.

Double major?

Well, I made a decision on the double major question (adding communications to Bus/Marketing). I decided....no. While it sounds like a good idea, I won't actually GET the degree until I finish communications, which could be next year sometime. I'm already VERY ready to be done and have a degree in-hand to get a better paying job, so I don't think the double major is worth it. It might look good on paper but it's still just *a* degree and if it takes me another year to earn it, I'll miss out on a year's-worth of income. I really don't think I'd be offered $10k more a year, and I don't want to burn myself out before I get the MBA where the real money is....besides, Kyle needs an opportunity to go to school too.

So, yay! I will be done in November!

Excitement!

This is the thing I've been using to keep me going...any time I've talked about "ripping off another popsicle stick," this is what I was talking about.

Look how EMPTY it is!! And yeah, the dates are off - I've had my schedule changed a couple times since then, but the classes were still in the same order.

Oh, and that's my super-awesome bulletin board in the background - isn't it pretty? :D

TWO MORE CLASSES! And only ONE more marketing class, WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO!!!

I graduated

Now I just have to finish classes...yuck.

Busy busy

Invitations and enclosures are coming along...still need some addresses, though. School is busy. I go to the gym when I can. And of course work is designated from 8-5 every freaking day, taking up the most of my time. Stupid work!

I wish I had time to do things other than the above activities! Room needs cleaning, there are a hundred things to do for the wedding, and I could do with some entertainment too - seems like for the last week I've been doing a lot of invitation work. I will be very glad when the toiling is done. Granted, I've been slacking in the school department in lieu of entertainment, but it's guilt-laden entertainment (might as well not do it at all then).

Graduation is this coming weekend, so nothing gets done then either.

I guess I'll get through this one way or another, I'm just wondering what condition I'll be in on the other side!

Centerpiece

Here's a pic of the centerpiece I'm probably going to use...it's a silk California poppy "rooted" in cobalt colored marbles.

The dogs

These are pictures of our dogs.


This is Gavin...cheering himself up with a balloon.



And this is all of them...playing their favorite game: Tug-a-hump.

Moving

Well, we didn't get started as early as we wanted to because moving sucks and it took forever. On Thursday we worked on getting things out of our little storage unit at the apartment (4x4) into the bigger family unit (10x10) so that we'd have a centralized area of stuff. We also did a bit of packing, but I gave up around 3 a.m. to take a 1 hour nap...and then didn't wake up until 5:30, leaving me only about 2 hours to accomplish the impossible feat of finishing before Kyle's dad showed up. Ick. So as you might guess, I didn't finish. After that I found out that much of what I had I didn't care a lot about, so we started chunking things that we thought we could just re-buy. We liked them, but they weren't worth packing.

Friday came and we (Kyle, his dad, and myself) headed to Uhaul to get the truck. Since the 10x10 was on premise there, we loaded that first. Huge problem - the truck was nearing half full and very well packed. Two questions - 1) Would everything left in the apartment (most of our stuff, meaning Kyle's and mine) fit and 2) were we going to be paying a huge amount over the footage we estimated on the truck? Well, not everything did fit, but we packed the truck as full as possible and headed to San Jose. Thankfully the ABF trailer was a lot bigger than the truck. It took us three hours to unpack the Uhaul and pack the ABF trailer, but we finally emptied the Uhaul. On the way back we picked up our friend and he helped us a lot that night and all day on Saturday. We weren't going to get all of our stuff packed on the ABF trailer before the midnight deadline, so we ended up quitting for the night and waiting until Saturday. We went to breakfast with Kyle's sisters and dad and friend, and then started packing again. We took the truck back Saturday night, and Sunday Kyle and I finished packing. We loaded the truck, put up the wall, and took off. Then we went back to the apartment, packed the car, and left around 5:30. We were both way too wiped to do anything else for the apartment, so we left it in a state of disarray. If we get half our deposit back I'll be happy, and we didn't have the energy or patience to clean so paying someone else was worth it.

Anyway, I'll write more later about the trip. This is already a good deal longer than I intended.

New flash cartoons!

Everything from "Weeeee!" down is new.

You're welcome!

Enjoy.

Traveling

Traveling is something I haven't been able to do a lot of, and I really haven't minded. However, faced with the opportunity to see things I've never seen before...I am REALLY excited about our road trip on the way to Missouri! I'm going to be SO tired afterwards but boy-o-boy is it going to be fun :D We'll be visiting Kyle's grandma, Kyle's dad, Universal Studios, The San Diego Zoo and also the Wildlife Park, the Grand Canyon, San Antonio, Austin, my family...and the silly things along the way like "World's Biggest Ball of Yarn" or "World's Biggest Thermometer." There won't likely be another opportunity like this until we're wrinkly and retired, so I plan to make the most of it. Thanks to the family in Missouri for taking on our animals until we get there...it's very much appreciated and I wish I could send them later, now that it's this week. It's so soon to send them and so soon that you're stuck with them, if only I'd made it 2 weeks later...oh well, it's done.

See ya'll soon.

In other news...

...we have a photographer! He's in Austin, and is quoting a great price which includes everything I want. He'll be there for the duration of the wedding, and at the end he's giving me the "negatives" on a CD at full resolution so I can print as little or as much as I want through Snapfish, Wal-mart, Walgreens, etc...he's about $750-$950 cheaper than the other photographer I'd considered, and seems more casual about it - he's OK with amateurs following him about as long as they don't get in the way, and when he's done with a posed photo they can take the same shot. COOL!!! It also includes a sitting in his studio prior to the wedding and an 11x14 print I can put on the guest book table. I am totally jazzed :) I'll be submitting my deposit tomorrow :D

For anyone in Austin, here's his info:

Corsair Imaging
Eric Robertson
512-695-3813

He has 20 years of experience with weddings, and he's really flexible...based on my conversation today, I'd recommend him to everyone.

Yay!! Another thing I can soon stop worrying about :D

Feeling a little better...

This instructor still sucks, but I feel good that I am actually calling this guy on his flaws instead of staying quiet so I don't fall subject to his wrath and a grading bias. At this point, it can't get much worse - if it does it will be obvious, especially since I will be devoting all my time to the class these last 10 or so days. If I expend that much more effort and still do poorly, this isn't my fault and I still got to say what I needed to say. I spoke up, and I was supported for it and THANKED even for having done so - that makes me feel warm & fuzzy inside :) I'm helping me, and I'm helping others...ahh, it feels like cleric-ing :) Kinda, anyway.

Here's my most recent correspondence:

From: ANGELA
To: BARRY
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: Attached WK 2 Evaluations of IP & Simulation Summary
While that may be the case, we as students also have full time jobs, families, and other obligations and are penalized for tardiness, whereas instructors are not. I am paying $1500 for this course which I could be reimbursed for if I gain a C or higher. However, at this point I have a D+ and I have no confidence that I can turn this around to be a C or greater, no matter how many points are still available. Hopefully you can understand my concern, as this is the ONLY course in which I have ever received such poor grades with very little useful feedback - even considering Statistics I & II, which I did not even understand most of the time!!! Buyer Behavior is a social science, and has several similar concepts that I just finished studying in Social Psychology, which had similar concepts that I studied in another previous course. Additionally, I feel cheated that I did not learn sooner that my writing style is not appropriate, and is "too impersonal," a comment I received on all of my papers that have been returned thus far. I remember a guide or instructor from UoP telling me that APA format is a formal style and does not allow first person references, and it is not as if this is the first class in which I have used personal experiences to demonstrate concepts taught in the course. Unfortunately, it IS the only course in which I have been reprimanded and marked down for formal writing. Now that I know your preference, I can alter my style, but I would have appreciated this PRIOR to week 2 deadlines. I really disagree with your assessment that I need to do spelling and grammar checks, and I REALLY disagree with the comments about sentences being too long and complex. I spent countless hours in English classes through junior high and high school editing papers in which we highlighted in two different colors to visually see sentence length. The point of that exercise was to vary short & long sentences to create a flow. I know I write long sentences, but I also add in short ones where appropriate.


Anyway, I and several other students are dissatisfied and as students (and customers of UoP!) - we expect better from our instructors. Up to this point, I have never had a problem. I can appreciate your time crunch, but it's nothing that we as students, spouses, coaches, parents, and employees have not experienced ourselves. I can't speak for Team C's loss, but Team A lost two members directly in relation to the lack of feedback and the poor showing in grades. This left us at an extreme disadvantage, but because of the deadline we had to deal with it as we would in the "real world." This would have been difficult but manageable if you had made your expectations more clear, specifically in regards to questions I asked before the second paper was due (I asked about your highlighting and what it meant).

Please make an effort to get feedback out more quickly as our grades are important to us for reimbursements and scholarships, if not for GPA alone.


Angie
----- Original Message -----
From: BARRY
To: ANGELA
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: Attached WK 2 Evaluations of IP & Simulation Summary
Dear Angie

There is still quite a bit of time and points available.

Since the University has changed the size of the classes, it takes longer for those of us who do this as a part-time thing to handle the turn around as fast in an earlier period. This past week was an expensive one for me with a snow storm that disrupted a plan business meeting and then my accident which disrupted another meeting.

I will take your concern under advisement.

Barry


Barry, PhD MBAOnline Faculty, University of Phoenix Online
----- Original Message -----
From: ANGELA
To: BARRY
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: Attached WK 2 Evaluations of IP & Simulation Summary
Barry,

I really think it is unfair that my grade is suffering because I was not informed my writing style is not what you like until the middle of week 3. I don't want to drop, but I also can't make a D in this course and be reimbursed for it, so I must say I am extremely disappointed with the lack of feedback in the beginning of the course. I will work hard the remainder of the course, but what else can I do?

GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

I am so irritated with my Buyer Behavior instructor!!

He took a course that I was very interested in and poo-pooed the whole thing. I LOVE social science, and the nuances of marketing that persuade people to buy is what got me interested in the first place. Instead of loving it and doing well, I am hating it and pulling a D+ which is the worst (college) grade I've ever gotten. I'm not done yet so I *might* be able to pull a C-, but still...I don't even UNDERSTAND Chaucer's English, and I still managed a C in my British Literature class...I didn't understand Sadistics I or II, and I got Bs in those courses, while moving twice and dealing with someone close to me dying. But this course...UGH!

Apparently my writing style is "too objective" because I don't use I, me, we, our, myself, etc. - it's not permitted in APA format unless specified by the instructor or assignment, and I've never had an instructor require it of me. In fact "[ ] First person (“I”, “we”) generally refers to your own opinion or experience. Use third person unless otherwise indicated by the
assignment or instructor." HELLO!


GAH I AM SO FREAKING ANGRY WITH THIS DOUCHE! He didn't give ANY feedback until the beginning of week 3, which means I had already turned in 3 of 6 personal papers in that style. In week 4 we are finally getting feedback for week 2.

No bullshit, in my week 2 paper he wrote as a comment, "You have a lot of long sentences. These can be broken into several short ones and mare for a more readable paper." "Mare?" How about you proofread you DUMBASS. And WTH? Color me stupid, but I thought a mixture of short and long sentences was the mark of a MATURE paper. Does this guy read at a second grade level?

"You could be more specific" ABOUT WHAT?! And should I be as specific as you, Mr. I-Could-Win-an-Award-For-Dancing-Around-the-Question-and-Never-Answering-Anything? I ask him questions, which he takes his time answering...I asked him on Friday night/Saturday morning about comments on a team paper so that we could improve our paper that was due on Monday. I got a reply, after prodding him, on Monday at 11:45 when normal 40-hours-a-week people are working. I happened to be off on a vacation day, but STILL - my teammates weren't, and the paper was not entirely written but progressing...it's just a 1,450 word POS, it doesn't take THAT long unless you have the pickiest, most asinine, idiotic, should-still-be-working-with-chimps, random, dodgy ASSHOLE-of-a-teacher on the planet, and for all he knows we finished it Sunday and his NON-ANSWERS were no help! I said in the e-mail

"I sincerely do not understand your grading...[specific questions about the assignment]...We'll follow the rubric closely this time, but the above questions aren't really rubric-related"

and HE said (dodging the specific questions entirely):

"As for the grading, the rubrics repeat the basic issues in the syllabus that you are asked to address for the assignment. The scale lets you know what a certain level of work will generate in terms of a gradeon that issue. Complete means that you have covered the topic or answeredthe basic question posed by the issue. Excellent means that you havecompleted the answer and have demonstrated understanding by applying the conceptsto the specific situation in the assignment."

Yeah, I'm pissed. Real pissed. I don't think I would have gotten through my degree this far, with 5 classes to go, without having someone indicate to me that I need to check grammar and spelling, APA format, and oh yeah, my "sentences are too long." I and several other students have complained about his lack of feedback and unfair grading, so he's being evaluated...but it likely won't help our grades. I hope the picky bastard gets stuck at every red light he encounters, for the full cycle. And that he grows boobs and has to deal with period cramps. And has or develops a fat ass. Yeah! That should about do it. Until I think of something else!

Cleaning

I usually hate cleaning...the way it just never goes away...if it's not clutter, then it's dust or grime or clothes on the floor. And cleaning seems unnatural in a way - within minutes of dusting - seconds, perhaps - tiny particles of dust are once again settling themselves comfortably all over everything - making themselves at home, as if they're supposed to be there. Like they're returning to a normal state. Or maybe it is living indoors that is unnatural, not the cleaning...? Outside the wind moves and stirs the dust, such that it won't necessarily settle and stay. Hmm.

Cleaning isn't always so bad, though...sometimes it can be gratifying in an inexlicable way. As I said before, I hate - despise - cleaning. The constancy of it. That it can be satisfying is alien...but also makes sense, if that makes any sense. I guess it is in part the instant gratification, the knowledge that something is shining when it wasn't before, and I'm responsible. One of few things in life that is visible in that way.

I guess that's about all for my midnight ramble - I am probably tired from the cleaning!

Up late again...

Well, it's a work night and I am up late again...part of it was a late start, part of it was procrastination...since I am going to that scrapbooking event this weekend, I wanted to get my homework done. For one paper, it was necessary since it's due Saturday and I am not here...but I also wanted to complete my assignments that are due Monday and I just didn't get to them.

But, now I've done part of my team assignment, finished my assignment due tonight, finished my assignment due Saturday, and I filed my taxes...all in all I guess it's been productive, but I still haven't packed so I still can't go to bed!! Ahhh!

I find it funny that the first part of "analysis" is "anal".

Today was crummy

Well, I started the day by almost hitting an idiotic pedestrian - please, make eye contact with the driver, it's your life at stake!! You can be very right and very DEAD! I was leaving for work this morning, in a hurry, and there was also the factor of limited visibility...as I was looking one way for the traffic, a pedestrian was coming from the other way (and might I add that this was not in a crosswalk, it was a sidewalk crossing a driveway, with a 4-5' wall covered in ivy with trees, etc. in the way to block my view of pedestrians) and decided to walk IN FRONT of my car. With the nose partway in the road. And with my head very firmly and visibly turned the OTHER WAY. What arrogance possesses someone to walk in front of a car without knowing full well that the driver is aware that they are there?!

Then, I get an e-mail that I've been dropped from my class (again). I won't go into the first time I was dropped from the class because that's too much to type. This time I thought it was the other thing, but it was actually that a counselor can't @^#*$% type. >:/ The notes referenced my student ID, but someone else's name, and they requested to drop for personal reasons. Earlier today when it was just going to be a couple hours I was ok because I was glad it wasn't the problem I thought it was....but now I am starting to get pissed because I still don't have access to my class 5 hours later, my team has a project due tonighty that I can't help with, and I am stuck on the phone with tech support.

I need a freaking vacation from this day!