| This Blog is now a Historic Blog... |
[Oct. 20th, 2004|10:04 am] |
Howdy folks, I've finally decided to move kennels from LiveJournal to Blogger. You can visit my new blog at http://www.dogvex.blogspot.com. I love LiveJournal and will continue to post to the League of Extraordinary Writers, but I find that Blogger gives me a lot more control over the layout of my site (though I will miss many of the really neat pre-defined tags that they have!), anyhow, please be sure to update your links to my new home!
{arf,arf} |
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| How to tell when you're becoming an eccentric old man |
[Oct. 15th, 2004|02:15 pm] |
Yaay, today is Friday (I think/hope/pray), some friends of ours have invited us to a little lime (get-together) by their place, so as soon as I get off work I'm headed home to meet up with Pebbles and get ready. Now, the truth be told, I had one long R.A.S.S. week and I'm tiyad as hell, so I'd much rather spend the evening sleeping or getting a healthy dose of Vitamin S ;). However, since I will be locked up in the apartment all weekend, I might as well get out tonight and have a little fun.
People, is a R.A.S.S. of a thing when you calculate out the money that you'll need to to pay off a bank loan and just barely have enough funds to survive the month. Well, 10 more days to go before pay day and I can't wait, seeing as how I have only $20 in my bank account ($15 after I purchase gas tonight), so if unnu want to rob me, now is the best time!! Matter of fact, I so poor right now, that if someone really did come to rob me they'd probably have to give me money instead! Oh well, c'est la vie--10 more days to go, besides, next week is a holiday and I won't have any classes on Thursday or Friday, though I'm seriously considering cancelling on Wednesday as well and taking the day (i.e. going into hibernation until the monthly injection into my checking account comes thru. I tell you, is a R.A.S.S. of a thing getting used to a monthly paycheck as opposed to a bi-weekly one you know!
Speaking of which, this morning I left the house at 7:30am and the clouds were so dark that it felt almost like night! My glass fogged up on me and I had a real bitch of a time driving to work, but I never could understand why the R.A.S.S. they would make some cars with rear defoggers and forget about the front ones, like I going to be driving in reverse that often! Anyhow, thank God, I got to work unscathed. Problem is that it's really cold today and some places might even get snow this weekend!!! I not ready for a winter a backside.
Now, the real reason for writing this entry today is that I have found my behavior to become a bit more, for loss of a better word, eccentric these days. I guess that since I'm so adamant about avoiding all the drama at work, I isolate myself in the furthest corner of my corner office, far away from the daily faculty/staff/student drama that is the small American college. Anyhow, since I have nothing else to do, I spend my day doing class preps, grading assignments, writing code, meeting with the occasional student, and chatting online [as many of you are well aware]. Well, I've found that I've become a more bitter and sarcastic person over the past few weeks, I have to almost fight myself on a daily basis to maintain my patience with everything, including driving (which I'm usually pretty good at), whereas before I just sort of went with the flow.
In addition, I find myself at home at nights buried in my work, i.e. making up or creating assignments for my students or working on my writing, which seems to have hit a slump as of late. Here are some of my most recent "weird" activities:
- Spending more time writing code than interacting with people (which is so not me!)
- Lacking patience for people and things, whereas before I had infinite patience.
- Getting more obsessive about my students writing really good software.
- Surrounding myself with papers, websites, conferences publications, etc.
- Making jokes that are way beyond the comprehension of most people, since they're all technical-oriented
- Not reading, writing in my own, or commenting on my friends' blogs.
People, what the R.A.S.S. is going on with me? I feel like I'm becoming a bitter old man--don't get me wrong, I love my job (most days) and am really anxious to get in to work in the mornings, but why the hell am I such a jaded fellow? Is this the curse of all who work? or is there something that I need to adjust?
Anyhow, I not going to bore y'all with the sordid details of my wicked life, and I really have to go teack my last class for today, so that being said, I shall see y'all in the Monday morning, God willing! Have a safe, happy, fun weekend!
{arf,arf} |
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| R.I.P. Superman |
[Oct. 11th, 2004|07:23 am] |
Good morning to all my fellow bloggers and faithful readers. It's a bright and sunny, albeit chilly, Monday morning here at work. The sun is out, the birds are out, and the trees are turing bright brown and red as the Autumn season approaches. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and Christmas is just a short time away still. Soon I shall have the opportunity to sit on the warm Jamaican beaches and let the gentle waves massage my feet as I sip a glass of my favorite beverage and meditate upon the tranquility of the ocean.
Anyhow, I was surfing MSN this morning and my eyes caught this article about the the death of Christopher Reeve. Now, most of you growing up in the late 70's early 80's knew him as Superman. Tall, athletic, good looking, with piercing blue eyes, he was the perfect image of the Man of Steel for us youngsters. In 1995, he fell from a horse during an equestrian competition and damaged his spinal column, thereby causing complete paralysis.
Well, the truth be told, the man was a fighter to the very end and I know that I will surely miss the man...after all, he was one of those people that made my childhood!
Rest In Peace, Superman.
{arf, arf} |
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| Sunday Post |
[Oct. 9th, 2004|11:24 pm] |
Howdy y'all, it's Sunday and I have nothing to report sadly :(. Spent the day at the mall with Pebbles, looking at things that I cannont afford :( *sigh*. Last night's dinner went well, the scalloped potatoes a la Pebbles was excellent and the finger lickin' rass chicken was a hit! Finally got to saw Kill Bill V.2 with Pebbles and Bruceton and Jalee, Tarantino is a genius of no mean order, I don't give a R.A.S.S. about what y'all want to say about the movie!
Anyhow, my dad sent me some pictures the other day and, hoping that'll motivate you ungodly heathens that read my blog on Sunday instead of being in church to think about your wrongdoings and mend your wicked ways (see, I am typing my blog from church where we have a wireless connection--yeah, right!!!). Anyhow, here goes, enjoy folks!
{arf,arf}
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| Friday Afternoon @ The Track |
[Oct. 8th, 2004|12:06 pm] |
Well, it's Friday afternoon and I cancelled all my classes [gave them time to go home and study and all that phun shtuff], so now I'm in the zone. Let's see, what have I done this week:
- Taught my students how to write classes in C++
- Taught my intro to computers students how to build web pages using HTML
- Wrote all tests that need to be given on Monday and Tuesday (3 versions even!)
Made wild and passionate love with Halle Berry
- Took the car to the mechanic and got brakes adjusted
- Discovered a new route to work that saves me beaucoup time!
Oh yeah, I also discovered the elegance and charm of the programming language called Haskell, so now I have a plan for my weekend! Hopefully it'll be faster than Prolog, though not as lightning quick as languages like C and C++. OK, I know Mad Bull is probably soaking all this up, but many of you are probably asking "why the R.A.S.S. is this damn dawg barking about all this techie nonsense!" so mek mi quiet mi likkle self.
Speaking of blogs, a new Yardie Blogger has joined our midst a lady that goes by the name of Sunshine. Be sure to visit her blog and send her a few greetings. Well, what more to say this evening? Pebbles and I are having a few guests over tonight, so we've divided the cooking duties...me doing the poultry and she doing the salad and scalloped potatoes. Speaking of which, the one Stu put a recipe on his blog the other day and since I not going to be outdone, I going lick unnu (hit y'all) with a little recipe of my own called Angry's Lick You 10 Finger Dem To Rass Chicken Of course I know that it is nothing like what Dr. D. is used to preparing in his kitchen and I'm sure that Princess P and Yamfoot have prepared and eaten better food than that and MadBull and Owen can probably top this, but here goes!
( Wanna eat Angry's Fingerlicking Rass Chicken?... )
Anyhow folksy folksys, I gone a fireside, so until next time, y'all take care now! Try top this recipe nuh Doc!
{arf,arf} |
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| {USER:ANGRYDOG | STATUS: CRITICAL | WANT_VACATION: YES | PROBABILITY_OF_VACATION : 0.000} |
[Oct. 7th, 2004|06:08 pm] |
Head hurts, back hurts, eyes hurt, arms hurt, legs hurt, every body part hurts...imagine, all that pain and I haven't even been working out! This has been a long and stress-filled week for me and I'm really happy that it's almost over. I cancelled my afternoon classes tomorrow and opted to have consultation sessions with my students, in preparation for their exams on Monday and Tuesday. Oh great, more grading to do. Joy, joy, happy, happy, joy, joy. Anyhow, not much has been going on with me this week, except for the fact that I have many, many, many student assignments to grade, classes to prepare, grants to start writing, and the list goes on and on! You're not in college anymore son!
Took my car to the shop this morning for a routine oil change, fortunately I had asked them to take a look at my brakes as well. Turns out that the cylinders on the back were leaking and the front rotors needed resurfacing. I already knew that those rotors either needed resurfacing or replacement, but I had no clue about the back brakes phucking up as well! Anyhow, an oil change, brake job and -$300 later, I'm once again happy with my car. To be honest, she's been running like a champ considering that she's a 93 ride with close to 180K on her body (the engine and tranny are a bit younger, thanks to a few well-needed transplants). Incidentally, I found a shorter route to work! I no longer take the Interstate (going 70 mph was wearing on my nerves quite a bit), instead I take a back road that leads me from my doorstep to my office doorstep in a little under 46 miles. As such, I am now doing 92 miles per day as opposed to 128 miles per day or 460 miles per week versus 640 miles per week. As a result, I'm now saving myself a total of 180 miles per week or 720 miles a month--which means I can stretch the times between my oil and filter change a little bit more. Sad when you start to think about these things, ent?
Hmmm, aside from that, nothing much else to report, but I have visited The Leauge of Extraordinary Writers and I see that my friends ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) hard_nonsence and 5thpickney have been quite busy writing songs, poetry and stories. hard_nonsence wrote two beautiful songs, one of them entitled Shadows that talks about love lost, dying, and all that stuff. He also did a tribute to us folks that were ravaged by the recent hurricanes in the form of a song entitled The Fortunate Ones. Trust me folks, this is definately some good stuff, so please make sure that you hop over to the Leauge and show the brother your support!
5thpickney (aka Ciya) has written a beautiful little story called Together. Now, I definately recommend giving the sister a read and showing some love by leaving some comments on her link my friends. This story talks about a lifelong, enduring love, a love that each and every one of us spend a lifetime looking for and never quite finding, but when we do it is definately something magical!
Anyhow good folks, I need to be up at the crack of dawn to go earn myself some money, so I will drop y'all a quick line inna di lataz, but if you don't hear from me tomorrow, don't fret--Pebbles and I will be entertaining a few guests, so we shall be busy cooking up a storm. So, if not tomorrow, then have a great weekend and T.G.I.F. to R.A.S.S!!!
{arf, arf} |
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| Monday Already? |
[Oct. 4th, 2004|10:24 am] |
Wow, I swear that the week is just running by! Yesterday was Sunday [I think], today is Monday, and it'll soon be Friday! Who cares about the three days that separate Monday from Friday? Oh, I wish I had a two-day work week! Anyhow, enough griping about Monday morning blues, time to get down to some good old-fashioned blogging!
Now, most of you know that I, along with my friend hard_nonsence, have a little Livejournal community going called The Leauge of Extraordinary Writers. Well, recently, Ciya from The Tower has joined our esteemed ranks as 5thpickney. People, I tell you what, the girl is just tearing up the place! First, she hit us with a little poem entitled A Stronger Me and believe you me, the poem hit the core of what each and every one of us go through on a regular basis, lesson learned: "Pride goeth before a fall, but it's how you rise up from the fall that makes all the difference in the world!" Now, after hitting us with her lyrical agility in the poetry department, she's done it again by providing us with a very touching tribute to her dad, entitled The Simple Man, beautiful, moving, well-written. Tears came to my eyes after reading that story and believe me that anyone else who has lost a loved one, especially a father, a mother, or a grandparent, these words will bring tears to your eyes as well. Well-written, beautifully-crafted, excellent job Ciya! Please, give us more, give us more!
Hey, here's an article that some of you may find interesting. An airport in Australia was shut down and evacuated all because of a vibrator! It turns out that someone must have had a vibrator [you know, the sex toy] and tossed it into a garbage bin at the airport, where it somehow managed to start, ummm, vibrating. The problem is that the thing was in a brown paper bag [I guess whoever owned it may have just needed a pre-flight "quickie" to calm his/her nerves!] Anyhow, the building had to be evacuated and secured and the matter investigated by the appropriate authorities.
Now, as amuzing as the story sounds, it's just a reflection of the serious times we're living in. Long gone are the days of "comfortable" air travel. Now we have to be subjected to all sorts of strange devices, hundreds of inspections, and more beauracratic paperwork to ensure that our illusion of safety is preserved. Pebbles, who travels all the way to Spain twice a year, is quite comfortable with all the precautions that are put in place at most major airports nowadays. I, on the other hand, find it annoying and wonder how much of these new-fangled security measures actually work and how quickly they can be upgraded to account for changes in technology. I think it would be quite an interesting study to see which of these security measures actually work and which do not. At any rate, I think I'll quash the arguments about airplanes right here and now, since I'll be on one of those contraptions myself in a few months!
Have a great and productive day folks, and if you don't do anything else, make sure that you go and give Ciya a little read over at LXW.
{arf,arf} |
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| The Dog's Double Life |
[Oct. 1st, 2004|02:41 pm] |
Happy 6-month anniversary to my blog! I can't believe I've known people like The Doc, Mad Bull, Yamfoot, and The Tower Crew for almost as long! Wow, it really does feel like we're all old friends in this blogging game, doesn't it? Well, I just wanted to express my appreciation to you all for visiting my site and allowing me to be a part of the Jamaican blogging community :')...I love you guys :D. To my friends stifled_angel and hard_nosense, who I've known for a while now, thanks for reading and commenting on my blog! To people like Stu and Owen it's a pleasure reading y'allz blogs and I hope you guys keep it up for a long time to come! BTW, Stu, dehwidability is a term I coined during my research....you see, in patois, "deh wid" or be with is used to signify that a man and a woman are in a relationship...therefore, dehwidability is a measure of the degree in which one would be willing to date (deh wid) another person.
Anyhow, did y'all catch the presidential debate last night? Jeb vs. John? It was quite interesting...IMHO, Kerry won that debate, but I think both he and Bush sort of exaggerated on a few points. Nontheless, I think someone has actually taught Jeb how to debate, cause he really did hold his own last night--though he did seem to be dwelling on the same points over and over again, i.e. attacking Kerry's tendency to switch opinions on the drop of a hat. Here's an interesting article that I found on MSN this morning that talked about the specific issues surrounding the debate--it does make for decent reading I might add.
Anyhow, so as not to pussyfoot around the issue anymore, I'll let you in on the secret of my double life. You see, I've been busily working on an alternative site to this one where you can read my blog. You see, the problem that I have is that Livejournal is sometimes unpredictable, with respect to downtime and speed...but I like using them a lot, so I don't want to change. So, what I'm doing is giving y'all a link to my second blog that will be a mirror of this one, but should load a bit faster. The link to my alternative blog is http://dogvex.blogspot.com, as I said, come here first, but if LJ flipping up....go there next!
Well, that's my shameful little secret, now I'm off to go finish my last class of the day--gonna be learnin' my students some HTML :). Have a great weekend y'all and I'll talk to you sometime soon!
{arf,arf} |
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| Why The Dog Don't Judge Beauty Contests Anymore |
[Sep. 28th, 2004|04:53 pm] |
Alright people, it's Tuesday and I just got home from work. Now, judging from the fact that it's 4:00pm, many of you are probably asking how the R.A.S.S. I am home from work so early! Well, check this out, Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach 1 class that is an hour and 20 minutes long---so the drive is actually longer than the teaching time--oh well, what can you do, especially when the money relatively decent by West Virginia standards.
Hey, before I forget, does anybody out in blogland want a G-Mail invite? I have about 3 throwing around, so if you're interested, drop me a comment and specify some (non-hotmail) e-mail address. Anyhow, now that I'm done whoring for Google, I'm going to launch into the original purpose for writing this dissertation as to why I don't judge beauty contests.
From the looks of things, the Jamaican blogging community is very much into the whole beauty contest thing. Speaking of which, congratulations to Toyota Toyboy Tonoya Toyloy for capturing the hearts of Jamaicans and becoming our new Miss Jamaica World...best of luck you hear my girl!
Anyhow, the Doc, the Bull and the Foot have been having very interesting debates about the look of the Miss Jamaica contestants. Well, I am usually an eager little dog when it comes to many of the discussions here, but in this case I decided to bite my tongue. You see, I have long ago learned that judging beauty contests wasn't my forte (sp?). As a child growing up, I would always watch these events with my grandfather and, more times than not, we'd predict the top three finalists with some recent degree of accuracy--hey, we knew our women!
At any rate, I have come to realize that most of the girls in the competitions have a very high Dehwidability Index, or D.I. for short, (i.e. the higher the D.I. the stronger the likelihood that if I saw any one of these girls on the street I would want to hook up [deh wid] dem). In addition, most of them have a very high Sexability Index as well (which is a measure of how much sex I would like to have with them). If one were to examine the correlation between the D.I. and the S.I, then one would probably realize that the majority of these women (with very few exceptions) would be quite possibly a love/lust interest for me.
Anyhow, the problem is not that I find these women highly appealing, it's just that I find that by spending too much time judging these beautiful women and trying to find flaws (consciously or not) leads to an unrealistic sense of beauty and I tend to have too high standards for women. In fact, I even found myself in the past dating extremely gorgeous girls, usually breaking up with them because of some simple things like a mole on her nose or one breast being slightly bigger than the other or her hair not being long and wavy enough or because the butt did not have just the right amount of bounce. Who the hell was I to be telling judging these women for these little things? I am by no means perfect myself and I never made anybody!
As a matter of fact, I remember when I realized how annoying it is to be physically compared to someone is when I was dating 512 (so named because she was 6' tall, but kept telling people that she was 5'12" tall) and I had just earned my black belt (yes Stu, the Dog used to be somewhat of a martial artist back in the day) and we had gone to see some Van Damme movie. So here we are, me and 512 watching movie and hear her to me "So Dog, how you can't kick so high?", "So Dog, how come you can't split so far?", "So Dog, how come you your abs not as tight like Jean-Claude's?" Finally, I got so fed up with her that I said "So 512, how come you not normal height?", knowing full well that she was very conscious of her height in those days!
To say that I have transcended the whole good-looking woman drama would be a severe stretch of the truth. For sure, I've come to terms with the fact that I like attractive women (case in point, Pebbles), but I realize there is a lot more to women than looks...I've met some pretty hot women who were pretty "not" in the mental department. Good looks are fine, but if you have about the same level of intelligence as a box of hammers, it not going to work! By no means am I an intellectual snob and I don't intend to sound like one, but any woman I'm with has to be sufficiently intelligent so that we can have a decent conversation about things like polit(r)ic(k)s, art, music, culture, religion and so on. Don't need a college degree to be intelligent, but she just need to have a little something about her, if you catch my drift.
Anyhow, I think I've exhausted my mind for now, so I think I'll take a little break from the blog and go look about the trenton that is gently roasting in the kitchen!
{arf,arf} |
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| Monday Morning Blues |
[Sep. 27th, 2004|02:36 pm] |
Is it Monday already? Darn, it seems like just yesterday it was Sunday (oh yeah, yesterday WAS Sunday!) and now I have to be back at work again. Talk about a wild start to my morning! I wake up at 6:00am and decide that I deserved to sleep until 6:30am, since I was up all night putting much needed work into my horribly organized room! Anyhow, 6:30am rolls around and I'm thinking, "I really should wake up, but I can sleep until 6:40". 6:40 rolls by and I make to get out of bed, but somehow it took me 15 minutes to raise my torso and put my feet on the ground. Do the regular bathroom thing, i.e. the Three S's, skipped breakfast and was out the door at 7:08am. Now, wouldn't you know, I'm almost on the Interstate when it hits me that my car needs gas, oil and air. I totally forgot to fill up, add some oil to the engine, and adjust my tire pressure--dumbass! So, of course, I have to pull off at Sheetz and do all of the above, which took me all of 15 minutes.
Now, when it's 8:30am, work starts at 9am and you're still 45 minutes away from your job site, things seem a lot different and the foot tends to get a little heavy. Well, fortunately, I can't COMFORTABLY go over the speed limit of 70mph, since my car needs balancing and the steering vibrates almost as rapidly as a O.Ding crackhead, must get that fixed when next paycheck comes. Anyhow, I call my office and tell my secretary (OK, she's not exactly MY secretary per se, we all share her) that I'll be about 20-25 minutes late. Not a problem, life is good, and I'm happy--especially since I was only 15 minutes late, but managed to teach all I needed to teach within the alloted time. Even managed to bang out a project for my intro to computers class and chat with the other CS professor about the future of CS and MIS, isn't life grand? Would have had beaucoup time to eat, but a student of mine that needed help with functions came by to see me and we spent an hour talking code, which was beaucoup more fun than eating lunch (at least it was at the time, but now I'm hungry). No time to stop and eat, gotta dash off to the next class and the cycle goes on and on. How I love being in academia!
Anyhow, I have nothing really blogworthy this afternoon, since I haven't had time to read the newspaper and bitch and complain about all things political. So, I think that before I put my foot any further in my mouth, I'll cut this post here! Oh, before I forget, Pebbles is defending her research prospectus today...which means that by this evening she'll be a 3/4 Professor!!! Next add the research and the final dissertation defense some time in May, add water, and voila! you have a new college professor!
Me gone now!
{arf,arf} |
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| F to the R to the I to the D to the A to the Y |
[Sep. 24th, 2004|03:41 pm] |
Yep, it's Friday y'all and I am happy as a lark! No school for two whole days. Now, I'd like to say that I got paid and things were just peachy--but the sad truth is that I won't be able to enjoy my paycheck until next month :'(. See, I have a short term loan that sorta comes due at the start of next month, so it must be paid--oh well, life isn't that bad, so give God thanks for the blessings that He's bestowed upon me and those closest to me, so I not going to even complain.
Anyhow, I feel a lot better now that I've graded my students' exams [you remember the students I was crying about yesterday].Well, they're not A students just yet...but there is a glimmer of hope since all of them got B's and I only have 1 D, not bad, considering that it's a class of 4 people. Well, the two students that were really close to A's are on the right track, so I just have to keep pushing them to write code and things will get better I think/hope/pray. The other two aren't terrible bad, but they have a few holes that need to be filled in order to get to the "a ha!" moment, but I can feel that they're right on the edge and I just need to be the facilitator that pushes them over.
Anyhow, enough of this boring rass teacher's lament blog, I am going to go to mi yard (my house) and find my spoogy (girlfriend) and nyam some bicckle (eat some food) and watch two flim (movies). So, I bid thee alls a good, happy and safe weekend. To my friends, family and companions in Florida, stay safe, dry, and remember: 4 hurricanes in 6 weeks is definately a sign that you might want to consider switching residence!
{arf,arf} |
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| !!!REALLY Angry Dog!!! |
[Sep. 23rd, 2004|01:45 pm] |
Now, I'm a very patient individual...ask Pebbles or anyone else who knows me how many times I've ever lost my temper. Well, today is one of those days when you just have to sit down, rip your hair out and scream at the world! Imagine, it's the 5th week of the semester and 3/4 of my programming class still has no clue about writing EVEN THE SIMPLEST of programs! Have I been teaching rocks all semester long? Do they just not get it? Am I overwhelming them? Do I blame the person that taught them the introductory class? What the hell!!!!
Tomorrow, they have an exam coming up, and if they couldn't write a simple program AFTER TWO WEEKS, how the hell are they going to be able to do the programming questions, let alone some of the more advanced things that I need to teach them? I've long since passed outside of the realm of blaming myself for my student's failures...I give them source code, I give them all the help they need, I spend painful class sessions going over the simplest of things, I show them how to think about programming and break things into simpler, more manageable steps. What the hell am I missing???? Shit, Fuck, Damn, AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!
Obviously, this is the first time they're actually having to write code on their own--apparently the person that taught them the first course believed in giving them working code and have them modify it slightly in order to make it do something else...who the fuck teaches and intro to computer science class by teaching them how to fucking reuse code!!! I'm at a complete loss, I have no idea what to do right now. I'm tired, pissed off, and completely and utterly frustrated. I have no idea how to reach these kids and get them to actually do STUFF. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!!!!!!! AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
OK, I'm calmer now, I need to go back to my office, sit down, close my eyes for a few minutes and then come up with a better strategy. There has to be something I'm missing...though I guess I'll tell how much they're missing after their first exam tomorrow. Wait a minute, I'm a software engineer/wanna be data miner...why not look at their code and try to figure out some of their major weaknesses. Yeah, that's it...evaluate, analyze, and come up with a better strategy...yeah, I think that might work. I just don't know what more I can do...
{arf,arf} |
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| The AngryDog 8-Week Diet Challenge Part I |
[Sep. 21st, 2004|02:18 pm] |
"Holy Flab Batman!!" I was looking in the mirror this morning and it suddenly hit me that I've put on waaaayyyy too much weight in the past year! It's darn embarrasing when clothes that used to be too big for you are now two sizes too small and your girlfriend complains about your boxers showing because your T-Shirts rides over your guts! Then of course comes the health-related stuff--problems with sleep, fatigue, lack of endurance, etc. Well, I done with that crap! Time for me to go back to the gym and start losing the weight! Hell, if Anna Nicole could do it, so can the Dog!
The real reason for wanting to go back to the weight room is because I need a new wardrobe for my teaching, but I can't do that until I lose some weight! And so, I've come up with the AngryDog 8-Week Diet Challenge. Now, I don't have the fitness program here, but I'll post it whenever I get home, so look out for Part II come later!
{grrr, grrr} |
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| The Day Porn Died |
[Sep. 19th, 2004|06:35 pm] |
Howdy folks, today is my girlfriend's birthday!! So please be sure to say happy b/day to the girl [I won't say her age here unless I get my butt kicked, but it's safe to say that her age still remains on the calendar!]. Anyhow, we had a little birthday get-together, with a cake and everything! It's amazing how difficult it is to sneak these things in when your girlfriend is with you all weekend!! Nonetheless, with my Ninja-like stealth, I was able to secure a small celebration for the lady.
Of other blog-note, I've written a new story called Tears of the Angels, be sure to check it out at the League of Extraordinary Writers and let me know what you think! A note to my faithful readers, it does deal with certain political issues pertinent to the Jamaican climate and contains a little bit of violence, but it is a work of fiction and in no way reflect my (lack of) personal political views!
Now, according to the title above, you might be curious as to what I'm talking about. Well, I'd be a liar if I said I didn't look at porn every now and then, but it's not my livelyhood and I am by no means a purveyor of ponagraphic content on the web! Anyhow, a friend of mine sent me a certain link, and after viewing what this woman has to offer, I've decided to never, ever, ever, ever, look at porn again! Long gone are the days of the slender, buxom, over-sexed porn starlet! Now we're talking about the "amateurs" and their obsession with doing their business in their "apartments" and then allowing the world to see what they shouldn't see in the first place! Just to know, the image is not a nude shot, she's clothed, but with or without clothes, she's scary as hell!!
( WARNING This link is not worksafe (or any kind of safe whatsoever!) proceed with due caution! )
Anyhow, dinner is being cooked and I must go make my sweet and sour glaze that Pebbles adores so much! Here's hoping that I didn't ruin y'allz dinners with this "image"!
{arf,arf} |
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| T.G.I.F.T.R. |
[Sep. 17th, 2004|11:06 am] |
Well, it's Friday again and I am happy that the weekend is here [trust me, after this week, I reeaaaallly need some time to unwind and relax the body and mind]. Don't really have too much to post today, I'm missing some of my blogging buddies [i.e. Mad Bull and The Doctor]. Nuff respec to the crew at The Tower [Ciya, Seven, Scratchie] for providing us all with some insight into this tragedy minor setback that plauges the Caribbean which we all love. Much respect to Ciya for writing this poem entitled Hurricane!! I love it, because she has captured my thoughts and reactions to Gilbert as a child growing up in the late 80's! Well done Ciya!!!
Speaking of which, my dad e-mailed me a joke this morning, and since I have nothing much to post, I figure I'll link it for the rest of you folks to enjoy:
( click here to view The Joke! )
Have a good weekend everybody and, please, stay safe and as dry as possible!
{arf,arf} |
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| Then and Now |
[Sep. 16th, 2004|01:46 pm] |
Hi, hello, how are you all doing? It's been such a long time since I have had anything to write about, in fact, last week and most of this week have been occupied with teaching preparation, not to mention the frantic telephne calls and e-mail messages to friends and family members back in Jamaica to ensure that Ivan the Terrible had not sealed their fates. Well, I am pleased to report that most of my friends and family suffered only minimal damage to their residences, but more importantly, they are all OK! God is truly a good God!
I was just thinking about the differences between Ivan and Gilbert with respect to how people dealt with it. Of course, I was a mere eleven years old (if that much) when Gilbert struck. Now, being somewhat older, I have a different perspective on Ivan, particularly because I was not at home when he hit, but mainly because I am no longer an innocent child.
Then
When Gilbert set foot upon Jamaica, I had just started going to Jamaica College and, quite frankly, I hated going to school [nothing against my alma mater, but I just hated school in general back in those days]. Gilbert came at quite a convenient time for me because it meant that I had more time to study for my math exam, which I was bound to fail, and to make the prize even sweeter, no school for weeks! I guess hurricanes are the Caribbean equivalent to a snow day in the United States (but on a much grander scale IMHO!).
Now
Flash forward to hurricane Ivan. I'm a 27-year old college professor in the US and, judging from my chosen profession, it's quite obvious that I now enjoy (or at least tolerate) being in a school environment. I spend my office hours tracking the storm online and communicate with friends and family all over the Caribbean and Florida (via telephone and instant messenger) about the storm and, in some ways, I've become a bit proficient at reading the signs on the NOAA website. I'm concerned that my younger brothers and sister will miss out on important parts of their education, like I had during Gilbert. After all, time at home means less time at school which generalizes into the Jamaican students being way behind many of their Caribbean counterparts with respect to various syllabi that must be followed. I still failed my math test, regardless of how much more "time" I had to study for it anyway, so what was the use?
Then
When we considered the term "looter" back in the context of Gilbert, my mind goes back to the media showing images of wet, barefooted inner city residents running wild through the streets of Jamaica with various appliances, furniture and miscellaneous articles. I even remember jokes my friends told about the alleged one-footed looter that held a fridge on his back. Not only did this fictitious looter succesfully evade the police and other looters, but he also managed to jump clear across sandy gully. All this from a one-footed man with a fridge on his back! Oh how creative is the Jamaican mind!
Now
The "looters" have become an organized task force of sorts! Back in Gilbert, it was quite normal for someone to steal a few appliances or clothes, but the looters that are talked about by the media during the time of Ivan are armed to the teeth and actually have vehicles and are organized enough to strip an entire warehouse in a relatively short space of time. Then the media talks about gun battles during the storm, something completely unheard of during Gilbert! Oh how Jamaica has changed from a fun-loving land!
Then
During Gilbert, we had no power for almost three months where I lived. Of course, the Internet users didn't suffer, because that domain only existed for the true techno-geeks back in those days! We had power at our house because my uncle got a generator and hooked it up to the wiring system in our house, thereby making us a Honda-powered house for the duration of the power outage. The generator was a loud, noisy thing, and we had to feed it with a never-ending supply of gasoline. Even my grandmother became proficient at pouring gas into the beast and using the little pull cord to restart the machine! Telephones were down for a while, but I don't remember how long we were without service, certainly not as long as we were without light though [but I forget, because I didn't talk on the phone in those days anyway].
Now
Electricity was shut down just before Ivan hit and most places already have power restored, all within a few days. Water is a fickle thing, but from what I understand from my "reporters" at Ground 0 it's back in most places. The local telephone service was up and running throughout the storm and, even though the international link has been damaged, calling to Jamaica is still possible, though difficult at times. As I said to my Aunt Prudence in Florida before Ivan hit Jamaica, "this will be a test to see how our technological infrastructure has advanced in the past ten years" and we did indeed succeed!
Well, I think I've done enough reminiscing about the ghosts of hurricanes past. My prayers are with Mad Bull and his family and here's hoping that we will be able to get in contact with them very soon! To those in Jamaica that have weathered the storm and have emerged stronger, people like Yamfoot, Dr. D, Owen and the family of Stu. Here's hoping that you will be able to quickly pick up your lives from where you left off before Ivan and move forward even stronger, having literally weathered the storm!
{arf,arf} |
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| The F-Word [a.k.a a birthday tribute to the good doctor] |
[Sep. 9th, 2004|01:45 pm] |
No, no, no...not THAT F word! Actually, what I meant was Friday! Yep, it's almost here--10 hours and 11 minutes to go according to my calculations! Well, you know what, tomorrow is also a special day because the Doctor is having a birthday! I hope that Ivan the R.A.S.S doesn't ruin the festivities too much for you sah--oh well, you can always tell people that you got "one helluva blowjob" [remember Lovindeer's Wild Gilbert album?], just don't go around telling people that you got it from someone named Ivan now you know! Anyhow, on a more serious note, Happy 41 Dr. D and wishes for many, many, many more birthdays!
Sorry I'm in cyberspace and unable to link you for the birthday, but here's a virtual chawklit cake just for you!
As a matter of fact, I went all out and got you a bottle of Virtual V/X as well. Cheers!
I spoke to my links and even got you a virtual linkup for you with Halle Berry! [don't you just love the dog?]. As a matter of fact, my hollywood contact was so excited about your birthday that they even decided to throw in Halle's little-known twin sister, Hefty!
 *insert your favorite cussword here*
Anyhow, not much else going on on the homefront today, just kicking back and relaxing and enjoying the fact that it's almost Friday. Have some extra work that needs to get done in the lab today, but nothing too much, hoping to beat it before the rain still (yes we still suffering the backlash from Francis). Took my car in to the shop this morning to get a wire re-connected and tighten a few belts here and there, she seems to be holding up really well, in light of the fact that she's done well over 2000 miles since her last oil change a couple weeks back. Funny thing is that the speed limit on the highway that I have to take to get to work in the mornings is 70mph. Can you believe that there was some guy driving his 2002+ Subaru Impreza (not a WRX) in the rain (i.e. slick surface) well over 100mph this morning??? The fool cut me off and the draft I picked up from him crossing over into my lane pulled my car uncomfortably along, suffice it to say, I was pissed! Anyhow, about 5 miles down the road I see the flashing lights of a police cruiser and, sure enough, there is our little Subaru friend sitting by the side of a road with a police officer running his tags. I'm really glad they stopped this idiot too, because there was a slew of accidents yesterday (I saw about 5 in total) and it really wasn't a pleasant day driving one bit.
Anyhow, I've said my piece, now I must go and grade projects.
{arf, arf} |
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| Dawg Turn Rapper To R.A.S.S!! |
[Sep. 8th, 2004|03:32 pm] |
Hi all, c'est moi, le AngryDog :D. Now, I'm not sure if I wrote about the new JVC head unit (i.e. CD Player) I bought for my car a few weeks ago, well, the thing is kicking much butt! It makes the ride to work seem much more pleasant and I can finally listen to some hardcore dancehall riddims! Anyhow, I think I've been listening to way too much Elephant Man, Tupac, and so on, because I was trying to write a poem this morning and got myself a hardcore gangsta rap instead!
( Wanna read the gangsta rap (radio version) written by me? )
So, do you think the rap can sell? Anyhow, I'm a bit bummed about the fact that we up north are getting the last little backlash from Frances--it's raining like a mo'fo up in here and I dread the evening drive to go back to my little ranch. Oh well, just have to say a little prayer and tek time gwaan.
Gotta go back to tending young minds.
{arf,arf} |
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| Labor Day |
[Sep. 7th, 2004|01:29 pm] |
Greetings fellow bloggers, I see from visiting other pages that everyone has been busy posting (even the Doctor has been posting up a storm! [pun intended]). Alright, now I've been taking a lot of flack from certain people who shall remain anonymous about my last post where I turned typical Jamaican cuss words into nifty little acronyms. Well, I believe in the educational merit of what I did, so who don't like it, too bad! (besides, this is perhaps the only excuse I have for swearing on my website without sounding crass).
Anyhow, labor day came and went, and I didn't do one R.A.S.S. After all, I give Uncle Sam my hard-earned dollars in income tax every month, the least he can do is give me a little break to relax and enjoy miself. Hey, you know, I was just thinking about how we in Jamaica celebrate labor day versus how the Americans do it. Now, growing up, I used to remember JBC (TVJ) and CVM providing coverage of labor day projects that different individuals/groups/service organizations used to carry out. I even remember songs that they used to play on labor day: "the more we work together, the irier we shall be" and "everybody mus' work". See, for a good portion of Jamaica, labor day actually meant that we had to go out and work!! Now, in the US, labor day basically means people will chill out, have barbecues, relax, go shopping at the labor day sales...pretty much, they do everything except work.
You know what, I think I like the American idea of labor day much more still, so I guess I'll stay here for a while. Now, Christmas is a different story altogether! In the US, Christmas isn't as important a holiday as Thankgsgiving and, in fact, families oftentimes do not make the effort to reunite for the season, having already had the big family affair for Thanksgiving. For us Jamaicans, on the other hand, Christmas is the bashment time! Officially we get Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, then of course comes New Year. Unofficially, however, we get two weeks off--though our bodies may be physically at work (sometimes) our minds are partying it up non-stop. I could never imagine, even in my wildest dreams, that I would be at work on December 26th...after all, we do need to have some time to recover from all the food and liquor you know!
Anyhow, I am unofficially planning to write an anthology of short stories based on the ones that I post on the LXW site. What do you guys think? Is it worth a shot?
Anyhow, must go tend to the young minds that I call students.
{arf,arf} |
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