Tony’s Journal

So as you know, I have been taking classes (online) at UNC-CH over the past three semesters, including this one. As an employee of the UNC system, I get 3 free classes a year. Online classes are best for me because the schedule is mad flexible, plus I am only taking intro level courses anyway, based on whatever I’m interested in. And I’m taking classes from UNC-CH because they simply offer a lot of intro level classes, while State offers mainly stuff online in which I am not interested nor eligible for. Through UNC-CH, I’ve taken Intro to Linguistics, Intro to Sociology, and now am taking American History Since 1865.

So I get the textbook and open it up, brand new, and inside the cover is a colorful map of the USA. Looks like a high school textbook. Leaf through it, it’s got pictures and illustrations and sidebars jut like a high school history text. Okay. Then I open up the companion text, which I bought used. Open it up, and on the first page, someone has scrawled out: a high school class schedule. AP Chemistry, Religion, Free period, lunch, etc.

We’re using a high school textbook.

I guess this is why we always hear anecdotes about how UNC-CH is hard to get in and easy to get out.

Of course, now that I’ve shown surprise, this class is likely gonna whip my ass.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
No Comments »

The Outfield – Your Love

It is a very old song. It is not as though I have just heard it for the first time. It just occurred to me that one can have no quarrel with this song.

If you don’t love this song, you are Not Awesome. In fact, if you don’t love this song, I DON’T LOVE YOU.

Here is a video, if you want to make sure you love it.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
1 Comment »

Well, this just pisses me right off.

Va. Tech to Distribute $7.5 Million to Victims’ Families

Not the fact that they are getting money, but that they are holding out for more than the fund contains, and acting as though they earned the cash. Kid’s gone, time to cash in! I understand them accepting money if the University offers it to them, as it is a nice gesture. I don’t understand them bitching to no end about how much they get to cash in.

Vincent J. Bove, a spokesman for seven of the families, said the money “will help the families get back on track.”

How? The faculty, I understand. The students weren’t the breadwinners for their families, unless there were very unusual circumstances. It gets them back on track how? Makes them happy that they have money?

“They want to remain focused on what happened, why it happened,” said Bove, a security expert. “It was preventable and a lack of leadership allowed this to happen.”

A lack of leadership allowed it to happen, my ass. It’s a free country, and this kid did everything legally (as far as I can remember) until he started shooting. It’s not illegal to wear a hooded sweatshirt or to write terrible poetry. It’s easy to connect the dots NOW, sure.

An attorney for some of the Virginia Tech victims said last month his clients deserve “at least what the 9-11 people got.”

WHAT IN THE HELL. Where do they even get the idea to make a comparison like this?

Damn it all. I can’t believe that I am actually annoyed at the surviving relatives of the victims of this tragedy. That’s what this news is doing, though.

People die. It’s sad. Usually, the relatives don’t hit the jackpot as a result. They mourn and deal with the loss. It might come as a surprise to these families and representatives that deaths usually don’t result in a dump truck full of cash unloading in the bereaved’s front yard.

My mom died when I was four. Who can I sue? Where do I pick up my paycheck? I’m the one who called 911, so I can’t sue myself. Maybe the paramedics? I can’t sue God; He has a good lawyer, I’m sure. And He has no monetary assets that can be seized, I don’t think. I wonder if there is someone who will be nice enough to give me money for this. And when they do, I’ll bitch that it’s not enough.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
No Comments »

Why in the Samuel L. Jackson is it not possible to upload photos to Picasa directly from a phone?

So I can upload them to Facebook, and Flickr, and I could cobble together a way to do it with Gallery, but of all the damn companies, Google hasn’t figured this out.

I am going to march right over to Lenoir and yell my complaint at some construction worker.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
No Comments »

This is the best article I have ever read about how hot it is in the summer.

Transplants painstakingly research the Triangle’s cost of living, the quality of its schools, the property tax rates. But many seem perennially surprised when, around August, their heavenly cul de sac turns into a hellish cauldron.

“What do you expect? We’re in the South. Give me a break,” said Debbie Buffaloe, who came from Durham to shop the farmers market. Paying for a bag of summer squash and zucchini, she added, “We did have a cool July.”

‘What do you expect? We’re in the South’

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
No Comments »

Quote of the week, from Melissa’s mom:

“Budapest is the Fuquay-Varina of Europe.”

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
No Comments »