College Class Registration

I went to my community college to try to register for a class. The first time I went, I found that I did not have the approval from my department chair to skip over some course prerequisites. This time I had printed out the approval from the department chair. I went to my department's office to get an override slip. That is required to register for the course.

When I got to the computer science department office, nobody was at the front desk. A woman in a cubicle nearby helped me. Well she at least talked to me and took my information. She got someone else to try to help me. They tried to use the computer to enter the override. Failed. Then they pulled out the cheat sheet. No help. After a while they were enterering random numbers into the system. I bet you know how that turned out.

Eventually, they just filled out a piece of paper and gave me their phone number. They thought that should be enough to get me past admissions. I went over to the advising building. Entered my name in the system and took a seat. Last time I went to advising on campus, it took around two hours for them to call my name. This time I came prepared. I had my trusty Amazon Kindle device with my latest book loaded up. Let's just say I read lots of the book while waiting.

Eventually some guy called my name and introduced himself. He called himself a doctor. I guess that means he has a PhD. By itself that might count for something, but why is he then working as a frontline admissions clerk? I did not ask him. Just got him to sign my form to say that advising had taken place. Then he handed back my form and I went to stand in line in admissions. Later this "doc" came running over and said I forgot my override papers. What? I handed them to him. He just did not return them to me.

Good thing I got those override papers back. Admissions said I needed those papers to get enrolled. Next I jumped over to the cashier's office to pay my bill. Don't want to get dropped from the class for nonpayment. Then I went downstairs to purchase my textbook. Oooops. They are not selling the books until next week. Seems a bit late as classes start in less than a month.

I headed over to the security office to get my new parking pass. The security office was no longer there. They were doing some construction. So I went to the information desk. They actually had some parking passes. Good thing I keep my license plate number in my wallet. Next I wanted to get my school ID. Oooops. I was told the security office was closed for the afternoon. I guess I will see them when I return to buy my textbook.

Who Needs Credit?

Some workers on my team are tasked with helping the next generation system that needs to be done. Apparently they did not want me working on that task. This was fine by me. I have enough work to keep me busy. But here is the thing. The people working on this task just do not understand how the current system works. They need to. How are they going to figure any of this out? They got to come to me.

The guy that leads my team called Shennanigans. The managers were making a big deal about being able to carry the new task without using me. But behind the scenes they need a lot of help from me. My team lead thought there was something very wrong about that. I told him not to worry. It is not like these guys can grab some information from me and be prepared to add value to the new task. It is just not going to happen.

The only way to become an expert on very complex systems like the one I work on is to dig deep into it on a daily basis. You need to do that for years, decades even. Only then can you master all the rules and more importantly the exceptions. So these guys are grabbing all kinds of information from me. But it only gives them a starting point. When anyone asks them probing questions, they got to stop and come back to me.

In the end, I am going to be involved. Some perps might try to appear as if they can handle working on the specifics of the new system coming down the pipeline. But without deep subject matter expertise, they are going to be in for a rough ride. You can't fool the people who need to know the details. The sham will not hold up. This is the benefit of knowing your stuff. You will be in high demand no matter what.

The Hunt for Manual

Now that my Volkswagen Beetle is history, I have been looking around for another manual transmission vehicle. My mechanic warned me to stay away from Volkswagens. He also recommended I pay a bit more and buy from a reputable dealership such as CarMax.

I have been browsing the CarMax inventory. Also have been using their Save Car feature to track cars I like. They even have a feature that lets you set up alerts. In other words, they will email if something happens to a car that you like. Got a couple alerts already about cars being sold or their prices being reduced.

I showed Momoko my list of cars that I had saved. She honed in on a 2004 Jeep Liberty. The exciting thing to Momoko was that is cost $9,000. I liked it because it had all wheel drive and a V6 engine with 210 horsepower. One drawback was that it was not located at the locate CarMax. It was at a CarMax in a nearby state.

Momoko got directions to the other state's CarMax. It is an hour drive away as long as there is no traffic. I told Kit Kat we might have to go there. Kit Kat declared that she was not going to drive to the other state. This was just Kit Kat being stubborn again. I guess I could always slip purchasing the next vehicle and make her learn stick shift using my old pickup truck.

This morning I found our discussions were moot. CarMax reported that the Jeep Liberty is no longer available. I guess someone snatched it up and bought it. Never fear. I got a lead on a green 2007 Hyundai Accent for $11,000. The good thing is that it is located in the local CarMax.

Mom Coming Home

Mom returned home from the hospital this weekend. She was rushed to the emergency room about a week ago because she could not breathe. She had pneumonia. Things are hard because mom cannot eat (swallow) anything. It is causing infections due to problem with her throat. She had an operation so that she can feed her stomach directly through a tube.

Some type of hospice organization helped arrange delivery of a hospital bed to mom's house. They also set up regular nurse visits to mom's house. I think doctors may also visit the house if need be. This is optimal since nobody likes mom being in the hospital.

No Popcorn Said Grumpy Cat

Kit and I decided to go to the late show and see the Rest In Peace Department with Ryan Reynolds.  Because it was Thursday, I was able to get a discount because Kit is a student. 

I decided to get a large popcorn and drink so that we could get a free refill.  I like to bring home something for Black and he really likes movie theater popcorn.  I asked when the concession closed because I thought it might be shutting down a little earlier to clean up.

I was shocked that the lady said it would be closing in 30 min after, that was only 15 minutes after our movie started.  I tried to get the lady to give us our refill early by doubling the popcorn and coke so we wouldn't miss out on getting our free refill but she said "NO!" in her  Grumpy Cat voice.

 I decided to take a carrying tray and Kit and I filled it up with most of the popcorn. We nibbled on the rest and drank the coke during the pre-show.  Kit was able to get a refill of both the popcorn and coke before the movie started.  YAH!, mission accomplished.  I guess next time we should bring a few zip-lock bags from home for the excess popcorn or skip the popcorn all together. 

Kit really enjoyed the movie.  It was kinda nice to go to the late show because there were not a lot of people. 

Air Cat

Little is spending a few weeks at his dad's place and he needed a ride to the airport.  The problem was we had to leave at 4:00 am to get him to the airport on time. 

I decided that Kit needed to have practice driving to the airport so she was appointed as the the driver and I was elected the navigator by default.  Black needed his beauty sleep so we left him dreaming at home. 

Little and I stayed up all night and Kit was able to get 3 or 4 hours before we headed out at the ridiculously early hour.  Everything went smoothly on out trip to the airport but when we got there Little did not want us to wait with him at the gate.  He was a typical teen cat and totally ignored us and walked wayyyyyyyyyyy ahead of us.  I was not having that so I had to use my "Mom" voice and put him in his place.

He reluctantly "allowed" us to be around him as we checked him in and went through security.  It was the first time I had a body scan and I didn't like it very much.  That glass room was a little too small for my liking. 

We made it to the gate in record time.  Little said he was hungry and wanted me to buy him something to eat.  Interesting he didn't want me to even come with him and now he needed me to open my wallet and now I was his most favorite person.  Gotta love a teenager!  I guess I have to admit my baby is growing up and he doesn't need me as much as I would like him too. 

Little made it safely to his dads and I hope he has a good visit.

Trip by GPS

It was finally time to return the license plates for the Beetle. No need to keep them anymore. I can't cancel my insurance until the plates have been returned to the state. So I took a little trip the other day.

I kind of knew where the Department of Motor Vehicles was located. However I typed the adress into my GPS anyway. It took me there via a short cut. There was one problem though. The area had a lot of construction. I was able to look at the map on the GPS and figure out a few detours.

At the DMV, I got assigned a ticket with a number on it. Had to wait until I was called to the desk. It did not take that long. I think the plate return line moves very quickly. Some other people were not as lucky.

The GPS got me there. I figured it could take me home. At first I was leery because it had me going down a narrow residential street. Then it told me the next turn was a street near my house. That could not be right. I was in a whole different town. Then I figured out why the next turn was so close to my home. The road I was on was a major one. It changes names a couple times, but comes out right by our house. Brilliant.