:: Venting Insanity ::

:: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 ::

I just got home a little while ago. Dad called me earlier while I was tutoring Kiesha and I had to pick him up at the car place after class. We got home around midnight or so.

Kiesha's session went well. It went better than Evelyn's. I was more prepared because I know what's going on in the class (heck, I'm in the class with her). I think the other students feel better about asking me for help through the school than just in general. They don't have to pay for it because it's a service provided by the school, but I still get paid to be a tutor. Also, Kiesha gave me a possible job lead and someone to contact over at Stony Brook University about a position there doing HTML work. I'm definitely looking into that.

We were there for an hour and a half, though. I barely had time to eat the soup I had brought with me in my thermos and pop over to South Street to check on the tutoring paperwork and Professor Spratt. I had eaten the fruit cup in between sessions, just after I posted earlier, and I was able to finish eating the soup just before we started the first class project tonight. Plus, because I started it late, I ended up having my soda through most of the class, which actually helps me a bit.

Class was fun tonight. We did a couple of group activities, basically helping us to get to know one another a bit better and to get us to understand a bit about group dynamics. One was an exercise to illustrate how different people can think differently than one another and how they handle working in a group. We built contraptions to catch an egg and prevent it from breaking while only using the materials Brigid (our teacher) supplied. She had scissors, paperclips, rubberbands, construction and tissue paper, pipe cleaners, yarn, masking tape, and oaktag strips.

Mark and I built a trampoline type of thing. We made an inner cylinder of oaktag strips taped together and wove a web of yarn to catch the egg. Then, we made a taller, outer cylinder from construction paper to prevent the egg from falling out. Then we stuffed the cylinder under the net with tissue paper and lined the top of the net with tissue paper so it would be cushioned better and wouldn't fall through the net. Then, we placed a sheet of tissue paper across the top to slow the egg's fall. I packed the egg in tissue paper inside a construction paper tube and taped it together so it wouldn't fall out. It worked. Our egg didn't break.

The other activity was called "Human Bingo". I've done it a million times before. Basically, there's a grid of different situations that can apply to a person. You have to find people to fit those situations and fill in the names in an attempt to get five across, like Bingo. I got Bingo first, but only got it once. Corey got Bingo like four times on his grid.

We also discussed the interview project we have to do and came up with some questions to ask. Mark's already done with his, so I don't have to worry about bugging him to finish it. I spoke with Professor Spratt earlier, before class, and he said he'd do the interview for me. I'm happy! I also wrote up the questions I want to ask him and, since I need to stop by the South Street building to get the tutoring paperwork before math tomorrow, I'll poke my head in his office and see if he wants to get it over with after my math class tomorrow.

Yeah, that's right... I have to get the tutoring paperwork. I stopped by there earlier today when I went down to Financial Aid to find out why my loan wasn't approved. The paperwork for tonight wasn't there and neither was the guy I have to get it from. {{grumbles}} It was there after the sessions, but I didn't want to take it with me in case someone else needed to sign up during the day tomorrow. I'll grab it before class tomorrow so Kiesha can sign off on what we did tonight during class tomorrow, then drop it off after class before I speak with Professor Spratt. Then I have to make sure I grab it again Wednesday before Evelyn's next session so she can sign off on tonight's session and Wednesday's session.

I also have to call Sallie Mae tomorrow and find out what the heck is going on with my loan. Maybe if I complain enough, they'll change their minds and grant it to me. They said it was for lack of credit. I say bull to that. I have credit through my cell phone. I *know* I have a credit history. I'm also hoping that Dad's check goes through before my payment on the car does. If the opposite happens, I might end up bouncing another check. That *won't* be pretty.

I also managed to catch Brigid for a little while after class and talk to her about the ADD thing. She's really understanding about it. I didn't really have enough time to talk to her about the journal and also the career development stuff that I had done at Right Management. I'll see if I can catch her before class on Wednesday, since I'll be there early anyway after Evelyn's tutoring session.

I got a couple of good job leads today. I poked my head in the Career Services office to let them know I had lost the job at Arrow. She understood and had been looking through some classified ads before I walked in. So we went over them together. I also grabbed a few of those free papers that are laying around the school (Computer User, Job Finder, Long Island Press, Good Times, and The New Island Ear). I'm going to grab my highlighter and go digging through those, along with the Sunday Newsday Classifieds and my Networking paper that I get (somehow I ended up on their free subscription list, but I'm not complaining), and see if I can find more job leads. I have several e-mails to send out tomorrow, as well as calls to make. Plus, Nature's Bounty in Bohemia is having walk-in interview sessions twice a day on Mondays through Thursdays, so I'll stop by down there with my resume and see if I can get an interview.