Acheiving a Goal

The entry-level certification for IT professionals is the CompTIA A+ certification. This certification proves that a technician has the knowledge of computer hardware that is necessary in the field. I set a goal to attain this certification. In order to get the certification, I needed to take two timed exams. One tested me on the actual knowledge of computers, while the other tested me on the practical application of the knowledge. I prepared for these exams by taking practice tests. I would take the practice tests and build study guides for myself so that I could study the material with which I struggled. I studied for both of these tests until I felt I was prepared. I took the first test and passed. I had to wait a minimum of thirty days to take the second test. Once I passed the second test, I was A+ certified. Two weeks later, I was hired for my first job in the IT industry. I had been posting my resume on many different job sites for about eight months prior to getting A+ certified. Once I put that I had the certification, I got many job offers. This was important because my unemployment was about to run out. My A+ certification gets me jobs. 

Personal Ritual

One of my personal rituals happens at the beginning of the day when I leave for work. I hop in my car, start it and make sure 102.9 the hog is on. As Bob and Bryan are talking away and making laugh, I'm peeling a banana. Bananas are a great on the go food. When I finish the banana I light a cigarette. Smoking in itself is its own mini ritual and I go through that twice before I arrive at work. I get to my desk and turn on my computer. While my computer boots up I go and grab a cup of coffee. I sign in to my computer account and I head to my one of my favorite websites, cracked.com. I read an article on that site while drinking my coffee. When I am finished with the article I take a second for a big full body stretch. I start checking my work email and the day throws many different things at me. This ritual prepares me for my day, mostly because it helps me to wake up and deal with the issues that arise throughout the day.

Childhood Memory

My parents were getting my brother and me ready to go to my aunt's house. My aunt's cat just had kittens and we were going to see them, and maybe take one home. We got ready and hopped in the car. The car ride to my aunt's downtown Milwaukee apartment was long. I was so excited to see the little kitties. I was about six or seven years old and I loved animals, and still do. When the car finally stopped, I realized that we were not at my aunt's house. My parents escorted us to a huge building. I now know this building as the Milwaukee Theater. We entered through the doors and I was in heaven. Everything around me had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it. Shirts, hats, and light up ninja weaponry were all around me. We arrived at our seats and we were treated to a live showing of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles singing, dancing, and ninja kicking Shredder and the Foot Clan.

My brother and I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We had all their toys, video games, and even bed sheets (which I still have). My parents surprised us by taking us to the live show and it was wonderful. We don't even mention that they tricked us by telling us we were going to see my aunt's kittens.

Disagreement

Just yesterday I had a disagreement with a friend. It was about a guy who she has been seeing off and on for about three years. Their relationship does not have a very good effect on my friend. She will tell me about how he is mean to her and that he does not make her feel good. There have also been instances of violence by the guy towards her. I do not believe that violence towards women in any context is ever justified. So naturally I voiced my concerns to my friend, but she did not take my concerns to heart. So yesterday she told me that she forgot expensive earrings at this guy’s house and she needed me to give her a ride to get them. I refused to help her, even though she pleaded with me. I said that I would not be involved in her relationship troubles. She was very mad, but I held my ground. The part she does not understand is that if I did get involved and met her guy friend, I would be very mean. I would not physically start any confrontations, but I would certainly beat him with my words. My stand against that unhealthy relationship is known, and I will never support any situation where a man abuses a woman.

Asthma

My daughter and I went to the circus this weekend with my friends are their 4 year old daughter. It was a lot of fun. We saw a guy get shot out of a cannon! It took us a while to get back to my friends house but we finally made it home safely in the snow. We ordered a pizza and that is when it happened. My daughter started coughing uncontrollably. She threw up from coughing and starting hacking and crying. I gave her asthma medicine and some cough medicine because she has been sick. Nothing helped her, so I took her to the emergency room. They gave her a steroid and a breathing treatment. She was a little better but, I wish I would have stayed for another treatment. She was doing a little bit better and I got some stronger medication for controlling her asthma. I talked to my daughter’s mom about my daughter's asthma. Apparently all the cigarette smoke that my daughter’s mom exposes her to is not a problem. It must be my house that has clean air running through it. I know it is clean because I was in the business of clean air for years. My daughter’s mom can justify it all she wants, but I know that cigarette smoke is what is hurting my daughter. Every week my daughter's asthma gets worse and worse. I think I might just take my daughter away and force her mom to get a lawyer.

Scary Dreams

Last night I had a dream. This wasn’t just any dream. This dream was short and extremely frightening. I dreamt that E.T. the Extra Terrestrial burst into my room while I was sleeping. He showed me a button and pointed to it. He made it very clear that if I pushed the button, he would go home. Now I wanted this creepy little space traveler out of my room so, naturally, I attempted to push the button. Unfortunately, I could not push the button so easily. It took all of my strength to lift my hand out of my covers to push the button. Suddenly I woke up and my hand was where it was in the dream when I pushed the button. Was I dreaming or am I somehow the only way this little monster could get home?  I am still freaked out by that dream and I will always have an extreme fear of aliens, especially the friendly ones.

“E.T.” was one of the first movies that made me cry out of fear. I was only about six when I saw it for the first time. I hated it then and I hate it now. It was, and still is, one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.

Presidents' Day

I have off of work today. I am taking this rare opportunity to catch up on a few things. 

I have a lot of reading to do for my computer classes. I have class tonight and I need to get my reading and studying completed for a quiz. I also need to read and study for the first test in my Thursday night class.

There is laundry every where. I need to wash, fold and put away my laundry and my daughter's laundry. I also need to clean up the living room because my daughter is a destructive tornado. There are dolls, coloring books, crayons and baskets of ponies everywhere. My daughter makes such lovely drawings of rainbows but they are much less lovely when they are all over the floor.

I also seem to be the maid of this house even though 2 other grown adults live here. The dishes would never get done if I don't do them. The other people that live here know that I don't want my daughter living in filth, so they use that to be lazy and make me do everything. I can't wait to afford to live on my own again. Then, I will only be responsible for my daughter and myself.

Thanks Honest Abe and George Washington for the opportunity to play catch up.

Ping Pong

The people where I work make a lot of money, I do not. I help these people with their computers and perform other computer related tasks. One day there was a Ping Pong table in the lunch room. I couldn't wait to start challenging people.

As of right now, I am undefeated in Ping Pong. It feels good to beat someone at a game, especially if they are beating you at the game of life. I know money isn't the only thing in life but this small victory feels good.

I get the same feeling when someone who makes a lot of money calls me because they can't figure out how to plug in their computer monitor. It is the little things in life that I enjoy.

New Job

Its seems lately I've been posting about about all the new things in my life like, my car, my phone and new experiences. I'm going to keep that going and write about my new job.

I now work as a computer technician. I have many different employers so I'll just break it down and say that I work with GE. I started on Monday of this week. So far it is going good. I am starting a nice big project tomorrow. I have to catalog a couple hundred computers and prepare them for shipping. Before getting shipped, these computers need to have their hard drives wiped clean. It is going to be a lot of work to keep track of all the different computers.

My first priority on the job, though, is to make sure the help desk is taken care of. My main job is to help customers out with their computer issues. Today was an easy day that only had a few calls. My favorite was a user who said his monitor was broken. I went to his desk and plugged it in for him. Now that is a job I can do.

This job is another contract job and it should last me until April. I think I will do really well here and hopefully they decide to hire me on permanently.  I have been bouncing around jobs so much lately. It would be nice to have a stable job again.

Distraction

I have found a new distraction to keep me away from schoolwork. Its called Optimus V. It's an Android phone from Virgin Mobile. I bought it the first week that it came out. The Droid operating system is awesome and works great. Even though the Virgin Mobile has a stigma around it for having a bad network, I have never had any problems, except that one Friday when the entire sprint network went down in Southeast Wisconsin. The phone was $150 and unlimited data plans start at $25. I love the prices for Virgin Mobile and I have always wanted a Droid phone.

Now that I have the phone, it seems more like a curse. It is so hard to pull myself away from the phone and from tinkering with it. I performed something called "rooting" to the phone. "Rooting" lets me do things like over clock its CPU and remove the apps from the stock build. Since Android is open platform I can also download and install different operating system types and themes on the phone. Doing this is not recommended for people that are not familiar with computers but they do have step by step walk-throughs for just about every phone.

My first try at "rooting" was scary. All the instructions warn that "rooting" can destroy your phone if not done properly. With a little bit of trial and error I was successful. Now that I have "rooted" my phone, I have to wait for customized operating systems to come out. The phone is new so hopefully they come out soon. I know I will continue to be distracted. On the plus side there is a Blogger app. My next posts will most likely be from my phone!

Link to my inexpensive phone service. Check the coverage maps too.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp

Cars

My first car was an '88 Chevy Beretta. I paid $700 for it. It had a tiny "racing" steering wheel and a sunroof. The cloth canopy was coming loose from the roof, but it did not touch my head while I drove. Passengers would complain about it but I didn't mind. The blinkers didn't work properly either. I had to manually blink them. On a cold day, I would hope that it would start. I was late to school many times because of starting problems. The exhaust was falling off too. I remember leaving an extra track in the fresh snow for the low hanging exhaust. It finally fell off and I asked a fellow auto-class student to help me weld on a straight pipe that we scavenged from the metals class. Near the end of its life, the car would backfire instead of accelerate. I puttered it into the junkyard and said goodbye.

I have always owned cars that were junk. Now I have a new car and its great. Its an '05 Hyundai Sonata. I purchased it about a month ago. Everything on it works! I no longer have to worry about my car starting in super cold weather. Also, I don't have to pray that the heat will work when its minus 10 out. This car also has good tires and I don't have to worry about driving in the snow. I have a cd player! I have always been doomed to the terror that is radio (except Bob and Bryan) but now I can actually listen to my favorite music whenever I want. It also came with a tape deck which I thought was kind of weird. Now I have the perfect place to listen to my Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack. 

It feels so good to have a vehicle that works. My mind is free to worry about other things besides my car. I also will have more time on my hands because I will not be doing repairs every other week. My only problem is that this car is not really chick magnet. 

Ice Skating

This week I took my four-year old daughter ice skating for the first time. My Daughter, Sophia, was very excited. She had been talking about going ice skating for weeks and I finally had the opportunity to take her. I have not been ice skating in a very long time but I am confident enough to attempt to teach her and supervise her.

We arrived at the Petit Center and waited in line to pay. Then we had to go down to the skate rental area where we got little skates and big skates. Size fifteen for me and kid-size ten for her. We laced up our skates and walked up the stairs. We got on the ice and started out slowly. I explained to Sophie to take baby steps to prevent falling. Of course, she fell. She fell over and over again. Each time she fell I had to help lift her back up onto her feet. We made it around the ice once and then had to wait for the Zamboni. As the Zamboni rode by we made the international hand gesture for truckers to honk their horn. I was surprised at how loud the horn on a Zamboni really is.

The most most memorable part of this trip to me was when Sophie told me that she wanted to go fast. I also wanted to go fast. I started going faster and faster with Sophie holding my hand. We were speeding along when all of a sudden she fell. When she fell, holding my hand, she caused me to do a ninety degree turn. Now I never learned how to stop on the ice so I ended up falling over Sophie and crashing through the soft barriers. I made sure to keep my skates away from her, as I could have easily stepped on, or skated over my little girl.

I know Sophie had a great time because she cried and threw a fit when it was time to leave. I will do a few things differently when I go skating again. First, I will put our skates on after we go up the steps to the ice instead of having to carry Sophie up and down those stairs. The second thing I will try to do is bring along an adult friend. I had to pick Sophie up off the ice many times. My back was simply worn out by the time we finished. I took a couple pictures but none of them describe this experience better than this one. Say "Ouch."

 

My Day Off

Yesterday I was informed that my work had a snow day today. I also was informed that my services were no longer needed. It was a 3 month contract job and I knew it would end but I was hoping that maybe they had some work for me.

I was recruited to work there for a 3 month project. The goal of the project was to complete the ridiculous workload that the next 3 months contained. I swapped out computers for them. Let me define swap here. I would take an employee's old computer and move all of their data onto a new computer. EXCITING I know. For the months of November, December and January I helped to swap almost 15,000 computers. Almost 15,000 computers between 5 field techs and 3 techs taking care of computers that were shipped in. The job was cool. I got to work with computers, meet new people everyday and help them with their computer issues.

The best part was gaining experience in the IT field. I was exposed to many different people in many different areas of IT. Plus the experience I gained troubleshooting computers is priceless. I learned many new things about Outlook, Office and everything Microsoft. I was also exposed to encrypting software which was installed on each computer. The encrypting software was not a favorite of the employees but it was there just in case anybody without permission tried to access the data. High security FBI style stuff. If you tried to access the computer without the correct permissions the hard drive of the computer would be destroyed by the encryption software.

I gained a lot of experience at this job and it will definitely go on my resume. now I need to start the Job hunt all over again. I have built good relationships with recruiters and people in the IT industry so it will not be long before I get another job. I really want to stop bouncing around and find a place that is willing to help me grow with them. Maybe then I could finally get out of Mom's place lol.

Do Computers Make Writing Easier?

Computers definitely make it easier to write. The main reason it is easier to write with a computer is the "spell check" feature available in programs and internet browsers. I can type out my thoughts as fast as I can think them and the spell checker will do things like capitalize words, correct common spelling mistakes and even double check my grammar. In fact I just used it to correct my spelling of the word definitely which for some reason I can never spell correctly. 

Another great feature about writing with computers is the ability to save the document in one place. If I were to use a notebook, I would lose it along with all my work. I would then have to write a completely new paper and try to get it how I wanted it the first time I wrote it down. With a computer I can save multiple drafts of the document and edit as I see fit, and there is no way I would ever lose something as important (and expensive) as a computer. Most computers also have an "automatic save" feature as well to protect against lost work in case of a computer "crash." 

Computers keep material in one centralized location. I do not need to go to a library and check out a research book if I have .pdf file of the material I need. I also can use the internet and use the research I find there to enhance my writing and gain knowledge of my topic all in one place.

I am thankful that computers are here to help me write because I have the worst handwriting I have ever seen. For some reason I kept the exact writing style I used in kindergarten. Turning in an A+ paper would be pointless if the teacher could not read all of my correct spelling and grammar. 

  

Why I am Taking This Online English Class

I have taken a few online classes in the past. Math was by far the hardest because math is my weakest skill. I figure an online English class would be easier than that dreaded math class because I use English everyday. The only possible way for me to fail an English class would be if I got hit in the head and started speaking Russian or something. Then I would hope that WCTC would have a Russian course that I could take for credit towards my degree.

The obvious reason for taking this class online is convenience. I work full time and am a dad to a 4 year old daughter. I am already on campus 3 nights a week and to add another night for another class would be very difficult. Being able to log on and complete my homework whenever I have the time is great ( like right now on my lunch break). I don't have to worry about lugging around textbooks and having to reference physical materials in order to learn and complete assignments.

These online classes can also be kind of a pain. I'm choosing to do this blog on a different site than blackboard because I have been in situations where blackboard drops a communication or just plain doesn't work when I needed it to.

Communnication in these online classes is important and if there are students and teachers that are not 100% familiar with the way these classes work, there could be trouble.

I like online classes the most because I can do my work when I want to them. Especially in my jammy jams drinking a nice cup off cocoa.

Boooo snowstorm


JJ