October 14, 2003
So.., I started tutoring this new kid, Shane, last Saturday or so. I left my calculator at his house that day, on accident, but decided to just pick it up Sunday, since I was planning on seeing him the next day anyway. They called to cancel the next morning, while I was still sleeping, and didn't leave a number, so I couldn't contact them back, and he still had my calculator. No biggie, I lived without and went to his house on Wednesday to pick it up and figure out what was going on for Saturday, and if they still wanted me to tutor again. His father was there, but not his mum or himself, and the father had no clue. However, he was a nice guy and found my calculator for me, I got their phone number, and left. As I was leaving, I noticed my calculator wouldn't turn on, so I checked the batteries, which I had replaced prior to going to his house. The batteries were gone, replaced with some Walgreens batteries instead, so I assumed they were dead, and he had jacked my batteries, blech. Now, forward to tonight, as I'm getting home around 00:10 or so. My mom wakes up and asks me if my calculator is broken, since I told her about the batteries thing earlier the day before. I say it shouldn't be, since the batteries are just dead. She says that she thinks it's probably dead, else, why would he have replaced the batteries? I, thinking she's crazy since it's obvious he just wanted the batteries for another appliance or something and simply swapped the batteries, go downstairs and grab the batteries out of my brother's calculator. I put them in mine, and.., it won't turn on. I put the batteries that were in my calc and put them in my brother's and..., it turns on. ... ... So yeah, I tutored on Saturday, got a new set of AAA batteries, and lost a $100 calculator. Woohoo.
Well..., after calling my student's house again, I reached his father this time. The father had not heard about the situation, so I explained it to him. He immediately responded with something along the lines of, "I don't believe we are responsible". The short of it? Basically, he insinuated at least once that he thought I might be jacking them. Said I should get it checked by someone, maybe see if it could be repaired. Said that if it could be repaired, I should do so, but not expect them to pay much of the fee, if anything at all. He also brought up the issue that they did not ask me to leave the calculator there, so somehow that partially absolved them of guilt. I had no response to that at the time, but now I've thought about it more, and have formulated one. Yeah, I left it there, but his son used it, so regardless of the situation in which it was left there, your son either used something that was implied as lent to him, or used something that was forgotten. In the first case, it's a reasonable situation. In the second, he seems a bit less in the right. It's kinda like finding a wallet with receipts and stuff in it, and rooting through it for fun, even after you've found the appropriate ID.
Beyond that, his son gave the story that he used the calculator for a bit, then apparently it said the batteries were low. So he switched 'em, and then didn't use the calculator since then. They also bought their son an identical calculator over the weekend, but I don't have much of a time-frame on any of this. Anyhow, the batteries on my calculator had been replaced the morning of the tutoring, so there's no way those batteries were dying. A dead watch battery should not cause the calculator to not be able to turn on, but I will test that theory tomorrow hopefully. So, either their son has lied, or, I dunno.
In any event, I hope this crap will be resolved before the weekend. It's not that I need a calculator badly, but having one is a huge convenience when doing physics and most anything involving lots of numbers. Blech, such crap.
Well..., after calling my student's house again, I reached his father this time. The father had not heard about the situation, so I explained it to him. He immediately responded with something along the lines of, "I don't believe we are responsible". The short of it? Basically, he insinuated at least once that he thought I might be jacking them. Said I should get it checked by someone, maybe see if it could be repaired. Said that if it could be repaired, I should do so, but not expect them to pay much of the fee, if anything at all. He also brought up the issue that they did not ask me to leave the calculator there, so somehow that partially absolved them of guilt. I had no response to that at the time, but now I've thought about it more, and have formulated one. Yeah, I left it there, but his son used it, so regardless of the situation in which it was left there, your son either used something that was implied as lent to him, or used something that was forgotten. In the first case, it's a reasonable situation. In the second, he seems a bit less in the right. It's kinda like finding a wallet with receipts and stuff in it, and rooting through it for fun, even after you've found the appropriate ID.
Beyond that, his son gave the story that he used the calculator for a bit, then apparently it said the batteries were low. So he switched 'em, and then didn't use the calculator since then. They also bought their son an identical calculator over the weekend, but I don't have much of a time-frame on any of this. Anyhow, the batteries on my calculator had been replaced the morning of the tutoring, so there's no way those batteries were dying. A dead watch battery should not cause the calculator to not be able to turn on, but I will test that theory tomorrow hopefully. So, either their son has lied, or, I dunno.
In any event, I hope this crap will be resolved before the weekend. It's not that I need a calculator badly, but having one is a huge convenience when doing physics and most anything involving lots of numbers. Blech, such crap.
October 08, 2003
So the recall went through, we now have Ah-nold as our new governor, for better or worse. I wish I could have voted, but I didn't register in time, blech. Well, at least 54 didn't pass, for that I am glad. And I suppose having Arnold shouldn't be too bad either, since apparently he's doing his job as governor by dealing with the bureaucracy, which, now that I think about it, is exactly the best way to do it. He's going to be relying heavily on his advisors, and he's currently seeking out new advisors and helpers that will be able to address California's problems and have a lot of experience in dealing with these kinds of situations. So, that's not so bad. He's being a figurehead, and putting on a good face, while letting the people best suited for dealing with the problems do their thing. Reminds me of Master of Orion III, which is basically played in the same way. You tweak your empire management AI a bit, and adjust it as you see fit as you go along, and let it do most of the work, while you deal with the big stuff, war, genocide, research funding and all that.
Also, while talking to Peter's mother today, she related a story of Davis' inspiring leadership from her point of view as a government employee. Apparently at some point during her career under Davis, Davis vetoed a bill that would have helped to get an especially dangerous drug off of the shelves. Shortly thereafter, about a year or so after, she attended a conference with a legislator which was dealing with the very same drug. Before the conference she was instructed not to say a word, since she and her co-workers were representing California and Davis, and since Davis rejected the idea that the drugs were dangerous not more than a year before, he didn't want to look bad. So at some point, someone offered up a new idea for a new bill, nation-wide I believe, that would once again get that drug off of shelves, since it was believed to have caused several deaths. When the person was presenting it, Peter's mother simply said, "Yes", as to express agreement. When she got back to her office, she was told that Davis had called her boss' boss' boss' boss' boss' to tell her boss to yell at her for speaking when was not supposed to. So yeah, Davis was really big on the wanting to manage every little part of California, even though he had no idea what was going on in most situations. So I can definitely see why most didn't like him, but then why the hell was he voted back into office? Blech, let's hope Arnie does well, and things will be ok.
Also, while talking to Peter's mother today, she related a story of Davis' inspiring leadership from her point of view as a government employee. Apparently at some point during her career under Davis, Davis vetoed a bill that would have helped to get an especially dangerous drug off of the shelves. Shortly thereafter, about a year or so after, she attended a conference with a legislator which was dealing with the very same drug. Before the conference she was instructed not to say a word, since she and her co-workers were representing California and Davis, and since Davis rejected the idea that the drugs were dangerous not more than a year before, he didn't want to look bad. So at some point, someone offered up a new idea for a new bill, nation-wide I believe, that would once again get that drug off of shelves, since it was believed to have caused several deaths. When the person was presenting it, Peter's mother simply said, "Yes", as to express agreement. When she got back to her office, she was told that Davis had called her boss' boss' boss' boss' boss' to tell her boss to yell at her for speaking when was not supposed to. So yeah, Davis was really big on the wanting to manage every little part of California, even though he had no idea what was going on in most situations. So I can definitely see why most didn't like him, but then why the hell was he voted back into office? Blech, let's hope Arnie does well, and things will be ok.
October 03, 2003
Now that I thought about it, it's technically not telemarketing in the traditional sense. I believe the job is similar to something a friend of mine did. I think I will just be calling alumni and asking them if they want to donate any money to the school. Not too bad, as long as they don't make me do the hard sell, right?
Wheeee, week two of my second year of college and I've already taken to sighing and looking aimlessly around the room in two of my four (although I'm only enrolled in three) classes. It seems like in Physics and Metaphysics that people keep asking questions that have been answered a bajillion times. So it gets kinda frustrating when the teacher has to spend most of a lecture explaining concepts that one should already know (given that I consider both of these classes to be 'advanced' classes, not for the beginner). Oh well, whatever, I just space out and it's all good.
I suppose I should be less judgemental, not necessarily in this case, but in general. I think I've just been a bit surly for the past two or three weeks, for whatever reason. Ah well.
So I'm auditing Chinese, which is going ok. Don't need to do hw, can take quizzes and tests, although they won't be graded. So, I'll have to practice writing on my own, and I will, really. I think I'm gonna add Math 22a, even though it's at 5:00 in the afternoon. On Monday, I should be going to kungfu anyway, so it doesn't matter. On Wednesday, I can either study, or go home and come back for class, and on Friday I have a 3:00 discussion, so overall it's not really inconveniencing me that much. Just means I'll need to grab a little food on campus more often. Lots of study time though, which is always nice.
Gonna go see if I can do tech work for the drama festival, that would be pretty fun. If it counts as units, I'll just sign up as a volunteer and not take the extra units since I'm trying to get by with under 225.
Ah, I think I saw someone from the Straight Dope Message Board in the library today. I've been reading and posting to the SDMB pretty frequently lately, and so it's been occupying quite a bit of my time. I talked with a guy named Monty on the boards, and he said he was at UCD, and some other stuff about others who had been there. And then when I was at the library today just looking at stuff online for a few minutes, I saw a guy next to me who was looking at the SDMB. He opened a thread, then searched for the name Monty, so I think that the guy might have been Monty. My reasoning is that he was searching for his last post, so he could see if anyone had responded to it yet. So yeah, either way, I didn't talk to him because he kinda creeped me out, and I'm just kinda shy in general. Probably more the latter than the former, especially since he seemed quite a bit older than me when I thought he was about my age.
Lastly, I got a new student today. A junior at DHS by the name of Shane. His mum called and seemed quite relieved when I said I would take the position for some reason, I'm not entirely sure why. I'm helping him catch up in intermediate algebra, since apparently he's not turned in a homework assignment since the beginning of the year. Shouldn't be too bad though, intermediate algebra is pretty simple, and I think I should be able to explain them to him pretty well. This should help me hit my goal of $3000 for Japan a little bit faster, since I now have more than enough pocket money a week from tutoring, so everything else can go straight to the bank. I might be doing a telemarketing job on campus, and as ashamed as I will be of it, I need the money. It's just calling up alumni and asking for money mostly. If I get the job, and my supervisors would want me to make the hard sell, I'm not sure if I could take it. On the other hand, if it's a little more relaxed and I can just quit after a person says no, then I'd feel a little better about doing the job. Either way, it looks like it'll be a busy schedule this quarter, but I'll still be able to have fun, I think.
I suppose I should be less judgemental, not necessarily in this case, but in general. I think I've just been a bit surly for the past two or three weeks, for whatever reason. Ah well.
So I'm auditing Chinese, which is going ok. Don't need to do hw, can take quizzes and tests, although they won't be graded. So, I'll have to practice writing on my own, and I will, really. I think I'm gonna add Math 22a, even though it's at 5:00 in the afternoon. On Monday, I should be going to kungfu anyway, so it doesn't matter. On Wednesday, I can either study, or go home and come back for class, and on Friday I have a 3:00 discussion, so overall it's not really inconveniencing me that much. Just means I'll need to grab a little food on campus more often. Lots of study time though, which is always nice.
Gonna go see if I can do tech work for the drama festival, that would be pretty fun. If it counts as units, I'll just sign up as a volunteer and not take the extra units since I'm trying to get by with under 225.
Ah, I think I saw someone from the Straight Dope Message Board in the library today. I've been reading and posting to the SDMB pretty frequently lately, and so it's been occupying quite a bit of my time. I talked with a guy named Monty on the boards, and he said he was at UCD, and some other stuff about others who had been there. And then when I was at the library today just looking at stuff online for a few minutes, I saw a guy next to me who was looking at the SDMB. He opened a thread, then searched for the name Monty, so I think that the guy might have been Monty. My reasoning is that he was searching for his last post, so he could see if anyone had responded to it yet. So yeah, either way, I didn't talk to him because he kinda creeped me out, and I'm just kinda shy in general. Probably more the latter than the former, especially since he seemed quite a bit older than me when I thought he was about my age.
Lastly, I got a new student today. A junior at DHS by the name of Shane. His mum called and seemed quite relieved when I said I would take the position for some reason, I'm not entirely sure why. I'm helping him catch up in intermediate algebra, since apparently he's not turned in a homework assignment since the beginning of the year. Shouldn't be too bad though, intermediate algebra is pretty simple, and I think I should be able to explain them to him pretty well. This should help me hit my goal of $3000 for Japan a little bit faster, since I now have more than enough pocket money a week from tutoring, so everything else can go straight to the bank. I might be doing a telemarketing job on campus, and as ashamed as I will be of it, I need the money. It's just calling up alumni and asking for money mostly. If I get the job, and my supervisors would want me to make the hard sell, I'm not sure if I could take it. On the other hand, if it's a little more relaxed and I can just quit after a person says no, then I'd feel a little better about doing the job. Either way, it looks like it'll be a busy schedule this quarter, but I'll still be able to have fun, I think.
