Monday, October 19, 1998
Don't know if it was just that it was Monday, or that I overslept and missed Jev, but I felt like I was on one of those freefall rides, with nowhere to go but down.
I woke up at 7:45, after apparently having shut my alarm clock off when it sounded, and not really remembering it. I knew Jev would be long gone, and even though I needed more sleep, I fired up the computer and hopped online.
No Jev, of course, but I did wake up enough to remember that my Javascript class was starting at ZDU. I was going to go and buy the downloadable book, but I had the two sample chapters they give you, and those will tide me over to the beginning of week three. Maybe I can stretch it a bit more, and get them billed on next month's credit card statement.
Actually, after the first lesson, I'm not so sure I want to invest in the book. From all appearances, it looks like the class is going to be "cut and paste this into your HTML file." For crying out loud, I can do that now! I want to learn how to write my own scripts, not copy someone else's. I'll see if next week's class is any improvement. I swear, I learned more from the first couple chapters of "Teach Yourself JavaScript in 14 days", which I was able to read free on my personal bookshelf at http://www.mcp.com ! I'd rather teach myself than spend $25 on a PDF file that tells me how to cut and paste code!
Sorry for the rant; I've been grumpy all day. Generally, I've found ZDU classes very informative and useful. From what I've seen of Intro to Javascript though, I'll pass on it.
I belatedly remembered that Jev had a couple more interviews today, so I took the time to go take a bath, and I wound up sleeping for an hour or so , waiting for him to hop online. Actually, I took the bath after the nap, and he was on when I got back. I apologized for not being on this morning, but got no response. Being in a depressed mood, I took it badly. I tried asking about his interviews, and he just told me which companies they had been for. Teasingly, I asked if I was going to have to pry the information out of him, and he responded that his roomie had just brought in the mail, and he was going through it. He got a rejection notice from another company, and it just went downhill from there.
It was mostly my fault, I think, as I was in a bad way to start with. When he started off telling me about the interview with the company he's co-oped for with "Well duh....", I took it personally. He hadn't meant for me to, of course; leave it to me to make a mess of things. We did sort things out, after I'd sat there crying like an idiot for a while, and then we managed to change the subject.
We chatted till he started getting hungry, then he went off for dinner, homework, and a bit of goofing off. I had a frozen dinner, nuked of course, and watched 48 Hours on The Learning Channel with Mom... one about conjoined twins they surgically separated. I knew just seeing the babies that one was weaker and more sickly, and though the separatioin was a success, that baby just slowly faded away and in the end she didn't make it. Not a good thing to watch, considering my mood.
I came back to my room and hopped online, heading back to ZDU to catch up a bit in the Object Technology class I'm auditing. I took the week 1 quiz and did horribly, and was just about to try studying again when Jev showed up. I just wasn't happy, and told him as much, so we tried to think of something to take my mind off things.
Microsoft has released a trial version of their Expansion Pack for Age of Empires, and though Jev doesn't much care for the game, he agreed to play. That was the intent, anyway. It took him about 15 minutes to donwload the file with his Ethernet connection. It took me closer to 2 hours, and by the time I had it installed, he was too tired. Figures...
We chatted on NetMetting a little while, then said goodnight, and I hopped offline and printed my Object Technology text (it's a PDF file), studied a little while my printer churned it out, and then wrote this entry. Now it's 1:20 and I'm going to sleep... goodnight.
