Interests:I love competitive shooting and shooting in general. I am an Illinois state champion in Olympic Style Air Rifle, yes Air Rifle is an Olympic sport. I am a Qualified Distinguished Expert in Position Air Rifle, a Classified NRA Expert in Sporter Air Rifle, and a Classified NRA Master in Precision Air Rifle. I have been to three national competitions, and I plan on going again this year. Okay, enough bragging about myself...
Expertise:Expertise...Well, I'm good with the gun as well as the computer. Along with being a competitive shooter and hunter, I'm a Web Developer. So yeah, I design websites. For now, just informational sites, hopefully I'll get into more stuff like e-commerce n' the such. I'm getting a degree and two certs in web dev. yeah, fun stuff. One thing though that I hate about my field, are the people I work with. All nerds which relate to you how they would a computer. Yeah, thats one reason you see me on a Xanga site. Social life needed.
No, actually, the reason I have a Xanga is because everyone's like "Ohhh, its soo cool! It's like...and like...and kinda like...and you get to like...yeah. You should get one!!" So yes, I'm a victim of peer pressure. And well, so now I have a Xanga. Happy now?
Well, school is finally over! And that means now to start getting serious...yeah, right now I'm still working at Harper, but they demoted me to just working in the computer labs. I don't get it, because I was one of their best Media Services guys. Well, this is just a sign I guess, saying that I have to look for income elsewhere. Right now, I'm also trying to get clients who need websites designed for them...so if you know any, I'd love ya if you sent 'em my way! And in addition to Harper, I'm trying to look for another part time job. What really stinks is that basically once I got out of school, I got sick...and I'm still sick, and its not really improving at the moment, but getting kinda worse. So this does not help me at all...so anyway, I really need to rest up, or else I'll be in no condition to work...and I hate it when I can't work.
From now on, I'm going to label blogs about my job as Episodes. This is the 3rd of my series. Well, I didn't post my blog up yesterday because I got back from work so late, but I had some fun stuff to deal with...
Through the day, it had been pretty slow, I started at 3:00pm got a call at 4:30 for building W to trouble shoot a lecturn, was too bad. It was interesting though, it looked like a room full of executives from different companies gathered for a conference, fun stuff...no pressure :.....
Around 7:30ish, I got a call from the Service Desk. yay. There was an instructor in X133 having a lecturn problem, says that it won't turn on. Heading over, I walk into the room with about 20 nursing students. Again, all eyes are on me. Why do they do that? I look at the screen on the computer, nothing but white. I duck down and look into the lecturn. "Yeah, your unit is off, it needs to be turned on first before it works." I then recieve a large response of laughter from the class as well as the instructor. I hang around for a bit to make sure that everything is functioning correctly, wish the instructor and the students a good class, then away I go. I make it about half way down the hall, only to be stopped by....
"Oh, there's our buddy Matt!"...oh no. Running out of the classroom to catch up to me in the hall, the instructor says "Matt, can you help me get my laptop set up for my class?".....fine. For a while I have been called almost on a weekly basis to assist an instructor in building H in getting her laptop hooked up to a video projector and a document camera for an interior design class. She, and her class, have become very....eh, "accustomed" to me? It has gotten to the point where they wouldn't trust anyone to help them except me. Well, apparently they got moved to building X, just my luck. I enter the room, and am immediately greeted by "Hiiiii Matt!" This is a little disconcerting considering that most of them are over 40 or 50, including the instructor, who is like 60. Anyway, I got what I needed to get done as quickly as possible, and anxiously headed for the door to make my escape. As I exit the room, I here behind me "Matt, if you could help us again next week, same time same place, that would be great!"....
i'll stick with the executives or even nursing students, thank you very much.
So today was relatively busy. Kept me moving around campus, which I really don't mind, until....
I get a call from the Service Desk on the radio and they tell me "The instructor in W244 is unable to eject the VHS from the VCR." All I could say is "?????!!!!". Okay, I've had problems where the instructor is clueless to how the DVD player or computer works, and they say that they're so behind on technology, but MAN! How far behind are you to not know how to eject a video tape from the player?? Oh, and the tech assist was in building W, all the way across campus.
So after a 10 minute walk to building W, I find the room and enter to assess the situation. Class is already in session at this point, and all eyes are on me. This is usually how it works with these tech calls, you get there and either you fix it, making the instructor look like an absolute fool, or you can't fix it, bringing embarassment on yourself. After one quick glance, I noticed that the VCR isn't plugged in...well, who would have thought that the tape wouldn't eject because the player wasn't even plugged into the power socket? So I plug it in...whaddya know, it ejects immediately! "What did you do?" she says. duh...."Well, looks like your VCR wasn't plugged into the power." says I. Sometimes I just want to let these instructors have it, and give them an earful, but I must contain myself I guess. I just wish them a good class, and go on my merry way.
Well, that was an adventure. I continue on with my regular deliveries/pickups, and eventually make my way back to the office. About an hour later...*ring* *ring*...thats for me...."Hello, this is the Service Desk, I have an instructor in W244 that says the lecturn won't shut down".....
Yay! Spring break! A time when I can catch up on long lost sleep, exercise, eating, updating my blog, and studies...yeah, still got those nasty homework assignments to deal with. This will probably be true until the end the semester. Of course, I kinda expected this when I signed up for 7 different classes. I can't wait until this semester is over so I can start out fresh again next semester.
This semester has been...wierd in so many different ways. On top of my 18 credit hours, Media Services, Lab Assistance, Event Management, Formulator Inc., Kappa Beta Delta, Phi Theta Kappa, air rifle, and trying to get everything done before I go to NY, there's alway something just hanging over my head. Most of the time I just can't tell what it is.
However, just the other day, I had to deal with something that I haven't had to before. A couple "breaking up", and somehow I got kinda stuck in the middle. Was very awkward. How am I supposed to handle something like that? What am I to do when I have someone right in front of me, with tears just pouring down her face? Well, all I could do is listen and try to at least calm both parties down, and in the end, I think it was less heart wrenching than it could have been for both of them. I just hope that I will never have to go through something like that again, but for some reason I think that's just wishful thinking. I just pray for wisdom in handling the situation, and try to keep both their and my friendships relatively intact.
Anyway....on a happier note....I get to go to Carbondale this weekend! I think that it will be great to see everyone down there again and be able to fellowship with them. There's going to be a conference on the subject of church music, and I'm really looking foward to that. Of course, like they have every year, there's also going to be a somewhat formal ball, with actual dancing. Last year I went, and here I go again, to reveal my two left feet...ever wonder why they call them two left feet? Why not right feet?
Now listening to: Tomb Raider Legend
