L'Hôpital It!

That's about all we said in Calculus class today. Fun fact: L'Hopital isn't the one who came up with L'Hopital's Rule, Bernoulli did. L'Hopital basically commissioned Bernoulli for it and put it in his book. 


ANYway, for some reason I have a stupid amount of energy right now, even though I'm quite tired. I've already tried to sleep once, but that failed, so here I am typing up a blog post. 


We got our Calculus tests back in class today...that wasn't very confidence boosting. I did absolutely horrible. I went from getting an A on the first test, to getting a D on this (The second) test. Not many people did well at all and a few failed it. The good news is that we are allowed to drop one test grade, so this will most likely be it for most of us. 


Apparently someone in the other Calculus I class got 100 on it. I have no idea how that is even possible. Since they accomplished that then the rest will be a breeze for them since the teacher told us that was probably the hardest chapter. The one we're on right now is pretty simple. I understand it well, although I'm pretty sure I made some stupid mistakes on the quiz we turned in today. Once again I'm alright with the Calculus part, it's just the simple Algebra crap that's getting me. 


I think this'll be around the middle part of my post, so here's all the postcards I've received from Postcrossing:



From Japan. 



These are the Lake Ontario lighthouses. It seems I'm starting to like lighthouses more and more now. 



I believe this is the front of Xiamen University in China. 



From a fellow Michigander. It's from an online comic and my scanner really butchered it. 


Besides Calc class I also went over to Best Buy today. I still hadn't heard from them and my dad kept telling me to call them, so I figured I might as well head over there and talk to someone face to face. Turns out they were going to call everyone tomorrow, so all the freaking out was for nothing. I found out the orientation times though. It's over three days and the first day is this Saturday from 11 A.M. - 4 P.M. I think it is. I'm going to be so incredibly tired. 


The other two days are this coming Monday and Thursday. Monday is a few hours after my Calc class, so I'll probably be dead tired during that as well. As for Thursday I'll have to miss most of my Sculpture class. That's not too big of a deal, but I hate missing any classes. Ah well I suppose. 


The only problem now is I forgot to ask what I wear for orientation. I'll have to look over all the papers they gave me and see if it says anything about it on there. We don't have any Best Buy shirts yet, so I'm assuming (For now) that it isn't too work-ish. We'll see though.


This past weekend I got to see some family that I haven't seen since March. I went over to my mom's for a few hours and found out that Friday (22nd) was my grandma's birthday and that there was going to be a dinner at Papa Vino's (Italian Restaurant) that night. Way to leave me out of the loop family. 


The dinner wasn't all that great. Sure, it was nice to see some family again, but the way my mom's been behaving over the past year just made it blah. I'm not going to discuss it on here, but I don't agree with any decision she's made since October of last year. 


I really wish the family would get together more often though. We all live really close to each other, but stay isolated. I highly doubt that I'll hear anything about Thanksgiving or Christmas until they have already passed. I kind of feel like the "forgotten" grandchild around my grandparents now, but I'm not going to reach out to people who disown a different family member every other day. 


The family is definitely chaotic, but I do miss seeing them and still love them. I just really wish that everyone could get over their grudges and hypocritical selves so that we can actually be a family. Even if it's only for a little while. 


That little part is kind of depressing, but over the past few days I have been laughing at so much. My situations with people are just ridiculous. I'm not even sure how to explain it, so I won't bother going into detail. 


All I know is that my dreams have been telling me a lot more than I wanted to realize lately. 


Also...


L'Hôpital It!

Oh Calculus, How You Eat My Time.

Seriously, why am I in this class again? Oh right, because I'm crazy. We've had four quizzes and one test so far and I'm already wanting to throw in the towel. We do two take home quizzes per chapter. One when we're half way through and the other when we're finished. Seems easy, right? Not when it takes five - six hours to complete. I swear I must be the slowest person in that class. Doesn't help that I've never even had a Pre-Calculus class. I wanted a challenge and dear Lord...I definitely have one.

We got our most recent quizzes back today. My score was 19/25, which is pathetic considering how much time I put into it. The worst part is that I seem to understand the material mildly well, but it's simple things from Algebra and whatnot that are incredibly slowing me down. I just can't seem to remember what I learned four years ago, and who the hell would? I'm not going to be a Mathematician, or an Engineer, or anything like that. So it really is pointless for me to be taking this class. I'm going to continue to push forward with it though and try to get the best grade I can. I cannot afford to fail and if I can pass a Calculus class...well then I'd definitely feel accomplished. We'll just see how I feel after the test tomorrow....

Speaking of college though, I sent an email to this one community college I've been highly interested in. I don't remember if I've ever really mentioned it on here before. The first email I sent last Sunday (The 10th) and never received a response, so I sent another Monday night. Tuesday morning I got a response and apparently they had never received my first email. I have no idea what it is with my email and colleges, but it seems to have a problem with them. The first email was in my "Sent" folder and all I did was copy and paste the email address I was sending it too. Did the same thing with the second one, but for some reason it went through this time. Ah well, at least some of my questions were answered.

Major college plans are going to have to be put on hold now though since Best Buy hired me. Haven't heard from them yet about the day training is going to be on, but I'll most likely hear from them tomorrow or Friday.

I've received several postcards since my last post. They are all for Postcrossing:


Pretty scenery from a man in Pakistan. Apparently there aren't many members on Postcrossing from there.


From Oklahoma. This is probably my most favorite postcard right now. I just think it's really cool. Haha.


Just received this one today from the Netherlands.

I've had to put sending postcards out on hold. I'm down to almost nothing when it comes to money. Scholarship checks get mailed out on Friday, so I'll be putting that in my bank account right away. The new job at Best Buy will allow me to finally have a flow of income as well. It'll definitely be nice to have some savings for once.

I really love sharing pictures, so just because here's two pictures of the edge of the field next to my house:


It was starting to get dark out in this picture.


Definitely earlier in the day.

I wanted to get some pictures of the trees and leaves around my house. I have a lot more pictures, but that tree(s) was the most colorful so far.

Maybe I'll share some of the other pictures in my next post. Not bad for a cell phone camera, eh?

Surprise, Surprise.

Not too much has been going on this past week. I've been feeling pretty sick, so I've been trying to get more sleep. That didn't really happen this weekend though. I'd be really tired by eight or nine, so I'd go to bed, but only end up sleeping for a few hours. Of course I'd then be awake until six or later in the morning. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to go to bed at a decent time and stay asleep.


On Tuesday I got quite the surprise. A number I didn't recognize called my cell phone, so I didn't bother to answer it. A minute later I had a voicemail though, so I listened to it and it turns out that it was the man that had interviewed me. I immediately called back and a woman answered, so I asked for my interviewer. She put me on hold and a few minutes later she was back on the line asking if I'd be able to come in for a second interview on Thursday at twelve. I obviously said that it'd be fine.


Now I had never been to a second interview before, so I really did not know what to expect. I was nervous since I had no idea what new questions they would ask or anything.


Thursday morning comes around and I get a call on my cell at about 10:30. It's Best Buy and they were asking if it was possible to move my interview to five. I agreed to it, but it was an extremely good thing that they called, since for some reason I was originally scheduled to come in at four. How I mixed up hearing "twelve" instead of "four" on the phone I will never know.


Having a later interview time made it a little more nerve racking. I got to Best Buy about ten minutes to five. My dad came with me since he wanted to browse the store while I was being interviewed. I told the greeter why I was there and I was informed that they were running behind and that I could roam the store while I waited. There really wasn't anything I wanted to look at, so I just kind of followed my dad around the store for a bit. I went to the video games section and they had the newest Guitar Hero game set up, so I played one of the songs on that. By then about twenty minutes had passed so I went back up to the front to see if they were waiting for me. No luck.


My dad and I hung around the front of the store for about twenty five more minutes until a man came out of the back room. He went up to the greeter, who pointed at me. The man then walked up to me and apologized for how behind they were. I was quite nervous by then since the interview had been delayed.


For the most part it was like my first interview. I was asked to describe myself and answer several questions that would gauge my suitability to the company. After his questions were done it was my turn. Of course my first question was "How long will it be until I know if I'm hired or not?" I was given my second surprise when his answer was "Oh. I'd like to offer you a position here." I probably had a shocked expression on my face. He then went over things like Dress Code and the drug test I'd have to take the next day. I walked out with a stack of papers and a huge smile on my face. My dad was in the car waiting for me at this point and he knew right away that I had gotten the job.


Earlier, while we were waiting, an employee had come up to us asking if we needed any help. I had said that I was just waiting for my second interview and her response to that was "Oh, congratulations on joining the company!" I was really confused at first since no one had mentioned anything about a possible job offer, but now that I have the job I understand what she meant.


Wow, that's a lot longer than I thought it was going to be, so I think it's time for some postcards. This one is what I received for the Lighthouse PC Swap on Swap-bot:



I think it's very beautiful.


These are the ones I've received for Postcrossing:



From a fellow Michigander.



From Taiwan for a private swap.



From California. I actually like this one a lot. I find it pretty in a strange way. haha.


I really need to find a way to store my postcards. I wish I was able to put them on my wall or something like that, but my room is too small to have enough wall space for that.


I've still been playing Pokemon HeartGold. I'm still in love with that game. I was only going to play it for a little bit last night, but after defeating the second to last Kanto gym leader I figured I might as well battle Gary/Blue. All his Pokemon I got a one hit KO on except for his lvl 60 Pidgeot. It makes no sense either. I ended up defeating it with my lvl 56 Ampharos, since apparently flying types are weak to electric attacks. I've forgotten that a billion times throughout the game.


I now have all the 16 gym badges in HeartGold. I'm going to hold off on going to Mt. Silver and battling Red though. I want to capture the legendaries and get a decent water type before doing that. My main water Pokemon right now is a lvl 51 Feraligatr who's move Hydro Pump has missed every single time. I seriously hate that Pokemon. I'd rather have a water one that I actually like. I'm also able to battle all the gym leaders again, so I'd rather do that as well. I still haven't even put together the Pokewalker yet.


Other than that not much has been going on. My mood seems to change with the seasons, so I'm starting to get more depressed at night. When I try to sleep I think about things that I thought I had forgotten or had dealt with and moved on from. Even my dreams are putting me through a crazy range of emotions.


Ah well. At least I'm getting through it.

What Is A Man? A Miserable Little Pile Of Secrets!

I'm going to start this post off by saying that the missing cat I talked about in the previous post was found shortly after. I went into the kitchen at around 9 P.M. on Saturday to give my diabetic cat her insulin shot and heard Jack meowing and scratching at the garage door. I was so happy that I cried. She's fine and was her normal self immediately, so all is well in that aspect.


This past week has been a mix of ups and downs so far. I've been barely getting any sleep, but that's mostly my fault by staying up until four in the morning talking and playing games. Today was a dozy though.


I had to wake up two hours earlier than normal since I had an interview with Best Buy. I was pretty happy about  the interview until I started getting ready. I couldn't find anything I was looking for, none of my dressier clothes fit, and to top it all off I was being yelled at by my grandmother. So needless to say I wasn't too happy with how the day started when I headed to Best Buy.


When I got there I found out that it was basically a free for all. Anyone could come in and have an interview, so I really don't understand why they bothered to call me. There was 8 or 9 people sitting in a little area they had designated, so I had a seat with them to wait until my name was called.


The interview itself was short and all they did was ask designated questions and wrote down my answers. The interviewer said over the next few days they're going to compare notes and chose who they think will work the best. Considering a ton of people were interviewed I highly doubt I'll get a call back, but at least I had something I suppose.


Besides that about the only other good thing that has happened so far this week is that I got a 91/100 on my first Calculus test. Apparently the average score was a 78/100, so I did really well and am highly pleased with it. The teacher also said that our class was weird in that people either did really well, or failed. All I know is that what we're going over right now seems really pointless and no one's understanding much of it at all.


I think this will be about the middle of the post, so I'll update with the postcards I've received. These ones are from Postcrossing:



This one is from Japan and since I don't know any Japanese I have no idea what it says. I also don't know anyone who speaks/writes it, so I guess I'm kind of out of luck with this one.



From the Netherlands



From Arkansas (USA) I really like how the moth looks.



From Finland. My scanner messed it up, so it looks a lot better than that.


I thought I had some from Swap-bot as well, but I guess I've already posted those on here. Ah well.


Anyway. I'll now get back to why this day was terrible besides what I've already said. I had a little bit after the interview until my Sculpture class so I took a little nap. Got to class alright, blah blah. We had to wait about 20 minutes before the teacher showed up. We were all about to leave when he walked in. Everyone seemed to either be really tired (like I was) or just not into doing any art today. I slogged through the 50 minute drawing we do almost every class and then started on my 2nd sculpture. After an hour and a half I just wanted to leave, but there was still 45 minutes of class left, so I asked if we didn't want to do anymore if we could just be done for the day. He agreed, so that was really good and I was happy since I'd be able to get home early and just sleep for a while. Apparently the world didn't think that was a very good thing.


I get to my car and leave the college. I take the highway home, but am only on it for 2 exits until mine comes up. I was in the center lane and sped up a little bit so I could get past the car in the right lane before merging into it and then getting off at my exit. Right as I'm about to put my turn signal on I smell something terrible and BAM! instantly smoke has filled the cab of the car and I can barely see. I immediately turn on my turn signal and just swerve to the side of the road. I'm glad I didn't hit any cars or anything, but I panicked. I put the car in park and turned it off and got out of the car as quickly as I could.


I stood a little away from the car and called home. My grandma answer, but I could barely hear since I was on the highway so I just told her where I was and to come get me. She took forever to get there even though my house was only four minutes away. But she got there and we popped the hood and there was no smoke. It didn't even smell like anything weird either. However, it still smelled absolutely terrible inside the car.


My grandma called home to see if my dad was there and he had just gotten home so he came out there. So there we were with a 1978 Oldsmobile (Mine), a little sports car (Grandma's) and a huge van (Grandma's but dad drives it) on the side of the highway trying to figure out what happened. My dad used to be a mechanic, so he knows what he's doing and looked it all over. He didn't notice anything wrong with it so it turned it on. It started up fine and there was no smoke, so he drove it home while I drove the little car and my grandma took the van.


On the way home it was fine, but we've been having problems with the heater core in it for a few weeks now, so my dad thinks that finally gave out. He doesn't want me to drive it tomorrow, which I am grateful for, but it definitely scared me. I've never had anything like that happen before. I'll probably use the incident to reinforce that I'm cursed. Haha.


Other than that things have been pretty ok. I feel less stressed and actually have the opportunity to go do something I've been wanting to do for a few years now: go to ACEN. That stands for Anime Central and is a huge anime convention in Chicago. It isn't until May, but planning early is definitely something you have to do. I'm skeptical about it though since I doubt I'll still be talking to the person I'd be going with by then, but who knows.


Another fun/annoying thing I did last night/today was download and play the Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow demo. That was a bitch to download. When it first started it was just about midnight last night. According to the time it said it would take it should have finished by around 4 in the morning. I only paid attention to it for the first 20% before going to bed, so at the rate it was going, the time seemed accurate. Well...I checked it at 11 in the morning and it was at 93% I have no idea what happened during the time I was sleeping and at my interview, but that download was taking way too long. Luckily by the time I was home again it was finished. I only played it about 2 hours ago though.


I'm not sure where in the game the demo starts you off at, but Gabriel (the main character) already has a boat load of skills and abilities. His weapon is also a whip and for some reason that thing can hit enemies from extremely far away. It makes the game seem way too easy since you can just keep mashing the buttons and kill everything.


My favorite ability/skill though is the Dodge Roll. Gabriel rolls so quickly and far that you can just keep doing that and nothing can hit you. Where it started me off I had to fight some werewolves and then a werewolf boss. For the boss fight I just kept rolling all over the area and then jumping and doing the aerial combo.


I've read that the boss fights can be really hard, but with how the fights are done I honestly don't see the difficulty. My only playing a demo doesn't really show me much, but hopefully without all of those abilities there's a challenge.


The graphics are definitely really good although I did notice some things that seem off. How Gabriel runs is an example, it just seems really strange and awkward. When I was fighting something I didn't notice it though since things move a lot faster, but just running up to things and stuff like that it's highly noticeable. The scene the demo also started on, it was raining, but how everything looked wet was really strange. The horse Gabriel was riding was definitely messed up. It almost looked metallic and a lot more reflective than it should have been for just being wet fur. I'm probably being too picky, but for all the hype about it I almost have to be.


I doubt I'll ever play the full game of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but if I do it'd definitely be a long ways from now when it's discounted. I'd probably just play it to see the environment since what I have seen of the game is pretty damn beautiful. Hopefully the graphics live up to those standards and not what I've already witnessed with the demo.

A Few Postcards, Two Horses, And A Missing Cat.

I think I'm going to start this post off with the good things that have happened recently. Craigslist actually came in handy and got me back in the saddle, literally. 


I've been wanting to get back into riding horses again after taking a year long break for school, job searching, etc. I don't want to just take lessons once a week. In fact, I'd rather not have to pay to ride at all. I actually posted an ad on CL stating that I would like to work on a horse farm in exchange for being able to ride. I never got any responses, but last Saturday or Sunday I saw an ad about a lady who owned a horse farm that had broken her ankle. She was looking for an experienced rider to ride two of her Thoroughbreds.


 I sent her an email about my experience with horses, but wasn't really expecting anything since I hadn't ridden in a year. Well she responded and we exchanged a few emails until she gave me her number. The next day I called her and we set it up so that on Wednesday afternoon I would come out to her farm and ride her schooling horse, so we could see how I was doing before riding the more spirited ones. 


Wednesday came and it was so nice being in the saddle again. Once I asked the horse to trot and starting posting I could definitely tell that I wasn't in that good of shape anymore. I rode that horse for a little bit until they brought the calmer of the two Thoroughbreds out. She told me prior about the "bad" things the horses would do on their off days, but it was really nothing compared to what I had dealt with before. 


I mounted the horse and rode about the same amount of time as the first. This was definitely more of a "get up and go" type of horse, but I like that since they don't take much encouraging to change their gaits. I rode the horse at a walk, trot, and canter. The only time the horse got over excited was when I asked him to canter one of the times and he took off at first. He was very easy to bring back down to a walk again though. 


Overall I really enjoyed it and am hoping to go back out there tomorrow. When I first left the farm I wasn't sore at all, but a few hours after I got home I was definitely feeling the burn. It's not Saturday and I am still a little sore in some spots from it. It's definitely worth it to be doing something I love again though.


Now is where I think I want to put in the Postcards I've received. Putting the pictures in the middle of the post seems like a good thing to do. These first cards are from Postcrossing:


From Canada



Karleby, Finland



England



U.S.



Minsk, Belarus

I really like this card. It looks like it was done with watercolors. 


These next two PC's are from Swap-bot and the Fall Leaves PC Swap:








I really love this card. It was handmade and it's laminated, so it's all shiny. Haha. I'm not sure if that's the way it goes, but it's how I prefer it. I really have no idea why I like it so much, but I do. 


Ok. Now is when the sad stuff that's happened comes out. I think I'm going to copy and paste most of it since I've told the story several times now. Here it is:


I got home from class yesterday at a bit after noon and was informed by my grandma that one of our three cats, Jack (female), has been missing for around an hour. All of my cats are indoor cats and most of the time they are in plain sight. They are really friendly and mainly sleep on the couches or our beds. If Jack ever is hiding and I want to pet her or whatever I just call her name and she'll appear. 

I was feeding one of my other cats when my grandma told me, so I grabbed the treat bag and started to shake it and called for Jack. Nothing. I tried upstairs. Nothing. I thought it was odd that she wasn't coming out of hiding, but didn't think much of it then. About an hour later I start looking for her since I'm getting a little bit worried. I spent a few hours going through every single place in my house several times trying to find her. Still nothing. 

At this point it's about 4 in the afternoon. Jack has never been out of sight for this long, so of course I'm getting even more worried. I ask my grandpa, who is always working on stuff outside, if he left a door open or anything to where Jack could have gotten outside. He doesn't know for sure, but he thinks the door might have been open a little bit, but that he was working right next to it all day. 

Now Jack has only been outside several times and that's only because my dad's stupid and let her out. When she was outside she would go right into the garage and just wander in there since she seemed pretty scared about being outside of the house. So it really makes no sense to me that she would go outside in the first place, let alone run away. 

I went outside though and walked around and called her name. Our backyard is a ravine, so I spent a lot of time over there listening for any movement and stuff. Nothing still. We also live right next to a busy road, so that has me extra worried since she could very easily get hit by a car. 


It's now 8:10 P.M. the next day and there's still no sign of her. I've posted an ad on Craigslist stating that she's missing and put a few pictures up on there as well. I really don't know what else to do since we've looked everywhere around here. On Monday I'll probably check some animal shelters and places like that for her. Another thing that has me really worried is the weather. It's been really cold and rainy all day, so I want her here and in the warm house. Everything about this situation just sucks. Here's two pictures of her:








I just really hope everything turns out ok. I don't need more stress and craziness right now.