Monthly Archives: April 2007

Where is Spring!

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Okay, it is April 12, and it is still COLD!  Why?  I hate cold weather, and I dislike the heat of summer.  Spring has always been the time of year I love the most, so why is it eluding me this year?  Last weekend was Easter and we have always done some yard work on Easter weekends in past years.  This year, I stayed inside, and it looks like this weekend will be another indoor weekend.  It is suppose to rain with a chance of some snow flurries.  Ohhhhh.  I just want sixty degree weather!  I sure hope we don’t jump past spring and end up with a hot summer.

I guess I really shouldn’t complain since the last fall lasted a really long time.  We were well into late January before we started getting really cold weather.  But I will complain anyway as this is the time of year where the flowers should be blooming, and leaves growing and breathing the fresh clean air!  Ahhhhhh, come on spring, we are waiting.

Guide me Grandpa

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When I look at this picture, I feel I have a job to live up to! It is like Isabella is looking into my eyes expecting me to give her guidance, love, and protection in life. It is my duty, along with others, to meet her expectations for the things she needs (not wants) to succeed in life. I hope that in the years to come, I have have this same look from her over and over, meaning I am giving her what she needs! (click on pic to see larger image)

Up to Date

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So I haven’t written anything about school since last August. At that time, I stated I went back to school by enrolling in the community college. As I mentioned, I was not impressed with the college at all! Since then, I switched to DeSales University . DeSales is a Catholic University, and they have an accelerated degree program for adults called Access. In the Access program, an adult crams a 16 week class into 8 weeks. Sounds tough, but I like it a lot since you don’t get bored. By the time you get tired of a subject, it is time to start a new class. It is a lot of work since we still have to put in the same number of hours and cover the same material that is covered in a 16 week course.

I enrolled last October, and began by taking only 1 class since I still had the physics class to finish at the community college. My first class was “Legal Environment for businesses”. I really enjoyed the class and by Christmas, I finished it with an A and I finished physics with an A. Good start!

In January, I took took two classes. The first was a Hybrid (part in class, part online) class in “Principles of Marketing.” The second was “Classical Political Thought.” Both of these classes were fun and I ended with an A in Marketing and a B in Political Thought.

The Political thought class was taught by Kevin Arawjo, who is a full time instructor at both DeSales and Penn State. He also runs an educational tour company call Arawjotours. I would recommend his class to anybody, as he is very enthusiastic and makes the class very interesting. I would like to take one of his tours someday!

Now I am working on two more classes. The first being English Composition II. I was a little worried going into this class since I skipped English Comp. I (credited from 15 years earlier). I soon found that it was nothing to worry about. I am doing well in that class, currently carrying an A. The second class I am in is “Modern Political Thought” and again the instructor is Kevin Arawjo. He is even more excited teaching this course than the last! We covered Liberalism first and now we are finishing up with communism. He did some internships in Russia, so he is really excited to talk about the “Russian Experiment” in communism. (Actually, Russia never made it to true communism.)  Next week we start the final phase of the course and talk about Faciasm, and look at Hitler.

So now you are up to date with my school. I hope to complete my B.S. in Management of Information Systems in about 2 more years. Stay tuned for more on my Adult College Life!

Frankie was had

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Yes, the April Fools joke on Frankie went okay. I don’t know how many phone calls he received as he would only say “enough.” To make it funnier, I planned for when he would call. I had written a message to read, as though he was hearing an answering machine. The message was “Due to the Floyd holiday on April 1, we are unable to answer the phone. Please leave a message, or call back on Monday April 2.” Each time I would see his name appear in caller id, I would read this message and then push a phone button at the end. He kept hanging up. Finally in the evening, I call his number and he wouldn’t answer. So I called his girlfriend’s phone and asked her how a Goat race worked. After that, we talked about the jokes from years past. This year was awarded to me! I guess now I have to be on my toes more each year until he gets me back!

Don’t know if anybody looked at Google’s April Fools joke this year. I make it a habit to look each year, knowing they will do something. It wasn’t their best, but it was cute. They were offering free WiFi broadband by a new service Called TiSP. (Reading FAQ, you learned TiSP stood for Toilet Internet Service Provider). When you sign up, they would send you an installation CD, a wireless router, and a spool of fiber optics cable. The idea was to flush the fiber down you toilet, and it would travel through the waste system (sorry no septic tank service). Once it reached the waste station, it would be hooked up to the Internet backbone and you would have service, all in about sixty minutes. Of course they recommend you call a plumber to re-route the wires through your toilet seat for comfort. I don’t know if they have the ad archived somewhere, but if you can find it, it is worth a chuckle to read.

Morning Call

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The Morning Call is Allentown’s local newspaper.  Apparently, subscribers are not their priority.  The paper used to be decent with delivery to my front door.  It was nice on the weekends to just reach out the door and grab the paper to read.  But, not any more!

A few months back, the paper decided to reduce it’s delivery costs. (their costs, not mine!)  They consolidated routes, meaning some carriers lost their jobs, while others had more work to do.  In order to add the work load to those carriers, they installed paper boxes next to each mail box at the street and stopped delivering to the door step.  This was just the first annoyance!

Now when it rains, the paper is never all the way in the box protected.  Part of it sticks out and gets wet.  Nothing like reading a wet newspaper!  Now I have to treck out to the street in my robe or get dressed.  I prefer on the weekends not to get dressed right away, as once I am dressed, I feel it I should be doing something other than relaxing.

Then a few weeks ago we received the Sunday paper without the ads.  Now the whole reason for subscribing to the Sunday paper is the ads.  When trying to call the circulation dept, I had to wait on hold for well over 30 minutes.  Then when I finally got through, I was told they couldn’t redeliver since they didn’t have anybody to bring a new paper out.  So much for their web site advertising if you call before 10:30 am, they will redeliver a missed paper!  So I took the option of having the ads section delivered on Monday.  Of course when Monday came around, there were no ads delivered!  My wife then called in anger only to learn they lost the ads due to a vandal burning them at their drop off point.  Now, if they had been honest the day before and explained, I think we would have been more receptive to the problem.  By this time, we are just plain mad.

Again this weekend, I didn’t get a Saturday paper.  I called at 9:00am to report my no paper situation.  Again, I was told their was nobody to redeliver the paper.  The girl admitted their seemed to be a problem in my neighborhood.  Seems if the there were more people than just me not getting the paper, somebody would have taken corrective action immediately.  Not the Morning Call.  It is just sorry, do you want a credit, or would you like Saturday’s paper on Sunday!

Maybe when their subscribers started dropping off and then advertisers begin declining putting ads in their paper, then they  might wake up and realize that without satisfied readers, their product is worthless.