The reading is just so boring. I have five chapters to read and the quizzes to take for those chapters. Luckily I started my paper for the class and am more than half done for, I just have to finish that by Friday and keep reading my eyes out.

The reason that I am having such a hard time being dedicated to history is that it is not nearly as exciting as the Art History class I took last semester. Most likely this is because through Sarah I absorbed a bunch of Art History without knowing. Plus the professor was someone I knew in high school.

Alright, deep breaths, you can do it Dylan, kick History’s boring ass back to the Stone Age.

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Intro to PC Applications

Awesome:

1. I am learning how to use Office 2007
2. It is work as fast as you want. Every assignment is available straight away.

Crap:

1. It is all online
2. The teacher, while on top of all the online stuff, has to have the easiest job in all of the college. The book teaches you what you need and even the testing is done by another company.

Western Civ

Awesome

1. It is all online and the teacher knows how to run an online class.
2. It is following the same timeline as my Art History class last semester

Crap

1. Discussions. I hate online discussions. If I wanted to discuss things I would take the class in a classroom. Not online.
2. Discussions. Seriously I hate them. I don’t mind posting my stuff but I hate force interaction with my classmates.

Spanish 2

Awesome

1. I feel like I am actually learning it this time
2. It is during the day which means no more night classes
3. There are only four people in my class

Crap

1. They almost canceled it due to there only being four people
2. I am having to take it a second time

That is all I have about school this semester. Wish me luck and send me presents.

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I have been getting my owned by Spanish class. This is to the point that I am scared of not passing. Well I was, then I realized that it is Spanish, that it is hard. I am an English speaker. I stand little chance against the language that is Spanish. Part of the frustration is that I am working my butt off and not doing anywhere as well as I think I should be. I am much more used to doing what I do in my English class. I realize that it is funny that I am in English 123 and Spanish 112 in the same semester. In English class I go to class, have discussions with the teacher and write papers. I don’t try very hard, mostly because I am lazy, but I get my work done on time and in a way that is acceptable to my teacher.

In Spanish I study verbs, tenses, vocabulary and tenses. Yeah I study them twice because tenses are hard. Unlike English where I rock tenses, able to switch between them with ease, in Spanish I have a hard time keeping them straight. On advantage to Spanish vs English is that word order tends to be a lot more loose. As along as the words are all in a sentence people get what you are saying. This makes it great for learning to speak the language but on the flip side it makes it harder to learn how to understand. You aren’t necessarily going to be able to recognize the sentence structure, you have to actually know all of the words.

Unfortunately I find the language to be very interesting and I am excited to learn more and more. Some day I will be fluent and then I will write secrets to my Spanish speaking readers. Take that gringos.

In the rest of my classes I am enjoying them. Art history is great because it is pictures. Being a fairly visual learner I am a big fan of pictures. I also like all of the stories that surround different time periods, Egypt I am looking at you, as well as the fact that you can see the progression of art through the ages. English, as I mentioned before, is great. I am able to write my essays pretty quickly, sure researching can suck a little but since I am writing about sharks I am very interested in my topic.

I have also noticed an increase in the number of people that I know that have started to blog. A few of them are super duper funny. A couple of them are brand new and a few of them are just another blog. The first one is my favorite. It is the blog of my friend Jon. He writes entries that amuse me to know end. I would suggest reading his from the beginning since his blog is relatively new and it would be easy to get through. Peter’s is the next blog of amusidness he writes things that we all think. I really enjoyed his post on triangle food. Unfortunately myspace hates my browser when I try to go to his blog on myspace so I am just posting his myspace Matt‘s blog. My brother in-law has finally entered into the world of blogs. I help him get it set up through word press and it can be found here. His is less then four days old and will probably be a much more personal blog to himself. There you have it all of the new blogs.

Sarah and I got Guitar Hero World Tour as a late anniversary present from my parents. It is awesome. We got the whole band package including drums, guitar and microphone. We where pretty excited about the drums and guitar, but the singing was a definite “eh”, nobody wants to sing. Well we finally tried it. The singing isn’t so bad if you know the song, it is just a matter of controlling the pitch of your voice, you don’t even really have to sing or say the correct words for that matter. The interface is pretty easy to use and seems to work pretty well. The drums and guitar are as fun as we expected, we have both received blisters from playing and it basically kicks ass.

As you might have noticed I have started turning my doodles into drawings of sorts. I have started to submit more and more things to the critiques section of threadless. I am really enjoying this whole process I just wish that the people who comment on critiques where more helpful then just saying “This is dumb.” This happens more often the I care to see and I always hope that people will leave some form of constructive criticism. Please take a look at my critiques.

Here is a quick rundown on my designs:

Our Lady of Bunnylupe is a design that I thought of while I was in Spanish class. We where talking about the patron saints of certain parts of Mexico and Latin America. There is of course Our Lady Guadalupe and I wondered what Rabbits in that part of the world worshiped. Bunnylupe of course.

First Ones Free is my current favorite. I love the look of the carrot giving his babies to the rabbit. I think that this design needs something more, probably some sort of shading like the others have suggested. This was one of the first designs that I drew completely on the computer. It started out with a rabbit being in love with a frog, but frogs are really hard to draw, so I changed it to a carrot. It went downhill from there. I added the scared baby carrots and viola.

What Are You Looking At? Is one that I don’t know can be printed how I would like. I imagine being a roller print where it is just rolled onto a shirt and looking awesome. I started this one in a meeting, getting a group of ducks together. I then started drawing more and more until the whole shirt was covered.

Can You Spare a Nut? The elephant needs knees. I love the look on this ones face. He looks like he really wants a peanut. Do you have one. I also started to experiment a little more with having a background that isn’t just a solid color.

T.P. Squeeze is awesome. This is a design that came quickly. Based on nothing and hilarious I need to get back to work on this one. I need to make it a little more detailed and possibly add some clouds that he is flying through.

Head/Heart a pattern that I had a lot of fun drawing. Nothing is cooler then bald heads with aviator glasses in the shape of a heart. Am I right or am I right? No I just need to perfect the over all look and get it submitted.

Don’t Judge a Bunny is my tribute to Fantasy Island and Dungeons and Dragons. One of the first designs I really worked hard on. I really like this design though I don’t know if enough people will get the idea to get it printed. I guess all I can do is try.

Photobot 5000 was a possible submission for one of the contests on threadless that I didn’t get done in time. I still want to finish this one and get it sent in to see how it fairs. I just need some time to finish it.

Well I guess that is probably enough for now,see you next time I decide to update. If you want to know when I submit more designs let me know and I will add you to the emails I am going to start sending out.

UPDATE: Sometimes blogging is hard. Peter’s blog is here, Matt’s Blog is here. I will try to focus on making less mistakes from here on out.

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Table of contents for Fall 2008

1. Back to School, Back to School
2. Financial Aid: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. First Day of School
4. First 21 Days of School

I might have gotten busy with school and forgot about this blog and all of the important stuff I wanted to impart on the rest of you newly/currently school bound folk. Here is a list of things I learned about going back to school to fill in the first 21 days of school.

1. Always Have Snack Money- You have no idea how frustrating it is to forget breakfast and have no money to get a candy bar or other super healthy snack.
2. Bring Water- Staying hydrated is an important part of staying healthy. Also it will help you think longer and not have what I like to call a low focusing day.
3. Do Your Homework- This may seem like a no brainer, but it is really important. If you start doing your homework immeadiatly you never have to worry about getting behind
4. The Same Goes for Reading- Do all you reading. All of it. It helps make class easier and it allows you to participate in class discussions without looking like an idiot.
5. Participate in Class- Teachers love it when you are an active participant. Make sure that you are participating not interrupting.
6. Communicate- When you have to miss a class, assignment or something changes in your life preventing you from doing something for class; let your teacher know.
7. Plan, Plan and More Plan- For assignments due way out in the future, make a plan and stick to it. Nothing is worse then having to write a paper the night before.
8. Write Down Everything- I mean it, nothing is so insignificant that you don’t need to know it.
9. Record It- If you cannot write fast enough then you need to record it so you can write it down later.
10. Make Friends- Find someone, or two someones, in each of you classes that you can trade notes, study and talk with. This will give you a person to get note from and they can then get notes from you, of course this means you have to take notes.
11. Set Aside Time to Study- Life happens, a lot. You need to make sure that you take the time to study. What makes this easier is if you set aside time to study. Make sure that set aside the same time every day and/or week, that way your friends, family and pets will know that that time is study time.
12. Set Aside a Study Area- Make a place that is your academic domain. Get a nice hard surface to work on. If you have no good areas to work in your house then go to the local library and use their study rooms.
13. Get a Good Night Sleep- Go to bed early and set your alarm. Make sure that you give yourself enough time to sleep and that you wake up refreshed. Getting to much sleep is as bad as not getting enough.
14. Get Advised- As a returning or continuing education student things have changed from when you first went to school. If you have never been to school before, advisors can really help you.
15. Get Advised- This is on here twice because you should get advised at your school and any school you are planning on attending. The advice you get about course you should take from the school you want to transfer to is more important then what you current school advisor says.
16. Get Involved- Don’t be a wall flower, go to events. Most of the events during the day involve some sort of free lunch. Plus being involved
17. Help Others- When you see another student struggling in a class that you excel in, help them. There is a chance that that person is good at something that you may be poor at, you can then ask them to help.
18. Relax- Plan relaxing into your day. If there is something that you like to do, plan breaks in your studies that allow you to do this. For me this is Castle Crashers on the XBOX 360(gamertag: KIL4GOD).
19. Be Thankful- Chances are your spouse, kids or other family member have also made sacrifices to help you succeed in school. Make sure they know how much you appreciate their help. This could be making them dinner, taking them to a movie or just say “Thanks”.
20. Exercise- School exercises your mind plenty, so take the time to exercise your body. Nothing feels greater then giving your mind a rest and running, riding a bike or playing Wii Fit.
21. Read the Tao of Pooh- I am not going to get preachy about the benefit of Taoism, I will just say that this book will teach you how to accept what you can’t change and relax in everyday situations.

There you have it, what I learned in the first 21 days of school. Some of them I haven’t done a lot of yet, #9 and #16 I am looking at you, but others I have done more then anything else this semester, go #5 and #4. I will try to be a little better about blogging. Please share what you learned about going to school while you where going to school in the comments.

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Table of contents for Fall 2008

1. Back to School, Back to School
2. Financial Aid: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. First Day of School
4. First 21 Days of School

Well it is over. The first day of school has come and gone. My brain is dead, or at least it was dead last night. I was a super good kid and got all of my homework done right after class. So much reading. Here is a quick breakdown of what went down yesterday.

My day started at the new early time that was just invented, 5:10am. Prior to Sarah starting teaching this was an unheard of time to get up unless you where taking someone to the airport. I spent the first part of the morning helping Sarah get ready for work: packing lunch, carrying stuff to her car, etc. After she had left I got ready to go and realized that it was 6:15am and I didn’t have class until 9ish. So I did what any good kid would do, I started to read my first reading assignment in all of my books.

How, you may be asking, do I know the reading assignments? About a month prior to the semester starting I emailed my teachers and asked for a copy of their syllabus so that I could better plan my semester. All of them where very helpful and sent them to me right away. Because of this I have been able to plan out my schedule about two weeks in advance.

I was only able to get half of my reading done before I needed to head off to class. My first class is Art History I. This was a class that takes care of a humanity credit and it is also something that Sarah knows a lot about, so if I need help I can get it. The best part of this first day of class was that the teacher was someone that I went to high school with. I always figure that it can’t hurt you to know the teacher. This class was typical first day stuff. We went of the syllabus, she told us about herself, we went around the room and introduced ourselves and we got out early. Once out of class I headed straight for the common area for a grilled cheese sandwich. It was quite good for a breakfast sandwich. Note to self: Eat before class.

After enjoying my little snack I headed to my English Composition II class. This is the class that I fear will suck out all of my time. This is the 12-15 page research paper class. It has been a long time since I have had to write anything and I have never had to write more then five pages for a single paper. Amazingly that isn’t what makes me nervous. I am afraid of researching. I am relatively good at finding sources for Sarah when she needed some for papers she was writing, but I have no experience analyzing the info and writing it in an effective way.

Luckily most of the kids in my class seem to be in the same boat. We have to come up with ten topics by Thursday as well as write a paragraph or more about ourselves. So far I have come up with three topics, one that seems to be relatively strong and the rest seem to be so-so. Hopefully I can come up with at least one more good topic before generating a bunch of crap filler topics. The part of the topic assignment that is making it tricky is that the paper has to be argumentative. I guess I could argue that Killer Whales are more dangerous then Great White Sharks. All right, make that two good and two throw away topics.

After my classes where done I went to a computer lab to check emails, do some typing and reading. I was doing great until my iPod ran out of power and died. This meant that I had no music to read by and had to listen to the stupid chatter of the people sitting directly in front of me. It was about that time that I decided to change locations. I walked across campus, it was so beautiful out, to the library. The lack of noise in the library and the comfortable couches made it my new favorite study area. I was able to finish my English reading and then I decided to head home.

Once I arrived home I made up a late lunch and watched a few batman cartoons. After I had finished my lunch and root beer I decided to read part of my Art History reading and then watch a cartoon, I repeated this until my reading was finished. Since I had finished all of my work for the day I played Jade Empire for about 45 minutes until Sarah got home from work.

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Table of contents for Fall 2008

1. Back to School, Back to School
2. Financial Aid: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. First Day of School
4. First 21 Days of School

I am able to go back to school because Sarah has finish school and got a job teaching at a high school. It turns out that a first year teacher makes about the same as a property manager. This means that since we were able to get by on my salary and the money Sarah was able to bring in on a part time basis while she was in school. We can get by on her salary and me having a part time job. Nice. Except school still costs a bundle of money each semester. This means financial aid and the headaches associated with the whole process.

First the good: the online application was super easy. I got out our last year’s taxes and filled in all of the important areas of the online form. Since I was old enough I didn’t need to use my parent’s personal or income information. I was able to submit it quickly and everything went nice and smooth. I received a nice little email saying that it had been received and to check with my school to see about my award information.

I logged into the school’s website and navigated over to the financial aid section. They had received my financial aid information. I was ecstatic; I was going to receive help to pay for college go me. It was about that time that the Ugly arrived.

Apparently in all of my time in school, I hadn’t received the best grades. In fact it is safe to say that my overall GPA is quite dismal. That being the case I was on suspension. I had to pass a certain number of credits in order to get off of suspension and qualify for financial aid. That was the purpose of my summer courses, to get off suspension.  I took the required credits and I was back in the game.  Or so I thought.

Apparently the government likes to change requirements on receiving your financial aid. Apparently you have to have a social security card, a physical copy, in order to receive financial aid. I have never actually had a copy of my card. I have always just used my birth certificate or passport for I-9 forms and have never been bothered for an actual social security card. I went to turn in the online loan counseling paper and they told, which this was the first I heard of it, that I had to have a social security card in order to receive financial aid.

I remained calm. I asked if I could use my passport, they said “Oh that will probably be fine.”  I brought my passport with me the next time and was told that it wouldn’t do and that I needed a social security card. So off to the Social Security Office I went. I waited patiently for my turn in line, with my application filled out and my passport to prove my identity.  I got a paper from them saying that the social security number that is mine is associated with me since it takes up to two weeks to receive your new card.

I left that office and headed to the financial aid office. I waited in line for about two hours. TWO HOURS. Ok it was really only about forty minutes, but it seemed like forever. I met with a financial aid counselor and was told that that piece of paper issued by a government agency that stated that I was the owner of that social security number was not enough information to count as a social security card for financial aid purposes.

I was so mad. I politely informed the lady that I thought that she was incorrect in saying that and asked that she check with her supervisor as to the validity of my papers. She went to talk to her supervisor for the next twenty minutes, leaving me to fume at her desk. When she finally returned, it was with good news. That paper would be fine, I need to bring in my card when I receive it, but as far as getting my financial aid goes I am good to go. Take that lady.

My advice to anyone getting financial aid is to be strong with the financial aid office and if you think they are wrong, chances are they are. Don’t be afraid to ask to talk to a supervisor or the director of financial aid. Also keep in mind that most of the people want to help you but they don’t know everything.

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Table of contents for Fall 2008

1. Back to School, Back to School
2. Financial Aid: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. First Day of School
4. First 21 Days of School

I have started back to school again. For those of you who don’t know I have tried school a bundle of times. I started out, like most kids, right after high school. I was going to go to Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. For some reason I cannot remember at this time I didn’t end up going there. I think I didn’t know what I wanted to do in college and so I didn’t want to move away from my friends and family. I really did know what I wanted to do; it just wasn’t a major at any college I could find. I wanted to be a clown.

After cancelling on Fort Lewis I enrolled at the University of Northern Colorado as an elementary education major, since that is what everyone said I would be good at. Since my heart wasn’t in to what I was studying I failed spectacularly. I failed so well you might even say that I was a successful failure. I dropped out after a semester and a half completing all of about three classes.

After that experience I thought that maybe I just wasn’t meant for the big school experience and would just go to Aims Community College, get my associates degree and then head back for a bachelor’s degree. Once again I went through the whole: What do I want to do? Who do I want to be? I still didn’t know, well I knew that I wanted to be a clown but that still didn’t fit into any given major. Since I didn’t know what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do I failed again.

I quit going to Aims, failing my third quarter classes with flying colors and feeling quite stupid. I was still living at home and it was killing me inside to have to go home and hear how good my brother was doing at college, how successful he was and all that gunk. I needed to get out of there. So I started the internet research.

Of all the possibilities I researched, commercial dive school appealed to me the most. I have been a SCUBA diver since I was 15 or so and have always been fascinated with the underwater world. I applied to the College of Oceaneering and lo and behold I was accepted. I was excited, about school. It was confusing and awesome at the same time.

It was about that time that I started this blog. Feel free to peruse the first year of entries to get an idea of what school was like as well as what went on in my life. A brief summary goes a little something like this. I kicked a lot of butt at school, became thankful I didn’t join the Navy out of high school, made some really good friends, got engaged, lived on my own in Compton, CA, learned a whole bunch about diving and then to top it all off I came back to Colorado… where there are a lot of Oceans… stupid geography.

There I was hanging out in Colorado, living with my folks again and starting to become unhappy. It was about that time that I tricked my beautiful wife, then fiancé, into letting me move in with her. You’ll have to ask her how that happened, because I am still not sure how it worked. If her parents ask just tell them that I always slept on the couch. I became happier, working my job as a welding inspector and coming home to Sarah every night. Life was good-ish.

I wasn’t exactly proud of myself or of very much I had accomplished in life. I still felt the need to go back to school and get that ever important degree. I wondered for about six or seven years looking for a chance or excuse to go back to school. It has finally happened.

It all started last January when I took College Algebra, the bane of my previous college attempts. It is not that I don’t like math it is just that math doesn’t like me. I understand math, it is just so boring. Well I am happy to say that in May of 2008 I successfully got a ‘C’ in College Algebra. I was on my way. Over that summer I took Ethnic Literature and Spanish 1. I passed them both, with an ‘A’ and a ‘B’. It was crazy.

I felt, and still feel, good about myself. I am in danger of doing well in school for the first time in my academic life. I am studying, learning and having a really good time. I wouldn’t change what I did prior to coming back to school for anything, though I wish I would have finish all of that stuff quicker. I am running into some interesting situations at school. I am not the oldest student in my classes; most of the older students are over forty and are changing careers by going back to school. The majority of the other students are eighteen years old.

I am the Green Kangaroo. I am in the middle of these to age groups. I have a hard time identifying with the younger students due to the almost ten year gap in our ages, but I am young enough looking that they assume that I am their age. . I have a harder time talking to the students who are older than me because I am perceived as being one of the young ones. On top of that I find most of the older students frustrating to work with because of their refusal to believe that I might know what I am talking about when it comes to in class work.

I know that there has to be other students out there that are in a similar boat. These posts are for you. Also if you are over twenty four and under thirty two and thinking about going back to school; I hope that I can provide some insight into the world of college as an older but not ancient student. Well wish me luck, classes have started and I am ready to get started with my first full time semester at school in about five or six years.

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