Associates in WTF??

School

So I am a 30 year old non-traditional student here at Cape Cod Community College.
My experience thus far has been pretty good, even despite some of the ignorance and skepticism people  have of my injuries and my time in service.
I am mid-way through my current semester, where I am taking a college level Math class, Oceanography, Arthurian Legends and Web Design. (And I still have to work on some Life Drawing stuff...ugh)
Math has always been my most troubling class... I elected to start at the very bottom of the math ladder when I first started school here, and I have been slowly working my way up until I have reached my current class (which actually counts as credit.) And I am proud to say that so far I am holding a 104% average in the class. We'll see what my grade is after I figure out how I did on my test today. I know I miss at least 2 partial questions, due to just plain forgetting the name(s).  
With this semester done, I will be graduating with an associates in Fine Arts, centered around Graphic and Web Design.
I already put in my intent to graduate form.
And I have talked to some people about transferring my credits and such to Northeastern University in Boston.
Unfortunately I have to do more than just talk to people about it, and get off my ass and start the process up. The most arduous being: I need a portfolio.
My goal with Web Design was to integrate my Graphic Designing ability for a full on experience for my customers. Need a web site? Need new Graphics (stationary, cards, etc, etc)? Then look no further. Why hire two people, when you can just get me at a fair cost? (Most of my work is for free, because it's stuff I do for non-profits.)
I was hoping I could make my own website and upload all my work onto said website for an online portfolio.
I'm pretty sure I could handle that on my own at this point, but it would look pretty bleak, as far as "fancy" shit is concerned.
But yeah... if I can figure all this out, then who knows... maybe I'll be in Northeastern University soon, working on my Bachelor's in Fire Arts.
I never once thought in a million years I would have a college degree. (WTF!)
I came from a blue collar family with only a sparse few relatives having gone to college.
And here I am, in all my traumatic brain injured glory, working towards an actual 4 year degree.
Fells pretty damn good.

Procrasta wha?

So, my Oceanography class AND lab was cancelled today.
Might sound awesome, but I had 4 full hours of nothing to do on my hands.
So I decided to go to the CPU lab on campus and start working on my Oceanography paper that was due after Spring Break.
I figured I could utilize the library and get some nice sources and just sort of outline the paper.
That didn't exactly happen.
In fact, I ended up skipping the outline all together and just banged out this paper in a record time for me.
I'm quite happy with the final results, and all my source material is from places like Scientific American, Maritime Universities and a journal called Scientific News. So if that's not good enough for him, I don't know what is!

I'm pretty pleased with myself on this.
I'm usually not this organized or on top of things... especially papers.
My hope is to finish as much as I possibly can before Spring Break, so I can enjoy my time with my lovely wife, Pooky and her husband Steven.

Survey of Mathmatics

For me, Math has always been a trouble area.
The concepts, principles and logic involved with solving problems never came easy to me.
My last Math class was MAT040, and my professor was a bit harsh.
I am honestly surprised I even passed, to this day I have no IDEA why I did.
But I don't question my luck.

I just checked my grades for my current class (we do have a big test on Thursday) and to date I am sitting at a 106% class average. Looks like my extra credit and class participation is paying off after all.

The Walking Dead

Warning, this post is going to contain spoilers from the last episode that aired on Sunday, March 4.

So the guys are deciding what to do with Randal, the shithead who after shooting at them from an elevated position in town, lost his balance while trying to escape and impaled his leg on a fence.
Rick wants to save him.
And as much as I like Rick, his good conscious is going to get himself and more importantly the group killed.
Unable to do anything for his leg at the time (with walkers closing in) Rick forces Randal's leg up through the spiked fence to free him, grabbing him and bringing him home with the rest.
First off.
Fucking no.
Not only did this little shit shoot at Rick, Glen and Hershel, but he was with a larger group of guys trying to get to Hershel's farm to do WHO KNOWS what.
Would I have left Randal there to be eaten alive?
No, I'm not that bad.
But I would have either:
1. Cut his through.
2. Expend a shell into his forehead.

I think it was stupid bringing him back to camp.
But I don't write the script, nor did I write the original graphic novels.

Shane obviously wants to kill him.
Rick wants to let him go. (insert the well needed beat down of Rick and Shane here)
As they're about to leave Randal approx 18 miles out from the farm, they learn that Randal recognized Maggie, and they he went to school with her.
Ok, so now they can't possibly let him go. Because he knows exactly where they are!
Again, I would have just put a bullet in him.
Kid or not, he's a threat to the entire group. And if killing 1 to save the 20 or so survivors at the farm is what it takes... then I'll pull the trigger myself.

But once again, Rick drags Randal back to the farm.

Through some old fashioned beat it out of him, Darrel learns that Randal's group is not only big (at least 30+ men) but they have some serious fire power. He also learned that the group came upon a man with his two daughters camped out alone. The men had their way with the daughters while they made dad watch.

These people aren't "people" like we used to know anymore. They're animals fighting for survival and will take whatever they can to stay alive. Even if that means raping women, killing innocents and stealing whatever they want.

Dale is Capt Conscious and wants to trust this random kid with letting him walk around the farm, help out and become one of them. Dale says we only kill the dead, we don't kill the living.

Bullshit Dale. Pull your head out of your ass and realize that the world as you all knew it ENDED when the dead started to rise and fucking eat people!
Not only that, but this kid already tried killing a few people.
This kid participated in a mass rape.
This kid knows exactly where you live.

I don't believe in executions for no reason.
And honestly I would have just shot him while he was on the fence.
But thinking that he is just some little confused boy is just plain naive.
Hershel thought the dead could be cured back to life, and look where that got him?

I'm not complaining about the show.
Just bitching about the characters.
Dale is gone now... which is fine by me. I think he would have tore the group apart even more with his meddling, drama influencing ways.

Fucking off with my Groundhog.

Writing my paper.
Seems like I'll be writing forever... and I'm starting to run out of shit to write about. Unless I start just making stuff up.
Anyways, I'm always learning new things about our everyday lives and how they relate to the ancient Celts.
Case in point, the Scottish Gaelic have a proverb that goes something like this:

Thig an nathair as an toll

Là donn Brìde,

Ged robh trì troighean dhen t-sneachd

Air leac an làir.

"The serpent will come from the hole

On the brown Day of Bride,

Though there should be three feet of snow

On the flat surface of the ground."

That my friends, is the first celebration of our "Groundhog Day." And I found it in a book published in 1900. 
I thought it was pretty damn cool, and I wanted to share it with my wife. 
I would also like to point out that she is writing a paper for the same class. 
She became very annoyed with me for interrupting her train of thought. 
Flustered, I decided to take the dogs outside since one of them has been bugging me for the past 15 minutes. 


While outside her friend called to talk to her. 
Within the conversation (with me standing outside the office windows, with the doors open) she starts to complain about how I keep fucking interrupting her with stupid shit. And how I just need to fuck off. 


I mean... she had to have known I was right outside.
She had to have heard me to take the dogs out (I whistled at them, and commanded them to do their normal routines before going out.)

I'm an adult.
At least I try to think I am.
But talking shit about me with your friend on the phone, while I'm well within ear shot... just isn't cool.
If she meant it on purpose, it's passive aggressive crap that I don't need. (Plus she isn't like that.)
And if she didn't mean it, it's still hurts my feelings to think that she just wants me to fuck off.
I will add that I understand being interrupted.
But she has done it as well.

Just seems fucked up to me.

And I know if I bring it up, she's going to get even more upset because I am interrupting her once again.
So I sit her with my headphones on listening to my own music (going to indie rock, to try and stay calm and collected.) And if she needs something, well I guess I'll just sit here typing on my paper, "fucking off" and not paying any attention.

/sigh

36 inches and one quarter cup.

Today started with me having a massive headache and letting one of my best friends down.

I was supposed to be with him for a luncheon at noon, for Veterans. 

I woke up at 12:05pm because my wife reminder me that I was supposed to be someplace. 

FUCK

I sent him a text message (knowing the lunch started at 12, I didn't want to interrupt him with a phone call) pretty much stating that I had once again dropped the ball and forgot to set my alarm. 

(I didn't even remotely want to sleep until noon... SO much to get done.)

He didn't respond. 

I then texted his wife and told her I was probably to blame if her husband came home cranky. 

She wrote back assuring me he was fine, and that she went with him. the reason he never wrote back was because he left his phone in the car. 

He was cool with my fuck up, as he always is.
I mean, I know I have a traumatic brain injury, and memory is one of my worst problems... but I hate using it as an excuse. I just feel like I can be much better than "the friend you can't count on."

I helped Mary clean the house today. 

1. Brushed off all the dust on the ceiling fans, then cleaned that nasty ass brush thing in the sink. (Looks almost new now.) 
2. Cleaned out all the crap I left in the guest room. 
3. Dusted the living room. 
4. Cleaned the cat boxes. 
5. Cleaned the garage area nearest to the door to the kitchen. 
6. Cleaned out an old tote. 
7. Helped her fold some sheets. 

She did far more than I did, but I was still pretty happy with what I was able to do today, despite having a pretty debilitating headache. 

By debilitating I mean consistent pain in and around my forehead area. 

Nauseating to bend over at all.
Sneezing hurts. 

Blowing my nose hurts. 

Anything that adds any blood flow or pressure on my head hurts... 

But it's something I have gotten used to. And something I try to work through. Because if I shut down every time I had a headache, I would more or less be completely useless. 

I still have a paper to write. 

Still have other homework to do. 

STILL have those 7 drawing projects to finish.

But instead I'm giving my stumps a break and sitting here typing on my new blog and munching on my 1/4 cup of M&M's.

Oh, and I fit into a size 36 pair of shorts today.
Shorts that I bought a few years ago and until now, couldn't fit into them.
So hooray for diet results! Albeit little ones. 

Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead.

This show is amazing.
Best part is: It's not all just guts and gore (although there's plenty of that), there's conflicts all over the place and a rich story to bring you along.

I absolutely love this.

My wife just found me on IMDB

Ha!
So I got a call from a comic book artist who wanted to use my likeliness and story of my injury as one of the "spots" in his comic strip he was writing about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I had no idea it would end up in a movie of some kind (Granted it's in Italian?)
Anyways, here's the link to IMDB: Comic Books Go to War

Kinda cool, albeit strange.

Just took a test for web design.

And I am quite happy with the way I am progressing in the class.
The HTML tags are becoming easier to remember, and it also helps that I have set myself up some "bare bones" style pages to just copy and paste code as I need it.

I am hoping soon I'll be able to start helping my friend over at Veterans in Service to take care of his website.

So yeah... that just happened.

Walking to the Tech Building on campus, and I'm on the ground floor getting ready for my Web Design class.
I decide to pop into the mens' bathroom before class.
I usually use the handicap rooms (I know I qualify, but I feel bad for folks in wheelchairs).
The handicap stall was occupied by a male, laying on the floor... with his pants down.
I checked underneath, and he seemed really out of it.
I didn't see any blood, vomit or anything to show trauma, which lead me to a few other possibilities:
Drug Addict
Pervert.

I called campus security and they came over and got the guy out.
The security guard came down and told me this is something they have caught the guy doing before.
(Didn't say what he was doing.)
But his eyes were pretty glazed over, and he was well out of it.

Either way I feel good about what I did.
If he was hurt, I would have gotten him medical attention.
If he's some sick bastard or low life drug abuser, then fuck him. Have fun in hand cuffs.

Removing myself from the FB.

Last night I decided I was going to stop using Facebook.
It was a fairly obvious decision to make, considering how much time I spent on the site... instead of doing my work.
From projects, painting, writing and basic repair stuff around the house, I just didn't do any of it... I had to post on Facebook.

My time on Facebook wasn't just playing games, in fact I really didn't play any at all (I used my phone for Words with Friends and Scramble), refusing to take part in Farmville, etc.
I used the site to keep in touch with the hundreds of  people who I have met and interacted with over the years. You see I'm a medically retired US Army Veteran... I earned that title by losing both of my lower legs in an IED blast 6 years ago in Iraq.
It's still weird to consider myself retired at the age of 30... but it's not without it's problems.
I created a group on FB, where all my amputee friends (both civilian and military) could ask questions and interact with other amputees like them. There were also Orthopedic Surgeons (the guy helped me walk again, among other things) and Physical Therapists. It was an active and supportive group!
The other main thing I did was post pictures.
Pictures from all over the internet.
From funny, political, controversial, etc. I didn't post vulgar photos, because I try not to get my friends in trouble while they're at work or home (NSFW!).
I would get messages and compliments on my photos all the time, how people were having a bad day and I helped them with my goofy pics.
I even strongly voiced my opinion on Marriage Equality and the unnecessary hatred towards the LGBT community. (Of which I have probably a dozen friends that fall under that category.)

But last night, I deactivated the account.
It was almost reminiscent of the time I deactivated my WOW account. (Yeah I played!)
It just took up so much of my time, I had to step away.
As mu wife says, I'm not a "grey" person, I'm either black or white.
I couldn't regualte my time on Facebook, so I just spontaneously left.
Unfortunately this left my poor wife to field a bunch of questions from concerned friends and family.

Speaking of which, I wanted to elaborate on that.
I didn't leave because "something" happened.
I didn't leave because my wife made me.

I left because NOTHING was happening.
I left because I was paying attention to my social media family more than my OWN family (wife included!)

And when I finally came to that realization... I walked away.
It will take some getting used to, but I have quit far worse habits in the past... I'll quit this one as well.

For now, this will be my site for dumping my thoughts. Lets hope this doesn't take over my life as well.