A lot has happened. School is done, and I’m now a productive member of society again. I’m even paying rent! And a cable bill!

Well, I’ve only paid them twice, because I just moved into my own place at the end of April. I still have half-unpacked boxes all over the place, but I love it. It will seem more spacious once I get a storage unit on my floor at the end of the month, and with the way that time has been flying lately, it won’t be too long. Then it will be house-party time!

Well, we’ll see about that. (Which reminds me, oddly enough, that I have to call Shaw and see if someone can come by and fix my phone line so my buzzer works.)

Work is going really well. I started right after the Christmas/New Years break, and have passed my probation period. I’m stoked to have benefits again. Really good benefits. I’m working as a web developer, and I need to do more development stuff on my own time so I don’t forget things. I’ve got a couple of projects that should start up soon, one of which is a paid gig, which is good. The paid gig was just for some code clean up, but I think I’ve pretty much talked him into letting me redevelop his site.

… This isn’t much of a “hey, I’m back!” post, but it’s all I’ve got in the couple of minutes I can manage to squeeze in at work.

It’s already almost the middle of June.  It feels like my birthday was just a couple of days ago.  Weird.  I’ve been working with NL for over a month now, and blew most of my last pay cheque on a black birthday Wii for myself along with the New Super Mario Brothers Wii.  It’s so fun.  I haven’t had much chance to play yet, but I will.  There are a few other games I want to get, but I need to wait for more money.  Black birthday Wii is shiny.

I love working here – everyone is so nice, and I’m working with great people.  I really hope I can come back in January, when I’m done school.  If I had accepted one of the other positions I was offered (over 7 interviews I was offered 4 of those), I wouldn’t be working with these people, I wouldn’t be getting the opportunities I am and I wouldn’t be playing ball hockey in the parking lot at lunch on Fridays.  Our team is in first place, I think.  Our last game is tomorrow, and then playoffs start next week.  I have a feeling we’re going to win the competition this year, which is good, because there’s been one department that has won it the past few years.

I’ve been offered freelance web development opportunities.  (I really need to do more PHP reading SOON.)  I’m heading up the group of summer students to run a couple of staff lunch barbeques over the next couple of months.  Next Thursday evening is an Open House BBQ that’s being run and the students are helping out with.  It’s going to be huge.

NL moved to their new building in October/November ’09, and this is their chance to invite all of the employee’s families here to see the new digs, as well as invite some of the people who worked on the transforming the building from the warehouse it was to the gorgeous office it is.

The Student BBQs are going to be a lot of work, but I think that I’ve got a good, eager group to work with.  I also have a huge stack of papers from BBQs Past, so that will help.

I still can’t believe it’s the middle of June.  Time has just been flying by.  I know I keep saying it, but really.  It’s crazy.

I’ve got another BBQ/possible pool party with my friends from school this weekend, which should be a gong show.  It’ll be fun, I think.  Possibly kind of crazy.  We’ll see how it goes.

Next week is going to be a fairly busy one – the open house barbeque, two (or is it three?) ball hockey games, taking my car for a very overdue oil change, and a really long Friday.  I agreed to close at the Part Time Jorb on Friday, so after working here from 8:30-5pm, I’ll be there from 6pm-12:30am Saturday.  I will need a lot of caffeine to survive that day – if anyone feels like dropping by with an iced cap from Timmy’s about 7:30-8, I’ll be a happy Manda.

It’s the ex’s birthday today.  I sent him a text, so we’ll see if he even replies.

I’m so looking forward to my appointment with my optometrist in a couple of weeks.  I’ll get my prescription updated (it’s been ages!) and then order some glasses from Zenni Optical. I’m so looking forward to having multiple choices!  I’m so dorking out and getting a pair of big assed aviator sunglasses.

Okay, work.  I should work on some stuff before heading home.

I used jPaginate, a super fancy easy jQuery script.  It’s fabulous and … yeah.  I just wish I had been able to find it earlier.

Pajinate – jQuery Plugin by Wes Nolte

Exams are done for the year, and I’ve just started working at my summer work experience job.  After going on 7 interviews, I was offered four of those positions.  I’m very happy that I didn’t ‘settle’ and take the first one that was offered, because while it may have been an interesting position, I don’t think I would have been happy with it.  Plus? This job is paying more, and I get to wear two hats.  Also, days off.

I’m going to be working on (mostly) web development over the summer, along with a bit of Java development.  There’s a chance of maybe some PowerBuilder, but I doubt it.  I think I’m going to be busy enough with the other things.  I started on Monday, and I’m very excited as well as still being a bit nervous about the job.  I’ve already been drafted onto the IT department’s street hockey team.  Our first game is Friday. (OMGWHUT)

… Then again, one of my ‘bosses’ has already asked if I’d be interested in working on any freelance web development stuff that comes his way.

Tonight’s my first hockey game in a while, and I’m excited!

I’ll have to write up a longer post later, going over the crazy that was last term.  My marks would have been better if I didn’t have to work, but when the government says I have too much money and therefore don’t need student loans (wait, what?), when I’m broke? Um. Yeah.  Work is sort of required.

My ‘worst’ exam – the one I was stressing the most about – was first.  It’s done.  I’m hoping I passed, especially since it’s worth 40% of my final mark.  Meep.  I just couldn’t study over the weekend.  It was HORRIBLE.

I’ve got .Net today at 1pm, which should be easypeasy.  It’s an open book exam, and we only have two and a half hours to write a program, so it’s not going to be uber complicated.  Yay!

Advanced Java is tomorrow afternoon.  I think I remember him saying something about us being supplied a ‘cheat sheet’ for the exam. As far as I know it’s a pen-and-paper exam, so we’ll see how that goes, I guess.

Thursday is my icky day: DBMS at 8:30 and then Network Computing (the Novell half – ugh, Novell sucks) at 2pm.  The SQL stuff for DBMS is no problem – just simple selects and table creation, no big.  It’s the table normalization stuff that I know I can do, I just can’t explain why/how I do it.  That’s what’s got me on assignments for this class, and what will probably get me on the exam.  We’ll see now Networking goes.

Friday is going to be a ‘no brainer’ type day, because it’s our Web Development exam.  It shouldn’t be too difficult, especially since I’ve done that before.  XHTML and CSS.  No big deal.  Just as long as we don’t have to remember the complete doctype tags at the top of the page.

Friday, apparently, there are a couple of us going to Speedworld after our exam.  Zoom zoom!

I should start doing a bit of last minute .Net studying, else get some Java studied for tomorrow.  Studying, apparently, is good!

How the hell is it time for midterms already? Didn’t we just get back to class after a too short summer with crappy weather? I remember summer lasting so much longer when I was a kid. Now, you blink and it’s gone.

School is going okay. All technical classes this term, and even though I’m still only technically in my first year still, the workload seems to be that much more heavy than it was last term. You have no idea how glad I am that I was able to drop Girl Guides this year. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I had to still do that on top of school, work, and hockey. And then I would be insane, which wouldn’t be a good thing.

Life is crazy, and I’m just along for the ride. It seems all of my married friends are expecting, so next year is going to be a busy year for babies! I’m excited. Babies are cute.

iPod just shuffled to two Pearl Jam songs. Yay! Spin the Black Circle and then Porch. NICE.

I miss my friends. There is a social tomorrow night, so I’m hoping I can get enough work done tonight (around SG:U!!!!) that I can justify taking tomorrow night off homework. Or I will anyway, but I do need to get a good start on my Java project that is due on Wednesday.

Ugh. Long bus ride. I dislike taking the bus home during non-peak hours. It takes twice as long as the express does and just takes soooo long. Blah. It is cheaper than me taking my car to school everyday, though. I’m just whiny.

LOL wah wah wah! I’m a whiny baby!

Anyway. Not too far now. Maybe I’ll have a nap and listen to music and try to ignore the guy’s elbow in the back of my neck.

It is day three of class for fall term, my second attended day of classes (I was sick yesterday, boo), and my second term. Scary thing: after this fall term, then winter term, I have my co-op term over the summer. Then one term after that, and I’m done!! Holy crap.

I’m actually not working with my Brownie unit this year, so that will also free up some time.  I am so relieved that I get to take a break this year.  I was burning out a bit, I think.  But anyone who wants cookies, let me know.  I have an in.

The Cancercare Dragonboat festival is next weekend, yay! I was going to be steersperson, but I changed my mind. I was not comfortable during the first practice trying to steer us. We almost ran aground. Oops. I’ll stay as a paddler.

School: My schedule is actually not to bad this term.  I only have two 8 am starts, the rest are 9 am classes.  I’m out early again on Thursday (3pm), late on Tuesday (5pm), and 4pm the rest of the week.  I’ve got 6 classes again:

• Database Management
• Network Administration
• Analysis and Design Methods 1
• Progamming (.NET Introduction)
• Web Development
• Programming (Advanced Java)

It’s going to be a heavy term, I think, but at least I don’t have to deal with Accounting (that comes back to haunt me next term), Economics or Business Communication.  Yay.

I’m glad I’m back at school.  The summer went by way too fast, even though I was an underemployed student. Oh well.

Okay. DBMS class. I should pay attention.

eta: Oops. Typo. Welcome doesn’t start with a ‘D’.

Oh! Kid is awake, so I should go pull him from his crib.