Tag Archives: delaware county community college

Back in full swing

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Er…sorry for the unexplained extended leave of absence. Two weeks may not seem like a long time when you’re in school, but when you do blog-type stuff on a regular basis on the Internet, it kinda leaves a pretty big gap.

I’ve spent most of that time preparing for a final exam in Network Communications (which I finished earlier this morning with an A grade) and working on a small Dreamweaver project for my Web Page Development class. I had to cut back on up to 95% of my normal video game-playing in order to get them finished. On the bright side, this now means I’ve completed my first semester at DCCC, and can go back to a relatively normal work schedule (regular work and blogging). In the fall, I’m planning on moving into Flash, PHP and MySQL, and since they’re all Internet-based courses, I can take them from home without having to worry about travel expenses (except for those times when I may have to get books or other crap).

I also had to deal with a minor computer issue over the weekend, where the update to my AMD graphic card drivers screwed up almost all of the 3D graphics in the games I own. After spending a lot of time fiddling with my computer settings, I concluded that it was the new drivers themselves that were corrupted. So instead of updating to version 12.4, I’m going to stay put with 12.3 until AMD releases a new version that doesn’t make everything look like a demented checkerboard.

As a bonus, I used part of the money I won back from selling my textbook to purchase Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, which I hear is supposed to be quite a bit better than the original. I’m only about 25% done with the first Neptunia, and pretty much stopped updating my playthrough of the game to concentrate on my studies. I suppose I should try to finish the first game before even sniffing at the second, as I’m quite sure there are some things I’m going to need to know about the first game’s story for any of Neptunia mk2 to make sense. Then again, I’ve already started a new game file in Atelier Totori, even though I’m not quite done with Atelier Rorona yet. I’ll try to get an update done on that front by Wednesday.

Probably not the ‘Droid I’m looking for

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(…and I probably have to pay George Lucas a small amount of money for using that quote. Well, he’s not getting a penny from me!)

I found out a few days ago that my school is offering courses on Android and iOS application development for the summer. It’s too bad I don’t have enough time or money to try that out, because mobile development seems to be “all the rage” right now, especially when it comes to website design. If I could figure out a way to get this blog platform on mobile devices, I would (although that’s more in the hands of the WordPress devs than mine), so …meh.

First step…acquire devkits. I only have the Android one right now because I think the iOS devkit can be used on a Mac. Plus, even though I think the latest Android version is 4.0, I can grab a kit for the older versions so that I can try out something that has a possibility of working with my phone (2.2). From the looks of it, I think I should bone up on my knowledge of Java, as well.

A rash of luck, both good and bad

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There are few things more irritating than going into work feeling perfectly fine, and then going home and finding an icky rash all over your body when you don’t remember being bit by anything. (Details will be spared for the sake of everyone’s sanity.)

On top of that, I missed out on getting my paycheck for the last two weeks because the door to the boss’ office was locked. Hopefully, one or both of these problems will be solved by the end of this weekend.

On a brighter note, I’ve paid off my entry fee to start my web development certificate program at Delaware County Community College. I still have to worry about getting financial aid, scheduling classes and taking the entrance exam, but I’ve been told that I can’t really do much until October 31, when registration for spring classes can first be accepted.

And because I’m reluctant to pass up a good sale, I snatched up Dragonshard and Neverwinter Nights from Good Old Games’ 3rd Anniversary D&D promo, saving myself about $6 in the process. I’ve played NWN a few times before, but kept losing my CDs, so I haven’t had as much time to play as I want to. Dragonshard is totally new to me, so I thought I’d give it a chance.

Red, white and blue all over

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My “where were you on 9/11/01″ moment:

I was just leaving a difficult art history class, and students were gathered around the TVs in the hallway (I think Good Morning America was on at the time), shocked and horrified out of their minds after seeing what happened. I remember being paranoid about low-flying planes throughout the rest of the day, as Penn State’s Harrisburg Campus is only a few miles away from an airport. I’m kinda embarrassed about it now that I look back on that day, but I think I’ve gotten over that fear. I had friends living in and/or going to school in New York back then, but fortunately, none of them were in the city when the towers fell.

I’m assuming that Upper Darby High School postponing its flea market until next week is somehow linked to this year being the 10th anniversary of that event. My mom and dad found out about this after coming away from another flea market up at Delaware County Community College, which was packed, undeterred (or perhaps even motivated) by the various 9/11 tributes in the area.

I was able to come away with a full starter deck of Pokémon trading cards – the Emerging Powers Toxic Tricks deck, which is full of Psychic- and Fire-type Pokémon from the Black and White versions, including Darmanitan and Gothitelle, a couple of my favorites. The lady who sold them told me that the box contained a code that lets you use that deck online. I don’t know anybody in my area who plays the Pokémon card game, so I went ahead and used the online code to try to win a battle in the Trainer Challenge (which I did). I needed the practice, anyway. Theme decks aren’t really my thing, but I don’t have enough virtual cards to mix-and-match yet.

I also got T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, which is supposed to be one of the best retellings of the King Arthur mythos. It starts out with the “sword in the stone” legend, and that’s really the one story that most people think of when they hear of King Arthur, anyway. Now that I’ve finished reading Pokémon Adventures Vol. 1, I can devote some time to reading it this week.