When I bought my computer a couple years ago, I was required to get it with Vista, otherwise Dell was going to charge me an additional $60 to get XP. Everyone knows that Vista sucks, even Microsoft, so they just came out with Windows 7.

I cannot afford a new computer, and I’m really not a fan of Macs, so I need to decide if I want to upgrade or not. Through school I can get a discount on Professional or Ultimate. Both of these would require a clean install, which I CANNOT do on my own–I know I’d f*** it up.

So, techie buddies, what say ye? Do I do it or wait and live with Vista longer? Or, do I buy the Personal edition (I can still get a discount, just not sure what it would be) and upgrade my laptop, wtbrosie’s laptop, and our desktop?

Saturday, we’re hosting an apartment warming party. Now, I don’t have nearly as many friends as wtbrosie and Steph, but I do have a good number, and I do consider all of them actual friends.

But I’m starting to question that of late. One group of friends has never once traveled to see me, despite me making plans to see them regularly–granted, I was already in the neighborhood at therapy, but I still had an hour ride home ahead of me and work in the morning. Every time I’ve had any kind of gathering, I invite them, but not one even responds. I’m hurt to be honest, especially because they don’t invite me to events anymore either.  But they still see my mom in PetCo all the time, and ask her to send their love, so it’s not like they don’t want to be friends with me anymore…(no, my mom wouldn’t know who they are, even after them talking to her fairly regularly:P)

I’m not sure what to do…I guess I should bring it up to them, but I HATE confrontation (with friends and family anyway). I could just let them fade out, but I kinda don’t want to. I don’t know…

So I suck at blogging every day…but I’m still blogging a lot more than I usually do! This past weekend I was writing a research paper for my Student Development class, and have another (thankfully much smaller!!) paper due in my Financial Affairs class on Thursday. Luckily for me, I have tomorrow totally off, which is not unusual, but I ALSO have Wednesday off from class, so will be home and working on the paper as of about 2pm. Yes, I’ll do some work on it tomorrow…but I’m making mac and cheese (my first time making it not from a box!) and hanging with D tomorrow night, so can only get so much done. I’m just really stressed out and overtired…

I also want to spend some time tomorrow cleaning since we’re having people over this weekend and I don’t want us running around all stressed out on Saturday morning.

Yet another skipped day of NaBloPoMo. So school and work have sucked up my life–I’m kind of looking forward to next semester, since I’ve heard a rumor that we’re in class 4 days instead of three. Sounds like it may suck, but I can spread my work hours out over more days and actually have more ability to create balance in the Force. I’m also praying for an assistantship–anyone have suggestions on which Theoi to supplicate in particular?

I’m surprisingly becoming more spiritual lately. Maybe some of it has to do with the fact that in my Counseling Theory class we’ve been discussing theories that are a little more spiritual in nature. Or maybe it’s that the student development theory I’ve decided to write a research paper on for Monday is faith-based (maybe I chose that theory becasue I’m being drawn in a more spiritual direction?). I have one shrine I actively worship at, another that I see every day when I leave or come home (I need to figure out a way of incorporating the ‘Guardians’ –what I am collectively calling the Deities that guard the boundaries of the home) into my daily worship), and am in the process of creating a shrine to Asklepios and Hygeia (Gods of Medicine and Health) with help from wtbrosie. Not really sure where it’s coming from, but I think I like it.

So, how should we go about convincing our neighbor that it’s NOT a good idea to allow his dog to think my backyard is it’s personal toilet? I know me–if I go over there, I’m going to get all upset, wind up opening my mouth and do no good. I AM going to put my camera by the bedroom window so I can take pics of the dog every morning since my room looks out over the backyard.

Well, I’m off to a meeting for a class project, then printing off articles for the research paper due Monday. I’m kinda glad I have no plans during the day Friday, and that wtbrosie is working her part-time job on Saturday morning–I’ll have time to get the paper done, I hope

I’m tempted to back-date this entry to yesterday so I can actually, you know, post every day this month…but even 29 out of 30 days will be a HUGE milestone for me so I’m just going to play along.

Today, wtbrosie and I went to NH to meet up with my cousin. It’s been…Gods, almost 2 years since I saw him, and that was in a less than ideal situation. It was cool hanging out and getting to know him better–although we’re cousins, our family is less than communicative, and we’ve learned well from them.

I’m supposed to be doing research for a paper due next Monday, so I guess I should get on that, huh?

So, what are the chances I’m actually going to succeed this year? Be prepared, I’m probably going to be talking a lot about school and Girl Scouts

GODS I am so bad about blogging lately. I’ve had no time whatsoever these last few weeks with school, work, going to New Jersey last weekend, and 2 conferences this week.

I’m enjoying work, although my direct supervisor could be called scatter-brained. But, she’s never around, so I get quite a bit of down-time when I’m in the office. I really haven’t done too much yet, at least in my mind. But, it’s still a new position and I’m still getting used to everything, so it’s also slow-going.

School is kind of overwhelming. Readings and papers and projects are just piling up. I’m trying to decide if I want to go to the ACPA (American College Personnel Association) convention that’s going to be in Boston this March. I went to the local conference Friday, and felt kind of out of place, but it was a good learning experience, and I know it’s good to get involved with professional orgs. I just don’t know if going to these thing will ever truly be advantageous to me because I’m so bad at networking and getting to know people. Hell, even at the Girl Scout learning conference I went to yesterday, although Girl Scouts is a comfort zone for me, and I know what I’m talking about and actually involved (unlike with higher ed), I feel awkward and like I don’t really belong. It’s a huge dilemma to be honest.

So, I’m thinking about downloading Thunderbird to handle my email via IMAP (I have 4 emails I use regularly plus an NU email and I’ll be getting a GS email soon)  rather than POPing all of my email to one Gmail account. Gmail doesn’t allow you to send mail from other Gmail accounts without the default noted at the sender, I can only have one signature. But with IMAPing, I never have to periodically log into various inboxes to clear them out or double-check that good mail wasn’t marked as spam.

Should I not rock the boat and deal with the issues I have in order to not have to deal with getting used to a new format? If I do go with T-bird, any tips/tricks/suggestions?

A couple weeks ago, <a href=’http://wtbrosie.livejournal.com/profile’><img src=’http://www.rosequoll.com/lj/lion.gif’ alt=’userinfo’ width=’17′ height=’17′ style=’vertical-align:bottom;border:0;’></a><a href=’http://wtbrosie.livejournal.com’><b>wtbrosie</b></a>’s car wouldn’t start. AAA came out and couldn’t help at all, so they towed it to a garage. Now, she knew the car was on it’s last legs and needed work, so this was really mainly an excuse to actually bring it to be looked at.  As I’m sure you can all guess, the car has seen it’s last day. The guy called with the diagnosis and offered to hold it until she was able to clean it out and decide if she wanted to junk it or try to get a trade.

When she picked it up yesterday he told her he could have ‘fixed’ the car for her, but he told her it wouldn’t have really made a difference. Then made a suggestion of a dealership, gave advice about the cars she’s been contemplating and also offered to look at whatever car she was thinking to buy. From the interactions she’s had with him, he’s going to be our guy for as long as we’re in the area.