It's Late But I'm Still Posting

I've never realized, until very recently, how much money people probably spend on dating sites. I joined Tinder in mid-to-late June, and then followed that with OK Cupid a week or so ago, and then hit up Match.com and Zoosk. Between those four sites, you could easily spend at least $50/month or more just to have anything from unlimited likes to actually viewing messages from others or seeing who liked your profile. Tinder Plus is $10/month for unlimited likes and a new "Likes You" section, OK Cupid as "A-List Basic" and "A-List Premium" to see who likes you and when a message you've sent is read (among various other "perks"), Match has several tiers of subscriptions, and this site is near-useless as a free user. Unless you pay a minimum of $15/month for 3 months, you can do no more than view profiles and like them. No messaging, no viewing messages, no seeing who likes you, none of that. Zoosk has subscriptions to use "SmartPick" and view profiles of those who liked you.

The first girl I matched with on Tinder is done with. She stopped responding to my messages last month for whatever reason. I haven't matched with a single person since, across any dating site. I've gotten plenty of likes from others, but all of them on OK Cupid weren't my type/very attractive, and Match doesn't let me see them without payment... kinda the same with Zoosk. I kind of figured there would be a point at each one where certain features weren't free, but holy shit, the smallest things they hide. Wanna see who likes you? Give us $20 and we'll tell you! Wanna see this message? Subscribe for 6 months and you'll get it!

There is one girl I found on Match who's very pretty and a Packer fan (golden package right there), but she hasn't been on in 2 weeks, and I can't do anything but Like her as a free user, so it's nearly pointless. Even if I did have a subscription, who's to say she is a subscriber and won't see the message anyway?

That's all I got in the tank for this one. It's 1:34 AM, I'd like to be up by 9 and drag myself to the gym sometime tomorrow. G'night!

What Other Way to Say It

I've been trying to find some way to talk about this on here, but every time I do, I either say "Fuck it, this sounds like shit." or "I sound like a whiny little bitch.", so maybe this is whatever-times-the-charm on this one. I'm not sure if some of the stuff I'll be saying in this post has been mentioned/talked about before in previous posts since I've done so many drafts, but here it is.

The girl from Tinder, Anna, that I hung out with at Summerfest and saw Andy Grammer with (alongside my second oldest and youngest sisters), hasn't said a word to me since July 11th. She was helping get ready for the The Little Mermaid musical that The Hartford Players put on last month, and I guess was so busy she wasn't able to reply too much, which I was fine with... at the time. It's been almost 3 weeks since anything's been said back to me, and I'm so worried that she's either done with me and won't say anything or something else that I don't understand. I'm not mad at her, I'm just frustrated it's like this right now. I try so hard not to think about it at work and just anywhere else, but eventually my mind strays back to why she hasn't said anything for coming-into-a-month now. Everything was going well, like... everything. We hit it off on Tinder pretty well, moved it to texting almost flawlessly, and enjoyed (at least I thought) each other's company at Summerfest. She even texted me first the next day, which to me was a big plus. I'm not sure what to do. I have this somewhat extensive paragraph written up in the Notes app on my iPhone, wondering if I should send that sometime this week or continue praying to God she eventually responds, or both. It's basically me saying, "Hey, I know you've been busy with musical stuff lately, but you've been pretty quiet on here lately... I like you a lot, wanna take you out to a nice place... hope you feel the same." that sorta thing. I'm gonna see what my younger sister says about it and if she thinks that's a good idea after waiting this long, or what the hell I'm supposed to do.

The last thing I wanna do is assume we're not gonna happen, go back to Tinder, find a couple matches, and then like the next day find her responding to me again. I'm trying my hardest to hold out for her and focus on just her, but I'm almost beyond discouraged at this point. Who knows, though, I may just be over-thinking it like always and she'll say something tomorrow about being away for so long. I just get really saddened by it all because you'd think after 3 texts and no responses, she would've said something if she were still interested in me. That leads me to wonder why I should even send her that last message, because why should I think she'll actually respond to that when she hasn't said a word in three weeks? I mean, I don't know how else to get through to her. She's not responding to my texts, but... oh yeah. That's another thing.

She seems to have no problem posting on Instagram and liking stuff on Facebook, but she can't respond to me. The only thing that is still giving me a little hope is a post of hers on Instagram where she's showing off a mask she's making for another musical, and in the description she says something like "Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I'm in the middle of going from one musical to the next and it's been a bit nuts." So, maybe it's just the biggest effing time commitment I've ever heard of and she's not saying much to me? I don't know. I just feel so crappy inside from it and it makes it a lot harder to get through the day when I still don't hear from her. I'd just like to know something. Anything. Even if, God forbid, she was done with me, at least have the respect/decency to tell me, so I'm not sitting here wondering what's up and trying to stay on her radar like it's the only thing that matters right now.


Again, I just don't know. I really want to send that last message, but then again, I also want to wait it out just this weekend yet, but I'm so damn torn. The worst case scenario, really, at this point is that I send that message telling her how I feel, and she doesn't even respond to that. Then I'll know she clearly isn't into me or thinks it's okay to leave me in the dark for eternity.

BUT I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY SHE'D TELL ME ABOUT TWO MORE REHEARSALS LEFT AND THEN JUST BAIL LIKE THAT? WHY? OR ADD ME ON FACEBOOK FIRST. I never took her as someone who'd be like this. Even at Summerfest, she seemed really cool and had an amazing personality. It never crossed my mind that "Oh jeez, she's not digging this very well." Sure, it took her a while to respond at first on Tinder, but hey, that I fully understood; you wanna make sure this guy isn't a creep or someone who's gonna demand they get a response right away. And I kept my distance until she got more comfortable.

Anyway, that's my rant for the night. Time for bed and another day at the office. I continue praying as always.

Please, Anna. Just tell me what's up. I like you, you're pretty, your red hair, all of it. Whole 9 yards. I'm holding out for you while I keep my head up.

Online Dating

While I sit and wait for my iPhone to charge its final two percent, I thought I'd share my experiences so far with the world of online dating, and specifically, Tinder. Alright, I just checked, and it flipped to 100%, but I'm still writing this post. Anyway, last week Monday I decided to download Tinder and create my profile. I didn't actually get it set up until about 11:30 PM, and having a job and all, needed to be up by 5:45 AM, so I got as far as connecting my Facebook account, typing up a quick bio, and just briefly checking out the very first girl Tinder presented me with. Her name was Paige, 21, and currently attending UW-Oshkosh. She seemed cute, but I was too nervous to actually swipe right at the time, so I left it at that.

This brings us to the next day at, oh, I'd say... around 1 PM. I was in the middle of my work, had my phone sitting on my computer desk. Suddenly, I saw a notification from Tinder pop up, and it said "Someone has liked you! Swipe right to find out who." With this, I thought it literally meant swipe right on the notification to look at who liked me. I left that alone the remainder of the afternoon because I didn't want to be on a dating app during work, kinda awkward for me. I couldn't have been more wrong on the initial notification, but we'll talk more about that shortly.

At around 9 PM that night, I went ahead and looked at the notification, and again thought it would show who had liked me. It opened Tinder up, but to my surprise showed the same exact girl. Sticking with my initial assumption, I figured this Paige girl was the one who liked me since she was first on the app. I swiped right on her because she was attractive, but the whole "It's a match!" thing didn't pop up, so that clearly wasn't the one who liked me. Anyway, I decided to swipe either left or right on a few more, but had not yet arrived on the girl who liked me.

Fast forward to the next day, Wednesday afternoon at work again, I did some more swiping behind the scenes (I know, what a sneaky employee.). After about to or three swipes, I came across this girl named Anna, 19, who is attending UW-Stout for Studio Art with a minor in Performing Arts and a focus on sculpture. When I first glanced through her photos, I thought she was pretty cute and had some cool stuff going on in her life. I swiped right, and lo-and-behold, "It's a match!" popped onto the screen. HOLY SHIT, IT WAS HER is exactly what I thought as I discovered her. I had two options, "Send a message." and "Keep Swiping". I chose keep swiping as I had no idea how to start a conversation at that moment, so I left it for a little while.

By a while, I mean Thursday evening. Yeah, again the next day. Throughout the work day on Thursday I tried coming up with unique ice breakers, but the few I brainstormed were shit. Then, after remembering she loved Harry Potter, I figured I should use the dialogue from the scene where Ron Weasley is attempting to perform a levitation trick on a feather sitting before him in class. He's sitting next to Hermione Granger, and he says "Wingardium Leviosa!" with no success. I said that exact thing with some other funny stuff, hoping she'd come back with "No, no, stop it! You're going to take someone's eye out. Besides, you're saying it wrong. It's LeviOOOOsa, not Leviosaaa." so that I could respond with "Well you do it then if you're so clever. Go on, go on!" but she just said "That's so me as a wizard I swear" with 3 crying smiley emojis. Good enough for me though.

After that, I said some other HP stuff, but here's where things are getting a little dry. She never responded to my second message, so I waited until that evening where I followed up with "But anyway, UW-Stout, eh? How was your first year of college?" and yet still hasn't responded (I should probably also mention that she didn't respond to my first message that I sent at 6:30 PM until 10:20 PM, and I didn't reply until nearly 1 PM the next day... so... yeah. It's not that I purposely waited that long, I just was in bed early and took until my lunch break to finally respond.)

I'm reaaaaaally hoping she just doesn't go on Tinder that much, because otherwise I don't know what the long gaps are for, unless she's been talking to other guys already and lost interest in our conversation so soon, which I find hard to believe. I mean, I did change the subject to her schooling, so the ball is still in her court. I have every bit of faith she'll respond, because it's not like I left the chat at a loose end. I also hope she responds because she's got red hair that I don't think I've seen anyone else rock better than her, seriously. Plus she's just so damn pretty and I hope to develop this into a relationship off of Tinder. I realize Tinder isn't exactly what people think of as a way to meet his/her future spouse, but hey, why can't it be my way?

For real though, I'm holding onto faith that she responds, and I hope she does. This Anna seems like someone I could get to know well and take somewhere nice and show her what a fantastic gentlemen I am. I shall remain humble however. But I also got this. *thumbs up or fist bump or however to end this post strong and now get to sleep because I need it*

Packers in the NFC Championship game!

Well, I don't know how else to start this, other than what the title says. The Green Bay Packers made it to the NFC Championship game after narrowly defeating the Dallas Cowboys with a 51-yard Field Goal by Mason Crosby on Sunday, January 15th. Today they take on the Atlanta Falcons, and I'm just as worried about this game as I was about the Cowboys. Almost everything that I read about the game from NFL.com and other videos on YouTube is saying the Packers are underdogs and that the Packers' defense is what could easily decide the game. I have to agree, as Green Bay's defense has always been a major sore spot all season, and ever since they went 6-0 last season and then started falling big time against the Denver Broncos and ended the season at 10-6 they've shown how much they struggle stopping solid run and pass defenses.

I haven't blogged since before Christmas last year, and have been meaning to get back to it before the football season is over. We've got the NFC Championship game today, of course, and then Super Bowl LI is on Sunday, February 5th in Houston. The Pro Bowl is next Sunday, but it's such a joke, not many people watch it. Anywho, the Packers went 4-6 to start this season, and Rodgers made another famous statement: "I feel like we can run the table, I really do. If we can just get one win, and get things rolling, I think we have a real chance." Wouldn't you know it, they go on to win 6-straight, win the NFC North, and make it to the Championship game, sitting just 60 minutes from another Super Bowl.

As for my prediction with this matchup, I'm thinking it's gonna be another big shootout. Being a Packer fan, I have to stick with my guns, and I'm pushing for a big game on Rodgers' plate. I'm saying, this time, it'll come down to a final big touchdown, sending the Pack to the SB, 42-35. No Field Goals, no onside kicks, just a solid 5 TDs on either side of the ball, with Rodgers sending a rocket into the endzone and continuing their ride. I'm actually watching the game as I anxiously type this stuff up, and it's not good as of yet. Atlanta just rolled through Green Bay's defense, and Rodgers just went 3-and-out, with Crosby's 41-yard FG NO GOOD. That really sucks, since he had a 22-FG streak going in the postseason. DAMMIT.

All that aside, it'll be a heck of a game. Or maybe not. Maybe Atlanta will just totally rip our defense apart and make them look like the Bears. Or the Packers will magically gain momentum and win by 10. Who knows? You won't know until the clock hits 0:00 in the 4th quarter. Unless, of course, somehow we tie, and you all know how that usually ends for the Packers in the postseason, a game away from the Super Bowl.

Alright, enough talking and potential jinxing. Onto the current game and praying the defense can do even something against Matt Ryan's full-throttle defense.

What I've realized about myself.

So the semester is nearly complete for this Fall. I've got 3 classes left - 2 regular (probably studying) days and then the final exam on Tuesday, December 20th. I have an 85% going right now, which is a solid B-, I think. I did well enough on the first two tests that when the third was dropped, it actually bumped my grade up two percent, from an 83 to an 85. Anyway, just a week and a half left, and then it's Winter Break and then only 16 weeks left until GRADUATION! I'm so freaking excited to pass this class and get that much closer to probably being done with school forever. I say probably because depending on the type of full-time job, I may or may not go back for 2 more years if they pay/reimburse my tuition.

Now that I've gotten through that introduction for this post, onto what I really want to talk about. Over the past couple of months, or weeks at least, I've come to find that I like to freak out/stress over something I'm doing in a group that I'm not sure of and immediately start asking "Wait, what?" to get caught up again. For instance, a couple weeks ago, I was working on some homework in-class with a few classmates and near the end I was constantly saying "Wait, what?" because I didn't quite follow what they were writing down, but also because I wasn't just simply LOOKING for myself to find the equation they used or the numbers they got. One guy was even like, "Dude, look. Right here. Just look at the graph we've been using this whole time." It wasn't that exact dialogue, but you get the idea. He was right, though. I just needed to look at the same chart and the equation was just staring me in the face.

So that was one example. Another was when I was playing Garry's Mod with some high school friends and we were making our own cars from scratch. I kept asking my friend who's pretty knowledgeable about gmod (what we call it) a bunch of questions about my car that kept having issues, but I think I could've figured it out on my own had I just continued trial and erroring with it. I don't think he was too annoyed by it, but I did feel bad for constantly being like "Gaaaaah this isn't working... what the helllll." and stuff like that.

Those two instances are what have made me realize that I tend to freak out a little over stuff that isn't making sense the first time around or if I'm getting a little lost with something. It's not horrible, but is an aspect of myself I could work on, and will. Christmas break is just around the corner, so it's a good time to get that shit in order. I've got some significant New Year's resolutions for myself that I'm going to do my best in following through on, but I'll keep them to myself. The internet doesn't need to know everything. I've already got the whole going to the gym and working out thing under my belt. I just really hope there isn't a surge of new people after the holidays that have put "Get into shape." on their resolutions, that's really annoying. Then you're gonna have people in there using machines you use all the time that only work out a couple weeks and slowly taper off and go back to their dumb lives. I'm starting to relate more and more to that one picture of a gym on December 31st and then on January 1st, the former showing almost no one in the gym and the latter showing every treadmill taken up. It's funny, but annoying if that actually ends up happening. I don't work out until the evening usually, early afternoon on certain days, so hopefully that doesn't affect me too much.

That's all I've got for this post. Christmas is just about two weeks away! Whoop whoop!

2016 Platteville Homecoming

I went to my older sister's Homecoming field show yesterday in Platteville, and it was really good. We also watched the football game and the Pioneers beat the Falcons 45-14. It was a fun day overall, especially getting to throw a hatchet at a tree that was right next to where Lindsay and her friends are live throughout the school year. Unfortunately, the Badgers lost to the Buckeyes 30-23 in OT later that night, dropping them down to 4-2, with OSU staying undefeated at 6-0. We had to listen to the game on the radio because we were on our way home from Platteville by the time halftime started, and it was a little more than a two hour drive home, so we wouldn't make it home before the game ended. Anyway, one of my personal favorite parts of the day was going to the Country Kitchen for dinner. Not only was my Chicken Bacon Melt delicious, but the waitress was really damn cute. Here comes the best part... *epic drumroll*... I GAVE HER MY NUMBER ON  A NAPKIN THAT I LEFT ON THE TABLE AND SHE TEXTED ME LATER THAT NIGHT!!!

...just kidding. I wish I had. She was really pretty though. The more I thought about it on the way home, the more she reminded me of a friend from State FFA band - Colleen. She had the same kind of eyes, and a fantastic body, might I add. I had thought about the fact that I should've put my number down on the receipt before leaving, but I remembered that was impossible since my dad paid for the meal up front at the register. The only way I could've seen myself pulling it off would've been when we left, I should've taken a napkin and written my number on it and put it on a plate where it was easily seen. I would've had to hope she would be coming around again to collect more plates when we left. It's moments like those where I really think about what I could have or should have done, and then can only dwell on those missed opportunities and just move forward. All my friends (well, really just one in particular) keep nagging on me to get talking to girls and ask them out, but I never actually do it.One of these days, though, I'm just gonna be like "Fuck it, I've sat back long enough, I'm done being a child about it. I'm in my 20s, there's no excuse anymore." There hasn't been an excuse in the last couple years, I'm just not manning up when I should. Sure, I manned up when I asked Courtney out, but that was a solid year ago now, and I'm pretty damn sure she both doesn't remember me asking her out and who I even am. It's almost like a chance for a do-over, but there's always that bit where maybe she suddenly does remember me asking her out and she's like "Didn't you ask me out a while back?" and I'd say something like "Yeah, and I thought I'd try again, shorti. That boyfriend of yours treating you right?" NOW WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I TALK LIKE THAT IN PERSON TO GIRLS, OR HER?! Probably because I can't think that quick on my feet, takes my brain a while to process a smooth line like that. Seriously though, that would be a classy way to bring it up again. I honestly might do that the next time I happen to be in her area. Time to man up and stop being a wimp. BOSS TIME.

I did it!

I would certainly say it was a mission successfully accomplished. I logged out of all of my social media accounts on Sunday night, deleted all apps from my phone and all bookmarks from my computer and I didn't have a single hiccup. It felt good to be off of Facebook and Twitter and all those sites this past week and just be away from all those annoying people. I'll be jumping back into everything tomorrow, however, since the break is over and I'm happy with it. I just hope I remember all the passwords for each account and don't forget any logins. It shouldn't be a problem; I'm pretty good at remembering that stuff.

I also finally got a job at a place called Dorner Manufacturing in Hartland. They make conveyor systems and use SolidWorks for designing, and I'm really excited to start working there. It probably won't be until Monday, September 12th because next Monday is Labor Day, and by Tuesday I'll be getting a drug test scheduled. That probably won't happen until Wednesday or Thursday, and I'm sure it won't be finalized until the weekend or Monday, so probably in a week or two I'll start. I'm sooooo ready to start bringing that moolah back into my bank account. Who knows? Maybe I'll make enough to get a zero-turn before the snow falls! That's honestly one thing I'm really set on getting once the dough starts rolling in. I told my parents back in like mid July that I'd be willing to pay half for one, and they seemed fine with it, but that was in the midst of unemployment. As soon as a few weeks go by and I've raked in a chunk of money, I'll be looking. If I do end up getting a zero-turn by October, at least the cutting will be a piece of cake.

Anyway, I'm suddenly very tired and want to get to bed. Goodnight!

I'm back. Momentarily.

Alright, so I've might a slight return. This is by no means a return to post every day or more frequently. I'm just posting to inform all of you "followers" that I've decided to go on a one-week social media hiatus. Last night, I logged out of and deleted everything (off of my phone): Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine. Yes, even Snapchat and Vine. I didn't delete my accounts, I just logged out of them and removed the apps from my iPhone and the bookmarks from my computers. I realized that I'm actually looking at my phone a LOT, scrolling through Facebook News Food and Twitter, popping Snapchat open just as frequently, as well as Instagram. It just got to be too much. I've mildly considered the possibility of actually deleting my Twitter and Instagram accounts, but I've never really fully considered going through with it. I only got a Twitter because, at the time I got it, YouTube was a shit about things and wouldn't allow comments w/o connecting your Google+ account to it, and I wasn't having it. One YouTuber, Jonathan Paula, made a video about the comments section situation, and said that if you don't have that ability anymore, leave him a tweet. I did that and that's how my Twitter came to be. The reason I want to get rid of Twitter, but don't, is because of the reason I got Twitter. The reason I want to get rid of Instagram is because I don't post on it anymore and I'm not a huge fan of it. If I could somehow convince myself, I'd go back to just having my Facebook and YouTube accounts, with Snapchat on the side. No Twitter, no Instagram, probably no Vine either. For now, however, I'm sticking it out this week with no social media of any kind on my phone and computers. I'm feeling pretty good about it so far, and I think I can pull through. I'm not like some people who barely make it the first morning and have to peek.

Wow. That is a HUUUUUGE paragraph. And yes, that was a Donald Trump reference. He's the Republican nominee for President. Did you know that? Crazy, huh? Hell, Kanye West plans on running in 2020. I guess by then, anything will really be possible. I mean, if a sad excuse for a human being is able to run for the highest office in the country, I guess a monkey can be CEO of Disney. They're basically one and the same, right? No? Oh, wait! Sorry - back on topic.

Anyway, like I said, I'm taking a one-week social media hiatus, and I'm feeling great about it. This morning, I showered, ate breakfast, cleaned downstairs, and brushed my teeth. All before 10 AM. Usually, I'd get up, turn the shower on, look at my phone and check Twitter, then do all that phone stuff over breakfast, waste 10 more minutes on my phone, finally brush my teeth, then maybe on my computer, get to cleaning, and then be done. That... kinda had me out of breath just typing that. Yeah, it's good to be away from that stuff for a while. I'm also sick of all the "trends" that are born online by other stupid or seemingly entitled assholes. I'm tired of it and want to go back to the days before all that existed. The days before social media was a past-time for me. I'm reliving it now, and I couldn't be happier about it. Okay, quit glorifying it, dude. It ain't that fantastic. Sure, it's a good feeling, but it ain't like you're going back 10 years and feeling like a kid again. Stop it.

Anywho, that's my big thing going on, besides a job search. That gave me a fun ride this summer. I've finally got something starting soon, hopefully. Dorner Manufacturing in Hartland is looking for a Temp.-to-hire Designer, and a woman at a recruiting agency helped me get there. I'm excited about it and looking forward to getting back to work and making money! Goodnight!

Cute Girl at the Hub

So, as you may remember, back in my junior year of high school, I had a liking for a girl that was just about six months older than me, and I asked her out when the window was firmly closed. It was December 25th, 2012, and I was a little disappointed in myself for letting it go so long. At the time, I was really saddened by it, but it didn't ruin my Christmas. When I think about it now, I think it's because deep down inside of me, I wasn't really set on dating her. I mean, if I had been truly into her and really wanted to be more than friends, I feel like that should've just ruined my Christmas, but it didn't. Sure I wasn't happy with the outcome, but it's not like I was dragging my feet around the whole day, looking lousier than ever.

Anyway, that's besides the whole point of this post. That was nearly 3 years ago, and times have changed and new people have arrived. And by new people, I mean a plethora of insanely attractive girls at WCTC. Like, it's scary how many of them there are. Last semester, and my first semester last fall, there wasn't a sight to be seen with the women at school. This semester, however, that has totally changed. Not only are these girls good-looking, but daaaang, they got that booty. There's one girl that I've started to become especially keen to checking out, and she works by the Hub where the food is cooked. She's one of the women who works the cash register. When I first saw her, she did seem like a pretty attractive girl, but the more and more I went down there to get lunch, I started to feel more like I should ask her out. On the way home from class today, I made it official that I am going to ask her out, I just gotta figure out when's a good time. She's probably always there during peak lunch time, which sucks, because I'm hoping to catch her when there's really no one else there so I can either be getting lunch or just go up to her and ask her out without there being a lot of people there. I'm not really one to ask that sort of thing in front of a crowd, and so I'm hoping and gonna start to pray that I find that ideal time to ask her. Not sure how I wanna do it yet. By that I mean I don't know if I wanna straight-up ask her to a movie or something, or just a general, "Hey, I think you're really cute. We should go out some time." or "You know, there's this great movie opening this Friday, and you seem like a girl who loves the movies." even though that one is such a cliche it's not even funny.

There's just one small problem that isn't really a problem, but to me, it is. A friend of mine who I hang out with in our group at school goes down to the Hub with us to get food once in a while, and today he got some food - I forget what he got, not like it matters though - and got taken care of by her. After we sat down, he said "That one girl over there," "The one that works the register?" I asked. "Yeah, she's pretty cute." I just agreed with him because she really is, but that raised a red flag. It means he's kinda into her too, and so I have to act fast if he's at all thinking about asking her out too. I really don't want it to end that way, so I really gotta buck up quick and ask. It's not the end of the world if that happened (which, honestly, I don't see it happening. I'd be shocked if that's the way it turned out.) but I'd really be upset with myself if I let a perfect opportunity like that slip away. I'm gonna be praying to God that it ends up working in my favor and hoping to all that is holy I muster up the courage to ask out that pretty girl. I'm 20, almost done with school, will probably have a great job after college is over, so I'd say it's about time I got down to brass tax and found that special person in my life. This could be it right here. Worst case scenario? She says no. I've had it happen once already three years ago, and look where it got me. I got this. I know I do.

This Damn Semester

I'm over halfway through my third of four semesters at WCTC, and I'm really pissed about all of it so far. There are two classes that I'm doing okay in, but that's about it. Cold Processes is the only one that I have a solid A in, and the other I have a B+ in. Everything else is a C, and it blows. I really can't seem to win at any of it either. In Basic Mechanisms, I have without a doubt the worst fucking teacher ever. He wasn't so bad first semester (mostly because I didn't know anything about him, hadn't heard anything about him, so I just went with it) but after second semester started, I kinda saw what he was really like as a teacher, and this semester, I can't believe how fucking horrible he is, and how he's still teaching at WCTC. First of all, he's creepy as shit, probably cuts his fingernails once a year, can't seem to tame his hair one bit and makes really weird noises. Also, he sucks at teaching. Lots of times he has to go back to his notes to remember what something means, says "I'll post an announcement in Blackboard and get back to you on that that way." or has to spend 15 minutes going through one simple problem because he clearly has no fucking clue how to do it himself. He spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get an answer to something he worked on an hour before class, and was even like "Well, I was able to get this an hour ago." He also uses another teacher's notes for his lectures that he doesn't even understand himself. He'll literally read them word for word, do example problems out of the book, and that's it. No explanation on how they're done, where they get certain numbers from, just, here's what this is, and here's what they got. Oh and he looooooooooves to say "Alright, now what? What do I do next? What's next?" during lecture when working through example problems. Most of the time I don't know what to do because I'VE NEVER SEEN A PROBLEM LIKE THIS BEFORE, SO HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT? Once, just before lecture ended, he introduced these idiotic "Instant Center method circles", and completely blew over the information that explained what they were for, and at the end of class, he even said some people don't like doing those so they just ignore that part. So then why in God's name are you putting so much emphasis on this if students in the past hated them and don't even do them?! GAH he just pisses me off so much, but I'm not gonna blow up on him because that ain't gonna do fucking shit. There have been kids who already complained to the dean about him and tried to get him fired, because of his contract, he can't be fired. It's complete bullshit. I mean, if, say, 10 students gather to talk with the dean about a teacher who clearly can't teach, and they all agree that he sucks, why the fuck does a contract override that? If a school is so "Oh, we're for the kids and we do whatever we can to help them succeed in their education!", then why are they like "Sorry, we can't fire him even though he's a shit teacher because of his contract.", huh? Sounds to me like they don't wanna look bad for firing a teacher because he doesn't know the material.

Anyway, enough of that rant that really wasn't supposed to be a rant. My main point is that he's a terrible teacher and my grades are average because of it. Other classes of mine are kinda suffering. Partly because I'm trying to work 16 hrs/week, also because I sort of procrastinate, but mostly because of that teacher and that I just can't seem to win with any of it. Even with this last Strength of Materials test I took, I was feeling really good about all of it, and then I get it back and I got a 78%, which is like barely a C-, I think a high D+. That's another thing that really pisses me off about WCTC. They use the dumbest grading scale ever. 95-100 is an A (yeah, apparently they don't believe in A+ grades), 93-94 is an A- (yep, 1% difference for the A- group), and then it just gets dumber as you go lower on the scale. And they have these stupid Critical Life skills that we're gonna be getting graded on next semester, which is stupid too. Basically every school I went to - well, Saylesville, sorta-ish - has ended up kinda really sucking in certain ways after being there a while.

But still, dammit. This all really sucks.