Daniel Voyles

So, I’m now a student at SIUC. I’m attempting to gain a bachelor of science in Information Systems. To be honest, I’m thinking this is a lofty goal. My time constraints are pretty tight, and so I’m afraid that my coursework may suffer as a result.

60 hours/week driving and working.

56 hours/week sleeping (I wish).

20 hours/week dedicated to family.

That’s 136 hours per week already tied up. Now if I add in the recommended time for coursework @ 48 hours/week, I’m up to 184 hours out of 168 used up. I’m already negative and I haven’t included anything for just relaxing. I suppose if I reduce sleep to 6 hours/night then I should be able to make it. Still, I’m thinking this may have been a severe lapse in judgment on my part. Time will tell.

Go read this Time article. Yes, I know, I’m horrible for asking you to read.

Go read #3. Read it again. Once more now.

Why is our country hosed? Because the companies (executives) are here collecting fat paychecks. We peons are scraping to get by and buying crap at Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, etc. that is made in China. Hence middle-class jobs are gone. The execs get richer, and we have no middle-class anymore.

But that’s okay, you go save $1.25 on your toothbrushes while the Chinese buy your country with your money.

Germany has the right idea by supporting companies that produce/invest in-country. THAT is what we need here and now. Continental in Mount Vernon is German-owned. Guess what – if they can get a part from Germany instead of buying it up the street, they do it. THAT is how you keep an economy going.

The following story is true to my best recollection, and happened a couple of years ago.

I  shy away from working on personal computers for one major reason – people who are sue-happy. A PC is a machine, it breaks mechanically as well as by software. Had a woman who asked me to look at a PC, I did, and after I had her reboot, it would not come up. I left, after doing nothing to the PC other than plugging in a USB thumb drive (software tools I commonly use are on the thumb drive).

She told me I had broken it and needed to pay to have it replaced after her ‘friend’ she gets weed from said it was non-repairable. We had a few missed phone calls back and forth, but I offered to pay 1/2 of the repair cost at a neutral shop to be nice. I should point out that she suggested I buy her a ~$1,500 laptop to replace the 5+ year old desktop her weed-buddy said I broke.

Then she contacted the MVPD who told her(according to her message) that I had likely downloaded personal information from her PC using my thumb drive (thanks for that, MVPD), and was a criminal planning to exploit that information. Finally she left me a message that said she had ‘better not find me out anywhere’ and that I should ‘come back by her house because her dogs have something for me’.

Long story short, I’m shying away from doing PC work for anyone other than immediate family. Until I am incorporated and have a much better liability policy, my family cannot afford the risk even though I love helping people.

I won’t mention her company for fear of being sued, but her family runs a local pest control company, beware.

And hell yes I accepted the offer. As of December 7th I will be working for School Center in Carbondale. The drive will suck a little, but the joy of doing what I want every day and being a part of a normal job will be awesome. I miss the routine of going into work, doing my job, and going home. It won’t be that every day, as it is a datacenter, but it’s closer than anything I’ve done recently.

I have to say that I was/am very grateful for the position I have been working for the past month and a half, but this is a great opportunity and it will not be passing me by while I sit there and wave. I am also extremely thankful for my family and friends’ support over the past 6 months while I have been looking for employment, and more recently for better employment.

At least for the next two weeks I get to whistle while I work and look forward to the future instead of wondering if this is my lot in life. I’m excited as can be, but you who know me well know I have one look, so don’t expect me to be jumping around or anything.

AAAAAAAAAAAANNNNDDDD I will get to release this stupid blog back into the wild instead of hiding it like Sloth in The Goonies.