Category: Illinois

Americans have become totally submissive and absurd

Okay, most of you know that I’m completely without faith in our “leaders” on a federal, state, and local level. The fed spies on us, and we allow it. Our state leaders (specifically Illinois) are corrupt or at least over bearing. The local government largely only cares about helping themselves at the expense of the working poor. That’s my brief summary of those situations.

Now we also are submitting to homeowner’s associations. What kind of stupidity is that? Aren’t laws and their enforcement supposed to be left to our perverted government?

Apparently that is not enough. We have to have these idiotic groups to tell us what color our homes can be, if we can have a mailbox shaped like a tractor, if our kid’s toys can be plastic, or even if our clothes can be dried outside.

Please go read that article. It is absolutely idiotic. I own my land/home (well, the bank does for now), and I’ll do whatever I damn well please on it as long as I’m not hurting anyone else. Somehow I don’t think a clothesline will actually cause harm to someone.

Rend Lake College’s Campus is nice

My first class of the day is canceled, so I am left sitting in front of the Student Center watching the kids from the campus day care playing in the “quad”. It makes me smile and wish Amaya was over there so I could go play with her and Erich. I think that this break in my normally long day is giving me a chance to pause and reflect on what is important.

Yes, I’m getting an education about something I love, but watching those kids run back and forth without a care in the world is making me wonder if I’m not missing out by being here instead of rolling around in the grass with my own kids right now.

The fountains are gurgling, the grass is somewhat green thanks to the rain in the past few days, and occasionally a loud car goes by on the interstate. I keep glancing at the clock tower. Is that a sign that I’m too conscious of time? Perhaps I just need to relax a little and quit worrying so much.

Now some guy has pulled up in the bus parking space with his loud diesel truck. So much for peaceful silence and listening to the happy shrieks from the day care kids.

Bright blue skies, happy-fluffy clouds, and now a few other students working on assignments at the other tables here in front of the Student Center with me. Some people are trickling in and out of the parking lot and the buildings.

Diesel Guy is now leaving. Maybe the magic of the silence will return once he leaves. The kids are now gathered around in a circle. It must be story time.

The bright white tents are still up from Fun Fest yesterday. This place was quite different then… People were milling around to the different tents eating and checking out the various campus clubs and what they had to offer. Loud music was pumping through speakers. Drawn-on tattoos were being given out. Now, that has all given way to the norm – peaceful skies, gurgling fountains, kids playing and shrieking, birds chirping, and a general sense of calm.

DuQuoin State Fair

We took the kids to the DuQuoin State Fair and the Walgreens’ Picnic. I have to say that WG had a overall good time for everyone. There was food (the hamburgers were iffy at best), games/toys for the kids, discount ride-armbands for the kids, and great parking right by the tent.

The kids had a great time riding the rides repeatedly. They were especially fond of the super-tall slide. Amaya was not ready to ride the kid roller-coaster a second time. She looked terrified every time it went by Em and I. Erich thought it was great.

We had a great time and hopefully the kids will have fond memories.

Erich and Herbie

Amaya Sliding

RLC Wi-Fi

Rend Lake College now has a wireless network on campus. I don’t know the details, but MVN.net is involved and providing the actual connection.

It’s nice to see the campus finally has wireless considering it is so easy to setup, and cheap. $60/each for routers, connection cost from the ISP, and minimal electricity.

From what I understand, there have been some discussions on the legal side of things as to what the school and/or MVN.net are responsible for in the event of illegal activities. I would think that by merely providing the connection that neither would be culpable. It’s not their fault if someone does something bad with the route. It would be like if the US government were sued because drug runners transport drugs using the interstate.

The network is in need of tuning and adjustment, however it is there and working in a limited capacity. Nice to have some forward progress.

Back to School at Rend Lake

Well, the first week was a rush of madness. Getting the kids around, dropping them off, getting my supplies and to class on time. We did make it through somehow, and this week things are settling in to a nice routine.

My OS class seems to be simple enough. Mostly learning about the ins and outs of Windoze. I’m sure I’ll learn something in there. Intro to computers is pretty simplistic, but it is required for the degree. An easy A if nothing else, I think. Communication 101 (speech) is just another one of the required courses. Being a little older, it isn’t that big of a deal this time around.

Networking Fundamentals. Wow. I don’t know what to say about that class other than it is my hardest one I believe. In our first chapter we had a crash course in Base10/2/0x conversions. That was interesting. I believe it could definitely scare off someone who was iffy about the class. The conversions aren’t really hard, and once you get them you want to slap your head and say “Duh.”

Fortunately, I did understand the formulas and was even able to help a girl understand who just didn’t quite catch on immediately. For my first test I scored perfect. I’m not saying that to brag, I’m just relieved and encouraged. Yes, I was a dork and threw my arms up in triumph when the page popped up and told me my score. Yep, that excited.

I hope things keep going so well. Wish me luck! (please)

🙂