Who do I still think I am??

This one's about the January serial, part two.

30DBC PROMPT: "Give me your best advice when trying something new. On the first day (yesterday), tell me the story of when you tried something for the first time and failed. What did you do after that? On the second day (today), tell me about a future plan to try something new (a New Year's Resolution perhaps?). We all know writing down our goals can help in motivating us to achieve them - so don't delay! Your blogging peers will support you!"

Welcome back to the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 's January "Serial Prompt" fun, kind people! In honor of today being the last official entry of the first official month of 2014, it brings me great pleasure to announce to you that I have nothing special planned for today.

I think I mentioned earlier this month that I might have the opportunity to go back to college and actually earn a degree. While it doesn't seem like on the surface that it's "something new" I might be trying, I'd love to argue the point that some things should have a statute of limitations (of sorts) put on them where they may not be considered a "new experience" per se, but because what they entail has changed so dramatically over time that large gaps between their occurrences can in comparison look very different and feel as if they are "new".

If that sounds like a really awkward and wordy sentence, let me try rephrasing it: attending college in September of 2014 at age 39 is probably a completely different thing than attending college in 1994/1995 at age 19. And a couple different things have to happen in order for me to confirm whether I'll logistically be able to go back to school or not, but for the sake of this entry I'll assume everything falls into place and I'm accepted as a student at TC3 (Tompkins County Community College, http://www.tc3.edu/). Let's briefly explore this train of thought, shall we?

The Internet: Back when I first went to college, the internet barely existed and certainly didn't resemble what it is today (as evidenced by the video embedded in this article: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/07/12/this-is-what-the-web-looked-like-in...). We still did the bulk of our research in encyclopedias (remember them?). Email was primitive; almost a one-dimensional outline of what most providers offer these days. The world as a whole is so much more reliant on technology, especially as a tool of learning...in 1994, technology to me was having enough quarters so I could use a pay phone every time someone wanted to get ahold of me by sending me a page through my beeper.

The world is a different place: If the internet changed how we access the world, it's just as important to understand how the world itself has changed. I'll resist the temptation of turning that last sentence into an entire blog entry on its own, and just leave this link here instead as sort of a reference point: http://mentalfloss.com/article/54792/8-super-bowl-commercials-defunct-companies. Most of the eight ads featured in that article are approximately 15 years old, and none of the companies exist anymore. A phrase like "the dot com bubble" meant nothing in '94...now you can take classes from your living room that study just the last couple decades of history. And twenty or thirty years ago, the concept of "night classes" was still in its infancy; today, information is available 24/7/365 and changes/refreshes at a much fast pace than it did in the past.

A maligned sense of urgency: When you're 19, obviously your priorities are in a much different place than when you're almost 39. It's easy to look back on my first attempt at higher education and say "Maybe I didn't take it seriously enough", even though that's not entirely the case...not only was I working full-time after school, but my daily commute to the college was around two hours each way. I'd also received a lot of financial aid that year; because I'd worked so much and my living situation was different, I wasn't eligible for any grants were I to have gone back the following year (plus I'd just bought my first car after my second semester, and had to start paying off that loan as well). I guess back then I always figured I'd have plenty of time to go back to school whenever I wanted to...but life happens and sometimes you can't. Now, I'm looking at what could be the last "best" opportunity to successfully complete a degree program and apply it toward a career that can take me into retirement. Assuming I'll be working until at least 65 or 70, that'll give me somewhere in the area of 25 years to make use of that diploma...a time frame that seems a lot more finite now than it did as a teenager.

Like I said, a lot has to happen in my favor before I'm ready to say with certainty that I'm going back to school. I know that I want to, and I know a lot of that decision from this point on isn't exactly in my hands. I'm also sure that the experience will be a whole lot different than it was twenty years ago, and it will seem like something new and unfamiliar (at least at first). I know I don't have the same perspective or mindset that I had regarding education that I had in the past, and I mean that in a positive way. As for right now though, all I can do is wait until I find out if I'm eligible for some of the programs I've looked into as far as assistance and support. Fingers crossed; this could be a great opportunity and I'd be foolish to waste it.

Oh, one other thing would be different: instead of majoring in Communications and wanting to be on tv or in radio, I've decided that if I can go back to school it'll be for Graphic Design and/or IT work...I'd like to be involved with something computer-related, although I'm not quite ready to completely give up on my longstanding dream of working for a newspaper.

BCF PROMPT: "What is your zodiac sign? (See http://www.psychicguild.com/horoscopes_explained.php) Do you notice any similarities between the description and yourself?"

I'm a Leo through and through according to what that website had to say here: http://www.psychicguild.com/horoscopes_zodiac.php?sign=Leo. When it comes down to me versus how I'm defined, I'd say it's about 90-95% accurate. I have leadership qualities, I share on some levels the "soul-evolution" traits, and when I commit to something, I'm almost always all-in. I also tend to agree with the statements about pride and criticism, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I lean in complete accordance with the exact generalizations.

How do I disagree with the definitions established by this website? I don't believe that I'm very "clingy", and I certainly can "bear to be alone"...it's fair for one to think almost the exact opposite in that I prefer to be alone and not have to depend on others for anything.

While I stopped reading my horoscope years ago, I have to say that when I did they were fairly right more often than not. It was when I started dating a girl that I'll refer to as "the crazy ex" that led me to reconsider how I viewed horoscopes altogether; she'd read ours in the mornings sometimes (she was a Pisces) and would just assume that whatever it said was as true as gospel, thereby ruining a day before it was really even spent together. I guess to her sometimes being "almost right" once in awhile trumped "for entertainment purposes only".

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Key-tars. Oingo Boingo. Rodney Dangerfield. Two out of those three things are very possibly firsts in my long, storied blogging existence.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090685/

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

I'm gonna ignore the fact that one of my supervisors at work today said I was going to one job site and then took me to a different one (although both are equal parts in "the middle of nowhere"-land), and instead focus on the baffling notion that senior citizens can often be oblivious to themselves (and I say this with all due respect to anyone who reads this that is considered to be a senior citizen...I'm well aware that there are more than a few involved in both the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  and "Blogging Circle of Friends " ). I happened to be seated at a long table in between two groups of seniors as we were all eating our lunch, so I managed to take in two different conversations that were equally, ummmm, let's just say they weren't exactly appropriate topics of discussion during a meal. The beauty is that these people absolutely did not care that discussing in detail the surgical procedures they've witnessed on animals (or better yet, have had done to themselves) while eating could be considered inappropriate. It's almost adorable how old people can be so oblivious to the fact that they're oblivious, which is only compounded by them actually not being oblivious by talking about gross things while others are trying to eat. They're all like, "We had a cow once that was trying to give birth to a calf, and it had a twisted uterus, so I held its stomach in place while the vet was twisting her around, and the calf came out fine", and I'm all like, "Mmmmm...Spanish Rice today" . All I know is if these people were my grandparents, and I talked around a dinner table like they were, I'd not only get the stink-eye, but I'd probably get whapped a few times with a leather belt as well.

Speaking of working in the middle of nowhere, I've mentioned before that when I'm at some of these sites, I get no reception on my phone. Oh, there's some kind of cellular reception out there, but not from my provider, and I'm not switching so one day a week for a few hours I'll have service. Once I got home, the stupid little voicemail indicator came on...but since I had no signal earlier, I couldn't see who the missed call was from...and the voicemail itself was about 10 seconds of someone who must've butt-dialed me while driving because it sounded like talk radio was playing in the background. That's fairly aggravating.

I've had that feeling all week like I'm starting to come down with a cold, and when I get that way I usually load up on orange juice. So what does fate have in store for me today? This article, which I came across through another article I read via Facebook: http://chicagoist.com/2013/02/10/simply_orange_is_anything_but.php. It's unfortunate because this particular brand of juice was one of my favorites; now I'm left feeling like this:

I hate it when I remember something I wanted to share in this entry, and I have a notebook sitting next to me which has some notes I've made before I started typing, and I didn't write down what it was I wanted to add to this piece. That's the worst bit of self-inflicted frustration I can think of.

And there it is y'all...one 30-day consecutive streak of blog entries, in the can. Now it's in the judges' hands, and perhaps I should maybe pursue other things with my free time, like finding a suitable website that has access to Sega Genesis games like NHL '94. Thanks for comin' along for the ride this month...it's been more fun than I remember it being. Peace, come find the mob before the mob comes and finds you ("Note: The 30 Day Blogging Challenge has be..."), and GOODNIGHT NOW!!