OUT OF THE BLUE

Change of seasons

I’m still catching up from the last month of spring semester– I really put a lot of effort, coffee, and lack of sleep together and the results were good. If there’s such a thing as “in the zone”, I was in it those last few weeks of the semester. But it’s taken a few weeks to readjust to things like, say, being able to go to bed at 10:00pm without having a speech to write or a boatload of calculus problems to get done. I keep thinking I have homework due tomorrow.

So I’m not quite used to summer, but I’m adapting.

I spent a good portion of this past weekend shopping for camping supplies, and picked up a tent that was on sale at REI (among other things– tarpage, tent stakes, etc.) So I’ll be
doing some camping in the near future. I looked at kayaks, too, and have resigned myself to waiting until next year to buy one. This year’s major purchase was the Trek 820, which I needed before I need a boat. My bike rides to and from work are a lot more fun now. I’ve already been on one 20 mile ride with the ‘820– planning to get it onto a trail and get it dirty soon, too.

This summer isn’t all vacation time though. I still have things to get accomplished. I’m taking an online non-credit Java programming course, and an A+ certification exam course this summer. (It’s surprising how much I remember from my object oriented programming, and programming languages classes that I took, oh, a few years ago. Maybe I didn’t kill all those brain cells after all.) Sometime in August, I’ll pull out the calculus book again and put myself through a self-imposed refresher course before the semester starts.

And, I only have one semester left at MATC. So I’m working on applying for that other school (whose initials are UW). Just filling out the application is a big step, which is the result of having taken a lot of very small steps. There’s some anxiety here. I have an academic past to answer for– which I’m working on doing, but there’s a lot riding on how well I explain how different I am from the kid who dropped out of LSU-Shreveport a few years ago.

In any case, I’m going to be a full time student at MATC Truax in fall. Most of my classes have been at the downtown campus, and the one I have had at Truax was at night– so I’m going to be, shall we say, immersed. There is a big difference between being a working adult taking classes and being a full time adult student who also works. (At least, it seems that way as I’m writing this.) It’s not really that “I’m gonna die” scary, but it will feel different for a while. And then, by the end of the first day of classes this fall, I’ll have enough homework to do that it won’t matter. Hopefully.

Adding Meetup.com Events to Google Calendar

I was sitting at my desk earlier this afternoon, looking my list of upcoming events on meetup.com. I’m a member of five different meetup groups. Although I don’t go to every event, I do try to plan in advance for the ones I plan on attending. The groups I’m in tend to schedule a fair number of events, so that often means I have a lot of events to add to my calendar.

Meetup.com offers an “Export to a calendar” link on every meetup event, which I’ve been using to get events from meetup.com into Google Calendar. That process works, but it involves doing an export for each and every event that I want on my calendar. The process also requires some manual tweaking for each event once it’s in Google Calendar; I have to manually add the location, not all of the description text copies over, etc.

Events have been known to slip through the cracks, too– if I forget to export an event to Google, it never appears on my calendar. I decided that I’d like to be able to see all of the upcoming Meetup.com events in my Blackberry’s calendar (which is synced to Google Calendar– so from here on, they’re the same thing).

There is a feature on Meetup.com that will make this happen by way of a feed of events from your groups– it’s on the last row of the “Your Meetup Groups” section that you see once you’re logged in. It looks like this:

Feeds of your Meetup Groups: RSS · Atom · iCal · Outlook

Right click on iCal, and select “Copy link location”.

Now, open up Google Calendar in another tab and find the “Other calendars” section on the left. Click on “Add”. Then select “Add by URL”. Paste the link you copied from Meetup.com into the Public Calendar Address: field, and click Add. Google Calendar should give you a quick “Calendar imported successfully” message if all is well.

Click “Back to calendar”. All of your Meetup.com events are now listed in your main Google Calendar view– it’s the same list that you see when you log into Meetup.com. They include all of the specific information from Meetup.com, but they are read-only. To modify them, open the event (click on the title). You’ll see a “More actions” dropdown, which will give you the option to copy the event to any of your other calendars (within Google Calendar).

Notes:

I still have to manually RSVP for each event, on Meetup.com. If I’ve said “yes” to an event, I copy the event (as described above) to my “Social Life” calendar– this adds a green entry next to the red entry in my Google Calendar, which to me indicates that I’ve said “yes”.

I also still have to manually tweak the “Where:” field in Google Calendar if I want the exact address to be available for the (map) link to work right. This only matters if I’m going to want to link to a Google Maps view of the location of the event– if I’m going to rely on Gmaps to find the place, I test the link before I leave to make sure the map link works.

Semester end updates

Spring semester 2009 is history. I can sleep now. Speech, and Calculus 2 can be mounted and hung on the wall.

It’s been an, um, busy semester. In addition to my eight hours of classes (so, yeah, half-time+) at MATC I worked at just about all of the UW men’s hoops games, all of the Badger men’s hockey games, the WIAA state wrestling tournament and state boy’s basketball tournament. Oh yeah– I had a regular 40 hour a week job, too.

And oh yeah again– I also completed a 12-week post traumatic stress disorder treatment program at the Madison VA hospital. In the middle of the semester.

This semester my long days had two basic variations:

• Work job 1 0610-1545, study ’till 1900, then class till 2130, then to the gym till 2230 and sometimes foraging for groceries after that
• Work job 1 0610-1545, study ’till hoops/hockey, work 1630-2230 (and study during hoops/hockey)

Most days during the week at around the time I hit twelve hours I was either soon headed to class or making sure my meat was cooked because the Kohl Center’s doors were just opening for the game. A “long day” was about sixteen hours, and a good night’s sleep was about 4-5 hours.

And one final oh yeah– I got BC’s in both classes. They’re not A’s– but considering the circumstances this semester, I’m quite happy with ‘em.

A little late, but Crazylegs 2009

This is a bit late, but it’s become tradition that a) I run Crazylegs and b) I post something about it afterwards.

Last year, it was windy and a little chilly.
This year, it was rainy and way more than a little chilly.

I didn’t run the 8K, but I did walk the 2K. I considered running, even with the rain, but didn’t for two reasons. First, it doesn’t do me any good to catch a cold that kicks my ass for two weeks right before final exams. Second, I wasn’t as in shape this year– two jobs plus half time school takes its toll on a person’s workout schedule.

So my results for this year weren’t in the paper the next day. Oh well. I did get my tshirt, my beer, and got to see the crew from work. Definitely worth two clicks in the rain. Just wait ’till next year.

Another semester ends…

… between work and (especially) school, and other already planned events, I’ll be insanely busy until about the middle of May. I’ll still be on Twitter and Facebook, but won’t have room to add anything to my schedule.

After finals I think I’m going to sleep for about a week.

Test post

Skyking, skyking, do not answer…

Taking a break from VFW

You may (or may not) already know that I’ve resigned as Chaplain of my VFW post with a couple of months left on my term. I’ve decided to put VFW aside mostly because it’s become a source of stress and anxiety for me, rather than being a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

I don’t want to make it sound uglier than it was– however, I’ve left because I wasn’t getting what I wanted out of being a member.

I am getting too much information

I use Google’s iGoogle customizable homepage feature a lot, or at least I have been lately– at last count I think I had about 65 different RSS feeds showing headlines. Most of them are related in some way to world events, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, homeland security, intelligence and diplomacy. As I looked at various blogs, I’d see a link to an article on another and end up adding them both. And so the list grew.

I’ve realized recently (with help) that trying to keep track of all of this stuff takes a lot of brain cells, nerve endings, time, and anxiety. There is a certain point where you have to allow yourself to believe that a) you can’t change what’s happening there (and can’t help), b) the likelihood of you/your town being attacked for any reason is very slim, and c) it’s time to let some. of. it. just. go. So I’ve deleted about two thirds of the RSS feeds I was tracking, and will probably delete a few more. A few I have to keep– generally, they’re the ones that are funny, entertaining, or just bring back good memories. I’m keeping a couple that tend to post news summaries, which are good at giving me an idea of what’s going on without too many details. All told, I’m probably going to be down to about 15 blogs and news outlets.

Okay, so I have a couple of others loaded into Google Reader, so I can check them out on my phone.
Yes, I need to delete those, too.

Taking a (short) break from studying

Random stuff– I’m taking a break from studying for a calculus 2 exam tomorrow night–

• I said last summer, that if I was sitting at home in the middle of winter thinking about kayaking and mountain biking, that I’d invest more in being able to do both. Well, I am, and so I am going to do so– not sure if I can pull off purchasing a new/upgraded bike and a kayak in one year though.
• I need to get out with my friends more. School and work are just really taking all of my time lately.
• I’ve added a few entries to my blogroll. Feel the love.
• I’m amazed that so many people I know from high school are using Facebook.
• I do not get nearly enough sleep these days. My bloodstream is now 23% coffee.
• I’m not, not, NOT running for any office at the VFW post this year.
• I’m in a PTSD treatment program at the VA.
• I’m kinda ticked that US Cavalry won’t sell me an ABU boonie hat, and save me a trip to the army/navy store in Milwaukee to look for one. Then again, if I go there, I can also go to the Safehouse. So maybe it’s not so bad.
• I now own my own car. This is the first car I’ve ever paid for entirely on my own. There are three stickers on the back window– a U. S. Air Force decal, a VFW decal, and my MATC student parking sticker. Still waiting for military plates to arrive.
• I’m going to order a Big Tobacco tshirt– not because he’s giving part of the proceeds to charity (although he is), but because of this post that proves I’m not the only one in the world that thinks like that sometimes.
• I’m trying to get back into being in the gym more. Full schedule plus it’s cold outside makes it difficult.

Okay, back to work…

Another semester already?

So much for winter break. Classes start again on Monday. This semester should be a little more manageable, since I’m taking one of my classes online. (Stay tuned for more on that– my online class is Fundamentals of Speech. I’m wondering just how this one’s going to work.) It’s still going to be interesting, though, because my other class is Calc 2, which will be new territory for me. The next couple of months will be busy at work, too. After this weekend, I think my next weekend off will be around the end of March. (I should start listing 601 W. Dayton as my alternate address, I’m there often enough.)

I remember working a lot of 12 hour shifts, back in the day- with school and work now, I think I need to re-enlist so I can get back on that kind of an easy schedule. I have quite a few days now where I start work at 0610 and my day isn’t over until around 2300 (or 2130 on class nights). It’s not easy, and I’m not sure I’m rested and relaxed enough before starting another semester. I have an espresso machine now, though, so I should be good and wired/sleep deprived by about this time next week. Even more than normal.