I'm working at home in Nashville this weekend, spending most of it on my Mom's Macintosh G4. While I have a great deal of respect for Jobs and Co.'s products, it is becoming painfully obvious that working on a Mac takes practice. I find myself spending several minutes on discussion boards or support forums looking for answers to even the most mundane problems. For example, I'm working on getting the machine set up as a testing server for WordPress in preparation for my personal site's overhaul. What I've had years of practice on in Windows isn't translating well to Apple-land.
Speaking of which, Samantha sent me a prototype for what the next incarnation should look like. I'm excited about it, and hope I can get enough content together to make it something both of us are proud of. I'm torn right now if I want to go ahead and get an iBook for myself, save up and get a G5 iMac, or go for a Mac Mini. Then there's always the option of just opting for a Windows machine. Who knows? I think the bank account balance will be the deciding factor.
On one hand, I need to take advantage of the student discounts available to me now before I lose them when I graduate. These are enormous savings when you calculate the retail cost of some of these hardware and software packages. On the other hand, I'm not on sound enough financial footing to drop $1,000 - $2,000 on something that has an average shelf life of six months. Whatever I buy now has to last me until I get a promotion or a significant balance in my savings account. The latter isn't prone to happening.
The university owes me money, plain and simple. For whatever reason, UT Martin refuses to send a billing statement to Vanderbilt (where a large chunk of my tuition is paid through) until six weeks into the semester. I'm sure this is to protect their own asses in case I take the money and run, but who would? I can say this because Arizona State and MTSU (schools attended by my sister) filed the claim before classes even started. UT Martin waits until mid-October. I'm sure there are proper channels to register my complaint, but I'm too weary of it all to care.
At the very least, even if they didn't want to give me the money right away, go ahead and file the paperwork. The money would be sitting there drawing short-term interest for the university rather than in an account at Vanderbilt waiting to be paid out. The delay puts a severe financial strain on all of us attending UT Martin who receives the same benefit. We can't afford books until after midterms, and have to take out sizable student loans just to attend. It needs to stop.
But back to my Web site. I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of WordPress 1.6 for a couple of reasons, chief among them are the specialized plug-ins for each theme. From a development standpoint, it is a lot easier to package, release and archive custom functions for a site if it is tied down to a specific theme release. The other reason has a lot to do with the file management side that would finally allow for better image management, etc. Most of these features are of the same concept that I would like to include in the next edition of Content Manager (proprietary system used by The Pacer Online Edition).
Speaking of that, the deadline for SECJ is looming (at least, we think it is), and I've sworn that I'd have something together to showcase for my last year with the staff. I've also half-jokingly said that if I don't manage to put together the kind of system it needs, I'll just recommend it be jettisoned in favor of CollegePublisher or some other company. At least there would be some continuity built into it. Who knows?
There's a lot on my plate that I'd like to get done by way of programming. The newspaper needs a better system to track display advertising orders. The fraternity needs a back-end overhaul to compliment the front-end redesign recently completed. My own site could use a few enhancements (mostly those that would help land me a job after college). Looking ahead, there's no time left for any of these projects unless I forgo sleep a few times. Wouldn't be the first time.
The newspaper is on a hiatus this week thanks to the break. It's a good thing, too, because I think we were getting close to a boiling point. We are losing a lot of creditability (as ridiculous as it is) over not printing the full Homecoming results. The storylines for why this supposedly happened are taken right out of a spy-game thriller. Surely it has something to do with fraternity membership? Perhaps they hate freedom, apple pie, and UT Martin? Maybe they are just lazy?
Give me a break. Yes, it should have been in there. Yes, we could have made room. No, I'm not losing sleep over it. No, I'm not apologizing beyond admitting those first two statements. We live, we learn. We move on.
I've challenged the staff to come up with story ideas for the remainder of the semester. These are to be pseudo-timely issues that require quite a bit of footwork to gather. The idea is that if we have these stories ready a particular week, they can compliment the regular run-of-the-mill coverage. We've fallen deep into the trap of only working from week to week, and often too much in just one day.
I'm not a management guru and have never claimed to be. There are some things that I do around the office I'm proud of, a lot more that I think could have been done better. This year has been a tough one because I've got very capable people working with me, but often I get the impression that we are all working in different directions. I need to find a way to get some creative energy infused back into the newspaper staff. We need to break free of whatever it is that's got us treating each issue like a homework assignment rather than an outstanding piece of journalism. We need a bit of passion for our jobs. Me included.
I need to get back in the habit of writing. For one, I have a blog I seldom write in. I also believe that writing is something that improves not only with how long you've been doing it, but how often you do it. Someone can write for twenty years off and on, but someone who writes constantly for five has the tendency to have a better grasp for the language and current trends. It's not like riding a bike. You can lose a bit of luster.
Samantha and I are settling into more of a pattern now that the initial shock of the new academic year has worn off. We are both looking for ways to entertain each other and ourselves. Gas prices keep us close to Martin except for occasions such as Fall Break. I'm slowly getting used to my classes, but if my midterms are any indication, I have a lot of work to do.
Midterms came back about where I expected them, with more C's than A's. I need to try and get back on track in a few courses. I'm not struggling with the material, although it is tougher than I'd hoped. Geology and Spanish are the two focal points of the semester, as they are the first step towards fulfilling multi-step requirements. The rest of my schedule is fairly safe.
At least, I hope so.