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Well, I haven’t posted since August. I got a new job as an RA at a private residence hall near my university. This past semester I was busy with classes, RA work and work with the university honors program. The concept of “free time” disappeared from my vocabulary, essentially becoming bigfoot in word form; there’s evidence to suggest its existence, but all of it are lies. Here are just a few stories I’ve been meaning to post the semester ended, but I kinda forgot to do so.
RAing
Being an RA is a lot of work. A whole lot of work that sucks up free time like a leech. There are two aspects of this job that are both sucky and endearing at the same time: my coworkers and the residents. Life at my residence hall is like abad good some type of soap opera. Groups of coworkers can be upset with other groups of coworkers depending on the combination and make up of the group from reasons regarding work ability to high school-esque break-up BS. But then they all could get together to hang out or go to the bars and generally have a good time. I wasn’t really surprised by the drama since I was forewarned by a front desk worker who has been friends with all the RAs for the past four years. The parties were a lot of fun though; who would think of "Taste the Rainbow" as a workable theme. Working here does have me questioning the difference between civility and being two-faced.
As for residents, the printed word might as well be hieroglyphics. The resident hall has a set of rules that every resident gets and is gone over during a mandatory meeting. One rule is that there are no open containers of alcohol allowed in the hallway or common areas. The griping from residents on this one rule alone is nearly unfathomable; it becomes hilarious when the complainers are people who are too young to legally drink. Another rule is that residents have to wear shirts, pants and shoes in the common areas and hallways. Yes, this has to be a rule. The first weekend of school, I was doing a buddy round with N, the nicest person on staff and probably the world. On one floor, a lot of issues were happening: excessive noise, alcohol in the hallway, too many persons in a room (fire code regulation). One guy comes prancing out of his room in only his boxers, which were thankfully closed. He copped such an attitude when N asked for his id (we use it to write-up residents, who are later fined) that N was starting to get upset. N is happiness incarnate; making her upset is no easy feat.
Woe of the Dairy Store
Here is more of a sighting. In July, my sister began working at the dairy store I used to work at to earn extra money. By mid-September she was fired. Why? In late August, the store manager took a week vacation, during that time the district manager had another store manager fill in. The one time my sister actually worked with this temporary manager was for less than 2 hours during the shift change in mid-afternoon. My sister was working while wearing plastic gloves because she had nail polish on. The next week when the store manager gets back from vacation, he gets called into a meeting with the district manager and the district manager’s boss. Apparently, the temporary manager had been compiling info on the store workers to give the district manager, who used it as reason to fire seven workers, including my sister. The store manager flat out told the dm if that she wanted him fired, that he would quit. The dm’s boss didn’t want the store manager to leave and that he was a good worker. The store manager was able to get an extra week of work for the seven employees,(the next weeks schedule was already made) but that was all he could do. The store manager hated to fire my sister since she was a good worker, but he told her that he would her departure as her leaving and not being fired and would give a good reference if she needs it. The district manager has no idea how lucky she was to make the store manager fire my sister; she still has some anger issues.
Whippersnappers
Oh my fellow students, like coworkers who pay to work. I don’t know if I’ve gotten cantankerous as I aged or have just become bitterer towards others through continuous interactions, but wow how I hate freshmen. Scratch that, STUPID freshmen. Stupid people in general are grating on the nerves, but with stupid freshmen seem to be ten times more annoying. I only had four classes this semester, one being a general education class; usually populated with first year students. If you would have heard some of the questions that were asked, you would seriously contemplate ripping out your own mind and flinging it out the door. Just thinking about the class now raises my blood pressure. Here’s an example, a majority of the class voted to have ten homework assignments instead of one in class, three-question essay exam. I still don’t understand how doing three tests and ten assignments was less work than four tests. I shouldn’t just blame freshmen; my other three classes were all senior level with their own idiots. But those idiots know not to come to class, usually. In my constitutional history class, a student was upset that he was called to answer a question on a reading he didn’t do. That student claimed that the reading wasn’t in the syllabus; other students were quick to point out that the reading was in the syllabus in two places and was told to us by our professor several times before it was due including the first day.
Bitterness Increasing
The night before the RA’s were allowed to leave, we all went out to dinner and then did a gift exchange downstairs in our central are by the front desk. The only residents around were law students and students who went to the local community college. The next morning, I got a call from my mom saying Visa called her about possible fraudulent charges on my debit card. I looked for my wallet, but lo and behold it is gone. I tear through my room, nothing. I looked through where I was sitting last night, nothing. Then I remembered that some community college students had been sitting near the RAs when we did our gift exchange and I did have my wallet then because I had put a gift card into it. Unfortunately there are no cameras in that area of the building, so no actual proof of who took my wallet. I filled out a police report, and quickly had my debit card canceled. Luckily for me, I have two wallets with only half of my stuff in the stolen wallet and everything in the stolen wallet was easily replaced: a double-barred driver’s license that expires tomorrow, a dead debit card and a dead university id to a school they don’t go to. They still have a nice leather wallet and the hours I spent fixing the sh!t they caused me. It was good though that my bank returned all of the money that was used which was less than $200. Now I know to keep better track of my things as I never want to go through that again.
Sadness
On Christmas Eve, my Wii died. For the past week, it had been acting oddly: making a loud noise when a disc was in it, taking longer for an image to show on the TV, until it finally refused to fully turn on. The light turned green, the console makes it start up sounds, but then nothing. No image or sound from the TV no Wiimote connectivity, just nothing. I sent it in to Nintendo to be fixed, so here’s hoping that they can fix my Wii and save my saved data. I had just finished Okami with 45+ hours of gameplay, I don’t want to have to repeat all of that. Since my Wii is getting fixed, I’ve been playing my Pokémon Yellow for nostalgia. I’m glad that I still know the little intricacies of this game, ‘tis fun.
Shameless Plug
Once the semester ended, I was able to read for fun. I finished four books of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files in seven days. Highly recommended for anyone who likes fantasy and mystery.
RAing
Being an RA is a lot of work. A whole lot of work that sucks up free time like a leech. There are two aspects of this job that are both sucky and endearing at the same time: my coworkers and the residents. Life at my residence hall is like a
As for residents, the printed word might as well be hieroglyphics. The resident hall has a set of rules that every resident gets and is gone over during a mandatory meeting. One rule is that there are no open containers of alcohol allowed in the hallway or common areas. The griping from residents on this one rule alone is nearly unfathomable; it becomes hilarious when the complainers are people who are too young to legally drink. Another rule is that residents have to wear shirts, pants and shoes in the common areas and hallways. Yes, this has to be a rule. The first weekend of school, I was doing a buddy round with N, the nicest person on staff and probably the world. On one floor, a lot of issues were happening: excessive noise, alcohol in the hallway, too many persons in a room (fire code regulation). One guy comes prancing out of his room in only his boxers, which were thankfully closed. He copped such an attitude when N asked for his id (we use it to write-up residents, who are later fined) that N was starting to get upset. N is happiness incarnate; making her upset is no easy feat.
Woe of the Dairy Store
Here is more of a sighting. In July, my sister began working at the dairy store I used to work at to earn extra money. By mid-September she was fired. Why? In late August, the store manager took a week vacation, during that time the district manager had another store manager fill in. The one time my sister actually worked with this temporary manager was for less than 2 hours during the shift change in mid-afternoon. My sister was working while wearing plastic gloves because she had nail polish on. The next week when the store manager gets back from vacation, he gets called into a meeting with the district manager and the district manager’s boss. Apparently, the temporary manager had been compiling info on the store workers to give the district manager, who used it as reason to fire seven workers, including my sister. The store manager flat out told the dm if that she wanted him fired, that he would quit. The dm’s boss didn’t want the store manager to leave and that he was a good worker. The store manager was able to get an extra week of work for the seven employees,(the next weeks schedule was already made) but that was all he could do. The store manager hated to fire my sister since she was a good worker, but he told her that he would her departure as her leaving and not being fired and would give a good reference if she needs it. The district manager has no idea how lucky she was to make the store manager fire my sister; she still has some anger issues.
Whippersnappers
Oh my fellow students, like coworkers who pay to work. I don’t know if I’ve gotten cantankerous as I aged or have just become bitterer towards others through continuous interactions, but wow how I hate freshmen. Scratch that, STUPID freshmen. Stupid people in general are grating on the nerves, but with stupid freshmen seem to be ten times more annoying. I only had four classes this semester, one being a general education class; usually populated with first year students. If you would have heard some of the questions that were asked, you would seriously contemplate ripping out your own mind and flinging it out the door. Just thinking about the class now raises my blood pressure. Here’s an example, a majority of the class voted to have ten homework assignments instead of one in class, three-question essay exam. I still don’t understand how doing three tests and ten assignments was less work than four tests. I shouldn’t just blame freshmen; my other three classes were all senior level with their own idiots. But those idiots know not to come to class, usually. In my constitutional history class, a student was upset that he was called to answer a question on a reading he didn’t do. That student claimed that the reading wasn’t in the syllabus; other students were quick to point out that the reading was in the syllabus in two places and was told to us by our professor several times before it was due including the first day.
Bitterness Increasing
The night before the RA’s were allowed to leave, we all went out to dinner and then did a gift exchange downstairs in our central are by the front desk. The only residents around were law students and students who went to the local community college. The next morning, I got a call from my mom saying Visa called her about possible fraudulent charges on my debit card. I looked for my wallet, but lo and behold it is gone. I tear through my room, nothing. I looked through where I was sitting last night, nothing. Then I remembered that some community college students had been sitting near the RAs when we did our gift exchange and I did have my wallet then because I had put a gift card into it. Unfortunately there are no cameras in that area of the building, so no actual proof of who took my wallet. I filled out a police report, and quickly had my debit card canceled. Luckily for me, I have two wallets with only half of my stuff in the stolen wallet and everything in the stolen wallet was easily replaced: a double-barred driver’s license that expires tomorrow, a dead debit card and a dead university id to a school they don’t go to. They still have a nice leather wallet and the hours I spent fixing the sh!t they caused me. It was good though that my bank returned all of the money that was used which was less than $200. Now I know to keep better track of my things as I never want to go through that again.
Sadness
On Christmas Eve, my Wii died. For the past week, it had been acting oddly: making a loud noise when a disc was in it, taking longer for an image to show on the TV, until it finally refused to fully turn on. The light turned green, the console makes it start up sounds, but then nothing. No image or sound from the TV no Wiimote connectivity, just nothing. I sent it in to Nintendo to be fixed, so here’s hoping that they can fix my Wii and save my saved data. I had just finished Okami with 45+ hours of gameplay, I don’t want to have to repeat all of that. Since my Wii is getting fixed, I’ve been playing my Pokémon Yellow for nostalgia. I’m glad that I still know the little intricacies of this game, ‘tis fun.
Shameless Plug
Once the semester ended, I was able to read for fun. I finished four books of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files in seven days. Highly recommended for anyone who likes fantasy and mystery.
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