Category: Generic

Epic Fail

Daily writing prompt
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
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I finished high school in June of 1989 and started college that September. I was a music major with an emphasis in sound recording technology. Basically, that was music crossed with electrical engineering. The core course work included two semesters of calculus and one of physics. Therein lied my problem.

Coming out of high school, my math skills were flat out awful. I was unprepared for college level classes which meant I was unable to pass calculus, and given that calculus is the foundation of a lot of physics, I was hosed there too. There was more to it than that. I was also just not in a place mentally where I could handle school anymore. I needed a break.

All of that lead to me dropping out of college. I couldn’t do it at that time. Academically or emotionally. That was my failure. College, the first time around.

I followed that experience with a job, and then a tech school and a certification in a field where I was unable to get a job, which was followed by a shitty job in a warehouse for garbage money. When I couldn’t take it any more I went back to school.

All of that is what lead to my eventual success. I majored in computer science. Another field that required a strong math background. I went into it knowing that I had to strengthen my basic skills. I told my first academic advisor that I was going to start at the lowest math course available. I had taken a placement test that said I could start a little further along. I said no and started at the bottom. I then studied my ass off at each level. By the time I was hitting my upper level computer science courses I had aced three semesters of calculus and two semesters of physics.

Success, babie. Take that, failure. Suck my awesome grades.

After graduation I got a job in the field. Not the best job. Not a development position. I figured I’d worm my way into a development position, but then never did. I stayed in client services and moved into management. I’m still there.

Frustration

The plumber went out to get some dinner. He expects he has about two hours more work to do tonight. It’s 600pm. I think we’re going to be working until after 9:00pm again tonight.

Insert the sign of frustration here.

Stressing out like nuts over here, kids. Like nuts.

The plumber just walked in the door. Here’s hoping he can wrap it up in two hours. Fingers crossed.

Haiku for You #154

Today’s haiku is a follow up to the previous post where I bitched about our kitchen not being finished yet.

I miss my kitchen.
I want to make us some lunch.
Remember dinners?

The tile guy is here. The plumber hasn’t shown up yet. It’s 12:20pm.

Autobiography Again

Daily writing prompt
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
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This is the second time they’ve given us a daily prompt about our autobiography. This is so lame. So exceptionally lame.

Try these on for size…

  • He was grotesquely obese, mentally and physically. Then he went under the knife and had his guts butchered and rearranged. Then he was only grotesquely obese mentally.
  • He had no real brains to speak of, no talents, nothing special at all and yet somehow he lived a long time without accidentally blowing himself to smithereens.
  • He was a Rush fan, but was Rush a fan of him? Probably not.
  • First he was a red head. Then he was a husband and a step father. Then he was old.
  • Soft as a sneaker full of shit.
  • Cursed from day one with red hair.
  • A roll model for how to be a bad person without being a nazi.
  • At least he wasn’t a fascist like so many other Americans.
  • How to always say exactly the wrong thing: A red head’s story.
  • Inside the red head’s head there was nothing but mud.
  • If ever there was a life that wasted too much time and energy on Star Wars, this was it.
  • Mad Eye Moody said it best in Harry Potter #4: “his head may be filled with sawdust.”

Those are all possibilities, but there is one that would sum them all up perfectly. One that would be the first line of my autobiography, the last line of my autobiography, every line of my autobiography……….

Meh.

Me