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Well I had my interview this morning.  I’ll make a post tomorrow about it because it doesn’t really matter that much. 

Tonight is the last night with my girlfriend for a while.  She’s off to New York City tomorrow morning to do a fall internship at Harper’s Bazaar.  She’ll be gone till sometime in late December probably.

We’ve been going out for over 6 months now.  This is has been my first truly long term relationship.  We’ve formed this amazing connection and I just know she’s someone special to hold onto.  I hate the idea of spending the next 4 or so months being apart.  We’ll still talk plenty, that I do know, but not being able to spend time together in person will be hard.  God it’s downright depressing! 

I know it’s corny and I come off sounding like a pansy but I like being able to cuddle with her.  It’s fun going out and doing things but there is no feeling greater in this world then having her in my arms as we lay on the couch and watch TV or a movie.  It’s this amazing feeling to know that the woman that I’m holding loves me for who I am.

She knows I’m a geek and lack in certain social qualities.  She knows that I’m not emotional but I’m not a cold hearted bastard either.  Most importantly, I know she knows I love her because I make sure to tell her.  I don’t care what the magazines, books or experts might say guys.  Always tell your girlfriend or wife that you love her!  Now don’t say it all the time because I think you can say it so much that it looses it’s meaning but I’ve read many articles that say that guys should never say “I Love You” for the first 6 months or even a year of a relationship.  That’s just goofy and ridiculous.

Anyhoo, it’s just sad to have her go for so long but we’ll be ok and manage…  I leave you all with a song that I feel fits very well for the situation

quote:

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“Beautiful Thing” by Sister Hazel
Well I’ll follow you wherever
When you lead me by my nose
On another big adventure- I suppose
Then you lay me down in clover
With their petals on my back
I should make some time
To do more things like that…

Pre chorus/chorus
Won’t you sing to me your poetry,
Won’t you take me to your home,
Won’t you be for me forever
So I’ll never be alone
And just one thing…
If you’re my queen…
Then it’s a beautiful thing…

Well I’m buried in my bedroom
Under fourteen feet of clothes
I could drown in all this clutter I suppose

But then you’re standing in my doorway
With a suitcase on your back
And it blows my mind
When you do things like that

Pre chorus/ chorus

Yeah, reminding me
Well I might be poor
But summers free…
For me, I didn’t know I was sleeping

Pre chorus/ chorus

---

Oh Happy Days!
Oh Happy Days!

I got my first call for an interview from the many, many jobs that I applied for.  This place I actually originally applied for a programming job but it was filled internally I guess.  They had another open for a Computer Help Desk Technician so I applied for that as well.

The lady called and wanted to set up an interview for Monday.  So, it should go without saying that I’m really happy.  I know it’s just an interview but after applying for almost every computer job in the area for the last 2 months it’s nice to finally get a chance at a job.

I know I’ve said I would never do tech support but I’ve reached a point where I have to admit I have no choice.  A job is a job.  Plus, the woman made it clear that they have many opportunities for advancement once I get in the door.  If I work hard and prove myself there’s a good chance I could be able to get into doing software development at some point.

So anyways here’s a bit about the place.  It’s a computer services center for education institutions like Public Schools.  They provide services for accounting, payroll, reporting, student registration, attendance, grade reporting, etc, etc.  Basically, they can handle just about everything a school needs to manage.  They service about 100 entities so it’s a pretty large organization.

The Computer Help Desk Technician is the initial support contact for the hardware staff.  Responsibilities include ensuring customer problems are resolved in a timely manner, tracking purchase orders, invoices and quotes.  This person would try to resolve some of the more basic hardware/software problems and also assist with maintenance of current inventory.

So in laymen’s terms… Your the first line of support.  When a client calls you try to fix the problem then when even you’re confused you transfer them to someone else to handle it.  Plus, you get to deal with other issues like managing orders from clients.

I’m sure it won’t be too bad.  From what I understand they provide all the services from a central computing system where all the clients connect in to the site.  They also provide general PC support too.  So, I’m sure most support problems are probably pretty routine stuff like people having network connection problem, issues with accessing services and the general PC issues that arise like Windows not booting, viruses, problems with Office, etc.

Anyhoo, the interview is Monday the 9th at 10:00am.  I have all weekend to research up on the company and prep the best I can.  I really don’t think it should be too much trouble.  I’ve been providing free tech support for years on message boards online and have learned a lot in dealing with helping people.

Still, say a prayers, light a candle, cross your fingers, do a dance or whatever you want for me to have good luck.  I still need all the help I can!

Well the John Kerry Protest / Pro Bush Rally went very well.  We riled up a bunch of liberals and made sure it was aware that not everyone in BG welcomed Kerry.

Other than a few minor alterations, that the other side always started, things were heated but never got out of hand.  It really is amazing that for all the claims of peace and love you hear from that side they’re always the first to want to get physical with you.

We may get loud obnoxious and try our hardest to irritate the crap out of libs but we always show respect to them.  We make sure not to invade the personal space or make physical contact with anyone.  That’s because words are always more powerful.

The other side however seems to have no qualms about doing whatever they want.  They’ll not only get right up in your face and yell trying to make you back down, many seem to think nothing of grabbing signs, pushing someone, pulling on other peoples shirts, etc.

Anyways here’s a bit of the play by play of what happen.  We all met up around 1:30pm at the Taco Bell.  The employees on their smoking break were real asses and kept bitching at us to move our cars.  We told them we would after we had all eaten.

We headed down the street about 2 blocks to the corner where many other Bush people were set up.  We got both plenty of support and hate from the crowds walking to the event.  The best part was when 4 fire trucks passed by and ran their sirens in support of us.  The worst part was when a lady with her baby, who couldn’t have been more than a year old if that, actually made her baby flip us off.  I’m not joking here folks!  She took the hand of the child and held its middle finger up to flip us off!  Really mature and classy there ma’am!

We were there maybe an hour when we shifted down to another area hoping it would be closer to the actual event.  Along the way we had our first real altercation.  The group was all marching down the street when some guy grabbed my shirt and tried to pull me aside.  I don’t know if he wanted to debate or just hopped I might respond in violence.  Either way I got right up in his face and told him to take his F’ing hand off me.  Another protestor stepped in and yelled at him to back off too.  The little screaming match lasted for about a minute before the guy backed down.  We finally got to the new location but it really wasn’t any better. Boy was that area fun with plenty of people coming up to debate us.  There were a few bad apples but overall they were very civil and wanted a good, intelligent debate.  I highly applaud them and truly respect these folks.

We hung around there for maybe an hour.  It’s hard to remember in that heat.  I was getting baked alive by the sun.  We headed back to the original location.  No problems on the way other than the usual people flipping us off and calling us Nazis, etc.  Real original there guys!  We chilled back at the first location for 20-30 minutes until we decided it was time to taking it all the way.  We were going to the “front lines” or better know as the entrance to the event.  The streets were already packed down there so it would be pretty dangerous.  This is where things can get ugly since you will be surrounded on 3 maybe 4 sides at all times.  However, that’s always were you have the most fun.

By then it was 3:30 already a half hour past when Kerry was suppose to start speaking but hadn’t even arrived.  We marched out way down as far as we could and were right in the thick of things.  We did chants like “4 more years”, “Bush, Cheney”, “Kerry is scarry”, “Give me a B, U, S, H… What’s the spell…”, “We support the troops”, etc, etc.  The other side returned with “Kerry, Kerry, Kerry”.  There were little debates all over and plenty of heckling from the crowd.  The usual assortment of party lines like “Bush lied”, “If you support the troops why don’t you join the army”, Comparisons of Bush to Hitler, etc.

The worst of all and the only thing that truly makes me upset to hear came from one old white guy that had to be like 90 years old and had a oxygen tube in his nose.  One of the protestors and a friend of mine is African-American and this old guy walked right up to her and stated rather nastily that she should go back to the cotton fields where she belongs!

I have tough skin and can stand to get face to face with even the most horrid individuals without it bothering me but that statement was such a pure form of hate that it even made me upset.  We Republicans get called racists and bigots all the time but the truth of the matter is racism and bigotry isn’t associated with any one party.  That old man proves it more than anything.  Here was a man with pro-Kerry pins that made one of the most racist comments I’ve ever heard.

Anyways, around 4:30 Kerry finally showed up to speak.  We keep making a ruckus for another 10-15 minutes before the leaders told us to pack up and leave.  You don’t want to be standing there at the entrance/exit when the speech is over and everyone is trying to leave.  That’s just asking for trouble!

So we headed home and all felt great knowing we managed to harass the heck out people and get our message out.

I have all the pictures I took of the event uploaded and ready for viewing right here:
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/kerry_protest/index.php

I didn’t get many good pictures but hey it’s better than none.  I was too busy holding signs and cheering so I was always too slow to pull out my camera and get picture of the good stuff.