Kayle's Corner

Sometiems one smile is worth more than a dozen roses.

It's cute, and I got it off the wrapper of Valentine's candy.

It's been a while since I wrote anything besides an update on how I'm doing. I don't have anything wonderful planned, but something will come up.

Like my neighbor from down the hall who I'm friendly with. I don't really trust her with my feelings or my secrets, so I'm not sure she can be called a friend. I'm her friend, though, even though she dumps on everybody 'cause she's like that. Says whatever she thinks without thinking. It's why I don't trust her an awful lot; she's always talking about everything without thinking who she'll get in trouble or who's feelings she'll hurt.

"I ain't changing who I am for nobody," she says. That's a rotten way to be.

You have to be yourself, but you can also decide who you want to be. Somethings you can't change, but you'll never know until you try. I used to fight with my brother and sister all the time, I didn't care much about them, or my parent's feelings, or my cousin's feelings; all kids are like that. One day, I thought about growing up, and realized that I didn't want to be who I was for the rest of my life. I wanted to grow and change.

My sister drove me nuts, so I decided to start with my brother. I liked my brother. That was easy. I know it's hard for me to verify it myself, but I've never been a very spoiled brat, and I didn't have to make many changes to be nicer to my brother. Soon, he thought I was the greatest sister in the world. I think my sister felt left out, so she got to being nicer to me, too, and I had practice on my brother so being nice to her was easier then.

We had the greatest summer ever that year. We loved spending time together. We had a game system and enjoyed watching each other play it--so we hardly fought over it. We watched the same TV shows. Mom was happy.

I started paying attention to my parent's feelings. You know...I found out that they were people just like me. They try to act like they're different, but some parents aren't all that grown up compared to their children. I was growing up, and I've always sort of been my mother's best friend. My dad was harder. Dad doesn't talk much. Dad isn't home much. I had to work on it, but mostly all I had to do was spend time with him when he was home.

My family are my friends. When I graduated high school, in which I had very few friends, my classmates kept asking me who ALL THESE PEOPLE were. My extended family, those who were able to make it, took up an entire row in the auditorium. We had our own photo shoot afterward. They love me.

The girl down the hall has problems that make her annoying. Some of them she can change and some of them she probably can't, but she won't try. She won't grow. She won't grow up. She had one fight with her other friend, and she wants to end the friendship NOW. The fight wasn't even serious. I'm not saying that she has to become a new person over night, I'm not saying that she's wrong for being who she is, I'm not saying that I don't want to be friends with her. But friends care. Friends hang in there. Friends fight, but they get over it. Friends are the family that you can choose, and you can grow with them.

Lately, I've been having so much trouble with the college's internet setup that I haven't bothered to try working it out. I tried to do a little editing, and lost my internet connection...for hours. I tried to check my e-mail, and my computer froze. I tried to check my blog, and the computer ran for ten minutes without getting anywhere.

MY computer is doing fine. Granted, he's getting on in years, but he's mellowed out and we understand each other. I spend hours on my computer, off-line, doing homework. I know when he's acting up or coming down with something. Lenny (computer) is alive and kickin'. This is not his fault.

Apparently our server went down this week. I'm not surprised. It goes down and stays down, and then it comes back with more problems. The boys over at tech support must be dying or home sick or something. I'm hoping that this blog entry gets posted. I hope that I can explain to my grandmother why I haven't been answering her emails. I hope that someday, I get out of college and get a reliable, understandable internet.

In other news... My mom says we can get new kitties when I get home from college. Makes me happy. ^_^ I hope I get one a little like my buddy boy, and all new personality otherwise.

Also, on the other hand, my classes are going pretty well--though I feel like they're holding out on us still...waiting until there's no chance for us to back out before they spring the big surprises on us. "Yes, the project for this class is a 75 page paper! It'll be fun! The first half is due next week!" (class drops dead in horror)

And also, I finished a group project this week, got ahead in some of my homework, and fell a little behind in some other homework, and...

Oh yeah, I HATE MY JOB.

I'm reading homework, and the sentence says "It involves integration with all the functional areas, frequently via ERP."

I say, "Erp? What is Erp?"

So I look back over the page. No ERP.

I look back over the chapter. No ERP.

I look in the glossary. No ERP.

I look in the Index. Please, God, let it be in the index. No ERP.

I find instead: ERP II. See Extended ERP. I go to Extended ERP, find the page, and basically find "extended ERP (ERP that has been extended)". :P

Not only is every page chock full of acronymns, but most of the acronyms stand for words that are essentially gobbledygook. So I have abbreviated gobbledygook couched in lines and lines of gobbledygook. I feel like I'm translating every paragraph. I have a highlighter in hand so I can pick out the words that actually mean something, and I translate the acronyms with pencil in the margin when I know what they are.

On top of all that, every other paragraph starts with, "Another major characteristic." How many characteristics can be called major before we have to break down and say that they're all equally important, and no characteristic is actually major or minor? The authors also repeatedly say that "This is closely related to [acronym]." I should hope that it's closely related to that acronym. That acronym (whatever it stands for) is the subject of this section. If it isn't related, it shouldn't be in this section. At the end of the section, the review questions ask, "How is [acronym] related to [acronym]?" My answer: "Closely."

Let it be known that there is more to good writing than getting your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage correct. This book is supposed to be written to people learning about this field--not to experts in this field who already know the jargon. I'm going crazy trying to read this stuff. It took me hours to read ten pages. It's not like it's impossible to read, but it's hard; and I've had classes in English on how to avoid and repair messes like these. I feel like rewriting the whole book and sending it back to them with an insulting letter. I don't have the time for that--I hardly have time to comprehend the book before class.

Today's Moral: There are two ways to get people to read your writing.
#1: Write well, taking your audience into account.
#2: Write textbooks (they'll be forced to read it anyway).