Today I registered for the GRE. I’m going to be taking it in Tuscaloosa on February 5th at 12:00. This step alone has filled me with a lot of energy and just makes me look forward to getting back to school that much more.

I’ve realized that a lot of the site has been left stagnant for a while, and that’s no good. While I have had updates to the blog section, content that I’ve meant to have on the site, or meant to write, has gone undone. Redesigns have gone by the boards. I guess my initial hypothesis is true; the amount of time that I spend on this site is inversely proportional to the amount of time I have available to work on it. I guess you could throw in another inversely proportional variable concerning the imminence of project due dates, but that’d be getting just a little bit geeky.

Anyway, I’ve got some ideas concerning the site, both in content and in design, and I’ll try to do some work on them in the near future.

I went to bed at 7 this morning. I wasn’t even that tired when I did go to bed. I woke up around 1.

I think that this is one more advantage to going back to school now: I still have the ability to keep crazy hours like this.

I was going to watch the Rose Bowl tonight, but it’s not much of a game. When it got to 27-0, I turned it off. I see it’s 34-0 at the half…

So I decided to give my new DVD player another spin. I went to Radio Shack and bought an RF converter today in an attempt to get it to work. I hooked everything up…still no dice. All I want is to see The Matrix! I guess I just need a new TV. 🙂

Here’s a picture (opens in a small window)

Okay, I realize that to those of you who aren’t from the south, this is no big thing. I mean, you can even see the leaves under the snow. But if you’re from Alabama, any snow is an occasion. 🙂

Most of the people who read this site already know this little bit of information, but I’ll go ahead and say it anyway, because it’s a big step for me.

I’m going back to school.

I’ve always wanted to get a doctorate, and I’ve wanted to be a professor just about as long. I love the idea of learning things and teaching others what I’ve learned as a job description. I love the university atmosphere.

And now is the perfect time to go back to school. Other than taking the final step toward my ultimate career goal, I know how to live like a college student right now, and it’s a much easier transition period for me than it would be if I were to go out into the “real world” for a few years, then come back. I don’t have a family to feed or take care of; it’s just me right now.

So I just got done with sending out a “reverse ding letter” to BellSouth. It felt strange being on this end of it. I’ve already sent e-mails to a few of my former professors asking for times that I can meet with them to talk about being a professor and the process of earning a doctorate. And I’ve already started the information-gathering process about doctoral programs and financial aid.

I’m very excited about this. My goal is to start this upcoming fall. I don’t know where or in what field yet, but the knowledge that I’m taking this step is exhilarating. More on this to come.

I’m back from my somewhat self-imposed Internet exile. I had wanted to enjoy the holiday season without worrying a whole lot about updating my web site. But I’ll be updating more frequently again from now on.

As for resolutions, I only have one this year. Looking back upon resolutions that I’ve made, I’ve seen attempts to try to be a better person in one facet or another. But it’s been the rare occasion that I’ve actually kept them.

My resolution this year is very simple. I resolve to live each day for God, to let God be in control of all areas of my life, and to seek His will for my future.

Happy New Year to everyone, and I’ll see you all in 2002!

Today I make the annual pilgrimage to Ozark, Alabama, the starting leg of this year’s Christmas-Independence Bowl-New Year’s trips. Things on the list to do before the 25th:

• Go to my friends’ wedding tomorrow. (Yep, the apostrophe is in the right place…two of my friends are getting married to each other. That seems to happen a lot with me. It cuts down on the number of weddings I go to.)
• Get the rest of my Christmas shopping done. Yep, the male Christmas-shopping equation is now in effect.
• Go to my hometown church’s candlelight ceremony. Usually held on Christmas Eve, but given how Sunday falls this year, it’s going to be held this Sunday evening instead.

It appears that I won’t be working at ComFrame either. I got the latest in a series of ding letters (this one via e-mail) yesterday. Oh, I also forgot to mention the verbal ding I got from the company I temped for a while back.

Couple this with the fact that Regions Bank has never gotten back to me even though it’s now December (they promised a response by mid-November), and you’ve got a depressed unemployed person.

As I stated previously, I’ve got a second interview with BellSouth. I still haven’t heard anything from Command Alkon. I’ve decided that if both of those fall through, I’m officially going to start looking at colleges again.

I had hoped to get some work experience before making the “big choice” in my life as to my future place of work: the university setting or the “real world”. This current recession is just about to make the decision for me.

There are a lot of other things going on in my life that I’m not really wanting to expound on right now. I’m going home this weekend, which will help some. I’ve got family Christmas get-togethers on both sides of the family this weekend back home.

I have a second interview with BellSouth next Monday at 9 a.m. here in town. Interestingly, it’s for a position different from the one that I originally planned on interviewing one. It’s more of an MBA-type position – it’s less programming-oriented. It would be out of Atlanta. We’ll see…