Linux.

I love Linux. Unfortunatly though, to use alot of the programs I like, I have to use Windows. Yesterday morning, my windows install on my laptop crashed. It no longer booted. I reinstalled without formatting. It would boot, but it would not install programs. Interesting. So, I formatted it. For this reason, I have a partition on my hard drive for nothing but data. Well, in the process of reinstalling windows, Micro$oft in its infinite wisdom decided to over write my boot partition ( no biggy I can reinstall grub later) and decided that my data partition with my music, emails, pictures, etc should be a hidden drive that I should not be able to access from inside windows. Interesting. This is why Knoppix is your friend. Insert Knoppix 3.6 or newer distro, boot, and use the wonderful program called qtparted to unhide the partition. After this is accomplished, reboot. Everything, or almost everything, is now fixed. Now to install grub.... I will wait till later. I know that I am not suposed to, but I use Knoppix at work all the time when fixing computers. It helps me decide if it is a hardware issue or a software issue. If it is a software issue, I tell the customer that it is. Use knoppix to erase the drives partition table, get the windows restore disks running, and tell the people to have a nice day.

Sun Set

 

Here is a sun set that I took on Christmas eve this year. It is amazing what all happens to one's blog when they have a night off and are not allowed to make any noise at 2am in the morning. 

New Tractor

 

This is the new Tractor. It is a 35?hp Branson diesel. It does alot more than the old 12?hp (that is probably a higher estimiment than needed) of the old Ford. This tractor requires diesel to make it run. The old Ford required gasoline and about 2 hours of work for every hour of operation. Notice that this tractor has a set of homemade pallet forks on the front. Dad bought the forks from a scrap yard and made the adapter to the tractor lift. Great stuff here. Makes it alot easier to move thigns around the house. 

Old Tractor

 

This is the old Tractor. It is a Ford 9N. I mowed many hours on top of it and pulled many pine logs with it. Most of the time while pulling logs the front tires were off the ground and I had to steer with the brakes. Now for th emost part we have a better tractor. If nothing else, a bigger tractor ( can not haul it with my truck). 

The Gas Hog

 

This is what eats all my money. This last semester, I put about $150 a week in the gas tank and paid $270 a month on the truck payment. And people wonder where all my money goes. 

For MaHoyt

 

I figured that I would not let MaHoyt be the only one whom puts up pictures of sunrises and sun sets. Here is the sunrise that occured on the 22nd of December, I think. Basically, this is the first major frost East Texas has had, and no I do not claim to be half the picture taker that Ma Hoyt is.  

Christmas Break thus far

Well, I went out to and saw a movie. No I did not take anyone with me (no one wanted to go with me). I saw The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I liked it, but unlike most people that I know from LETU I am easy to please. I have not read the book in about 6 years or more, so the book is a little fuzzy. I thought that the movie was real close to what I remembered from the book. I have not really read what others think about it. I will have to re-read the book before I make any judgments.

I have been working nights. It is all sorts of fun. We are currently weeding out the people that do not want to work, ie the people whom don't show up, show up on time, or show up without sleep. Hmm, only one person fits that discribtion and he was fired/quit on tuesday of last week. They were real happy to hear that Wedsday was my last day of finals, so Thursday night I started working full time hours again. Friday nights at 12am are the end of the week and I clocked out Monday morning with almost 30 hours. Wonderful weekend. We were only short one night because someone called in sick, but he was really sick. What happened to the work ethics that people once had? Have we become that scared to fire someone when they don't want to show up, or is it that it is too expensive to fire them to get rid of them? I wonder. I know how to order, I know how to stock, I know how to make out the schedule. I know almost as much as the assistant manager does about how the store works, but yet I still will not move up even if I wanted to. All I need to do is to gain the speed that the current manager has in order to be worth something. Maybe I will be worth something and get a raise.
I still have not decided on what I want to do next semester. I would like to go back to LETU, but the money is not there. I DO NOT want to go back to UT Tyler. I have found out that in order for me to pass at a University of any type, I can not work any during the week. Then again, I hate being broke. I like to be able to go buy a Dr Pepper when I want or to be able to just drive and let loose some horses or jsut cruse. I thought about taking the semester off and driving a truck. I have a friend that said that he can get me on Swift for pretty good pay, about double what I am doing for Brookshire's. This would be good, but probably not the best option. What I really want right now is to be completely out of school. I have been in college for over 4.5 years. I have only had debt the last 2.5 years. The first 2 years at TJC I paid for in cash. When I went to LETU, I spent more money that first semester than I had made in 2 years. Then, because I had not worked in 2 years, I had to borrow money to go to UT Tyler. I need to get a real job and quit borrowing. I see all these things of the flesh that I want, but they will not help me any. I don't want out of college nessicarily for the money as much as the fact that I don't want to owe more than what a house costs. I think the main problem is that I really do not know what I want to do any more other than out of college. I think that I am going to start ignoring my mom. She did not want me to go to LETU, she wanted me to go to UT TYler form the get go. Now she says that my grades are not good enough for even there. If it was up to me, I would have started out at LETU a long time ago, back when I was still driving the Geo Tracker. Prayer and reading are ahead of me to try to find guidance, so I am going to get some sleep in. Later.

Finals Week

Finals Week is finally here. I am not sure if I am ready for finals, but I guess that I will have to be. I have been ready for classes to be over with for some time now. I am not sure what I am going to do next semester yet. I really want to go back to LETU, but the money is not there. I do not want to go back to UT Tyler. I just can not get motivated there. There is too much happening at the house and too much work to make it all happen. I have to go to work to pay for my truck, cell phone, and college. I am running into the same problem at UT Tyler as I was at LETU, not enough money. Atleast here I can make some during the school year. I have my first fianl at 11am this morning. It is my Into to Government final. I am sure that I know enough to walk out with a B after taking the final. Having my laptop back has helped my grades. I can take notes that I can read. Plus, I peck at the computer keyboad making it easier to remember what I typed the first time. I am currently armed with a 2liter of Dr Pepper. I am set for the next 8hours of studying if I can make myself do it. Have you ever had trouble making yourself study? It is hard for me because I know all this stuff. I have heard it before. I have done most of it before. What is going to Kill my calc grade is that I have gotten too used to using a calculator. The calculator is my downfall, or you can say that I am just not good with numbers. I can do the work without the calculator, but I have trouble with the simple stuff like carring numbers. The fact that I am under pressure to make an A or better does not help any. For once, I will actually be awake on a Monday. I was able to get last night off due to finalls. I will be off till Friday night. I told him that I could work Thursday, but he was nice enough to let me have an extra night off. So, I went to bed Sunday at 4pm and got up this morning at 5:30am. That is a good nights rest. I like the whole night thing. I just wish that I could get all the rest of the things I like to do to happen at night (mainly classes). I have found out that waking up early like this allows you to have fewer distractions, but the ones that you do have are very big distractions. Depending on when my check comes from Nexicore, I might go camping Wed after my last exam, or I might buy Christmas gifts. Another idea would be to take someone to a movie if I can find someone that actually wants to go with me. In the theaters right now, I would like to see Aneon Flux and I want to see Narnia as soon as it makes it into theaters. I know I butchers the name, but I am too lazy to type out the whole thing. Anyway, I am lookig at how long I have been typing and I think that I should return to my studying. Later.