Life update

I know I haven't been around for a while, but I thought I'd give an update in my life.  I'm still living in Madison, and I have hopefully only two classes, and one semester left of college.  I'm heading into what will hopefully be my second to last finals week, at least for a while.


Where I work offered me a Network Engineer / Programming job, even before I graduate. I start that in about two weeks, and it seems like a pretty good opportunity, but I do still have a lot to learn to get ready for it.   


Professionally, it is good to have a job lined up for during the last months of school, and then after that.  


However, my family is still having issues around my nephew.  Namely, my brother still has not met him.  He seems distressed about this, but the simple request of the mother was that if he was going to meet Issac, it would be without his girlfriend.  He ( or they ) disagree, and refuse to compromise.  


The mother is mired in legal issues, mostly because of the inherent sexism in both the legality of marriage and children, and the Catholic Hospital where Issac was born.  


Apparently if you are in the middle of a divorce, a child makes it that much harder to sort things out, especially as the father of the child needs to be sorted before the divorce can be.  Furthermore, she has to fight for her right to raise the child by herself, as the system assumes she cannot.  


Furthermore, she is having issues changing Issac's last name, mostly because of the divorce.  The sexism on the part of the Catholic Hospital, is simply that they put down the mother's married name on the birth certificate despite her protests.  This reminds me of the reasons why my mom's grandparents left the Catholic church. It was also related to marriage and divorce.  


Bottom line, it's been more of the same.  My parents being parents again, and my brother still sticking to his guns.  


Now I'm heading into a summer where I will be sharing an apartment with my brother and his girlfriend again.  I'm not looking forward to it, but I should be kept fairly busy with work.  

Teammates Or Polar Opposites?

My brother and I have always had an odd relationship.  Well, I should say it seems odd to me.  It seems like sometimes it shouldn't work, but this could be just like all the other brothers and sisters out there.

So, as I was saying, we seem to be an odd pair.  Rarely we're arguing.  Sometimes we're polar opposites, but often we are great teammates and friends. Often this makes us able to adapt to something new.  Such as one time we were able to beat some friends at a game they had been playing a while, after only me having some single player experience with it.  Or the times when we are joking with each other's girlfriends of the time.


But then there is the other side of things.  My brother has sometimes been an example of what not to do.  As the older brother, he was the trailblazer.  I learned a lot from things that happened to him, or because of him.

I learned that you never swerve around deer on a gravel road.  I learned that you don't stand for manipulating relationships.  I learned that keeping a level head is often more important than being right.

And now... Now I'm learning how one should act when one becomes a father.  Especially when you didn't mean too.

Yesterday I got the text message.  Issac had been born.  His mother was a woman who graduated 3 or 4 years above me at my high school.  I'm pretty sure she was my brother's "one who got away."  So when he and his girlfriend of the time were "taking a break" and she was getting a divorce from her husband, one thing lead to another, and nine months later I'm an uncle.

If that was the whole story, it could have a happy ending right?  But that's not everything.

The no-longer-taking-a-break girlfriend is thrown in there too.  Nine months ago there were yelling about this.  Nine months ago, I would stay up later than I meant to, with my door open and a camera recording because I wanted to make sure nothing would happen that they would regret.  I would let the arguments go until a line had been crossed.

I mean, my brother didn't receive anything he didn't earn, or so I thought.  I mean the then-off girlfriend had some reason to be angry, as she thought they were getting back together.  But when she was stopping him leaving his room to get laundry, he naturally got a bit miffed at this, and her response was something like  "Hit me, if that's what you want."  Rather sickly reminded me of the Joker from the Dark Knight.

But she was on the lease for our apartment.  She said she was going to move out, but she couldn't find a place.  My parents and I did think she shouldn't be in this apartment anymore, but she dragged her heels, and my brother let her.  She even started taking a summer course.

As they kept living together, they forgot the days of yelling and arguing, and I don't know if it was her pleading and convincing that did it, but my brother progressed further and further away from Issac's mother.  Even going so far as to doubt that Issac was his son, and that he wanted "nothing to do with" him.

My parents are wondering how my brother could do this, as I am.  But furthermore, being the wonderful people they are, they are trying to step up as best as grandparents can.  They, not my brother, were in the hospital with Issac's mother.  They have been helping Issac's mother with appointments, and moving, and a whole number of ways.

But now it comes down to, what kind of man my brother is.  Now that his son has a face, will he become a father, or will this be just another item in the list of things I learned from by brother?

Because I can

I just got home from work.  As you might have known, today is Friday.  It is also "casual friday" where I work, but our normal dress code of polo's and khaki pants is pretty damn casual as it is. 

So I thought, why not dress up today?  Why not wear a dress shirt and vest?  What reason would I have for this?  "Because I can,"  with of course, the stipulation of "it's not hurting anyone."

Now I think this is something more people should do.  Everyday do something unusual that is constructive, or at least neutral.

The Cliff notes of my life since last we spoke.

I will possibly becoming an uncle in about 6 months.

My room mate/ my brother's ex-girlfriend  is moving out.  In a situation that I'd call awkward, I'm not sure how their relationship is going.  Sometimes they seem like their going out, other times not, but I know my brother is going to stay with his new girlfriend, for I'd think obvious reasons.

Quite Awkward.

I will most likely be switching my major, likely to history, possibly english. Hopefully I will at least be able to pull off a Computer Science certificate.

So, now I'll have to do some soul searching and see if Computer Science is what I really want to do.  To see how hard I want to fight it.  I might write about this in more detail later. 

I wrote a checkers playing AI for my artificial intelligence class.  That was the fun part of AI, now we're into propositional logic and the like.

I asked a woman to go see a movie last week, but she said "I've already got plans Sorry, x.x" and I'm not sure what that means.  Although I'd hazard the guess that it was because I asked her around 5pm, by text.  Which I know is a cop-out, but I thought she might have been sleeping.

And perhaps most importantly, I saw a squirrel take on a hawk and win.  The Hawk was on the ground, and the squirrel lunged at it.  The hawk must have been thinking "Damn, this guy is serious," before flying off to land on a tree.  Trying to act cool after being humiliated, almost like me when I trip going up a flight of stairs.

The Atheist Bug.

I've found I might have caught it.  I mean I already believed that, but I've been watching lots of videos on youtube about it, and I think they have been making me think more about it. 

Bringing it to the fore front of my thoughts.  I even thought of a few videos I could be convinced to try.  Maybe. 

I might write more about that, but the closing bell is almost here.

Harry Potter Test

"So, I was telling a girl about my crazy ideas for green things, and she actually didn't think they were crazy."

Brother: "You need to nab her before she gets away."
"Yeah, I was already thinking about asking her to Harry Potter."
Brother: "Oh..."
"I know, serious right?"

Halloween Costumes

Well it is approaching that time of year again.  The time of year when I don't know if, or what I'd want to wear as a Halloween costume.

But I did come up with two ideas. Both involve my airsoft gear, and one is quite corny.  

So, for airsoft gear I enough that I could pass as a random faceless soldier.  Complete with mask and goggles. 

Which is where the first idea comes in.  "Unnamed soldier number 3."  The basic idea is that I'd be one of the nameless, faceless soldiers that keeps cropping up in action movies and animes.  "Man did you see me die in Blood+, those vampires really tore me apart."  "What about my scene in Hulk?  Did you see him throw me into a building?"  I'm leaning towards this one if I do it, because I'd most likely only have time to go to the anime club around work.  So I could list off all the anime parts I had.  

The other (and the one I think is corny) is much the same as the above.  Full Tactical gear. Maybe not the mask on this one, because it might not matter as much.  Then I'd fill the various pouches and pockets with pens, pencils, notebooks, pieces of paper, and perhaps scrolls.  Then I'd be, the "Warrior Poet." And everyone would know how corny I can be.

Well, if you have a serious suggestion or choice, feel free to indicate it as a comment.

Otherwise, Happy Halloween.