I had a great call with Woj today. Our meeting was scheduled for an hour, but he started off saying he had an 8:30 call, so would have to stop then. He seems very down to earth, and that’s what I’ve heard about him.
I ran over to the electronics recycling place, and was surprised, but delighted, to find it not busy. But, I do hope it got busier throughout the day. However, I did find out from the brochure that they handed out, that you can take electronic equipment to certain landfills on certain days, so they take it all the time. If I’d’ve known that, I might have done it a lot sooner. Oh well. It’s good to be rid of the stuff in an environmentally friendly way.
After lunch, I spent about 20 minutes with Randy talking about the 21 CFR 11 “radar” situation, and its implications to Security pillar projects. I need to get together with Charlie, Becky, and Paul now to give them a heads up.
I got to Hillsborough Street by about 5:20, which gave me a chance to check the TCW P.O. box. I got a parking spot right in front of the post office, and with it being after 5:00, I could stay parked there, and walk to class. Bonus. There were some free movie tickets to a movie playing tonight, unfortunately. It started at 7:30 at Crossroads, however, and I had class until 7:15. At first I thought I would try to make it, assuming it would start a little late with previews and commercials, but then thought there might not be those with a preview screening, and I just didn’t want to be busting my ass getting over there. The movie was Raise Your Voice with Hilary Duff.
Class really got on my nerves tonight. The topic was about managers’ tasks when hiring and giving promotions, and several people told stories of things that had happened to them. This one girl went through three different incidences of when she had each of her three kids, and how each of her different employers mistreated her. I’ve got to get this girl’s name. She is a yammerer in this class. She also told another long story about working for the State as a contractor, and watching this other girl who was a State employee, take one- to two-hour naps on the job, and what a travesty it was, blah, blah, blah. Meagan talked about being unfairly treated somewhere. Is that a surprise? I don’t want to hear stories. I want to learn new things.
After class, I had planned to grab a quick dinner at the El Rodeo on Hillsborough Street, but when I arrived there, there was a line out the door. This surprised me for 7:30. I went to a pizza place, and had a disappointing slice of pizza instead. It was a BBQ Chicken pizza, and certainly couldn’t at all compare with the CPK one.
I walked over to the library, went to the reserve room, made sure the book I needed was on the shelf, and then checked out a laptop. It was cool to have Internet access while in there, but overall it was not a very productive study period.
At first I booted up the laptop, figured out how to log in with a wireless connection (this is the first time I’ve used wireless), and after about two minutes of being connected, the laptop shut itself off. I pushed the power button. Nothing. I moved over to a desk near an outlet, and rebooted using the power cord. It came back up, and in fact, I was still connected to everything.
Since I had access to AIM, I chatted with Joe-Joe for some minutes, which took up study time, then I chatted briefly with Robert, and then started studying. I really didn’t like the keyboard on the laptop — not the keys per se, but the bars used to enter. You had to push them way harder than I’m used to, so I spent a lot of time pushing them twice. It was just clunky. I’d rather use my own laptop, and plan to in the future. It is nice to know the laptop is available, though, in case I want to stop by there for something, but don’t have my laptop with me.
I wanted to take notes on one of the four articles I need to read through next week. It’s about a 20-page article, and I only took notes through about 5 pages in an hour. Not a good rate. At about 9:00, I remembered that I had that movie at home that I wanted to watch, so saved my file, emailed it to myself, and headed out. It’s a lot of drama checking that laptop in and out, too. They have a form to fill out when you check it out, and then about as much to check on the same form when you turn it back in. I totally understand the need for it, but again, it’s just another reason to take my own in the future.
At home, I popped a bag of Kettlecorn Popcorn, and watched The Adventures of Felix. It was both sexy and good. I thought about Robert a lot during it, and what thoughts he might have had about his father and their relationship while watching it. I look forward to talking about it with him tomorrow.
Movie synopsis: Felix (Sami Bouajila) is a thirtysomething, HIV-positive gay guy. In this film about family and the discovery of self, Felix is first seen jauntily riding his bike. When he gets laid off from work and starts cleaning out his dead mother’s house, Felix uncovers some old letters from his father, who he’s never met. The discovery takes Felix on a hitchhiking journey to Marseilles to search for the family that he never had. On the way, he meets a number of quirky characters identified by intertitles that describe each one respectively as his little brother, his grandmother, his cousin, his sister, and finally his father; in what becomes his surrogate family. Felix kills time on the highway singing songs as he sashays through the emerald fuzz of the French countryside, waiting for a car to pick him up. He’s at home in a field of buttercups, flying a kite, or crooning to the sun to come out and shine, and he never misses his favorite soap opera about a viciously superficial family that’s out to get each other. In the end, directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau allow Felix to show us that the bonds within family are about much more than blood.