'Sup?

I suppose I'm due for an update, huh? When we last left off, I got my degree (finally), and I was scouring the edges of the earth for a job, and having really weird dreams along the way. Life has turned around quite a bit since then, though the random ass dreams still continue in large numbers.

Let's see...I don't remember much between April and late August other than many trips to Workforce 1 for job hunting, but around August I decided to take a chance at getting my security certification. I received it around mid September. After a series of false starts and various flubs, by October I still had no job and was getting quite frustrated.

One fateful day however, my mother and a friend of hers were talking, and her friend mentioned to her that he knew of a company that was hiring security guards. The company was also looking for an IT person/web designer. I fit both descriptions, so I gave the VP of IT and Security (one guy, two VP spots, interesting) a call and set up an interview. After the interview, I kept in contact with the VP, and spoke back and forth. It looked like the job was in the bag, but there was just one teeny tiny problem: since the company is a non-profit organization, the finances had to be checked to make sure they could hire someone for essentially a position that did not exist before. There was no real time frame to when that was going to happen, so in the meantime I was offered a security spot until the funds were available. About two days after I met with the head of security there, I got a call from the VP saying that he was able to find the funds to officially hire me. Four days later I was officially an employee of Black Veterans for Social Justice.

It has been 8 1/2 months since that fateful day in November 2009. Since then, I've gained some sort of sense of normality, a nice daily routine, and a new sense of self. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm pretty sure this may be the last post in this blog. I've had my fun with Blogger, but I missed WordPress, so I've jumped ship back to my old blogging software of choice. Blogger and I have had a good run, but now it is time to move on, so on a positive note, I shall bid thee, adieu. It's been real, see you on the other side...of the blogosphere!

http://thoughts.calvin.cwillia.ms

Dream State

Well, I just woke up from quite an interesting, albeit random (what a surprise) dream. Somehow I found myself in downtown Manhattan...or some bizarro version of it, pretty standard for my screwed up mind. Anyway, bizarro downtown Manhattan, and I was playing violin (an instrument I have no idea how to play) with of all people, Kaki King. For those who don't know, Kaki King is not only a guitarist, but probably one of the greatest guitarists I've ever had the good fortune of watching perform live numerous times. Her guitar prowess is just ridiculously awesome, an prowess that could be considered l33t. Anyway, what made this dream even more interesting was the fact that she wasn't playing guitar, she was playing violin. I have no idea as to whether or not she plays violin, but i'd imagine she'd be equally l33t at it. Anyways, there's Me, Kaki, and a violist and cellist on a street corner performing various random songs. Don't ask me which ones, I don't remember.

The street performance went over quite well, people seemed to love it. As we were packing up, we were chatting about random stuff, and I gave her back her bow since apparently I had borrowed one of hers for the performance. Now here comes the strangest part. For some reason I wasn't sure if I had introduced myself, so as we finish packing, I say, "Oh, my name is Calvin, by the way." She didn't hear me the first time, so I repeated myself, "My name is Calvin, C-A-L-V-I-N." Her response, "Oh, I know! Bye Calvin!" And then she leaves. As I sit and try to ponder how she knew my name, I realize that that one of the freakin' street sweepers that pass by on the sidewalks in lower Manhattan swept up my backpack. Right as I run off to catch the idiot that threw away my backpack, I woke up.

Not sure what to make of that dream, but I thought it was pretty cool in an incredibly random way.

I see sunny days when the clouds run away...

When we last left our hero, his dream of getting his diploma depended on one all important final examination, some 49 minutes after that last fateful blog post. It has been some 4 1/2 months since that fateful day. What has become of our scrappy hero? Was his dream realized? Did he fail miserably and reach his mental tipping point? The answers to that and more coming up.........


Right now!

Yeah I passed that test. In fact I got 100 on it. My final grade in the class was 97. So, yeah, I just barely passed that class. It was enough to appease the University of Hartford enough that they reluctantly granted me my diploma. I has a diploma!! W00t!!!!123

Now that I have that out the way (finally), I now have a new problem to deal with:

SEARING UNEMPLOYMENT!!

I can't get a job to save my life. It sucks BALLS. But I'm trying to make the best of things at the moment. All this downtime and a series of events have caused a possible shift in career direction. Originally I was looking to gain some experience in motion graphics design, but I find myself moving towards web design. It's the weirdest thing too, especially after the way I've shunned programming from my life last year. It all started in January when my friend CJ asked me to help him start up a website for a writing community he wanted to start up. Since then I've set up the content for his website so people will be able to interact and communicate with each other, and make a cool logo for it. All I need to do now is make a sexy looking shell for the website and it will be good to go. I have also thrown together a website for another friend for his music group. I'm currently planning out a website for another friend who is starting an interactive online magazine about acupuncture. This one I'm really excited about. This one is really going to test me in a number of aspects, since I'm not only going to be dealing with the web aspect, i'll be directly involved with ALL aspects of design in this project (logos, typography, layout, all the good stuff). On top of that, i'll be working with Flash, which has been my number one enemy for the longest time. This is going to be an interesting and very fulfilling next few months.

I'll be busy with those projects, and busy moving around for the next few weekends. This weekend i'll be visiting my friend Will and his fiancée Vee to hang out for a few days. I'm going to be in their wedding party, and i'll be singing at their wedding as well, so that's going to be a definite good time. The weekend after (hopefully) i'll be in Hartford visiting people and partying like I'm still in school w00000 PARTAAAAYYYY! :-D The following week is Will's bachelor party! Oh my, the debauchery! XD

Anyway, that's what has been going on these days, and now I should go to bed. Happy Easter folks!

Last exam as an undergrad...

I've been waiting for this moment for such a long time. At one point I didn't think I would make it. Actually at many points in time I thought about throwing in the towel. But whether it be divine intervention, people who never gave up on me, or absolute stubbornness (I consider a mixture of the three), I've made it to the final paragraph of the final chapter of the unabridged novel that has been my college life. I'm so excited right now, but pretty contained at the moment, I'm trying to stay calm for this final exam, making sure not to freak out beforehand. I'll save that for when I actually get the test. Maybe I'll just skip the whole nervous part altogether. Well, just wanted to get this post out of the way before I head towards my destiny.


T minus 49 minutes.

Calvin - Laptop = Sad Panda.

Well, my laptop is off to HP to get repaired. It took me some time to actually send it off because I didn't want to let it go. There is a strong chance that I will be without it for up to two weeks, so I'm pretty bummed about it. I thought I'd be alright since I have my mother's desktop to keep me from going completely insane, but not the case as it turns out. Her computer is slow as FUCK. It has a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. The processor is registering at 994 MHz. I knew I wouldn't be able to do any sort of graphics work on it, which I can live with, but Reason keeps crashing on it, and it's pissing me off. So no music creation for two weeks, which puts a damper on my plan to finish a couple of songs I was working on before the year was out. What sucks even more is the fact that I came up with 4 ideas for songs this week alone. No idea what I'm going to do about that.

But in the meantime I can do other stuff, like actually work towards finishing the typography book I started reading so long ago. And then I can begin reading the typography book and CJ let me borrow. CJ also let me borrow his copy of "The Watchmen" graphic novel. I can read those in the meantime. And also concentrate more on my math class! I'm almost done with it! Only two more classes and the final on the 22nd to go! W00t! But in the meantime I'll make do with this computer...maybe I'll be able to fix it and get Reason to work! One can dream....