#5: Life

Well, I've gone a few months without updating this website. Since Silent Waters is supposed to be constantly growing, it was unfortunate to see it just stay dead in the water like this for so long.

So what happened? Well...a lot of things did. For one thing, I've been in school all this time, at that ambiguous "technical college" I often refer to. Now, every quarter of classes, my grades have dropped...and so, I've been focusing more than before on my classes. I had three classes this quarter, "Web Graphics and Multimedia", "Preparation For A+ Certification", and "Business Communications". As much as I would have liked to do exceedingly well in these classes, I'm not really sure how I did.

Web Graphics is, of course, a class teaching one how to do web graphics...like the beautiful new logos you see here in Silent Waters. I could do more things here, like navigation buttons with rollover effects...or a sliced splash screen image...but...I've been kind of unsure about what to do that would really enhance the Silent Waters experiece. If anybody has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Anyway...well, even though all the feedback here is implying that I'm a master of the web design art, I didn't do so well on the tests in that class. Worse yet, it seems I was never exactly...on time...with the assignments. Yes, laziness is bad...very bad!

Anyway, the A+ class was fun. I learned more about how computers work and how to fix them...and it was a rather easy class for me...so I guess I'm really not worried about my grade there. Plus, my computer repair skills have really been put to the test as I've been having more computer problems than ever. I've formatted my hard drive twice...reinstalled Windows, bought a new Norton Antivirus (and then accidentally smashed the CD to pieces...so I couldn't install it after my second format!) and even went so far as to replace the modem. It's still crashing and giving me weird errors, and I keep getting the impression that Windows doesn't like my video driver...and that Adobe Photoshop Elements and The Sims don't like each other.

Finally...there's Business Communications, a required English class. Why did I even really have to take an English class anyway?? I've been speaking English almost all my life! I know how to write. I know good grammar. I know how to put together a letter, a report, and things like that...and yet...I feel like I did so poorly in that class, it's not even funny. It had a lot to do with the tests. The questions were unclear and tested how well one could memorize the way things were taught in the book rather than what one actually knew. It was the only class I'd ever been in where you could know the answer to every question on the test and still fail it.

Anyway...those classes are done with for now...and my life has moved onward. Since my last post, I went through Valentine's Day alright...Valentine's Day being that special time of year when the people who have someone to celebrate it with make those of us who don't feel more miserable and alone than ever before. As a matter of fact, I had seriously considered writing an entire article for the Whine List regarding what I'm talking about in the previous sentence...but I decided not to. There were people...four people, even...who I considered sending cards to on that day...and yet...somehow...I just ended up deciding that none of them wanted Valentine's Day cards from me and that I was better off just ignoring Valentine's Day altogether until it went away. As for who these four are...well...they'll probably know it if they are...so I won't say anything else on that.

My birthday, on March 7, was considerably less depressing. I mean, despite the fact that hardly anyone seemed to remember it, it was the people who did remember who meant a lot to me. At the church I've been going to for almost a year, there's a Bible study that I go to now, every other week...and it's the people I see there every other week who have become my best friends (not to say that you guys who signed my guestbook aren't great friends too! You are...and if you signed my guestbook AND you go to that Bible study I'm talking about...why, you know you're EXTRA special! ^_^ ). Well...they threw a surprise birthday party for me the Wednesday before...which was totally awesome...and it caught me off guard! They gave me birthday cards and a delicious cookie cake (that looked like it must have cost a lot, as far as cakes go!) and Christian music CDs of Third Day and Jars of Clay! It was a great experience...so much so that I hardly knew how to react at the time. Nothing like that had ever happened to me...so I was really...amazed.

It's good to have friends...be they online or off...and it's always good to know that someone cares about you. In fact...to everyone I've referred to in this Whine...and to everyone who's reading this right now... I say, thank you and God bless you all! You can look forward to more good stuff in this site...eventually!!