Julio’s Musings Around Columbia County, New York

I thought I would have gotten into the habit of blogging regularly , like everyday. Alas that has not happened yet with all I am doing which sometimes seems like it is always filling out one paper form or another. Lets face it what has automation and computers truly done for us other then sometimes helping us consume our day with one or another type of administrative work. Since Administrative Assistants are largely a thing of the past and who is actually going to do it for your personal life unless you are child , this grunt activity seems to be what we actually living for.
Anyway, this is probably a half baked rant about why I have not been able to blog on a daily basis.

Actually the form filling is being done for a host of exciting developments for myself. One for instance is the completion of my second Bachelor’s degree. Way back during my youth I decided to go for a Bachelors in Computer Science and Mathematics. It was a redundant BA as I already had one but I figured what I would learn and the actual confirming piece of paper would serve me well. I completed all of the requirements for the Degree except for those College specific general requirements like a Gym class and an additional English Comp. Class. I was not able to complete those 2 fundamental requirements as the act of living and making a living trumped pure academia. Fast forward a decade or two and I still have the desire for the “piece of paper” validating the investment in time and knowledge acquired. The gym class is no longer a requirement which is natural given 300 pounders are now the norm instead of the exception and in place of English I have a diversity class requirement in the Africana and Puerto Rican Studies Department. I decided to sign up in the spring semester 2010 for the Africana/PR class which is an intense reading and writing class. The first day of class was beautiful as the crew from “Revolution Books” sold the course texts in between a speech around class struggle and such. Revolution Books is the publishing wing of an avowed Communist Organization based partly in New York City (Where else!). At least the political slant at my beloved CUNY ( City University of New York) has remained consistent over the years from my original studies and degree and now that I know better it should make for an intense rapport during the actual class. Of course not so intense the Professor holds it against me during the grading process. The class professor is charming as well. Maybe half charming. When I asked about how to get reading assignments when a class is missed, I thought she was going to have a heart attack right there in front of us all that I could possibly miss a class. Well I have to miss a class and her suggestion of becoming a buddy with someone (a half clueless 18 year old) to get the assignment is dead on arrival. I will just read the entire course material which are presented by a short story anthology and a book of poems. Not a big deal! So far what I have read, (Collymore,Wickham,Marquez and Arenas) have been excellent except for Marquez’s one sentence “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship”. I just can’t deal with a 5 page run on sentence even if that is the way we think and the short story is basically a stream of consciousness.
The pimply faced student at the Computing Center was helpful or as helpful as he could be telling me it would take about a week to get my Hunter ID so I could avail myself of the campus wireless network. Given the fact this is something that can be setup or revoked in seconds in a relatively well run Private business, the good is they have wireless which is not something they had back when I was there originally, the bad is academia still has this lack of appreciation for time like we treat it in the real world. At least for the first few days, looks like it is Starbucks Wireless or sufficing on smartphones.