Flu Away

Well, I was on campus this morning to meet with my training class project group, and I happened to glance at the current issue of the school paper. On the front page was an article mentioning that flu shots were again available at the campus clinic, but that not very many students tended to take advantage of them.

Now, I'm not ordinarily terribly superstitious, but at the moment, it seems like half of my friends are sick with something; one even just got checked into the hospital today, and I'll be phoning in some get-well wishes later. Seeing this article like this, right now, seemed so much like a Sign From Above (imagine a little angel holding up a red warning sign, jumping up and down yelling, "Hey! Hey! Looka me! Me me me!") that I just knew that if I ignored it, I'd probably end up getting the flu especially bad this year. With that in mind, I just had to stop in at the clinic, pay my eight bucks, and get stuck in the arm to have some flu corpses shot into my blood.

After all, why take chances?

Now, for the rest of the day, I think I'll be finalizing and printing out a Java assignment due yesterday, putting some stackable shelves and drawers together, sending some emailed questions to the company I'm quizzing for my Management Group project, finishing up some stuff for the library training course, vegging a bit, playing in bluelang's online Adventure! campaign tonight, then probably logging out a bit early so I can get up at "my God what time is it??!" a.m. tomorrow to get that course taught. Whew, what a schedule.

But! After all this crap I'm putting up with, I'm rewarding myself well and truly. I've got a ticket to the 12:45 p.m. Harry Potter showing. If half of what I've heard about that movie is true, it'll make the rest of it all seem worthwhile.

AOLian Dichotomy

You know, it used to be that when a solicitation from AOL arrived, replete with connection software, you'd throw away the packaging and repurpose the disk. Blank floppies were a good buck or so each, after all; it was mighty nice of AOL to provide you one gratis, wasn't it?

Of course, times changed, and AOL soon went to CD-ROMs for its software solicitation distribution. Which wasn't all that great, since you couldn't repurpose a CD-ROM except for as a coffee mug trivet, and once you had one or two of those you were set for life and didn't need any more. Oh, sure, it might look nice and sparkly if you blow it up in the microwave, but if you do that very often, you'll soon need a new microwave.

But times have changed again, and now it's exactly the opposite way around of how it was when they first began. Now AOL CDs come in a DVD-style keepcase--so even if you throw away the CD-ROM, you still have that nice sturdy plastic keepcase to replace one you might have torn or broken earlier, or use for something else entirely. In my case, this latest AOL CD's arrival was quite timely, as just the other day I received my BMW Films DVD, and it came in a compact-disc-style jewel box, of all things. So, a quick disassembly and insert later, my BMW DVD now resides in my DVD shelf between Big Trouble in Little China and Bubblegum Crisis Vol. 1, in its own full-sized handy keepcase.

Now, if AOL would only start putting its solicitations on CD-RW discs, it'd be perfect.

You meet the nicest people in a Taco Bell

I'm just about to pop off to bed and catch a few Zs before my class, but I was hungry so I decided to pop down to the Taco Bell down the street for a quick bite.

I first intended to go through the drivethru and bring the munchies back to my room, but there were several cars there, so I parked and went in to get carry out. It was taking a while, and I was standing there grumbling and wishing they'd hurry up...when I heard a voice from behind me calling my name, and I turned and there were my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Becky. They'd been out to see Smokey Robinson in concert, and stopped in for a bite to eat at Taco Bell before heading home. So I changed my order from to-go to eat-in, and we all had a nice little visit. Funny how things work out sometimes, isn't it? If there hadn't been too many cars...if the order hadn't taken so long...I would have barely missed seeing people I knew. I wonder how many times such near misses happen every day, unnoticed simply because...they weren't noticed?

Well, I'm going to go shower quickly and hit the sack. Hopefully tomorrow will be decent.