Well since I cannot sleep...
Hmm...I guess I really should NOT have stayed up over 26 hours nor taken those two 5 hour energy shots. After about 4 hours of sleep I'm wide awake again and unable to fall back into the bliss of sleep. Ah well, lemons and lemonade I guess. I haven't updated in a while so bear with me while I try to update from the last time I remember. A lot has happened so I'll try to stick with just the high- (or low-)lights.
One major thing is that the medications I have been taking have finally hit the right mixture and I am feeling a LOT better than I have in years! Part of the problem was that I also have sleep apnea, rather severely apparently. With my CPAP machine and Provigil as well as my other meds I'm functing at a level that I haven't been at since at least early 2008. Its fantastic actually having energy and being able to go out and DO! Granted I do still have my down days but they are much fewer and further between than they used to be.
This has worked well for me as I have finally gotten to the point where I am graduating. No really! I swear! No heckling back there in the corner!! I know I've said it many times before but this time it is going to happen. All I have to do is pass Calculus II with a D and I am golden. Obviously I'm going for a higher grade than that but considering the problems I've had with math (see my previous posts about dain bramage...er brain damage) I'll be happy with what I get. Thanks to the goodness of Jeff Halliday though, I have been able to add an internship this semester with WMLU to develop an Administration and Automation Program for the station. I have finally decided on a name for the program with some help from Ben Jones and it is "Raven." Each part of the program has its own name: "Huginn" for the Automation side and "Muninn" for the Administration side. This is going to help my portfolio for when I graduate because while I have a rather impressive resume I don't have as many concrete projects for the Computer Science side to put in there.
I'm still the SGA Webmaster and have finally gotten that site to the point at which is is functional and I'm currently working on the "pretty" part of it. I'm always looking for feedback so check out www.longwoodsga.org and tell me what you think! Its been a busy year for us but VERY productive. I've been a sponsor or co-sponsor of at least 3 bills and one of them was a complete rewrite of the Student Finance Council Bylaws. These govern how we hand out the 700K+ we get each year to the organizations requesting money. I also have 22 constitutional amendments (sounds like a lot but in reality its mostly fixing grammar, rephrases, etc) and I am helping the Unity Alliance and the Secular Student Alliance put forth a Resolution to reaffirm Longwood's Anti-Discriminiation Policy when it comes to LGBT rights.
I am also the school's representative to SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. I unfortunately had to miss our lobby day at the General Assembly in February but I'm hoping we have one more day before the semester ends. Seeing how the schools work at that level of government is interesting. The best way to explain it is to compare it to how sausage is made. While it is an intricate process, not everyone wants to know and in some cases you do not want to know how its made.
WMLU is just as busy as ever too! I am still General Manager and let me tell you, we've got a KICK ASS group of people running the station. You almost wouldn't be able to tell it is the same station if you were from say, two to three years ago. There is a level of professionalism there brought on by the new members that wasn't really there before and we're still having an AWESOME time too. Fun did not go out the window, in fact we let more fun in! We're up to over 60 paying members which is just fantastic and our show grid is nearly 75% full (and that includes the 2am to 5am slots!). Sports is broadcasting again both home and away games and we are getting bombarded with Remotes! We're up to 3 or 4 sets of remote equipment (the odd number is due to how two of the pieces can function as separate units). One of the units just needs speakers so it is great for somewhere that has built in speakers already and the other just needs CD decks or an MP3 player for audio input so we can function as four discrete units. Now we're still limiting the amount of remotes in a day to around 2 depending on the times of the remotes but we could theoretically do up to 4 if circumstances allow.
Show quality has improved and last year we won a Virginia Association of Broadcasters award for our Sports programming! I also cannot tell you how many compliments we get from people who listen across the country and the world on the webstream. It is amazing knowing that people world-wide can tune in.
The Rotunda, our school newspaper, is doing an article on me as well due to my length of time here at Longwood and everything I have seen and the way I operate. I'm looking forward to seeing how the article turns out and I will be posting a link to it as soon as it hits their site and newsstands.
I've just hit a 7 month anniversary with Amy my girlfriend. She is quite awesome and I'm glad that she and Gelsey get along well! I tend to get these amazing women in my life and I am so glad to have them there! Amy is quite awesome and is a bibliophile and audiophile at nearly the same level as me and has some of the gamer gene in her too. That and she tolerates me so she is a keeper! ;D
Thats pretty much the basic overview of the past bit of my life. I'll try to be more specific with some things later but for right now thats the best I can do. Maybe insomnia will strike again soon and I can update more frequently! :D
See you all again soon!
One major thing is that the medications I have been taking have finally hit the right mixture and I am feeling a LOT better than I have in years! Part of the problem was that I also have sleep apnea, rather severely apparently. With my CPAP machine and Provigil as well as my other meds I'm functing at a level that I haven't been at since at least early 2008. Its fantastic actually having energy and being able to go out and DO! Granted I do still have my down days but they are much fewer and further between than they used to be.
This has worked well for me as I have finally gotten to the point where I am graduating. No really! I swear! No heckling back there in the corner!! I know I've said it many times before but this time it is going to happen. All I have to do is pass Calculus II with a D and I am golden. Obviously I'm going for a higher grade than that but considering the problems I've had with math (see my previous posts about dain bramage...er brain damage) I'll be happy with what I get. Thanks to the goodness of Jeff Halliday though, I have been able to add an internship this semester with WMLU to develop an Administration and Automation Program for the station. I have finally decided on a name for the program with some help from Ben Jones and it is "Raven." Each part of the program has its own name: "Huginn" for the Automation side and "Muninn" for the Administration side. This is going to help my portfolio for when I graduate because while I have a rather impressive resume I don't have as many concrete projects for the Computer Science side to put in there.
I'm still the SGA Webmaster and have finally gotten that site to the point at which is is functional and I'm currently working on the "pretty" part of it. I'm always looking for feedback so check out www.longwoodsga.org and tell me what you think! Its been a busy year for us but VERY productive. I've been a sponsor or co-sponsor of at least 3 bills and one of them was a complete rewrite of the Student Finance Council Bylaws. These govern how we hand out the 700K+ we get each year to the organizations requesting money. I also have 22 constitutional amendments (sounds like a lot but in reality its mostly fixing grammar, rephrases, etc) and I am helping the Unity Alliance and the Secular Student Alliance put forth a Resolution to reaffirm Longwood's Anti-Discriminiation Policy when it comes to LGBT rights.
I am also the school's representative to SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. I unfortunately had to miss our lobby day at the General Assembly in February but I'm hoping we have one more day before the semester ends. Seeing how the schools work at that level of government is interesting. The best way to explain it is to compare it to how sausage is made. While it is an intricate process, not everyone wants to know and in some cases you do not want to know how its made.
WMLU is just as busy as ever too! I am still General Manager and let me tell you, we've got a KICK ASS group of people running the station. You almost wouldn't be able to tell it is the same station if you were from say, two to three years ago. There is a level of professionalism there brought on by the new members that wasn't really there before and we're still having an AWESOME time too. Fun did not go out the window, in fact we let more fun in! We're up to over 60 paying members which is just fantastic and our show grid is nearly 75% full (and that includes the 2am to 5am slots!). Sports is broadcasting again both home and away games and we are getting bombarded with Remotes! We're up to 3 or 4 sets of remote equipment (the odd number is due to how two of the pieces can function as separate units). One of the units just needs speakers so it is great for somewhere that has built in speakers already and the other just needs CD decks or an MP3 player for audio input so we can function as four discrete units. Now we're still limiting the amount of remotes in a day to around 2 depending on the times of the remotes but we could theoretically do up to 4 if circumstances allow.
Show quality has improved and last year we won a Virginia Association of Broadcasters award for our Sports programming! I also cannot tell you how many compliments we get from people who listen across the country and the world on the webstream. It is amazing knowing that people world-wide can tune in.
The Rotunda, our school newspaper, is doing an article on me as well due to my length of time here at Longwood and everything I have seen and the way I operate. I'm looking forward to seeing how the article turns out and I will be posting a link to it as soon as it hits their site and newsstands.
I've just hit a 7 month anniversary with Amy my girlfriend. She is quite awesome and I'm glad that she and Gelsey get along well! I tend to get these amazing women in my life and I am so glad to have them there! Amy is quite awesome and is a bibliophile and audiophile at nearly the same level as me and has some of the gamer gene in her too. That and she tolerates me so she is a keeper! ;D
Thats pretty much the basic overview of the past bit of my life. I'll try to be more specific with some things later but for right now thats the best I can do. Maybe insomnia will strike again soon and I can update more frequently! :D
See you all again soon!