Well, I've tried over and over to post a picture...

but this fuckin' thing won't let me. So I'm gonna have to actually write something original here. Son of a bitch! It's SO frustrating when technology refuses to work the way it's supposed to. I've surfed around and know that there are systems I could download to post pictures. Just too lazy to do it tonight. Watchin' Bill Murry on American Choppers. Those guys kill me. They just came close to sinking an 8 wheeler in a river. Hilarious. Could watch it all day.

It's been a long day. I started a whole new semester today, including a few AP classes at a local high school. The summer days of sleeping in till 10am are over. Up at 6:30am every day (I know, just like everyone else. Fuck off). Leave the house at 7:20ish. Quick drive south, avoiding all the DPS pricks along the way. Standing majestically before my surly 8am government class before you know it.

The chatty little pain-in-the-ass juniors from last year are now prima donna seniors, so I'm sure their shit doesn't stink at all. An hour later at 9am I've got a whole new batch of juniors takeing my history class. New minds to corrupt and manipulate. Outa there at 10am every day, Monday through Friday. Up to Ft. Hood by 11:30.

The campus on the base is dead as hell these days. Mixture of troop deployments, training, and a million dollar computer system that the college just put in that has everything all hosed up. Hay, there's my tie in. Fuckin' technology! Fuckin' main campus idiots (constant recurring theme, on and on for years now).

Enrollment is down by about a thousand students from this time last year. About 1200 victims signed up so far with a week left to go. Means that many of us have very few people signing up, which really sucks when you get paid per class. I was supposed to have 5 on base this time, but one had to be cancelled. Only 2 people signed up by last Wednesdays deadline. They had to cancel about 25 classes. I was really worried about my others, but people from other cancelled classes have signed up to mine and they're growing steadily. If they hadn't I'd be looking at 2/3rds of a check, or half a check per class, depending on how many were signed up to them. Anyway, all the sweating was for nothing. Just wish that fifth one had made.

To make matters a bit more depressing, another college that I usually work for teaching upper level government classes hired a brand spanking new full-time guy to take over the department. They brought this dude into my class a few semesters back to audition him, to get my students to review his lecture performance. Then they hired him and gave him my classes to teach. Nice huh? I tell ya, this fuckin' shit is cut-throat as hell.

Between the administrators who fuck you in the ass and then tell you it's policy, the main campus pricks who think we're just a diploma mill, and the secretaries who screw up the scedules and spread panicky rumors, it's a wonder sombody hasn't gone postal. Homey aint goin out that way though. Dealing with empowered pricks like these, I've found, is a lot like you'd imagine prison to be. You gotta be sure and smile up at them when they fuck you in the ass, because your life could always get a lot worse if they don't like you. That's pure fuckin' wisdom there, hard earned.

Well, having said all that, I do see their point. They need him to get a grad level program going. I can't do that for them since I don't have a PhD. And they're also suffering from low enrollments just like Hood. It'll all get better early next year, please God. Some of my buds spend a lot of time cussing Dubya and the war. They've got a point, but the army is an army, not some huge WPA program. If they need to spend the money on the war, so be it. The military doesn't exist to provide easy jobs for lots of folks like me and shit. Spend it where it's needed. If anything, it's a testament to what Eisenhower warned us against in his farewell speach in 1961.

Anyway, I've got another government class at 11:30, history At 12:30 (both daily), a long respite on the couch and/or in front of this friggin' thing in the afternoon, and then another couple of government classes from 7:30 to 10pm. (that's two classes, one Mon./Wed. and the other Tues./Thurs. from 7:30 to 10pm). That's a light assed load for me. A few semesters back I had 10 classes goin at once. Pay checks were PHAT! They will be again. I vow it!

Back in the glory days, the huge money days, I used to teach online classes on the side. Keep about 12 or 13 classes goin' at once. That's why I went down to Austin and bought this friggin' thing. But the course load got to be a huge grind. All day long in class and then half the night pluggin' away here. The money was awesome, but I had no life, so I let it slide. Decided to go for quality of life in stead of money. Stupidest fuckin' thing I've ever did(ffwell, not really). Never mind. Thing is, same time I did that I also bought this house and about 17 acres of land south of here. Took on two mortgage payments and the income went down 20 grand, all at the same time (See what I mean). Never mind.

So now I'm getting back into it. Took the online training last weekend, between surfin' Big Dick (that doesn't sound right, does it?), Mushy, Oz, cool violence on You Tube, etc. I knew when I started this thing I was gonna spend way too friggin' much time loafin'. It's like it's in my DNA or somethin. Anyway, passed with flying colors, so they should start assigning classes to me soon.

Well, it's 1:45 and I've got to go hit the sack. Let these depressing musings reassure you that your own life or career is not quite as hap-hazard as you may think it is. Honestly, I haven't had a conventional 9 to 5 gig in 15 or 20 years. Wouldn't know what to do in a cubical. Love the work, but I'm a greedy bastard. I REALLY like to live well, eat out a lot, go to a gun show and buy what ever I want, and that's hard to do when yer dick is in the dirt. Ok, that means when you're poor.

I mean, I'm still doing a hell of a lot better than most around here, but I also know what it's like when you're doing even better. That shit is addicting. Worse than crack. For a short, hot time back there, the only guy making more money than me was the dean of the campus. I never knew what true motivation was until I fell into real prosperity and then fumbled it away. I'll get it back. It's easy. Yea, I know. True happiness can't be found with money? Maybe. Maybe. Aw bullshit! Tell somebody else that hippy drivel. I'm a fat, hairy, mercenary bastard, and I will be back swimmin in the benjamins very very soon. I vow it.