The journey of almost an entire year is at an end.  This is the final line of the poem that has been titling my posts since last April.  I can move on to something else!  Maybe “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot.. nah, that poem is very long and, well, frankly I don’t really feel like doing it again.  The post titling in a pattern, that is.  I love “The Waste Land”; good times, but from here on I think I’ll go back to something a little more, well, I dunno.  Something.

For those in the know, I recently acquired a rather large video display device.  I was torn between a couple of rivaling models, specifically the LNT71F series by Samsung or the KDL-XBR4 series by Sony.  I decided finally on the Samsung, 40″ no less, due largely in part to the two hundred dollar price reduction I was able to get the other day.  I do see that, like what some reviewers have noted, the high gloss finish of the unit does lend itself towards glaring but happily my abode doesn’t really have a light setup that would interfere with the picture at all.  All I have to do now is pick up an HDMI cable to connect the cable box to the television.. I might need a new cable box (again) as well: I picked up the HD-DVR unit from my local Time Warner Cable outlet and I asked for the grey one because, well, I think the kinda gaudy golden one looks stupid.  I asked the sales representative if there was any difference other than visually with the units and she assured me that there was not and in fact gave me a set of component cables to run from the box to my new set.  I think the picture is good with these cables but not nearly as nice as the connection from my PS3 to my TV.  So, we’ll see.

I’ve been somewhat of a bad student this week; I’ve missed a good number of classes.  Luckily I don’t think I’m over the limit yet on the ones I was close to, I’m just making it such that if I take off additional days I’ll be doing myself a disservice.  I really need to delegate time more effectively towards study and school work so that I don’t fall behind in my classes.  I feel like I’m struggling a little bit in some of my classes and I think that it’s because, as I noted before, that when I get free time I’m all too willing to give it up for the first opportunity.  I’ll be taking Saturday to myself to work on an essay for my Modernism class; it only has to be three to four pages and I was not entirely correct in believing that it was on material I had not taken time to cover yet: I have a choice between two sources, Mrs. Dalloway and Malenctha.  Now, I never actually finished either work, but I got to the last few pages of Dalloway before I had to move on to new reading so I think I should have ample ability to compose such a short paper in the next day or so.  It’s due on Sunday at five in the evening; a time when I will be at work, so it’s best that I get it done between tonight or tomorrow.

I continue to be one of the two escalate technicians in my department that is still a contractor and hence only receiving contractor pay.  I heard the other day that the office is in a hiring freeze as well.  My manager assures me and the other like person that he is doing his utmost to get us hired on as actual employees but it’s going on half a year at having effectively an at least double workload for the same pay range as those who only take calls.  I am, of course, looking forward to my upcoming raise when it does finally go through.  Maybe then I can afford a better apartment.

See, I have a studio apartment, as many of you know, and it’s got somewhat of a dearth of space.  My parents have visited twice in the past couple of TV toting days and my mother in particular has been pushing me to move up to at least a single bedroom apartment.  As things stand currently I only somewhat squeeze by living alone in a studio.  In fact, due to some poor spending on eating out at work lately that I forgot to account for, this next week is going to be rather tight monetarily.  I’ll make it through, though.  I always do.