Archive for November, 2010

I’m going back to school – Schooling Update!

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

*sigh* Missed my interview for going back to school, but my advisor is a nice guy so I have a rescheduled one for December 2nd. I have to pay an admin fee of $50, which I can’t pay until the 3rd (when my SSDI check comes in). I hadn’t told Keith about this… and he found out when my advisor called on Sunday morning to confirm that I really wanted to do this, since I’d missed our first phone interview. Ooops!

I’ll be going to Colorado Tech University. Right now, I’ll be looking at the website and finishing the admissions requirements before my phone appointment on December 2, 2010 and 11am.

Well, I’m not sure my husband is supportive. I told him it wouldn’t cost any money, then I had to go and put in $50 for the admissions fee. and as far as I know, it’s not going to cost anything after that. It can’t. If it does, the process stops here. I can’t afford it. I just hope it doesn’t. I really, really, want to go back to school and get my Associates degree. I’m so close. I just wish that the school that I had graduated from in 1993, and actually been a degree school and not a certificate of completion. I then went to North Dakota to finish off my degree, and I couldn’t handle being away from home. And the kids were not helping. They partied, and they weren’t conducive to what I thought college would be. My roommate was up at all hours partying and I just had to come home. It was a mess. Add to that, she didn’t approve of me… because I was disabled. This was before the ADA.

So, I’m doing this online. At my own pace. Four courses a quarter. It will take me about a year and a half – so we’ll see how it goes.

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Posted in Personal, Real Life | 108 Comments »

Changed Browsers

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Changed browsers to IE. I’ve been avoiding IE for YEARS… don’t remember why. However, I finally got tired of Firefox’s popups when starting (errors), and Chrome would crash anywhere from 15-2 hours after I started it. Might be my messed up computer, as I need to reinstall Windows XP. I plan to do so, but it’ll be a major undertaking. I’m thinking of trying a repair first, then if that doesn’t work, a full clean install.

Anyway, got tired of Chrome’s crashing after having decided to switch to it… even though it lacks toolbars, and many things that Firefox has. Brought up IE, and imagine my surprise when it has toolbars, and a lot of features of Firefox, but without the errors. And the interface is crisp and clear.

I’m not a Microsoft hater, far from it. Many of my friends work for Microsoft. I use Microsoft products every day… Office 1997, Windows XP, Windows Vista. I just erroniously thought IE was a bit overbearing… guess I was wrong. Well, I can’t be right all the time.

One thing I do NOT like about IE, there’s no way to add Google to the search function. It uses Yahoo. Grr. Oh, well, I guess I’ll get used to it.

Posted in Internet | 70 Comments »

Verbage, (or why do they say what they say?)

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

I was listening to the radio this AM, and the DJ was talking about Elton John who is going to be spending some time with his son, who is ‘afflicted’ by Cerebral Palsy. Makes it sound like Elton’s son has an infectious disease and is dying.

I was born with Cerebral Palsy too, but I sure ain’t ‘afflicted’ by it. I AM ‘affected’ by it. But there’s a big difference. From what the news story implied, it sounded like Elton’s son was homebound and wheelchair bound and couldn’t do anything for himself. Which may very well be true, but he has a disability that happened and that’s it. It doesn’t get worse like a disease like AIDS.

I just wonder where the news gets these words? It makes the disabled sound so dependant on others… and so depressing. I bet Elton’s son isn’t depressed. I bet he can do a lot of things, just like I can.

It’s been 20 years since the ADA has been passed and and words like ‘afflicted’ do a lot of damage to the image of a disabled person. It shows a disabled person that is depressed, When I bet the opposite is true.

Posted in Disability, Disability Issues | 93 Comments »