My Web Pride..

I used to have this pride about my blog, that so many people would read it and comment. I got to know some of the more frequent visitors, and I had real pride in my stories, and my blog’s design. It was really great for me.

But my web pride no longer lies within my blog. I’ve do so much more with what I’ve learned. Mostly, my web pride lies within the first website I coded all on my own. As the web designer for a student organization, The IEEE Robot Team, I redesigned their entire website and I have great pride in that.

My pride lies here: uwrobotics.org - Below you can see the final product on the left, and what I started with on the right.

Long Time..

Well I happened to stop by WordPress when a friend of mine started using it on her study abroad trip. She’s in Jordan right now! It’s totally crazy to me. Another friend is studying abroad in Trinidad this semester, also.

Since I hadn’t been back in awhile and noticed that a few people had stopped in to check on me – I thought they deserved an update if they came back again. Things have been really crazy since my last post – and continue to stay very busy.

In my last post I was just starting my work of that summer. I ended up getting 4-5 jobs that summer to keep me busy and working at least 40 hours a week until I moved into my apartment on campus. Once on campus, I had to leave all of those jobs except the catering job I did with my brother. I’m still employed there over the summer and on a few weekends here or there.

That year was a pretty rough one, the classes at The Universtiy of Wisconsin were soooo much tougher than the ones I had at The Universtiy of Minnesota. I never knew how much harder they would be. I had  a pretty crazy social life my first semester, and felt kind of like a freshman again. I was going out every weekend for awhile and making some pretty bad decisions. That halloween I went out one night and met a guy. He seemed really smart and great, and eventaully we started dating. We’ve been dating for over a year now – and it’s been great.

I have gone through a few jobs on campus. First I worked at the “DoIT Help Desk” where I took phone calls from students and staff about computer issues. I answered their questions about their computers, and helped reset passwords. I learened a lot from the job but eventually I wasn’t learning anything knew – and they were not paying me enough for tech support (and to keep paying for my own tutition and rent). At the end of last year, I saw a sign in the library that they were looking to hire tech support people – so on a whim, I applied. They called me in for an interview, and I got the job! They pay much more, and I get to do real hands on work. I’ve also worked on the website and have learned  a boatload about HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL.

Then on another whim, I saw an ad online for a job working in education and outreach for Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. It was just a job creating educational materials and doing outreach – but it sounded like a good job for a future biology teacher, so when they offered me that job, I took it too! So now I’m sitting on two high paying campus jobs – and feeling very happy and lucky.

As for school, I’ve just applied for the School of Education. I won’t find out until the summer if I get in. I really hope that I do! The last semesters have been rigourous. This semester seems to have a lot more time avaialble – and that’s why I decied to write a short blog again. I won’t be able to stop in everyday, but I’ll try to put some major events up! =)