Andy Mancini
01-11-2003, 01:48 AM
Before I begin this thread, I must apologize for any boredom that might be caused from reading this. I've been on Toonzone for a year, and this is the first thread I have started that is solely about my personal life. I tend not to bring up my life up as much as other people do theirs not because I am a private individual, but because I feel that you people have better things to do than hear me ramble. Don't get me wrong, I like hearing about other people's lives, but mine just seems boring compared to everyone elses. Still, as I here at a quarter to one in the morning, listening to my favorite modern jazz album (Spiro Gyra's self-titled 1978 release on record) and drinking one of the bottles of Sprite given to me by my girlfriend's mom as thanks for building her computer, I am compelled to forgo sleep for an extra hour and ramble a bit.
Relationships
For the past two weeks, I have spent basically every waking moment either thinking, reading up on, or dealing with, computer hardware. See, my then-"almost girlfriend" Angela decided that she wanted to update her system from an AMD K6-3 450 mHz to an AMD Athlon XP 2100+. For a week and a half, I have been spending my days at her house, building, tweaking, and rebuilding (when I found out that the guy at Comp USA sold me a board that wasn't compatible with the processor even though he said it was) her dream system. Overall, the entire expirience threw me off, but not for the reasons you're thinking. The computer end of it went beautifully, culminating in a nice system and a grateful friend. What threw me off was her and her entire family's reaction to me. I don't know why, but for some reason, I was no longer considered "Andy, Angela's semi-creepy friend from high school that's three and a half years older than she is". I was being looked as "Andy, Angela's respectible boyfriend and computer guy". Maybe it's because I "proven myself" as a focused individual by successfully doing her computer without any major screw-ups. Maybe it's because her meddling, and generally distrustful older sister Amanda, works ten hour days. Who knows. Personally, I think it's because of Angela herself. This was the first time I've seen her convey the same feelings about me that I have been conveying to her for years, and everyone picked up on it. I might be overthinking this, I don't know. I know that she'll probably find somebody new at college, and I totally respect that. But for now, she's my "girlfriend", and I'm thrilled to say the least.
College
I've always stunk at school. I got good enough grades in high school, but no where near what they should have been. My concetration level isn't the greatest when I get bored, and I wasn't mature enough to correct the problem. Heck, some of you seventeen and eightten years reading this are probably more mature now than I was when I was twenty. This was the reason that I dropped out of college in the first place. I ened getting my Associates Degree from the local community college, but again, I got it by the proverbial "skin of my teeth".
So, needless to say, it was a shock to everyone when I announced that I wanted to go back to college to get my BS degree in computer science. Yes, it's proven fact that I hate school. And yes, I do have the dreaded "ADD" that is supposed to stop me from doing anything productive in my life. So why am I going back? Easy. I'm going back because I want to learn. I know this might sound stupid to some of you, but it took me 22 years to learn this lesson. That was percisely the reason why I failed so many times before. I've found that I will continue to fail at school unless I'm there to learn. Of course I'm scared, but also excited. I have absolutely no idea what the future holds, but I hope it's good.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank the three people that took the time to listen to my selfish ramblings. It's now 1:30, my Sprite is gone, and Spiro Gyra ran out ten minutes ago. I'm tired and going going to bed, but I just want to thank you all once again for listening.
Relationships
For the past two weeks, I have spent basically every waking moment either thinking, reading up on, or dealing with, computer hardware. See, my then-"almost girlfriend" Angela decided that she wanted to update her system from an AMD K6-3 450 mHz to an AMD Athlon XP 2100+. For a week and a half, I have been spending my days at her house, building, tweaking, and rebuilding (when I found out that the guy at Comp USA sold me a board that wasn't compatible with the processor even though he said it was) her dream system. Overall, the entire expirience threw me off, but not for the reasons you're thinking. The computer end of it went beautifully, culminating in a nice system and a grateful friend. What threw me off was her and her entire family's reaction to me. I don't know why, but for some reason, I was no longer considered "Andy, Angela's semi-creepy friend from high school that's three and a half years older than she is". I was being looked as "Andy, Angela's respectible boyfriend and computer guy". Maybe it's because I "proven myself" as a focused individual by successfully doing her computer without any major screw-ups. Maybe it's because her meddling, and generally distrustful older sister Amanda, works ten hour days. Who knows. Personally, I think it's because of Angela herself. This was the first time I've seen her convey the same feelings about me that I have been conveying to her for years, and everyone picked up on it. I might be overthinking this, I don't know. I know that she'll probably find somebody new at college, and I totally respect that. But for now, she's my "girlfriend", and I'm thrilled to say the least.
College
I've always stunk at school. I got good enough grades in high school, but no where near what they should have been. My concetration level isn't the greatest when I get bored, and I wasn't mature enough to correct the problem. Heck, some of you seventeen and eightten years reading this are probably more mature now than I was when I was twenty. This was the reason that I dropped out of college in the first place. I ened getting my Associates Degree from the local community college, but again, I got it by the proverbial "skin of my teeth".
So, needless to say, it was a shock to everyone when I announced that I wanted to go back to college to get my BS degree in computer science. Yes, it's proven fact that I hate school. And yes, I do have the dreaded "ADD" that is supposed to stop me from doing anything productive in my life. So why am I going back? Easy. I'm going back because I want to learn. I know this might sound stupid to some of you, but it took me 22 years to learn this lesson. That was percisely the reason why I failed so many times before. I've found that I will continue to fail at school unless I'm there to learn. Of course I'm scared, but also excited. I have absolutely no idea what the future holds, but I hope it's good.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank the three people that took the time to listen to my selfish ramblings. It's now 1:30, my Sprite is gone, and Spiro Gyra ran out ten minutes ago. I'm tired and going going to bed, but I just want to thank you all once again for listening.