Not a good past 24 hours for me :(

Cutter's Log - Stardate 8002.41.50
Current Song - Low (REM)

NOTE: THIS BLOG ENTRY IS BROKEN UP INTO SMALLER ENTRIES. IT'S BEEN AN ABSOLUTELY AWFUL LAST 24 HOURS.


FUNDS ARE LOW

Since I quit my job (totally justified) I haven't been able to make any money. Okay, so there was Birthday money.

I had a bad run at a casino on Monday afternoon. Not going to one again.

I'm down to about $500 in my name. I'm in the middle of putting my junk together and starting a rummage sale. I'm selling my electronic keyboard, probably my stereo, small stuff and about 10,000 baseball cards (2/5 of my entire collection).

Plus, it will get rid of clutter that's been piling up all over the house. I've already laid claim to the basement couch and old entertainment center.


SUCK VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE REJECTS MY JOURNALISM CLASSES

It seems like everyone has their own Sauk Valley Community College horror story. I can now claim to have one of my own.

I am persuing an Associate's Degree in Mass Communication. In order to get that degree, I have to take two Journalism classes. They were not offered when I first arrived at SVCC in Fall 2005. When I was working with the Voyager, there was a Journalism tutorial class offered. But I had enough in my workload planned by then, so I couldn't take it.

This past March, I had my "academic check-up" (as I like to call it), and there was hope that the Journalism classes would be revived as a tutorial. That decision would be made final by the Vice President of Academics.

Two weeks ago, I asked the VP of A for permission to take the beginning Journalism class. He would come up with a final decision at the end of the school year.

Yesterday, I get an e-mail from the VP of A's secretary, asking me for a reason I would like to take the class:

"I talked with (him) regarding your inquiry about being able to take the ENG 151 as an independent study and he wondered why you wanted to take it. Is it to fulfill a specific requirement for a program or are you just interested in taking it? If you could let me know your reasoning, I would appreciate it."

My response was:

"First, ENG 151 (and 152) are required for the A.A. in Mass Communication, which I am persuing. It is my understanding that these classes were cut due to low enrollment. However, they were revived as tutorials in 2006-07.

Second, I am not fit to transfer to another college. If I did, I may be in violation of a residency requirement."

The VP of A e-mails me later in the day (five hours later):

"I am sorry, but the College will not be in a position of offer ENG 151 to you as a tutorial.
I do not expect the College will offer this class again next year and encourage you to meet with an advisor to see in which other program of study the courses you have completed will fit."

WHAT?

I'm pretty sure my reasoning was clear that since you offer it, I have to take it. Right? If I said that I wanted to take it just for the heck of it, I'm pretty sure that request would have been denied. So do I take this as it was going to be denied anyway? I guess no one in the English department wants to take time to do this. The college President currently has Brian, the journalism instructor, tied up in his PR job.

So the Administration has totally screwed me over.

I'm looking at other institutions. Clinton and Scott CC's and Illinois Valley CC. Now I don't know if I have it better off moving into an apartment, or commuting and paying an out-of-district fee. I will continue to take my two summer classes at Sauk. I may have to pull out of the Norris class in the Fall.


FUTURE OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS SPORTS BEAT UNCERTAIN

Running out of money and gas prices skyrocketing just doesn't mix. I've had to put off A LOT of Spring events because the travel was just too great. I resorted to writing news-like sports stories just to stay fresh in my writing. There hasn't been a whole lot of that, except NCIC expansion and the Steve Sandholm suit.

I want to get into the habit of writing more periodically. Earlier in the blog, I outlined a plan to apply to the Ottawa Times, LaSalle News-Tribune and the Freeport Journal Standard. It looks like Ottawa is looking for some spring help, but I'm going to see if I can be of any help for them in the fall. Freeport I hear takes a long time to cut stringer paychecks. LP I don't know much about, except that it is one of the smaller papers in the area.

If I land at one of those, I'll have to make some drastic changes to the content side of the site, but still retain the message boards.

That's Plan A.

Plan B involves creating a second website called NewRocSter.com - basically a site with articles about Sterling, Rock Falls and Newman sports. It would act as an unofficial text supplement to the Sterling and Rock Falls sites. They have the pictures and video, I'll provide the stories. I'd have to make money selling archives of articles - and get a paper route. That would bring me back to making half of what I did at BP.

Either way, the NISB Message Boards will always be up and running if any changes are made.


INTERNET CONNECTION BITES

The Internet connection here sucks. It disconnects every 30 minutes for some reason. Three times since I began typing this. The computer here is eight years old (that's 80 in computer years), and is a Pentium III processer. It just can't keep up with today's increasing demands.

Dad is thinking about buying a new computer. When he does, he asked if I could possibly have any use of the present one. I'd like to. It's a free computer! I'll just have to pay for an Internet connection. Plus, after transferring 85% or so of the computer's stuff to the new one, I'll have what's left. Maybe that will help the computer run better when I have it for my own.


IT'S ALL ONE BIG KNOT

Everything mentioned has to do with one another. Finding a job right now will affect the newspaper job search, which will affect NISB. It's hard for me to find a filter here. Carrying on with another odd job will further damage my writing.

The LaSalle News-Tribune will be getting an introductary packet soon. I'll be requesting $25-50/story.