As my re-entry to the college life continues, I have come face-to-face with one of the dreaded tasks of education – tests.

It has been eight years since I last took a graded examination, but that does not matter anymore.  In a weeks span, both of my courses this semester issued exams.  Up to this point I felt that I had been performing fairly well – I was going to every class session possible, keeping up with the readings, and feeling like I was understanding the discussion points at hand.

That all goes down the drain come test time.  No matter how much work I do beforehand, the test does not care.  It’s put up or shut up time.  And I quickly learned that almost a decade off adversely impacts my ability to take tests.  Back then I rarely got nervous or suffered from “test anxiety.”  Nerves of steel, man.  Nerves of steel.  Now, whether it’s my increased awareness of adulthood responsibility or just plain old rust, I was a nervous wreck before and during the test.  Did I draw that ER diagram right?  Is that an associative entity or just a relationship?  What about that cost-of-good-sold schedule?  Is the answer A or all of the above?  I probably sweated off five pounds for each session.

In the end, though, it was much ado about nothing.  I got an A on my database structure test and a B on the managerial accounting one.  Still, it was a helluva warm-up and refresher on the academic life.  While I expect to do better on the next exams, I do feel better about this experiment knowing that I can still do the work.

I’ll have more to say about the hurricanes and disasters along the Gulf Coast later, but this needs noted.  At the beginning of September we heard nothing but doom & gloom horror stories about what was going on in New Orleans after Katrina washed away Louisiana (plus Mississippi and Alabama, in case we have forgotten).  Apparently the stories were nothing but a steaming load of lies, as described by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated

My Mountaineers are off to a rousing 4-0 start.  Granted, some of the wins have not been, err, aesthetically pleasing and one has come over a 1-AA program.  Still, WVU remains one of about 30 teams (28 if I counted right) without a loss on the season.  Yes, the traitorous Chokies from Blacksburg cow pasture are coming into town sporting the same 4-0 mark and a gaudy #3 ranking.  However, I choose to remain positive.  I remember the last time ESPN showed Frank “Booger” Beamer in town, when he was sporting an unblemished record and a #3 ranking.  Too bad he won’t have Ernest Wilford to slap around this time.

The same cannot be said for my Carolina Panthers, now 1-2 after a late second loss in Miami.  Ugh.  I complained the moment I found out that Sports Illustrated picked them to go all the way. They even had the audacity to put Jake Delhomme on the cover!!!  I knew I should have canceled my subscription right them and there.

Two races into the Chase for the Winston Nextel Cup and Jimmie Johnson leads the way.  Damn.  At least all those pansy Jeffie Gordon fans have someone to bandwagon onto rather than forget about the race when their little boy is eliminated.  I was not a fan by any means of old Ironhead, but I had to respect his fans.  When someone crashed Sr., they bitched about it but they stuck around for the checkers.

Barry Bonds is on record this week saying that if he requires any more surgeries to mend his 41-year old body, he would retire rather than come back.  Good.  Someone call in a doctor and give this man the once over, and maybe some 2nd opinions on his knee and other parts.  Bonds is an egotistical, juiced up, glorified DH who shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth as home run kings.  Will BALCO sponsor the home run title?

NHL and NBA training camps are set to open soon.  Will anyone notice?

College football is now turning to a group of ex-coaches, writers, administrators, etc., for a new poll called Harris (run, ironically enough, by Harris Polling) that is supposed to be non-biased and based on what a team has actually done, rather than where it starts in the preseason polls.  Amazingly, the Harris looks like the AP that looks like the coaches.

Our life as a multiple child household is beginning to settle in to the new routine.  Not that I in any way want to cast a jinx upon my family, but for the most part this transition has gone smoother than I ever could have expected.  OK, so we’re going through diapers like a heroin addict does needles.  And it is true that every time I think positive about our new son’s five-hour sleep time at night he follows it up with a cry per hour the next.  But all in all we seem to be settling into a groove quite nicely.  Nothing could make me happier.

I took almost three weeks off for “paternity leave” so we could start this adjustment off on the right foot.  There are times where I think about being at home all day long, no work or anything, and I picture at least part of my day spent on the ‘net.  Now given a three-week tour, surely some online time was in the cards.

Hardly.  I’ve been quite negligent of this blog, my message boards, and pretty much my online life.  E-mails were quite scarce, and it was a good day if I even got to turn on the computer.  The interesting thing about it, though, was that I never really felt the need to turn any machine on out of habit, to update this journal (which should be plainly obvious), or to communicate digitally with the outside world.   Seems almost unheard of in this day, but I did it and did not feel weird about it.

Now I go back to the drudgery and solitude of work.  Check that – solitude denotes something peaceful and pleasurable, which is NOT my job.  But I am down in the garage by myself for eight hours each day again, which means that I will need my outlet back.  So the blog shouldn’t get dusty for awhile and my post padding shall resume.

It’s funny what happens when you spend all day with the family you love.  You get the interaction you need.

This blog has been laying around gathering dust for a bit (not that anyone else would notice) but at least this time I hada good reason for neglecting it – I’ve been welcoming my second son to the world. Little Ethan was born on September 6th! Once I get caught back up on the sleep I’ll start putting things up for no-one else to read.