Jasper Jones

If you are as sick as I am about this presidential campaign, I’m sure you are as happy as I am that we are down to the final lap.

I’ve got a pact with Alex. Since he was going to vote for the opposite candidate that I was going to vote for, neither one of us will actually vote. It makes no sense to both vote when our votes will cancel out each other. I know there are local elections, too, but since I’m not living at home I really don’t know about the local candidates and I don’t care who wins. I’ll let the people actually effected have their voice and I’ll wait to vote in the next election when I’m out of school and settled someplace.

Our school has an awesome computer lab. I hear that they funded it most of it from an alumni gift and got the rest from the Library budget. It is a popular student resource, but it has never been so crowded that I couldn’t get a workstation. My roommate Alex is one the geeks that hangs out in the computer lab for hours at a time. I would rather get in and get out, but Alex likes to talk up the other IT fanatics and sometimes helps out with others having tech problems.

He was telling me today that the faculty has approached him and two of his friends about doing some consulting work for the school’s network. They need help with everything from upgrading the server to automating the system backup. As consultants, Alex would analyze the current system, recommend any changes needed, and train the IT staff on the new systems. Alex is great at explaining things to people - he should be a teacher or even professor.

He showed me a lot about backup and the tar files in windows. I count on Alex for help with maintenance on my Dell. He’ll remove the unnecessary or damaged System Registry files to improve system performance. There are a couple good web sites that he showed me and I bookmarked them for days when Alex isn’t around and I have a question.

This was probably the nicest weather over the weekend that we’ve had all year. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, and it was cool enough at night to open the bedroom windows to let the fresh air in.

Alex spent the day with his parents on Saturday and then they all went to brunch this morning before his parents had to leave for the airport. Alex is doing OK now and his parents really helped out this past week by getting him food and other things to make him more comfortable and settled in with the leg cast causing him so much inconvenience.

Of course, I worked last night and have to go in tonight. But I was outside for the better part of both days and enjoying every minute of it. I think the only thing that would have made the days any better at all is if I had a big black labrador with me.

I just love Alex’s mom - she is such a warm and caring person. Just being around her makes you feel taken care of and secure. His dad is a great guy, too. Very reserved but confident and obviously very intelligent. They’ve been over at the dorm most of the day, just hanging out with Alex. They went out and rented a couple of good movies and picked up some lunch while I’ve been in class. His mom wants to get a few things from WalMart to fix up the room and make it a little more cozy.

His dad has decided that Alex needs a laptop computer since he won’t be able to sit at the rickety little student desk that has our desktop pc and printer on it. I was telling his dad that they can save some serious bucks if they order it online from the Office Deals.info website. That’s what we’ve been using for all our school supplies.

All you have to do is got to their homepage and click on the store name or the brand of what you’re looking for and you’ll get a list of discount offers, coupons and bargain prices. The discount promotions for computer supplies are all for brand names and store chains that everyone knows and likes, like Best Buy, Circuit City and Office Max. I think we’ve saved at least 20% on everything that we;ve bought online and most of the places give us free shipping, too.

Well Alex is going to be on crutches for at least 6 weeks. He had surgery yesterday and I brought him back to the dorm last night so he could sleep in his own bed. It’s really hard to sleep in a hospital - too much activity and noise.

His parents flew in from California yesterday and I stayed with them in the surgery waiting room till the doctor finished putting four pins into his leg and stitched him up. His parents are going to stay over the weekend and spend some time with him. He’s lucky they could drop everything and rush out here. I’m sure my folks would do the same, but they are just a 2 hour drive away - not a 7 hour flight away.

Anyway - he looks great and the worst problem he has right now is an upset stomache from the antibitoics and pain meds that he’s taking.

Of course, these crutches and the cast are going to put a big crimp in his Halloween costume plans. We’ll have to figure out something real creative to work around that cast.