It's here

It has begun. The semester. No really. THE semester.

Normally I take two classes and complain about it. Now I'm going to take four. And work full time and look for a job. Fun for everyone!

But if I can handle a few months of hard work I'll be done. That's it. No more classes whatsoever to graduate.

Yeah! If I can just handle it. When I was in undergrad...well, I didn't start so good. But I got a wake up call and shifted into high gear. I got great grades the next few semesters, so I tried to do a bit more, and my grades suffered. One semester I worked full time and went to school full time (40 and 12). But it actually wasn't as hard as the semester where I worked 25 hours and took 18 hours.

Right now I'm in the cruising along mode. If I get an A- I'm pissed. But getting 4 A's will not be easy. And I can't get less than a B. So I'm hoping I can handle the heat this time. We'll see. The classes don't worry me as much as the distractions. Kat will be busy and need help cleaning the house, and our dog requires significant attention. And, oh yeah, Kat might actually want to see me at some point in the next four months. Forget photography...for a short time.

So, time to put the nose to the grindstone. I figure it will take 3 hours 4 days a week to get through the reading (leaving me about an hour for Kat, cleaning and the dog), and 4 hours a day on the weekends to complete the projects and tests. Plus classes on Monday night and Saturday afternoon. That may be more than I can handle, but I keep telling myself I can do anything short term.

We'll see. I suppose this post was half to motivate myself, and half to explain my absence, both over the last week or two, and over the next few months. See you in May! Okay, I'll post a bit more often than that, but probably won't have much exciting to talk about.

Above is a pic of a sunset coming down from King's Canyon into the central valley. I actually have a stunning set of these pictures which I intend to stitch together for a panorama, but for now, this will do. I really loved the clouds and the mist and the lava red of the sunset to the right. I've actually never seen such a big sunset. It took up more than 180 degrees of the sky, and this shot is looking to the left of it.