The things I haven't been telling you

Because of all the time spent working and studying it seems that my blog has just become a linking station. That isn't going to change soon as we head into summer session. Normally I've been going from 7am to 10-11pm. This summer I'll typically be going from 7am to midnight. With some overnight shifts thrown in for shits and giggles.

The big thing is that I'm no longer a Teamster. Given that my day job doesn't involve much print and the job I'm transferring into involves zero print, I figured it was time to cut my losses. It doesn't help (or did help depending on how you think about it) that they're changing the rules on our inter-local pension fund. Again. Not only are they reducing the benefit, but they want to remove the lump sum option. So before it goes away, I'm taking advantage of it. Which is really sad. If the benefit remained about the same it really would be a fantastic benefit for retirement (probably doubling my income from Social Security). However the rule change before I joined was to allow the Teamsters to buy into this extra benefit (if I had been able to retire from the print shop I would have had 2 pensions along with Social Security - also, my union is affiliated with the Teamsters, but that's only been for the past decade), that was supposed to shore up the fund. The fund is currently stable with a very large amount of money invested. But it's top heavy (more retirees than those people contributing) and it's not insured by the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation so if it goes away, all that money goes away with it. This move may also involve much of my freelance work going bye-bye as well.

For the reboot I'm going to receive the Outstanding Radiologic Technology Student of 2014 award. Which I guess is a medal. So for graduation I'll be able to wear my Phi Theta Kappa stole, a gold cord for graduating with honors (unless I screw up it should be Summa Cum Laude, if I screw up it'll be Magna Cum Laude), and the medal. Go me. I really wish I had this focus graduating form high school and starting college. However, my life would have been radically different.

Also with the reboot I'm down to the nitty-gritty when it comes to competencies. I'm not entirely certain but I think I only have 2 more to go (depends on if I passed the mandible before I left on Friday, I don't have clinicals for two weeks, so that's when I'll find out if I have to redo that). There's also two more checklists to go over (fairly easy, "which button takes the exposure" kind of thing). Oh and 1 or 2 film critiques (pretty easy). Considering where I was this time last year, that's a big improvement. This past semester I had no failed comps (depending on that mandible) which is a big change. I'm a lot more confident, competent, and a heck of a lot faster. At this time last year it would take me about 15-18 minutes for a 2 view chest. It now takes me less than 8 minutes.

My RSS feed continues to be above 500 (currently at 536). I haven't been able to get it below 450 since February.

Spring is here, which means the grass needs to be mowed. Haven't done it yet, but it still needs to be mowed. Maybe this week we'll start up the mower. I'll also need to finish some of the outdoor projects.

And then there's the writing. Must, must, must get back to putting words down. You should see the note papers next to my bed. Lots of them.