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You can get some real uberkewl gear at my uberkewl cafepress online store. This swag is leet and you know you want it so go buy some! Proceeds from the purchases will be used to help finance my quest for paper of worth aka my education.

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Uberkewl.net is standards compliant with the above technologies which are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium.

.:: SecureMe

If you are looking for SecureMe, The secure logon/password storage program that I wrote in Java, that encrypts logon/password information using 3DES symmetric key cryptography click here

.:: Hacker

Call it a pet peeve if you like, but it really chaffs my ass when cheaters and crackers are referred to as hackers by the media and the general public. If you are one of those people who don't know the difference then please click on the image above and prepare for enlightenment.

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School aka The Quest

This page is all about my quest for paper of worth. Some people don't think that education is important in the grand scheme of things and think that going out and jumping into the world of work is the way to go. I used to think that way too, until it got to the point where I kept looking back on the time I spent working and trying to get ahead in the world and saw that I wasn't getting ahead but the people that I was working for were doing quite well thanks to my sweat, blood, and tears of frustration.

At this point I decided that I needed to go back to school so that I had more to offer my prospective employers besides my physical strength. Physical hard labor is fine for young men but you can't do it forever. Age takes its toll and the strength wanes and if you don't have some backup job you can do, well you're pretty screwed. So in 2003 I decided to start my quest for paper of worth at the age of 40.

Education has taught me many things about life that I really should have known all along but didn't seem to see. The first thing it taught me is that life isn't about making money and obtaining stuff. It is about experiences and relationships. Another thing it taught me is that many people will do anything to obtain stuff, which tells me that many people just don't get it. Sure you should strive to get ahead and do better for yourself, but you should set some moral boundaries that you absolutely will not cross. Like not exploiting other living creatures or the environment. If what you are doing is causing someone else to suffer or destroying the planet we live on, well maybe you shouldn't be doing it or maybe you should be doing it differently.

These lessons alone were worth all the money and time I invested in education. The lessons listed here are just the tip of the iceberg of understanding. There are many more reasons besides the ones I've listed. You simply cannot put a price on relationships and I have met many fantastic people during my quest and made a lot of new friends.

The Quest Begins - Bob Evans?

My Quest began in the parking lot of a Bob Evans Restaurant located in East Peoria, Illinois. My mom and I had just finished having breakfast and our conversation turned to politics (imagine that). I was raging about George W. Bush and other worthless politicians and government policies, when my mother in her all knowing wisdom told me that I shouldn't get so worked up about things that were not in my circle of influence and that if I even dreamed of being able to make any difference at all that I would need a college education. Mom was always prompting me to go back to school. She's been doing it since I was 18. I figured that it was time I listened to her. So I went online and applied for a Department of Education pin number and then I went to the Department of Education's Free Application for Federal Student Aid website www.fafsa.ed.gov and filled out the form and after I received my pin number I signed my application and submitted it. Then I went to my local community college and took the battery of placement tests. The results of these tests and my selected course of study, "Computer Information Systems" allowed my counselor to advise me on what classes I needed to take.

Illinois Central College - Semester One - Fall 2003

This was an exceptional semester. It was particularly memorable for me because of three incredible teachers, William Feipel, Rick Becker, and Mike Foster.

"Wild Bill" Feipel

Feipel is an automoton of energy and he knows how to reach out and grab the attention of his audience. He is a phenomenal speaker and teacher. I will always remember him. GTA Rules d00d! Economics was never so much fun!

Rick Becker and Mike Foster

These guys were the Dynamic Duo of Humanities. The way they worked together reminded me of tag team wrestling champions of the world. I learned so much about what kind of person I wanted to be in this single class thanks to these gentlemen. The Jelly Bean lecture and the Desert Island paper were my favorites. Mike Foster retired shortly after teaching this class and his retirement was truly a loss to Illinois Central College, but I wish both him and Rick Becker the best of luck in everything they attempt to do. Thank You Gentlemen!

Illinois Central College - Semester Two - Spring 2004

This was a very good semester. It was particularly memorable for me because of two incredible teachers, Paul Resnick, and Craig Shurtleff.

Paul Resnick

Paul is a fantastic teacher. He is one of those teachers who you can tell really loves his job and it shows. If you make the effort and do the work he is so supportive and helpful. When I first signed up for his class I thought "Ugh, another semester of English Composition" but after a few days in his class it became one of my favorite classes of all time. Thanks to him, I DO know how to cite a paper! :) Thanks Paul! You are so subversive! :)

Craig Shurtleff

I loved Craig Shurtleff's Mythology class. We had sooo much fun in that class. We went and saw Homer's Odyssey peformed live at Bradley University which was very cool. The Greek plays we worked on were so much fun. Our group had to do a presentation of Aristophane's most popular work Lysistrata and we had a blast with it. I'll never forget that class.

I would also like to take a second and mention some special friends I met during this semester. The first is Milka Dodson. She became my buddy in English Composition and fairly regularly we would have lunch together. She was always fun to be around. The other is Kaela Dubois who sat across the aisle from me in Mythology and I would always stop and talk to her when I saw her on campus. I haven't seen either of these great people in ages but I still think of both of them from time to time. If either of you fine ladies see this, get a hold of me!

Illinois Central College - Semester Three - Fall 2004

This was a good semester. I met one of my favorite programming teachers Vic Broquard.

Vic Broquard

Vic is the most awesome programming instructor on the planet in my opinion. He took fairly complex data structures and void pointers and made them easy to use. This is no small feat when you only have a semester to get your students proficient and he rocked my programming world. This is the kind of teacher that makes you want to take every course he offers and I really wish I could have spent more time at ICC.

Illinois Central College - Semester Four - Spring 2005

Nothing really noteworthy happened this semester. It was neither exceptional nor extremely bad. It all averaged out.

Illinois Central College - Summer 2005

I figured that Summer school would suck, but this was an awesome summer class. John Love is a cool dude. Hey if we are doing math it is a good day! :)

Illinois Central College - Semester Five - Fall 2005

The Fall 2005 semester was the very worst semester of my Academic career. My Physics instructor decided the best way to encourage us to do his homework was to assign the homework problems and then give us a quiz the next class period over random assigned problems. Not weekly, but daily. This was extremely bad for me because I was also taking Calculus at the same time which is notoriously time consuming on its own. So I decided to sacrifice the Biology class in the hopes that I could magically finagle passing grades out of the Physics and Calculus classes... it was a no go and by the time I gave up the ghost on the Calculus class and Physics class, it was too late to save the Biology class. I failed them all. EVIL THOUGHTS!

Illinois Central College - Semester Six - Spring 2006

This was a very good semester. It was particularly memorable for me because all my instructors were exceptionally good. Dr. Laura Bradshaw was a FINE teacher. I actually enjoyed her class... well everything except for the Foraging Lab, HaHaHa! Ed Stermer is an awesome instructor and I really liked this class. Those damn squirrels kept popping up in darnedest places.... Fereja Tahir was an exceptional Calculus instructor... I really miss him now that I am at ISU... Good Calculus teachers are hard to come by.

Illinois Central College - Graduation

It took me 3 years to get a 2 year degree, but I did get one! :)
Yay! I am an Associate in Arts & Science in Computer Information Systems with a Technical Emphasis. They gave me this neat piece of paper of worth to start my collection. They also gave me a cool Alumni ink pen and a pretty blue folder to put my paper of worth into and I got to keep the tassel! I think that is a fair trade for about $15,000.00. Just kidding... actually I wouldn't trade all the money in the world for the time I spent at ICC. It is the experiences and relationships that make our lives rich, not money. I don't know who that dude is, just kidding, it is me being awarded my Diploma. Actually I was being awarded an empty Diploma folder. I didn't get the actual Diploma until after my grades were posted.

Relocation from East Peoria to Bloomington

With Phase I of my multi-phase plan complete, it was time to move on to Phase II. Just so everyone understands, I HATE moving. The whole pack up my trash and throw away all the junk I collected over the years at that residence, and the giving up of all things familiar to move to someplace new and strange and uncertain makes me feel physically ill. I had to give up my beautiful exotic salt-water fish and sell them along with all my live rock back to pet stores that could afford to give me a fraction of what I paid... I did not want to give up my pets!!! I put my 55 gallon tank into storage and moved my trash away from my spacious 1 bedroom apartment in East Peoria to a tiny studio apartment in Bloomington. If you have ever tried to move from a larger apartment to a much smaller one then maybe you can appreciate the difficulties it presents... The new apartment has taken on some of the characteristics of an over-populated urban area... yes it looks very cramped and your junk starts growing vertically because there is no room for expansion in any other direction. Thankfully I have very high ceilings. :)

Illinois State University - Semester One - Fall 2006

This was an exceptional semester. It was particularly memorable for me because all of my professors were brilliant and outstanding teachers.

Dr. Michael Morayne

Dr. Morayne was an awesome calculus teacher. If my other 3 classes had not been major specific studies and soooo much work I would have had or made the time by sacrificing a different class so that I could have done the assigned homework and passed his class. My failure in this class was not due to Dr. Morayne's teaching ability. I had really hoped to take HIS class again, but that was the last semester he taught at ISU. I don't know why.

Dr. Thomas Portegys

Dr. Portegys is one of the best programming teachers I have ever met. This man is simply brilliant. I loved all of the classes I took that he taught. He was kind of an unconventional professor, as he showed up to teach in blue jeans, t-shirt and sandals which never failed to make me smile. The Computer Graphics class was especially fun and challenging and you can see some of the assignments that we were given on my Code page.

Dr. Chung-Chih Li

Dr. Li is an awesome teacher. I think that I learned more about programming languages from this man than any other to date. His courses are always challenging and will force you to think.

Illinois State University - Semester Two - Spring 2007

Illinois State University - Semester Three - Fall 2007

I ended up withdrawing from Dr. Sissokho's Calculus II class because I was fighting with Physics II so I cannot really rate Dr. Sissokho as an instructor. The shining light for me this semester was Dr. Twitchell and the Fundamentals of Information Assurance and Security class. I wrote my SecureMe Java application for this class.

Illinois State University - Semester Four - Spring 2008

For the record, when I attempted to register for my classes, I was forced to go see my academic advisor because the system would not allow me to register for the Calculus II class because I took it the first semester I was at ISU and started to take it the semester before this one, and even though I had withdrawn from the class the system put a block on my registration. This forced me to go see my academic advisor to get an over-ride. At that time, my advisor told me that he would not under any circumstances short of physical bodily injury over-ride this class for me again. So this was my last shot to pass Calculus II. Knowing this to be the case and knowing that I had to carry 12 semester hours to be full time and to get all my grant money so I could survive the semester, I registered 2 throw-away classes that I could blow off to focus on Calculus II. These classes were Early Western Civilizations which if you look at my ICC schedules you will see that I had already taken this class and passed it with a B and in fact when I got my textbooks it was the same exact text used at ICC, the other throw-away class was Cultures of the World. As luck would have it I got saddled with the worst Calculus teacher I have ever had the misfortune of lecturing me. This one ranks right up there with Ken Eckstein (ICC General Physics) the first semester he taught. The whole semester became surreal for me. I completely blew off Western Civ and World Cultures so that I could attempt to do all the homework that Mills was assigning. The only shining light that semester for me was Dr. Robert Shoop. Dr. Shoop is a great statistics teacher... He walked into class the first day of classes and told everyone in the lecture hall that if we attended class everyday and we did the assigned problems that his class should be the easiest class we ever take at ISU. Thank goodness. But I have to say that he is wrong because Dr. James Stanlaw's World Cultures would have to be the easiest class I ever took... I completely blew it off and got a B. :) As for Dr. Donald Mills, I was advised by my academic advisor to file grievances against him with the Math Department and the Campus Provost's Office, which I did. Right after I changed my major from Applied Computer Science to Computer Information Systems System Analyst. Not a happy camper.

Stanlaw's Primary Principle of Pessimistic Predictions: "When things can't get much better, they inevitably have to get worse."

Morrow's Secondary Principle of Pessimistic Predictions: "When things can't seem to get much worse, they will."

Influential Instructors

In every class I have ever taken I have learned something new or gained a better grasp on some knowledge that I already had. This means that every instructor I've had has been influential in some sense. The instructors I list here are the ones that I felt were exceptional and whose classes I enjoyed the most. They are not listed in any particular order.

Name: Dr. Jamal Nassar
School: Illinois State University
Class: Political Science 140 - Politics of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

This class was an elective class to fulfill a global studies requirement for my Bachelor of Computer Information Systems degree. It is one of those classes that is supposed to make you a more well rounded person and had absolutely nothing to do with my major. I wasn't terribly thrilled about taking it to begin with and only chose it because other people who had taken the class either loved Dr. Nassar or hated him and an overwhelming majority of them couldn't seem to praise the man enough.

Dr. Nassar started his class by informing a rather large and extremely populated lecture hall that he was a Palestinian Arab who came to the US in 1966 and lives in the US by choice. He points out that he made a conscious choice to live here and that his reason for being here, unlike most of ours, was not because of an accident of birth. He also asked the entire hall if there was anyone in the lecture who had been here longer than he had. Since everyone else in the class was considerably younger than I was, I was the only person to raise their hand. I had him by 3 years. He continued to state that since he chose to be in the US and since he had been in the US longer than everyone except for me, his patriotism should not be challenged.

He told the class that he was going to tell them some things about the US that they were not going to like and if they couldn't deal with that then maybe they should consider taking an alternative class. I felt that Dr. Nassar was my kind of guy. No sugar coating, just tell it like it is! That semester he did exactly that. He lowered the boom on nationalism and symbol worship and on the exploitation of fellow man. The textbook we used that semester, Politics & Culture in the Developing World: The Impact of Globalization, was co-written by Dr. Nassar and Mr. Payne. My copy was used and beat up. I enjoyed the class so much that I went to the bookstore and ordered a brand new copy and asked Dr. Nassar to sign it for me.

I was fortunate that I chose to take the class when I did because it was the last semester that Dr. Nassar was teaching it at Illinois State University. He was offered a much more prestigious position at the University of California. I can't help but feel that this is Illinois State University's loss. I am sure that Dr. Nassar will continue to fight for the rights of the third world and to help make our world a better place to live no matter where he is.

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