Mar 13/07: With January's layoff from ZSR, the future has gone from blah to yeah! Indeed, it's a Brand New Day for me now, as I take a few steps back in preparation for a greater leap forward.

Last year's rejection letters from universities said I needed to take several high school courses to upgrade such that I'd be ready for entry into either Aerospace Engineering program. Since being laid off, I have been able to take the courses during the day in order to more quickly prepare myself for starting in September. Whether or not I shall be accepted is another story, but I remain optimistic as my marks are far better than their requirements. When combined with my college education and my nearly 4 years of work experience, I'm sure I'll make an excellent student. My standard for having marks above the 85% line previously thought inattainable have been met with success in two of the classes I thought would be most difficult.

This progress has not been without its share of setbacks. Earlier in the term, I realized that the entire mark was based on tests and almost none of it from homework, which is where most of my marks used to come from and where I created new strategies to help. This required me to create new strategies on the fly, to improve test performance. These strategies, I'm pleased to report have been quite effective.

"So far, all the important goals have been met," I say. "This is definately what I would call progress."

While pessimism was rampant mere weeks ago following my rejection of ZSR's offer to re-hire me in their Carolina division, I told them what I thought of their management and their business strategy. There was some temporary dispair during some of the more fierce winter storms and the ambiguity regarding marks, but I pulled through.

Final exams are scheduled for next week. Full results can be viewed at http://newinventor.blogspot.com/ 

CONDO FOR SALE:

Mar 9/07: In a meeting this afternoon with Remax agent Ron BurkHolder, Jim signed numerous papers agreeing to sell the Avalon condo for $119,900. The Avalon condo has been Jim's main operations centre for 30 months. The initial signing on the final offer took place the same day the Social War began back in 2005. Today was truly an historic occasion.

"It seems a bit high," commented Ron on the asking price, "but it shows very well. We should know in about 3 weeks whether or not it'll sell at that price."

Meanwhile, most of the move has already been completed. In a strategic move, Jim sounded a retreat from Avalon back to his former HQ at Pine Island. "The plan is to establish a permanent address there; sort of an embassy if you will," said Jim of Pine Island. The movement of things began nearly 2 months ago. It is believed that when the condo sells, all the furniture can be moved by the moving team in no more than 4 hours. Still no word on who will be part of this moving team.

Old Stories (From 3 years ago):

June 26/03 - With this freeservers place getting inconvenient to update, I'm launching a diary-x online diary, where you will be able to follow in my day-to-day adventures in a T.V. Show kind of format. While I don't plan on using Jim News to update everyone on what's going on, I plan on keeping it up for reference and for picture uploads.

Anyway, if you'd like to visit it, please click on the Agent 505 link. Thanks.

MAJOR LIFE GOAL ACCOMPLISHED

May 5/03 - With college finished, and my career just beginning, a new era has dawned in the life of Jim. Currently, I work as a Junior Mechanical Designer at ZSR, which was the company name I used for my 3YP, but now use it to describe my workplace.

With money rolling in, I'm in a good financial position to start saving to replace the ever-aging Neon, as well as helping other people at times. Having spent the previous few summers at ZSR, I was able to get right into it, and get started right away.

With this new "ZSR Era" in motion, there's a lot going on, so Jim News is back in the go! See related story