Tim vs Google

• Google has a Research and Development building at NASA
  Tim knows every line ever uttered on the Satellite of Love

• Tim uses a lot of name-dropping and pop culture references in everyday conversation.
  Google, if I was so inclined to do so, can tell me what the hell Tim was talking about.

• Google is working on providing free wireless internet access.
  Tim provides free comedy and entertainment for those around him.

• Tim is a sexy man.
  Google can give me wallpapers of Kristin Kreuk.

• Google is part of the team developing a $100 laptop for children around the world.
  Tim is freakishly tall, and has potential for providing shade for children around the world.

• Tim’s beaten Island of Dr Brain more times than should be possible in one lifetime.
  Google can give me a walkthrough, so I can do it as well.

• Tim’s leaving us to live in Chicago.
  Google is always there… searching… watching…

• If you ask Google about a “miserable failure” it’ll give you President Bush’s biography.
  If you ask Tim about a “miserable failure”… well… he’d probably say George W as well.
  

All in all, I think it's too close to call. I'm going to leave it up to you. If you have anything else to add, feel free. It may tip the bal

I really am the Greatest

Currently Book: The Chronicles of Narnia
Next Movie to See: Serenity
Eagerly Awaiting: Smallville Season Premier
Current Chess Status: Undefeated

• Seeing as that I’m the greatest, and Ro’s the greatest, its easy to understand why we’re so perfect for each other. So I figured I’d just come out and say it since everyone else seems to shy to do so. “I am awesome.” Alright, now the pressure’s off… everyone can feel free to speak their minds. Feel free to leave your praises in the comment section.


• The picture is of the turning point in Scott and I’s last game, he’s really excited about losing, I’m not really sure if he had any idea that swift and utter defeat was only 2 moves after that.

• Sometime I start typing these posts and realize that there is little to no flow to the writing. When it’s all disjunctured like this I just make it bulleted and pretend like it was my intention all along.

• Apartment update #1: Going to try and work out a time for mom to come up and visit so we can look at apartments. Scott is going to be graduating sooner than later, and I’ve already stayed at Scott’s… well… originally I was just crashing there a week or so.

• Apartment update #2: We’ve got an inspector coming to the apartment today, so I had to make it look like I didn’t live there. Since I sleep on a futon, this isn’t too hard. The only thing that might be difficult to explain is why Scott has an extra dresser.

• I rule at chess.

• I got a B on my paper that I wrote for class. That paper was far harder than I had anticipated, and I was estatic to get a B. Also I should yet again, thank my roommate for proofreading it for me. He checked the first 4 or so pages for me, and it’s amazing the number of red marks on the last 3 versus those original 4. So, thanks Scott.

• Phil, we demand that you get your own blog!

Gaudy Patriotism

So, a while ago (a few years maybe, I don’t keep track of these things) some guy wanted to practice making an online store to help benefit his small, independent company. He was also struck with an epiphany, “how about I make a cheap product and sell it as a fund raiser!” This was a great idea, and just like the LIVEstrong bracelets, there’s really no fault or complaint to be had with it. Our friend decided to sell these yellow, ‘support our troops’ ribbon things, and would send the proceeds to families in need. I commend that man, great idea and great action. However part of me hates him as well… again, like the LIVEstrong bracelets.

Could he have foreseen what was going to come of this? No.
Was it ever his intention? No.
Do I hold him a bit responsible nonetheless? Uhh… yeah, a bit.
Does slapping that on your car really support anyone? Depends; sadly - not often.
Does putting an anti-bush or anti-war ribbon really fulfill your resistance ambitions? Maybe if you put in on your bicycle…

We all support our troops, no one wishes any ill on our soldiers (if they do, they should be kicked in the teeth). There’s really nothing wrong with having a ribbon on your car, if they money didn’t actually go to helping someone, I just don’t really see the purpose.

America is a great country because it is the land of freedom, opportunity and a several other overused, underconsidered cliches. You don’t have to be born here, you don’t have to be of a particular heritage, or even religion, THAT's why I'm proud to be an American. But I've gone off point... wait did I have a point? oh yeah, gaudy patriotism... like the title.

No where in our bill of rights is there the Right to be Obscene. So does plastering a total of fourteen ribbons and 2 flags on your car (I counted) make you more American, or a better American… or just tacky. Do I hate this woman for her patriotism? No, of course not… but I do pity her. I mean seriously, she’s just got no fashion sense whatsoever. She probably wears white after Labor Day as well. And mixes her browns and blacks and blues. And has lawn figurines. And Christmas Decorations up all year round. And those shiny basketball sized orb things in her yard too.

This made me laugh.

Neapolitan isn't just Ice Cream

I have a post all typed up and ready to go. I have a picture that I took while driving that is essential to the post, but my cell phone is unable to connect to the internet for the last 2 hours. So I'm going to have to put this post off until tomorrow. Problem is, I really don't feel like typing up a whole new post. oh well...

Ro came to visit this weekend, and it was awesome. I drove up to pick her up after work on Friday meaning I didn't leave until... midnight. But her brother had the car and we had a party to go to on Saturday. Tim's Farewell Party at Josh's house that is. Ro and I spent a lot of time "just hanging out." For example, on Sunday we went to Barns and Noble to do homework, but there was no tables available. So we somehow ended up at the pets section and looked at ridiculously cute pictures of puppies the whole time. And I came across the name of a particular breed of dog that I've been wanting since the Europe trip.

While waiting at a train station in Prague - Josh, and two other Euro-friends, came across this girl. The girl wasn't too remarkable, or maybe she was, we just couldn't have told you because we were too obsessed with the dogbeast at her feet. Seriously, the largest, scariest dog, I'd ever seen. We called it a "Shark with Legs." When it yawned, I swear it had like 8 rows of teeth. Its a good thing that it was so well behaved, because weighed just shy of 150 pounds, to our estimation (and the girl probably 110.)

It was a Neapolitan Mastiff.
Here's some pictures.
Scarriest dog ever.

A Little Ingenuity

• Current Book: Lies My Teacher Told Me
• Current Homework: A paper on Legislatures from an Institutional Perspective
• Current Video Game: Burnout 4: Revenge
• Current Scott vs. Rob Chess Standing: Rob 1, Scott 0
• Current Timewaster: Facebook
• Current Movie: Watching Final Fantasy: Advent Children this weekend with Ro

Like that picture? I bring a tea bag into work most everyday; today however, my tea bag was ripped. So, working in a coffee maker plant, finding a coffee filter wasn'’t too hard… Just had to be creative this morning. Sorry about the lack of posting, I'’ve been lazy after that mad push to get that last paper done. For the future, I think I'’ll just include a beautiful picture of me when I don'’t have time/content to post.

Last night we had an awesome Survior party at Josh and Allyn's house. Its only the second episode of Survior I'd ever seen. We took picutres, and if Josh sends me a copy I'll post for you all to see. I wasn't thinking, or I would have taken one with my phone to put up today. Anyways, we made our own little tribal counsel at Allyn's request and voted Scott out of our friendship. We're also taking part in a pool of some sort. I picked the two hottest ones... one who has a good chance, and another who has no chance. Stephanie was on last season, and almost won, and she's hot, so I picked her. Brianna is hot and her favorite color is pink and she sells makeup for a living, so I picked her as well. I also got this other guy who can't breathe too well or something as my random wildcard person... All in all, I've got an awesome team! More of this to come in future posts I'm sure. But that's all for now, later!

Just a quick few notes.

1) I eat Hardees every few days. I can order a slammer, kids meal and it’s cheap and filling. That’s what you got to love about American Fast Food. The serving sizes are ridiculously large, so at some places a kid’s meal is all you need. This is how I eat my meals most days, in my car.

2) I just finished Eragon and Eldest. The first two books of the Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good book now and then. Scott will agree with me I think, it is awesome.

3) Grad school is really frickin’ hard. I think I’m going to take some much easier classes next semester so that I can catch up a bit. I’m going to try and work it out so that I don’t have to temporary drop out the grad school program to do so, but I figure that taking a more basic political overviews course, a current events course, or a course that goes over all these various court cases and the like the all my fellow classmates can just spit out at will, would be very helpful.

4) I Second the motion made by Tim that Phil gets his own blog. Phil’s comments are often the highlight of my day and I would like to see Phil just go crazy with his own site. Again, I think Scott will back me up on this.

5) For anyone who’s a fan of the Myth Busters TV show, here’s a breakdown of every episode they’ve done.

a conversation with my conscious

why haven't I posted yet?
been busy

busy doing what?
homework

so, when is it due?
7 page profile of governor blagojevich due at 6 pm tonight

why didn't you start earlier?
I tried
its hard
and uis just got on facebook

ok then so what is that picture of?
the fan in my room beeps everytime you press a button on the remote control and its really loud so last night i took the entire fan just to bust the little speaker on the circuit board so it wouldn't beep at me anymore

you did that instead of working on your paper?
yes

......?
it beeped REALLY loud

.....
shut up it was important at the time

....
I hate you

BUNN-O-MATIC

I don’t believe enough things have the “o-matic” suffix these days. In the 80’s I think we believed that everything would be a something-o-matic eventually. And I’m really disappointed that hasn’t really came about yet. I think I’m going to start renaming my everyday appliances like my microwave can be the cook-o-matic. But anyways…

Here’s a couple of work related thoughts:

1) I wonder if this place shoves coffee down the throat of every visitor that comes here. CEO or Bum off the street, I bet the first thing they try to do is offer you a nice cup of Bunnomatic brewed goodness. Being a non-coffee drinker myself, I try and hide this fact because I’m pretty sure it would result in my termination if the higher ups found out.

2) My work load varies here more than any other place I’ve ever been. But at least I’m getting some fairly decent hours this week. Coincidentally, my hours at Best Buy just went down the toilet, but as of right now, things are seeming to balance out.

3) There’s a conspiracy here at work. They keep trying to tell me that this guy, a Mr. Bunn, actually started this company and frequently comes to visit. I don’t believe it. I’ve told some semi-important people how I was on to them and their Mr. Bunn Scam but they still think they can trick me. They even told me that next time he’s in, they would bring him down to meet me personally. I told them that I could bring my roommate in wearing a Bunny Suit and we can call him the Easter Bunny. I said, “Hell, I even have him hand out a few eggs if you want.” They’re not to be deterred however, and now I’m wondering if they’re going to really go through with it. Scott, you best start practicing your hopping.

Gaming Nerds

So last night was Boys Night Out with Josh, Tim, Scott and I. After a while of indecisiveness we hit up the arcade in the mall. It’s not a great arcade, but hey, we're not the type to complain. I mean it did have its own Asian kid on the Dance Dance Revolution game so, that counts for something. In the picture you can see Josh and Tim playing one of those "You're a Special Forces agent and gotta shoot the bad guys" game. And Scott is behind them on the virtual Skateboarding game. That gun game was probably my favorite… I like shooting people.

Other things of note: Tim played the Virtual Tennis game for at least 45 minutes on a single token. So at least he got his money’s worth out of it. Also, Tim issued a open challenge to everyone there at the Dance Dance game (after the Asian Kid left of course). He then proceeded to squeak out a victory on me… Sorry Ro, I let you down.

The New Final Fantasy Movie is out. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Final Fantasy is one of the longest running Role Playing Games today (I believe there’s like 15 of them or something) and they have recently made a sequel to one of the video games in movie form. It’s pretty awesome and you should check out the video here if you want to see some amazing clips from this Computer Generated movie.

Politics Smolitics...

Well, I thought I’d give you an update on classes. Today I’ll give you a glimpse of my Monday night class and Thursday a look into my Political Philosophy Class. But anyways…

Monday Night I have “Politics in Illinois” and we talk about all sorts of stuff. Did you know that Illinois, Indiana and Ohio were all originally going to be Horizontal states as opposed to the vertical set up we have now (we’d look more like Kentucky and Tennessee). But instead we made it so the different people from different groups had to work together and balance themselves out.

Illinois, historically, has been considered to have the attitudes of the nation as a whole. If Illinois approved or disapproved of a particular action or law, the nation would most likely approve/disapprove. Before the Bush administration, Illinois has only not picked the president once (Illinois did go for Gore, as did the popular vote of the nation… so some argue we haven’t really lost our touch.) There actually used to be a saying in the White House: “Will it Pass in Peoria?” Meaning, will Peoria (or Illinois in general) approve.

Lastly we talked about the last election and how some say it was all about the 3 G’s: God, Gays, Guns. There was a “Groupthink” mentality that you are either with us or against us. And how much of a role that media and campaigning played.

Oh yeah, and one girl was trying to, as PC as possible, say that people up in Chicagoland were more diverse and politically conscious than those downstate. At what point another girl behind me interjected: “Southern Illinois is actually very diverse.” I turned around and looked at her and asked, “Have you ever BEEN to southern Illinois?” She later tried telling me that there was a lot of diversity in East St. Louis… and I dropped it because I didn’t care. I parked my car in East St Louis everyday when I worked downtown… And I could just tell that she knew of it only as numbers in some sort of population/racial survey. *sigh*

Bathroom Lounge at the Mall

So maybe this is a guy thing, but when we go to a public restroom we get in, do our business and get out. Sometimes if we’re feeling up to it, we may actually take the time to wash our hands. At no point in this activity do we take the time for a nice sit. We don’t chat it up while standing at the urinals and washing our hands. We don’t find ourselves just waiting in that bacteria infested environment any longer than we have to just so we can talk about last nights episode of Popular Reality TV Show. And we certainly don’t sit in uncomfortable looking wicker chairs and bask in the nazasty bathroom air.

Rob says: “Chairs in the bathroom are dumb.”

Hairy Harry

So I had a new idea when looking at myself in the mirror. I have too much hair and need a hair cut, but why throw all that hair away? That's when I came up with the next great thing: Hairy Harry the Human Hair* Huggie!!! I could work in conjunction with build-a-bear or something. This Valentines Day give your special someone something truely personal. Give them Hairy Harry, the first Teddy Bear with a coat of your own human hair! I need to find a new attachment method, my prototype looked kinda crappy when I simply superglued my cuttings to an old Teddy Ruxbin (Also my hands look like paws now too). I'll keep you updated, and Ro you best be excited!

*Body hair is acceptable.

Rob's Space 2.0

Its a new age in Rob's Cyber life, and that's his new cell phone. On my phone I get my gmail (google email) as well as use AOL Instant Messenger. But it doesn't end there. I can blog from my phone. I keep trying to find my new angle for my blog, to make it exciting again and this may be it. You can expect many more pictures and more short entries. Not that I won't post on the computer anymore by anymeans, but there will be some more variety. As always I'll beg for feedback about how you like it as well as suggestions for what you would like to see -- unless its a website about poop color... Breyn, I'm looking at you here. ;)

Anyways, without further ado...

OMG WTF!!1!1!? >:o

UIS left me a little present after class yesterday... a $25 parking ticket!! It's funny, because I didn't even know there were parking passes for those lots. I checked on my way out, saw no signs or notifications. Says I have 10 days to appeal, so that's where I'm going after work today. Sneaky little jerks, they are... $25... Rob is not happy.

Labor Day and Vets

Listen here lil’ miss Rowela. I’ll post when I damn well have time. I’m a very busy person and its not my job to jump when you give the word. I don’t care how cute you may be. Now for my post:

I had an awesome weekend, how about everyone else? I spent time with family on Friday and Saturday. I spent Friday through Monday with Ro. I didn’t work but a short 6 hours on Sunday. I even saw Phil for a few minutes. Good times.

Yesterday was labor day, and I weaseled my way out of working; mainly I just didn’t tell Best Buy that my day job as well as my night class was cancelled. So I didn’t work anywhere! What’s the deal with Labor Day anyways? Why do government jobs and such give everyone the day off on Labor Day, isn’t that the opposite of what it sounds like? Should be Lazy Day, or Anti-Labor Day. More importantly, Yesterday was Ro and I’s one-year anniversary. So yay for us.

The new Goblet of Fire trailer is out, if you're down with the HP you'll love this. If you want a Harry Potter Movie 4 Countdown on your desktop check this out.

So I was talking to this old Navy Vet at Best Buy and he was just talking… you know, how old guys do. Anyways, here’s what he told me:

“You know how things are, when you get old your mind doesn’t work, your body doesn’t work… my advice to you is to not get old.

*pause*

I said that once to a real wise-ass. Do you know what that kid said back to
me? He told me: ‘I don’t really like the alternative.’”

Kids and Guns

So Scott and I have been playing the F.E.A.R. demo on the computer recently. Let me tell you what, creepiest game ever. This game is actually scary. Take all those Asian-esque horror movies (The Ring, The Grudge) and put it in a first person shooter and you got a decent idea. You’re not shooting ghosts or anything, you’re hunting real people, but freaky stuff happens all around you. That on top of the fact that you can do bullet-time (slow things down Matrix Style) and amazing graphics… and don’t even get me started on the violent weapons. You have a rail gun that can peg/nail people to the wall, and another gun that just makes their skin explode off their body… woah. And the whole time there's a creepy dead/ghost child following you and giggling and walking in rivers of blood.

Isn’t it odd that I LOVE games like that, yet I get nauseous at the site of even my own blood. I can’t look at bloody spots on the interstate. I get queasy just driving by roadkill of any sort. I never look at the puncture site while I’m giving blood, and try everything just to avoid thinking about it. I try not to step on ants on the sidewalk. But in the game God of War the fact that you could rip a man in two or tear the wings off a flying monster and then break its neck was probably the coolest thing that Ro or I had ever seen in a game. Movie and Videogame violence is great, real life violence… not so much.

Weird?

Advice for the Masses

Corporations are big on numbers and surveys. Given the opportunity, I say provide feedback whenever you can. Everyone knows that sending a complaint letter to a major food industry can often get you free stuff, did you realize that a compliment letter often has the same effect. If you have a waitress or cashier that seems like a nice person, ask for a manager and give rave reviews… you may actually get that person a raise. At Best Buy if you tell a manager that an employee did an excellent job, that employee’s name is entered into a monthly drawing/prize giveaway. Sometimes it’s a $25 gift card; sometimes it’s a cool little techie-treat. This is going to be my own personal game I believe, when I go to restaurants and such. I’m going to make giving positive feedback to superiors the next cool thing to do.

As far as surveys, I just ate at Pizza Hut and I noticed there was a survey on the receipt. So I called the number and did it in 4 minutes over my cell phone while I was still at the table. Now the next time I go to Pizza Hut I get a Personal Pan for 99 cents, and I’m totally down with cheap/free stuff. At Best Buy you get a survey with every receipt. I’d say that less than 5% of people actually go online and fill that thing out. YOU SHOULD!!! You are entered into a drawing for $500 when you do. First off it’s not a nation-wide drawing, it’s regional (so you’re up against the other 5% from 10 other Best Buys) and it’s drawn every month. I had a 17-year-old kid just a few weeks ago come through and buy a $500 car stereo system for his hand me down car. It is because he filled out the survey on a DVD he bought.

So yeah, that’s what I’m giving you for today. What I would like to hear is some of your own experiences with stores/employees; maybe free stuff given to you for kindness as opposed to being a mean-face. Alternatively, I’d like to know of any other businesses that you may have worked for that has similar rewards programs for it’s customers or the employees themselves.