Techno-Rules

No, I'm not refering to the bass pounding, XTC promoting environment of Springfield's Rave Scene.* I'm talking about Rules of Technology, most of these are learned first hand and I wanted to share my top 4 with you right now.

1. The swift kick has been replaced with a swift reboot. Back in the day when something didn't work, all you had to do was kick/hit it and it would probably fix it**. But those days are almost gone with less Mechanical stuff (gears and chains and the like) and more Technological stuff (chips and... well... chips). Ask any tech support person, a reboot is the first responce for any of these devices: Computer, Cellphone, Modem/Router, iPod, etc.

2. Technology lies. Often things that offer assistance or troubleshoot themselves, have a very limited knowledge of what's going on, and just because the Card Swiper at Best Buy says "Swipe your card at any time" lies. You really need to wait for me to say to go.

3. Never buy technology.
a. It will be out of date before you're halfway home from the store. I broke down and got that iPod recently, just to hear about this.
b. The newest technology will be buggy and they will have pushed it out before it was ready.
c. Marketing for technology is amazing, they assume (and correctly so) that the consumer has NO IDEA what the numbers and catchy features they put on the box really means. So 95% of it is all BS***.

4. Don't buy "nice things" from Walmart. I shop at Wally-World a lot, but never buy a big ticket item there. Walmart has low, low prices on technology for two very easy reasons. One, they're the cheapest, non-name brand stuff they can get their hands on. Or two, if it is a quality company, it's 3 generations old. So if you go to walmart to buy a "Brand New" Digital Camera for $200, opposed to the $400 one at Best Buy... that's because the $200 camera is actually 2 years old.

And yes, I totally stole the footnote idea from Tim, blatently, and unashamed. Lets face it, he hasn't posted on here in weeks and will probably never find out.



*Springfield has no rave scene that I know of.
** Ask Josh how well this worked on his bike.
*** Bullshit

Death of Spam and Loss of Hair

Alright, I'm probably not going to keep this... but just showing what things might have to come to in the future. You know Spam in Email used to just be a slight... "Where'd this come from?" sort of thing, but its not uncommon for people to have to change email addresses because its so bad. So if you'd like to see the temporary fix against spam in blogging, just post a comment. Let me know what you think. I'm not going to keep it for now I don't think, but it might come back if I start getting more junk comments. (Now if there was only a way to stop Jake from posting...)

I hope everyone had a good week. I know it was a big one for me, and I know that Rowela has been quite busy as well... 19 credit hours at college is a tad ridiculous. 12 hours makes you a "full-time student," 15 is average and for more than 18 you have to get permission from the school. But hey, that's just how my girlfriend rolls. And while we're on the topic of my overachieving signifigant other, it looks like she's going to donate her hair to Locks of Love. And most everyone knows about my personal hair preferences, there's no argueing against a good cause. So I'll miss her hair like hell 'till it grows back, but lets face it... that's just who Ro is. The very things that I like most about her often totally go against my own selfish wishes (i.e. cutting off her beautiful hair, leaving me for the entire summer, etc). I'm proud of her reguardless. Also check out the pictures of donors and recipients if you get the time.

Back to School

So I've noticed some changes between Grad School and my previous college experience. For one (and perchance a big ONE) is the demand for papers. As a Computer/Art major, intense papers were never really part of my classload, huge projects: yes, papers: no. So not only will I have to write a nice handful of them this semester, but they'll all have to be much longer than previous requirements. I believe the quote from the syllabus was, "Lets just say less than 5 pages would be drastically inadequate attention to the topic."

Secondly, and almost hand in hand, is the excessive amount of readings I have to do. Our assignment in one of my classes was this: read chapter 1 & 3 from Book A, Chapter 1 from Book B, and the whole Book C. In my other class we have lengthy articles to read and just the titles of some of those are enough to make a grown man cry. But hey, I'll handle it. I've already read my Book B (sample here) readings, I had to read it 2-3 times and take notes, but I got it.

So yeah, that's the schooling update, more to come as things progress. In the meantime I came across a really interesting article on Digg.com about Crocodiles and HIV. The short of it is that Crocs live in one of the most disease and bacteria ridden environments in the world. They get in nasty fights, get torn up and even lose limbs but almost never get an infection. So scientists are studying the blood and do little Virus Celebrity Deathmatches... In this corner Staphylococcus "Staph Infection" Aureus, and in the red corner, the returning champion... Croc Blood!!! So yeah, even up against tough opponents like HIV, croc blood is kicking butt. They haven't figured out how to utilize it with human blood but its a serious step in the right direction.

Money Matters (part 2)

So yesterday I had to go shopping. I decided that some of my clothes were pretty ratty, and debated driving up to ISU to have Ro help me pick some stuff out. But I had class in only 4 hours and losing the better part of that to driving didn't seem to smart to me.

Rob Goes to the Mall
I walked into The Gap and PacSun and some other trendy store who's name I don't remember and got pretty frustrated. I was trying to decide which had more numbers: The Customers or the Mannequins wearing Pink shirts with the collars popped. Eventually I wandered into one of the big stores at either ends of the mall (like JCPennys or Famous). I almost turned and walked out of them as well, until I found the clearance racks. I was pretty proud of walking out with 2 Perry Ellis shirts for 67% off ($22), another shortsleeved one 75% off ($16) and a cool reversible belt ($19). All in all, I still spent over $100 when you add in the new pants... did you know there's a such thing as pants without frays at the bottoms?

Classes
Also I went to my first Illinois Politics class yesterday. It was mostly an introductory class. We were told about papers and take home tests and speakers and the like. Leaving after just over an hour in what should be a 3 and a half hour class is pretty good in my opinion. Future classes promise to take up much more of my evening. How long/often are your class Phil? I've got a Monday class and a Wednesday class that each go 6:00pm - 9:30pm. And I don't have access to a computer in mine... eh, probably for the best.

Nickles: Worthless or Effencient?

So I wanted to splurge a bit today and work and utilize the vending machine at BUNN today. Those little chocolate donuts were just calling my name for some reason and I went on a mission to collect the 75 cents required. I went to my car and found I didn't have much change to speak of... execpt for a stack of nickles and a cupholder with pennies at the bottom.

I've heard people mention that we should get rid of the penny and just round it off. Well this isn't about the penny and how much more we'd get ripped off on gas prices if we lost the penny. It occured to me why I had a stack of nickels in my coin holder. You NEVER need more than one nickle at any given time. Who needs a stack of nickels? No one. I've decided the jumps in between our coins is all jacked up. I think we should have Pennies (1), Nickles (5), Fifths (20) and Halves (50). I also think they should bring back the 2-dollar bill... those were pointless but awesome. Come to think of it, we could lose the 10-dollar bill as well. Did you know the guy on the 10 dollar bill was shot by a vice president?

Anyways, First class tonight. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. And I got to see Ro this weekend, so that was awesome too. She's still perfect. Later!

Busy as Hell

No seriously... my schedule is something to make Dante himself cringe (we're talking about whole new circles here). Next week I'm scheduled for 33 hours at Best Buy. I'm pulling at least 30 at Bunn as of late. Grad School starts on Monday, so we're now over 70 hours, not counting possible homework. The icing on the cake is that this weekend is the weekend Ro gets back. I have no idea how I'm going to work this out, but you better believe I'm not going to wait another week to see her. Scott says to call in sick, but that's just not my style - I'll make it work. Besides, the money is good for me. Maybe someone should get me a Time Turner... only a real one.

I think I'm going to steal something from those Xanga bloggers. For those of you who aren't familar, Xanga is like Blogspot, just another blogging service. Although Blogger (Blogspot) is better (I mean, it is owned by Google). Anyways at the top of most Xanga accounts you tell everyone what song you're listening to at that moment. I'm going to do that and take it a step further, I'm going to provide a snippet of the lyrics from the song I'm listening too. I've currently got 1904 MP3s on my iPod, so we should should see quite a nice range of songs. I promise to name whatever random song is playing and not "look for a good one."

Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness
I was spinning free, woah...
With a little sweet and simple numbing me.
What a dizzying dance, woah...
This sweetness will not be concerned with me.

I didn't say the lyrics would always make a lot of sense, but I think we'll get some good ones pretty soon. I just promised not to pick "a good one" even for the charter song. So deal with it.

Short and Sweet

That title refers to two things. This post, as well as Ro.

Ro gets home Friday night (her birthday). I'll get to see her on Saturday... Horray!

You will all definately be entertained by Tim's Post yesterday about Sexy Christian Singles.

Yesterday Scott and I blogged about the same event, wierd.

Here's a new, awesome game for you.


Uber-Nerd Section
Best Buy is selling a 160GB harddrive for only $40 (after rebates). 1337!

Neighborly Love

So "The Others" next to me aren't that bad. I've actually spoken to them quite a few times... but I do pretend to hate them (even to their faces). But the neighbors of which I want to speak don't have anything to do with work. Its the new girls at our apartment complex whom I want want to tell you about.

We had Sara and Jessica move in recently... or just Sara and Jess was just helping her move. Trying to be good people, Scott and I offered to help and carried thier sofa up three flights of stairs for them. Now I have no problem with shy people, however I don't believed we recieved much more than a casual "thanks" as we were leaving their apartment. That couch was heavy, the stairwells skinny, and I'm not so sure the girls could have done it alone.

Some may argue that I don't have much room to dislike anyone at the complex, seeing that I don't contractually live there... To those people I say: "Fine, but move your own furniture from here on out."



Your Tech News Updates:

• Something for Everyone
  High School Students buid a sweet Hybrid Car. Pictures and Video within. How come our auto shop didn't do anything cool like that? They just heckled "Theatre Queers"
  
• Something for Uber-Nerds
  Make your windows desktop 3D (Just like an 80's Hacker Movie!!!). Not a recremended install for work. Warning: it is a beta application. Screenshots and download here.

Letting Go

Sometimes its hard to lose someone who is "close to you." Other times people just need a good shaking and someone to tell them to get over it. Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, yeah... he's definately dead, and so is Elvis. In that list I'm also going to add 2Pac, and i don't care if you think you saw him at McDonalds or not. Did you know there are websites about 2Pac? He's offically a Conspiricy theory now? When did this happen...

Did you hear that Uday and Qusay really aren't dead? Yeah right, next thing your gonna tell me is that there aren't any WMD's either... crap... wait a minute. I'm not one to suscribe to conspiricy theories, expecially ones that involve aliens and the like, but I'm pretty sure that Uday is no more. I'll buy that we've made some poorly informed and some outright bad decisions, but that's about the extent of it.

The Cheat is not dead... for sure.

So why this post? First off, DO NOT read the last paragraph if you haven't read the newest Harry Potter Book. If you don't care about knowing the ending, by all means keep reading. Otherwise just stop right now and don't even read the comments. Play with this instead: Push it. If you want to comment, by all means do whatever you want. I'm just allowing the comment section to be open for Harry Potter Spoilers, so I had to make a warning. You know the last thing I want to do is discourage commenting, especially since the poor showing last post.

I was listening to two nerds argue about Harry Potter today and a lot of it stemmed from this website. Check it out, I don't buy the main premise but I could believe some of the stuff about Snape.

Google (part 3)

Yeah, I don't know how many times I've actually posted about how Google was going to take over the world, but I can always mention it again. Today's lesson in Google deals with Google Maps and Google Local.

Lets say you're looking for nearby pizza places (I actually used this yesterday to find nearby Cingular stores). Just go to Google and type in "Pizza 62704" or the zip code of your choice. Unless you really want to find pizza places at my zip code. The google map shows you pin points where pizza places are. You could do a more specific search like "Pizza Hut" as well.

Now that's the easy and useful Google knowledge. Now for slightly more technical but still interesting. Google has released all the code and information for their Google Maps software so any programmer can utilize it however they wish. This is rare that a company says hey, take our stuff and you can legally change it and share it with the world (but you can't make a profit off it). What does this mean to us?

I don't know if anyone here has ever heard of Hot or Not, but its a website popular amongst highschool and college kids where you put your picture up and let people rank you: Hot or Not. Some crazy person took the Google Technology and merged it with Hot or Not and came up with this creepy result. You can now find people who have posted their picture on Hot or Not with little pins showing where they live. Weird.

Bowling and Podcasts

So I've gone bowling twice now in the last... umm 3 days? And let me tell you, I'm the most inconsistant bowler... EVER. For example, today I bowled a turkey. Got the little symbol on the screen and everything. The next 3 frames... nothing. I didn't knock down a single pin. I threw 3 strikes in a row, and then threw 6 gutterballs. I find that amazing. I am amazing.

Also the other day when it was just Tim, Scott and I bowling I witnessed another remarkable event. Scott and Tim played Ender's Bowling. Basicly they each chose characters from the Ender's Game Book Series and related each frame to a chronological, signifigant part of the life of that character. Whether they did well or poorly, they related back to the story. It was was of the nerdiest, yet most entertaining things I've witnessed as of late.

Finally I'd like to mention Podcasts. If you're reading this you're actually taking part in a very cutting edge part of technoculture right now. Everyone here is very familiar and could even explain "Blogging" to someone less savvy. Podcasting is the other "craze" sweeping the internet. A podcast is a downloadable, free radio show... but over the internet... and not live. So one, two, or a group of people will get together (weekly) and record a 15 minute to a hour long radio show. Here's some examples:

• TWiT (This Week in Tech): 4-7 guys talking about the latest and greatest stuff in the world of technology and especially computers. Some heavy nerd stuff here but I'm a big fan of Kevin Rose. Actually I'm a big fan of waiting for him to get in big trouble for straight out telling you how to do illegal things on your computer. He walks a very thin line, and often does it as well as a drunk walking one of those soberity tests.
  
  
• Skeptically: A guy and girl tackling everything from science to religion and politics. Neither Right or Left wing would claim them because they don't pull punches. They talk about how not only was the constitution never intended to be used for any specific religion, but our founding fathers weren't even Christian themselves. The next episode they went after all of the intentionally created falsehoods that scientists spread about "The Church" to give it a bad name. For example, in Columbus's time no one really believed the Earth was flat, that was spread after the fact to make The Church seem out of touch. Just think of Atlas, the greek god with the world on his shoulders. The statue doesn't hold a pancake, now does it? And they go after conspiricy theorists as well, like the "We didn't land on the moon" guys.
  
  
• Digg Nation: A website ran by the same Kevin Rose who I was talking about above. This is a weeks summary of interesting news stories, as rank in popularity by the people who visit the website.

Wedding Top 3 List

Alright, So I've probably got a million things I could tell you about. But with The Others and management standing over my shoulder, I've felt unable to post at work. Anyways, my best friend Josh just got married this weekend. I could tell you about every detail but instead I've comprised this top 5 list. So without further ado...

#5 Live Swing Band at the reception. Only dampened by the fact I didn't have an actual date, I still got in a few numbers. A dance with Mom, A bridesmaid, Allyn as well as Josh, Josh's Cousin... I made do the best I could. Live music is awesome. I'm gonna have Richard Cheese do mine I think.

#4 The Preacher forgot to say "Repeat after me." This one really threw Josh for a loop, especially since during the rehearsal dinner Josh specifically pointed out how important this phrase was. And the first line to repeat wasn't very obvious (like: "Here before God and all our friends...") So there was this awkward silence that lasted no more than a heartbeat I'm sure, but I know all us groomsmen saw the humor in the situation (it wasn't Josh's fault, nor was it a big deal)

#3 The Crazy Guy who drove the Getaway car. So this "Family Friend" has this old classic car that Josh and Allyn drove away in. Crazy guy walks up to Tim and I while we're waiting for our bride and groom and the conversation goes something like this: "Yeah, good day for a wedding. I got married myself 6 months ago today. Yep at 4:00 six months ago I married my wife on a day like today. 4:15 today she left me. Told me that she didn't want anything to do with me and didn't want to even see me anymore." *silence* Tim and Rob exchange glances and walk away.

#2 Allyn was beautiful coming down the isle and she was giddy as a school girl. She was bubbling over and it was apparent to everyone. Up at the front all of us Groomsmen/Bridesmaids started chuckling because of how cute she was. No one would have noticed, until you heard this bass-y soft chuckle come over the Speakers. The Preacher's mike was on and he was laughing very throatily and menacing sounding. Seriously it was horror movie creepy sounding. I know for a fact that Tim, Paul and I were borderline laughing hysterically the next 3 minutes because of it. I was just watching Tim's (best man) back and he was just shaking/quivering trying to hold in the laughter.

#1 Tim's Speech. (No need to repeat what Tim already posted about... and the actual speech is in his comment section. It went over VERY well.)

There's no title for this post because I didn't feel that I could come up with one to fully represent the sheer vastness and depth of my emotions right now. The OTHERS are still there. Not only are they crowding in on my space (when I got in there was a PURSE IN MY CHAIR!!!) but there are other changes occuring as well. For one, there now an industrial floresent light hanging above our space now. Its like noonday sun overhead all day long. Why this concern with "the other's" well being and such. My first days there I was in a molded hard plastic cafeteria chair and wearing a long sleeved shirt under a sweater because I was so cold. Now they've all got nice rolly ones on thier first days, temperature has been great, and we've got lighting. Gah.

The only thing I overheard today worth mentioning was somone was getting shipping information via the telephone to send a replacement:

"I'm sorry we can't send to a PO BOX,
we need a physical address...
Oh, it's a trailer park?
What name is... ok.
R-U-S-T-E-D?
Rusted Park, got it."

That made me laugh inside.

INVASION!!!

So Late posting today. "Why Rob?" you may ask...

Well, I've expressed my concern in the past for how they've just shoved me in the corner of the cafeteria with my computer set up on a folding table. But this was always ok, they left me alone and I generally considered myself fogotten for the most part. UNTIL TODAY!

When I walked in today, I expect the same thing I always expect: Fanfares, Banners and Party. I never actually receive that but I still feel my day of recognition is coming. But not only did I not get my overdue gratitude, I walked in and found a guy setting up 2 other computers on my plastic table. The best I could figure management was just confused because I did the work of 3 men anyways, so they were somehow thinking 2 more computers would help me out. BUT NO! Shortly there after, 2 ladies came in and introduced themselves to me. I didn't know how to take this so I just glared at them for a moment and then turned back to my work without saying a word. I think they kept talking to me, but I had turned up my headphones to block the mindless buzzing out altogether.

The short of it is, I have no idea what was going on today. Those two "other" people where there all day today and a multitude of others coming in and out talking to the others and showing them how to do things and whatnot. All in all, with all the traffic I didn't feel secure blogging at work. I don't think the others will be there tomorrow. If so, I may have to kill them. I don't take kindly to others infiltrating my space.

I Am Awesome

Cassie's right, I'm awesome. I'm really glad she brought that up because now its easier for me to address the issue without appearing full-of-myself (Its amazing how close in meaning being "Full of yourself" and being "Full of shit" can be... I wonder if that's saying something.) Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed those pictures, or at least checked them out... I did spend all that time making witty captions for each.

So I guess we should offically welcome Cassie, since she posted and all. Cassie is a new friend from ITI (the druggie camp I went to). She drove all the way up from Georgia, and Illinois was just one of her four states that she visited in her druggie camp tour. Cassie is actually from New Jersey and worships the ground I walk on. Not that one point had anything to do with the other, because everyone at camp worshiped me (you can ask around).

That was the sort of statement I made frequently at camp. You see, there used to be like 5 of us guys who would just verbally and emotionally abuse eachother and our respective friends. But due to various situations, Big Jim and I were the only two of the group left. That meant for the first day or two, Jim and I just kept going back and fourth ripping each other apart at every chance. Well, we started getting bored with that pretty quick and realized how important it was to have everyone else there to spread the hatred around. So I started playing a new game called, "Lets see how arrogant Rob can act all the time." It was an awesome game. Basically I just tried to be the embodiment of the classic Zebrahead song, "I'm Money."

Yo, get out get out
The way of the money man
Ladies know I'm dope so consider me contraband
Fellas are just jealous cuz they're ponies and I'm a mustang
Don't try to hang cuz I'm out with a big bang

Get get down
All the ladies want to be with me
Get get down
All the fellas compete with me
Get get down
And I know that I'm trippin'
But I really don't care cuz this is how I'm livin'

All the ladies all the ladies want to know me
They ignore me Intimidated by me
All the fellas all the fellas want to be me
They ignore me Intimidated by me
Well, who needs them anyway? Cuz I'm money

Serious Picture Time

Alright so I got back from camp. And then I had Josh's Bachelor Party. I've got lots of material, but I wanted to just give everyone some pictures to check out. One, here's a photo from Josh's Party:


The Ryder Boys were also there... but this picture was so sweet I had to put it up. For the rest of the pictures, check this out: ROB'S ONLINE PHOTOALBUM!!!

There are some camp photos there, and I wrote witty captions for each. I didn't feel like retyping it all up again, so you'll just have to go to my other website just this once and check it out there.