The Last Chapter of Rootarcana (?(!))
July 23, 2007 @ 02:27 PM
This is the last post I plan to make here at rootarcana.com. All of my blog's entries and comments have been successfully moved to robglazebrook.com. While not everything is just right yet over at robglazebrook, it's close enough that I plan to start using it exclusively. You should update your bookmarks, homepages, and website links accordingly.
Thanks for the last 5 1/2 years, rootarcana. It's been real.
A series of big announcements.
July 18, 2007 @ 02:04 PM
As promised, I've got a few big announcements to make today. Here they go:
Big announcement #1: Changing webhosts.
I've been hosting with Linksky since some time in 2002, whenever it was that I finally got fed up with Iowa State's stipped-down servers. However, that's about to change. CollegeBuddy Quinn and I are going in together on a (mt) Media Temple account. I have no major gripes with Linksky... I just feel like I've outgrown them. I need more databases, and faster servers. I have ambitions, you know.
How this affects me: I'm going to have a lot of work to do.
How this affects you: hardly at all, really. Just thought I'd let you know.
Big announcement #2: Rootarcana go bye-bye.
As part of this change, I've come to the decision that it's time to drop the Rootarcana name. Rootarcana rocked as a name when I came up with it, five or six years ago. Since then, it has grown progressively less cool with each passing year. For the last few years, I've had a crises of conscience every time it came up for renewal, and I always ended up renewing because I didn't have time to get anything else together. This time, no excuses. I'm dropping rootarcana.
However, I'm not dropping the blogging thing. Not at all. Instead, my Blog Of The Future will be hosted on robglazebrook.com.
How this affects me: I'll no longer have to explain what the hell my domain name means to every well-meaning techie out there.
How this affects you: If you have me bookmarked, you'll have to update that. If you have me set as your home page, that'll need to change. If you're subscribed to my RSS feed… well, you get the idea. Changes will need to be made. I'll let you know when that happens.
Big announcement #3: New design time.
A new webhost and a new domain means it's time for a new design. This has been a stumbling block for me in the past: I don't have a lot of time to invest in my personal website just now, which means no new design, which means no moving to a new host, et cetera. This time I'm planning on just sucking it up and using Someone Else's Design for a couple of months until I have time to make my own. There are plenty of good designs out there for the taking... I'll just have to silence that designer-side of me that will inevitably scream, "but... this isn't exactly what I wanted!" I'll live, I'm sure.
How this affects me: See above whining.
How this affects you: The site will look different for the first time in a couple of years. Of course, it'll be a new site, so maybe it won't bother you at all.
Big announcement #4: Amanda is pregnant!
Just kidding. You should've seen the look on your face, though.
How this affects me: I don't need to find a new apartment in a new state just yet.
How this affects you: Think of all those calories you burned in that adrenaline rush!
Big announcement #5: Switching blogging software.
I've been using Movable Type for years now. However, I've become disenchanted with their software, and am looking to move away. I've decided to move to Wordpress instead. Why? Because I do a fair bit of Wordpress design at work, so it's what I'm good with at the moment. Two years ago, I probably would have went with Drupal because I was doing so much ISUComm and Habitat for Humanity work. So it goes.
How this affects me: I have to figure out how to convert nearly five years of posts and comments from one platform to another. It won't be easy. It would have been even tougher had I not lost all my posts from 2000 - 2002 or so, I guess.
How this affects you: Things in old posts will probably look hinky. These things happen.
That's all for now! Questions and comments are appreciated (if you can get Movable Type's damn comment thinger to work).
Diet update: Week 6
July 17, 2007 @ 10:34 PM
Six weeks down, probably six more or so to go. Truth be told, I'm a little proud of myself. I've updated my spreadsheet thinger every single day for the last 40-plus. And more importantly, I've been generally honest when calculating my intake, exercise, et cetera. Who knew Excel could be such a fantastic motivator? :)
Weight (7/16): 188 pounds, or 2.5 lighter than I was a week before, or right on schedule according to my aims. It feels good to be under 190 - getting on the scale each morning is just that much more exciting when I get to see and eight in the middle instead of a nine. Makes me feel even closer to my goal, since when a seven replaces that eight, I'm practically there.
Exercise: Last week was pretty darn good. I averaged around 400 extra calories per day burned exercising, most of which came from jogging. I managed a little over 9 miles of jogging last week (at just over 6mph average), on top of 6.5 miles walking the pooch. I even managed to fit in 45 minutes of lap swimming, which it turns out hurts quite a bit more than a 2-mile jog. :)
Intake: Less caloric variance this week. I never ate more than 1500 calories in a day or fewer than 1100. Chalk that up to luck - I ate out at El Aguila Real one night, Court Avenue a second, Hickory Park a third, and Star Bar a fourth. Jeez… I didn't realize how bad that sounded until I counted. :) But I was able to talk myself in to portion control each of those evenings, and took home half of my food each night to eat as lunch the next day. Asking for a box is starting to feel normal.
Stay tuned, sports racers, as I'll have a rather important announcement tomorrow sometime. And no, Amanda isn't pregnant and we're not getting hitched - it's a blog-type announcement. Chill.
A Victim of 9 Crimes
July 11, 2007 @ 05:17 PM
So I have decided that, as of today, I am a fan of Damien Rice. Why, asks thou? Well, I've loved "The Blower's Daughter" for a really long time now. So long, in fact, that I've been convinced it must be a cover of some older song, cause I could've sworn I've liked this song since high school. I've even debated this fact with people, along the lines of:
"Who sung The Blower's Daughter?"
"Umm... Damien Rice, I think."
"No no... I mean the original singer."
"I think he was the original singer."
"Yeah, well I think you're stupid."
But now I'm starting to think that I must have been wrong. Anyways, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It turns out, Mr. Rice also sings "9 Crimes," also known as this song here (it's gorgeous... you should listen). I didn't discover that he was said singer until yesterday afternoon, but after that, I had some serious self reflection to do.
I mean, his music is lovely in a near-folky sort of way (edit: turns out he's self-classified as a folk singer. Go figure). His timing is superb. His voice is simultaneously mournful and hopeful. His lyrics are just mysterious enough for me not to know exactly what he's talking about, but just clear enough that I'm pretty sure I get the idea.
But, you know... he's Damien Rice. And I'm pretty sure liking him makes me gay. So to compromise, I think I'll just be a closet Damien Rice fan: I'll listen to his music in private, and possibly discuss the beauty of his lyrics with The Ladies, but he's not exactly coming out on Karaoke Night at the Rusty Cowboy Pub or anything. And nobody will be any the wiser.
Well, except for you persons, of course. But I trust you explicitly. And you can tell it's explicit trust because I just said it. Implicit trust would have gone without saying.
My Buddy and Me
July 10, 2007 @ 04:16 PM
So I've recently decided that I want a scooter. A Buddy 125 (125cc) by the Genuine Scooter Company of Chicago, to be exact. I've been considering getting a scooter ever since I moved to Des Moines and realized how feasible it'd be. So I did a lot of research and decided the Buddy should be the object of my idolatry.
Why a scooter? Well, I live a 10-minute drive from work, which could just as easily be a 10-minute scooter ride, seeing as how there are no major highways involved. I rarely exceed 40mph to or from work, so a 125cc scooter could easily keep pace. Scooters get mad gas mileage, usually at least twice that of the average car. And besides... I think they're cool looking. Those who prefer crotch rockets or choppers might not agree with me on that one, but if you really think about it, can you picture me on either of those things? I thought not. :)
Why a Buddy? Well, certainly not for the name. Looks are high on the list, and I like the Buddy's retro styling. Speed is also important, and the Buddy can do freeway speeds if need be. It can also beat most 150cc scooters off the line, so its acceleration is fine. And its gas mileage is good even for the scooter class: most Buddy owners claim 85-90 miles per gallon city, depending on location and load, while some even average out over 100 mpg. You can't even squeeze that out of a brand-new hybrid car.
At the moment, there are only two things holding me back from scooter ownership. The first is that there are no Buddy dealers in Des Moines as yet. The closest is in Kansas City, requiring a road trip some weekend (and borrowing someone's vehicle so I can get it back home). The second speed bump is that I've decided I would like to purchase the scooter outright, without having to make any payments on it. Unfortunately, the scooter runs around $2600 before taxes and so forth, and I don't have that kind of money on-hand. I'm saving up as we speak, and am about 3/4 the way there, but that was the easy 3/4 (i.e., I had some savings already). I'm now in the squeezing-blood-from-turnips stage, so things are going to go a little slower. I'm selling a few things I don't need on eBay, which will get me a little closer, and after that I'm just hoping to find some freelance web work to make some extra cash.
The goal is to have a scooter in my possession by the end of the summer, such that I can ride it to work all autumn before having to store it over (most of) the winter. I don't know how realistic that goal is, but I'm going to do whatever's in my power to see it gets done. Wish me luck!
Diet update: week 5
July 10, 2007 @ 01:36 PM
I'ma keep this brief, because I'm hoping to blog about other things later in the day. Also, I missed a week, so this post summarizes both weeks.
Weight (7/9): 190.5 pounds, or 8 pounds lighter than I was two weeks ago. That seems a little high, but I think a lot of the weight I had two weeks ago was water retention and so forth. I've been hovering just above the 190-mark for a couple of days now. The good news is, that means I'm roughly halfway through my diet, as I'm currently shooting for 175 as a cutoff point. The bad news is, the easy half is probably over. :)
Exercise: Has started to improve again. I've started jogging again recently, which helps quite a bit. I've actually managed to jog a little under 5 miles in the last 24 hours - 3.4 miles after work last night, and a 1.3 mile jog with the pup this morning.
Intake: My diet varies more widely from day to day, but I think I'm okay with that. The least number of calories I've consumed in a single day the last two weeks was 950 on the 27th, for no other reason than I wasn't particularly hungry and I hadn't exercised much. The most I've consumed was three days later at 2250, which was a result of Amanda's parents being in town and taking us out to Cosi Cucina for dinner following a long day at the art festival where I partook in gyro goodness. Still, my average intake over the last two weeks has been around 1450 calories per day, which is just about where I want to be.
