Finances, schminances

March 30, 2004 @ 11:32 AM

On an interesting note, I was equally obsessed with the Lomo this time last year. It must be something in the air. The snow is melting, the earth is heating up, and everything starts smelling Lomie. Oh, that's loamy. Nevermind. I guess I've just wanted a Lomo for a good year or so now.

On an unfortunate note, after reviewing my finances last night, I don't think I'll be buying a camera anytime soon. Or anything else, for that matter. We bought groceries last night, and that drained my funds entirely. Once this batch of foodstuffs is gone, I'm going to have to have to start swiping gum from the undersides of desks to chew for calories. Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but I think unnecessary expenditures are out of the question.

I have something like seven fliers for my apartment hanging in strategic locations in the dorms and around campus; so hopefully, I'll get a few calls on our apartment soon. We're getting down to the wire. Originally we were planning on vacating the premises by April 30th, but Megan's gotten word that she can start moving into her new apartment on the 9th. She's said that she'll be sticking around for a bit after she starts moving her stuff (no rush and all that), but still. That means, either I'm living in this apartment by myself for around three weeks, or I'm moving to the new place three weeks early. I'm not too keen on the first option (memories and all, you know), but the second option relies more on my ability to get ahold of a large vehicle than anything else. It'd be nice, in a way, to move early: cleaning would be easier without all the furniture getting in the way. However, no one's moving out of the house until mid-May, which means I'll be living in the spare bedroom (not my final bedroom) for a month or so. Considering I'd have to live in the spare bedroom for a week or two regardless, I guess it's not that big of a deal.

My new (used) 21" monitor is stinkin' awesome. Probably the best $40 I ever spent. Lorenzo was going to give me the monitor for $30, but that felt too much like highway robbery. I have my desktop running at 1600x1200 now. Beautiful. I almost bought ~another~ 21" monitor last night (for a dual-monitor behemoth of a setup), but:
1) I don't have the $60 dollars it would have cost me.
2) Megan didn't have the $60 to loan me.
3) I'm not positive I could fit two 21" monitors on my desk.

Ah, well. I'll call it a future goal. Who wouldn't want a 3200x1200 desktop? *g* I have a 2560x1024 desktop at work (two 19" monitors running at 1280x1024). It's lovely. And not just because I have pictures of Aragorn and Gandalf to stare at all day. :)

I think I missed out on some birthday cake a few days ago. Happy birthday, she-who-doesn't-announce-her-birthday-whatsoever-this-year. :) In just a few short years, I'll have caught up to you, yaknow. I'm worried the universe might explode at that point.

3 comment(s).  

Greedy Little Boy

March 29, 2004 @ 11:57 AM

Lord, help me. I'm in the mood to spend money on myself, and I don't have the money to spend. :)

First up: I want a Lomo Kompakt Automat. For those not in the know, it's a 35mm camera known for its ability to take artsy-smartsy, color-saturated pictures. Plus it looks cool in a retro sort of way. Obviously, there's no way I'll be able to afford a new one for around $200, so I'm going to keep an eye or two on eBay for a chance deal. I'm hoping to catch one for around $50. Wish me tons of luck, eh?

Also, I am in love with this code poet shirt. I love both the phrase and the colors. Can't go wrong. I think it would look dashing beneath my brown corduroy suit jacket. Think that counts enough as dressing up for teaching? *g*

I also have a crush on the old skool shirt (in yummy chocolate) from tshirtsthatsuck.com. It's my new favorite, as they seem to have dropped my all-time favorite, a shirt that proudly proclaimed the wearer to be a "cunning linguist". I'm strongly considering designing my own shirt of said proclimation and selling it in my ill-used cafepress store.

Anyways, it's time for me to head to class. Let me know if you know of anything else I should desire. :)

3 comment(s).  

In which Manic Minds make for Beanic Blogs

March 23, 2004 @ 10:42 PM

Guess how much sleep I got last night? The answer: none. Nadda. Zip. Zilch. Infinity minus infinity. Or would that still be infinity? I hope not, because then I'm still asleep and that's just too much of a mind job right now.

Anyways, my poor sleep (or, in an attempt to think more positively, my exceptional deprivation) is the fault of one Megan McWherter. She spent the night at her mom's, leaving me all by my lonesome in a queen-sized bed in a pauper-sized apartment. Why'd she spend the night down there? Near as I can tell, because she's a big ol softy and caved when her little sister asked her to. Somehow, that little midget's got more pull than I do.

To compensate for my lack of sleep (since I worked 10 hours and had class for another 2), I've drank eight cups of coffee, seven cans of Diet Mt. Dew (two regular, five Code Red), and one shot of caffeinated vanilla syrup. The syrup went in the coffee, mind you. I didn't take it straight or inject it or anything else those crazy kids are doing nowadays. Damn crazy kids...

All that caffeine has left me tired, but hyper, excited, and happy. Very happy. Maybe MORE than happy. "We had Rob committed yesterday," they said. "He was... *shudder*... more than happy." Does that count as being manic? Hmm... manic. Maybe I should stick to beingic, for those in favor of the egalitarianization of contemporary language. Or beanic, for those who are incapable of pronouncing (or in my case, recognizing audibly) the difference between 'being' and 'bean'. That's probably best. I'm just a little beanie today.

---

I messed a bunch with the behind-the-scenes code of my blog and new miniblog today. Which probably wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree, considering how much sense I'm making. I noticed that, of the seven miniblog posts, I'd recoded five by hand to make them do what I wanted, which suggested to me that maybe I should rethink the process. Now it makes more sense. But anyways. The part you'd care about: you can leave comments on the miniblog, should you wish. I've noticed that my miniblog, just like every other miniblog I've seen, gets updated several times more often than my 'real' blog. I know why, of course: It's a lot easier to type a sentence or two and be witty than it is to compose entire ~paragraphs~ of the stuff. M'ris is, as always, exempt from everything I say here.

This evening is coming frighteningly close to turning into tomorrow morning, and considering how haphazard my brain is being (bean?), I really want to get into bed before I'm stuck in the future. So... goodnight. :)

5 comment(s).  

Three Changes

March 21, 2004 @ 09:20 PM

Welcome! If you've made it this far, then you've successfully navigated the little maze I set up. How do you like the new front page? Like it? Hate it? Might as well let me know. Not that there's a lot I'm going to do about it in the immediate future (assuming that there aren't any major bugs), but I'll probably revamp the front page every once in a while (you know how I am). So, comments are good.

The switch from blog-front to splash-front isn't the only change around here, though. I've also started closing the comments on older posts. You see, there's a new form of spam out there: comment spam. Disgusting, no? People have programs set up to seek out weblogs with comments enabled, and post ads in the comments of various, random posts. I've gotten one too many comments from some guy named viagra-penis-enlargement-pills-indian-girls-voyeur-xxx recently. He never has much worthwhile to say.

A third change you should be aware of: Megan's website has moved. Her new address is http://www.thesethoughts.com. I've already made the change in my blogroll, so those of you who visit her through me shouldn't notice much of a change. Those of you who visit via bookmarks should make the appropriate page, because that bookmark now leads to a 404 Page Not Found error, and my 404 errors automatically reroute you to my splash page. :)

Guess what I got this Saturday? My official graduate program stuff from ISU. :) As long as I contact them by April 1st, I'm accepted into the graduate program, and I get a Teaching Assistantship, too. Cool stuff, no? I think so.

Spring break is over as of this evening. School starts up again tomorrow. I feel Senioritis sneaking up on me. Wish me luck. *g*

2 comment(s).  

In Which Subleasers Survey

March 19, 2004 @ 10:15 PM

Life hasn't been too bad these last couple of weeks. This week in particular, since I'm on spring break and all. I've worked through most of it: 8 hours Monday, 13 hours Tuesday, 9 hours Wednesday, and 5 hours Thursday. Today, however, I had off. I spent most of it working on that whole splash page thing I was talking about earlier. The current version is the fourth I've created in the last couple of weeks, but I like it a lot. as a matter of fact, it may take over as my blog template, as well. I'll see what you-all think about that idea when I make the new template public. You'll know when that is, because you'll see a page other than this one when you visit rootarcana.com. The switch will probably happen sometime this weekend.

Interesting things about the new page (if it stays how it is now):

Speaking of rootarcana.com... there's a chance there will be some downtime around a week from now. That is, rootarcana.com may cease to exist for a short period of time. The reason: I'm transferring domain hosts, from discountdomainregistry.com to linksky.com. I'm going with linksky because that's where my site is hosted, so I figured I might as well take care of everything there. Plus, linksky is awesome. Any problem I've ever had, they've responded to efficiently and effectively.

----

A quick update on life (since I haven't really given one since October or so):
Megan and I have filled out our subleasing stuff. We'll be moving out before April 30th. Mom? Dad? How's the weekend of the 24th look for you guys? *g* I'll be moving approximately 11 blocks north and 2 blocks west. Megan's got her heart set on an apartment in Ankeny she went to see earlier this week. Someone is coming to look at our apartment tomorrow morning, which is pretty exciting. In case they don't like it, I've made up a flier to hang up around Ames. If'n you happen to live anywhere near the area and want to help a guy out, feel free to print off a couple. :)

Alright, time for bed. The maintenance guy woke Megan and I up far too early this morning and I need sleeps. On the plus side, we got a new microwave and bedroom door (long story, don't wanna go there).

Skool Newz

March 09, 2004 @ 10:27 AM

I've received the following news regarding my future recently:

1) A week ago, I heard unofficially that I was accepted into the graduate program in Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Communication here at ISU.

2) Monday, I heard officially that, as long as I pass English 418 with a C or greater, I'm graduating with a degree in English come May.

3) Ten minutes ago, I heard unofficially that I'm receiving a Teaching Assistantship next year, which means I get half my tuition paid, as well as a small but serviceable stipend.

I'm not sure that celebrations are due quite yet, seeing as how this is mostly unofficial information. However, seeing as how my unofficial source is the Director of Graduate Education, maybe that adds a bit of validity to the whole thing.

I also got some other news regarding my future last night, but I don't really feel like talking about it yet. Thinking about it is depressing me enough as it is.

The important part is, I've postponed the inevitable search for full-time employment for a couple more years. :)

PS - Happy birthday, Kara. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail. *grin*

5 comment(s).  

Continuance and Changes

March 04, 2004 @ 10:47 AM

You people are pretty darn convincing. :) I'm now planning on keeping the name rootarcana.com. Actually, it seems I've been unconsciously planning to do so from the beginning. I stuck 'rootarcana.com' in the splash page's title.

And for those who don't know what a splash page is, that's probably because I'm borrowing an inaccurate term from digital media. In that context, a splash page is a sort of title/introduction page, like the Windows screen when 96% of you turn on your computers. I'm not sure what the proper term for what I'm planning would be called. Basically, it would be a page that gives some very brief bio information and links to a couple of things, like my email, resumé, and blog. Kinda like a portal, I guess, except this is too small to be a portal. Heh. Ya know what? I think that, back in the day, this sort of thing would have been called a 'homepage'. Ooo... I'm retro. :)

So anyway. I spent an hour or so in Photoshop yesterday working on an idea for this 'homepage', and then spent an hour or two last night implementing said idea in html and css. So far, I'm quite pleased with the result. It's simple, yes, but that's what I was going for. Expect to see this new page show up soon. Those of you who only care about my weblog will be forced to either click a link, or change your links, bookmarks, or whatevers. Not too difficult either way.

Why am I doing this? That's an excellent question, and thanks for asking. Since I'll be graduating soon, and becoming somewhat more professional in one capacity or another, and since potential employers could quite easily find my website, I want to put my best foot forward. And, while I love this lil' blog of mine, it isn't the first thing I want someone who doesn't know me to see. I don't want to go to an interview, bitch about the interview here, and then have that employer stumble upon my rant.

So for now, expect the name rootarcana.com to remain, but expect the face of rootarcana.com to change. Can you dig it?

3 comment(s).  

3 Weeks to Live (the website, not me)

March 02, 2004 @ 01:16 PM

I was bored at work today (hopefully my boss doesn't read this), and so I was going through some of my old blog archives. I noticed that, in March 2003, rootarcana.com nearly expired on me. And guess what? March 2004 isn't much different. Luckily, this time, I caught it three weeks ahead of time instead of just two days.

So what does that mean? Same thing it did last year. I have to choose between renewing rootarcana.com, and selecting a new name. Last year, I didn't so much choose as run out of time. This go round, I've got the time, so maybe I'll make a choice.

So far, I'm leaning towards getting a new domain name. A boring domain name. Something like rglazebrook.com or thereabouts. Yes, it's dull, but it's also a bit more grown-up than my current domain. Plus, I can do stuff I've always toyed with, such as hosting my portfolio and resumé and so forth online. My domain name could lead to a splash page, with links to other portions. This site would probably become www.domainname.com/blog. Sure, I could do a splash page like that now, but I would always feel the need to explain what my domain 'means' every time I point someone to it. And that just sounds like a pain in the ass.

Thoughts? Ideas? I'll ponder it for a week or so before making a decision.

4 comment(s).