Robby's first hat trick in many moons!
January 26, 2006 @ 02:00 PM
I'll have you know that my presentation(s) today went fine, ~despite~ a noticeable dearth of wishers well. Dana, in fact, was the only person to wish me good luck. For shame!
I had a really good time presenting, despite the fact I certainly Did Not Wish to Wake this morning. I got done preparing my presentation at around 3am. I went to bed, tossing and turning, until at least 3:30 (the last time I remember seeing). I was awake again before 6am. In other words, I did all of my presenting on less than three hours sleep. Really, I suppose the coffee deserves most of the credit for pulling it off.
Despite the fact that I was awake by six, I still managed to fall behind this morning. I fell into my normal morning routine, which of late involves a lot of sipping of the coffee and nibbling of the fruit and reading of the email. At one point, I startled, glanced at the clock, and realized I had twenty minutes to shower, shave, brush my teeth, and dress in presentable presentation duds in order to catch my bus.
I was ~early~ to the bus stop by two minutes. I really don't know how. I think I may have sent a new personal (personal) hygiene speed record.
Anyway, the presentation went well. I presented the same information in three sessions, so I had to vary it a little bit each time to keep myself interested, but it was a good time. Dr. Niday didn't intimidate me much, which I'm blaming on the lack of sleep. After the sessions, during lunch, I was also part of a graduate student panel discussion why we're at ISU and what admissions persons could do to attract more bright young stars like ourselves. I had one of the ladies present snap a picture of us on that panel, so we'll see how that turned out later.
Now all I have to look forward to is work until 5pm, class until 6:30pm, and then racquetball at 8pm. I'm gonna be one tired little fella by the time this evening rolls around.
I'm already a tired little fella. Uht-oh…
My iPod has a sense of humor.
January 25, 2006 @ 04:05 PM
Me: [sigh] No…
Later that evening…
Me: Wanna hear something funny? Apparently my mom commented on Scott's blog.
Dana: Yeah, I read it. It was pretty funny.
Me: [sigh]
You all have too much time on your hands.
I have a bigScary presentation tomorrow at something called an Admissions Workshop. Basically, a bunch of people from various departments involved with graduate admissions are going to sit and listen to me
Fun with Music
I had gotten bored with my previous playlist on my iPod nano, and totally redid all of my songs last night. So far today, my iPod has made me snort aloud twice.
<NotForGirlfriendsOrGrammas>
So I was walking across campus from Ross to Pearson around 1pm today, and I ended up behind this blonde girl in high heels wearing rather tight jeans. I happened to notice she had a really, really nice behind. And then I noticed it again. Again. After a few glances, I resignedly reminded myself that I have a girlfriend now, and I should not be checking out the Tushies of Others. "Just ignore it," I told myself. So I started staring at my feet. Roughly two seconds later, Jonathan Coulton's remix of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" started blaring in my ears. I like big butts and I cannot lie…
I was trying so hard to suppress my laughter I nearly passed out. :)
</NotForGirlfriendsOrGrammas>
About two hours later, my boss sent me to the Provost's office to borrow their digital projector. The Provost's office is probably one of the prettiest offices on campus, what with the high ceilings and rich carpets and marble columns. Very high class place. Just as I opened the door to the office, Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" started playing. I couldn't get my headphones out of my ears fast enough, and managed to announce my presence with a loud snort.
I don't even know why I put that last one on my iPod in the first place. Obviously I was not thinking clearly.
Expulsion in 5… 4…
The projector is in a big black bag. It isn't all that heavy, but it sure is big and imposing looking. On my way out of the Provost's office, I set the bag down at the base of a column in the middle of Beardshear Hall so I could put my headphones back on. After I set it down, I had an extremely powerful urge to leave the bag laying there and take off running to see if it would freak anyone out. I bet I could have shut down Beardshear for the rest of the day. :)
Networking for Dummy
I attended a workshop over lunch today called "Resumés 101." Basically, a bunch of people from various colleges and companies came and talked about what they look for in a resume and so forth. The workshop was specifically for teachers of business and technical writing, but I figured I could attend anyways. Right before it started, they requested we go around the room introducing ourselves and listing the classes we taught. When it came to me, I figured honesty was the best policy. "My name is Rob Glazebrook. I'm not currently teaching any classes, but I am planning to apply to a few of your companies in the near future." I got a laugh anyways.
I ~also~ got to meet one of the creative directors of Innova, a design company here in town that I would love to work for. The only weird thing about working at Innova would be that it is literally two doors down from my apartment; I'm a little worried that if I started working there, I'd never again have a strong reason to leave Main Street. Regardless, I let her know I'd be applying in the near future. Let's hope I made a good first impression.
Should have stuck with "late for dinner."
January 24, 2006 @ 01:02 AM
Tuck is no longer Tuck. Tuck is now Smaug. Smaug is now eyeing his reflection in the mirror suspiciously. I think he distrusts the other cat's motives. Or perhaps he just wants to make a friend who spends more time playing on the floor and less time saying "No!" and pulling him off of counters and out of garbage cans.
Smaug is Smaug for three reasons: first, because Smaug is the name of the dragon in The Hobbit, and kitty yonder seems noble yet crafty, just like a good dragon should. Secondly, Smaug sounds an awful lot like smog, and he is very smoggy-smoky colored, so yay double entendre. Thirdmost, it's the name that has stuck. Tuck stuck not, or at least not enough to be a daily name. When Smaug was Tuck, I usually just called him kitty-kitty. Now that he has been tranSMAUGrified, I generally call him Smauggidy Smaug-Smaug Smagoo. This, as you can easily see, is an Improvement.
Today has been a very hard day. It started out with my usual battle with the coffee maker, and this time, Mr. Bunn kicked mine. Despite the fact that I had onne (one and only one (yay geekish grammar)) coffee filter in the machine, said filter decided not to filter so much as to contain. Coffee grounds and reallyHot water went most everywhere. Smaug was seriously impressed with my new game, but I was not so much so. I spent tenplus minutes cleaning up the resultant mess, then made a second pot, which brewed much more smoothly. Unfortunately, I forgot to drink it.
Today's Score:
Coffee: 2.
Rob: 0.
As I mentioned in the comments of a post past, I've done a bit of editing to the source code of my site. Internet Explorer doesn't like my columns. Never really has. Since I didn't really care for IE, either, I didn't let it bother me for a while. Unfortunately, I've recently been feeling empathetic and have decided I need to make my site IE-friendly again. I played with the CSS for around half an hour this evening, but didn't get anywhere. If you visited while I was tinkering, you probably saw some pretty weird things. As it is, the site's design has changed ever so slightly: the blue lines that faded to nothing along the right side of the page are now a consistent, yet very faint, collection of blue lines along the length of the page. The reason for this is really technical, but suffice it to say it should make my job easier when I'm trying to make IE pretend to be a real browser. :)
G'night, all.
Didn't you get that memo?
January 21, 2006 @ 04:42 PM
This exchange earlier in the week sorta threw me for a loop:
Rob: [disturbed pause] I haven't read that one yet, I guess.
Scott: Oh, you should. It's pretty funny.
Rob: Wait… you read my mom's blog?
Scott: Actually, Alicia sent me to it.
What this means is, not only are two of my colleagues reading my mom's blog, but they read it more frequently than I. Only bad things can come from this. Also, that wasn't funny, mom. *g*
I had my first meeting with my POS committee on Friday. There were three professors present, whose job it is to make sure my planned creative component will merit a degree. One of them thought I wasn't tackling a big enough project, one of them thought I was taking on too big a project, and the third inundated me with additional ideas and technical terms. In short, it went exactly as I had expected. Now all I have to do is do the damn thing.
As I've reckoned it, I need to be reading around one book and one article a week for my creative component (in addition to my other class-related reading). As of last night, most all of my books are on the way, so I've got maybe a week's time before I feel I need to start reading. In about two weeks, I also need to start writing around ten pages a week. Ten pages a week doesn't sound like all that much, I realize, but the real tough part comes in making sure that the ten pages I'm writing fit with the last ten pages I wrote as well as the next ten pages I'm going to write. Also, I need to sorta design and develop the website I'm doing my creative component on in the meantime. Sometime in November, while this semester was still a distant dream (nightmare?), I planned out my weekly work schedule, guaranteeing I had sufficient time to do my homework and work on my creative component. Of course, this was before I had a girlfriend. *g*
Speaking of her, things are still going fantastically, for those interested. We try to see each other every day, even if it isn't for long and we don't accomplish much more than cuddling on the couch a bit before we're both too tired from studying to stay awake, Other times we spend huge chunks of time together and thoroughly neglect our homework (not to mention, I hate to admit, sometimes our friends). That will have to change in the near future, I guess. Pout pout.
Well, this has been a fun break in the homework, but I must get back to it, because our evening is full with dinner and a movie with oldFriend Natasha, who is briefly back in town from Minnesota. Tomorrow will hopefully involve more homework, a bit of shopping, and laundry, as I'm behind on reading, low on perishables, and wearing uncomfortable underwear.
Panhandling, Parallex, Parents: Potpourri.
January 17, 2006 @ 10:48 AM
*sigh* I just started to put together my creative component reading list on Amazon, and already the total is nearly $200. If I had $200, do you think I'd be in ~college~ right now? ;) To that end, if anyone would like to help me out, I've made a "thesis reading" wishlist available here. It could be, like, a late Chanukah present or something. It's late for Chanukah, right? I'll probably start buying them as I need them at the end of the week, which should please Mr. CreditCardCompany to no end.
Alright, enough of the begging. It's too early in the morning for that. Actually, I suppose it's getting rather late in the morning, but I didn't get much sleep last night and I've only remembered to drink one cup of coffee so far, so it feels early.
I miss my three-day weekend already. It was a lot of fun. I got to see a band I like, spend copious amounts of time with Dana, and even see my family. Whew. I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it. Or perhaps I really should go get that second cup of coffee.
I had a fantastic idea (I even had this verified) for a new website last night, but I'm not going to tell any of you about it, because it's really good and you'd probably just steal it. Don't steal my idea!
The above paragraph illustrates one of the minor changes I made to the website yesterday: I now possess the ability to highlight things. I don't know how often it'll come in handy, but it's a nice visual effect. I think so, anyways. I also finally got sIFR Flash headlines installed. If that doesn't mean anything to you, suffice it to say I now have the power to render my headlines in whatever typeface I want. If you didn't really notice a change, that's because I chose typefaces pretty close to what I had originally. Go Creativity, I guess. *g* If you don't see headings at all anymore, let me know, because that means I need to do some finagling yet.
Tweak!
January 12, 2006 @ 03:58 PM
I've made a few minor changes to the site in the last few weeks, and I keep forgetting to mention them, so I thought I'd take this opportunity (procrastinating at work) to quickly list them off. The ones I remember after all this time, at least. :)
First up, I added a search bar to the top-right corner of the page. It's nothing fancy, just using Google to search my site, but it might come in handy to someone some day.
I've also re-added my archives to my blog (bottom of the sidebar). I think it'd just slipped my mind the first time. Actually, upon using my search bar to peruse my archives (how's that for a mid-paragraph segue?), it looks like I was having a problem with my archives at one point, and I probably didn't want to call attention to them.
I've also also tweaked the fonts slightly in the last month, so if the page looks slightly different all over, that'd be why. I'm not done with fonts, either: I plan to change the headings to flash text after a while to make them smoother looking.
Also, I've also also updated my portfolio website a bit. I don't yet have as many samples of my work up as I'd like, but it's good enough for now. My portfolio also now includes an updated version of my résumé. I needed one to apply for a part-time job earlier in the week (possibly more on that later), so I figured I might as well upload it.
Last up, I've added a new subsection to the sidebar called "Del.icio.us Bookmarks." Del.icio.us, for all of those not yet in the know, is a web-based bookmarking system that uses tags instead of folders for organization (meaning one bookmark can be "stored" under several tags, making it easier to find when the need arises). It also allows me to search other people's bookmarks, which is pretty cool. That's where I found a Photoshop tutorial that taught me how to make smooth shiny-looking shapes like the one featured above. The sidebar now lists my eight most recent bookmarks. At some point, the Del.icio.us bookmarks will probably replace my miniblog, as it's a lot easier to maintain.
Let me know if you've any comments on any of the changes, though they're minor enough I doubt anyone does. :p
Just don't call him late for dinner.
January 09, 2006 @ 07:03 PM
Hello, my generous little chipmunks! I guess it's about time I let the cat out of the bag and let you all know that I let the cat out of the bag. Well, he didn't come in a bag so much as a cardboard carrier, but that's really only a matter of degree.
Short story shorter: I have a cat! :) That's him pictured above, or to the right, or wherever. I got him last Wednesday, but I had to keep him a secret for a while, because he was meant to be a surprise for Dana and I didn't want to spoil it by having her get bored and read about it on my website. It's been known to happen. In fact, I heard her dad Googled me recently, so perhaps he's a new reader as well. If so, hello again John, and I apologize in advance. :)
I suppose I should supply some vitals on the kitty, no? Well, he is a he, and he is eight months old. He weighed 9 pounds, 12 ounces when I took him in to get detasseled* on Friday morning, so I suppose he probably weighs 9 1/2 pounds now. *g* He still has however many claws cats are born with, though that may change sometime in the future.
His name, as of this writing, is Tuck for short, or Friar Tuck if you're not into brevity. This is one of many names Dana and I have given him in the last week, and I can't promise it'll stick. His name was Xavier when I got him from the Ames animal shelter. I looked the name up and discovered it didn't mean anything great for a cat, and I didn't really want a primarily religious name anyways, so I started thinking of new ones. I started calling him Ketey at first, because that's what I call all cats (the 't' is pronounced with a velar flap, like the 't' in "metal"), but Dana was worried people would just think we couldn't pronounce kitty (I'm not convinced I can). I also wanted to name him Aristotle for his inquisitive nature, and shorten it to "Ari" (which means lion in Hebrew) in conversation, but Alicia goes by Ari so that was shot down also. He was briefly Bob for no reason, nearly became both Trogdor and King Of Town, and was Friar Mendy** for a whole day. Because he looks Egyptian to Dana and me, he was also very nearly Set, Imhotep, Osiris, or Anubis, but none of the descriptions of those gods were perfect for our kitty. On the Greek side of the pantheon, I argued for Pan (too close to Pam), Echo (was a female), and Muse (were also female). We settled on Friar Tuck (of Robin Hood fame) late last night, as the description of Friar Tuck was apt enough. He ended up with a religious name in the end regardless.
So! Tuck it is, for now. He's a very sweet, friendly kitty, which is part of why I liked him. I wanted a cat that wouldn't shy away from my friends. He's also very inquisitive, which is also part of why I originally liked him; however, after the third time of pulling the cat out of the refrigerator or away from the candle, one no longer has to wonder how curiosity killed the cat. He's completely housebroken and cleans himself regularly, so he's already got a leg up on me. For my next trick, I hope to train him not to suddenly become lovey and needing of affection at 3am. Still, all in all, I'd say we've both made a remarkably smooth transition in the last five days.
* I prefer the term detasseled to neutered, and since it means pretty much the same thing, I say we go with it.
** This is in honor of Dr. Mendelson, who taught the class Dana and I had in common last fall. Towards the end of the semester, he suggested a week was long enough time in which to finish our papers, because after all, a week was long enough to fall in love. Dana and I fell in love that week. :)
Must be smarter than the coffee maker.
January 02, 2006 @ 10:09 AM
I'm wasted on thought before I have my coffee, as I'm sure I've mentioned before (but cannot yet link to because I have not yet had my coffee). The biggest problem with this is, it sometimes requires more brainpower than I can muster to ~obtain~ said coffee. This morning was a case in point. I made coffee when I got up at 9am, but kept forgetting to fill my cup until around 10am. At that point, I couldn't find my coffee cup, so I wandered around the apartment aimlessly, whining slightly, until I found the cup in my bedroom (right where I'd left it, in fact).
Cup in hand, I happily walked into the kitchen, filled the cup full of hot water from the faucet, and stared at it stupidly for a few seconds. When it did not magically turn into coffee, I sighed, dumped out the water, and used the coffee from the coffee maker instead.
That's still not as bad as what I did a couple weeks ago after not getting nearly enough sleep one night. That time, I walked into the kitchen, dumped out the old coffee filter, rinsed, put a new filter in, and promptly filled the filter with creamer. Again, I stared at it for a few seconds, thinking, "something's not right..." before reality was kind enough to smack me upside the head. At which point I naturally cursed at the microwave, dumped out the filter and creamer, and gave morning another go.
In the past I've also tried making coffee without the filter, using far too many filters (gets water everywhere), stirring the coffee with a paper towel, and making a fresh pot of coffee with the ~old~ coffee instead of water. Hardee's wasn't joking: breakfast is hard.
Wherein Iwanna.
January 01, 2006 @ 05:57 PM
A lot of people make resolutions this time of year. I'm not so hot on the whole resolution idea, because the word "resolution" sounds far too… well, resolute. I'm not currently in any sort of position to map out with any degree of certainty my next 365 days, so why make a bunch of promises that I may not in fact be able to keep? That sounds like a surefire way to set myself up for disappointment. Instead, I've decided to make a list of Iwannas. Iwannas are things I'd like to do, but it won't be the end of the world if they don't get done. I think it'll be a nice way of setting some goals without the false implication of tenacity. So, without further adieu, and you all know how I do love my adieu (I do, I do!), here's…
Robby's Incomplete List of 2006 Iwannas:
1. Iwanna see a MajorGeologicalFeature. By this, I mean a mountain, or an ocean, or a desert, glacier, rain forest, Bill Gates' house… something. See, I'm 24 years old, and I've never seen any of these things. It's probably high time I do something about that. Dana happens to live in Colorado, which I've heard is home to a mountain or two, so perhaps I have a shot at this one.
2. Iwanna fly on a commercial airliner. Again, I'm (still) 24 years old, and again, I've yet to get this little milestone taken care of. To this end, I'm considering flying out to Seattle over spring break to visit ex-roomy Justin. Dana's planning on coming with me, too. :) Of course, I have yet to clear any of this with Justin himself.
3. Iwanna graduate. Ooh, toughy, right? I should be done in May, assuming I get my arse in gear here in the near future and get to work on my Creative Component. I wouldn't be entirely heartbroken if it took me until August, and I'm planning on sticking around the area anyway, but I'm going to shoot for May just the same. Either way, I'm pretty sure May and August both fall before December 31st this year, so my Iwanna would still be redeemable.
4. Iwanna lose some weight, or at least gain some muscle mass. Preferably both, but seeing as how I'm going for attainable Iwannas and not impractical resolutions, I'd settle for either. A 20 pound drop in weight would be great, but I don't know how practical it would be since this last semester is bound to be pretty stressful, and I tend to eat when stressed, and Dana shot down my ingenious cocaine addiction idea.
5. Iwanna be more adventurous. Last year, the most adventurous thing I did was probably visit Dana in Lincoln just last week, which was 200 ~whole~ miles away. :p Perhaps Iwannas #1 and #2 will help me out in the adventure area.
Can anyone think of any other Iwannas I should add to my list?