Originally published at rob's log. You can comment here or there.

So 2 years ago, no questions asked - PS3 is going to be the best thing since bread slicing video games -

But, I’ve more and more impressed with the underdog, and now they have me wanting to preorder - Zelda

Originally published at rob's log. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve been thinking - I really need a theme to my blog. The problem with something like myname.com is that all I can write about is my day-to-day life. Which is interesting enough living it, it’s not an interesting thing to describe. Hence, how are you? what did you do today? tend to be dull questions. It’s more interesting to tell a story or describe a thought, than just blurt life. And, a theme like the Pedia-Digest brings that out as opposed to rob’s log.

Anywho - photos

Originally published at rob's log. Please leave any comments there.

So, we went biking again today.  But, this time it was straight up, I got probably 10% of the distance we we’re planning JT and I we’re spent - near nausia.

Very humbled.  Eat before biking - will do.

jTheologian

Originally published at rob's log. You can comment here or there.

So I bought a mountain bike the other day, and we went out to go riding.  Mountain bikes are a bit more expensive than I anticipated, but I’ve been wanting start for a few weeks now.  It felt good, I haven’t physically exerted myself for anything
fun in quite some time. Stressful things seem less improtant as you try to get your way up a hill after your breath is spent, or go down a nice steep downhill, without braking or hitting some rock the wrong way.  It’s also a great way to finally start doing some excersize.  I’m going again next weekend.

New site template, still needs some minor adjustments.
—
Ciao for now.

Originally published at rob's log. Please leave any comments there.

So, Rob - the IT Proffessional, finds himself running a mirriad of Beta software,  Office 2k7, IE7, and even Opera 9 my favorite of these is still technically a beta.

Office is very pretty, at it’s nice being able to make dramatic document changes simply by waving my wrist - but, it’s slow.  All the hovering magic - and everything has a hovering effect.  Seems to not be speedy - though it is smooth and pretty.

—
A start is better than no start
Opera I love.  It is quite fast, especially at opening and closing - and that’s with it remembering the last 14 tabs I had open - not to mention it stores back/forward history for each tab.  And, if you are not all the way converted to tabs - opera will help you with that all new windows are redirected to tabs - and things that simply must pop up are in little pop-ups - that have no true nav, and are linked to the main opera window.  Very managable.

IE7… it’s better than IE6. Tabbed browsing, cleaner interface, better css implentation (still not perfect), and a few minor annoying bugs.

I suppose the real neat thing is that MS is attempting to kill the ‘File’ Menu Interface it standardised - exchanging it for prettier neccessary button commands and large icons.  As a tablet user, an even as a mouse user - it’s far time major app vendors think about how much resolution we actually have and how much faster it is to click on a big button than a 5px x 5px one - wink to you adobe.

so i was walkingback to my office just now, and i see little ol' jolene kester leaving our building.
Multi-Campus University - Board of Directors
University - President... Jolene Kester
Division/College - Vice President/Dean
Department - Director/Chair
Program - Coordinater
Faculty(Prof's)/Staff
Assistants... Rob.

i'm not really the type for starstruck-edness. but, something about the leader of a large organization which i voice my opinion about a lot - made me pause. i suppose it's like being a lobbyist who meets with the gov. or pres. but, i'm not much for actual politics. So, with all my opinions and feelings about the way the univ. should change "hi, how are you?" "good, how are you?"... and the thing that really bothers me, is that as we both approach the same door - she opened it.

first some backstory:
rob does not like school. it is filled with piling bureaucracy, too many perils of textbooks, assignments, reports, and overall too much work. minimal learning, but lots to keep one over-occupied. The world of work provides a reasonable to excessive amount of work nicely contained within certain defined hours, and no matter the problem there is an end time.
rob has much school left. despite the time already invested in the already too many years at school already there appear to be even more left.
rob must work. due to various personal circumstance there is not chance for fin.aid., nor does is the family able help to be able compensate for all life's expenses.
rob must continue school. in order to keep the family support, there must be a continuing and well-performing academics.
rob enters more trouble. the financial situation becomes decreasingly stable as year's progress, and academics do not improve leading to an ultimatum of sorts.

now the story:
rob is enticed by the opportunity to work for a certain distance learning systems group ( http://exlweb.csun.edu/dl/ ). the job is work in the field, and they do some really neat stuff. following up wit this rob sends his resume, responce is good, an interview is set, and a plan evolves.
-if i can take on a second job for additional 20hr/wk. i could effectively double my salary and pay for my own school. however, i will have to decrease my unit load to compensate for the lack of time. but if i did say from sum05->fall06, took out a $10k loan, then quit work and went to school 20units from fall06-spring06, i could get done. an not have to worry about $-
interview goes great, except one small problem that now lies in the final offer. i can only work 20hr/week during school for csun-dumb protect students thing. dlsg is willing to split the 20 with the career center - not leave them hanging. but, i can not go through with the plan. the career center needs me, so i feel compelled not to leave them, and i enjoy my job.
... i need a loop-hole. =(

random links:
Google world-dominating, but nice features
http://www.participatoryculture.org/
https://upload.video.google.com/
http://paulrademacher.com/housing/ - Google's maps + Craigslist's listings =

hmmm... how about a series of days

friday: wake-up-late, go-to-work, work-work-work, wait-wait-wait, work-all-done, drop-by-home, read-some-bible, stop-at-shledon's, sheldon-take-too-long, head-to-hollywood, an-hour-early, follow-the-directions, can't-find-place, drive-all-around, still-no-sign, eight-rolls-around, missing-the-play, waited-all-week, stink-stink-stink, search-some-more, can't-ever-find, bought-a-burger, drove-back-home, should-sleep-early, stay-up-late, i-heart-cartoons

saturday: alarm doesn't go off or something. phone call at 5:50am. whew - just in time. she's feeling sick, oh no. stop by the store, thank you pepto bizmo. left at six, with the store, there at 6.20 go escort go. she's feeling better, awesome, mexico here we come. they're ready and waiting, but more people. looks, like i'll be driving. fun drive to irvine, but then she's there so - "what do ya think?"{second napolean referance}. A whole lot of people going to mexico. apparently oc, and east region teens are coming along. 107 where biggest groups before about 60, usually 30-40, or so i hear. carpool in a leather-interior suv, ok they're good for something. drive down to tacate...usa. stop at subway split a sandwhich - held me all day. cross the border - actually, my first time. drive to san juan village - outskirts of tacate, mexico (yes, the beer logo is everywhere). little kids grab ahold, and run me around everywhere. something about a stink last night erases while playing airplane with a 6 year old. deliver clothes and food - there was a lot of clothes - and they all vanish. cook up and serve hot dogs. after some soccer it's off to the boy's orphanage. arrive a little late, deliver clothes/food, play some games - earlier group cooked burgers, left-overs aboud - still not hungry though. before long it's off to the girls orphanage - big jump rope game (hasan playing group jump rope next to little girls - priceless). soccer, keep-away, and limbo, then it's dinner time. food abounds, and we're offered tacos, rice, beans - good stuff. then we say our goodbyes, and go to the ye' old' taco stand. $1 best carne asada - 4 tacos and ice cream later it's back to america. but, my car starts actin wierd, i'm able to drive it home. won't turn off though - i had to disconnect the battery - stink, oh well. drop off jo, and go to raul's house - thankfully they for some reason never sleep there.

sunday - wake-up at 8. yes, still haven't showered since friday. so, i want to go home. go with david, who's planning to usher at the service at universal. but, then realize my car is broke down, how will i leave home. so, i just go with him early. offer to usher (so, early) end-up helping with cd-making, and then sound guy dissappeared so we become unofficial sound guys too. fun stuff. see people i haven't seen in a long time. eat some rubio's, and chill. go home with chucklew first dropping by alhambra.

my car is not working again, but mexico was awesome.

so, i want to enroll in exactly 12 units. a. because i really don't want to overload myself, but now b. the university will only let me get 13 max. now for those of you not familiar with the unit system. nearly all classes are 3 units (the rule they say is 1hour of class time, and 2 of homework per week), so 12units*3hours= 36hours= full-time=elligible for all benefits of being a full time student. now the problem is I need to take two 3unit classes with two 1unit required labs, that makes 8 units. Now, 4 units is fairly difficult, especially , this late in the game.

oh, so I now have two friends in the army. One from here who left about a year ago son_of_thunder, and a friend I haven't who I just heard from for the first time in 5 years - more to come. Bringing me up to 5 friends/family currrently in the service, and 8 if you include those who've left in the past few years.

But, I'm going to go ahead and release my budget, I had planned to work on the readme today, but I suppose I'll leave that for tommorrow. Feel free to check it out let me know what you think. You can find it here http://www.csun.edu/~rwc73604/misc.htm

random links:
http://www.suresafe.com.tw/showroom1.html - I want one of these

i've been hearing lot's of nice things about my budget - that is an excel sheet i use to organize all of my spending and such. one person even suggested i sell it. so i'm thinking about posting it under a creative commons license. because the license is really quite neat and easy, plus it lets me have something out in the world with my name on it.

i've realized how to catch up on lj. i can make a friends group that includes everyone except those who post over 20 posts a week.

random links:
http://www.gizmondo.com/unit/index.asp?no=6 - if you like gadgets

so, i'm again trying to reconnect with you lj, perhaps we can once again be friends.

so let's see since dec17th...
news:
i've gone up north, visited my dad for a week.
the lewis brothers(jamba and chucklew) came up and we roamed around frisco - fun stuff
came back home, celebrated new year's all fancy at the downtown hyatt with my girlfriend and a bunch of campus ministries
spent a week pretty much chilling at home, got to see jayson77 while he was in the country though
returned to work full time for now
i'm making more money, and finally avg. pay = 800 = avg. spending (not including special events)

recent troubles:
still need to register, having to run through hoops as usual to correct csun paperwork. problem is i work from 8-5, csun offices are open 8-5.
money as usual need to last till 2/15, thank you visa. speaking of which i realized my dating anniversary (3/23), valentine's (2/14) and my girlfriend's b-day (5/19) all happen to lie in the same semester.

it seems my friends roster has changed, i have a few people i don't know reading this, and a few friends have dissapeared apparently too. less to catch up on for me - i suppose.

so sunday at approx. 1pm (after church) i'm heading up north to my dad's for christmas. -excited, afraid, worried, hopeful- it could go really well this year. the past number of times could have gone much better. my grades stank this semester - i'd kick me out. but, i think i can still continue, should i though? thought and prayed about it for a long time about it, and yes i will. good mental arguments on both sides (yep, probably heard that one too, but it's countered by something else) it all comes down to something d.leach once said - ironic though that is. My new mentality - as long as they haven't kicked me out, and i have the capability of continue, i'm going to continue for better or worse. oh, i got the raise $11/hr :) starting 12/2/04 - yeah, that's the beginning of this month. thank you God. was going to post something else to, but i've since decided not to.

ok, you might all remember, a while back ( http://www.livejournal.com/users/guycalledrob/43756.html ) ago, i might obtain a promotion. well that has gone from might to will. now, will is future-tense, so you might ask when. tuesday. as of tuesday i will no longer be a technical support assistant/webmaster for the career center. i will be that long thing minus assistant. my boss moved up. so for me that means:

more work/responsibility - :(
full-time when need (like january for server transition) - :)
big, office more power - :)
lonesome, big office - :(
highly probable raise - :)

3-2 = a good thing

in other financial news, according to my budget being going deep in red in 6 days, until the 15th unless i save/acquire $50. any ideas? remember it is finals and time is high demand.

music video - neat example of video editing
http://www.c-monandkypski.nl/video/shittybum.html

new toys on the market:
smallest full computer i've ever seen
why - just tell you about it, when you can watch the video http://www.oqo.com/hardware/video/

big screen
http://www.digitaltigers.com/index.shtml

Have you been reading the e-mail's csun has been sending out?

"TAKE AN EXTRA CLASS NOW—you will save money by lessening the
impact of future fee increases." http://www.csun.edu/a&r/soc/Spring2005Reg.pdf

so, i haven't used this thing in a while. i've been trying to think of how to post once more. i've somehow forgotten how i was able to update and read this so frequently. their a lot of you - and despite the fact that some of you are like me and never post, some post in excess of 5 posts a day and some post long enough scare away english majors. so, i skim a few entries everyonce and a while and usually miss the really interesting posts in favor of the ones that take me less than a minute to read. in any case, i do enjoy this place and the sense of community and openness it promotes. so, i once again want to post. a lot has happened since last i posted, and as usual i don't really know how to sum up the events of my life, so instead i'll just post a bunch of links to some sites i've been to lately.

random links:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/
massive online classifieds
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/cpg/
computer freelance work, sometimes good
http://www.cheapass.com/index.html
Excuse the name, but it's a lot of really cheap games (board, dice, cards,...)
http://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/comic.php
a comicbook, about doom, if you ever played the original, you must read this
http://persistent.info/archives/2004/10/05/gmail-skinning
theme your g-mail