Bobbis.net

I got results back from my econ test, the mean was a solid B. I got above the mean, so that made me happy. Also, Wednesday, I got my results back from my TrLog quiz, which I also did well on :-D. I have three tests next week, History, TrLog, and Psych (again). It seems like I'm having tests every week lately.

At work, I intended to implement some more features to the scholarship system that were requested in the past few days. Though, I found that I had to clone our backup server to a larger drive and troubleshoot a problem that resulted from that task. It felt good that I was able to get the server figured out before leaving since Retrospect has a nack for causing problems that are almost impossible to solve.

I didn't have any plans for tonight, but plans developed quickly online. Adrienne made a pasta dinner for me and Ben R. Thanks Adrienne, it was good! Colin stopped by a little later and we BSed around for a while. After hanging for a while, Colin and I headed over to his place to BS some more and watch Futurama. A few minutes ago I sent a bunch of e-mail out for stuff regarding MUG.

Some good news about my friends lately. Meri made a new friend who is her age and close by, Nick and Maggie are taking their relationship to the next level (congratulations!), Adrienne gets to see Michael, and Gaila got a new car.

Today has been a good and productive day.

Thursdays are strange. I sleep in 'til around 11:00 and make my way into work around 12 or 1. I have class at 3:40 then go home. It seems like a really short day, but it sort of gets made up by MUG meetings.

At the officer's meeting for MUG today, I had an interview with some girls in the broadcast media club, or whatever it's called. They didn't know what they were doing. They told me they were looking for a small, less than 30 second interview clip about MUG. When they got there, they decided that their primary subject would be wireless Internet, along with MUG and Film Festival. So, I immediately got three different subjects shot into my head that I had to talk about for a very short period of time. They had no idea what they were doing. They didn't know what questions they were going to ask, and only one of them had half a clue about how to operate their camera. One of them asked what "white balance" was. I believe I was the only one there who understood what it was and how to effectively get a reading (going on photo shoots with my brother a few times taught me some of this, I am no expert), but I wasn't going to open my mouth and embarrass them. My interview didn't go well. If I knew what they were going to ask me, and I had time to compose responses, I think they would have gotten a better interview out of me. I wasn't ready to talk about wireless Internet or film festival, and I can't switch subjects very quickly. You may be able to see my incredible failed interview on channel 18 starting next week and the rest of the semester knowing how the ISU station operates. The interview really threw me off, and the rest of the meeting was rather uncomfortable for some reason. It felt like I was just dictating what were were going to do with the events for the year, very little discussion. I don't think that's a good thing, but hopefully things will get done.

This evening while talking to Gaila, and later reading Meri's blog, I realized how much I value my friends. After the weekend at the lake, I believe Gaila and I have become closer friends. Before she was more of an acquaintance, but now she is more of a trusted friend like Colin, or Meri. I like being able to make new and better friends.

That's about it for today. Perhaps I will be able to hang with some friends this weekend.

Yesterday evening after getting home from school, I ate a snack and fell asleep on the couch until I was awakened for dinner. I ate dinner, checked a few blogs and went to bed for the night. I knew I had to study for my test, but I felt it was more important to be well rested. I've been feeling on the verge of sick for a few days now. I don't want to get sick.

This morning, I woke up a little extra early to fit a bit of studying in and make sure that I would get to class on time for the test. I get to class and a few other people are doing last minute studying. The instructor enters the room and starts putting new terms on the board, stuff that is clearly not going to be on the test. It turns out that I missed the memo that the test had been moved to next Monday. So much for a syllabus. I don't even think it was mentioned in group section yesterday. So, that helped me relax. Also, my Trans Log test has been moved from Monday to Wednesday so I will not have two tests in the same day :-) .

Psychology was interesting today. Really easy going day. No notes to take, just watch some recorded TV shows. Turns out that all the shows were featuring our instructor as an expert in the subject. He was on Oprah, 48 Hours, and either the Today show or Good Morning America (whichever one has Gumble). All the pieces were about eyewitness identification, which is relevant to the particular subject we are currently studying. I think it was interesting that we got a lecture from our instructor anyway, even though it was recorded from TV.

I finally got in contact with the person who was trying to contact me about doing a feature about MUG for the university new channel. We exchanged voice mails a few times, and she finally got a hold of me while I was in line at Subway. I set up a time for an interview during our officer's meeting tomorrow. Hopefully this will raise awareness about our club.

At work I mostly worked on organizing what needs to be done for film festival. We need to find $600 in our budget in order to cover the awards we want to give. I also did a few things with the scholarship system. Anytime there is a mySQL error, I will get an email telling me what the error is, what IP the user was, and the URL that created the error. Very useful information, especially when the system goes online on the 15th. This way, I can be immediately notified of any issues and can fix them quickly. I also ended up moving some furniture for the dean for some reason. I didn't realize it was my job to move furniture, but if the dean says something, do it.

I got an e-mail today from Mr. Troeger. Those of you who are AHS alums my age or older may remember him from Earth Sciences. He e-mailed me for recommendations for used Mac systems that can run OS X. I thought it was kind of odd that he would e-mail me, especially since he has been retired before I even started working for the district and I never had him as a teacher. Turns out he just e-mailed the president account for MUG, which gets forward to me. Small world.

Church was fun. A lot of people showed up and were very energetic. Fritz got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to Colin before service started. For some strange reason I have the Sunday song "Now the Feast and Celebration" stuck in the my head. Why?! I haven't been to Sunday service for 3 or 4 weeks, why get it stuck in my head now?

Anyway, it has been a good day.

Friday, I feel I did pretty good on the econ test. I didn't go the the library in the morning, but I did manage to study at home. Yeah for no 'rents around. By the end of the day Friday, I was exhausted. Instead of having people over Friday, I decided to take a nap. I really wasn't feeling 100% at the time. Nor did I over the weekend. I have just been on the verge of being sick, though not really sick. Maybe it's the cool weather.

Saturday and Sunday were just laze around days. I watched a few movies on TV. I didn't even touch my computer, which means there is something wrong with me. Adrienne called me fairly late on Sunday, wanting to do something. I would have been up to it, but I really should have started on homework and stuff at the time.

Yesterday I actually felt somewhat rested in the morning, but that left very quickly. Mel helped keep me awake during Trans Log. Friends who are in central Iowa the weekend of the 30th, who wants to go down with me to visit Mel?

During class I got called by someone who was from the university TV station that wanted to do a feature on the MUG. Apparently we played phone tag for a little bit, and are continuing to do so. I don't exactly know what's going on, but it would be interesting to advertise the group on a TV station nobody watches :-) .

Today I have been querying my technical resources trying to figure out how to do something with Kerberos, AD, and Mac OS X. So far no such luck. I was hoping to solve the problem today, but apparently that's not going to work out.

I've got a blue book test tomorrow in History, and more of this crappy Kerberos stuff to take care of. Later.

You know that feeling at the beginning of the semester where you tell yourself, "this semester is going to be different, I'm going to work hard and take time to study this time" then around this time of year, you really loose that enthusiasm. Well, I lacked the early enthusiasm this year, mainly because I had just gotten out of my summer class and I wanted to enjoy some summer time. For some reason, I have gained some enthusiasm about my schooling. I don't know what it is. Perhaps all the test this past week and next week. Perhaps I can actually focus on things at home when my 'rents are gone. I don't know what it is. Tomorrow I have an econ test. I'm planning on going to the library to study around 8:30 9:00. The test is at 11:00.

Today, I actually wasn't as tired as I have been all this week. Wednesday helped a lot being able to hang out with some friends. Also, sleeping in on Thursdays is something I look forward to every week :).

This morning the power went out around 8:00 AM. Last night the city put a notice on the front door stating that they were replacing a transformer in the neighborhood and that the power was going to be cut for a little while in the morning. My UPS system woke me up with its beeping. I got up, turned off the towers, went to my laptop, checked my mail and a few web sites while the power was off then stumbled back into bed with the UPS still beeping.

The MUG meeting today was pretty good, with the exception that the guy who was supposed to do the animation demo did not show up! I suppose that was ok, since most people where there to see the iMac anyway. We BSed for a while.

I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. 'Rents are not due back until Saturday. Haven't done much with the church gang for a while.

It's late, test tomorrow. Good Night.

Friday, after cleaning the boat, Colin and I went to see Sky Captain. The style of the movie takes a little bit to get used to, but it was ok considering what they were aiming for. C+.

Saturday, I was supposed to meet Gaila in Okoboji at around 3:00, but because of delays at home (ie mom) I had to step on it (with a trailer) to get there around 4:00. Gaila had to wait around for an hour before I showed up. We put the boat in the water and went to dinner at the Lighthouse bar and grill. It was interesting that the place had plastic furniture and the host just pointed the table to us instead of actually taking us there. The food was good though.

After dinner we went to see Cellular. I really wasn't expecting too much from this movie, but it was much better than I expected. Quite a few twists. Though, there were a few times where I saw an easier way out of the particular situation. B. It was cool to see a movie that wasn't in a Cinemark theater. Just now, I noticed the lack of BOD and random Coke and car commercials. It made the experience so much more enjoyable :-) .

After the movie we went back to the condo and talked with my mom until around 1:00 or so. Mom just had to do the mother thing of trying to embarrass me as much as possible. I tried hard not to let her have any satisfaction. Though, she seemed to obsess about wanting grandkids. AHAH! I had to keep reminding her that Jason is much older and is actually in a relationship that has a good probability of producing her desired result. Gaila was cool about it though and was very understanding and didn't encourage or rub it in.

In bed, Gaila and I talked until about 5:00 AM. Ahem, there were a pair of twin beds, so none of that stuff. It was nice to get to know her better.

11:00 AM, Sunday morning my mom comes in to bug me (and Gaila) to get us up. Gaila and I had the same argument of college students using the weekend to catch up on sleep missed during the week. I don't care if there is a lake to be on, I can't enjoy it if I'm half asleep. Mom eventually left us alone and we snoozed a bit more.

We eventually made it out for breakfast around 1:00. The Grove cafe in Spirit Lake is a very good breakfast place. I forgot how huge the french toast was, and as a result I ordered more than I could eat. Gaila also got a huge order of omelet. We then set out on the boat. I took her once around the west lake and we lazed around and chatted for a while in emerson bay until we returned to wrap things up and head our way back.

On my way down to see Meri, I got a call from my aunt and uncle on their way up to the lake. Apparently they were taking the same route up as I was taking down. We coordinated our locations by mile markers and were able to wave at each other as we passed by.

I arrived at Meri's much later than I thought I was, but it turned out ok since she had just gotten there by the time I was entering town. I helped her out with a few things while she graded for mid terms that were due Monday.

I ended up at home around 1:30, exhausted (thanks mom for getting me up so early!) . I was able to unpack a little bit and check a few emails then I just hit the bed. The next morning, I found that my 'rents had taken all the deodorant and toothpaste with them, so I had to go the day day without brushing my teeth. That really sucked. The shower I took was probably good enough so I didn't stink.

My Trans Log quiz was actually easier than I thought it would be, or at least I thought it was easy. It was all write out questions. I spent 45 minutes writing business logistic BS in about 3 full pages. I really wasn't expecting it to be so much writing. I knew there were essay questions, but sometimes it is hard to keep explanations short.

Last night I had my weekly paper to write for history and study for my accounting test that is tonight. Thankfully, I don't have class at 3:30, so I will be able to go home early to take care of some errands, take a nap, and study some more for accounting.

So, wow. This is a really long entry. I really shouldn't have done this entry right now, but it was nice to get out of the way before I forget what happened. I've got lots of things on my mind between, school, work, friends, and family. I think I can handle it. Church tomorrow will be good. I, and other people, will be able to see the new iMac G5 at the MUG meeting on Thursday, along with an animation demo from someone who is actually competent with the software.

Ok, I'm still rambling. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Colin and I have been talking a lot about RSS, as you probably have noticed. While searching for some aggregators to recommend to Colin in my previous post, I came across NetNewsWire. This is a really easy to use aggregator.

While setting up my most visited web sites, I found that there are very few local news sites that have RSS feeds. The closest one I could find (other than the Daily) was a TV station in Cedar Rapids. The Trib doesn't have one. None of the Des Moines news stations have one. The Des Moines Register doesn't have one. There is no good place for local news in an easy RSS feed! Though, I believe this concept is still rather young, but I believe now that FireFox, Safari, and other programs are starting to add support for it in thier programs, there will be a lot more feeds soon to come.

Also, Adrienne reported a problem where stuff disappears on my site. It didn't do this before I added the subjects and RSS feeds, but now when I check it out with IE on Windows, it does it. It usually is triggered on page load (scrolling off and back on will display it again) or when you hover over a link. I tried removing the link style, and it still does it. My HTML and CSS validates just fine. Explorer is just too good at making web developers say WTF.

Wednesday was nice. I found that Adrienne still existed. I'm starting to miss some of the game night stuff that happened though the summer. I don't really have much time now to organize it all.

Thursday, I was able to sleep in :). Had a productive meeting for the MUG officers and got a ton of homework done that night.

Today was pretty lazy, up until now. I got some MUG stuff done and now I'm going to head home early to clean the boat before catching a movie with Colin.

I'm looking forward to a fun weekend.

Yeah! I now have an RSS feed for my blog. You can access the RSS at http://www.bobbis.net/rss.php. If you are running the latest version of FireFox, you may even notice the RSS button on the lower right corner of the window that will allow you to bookmark it.

I have also made a quick and dirty RSS with PHP tutorial that explains a little bit how I did it, since it wasn't really easy to find this information with a quick Google like it was supposed to be.

Also, to help facilitate my RSS feed, I added a subject line to my entires so that each entry will have a title.

Time to get back to work. I must update my resume in preparation for career fair tomorrow. I also need to find something fairly formal to wear as well. I haven't worn my current suit for a long time, and it probably is a little too formal and it doesn't quite fit anymore. I lost a lot of weight since I wore that suit last.

It's late, but I thought that I should post a few things before I head off to bed.

Colin and I have been talking a bit about RSS feeds. If you don't know what RSS is check it out at Wikipedia. If you are still confused, basically it's a way people can consolidate their news / blog postings into one place rather than going to each individual web page. Though, to do this the web page needs to be enabled with RSS. You may not realize this, but users of crazylife, greatestjournal, and livejournal already have RSS functionality built in. I, on the other hand, have to program my own RSS functionality. I have figured out how to do it dynamically just tonight and I plan on having a feed available by tomorrow afternoon :-)

Also, if you want to be able to read a consolidation of RSS feeds, check out NewsNinja. It is a new aggregator that I found to be fairly useful, though there are others around the net and programs that you can download that will do the same thing.

Yeah, it has been quite the lazy weekend. Friday, Stargate. Saturday, mow lawn. Sunday, visit with aunt and uncle.

Talking with Colin, it appears that everyone's blog comes with an RSS feed. Seeing as how many web browsers are offering support for RSS, I should probably look into providing an RSS feed for my site. I never really used RSS, but it would be a real nice tool to quickly check up on blog updates. I also need to add subject lines to my entries and comments and threading (something that has been on the list for quite a while). Adding subject lines shouldn't be too hard.

Today, I got 6 more gMail invites, and thanks to isnoop, I was able to get rid of them immediately. :-)

I'm looking forward to spending the next weekend up in Okoboji and having the house to myself the following week. Perhaps party ;-). They actually wouldn't mind me having people over though, but I don't really have too much time during the week anyway (except Friday maybe). During this time, I'm thinking about setting up my old G4 for my Dad so he can have a nicer computer to use FinalCut with. I also want to install OS X on the iMac because it has been having a few problems. It is nice that, even with OS 9 on there, I haven't had to rebuild it for over a year. Though, it is showing some annoyances every now and then.

I need to take out the trash and get ready for tomorrow. I hope everyone had a good weekend.