Bobbis.net

So, I have been working hard the past few weeks with budgets, venue reservations, and organizing for LANFEST. It is now time to announce LANFEST. I doubt those who actually read this will actually care much or have already heard about it, but why not.

LANFEST will be this Friday the 22nd at 7:00 PM until 3:00 AM in the Farm Bureau Pavilion next to Kildee. This semester we were able to get funding from LINC to purchase network equipment, games, and accessories. We will also be allowing anyone to attend (including Windows users), you do NOT need your membership dues paid. The event is totally FREE!

Games will be whatever you bring to play, but we will have Unreal Tournament 2004, WarCraft III Battlechest, Doom III, and Return To Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory as well as console systems.

If you plan on bringing a system (laptop or desktop) please fill out the registration form at http://lanfest.amesmug.org/ ASAP so that you will be given space at the event. There are also directions to the pavilion at the site as well.

If you don't have a system that is good enough to play the latest games, stop by and play with the machines on loan from Apple and AIT Sales or play xBox, PlayStation II, or GameCube.

Visit: http://lanfest.amesmug.org/ for more information!

If you can offer or need a ride, please post in the forums at http://boards.isumug.org/viewtopic.php?t=296.

Today has been very very long.

I was on campus by 8:00 to polish the budget for LANFEST and have a meeting in the office of the vice president of student affairs to approve the budget. That went rather well. I then had Marketing at 10:00 where the instructor almost made a mandatory assignment out of making at least 3 people sign up to cheggpost.com . After the class voiced their opinion about the ethics of such an assignment, she turned it into extra credit. After class I spent an hour at work, organizing for Film Festival tonight. At 12:00 I went to the hub to meet up with people from FUG to go to the Stomping Grounds Cafe for a lunch meeting about the fate of AmesFUG the campus org. After that it was time for speech class where everyone had to give a 2 minute impromptu speech. After speech was Philosophy where I spent more time preparing for Film Festival. Up until this point my day was going very good and I was happy with the way things were going.

Right at the end of class (4:00 PM) I ran across campus to Friley to meet with people from the residence hall about getting a room for LANFEST after 11:00 PM. The person I talked to was really not very pleasant and outright denied us access to the facility that we were planning on having LANFEST. This prompted me to run over to the Union to see what other options I would have. Right now it seems that the Maple Willow Larch conference rooms may be the facility. I will be calling scheduling to see if they have any more ideas then I guess we will be stuck with MWL.

At about 5:00 it was about time that nothing more could be done about procuring a room. So, I grabbed a subway for dinner and went back to the office to prepare more for the Film Festival Presentation. I left for the presentation at 6:00 only to find out that a test was scheduled for the room from 6:30 to 7:30. Brandon (my VP) and I had to quickly figure out how to handle the situation. Since everything was closed and we didn't want to take over a different room that would have been already scheduled for 7:00 and that people knew the event was going to be in Marston, we decided to put up a sign and wait for the test to get out. We got the room at 7:30 and did the presentation. There was a good number of people there, and I think we were lucky that the event went as well as it did.

After the Film Festival the MUG officers stayed around to help out this older couple who wanted help with their computers and Colin and I almost missed church because of it.

Looking at the time stamp on my parking ticket for the ramp I was on campus for over 14 hours, and I don't believe I had much of a break all day. Luckily the parking ramp booth was closed when I left, so I didn't have to pay for parking :D.

Anyway, that was my day. Good night.

PS: Pardon if some of what I have said doesn't make any sense, I'm really tired and didn't want to even read what I wrote.

PPS: I miss you Gaila.

Well, it doesn't seem like it has been almost a week since I've written here. I've been so busy, that everything seems like the same day. This is about the first time in a while I've had time to sit down and write here. I guess I'll go through what happened throughout the week.

Monday: Take in Film Festival entries, I ordered a DVD burner last week and it arrived - Haven't had enough time so far to open and use it.

Tuesday: Econ quiz, Finance Test, RAID working, Stayed up 'til 3:00 AM finishing up my speech.

Wednesday: Marketing Test, Give speech. I forget what else happened that day, but I'm sure it was important and took time, FUG, Church.

Thursday: Round up information about running another Ad in the Daily, AmesMUG meeting (tote the IIGS to Howe), discuss LANFEST, stay up until 4:00 working on late Philosophy paper.

Friday: Submit Ad to Daily, Lunch at AppleBees with old coworker, late to speech class because of lunch, Hand in Phil Paper, Arrange for information from UBS about equipment purchases for LANFEST, Arrange information for room and catering in Union, talk to Gaila (we forget weather it was Monday or Tuesday since we last talked, her internet (MSN) has been down all week :(), Nap (15 mins), Go to Des Moines with huge church gang to Hessen Haus.

Saturday: Create judging DVD for Film Festival, pick Nerdig up for One Acts, Watch One Acts, hang out for reception, hang out at Mel's place until midnight.

Sunday: Sleep for 14 hours, get up and laze around (very much so needed), Write in blog and prepare for Monday.

Now stuff that needs to be done.

Monday: Determine Information about venue, get price quotes from bookstore, Judge Film Festival.

Tuesday: Nail down venue for LANFEST, create Film Festival DVD, meeting with other student orgs about LANFEST, Finalize budget.

Wednesday: Submit budget for approval, see if modification is needed. Prepare and pull off Film Festival Presentation. Church if I have time.

I just feel so busy. I know there are a lot of things that I'm leaving out, such as finding an apartment, parent's birthdays, class scheduling. Too much going on. I know once dead week comes around, I will, indeed, be dead.

Anyway, back to work.

Yeah! I just got our xServe RAID formatting an array for 2 TB of storage :D. After playing around with it off and on I finally found out why it wasn't seeing the drives, and fixed the problem with it not seeing one of the controllers and batteries. Firmware updates are your friend, though a java based admin program was keeping my new friendship away, until I showed it who's boss.

Anyway, I have a test tonight, a test tomorrow, a speech tomorrow, a paper due tomorrow, a MUG meeting Thursday, and an apartment to find this week. So I should stop wasting my time on this blog.

BTW, Gaila is looking for a cheap car in case someone knows of any around town.

Wow, that was really weird. I looked at my computer clock when it said 3:30 AM. I thought that time really went fast, and that I should get to bed. So I go upstairs to get some water, and notice the clocks still say 2:30. I run back downstairs and check my time zone and re-sync with a few time servers to make sure it's right. I then SSH into a few other servers and find that the time was indeed 3:30. I thought I was loosing it until I looked at the calendar to see that it's time to set the clocks ahead one hour tonight. I'm glad I wasn't loosing my mind.

Set your clocks.

Well. I stayed home sick Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn't even go to FUG or Church on Wednesday. I'm not completely over it yet, but I'm functional.

I can't get into a lot of the classes I want or need next semester to get a full load. I need to go see an advisor about it. The way I see it, I should be able to graduate December 2006, but who knows. I have been thinking about getting an emphasis in Marketing depending on what Marketing classes I would have to take.

Work was fun. I actually worked the whole time today. From a couple calls for help, to restoring some file from some odd-ball iomega zip drive backup program for one of the associate deans from the year 2000 (wow, the year 2000 used to sound so futuristic, now it's ancient). We also go 7 400 GB disks for the xServe RAID array that I have to figure out how to install, initialize and move the backups to. This is going to be so much fun :D. I love working with expensive hardware and terabytes of data. Make me feel important or something :D

Speaking of expensive hardware, I hear on good authority that the MUG may have been awarded $2,500 to put on a LAN party in a few weeks. This is going to be something to organize along side film festival which is in two weeks. So MUG stuff is going to really busy the next few weeks, advertising, organizing and whatnot. This better look good on my resume. That money was way easier than I thought it would be to get.

Also, I guess there is school work to be working on. I need to make up my Persuasive speech sometime next week, as well as take a couple tests. This weekend should be devoted to preparing for such things, but you know that's not going to happen. (perhaps it will if you remind me if I'm online).

The weekend after this will be Mel's play on the 9th. This will be her last one and Gaila will not be able to make it because of a track meet. Actually, Gaila will probably not be around here until after finals. I may find my way up there one weekend, but who knows, being so busy around here, it might be a good thing that she is not around to distract me.

Anyway, It's late. I'm going to go to bed now.

Happy April Fools.

I'm sick. On the days that have been very nice, I don't feel so well. I got an inkling of it on Sunday night, but by Monday afternoon, it was clear that I was sick. Though, because of it, I didn't have to give my speech that was due Monday. Today I went to Econ to take the weekly quiz and went right back home to rest.

I finally got the name of the songs and the artist of an album I have had for a long time. They are called Safri Duo, Very good percussion.

Anyway, I should get back to rest, I haven't updated in a while, but I really don't feel like doing so right now. I can say I had a good 5 days with Gaila while she was here for Easter break. I hope to feel better by tomorrow. Who knows.

Laters.

Man, last week kind of sucked for being spring break and everything. Well, I guess the weekends were good. But the Monday through Thursday of the week sucked because I worked full-time on a project I really didn't care too much about. I had to make a web form that made web forms, and make it so anyone can edit the form once it's created. Yay!

Monday was okay, started on the project and went home to work on a little programming project of my own and catch up on the Simpsons.

Tuesday was more work, and then dinner at Adrienne's with Colin, Ben V. and his wife. After dinner Colin, Adrienne and I watched the Incredables which Colin went out the pick-up.

Wednesday was another day of work. Then the FUG meeting at the Ames Library. We ended up projecting on the huge screen in the auditorium. I think I have a picture of it, but my batteries died real soon after, so I can't tell if the picture took or not, and I can't retrieve it until I get new batteries in there. This reminds me that I need some rechargeable AA batteries.

Thursday I ended up working late and not looking at apartments. Once I got off work, it was time to pack for a good weekend up in South Dakota.

I left for SD Friday morning around 11:30 or so. Gas prices jumped again, now to $2.05 when I left. Perfect. The weather was cooperative for me, though just one hour north of where I was got a foot of snow. All I had to drive through were a few flurries. Adrienne, though, was not as lucky with her trip to Minneapolis. She ended up calling me after I arrived advising me that I shouldn't be going, but it was too late. That night there was some sort of dance at the Bistro on campus.

Saturday we went to Wal-Mart after getting brunch. The Wal-Mart in Yankton is moving to a new supercenter so there was a lot of stuff on clearance. I also got the Incredibles on DVD to watch that night. At 10:00 we went to listen to folk artists from NJ, Michelle Citrin. She was pretty good, and comical at times with the singing old guy doll crapping batteries.

Sunday was food and travel. I have to say, the Fryin' Pan in Yankton has this really good desert call a Hot Fudge Cake that is just perfect for two people to eat, and is very very good.

Anyway, I need to get myself going for the week, and the rest of the semester. There is a lot of stuff to be done. Gaila will be in town Wednesday night for the rest of the week because she gets this special break for Easter.

Some of you may have noticed I haven't posted much last week. Last week was Gaila's spring break, and a good chunk of my free time was spent with her as a result. I guess I'll try to highlight what has happened, and advanced apologies for the long post.

Monday night GSB pulled $900 from our budget for next year. We lost our banner (not really a surprise), then we lost our Student and Select memberships for ADC. The meeting was supposed to happen at 7:30, but ended up being at 9:00 because they were so far behind going through a bunch of groups to cut budgets. Oh well, I was, and still am, a little hesitant about dealing with the Select membership.

Tuesday, I found a little paper in the MUG's mailbox mentioning a group that is giving money to other groups to create entertaining student events during the month of April, sort of a way to do something in the absence of VEISHEA. I filed a couple proposals Friday night for a few thousand dollars for both Film Festival and LAN-FEST. Hopefully things will turn out well for that. That night, after my Finance test, I went out to Boone to catch up with Gaila and her dad (hi Mr. Edwards) for bridge at the senior center. I really have no clue how to play the game, and am really not incredibly interested either.

Wednesday was lots of fun. Gaila got to come to a FUG meeting and listen in to our interesting conversations, afterwards she came to church with me. I have to say church was one of the most entertaining times of church I've had there. During Eucharist, someone in the circle found a bug crawling around, and decided to smash it. When he did this he said, "The bug of Christ, smashed for you." That just got everyone laughing so much and made Fritz almost mess up the ending prayer.

Thursday night was MUG officer's meeting. I suppose, our next meeting the Thursday after break will be something developer related. Perhaps Colin doing to Cocoa workshop again, since Wednesday nights are terrible times for spontaneous events.

Friday was time to go down to Ottumwa with Gaila and her mom to meet her mom's side of the family for the weekend. After school, I packed up and headed out to Gaila's place for dinner. As were were just about to load the car, we notice a rather large fire down the road (this is a rural house). We went down to investigate and found that there was an uncontrolled ditch fire going on the opposite side of the road. Gaila called the fire department on my cell phone and they came to put it out. The fire got to within 1/10 of a mile of the house, so we decided to stay until it was out.

Saturday, me, Gaila, her mom, Bob and Marty went into town to the new Goodwill and then to Target and a quick stop off to an ice cream place to pick up some ice cream. Gaila's grandma made some wheat bread and some beef stew, both very good. That night I ended up with a headache.

This morning, I really wasn't feeling well in the stomach, but, Gaila cured me not to much longer after she got up. Most of the day was pretty much spent lazing around until going to another relative's house (I forget who, but I know the face) for a hearty lunch of Turkey, stuffing, corn, homemade rolls, fruit salad. mmmm. After lunch we headed out for Ames. Got back to Gaila's house, packed her up and Gaila and I had dinner at Wendy's before parting ways and I head home to relax, watch West Wing and write in my blog.

So, it has been a busy, and interesting week. Next week I plan to do some apartment hunting with Colin and Mel. I will be working mostly full-time during break, with the exception of some apartment hunting and possibly skipping out early on Friday to head up to Sound Dakota to spend the end of my spring break. Tuesday will be some sort of dinner party over at Adrienne's.

For most people, spring break is a time to have fun. Perhaps go somewhere warm and sunny. Though I will be working and getting things done... or at least thinking about that stuff.

Anyway, I've got work tomorrow. I hope everyone has(or had or will have) a good spring break.

Well, last week really sucked. I was dealing with a nice head cold. I wasn't as prepared for my speech as I should have been and went exactly one minute over the target, which might mean I get a half grade deduction from my total which is not a good thing (docking happens for times 60 seconds off). The MUG meeting was a huge success, I ended up burning CDs for a good portion of the meeting and hanging around there until 10:00 or so. Wednesday, nobody showed up for the Cocoa workshop that Colin was going to do.

The weekend, though, really made up for the crummy week. When Gaila showed up my head cold pretty much disappeared almost instantly. It was like she cured me or something.

Friday Gaila and I went to Wal-Mart. She got some duplicates made for her car, while I got replacement bulbs for my car. For dinner we ended up getting Hickory Park, on my parent's money. I'm not going to complain about that. There were a ton of people there, but we couldn't figure out exactly what was going on in town that constituted such a crowd.

Saturday we went to see "Man of Mode" at Simpson. We were under the impression that Nerdig and Jen would be needing a ride from us, but apparently they went on Friday. Gaila and I ended up watching the play with Mel's 'rents. Afterwards we hung out in Mel's room. She has a picture of Gaila and I that she will need to share with us at some point in time.

Sunday we went to attempt to ride horses in the beautiful weather. Though the guy (Mark) that had the equipment and stuff unexpectedly had to help some people out. Gaila at least got me on a horse for a little bit though. After riding around for a bit we went to Gaila's house, just down the road from where we were, to have some beef stew for dinner. After dinner went to see In Good Company at the $1.50 theater. To our surprise, after the movie it was storming out.

Today, I have been in a good mood. I felt pretty well-rested, especially for a Monday. Gaila too me into class and we had lunch together as well. I found that I will not have Marketing or Philosophy on Friday before spring break, but I will still have speech lecture :grr:. Not much actually going on at work, which is a good thing, and why I have time to post this.

Tonight I have a budget meeting to go to, almost unexpectedly. I have a Econ and Finance test tomorrow and a Marketing test on Wednesday. Officer's meeting on Thursday. Today is the deadline for Cocoa project, though judging by the interest in the workshop last Wednesday, that is going to fall though the hole.

I'm thinking about getting a DVD burner to be abel to back up all the files I have on my file server and the stuff I want to put on my file server. 100 Gigs is just not as much space as is used to be.


Anyway, I should probably be doing something productive with my time.