With the change over to the new server some data that Gallery (the online photo management tool I use on RobsPages) relies on got… well… fudged. I’ve rebuilt it and added the Paris pictures. The thumbnails are tiny, I know, and the page layout is bordering on ‘awful’ and ‘absurdly awful’ but hey, the pictures are there for your viewing pleasure in all their unedited, unfiltered, duplicated and unnecessary glory.
Enjoy.
Rob
Happy Memorial Day weekend!
I hope everyone is getting a chance to get outside and enjoy the first hints of summer.
The house unpacking is coming along well. We’re trying to resist the overwhelming urge to just stick everything in the basement. I recognize that our stuff is all mis-matched and that we’re going to have to get new stuff that coordinates (at least within the same room). For now though, we just need to get everything out of boxes so we can catalog and distribute the crap in a less haphazard manner.
In other news, I’ve realized that Jorge’s link has been hijacked or otherwise is no longer pointing to his portfolio so I am going to remove the links until that gets sorted. I think I’ll see him at Stephanie and David’s wedding next weekend in Syracuse and I can let him know. I’ll toss something up here once that’s active again.
Rob
After college, I lost touch with a lot of people I really would have liked to stay close with. Life intervenes, as it often can, and now friends are scattered all over the US. In an effort to keep more people up to date with more stuff, I’ve started adding links to the right column of the blog section with links to sites written, maintained, or about, people I consider friends who are likely to remember having met me once or twice.
If your site is missing, let me know and I’ll get it up there.
Of particular note, is Gary Gianetti’s link. Gary lived next door to Jen and I for about a year and a half, maybe longer, in Coventry, CT way back in 2002. While working on his masters at UCONN, Gary got Jen and I involved in a study he was doing for the thesis and we’ve been good friends ever since. After graduation (and some lost time in CT looking for the right direction) Gary found his way to Steamboat, CO where he’s living the Gary life the way only Gary can.
The reason I say all that is Gary, and a troupe of new friends, are setting out to bike their way all over the country to help raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation as well as promote a healthy, active lifestyle. The site has links to the tour schedule, as well as Gary’s blog where anyone who reads it can be inspired. Read often, donate where you can, and don’t miss Gary when he rides through your town.
Rob
Alright, so killing some time before the end of the day I came across a blog post which links to another blog post which contains responses to fan questions from Heroes director/producer, Greg Beeman. Here’s the link, I think you’ll enjoy the responses.
After reading that post, I went on to see the current edition of Beeman’s blog, where he talks about the making of EACH episode. Probably out of respect for the Tivo owners out there, his blog is a week behind, so in this latest post, he’s discussing the episode from May 15th.
My favorite snippet:
…Also, for the final sequence of Sylar on the rooftop we built a big set piece 15 feet in the air with a 50-foot wide, 30-foot high blue screen. ALMOST NO TV SHOW DOES THAT EITHER.
And, come on, what about that ending. Sylar’s all bad-ass and he whispers “Boom!” Whose not coming back to watch next week after that?!?
I love my job!
We love your job too Greg. Keep it up.
Rob
I saw this Ctrl-Alt-Del cartoon and its just too good to pass up, enjoy:
Back in New York in April, I was talking with artist Jorge Costa (Link removed) about his painting, and art in general. Jorge is the significant other of one of the UCONN grad students and we both had some time to kill while our ladies were presenting at the SIOP conference.
Jen and I are looking to find local (as in eastern PA) painters to buy some art off of for decorating the house and I wanted to see Jorge’s work and gleam any info I could off of him about where to look for The Good Stuff™. However, Jorge’s work is bit a more traditional than I was looking for and his subjects tend to reflect what Jen and I are surrounded with here in Atglen. Jorge, of course, knew this already and gave me the URL as a courtesy.
So if you know artists (or are one) who paint witty post-modern stuff, or city and coastal scenes, or slightly off-beat pieces, please let us know.
Till then, I urge you to check out Jorge’s site (link removed). Next time I see him, I’ll pass along any comments.
I am tempted to try my hand at the whole painting thing, but thats a disaster waiting to happen.
Rob
Jen has posted her travel journal from Paris, you can find the goods here: http://robspages.net/jen. I’ll update the other links littered around the site later in the week to reflect the address change. Around the same time, I should have pictures of the City of Lights posted.
At some point, I’ll set Jen’s section up with her own color-scheme - for now it looks just like this.
On to other stuff:
I had 2 ideas for additional sites… I know, the ideas are the easy part. Finishing one gets harder the longer it drags out.
The first idea I wanted to call BreakfastSerials but that name is taken for a similar but non-competing purpose. The second runner-up in the name game is BoredShorts.com but that’s a search engine hijack/domain for sale exploit at the moment. The basic idea is to get a bunch of writers together to post fictional blogs and short stories at certain intervals, sell ads for the site to pay the bills and just let it do its thing. At least thats as far I got with it before becoming jaded about the name.
The 2nd idea is more difficult. It actually involves some leg-work, sales, and the shipping of some durable-good on a set schedule. The premise is that the site acts as a broker to purchase 1 item at wholesale quantities per month based on the audience’s requests and what they have pledged to purchase (with a deposit). So say, 50 people from across the country agree that on June 30th they will purchase a Tivo Series3 from this site. 50 TiVos cost $x so the cost per person for this is $x/50 + shipping, which depending on the size of the crowd will save them a little or a lot versus the Best Buys and maybe even Costco and BJ’s of the world. Site members then vote on what next month’s offering is, and based on the number of deposits, a price is shown. Only once you place a deposit on that month’s item are you obligated to make a purchase. If a bunch more people decide to buy, the price goes down. I need a name, a crew (coders, business people, logistics team and a purchasing agent) an a healthy dose of reality before anything else.
So all that aside… The Heroes season finale was worth flying home for. The Sylar/Peter fight could have been a bit more spectacular with all their abilities flying out - but Peter survives till the next season so he can’t have that level of mastery over his powers yet or there would be no show. I’ll await season 2 with baited breath and hope its as good as the first one. A long shot, I know.
Jen and I have to watch the Lost from last week before their season ends tomorrow night. I am looking forward to their being a void of compelling TV over the summer so we are more likely to go and get to know our neighbors. Maybe I’ll complete a project or 2 (for once) that wasn’t part of my daily job. We’ve all but abandoned our World of Warcraft characters. Maybe someone will buy the accounts off of us and we can make a clean break, or maybe we’ll get sucked back in once all of our House stuff calms down
Good day. I would like a glass of beer.
Greetings from Paris! Yesterday, Jen and I arrived here, 6 time-zones east, and are doing our best to recover and still enjoy the city. I’m not going to go too deep into our (mis)adventures abroad here. I’ll leave that for Jen on her Travel Journal section.
I’ll let you know when she posts.
Au revoir,
Rob
Yes so um… Home Depot is evil.
In the past hour, we have purchased :
- A dryer (washer was purchased earlier)
- A lawnmower
- A weed whacker… cause lets face it, the weeds won’t whack themselves
- Uber work gloves (seriously uber)
- A hose to water the grass to make grow more so I can mow/whack it
- A push broom to clean all the clippings off of the deck I am going to collapse on afterwards.
The dangers of instant store credit, no payments ’til January and 10% off of the first purchase…
priceless.
Rob
So I’ve noticed a couple of things now that we are living in the new house full time:
- there is no telephone hookup in the ‘office’
- our pipes bang when you use the master bathroom (sink or toilet)
- the shower in the master bath takes FOREVER to get warm…
I’ve read online that the banging in the pipes might be due to a lack of air in places where there should be air. The solution seems simple enough so I’ll give it a shot tonight. Basically, I need to turn off the water supply in the basement, open the taps in the bathroom(s), close em, then turn the main back on. Easy right?
For the telephone line, I am going to use this project as a primer in the finer points of home wiring so I can eventually put in speaker terminals and an ethernet port in the family room. It *should* be straight forward as the office wall terminates over the garage so I can get at both sides of it without too many complications. I am also some-what familiar with telephone wiring having destroyed the connections in our previous rental.
As for the shower taking too long… I think I am out of luck on that one, but we’ll see.
Rob
I am still a fan of Lost. And there are MANY more ending options than just A) dying or B) getting rescued. For starters, they could decide to stay on the island. Locke for one seems pretty attached to the place. And some (Sawyer? Kate?) are probably happy to leave their “real” lives behind. And different people may have different destinies. Some may die. But who? Some may decide to create another ship (remember? like the one they built in Season 1? why did they totally give up on that idea anyway?) and try and save themselves. And who says this is all real? I think there is something to the Locke’s Dad’s “This is Hell” comment. Basically, I’m still intrigued.
–Jen