Robblog · v2.0

what has Rob been doing?
for the last um ten months?
-biking
-hiking
-photography
-plants
-walkerton for a while
-montreal moreso
-calgary soon
-new websites.. well not new, but new clients.. big ones.. with actual money.. yet somehow socially conscious.. who knew it could be done.. www.soaw.org, www.onedconline.org, biketrain.ca (coming soon, new design, lots of money), a site for a dude living in the woods in a yurt, anarchist studies institue (no foolin'.. and .. um.. someone needs to tell them 'you're doing it wrong!'), cpbinternational.org, and about to finish up one for a small fair trade artisan crafts and fashion site.. and of course still working on the usual suspects.. who will all get nifty updates soon due to my crazy crazy coding mayhem marathon this past weekend.. I think I'm now fluet in PHP enough to speak it. My software code is getting around to 70,000 lines or so.. anyhow peace-education.ca has the latest iteration of said code
-peace cafe is open and running since december, I've hired two more people, one more to go for the last of our funding for the summer..
-long blog posts are long
-so much for brief

Ten years ago:

- I fractured my neck in a car accident. The only bone I've ever injured oddly enough. Hairline fracture, of course.
- I went to New York City, played in my first jazz band performance OR rehearsal(!) at the Statue of Liberty. Also performed with a concert band there.
- I was doing round 2 of OAC, despite having skipped Grade 12. Ah, the joys of spending an extra year to learn an instrument to audition for music programmes abroad!
- MS bought hotmail, but by then I was sick of hotmail and ended my account with them. Ya, really. Since '96 I had been rgporter@hotmail.com... I was an email migrant for a while..
- Also made my first columbia house set of purchases, which included tapes of Collective Soul.. I first heard the World I Know while *in* New York City ("..sitting along in New York City and I don't know why..."). Weird.
- Designed my first website for pay.
- Got the internet at home. On the farm. Fun, when your 36.6 modem can't connect faster than 4800 baud. Any download speed above 1k/s was considered amazingly fast.
- I took a week long course on Wilderness Survival.
- I was counting the days 'till my audition at Western. Little did I know I'd be so unimpressed by their institution.
- I got my ICQ #.
- I performed for the third year in a row with a professional concert band. We got gold at the Kiwanis playing pieces we literally only rehearsed once.
- I was in My Fair Lady, my first real community theatre work, and my last of the '90s. It'd be a few years before I was back at it again.
- I had responsibilities that no one at that age should have to have.
- Won an award from my high school that was basically made up for me. "CDHS Appreciation Award"
- I was paid for my first musical arrangement for brass quintet.

What a busy year '97 was.

 

Time to post a "No Vacancy" sign on my schedule: I think I am now officially fully booked due to paid work. The web business is booming, the conference and peace centre stuff is coming along great, and of course there's the paid acting gig. I certainly have some disproportionate hourly rates though.. ranging from $10 to $60 an hour.. LOL.
Guess I better get back to work...

well well folks.. I'm now the proud owner of a now-fixed used iBook. It is quite handy. I can write to the blog from my living room! Sure, that's not exciting to most, but remember, watch plants grow can be exciting to me. So, yeah.

Did I mention I added a speedhole to my iBook? Long story. More like a stopcrashingyousillythinghole, if English was like German or something. In any case, I actually took a power drill to my iBook to remove a stripped screw. But, the thing works now. So I got a nice deal buying this, plus speedholin' fun :)

I am quite nicely burned from the beach, and reaffirmed in my confidence that Sauble Beach is not somewhere anyone in their right mind should even think about going to on a long weekend (unless that long weekend happens to be New Years or something winter-based!). Don't worry, I didn't burn from Sauble, it was Port Elgin instead :) I know enough from working at Sauble in my shady past.....

I'm now doing the patient-actor thingie.. where you act like someone with a medical condition to test doctors and students.. good money.. and getting to pay a paranoid crackhead.. priceless.

Anyhow, I've got work to do now.  Boooo!  More sites to get done.

so, um, yeah, typo lead me briefly to liverjournal.com. Thankfully not a terribly memorable experience, however. It could have been much worse!

Gray's new album to be out soon.. I've got a copy "The Girl in the Window".. I'm on track 2.. check it out! My discography increses....!

Just making some adjustments to my site tonight, then starting to play WoW again. Oh boy.. what have I gotten myself into..

Look! I posteded!

Bought another plant today.. I think that adds it all up to about 16 different varieties now. I'm a freakin' botanist now. This week I also started some garlic that was growing in the fridge. Within a couple days, one pot of three of them was already full rooted -- I could pull the entire soil out pulling on the garlic. So I potted it in something bigger.. it's already 7" tall after 4 days..

Anyone got an outdoor spot for a near-dead evergreen of some kind? I think it's some kind of cyprus.. anyhow, got it at Xmas, and it's slowly going browner and I think it's not meant for indoor growth, and needs some outdoor love. If you have somewhere to plant it.. it's yours! No guarantees it'll live long though.. if it's even alive now.

Today's purchase:



Or a much better shot:



What else am I doing? Well I'm now helping to get the Staircase open again. It looks like it's a good chance to open in September on a limited schedule, and I'm seeing if our Peace Café project can help and hopefully get our NGO some "home" space like an office and shared workshop rooms. It's really quite fricken exciting, since there's also a dance studio and theatre there. Yes, though, the property is for sale, so there's some risk it may sell. But I know the price, and I doubt it'll sell.. and if the café opens and does well, perhaps the owners will not be as inspired to sell anymore, as it is my understanding that the reason has to do with it costing them time and money. We'll hopefully alleviate both those problems.

That's all for me right now.

Monday will rock. Mantracker season 2 is finally starting. For those whom have missed out in the past, you are welcomed to drop by here Monday at 9 to see the wonderous amazingness that is mantracker.
Of course, maybe I'm just an outdoors freak. But hell, even so, it's still cool.

Not that I'm in a bad mood, but there are things that are making my list:

- facebook applications
- CIBC
- NSLSC (the student loan people)
- my dance partner / friend

Firstly, is there a way I can stop anyone from requesting me to use an application??? I get a dozen a day, and they're pissing me off! I get at least two horoscope requests a day.. a couple slideshow ones too.. anyhow, I don't think people who are installing them are realising how spammy these requests are getting.

Dear CIBC, I can sympathise with you. It may appear on paper that I am eff'ing with you. Repeated deferrals of my month payments due to my interest relief forms being "incomplete" with the NSLSC. Perhaps you should talk with them, and ask why the applications I've made in the past have been no trouble at all, then the latest one they just decided to enforce rules I didn't know about, forcing me to reapply again and again, being told my information is incomplete. Apparently bank statements alone were proof enough a year ago, and now they aren't. Please don't send my file to collections due to this, k, thanks?

Dear NSLSC, see attached letter to CIBC. You two should have a chat. You have some things to work out, and I'm sure you two crazy kids could have a hell of a life together.

I think writing anything to my friend would be moot right now though.. she seems to not respond to anything from me. I feel like I have to freaking track her down like a stalker just to talk about our work, let alone our now-questionable friendship. How someone could go from asking me if I'd want to live with them to basically using me whenever I'm convenient in a couple months after years of friendship, I'll likely never understand. That drink we were going to go out for, to you know, catch up on each other's lives back in April? I think after cancelling or not responding the tenth or so time (despite her enthusiasm) is about enough for me. OK, so I guess I am in a bad mood about that.

Otherwise, however, I think the future looks a bit brighter. I mean, I haven't worn pants for weeks now.. that's an improvement, right? Unless, of course, shorts count as pants. Dangit.

I thought this was good..

Yeah, stuffishness, you heard me!

Today I post to LJ. First time in a while. In May, certainly, but first time in spring too :p

In the process now of hiring the second and third assistants for the conference and general NGO work! I'm still not paid "the moneys" myself, but hey, I will be managing peoples :)

Speaking of the moneys.. anyone need any websites done? :P I've been working crazily on my content management system, which now includes blog, events calendar, message forums, and a file gallery. Basically makes site design quicker for me, so I can charge more per hour but do more per hour too.

Upcoming stuffs: peace café @ skydragon (june 29 / july 27), peace-education.ca podcast (sometime in june I hope), buskingfest swing dance thingie (this friday at 7 in dundas), and lots of other stuff I can't recall right now.

Working tonight on http://www.peace-education.ca/ I had to stop and think -- how many things am I working on right now?

Let's see...

• teaching swing dance basic & intermediate 2 hours a week
• maintainance for www.opirg.ca, www.projectingpeace.ca, www.pacss.ca, www.edwitch.com, www.dalar.ca, and I'm probably forgetting a site... oh yeah, mcmaster.ca/maps/ ... probably another one out there though...
  
• wrapping up reports for the Peace Education Conference 2006, starting up stuff for 2007
• still organizing the Peace Café project
• still part of a campaign to bring a Rotary Chair in Peace Studies to Mac
• getting an peace internship programme going soon..
• starting a peace education wiki
• trying to get a fringe production of my play going... just need some money...
• writing draft 2 of The Memory Plays
• recording music with Grayson
• performing live once and a while
• involved in a wonderful relationship, now nearly 4 months in
• organizing an alumni dinner next friday
• out rollerblading when I can!
• posting here again!

It's a few things. To say the least. Not much money in it yet. Soon, hopefully, soon......

Yeah, it's been a while *sniff*

I've completed the first draft of my newest play script The Memory Plays, and soon I'll be fundraising to get myself a Fringe slot for this play. Got good feedback thus far!

For Hamiltonians, check out next month's Mayday for a couple articles by ME! Yes, more writing by me. I've been writing lots, just not here. Sad, really.

"Projecting Peace" Film Festival opens next Friday night.. for those of you who'd like a nice dinner at Faculty Club with your film.. go to projectingpeace.ca and follow the instructions there for RSVP.. and do it soon!

Um.. got back to recording some new tracks with Grayson, for his next album. Some solid fun stuff it'll be, I say! His latest "when it rains" is good, I hear, but only one track with me on it... :P

So, Battlestar folks.. those of you in the Hammer.. interested in finale viewing party next Sunday at our place? Julie and I talked about it brieftly.. we could watch the two lead in eps I have recorded, followed by the finale! Sound fun? Let me know.

Maybe I'll post more soon.. maybe!

I figured since I came across this image today, I would tease Colin with it :)

Yeah, so, it's been a while.

*cue sentimental music*

Right... anyways. What's is the news with the me, huh?

• thumb wrestling is pretty cool
• might actually get fully paid for my conference gig... whoa!
• developing a big-ass website at the moment
• WoW's expansion took a chunk of my life away that I'll never get back!
• the new apartment has retained its niceness!
• I may be getting a laptop soonish
• helped write a grant proposal... $200,000ish in size. Par-tee?
• hey, I'm teaching *intermediate* swing.. we kept the class!
• ... and I'm taking Hip-Hop beginner

And some fun weird facts of the moment about me:

• Fido thought until the other day that I "still live in Vancouver" .... eh?
• I now own a dozen plants
• I am currently wearing pants, therefore unhappy (see infamous Venn diagramme regarding pants)
  
• I have somehow injured my knee, a few more days of this and I may be seein' a doc..
  
• Hoping to finish writing a play this week or next
• Latest obsession: Robot Chicken. Golden Girls/slash/Sex in the City skit wins my vote for most simultaneously disturbing and hilarious skit in animated history
• I like bullet points, apparently

Anyhow, time to sleep, I guess. So much for having my sleeping schedule in the realm of normal people again.

Just have to settle a bit. And get back to work!
Its amazing the weather was so good while moving.. kinda crazy actually! I'm a little thrown off by there not being _any_ snow this year so far. While Hamilton usually doesn't have much snow, it usually has some. Nothing yet though, and the temperature keeps going up. I was outside in a T-shirt today, not due to my insanity, but rather due to long sleeves being too warm. Will I not get my early January winter hike due to lack of snow for a second year in a row?

As Julie pointed out in her journal, we found a place, just around the corner from my current empty abode. We gots a decent 2 bedroom, and yes, wackiness is certain to ensue! On day you're helping someone find a place, next day you're out of a place... how odd last week was. Anyhow, we'll be on Locke Street, a nice looking place at a good price, with the only oddity of having to venture outside and go down into what seems like a bomb shelter in order to do laundry. But hey, when the apocalypse comes, we will have clean laundry.

Let's see what else... BSG last week = awesome, damn cliffhangers!! At least it's only a month wait though, they ain't pulling a LOST.

In other nerdery, Babylon 5 was being filmed right next door to BSG in October - a few photos of the set are posted at http://www.babylon5scripts.com/TLT-JMS-Photos.html for perusal.

For those looking for swing dance lessons in Semester 2 at Mac (as in a 10 week course, one hour per week) contact me.. we need some more students :) It's cheap! Well, for dance lessons, they are cheap!

Back to work for a bit.. time to give Josh some ads for his site ;)

Ehn, not really much to say
STOP
Looking into a potential new place tomorrow
STOP
Mostly just posted to test my new userpic
STOP
Hammertime!

Dear Journal,
Tonight I ate a sandwich. It was lovely.
The End.
Oh wait, guess there's a bit more.
Gotten myself into World of Warcraft again.. ruh roh! 'Twas bound to happen in December as usual.
Let's see -- the afternoon at Bad Dog with Liam, then went with Dilia to see "Bobby" tonight -- a good film. Kinda like Magnolia and Crash, except not as long as the former, and not as preachy as the later. Also went to Demetri's -- where else can one buy a $11 Sundae with 5 scoops of ice cream in it? Or a $16 enormous Banana Split?
Tomorrow, 'tis off to the theatre for some producing stuff.. and then maybe some karaoke later in the evening. I somehow miraculously pulled off "Optimistic" by Radiohead last week, and it'd be fun to do again.. people liked it, got lots of good comments :)
BSG last night/tonight (whatever.. downloaded it last night :P) -- holy crap! All kinds of sad. Also seems that they must be doing 22 episodes this season, since next week (episode 11) is the mid-season finale. Or maybe they count the first 2 hour episode as one. Nothing beats the "paper shortage" comment though.. lol!
And now, back to my regularly scheduled sandwich.