notwithstanding

Erin McKean gives a pretty cool talk about dictionaries

2007-09-15T17:50:00.000-06:00

"Record" released 08/09/07

2007-08-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

You know, some people use their blogs to actually talk about things... instead of posting links and stuff. Did you know that? me either.

To use the lingo, today I am releasing "Record", a bunch of songs which I wrote / preformed and recorded in mp3 format. (Except for that one, which is a cover of a Phish song... but it's pretty cool!)

If you want to listen to "Record" you can download this torrent.

On the whole, I'm pretty happy about all this. While I will be the first to admit, all of the tracks are far from perfect, I am really excited to share them with people. I don't have the ambition to ever be a 'rock star', but it seems a shame to have ideas, and create things and then keep them all to myself.

So, please, give me feedback, and or, record and share your own tunes, and we'll all benefit.

I look forward to being able to start thinking about another bunch of tunes to release, and seeing where that takes me.

submitted without comment

2007-08-08T02:39:00.000-06:00

REM + Muppets = WTF?

2007-07-05T17:05:00.001-06:00

We the duly authorized...

2007-06-15T20:39:00.000-06:00

We the duly authorized officers of the University of Saskatchewan, hereby certify that
Robert Alexander Deobald
having fulfulled all the requirements was admitted by the council of this university to the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Engineering
Chemical Enigneering
with all the privileges, prerogatives and rights pertaining to that degree. In withess whereof we have hereto subscribed our names and affixed the seal of the university. Granted at Convocation this fifth day of June, two thousand and seven.

Or so this piece of paper I got here tells me. :D

What really happened last night... ie: "The only Angel"

2007-06-14T10:38:00.000-06:00

So, like I posted last night, I got some new guitar strings, and I started playing a bit for fun, and I started writing this song (that didn't the the name "The only angel" until this morning).. anyways, I wrote about a verse and a third, when I remembered, "Hey don't I have that other song I should finish writing? I wonder if I even remember how to play it."

So that's when I finished up "Movin' on", and recorded it so I wouldn't forget what I thought it should sound like. Then of course I proceeded to stay up until 4am, bugging my neighbours, and finishing the words to this song.

This song is super simple, and has a kind of country-western meets Bob Dylan feel to it, and the lyrics flowed out of me at a never before seen rate. I was pretty psyched.

The Only Angel by Rob Deobald

G = (3 2 0 0 3 3)
Dadd6add9sus == (2 0 0 2 3 3)
Em7 == (0 2 2 0 3 3)
C = (X 3 2 0 1 0)
F = (1 3 3 2 1 1)

G........................Dadd6add9sus.....Em7.............C
Standing on the CTrain, just two panes of glass between us;
she always likes to keep her distance.
She holds the railing like it's all that holds her to the ground;
she's the kinda girl you can't keep down.

F.................C...................G..................G
It's time to let it all hang out
It's time to let us all let go
You travel your way and I'll travel mine
You're the only angel that I know
yea You're the only angel that I know

Sitting at the diner with the salt shaker between us;
she says she puts it there for luck.
She eats her french fries with a little bite or nibble;
she's the kinda girl who takes it slow.
It's time to let it all hang out
It's time to let us all let go
Indulge yourself, I'll pick up the tab
cause You're the only angel that I know
yea You're the only angel that I know

Walking by the river, just a thin moon-beam between us;
she always likes to count the stars.
She names constelations after Brad and Angelina
she's the kinda girl who's funny like that.
It's time to let it all hang out
It's time to let us all let go
Did you say I'm born on the cusp of Paris Hilton
You're the only angel that I know
yea You're the only angel that I know

She's standing naked, just her sunglasses between us;
she always likes to keep her distance.
She tells me she's Godiva and I'm her peeping Tom
she's the kinda girl who's plays games like that.
It's time to let it all hang out
It's time to let us all let go
Ready or not, I'm coming to find you
cause You're the only angel that I know
yea You're the only angel that I know

You're the only angel that I know
You're the only angel that I know

Finally, I wrote something...! "Movin' On"

2007-06-14T00:41:00.000-06:00

So, I finally went out today, in a burst of productivity and bought some new guitar strings. (See the previous post for details.)

Anyways, I got them home, and put them on, and started feeling creative, so I finished writing the lyrics to this song I've been working on for a while. Then I figured while I was at it, I might as well record it quick, so I don't forget how it sounds in my head.

So here it is, "Movin' On.

I pour the coffee into her cup
she says half full is good enough
bus pulls up to the greyhound sign
down the street from this place of mine
I've seen her face almost every day
since he stowed his luggage cause he was...

Movin' on: doesn't always have to be like this.
Movin' on: cross rocky waves and rolling hills
Monin' on: the past glares out of a coffee cup
Movin' on: these are growing pains, this is growing up.

Through the glass you can see behind
to the sunny tree where they'd unwind
now the place is a empty lot
the world moved on, the gang forgot
after drinking a couple of years
they feel their roots tug, they've been...

Movin' on: That empty lot is calling to them
Movin' on: They've had pains, and they got through them
Monin' on: the more things change the more they stay the same
Movin' on: trace your roots and see what you became

I pack my things, I'm moving on
take care of this place here while I'm gone.
I've seen a lot of faces cross this line
and it's about time one was mine.
I'll stow my luggage and buckle up
before you know it, I'll be...

Movin' on: some place new is just around the bend
Movin' on: it's always hard to leave another friend
Movin' on: no one here gets out of this alive
Movin' on: the best you'll do is only to survive

Some of the singing (and guitar...) is pretty rough, but that's something that will come both with practice, and when I make up my mind how exactly I want to sing the "moving on" chorus parts.

A Right of Passage...

2007-06-04T13:40:00.000-06:00

A Right of Passage.mp3

... Damn.

This post is brought to you by Ed Robertson, and number 13

2007-05-22T13:09:00.001-06:00

Instead of watching the video below, listen to this first. It's the Barenaked Ladies song Aluminum off their album Everything To Everyone, possibly my favorite BNL album. Everytime I hear this song, it spins around my brain for a while, but not in the annoying song stuck in my head way.

Trav has moved out of the apartment, and is likely almost moved into his new basement suit out in BC somewhere. I'm thinking it will be a good move for him. However, now not only am I a jobless bum, but the amount of human contact I've been getting will take a sharp decline from it's already meager post. On the up side, I've been keeping strange hours and playing my guitar lots.

The job situation isn't hopeless though. Last week I drove out to the metropolis of Unity Saskatchewan for an interview at the salt mine. I'm feeling pretty good about it, but who knows. I guess I will hear late this week, which probably means next week sometimes.

On the drive back from Unity, Aluminum started playing off the CD I had burned for the trip, which got me thinking, I wonder if I could play that on guitar?

Turns out, there are no tabs for it that don't suck. None of them sounded right, or made any sense...luckily I remembered seeing this song preformed in the bathroom sessions.

Turns out an acoustic version isn't all that hard. I had a fun evening learning the song by watching Ed Robertson himself play it while sitting in his bathroom. The song is still in my head, and I've logged more hours on learning this song that I do most songs I think "Hey I wonder if I could play that.." Starbuck is probably sick of hearing it.

A Rob update, and 'Clarity' by John Mayer.

2007-05-12T01:08:00.000-06:00

Alright, so accompanying today's post are the musical styling of John Mayer, and his hit song Clarity.

So, I'm not busy with much of anything these days. I've finished school, still looking for a job. I've got another interview lined up, so I'm still feeling pretty good about things.

I've been playing my guitars lots.... I guess there might be something to this whole "music theory" thing people have been talking about for the last couple hundred years or so... by which I mean, I've found this site to be pretty cool; especially the chord maps.

I also bought a harmonica, which (with the help of the Chord map for C), has been a lot of fun to play with.

It's kind of sad though really, I haven't had much to say lyrics wise at all. Probably just have to stretch my creative muscles a bit. It's looking like they are fairly out of practice.

I joined Facebook the other day... initially to see what everyone was talking about, but I had a bunch of people add me as their friends, so I figured I'd give it at least a half ass'd effort...which is exactly what it's got. Even less attention than this blog..now that's a feat.

I don't know what else there is to say really.

I really like this song...

A couple of tunes.

2007-04-18T11:45:00.000-06:00

So far, I've recorded two songs after I've discovered that hey, I can indeed plug my amp into my computer...

Dirt, which is a cover of a Phish song.
Strive, which is a song I wrote a couple of years ago.

Great Music.

2007-04-09T02:59:00.000-06:00

So Darryl and I got to talking, after I'd posted a rendition of Dirt by Phish I made over at B. Inc., and he pointed me in the direction of some really awesome tunes... and so now, I will pass them on to you:

Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song

Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars

Death Cab For Cutie- I'll Follow You Into The Dark

Awesome stuff!

Reporters, why do you hate us little people so much?

2007-04-02T00:14:00.000-06:00

Leaning Tower Disaster

Sadkermit.com

2007-03-28T15:05:00.000-06:00

I think this video will speak for itself.

For more covers by sadkermit, visit sadkermit.com. I also quite enjoyed his rendition of Radiohead's Creep.

Check it out!

Ani Difranco.

2007-03-27T01:20:00.000-06:00

I'm kinda on an Ani Difranco kick tonight. I just listened to a couple of her live albums, and they were amazing.

You know, she looks downright tiny now that I have had a good look at her. I've always "known" she wasn't a tall person, but her music has so much "presence" that I've always pictured her as not being dwarfed by her guitars...

Other than that, find a copy of Ani Difranco Carnegie Hall and listen to it, It's an hour well spent!

My god I love the ninja turtles.

2007-03-14T20:07:00.000-06:00

Watch this shit!

I found a longer version on The Comic Real. I think the link right to it is this one.

But holy crap! I love the ninja turtles!

Unicorn vs. Narwhal

2007-03-13T10:25:00.000-06:00

I found this over at Eric Burns' Websnark, and thought it was too precious not to share.

The Bathroom Sessions...

2007-03-10T19:31:00.000-06:00

I thought this was pretty cool... I guess Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies has recently renovated his bathroom, and quite likes how it sounds.

For example, alone

or, with friends...

I think this sort of thing is really cool... Props to Ed for good use of the internet.

Globalisation, or some thoughts about boycotting.

2007-03-07T11:33:00.000-06:00

So in my engineering ethics class yesterday we had a presentation about globalization or, more correctly about anti-globalization. It is an interesting subject, full of all those subtleties and intricacies and things...

Mostly I just want to comment on the thought process behind boycotting a company or corporation etc.

the problem: Some corporations are abusing the lack of laws in developing countries and running sweat shops and lots of other shady dealings that infringe on human rights. This is bad...

So usually the solution, proposed by those of us who aren't overcome with apathy, is "boycott these companies". "don't buy from them, and they will have to change". I don't really think this reasoning is wrong, but often they skip a step when they come up with "boycott" and that really bugs me.

I think the whole thought process looks something like this: corporations are behaving poorly, we need to put some kind of pressure on them to change, the most available form of pressure to your average people not in decision making positions is the choice not to buy from them, so we'll boycott.

The thing is, these corporations are still providing that $1.75 a day to Joe sweats-a-lot in the production line, and that is still $1.75 more than he had before. He has a job, admittedly a terrible one. The conditions are abysmal, but he is not still slightly better off now than when he didn't have that $1.75?

I'm not trying to say "see... corporations aren't all bad". Because the truth is a lot of the shit they do is 100% unacceptable. What I am saying is I want to see people acknowledge that we are boycotting to put pressure on the corporation to change, and if we found a better way to pressure these companies into improving the working conditions we would.

I mean, say your boycott works 100%. nobody shops at their stores anymore. The company goes out of business, and now, on top of all the people in North America who can't work for them anymore, the poor guy in the developing country now has even less than he had before.

All I'm saying is I think it's important to think about the rational behind boycotting. On the other hand, you should probably take my advice with a grain of salt. It's the gung-ho ideologues who like to boycott things. I'm way to apathetic.

An idea that predated Sin City...

2007-02-26T03:01:00.000-06:00

Ok, so this is just becoming a big blog dump. Fuck em all, that's why.

For all you archeology types though, check out this, I guess they found this skeleton of a 5000 year old soothsayer in Iran who had a eye made of gold. Pretty wicked.

I come in the name of Jesus, Bitch!

2007-02-24T22:09:00.000-06:00

I saw this video a while ago, but then I lost it, but now I've found it again.

Holy fuck, who lets people like this guy near a camera!

I remember talking about this clip with Trav, but I don't remember what we were saying. So, I guess you get no inspired commentary today.

An old realization.

2007-02-23T21:17:00.000-06:00

Today I've come to realize (how to post YouTube videos) that this blog doesn't have any standards, journalistic or otherwise. To that end, if I want to post something about an idiot on court TV (for Kelley?)

A wicked looking shark

or a really cool guitar performance

I am going to. Mostly so that if I want to remember something, I can come and find it here. I hate losing links to cool things. ;)

This is a test...but I hope you'll enjoy it.

2007-02-23T19:01:00.000-06:00

This post is mostly to try putting YouTube videos into my blog, which should be stupid simple, but you know...just something I haven't tried yet.

Check out the comedic stylings of Rob Parvonian, specifically the "Pachelbel Rant"

and also his bit about "the Friends theme, and Sugar Ray".

If you want to see some of his comedy without the guitar, try this link.

Dragostea Din Tei

2007-02-18T00:15:00.000-06:00

I'm sure at some point on the internet most of you have ran across this song before. I first ran across it in the flash animation on Newgrounds. Through the magic of the internet, Gary Brolsma shares a video of him singing this song, and bam! he gets featured on ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's The Tonight Show and VH1's Best Week Ever and gets interviewed for the New York Times.

While the video is entertaining, I don't think it's "TV" good. It's sort of flogging a dead horse to point out that this isn't news....internet fads are never news...ever.

On the other hand, the song (Dragostea Din Tei) preformed by a Moldovan Pop band called O-Zone is a very catchy song. The thing is, I didn't even really know there was a place called the Republic of Moldova, not to mention that they have a funky political system with both a president and a prime minister, and their own one hit wonder pop bands who also style themselves after misspelled English words ('N Sync I'm looking at you.)

For the most part, the lyrics, once translated to english, aren't terribly exciting. For example:

Hello? Hi! It's me, an outlaw
and please accept my love, happiness.
Hello? Hello! It's me, Picasso.
I gave you a call and I am tough
but I want you to know I ask nothing from you.

On the other hand, the part of the chorus that the song is named after won't get out of my head.

You want to leave but
you can't, you can't take me;
you can't, you can't take me;
you can't, you can't, you can't take me.
The image of your face
And the love of the linden tree
Remind me of your eyes.

I guess the title of the song roughly translates to "Love from the Linden Trees"... which didn't mean much to me, until I went back to wikipedia and figured out what a linden tree was. Turns out the linden, or lime tree, is the national symbol of a whole bunch of countries that start with Slov and end in ia. (well, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic). However, before it was a national symbol, it was seen as a symbol of Freyja, the Norse goddess of love, beauty, sex, and attraction, but also a goddess of war, death, magic, prophecies and wealth.

It is said whenever Freyja rides her cat driven chariot to a battle, she gets to keep half the dead men, while Odin gets the other half.

Now I'm not saying there is any more symbolism than the obvious intended in the Numa Numa song, but the idea of Linden trees and all those Freyja associations has sort of stuck in my head.

By now my evil plan has worked, and some of you must have clicked the links above, and got this song firmly stuck in your heads. It's been in my head for two weeks... I've woken up in the morning singing it...

It's saving grace is that "Dragostea Din Tei" has a great ring to it. Not that I can actually pronounce it, but it sure rolls itself off the practiced Moldavian tongue.

Forks

2007-01-03T14:46:00.000-06:00

The tines on my fork were bent out of shape. After one bite it bugged me enough that I grabbed the pair of pliers from the drawer beside me and spent a couple minutes fixing them before I finished eating...

Man am I due to write something here.

2006-11-03T21:58:00.000-06:00

So yea...I should write things:

Have you ever had one of those nights where your thirsty, but instead of drinking a glass of nice healthy cure-all H2O you walk to the bar behind your house and buy a case of Rickard's Red? I have...

What a week or like seven since I typed here. So I'm done the majority of my midterms here. Results so far are varied, from pretty crappy (mid fifties) to top of the class! (Woo 88.5%) and you know... numbers in between...

Turns out I was asked to co MC my cousins wedding in January? (I should probably know shouldn't I? My theory is someone will point me in the right direction when the time comes...) I think it will be good, though Quinton and I are going to have to come up with some jokes or something. I'm sure we'll manage.

I'm eating some of that Munchies snack mix. which is like the left overs for six or seven other types of snacks that Frito-Lay decides to mix together. It's not usually my favorite, but Jess brought it to gaming on TThursday, and I was looking for a snack to night, and it's all working out pretty well as far as I'm concerned.

(Sweet! Rickard's Red is in the new dictionary spell check feature of Firefox 2.0! no wonder I Like this browser)

Actually, I don't really notice a difference between the two. Some of my extensions / Add-ons (the new word) quit working, and that sucks. and the only other noticeable change was where they put the button to close the windows, and I didn't like it, but they included a feature to turn it back the way it was, so now it is, and I'm using it, and nothing is really different.

I'm a pirate; I'm downloading Star wars Knights of the Old Republic 2! because the no-cd crack is finally out for the patch that fixes the majority of the bugs or something like that. I played the first version when Kelley was here, and it was a pretty awesome game. One of the first of the few that I've made it all the way through, and I had a lot of fun.

I guess I'm going to this music thing tomorrow. My sister is in this like "best in Saskatchewan" band or something. (I don't really know any of the details), so my parents are coming up. Which should be good

though the real beauty of it all is I will have my car back, so I can buy groceries and drive places (heh...that's the definition of the purpose of car isn't it??)

Travis has been asleep all day...well the whole day as far as I'm concerned (my day really starts when I get back from school.....and he hasn't been real talkative today.) Really he's missing out. He should be awake drinking this beer with me.

On the other hand if we were goofing off..or watching the 3rd LOTR movie, or playing that video game Darrin lent us, I wouldn't be updating this blog...

and that would be a shame...

I need another beer.

Rob-out!

I love firefly!

2006-08-13T16:20:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I wonder if they could have marketed Serenity better than they did.

My thought process.

2006-08-12T19:11:00.000-06:00

I saw the headline (Branagh's Magic Flute to debut in Toronto) to this article on Google News, and I got to thinking...

Someone should build a robot that could play the flute. I think all the opening and closing valves would be easy enough to do. I don't know enough about how many different ways you have to move your lips to get the air to blow right though.

I should probably actually read that article I linked to... but I doubt I will.

In other news about movies: I can't wait to see Man of the Year I mean "Robin Williams tells the Jon Stewart story we all wish would happen." Ok that's not really the tag line. Turns out the real tag line is impossible to find.

Either way, watch the trailer!

Megalomaniac

2006-08-11T23:33:00.001-06:00

So I did some research today:

Did you know "Power Crazed Megalomaniac" is a little redundant.

Now you know...

I post this crap because nobody else is online to read it with me at 2am!

2006-08-03T02:21:00.000-06:00

A woman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York" The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent: "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don't be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! I knew it was a big animal!"

link

I don't know what the deal is with my dreams...

2006-07-30T18:42:00.000-06:00

I have strange dreams. Sometimes I post them here, if there is nobody around to tell them too.

I mean... Last night the dream was a little convoluted, but I specifically recall that Mulder was Batman and Skully was Robin. Except they didn't know each other, and met through a chance hang-gliding accident involving robin's hang-glider that had the same colour scheme as the ugly costume crashing into the top of the building that Mulder was hanging out on.

What the fuck is that about?

T-Rex from Hell!!!!

2006-07-29T15:51:00.000-06:00

This friend of my parents open up this new resturant / dollar store. It sells pretty much everything from coffee to fireworks. It has a wonderful atmosphere.

I think I'm back in highschool, because I'm at the resturant with my parents for breakfast, and I'm waiting for my english teacher to show up so we can talk about some book. All the while my dad is being himself, and pointing out all the people he knows, and their children and saying things like "That's the one who got 100% on this test or that thing etc.

Suddenly there is a huge thunk against the windows at the front and a letter is pinned there. I pretended to litter on your building here is a check for $1000. So I leave this place with some of the other kids of whoever's parents are having coffee at this restaurant.

We start walking towards this nice bunch of trees and a big yellow bus drives by, with some of our friends on it.

well, we see the bus turn a corner, and another and it hides itself behind the right bushes and things and it doesn't look like it is on roads at all after a while, just driving in a weird pattern behind / in these bushes and long grass and what not.

well suddenly I realise that bus is on the path to a hell dimension

so I tell all these people who are with me, "we have to follow it and save our friends"

So we start to follow the path of the bus and at first the path is big muddy tire tracks, but eventually we keep walking and it's pretty clear we aren't wandering in the bushes anymore. The trees turn into the aisles of this huge store. All that's around are like stacks of toiletpaper and whatever else.

so we stock up on things. (I'm assuming this is the part where I strap on a sword!)

But we come to a dead end

luckily the girl who got 100% on everything figures out that we have to crawl through a minifridge and we'll be on "the other side"

so we crawl into the fridge on our side, and out the fridge on the other side

and we are in a mirror image of the store we were just at

only if we walk a little ways, we get to this big ugly jungle.

We walk a little ways in the jungle, still following the odd tire track, until I see them!

two huge stegasaurus off in the distance running towards the horizion. "Oh crap" I think. There are dinosaurs here.

We keep following the path, and we know if we stray from it we could be lost in this hell dimension forever.

but we see one just on the edge of the jungle. It's a Tranasaurous Rex, and it looks hungry. "Don't run" I say "They have to chase you if you run, it's their way!"

but there are other dinosaurs on our path. and if we run right into them there could be trouble.

we walk towards the other dinosaurs, and we get right up to them when one of them lets out a loud bellow and the T-Rex is after us like a shot!

We start running towards an old wall of stone that marks the edge of the jungle. I let everyone run ahead of me, and instead of running when I get to the wall, I hide on the other side of it. I've got a sword on a belt, and I remember picking up a whip that crackled with electricity at some point.

I stood with the whip in hand as the Huge T-Rex lumbers up on his side of the wall.

he quits chasing the others. he can smell me.

I lash out with the whip getting his full attention, and the others make it to safety

The rest of the battle is a little lost in the haze of dreams, but the next thing I remember I'm on top of the T-Rex, and I have it pinned to the ground, but my sword is just out of reach, and I can't finish the creature off

the girl who got 100% on everything runs up, but is a little panicky, I yell at her "Get me my sword!" and eventually she hands it to me and I plung it into the beast's kidneys and it dies.

Sometime during the fight, all the people on the bus are rescued and we start heading for home.

Dreams are so much fun!

8th grade science...and sketchy guy update!

2006-07-29T15:47:00.000-06:00

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Turns out I know some basic science...and I have nothing productive to say.

Sort of sad really ;)

Oh, do you remember that sketchy guy who offered me a job a while back. He still comes into work all the time, and remembers my name and keeps asking me things like "So, did you check out my website", and stuff like "Have you tried that red-bull...Well in the line of energy drinks that I market..."

Not that I mind really, it's kinda funny in retrospect.

Those crazy eyes...

2006-06-08T03:31:00.000-06:00

Oh and check out this thing. It's pretty messed up!

I'd feel really awesome...if this didn't look so sketchy

2006-06-07T23:17:00.000-06:00

So I was at work today...contemplating what I will do with all my money when I win the 6/49 tomorrow, and a man approaches me. This isn't strange, people approach me all the time at work. They usually want things like cigarettes or to pay for their gasoline. This one was on the low side of five feet, balding and was wearing a sport jacket and nice pants. He had no tie.

I don't remember how we got on the subject, but I think I had told him that I won the lottery tomorrow, they just hadn't drawn the numbers yet. Either way, he asks me "What are you going to do if you don't win?" obviously not getting the point ;). I told him I'd just "buy another ticket".

We talk a little more, and I tell him that I'm taking Chemical Engineering and all about how I ended up working at Petro-Canada. Then he tells me "You look like a smart kid. Here is my card, go take a look around my website, and if you like what you see give me a call and we'll set up a meeting."

"Wow!" I think. "I must be really impressive...or there must be something really sketchy about the job...or both?" Jury is still out on the first part, but take a look at his web-site. Use the guest password mwelsh.

If only my life long dream was to own my own business selling health products on-line...

I'm still hopeful though. One day someone will come up to me and offer me that dream job; I'll turn him down though, I've won the 6/49 tomorrow. They just haven't drawn my numbers yet.

Not to toot my own horn...

2006-05-17T15:32:00.000-06:00

...but my new job has been a pretty affirming experience.

So I walk into this gas bar super station two weeks ago and I'm looking for a job. I get pointed right in the direction of the manager Gary. He takes a quick look at my resume and ask me to come to the back room for an interview for a full time position 3pm-11pm Monday to Friday.

However, I didn't get the job I was interviewed for. But on Monday (a little over a week later) I call him back, and over the phone he says "You can start tomorrow, see you at 7am".

So I show up for my first 7am-3pm shift, and I guess I catch on pretty quick. (It's mostly real common sense how to use a register stuff. There are specifics here and there, but the system is set up so it's all pretty simple, and it prompts you for most things etc...) All day long I receive compliments on how quick I'm catching on. At the end of the day, the number of things to learn and get comfortable with is half as long as the one belonging to the full-time guy they hired.

Today (my second day) it was more of the same. Several more comments about how quick I'm picking this up, compared to the guy who had been working there a week now. Even when I forget to charge a guy for gas I get a few comments of "make sure you put the gas on first etc. (To be fair I was helping an old lady find her way to a church. Apparently she had been looking for so long that she had already missed the funeral and needed to get their quickly)

[After my mild talking to, they tell me "Gary must really like you. Usually when there is a drive off Gary gets really mad, and leaves the store for a few hours to calm down before he delivers his stern "don't do it again".)

I chalk it up to my "It's my second day" get out of jail free card. But either way...

Anyway the point of the story is:

Today before I go home they say "Show up at 3pm tomorrow. Your now working 3-11, Monday to Friday for the summer."

Whooha Full-time!

I had a dream

2006-04-19T13:55:00.000-06:00

I had a dream last night where I applied to work at a sketchy dental clinic run in the parking garage underneith some mall.

The dentist, named Foster, was very polite, and was much more interested in talking to me than preforming the oral surgery he was in the middle of; to the point where his assistant had to remind him he was in the middle of something.

Sadly there were rules in place against hiring me, but I left my resume incase the rules change.

Tolerance--with a capital T, that rhymes with P and that stands for..........of fuck it I give up!

2006-04-15T02:08:00.000-06:00

First I'll acknowledge that yes I know it's late, and I should be sleeping because I have an exam in the morning. But I'm not.

Instead I'm thinking about tolerance. The kind of tolerance dictionary.com defines as:

The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

(The thing I love about blogs is I don't really have to give you any hard evidence or...you know...facts... I'm just spouting off my opinion and I like it.)

I ran across this other quote today, on a discussion on SKR's messageboard. In a post about christians sueing for the right to gay bash. It's originally from a south park episode:

Tolerant, but not stupid! Look, just because you have to tolerate something doesn't mean you have to approve of it! ... "Tolerate" means you're just putting up with it! You tolerate a crying child sitting next to you on the airplane or, or you tolerate a bad cold. It can still piss you off!

For the most part this isn't an issue; for better or for worse there are far more apathetic people than "hard-liners", but there are enough people who really believe in something out there that when they see something (or someone) who they feel is antithetical to who they are they need to confront it head on.

I don't think this confrontation is a bad thing, it's not hard to think of situations that would make me stand up and try and stop someone from being "evil" (to use a terribly ambiguous and unhelpful word).

The problem comes when these conflicts are ideological or philosophical I think. You see: I have NEVER seen one of these philosophical head on collisions change anyone's position on anything!

I have never read of a bigot who stooped her irrational hatred of whatever because someone pointed out it was "irrational and wrong". I have never heard of a liar who suddenly spouted only the truth because when someone called him on his falsehoods. And short of Ebenezer I have never seen greed become charity overnight.

I don't know why, but even rational people hold onto irrational ideas because they are more comfortable. Throwing someone's irrationality (from your point of view of course) back in their face only seems to piss people off and end the conversation.

I know I link this poem on the side bar thing there, but I want to point out one of it's lines that rings most true to me:

As far as possible without surrender / be on good terms with all persons.

As far as possible! Without surrender!

This means tolerance.

If you don't like what somebody says or does. Your choice.
If you feel it's your duty to try and "spread the truth" and "correct their mistakes". Great.
If you think it's going to happen the first time you tell them. Quit kidding yourself.

No, I think if people really want to introduce people to the "right" ideas you gotta do it slowly. You need to say "Hey cool you're different from me in these places". You need to talk to these people and who knows maybe befriend these people. You have to work up to "Hey look how my great ideas are working good for me, want to try them?".

The idea of a person who is more comfortable with the ideas shouted to them from pulpits and slurred drunkenly across bar tables by strangers; than the ideas they are currently working off in their own head is a little unsettling to me...(but hey, that's cool if it works for you ;) )

Even in an open honest discourse between friends I don't think I am going to change anyone's opinion the first time I throw an idea out there. I figure the best I can do is stick by my guns and keep telling people the truth (well, how I see it anyways)...and of course keep tolerating all those idiots who don't see it my way. :P

I should update often enough that Travis need not have to remind me!

2006-04-11T02:27:00.000-06:00

Well.. turns out it's my birthday. (So far I've had more "happy birthday" messages from message boards than real people... we're only 3 hours in, I'm still hopeful ;) )

I was asked today

*in snooty announcer voice* Rob... you've just turned legal all over the world... what do you plan to do next??

turns out about the same as always. (though my actual reply was "send out a poorly timed e-mail inviting people to come to the Parktown at 10pm tomorrow?" And the invitation still stands, but since the only one who's likely to read this is Travis, and he's not in town, I'm not sure advertising here is all that effective.

I'd have never really thought about it, but turns out its possible to get out of touch with a person living in the same house. (Mostly finals are to blame I think.) It does help the searching skills looking for clues to see if they are still alive though. Make sure you check the white board--there might be a new (and fun) message. Make sure you check the chess game--if it's your move she must have been through the kitchen at some point. Check to see if there is a light on, and so on.

I did end up catching up with Kelley tonight though, and while we had a much overdue conversation (about climate change, quantum leap and gaming).

Yes, she brought up a frightening fact. I might know so many female gamers that they could up and start their own group, leaving the boys out entirely. How unfair would that be?

On the up side, Samantha (the new and awesome girlfriend) is quite excited to start gaming; I think we are even going to buy dice tomorrow. This is good news, there is even a friend of hers who wants to play too. If this keeps up, and I find a job, I might get to game this summer! How awesome is that?

{A side note: Every time I type tomorrow, I've been putting in an extra m (tommorrow) but only recently I've started catching myself. Strange)

The other day I took my brother out for supper for his birthday (April 7), and near the end of the evening he says to me "So, you want to do this again next Tuesday?" to which I reply "Tuesday? What's happening then?" (Tuesday is today...is my birthday...I'm out of touch...laugh at me.) I could blame school and such, but I really haven't been studying too hard yet. The real studying will happen this weekend when the "real" finals start to happen.

So far I've written my "Process Engineering and Design" final yesterday, but it was hard to study for because it's such a melting pot class with bits and pieces of everything. I think I did "ok" but I doubt I did "stellar"

Sam's mom was down for a two weeks; she left last Friday. It was interesting and kinda fun to meet her. Mostly I'm happy I was "approved" of...not that I was really concerned about it, but it is always nice to hear good things about yourself. My parents are coming up this Friday, and we are all going out for supper. I'm pretty excited to introduce them to Sam.

I just can't read interview with a vampire; Nothing is happening, Louis and Lestat are both kinda whiny, and if they don't get off their asses and do something worthwhile soon I might have to move onto a different book. Kel gave me "Timeline" and "1984" to read tonight, so interview is on it's last legs.

I so wish I had a job lined up. I hate this waiting and waiting to hear back from people!

I'm sure I have more to say but I should probably go get some sleep, I mean, If I don't say it all now it means I have to update again right?

I'll leave you with the immortal words of my beloved room-mate sometimes known as "Zombie K"

"Welcome ot the SUCK"

A brief overview of my D20 Modern game.

2006-03-04T03:49:00.000-06:00

In the order that I thought of them, here is a list of the organizations encountered by the PCs in my latest D20 modern game. (I'm convinced their sociopaths...)

This list is probably more for me than anybody, but reading it does give a sense of most of the major happenings in the game. (which has taken a sudden shift from "Heist" to "Sci-fi" in genre).

You'd think a brief overview of this game should include a list of the PCs, but honestly I don't know too much about them. I can't even remember most of their names. One is a charismatic exiled Chechnyan royal who would like to raise an army and regain control of his country. One is a ex-con art critic, who specializes in stealing object of (you guessed it) art; he got out of jail early in exchange for his help raising money for the Chechnyan. The third is a very mysterious woman from Ireland. She seems to be well educated and versed in several languages. Finally there is an Australian Doctor. It hasn't yet been revealed to me why she is with these others, making her life difficult. But she has shown the most sense; hiding when the bullets start flying, patching up the wounded, that sort of thing.

----The List----

The Government of Israel—-Wants the PCs for 7 counts of murder in Tel Aviv, theft of a national treasure. (an “Ivory Pomegranate” from the sceptre of the high priest at the ancient Temple of Solomon), as well as theft of an air plane. They have video footage of the PCs as they travelled through the airport, and an eye witness , Joseph Smith, who knew one of the PCs in college.

Turkish Rebels in Cyprus—-Bought the plane stolen from Israel in exchange for giving the PCs a safe boat passage to Italy. All told it was a pretty good deal for them, and they are probably willing to give the PCs another favour if it didn't put them at too much risk.

The Holy Roman Church—-Through their agent “Father Benito” they bargained to buy the “Ivory Pomegranate” from the PCs for $16 Million. Shortly after the deal went down, Father Benito was arrested with the aid of Detective Dupont, and sent to jail for several other crimes. The pomegranate went missing at the crime scene, and was not regurned to the government of Israel. Since there was only €12,000 of real money in the case handed to the PCs, they consider all things even.

INTERPOL—-Detective Dupont asked the PCs for their help bringing “Father Benito” to justice for several of his crimes. The PCs only agreed to help after they were shot up by “Chechnyan” rebels hunting down one of the PCs and needed a safe house to heal their wounds. Their help made it possible to arrest Benito and send him to prison for a long time.

The “Chechnyan” Rebels-—After overthrowing the monarchy in Chechnya, they are now hunting down the remaining members of royalty which escaped the country, of which one of the PCs is a member. They managed to catch up with them in Rome, where they used several AK-47s in broad daylight in the parking lot of a hotel. They managed to wound a few of the PCs pretty good, but were unable to confirm any kills. It is assumed they have lost track of the PCs for the time being.

La Casa Nostra, aka. “the Italian Mafia”--The mob contacted the PCs and asked them to help patch up one of their people no questions asked. After exchange for their work, the mob offered the PCs a discrete free trip to America, running guns in a small cargo ship. The cargo ship never reached it's destination and the Mafia is out for blood.

The CIA—-the captain of the Mafia gun running ship was also a CIA Agent Ty Bauer. The PCs discovered his connection to the CIA while searching his body after killing him and commandeering the cargo ship. As they had yet to reach the shores of America, the PCs called in a favour, and had “an expert” fake the death of Ty Bauer in Rome. It is unlikely the CIA has discovered any evidence of Agent Bauer's real body in the Caribbean where it was cut up and tossed into shark infested waters.

Haitian Militants-—in exchange for a safe harbour, and some falsified identification, the PCs traded a crate of the automatic weapons found on their cargo ship. One of the leading members of the militants was a convicted felon from France, called Guthrie, who did time with one of the PCs. He was more than glad to help out for extra weapons and ammunition.

The Office of Scientific Investigation and Research—-While following up on unexpected activity of mysterious sleeper agents called “Sandmen” Agent Lee Bryant ran into the PCs in Las Vegas. He helped them destroy several of the “Sandmen” and capture one of the strange robots that creates them. He was forced to turn the creature over to the U.S. Air Force in exchange for help deactivating the nanites injected into two of the PCs. He has exchanged contact information with the PCs, and urged them to get in touch if they come into contact with anything else the O.S.I.R. might be interested in.

Groom Lake United States Air Force Base, aka. “Area 51”--The PCs were taken to the base after being infected by nanites from a strange robotic creature. They were in the area because the machine kept asking to be taken the coordinates 37 degrees 15 seconds north, 115 degrees 49 seconds west. (the coordinates of Area 51). The specialists on the base managed to deactivate the nanites, and repair the damage done, but were unable to remove them from their bodies.

Edit:I remembered some other important groups.

The "Sandmen" and their Masters--The PCs First encountered a master stored in a lead lined crate aboard their small cargo ship they stole from the Mafia. The crate was addressed to the Research and Development Offices of ECOR International in Tulsa Oklahoma. This metallic robot creature managed to infect two of the PCs in an attempt to turn them into "Sandmen" while on their trip to Area 51. The master told the PCs that it needed to reach Area 51 because it's "ship" was there. In the end, the master was turned over to the the military in exchange for deactivation of the infection nanites injected into the two PCs.

ECOR International--A large corporation who was supposed to retrieve a special "package" delivered from Italy very discreetly. They are currently looking for the whereabouts of the package, and it is only a matte of time until it is located.

On writing "things"...

2006-03-03T14:27:00.000-06:00

I was thinking today, about writing another post here

I was thinking that, for this blog to survive, it is going to have to simply be an exercise in writing "things". Writing things has never really been my strong suit (I mean..I'm an engineering student after all...) but somehow I have collected around myself a lot of people who either write a lot (more than I do),or have words just pour out of them. I've never really had that pleasure, whenever I try to write things, from lab reports, to essays, I always seem to be caught struggling. Most of the struggle is with how do I get all these thoughts I have in my head out onto paper. How do I frame them for this or that audience who I don't know particularly well? Usually I struggle until the day before the thing is due, then tell myself "Just fucking write it already" and quit thinking and just type, and eventually I come up with words on paper. Which was the goal to begin with.

Another trick I've found, which works better than anything, is to talk to Travis. Which isn't the same as to ask Travis for help (as he is one of those people who seems to have a much easier time writing things than me, one might think the gut instinct is to ask him to write it for me..) What I really mean is to just IM him with my thoughts on something, or where I'm stuck writing something, and the act of writing it down to Trav in a way that he will understand does exactly what I've been trying to do all along--get the ideas out of my head and onto paper.

It was only recently that I've come up with an explanation for why this helps. One of the classes I had to take last term was called Oral and Written Communication. It started out with talking about the "theory" of how language worked, but as it was a class aimed for engineers, ended with lots of practical "here is what you need to do to write a good resume", "here are the elements of a good interview", "here are the elements of a good visual aid". It was a very practical course in the end.

Anyway, this course discussed the "language triangle" which lists three things to consider when writing something. You have to think about what it is you want to say (duh!), but also how your audience is going to receive what you say (I mean, it's not going to be easy to walk into a Synagogue and convince people good Jews don't go to heaven) and how your audience receives you (Your credibility and reputation and stuff.)

Now that it's all in place: What I'm saying is that by talking to Travis, I've given myself a (blessedly critical at times) audience to present my ideas to. An audience that I know quite well, and have plenty of practice talking to. Which is an audience way easier to communicate with that "Stuffy potential employer #8".

I guess this all sort of begs the question "Who is my audience now?" (begs the question in the "makes me think of a question" sort of way, and not the "logical fallacy" sort of way). Truth be known--I really like to hear the sound of my own voice. Even when something I write has little content, and is structurally poor, it still looks good to me. (which would likely be a problem--if I had to take more than one English class.)

Speaking of English classes--I have to take one, and I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. (though my lack of participation in it may be the source of some of these problems.) It is a course on poetry (which despite all my troubles writing, I usually don't usually choke writing poetry as much as I do writing other things) It's not the poetry itself I have trouble swallowing. There is just a subtle underlying hypocrisy's that drives me up the walls!

Let me explain; In this English class, the prof has been very adamant that "If your references page so much as loses sight of the rest of your essay, we will drag you up in front of the class and hang you as an example"--in other words "don't plagiarize". Yet, class after class, she stands up in front of the class and explicates all these poems we're supposed to be reading. It's not that she's ever claimed "these are the one true meaning and the author's intent when they wrote this piece", it's just that she doesn't say "this is what I think this means".

I mean, I know it's implied, but if your going to be so melodramatic about plagiarism, shouldn't there be some disclaimer?

Nevertheless; since I don't have the faintest idea who is reading this blog, other than myself, I'm going to write it assuming I'm the audience. So far it's paying off--I'm pretty easy to talk to.

Sometimes it's handy to be a little narcissistic.

Coincidentally, my inner narcissist also likes it when you tell me what you think of me. (I think this sort of thing is mandatory to include in a blog once in a while...)

notwithstanding

2006-03-02T21:19:00.000-06:00

notwithstanding--"adv : despite anything to the contrary"

It just seemed like a good word / title for a blog. Now I won't lie to you, I'm mostly creating this so I can post comments on a friend's blog. This is sort of a good racket they've got going here. Or maybe I'm just slow and didn't have to create a blog to post a comment--(I was interrupted while writing this here and during the break I was informed this is the case...too late now I say.)

These impaired thinking processes might be do the the lack of sleep I'm running on, which is ok. Though a little tiresome in that it's the second time this week I've "skipped" a night of sleep to get back on track, or to do an assignment or whatever. (I hate lab reports. Especially lab reports for this lab class. The first two have been worth 25% and 35% of my mark respectively...that means after today I've finished 60% of the class and have no idea where I'm standing. I mean, what if I did something offensive with the formatting...I've heard of people killed for less...)

I also have a midterm I should be studying for--but due again to lack of sleep (god scapegoats are wonderful) I'm having a hard time concentrating. Well, maybe that and I'm blogging instead (*shudder* never thought I'd say that...)

Not too much homework to do this weekend though, so that's a plus--and we are gaming Sunday. gaming = playing d20 Modern = watching my group of players play sociopathic characters who travel around the world stealing things, killing things, and meeting aliens. It's a strange game, but I do enjoy it.

So, despite all that I said in the past about not ever wanting to do it;
this is my blog--notwithstanding.