The Endless Chasm that is my Mind

Photography

2010-11-09T23:33:00.001-08:00

(Check out my photography blog at rlemanphoto.blogspot.com)

I've been an avid "hobby" photographer for all of my adult life, and have made money here and there doing the occasional portrait shoot for engaged couples, brides to be, families, etc... but I've never really been too serious about it. Taking wedding pictures is nice and all, (shooting two weddings in the 4 weeks), but I've never really been super jazzed about it.

Taking landscape photos is fun, I especially like hiking into places that are a little too rugged for people who are afraid to get their feet wet/knees dirty (eg most namby pamby photographers I've run into, prudes) In fact once upon a time I stood waist deep in frigid ice water to get a shot of an ice bridge that had formed over a small stream. And another time I hiked 1/4 mile through waist deep snow to shoot some abandoned cabins/barns that were covered in fresh snow. Did I mention I was wearing jeans and tennis shoes both times? Not my most intelligent move, but I was happy with the end results.

I've taken a few product photos for work and friends, sometimes interesting, mostly lots of bending and stooping and cursing. I spent 4 hours last night building a light box the size of a refrigerator to take pictures of tubas and trumpets and the like. Lots of duct tape and foul language was involved.

I've discovered in the last year that what I really enjoy is event photography. When I was younger I went with my buddy squirrel to snowmobile hillclimb competitions, and ran the still camera while he ran the video. The camera sucked and my position was awful, but it was still a blast. Recently I've been taking pictures at a lot of music venues, and I am lovin' it. I've got a CD release party coming up in January, and am looking for more opportunities. As I've progressed as a photographer I came to the conclusion that trying to force a pose to get the "perfect shot" is frustrating and often fruitless, (speaking of pictures involving people, other types of photography are less applicable to this statement). What I really enjoy is the "hunt", sitting poised with my camera waiting for the perfect shot to come to me, and in music venues and other similar events this philosophy works exceptionally well. When your subjects aren't focusing on posing for you, but are just being themselves and rocking out to the music, there are seemingly endless excellent shots to be had, if you have the patience to wait. In today's world of super high-speed cameras it is too easy to just snap off hundreds of photos and hope some turn out well. But if you really take the time to compose your shots and wait for the right moment, an incredibly higher number of your pictures will turn out well. Now not to say I'm not guilty of blazing through my memory card at light speed at times, but I try to avoid it as often as I can. This not only gives you better overall pictures, but also avoids wasted space on your memory card, (not that memory is a huge issue these days).

One more difficult and often frustrating parts of event photograph is that you usually have no control over the layout of the area. While sometimes it's just a pain (those pop-up shades at the Halloween concert were the bane of my existence), it also makes for an interesting challenge, forces you to be more creative with your shots, and is very rewarding when you can use or work around the environment to get a great picture.

Here's a few pictures I've taken at some music gigs. Sorry for the waterfall effect, can't get them to stack side-by-side. In no particular order:

2010-09-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Well, about time for an update. The last few months at work were the busiest time of year for us. For a little over a month I was working 55 hour work weeks, driving all over the phoenix area to rent instruments for school children at schools. I love the rush and fast paced work environment, but boy am I glad it's over.

Every rental season we hire 10-15 temps to help out at the rental counter. While we had a few shining stars (my baby sister included, of course). But, with love and respect, many of the temps were worthless as tits on a boar. I watched one stare in to space for literally five minutes, another showed up late almost daily, others would just form up into little groups and joke and flirt with each other while customers were waiting. On the bright side, we didn't have any doing drugs in the bathroom, that I am aware of anyway. In addition to the less than satisfactory performance of so many of the employees, there was a constant parade of petty, belligerent, and stupid customers. Spent half an hour on the phone with a lady who was yelling at me, calling me lazy and dishonest, because I wouldn't replace a violin case that her daughter had damaged. Another lady said she was going to report us to the better business bureau for unethical business practices, because we rented her an "economy" violin (Economy simply meant it was cosmetically rough, but played perfectly) and her snobby Scottsdale private teacher said it was worthless. I even offered to exchange the violin for a newer and nicer one for the same price and she just said, "nope, you guys are scam artists and I'm going to report you to the BBB". I may or may not have laughed at her a bit and told her to go right ahead. I'm amazed by the stupidity of people. Well I could rant for hours about all the crappy people we deal with at work (had to kick out a drunk guy after he got a little belligerent, it was awesome, I really really wished he would have thrown a punch at me so I could relieve some built up tension, oh well) so I'll leave it at that.

Been doing a little more here and there with photography, shot an engagement session a few weeks ago, shot a band gig a few weeks before. Haven't had as much time as I'd like, but now that I have more free time from work I'd like to try to spend some more time with it. I've never really taken the time to see the sights in the great state of Arizona, and now that it is starting to cool off, (I say this hesitantly, as last Sunday was a record high of 111 degrees, awful) I would like to do a little traveling and explore the state. I'm going to try to get up to Flagstaff, see the mountains and some old friends, go see Tombstone, go stay in the haunted Jerome Grand Hotel, go up to Show Lo and see grandpa Cooley's statue. Anyway, hopefully I get to get out of this urban sprawl and see the good parts of the state.

I recently invested in the Adobe Master Collection, which contains their professional design software for web, print, audio, and video based media. The photoshop program is intuitive and I really enjoy working with it, (I've gotta give props to the free photoshop program "Gimp" it does a good job for the price of $0.00, but there is a reason Adobe is the industry standard) however the other programs I'm not so familiar with and have been a little overwhelming. Fortunately, I was introduced to a website called lynda.com which provides video tutorials for any piece of software you can think of, taught by industry professionals. I've only gone through a few of the lessons, but they are awesome. After a few short lessons, the web development software made total sense, and was easy to navigate and customize to my needs. Anyone wanting to learn a particular piece of software, I would definitely recommend checking out lynda.com.

I added a few books to my antique collection recently. Nothing spectacular, but some interesting reads. I picked up a early 20th century copy of Ivanhoe, 3 late 19th century history books, on the subjects of the French Revolution, South London, and the Far East. I also picked up a 1920's handbook on 16th-19th century English and American furniture. I've always been fascinated by 19th century culture, literature, art, etc... Someday when I marry a sugar mama or my non-existent millionaire uncle dies and leaves me all of his money, I would love to purchase a Victorian area home in need of repair, fix it up, and fill it with period furniture and art. Someday I'll have nice 130 year old things. Speaking of, a local bookstore has a 1897 edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula, I want it soooo bad. If I could get my hands on that and a 19th century copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I would be happy as a pig in mud.

Well kids, that's about all I've got for now. Sorry if it was a dull read. Need to find something to get enthused about. I don't even get excited about video games anymore. Video games were always there for me when I needed them to cheer me up or relieve stress by destroying hordes of zombies. Now that they're boring, I don't know what to do! I might actually have to..... BE PRODUCTIVE!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Idaho Trip

2010-07-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

My Brother Mike and I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks up in Idaho. I had a great time, got to visit old friends, see my old house, go camping, eat the best Chimichanga known to man, feed some chickens, hypnotize some chickens, play lots of Halo, etc...

The drive up was pretty uneventful, we did have to detour around a highway up north of Flagstaff due to some forest fires, but it gave us an opportunity to get a sneak peek at the Grand Canyon, which though I visited there as a child I have no recollection of.

When we got up to Idaho it was about 9:00 at night. The sun was still out, which was odd. When we got out of the car the outside temperature was probably in the neighborhood of 75 degrees and we were both shivering we were so cold. Can I just say what a wuss Arizona has turned me into. Last May we didn't want to get into the swimming pool because it was "too cold". We used to jump in canals coming off of the snake river that were so cold it was hard to breath and we loved it! What a softie I have become, ugh.

My friend's family was very generous and let us stay at their house while we were there. This family is like a second family to me, and I missed them dearly, so it was fun to be able to spend some quality time with them. They have recently acquired some chickens and built a pen and coop and what not. I've discovered that I love chickens. I went out there and fed them and played with them every chance I got. I totally want chickens now. And a dog. Boy do I want a dog. Anyone want to give me a dog?

I had the opportunity to go camping a few times. I absolutely love being in the outdoors, and I'm a total nerd/geek about wilderness survival and the like. My first camping trip gave me the opportunity to try out some gear and sweet skillz that until then I'd only read about on the internet. I got myself a nice big knife, and was splitting wood with it through a technique called batoning.

vid of me batoning

I also got to use my little titanium pot to cook myself a little stew. I brought some veggies from home, and was also able to gather a fair amount of wild onions from the hills by the camp. Quite the delicious little tidbit. I tried my hand at making a snare trap to see if I could catch some squirrel for my dinner, but while the snare worked perfectly, I didn't actually catch anything. It didn't come as a big surprise, but it was nice to know that I could build a functioning snare. Some other cool stuff I tried was starting a fire with my flint and steel. I know a nifty trick of starting fires with cotton balls soaked in vasoline. I've always been able to get a small fire going with this technique, and the flame you get from the cotton ball lasts for about two minutes, plenty of time to build a fire.

On the second camping trip I didn't do to much hardcore stuff, just enjoyed the evening after a fun swim at falls creek. (Side note, I jumped in the frigid water and redeemed my manhood!) Being out in the woods with a warm fire, and the bright stars shining above you is one of the most relaxing and joyful things I have ever done. It's probably what I miss the most about living out in a rural area. When I look up at the stars here, all I see is an endless stream of planes and helicopters passing by, and the noise of traffic drowning everything else out.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with an awesome friend down in Provo. We ate good food, rocked out on the Ukulele, and had some good conversation time in the park. What a spiritual giant she is, if I was half as awesome as her I'd pat myself on the back for such an accomplishment. We are relatively new friends, and spent a lot of time asking questions about each other. One thing in particular she asked me, and how I answered, really kind of surprised me. She asked me what my biggest goals in life were. In my mind I quickly thought of scoring a sweet job, and making lots of money, and traveling to all the cool places on the planet. But I sat and thought for a second, and like a slap in the face three distinct thoughts popped into my head. Number one I want to be a father, I've wanted to have children for as long as I can remember. Number two, I want to be able to provide for my children everything they need to succeed both temporally and spiritually, which, I've decided is the only real reason that I should want a good job that pays well. And number three, I want to get re-married in the temple. I had never really given it much serious thought, but sitting there it hit me like a ton of bricks that those three things are all that really mattered to me in the long run. Everything else just pales in comparison. Now that's not to say that I don't still want some fun big boy toys and the other pleasures of life, but as long as I can accomplish those big three, no matter what else happens I will be a happy and blessed man.

It amazes me that such a simple conversation could be so life-changing for me, but my whole frame of mind about who I need to be and what I need to be doing is completely different than what it was a year or even a few months ago. I've spent the better part of my adult life just floating around, not really accomplishing anything, not taking anything as seriously as I should have been. But now, and this sounds so corny, but there is literally a burning desire in me to become a better person, and seek out the potential I know is in me, to accomplish the things that God wants me to accomplish, and be a benefit to myself, to my loved ones, to my friends and associates, and not just a drain on the world.

So there it is, I totally feel like a changed person, with real direction in life, and all thanks to a simple conversation with a sweet girl in Provo. Good Mormon girls rule!

Semi-Annual Blog

2010-06-16T11:49:00.001-07:00

Well it's my day off and I'm so bored I don't even want to play video games, so I'll blog! The year so far has been way too short. They say the older you get the faster time goes, and it really hit me lately how true that is. These past few years have just seemed to blow by without my permission. I've always been a rather bossy individual so the fact that time seems to have changed pace without my express authorization really grinds my gears.

This has been a rather traumatic year medically speaking. About two years ago I was eating some chewy candy (Mike & Ike I think?) and whilst chewing the candy pulled out a filling I had in a molar, which I promptly bit down on, which cracked a large portion of my tooth off. Ouch. I didn't have insurance at the time being a poor quasi-homeless bum, so I just dealt with it and tried not to use that side of my mouth. Well back in February I went to the dentist for a checkup, and he noticed the tooth and commented that I should probably get a root canal. No problem I say, I have insurance now! Oh wait, what's that? Preventative only? $2000 dollars? Not only no I say, but.... no thanks. So I figure I've dealt with it for two years with no ill effect, I can wait a little while longer till I get some better insurance. Things were going fine and dandy until I woke up one morning and felt some swelling in my jaw.

Well this isn't good I think to myself, but I was late for work so I took some pain pills and tried to ignore it. By the time my shift was over it felt like someone had stuffed a small pebble in my jaw, and the pain was getting, well quite painful. So I went to the local urgent care and first thing that comes out of the Dr's mouth is, "woah, that's a big one!" Nice. The doctor works her voodoo magic and shoots me up with an antibiotic called Rocephin, gives me some Hydrocodone (huzzah!) and sends me on my way, telling me that if it's worse by tomorrow I should go to the emergency room. I go to bed that night and sleep wonderfully courtesy of Mr Hydrocodone, and wake up feeling refreshed in the morning with a big smile on my face. Wait...what's this, I can't smile! Now it feels like someone has crammed a jumbo egg into my jaw. Oh ***@*@#! I run to the bathroom to have a look and:

Now being the cheapskate I am, I figure the drugs just haven't kicked in yet, I'll give it another day and then go to the doctor. So revisit my old friend Mr HC, and walk to the kitchen to get some grub, my brother Mike (a nurse) see's me and exlaims, "Holy crap dude, you need to go the emergency room!" Shoot. So he calls my mom and brother over so they can give me a blessing before I go. My mom (also a nurse) walks in and exlaims, "Woah! Rulon you need to get to the emergency room!" Great. So after my blessing Mike drives me over to the hospital. I'm met with lots of, "woah, that sucker's huge". The doctor comes in and asks if I went to urgent care, I say yep and they shot me up with Rocephin. "Rocephin?? What were they thinking? That was a waste!" He puts me on an IV with some heavy duty antibiotic juice then gives me a prescription for some additional voodoo goodness. The attending nurse told me if I had waited another day it could have traveled to my heart or brain and killed me. Awesome. So after a few days the infection went away, but the Doc told me it was only a temporary fix and I need to get the root canal done. Bummer. Without getting into too lengthy an description, got my root canal, it was actually quite pleasant, though seeing the x-ray of a bunch of long corkscrew things going through my tooth into my jaw was a little unnerving. Not quite done with the fix, just waiting to get my crown built then I'll get it put in in about three weeks. I'm really tired of my mouth being assaulted by medical people.

Speaking of Idaho, I'm coming up to visit in 4 days, woot! I'll probably write up a nice juicy blog full of mystery, intrigue, and big judd's mushroom burger, when I get back. Peace!

Obligatory Update

2010-01-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

Well, first blog of the new year I suppose. It's been about 6 months since my last blog. My doctor tells me anymore posts than two a year is hazardous to my health, so I have to take it nice and slow. Or I'm lazy.

Well lets see, life's been a veritable plethora of the weird, the boring, the painful, and the moderately amusing. I'm still working at my old job at Milano Music. It has its ups and downs and drama just like any place but I love my job. I work with some awesome people, I get to go to work in a t-shirt and shorts every day, rock out on the ukulele when it's slow, meet the occasional moderately famous person (Steve Gadd, Cindy Blackman, I sort of met the guy and girl from the movie "Once" but I didn't see the movie till after the fact so I didn't get a chance to "ooh and ahh" about them. In fact the girl from the movie asked my little brother to help him with a guitar and he totally blew her off and told her to go ask some other guy. Oh the shame.) I get to deal with a lot of interesting people, I occasionally get yelled at and threatened with lawsuits, but I take it all in stride.

When I first worked at the store back in '04 and a customer would get upset with me I'd be all apologetic and try to work around the rules for them and go get my manager to deal with the problem. Nowadays I actually get a kick out of upset customers. During the rental season I was the supervisor for all the temp help we hired. When a customer would start complaining/yelling at one of the temps they'd pass the customer off on me. If there was a legitimate problem I'd do what I could to alleviate the situation and help the customer, (case in point, customer gets in an argument with one of the temps, I hear the commotion and walk over to ask if I can help, the customer looks at me and says, "I want your name, and I want your owners name, this is unacceptable!" after about 2 minutes it was, "oh let me get your name, I want to tell your boss what at good job you do here, thank you so much." gush gush etc etc, oh yeah, I rock). If a customer is just making a fuss because they're stupid and didn't read the contract or are just trying to sucker me out of a deal, I say to myself, "oh bring it on suckah!" and the real fun begins. It might just be that I'm a horrible person but I get a laugh out of grown adults trying to badger me/lie to me/ try to butter me up to get a measly little discount on something. Oh, also the highlight of my day is when parents are letting their children run amok in our store, banging on drums and keyboards and hitting $7000 cellos with $3000 violin bows (I shudder when I think of it), and I walk over and give the happy little children the old "stink eye" and shake my head at them. The poor little kids stop dead in their tracks with a horrified look on their face and run whimpering back to mommy. Ah what joy that brings to my heart. And when the parents get mad I say, "oh what was that? you want to pay for that $7000 dollar guitar your kid is abusing? no? I didn't think so." It's the simple things in life that bring real joy.

Hmm lets see gotta scrape the barrel for something worth writing about. Been doing some cool things with photography. Don't have as much time to work on it as I like, but slow and steady wins the race right? I put together a quick & dirty website just to get a gallery up and some basic info. I'm working on trying to spruce it up but it's slow going as I'm having to teach myself a few markup languages as I go.

I had the opportunity to fly up to Idaho last September to do some engagement photos for a few couples, plus do some family photos for some good friends while I was up there. It was a shorter trip than I would have liked, but I enjoyed getting back up to Idaho for a short visit to see friends. Wish I would have had more time to visit more people, but hopefully I'll be able to sneak up there sometime this year to visit.

I've been able to do a few shoots for family & friends down here. I really want to explore deeper into digital art, doing more than just regular photography, using it as a basis for more surreal art. I took a photo on the fly when I was up in Idaho of an old barn up in a barley field. Didn't think much of it, but I threw it up on a website and a bunch of people commented on how it looked like it was shot from the perspective of the girl in the painting "Christina's World"

It wasn't intentional of course, but it gave me a cool idea of doing a series of pieces trying to recreate the point of view of subjects in famous works of art. I dunno, it looks cool in my head.

Hmm lets see, I'm such a lame person I have nothing interesting to write about. I can't even think of any witty dry humor to share. I'm losing my touch in my advanced state of old age.

Hmm old age, oh! I'm going in to see an orthopedic surgeon in a few weeks. I've had a bulging disc in my lower back for the past couple of years. That coupled with other back problems I've had for the last 7 or so years, and I've decided that it's time to throw in the towel and get some medical help. As I understand it they'd be going in through my abdomen to cut out the bulging portion of my disc. Sounds painful, but I spoke with my doctor a few years ago that had this procedure, he said you go home the same day feeling like a million bucks. I'm sure it's going to be painful but I am tired of feeling like a cripple.

So, new year, new years resolutions. I normally think new years resolutions are on the side of lame sauce, but now that I look back on the last few years and what a waste of life I've been, (waste of life you say? but Rulon think of all the good you've done! I have? Well let's recap: steadily declining physical health, a divorce, mounting debts, can't decide what to do with my life, can't stick in school, dumped by a girl I really liked because I was divorced, in short, absolutely nothing worthwhile) I think it's time to get off the sidelines and be more proactive in not sucking at life. First and foremost, I need to get out of the, "I'm a cripple, I can't" frame of mind. It's a little harder than it used to be to get out and go hiking and camping and all that active stuff I used to do back up north, but I'm going to try my hardest to go hiking & biking, taking time to cook healthy food and stop eating out so much, stop wasting so much time on the computer & XBOX.

What's sort of sad/pathetic is that I actually really like to cook, and without patting myself on the back too much I'm actually a really good cook, but I'm so lazy and easy to please that I never take the time to cook for myself. When I have people to cook for I whip up all these awesome dishes (chicken alfredo pizza, bangers & mash, stuffed mushrooms, southwestern pork & black bean stew, quick & easy stir-fry etc etc) but when I'm just trying to feed myself, I'll just pop open a can of tuna fish & eat it straight from the can (lived on tuna & pancakes for two months, tuna casserole anyone?). I love cooking, it's such a stress reliever, great to just get my mind off things. If only I had someone to cook for, sigh...

Random thought, sporks are awesome, I'm working on a years supply.

So it's 12:30 in the morning. I've been trying hard to get to bed earlier, but living in this new house has added a new cause of sleepless nights. I'll be in bed drifting off to sleep, getting ready for an awesome dream, (I have the weirdest dreams as of late, I have this reoccurring dream of Darth Vader and I fighting polar bears in the desert. I just can't express how awesome it is, but I digress) when I hear what sounds to me like a young child crying outside in the yard. This obviously gave me some cause for concern, and as I was sitting up to check it out the soft crying sound turned to a bone chilling heart stopping blood curdling scream. Pretty soon horror turned to outrage when I realized it was some stupid feral cat in heat advertising her wares. If would have had a firearm handy there would have been some cat sauce plastered on the fence. As it was I tried to drown out the noise and go back to sleep, but my heart was still doing a death metal drum solo, so any chance of sleep that night was shot. I hoped that it wouldn't be a reoccurring thing, but I have suspicions that some tabby cat pimp has turned my back yard into the local feline red light district, and business is booming. At first it was once or twice a month, but now at least two or three times a week I'm startled from my peaceful slumber by the raucous lovemaking going on in my backyard. As if I didn't have a hard enough time sleeping, now there is freaky cat sex keeping me awake. I was never fond of the feline persuasion, but now I hate them with a passion. We really need to get a big dog. A really big dog. Like this dog.

With all the cats we have breeding in our neighborhood a pooch like that (I think I'll name him cuddles, or tiny, or BFD) will have a veritable smörgåsbord of "the other white meat".

Well kids, my back is going on the fritz and I'm having a hard time sitting up and typing. I'll try to write more often, when I have something really worth writing about. Sorry for the lame post.

~roO

A few pictures from the campout and such.

2009-07-25T02:12:00.001-07:00

sorry for the hugeness of the pics when you click on them, if you hold down the ctrl button then scroll your mouse wheel down it should shrink them

Random spider in my backyard.

roo jr

Mandatory mushroom picture

End of Summer Update

2009-07-25T01:02:00.000-07:00

I guess it's not really the end of summer, but work's going to start getting really busy in a week or so, so play time is over :(

This has been a moderately fun moderately stressful summer. Things at work have been a little slow with school out, and due to my lowness on the totem pole at the time I got a mandatory 1 week vacation. I wasn't too worried, I have a hefty pile of bills but I was ahead on my payments and figured I could handle it and just pick up some extra hours next week. Plus that week Mr Bortamus was coming down to visit so I had the whole week of to play, bonus. More on that later. So anyway as the week was winding down I got an e-mail from work with my schedule for next week. I opened it up and I was only scheduled for one day. Yikes. Okay I was in the middle of a two week mandatory (unpaid) vacation. Now the little doubt gnomes were starting to creep in. Well long story short I'm just coming off the end of a three week long vacation. I applied at some other jobs down here but the job market sucks for schlubs like myself. I'm back working again and hopefully things will pick up fast, but I've been living by the good graces of my parents this month, gosh what awsome parents I have.

Work is starting to improve though, we hire a bunch of temps for the beginning of the school season and I'll more or less be supervising them while they're there. Yay for babysitting.

So ya, Brett flew down to visit at the end of July. We had a pretty fun time down here. On his first(second?) night here I took him out in the back yard scorpion hunting. We've just moved into a new house that has been vacant for a year, and we live in the middle of what used to be a huge citrus grove. So what does that spell? Scorpions! Yup good ol' Arizona is home to all sorts of creepy crawlies, and this new place has them in abundance. Well I handed Brett my flourescent flashlight, got the scorpion killing stick and we waged war on the little buggers. The common desert scorpion is slightly toxic, I've been stung three times, it's really painful followed by lots of numbness followed by lots of soreness, but they're rarely fatal. Luckily at night they usually aren't moving around too much, and God in his mercy made them glow brightly under a blacklight, so they're really easy to spot. So while Brett held the light I went about my dirty deed, and in about two hours we squashed around 40 of them. Hoorah! Unfortunately probably another twenty got away, but they'll get theirs in due time. It's like world war three in my back yard with these guys. Oh, and we caught two of them and named them roo and bort junior, cute little guys when they can't get at you, and it's fun watching them eat crickets!

Brett and I went camping up at the Rim above Payson. I hadn't been out of the city for 6 months so it was nice to get to some cooler climates. The area up there is gorgeous, it smelled lovely, and it rained on us for most of the trip, the I spent the night cold, wet, uncomfortable, and I loved every minute of it! After we had dinner, which was a fiasco of trying to keep the coals hot enough to cook the food while diving in my car every few minutes to keep out of the rain (for the record peach cobbler mixed with charcoal ashes and rainwater is not good), Brett took a nap in the tent so I decided to take a walk in the woods with my camera and shoot a few pictures. I didn't end up taking many as the rain picked back up and I wanted to keep my camera dry, but the woods looked amazing, maybe it comes from my farmboy upbringing but being alone out in the wilderness is always such a spiritual thing for me. When you're able to sit and just take in everything around you, the smell of the moist moss and leaves, the faint sound of the wind passing through the trees, the slight movements of the birds and squirrels and chimpunks doing their stuff, it just feels like all the trouble in the world just melts away. I always leave with such a feeling of peace and comfort after times like these.

Well Bort and I had a fun time camping, it was great having him down to visit for a week (plus he fixed the A/C in my car and it only cost 29 cents, woot!) I do so very much miss all my friends up North.

Well that's about all, I might have a part two to this in awhile, but I have to get up and go to work in 6 hours!

Cheers.

~roO

Concerning luck.

2009-04-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone ever reads this any more, but if for nothing more than an outlet for a overwhelmed mind, I'm just gonna sit and write till I go semi-comatose.

So where to begin. Right after the new year I moved back down to Arizona after having been let go from my previous job. According to inside sources the official statement is that I, "Already had a job lined up, and was planning on moving down to Arizona anyway, and that's why they let me go." Two months and 50+ job applications later, I got my old job back at Milano Music through the good graces of the management there. I have a few different jobs there. I work in store selling instruments and accessories and such, I work in the warehouse organizing the thousands of rental instruments, shipping and receiving products, delivering/picking up instruments from schools and depots throughout the valley, repossessing rental instruments on delinquent accounts, and pretty soon I'll be involved with our soon to be up website. I think my official job title is, "Do what everyone else tells you to do and don't complain" which suits me just fine.

Where was I? Oh, so I've been down here for about 4 months, just working to get out of debt till I can afford to get back into school. Debt is an interesting thing. I worked out a budget with some help last week, and figured that at the rate I'm going, it's going to take about two to three years to pay off all of my debts. I can only compare how I felt when I saw the final numbers as a swift kick to the gonads. I keep waiting for Bill Gates to back over my bike and write me a blank check. If it works in the movies, why not real life right?

Now on to my social life!

...

Alright, got that one cleared up, sorry if it took awhile to read.

So on a bit of a whim, though I've always wanted to learn, I picked up a violin from work a few weeks ago. I'll never be professional, my bow technique sucks, but I can screech out a few scales and a few simple melodies after a total of about two hours worth of practice, so I'm happy with it. I'll never play for anything more than my own personal enjoyment, but I'm definitely loving it. One of my main reasons for wanting to learn is my love of Irish folk music, so hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be playing some toe tapping, knee slapping, or drink Guinness from the tap-ing jigs. Between that, my guitar, and the piano, I'm the epitome of mediocrity. But again, I play for the love of playing, so I'm content my playing ability.

So I was perusing an antique store recently, looking at old books and such. I've always been fascinated with 19th century literature, and through the good graces of my brother I've collected a few tomes from the time period. One is a small copy of "Nicholas Nickelby" and the other is a collection of sermons from a 19th (18th? I can't recall) century Archbishop on the first four books of the New Testament. I haven't had a chance to read it all yet, but it is definitely an interesting read. But I digress. I was perusing the book section when my eyes skimmed across a small picture of a bird on the cover of a small book. On my second pass over the books I noticed the bird was perched on a roman looking bust. My heart skipped a beat. Was that the bust of pallas I was looking at? I quickly scanned the whole book cover, I went weak at the knees. Lo and behold:

It was Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"!!!! For those that don't know I've been a huge fan of Mr Poe since I first read this poem as a child. I've read his entire works a few times, and I think the man is a genius. Anyway, so here is this book, just sitting behind the glass begging for me to take it home with me. Then reality hit me, either it was way too expensive for me, or it was only a few years old was just a cheap mass print. So I sauntered over to the shop owner and inquired about the age of the book. He said he didn't remember, but that I could grab the book and have a look myself. Okay, if he's letting me handle it it's gotta be worthless. So I walked over to the case and picked up the book. I opened up to the first page.

The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, Illustrated, printed........................wait for it................1886! Holy crap! I was holding in my own two hands an illustrated print of The Raven, printed only 41 years after it was first published. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I quickly flipped through the pages, the binding wasn't in good shape, and one or two pages had some pencil marks on it, but I didn't care, I was holding a 123 year old book from one of my favorite authors. The illustrations were incredible.

Okay, if it's this old it must be way too expensive for me, I thought. I took it up to the shop owner, asked the price, and he looked at it for a few seconds and said, "Thirty five dol..." "I'LL TAKE IT!" I almost screamed. I can't even begin to fathom how incredibly lucky I was for stumbling onto this treasure. As soon as I got home I spent a good hour reading the book over and over, soaking up the words, the illustrations, the feel of the leather binding. After the sensory overload subsided, I hopped on the computer to see if I could find any information on the particular print, the illustrator, etc. I discovered that the New York Public library had a copy of the book on file, and through the miracle of modern technology it was possible to read the book online for free. Same illustrations, same book (though it just had a plain black cover) http://books.google.com/books?id=XAkUAAAAIAAJ this just kept getting better. The less I have to handle the book, or let other people handle it the better. I want to build a display case for this thing it is so precious to me, but I was able to download a copy of the book to peruse at my convenience. After finding this little tidbit online, I did a search of the illustrator, a W.L. Taylor. It turns out Mr Taylor was a very prolific and well known illustrator during the 19th century, illustrating several books, and also "The Ladies Home Journal" http://www.wltaylor.info/

So ya, for a paltry sum I now own an important (to me at least) piece of American Literary History. Happy Day! Out of curiosity I tried to see if there were any copies for sale online. I found one on ebay that was printed about 10 years after mine that sold for about $400, and another copy from an online bookstore for about $100. Not that I will ever sell this beauty, but it's nice to know it's not worthless.

Well, I guess I'll curtail the rambling for now. I don't know that it's done anything to help the chaos that's enveloped my psyche, but at least it gave me something to do for an hour or so.

If Programming Languages Were Religions...

2008-12-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

Read this on a message board the other day, thought it was funny.

C would be Judaism - it's old and restrictive, but most of the world is familiar with its laws and respects them. The catch is, you can't convert into it - you're either into it from the start, or you will think that it's insanity. Also, when things go wrong, many people are willing to blame the problems of the world on it.

Java would be Fundamentalist Christianity - it's theoretically based on C, but it voids so many of the old laws that it doesn't feel like the original at all. Instead, it adds its own set of rigid rules, which its followers believe to be far superior to the original. Not only are they certain that it's the best language in the world, but they're willing to burn those who disagree at the stake.

PHP would be Cafeteria Christianity - Fights with Java for the web market. It draws a few concepts from C and Java, but only those that it really likes. Maybe it's not as coherent as other languages, but at least it leaves you with much more freedom and ostensibly keeps the core idea of the whole thing. Also, the whole concept of "goto hell" was abandoned.

C++ would be Islam - It takes C and not only keeps all its laws, but adds a very complex new set of laws on top of it. It's so versatile that it can be used to be the foundation of anything, from great atrocities to beautiful works of art. Its followers are convinced that it is the ultimate universal language, and may be angered by those who disagree. Also, if you insult it or its founder, you'll probably be threatened with death by more radical followers.

C# would be Mormonism - At first glance, it's the same as Java, but at a closer look you realize that it's controlled by a single corporation (which many Java followers believe to be evil), and that many theological concepts are quite different. You suspect that it'd probably be nice, if only all the followers of Java wouldn't discriminate so much against you for following it.

Lisp would be Zen Buddhism - There is no syntax, there is no centralization of dogma, there are no deities to worship. The entire universe is there at your reach - if only you are enlightened enough to grasp it. Some say that it's not a language at all; others say that it's the only language that makes sense.

Haskell would be Taoism - It is so different from other languages that many people don't understand how can anyone use it to produce anything useful. Its followers believe that it's the true path to wisdom, but that wisdom is beyond the grasp of most mortals.

Erlang would be Hinduism - It's another strange language that doesn't look like it could be used for anything, but unlike most other modern languages, it's built around the concept of multiple simultaneous deities.

Perl would be Voodoo - An incomprehensible series of arcane incantations that involve the blood of goats and permanently corrupt your soul. Often used when your boss requires you to do an urgent task at 21:00 on friday night.

Lua would be Wicca - A pantheistic language that can easily be adapted for different cultures and locations. Its code is very liberal, and allows for the use of techniques that might be described as magical by those used to more traditional languages. It has a strong connection to the moon.

Ruby would be Neo-Paganism - A mixture of different languages and ideas that was beaten together into something that might be identified as a language. Its adherents are growing fast, and although most people look at them suspiciously, they are mostly well-meaning people with no intention of harming anyone.

Python would be Humanism: It's simple, unrestrictive, and all you need to follow it is common sense. Many of the followers claim to feel relieved from all the burden imposed by other languages, and that they have rediscovered the joy of programming. There are some who say that it is a form of pseudo-code.

COBOL would be Ancient Paganism - There was once a time when it ruled over a vast region and was important, but nowadays it's almost dead, for the good of us all. Although many were scarred by the rituals demanded by its deities, there are some who insist on keeping it alive even today.

APL would be Scientology - There are many people who claim to follow it, but you've always suspected that it's a huge and elaborate prank that got out of control.

LOLCODE would be Pastafarianism - An esoteric, Internet-born belief that nobody really takes seriously, despite all the efforts to develop and spread it.

Visual Basic would be Satanism - Except that you don't REALLY need to sell your soul to be a Satanist...

I can beat up 30 five year olds!

2008-11-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

A friend showed me this website, so terrible. I think the deciding factor on my score is that I'm not opposed to using a child as a weapon against other children.

30
Probably the best survey I've ever taken. I'm glad someone has finally addressed the issue of being attacked by a ravenous group of children. It was a serious concern for me, but now I know what my limitations are. If I'm attacked by a group of 40 kids, I'm going to tuck tail and run. However if a group of 25 of the murderous little cretins come after me, they are going down!

I spent the weekend with my family in Arizona for my little brother's mission farewell. It was the first time our whole family has been together in years. Fun stuff. Flying there and back was not so fun, I hate flying. And I seem to have this curse of always sitting next to someone on the flight who's packing down an endless train of Bloody Mary's. Talk about bad breath. Luckily only on one of my four flights did this happen (Granny was holding a baby and packing down the Vodka).

In other news, I was taking a shower yesterday morning before work and felt like I was going to pass out again. Luckily this time I made it out of the shower and to the toilet to puke my guts out and then pass out on the bathroom floor, so at least I didn't hit my head this time. If I ever get drunk and pass out on the bathroom floor of a bar, now I'll be prepared. Boy Scout motto in a real life situation, damn straight.

Just finished reading a book on the history of Ireland. I think I'm going to emmigrate there eventually. Maybe see if I can get into grad school at University College, Dublin. That would be awesome on so many levels.

Going to go watch a movie now. Cheers.

Back by popular demand.

2008-10-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

So I received an anonymous tip today that certain unnamed people have actually been checking on my blog from time to time, and were upset that I haven't updated it for several months. Quite a bit has happened this last little while, so I'll try to bring those interested parties up to date on current events.

I'm currently sitting in the front of my Ford Explorer, parked outside my friend's house to get wireless internet so as to be able to complete this blog. Now before you all start jumping to conclusions and marking me as the creepy stalker type, you're too late, I've already be named thus. But perhaps an explanation as to my current situation would help reduce the calls to the police on my behalf. I'm currently living with a friend's family. They have a large shop on their property, and were kind enough to let me clean up one of the upstairs rooms in the shop to live in. While this may seem like a small step above being born in a barn, it is actually quite warm and comfortable. For those of you able to look at my facebook, there are pictures of the place. I have basically everything I need right in one room, (namely my fridge and xbox, obviously).

I'm still working at Melaleuca, and despite the rather long unpleasant last couple of days, I quiet enjoy my work and co workers. Each team at the call center had to decorate their areas for Halloween. The theme this year was Disneyland Rides. Our team was assigned "Tarzan's Treehouse" So we made up the colums to look like palm trees, slapped on some cardboard made to look like a treehouse, and a girl on our team drew a life size caricature of Tarzan and cut him out of cardboard. His manly physique did make me a little uncomfortable, but I delt with it as best I could. We were planning on putting a loincloth made from fabric on him to finish the setup. However there was a delay in getting the fabric, so we had a few comments from other employees about the nude man standing by our team. (He wasn't actually drawn, but from a distance it did look a little sketchy). Today at work employees with children brought their kids around for a call center trick or treat, and would stop at each team to beg for candy. Most of the kids were very polite and only took a piece or two. There were however, a select few children who when offered the candy bowl, tried to take enough candy to put Willy Wonka to shame. One little two year old girl even went so far as to try to boost my candy bucket when I wasn't looking. Fortunately I was able to subdue her hand hand her over to the proper authorities, with only a few minor injuries.

In other news, I've been in and out of the doctor's office more than I care to admit these past few weeks. During the past few month's I've passed out in the shower a few times, and hit my head pretty hard in the process, so they've been doing tests to make sure I haven't given myself any serious brain injuries....what was my name again?... and to make sure I wasn't having seizures. And lastly they checked to make sure my heart was functioning properly. As it turns out I have a resting heart rate of around 95 bmp. Live fast and die young right? Oh, and I also had what Ithought to be a kidney stone, but it just turned out to be an incredibly painful intestinal infection. Which is good news I guess. Aside from that I'm doing provisionally okay in a physical sense.

Aside from all of that, there's really not much going on with me right now. I've been doing alot of reading, I'm actually reading three books at the same time. (Sherlock Holmes stories, a History of Ireland, and a programming book.) Given that I'm a computer science major, and it's every computer science major's secret wish to end up making video games, I've come up with what I think is a pretty cool idea for a video game. A big problem I see with video games today is that there is usually nothing even close to a good plot, just big explosions and women dressed to evidence that their creator is very lonely. I want to make a video game that has a plot that reads like a book, so I thought to myself, hey, write the plot in a book! So I've been working on the story here and there when I can. I've got a million different ideas, I'm just having a bit of a hard time focusing it on a single line of thought, but so far I like where it's going. And in the most likely event this thing never actually becomes a video game, I'll still have a cool story. Given my weakness in writing, I'll have to pass it by my more talented siblings and let them tear it apart. I'm also working on a concept for a movie that we're hoping to be able to start filming next summer, and maybe enter it into a film festival if it turns out how I'd like it to.

Well, I'm wasting gas, I'm tired, and really cramped from the awkward position I'm sitting in, so I'll end with a funny thought I read from that book on Ireland. As the story goes, a priest by the name of Columcille(I think that's how it's spelled) is approached by two men begging for money. The first is a poor and poverty stricken beggar, the other is a chronic gambler down on his luck. The the beggar he gives one gold coin, to the gambler he gives two. When asked by his peers why he would make such a seemingly unwise decision, Columcille leads his peers to a tavern where they find the gambler, who has treated his friends with his newfound money to drinks, and lost the rest gambling, walking a little farther on they find the beggar lying dead on the side of the road. To their question he replies that the two coins given to the gambler have been spread around to several people, and have helped them with food and the like. The coin given to the beggar they find sewn inside his clothing, and as such as completely gone to waste.

I thought that was an interesting little story. And with that, cheers!

~roO

No Such Thing As Originality

2008-08-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on this idea on and off for several months. Basically a small autonomous aircraft able to navigate on a programmed path using GPS, and equipped with thermal cameras. The purpose of the system would be for search and rescue purposes. Imagine one of these flying out in the wilderness around where a person went missing. Using the thermal cameras, every time a "warm body" was detected it would send a picture of the body along with GPS coordinates to a base station, who could then direct emergency response teams to the area. Just imagine how much ground one (or several) of these things could cover. And how much faster/more efficient/cheaper it would be then flying helicopters around and search parties and such. Anyway, that's the brilliant idea I've been cooking up for quite some time now. I don't have any techincal details down or anything, but have just been trying build up a concept system, and determine the plausability of the whole thing.

So I was thinking about the possibility of transferring down to BYU next year, and whilst perusing their computer science department I came upon one of the research areas that the school is working on...unmanned aerial vehicals for the purpose of search and rescue. I seriously almost cried when I saw the article (http://research.cs.byu.edu/~hcmi/news_stories/Fieldtest_5_29_08/story.php) I really thought I had a somewhat original idea that could be used to save lives. And it's a research area at BYU. I'm not going to give up on the project, in hopes that maybe I'll be able to improve on what they've done, as there are some key differences in the imaging capabilities for what they have and what I'm hoping for. But all in all I've given up hope that I'll really be able to come up with something truly original/groundbreaking. I am working on a piece of software to cure cancer, but haven't quite figured out the whole cure cancer part of it. Oh well.

On a more positive note, finding this has strengthened my desire to transfer to BYU, and I think the field (Human-Centered Machine Intelligence) is something I would like to focus on as a career.

Concerning Geese

2008-07-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I woke up yesterday afternoon naked and soaking wet on the bathroom floor, with a nice goose egg/cut on my forehead. I have no recollection of anything happening prior to that. Either I passed out and hit my head on the way down, or I slipped in the shower and knocked myself out. Low blood sugar maybe? My friend Rob thinks I have a weird blood condition where your blood pressure gets really low when exposed to hot water. All in all an eventful day.

I went and saw the Dark Knight Saturday morning. I've got to say, in my book at least, one of the best movies I have ever seen. I know everyone is saying this, but Heath Ledger's acting was some of the best I have ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen a movie villain who was so completely believable. But the whole movie in general was amazing. I sure hope they make a sequel.

In other news, some stuff happened.

Roast Chicken

2008-07-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

So I went out to falls creek waterfall with a friend yesterday. About 6 months ago half of the rock face collapsed. It's not safe to cliff jump anymore, but it was still fun to swim around in the pond above the falls, and play around under the waterfall. It is absolutely gorgeous out there, I'm glad I got to go again, it's been a few years. Whilst I was playing in the pond, I dove in, and got a nose full of water. Almost immediately on of my tonsils started hurting, I wonder if a parasitic leech or something got rammed up the old shnoz. So I'm not quite sure what I did, but both of my tonsils are throbbing in pain now. Good times.

On a "lighter" note, I forgot to bring sunblock, so my whole back and arms and neck are fried. I was wearing my wolf head pendant, so I do have a cool tan-line. Get it.. "lighter"... because I got burned by the light? *insert laugh here* Luckily the sunburn isn't very painful, but on top of my throat, it's a pretty uncomfortable situation.

Aside from the pain and misery and what not, yesterday was the most fun I've had in years. It did me good to get out of town and just spend a day not stressing out about life. I wish I had more time to do such things, but oh well. I'll try to post some pictures of the waterfall shortly.

Congratulations to Pete & Christy on their new baby. She's definitely a cutie. But that goes without saying, she is a Leman after all :)

The Laptop Is Okay!

2008-07-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

So after a rousing July 4th of watching a bunch of old star trek movies, then watching our beloved sheriff lighting off illegal fireworks, I hopped on my bike for a quick ride home. About 200 yards away from the house I was at, I came upon a small winding path. Unfortunately I couldn't see exactly where the path wound, and my front tire went into a hole, the bike stopped, and I didn't. I had my laptop in my backpack, and my first thought as I was floating through the air was, "gee, I hope my laptop survives." Luckily, my face took the brunt of the fall, and my more vital body parts like my hands and chest and such escaped unscathed. After recovering from the initial shock of the fall, I tried to get up, only to discover that my thigh was pinned between the handle bar and the frame of the bike. It took me awhile to untangle myself. And it left a pretty nice bruise in the process. So that's basically it. I hurt.

Photography

2008-06-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

I took Dallin & Jessica Lochridge out to the woods to do some "family photos for them". Despite a few blunders on my part, the whole thing turned out pretty well, and I got free ice cream from Big Jud's out of it.
I've really been wanting to build up my portfolio to where I can justify charging for my services, and having a competitive edge over other local photographers. A bunch of students advertise their services as "professional" photographers, but if you look at their websites the pictures are mediocre at best, and there's always way too many. Most of them just use a blogsite to display their photos, which is the worst way to do it, because there's no organization, you just have this huge list with hundreds of mediocre photos that you get bored with before you're a tenth of the way through it.
Anyway, I posted a listing on the college bulletin board saying I would do free photography sessions for anyone interested for the purpose of building up my portfolio. I posted a link to a website that I keep what small portfolio I have available (rjleman.myphotoalbum.com). I wasn't really expecting to hear from anyone, just thought I'd give it a chance. Well last night I get an e-mail from a girl who's wanting me to do engagement photos the morning of June 28th, and then I got a call this morning from a lady that wants me to family photos the afternoon of June 28th! She had seen my website and said she really liked my portfolio! Hooray! I'm so excited to finally start doing photo-shoots for people other than close friends. I'm really hoping I can keep this going to the point where I can justify getting some serious digital equipment and try to make a little side business out of it. Anyway, just thought I'd share my excitement with all y'all. Cheers!

Snow! Glorious Snow!

2008-06-13T01:01:00.001-07:00

I woke up on the morning of June 11th, excited about the prospect of finally being able to start riding my bike to work and such to lose the couple of pounds I've gained in the past year (and by couple I mean 40.) I walked out the front door, took in a deep breath of the fresh summer air.... opened my eyes...... and it was snowing. In the middle of June. Snow. June. Wow.

Things have been moderately rough here lately. Aside from the obvious circumstances now going on, which I won't bother to discuss. Melaleuca had it's annual customer care convention on Tuesday. They were planning on showing my movie (see previous blog) at the convention in front of the 1000 or so people attending. My whole team couldn't stop talking about how excited they were to finally see my movie. I sat down jittery with anticipation to see the crowds reaction. And instead of my movie at the end of the convention they played a TEN MINUTE slide show with nothing but "inspirational" quotes from famous historical figures and company leaders and such. Ten minutes.... the entire segment could have been summed up in one line. "Don't suck at life." So ya, instead of playing my movie like they promised, they played ten minutes of slides that were so hard to read and moving so fast that you could only read one out of every four slides that flew by. Everyone on my team looked at me and asked when they were going to play my movie, and I tried to put on a brave face and say, "I guess there just wasn't time for it." With everything that's been going on, to have that taken away from me seriously almost brought me to tears. I guess it really shouldn't be a big deal, but I've been looking forward to it for almost two months. Oh well, life sucks then you die right?

Of Smoke and Mosquitoes

2008-05-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Beth and I made another attempt at camping over the weekend. It was a quasi-successful attempt at camping, sort of. We grilled steaks over the fire, cooked baked beans in the can over the fire, and made peach cobbler, over the fire. The steak was a little on the crispy side, but it was tasty. We didn't bring any bowls and had flimsy paper plates, so we shared the beans right out of the can. By the time the peach cobbler was done there were lots of little specks of ashes and the occasional tiny bug on the surface, but it was still tasty, (with extra protein!).
We brought a laptop with us and set up our chairs behind the explorer and watched Without A Paddle, funny movie. Then after dinner we stood around swatting mosquitoes and enjoying the view. We hopped into the tent and watched another movie (The Village), which was cool, but the battery died about 1 minute before the movie ended. Then we stoked the fire and made some smores. Eventually we just started throwing the marshmallows in the and watching them expand. Cool stuff. When it was time to go to bed, we realized we forgot our air mattress, so we slept on the hard ground just like the good old days. I slept horribly, just like the good old times.
All in all it was a fun little camping trip. Beth kind of enjoyed herself, although she hated all the bugs and mosquitoes and such, but hey that's part of camping. I came home with a veritable plethora of bug bites on my legs and arms, but I don't mind.
In other news, I won the film festival at work, got my x-box 360, and ya. That's about it!

Cereal Killer!

2008-04-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a short video we made for a film festival at work. Sorry if it makes you question my heterosexuality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qof1CkV0e8 (part1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H65rv-YW24 (part 2)

Summer is kind of coming but not really!

2008-04-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well chaps, it's been a long tough semester. Beth is still suffering from whatever ails her. She's getting checked for end-a-meet-reeosis, whatever that is, next week if she doesn't get feeling better this week. I'm just going to be working all summer, and teaching myself programming, and playing my new x-box 360. We got Beth a pink controller so she could have fun playing too. We also got her a spongebob game, so she doesn't have to just play my evil violent devil games. Beth just sneezed. It sounded funny. Well, that's about all that's going on. I'm going to grow my goatee out again now that I'm not in school. I'm excited, I miss having facial hair. Well we love and miss you all terribly. Beth might be coming home to visit next week. I wish I could come to visit, but I'm starting full time next week, and won't be able to/can't afford to take time off. Maybe Mom and Dad should just move back up north. Wink wink. Cheers.
~roO

An ode to my supreme programming prowess!

2008-03-31T12:30:00.001-07:00

So a few of us were playing rummy the other night. Beth asked me to go get some paper and a pencil so we could keep score. Due to extreme laziness, I didn't feel like getting up. So instead I spent twenty minutes writing a program to keep score. I'm officially a nerd. But I'm proud of myself. My first functional/quasi-useful program. First rummy, next step, an army of robots!

Almost there!

2008-03-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well the semester is almost over! It's been a pretty rough couple of months, and I am ready for spring. Still loving my classes. Computer science is still the bomb. Got my bike fixed today, so I'm going to start riding it to school and such. Hopefully I'll lose weight and save money at the same time.

Beth's aunt Amy and brother and his wife came up for easter weekend. We had a fun time shopping and playing games and making food and such. And Amy bought us a new shower head for our shower. It's fun, I don't have to crouch down to get under the spout now.

Well that's about it, life's pretty boring all things considered.
~roO

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure

2008-03-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Woods

Pepsi

Standing waist deep in near freezing water for this shot.

Flower

Coolest pumpkin carving of all time

Abandoned Cabin

Falls Creek Waterfall

Falls Creek Waterfall

Waterfall

Owl

So updates since the last post, which was like two days ago. It turns out Bethany has an ovarian cyst. She's in pain. Her gynecologist says she has a very nice uterus. Weird. School's going good. I absolutely love programming. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know, but at the same time the more I love it. It's so fun being able to take a problem and break it down and figure out how it works and build it with your own ten fingers (not quite working on the farm with your own to hands, but I'm okay with being a lazy bum). Anyway, not much exciting to report.
~roO

Jumping on the Blog Wagon

2008-03-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

Well I've put it off for as long as I could, but everyone else in the family seems to be throwing out blogs for the world to see, so I figured I'd join in the fun.

Things have been pretty tough this semester for Bethany and I. We've both been on a roller-coaster of illnesses and injuries. I've missed more school than I care to admit, but I'm working hard on my classes to get good grades this semester. Beth is doing well in her classes, but has been very ill lately and is having a hard time balancing school and work and home.

I'm loving the program I'm in (computer science). I find the school work very challenging but at the same time very interesting. There's something very rewarding about finishing a program, after hours of crying, cursing, and a 64oz Mt. Dew, and seeing the proverbial gold star on your assignment when it's handed back to you.

This may come across as very arrogant and asinine, but while I am very much enjoying learning programming and the like, I've come to the decision that I don't like the conventional classroom setting. (Here comes the arrogant part) It's frustrating being in a class and eagerly wanting to absorb as much information as possible, when the majority of the students in the class care more about what kind of hardware would be best to run the latest video games than actual programming. Oh well.

It's been a pretty rough winter up here in the 'burg. We haven't had this much snow since I was a child. Bethany and I both managed to rear end someone within two weeks of each other. Both of them were minor fender benders, and luckily our Explorer held up to the "Built Ford Tough" motto, and doesn't have a scratch on it from either accident. Snow just isn't as fun when all you get to do is drive in it. I wish I could go sledding or skiing, but time and the condition of my fragile little (well not so little) body don't allow for it. I can't wait for spring.

I'm currently working for Melaleuca as a call center rep. The job itself is rather monotonous, but I love the people I work with, I love the free products we get, and I'm getting a free X-Box 360 in a month, so I can't complain. The last day of every month I have to work a 12 hour shift. The system is not the best, but we get free food, so I'm happy. Last month end shift was pretty bad, I made two grown women cry. Not by being mean, just by not being able to help them. I'll probably burn in hell for it.

Aside from work and school, I spend alot of my time reading. I finished Edgar Allen Poe's entire works recently, and I'm about halfway through Sir Arthur Canon Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories. I'm working on an idea for a video game set in the 19th century, that is based on an actual plot and intellectual challenges, and not just button mashing and big explosions. I doubt it will ever be fully realized, but is fun to work on. My secret wish is to bring video games back in to the world of good story lines, and away from the cookie cutter first person shooters boasting the best graphics. One can always hope right?

Well if you've read this far, I applaud your ability to stay awake through complete monotony. Hopefully future blogs will be shorter and more meaningful.

~roO