Thursday, September 30, 2004

Work

Today was a hard day at work. I don't think my job is that hard or challenging but today I felt like I was being pulled in different directions. Our department is over worked and understaffed, so that means that I'm usually multi tasking during the job. The only problem with this something simple like setting up a computer will take all day, instead of just 30 mins. While I did get more things done I just felt like the day flew by and not that much got completed. Sometimes I eat lunch at my desk but today I just felt like I needed to get out and relax so I walked to the pizza shop down the street. Good news I had a slice of pizza from Vinny's 2 Go,an little shop down the street.

After work I drove over to Borders to finish up some studying but when I walked through the door the security alarm went off. Thinking nothing of it I just walked to the cafe, but was stopped by a worker asking if I just purchased anything recently.

After telling him that I was carrying nothing purchased recently I asked if he wanted me to leave. He said no but the problem was that after I would leave the alarm would go off again. Normally I'm pretty easy going with store workers over a security issue, anyone who has worked retail knows the systems are not perfect and small things like a cell phone can cause a problem.

Instead of just letting me go sit down in the cafe he continued to stand in front of me while I look in my backpack for the item causing the alarm. My backpack holds my notebook and other items; I really didn't want to empty out everything just to get past the security alarm. Finally I just said I'll leave and went home. I was really tired and hungry too.

On the drive home I recalled the incident in the bookstore and felt I did the right thing and left. The guy was really worried that I might steal something, since I was wearing a backpack while entering the store I might have been a suspect. It’s just strange because if I set the alarm off again while exiting he could always ask to search my bag, I would have no problem of that. I was just a bit shocked at the way he dealt with the issue, I have never been asked to not enter a business. Some where in the back of my mind I wonder if he thought I was Hispanic and since the security alarm went off, gave him an excuse to keep me out. I hope it's not true because I hate to think of racial discrimination still going on today.

Excitement

Today I got an e-mail from my friend that she registered a domain name for the business project we are starting. It’s a bit exciting to think of starting a business from the ground up but it’s going to be a big learning experience and hoping that we will succeed. If we don’t then I know in the future what not to do and can make a correction with the next business.

Rob

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Moving out

Looks like I found a good place to stay at in Fremont. It's pretty nice and not too far from school or work. Also the apartment complex has a small pool, lots of parking and just across from the park. I can ride my bike around on the weekends, or practice golfing at the driving range.

This should be interesting, I have no furinture or cooking items, but will be moving in on the 15th. So do I buy the basics at Ikea or just visit garage sales for some used stuff. I'm really limited with money this month, so I think I'll just wait until next month before I start buying stuff for my place.

It's strage just saying that, "my place". I'm so used to saying "my parent's home" from living there so long. Instead of telling my Mom where I'm going I will just leave the apartment.

I'm really excited and scared. Will I always make rent? What happends if I lose my job? This is a turning point for my life, another big marker to look back upon. I wonder where the future will take me?

My friend gave me a Bible verse to read that I read when I'm confused on life.

"For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord... "plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Rob

Monday, September 27, 2004

Life

Last night I spoke to a good friend expecting to hear about the weekend and his step sisters wedding. Instead we discussed how he felt like he will never find someone to marry. He started telling me all of his faults, which personally I felt he was being too hard on him self. Each of these faults was another reason for being alone. I could hear myself a year ago with each complaint he made about himself. I used to think the same idea that something was wrong with me, keeping me alone in life. Then I woke up and changed my view of thinking. Not everyone follows the perfect path of life.

It’s hard to go to weddings as a single person approaching the 30’s. People expect you to follow the normal path of life; finish college, find a special person, get married, buy a house then have 1.5 children.

For some people, God has a different path for them. Maybe they will have an unexpected child born before they found someone to marry, or left school to work and never finished college not even high school. Either way I don’t believe just because you took a different path you can not live a great life.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to go back and start my life over. What would I do differently from what I did the first time? I know I would take my school work more seriously, maybe even finish college on time instead of waiting so long. So many things I would change.

Then I realize that the path I chose gave me all of my friends and experiences that built my character as I am now. I’m thankful that I have awesome friends, family that cares for me and a good job. I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Well maybe a couple of gold plated Ducati motorcycles… ;)

After talking to my friend I told him how I had the same doubts and life is not always going to follow the plans you set out. He agreed, and thanked me for just helping him and talking about his problems.

Just glad to help out.

Rob

Saturday, September 25, 2004

Work has been a tad busy this week. Sometimes it's really slow, I can do things like clean my desk or chat with the other workers but other days it's busy, just running around all day.

This week at work I got a task list from my manager and most of the items are done but some needed more details, so I called a meeting with other users from different departments. Now I really dislike meetings. I don't think they are a waste of time but typically you end up spending more time explaining the problem to everyone in the meetings and by the time you are actualy discussing the problem the meeting is almost over.

I just perfer to work on a problem one on one instead of having many people deal with it.

***

Not sure if you know but for the past year I have been looking to move out. I've been living in my parent's house and feel it's time to move on. I get along pretty well with my parents but would like to have my own place, and possibly more space to play my records. :) I just miss having the extra room to lay everything out. For a while I was considering moving to Pleasanton to be closer to work but then I realize that I would still travel to Fremont for my school, family and friends. After discussing it with some of my friends I felt it's better to stay in Fremont. Also it's closer to other big cities.

Another plus is being close to my parent's house in case of anything they need me for and if I need to store my motorcycle I can have a safe place in their garage.

The down side of this is I have little to none furinture. I would need buy a bed, desk, nightstand, dresser, basically the works. While it's going to be a big change for me I feel that it's something for the better.

Saturday I will go looking for an apartment again and hoping to find a nice place. Just want a first floor place with a nice view. :) Also some place that doesn't mind the late night music turned up loud. heee.heee.

***

Also went to service today at Jubilee tonight. I really enjoy the Friday service, a bit relaxed from the Sunday service and less people. Tonight they talked about Acts chapter 7 where the seven were chosen to go among the city and spread the word of God. It's interesting to read about the start of the religion from this point and taking on a new idea.

Here's a picture from the outside.


Here's the inside.


Rob

Friday, September 24, 2004

Ok, so tonight Vangie showed me how to create a simple Flash animation. After a bit of the basics I was really impressed with the easy fo making animation. Even thought it was a bit hard to understand at first, using a basic step of changing two pictures was fun.

I'm going to use some more interesting pictures but for now here's my first flash animation.

http://www.robscomputer.com/car.swf

It's basically four pictures of a car, then each frame is using motion tween.

Hoping to learn more and add some Flash to my site. :)

Rob

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Very grrrr!!!

It's 4:30pm and I'm about to leave. Going to Vangie's place to bring over a cake, which I will need to pick up. Not sure but I think I'll buy something of the chocolate family, say chocolate?

I'm hoping to learn some Flash tips, just the basics. In case you are not familiar with Flash it's a cross platform format that can display multimedia within a small bandwidth connection. It's very popular for web sites but has also been used in applications and now in hosting of on-line movies.

Here's a site for more information.

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/?promoid=home_prod_flash_082403

After I learn some from the pro I hope to make a page better. Now anything can be better than it is now. See for your self!

http://www.robscomputer.com

Oh, btw check out the forum. It's a really simple PHP forum running on MySQL database. Everything is super easy to set up and it's pretty easy to use.

http://www.robscomputer.com/forum

Until next time,
Rob
Ok, I'll be honest. I completely forgot about my Blog. In the middle of canceling my past hosting provider and not backing up my files, I didn't pay attention to the blog folder. Should be seeing more postings here. Possibly even daily!

So what's new?

Well school has been extra hard this season. Felt like I was learning Russian in a class room full of Russians. On the recommendation of my instructor he said I should drop the class and take the self paced class. If this was anything else I wouldn't have such a hard time but math is just hard for me. I think it's all of the numbers and formulas. For some strange reason I can tell you the specs of every motorcycle, car but when it comes to stuff that is actually useful my brain is too full with junk.

Other than that everything is going well. My bike is going well, car is a different story. Every now and then my car alarm will just go off by it's self. It happend around 1AM, just BEE--OOORRR--BEE-OOORRR!!! After that I was driving home and the alarm went off again, this time while driving.

After the second time I decided to just ride the bike, and take the car when I'm carrying my notebook.

Yesterday during lunch I found some good books over at Borders in Pleasanton. A few books on Java, and Windows scripting. Both looked interesting, but the Java books were $80 each.

Rob