robglazebrook.com

I’m considering trying to get into the habit of updating more often. See, right now, whenever I update, I like to wait a couple of days to make sure everyone’s had the chance to check my page and read the latest bit. Cause, you know, it’d be devastating were someone to miss out on one of the many important things I talk about here. But then, the problem is that since I’m not in the habit of updating every day, I don’t ever think to do it. And then I end up with these huge-long updates that probably nobody reads all the way through anyway. Maybe I’ll try to update every day to see if that helps somebody (either you or me) out.

A lot has gone on in the last couple weeks. I’ve started my new job in the Graduate College for one. I’m really enjoying it so far. My first big project is a redesign of the website, starting with that front page. The old front page is here. As you can see, they look fairly similar, but there are a lot of changes underneath. For one, the code is now XHTML compliant, whereas before it was code soup that wasn’t even proper HTML 4.01. I realize that means something to about three of you, but stick with me here. I also fudged with the design a bit to make it more closely resemble the ISU homepage, which was the original designer’s intention. If you check the code on the new front page, you’ll see tables, which I loathe to use for page structure (tabular data, sure), but it’s the only way I can really ensure consistency with the ISU page.

Warning: The following contains spoilers. About my life. If there are things you don’t wanna know (until you see the movie, of course), skip this section.

This weekend involved a lot of drunken fun. Also, this weekend apparently started on Wednesday, when I went to Hy-Vee for some beer. I walked out with a 12-pack of Amber Bock, then turned around and went back in for a 12-pack of 24oz Bud Select. 24oz cans are kinda cool. Plus, you end up paying half as much on deposit, which makes them economical. I had half a dozen Amber Bocks while watching a movie (or something — can’t entirely remember).

I went out to Welch Ave on Thursday with Monica. I’d already had a couple of Selects, and wasn’t planning on going out, but she talked me into it (she offered to drive and buy me a shot. Hard to turn down). We stayed at Welch for a couple of hours, and I had a pint of Guinness followed by a couple of Newcastle (always worth the money). I played and lost three games of pool. I’m very good at scratching on the 8-ball.

I spent Friday night at Sarah’s, drinking Boulevard, watching movies, and working on her laptop. We argued for a while about whether Ayn Rand’s name is pronounced “Ann” (her contention) or like the “ine” in “mine” (my contention). Her evidence consisted of a note written to me on a bar napkin from Sybil Priebe. Admittedly, her opinion carries some weight with me, but the fact that she called me a “biatch” probably reduces her credibility a bit. Actually, I’m oddly proud to have been called a biatch by Sybil Priebe. :) My evidence, though I didn’t have it at the time, is a pronunciation guide found on Wikipedia, and an answer in the FAQ of the Ayn Rand Institute. I think I win, though I bet Sarah disagrees nonetheless.

I got out of bed around 2pm Saturday and spent most the day lazing about (even more). That night, I went to a party with Kara and her new boy Thune. I ended up having a lot more fun than I figured I would, considering the only person I knew there was Kara and the only persons she knew there were Thune and I. I spent most the night flirting with some girl named Emily (I think). She was sort of engaged, but in my defense, she started the flirting. Kara and Thune ditched me around 2am, and I stuck around. I had a long talk with a drunk guy with the ironic name of Trinity Bishop (considering he’s not religious). Turns out he was feeling me out because he and Emily had gotten into a tiff and he thought I was her boyfriend. For the purposes of the conversation I figured I didn’t need to correct him. Turns out I’m way better for her than he would be, according to the holy dude. Emily finally gave me a ride home at 4am or so.

I got a call around 11:30am from Kara, making sure I’d made it home okay. I told her I had, and hung up the phone, and got out of bed. My hangover set in two seconds later, and I felt like crap for most of the day. That didn’t stop me from playing drunken Scattegories with my roomies that night (Sam and Sammie finally got home Saturday). I get better at Scattegories the more I drink, it seems. Good to know for the future.

And now we’re caught up, dedicated readers. I’m bright eyed and bushy tailed, or as close as I ever get to it, today. I spent 45 minutes or so on my roof this morning catching some rays, and am now sitting at work putting off making a bunch of updates. I have my MP3 player blaring in my ear, so I’m pretty well in my own little world, despite the fact I have a desk right in the middle of the offices, in full view of everyone. I think I’ll buy an iPod Shuffle sometime this summer, though. It’s about a third the size of the player I have now, and I realized a couple days ago that I never use the screen on my current MP3 player and I always have it on random, so a Shuffle would do everything I use an MP3 player for, and take up less room.

Anyway, I should get back to work now. I should really update more often. 1000 words is far too many for one post. Adieu!

Happy Mother’s Day, mom! I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to get down to visit you this weekend. I’ve spent from the time I woke up this morning until an hour or two ago finishing up my grading. If I don’t get a chance to see you this week, at least I’ll see you camping this weekend. In the meantime, I drew you a picture! Click it to make it much bigger.

The bear represents your inner spirit—you have described yourself as a bear for as long as I can remember, and I have known both the warmth of your embrace and the ferocity of your protection. The rainbow emanating from your paw represents your talent for disseminating knowledge to others, which I’d like to think you’ve passed on to me. The two birds are you and dad, always together, flying away to someplace nice. The green grass and blue sky represent your love for nature and all things out-of-doors. The cloud in the sky is in acknowledgement of the fact that your life hasn’t been perfect or easy, but you’ve persevered just the same. The pink bow and yellow dress are because you are a ~girl~ bear. Also, the sun is drunk.

Justin just left a few minutes ago to spend the summer in Seattle, where he’ll be creating mutant zombies out of corn and bacteria or something. I don’t really remember. Point is, he’ll be gone all summer, which is a very long time.

To inflame the problem, Sammie is leaving for Scotland on Sunday, Sam will probably spend a lot of time at his parent’s house in southwest Iowa (where he makes more money), and faux-roommate Elliot is never around (I didn’t even know he was a faux-roommate for the first three weeks). In other words, I’m going to have a huge house pretty much to myself for the next couple of weeks at least. It’d be the perfect time to have a party, except all my friends are leaving for the summer as well. Why don’t I ever go somewhere for an extended period during the summer? I’m pretty sure the longest I’ve been away from Ames during the summer since 2000 is three days. Course, since I’m starting a new job up here on the 16th of this month, I probably shouldn’t stray too far. At least right away.

So anyway, I’m feeling a little sad, thinking I’m going to be a little lonely this summer. Sammie and Sam will eventually wander back, but they and I don’t really hang out much without Justin. Mostly because, until we became roommates, I only really knew them as Justin’s friends. They’re all from the same corner of Iowa and knew each other growing up. I’ve never even seen their hometowns. Maybe that’ll give me something to do some day in the next few months.

In less sad news, I can finally use my neck again! In related news, I haven’t been able to turn my head for the last five days. At first I was concerned it was bacterial meningitis or something, but I’m pretty sure I just pulled something vital in it while making a fool of myself headbanging on Saturday. I went to Bali Satay to see Parallex play, and spent probably a good hour and a half headbanging. This is made more impressive by the fact that, on any other given day, it takes exactly three ‘bangs’ of my head before I am dizzy, slightly nauseous, and have a splitting headache. I have no idea how I kept it up for so long on Saturday, other than the understanding it probably had something to do with the free beer I’d been drinking since 4pm in honor of JJ graduating. He and a few of his friends rented out Mickey’s, which was a blast, from what I remember.

The last paragraph pretty much sums up my life for the last week or so. I’ve attended a lot of fun parties, all of which were slightly bittersweet in that they were all goodbye parties in one form or another. I’ve been spending way too much money, which I’m going to regret later this month, but it’s apparently difficult to say goodbye properly at the college level without buying a couple of drinks. I said goodbye Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. Grading is going slower than I hoped. I’m supposed to say goodbye this afternoon and tomorrow evening, as well. We’ll see how that goes.