AlanBarber.Org
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Rocking out in cubicle land... http://t.co/trOKKOy5
Thu May 17, 2012 12:34 PM
New project to play with for the day. Writing a VS2010 plugin that runs on every build... this should be fun!
Thu May 17, 2012 11:48 AM
Today is *facepalm* day... Dev DB was rolled back without telling any developers. ugg!
Thu May 17, 2012 9:13 AM
Started watching Breaking Bad the other day. Little slow at first but it gets really good. Bryan Cranston turns into one serious badass :)
Wed May 16, 2012 8:52 PM
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Making a Budget and Starting to get into shape
Who knew making a budget was so hard!
With the fact that I'm graduating from college soon I've been starting to act all mature and start thinking about the future. So, today I decided I'd build a budget of sorts. It's not a real budget since I still live at home and I don't have a job.
I'm throwing together average or guesses on all sorts of costs to see what living my life will probably cost. I've been pretty liberal in the costs and rounded up wherever possible.
I've been surfing all over the web to find the average costs to fill in or used example costs I know of locally. For example, I did a quick search of apartments in the newspaper and found one of the more expensive ones and used that. I choose a 2 bedroom townhouse that rents for 825/month in a nice area of town that I figure I might actually like to live in.
So far I've taking into account such things as rent, electric, gas, water, garbage, phone, cell phone, cable TV, internet fees, car payment, gas, food and $100/month put into a savings account. Obviously I still have lots of stuff not taken into account like insurance but I'll get to it. As of right now my monthly expensive are showing around $2000. That seems kind of high to me but at the same time not really. When you start thinking about every little thing you have to pay for in life it starts to make sense I guess.
It's kind of interesting to play around with the numbers. It's something I've really never though about before so it's very much a wakeup call to me.
Actually, now that I think about it, it's actually pretty depressing so in other news I've decided to start getting into shape.
I watched an interesting show on diets and the diet wars on PBS. Between the show and my girlfriend I've decided that I'm going to try to get into better shape. I'm not going to go on a full out crash diet to dump quick pounds but just try to better myself. My girlfriend is just an amazing attractive woman and I just feel like this gelatinous blob next to her. I have no energy, I get winded just walking to classes, and according to the goverment overweight so it's just time to wake up and do something about it.
I'll start out tomorrow by just sort of figuring everything out and deciding what exactly I want to do. So I think I'll start logging my experiences here since it should be a pretty good read!
With the fact that I'm graduating from college soon I've been starting to act all mature and start thinking about the future. So, today I decided I'd build a budget of sorts. It's not a real budget since I still live at home and I don't have a job.
I'm throwing together average or guesses on all sorts of costs to see what living my life will probably cost. I've been pretty liberal in the costs and rounded up wherever possible.
I've been surfing all over the web to find the average costs to fill in or used example costs I know of locally. For example, I did a quick search of apartments in the newspaper and found one of the more expensive ones and used that. I choose a 2 bedroom townhouse that rents for 825/month in a nice area of town that I figure I might actually like to live in.
So far I've taking into account such things as rent, electric, gas, water, garbage, phone, cell phone, cable TV, internet fees, car payment, gas, food and $100/month put into a savings account. Obviously I still have lots of stuff not taken into account like insurance but I'll get to it. As of right now my monthly expensive are showing around $2000. That seems kind of high to me but at the same time not really. When you start thinking about every little thing you have to pay for in life it starts to make sense I guess.
It's kind of interesting to play around with the numbers. It's something I've really never though about before so it's very much a wakeup call to me.
Actually, now that I think about it, it's actually pretty depressing so in other news I've decided to start getting into shape.
I watched an interesting show on diets and the diet wars on PBS. Between the show and my girlfriend I've decided that I'm going to try to get into better shape. I'm not going to go on a full out crash diet to dump quick pounds but just try to better myself. My girlfriend is just an amazing attractive woman and I just feel like this gelatinous blob next to her. I have no energy, I get winded just walking to classes, and according to the goverment overweight so it's just time to wake up and do something about it.
I'll start out tomorrow by just sort of figuring everything out and deciding what exactly I want to do. So I think I'll start logging my experiences here since it should be a pretty good read!
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
The first realizations that you’re not in college anymore
* You're waking up at 6 am instead of going to bed.
* Beers at lunch get you reprimanded.
* College sweatshirts are 'casual' instead of dress up.
* Your parents charge rent.
* The four food groups are no longer beer, pizza, chips and cereal.
* It's 'getting late' when it's 9:30 p.m.
* Three words: Student Loan Payments.
* You make thousands of dollars a year - and still can't afford that dream Porsche.
* You start eyeing the Light Beer Section appreciatively.
* THEN, discussing with your friends: GPA's, spring break plans, and tonsil hockey; NOW: mutual funds, interest rates, and wedding plans.
* Sleeping on the couch is a no-no.
* Naps are no longer available between noon and 6 p.m.
* Sneakers are now 'weekend shoes'.
* Your salary is less than your tuition.
* Your potted plants stay alive.
* Having sex in a twin-sized bed seems absurd.
* You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
* You have to pay your own credit card bill.
* Mac & Cheese no longer counts as a well-balanced meal.
* You haven't seen a soap opera in over a year.
* You have to file for your own taxes.
* You hear your favorite song on the elevator at work.
* You're not carded anymore.
* You carry an umbrella.
* You learn that "Bachelor" is nicer term for a jackass.
* "Extended childhood" only really pertains to your salary,which is a little less than your allowance used to be.
* "Twenty-something" means over-qualified, under-paid and not married.
* Your friends marry instead of hook-up; and divorce instead of break-up.
* You start watching the weather channel.
* Jeans and baseball caps aren't staples in your wardrobe.
* You can no longer do shots, and smoking gives you a sinus attack.
* You go from 130 days of vacation time to 7.
* You stop confusing 401K plan with 10K run.
* You go to parties that the police don't raid.
* Adults feel comfortable telling jokes about sex in front of you.
* You don't know what time Wendy's closes anymore.
* Your car insurance goes down.
* You refer to college students as kids.
* You drink wine, scotch and martinis instead of beer, bourbon, and rum.
* Your parents start making casual remarks about grandchildren.
* You feed your dog Science Diet instead of Taco Bell.
* Dinner and a movie - The whole date instead of the beginning of one.
* Pregnancy now brings thought of tax deductions instead of coronaries.
* The only drugs you take are Tums and Tylenol.
* The weak single you hit in the intramural softball game is now remembered as a Varsity dinger for the League Championship.
* You get your news from sources other than USA Today, ESPN Sportscenter, and MTV News.
* You wear more ties in a week than you even owned while in college.
* You find yourself reminiscing fondly of 2-hour Calculus exams.
* You empathize with the characters from 'Friends.'
* METABOLISM SLOWDOWN
* Wine appreciation expands beyond Boone's and Mad Dog.
* You actually eat breakfast foods at breakfast time.
* Grocery lists actually contain relatively healthy food.
* When drinking, you say at least once per night, "I just can't put it down the same way as I used to.'
* Over 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work, not video games.
* You're actually willing to pay a bit more to drink in a bar that's not full of '21-year-old kids.'
* Golf is beginning to seem a lot less silly.
* Beers at lunch get you reprimanded.
* College sweatshirts are 'casual' instead of dress up.
* Your parents charge rent.
* The four food groups are no longer beer, pizza, chips and cereal.
* It's 'getting late' when it's 9:30 p.m.
* Three words: Student Loan Payments.
* You make thousands of dollars a year - and still can't afford that dream Porsche.
* You start eyeing the Light Beer Section appreciatively.
* THEN, discussing with your friends: GPA's, spring break plans, and tonsil hockey; NOW: mutual funds, interest rates, and wedding plans.
* Sleeping on the couch is a no-no.
* Naps are no longer available between noon and 6 p.m.
* Sneakers are now 'weekend shoes'.
* Your salary is less than your tuition.
* Your potted plants stay alive.
* Having sex in a twin-sized bed seems absurd.
* You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
* You have to pay your own credit card bill.
* Mac & Cheese no longer counts as a well-balanced meal.
* You haven't seen a soap opera in over a year.
* You have to file for your own taxes.
* You hear your favorite song on the elevator at work.
* You're not carded anymore.
* You carry an umbrella.
* You learn that "Bachelor" is nicer term for a jackass.
* "Extended childhood" only really pertains to your salary,which is a little less than your allowance used to be.
* "Twenty-something" means over-qualified, under-paid and not married.
* Your friends marry instead of hook-up; and divorce instead of break-up.
* You start watching the weather channel.
* Jeans and baseball caps aren't staples in your wardrobe.
* You can no longer do shots, and smoking gives you a sinus attack.
* You go from 130 days of vacation time to 7.
* You stop confusing 401K plan with 10K run.
* You go to parties that the police don't raid.
* Adults feel comfortable telling jokes about sex in front of you.
* You don't know what time Wendy's closes anymore.
* Your car insurance goes down.
* You refer to college students as kids.
* You drink wine, scotch and martinis instead of beer, bourbon, and rum.
* Your parents start making casual remarks about grandchildren.
* You feed your dog Science Diet instead of Taco Bell.
* Dinner and a movie - The whole date instead of the beginning of one.
* Pregnancy now brings thought of tax deductions instead of coronaries.
* The only drugs you take are Tums and Tylenol.
* The weak single you hit in the intramural softball game is now remembered as a Varsity dinger for the League Championship.
* You get your news from sources other than USA Today, ESPN Sportscenter, and MTV News.
* You wear more ties in a week than you even owned while in college.
* You find yourself reminiscing fondly of 2-hour Calculus exams.
* You empathize with the characters from 'Friends.'
* METABOLISM SLOWDOWN
* Wine appreciation expands beyond Boone's and Mad Dog.
* You actually eat breakfast foods at breakfast time.
* Grocery lists actually contain relatively healthy food.
* When drinking, you say at least once per night, "I just can't put it down the same way as I used to.'
* Over 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work, not video games.
* You're actually willing to pay a bit more to drink in a bar that's not full of '21-year-old kids.'
* Golf is beginning to seem a lot less silly.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
OCRF 2004 Recap
Been a bit busy lately. I thought my computer graphics project was due Thursday but it turns out it was due today. So I spent yesterday working on that. I did get it done and turned in so everything is ok.
The OCRF (Ohio College Republican Federation) Convention was a lot of fun over the weekend. Well the actual convention was a bit of a bust but everyone pretty much expected that.
The morning events were all canceled. The first speaker, State Representative Kevin Dewine, never showed up at the event to speak. No one knows what happen because they booked him and had even called the day before to verify he would be coming. The other speaker Eric Hoplin, College Republican National Chairman, had some plane problems and was running late. Representative Dewine never showed up but Mr Hoplin did get there late and they let him speak at the Dinner.
So anyways, we went to lunch. It was a catered deal with fancy pizzas and vegetable platters. It was ok food but nothing spectacular. My girlfriend and I decided to just go back to the hotel and hang out until the keynote speaker Fred Barnes later that day. It was the usual stuff like; grassroots forum, student activism, liberal bias on campus, etc. These are all talks and events we saw at CPAC in Washington D.C. and talk about at our meetings every week. It's all stuff heard before so we didn't feel like sitting around for 4 hours.
At four pm we headed over to the place where they were holding the keynote speaker Fred Barnes. We got seats in the second row right in front of the podium. We were like ten feet from where he would be standing. It's always great to get nice close seats that way you never have to worry about your view being blocked by some tall person or having trouble hearing the speaker because of sound system problems.
Mr. Barnes finally came in and gave his talk. It was good but nothing inspiring or memorable. He talked about a few different topics including the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror. He had spent some time over in Iraq so he shared a few quick stories and voiced his views on how things were going. He spoke a bit about the November elections. How the media spends too much time and energy focusing on how every move and action that The President or those running for president make will affect the election. Finally, he spoke about a new study some professor at Harvard was working on. The professor had come up with 6 metrics to better measure how good a president is. He covered each of the 6 areas and compared how well Bush, Kerry, Dean, etc would rank. The result was that Bush comes out ahead and actually shows as being a very good President.
Afterwards, Mr. Barnes did a short Q and A session. Nothing to really talk about there but he did make a few funny comments about the news industry and managed to poke a jab or two at the Democrats.
They held a dinner afterwards and I managed to get my picture taken with Mr. Barnes. He's a very nice friendly guy and stayed around at the dinner and chatted with many people. Again the dinner was catered and pretty boring. They had made a big deal about the dinner being a black tie event but that no one was expected to actually wear a tux or fancy dress. I came in expecting a fancy sit down dinner and such. Nothing fancy mind you, just like rubber chicken. However, it was just a get in line, serve yourself, pasta dinner. There were a few different types of pasta and sauces, salad and strawberries and some type of cream pastries for dessert.
After eating Eric Hoplin spoke a bit about things we need to do for November, then State Congressman Tom Brinkman spoke about how we the new generation of Republicans have an important job to maintain the country and keep our core beliefs, etc, etc. The new officers were sworn in for the OCRF and they gave out awards for best club, etc. Then that was it. We all headed back to the hotel to get out of our fancy clothes and have some real fun.
Some of the people left for home because they wanted to get back that night. Others went out to a local bar where there was a party. My girlfriend and I just stayed at the hotel as usual. We put on our PJs and crawled into bed to watch TV and cuddle. I don't care if you call us boring. We're both college students that have busy lives and live at home with our parents. You can see with those facts it's basically impossible for us to ever have any time alone. So this weekend was a great opportunity for us to take advantage of. All right! You can all get your heads out of the gutter right now!
Anyhoo, so that's the weekend summary. Below are two pictures of Fred Barnes but you can find all the pictures that I took (well the ones that turned out good) in the Images & File Gallery. Just check out the OCRF 2004 section.
The OCRF (Ohio College Republican Federation) Convention was a lot of fun over the weekend. Well the actual convention was a bit of a bust but everyone pretty much expected that.
The morning events were all canceled. The first speaker, State Representative Kevin Dewine, never showed up at the event to speak. No one knows what happen because they booked him and had even called the day before to verify he would be coming. The other speaker Eric Hoplin, College Republican National Chairman, had some plane problems and was running late. Representative Dewine never showed up but Mr Hoplin did get there late and they let him speak at the Dinner.
So anyways, we went to lunch. It was a catered deal with fancy pizzas and vegetable platters. It was ok food but nothing spectacular. My girlfriend and I decided to just go back to the hotel and hang out until the keynote speaker Fred Barnes later that day. It was the usual stuff like; grassroots forum, student activism, liberal bias on campus, etc. These are all talks and events we saw at CPAC in Washington D.C. and talk about at our meetings every week. It's all stuff heard before so we didn't feel like sitting around for 4 hours.
At four pm we headed over to the place where they were holding the keynote speaker Fred Barnes. We got seats in the second row right in front of the podium. We were like ten feet from where he would be standing. It's always great to get nice close seats that way you never have to worry about your view being blocked by some tall person or having trouble hearing the speaker because of sound system problems.
Mr. Barnes finally came in and gave his talk. It was good but nothing inspiring or memorable. He talked about a few different topics including the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror. He had spent some time over in Iraq so he shared a few quick stories and voiced his views on how things were going. He spoke a bit about the November elections. How the media spends too much time and energy focusing on how every move and action that The President or those running for president make will affect the election. Finally, he spoke about a new study some professor at Harvard was working on. The professor had come up with 6 metrics to better measure how good a president is. He covered each of the 6 areas and compared how well Bush, Kerry, Dean, etc would rank. The result was that Bush comes out ahead and actually shows as being a very good President.
Afterwards, Mr. Barnes did a short Q and A session. Nothing to really talk about there but he did make a few funny comments about the news industry and managed to poke a jab or two at the Democrats.
They held a dinner afterwards and I managed to get my picture taken with Mr. Barnes. He's a very nice friendly guy and stayed around at the dinner and chatted with many people. Again the dinner was catered and pretty boring. They had made a big deal about the dinner being a black tie event but that no one was expected to actually wear a tux or fancy dress. I came in expecting a fancy sit down dinner and such. Nothing fancy mind you, just like rubber chicken. However, it was just a get in line, serve yourself, pasta dinner. There were a few different types of pasta and sauces, salad and strawberries and some type of cream pastries for dessert.
After eating Eric Hoplin spoke a bit about things we need to do for November, then State Congressman Tom Brinkman spoke about how we the new generation of Republicans have an important job to maintain the country and keep our core beliefs, etc, etc. The new officers were sworn in for the OCRF and they gave out awards for best club, etc. Then that was it. We all headed back to the hotel to get out of our fancy clothes and have some real fun.
Some of the people left for home because they wanted to get back that night. Others went out to a local bar where there was a party. My girlfriend and I just stayed at the hotel as usual. We put on our PJs and crawled into bed to watch TV and cuddle. I don't care if you call us boring. We're both college students that have busy lives and live at home with our parents. You can see with those facts it's basically impossible for us to ever have any time alone. So this weekend was a great opportunity for us to take advantage of. All right! You can all get your heads out of the gutter right now!
Anyhoo, so that's the weekend summary. Below are two pictures of Fred Barnes but you can find all the pictures that I took (well the ones that turned out good) in the Images & File Gallery. Just check out the OCRF 2004 section.
 |  |
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Back from the convention
Well I'm back from the convention. I'm way to tired to talk about what happen so I'll do that Monday. I'll post a picture or two of Fred Barnes. His talk was very good and I got to get a picture with him.
It was a crazy weekend. Everyone was partying but since my girlfriend and I don't drink we just stayed at the hotel and did nothing. It sounds boring to most people but I liked being able to spend two nights cuddling up with her and watching tv.
So anyways, I'm going to bed now. I didn't get any sleep all weekend. Everyone snored so much I couldn't get to sleep. I've been running on sugar and caffeine for the last 72 hours.
It was a crazy weekend. Everyone was partying but since my girlfriend and I don't drink we just stayed at the hotel and did nothing. It sounds boring to most people but I liked being able to spend two nights cuddling up with her and watching tv.
So anyways, I'm going to bed now. I didn't get any sleep all weekend. Everyone snored so much I couldn't get to sleep. I've been running on sugar and caffeine for the last 72 hours.