It's a beautiful day

This photo is nearly 2 and a half years old...I didn't even see the surfer in the frame until I uploaded it a few hours later. I took a series of sunsets over 3 days and this is one of my favorites from the set. I've been researching new cameras ever since the one that was used to take this particular photo's flash bulb broke last year. For a long time I wrestled with the idea of a Digital SLR camera, but realize that I have no desire to carry around multiple lenses for different occasions - or learn how to set everything to take great photos. What I've ultimately decided to invest in at some point in the future is an advanced feature point and shoot camera with a large lens - particularly the Panasonic FZ28 - I think it suits all of my needs perfectly. But that won't be for a while. In the next few weeks I'm getting my resume updated and preparing for a hopefully not too painful job search. Well, that and all of my tests, papers, and homework and such - my little sister informed me I have 51 days of college left (more like 50 as it's now 11pm). Allow my freaking out a minute to contain itself. There. Goodnight!

I miss my puppy

Twinkie's such a cute dog - I miss having him around - even if he does nibble on my toes from time to time. Today was quite eventful - first, I was complimented on my backpack the moment I walked out of my front door! Then there was an earthquake while I was in philosophy class! After that the day settled down and I actually nearly fell asleep in psychology class. Tonight Bunny and I watched Dancing With the Stars - and I've gotta say, that Steve Wozniak can MOVE! I voted 11 times for him - as he puts it - The Geek Will Inherit the Earth :p Hope everyone has a good night.

The last day

I've got a new desktop setup - this time way more Star Trek themed as you can see. It changes dynamically based on system settings and those buttons on the right hand side really do open up programs. Today was the last day of spring break - I'm pretty ready to start school tomorrow. Well, I'm not dreading it anyway. If you haven't seen it yet, check out my other post from today, Why I do what I do - I was inspired by it this morning.

Why I do what I do

I've explained in the past about why I started this blog - I had a new cell phone, it had a great camera, and I wanted a way to share my enjoyment of the technology behind it. Until I started the blog I hadn't really experienced what it was like to have internet access on a truly portable and always connected device. I've been writing this blog for only 7 months (it hasn't even been a YEAR!) and already I've; bought johnroscigno.com, edited the layout of the site 3 times, and had visitors from over 20 countries. I have my own stake of the internet. After starting johnroscigno.com, I then discovered Twitter. Micro-blogging throughout the day and posting snippets of it to this blog. I can even post pictures & links on Twitter without posting it here, which to me is simply amazing. I know that in the long run - I'm not reaching millions of people, the majority of people using a computer will never come across johnroscigno.com, but consider this - if you Google "John Roscigno" I'm in the top 3 results - a year ago I wouldn't have even shown up (secret, there are almost 10,000 search results for "John Roscigno"). I've discovered this video, which I won't spoil for you (a brief explanation is embedded at the end of the presentation) and I find it fascinating. In short - for all of the ways that telecommunications, internet technology, and social interactions are making the world into a much smaller place than it used to be, I'm proud to consider myself a contributing member. (Check back tonight for a new picture!)

Legs...so...tired...

My friend Emily from high school was up in the city this weekend, so I spent the afternoon wandering around with her and a guy I went to Jr. High with, Aj - but gee golly we did a TON of walking. Walked from my apt to the DeYoung (15 blocks or so), where we wandered around for around an hour, then walked through the park up to Irving and ALLLLL the way down to Burgermeister (another 16 blocks or so) - then back to my place (15 or so MORE) - all in all at least least 45 blocks (= roughly 4.5 miles) - Sorry guys! But it was fun to visit and catch up and have awesome burgers. Tomorrow is all school work for me, but it's been a pretty nice spring break overall. I think I'm ready for school to start though.

Don't get too close

Golden Orb Spiders, such as this one, aren't poisonous - but they're HUGE. Today was spent mostly indoors taking it easy. I'm trying to get back into the head-space required to go back to school on Monday. It's hard to believe that this is my LAST spring break ever...the break has never really been a very important part of my school life - but not having a time-warp in the middle of a semester (assuming I have more semesters ahead of me...alright maybe this won't be the last if I get to grad school eventually) is strange. I'll miss it if I never have another. Same thing with summer & winter vacations obviously...

YAAAAAWWWWWWWWN

Oh boy I actually took a photo today! Not that I haven't been taking any, but I took this one over near the Sutro Baths while having lunch with Bunny this afternoon. The Cliff House is looking out over the ocean and the water was really blue in the sunlight today. It's already Thursday, which means that I only have 3 more days left of Spring Break (2 if you consider that I have to spend Sunday doing homework). It's been a really great week so far, but I'm going to miss having lots of time off when I have to get back into the thick of school again. On the terrifying flip side - I have less than 2 full months of college left - the future is coming up fast! We also finished watching "Who Killed the Electric Car" which is kind of ironic considering that Tesla Motors unveiled their new, surprisingly well priced $50k 100% electric sedan today - it'll be out by Q3 2011 - and I want it to be my 25th birthday present to myself in 2012 - so I better get started working and saving for it. See the car here

Rissoto and Oysters

Bunny and I had a fantastic date tonight: First we had dinner at Cappanina - a really sweet small Italian seafood restaurant on Union St. We had 3 different kinds of rissotos, oysters, calamari, sea bass, ahi tuna, and crab. Then we took dessert up to Twin Peaks with a marvelous view of the city - so romantic! The restaurant got extra points for playing Thievery Corporation when we arrived, and switching to Sinatra after that. Bunny & I also started watching a documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car" but I'll have to reserve total judgment on that until we finish it tomorrow (after our picnic no doubt). I will say this - I'm utterly shocked at the way electric vehicles were throttled in America.

Taking it easy

These guys were like squirrels at one of the resorts we stayed at in Nicaragua. I moved some stuff around in my bedroom again - I put my stereo system in the closet - I haven't really used it since I brought it up here - one of the speakers is a makeshift shelf on my desk (where another speaker sits on top of it ironically), but it's really nice to have a clean and uncluttered desk (still functional though). I'm so excited for tomorrow - Bunny & I finally have time to go on dates this week, so we're having a nice dinner together, we've been looking forward to it for a few weeks. I'm trying really hard to be productive this week - I don't want to fall behind on my normal obligations just because it's my week off - 9 days really isn't that long.

Welcome to the north!

Bunny & I spent the day at Scandia Family Fun Center near Santa Rosa - Miniature golf & arcade games abounded :) The course was really different from other mini-golf courses I've been to - very architectural instead of the jungle/dinosaur themes of my youth. It was a lot of fun and I really hope we get to play some other courses in the Bay - there's a few that I know of in every direction. The biggest oddity? A Super Mario Brothers arcade cabinet - I've never seen such a thing! See it here

Q-U-E-E-N 68 points

T'was a lazy Sunday - Bunny & I lounged around and played scrabble and watched "Little Man Tate", Jodie Foster's directorial debut (unfortunately) about a math/physics prodigy named Fred who was 8 years old and "his life so far". The movie and story were good, but I don't think Foster was that great a director. The little boy was fantastic though. Tomorrow should be fun - we're going somewhere I've never been before :) Too bad I have to work first.

If this doesn't amaze and astound you...I don't know what will

This is my now legendary sunburn from 2006. Mr. Prav right next to me had a single duty - spray some sunscreen on my back before we all went snorkeling - as you can see, the sunscreen works perfectly, when it's actually applied to the entire back. Today I got a haircut! It's a bit longer than in this picture, and I like it so far (I'll have to see how it stands up to everyday wear). Bunny & I watched Kung Fu Panda tonight - it was over the top and silly - pretty much as expected, but nowhere near as good as Shrek or Madagascar (other Dreamworks movies) Overall, a pretty good start to Spring Break :)

No such thing as a top 5 list

I don't believe in anticipation - this is one of if not the best photo I've ever taken (although feel free to tell me it's not :p) I took this on my last night in Costa Rica in 2006 (Aug. 16th) after spending hours searching for frogs in the dark. For reference, this little guy is about the size of two thumbnails put together (TINY!). I spent a lot of time cleaning up my closet this afternoon - spring break is starting so spring cleaning does too...I'd just love it if I could clear some clutter out of there (papers and other junk). I have a ton of boxes I don't need that would be better off just thrown out (recycled of course). I also watched some more Star Trek: The Next Generation today - I'm over half-way done with the 7th and final season... It's crazy because I started watching the series almost a year ago exactly. But that will be a story for another evening. I think I'll post a few more (or a lot) of my favorite Vacation 2006 photos over the coming weeks (I'll be more active during Spring Break so I should have some fun photos inter-mixed).

Tonight I'm Cheating (For good reason)

Tonight's image is not a single image, and I didn't take all of the pictures involved (actually only 8/41) but the other day was my good friend Joe's birthday (Follow him on Twitter!) and I wanted to give him a tribute on my blog :) Seeing as how I've not surpassed 200 posts - I'm thinking that the model of all of my photos being taken from my phone may be outdated - so for the record, if I don't have a GOOD photo from my phone, I will supplement it with one that I'm proud of (most likely a nature photo from various trips). Please comment any objections to this if you feel like it. I had a HUGE allergy attack this morning and it left me incapacitated for most of the day - thankfully some medication cleared up all of the problems I was having, but it was unwelcome to say the least. I'm really looking forward to spring break, which basically starts now (with the exception of work).

All the stars in your backyard

Happily we're upgrading the astronomy equipment over spring break - so this shed will have some really nice powerful 12" telescopes and I'll be able to check out all of the deep sky objects I've been looking forward to exploring - providing we have some decent weather. I got my psychology test back - I only missed 1 question = 95% :) Also got some canned ravioli for dinner - I haven't had that in FOREVER - it's really yummy. Spring break is next week, but it really starts tomorrow at 12:15 because I don't have class after that - only work. I should have a lot of really fun pictures next week when I'm not quite as busy as I seem to have been the last couple of weeks.

Twizzlers

Walking home from the store this evening I saw these awesome twizzle hedges outside of the Blood Center of the Pacific on Masonic. I thought the mix of railings/hedges looked fun. Tonight was the first night for Astronomy Observations - it went pretty well, except there were only 2 people that showed up for the 5 TA's working tonight :p But we saw Venus in it's slivery phase (just like the moon) and I caught the Orion Nebula which was pretty nice. It was still pretty foggy/cloudy and there was a lot of light pollution, so I'm hoping we'll find a way to see some better deep sky objects soon.

I'm a stargazer

I got my newest Woot! shirt today - this time it's a tribute to amateur astronomers everywhere, pretending they know what the constellations are (like me). The day felt considerably longer than other Mondays past, but I think I was still in weekend mode. My psych midterm was pretty easy too. Now I'm excited to watch A Knight's Tale on blu-ray :)

For Mom

The weekend was really nice at home in SCV and really relaxing. I'm glad that everything got done and that I also managed to finish my paper up before getting back into the city. I took this picture of my mom's Gouldian Finches this morning :) I'm ready to start the regular schedule up again for this week - but thankfully next week is spring break! Not a lot else to talk about tonight - I'm pretty tired from being in the backseat all afternoon.

Reunion 2009

Tonight I finally got together with Julie, Marcus, Randy & Pravin after a LONG LONG time. It's great to be in company of good friends again and to catch up on all that we've been missing. I also had a great day hanging out with Emmanuel and playing black-light mini golf with him and Teenie.

Home at last

Long drive. Today Marie, Nick and I loaded up the Mustang and headed off for good 'ole SCV. We stopped at Sonic for some early dinner - in Gilroy - the middle of nowhere ville that doesn't desreve such a burger place. But it was really yummy - until Nick inadvertantly threw away Marie's Blue Coconut Slushie at Kettleman City... Finally home and admiring Teenie's new iPhone (so pretty!). Here Marie and Twinkie are getting reaquainted after such a long separation :)

Check your jell-o before you eat it

A whole bunch of refrigerators were in the halls of Harney this morning, I feel worried about what's in the fridge that says no food AND has explosive warnings. That's one leftover pizza I never want to encounter. Tomorrow we're heading home for the weekend, so I want to get most of my homework done. Now off to write more about racial philosophies.

Well it's Wednesday

Today was full of new things. Apple released the dumbest ipod ever with the new shuffle. A device with no buttons is a step back in design when it requires a proprietary headset to operate. I also got yelled at by my philosophy teacher for taking notes off of his slide because the text displayed was in the book. Excuse me for thinking that quote must have been particularly relevant hence a slide dedication. Finally, Bunny and I watched Nim's Island which was a literal boatload of disappointment- well, the movie wasn't that bad, but it certainly wasn't great. But pizza and cake make things better, and watching it together was enjoyable because we have each other :)

Self-promotion

My new stickers featuring my Twitter name- Twitter.com/JohnRoscigno which i have proudly affixed to my Wind. Hopefully i'll get some new followers from USF and other local areas. My goals for other adhesive advertising include gmail, flickr, firefox, blogger and a new ubuntu sticker without a white border. Until then, i'll attempt to gain new followers from school- hopefully. And if by chance they find this blog, i hope they read it a well from time to time. For anyone interested, the stickers came from www.zazzle.com Update: 11:40 PM I realized that all this time I've been talking about Twitter without ever really discussing it in depth. From a usability standpoint - Twitter is "MicroBlogging" which is an internet based analog to writing little notes in a journal. I guess if you read my blog you'd think of it as a diary or journal of sorts - well, Twitter is a supplement to full-fledged blog posts. I write this blog once each day (except on REALLY special occasions), but I update Twitter a few to many times throughout the day. So when read in conjunction - Twitter + JohnRoscigno.com = my daily stream of consciousness. I enjoy posting on both and hope that it's interesting to anyone that comes across it - and if I manage to get a few more people to join - the more the merrier (Just remember to follow me!)

How to remember the Greek alphabet

Use the following acronyms; A Big Gooey Doughnut (alpha beta gamma delta) Every Zebra Eats Tacos (epsilon zeta eta theta) Island Kangaroos Love Munching Numbers (iota kappa lamda mu nu) Extreme Ocelots Pick Raspberries (xi omicron pi rho) Secret Tigers Usurp Powerful Cheatas (sigma tau upsilon phi chi) Psychic Oranges (psi omega)

This is what treasure looks like.

After sorting throug most of the discs we found yesterday, this is what the instant music collection looks like. I'm still not sure how much i'll keep or listen to, but it is impressive all layed out. Tomorrow i'll get another interesting neighborhood house that i found. I'm really excited to go visit home this weekend, just need to get through this week first, but it should be pretty quiet so i shouldn't be stressed at all

Free music is the best music

And it's not pirated! Bunny and i like the brick houses along fulton street west of USF this one has a really nice ornate door. Now about the music- a building near mine left a huge binder full of cds on the sidewalk so bunny and i went through and picked out all of the real ones that seemed nice- among them were the garden state album, a bunch of jazz compilations, moby's play album, and some classical collections, along with plenty of pop. I'm excited to experience some unfamiliar stuff, and anything left can make me a little pocket change at amoeba :) Tonight we watched an old Gene Tierney movie called Laura, fun noir murder mystery. Tomorrow is homework once more.

Standing out in the crowd

Bunny's mom suggested once that i should look at the different doors of houses in the city. I think i like the idea of seeing how homes fit into their respective neighborhoods- in this case near the shopping center on California street. This one stands out amongst the others with a vivid garage door and a contrasting palete to the houses nearby. I like it a lot. I got my probability test back today and actually got a B- a far cry better than the F i expected when i walked out of the room on wednesday. Tonight i finally saw An Inconvenient Truth and must say that regardless of your thoughts on climate change and the like, this film is essential in impacting policy change in our administration and world. When support is abundant from the populous, the policy makers are the ones that need to take heed. There's also a good bit about why the auto industry needed a bailout :P

Testing 1 2 3

A printer is normally a fairly ubiquitous piece of office equipment, but not this one. A few years ago on a whim i filled out an application to do testing for HP. 6 months later i got an email saying i was chosen to test their top of the line all in one printer-fax-scanner-copier. I'm surprised that the reviews for this model have been so low because i still think i'll be using this in 5 years, it's amazing for whatever i need it to do. I've been working on a new project at work with my boss- to re-organize the active directory of the school. Working with Vizio, i have developed a new structure and will actually help implement the changes, which is a HUGE responsibility that i'm really excited about. I also have a small complaint - the people working the desk at OneStop oat USF have the worst math skills I have ever seen - they're clearly not accountants and have no concept of how simple addition and subtraction work - resulting in different responses every time I ask about tuition payments (/rant). Sorry the post is late, the day got away from me.

This is a Snorse

Created by Pete Fowler, the Snorse is from Monsterism island. What's a Snorse? Why a horse with a shnoz of course. :p We've had this toy on our shelf for a while- ever since i saw the giant 20" one at a store i thought it just had a really random funny design that was oddly appealing. My math test wasn't very fun so let's not talk about that.

Studying hard

Jayson, Georgina and I were the last of our group to finish studying for our probability and stats test. Not looking forward to that tomorrow at all, but i think i'll manage. I fixed up my wind this afternoon too with some thermal paste and a new bios.

The night calmly greets the trees

Bunny took this beautiful picture as we were walking home this evening :) The light looks beautiful streaming through the leaves as the rain begins to fall (I had my hands full of groceries) I don't like The Bachelor on ABC. Reality TV is an interesting psychological experiment, but to me the idea that a man would ask a woman to marry him after breaking up with the other woman competing for his love, then 3 months later break up with the woman he asked to marry him because he changed his mind and wanted to go back to the one he broke up with originally is ridiculous! There are people that are not fit for love - this guy is clearly one of them. People aren't like cars (which reminds me of a song I sang in 4th grade, but more on that later) that you can trade in when you don't like them anymore - well, to some people they are, but in reality nobody deserves to be treated that way. A relationship is a dynamic entity and needs to be worked on and not run away from or ended the minute things take any kind of turn. What kind of example is this man setting for his son? I hope that child sees the show someday and realizes his father is teaching him exactly how not to treat women. /rant.

The song I sang in 4th grade was called "Cars are Cars" by Paul Simon. We had to build car costumes and wear them and sing the song a Capella as a class for the school talent show - it was pretty terrible. But the song isn't bad and has a good message. And after that we got to sing Age of Aquarius so it was alright. Lyrics below - youtube link - Simon & Garfunkel. Cars are cars all over the world Cars are cars all over the world Similarly made. similarly sold In a motorcade. abandoned when they're old Cars are cars all over the world Cars are cars all over the world Cars are cars all over the world Engine in the front. jack in the back Wheels take the brunt. pinion and a rack Cars are cars all over the world Cars are cars all over the world But people are strangers They change with the curve From time zone to time zone As we can observe They shut down their borders And think they're immune They stand on their differences And shoot at the moon But cars are cars all over the world Cars are cars all over the world Drive 'em on the left. drive 'em on the right Susceptible to theft in the middle of the night Cars are cars all over the world Cars are cars all over the world I once had a car That was more like a home I lived in it loved in it Polished it's chrome If some of my homes Had been more like my car I probably wouldn't have Travelled this far Cars are cars all over the world

The inner working of Wind

This is an image of the inner workings of my MSI Wind laptop as I attempt to remove and replace the touchpad controller (seen in blue). The work required to get to this step was painful and required about 45 minutes of struggling and intensity whist I hoped with all my heart that I wouldn't break anything. Ultimately the transplant was a HUGE success and now I have tons of features for navigating my Wind. This was all done on Friday- but the picture is neat and I felt it should be shared. Today, my afternoon was filled with math homework and grading papers - and a really good Soy Burrito :) I also got an A- on my last philosophy paper - which is satisfying given the difficulty of my professor's grading policy. Thus far my grades have been really good and I'm proud of my work :)