Category Archives: My Personal Life

I’m Back (Though I Never Really Left)

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Posted by Rob on April 8, 2011 – 5:09 pm
Filed under My Personal Life, Site Updates, Video Games
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All’s been quiet on the Twitter/Facebook/Google Buzz front as I stopped linking my blog to these formats. I never stopped blogging, but I sure have been getting less traffic coming here. So I guess I’ll publicly explain the story now.

A few months ago, I received a comment to a Google Buzz, which was picked up from Twitter, which was picked up from my blog. Basically, an ex-employer saw this blog via Google Buzz and then wanted to offer me a job. He somehow found Shell’s phone number and called her in an attempt to find me. He then left me a comment after calling my wife. She was a bit weirded out by this, as was I. First off, if he noticed my blog via Google Buzz, that means he knows my e-mail account, so he could have easily shot me an e-mail to make his offer (which I wouldn’t have taken regardless, since it was a crummy, boring job.) Secondly, since I did work there I would think he would have my phone number more readily available than Shells. Thirdly, who the heck comments on a Google Buzz with a job offer?!

All in all, the whole situation was a bit creepy, and it felt like I was being stalked. After this incident I made my Facebook account private (something, for whatever reason, I didn’t do with my Twitter account) and I removed the links between my blog and Twitter and Google Buzz. So for the past few months, I’ve been blogging away and whatnot, though most people didn’t know about it. About two months ago one of my co-optimus buddies was wondering where I’ve been, and I told him the gyst of the tale. Then today, he asked after me again, and he also gave me the idea of just making my Twitter account private. When I read that, I couldn’t believe that I had done that with Facebook and not Twitter! So I went to Twitter, made it a private account, and then reactivated the WP to Twitter plugin on my blog. So I’m back in the game! Read More »

Playing Catch Up

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Posted by Rob on April 1, 2011 – 7:02 pm
Filed under My Personal Life, TV Shows, Video Games
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So as you can see, it’s been pretty quiet around here lately. I blame the new job, which has definitely been kicking my butt since I have to get up at 2:45am. I usually don’t get home until after 12, so by that time I’m just so exhausted that I drag myself into the shower and then flop down on the couch. Yet it saddens my heart to see this blog not being updated, so today I started up on a few posts which will be finalized over the coming days.

As far as video games goes, my drought is finally over. For the past two weeks I’ve had nothing really to play, which was pretty sad. But this week has been nuts, and I’ve had a bunch of games thrown at me: Read More »

Workin’ the Early AM Shift

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Posted by Rob on March 23, 2011 – 3:20 pm
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Don’t expect to see me around at night anymore, since I started my early morning job. I’ll be going in at 4AM, so I’ll probably be trying to go to bed around 9ish at night from now on. While that kind of sucks, I am looking forward to getting out early and having the rest of the day to do whatever needs to be done around the house as well. Also, since I’m sleeping earlier, I’ll be getting my gaming done during the day from now on.

The worst part is that even though April is approaching, there’s still some snow showers…including the one that’s hitting tonight. I’m not looking forward to making the 30-minute commute on highways at 3:30am that haven’t been plowed yet…

Finally Found A Job…Stocking Shelves

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Posted by Rob on March 17, 2011 – 1:18 pm
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Three weeks ago I put in an application at a local retailer for an early morning stocker position. While out in Vegas, the manager gave me a call and offered me the job. I went in today for the drug test, so once that clears I’ll be ready to start…probably early next week.

Seeing how I could not land a job teaching or anything like that, I had resolved to looking for a retail job so I could start bringing in a steady income and get out of the house. The job is going to be some early hours, having me go in at 4am until 11am during the week. One of the other reasons I took the job was because it was guaranteed weekends off, which is something I definitely wanted. I’m looking forward to getting some more cash in my pocket!

Finally, The Rob, Has Come Back,To…Albany

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Posted by Rob on March 17, 2011 – 12:47 am
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It’s been a very busy, yet relaxing, couple of days, as I have been visiting with the in-laws in Las Vegas, NV (well, technically Henderson, NV, but it’s pretty damn close to Vegas.) Both of Shell’s sisters live out there so we don’t really get to see them too often…the last time we were out there was almost two years ago. So we decided to take a bit of a break and head out there for a five day weekend. We left from Albany on Wednesday at 11:55 EST and arrived at 2:20ish PST (thanks to Southwest it was a direct flight), so what was a five and a half hour flight technically got us to Vegas in under three hours.

Since this was more of a visiting family trip, we didn’t really hit the Strip. Shell and I did head down on Tuesday for a little while and checked out some of the casinos and what not. So while there wasn’t any gambling, there was a lot of good eating, as we went out for every lunch and almost every dinner. Some of the highlights included Sonic’s (I really wish one would open up near Albany…the closest one to us is in Kingston), Lucilles, The Yard House (which had quite a large collection of beers on tap…I went for the Spaten Oktoberfest), Raising Cane’s, and many more. Read More »

Might Have Found Some Work

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Posted by Rob on February 27, 2011 – 12:51 pm
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After several months of looking around for a retail job that will bring in some cash while allowing me to work weekday morning hours, I think I finally may have found something. I have an interview on Wednesday. If all goes well, I’ll be waking up a bit earlier than I’m used to to be at the job at 4am, but it will be pretty sweet otherwise.

Everyone cross your fingers…a steady job = steady income= steady game supply!

Playing Racquetball

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Posted by Rob on January 26, 2011 – 7:16 pm
Filed under My Personal Life, Sports
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Over the weekend Shell and I picked up some racquetball supplies (minus one racquet that I had from my college days) after finding some courts at the local community college. We headed down there tonight and spent about forty-five minutes just hitting the balls around. I remembered some of the rules of the game from when I took the class as a gym elective in college, but we were having more fun just doing a free-for-all as opposed to an official game. We plan on heading down on Wednesday, Friday, and every other Thursday night (since every other Thursday we volunteer at the cat adoption center.)

Playing racquetball made me think of one of my favorite Kids in the Hall sketches ever:

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The History of Big Bad Bob

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Posted by Rob on January 9, 2011 – 4:38 pm
Filed under My Personal Life, Randomness
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Have you ever wondered why I refer to myself as “BigBadBob”? Let me take you on a stroll down memory lane as I pry open my past for all to see, so that you may learn the origins of my name.

First off, I have always gone by “Rob”, and to this day I still do, aside. The name “Bob” first started out in high school, probably around 9th grade (which would be around ’97.) There was this guy on our bus…a huge biker/head banger who had asperations of becoming a ECW wrestler (he didn’t think WWF was hardcore enough for his tastes.) For whatever reason, he always called me “Bob.” The guy was ridiculous and such a joke, so my best friend Pete and I would always made fun of him (though not to his face, since he was two grade levels above us.) As time went on, Pete began to call me Bob. It started out as his way of making fun of me (which was a pretty light example of our humor, since I used to call him Queter), but over time he stuck with it, and it became what he called me. To this day, he and his family still refer to me as Bob. Read More »

Happy New Year 2011

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Posted by Rob on January 1, 2011 – 9:04 am
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A pretty fun New Years Eve was had by all as we celebrated it at our apartment with four of our friends. There was waaay too much food, plenty of booze, and tons of fun.

After dinner we played a game called Creationary, which is basically Pictionary but with Legos instead of drawings. Then we broke out the Rock Band set and played Rock Band 2 and Beatles Rock Band until about 11:30.

After that we popped on Dick Clark’s New Years Rocking Eve and watched some crappy musical guests until the ball dropped. After that we took it easy and did some cleaning up and finally went to bed around 2.

All in all, it was a great time as we rang in the New Year with good friends.

My Christmas Swag 2010

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Posted by Rob on December 29, 2010 – 7:45 am
Filed under Books, My Personal Life, Video Games
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Here’s some of the nifty gifts I received for Christmas this year:

Video Games:

  • NHL ’11 (PS3)
  • Plants vs. Zombies (360)
  • Gears of War 2 (360)
  • PlayStation Move Controller

Books:

DVDs/CDs:

  • Futurama: Volume 5
  • Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale

Clothing:

Gift Cards:

Other Stuff:

  • Windshield mount for my Droid
  • Candy
  • Cash

With my gift cards and cash, I went out to the mall yesterday and bought:

  • New computer
  • Sports Champions (PS3)

How I Spent My Christmas

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Posted by Rob on December 28, 2010 – 11:17 pm
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Christmas Eve

For years, my family tradition was always the same: we went down to Long Island on Christmas Eve to see my extended family at either my grandparents’ or aunt’s house. We would spend the night at my grandparent’s, and then after breakfast we would jump in the car and drive back to my parents house for Christmas Day. Once Shell and I were dating, things soon changed, as we had to start dividing up time between the two families. Last year it happened that we spent Christmas with Shell’s mom down in South Carolina, so this year we remained up here. This year we decided to have Shell’s dad come up to our apartment for Christmas Eve, and then we would drive down to my parents house to see them and my sister for Christmas Day.

One of the reasons we made these plans was because Shell actually had to work Christmas Eve. So that morning, after she went to work, I ventured out to the local grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner that night, and for the next week. Price Chopper was a mad house, and plenty of people had the same idea as me apparently. After pushing though crowds and waiting on line, I made it back to the apartment in one piece. I then straightened up the house, prepared the guest bedroom, and then I had like five hours to kill before Shell and her dad got back. It was a weird Christmas Eve for me…most probably the least stressful one I ever had since we moved away from Long Island about fifteen years ago.  Read More »

Gearing Up for Christmas

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Posted by Rob on December 17, 2010 – 4:49 pm
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With Christmas almost a week away now, Shell and I are close to be as prepared as can be. The house has been decorated and the tree has been up since the weekend after Thanksgiving. So far, the cats have been relatively well-behaved, and neither Loki nor Odin have tried climbing up the tree yet. Holiday cookies have been baked regularly, and there are now about three batches left to go. We spent several nights last week baking together after dinner, and made some tasty treats. Shopping wise, we are all done with what gifts we needed to buy. We got a few things done the week of Black Friday, and everything else was done either online or with some shopping at local stores.

We have also begun our annual tradition of watching a crud-load of Christmas movies. This year marks the first time I was able to get Shell to agree watching one of my favorites; Ernest Saves Christmas. She is not a fan of Ernest, but I love the movies, and Ernest Saves Christmas is one of my top holiday movies. We’ve also watched some of Shell’s classic favorites like Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and Garfield. We also watched some old-fashioned classics this year, including White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, and It’s a Wonderful Life.

So I think it’s safe to say that we are set for the holidays. The next week will be spent doing some last-minute baking and then preparing for Christmas Eve when Shell’s dad comes up. Then Christmas Day will be spent down at my parents, and I’ll finally see my sister and bro-in-law for Christmas, who I haven’t seen for Christmas in a few years, between them visiting in-laws in Ohio and us visiting Shell’s mom in South Carolina.

I hope everyone has a happy, safe, and MERRY CHRISTMAS this year!

Double Virus

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Posted by Rob on December 4, 2010 – 10:59 pm
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I haven’t been posting as much as I would like to be, for two main reasons. First off, I’ve been a little under the weather the past two days with a sore throat/headache/other generic symptoms, so I haven’t been in much of a mood to do much in the way of anything productive.

Secondly, my computer has virus yet again…or maybe the first one never went away. Anywho, we are now down to one computer in the place. I tried to reboot mine under safe mode today, and that didn’t seem too safe, as I got a weird error message in what looked like DOS mode, and I also had a little window pop up warning me about my C drive.

All I know is that I am happy that my important files, like my work and my writing, is backed up on a flash drive. Sadly, my pictures are another story, and I hope that those are salvageable.

Upcoming Job Interview

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Posted by Rob on November 22, 2010 – 8:08 pm
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I finally have a promising job lined up. I’ll be interviewing Wednesday, so here’s hoping I’ll be working by Monday. The good thing is that this is a full time, 40-hour gig, not some part-time project job that will only last a week. I am actually looking forward to getting out of the house and working again. I have actually been missing working these past few days…

So tomorrow I’ll be out and about getting some last-minute stuff done, with the expectation that I will be employed by the time I get back from South Carolina on Monday.

No Work Makes Rob Sad

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Posted by Rob on November 15, 2010 – 4:00 pm
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Today was the last day of my job, meaning the project lasted a mere nine days…actually, less than that since we finished up and were sent home early today. I really enjoyed that job too, and I wish it was a full-time gig. So now I’m back to searching for employment.

I had a slight ray of hope this morning as I went on break to find a voicemail with a job offer waiting for me, but the message was left by someone with a heavy Indian accent, and I couldn’t understand most of it. Heck, even the visual voicemail on google voice couldn’t decipher most of it! However, those dreams were shattered when I went on lunch break an hour later and saw that I had an e-mail from the same company, offering me a job selling life insurance.

I may be unemployed, but I’m not that desperate…yet…

Back to the Ol’ Grind

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Posted by Rob on November 3, 2010 – 6:49 am
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I woke up at 6:00am today, and it was the first time in a long time that I got up because I had to. I’ve got a little gig starting today where I will be grading English papers for a local school district. It’s not glamorous, and it’s not permanent, and it sure ain’t Social Studies, but these days I’ll take what I can get. This is gonna be a huge change of pace from puttering around the apartment all day…

Fallout Fever

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Posted by Rob on October 18, 2010 – 6:03 pm
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This weekend had tons of potential, since my sister was coming up to visit from Brooklyn.  I picked her up from the train station on Friday, and after meeting our parents for lunch at the Eveready Diner we headed back up to Albany. After doing some grocery shopping, we came back to the apartment and played through TMNT: The Arcade Game on the 360. Afterwards, we started cooking dinner, and had it ready for when Shell got home from work. Once dinner was cleaned up, we headed over to the Times Union Center to see the Albany Devils take on the Hartford Wolfpack. Of course we rooted for the Wolfpack, since they are the New York Rangers AHL team. The game was a good one, and after a 2-2 first period, the Albany Devils finally won 3-2 in the shoot out. After the game we went downtown to Emack & Bolios for an ice cream break, and then headed back to the apartment.

Saturday started out pretty great. After a lazy morning (which included some Super Mario Bros. Wii) we all piled in the car and headed up to Troy for the annual Chowder Fest. This was much different from the Chowder Fest we went to in Boston, as there were tons of different varieties at the Troy one, not just New England. The winning chowder was an Autumn Pear one, and other interesting ones were a rueben one and a Thanksgiving dinner one. While admission was free, you had to pay $1 per chowder sample, so between the three of us we were able to sample most of the chowders for a decent price. Read More »

How I Almost Got Scammed

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Posted by Rob on October 3, 2010 – 3:28 pm
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So for those of you who don’t know, despite the fact that I have my MS degree in Education and that I am NYS Certified to teach, I have been unable to land a teaching job up where we live. So I had to do something to make a living. I was sick of working retail and restaurants…I mean, I have a MS degree of gosh sakes! I don’t want to be working at Wally World or Applebees again! I also didn’t want to land another boring office job, because I really hated the last one. So I was thinking one day, and came up with the idea of starting up a small dog walking business. There were none in my area so far, so it seemed like a good idea. I had printed up bulletins and business cards and I posted them around town. I started up a website for the company, made the initial purchases (leashes, pooper scooper, etc.) and posted by business on online sites such as google, yelp, craiglist, and the local paper. In the end, I think that this is what initiated the scam that almost got me.

I received an e-mail from a prospective client, who told me that he was going to be in the area for a month while overseeing a construction project or something and was going to be living in a hotel. He was also bringing his dog with him, and wanted me to basically dog sit the dog for five hours a day for a five-week period. He seemed like a nice guy, and was saying that his dog was the most important thing in the world since it was all he had. Seeing how I had no other business at the time, I agreed, and it was set to begin this Monday. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary to me, since in my experience working at Wally World and TGI Fridays, I knew many people who were flown in from around the country to oversee the final construction/set-up/training of a new business before going back home. Read More »

Busy Labor Day Weekend

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Posted by Rob on September 6, 2010 – 8:13 pm
Filed under Board & Card Games, Food & Drink, Geocaching, Movies, My Personal Life, Pets, Sports
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We had a pretty sweet three-day excursion this weekend to see my sister and brother-in-law at their place in Brooklyn. It was an awesome time and we all had a blast. It’s always nice to get together with them, simply because it is so hard to do so.

We arrived there Saturday afternoon after coming into Grand Central and doing some subway hopping to get to her apartment on Greenpoint Ave in Brooklyn. My bro-in-law had ground up some home-made sausage and Cara cooked up some fresh ciabatta bread, so we had some nice sandwiches waiting for us when we arrived. I also got to finally meet their cat Amber (or as they prefer to call her, Puss Puss). She is a very cute, affectionate cat who tends to drool on you if she lays on you for even a brief amount of time. After lunch we hung out for a bit, and then headed out for a walk and some brief geocaching. We found one on a”nature walk” through an industrial section of Brooklyn, which ended up being a pretty scenic area despite all the garbage barges floating nearby. It was Cara and Nick’s first find so they were pretty happy! We then headed down to Newton Barge Terminal Playground for the next geocache. After much confused searching, we found the area where it should have been, but a local bum was literally asleep right on top of the area, so we had to forget about successfully finding it. Read More »

All Work and No Play Make Rob a Dull Boy

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Posted by Rob on August 13, 2010 – 5:48 pm
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I’ve been pretty busy the past two days, and that will only continue to the weekend. Yesterday I went down to my parent’s to help my Dad stack up some winter wood (ended up being two cords worth…which averages between 2000-4000lbs a cord depending on the wood. I also went shopping with my Dad and helped him pick out a new HDTV, and then went back to their house to install it. I also lugged some loot from our apartment and my parents house to Shell’s Dads house to prepare for tomorrow’s garage sale.

Today was a lot more prepping for the trip down to Shell’s Dads house. I also ended up doing the weekly grocery shopping this morning since we will be gone all weekend.

And tomorrow is the big day. We’ve been planning this garage sale for awhile now, and I’m looking forward to finally getting it over with. We have tons of junk to unload on whoever wants it, including plenty of DVDs, CDs, and even some of my old video games, not to mention a crud load of clothing and other stuff. It runs from 8-4, so by the end of the day I know I’m gonna be exhausted. We’re staying over her Dad’s tomorrow night also, and then heading home later in the day on Sunday.

All I know is that I miss my games!!!!!!!!