It's Been A While. And It's About That Time I Came Out...

 ...of this long, hard, dark period of not updating this blog/personal website, silly!

Although I do have plans to catch y'all up on what has been going on with my life since the last time I posted anything here (like, back in 2017); there's just a few things that I want to mention, now that it is 2023:

• I did update a few things on this site between 2017 and now. But it was the "Books I Read (or have read)" sidebar that I updated, not the main blog itself. It was in 2020, when I added the books "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions by Alcoholics Anonymous." and "Narcotics Anonymous - Sixth Edition." Definitely more on this later.
  
• I am well-aware of who my readers are, thanks to StatCounter and the very few folks to whom I have given the website address. Having said that, even though this blog serves as an outlet where I can speak my mind, there are other blogs and journals online which I use for my more outspoken, uncensored ranting and venting. More on this later.
• My Twitter sidebar is indeed up to date, and it never failed to update this blog under the radars of RSS feeds and what have you.
• Many of my past entries will be removed from public availability, simply because the information shared in those entries are outdated and could possibly be interpreted as misleading.
• The idea of pointing the callmeroger.com domain name and moving to a personally hosted blog powered by WordPress still lingers in my mind until this day. But when that day comes, every single post from here on Blogger will be moved there. Comments will remain here. 
• This site operates as both a public front (the tip of the iceberg), and a private installation of secret pages that are only viewable by select individuals to whom I have given access. 
• The username "callmeroger" is not mine, and there are plenty of others who have beaten me to the punch, depending on the social media platform where the username is being used. But there are now a few notable social media platforms where I have resorted to using the username "callmeroger.com" instead, which I assume could potentially lead other people to visit this website out of curiosity. More on this later. 
• Blog updates will include posts about my return to Package Express, posts from BuJo DoJo (my handwritten journal), Project Centre, and Misery City to name a few. 

Changes are coming to this blog, as I am mustering the courage and the motivation to start blogging again. There are plenty of stories and thoughts which I would like to share on this blog. But for those who are reading this, sorry for the boring update. Just know that more updates are coming and they are probably going to be even more boring than this post. :p

Ok, Fine! I'll Write Something: Re-cap and Spoilers of What's To Come!

Sorry I abandoned this site again. I've been very busy lately as far as work, band, anime conventions, etc. I've been meaning to write about many things, mainly my personal experiences at the recent anime / comic conventions I have been attending. Also, I have been wanting to write (brag) about the fact that I have quit smoking, and talk about my new expensive hobby of vaping.

Here are a few conventions I will be blogging about (all entries will be backdated):

• Comicpalooza 2014: I volunteered for the first time ever, as a part of the First Aid crew.
• A-Kon 25: I'll be talking about how my band Otaku Acoustic got our first ever "Special Events" recognition.
• San Japan: Samurai 7: I will be blogging more about my awesome personal experience.
• AnimeFest 2014: My band's busiest, yet satisfying gig to date!

Other things I will be blogging about soon:

• How I was able to quit smoking cigarettes...
• What made me get into vaping and electronic cigarettes
• What anime I've been watching during the Summer 2014 season
• How I'm doing at work
• ...and more!

Soon, I'll have some time to write stuff on this blog. I won't be talking much about my band on this site because I should be blogging about all that stuff on the band's website at www.otakuacoustic.com. I'm also planning to start a video blog, which will be using this site as the archive and feed for every time I upload one on YouTube.

I'll keep y'all posted!

Video Blog Test, Killing Time at Work

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a while now. I've been meaning to post a few entries about my convention experiences from Comicpalooza and A-Kon 25. It's not that I've been lazy lately. It's more like I really haven't had the time to type stuff up. But I think that's going to change soon.

Anyway, I'm experimenting on video blogging all over again. Since I have been bringing my laptop along with me at work, I can do a lot of editing while I'm on standby between my deliveries.

Here's the video blog that I recorded and edited earlier:

Video Blog Test: Killing Time at Work

Though my laptop can't run Sony Vegas Pro 12, which is what I use on my desktop to edit the Otaku Acoustic music videos, I still have Windows Movie Maker on my laptop (don't laugh). Windows Movie Maker is capable "enough" to do what I need it to do, and my laptop has "enough" power to handle it. It's not like I'm working with multiple audio & video tracks, and will be rendering the video at 1080i. I'm going to keep my video blogs simple.

After experimenting on editing the raw video file using Windows Movie Maker, I uploaded it to YouTube and experimented on a few more things there like annotations, closed captions & subs, and more. Here I am thinking, maybe I can start doing this to kill time in between my deliveries. The only problem I'm probably going to face here: what to talk about..

For now, I'm happy with what I came up with. I'm so behind, because I'm barely doing what many have been doing for years. But I have a YouTube channel. I shouldn't be afraid to use it!

When it Freezes in Houston...

Image taken from KHOU.com

It is very rare for Houston to have a Winter Storm involving icy roads. Now I am no meteorologist or an expert in driving on ice, but as a delivery driver who spends a lot of time on the Houston roads and highways, I'd like to share a few things that I have learned to do when Houston experiences a Winter storm.

Because of how rare Houston experiences these ice-cold conditions, many commuters in this city will tend to underestimate Mother Nature. Let's face it Houston, we don't know how to drive on ice. I'm a very experienced courier in Houston, and I'm first to admit, I suck at driving on ice! Northerners can laugh all they want. Just brush it off and think of your survival (or the safety of your pocketbook)! So, in this blog entry, when I say Winter Storm, I'm not talking about blizzards or an avalanche. I'm talking about ice on freeways, which I'm sure is normal to many folks up north.

Recently, on January 24^th, the Houston highways experienced some icy freeways, causing over 200 accidents. This is unfortunate to many commuters in the city, but consider the fact that no casualties were reported. Unlike the Winter Storm of February 2011, there were over 800 accidents, including at least one reported casualty. Remember that day?

Changes to the New "CallmeRoger.com"

I'm almost sure that no one even noticed the big change. The domain "callmeroger.com" now points to Blogger.com. I decided to save my money and cancel my hosting service. All the entries I ever posted on my old Wordpress is tucked away in my old Wordpress.com account.

Because I'm still paying for this domain, I would like to continue to put this site to good use. All I want is a website that I can call "home". This is where I will be experimenting on my journal writing, creative writing, and more. 

Here are a few changes to CallmeRoger.com:

• Obviously, it is no longer powered by Wordpress (I miss it already!) It is now powered by Blogger.
• Having said that, many parts of this blog will be implementing the use of many Google services.
• My music videos from YouTube, including videos from my band's YouTube account "Otaku Acoustic", and videos from various users that has me and my band on their videos, will soon be posted here.
• I will most likely blog about my personal life. This includes blog entries about my work, my home life, etc.
• This blog may include elements that are probably copyrighted by their respected authors and artists. I will do my best to credit them, and/or the site/source from which I took them from.

This coming year of 2014, which is just around the corner, I would really like to make a habit of updating this blog. I hope that my friends from Google+ and Facebook visit my site every once in a while. This goes out to my followers on Twitter as well.