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of my past entries will be removed from public availability, simply because the information shared in those entries are outdated and could possibly be interpreted as misleading.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

My College Life as of Today: Health Information Technology Program

Two years ago, I wrote this entry in this blog about going to college and what program I was trying to get into. Time sure goes by quite fast, and now I finally got into the program of my choice: Health Information Technology (HITT) at Houston Community College - Coleman College for Health Sciences.

Prior to getting into the program, I busted my behind, taking basic courses, and some courses I actually didn't even have to take. At one point, my GPA was as high as 3.85 (out of 4.0). That was my GPA during my interview to get accepted into the program, but after getting hit with a B in Anatomy & Physiology, my GPA dropped a bit to 3.75.

Being in a program is a totally different ballgame. I am considering going to school full-time just to get my diploma early. I can see myself working from home within the next 5 years, even less than that! But first, I got to adjust to the type of student my professor wants me to be: very, very, VERY dedicated and disciplined. While that is not usually a problem, I am experiencing some financial difficulties at the moment, which I may mention later on in this blog.

I am proud of my accomplishments as a college student, especially since I didn't think I was going to end up going to college at my mid-thirties. I was a terrible student in high school, with a GPA that falls very low within the lowest quartile. Even then, I desired to finish high school with a diploma, and I obtained it through Houston Community College's Adult High School program back in 1999 and 2000. Now that I am in college, it seems like I am living the student life I should have had when I was in high school.

This maybe a half-way point of my college career, or maybe not. I will try to go as far as I can. I've been in college for two years, but this semester, is really, only the beginning of my actual college life.

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!

Same Faces at Different Places (Part 1): Everyday People

When I meet people at certain places like at work or in my social life, I have a tendency to associate them with the place or setting where I meet them. But when I meet some of those people at another place, I have a tendency to not recognize them. This causes me to either re-introduce myself or to awkwardly pretend I immediately recognized them. Sadly, I have gotten too good at doing the latter (thanks Lifehacker lol).

Is this weird? Is this a problem that only I have?

It doesn't happen often, but I feel like it happens more often than it should. It makes me feel like a jerk, as if I didn't remember them or forgot who they are. Bad enough, I am not the best at remembering people's names. That is something I'm still practicing until this day. After all, the best way to initially compliment somebody is by remembering their name."

I meet a lot of people due to the nature of my work. When it comes to my social life, I tend to meet a lot of people through my many friends. I also make lots of friends fast at anime conventions. Cosplayers are a different story, since costumes, wigs, make-up and masks are involved. I'll have to write about in a separate entry about them later.

Where No Egg Has Gone Before...

This morning, while I was cooking some eggs for breakfast, I couldn't help but think of the Star Trek logo when this fried egg took shape on the frying pan.

That is all.

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.