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.

Roger Goes to College...

Since I graduated high school 15 years ago, I have always wanted to go to college. However, due to unfortunate life circumstances, I could not go to school. While I won't go into detail about those circumstances here on my public blog, I would like to mention that I have recently signed up for college! I will be attending Houston Community College soon and I am very excited!

Some of my friends didn't expect that I would make this move in my life. Some didn't even know, and thought I have finished college long ago. I'm already 35 years old, and I am barely starting college. This is a whole new adventure in my life, and sometimes I think I'm too old for this. I'm working on changing that mentality.

I have my sights on the Health Information Technology program. Currently, I am going to be taking my basic courses and prerequisites, most of which are required for other medicine-related program. Just in case I do change my career path in the future, I should be ok.

As of now, I know that I will be taking two of my basic courses online, which I'm hoping I can do while I'm at on standby during my work hours. On Fridays, I will be attending my Biology class the Stafford campus.

(Re)Built My First Coil Ever! Rebuilding the Aspire Nautilus BVC... Almost!

Building coils for any atomizer is something I have yet to venture into. I recently bought my first rebuildable dripping atomizer, the Mephisto (clone) and I have yet to build my own DIY coil for it, instead of having a local vape shop do it for me.

This evening, I got tempted to attempt to rebuild one of my dead coil heads for my Aspire Nautilus. I have been using the Bottom Vertical Coils and my first one died out on me. From the vape shop the other day, I got less than a foot short .28 gauge Kanthal and a cotton ball. The Kanthal wire had about 8 wraps already, since I was told to practice wrapping at the vape shop.

So I thought to myself, "This should be enough gear for me." I started watching a YouTube video by Rip Trippers (video below) about rebuilding the Aspire Nautilus BVC coil heads. Then I realized that there are some things I'm just not going to have; like enough Kanthal wires, Japanese Organic Cotton (Koh Gen Do Pure), a 1/16 drill bit and a torch.

I ended up having to use regular organic cotton that I got from Walgreens. I have tweezers and scissors and a couple of tiny screw drivers. 

Nautilus Mini Bottom Vertical Coil Build by Rip Trippers

Just by following this video, and with enough tools (or lack thereof), I was still able to rebuild my BVC coil head! The only problem I had was the airflow. I had some congestion on the airflow since cotton got in the center of the coil.

But I hit my target resistance: 1.8 Ohms! That's the resistance my Vamo v5 was reading. Now many people know that the Vamo's resistance meter can't be trusted so easily. But it's all I have, until I get an actual Resistance Meter.

Mephisto RDA clone

I tested it anyway. It worked fine! It was a very restricted draw as Rip Trippers mentioned on the video, but it worked! I have NEVER built a coil in my entire life! Not even for my Mephisto RDA clone. I guess I got to start somewhere, since I'm slowly getting into vaping with mechanical mods and RBA / RDAs.

I still have the coil head, but I disassembled it since I can't seem to fix the airflow problem. Other than that, I know I can do it again! Maybe next time, I'll go down on the resistance to 1.4 Ohms. lol

I'm going to go shopping for some tools, and I'm going to be ordering some Kanthal .28 gauge online. This challenge was very satisfying to know that I was able to do something I didn't have any experience in doing.

One of the things I've been wanting to do ever since I started vaping was to DIY things, from rebuilding coils for drippers, rebuilding atomizers and making my own e-liquids. It's been 60 days since I started vaping and maybe I have much more to learn. I'm also planning to blog about it, too!

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!

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.

My Car is 288,000 Miles Old Already!

288,000 Miles Driven on my 2008 Civic Si.

I've had this car for 6 years now. And it already has 288,000 miles on it! It's a 2008 Honda Civic Si. It's what I use for my deliveries; contract, sub-contract or independent. I wonder how many cars, '08 and above, have this many miles already...

When I bought this car, I knew that it's main purpose is for work. The braking system, suspension, power, and what I call fun factor was evidently in this car. Basically, I made "working" or "doing deliveries" fun for me! This is also where I spend more than 80% of my time working.

 Some people think that my car has lasted this long without anything majorly wrong happen to it. Most of them say "Honda cars will normally last that long." But some of my closest friends know what happened to this car over the years:

• Transmission failed on me during my deliveries at 189,941 miles. It took two weeks to repair and about $4,700 to repair. 
• The alternator was recently replaced, at 287,900 miles. If it was replaced before, I don't remember, nor do I have any transaction records of it.  Ok, this was a surprise to a few of my friends. I do remember replacing the starter back on November 2012.
• Exterior: The back bumper, and both left and right side panels, have been replaced during Winter of 2013, after getting side-swiped and hit on three different occasions at one of my delivery sites. The total cost of repairs came out to $4,800. All of which was paid for by two different major companies that were responsible for causing the damages.

Until this day, my car is still fun to drive. And this is why I love my job as a courier. This car is also my second home. When I'm on standby between deliveries, I spend a lot of time in here. If ever I have to be away from home again, like during my intercity or interstate deliveries, my car is a good place for me to sleep, eat, etc. (except use the restroom... lol)

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. 

Haven’t Been Blogging Lately…

Sorry guys, I haven’t been blogging a lot lately. I’ve been busy with work, and playing video games on Steam and on our new PlayStation 3. I do have a lot of drafted blog entries, reviews and posts, but I haven’t been updating them either.

While I hate to admit it, I really have a busy, hectic life. Even I don’t want to face that fact, either. All day long at work, I think about things that I want to do for leisure when I get home. But when I’m home, I got all these chores that I didn’t really have to worry about before.

Also, when I feel overwhelmed with a lot of tasks to complete, and don’t know where to start, I usually just start looking for other non-productive things to do. I am well aware of this bad habit of mine. I think I’m doing a very good job at keeping my own self under control… I think.

I have some upcoming posts that I’ve been working hard to finish. Some are just personal entries, others are a bit more opinionated. Some of the other posts I’ve been working on are just anime and video game reviews.