FINALLY...

I KNEW I'D EVENTUALLY GET A JOB. I HAD A BIT OF FAITH AND NOW GOD HAS GIVEN ME, NOT ONE, BUT TWO JOB OFFERS. NOW I JUST HAVE TO PICK ONE. BOTH ARE VERY DIFFERENT AND HAVE THEIR PLUSES AND MINUSES. I'M LEANING MORE TOWARDS ONE RIGHT NOW, BUT WHO KNOWS. HOPEFULLY, I'LL COME TO A DECISION WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE DAYS-- IDEALLY TOMORROW.

OH, AND I'M NOT YELLING... I HAVE TO KEEP MY CAPS LOCKED TO SPEED UP THE RENDERING PROCESS IN AFTER EFFECTS (I'M FREELANCING FOR THE LOCAL SPANISH TV STATION). HOLA.

I'VE BEEN IN A GOOD MOOD THIS PAST WEEK. I LIKE GETTING JOB OFFERS. IT BOOSTS MY SELF-CONFIDENCE.

uh oh...

i super-glued my fingers together...

well, almost. man, this stuff is strong...

well, korea's out of the world cup... so is the u.s... i'm left with no one to root for. and i still don't have a job. so basically, i'm not off to a good year. and they say 28 is a "perfect number."

at least my marriage is going well.

representin'...

japan choked... the us was embarassing...

i'm glad korea held it together against togo for the win.

choke....

(World Cup ranting)
what's up with japan... ridiculous: giving up three goals in the last 10 minutes to lose the game.

korea had better play better than their neighbors against togo (i didn't know sandwich companies were eligible to play in the world cup). [i couldn't help it]

i really really really...

need a JOB!

no cream puffs or animal style...

we didn't get to hit beard papa's or in-n-out, but we saw the full house house. haha. yeah, i know, my priorities are all whacked.

coming back to the real world was kinda sucky. but coming home to my unemployment, i guess sorta padded the impact... or it may have made it worse...

at least it's friday, i don't have to think about getting a job 'til monday.

california, here i come...

well, actually i'm already here-- in san francisco. we flew in wednesday night-- thursday morning, technically, after a 2 hour delay and a 40-minute wait for the shuttle. so far, we've been to: golden gate park, the conservatory of flowers (butterfly exhibit), haight-ashbury (and the giant robot store, of course), japantown, chinatown, italian area, fisherman's wharf, golden gate bridge, pier 39 and the marina (where we're staying). tomorrow we'll take a day trip out to muir woods and point reyes.

things we hope to do before we leave: find the tanner residence (you know, uncle jesse, uncle joey and the family from full house) and any scene that looks like it's from monk. oh, and if i can get some in-n-out and beard papa's, i'll be one happy roboto.

my secret identity...

i'm assuming most of the people that frequent my site are people that know me personally: my name, what i look like, etc. but for some reason, i like referring to myself as "roboto" and rarely cite specifics of my identity (name, location, age, ssn...). i dunno... it makes me feel more comfortable.

despite my fear of big brother and identity theft, technology is advancing rapidly before me. there are podcasts, vlogs (video blogs) and i'm still relying on the alphabet. so i'm debating whether or not to start posting pictures and/or video content on this blog. i mean, i create video art for a living... it only makes sense that i start to express myself publicly using my medium of choice. but i'm still paranoid. am i being silly?

+3 lbs...

i know, it's not much, but late spring is not a good time to be putting on weight... especially if mrs. roboto and i will be doing some beaching this summer. which reminds me... we're thinking about going away for our one-year. any suggestions? some locations won't be comfortable for a late-august getaway... and we're on a budget too.

i'm thinking spain. they have beaches... museums... culture... good food...

laurence fishburne mania...

we watched two movies this weekend, both starring morpheus, himself: MI:III and Akeelah and the Bee. both were pretty entertaining, one was cute and heart-warming... the other one was about a spelling bee. =)
three robotic thumbs up each (mr. roboto has 4 thumbs total).

in addition to the double-feature, i participated in a pure, gluttonous gorge-fest. the weekend's menu included a chinese buffet (including kalbi, fresh lychee, and a trio of my favorite ice cream flavors: green tea, red bean and banana), soft-shell crab and lobster bisque and mother's day dim sum. the all-you-can-eat choice was exceptionally good- yet quite possibly one of the biggest mistakes i've ever made. i had an incredibly difficult time breathing and was seriously considering bulimia.

creative juices...

i gotta get them flowing. every once in a while, i hit a block that sucks up every last drop of my creative mojo-- see i'm even mixing my metaphors. that's my least favorite part of being a designer... there's always a need to come up with innovative, cutting-edge work-- and sometimes the well is just dry.

i need some inspiration.

what i need to do is turn off my tv, sit in a quiet room and just think, but i'm having a hard time turning off G4 (it's a cable station about video games).

carnivore...

i've consumed so much red meat in the last few days.
today dinner: bulgogi
today lunch: 1/2 pound burger
yesterday dinner: chadolbegi
yesterday lunch: portillo's hot dog and italian beef
saturday dinner: korean buffet (lotsa kalbi)
saturday lunch: costco hot dog
friday dinner: tonkatsu (chicken, but it's deep-fried)
friday lunch: pastrami sandwich
thursday dinner: mongolian beef
thursday lunch: steak burrito

since i don't eat breakfast, i'm 10 for 10. i feel gross. and i don't know if i've gained weight, but i look a little bloated.

potential energy -> kinetic energy

some of my potential energy is finally starting to convert into kinetic energy...

i started an on-site freelance gig today and it seems to be going well. hopefully, i'll land something full-time, permanent soon. now that i have to start commuting into the city again, i want to buy a bike to ride to the train station every morning. "roboto, you already have a nice bike..." my wife and others might say... well, my bike is too nice to endure the abuse of daily commuting and being chained to a bench for 9+ hours a day. so i wouldn't be buying a "new" bike... i want to find a solid, bmx style bike that i could put a few hours of work into-- a simple one-gear fixer-upper. oooooh... a sweet, track bike would be nice. track bikes are really, basic bikes, but light-weight and fast... alot of hardcore, new york bike messengers ride track bikes.

hmmm... bmx-style or track bike?
or ?

no mexican food (almost)...

i was craving mexican food last night... (mexican food is roboto's fuel of choice)... so the mrs. and i drove out to chipotle (not very authentic, but good, nonetheless). it was closed because they didn't have enough employees to open the store due to the immigration rallies. so we walked down the road to santiago's... also closed. we had to settle for a place called "casa margarita." ugh.

i'm thinking of reorganizing my basement/office. i have to clean-up for the in-law visit this weekend, might as well move some furniture around while i'm at it.

oh yeah, and the in-law visit. dad-in-law wants to have a talk with me about my career (or lack thereof). i am not looking forward to that talk. howard schultz, ceo of starbuck's, tells a story about when he was first getting involved with the small coffee company. at the time, starbuck's was a local distributor of gourmet coffee. schultz had the idea of turning it into the walk-in, one-on-every-block coffe house that it is today, but it took a couple years to get it off the ground. anyways, during that planning/early-development phase, schultz's father-in-law asked howard to go on a walk with him. and on that walk he asked him when he was going to give up his "coffee hobby" and find a "real job."

it would be nice if i was in the middle of incubating a multi-million dollar idea for my own father-in-law lecture. i have three days... any ideas?

the office...

how could i forget the office...?!? one of my favorite sitcoms of all time. and even though i watch alot of tv, my DVR allows me to skip the commercials, so that cuts down my actual tv viewing around 33% to about 7 hours. ha.

life in the 'burbs...

i'm playing lotsa tennis (maybe 2 or 3 times a week). doing lotsa bike riding (maybe 2 or 3 times a month). watching lotsa tv... our regulars:

lost
scrubs
desperate housewives
grey's anatomy
boston legal
monk
sons & daughters
8th & ocean
house
american made
america's next top model (mrs. roboto's influence)

that's like 10 hours a week. oh man. i should probably cut down.

pop-u-u-lar...

i have no friends in chicago...
which is understandable... it'll take me time to get buddy-buddy with the folks here...
since my life is void of any kind of live, in-person, social activity, i feel popular when i get three separate requests to update my little blog.

my job search is still fruitless. i've planted a bunch of seeds, i just have to water it and wait. i sort of find comfort in the fact that i met a guy that moved here at around the same time i did and was sitting in the same boat. he came by way of l.a. and was looking for the same kind of work as me (but he wasn't my competition, he's much more senior-level, won an emmy for some show open he did a couple years back). we were commiserating a little, what-the-hecking about the chicago motion graphics scene. anyways, i just found out he gave up and took a job back in l.a. i find comfort in this because it validates my argument that it's not me... it's this place. this anecdotal, weightless story at least restores some of my confidence.

soon... i can feel it...

fillings...

i had to get two new fillings today. actually, they were two old fillings that had to get redone because the first ones were done poorly. so much for getting cheap dental work from your dad's friend's friend's brother.

the worst part-- ok, the two shots of anesthesia were pretty bad-- was the complete numbness of the tongue and lip... i had to skip lunch so i wouldn't accidentally bite my tongue off.

aside from the starvation, double-stabbing in the mouth and extra drooling; i got two free movie tickets from my dentist. her monthly newsletter contained a riddle with an offer for the passes to the first person to respond with the correct answer.

A dozen Royals gathered round,
Entertained by two who clowned.
Each King there had servants ten,
Though none of them were also men.
The lowest servant sometimes might,
Defeat the King in a fair fight.
A weapon stout, a priceless jewel,
The beat of life, a farmer's tool.

What am I?

Same Old...

I've been averaging once-a-month in posting in 2006... i've gotten one request (from family) to pick up the pace.

This was my first ever Easter with a "traditional" Easter meal... we had ham (with pineapples), corn, greenbean casserole, marshmellowed yams... all without rice or kimchee. Mrs. Roboto and I were assigned to make the greenbean casserole-- actually she volunteered, I was forced by marriage to participate.

We have the day off today and are thinking of fun stuff to do. The only thing we can come up with is to drive from our suburb to another suburb and just walk around. Exciting, huh?

Chicago: Land of Free Stuff

I've been taking the train to get downtown... working a temp job designing powerpoint stuff... anyways, everyday this week, as i'm walking to work, there's a street team handing out free stuff. it's great. i love free stuff. i got a newspaper (that sat on my desk for two days, unread, before i dumped it), a coupon for a small coffee (which i don't drink), three oatmeal raisin cookies (i hate raisins) and a can of diet soda (the only thing that i'd actually use!). it's in my fridge. i'm saving it for a special occasion.

bring on more free stuff!

ILLINOIZE...

by request, some photos of our crib in the land of lincoln... (click to see a larger image in a seperate window)


our living room


freshly painted... but it's hard to tell in these pics




our new tv (courtesy of the in-laws)





el kitchen


we had the granite installed 3 days ago... ain't it purdy?




our nice deep sink


a close-up of the stone

our primary eating area



our dining room converted into a sitting/reading area



our basement (please excuse the mess)


my "office"





the master bedroom






where the magic happens (hahah)

the master bath





etc. etc. etc.




guest room 2, converted into a workout room


where you'd poop and shower if you stayed over...

on the road again...

i leave for chicago tomorrow morning.
i think i had a good run in new york. i met alot of really cool people. i started the "working" chapter of my life. i got married. i learned alot.

there's alot i'll miss.

i wonder what God has in store for me in the midwest.