automaticable

So within the last couple days I’ve really been reminiscing about the past and I’ve come to the conclusion that I truly miss my childhood.  All this growing up and making adult decisions really isn’t something that I want to be doing.  I’m sitting here drinking coffee out of a mug the size of my head that’s decorated like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas and watching my roommate and my neighbor putt in my family room.  This sort of relaxation and carefree lifestyle reminds me so much of when I was 10 years old and would gather all my friends on the street to play hide-and-go-seek or flashlight tag.  Twelve people all around the age of ten gathering around a cul-de-sac at 8 o’clock with a curfew of 10:00.  Being a seasoned veteran of the game, I knew exactly where to hide, when to pop out, and when to run like hell to try to tag safe.  Of course people began to catch onto my plan and began to look specifically for me, but that’s when I would start working as a team with the other hiders and tell them to all hide together and where, and they would all come out like thirty seconds after the seekers pass them up.  Oh I miss the old days.

Wow this coffee’s strong….

But yeah, that doesn’t really keep you updated with what I’m doing down here, but that’s alright, because I don’t even remember what I’ve done within the last couple days.  I know I went to the theme parks and saw more of Hollywood Studios than I’ve ever seen before, I started up my new classes (they were just general information days, no real work yet), but other than that, it’s been a pretty mellow week.  I’ll try to see what I can do about posting more often, or waking up earlier to post, because so far it’s looking like I’m only really going to be able to post on days that I have off, just because I’m too busy otherwise.  I’m off to go bake in the sun, rotisary style, catch ya’ll later!

I want to formally apologize to all loyal readers of Automaticable for my lack of post last week.  It’s been a very crazy past couple weeks for me with lots of work, very little down time and crazy parties that last ’till all hours of the night I just haven’t found time to sit down and just be able to collect my thoughts.  I’m in the process of trying to remember things, and really, all that’s coming up is a giant blur. I know on my days off I went to Blizzard Beach and had a blast.  There were next to no lines for any of the slides, so I was able to do the entire park with my roommate in under 3 hours.  It’s nice being a Disney cast member because you get free admission to just about everything, and when you tell people that you’re a cast member, you notice their eyes light up in a special way that you don’t really see in many other cases.  Immediately following this you’re bombarded with questions about the parks, your job, your experience and how many Mickey’s are there?  (There’s only 1 by the way)

The other days were all work days, and there was either a softball game, soccer game, or some sort of dance competition going on where they stuck me in the Stocker position.  Being a stocker you do exactly that, stock.  You make sure that the stand, and possibly surrounding stands, have completely full stock, and if they’re running out, you have to go get it.  The only problem with this is you’re either stuck at a stand completely too far away from the stocking kitchen, or stuck at a stand where people only tell you one thing at a time, so you’re running back and forth to a kitchen all day.  That’s all I’m going to complain about with that, because frankly? I love my job.

I would much rather be working at the Wide World of Sports any day then one of the main theme parks because last week I was stuck at Hollywood Studios (formally MGM) for a day, and I was kicking myself in the ass because of how difficult the job was.  I give major props to all the concessions people in the main parks because of how many people they have to deal with on a regular basis, as well as dealing with the stress of doing no less than four things at a time.  I have to work there again tomorrow and possibly wednesday (I’m trying to get it off because I have class earlier that day and won’t have time between class and work).

So, tonight I made enchiladas for dinner and, basically, they were very delicious to say the least.  I fed about 8 people with them and each and every one of them all agreed that I need to cook for them more often.  I tried a few new things with it that I haven’t tried before, like using a canned Enchilada sauce than just making it from scratch, as well as adding a few spices in there that I’ve never thought of putting in there.  All in all, I was very pleased with how they turned out.

Again, I wish to apologize to you all for the late update, but trust me, you’ll get another one by Sunday morning!  Enjoy the snow Chicago!

Well, the first week of my vacation/internship has concluded, and I still have a smile on my face!  My first day of training at the Wide World of Sports was cool, but trying to get home was a pain in the butt.  It takes me an hour and a half to get to the park by a double bus transfer, but if I had a car to drive there, it would only take half an hour.  Going home is where the real problem is, because the bus doesn’t stop at the Wide World of Sports very often to pick up cast members (that’s what they call Disney employees).  So I called the bus before I went out to wait, which I then waited an hour, called the bus company AGAIN then preceded to wait another half hour until the bus came.  Once it arrived we rode to the Pop Century cast back lot to go over to Costuming to get our Disney Regulated uniforms (costumes).  We were there for about a half hour, and were pushing our luck on trying to catch the next bus (which left at 4:00), and we arrived outside at 4:01 and JUST missed the bus and had to wait ANOTHER half hour to catch the next bus.  Once that one came it was a half hour ride home, and a fifteen minute walk from the bus stop to my apartment.  All and all, it was about three hours from the time I clocked out until the time I stepped back into my apartment.

Other than that little fiasco, work has been pretty good and very enjoyable.  The rest of my training has consisted of stocking condiment shelves, stocking ALL of the concession stands, and then yesterday was our first day of event work, and I worked in a very non-busy tent selling Soda, Water, Power aid, Turkey Legs, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Pretzles, Nachos, and Candy.  Right now the event is the College Cheerleading, Dance and Mascot National Championships, so that should be alot of fun, I’ve already ran into a bunch of the cheerleaders and mascots so it was quite exciting.

On my days off that I had last week I did alot of shopping as well as went off to the amusement parks with with my roommates and that was alot of fun.  This week has also helped me create alot new friends around the apartment complex and find people to hang out with when I have nothing better to do.  Well, it’s getting to be around lunch time around here, and I have to start getting ready for work as well, so I hope you all have a wonderful week and I’ll write again next week!

P.S.  Hope everyone in the Midwest is doing okay with all that snow and and cold weather you guys have been having.  Stay warm, stay safe, and stay up to date by subscribing to our RSS!

Hey everybody!  Good news!  I made it in Orlando, FL safely! YAY!  I left around 6:30 AM on Wednesday, and everything was pretty smooth flying, and I got a window seat, so I took a bunch of pictures while in the air.  When I arrived, I got to the baggage claim and my bags were the first ones off the chutes, so it was perfect!  After that I went down to find my shuttle to the apartments.  The ride from the airport to the apartments was pretty fun because I shared the shuttle with other people from Chicago, Ohio, and California, and when I told them that I was going to be a Disney Cast Member, they all became really excited and had millions of questions for me.  I remember a couple days before I was leaving for Orlando, I was so nervous, stressed, and scared because of all the unknowns coming down here, but upon my arrival, all my worries left me and I became extremely excited.

The first day was all the registration nonsense, which took an hour and a half, mainly because the fingerprinting process took 45 min in itself.  After that I went off to go to my apartment, which was unfortunately (in some aspects) is on the third floor.  But I can’t complain, because the apartment I’m in is brand new, in great condition, and I get my own bathroom for my room.  Once I found my apartment and got situated and everything, me and my roommates headed off to Walmart to pick up a few things, but were all greatly disappointed that the 1000 other people that showed up today, raided the same Walmart and took all the hangers!  It was the one main thing that I needed from Walmart last night, but alas, we all struck out in the hanger department.

Yesterday was another long day, but luckily it wasn’t alot of registration stuff.  We had to go through SOME stuff, where we signed up for classes, got our work assignments, and turned in our I-9 information.  After about 45 min or so I was done, and made a trip to the wonderful Chic-fil-et for lunch, and it was D-E-L-ICIOUS!  On our first day they gave us coupons for there, so lunch was pretty cheap and well worth it on such a beautiful day.  After lunch, we waited bout 30 min for a few more of our roommates who got caught up with the registration process, but once we all were home, we made our second Wal-Mart trip, but to a different one, and it was perfect.  I spent a good chunk of money, but I should be set on groceries for about a month or so.  That night was alot of fun, all my roommates got together and we held a small party where we watched the BCS Championship game (GO GATORS!!!) and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

Today was another long day, but luckily it was a later start day so I get some extra sleep.  Speaking of sleep, the beds that we have feel like they are just pieces of plywood with some fabric over them, so I went out and bought a mattress pad, and oh man, it made the bed amazingly more comfortable.  But back to day 3….Today was our Traditions class which was a 5 hour class where you sit in a room and go over all the legal issues like harassment, the two finger point, the Disney Look, and the Show.  It was alot of movies, and alot of very boring information, but obviously essential for a company to work as well as Disney does.

Tonight’s going to be a pretty low key night due to me starting my work training tomorrow and having to be awake at a very early hour tomorrow, but I get done early tomorrow so I think I might hit up the theme parks and hang out with my roommates and neighbors.  But for now, it’s about 9:30 here, and a few of my roommates want to watch Donny Darko, so I’m going to go join them!

Oh, btw, I hope all you kiddies from Chicago don’t get buried in snow!  I’m glad it’s supposed to be in the 70’s here tomorrow!

I’m a couple days late, but Happy New Years!  2008 was our inaugural year for automaticable, and it has been a huge success.


Let’s look back with some stats:

• Total Posts: 147
• Total Comments: 376
• Total Visitors: 54,679
• Number of Visiting Countries: 154
• Number of Sites Linking Here: 364
• Busiest Traffic Day: Sept. 21 (10,285 views)

Here are some of the most popular posts from our first year:

• Lock Down Your Ubuntu Computer with A Bluetooth Cellphone and BlueProximity
• How-to: Enable Surround Sound on Ubuntu Hardy
• Organize Your ToDo List in Ubuntu with Remember The Milk and Tasque
• Electric Sheep: A Screen Saver That Learns (and is the best I’ve ever seen)
• How To: Host a Subversion Repository in Ubuntu Hardy
• Comcast Blocking DD-WRT?
• Void My Firefox Warranty?
• How-to: Mount a Network drive in Ubuntu
• Customize Your Dual-boot: GUI Frontend to GRUB
• Easy Subversion GUI for Nautilus and Ubuntu

And as the New Year is upon us, I’d also like to make some personal goals for myself.  I don’t believe in New Years resolutions, but I do have a few things I’d like to improve in the upcoming year:

• Run More: Last year I started excersing and running regularly, and even did a half-marathon in the Fall.  I’d like to keep it up, and push even harder this year.  If all goes well, I’ll be running the Chicago Marathon with a friend later this year.
• Study More: I’m coming up on my last semester as an undergraduate, but it really doesn’t end there for me.  I just applied for graduate school, and hope to pursue a Masters in machine learning starting next Fall.  I want to end this year strong, and get ready for harder classes and more research in graduate school.
• Revive automaticable: You may have notices lulls in posting during our first year.  This is mostly due to my own lack of time and motivation, but I’d like to fix that in 2009.  Brian has already alluded to a few changes we are planning in the site layout, and there’s a few other things we have planned as well.  Stay tuned.

These are my goals for 2009.  Have you made any for yourself?  And as we begin a new year for automaticable, what would you like to see more of on the blog?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Hey loyal readers! I know it’s been a while (Holy crap, 3 months?!?!?) since our last post, but that does NOT mean that we Wegnerians have given up on you.  We’ve just all been swamped with school, work, social lives, or lack there of.  There are some changes that you will notice to the site as soon as the New Year, which includes a brand new Tab dedicated to me!  Why me? Because #1 I’m awesome, #2 I’m special, #3 I have a class project with my new internship that requires me to keep record of what I’m doing (I’ll post more on this later on).

So, I’m sitting here thinking, and I realize I only have about 32 more hours before I’m off on a flight, leaving the U.S.A. to go be in warm, 85 degree weather during some of the most brutal snow storms Chicago’s had in quite a while.  The family and I (yes, all automaticable bloggers) are taking a GLORIOUS trip down to Jamaica for my parent’s 25th wedding anniversary.  This is a trip that has been in the makings for about six months now, and I’m as gitty as a school girl.  With a brand new camera, and skin as white as the snow we’re leaving behind, I’m fully prepared for a 7 day, all expenses paid vacation in the Caribbean.  Our resort includes a poolside bar, sailboats at our leisure, a beach, and endless amount of sunshine.  I don’t want to brag or anything, but it’s supposed to be 85 degrees EVERY day that we’re there.

Now, being it the holiday season, we were torn at first, at what to do about “The Big C” (Christmas), but in the end, we decided…..we’re skipping Christmas.  Yes, I know, shocking, because every year we have Christmas Eve at our place, and 45 people will all be disappointed this year because Santa will be coming down the stairs this year, instead of the elevator.  The fact that we’re skipping Christmas this year, is kind of difficult.  All my friends are asking me what I want for Christmas, and the only good answer I have come up with is “A Tan.”  I’m saving a bunch of money for not having to buy any gifts this year, but I can’t seem to put a close to 2008, even with New Years on its way.  Without Christmas, my year just doesn’t seem to be complete.  Oh well, Jamaica will still be fun, and I’ll be tan for my arrival in Orlando.

So here’s the deal, starting January 7th, I’m leaving the cold once again to live in Orlando, Florida for 5 months.  I have been offered (and I graciously accepted) an internship at Walt Disney World.  I will be working in Quick Service Food and Beverage, but I won’t know which exact park or where IN the park until I arrive down there.  The new tab I was talking about is for the Coop-Internship side of things, where I have to keep in contact with a faculty member at my college so they know I’m actually doing something down there instead of just enjoying the warm weather.  I’ll try to post ATLEAST once a week, and there will also be pictures to support my posts.  This is an exciting thing for me, because it’s an opportunity of a life time, and will give me direction and motivation on what I really want my future to hold.  With that being said, it’s now close to midnight on Saturday and I only have 30 more hours, before my flight leaves for Jamaica.

A Bon Voyage to you all, as well as a Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah with a Jolly good New Year!

In this week’s Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, there’s a link to an article on the Canonical Blog about their new offering of proprietary media codecs available for purchase.  Canonical has partnered with Fluendo and Cyberlink to give Ubuntu users a legal option for viewing and listening to their media.  This is similar to those who purchased a computer with Ubuntu preinstalled– generally there is a small premium factored in to have the media codecs pre-bundled.

This is a wise move by Canonical.  Giving their users a legal option for playing their media will encourage more software and companies to also invest in Ubuntu and all Linux media alike.  The announcement doesn’t quite make it clear, but it sounds like the Medibuntu repository will still be available with instructions for Ubuntu users to download similar codecs for free– illegally in many countries.  The adoption of the legal, non-free software will depend largely on how it is marketed inside Ubuntu.  That is, when you try to play an MP3 for the first time, will a dialog prompt you to purchase MP3 support, or offer an easier link to Medibuntu and the ubuntu-restricted-extras package?

One of the reasons that I moved to Ubuntu in the first place was so I could have software I wanted, free and legally.  It’s nice to finally have the option of legal media codecs as well.  What do you think of the announcement?  Will you pay the $40 for most non-free media codecs, or the additional $50 for DVD support?

One of the hardest questions I get asked is “What do you do?” Of course I could just say “SEO” and leave it at that, but for the vast majority of people, that will leave them more confused than before they asked the question. There are a number of different levels of explanation I go through, each one a test to see how much the questioner really wants to know and how much they will understand.

Continue reading “Defining SEO For the Uninitiated”

In this new age of social networking and being able to find just about ANYTHING on the internet (Thanks Al Gore!) it seems like your typical websites like Myspace and Facebook are where you can basically find anyone and their mom, literally.  I have experience with both websites and have watched both grow and deteriorate over time.  I’ve still noticed that I spend the majority of my time on websites like these, and it got me to thinking, “What is it about these websites that make me so attracted to them?”

Continue reading “Social Networking: Is it for you?”

A couple weeks ago I bought a bluetooth adapter for my computer in hopes that I could easily backup my cellphone contacts on my computer.  I haven’t yet found a program to sync my cellphone data, but I did find a program to use your phone to lock and unlock your screen when you leave and come back to your desk.  With BlueProximity, your cellphone acts as a wireless “key” to your desktop.

Continue reading “Lock Down Your Ubuntu Computer with A Bluetooth Cellphone and BlueProximity”