When the word "teenager" is mentioned, a lot of negative thoughts are usually conjured, such as vandalism, violence, drugs and smoking... but that's completely stereotypical. The fact is, when only a handful of teenagers from an entire school do something, it gives all teenagers a bad name, and hurts everyone's reputation. These are the things that cause phrases such as "kids these days..." or even "those dumb kids."

But the most common way of trying to figure out what teenagers think about, what their views and perspectives on society are, is unfortunately studying them. Not asking, not talking -- studying. It seems as if being open is not even an option -- being sincere and talking is not even a thought that comes through the minds of so many adults. It's all analyzing with adults -- thinking about what exactly makes those minds tick. Thinking. But then again, that's what teenagers do.

If you were to ask a teenager exactly what they thought about, I'd bet you almost anything they couldn't come up with a specific answer. The truth is that teenagers think about pretty much everything. They're between two worlds, for goodness sake. There's the world of friends, and the world of family. There are the worlds of childhood and adulthood, worlds of right and wrong. When you're stuck between these types of worlds, how can you exist without thinking? We base our judgement off of what we've experienced, what we've heard, and what we think will happen. There are so many things going on that we can't simply block everything out. Its not an option. The same with adults -- having the choices of family or friends, home or work, right and wrong. We're just trying to find our place, trying to distinguish exactly where we are between the worlds; it gets aggravating. To have to think about all of these things all the time isn't easy; sure, most of the time we're ambitious and hard working, but sometimes we need the chance to sit back and enjoy, to take a break. Adults have got to understand that -- after all, adults feel the same way sometimes.

So to those adults out there, and to the teenagers: stop analyzing. Stop poking at eachother like animals in a zoo, trying to calculate, examine, understand. The fact is that both teenagers and adults alike need a break -- so why are you both wasting time analyzing eachother?

-Rob

Today I feel like talking about iPods. You know why? I don't. But it sounded interesting enough to do.

Went to the school library, and I went to return books when I decided I wanted to keep one out -- iPods and iTunes for Dummies.

We had what we call "silent reading time" where I read some of it -- and I realllllly want an iPod now. Play movies, songs, and podcasts; have a virtual calendar; play games; its amazing what you can do with it! And now I'm really psyched about it... anyone else have one?

I thought it was interesting enough to blog about, and hey, my blog is kind of designed around the whole iPod/Apple idea. I just really really want one now. I want to know about you guys, what you think about them. I think extra money I get that doesn't go the site will go to getting myself an iPod. That'll be cool to have I think. Email / chatter your iPod reviews and thoughts. I'll update later with more, I'm on a time cruch at the moment.

And do remember, there is an RSS feed you can add to your RSS reader. That will always be available and will be updated at the same time as the post.

Good night, everybody...

-Rob

Well, life hasn't exactly been bad lately. Not great... but not bad.

Google Adsense has slowed down -- that's understandable, though. I haven't exactly been updating for like, what, a week? Yikes. Well, this is my chance, I'm taking it. Revenue's gone up to $34.39.

There are going to be some new changes to the site. Here's a list of all the new things you should be aware of that will be/have been changing:

These are the changes that will shortly be occuring within the next three days. They will trickle in one at a time so not to overwhelm and spread out the iRob-ness cheer. Oh, and please remember that you can email me anytime about anything site-wise and I will respond. Comments/questions/thoughts, anything. I really enjoy hearing from you.

And do remember, there is an RSS feed you can add to your RSS reader. That will always be available and will be updated at the same time as the post.

I know this is all very random, but hey, that's who I am. If you've noticed, also, I've done some adjustments to the layout of the pages so the content will make the page stretchout accordingly and not look tile-y if they go over. And if you haven't noticed any changes, that's even better, because that means the transition was smooth and seamless.

Well, best be going now. It was an okay week... and now, in approximately three hours, it will be over. All I can say is that even though this week was alright, I hope next week will be better. More exciting, more fun.

Good night, everybody...

-Rob

I literally gasped when I saw this. Neil will testify. Just... wow. There are no words.

FYI, all previous posts can be found on my feed (RSS button on the left). Get a good online Feed reader like BlogLines to read. You can even do xangs. All the updates come at once -- when I update, you will know immediately. When a fellow xanga-er updates, you will know immediately. When the weather man makes a new prediction, you will know immediately. That, folks, is the immense complex power of RSS. Ironically enough, it stands for Really Simple Syndication. Ha.

That's about it, short entry, I know. Tell me what you're thinking...

-Rob

Well, life is not the best at the moment. I felt like writing another essay, but I don't think that will be happening in the near future. I felt a previous piece will do my writing-life enough justice. Check out The Mountain.

Well, I finished Leah's site. It was a lot of fun, I got to scan things, photoshop things, do a lot of Javascript and HTML coding. It was pretty complicated -- the results are clean cut and simple enough, but the whole process was probably one of the hardest I've done. Linkage is here. That'll soon be on my virtual portfolio and links pages.

I'd like to hereby link to the new greatest site on the face of the earth, also now known as the Leaky Mug. I thought Mugglenet and Leaky were good seperately, but now that they're together, they're completely awesome. Seems almost... unreal...

Well, I've had a pretty bad and confusing week. Glad its over. Have a great day!

-Rob

Eleven dollars and forty seven cents! I'm on a roll! I just went to GoDaddy today and figured out that prices for the site will be just below fifty dollars for a year, not 90 like I thought before. So I'll have a little left over for the savings account, college or something.

I'll be here this summer for PotC2 -- it comes out on my dad's birthday. I'm not going to JBA until I think the 9th of July, so until then I'll be here.

I feel like writing. I think another essay will be up by probably Friday, and Neil's made a small minigame he wants me to show on the site that should be up by Saturday. Don't be too excited -- I seriously doubt you're going to love it. He's making it to show he actually can use Flash, and he is working on a game. He's still doing GregMan, the remake of PacMan with our great friend Greg, but for now his latest (but definitely NOT greatest) game is... be prepared... Happy the Clown Escapes from Prison.

I really am not expecting too much, and really hope he drops the game right now, but the coding itself is cool... the plot is not the best, the character's horrible, and the graphics aren't wonderful, but the stuff he can do is cool. Neil, I know you're out there -- DROP THE GAME. YOU CAN DO BETTER!

Well, that's about it, email/chatter/comment/call, whatever you can to let me know what you think...

As you can see, I've made $3.18 with Google Adsense. Its just an image -- it doesn't update on its own, sorry. I'm not quite that advanced yet. I'm working right now on getting more traffic to the site, so I've decided to update a series of things -- I've finally added cool color-corresponding ads to each page, and I'm afraid its a little bit overkill, so I think I'll limit myself to one ad unit a page. Anyway, check those out, I got to choose all the colors myself, let me know what you think. Also, I'm going to be adding a Pictures section, to post pics and stuff. I'm not going to be fancy and get a script, its just going to be a page with links.

Also, I'd like to direct your attention to the little "RSS" icon to the left. I've decided I want to start using RSS/XML to make my site even more accessible. If you have an RSS feed, please try to add my site to it, and if for some reason it doesn't work (in which case I'm really sorry, please forgive me, its my first attempt!) please let me know through email or my comment box. Two more things -- when a new post comes out, I'm going to have "NEW!" highlighted in yellow next to the title for 24 hours within it coming out, so you know if its a post you should read or if its old news. Also, I've joined Technorati, if anyone wishes to know, and have any idea what it is.

Also, quick note here: the ads still have not quite targeted correctly, it takes a few days, so they may not be particularly interesting. Also, the sitesearch isn't quite working either, I'm not on the Google Database yet. It will be soon!

Applied for Google Adsense. I hope they review the site soon... I'd really like to start earning for a full hosting site, with a real domain name. I've just figured out that my PHP skills aren't quite there yet... which is kindof mandatory when it comes to dignoof.com, so I'm really going to have to learn up on that.

Trev's watching "Big," its a great movie with Tom Hanks. Its a little older, but its really great. You should see it.

Here's a commercial I just saw, thought it was strange...

"Do you love going to the gym? Its fun, right? *Valleygirl Giggle* If you like it, this is NOT for you. Nope. *Giggle* For those who don't like spending hours at the gym, *shakes her head* the [miscellaneousgymsystem] is for you..."

The rest wasn't particularly interesting, but that was strange enough I thought it was worth copying down. Okay, thats about it... comment back, I'd like to here whats up.

-Rob

Check out the new pages. I have whole new sections: writing and a virtual portfolio. And, of course, all the pages are re-designed to fit the layout... so... I have quite a few new pages.

Now, although I did create the site, I cannot take all the credit -- Josh did give me the idea. Thanks for the inspiration! Here is what triggered it:

"Well, make it [the site] more maccable..." Edited for Punctuation

He, of course, meant to make the site so his computer could view it. I did. But I did so much more. The whole theme is Mac now, Josh. Hats off to you.

Probably should be going now, but do enjoy the site, look around, see what you like... any comments/questions/concerns, contact me. Thanks!

-Rob