RobertSchapiro.net

What a shitty year 2007 was...I lost the same job, twice (US Marine Corps). I lost another job that I never really had (commercial helicopter tours pilot in Atlantic City). I've had four women break up with me that I wasn't really dating. I didn't make any progress towards a post-graduate degree. I didn't make any progress towards my paramedic licensure. I broke my foot, got into a car accident, and had a falling out with six of my close friends (Mirit, Kristin, Eden, Erin, College Park Rachel, and Howarth). I sank more money into flight school, didn't complete any airplane ratings, missed the annual ZAI Christmas party, only went up to Atlantic City three times (2007/06/08, 2007/08/09, 2007/09/08) - twice of which were complete and total failures (2007/06/08, 2007/09/08), and moved from Maryland up to the land of the frozen: Hibbing, MN. I had a very VERY slutty year for me (not a good thing), lost the Towson Rock Climbing Competition, missed more IVs, and rode a record low number of calls at the firehouse (31 calls at SVFC and 103 calls at PVFD). My physical fitness went to hell in 2007. And worst of all, I watched my best friend drink herself into a hospital bed and didn't even think to intervene until it was too late.

Read the whole story and see the video montage.
(Posted: 20080205)

Thursday, August 30, 2007

I had been dragging Alison to my flight lessons for four days and planned on dragging her three more. I knew I had to make it up to her, and tried to think of the most fun way to do it.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
(Posted: 20071104)

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Saturday night was The Dome's annual End of Summer Party. I've been for the last two years (two years ago it was at The Cottage) and this year was no exception.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 20071104)

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Six weddings in two years...not bad...especially because I love going to weddings. This one was different though - an Orthodox wedding. Carl and Melissa finally tied the knot. The two fo them have been dating since April 2, 2001 - Junior year of high school, so it was no shocker that the two of them were going to end up married someday. That day was Sunday.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 2007/06/25)

March 31, 2007

Here are the highlights of the first quarter of 2007:

I lost two jobs I didn't have. I was dumped by two girls I wasn't dating. I broke my foot. And the first thing I my father said to me when I was released from active duty was: You couldn't finish the Marine Corps like you couldn't finish high school. I guess there's no hope for you is there?

(Posted: 2007/04/10)

Friday, March 16, 2007

For six years I've wanted to go to the DC101 Elliot In The Morning Kegs & Eggs event. It's essentially a free concert that starts at 07:30 in a club in The District. For the last six years Carbon Leaf has played with a few other bands. This year they were featured with Saliva and Ben Kweller. The problem with going to Kegs & Eggs is that since it's a free concert and in a club (as opposed to a larger venue) and at 07:30, the only real way to get in is to show up the night before and camp out or get your hands on a pair of "cut the line passes". Since it's the middle of March and all of 34 degrees in torrential downpour outside, the whole idea of camping out didn't seem very feasible. Luckily, four days ago I was able to get my hands on a pair of "cut the line passes".

Read the whole story, listen to the audio footage, and see the photos.
(Posted: 2007/03/16)

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Several times a year the Hillel of Greater Baltimore throws a party for Hillel members at UMBC, Goucher, Towson, and Johns Hopkins. Usually the parties are a lot of fun, most notably L'Chaim's at Lucille's, Showtime at Howl At The Moon, and the Hillel of Greater Baltimore Semi-Formal.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
(Posted: 2007/03/13)

Monday, February 19, 2007

For those of you who don't know, Jean and I haven't been dating for almost three years now. (Our three year annivorsary is June 21, 2007.) However, clearly the breakup hasn't gotten to either of us because just today Jean gave me the CUTEST Valentine's Day Card EVER!

Read the whole story and see the card.
(Posted: 2007/02/19)

Once again a year is over and as a time-honored tradition I have prepared a video of the highlights (and low points) of 2006. Similar to the 2005 and 2004 video, this years video montage shows photos and video from the last year themed to one of my favorite songs released in the last year. This year (much to Jean's suggestion) I have chosen "Life Is A Highway" by Rascal Flats. In previous years I've refused to use song remakes, but alas the last year has yielded only about 8 good songs and all of the others were either depressing (Bad Day by Daniel Powter and What Hurts The Most by Rascal Flats), love songs (Would You Go With Me by Josh Turner, Want To by Sugarland, and One In A Lifetime by Keith Urban), or hardcore country (How About You by Eric Church and Every Mile A Memory by Dierks Bentley) and I feared that would shy most of my friends away from watching.

Read the rest of the story and watch the video.
(Posted: 01/17/2007)

On a recent trip to a college in PA, it was brought to my attention that drinking games are illegal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, even if they are played with water. I was deeply disturbed by this fact so I decided to research it a bit further. While I’ve found that many schools (throughout the country) have it written in their school policies that drinking games are prohibited, I have not been able to confirm whether or not it is a PA state law. Regardless of this, I want to take a moment to rant…What kind of fascist, freedom-hating society do we live it where it is illegal to throw ping pong balls into plastic Solo cups across a table in the privacy of my own home? Some would argue that “You are forcing someone to drink OH against their will.” That’s where the beauty of freedom comes in. In a free country, I am free to choose whether or not I want to play a game, no one is forcing me to. So no, no one is being forced to drink OH against their will.

(Posted: 12/03/2006)

Friday, December 01, 2006

This story comes to you about three months late. I actually wasn't going to post anything but I was flipping through some of my old stories and realized I have one for the ZAI Christmas Party 2005 and ZAI Christmas Party 2004 and it seemed only appropriate to write one for this party as well.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 2007/03/04)

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Min is known for the kick-ass parties that he has several times a year. With his own house in Baltimore City, he needn't worry about noise complaints. This year he put me in charge of making sure that the Merriweather firehouse staff shows up. I tried getting Young to come, but she was in Chicago. Fortunately I was able to convince Hot Robin Lancaster to attend.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
(Posted: 11/02/2006)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Saturday night was my official goodbye party. Even though I don't ship out until January 21, I will be spending two and a half weeks in Israel between now and then and this is the only weekend I have free until then.

The party was a complete success. I invited roughly 300 people to the event, expecting about a 25% turn out. In the end, 60 people showed on final count. A bunch of people RSVP'd that they would come and didn't show and a bunch more showed unexpectedly. Some traveled as far as from Atlanta just to see me. (Okay, in reality, I don't believe they traveled up here just to see me, but I can dream, right?)

Read the rest of the story and see the photos.
(Posted: 12/25/2006)

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Saturday night was Mara's 19th Birthday party. I had a fuckin' awesome time. Jean and I showed up pretty early. The party was at Michael's apartment in The View. When we got there, we met Michael, Steve, Mara, Darian, and a few of Mara's other friends.

In honor of Halloween earlier in the week, the party was a costume party. I dressed up in my helicopter costume. Jean was a horse. We thought it was ironic that I dressed up as a helicopter because I like to ride helicopters and Jean dressed up as a horse because she likes to ride horses.

Helicopter: Jean, horses don't wear shirts and pants!
Horse: Okay, I guess I'll take them off.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
(Posted: 11/07/2006)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Today I spent most of the day sorting out a fiasco with my health insurance company (CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield). As it seems, the $477.71 I've spent since March on my medical plan and dental plan doesn't cover my $128 bill that I received from my dentist. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, that my dental plan is an HMO (which is a politically correct way of saying "union" or "communism"). They only cover dentists that are part of the same circle jerk.

Why is it that when I pick up a hobo on the street in my ambulance, I provide medical treatment on my own time, using diesel fuel that was paid for by my fundraising, and take him to the hospital, where I pay for his medical coverage, yet the $477.71 that I've spent in the last 9 months doesn't cover my own medical coverage, and I have to spend another $128 out of my own pocket?

Everyone complains when I am cheap about putting down "only a 20% tip" on a $10 meal, but no one speaks up when I have to spend another $128 to get my teeth cleaned.

(Posted: 10/24/2006)

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Three months ago I vowed that this summer would have to be the greatest summers of all time. I knew it would be my last "real summer vacation" because next year I would be in the military, and even if I do take leave in some August three years away, I knew I wouldn't be able to coordinate all of my friends coming together at the same time. This is the last year that most of my friends are still in college and after they graduate, there's no telling where they might end up.

To conclude this summer, as with many before, the guys at The Dome decided to throw a party. These guys are well known for their reputation of throwing one hell of a good party, as seen during the New Years parties of yesteryear. Bryna, Darian, and Michael have been hyping up this years party for several months now, mostly because it was supposed to be in celebration of Michael and Darian's birthdays as well.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 08/31/2006)

Friday, August 25, 2006

By now many of you have probably heard about my acceptance into the United States Marine Corps, but as it seems, most people are still curious about the details. For almost five years now I have had a strong desire to join the military. I feel that freedom and liberty is something that most people take for granted and I believe that it is important to serve my country. While my job placement in the military was a consideration when applying, my primary reason for joining is because I actually want to be in the military. Throughout my life I've always enjoyed the structure and discipline that is expected of those in the military and up until now, home life, firehouse life, and school life have not provided either.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 08/25/2006)

Friday, August 11, 2006

I wasn't sure if I should post anything about Juliann and Nick's wedding, not because it wasn't a fuckin-awesome good time, but because I don't have much to say about it. However, Holly, who is much to busy distracting herself from nursing to school by reading my website, insisted that I post something.

I had been looking forward to Juliann's wedding for months. For as long as I've known her, she has been with Nick. Everyone knew those two were destined for each other and that it was only a matter of time before they tied the knot. A few months ago I received the invitation. I was so excited to go that I planned this summer's beach trips around the wedding.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 08/21/2006)

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Ever since Howl At The Moon, I've been looking forward to the semi-formal. Originally it was supposed to be last night, so I didn't think I was going to be able to make it, but it turned out they moved it to tonight.

I met all of my UMBC friends on campus early enough in the evening. We all took the UMBC shuttle downtown to Fells Point where we boarded the boat along with Hillelites from Goucher College, Towson, and Johns Hopkins. It was a very nice boat, and they couldn't have picked a better night to have the party. I was excited to hang out with my Hillel friends.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
Posted: 05/01/2006

Monday, April 17, 2006 - Sunday, April 23, 2006

Mad props go out to Stephanie for all the hard work she put into Liberty Week this year. The events were by far, much more popular than last year. The week started out on Monday with the Political Debate. We invited the Greens, Dems, and Republicans. The idea was to debate political topics that affected us as students, rather than just political policies in general. The topics were:

Because of a time mix up, I actually missed all but the last five minutes of the debate.

Monday night we invited Radley Balko from the Cato Institute and Glenn Schneider from Smoke-Free Maryland to discus public smoking ban laws. It was a rather heated debate with a lot of input from the audience. Balko's major argument was that smoking ban laws infringe on private business owners' right to run a business and to smoke and allow smoking on their property. Schneider's counter-argument was that business patrons and employees are forced to subject themselves to environments of smoke without a smoking ban in place.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
Posted: 05/01/2006

Saturday, April 01, 2006

This story comes to you about 12 hours late because people won't stop IMing me, calling me, coming in my room and bothering me, e-mailing me, posting messages on my Facebook wall, posting messages on my mySpace wall, and paging me. For God's sake people, let me be for like five minutes, that's all I ask!

Anyway, back to the story...so three of the greatest women in the world decided to throw me a surprise birthday party. For the last month Tama, Jean, and Rella planned a party for me. Originally it was supposed to be a surprise, but I found out about a month ago when I was talking to Tama about going skiing with my family. I found out that there was a party, but that's about it. The three of them managed to keep all the details from me up until about 10 minutes before Tama and I left the house.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 04/03/2006)

Friday, March 24, 2006

For those of you who verify my e-mails, instant messenger conversations, and files from my digital signature, I have generated a new PGP public key. The reason for this is that I needed one that would work on my SmartCard. From this date forward, all previous keys should be considered invalid and should be discarded immediately. My public key is available for download.

To view more information about my public key, including its ID and fingerprint, you may also visit my public key page.
Posted: 03/24/2006

March 18 - 20, 2006

Holly only comes in town a few times a year, so of course, when she does, we have to make the most out of the situation. Over the course of three days, I probably spent more time with Holly and Mark than in her last week before she moved away.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
Posted: 03/23/2006

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

This year I went to the UMBC Hillel Purim Party. It was a hella-good time, the after party was even better. For years I've never had a costume for any Halloween or Purim event and for once I wanted to put a lot of thought and time into a costume. That I did. Using a cardboard box, a cardboard poster roll, two battery powered motors, some copper wire, a switch box from my brother's van, an old erector set, a flashing LED, some aluminum foil, and about 6 hours of my free time between Sunday and Tuesday, I built myself a costume...I was a helicopter. Not a helicopter pilot, an actual helicopter. I had a rotating main and tail rotor and a strobe light for my tail.

Read the story, view the photos, and watch the video.
(Posted: 03/23/2006)

February 08, 2006

A new semester, a new Involvement Fest. I'm not a student here anymore, but I still manage to sit on the board of the UMBC Libertarians Club, and so I was at Involvement Fest to recruit new Free Thinkers. We only got three new members, but considering campus involvement at UMBC isn't very high to start, I'm happy with the results. Either way, it didn't stop us all from having a good time for a few hours.

View all the photos.
(Posted: 02/14/2006)

Thursday, February 02, 1006

Rella took me shooting again today. This time we shot a .22 Ruger. I didn't like it as much as the 9mm, but maybe that's just because I see myself having a 9mm attached to my hip when I'm flying for the MD State Police. Looking at the target, this time I shot a lot better than last time. Why? Because finally learned how to use the sight. There was a poster on the wall depicting what the sight should look like, so I tried it an it worked. I was a a little low and to the right though. I really think I'm developing a gun complex.

(Posted: 02/03/2006)

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Last year, to celebrate the end of 2004, I gave a small recap entitled 2004 In A Nutshell and made a video to go along with it. In the interest of making it an annual thing, I have done the same this year.

Read the whole story and watch the video.
(Posted:01/08/2006)

Saturday, February 26, 2006

No weekend with Bryna would be complete without a trip to the bowling alley. Okay, that's not entirely true, but lets just say I've handled more large blue balls as an infliction of Bryna than any other woman. I was actually impressed, the girl was only in town for a week and already I've gotten to see her three times. This time Michael, Darian, Bryna, Rella, Tama , and I all piled into Bryna's car and headed out to Gaithersburg for Cosmic Bowling. I thought of it as a culmination of my friends from all walks of life, or maybe just three (JDS friends, UMBC friends, and girlfriend).

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 03/23/2006)

Friday, February 25, 2006

These stories are usually better known as A Drunken Night At Rob's or Another Drunken Night At Rob's, but since no one really got shitfaced on this night, I thought it would better be named Hot Tub Party.

Read the whole story and see the photos.
(Posted: 03/23/2006)
(Updated: 04/02/2006)

Thursday, February 16, 2006

The Hillel of Greater Baltimore organized a party for students of Goucher, Towson, Johns Hopkins, and UMBC on Thursday at a club called Howl At The Moon. Last year we had something similar called L'Chaim's at Lucille's. This year was much better. From before it started until long after it ended, the evening was a complete success.

Tama insisted that I go with her, Lori, Marissa, and Jean from Goucher, which meant that I would have to go up to Goucher, then drive to Towson, park there, and then take the bus into the city. It worked out for the better because I got to have dinner at Goucher and spend the evening with Tama. Rella had previously asked if I could be her DD for the night, so she met us all at Goucher.

Read the whole story and see the photo slideshow.
(Posted: 02/22/2006)

Monday, February 13, 2006

Ever since I finished college, I've found a new appreciation for the college life that I never had. To make up for four lost years of not getting drunk, stoned, and laid in college, I've been spending a lot of time on campus...but not just my own. I've managed to pretend I am a student at: (from North to South) Brandeis, Goucher, Towson, UMBC, Howard Community College, University of Maryland College Park, Jewish Day School (that's a high school), and Sweet Briar College (that's an all-girls school). (Some of these I did while I was still in college.)

Read the whole story and view the photos.
(Posted: 02/14/2006 )

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Never thought I could ice skate? It's okay, neither did I. But hell, Bryna told all of us it was free skating, and I'll take anything for free. (I later found out the true meaning of free skating.) Bryna invited me, Michael, Jean, Miriam, Sharon, Darian, College Park Rachel, Alisa, Xiah, and a bunch of other people I don't know to go skating down in College Park. I have to say, I started to get the hang of it after about an hour.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
Posted: 01/08/2006

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Aside from spending New Years in Jerusalem (2004), this year far outdid every other New Years in the last 21 years. I managed to hit 7 parties during the night between Berwyn Heights and Towson (sort of) and still have time to "enjoy" midnight. Don't believe me? I have photos to prove it (except the midnight part). Furthermore, I did the whole thing wearing a tuxedo. (For the record, I didn't rent. I actually own the tux. Why? Is it because I wanted to look like the Linux penguin? No. See throughout my high school career and a few years following, I managed to attend five high school proms. Me, being the cheap Jew that I am, is only willing to pay for the same tux so many times before I decided to just buy the damn thing.)

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 01/08/2006)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

For three months I've was looking forward to having a big-assed graduation party. Thursday night was no let down. It was so much fun getting to see all of my friends in one place together. I had friends from the firehouse, JDS (both, Class of 2002 and Class of 2003), UMBC, friend I met outside of school, and my family and neighbors. All of them kind of stuck to their own clique, but when there was some cross-over, it was interesting.

I invited about 150 people, of those who RSVP'd, there were 50 that said they would attend. Some forgot and didn't show, but some didn't RSVP and showed anyway. In all, I remember 84 people (including myself) attending.

Read the whole story and watch the photo slide show.
(Posted: 12/25/2005)

Friday, December 16, 2005

Once again Kristin has thrown a hella-cool theme-ed party. This time the theme was Holiday Party. Okay, no big shocker there, but that didn't mean it wasn't any fun. The usual crowd was there: Kristin Sinclair, Cliff, Sarah, Lisa, Jesse, Kristin Lilly...the only one missing was Juliann (nonetheless, she was missed). There isn't much to write about that I should be posting online for the whole world to see ;-) ;-), so I'll just leave you with a photo slide show.

See the photo slide show.
Posted: 12/25/2005

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Tonight FYSH (First Year Students of Hillel) hosted a laser tag game at Shadowland. The turnout wasn't anything to brag about, but it was an exciting time none the less.

Read the whole story and see the photo slide show.
(Posted: 12/04/2005)

Friday, December 02, 2005

For the fourth year (second in a row), I went to the ZAI Office Christmas Party. Every year one of my clients holds a massive Christmas Party. They go all out...like at a Bar Mitzvah. This year, like last year, I invited Mara to be my date. When I picked her up at her dorm, she was wearing a beautiful black dress. My jaw just about dropped when I saw her. I was wearing the same outfit I wore every other year. :-P

Read the whole story and see the photos.
(Posted: 12/03/2005)

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Every Tuesday night (give or take) I hang out with my Renaissance fair friends at Mad City Coffee. One of them makes chain mail jewelry and clothing as props for play. I couldn't help myself but ask to try the body armour. You think this thing could stop a bullet?

Check out the full sized photo.
(Posted: 11/30/2005)