BeMused

So in my Creative Writing class last night, we spent the first half of it discussing our homework (which I’d forgotten to print out and bring), as well as different third-person points of view (we worked on third-person attached and third-person detached). I was miffed that I’d forgotten my homework. After the break we went up to the computer lab, where we were supposed to write a multiple third-person point of view short story on some weird news article of our choice (the professor had provided a couple of links to websites such as News of the Weird and This is True). I found one about some inept bank robbers and figured I could make something with that.

Now, I have a what is seemingly a non-problematic habit when typing: when considering what my next sentence is going to be, I hold down the shift key in anticipation of capitalizing my first word. Well, on WindowsXP (Perhaps 2K and 98 as well, I don’t know), when you hold down the shift key for more than eight seconds, you launch something called Filter Keys. Basically it’s an accessibility option of some sort. The problems (Among many) are that it capitalizes all your letters and it’s damn near impossible to turn off. It’s quite frustrating.

So sitting at one of the computers, I inadvertently turned it on. After messing with it for a few minutes, I got frustrated (I get easily frustrated with Windows), and moved to another machine. About 3 paragraphs into my story, I friggin’ did it again. As it was nearing the end of class, I figured I’d print my story out and simply finish it up at home.

But, naturally, it was not to be. That particular computer wasn’t hooked up to the network printer, and the lab tech responsible for such things was nowhere to be found. No problem, thinks I, email is just as good.

Nope, email isn’t working on this one either. And I can’t save it because it’s a networked computer. Forty-five minutes of time, right down drain. Quite the frustrating night.

I’ve been tasked to do a few different websites now, three for fun, one for work, and after going through a bunch to template and photoshop sites for ideas, I have to say, I suck.

But I know what sucks about my designs at least. Or at least think I do. They seem a bit flat, and not as eyecatching as several others out there. So, I guess I need to work on that.

Oh, and designing on a Mac is wonderful and I love it and all, but dammit, someone remind me next time to check the layout on MSIE before I get too far down the road. I spent all weekend on a layout (all CSS naturally) only to discover it was totally hoarked in MSIE (That’s a great sounding non-word. Hoarked!!!). So, because of time constraints, I opted to throw it in a table and now I’m basically back where I started.

Gah. A week has gone by since I last posted. How does this happen? Seems like it was just two days ago I was writing about going into D.C. to take pictures, and now a whole week has come and gone, including a birthday and made-for-the-greeting-card-industry holiday.

It’s the wife’s birthday that I speak of and luckily for me (?), it falls on Valentine’s Day, so I’m not likely to forget. Growing up with a birthday near a holiday myself (my birthday falls on the 23rd of December. Don’t forget. And my wish lists are over on the right there ), I try to keep the two seperate. For her birthday this year, I email a bunch of friends and family to pitch in and help buy her a pottery wheel. She was quite surprised and in her words, “if I wasn’t so dehydrated, I’d be crying.” That’ll teach her to go out and party a little too much the night before.

I did the normal flowers, chocolates and card bit for Valentines Day. Nothing too special in that one, other than we have a ton of chocolate in the house now. Not saying that’s a bad thing mind you, but I’m going to have to take advantage of the nice weather and get out and walk the dogs or something.

Other than that, things are, as always, the same. I have to start on a story for my class that’s due by the 8th of March, and I have no idea what I’m going to do, how I’m going to write it, or what I’m even going to write about. I guess I’m one of those who need inspiration. I think in this case, it’ll be a case of last minute panic that inspires me.

Friday night, before turning out the light at around 12:30 A.M., I thought to myself: OK, if I really want to get into D.C. and take some photo’s of the memorials, I need to be there as early as possible to catch the sunrise, and avoid any possible crowds. That means getting up by about 5-5:30. Ugh.

As it was the weekend, and I was going to be later than planned, I decided not to set the alarm, and see what would happen. I have a great body clock, and when I tell myself to wake up at a certain time, I can usually come pretty damn close.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:05. Nice.

So, being awake, I got dressed, grabbed my camera and tripod (crappy tripod, I’m going to have a to add one to my B&H Wish List *shameless plug* ), and drove on into D.C. I snapped between 75 and 100 photos, and I think I got a few nice ones. I’ll be doing post-processing this week sometime, and hopefully will be able to share some here shortly.

Oh, and sweet. I just won an iTunes Free Song from my morning Diet Pepsi. Guess Monday could be worse.

I’ve decided it’s embarrassing to have something that you’ve spent a lot of money on, and then never use. There are two “case in point” situations here. First, my camera. Back in October, I bought myself a very nice Nikon D70 dSLR camera. I usually don’t splurge on myself but I finally went out and got one.

But I haven’t used it that much. Plenty of photo opportunities abound, but I’ve simply been too lazy. So I decided to start dragging the camera with me when I go different places, regardless of whether I think I’ll have a photo opportunity or not. And tomorrow morning I’m planning (”planning” mind you…) to get up early and go into D.C. and take some pictures of the Vietnam Memorial for a website I’m working on. So hopefully I’ll start taking more pictures, and making use of that silly “Photo’s” link I have up there that goes nowhere.

The second case in point is a piece of software called Reason. I love music, always have, and love playing and creating it as well. Reason is a software synth/sequencer/drum module/everything all built into one. I also have an M-Audio Oxygen 8 midi controller. Both cost a bit of money, but do you think I’ve gotten to where I can use it? I’ve bought probably $75 worth of books and such, but do you think I’ve found time to sit down and read through and learn the different nuances of the program?

I can make excuses all day long…but what it boils down to is just lack of motivation. i.e., laziness.

Definitely something to work on…

Things might look a bit wonky around here for a few days, as I’m creating a new layout for the site. It’s generally the same, sidebar on right, menu above. Just slightly different with different colors. No serious changes, so all my die-hard readers (all 3 of you) shouldn’t find navigating that much different.

Other changes will hopefully include getting the about section updated, and finally finding time to create a photo’s and contact page. You’d think I’d have done that a while ago, seeing as how I put those links up there…well, a while ago.

So, assuming I can get some more pressing concerns wrapped up, everyone should see some changes around here soon.

Oh and what the heck is the purpose of Trackbacks and pingbacks? I’m sure that’s in the documentation somewhere, just too damn lazy to look it up right now…