Android Hell is a real place.

About Velutha the Cat, amongst other things

2009-06-27T18:46:14Z

Packing is going along as well as packing can. Still need to get a few things on Craigslist, still need to try to pawn some items off on friends as well.

Recently spent a glorious couple of days watching Boogiepop Phantom. I really liked the series and need to find more anime like that to watch. Would also love to cosplay as Boogiepop if I get the chance.

Drew and I went to Fallout last night, the theme was "Rain". Sprinklers and a hose were set up at random places on the ceiling, and lots of people danced around in swimsuits, which was really fun. Then, there was the rather large guy with black swastikas taped to his nipples. Later, I noticed he had a friend, wearing a t-shirt with a swastika on it. Both of them seemed to be socializing quite normally with random other people. Every time I noticed this, I kept thinking of this random pin I got back in high school from some college or another that was trying to recruit me. The pin said, "Don't be so open minded that your brains fall out." Fallout, being a private fetish-type club, is a safe space for people to express themselves in ways that they might not normally be able to openly express themselves in other circumstances. It seems that this isn't always a good thing, and I really hope it's not housing a burgeoning neo-nazi subculture.

And on a final note, we have gone from two cats to one cat. Velutha died this morning, from feline AIDS. She's been sick for awhile, but it wasn't until a few days ago that this actually became apparent. It's hard to tell when you have cats: there's been more food in the bowl lately, so we knew either one or both of them was eating less. I thought it might have to do with it getting warmer, though, and maybe them eating less to compensate for the heat. Velutha has also been sleeping a lot lately, but she's always slept a lot. It's kind of just what cats do. She's gotten thinner, but it's only been recently that we've noticed that it was significant, as she's always been thin and didn't really have all that much weight to lose in the first place. Then she started oozing something from her mouth the other day, and Drew took her to the vet. They confirmed the AIDS (along with lymphonia, I think), and he brought her home along with several medications. This morning, we go to find her to administer the medications and she is nowhere to be found. After an hour of searching we find her dead, under the bed. I suppose at least she got to be close to us as she died, even though we had no idea she was under the bed. Apparently, this might have been something she started out with. She was the last cat in a litter born in a barn, the rest of her siblings eaten by dogs. She was slightly mangled herself and covered with fleas when Drew's cousin took her in. We only got her four years ago, and she was eight or nine years at death. Anyhow, it's sad, but it's probably for the best that it happened now. She would have had to spend about three days in a car pretty soon, which wouldn't be fun for even the healthiest of cats.

Free stuff + link!

2009-06-24T14:06:31Z

First off, For anyone who wants to better understand how bra sizes really work, I recommend reading this rather amusing article.

Also, as I am moving sooner then later, I have various objects who would love to have new homes. First off: the aloe plant. I have a rather overgrown aloe plant that I really don't want to have to take with me, and it would be a great companion for someone who wants to repot it. It would also be a great companion for a person/family who burns themselves on a regular basis. Would anyone be interested in adopting it?

Second, I have random pieces of furniture to get rid of, including a desk or two and many bookshelves, as well as small pieces of end table type furniture. All are varying degrees of used...but they're free! If you can come pick them up, they're yours!

Interviews and moving and such

2009-06-23T22:14:51Z

So I've now managed to secure two interviews, one on the 6th and one on the 7th, both with recruiter-types, and both for Colorado Springs positions. Admittedly, my target area was more for Denver, but I'm just looking forward to being employed at a place that gives me dollars which is in Colorado. I really do want someplace as bike-friendly and non strip mall/big box store as possible, we shall see how things go. At least there seem to be positions springing up for my sorts of skills, which is a good thing.

Zinc status: no cramps so far. We'll see if this lasts.

Adventures with zinc and fighting menstrual evils

2009-06-18T16:41:38Z

So I start my period in four days. And thus, I start taking zinc today. According to various things I've been reading online, I can all but avoid the evil painful cramps I generally have by taking 30-90 mg of zing starting a few days before my period begins. The unfortunate side effect of this is the nausea. I just took a pill not too long ago, and my stomach is already churning and I kinda want to throw up. Ah, zinc. However, if this works, having 15 minutes of nausea a few times a day for 3-4 days is significantly better then having 48 hours of incapacitating pain!

Originally published at Ptocheia.net.

Twilight (the last post about it, honest!)

2009-06-12T04:27:18Z

I finished the series, finally. It was addictive to the end. In some ways satisfying, in other ways rather frustrating. I wrote a rambling review of it on Goodreads, should anyone care.

I will include a brief snippet here, something that in scanning over reviews of the books I just hadn't seen touched on at all.

"One thing about the books that I do appreciate is this: In many fantastical pieces of fiction, there's a central character who ends up being the savior (Harry Potter, Frodo/LotR, Neo/Matrix, Rand/Wheel of Time, etc etc). That character is usually "different" in some way or another that ends up saving everything, and that character is consistently male. It was a breath of fresh air to read something where the character with the awesome powers who saves the day is actually female."

Site Update!

2009-06-12T03:09:13Z

I've been finagling around with fiddly stuff on my art/design website, trying to make it prettier as well as more functional. As it was pretty much the first site I tried building with php, it was chock full of obfuscated logic and gobbly-gook and having to snout around entirely too much to find what I'm looking for in order to make quick edits. So I cleaned it up and made the structure more intuitive and the php more legible. And I added a gallery, yay! Need to explore more possibilities with Joomla, as it is making me like javascript more. The gallery randomly freaks out on me in Google Chrome, which is rather unfortunate, but as Chrome also randomly freaks out on me, I'm not too concerned. I've got a small collection of different CSS styles, and I tried to make them look not as tacky as they used to be. It's a weird line I feel like I'm trying to walk: I want to have this range of different CSS styles that a user can switch back and forth between, to see my design ability. Thing is, I don't want to make the styles *too* different from each other, as I don't want insane server requestage to happen. So I'm just keeping many things in neutral or b/w, to keep from having too much clashing occur. I also rescanned in a few things, and scanned in a few new things. New art, yay!

Anyhow, feel free to check out my updates at varoper.com!

Wheels and New Toys

2009-06-10T16:47:06Z

First off, here's a question for anyone who knows more about cars then I do: I have a 2002 Kia Rio, and my spare tire's rim is busted (along with the tire itself). I recently got new tires put on my car, and I've got the nicest of the old ones in my trunk, as the shop told me that I just need to get a new rim, and they can put the old tire on the rim for my new spare. Thing is, I have no idea how one goes about getting a tire rim: a junkyard maybe? I poked around buying rims online, but what I found seems like they're either a.) Meant for cars far more blinged out then mine will ever be (and priced as such) or b.) sold in sets of four, and I only need one. I just want to get a basic rim! Any suggestions?

In other news, I've been spending money lately. First off, I bought a monitor! See, for awhile, I've been using this weighty bastard. I actually found it in the trash about three years ago, and it was an excellent upgrade at the time, especially considering it was free. However, at 50 lbs, I was not looking forward to trying to move with it. So, I got this baby. I'm really enjoying having a widescreen monitor, as I am the sort of person who likes to have a large assortment of small windows open that I flip back and forth between constantly. It is also very pretty, takes up much less space on my desk, has built-in speakers so I can get rid of my clunky separate speakers, and weighs 15 lbs. Even better: I checked retailmenot.com and found a $10 off coupon to use when buying it, yay!

I also ordered a netbook, which has not arrived yet. As I am unsure of what the internet situation will be like when we get to Colorado, I wanted to get something that would give me wifi access so I can keep up on email and necessary job search stuff. It's pretty basic, and I figure that I can upgrade as needed.

Originally published at Ptocheia.net.

In defense of scrunchies!

2009-06-07T23:48:31Z

So I'm wasting time, as I am want to do when I sit down in front of this computer, and I end up reading some article regarding 90's fashion making a comeback. It mentions scrunchies, and how they're totally coming back. And here I am thinking, "They went away at some point?" See, my hair is massive. It officially reaches my waist now, and is thick in an obnoxious way. I cannot wear many hair accessories as much more then accessories, as they're either too cheap (I've broken many a crappy plastic hairstick in my day) or too insufficient (I've about given up on most clips to do anything major on my head). The same is true for elastic hair bands - not only do they not hold my hair particularly well, but they tend to pull in rather uncomfortable ways. Scrunchies, on the other hand, are stretchy and soft and supportive and super comfortable on my hair. Their elastic is thick and is up to the task of restraining any size mane, as it were.

In any case, I have scrunchies in all sorts of colors, to match whatever outfit I happen to be wearing, and I look forward to wearing them for the next 50-60 years or so.

And now for something completely different: Turbo Heather!

I wish I had one when I was a kid!

Highly interesting links for your perusal

2009-06-07T04:06:30Z

First off, here is a rather disturbing version of Tetris (click the on red bar that begins with "Jogar"). I cleared a few lines, then could not take it anymore, and let all the blocks pile up to the top.

Now here's an article for your "being entertained by stupid people" quotient for the day":
Reasonable Consumer Would Know "Crunchberries" Are Not Real, Judge Rules

Illustrative Art Stuffs and Getting One's Dance On

2009-06-04T01:09:55Z

So here's something exciting: Forrest's card game (Furoticon) is now live, and I have art in it! Yay! So this means that I now have two instances of illustrative artwork that is published, neither of which I can put on a resume, especially together. One is art in an erotic furry card game, and the other is art in a book titled "Jesus, Priceless Treasure".

In other news, I made a super snazzy dance mix CD. It is strategically designed to be played loudly in your car in order to get your booty a-shakin'. While sitting in a car, but pretending that you are actually in a club with light-up floors and John Travolta. In fact, it will cause you to see all of the other drivers around you as actually being John Travolta. Such are the benefits of such a mix CD. Here are the songs, in order (with my way awesome TI-99/4a Winamp skin), on the mix CD:

I'd love to make extra copies and swap with people if they feel so inclined. I will also accept baked goods in lieu of mix CDs.

Internets, Writing, Greek Food, Twitter, and Sparks

2009-05-30T20:30:19Z

So some domains of mine got transferred over to a new server, and the stuff didn't transfer properly, and then my ip got blocked, and so I couldn't access many of the fine junks that I (and hopefully others) enjoy accessing on a regular basis. So sad. It's all back and up and running though, which is good. You see, there's a deal with createspace.com whereupon I can get a free copy of the book I wrote through Nanowrimo.org last November. And I haven't touched the book at all since November. I did go through it with Drew to find typos and stuff that didn't work, I just haven't actually bothered to fix it until now. Which I need to do in the next 36 hours or thereabouts, as the free book deal expires on the beginning of June. Maybe it's anxiety, being perfectly aware of the mediocrity of said book and the enormous effort of rewriting something mediocre into something good. So now I have only enough time to make it a more legible mediocre book, rather then a good book. However, a mediocre book is better then no book, and it does bode well in terms of the fact that, in theory at least, the next book (and hopefully there shall be one at some point) should be a bit less mediocre. In any case, the book lives on one of my websites, and I can finally access said website to edit said book. And I need to make cover art. D'oh! It will likely be something simple, slapped out in Illustrator if I can muster the gumption. Basic and clean often works better then gaudy and overwrought, anyhow.

Last night, Greek festival! Tonight, Greek festival! Saw Morgan and Dee there last night, and will see them again tonight. Saw Melvin for 2 seconds, and then he disappeared, never to be seen again. Saw random LJ friend, and in the time it took me to try to remember how her name was pronounced so I could say 'hi', she'd wandered off. D'oh! Food was good, especially custard whose name I've forgotten. I'm normally not too hot on yellow custards, but this was absolutely delightful and I even liked it more then the baklava. Last night I did the "meat on a stick + green beans" thing, tonight I'll do the "meat + veggies plus tziki in a pita" thing, and it shall be magical. I'll be getting there at 6 or thereabouts if anyone else wants to hop onto that magic carpet ride as well!

Oh yeah, this is a sweet amount of sea sponges. Oooh yeah!

And speaking of which, I tweet now. Or rather, I got a twitter account about a year ago, and recently got bored and have tried actually using it. I'm still wary of the actual utility of it, as it's another way to post in AIM away message or a Facebook status update, but as, given my chosen profession, I have a need to stay on top of all these newfangled Internets, I gotta give it a whirl.

Thusly, add me on Twitter and I'll add you back! I am @ptocheia.

I am currently drinking one of a dying breed. Caffeinated Sparks, how I love you so. We might be down to just a 4-pack now. And when that 4 pack is gone, I shall forever mourn the loss of the delicacy of caffeine +alcohol in one convenient delicious beverage.

Originally published at Ptocheia.net.

Zinc and cramps

2009-05-24T02:04:13Z

So yesterday was supposed to involve going biking around Williamsburg and going to a Greek festival. But then, the ole groin kicked in. I am generally of the idea that I'll just drug myself when I get cramps and do whatever I was planning on doing, as I hate to just give 1/15 of my life over to pain, but after 6 painkillers was having not nearly as much effect as I'd like, I decided to call it off and lie around achy and dopey all day/evening instead. It was maddening, it felt like Wolverine is attempting to remove my ovaries. Today was better, at least.

I looked around online, and found research that indicates that taking zinc 1-4 days preceding the onset of menstruation will greatly reduce sever cramps. Has anyone else tried this? Zinc has a really bad habit of making me feel nauseous, but it might be worth it to feel nausea for a half an hour for 4 days to avoid severe pain.

Interview Adventures

2009-05-20T01:29:26Z

So Drew and I are back from Florida, it was a wild and wacky ride that I'll write more about at a time that is not now. What I will briefly write about, however, is the fact that I just had a phone interview for a webmaster position on a US military base in Japan. I really don't know how I did, I always start off shaky with any sort of interview and suspect that I babble and repeat myself and use less eloquent language then I'd like. I did appreciate, however, that much of the interview was more of the 'quizzing me on various things I should know in order to perform the tasks the position requires' rather then 'what are your 3 greatest strengths and weaknesses' sorts of questions. We'll see how it goes. Drew and I are still interested in Denver and such otherwise, but this Japan position seemed a once in a lifetime sort of opportunity, so I had to try for it.

Running off and such

2009-05-11T14:16:04Z

So Drew and I are off for a lovely week in beautiful humid Florida, whereupon we will camp and hike and sprawl out on the beach and hunt for good Cuban food. Hope everyone else has a superb week!

Originally published at Ptocheia.net.

ptocheia @ 2009-05-08T08:52:00

2009-05-08T14:52:56Z

At some point recently, Drew and I began gargling tea like nobody's business. We've got green tea, brown rice green tea, oolong tea, and female treasure tea. I still need to get Drew to drink some female treasure tea. Then, after that, I'll get a box of the male treasure tea (or whatever the male version is called) and drink it all, and see if I feel nice and manly.

Job hunt is still working it's dismal business. Or not working, as the case may be. I kinda wish my resume wasn't all over the board. I also kinda wish I'd gotten my degree in something other then freaking illustration. Or at least double-majored, or something. I am still super-excited about trying to go back to school, but I suspect that it may be easier for me to grab a 2nd bachelor's before attempting grad school. I want to do computer science, and, while I did take several math and CS courses during my first runaround in school, it's not nearly enough to be able to get into grad school with. Meaning that even if I got accepted, I'd still need to take many undergrad courses. At grad school pricing. So, taking them as undergrad would be more financially astute. That, and apparently to get into the grad school I'm looking at (University of Colorado), one needs four letters of recommendation. My current job recommendation list of people wouldn't translate so well into recommendations for grad school, and most of my undergrad teachers barely knew I was there where I was in their class, much less 8 years after the fact. Albeit, when I was actually in college, my dilemma was of the "my adviser is a landscape painter, this helps me not for computer-related grad school programs" sort of issue as well. And, I'd also need to retake the GRE. And study for the GRE. Err, and move to Colorado first, and get a permanent address there so that in a year's time, when I actually start school, I'll be considered in-state and quality for the much-lower tuition rate.

And then I've got these ingrown ideas about how I'm really just supposed to be doing art. I suspect is has to do with labeling. From when I was young I was the Artist to my parents (no Prince involved, mind you), and continued being the Artist for quite some time, despite having other things I was also good at and also enjoyed. So I tried the 'art for a living' thing (though the 'art' part is arguable), it's called 'painting bunches of identical urns over and over and over again until your brains fall out'. There are other ways to achieve 'art for a living' but they tend to involve painting many things that all seem similar, giving yourself a 'look', and then continuing to paint with that look so that people feel you're consistent enough in what you create to trust you to create something for them. The whole 'look' think is tedious, to me. I find value in having the flexibility to create a range of art types.

In any case, developing a site/application to me is pretty much like drawing&painting a picture anyhow. You get this idea in your head of how it's gonna look/work by the end, you map out what you're gonna do (sketching a framework, or writing out a framework and setting up basic files with empty classes and functions sketching your future intentions with them). Or, if you're like me, you neglect your framework and jump on in, leaving lots of correction for later (I'll paint something so the shading ends up completely inconsistent with things I do later, and needs correcting/I'll write out logic so a little part of my application becomes awesome, but needs complete rewriting later to become consistent with the rest of the larger application and to not have ridiculous redundancy). And in the end, I always have touchups. I'll go back and darken/lighten things for better contrast, or I'll go back in and add comments and change whole sets of variable names, just for better readability. In any case, I think doing art and writing code are exceptionally similar tasks.

And on a final note, I need to stop thinking that brownies are the ideal breakfast food, they're not exactly the Breakfast of Champions here.

Firefox, keyboards, diving for goodies, and my beloved Steelcase chair.

2009-05-04T11:14:51Z

So is it just me, or has Firefox been really slow since the last update? It takes for-freaking-ever to load pages. I'm paranoid I've gotten some sort of weird virus on it. I'm hoping that maybe it's some sort of issue with the latest version instead, though, mostly because viruses are a huge pain. Chrome works fine though, and for all I know IE might work fine too (though whether I'll actually check is debatable). In the process of being frustrated, I defragged, so my C drive is feeling much better. Also found out that Steam, which I used for Portal-related purposes and have barely touched since then, was taking up multiple gigs of space. Not completely sure why, as, though I had several random trial downloads, none of them were in any way fancy. Nonetheless, it got uninstalled.

My computer area is now oolong-flavored. Yesterday I had the fabulous fortune to whack my still-too-hot-to-drink cup of tea with my elbow, thus giving some things a bath. Nothing too important though, lucky for me there is apparently some serious indentation going on in the middle of my computer desk. Though, the left arrow on my keyboard is sticking in a rather unfortunate way. I feel lucky that the keyboard works at all, though, given my luck with spilling things on keyboards. Which I suppose is the price one inevitably pays for keeping beverages at one's desk.

So this past Saturday! Diving madness! As Christine is unemployed and I am a lover of Free, we both went up to the U of R for their moving out day to check out all the detritus the students were leaving behind. At first I was disappointed due to the lack of VA-friendly items, but in the end all was well. Drew and I now have about 25+ packets of microwaveable popcorn (butter lover's, to be precise). Someone had a great big box of the stuff and had chucked it, with barely any used at all. I also have a hula hoop! The best find though was a super sweet jacket. It's made by Diesel, and is cut and designed in a really interesting manner, with joyous zippers. Once I've washed it I'll post a picture of the awesomeness.

On a final note, I essentially have had a free drafting chair for the past several years. Back when I started doing contract work for OWP, I bought a really nice used Steelcase drafting chair from Hull St Outlet for $100. It was a really high-quality chair and was amazing for my posture. I used it constantly for two good years, and then when I went to work in-house, it just kinda sat around. I finally decided to suck it up and sell it. As much as I liked the chair, I liked the money more, and I feel bad if I own something and never use it, I feel like that item would be happier if it were owned by a person who appreciated it more then me. So I sold the chair on Craigslist - for $100. Yay!

Job hunting, Florida, and more Twilight

2009-04-30T15:23:13Z

So I spent a bunch of time finessing my resume, seeking out references, trying to figure out how to write a salary history that doesn't make my actual salary history look wacky, and writing the perfect cover letter, all for a job that sounded rather ideal. I submit the materials, only to get an email back soon after stating that the position had already been filled. Which was a surprise to me, as the position was still listed under the "Employment" heading of their website. Ah, waste of time. I suppose I at least have a cover letter and resume with more finesse at the point, at least. Am still snouting around for other jobs. I've gotten rejected by a few, have heard nothing from others, and have also gotten vague "We'll contact you if something comes up that fits" messages from recruiting agencies. No matter what, we're vacating this apartment in two months and heading westward, so something needs to rear it's head at some point in the near future. If not, I can always get a job driving a van or something, and write lots of PHP in my off time to keep up skills, in the hopes of acquiring employment at a time when not everyone else in the entire freaking universe is also attempting to acquire employment. I have the advantage of being a cheap bastard, so my standard of living never bothered to increase along with my salary. While I'd be a bit sad to need to take a job that isn't exactly what I want and that pays less, I'm not going to be suffering economically or anything.

In other news, in a few weeks Drew and I are gonna head off to Florida. He's got multitudes of grandparents there, as well as a friend or two, and I have a penchant for palm trees. We'll have couches to crash on, and a tent for nights when we don't. Aside from obligatory stops at Shake and Steak that Drew requires, I figure we can hit grocery stores and fruit stands for food and be cheap that way. Gas prices are rising a bit, but still under $2 a gallon around here, which still seems incredibly cheap compared to the almost $4 a gallon we were seeing not too long ago.

I'm also wanting to bike to Williamsburg sometime soon. Haven't done a long ride in awhile, and I really need to stretch the ole legs a bit. Also need to consider other closer adventures, like biking to Regency or something.

So I finished reading New Moon. I liked it better then the first Twilight book. Still full of drama by the bucketloads, but less of the *long stare....dramatic thoughts.....glancing away.....dramatic thoughts...* and more of the *dramatic misery....time to do something really stupid that will entertain the reader!....holy cow, wolves!...*. Mostly, it's just got more action, along with a main character that actually isn't all dramatic (well, for the first half of the book, at least). They're working on a New Moon movie, and I really hope it's better then the freaking Twilight movie, which was aesthetically pleasing, but that's about it. It's like the director(s) took all those godawful long pauses in the book literally and stuck every one of them in the movie. Err, to be honest I only got about halfway through the movie because my brain fell out at some point.

Next up, I'm reading either some sci-fi book about bears, or another fantasy Bujold book ("Paladin of Souls"), which I'm really hoping is more enjoyable then "Curse of Chalion". If only I didn't compare everything else she writes to the Miles books.

Jewelry for fun and profit

2009-04-27T21:58:33Z

So here's a rundown on how I did at the Black Market this past Thursday. I made a bit over $40 total, got rid of some stuff, and now have more stuff then I need. I made a bunch of jewelry in anticipation of people potentially wanting jewelry. However, for what I made, this was the wrong market it seems:

I had high hopes for the dice necklaces. I was selling them for $8 apiece. You can get ones just like it from Thinkgeek.com for $10 apiece plus shipping, or from Etsy.com for $15 plus shipping. Alas, not as many nerdy types there as I could have hoped for, so no go for any of them. I may try sticking the rest on Etsy to get rid of them, or hold onto them for future sales. No one was interested in glow in the dark bracelets either. I wonder where all the kandy raver and cybergoth types have gone, anyhow. I also did "experimental" jewelry involving keypads and beads. They looked rather tacky, so I'm probably gonna disassemble them. It's a shame, I really like the look of computer and keyboard and phone innards, and I feel there's much potential for jewelry use there, but hell if I can figure out anything attractive to make out of them. Oh, and for some bizarre reason no one wanted a bracelet that says "phallus".

I did, however, make lots of money off of the brownies I baked. I also sold all of my remaining Magic card packs. Apparently someone out there loves some Homelands. No takers on the CDs, which was a bit surprising at first. But then I thought about it, and realised that part of the reason I was selling the CDs is that I prefer to just have everything on my computer rather then deal with pesky extraneous disks all over the place. Someday I will own no disks, just a teeny pile of memory sticks and hard drives that will hold everything in the world that is important to me, minus a Drew. And then I will be so infinitely portable, and can carry all of my worldly goods on my ultralight and fly around with geeses.

Babble about books

2009-04-20T14:23:25Z

First off, this is highly amusing (if you know programming stuffs at least), especially with the alt text: http://xkcd.com/571/

I was a bit disappointed back when I saw Blade Runner. It's entirely likely that had I seen it when it came out (rather then about 4 years ago), I'd have had a higher opinion of it, it being cutting edge for it's time and all. Instead, I was busy being cranky for all of the stuff I found interesting in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" that didn't make it into the movie. Like the sheep. And Mercerism, for that matter. It was interesting counting all of the quotes from Covenant songs, at least. I still really need to see A Scanner Darkly, and read more Philip K Dick, for that matter.

I've also decided that, tempting as they may be, I shall not attempt to reread any Harry Potter books until all of the movies come out. See, I have a really crappy memory for books. This is beneficial when seeing a movie based on a book. If the book were fresh in my memory, I might spend all of my time being cranky at the inconsistencies between the two, and this would greatly decrease my enjoyment of the movie. And this being a Harry Potter movie, I suspect there shall be all sorts of things that get changed in ways a devotee of the books shall get cranky over, given that's been the tendency for the last few movies. Thus, I shall go to see this upcoming movie (and the movie(s) for the 7th book as well) with my memories of the books fading away slowly, so all I'll remember is the really major stuff, which is highly unlikely to get screwed up (I shall hope, at least). Then, when all the movies are done, I can reread all the books and think "Wow, the movie really messed this part up! Sure glad I'm reading this book and caught that!" Doesn't change anything but my enjoyment of the movie, but as I prefer to enjoy as many things as possible to the highest degree that they can be enjoyed, this seems ideal to me.

Read The Tipping Point recently, it gave me Freakonomics flashbacks. Very enjoyable read, as was Freakonomics. What I apparently need to do is go locate the shelf on the library that holds all of those sorts of social sciences sort of books, and go through them. It's rather fun stuff.

On a non-book related note, I need to figure out things that I have that I wish to exchange for dollars. I shall be doing the black market at Fallout this Thursday, and am very interested in earning as many dollars as possible!

Art, Books, and Cats

2009-04-12T04:34:19Z

I sold the piece I entered up in Baltimore, this piece to be precise. I won't be sure of how much I get for it until I get the check (it was an art auction), but it's at least 50 bucks (I started at $100, and the gallery keeps 50%). Entirely too little, based on the amount of work that went into it, but at the same time, it's a piece that I don't like as much as others, and is thus not very likely to be in my wall anytime soon. And thus, $50 in my pocket sure beats a painting sitting and collecting dust in the closet. Better for me to have one less thing to keep track of, better for the painting to have someone that appreciates it more then I do. I've got scans as well, so I can continue my magical fantasy of selling prints of all of this stuff to eager buyers.

I finally got around to reading The Tipping Point, which gave me mild Freakonomics flashbacks and makes me want to go prowl around the social sciences section of Ye Local Library. Also need to get ahold of the two pre-Miles Bujold books at some point. Read her fantasy book "Curse of Chalion", it was OK but fantasy just doesn't seem to be my cup of tea, methinks. Either that, or I'm reading the wrong kind of fantasy.

The cats were getting all yowley last night and staring at me with googoo eyes, as it was dinner time. So I got out my camera and decided to mess with them. They're so used to eating out of the bowl, I wondered what would happen if I just laid the bag of food down in front of them. Took them awhile, sniffing around and staring at me and such, but eventually they figured out what was going on. Kinda.

They each managed to nibble a little bit, then wandered off, apparently bored with the exercise, deciding that waiting for dinner wasn't worth dealing with this weird bag that also extruded food. I want to put little saddles on them and get gerbils in cowboy hats to ride on them.

Salami Day T-Shirts!

2009-04-08T01:54:30Z

It's the moment that you all have been waiting for...Salami Day shirts are finally available to the public! There's two designs at the moment (and hopefully two more to come in the near future), available in a select variety of shirt styles and colors. September's just around the corner, so get your Salami Day t-shirt now!

salamiday.spreadshirt.com

Adventures in Job Hunting

2009-04-06T19:08:32Z

As luck may have it, I seem to be looking for a job at the same time that everyone else in this country is also looking for a job. Ah, my bad timing. I have considered what things would have been like if I had chosen to stick with OWP, rather then quitting. I was already bored out of my mind and discouraged, and suspect this would have only worsened. Bored because I'd long since mastered the techniques needed to get the job done, and was simply going through the motions. There was nothing left to learn, and I needed something more then just the Pimsleur Spanish CDs to get me by. The discouragement was for various reasons. Firstly, realising that doing art on the outside and getting it into the line was not the direction I was feeling: the art that sold was not art I was really into making, and the amount of pieces I'd have to produce to make any sort of decent profit was entirely more then I was really up to producing. The kicker was the company website. For quite awhile, I'd lamented it's awful database search function and known I could make it far better. So when the bosses talked about a site redesign, I was super excited. Quite sadly, I was not even given the opportunity to give them my resume or show a portfolio of sites, as they were insistent about hiring from the outside. This was horribly discouraging, and only added to my feelings of the production artists being the drones of that company. So I moved on. If I had somehow forced myself to stick with it (the money and company were good, after all), I could have gotten laid off about 2 months ago along with a bunch of other people from the company, and had the sweet sweet benefit of unemployment to experience. Alas, that was not meant to be. I can still at least be glad for the time off, as I've done some serious portfolio and skill building, even if my client-getting has been rather lacking.

So yeah, job hunting. I'm reading a Fortune magazine article at Drew's mom's place the other day, and it made me irate. Most of it is your standard article, of the "Hey, getting a job is tough, especially right now! Here's some helpful tips for you!" And then came the last two paragraphs, which said that you really needed to hold out for a job that's worth it and in your career path, as taking the wrong job could completely throw your career off whack. This really frustrated me. See, in an ideal world every person out there could plot out their career trajectory, what job they'd like to have to get them to the next job. However, this is not an ideal world, and thought like this will depress even the most optimistic of job searchers. The crappy flip-side of the "You can do anything you want to do" ideology of the United States is the possibility that if you end up doing something you didn't want to do, that you're not living up to your potential and wasting your life. When jobs are few and applicants are plentiful, it's rather inevitable that some of those people won't get the job they want. And why is this such a bad thing, anyhow? There's opportunity to be found in every job, and, if nothing else, a lesser job gives you a paycheck until a better job can be found. And while you're not serving your forty hours at that job, there's plenty of time to be skill-building for your next job.

I sent out a resume last friday for something prospective, a junior developer position that I seemed to fit fairly well, albeit not perfectly. I was good with the required languages, and the rest would be fairly easy to familiarize myself with. The job was posted on Dice by a recruiter, so there were no details about the employer, and only the minimum necessary for the position itself. This is the downside of recruiter-posted positions, there's no good way to research the company beforehand to see if it's actually worth your time to apply to the position. In any case, I heard back from the woman this morning, and, after some phone tag, finally got hold of her. Discussed my skills, discussed the employer's reluctance to hire anyone that's not already local to the company. She then begins, hesitantly, to tell me of the employer. Based on her tone of voice, as well as experience from a past recruiter (who did hiring for Phillip Morris, among other places), I'm waiting to be warned of the fact that it's for a cigarette company or something of equivalent potential distaste. But nope. Turns out that job would involve a lot of hardcore pornography. Those people use recruiters to get their hires? And as intriguing as it would be to some people, I really have no desire to stare at porn for 40 hours a week. Alas. Back to the job search.

Adventures in Baltimore

2009-04-02T00:27:09Z

I somehow managed to end up in Baltimore today. Went up with Christine, Charlie & Tara to deposit art at an art show (no entry charge!). There shall be a gala and auction on Friday which we will most likely not attend, due to the fact that it is three freaking hours away. Hopefully, someone will bid on my piece and give me boatloads of dollars. If not, then we head back up next Thursday to retrieve the forlorn art. While up there, we saw a show with some medieval illuminated religious texts, as well as originals for a new version of parts of the bible being illuminated by some people at a church in Minnesota. A lot of the medieval illuminations were really nice, makes me want to have texts to draw all over.

We ate at Mekong Delta, which I highly recommend eating at if you're ever up there. My pork and spring rolls on vermicelli was quite delish, and I even had enough left over for meal #2.

Originally published at Ptocheia.net.

Whereupon I ramble about Asheville, the internet, and all sorts of nonsense

2009-03-30T05:19:28Z

First off, I have found my new time sucking void. It is located at http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com. I seriously wish I'd had the genius to think this site up. You play "telephone", except alternating between drawing pictures from a sentence, and writing sentences based on someone else's picture. It is all sorts of fun.

So Christine and I went to Asheville for several days, and a good time was had by all. Downtown Asheville is essentially one skyscraper surrounded by a bunch of hippie shops. I really needed to discover this place about 13 years ago, back when I was all into hippie stuff. Lots of altered clothing shops as well, ranging from the really innovative and neat to the overpriced and banal. I appreciated the wide range of restaurants, as well as the fact that were three sushi shops on the same street in downtown, all within about 8 minutes walking distance of each other. Mmm sushi. There was a crazy bead store there, whereupon I acquired some UV-receptive beads. Also, chocolate shops. I heart fudge.

We got badgered for money a few times. A few scammers were running around with some holey stories about being a veteran and needing money for staying at a hotel who price had suddenly increased (my fabulous suggestion that he go to a hotel further out, as the prices were cheaper, was quickly rejected for a nonsensical reason). There were also a few pseudo-homeless about. By pseudo-homeless, I mean some young, articulate fashion conscious faux-gutterpunk kids prowling for dollars. I did end up giving some dude my leftovers for his dog, but then again, "dragon pt" wasn't quite what it could have been.

We did the Biltmore. Expensive, though the house is interesting. Swimming pool in the basement is all sorts of bonus creepy. The food there is totally not worth it, they're totally tarnishing the "we are a fancy place to visit" image by offering a turkey and swiss wrap for $8+, only to have the swiss be white american. It was one of the worst wraps I'd ever eaten. The pizza suffered from similar issues, the description told of lavish ingredients, but the reality looked like your standard flat ordinary pizza. Alas.

Then, we attempted to find nightlife. My research had proved to be a bit fruitful, but only so much. We started off at a bar called Getaways, whereupon we played some Wii and I attempted some Guitar Hero until the futility of playing a rhythm game without actually being able to hear the music kicked in. We then ventured forth to Club Hairspray, which was chock full of redneck lesbian karaoke. We sang a Joan Jett song, and enjoyed the ambiance. Also, apparently "getting dressed up for a night on the town" means wearing jeans with heels. My totally rocking party dress was completely unnecessary, dang.

No hiking, alas. It was wet pretty much the entire time we were there. And now, I am back. And really need to jump all the way into this whole "job hunting" thing. And learning me some Joomla. It's a gradual process.

Blathering!

2009-03-20T07:22:34Z

So you know what's really stupid? Pine Sol. Have you ever read the back of the bottle? It is not recommended for wood floors. In fact, the things it recommends using the stuff for are tiles and ceramic type surfaces and whatnot. Why mention pine in the name when you can't actually use it on wood? Which, uh, I've been doing up until I read the bottle today. This is because I am super bright. I will just console myself with the thought that it's all just soap in different packaging.

By the way, if you want to waste hours of your life in a most entertaining way, this is the method I currently suggest.

I bought a new domain. Impulse buy, couldn't help it. (http://www.ambulophilia.com, to be precise). I hate how there's no centralized and easy to use means of finding hiking trails out there on the web, one that uses google maps and has all sorts of search options. There's some good resources, but they tend to be more localized and not too searchable (i.e. park websites). Or there's other resources that look like they're superuseful but only have like 3 trails total for the state of VA. Anyhow, I'm just gonna make my own.