Learning New Tricks

So one of my new goals this year is to become more involved in designing web pages, but even more so, learn the latest and greatest tricks and software applications on the market.

First I am starting with the Adobe Suite, all the way from Photoshop / Illustrator to Adobe Soundbooth.  Yah, sure I know that I am pretty fluent in some of the graphical Adobe products, but I am thirsty to get my hands dirty in some of the more complicated applications -- like Flash, Contribute, Device Central. Which brings me to this little bit of info that no one will find interesting but me, since I am actually looking at the screen -- Contribute; I'm using it to connect to all my websites and EVEN my blogs to keep content fresh and vibrant.  We'll see how it goes.. so far it's a dream and love the way it keeps things on your harddrive as backups or even for tagged information throughout your computer.

Warhammer Open Beta Begins

Starting up this weekend! Glad I have EVERYTHING done so I can vege in front of the computer like a good little nerd and get my game on. Although my days of hording unhealthy food while playing games is over.... I do still like to indulge a few things while chasing some kid around a game firing arrows at his head. Evil aren't I?

Anyway, if you are into games and haven't heard about it, you must be living under a rock. It's the best thing on the market as far as MMOs go. But don't just believe me, try it yourself!

http://www.warhammeronline.com/

That's Just Wrong!

So check this story out. I was chatting with the mom earler this week, dicussing this and that, but she mentioned how thrilled she was to be mailing off her final vehicle payment. Naturally I was excited with her; who doesn't want to get those vehicles paid off.

She continues to tell me, when she went outside to head to the grocery store the vehicle was gone.  In horror, she went to the neighbors and asked if they had seen anything.  Someone had just stolen the truck right from the driveway in the middle of the night.  Now, to give you an idea of how unlikely this is, my parents live on a farm out in the middle of no where.  This thing just doesn't happen up there.

Naturally the next step was to call the police, so she called them only to listen to another horror! The sheriff told her that the truck was in repossession!  She freaked because she had all the papers and statements proving that she had always paid on time.  Immediately calling the back, they gave her attitude and demanded that she fax over statements showing that she paid.  When she asked the lady witch  what the records indicated, she replied to say that it showed in good standing but it also showed for repossession.  Idiots.  After they got the fax, they returned the truck.  

All my mother got in return was a "apology" from the bank manager.  The state trooper that arrived at the house said there was nothing she could do because the truck wasn't stolen, legally.  However in reality, someone with no authority, trolled upon my parents in the middle of the night and took property away from them.  Where are the laws to protect people?  There aren't any it seems.  

And to label this atrocious bank, its BB&T.  May they rot for their idiots behind the desk.

Organizing Electronic Music Genres

Five years ago, I had everything completely sorted and organized to perfection for my extensive music collection. A harddrive failure ruined me -- not that I lost any music (im good about backups), but I lost all my settings for genres, ratings, play count, all of it. Devastating to me as I rely on Smart Playlists to stream music to my iPod and iPhone constantly. Not to mention I had tags on music to identify what "mood" I wanted to hear based on how I felt through the day.

Seems overzealous, right? Well that's me. When you have 3500 songs to deal with, your options are either listen to what you can remember you have, listen to something you bought only this month or get your crap together and organize so you can make the most of all your purchases.

Then began my project, which I knew would take me a WHILE to accomplish. But with being indoors for while recovering healthwise, perfect time.

The first hurdle I came across, was wow.. so much of the music was electronic. Simply putting everything in that category would not help me. I need much more of a breakdown to accommodate my needs. I searched the web high and low for a good guide to find such a tool. I came to the conclusion I needed a good dj to identify the types of music I have. Finally after weeks of searching, came across this indeed wonderful website, Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. It's indeed wonderful to identity all the joyous zounds of electronic music in your collection.

Just passing along a tip.

Curse of the Oven Clock

It's been one of those weeks, months, where things just run together and sometimes you stop to wonder what day it is.. and what day of what week; shortly stopping to awaken to a day long past where you thought you were. Which brings me to my recent Personal Twilight Zone experience.

Five nights ago, I walk by the kitchen on the way to the stairs and notice the clock on the oven was flashing. There had been no storms nearby, but a slight rainfall can be heard from the streets outside; I look around for my cell phone to find the correct time and quickly make the appropriate adjustements to the click, lit in blue. I move upstairs into the office so I can begin researching topics online when around midnight -- click click buuuuu.. silence, and no power. So I sit and look at the computer screen, now black, and await to resume my project. It flickers a few times and after five minutes or so, returns to normal.

Four nights ago, time for a late night snack.. I parade down into the kitchen at the weeee hours of 3 am for some yogurt. From a distance in the dark, I can see the blue light clock flashing; however I didn't remember the power going off nor seeing the clock flash earlier that evening. I open the fridge and begin eyeballing the shelves to find a trace of the blueberry, not just any will do, and I spy my phone on the kitchen counter. I inform myself of the correct time and make the proper adjustments to the clock on the oven, it stops flashing. Returning to satisfy my late night evil delight, I reach for the refridgerator door and then Dammit! Power goes out again. So I stand at the fridge, one hand on the door and await the glorious lights to pour out of silver box. I was not so lucky this time, after five minutes or so, nothing happened so I decided to feel my way back up the bedroom.

Three days ago -- I return to the house from being out in the yard; its around dusk. The community magazine I discarded earlier that week caught my eye, so I started thumbing through in hopes of finding a good landscaper for a good price. Then the corner of my eye reveals, a blue flashing light. And what else.... my iPhone just happened to be on the counter. Do i set the clock? I thought about it for a minute because of the recent track record for power outages, then decided I couldn't stand seeing it flash all night and day. Oddly enough, I caught myself looking around to see if anyone was going to watch me set it (and I live alone). After setting the clock this time, I waited for the power to flicker, anything. Nothing. An hour later, nothing. Of coursea I had forgotten about it, because it is a silly coincidence. I'm on the phone with mom, chatting away about who knows what and there it was.. yet again, the power goes out. It's around nine o'clock and not time for bed, so I grabbed the iPhone and started playing Texas Hold 'em. About an hour and half later, the power returns and I can feel the clock staring at me because it knows that I know that it is flashing. I ignore it.

The other night -- I go downstairs to make dinner and of course the first thing you have to notice is the clock flashing. Drives me crazy, so I fix it. While making dinner, I honestly didn't think much of the power going out. I mean what are the odds? And the odds were in my favour.. nothing happened. Then around one a.m., I'm getting out of the shower and readying for bed -- bam. Got me naked in the dark and wet. What do you do at this point? So I decided to go downstairs and get the phone so I could call the power company to find out what is happening. Surely there is a loose wire or something hanging off a pole... a stray wire they obviously missed when installing or fixing. Either way, it was out of control. I tried speaking to someone but couldn't figure out what option to push, so I just followed the instructions to report an outage. Automated services... bleh. Lying in bed, a little less than an hour later, the power returns. Had to get out of bed, and turn off all the lights. Sheesh.... people raised in a barn that live in this house.

Which brings me to my story about last night. I'm downstairs, staring at the blue light, it flashes at me, taunting me. As crazy at it seems, I am not setting it. And I didn't... and the power didn't go off. I feel nuts for evening thinking so silly but I bet everyone else reading this has something far stranger and thought stranger things. Ha1

So the question remains in my head, I wonder how long I can hold out before setting the time? I think I can make it to the weekend.

Landscaping Design

I am excited to announce the plans for my landscaping. There are a few things that I am not happy with, but only minor details. Overall, it will give me a place to enjoy out back and give the front some appeal instead of looking drab.

Next, I found out how much it is all going to cost. Hope I won't faint.

Is greenery important to you?