May 2002 archives
« April 2002 |
pressing on...
| June 2002 »
archives
Friday, May 31, 2002
random thoughts
Drat. A long time ago, I wrote about the tyranny of the blank screen. Now I'm getting it in printed form. Or lack thereof. I've done a lot of background work on my project, but I can't get it started the way I want to. Hopefully, I'll get past the writer's block soon.
Does the winner of the National Spelling Bee really belong on espn.com? For that matter, should the event be televised (live, even) on ESPN? I could see this back in the day, like in 1979, when it would probably have fit in well with stuff like roller derby. But now, it's just not right. Nothing against the spelling bee. But it's not a sport, people. Someone at ESPN should have had some prospicience concerning this...
A new insane thought.
Thursday, May 30, 2002
MBA 101
If hot cross buns are "one a penny, two a penny", who in their right mind would buy one bun? Just explain it to me, and I'll be happy.
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Back from Gainesville
So now I've officially been to Gainesville. My parents and I went apartment hunting there this past weekend. I had a list of seven or eight places that I had originally wanted to take a look at. After we saw the first place, I had scratched four of them off of my list. How, you ask? Because I noted that they didn't have washers and dryers in them, and after taking a look at the first place's "laundry facilities", I knew that a washer and dryer was a necessity, not an option.
So we looked at a few other places before deciding upon a complex called Hidden Lake. It's very new; in fact, I'll be the first person ever to live in my apartment. I'm about a mile and a half away from campus, but the buildings I'll be going to the most are on the other side of the campus. So I'm really about 2 1/2 miles away.
Anyway, we set a move-in date, and paid all the up-front fees (that is to say, my parents paid them :) ). Come late July, I'll be in Gainesville for good!
Notes on the trip and other things:
- I'll just come right out and say it...Gainesville has the worst street-numbering system ever. Here's an idea of how it works. Gainesville consists of approximately 15 different zip codes. If you cross into another zip code, street numbers can be (and will be) used again. This may be fine for the locals, but for tired newcomers who just want to know where NW 23rd Blvd. is, it's not good. On our trusty map, we found multiple NW 23rd Streets, Terraces, Places, Avenues, and even a Court or two. But no boulevards. Even if we had found one, we'd have to know the zip code. We eventually wised up and started calling the apartments for directions from one place to another. I get the feeling that map's going to get some use from me in the future...
- The campus is huge. I'm not sure how I can emphasize this. I know that I didn't see even a quarter of the campus. It's not quite like Alabama, where driving on the perimeter of the campus lets you see a good portion of it.
- The bus system in Gainesville is apparently a big thing. Such a big thing, in fact, that practically every complex we talked to touted their closeness to the nearest bus stop. I guess it beats trying to find a parking space among potentially 50,000+ cars. And it's free for me, since I'm a Florida student. Rock on!
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
new project
Well, at least this time my staying up until 5 in the morning resulted in something productive.
Fueled by a burst of inspiration, I've started sketching details on a pretty big project I'm looking at starting up. It will be my first foray into creative writing in quite some time. Hopefully, it won't take too long to complete, and then you'll get to see it here.
Monday, May 20, 2002
just found
A webzine known as Chasing Hats. According to its mission statement:
We seek to return to wonder at God's creation like children, and to lead others through our writing.
A worthwhile goal, to say the least. I haven't read any of its articles yet, but the premise sounds interesting and promising. It's been bookmarked.
Friday, May 17, 2002
new 1122 front page
I've done a quick redesign to the 1122 Productions front page. Nice and simple, but I like the effect. The building, by the way, is Rose Towers, where Ricky and I used to live.
1122 meeting
Tonight, there will be a meeting of 1122 Productions management to discuss the organization's future web plans. Oh, yeah, and we'll probably play some Playstation or something too. But most importantly, tonight...we grill!
More 1122 stuff: the 1122 timeline has been updated to reflect the events of the past nine months or so.
Thursday, May 16, 2002
great poll
If you've never been to Rinkworks before, you owe it to yourself to go. They've got tons of fun stuff. But what cracks me up today is the new reader poll. Follow the link and look over to the right.
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
ode to pollen, dust, and the like
I stare at my computer
a blank look from my eyes.
My allergies are acting up,
yes, that I realize.
Tissue? Used two boxes,
am into number three.
Still no signs of stopping
My sneezing misery.
I feel as if I'll never
breathe through my nose again.
But I won't take it for granted,
if comes the day I can.
Monday, May 13, 2002
one-hit wonders
Did anyone else watch VH1's "Top 100 One-hit wonders" last night? It was really enjoyable. I had the most fun, actually, from two things: getting that "Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about them!" feeling when the next song was introduced (that happened quite often) and from trying to guess what the biggest one-hit wonders would be. I did reasonably well. My choice for #1 at the beginning of the broadcast ("Ice Ice Baby") ended up #7. Once I saw what was voted #1, though, I had to wholeheartedly agree. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it.
writing for...
Too many times in the life of this site, and more specifically in this blog, I have been reluctant to post something that has crossed my mind. I'm not too sure why; I want to say that there are multiple reasons for this. But I think that most of the time it's due to this feeling that I sometimes have: I have to write for the readers.
This, of course, makes absolutely no sense. It's my site, after all; I should be able to post anything I want to say (within the constraints of the law, of course) and not worry about what the 20 or so daily visitors have to think about it. After all, a blog can be thought of as nothing more than a stream-of-consciousness in Internet form.
So why am I averse to the idea of adding an entry along the lines of "Sometimes I crack myself up trying to do 'the robot' while listening to music" (true) or "yesterday I got a new golf club. It's a 60-degree lob wedge..." (also true)? Well, because frankly I'll wonder if you, gentle reader, will think I'm insane or extremely boring. Instead, I wait until I either have something "valuable" to say or some breaking news story in my life happens. Admittedly, neither is very common, and so the site undergoes a drought of sorts.
Of course, the ironic thing here is that the comments that this entry receives will probably tell me a lot about what people think about me and this site anyway...
Friday, May 10, 2002
rivalries page update
A lot of information has been added to the college football rivalries site. Check it out if you're interested.
playing electrician
Yesterday, my grandmother got her hair done. This has no point in the story other than since she was out of the house, my grandfather decided to do something that she didn't want him to try to do - fix the overhead light in the dining room. Of course, yours truly quickly enlisted in the cause. You don't think I'm going to let an 80-year-old man get on a ladder by himself, do you?
Anyway, my grandfather went and got a new light socket for the light. The old one had bakelite that had worn away and somehow caused the whole thing to not work. He insisted upon trying to install the new one himself. So I held the ladder for him and shined a flashlight into the crevice where the socket was going. He needed to connect the two wires to the new socket. But he got tired. So I told him to let me try.
We now have a working light fixture. It really wasn't that difficult of a task; getting two wires connected to the screws on the sides of the socket and tightening the screws to ensure the connection is not that tough. But to hear my grandfather talk about it, you'd think I'd built the power plant for the city of Birmingham.
My grandfather doesn't understand why I like school so much, and he doesn't think much of the computer topics that I'm learning about. But he's convinced now that school's all right - after all, if I learned to do that in school (and I must have, seeing as I've never done anything else, right?), then school must not be that bad.
Thursday, May 9, 2002
this is why I like hockey
You can have your NBA playoffs. Give me a league where they'll take government action!
compliments for art's sake
One thing that I have a healthy respect for is the world of art. I'm not talking about actually understanding the meaning behind some of the pieces that have been created, although given enough time I can give you something more meaningful than the faux-classic "x, yet y" line that you always hear regarding the subjects of art and wine: "Bold, yet understated."
I'm talking about just having the talent to draw the subjects in the first place. Whether it be a masterpiece or a comic strip, still life or portraits, city skylines or rustic scenes, it's all amazing to me. Of course, I couldn't draw my way out of a paper bag; maybe that has something to do with it.
Wednesday, May 8, 2002
today is update day
First, a new page under the "other interests" section. Yep, it's a page of links. That's all. Whoo-hoo.
Second, I'm working on some updates to all the portions of my college football tradition site. I've already finished updates to the kickoff chants section; next up - rivalries.
Tuesday, May 7, 2002
in the interest of stopping spam
I like getting e-mail about my college tradition sites, be it fight songs, rivalries, or whatever. That being said, I got way too much spam in the old lyrics@1122productions.com e-mail address, and I also had some spam sent to my main e-mail account as well. Since I have the power to control e-mail addresses on our server, I figured enough was enough. Besides, all the tradition sites needed a common e-mail address to send stuff to, anyway. So I eliminated the lyrics@1122productions.com address (hopefully sending a bunch of spambots some boomerang "account does not exist" e-mails for a while) and replaced it with a different one. Score one for the good guys.
Sunday, May 5, 2002
no egg on my face
This morning, I made my first omelet. Well, pretty close to an omelet, anyway. I could pick up the entire contents of the pan at one time and flip one half over the other, which qualifies to me as an omelet.
My previous omelet experiences involved making a lot of attempts, then making a lot of scrambled eggs. But today I ate my one-piece "egg beaters" creation in triumph! Okay, so it still tasted like one big scrambled egg. I didn't have anything to add to it. That's not the point, anyway. The point is, I could have, and now there's another dish in my somewhat limited repertoire.
Friday, May 3, 2002
version 9!
Welcome to version 9 of pressing on! The major changes are here on the front page, where you'll see pictures (actual pictures on my site! Who'd have thought?), a changed menubar (both in location and in style) and a new layout.
On other pages, you'll see that the overall style doesn't change too much, but the infamous pressing on... logo has been changed just a little bit.
Another nice thing is that the style sheet that I designed for this site should work reasonably well in Netscape 4 as well. It won't look exactly like IE5+/NN6/Mozilla, but it will look reasonably good.
Also, you'll see that the theme swapper has been taken off for a little while. It was giving me problems, so I decided to take it out until I could retool it. I'm thinking of having five themes, one for each of the five "homes" represented in the pictures above. For more on the new design, check out the colophon.
In addition, I've added a golf section. Right now it doesn't give anything more than cursory information, but I'm going to add to it eventually.
As always with a new design, I'm bound to have overlooked changes that needed to be done. If you find anything as you look around, please let me know. Thanks!
Wednesday, May 1, 2002
May day!
The following is a true story. I know, because it happened to me not more than 15 minutes ago.
It began like any other morning. I had gone to the kitchen to fix myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I had already gotten my bowl and the cereal itself, and went to the refrigerator for the milk. I opened the refrigerator, and there was the milk. But as I lifted it out of its door shelf, the top of the milk upset the door shelf above where it was resting.
The entire apparatus came down, jars and all.
I now was looking at what once was a clean kitchen rug, now tainted with red, green, and orange colors. Shards of glass and what they once contained were everywhere on the floor. And the distinct smell of barbeque sauce wafted upon the air.
This left me with the unenviable task of determining what to do first. I decided upon the rug. But it had so much barbeque sauce on it that it didn't seep all the way down into the mat. It puddled on the top. I had to get it somewhere where I could spray it off with something to get all of it out. That meant outside - traversing a white carpeted floor along the way.
So I made the only choice I could think of at the time. I picked up the mat and turned it on its side. Barbeque sauce again flowed freely onto the floor.
When it stopped dripping, I folded the rug up and took it outside. Still in my sock feet, and with the previous day's rains on the ground. There are few worse pet peeves in my life than wet socks. But that was the least of my worries.
I got to the hose and turned it on. Luckily, my grandmother had left the jet nozzle attachment on. The barbeque sauce was quickly eradicated from the rug. I left it outside to drip dry on a chair.
Now, back inside, and to task #2 - cleaning the refrigerator itself. Needless to say, the orange-red of a good barbeque sauce doesn't mesh very well with the pristine white of a refrigerator door and inside, so I had to get all of it out. Even in the little air grates. That was a lot of fun.
This having been accomplished, I got all of the unbroken items - including the still-unused milk - back into the refrigerator. I now faced the most greuling task of all: getting the floor clean.
This, of course, was a job for a mop. I looked around the kitchen, but couldn't find one, so I went down to the laundry room. Bingo. Now I needed a bucket for water. Once again, I looked, but I couldn't find any suitably-sized container. On to plan B. I decided that I'd do the same thing with the mop as I did with the rug - spray it off later. In the meantime, I'd dry-mop as best I could. This turned out to work reasonably well, though I had to make sure that the mop wasn't going to drip onto the white carpet on its way out. The floor still needed another pass, as there were still pieces of glass I hadn't gotten, but most of the offending sauces were gone. Besides, I had another idea for the remaining problem.
I got outside and jet-nozzled the mop; unfortunately, I didn't have as much luck getting all of the stains from it. There are now tinges of orange and red where white once was.
Back inside, and part two of Operation No Sauce was ready for action. I knew that my grandmother had bought one of those Swiffer mops one day, and that there were wet-wipe attachments under the sink. The problem was, where was the mop itself? Another search in the kitchen and laundry room proved fruitless, so I went outside. Ah, there it was - I had passed it twice before. I grabbed it and headed back inside. After attaching a wipe to it, I attacked the rest of Dreamland's best and the remaining pieces of glass. After two wipes, the sauce was gone, but there were still small bits of glass I hadn't cornered. On to a broom. I got the rest of the glass (I hope) with it. I put the Swiffer by the broom in the laundry room - where I'd know to look should this ever happen again.
Now, to the issue of my clothes. They, of course, were spattered with (all together now) barbeque sauce, and my socks were wringing wet. All of them went into the washer.
Now, the kitchen is spotless, if still a little barbeque-y. Its rugs are nice and clean. And I finally had that bowl of cereal. Who said disaster doesn't happen in the home?