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i’m too quiet, but i’m busy

SupermanFor the last few weeks since I upgraded my site, updated my design, and “up, up, and away!”… Oops, lost track of my thought just now. Can you believe it’s been nearly two years since the latest Superman movie? And who knows when the next one will come out!

Back to my original thought, I’ve been getting some help from a couple of people trying to consolidate my site back to its original glory and I’m happy to note that I’m closer than ever! The first accomplishment was getting all my old comments and importing them into the site. I was lucky that I found someone who knew how to do it without too much effort! He then imported really old posts I made on another blogging system from 2002 to 2004 into my current site. I now have the long, tedious task of going through all my posts and tagging them, relinking, and cleaning up. Thanks Jay!

The other accomplishment is forwarding all my old posts. After reading this post I found from another valuable blog, I was determined to somehow forward all my old, outdated posts to match my new format on my new system. There are times where you can scour Google and it will still be linking to a post I made in another format that doesn’t exist anymore. Now the correct link will appear! After many back and forth emails with the author of the first post, we finally found the right solution with a custom mod_rewrite for me and so far, so good. I’m very grateful that random strangers with lots of knowledge will help me out. Thanks Matt!

So now, this site has every post I’ve ever made on my site since October 2002. Be sure to check ’em out!

Look, it’s Me!

Finally, after almost a month of absence, I have a website back up. I hope that this jump starts my redesign, but who knows what’ll happen because my schedule is crazy right now. But, it’s nice to be back up and running.

During the month of absence, I have started a new job in Santa Monica. It has been going well, but I’m still not happy about the hours which I sleep, which is usually anywhere between 4-7 depending on the night. I can’t function well on just 4-5. I never have. Thus, everyday that I’ve been to work I feel very tired. Not because work sucks or anything, but because my body is just fighting to stay awake half the time. Everyone tells me I’ll adjust . . . uh huh . . .

I think that my adjustment will only be physical, not mental. I’ve always been a night person. I function so well at night; I’m productive, I’m happier. Nighttime is my time. But not on the weeknights. Not anymore, or at least not while I’m working here. I need to fight my urge to stay up late and go to sleep at a decent time.

My commute.

It sucks.

I spent a few days adjusting and figuring out the best times to drive in the morning. Well, after spending no less than an hour in traffic every morning, I decided to start waking up at 5am so that I can leave at 5:20ish and get to the garage at about 6am. That’s right, I’m up at 5am everyday. I’d much rather drive here in decent time than spend most of it sitting in traffic. Why? Because I can be productive and go to the gym and workout in the morning.

Yes, you heard me! Your vision isn’t going bad.

I’ve actually started a little routine of going to the gym before work and jogging/power walking for 30 minutes with 5 minutes of warm down. Sitting here thinking about it, I feel like 30 minutes is nothing. But, at the time, at the end of my jog, I’m soooo ready to stop. It’s weird, but in a little way it’s very satisfying to know that I’ve exercised my body. Eventually I’m going to do some weight training as well so that I can give my body tone. I don’t believe that I’ll ever get huge. But, as long as I’m in shape and feel good about how I look, nothing else matters.

I think this morning routine is really good for me because it keeps me very accountable for my actions. I am responsible to myself to exercise. Most who know me know that I never work out, hate to plan things and love to be spontaneous. However, in a small way this routine, this plan that I’ve laid out for myself is good for me and I sorta enjoy it. Besides, I might as well take advantage of the opportunities this company gives me so that I come out on top physically and financially. And being responsible for my accountability is the first step.

Hmm… My shirt that I’m wearing has a very distinct aroma, that of what I typically smell from Indians (not Native Americans) which isn’t pleasing to me, nothing against those who do smell like this. Time to rewash this shirt!

So what exactly do I do at this new job? Well, I am working with the web team, and we have been implementing a new internal website since I got here. Because I started on the tail of this project, I have been given tasks that are more like busy work, such as data entry or modification of files. Not typically very fun, but it’s productive work to help further the company (at least I should continue to tell myself that). Also, I do not understand 95% of the material which we I have been modifying. There’s a lot of financial terminology and figures and facts and numbers. It’s all a puzzle to me, and not one that I truly care to solve. All I know is if the website looks good, other people can use it, I’m doing my job. Oh, the joy of being a web designer!

One of the perks of this job is the location. I drive along Ocean Avenue for a few minutes before I turn off, meaning I get to see the Santa Monica beach everyday of my commute. Although, this might change if I begin taking the bus soon, but from my desk, I can turn my head about 45 degrees to the left and see the Ocean. It’s really nice. And we’re also close to just about everything in this location. I’m new to the area, so most everything is my first time.

Am I back?

If you are reading this, it means I’m partially back. I’m not at full speed, but I have reconstructed the critical data that I almost lost. If you don’t see this, that means I have a little more work to do. Either way, you should see something really soon.

brb

It looks like my webhost is going under. So, I am going to do a little shopping around and get the best deal from another host. There is a lot that I’m afraid to do, such as transfer the bulletin board and php stuff, so if anyone can offer suggestions, I’d appreciate it. I’ll be back soon, because I have to be back soon. I have this huge story about San Francisco that has to be told, one that I think most of you will find so humorous (even though it wasn’t always humorous to me) :o)

See you on the other side.

design changes

You might notice some minor changes recently. I’ve had some time to do little cosmetic changes to my site, which I needed to do long ago. However, life happens and I never decide to make the time. I hope to continue with some more changes through the rest of the week. Who knows, but hopefully I’ll eventually make some major design changes in the next few weeks. What I’ve done so far:

  • Font changes in a few places
  • Layout changes in a couple of places
  • Code cleanup on many pages
  • Finally got rid of that eye… I really liked it, but I know it was really stupid

And a little list of things to do:

  • Trial use of sIFR for my headlines
  • Figure out how to use my category and monthly archive system
  • Try to integrate more phpBB on my index page
  • Clean up more of the design
  • Look for different options in my bulletin board style and look
  • Upload more photos
  • Figure out how to use RSS, Atom, etc as forms of syndicated news

I am a huge fan of phpBB, which is what I use for my community link! Ever since I’ve been online, I’ve used phpBB on my site and plan to continue it. It’s highly customizable and it excites me at the options! However, with the lack of time and effort, my bulletin board has gone nowhere. I’d like to change the look, but I’ve installed so many different style changes already that it would take a huge chunk of my time to change it. I know I’ll eventually have to invest more time in it, but I need to do more research to calm my fears.

Because of my support for phpBB, I have found a wonderful way to integrate the system I use for this blog, Moveable Type, with phpBB. Written by fluffy, Using phpBB as your MovableType comment engine in 23847392 easy steps is a God send. It’s highly controllable for a few reasons as explained on this link, but foremost for me, I can use it to control spammers on the site as well as MUCH easier administration capabilities. Both of those by themselves make this tutorial totally worth the effort and time I spend on it.

Thank you for reading and here’s to a new year of big changes for my site!

so close…

I have spent almost every hour this weekend editing my website. These changes won’t be very noticeable to you but I’m basically overhauling everything on my end in hopes that there’s a lot more usability. This transition will *hopefully* take place within the next few days or week so if there’s some downtime, you’ll understand why.

Staying up until 2am has given me a headache, or was it coding all day long? Probably a mixture of both!

I really don’t have anything new or exciting to post yet because I’ve been impatiently trying to get my new system up. I didn’t do a darn thing this weekend because I shut myself in to fix my website. I need some sun!!!!

Today it’s officially been a week since I arrived here in LA. One whole week. I have training/orientation for my job on Wednesday and I need to plan out how I’m going to get over to the studios. I’ve been worrying about this website so much that I just haven’t made time to do anything else. It’ll all fall into place soon enough!

I’ll be back as soon as I can. Once I’m up and running, I hope to be more attentive to the site and post more. I’ve just been aggitated that I couldn’t make time to redesign the site, moreover I didn’t know what I wanted to do. However, I have found a happy medium that won’t affect anyone but me!

Go back to work now because you know you shouldn’t be reading this right now. If you’re done for the day, find something else to do.

DOWN

Arg. The site was down again. How frustrating.

one year and counting

It’s been a year since I started this blog (or for those who haven’t heard the term blog, it means weblog or online journal). Wow. Here’s to another year in hopes that my life starts changing for the best!

now you see it

I’m gonna test out a few layouts in the next few days/weeks to see what I like about these backgrounds. I’ll also mess with the layout and see what I like or don’t like about the layouts. Hopefully I’ll find a nice medium with everything.

No big news here. It’s been a relaxing weekend and I am trying to attempt to put a portfolio together for the grad school. I’ll post a link to the artwork when I finish it. Most all of it will be photos that I have taken in the past few years from my trip to Colorado back in 1998 up to this road trip from July.

I have also readded a link to my road trip photos on the top page so you can visit them as you like.

As you might have recently seen, there is a birthday notice on the right side of my front page. So is your birthday going to be soon? The only way your birthday will show up is for you to register here and enter your birthday upon registering. This allows me to keep track of your birthday and acknowledging it in some form. So sign up now!

change is good

I have decided to change some of my layout. It was very plain and boring before, but I think this new simplicity will only help the appeal of my site. I need to figure out what to do with my links that I’ve left off, but that’ll come in time.

I am really into the cover art because it totally represents what’s going on with me right now. Windmills. They are a sign of stability no matter the weather that tries to affect it. Even through the winds of change, they continue to serve their purpose and turn to provide for others. In a similar since, I am trying to figure out where my place is. I don’t know where I will end up in a few days, a few weeks or a few months but I am going to continue being there for the rest of the world. There will be lots of new changes in the coming months that I will be weathering through, but I strive to be the windmill and serve my purpose no matter what!

I have lots that I will do with this new layout but it’ll take me some time because I gotta work a real job for a while to earn some money that I lack and need.

Who’s the next music group you should check out? The Polyphonic Spree

Why? Because you’ve heard them over and over on the iPod commercial and you know you’ve wanted to know who they are…