This is going into my third week for week 3. I can’t seem to do any better on column 3 than I did last week or the week before. I’m confused why this isn’t working as I’d hope. I push myself until I can’t push myself up anymore. I break the muscles as much as I’m comfortable breaking them. Yet, I seem to be making no progress.
This is a struggle for more.
I am starting to not look forward to doing them, but I always feel good once I finish. I hope I can keep changing my outcome. I’m frustrated.
EDIT 9/08: Getting past week 3 has been very difficult and I’m still struggling to complete the week successfully. I’ve hit my plateau a couple of times and even rested for a week in between. This is just frustrating!
I think the key to success for me is going to be a steady balance of on and off. This won’t take weeks, it will probably take months of balance.
My room is a total mess. Boxes on the floor, random items in random places, receipts, suitcase, and CDs in the spots I pushed them off to. I’m living like I’m too busy to take care of them, and that’s kinda true.
My website upgrade has so far been a nice success. I want to incorporate visual imagery somehow, but haven’t gotten that far. One of three biggest tasks, however, has been accomplished! My old comments are all imported and up! It was a task I had no idea how to do and I graciously received help from a friend back in Houston! Next, I hope to import posts and comment from 2002 and 2003, but that might take a while.
I recorded a new Footalk podcast so expect that in the next few days. I think it’s the best episode yet!
Speaking of audio, I’m kinda getting back on my feet with music. I’ve recorded a friend playing the piano and I’m going to do what I can to help out on a few songs. It’s a good way to get my feet wet and back into the swing of things. I’m glad I’m finally making progress because the frustration has definitely mounted and lingered.
Oh, while getting everything up and running for this site, I’m revisiting all my old post and tagging them! See that section at the bottom of this page which says “Tag Cloud”? That’s a way to quickly access certain posts based upon my keywords with which I tag them. It’s another form of getting my content out there quickly!
Finally, as I hope my melatonin will hurry up and kick in, I need to speed my site up a little. All the plugins and new code I’m using is having a negative effect. I have lots to do.
A few days ago, I found out an old colleague of mine was sent to Manhattan for a few days on a business trip. Knowing his disdain for all things New York, I gave him a quick suggestion for one of the best desserts you’d get anywhere.
After a couple of text messages back and forth over the next few hours, confirming that I didn’t send him to a restaurant which caters to only one sexual orientation, he takes heed on my suggestion. I then wanted confirmation that his dessert hit the spot.
USA Today reported that Serendipity3 was closed down on account of a failing health inspection. This is the day after I sent my former colleague to enjoy their dessert. The reason they closed? According to his reiteration of the problem:
I was sooooo embarrassed and disgusted. I tried to assure him that what didn’t kill him only made him stronger but to no comfort. It was of little comfort that I made an honest mistake, but he knows of my embarrassment and sympathy.
Would I recommend this dessert again? Absolutely, but you might want to just order the mix and make it yourself!
This is, in every sense of the word irony, the worst case of “serendipity” I’ve ever been apart of.
I’ve been so frustrated this weekend. I felt like the universe was once again against me every time I compressed and re-encoded a certain piece of video I recorded on Friday. Yet, as I should have assumed the whole time but was too frustrated to think about, it was user error.
I was invited to attend a party on Friday night in the Hollywood area. Although I was nearly 5 hours late, the party was in full swing by the time I found parking and walked a block to the apartment. I decided to stay longer at this party since I was able to spend time with friends I don’t see often and there was plenty of company to enjoy and people to get to know.
By the end of my visit, the majority of what was as many as nearly 85 people in one large 4 bedroom apartment, 1 bathroom apartment, there were several intoxicated people who decided that for no good reason they would allow anyone to do something random and entertaining to them. One guy got a buzz cut, the other was wrapped with adhesive tape.
I decided the adhesive tape was just the event that warranted my camera’s video feature. When I decided to try and upload the raw video taken off of my camera, Youtube told me to get lost. There’s supposedly this limit of 100MB per video, something of which I had no idea until that moment. In fact, I’ve never had a Youtube account until this past weekend. Maybe I’ll utilize my video feature on my camera more often now in light of this.
I then began what turned into a more than 48 hour event. I spent time researching free video editors and recognized one called VirtualDub since I had used that years earlier to compress and re-encode a DVD so that I could burn it onto a regular CD-R.
After tweaking some of the settings, I began my compression; simple as pie but took about 10-15 minutes. No big deal. I opened the newly compressed video, pushed the playback button and was happy with my initial result. As I skipped to the end of the video, I noticed that there was no sound after the 5 minute mark. What’s going on?
I tried it again, and again, and again. Same result with similar settings. I downloaded some new editors listed. Nothing was different. Then I began the process of downloading some “trial” versions of the big boys software for the Mac. If any operating system was designed for video rendering, it is the Mac. It’s a staple in the entertainment industry for video, audio, and graphical rendering.
I downloaded two “trial” versions only to realize I was missing one or two things that prevented me from even installing them. I waited nearly 24 hours for one of them to download! By this point, I’m completely frustrated and have spent a late night trying to figure out what is going on. I gave up at nearly 5am as it just wasn’t worth sacrificing anymore of my time.
This afternoon, I decided to try it out one more time. Ugh. What could I possibly be doing that’s causing this weird behavior? Then I rechecked the settings I so carefully choose to use. Aha! Could it be that by recapturing the frame rate at 24fps I am causing an originally encoded 30fps video to mess up?
Duh.
Me and my bright idea of turning a NTSC standard frame rate into a US cinematic standard frame rate without even considering the 3:2 pulldown was the result. And here I thought I actually knew what I was doing for the past 48 hours, thinking my idea was genius.
And now, hopefully after what I assume was a completely success compression, is The Adhesive Tape Mummy video. Those hairs on his upper lip… don’t worry, they’re from the guy who got his head shaved. I promise.
I’ve consumed some really great Internet lately. So, I think I’ll take the time to share some of my favorites.
Last spring, notable author Kevin Smith wrote what basically amounted to a short story of the drug addiction his hetero-lover and best friend Jason Mewesfought and defeated. It’s probably one of the longest but most interesting stories of struggle I’ve read. It goes without saying that Kevin Smith is a brilliant story teller.
Science of Sleep – After a few minutes of this movie, I knew it was exactly what I’ve been desiring. Without ruining it, it’s set in France and the lead actor knows English, Spanish and French fluently. You won’t fall asleep, I guarantee it.
Although I hate politics, I’m looking forward to see how Ron Paul does next year. His chance at winning completely relies on grassroot campaigns, but he’s honest and straight forward. I believe what he says.
I love open source, free software that replaces bulky mainstream software. For Windows (since most of you who read this use it) Read pdf files with Foxit. Open zip files with 7-zip. Watch videos with VLC. Launch your programs with Launchy. Index your files with X1.
I’m not one to get excited about another guy proposing to his girl, but this is one of the best proposals I’ve ever heard of. This guy put a ton of work into this and deserves the best. Good luck to him.
Web design is my trade. Piepmatzel is some of the best of design on the Internet. Very much worth spending some time on. I’d be so lucky to one day make this exclusive list.
America has a dirty little secret, and it has nothing to do with 9/11. We’re headed for disaster, as I’ve been told since I was in grade school so many years ago. 60 minutes rules.
Need to find good food in the area? Yelp. Would you rather cook at home? All Recipes. Share you music and discover new ones. Last.fm. Share you photos. Flickr.
6am is just around the corner and my eyes just won’t stay shut. So, as my 3mg of Melatonin supplements slowly absorb into my body, let me entertain you and pass time all at the same time.
Days like today are unexpected, random but welcome in retrospect. I was early to a wedding, drove through rain for the first time in two months, was just minutes and miles from a tornado, spent too much money on not enough haircut, was almost late to the same wedding, met lots of relatives, made an old friend happy, made a boyfriend jealous, chauffeured several friends around, enjoyed a quiet house party, was possibly offered a opportunity to drive cross country for four weeks, bonded with friends, and drove over 200 miles in one day. This wasn’t a typical Saturday.
At times, and more often than not at this point in my life, I’m a homebody. I’m never in need of being out but enjoy it when I do have social plans. The abundance of downtime puts the absence of socializing in a desirable light. I’m sure that just as habits get monotonous, so does being out every night. Someone should tell my roommate that.
It’s a weird feeling when you arrive at your destination with expectations only to find out you miscalculated your timing. An empty parking lot for a wedding that started 15 minutes prior was a pretty bad sign. Being told how early we were, however, was a little embarrassing.
After a scary ride through an oncoming storm with tornadic winds and rainfall, we landed in the area mall to do what we do best: spend our money. She left with a new smaller sized dress, I left with a new but familiar look.
Just seconds from the actual ceremony, we ended up waiting another hour in front of the big screen with drinks in our hands and football on the tube. It seems as though nothing was going right but everything was as it should be.
I had forgotten how many relatives she had, and also realized there were a few still not accounted for. But we made friends with several cousins and their dates, enjoyed some strawberry fondue, and watched the evening slowly unfold from waiting another hour for two photo lovers indulge themselves in the remaining light of the evening. I knew she was happy for me to be there.
The uneventful ride back home was only dampened with one jealous boyfriend. Little does he realize or care to know that I’m no competition. I picked up two more passengers after changing into my normal get-up before ending up at a swanky, upscale house in the hills.
This was a much quieter house party than our birthday bash a couple of weekends ago, and it was pleasant to relax and take in the evening. The thought of being able to accompany a band for four weeks swam through my head for the next few hours, but ultimately was disrupted with good conversations. Several hours passed and I completed my journey.
I believe the Melatonin has kicked in. If not, it’s gonna be a restless few minutes in bed while I try to force my mind to shut up.
When I take such long absences from posting on my website, I get lost for words. So much happens in a month and to try and summarize everything, sentences flowing nicely from event to event, can be arduous. It is then that the random nature of my thoughts is all I have to go on.
My month started with a short, somewhat unpleasant trip to San Diego. The best part was going to Seaworld for the first time. The worst was not enjoying myself and getting too little sleep. It’s because of experiences like this that you must re-evaluate your priorities and desires in life. But luckily, I caught up on sleep and will try to trust my gut more often.
I’ve started a huge project at work that has kept me constantly busy as I continually try to play catch up, rewriting code after code. You’d think I would be further along than I am but one thing leads to another. And I’ve had a much better month than August and July. When my site is finally redesigned, I’ll let you take a peek at it. Although, it’s rather technical and not so exciting. Oh, and it’s been just over six months since I joined this company. My, how time flies.
In less than two weeks, I shall mark my return to one of my favorite destinations: NYC. I’m going to spend five and a half days there enjoying the city, catching up with the bro, and meeting new people. I have no plans and hope to have as much fun as I possibly can in a great big city. My last visit to Manhattan was November of 2003. It has been much too long since that visit and I hope my next visit back doesn’t take me another three years. Who knows… Maybe soon in the future I’ll be spending week after week there for a while.
I have almost certainly finished most of my major freelance web design work. That’s a very good feeling as it’s been looming in the background since I began working full-time. This is also great because I can now get out there and start pursuing other things which make me happy, such as music and traveling. Being a full-time and freelance designer for almost all the time I’m awake during the day has burnt me out on web design. I enjoy the art behind it, I enjoy learning new methods and putting new puzzles together, but I am very tired of doing this day after day. I’ve lost a little of the passion. Which is why I think pursuing other things I enjoy during my freetime will help me regain the passion for it as well as build others.
This is the first weekend in a very long time where I felt like I’ve had so much time to myself. It is such a nice feeling to not feel pressured by projects that need to be done. However, I don’t want to get TOO comfortable because I need to stimulate myself with my freetime looking for new, cool opportunities. Time to get myself out there again. And maybe now I can finally get something going with all of this musical talent that I supposedly have.
Since my last post about working out more regularly, I’m proud to say that I’ve been fairly consistent over the past month. I jog no less than 3 times a week as well as life weights 3-4 times a week. It’s not like you can really see any results but I know I feel better because of it. However, my legs and knees are starting to feel a little on the bad side of this. So I need to be careful about what I’m doing. Time to start considering joining a gym.
Friday night was a great night. I went to CBS studios for the first time ever and was able to see a few studios. The foremost studio that I walked on was the Price is Right set! That was really cool since I’ve grown up watching it. But it’s always true what they say about TV adding weight. That studio is TINY. The stage is tiny. Everything was so small. And, actually being on stage where Bob Barker does his thing was really awesome. The other studios I visited were Bold and the Beautiful, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Tyra Banks. Tyra’s studio is exactly as you would imagine… made for a diva. It is HUGE. It’s great knowing the right people!
These really are the greatest years of my life. And I truly believe it’s only going to get better from here.
I never had the opportunity to experience something like this, but you all know you thought about doing it in college. I wish I was ingenius enough to pull off something like or to have it pulled off on me.
San Francisco
Monterey
Hollywood
Houston
St. Louis
Nauvoo
San Diego
Venice Beach
Hollywood
Beverly Hills
Activities:
Chinatown
Golden Gate Bridge
Fisherman’s Wharf
Russian Hill
Walk of Fame
Hollywood Sign
Koreotown
Rodeo Dr.
Venice Beach scene
San Diego Zoo
Business trip
Memorial trip
The Arch
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
Life is busy.
I bought a Nikon D70s a few weeks ago. Here’s a few shots from the Pasadena Mountains.
