4 posts tagged “life”
Damn. Mercifully, this year's flown by... Or is that a bad thing? i can't say i've gotten much done. But it is nice to have 2007 at hand because i'm intending to make the new year different. Just gotta get through Christmas first without losing my damn mind. Pre-Thanksgiving didn't help, that's for sure..
i'm not going all out for Christmas this year. i'm not even going to entertain the idea of cards, and the gift list has been extremely cut down. i just don't have the money this year to do much shopping beyond my parents and Tom. For the relatives and anyone else, i'll do cooking/baking stuff. i've already ear-marked a few recipes that seem especially tasty, and which would last for a few days being wrapped or otherwise packaged.
i haven't heard much about going to Boston or Chicago in January, but i'll probably hear more about that this weekend in Port Charlotte. (Yes, "or Chicago". Apparently there's a chance we may be going up there in January with Tom's parents. i'm not sure it'd be as fun as usual, but it's still Chicago.)
We're probably going to be leaving for Port Charlotte in a little bit, before traffic here gets too nasty. For the first time... ever, maybe... i'm actually looking forward to the trip. We're hitting the big outlet mall on the way down, hopefully, so i can maybe get a gift bought for one or both of my parents then. Of course, i miss the kids a lot and as always i'm thrilled to get to spend some time with them. The past weekend has left me emotionally drained and i just need to take my mind off things, even if its just replacing one set of stress and worry for another.
It's funny. i just noticed how little i've posted since a post in late September. Wowzers. i'm usually so much more talkative... A few updates on the things i last posted about... i did indeed go to the rescheduled dentist appointment, which was today, as a matter of fact. Didn't hurt, but it wasn't pleasant either. At least this time i wasn't inadvertantly forced to watch White Chicks. (Who the fuck bought that on DVD?!) i had Saw 2 Uncut in my bag from having just purchased it before going to the dentist, along with Feast, but somehow i didn't see either of those making it into the office DVD player. Oh well. Next time i'm in for a long appointment, i'm taking a movie with me. Seriously. My mouth is still numb, my new fake crown feels bizarre, and i'm so agitated at my mouth right now that i just want to chew on something. Anything.
i have started to work again. i've been contracted to do a web site for someone i know, and so far it's going really well. i gave her some rough ideas to look at earlier this week, and she really likes them! That's such a great feeling! i miss feedback! It's inspired me to work on my own web site... not YET, but i'd like to anyway. i've got the domain, and i haven't touched it in ages, yet... i still pay for it. i should do something with it. Something to get the creativity going.
i still play too much Warcraft, but i've sworn it off for the next couple of days so that i can get some things done. i was going to cancel my account for awhile, but instead i've decided to use it's cracklike power to my advantage. i have trouble getting up early, that's been a fact for ages. i have very little to keep me on an actual schedule. All it takes is one bad day or two and i'm right back waking up at noon. SO. i'm going to join a guild full of people on the other side of the world, and play very early in the morning with them. The raiding will end before 11am, leaving me with the rest of the day to work, and evenings open for errands, fun, and PVP. It's a pretty ridiculous way to get myself on a schedule, but damned if it won't work. Should be fun, too! (PS - i'm THRILLED the expansion has been pushed back. Gives me plenty of time to hit Field Marshal, and still play with the little feral drood i made a couple of weeks ago.)
i'm actually going to be *gasp* social this weekend. i haven't done that in ages. Should be interesting. i miss going out and doing stuff sometimes. A friend of mine from up north is visiting in January, and we already have plans that i'm very much looking forward to - getting all dressed up, going to the local goth bar, and being snobby bar bitches like we used to back in the day. It's great, too, because i don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell of me going back to Chicago in January this year, but perhaps in the spring. His visit should take the edge off for awhile. We ARE going to Boston for New Years again, though, and this time around, i'm renting a car. i'm sick of being on a leash with them... i'm 26 fucking years old. (And sharing one mid-size car with seven passengers last time blew huge goat chunks. i'd rather not have to relive that.) Driving in Boston will be an experience, to say the least, but i could perhaps even sneak off to NYC for a day or two.. That sure would be nice. Finally getting to go there after so many years of wanting to, even if its just for a day, would be just as exciting for me as going to Chicago for a whole week.
i'm looking forward to the new year. It's going to be different.
i'm also really looking forward to Thanksgiving, which is the next foreseeable big social thing for me. We've probably got a Warcrack buddy coming down for it, too. Hooray for twenty-pound turkeys and cooking for two days! (Seriously, i love it.) It's always a good time. i will post many many pictures, i'm sure.
My second CSS book arrived today. Woot. i already went through the first two projects, and all but one of the "Branching Out" mini-projects at the end of each chapter. Basically, you're supposed to alter the finished result of the project in some way, using only CSS, all on your own. A couple of them were especially hard and took some Googling to figure out, but i got them... All but one, which i'll tackle again tomorrow. When things are quiet. Tom's on Ventrillo at the moment, and i'm finding it very difficult to concentrate.
It's maddening. Absolutely fucking maddening. i like quiet. i can't concentrate unless i have quiet. Which is why i never concentrate in this house.
i'm supposed to think about giving myself deadlines... for moving, for my portfolio being complete, for applying to grad school, for whatever. i generally don't like giving myself life deadlines. If a deadline isn't met, i feel like shit, and it's a lot harder to motivate myself to do something when it's for myself and not, say, a client or a friend. i still don't like the idea, as helpful as it's supposed to be. There's just too much fear of not meeting a deadline to attempt ot meet a deadline. If that makes any sense. Which, to me, it doesn't. It's common sense to me that the way to conquer a fear is by facing it. If you're afraid of flying, get on a plane. If you're afraid of clowns, go to the circus. If you're afraid of dogs, come to my house. Why is a fear of failure so different? Because its intangible?
Well.. i'm officially done with the first CSS book i mentioned in an earlier post. i realize this is no different than anything else learned - you just have to keep up with it. And that's why i have to constantly struggle with PHP. i don't use it regularly, i don't practice, i don't ask for help. i should really stop that.
Now, on to the next book, so that i can absorb more knowledge of CSS positioning and more complex layout issues. Plus it gives me more to do while i wait for More Eric Meyer on CSS to arrive... i've already tweaked my Livejournal's appearance (fonts, spacing, padding, etc... mostly things the average person wouldn't even notice) using CSS. It was a bit challenging trying to get over the LJ hurdles (apparently some changes just can't be made unless you totally strip out their default CSS and well, no, not today), but i pretty much did what i wanted. So, hooray!
i actually had this book, and i'd already spent time reading through it years ago. But those are the key words here - "years ago". Browsers have changed and technology is always changing, which makes it all the more important to keep up with something like this. So, today i went to Borders and purchased the second edition, which has updated the information on the topics i'm most interested in.
The funny thing is that all of these books are written by the same author, Eric Meyer. Both of the "On CSS" books are written in a more hands-on manner, while the "Definitive Guide" is more in-depth, but all three are written by the same guy. AND the little pocket CSS reference book i've been using for the past couple of years... All by Eric Meyer. This guy sure loves/knows his CSS.
i certainly picked a career path with a lot of junk to keep up with. i truly do not like web design as much as i like print design. A huge reason for this is the "lowest common denominator" - people who never update their browsers or their plug-ins, people who've been using the same monitor and video card since 1997, people who insist on using 800x600 for some ungodly reason, people who can't navigate through any navigation system that is even remotely "experimental".... i hate the lowest common denominator. But they won't go away. It's sad, really. i used to really love web stuff.
That's a really big reason why i switched majors, all of the hurdles in web design and development. Plus the fact that programming crap doesn't come to me as quickly as it does to others. i love the design part of the process, but i hate the implentation and all the considerations you have to make for Jim Bob and his ten year old Pentium 2. Print doesn't have the same kind of limitations, so i switched. But sadly, web crap is going to end up being part of my life and my career anyway, so its best that i accept that and do what i can to make it work to my advantage.
