Mostly Alive, Nearly Kicking

I am not dead! I felt as if I was, but alas, am not. I was going through a rough personal time including, but not limited to, death in the family. I’m still trying to get through it and I realize now that had I been regularly clearing out my mind here, I might feel better.

I’ll moving to a new site within the next few days and will be posting much more often.

Despite the bad, a few good things have happened since my last entry:

1) I went to see The Phantom of the Opera when the tour came to Seattle. It was a-effing-mazing and worth every penny of the exorbinant amount I spent on my four row-center tickets. Despite the fact I totally couldn’t afford them.

2) I took a day trip to Bellingham with my friend who was catching the ferry to Alaska.

I loved it, particularly Fairhaven. It was pouring down rain when we arrived by train and the first thing we see is a fish and chip shop being run out of a double-decker bus with a gazebo on the side for indoor dining. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen at that point. We were there for over half an hour and yet our food managed to be burn-your-mouth hot the entire time.

Click on image to go to source.

It’s particularly good that I loved it because I’ll be moving up there when I transfer to Western Washington University for their elementary education program.

I want to get my master’s degree in Library and Information Science (an MLIS) so I want to get my teaching qualifications as an undergraduate while still being able to double major. The education program before the double major is a five and a half year program. Adding in another concentration to that might add a considerable amount of time, but I’m hoping to plan it well.

3) My friend and I have resolved to travel through Europe for three months in 2009, unless one of us wins the lottery in which case we’re replacing the words ‘Europe’ and ‘three months’ with ‘the world’ and ‘forever’. Likely from September to December. I’ve done the math on what I need to save (plus what I was saving for my formal education, but am now deciding to blow on travel–a different sort of education, but arguably of equal importance) so I’m in the process of trying to find an additional job or two that pays the same or better than my current job.

In Which Every Paragraph Starts with an ‘I’ Contraction

I’ve been pondering a lot lately.

I’ve also been building a new site. Alas, that’s been going slowly since I’m pondering a new domain¹ and I just got a new job.

I’m sort of trying to build something that’s clean. Something I’m not worried about people I know finding.

I’ll be keeping the old blog posts, but making it more personal in addition to geeky stuff I post about instead of just posting personal stuff in my LiveJournal (with the exception of stuff that needs to be locked).

1. Something I can stick with forever or for at least a very long while. I have one idea. I want something short. ↩

Layout Block

I’ve been meaning to change my layout for ages, but I just can’t seem to come up with any good or even mediocre ideas!

Usually, a shiny colour scheme I’m dying to play with starts beating me around the head, but now? Nothing.

I’m thinking I should read some good Photoshop tutorials, look for some more design resources, and try out something new. Trouble is, these days, I’m not even sure where to find good, informative, or inspiring Photoshop tutorials. Sure, you can Google for them, but, as with most things, 95% of what Google pulls up is total crap.

This layout block has me so ensnared that I have two perfectly good posts written¹, but instead of editing/adding/rethinking bits or even just posting as-is, I’ve been stressing over layout ideas. It’s verging on the point of ridiculous.

How do you get past layout block? What are your favorite design resources?

1. One I wrote a week ago in which I rant about how I recently had an epiphany that I have to be a teacher, but I’ll probably get shot! ↩

Nothing Like High Fructose Corn Syrup to Start Your Day

Customer: You’re drinking Coke for breakfast?
Server: Yeah, I always drink Coke in the mornings. I don’t know why, but it always wakes me up and makes me hyper! But I don’t know why.
Customer: …
My mum, my brother, and me: [collectively die laughing]

Nothing to do with the amount of sugar high fructose corn syrup and caffeine, yeah?

My fifteen-year-old brother isn’t exactly the brightest crayon in box, and even he said “Oh my G-d” before banging his head on the table.

Now we go back there to get breakfast all the time just so we can eavesdrop on this girl’s conversations and get our daily dose of laughter. Perhaps stupidity is good for business?

Also, grr at Site5 for the server and FTP issues I’ve had recently. Durga, the server my sites are on, was down for several hours earlier today and FTP still isn’t working on some domains, but not others. So far, since I switched to Site5 about two or three weeks ago, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. I hope things get straightened out so I can enjoy my escape from DreamHost.

Another New Layout

Another new layout, but this time a bit more permanent as I’m actually fond of this one whereas the last one was far too bright with a header that was too tall (though the file itself was only 6 KB in size).

Amusingly, now that I’ve put this layout up, it’s sunny in Seattle. Last night, when I was making it, it was pouring.

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