July 30, 2003

To think I don't really like driving...

To my surprise, I found myself thoroughly enjoying a bunch of websites on roads... Chris's British Road Directory (don't look at me for that "Chris's", it's in the page title :P the UK vs Italy page in particular amused the hell out of me) and Wet Roads in particular (though Pathetic Motorways is also good, if only for the photos of the lost A18(M) motorway).
(Links found via Metafilter.)

¤ 04:27 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

It works

\o/ See post title. \o/ It took me all the goddamn morning but it works.
The templates (and template tags) I can only describe as "peculiarly mindfuck" - they're what took me the longest to figure out, especially the one peculiar archive path issue which I solved by pulling the publishing software up one directory (the software doesn't depend on configuration created when you install it, thank fuck, you just unzip it and upload it into a directory).

That, and Internet Exploder randomly closing on me when I clicked on links didn't help at all. Having to retype a new template from scratch four times because the piece of shit that is this browser closed on me (without so much as a "oopsie, fatal error" or similar warning) is not fun. At all.

If I wasn't leaving tomorrow, I'd be installing Opera or Firebird or similar Browser With A Brain.

But then, I might come back here in September (they asked me to... longish story and reflections on this saved for another entry). If I do, the first day I'm doing a round on all computers in here and installing a real browser.

[EDIT] Pivot works; but finding out how to configure a second weblog so it can also be used to update the news page is more effort than I care to make. Blogger, here I come...

[EDIT #2] On second thought, and to save explaining Blogger to supervisor guy, I'm just duplicating the Pivot folder and reconfiguring the program for the news page. It's not that big of a prog. :P

¤ 12:06 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 29, 2003

Volete essere ricchi?

Questa la capiscono solo gli italiani ma... XD

Andate su Google.it, digitate "come diventare plurimiliardario" e cliccate "Mi sento fortunato"... cliccatelo ancora... e ancora. XD

Poi provate con "non mi sento fortunato"...

E poi provate anche quanto suggerito nell'articolo, già che ci siete. ;)

Sono l'equivalente italiano delle "weapons of mass destruction". XD

¤ 06:33 PM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

I'm saved! ...maybe. ¬¬

I love SourceForge. I went and ran a search for "weblog" there, in desperation, and it found me Pivot - which at a first glance looks like it'll do everything I need it to. I installed it, now we'll see... *crosses fingers*

¤ 04:34 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

......

Ok, so after giving up on installing MT ("tech support" still hasn't replied on the module installation issue, and it's been five days... granted, there was the weekend inbetween, but in theory they offer tech support via email Monday-Friday 9am-11pm, Saturday-Sunday 11am-10pm... and I never heard anything from them after 7pm, nor in the weekend, despite repeated emails), I went and installed pMachine.

The installation process ran without a hitch... hey cool, I thought, this is actually working, I'll just have to configure it and then I can go back to do stuff that doesn't give me a headache.

I go to the login screen, and there's no submit button on it. Doublechecking the FTP'd files turns up that the FTP server had been timing out on me (without spitting out any error, so I didn't notice at all until I rechecked) and so half the config files were 0 bytes in size.

I grumbled a bit, reuploaded the whole thing, still wouldn't work. So I redid the installation process - it went without a hitch again. And there was a submit button on the login screen and all! So I could login to the CP.

For two whole minutes.

I started looking around to see where the templates were, how I could configure things... added two categories... clicked on another option... "login", it tells me. Fine, I input username and password again, thinking it's some security feature... invalid username and password. Fine, I'll have the password sent to my email address... "Could not find your email in the database."

Now, I'd just installed it five minutes earlier. And it was working then. Maybe something happened to the database...?

(The single allowed database that "tech support" had to install for me, because of course it was too difficult to provide clients with a working control panel that could install databases on its own and a non-contradicting FAQ... "you can create the database from the comfort of your CP", says an answer, and another says, "email us to have us create your database". Siiiiigh.)

I open the phpMyAdmin control panel (an ancient version - 2.2.6 - is all the webhost provided, and I had to install it myself, and it's badly translated in Italian... only half-translated, so it's quite incomprehensible if you don't have a clue how it works... "easy management of your MySQL database" my ass)... "no tables in the database", it says.

...

I run the install once more, then go check again. Yep, still no tables in the database. The hell?

And then I notice a nice error message.

User 'answeridx' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource (current value: 1000)

......

I have not the words.

Wait, I have them.

Italian people looking for webhosts? Stay the fuck away from consultingweb.it. True, their smallest hosting plan and their domain registration cost very little (and that's probably what drew supervisor guy to register with them), but they're absolutely horrid in terms of tech support, ease of use and services provided. So stay away, and get a webhost worth your time and money.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see what I can cobble together with Blogger or a similar remotely hosted system... ¬¬

¤ 12:06 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

July 28, 2003

*chomp*

Another addictive game: Fishy. You eat smaller fishes, you stay away from bigger fishes. Sounds deceptively simple, but it isn't. Enjoy.

¤ 03:23 PM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

Goddamn mosquitoes

I woke up this morning scratching at my arms. Two mosquitoes had bitten me on my elbows, and it itched like hell. I was scratching at my arms even in my sleep, according to my mother.
And yesterday afternoon I went outside in the garden for five minutes, and when I came back inside I had so many mosquito bites on my legs they could've spelled "mosquito wuz here - sweet blood to be found!" in morse code. ¬¬
Mosquitoes are one of the few things I really hate about summer. That, and the "aargh I'm MELTING let me go inside I want to hug the AC" heat.

¤ 11:26 AM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

Stalkerbot

Get notified of blog updates via AIM. Bit stalkerish if you ask me ¬¬ But hell, whatever floats your boat... and yes, it'll work with this blog, but I refuse to provide detailed instructions.

¤ 01:09 AM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

Lazy weekend

Haven't updated, I know... spent the weekend doing mostly nothing. Went to the swimming pool on Saturday morning, dragged there by mom after having slept some two hours the previous night... ¬¬ then went shopping Saturday afternoon with a splitting headache - but I did get two new pairs of sandals and some books, so it's all good I suppose. And today I slept until 1pm ^^;; and pretty much the only thing of note I did was IRC-related stuff. And I had all sorts of plans for this weekend, too... redesign a bunch of websites, tidy my room some more (hard to believe, I know :P), and so on... but laziness won over in the end. Oh well...

¤ 12:52 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 25, 2003

"Yeah. You know... *flaps arms* birds."

Thanks to a good friend of mine (*wave* hi Freddeh!) I retrieved the music from the beginning of the Loom game: Tchaikovsky, of course... Swan Lake, Pas de Trois, Intrada.
This brings back memories... think I'll go play that game again, soon.

¤ 03:18 PM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

More on "tech support"

Them: "We created the database for you. Have the data."
Me: "That's cool. It still doesn't work, though. Was I unclear on what you needed to do, or do I just need to go find another CMS to use?"

Siiiiiigh. I want competent tech support, damnit.

¤ 01:00 PM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

July 24, 2003

Quick quick quick

Problem: I'll be gone from here at work in about 30 minutes.
Problem: I won't be here at work tomorrow (train strike).
Problem: while I have FTP access and suchlike to the website from home (duh... all I have to do is remember a very easy to remember set of FTP server, username, and password), damned if I'll spend my free time straightening out the problems. I got caught in that particular trap yesterday ("stubborn" and "dumb" are, quite often, the same thing), I'm not going to do that again.
Problem: it still irks the hell out of me to leave everything messed up and non-solved until Monday, though.
Solution: hurry the fuck up, "tech support", and do what I told you to do. Grrr.

In the meantime, I've been looking at various other blog-management software (through OpenSourceCMS, which is very cool, and which I found - again - from scriptygoddess, which I'm starting to love more and more with each passing day). pMachine looks to be the best for what I have in mind so far, and it gives me something to fall back on should "tech support" prove to be as incompetent as they look. MT would still be the best option, though, if only because I'm actually familiar with how it works.
Of course, if MT doesn't work, and pMachine doesn't work either, I'm in deep deep shit, and my weekend will be spent tracking down something that actually works.

¤ 04:02 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

And they said

Me: "I need either this Perl module or this MySQL module installed."
Them: "Please confirm your domain name so I can install a MySQL database for you."

I smell clueless / incompetent tech support that's hoping the client is even more clueless than they are. ¬¬ Let's see what results this "MySQL database installation" produces...

Time to go looking for alternatives to MT, I think. ¬¬ Anybody have suggestions? (No, plain Blogger won't do.) Requirements:
- Free
- Works on a Windows server with minimum hassle
- User-friendly interface
- Post titles and excerpts
- Archiving by single entry
- Full template customization, with the ability to add more templates if needed
- More than one blog allowed

Oh: and it must NOT be Greymatter. :P One bad experience with it is enough for me, thank you, and I don't want to give a tool which could possibly break for no reason at all to a low-skill computer user.

¤ 03:31 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

Still trying...

Got through to tech support, CP works, I still need a module installed which I can't install on my own, they'll have to install it for me. I hope to God they can figure it out on their own, cause it would be the blind leading the blind... I really am not much of a techie, just making it up and learning it as I go along... heh. But at least, I try.
And if they tell me installing the module I need would be too difficult, I'm gonna scream and whack them with the MT helpfile I linked them to. I could do it myself but I'd need administrative access, which of course I don't have, as it's not my machine... ¬¬

In the meantime, I'm wandering around the internet looking for tips and tricks and ways to customize my own blog. After adding the list of the last five songs played in Winamp and the most recent photo posted in my photolog to my sidebar (this just yesterday... once you know how to do something, you can also adapt it to do something else), I'm pretty much focused on customization. Hehe. It's so easy to make stuff work how you want it to once you know how...

¤ 10:37 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 23, 2003

Ok.

Got MT installed - almost - thanks to this page, also installing some of the needed modules on my own. Of course, database support is still lacking, so I sent off an email to tech support telling them to give me CP access already fs. (In nicer wording, of course.) Once I have access to the CP, according to their helpfiles, I should be able to activate MySQL and all should be well. ¬¬

¤ 04:16 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

Update...

In addition to the previous fuckups, it appears that the server is a Windows one, even if the guy had explicitly picked Linux (I saw him do it). So now I have three options: go shout at tech support for the hosting place, find a decent blogging tool that does what I want it to do that works on Windows servers and is free, or teach the guy how to do HTML and FTP. None of which I'm looking forward to. And I only have one week to unravel the fuckup! Yuck. (Sounds like plenty, I know, but when you've had the experiences I've had with bad tech support... and it doesn't look like we're off to a good start.)

¤ 01:15 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

Gah.

Ok. So. I'm working on this website for the place I'm having my internship at, yeah? I have the design ready, I'm waiting on (most of) the content. Tiny problem with that, though, I'm leaving in a week (my internship finishes at the end of July), and nobody else here has a clue about HTML... so either they give me the content to put in the site by then, or they'll have to hire out for somebody to do it for them ($$$, and they'll probably wreck my nice simple layout).
And then there's another problem. They want to be able to update the site easily, with news and the like... so I'm planning to set up MT for them, nice and idiot-proof, with clear instructions, so they don't have to go edit three different files every time they want to add a news item, the program does it all for them. Except I don't know if the webspace the site'll be hosted on has the installed requirements for MT to work... it should have them, or at least that's what I can gather from the webpage of the company domain and webspace were bought from. But I'm not sure...
(The buying went more or less this way:
Guy who "supervises" me: "Oh yes, gotta register domain... *clickclickclick* domain *clickclickclick* webspace -- hey, do we use FrontPage?"
Me (across the room): "Eh? *blink* FrontPage? No... why?"
G: "The registration page is asking if we use FrontPage."
M: "Whatever for? *goes to look* Ahh, no, if you're looking for webspace, Linux is better, pick the Linux option."
G: "Ok. *clickclickclick* Linux *clickclickclick* credit card *clickclickclick* submit *prints out confirmation email, hands it to me* Here, you should be able to make the site work with this, no?"
M: "Uhh...")
So I wanted to go check in the control panel utility they make available to clients, but it wouldn't take username and password. (It's probably the ! in the password... it's best not to use non-alphanumeric characters in passwords if you aren't utterly sure the system won't choke on them... which I could've told the guy, if he'd asked...) So I went ahead and downloaded FileZilla, and tried to connect to the FTP server (same username and password)... that one went through. So, either the username and password for the CP were listed wrongly in the email (but I doubt it, it's an automated email...), or whatever the hosting company's using for their CP is choking on the ! in the password. It looks like it's the latter... I'll have the password resent to the email address the guy registered domain and webspace with, and if the password's correct, well, we'll have to phone/email tech support and ask for them to go in and change it. I'll also have to explain to the guy that if he doesn't give me the material for the site, and doesn't get somebody else to do the stupid data entry he's having me do, he'll be left with an unfinished site because I'm leaving in a week. *sigh* Not looking forward to that. I'm not good at taking charge of people and telling them what to do, even if I know more than them.

[EDIT] Ok, I tried to have the password sent to email and it told me, "invalid user id - please try again..." So it's the CP having a fit, because the username and password are the ones listed in the confirmation email (I've triple-checked) and they work for the FTP. Looks like I'm on my own here. ¬¬

[EDIT #2] And the subdomain the hosting company has the CP on is named "stalin", it appears. Uhh... ¬¬

¤ 11:26 AM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

July 22, 2003

The things cats do

So. It's summer... hot and humid, even at night. Hard to stand such conditions when awake, nevermind sleeping in such conditions...

So what's a kitty to do?

(Yes, that's the sink in one of our bathrooms. Maybe I should take a hint from the cat and go sleep in the bathtub...)

¤ 10:57 PM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

As if you wanted to know

The last five mp3s I played on my Winamp are now listed in the sidebar. This site, which I found via scriptygoddess, told me how to do it. I'm surprised I actually managed it, though - it's not that the tutorial isn't good, it's that I'm often tech-dumb. But it worked. *cheers*

¤ 08:49 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

What next, winged pigs?

This just in: using "yeah, right, and I've got a purple bear to show you..." or similar as an expression of disbelief is dangerous.

¤ 04:43 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

Interesting test...

The Mind Media Brain Persuasion test.

Short results:

Auditory : 46%
Visual : 53%
Left : 44%
Right : 55%

Continue reading "Interesting test..."

¤ 04:18 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

Mmm, pizza.

Turns out pizza is really good for you. (Was there ever any doubt? :p)

¤ 04:01 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

'And the Lord said unto the chatter...'

'..."go get thyself a real IRC program". And the chatter did as the Lord said, and saw that it was good.'

I just connected to IRC for five minutes on the javachat, and man, I'd forgotten how much it sucks. It's heaps better now than when I used to use it a couple years ago to get on IRC on lunchtimes, when I still hadn't figured out how to install mIRC on the university computer, of course, but it still sucks. Funny thing is, I could've even opered up on it, as the address I was on is in my oline... but all the notices and everything, showing up in my main screen, would've probably driven me nuts in a short time. Heh.

Must remember to burn mIRC to CD so I can stealth-IRC from work on slow days...

¤ 03:27 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

July 21, 2003

Awww.

*points to sidebar* My one concession to Cute. I simply could not resist. :D

¤ 07:13 PM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

Public service announcement

There is no "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" "warez" here, dimwits. Stop searching for it and buy the goddamn book already, like the rest of us.
And for that matter, it doesn't matter how often you revisit the same page through the same Google search, a copy of the book text won't spontaneously appear here for you to peruse. Yes, that means you, 202.138.166.66. So quit that.
You could also consider getting a dictionary and learning what "warez" means, while you're in that bookstore buying your copy of the book... oh wait, to do that, you'd have to have a brain. Nevermind.

(Watch my position in the search results for Harry Potter warez skyrocket...)

¤ 01:31 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

*tries to look evil* Grrrr.

Sat for fifteen minutes on a bench in the park, reading. Got two guys hitting on me, which I ignored until they went away, and two nice old ladies doing propaganda for Jehovah's Witnesses, who went away after handing me a bunch of pampleths which got binned almost immediately. Then another guy hitting on me, who wouldn't go away so I left instead. Grr...
Something tells me I should work on my "I'm grumpy and evil and dangerous, stay the fuck away from me" scowl some more.

¤ 09:40 AM ¤ Comments (6) ¤

July 20, 2003

I need a new room

What? I do. My room is completely overrun by stacks of stuff, in a condition I can only define as "death by manga and books". I just got done tidying half of it, which involved hauling 7 months' worth of manga around and finding a place for it all. Took me all the bloody afternoon, and next week I get to do a repeat of the activity, only with books. Which I'm not looking forward to. I have more manga than normal people have books, ffs, and I have books double the manga amount...

And now I'm exhausted, of course. I'm even shaking slightly because of the tiredness, enough so that my typing is all messed up, I go slower than normal and have to backspace more than usual... bleh.

¤ 07:11 PM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

July 19, 2003

It ain't over 'til the fat browser dies

Some good arguments to get off that POS browser that IE is and start using one of the alternatives. Me, I'm doing my part and suggesting Opera to people every chance I have. The list of Opera Converts I've made is growing... *grin*

(I should really make that small Opera page I've been planning for a bit, come to think of it, with the small pile of Opera sidebars and skins and suchlike I've been building to customize my own copy...)

¤ 07:30 PM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

"One more lesson like that and I might just do a Weasley."

Today's amusement: Order of the Phoenix fun-tastic innuendo list. So I'm not the only one with my mind in the gutter... good to know.

¤ 11:43 AM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

July 18, 2003

A day in the life

Seems I update only on Fridays. Well that's not too bad, is it?

Got some new shoes today... a new pair of sneakers, and a new pair of sandals. The latter are the most comfortable sandals I've had in quite a while... just gotta get used to walking on them, since they have slightly taller heels than I'm used to. (As if I wasn't tall enough already, I had to go and get high-heeled sandals... but they were comfy, so oh well.)

Virtual bubblewrap, for the easily entertained.

Tired. Likely going to sleep soon...

¤ 11:59 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 17, 2003

And in the morning

Thank you. And you, and you.

And you.

The flowers were beautiful.

¤ 10:49 AM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

MMORPG, you say?

On Gamespot: Real Life: the full review. Yes, it's what you think it is. :D

¤ 01:09 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 16, 2003

Irrational jealousy

And you never made me flowers.

¤ 09:55 AM ¤ Comments (8) ¤

A morning timeline

7:00  Wake up.
7:01  mmph... 'nother five minutes
7:15  Get woken up again by mom
7:16  yes yes... 'nother five minutes
7:30  Get woken up again by mom. "get UP! you're going to be late!"
7:31  Get up, drag self to bathroom
7:32  Find cat waiting for you in the bathroom
7:33  Get unnerved by cat staring at you, decide to throw it out
7:34  Cat starts purring and being generally cute when approached; give up on throwing it out, cuddle it instead
7:45  Drag self downstairs for breakfast, absurdly late
7:50  Breakfast done, brush teeth, get ready to leave
7:51  Notice wallet with train ticket is missing, hunt for wallet
7:53  Run like hell
7:58  Get to train station, just in time
8:00  On train
8:01  Curl up in seat, fall asleep
8:02  Weird IRC Dreams start
8:45  mmph... 'nother five min- oh. yes. station.
8:46  Rub eyes, drag self off train
8:47  Sit on bench with a book, in an attempt to fight off sleep
9:10  Get woken up from another Weird IRC Dream by train honking at you, train conductor laughing his ass off
9:11  Jump, rub eyes, grumble, get up from bench
9:12  Time to walk to work... ...oooo, books. Just five minutes...
9:25  Finally decide on two books, spend two days' lunch money on them
9:26  Run like hell
9:30  Get to work, just in time

Good morning.

¤ 09:40 AM ¤ Comments (5) ¤

What I did today

I spent pretty much all my morning and afternoon doing dull data entry on a laptop, cramped keyboard and all, in a non-airconditioned room.

And then I got a slew of ungrateful, dumb, loudmouthed or just plain rude users to help in #starchat (a specific one is particularly memorable... a WebTV'er asking how to change his nick, being told repeatedly how to, just plain not listening and instead saying things like "Geez, no help in this room, bummmer" and then parting the channel, three times).

And then I spent some time making a nice long informative post for a forum, with a lot of helpful links, and then I had to tinyurl the lot of 'em because the forum has restrictions on how many characters can be in a post and splitting the post in two was not possible. Took me almost an hour to cut 5K characters off the post so it would fit.

And then I got an user in #starchat with a simple enough problem to solve, and I helped him out, and he was very grateful ("I must say the best tech help ever is here") and nicely said thank you. And that somehow made this day all worth it.

I'm a sucker, aren't I?

¤ 01:18 AM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

July 14, 2003

On IRC, nobody can hear you cry

Stupid loneliness, kicking in when I least expect it and when I'm ill-equipped to deal with it. My email account is still "temporarily unavailable", so I can't read the emails I was waiting for nor can I write the emails I wanted to send...
IRC is dead, as well. Everybody's idling. Except for the Clueless Ones, of course, those are always active. Today's gem: typing the command to register a nick all clumped together, without any spaces. Because, you know, when I showed it to you I put those spaces in just because I felt like it, they don't have any particular meaning and aren't needed at all. Yeah.

¤ 01:53 PM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

Morning grumpiness

Today, for the first time in weeks, I am wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, and carrying a jacket with me. That is because it's quite cold today: a chill wind is blowing, and the sky is threatening rain.

If by noon it's sunny and hot as all hell, I'm going to be very angry with mother nature. ¬¬

Oh, and:

We apologize, but your account is temporarily unavailable. This delay does not affect the entire site or result from any problem specific with your account however the server that holds your account information is temporarily unavailable.
Curse you ten times over, Hotmail, for screwing up my morning routine. Resurrect that stupid machine and let me at my email already.

¤ 10:44 AM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

July 13, 2003

I hate you, Winamp.

<sailoreagle> AAAAAAARGH what the FUCK are the Spice Girls doing in my playlist?
<Paz> lol
<sailoreagle> *hits Winamp*
<Paz> Terrifying you?
<Daveh> rofl
<sailoreagle> I mean
<sailoreagle> here I am, listening to nicely randomed songs I like... a song ends, and suddenly I hear...
<sailoreagle> "YOOOOOOOOOOO I'll tell you what I want what I really really want"

¤ 08:30 PM ¤ Comments (5) ¤

Thank you, Winamp.

Where once was light, now darkness falls
Where once was love, love is no more

Don't say goodbye, don't say I didn't try...

These tears we cry are falling rain
For all the lies you told us, the hurt, the blame

And we will weep to be so alone
We are lost, we can never go home

So in the end I'll be what I will be,
No loyal friend was ever there for me

Now we say goodbye, we say you didn't try...

These tears you cry have come too late
Take back the lies, the hurt, the blame

And you will weep when you face the end alone
You are lost, you can never go home

You are lost, you can never go home

(Emiliana Torrini, "Gollum's song", The Two Towers soundtrack. Fits awfully well with my today, I have to say.)

¤ 01:19 PM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

July 12, 2003

Update notice

My photolog just received a major update. And I'm going to try and update it more frequently from now on. So please visit and comment :)

¤ 01:18 AM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

July 11, 2003

Small blessings

Pizza for lunch.
A good book.
An airconditioned train.

¤ 05:25 PM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

The universe is conspiring against me!

It is. Or, at least, that's what you think when you make popcorn, put them in a bowl, go get salt, salt the popcorn, shake the bowl so the salt gets evenly distributed, and just then an evil bastard bit of corn decides to pop, so the fountain-of-popcorn effect is maximized. Happened to me yesterday, and I spent the following two minutes picking popcorn off the floor while the cats were going nuts chasing it.

And what the heck is up with Metafilter? Seems every other time I go check that site, it's down.

Also, a bit later than the rest of blogland so y'all have probably seen this already, anatomically correct Hulk toy (well, as anatomically correct as a toy of a big green guy with ripped shorts can be :p). (via Just Orb)

And, because I'm bored and have nothing to do and the questions are fairly interesting, Friday Five in the extended entry.

Continue reading "The universe is conspiring against me!"

¤ 10:22 AM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

July 09, 2003

Owww.

God bless supermarkets, and candy stores, and funny books, and comfortable chairs.

And in other news, my email inbox is far more crud-free now that I know I'll be regularly getting a half-a-meg email somewhere around the second week of each month, and I'll have to keep it in the inbox until I can get home and download the attachment so there has to be more free space so messages won't bounce. Whee. I did a bit more cleaning today, and some of the stuff I deleted made me wonder. Whatever possessed me to keep those ugly emails I received from a very ugly person? Bleh. "Don't fret, what you're upset about is no good reason to be upset", "do this for me", "check this for me", "proofread this for me", "give me an opinion on this", "do this for me", "fuck off, I don't need to deal with you being upset because of something I've done". Heh.

¤ 11:23 AM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

July 08, 2003

Good morning.

Nothing like realizing I forgot to replace the book I finished yesterday in my backpack. Heh. I just had a Tolkien and a short book on medieval inventions with me, and there's no way I would have survived until the evening with just those books to read. So I stopped by a bookstore on my way to work and bought a new book. I wanted to buy several, to tell the truth, but then I would've been broke for the rest of the week, and I do have a tall stack of books to read at home...

And then I got to work and checked my email and found an email by mom shouting at me over which cookies I'd picked to eat with my milk this morning. Whee. -_-

¤ 10:59 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 06, 2003

Triangles and pillows

Playing with borders to make slants. Wow. I especially like the heart.

And changing the subject completely, because it would be silly to make a new post just for this, the newest bed toy for single women. (Awww.)

¤ 11:51 AM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

July 05, 2003

So well

I downloaded Paint Shop Pro 8, and I installed it.

And I swear, my first impression was, "awww, my little photo editing program is all grown up". Hehehe.

(It is, too. New features, new interface, new look and everything. Will take me a bit to dig through it, but since it didn't install on top of PSP7, I can take my time.)

¤ 07:14 PM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

And hobbits wept

The old computer we used to serve the internet connection died. Dunno how it happened, I was upstairs for lunch, but I came back downstairs and found it turned off, and it wouldn't turn on. The PSU probably died, it was old and had been having problems for a while... dad has the computer open now and is taking a look, but even if the computer is completely fried it's not a big problem, it didn't have anything important on it. Well, except the internet connection, but I unearthed the driver CD and installed the connection on my computer instead. (Good thing I have a memory for trivial stuff like internet connection username and password.) That and the scanner, which is ancient, and needs a special card to work... so if the old computer's dead I might just get a new one (unless I get a bleeding edge one they're quite cheap, I've looked, I've wanted a new scanner for a while), rather than opening up another computer and seeing if there's space for the scanner card in it. Either way, that can wait, I don't use it that often.

Oh, and the title? The old computer's named Aragorn. ;)

[EDIT] Dad made the computer come back to life. Guess what was wrong? The switch was broken. Heh. Talk about pissy computers...

[EDIT the second] It died again. And dad resurrected it again. If it dies a third time I'm moving the modem to this computer again. Hmpf.

¤ 03:14 PM ¤ Comments (2) ¤

July 04, 2003

Darken the sky

Cold day today. Grey, overcast, threatening rain, sunlight distant and thunder rumbling overhead, a chill wind kissing your skin and making you wish you'd worn a long-sleeved shirt today. Somehow, it fits - it's not bad, nor unpleasant. Just cold and the scent of rain, whispering to your soul.

¤ 11:22 AM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

July 03, 2003

Blogathon 2003

24 hours, one post every half hour. Can I do it? Should I do it? Do I even want to do it? Will I go utterly insane afterwards? Will my parents think me insane? Will my friends think me insane? Am I insane enough to try? According to the times listed on the site, I should start at 3pm on Saturday, and blog until 3pm on Sunday of course. Hmmm...

¤ 04:28 PM ¤ Comments (4) ¤

Grrr...

I ate just two hours ago, why the heck am I hungry again already? True, it wasn't much of a breakfast, but still... *digs into her reserves of candy and grumbles*
And heh. Everybody else here at work is holed up into the one air-conditioned room, and of course, being that the number of computers in there is limited, I'm now on the one computer outside the air-conditioned room. I don't particularly mind, to tell the truth. It's not that hot in here - the room is large and has a very tall ceiling, so it takes a while to warm up - and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet.
And no, I don't have anything to do here at work right now, which is why I'm wandering 'round the internet and blogging instead. Look what I found: Millennium Falcon computer.

¤ 10:21 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

*sigh*

We have idiot politicians is all I can say. The guy needs to learn to shut up. -_-

¤ 09:52 AM ¤ Comments (3) ¤

July 02, 2003

My IRC face hurts

Some channel stats from a certain IRC channel:

"sailoreagle had a happy day and smiled 196 times." (Akabane from GetBackers also smiles a lot. ;)
"sailoreagle knows that wisdom is the real wealth and asked 43 questions." (That's all the "can I help you?"s, I figure...)
And I'm top talker for the day with 3402 words and 384 lines. The second most chatty person had 1558 words and 221 lines.

I scare myself...

¤ 11:52 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

Small triumphs

I just finished setting up a layout for a site (the website I'm doing for the people at work) so it displays in one way (a pretty tabbed layout) and prints in another, only printing the relevant text and not the tabs and attached decorations. Whee. I'm honestly starting to love CSS. (Credit where credit is due: A List Apart article which gave me the idea and knowledge necessary to pull it off.)

¤ 11:24 AM ¤ Comments (1) ¤

26 things

26 things, "the international photographic scavenger hunt". One month, 26 subjects, 26 photos to take. I like it, I'll try... maybe it'll get me to update my (unfortunately neglected) photolog. (Barcelona photos are coming soon, honest.)

¤ 10:12 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

July 01, 2003

Another quiz...

What does your birthday say about you? Apparently mine says:

Pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends to not forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, tends to a know-all-attitude and making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humor, practical.

Fits well enough, I suppose. Heh.

(From Bird. This page here, based on the same principle, also states which tree type relates to each birthday: I'm an elm tree, "The Noble-Mindedness".)

[EDIT, Jul 2: changed the second link to something that wouldn't spit out contradictions.]

¤ 10:07 PM ¤ Comments (8) ¤

*typetypetype* AAAARGH!

Typer Shark (hello, RSI). 2568806 points, level 23, time 57:03 (yes, it sucks you right in - and I was bored), words per minute 76, accuracy 97% (goddamned white piranhas, purple and green sharks messing with my accuracy), rank Ultimate Nautilator. I got to level 20 with 9 lives to spare, then level 22 and 23 ate them all up. The hell am I supposed to do when four red sharks are flying at me so fast I can't even read them? Grrrr.
(By the way: all difficulties, even expert, are very much doable, with the exception of "x-treme!". Within the first five seconds, at least 30 piranhas, a good 75% of which was white, and two were red, were flying at me. Not fun. But if you like dying in the first five seconds, or really getting RSI, be my guest. :p)

¤ 04:00 PM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

Club? Is that the painful one?

I loathe popup ads, even though I don't see them from my home computer anymore. They interrupt my navigation when I'm forced to use IE, for instance at work, and...

...


... *points and laughs*

And sometimes they're absurdly amusing. XD I just got this, which is the "localized" version of this, "translated" into Italian by an automatic translating program.

Some gems:

Se è roccia, jazz, luppolo dell'anca, alternativa, colpo secco, classico, paese, cristiano, schiocco, Techno o Trance che state cercando, MP3lo ha tutto!
"il pensiero Napster di I era guasto, DISTORSIONE DI VELOCITÀ era TORTO di I! Ora con download-central.com, posso trovare TUTTA LA canzone sul Internet."
Ci leviamo in piedi dietro il nostro impegno a qualità. Se non trovate il mp3s state cercando, voi potete annulli il vostro insieme dei membri e mantenga i programmi liberi!
- 100% RISCHIA LIBERAMENTE! -
Milioni di utenti del Internet hanno fatto parte del randello esclusivo che li permette di trovare ed immediatamente trasferire TUTTI I ultimi movies, canzoni e mp3s dal sistema centrale verso i satelliti PER LIBERO -- appena come Napster!
XD Do they expect to be taken seriously? With text like that? XD

¤ 11:05 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤

Random linkage

Steal these buttons, they say, and tempt me. ¬¬ I really don't need to end up with a sidebar full of 80x15 buttons. They're nice, though, and small, and all the same size so the image links at the end of the sidebar don't look wonky. Think I'll add another few, for my referrers (must update Refer...) and for a couple other things.

The illustrated catalog of ACME products. Now, if only you could actually buy some of those... heehee.

Verbix, a verb conjugator. I was skeptical, but it works, very well. (At least for the languages I speak and therefore could check. Hehe.)

Mmm, pixels. That's quite the pixelated detail.

And I need to learn to keep my left little finger somewhere else when I type on a keyboard that isn't mine. I just accidentally held down ctrl just as I was typing "a", then, without noticing until it was too late, hit another character, erasing my entire post. Joy.

¤ 10:31 AM ¤ Comments (0) ¤