Fuck. Going through a few older links (months not years), I came across something I had been waiting for. Tech-Wrap wasn’t out yet when I discovered the link. Between having found the link and then re-finding, its been released. And sold out. Le sigh.
squeezebox is crazy cool.
Its only been within the last week that I haven’t been completely confined to the couch due to surgery.
Let me tell you that I’ve been able to take some time to find pretty spiff things online (hey, besides apply an icepack to ease down swelling from surgery, what the fuck else am I gonna do?)!
Being a huge fan of almost all things Apple (the fruit is pretty spiff too), I never got into the whole podcast thing. Admittedly, I thought it was tres cool but I didn’t really think I’d ever actually sit down, take my ipod out, and listen to these things. Especially instructional podcasts. I’m such a visual person that just an audio aid isn’t enough for me to really learn something.
I guess it’ll take near-couch confinement to really understand how friggin’ sweet podcasts are! Take, for example, daryl hannah’s love life. Hannah uses podcasts paired with little videos as documentaries for things of social purpose. Take a look at her archive of episodes (which you can also download to your computer if you don’t have an ipod) – what coolness! There’s just something really cute about the way these little videos are done. I love them.
I don’t enjoy pink. I own perhaps one pink work shirt which is accompanied by a lot of white. But when it comes to electronics and anything that typically belongs to boy world, I ADORE pink. Take, for example, the Nintendo DS Lite now comes in a pink version. I have never and will never own a Nintendo DS Lite system (I’m just not that kind of gamer grrl. I will always prefer the full-blown gaming consoles) but everytime I see that little fucker in pink, I just feel all warm and fuzzy inside.The lovely ipod nano also comes in pink (and now in an AWESOME red to support and donate funds to fight AIDS. Every $10 from each unit sold, to be specific). Even though I have the iPod Video version in Black, I always stare at that cute pink one (and sometimes the blue one and now the red is just so sinful looking) and salivate. Its really becoming a problem.And if you thought it would stop there, oh no. It doesn’t. Even though this little thing isn’t pink, its red counterpart is gorgeous to me and serves the same purpose as the Red iPod Nano (and just so you know, Verizon Wireless actually carries a pastel pink version that isn’t as neon nor as obscene as the T-mobile version).
If you’re interested in finding out what other products are participating in (RED), check out the official site for (Product) Red, which has been established to help fight the global AIDS epidemic by donating proceeds from each product purchased. If you’ve got the cash, muscle it up and give what you can for this great cause.
Most of the people who know me will testify that I am a geek. If I have no errands to run, a day off work, and am in one of those moods where I simply want to waste away and feel absolutely no shame doing so, I WILL waste away being a gamer girl.
I love games.
I’ve loved games ever since my mother gave me my first Atari system for Christmas when I was a little girl. I graduated to a Nintendo and could play Mario Brothers/Super Mario Brothers for hours (and become increasingly frustrated when I couldn’t beat the “Dark World”). Most of the latter years of high school was sadly devoid of gaming and I didn’t have my own computer until I was in college. But once I did, I completely adored playing Quake 3 Arena online and actually got quite good at it! (And yes, I still play Quake 3 online). Offline, I can probably be found geeking out on the Xbox (and always mourning the death of my PSone) and fantasizing about the upcoming Xbox 360.
What started this entire ramble-fest? The fact that I know very few girls (I can count them on one hand) that would appreciate this beautiful piece of work.
What makes this Optimus keyboard so pretty? One of the last layout images (yes, you can program different layouts based on what program you’re currently using!) is a layout of Quake. After my heart, I tell you.
So…
I can’t believe its actually been this long since I’ve posted anything onto this website. I’m not sure if that means I’ve lost interest in keeping this website or if it just means I’ve grown into a different direction with it.
But to be honest, most likely its because I’ve been eyeball-deep in my work at home and at my other full time job. Its been quite crazy around here the last few months and I’m just now starting to slow down a little….great…just in time for Yule..which, undoubtedly, will creep up on me just like October did. Can someone please tell me what in the hell happened to the last six months?!
In the last few weeks, I’ve had to make a difficult decision concerning my future graduate school plans. I’d been planning, as some of you know, for the last year that this would be the year to go back to graduate school to work on photojournalism. As much as I enjoy being a sales rep at a major cell phone company (you can insert a huge sarcastic, eyeball rolling emoticon right about here), photojournalism and writing and travelling is really something I’m wanting to do. It just took me a few years to figure that out…
So, in light of that decision, a bunch of crap crept up on me at work..one of them being that I was promoted to full-time. Which is great! It means more money to save up for school and moving, more hours, and more opportunities to show everyone in the company that I mean business..and you know, a chance to show them that I really can (have and will) kick everyone’s booty. I didn’t care if they worked with me or not. Their booty was going to be kicked whether or not booties were physically there to receive the kicking.
Sometime in the middle of the year, I also started volunteering as a media person (which I have termed myself as “ms media” – kinda has a ring to it…I like it) for a co-worker who also is an R&B singer and is part of a duo with another very awesome gentleman named A.Uno. And yes, insert shameless plug here. If you’d like to take a look or a listen to their work, you can visit their site here. There are mp3 samples and a link to purchase their cd via paypal as well. You should listen, its good stuff.
So, in the midst of all of this new stuff I’ve been having to do, I also tried to do my photography portfolio for my graduate application…and..everything just sucked. I felt so disoriented and out of focus that I just couldn’t concentrate on anything. People kept telling me that things looked good or that they “liked it” but it wasn’t something I wanted to hear. Especially when WORLD CLASS photographers would be looking at my work and their entire decision would affect my chances of getting into their graduate program. I hate that bullshit most of the time but this time, it definitely affected me in a way I really didn’t care it to.
So, I postponed. I realized that I was trying to meet a deadline and my work suffered because of it. My answer? I’m going to work on this portfolio for the next year and I’m not going to think about my admission application until my portfolio is as good as I want it to be. It definitely takes the pressure off a little and I know that, at this point, I don’t have to worry about meeting a deadline that’ll be looming over my head in two months time.
If you can help it, I highly recommend a life crisis to shake you up and really kick your ass to get your shit together. Sigh.
For right now, I’m working..like a madwoman, am I working. What do I have to look forward to right now? My glass of wine, the ocassional game of Quake 3: Team Arena, the seizure-worthy waiting of the newest Xbox incarnation (which will also have Quake 4 AND Elder Scrolls: Oblivion being released for it), really good movies out in theatres again, and a 10 day vacation to Victoria, B.C coming up at the end of this month.
I really do need to get on the ball to upload all my recent writings and photos for my travel website too…goddamn I have a lot of work ahead of me..
As much as I can bitch about life sometimes, I really couldn’t be happier at all the lovely bits I have to be thankful for these days..
I’m not sure what inspires me these days. I’ve been, well, very quiet to be truthful. My day job occupies a lot of my time – more than I would like – but I do what I can outside of work to keep pieces of my brain from scattering to bits. Good image, no?
I’ve been taking this photography class for the last few weeks (there are two sessions left) and realized just the other day how much I’ve learned. Not only that but I’ve realized just how much I don’t suck. I’ve always thought less of my abilities in most things I’ve done – call me crazy or just a gal with some esteem issues. Sometimes, classes like these (where, to be truthful, there are people that really do suck) that really wake me the fuck up.
I’ve been doing a lot of photographing the ol’ fashion way. Funny how doing art with a manual camera classifies itself now as ‘old fashioned’. It makes me laugh slightly. Its sort of a lost art. With all the digitizing, the erasing, the fixing and adding with Photoshop, I think many people do forget just how hard it is to get the photograph right the first time. For a few years, I abandoned my manual camera and it collected dust in my junk cabinet because I had bought, at the time, a fancy shmancy lil camera that could store pictures digitally..imagine that! Right on the darn thing. And even better, you could take the pictures right out and delete them if you didn’t like them! I found how easy it was to just delete and change things at a whim.
I’m not saying other people who use digital are wankers. That’s not where this conversation (with myself it seems) is supposed to be going. Some people like pencils better than pens. Some people like Macs better than Windows machines. Both have their very special uses and places in the world I suppose. For me, right now and in this moment, I think I’m learning a ton getting down and dirty with my manual. I feel..a sense of durability and ruggedness with my manual that I’ve never felt before…I feel like I know what I’m doing.
I’ve also been taking a ton of photos just on slide film (its a teeny transparency mounted on white cardboard, basically) because I have found it gives me the best detail and quality. To be honest, it also sorta makes me feel badass. I was working with a client the other day and whipped out my hand-held projector and a few slides and kinda liked hearing the comments: whoa…what’s that?!. As silly as it sounds, I felt all learned.
Posting slide photos online does present its challenges I’ve found. First off, its not as if I can stick them in a cardreader and just upload them. There’s a bit of scanning involved (on the scanner that I don’t own, of course), resizing, and archiving. And I’m not so sure if I’m ready for all that extra work. That’s definitely a plus about digital photographs – it makes things convenient.
My teacher did bring up an interesting perspective about digital photography vs film. Something about being able to delete photographic history as if it never happened. In a way, I see what he means…its a little scary to think you can just push a button and have everything you don’t like just not exist anymore…it really got me thinking…
That’s all for now. Do know I’m alive and well..maybe not so much kickin’ but I’m here and I’ll come back soon.
photo.stream
