Life – Page 24 – AllisonYax.com

I Can Read!

Book, Poll, and Template.

In the last day and a half I managed to polish off the first of the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe” books. I am now slightly depressed that I don’t have the next book, nor a vehicle to go get it. I guess a break till tomorrow won’t kill me though.

The graphical polls are now back, as you can see. So vote in them, or else.

The new template isn’t looking right to me, so I need to fidget a bit more with it before I am ready to post it. I’m sure there will be fidgeting left even then, but I just see it as not yet ready enough.

OK, I am off to watch “Cheerleader Ninjas”. See you Monday.

nick

What if I said your world was about to be destroyed?
I don’t know, is that something you think you might say?

251

iTunes, Kites, Bike, TV, and the Geeky part.

I am now up to 21 free songs, thanks to mostly Jenn, but also Scott and my Mom. I have all the songs picked out, and have till May 23rd or something to buy them.

Jenn and I were bored Sunday, so we bought a pair of kites at a dollar store and flew them in a field behind her building. It was much fun, though mine wouldn’t stay up.

I have rode my bike quite a bit in last two days. I would be sad that its rainy tomorrow, but my ass is starting to get sore.

We went to ABC Warehouse today and got her a new TV. Err, she got it, I just stood there, then drove it home in the truck. She got cable hooked up today too, so she can now go online, and watch more than just WNEM/CBS.

And now for the techie part of the entry…

I’m sure most of you know who Adobe and Macromedia are (Photoshop and Acrobat/PDF for Adobe, Dreamweaver and Flash/Shockwave for Macromedia). Well, apparently they are merging. This is big news, especially since I can’t remember hearing a peep about this. There are 2 possible outcomes.

The first is the fear that Adobe will improperly utilize this new acquisition and end up killing Macromedia’s great products, much like it wound up doing with GoLive and others. It really isn’t Adobe’s fault, it is just that they began as a print media company, and that’s where many of their customers still are. So, web media, though still a focus, can not be their primary focus without alienating loyal customers. Hence, though Adobe knows there is money to be made in the web, and they have tapped into it on several occasions, they tend to end up with alot of misses for every hit, and this record may prove bad for Macromedia.

The second possibility is that Adobe leave’s well enough alone, and lets Macromedia continue on much as they have, but as a sort of web division. Let the current Adobe work on print media, and Macromedia work on web media, with collaboration between as needed. Drop Adobe GoLive, but keep Macromedia Dreamweaver. Drop Macromedia Freehand, but keep Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Keep the best of each, drop the weaknesses, and let each group do what they do best. It seems like common sense, but in the business world it is far harder to achieve, and easier to loose, than you can imagine.

But, I digress. Nobody knows what will happen, and the shareholders and SEC haven’t even approved it yet, so all we can do is wait.

And as a last note, Apple claims “Over 200 new features” in OS X 10.4 Tiger, that ships later this month. Well, they finally released a list with them all. Check it out here.

OK folks,
Friday,

nick

If you find handcuffs in the girls night stand, be mildly concerned.
If you find saw marks in the handcuffs, be very concerned.

The Big 250!

250, Jenn, Weather, and Blog.

Yay! It’s blog entry 250! That means, well, that I have written crap like this 249 other times. It is quite an achievement though really. And the 2 year anniversary is just over a month away! Go me!

We got jenn moved into her new apartment yesterday, and picked up a few straggling items today. She has no cable, and no internet, so we have only 1 channel to watch. There is an antenna on the roof, but her coax cable is a bit chewed up so the signal gets lost some over it. Maybe swapping it will improve reception a bit.

It is finally nice out, yesterday, today, and from what I hear tomorrow too. I should get out on my bike or fishing or something.

I posted a test of the blog template, and it looks like I need to make some adjustments to the stylesheet. Nothing too bad, but it will probably be a week or so, depending on my mood and activities.

OK, thats all I think. See you all Tuesday I suppose.

nick

It’s slicker than the back seat in Shaft’s ElDorado.

You Bastard

Dunham’s, New, and TOH.

Lets see…

Sealab, underneath the water,
Sealab, at the bottom of the sea…

Yeah, uhm…

I applied at Dunham’s in the mall. They did a big expansion and are hiring.

If you would like to see the new template, and voice your opinion of it, the poll is now up.

I am kinda sad now, cause This Old House is back to re-runs. No new shows till fall.

OK, thats it. Will try for bigger on Sunday.

nick

“I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals, I am because I hate plants.”

April Fools

April Fools, Grandpa, iTunes, Bike, and FireFox.

Well, since this is April Fools Day, I wanted to fool you all with a crazy update. However, I am not creative enough to come up with anything, so screw it.

Thinkgeek had some cool April Fools sales though. Like $799 wireless pong paddles, and a sleeping pill with time release caffeine to wake you back up.

I went to my Grandpa Jack’s service today. He wasn’t really my grandpa, but was closer to me than my real grandpa for many years. He passed away on Wednesday, and funeral will be tomorrow. People really look different in a casket. I guess I am lucky though, I have only been to 2 funerals in my life, and both were 90+ years old. You may remember my Grandpa from about a year ago when I posted a link of him receiving an award for his involvement in the Battle of Normandy. I will post a link to that entry next time, too tired to look it up now. I feel bad that we didn’t go see him in Grand Rapids, but we did see him in Munger at his family reunions. His daughter said he was coherent to the end, and knew all of what was going on. He enjoyed life, and even pinched a nurses butt now and then at the nursing home. I will miss him.

April 1st means Pepsi/iTunes is over. I am sure there are still bottles out there though. If you find codes, I still want them. Can turn in throught May.

I took my bike in for spring tune up today. It needs it, hasn’t been serviced in like 3 years.

I downloaded the FireFox browser for testing the new templates, and it’s sweet. Compared to Safari that I use, it is a bit advanced. Compared to IE, it kicks serious ass. I really like the RSS feed subscription, and the built in search. Safari should have RSS in 2.0, and has search, but only for google. FireFox you can set the search to anything. And it had tabs, pop-up blocking, and all the other things I expect from a browser, but the “leader” still doesn’t have. If you use IE, quit it, and get FireFox.

OK, thats all. See you Monday.

nick

Dude, what part of the term “Magic Oven” do you not get?

Stuff Happened, but Not Recently

Car, School, Template, and Easter.

Well, OK, I did do stuff, but it’s a cool title anyway.

BTW, why no comments?

Anyway, I replaced the battery in the Grand Prix today, so maybe it will be running soon. It needs to be, cause I am signing up for Delta for the Fall. I have an actual major, a goal, and maybe I can get a co-op. I talked to an advisor today and it is looking good.

Work continues on the new blog template. It has quirks, and I am admittedly non-artistic, but so far so good.

OK, thats it, I think.

OOH!

Easter went well. Went up, had fun, came back. Jenn and her mom got the 4 wheeler stuck in the woods so her dad and I had to go save them on the tractor.

Ok, see you friday.

nick

I’m paranoid of paranoia.

Entry #00241.00

Blog, email, and Suchyta.

The work on the blog is progressing. I have a lot of cool ideas and it should all be coming together soon. The website will also be returning, with a pictures section and more.

I received, a few weeks ago, an invite to a certain e-mail service provided my a certain search page. The invites were once hard to come by, but have become fairly easy to get. If you would like an invite to said e-mail, which starts with a “g” and ends with “mail”, I have 50 invites, and would be happy to provide. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, IM me. I will NOT post the actual name of the service, in fear of being attacked by search engines.

In related news, Yahoo! Mail will be raising it’s storage limit to 1GB soon. I currently use 0% of my 250MB, so am not as excited as some.

About a week or so ago I spoke with Suchyta. I thought I saw him on the blog, as it was a visitor from the Pacific time zone with no referrer, so I emailed him. A few days later I see another non-referred pacific time zone visitor, and this one searched for “Stacey Person”. OK, THAT was Suchyta. So I signed on Jenn’s MSN account and found him. SO anyway, I got to talk to Suchyta, which is quite an accomplishment.

OK, think thats all. Leaving in an hour or 2 for Alpena, will be back tomorrow evening. Have fun all, and Happy Easter.

Til Tuesday,

nick

If the minimum isn’t acceptable, it shouldn’t be called the minimum.

I'm Valid!

Valid, New, X-mas tree, and Gone.

Yes, I am now valid, but I am also very tired, so this will be short, and the poll will not be till Saturday.

I went through all the code in my iBlog and have made it fully XHTML and CSS valid, hence the cool new badges in the sidebar. Also, I added a dotMac.info badge, so you can all go rate my blog. I have a 9.x right now, very cool.

I received full validation Monday, and have spent most of since then working on a new template and style sheet. The test blog is looking good, in my opinion. It is posted online, but is not linked to from anywhere, so you need to be really good to find it. If you can, you are one crafty surfer. Until I post the style on here though, I’m not letting anyone see it. I will give a hint though, think of my favorite word…

I spoke to John yesterday, and the tree is still standing. He says the picture I have is 2 years old, and the tree was originally set up 4 years ago. Wow, how very sad, and yet very cool.

I will be leaving Saturday night for Jenn’s parents for Easter, so expect blog/poll earlier in the day.

nick

Alton Brown, speaking of wasabi…

Too much of this stuff will make you cry more than the last 5 minutes of the Terminator…
What? I cried.

The People Have Spoken

Comments, St. Patty’s Day, Parade, 200 Late, and Cruise.

Well, I asked for your opinion, and you gave it. Comments are back as they were, in a pop-up window. It kind of hurts me to do it, I must say, since it took me 5 hours to get them working. But, since I don’t leave comments, it doesn’t matter to me. I just thought it was cool. On a related note, I see on the Haloscan website that comment length limits have been raised from 1000 to 3000 characters. Not that anyone has even touched the 1000 limit, except Scott’s binary reply.

I forgot to mention last time Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Jenn and I went to the parade today. Was very cool (in both ways). Luckily it didn’t snow like yesterday, but we still got a bit chilly.

This being entry 239, and I made 34 on Blogger, then my 200th iBlog entry was 5 entries ago. So, the magic entry would be “If I were you, Who would you be?” on 3-11-05.

And finally, it’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s now been 4 years since the cruise. Ahh, good times.

Till Wednesday. And yes, I will have more changes then, and a new poll.

nick

In this god-forsaken world, you don’t beat the monkey, the monkey beats you!
– Jay

More Changes

Construction, Plans, Manhood, and Movie.

OK, you have noticed by now, I’m sure, that there have been more changes on the blog.

The first change was to fix the spacing on some pages, where the link to the next page and e-mail feedback had no spacing between them, making it actually say “nextfeedback”, which was kinda misleading.

Second was changing the naming of the comments. Instead of “Comments (#)”, it now says “No Comments” or “# Comments”.

Third was integrating the comments pop-up into the blog entry itself. If you are on the entry’s own page, the comments are at the bottom now. If you are on the front page, or any other page, clicking the comment link takes you to the bottom of the entry’s page.

Current plans are to fix whatever you don’t like (see the poll) followed by reposting the photos somehow, perhaps back onto the website. The idea behind this being that many photos are low quality due to scanning and editing goofs, and every couple weeks when iBlog decides to re-update my whole blog I need to wait 20 minutes for all the photos to be re-uploaded, which wouldn’t happen if they weren’t in the blog.

Also, I am considering a more aggressive redesign. I just realized 3 days ago how versatile iBlog could be. You may have noticed that although I change the colors every once in a while, not much really changes. Well, this is an iBlog powered blog. As you can see, he managed to change much more than I ever have. So, those are some ideas.

In other news…

A week ago I lost my razor, my Mach 3 from the Army. I’d had it like 4 years, since I got it in the mail after registering for selective services. Now, that wouldn’t be so bad, but it actually replaced a Mach 3 I got in 10th grade from some marine recruiters. And, that replaced a Schick that I got in 8th grade from K-Mart. What’s the point of all this? Well, I bought a new one, but it’s not the same (even though it’s a Mach 3 Turbo Champion, and is cool red). I guess the old one’s somehow signified entering manhood, and now I feel an emptiness. Not a big one, I didn’t break down and cry over a razor or anything, I just miss it more than would be expected for something that sliced my face open as many times as it did.

OK, thats all.

Ooh, no it isn’t…

The Incredible’s, is incredible. Watch it, seriously. Not like Pixar has made a bad movie though, right?

nick

Lucius Best: You tell me where my suit is, woman! We are talking about the greater good!
Honey Best: Greater good? I am your wife! I’m the greatest good you are ever gonna get!