Thursday, May 1st
Sorry about the lack of updates, life has been ... frustrating.
First things first, there is regular life things, the places & people & situations that make me unhappy, and that I'm trying to avoid, and the regular old stuff. That's not new.
Next, when I bought my car, I got it really cheap for a lexus, and it needed repairs. I'm going about that now. I took it in to a shop here in Claremore Tuesday after work, he said he would look at it first thing Wednesday morning & call me. He didn't, so I called him around 2pm & asked what was up. He said he was sorry & hadn't got around to it yet, first thing after lunch. Around 5:45 I call again, ask what's up, he says he's sorry, first thing in the morning. So around 10:40am I call, and I was rather irritated, he was out getting parts, and so I talked to the mechanic working on my car. If he hadn't already looked at it, I would have picked up my keys then. You don't tell people you'll look at their car 'First Thing', and then not. Twice. So, seeing as it was already being looked at, I called him again this afternoon, he managed to fix some of the stuff wrong with it, and I picked it up this evening. I need new tires. They will be expensive. But, I will not take my car back to him, because I don't stand for people not doing what they say they will. It irritates me. I expect better of people.
Also. I have been trying to offer Paypal gift certificates. I've got the code all into my website, and I haven't gone live with it, because I haven't been able to successfully test it. I use the Paypal sandbox site to test things, and ... you know, make sure they work. But it gives me an error. And that frustrates me. I haven't figured out what to do about that yet. It will require discussion & thought, and perhaps some finagling. And if all else fails, I scrap the idea. It's not been posted about, and I've only mentioned it to a couple of people, and the world will not end if I cannot make it happen.
Also. I am attempting to get some certain cards, in a quantity around 100. Less than 250 cards. Which is the minimum from the place I had been using. I don't like having inventory sitting around, and much of my inventory has been doing that lately (but that is a different frustration). So I order some samples from the place that had done my business cards, because they are really really nice cards, and cheap, and the greeting cards they have are cheap also. The samples came the other week, and they are downright gorgeous. Gorgeous. Made me want all my cards like that. So I get my file all ready, and I still haven't figured out how to make it CMYK, but I figure, hey, I'll upload it RGB, and order 10 cards (which is their minimum on cards), and if I don't like the color shift, I'll find a way to deal with it. You know, try harder. But hey, the color shift may not be that bad. After dinner today the UPS man delivers a package and disappears mysteriously (they are ninjas, really), and I'm all excited. Until I open it. Three things wrong. 1) the color shift. This is entirely my fault. 2) You can see the little dots like old-school low-quality photos. Or newspapers. You know... dots. Now, I think I know what caused this. They mention that they have 2 different printing processes that they use - digital, for short-run (under 100) cards, and offset - better quality for quantities over 100. The actual order I would have placed would have been 100 cards, and so they would have used offset - which - in theory - means that the quality would be better. Also, I didn't notice 'the dots' on the samples they sent me. So... I think that's what that is. 3) I can see something (and my mom could also) which looks like roller marks. They use a coating on the cards to make them all nice and glossy. Again, I didn't see any roller marks on the samples. But... 3 things (2, if you count the not-me things) is just too much. There's enough wrong with them that I consider them unsellable. I don't even know for certain that I would use them. So... that sucks. I'm going to call a guy tomorrow & see if he'll print cards & how much he'd charge. He's trustworthy. And he makes good prints.
So... everything right now is pretty much full of UGHHH & GRRRUMp. But... tomorrow at least one, and hopefully more, problems will get solved.
Top of Page
Monday, May 5th Because I have nothing to post...
Top of Page
Friday, May 9th Ughh... It's too early in the morning for me to think. I had trouble just now trying to remember whether April or May comes first. Ughh.
That said, I really kind of need to rewrite all the javascript on this site. I use this site as a sort-of test site, where I can try things, and if they don't work, no biggie, and if they do & I like them, then I can use them on my real site, where it, in theory, matters more.
There's a couple of exciting things in progress that I don't want to talk about until they're done over there, but that's for later.
So, the code for the whole pictures page is messy. Ugly. And I can do better. So I need to rewrite that. And on my other site, I put the javascript and the css into separate files, and I think that's a beautiful thing. So I'm gonna be about that. Eventually. And I need to change the menu formatting a bit. And perhaps... I will try something additionally new.
And yet, here I am, talking instead of doing. But there's time for that later.
First, a picture.
Top of Page
May 9th, Update Hand-Drawn Cards Now Available on my other site bobthewombat.com.
Check them out.
Top of Page
May 15th, Recipe for a Sunrise Ingredients:11 x 14 Sheet of Bristol
Colored Chalk
Colored Pencils
Workable Fixatif
How To:
Form the general shape of your landscape & smudge around
Form the colors of your sky & smudge around
Add the ground
Spray with workable fixatif
Add detail with colored pencil
Spray again
Now for the picture version: (18 pics, 800x600 ea)
The pictures that go with the articles will not be on the pictures page. They'll remain in the Articles section if you want to access them later.
Top of Page
Monday, May 19th Sometimes it all seems very hopeless, the whole 'making a name for myself' thing. And the whole 'saving money' thing. And sometimes, having a fuzzy cat sit on my lap makes it all seem O.K. again. So, here's to the kitti-cats.
Top of Page
Thursday, May 22th When all else fails, post a pic. This is from earlier this spring.
Top of Page
Monday, May 26th I still have nothing exciting going on in my life, and I've posted many pictures lately, so here's a poem to break the monotony. It's a few years old, but I still like it.
Confessions
She whispers the words
aloud to her mirror
Soft and bitter pronouncement
of hope not lost.
Nights and Mornings pass
like swift traincars through her city
The sound of the wheels
Her Heartbeat
'One more day' she thinks
And it's true
'One more try' she promises
But it's a lie.
So she whispers the words
aloud to her mirror
Angry and hurt pronouncement
of hope fading fast.
Nights and Mornings swim
by her like fish through mud
The flopping fins
Her Sobs
'I give up' she thinks
And it's true
'I need him' she begs
But it's a lie.
She whispers 'I'm alone'
to uncaring ears
Frightened confession
of her broken heart
Top of Page
Thursday, May 29th
9:00pm update: Good read, "Say Not Complexity".
So, at work today I received an award, which apparently means I'm cool & such. And so now I celebrate by updating my website. Yey, me! So... have a drink for me.
p.s. Ross - I think that you are at least as awesome as me, possibly more. Without you, things wouldn't be the same :).
Top of Page
Friday, May 30th I need more stuffed animals.
Top of Page
First things first, there is regular life things, the places & people & situations that make me unhappy, and that I'm trying to avoid, and the regular old stuff. That's not new.
Next, when I bought my car, I got it really cheap for a lexus, and it needed repairs. I'm going about that now. I took it in to a shop here in Claremore Tuesday after work, he said he would look at it first thing Wednesday morning & call me. He didn't, so I called him around 2pm & asked what was up. He said he was sorry & hadn't got around to it yet, first thing after lunch. Around 5:45 I call again, ask what's up, he says he's sorry, first thing in the morning. So around 10:40am I call, and I was rather irritated, he was out getting parts, and so I talked to the mechanic working on my car. If he hadn't already looked at it, I would have picked up my keys then. You don't tell people you'll look at their car 'First Thing', and then not. Twice. So, seeing as it was already being looked at, I called him again this afternoon, he managed to fix some of the stuff wrong with it, and I picked it up this evening. I need new tires. They will be expensive. But, I will not take my car back to him, because I don't stand for people not doing what they say they will. It irritates me. I expect better of people.
Also. I have been trying to offer Paypal gift certificates. I've got the code all into my website, and I haven't gone live with it, because I haven't been able to successfully test it. I use the Paypal sandbox site to test things, and ... you know, make sure they work. But it gives me an error. And that frustrates me. I haven't figured out what to do about that yet. It will require discussion & thought, and perhaps some finagling. And if all else fails, I scrap the idea. It's not been posted about, and I've only mentioned it to a couple of people, and the world will not end if I cannot make it happen.
Also. I am attempting to get some certain cards, in a quantity around 100. Less than 250 cards. Which is the minimum from the place I had been using. I don't like having inventory sitting around, and much of my inventory has been doing that lately (but that is a different frustration). So I order some samples from the place that had done my business cards, because they are really really nice cards, and cheap, and the greeting cards they have are cheap also. The samples came the other week, and they are downright gorgeous. Gorgeous. Made me want all my cards like that. So I get my file all ready, and I still haven't figured out how to make it CMYK, but I figure, hey, I'll upload it RGB, and order 10 cards (which is their minimum on cards), and if I don't like the color shift, I'll find a way to deal with it. You know, try harder. But hey, the color shift may not be that bad. After dinner today the UPS man delivers a package and disappears mysteriously (they are ninjas, really), and I'm all excited. Until I open it. Three things wrong. 1) the color shift. This is entirely my fault. 2) You can see the little dots like old-school low-quality photos. Or newspapers. You know... dots. Now, I think I know what caused this. They mention that they have 2 different printing processes that they use - digital, for short-run (under 100) cards, and offset - better quality for quantities over 100. The actual order I would have placed would have been 100 cards, and so they would have used offset - which - in theory - means that the quality would be better. Also, I didn't notice 'the dots' on the samples they sent me. So... I think that's what that is. 3) I can see something (and my mom could also) which looks like roller marks. They use a coating on the cards to make them all nice and glossy. Again, I didn't see any roller marks on the samples. But... 3 things (2, if you count the not-me things) is just too much. There's enough wrong with them that I consider them unsellable. I don't even know for certain that I would use them. So... that sucks. I'm going to call a guy tomorrow & see if he'll print cards & how much he'd charge. He's trustworthy. And he makes good prints.
So... everything right now is pretty much full of UGHHH & GRRRUMp. But... tomorrow at least one, and hopefully more, problems will get solved.
Top of Page
Monday, May 5th Because I have nothing to post...
Top of Page
Friday, May 9th Ughh... It's too early in the morning for me to think. I had trouble just now trying to remember whether April or May comes first. Ughh.
That said, I really kind of need to rewrite all the javascript on this site. I use this site as a sort-of test site, where I can try things, and if they don't work, no biggie, and if they do & I like them, then I can use them on my real site, where it, in theory, matters more.
There's a couple of exciting things in progress that I don't want to talk about until they're done over there, but that's for later.
So, the code for the whole pictures page is messy. Ugly. And I can do better. So I need to rewrite that. And on my other site, I put the javascript and the css into separate files, and I think that's a beautiful thing. So I'm gonna be about that. Eventually. And I need to change the menu formatting a bit. And perhaps... I will try something additionally new.
And yet, here I am, talking instead of doing. But there's time for that later.
First, a picture.
Top of Page
May 9th, Update Hand-Drawn Cards Now Available on my other site bobthewombat.com.
Check them out.
Top of Page
May 15th, Recipe for a Sunrise Ingredients:
Now for the picture version: (18 pics, 800x600 ea)
The pictures that go with the articles will not be on the pictures page. They'll remain in the Articles section if you want to access them later.
Top of Page
Monday, May 19th Sometimes it all seems very hopeless, the whole 'making a name for myself' thing. And the whole 'saving money' thing. And sometimes, having a fuzzy cat sit on my lap makes it all seem O.K. again. So, here's to the kitti-cats.
Top of Page
Thursday, May 22th When all else fails, post a pic. This is from earlier this spring.
Top of Page
Monday, May 26th I still have nothing exciting going on in my life, and I've posted many pictures lately, so here's a poem to break the monotony. It's a few years old, but I still like it.
Confessions
She whispers the words
aloud to her mirror
Soft and bitter pronouncement
of hope not lost.
Nights and Mornings pass
like swift traincars through her city
The sound of the wheels
Her Heartbeat
'One more day' she thinks
And it's true
'One more try' she promises
But it's a lie.
So she whispers the words
aloud to her mirror
Angry and hurt pronouncement
of hope fading fast.
Nights and Mornings swim
by her like fish through mud
The flopping fins
Her Sobs
'I give up' she thinks
And it's true
'I need him' she begs
But it's a lie.
She whispers 'I'm alone'
to uncaring ears
Frightened confession
of her broken heart
Top of Page
Thursday, May 29th
9:00pm update: Good read, "Say Not Complexity".
So, at work today I received an award, which apparently means I'm cool & such. And so now I celebrate by updating my website. Yey, me! So... have a drink for me.
p.s. Ross - I think that you are at least as awesome as me, possibly more. Without you, things wouldn't be the same :).
Top of Page
Friday, May 30th I need more stuffed animals.
Top of Page