naladahc | tripping along the golden path

Happy New Year Chad Alan...in Cleveland...or where ever you are...

Oh my god. I figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be known as "America's Most Beloved Polish-American". 9:44pm Oh my god. How could I not end the first day of the year with some good old fashioned american boy next door New Year's Resolutions. I resolve, over the next 12 months to...

Lose 250 pounds. Call my mother regularly Modernize and create a new canon for Christianity Move to San Francisco Get a new job in only, and i mean only, a design related field Pay off all of my debts Actually design a personal website that lasts longer than 2 days Become the all being master of time space and dimension Talk to the girl at Basso for the first time ever. Try to be social again (not live vicariously through Pickett, Leni, Doug, the Monica, and others) Acquire a mint-in-the-box Jetfire and Shockwave Yeah. You're right. Calling my mother on a regular basis probably won't happen.

I have just seen one of the best episodes of Iron Chef ever. Food Network has been running a 24 hour marathon for those in the know. We caught the New York battle between Masaharu Morimoto and the asshole Bobby Flay. It was fantastic to see the show done in New York. Of course, watching it vs. the regular show makes one realise why most other countries think we are total assholes (thanks Bobby Flay). Suffice to say, Morimoto-san kicked Flay's ass all over and under and on top. Yes!!! I can't wait until I get to challenge Chen Kenichi to the soylent green battle!   5:07pm Another day working on New Year's Day. I promised myself I wouldn't but I'm a loser and did. Grrrrr...that has to end soon. I finally got in touch with the Monica today. She's a bit down and I'm mad cuz I can't really do anything to cheer her up. She'll be ok. She's strong. She can even kick my ass if need be. Ok. Where was I going with this. Oh. The fabulous Ms. Andrea sent got us fantastic christmas presents. A kewl sushi tray, 2 wasabi bowls, and two nice nice nice sets of chopsticks. (NOTE: Not the little wooden kind you get at the restaurant!). The entity formerly known as RaverBoy sent me virtual dirty socks. *sniff*  

Guess what? New look. Maybe not. Maybe. Only the master knows for sure. (and of course, he ain't talk'n!) I spent almost 6 straight hours scanning today. Talk about boring. My god. Between my wrist killing me from all the clean-up work I had to do to close to 1000 pages of originals, I could just kill some of the asshold academians at OSU. Get into the 21st century you sick PhD hold'n mo fos!

So of course I am running late this morning. Very little sleep. And I have 10 minutes to make it to work. It takes about 8. So ok, thing's will be fine. I turn the key in the car. And...well...it won't start. So I go flying into the house to call work and say, "er...I gotta take the bus, I'll be in when I get there."

So I get to work. Today being a busy day for sales. And not more than 20 minutes there this guy wants to a manager. Er...since Scott's not there that is me. And lo and behold I get yelled at for 5 minutes. And not just me...he yelled loud enough to direct his voice to the 100 or so people in the lobby. Lovely. Suffice to say, I then needed coffee and a smoke.

I awake. And there is no one here. Meow next to me doing his little "I am a meow and my job is to sit here and pad the blankets for 20 minutes before I sleep so I don't care if I wake you or the fact that I am almost standing on your head". Matt gone. Oh well. No biggie. My back has been killing me since Monday. No amount of aspirin has killed the pain. I am falling apart. Slowly but surely. Falling apart Oh well, no biggie.

After 11 years and $12,000 later, I can say that I have completely paid off 2 of my 4 credit cards. Done. Kaput. Bye bye DiscoverCard and First Card Visa. The stupid mistakes of my 20's are disappearing and you with them. Only $3500 to go on the other 2. Ten months on the car loan. And I will owe nothing to anyone at all. And then...the relocation begins...

My back is a bit better. Still sore. Heating pad helped throughout the night. Slowly getting the look of other pages ready for content...namely my friends site and my vitae page. I'm afraid to lift anything or bend over. Argh! I need to clean the den of evil and the bathroom and the refrigerator...and... The cousin turns 24 in a few days. I have no idea what I should get him. I have to get him something. But money will be tight soon with my attempts to pay off all my debt by May. So G4 upgrade is out for now. I've corrected all the f**k'd up cds I made for him. But that is just a delayed xmas present. I hate when he has birthdays. That means mine is just around the corner. One year older.

Well my Cio Cia (that would be 'aunt' to you non-poles) visited the site today and had this to say in an IM: "went to you website. different. nice comment about your mom not seeing it"

I am assuming she means the comment I made days ago about her xmas gift.

Of course, me being "different" in my family is well...normal I suppose.

Matt appears to be having hoont drama downstairs. Oh well, I got my nalathings page up and my geek'n page up. More work to do...

The cousin turns 24 in less than 2 hours. I am old.

For once you must not try to shirk the facts. Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.

Well. Four days in a row off. So much to get done. But I need to get my geek comments in order.

2001 Macworld Expo

I really need to get there one of these days. While I wouldn't say I am an evangelist for Apple Macintosh computers, I definitely get off on them more than on my Windows computers.

Apple released some fantastic products this week, namely the new titanium Powerbook G4, the very nice and easy to use MP3 encoder/player iTunes, a fantastic CD-R/DVD-R drive, iDVD, and an ok speed boost to the processors in the line.

After reading various ZDnet forums, it once again became apparent the differences between the "men" of the IT/computer world and the "boys".

I've always held the belief that computers are "tools". A specific tool for a specific job. Some applications are better than others to do certain types of work.

And then I read forums with Windows users commenting on Mac OS X and the Mac in general. You know the people, the ones who really are only gamers and the computer they are using is an extension of their sexual inadequacies. "Deux Ex Doom Quake 16 is out and I have a AGP 4X Voodoo card to see the blood and heads roll and make my life better since I do not have a girlfriend". I've seen these people all my life. They don't understand the reality of any situation. They don't understand that these are tools. And they also are the prime candidates for marketing people to sell shit to and then they'll say "this isn't shit, it is great".

I digress. A few of these people still like to bring up this Windows vs Macintosh whiney tired old issue. I've just finished reading a post about Mac OS X = Windows 98. How can someone equate apples to oranges.

I've used both platforms for years. I've also configured Novell servers, done some Solaris tweaking, and taught many a person under me how to use computers as tools, not as extensions of their dick and or breasts.

The new Mac OS X is, from a "real world" standpoint a huge leap in computing. It takes BSD Unix and integrates it with a modern Mach Kernal for hardware/software control. It adds the Macintosh GUI (well, the new variant called Aqua) onto this solid foundation. It incorporates a phenomenal imaging engine with Adobe PDF as the base. It includes a complete implementation of the widely used Java 2.0 virtual environment natively. It includes a full OpenGL graphics base. This is not Windows 95, 98, NT, or even 2000.

Microsoft hates Java. Of course, they couldn't buy it and take it over. Microsoft hates Unix. They played around with a variant of it if I recall, but of course threw it out in favour of what would become NT. They don't like OpenGL. Once again, something they did not come up with or steal.

It is apples and oranges here folks. I've used the OS X beta. I will say this, it is so far from the Win NT/2000 platform. It never crashed. Not once. In the two weeks I played with it. The stability of Unix is to be praised. The Aqua GUI is beautiful to behold. It has faults. Every single person out there has a fault with a GUI. That's reality. However, Apple definitely listened to people during the beta cycle and really incorporated interface changes in the final release.

Mac OS X could potentially kick major ass. Super mega major ass.

I think I accomplished something today. I end most every day of my life feeling as if I haven't helped anyone or made anyone better. I think I helped Dave today in his quest to do his website. I think I helped him see he doesn't have to throw all out any of his excellent print knowledge to do his site. This makes me feel good.   january 14, 2001 I just saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and I think that it may be the best film I have seen in ages. The effects and fighting are mind boggling. The story is beautiful. Word to your mother - Go see this film!

It is late. I should go to bed. Four days off and I have to get back to work in the morning. Joy. I didn't get all that much done today. Bathroom cleaned. Hoont occupancy zone swept and kinda cleaned. Kitchen sorta kinda cleaned. Oh, and my cousin Paul is taking me to see U2 in Pontiac, Michigan in May. That was about the only surprise of the day. I need more surprises.

Well. I hate clowns. That should not be new knowledge to you. So I says to myself, I says "Nala, find one of the worst clown photos you can and display it to the world. Show them how evil clowns can be. Not the saccharine nose honking bucket o'confetti clowns, but the sick evil bastards that hide under their facade." And thus, my temporary new site graphic. Why? Why not?

I got an email for an interview at Oarnet. Oarnet is a an affiliated branch of The Ohio State University. I can't tell the exact relationship, but it would be a university job nonetheless. Now the job was listed as a graphic design position. As with most of the university postings, I will assume that means a complete knowledge in every web programming language, total experience in every form of web application development and platform, complete and comphrehensive knowledge of all major database systems...etc..etc. My portolio that I sent and my resume clearly shows that I am a graphic designer with enough graphic web design experience to get started.

You see...I am what is called dangerous. Dangerous in the sense I know a lot about a lot of things.

Wanna discuss ecommerce? I can do that with confidence in knowing that I am not spouting bullshit? Want to talk user interface? I can do this since I feel it all comes out of basic design experience and an undersanding of your intended market. What to throw in commentary about 1920's Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazi Party? I can do that too.

Or perhaps arguing if neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis? I have that covered.

Perhaps ICC color management and profiling imaging devices? No prob. Troubleshooting why you are trying to design a full color brochure in MS Office and nothing works right? (Oh...don't get me started on Microsoft "tools").

There is no job that I cannot do given time. (Well, I only spent 5 years discussing dead things as an anthropologist, so I can't deal with living things.)

So I am redo'n the portfolio to spruce it up. I already sent a copy of my portfolio booklet with the resume. So obviously they think I'm worth interviewing. So I feel somewhat confident. I'll have some of it up here soon. Hell, the link's been here for over a year. Oy. The thought of repurposing that entire collection of images...ack!

Argh!!!! One CSS changes causes IE to screw up my look. Argh!!!! But I'll fix it tomorry. Of course Netscape 4, Mozilla, andthat horrid Netscape 6 render it right. Chalk another one up to MS.

A new job. That isn't what I really want. Jobs are jobs. Everyone must have them to fit into my world. I'm looking for a daily experience. I want to feel that in that 8-10 hours I give to something per day I take something out of it. I leave with satisfaction. I leave feeling as if I accomplished something. That I helped someone learn something. That I improved someone or something and in turn improved myself. I don't get this now. That's what is at the heart of it. That feeling of emptyness no matter how much I want to like the pointless job that I do. No one understands it.

That's the problem. Most designer and creative types are seen as frivilous. The work we do has no "dollar amount" attached to it, and therefore comes under scrutiny. No one understands that I just don't come up with new ideas overnight. That a full ten week "campaign" of images and messages is unique and can't be done quickly and without thought. In going through my portfolio I can see how I have locked myself into patterns due to time. I don't challenge enough in finding solutions to communcating. I'm alone. There's no one for me to turn to.

I want to be a part of a team of like minded people. I want to have my work and ideas critiqued, not because they aren't necessarily good, but because they can be expanded upon and broadened. That because they are "mine" that I don't necessarily allow them to be taken out of the confines of my definitions and be reworked for the better. I don't want to be alone any more in what I do. The single man with the answers to everyone about everything. I want someone to turn to. I want someone to learn from. I want someone to correct me when I make mistakes, not chastise me. I want to unlearn habits I've sunken into out of distress. I want to step out of the box I've had to create because I am the only one.

I also never ever ever again want to have to tell someone that they forgot this or that in their design because they shouldn't be using shitty software that wasn't intended for what they are using it for. I don't want to make this year 13 in reminding people that you have to have your images and fonts and that shitty microsoft software isn't going to solve your problems and make your life easier.

(Actually, I think I just came to the realization of what I have about microsoft desktop software. Those who use it are lead into a false sense of hope that they know what is going on. That they know what they are doing. No my friends. A 'wizard' doesn't do the job for you. I hate to tell you this. And there is never going to be that key on your keyboard that just makes whatever you think you want happen actually happen.)

No idea what the phrock has been go'n on with my CSS in IE. I gutted all of the class and span tags. Still didn't work. Traced the problem to my specific installation of IE 5. Now why would a company like Microsoft make a product that works fine one minute and then doesn't the next? That just doesn't sound right.