muzicman82.net

Check this out! I think it’s pretty funny.

EDIT: After I made this post, I made a decision. I think I’m going to migrate my site yet again to a different CMS. One nice thing about this being my blog is that since I only have about 2 readers, I can do whatever I want with it, most people won’t even notice. Joomla, my current blogging software, is a wonderful application, but it’s simply overkill for my page. For one, I think it’s a bit slow to just on a whim, log in and post. I’m not leaving it for good, as I’ve still got it on several other sites, that it better fits. Keep in mind that Joomla is still very young, only at 1.0.12, even though it is build upon Mambo. I think I am going to give WordPress a shot. It’s looked down upon for its lack of full CMS features, but I think its perfect for me and my simple blog. Now, to figure out how to migrate. Please continue reading the day’s post!

I woke up this morning before noon, and I’m not sure why. I was still tired, but “tired” of sleeping or something… I’m not sure. Anyways, it wasn’t a bad Saturday at all. After last night’s post, I stumbled upon some web buzz that I thought I’d share.

This page explains how many Japanese women were conned into buying pet poodles. What they didn’t know until was that they were actually lambs! Gosh that’s funny. I can understand lambs, sheep, and goats not being very common in other countries, but I mean… there’s animals that I’ve never seen before that I at least know how they look!

If you have ever been in a relationship and cheated on someone (I don’t know people like this do I?) or have been cheated on, you might check out these aftermath photos. I think my favorite is the billboard. I would like to point out that all of these examples seem to have been acts of women. So, either more men cheat… or women just feel the need to let out the frustration via some alternative art forms.

Back to my day…

I got my haircut, again. I’ve decided that my hair grows faster than grass. It’s ridiculous actually. I end up needing another cut every 3 weeks. Sometimes I don’t go for 4 weeks or so… but I always need one after about 3. When I got home, I took advantage of the beautiful day it was, and took the photos you see in this post. You can view the complete set here. I will say that placing a camera lens six inches from a wasp is pretty risky. He looked preoccupied, so I took the chance. I really need to order myself a tripod.

While I’m on the topic of photos, I’ve added this oldie and this more recent one to my Flickr account. For whatever reason, I get a kick out of stick men being used as examples for warning signs. I think if they really want to get the point across, they should start using stills from movies like Saw or Hostel. That will get people’s attention.

I had a load-out of a sound system later on, and then had some Applebee’s with Rod and Dan. That was a nice finish to the day!

And now, for my grand finale of the evening morning, take a look at the following photo. [Click to see full size.]
Now, read that and tell me there’s nothing wrong or disturbing about it.

Today was filled with sleep (since I worked on stuff until 3 AM), lunch @ Red Robin, a little bit of show prep, and some random laziness at home. It was also payday, which is even better! I treated myself and ordered Adobe Photoshop Lightroom . It’s $199 for the rest of April, so if anyone is actually reading this, if you’re considering buying it, you have a few days left.

I also treated myself to some Beringer White Zinfandel. I can never decide if I prefer Beringer or Sutter Home. One is strawberry tasting and the other is more like peaches. I don’t know. Does it even matter?

I’ve decided to attempt to blog every day for a year. We’ll see how that goes. If any of my 3 readers would like, they can use the Meebo widget on the left to remind me to blog. Daily reminders would be nice.

I’m happy to report that my past 2-3 weeks have been especially productive… or at least… tiring? I’ve concluded that the only way I’ll ever get things done is if I just don’t sleep. Don’t get me wrong, I love sleep. I prefer several 2-3 hour naps to an 8 hour slumber. The exception is crashing after one of those ridiculous 18 hour work days, or several days of no sleep. In that case, I’ll sleep 10+ hours with no cares.

And so, it’s 4:30 AM. I’ve been working on this little duplication project for work. I have 200 DVDs to copy. This involves printing all of the case artwork, DVD labels, burning the DVD (which I have already mastered/authored), and assembling the package. My trusty Canon i9900 is an amazing printer. I’ve been using refill inks (now from MIS Associates) and it’s such a money saver. The print quality would simply blow you away. Needless to say, my hands look like I just played with Easter egg dyes. The stuff doesn’t wash off with just soap. I stopped caring. Washing my hands with Windex does the job sometimes.

Today I did some more modding to my desktop PC. I’ll have pictures soon, I hope. I replaced the clear tubing with some UV blue stuff, and replaced the coolant reservoir. The one that came with this cooling kit is a piece of crap. It constantly sounded like running water in my room. So, this new one is clear, and with UV blue water, it’s nifty looking. It’s also silent. Me likes!

Last weekend, I finished the Lynda.com – Photoshop CS2 Essential Training CD-ROM series. It was approximately 11 hours of videos on how to use most of the functions in Photoshop CS2. I’m extremely impressed with the series. I’ve known how to use Photoshop for years. My first project with Photoshop was done in Photoshop 5.5. It’s come a long way. The training really hammered into my brain important keyboard shortcuts and ways of doing things that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. I’ve known how to use masks and different blending modes before, but seeing someone else use them helps a lot, I think. I just started on the Illustrator CS2 set. I think I’ll really learn a lot on this one. I’m less familiar with Illustrator, but I do know how to use everything in it. This set is 17 hours. Ahh!

Along with some fresh Photoshop knowledge, and the amazing weather we’ve had lately, I ventured outside and took some pictures! The two shown here are the ones I played with in Photoshop. Geek + Photoshop = Woah. Oh, while I’m thinking of it…

If you’re into digital photography, and take a lot of pictures, I highly suggest you take a look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom! It’s a brand new program that allows you to manage lots of files VERY easily. It has most of the functions you’d do with photos right in it. It’s also nondestructive, meaning all of your edits retain the original file. It’s a super nice, slick program. You can even click an “Edit in Photoshop” link, and when you’re done, the changes are in Lightroom instantly, with the original still in tact. Seriously, take a look. I may be buying it this weekend!

In other news, Arturo had a litter of 4 kittens. They’re cute, but they’re all very mouthy! I’ve decided to start naming kittens based on the Greek alphabet. So, this set is going to be Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. The Flickr page shows which ones are named. This works out, because they’re easy to remember, and you can write their names with one character if you wanted to! Gosh, I’m such a dork.

Lastly, I’m going to be going to the Adobe CS3 Conference in NY City in June! It was $199 to register, but I think it’ll pay for itself if I learn something. They also apparently give me a $100 coupon off of a Lynda.com Premium Subscription. That’s nice incentive. I’m totally excited for Creative Suite 3. Once the Master Collection is out, I’ve decided I’m going to find the money to spend on it. It’s every program I use, and now that Adobe has all of Macromedia products, they all finally work together seamlessly! It’s apparently $2,499, but for all of those programs, I think it’s a good value. Besides, I’ll write it off on my taxes!

That’s all for now. I’ll try not to forget to blog anymore. I’ve probably said that before though.