avoision: January 2003 Archives

January 31, 2003

This has happened several times when I've been involved in serious relationships. But if I'm involved with someone, and I dream about other women... I won't cheat. I recall several dreams where I refused sex from imaginary people (and really attractive imaginary people, mind you). I out and out said... (read more)

Parasomnias

What a cool fucking word this is. Yet another great link from twelvestone. Anything related to sleep and dreaming has always fascinated me. I skimmed through the article a bit, but I'm pretty exhausted right now. HAHAHA! I just realized how silly this is - me, sleep deprived, posting a... (read more)

stock.xchng

I was talking to seventh today, and he gave me a link to some of his photographs. I'm really quite impressed - there's some slick shit here. Check it out. The picture of the water dragon is phenomenal!... (read more)

Deliver Us From Worms and DoS Attacks

The Internet is looking for a few good saints.... (read more)

Whu? Huh?

Wha? I hit the couch around 2, 3 PM. I wake up some six hours later - it's dark, and I'm not entirely clear on where I am. Things that happened to me what seem like yesterday were, truly, two days ago. Now with this big, six-hour long nap... a... (read more)

Groggy, But Still Awake

It's about quarter to 3 PM. I'm back home in my apartment, and just ordered some food. I'm actively being lazy and slothful and hoping I can stay awake long enough to watch one of the movies I rented. I'm pretty tired right now, but I don't want to sleep... (read more)

Late Night, Continued

One of these times, I'm going to get a videocamera set up beforehand... and then, once an hour, tape myself performing the same "experiment" over and over. Something like trying to juggle, or standing on one foot and touching my nose. I think it'd be a blast. Uh.... hm. Yeah.... (read more)

Late Night

January 30, 2003

Working at the office. Not much time to update, other than Ben and I are stil here... slugging away. Had sushi for dinner earlier, which was nice. Now it's caffeine and Flash until morning. Wooha! ICQ: 153997726... (read more)

Conan

January 29, 2003

Earlier tonight, I was chatting with Grumpy. He was killing a bit of time before his workday ended, and we both started looking around Conan O'Brien's site on NBC. I'm not one that regularly watches his show, but I gotta say... there's some really great stuff on this site. The... (read more)

80.6% of the United States Can't Be Wrong

Read the New York Times article All this time, I was in the minority and didn't know it. By the way, my second attempt at soup turned out fairly well. I still need to get a cookbook and try to cook a few things outside of stews. Thanks to Alex,... (read more)

Downgrading

Altered what I gave to Ben, and made it work for Flash 5. This isn't all that exciting, but I felt rather good completing it. I guess it's more the thought that hit me as I was working on converting the thing from Flash 6 to Flash 5: holy CRAP!... (read more)

Good Day

Most of the day today, I was in a holding pattern. Ben got back, and he had a lot on his plate to clear off before he could attend to the Hummer contest site. I played around with a few more elements, but just spent most of the workday creating... (read more)

The Night Gets Better, Both Truly and Virtually

January 28, 2003

Chatting around with seventh, Grumpy, TS7 and Matt - my mood improved dramatically. To make things even better, Ben hit me up on IM and asked me if I knew how to pass variables back and forth between php and Flash. I was able to quickly come up with a... (read more)

Orisinal

Talking with seventh today, he reminded me how wonderful orisinal.com is. Fun games, fantastic example of strong look-and-feel continuity, excellent branding, and just slick overall. It's easy to get lost in this site, so only go there if you've got time on your hands (it'll suck you in).... (read more)

Random Thought

Looking back over yesterday's entry, I'm thinking again about The Matrix: not the movie, but the mathematical term. A long, long time ago, back when I was a wee little sophomore in high school, I was enrolled in an advanced algebra course. Hell, maybe it was Freshman year... wait, that... (read more)

Thinking Positively

During one of the many coffee breaks today, I went down for another refill around 3:30 PM. The stairwell opens right into where Emma works, and I stopped in to see if she wanted anything (since I was going). Took her order for a latte and dropped it off on... (read more)

Meh

Today, I worked on doing some layouts for Q101. Took me a long while, and the entire time... I felt under a goodly amount of pressure. This thing needs to be up by Friday morning, bright and early. Ben's been out of the office, and doesn't get back until tomorrow.... (read more)

Well, Crap

January 27, 2003

It's not even technically the 27th anymore, so I'm behind. Just got done with the freelance work for Ben. Took me a while, but the workaround actually panned out. Tip for all you folks working with dynamic text in Flash: you can mask dynamic text, but only if you embed... (read more)

Russian Roulette @ Work

So... Q101 is having another big contest/giveaway. Among other prizes (all aimed to evoke a "mobile and wireless" theme), the big daddy prize is a Hummer. Just a little tip for you, in case this scenario arises at your work place. When you go to Google Images and do a... (read more)

Eye Twitching, Both Eyes

I think everyone has this at one time or another: the underside of the eyelid, twitching for a split second, doing a little spasm-dance. Well, my left eye has been doing this on and off for some time now. And not just for a second or two, but for several... (read more)

The Matrix | Reloaded

www.whatisthematrix.com Big downloads for people with big pipes. Big fun! And while you're there, check out The Animatrix link. Looks very interesting... several directors exploring the story of The Matrix through anime. And one of the films has a downloadble preview starting February 4th! Check out the trailer too -... (read more)

Random Images From Saturday

January 26, 2003

It's living vicariously through someone else's computer games. TS7 bought a copy of Sim City 4, and it turns out you can "create" your own sims to observe. It's not quite as detailed as The Sims, but apparently - you see a lot. I found out today that he's named... (read more)

:)

Ahhh. Now I know why I love computers, and why Flash and ActionScript are so damn fun! All the scribbling down on paper, all the head scratching, all the cursing... when your XML data loads effortlessly and creates movie clips on the fly (placing themselves appropriately, based on whether or... (read more)

XML, Flash and Dynamic Buttons

Slowly realizing that Ben's project contains many of the same stumbling blocks I encountered when making the navigation for this site (Argh! Which I still need to tweak more!). Dynamic buttons are problematic - the dynamic text fields get in the way of the button detecting a rollover or rollout.... (read more)

First Thing Monday

I'm going to buy a fucking cookbook.... (read more)

Problems Concentrating

All day today, I've been unfocused. This morning I ran errands, and took an ungodly time deciding on things because I didn't make a list and couldn't remember what I wanted. Made lunch, started some laundry, and the next thing I know it's damn near 8 PM. The one plus... (read more)

Late Night Phone Call

January 25, 2003

As I'm walking to bed, the phone rings. It's Meghan, Jim, Matt and Juliet - they're all at the Foxes. It's midnight, and they're all drunk. Out of nowhere, as the phone gets passed around, they all get the bright idea to go to different rooms. Within seconds, they're all... (read more)

Tired, Cranky, Want to Break Things

Just got back home (6:40 PM). I spent most of the day doing work-related stuff, and never got around to the work for Ben's client. He's stated several times that there isn't a huge rush on this, but I know that if I finish it... it'll be one less thing... (read more)

Worm

For those of you who don't have super tech-nerd friends like me, you may not know about the connectivity problems of the past 20 hours or so. A SQL Worm was working its magic across the whole of the web, apparently. For more information: technical | general. This morning, I... (read more)

Talk to Me, People...

It's Saturday morning. I'm in the office, doing some pattern sweeps on a few sites. I've got Shudder to Think playing kinda loudly (Pony Express), and sipping on coffee. Entertain me! ICQ: 153997726 Do it!... (read more)

tokyoplastic.com

January 24, 2003

rock... (read more)

Go go go go go go go!

Work again seemed like constant moving and doing. Lotsa crap happening, and a lot left to do. Justin and I stayed late, and ended up chatting work shit until about 7:30, 8 PM. Afterwards, we went down to Dunphy's (inside the Mart) and had some beers with Emma. A nice,... (read more)

Low, Revisited

I'm digging the idea of shooting pictures from a low perspective. It's really fun. Soon, I expect I'll be lying down in the middle of the road.... (read more)

When the Universe is Trying to Tell You to Go Back to Bed

This morning, as I was stumbling around the apartment getting ready for work... I grabbed a pair of gloves. It's been bitterly cold in Chicago this week, and holding my camera has gotten to be pretty painful without any sort of protection. When I'm halfway down North Avenue, one glove... (read more)

Be More

January 23, 2003

About two weeks ago, I saw a few PBS commercials that made me giddy with laughter. Fallon, along with Alfonso Cuaron and Fran√Åois Girard, made some great promotional spots for them. Their "Be More" campaign has, in my book, been immensely succesful so far. My favorite is Naked, but they're... (read more)

LOW

I came across retrospectiv a few days ago. I know nothing about them, but the concept seems cool. The Flash site bogs down for me, but I care less about the interface and more about the photos. They're not all great, but the few that are good are really good.... (read more)

Memories...

In my undergraduate days, I lived with four other guys in a house on North Lincoln. This was in Bloomington, Indiana. All of us were "neighbors" our first year, Freshmen in the dorms. We became friends and decided to live together our second year. For the next four years, we... (read more)

Ccccc-c-c-c-c-c-c-cold!

I think my nose hairs froze together this morning, waiting for the train. Seriously. It's cold as hell here tonight, and my apartment seems incapable of retaining heat. Partly, I'm sure it's because this building is "sunk" into the ground (the yard is a good fifteen? twenty? feet below street... (read more)

Damn You Photoshop!

Particularly your rubber stamp tool. Why does it have to be so much fun? 12:30 AM. Agh!... (read more)

A Hangover...

January 22, 2003

is your body's way of saying: Nice Try, But You Can't Kill Me THAT Easily!... (read more)

Artful Dodger

January 21, 2003

Got a call from Alex about an hour ago. Going to head over to the Artful Dodger with him and Justin for some drinks. Hard to say no, partly because the bar is right down the street from me, and also because I haven't seen Alex in god knows how... (read more)

Yeah, I Know

The navigation needs to be reworked a bit more. It's functional, but far from intuitive. Grumpy had some good suggestions for me a while back, which I have yet to implement. Soon.... (read more)

What Goes Around

Over the weekend, Phantom mentioned a bit about online games. A few titles were thrown around, and Battlefield 1942 came up. Well, as it turns out I purchased the game many months ago, around the same time I bought Unreal Tournament 2003. For many a month, that Battlefield 1942 game... (read more)

Parental Advice

January 20, 2003

Alright, I made a promise I wouldn't. But I guess I need some venting. Mom and dad called. Shot the shit for a while. And then my mom picks up where my dad left off, in an earlier conversation. They both feel that I should go back to school, and... (read more)

Beef Stew

Meh. It was alright. Potatoes turned out well, but the beef was a bit dry. I mixed in some cubes of beef, three potatoes, half a red onion, two portabella mushrooms, a clove of garlic and a sprinkle of fresh parsley. Definitely needed more spices (I threw in salt and... (read more)

The Universe Has a Sense of Humor

Seems to be a good day for old friends. First I got that e-mail from Craig. Then, I got a call from my old coworker Thomas. And then, I got an e-mail from a grad school buddy, Wade. I first started smoking with my friend Craig, in high school. Thomas,... (read more)

When I Grow Up...

This morning, I got an e-mail from an old high school friend of mine, Craig. He filled me in a bit on what he's doing, and I responded to his e-mail only a few moments ago. As I was writing to him, describing what I'd been up to, what I... (read more)

Finding Old Photographs

I was digging around some old boxes, looking for a Photoshop book that my friend Jim got me, months ago. In so doing, I came across a small stash of photographs, some good, some bad. When I found them, I knew I didn't want to look at them... but of... (read more)

The Excitement is Almost Too Much to Bear

Yesterday, I ran a ton of errands. I've been meaning to get a tea kettle for a while now, and decided to throw some money towards a crock pot. Not sure why, but I've been playing with this idea for some time. My mom used one (on rare occasions), and... (read more)

Fire and Ice

January 19, 2003

By Robert Frost Some say the world will end in fire; Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To know that for destruction ice Is also... (read more)

5:00 AM

Woke up, drank some juice and then decided I felt like staying up. Not sure why. On PBS, there was a documentary on the life of Robert Frost. It was an old documentary, which you can somehow always tell based on clothing styles of the folks they interview, as well... (read more)

Flash/XML Gallery

January 18, 2003

At work, I walked Justin through a Flash/XML photo gallery that Ben and I created for the Emmis stations. This is a variation on what I was doing before (which involved using Flash's built-in Combo Box and List Box), and I learned a ton making it. Instead of using Flash's... (read more)

The City is Still Sleeping

The odd thing about downtown Chicago, early on the weekends: it's a ghost town. Barely anyone on the trains at all. When I got off at Clark and Lake, get this: I saw someone moving around on the tracks! I realized that it was a CTA worker, cleaning the walls.... (read more)

Easy Like Saturday Morning

Woke up early this morning, and headed in to the office to meet with Justin. Yes yes yes. It's Saturday. And the two of us are being geeky and spending the day at work. Oddly when I woke up, I was in a rather terrific mood. I got some coffee... (read more)

On the Way Home

January 17, 2003

I spotted a vent on the side of the Flatiron building, blowing out against the moon:... (read more)

Sensory Deprivation: Sorta Like Altered States, But With Less Peyote

A bit late with this, but I'm hoping it's worth it. Here's the recap of yesterday's adventures with Justin and Ben, floating for an hour in sensory deprivation tanks: Ben and Justin, all of us standing at the Merchandise Mart station, waiting for the train. I'm excited at this point,... (read more)

Tomorrow

January 16, 2003

Looks like I'm going to have to save the sensory dep stories for tomorrow.... (read more)

At the Bank

... (read more)

On My Way to Work...

Brought the camera with me today, to document the whole sensory deprivation tank experience. Walking to the train, I started snapping a few photos. And in the afternoon, I got a few more when going to the bank. Feels good to be using that camera again. Stopped to take this.... (read more)

In Case You're Wondering

January 15, 2003

I'm moving around all my image files. Any pictures and such will be broken, but only for a bit. This should be fixed in the next hour or so.... (read more)

Sensory Deprivation

Happening tomorrow! I can't wait! I'm going to try to get some decent sleep tonight. That way, I'll be rested and ready to... uh... rest... in the... uh tank. yeah.... (read more)

Navigation, Continued

Still working things out with the Nav. I think I've finished the "Tomorrow" button issue. Trying to get the fonts to appear a bit crisper. Grumpy also suggested having the "current" month and day have different colors than the button rollovers, which is an excellent idea. Slight changes will be... (read more)

A Collection of Random Images

Three reasons why I had an early New Year's Eve. And some stairs.... (read more)

Nav

January 14, 2003

Ah, me. I've got a lot to talk about. But unfortunately, everytime I get to this thing... it's so late. I want to talk a bit more about the nav, but that's mainly because I'm proud I got Flash and php to play together. Sorta. Oh well. Perhaps tomorrow, when... (read more)

Altered States

Alright - you're going to love this. On Thursday, Justin, Ben adn I are going to Space Time Tanks. There, during our "extended" lunch break, we will each be entering into our own, private, sensory deprivation tanks. Woohoo! I can't tell you how excited I am. Every day, I've been... (read more)

Woohoo!

Found a few bugs. Cleared them up. Nav is working, I think. Ah crap. Just realized the "tomorrow" button isn't working consistently. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day. Ha! See what I did there? I took the word, and made it into a thing... uh... goodnight.... (read more)

Long Day, Short Night

Well, I was at work until 6, 6:30 or so... stayed to get some Flash work ironed out. THe whole time I thought there was something screwy with my actionscript... but it turned out to be latency issues with our server. Doh! Just about tore my hair out on that... (read more)

Whew!

January 13, 2003

Alright. After a long hibernation period, I believe that my blog is up and running again! Feels like I've been working at a turtle's pace, but I'm proud to say that I got everything working on my own. Saw a few tutorials, but all the code is absolutely my own.... (read more)

Hello world.

January 12, 2003

:)... (read more)

No Entry Today

January 11, 2003

Meh.... (read more)

No Entry Today

January 10, 2003

Meh.... (read more)

No Entry Today

January 9, 2003

Meh.... (read more)