Blast From The Past
July 15th, 2008
Oh my… is this real? A day where I’m the only human at home? YES!!!! The reality of the past week is that I haven’t had much time to myself to play music loudly, work on websites or really do anything without feeling paranoid that someone is watching me. And of course as soon as I wake up today, WordPress 2.6 comes out and automatically puts down all the careful and investigative work I did to get my comments working again! GAH! But that’s okay, because it makes up for it by telling me when a plug-in needs to be updated without my even needing to visit the plug-in page. That in itself is a huge yay for me because I rarely visit that page unless I’m installing a new one, which results in several “this has a new version! Upgrade?” notes under each when I do see it. Also, comments submit much faster now with the “real” thing instead of the work around I used.
But anyway, the real reason I am posting is because yesterday was my mother’s birthday. Rather than celebrating the years to come, I found myself looking at all the CDs that I’d accumulated while I was back in middle school. And that is hilarious because when I was younger, I only knew about popular music, mainstream stuff. That means a lot of Christina Aguilera, N*Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Aqua and A*Teens. Looking through those track lists was epic, but it was even funnier when I decided to throw the CDs into the computer and actually listen to them rather than recall them from memory.
It was indescribable. I was so amused and surprised, because I can’t believe I ever listened to this stuff and liked it. I maintain that I still love the rhythms and melodies of the songs, but the lyrics suck. For example, Backstreet Boys’ “The Call.” I like that song’s beat and melody, but really, the lyrics are about some guy two timing his girlfriend, which is even more hilarious when you look at the members of the band and realize that most of them aren’t even pretty enough to attract one female.
As I went through everything, I wondered where everybody went. Everyone that used to be popular seems to be less pronounced nowadays. I mean, Britney has fame still, but it’s for her mistakes rather than her music. It’s a shame because I honestly did enjoy her early work. Actually, I have Oops I Did It Again and Baby One More Time on tape cassette. I wonder if it would be considered legal to download the mp3 versions off of the internet when I have them in the form of cassettes?
I also found a huge stack of photos from things like my birthday party in the fifth grade, my dogs, random family photos, the trip to Washington D.C. and the trip to Canada. Looking back on it, I had some nice hair. It was long and shiny and a pretty shade of brown without outside help. Now I have to fight it with a straightening iron after I shower to get it to look even vaguely similar. What happened?! Oddly, both of the trips organized by my school (D.C. and Canada) threw us in a zoo for an entire day. I love animals to death, but surely there is another major attraction in such large tourist places? Because really, I could see an elephant or a tiger at probably any zoo.
While those memories were a little nice, they left me feeling bitter afterward. I hated school because of the people that were there and how no matter what I did, I was never quite on equal ground with anyone. I was also one of the biggest targets for pranks and cruelty as I never really stood up for myself, and I deeply regret never having turned around to tell those people of how very much I loathed them for who they were, to kick them below the belt for once, and to show them how much damage they dealt without even realizing it. I have always been one to bottle everything up inside and, because I’ve done it all these years, I am still very hateful towards those people. Even though I haven’t seen or spoken to any of them for a year it feels like I was just talking to them yesterday. I suppose it’s a mark to show I still have a lot of growing up to do, but I doubt I’ll ever let the grudge go.
Bah, those people suck. In any case, would anyone be interested in seeing some of the pictures? They would be very late considering everything is a year or so old, but they’re all I’ve got and you don’t have any idea what my pets look like! Well, besides Chippy of course.
Personal, Reflections, Tangents 
2 replies
Technology Hates Me Back
July 12th, 2008
My Creative Zen V Plus mysteriously stopped working two days ago after I recorded several attempts at playing Davy Jones’ theme from Pirates of the Caribbean flawlessly on the piano (failing miserably, I might add). But anyway, my mp3 player just stopped living. It wouldn’t turn on and it wouldn’t register with my PC when I’d plug it in with the USB cord. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it or how to fix it until I started searching the crap out of it with Google, thus finding several complaints about the player not functioning as it should, including random freezing (which I have experienced) and inability to add songs. After a ton of searching I finally managed to find a solution on FixYa that was really quite simple; just plug it into the PC, hold the power button down in the “on” position and trigger the reset button underneath it. Problem solved, even though it was not an obvious answer and I had only discovered the solution after growing impatient with awaiting their support center’s response.
I should point out that I’ve had my Zen since December 2006 when I received it as a Christmas present, and that it has only frozen twice and only turned off completely once. Then again, I didn’t really start using it excessively until the summer of 2007. I like my Zen because of how tiny and portable it is, and yet it can hold so many songs and even has a built-in microphone that worked very well until I prodded it with pins thinking it was the reset button. The iPod seems too frail and I can’t help imagining myself dropping one and accidentally breaking it in half. I also never really liked the navigation system, since it depends on the speed you rotate your hand and often rolls over the things you’re trying to select.
Still I wonder if, when my Zen gives out, I should go for an iPod. Sure, everyone and their mom has one, but at least then troubleshooting would be easier. It took me hours to find out if there was even any hope for my player! I’m happy with it though. I’ve had it for a year and a half and it still carries out the duty it was primarily made for. I just miss my microphone, as it barely picks up any sound no matter how loudly I make it. I guess this means no piano recordings for you. XD
On Drawing
July 7th, 2008
I was inspired to write an entry about how I draw when I was doodling in my sketchbook last night and ended up with what is now the newest drawing on the art page. Thinking back on it, I’ve never been able to accurately put what I picture in my head down on paper. Instead I’ve always worked with simply drawing something small (like an eyeball) and then working off of that to build an entire picture. Couple that with my love for pens and it’s fairly easy to end up with a ton of mistakes on a piece because it’s not well thought out.
However, I think drawing with pen makes it funner, because I don’t have a lot of paper. So when I use a sheet up, I want it to be good. Not necessarily perfect, for it can’t be perfect when it never had guidelines, but good looking, attractive. I make mistakes very often, but combined with everything I just wrote, it actually allows for more creativity. Say I draw a line too curvy to be a nose, it turns into hair, or maybe the eyelid is disproportionate, it turns into dramatic eyelashes. On my newest piece, the girl wouldn’t have even had freckles if I hadn’t first accidentally dotted her face while detailing her eyes.
I never know how something is going to turn out. I might have a few small ideas, but in the end it’s hard to picture them all working together until it’s right there in front of me, finished. Ironically, doing pixel art is a lot different. I draw my pixel art concept right in Paint Shop Pro; in fact, I even use shapes to outline details like the head, something I don’t do when I’m drawing on paper. And when I have an idea in my head for a pixel art, I am able to transfer it to the computer without much difficulty. Isn’t that odd? Does anyone else do this, or am I just being weird?
