http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ en-us origandrew@gmail.com 2007-01-13T19:40:46-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000086.html I figure I might as well reveal my new weblog now, since if i leave it off for too long, I might get discouraged to keep writing. So without further ado, the new and much improved Lands of Andrew 86@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2007-01-13T19:40:46-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000085.html ha. That's all I have to say. Okay... everyone, set their bookmarks and links to this blog to http://www.origandrew.com/ - that is without the "/blog/" part. And check there from now on. There will be a change soon and when it happens, I'll take this page.. sorta down and replace it with a redirecting thing... so be forwarned. don't get your hopes to high... first time working with wordpress... but it is fun. Next up... I have to port my entries from movable type into wordpress (i have no clue how doable it is but I might as well try.. sometime) 85@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2007-01-12T01:18:05-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000084.html that last layout had the shortest lifespan of all of my layouts. It's lasted all of... half an hour or so before I started putting up my Christmas-y looking layout. Not too festive, a lil bland... but it's simple enough. Maybe I'll put up my minimalistic layout again, or just recolor this layout. I kind of like this new layout even though i scraped it together while watching Talladega Nights and Little Miss Sunshine. I highly recommend Little Miss Sunshine. Umm... yeah.. this layout got put together and upped pretty quickly... i don't think it's done.. but it's good enough. 84@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-12-24T01:20:30-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000083.html Um... I have an excuse for not posting regularly.... ahem >.> mm *fidgets* Well, I know this does not make-up much or anything at all but this will be part of my next layout \(^.^)/. It's super simple (minimalistic)... maybe too simple but it's not my greatest work, but it will be my cleanest.. and most complete (i've given up basically everything unnecessary)... I guess i'll lable my next layout "temporary" as well. well here's my new form of "Lands of Andrew" in a pretty way for when I plaster it unceremoniously onto my layout. and if you can... give me input... i don't like the "o" in either of them 83@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-12-22T19:02:45-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000082.html hahaha.... heh... eheh.. heh.. he.. well, for starters, I probably broke one of the web's more strict rules. Stick with one type of scrolling. Well, click on this entry and you'll find out what I'm talking about. There isn't a real way to do a horizontal entry without using columns (but mozilla's the only one that supports it) and it isn't really that good. I could use javascript, but that's a pain. So the only option.. break my scrolling thing and use a vertical layout for my entry. I feel like this is a web Taboo. Oh well. Javascript saved the navigation from moving all over the place when changing the layout and my "lands of andrew" that is really faint, is still in the same place. So there's some consistency. And kind reader, if knowledgeable on the subject, what can I do to fix the css loading. In safari and i think firefox, the css doesn't load all the time. So sometimes I get a dead layout. There's probably a very good reason, but I can't think of it. And tell me which navigation looks better (the one on the archives or the one on the main page). I don't really like either of them cause they're just a splattering of links at the top.... So yeah, my weekend, project's over. Well not really. I should complete it and make all the links work. Also, I should put in the smooth scrolling javascript that i've been tinkering with on the archives pages. But sleep and hw calls. 82@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-12-03T02:51:51-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000081.html And behold the wrath of a designer XD. One huge background that will clog up your connection for a while. it looks pretty... but I already killed most of the important transparencies so it doesn't look to great anymore. 81@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-12-02T22:39:05-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000080.html You're probably wondering why I have a half finished layout up. Cause I'm too lazy to be a good designer/web admin to wait until i'm done to change. Facts.... Horizontal scrolling is cool... but javascript is a pain (hint - prays he doesn't kill himself trying). And this isn't the layout I'll be using for my new weblog.. just a whim. So the title of this webdesign is "Temporary" 80@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-12-02T22:33:34-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000079.html I carry on On another note: my new weblog is still under construction. This weblog might only be left to look good because my new one will be different in many ways. I'm playing on the idea of a duality in my life between fiction and reality (not fiction as in lies but in a different sense). There'll be a manifesto written up describing what I really mean as one of my first posts. I'm going to release my new weblog with a few posts already on it. Just to get a fresh start with my writing. In this way, I'll get the opportunity to actually articulate what in the world I'm actually doing (it's probably too confusing for me to write about). I guess seeing will be understanding. For it, I'll have to freshen up on javascript, ajax and other stuff. So it won't purely be eye-candy like the ill-conceived design I came up with recently. My design does not have enough functionality to it. I guess that's also one of my excuses to escape. I sacrificed functionality for aesthetics but i will NOT sacrifice either for my next design. Although the graphics I made for this recent design were mature, thoughtful and .. well, nice, they are still lacking. It'll be a nice layout, properly planned, and very different from anything I've done before. I'll leave the rest to your imaginations. I do NOT plan to release my new weblog until it is complete from a designers, web master, literary, personal perspective and suitable for release. 79@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-11-01T00:30:01-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000077.html Marat, a man of the radical Jacobin faction in the French Revolution, was heroically depicted stabbed to death in a painting - The Death of Marat. That was how one man died. This is irrelevant to what I'm saying but that is perfectly fine. I will be creating a new blog. No, it will not replace this blog. After over a year of posting here, I will be moving on and hopefully up. Maybe I do not find enough meaning in this weblog. I post when I feel like it, I post about what I feel like posting about, I post about trivialities as well as world wide dilemmas (scarce are those entries), and maybe about the aspects of my life maybe better left in the dark between lines. In reality, I will be creating two new journals, one public and one less so. The public one will live at www.origandrew.com. I have yet to decide if I will link to this weblog from that weblog but there will be a separation between the two, be it only paper-thin. I am sick of it - the lack of content, the lack of focus, the lack of color... A personal weblog where I bleed my life into text. It's not enough, maybe. It's not fulfilling, maybe. Enough. It's not that I'm moving on but rather reaching out. Reaching out to something new. This is not the finale of a weblog but rather... 77@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-10-18T18:24:29-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000076.html ( Red ) The color red. Used as a marketing ploy (macy's...) as well as a way to support AIDs relief in Africa. I think it'll work. (i like the watch and ipod... but that's just me wanting another object) Recently finished the book, The Handmaid's Tale. It had a lot of the color red in it. A recommended book by Margaret Atwood. I don't know what the book is called, but there is one that tracks the development and evolution of symbols through history. It's a big (fat) book that I wish I remembered. It'd be fun to read up about random symbols....like the color red, for instance. I think my English teacher knows. I need to practice figure drawing... specifically the face. If only I had known Academy of Art in SF had highschool enrichment classes during the school year. If only I had known 2 weeks ago. If only... Has anyone ever slept 24 hours straight? It's hard - I came close. I don't know when I'm going to fall asleep tonight. 76@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-10-15T23:43:00-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000075.html psshaw! Cheating Bastards! >.> I am NOT cheating on anyone.... Unless playing around with Wordpress behind movable type's back counts. Wordpress has been getting very good feedback and such. I like movable type but i think trying out wordpress might be worthwhile. I can't wait to see what Vista's like on a proper computer. I don't want to use bootcamp so I'm digging up an old laptop to run it on. Then I'm going to put office 2007 on it and see what it all looks like. Maybe it'll be nice, maybe it'll be too cumbersome and full of effects. In the article below there is a tidbit about vista and its programming flaws... don't look for it. It's a funny read (even though I haven't read it all). An interestingly funny article on programming Maybe it's about time I set up my own mail server. But I like gmail so much. I wouldn't be able to bear leaving it. Setting one up for future use would be smart. Quick update: need to get to writing those college essays. Eat food. And sleep not during the day and stay awake during the night (too many vampire books, eh?). I have to read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi sometime soon. I wanted to read the second book in the vampire chronicles by Anne Rice for outside reading but we have to do it in groups... so Reading Lolita in Tehran it is. Someday, I want to read Lolita... just cause. And in other news, Youtube was bought by google for a lot of money. 75@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-10-10T15:38:58-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000074.html This weekend was a total waste. I got absolutely nothing done. Well nothing useful done. This upcoming week is "senior something or other week" where we're supposed to either go and visit colleges or stay at home and write up our essays. I'm doing the second for two and a couple more reasons: I've already visited just about all the colleges I can handle and that I'm going to apply to (I will NOT sit through another admissions spiel and another trip of that nightmarish 1000 colleges in 20 hours plan - of course an exageration but pretty close to the truth) I have a biology test this week. Why would you schedule a biology test during college visit week. So people who are leaving have to take it before they leave. >. A take home Latin test.... troublesome and hard And I need to write college essays and get them looked over by teachers Oh. and what I did this weekend. I played around with windows Vista and Office 2007. Office 2007 in vista looks so nice X-x (this coming from a mac user). Tabs in the windows?!? crazy but very effective. And also... comments work now. Forgetting a closing quote to something does a lot of damage 74@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-10-08T22:03:14-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000073.html Lesson Learned: get sleep This week was tiring - tiring may be an understatement. Not much in the way of homework but a lot of ... nothing. It's hard to imagine how much nothing there is to do with your free time and it eventually overflows into your sleep time. School's okay... oh yeah. My macbook pro ... died a couple days ago. It had been acting funny for a couple of days and eventually, iTunes became corrupted after the 7.0.0.1 update and I had the brilliant (sarcasm) idea to uninstall iTunes and reinstall it. Of course, iTunes didn't want to install so I had to figure something out. Eventually I just put everything onto my little black book of 500 gb (oh the bliss of having a huge cheap external drive) and restored my computer to factory settings. Also my 2gb ddr ram came in the mail. So installed ram, restored computer and all looked like it was perfectly back to normal. I hit software update and it starts downloading/installing everything and then blam! everything dies. Kernel panic blah blah blah and it wouldn't even start up. I had to search online on how to boot my computer from a cd after doing a hardware check. That's something that needs to be in the manual. I searched for how to boot from the cd but all it gave was how to restore it to factory settings (which didn't work). Holding shift down during start-up is my friend. So everything came back to life and every useless thing i had before was cleared out. I'm happy... 2gb of ram is more than enough to do everything i want (except photoshop and illustrator... why can't they come out with a universal binary) I wonder if running windows on parallels and opening photoshop on that would be faster. I doubt it but it's worth a try. Also, quicksilver is installed and I take back what I said before. I set up the iTunes notification and this time it actually shows the artwork unlike last time when it just kept showing the itunes icon and got very annoying. So virtualdesktops, parallels, quicksilver and growl are my friends now. 73@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-10-06T17:59:41-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000072.html Or rather, running early (in the morning). I'm going to die. 6:45 at school then a race in the morning. Something detrimental to my health: my sleeping pattern. So far I've been sleeping when I get home, waking up past midnight, doing homework then going back to sleep. But I can't always get back to sleep so easily so I end up staying up into the maddening hours of twilight. It's torture, almost but I'm doing it to myself and I can't help myself. Something must be seriously wrong with my biological clock right now. Even though I have a race tomorrow, I am still awake writing this. I missed the Great Gatsby themed school dance too because I seriously couldn't stay awake anymore. I was planning on going but before I knew it, I was asleep. Well, this is what I did in art class... fun... all of a really short amount of time, but I fixed it up a bit and added stuff and made it my background =P (i love my camera.. i used it instead of a scanner) 72@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-09-30T01:13:07-08:00 http://12.46.141.37/archives/000071.html I wish something was timed for 22 seconds (it's not quite half a minute but close). There's my odd-ness for the day. On a seperate note, I have yet to get myself a pair of running shoes. I'm still wearing these old cross-training shoes I wear for basically anything involving running/sports/whatever. They're heavy, clunky, and probably bad for my feet right now because I've worn the padding down. So shopping list for after the long day I have tomorrow. First, wake up insanely early (insane for me, that is) and go to the dentist and get my cavity filled (there might not be one but it's bad to hope). A cavity from taking long naps without brushing my teeth. I take better care of my teeth... So after my teeth get fixed, is a lovely day of school. Then running with bad shoes.. then sitting in traffic to go to berkeley and get my shoes (oh and running shorts.. the ones i ran in last race were, say, on the short side of shorts). Running shoes and shorts, check. I like customizing my laptop. I'm not using quicksilver anymore, it doesn't seem to do that much of what i'd like it to and my track pad is plenty fast enough. What's the best is VirtueDesktops. The greatest thing in the world (a lot less painful to use than quicksilver, which takes forever to get used to and still seems to be lacking certain functions i can't write myself). School.... not great I'm having fun in women's lit, which is odd. 2 guys in that class (my friend and I). It's not awkward probably because the class isn't that big (but it is pretty big). Read Jane Eyre (i liked that book) and reading the Handmaid's tale (way too much like an orwellian society... sorta). Women's literature is, to say the least, interesting. The teacher i had in 9th grade english (the only C or was it C+ or something i ever got a paper). Total shock.. but my writing improved a lot. Biology = a lot of work and me not getting great grades.. it will get better when i get used to what in the world i'm supposed to do AP Latin... not bad at all (waits for first test to be graded before saying anything more) Art history.. easy?... naw. It's simply monotonous. how was that for an entry for the new design... not much in the direction of thought, but that's okay. 71@http://www.origandrew.com/blog/ 2006-09-24T21:14:18-08:00