Thursday, March 26th, 2009
It’s insane how much time I’ve wasted while working on my Scandalous Life essay. I’ve had my outline done for days, but my progress while writing it is so slow! I keep doing other things (like browsing twitter and facebook, looking at blogs, playing with the kitty cat, cleaning, etc). Or, right now, I’m blogging!
I currently have five and a half pages written out of eight. It’s not even that long of a paper and I surely have enough to write about to fill the space. I’m just stubborn I guess! I have seven hours to finish it so I have plenty of time still. Workworkwork.
I’m really excited for tomorrow! My boyfriend is coming to visit me! I’ve really been missing him a lot since it’s been over a month since I’ve last seen him. He’s bringing his Super Nintendo so we’re going to relive the past. Hopefully I can practice my Super Mario World skills. I’m a bit better at the SMW controls than the Super Mario Brothers 1 controls! When I was last at his place we played SMB1 and I was embarrassingly bad. I always fell into pits, or lava, or was killed by the easy goombas of all things.
Knowing that he is coming gives me something to work towards! I’ll finish my work today so that I can have a nice weekend. ♥
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Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Cabin fever struck again yesterday as I was working on an essay. A few posts ago I uploaded pictures of my room. That’s the set up I’ve had for a very long time, but my room is a lot more vacant now that I’ve moved a lot of packed up boxes back home, the set up was not working. My bed is on wheels and my floor is tile – and crooked. Seriously, when I’m on my wheeled computer chair, I’m always rolling into the wall from the tilted floor. My bed also suffers the same fate. Whenever I shift, I slowly roll towards the middle of the room. (XD! It’s freaky! The little wheel locks don’t seem to work on the frame, but I can’t complain because I got it for free.) I had solved the problem before by making “end tables” of boxes to keep my bed grounded. Since they’re gone, I turned my bed 90 degrees in the same corner, and my desk just fits beside it, wedging the bed between the wall and the desk. I moved my dresser to where my bed long-wise used to be, wedging it in on the other side. Myshelf that used to be above my desk looks a little weird because there’s nothing underneath it anymore, haha, but overall, I’m happy to not be rolling around!
No picture evidence because I’m lazy right now. I’m reading Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright. I absolutely love it so far. It’s the story of two sisters, an elder one who lives in a small village in Canada as a school teacher and a younger one who lives in New York USA working in the exciting radio business. It’s set in the 1930s and the novel is written in a series of letters and diary entries. Saying much more would spoil it. I’m only 100 pages in so far (it’s about 400 pages), but it’s really interesting.
I wish I had started reading it earlier. I actually wasn’t even planning to read it. It’s for one of my courses and there’s a small 1% quiz on it, but other than that, there’s no exam or essay on it. Considering the work that I have to do on other things worth 25% or more, I was going to skip it. I started reading it last night as I was trying to sleep and could not put it down until it was about 1am and I knew I’d have to sleep, hehe. Whoops.
Unfortunately the quiz is today and there’s no way I can finish the book by 2pm. But I’m planning to read as far as I can and see what happens at the quiz.
Randomly: I think it’s interesting to see how people go about creating their designs, so I decided to show my process for designing the graphics Frozen Flower’s layout. I actually meant to post this a while ago, but it never saw the light of day:
I had a lot of fun with this design because most of the work actually happened before I got to the computer stages. I hand drew this layout over a short period of days, working on it in the short 10 minute gaps waiting for classes to start or the coffee breaks in the middle of three hour lectures. For the flowers, I used my own photography as a guide while drawing them.
I want to start using my own drawings and photography for design rather than using anime or video game pictures. As much as I love those topics, it’s hard, because really, it’s somewhat illegal (though many claim “fair use” and a lot of these companies see it as free publicity). Though the design and coding is mine, the graphic base belongs to the companies and artists that make those images. I want the code, the design, the everything to be created by me. But, my main site Magitek Designs relies on those subjects, so I’m somewhat conflicted. I think if I didn’t make anime or video game layouts anymore ever, I would lose visitors, maybe. I’m not sure! Unless any companies complain about my use of their images, I’m probably okay. I think about these things a lot even though I’ve been concentrating on school more than working on my sites.
I’ve been itching to make Wordpress templates! And I’ve also been itching to put together this new PHP idea for the Series section of Magitek Designs. I’m looking forward to summer to be able to work on these projects!
29 days until home. ^_^
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Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
I’m beginning to go stir crazy. It’s so sunny outside but I’m trapped in doors working on essays. I wish it would warm up a bit so that I could sit in the backyard and study (if I can call the two feet of grass behind the backdoor a yard, hehe).
I was shocked. A few days ago I wore my spring coat and ballet flats, but yesterday it started to snow again. This morning when I went to school to work on a group project it was -8°C out. Brr. So much for the first day of spring!
I feel confident about the group presentation. But – the reading quiz on Monday? Haven’t started reading the book yet. The quiz is worth a measly 1% and even when I’ve studied, I still only manage to get around 5 to 7 out of 10 right. I’m contemplating just reading the first few chapters and the last few chapters and seeing what happens. I just don’t have time for it when it’s worthy basically nothing.
I loved Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos! I finished reading it last night. Part IV of the novel was a real page-turner. Cruel Intentions, the 1999 movie, is a modern version of Liaisons so I really want to see it. We’re watching a part of the 18th-century-style movie on Thursday in class which I’m looking forward to. (Whoohoo, period costumes! I love historical romance films!)
I’m feeling anxious about this week but also not so bad about the work load. Once I get an outline for my essay I’ll be in better shape.
I stalked the cat today with my boyfriend’s camera (we traded temporarily). I hope maybe on the weekend I’ll have time toupload the photos. Izzy is such a cute kitty.
Blog Stuff: Kim has a blog again! Welcome back! And Angela gave into the magic that is Wordpress!
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Friday, March 20th, 2009
Today marks the two-weeks-remaining point of the school year. In two weeks, I’ll be finished classes. This is crunch time! When I look at my calendar, the list doesn’t actually look so bad:
Class Period:
- March 24th: Canadian Literature Quiz
- March 25th: Censorship and Fiction Presentation
- March 26th: Scandalous Life Term Paper
- April 3rd: Censorship and Fiction Term Paper
Exam Period:
- April 6th: Canadian History Exam
- April 14th: Restoration and 18th Century Literature Exam
- April 14th: Canadian Literature Term Paper Due
- April 22nd: Scandalous ife Exam
Yes, Scandalous Life is actually a legitimate course at my university, hehe. Between Scandalous Life and Censorship and Fiction, I’ve read more shocking novels than I ever thought I would! Now when people scan over my bookshelves, they’ll look kind of shocked that books like Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure are there.
This one situation was actually kind of hilarious. The other day in Canadian Literature, I had one of my novels from Censorship on the table because I was planning to go to the library after class to work on my presentation. The book I’m studying is Dirty Weekend. Apparently, this is a cultural term that refers to a weekend getaway that a couple (most likely adulterous couple) take for the pure intention of convenient sex. I had no idea until I was researching. The novel isn’t about this at all – it’s actually more of a feminist text about a woman who has always been manipulated by men. She ends up revolting against her passive role and murdering any man who tries to manipulate her.
So I have a book with this title on my desk, and the cover looks very much like a horror / action flick movie, with a woman holding up a gun with expressive eyes. The professor came by to talk to my group in seminar, and I saw her eyes glance at the cover of the novel and judge me, haha.
Really, I think some of these professors are too concerned with what is “literature” and what isn’t. While I was disgusted with a lot of the content within Dirty Weekend and it isn’t something that I would choose to read on my own, there is a lot of interesting discourse in the book. It’s really interesting in relation to the topic of censorship, and discussing what is culturally acceptable and what isn’t. If you limit yourself to the Literature section of the bookstore, you could be missing out on some great texts which can expand your perspective . That section is so arbitrary anyway.
I went to the library today and worked on the presentation with my partner. Today is going to be focused on finishing Les Liaisons Dangereuses for my Scandalous Life term paper. Yay for being somewhat scholarly.
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Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
I’ve updated Frozen Flower’s theme again! I’ve been struggling with where to place the side bar since this is a one column design. I decided to place it horizontally after the first entry of the blog instead of along the side. I’m going to see if I like this after a few days of staring at it.
I’m still struggling with figuring out a Wordpress image uploader issue. I have two wordpress blogs, but version 2.7.1, but only this one won’t allow me to use the flash image uploader without forwarding me to the Wordpress login screen. Both blogs are hosted on the same server, just different domains. I actually deleted the admin panel of this installation, downloaded the admin panel of the one that’s working and uploaded it in its place, and it’s still not working. It makes no sense!
But, the weird thing is, the uploader in this installation will work on Internet Explorer. I have no idea what is causing one installation to be comptable with Opera, my default browser, and not the other. My brain! It hurts! So I guess whenever I want to include images in my posts, I’ll have to suffer with Internet Explorer. (*shudder*)
I installed a Windows Vista widget to assist in counting down the days to the last day of school. 36 days and counting! By the end of April, I have to have everything out of the apartment. My dad came up to visit me today for a few hours. Last night I packed up all my belongings that were in the storage closet plus all of my craft supplies (scrapbooking, sewing, painting and drawing supplies: everything). I really like to be creative to unwind, so until May, the only creative things I can do will be web design or maybe some drawing on computer printout paper. And cooking!
My dad came to take the first load of stuff back to my home town, which is about four and a half hours away. We don’t really have much time to get everything home but this was a good start. The hardest part was moving this deep freezer. My roommates and I bought it together a few years ago, dividing the costs, and since then they have all moved out. So, I’m the person who gets to keep it. It will be very useful when I get my own place (one day). It was kind of hilarious trying to get it into my dad’s car; although it’s not really that large or heavy, it’s big and awkward and I’m somewhat useless when it comes to lifting things. After coming up with many failed plans, we eventually got it into the back of the truck without breaking it.
We definitely could have fit more items into the truck but my dad’s not big on tetrising. I am an arrangement queen like my mom, squishing everything compactly into tight spaces and utilizing the space to my best ability. My dad likes to get things done quickly but not necessarily the most efficiently. I still had many packed boxes that we could have fit, but he wanted to get moving so we just left them for now.
My room is an absolute disaster right now from packing last night! My room is also a lot sadder looking. What I miss the most are my plastic bins which I was doubling as a bedside table. I found a cardboard box which I’m using now for my lamp and alarm clock. (Yay, university living!)
I’m excited to be going back home. Although I like my school, this city is much smaller and less diverse than my home town. Plus, my boyfriend is there – being apart is really lonely. That, compounded with the fact that nearly all my friends are in teacher’s college this year and left school to do placements around the province, makes the days feel long and sad sometimes. I do have a roommate who I’m living with, and while we get along, we’re not the closest of friends and it’s sometimes awkward.
What I will definitely miss is my own little apartment! My apartment for the last two years has been in what is called the student ghetto. They’re the cheapest units around town, but the landlords have been really great about improving the area. (We just got a new bathroom vanity a few months ago, and last year, they put in brand new kitchen cupboards on all the units.)
The main living area looks very much like a student’s apartment, but I had a lot of fun making my bedroom feel like home. I had painted my walls green and blue, painted a dresser black, and used black shelves and black bedding to contrast with the bright colours of the walls. I actually feel like this room is more “me” than my bedroom in my parents’ house. Here are some pictures, though normally my room isn’t this tidy (clearly staged photos, hehe):
But overall, I just want to come home! 6 novels and 5 assignments until freedom. 36 days!
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Sunday, March 15th, 2009
Don’t mind me! I’m uploading a mini gallery for the heck of it. I want to see how the gallery code works with my theme because I want to start uploading photographs alongside my blog entries. I’ve been battling with the Image Uploader on Wordpress which for some reason will not let me upload images using the flash uploader no matter what I do. It looks like it’s working, it uploads, then crunches…but after that, the Wordpress log in screen pops up! It’s so frustrating. I’m not even certain how long I’ve been looking at support threads on Wordpress.org trying to find out how to solve this. I disabled all my plugins and I’m fully caught up on Wordpress upgrades. My other Wordpress blogs aren’t suffering the same fate. Hrm, very weird. Until then, all the images have to be uploaded one-by-one in the browser upload page.
These photographs are really random. I’m working on a project for Magitek Designs and these images are a part of it. I’m making a separate blog on MD that’s going to be used as a Theme Preview Blog because I’m hoping to provide some Wordpress template downloads. I’ve wanted to do it forever but I’ve been kind of web lazy. These images are part of the dummy content on that blog to show how the theme could look.
Above, you can see a light bulb, my roommate’s beautiful kitty Mickey who I cat-sat over the summer, an apple, my curtains, and some random stuff from my neighbour’s backyards (in the summer, they probably seriously wonder what I’m doing behind their fences with my digital SLR).
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Thursday, March 12th, 2009
[Current Song // Kamelot - Lost and Damned]
I must seem so flighty. Frozen Flower was a blog for years, then I turned it into a creative collective combined with a blog, then just a portal to my serial works (comics and serial photography), and finally, it’s back to having a blog attached. The front page is remaining a static portal, but the blog is running here in the background.
I haven’t worked with Wordpress in a while – I last updated this blog almost a year ago! There are probably a lot of kinks to work out still, but I’ll take care of them as I come across them.
I recently joined Twitter. I’m completely addicted already! I’ve been able to reconnect with some old friends who I’ve missed to death. (*hearts*) I’ve been tweeting with Munin who is definitely the inspiration for converting this site back into a blog much sooner than anticipated! Yay Munin!
I’ve really wanted a place to vent and being blogless has been difficult. Tonight is just a whee-I’m-back post, but I’ll post for real soon. :O Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things like the old days. (The old days of, what, 2003? Haha!)
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Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Last week I finished up the last of my exams, and thankfully, I passed them all! I was worried for no reason. (Well, my GPA dropped 2% compared to last year, but what can you do?)
I’ve been working on a new web project that combines several things that I love. I’ve started something akin to a photo log, but combining prose, verse, and photography into one visual medium. I’ve called it Transfiguration. Originally when I started making the site I had called the prototype site “Photoverse”, and built it on a Wordpress backbone. But then I wanted to create a layout which would use PHP to generate a different background colour for each image, so I decided to create my own system. I’m really pleased with the results!
I’ve been enjoying my time off from school, hanging out with my boyfriend, my friends, and my family, while working on web projects on the side. Next week I have to get my wisdom teeth pulled out (fun), so I’ll be out of commission for a while with chipmunk cheeks. The week after that, I’ll be starting up with my part time job again, which I’m looking forward to. I miss working!
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Monday, April 14th, 2008
I need to study more. I’m going to fail Rise of the Novel. Yup.
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Monday, December 24th, 2007
[Current Song // Serj Tankian - Lie Lie Lie]
Happy Christmas Eve everyone! It’s after midnight, so I’m allowed to say that already.
I’ve been working really hard the past few days. I was able to get rehired where I worked in the summer for Christmas help. After Christmas, I’ll be working inventory shifts rather than being a sales associate, helping to count every item in the store. I’m looking forward to it! My feet are tired from standing in high heels, but the money is worth it. I have Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day off, so I feel like I still have a vacation.
I’m dating Mark officially now~! I feel ultra-happy-happy. I was starting to feel really discouraged, but things are really turning around. ^_^
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