Until this February, I hadn’t done webdesign for a very long time. Then one day, Ben of Far From Show, on behalf of his band, asked me to make their website. He wanted flames, so I gave him flames and a black background. Ben was happy and his band was happy. Then, I thought maybe I could take a stab at some webdesign again.
So, I made this website. I kinda like it. The hardest thing is to keep it from becoming a shrine to me. It’s no fun to view another website that is exclusively about one person. So, even though this will be a bit of a weblog when I want it to, it will not focus excessively on me. Heck, maybe I’ll bring in other people from time to time to contribute to it. First, I should probably finish making it so I’ll see.
Got a new mouse today. It’s optical so no dumb trackball lint problems. I can use it on my shirt, too! And picked up some new anti-virus software. Still reading Heretics of Dune. I fear as I have been reading the series that I have not made enough guesses or connections about the plot. Because of this, the information presented later on which was intended to clarify guesses has been passed over by me and only taken at face value. This may detract from my understanding of the plot and the books themselves as a whole. Then again, the time that has passed between books has been long. This could be my problem. A re-read may be in order. I’m awakening from the dream of summer and looking forward to the coming school year. School creates more stress, work, and scheduling than I normally have to deal with. The best plan may be to keep reading books throughout the year; escape literature has a value more than distracting the mind. It seems to enrich while diverting. Time for me to skeedaddle.
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“I never forget a face but in your case I’m willing to make an exception.” - Groucho Marx. Or how about “Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.” Translation: “Whatever is said in Latin, sounds profound”. Enough of that. We almost got rid of our tree today. Luckily, we were able to make room so we didn’t have to throw out the Norfolk Island Pine. I think I’m getting tennis elbow. Let’s hope it doesn’t get any worse. Enough about quasi-medical conditions. I’m watching a TV special about Johnathan Winters. Funny guy. Well I have slowly come to the realization that I won’t be able to supply something funny for everybody everyday. So, content quality and quantity will vary.
Featured Website:Penny Arcade has comics. I think. From what I can see, there is some serious talent in digital images happenin’ here. It could be funny. If anything on the internet goes for more than two years, there has to be something to it.
During the course of MP3 quality evaluation and susequent downloads, issues of song age and distinction are likely to come up. Matt P. and I were discussing an old song, specifically, “Missing” by Everything but the Girl.
amicek: haha! - this song is so old! - “missing” by everything but the girl GH_Matt: i remember this song
amicek: ya - oldness on wheels! GH_Matt: yea, wit 4 gears
amicek: and two doors GH_Matt: and a broken headlight
amicek: cracked windshielf GH_Matt: dented fender
amicek: leaking oil GH_Matt: no muffler
amicek: bad steering column, bent rack and pinion, rusted 2nd gear, deflated tires, no treads, no rood, half of a windshielf, no back doors, no hood, part of a trunk, tin can muffler replacement, busted rear shocks, no antenna, bad radio, busted heater, no lights, rusted out body, smoking, with no floorboards! GH_Matt: you forgot that the signals don’t work
Matt claims the last word on that. Dang. I suppose that makes a person curious about the song? Get it if you want; but we warned you. When not engaged in pointless (but entertaining!) chats I’m doing some last minute reading. Heretics of Dune is quite a book even if I’m only on about page 7. Dune really is a good series; read it sometime! Speaking of last minute summer activities, I cleaned out my room today. Painted, dusted, moved some stuff out. The problem is I had to take apart some Legos to make room. Those darn things are hard to take apart. Almost as hard as assembling them as I recall. So, as anyone who has worked with Legos would know, my afternoon ended with sore fingers and teeth. Despite this, I found some cool stuff including my crown from the Medieval Times, obtained on the Chicago trip. Some other cool stuff was found as well, which has absolutely no importance or redeeming value whatsoever. I was listening to the radio today when an interview about deadly viruses, their containment, and possible use as weapons of mass destruction came on. After listening to it for a while and being disturbed by the possiblilities presented, I promptly changed the station. Pop music can be soothing when taken in proper doses.
Featured Website: Enjoy comic strips? Take a look at this site to see if you like this strip. This is the most one of the weirdest sites I have ever seen. Friend Bear reports over 200 low quality, high weirdness comic strips. Jump to da site today!
Right now, I’m listening to an awesome instrumental by Moby. It’s called “Love Song for my Mom”. Moby is cool and his coolness is more widely recognized in Europe were people have different (dare I say better? no better not…) tastes. I should work on my transitions from subject to subject in these news items because otherwise my English writting will be an exercise in linguistic horror lacking grammar, mechanics, and punctuation. Frightful, isn’t it? Speaking of fright, my bike chose to cease operation today. The bent drive chain coupled with a warped rear rim prompted my well meaning attack with a hammer to try to straighten things on the bike out. The bike repair guy informed me my rim might be “toasted”. Dang. My main mode of transportation is now in the shop until Thursday. Seven days on a racing bike with an uncomfortable seat is not my idea of how to end the summer. What will be, will be. Last time, (when my mom ran over my bike), the same bike repair guy informed me my front rim was “tacoed”. Hey, these guys fix my bike, so I’m not complaining. Let’s hear it for the adjective happy people in the bike repair world. That’s all from your bikeless friend Alex.
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My patience muscle has been stretched. Too far. The computer decided to crash whilst I was in the midst of one of my most witty and interesting news items. Boy you guys missed out. My attempt to top my witticism, etc. follows. Speaking of muscles I found out today that volleyball practice is harder than I imagined. I’ll have to keep imagining, though, because I haven’t practiced volleyball in a long time. Maybe ever. Well that rates about a 0 on the making sense scale. I’ll try harder for the next thing. Cool link coming in this update, stay tuned… Having lots of time to think about the approaching year of school, I asked my trusty, well connected, and witty friend, Matt P. for advice.
amicek: can you think of any way to stop thinking bout school starting? GH_Matt: sleep
amicek: dang if thats the only way.. GH_Matt: watch a movie, that’s what ive been doing, i’ve watched 7 so far this week, half way through another one
I suppose I should watch some movies. Off to Steve’s for the Matrix. That would be imposing and rather rude to go over and watch at his house. Off to Blockbuster then? Or maybe I should just read. Plenty of that to be done before I go back to school. You’ll hear more about the length of the school year and my complaints about starting again. Sorry. Bear with me. Survivor’s final episode airs tonight. What a waste of time; 40 million people expected to tune in?! I’m proud to say I have no idea what is going on.
Featured Website: Today we link to the Star Wars Episode Two Trailer. Once again, (again?) I’ll thank Matt P. of the trusty (and speedy) cable modem for the fact that the movie itself doesn’t come out for two years. Well I would guess about 90% of the males that read this would be interested and about 5% of the girls who read this would be interested. Thanks go to nickd.org for the lovely link. It was taken with no shame, humility, and until now, no credit to the source. Well, click away and if you’re searching for entertainment, hope you’re a guy!
8 days ‘til orientation. That’s not very much!! Dang. Oh well. I’m still working on finishing this site before school starts. I’m almost working hard on finishing the sections. Not really though. Lots of things to learn and not much time to learn them in. Good thing I learned how to do this news thing. If it wasn’t so easy for me, you probably wouldn’t get any updates. It’s a nice change to be able to ramble randomly readable rymes instead of sending stupid scores of slimy slippery symbols. Enough about that. Traffic is a little low lately. Then again, it has never been high. I need more links off of other people’s websites. The number of links from other websites right now is “0”. Zero. Zilch. Time for publicity here. I’m sure I won’t do much of the sort. Oh well.
Featured Website: Awesome site for ya today. Tolkien Online features an incredible amount of information about the Lord of the Rings trilogy and, more importantly, the movie that is in production and will come out Christmas of 2001. Even if you are not a Tolkien fan, the artwork in the gallery of this site will impress anyone. Sure to get you hooked if you haven’t read Tolkien and will definitely keep you interested if you have.
Getting into this easy update thing with my website. This is the second item added with the new scripts. (If I told you the location of them, well then not only could you copy them, but add your own updates to my site. Wouldn’t want that.) (That’s two updates on consecutive days.) (smile)…..Guess tennis was off for Saturday? Yeah. Well went to my mom’s community band concert down in Newport - near an oil refinery - today. Two loud trains during the music. Take what you can get. Nothing much for anybody today. Finishing the site in these days following. Then there will be even more nothing for you. Actually, the funny e-mail section (coming soon) is rather funny and has some scrumptuous programs for your consumption as internet users. Send your own e-mails here.
Ha! After some struggle, my automatic news system is up! That means, instead of taking all the time to enter silly code and upload dumb files, etc - all I have to do is fill out a form and the front page is updated along with the archived news page! In other words, more updates for you, less time spent for me. The observant person will notice now that when the article is written, the time it was posted is given down to the second. The clock is a bit off, like an hour I think, but I’m on this server for free so I don’t mind dealing with it. In addition to all this, I am now going to make the attempt to update the site daily. Now that the form made that so easy, this goal shouldn’t be too difficult. I look forward to actually posting some interesting things.
Featured Website:** In travels around the web, you see some weird things. But nickd.org takes the cake. It’s beyond weird. Somewhere between interesting and repulsive. Not half bad though. A personal site with a twist, I guess. Hop on over there.
Three parts of the community section opened today. The Guestbook, Links Listing, and Community Listing section. Sign in at ‘em today! The guts of the site are almost done. After those are finished, I will be adding to the Community section with a Forum and Picture post (hopefully).