Empty Cage

Just a quick one so I can wrap my head around this I need to do both online and offline:

• Get my hands on a guitar tuner — they’re only like $10 so procrastinating is not really worth it
• Call, or get mum to call the guy about my summer job
• Revamps on the following websites in the following order:
  • Finish off the last little bits of the Tim Fanlisting (Codes, About, fix mistakes)
  • Do the ShadowRO website
  • Do Empty Cage, new layout, put the focus on the blog aspect
• Move mum’s domain from Network Solutions to be hosted on my hosting plan, as well as make a new layout for her site
• Study for Math
• Get money order for room next year

I meant to comment that I have fixed the problem since my last entry but got caught up in other things. So, the problem ended. Basically what happened was the the “kernel” or version of my Fedora upgraded but not my video card drivers. To fix the problem (until updated drivers were avalaible — which are at the time of writing) I had to boot from an older kernel. To do this I simply hit ‘I’ at the boot and picked the second option on the boot list. When the video card driver was avalaible all I did was let it boot normally. Thanks to the guys at Fedora Forum for all their help. I seem to have posed the question properly as they got back to me and were fairly nice about it.

In other news, school, blargh. Well, sort of blargh, maybe like, half blargh. Because I decided to make my minor Computer Science I have to take Math. Which was one of those really terrible ideas I once had. The course is soundly kicking my ass into next month. And the final for it is on the last possible day, that would be April 30th! Which is pretty sucky. The worst part being that I have no idea what is going on in this class. I can only assume it is something appallingly difficult and leave it at that. For fear of my sanity.

I have more to say I think, but I should really be doing some school readings. Later.

Not surprisingly as soon as I start getting settled in Fedora I get a big huge ka-boom moment where I thank the lord that I have two internal hard drives and on of them has good old slow, but pretty effective Windows Vista on it while I figure out how to make Fedora obey again. I do love a challenge but sometimes I have a moment of wondering why Windows is not still my primary OS. I know how Windows works, I can generally make it do stuff. With Fedora I am a complete dumbass.

But I love a challenge, so here I am about to put my Fedora drive back in to fix it. For the sake of making this entry semi-useful I’ll outline what happened and the fix I was given lest someone else around here stumble upon the same problem. I doubt it since no one reads my blog, but hey, maybe writing it out will help me.

Basically, what I did seemed like a good idea at the time. On Fedora a little orange iconishthing pops up from time to time that says ‘Hey, you need to update this sucker.’ Generally I do just that and everything works like a dream, however, this time a large problem occured. Upon rebooting my machine I noticed that my resolution on the login screen was weird. Thinking this to be some sort of thing the update was twaeking I attempted to log in. Only, well, all I’d get to see was a white screen and nothing else, though it seemed to have loaded alright. So, at this point yesterday we get a resounding sigh followed by a whispered ‘Aw, fuck me.’ before asking my room mate if I can use her computer for just a moment. She grudgingly obliges and I throw myself upon the mercy of the uber nerds.

I shall pause here to illustrate some details for the non-nerds out there. On the internet there is a geek hierarchy, a kind of feudal fifedom of various kingdoms and suchlike. Those with more knowlage rank higher than the morons who don’t even know what their GUI is, and couldn’t put in a new ram chip if their very soul depended upon it. I am around the middle ground generally, maybe lower middle, regardless. Because of this when I don’t know what to do I must fling myself upon the mercy of the great nerds.

Some people may think this is funny. And perhaps a hyperbole, but it is no such thing. Asking the internet for help is serious business, sometimes you get lucky and the great nerds are benevolent, granting you at least a grudging shove in the right direction, but should you offend them, or should they be in a not-so-great mood your request for help leads to naught but scorn. Should you point out you were simply asking for help and that there is no need to get touchy about anything you will be treated to group scorn. As the great nerds may insult your intelligence as they see fit, but you, pitiful help-asker must take all the scoffing and patronizing they can dish out.

Don’t get me wrong, most of the time I get helpful and concise messages from the great nerds, but this is mainly because I google first, say please, and thank you, type in proper English and usually know how to describe my problem. I also display a willingness to learn which I am told goes a long way. But sometimes, no matter how polite you are, the nerds feel mean.

So, now I have a solution, the problem is the driver for my graphics card isn’t yet compatible with my update, so I need to hit shift on booting and boot from an older update (or kernel). Hopefully I will then be able to use my machine until such a time as my graphics card is compatible, which should be soon they say. Crisis aborted. Phew.

In other news I beat Fable: The Lost Chapters, I played as Good and let me tell you I was a bad ass motherfucker despite playing a hero.

Okay, so, the latest leg of my Linux adventures is finding a way to install normal, downloaded free true type fonts on my lovely little Fedora machine in order to get webdesign without using the same six default-tastic fonts. My luck has been grim to say the very least. It’s just one more of those things you take for granted on Windows I suppose. Easy installation of fonts. I find it strange that no one else seems to find this to be much of a problem. Though, I guess nerds don’t speak pretty font. Regardless, I continue my quest, I would be pissed if I had to pop in my windows hard drive for something this trivial.

Anyways, I have totally lost my train of thought to CSI: New York. Later.

Finished one of the websites I promised to make other people today! It only took me several months to get around to what with my huge creative block (I think it might be starting to dislodge) I give you http://aenp-upsa.artsuottawa.ca

Actually, I like how grungey and modernish it is. A step in a different direction from the usual ho-humery of my usual work. I have… I think two more “commissions” to do. One for ShadowRO which is mostly done, and Blue Heron Books needs a revamp. Doing this stuff for other people is actually pretty good though because it’s helping me learn new techniques.

I have a few ideas for Empty Cage, but Regulus Black has been the personal project that has been winning the most of my personal attention whereas Cursed and Dream Caravan are exacting the most guilt hahaha. I think that Dream Caravan will get loving before Cursed though.

I am looking at my whole webdesign career with a critical gaze right now. The few websites I maintain for other people, my own largely unfinished projects and sort of the whole thing, trying to decide what to do with everything. You know, I look at Empty Cage and feel like it isn’t what I want it to be, and all my little websites are incomplete and never moving forwards. I want that to be different, I want my websites to have the vitality I used to constantly instill in them. So it’s time to pull the whole thing to the ground again and rebuild one by one.

It’s a new semester, and I’ve decided my three semester goals are going to be to eat healthy, go for a walk every day and have both a hard copy and a digital copy of all of my school notes.

For me, the tactile act of actually writing my notes out makes me way more likely to remember what I’m writing, whereas typing means I might actually be able to read them again one day. I have yet to find a Linux app to take notes the way I want to though, so, my quest continues. I’ve tried a few different things, like Tomboy Notes, and am playing with NoteCase, so we’ll see what happens.

The problem I’ve been having with good old Linux is there are lots of apps, and they all seem to do little bits of what I want, but none of them do exactly what I want them to. I ran into this same problem with music players, and even now I’m not settled on one, rather I’m using Rhythmbox until Songbird supports my music player — though I’ve been going to war with Banshee it’s just not going to do what I want.

All of my webprojects seem to have grinded to a halt for whatever reason. No creativity left in my brain to speak of. I’m hoping to finish turning the Regulus Black Fanlisting into a character fansite within the week. I plan on doing this to all of my fanlistings, because I figure it would be nice to start a trend of having Fanlistings that actually have a purpose. I have two on deck right now, Felix the Cat and Timothy McGee (NCIS), but I’m feeling design challenged right now.

Thanks to Amber and Crystal for the comments, sometimes being mean feels fun. =)

I mentioned to Amber that this blog was coming, and let’s face it, it’s long overdue.

An internet craze which seems to have yet to die, despite being around for several years is the Fanlistings, and their insane (but charming) sibling the Anime Fanlistings. (And all of their bastard children, like the Hatelistings, Physical Fanlistings, Taboolistings, and others too numerous and cumbersome to mention). Unless you are a webdesigner living under a proverbial rock you have probably at least heard of a fanlistings, and may indeed own one. (I personally own several).

A fanlisting is basically what it sounds like, an internet list of fans listed in one of the aforementioned directories. They are predated by the internet clique which went out of fashion, then the way of the dinosaurs after the fanlistings really took off. To normal and sane people this doesn’t sound to exciting, I mean, it’s a great way to show people you love a topic, it’s a great way to get a few superficial hits. And if you join a few you can put some shiny banners on your site. A fanlisting owner that doesn’t update their listing risks having it kicked out of the network, so a “bigger fan” can have it. It’s all good fun. Or so it would seem.

The thing is, The Fanlistings put in a rule, a seemingly innocent rule, but a rule that turns sweet innocent Fanlisting building and maintaining into a nightmare. Only one person can own an ‘official’ and ‘listed’ Fanlisting at a time. I’m sure we can all see where this is going.

Suddenly Fanlistings are serious business and people get ultra-competitive to own the really big ones (Like the obvious Harry Potter, for the cute Baby Goths The Nightmare Before Christmas, and whatever Anime is #1 at the moment of writing). Every day people threaten to Quit The Internet™ if they don’t get the coveted listing. And to be perfectly honest it really pisses me off. As one of those webmistresses who plays ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ on the internet, I only get approved for Fanlistings that no one else wants (also because I take a hell of a long time in the design phase). If I Quit The Internet™ every time I was rejected, I might actually do something useful.

But, while not mentioning any names (and changing all of the listings she mentions– I’ve bolded my changes, the rest are as-is) you stumble across blogs like this:

21 December 2008. – I got 1 low blow and a high five, both in the same day. I got rejected, yes, fucking rejected (I’m very very sorry, but I’ve passed from depressed to angry) for *****, yes *****. The one fanlisting Joeblow said “If they don’t give it to you my faith in manking would totally be lost” the one fanlisting I longed to own since I can remember, the one I was so desperate to have an answer for, yes, Some Actor. So I’m quiting anime fanlistings. I have not decided yet what to do with An Anime Series, I’ll probably keep it but I’m not sure and I’m definitly keeping An Anime Episode, because that fanlisting means a lot to me, it was my first fanlisting so yeah. I don’t know what to do with “Another Series!” I don’t want to close it but I don’t want to keep it but I lost the stupid members list so bah. That’s it. If I don’t get T… that book I’m waiting the response of, I’ll die. But anyway, I was trying not to die alive when I recived the most sacred email ever, Someone’s response over the adoption of Another Actor, yes, the one who used to be in my top wishlist and now is on my other wishlist, yes, my Actor, my love <3 I’m adopting him!. So, thank you so much Someone, you helped me a lot today.

I mean you’ll have to excuse my insensitivity, as this truly is the end of the entire universe.

The first thing that popped into my mind is my favourite “I’m quitting forever, you guys suck! Except, you know, I’m not” which is such a common thing on the internet. It goes back to my attention whoring, which I rant about ad nauseum. It’s just too freaking CRAZY for me.

I mean, I’m sure the girl who wrote that is perfectly sane and rational. In fact, I’ll bet she’s a perfectly sweet person. But you read that and immediately think she is out of her mind and way too dramatic for her own good. This rilled up about a website to list fans…

Okay, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been off school a few days now… blissfully done my first semester exams and such. But for some reason I’m having trouble getting myself modivated to do anything website related. Which is bad, because I owe three third parties websites right now and I just can’t bring myself to spend time on webwork. Not so good considering I want to have my whole domain cleaned out and freshened up for the new year, and try to get all the websites I owe out and to the people who are owed. Christmas can take some of the blame, by the way, as it’s technically Christmas now — Happy Christmas, loves!

It’s funny because really, I don’t want to do anything, even writing this blog feels more like a moral obligation than something I want to do. It’s weird, occasionally I’ve been knows to get a bit listless in the colder months, but not this bad. I don’t know, I’ll try shoving myself around a bit.

After tomorrow I have probably got more time to write and I have two fanlistings to build, which should round out the ones I have and not lead to my applying for more unless something I would kill for hits the floor.

P.S.

Love Amber more for my layout, it is sexy as hell. Plus, give her a congrats on all the awesomeness that had been going on in Amberland of late.

I really don’t have time to be writing this until exams are over (three to go).

However, I just thought I’d point out how STUNNING my new digs are thanks to a stunning Christmas gift from Amber! She’s also my new hostee, hosting Dark Rose on top of Empty Cage.

Love her. I demand. Any ways, back to studying, be back soon!