WebSite & Computer Journal

This page'll keep a history for me of what I've done with my own and my Client's websites. It'll also remind me of when I tried stuff at home or work and whether I failed at it or not (Saving me from trying again).

January 2000:
11/22/00
11/25/00
11/26/00
11/28/00
11/30/00

December 2000:
12/07/00
12/14/00
12/26/00
12/29/00

January 2001:
1/01/01
1/05/01
1/08/01
1/09/01
1/10/01
1/17/01
1/25/01

February 2001:
2/03/01
2/07/01
2/08/01
2/12/01
2/13/01
2/14/01
2/15/01
2/19/01
2/23/01
2/27/01
2/28/01

March 2001:
3/01/01
3/02/01

11/22/00 - It's Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. I was off Monday and Tuesday, and my supervisor's off today. What more can a man ask for. She left instructions for me to stay in the office and finish "fine-tuning" the Dept's Site. I finished 1 1/2 hours ago and it's just now 11:15AM. It's gonna be a long day. Maybe I'll take a long lunch.

So anyway, I decided to goof off with my own site and to create this new branch. I have a bad habit of "Letting projects go" so I hope I get around to keeping this updated.

I've been (slowly) getting around to finishing the Torpedo III Site. While Watching TV this weekend I sketched the Shield Emmiters. Now all I have to do is Sketch the layout of Engineering, scan them in, and type up the pages. Then I'll be done with her. I've already found my self working on the Torpedo IV. I've long since designed the actual ship and purpose, but never actually got very indepth into it (Most of the specs were in my head), but while watching Stargate on TV I starting drawing up the Gateway Generator (Talk about inspiration). This ship'll be smaller than all the previous Torpedo Varients, but'll have the ability to create gateways and slip between dimensions (Even subspace).

I downloaded that program: GNUTELLA. I can't use it from the office because of the Firewall so I'll try it at home later (The instructions say I can, but reading them made me dizzy.). I figure that since Napster's days of being free are numbered I should start looking for alternatives. This program's not supposed to use designated servers so it'll be nearly impossible to shut down.

11/25/00 - I've updated the Descreet Investigation's page (Which is now: "Adept investigations"), and started on the KSFSA Site updates. Since Mary wasn't at work Wed. I've found that I can't understand some of the notes she left for me. I'll wait till Monday to look it over with her.

I haven't gotten around to working on the Torpedo III branch either. As soon as I hook-up my scanner I'll finish up on it.

I haven't tried that new GNUTELLA yet. Not really in any hurry, maybe I'll try it later tonight.

I've also decided that as soon as I find someone else to host my website I'm gonna drop AOL. I need to start conserving cash. I might check out Geocities and see what's up with them.

11/26/00 - Finally got around to finishing the Torpedo III series. The parts that I finished were shorter than the others. Frankly, I was getting tired of working on it.

I'm watching the Crocodile Hunter (In Africa)... What an idiot. I'm waiting to see the special "Crocodile Funeral Special", because he's just asking for it. I do have to say, his show is interesting.

I've reserved two spots on Geocites. One for me and one for DarkHold. Each spot has 15MB of space (which is 5MB more than both sites together had on AOL). I've already modified the sites and moved them over. I'll cancell my AOL as soon as my mother saves all her email.

So my new sites are:
HTTP://WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/REX1ONE
HTTP://WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/DARKHOLD1

11/28/00 - I've finished with the KSFSA Site for this quarter. Kind'of a rush job, but every time we thought we finished more info appeared out of thin air to add to it. I can't blame anybody though, 'cause I think it looks pretty good. Mary's entering it and the Board Site in ASFSA's website contest. I doubt they'll win anything, but it's fun to try.

Besides... It'll be good publicity for DarkHold.

I have a "House-call" to make tonight. First one in a couple 'O months. A friend at work can't get online because her phone line "cuts-off" and "resets" whenever the modem dails out, but the regular phone works fine. Sounds like a bad modem to me, I'll use my laptop to get online from her house to prove my theory.

I just hope I make it home in time to watch Buffy & Angel kick someone's ass on WB.

11/30/00 - Tried that GNUTELLA last night. Had trouble though and got tired of messing with it. I couldn't get any IP addresses to connect from the list off of their website, and I wasn't about to waste my time searching among the millions on the Internet.

I was right about the modem. The Internal one was bad, but he had borrowed an External from a friend (He hadn't installed the drivers correctly). Once I installed the drivers the rest was cake. He had Bellsouth's answering service on his phone line (So his dial tone beeps at you when you first pickup the phone) and that confused his modem. I had him call Bellsouth (who was also his ISP) and they walked him through straightening that out. And he was nice enough to pay me for my work afterwards.

AltaVista's been working out great for me so far. I haven't had any trouble getting online. And neither has my mother with NetZero. I'm begining to think I've made a good choice in cancelling AOL. I've resized my Desktop so that the print's smaller and I can fit more in. I can now watch TV, dock the AltaVista thingy on the screen, and keep open Netscape/Explorer at the same time with just a little room to spare.

12/07/00 - AltaVista's cancelling their free access so I'm going to be stuck with NetZero until I find another ISP in Louisville. I have two leads though, but I have to be home to check on them (I'm at work now).

I'm trying out working with 3D Images again. I finally found a program that'll render them in color for me (Not textures mind you, just regular colors). An old friend just gave me a lead of where to find a program to render textures, but I'm going to stick with what I got until I get a little better. Yesterday I designed a model for the Warp Core in the Talaxion Corvette. Just the Core though, the other equipment in the room would've been too cluttered.

12/14/00 - After moving DarkHold's site I realized that the new location was blocked from the JCPS Bess Server (and the people who would try to view it). Upon requesting that the block be lifted I was met with great resistance from a man in the Computer Ed Dept. It took me two days to beat the request into him over Email. I saved the correspondence and I'll post it at a later date. All the man could talk about was the Journal entries on this page and the pictures of my girlfriend. Whether he realized it or not, he showed his inability to divert his attention from my site. I guess I should take it as a compliment.

From now on I decided to skip his Dept. or let our actually Computer Tech take care of it when she gets back from sick leave. In one of his Emails he "let out" a way for me to get the Block lifted myself. It's "Going over his head", but that just means that he'll get into trouble for changing it back.

A friend of mine in Frankfort said there shouldn't be a problem getting it lifted, and agrees that the Block is silly. My previous experience with the Computer Ed. Dept isn't the best. We've busted their chops for editing the HTML in our webpage once or twice and got them in trouble with managment. I think this is just their little way of Chidish Revenge.

I've been progressing in 3D Development. Soon I'll be posting pictures of stuff I've been Goofing off with. I've developed the Core and Thruster Assembly for the Talaxion Corvette (The Thruster Assembly kind'a looks like a weird camera so I think I'm gonna edit it), and I created a strange looking Bomber/Plane which I haven't named yet.

I've also upgraded to a faster processor at home, but I experienced some problems with my exsisting equipment afterwards. I'm waiting until after X-mas to buy a new Motherboard I've got my eye's on, and that should fix it. My 3D Card is one of the items that won't work, but with the new Processor the games are still faster than before. I can only imagine how fast they'll be once the card's installed again.

12/26/00 - Haven't been doing too much more in 3D Rendering. I kind'a got tired of playing with that Cityscape after a while. Maybe I'll go back to it later if I ever get bored.

A co-worker did point out a new project for me though. Flatland has developed a new format for viewing 3D Pages over the net, and it looks pretty good. It's not VRML (Which I never totally learned), but it downloads faster and is easier to work with. The code is parallel to HTML and the outcome looks a lot like a Duke Nukem Stage (Minus the Monsters). I've created a sample page and I'll be posting it soon.

Tuesday there were only three people in the office (including myself), and I was extremely bored. So I created a, very short, 3D Cartoon called "Rogue Sphere". All that it shows is a Sphere being chased by two Blocks, and the Sphere fires a blast at one Block to destroy it. There's no sound and only 'bout 10 frames. I converted it to GIF, but it sucks way to much to waste Server Space on.

I did however do some useful work yesterday. I created a 3D Apple for the Board Site. Whether we use it or not is unknown (My Boss has been out for the past week), but so far the Dept loves it. I've posted it in my 3D Rendered Picts.

12/29/00 - I found out the hard way that Geocities won't allow you to upload files that they don't recognize for security reasons. So I have to postpone adding 3DML to my site (Hopefully this is temporary, right now I have the HTML Doorway, but it leads nowhere). So I went to their help page and wrote them, I gave them all the info I had on the new format, including the address for Flatland.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. A fellow here at work has a Geocities account also, but I guess he hasn't tried to upload his site yet.

I finished up on the rotating apple for the board site. I think I'll upload it with this entry. Since Animated GIFs take up more space I'm debating on whether to create a new page for them (seperate from the Still Picts). It's Friday and the Boss is letting us go at 3:00 so I might just kill time by doing that.

1/01/01 - HI HO, HI HO, IT'S BACK TO WORK I GO!

I feel like one of those damn dwarfs walking in formation with the rest of the world. I actually worked hard today (making the time pass pretty fast). Mary's back from vacation and loves the rotating Apple I put on the board site (Me too, although I can still pick out a dozen things wrong with it. But if it makes her happy, then I'm happy), and she was estatic with the Apple Basket for the KSFSA Site. But the Apple Basket is on hold until we figure out what will go where.

This is a reminder to self: Explorer and Netscape recognizes *.HTML before *.HTM. I found this out the hard way this morning.

I'm wanting SOOOO much to take a vacation to the coast. I just want a little warmer air (It's been snowing here in Louisville), and to see/smell the ocean for a couple days. It wouldn't just be a vacation from work (which hasn't been all that hard lately), but from home-life too. I just don't have the money right now, which is a total bummer.

I ran across some old Shadowrun material last night while cleaning (Adventures I created and some Short Stories I never finished). I'm thinking of making a new section for them on the site. All the Adventures are unique and the Short Stories revolve around the Characters that my friends and I used in Highschool. I won't finish the stories (in an effort to preserve them the way I originally wrote them back then), but I'll type them in so they'll be easier to read.

After developing the Animated Face (which is posted with the 3D Rendered Picts) I came up with the idea of making a mascot for the board site. Maybe a little computer mouse with a face that'll point at important things on the page, or it'll talk to people viewing it. The people here in the office used to use a "cut-out" of a computer mouse that they dubbed: "Mister Mouse" in their monthly newsletters to the Schools. I was thinking of bringing him back and elaborating on the design. He'd kind'a be like that little paperclip guy that loads with Microsoft Office.

Who knows... It's just the thought process part of yet another project by yours truely.

1/05/01 - I haven't taken the time to work on that Shadowrun section of the site in the past couple days, but I still want to do it. I even found the last short story that I had started on disk (so that one will be first on the site).

I had bought a $25 book on XML the other night, but by the next day I realized that it really had no real application for me. It might be useful eventionally, but not right now.

I did, however, pull out an HTML 4.0 book that someone lent to me a while back and I started playing around with frames. I found it particularly easy to work with. I just found it hard to think of a useful way to use them. I experimented with frames on the "Artwork" portion of the site and uploaded it this morning. I think I'll also use them in the "Behind the Man" section too.

We've been busy at work for the past couple of days loading up new IBM PC's as replacements for old Compaqs. I've also been put in charge of installing a new program that I know nothing about across that street at the Warehouse.

That'll be interesting.

1/08/01 - I haven't heard anything about "Mister Mouse" yet, although I saw the picture I gave Mary sitting in her office today so I know that she's glanced at it. I haven't heard anything about that program over at the Warehouse either.

I started on the Shadowrun section over the weekend. So far I have about 1 Adventure, 3 packs of Source Material (from your's truely), and 3 Stories. I don't think that's too bad for one day's work. I'll just keep adding to it as I feel like it. I made the Shadowrun section with frames to make navigation easier, but I think I'm going to leave the rest of the site without 'em. It gets too complicated and bothersome after a while.

1/09/01 - I'm writing this while sitting at Lyndon. Which is a school in Jefferson County. It's a weird school in that it handles children of all age groups. I'm waiting for them to get their work over with before I upgrade the old system with a new desktop.

For lunch I went to Barnes & Nobles to research XHTML... All it does is mix HTML and XML. Since I've determined that I don't need XML right now I didn't bother reading anymore into it.

I did however, see some books on Visual C++ and it reminded me that I bought one a couple of years back. I didn't do much with it (I compiled an executible that displayed a picture of my girlfriend at the time), but I figure that if I were to read it now I might get further.

I'll dig it up when I get home and see what what I can do.

I've chilled with the Shadowrun Section for now. I have a 5-day weekend coming up so that'll give me a chance to work a little bit with pretty much every part of my site.

1/10/01 - Hamapatch has (finally) upgraded to include textures. I haven't really tested it out yet, but from what I can tell it'll work out pretty well.

Other than that I haven't got much else to say.

1/17/01 - I'm sitting here watching Space -- Above & Beyond, It's the last day of my little vacation and I plan on adding to my Shadowrun section later tonight. Right now I'm working on a newer, smaller section that I haven't created a name for yet. I'm just putting a couple of true creepy stories in it and the references of where they came from. I was just reading a couple of "Mysteries of the Unknown" books and decided to put a couple of my favorite stories on the site.

I also added some picts of Jessica that I recently took in my "Personal Picts"section, and put a new picture of myself in my "Behind the Man" section also.

Yesterday I invested in a Palm Pilot M100 with a Digital Camera attachment. It's come in pretty handy so far, and all together it cost less than a normal digital camera. The pictures turn out pretty good, but the storage capacity isn't too good (about 11 picts @ high resolution, thirty-some-odd @ low resolution). But since it's a Palm Pilot I can download tons of stuff for it.

Yesterday I ran up to the office and got with Mary on this quarter's updates for the KSFSA site. They should take me a couple of days to complete, but I don't plan on starting them today. I finished the new cover page rendering (The 3D rendered apple basket), and that should be enough for now.

I'm gonna enjoy the last of my vacation instead.

1/25/01 - Been busting my hump on the KSFSA page for the past couple of days. I should be done either tonight or tomorrow. I only have two more sections to go and the cover page.

The other day I bought a book on Shockwave. I didn't notice that the book was 5 years old. The shareware versions that were on it's CD aren't supported anymore, and the file formats for the examples in the book aren't either. Luckily I downloaded the Trial version of Director Studio 8.0 off of Macromedia's homepage.

The full version is $999, but I'm deciding against spending that much money. Let's just say that I'm against Piracy, but I'm not going to pay that amount of money for a type of program that you can find for free somewhere else on the Net.

I did figure out how to do the things that I want to do in it though. I learned about the "Mouse-Over Effect" and how to make movies. So as soon as I get this KSFSA stuff outta the way I'll play with it on my site. I'm thinking of making a "Tribute" to something, but I don't know what yet. Or maybe a section with photos of Louisville...

This morning I took some pictures of downtown with my "Palm Camera", Although I haven't downloaded them yet. My girlfriend always asks what I do during the day so I'm taking picts to show her. I'm taking a couple pictures during meetings too (Since it's a Palm Pilot the others don't realize I'm snapping pictures, they think I'm taking notes, although I do take notes on-and-off), and I'll take some more when I run out to more sites later today.

Maybe I'll make that Shockwave site a documentation of one of my normal days.

Sounds like fun. :-)

2/03/01 - Been off work since Tuesday (today's Sat.), that'd be great in most cases, but I've had the Flu (Bleeeh). So it hasn't exactly been the best week. Tonight's been the first time that I've actually felt like playing around on the computer. I'm sitting here watching Star Trek (it was postponed from Wed.) and creating "Rex's Bedroom" (I just cleaned and rearranged the bedroom so I snapped picts of it).

'Bout an hour ago I was surfing around Geocities personal sites again and came across a new site from a girl up in Canada named Kat. I signed her Guestbook and wrote her a email to say "Hey". The site was pretty cool and she shows off all of her hobbies like I do. If she writes me back I'll prob add her site to my "Links Out" section.

While I was sick I was laying around reviewing some pictures I took in a Cemetary last October for halloween and found a couple of unexplained lights/reflections in them. None in the cript though. I do plan on going back and recording a little audio at the same place just to see if anything shows up.

What can I say... I'm just one of those weird type of guys.

2/07/01 - Well, I recorded the Audio but didn't get anything good out of it. Just the wind and a plane plane flying overhead. I took three samples (None in the Cript, there was a funeral at the time) and I twisted and manipulated them as much as I could. I even listened to the individual frequencies, and amped it as far as I could, but got nothing. Next Sept/Oct I might try the Cript for a little Halloween Special on the site, but not now.

As for the picts with the unexplained reflections and fog, I'll deal with them later. As you read below you'll discover that I've gotten into another project...

A old friend at work gave me a demenstration of DivX;-) this past week and it's perked my interest. Last night I finally discovered how to use my TV Capture Card to record and compress my own. I thought I was outta luck when I learned that AVI files had a size limit of 2 GIG, but later I discovered that a program I had downloaded called "Virtual Dub" can span AVI files as it captures, and then it can append them into one as it compresses.

This way I can Capture 9 GIG worth of AVI files (one whole movie) and then compress them into one DivX;-) Compressed-AVI file (about a CD worth in size). I'm going to create my Alpha-Test CD tonight to see if it works. I'll compress the "extremely hard to find" and discontinued "Return of the Living Dead".

The only down-side is that I can't capture scenes bigger than 320X240. I can't upgrade my drivers because I think Aimslab went out of business (their site's gone). I shall keep searching the Net though, hopefully I'll find some newer drivers.

And here's a note for all you Lawyers out there: "Chill! It's my movie and I can do whatever the h--l I want with it. It's not copyright infringement if I don't sell the copy." I hate Lawyers and those money hungry corporations that'll try to sue whomever they can for whatever they can. Watching all that crud on the news and reading about it in the paper just makes me sick.

But I'm truely in a good mood so I insist on ending this entry on a happy note...

Jessica got her grade back on the picture she took of me for school (Picture's by Jessica Section, second picure) and she recieved the highest grade in her class. So "Congrats Babe".

2/08/01 - What a BEAUTIFUL DAY! The sun's out and it's got to be at least 50 degrees outside. That dosn't sound like much, but compared to our weather as of late, it's awesome.

I recorded and compiled my DivX;-) Alpha Test last night. I used Wing Commander instead of Return of the Living Dead. I just used the movie I felt like watching at the time. I had to seperate it into 2 files (the audio became slightly out of sync at the end) and increase the screen size to 480 X 360. The resulting movie (100 minutes) averaged out to 220MB. If I wanted I could put another movie on that same CD!

But instead I think I'll just increase the frame rate for the Beta Test to decrease the "choppy scenes". I don't know which movie I'll use yet. I'll prob just do the same thing I did last night and use whichever one I feel like watching.

I'm also nearing the completion of this quarter's KSFSA Site update...

Note to self: Send an invoice with the update.

2/12/01 - I haven't gotten around to my Beta Test yet, but I still plan on it. I have a blank CD sitting & waiting.

Saw the the International Space Station in the sky Sat night. Not much to see though, just looked like two bright stars side-by-side flying low through the sky almost as fast as an airplane. But no flashing lights, and it was MUCH farther away. Nasa says it should be visible again tonight at 6:51. If I remember I'll try to see it.

Mary spent the weekend with the KSFSA page to check it. I'm expecting to have a meeting today to go over it (It's still early, and I'm tired). But I'm wanting to get this update over with.

And the biggest news of the day is: I'm getting a small second job to get my bills payed off. So far I'm leaning towards Doing a Stock Shift at Myers, but I might see something better. The only plan I have as of yet is to take a vacation day at this job on the first day of my other one to help my body adjust to the long hours. (I used to be well adapted to working from 3 AM to 5 PM, but that was a long time ago shortly after graduating High School, I also had a different girlfriend back then. I hope Charlotte can cope with less time with me). Once I get my bills paid off and I'm ready to move out I'll prob quit the new job.

I'm hoping/planning to be outt'a the house by this summer. I'll go crazy soon if I don't get out on my own again soon.

2/13/01 - Charlotte and I plan on turning our Applications for Meijer tonight after she gets off of work. That's the plan anyway... You never know. I've decide to try it out.

Here at the Board they've allowed me to "borrow" a van from the Warehouse across the street on occasion. Today I used Rodney's, which is a HUGE Diesel that has no side windows. Luckily I made it through the day without hitting any other cars. Although I jumped a curb or two. All-in-all I enjoyed driving it.

Read in the paper today that the NEAR-Shoemaker Probe touched down on Eros yesterday, despite that fact that the craft lacks landing gear. It survived the impact of 4MPH and NASA's debating on whether to attempt to launch it again (It dosn't have much fuel... I guessed the Scientists are down there placing bets on whether it could make it). The pictures it's taking look pretty cool and I'm waiting until the Network here at the office speeds up a little so I can download the movies.

2/14/01 - I read that the creater of the "Anna Virus" stepped forward yesterday. The virus dosn't do any harm so the FBI are hesitant to pursue the case. The writer was some guy in the Netherlands...

We turned in our Apps last night. No one was there to read them, but I hope we'll hear something today. I also backed into Charlotte's car last night and put a good-sized (smooth) dent in it. Most of the paint damage was to mine though (My plastic bumper bounced right back). I'm gonna pick up here car while she's working tonight to try and pull out the dent.

I was browsing the web searching for apts yesterday and I found some really good ones. I still plan on paying off some or most of my bills first though. But I'm excited of the prospect of moving back out on my own.

And I got Charlotte a Precious Moment for V-day. It's fairly big and it's called "Tugging at my Hart Strings". I liked it and I hope she does too.

2/15/01 - Napster's nearing it's end... It's the end of an era. Oh well... We can find music elsewhere...

Nasa decided not to push their luck by attempting to launch the NEAR Spacecraft again. Smart move boys...

And Tom Cruise/Nichol Kidman are divorcing. Big surprise there... After the bomb: "Eyes Wide Shut" it was only a matter of time. Rumor is she was having an affair on him with her agent. Who knows or cares.

On a personal note, I recieved a Homemade (and very special) card from Charlotte. Included were three roses and a Taz stuffed-animal hold a box of chocolates. But the biggest gift this year is having her to myself.

I can't wait to move out. I still haven't heard from Meijers and if they don't call the house or cell by quiting time today I'm gonna call them to check on the application.

2/19/01 - What a weekend... I spent most of it with Charlotte, so that was good. Meijers still hasn't called, but I picked up an App from Lowes, I'll fill it out tonight.

I recorded a Star Trek TNG Episode to DivX;-) Sat. It was my Beta Test (I uped the frames to 21 p/sec) and it worked rather well. Last night I went ahead and compiled "Deep Impact" (4 files, 19 frames p/sec) as my first official "Non-Test" DivX;-) Movie. I haven't had a chance to watch it all the way through yet, but from the parts I checked it looked and sounded pretty good.

Yet another American Hero has pasted away... Dale Earnhart totaled his car on his final lap and was declared dead at the hospital. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I know who he was and a lot of people who followed his career.

I figure that driving at over 300 MPH in tight quarters with other vehicles doing the same is kind'a stupid, although fun to watch. But people love the sport and he was good at it. I know this sounds bad, I didn't watch the accident, but if a piece of the wreckage crossed the finish-line before the other racers, would he had been declared the winner?

People are so serious around here... You'd have thought that the president had been assasinated or sump'n.

Today is soooo boring. School's out and I keep coming back to this Journal entry as something to do. I've been taking my sweet time loading up the van for some presentations over at Executive Inn tomorrow. I offered to stay late today (around 5 O'clock) to help setup.

I really need to add to my site, but all the material for Shadowrun is at home. So instead, I'm sitting here wondering what "Big Venture" I can partake next...

A Halloween section (already on it, but I have til next fall to finish it).

----

2/23/01 - Something just occured to me. Most people put their Journal (on their sites) with the most recent entry at the top... Oh, well... That just shows how different I am.

I plan on updating DarkHold's site soon. Since we here at the Board can see it now. Maybe this weekend some ideas will come to me. As for a new section for my site... I guess I'll stick with the Halloween idea. I'll just save it to work on later.

I had a job interview at UPS yesterday. The shift I'm aiming for is 12AM to 4AM (give or take) in two seperate areas... The Hub (normal sort, I guess), and the Ramp (out in the weather, but the job's MUCH more fun). Since I have experience in both areas I knew what to aim for in the interview...

They're supposed to call me back within the next 2 weeks. I'm holding off on other job possibilities until those 2 weeks are over.

Today promises to be slow here in the office... I'm going to do the minimal amount of work today (just to show I'm working), because it's Friday and yesterday was a hard day. I'll just try to stay out of everybody else's way. My co-worker Bonni has a theory about somebody in the office trying to turn people against each other... I think her imagination's getting a little wild. My theory is that when this particular person has a bad day, everybody else ends up having a bad week. Whether this person realizes the impact of the things she says is beyond me.

Hence the reason that I'm staying out of everybody's way today.

As for my girl, Charlotte... She's moved in to her mother's house (for the most part), but she dosn't entirely like it there (I think she's just uncomfortable, it may or may not pass). We're going out to the car show tonight (I think, with her plans, it may be kind'a tight).

She currently has no job, and no real bills that her parents haven't offered to pay. I'm glad she got out of Meltons though. She applied at UPS and I think she has an interview sometime next week.

I've also been trying to practice on the Guitar lately... It's slow going. I still think it'd go faster if I had a teacher (besides Charlotte's Mother's boyfriend)... I'm thinking of asking a friend of the family. Her name's Brenda, and I'm a lot more comfortable around her. Everybody says that she was really good before a car accident that hurt her hand.

----

2/27/01 - Another day from hell... My boss is in another bad mood (she claims to have a headache, not enough hours in the day, etc...) so that effects the rest of us. Luckily she's off in meetings for most of the day.

UPS hasn't called yet. I'm not giving my hopes up though. If they don't call back I'll apply at Lowes next, but chances are they will.

I updated the DarkHold Site a little today. I changed the movie to MPEG (so it loads faster and is longer), and added a Control Panel to the sound byte section. Other than that I haven't done much on the computer. I've been thinking about and planning my next move with the Halloween Section of my site, but I haven't typed or scanned anything yet.

Although we never made it to the car show Friday night we did go to see Hannabel. You haven't lived until you've seen a someone slice off a piece of a man's brian and feed it to him... Yummy! I also rented Blair Witch 2 over the weekend... The movie itself was good, but the ending needed some work, and more scenes in the woods would have made it better.

> <

I'm stuck here at my desk so I'll add:

A lady down in Lexington (Who'll remain nameless, for privacy's sake) just gave me some good pointers on my KSFSA Site. I kind'a hate being given advice, but she made some really good points on how to make the page more versatile to other platforms.

She also gave the advice of Copyrighting it, but since I'm "selling" the site to KSFSA as I create it I don't feel as if I own it. Besides... I show who created the site on the front page anyway along with a link to DarkHold's Site.

So... Thank you Lady, You know who you are.

----

2/28/01 - I haven't heard from Brenda about the prospect of guitar lessons yet, but I don't think she's checked her mail lately. I just fixed a disk drive that she almost ruined (spilled Sprite on it) so she (hopefully) owes me one. I can't wait till I'm able to play sump'n, anything at all.

Bought a "Dummies" book on Visual Basic 6 last night... We'll see how that goes. I found a copy of VB4 on the net, but I haven't loaded it yet (it got too late in the night). I also have a friend here in the office willing to lend me her copy of VB6. I just hope I can stick with this long enough to get some use out of it.

I wanted to look into Java & JavaScript, but for some reason I saw Visual Basic as a better deal. I still want to learn a couple of things like the mouseover effect... I learned the Shockwave version, but Shockwave (being a seperate add-on) tends to ask the user to update occassionally, and I hate inconveniencing my viewers.

Buffy's mom died last night (on TV Folks, don't get teary eyed on me). Which in turn gave me some very weird dreams. I won't go into detail, but I will say this: I am NOT going back to highschool!

----

3/01/01 - Not too much to write about today, but knowing me I'll fill this page up.

I encoded Shanghai Noon last night as part of a special project. Nothing big there... I also read more into that Visual Basic 6 for Dummies book. It looks vaguely understandable (which is a good sign). I used to know Basic back during the college years, so that helped during my reading.

I don't know if Melissa brought in her VB6 CD or not. I haven't seen her yet.

I spent the whole first half of the day out in schools. I didn't even make an appearance in the office, so that made me wonder... "Is that considered Telecommuting?"

Currently I'm emailing a penpal her at work back and forth about the cartoon "FoxTrot". That's how bored I've become on this sunny, cold Feb. day.

----

3/02/01 - Made my first VB Program last night... I entitled it "Melissa's Mood Meter", and it's just a window that opens up and allows the user (Melissa, the girl that gave me VB6) to click on options that describe the sort of day she's having. It's not much, but it gave me a better understanding of the language.

A cute occurance this morning... For the past week security has been "beefed up" at CB Young (where I work out of), and everyday there's been a patrol car standing watch in front of the building (something about a guy who was fired causing trouble). But this morning an "older" officer parked his patrol car right next to the guard shack (where everybody walks in) and fell asleep in his car. He was out for about 30 minutes after I got there... God only knows how long he was asleep before that. So I took the liberty of snapping his picture :-)

Be watching for it to appear on this site. So far tons of people have asked for copies in my building. How often does one get the chance to take a pict of a Police Officer falling asleep on-duty?

I also found out how to add password protection to webpages. Although looking in the HTML Code would reveil the Password, it's still pretty cool. And it would keep novices away from delicate projects. I haven't found a use for it yet, but it's cool that I have it... Thanks TechTV ;-)

Today's payday (Wooo Hooo!), but I don't intend on going out and spending money. I want to stay home tonight and play around with VB6 (to learn more). I brought my book to work, but I left it in the office (I'm out at site right now). I don't know what kind'a program I want to write next, but I can't wait to do it.

><

I downloaded that picture from my Palm Top but it was too blurry to be any good. It's just as well... Some people got upset about it anyway.

I'm sitting here at Myers Elem. loading that new BOSS Inventory Program. Since her CDROM's out I'm doing it over the Network. Talk about slow.

I wish I'd remembered to bring that VB6 book to read.

---