So we'll skip the last Fandango

[azurite]

In the year 2006 I resolve to: Slap stupid people in the head. Get your resolution here

Damn straight.

Well, a surprising number of people wanted to read my essay that I submitted for E&L publishing, so here it is:
There are many tough decisions that we have to make in life that can send us down one path or another. We have to answer a variety of questions every day, and make choices with each passing hour. But it’s the toughest choices in life that define who we are, and whether we take any happiness or success from what we do and where we end up in life.

I’ve already made some very big decisions in my life. I decided what university I wanted to go to, I applied, and I got in. Then I decided to move 500 miles away from my mother and friends, away from the city I’d known for eighteen years of my life. But I don’t regret that decision, and in fact, I love attending California State University, Northridge in pursuit of my bachelor’s degree in Magazine Journalism.

But the toughest decision of my life, and the one I believe will dictate my future happiness and success is one that has yet to come. That decision will come after I’ve chosen what classes to take for the semesters to come, what times to take them and with which professors, what textbooks to buy and what assignments to do. The question I will ask myself when that time comes is “Where will I go with this degree?”

It sounds like such a simple question, but there’s a whole wide world out there waiting for someone like me to come and explore it. It’s said that your opportunities increase exponentially once you have a degree under your belt, and I want to believe that is true.

I could stay here in Northridge and try and get a job in the Los Angeles area, working for a magazine or other publication, like the Los Angeles Times. I could move back up north to San Francisco and try getting a job there. Or I could go somewhere I’ve never been before, or someplace I’m not wholly comfortable with. I could find myself in a place with a wide variety of new experiences and decisions, ready and waiting for me. It’s a scary thought, leaving everything I’ve ever known behind, but I’ve done it once before, and the prospect of doing it again thrills me.

If I end up someplace that I find boring, with nothing left to discover, then I won’t be happy. My unhappiness will undoubtedly reflect in my work, and then my financial success will suffer for it. However, if I go someplace new and exciting, with plenty of things for me to discover and explore, that feeling will find its way into my writing and reporting. I will be happier for it, knowing that I am doing something out of the ordinary and pushing my own boundaries. Success from then on isn’t measured by how much money I make, but what I do with the happiness I’ve chosen to give myself.

In my world, success comes second to personal happiness.

So I went to Palomar today with Dad and Steve; it was cold, but not cold enough to warrant snow (shucks!). The observatory is open for a small self-guided tour, but the actual 200-inch telescope is completely computer-operated, and despite the dome being opened almost 300/365 nights of the year, there were no astronomers there when we went. We were over 5,500 feet above sea level-- the air was very crisp, cold, and refreshing. It was a long drive there for such a short tour, but it was interesting looking at the sheer size of the telescope (formerly the largest in the world, up until a few decades ago) and the computer exhibits-- we've had 10 "planets" in our solar system for a while now; I wonder whether Xena and Gabrielle (planets, right? Not moons of Pluto, which may not even be considered a planet anymore?)-- the 10th being Sedna with its whack orbit. Now we have... 11? 12? Geez. And to think there's so many moons of Jupiter, they're not even all named yet!

I slept for most of the trip there, but on the way back I wasn't so lucky. The winding mountain roads made me nauseous, but luckily I kept myself in check until we got to a gas station where I could get some chewing gum. Mint seems to help in stomach crises. Dad only started being a complete bonehead AFTER we got home... -_- But whatever, with him, it blows over pretty fast. And besides, I'm going to San Diego tomorrow night. I still haven't gotten my ticket from Amtrak yet (!!) but if it doesn't come by 5pm tomorrow, I can buy the ticket (again!) on the train, and get the ticket my mom bought refunded to her card. It's either that or pray Baba's hookup with "Rhonda," the travel agent near the station can help us out.

In any case, I've updated the PHPFanbase script for Blue Eyes and Apricots and this time around, I actually want to make use of the header and footer.inc files and the style sheet, so I don't have to program EVERY DARN PAGE every time I want to change the layouts. I was thinking of using the sensual image from Garfours of Seto x Anzu-- it's not particularly seasonal (though the light green might imply "spring") but I think I can make it work. I have a template layout I've got lying around, so it's just a matter of Photoshopping and going into ImageReady and then figuring out how to take all the images and making them work with the header.inc and footer.inc files. Anyone use those before?

I also have to re-edit the files for:
* The country flags
* The drop-down menu for the Favorites Field

So once I post this, I'll be getting to work on that. Keep your eyes peeled for updates-- and this time, I actually mean NEW content.