Not a dev(eloper)
Feb. 2nd, 2008 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
H'okay. Sho.
With the help of
everything_lj (because with a name like that, do you expect any less?) I managed to get my lovely corkboard LJ layout (designed by
stellastars) functioning and looking the way I want to. I decided to tinker with it just to try and add a site meter, to see more about how many visits I get. But because LJ is annoying with its restrictions on embedded media (e.g. Flash, JavaScript), I couldn't use the usual tools, like the Izea Toolkit. But Sitemeter offered a JavaScript and regular HTML tracking image, which suits me just fine. I replaced the syndicated module (that'd be the one with the RSS/Atom icons) and made sure my title images were displaying, and viola! Lovely layout. :) I kinda miss the days when I used Greymatter and could design my own layout (I still have my old one featuring Emily Strange), so I might end up starting another blog (hopefully something a bit more streamlined than this... LJ is just sort of my "dump" repository, where I post about everything) on seventh-star.net.
Got back from the YPulse Mashup Conference (or more specifically, the "Meet Some Totally Wired College Students" panel that myself and several other NSCS members were part of. Needless to say, it was interesting. We met an energetic and name-dropping future late-night talk-show host who claimed he was my age (I don't know whether to feel old or not) by the name of Jake Sasseville, the host of "The Edge with Jake Sasseville," who acted as the moderator.
We talked a lot about how we as college students make use of technology-- everything from Facebook and the kind of ads we like to the concept of digital textbooks and copyright. Of course, some of us disagreed --personally, I'm an honest person and don't believe in downloading something when I know I can buy it easily for only 89-99 cents on Amazon or iTunes; when it comes to software, movies, and shows, "you get what you pay for," so if you don't pay, you get crappy quality. That's been my experience, and I see no reason to shaft the people that do put forth a ton of time and energy in creating something and bringing it to the masses. (On the flipside, if said people do a shitty job, then why should they get my money if fans doing the same thing -for free!- do a better job?)
Supposedly, the panel just before ours, featuring the author of book that called our generation "Generation Me," had a lot of talk, saying people in our generation were confident and assertive (two traits I consider positive) but also entitled/demanding, narcissistic and miserable! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who got upset by that; so did some of the marketing people in the audience.
We got asked questions about brand loyalty (when I find a brand that does what it promises, I will stick to it. Being young doesn't mean being flippant. If the brand stays true, so will I), our feelings on digital copyrights, and whether or not we had credit card debt. Sometimes certain people hogged the stage *cough* and other times we all had a chance to get our two cents in-- all in all, a success, I would hope. I'd like to think we were the grand finale-- and anything said about us as a generation in the panels or workshops before that wasn't true was properly refuted by our collective opinions.
Afterward, we got asked a lot of questions by some of those people, which came as a complete surprise to me. I expected just to be ignored so we'd go off to Olive Garden to meet with the UCLA NSCS members (though two of them were at the panel, as well). But I ended up talking for a long time with a variety of people, including some from the NSCS national office, and a few from various start-ups who wanted my opinion on blogging, since I was the only one whose favorite homepage wasn't a major search engine. :D Guess what I said?
LiveJournal.com! :D Well, it is for now. Some of the stuff happening in 2007 has got me worried... by now, though, I'd say my investment in a permanent account has paid off. If LJ starts to suck badly at this point, I really won't have any qualms backing up everything and carting it off to Wordpress.
We did eventually get to Olive Garden (after more getting lost... we spent an hour getting lost just getting to the hotel in the first place, even though a certain someone claimed this was "his neighborhood" ...argh!) and enjoyed a delicious meal, courtesy of Steve Loflin from the national NSCS office. We grabbed dessert at this cute place nammed Diddy Riese's, where I snagged some cookies (the specialty was ice cream cookie sandwiches, but I was too full to get one of those) for Baba and Grandpa.
Then today, Juana, her sister, some of her friends, and Melina and I all went to L.A. Family Housing in North Hollywood, where we worked on Valentine's Day cards The original plan was to make Valentine's mail boxes, but they ended up too small... I think the cards were a much better idea, in the end, as more kids came and the cards offered more possibility for creativity. We stayed longer than we thought and made a HUGE mess, but we cleaned it all up in the end and had some very pleased kids. I think today was the first time in several years that I got so artistic that I actually had ink (from markers and stuff) all over my hands again. I used to be covered in colors in elementary school, so it was rather nostalgic for me.
And now, for some random lists:
Like
* The huge variety of applications on Facebook; I'm always finding more that are cool
* Sarah Brightman's new album "Symphony," but most especially the track "Fleurs du Mal," which (oh you're gonna hate me for this) has helped inspire a new arc for "Eternal Dimension," the third and final installment in the "What Doesn't Kill You" series. FYI: it starts with WDKY (36 chapters), continues with "Circle of Seven" (not sure of the exact chapter length yet), and ends with "Eternal Dimension." And that's all tentative at the moment, because there may very well be a new Yu-Gi-Oh series coming out, called Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 5D's, though I have no idea what the 5 D's are. -_-. But GX (though I haven't really seen more than a few episodes of it, due to the cringe-factor) is most likely going to have its role to play in the WDKY-verse, so why not this new series, assuming it's halfway good and gets picked up and dubbed like GX did?
guardian_kysra, it's all your fault, you know. I like SB so much now that I not only watched her on Martha Stewart's show the other day (she performed "Storia d'Amour"), but I actually sat through the crazy opening sequence of "Pasíon," the Spanish soap-opera that SB sang the opening theme for-- in a duet with a countertenor whose voice sounds... very feminine. Plus, I got the entire Charmed: Book of Shadows OST because it had "Free (Swiss American Federation Remix)," and then the Free EP, which includes the song I'm listening to... but I wonder, which version is the one SB performed in the music video on LAUNCH! Yahoo? Have I mentioned I love remixes?
* The 795 colors that Diana's going to be featuring in Sailor X v2.08. She's already done amazing work (and been updating like a fiend) with 2.07, having just added the skirt stripes and collar stripes again. The ideas are plentiful, the colors almost endless! It's an absolute joy to take every weird senshi idea I've ever had and plug it into Sailor X... while not every single option is available yet, they almost certainly will be soon. Going back into the nerdy realm of Sailor Moon (and Otaku Senshi) has never been so fun! BTW, if you haven't yet checked out the official Sailor Xv2 DeviantArt account (or mine, where I post some of my creations), then look-see: Sailor Xv2 - me!
Dislike
* Having to send invitations to ANY amount of friends just to see my results for a quiz on Facebook
* Crappily-written quizzes, e.g ones with predictable answers, a limited set of answers (e.g. only 3 or 5), or terrible spelling/grammar (this applies to any quiz, anywhere). Actually, this applies to everything. I don't "relate" to anyone who can't be bothered to capitalize properly, use complete words (FYI, "ur" is not a word, unless you're talking about the ancient Mesopotamian city), or put apostrophes where they belong.
* Having to still be updating
30kisses for the New Year's 2008 Purge. Even having another mod on the team doesn't seem to have helped... is everyone just always busy at the same time? I hate feeling like I'm doing everything on my own.
* Not feeling organized enough! Argh, too much paper! Too many files! Everything, too complicated! (I suppose I should consider it a blessing that I ran out of paper for my printer. At least... I think I did.)
* Still having not heard from anyone at RPGClassics about my application to make the Star Ocean 3 shrine there. Not even on the forums. Hmph.
* Figuring something out moments after you resigned yourself to having done the best job you could do and "to hell with it." I did that with my first homework assignment for RTM 330, my first online class. I missed the whole "APA requirements" for assignments (or is it only papers?). Oops! I wonder if the professor will cut some slack for the first assignment? Then again, she seemed to have mentioned somewhere that the discussion questions aren't even graded, but I can't find out what really is graded, besides projects (like a genealogy paper). It's harder than I thought, keeping up with WebCT... maybe I ought to set it as a homepage this semester?
With the help of
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Got back from the YPulse Mashup Conference (or more specifically, the "Meet Some Totally Wired College Students" panel that myself and several other NSCS members were part of. Needless to say, it was interesting. We met an energetic and name-dropping future late-night talk-show host who claimed he was my age (I don't know whether to feel old or not) by the name of Jake Sasseville, the host of "The Edge with Jake Sasseville," who acted as the moderator.
We talked a lot about how we as college students make use of technology-- everything from Facebook and the kind of ads we like to the concept of digital textbooks and copyright. Of course, some of us disagreed --personally, I'm an honest person and don't believe in downloading something when I know I can buy it easily for only 89-99 cents on Amazon or iTunes; when it comes to software, movies, and shows, "you get what you pay for," so if you don't pay, you get crappy quality. That's been my experience, and I see no reason to shaft the people that do put forth a ton of time and energy in creating something and bringing it to the masses. (On the flipside, if said people do a shitty job, then why should they get my money if fans doing the same thing -for free!- do a better job?)
Supposedly, the panel just before ours, featuring the author of book that called our generation "Generation Me," had a lot of talk, saying people in our generation were confident and assertive (two traits I consider positive) but also entitled/demanding, narcissistic and miserable! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who got upset by that; so did some of the marketing people in the audience.
We got asked questions about brand loyalty (when I find a brand that does what it promises, I will stick to it. Being young doesn't mean being flippant. If the brand stays true, so will I), our feelings on digital copyrights, and whether or not we had credit card debt. Sometimes certain people hogged the stage *cough* and other times we all had a chance to get our two cents in-- all in all, a success, I would hope. I'd like to think we were the grand finale-- and anything said about us as a generation in the panels or workshops before that wasn't true was properly refuted by our collective opinions.
Afterward, we got asked a lot of questions by some of those people, which came as a complete surprise to me. I expected just to be ignored so we'd go off to Olive Garden to meet with the UCLA NSCS members (though two of them were at the panel, as well). But I ended up talking for a long time with a variety of people, including some from the NSCS national office, and a few from various start-ups who wanted my opinion on blogging, since I was the only one whose favorite homepage wasn't a major search engine. :D Guess what I said?
LiveJournal.com! :D Well, it is for now. Some of the stuff happening in 2007 has got me worried... by now, though, I'd say my investment in a permanent account has paid off. If LJ starts to suck badly at this point, I really won't have any qualms backing up everything and carting it off to Wordpress.
We did eventually get to Olive Garden (after more getting lost... we spent an hour getting lost just getting to the hotel in the first place, even though a certain someone claimed this was "his neighborhood" ...argh!) and enjoyed a delicious meal, courtesy of Steve Loflin from the national NSCS office. We grabbed dessert at this cute place nammed Diddy Riese's, where I snagged some cookies (the specialty was ice cream cookie sandwiches, but I was too full to get one of those) for Baba and Grandpa.
Then today, Juana, her sister, some of her friends, and Melina and I all went to L.A. Family Housing in North Hollywood, where we worked on Valentine's Day cards The original plan was to make Valentine's mail boxes, but they ended up too small... I think the cards were a much better idea, in the end, as more kids came and the cards offered more possibility for creativity. We stayed longer than we thought and made a HUGE mess, but we cleaned it all up in the end and had some very pleased kids. I think today was the first time in several years that I got so artistic that I actually had ink (from markers and stuff) all over my hands again. I used to be covered in colors in elementary school, so it was rather nostalgic for me.
And now, for some random lists:
Like
* The huge variety of applications on Facebook; I'm always finding more that are cool
* Sarah Brightman's new album "Symphony," but most especially the track "Fleurs du Mal," which (oh you're gonna hate me for this) has helped inspire a new arc for "Eternal Dimension," the third and final installment in the "What Doesn't Kill You" series. FYI: it starts with WDKY (36 chapters), continues with "Circle of Seven" (not sure of the exact chapter length yet), and ends with "Eternal Dimension." And that's all tentative at the moment, because there may very well be a new Yu-Gi-Oh series coming out, called Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 5D's, though I have no idea what the 5 D's are. -_-. But GX (though I haven't really seen more than a few episodes of it, due to the cringe-factor) is most likely going to have its role to play in the WDKY-verse, so why not this new series, assuming it's halfway good and gets picked up and dubbed like GX did?
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* The 795 colors that Diana's going to be featuring in Sailor X v2.08. She's already done amazing work (and been updating like a fiend) with 2.07, having just added the skirt stripes and collar stripes again. The ideas are plentiful, the colors almost endless! It's an absolute joy to take every weird senshi idea I've ever had and plug it into Sailor X... while not every single option is available yet, they almost certainly will be soon. Going back into the nerdy realm of Sailor Moon (and Otaku Senshi) has never been so fun! BTW, if you haven't yet checked out the official Sailor Xv2 DeviantArt account (or mine, where I post some of my creations), then look-see: Sailor Xv2 - me!
Dislike
* Having to send invitations to ANY amount of friends just to see my results for a quiz on Facebook
* Crappily-written quizzes, e.g ones with predictable answers, a limited set of answers (e.g. only 3 or 5), or terrible spelling/grammar (this applies to any quiz, anywhere). Actually, this applies to everything. I don't "relate" to anyone who can't be bothered to capitalize properly, use complete words (FYI, "ur" is not a word, unless you're talking about the ancient Mesopotamian city), or put apostrophes where they belong.
* Having to still be updating
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
* Not feeling organized enough! Argh, too much paper! Too many files! Everything, too complicated! (I suppose I should consider it a blessing that I ran out of paper for my printer. At least... I think I did.)
* Still having not heard from anyone at RPGClassics about my application to make the Star Ocean 3 shrine there. Not even on the forums. Hmph.
* Figuring something out moments after you resigned yourself to having done the best job you could do and "to hell with it." I did that with my first homework assignment for RTM 330, my first online class. I missed the whole "APA requirements" for assignments (or is it only papers?). Oops! I wonder if the professor will cut some slack for the first assignment? Then again, she seemed to have mentioned somewhere that the discussion questions aren't even graded, but I can't find out what really is graded, besides projects (like a genealogy paper). It's harder than I thought, keeping up with WebCT... maybe I ought to set it as a homepage this semester?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 03:23 am (UTC)Mmm....pairings
Date: 2008-02-03 03:54 am (UTC)If you need another mod, even just for a temp time, I'm not in school anymore and I could help you out on
But lemme know, okay? More than happy to help you out.
Re: Mmm....pairings
Date: 2008-02-03 05:04 am (UTC)Re: Mmm....pairings
Date: 2008-02-03 08:04 pm (UTC)Re: Mmm....pairings
Date: 2008-02-03 11:00 pm (UTC)Right now, I'm working on overhauling all the too-wordy pages and condensing everything into one place (and a few sentences).
You have been MOD-ified. :D Thank you so much for volunteering for this! (If you want a shiny icon, I can make you one, otherwise, I can send you an LJ PM with the 30kisses_mod account info in it.)