Subtle Coolness

I hope no one tried to access this site last night. Because it was down, way down. For the same reasons, you may have noticed my erratic logging on and off various chat programs all last night and this morning.

Average users beware! There follows a semi-quasi-kinda-technical explanation of what happened! Nothing is really all that important!

To make a long story short, and at the same time use an ancient cliché (thus killing two birds with one stone), my computer got cleaned last night. Deep cleaned.

One of my databases got corrupted somehow, and it was causing the database server to crash every time I tried to access this particular database. For those inquiring minds in the audience, without a database server you can’t leave comment on this site (and I can’t post new entries, either). When this sort of thing happens I usually freak out in a mild-mannered way, and just start over. I couldn’t figure out exactly what the problem was, and I couldn’t fix it as it stood, so I backed up what information I could and wiped.

I think it was the sixth time I’ve completely reinitialized my computer. It’s fun. I think of it like waking up and putting on the same clothes every day for three months, and then one morning stepping out of the shower and finding a stack of freshly laundered, neatly pressed clothes laid out on my bed. So fresh and so clean, clean. I use my computer so much it might as well be my clothes.

I needed to upgrade half of my applications anyway.

For the record, my computer is running Windows XP Professional, and my web server is Apache 2.0.52. The database server is MySQL 4.1.9. I’ve made a few other changes as well. I’m not using Microsoft Outlook as my email client anymore; I switched to Mozilla Thunderbird. I’ve been using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer for a while now, and get along rather comfortably.

I also decided to try ditching AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger again, in favor of Trillian (which is a newer version and much nicer than last time I used it).

8.8/10. I just rated my day. My sisters’ habits are rubbing off on me.

Of course, I completely understand how premature it is of me to rate the day before it is over. Any number of good and/or bad occurences could change this score before sundown. Or midnight, depending on your reckoning. And the word on the street is I have some serious bad luck coming, because yesterday I was walking around the Flawn Academic Center with my umbrella wide open. Everyone knows it’s healthier for an umbrella to dry wide open.

Why didn’t I give today a nice, round nine? Because I haven’t done anything extremely interesting. I started work at 07:45 and have been here ever since. I ate Taco Bell for lunch. It isn’t raining anymore. Rain would definitely have pulled the score up at least a tenth of a point.

Well, why didn’t I give today a nice, round eight? Because today’s got potential. I am reburning the DVD of which I spoke previously, because there were some problems with it. I’m hoping everything will be better this time around. I’m definitely hopeful. Definitely.

[Update 2005-01-28 16:00] Success! I’m tempted to bump the score to 9.0, but let’s not be hasty.

I’m so excited to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith that I am going to stay awake until it hits theatres in May. I really should be in bed right now. I should be sleeping, because I have to be at work early in the morning.

At first glance I would definitely think nothing exciting happened today. It rained all day. I love rain. I love Texas, because it rains instead of snows in the winter. I went to class, and had the pleasure of running into friends along the way. It makes me feel good when I can randomly cross paths with someone I know on a campus of almost 50,000 students. Actually, I bumped (figuratively) into the same girl twice today.

I also went to work today, at which I brushed up on my knowledge of scanning and text recognition on the Macs; and my Photoshop skills (displayed herein). Girls only want boyfriends with good skills, and I think my computer hacking skills are coming along quite nicely.

Yesterday I burned a DVD for the very first time, ever. I took the production of “The Forgotten Carols” that I played a small part in, exported it from VHS to a computer, then burned it onto one of these Digital Versatile Discs. Everything appeared fine, but there are some parts on the DVD that are messed up like Strong Sad on caffeine. Looks like I’ll have to do it all over again. The only catch is that it takes ninety minutes to get the movie from the video tape onto the computer, because it has to play at normal speed. And it takes three hours to burn the movie onto a DVD. The import process automatically cuts the video into segments of about ten minutes in length, so it takes thirty minutes to an hour in between to set up the movie clips and get the DVD menus right. I’d have to be at the computer lab all day!

It’s not like that has never happened.

I don’t have the pictures yet. I will get them soon, and you will see them. And you will know exactly why I exclaim, “Oh. My. Freaking. Goodness.” Every week I look forward to Family Home Evening more than humanly possible. This sentence is a shout-out to my brothers and sisters. Both kinds: biological and FHEvical.

So, quickly before I fall asleep on my keyboard, here’s the rundown. Jared and I go to the scene. No one answers the door. Llama [Tina] calls Jared asking for a ride. (Is it okay if I call you Llama? I never use anyone’s real name on this thing, and I thought “Llama” would be fitting, for obvious reasons, but I just want you to know that Llama with a capital L is extremely different from llama with a lowercase l. And by extremely different I mean more cool-like.) I drive the Lankmobile over to pick up Llama (always a pleasure).

After much chat (very important!) and Hello Crappies (very burnt), FHE starts. Singing. Praying. What motivates you? Why do you get up in the morning? What makes life worth living for you? Making people smile. Checking my email. Making people smile. Girls. No no no, that was someone else’s answer.

Chick-O-Sticks with Hershey’s Kisses (I heard they were good with chocolate)! Hello Dollies (the not-burnt kind)! More chat. More praying (can’t get enough). Official FHE is over. Time to begin unofficial FHE.

Dress-up and movie. This is the part where you have to see the pictures. So please wait in anticipation. Thank you.

I’m more tempting than homework. She said so.

This entry was too impulsive and too barren; I needed to write a poem. And here it is:

> If I fail it’s all your fault,
> But I won’t give you the blame.
> I’d be passing all the same
> Had you never talked to me. > > You can’t help it; you’re too sweet,
> Conversations to refuse.
> Newfound friendships to peruse
> Become your bread and butter. > > You’re more tempting than my books,
> And rightly so, you should be.
> We are complementary,
> and I’m not talking colors.