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Miscellaneous

Woot!

Kicked ass in Flash today! We can now pass an flv variable through the url to a standard video player. Rock! Now I just have to get cracking on the other task set by my boss–recreating a cool app he found on the ‘nets. Sadly, I suspect this one won’t go as well.

ION, have a bear!

View of bear from inside the Denver Convention Center

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Miscellaneous

Defining “magical”

Oh yes! And the reason Denver is a “magical land” is because, despite eating and drinking anything I damn well pleased while in the Mile High City, I didn’t gain an ounce the whole time! How awesome is that?? Sadly, here in the less than magical Los Angeles, calories work a little more vindictively, so it’s back to salads and protein bars for me. Boo.

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Miscellaneous

Back from the magical land of Denver

I’m home from Denver! You didn’t even know I was gone, did you? I was there for the American Assocation of Museums conference, where my boss led two workshops (with the assistance of myself and three others) wherein we gave away the source code for two of our online games. Go team us!

The conference was on the exhausting side, mostly because we were working on workshop materials up until midnight the night before the first one, followed by frantically making edits to the materials that didn’t work in the first workshop, in time for the second workshop. Also, there was a lot of drinking, and a lot of insomnia.

After the conference was over and I’d caught up on my sleep (thank you, Benadryl!), I spent Thursday morning at the Denver Art Museum with my boss and my coworker (our two associates had left the day before), where I was surprisingly impressed with their contemporary art collection, and where I purchased my Colorado souvenirs–a courage/fear ring and a statuette of the Big Blue Bear that hangs out outside the Denver Convention Center.

After the museum, we stopped at the hotel for our luggage, then made a mad dash for the airport (boss got his flight time wrong by an hour). My colleagues went on their merry ways back to L.A. while I braved the FREAK!SNOWSTORM to Enterprise rent-a-car to pick up my compact KIA Sportage (the snow freaked me out, so I upgraded to something with more weight). I spent the afternoon at a shopping center where I got my hair cut, drank chai, and browsed Borders, then headed to my friend Bastion’s for the weekend. It was a good call, given his heretofore unknown fondness for delicious cooking.

Friday, after having bagels with B and dropping by the hotel to pick up the stuff I’d left in the hotel room safe the day before (d’oh!), I drove down to Colorado Springs to chill out in the Garden of the Gods (chill being the operative word–it was freezing!). Friday night, after a yummy dinner (again cooked by B) we went to the local bar to play pool, but when confronted with way too many assholes, we decided home was a much better option.

Sadly, there was little sleeping involved in Friday night, but Saturday started with a delicious breakfast, followed by a drive to Red Rocks with Bastion for my version of hiking (picture much limping and resting), followed by a nap, some Halo 2 action, and more pool and yummy food at Wynkoop downtown.

It was a fun weekend with Bastion and his friends. Oh, and his (and his roommates’) adorable kitties–Grendel, Bastet and Mr. Grabby! But now I am home, and back to the drudgery of cooking for myself (bah!).

Categories
Miscellaneous

Don’t you miss NaBloPoMo?

Yep, I haven’t updated this blog in, oh, what, seven weeks? Damn.

So the reason I’m posting today is because I found this lovely website.

I’ve never read her books, and in fact, I’ve never even heard of her. Someone in LJ linked to her post about How to Be a Writer in Ten Easy Steps (very cute post, btw) and I immediately fell in love with her web design. The use of color, the organization, the cute homepage–omigod, so adorable. Some of the execution needs work (for instance, the rollover navigation in the Travel Tips section), but that’s easy code stuff that’s probably just the result of an unnoticed typo. The design, though…. Man, I wish it were mine. LOVE!

I’ve been spending a lot of time this week studying CMS options and reading up on CSS, so sites and design have been heavy on my mind. As I often say, I suck at design, but what I realized this week is that more than just sucking, I really HATE designing. The big picture isn’t too hard–use these colors, put tabs here, use this navigation–but the actual constructing of the tabs and the borders and the background images and UGH! It involves an attention to detail that’s fun in knitting but makes me want to scratch my eyes out in photoshop. I wish it were as easy as Maureen Johnson’s website makes it look.

*sigh*

Categories
Miscellaneous

Chore day

I’m feeling overwhelmed today–I’ve let the general chores go for so long that it’s reached critical mass, and now it’s omigod so much! I’ve been breaking it down to little pieces, ’cause if I look at the mountain of dishes or the mucho laundry as something to tackle en masse, it’s too much, and I go knit instead. Doing dishes in ten minute spurts works much better (plus it’s better for my achy back), as does prioritizing the laundry (need clean socks before I even consider that slipcover).

In non-housecleaning news, I unravelled a scarf that I made last night, ’cause it just wasn’t going to work as it was, i.e. it annoyed me so much I’d never wear it. This means I’ll probably have to pick one of my existing scarves for tomorrow night’s party, but oh well. At least I have a new sweater and new jacket, so who cares if it’s accessorized with an old scarf?

And now I’m back on my chores, because I keep meaning to make a list, and keep forgetting. More dishes, get rid of all the trash (and don’t forget the bathroom this time), pick up and vacuum. Finish the holiday cards, pack up the stuff to ship home before Xmas, finish all in-progress knitting for the purses, and felt said purses. Finish gift knitting that doesn’t include purses. Visit Gracie. Watch Netflix dvds. Cook pot roast. Make lunch plans for next weekend with PT and his wife. Bake cookies. RSVP to R&J. Find L’s keys. Find gloves. Affix clasps on the finished purses. There’s more, I’m sure, but my head can’t fit anymore. *sigh*