This quarter I’m working on printing out and binding another book, even though I’m not in the book design class. All the fun, none of the stress! I had to rush around to buy the book, cut off the spine, scan all the pages, OCR the text, edit the text and correct errors (of which there are many), and after I’m done with that (I’ve got about 20 pages left) I get to design the pages! Yay! Heh, I’ve spent the past week or so reading through the book—on screen, yes—and correcting anything and everything. (Ironic that my senior project is about print books or electronic books, no?)

So I’ve got that senior project to work on, but I’m not giving that much of my attention. Mreh. This week I have to buckle down and go to the library to write the last two chapters to turn in.

Other than my one class that I have this quarter, which I already finished the big assignment for and only have a midterm and final to look forward to, I am also working on making cards for all the teachers in my department. I’m not really working on that much. grrrs.

I’ve got all the pieces I want (I think; I spent the past couple months realizing I need this or that item and running out to buy it) and now I just need to actually put the cards together! The problem with that is I need to fold 3×the number of faculty amount of paper cranes. Roughly. Some cards might have more, some less. I think I have about three or four teachers covered at this point. *shifts glance*

And on top of that … I feel like working on my websites again. After abandoning them for I don’t know how long. I probably worked on them some last quarter, but not much, and I don’t think I was on the computer that often over summer.

I think I’m finally tired of the jester and monk layout. (Wow, can you imagine that? I still love the black/red/white colors, I just want to look at something new.) Next I might go for a light, spring-inspired design. Or not, you know me. (If you don’t, then know that I like teh dark because I am so emo!)

…Aaaand two hours later, obviously I was too antsy to concentrate even on this entry.

Another hour later … here’s the entry.

I don’t know that anyone is reading this blog regularly, other than Noelle. So the continuity factor of this post will be lost on some people.

I’m almost done with this quarter, just one final (and required studying for said final, which I am avoiding…) tomorrow and then I just have to stick around the rest of the week for … the commencement ceremony! I still have two classes to take next quarter, but I’d rather participate in this ceremony than come back next June. (Although I’m considering going to that ceremony to see some friends, if things work out that way, but that’s another story.)

I’m a little nervous about the ceremony, because I haven’t walked in a ceremony since middle school! That’s over a decade ago! (Yes, I am quite old, aren’t I?) On top of that, there’s no rehearsal or real explanation of what’s going to happen, so I’m going in cold, folks. To add icing to the cake, there are only about a dozen people in the ceremony I know. Previous ceremonies, I’ve known pretty much everyone. This one, there are way more majors and other colleges than the little microcosm I’ve grown used to in my department.

What if I fall on my face? It’ll be in front of all these people I don’t know, along with all their guests. What if I forget to wear pants? What if I have a huge sneeze and smear boogers all over my face?

Then afterwards there’s a reception where everyone can gather. I’d like to talk to my classmates and say, well, good luck to ya, nice knowing you, BYE FOREVER. But I really don’t know how many people there are going to be milling around, and I don’t know how many people that I know will be there. And I don’t know if I’m meeting with my family before then, so how do I deal with 9 people trailing behind me? Or if I don’t meet my family, then I won’t have a camera with me (I don’t want to carry it during the ceremony). What will I do then?

Then after that, we have to figure out where to eat (although I think my parents already settled on Red Lobster down south somewhere). Two of my cousins each hate one of my favorite foods (Japanese and Mexican), so where does that leave me? Once I’ve decided on what type of restaurant I want to go to, I have to take into consideration the budget that my parents have (small, very small), and then there are my aunt and uncle who are nearby who I’d like to invite to dinner (but don’t want to bother them with the ceremony) who are not exactly low budget diners. What then???

But all in all these are just minor worries. What about next quarter? How do I find a job??? Oh noooo!

All the entry ideas sitting in my head (or on my desktop in a Sticky): 3Musketeers Mint review, Burt’s Beeswax lip balm review, Across the Wall review, pixel size vs. point size vs. em size, Scarlett Johansson’s new album review…

Even as I list the topics I find it hard to call them “reviews” because, well, I’m no professional critic (yay for that), and a lot of the things I comment on probably never even crossed people’s minds. I don’t talk about writing style (in books) or acting ability (in movies or on television) or storyline or anything.

I guess it’s not that bad, since I’m really not interested in those things. If I like something, I like it. I don’t … argh, stupid brain, that word where you inspect why you like it or not, what are good and bad parts, like in literature classes … which I generally can’t stand, by the way. But anyway! Getting off track.

If I were to not post reviews, then there would be virtually nothing new on this blog. And if I were to scrap the posts that contained vitriol (not the sulfate. *blink* word dork popping out again), then there would be literally nothing new here!

I could go back to recording my life daily, like I did a year and a half ago. But nothing interesting goes on in my life at the moment. Today: went to lecture, had an impromptu critique of our sketches for newspaper design, and took a class photo for the cover of our magazine. Am now considering a nap, but should really be working on my newspaper (uuuugh, even less interested in than magazine) and washing the dishes.

Yesterday, went to class, had a lecture about happiness (in an Estimating class *grin*), went to other lecture, learned about the Manhattan Project and saw a video on the uber secretive pilots who flew the bomb to Hiroshima. (Why doesn’t the History Channel, etc./Discovery Channel, etc./TLC show cool history shows like that anymore? Well, I guess the History channel is going through a Hitler phase right now.)

Most interesting thing from the video that I remember now: the B29s (planes) made regular flights to test dropping one bomb, solo or in a group of three (planes), so the Japanese grew accustomed to seeing them. :O Although now that I think about it, Laurence Yep wrote in Hiroshima that planes were not an uncommon sight. Scary.

Some other things I remember: the group of pilots (forgot the military term XO troop? division?) that was training for this mission didn’t know what they were training for. I think only one official there knew what was going on. They were told often, if you don’t want to live under all this mysteriousness and secrecy, you’re free to leave. Also the other pilots on Tinian would make fun of that group, because all they did was fly short missions to drop one bomb (versus the many, many bombs that others dropped), and it was thought that the other B29 pilots were carrying a much heavier workload to make up for what the special group wasn’t accomplishing.

Um. Back to original thought. If I can remember it … I think I was going to quickly review what I listed. But this entry is quite long as it is (history is so interesting!), and you should know that I can never write short entries no matter how hard I try. So I might write another entry. Maybe.

Oh, now I remember. I wanted to comment on spam that I’m getting on this blog. The other day I deleted 600-plus comments from Akismet’s hold. Today I’ve got 34 in there, and since there were so few I decided to read through them. These aren’t as bad as they used to be, with dozens of links to porn or sex pills. I have two or three comments pushing those, but there are only a couple links.

Most of the comments are on my entry where I complained about mixing paints. A lot of the comments say, “Great site!” Oh yeah? If you really think so, wouldn’t you comment on the latest entry, not a really mundane, old one?

Some comments add stuff like “Keep up this great resource.” and “…a lot of useful information” and “Found invaluable information. Just what I was looking for :-)” (Oh look, a smiley face! They must be really earnest!!!) So … paint mixing is a hot topic nowadays, is it? It’s replacing all those knitting and crocheting sites out there? To think, I got in on this trend from the get-go! And don’t forget, Yellow-Green should never be mixed with Magenta-Purple, because they’re not exact complements! lololol!

One comment read, “I would love to hear more about this …” So, an update. Since I wrote how I felt about the results in the entry following that one, I’ll show some pictures. Here’s a photo of a towel I used to clean off my brush while working on some project. And here’s a photo of my brush after one project. Then here’s a photo of all the masking tape I pulled off of one part of the last project. And finally, the project.

Now can I stop getting spam on that entry? Or at least write a real, constructive comment. I have no problem with allowing real comments even if they are just writing to get a link to their site. My blog doesn’t have any sort of Google pagerank to ruin, much less a substantial one.

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In WordPress news … native tagging support? Does this mean all the work I put into tagging my entries with that plug-in (too lazy to look up and link) was a waste? (Too lazy to go read about WordPress 2.3 any further. I should have been in bed two hours ago anyway.)

Foiled by my own laziness. I got on the computer(s … laptop for music and desktop for Adobe programs) to start work on my art project right after I got out of my last quality lab, woohoo! (The lab left my elbow feeling a mite sore, folding ninja star parts over and over and over…) And then … I decided to have some yogurt. Then I decided to tidy up the table a bit (after having left it that way for how many days previous?). Then I watched the last of a Mythbusters episode, the jaws special edition.

I might have found out that the art project isn’t due until Friday. ehehe. I don’t know what I did after that. Probably reading friends list. Then I was sorta hungry since I had only a yogurt and I was too lazy to make lunch so I just ate chips and salsa. Then I watched an episode of Step By Step because they were all young in it. Then I watched Ellen because Pink was on at the end; Pink just kept laughing and laughing.

Then I was gonna watch Oprah’s show about aging but C called to be picked up so I did and we got McDonald’s and I watched the whole Simpsons season 5 disc with the Be Sharps, Camp Feare, Homer going to college, and Treehouse of Horror # episodes. Then … I came here … and wasted time doing I do not remember what.

Back to the opening sentence … somewhat … yeah, my printer won’t print, and I don’t want to work on my art project any more because I can’t see what the heck it’s going to look like when it’s printed. I don’t know whether to keep the changes I made or not! I guess I should just save it as a copy. But I still don’t want to work any more on it, because what if all that work is for naught and I don’t want to keep the changes so I have to go back to the original? urgh.

But basically I’m just blaming my laziness and lack of work progressed on a piece of equipment with a fault that I am aware of … but temporarily forgot today … and even forgot that I had it on … so yeah.

I wrote my lab report. I actually got to two pages. Be amazed; I usually only manage the bare minimum of length required, if I do. And even then the writing is still bad. Bah. Should cut out the part of my brain that don’t do English good and get an implant.

I stayed up until 12:30 working on it. I got the charts made, extra credit, diagrams, cover page, everything. It really didn’t help that I spent 5 hours watching the History Channel. (I’d planned to write an entry about that, but … lazy now.) I turned in that report today. While in lab I just thought of all the things that made it crud. And then I told myself to not care.

Hm, I’ve got a wall crit on the poster Wednesday, art final tomorrow (not studying, woo!), 320 presentation Thursday, art project due Friday. Should make a Powerpoint slide for presentation by Wednesday night. And poster is due Wednesday of next week before the final. Bah. Stupid printer.

The Starter Wife is on in 20 minutes, and I don’t have either of my classes tomorrow, so woohoo! I opt to write in here rather than continue playing card games. Easier to stop writing. XD;

Record keeping stuff: over the weekend, went home. Friday night went out with Noelle’s family for dinner, since C skipped his 3–6 class.

Went shopping Saturday, found only one pair of jeans after five hours. >_< Jeans are either ugly or not in my size. Mostly ugly, right now. I honestly do not see anyone wearing dirty jeans … so stop selling them!

Sunday went back to hang out with Noelle’s family. Muahaha! Monday had a barbeque with family, Grandma & Grandpa, and Uncle R. Huh. Either I really am losing my memory, or Uncle R wasn’t as annoying Monday as he could possibly be. I almost forgot he was there, haha! He brought over a lemon meringue pie that he said was fresh, bought that morning, but Mum said it was old, so “Whatever he says, it’s the opposite.” Only G&G, Uncle R, and Mum had the pie. -_- (Lemon meringue is Uncle R’s favorite, but of us, only Mum likes it.)

Tuesday … art lecture was canceled. Had my individual art project critique with the activity teacher though. And haven’t worked on it since. :x Wednesday art was canceled, I don’t remember why. Thursday, today, regular day. Tomorrow, typography and art are canceled. XD; Free day! If I were smart, I would work on my lab report and my art project, in that order. But I don’t think I’m that smart.

I’ve got … art project, extra credit for art possibly although it’s not probable I’ll do it, typography poster, another typography poster (I’ve got a second idea, but I think I’m too lazy to do it), 320 lab report, 320 quality paper … then I have to study for 203, 218, 320 finals. I’m not studying for art. X) I’ll take my A−/B+, thanks.

Next week, 203 is canceled Tuesday but I’ll still be on campus because I want parking before 10, and there’s no 203 lab Thursday so I guess I’ll go to class, come back here, then go to 320 group presentations.

Finals week: 320 Monday, 218 Wednesday, 203 Thursday.

Two more weeks and then I’ll be home! This cold sore will also have healed over by then. Ouch.

After about five or six hours coding this layout, from 12 pm (an hour after I woke up) on, I have to say I don’t like this layout as much as I’d hoped. I couldn’t do it the way I’d wanted (background images on top and bottom), so there’s lots of extra space around the boxes. murrr.

Now the colors are looking funny to me, not as nice and soft and pretty as they first were. I also just realized that I forgot to check the colors on my desktop (colors on my laptop look waaaay different from any desktop), so I don’t know how funky they really are.

But meh. No more ugly pink color and tiny box area to scroll through.

Group presentation yesterday in art was all right. Eddie Izzard was nicely received. (His Engelbert Humperdinck bit was used to illustrate idea selection.) I don’t know what grade we got … oh well. I expect an A- in the class. Not counting the final. If the final pulls me down to a B+ … GRAR.

Oh well. It’s just school. I have to keep telling myself that. Because I’m too lazy to pull up grades, but I still feel just as badly for getting lower grades.

I really do have to get my butt in gear though. I still need to work on that 320 project. And the 218 projects are nagging me. I’m afraid I’ll forget stuff. :(

The earlier part of the day was spent uninstalling and reinstalling my printer, in an attempt to get back my ability to print InDesign documents with the Composite CMYK setting. I don’t know why it takes so long to install a printer. Rather, I don’t know why it takes so long for the installer to realize that there’s just no way the website is going to be found to self-register the product, so just move on in the process already! But whatever. It didn’t work. Still can only print in Composite Grey or Composite RGB. I have no freakin’ clue why.

The HP website (I have a Deskjet 4160) has a support page about printer settings not available in InDesign, but for Macs. (Funny, I never thought of hooking Macs up to regular printers. All the ones I’ve dealt with as of late were hooked up to fancy printers with RIPs, if any.) I don’t even want to fashion that “help” to my own situation, because they suggest overriding InDesign print settings and going through the HP print settings dialogue. Ouch! No way!

The Adobe website has a topic in the InDesign support forum for Macs, but that was about an Epson printer, and a somewhat fancy one, not my dinky $60 one. The response there is that a lot of inkjet printers print with RGB or something, which I find truly odd, so might as well go with the Composite RGB. Or buy a really fancy RIP that’ll convert to CMYK for you. Right.

A couple weeks ago when trying to find a solution through Google I saw this page, an entry in a blog with a similar situation but also involving Illustrator. I can’t seem to find it now though. Someone commented saying he’s had that problem, and that he always just … does something involving the printer. I can’t remember. Removes the printer from the settings, I don’t know. Which is why I went through that whole mess this morning. But it didn’t work.

I think, I’m not sure, that this problem occurred after I changed color settings or color profiles or something in InDesign. I don’t know how or what to change the settings back to. I did synchronize color settings in Adobe Bridge though. I don’t know what that did really, but hey I got a little note about it so I did it hoping it would fix my problem. It didn’t. So I am stuck saving files as PDFs and printing through there.

(I don’t know why I don’t want to print RGB. It’s stuck in my mind that if it’s for print, I should stay away from RGB. Apparently the CMYK color gamut is smaller than the RGB gamut. I experienced that when I didn’t realize the picture for my movie poster was in RGB. Augh. But tha’s neither here nor there. What I want to say is that if I’ve designed something in CMYK [technically; I set up colors in the program using CMYK, but I am looking at the colors in RGB on the monitor], I feel that it would be just plain weird to print with Composite RGB to a printer that uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.)

Hmm … just read more topics at the Adobe InDesign support forum, and it was explicitly spelled out that only postscript printers accept CMYK. So what was I doing before? O_o

Another note: the funky colors are probably a result of me tilting my screen more than I had earlier this morning or last night. XD;; Wow, I really need sleep.

10:04pm The dawning light! (After looking up “inkjet printer cmyk rgb.”) Inkjet printers expect RGB since that’s what the general public would work in, and has a driver in the printer to convert to CMYK. But that brings up the question … how was I able to print CMYK?

But I’m not really one to talk about primetime television on my blog … except Monk, of course.

My cell phone keeps “failing” calls today, I don’t know why. I had to call my voicemail four times to hear a message, write down the number, and save the message. Or did I save the message? I may have just given up the last time. It’s interesting that the message was available every time though, and not deleted. That’s nice. *pats voicemail company on the head* Then a group member called me and all I got was “Hello.” *phone ring* *some people talking* *dead air*

Oh yeah! I remember, yesterday I tried calling my voicemail and somehow I ended up getting the last person I called. In between me (what’s the cell phone equivalent of “dialing”?) going to voicemail and having someone say “Hello?” I heard some girl talking, she was saying something like “I know how to do it!” and some guy was saying “Get [something], address, [other stuff].” … Right. At first I thought it was the person whose car I whacked in the parking lot at school. (Trying not to hit a car on the other side whose driver was still in the car, both cars I guess were parked too close on each side.) But no, I ended up saying to someone else entirely, “I think I hit the wrong button… bye.”

After that I got a call from a phone in the 925 area code. I picked up ’cause I couldn’t remember if I had a group member in some class with that area code. *blink* Some guy asked for me, I thought, then the sound cut out for a bit, and I said “Hello?” and ended up hearing some lady speak Spanish to me. Riiight … She was asking for Eddie, which in a male sort of Mexican accent can sound like my name … right? My hearing isn’t that bad … right?

But I think I’m sort of rambling. I meant to say that I just hope I don’t forget something tomorrow or next week. I think … I need to work on the movie poster even though I don’t know what needs working on, I need to print out a new draft of my resume before Wednesday, both things I should talk to my prof about Tuesday during her office hours … I feel guilty for using ellipses even though I’m not cutting out any quoted text. O_o Yah. Er. I also have to have some sort of art project-y thingie for art tomorrow, and then something definite for critique next Wednesday … good thought, I’m not turning in as final what I’ll have tomorrow. Does that sentence make sense?

I can’t think, my left elbow hurts. Er, right above the elbow, on the outside. My posture probably isn’t helping. *sitting crooked* And the keyboard is pushed all the way to the right to make for the mousepad on the left so my left arm is sorta reaching to hit the keys … I hate keyboard/mouse positioning. It seems like they’re both in the way of each other. Ideally the mouse should be right in front of your hand/arm, not off to the side, but then ideally the keyboard should be smack dab centered in front of you, not off to the side. I think I need to buy a keyboard with no arrow keys or number pad. XD; Do they even make those in regular sizes? ie, not travel size?

I’m such a bad blogger. I can’t write coherent, topical entries like some bloggers. Can’t keep a personal blog that’s all nicely written and such. None of which (whom? I switched nouns somewhere) I’m going to mention here because I don’t want them to notice me talking about them. XD; I’m all rambly and blalala just like I used to be four years ago. Huh. Wait. Six years, in just a month and some days. o.o!! Wow. I might need to get a life.

Anyway! I need to work on the 320 project … I still am not quite sure what the heck we’re doing. No fault of my group members, I just don’t get the jist of this project. I just hope I don’t have to write anything, because that’ll really suck. >_> Because I have no idea what I’d write about.

Um … oh yeah, quiz in 320 next week, like I’ll study for it. I need to finish reading chapter 15 for typography, which I find personally a waste of time because I don’t plan to set tables but then of course eventually I will but I don’t want to read the chapter because it isn’t a manual for my program of choice, InDesign, it just says what to do, and possibly ways to go about doing just that, if “your layout program allows it/has that feature.” *twitchtwitch*

Don’t get me wrong, I like the book and plan to keep it and use it for reference (in life … for life … they both sound like I’m going to make life choices based on the book O_o). It’s just that the author tries to be general and applicable to what you do, and it’s very helpful in that sense, but it gets sort of annoying when he says, “a good typographer does such and such, and I don’t know how to do it in your program specifically but you really should do it because I’ve modeled you into a typography snob and you’re going to feel guilty if you don’t.” Augh!

Right. Tables. I don’t think InDesign does tables. I know it does tabs! I like tabs. Not sucky, ugly tabs in Word, or fat tabs that take up a lot of my typing space in Notepad. Nice tabs, that you can set the way you like.

Anyway. Typing for 30 minutes. Wow. Maybe this is why I stopped writing in here. XD; Takes up so much of my time! Other things I’ve dropped this quarter: going on aim; reading (except for my typography book); any extra work on my appearance (but who am I kidding? I don’t do much more than bare minimum that often when I do have the time); tidying up apparently, there are piles of stuff everywhere that I keep thinking harbor spiders or fleas. But things I’ve picked up: behind-the-scenes site maintenance; keeping to a somewhat reasonable sleep schedule during the week (except tonight :x); nursing my right elbow >_< to keep it from hurting; making school-related supply runs alone.

Now I should get to bed.

For 320 I really should look at stuff for the group project … maybe there’s a quiz tomorrow or next week, I don’t know …

For 218 I need to work on the movie poster for next week, except I don’t know what needs working on, and I need to fix my resume, and ask my teacher about some of her mark-ups … apparently there was a student in her office for at least 40 minutes today. Blah. Couldn’t ask her today.

That is about it … except I just feel really lazy and I don’t wanna do any of it. I should make dinner. I’ve been hungry for about an hour now. But I dun wanna make dinner. It’s simple. I just make rice and warm up the gyouza. But … too lazy.

I also need to take a shower. That might make me feel more chipper. … Blah.

I upgraded WordPress to 2.2. Wow. The longest upgrade … ever. By upgrade I really mean upload. This time I didn’t even upload the default themes and plugins. My connection is so sucky this week. UGH.

This entry is terrible. Bad mood, sorry.

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And I still get no enjoyment out of writing here. Funny.

Um. I got a full schedule. It’s actually 14 units. Woo. Haven’t done that since I had chem and pre-calc, but that was a semester system…

So far I have one art project although I haven’t had lab yet so technically I don’t have to work on it! >b Also a project for 218. Then I have to switch from one lab to another in 203. Fun stuff. But maybe I’ll get my computer way in the back this time. XD;

Uh. I went to bed at 9 last night. Woke up around 12ish, again around 1 or so, again around 4, and again a little while after that, then woke up at 6:30 because my radio volume was too low. Well at least it actually went off this time. Monday I forgot to turn it on. I forget what happened Tuesday. Maybe I still didn’t have it turned on.

Now I’m tired, and my side/back hurts because I guess I slept funny, but I can’t sleep because my mind won’t slow down, even though I didn’t have any caffeine this morning. !! I thought, hey I could stay up for a couple hours, then come back and nap for a little, and I didn’t want caffeine to ruin that, but I can’t sleep. o_o

I’m gettin’ into my groove here!

Monday and Tuesday I read Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher, and I thought it was funny how the parts where the two characters were talking to their therapists (whatever) sounded similar to what I write in here. XP Or more similar to what I wrote in my Diaryland account.

Anyway. Um. Spent $85 on books. Might end up buying The Non-Designer’s Guide to Design by Robin Williams, but it’s not required so I don’t know. I’ll have to look at it. I got $5 last year for my marketing book. Er. Relationship selling book. If I don’t need my color theory book I’ll sell that back. Luckily I didn’t sell back the Printer’s Publishing Guide (?) from 202 ’cause it’s the required text in 203.

I have something like $3 in my Campus Express account. I have charged on my card so far: gas $26 (but I think Mum paid me for that, so meh), books $85, and I’ll need to charge $50 for Campus Express so I can eat. Um. But I’m trying to bring sandwiches from home. The problem with that is they don’t fill me up, I’m hungry half an hour or an hour later. I should bring something else to eat. But all I’ve got is junk food, like chips. I could bring fruit, but I hate warm fruit (left in the car), or squished fruit (left in my bag), same for veggies, and I especially hate eating apples in public, I don’t know why. Oh well.

I meant to rewrite notes from 202 but first I wanted to set up my speakers for music and realized I left the power supply at home (same with the battery-backup power strip for the desktop x.x) so after that I went meh and got sidetracked. But I should get back to that.

(…I wrote this in my journal originally, so excuse the ramblyness.)