Jes's trip to mexico Jess is a vocal performance and, apparently, med student at Murray State. She's in mexico this summer with the honors program, and made this blog. Since she's a friend, I thought I'd share. Check out the size of that fish and that guitar!
Can't wait to have you back in the states, Jes.

http://www.xanga.com/mexican_summer  ¶   0 comments

  Not a good idea So I got most of the refrigerator stuff put up. I'm going along my happy little way and forget about the cooler. Many hours later, I discover it. The ice cream inside has melted to a puddle of goo, but is still somewhat edible. The cooler's recently cleaned, so nothing in there's going to kill me, right? I grab a spoon. What's the worse that can happen?
4 hours later, and I still don't want to think about eating again.  ¶   0 comments

  Thought of the Day

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

- Bill Watterson (1958 - ), cartoonist  ¶   0 comments

  Enigma
What mysterious hero casts this sillouette? I'll finish it this weekend and you'll see, but for now it'll have to remain an enigma ;).  ¶   0 comments

  when anime attacks
Since my truck is in the shop, I'm hanging out with Tiff in the lab today. Too tired for articles, I did what I've taken to do to burn time, I played with photoshop.
Today's project was a little .gif of a character from an anime game I play with my roommate. His name's Lee, and he's a kid-thief. He has a rather large diamond in this shot because, well, he stole it. People in the game get the significance. Originally he had a silly little french cap, but I like this look better.
He started his life as a bunch of shapes in Paint, then I went back in and did the shadowing in photoshop. Today's big lesson: if you're drawing in paint, start from the back and work your way forward. You can't layer, so you're going to mess things up if you try and draw around shapes you've already done.
Actually, a better lesson would probably be "don't draw with MS paint."  ¶   0 comments

  Froggie!
I got bored while waiting on Tiff to clear out of the lab this afternoon, and opted for a little photoshop fun while I was waiting. An hour later, I had me a little frog head. I have no idea what I'd ever do with this graphic, other than fix the wierd shading around the eyes, but isn't it fun?  ¶   0 comments

  Fox's Donut Den on NiT Fox's Donut Den has a nice little post on Boston, just in case those of you who work there don't read Nashville is Talking.
I <3 the Den.  ¶   1 comments

  Almost forgot Both Inside Chris and chrishopper.net are getting much-needed makeovers this august. Expect massive amounts of construction as I play with the templates. I'll try not to leave things in permanent disarray.  ¶   0 comments

  10 days later... Sorry, it's been a while since the last update. Summer slipped down the drain without me noticing, and I've been rushing through articles trying to catch up on all the writing I have to do. Being broke in Murray has been an adventure, but I'll be glad when all the work I need to get done will be done, and I'll actually be able to have money to spend on something other than food.
VBS is starting up back in Nashville. I'm more frustrated about missing it than I expected. I've been backing out the last couple of years because I know grad school's coming up, along with all the other real-world stuff that keeps me tied down. But even last year I was able to make it work. Being over 2 hours away and over 20 hours of writing-time behind stinks.
In an effort to prevent this from becoming a rant-board, though, I do have some great things going on. My truck's finally getting fixed next week (goodbye money), and my graduate school search is pretty much over. Colorado State looks great to me, and Texas Tech is a good alternative. The only scary things are that it's part of the journalism/comm department (instead of English, like at MSU), and it requires a background in quantitative analysis. I guess that means my spring semester will be exciting. Maybe I'll do better than I did in math140.
Now I just have to pick a third option and I'll be in business.
I'm on Spiderman #50 in my evening reading. That sidebar's out of date, I finished those books already. My quest through the first 500 issues of Amazing Spiderman (well, 400-something then the renumbered volumes) will probably take the rest of the summer. And Future Tactics, a strange little turn-based strategy game for the gamecube has been rather amusing as well. All work and no play, right? I'm still budgeting in plenty of play.
And my job still seems like play. I really enjoy the graphic design I'm doing at work. I always knew working with images on the computer was something I was enjoyed, but having a project to put together by a deadline is just a wierd, geeky type of excitement I would have never imagined I'd get into. I'm working through the fall and spring, probably at the expense of my campus involvement and maybe my sanity, but it's totally worth it. I've already met a technical writer with an actual job and filled my resume with samples from work. Once I get more writing under my belt, I might even be able to do something with it. I'm so set on grad school right now, but I really hope whatever I do for a career I can do more than just edit people's notes and manuals.
I think being behind a keyboard might be dangerous for me today. I'm a little sleepy and tend to ramble. I'll talk to you more when I'm more coherant. That's a little glimpse into life here and now, anyway.  ¶   0 comments

  Piratey Things (lack of spoiler tags, deal with it) Yeah, first off, I have no spoiler tags and no patience to create them, so read at your own risk.
I SAW PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST! It was good. Not great, but good. It suffers from the typical trilogy syndrome: second movie woes. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of the typical crammed in here. You have to give the writers credit for making it work, though. It's never (overtly) contrived, and they juggle the expanding list of characters well. Jack is Jack in the way only Johnny Depp can make him. Will's still as desperately heroic as ever, and his developments are giving a depth he didn't really carry in the first one. Liz (Knightly) grows quite a bit this movie, but too much on that might spoil it for you ;).
The comic relief seems a little thicker in this one than the last, but it is Disney. It's a fun movie. The villian Davy Jones is VERY well animated/costumed to the point that he blends in to the movie, rather than being a distraction ("look at that CGI...").
I'd love to say more, but eventually I'm going to blow the movie for those of you that haven't seen it yet. I'd give it an 8 / 10. Or is it a 4/5? I'm no critic, and I don't like numbers. It's a pretty darn good movie, go see it.
By the way, Pirates 3 May 07 :).  ¶   0 comments

  Quote of the Day

Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three -- and paradise is when you have none. -- Doug Larson

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  Review of Le Guin's The Telling I just finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Telling. The telling takes place in the Hainish Cycle, the same setting as Left Hand of Darkness and Worlds of Exile and Illusion. The books don't seem to be directly connected (I've only read Left Hand of Darkness and The Telling so far), so don't worry about getting caught up in a series. They stand alone well.
The Telling is not Le Guin at her best. The lead character, Sully, is very well developed, and displays Le Guin's grasp of development. Sully has been sent to the planet Aka as one of four Observers for the interstellar Ekumen. Aka is a planet of extreme capitalism tied into a religion that has systematically destroyed the planets past (including all books and language). Sully relates her past (Earth is in the grip of fundamentalist fanatics). And though Le Guin edges toward preachy (or at least emphatic toward her world-view) through Sully, she never carries it to the point of detracting from the story or creating frustration. Le Guin has a mastery over the English language that elevates her writing to a poetic standard. Every sentence adds to the experience. The book is written in a gentle tone with a good deal of subtle humor and careful observation of the day-to-day lives of the rural town Sully finds herself in. In the rush of the final few chapters, the ending seems a little abrupt, and the secondary characters don't develop as fully as they could have. But Le Guin is definitely the author to read for thoughtful science fiction, and The Telling does not disappoint.  ¶   0 comments

  Former Dell Employee on Morning Edition Larry Schooler had an interesting interview with a former dell employee this morning on NPR's Morning Edition. He discusses the many recalls and Dells notorious "price-saving" practices (read cheaply made). I wouldn't be surprised to see their entire helpdesk restructuring he mentions just bring about more confusion. The chat-based help I used for my last problem with 'Lil Dell (my inspiron 1150) took 30 minutes to establish what I told them when I called: my powercord has a short in it. On the bright side, there was no accent or frustrating disconnections, like often happen when Dell sends me to talk to somebody in India (do they even hire Americans anymore?). But 30 minutes? Chats should speed things up, not slow them down.
Anyway, I'm ranting instead of just talking about the story. Go hear the story here (realplayer/windows media).  ¶   0 comments

  What'd you do for the 4th? I'm helping Tiffany in the lab today. It's my job to take pictures of everything. Unfortunately, everything not only includes the injections they give the little mice, but the subsequent euthanizing, dissection, and measuring of organs. I'm not as good at watching that as I would have thought, and I didn't think I was that good at it to begin with. I haven't puked yet, which is something, but I'm definitely having to spend a lot of time retreating to my mental happy place. Then running over to hide behind my laptop, like I'm doing now.
Anyway, I'm getting credited for photos and graphic design, so yay. I might also throw a summer research website together, so be on the lookout for that.  ¶   0 comments