Ahh, another Friday in which, in the span of like 24 hours, I went from having only a little to do at work, to having a TON of stuff to do. It is of course all due around the same time. I have to translate a Photoshop comp into HTML/CSS, do a full redesign of an existing layout I did awhile back, and add a ton of new content and create a ton of new pages for another site.

All by next week.

Luckily I work better under pressure, and the deadlines really aren’t so bad once you sit down and just get into it and don’t stop. But, it’s still funny how it’s feast or famine sometimes. Such is the nature of most jobs though, I suppose. All of my past jobs were like this, but the difference is that I actually love what I do now, so it’s not like before where I’m like man, I totally have all this sucky stuff to do.

Now that it’s coming down to crunch time in terms of these sites, I will have to try to avoid any distractions.

Posted at 10:32 AM | (2)

So I did actually do some stuff this weekend, but for some reason I guess I was too lazy to log on here and blog about it. So, it shall be of the quick recap sort, which is probably best for all involved, as too much rambling is not necessarily a good thing!

I went downtown with Claire to Tonic on Friday night (no boy brawls or girls shoving me this time!), though we got a little bit of a late start and then left probably an hour before closing. Did a little dancing and then a little talking while we ate some pizza at her place afterward.

Saturday I met up with Ben at the beach in the morning, and what I thought might only amount to a short hangout (he had to work later that evening), turned into pretty much the whole day, which included the zoo (complete with the excitement of shutting down access to half the zoo and the train because a gibbon escaped from its little monkey island!), driving around randomly, and then ending up in the Santa Ynez wine country, where we stopped by two wineries and did some tasting. Pretty cool for a random hangout!

Last night I did some laundry at a laundromat for the first time ever. The last time I used coin-operated washers and dryers was back in the dorms, and using an actual laundromat is a bit different since the clientele is not all 18 year old surfer kids. The last place I lived at had a washer/dryer, and since moving I have scored the use of machines at either Steve’s or my parents’. I’m not sure when I’m going home next (probably Easter?) so since I needed stuff washed, I had to scope out some new options. The place I went to (maybe 4 blocks from my place?) wasn’t too busy, and did you know they have like arcade games and stuff in these places? I didn’t play, but they had stuff like Street Fighter and Pac-man and Centipede, and a TV turned to a Spanish station that was airing a dubbed version of Beethoven. I think I managed to lose a pair of socks, but I’m not entirely sure, since all the pairs of socks in my pile were different styles, so what are the odds I not only lose 2 socks, but lose both socks of the same pair??

So that’s it. Now it’s back to work for me on this gloomy Monday morning.

Posted at 10:13 AM | (7)

I finished knitting the sweater I was working on! Well, I actually finished the last part (the belt) like last week or something but I kept forgetting to take pictures of it.

Anyway, I just tried to take pictures and doing the whole timer thing made it kind of retarded—the ones of me from the front are just terrible, so for now, I will just show the back of the sweater, which is really the more intricate part anyway. It also shows you that it’s not super huge or small or something. I actually think it came out pretty well, and will probably wear it as long as I’m going somewhere where I won’t be getting dirty (it’s definitely not machine washable!)

Behold, Starsky, in all its banana leaf cable glory!

Pattern: Starsky from Winter 05 Knitty
Yarn: 10 skeins Knitpicks Sierra in Natural
Needles: US #9 and #10
Started: End of January
Finished: Mid March

Posted at 7:44 PM | (7)

Last night Ben invited me out to see a band that he’s friends with—since they weren’t playing until night, we did dinner beforehand and then stopped off at the Wine Cask for wine and dessert. A year ago, when I first got hired, my bosses gave me a gift certificate to this restaurant (before they knew I was a totally picky eater) and the expiration date was March 21—today.

My boss has given me crap a few times because each time he asked me about it, I hadn’t gone, and the expiration date was rapidly approaching. Part of the reason it hadn’t been redeemed though is because the menu is a little frightening. But, then I came to my senses and realized I could just get a nice bottle of wine and some fancy dessert, and so we did.

The place was pretty empty when we arrived, so we were able to just sit down. Picking a bottle of wine was quite a daunting task though, because their wine list is over 60 pages and has a table of contents! It’s pretty crazy if you have so many selections that you need to have a TOC! But, I suppose, given the fact that they are a wine restaurant with a wine store, they should have a large selection. They also have quite the price range, and you could easily pick the $600 or $1,000 bottle of wine (which of course we did not).

After wine and dessert, we went to go see the band and Ben saw many people there that he knew, which I suppose isn’t surprising, since they were all friends of the band or something. Overall it was a nice evening, and I’m glad that by using the certificate I will now no longer be given a hard time by my boss! Although, I found out when I went there that, despite the certificate listing an expiration date, that it technically doesn’t expire. Arg! Oh well, at least it prompted me to use it sometime this decade. :)

Posted at 6:36 PM | (4)

I suppose I have to mention this here at some point, so I might as well do it now.

I am currently no longer with Steve and have in the last week gone on a couple dates (one last Wednesday, one last night) with a guy named Ben who seems to be quite nice and into me.

There’s obviously more of a story to it than that, but I’m not really going to share the specifics of what happened with Steve. I met Ben 2 weeks ago Saturday, downtown at a bar though of all places and have spent many hours exchanging emails during the day or talking in person. I normally wouldn’t mention something so new like that here, because I’m not usually super optimistic, nor do I like to have to backpedal in what I said if things wind up not working out, but he seems to be on the level with things, and it was so random and not something that I was out looking for, that it seems worth mentioning at this point perhaps for those reasons alone.

So anyway, I don’t know what will happen, but I figured I had to mention it for the sake of posterity and the fact that we intend to see each other again soon. It’s disappointing that things were not able to work out with Steve, but we seemed to be at a point where not much was going to happen, combined with some recent rockiness, and so I decided to take a chance on something else.

Posted at 4:22 PM | (4)

It is done! My apartment has been rewired! I have my very own circuit breaker and my tiny studio now is on like 5 different circuits—Fridge, Microwave, TV, Computer, Lights, something like that. Anyway, the main point is that I could totally turn on everything my place and not trip the breaker! And the temperamental wiring issue in the one half of my place is also gone because they rewired everything when they put it on separate circuits.

I can tell that they rewired because there is now a hole in my ceiling and holes in my walls where they took out old outlets. This is just temporary though, because tomorrow morning a guy is coming to plaster and paint the holes. The drilling of new wires left my place a little dusty and dirty but I haven’t cleaned it up yet because I’m waiting for the plaster stuff to be done—I figure it might just get dirty again from this so why bother.

Cool things I’ve done since getting the new wiring—microwaved something without shorting out half my room, blow dried my hair IN THE BATHROOM with the brand-new outlet that was installed there. Can you believe there were no outlets in the bathroom before?! Crazy.

Anyway, so far it’s super awesome and once the plaster is done, I shouldn’t be inconvenienced with electrical stuff for as long as I’m here (knock on wood.)

Posted at 9:50 PM | (2)

Many things in SB open late and close early, but for the most part, the opening times of things doesn’t concern me. This is because I am a bit of a late starter in the morning and like to take my time waking up and getting ready. So if I go somewhere, it’s usually in the afternoon.

And that is why I had no idea that the library opens at 10am. Sure this isn’t extremely late or anything, but it’s somewhat annoying when I showed up this morning ready to get some work done at 9:20am. Luckily their wireless was on, so I just sat outside and worked while waiting for the doors to open. I did get some stuff done, though I had to pause briefly when a hippyish Canadian hitchhiker type dude sat near me and started talking. Friendly enough guy I suppose, but I’m glad that I was able to come up and score what is now becoming my “regular” table and get some work done in solitude.

In case anyone is wondering why I’m at the library instead of the more interesting and more tolerant of noise coffee shop, the reason is all in the chairs. The library chairs are way more comfortable than those of the coffee shop, and I don’t have to feel guilty for not spending a ton of money on coffee or food in order to justify hanging around for hours and hours using their free internet.

Posted at 12:06 PM | (2)

Last night I went out with a couple girls. We started out at Joe’s because they have stronger drinks and more places to sit down and are also open earlier than most bars, so we met up a little before 9pm. We then proceeded to Indochine where we ordered another drink and danced some. Jenn was attempting to take pictures with her new camera phone and managed to spill my drink that was sitting behind me—it spilled down the back of my pants, which was kind of gross feeling and looking. Luckily bars are dark so I’m not sure many people noticed.

After this party foul was committed, we walked on over to Tonic, which had some drama of its own. A fight broke out between two dudes and the ensuing pushing of the crowd totally knocked over Megan, one of the other girls with me. They also stepped on Jenn’s shoe, rendering it basically unwearable from this day forward.

At another point some random chick tried to start a fight with me or something. I was dancing by a wall, and this girl comes with her guy and literally pushes me aside to make more room for herself to dance there. So Jenn is nearby and I give her a look like OMG I can’t believe that girl just shoved me. The girl was obviously expecting to see a response, or why else would she be staring, so she sees my face and is like “Do you want to talk sh*t?” And I’m like uh no, whatever. But Jenn got all up in her face which was kinda funny cuz then the girl totally backpedaled and went from “your friend gave me a dirty look” to which Jenn was like “uh, she wouldn’t give you a look for no reason” to “can I buy you a drink?”

I’ve never seen that much drama at Tonic, so I’m not sure what the deal was. Maybe it was ghetto night or something, because the people involved in these dramas didn’t look like the normal Tonic crowd. Oh well, at least I lived to tell about it.

I’m going back to sleep now I think—with the time change it’s still seems a little earlier in the day and Jenn crashed here and stayed up talking to me until like 6am or something. I am sleepy.

Posted at 11:45 AM | (2)

Right now I’m kicking it in the downtown library. Electricians finally decided to come back to my apartment building, so yay maybe I’ll see it done in my lifetime. In the meantime they turned off the power today so I hoofed it over to the Coffee Cat again. Unfortunately, the coffee shop decided to refinish their floors today so they kicked everyone out at 2pm. Luckily the library is just across the street and also has free internet!

Anyway, so I’m sitting here working at a table by the stacks, and this dude wanders over to a section of books and then LOUDLY yawns. Like what the hell dude?! You know you’re in a library and that you were totally just the loudest thing in here. You’re old enough to know this isn’t socially approprate, so what’s your deal?

Oh well, at least he went on his way pretty quickly, though not before getting the death stare from the dude sitting at the table next to me. ;)

Posted at 3:42 PM | (1)

So I’m ALMOST done with this sweater thingie I’m making, and in record time too! It only took me about a month, instead of the 3 months everything else took. I’m done with the actual sweater part, but now I am working on the belt. The never-ending belt (aaaah aaah aaaaaaah, aaah aaah aaaaaaaaah, aaah aaah aaaaaaaaaaah) (sung to the tune of Neverending Story, of course).

There are only like 12 stitches per row on this belt, but it is supposed to be 63 inches. Blah. I like to see that I’m making progress. At any rate, guess I should stop typing now so that i can actually finish this thing before the temperature rises and I can’t wear the darn thing.

Posted at 9:48 PM | (1)

Today is Steve’s 28th birthday. Happy Birthday! I already took him to dinner for it last night but still have to go buy the present I was planning on getting. I’m not late yet!

Posted at 8:57 AM | (1)

I just got back from spending two nights in Lompoc and I have to say that I forgot how true the stereotypes are! Not to be mean to everyone who lives in Lompoc, but stereotypes exist for a reason! Let’s just say that Lompoc has a reputation for being a little redneck (well as much as you can get out here on the West Coast). Now granted, many people live in Lompoc because they work in SB and want to be a home-owner, and housing prices in Lompoc are much more affordable.

Of course, the reason the prices are more affordable is because the city is a bit isolated from everything else—it’s about a 50 minute drive from SB and most of the way there isn’t anything in the way of civilization. Once you get to the city, I dare you to look around and find attractive-looking people. I, for one, failed at this endeavor. I did find a girl whose face was kinda cute, but then she got out of her car and the rest of her left much to be desired. Also unlike SB, I didn’t see anyone jogging, biking, or engaging in other athletic activities. It’s a bit mind-boggling once you get used to all of the “beautiful people” that roam around SB.

I know it’s worth it for some people to say they own their houses, but I personally think the trade-off is just a bit too much. I will say though, that the drive from Lompoc to SB on the 1 and 101 is actually quite nice—right now the hills are green and you get a view of the ocean for a portion of your journey.

Posted at 1:25 PM | (2)

Since my site isn’t hugely popular or anything, many of you probably didn’t even notice that it was down yesterday morning. It seems that spammers decided to totally hammer the MT trackback and search scripts, which of course strained the server; the end result being that my site was temporarily suspended until I promised to either disable the offending scripts, find a way to secure them, or switch to a less server-intensive blogging platform like Wordpress.

The Perl/CGI combo hits the servers harder than the PHP solution, though I’m pretty sure that at some point in the past my test install of WP got me in this sort of trouble too. I don’t think you can really win if the spammers decide they really want to use your site for evil. At any rate, I’m first going to search to see if I can find a way to secure the scripts and possibly get something like mod_perl to work on this shared hosting. I still like MT better for the things I use it for, and I spent so much time customizing it. With my current job and all the things I like to do in my spare time, it’s just so daunting to think about trying to customize an install of WP to get it to do everything I want.

Of course, I got it really close last time I tried, and WP has come a long way since then. If I feel motivated enough, I may try and see what happens. I need to figure out something though, because they say that if this happens again they will terminate my account. I just wish it wasn’t all so time-consuming. :(

Posted at 10:33 AM | (7)

Last night was another meeting of my book club. I missed the last meeting because I was in Boulder—though I guess there was a small turnout and not even the leader of the group attended.

This time I think there were 9 of us, which is a good turnout. Even more shocking, everyone had read the whole book! Well, one girl was like 20 pages away, which unfortunately is right before it starts really picking up the pace and having a bunch of plot things happen so she was a little lost, but this is pretty amazing for our group.

The last book we picked was kind of boring, and since I wasn’t going to be able to attend, I definitely didn’t make it a priority to finish the book. I do like that about our group though—if you don’t finish the book, you should totally still show up because chances are a few other people didn’t finish either. And while we do actually talk about the book a bit (which is a good thing), we also talk about random stuff. What’s funny is that this time we reverted back to talking about how disturbing another previous book we read was—probably a good way to scare off the 2 new people who showed up last night!

Even though I haven’t like hung out with these book people outside of the group, the group is pretty entertaining and they all seem nice. I’ve seen ads for a few other book clubs periodically but I bet they aren’t as cool, LOL. :)

Posted at 11:38 AM | (2)