my so-called blog (redux)

My cold knocked me the hell out on Monday so I got a 3-day weekend, which actually kinda sucked because I spent maybe 5 hours on Monday actually being awake. Wasted an entire rainy day. I kinda wish it would go away. It’s just making me.. hot. And not in a good way.

Been giving more thought to redesigning the webpage. Maybe split things out into more sectional kinds of things, and using WP just for the blogging aspect of it. Also, maybe integrating more of the feedable stuff into this - I just remembered that I had a last.fm account (it was one of those things that you set up the dealie and you forget you have it) so I should probably roll that into the site. Speaking of, I’m finding the way the plugin works to be kinda interesting.. it’s actually a visualization. Kinda intrigued by that.

And so wobbles the thingy down the street. Forgot to put this in my last post. During the training, I got into using portable apps. The basic premise here is that you have an application that’s customized to run without making registry changes or placing files outside of its directory. There are a few apps that are set up like this on the site - I used Thunderbird, Firefox and Gaim - and it was nice to be able to have mail and stuff open without having to have RDC open to my windows box. Very handy. Evidently qemu doesn’t make much in the way of changes to your computer either - a few registry keys but that’s it - so you could theoretically have a VM set up on an iPod or something for use when you’re “out and about” so to speak.

Bought some new CDs. Finally got that engine7 CD I’ve been meaning to get - you can download it for free from legoego but I’d rather have an actual CD. Also got a disc by Benge (goes to record label). Benge is kinda in the same vein. Looking forward to getting those.. eventually.

Finished a week-long training course in SQL Server 2000 today. It was really more based around performance optimization and available facilities than a deeper look at Transact-SQL or ER diagramming. Still, managed to learn a good bit and found a bunch of things I may actually start using when I design databases and whatnot. (The goodness of views and triggers and stuff.) As a bonus I got a certificate saying Yes I Did Show Up For Class. Handy and dandy! Actually considering seeing how much it would be to become a MSCDBA, and then seeing how much it would be to do it for Oracle. I kinda like training more than school, simply because the stuff you learn you can apply right now. There are, of course, two sides to everything though.

The UofM beat Oral Roberts today (no surprise) so we didn’t lose in the first round. Reason to celebrate! We should win the next game too. Hurrah for basketball!

So I switched off Linux to Windows on my PC. Been trying to get it set up in a way that makes me not hate myself so much. The problem is that I’m so used to the various neat things on the Mac (mainly Quicksilver) that it makes trying to use anything else sucktastic. Even Macs that don’t have QS on them feel broken. So far, the best thing I’ve found to replace QS on Windows is Launchy. It doesn’t have triggers, though, and that’s the 2nd Big Thing I use QS for. It does the launching thing though, so that’s a plus.

In other news, I started using Opera. It has a built-in mail client that works better than Thunderbird. (I have folders. Thunderbird disagrees. Screw you, Thunderbird.) The mouse gestures, while not new, are addictive. Also, it seems to have an ad-blocker thing in it of some sort. Maybe I’ll poke around with it more. I’m pretty happy with it too, it even feels a bit faster. Maybe I have a new favorite browser. Yay!

Apologies to Kylie Minogue. Title is pretty true, to be honest. I am quite drunk at the moment and probably shouldn’t be posting. That said, I did click on one of those “cool new people” links on the MySpace page and was greeted by a picture of none other than Peelander-Z. This reminded me of the time I went to work… two days ago and saw a ratty old Buick that had “Peelander Or Bust” written on it, in soap. Figured it was going to sxsw next week. (Wish I could go. Stupid but beneficial training.) It was one of those things that made me doubt the youth of America less. Moreso because the guy driving it was obviously the parent of whoever wrote Peelander on the side of the car. (It also had CBHS stickers, so I was pretty sure it just wasn’t an older guy who liked ‘em.)

4 new CDs today: Jose Gonzalez, Say Hi To Your Mom, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the new Boards of Canada. All awesome, and all to be reviewed on the site when I’m a bit less drunk. There was way, way more but I’ve since left the keyboard and sobered up just a tad. Your loss, world.

update: think it’s funny that CBHS and the Peelander have the same basic colors for their websites. prolly change when Peelander Z releases a new album.

random random random… went out to the high-school-area last weekend (it’s a good 3hr drive away) and hung out with older friends over the last weekend. Got some new Doc Martens, and hoping they last a bit longer than the old pair. They are actually comfortable out of the box, which I was surprised at. And they look… kinda swedish. I have a “free” plane ticket to somewhere that i need to actually look into using, I think. Have been looking around and finding lots of cool stuff, just none of it here. Couldn’t convince the iframes to work in the way I want so I’m going back to seperate pages for everything (which isn’t too bad, to be honest). Will do more ajaxy stuff later, I think.