Frak & Frell & Gorramit All

2009-05-07T19:46:00.001-07:00

... crap. Forgot to take the red border off the Snip Tool.

Anthropologist facinating or actual facinating?

2008-04-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from NWAC: The Northwest Anthropological Conference in Victoria, BC, Canada. It was a lot of fun (no, really) especially since I was able to go with a lot of the people I did my field school with. And because I almost literally ran smack into Kenneth Ames, whose research I used for a big paper I did a few quarters ago. It was his fault. Really. Lewis Binford was supposed to be there too, but we kept looking at all the old guys trying to find him and we're pretty sure he didn't show up. We also went on the ghost walk, which was pretty cool if just to see the architecture (yes, I'm a nerd).

Anyway... as you can plainly see, this entry isn't in ink. Because my tablet has been getting uncomfortably hot (as in, I can't put my hand on the bottom or it burns) even when I'm only running the most basic programs. So I'm staying away from tablet mode - as much as is possible when I use it to write class notes - until I can (a) figure out why it's suddenly getting so hot and fix it myself, (b) get to a point where I can take it to get looked at without it affecting my ability to do work, or (c) get so frustrated and annoyed with the overheating and the calibration issues I've been having that it takes an unfortunate, completely accidental tumble and I'm forced to cash in on that Best Buy warranty I have and get something else, an event that would most fortunately occur just after I'd done a backup of all my files and as they were carrying another tablet model (like the tx2000...).

... okay, I'm lying. I wouldn't purposely kill my tablet. But if the issues keep happening I'm definitely going to have to take it in. In class I only have EverNote going, with Thunderbird and BitComet going in the background. For the few months since I've had it my tablet has been able to hand that, and more, perfectly fine. But suddenly - as in the last month or so - it starts working hard after only those three programs and I have to switch over to paper because the fan kicks in and it's too loud for a class setting.

Now that I think about it though, it all started about the same time I installed EverNote. I might have to uninstall it and just go back to OneNote (which worked perfectly fine for my school needs and would probably work just as well for everything else I've been using EN for if I played around with it a little more).

On a related note; how awesome is the 31 Days of Dragon Giveaway coming up in May? The answer is "Extremely Fucking Awesome" in case you were confused. I've been thinking lately how great it would be to have a desktop as well as my tablet, then I could put all the programs that I don't need on-the-go - like BitComet and conversion stuff - and only have them on the desktop. Which would significantly cut down on the work my tablet has to do. So I'll definitely be entering those contests.

12:30 - Lunch With God

2008-04-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

[+/-] Hide/Show Text

It’s called Cop Porn

2008-04-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

The last time you found someone this competent, you wound up carrying her child.

2008-04-02T15:41:00.001-07:00

Right, sir, I’ll just be standing over here dozing off

2008-02-28T16:22:00.001-08:00

Trying a different inking method.

Crocker, there's a monkey in the MagLev

2008-01-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

I keep attempting to blog, but then Windows Live Writer crashes. I think I'm using the Ink Blog function for more text than the program can handle. So from now on, I'll only be inking shorter entries, and typing the longer ones.

So, here's the basics of the last little while in my life:

- New Year's was good. Boring, but good. I managed to finish a (late) Christmas present scarf for my uncle before midnight.

- Winter quarter classes have started. I'm taking History of the Pacific NW (from now on to be called PacNW), History of Religion in Early America (or Religion), Intro to Human Evolution (Anthro, my easy class), and I'm also doing an Independent Study Curation Project (or Lab).

- I've also added a workout time in to my Mon/Wed/Fri schedule, and switched the hours I work for my professor from Tues/Thurs to Mon/Wed.

- And I've vowed to start donating Plasma more often. I tend to slack off on that a lot and that's a potential $50 I'm losing a week.

- My new work/plasma schedule and my new diet/workout regiment are designed to (a) keep me from being lazy and get me into shape for my cruise in March as well as keeping my brain busy and in "doing work mode" so I don't slack off on school work and (b) save and earn me money, because I don't have any.

- I've been knitting. A lot. And at the same time watching all of seaQuest DSV, which I was very excited to finally find a torrent for in English. I've previously found both Spanish and Russian versions (at least, I think it was Russian, I don't speak it so I can't be sure), but never English. I think my next knitting-show will be a re-watch of Farscape, or at least as much of it as I currently own... which is only halfway through season 3 and the miniseries. I'll have to download the rest of the show because, while I plan to definitely buy them eventually, I can't right now (see above mention of lack of money).

We have a plan. We just don’t know what it is yet.

2007-12-28T12:32:00.001-08:00

So, I signed up for the Year Long Gift-A-Long, which might (and I emphasize might) help me keep up with the knitting projects I'm planning on... not to mention all the ones I haven't even thought of yet, which is practically guaranteed with me.

Wish me monsters

2007-12-25T19:05:00.001-08:00

We have normality

2007-12-23T12:11:00.001-08:00

Well, I fixed the color issues. The white makes everything way brighter than I generally like, but I'll get used to it.

Also added links to a few TabletPC and/or Inking blogs.

[edit] And, clearly, I need to figure out just how wide I can write so it all shows up in the post-space.

How's that for an inversion of normalcy?

2007-12-22T22:20:00.001-08:00

Show/Hide Text

Well, this is ink blogging! Exciting!

I'm trying out Ed Holloway's Ink Blog plug-in for Windows Live Writer. Obviously I'm going to have to work a bit on my handwriting, It's not quite as responsive as the TIP is (now that I've used it a lot).

I'm also going to have to mess with my Blogger color scheme, because the white background here is bugging me.

Anyway, this is my ink blog!

New teeth. That’s weird.

2007-12-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

So I did get my Tablet PC. My previous laptop finally died just before Thanksgiving Break, so when I went home for the holiday my dad and I went looking for a new one and I ended up with a convertible-tablet.

I kind of love it. It's an HP tx1000. Not great for the writing (although I'm actually not having any trouble with it now that I've practiced) because it's a straightforward touchscreen and not one of the active digitizer screens, but it's still really cool. It's one of HP's "Entertainment PCs" too, which is something I like because of all the video, audio and graphics I tend to run. And I think the tablet function will be really great for next quarter school stuff. I like having handwritten notes (because even thought I type faster when it's just me getting down my ideas, I write faster when it comes to taking notes in lectures) but having to leaf through a notebook to find them can get tedious, especially when I'm trying to find something for an essay. Having those notes on my laptop and being able to access them without needing to go through all that paper, or in fact having to carry a notebook at all, is really appealing. I'll probably keep a single-section notebook in my bag, just in case I need to hand something in or the prof hands something out, but in general this will cut down on what I bring to class.

Usually, the last couple quarters anyway, I’ve been bringing a 4-section paper notebook, an expanding file folder, my 15” HP dv4000 and any books I needed (plus misc. things like pens, planner, small notebook, mp3 player, etc), so my bag has been pretty heavy. But my tablet has (1) a 12” screen, so it’s much smaller and therefore lighter and (2) a removable CD/DVD drive, which doesn’t affect the weight a whole lot, but there is some difference when you pile other things on. So my laptop (3.5-4 lbs, I’d say) + one-subject notebook + books + misc. small items = lighter bag = good thing.

So far I’ve only encountered a few downsides to this particular tablet;

1) The fan is located in the back right… and it gets kind of hot - especially with extended use in tablet mode. BUT, in all honesty, I did drop it literally 30 minutes after getting it (yeah… oops) and there’s a slight crack in the casing around the fan. So it’s very possible that the fan functionality is being affected by that. But it’s also true that the fan getting hot is something I’ve heard about in general for this model. In any case, that may or may not get annoying in class, we’ll have to see. The nice thing though is that, so far, no matter how hot the fan has gotten it has never been loud. And it only gets particularly hot when I’m running a DVD for a long time in addition to Firefox and the various 2-3 programs (ThunderBird, BitComet, etc.) that are always running in the background. In class though, I wouldn’t be playing a DVD and would probably have, at most, OneNote and Firefox running simultaneously, with ThunderBird in the background.

2) The buttons. HP has the QuickPlay feature on their laptops (at least on the Entertainment PC models). It’s nice for when you’d like to watch something but don’t want to go through the whole boot-up process (especially considering how long it takes Vista to situate itself) but I don’t ever use it. However, on this particular tablet the buttons for the QuickPlay are on the side of the screen… right where a right-handed person (such as myself) would rest their hand when using the tablet in Primary Landscape orientation. In fact they’re really easy to accidentally hit in any orientation. It gets annoying when you hit the button and then have to wait for the QuickPlay to start, just so you can X out of it and get back to what you were doing.

3) The keyboard. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it per se… it’s just that I’m used to a bigger laptop and therefore a bigger keyboard. The PAGE DOWN, PAGE UP, HOME, END and (right) SHIFT keys are proving to be difficult to get used to, since I’m more accustomed to them being either a different size and/or in an entirely different location. Its also got one of those touchpads that are flush with the surrounding area and are just de-bossed dots… it’s kind of weird to get used to is all.

4) The screen. Like I said, it’s not an active digitizer, it’s just a touchscreen, so it’s not optimal for writing on. But since I’ve gotten used to it and learned to not be worried that I’m going to break the screen (because I’m not, it’s a plastic pen for crap’s sake), I don’t think it’s really an issue and so it isn’t really a downside. Maybe half of one.

All-in-all, I’m really liking it. I just hope I get OneNote for Christmas, because I liked the structure of it and even used it to organize my thoughts/notes/outlines for a few papers, but my trial ran out. I can still use it to type in, but I can’t use the inking capabilities… which kind of defeats the purpose of using it to take handwritten notes in class in tablet mode.

I think I'm going to try my hand (heh, bad pun) at Ink Blogging soon. We'll see how that goes, eh?

You know, people underestimate the value of a good ramble

2007-12-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well...

Osteology & Forensics: A-
History of Ancient Greece: C+
Anthropological Statistics: C-

I passed. Barely (in the case of Stats and History) and awesomely (in the case of OsteoForensics) but still passed. Which means, as of right now, I am still looking at being able to graduate in Spring. Which is fantastic.

Right now however, it's Winter Break. I'm at home (in Puyallup) and bored. Very. Very. Bored.

There's just not a whole lot to do here, especially since I've been home for the last week and my parents/brother still had school until today. Which, so far, means I've been spending most of my days watching seasons 1 & 8 of Stargate SG-1 (because, randomly, those are the only seasons I own) and the first two seasons of Stargate Atlantis. I'm saving the first season of Farscape for any Boredom Emergencies that might crop up between now and whenever I decide to go back to Bellingham.

Oh, and knitting. Which I haven't mentioned yet but which I've been crazy for since I learned how to a month and a half ago. Scarves everywhere. Guess what my family gets for Christmas? Yup.

Still, Stargate plus Knitting has proven to be a good combination... probably because I don't really have to watch the show, it just provides a nice background. Plus, it makes me feel slightly less lame for sitting in bed all day knitting, like a grandma. It probably shouldn't. It's quite possible that it should actually make me feel more lame, but whatever.

Speaking of lame. My little brother got into a car accident on Saturday. Managed to take out a light pole (and by "take out" I mean "ripped out of its base, pole in the bushes 15 feet away and light in the road"), roll a few times, total an Explorer, haul himself out the passenger-side window (at the time parallel to the ground) action-hero style, and walk away with only a single bruise. If he'd been in any smaller of a car he'd have probably been dead (granted, a smaller car probably wouldn't have spun out like the Explorer did).

Yeah. Good times.

Do or do not. There is no try.

2007-12-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

I have a seriously hard time motivating myself to do anything these days. Like right now for instance; I should be working on my Statistics homework that's due in an hour.

But instead I'm looking at my test scores and deciding whether or not I can get away with not doing it and still pass. I'm doing math to avoid doing other math.

Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket...

2007-04-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

There are a few (material) things I really want right now. Such as:

- A Tablet PC.

- A motorcycle.

- A vanity plate that says "WTFRELL" or "WTFRAK" or "FARSCP1" or "PDLJMPR" or "VPRJOCK" (preferably for said motorcycle).

- The Farscape, Red Dwarf and Stargate DVDs I don't already have, ReGenesis, all of the X Files, Cowboy Bebop, Fooly Cooly, Supernatural, Quantum Leap, Smallville (s5), Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica. On DVD. Oh, and the second season of House.

- A pirate ship.

You don't know what strange means?

2007-04-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, David Duchovny. You're so fucking adorable.

In other news; I'm watching X Files. From the beginning.

We were better with beer

2007-04-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Random drinking nights are always amusing... it gives me an excuse to be a little more honest. Granted, it also makes my friends think I'm way more drunk than I am, but whatever.

Here's something. Have I mentioned that I want a new laptop? I have an HP Pavilion dv4000 tight now. I love it, really, it's great but it's also a few years old and getting a little slow. Poor girl. What I want is a Tablet PC, a Fujitsu T4215 or an Asus R1 if I can manage it. The only issue is money. If I got one I'd keep the one I have and continue to use it for video, downloading, Photoshop... basically use it as a desktop and use my tablet for school. 'Cause my current laptop is an awesome 15" and great for graphics and video and any tablet I got would only be a 12-13" (I've tried taking this behemoth to class and it takes up more room than I have on the desks in most rooms).

Anyway. That's a little random, but whatever.

Waste disposal unit armed and ready, sir.

2007-04-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

I need new friends.

The ones I have kind of suck.

I don't have time to explain Temporal Compression Theory to you

2007-04-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

Oh... this quarter is going to suck. It's probably a good thing all my TV shows are winding down, because I'm pretty much not going to have time to do anything but read my textbooks and write papers about what I've read for the next two and a half months.

This is way better than a box of wine with a duck on the front

2007-04-03T21:23:00.001-07:00

It was pretty out today. The first time in a while. Just wonderfully warm and absolutely beautiful.

I wish I'd taken a picture.

Welcome to the Federation Starship SS Buttcrack

2007-04-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

I live in a house with four other people. It's a red house. An old, red house 15 minutes from main campus. The heater doesn't work too well and the windows rattle whenever the weather gets a little gusty and it's obscenely easy to break in if you forget your key, but it's home. For now anyway.

E: I mentioned E in my previous post. E is female, 20, an art history major and she's the mom of the house. She cooks for us and is generally bossy. She's probably the closest friend I have at the moment, even if I really can't stand her on the days she gets her panties in a twist or whenever we play video games and she loses. E is not a gracious loser. And she'll argue anything. Plus, she makes fun of me for liking the things I do. She doesn't know me half as well as she thinks she does. E likes to think she's accepting and nice to everyone when really she's bitchy with a side order of irrationality; two qualities I get to experience firsthand. E likes to come in and plop her uninvited-ass onto my bed and talk for forever about whatever and whoever is she feels like complaining about that day.

E likes mixing drinks, taking sips of everything. She's a Cosmo kind of gal, but she'll knock back a beer or two when she's in the mood. She likes to be in control of the situation, of what others are doing.

L: The other girl in the house, recently 21, E's friend since birth and kind of a whore. But not in the "I'll have sex with everyone and anyone" way, instead it's in the "I'll talk about sex with everyone and anyone" way. It's equally irritating. L likes to think she's smarter than other people (an authority on everything), and she likes to think she has a great ass and magnificent tits. I've seen them. Everyone's seen them. They're not that great. She likes to think she's a giver, when she's really just the epitome of a spoiled only-child. L is a Communication Sciences & Disorders major, or CSD, and she likes to flaunt it; repeatedly mentioning that she's going to be the most successful of all her friends because of it. L wears ugly (but supposedly trendy) jackets and shrugs and boots in an attempt to be like her mom (who negotiates weapons treaties for the government or something and makes a lot of bank). She's blonde (or a redhead, depending on the current dye-job) and yuppie and will probably end up married with five children no matter how much she doesn't want to be a housewife because she can't stand being without a boyfriend for too long. She's the sexually-liberated, attention-grabbing 15-year-old of the house.

L likes her Cosmos and her gin & tonics and tequila shots. She's a little old-fashioned and likes to think she's classy, but she just can't shake the need to get good and boozed up and flash someone.

M: E's boyfriend, 21 (the oldest in the house) and a journalism major. M likes to talk tough, but he's indecisive and a complete pushover. M wears polyester pants, does the crossword puzzle every day, cleans all the time and is generally curmudgeonly. Four good reasons why he's been given the title of "Grandpa-Grandma" in our little house family. He can be a jackass. M and L tend to get naked together, creating strip games out of activities that should never be connected to stripping, because they both have no shame. M is self-deprecating and will do almost anything if pushed hard enough, especially if it'll get him a laugh. He's unsure about himself in general, and tries to make up for it by keeping everyone's attention at all times. Because if they're laughing at his jokes and if he acts confident enough it'll actually stick. M is irritating in that constantly-moving, constantly-talking/humming/drumming kind of way.

M doesn't drink. He has enough insecurities when he's completely sober.

A: Also a guy, a vegetarian, and 20, though he turns 21 pretty soon and spends most of his nights drunk anyway. He's a psych major with a penchant for really, really bad horror flicks. A doesn't spend a lot of the time at the house, which is probably just as well since he doesn't believe in deodorant. And as skinny as A is, he can produce a surprising amount of stink. He's tattooed and pierced and likes to play guitar and that's about all I know about him, despite having lived with him for six months. That's kind of sad, right? In our little scenario here, A is the crazy uncle who drops in every now and then on the family reunions, gets drunk, pees in Grandma's flower garden and ends up passed out under the picnic table. But no one ever calls him on it because, well, it's kind of funny.

A will drink anything you put in front of him, no matter how vile, as long as there's alcohol in it. He drinks like a hobo and he smells like one too.

Me: Ah yes, the final house member. Female, archaeology major, 20-years-old. The baby of the house in age personality; I may not hang around people very often, but when I do I can whine and bitch and prod and eventually get what I want. Because they all "love me" and because I'm the one who sits and listens to them whine and bitch about each other and they owe me. I have a tendency to lash out at people when I'm irritated, even when they don't deserve it. I like my personal space and that pushes people away, makes them think I'm antisocial. I am sarcastic and violent and a little reckless about certain things. I am selective about which friends know what about me and not one of them knows everything. I am lazy to the point of it being slightly self-destructive. My computer holds my life. I am friendly and loud and opinionated on my best days and clinically depressed on my worst, but I've never been to a doctor about it because the days I'm motivated enough to go are the days I don't feel it. My parents are out of the loop because I don't want them disappointed in me.

I hate gin (tastes like paint-thinner) and wine and champagne (smells like moldy, cheesy feet). I'm a rum fan and I'll pound back a shot of whiskey or down a Guinness or sip on a whiskey-n-water when the mood hits me. I like to think I'm tough, big-talker and all that, but I can only dish it not take it.

Aside from the people, we also have pets:

Smaug; bearded dragon; mine for about six years
Gus; betta fish; E's for two years
Jai; betta; mine for two years
Bing; betta; E's for a year and a half
Gunter; betta; L's for a year
Zelda; black rat; E's for four months
Peach; white rat; L's for four months, though E will probably end up with her permanently
Bill Pardy; betta; mine for almost a month

As well as eight video game consoles (NES, SNES, N64, Wii, Atari and 3 NDS Lites) and an absurdly large, and ever-growing, DVD collection (mostly fueled by yours truly).

We eat good food, throw good parties and bitch about life and each other on a daily basis.

Ahh... family.

Don't you think she looks tired?

2007-04-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

I get that it's Spring Break and I get that Saturday night is prime party-night.

Really. I do.

But is it really necessary to be yelling to each other and sitting in a running car for hours at 4:00 am? Is it? Because I'd really liked to have gotten some sleep last night. But I didn't, so now I'm exhausted and hungry. At least E is home... and she can fix the second one pretty quickly and deliciously.

Which reminds me; I should do a "This is Me and This is Who I Live With" post in the near future.

Frak & Frell & Gorramit All

2007-03-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

I feel like I should say something profound and groundbreaking to kick this thing off... but I got nothing.

Hopefully this thing will end up being used more than my previous attempts; all of which crashed and burned pretty quickly.

Anywhoozles. Welcome to Frak & Frell & Gorramit All: The Rantings, Ravings and Ramblings of a SciFi Junkie