I just moved into my first apartment on Monday; it's an awesome studio, in a renovated house, and literally a stone's throw from public transportation. Moving day was a bit crazed. It had already been raining for about a day, off and on. It looked like it was finally going to stop, but right before the movers showed up the rain started again, and then proceeded to torrent just as the movers arrived. The two guys and myself packed the van for the next half hour (or so) in the pouring rain; it was a new experience and kinda fun (for me).

Moving from a room in my friend's busy house to my own place by myself is turning out to be an interesting transition. I've never lived by myself, so that part concerned me, but I've also never felt like I really had a home-it's always been someone else's home, run their way, and I wasn't able to really settle in. The first day (and night) was filled with phone calls, IMs and texting to fill the gap of a full house of long-time friends. It's a few days later now and I'm finding the quiet solitude to be more peaceful.

Since I've never had my own place, I'm also finding that making a list of basic necessities is uncharted territory. The list is constantly changing; add something, remove something, this or that is more critical than these or those, or my favorite, 'this is a studio and that (whatever) won't fit there'... along with a lot of online price comparisons... So far, I'm at:
Hangers - too many clothes, and 0 drawers or dressers to put them in.
Ladder - 9 foot, 11 inch ceiling, 5 foot, 4 inch person (conversation to self when i finished measuring... "what were you thinking?! obviously i wasn't thinking, i was just 'ooh, tall ceilings, pretty!'  insert drool here." Moron. Short, short moron. But they really are nice ceilings... even if I do feel like a hobbit.)
Kitchen Cart - Where or where will my cookware live?!
Trash/Recycling Bins - My 'pile-o-crap' is piling up.
SofaBed - Floors are bad for sleeping, m'kay? (I moved with piles of stuff and ZERO furniture)
Coffee-Making Essentials - no coffee, unhappy Fesha...   gah, and I need a Teapot!! (with a tea cozy of course!)
Washboard - Think I'll stick to washing clothes in the relative comfort of my own bathtub.
In other, much shorter words, it'll be a good long while til I'm fully settled in. But it's going pretty well so far!

Other riveting news...  It's Raining. Again. Started up about 15 minutes after sunrise. Thunder, Lightning, almost heartfelt recriminations, the full package. The sunrise was spectacular, despite the almost immediate blotting out of said sun. And why was I awake to witness all this you ask (or more likely, don't ask)? Because around 12:30 this morning I got the notion that right then was a good time to clean my 'lovely' new bathroom. I can not emphasize how much I dislike mold. I spent an hour + cleaning in there and I'm not finished; going to have to re-caulk the tub this week. Then I spent the rest of the pre-dawn morning cleaning the kitchen and putting more stuff away.

Also, I enrolled in college and will starting come spring semester, so I'm really looking forward to that as well!


================================================


New art pieces, experiments, in-progress work, free downloads, stories, prose, essays, etc, will be uploaded to my blog first from now on (for the most part). I'll decide if something is worth uploading to Absinthyium or Absinthyium-stock (respectively) afterwards.

Updates for anything and everything I've got going on are on my blog, but I'm not ready to give a web address yet. For now, check out my Twitter updates @FDKelly

Me being me, it's unlikely that I'll get around to reading any comments or messages left here. So when I post the blog address, just leave comments there, thanks.

=============

I'm re-working a few pieces previously uploaded to my Absinthyium account that I think have the potential to be better. The rest are getting deleted regardless of how many +favs or comments they have. There isn't enough reason for me to re-assign the reject pile to scraps, so please don't bother suggesting it.

New work will be added occasionally, after it's been uploaded to my blog.

=============

I'm re-working all of the Absinthyium-stock resources. The image resolutions I used are poor for most of the resources and the Read-Me files are outdated. I have several high-quality texture packs to finish and upload, and several ideas for new things. I'll be focused on vector packs, texture packs, photoshop brushes, photoshop patterns, and fonts.

New work will be added occasionally, after it's been uploaded to my blog.

=============

My third DA account, TheBlueLotus, is dead. Everything I had there, has been or will be moved to Absinthyium.

No new work will be added there unless I find some other project to use the account for.

=============

Hello everyone, firstly, "THANK YOU" to everyone who stopped by my gallery, favorited, and/or commented while I've been gone. I Always appreciate it. Personally, I'm starting to look for work again and am selling off whatever I don't need/want on Ebay to have enough ca$h to pay testing and application fees and whatnot to finally go to art school. I'm hoping for one place in particular so I can go for a BFA with an emphasis on three-dimensional art (jewelry, metalwork, sculpture, etc), and a Minor in Photography - wish me luck!

I've also started these past couple weeks seriously exploring three-dimension digital art and the software used to create it and so far Vue and Poser ROCK! I'll be uploading my first Poser experiment when I'm done writing this. I don't think I'll be getting too in-depth with custom modeling, mainly because it drives me nuts working with primitives, but also because if I'm going to "sculpt" something, I'd rather put the effort into a physical sculpture than a digital one (I just prefer more tactile projects).

Oh, and if anyone happened to notice, I closed my Flickr account. Didn't want to, but I want to kill my last yahoo email, and yahoo won't let me have Flickr under a different email.

Ask how my day was, I fucking dare you.

i have been home since about 9:30 pm; i left 10:00 this morning, all for One Single Sodding Doctor Appt. i better not have to do this shit again on monday, F.U.C.K.

It was for a brain mri for my daughter, and i was 2 hours too early to begin with. also, my kid was very upset from lack of food (mri instructions, no solids 8 hrs prior only clear liquids 3-4 hours prior) and she's getting this bloody thing done from inability to gain weight in the first damn place, how is starving her going to help?!  :stress:

The sedation and mri itself went smoothly, although it took about twice as long as i thought (5:30 pm). then the medical transportation service that picked us up (which went fine), said we missed our return ride after i called to see just where the hell they were (almost 7pm now) and they have the nerve to insist that "i wasn't there" when i was waiting outside in the bitter cold with my still drugged, exhausted and starving child for almost two hours and No One Came.

Then i called a taxi, waited the 45 minutes, called and asked where they were, waited 30 minutes, called again, was told to wait 15 minutes for the driver to show and if not, call again (which i did!), only to be sent from the entrance i was at the whole time in a mad dash to the Main main entrance (child still drugged after all this time and crying every so often). oh and in between all the taxi crap, i had to keep calling my house to try to get a hold of my grandmother to see if she would be willing to pay the cab fare home, except she couldn't hear anything i said so i had to yell all my business in the damn hospital lobby for her to even know what was going on. at least she immeadiately agreed to pay the fare.

the driver was a metal-head, which kinda relieved the stress, since i didn't have to do any 'whatever-to-english' translations, and the style of speech was something i'm extremely accustomed to so it just didn't add to my stress, and the simple fact that we were Finally going the hell home eased my emotions somewhat.

but i'm still unhappy. the 4 hrs of waiting made me think of a lot of stuff that i never allow myself to, case in point, i won't discuss any of that here. or most likely, anywhere else to anyone else.  






and to think, she has an opthamology appointment bright and early monday morning. and at least 4 more for different things the next two months...  At Least. i refuse to go through today's stress and utter emotional trauma for every appointment we're given.

just fucking kill me now.

Blog Rating:
Today's Cardinal Vice:




*Original Message - October 7, 06*

*note: all "battery" in this entry have been replaced with the proper term, "power supply", sorry for any confusion.


h e l p  m e . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Alright, for those who have been checking in with me since i started here, you've probably noticed a pattern with regards to my computer - as in a lot of crashes and more recently, hardware issues.

So, system-wide crashes aside, the past year or so there have been odd noises coming from the fan - not the regular cpu fan, the stupid fan attached to the inside of my lovely power supply. Also, this is my second power supply since I got the thing back in what? 2000?

Get up this afternoon, yes I've gotten decent sleep the past couple days, and I noticed my computer was off (I rarely turn it off - I know, not recommended, but I always use it).  So I go to turn it on, a quick flash of light from the power indicator, then Nothing.  Okay....  so I try again (a couple dozen times with various unplugging/plugging on/off of various parts) and still nothing.  Alright, not panicking yet.

After all the previous issues of the year, I realize it has something to do with the power supply, I figure "hey must be the fan-let's pray it's just the power supply fan and not the entire power supply and that i can fix it." So, I go and do what I had been vowing to myself I wouldn't do: I unplug everything, carry the cpu to a fairly decent light source (very dark in the basement hole where I live) and systemically begin gutting my cpu case.  On a side note, I was Not Thrilled with the entire civilization of dust bunnies I found residing within, they were evicted.

I unattach the power supply, take it apart, clean out the dust, repair a rattling of a loose something or another (no idea what the bit is called, nice huh? but I put it back where it looked most likely to go and I think I was right), then I inspect the rest of the case to catalogue what is what and what goes where, put the power supply back together, drag the whole thing to the nearest outlet, and give it a test run.  Still nothing, so I switch it off and on again, and with my handy little portable light (thank you uncle tommy) proceed to get a better view of the power supply so I can hopefully see where the issue is.  Admitting now, so don't yell at me for this:  I will, like anyone else, have moments in my life of incomprehensible stupidity - it's unavoidable. That said, I get close, turn the power supply on, and proceed to have an indeterminate amount of raw electricity surge through my body.  Cheers.  Well, after the blood-curdling scream (sure to go uninvestigated in this neighborhood), I shake off the residual electrical charge and dive back in (not literally); I warily unplug the cpu, plug back in, and flick the switch.....

Score, it bloody works!!!!!!!!!!  Test two more times for an extended period, and still working. Unplug the thing, switch it off, and proceed to put my computer back together. Turn it on, for what I'm hoping to be the final time today, and.....   NOTHING!!!!!!!!

Now, I finally shift from annoyed to panicking.

After a forced lie down and some thinking, I come to a few conclusions.
1) No money for a new power supply, and probably won't have enough for a couple months; same goes for getting someone to come here and fix it.
2) It's the power supply as a whole, not the power supply fan, and besides, the power supply fan is sodered into the power supply itself, and I do not trust my technical expertise (lack thereof) to fix it even if I did have the sodering equipment to do it (which I don't).
3) My grandmother has a laptop and has been bugging me for months to straighten it out for her and set up a network and make sure that our house dsl can be accessed through her computer as well.
4) Can't fix her laptop without all the add-ons and whatnot that I have on my hard drive, which I can't access at the moment.
5) Her computer has wireless, mine doesn't, how do I work all this?

So I get up, "borrow" my grandmother's laptop, unplug the cpu from everything again, drag it back to my now "work area" and proceed to detach the hard drive. After much cursing of Hewlett-Packard (who's executives by-the-by are dropping off like flies due to a security probe), I finally manage to detach my hard drive.


There's the summary, here's where I plead for help:
1) How do you convert an internal hard drive to a (temporary) external hard drive for a laptop?

2) Where's a good place(s) to go in the Philadelphia area to buy a new desktop power supply with a fan, where they might not price-gouge?

3)How do you set up a network between a wireless capable laptop and a (currently) non-wireless capable desktop when the laptop is on the second floor and the desktop is in the basement?

4) How do you share a dsl connection through such a network or even without the network, but still with a laptop and desktop with the above mentioned conditions?


I'm in serious straights here...  I have basically no computer right now, and until I can at least get some help on making my hard drive accessible from this "borrowed" laptop, I'm going to be thoroughly reduced to just writing up journals, begging for help.  I can't even watch a dvd on here because there is no audio and the files i need to fix it are on my hard drive.

HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I just finished installing my Instant Messenger.  I only can remember my password for yahoo, so that's the only account I have open.  If anyone has any help to offer, my IM is open for absinthyium@yahoo.com.  The internal to external hard drive is top priority and I can't do anything else until that is settled....  

Damn, 3:00 in the morning, writing this took far longer than usual - hating laptop touchpads....  I'm going to the store for donuts and lots of coffee, hopefully when I get back, I'll be able to make some kind of progress (i'll be looking online for help to, but some more practical and personal input would be better and much more appreciated!)

=========================================================

*UPDATE - October 23, 06*

Well, hello one and all. I've made progress.

I received an unexpected (sort of) financial windfall. I say "sort of" because I was expecting it, but hadn't received my usual account update notification for a while (delays are typical) so I had no idea. But even if I hadn't received any new deposits, my grandmother found out about my dead power supply and was gracious enough to offer to pay for a replacement as an early christmas present.

As for the power supply itself, I was encountering some issues in selecting a sufficient replacement. I did some research online and was rather annoyed to find that the tower for the pc model I have is not standard dimensions (issue 1) and the power supply itself requires a 20+4 pin with the 4 being a video connector to the motherboard (issue 2). Quite inconvenient, and just like HP to so limit the amount of upgrading that can done. So I ended up express ordering a replacement power supply directly from the HP website and hopefully, whatever voltage is running in the outlet I use will be enough to power it. The second power supply that just died was compatible with the outlet, but when I found the makers' website, they don't even make the model anymore. Bloody brilliant. The new supply should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday, so I'm just sitting tight til then.

In regards to the network I want to set up, best option looks like installing a wireless NIC card(?) in my desktop (if HP will even let me) and configuring a network connection with a wireless router. Don't know when I'll get around to that, but it'll get done.

Since I don't have access to my own hard drive, there's quite a bit that I can't make progress on right now, like overhauling my stock account, formatting more e-books, or continuing any mid-progress art projects (or my web site), so I'm doing other stuff. Mainly getting new fonts and more photoshop/illustrator/apophysis add-ons, and teaching myself how to do vector and pixel art (still disliking Illustrator, but at least I understand it better).

Other Things:
I officially prefer my crt monitor over this laptop's lcd screen. CRT displays true colors much better. However, the lcd is better at showing me all the coloring errors in my art pieces, so I think once I get my system running again, I will be comparing all my art between the two systems to make sure the colors are exactly the way I want (unless anyone's got an easier way to suggest?)

Finally fixing the lighting down here in my basement hole - it is very very dark down here all the time. The lamp I was using (very old) had yet another burned bulb, it goes through them rather quickly because of all the lousy wiring in this house, and this time the bulb just won't screw out, so I was very concerned that I would be languishing in utter darkness for an untold amount of time, but...   I just couldn't take it, so off I went to Walgreen's. Bought two stick-up bulbs, they're nice, but after 6 hours, the batteries understandably get overheated and the light dies; the batteries aren't drained, take them out and leave them to cool for a bit and you can use them again, but still very inconvenient for extended periods. So yesterday I went back to Walgreen's and bought --these-- . I have them set up in a grid pattern on the ceiling. I'm still looking for one or two more lights (plug-ins) so I don't have to be concerned about replacing batteries, but these are already far more efficient than the portable light bulbs. They were cheaper (per package), give off more light per piece, give off "white light" which was what I wanted, last longer, are much better suited for overhead light, and best of all, easy installation with no wires to cause any additional wiring problems. Plus, I love how I can completely change the feel of the entire room just by alternating which lights are turned on in the grid.

I have enough money right now to get a 200-250 GB external usb 2.0 plugnplay hard drive, but I want 350-500, so I wait a couple more months I guess. Financial stuff should be much more stabilized by then.

Well, that's it for now I suppose until the new power supply arrives... Cheers!

=========================================================

*UPDATE - November 1, 06*

Installed the power supply, optical drives and floppy work, but when I tried to load the system, it demanded I insert the boot disk. So I do. But now, I kept getting this message
:thumb41966724:
So it recognizes that there are four partitions, but nothing beyond. Possible causes for failed hard drive access:

1) Reset BIOS
2) Damaged Motherboard
3) Damaged Hard Drive
4) Mutinous combination of all three

Researching how to test/fix the BIOS presently.

Blog Rating:
Today's Cardinal Vice:




Monday I went to bed around 9:30 a.m. and woke up around 2:00 p.m.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I went to bed around 8:30 a.m. (typical down time for me), woke up around 1:30 in the afternoon and was working steadfastly on web design and graphics (also typical) straight into the evening.

Late evening, I decided I wanted to make a new custom Photoshop brush set, using American McGee's Alice (pc game) as the theme. However, first I needed enough Alice graphics from the game itself to make a decent-sized set. I happen to already have the game, so I'm thinking, okay I'll just get the sound and graphic files from the disks like I've been meaning to since I bought it. It can't be that complex right?  ***Insert Convulsive Shuddering Here***  Alright, so after a hour or so of web surfing, I finally managed to find out 1)how to extract the files at all  2)what an .ftx file is and  3)find a program that would actually allow me to view the .ftx (fakk something?) graphic files, because none of the other Eight art/graphics programs I have installed on my system would do it, and convert them to .bmp - the only file extension available for conversion.

Game File Explorer 1.32

It was the only program I could find to even do it on such short notice and with No Batch Process available - yeah, that's right, I found myself converting .ftx to .bmp one file at a time for literally about 4,000-4,500 files, not including the targa files (still have about 1,000 of that 4-4,500 left to go by the way - make the trembling stop).

So there I sat, converting one bloody file after another in a mindless daze, and after about 6 hours straight, getting increasingly pissed at the guest for the Paracast podcast episode I was listening to in order to pass the time without going insane, because he just kept going on about how satanists control the world and that wiccans are okay as long as they are solitary practicioners and never gather for anything because then they become satanists as well and a bunch of other literal bull (please go back to discussing spontaneous human combustion, at least that had scientific bearing and the discussion was actually logical), I finally snapped around 2:30 this morning. I was actually ready to call it a "night". But then.....

Then I saw that my friend Eric was back online and that he had just gotten back from the Archenemy/Opeth concert he went to. I wanted to talk and know how the concert was, but I was sick of staring into the glowing hellfires of 1024x768 screen resolution, so I sent a message saying I was just gonna call it a night. But, stuff happens and I found that I was somehow awake and we ended up chatting for a while anyway.  So, during the conversation I decide I really need a better schedule (understatement of the millenia), and a good start for that would be an alarm clock, so there I am scouring online for a decent freeware alarm clock program. After two install/uninstalls for two different, crappy programs, I finally find a simple, decent one. It's nice and loud and keeps going until you're forced to get up and turn it off-or as was my case, turn down the speaker-I was too lazy to turn the monitor back on to actually turn it off you see.

So I finally say my goodnights around 4:15 a.m., and after setting my new alarm for 9:30 a.m. (yes, I know, not nearly adequate) and doing the final night check on my daughter, I hit the mattress about half an hour later.


Weeeellllllll..............

Guess what?  Go on, gueeesssss......   


I Couldn't Fall the HELL Asleep!!!!!!!!!!!  I was just, there, awake, for hours, my mind meandering random pathways, not even halfway through sodding unconsciousness. I had set my new alarm clock program for 9:30 am (yes, yes, that's only about 4 1/2 hrs sleep) and was Still Awake When It Went Off! Neck was a little stiff, but still alert. I finally conked it from around 10:30 am to 1:30 pm this afternoon.  And now, here I am................

Awake.

Lucid even.

I've noticed (note "noticed" not "started") for a few years now,  that all I seem to have to do is lie down, and not actually sleep or even close my eyes, just let my mind drift, and I can get up fully rested. It's seems to be quite similar to a Tibetan monk resting in a conscious meditative state. Just an interesting point.

In case you're wondering, starting from Monday 12:01 am to now, I've gotten about 12 1/2 hours sleep, and will most likely not get around to attempting to do so again til at least 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I really don't do this on purpose, I do not have any convoluted goals of "least amount of sleep achieved in a week's span", I'm just compulsive with whatever project I happen to be working on at the time, and will not be able to rest at all if I don't feel satisfied with the amount of progress. Guess I'll post tomorrow what time I manage to stop myself for rest tonight.


=====================================================


To Close, I'll enlighten one and all with some of my favorite personal quotes:

"Beelzebub is watching me."
(the flies are everywhere again, they seemingly come out of nowhere in droves and then they all disappear just as quickly, it happens randomly Throughout the year, and has been for years, and not just where I'm living at now!)

"Sanity is a relative term: like Good, or Evil... or Spork."
(Spork is a relative term, just think about it)

"I need more sharpie markers!!!! Yes I do, don't look at me like that!!"
(i have one in almost every color Sharpie has ever made, and no 30 different sharpies aren't enough! who needs stamps?)

"Wiggle to the glory of my multi-dimensional tofu cube!!"
(Tofu rocks, mm, soy-bean curd... try a sandwhich of a slice of still moist tofu with just some garlic salt, it's yummy, and yes i'm serious)

"I don't have a headache yet... but I ordered one from ebay and it should be arriving any day now! (insert booing here)"
(actually it arrived yesterday and as usual with ebay, the shipping and handling charges were murder)

"Pennies are not flammable, but hair is..."
(draw your own conclusions)

"Is that good, bad, or nuetral?"
(how to answer every comment made about you)

"My skull meat has cramps"
(translation: I seem to be experiencing a headache)

"If i'm going down into the abyss, you're all coming with me."
(A handbasket built for two? hmm)

"You may now go stroke yourself for upgrading your intelligence level from protoplasmic ooze to medieval villager."

"Narrow-mindedness is the fecal waste of fear of the unknown, with narrow-minded people being the fecal waste of society."

"Don't you open your mail?" (person 01)
"As a rule of thumb:  NO." (myself)

"I prayed for you today." (local crazy guy to me last week - he showed up out of nowhere when i was mere steps from my house)
"Nice to see people giving the devil his due." (response)

(the conclusion: life has been strange to me)


If you don't like this journal entry, please send comments/critiques to blowme@thebackofthetoolshed.com</strong>

Blog Rating:
Today's Cardinal Vice:




[ CSS ]


Alright, the basics are covered, now to really get into it and make the graphics, got a definite idea of what I want it all to look like.

Honestly, this has been very good practice for my website and really helping me understand css. I figured out how to create multiple css-only frames, which is certainly something I want to add to my site, so that's good. (no, you can't do that for your journal - already tested it).

Check out this little extra help from `thespook for beginners, as well as the latest journal.

Here are some other sites and resources beginners to advanced may find use of:

XHTML & CSS Basics to Advanced
[link]

CSS Properties Index
[link]

CSS & X(HTML) Lessons & Tutorials
[link]

CSS Tutorial with Try-It-Yourself Editor
[link]

A Properties Index with another Try-It-Yourself Editor
[link]

CSS Only Frames
[link]

CSS Only Rollover Tutorial
[link]

CSS Only experiments to learn from (for intermediate to advanced)
[link]

List Creation Tutorials & Examples
[link]

Menu Generator (requires account creation)
[link]

List Generator
[link]

Free CSS Menu Designs
[link]