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Friday, August 31, 2001
Whoa...Haven't I been here before? At least this time only a Sheriffs Deputy and a Screw Ball died needlessly and not a bunch of innocent children. It's still saddens me that any of it had to happen at all.
It had been a couple of days since I had been over to Project Cool to checkout the latest Sightings. When I arrived yesterday I thought that all of my bookmarks might have been changed. No not changed, Project Cool is totally different now. They are now a part of Dev X.
Maybe it’s the rain or maybe its just hormones, but I’ve been feeling a little melancholy lately. Not really melancholy maybe blue. Hmm, no not blue ok, ok…I’m depressed. There I said it. I’ve been trying to fight it for several months now, but things just keep happening that make it harder to look at the bright side. I’ve always been a “glass is half full” kind of girl, but the glass is getting smaller and smaller. I’m tired of Kraft Dinner and Ramen Noodles. I’m tired of sending out 500 resumes and not hearing back from a single one. Is there something wrong with my e-mail, I ask myself? I’m tired of scouring the job boards daily and not finding anything in my field. I just want things to go back like they were a year or so ago when I had recruiters calling me constantly wanting to send me out on an interview for a 70k a year job. I want to have a nice expensive lunch with the girls and have the company pay for it. I don’t want to worry that I won’t be able to afford to go to SXSW this year. I want my dot-com life back…please.
Thursday, August 30, 2001
Horoscope (Taurus) Well, I feel better now. So somebody want to give me a job? :)
It's almost September and if you're like me you're totally jonesing for some hockey. Have no fear, if you're a Stars fan you can always attend the Public Scrimmage on Sept. 19th at the new American Airlines Center. Tickets are only $6 and $8 and the proceed go to the Dallas Stars Foundation. Speaking of the Star, I'm just a little bit concerned to see that a few of my favorite Stars have been traded. Bret Hull, and Mike Kean left sometime in early June and now Grant Marshall has been traded. These guys were all seasoned veterans who really knew how to make the plays. I hope the young guys that replace them learn quickly.
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
How strange...we received a magazine in the mail today from Earthlink. Strange I say because we have not used a dial up account (earthlink) for about 20 months now. We've been using SWBell DSL ever since we moved into an apartment that was in a DSL area. We so love DSL by the way. Anyway, I started thumbing through the mag just to see if it was any good or not. It's filled with some pretty basic articles. One of which tells you about cookies, another explains how to attach photos and docs to your e-mail. Like I said, very basic, but there are a few interesting article on some meatier subjects like researching your family tree on-line. It has several useful genealogy links. I wonder if this is a one time mailer or if we will start receiving it monthly. Gosh, I hope they're not charging our closed account for it. ;-)
Tuesday, August 28, 2001
Gosh! It seems that everyone is going through a redesign phase right now. I just went over for my daily peek at Swallowing Tacks and it's been redone as well. If you're keeping score at home here's a run down of some of the newer looks I've seen in the past week. Those talking about a redesign: Maybe some of this creative energy will brush off on me.
Monday, August 27, 2001
Great job Leia. I like your new look. Speaking of new looks...WOW Billy, a big fist always gets my attention.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY!!!! I hope it's a great day!! I had the pleasure of meeting JPlay last week at the DFW Blogs Happy Hour. He mentioned that he was going to Norman last weekend to go see North Carolina play OU. Having spent a good majority of my life rooting for the Sooners, my ears picked up when I heard mention of the team. Jason is absolutely correct about the crowed at OU. Having gone to many games myself I can attest to the fact that there are several fans that do get out of hand at the games, but that goes on pretty much anywhere. Winning a National Championship doesn't help the crowed there much either. Not that there has not always been a HUGE backing for the Sooners, it's just that when they start winning you get a lot more of the "fair weather" fans in the crowed. Where were they 5 years ago when OU couldn't win a game to save their lives? That has always upset me just a bit. I was raised in a family that no matter what kind of season OU was having we watched the games and cheered them on very loudly. I personally sat through several OU/Texas weekends and had to endure the terrible treatment of OU fans at the hands of the Texas fans. I grew up in Dallas, this "fair weather fan" syndrome is nothing new to me. I know we all want to back a winner, but we also have to remember that no team can stay on top and be strong forever. Ok, I'm now stepping off of my soapbox.
Sunday, August 26, 2001
My weekend was spent amongst a bunch of loud sweaty football betting fools and that was just the females in the group. I kid...Actually, I did learn probably more than I would have ever wanted to know about "points spread" and "I took TCU but I gave the points". If you know anything about gambling you know that was not a good call, right Denny?;-) Neither is betting on Dallas Cowboys pre-season games, but I digress. Anyway, we had a good time and many a frosty cold beverages were consumed. We got rained on and we think we might have brought a bit of the wet stuff back home with us. I’m tired now so I’m going to bed.
Friday, August 24, 2001
First off, Happy Birthday Blogger. I know I'm a day late, but that's ok 'cause I'm also a dollar short. ;-) Secondly, I just finished updating my links to include all of my new friends I met the other night at our first DFW Blogs get together. That was really a lot of fun and from reading everyones blog it looks like we ALL had a fantastic time. If you missed out all you need to do is go read Erica's account of the entire evening. :) I sent my photos to Leia and she said she was going to add a photos page to DFW Blogs so you should all be able to see the pics pretty soon. Gianni and I are off to Sooner Country for the weekend to celebrate my sisters 27th Birthday. Gosh if my kid sister is 27 how old does that make me? I'll write more when we get back.
Wednesday, August 22, 2001
What a fun evening!!! Gianni and I just spent a few hours getting to know our fellow bloggies in the DFW area. If your a fellow bloggie in the area and you missed our first get together, no worries we had so much fun we're already planning our next gathering. More to come...
Sorry I have not posted that much this week, I've been pretty busy working on a few designs for my current consulting project. I'm looking forward to tonight's DFW Blogs happy hour. It will be nice to catch back up with a few of you that I met this year at SXSW and it will also be nice to meet some new bloggers as well.
Sunday, August 19, 2001
I've started cooking at home a lot more lately. Partly because we're trying to save a little money and we're also trying to eat a little healthier. We discovered a very economical treat the other day at a Taiwanese Grocery Store outside of Dallas. We bought a 25 lb. bag of Jasmine rice for about $6.00 and I've been making some yummy Chinese delights. We don't have a wok, but my electric skillet works wonderfully. Yesterday I made homemade Broccoli Beef with steamed Jasmine rice and tonight I made Chicken Fried Rice. Both dishes were absolutely beautiful. I’ve never attempted to cook Chinese dishes before and was delighted to find that it is not as difficult as I had imagined. Everything cooks relatively fast it’s just the prep work that takes a little bit of time. You’re apparently supposed to let rice sit in water for about 2 hours before you cook it. When you do that it only takes about 5 minutes to actually cook the rice and the results are just like what you’d expect from a Chinese Restaurant. The Jasmine rice we bought has a very pleasant taste, just slightly sweet due to the Jasmine. It goes wonderfully with beef, chicken and vegetables. I’d like to buy some pork and try a spicy Thai Pork recipe I found. I’ll let you know how it goes. :)
Saturday, August 18, 2001
Thursday, August 16, 2001
It's been an incredible four years full of ups and downs, job promotions and failing dot-coms, sunny days and rain filled nights. And through it all we've been there together. Thank you for sharing your life with me. I love you!
Tuesday, August 14, 2001
Don't ask me why, maybe I was bored, but I did a search on Google for my Maiden name yesterday. My Maiden name is Tennent and I already knew that there is a Beer or actually a whole line of Beer's that share my name, but I had no idea about some of this other stuff. These are only a few of the things I found on the over 19,000 listed links on Google. Tennent New Jersey
Monday, August 13, 2001
Whew! I'm so relieved, I only scored a 9 on the Serial Killer Profile Quiz.
Valuable lesson learned here, all of you freelance designer, get EVERTYTHING in writing before you strat on a project. I had ask for a little advice about dealing with problem freelance customers about a week ago, well, it didn't turn out very well. There seems to be a discrepency between what is a design element and what is just maintenace. Long story shot, GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING!!!!
By now, those of you that have cable have probably already seen Samurai Jack on Cartoon Network. If you have not you really need to go check it out. It's very entertaining and beautifully done. Gianni and I watched it Friday night and really enjoyed it. No it's not Japanimation, but they definitely took things from that style and incorporated them into this new cartoon. Actually the Jack character reminds me a lot of one of the characters on Power Puff Girls, and the style of animation is very similar to that show. The music was great, very traditional Japanese with techno beat. It was pretty cool.
Saturday, August 11, 2001
I found Roma's site yesterday and wanted to comment on her latest post. As I read about your previous marriage I couldn't help but see the similarities in our lives. I married, for the first time, in January of 1993. My family was less than thrilled, but they thought it was what I wanted so they supported me. I dated my ex-husband for 4 years before we married, but I didn't really get it until the day of our wedding. I didn't really love this man, I just wanted out from under my parents roof. I was almost 25 and should have know better, but I honestly thought that this would be my only chance to get married. At the time I didn't fee like I had very much going for me and being a wife and making a home seemed to be my destiny. The day of the wedding I was in a total panic, I was looking for a window to jump out of. I needed to get out of that church and fast, but I couldn't find a way to do it. I was crying and everyone thought I was just nervous and that the tears streaming down my cheeks were tears of joy and not sheer panic. All I could think of was that my parents had just spent a bundle for my wedding, which by the way wasn't really even my wedding, it was my Mothers, and that I didn't know how to get out of it. I made it down the aisle and the ceremony continued. We had a very nice reception and I stared to feel like maybe I had just been nervous and that the little voice in the back of my mind that was yelling at the top of it's lungs to vacate the premises immediately was just nonsense. We went on our Honeymoon and the voice was now even louder than before. It wasn't necessarily anything that my ex had done to me I just realized that I was with a man that I did not love and who didn't treat me as well as I deserved to be treated. I left him 9 months later. The divorce was finalized a month after our first anniversary. Once I actually had enough courage to go back home I never looked back. I continued to pursue my career in broadcasting and even moved out of state. For the next two years I finally started to live. I made up for the 5 years of alienation and depression that I had experienced in my early 20's and really started to experience life. In June of '96 I met a man that made me feel like I was the only person in a crowed room. Of course I had to marry this him and 4 years later I can say that I made the right decision. I could not have made a better choice. Life really is better the second time around. :)
Cool! I've just been added to DFWblog.com Thanks Leia, let me know how I can help. I'd love to have a huge gathering of area bloggers. I met a bunch of Dallas bloggers at SXSW this past March, but it would be really nice to meet more.
Friday, August 10, 2001
Ok, so I have not talked about my car for a day or two. As I mentioned before, Gianni and I had decided to buy a very cheap stereo for my ca rather than go the alarm route and put in his very expensive Sony system. We found a stereo for about $90 and bought it. Gianni took my car to Car Toys on Wednesday to get my new stereo installed. While he was there the stinker decided to go ahead and buy me an alarm as well. I had no idea what he was up to until he came home and handed me back my keys with this new black box on my key chain. He smirked at me and told me that he had gone ahead and bought an alarm while he was getting my stereo put in. So now I have an alarm to ward off any two-bit criminal who might want to steal my new $90 stereo. God I love this man!!
Thursday, August 09, 2001
OH!! How exciting. Mel has been asked to write a book. She is looking for suggestions for international motion graphic designers from all fields: web, multi-media, film, broadcast, cable, etc. Go help her out.
Wednesday, August 08, 2001
This is officially my first posting for aortal. I ran a cross a very cute site this morning and wanted to share it with you all. OhMyGoodness.net is very well done. Darni is a wonderful artist and I really enjoyed her site especially the paper doll section. Nice use of color and her graphics...well you need to go check it out for yourself.
Taurus Actually this was yesterday’s horoscope and I guess you could say I did have a "financial" decision to make. I had to make a decision on a new stereo for my car. First Gianni and I were looking for car alarms. He has offered to put his old very expensive ($400) Sony stereo with CD player in my car to replace my stolen stereo. What a guy, I love this man! I told him that a locked car didn't keep this cretin from steal a very cheap stereo what makes him think that this jerk won't come back and steal my new stereo. I told him that I would not be able to forgive myself if someone stole his really nice stereo out of my car. We decided to get an alarm. We looked around and found some pretty good deals, but I reminded Gianni that we would be selling my car within the next 6 months and I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on an alarm and a new stereo. So, I decided that I would much rather spend a few bucks on a really cheap stereo and get that put in my car rather than going all out for a car that I would not be driving next year. This way if the thief wants to steal my stereo we're only out about $90.
Tuesday, August 07, 2001
Monday, August 06, 2001
After closer inspection of my car I guess you could say I feel a little better. Well actually maybe I feel a little more violated now. My car WAS LOCKED!! I now have greasy finger and palm prints on my driver’s side window and door where the little bitty glob of vomitos refuse that broke into my car left their calling card. They even got into my trunk. Luckily I keep a fairly clean car and there were no valuables in the trunk or the rest of the car. At least I know that I didn’t leave it unlocked all weekend. It’s second nature for me to lock my door and until I went back out to the car with Gianni this morning to show him what had happened I had actually been beating myself up over the thought of not having locked my car. Now I’m a little freaked out because I know that no lock would have kept this two-bit criminal out. For Christ’s sake it’s not like I drive a Jaguar or anything like that, it’s just a freaking ’92 Accord.
GREAT!!! It's 5:30 am Monday morning and I've just realized that my car got broken into last night. I have an early meeting this morning and I couldn't remember if it was at 7:30 or 8:30 because I had left my calendar in the back seat of my car. I get up out of bed, throw a baseball cap and my sandals on and head out to the car. As I get a little closer to the car I notice that it looks like the light is on but the doors are closed. I bend down a bit to see if it's just one of the parking lot light being reflected in my window only to discover that my drivers side door is just barely open. CRAP!!! My stereo is gone! I look around quickly to see if anything else is missing. No, it looks like they only took the stereo. At least that was the only thing of any monetary value that was in my car. Guess Gianni is going to have to install his new theft deterrent device on my car as well. Great start to a Monday morning eh?
Friday, August 03, 2001
Thank you Denise, Brad and Maggie for your wonderful suggestions on deal with a bad client. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to send me your thoughts on the subject. I'll keep you all update on my progress with this matter. BTW Maggie, fluffy battle kitten is one of the best domains I've ever heard of. :)
Here’s a question for all of you freelancers. How do you handle a client who does not pay? The scenario: A couple of months ago, I designed and built out a site for a client and still have not gotten paid. In the beginning of the project I had one central point of contact. Towards the end of the design stage, I now had another contact added to the mix. The problem was that the first contact didn’t know that the second contact was sending me changes to the design. I was making the changes on the first contacts authority because he had told me that contact 2 was going to be giving me changes. At one point I sent an e-mail with the current bill to contact 1. They flipped out when they saw the extra design hours that contact 2 had added to the bill with his changes. They did not realize that he had been giving me 15 hours worth of changes. They are now disputing those 15 hours not as design hours but as maintenance hours. I charge one price for design and another for maintenance to the site once the design has been signed off on and that design is carried out and put on-line. I was hosting the site on my server until their DNS had propagated. It was about 15 days until they had their domain moved to their new IP and host. In that time they were sending clients to my server to view their site so technically, I could be charging them for hosting. I’m not and that’s not what this is all about. It’s about the big “male” client trying to take advantage of the little “girl” designer. They want to see how long I will hold out before I buckle and give them a kick ass site for way less than what it’s worth. Let me tell you they are already getting one hell of a deal. There is no way that any agency would charge them as little as I am. Plus they are already generating business off of the site I designed.
Thursday, August 02, 2001
Poor Dink. I hate when bad things happen to good people. The importnat thing here is that you ARE ok. Even though you do feel violated,just remember it's only stuff and stuff can be replaced...you cannot. Karma will have it's turn with the little hooligans that broke into your car. Just watch and see. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Wednesday, August 01, 2001
I think Gianni has a new found respect for me and what I do for a living. I've been helping him build out his website for a couple of days now and we both have a headache. ;-) In my very biased opinion, he has done an excellent job designing and building out all of the graphics on his own. He grabbed our digital camera a couple of nights ago and started snapping away. I think he came up with some really nice photography for the site. I've just been giving him some design pointers here and there and then I'd help him when it was time to program the page, but he has been doing everything else on his own. He is quickly finding out that there is a lot to learn and a lot to keep on top of, but I think he's doing an excellent job. He does realize now however that I do more than just put pretty pictures on the web. :)
Back in May my Sister in-law sat for the CPA exam. If you've never had to take this test before or don't know any CPA's let me tell you, this is one mother of a test. It's a 2-day test broken into 2-4 part tests of 4 hors per session. With me so far? Basically it’s a 16-hour test when it’s all said and done. Most people do not pas this test on their first go around. Out of the 610 people that took the test when Nat did, only 91 people passed the entire test on their first go around. Unfortunately she was not one of those 91, but she did pass 2 of the 4 parts, which means she only needs to retest the 2 sections that she did not pass. I am so happy for her because she was way stressed over the whole test and hey, who wouldn’t be, this is what makes or breaks a CPA. Now she knows the areas she needs to study really hard on. I know she will pass the remaining sections the next time she gets to test. The hard part for her about all of this is that she has had to wait almost 3 months to get her test results. Breath easy girl, the hard part is over…now go kick some academic butt. :)
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