Nothing day

Well, today was fun. Since I had no morning class, I went to bed rather late last night and slept in until noon. Would’ve been nicer if I hadn’t been awakened by the dogs, who spent the morning barking … at nothing. We had some bad weather today that kept me from going to my 7:00 p.m. class … which hopefully didn’t happen, anyway (it’s three hours!). Not that I like being there, but it was supposed to be the first class, and I don’t like not being in the loop whenever I miss one. So, fingers crossed until next Tuesday.

Last night was the official start of the 7th graphic design class (out of nine … Seven of Nine?), which relates to multimedia stuff. I know little about Flash (which seems to be a requirement here), and next to nothing about creating interactive CDs, so it’ll be a bit of a challenge. Then again, so was packaging design, and I did too well in that, but I better not get cocky about it. This may well be what breaks the string of A-type grades for each graphic design since #3.

I spent the whole day in my bedroom, not watching T.V., but going through web sites (on my brother’s laptop) to save me the trouble later on in the day, all the while listening to the rainfall and the strong wind. The hurricane season is more active than last year, and it’ll likely get worse as the years wear on. Should’ve done some reading instead of all that browsing, with the whole no-class thing and all.

Like I said in the previous post, I’ve got little to write about these days. College hasn’t kicked in already, and the anxiety problem seems to be going away for now. So, until next time. In the meantime, enjoy this slightly-edited photo of my cute dog.

Four more terms

September. About time it got here. College started again without much excitement from my part (as is usual). The fact that only three out of five teachers decided to show up, and that only one of those three gave a class that was more than an hour made the past week not worth it. Not only that, but I haven’t been feeling so well since Wednesday. It might be anxiety that triggers that slew of symptoms every time a college term begins, so I can’t wait to never having to go there again. I’ll have to figure out the whole anxiety thing soon, if that is the cause of all my problems. I feel like having a social life one of these days.

I haven’t done much of anything since Wednesday. I stopped working out, haven’t read as much as I wanted, and I’m eating less, because I feel like throwing up every once in a while (and that’s not a good feeling to have, especially after eating). That’ll go away, as it usually does, but it makes me feel a bit sorry for myself, having to deal with this every once in a while and not being very sociable because of it (except for college, because I kinda have to). Oh, well.

Anyway, on a more positive note, this one that began on Wednesday (the 27th) is the first of the final four terms in college. Hopefully I won’t have to stay there longer than that. Not sure what the future holds for me in the, uh … future, but I’m tired of being in the education system. I’d like to be above it, past it, and making some money while at it. I’m wondering what I might be working at. I like animation, but I’ve never been good at it. I’m good at graphic design, but I honestly don’t see myself doing that for a living. That’s just something I was forced into (no such thing as a degree in animation here, unfortunately).

I have little work to do for the week, and I can sleep the afternoon away on most days of the week. I guess I’ll forget about the eating lots and working out parts until my annoying, little illness goes away. Reading is the only thing on my list that stays for now, as it only requires me being awake, good lighting, and the book (and interest, of course). I’m not sure how I’ll keep up with the other things once I’m on an actual work schedule, as most people I’ve seen (in the chat room) seem too tired to do anything other than rest by the end of their work shift. That will depend on the job and the hours.

On the subject of blogging, I’ve been left with little to talk about since last week. Since I don’t lead a particularly interesting life (read above), I can’t really be talking much about parties, festivals, events, so I’ll just have to see what I see in my short journey to-from college. Maybe something will happen there, too, but I wouldn’t count much on it. Most of the out-of-classroom moments are rather forgettable, and I can only remember a graphic design class being suspended just so some rock band (formed by students) could play … and that was back in ‘06. See what I mean? So, the streets it is.

It’s 2:20 in the morning. Gotta be up at nine or so, so I can get to my 10:00 class early. So, see you read me later!

Jumping the unsinkable ship

The past couple of days were slightly uncomfortable. The power supply on this computer decided to stop working properly, so I was stuck with not being able to do much other than browsing a few pages. Thankfully, the hard drive is intact, along with all my stuff. Will have to do a backup as soon as possible.

Anyway, college starts tomorrow again. This vacation wasn’t quite as productive as I had hoped it’d be, but next year will hopefully be my last at that place. My schedule for this term doesn’t seem too tight, despite my taking Saturday class (like I said a couple of posts below, I have no choice). Not many hours, and only one of the six isn’t arts-related. I’m probably being too optimistic, thinking that this one will be a breeze, when it might turn out to be the worst one yet. We’ll see …

Now, for the titular subject of this post. Shortly after midnight Monday, it started raining heavily. A friend of mine in the chat room asked me if it meant a possible power outage. I said “not necessarily”, only to (guess what?) be interrupted by a power outage. Great. That’s probably what damaged the power supply. It was late, but I worked out a bit. When the power came back, I decided against resuming whatever it is I was doing (which was looking at my WordPress dashboard to see if the previous post got any readers). Usually, when I’m interrupted this way, I’m left with lots of things in my mind, and I don’t like going to bed without sorting them out.

I walked around the apartment and, for some reason, I started thinking about Blender and its community. I’ve been a part of it since May or June of 2001, and so I’ve witnessed some of the most important moments in Blender’s history: the creation of Blender Publisher, Not a Number’s bankrupcy, the source release fundraiser, the first open movie, etc. What I’ve also noticed is that, with time, all the people whom I regarded as friends have either gone on to different things or become important in Blender and/or its community, while I’ve stayed the same. This is why I stopped visiting its chat rooms a couple of years back. Being there was like being alone in a crowd.

I’ve also noticed that I’ve become stuck, in a way. Despite all my years of using Blender, I’m pretty much as skilled as one who’s worked hard to learn it for just a few months. I blame this on spending too much time in the forums, which is now heavily populated, compared to its early days. I’ve spent a lot of time going through the forums and paying close attention to Blender’s development, and I really don’t achieve much by doing either of those things. I’m not a coder, so I can’t help develop Blender, and I’m not exceptionally helpful/significant in the forum, so I can’t say that I’ll be missed. The Blender community is more active now that it has ever been, so there’s no way I’m jumping ship because it’s sinking. Blender’s community is unsinkable. It’s me who doesn’t want to sink, all by myself.

Now, this does in no way mean that I will stop using Blender. Of course not. In fact, it means the opposite: I stop spending my time looking at what Blender users/developers do and say, and I spend all that time trying to become better at Blender and anything else I might want to become better at. Hey, I might even find what I’m really supposed to do in life. That’s never a bad thing.

My decision isn’t final. In fact, I’ll give it till the end of the year. Not that I’m waiting for something to happen that will keep me there, but I just don’t want to leave this year in the Blender community unfinished, especially when the milestone 2.50 release is near. I cannot NOT witness that.

And … I’m out of words. Must think of what else to write about.

Weekly dose of (Practical) Lunacy

Listen. Listen closely. You’re straining to hear that strange sound, only to realize it’s the silence caused by the lack of lunacy in your life. What is lunacy, you ask? There are many meanings to the word. The current meaning I have for it is a radio show, called Practical Lunacy. You’ve probably seen the name on the little black-and-purple button on the sidebar (click it!).

So, Practical Lunacy is hosted by Luna (HRH the Queen of Lunacy) and Mikal, the, uh … co-host. Throughout its four-year history, the show has had a variety of co-hosts and guest hosts, but only Luna (its creator) has remained constant. As for what the show is about, ask the host and she’ll say “everything and nothing”. Now, I’ve been a listener for two years and it doesn’t quite go to either end. It’s somewhere in the middle. Its provides news on anything interesting (or ridiculous), as well as music during breaks. Aside from that, the hosts provide their views on everything they talk about, and attack one another verbally. Fun times.

The show provides some level of interactivity while on the air, thanks to its chat room. Users can join during the show and provide feedback to its hosts, some of which is mentioned on-air (your own claim to fame, yay!). There is also a semi-active forum waiting to be populated with users and topics.

If you’re not sure what the show is about, after reading its description on its web site, try the archives. Nearly every show that’s been done since 2004 is available for your viewing listening pleasure, conveniently organized by date. If you like what you hear, join in! The hosts are looking to expand the show, and new listeners, and even guest hosts, are appreciated!

Practical Lunacy airs on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern Time Zone), with an optional edition airing on Thursdays, same hour, so make sure to listen and join us in the chat room. See you there!

Leaky ceiling of doom

And so the week begins, and so my vacation continues. This is a week in which I’m pretty much able to do nothing at all (aside from the obvious eating and showering), but I have a list, and I’m stickin’ to it.

The stuff I was trying to do (as explained in the post below) turned out well, as the server finally sped up (after I slept until 5 p.m., go figure) and I managed to pick six subjects in a schedule of morning, night and Saturday classes. Now, I promised myself I would never take Saturday class again, but I already failed this particular subject once, and I don’t feel like doing so again, especially when I only have two chances left. Well, that is unless I want to finish college after 2009, which is not something I want to do!

Friday was a particularly not-fun day, because of some bad weather that had the ceiling in my room leaking quite a bit. Not only that, but the inside of my closet was also leaking, making me take out most of my clothing and covering some gaps with newspaper to prevent some of my precious old stuff that I keep there (old books, some childhood junk, etc.) from becoming a ruinous mess. Had to put some on the floor to keep myself from slipping and breaking something. I’ll eventually not have to deal with that when my sister moves out and I get her room (I share mine with my older brother, currently) but, for now, newspapers will be enough.

Other than that, it’s been awfully pleasurable not having to do anything (other than the list). I’ve not set aside time for reading since Wednesday morning, when I picked up the book while waiting for that evil server to get its act together. Also, I effectively ended up with zero votes on the Weekend Challenge. I guess my attempts at humor aren’t so good lately, Blender-wise. I’ll need to organize my time better to work a bit on reading and Blender (and reading about Blender).

Hopefully I’ll have done some good progress on everything before the 27th. I’d hate to be at the end of this vacation thinking that I didn’t take good advantage of all that free time. Buh-bye.

The page that would just not load

I begin this post at 4:53 a.m., out of boredom. Why am I not sleeping? I’m supposed to have picked my classes for the upcoming college term. Something that would’ve been accomplished three or four hours ago, were it not for the horrible system they’ve been using for over a year now.

We have to make the selection online, through a “special” page. The bad kind of special, that is. It is an awful Flash-heavy site that will quickly run out of bandwidth, due to the four pages you have to go through to get to the actual list of available groups, the Flash content, and the fact that there are hundreds of students wanting to get the whole thing over with. They should take all those things into account before making an important page like that so annoyingly flashy.

Some of my friends, much like I do, stay up the whole night waiting for this page to work so they can be the first to pick and not be shut out from any class they might want to take. They’re the three most annoying nights of the year for the whole student body (three four-month terms, so three times having to do this).

Now, the system they used initially, or at least until two years ago, was rather simple and we’d get things done quickly, shortly past midnight. It is an utter exaggeration that, every time, we are met with such terrible delays because of all the unneeded (Flash) content, the seemingly narrow bandwidth of the server and the many pages one has to go through that will instantly eat that bandwidth.

I’ve played, read, chatted and written (well, now I am) during this whole time. I also see that my contacts list has more “online” names than usual, which is completely normal for a day such as this. I’m hoping they’re not wasting any time or at least getting some sleep, because precious time of sleep is lost during this “try-wait-try again-wait again” process. I’m just refreshing the page, complaining about it in the chatroom (see purple button on your right) and writing this. Had I known that this would be as painfully annoying as it usually is, I’d have gotten some sleep, at least until six, which is less than an hour away. One would think I’d have learned after the first … five times? Oh, well.

It’s now 5:14 a.m. and my father has awakened. My siblings and my nephew are sound asleep, and I’m still writing, refreshing the page, complaining and longing for sleep. Oh, thank goodness I won’t have to think about college for over a week after this. It’s a horrible thing that my vacation is interrupted by this annoying process. It will likely mess up my internal clock, and I’ll be sleeping the whole day (and skipping exercise) to make up for this.

And now, this post is over. Gotta stop writing and continue to waste my time reloading the page. Sleep well, you lucky b …

Oh, and not one vote yet for my Weekend Challenge entry (see post below). Surprise, surprise. Will have to try harder next time. Bye, now. It’s 5:24.

The list

My list of goals begins to shorten. I worked out a bit on Friday, nothing too intense. Still, I woke up a bit sore the next day. That’s what I get for not working out for three months (college is to blame!). I’m also eating more often, in order to put on some much-needed weight.

Also, I’ve made some new Blender work. Nothing flashy or professional, but enough to make me breathe a little easier. I was worrying that I’d never feel inspired to do anything new with it, but yesterday I forced myself to participate in the 300th edition of the Blender Weekend Challenge (it’s been running for six years now!), and came up with this:

Not terrible, huh? Last time I participated (challenge #271), I only got one vote. That one vote was an important one, as it came from someone who I really admire. Regardless of this, I’m wanting to win a Blender contest sometime before 2080 (okay, random year, but I’ll likely have died before then) and not only because the winner of the Weekend Challenge gets to pick the next theme, but because I’d like to accomplish something related to something I like.

I’ve not set much time aside for reading. Now, Tropic of Capricorn is a good book, but it’s a bit hard to read because there are no chapters, and there’s hardly any separation between one subject and the other. Still, I hope to finish reading it so I can start with another book in the “Jewels of the Millenium” series, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. I also have Les Misérables, but it’s quite the large book when compared to others in the series, so I’ll have to wait until I have a bit more than a month (or no college work) so I can fully concentrate on it.

The whole “wake up earlier, not skip breakfast” thing on my list will probably not happen. I go to sleep really, really late! It could be solved by not going to bed so late, but I rather like being in the chatroom during its active time, not having background noise or phone ringing, being able to read without being interrupted, things like that. No other time in the day has all that for me, so … I’ll get more stuff done at the cost of not striking out that list item.

I’m running out of things to say here! I better stop typing now, before it gets more dull that it usually is! That, and my desk is being eroded by the tapping of my fingers while I wait for the Weekend Challenge voting to begin. Good thing I sent my entry today and not yesterday, otherwise I’d lose my patience. Ta ta.

Freedom the sixth

Ahh … I was almost beginning to forget how great it feels to know that you have no deadlines for anything, because there isn’t any work to do. As of yesterday (Wednesday 6th), and until the 27th, I am college-free. I wish the vacation would extend until September, but any leisure time longer than half a week is good enough for me.

If you’ve visited this blog before, you’ve probably noticed that new BlogCatalog thingy on the sidebar. It’s part of my effort to bring a few more people to read my random ramblings (that could be the name of a band … The Random Ramblings). I’ve seen a lot of people there who earn money from their blogging, by way of AdSense. That’s nice and all, but only as long as that’s not the only purpose on the blog. I’m not surprised by blogs that only contain embedded videos or just links to news articles, just to fill the space not used by AdSense. As for me, I write this blog because I like writing, or chronicling, if such a term can be used, about my life and other things. Not for notability, but just for sharing with the selected few who read past the titles.

Anyway, I can finally breathe easy for the time being, and I’ll do my best to take good advantage of the free time I’m allowed to have between one college term and the other. If, by any chance, you’ve visited my homepage, you’ve probably noticed that no new Blender work has been posted since January. It is my goal, aside from reading as much of the manual to (re-)learn and catch up with the latest features (I’m probably just using 20% or less of them!), to make at least one new render. I’m also considering adding that photography section for my site. I’m not sure how I’ll how about it yet, as I like to stick with pure HTML+CSS and avoid anything else. We’ll see, we’ll see …

Today, Thursday, is when I start taking a look at that list of goals. I’ll catch up on my reading, work out again, pay attention to my appearance, get to know Blender better (seven years and still not good?!), watch movies that I’ve been wanting to watch, play games that I’ve been wanting to play, look for ways to improve my health, blog more (yes!), be a bit more social (online?), among other things. Some goals extend to the end of the month, when college starts again. The others, I hope, will extend for as long as I can keep them.

Oh, the things I’ll (probably) do!

The delivery service

After such an easy-peasy week, and a Friday in which both classes did actually occur (even though the weather mimicked that of the same day of the previous week), it has come down to this:

1. An illustrated book for Tuesday (done!).
2. A graphic design project for Wednesday (almost done!).
3. A (rather easy) analysis for perception psychology class anytime before Friday (to be done!).

Well, I guess I can almost consider this term officially over. Not quite yet, but all I have to do in each case above is grab the work, go to college and deliver it to the teacher. It’s practically a delivery service.

I look forward to going through my list of things to do while on vacation, and scratch at least half the items in it by the end of this month. Of course, some things, like working out, will have to be permanent, or as close to it as possible. I could start now, but I’ll wait until Thursday, when I don’t have college work on my mind. Until then, I’ll do finishing touches on items two and three from the list above.

Paying more attention to what I write on here is also one of the items in my imaginary list of things to do. So far, I’ve mostly been rambling on and on about college. Once that’s out of the way for the rest of the month, I should be writing about more varied subjects, about life, Blender, books, the Internet, fun stuff.

I also have to look for ways to get someone to actually read this stuff. I write for myself, mostly, to get things out of my system, so I don’t mind how many might be wanting to read all this. Still, it’d be nice to have a few more pairs of eyes going through this word jumble. Perhaps even some friendly blogs that I can link to, no?

It’s past midnight. I was thinking that I could write this whole post in the 13 minutes I had before midnight, but I guess it’s for the best that I take my time instead of rushing to write things that would make even less sense! And so, I better start writing down that list of mine into Writer or something, so I can keep better track of it. No good having it in my mind, as it’s bound to change by itself while in it.

Bye bye …

Weekend fails to deliver

My goodness. The heat! The heat! Can’t stand the heat! And no, that’s not the beginning of some cheesy party song. It’s only the outcome of what was not a pleasant weekend.

It all began on a nice Saturday at noon when I woke up, after getting the first good night’s sleep in a little over one week. It didn’t take long for me to find out that the power was out, meaning we were once again relying on backup energy. As I was planning to stay inside for the whole weekend, and power outages hadn’t lasted very long in the past few weeks, I paid little mind to that, thinking that the power would come back soon.

Little did I know.

On that day, everyone else had the brilliant idea of going out (bah, people with their … their … social lives!). I still insisted that the power would come back shortly. After they all had gone, I noticed that there was no water. Now, there is usually no water during an outage, but we also tend to collect some water in buckets in case the power outage should be a long one. Well, this time we we didn’t. I had to go outside, carrying some buckets to pick some water from a faucet next to a wall in the parking lot, the only one that still works during power outages (so, the whole bulding depends on it then). That was easy.

As I had planned to do some (re-)reading of my book, which I did, I sat on the balcony to get some fresh air, book in hand. I managed to get to page 30 or so, something that had taken me two weeks the first time. The power came back shortly after 6 p.m., and that was the easier day. We had backup power, and it lasted until the power came back.

Now, Sunday … it turns out that it’s Father’s Day here, so my mother made a special meal, a paella. Yum, yum, delicious and all, and a tiramisu for dessert. After that, I jump back into bed, in front of the TV, to lose myself in the world of video games (I’ve never actually lost myself in them, but some are rather immersive). Not long after I began playing, the power went out. We were, once again, using backup power. I had thought that the whole night was enough for the inverter to recharge its batteries. Well, it wasn’t. Everything at once went off, then back on, then back off, repeatedly. I got angry, thinking that this was a rerun of the previous day.

I decided that, if the power wasn’t going to be back on until late (again), I’d best do something to keep myself busy. I decided to do some college work, those illustrations that I’m supposed to make. I didn’t quite follow my plans for that, as I did zero work on Saturday, but I knew I couldn’t do this at any other time, especially with all the distractions unavailable (no TV, no computer, etc.). I managed to finish two images, and only three remain. But the heat was unbearable. The backup power was only enough to keep a few lights on, and the ceiling fan above me. We even opened the balcony door (at the risk of having our dogs bark at anyone who stands outside) so we could get some fresh air. Even so, working on those two images had me sweating a lot, so I quit. I put everything back in place and took a shower.

By then, the power came back (shortly after 6 p.m., like the previous day!), and so I grabbed my brother’s laptop, turned on the wireless router and started checking some sites. After eight, I started wondering what I’d make for dinner. There’s usually one or two ingredients missing from every possible dinner choice. In this case, since we had a mixer, I decided to make some macaroni and cheese, using the mixer to prepare some power milk. It worked wonders, and dinner turned out great.

But, shortly after I sat down in front of my computer, so I could start complaining to my chatmates about the “blackout weekend” I was having, and … POOF! The power went out. Again. Right then, the backup power began working, and right after that, the lights started blinking. Not enough power to keep us lit at night. We turned everything off, unplugged anything that might suck even half a volt of power, and settled for a candle and some flashlights. I still had my dinner plate, so I sat on the balcony, thinking that this would be a terrible night of unbearable heat (no fans + no good ventilation = certain death). My mother and my sister sat in front of me, while my father slept, and my brother was out. My mother insisted that the power would be back shortly … and nearly an hour went by before that happened.

During that whole time, I kept staring at the house on the other side of the street, with its bright fluorescent lights, while we were in the dark ages, with our flashlights (thankfully, we have those permanent flashlights that don’t require battery changes), and a scented candle. I was thinking about how I wasn’t living the life I deserve, how I deserved the career I want, and other things in the matter. Had the power outage lasted the whole night, I’d have woken up rather depressed. Thankfully, it didn’t, and the power came back about fifty minutes ago. And the pleasant weekend that I was hoping to have, was effectively, thoroughly ruined. At least I have Monday, which hopefully won’t be a third attempt by this country to make me curse it out loud.

Ahh … life in the Dominican Republic. Gotta love to hate it.

(and this is quite possibly my longest post ever)