Defragment, Disable Indexing, and Partition

I worked on the movie a little today. I'm having a tough time finding a transition between 2 parts of this scene. Marie and Stephanie get up from the couch and sit at the kitchen table. I have footage of them going to sit down, but I just don't like it. It takes too long and it's just an unpleasant angle. I don't want to just cut away to the conversation at the table either. I'm in kind of a bind, but it's okay because I'm closer to being finished now than I ever was.

I've also come up with a new project. I was looking for a Windows XP performance tweak checklist, to pass along to a friend, but I couldn't find one. There was a ton of information available, but it was all over the place and I needed something nice and compact. So I figured I'm as qualified as anyone to write such a guide because I religiously tweak my Windows installations. I could even cover Windows 9x for those who need it.

The only problem with that is Vista. The next installment of the Windows operating system is coming out in less than six months and people are going to be forced to upgrade rather quickly for security reasons (and to net the corporation some cash, of course). I don't know how long I'll stick to writing a guide that will be obsolete in less than a year. It would give me a pretty good sense of accomplishment though. And that's something I've really been needing recently.

It could be my foot in the door to publishing computer books. I've always wanted to do something like it, but I've never quite considered myself an expert, until now. I just realized today that I really enjoy helping people with computers, even though I have very little patience. Writing computer help books aimed at unexperienced users may be something I could really get into. Or I could just run a site with the same purpose. Or I could do both. I'm still deciding.

Four Fun Filled Days

I haven't updated my blog in a while and apparently that makes people think I'm in a bad mood. Or maybe it's the things I've said in previous posts. Either way I thought I'd share a little bit of my life with everyone. Here it goes:

Friday: I woke up and surfed the web for a few hours. I wanted to hang out with Stephanie before she went back home so I called her, but there was no answer. I surfed the web some more and contacted some people through myspace about the possibility of being in a few upcoming films. Stephanie called back while shopping for a dress and agreed to have Jason and I hang out with her. I surfed the web some more and read about a suicide of a guy I one (kind of) knew and it hit a little too close to home. A few hours of my mom being a twat later Steph came to pick me up and we went to buy some stuff. It took a while. At the party we tried to play a few games and I ate half a burnt pizza. I had a beer and a fruity Smirnoff thing that according to Jason I downed in less than 5 minutes. It tasted like Faygo Grape Soda,damn girly drinks. Jason and I came home early and watched a few episodes of Third Rock.

Saturday: I woke up tired and slightly nauseous. I looked around my house, but couldn't find anyone so I called my dad at work. I surfed the web for a few hours and when my uncle, who was staying with us, came home I helped him carry stuff to his truck for my mom. Then I worked on my Daria fanfilm and went to bed (in an actual bed that my uncle gave me - I hate beds).

Sunday: Even though it was yesterday, I don't know what I did. But Jason came over and we went to get some dessert at Bigboy and the waitress thought it was weird that all I had was a cookie, but that's all I really wanted because I had already had ice cream and I just ate 2 hot dogs. When we came home watched this crappy movie called "Thank You For Smoking." We got bored halfway through and watched some more Third Rock.

Monday: That's today. I talked to Amanda for a little bit. Um, my aunt is here so I hung out with her. I've been listening to music and surfing the web all day. Later I plan to write a short that can be easily filmed when Jason comes over tomorrow (tentatively), play Liberty City Stories (terrific game), and surf the web.

There you have it. An entire four days of my life. I've also been doing Sudoku puzzles here and there, as well as reading a few books. I'm addicted to GTA and the Internet. Oh, and Ubuntu of course. I hope you all enjoyed this post. Later.

Oh, in other news, Jason (semi)publicly declared his undying love for me. It was sweet, but it made me feel funny. But not in a bad way.

Blog Functions Cannot be Guaranteed

I'm going to upgrade the SD card in my digital camera. 208 MB (spread across 3 cards) just isn't enough to capture enough pictures at the highest resolution. Sure, if I use a smaller size I can take more than 100 pictures, but I paid for 4 mega-pixels and that's what I want to shoot. The problem is that I don't know how large of a card my camera will support. The book says this:

This camera has been tested with memory cards up to 2 GB. All memory card functions cannot be guaranteed.

What the fuck does that mean? Will the card work or not? Ugh, it's so frustrating. I contacted Canon tech support a few hours ago with the hopes that they can answer my question. I just hope they don't think I'm stupid or anything.

Oh, I just checked my inbox and Canon got back to me an hour ago. I'd say a response time of 4 hours and 2 minutes is pretty damn good. It turns out that the 2 GB card will work with my camera, as long as it adheres to the strict SD standards (I assume it will...) and is formatted in FAT16 (which I already learned). I'm pretty excited because SD cards on newegg are pretty cheap. I can get a 1 GB card for as little as $22 (including shipping) or a 2 GB for as little as $34. I'd go for a 4 GB, but they start at $85 and that's a little bit over my budget.

MMM, Donuts.

So my mom called me fat today. For any of you who have ever seen her, you'll be laughing with me here. The story is as follows: I had no clean clothes and I had to go to the store, so I put on my old pair of khakis. I walk out of the bathroom and say, "these are pretty tight." Immediately my mom says, "It's because you're putting on weight and are inactive. You should really watch your starches."

Now, I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not as thin as I was when I bought those khakis, but I'm by no means fat. I have a little bit of a gut, but that's all. And I'm not inactive. I walk for at least an hour every day just to get out of the house and listen to some music or podcasts. Yesterday I walked out to the park about 2.5 miles north of my house and I took the long way back. (I walked on the shoulder of M-29) I was gone for damn near 3 hours. But I'm extremely inactive.

I'll also admit that I spend more time in front of a computer than anything else. That's what I do. I'm not staring at the TV for hours on end, watching some ignorant show, like my mom does. I'm actually learning things, thanks mostly to wikipedia, and I'm reading and writing. Sure, I watch a few hours of Youtube a day and play the Sims 2 a lot, but I really do need to be entertained once in a while. Besides, in the Sims I'm usually being creative and building a house or something.

The whole event reminded me of an episode of the Simpsons I watched on Youtube last night. Cherry and Terry told Lisa she had a big ass and Homere confirmed it by telling her about how all Simpsons have large asses. He had the best intentions, but Lisa developed an image problem. I felt bad for her because she's really not that fat. She and Bart just have some baby fat left. That's all.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm in a much better mood today. So far at least. My mom's been kind of bitchy all day because my cousin is coming over tomorrow and she wants her to think we have a clean house or something. It's really weird. Anyway, I get to go to a bonfire tomorrow night at Steph's house. I'm pretty excited about that because I really like being around the fire. It's kind of relaxing. And I get to just hang out with some people. That's always good too.

Again With The Mood Swings

So my mom started taking cheap shots at me again. She'll do the same things: telling me to stay away from people like that, telling me how horrible it is, suggesting I date every female friend I have, even the little comments too. But it's different now. Even thought I thought she was trying to be mean before, there was always a part of me that thought maybe she didn't mean anything by it. But now the mask of innocence is gone and it really hurts.

How can someone who claims to care about me be so cruel all the time? It's not like I have anyone else I can turn to (except Jason, but that's different). I've been treated this way for as long as I can remember, but I didn't really notice because I thought it was normal. Sometimes I feel so unwanted and so unloved that I go to bed early just so I can crawl under the covers and cry without being disturbed.

I lay in bed for an hour in the morning trying desperately to go back to sleep because I just don't want to wake up. The only time I actually look forward to anything is when Jason is coming over because he makes me feel like I have the right to live. Nothing else really matters to me, not even filmmaking, because I'm always told it's a waste of time. It's hard to stay excited about something for very long when there's someone just trying to bring you down.

I really should take Sarah up on her offer and move out. But I can't. My mom is going through rough times and her best friend and her sister just moved away. She just lost her job too. If I just leave, she'll think I'm running out on her because that's just the way she is. No matter how important something is to me, she has to make it about herself. I don't know what to do. I really do need to get a job and leave, but I'm scared. It's just another opportunity I'm going to let pass me by.

The story of my life, I guess. I just don't feel like I'm going anywhere, and I don't feel like I can go anywhere. It's kind of shitty.

P.S. I might still work on the Ubuntu blog. I don't know. If I move out I'm not going to have access to the Internet or even a computer capable of running Ubuntu, so it looks like another dead end.

Snakes On A Motherfuckin' Plane!

I've been thinking a lot about some of the things I'd like to do. First off: a new blog. Not to replace this one, but a blog about something completely different. I've decided to make a guide for people who are interested in trying out Ubuntu Linux because I started using Ubuntu not too long back (I'm still technically a n00b), and I really think I could help people.

I also want to write a book. It's one of the forms of media I haven't really dabbled in yet, and I think it's time. At first I was thinking of writing something computer related, maybe a supplement to the other Ubuntu blog. Then I decided against it for a few reasons: 1) Computer related books have a high rate of piracy, naturally due to the Internet. 2) The computer section at bookstores is flooded with well known authors such as Leo Laporte and the O'Riely publishers. 3) I have no expertise in any fields, and therefore no one would have any reason to take me seriously.

I've already been working slowly on both my Daria fanfilm and the film I have in post. They're both coming along so slowly because I'm out of creativity. I don't know how it happened, but I just can't come up with anything. It's really annoying. I'm pretty sure I've typed those exact sentences here too. See, I can't even make a blog post interesting. That could be because most of the drama is gone though.

I also want to make a series of parodies of "Snakes on a Plane" because the whole premise is just ridiculous. I want to start with "Snakes on a Plain" and slowly move up toward "A Few Good Snakes" and, "The Snake and Mrs. Jones." For anyone not giggling, note that "The Devil and Mrs. Jones" is a pornographic film that my mom mentions occasionally. Apparently she saw it in a theater in Alabama when she was in her 20's or something. How Disturbing.

Oh, and I'm considering moving in with a friend in Port Huron. It would be a great opportunity to finally get a job, and she'd cover rent until I got one, but I don't know. For some reason I feel guilty for wanting to leave. My mom's sister and best friend just moved across the country and it's all I hear about. I would just feel bad because she might need something and there would be no one here to help. And I don't know if I'm ready to just move in with someone I hardly know in a somewhat foreign city and not have anyone around to fall back on.

But on the other hand I really could use a job. I have it all planned out. The day I move in, I hit the mall. Target, Spencer's, FYE, Dunham's, Hot Topic, Old Navy, the game store (I forgot the name), Walden's books, none of those places would pay that much, but it would be right in the mall and it's right by where'd I be living and I know it'd be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Then there are all the places outside the mall: Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, Best Buy *vomit*, Staples (with Joe of all people), Toys R Us, Meijer, Wal-Mart, and dozens of smaller shops and fast food places. All of these places would be less than a mile away if I took her up on her offer.

I don't know what to do and Jason won't give me any advice. I don't really want any anyway, so that actually worked out pretty well.

EDIT: If anyone wants to check out the basic design for the Ubuntu blog check it out here. Basically it's just some links, but I also took out the About Me section so no one can casually track it to this blog. That wouldn't be good because I'm going to post the URL of the other blog on my myspace profile. If anyone has any other ideas, let me know.

A Fairly Dull Post

I've been busy working on a few little projects that aren't going anywhere. So I won't say any more about them. I've also been playing the Sims 2 a little bit. Just trying to make a sim rich enough to move into the house I built without cheating. It made me feel bad because I sent my sim to college and he graduated and got a job and lived happily ever after. Why can't life be that simple?

I'm also angry that I'm not allowed to tell anyone that Jason and I are friends because obviously that means we're gay. I hate her and her white trash family so much. I can't wait to get out of this lousy state and move somewhere I don't have to hold my head down in shame. Not shame of who I am or who I'm with, but shame of where I'm from. I hate to say this, but I'm actually ashamed of my entire family. If I can't change who they are I can at least move across the country.

Other than that nothing is going on.