Parents are in China this year since a tech company in Shenzen convinced Daddy to help them start a cloud computing business, so we did a Skype conference call late on Christmas Eve (Christmas Day in China). Mom was at their apartment getting ready to cook, Daddy was in the office. :< Surprise! Mom learned how to sign on Skype! She still needed a lot of help accepting conference calls and seeing attachments (failed) though.
( No such thing as TMI for Patrick. )
( Lewts! )
Flying back to East Coast Wednesday night 12/30. :<
Cat photo taken by the lovely ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kixies, apologies to those who have both of us friended for the repeat, but I think you will agree that it deserves to be distributed!!
Link to her original post: http://kixies.livejournal.com/416993.htm
In any case, some loud cars make me eeeeeeeeeee and some invoke the stfu, but I've always had trouble describing the difference between the quality of sound. I've always compared them as growling vs farting cars, but even that isn't quite specific enough for others to differentiate. Was just reading an auto article, and I think I've found something better, but not sure if it's clear enough to be "layman's terms," or something that non-enthusiasts would understand: "the growl came from under the hood, not the exhaust." It's a more distinctive description, but without sufficient experience, I'd think it's still hard for the average person to tell whether the noise that car 2 lanes over is making is coming from under the hood or the exhaust.
The technical terms have too much jargon to explain, but quality of sound is too subjective to describe accurately in general terms. raaaaaaaaaasdfjkl;!!!11
Primary function of the trip was to go talk to some Stanford professors about starting a PhD, but only one of them (a family friend) returned my emails about setting up a time. -_-;; I remember the other 2 to be pretty nice professors too... maybe they don't reply cuz I'm not a student anymore. ~_~ At least the new dept chair was pretty good about replying, but he said to go talk to those other 2 professors cuz their research field seems closer to my interest. ;\
At least everything else for the trip (work, friends, doctor's appointment) panned out nicely, schedule looks pretty packed to make the most out of my 4 days at home. :3 Kinda bummed my primary mission may be fail, but if I still get accepted, that will make up for any fail. ;D
Was sick in January and just got sick again, wtf!! I've n e v e r been sick twice in a 3 month period!! Once every 2-3 years is the norm for me, but a coworker buddy local to the area said it's normal for him to get sick twice a year, when the weather does loopy shit during the transition months. Seriously, East Coast fails!
... I get the impression I'm not supposed to take acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (for the monthly gut wringing... yes it came at the same time) together. /facedesk x 3. Man, I am SOL.
2 weeks until I see my lovely Cali for a little bit again! ;o;
Off topic: when did Condi Rice become faculty at Stanford? o____o
Logged into my account just now, to find $40.50 on the gift certificate balance! o____________o;; I vaguely recall the service rep mentioning adding some extra to my balance for the trouble, but that's like double the value and what's with the 50 cents? lol~ The service rep said he'd be in touch via email or phone on the status, but I haven't heard anything since the apology on Monday. I wonder if it's a mistake? He did say it should be done this week, which is why I checked today. Maybe I should use it before they change their mind, but then I'd feel kind of bad if it turns out they did overcredit, since they are a really nice company. :x
Just FYI for everybody I was planning to see in Cali, I missed my flight this morning because the ground/roads out here are completely iced over. Some freeways closed all lanes, cars in the ditch, tractor-trailers stuck/overturned etc. Couldn't even get out of my apartment complex, the car slid almost all the way down the hilly street while doing a 180 and is currently stuck near the bottom. Got out of the car, fell and slid a little further down the hill before I caught myself on a crack in the sidewalk and pulled myself over to the grass. Made it back to the apartment by digging my stiletto heels into the dirt, lol. Now back in the apt icing a big bruise that will probably become very angry. Wish I hadn't forgotten to ship out my figure skates! But I'm so glad I opted for a rental car instead of having my bebe shipped out. I would have totally freaked out if my bebe had slid/spun and hit the curb like the rental car did. The rental car's ok, but my bebe's too low to hit the curb without damage.
As expected with the holiday rush, the flights seem to be totally booked for the day, so there would only be space from a last minute cancellation, and I'd have to be on standby at the airport to wait for those. Will update if/when I'm able to get home. I hope somebody on standby got my spot so it wasn't a wasted empty seat. I think I don't like the East Coast. ;(
Also, I'm not sure if my LJ account was somehow compromised (I changed the password just in case), but when I logged in this morning, 2 of my user icons had been changed. Don't know if anything else was messed around with as of yet (LJ or other accounts), but let me know if you find anything odd!
shinkyomu and said I'd do it, but not gonna tag others so whoever can post if they want! Ohohoho!! Also, I crossed out some of the questions cuz I couldn't think of good answers for them, so people can ask something else instead since idk what to replace it with either. X3 ( Random meme )
Saw an announcement from the CEO in email box titled "We Remember" and thought "we.. huh?" Started to scan the email, but didn't get further than the second line, which had the date prominently displayed. OSHI- The day always catches me by surprise, even though the title of the event is the date. ;x
Finished Crisis Core with dormando last night, and though such rare periods of complete fangirl squeeing and swooning have always given way to fan art in the past, I've been drawing an inspirational blank ever since the first Sephy FMV when it should have happened. Time is not really the issue - although I've had much less of it to draw since starting work full time, I can still make time for the things I really want to do.
One of my reasons for drawing in the past was because I wanted to see the characters in more detail than the x-bit 2-dimensional representations they were given at the time. Since rendering/gfx has now advanced to where it rivals any kind of illustration, that reason for drawing is out of the picture. But it doesn't negate my other reason for drawing, which was the freedom to select subjects/settings, especially those not depicted in official media. Even so, I can't seem to come up with any that I'd want to illustrate anymore. Am I just growing out of / getting too old for this stuff? I've seen a lot of TAC&friends grow out of fan art into original art, but I have even less inspiration for the latter, which kind of means total absence of drawing. ;\
I knew it would happen eventually, given my career goals, but I didn't think I'd lose it within 2 years of starting work. Don't know if it's something that I should try to get back either, but at the moment it doesn't feel right - like something should be happening that's not happening anymore. Work and life have been cruising pretty normally, so I doubt it's a result of anything obviously bad.
Now that Christmas is over, I finally have time for myself! Caught up on some sleep, went on a whirlwind cleaning spree, and finished off a bunch of things that've been hanging on the to do list since before the holiday tornado hit. Also finally got to open up the Sephy statue!
( ope ) ( Assembled! )I'll post pictures of the present I finished for kahochan after he gets the package. >:3
shinkyomu and lithele , getting out 11 Christmas packages even before I can start shopping for the locals, drama with the mother, dealing with another case of fraud, all while still trying to get to the gym and maintain a reasonable level of social life... and I've had barely any time at all to play FFXI (the last and only game I play now, from lack of time), which makes me v e r y s a d . My sleeping schedule and appetite has gone to sh*t from stress. (omg lithele , I might start losing weight like you do!) Needless to say, although December has always been my favorite time of year because of the Christmas season, I'm coming to expect a miserable December of holiday nightmares for the first time. Came home from work totally exhausted and feeling slightly weak from not having had time to eat lunch, and found this in a big shipping box at my door -
( hoooooooooooooly kraaaaaaaaaaaps )
1. How do I set the pen tip and eraser to actually map to those functions in Photoshop/Painter?
2. I was trying to set one of the express keys to macro the keyset ctrl+shift+n for the new layer shortcut in Photoshop, but it doesn't register the shift key. Am I missing something about the shift key, or is there another way to get the new layer shortcut to work?
...hi Alan, I'm gonna be the second least favorite of your occupation list. ;D (I think you said you hated lawyers the most. X3)
Speaking of busy/stressed, yesterday was one of those really bad days, where I had to be at work at 6am for an 8-hr video-teleconference meeting and then got off work at 5:30pm feeling like I was sure to get into car accident (exhausted, stressed, upset at something stupid I did despite my usual attention to detail). Felt a lil better after taking it out at the gym, but carpool lane not enforced after 7pm + my baby♥ + Ellegarden (ty Kenji ;D) = ^-^! My baby t o t a l l y qualifies as a significant other! It always has a way of making me happy after a bad day. :D
The tablet I have is the first and only one I've ever had... I got it in high school. (It's nearing 10 years old I think.) Even then it was a cheap Aiptek tablet, since I thought I was just going to mess around as a hobby. I think it's slowly starting to die as it's become somewhat quirky, so I've been thinking about getting a new tablet. I'm pretty sure I want to go for a Wacom this time, despite the comparatively steep price, as it's always had a good reputation within our artist friends circle and with many other CG artists. I will likely go for a 6x8 as the 4x5 feels noticeably small, but the larger sizes don't seem to make things THAT much easier for me (for the exponentially higher price, anyway).
The only question left is: can I settle for a Graphire, or is the Intuos worth the extra cost? Given:
- I am not and will never go pro. I only draw recreationally, and even then I don't devote that much time to it.
- I mainly use Photoshop and Painter.
- PC onry!
Please advise if you've had experience with one or both tablets! And especially those of you who've known me since the days of TAC, since you'd be most familiar with my drawing style. :3
Translation: "Ya, cuz missile defense technology that's designed to protect people will threaten our security! <.> So we're going to spend tax money to make better attack missiles instead of defense stuff cuz physically protecting our cities isn't part of security!"
Threaten their pride, mostly. Russia's just afraid it can't blow up the world anymore. :\
"I have the body of a GOD.
.................... BUDDHA."
L O L .
My Cingular contract is up, and I'm looking to switch to a prepaid plan. I only use like 100 minutes max per month now, since I started working in a wireless black hole, and no nationwide monthly plan goes that low on minutes. Anybody have any suggestions on providers? I'd prefer a GSM provider, but am open to CDMA if there are enough reasons to switch. I like my current phone and its ability to roam internationally.
European friends:
Is there a single provider that covers the majority of Europe, or would I need to rent from a different provider in each country/area to avoid roaming charges? Ideally I'd like to rent a SIM card from a provider that operates on the 1800 frequency and just pay for calls on the provider's home network. If I have to roam, I might as well roam with my US provider.
I thought about it later and found it rather unsettling that his first question to me was whether or not I'm married. Boys: does this mean that his primary goal is to score a girlfriend? (Because while I'm not picky at all about friends, that is SO not happening.) If he was just interested in friendship or business acquaintance, it shouldn't matter whether or not I'm married. About half the time I'm approached by random guys who ask to meet again, I wind up finding out that the guy was assuming romantic interest right off the bat, and things don't end up so well. However, I don't think I can bring myself to be quite so uncharismatic as to bluntly declare that I'm not interested in a relationship right up front. Some of them aren't even daunted by that statement. Is there any other way to filter out the bad ones besides dropping a hint about a fictitious boyfriend upon first contact so as to discourage further communication prompted by the prospect of scoring a girl? I don't like to lie, but it might be necessary.
Good thing he missed my last name when he was jotting down my e-mail. Should I actually follow up? It didn't seem like we would have much in common... which is another reason I was skeptical about his intentions.
nunuu's BASCH LIVES icon - One of the guys I work with a lot in the lab is Garret Bamsch. Since I started FFXII over the Christmas holiday, I've been having to do double-takes on both their names to not get them confused. @#$%!! (It doesn't help that the Outlook Exchange server lists people last name first... so I see "Bamsch, Garret" and at first glance think I'm sending an email to Basch.)
In other amusing news, I was walking out to the parking lot after work one night, pass by a really slick-lookin shiny car, and think "oooh... that's a nice car". A few steps later, and "oh wait......... that's my car. OHOHO!!" /stupid, but at least it means I'd still like the car even if I didn't own it! I think that was before the December rains, when I still washed my car once a week. When it started raining, I stopped doing that, since it'd just HAPPEN to rain the day after I hand-washed it. @#$%!! But weather.com says no rain for the next week, so mebbe my baby will get some much-needed ♥!
