October 19th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Lesli
New Debian install sexiness.
It’s been a while (like, years) since I’ve toyed around with Linux. A few weeks ago, I decided to give Ubuntu a try but there were a few things about it that just didn’t sit well with me so this weekend I had a go at reinstalling Debian on my barely used pc.
After a little wrestling around with Nvidia drivers and crappy integrated sound, I managed to get everything up and running. I still have a few things to finish configuring (by much banging of my head against the desk, I’m sure) but I’m excited that this was a mostly painless install.
And I must say I’m in love with this machine now. Is it blasphemous to say I almost prefer Compiz to Expose on my MacBook?
Now if only I can get WoW running worth a damn on here, I’ll have no reason to ever boot into that blasted Windows partition! All in all, I’m really impressed with how far Linux has come. I remember my first try at installing Mandrake years ago and the many utter failures that were to come after that. I think this is the first time I would actually consider a complete switch to Linux. 
I’m sad that it’s already Sunday. Weekends are so extremely short these days. I guess I can look forward to that two week “vacation” in December that’ll be here before I know it. It’s another beautiful day here in “Vacation Wonderland”. I should head down into town, maybe camp out at a cafe and people watch but no, I’m sitting here with my nose against the screen and my fingers glued to the keyboard.
Maybe I am addicted….
Posted in: Geek
Tags: Babbling, Geek
October 10th, 2008 / 1 Comment » / by Lesli
So… I booked a flight to return to Mississippi near the middle/end of November attempting to dodge holiday travel costs…
I found out yesterday that my company is doing a global worksite shutdown for the last two weeks of December. Fine and dandy for the people on salary who’ve scheduled vacations for that time. Not so fine for us poor hourly contractors with no paid vacation. This means three weeks with no pay in a two month period - I don’t know how I’m going to manage it.
You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do though, right? I decide I’ll just move my flight plans to the end of December instead. Only to do this, it’s going to cost me an additional 150 bucks. On top of which, I still have to contend with the fact that I’m going two weeks in a row with no pay, during fucking Christmas AND at the end of the month when rent is coming due.
Boardwalk on the Sonoma coast
Ahh, things will work out. They always do. It’s just a little stressful. Or a little more than just a little stressful. My face is starting to look like a pubescent girl with the amount of breakouts I’ve been getting from stress. Ironically enough, I never had breakouts when I was a pubescent girl. What’s up with that?
Sometimes it feels like I will just never get ahead. It’s always something. Always some health crisis, personal crisis, or financial crisis. I don’t ask for things to be easy, but it’d be damn nice if they could just be certain.
On the bright side, NaNoWriMo should now be somewhat easier to take on 
I think it might be a really good weekend for a trip down the coast. It’s been a good while since I’ve done that but the temperatures have gotten pretty nippy around here so it might be nice to bundle up in a million layers of scarves and jackets and soak up what’s left of this year’s sunny days.
Posted in: Babbling, Work
Tags: Misssissippi, money, nonsense, Work
October 8th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Lesli
National Novel Writing Month 2008
Funny how every wish for a bit of creativity or motivation to get back into my old hobbies came at once. Working on the website again, writing again, cracking open those dusty PHP and JavaScript books. I think this is probably how I got so burned out to begin with.
Despite how hectic my life is going to be during November, I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. Somehow, I will crank out 50,000 words despite a week vacation in Mississippi, a birthday, Thanksgiving, and friends coming to visit. No, really, I will. So far, I’ve really enjoyed throwing myself into brainstorming silly plot ideas. I find it strange that despite how big of a fan I am of fantasy and sci-fi that I haven’t even considered a plot that would fall into either of those categories. No, I keep falling back on chick lit, a genre which I don’t even actually read much of. Perhaps this is destined to fail, but I’m still looking forward to giving it a go. In trying to psych myself up for it, I decided I should better get into the habit of writing every day again. I’m going to let blogging count because I’m lazy (No, I’m efficient - that’s it!). I don’t think I’m going to take on a forced 2,000 words a day just yet but maybe set a much smaller and more achievable goal. Perhaps 500 a day.
I just made up a new word: obchievable. Obtainable meets achievable. o_O
November is going to be so so busy, but I’m looking forward to it. I fly out to Mississippi on November 18th for a week. It’s going to be nice to see a few friends and definitely to see my family but I am NOT looking forward to the flight. I admit to not enjoying a loss of control and what can you control when you’re at the mercy of a pilot in an airborne piece of metal. I guess it’s normal to feel that way and be a bit nervous. I know all the statistics about how much safer it is than other forms of travel so I guess I’ll just have to take comfort in the numbers.
My birthday is next month as well. Finally turning a quarter of a century old on the 25th. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’ve never been a fan of birthdays anyway, but they seem to be getting closer and closer together. When I was a little kid, I seriously thought that 25 would be the absolute perfect age - you’d be young enough to still get away with doing whatever cool (or dumb) shit you wanted to do, but you’d be old enough to have some idea about life and perhaps smart enough to not actually do too terribly much dumb shit. Looking back, I definitely think I was a stupid kid. Still, I am hoping 25 turns out to be better than any of the previous years.
Oh, lookit. I breached 500 words of babbling! Maybe I should be shooting for 1,000 a day instead, hmmmm.
Posted in: Babbling
Tags: birthday, nanowrimo, november, productivity, writing
October 5th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Lesli
I play a little more World of Warcraft than is probably healthy for a person, I admit this. I also admit to sucking at pvp though I do have a few toons on a pvp server. Something I’ve noticed to be really interesting, however… It’s happened a few times that a much higher level member of the opposing faction comes through and I hold my breath, waiting for them to one shot me when they actually start encouraging me to continue killing whatever mobs I’ve been going at. After a minute of hesitation, I will and they’ll help me kill off an entire area. Moments like these make me love this game even more. On the other hand, I’ll be happily killing away and suddenly pull way more than I can chew and several 70s of my own faction will just bounce right over me and let me die. I know, it’s not such an inconvenience to die in WoW, but I still lend a hand if I see someone struggling. Definitely makes me consider rerolling horde on this server.
Posted in: Babbling, Geek
Tags: frustration, games, Geek, WoW
September 30th, 2008 / 1 Comment » / by Lesli
So I have this problem. Procrastination. I set out to work on things and then never finish them. Most of the time, when I begin working on something, I’m well aware that I’m never going to finish it. Enter the new canned wordpress theme I just installed. And I’ll probably be tinkering around with more in the next few days till I find one I can stomach for at least a little while.
I’ve had this website for a few years now. It’s my baby. My poor, malnourished, often neglected, redheaded stepchild baby. I rarely update it. I’m fairly certain that no one even knows it actually exists, and honestly, a small part of me even enjoys that idea. I scribble in my trusty old composition notebook on a daily basis, I even post fairly melodramatic blogs on MySpace pretty regularly, but I always forget about my own little corner of the interwebs. I’m going to try and overcome this single tiny bit of my procrastination and force myself to post on here regularly, even if it is only a post to say “I’m posting simply for the sake of posting!”.
When I first got this website, it was supposed to be a place that I could experiment and learn the ins and outs of php and web development. Somewhere along the lines, it turned into a different kind of monster that I avoided like a kid skirting around doing their chores. Years later, I now maintain websites for a living but still fail to maintain my own. And I never did fully learn php I’m hoping to somehow rekindle that passion for learning that I used to have. The wonder that would keep me awake till the wee hours of the morning trying to get a piece of code to work. Also, I hope to regain my voice. I have a mad desire to talk but feel I never have anything to say. An extrovert trapped in an introvert’s mind. Something I’ve begun to realize… if you always wait till you have something profound to say, you end up never saying anything at all.
Posted in: Babbling
Tags: procrastination, updates
