| I builded a website! |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|12:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
So, one of my good friends, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) misterjustin, is a big ol' nerd who plays with toy soldiers. I'm not talking about green, plastic army men. These are a bit more involved. Detailed little creations that hobbyists spend great wads of money on, and countless hours of their time painstakingly painting them in meticulous detail. These little miniatures are the basis for their "armies" in various games such as Warhammer 40k. There are tons of designs and variations for these miniatures. From space marines, to goblin swarms, to space-ships, tanks and siege engines. However, misterjustin noticed that there is a lack of bases to mount these little figures on. Oh sure, there are a bunch out there, with varying levels of detail and craftsmanship, but not what you'd expect for the demand. So, he decided to do something about it.
He has spent the last few months developing his own line of detailed bases to mount these miniatures on so that he can sell them to the public. They are really impressive and I'm very proud of him for the fantastic and professional work he has done on them!
Now comes my part. When it came time to set up his online store, poor misterjustin found that he had weak skillz! Just trying to install the base Zen-Cart software proved to be a daunting task. I had installed the software before and knew how to get it up and running, so I agreed to do that part for him. Though, I was going to leave any data entry, customizations, modifications, and configurations all up to him. Installing was fine, but I am no web designer and had no idea how the application worked.
So, I installed it. And very soon after, I noted that he was having issues still, as the documentation for the software was weak. Damn. So, I took a peak, to help fix a few major issues. Then a few less major ones. Then helped with some customization. Then agreed to take the whole thing on. Eep! Mind you, I was kinda having fun figuring out how to make this thing work, despite the horrible documentation.
Over the course of two months, I completely built an e-commerce website that is integrated with Paypal and looks pretty close to misterjustin's original design specifications. I'm rather proud of myself. The site went live on a "soft launch" today. I'm excited and nervous for both misterjustin and myself.
If anybody feels like taking a peek at my first dive into creating a real-live website, you can see the beast over at www.secretweaponminiatures.com. Wish us luck! |
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| Meaningless Fluff |
[Sep. 15th, 2009|01:31 am] |
This is for tragerstreit because her sadness made me cry today and this made me laugh anyway.
Never use a cat as a machine gun!
Ever. |
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| And... the good stuff... |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|03:05 pm] |
So, this weekend was the start of a heatwave here in Portland. bloomerwedgies had the bright idea to get out of town and head to the beach for a few days. I agreed that this was a brilliant idea, so I made some arrangements on Friday and we were off and on our way by noon on Saturday.
( Cut for friend's page friendliness ) |
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| First... the bad news |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|10:08 am] |
So, the highlight of this weekend was a lovely trip to Astoria and Long Beach on the coast with bloomerwedgies, Tabitha and David. I'll get to that shortly. First, I wanted to get the bad part out of the way. Luckily, this was minimally invasive on our fun-filled weekend and really only took about an hour or so of our time and we were all able to continue having fun despite this one bit of yuck. I know it will be a much larger hassle to deal with in the coming weeks, but there was nothing more that could be done over the weekend, so we all mostly just forgot about it and moved on.
So, we drove out to the beach on Saturday to spend the night and enjoy a few days away from the Portland heat.
( On Sunday, I got into a small car accident. )
Anyhow, there were no injuries of any sort. Nobody was jolted, and there are no sore muscles or whiplash to worry about. She wasn't even sure if she'd hit us and there was only a tiny little scratch, about an inch long, on the rubber part of her bumper. So, the only thing that needs any attention is my poor car. It'll take a fair amount of body work. Hopefully, I won't have to go TOO long without a vehicle. In my debt-payoff mode, I can't afford the full coverage insurance, so there is no rental to cover me. Maybe her company will pay for that. Who knows? I'll be calling my insurance company again shortly to find out how I go about dealing with the rest of this now that it's the work-week. |
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| The Goose-Duck-Monster Mystery Solved |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|01:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
After 2 years, the mystery has finally been solved. Back in May of 2007, bloomerwedgies and I took a trip to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. While there, we saw many interesting things which I could swear I posted about. However, I cannot find any such posting. Weird. At any rate, one of the things I saw was this giant, mutant, goose/duck/vulture/monster. It was really large. Like... from where I was sitting, it appeared to be larger than the Canadian Geese, though that may have been a trick of perspective. It was shaped like a duck. And had a pink, fleshy head like a friggin' vulture! ( Here. See for yourself )
So, it turns out it's not a mutant after all. We do not have to fear being taken over by horrifying vuldugeese. What a relief! |
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| Today is win |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|03:10 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
It is a fantastically beautiful day out. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, birds are singing. The downside is that I am working. But I am so lucky because I telecommute on Mondays. I'm sitting outside at our little patio table in the shade working on the laptop and enjoying the fresh air. Sometimes, life is just really awesome. Hurray! |
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| So in love with today's xkcd |
[Mar. 31st, 2009|02:38 pm] |
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I'm a horrible person, but I actually HAVE keyed peoples cars for this. If your car is so special that you deserve two spaces in a crowded parking lot to keep it from getting scratched... it NEEDS to be scratched. I'd do a lot worse if I thought I could get away with it. Erg! It fills me with rage! Maybe I need therapy...
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| Brokened! |
[Aug. 8th, 2008|01:14 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  drained | ] |
Guess who added to his collection of broken bits yesterday?
Me! See over on the pinky side there, where the bones don't line up? Yeah... that's ow. The rin finger is broken, too. Though not so badly. Yay fun!
In better news... I've finally gotten all my car stuff straightened out. I'm insured, registered in Oregon, have new plates, and have transferred my title. Finlly! What a relief!
P.S. There are probably lots of typos from typing with only my left hand. It's late and I don't care. |
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| Performing this Saturday |
[Apr. 1st, 2008|10:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
Hey all. Just a quick update to say that I'll be performing with Jill Tracy and Paul Mercer this coming Saturday, the 5th of April at the Fez. This should be a great show! The three of us will be working together to create a unique combination of song, dance and juggling that should be really amazing! All three of us will be improvising our performance to match what we see and hear from the other performers to create something truly unique. Come check it out!
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 10th, 2008|02:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
This made me laugh. Quite a lot.
Now... if I can just bring myself to start posting some real updates... Sheesh, I've been lazy! |
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| Whee! |
[Nov. 7th, 2007|03:05 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
Yesterday, most of the UNIX sys admins from where I work, all left a bit early and headed out to SyKart in Tigard for a bit of fun. This was payed for by the company as a team building social event. It was a lot of fun, even though I found out that I suck at go-kart racing! Haha. After an hour of racing, we went out to Gustav's for a delicious dinner and lots of beer and wine. I had root beer, of course. Heehee. Mmmm!
Anyway, it was a really fun night. It was hard to get good pictures, since I was busy racing and didn't fiddle with the camera settings. But here is one of me, taking a corner way to wide, for your viewing pleasure!
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| Dark Cabaret |
[Nov. 5th, 2007|01:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
Saturday night was SOOOO much fun!
I received a call from ladyraven13 in mid October asking me if I could perform at the Dark Cabaret. I had already been planning to attend, as any chance to see Jill Tracy perform is a chance I don't pass up lightly! I agreed to the show, even though I would not be paid. I was a late addition and the budget had already been blown on getting Jill and Paul Mercer to Portland. All I could get was free admission for me and bloomerwedgies and a few drink tickets. However, it sounded like a lot of fun, not to mention a good chance to get to talk with Jill and to meet Paul. I had been planning to perform to "The Weeping Song" by Nick Cave. However, on Friday night, I received a call from Jeremy, the event organizer, asking if I could perform with Paul. I informed him that I could perform to any music and that it would be fun to perform with a live musician. I wasn't sure how many times he wanted me on stage, so I practiced to "The Weeping Song" anyway. Just in case. ^_^
Well, when I arrived at the Fez on Saturday, Paul and Jill were on stage preparing. Introductions were made and I discovered that they were BOTH going to be playing for me and that I'd be performing twice in the set! Hurray! So, goodbye Nick Cave. Heehee. We worked on some ideas for how to put the performance together. Jill and Paul were amazing together. They are both such superb artists! We tried out a few different songs and ideas to see what would work best with my juggling style. We decided that, for my first song, I would perform with both Jill and Paul. My second performance would be just Paul and me. This was because it was a piece that Paul had a hard time performing with another musician. He had a lot of impromptu key changes and such, which made it a poor candidate for an improvised collaboration. It worked out well, though, since it was the kickoff for a solo portion of his act.
Both of my performances were great fun. Usually, I perform to a recorded piece of music and improvise my routine to match the tempo, mood, and melody of the music. In this performance, though, the music was effected my my actions as much as I was affected by the music! We played back and forth with each other and as the music changed to match my actions, I would be led, by the same music, into the next portion of my act. It was a marvelous, energetic, and inspiring way to perform! I am SO glad that I agreed to do the show!
Jill, Paul, and I all agreed to keep in contact and that we would all love to perform together again. All three of us had a great time! I know Paul is going to be back for the Portland Vampires Masquerade Ball this year and we are already planning to do a collaboration there. There is a chance that Jill may be there, as well! If so, I am very hopefull that we can all do another performance together.
Aside from the performances that we did together, both Paul and Jill were fantastic. I was blown away by how well they played together. They had first performed together just one week ago! When I was talking to Jill, she stated that she was amazed by it as well. "It's amazing, isn't it? Paul is like the brother I never had." (I hope I got that quote right. It's pretty close, at any rate.)
This was also the first time I have really performed since I started seeing bloomerwedgies. It was great to have her there with me. She looked fabulous and we had a great time together. At least, for the time I got to spend with her when I wasn't prepping back stage. She also manned the camera for the night. She isn't familiar with how to work the controls, but she got some neat shots! It was REALLY dark in the club, so most of them will need a few adjustments before they are viewable. But here is a flash picture of Jill, Paul, and I. This was right before we figured out which of us was the top performer of the night.
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| Takin' the day off! |
[Aug. 29th, 2007|10:42 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
So, after putting in waaaay too many hours at work last week, and on Sunday, I have decided to take a day off. bloomerwedgies, a few of her friends (They are my friends, too, but they were her friends first. And I don't know their LJ names yet.), and I are gonna head out to Seaside for the day! I checked the weather and it looks like it's going to be a fantastic day! I can't wait!
Off I go to get ready! |
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| Eclipse |
[Aug. 28th, 2007|04:18 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  nerdy | ] |
Well, I'm in NoPo, so the street lights made a photo rather difficult, but this one came out pretty decent. Hurray for eclipses!
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 27th, 2007|12:51 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
WOO-HOO!!!! I'm going home!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 26th, 2007|11:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  grumpy | ] |
Will this day ever end?
14 hours at work... on a Sunday... I thought 11 hours last Sunday was bad enough. Grrrr... |
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| Goodbye Weekend... |
[Aug. 23rd, 2007|05:48 pm] |
Gah. My weekend is gone before it even got here. I'm an unhappy boy.
Poo. |
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| Yay! It's Friday! |
[May. 18th, 2007|05:22 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  full | ] |
I don't have to come to work for two days. Hurray! I don't know what's up, but my workplace has been really annoying me quite a lot, lately. I'm very happy to not have to come here for a few days.
Anyhow, I went to a farewell lunch today, for a co-worker who is escaping from this place. ( I took pictures! ) |
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disappointed