Emergent Literacy

you may have noticed that the ads are gone. apparently, my account was disabled due to 'invalid activity' which basically means that google felt like disabling it. i can appeal and possibly get it back, but i don't really like ads anyway. i saw it as an easy way to make a small amount of money just for doing something that i do everyday anyway, but unfortunately google has decided to deny me that small pleasure. if it's going to be that difficult, i'd rather not clutter the blog with ads. oh well.

i have no more stitches in my gums. *cheers*

today i worked on my new website and got a visually appealing navigation with functional coding, which is a huge accomplishment for me. learning to use div/span instead of tables is certainly an adjustment, but i like that i don't much have to worry about different browsers interacting with the tables differently anymore, or piecing images together in tables. those things were annoying. now i just get to stare at the split-screen code/preview in dreamweaver [which is the reason i use it at all considering i end up writing the code by hand anyway] instead. i can live with that.

all i need to do now that the look is there and the code is bangin' is to make the links work and come up with some actual content. the bulk of the site is going to be embedded video-based, linking from my youtube account through an embedded player. i've got an idea of how i want it to look in my head, but translating that may prove difficult. i'm trying not to shoot too high, because i would like to have the site up and functional and full of content by the end of the month. we'll see if i meet that goal. i might actually get it up sooner.

tomorrow i've got to do a video. i kind of want to do a sketch, i've got a half-baked idea for a new geekin' out video, and i've got a great idea for a talky video response. i'm sure people are getting sick of video responses now, but i really think this one is such a good idea that it may be worth the effort. maybe i'll throw in some character-acted meta-insults to lighten the mood and make people forget it's just me talking again. and i'll keep it under 3 minutes. how's that sound? i think i just decided what i'm doing. i need to do another 'button' video though. hmm.

To Create

i did a lot of thinking today. thinking when i woke up and rolled out of bed to check websites and social networks. thinking as i walked the dog. thinking as i went to visit christin at work and went to drop off clothes at the goodwill. thinking while i listened to one of my regular podcasts with rainn wilson, you know that guy from the office, who is apparently a weird new age baha'i spiritual guru sort of dude. blech. i'm not sure i ever figured out what i was thinking about today, but i did a lot of it for lack of real conclusions about things. blah.

oh, and i got a new chair for christin.

when i got home, i sat in the shower with the warm water running over me and thought some more about life, direction, happiness, Jesus, the english language and various other things. work. i really want to create for a living. i suppose this means that i need to create things that people would be willing to spend time, money or energy on. similar to this blog, in the sense that i've now got a bit more pressure on myself to try and make this thing worth reading. to come up with content every night and write for more than a few minutes about how my day went. and now i'm filling up paragraphs about 'thinking.' whatever that means.

i don't know. i did some work on my website tonight. i'm re-learning html, because the game has changed and i'm tired of being so behind that i have no idea what i'm doing and my code ends up looking like crap. i'm still using dreamweaver, but i'm writing most of the code by hand. it's just for quick reference, it's just easier this way. i'm learning the old way, by looking at peoples' sources and copying them [which is harder now] in the sense of experimenting with things they did and figuring out how to replicate it.

it was fun to create something.

actually, all i really managed to do was create a basic layout that doesn't even include much real content at all. but my website is designed to be sort of a portal to all of my different media outlets like this blog, my youtube page, my twitter feed and the like. the bulk of what i did was set up feedburner and customize a script with css to make it look nice. i've got it looking the way i want it to now, though once i change the colors i'm sure it'll have to be re-edited. people don't like white on black, bud!

tomorrow i go back to the dentist. i'm tired of talking about my mouth! i feel like i felt when i was vlogging/blogging about my car pretty much non-stop a while back. but yeah. the swelling is down by a lot today, and the stitches are falling out on their own. i don't even know if there are going to be any left for him to remove tomorrow by the time i get out to glen burnie. ;-P but at least he can look at my mouth and tell me if everything is kosher. hopefully it is. also on the table for tomorrow: homework for my new class and community at 8pm. good times.

Donkey Kong

well i was halfway correct yesterday: i only had to make one phone call, and i didn't have to go to the mva after all. it seems that my faxing in the letter within 60 days counts, and they're not going to penalize me for the california dmv's sluggish reply to paperwork. the state will call me when they get my title in, and all will be well. unfortunately, my inspection certificate expires in 30 days, so i've got to get a temporary [one year] registration and temporary title in the meantime if it takes longer than those 30 days. not so bad, really, in the end.

today i did a whole lot of nothing, with the exception of sitting on hold for an almost criminal length of time, until christin came home. we played with the animals a bit and headed out to the mall for our weekly tuesday night date. this week, we splurged and got dinner at the mall as well as going to our $6.00 tuesday movie at the cinema. christin had a teriyaki chicken bento box at the sushi joint which smelled and tasted amazing [the chicken, not the sushi] and i had a chicken sandwich at chick-fil-a [wheat bun, baby] and fries from five guys. it was delicious.

we saw 'the facebook movie' which was as much about facebook as troll 2 was about trolls. it was interestingly written and played, as all the factoids about facebook and its development were all things we already knew. it was the interaction and drama between the characters that i had not heard about, and the acting was wonderful. the dialogue was speedy and sometimes overbearing, almost like an episode of gilmore girls at times, but it was well executed in the sense that the main points got across through the technical speak. it was a good movie.

it was very fincher, in my opinion. not just the typical, dark and brooding backdrop and fincher's trademark color palette, but the feel of it. the underlying depression, despite the fact that every single thing possible seems to be going well as can be for the protagonist. the manipulation that undermined the other characters, one way or another, and the very sad ending. i guess you could call it an ending, i wasn't really impressed with the way it ended. there was no real resolution in the end, but i guess that's what happens when you tell part of a story that's probably still in the process of developing. i guess. i should look it up.

anyway, that's enough of that. after i got home and christin went to sleep, i set about thinking of what to do until 2am when i had to take my medication. conveniently enough, i noticed that my buddy from youtube named peter was hosting a tinychat, so i hopped in. i got on cam and typed, because i couldn't really talk while christin was sleeping a mere 6 feet away, and it was a good time. i recognized most of the people there, but a few were new faces, and it was fun to just chat and socialize. a good end to a good day. tomorrow will be interesting, depending on if i do what i think i want to do with my time tomorrow. goodnight.

Last Pizza Pocket

i've just finished writing a 7-page final paper and accompanying lesson plan, so forgive me if i'm in any way lacking in eloquence. i just got up to go to the toilet and thought to write 'i am so relieved that tomorrow is one of those days when i literally have nothing that i need to do' when i realized that may not be true. so i looked at my maryland driver's license's issue date and did the math and realized that there is something i have to do tomorrow. i have to make at least two phone calls that i don't want to make, and potentially go to the mva.

the first phone call will be to the bank that owns my car, because i faxed them the letter to get the title forwarded to the state of maryland twice now and they haven't let me know anything. and the state hasn't called either, so i don't know what's up with that. the second is to the mva because by law i'm meant to register my vehicle within 60 days of claiming residency in the state. however, if i don't have my title transferred, i can't apply for a maryland title and thus cannot register the car. so hopefully they will be understanding.

yeah right, it's the mva.

well this sucks. i had already begun dreaming up a lovely blog post in my head during those 40 or so seconds between thinking about not having any responsibilities and realizing that i had one looming above me like a crushing hammer of annoyance. wait, crushing hammer of annoyance? see what i mean about the lack of eloquence? these are the jokes, folks. feel free to laugh. so i'll have to save that blog topic for the next time i've got a day coming up where i don't need to do anything. but realistically, that day will never come. there are always needs.

i guess what i mean is less that i don't need to do anything, and more that there will be absolutely no serious consequences were i to shirk my responsibilities for the day. and for the most part, that's every day for me. sure, there would be some consequences, but nothing so catastrophic that it would send me spiraling downward into a pit of hellish hellishness [really?] or anything. that's the blessing and the curse of being technically unemployed: you aren't really tied down to any one schedule, but in the grand scheme of things, you are somewhat insignificant.

what i'm really trying to say is that i need a job. unfortunately, i've got a weekend trip planned in a week that i can't get out of, so having a proper job right now is pretty much a non-option. which is good, because so far no one wants to hire me. i'll try quite a bit harder to find some sucker to let me work for them nice person to hire me once i get back from said trip. i know, i'm so clever. i'm the cleverest. today i worked on my paper, and after that was finished, i watched elmify videos and wished i were as good at vlogging as she is. the end!

Concerted Action

cold weather is ominous. i always feel like something is going to happen whenever the weather gets a bit colder. it's probably the wind blowing. i close my eyes and type, and i just get that feeling like any minute now, something really creepy is going to happen. but it doesn't. the wind keeps blowing and the cat keeps purring in her bed, and my wife keeps sleeping, and i keep typing. things keep on going just as they should. the train keeps rolling on. i should be thankful for such stability, it's a rare thing these days. or at least it feels that way.

blogging has been good for me lately. thanks for reading. seriously, i mean it. the knowledge that people are reading is fueling me and inspiring me to write for someone other than myself. the stuff that i write for myself never ends up being any good. when i was in junior college, the second year or so, i wrote an entire screenplay for a movie that was pretty much written entirely for me. it's a good thing i don't know where that is, because it was terrible. it was basically a rip-off of another movie that i still haven't seen [capital records] with some veiled kevin smith references. the story was dull, and the actions of the characters made no sense. i just wanted to write something, and i thought it was good at the time.

it wasn't.

writing for an audience is different. it's not so much that i sit writing, knowing what my audience wants to read, because i don't really know that. it's more that i know that someone will take the time to read it, regardless of whether or not it's something they may want to read or may have wanted to read before they started reading it. people who have been following this blog should know by now that it's almost never the same. i change it up on a daily basis. sometimes it's just a recounting of the day's events, sometimes it's straight up narrative, and sometimes it's knocking on the door of being considered art. in any iteration, whatever it is, rest assured that it is me.

you are reading me.

i use familiar devices like the one i just used in order to pull you in and emphasize statements and make points and make you think that everything is fluid and similar. it's not really, but i can trick your brain into thinking it is. that's the beauty of the written word. or the typed word, as similar as it can be. thanks for sticking with me through it all and reading, and if you haven't been with me this whole time, thanks for reading at least now. feel free to go back and read earlier works, though i can't promise you it'll be enjoyable. also, feel free to comment. i fear that feature is incredibly underused. i know you have a google account. everyone does.

in other news, i've decided that i'll be changing the layout of this blog sometime soon. this will be done in order to further accommodate people who apparently are not cyborgs like myself and don't enjoy reading white text on a black background. it happens. it will probably look something like what my domain looks like right now, in terms of color and basic general concept. blue and white, because i'm very uninteresting. i may add in a splash of orange because i like the color, not because i know anything about design. i couldn't care less.

today was a fairly uninteresting day, and the swelling and annoyance has not yet lifted from my face. it doesn't feel like it's worse, it just feels like it's not getting any better. maybe a little bit. i really was expecting it to go down faster, but it just hasn't. it's starting to get on my nerves. but i don't think it's something worth calling the surgeon over, so i probably won't go that far. i have a final project due tomorrow, and i've not even looked at the rubric. mistake or challenge? you be the judge. i say challenge, but of course i do. it was my choice.

Nothing, Really

i hate when i forget things that someone told me a while before but never reminded me about. this is because i often forget those things and if you expect me to remember them and take zero steps to ensure that i've remembered them, i'm likely not to. this morning would be a good example of that. my wife kept waking me up casually, then started yelling at me. i asked why she was insisting that i get up, when she looked at me like i was stupid and reminded me that today we were going to the eastern shore to celebrate her dad's birthday.

yeah, i probably should've remembered that.

but she didn't remind me yesterday. granted, she shouldn't have had to, but it's kind of the way i am. i need lots of reminders, especially at the last minute. you'd think that someone with a memory like mine, i'd use a day planner or at least the calendar on my phone, but i don't really use it much. when i do, i always remember stuff, so i should probably get more organized and do that for more things. i'm one of those people where if the alarm doesn't go off in the morning, i don't wake up. i basically have no internal clock, or it's just so angry at me from all the years of abuse and change and misdirection that it's completely given up on working.

anyway, the birthday celebration was fun. the girls gushed about how much they loved the video i put up with them in it, and instantly bombarded me with ideas [mostly bad or derivative to the point of copyright violation] about what to do for the next one. i should just make them their own channel! we ate bourbon chicken, talked and hung out for a few hours and then it was time to go back. on the way home, we visited christin's friend in the hospital to see her newborn son, which was good for christin and boring for me, and then headed back.

fell asleep almost immediately and woke up just in time for the raid tonight [more ulduar hard modes, we're about halfway through the meta-achievement]. i'm not taking the percocet much anymore, but i've been super drained lately. i think i mentioned that yesterday. is it sad that i can't remember that far, back to what i wrote only last night on this very blog? i could find out by clicking a button, but that's far too convenient. no, i think i'll just let it slide. the swelling is still pretty bad on my mouth, so i'm kind of concerned that there may be a problem. it could just be from the infection. if it's still this prevalent on monday, i'm calling the oral surgeon back. church tomorrow.

Yoo-Hoo

the day after, the aftermath, le dénouement. today was a beautiful, typical autumn day in annapolis and i spent most of it in bed. something about getting a tooth ripped out of your skull does that to you. it's not like it hurts all that much, it's just uncomfortable, and my energy level has been pretty low since yesterday. i guess that probably has something to do with the fact that i didn't eat a whole lot of anything yesterday, and today's total calorie count was probably pretty slim as well. mental note: eat more tomorrow. i'm getting more confident in my ability to chew, but my paranoia in the area of keeping my wound clean is getting the better of me.

perhaps it's good that i'm paranoid about food getting in there and mucking things up. maybe now i can create a compulsion to brush my teeth as soon as i'm done eating anything all day and my teeth will be nice from now on. wishful thinking, most likely. my teeth have always been bad. so today i picked up a free bike for my wife, which is good news because we both need exercise and i have one i can use in the garage already. christin went to hang out with becky, and i stayed home and raided ulduar hard modes with my brother and matt and the raid team. it was good times, and we got four achievements done.

so it's october now. that's weird. september went by pretty quickly, but this past week dragged on pretty miserably. probably because we were really poor, which never helps things. but now christin just got paid and i should be getting almost $200 from patch next week and [if things go as well as they've been with these new ads on my blog] another check from google in the near future. good things, good things. do these two things combined qualify me as a professional writer or journalist? that's kind of cool to think about. i should write more, like proper write. maybe i'll use this blog as an outlet for that, or a test field. how do you feel about being guinea pigs?