Electric Monkey Pants

Hello and welcome to my personal site. You are now reading my blog, which automatically makes you cool.

Graduation draws steadily nearer. It is now just hours away. I will soon have a second degree, to complement my degree in English from St. John’s University. The first one didn’t get me too far; let’s hope the second one is more useful. I certainly feel like I learned a lot; more than I thought I would, really. I still feel there’s a lot to learn. You can never really stop and say, “Okay, enough learning; I’m done.” Especially not in this field. Multimedia and Web Design changes so fast that my degree is probably obsolete and it’s not even in hand yet. Still, I hope to get a good job with it and then expand and refine my skills over the years. I guess I’m feeling pretty optimistic. I was feeling pretty damn “excited” earlier. Wow. You never know what the future holds.

Oh, and for those who are interested, I have updated the Photos section with some new images…and you can actually click on the thumbnails to see a larger version!! Wow! I really spared no effort for you guys. Christmas is coming, so please get me that special gift that really says you care: ca$h.

Welcome back for my latest (second, really) blog. Not too much going on, except a little thing called…. FINALS!!! Aaaiiiieeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Yes, they are in full effect, even though next week is officially Finals Week I’ve already got a shitload to do. This website included. Luckily, I think my Flash movie is done, so that is now up and ready for your viewing pleasure. This site is now officially on the web.

Well, I got through it. I handed in my final stuff for Adv. Image Manip and my portfolio class. Looks like I’ve got a little more time for portfolio stuff, so I’ll work my ass off tomorrow (Sunday) as well. I took today off – from schoolwork. I jammed with Matt and Ben for hours today. We had a pretty good practice. Matt and I laid down a few tracks. Nothing outstanding, but at least we’ve got a version of Én Fuego on “tape” now. Actually, it’s on my computer, which desperately needs to be backed up so I can install 10.3 from scratch and not mess around with this shit. I’m currently downloading the latest patch for ProTools because it does not work with 10.3.1. I really need a new hard drive. A nice 120 gigger would do me wonders. Anytime you deal with audio or video, you need a shitload of freespace, no matter what. It’s just the way it is.

Right now I’ve got one book on my mind, and it’s calling to me like a wolf in the night. Actually, it’s the new Stephen King book, Wolves of the Calla. It’s the 5th Dark Tower book, and it’s quite good. If you’ve ever seen Seven Samurai you know the story, but it gets pretty deep into the characters and setting of the Dark Tower realm so you don’t even notice it, mostly. It’s easy and fun reading and I’m almost done. I’ve got like 60 pages to go; it’s the final showdown. I think I might have to leave you all and go read it.

This thing is finally online, live and open to the public. No pushing please; come one, come all. Ain’t it beautiful folks? Ain’t the internet grand? So long as it works and doesn’t enslave us to it, I suppose. But that’s a question for another day. Today is the day I’m getting all my loose ends tied up and preparing for graduation, which is on the 19th, if you’re interested.

It’s Judgment Day. No, not that one; get back here. All the prayers in the world won’t stop this one. I have to present my final portfolio tomorrow. When I say “tomorrow” I mean: in about 12 hours. There’s very little time left, and I’m tired as shit. I don’t have the fire that I’ll need to complete this project, which is why I’m writing in this ‘blog. Wish me luck, although you won’t read this until it’s all over and done with since this page isn’t online yet. It will be once I get done with Priority Numero Uno.

I just wanted to mention that I hate Flash. I’m tired, drained, distracted and feeling hopelessness, not the gung-ho determination I was hoping for. I might have to pull an all-nighter, but then again, maybe it’s not worth it. D’s get Degrees, they say. But I think in this case I need a C. Anyway, I’ve already lost 10% of my final grade because I didn’t manage to apply for 3 field-related jobs with the approval of my career counselor in time. Silly me, I was working my ass off, trying to graduate. Every waking moment for the past two weeks has been spent either working, at school or doing homework. Since I only work 4 hours a day and only go to school for 4 hours twice a week that’s a shitload of homework. I think my friends are suspicious that I’m ditching them or something. They’ve never seen me work this hard before. Shit, I never have worked this hard before.

I guess you could say I slacked the first part of the quarter, but I had other things on my mind, such as the fact that I had no job and my bank account had less than $100 in it. So that was foremost in my mind, and then when I finally got a job a week into the quarter, I focused much of my energy on that since it was pretty demanding at first. Now that I know the ropes it doesn’t take as much energy, but initially, I must say it sapped my strength. This is why I hate working and going to school at the same time. I don’t like having to fluctuate between priorities like that, and work takes up a lot more time than the 4 hours I get paid for. There’s getting ready for work time, there’s commute time (half hour each way) and winding down from work time. I’d say it takes 6 hours out of my day. That really eats into my homework time. I’d almost rather work 8 hours and lose only a fifth of my time to pre & post work stuff. That’s the dirty secret of the 40 hour work week, folks; it takes up about 10 hours a day even if we only get paid for 8.

Still, I got through this crap and I can hardly complain, since it’s nice to have any relatively secure job (as secure as temp job can be) in this economy. Anyway, it looks like I will pass my independent study class, which is Advanced Image Manipulation. It’s weird; there’s no class time, just homework, which is to say projects. This website was one. My prof didn’t seem to like it much, but I didn’t design it for him, I did it for me. I have to look at the damn thing for the next few years, or however long it lasts before I inevitably redesign it. I think he’s right; the rollovers are a bit weak, and I plan to change them, but I’ve decided against Flash buttons because not enough people have Flash installed on their system. And, as I said, I hate Flash. Still, there’s nothing else like it. Oh well, I’ve slacked enough. It’s time to jump back into Flash and finish my freakin’ portfolio, if possible. I just hope I get it done in time. Thank God for DJ Shadow.

I just had a story idea wherein Tom Selleck rules the entertainment universe. I pictured myself waking up in an alternate universe; one in which Tom Selleck decided to do the original Indiana Jones movie, and thus, Harrison Ford was never offered the role. This sets forth a chain of events which complete alters the world. Bill Clinton never becomes president, the Terminator never gets made, and thus Arnold Schwartzenegger never rises beyond Conan: The Barbarian and into superstardom. He never becomes governor either, obviously. Initially, the changes are limited to Hollywood, but they spread out like a virus, inexorably changing our world completely.

What do you think? Too cheesy? Well, duh. The idea of Tom Selleck playing the role of Indiana Jones is cheesy, but that didn’t stop Spielberg and Lucas from offering him the role. What were they thinking?! What was he thinking?! I mean, come on, if Steven Spielbergo (his non-union, Mexican equivalent) offered me the role of “Guy Who Gets Hit With a Bat in Every Scene (for real)” I’d take it! This goes along with Will Smith getting offered the role of “Neo” in the Matrix. I like Will Smith, but that would’ve completely changed the tone of the film. Yes, I’ve seen Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation and it seems he can act (better than Keanu, many would say), but he’s always so damn chipper. I like Keanu’s brooding, even boring, take on Neo. He made for a good computer hacker in the first one. As for the 2nd & 3rd movies, well, I don’t agree with the direction they took, but it’s too late to complain now.

Personally, I thought it should’ve been more about freeing the people stuck in the Matrix, not this “save Zion” crap. Who cares?! Talk about a stupid plot idea. It must’ve taken them, what, 0.3 seconds to come up with that one? The idea of mentally and physically freeing millions of people from the Matrix is a much more complex one. It would’ve been much more difficult to write and film, but ultimately, it would’ve been more rewarding, I think. They could have still included many of the new characters, like the Merovingian, but in a different way. That said, the movies weren’t bad, and were even kind of thought-provoking (kind of), but in no way did they measure up to the first movie.

As you can see below, I took an extended break from my blog. I’m aiming to start it back up again, and on a new, improved website. This one will actually be hosted on timoregan.com, unlike the earlier stuff, which was just on the school’s server. Hopefully, I will keep it going this time and you will be able to peer into the depths of my weirdness…if you’re into that sort of thing.