| Welcome...to the real world. |
[May. 10th, 2020|08:12 pm] |
And all of that happy stuff. Anyway, I'm Miles Attacca, and this is my LiveJournal.
'Sup.
(Yes, it talks.)
Anyway...yeah. Feel free to read.
Every midnight, I play...
Cyber Nations, a nation simulation game. Updates once-daily so it's a facet of, but not your whole life. Worth checking out.
 Support the war online (no, really)
http://irrepressible.info
Sign Amnesty International's petition to governments against restricting freedom of expression online. |
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| Night thoughts |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|02:34 am] |
Cassie just did the cutest little move ever, curling up on the floor and bringing her paws up over her eyes. I d'awwwwwww'd and wished I had a camera handy.
Also, the Aida premiere yesterday was simply amazing; today had more noticeable rough spots (second-night jinx); and I'll be very sad when we start taking apart my hard work tomorrow night after curtain call. It's weird to think that all of that set, all that, will just be gone by Sunday daybreak, after spending the better part of a month working on it, platforms to painting; and then, this last week, enjoying the musical with better-than-front-row seats.
P.S. The living room is my new favorite space to be, until Monday. This house is perfect without the family. |
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| So I lost my tweezers earlier. |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|01:35 am] |
I'm screwing around with them, picking up bits of dust etc.
Then they slip out of my left hand and roll down onto my shirt.
I feel around for them, can't find them.
Get up.
Use a flashlight to search under the desk.
Take off my damn pants in case they fell down there and I couldn't feel it (yeah, right).
I still dunno where they are.
I'm a fucking magician. |
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| Life's a blessing. Theater's a blessing. Theater's life. |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|01:56 am] |
Aida premieres in a week and so far things are going swimmingly.
I found build crew to be a very tiring, very satisfying experience, and it came at just the right time, when the monotony of summer nothingness was about to put me on a real downer. I helped with platforms, from hefting them out of storage to the final coats of paint. I spent more time on a ladder, or working up high and sans guardrails, than is believable to anyone who knows my suspicion of heights. I focused lights, and button-pressed on the soundboard.
Now the techies are actually rehearsing with the cast, and thus getting up just as early, instead of coming in as they depart. I'm trying to stuff into my head the cues for moving benches about, and next week it's all going in writing. (Notes save my life in any drama production, in any role; pure and simple.) I'm also frantically searching my head to place names with faces, so "Hey you, the Egyptian guy" gets the right microphone pack, and I don't feel so aloof. And I'm also pretending to be professional and smooth in helping people attach and remove packs from their bras and leotards. (I know it's just the job, they ask me for the help, and I of all people shouldn't care; someday, someday, I'll believe it, too.)
I pick up a new tidbit of knowledge about theater or the theater every day, and I feel a little more like my disposition matches my age. I've gotten rewards like these from every production I've been on so far, and as much as the month I took off was a wise idea, I'd lose out on a lot if I let this hobby fade away.
So hey, can I do this again next year? |
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| Michael Jackson |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|06:23 pm] |
"America is the only place where a poor, black boy can grow up to be a rich, white woman."
That being said, I was pretty shocked to read he had died, and even more surprised when news sites confirmed it. To die at 50 is not insignificant and definitely something to mourn; not to mention his catchy contributions to American pop. I didn't know he was about to launch a comeback, either. Music will be a little less without him.
I'll be playing Off the Wall and Thriller tonight for sure. |
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| Dungeons and Dreamers |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|05:41 pm] |
I died in the Dungeon of Miles AttaccaI was killed in an opulently-decorated torture chamber by Punkrocker Knux the mind flayer, whilst carrying... the Wand of Miriamthebat, a Figurine of Ned Vizzini and 36 gold pieces. Score: 43 Explore the Dungeon of Miles Attacca and try to beat this score, or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon... |
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| Life |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|01:38 am] |
I think the point at which life begins is the point at which one experiences emotion for the first time. After this point, things matter. Whether you possess a significant intellect or not, smelling fresh air, feeling pain, or watching a romantic movie can all make a deep impression on your consciousness. These impressions can be conveyed to other people through a variety of means, both passive and active, and that, I think, is just as important as being able to think and manipulate the environment.
Before that point, you are unable to use your personal actions and experiences to affect other people; they merely react to you. Until you cause the reaction yourself -- to be callous -- you are unimportant, you are forgettable, you are an unknown quantity, you are expendable. After that point, only you should be able to decide what happens to your life.
...Now, define emotion, and figure out when it happens or if it's happened to someone yet. |
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| Seen on the road |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|11:45 pm] |
At a rest stop an hour from Lexington: A VW Golf hatchback, spray-painted matte black with orange details. New Jersey license plate, the motto "CA OR BUST" on the side. Two kids in khakis and American Eagle in or around, their stuff packed into the back.
Best of luck, guys. |
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| Looking and realizing |
[May. 22nd, 2009|06:38 pm] |
| [ | what i'm high on now |
| | awed | ] |
| [ | my musical tastes |
| | "River of Love" - Lynch Mob | ] |
Monitor One- Buddy list
- Opera (browser)
- Bookmarks sidebar
- DamnInteresting.com article
- Messenger window
- Sidebar: index of open conversations
- Chat with Carrie
- Applet with system overclocking data
- Taskbar with names of open programs
Monitor Two
- WinAmp
- Media library
- Index column
- Search column
- Genre list
- Artist list
- Album list
- Track information
- Artist
- Album
- Track number
- Title
- Length
- Genre
- Controls
- Artist/track name
- File format details
- Timer
- Equalizer
- Playlist editor
- Playlist entry number
- Artist
- Track name
- Length
- Editing controls
There are several icons for quickly locating the essentials: the Quick Start program icons, the (captioned) desktop icons, protocol icons next to buddies, an oscilloscope in WinAmp, the minimize/maximize/exit icons atop each window...but all of the items in the brief summary above use words, lots of words. So many I don't even want to try to count them, but I'm gonna say 1500 to 2000 just from eyeballing it.
Being able to read is freaking awesome. |
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| My graphics card arrived today! :D |
[May. 20th, 2009|11:52 pm] |
| [ | what i'm high on now |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | my musical tastes |
| | The Conet Project | ] |
I now have a Biostar Nvidia 9500GT with 512MB DDR2 RAM. The heatsink takes up the PCI slot immediately below -- why they don't put the heatsink on top, where it can radiate away, I have no fucking clue -- but I wasn't using the sound card, anyway. It does dual monitors, and initially I was going to leap up to 3200x1200 with my two biggest Trinitrons, but unfortunately, my corner/wall desk obviates putting both of them on a diagonal. So the 13" Trini now sits to the right of an 18".
I mainly bought it for the dual-monitor productivity advantage; when I'm coding, or doing research, flipping windows between a full-screen editor and a browser gets annoying very quickly. Right now, my WinAmp media library is all that's taking up the second monitor, but it'll see real use soon enough. I also finally went up to 1600x1200 resolution in UrbanTerror and measured a delightful 60fps; before it was around 30 but randomly lagged if some other application demanded attention.
All in all, I am a very happy geek. Although my back isn't happy about trying to move the second big Trini around (to the desk, as I realized it wouldn't fit, and then back). Oh well. |
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| Flashlights |
[May. 20th, 2009|01:43 am] |
Why is it that, peering from my doorway into the basement with a flashlight in hand, I'm suddenly a hundred times more afraid than when I perform my usual, measured walk around the columns and to the stairs?
How does the small, white beam of light manage to, instead, focus the darkness, and my fears with it?
These sudden flare-ups of unjustified anxiety, of strangers lurking in the dark (having slipped through one of two barred windows?), just waiting to reflect light back from their eyes to mine, are why my living alone, at least in a standalone house, is probably out of the question. |
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| Random ruminations |
[May. 19th, 2009|12:47 pm] |
Went over to Josh's in the early evening (where I still am) and set up his new wireless router. It took about half an hour longer than it should have because I accidentally set it as a "router" instead of a "gateway" in the settings. Rather unintuitive choices, wouldn't you think? But he's online on his laptop, I'm online on my laptop -- which is the real benefit for me, since I don't have to put up with his parents' old desktop when I spend the night :P -- and it's just swell.
Let's see. Graduation on Saturday. Woke up all too early (6 in the AM) and did make an honest effort to straighten my hair. I wound up ponytailing it anyway, because the length, in my opinion, makes it look just ridiculous. Josh and the girls, of course, beg to differ, but I think it's good I play overcautious on fashion sense for once. Caleb's valedictorian speech was a good mix of amusing anecdotes and "we're not kids anymore." Waiting for my name to come dragged on...but then, suddenly, I was walking up the ramp to the stage and going across it, on autopilot, mainly conscious of the need to keep walking and shake the right hands. And then I was off. I can't even remember if I did hear the girls yelling for me as they say they did.
Lunch after graduation was okay. We went to Harold's (little diner in Florence), which we've somehow managed to avoid visiting for all 11 years up in this neighborhood. I had a very tasty burger and some excellent coconut cream pie. All four grandparents were there, and a couple of family friends, which made Dad overanxious that nobody was going to get along the whole weekend. For me, the awkward part was the religiosity of said family friends. But, you know, smile and wave.
Sunday evening was Prep's graduation. I got to clock out early from work (good both on that level, and in that it allowed me to escape ahead of some rather muleish customers), but absolutely didn't find the I-80 onramp that's somewhere along Center. I wound up just heading east until I got to 30th and Ames, then taking the freeway downtown. Parking was a bitch but I got inside ten minutes late, just in time for half the lecture on proper decorum, and the opening prayer. :P I was duly proud to see my Prep friends walk across the stage, and Susan, Amanda, and I all screamed for our favorites. (You guys know who you are.) Josh, Steve, and the three of us went out to Ted and Wally's afterward (where I ran into Logan, who I was worried I wasn't gonna get to see), thence to Steve's, where we crammed ourselves into his room and enjoyed the very pleasant company of his mom and her parents.
I have to take some time to admit that I did feel a bit weird, watching all the Prep boys down on stage and not being there with them. The best I can say is that I'm sure I would have been proud to be in that group, but that North was, altogether, the better of two worlds. I did slip into reverie for awhile at Prep's graduation, trying to walk through the hallways and sit in the classrooms and the commons one more time.
For the whole weekend, I got a disposable film camera (whoa, throwback) in the absence of the digital. While I was pretty conservative, 27 shots go by fast. I tried to get pictures of all the people I know well enough to fear forgetting. It was only after I ran out of film that it occurred to me that my (still unactivated) Tracfone has a dinky camera and I could have gotten another dozen shots. Not that they'd be any good.
So now it's past noon and I'm sitting on Josh's couch wondering when the hell he's going to wake up. (Not for awhile yet; he went to bed at 4 and is very insistent on the need for his beauty sleep.) And now, having graduated, attended what would have been my graduation, and picked up my yearbook yesterday afternoon -- I'm out. Wow. |
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| Aaaaaaaagh |
[May. 13th, 2009|10:19 pm] |
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My inbox is both my calendar and an extension of my desk. I leave e-mails in there to remind myself to check up on issues, like making sure things I've ordered online arrive in a timely fashion, and getting college stuff done -- but eventually it all just kinda blends in. This happens with my real desk, too (but, in all honesty, having a real calendar/organizer might help with remembering important, unavoidable matters).
And it's messy. It's all messy.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.
...*avoids* |
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| Endings (45 minutes to call) |
[May. 10th, 2009|02:45 pm] |
| [ | my musical tastes |
| | "Miss Sarajevo" - Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1 | ] |
Non-trivial (immaterial)- Today. Final performance of the Young Playwrights Festival at the Rose. Indeed, my final performance at the Rose; see Saturday. Less fun than the Young Directors Project, in turn less spectacular than Pride Players; it's gotten more tiring than fulfilling. But that's not to say that it won't be missed.
- Monday. Check, Please, DJ's senior-directed one-act at North. I'm probably babysitting our temperamental soundboard. I would have auditioned were it not for YPF. Last show for me + North drama, either way. Again, see Saturday.
- Saturday. North graduation. 2007 to 2009, so far, so fast. Prep's become a distanced memory, and I'm sure North will, too, but I'd love to get a full four years there. Many significant things began to happen to me even as soon as I found out I'd be allowed to leave Prep.
- August. I'll be off to the dorms, until next summer. This is a Good ThingTM.
Trivial (material)- The camera's broken. It's my fault this time, too. And it happened at the Rose again, even. The timeframe for resolving that depends on the efficiency of the USPS. Trivial in the scheme of things, but.
- The car's half-dead. We'll see on that one. Tomorrow I drain the radiator and start taking things apart, and hope I didn't wait too long to start playing cautious. On a side note, anyone want to ship me a known-good Alero engine?
- The power switch on Jessica's DS snapped when I was putting it back together, after fixing the mic. (All DS parts are ridiculously tiny.) A replacemen switch is on the way, and I need a better soldering iron. The only situation of all these where I still feel in my element.
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| (no subject) |
[May. 8th, 2009|11:59 pm] |
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I know I said I was gonna rant some after last Friday, and now it's the Friday after last Friday, but I've been surprisingly busy. Mainly the plays. Two more days of performances at the Rose, then whatever tech work needs be managed at North. And in the meantime, hopefully something can be done about the car. So, until then. |
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| I am a rock. |
[May. 4th, 2009|11:23 pm] |
I have my books and my poetry to protect me. I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock; I am an island. And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 29th, 2009|10:11 pm] |
Last B-day classes tomorrow.
Freakin' ever.
...Sadface. D:
I'm sure I'll elaborate more after Friday. |
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| Elaborating on a Facebook status |
[Apr. 25th, 2009|12:18 am] |
| [ | what i'm high on now |
| | informative! | ] |
| [ | my musical tastes |
| | "Mockin' Bird" - The Libertines - Up the Bracket | ] |
Process of a website design (and an overview of the many skills required, particularly in designing OmahaFeed)
- Outline an idea in any thought-storing medium (paper, Notepad, the brain).
- Cool idea
- Details of cool idea
- How cool idea will make money
- Coolness-to-difficulty ratio (approximate)
- Sketch a design draft on paper (not totally reflective of end result).
- I absolutely can't draw "for reals," but conceptual stuff like this comes very naturally.
- Lay it out and get the proportions roughly pixel-perfect:
- Draw shapes in MS Paint, move them around an image
- Draw shapes in GIMP, move them around an image
- Draw shapes in MS Paint or GIMP, export to separate graphics files, and make a rough layout in HTML
- Usually, some illogical, yet comfortable and productive combination of the three.
- Basic HTML: Mark up sections, organized as semantically as possible, and with roughly appropriate filler text.
- OmahaFeed is the first serious site I've tried to practice semantic coding on.
- Back in the day, HTML organized content, contained content, and styled content. It was a big bright conglomerated mess.
- These days, HTML organizes and clarifies the meaning of the content it contains, and CSS styles it. HTML is intentionally plain, and thus very accessible; CSS makes the magic that counts.
- And on OmahaFeed, most of the content isn't actually set on the page, but dynamically loaded from newsfeeds via PHP code. The separation continues.
- Now that there's a template of sorts, convert applicable bits so they can be dynamically generated with PHP.
- Example: Design and code a content box.
- Make a function in PHP to print the code out, the box being filled with whatever you put into a variable.
- Call that function when you need it.
- No more pasting the same code a million times; the script does it for you. Yay!
- Add flashy effects and other elements of the user interface with JavaScript.
- Example: Expandable/collapsible content boxes (a major design feature, and complication, of OF).
- This generally includes "dynamic" features where you can't make the user wait while you refresh his or her page.
- Find a good statistics package, and integrate it in. You ought to know just who (target market or not) appreciates your work.
- Step back and admire things. This is akin to kicking tires on a (hopefully) pretty sports car before you actually turn the key. Take a deep breath before you turn the ignition and...
- Test, test, test.
- This is the unspoken, ever-necessary step that actually comes into play during all the previous steps.
- Even if every individual component from each previous step has been proven to work on its own, or even in concert with a few other elements, some part of your site is not going to be happy with another part.
- Heaven forbid the uncooperative spirit extends across languages, and your JavaScript hates your HTML, which your PHP refuses to spit out anyway.
- Launch the site. This involves boring things like:
- Obtaining a domain name
- Selecting a cost-effective, reliable web host
- Picking FTP software to upload and/or sync files
- Advertising, both getting ads placed on your site, and placing ads on other sites
- Moderating user-generated content (oh, joy)
- Adapting the site to better fit end-user needs, desires, and expectations (sadism is usually not nice)
In short, you have to be able to think; record and sort those thoughts effectively; do graphics design; mark up HTML and CSS; program with languages such as (but not limited to) PHP and JavaScript; effectively and efficiently troubleshoot; react to outside input; and draw attention through a combination of the above.
In shorter, this is why I'm at a loss to help my parents "get into web designing" the quick and easy way.
In shortest, if this is a passion for you, grow into it, and live and breathe it.
Aaaand now it's half an hour after I planned to be asleep. :P |
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| Winding down |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|10:59 pm] |
| [ | what i'm high on now |
| | normal | ] |
| [ | my musical tastes |
| | "Nurega" - Organic Audio | ] |
The most succinct way to describe myself as summer draws nearer. My motivation in all things is generally dwindling, both for school and hobbies. (Work's fine, though; I'm well-motivated there. *chaching*) I'm basically spending most of my free time down here, surfing around. Maybe sometime soon I'll incentivize myself to do the two website projects on my list; one to start designing, and one that's 50% coded and then will need to be launched and managed properly. I'm sure that'll be less of a chore when/if it starts making ad money.
As for the home front... all my Stuff continues to surround me, and I continue to bask in it, and wonder how the hell I'm gonna fit enough of it in my room in the residence hall. I don't even know what I'd do if I was sharing a single dorm; as is, I have all the possessions to fill a good studio apartment. May Rubbermaid intercede for me. Nonmaterialistically speaking, well, that's the same as it's always been, with slight variations. Dad's fully enjoying playing the martyr, as he always has in one way or another; Mom and Josh are inoffensive; Ben still keeps asking when I'm going back to church; Annie's a stuck-up brat; and the cat wants more of my company than I'm accustomed to giving, which I should value a lot more. Cats are so much better than human beings.
And that's the news for the day. |
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| CAR FUND ACHIEVED. |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|07:32 pm] |
| [ | my musical tastes |
| | Diana Ross and the Supremes join the Temptations | ] |
Now to find something to spend it on.
>< |
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| SMARTIES - THE GATEWAY DRUG. |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|04:52 pm] |
| [ | what i'm high on now |
| | disgustipated | ] |
Middle Schoolers 'Smoke' Smarties Candy
Middle-school students have found a new use for Smarties candy -- "smoking" them.
The Wall Street Journal reported March 20 that students are crushing the sugary candy discs into a powder, tearing off one end of the cellophane wrapper, pouring the powder into their mouths, and then blowing the dust out of their mouths and nose.
Adults worry about the health ramifications associated with such behavior, but they are also concerned that it may lead to kids smoking cigarettes or marijuana.
(article continues)
...REALLY, America?
(Another article is here.) |
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| Baby pyro |
[Apr. 13th, 2009|05:07 pm] |
I just lit a match the "real way" (i.e., not pressing it in between the back of the matchbook and the phosporous strip) for literally the first time in my life.
I feel about 10% cooler now. :P |
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| Om NOM nom, Google bomb. :D |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|11:50 am] |
Two Million for Marriage -- this site takes the right stance on the issue
While I am personally waiting for the day that marriages of any kind are no longer given special recognition by the state, the National Organization for Marriage is one of those lamentable groups using hate, misinformation, out-of-context info tidbits, and general scare tactics to try to make ordinary Christians fear their own institutions are at stake thanks to the work of gay and straight gay-equality activists. This is simply not the case.
I'm sure everyone will appreciate this useful and informative graph, which goes a long way to illustrate the issue in depth:
Explanation: Copy the link at the top of this entry (with the same text) into your own LJ, blog, MySpace profile, etc. This games Google's search algorithms (in a humorous way!) such that, if there are enough such links out there, people who search for "Two Million for Marriage" are likely to come across this site instead of as well as NOM's. Whereupon they'll hopefully get a little less biased information concerning the whole gay marriage issue. (Currently 2M4M.org is nowhere near NOM's site in the Google search results for "two million for marriage," so Google-bombing will, if not displace their listing, hopefully give an alternative viewpoint a certain amount of parity within the Google results.)
And to think an organization two million strong couldn't bother to register the .org of their domain name of choice...pity. :P |
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