thundering blissful

August 30, 2005

bullet point living.

I haven't written much lately, mostly because there isn't much to write about - I've basically been working or drinking, with little of the inbetween state or much in the way of other activity.
Patricia thinks I should write more, and though she claims it's because she needs more reading material I think it's actually because she knows I feel better about things when they're available for the world to see.

A rundown of things follows:

Work: there's too much of it. I quit at tours. Maybe I should go down to two jobs.
Home: my sister won't be getting divorced until January. Moving out is now a higher priority.
School: two classes left to get into (POLI 100 and 220), and I should buy textbooks soonish.
Free iPod: I've been approved, now I just have to order one. I'm going to wait until Apple reveals whatever it reveals next Wednesday, so that maybe I can get whatever's new and awesome for free.
Music: Listening to The Cardigans a lot. Can't wait to go on a ticket-buying spree. Going to the Killers/BSP show, by which I mean going to BSP and then walking out of the Killers.
Other Geekery: I'm tempted to redesign.

August 20, 2005

two small updates

1. comments are open to all, as long as you can prove you're a person.
2. I'm on the facebook now.

August 09, 2005

I just quit a job.
It feels sort of weird, but we both knew why it was the case, and there's nothing but mild regrets all around.
and I get to keep the nametags, which is nifty.

August 08, 2005

Ultra Secret Shirt Preview

Ultra Secret Shirt Preview

this is pretty much what I'll be submitting to Threadless.
Thoughts?
Comments?

August 07, 2005

as much as I enjoy getting comments from anyone and everyone, I don't appreciate comment spam. As such, I've turned anonymous commenting off, at least until blogger finds some vaguely elegant way of stopping it.

If you don't want to register but still want to comment, drop me an email; moc [dot] liamg [at] oed [dot] dlareg is the address to send them to (but backwards).

August 05, 2005

more about the shirt

here's a mockup:

It's somewhat Neil-inspired, because he says "serenity now" a lot.
previous designs were in different colors (the color scheme still isn't settled), used different fonts/placements, and one even had the text upside down; logic being that you'd look down at your shirt and be calmed.

thoughts?

August 03, 2005

today!

so, I spent my "day off" (I didn't go to work, but I emailed people like there was no tomorrow) designing a shirt for threadless.com. Sort of. The process went more like this:

decide on text for shirt.
try to decide what font to use.
become frustrated with font selection, go hunting on the internet for fonts.
read typography blogs.
stumble across Gill Sans, which is just right for my needs.
hunt down and install Gill Sans.
feel guilty for ripping off a typographer; it's fairly difficult work.
see that it'd cost me a whole damn lot to buy, feel less guilty.
notice that Threadless prefers vector images over bitmaps (it's a way of thinking about images; ask me later if you want to know more), attempt to find bitmap-to-vector converter.
find out that Flash MX does a fine job of this.
figure that I may as well upgrade Fireworks so that all my Macromedia products are up to date.
find, install, and crack aforementioned programs, and get down to actual work.
get nowhere due to (lack of) speed of desktop.
convince sister to let me use her laptop.
install/crack programs again, and move my source images over to her computer.
graphics program + trackpads = disaster.
get some stuff done anyway, for a solid 45 minutes.
move stuff done over to desktop.
return laptop to previous state and then to sister.
grumble.

Sprinkle in a liberal amount of email checking, livejournal reading, and geek website commenting, and you've got the closest thing I get to a vacation this summer. I got a design done, and now I'm fiddling with colour schemes before submitting to threadless, and I'll post samples for comment tomorrow.
for now, though, I'm going to bed.

August 02, 2005

shilling, round 2

so, remember this post, with the getting people to sign up and the having gotten my requisite five?

yeah, I didn't quite do that.

so, if you're looking to acquire a free iPod and want to help me out, click this link and sign up.

if you're entirely uninterested and wouldn't mind $10 for jumping through a couple internet hoops, email me (gerald.deo@gmail.NINJAcom; vanquish ninja to proceed.) and then click this link.

I figure $10 for an iPod is still better than $400.

July 31, 2005

photos, as promised.

island daytrip 001

island daytrip 001,
originally uploaded by heeeraldo.

probably the best photo I've taken in a while.
now that I have some semblance of free time, I can do more stuff like this.

July 30, 2005

2.5fold: public service announcement, parentheses, pictures

Jenn Lau (to know her is to love her) is off to LA for three weeks to TA a course, and while she's gone, she's keeping a journal of her adventures over at Tales of Hollywood/North.

Go say hi.
___
Pictures from my day trip to Victoria (for a wedding) up soon. I feel like a jerk for not using the Flickr Pro account (the lovely and talented) Oana gave me, so expect to see more stuff up soon.

July 29, 2005

a note:

so, my summer started yesterday, by which I mean classes are over and
I just have a 6-day workweek.

July 27, 2005

what's becoming an unfortunate habit:

so, apple's rocking some sort of contest for Canadian students, in which you're given $2500 to build an imaginary prize pack, and then a random draw at the end of the whole thing gives you a coupon to the online Apple store.

there's a twist, though: if you refer people, your "prize pool money" goes up, by $250 a person to a maximum of $2500 extra - so you could, in theory, get a $5000 prize pack thing.

unfortunately, there's no handy link or anything - I have to email people with the offer. since I don't want to spam you all, campaign-style, I'm going to ask that if you're interested, drop a comment or send an email to [gerald at interchange dot ubc dot ca]

info at: www.winwhatyouwant.ca - but don't sign up! email me first!

July 23, 2005

decompression

I'm spending the weekend at home, recovering from the last few weeks of my rather absurdist work/school schedule. There's no work to be done (I actually managed to not have to work on the weekend at the PNE; I've been trying and failing since, like, June) , just some review before next weeks finals, and maybe some designing of t-shirts and clearing out the mix CD waiting list (Aleks, I'm thinking of you specifically.)

As much as I'd like to be out with you all (I've been invited to three parties. In one day. Jesus.), right now, what I need is a quiet weekend to erase my sleep deficit (currently standing at 12 hours¹, fresh socks, some lazing in the sun listening to Feist and the Dismemberment Plan (good call, Neil²), and a nice, relaxed run or three.

I'll see some people soonish, and others not so much, but I'm okay with that.
and I think I'm closer to okay than I have been for a good long while.

¹I define sleep deficit as (number of hours slept in the last week) - (number of hours I sleep on average in a night * 7), which worked out to (37 - 49 = -12)
²I really should get on listening to things recommended to me faster.

___
In the meantime, here's a meme, taken from the lovely and talented J-Fung: ask me for a "top five" list of pretty much anything, and I'll do my best to list you my top five of that thing.

July 19, 2005

Fwd: Gouranga

every now and then, I get weird-ass spam, and feel the need to share it.
here's another, that got sent to the equity ambassadors account.

-----Original Message-----

> Date: Mon Jul 18 20:50:48 PDT 2005
> From: "Neateye" <nitaigouranga@aol.com>
> Subject: Gouranga
> To: "Equity" <equity@(I don't want more spam)>
>
> Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
> Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
> That which brings the highest happiness!!
>
>

In the original Grand Theft Auto, there were a group of monks in orange robes who could be found in every city, and if you managed to run them all over in one go, you'd get a huge points bonus, the word GOURANGA!!! up on your screen in bright yellow, and the cops after you. I can't find a picture, though...

edit: Wikipedia to the rescue.

repost for jackie

Hello from YouSendIt,

You've got a file called "scrap-mix.zip" (98417 KB) waiting for download.

You can click on the following link to retrieve your file. The link
will expire in 7 days and will be available for a limited number of
downloads.

Regular link (for all web browsers):
http://s21.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0N9AU1K3OYSS72ILHZ23NFI489

it's a repost of the mix from this post.

July 18, 2005

geek points: +10

an article I submitted to slashdot got accepted.
yay me!

July 16, 2005

linkpost

I have no idea who the girl is in this photo. Must be diamnesia (as defined by Jon)
waterballoons = fun. waterballoons in low-gravity environments = wicked awesome.
download all of Plan 9 From Outer Space for free!
despite absolutely no need for a fashionphone, I still sort of want this. or this.
I won one of these (in blue). I don't want it, because it's fugly. Any thoughts on creative things to do to/with it?
Bacon Cooking Method Showdown. More useful than I thought it'd be.
I always find people eating obscure things interesting (and sometimes amusing), and here's a couple of them: Steve, Don't Eat It! and Deep End Dining

July 12, 2005

shilling:

so, the freeipods site does now work in Canada.

this was where my referral link was, but now that I've gotten my five, I'm going to put their links up as soon as they get them to me.
here's two, seeing as Spencer's gotten his done, apparently.
David
Mel

if you're interested in signing up, please use one of theirs.

a list of the offers and what they end up costing is available here.
if you do sign up, it'd be best to get yourself a throwaway email address first - I have gmail accounts if you want them.
I have yet to any spam from them, either virtual or real. In fact, I have yet to get any spam sent to my primary gmail account, which is how I can be sure of this.
one needs to have five other people referred by them who complete an offer before they get their respective ipods. I have one down (yay Quinn) and this is about as direct as I plan on getting, aside from the friendster post.

EDIT: having checked out the Canadian offers, the $1 "Galleria" trial membership thing looks to be the easiest one to do. Unless you want to buy cheap DVDs, in which case Columbia House looks like your best bet. The Audiobooks one is the worst, though - $3 for the first month and $22 for the second... and you can't cancel until the end of the month!

July 06, 2005

bonus material

I don't want to talk about my day, mostly because I spent entirely too much of it on the bus.

I'll throw down a little commentary on things I am listening to, and maybe download links later.

Vitalic - "My Friend Dario"
This track is so much kitschy Eurohouse at once. I really shouldn't like it, but I do. A lot. The rev sample, the robotic-sounding woman, the bridge... it's like Daft Punk succeeding at being tongue in cheek, instead of producing "Robot Rock".

Maximo Park - "The Night I Lost My Head"
They're like the Kaiser Chiefs without the lame!
And on Warp*!
Which I can't figure out but don't care about any more!

*Warp is a record label known for being home to a bunch of crazy-ass glitch-loving electronic artists, so having a new-new-wave band on it is puzzling since some indie labels tend to have a unifying theme, and Warp is one of those.

Gorillaz - "White Light"
Damon Albarn takes a break from providing iPod ad music to take two minutes and mock dancepunk. All it needs to be complete is a little cowbell. Or would that take it too far?

Soulwax - "NY Excuse"
It's no "E-Talking", but I have an irrational liking for the interlude that happens about a minute and a half in (1:26, to be exact).
Female voice:"I didn't shout. I said, I didn't shout."
Male voice:"You don't have to shout at me."
FV: "Um, um, okay, well stop making me, then."
MV: "Hey... hey."
FV: "I'M BEING LOUD WITH YOU."

July 01, 2005

some things you can't invent.

so, it's been a week since Drinkball, and I'm in no mood to do a full recap on it.

Thusly: it was awesome. I got loaded on Jack Daniels, kicked some balls around, threw a frisbee, had a small amount of quality time with Payne (which I don't do enough of and would like to fix), had a particularly amusing fall, managed to not vomit, and ended the evening watching The Wall at Jon's. Which happens to be right. next. door. to The C&C Awesome Factory.

The rest of the week has been a blur of school/work/school/work/etc. The only vaguely interesting things that happen at work happen in the AMS, and I can't talk about those, so, um, zut. I did have an interview for a fifth job with International Student Orientation, which I thought went well, and then I had to take myself out of the running because the PNE gave me a bunch more hours.

which leads to the next point: I'm working Monday/Wednesday/Friday at the PNE for the entire month of July. Somewhere during that month, I have EA group interviews to do. I still give the Thursday tour. And we all know I'm not leaving the AMS.

lost some weight, too, although having roughly a third of my pants collection no longer fit sucks.

so that's me in a nutshell: busy and slowly becoming skinnier.

---
anyway, I owe you all a mix CD, in lieu of a bunch of Five in Heavy Rotation's that I've missed, so here it is:

Final Fantasy - The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead (3:31)
Spoon - I Summon You (3:55)
Doves - Sky Starts Falling (4:11)
Coldplay - Speed of Sound (4:48)
The Futureheads - Hounds of Love (3:02)
Maxïmo Park - Postcard of a Painting (2:14)
Bloc Party - Luno (Polysics Harajuku Mix) (4:00)
Soulwax - E-Talking (radio edit) (2:59)
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. (feat. De La Soul) (3:41)
Caribou - Barnowl (5:50)
The Postal Service - Brand New Colony (4:12)
Vitalic - Wooo (3:52)
Ellen Allien - Ghost Train (3:06)
Ratatat - Desert Eagle (4:25)
Daft Punk - Around the World (7:09)
autechre - arch carrier (6:49)

download link here

25 downloads and/or seven days, so get on it...

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