Inkscape
I’ve been playing around with Inkscape, a graphical editing program. That’s a clunky description, I realize, but there are about five hundred and twenty-three different applications that “manipulate images,” and it seems each does something slightly different than the rest. None can be described in three words. Anyway, Inkscape lets you draw vector-based graphics, which means when you draw a line, the program remembers […]
Miscellany Born From Exhaustion
I’m back from Otakon 2006. It was exhausting but great fun; got to hang out with several friends. It’s always much better with friends than alone. Infinitely better. I’ve gone to quite a few anime conventions alone. In fact, I think I spent Otakons 2001 through 2004 alone, as well as my visits to Katsucon. The only reason I wasn’t alone at last year’s Otakon was because I was […]
Outstanding Anime
A friend of mine was recently complaining that there’s no good anime coming out these days. I disagreed, strongly, but could only come up with a few examples off the top of my head. Here’s a more complete list, of shows that have come out in the past year: Eureka 7 — A fusion of giant mecha and Cowboy Bebop. As of disc one, at least; who knows where this will go? […]
On Happiness
So I’ve had a rough week. At work, I’ve been filling in for a co-worker, taking on all of her responsibilities in addition to my own all week. I spent most of my days responding to near-constant requests for builds, reports, etc. There were a few periods of “down time,” but it was a lot of pressure. And I discovered that pressure kills my creativity. I arrived home every night and crashed, watching MST3K or just reading. I couldn’t even read […]
This Week In Business
Staying offline for a whole week at a time proved inefficient. I would want to research an actor or a story, and by the time Saturday rolled around the originating need was overtaken by events. So, okay, I’ll come online twice a week. And what a week it’s been. I’m in a team of three, all of whom do roughly the same thing but on different programs. One of my teammates is on vacation this week, so I’m servicing all of her […]
Tao
Amazing, really, how things that seem so meaningless can actually be so true. I’ve been reading the Tao Te Ching. Its sayings have dovetailed with what I’ve been learning in my daily meditations, that external knowledge is less important than internal knowledge. That the path to true peace begins (and ends?) inside one’s own being. Take away your thoughts and your feelings, […]
Saturday, July 15, 2006
I’ve had a tough week at work. I’ve been working on several major problems, all of them big technical headaches with no clear path forward. I managed to fix them—I think—on Friday afternoon, so at least I don’t have to worry about them this weekend. As a result, I’ve been arriving home and crashing at night. Haven’t felt like making or doing much of anything. I’m tired of stir-fry, which has been a staple […]
Experiments and Anime
I’m in day three of an experiment: Except for checking e-mails and blogs, I’m only accessing the internet during one block of time on the weekend. The experiment started when my laptop died on Thursday. I came home and, while I knew I could jump onto the internet using my secondary laptop (the one I plan to sell once I’ve convinced myself that I haven’t forgotten anything else on it), I decided to just ignore the internet for the night. I did, and enjoyed […]
July 4, 2006
Well, this has been a practically perfect day. I’m sitting on the forest green cushions of my window seat, looking out at the fireworks being set off by my neighbors down the street (they’re Hispanic; they’ve hung an American flag in front of their house). A car just beeped merrily at the fireworks as it passed. To my left, I can see my downstairs bathroom, which has been almost completely renovated today; we put down baseboards, […]
July 1, 2006
Today, I drank deeply from the cup of life. It tasted like clear, crystalline water. It tasted like the purest honey. It tasted like a snowflake fallen fresh on the tongue. It was a full, rich, satisfying day. Brennen and the Future Brennen wrote: today, i felt that we live in an age beyond everythingi thoughtit is not that we have passed some thresholdit is that there are […]