Casual Hex

I… was left with my jaw hanging to the floor after watching this weekend’s Doctor Who. Here’s what we have to look forward to next weekend.

So, here we go… in my last post I mentioned that I wanted to get away from all of the complicated restrictions of posting that is found in the default editors included in blogging software like WordPress and Textpattern. When I first saw Tumblr I was majorly impressed in its simplicity, but it was too far from blogging for it to be useful for me. What to do? Ignore it. That’s what I did for a long time.

Like I said before, since day one of being “on the web” and putting my own uuuugly first web site up in 1994 I’ve always wanted my own little web site software package with an easy and quick KAPOW method of getting what was in my head or links to something really awesome on some other site quickly and easily up on my own. But I also had to have some sort of soapbox whiney thing to write with to share my thoughts. Then came blogging. BAM! But over the years I’ve gotten to where I just don’t post much at all.

It’s too much trouble.

But back to Tumblr. Wow. Maybe I could do something similar in Wordpress? But that’s a lot of horsepower to ignore for a simple tumblr site.

Then I found Gelato CMS. Just now. Really. And it’s yummy.

Even if it turns out to not be that special thang I’ve always dreamed of, it sure is a giant step in the right direction. I’m not sure how regularly updates are released or if it’s even actively being developed, but it’s given me lots of ideas.

So here’s my thing that I’ve always wanted with “blogging” since before the term “blog” was ever around. I want to have something here that’s part blog, part tumblr and part asides. But mostly tumblr and asides with blogging thrown in. Yeah. So, now that I’m almost completely finished with my new casualtomato theme for Casual Hex I’m going back to the drawing board.

I blame Twitter. But, if I can pull from my head all of the thoughts and ideas I’ve always wanted to do with a site it’ll be worth it. It’s gotta be more than a blog with asides thrown in as extras. Take note of the slogan— “Uncertain about goals, impulsive in online activities.” Not so impulsive to drag myself to an editor, select the category, section and add some tags. Quick, instant kapow is what I wanna do most of the time.

… It’s That Good.

Say what!?

Yes, that’s a quote from Steven West of The Horror Preview about a film “coming soon” from France to the states, Frontiers.

It’s in the vein of Hostel, Saw and all of the other twisted, screwed up creations… of madmen. There’s no question in my mind that anyone capable of creating or watching films like this are deeply, deeply disturbed. That so many enjoy these films— it’s a great statement about the condition of society today.

Fear is a great adrenaline rush. But enjoying watching people being hurt, maimed, mutilated, chopped up, minced, KILLED brutally? Fiction or not… I don’t want to see it. Let the scum enjoy their films. It’s all part of the decline and fall of western civilization. Thankfully we do have the ways and means to do this fictionally… otherwise, we’d still have big, giant coliseums like the Romans had just before that civilization fell. However, those that think it’s not as bad for the viewers… not only are you are what you eat you are also what you entertain yourself with.

I’m up, I’m up!

Graeme woke up around midnight tonight wanting a bottle. Since I was already awake it wasn’t much of a discussion of who was getting up with him. I started “Lord of Chaos” this evening and was just finishing the prologue when Graeme started to whimper.

A year ago I was doing this a whole lot more often with Aegwyn. Only then, I didn’t even bother going to bed most nights. I’d sit up here at the computer until 1am or sometimes even 2am just listening for her. I knew if I went to bed I’d never wake and Christina would end up getting up with Aegwyn. So I did my best to stay up as many nights as possible.

This time around, bleh… since January it seems that I’ve been sick more days than not so I’ve stayed up for Graeme maybe a handful of times. Rather selfish, I know and I’ve paid the price. Sitting with him tonight after he was done with his bottle was just awesome. He wasn’t ready to go back to bed just yet so I placed him down on the couch and sat so that I could easily keep him safe but that he could see me easily too. He was all wiggles and giggles. Laughing and playing, grabbing at my hands and just smiling at anything I did to entertain him. After a good bit of play time I had him all cuddled up with me— blanket secure in his hand, just barely touching his face. And he was out like a light. So trusting, so peaceful… so cool.

I’m perfectly aware that I’m still leaps and bounds behind the big bad majors in web design. Really. I’m aware when I start a site design that I have to take Internet Explorer into account. I get all of that. And it’s something that doesn’t usually bother me. I’ve put so many hours into learning the ins and outs of design over the past year that I’ve improved greatly.

But for my own personal site— I want it to look nice. Really nice. So far, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not flashing with blinking lights and scary images of kittens being eaten by domanji monsters or what-not, but it’s not clean, sharp and awesome either.

So I’ve been working on a new design. It’s great. I werves it. I’ve kept IE in mind the whole time. Or so I thought. Today when checking my design out in IE I got some sort of evil, twisted mangled twin of what I thought I’d see. Yes, I could be overreacting since I didn’t really give any time to figure out why it looks so bad. I’m just annoyed that it looks bad. So, big bad fit of pulling my hair out just to relieve some stress over nothing? I sure bleepin’ hope so. Because otherwise… I’m gonna hunt down each and everyone person on the IE dev team and… ::sigh:: I’ll get it all figured out. Pity party of one, please!

What is it with Ellen Page? Good grief!

Hard Candy was hard to watch. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good film, and she was great in it… but the subject matter was a bit overwhelming. Then we have Juno which was just plain awesome. Now, next month Page is back with The Tracey Fragments. The woman is only 20 years old, getting away with 15 in this new film, and already she’s had her share of complex, thought provoking roles.

Mark David Chapman. John Lennon. December 8, 1980.

I was only nine years old that day, but I remember it. I didn’t really understand much at the time and I recall my grandmother making negative comments about the man that had been shot— but it made me sick thinking about what happened to that poor man. I remember that day.

Jared Leto put on 60 pounds to play the role of Mark David Chapman. The picture above is so freaky, because Leto really does look so much like Chapman. The film is based on a book, written from notes taken during an interview with Chapman. I had no idea this film had been in the works. I just clicked over to the trailer page at Apple to see what new stuff they had and there he was, staring at me…

The title comes from Chapman’s obsession with J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. When I was assigned that book for a freshman literature class I was blown away. There’s a reason so many latch onto that book. There’s a reason why so many get lost in that book… or think they’ve found themselves in that book.

Just looking at that picture… a whole lot of powerful stuff all bound together in a polished Hollywood banner.

Here’s the trailer.

Sometime last year two years ago (!!!) I made the move from WordPress to Textpattern. Or I sort of did. The content was converted and I changed the layout around but I never really finished everything so barely anything has worked properly for a long, long time.

I’m giving up on the site as it is. In the coming days I’ll be archiving what’s here and starting over with a clean slate. New design, new site, new everything. Yep.

It’s about steenkin’ time.

It just occured to me to look this up… I starting thinking about the average life expectancy when Social Security was established. It turns out that the retirement age of 65 was set when the average life expectancy was 63. So… now that average life expectancy is somewhere around 80… yeah, do some math in that head of yours. Social Security was a bad idea when it was first set up. Even if we weren’t living longer it’d be sure to be a stinking mess after a few decades. Throw in the fact that we’re all living a lot longer and it’s a wonder that our country hasn’t collapsed from supporting Social Security.

Save now for retirement. Don’t blow your income on daily coffees, slushes, danishes, gigantic widescreen TVs, monster gas guzzling vehicles, etc and most likely you will enjoy a fat return during your retirement— without ever depending on the government.

On a side note, I have no idea what-so-ever who I am willing to vote for this fall. All of the Democrats give me visions of a nation pointing a shotgun at its own collective head and the Republicans.. oh, shiver. Not much better. Ron Paul? He’s my only hope and I’m still not so sure about him.