Urn Will Totally Get This

Annie: What in the world is a WYSIWYG editor?
Scott: Oh, it stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” It means one of those editors where when you make text bold or increase the font size, you can see the changes on-screen, like Microsoft Word.
Annie: Oh… I had no idea what you were talking about. That post made no sense at all.
Scott: Yeah, sorry about that. I guess that post was really aimed more at people in my industry than family and friends.
Scott: I try to balance between the two groups, and I guess I just figure that when I post about work stuff that family members will just skip over those posts, and that my coworkers skip right over the posts about Zoe.
Annie: Makes sense.
Scott: You know, really, I guess my blog has a target audience of one: Urn.

Actually, my target audience includes guys like Dave and Daniel, but the joke was funnier this way, so too bad.

Ryan Got Married on Halloween

If my brother is married, then I’m Superman.

Yesterday, sometime before noon on this coast, Ryan and Molli went and got married. They did it at a justice of the peace, and I don’t actually know much more than that because we haven’t spoken since then (he just left us a phone message). Mom said they’re going to do a honeymoon kind of thing at some nice place in the area, but I can’t remember the name. Maybe next time Ryan gets online he’ll reply to this and fill me in.

Last night, Annie and I got together with Daniel to go see Ghostbusters at a theatre pub. Once we got there, we found out the projector was broken, so we made Daniel rent Dude, Where’s My Car? with us. He was somewhat unimpressed, and we, of course, loved it again. This time I noticed that the guy with the ostriches (“Pierre”) is played by Brent Spiner (the guy who played Data on Star Trek).

And today, I created a new icon for Mozilla. Mozilla is the open-source backbone that Netscape is built on. I just installed the latest version on my computer, and I’m very happy with it. It’s much more stable than the last version I tested. The only problem is that it comes with a really ugly icon. It’s blue and gray and I guess it’s supposed to be a gecko (the name of their rendering engine), but it’s hard to tell. So I went to their website, where they have a great red and black logo of a dinosaur, and I created an icon based on that art. I submitted it to the webmaster at the Mozilla site, but I doubt I’ll hear back from them. If you want the icon, you can download it here. (you might have to right click on the link and select “save as”).

The First Rain

It’s raining outside. I love rain. But more importantly, I love the first rain after summer. There’s just something great about getting sick of the heat, and then opening your window and listening to the sound of the rain.

I’ve been feeling the itch lately. About once a year or so, I get an urge to redesign all my websites. If I’m really lucky, I end up getting a burst of inspiration at the same time, and I can produce some excellent new designs. At the moment, I’ve got a new idea for my homepage and portfolio, as well as some new skins for all the KillingMachines sites.

Annie’s sick right now. She came down with some sort of nasty cold, and is home sick for the second day in a row. She does sound much better today than she did yesterday, so hopefully, she’ll feel better tomorrow, when we’ve got a day trip to the beach planned with Steve and Stephanie.

Now, that’s truly a Pacific Northwest experience: It’s pouring down rain, so we’re going to go to the beach, where it’s also pouring down rain! People in Portland learn how to have fun in the rain, because if you wait for the rain to clear up, you’ll be waiting a long time.

My friend Daniel Achterman once described the difference between Oregon beaches and California beaches to me. He said that on a California beach, you put on your swim trunks, wade in the ocean, and play frisbee. On an Oregon beach, you put on a windbreaker, go for a walk, and poke things with sticks.

I Have Seen the Light

Friends, I have seen the light! After carefully reading a pamphlet given to me by a man at the bus station, I have been born again, and I am making changes in my life. I have renounced my wicked ways, and I have taken a vow of celibacy to atone for my former sins.

And as one who has seen the Truth, it is my duty to try to save my friends, who are on the path to damnation. I call on each of you to follow the one true path into the light.

Miles: Isn’t it obvious that philosophy is just another tool of the Devil to trick you into renouncing the True Faith?

Steve: I know the pornographic website we ran together brings in a lot of money, but all the money in the world will not save you on Judgment Day!

Urn and Pat: As the best customers on our shameful website, your souls are in danger as well!

KT, Annie, and Jester: Stripping may pay the bills, but it is still a SIN and you will pay for it in the here-after.

Alex: Your girlfriend may not know that you’ve been wearing her underwear, but God does!

I’m sorry if that was painful for any of you, but it was necessary! Having seen the light, it is my duty to attempt to save you all from yourselves! It’s not to late to change your wicked ways!

Moving Back to Portland

We might be moving back to Portland this summer, instead of next summer, as we had originally planned. The situation here is a lot rougher than either of us had thought it would be. The job market is terrible. Annie’s still unemployed, and my boss has cut my hours back so much that we’re barely able to cover bills. After my money from the Myst3 job runs out, we won’t be able to cover them unless Annie finds a source of income. So that’s one reason. In addition, Annie is “not excited” about school next year. She says that it might make sense to move back to Portland, because then she could do Americorps for another year, and then finish up school down there, at PSU. And on top of all that, we can’t deny that one of the reason is that nearly all of our friends are moving this summer. Urn and Kat will be leaving, and so will Eric and Jill. Becky and Jessi will still be here, but we barely see them anyway.

We talked about it for a long time last night, and it’s sounding better each time we talk. The only problem is that unless the money situation improves a lot, and quickly, enabling us to get some money saved, when we move back, we won’t actually have enough money to move into an apartment right away. We’ll probably have to move into my parent’s house for a little bit while we both find jobs and get enough money cached to pay first month’s rent, plus security and cleaning deposit.

We still need to check a few things out, like if moving early breaks our lease, or if we can just take off in the summer, and whether Annie can get another job in Americorps. Still, the job market in Portland is so much better than here, that even if we both had to take crummy mall jobs or something, we’d be okay. Plus, Portland means that I could try to get a graphic design job, or even get involved in web design!

It’s all still up in the air, and basically it’s Annie’s decision, but we’re checking out our options.

In addition to all that, I finally realized that my cousin Deni married the lead singer of the Ataris, a band that I like. When my family told me that Deni had married a rock star, I kinda rolled my eyes, and even when I met him, I didn’t place the name of the band. But Annie and I were on the radio and played two songs by his band that I know, and love! So suddenly it all fell into place! Cool!

Jester called me and told me he has no idea why my second check from the Myst3 job hasn’t gotten to me, and that he also has no idea why the themes aren’t up on the site yet. Apparently both should have been done quite a while ago. As soon as I know what’s up, I’ll post about it.