Dear Time Machine,

Why must you start from scratch when I move my backup drive? It’s the same drive, but accessed over the network (connected to my MiniTV) versus direct USB. I have a feeling my initial backup will take a while… luckily I’m starting it tonight and don’t need my laptop to be anywhere tomorrow.

WTH is this cursor?

It’s popped up in Safari a few times now, and I don’t know what to make of it. Definitely related to a certain page as I can still browse my other tabs and the app doesn’t freeze up. I had a screenshot to post, but it didn’t capture the cursor!

Basically, it’s a smaller black arrow with a blue ‘pinwheel’ that is similar to the rainbow pinwheel (but only one color). Anyone else witness this?

Two more weeks.

For some reason, I find the fact that there are two weeks left before spring break hard to fathom. This weekend flew by, and I didn’t even do much of anything. Chipotle run on Saturday, then UREC and caught a bit of SNL with Ben. And today? Yeah, no. I finally got out of bed at noon (!!) and decided to clean my apartment. My bedroom had become a wreck, since my time during the weeks is very limited. I can see the floor again, thankfully. My bathroom is clean, too.

Made dinner and breakfast (blueberry muffins, w00t) for tomorrow, and went to a photo shoot for The Breeze. Back home by 9, and now I’m watching the Oscars. I lead such an exciting life.

Anyway, in two weeks, I’ll be in San Francisco with the parentals. I’m definitely looking forward to that – especially the trip to Apple HQ. I need to call around and chat with people; I want to see if I can get some “behind-the-scenes” type tour, or what all we can do at headquarters. John Woody… are you reading?!

Hah, time to hit up the Google (yep, I said THE Google… oh, SMAD 301!) and figure out what to do with my day in Cupertino.

Big and Bad

If you care about the safety of yourself and others while driving, you owe it to everyone to read this article.

I think I agree with the entirety of what is written. Some of it is relative. Obviously, an Expedition would be safer with an alert, experienced driver at the wheel versus a 17-year-old who is busy texting his or her BFFs. However, these tanks of vehicles just don’t handle as well as smaller cars.

My parents get freaked out when we all travel in the Escape. Why? Because I’m an alert driver, and therefore don’t drive like I’m scared of traffic. I have enough time behind the wheel of that particular vehicle to know where the corners are. I take turns very tight and at a higher speed than a lot of average drivers would “comfortably” turn. However, I know the limits of the Escape from a handling perspective, so I feel no potential harm in driving in such a manner. Why? Because I have pushed the limits and know what it feels like right as you cross that invisible line. 

I feel the same way in the Miata, just from a smaller perspective. Know the vehicle, know its’ limits, and know where the corners of the car are.

I am far more cautious when driving friends’ vehicles, or my parents’ primary cars. My dad’s car is fast and pretty fun, but it’s very large compared to my car. It’s wider than a lot of cars, and that contributes to a different driving experience. I’m not as comfortable with the clutch in my mom’s Crossfire, so I take it easy so I don’t abuse things too much. Still, the Crossfire is not a large car, but it’s wider than the Miata, so I don’t corner as tight.

Finally, driver training plays a major role in all of this. I’m pretty certain I would favor a stronger, lengthier training process than what is currently implemented in the state of Virginia. Yeah, it’s cool to have your license when you’re a junior in high school. I might even argue that it’s necessary, to an extent. Maybe we could have “re-certification” every few years. The current license “test” places more value on road sign knowledge compared to actual driver skill. The only time you are evaluated in a vehicle is when you first earn your license.

I find something wrong about that.

That pesky “design” page.

I may have come up with a viable solution to my lack-of-inspiration.

To preface: my new site is complete, aside from the half of my portfolio centered around design projects (versus photography). I haven’t been able to come up with an attractive-sounding solution until now.

I’m thinking I will use the same Lightbox plugin as on the Photo page. Each link to a specific project will be about 75px tall and oh, 300 wide. Users will be able to click on the image, see the full thing with a title and short description (via Lightbox) and then click a “Read More” link within Lightbox. The More link will take them to a new page with more specific details about each project.

The instructions for how to add links within Lightbox are here. I think this is my weekend project – well, one of many.

Facebook, Twitter, and social rudeness

I have come to the conclusion that I am too connected. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing – although I think there is a fine line that everyone my age walks.

Of course, I have a Facebook (what 18-24 year old doesn’t?). My 87-year-old grandma asked me if I used Twitter, so I had to sign up and play around for fear of falling behind the curve. Just for grins, I downloaded Loopt to my iPhone. Loopt is location-aware, so when you launch the app, it finds where you are and drops a pin on a map for your Loopt “friends” to see. Twitter has a similar “nearby” feature using the iPhone app, Tweetie.

Now this is all great, but the entire “iPhone” element of the equation can lead to a bit too much connectedness, in my opinion. First, we had cell phones for making calls. Then text messaging hit. Some people send pictures and video. And now there’s Facebook, Twitter, and Loopt.

Take a look around the JMU campus. The view anywhere else should be similar. Everyone is walking around, to and from class, holding these little gadgets, thumbs tapping away. Perhaps they’ll have the signature white iPod earbuds in as well, further disconnecting them from the outside world. It seems that as of recent, this “epidemic” has spread tenfold. Either that, or I’m just noticing it more.

I really don’t have a problem with any of the social networking methods. I’m a pretty active participant in all of the above. My iPhone receives all my email. I check my Facebook and Twitter about once an hour. Loopt gets opened when I’m bored. I am very aware of my connectedness, and try to embrace it. The iPhone has been great for me, as I can keep up with my social life wherever I have cell service or WiFi – and my big ol’ MacBook Pro can stay at home.

It’s also a very liberating feeling to put my SIM card into my “other phone” – a Samsung flip that was free with my contract. I use that phone when I go places where I could easily crush my $400 mini-computer-that-happens-to-be-a-phone. Skiing, for instance. This Samsung will make and receive calls, and text message. Oh, and it takes pictures at 640×480 resolution.

Are we, as a society, becoming too connected? I think so. I don’t mind having the “smart” iPhone during the week. On weekends, though, I prefer my $29.99 dumbphone that follows the KISS principle. It can be nice to log out of my 24/7 online life for a day or two, remove my white earbuds, and actually talk to people when I’m out.

I wish more people would do the same.

Smoke and Snow

Just thought I’d upload some pictures for everyone’s visual enjoyment:

This is my car after running with no coolant for a day. Turns out I blew two heater hoses. Whoops.

Snow in my parking lot… wondering what will happen tomorrow with regards to school being open (or not).

This website business.

I’m slowly picking up on the “coding” aspect of things, and it makes more sense than I originally thought. HTML and CSS are no longer my enemies, and I am pleased to report that Ben did not have to help me with any of my most recent developments – aside from originally helping code the front page.

The new site is not 100% complete or live yet, but you can check it out here for now. My most recent accomplishment is the finalization of the Photo page. I used Lightbox for my “gallery” so it will open and zoom and look all professional and awesome.

Now I need to get a better picture on my About page, and actually design the Design page, and I can make it all live! I suppose a Contact page could be nice as well. Not sure how to implement that part yet. I’m hoping PHP is unnecessary – because MobileMe doesn’t support any sort of database. That took out my original idea of using WordPress as a CMS. For now, everything is hand-coded. My most recent blog post is pulled to the front page via a Google AJAX feed reader, which works well so far.

I need suggestions for the little box on my home page that is currently content-less. Any ideas? I’m not sure how crazy I am about putting my Facebook status on a semi-professional website, as my statuses (statii?) aren’t always very professional…

Isn’t it ironic

Yes, Alanis Morisette used that line to sell her music, way back when. Ironically enough (pun definitely intended), it describes my weekend thus far.

Friday was all scheduled out, as any busy day ought to be. Classes, lunch, shoot for The Breeze, pack, get David, drive to Ashburn. Of course, that plan crumbled when my car took up smoking on the way home. I got to North 38 for the pictures and couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but it smelled like burning coolant. After snapping what I needed, I made the mile-long drive to my apartment and popped the hood.

My fellow Miataeer Jason and I poked around and discovered that my car had no coolant whatsoever. None in the radiator and none in the reservoir tank. We poured water in both places to see where it was leaking. Of course, we couldn’t figure out just where the leak was. I called Ryan at the Scooby dealer and managed to limp ‘er over there, where the techs informed me that I had burst a heater hose.

Well, great. Fix it and I’ll get on the road. Not so fast. Gotta get the part from Mazda in Staunton, then put it in. It’s a three-hour job, and they can’t have it done until Monday afternoon. Thankfully, Ben let me borrow his Integra, no questions asked – only putting the drive home about 1.5 hours behind because of the dealership shenanigans. 

Now what’s ironic about this whole thing? The repair is $340. By driving home to work with Kathy Sack this weekend, I’m making almost that much. So… I drove two hours to work to pay for my broken car. Oh, and my phone bill is due, too. So this whole ordeal is going to cost me about $200 within the next few days, assuming max profit from Kathy.

I really need to get paid from The Breeze soon. I will still have enough moolah in the bank to cover life expenses after this saga, but it’s going to crimp my autocross/karting/fun-timez fund for a bit. Dangit.

This weekend flew by…

Fer serious. I don’t know where time went.

I spent all day Saturday in Charlottesville. That was fun – lots of hot sauce at Chipotle, walking tour of U.Va, crazy drive home on Route 33.

The better part of today was consumed with a MacBook Pro hard-drive upgrade. Mi amiga Tori decided she wanted to go from 120 GB to 320 GB. Not a bad upgrade on her part. I lucked out as well… she paid me for the installation and file transfer. Installation was fairly simple, assuming you’re not easily wigged-out by lots of miniature screws. Seriously, I did not know a screw could be made so small. And still do anything for structural integrity. File transfer took forever. Thanks, USB 2.

Dudes night followed the hard drive upgrade. Spaghetti and hilarity ensued. Adam wanted to know about Hannah. Mainly, why aren’t I wrecking her relationship so I can continue to date her. I was like, “well, she has a boyfriend and I don’t wanna split that up.” Plus, there was drama and stuff between us, and although we’re still great friends, I doubt we’d ever date again.

I almost think Adam was skating around whatever he really wanted to know. I’m more than happy to talk and answer whatever you want to know – but you gotta ask, man. Be direct. I will freely admit that I fail (hard) at the whole “picking up on dropped hints” thing. If you tell me what you want to know (or do, or whatever, you get the point) then I’m good.

In other news, there may be some other college dude sending me a PowerBook Duo 2300. I saw a story on him on Cult of Mac. The bottom of the article mentioned how he’s looking to slim down his collection of Mac gear. I clicked the email link and asked about laptops – because it’ll be insane to try and ship a desktop – and he said he’s got a Duo. Cool.