skullblog is the work of kalavinka, a californian with roots on both sides of the pacific. see more.
June 2010
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skull Recent Comments
» no longer single (1)
Olive Bleu wrote: You are my exception...... [more]
» the year of getting dumped (2)
kalavinka wrote: it's all good, babe, don't worry... [more]
» entre dos tierras (1)
Olive wrote: Babe, your update is hilarious!... [more]
» there wasn’t anything you could have done differently (3)
Olive Bleu wrote: Yum! mojo potatoes... [more]
» operation get her back: fail (1)
Betsy wrote: Chica, i've been reading your blog ... [more]
» no más lágrimas (1)
Anna wrote: Hey, I just wanted to say kudos for... [more]
skull Archives
skull stuff for sale
the great divorce sale: i'm selling various music, movies, books, and other bits but mostly related to my music collection. please check out: half.com, ebay, amazon.com

skull Projects
skull Playlist
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geeking: high tech, lo tech, simply tech.

my files are corrupt

well, this sucks... a lot of my files that i got from the computer at my ex's place are corrupt. i really wanted my poetry (pre-cursor to lyrics) and those were all corrupt. i'm glad i have a backup copy... [more]

fyi: i have the internets

as of 3 days ago, i have cable tv again for the first time since september 2004. as of 1 day ago, i have internet at home for the first time since november 2009. yes, i am plugged into the... [more]

the internets is down

a couple days ago the browser in my phone was not working, damn blackberries! i couldn't believe it. the screen would go white with a blue box error message. it was very hard to clear the message. i would press... [more]

more itunes trouble

so yesterday itunes fucked up on me. i was trying to add some albums. it was fine when i was adding one album at a time but then i tried to add more than one and that's when it freaked... [more]

blackberry memory glitches

a couple of times now i have noticed my blackberry wipe out my messages and call log. it does this on its own. recently it vibrated 2x, (i usually have it set to vibrate so as not to be the... [more]

mac woes part 2

in rebuilding the itunes library, i'm noticing some oddities. nothing should've happened to the individual music files. all of their data should be intact. however, some of them are now missing information, such as the year. the whole album might... [more]

mac woes

i am having itunes issues on the old tower. i downloaded the latest update and now i can't open itunes. it just won't fucking open. so i decided to downgrade. only, i couldn't remember what version exactly was it. hmm..... [more]

my parting gift

i have no idea what to name my baby my ex- bought me a new kick-ass ipod. my old ipod has been getting cranky. it doesn't always sync. it doesn't hold battery life for more than an hour or so.... [more]

my mom really is a fob

it's official, my mom is a fob. the second submission of mine got published on mymomisafob.com. (tips from a karaoke pro) of course, if i explained this to my mom and showed her that part of her email got published,... [more]

i look nothing like these bitches!

i did a celebrity lookalike thing online.... [more]

burning my first dvd

i've had a dvd-r drive for 4+ years now but have never burned a dvd in my life. given my geek tendencies, i'm sure many will be surprised by that. i'm also one of the worst people when it comes... [more]

naruhodo japan

it all started 3 months ago. my friend who's learning japanese mentioned using podcasts to learn japanese so i decided to check out this whole podcast thing. what i found were several podcasts that really didn't teach much japanese or... [more]

cool laptop

over the weekend i bought something for my laptop that has been on my list of things to get ever since i bought my laptop 4 years ago. it's the belkin laptop cooling pad and boy does it do wonders.... [more]

coming to you live from my phone

today i got a new phone...yeah i'm the latest victim to jump on the blackberry bandwagon. i'm even writing this entry from my phone. i'm not the kind that has to have the latest gadgets or access to email constantly,... [more]

lady talks like a dude

i decided to take this online gender test that analyzes text and determines if the author is female or male. i came upon it through my random web surfing and found a blog entry where the author of kamigoroshi.net declares... [more]

californians on an adventure

today we went to california adventure with my brother since he's never been there. i decided i would test out my camera, mostly taking b&w photos and using the filters i just bought. what's great about digital cameras is the... [more]

no help pages in movable type

whenever i'm doing stuff behind the scenes on the blog, using the movable type administrative interface, there are context sensitive links to help pages in the manual. however, ever since i upgraded however many months or years ago that was,... [more]

nicknames

i have decided to through my archives and change some people's name to nicknames. this is something i didn't think about when i first started the blog but an issue that i have thought about since then. at first i... [more]

say goodbye to the dailies

my new year resolution for the blog is to not have entries for each day. it's a strange style that perhaps only i engage in for a personal blog. it generates a lot of crap. there is this pressure to... [more]

firefox

i tend to use firefox at work because it works. but i could not figure out how to change the default printer. everything else is printing to the printer at my desk but just firefox is printing to a printer... [more]

computing news

i can use a computer now at work. i was given the login info for the computer at my desk. it was minor torture because it was just sitting there and i couldn't use, especially because i needed to do... [more]

tourist remover software

don't you hate it when you're trying to get a shot of something but people keep stepping in frame and you want to photograph the building/thing/place without any people? well nothing that a little photoshop can't help but for those... [more]

microsoft japanese ime

since i'm working at a company that requires japanese, they have windows machines with japanese ime and it's given me opportunity to explore this software. i was content with the japanese capabilities on the mac. that i could view and... [more]

photo frustrations

ok here's the thing, i am so damn frustrated with my computer setup. i envisioned the old tower i got to be my media center, full of music and photos. only, it's too old to really be that. it's slow... [more]

online backups

a long time ago, perhaps shortly after my laptop drive failure disaster of february 2006, i was looking into various ways to backup my hard drive like i should have been all along. i came across a great blog entry... [more]

fuck you spam!

i am completely at a loss with the spam plugins that come with movable type. i read the instructions, i thought i understood. i made the settings a bit tougher because spam comments were coming through and not being marked... [more]

smells like blog spirit

the blog herald is a site all about blogging. the posts that mostly attract my attention are ones designed to make you think about your blog and if it's living up to its potential, designed well, if the entries are... [more]

windoze only

i'm getting a little frustrated lately with windoze only sites and video files. i can't recall eaxtly which ones for sure but there are various site lately i can't use (such as for paying my utility bills) because they are... [more]

float this!

twiddle thumbs has brought back home with her a pc laptop from work several times but today was the first time i tried using it. i wanted to see if it had the same web display issues that some people... [more]

we've got the internets!

oh! my! god! we! got! internet! today! "finally!" that's what most who know us will say. we don't want to pay for a phone line so we are not getting dsl. instead, we have internet through a cable tv provider.... [more]

screen captures

i've been doing a lot of screen captures lately of music videos for a fan site i do. doing so many, i wanted an automated process. i've tried before using programs where it grabs a screen from every 100 frames... [more]

my new site endeavor

the vegan blog site domain name has been registered. that means i need to seriously get off my butt and finalize designs. i haven't experimented with the design for awhile so it's time to get back at it. and of... [more]

vegan recipe blog part 2

eureka! i figured out a work around to do what i want in wordpress. woo hoo! in the words of david cope, it's all about "massaging the data". or in this case, massaging the templates i'm using in wordpress to... [more]

vegan recipe blog

no more procrastinating on the vegan recipe blog i want to do! months ago i installed wordpress to muck around with it, thinking i would use it for the vegan recipe blog. i already use wordpress on another site i... [more]

site issue solved

an issue i had with buck-tick zone has been solved. some people said that when they try to view the site, they can't. i had to get specific with them of course to help troubleshoot what the issue was. some... [more]

anti spam measures for bbs

today was all about adding a plugin for a phpbb bbs i have installed for one of my sites. it's to help cut down on spammers. i thought everything was right when i followed the instructions but when i test... [more]

yafuu

that would be yahoo in japanese. yahoo japan auctions are a very dangerous place for me to browse. i have come across so many buck-tick items i covet. i caved in last week or so and created a yahoo japan... [more]

international spam

due to the increasing volume of spam, i have long contemplated changing my email address. i have some email addresses i use for mailing lists only to help cut down but i still throw my main address around too casually... [more]

liquid layouts

i've spent the past couple days redoing the layouts of this blog and another site for more fluidity. it's something that i wanted to do before but i wasn't sure exactly what i wanted to achieve in terms of layout... [more]

apple. frys.

so as to not make the same mistake, this time i called the apple stores to find out if they have my power adaptor in stock. one of them said they had plenty. great! i went there after work. they... [more]

too busy or too lazy? that is the question

lately i feel so busy in my zeal to finish off the buck-tick page i'm redoing that i'm neglecting everything else. i keep saying this but it's so true. i've all these other ideas in my head and even some... [more]

hello visitors

i use gvisit to keep track of the visitors to the blog and have a nice map of it. to just click on that link is so much easier and nicer looking than logging in to my 'control panel' to... [more]

buck-tick muchu

i've been so caught up working on the new version of buck-tick zone that i've really neglected everything else. sorry.... [more]

why do people buy pcs?

...when they know they don't like them? we went to twiddle thumbs's brother's house where he and his wife were having pc issues. pcs are crap. we spent 2.5 hours downloading updates and running spyware removers, etc. we didn't solve... [more]

what's your speed?

i took a typing test tonight. a proper one. this is something probably not on most people's agenda! i just wanted to know how fast i can type. i always thought i could type fast. i mean, sometimes at jobs... [more]

a week of coding

i spent most of the week coding my little heart out. i've been working on redesigning buck-tick zone, my buck-tick fan site. i haven't worked on it in a long time so it's much neglected. i'm giving it a new... [more]

do you know pop culture?

i use listsofbests.com quite often and it has been bugging me as to who are the people displayed in the banners at the top of each page. the image is random and there is nothing noting who they are anywhere... [more]

lala starter kit

my lala starter kit has arrived with the clamshell cases and envelopes. now i see why it's difficult to send artwork. not only is there the weight limitation issue for pre-paid envelopes but the space to insert the cd is... [more]

lala

i signed up with lala.com today. i don't know anyone who uses it but i read about it and decided to test it out. it's a way to trade cds with people just like you instead of selling them. there... [more]

the jig is up

this morning i fired up the laptop and found out that there is no more free internet at the new place. you see, one of the neighbors has wireless internet and didn't have any password on it. i was able... [more]

what the hell happened to my inbox?!

i've started moving my files to the new host. i setup everything that i would need like email accounts and a mysql database for skullblog. i decided i want to check my email via imap instead of pop3. this way,... [more]

i can't stand it anymore

the calavera host is really bad now. so freakin' slow that i can't stand it anymore! i've been doing research on hosts but cannot make up my mind. i want the peace of mind that a big host can provide... [more]

forget the boob tube, watch you tube

people love youtube.com, i know, i use it too. but i don't love it. at least, i didn't have a reason to love it. i thought it's great that you can look around for video clips and have a place... [more]

time to virtually move again

it's time to virtually move again, change hosts i mean. 2 weeks ago today i wrote to my host about the issues i have been experiencing and have received no reply. i have a couple hosts in mind but i... [more]

talk nerdy to me

i've been tweaking the blog since saturday. the first thing i did was modify some images so that the colors appear more even in the most popular platforms/browsers. for some odd reason i can't figure out though, one main image... [more]

weekly activities

the only thing worth noting about today was that i made a weekly sheet to note activities i have done. previously i had tried allocating time for activities but i just can't stick to a schedule. 30 minutes of this... [more]

world cup and computers

twiddle thumbs and i did some geeking while watching the soccer world cup at her parents' house. we were finishing up on helping her little sister fix her pc and get used to the mac. i was also playing around... [more]

my pictures have been e-published...

...or so (junk) e-mail tells me. today i got another schmap notice. it's a pc only city guide so i'm not sure if my photos are even being used or to what degree. i think they're just using pictures from... [more]

mac to good home

tonight went to give one of the rescued macs to a good home (we hope!). we gave it to twiddle thumbs's little sister who currently has a pc in a coma. the display of her laptop is completely ruined. it's... [more]

to blog or not to blog

decisions on what to blog can be a daily chore for me because i decided skullblog would be a daily blog and that requires many entries. as i go through the day, i think if there's anything interesting that happened... [more]

hi, my name is kalavinka and i'm a computer addict

heliosphan sent me this link: internet addiction test. i think she's trying to tell me that i have a problem. hahahaaaa my score: 49. "You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at... [more]

i'm just here 'cos my friends are here

lately i've been using myspace consistently because it's the best way to communicate with some of my friends. it's like checking email. every day or every other day, i gotta check myspace to see if certain friends have written to... [more]

biblical legos and net circulated photos

i have hit upon a couple of interesting sites in recent web surfing. the first one is thebricktestament.com, which is a collection of biblical stories as illustrated by scenes created with legos. priceless. if sunday school was taught this way,... [more]

the baby's back

my little baby's back. twiddle thumbs took in my laptop to get a new hard drive and upgrade the memory. like i wrote before, i just don't want to open up a laptop and risk the chance of messing something... [more]

hard copies of soft copies

once i'm all done with this hard drive failure fiasco, i'm going to do a summary blog entry but what i've been doing lately, since i was able to recover my digital photos, is printing the damn things out! one... [more]

don't be dumb, use a smart detector

i thought everything was going fine in my data rescue and restore project. i had cloned the drive, recovered data, reinstalled the os, and was transferring over files for iphoto and itunes. i have decided to make the laptop a... [more]

welcome to os x, again

now that i feel confident with the clone, i've reinstalled os x on the laptop. i used the original disc that came with the laptop and everything went well. then it's a series of download updates since the release of... [more]

recovering data off the clone

now that i'm working with the clone instead of the original laptop hard drive, the recovery process is going much better! this is exactly why i wanted to get another drive and work off a clone--so that it could help... [more]

the clone wars

the external hard drive has finally arrived and i'm using prosoft's data rescue 2 (what i bought at the beginning of this journey of recovery) to make a clone of the drive. it's gonna take 3.5 hours. here we go,... [more]

dinner and no movie: spring roll desserts

i came up with a use for the spring roll wraps: dessert rolls. just throw anything remotely sweet with some chocolate into a wrap and fry it up. my theory: chocolate + anything fried = yummy goodness. i made a... [more]

can we say sleepy time?

pretty much every other thing i did today was taking a nap. damn, i must've been tired this week and caught up today. i decided to stop the computer's recovery efforts that had been going on since thursday because it's... [more]

imac memory upgrade

the memory i ordered arrived so i unplugged xavier (that's the old imac--yes, my computers have names), put him face down, and opened up his butt. i then proceeded to stick my hand up there like i was impregnating a... [more]

trying to rescue my data

yesterday while i was working, twiddle thumbs was a dear and went to the apple store to buy disk rescue. she ran the program and it did a quick scan quickly. it recognized my laptop's volume and said it could... [more]

and then it died

my laptop is overstuffed and had been acting slow but you know, stupidly you don't do anything about it other than making mental notes to back things up and clear it out. just keep rolling. in particular i have noticed... [more]

beefing up the home computing center

ever since twiddle thumbs bought the mac mini, we've been thinking about how to setup the home computer center with all this stuff. the mini is bare bones. no wireless card, no bluetooth. i decided to buy some memory for... [more]

rss for breakfast

some people have a cup of coffee and read the morning paper. i eat cereal and read rss feeds. i started doing this last friday. i used to watch tv but i was getting really sick of the crap shows... [more]

everyone is hi-tech in silicon valley, even the pigeons!

lately i don't have much time to read all the rss feeds that i subscribe to, especially the feeds relating to news and gadgets. thank god my friend forwarded the cream of the crop to me: pigeons get backpacks for... [more]

deck the halls with dvd players

in debate as to what to do for christmas presents. i like the idea of making stuff as it's more personal and customized to the individual but i'm not really skilled in anything per se your honor so still brainstorming... [more]

watch out for the rous's

i finally started using a rss feed reader! something i always meant to do but didn't really utilize until today. i had tried to use web based ones but you have to go to the homepage and login. who can... [more]

ipod (no) video

just now i tried to check out the video feature of twiddle thumbs's ipod because we're heading off to disneyland and i wanted to watch music videos as we wait in line. found out you can't watch any old video... [more]

ipod generations

comparing twiddle thumbs's g5 ipod to my g3 (i think that's what it is), there are noticeable differences and not all for the better. naturally what is better is that ipods now have larger capacity, slimmer body, bigger display screen,... [more]

sour apples

today was a mixed bag. after work we went excitedly to pickup twiddle thumbs's early christmas present (one of those new fat video ipods) that arrived--paying a little extra for faster shipping is worth it. then straight to the apple... [more]

volunteering what little i have to offer

i spent this evening making a rough draft design of the first yosc web site. they have no idea what they want at this time but they have a domain and host. i just put together a little something and... [more]

working some more on css

i've been working hard non-stop through the nights on redesigning a web site ever since i realized i will be working again because once i start working, i won't have time for such endeavors. i really wanted to redesign all... [more]

torrent bytes

i just started looking into bittorrent to see what it's all about. i think i downloaded a program yesterday but it seems like ages ago because the download speed is so freakin' slow! i've looked at tips for increasing speed... [more]

upgrade to mt 3.2 complete

so i didn't wait until next year. i worked on the templates all day. thought they were 3.2 compliant and relaxed. then i noticed a problem. the old version of skullblog was wider. i had a few photos that were... [more]

upgraded to mt 3.2 update

figured it out. situation normal. in addition, made some tweaks that i forgot to do earlier. i think everything is done now. the only thing i need to do is learn mt 3.2 tags and convert the templates and stylesheet... [more]

upgraded to mt 3.2

going from 2.661 to 3.2 and ahhhhh! it's causing headaches. everything looked fine until i decided to refresh the templates to the new 3.2 styles. i did this so i could see the new tags in use in case mine... [more]

a new look for skullblog

skullblog has a new look and it was long overdue. i streamlined things and made the color scheme a bit more subtle. i also added an about page. i changed some of the images from gif to png--this is the... [more]

signed up with 43things.com

yeah, that’s really gonna help me spend less time screwing around on the web! actually, it’s more like i should spend my time online with a purpose, instead of aimless wander clicking just for the fuck of being online. the... [more]

friends don't let friends get viruses

when we sold to our friend nopalita twiddle thumbs's pc to help support our trip to new zealand, i loaded it with virus/trojan/worm/spyware zapping software and the girl never used it. some family members moved in and used the computer... [more]

the imac is purring like a panther

now that the internets is back i was able to download the needed firmware updater in order to install os x. the slightly over 1 mb downloaded in seconds, as it should be with dsl. not the 30 minutes then... [more]

the internets is down

just when i thought i had figured out and wiped out all the things infecting the laptop i'm trying to fix, the internets is down! i did notice that it's been slow but now it's beyond molasses, it's a tar... [more]

viruses, trojans, and worms, oh my!

twiddle thumbs's little sister's laptop is messed up and she said she'd fix it for her. she didn't get around to it and left it up to me. great! so i've been spending all day downloading security patches and running... [more]

calavera tv now on air

i'm testing out evocam webcam software. always wanted to try out a web cam but running it on a dial-up connection at home isn't exactly gonna work. didn't want to do it at work either although some days i was... [more]

siggraph in LA, part 2

we went to siggraph today, the last day of the convention. we walked around the exhibit area for about 2 hours, marveling at all the cool 3-d software, big name companies represented at the booths, and animated films to be... [more]

i am such an idiot (again)

over the weekend i fucked up iphoto and lost everything. how? why? well, there are a couple things i was unhappy with iphoto. small things. stupid things. i don't know how, but somehow i inputted comments into the master comment... [more]

siggraph in LA

i've always wanted to go to siggraph in san diego ever since i first heard about it but was always stuck in santa cruz. this year it's in LA and i'm in LA. except i'm broke. a couple days ago... [more]

slideshow presentation with iphoto

tonight i showed pics of our new zealand travels over at my grandparents' house. i think that was the final presentation. each presentation is shorter than the previous. i use iphoto to slideshow the pics and then i talk as... [more]

sounds and images

these past few days i've been continuing work on the songs i had started 2 years ago. i had meant to finish them all up last year before leaving santa cruz or before going to new zealand but i just... [more]

broke as

i had to get 2 new tires for my car today. at first i went to costco because i always go there but they don't carry my size tires anymore. in fact, they were telling me that they've been discontinued... [more]

you know you've converted to mac when...

...you're working on a pc and close a document in a program by clicking the corner x and get really pissed off when the entire program quits instead of the single file closing. i've done this at work several times... [more]

warning: skullblog is mature

i couldn't look at my own blog at work because the corporate filters deem it to be mature so it is blocked! mine isn't the only site that i can't view due to restrictions but i think this is the... [more]

cleaning up around the web

there's no emergency phone in the elevator, put you can push the 'fan' button if it's stinky perhaps in effort to take my mind off losing the files i most wanted to keep, i have been going over my web... [more]

ivolution

i did it. i went to ivolution, the first ipod night in auckland held at pitch lounge bar. minutes before leaving the apartment, i prepared a playlist under 15 minutes. i thought i would play songs that kiwis would not... [more]

i am such an idiot

i've lost my digital life. i can't find the majority of my audio/graphic/video files. so many of my precious babies are gone. those folders are my main ones. i thought they were backed up from my pc that i abandoned... [more]

good-bye computers part 2

today twiddle thumbs and i went back over to our friend's house to finish moving all of her files over to her newly acquired computer. she doesn't have a firewire port on either computer, so i couldn't use my portable... [more]

good-bye computers

today we said good-bye to a couple computers. twiddle thumbs sold her pc to a friend. i went over to help the friend put all her old files on her new acquisition. only, our friend's old computer was a bit... [more]

video surgery

the old 8mm home movie films my mom dropped off to be converted onto vhs are ready! we picked up the tape today. as soon as we got home, my mom broke the tape! part of it shattered and is... [more]

how did you sound when you were 26?

here i am trying to clean up some audio files. i'm using sound studio and it's the first time where i'm really wondering how to go about doing something on the mac that i used to do so well on... [more]

too much music

i have too much music. ipod is stuffed. itunes is overstuffed. i have a 40g ipod but that's just the advertised size. the actual size is less, plus with the software, that only leaves you with 37g to use. i... [more]

exorcist and more veggie restaurants

the workers were slower than sloths today we went to a at&t wireless store to buy tickets to the LA county fair--they have discounted tickets. i was getting frustrated pissy at the store because LA is so fucking ridiculous that... [more]

10 rubber bands for 43 cents

on june 8 i noticed that the cd-rom drive of the imac i use at work wasn't working. a co-worker also had the same problem. i told our computer support people about it and it turns out the rubber band... [more]

crash and burn

a computer error freaked me out at work today. the only program i had open was eudora. i stepped away for 5 minutes to check on something and when i returned to my desk, the screen was full of... [more]

moving on

earlier i made a list of all the programs i was looking into for the mac to help me settle in after having a pc for years. i just paid the $10 to register outlook2mac. damn, it's worth it. it's... [more]

caltech - calavera institute of technology

tonight i gave my first lesson to a friend regarding html/web design. she knows the bare bones but needs to know a little bit more for her job. she and other friend would also like to learn how to do... [more]

something i hate in panther

internet preferences. no more fucking internet preferences pane in the system preferences. ah... i'm going to try out more internet so that i can set default applications for browsers, email, etc. disk copy. no more fucking disk copy. it's now... [more]

thanatos is giving me grief

i've worked my way to the letter "T" for importing my music collection into itunes and ipod. the thanatos cd "this endless night inside" just refuses to cooperate. it will only import about half the album. it stalls on the... [more]

fill 'er up

i estimated that filling up the ipod with my music collection would be a 1 month process but it's going to take a lot longer than that. i am putting in my collection in alphabetical order, except for a few... [more]

radtech is well, rad!

for protection of my new babies, i ordered several things from radtech. first of all, i didn't want my oily fingers to get all over the place and ruin the display so i got the notebook screensavrz. it's very soft... [more]

welcome to the new server

i was tired of the server for calavera.com--it was time for something new. i searched around and decided to use the same one i have for another domain. i have been trying to make sure all the files are on... [more]

my new baby: ipodian

the ipod i ordered arrived today. it's so cool. the free engraving offer was still up at apple so i had some line from a bjork song engraved. it arrived in only a few days so i was quite pleased.... [more]

lucky me

say it the japanese way, "luh-key". the other person didn't claim the powerbook so it's mine. i paid for it, brought it home, and unwrapped it. very exciting. now all i have to do is sell everything i own in... [more]

on pins and needles

i went down to the campus bookstore to buy one of the 15" superdrive powerbooks they have on sale. about 2 weeks ago, they had plenty in stock but i just had a feeling that if i don't go today... [more]

cell is back

the cell phone arrived from mom yesterday. since my phone blanked out on me, she bought herself a new camera phone and sent me her old phone. i opened up the cell phones for surgery; took out the chip from... [more]

switching systems

for years i have wanted to switch over my home computing from pc to mac. i bought my first mac, an imac special edition, in 2000. i'm familiar with macs because pretty much all the friends i've had since moving... [more]

i want a powerbook

lately i've been considering selling my computer (and other things) in order to help pay for a powerbook over the summer. but i can't stop there of course, i have to get upgrades, protective devices, etc. the more i think... [more]

blank display

my cell phone's display has been going in and out but now it's completely dead for sure. this wouldn't be so bad if my main use of the phone wasn't visually based! i use it mostly for text-messaging and as... [more]

no, i will not fix your computer

i ordered the "no, i will not fix your computer" shirt from thinkgeek.com but it hasn't arrived yet. as i have my twiddle thumbs's computer's guts sprawled out, i wish i was wearing that shirt. she is having audio issues.... [more]

the computer has been delivered

tonight we gave the computer the once over and took it to our friend's house. she's going to be using it on some family reunion/cookbook projects. we stayed and chatted for a couple hours because we had a lot of... [more]

blog life

now that i have free time again, i have plans to update and revamp the webpages i maintain (buck-tick, margaret cho, james duval). calavera.com needs a whole new look, but that's too much to think about right now. i really... [more]

mini flash drive

yesterday after work, i went to costco to buy a sandisk cruzer mini 256MB USB flash drive. i was able to use my coupon from a sale they had in february because it was a raincheque item, which brought the... [more]

you get what you pay for

my freebie is gone. over winter break i found a usb portable memory stick thingy and even though it had a small storage capacity, it served me very well. a couple weeks ago i had it plugged into a laptop.... [more]

welcome back to the web

now that i have free time, i'm working on updating the many web pages i abandoned while i was engaged in academic pursuits. for my personal pages, i want a whole new design. the current design spawned off an idea... [more]

dvd is here

the region free dvd player arrived today. i can't wait to test it out. i will be so happy to see my buck-tick dvds on a television instead of just on the computer. [update 2/27/04: it's a philips dvd-727 and... [more]

toys

again i went to bad past 5am but never mind that. the mini disc player arrived! i picked it up today. naturally it's more compact and high tech than the players i've had in the past. it has net md... [more]

a/v bastards

i got two disappointing emails today. i ordered the mini disc and dvd players from separate places but both of them said they were out of stock. argh... i'll try again. i really wanted to have the mini disc player... [more]

voice from the past

something that has been on my to do list for a long time has been to take reel-to-reel tapes from the 60s and 70s that my dad recorded as taped letters and transfer them onto a more current media format,... [more]

screw the region

dvd regions blow. i've been viewing my non-region1 discs on the computer since i don't have a multi-region player. that's all about to change. i have been wanting to get one for a long time. i searched and searched the... [more]

here comes the mayo

last night, someone contributed to mayonnaise on a stick, my surrealist inspired internet art games. i created them last spring in my senior exit digital media workshop course. it's strange that anyone would contribute to them now. i don't even... [more]

new look

the blog has a new look. the previous blog look was straight out of the package with a minor tweak. now it's a much bigger tweak to match the look of calavera.com so that there is an overall consistency.... [more]

dvd audio

i have bought some music video collections on dvd of bands that i sort of like, but only want a 'best of' type of collection on cd. i figure if a 'best of' is not available, or if i pay... [more]

minidead

the portable minidisc player was a bit wonky but now it's definitely kah-put. it's not reading discs at all. i don't want to buy a current minidisc player because they have mdlp or netmd and the deck i have is... [more]

working with multiple platforms

at work i use a mac with os x. at home i have a mac with os 9 and a pc with me. i work at these stations all the time. i will take files and work on them at... [more]

web version

i worked a litle bit on the web version on the film. i still have so much to do that it's driving me crazy. using imageready, i sliced up some pics and made some image maps. mn, i can't tel... [more]

10:15 on a saturday night

well not quite. it's late friday night and what are we doing? i have friends over and they're watching a video tape that has tips and tricks for using the program flash. meanwhile, i'm editing my film. we're all huddled... [more]

stepping outside yourself

today my friend told me something. it felt strange. they commented on my blog. another friend has commented on my blog recently as well, and more than once. it's a really strange feeling. strange only because this is still my... [more]

this looks like crap on a pc

i work on this blog at work. at work we use macs with os x. right now i'm at home on a pc with windows me and this site looks like crap. what the hell? i'm too tired to troubleshoot... [more]

thank you comrades

to help me work on my film, my friend is letting me borrow her laptop. actually, it's not her laptop. apple computers is letting her work try out a refurbished ibook and she has commandeered it. i, in turn, have... [more]

final cut picky

i am having final cut pro issues. it's a really picky program, but when it works fine it's an amazing piece of software. last year in the summer when i used it for the first time, i didn't have issues... [more]

something i hate in os x

in os 9 and previous, you could easily make the funky characters the english language doesn't utilized (accents, umlauts, etc.). you just had to press the option key and then some other keys and bam, there's the fucking character you... [more]

so that's when it happened

the past few weeks i've been helping my mom build her web site. when she first told me that she wanted her own domain name, i knew there'd be hell. as it is i already provide tech support for her... [more]

the day that never was

this day was lost in geeking history. let's just call it blogblind or something to that affect.... [more]

hi-tech highway

the electronic signs above the freeways that usually warn of traffic and road construction had a different message. they informed drivers of a kidnapping and described the kidnapper's vehicle, including the license plate. i was in awe of the newly... [more]

what time is it? i don't know but i just took your picture

my brother had a watch that you could program from the computer. you would hold the face up to the monitor which would transmit bar codes. fuck that. it never interested me. but when casio put out the watch that... [more]

getting your feet wet

one of the projects i do to help keep my brain stimulated is an online thing and i'm changing the server for it today. this will be an interesting experience. i'm also gonna let go and stop doing html by... [more]

buy me a beetle...

...'cos i want an ipod... [more]

hell yeah i backdate!

what of it?! i'm not backdating meat for sale. i'm backdating thoughts in text form. i'm placing them in the order in which they occurred. i just happened to type them out of order so now i'm making the necessary... [more]

attention skullblog shoppers

if you don't know me personally, i just want you to know that this is a blog in the testing phase. i'm using this to learn. life is about learning. if all goes well, development and evolution will be quick.... [more]

aahh the blog that wouldn't die

no more blog! NO MORE! i'm tired. i installed it. i'm working on this test blog. my eyes are dizzy. blog code reminds me of zope. and i only learned a tiny granule of zope. it's almost the end of... [more]

welcome to the blog...

...we've got fun and games. yeah, so here i am. finally with a working blog. this is the sort of thing i've been thinking about for a long time. but never got my ass around to it. actually, this style... [more]