Monochrome Singularity

Went to the theater tonight with Mom and saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It was pretty good! ...Okay, I thought it was really good. I enjoyed it, anyway.

And now, some pictures of my recently completed summer "craft" project:



( Go behind the cut to see the rest! )

I hope no one finds this too creepy, lol.

I cannot believe it has been almost three weeks since I last updated this journal. Have I ever gone so long without an update before? Funny thing is it's not as if I've been, say, too busy to drop by here and write a little something. I've pretty much been keeping to myself, sleeping in until late afternoon and lounging around the house even after finally getting out of bed. Watering the yard for my dad in the evenings. Going out to eat on occasion with family and friends. That sort of thing.

My computer pooped out on me again, thanks to the newest round of Windows Automatic Updates-- thanks Windows, I appreciate all the trouble you've caused me-- so my cousin and I wiped my hard drive for the second time in as many months, and I'm just about finished recovering my files and reinstalling programs. What a pain!

But because of my computer being down for, er, an extended period of time (add to that my lack of motivation to fix it this time), I've picked up a few craft projects with which to pass the time. The first is really not much, just another horse racing collage-- my second to date! I am proud of it, though.



Like the first, this collage is made of clippings from The Blood-Horse magazine depicting races from this year's Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing. There are pictures from the three classics (the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes) as well as pictures from a handful of prep races leading up to the Derby (the Wood Memorial, Santa Anita Derby, Florida Derby, etc). Speaking of The Blood-Horse, I think my subscription has expired... Sad, but looking at things in a practical manner, it's a hundred bucks I could be putting to better use. Most of what I need to see I can find for free at the Blood-Horse website. The printed magazines are just nice to read while I'm having lunch on campus after class.

The other project I've recently completed is, well, something entirely different. I'll have an entry up about it within the next few days... along with pictures, of course. I'm excited about it, although some of you may not share my sentiments. We'll see!

Well, I didn't think to take a screenshot earlier as the storm was upon us, but here's what's happening in the skies now.



Looks like we're in for another storm, though smaller (I am just north and a little east of Fort Worth).

That big red and yellow squall line off to the east swept through the Fort Worth area about four hours ago, it was awesome. At the time, radar showed the whole thing as nearly solid red. I stood outside on the front porch with my cousin and friend, watching as the storm approached. The first drops fell, the lightning increased in frequency, the thunder grew louder. The wind picked up, soon gusting, and we saw red, blue, and green flashes of light a few blocks over as powerlines were snapped. Looking out across the backyard, I saw some really odd looking clouds, low, fast-moving. They appeared to be ascending and rotating slightly. A bit alarming, but very cool. (Apparently that happens sometimes at the front and base of thunderstorms, but it's something I had never seen until now.) And all the while, the tornado sirens were wailing in the distance... music to my ears. I love storms!

Last night I had a strange but surprisingly serious dream. It came back to me as I was walking into church this morning.

( Here's what I remember )

...Then Remi jumped on my bed and woke me up, argh. When I went back to sleep, the dream turned really wacky, and although it involved me going back to that place, I won't even try to tell it. Let's just say it featured a cute little animal that looked like it belonged in an anime, a $5 bill, some plastic Pokemon figurines, and... tripods?

Edit: Oh yeah, duh, I meant to post a picture with this entry. It was rushed and didn't turn out very well, but I wanted to at least try drawing something looking like the people I saw in the dream. (The faces are blanked out only because I was too lazy to draw them.)

Well now, congratulations to Summer Bird for his upset victory in today's Belmont Stakes!



Dunkirk turned in a surprisingly good run (on the lead, of all places) to defeat the favorite, Mine That Bird, by a neck for second. Mine That Bird finished in third. I will say, I thought Mine That Bird might have had it at the top of the stretch, but Dunkirk fought back and just outfinished him... and then came Summer Bird, flying down the stretch on the outside. Good race!

Interestingly, both Summer Bird and Mine That Bird are sons of 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone. I'd say Birdstone has enjoyed considerable success as a sire in this year's Triple Crown races, wouldn't you?

21, baby! Now I can go to the racetrack and place bets on my own. No more writing my wagers on scraps of paper and sending Mom to the window to do it for me. Texas, don't get me wrong, I love you and all... But your laws on gambling leave something to be desired. I've waited years for this! Not that I am much of a gambler, but when it comes to horse racing...

And, oh yeah, isn't there something else I'm forgetting? Something about alcohol? Hmmmm... ;)

This is what my grandparents got me (upon my request):





Yeah, my 21st birthday present goes to my cat. What can I say? There isn't a lot I want for myself right now. Besides, I enjoy seeing Remi using the things I give her. :) I've noticed she's always trying to climb on things around the apartment-- countertops, tabletops, the backs of chairs, etc... So I thought I'd give her something tall that she can climb and perch on. It's about 4'9" at the tallest platform.

Now, back to studying the program for tonight's races...

Edit: Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful birthday wishes! <3

:D

You know, when I drew this picture back in December, calling it "The Calm" ("before the storm" implied) I didn't know how prophetic it was. This spring would mark my second semester as a McCombs business student (I transferred in from Liberal Arts), but it would be the first wherein I would be taking a full load of business courses plus, of course, Japanese. I had only taken one in the fall, Financial Accounting. So I knew things were going to be busy, probably a little more hectic than before, but I didn't draw the picture with that in mind. Not consciously, anyway.

...I had no idea! Not only were classes now more challenging, I felt, but I went from one, maybe two, group projects a semester to five. I hate group projects! But, I will concede, it wasn't all that bad, just busy at times. Busy busy busy. I guess that's why they call it the School of Business, hm? Oh come on, the least you can do is smile.

So I'm happy. Not long ago, a man working in Media Services told me "I am seeing all A's for you this semester." Well, he was WRONG. But he was close. :)

Hoooooookay, so there's something I've been meaning to write about for years but just seem to forget about time and time again. I brought it up to my mother yesterday evening and she said, "I bet it's some sort of obsessive-compulsive thing." I researched it just a little, but haven't yet found anything quite like it (although some things have come very, very close), so I'm going to get my butt in gear and write about it here! Or, I'll try, anyway.

There's this thing I do, in my head. For the longest time I've called it "counting letters/numbers." It started when I was 11, in 6th grade. During elementary school and through junior high I was very competitive in spelling bees. I went every year, 3rd grade through 8th grade. I never placed worse than 5th, except for one year-- 6th grade. I didn't think it was fair. I won't go into it, but all you need to know is that I ended up in 11th place, and at the time it just killed me. I was distraught over the defeat, and next thing I knew... I was doing this weird thing. I'm still doing it, to this day.

It happens when I see words-- on TV, on road signs along the road, on the computer, in books, and so on. It happens when I heard words. It happens when I think words. I sort of... count? the "properties" of each letter. It's like a beat inside my head. Properties are assigned to letters based on the letter's height, and whether or not it's upper-case or lower-case (which, when you think about it, has to do with height-- after all, capital letters tend to be taller than lower-case letters).

As an example, I'll use the word "general".

general -> gg-ll-nr-ee-a

Say that out loud, each letter (don't pronounce the dashes). Although it's very quiet and almost unnoticeable these days, that's what I hear in my head.

( Now, let me attempt to explain... )

Lol, so yeah! Often while it's happening, I don't even know it. I might catch myself midway through a word or sentence and think, "Ah, darnit. Oh well," and keep on going. It doesn't really bother me-- hasn't for years-- and I don't feel like it's distracting or even tiring, for that matter. So it's hard to see it as a particularly bad thing. Sometimes I move my toes with the counts, but mostly it's a mental thing. All in my head~

I didn't get to post this earlier because I had to run off and take a test, but...

Congratulations to Rachel Alexandra for winning the Preakness Stakes against the boys!



She is truly something special. Today she made history, becoming the first filly to win the Preakness since 1924, and the first horse ever to win the race from post position 13. Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird closed strongly to finish in 2nd, about a length behind Rachel. What an exciting race!



Also, my finals are over! It's summerrrrrrrrr! :D

The big end-of-semester video project. :) It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! The videos range from 1:12 at the shortest to 1:46 at the longest. They were supposed to be only a minute each, but in editing them, I couldn't keep to that time constraint.

That said, enjoy, and please watch them in HQ!

( Embedded videos are behind the cut to save your Friends Pages )

After the videos were shown in class yesterday, the class voted on Best Performer (2) and Best Group. Calyn (the girl with the shorter brown hair, who wore the green wig when playing "Midori Man") won one of the two Best Performer awards-- understandably! And although we had some serious competition from a group who had an RTF (Radio-Television-Film) major in it, we got Best Group!

So apparently there was a "spontaneous musical" on the west side of campus earlier this week. Too bad I missed it! The video begins inside the Union building Starbucks, and moves outside into the West Mall. *hums along*

Together with two girls from my Japanese class, I spent the weekend working practically nonstop on a short little video project. It's due in class tomorrow morning, and by this point, we're more than ready to hand it in. It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself. :D

We wrote and filmed four skits, and each is very different. My favorite skit has to be the last one that's supposed to be "scary." We've called it or "あぶない所" or "Dangerous Place." Lol, no, we weren't all that creative with titles. For this skit, we were supposed to illustrate the "～てはいけない" or "～な" form, which is similar to "must not do (this or that)." The video is about a minute and forty seconds long.

Anyway, the videos won't be shown in class until Friday, so I wanted to post some screencaps here. :D

( Behind the cut )

Mine That Bird? Seriously?? Really???

...Really?



50-1 longshot. The superfecta payout was over half a million $$$. Wish I could have had a piece of that.

I think that when your horse wins her race, which happens to be equivalent to the Kentucky Derby for females, in a complete runaway by 20+ lengths, you ought to be wondering why you didn't just enter her in the Derby. (Rachel Alexandra)

During my obscenely long afternoon nap yesterday, I dreamed that I owned a horse in the Kentucky Derby. Oddly enough, the horse I owned was Dunkirk, a real horse competing in the Derby this Saturday. I woke up from the dream feeling really distressed, though... because I MISSED the race! Saddling the horses was taking so long, so I went out to my car to get something (or, alternatively, to put something away... I don't remember), and I returned to the track just as the race had finished! I had a horse in the DERBY and I MISSED it. DDD: So I was going around asking people, "What happened? What happened?" The crowd was all abuzz with excitement over something, but no one would tell me what. Argh! It was so frustrating!

Finally someone clued me in: Dunkirk had come in second, beaten by a nose. I lost the Derby by a nose! DDD: So Dunkirk had finished in second place, General Quarters about a length behind him in third, and who was that long shot who had appeared out of nowhere to snag the title of Derby Winner at the very last moment?

A horse named Jelly Pencil! Some of you will recognize the name as that of an author over at THFiction. XD

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, so... ( I drew a picture! )

...is in less than four days! I'm excited! Also, the Derby Draw will take place tomorrow (well, today) at 4:00 pm CT. I think I'll watch it live from my computer. Scratch that, it's at 11:00 am. I won't be able to see it live because I'll be in class. Anyway, I've said it before; this is the first year I've followed the Derby contenders prior to the running of the Derby. Four months of weekends, since January, spent eagerly awaiting the results of the Kentucky Derby prep races. Yet even now I don't have a clear Derby favorite.

	I like Dunkirk well enough, but I'm not looking for just a Derby horse. I want a horse that can sweep the Triple Crown-- the Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. That's not to say Dunkirk can't do it, but his running style... it's dangerous. I like closers, but I don't always have a lot of faith in them... especially when, turning for home, they risk being trapped behind a wall of 20 horses.
	Then there's Pioneerof the Nile (yes, those first two words are smooshed together like that). I'll say it-- I don't care for him. I respect him for his consistency, and his impressive race record, which includes winning all three of his races run as a three-year-old, and two more as a two-year-old. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he won. However, the way he wins his races doesn't impress me at all. He never blows his competition away; he does only what's required to win, beating the field by small margins. I don't like that in a person, and I don't much like it in a horse, either.
	I Want Revenge is another Derby contender who I like, one who has a good chance of being the favorite come race day-- he and his 19-year-old jockey, Joe Talamo. Not a whole lot to say about this colt, and there really isn't much that needs to be said if you've seen his Gotham Stakes and Wood Memorial wins. I'd be happy to see him hit the wire in front.
	And lastly, there is Friesan Fire. Oddly enough, this guy keeps getting overlooked. He has a number of impressive wins under his belt, so to speak, and all I've ever heard about him are good things. And I could see him going on to do well in the Preakness and Belmont, granting he comes out of the Derby sound. But actually, the real reason why I'd like to see Friesan Fire win is because of his connections, trainer Larry Jones. This man has been in the Kentucky Derby the last two years, his horses finishing in second place both times. He's to retire at the end of this year, so this will be his last shot at claiming the roses. Also, this is the man who trained Eight Belles, the filly who, after a miraculous second place finish in last year's Kentucky Derby, had to be put down right there on the track after she took a bad step galloping out. With Friesan Fire, I think I'd like to see Larry Jones end his training career with that elusive Derby title he's been working for.

Well, we will see what happens come post time this Saturday at 5:00 pm CT! I expect to be planted firmly in front of my TV for most of the afternoon, enjoying NBC's pre-race coverage. :)

Weatherford teen drowns in small lake near Peaster

By Galen Scott
gscott@weatherforddemocrat.com

Dillon Fairrel, 16, of Weatherford, was found dead in 8 feet of water at a small lake known as Lago Lindo outside Peaster Saturday evening.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., Fairrel and another 16-year-old boy tried to swim across the lake, located a short distance north of Harwell Lake Road, said Joel Kertok, a spokesperson for Parker County Emergency Management.

“As they got about halfway across, one of the boys started struggling and he didn’t make it,” Kertok said.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office currently lists Fairrel’s death as accidental.

The surviving teen made it across and ran to a nearby residence where emergency responders were called, Kertok said. Within minutes, several agencies responded to the scene, staging on the north side of the lake along La Costa Circle.

Parker County Fire Marshal Shawn Scott, who was among a group of divers looking for Fairrel, said rescue workers formed a line, searching back and forth from one side of the lake to the other until the boy’s body was located at approximately 7:30 p.m.

“From what I understand, they had just been out there playing in the water and it was a challenge to see who could get across to the other side ... it just turned into a really bad incident,” Scott said.

***

That "surviving teen" is my little cousin, Jesse. I've only heard bits and pieces of the story from family, but it sounds like this is what happened:

Dillon wanted to cross the lake, despite Jesse's attempts at convincing him not to. Dillon waded further and further out until Jesse finally went out after him, and together they tried to make it across. At some point, Dillon grew tired and panicked. He grabbed onto Jesse, even climbed on his back trying to stay afloat. But Jesse couldn't keep them both up (fyi, these kids are both stick-thin and neither is an experienced swimmer). Jesse thought they were both going to drown. Finally, Jesse went under and came back up on his back, Dillon slipped off of him, and Jesse managed to reach the other side. Then, barely able to walk due to muscle cramps, he ran to the first house and called for help.

Jesse's not doing so well right now. I haven't seen or talked to him myself since it happened, but I hear he's distraught and consumed by guilt... My older cousin, Joseph, was also friends with the boy, and he was taking the news really hard on Sunday night. But... yeah.

I actually heard about this from my grandfather, early Saturday evening as they were still searching for the body. And of course I feel for the boy and his family, but, as I was texting my cousin Joseph back and forth about it, I was teary-eyed with relief that Jesse was okay. And while I'd be that way for any member of my family, it's a little different with Jesse. Up until the birth of my two little cousins Tori and Taylor just a few years ago, Jesse's been the baby of the family, the youngest of all the grandchildren. It's impossible not to feel a little extra protective of him.

Why do FireWire/i.LINK/IEEE 1394 cables not work with PCs?? More importantly, why do digital video cameras require FireWire to import digital video from the camera to the computer, yet the vendors don't include the cable itself in the box with the camera? Nor do they say anything in the manual about having to buy one, they simply assume that the customer already has one on hand.

Here you go, says the company (or in this case, SONY), here is your camera and your software. Now you can take video and store it and edit it on your computer! But wait-- first you must go buy the mysterious 'i.LINK' cable talked about in the guide we included. Now you're set. Oh, by the way-- even though we've specified that the camera we've sold you isn't compatible with a Mac, the cable you need probably won't work on your PC computer since most PCs don't come equipped with FireWire ports. Right now, your video camera is no better than a digital camera lacking video capabilities. Have a USB cable as consolation. And an S-video cable too! Analog video, wtf???

So now I have to go buy a card that will support it? A new video card? Really? This is so bothersome! And I need the thing by this weekend, because the project I need it for is due a week from tomorrow.

Also, I've discovered (firsthand) that HEB grocery stores disallow filming inside of their stores. Jerks. >:(

Oh... So, I saw this picture earlier and almost blushed. LOL. I don't know.

Just some pictures I drew in class over the past week.



After drawing this guy, I realized that he came out looking remarkably similar to a horse I drew once or twice during my freshman year back at Tarrant County College. I had given him a name then, intending to draw him alongside my other two characters, Sin and The Mark, but I didn't like his design and sort of forgot him. I like this design better. And his name is Taboo. :) We'll see if he sticks around. I don't draw Sin very often anymore, much less The Mark.

Yes! My computer is up and running again. :D I was on the phone with a friend a few nights ago, as he walked me through the process of formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows. I had tried it on my own the night before but got stuck not far into it when I was asked, "Which partition would you like to install Windows on?" There were three, and I was like ??? But Phillip helped me through it. Thanks, Phillip!

I have to say, I've been wondering when the day would come that I would have to format my hard drive. I've had this desire to purchase an external hard drive as backup for some time now-- a few months? Did I sense the time was near? My MIS professor told the class that hard drives typically last 3 years, and I've had mine for about that long. Not sure how true that is, but it might have been what planted the idea in my mind to begin with.


Wiping the slate clean.

Unfortunately, I ignored that little voice in my head prompting me time and time again to "go and buy an external already!" And then my computer crashed... Or, Windows did, anyway. So I finally bought one. Fortunately, I was able to get into my hard drive using a program called Ubuntu, and from there moved everything I had onto my shiny new Western Digital external hard drive. I thought I was going to have to "force" the internal drive open with code, but in fact, it opened right up for me when I asked it to. *pats the hard drive affectionately* I'm so grateful for how easy it was.

The last couple of evenings I've spent reinstalling programs like Microsoft Office, Adobe Premiere and Photoshop (CS3 now. Goodbye, version 7, I will miss you!), as well as other necessaries for obtaining the aforementioned programs, like Bit Torrent (shh!) and WinRAR.

Although, it was only an hour or so ago that I finally got my audio working. Apparently the driver Microsoft provides through its automatic updates isn't the right one for my sound card, and I ended up having to download from Dell's website instead-- makes sense, I guess, my computer being a Dell and all. I'm just happy to have sound coming through my speakers/headphones again. It was getting to be pretty quiet around here. (I should probably mention that I don't own an mp3 player, and never have. The only way I can listen to music is through my computer.)

***

In other news, only two weeks of school remain! Well, of classes anyway. Then there are finals. I CAN'T WAIT for summer to arrive.