Spring really sucks, with these relentless allergies and all… I’ve been dosed up on Claritin for about a week now… And I’m running out…

Anyway, my school got a new iMac for Photoshop class. It’s a 24 inch iMac, with 4gb of RAM and a 2.4 ghz Intel Core2 Duo processor. The screen is absolutely gorgeous, and I can’t wait to install CS3 on it.

I’ve also done a project recently, and I made a really good-looking plant thing in Cinema 4D. Here it is below:

 

Report cards were handed out about two days ago. As usual, I failed one class. Except this time it wasn’t English. This time I failed AP Social Studies. Hooray. Rejoice. Celebrate. As usual, my parents took my computer away… But I can almost guarantee that I’ll have my computer back by the end of the month, because my parents cool off pretty quickly. For now, though, I’m going to have to rely on these shitty crappy fucked up garbage Dells. By the way, my site looks slightly messed up in IE 6. The content position is a bit screwy, but everything is still legible. However, I’m not going to make my site work perfectly in IE 6, because it’s not worth castrating the code just for the retards who insist on using Internet Explorer. All of the blog-related pages are looking splendid, and my uploader is working nicely. I might link to it later. My pr()xy still hasn’t been blocked by the idiots NYCBOE.

Speaking of which, I’m working on PowerPoint presentations in class, and PowerPoint sucks. It’s too simple. You’d have to be a complete retard to not understand it. Plus, the lack of shortucts for every function is really annoying, because I hate using the mouse more than I have to. I’ve noticed that society is getting dumber and dumber. Like for example, the Regents scores are so curved that only a brainless trilobyte wouldn’t pass it. And it isn’t just Microsoft that’s dumbing down everything, Apple does that too, especially with iMovie. iMovie 6 HD is packed with all sorts of useful features, and is comparable to Final Cut Express. Now iMovie ’08 is completely bare in comparison. Everything’s been gutted, making it useless for anything other than cutting and rearranging clips. At least Apple realized their mistake and put iMovie 6 HD up for download. Thankfully, Photoshop isn’t being dumbed down… at least not yet.

Also, there’s a certain someone that I’d like to rant about. Let’s just call him Mr. A, because the person in question is an assistant principal, and I don’t want to get into trouble. Anyway, this guy is the most ignorant person ever. He acts like this big shot who knows everything about computers, while the truth is, I know more than him. He walks around, saying how he can look at what I’ve been doing on the PC’s, and found out every key that I’ve pressed. It’s especially hilarious when he says it in a serious tone… Also, I just love how he thinks that Windows is the only OS out there. I bet he still uses Internet Explorer, like all the other retards out there. Oh, and Mr. A (you know who you are), if you’re reading this, I only have one thing to say. Get a Mac.

Another thing that pisses me off is the lack of decent software on the Dells. The only browser is Internet Explorer. Another thing is that the Dells only have Photoshop CS3. Ordinarily, that would be a good thing, but 256 mb of RAM is not enough to run it faster than a dead rat. Microsoft Word is also a poor choice, because it just sucks. Clippy is really annyoing, and it’s almost impossible to get rid of him permanently. Also, the computers have “Deep Freeze” installed, which basically resets the hard drive on every startup. What’s even more depressing is that today I saw several new Dell laptops being unpacked… I just hate Dells, and if I had the choice to use a brand-new Dell or a Power Mac G3 from 1998, I’d choose the G3.

I’ve also stopped reading the newspaper, because I don’t want to see what new low society has reached… 

The home page is almost finished. Rejoice. It is 100% XHML valid, and CSS valid. The sidebar has been “fixed.” I have a few more little bells & whistles to add to the homepage, and then it’s on to the rest of the site… Stay tuned for more updates. 

I started the redesign (as you may or may not have already noticed). In this version of the site, I’ve decided to go green (literally). Version 2.0 was short-lived, and I didn’t like it that much anyway. Currently, only the home page is looking good. All of the other pages look like garbage, because I haven’t done them yet. Hopefully, by tomorrow, the site will have most (not all) of its pages redesigned. Also, I set my blog as the homepage. So far, the site has:
1) CSS rollovers- They work faster, and don’t require complex pre-loader scripts.
2) It looks good in IE 5.0 (Mac), Safari (Mac), and Firefox (Mac).
EDIT: The site works fine in IE 6.0 and Firefox 2.0.

Currently, it’s not XHTML valid, but I’m working on it. 

Well, it’s 5:39 am, but I’m not really tired. You see, the other day, I caved in and created a MySpace profile. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was t edit the layout. And that’s what I did, until my account got deleted because I violated the TOS by blocking the advertisements. I made a new one yesterday, and I finished with the layout just this morning. It was a pain, because MySpace’s standards are even more ****ed up than those of IE’s. But it has been finished. Below is a screenshot. If you want to see the actual profile, click here.

Also, I have finished my web design page. It is here.

It took quite a while, but now it’s finished, cross-browser compatible, and 100% XHTML/CSS valid.

Now, onto the main news:

This website is due for a complete redesign. You may be asking “why?” Here are some reasons.

1. I’ve learned a few new techniques, and I have more experience with XHTML and CSS than I did when I did this layout.
2. I want to put this blog on the front page. The current front page is just empty-ish space, which doesn’t really compel most visitors to stay for too long.
3. I want XHTML and CSS validity. The current design has a lot of errors, and I can’t fix them without messing up the site.
4. I’m writing the site in a text editor, rather than in Dreamweaver, which will allow for faster, more efficient, more optimized code.
5. The site is plain, and doesn’t look all that great.
6. I’ve learned how to make rollovers in CSS, and they work faster, take less time to load, and don’t require long (and invalid) lines of Javascript for preloading.
7. I want to make the site easier to update, so the new site will simply link to the CSS file, rather than having it embedded. Therefore, I’d only need to change the external CSS file, without compromising the structural integrity of the site itself.
8. I want to make the site faster, because the current design is bloated, and inefficient.
9. This is the “flagship”site of my collection of sites, so naturally, it has to look good.

The redesign will commence tonight. I will attempt to preserve the integrity of the blog, so as to keep you posted on the progress. 

I have been wondering recently about setting up a server. The advantages:

1) It’s cheaper than hosting.

2) More uptime.

3) Easier management and site updating.

4) Being able to do what I want, when I want.

5) Did I mention it’s cheaper?

The disadvantages:

1) Cable/Fiber-Optic isn’t too cheap…

2) Having direct access may only lead to problems, with my constant OS modding.

3) No backups, and the machine still wouldn’t be as fast as a professional server.

I’ve done a little research, and found out that any computer can be a server. All I’d have to install would be Ubuntu Server Edition, which handles Apache, PHP, mySQL, and all the other server configuration.

Also, I’ve noticed that many professional illustrators/artists have Wacom Cinitqs. At $2500 dollars for the 20-inch version, and $999 for the 12 inch version, the prices are kind of steep. Once I save up enough money, that will definitely be my next major computer purchase.

As I mentioned before, I’ve got the proxy running. Seeing as the hosts would delete my account if I overloaded their servers, I’ll have to keep the proxy private, with password protection. Maybe when I get a dedicated server, I’ll open it to the public.