So, if anyone remembers my saga with a certain company between the months of March and May knows that I had some fun with that company. Well, since receiving the item, it's been really good...until today.

There is a zipper on the item. The slider just separated from the zipper. The slider is still attached on one side but it's disconnected from the other side. I've tried to research how to fix it, but it seems that the repair is out of my current knowledge and I don't fancy taking scissors to this item. I pondered taking it to a repair shop to fix and/or replace the zipper but, since this item is of a deeply personal nature, I do not want to take it to the neighborhood dry-cleaner/clothing alteration place.

So, now I'm stuck. I've researched discreet companies on repairs but they charge outlandish fees ($60-$100) for repair. I'll have to keep looking but I don't really want to put out that much for a repair considering I have a Halloween trip coming up soon.

Rumors of my spontaneous combustion causing half the west coast of the United States and Canada to go up in flames while being abducted by aliens from the fire planet of X.I.R.P. have been greatly exaggerated. But, I have been gone a while.

So, where have I been?

In a word: "Sick". In two words: "Sick" and "moving".

Let's get to the latter word first:
I received word from my apartment complex that they were "in the final stages of remodeling" and that I'd have to move by the end of August, which would've put me on several orders of magnitude of rage, anger, and other words that I don't feel like opening a thesaurus for, if it hadn't been for the former word. So, I applied for, received, and have moved into a new apartment complex altogether. I just got Internet access back last night.

Now, onto the former word.

At about the same time, I noticed two small sores on my torso. I shrugged it off, applied a bit of Neosporin and covered them with Band-Aids. For the next few days, I noticed more little sores popping up around my right side, on my right armpit, and on the right side of my chest. I had gone through a box of Band-Aids and a tube of Neosporin (more sores kept popping up, all around my torso [but not on my back, strangely!] and halfway down my arms, and associated boils and other abscesses), so, I finally went to the doctor's.

It was a staph infection. Hooray! :-P

For the next two weeks, I have been on antibiotics and, today, I'm happy to report that most of the sores are healing.

In other more happier news:

I am going to Knott's Berry Farm for Halloween at the end of October with my dad and brother. I hope it lives up to the hype. :-)

Well, not quite new; I had it for other purposes, but I haven't used it in years so I removed all the entries and changed all the data and added new entries.

http://danielsangeo.livejournal.com

I hope to use this new LJ to post all my renders so that I don't clutter up this LJ with picture floods. :-)

Hope y'all like it!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out in theaters yesterday. I decided to see it this weekend coming up. My dad went to get tickets today because he was scared that they might be sold out on Saturday for him, me and my brother.

He was right. They had only two matinée showings left with seats for Saturday: 9:30 AM and 12:50 PM. He got the 9:30 showing for the three of us.

It's Thursday. They're already selling out on SATURDAY!

People are insane.

Some news.

No, wait. Some history, first:

When I was young, I was entranced by the computer animated shorts in the Mind's Eye. But, it wasn't until I saw a short called "Bingo" that something clicked in my head. I couldn't get over the superb animation and the short stuck in my mind.

It was about this time that Toy Story came out in theaters. Not only did the superb animation catch my eye but I started paying attention the world of computer animation. I wished I could do something like that, but I knew I didn't have access to the software they used.

It was about that time that I found the (now defunct) Siren Song online as well, and was introduced to Mako. Here was this guy creating animations from his own computer. As I got to talking with Mako, he introduced me to Poser, a 3D modeling program he was using to make his animations. I got Poser and started playing around with it.

Fast-forward several years. I created a few videos of my own (Mary Murderer, Abduction, and Zombie [featuring the music of Mako] and so on), but I needed more. I hit a wall with what Poser could do, but couldn't afford the massive software packages such as 3DStudio or Maya. I was at a brick wall.

I came across the short called "Big Buck Bunny", created entirely within the FREE and open-source 3D modeling suite called "Blender". I downloaded Blender and...well, that brings me to today.

Throughout all this, I have met many wonderful friends and have attracted a following online (not to be immodest). That created a problem. IRC and other online genera had sucked a great deal of my time. I had gotten distracted by the temptations of political discussions on USENET, GoComics, Fark, and other fora. I got sucked into the Youtube world. Basically speaking, I was distracted.

This hurt me, in my opinion, as much as it helped me. The Internet has gotten me to come out of my shell and I'm grateful to all my friends whom I love dearly. But it's put my life on hold and kept pushing my dream of becoming a professional computer animator further and further into the future. I see movie after movie coming out made entirely with computer animation and I want to do that so bad that it almost pains me when a new movie comes out (Damn you, Carl Fredericksen!). I am also 31 years old and I'm not getting any younger here (Damn you, AR-Archive!).

However, this brings me to the events of today.

My dad brought over a DVD of Pixar shorts. I watched the shorts and the bonus features.

I came to a rather abrupt decision right there: I needed to pull away from that which distracted me.

The consequences of this decision might seem rash and irrational, but I need some "away" time. As of tomorrow, I'm leaving the online world for a time. I do not know how long this will be. I really need to focus on my future. I feel I cannot do this when it comes to the many distractions that the Internet offers.

I wish to thank everyone on IRC that I've met both virtually and in real life at the various Bashes I've attended.

As for my online fate, I promise to do a couple things:

• I will continue to read e-mail, though I am unsubscribing for every mailing list except for the Bash mailing list.


• I will continue to manage the TSA-Bash website and attend Bashes.


• I will post updates to this LJ of what's going on in my life.

These three nodes of contact will not be broken, but I am breaking ties with the others.

Will I reconnect these broken ties in the future? I do not know. But I do not want anyone to feel responsible for this decision of mine nor for causing the distraction. It is not anyone's fault but my own.

Once again: Thank you, everyone, for many great years. Who knows? In just a few years, you might see my name on the credits of the next computer animated film!

So long, everyone.

I am in room 230 if anyone is insanely curious and needed to check my LJ to find out where I am. :-)

I don't mean to use my LiveJournal as a repository for pet peeves, but I would like to know something and I feel this is probably the best venue to do it in (broadcasting to no one in particular):

What would compel someone to knock on a stranger's door to advertise their own personal religion?

I had no less than THREE groups of people at my door today to give me religious paraphernalia or advertisements. What is their ultimate goal? Conversion? What arrogance is that? To somehow save me from some unspeakable horror that their religion says is coming for me and, thus, I need to join their religion?

I don't get it, honestly.

Have I heard the "Good News"? Yes. Incessantly. I don't know ANYONE in the United States that hasn't.

So, it's just about three weeks from the Bash! I am getting my stuff together. I found my card decks. I get paid on Friday with which to buy some rechargeable batteries for the digital camera. I might look into getting another battery for my camcorder, but not sure how much that'd cost. I need some more MiniDV tapes. I might get a larger SD card. I need to dig my luggage out of storage.

Gah! So much to do, so little time! :-D

Label/Receipt Number: [Tracking Number]
Class: Express Mail International®
Status: Inbound Into Customs

Your item is being processed by United States Customs. Information, if
available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

Detailed Results:

* Inbound Into Customs
* Inbound International Arrival, May 24, 2009, 10:25 am, ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS)
* Origin Post is Preparing Shipment
* Foreign International Dispatch, May 23, 2009, 6:38 am, BEIJING EMS, CHINA PEOPLES REP
* Foreign Acceptance, May 22, 2009, 6:23 pm

So, it's in the States now. :-D

So, in continuance of the previous posting from a month ago...

On April 20th, I contacted the company. They assured me that they were still working on it and that they apologized for the delay. They said that it shouldn't be too much longer.

Fast-forward to today. I had figured out what would've been double of 4-6 weeks (8-12 weeks) and that the 12 week mark (May 25) would be the day that I angrily request a refund. I don't think that's unreasonable, do you?

So, anyway, just a few minutes ago, I was getting ready for bed when I heard my computer play the "e-mail" sound. I figured it was nothing (perhaps a story, or perhaps Travelocity with some good deal to a city I couldn't care less about), but decided to check anyway (I was up after visiting the necessary). When I saw the following:

Subject:

shipping

(Great, a spam)

Body:

Hello, your item is shipping on Monday
and the tracking will be [Tracking Number Here],
and you can track it here  [URL to tracking site]

Everyone here at [Company Name Here] apologizes
for the delay with it and we'll be sure to include a
30% discount off a future order to make up for the long wait.

Brian

I was like O.O

Then I was like 8-D

Finally, they got around to shipping!

...then I was like O.O

Apparently, they're not in the United States because the company they used to send me the item is "China Courier Service Corporation", which, apparently, is a member of the "EMS Cooperative", of which the United States Postal Service is a member.

I'll watch the tracking starting on Monday and hope that something weird doesn't happen between China and the United States. Last time I ordered internationally, it got stuck in New York for a week, then they delivered to my house...without telling me; they had stuck a notecard inside a grocery store circular, so it was 10 days before I found the card. I brought it to the Post Office's attention, of course, and they assured me that they matter would be dealt with, but still. I'm kind of wary about it coming from so far away...

We'll see.

So, leaving that last post where it was, I go onto the next subject.

I ordered something on March 2 which cost me over $400. It was custom-made and they took the money out right away, so they said it would be "4-6 weeks before delivery". By my calculations, Monday was the six-week mark. Maybe I'm a being too impatient and unreasonable, but this is a lot of money and I haven't heard a peep from them. The references I read prior to making the purchase sounds like they're a reputable company and I hope they are.

I am giving them until next Monday (the 20th) to let me know what's up then they're getting a "Where's my stuff?" e-mail. Grr.

...so, I haven't LiveJournal'd in a while. I've been busy with work and home life, but a conversation came up on IRC which has gotten me kind of upset and weepy, which is totally out of character for me, and I'm sure no one really cares about it, but I'll explain anyway in hopes of getting some advice. Anyway, this has been coming up for a long time (probably close to ten years now) and it's really starting to get to me. First, might as well provide you with a summarization before getting into it:

I want a long term relationship with a woman.

Okay, that's a gross oversimplification and this is going to sound really stupid and childish perhaps, but let me explain anyway.

You see, I feel like I've gotten myself into an inescapable conundrum/dilemma. I have a laundry list of characteristics of myself that would probably take me totally out of the playing field (as it were) while also creating a laundry list of characteristics for the perfect woman that probably does not exist. Okay! So, there it is.

For me, I have certain quirks that I predict will be hard-to-near-impossible to give up or compromise on.
For the other, I am looking for a mixture of characteristics that doesn't seem to exist.

I don't know what to do. I feel unable to compromise, and the mixture of characteristics I have I feel unwilling to compromise on. For example, I want a woman that doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, isn't religious, is funny and smart, and agrees with me politically. Looks aren't paramount, but they do matter. I am not really a looker myself (couple dozen pounds overweight, losing my hair, etc) so I can't really expect of others what I don't have myself.

So, does anyone have any advice? Whenever I think of this, I get pulled into this funk that doesn't go away quickly...

Can they make up their mind?

My dad got a call from the doctor yesterday to inform him of the "great news". The growth they found that they said was almost definitely "cancer"....wasn't. Ah well. My dad is doing spectacularly, aside from the pain of surgery which will take some time to get over.

In other news, I'm now looking forward to the Bash coming up. I have the requisite time off and will (unless something extraordinarily bad happens) be there. I hope to have a backup battery for my video camera this year. *sheepish grin*

So, until next time... :-)

Approximately a month ago, my dad started experiencing very intense chest pains. He went to the hospital and while he was there, had a very minor heart attack. The doctors did an extremely good job on putting a stent in and he went home about three days later. However, he began to feel very nauseous and started getting pains in his right side, so he went back to the hospital.

They found a lump on his right kidney. Fortunately, it was very small and they didn't want to operate because it looked like something that could wait. He was prescribed Plavix for the stent and they didn't want him to stop taking that. So, anyway, fast forward to two weeks ago. They checked again and noticed that the lump had grown from 2cm to 3cm, so they decided to operate. There was a 1% chance that complications could arise that might result in...well...

My dad went off of Plavix last week and went in for surgery today. I received a call at 4:30 PM from the surgeon and he told me that the operation was a success and that he'll recover. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I went to see him after he got out, and, while he was in pain, he was lucid and aware, even going so far as to comment on things he saw on the television.

Due to the special circumstances, they didn't want to remove the tumor, so opted, instead, to freeze the tumor. It seems to have worked perfectly. :-)

Well, I knew I was taking my chances. Every news station here said "If you do not have to go out, do not go out." Apparently, Seattle gets snow. Further, Seattle is woefully underprepared for a major snowstorm.

What would've been a story-of-interest in Maryland has wall-to-wall coverage on the news. Anyway, like I said, I was taking my chances and went to work. Nothing was falling, but I left a half hour early to catch the bus. I was at the bus stop for 45 minutes (a bus should have come every 10 minutes) and I was prepared to call my work and tell them that, for some reason, the buses weren't running, but a bus came and I went to work.

Between me and my work is a small expressway. Usually takes about 10 minutes to commute from my apartment to my work. The expressway was a parking lot. As I got closer to downtown Seattle, it began to snow...heavily. I finally arrived to work at 9 AM (7:15 am to 9 am for a ten minute trip) to a rousing (if sparse) series of gratitudes. My department employs about 50 people and all of 5 showed up. However, those five were ecstatic that I made it. I was late and was unable to call anyone due to the fact that all the people on my contact list did not make it in and weren't answering their office phones.

Anyway, about an hour later, I receive word that they're going to be closing the building and to "close up shop". However, due to the nature of my job (I print checks for anyone needing a special check for all North American Starbucks), I didn't get out of there until 11:30. I was getting prepared to, once again, spend nearly two hours on the bus when one of my coworkers offered to drive me home.

This only took about an hour (to still go a 10 minute drive). So, anyway, time to relax for a bit. Here's a picture from my nice warm bedroom:

Well, I did it.

I went to the local electronics superstore (Frys), plunked down over $800, and got myself a laptop. A Hewlett-Packard G50-106NR. Still trying to get used to Vista, but I'm able to get what I need off my old ("new") tower.

Transferring via a network cable. This is gonna take a while...


P.S.: I'm fishing for names for this computer. My last computer was "Carneiros" which was Portuguese for "sheep". The current name for the laptop is "Ramtop", but I don't like that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I thought my computer was fixed.  Evidently, something was a lot more wrong with it than previously predicted.  Now, not only does my computer shut down without warning, now my USB drivers are DOA and I can't fix them because that would necessitate a reinstall of Windows...which it can't finish before my computer shuts down, which means that my keyboard is a useless hunk of plastic that makes clicking noises...

After troubleshooting eleventy-billion different things and cursing every time one fails, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that my new computer is dead.

On the bright side?  I have more than enough money saved up to get a new one.  I've my eye on a few laptops...

Well, it's been a long couple of weeks, but I'm back online.... mostly.

After moving into the new apartment, I contacted my ISP and informed them of the move. It took about two weeks to get Internet again, and I was hooked up on November 21, my birthday. So, what happens now? My computer decided it was time to take a vacation and it kept shutting off no matter what I tried. I would boot it up, and it'd go into Windows for about 30 seconds and then shut off. I thought it might be over heating so I removed one side and directed a floor fan into the case. Nada. I fiddled with my settings in the BIOS (strangely enough, no matter how long I was in the BIOS, it wouldn't shut off). I went into Safe Mode, ran all kinds of scans of the disk, to no avail. Safe Mode was the only thing that worked for me.

I sought help from my IRC friends. They suggested it was the RAM, but I tested that (memtest86 was a marvellous program!), and it came out fine. They suggested I try a LiveCD boot of Knoppix. It shut off as soon as I got the two Tuxes. They suggested a new power supply. I went to Fry's today and bought a new PSU. And that's when the fun began...

I yanked the old power supply out, only to notice that it wouldn't come. The geniuses at AscendTech had lashed the power supply cables together with cable ties (the plastic kind that you can tighten but not loosen). They tighted the cable ties so much that I couldn't even get a pair of scissors between the tie and the cables. I broke out a box cutter and C‑A‑R‑E‑F‑U‑L‑L‑Y sawed my way through not one, not two, but three cable ties before I was able to get the power supply loose. I had to "saw" my way through the ties very gently, against the clasp, so as to not hit the wires. It took me nearly an hour...and on the last pull through the last cable tie, the box cutter blade slipped off the tie and just barely caught my left index finger.

Cursing, I stalked to the bathroom, and administered first aid to the cut along the side of my finger from the first knuckle up to the bottom of my fingernail.

Finally, I hook everything back up, screw everything back in and power my computer up...and the computer shuts off...AGAIN. It's not the power supply. Finally, I get desperate and suggest to my friends that I start yanking things out one by one, starting with the RAM, just to be sure, and one of my friends suggested the video card might be an issue.

I went back to a previous version of the driver and Windows booted up like a charm. I tested it by stress-testing the system (I played five videos at once while zooming around with Google Earth and animating in a 3D application. No shut offs. Nothing but beautiful, beautiful Windows working like a charm).

So, that's where I am now. I should be okay...

Unless the computer is toying with me.

Which is possible.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will be offline for approximately 2-3 weeks.

I received word today that I was supposed to be out of my apartment on November 1st. I never received a note and had already paid my November rent. They are remodeling the apartments and they need me out (apparently, I'm costing them $2000/day...a dubious figure, but that's neither here nor there).

Due to these special circumstances, of which I am seven shades of purple about right now, I need to move out tonight. They have given me a larger apartment (2br instead of 1br) for the same rent rate I have. However, this means that I need to move my Internet account over to the new apartment.

As such, I will be offline until I get Internet in the new apartment.

Wish me luck...and thankfully, I'm a pacifist...

Baby steps.

I won't bother y'all with the minutiae of each and every step, but suffice to say, I'm making some headway. I have cobbled together a budget that, while slow, is workable. Also, one of the roadblocks to progress is just about gone, so I'll be making a lot more headway in a bit.

I have decided to cancel my trip to California's Knott's Berry Farm for Halloween and, instead, check out the sights here in Seattle for Halloween attractions. There's a place near my work called "The Kube 93 Haunted House" that I'm looking at going to. I went there last year and it was awesome. I'm also going to look for other haunted attractions in the area (perhaps even going to "Frightfest" at the Wild Waves Theme Park).

Perhaps next year I can go to Knott's.

Beyond that, there's not much of an update. I'm slowly working on getting my life back in order, but next pay won't really help much due to the fact that rent is due. But, ehn, I get paid again about 2 weeks later, so I should be able to make some headway. November, however, I plan on buckling down and getting to work. Gotta get enough money together if I hope to host the Bash in 2010.

Baby steps, y'know?