Okay, I decided to go to Cornerstone and go to the beach for a day or two. At work we record classes for Liberty University's Distance Learning Program. They scheduled a class for us to tape that week and neglected to tell us. It's possible that I won't get to go to the beach at all because there already are 2 people from my dept. going. We'll see.

I thought about posting a rant about Apple Computers, or at least about the hype surrounding their new G5's and a few technical issues relating to it. I'm sure it's a decent machine and a huge step up from the aging G4 line, but their hype just goes too far. Yeah, I thought about ranting about that, but I've already done that elsewhere. Other people have done so as well. I do hope it's 3/4ths as good as they say it is. I remember the announcement of the PowerPC based MAC that was suppose to revolutionize the world, and who can forget that the G4 is a supercomputer on a chip. Now the dual G5 is the "fastest personal computer" and the "first 64-bit personal computer"... a "personal computer" that costs as much as (if not more than) an AMD opteron workstation/server computer that's 64-bit and actually shipping. Oops. Ranting... I didn't mean to do that. Sorry.

It's a dumb thing to get worked up about. I just don't think it's nearly as revolutionary as they make it seem. Truth: Who needs it?

This is shaping up to be a busy weekend. A friend of mine is getting married in SC. There's a small group of us going down tomorrow. I'd like to avoid spending money on a Hotel room, but if we don't spend the night somewhere, we won't be getting back here until the wee hours of the morning... Bummer. Then Monday I get to drive 15 hours to IL. yay.

I'm now definitely leaning away from going to Cornerstone this year (http://cornerstonefestival.com). What changed my mind? Umm... I guess a sense of loyalty to my friends. A group of them are going to Myrtle Beach, SC the third week of July and. If I go to c-stone, I don't think I can do both unless I want to use up all my vacation time for the whole year halfway through it. If I go to c-stone it'll be like saying I'd rather spend a week alone with strangers than a week with friends. There's the possibility that the beach trip will be cheaper than a c-stone trip and was very important earlier this week when I thought I had overdrawn my bank account. It's cool now. Of course if, at the beach, we rent jetski's or go parasailing or something the cost for that trip will go up. I do know a girl who's going to c-stone so there's a possibility of splitting fuel costs. If we went together it wouldn't be so lonely of a drive, but I'd probably have to stop more. Plus, she wants to go on Monday and I'd prefer to leave on Tuesday. Tuesday is Tooth and Nail Day and I'm not a fan of a lot of the bands on that label so I'd be pretty bored. I guess I could read all day or something. Patti is working for a label at the fest so she may NEED to be there then.

It's perhaps a negative quirk of my personality that I kind of like long drives alone... or just being alone in general. OTOH there are a lot of times that I wish I had a girlfriend or wife just so I'd have someone to share experiences with. That happened a lot when I lived in Lititz, PA. I lived on Main St which is an old (by American standards) section of the country. The town was founded in the 1700's. I lived a few doors down from the site of the first pretzel bakery in the US. There are antique shops and art galleries (and a couple of pizza places) lining the street. On one of the corners is a restaurant/Inn that was founded by General Sutter in his later years, after he left his home in California. I little thing known as the California Gold Rush caused him some grief. His home being the point of the outbreak of gold fever. I'd go for walks down the streets in that section of town when the weather was nice. It was very relaxing and enjoyable but I always felt like something was missing. I had no one to enjoy it with. sigh.

I wonder if I could do both the c-stone and beach trips. I'd have to save up money to cover time off from work without pay (or work extra days). I'm just not totally psyched up for either trip. The beach is much easier to get to but c-stone holds one of my favorite things in life... sitting under the stars on a warm summer night listening to Over the Rhine play their beautiful music. Most (if not all) of my favorite musicians play there and there's a ton of good seminars, and discussions and esoteric films and art and interesting people. All of that and the sweet but sad melancholy of seeing all that beauty and not having anyone to share it with. *sigh*

If I get bored in SC I guess I could visit my brother in Greenville. It might be a long drive, but probably shorter than leaving from here. Nah, I looked it up. It's a 4.5 hour drive... 1 hour less than from here (Lynchburg VA).

Good night.

http://cornerstonefestival.com
http://toothandnail.com
http://overtherhine.com

Well, I did it. I spent the last of the surplus. I bought a pretty high end motherboard, the third fastest CPU in it's class (a 2.66 Ghz Pentium 4 XEON) a Gig of RAM, a really nice case and a good power supply. Now I just need another WinXP and the parts from my old systems and we'll be good to go with plenty of room for upgrades (like adding another processor and fast hard drives, and/or some high end video hardware). The upgrade cost me around $1400. Not too bad, but you can get a whole system for half that. But I don't think I'd want to use those systems for animation/motion graphics. Still, I hope I made the right decision. I could've gone with a newer technology instead of top of the line current tech.

Sorry for geeking out on you there.

I'm definitey leaning towards making the trip to Cornerstone. It'd be nice to find a passenger to split fuel costs. It'd be really nice if the passenger was a woman between 23 and 30 with a slender build and a cute face. It'd be awesome if we got along super well and ended up falling in love and spending the rest of our lives together. Is that asking too much?

;)

well, it's that time again. Dana need sleep. Sleep good. zzzzzzzzzzzz

...tired...

I stop to jot some thoughts.

I'm trying to decide if I want to go to the cornerstone festival this year or not. (http://cornerstonefestival.com) It's a cool event to attend with lots of things to see and hear. If I go it'll probably be by myself which can get lonely, but I usually meet a couple of people so that can be cool. It'd be nice to have someone to split the fuel costs with.

I have an assignment to memorize John 15:5-8 and figure out how to use it in daily life by next Thursday. That's a church thing. I guess I better get started.

This week I need to really work on the graphics for a commercial for the Liberty University Distance Learning Program. It'd be easier if I had a solid idea of what I wanted to do and also if I wasn't so lazy.

I have to make a copy of a video and mail it out.

I have to print a few letters and mail them out.

I have to work on a website for someone I know.

I need to switch website hosts, and reregister my domain name.

.... heck, there's a lot of little things I need to get done. Life is good. No one is shoving bamboo chutes up my fingernails or tying me to the desert floor and shooting flaming sticks at me... yeah, life is good.

I thing I'll go to bed and possibly read, although I should just sleep. I haven't been very good at doing the right things lately, though... or at least it seems that way.

I should talk to Adrian. I haven't seen her in a long time.

I thought about saying something about the mark on my wall that reminds me of the mosquito that once was there. I think I'll just shut up now.

Woah, the pressure to finish two projects in the same week is gone. I feel like I can relax now. Of course, I still have a bunch of other stuff to do... Graphics for 3 projects at work, two DVDs at home and possibly some graphics at home. At least I don't have to work past midnight anymore.

I'm trying to decide what to do with the money from the last, big freelance project. I could totally pay off the rest of my student loan. I could buy parts and build a new graphics workstation that I kind of need. I could save some money for taxes, buy new tires and do some other mainenance to my car and maybe a few other smaller things that I need or want. Maybe I'll just throw it into my savings account and wait for a while.

Having to decide what to do with a fairly sizable chunk of money is a nice problem to have. ;)