Apex81

Social networks, cliques, or whatever the hell you want to call them, can have their benefits.  It’s kind of fun seeing what people are up to around the world, and seeing what kind of bizarre things they do on a daily basis.  I don’t really know anyone who would disagree with me about that.  But, these “social” networks have been implementing the “is a fan of” rhetoric that is really starting to piss me off.  I’m not a “FAN” of nike running shoes. I’m not a “FAN” of Veronica Belmont. I’m not a “FAN” of your Podcast.  SO STOP CALLING ME ONE.  I don’t know what the word is that I’d use to describe these interactions, but “fan” is as lame as it gets.  Fan means “an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer”.  For starters, I’m not enthusiastic about much on the internet, nor am I devotee, or an admirer.  I guess i’d fall under the follower… but even then it’s as bit of a stretch.  If Nike collapsed…I wouldn’t care, and much goes for ever other application, podcast, or “acquaintance” online.

Stop labeling me as a fan.  It makes me sound pathetic, and it boosts others egos… that is something we really don’t need any more of on the internet.  Everywhere I look ego stroking is going down!  Yuck!

People who check out this blog, or other sites I run aren’t considered “fans” to me, and if I ever call them that… someone call my shenanigans.

So, is it just me or does this time of year really suck?  I always have a hard time getting to sleep, but come late January and early February  I get like zero sleep.  I spend all my time  laying awake at night thinking about what is, what could have been, what might be… and frankly, I’m starting to get really annoyed by it all.  I did come to the conclusion that I could have written SuperBad! 1000x better with my experiences from high school.  This also led me to the conclusion that I probably have a ton of material for a novel.  I’m also tinkering with the idea of letting the url fade into obscurity and put up a blog with my real name.  Clean things up a little… what do you think?

So, the year might not be technically over, but It’s pretty much done for me. I thought It’d be kind of fun to put together a list of thing that really made my year enjoyable. So here it is.

Music

1. Radiohead-In Rainbows
2. Modest Mouse-We were dead before the ship even sank
3. Arcade Fire-Funeral
4. Cold War Kids-Robbers and Cowards
5. The Shins-Winching the Night Away

Movies

1. A Scanner Darkly
2. Transformers
3. Casino Royale
4. 300

Applications

1. Coda
2. Billings
3. Transmit

Events

1. The Wedding
2. The Honeymoon
3. The week up to the wedding
4. Early xmas dinner at my sisters
5. Oilers Game in Ottawa
6. Doing the macgasm podcast

There it is… happy holidays…

I’ve been done classes for a week now, and I officially have the burnout!  I can’t focus on anything at all, and any time I try to accomplish something my motivation fails me.  I guess it doesn’t help that I am waiting on a number of projects to get started. When I have work to do I can get back into the swing of things super-quickly, but if I have a lull it’s game over.  I seriously hope this week doesn’t go down the tubes.  I have 2 sites to get started on, but I’m waiting on clients.  I have 2 sites in the finishing up phase, and one of the clients has gone MIA, coincidental? I think not.  I also have 4 potential sites on the horizon.  I’m hoping those potentials work out because they’re for fields I’ve never worked in before.  That’s one of the things that I love about web design, it affords me the ability to learn about all kinds of stuff that I wouldn’t normally get involved in.  Fun stuff.  I’m also trying to think of creative ways to advertise on the cheap… anyone have any good ideas?  It’s not that I’m cheap, it’s that I have a hard time spending money on things that don’t guarantee results.  I plan on looking into advertising on the metro system here tomorrow, but out side of that I’m at a loss. Help a brotha out!  Drop me a comment and let me know if you have any ideas.

I’m done my exams finally, and holy crap does it feel good.  I huge load off of my shoulders, and now I can finally focus on finishing up two sites.  Anyway, I’ve been promising my wife since Nov. 1, that as soon as my exams are done I’d get festive!  It’s been one heck of a festive couple of days.  We bought a xmas tree ( a real one) and decorated it yesterday, and today we got a large chunk of our xmas shopping done.  All in this really crappy weather that we’re getting in these parts… seriously, this is insane.  It’s making it really hard for me to enjoy the snow for Christmas.   The snow needs to go.  I can’t wait for spring…heh.

This article really has be freaked out.  What the hell is wrong with this country?  When did we loose our backbones?   The people at the battle of Yrpes, and Vimy ridge would be disgusted at the lack of Canadian balls in standing up to pathetic american corporations, who are so far removed from reality, that they are running themselves right into the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

I finished up one exam today, and it went pretty well.  No complaints.   Unfortunately, I have one more to go, and this one is going to be a little more difficult.  Anyway, I should get back to studying.  I have some updates sitting in my draft folder, so once my exam is done friday i’ll upload them.  While you’re at it why don’t you check out my other sites? Macgasm, and The Smart Fool

I thought that I should probably update you all since I’m going to be super swamped in the upcoming month.  Things have been moving really quickly over the last 2 months for me and I’ve been struggling to find the time to update all of you.  Readership for this blog has hit an all time high, but for some reason I am not completely sure that I trust my stats software that is running right now…  But, here is to hopping that it is… Cheers!

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So, I think I just stumbled upon another reason why Microsoft sucks hard.  I had sent a transparent png to a client at his request so he could use his logo in a word file he was putting together.  I just received and email telling me that it’s not transparent at all, and that instead of transparency it loads a grey box around his logo. Do any of you know anything about transparency issues in Microsoft word?  Let me know, josh [ dot ] schnell [at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks! 

Not much going on right now.  I’ve been focusing on school lately since I have finals coming up in two weeks for a couple of courses, and we all know what that means… EXAMS!  Yuck.  So, I haven’t really been keeping myself up to date with the happenings around the internet.  But, one thing has been really pissing me off lately. Twitter has been lagged, busted, and over all pretty pathetic lately.  For those of you not in the know, twitter is a kinda microblog.  People can post from there cellphone brief updates through out their day, or random thoughts as they pop into your head.  It’s kind of addicting and a hell of a lot of fun.  I actually compare it frequently to the status bar in msn, the only exception being you can receive all of those to your cellular device on the fly.  Anyway, it doesn’t work now, and i’m left without it… I  think i’m addicted to it… actually, I know i’m addicted to it.