I really am not very good at remembering to post here letting y'all know I've got new icons over at the old graphics journal. Here's what I've done since the last time I remembered to link from here, starting with the newest:

NEW
124 Icons: Supernatural, Misha Collins, Star Wars, Psych, Calvin & Hobbes


OLDER
( Supernatural, Misha Collins, Star Wars, Bones, Stargate SG-1, Buffy-verse, White Collar, 1970s TV (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sanford & Son, e.g.), Michael Shanks, Calvin & Hobbes, Psych, Burn Notice, Criminal Minds, Shemar Moore, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Farscape. I think that's all. )

I'm looking for a Windows widget that will give me a pop-up alert for new Twitter posts. Bonus points if I can configure it to behave differently for different lists.

Suggestions? Recommendations? What do you use?

ETA: Yes, I realize most of you get alerts on your phones. I'm a Luddite.

Come on over and play!



lemonpunch is hosting an iconfest that runs through 26th May. This is your chance to request an icon or several. You can be very specific (linking to caps, requesting specific verbiage) or you can be more general.

If you're very lucky, lemonpunch might fulfill your request. If you're unfamiliar with her work, you're in for a treat. She creates small masterpieces; what she does with color, lighting, & textures is magical. Also? She is the only other iconist I know who has made a boatload of Calvin & Hobbes icons so she HAS to be amazing.

If you're hoping that I will try my hand at your request, please link me to your request so I'm certain to see it. I'm trying to keep up but the post is already a little unwieldy; I can only imagine what'll look like in a week and a half.

Iconfest links: [rules/about] [promotions] [f.a.q.s] [the PROMPT page]

ETA: And, of course, MAKERS are invited, too! This is your chance to read through the prompts, find something familiar to tackle or try something completely outside of your comfort zone that you've never tried before.

It has been far too long since we had a proper thunderstorm. I've been listening to one blow in all evening and now it's finally got enough steam to force air in through the crack under one of the doors. The wind is a wonderful, eerie sound that would be right at home in a creepy movie.

I love thunderstorms. When I'm inside and dry, that is.

I need to collect some caps of the team in the field in blue BDUs but cannot for the life of me recall in which episodes they wore them into the field. Ideas?

As a belated birthday gift, my membership to the local gym has been renewed!! I'm both excited and a little fearful. Excited because I need it and it will be good for me. Fearful because I need it and it will be good for me.

As a bonus, I had pre-paid for a bunch of personal trainer sessions before I had to let my membership lapse and they're going to honor those. So not only do I have the gym access again but I also have a trainer! I am going to be soooooo sore.

~~**~~

I love, love, love competing in LIMS with jehnt because we invariably end up talking process, even though I suspect everyone else is kind of "eh, what is up with those two?!?" because we sort of highjack the post. We have this crazy sympatico thing where we approach graphics in very much the same way. Every week, there's an alternates post where participants can post their rejected efforts and get feedback/suggestions/comments.

It is seriously the best part of the competition. It's a chance to learn a lot and jehnt is fearless in giving honest, useful feedback and suggestions. If you're a graphics maker, you know how crucial that is in getting better.

Aaaand, on that note, I really should see where we are on getting the next round of sg1_lims ready to go since we're a few weeks away from when I was hoping to start the next round and I've only just now noticed that fact; I've been having too much fun having time to compete in other challenges. Eeep!

I can't make animation work in the newer Photoshop -- how do I use an animated source file to make an animated icon?

I have a *.gif file that I want to open, mess around with, and then save as an animation. When I open it with PS CS4, though, it sees only one frame in the animation task bar. I'm sure I'm missing something really obvious.

I'm missing Image Ready. :(

I've been mainlining Supernatural of late to catch up. I've enjoyed the prettiness that is Jensen Ackles since Dark Angel so I was surprised to find that my fave is not His Hotness but rather Misha Collins's Castiel. This show has some serious gender issues, true. They're bad enough that I wouldn't watch even though I like the whole Armageddon storyline.

But I can't look away when Castiel is onscreen.

The closing ceremonies reminded me why I love Canada so much when they turned the malfunction from the Opening Ceremonies into humor. Canada has some of the most breath-taking scenery and Vancouver is my favorite city but the very best thing about Canada is its people. Gotta love a nation that can laugh at itself. If we had to lose both hockey gold medals, I'm glad it was to Canada. I can't think of a better nation to come in second to.

I'm looking forward to catching up with my television shows (I heart my DVR) and getting back on a more normal sleep schedule.

So, I found it über-easy to import my LJ here -- yay! -- but I'm not seeing a way to import my graphics comm. Is there a way to do that or am I going to be hand-coding?

I won't say that it's an entirely done deal but I had a 2.5 hour meeting today with a good friend (whom I owe a really nice meal out and undying gratitude) and the board of a local archaeology non-profit. They need someone to be in charge of field labs, who can program in VBA, and who has experience as a material culture analyst. It has been a reeeeeeeeally long time since I was paid to be an archaeologist but I appear to meet their needs. It's contract work, which is not something I've enjoyed in the past, but the work that the foundation is doing is fascinating and it would be working for the public good so I am willing to reconsider.

First I never post and then I post twice in a week. My first foray into stock icons:

coffee, tea, food, tulips, nature, sea life, yoga, dance, music, archaeology, canada, science & technology, amusing road signs + jane austen, molly ivins, and richard dawkins



Here.

I normally forget to post here saying that I have new icons posted -- I kind of figure anyone who cares has friended my graphics journal. In case any one doesn't know, I have one and I've posted a new batch of icons (the first icons I've made in 11 months!)

This batch contains:
Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County, Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Buffy/Angel Cast, Queer as Folk (NSFW), and Gale Harold

TEASERS:


Link to the post of 128 icons.

I have a new computer! (Well, a new CPU.) It runs Windows 7 -- and I'm favorably impressed. It's well-designed, it runs ALL of my favorite freeware downloads, it runs the 32-bit software I already own, and it runs all of my hardware of varying ages. Sad that this is a surprise but I'm grateful nonetheless. If I can just figure out how to make Windows Explorer show me the file extensions, I'll be a happy camper. (I'm sure I'll get used to the loss of menus in various applications but I'm slow at adapting to this particular change.)

I cannot say the same for Word 2007. What in the world did they do the menus? More importantly -- WHY?!? It took me far too long to figure out how to find, "Save As..."

In a perfect world, I'd have purchased a 27" iMac, a brand new license of Photoshop CS4 for Mac for it, and had two huge monitors. (I dream of having all the Photoshop palettes on one screen and my graphic on another.) Alas, money was the determining factor so I chose to go with a Windows box. I'm not unhappy, though, as my new toy is zippy and works with my very nice quality speakers, my printer, my monitor, my array of external hard drives, and my iPod.

While I wasn't looking, I got a whole new slew of Dreamwidth invite codes. If you want one, please comment here with your e-mail address (responses screened, of course) and I'll happily make one available to you.

I have 4 Dreamwidth invite codes to hand out. If you want one, please leave a comment here with your e-mail address. I'll screen replies so that your address is kept confidential.

~~**~~

I have received an amazing number of e-mails and private messages since I last posted. You guys are the greatest.

I know I owe a bunch of you responses and I really, really, really appreciate them all. I'm sorry that I'm slow in responding to the outpouring of kindness. I'm more than a tad stressed and that has led to my being even less communicative than usual. I promise that I WILL respond, however tardy I am.

So I've been pretty absent around here for a while. I don't want to go into the details but tonight the Better Half decided to call it quits with me. I'm pretty torn up at the moment and not ready to talk about it. I can't claim to be surprised as we've been, god how I hate the euphemism, "growing apart" for some time. I hoped it was something we'd work through but that was not to be.

I have to either find someone to move in here quickly -- unlikely with my less than friendly dog -- or I need to move out. I'll be okay but I'm still reeling since I thought I'd found my soulmate. Now we begin the long and tedious task of disentangling 16 years together. For now I'm a bit lost but I expect that once we get started on the joy that is dividing furniture, appliances, CDs, books, etc. that I'll have some structure to hang my life on.

I doubt that I'll be around any more than I have been as I expect to be pretty busy and more than a little bit stressed.

This is here to keep my journal from being empty until I can set aside the time to migrate my LJ entries.

Like most (all?) Americans, I've been trying to figure out what the hell happened to the financial system, why we have the bailout plan we have, and whether I should think it's a good thing. Most of the sources I found are either too superficial or filled with jargon I didn't understand.

A month ago, I had the good luck to catch an episode of the radio program, This American Life, which explained the background of the housing crisis. It was phenomenal. This Sunday, I caught part of another episode, which explained the bailout, credit default swaps, why the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers forced AIG into financial straits...and how the meltdown ballooned out of the commercial paper market freeze. I had to leave before the show finished so I made it a point to search out the online version; it was just that good.

These programs are aimed for an audience with no knowledge of the U.S. financial system and they take the time to explain the terminology in easily digested words. :) Each one is an hour. If you're interested in listening to them yourself, here are the links:

The Giant Pool of Money: A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

Another Frightening Show about the Economy: They'll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could've done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place.

Both are free to download from the links given. The second is available this week only on iTunes as a "This American Life" podcast for free. :)

Happy October! I've finally gotten my act together to plan my trip in just over a month for the final con to be held by Creation in NJ. I'm ambivalent as I'm not enamored of Creation but they were a great reason for me to travel and see a bunch of fandom friends AND a bunch of folks from college. Anyhow, here's what I have planned:

- Nov. 6 (Thursday): Fly to Baltimore after work. Very late night arrival.
- Nov. 6: Need to find a hotel. I'm leaning towards the hotel jalabert and I stayed in Columbia, MD last year since I know the area but it's smarter to find a place that is on the road to Cherry Hill, NJ.
- Nov. 7: Drive to Cherry Hill, NJ. (I'm doing it this way because flying to BWI was half the price of Philly when I was pricing tickets *and* Hertz promised me a Prius at that airport at a reasonable rental price. No Prius guarantee in Philly.)
- Nov. 7-9: Con in Cherry Hill, NJ. selmak and janiekins, I finally chose to take my chances and stay at the very poorly reviewed con hotel. I'd like to say I did this with a sense of camaraderie and misery loves company but the truth is I need to scale back vacation spending. This is the least excited I've ever been about a con line-up. No major SG-1 actors at all and no female guests, either. At least this will help me save money on con photos.
- Nov. 10: Check out of crappy con hotel.
- Nov. 10-15: Undecided. I would *like* to visit yams69 and family since I'm already there but as I don't yet know their schedules because I never got back to them with my itinerary, I don't know if/when they're available to play. We spoke about hitting some of the Revolutionary War historic sites when I was last there and those still appeal strongly. Else, I'm tempted to return to explore the Smithsonian since it's free, stuffed full of amazing things, and I've spent far too little time there. And there's a Ghanaian restaurant in D.C. that sounded cool but ran out of time for last year. jalabert, I'm trying to figure out how to visit NY, meet the new kitty, see you, and visit my beloved Met. Given that I have an extra family member living with me and the expenses of the hurricane and the economic downturn, I'm having trouble. I don't think I can afford a week at the Crowne, eating out a lot, traveling, and the incidentals. Would you be willing to spend some time in D.C.? My plan is to have a rental car again so I could pick you up/drop you off if needed. :)
- Nov. 16 (Sunday): Fly back to Houston.