Archives: October 2002
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Happy Halloween!
Granted, there's only about 37 minutes of it left, but anyway.
Another quiet Halloween this year, quieter even than last year at the old house. 3 kids total, and that included the kid who lives upstairs. When he came back a second time to show someone our lights and decorations I ended up giving him a ziploc bag full of candy as we still had almost as much as we started with and it was going on to 9pm so we weren't really expecting hordes more.
Next year it should be on a friday I think? We need to have a party here then, or just go out after being around for the few trick-or-treaters we might get.
It's somewhat disappointing not having many people come. The kid upstairs, and the parents who brought their kids here were impressed by all the lights and stuff we had here... we'd not done much indoors, but outside we had all kinds of small lanterns lighting the path and purple rope lights, tacky pumpkin garden stakes and such. I also carved 3 large pumpkins today, the last one being my favourite one, looking downright malevolent and somewhat like Jack Skellington. I just wish more people got to see them :( so our second Halloween was a bit of an anti-climax too unfortunately. Still I had fun carving the pumpkins and the anticipation and such.
@ 11:31 PM EST
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
So I was reading online and saw a mention that Richard Harris, the actor who played Dumbledore in Harry Potter died on Friday at age 72. Very sad indeed. It will be interesting to see who they find to replace him in the role.
The Stitch and Bitch was fun, more on that when I've slept.
@ 03:37 AM EST
Sunday, October 27, 2002
Daylight savings ended tonight, and thus begins Autumn. I really should start looking into a new layout for the site, though first I have a few other things on my plate.
After realising that Nutscrape was ruining the layout of the Mini-Beasts site I'm doing for Majick, I decided to tweak the layout a bit. Basic CSS isn't hard, but once you get into the realms of the table free site and CSS positioning/layouts, it becomes a whole lot more complicated... especially having to deal with piece-of-shit browsers that don't always render your compliant code.
Next up is a major update to GOTH.NET which is *very* overdue. After that I want to look into PHP for the next incarnation of GOTH.NET, get it to be database driven which would make the links section a hell of a lot easier to maintain for one thing. Before the PHP thing I'll do more work on my own site, that's for sure... as I think the PHP thing will be quite time consuming.
Tomorrow (later today really) is the Stitch 'n' Bitch of the NYC Goth Outings list, which should be interesting. Kit was hoping to get some of the mock-ups done for PreZ's jacket and waistcoat so he could be fitted for those. Other than that it's a way to just socialise with people which is cool. It's one of those days when lots of stuff is planned as well... concurrently was another Projekt Records picnic, which would have been nice to go to, but alas.
Next Sunday there's a Code 'n' Bitch, for the more techie amongst the group. We'll have to see if we go to that, I know Kit wants to shop for fabric for PreZ's jacket which will have to happen sometime soon too... and also we promised to meet up with Michael from Unto Ashes at some point as well, we've just had so many other things happening that we haven't gotten around to that yet.
Halloween on Thursday which should be cool.
@ 05:42 AM EST
Monday, October 21, 2002
A quiet weekend mostly... Friday evening PreZ had an ex-colleague over and the 3 of us went out for Chinese/Japanese food before the both of them went bowling.
Saturday we overslept so our intended trek out to the Palisades mall for Halloween stuff was postponed until today. The Halloween selection was 60% off at Joann's which means lots of goodies for a bargain price, we still spent loads. I just shudder to think at what the bill would have been like had we not gotten a 60% discount. We picked up all kinds of lights for outside mainly, because the entrance to our place is around the back of the house we need to attract attention if we want kids to actually find our place for candy. Other than that also decorative stuff... a candy dish, a welcome mat with a cat on it and miscellaneous things.
One thing I picked up which is intended to be a bit of a crafty project, which is cheesecloth (sheets about 3 feet wide and 3 yards long)... very loosely woven, so good for a bit of a tattered look. We also got one of those extendable shower curtain rods, which I put in the open entrance from the kitchen to the living room. I'll be hanging the cheesecloth over the rail to create somewhat of a divide. So far it looks pretty good. I might pick up more cheesecloth and some RIT dye and dye some of the sheets black or purple or red to add some more colour to it, and to make it slightly more opaque. It's something to play with.
Also today I bought some boots. Mid calf height and with a 2 inch heel these boots are ideal for day-to-day wear (and with an inside zipper for faster on & off). Happy day! It's not often I come across boots that are good for day-to-day wear that I like.
To add onto the shopping spree we also ended up buying all the Sims games and add-ons. So this should keep us occupied for a long while. They didn't yet have the Zoo Tycoon Marine Mania add-on, or we'd have gotten that too (though I doubt we'd have gotten all the Sims games/add-ons).
Commercialism in honour of PreZ's new job... or something ;)
@ 02:44 AM EST
Friday, October 18, 2002
PreZ finally got called on Wednesday in regards to the job, and today to hammer out some details. So, we now know for sure that he has a job. It's a bit of a strange construction though, he's being contracted out to the company through the recruiter as a consultant, until January 1st, because they have a headcount freeze, meaning that if they were to hire him they'd have to fire someone else to maintain the numbers. Apparantly consultants aren't technically employees, and their salary needs come out of a different budget. You have to love the convoluted ways that companies work sometimes.
Friday morning is his first day, so they're not wasting any time getting him started. Per January 1st he'll be an employee of the company though, so this consultant/contract thing is temporary.
So finally some good news.
@ 04:12 AM EST
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
PreZ is still waiting for word from that company. It's going on two weeks now which is very frustrating. Hopefully today they'll call, otherwise I think he'll at least be chasing up the recruiter to see what's going on.
We ended up passing on going to see the Crüxshadows on the weekend. Much as I'd have loved to have seen them, I really dislike Batcave as a performance venue. A few months ago we went to see Rasputina play there, and the venue was packed way beyond capacity sardines-in-tin style... not to mention the fact that the stage is small and low, and with three cellists on stools that means that it was impossible to see anything if you were beyond 6 feet from the stage. There's a slight balcony area, but it's small and was also overcrowded, so even from there we saw little. Eventually the claustrophobia set in then and we moved to other rooms in the club, defeating the reason for having gone there that specific night. So, fearing a repeat performance, we opted out, much to my disappointment, as I really LOVE the Crüxshadows.
My exciting moment for the day is buying an additional 4 Nightmare Before Christmas mugs (2 Jack, 2 Sally) in addition to the 2 we already have. Yes, you're all stunned into amazement of my exciting life I'm sure...
@ 06:11 AM EST
Sunday, October 13, 2002
The end of another week, and still no word on whether PreZ has the job. It's frustrating being in such a limbo.
It's been a relatively quiet week, I've been tinkering with the Mini Beasts site, and picking up some more xhtml coding things along the way.
Friday meant a phonecall to home base back in Holland. The state of my parents relationship is occasionally like a tv soap opera so I got to hear more than enough about all the goings on in that arena. The older I get the more convoluted everyone's lives and relationships seem. Life is so much simpler when you're younger... highschool et al may suck, but at least it's not that complicated.
In a way I'm kind of glad I'm not near the current parental situation, the last few years have meant I've dealt with enough from the parents' corner, and I'm glad that this one is well out of range as I have no desire to get involved in any such way, I've maxed out my quota for helping the parental units with their problems for a while.
A more fun family thing has been running an Unreal Tournament server and gaming against my brothers a few times over the weekend. Quality time with my brothers... spent trying to blow each other up ;) No doubt I'll wake up later in the day to find messages asking me if I want to play again...
@ 03:38 AM EST
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
We went and saw Spirited Away sunday evening. If you at all get the chance to see this, you really must. It's such a lovely movie, gorgeous animation, and an amazing story. You have to marvel at the things Hayao Miyazaki conjures up... bath houses for spirits... who'd have thought that that would be the setting for a movie. I sat in wonderment watching the things unfold on the screen. I do hope however that when it arrives on dvd that there will be a Japanese spoken track with English subtitles, I'd definitely be interested in seeing how that version is.
That pretty much summed up the weekend's entertainment, so nothing too major.
I've been gaming a little again, Zoo Tycoon mainly, until PreZ decided yesterday that he wanted to 'kick my ass' in Quake 3 Arena... he lost both matches. Today we played some Unreal Tournament together. We definitely need to get some friends online to play this, bots are less fun.
This weekend The Crüxshadows are playing in NYC. We should be going to see that if things go to plan.
Still no word on the job front for PreZ. The person with whom PreZ interviewed and who has been the main contact point is still waiting on the official word. It's quite annoying having to wait now, even though technically things should pan out, as long as the contract isn't on the table it's kind of iffy. The security would be nice.
@ 04:48 PM EST
Thursday, October 3, 2002
Barring a bunch of red tape that needs to be cleared before the official offer will be presented, PreZ is now employed again. Much to the relief of both of us as it's not a good time to be made redundant and be on the lookout for a new tech job. Hopefully the official offer will come before the weekend, but according to the recruiter and the company liason it will more than likely be Monday.
During the night (yay for wonky sleeping patterns) I've been piecing together bits and pieces for the site I'm doing for majicK. I put up what little I have here. It's a flat page and none of the links work, neither does the mouseover script. Content is still non-existant and I've yet to decide on what I want the left side navigation to look like. First off I'll wait to hear back from majicK as to what she thinks so far.
I need to chase down Kit or Cherie sometime today or tomorrow and see what's going on this weekend. I definitely want to see Spirited Away this weekend, if not in the city with Kit and Cherie, then we can at least go to our local multiplex since it got a wider release last week. We were also pondering going to the Medieval faire at the Cloisters, but I think we'll have to check the weather first... it's looking a tad grey outside now, and I hope that doesn't mean nasty weather for the weekend.
The bizarre offers one gets online, and the ways to make those people look stupid ;) It's always amusing to make people choke in their coffee too when they don't expect such comments from you...
#darkernet earlier today: more
@ 04:41 PM EST
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
PreZ's interview today turned out to be a very short meet and greet (20 mins or so). Hardly worth the trek into the city which is about 40-45 mins each way, and not quite what he expected either. The word from the recruiter is that he's still top of the list for the position, though they have interviewed at least one other person. Word should come by Wednesday at the latest... so fingers crossed.
I've been all domestic the last 2 days and have tried out some new recipes. Sunday night was Low Fat Lentil Chili and tonight I made some Gumbo Soup (low cal) as a lunch/snack option. All healthy foods in that attempt for us to both shed a little excess. The recipes have been posted to the GOTH.NET recipe mailing list that was set up by Mes, in case you were interested ;)
@ 01:17 AM EST