I haven't given up yet

Don't worry all you fans (and all of the imaginary people I like to think are reading this) I didn't forget about my blogging like I did last year after the few posts I put up... I'm still here.  I just like being distracted by the random things of the world, like this great little gem:



I've also been very distracted with the important things in life, like getting ready for school.  The two placement tests went well, I'm happy with my score on the math test even though it took quite the brain racking to remember the rules of logarithms and some of the trig rules.  The writing assignment involved an article written by the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and why that article would be beneficial in a college course entitled Arts and Memorials.  It wasn't very hard, but it took some patience and focus, two things I generally run short on (for example, half way through this paragraph I took a break to watch an old episode of Get Smart... ADD sucks).

AutoHotKey and other hotkey shortcuts
I don't know if I've mentioned before that I've been a complete Gizmodo.com, Lifehacker.com, Wired.com and TomsHardware.com addict, but I am.  I've been keeping up fairly well with all the new little gadgets coming out in the world as well as little tips and tricks to be more efficient (which just lets me more effectively peruse more random sites faster).  Just last night I spent some time reading about coding AutoHotKeys, one in particular that interested me was the "email myself a reminder" code.  I've set it up so if I hit the Windows key and "G" then a small window pops up that says "Reminder: What do I need to remember?" with a space to type whatever I'd like, then it sends that to my email with my message in the subject line.  Very useful because many times I'll come across something while at work that I'd like to read but don't have the time right then to make any sense of it, so I'll copy the link of the website and paste it in the message section of that email function and later I'll be able to go back to finish catching up on that topic.  The program that runs this is called AutoHotKey and I'm really looking forward to seeing what other handy things can be done with it.  I've been tempted to look into this before but haven't ever spent the time to figure it out.

I know it'll take me a bit of time to create and remember these shortcuts, but once I do I know it'll be a great time saver while I'm at work on my obnoxiously slow laptop.  One of the programs I know to use a huge array of shortcuts and hotkeys is photoshop, which I was doing a great job learning and becoming proficient in (CS2) and hotkeys were essential to getting work done with any kind of speed, especially when working with photoshop on my old small dying underpowered laptop.  The real credit should go when commenting about my desire to utilize shortcut keys more, is to the books for dummies that I used in learning photoshop.  Prior to that I would only use copy, paste and on occasion select all.

/random-bit-about-hotkeys

My acting career

Apparently I'm also an actor.  This past week Dad texted me asking if I had started doing commercials and specifically if I did a commercial in a hammock.  I don't.  But there is somebody on an eHarmony commercial that some people think looks like me.  Check around the 12 second mark, he even has eyes that don't look like they go together perfectly!


Sorry Dad, I'm not an actor and I don't think I really ever want to be (but if there's some high paying job out there that wants me, I'd probably still do it).

School Computers

So you all should know by now that I'm a bit of a geek and a gadget freak.  This makes me really excited to go back to school because it gives me legitimate reasons to scout out some new things I might need!  I know I'm not going to be able to lug around my old laptop (may it rest in peace) anymore.  This last year I knew I wasn't going to be able to use it much longer so I built myself a sexy new computer (photos).  With this powerhouse I can do almost anything when it comes to computers... except take it with me.  For this reason I've been reading up on some of the planned tablets and netbook computers that are out there.  I really don't know how useful an iPad would be to me at school (not to mention those are pretty expensive) and I'm a little afraid of the soon to come tablets being comparable to it in the same ways Android phones are comparable to iPhones.  I'm really scared that if I dive in to one of those that I'll need a keyboard and more functionality than what those will offer.  A laptop would be great but I don't know if I want something that big... maybe a netbook?  I've been doing some research on them and they seem to be pretty mobile and agile little guys, but they've got some ridiculously little screens as opposed to regular laptops.  They're also getting very inexpensive, trying to keep their bit of the market share when they're competing against the upcoming horde of tablets that should be coming out soon.  With these teeny little screens it was suggested on one website that the user become friendly with hotkey functions (which is what really lit the fire that got me to install some last night).  The touchpads on them are so small they're almost useless, but with the use of these function keys, most work on a netbook can almost be done solely on the keyboard! There's some other benefits and some disadvantages, but I'll figure those out if I ever get serious about one of these little guys (because right now it's just another thing I'd have piled up on my desk, it will get use if I go full time in school).

Anyway, it's past my bed time, again.
Later