Sunshine in Iraq

Today I had just come back from a 90-minute swim at the local gym, and I turned on my computer and began browsing. By mere chance, a misplaced click opened Firefox's "Latest Headlines", which I was just about to react to and close, when my eye caught the phrase "Iraqi blogs" at the very bottom. Though the current Iraq situation is one of the present world's controversies, I usually prefer not to even think of negative situations I feel I can't influence in any way. Today, I think changed my mind.

After browsing through a couple of Iraqi blogs, I sort of skimmed through another one (the third one, I think...) and, still just mindlessly browsing, decided to enter the 15-year old girl's blog. She calls herself Sunshine. I read some of the posts, and them some more... and then some more. And after about 30 min of reading, I realized how different our lives were (hers and mine). She and her family don't feel safe where they live. They don't. Cars explode on the sidestreets, gunfire suddenly erupts out of nowhere, and young, healthy people who were just minding their own business die every day. And everyone can just... suddenly die at any time. Not very nice, in my opinion.

So I did what she asked her readers to do: pray for her. I sincerely prayed for her, and then I wrote her a comment. I truly hope she, her family, and all of Iraq becomes safe again before soon.

Please God, give them a safe and peaceful life.

OOPS, almost forgot - this is the link to her blog: http://livesstrong.blogspot.com/

Tales of a Flash Initiate

Though several days ago I was quite excited with my Flash-learning project, I'm not that thrilled by the idea anymore. This is mostly due to some frustration I'm getting because of limitations that my current Flash version possesses. I have made some progress, though. My small 1-frame Flash animation can now be dynamically extended to 26 different phoneme, simplistically interactive pages.

***NEVER FINISHED - TERMINATED :(

Flash Initiate

It was about time!!! I've been wanting to learn Flash for a LOOONG time now, ever since I got hold of the installer. I knew it was good, I knew it would help me, I knew it'd make my websites easier, flashier, better, and I still didn't take the time to learn it! Lazy putz that I was.

But now it's done. :)

'Twas the night of a Friday, when all through the house
not a creature was stirring, 'xcept me and a mouse

BTW, I feel bad 'bout the poor little rodent
cause he may now be dead by the poison I bought him

These past days I've been having a BUNCH of free time
just look at me now, @5AM writing a rhyme!

So I got the Flash EXE on an ISO file format
and routinely installed it (but I'd already done that)

Then I browsed through the Help Files, and I learned once again
how to draw, scale, and tween on Lessons one through ten

But on previous occasions, I'd gone through these lessons
and never gone farther due to a weak-will situation

But yesterday I stood up and decided "No more!
I will learn Flash today as I have never before!"

Again I opened the Help Files and was awed to find
whole sets of tutorials - they blew my mind

(I know, lousy rhyming, but I'm tired, all right???
It's 6 in the morning, I want to say Good Night)

So last night I began my Flash Initiation
read two complete tutorials filled with Tech education

Click after click the tutorials advanced
and with each small command, I became a wiser man

About 8 hours later, I emerged victorious!
I had read and learned through two complete tutorials!

Now I've finished a small Stiletto Flash ad
and a Flash jigsaw puzzle that looks like a program

Next step: Real Flash jobs! I have one, in fact,
a pending ed app a lady'd love to have

(The lousiest verses I've ever written...)
So yes, I finished a couple of Flash tutorials, though there are still some more to go. I almost can't wait to get started on the real educational program I was asked to do - it seems to promise some really good money!

That's all. Now I'll be leaving to a neighbouring piece of land where Rosa says lots of parrots go to eat in the morning. Have a good day, y'all.

Harsh truth

I'm so sorry, Domi

Finishing off

I'm finishing off my pending activities so I can do something I really want to do - but haven't done because of lack of time and/or decision. I think I'll be ready in approximately one week. I still have to:

1. Suspend abacus classes
2. Deliver Reporting Program, Current Version, to Pinto (and charge the money)
   
3. Deliver Point Graphing Program, Current Version, to Dr. Abreu (and charge MORE money)
4. Buy necessary equipment
5. Contact and notify appropriate people

I'm keeping this project secret for now. But I'll tell it, I promise :)

Boredom & Solitude

Boring and lonely. That is how I would describe today. I woke up at 13:31, had some breakfast, watched TV, checked my mail, tried to do a little abacus (without much success), and had this urge throughout the day to do something, but I wasn't sure exactly what. Maybe I should start applying to UCF? Or planning that trip to Costa Rica? Maybe...

The only useful thing I did was organize the cellphone accounts for Scarleth, Hugo, me, and the rest of the people on our list. I'm about to share the information as Google Spreadsheets in the near future, so as to make it easier for everyone to know exactly what the heck is going on. (Everyone's paying late, but no one's sure exactly HOW MANY months late each one is...)

So that was my day. I only went outside the house's limits about 2 meters while I drove the car backwards and tried to discern its clutch and brake cables in between all the other engine stuff. Unsuccesful, too.

And tomorrow I'm paying our cellphone accounts at ASOMUT, at my mom's old working place. I hope October comes with adventures both happier and better than those that happened in September.

I'm beginning to understand people's dependency upon a partner, a hobby, or any kind of distraction. Life without aim can be very dull.