-
Reformat in 5-4-3-2...
2012-08-26 10:07:33
In the most breathtaking spirit of avoiding work on my current AMV, I've decided it is time to reformat my hard drive. I vaguely intended to do this after finishing LFS, since making that video seriously toasted After Effects, and lately my PC's been running slower and started crashing for no (apparent) reason, so whether it's a virus or accumulated muck of three years without a reformat, it needs a good cleaning. This is the longest I've ever gone without a reformat.
Unfortunately, it also could be my drive that's failing. I've been abusing it for almost five years, now, and I've just basically been waiting for something to start dying - HD, RAM, processor, video card, fan, whatever - they've all died before on me, but not with this machine. It's been such a great PC that I hate to just replace it en mass. Hopefully a reformat fixes it up.
This process always faintly reminds me of what it feels like to bring an ailing pet to the vet, when there's a chance they will have to be put down. :| I've always managed to resuscitate even the most sickly of computers, but more than a few times it's been real touch and go.
At least it's a hell of lot easier than it used to be, when you had to memorize DOS lines of commands to reformat and hope to god you could find all the hardware drivers. Worst reformat I ever had to do was when I was living in rural Vermont, 30+ miles away from civilization (aka Best Buy), with a spotty dial-up connection which I - in theory - was going to use to download all the required updates for Windows XP SP2. AHAHAHAAAA!! I spent the next week sneakily downloading and burning to CD batches of XP2 updates at work, that I would bring home and load on to my PC by hand. :|
Oh, but the best part was that my keyboard was USB, and my computer was old enough that it couldn't recognize a USB keyboard until a driver had been loaded...so there I was, on a Sunday afternoon, in the middle of a reformat with a computer teetering on the edge of life and it waiting for me to type a command in to continue to process, but I couldn't, because it couldn't recognize my keyboard. Fortunately I had a neighbor who had an old-style keyboard that I could plug in to the port. Weirdest thing I've ever borrowed in my life, "Hi...um...could I borrow your keyboard? Just for a bit?"
I'm so glad I don't live in rural Vermont, anymore. :| Though, I always did say, if given the choice between high-speed Internet and a paved road, I'd take the pavement in a second because it just would have made my life so much easier.
...1
-
And life starts to come full circle
2012-08-15 20:37:27
Back about 10 years ago, or more (good grief, what have I done with my life?) I was tinkering with AMVs and graphic design on the sidelines, art being always something I'd enjoyed, but when asked whether I was going to study it, replied "No, I don't want to be a starving artist." Then digital media came along just a few years after I graduated from college, and the whole notion of doing "art" for a living became a reality. So, prompted by my enjoyment of [attempting] AMVs, I went ahead, got a piece of paper that said I could design, and made a career out of it.
Now I have finally gotten myself in the position, career-wise, to leverage the thousands of hours I've spent editing/attempting to edit AMVs in an actual work environment. This is pretty cool, it's also scary, because I do not and have never claimed to be very good at this schtick. I'm also probably going to have to use Premiere Elements, since my company doesn't want to invest around $2,500 for what it would take to get up and running with Premiere, but hopefully this will be ok for what we want to do.
Time will tell. My AMV hobby has potentially become more of a career asset than ever before. @_@ WEIRD! COOL!! Man I'm glad I've spent so much time practicing...
Also weird, and cool: someone else at work has a hobby like mine, except much more straight forward filmography. It was one of the oddest experiences of my life to be watching their demo reel and be evaluating it critically, very much like I'd evaluate an AMV. It's just like when I used to write a lot: when I could see the flaws, I knew I'd gotten better; when I couldn't see the flaws, that's when I knew I'm wasn't good enough. -
@Pwolf
2012-08-08 19:35:11
Provide feedback and work with him to make the site he wants to make. Even if you don't like it right now. Give it a chance and make your final decision when everything is done.
I'd help if I could, but I don't feel like I can really contribute in any meaningful way other than to keep an eye on things and give feedback when I think there's an opportunity and need to do so. Waiting until the whole project is done is way too late to decide whether I think things are heading in the right direction. Is this site redesign the real deal, or isn't it? Is it sanctioned by the powers-that-be, or not? Do we need to stay on our toes and dig really deep into evaluating this redesign, or is someone else in charge already doing that and what we're seeing is the result?
We all know we're between a rock and a hard place. I think some folks are just frustrated because there are a lot of unknowns about this redesign. We're being allowed to see incomplete bits and pieces of the new site, but what we see raises a lot of questions and clearly certain people are unhappy about the answers.
I need to stop posting in my journal. -_- -
@Pwolf
2012-08-08 07:10:28
Yes, although I said many of the same things seconded/thirded by others, which were kind of challenged and/or shot down, so I don't know what "good" feedback means - feedback that isn't coming across as really challenging? Guess I need to leave more feedback...
In any case, I just hope this site redesign is a team effort, with more than one person calling the shots not only in terms of its code development, but its goals, its design and its content. Not saying everyone at the .Org is equally able to call those shots, but it would be nice of accepting or rejecting valid points was a decision made by more than one person in control of everything. Maybe this is how it's working, but this whole .Org redesign isn't terribly transparent - I don't know who's really involved in the effort, other than IFFTU, or what the goals and plan are (are there goals? is there a plan? Maybe I missed it way back, but a refresher would be nice). -
On the site redesign.
2012-08-07 19:11:49
Discuss? I added my two cents already a couple of days ago, after waiting quite a long time to do so because I wanted to give folks in charge the benefit of the doubt. I honestly haven't even bothered to check back and see what kind of reply my two cents prompted, because I knew before I said what I did about the new site design (agreeing with Code, plus going a lot further to bring up some of my other concerns) that it seems to be too late to actually challenge some of the fundamental assumptions the designer/developer is making. Assumptions I don't know who endorsed or authorized, but that really, surprise, frustrate and frighten me.
I'm a graphic designer, I'm also the marketing coordinator for a highly successful, multi-million dollar international company. I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about when the topic of branding comes up, since that's what I get paid to do. I also get paid to work with web developers and designers on projects that they always think they can handle all by themselves, but can't. I didn't bring it up any credentials like this in that forum thread b/c I'd like to think I can say what I want to say and be taken seriously if I'm making good points regardless of my professional qualifications.
Guess I should go see what kind of reply I actually GOT to that post...I kind of don't want to, though. There's a 99% chance it's going to make me very unhappy.
.jpg)
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
Current server time: Jul 23, 2025 04:19:12