Ploafmaster General

Oh man, something new is on the way. Something through which light passes. Something that has a wider field of view than I normally experience.

More info on Tuesday, hopefully.

So InLight was fun last night.

Ch-ch-ch-changes! AGAIN!

So I put the WordPress blog back in place, but I’ve commented out all the CSS.

I didn’t feel like tackling two things at once right now (learning EE and CSS) while I’m preparing to be a grad student. Also, I was tired of things like embedded objects showing up all screwy.

So, my RSS feed should work again, people searching for stuff should be able to find the pages they’re looking for, and I have my nice, comfy admin panel back

Maybe now I’ll start hacking up the CSS a touch to gradually shape the page into the form that I want. We’ll see. At this pace, I’ll have columns in five years!

The last few regulars remaining no doubt have noticed that my writing has grown spare. I’ve been posting with low frequency and when I actually do add to the site it’s typically been a photograph, a video, or a link with minor annotation.

Maybe it’s been an uptick in work (I mean, hey, the workday is prime blogging time) or a general lack of things to say, but I just don’t have much in me lately. Not a bad thing, and I’m not upset about it – just some observations.

The funniest part about this is that I’ve come to such conclusions in the past as well where I feel that my blogging dries up – only to be struck by some diarrheic typing moments later. Whatever. I just had to say something that wasn’t “wow, this video is so cool” or “check out my pictures.”

When you really want something and it doesn’t materialize, disappointment comes easily. I experienced that, not for the first time, this morning. To be honest, I’m a little more bummed about it than I thought I’d be, and I’m trying to rest in the knowledge that what happens isn’t a surprise to God, but mostly I’m just feeling gloomy to the point where I’m distracted at work.

I think all of that will wear off by the end of the day, because the alternatives to what I really wanted are both very good things, each with their own distinct advantages. I could just use a little Novocaine for the ego right now, preferably in the form of no more rain, time for photography, and a visit to Penny Lane pub with friends. Maybe at least some of that will be in the cards this weekend

I’m a nerd and a snob rolled into one unfortunate clump, so it should come as no surprise that I have strong feelings about something so trivial as April Fools Day.

I think it’s the result of one too many lame April Fools gags…I can remember in high school one year that I was getting ready to drive off in the car on an errand for my parents, and it wouldn’t start. After asking for help, my step-dad came outside with the ignition fuse in his hand, and happily declared, “April Fools!” It was a great practical joke. But was I fooled? They set up a situation over which I had no control, and my only conclusion was that the car wouldn’t start. It’s not like I was lead to believe it wouldn’t start when it was really okay. The car actually couldn’t start because it had been tampered with.

There was also a prank in college where several girls from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship decided to raid the medicine cabinets of a number of guys’ apartments, purloining our toothbrushes. They left notes behind, or something similar, to indicate that it was some big April Fools gag. Harmless, clever, and fun, but I still don’t think anybody was fooled here. Maybe a bunch of guys felt as if they’d lost their toothbrushes, but they weren’t really fooled in the sense that they believed a lie told to them.

When did April Fools day become a day for general pranks? Or has it always been that way? Maybe I need to get some history on this…I think I just miss people actually trying to trick one another in good-natured ways. Only when you convince somebody that some absurd story is true should you be able to declare, triumphantly, “April Fools!”

So I don’t mean to spoil anybody’s fun – by all means, joke away. Try to fool me. Play tricks on me. I try to trick people as well. Just don’t do something to me that’s a practical joke and try to claim that you fooled me. That’s just bad form.

I’m heading down to Corolla, NC, in the Outer Banks for the weekend with Valerie. We’re staying with some friends in some glorious rental house, and while it’s expected to be cold and rainy the entire time, I’m not terribly worried. We’ll be out of town and near the ocean, so it’s bound to be an awesome time.

Oh yeah, and I’ll have the camera and laptop with me, so there may be some pictures along the way.

I feel giddy. Oh so giddy. There are parcels making their respective ways to my office this week. They’re coming from different locations but depend on one another. I bet regulars could guess pretty easily what I’m talking about, but either way, I’ll be posting all about it when the time comes.

Until then, I just had to type away some of the excitement

Regular readers of this site may have noticed that I’ve been a bit thin on content lately. Part of that is because the last two rolls of film I developed weren’t exactly successful (though I hope the slide film I pick up today is a different story), and certainly photography-related posts have become a staple around here.

A bigger reason, however, is that I’ve simply not had a lot to say lately. I doubt that I’m bumping up against the limits of my blogging. It’s just that there haven’t been a whole lot of primary sources of input for me lately. It’s much less desirable for me, these days, to re-post something I’ve seen elsewhere (unless it’s REALLY good), and even in that department I’ve lately run thin because I’m in a rut as far as my daily web reads are concerned (maybe that’s a good thing considering my real life reads have increased at least a little bit). I suppose if I took some time to read some articles I’d at least be able to write some sort of response or rendered opinion.

But really, if I had to choose one main reason for my lack of insight, humor, or what-have-you around these digital parts is that I’m under a bit of stress these days, both good and bad, and I’ve only recently begun to realize how that’s affecting my mood, attention span, and enthusiasm for outside stimuli. I’ve recently transitioned to a new church, I’m waiting on graduate school details, I have to do my taxes, blah blah blah blah blah.

I can just sum it up by saying I’m a bit distracted these days.

The grand irony, of course, is that such circumstances have, in this post, generated one of the longer pieces of writing I’ve posted in quite some time. That’s probably more a result my long-winded writing style (when unfocused, as here and now) than really having anything to say. I also can’t help but think that I’m likely to find a host of small and trivial things to post over the next day now that I’ve made such a statement. I often find that my later actions contradict my earlier words, but I’m certainly not going to hold back sharing something funny or interesting should I come across any.

Whatevs…that’s all for now.

Just because I’m curious, here’s an of-the-moment survey:

Do you still read any print periodicals on a regular basis, whether or not you’re a subscriber? If so, what do you read?