February 25, 2000

That's my new mousepad. You are jealous, aren't you? Am I officially a web geek yet, if I have a mousepad with all the hexadecimal colors on it? And it was a gift, too? I was sick of my hair today, so I threw it all on a ponytail on top of my head. It's not helping me look like less of a geek, but I'm home alone. The cats already know I'm a geek. And I guess you do too, now. If you didn't before.

Hmm, it's only 3 PM and I feel like I've gotten a lot done today! I had a group meeting at 9 AM. This class was supposed to be a standard once-a-week meeting class. Then the professor got sick, so he turned it into an online class. Normally, I'd think that was cool, but we still have to do all this group work. In fact, we don't have ANY individual assignments. We have to write a group paper like every two weeks. And he gives us really general topics like "Strategic Concepts" and not much guidance beyond that. So my group is struggling. As usual, everyone in my group probably hates me because I am so bossy, but I can't just sit around and wait for everyone to make a decision. I get too frustrated. So I listen to what everyone has to say, and then try to build consensus so we can move forward. Anyway, we met this morning and for the first time, our meeting actually went pretty well. We all agreed on what direction to take, came up with a topic and a general structure for the paper, and divided up the work. As long as everyone pulls through with their individual parts, we should be good. Unlike the last paper, where three of us ended up doing all the work and the other two did God knows what. They have acknowledged that they dropped the ball though, and volunteered to do more of the work this time around. I just wish we had some sort of guidance to know if we are at least moving in the right direction!

I totally have senioritis. I don't want to do schoolwork, but I also don't want to look for a job. I don't know what I want to do, but it's definitely neither of those things. I think I would like to take a tropical vacation or play "The Sims". Preferably both, but not at the same time.

Then I sat in the computer lab on campus and did some work for one of my professors. The fire alarm went off, and we all just kind of sat there. I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't even sure it was the fire alarm. I saw a bunch of people headed for the exits, but I wanted to wait and logout of my computer, because they always warn you about the dangers of not logging out! Someone could steal your account and send dirty e-mails to the Chancellor or something. So I waited until I logged out, then I went and got lunch. I guess it was the fire alarm because I saw a bunch of fire trucks speeding across campus. After lunch, I went back to the lab and it was still there, so it might have been a false alarm. The lab I was in is like a fishbowl in that one whole wall consists of windows. There was a student tour walking by, and I'm always tempted to make faces at them, or write "Help Me!" on a piece of paper and stick it to the window, or open up a bunch of porn sites since I was on the computer right next to the window and I could see people watching my screen. I did none of the above, though. I'm a wimp.

Then I met with my professor and we got a bunch of things worked out. I need to work on my other site (kimreed.com). I'm going to make that into my portfolio so I can put the URL on my resume or give it out, and potential employers can just go there and see all my work in one place. I already know what I want the design to look like -- I just have to figure out how to implement it, and be careful about my source code because I'm sure employers will look at that too. Maybe I should put a hidden message in my source code, like "Isn't this code neat and elegant? Give me a job!" I don't know how well that would go over, but I would love to do something like that.

On tap this weekend: Mary and Molly and I are going to a movie on Saturday, hopefully. Details are still being worked out. I have a group meeting for a different class than the one today on Saturday at noon. Sunday, we might go over to Jim's parents. I am the reigning Hearts champion, having won two games last week. In one, Jim's brother and I were tied when someone went out, so we had a tiebreaker hand and I shot the moon! I am great! I am the champion! Now everyone hates me and wants to beat me, so maybe I just won't go. Just kidding! Also on Sunday is the WWF Pay-Per-View. It's sad, but I'm looking forward to it. Pay-Per-Views are generally more hilarious than the weekly shows because they pull out all the stops. At the end of last night's show, they pulled one wrestler in a cage behind a bus! I guess you had to be there, but it cracked me up.

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Making your website cache-friendly. I haven't read through the whole article yet, but I know I have my cache file set fairly large, and I get annoyed when I have to re-download graphics because the designer implemented a piss-poor file structure, especially on professional sites.

Sony has a pen-sized MP3 player, but you pay for the convenience. It's a nice innovation since all the current players tend to look like smaller Walkmans, and they really don't need to since they don't have to hold a cassette.

This is how cross-site marketing should have been done in the first place. Two years ago, all these websites were paying big money for "partnerships", instead of just linking to each other for free. I never understood that. Plus, a company (like Borders.com) would pay for a partnership with, say, Snap.com and then Snap got bought by NBC, who probably already had a deal with BN.com, and everything was screwed up.

Nicolas Cage files for divorce from Patricia Arquette. The weird (and unexplained) part of this article is that they've been separated since 1996?

I hope "Wonder Boys" is good because I loved the book. There was an ad for it in the Syracuse U. paper today featuring Michael Douglas. Wouldn't Katie Holmes or Tobey Maguire (or even Robert Downey Jr.) have been a better choice?

Buffy and Angel are both renewed for next season.