Domestic Geek

Our company pays a yearly subscription fee to an online prepress training organization. I knew it was time for them to renew the subscription for the service, but I didn't give it much thought. I had checked out the site for myself and had wished I had $300 so that I could learn it on my own. Well, last Friday I was given my very own login. Woohoo!

I've been signed up for 23 courses:

• Adobe Acrobat 7
• Adobe Bridge
• Adobe Illustrator CS2: What's New
• Adobe Illustrator CS: Drawing, Tools, and Text
• Adobe Illustrator CS: Layers, Advanced Features and Output
• Adobe InDesign CS2: What's New
• Adobe InDesign CS: Master Pages, Colors and Images
• Adobe InDesign CS: Objects, Shapes and Lines
• Adobe InDesign CS: PageMaker Plugin Pack
• Adobe InDesign CS: Template and Workspace Preferences
• Adobe InDesign CS: Text, Formatting and Output
• Adobe Photoshop CS2: Color Correction
• Adobe Photoshop CS2: Masking
• Adobe Photoshop CS2: What's New
• Adobe Photoshop CS: Fundamentals
• Color Management Theory
• Creo Preps 5
• Enfocus PitStop Professional 6
• FlightCheck 5.5
• Mac OSX Panther: Font Management with Suitcase X1
• QuarkXPress 6: Fundamentals
• Transitioning from Quark to InDesign CS2
• Troubleshooting Digital Files

I've already passed two of them. I decided to get the Illustrator and Suitcase ones out of the way first since I know the most about those. Next I'm tackling Acrobat, Pitstop and Flightcheck, since those are the programs I use the most during my current duties. When I get through these, I've been told there are more than I can do. Hopefully this is my chance to really show I can get this stuff and start training as an operator.

Edit: Here, I took a screenshot of my class list. Aren't those little diploma graphics the cutest when you pass a class?

Ten of My Favorite Albums

Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd Xanadu Soundtrack — Olivia Newton John & ELO Purple Rain — Prince Antics in the Forbidden Zone — Adam Ant * Changesbowie — David Bowie*

Cabaret Soundtrack — Liza Minelli Classic Queen — Queen* Hooray for Boobies — Bloodhound Gang Countdown to Extinction — Megadeth Van Halen — 1984

*denotes a greatest hits album

There are just waaaaay too many albums that I absolutely love covering a wide spectrum of music. I tried to pick some of those that I play most often.

Who hasn't seen the viral video that was all over the Internet a while back where Gary Brolsma lip-synced to O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei"? Well, if you haven't, crawl out from under your rock! Anyway, Marcus and I were curious as to how many times that video was now on YouTube and we came across something kind of funny. Since the original is sung in Romanian, it's easy to see how what is being sung can easily be misunderstood. Check out this person's funny take on that:

Wait—here’s more »

« All Done!

I can't find what is wrong! I've opened up a test page, stripped out everything but the nav menu, the header, the posts and the footer and IT IS STILL SLOW TO LOAD! WTF??!!!

There are no javascripts, nothing from the outside, no dynamic headers, no CSS.

Obviously I've mistakenly changed some preference in my admin panel, but what? This is going to take a lot longer to fix than I thought. Hmph.

OK, found another one that's interesting. This is the last one of these for a bit. I don't want to make this place all quizzes, all the time. I thought some of the statements in this one were eerily accurate. Especially the taking a step back from the world, that my creativity keeps me from getting things done (I have so many ideas and thoughts that I just can't seem to focus) and the brilliant but not finding my niche. It's all so true it is a little freaky.