DJ Ahren's Blog

How to Use Your Laptop as A WiFi Router in Windows 7

2012-02-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

Some times you need to have a wireless network when you don't have a wireless router. But what you may not have know is that your laptop (or possibly desktop) could do it all along...for free!

You will need a computer with:
- Windows 7
- A LAN port and Wireless Card

1. Right-click your network/WiFi icon on the taskbar and select "Open Network and Sharing Center"
2. Click "Change adapter settings"
3. Make sure your network cable is plugged into your laptop or desktop and your modem or router. 4. Right-click "Local Area Connection" and select "Properties".
5. Select the "Sharing" tab. 6. Check the "Allow other network users to connect though this computer's Internet connection" checkbox and click OK.
7. Right-click your network/WiFi icon on the taskbar and select "Open Network and Sharing Center" again.
8. This time, select "Manage wireless networks".
9. Click "Add".
10. Select "Create an ad hoc network".
11. Enter an name and password for your personal WiFi network.
12. Left-click your network icon and make sure you're connected to your new ad-hoc network that you created.
13. Connect your any other WiFi enabled device to the network you specified with the password you created.

Note: If you want to use your computer with a normal WiFi network, you need to go back and uncheck the setting in step 6 to disable sharing of the Local Area Network.

Some tools and tips to help organizing/optimizing/de-clutter one's computer

2012-02-11T12:17:00.001-08:00

One of my most frequent problems is that I will run out of space. A few excellent space visualization tools are:
Diskitude: http://madebyevan.com/diskitude/
also Mindgem’s Folder Size: http://www.mindgems.com/products/Folder-Size/Folder-Size.html

Another all around great tool is Piriform’s CCleaner (http://piriform.com/ccleaner/), as well as getting your computer to run smoother it is great for managing what programs start up when your computer does. Disabling many of the unneeded ones will make your computer load your user account faster, and free up visual space when all of these programs aren’t popping up all over the place.

Another simple tip that is sometimes overlooked is your desktop background. Change your desktop background to a picture that isn’t too “busy”. If you find your eyes straining at all to read your icons you very well may have a busy background. Change it to something simple. Scenic landscapes are excellent. If you want a picture of your loved ones, find a picture that doesn’t has a simple background behind them, maybe even crop the picture to position it so that your icons don’t land on their face.

Maybe there are some files you don’t need anymore?
In windows 7 you can easily search for files by specific filters such as:
datemodified:‎1/‎1/‎1996 .. ‎12/‎31/‎2008 which selects all old files modified between 1996 and 2008!
or find large files with: size:>100mb

I hope these ideas can help you in the weeding out and organization of your computer!
Peace from Ahren

See more progress on: organize my computers

Ahren's Essential Firefox Add-Ons

2012-02-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

Today I shall share with you the Firefox plugins that I always install every time that I have to reinstall Firefox. So here goes:

Adblock Plus
http://adblockplus.org/

When I browse the web on someone else's computer or a computer at school, I sometimes have to take a step back and remember that the web actually does have ads! This plugin is amazing, it even removes ads from within youtube videos.
To still support the web however, they have an option to keep unobtrusive ads such as simple text based ads and I encourage you to keep this option enabled. An option I always disable is: show tabs on flash and java. When enabled, this puts a small button to potentially block an element on every flash and java element on a webpage, something that I find to be quite annoying since ABP already takes care of practically every flash based ad that you'd want to get rid of. There is also a version of ABP for Chrome as well.

Xmarks
http://www.xmarks.com/

Xmarks is a genius add-on for syncing your bookmarks. Not only does it allow you to sync your bookmarks between multiple computers but it is cross-browser platform as well supporting Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari. I personally use it 1. to back up my bookmarks 2. to sync between the two browsers that I mainly use (Chrome & FF) and 3. to sync between my main computer and others that I use.

Add to Search Bar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/

If you like using the search bar up in the top right of Firefox for more than just Google, this add-on is a must. It allows you to add practically any search box on any website FF's search box. So simple but very helpful.

Textarea Cache
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/textarea-cache/

A pure lifesaver! One of the most frustrating things is when you are in the middle of a post...and Firefox crashes! Instead of losing all of your post, Textarea Cache keeps a log of what you are typing and it's all available when you load up Firefox again.

InvisibleHand
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/invisiblehand/

If you do any shopping online, especially stuff that has a model number, this is a great money saver. It detects items on many pages and searches to see if it is available cheaper on a different site. If it's available, InvisibleHand will pop up and let you know!

Web Developer Toolbar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer/

A webdeveloper's best friend. This toolbar contains many tools to help. From editing CSS directly on the page so you can immediately see changes, to disabling a variety of things to help troubleshoot, to resizing the page to see what it might look like for users with other-sized screens this add-on is key for anyone working in web dev.

Honorable mentions:

Foxytunes
http://www.foxytunes.com/

I often install foxytunes but not always. It allows you remotely control a very wide variety of media players directly from your browser while browsing. I find that feature helpful every once and a while but what I end up using it the most for is an alarm clock. It has a feature where it will turn on your music at whatever time you have specified. So I just have it play my "Wake up" playlist in iTunes.

Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/

Another addon for web developers and although I haven't used it too much I realize that it's quite good. It's comparable to Chrome's "Inspect Element" option it allows you to gain more information and improve webpage design and functionality.

Yyyyeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh Booooooiiiiiii

2011-12-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

So I finished my chemistry final and had such jubilation from doing so (as chemistry has been my hardest class this quarter) that this song just popped into my head...so I recorded it.

Chemistry's Over by djahren

Lyrics:
Chemistry's over!
I'm done with that ish, son.
Gonna take two more finals
and then I'm gonna be done
One more quarter to go
'til my associates degree
but I'll be still be rocking
this mic like check 123!

Such a freaking load off of my chest! Now here's to hoping that I pass!

A Wonderful Night

2011-11-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

I had a freaking amazing day/date with Sara in Seattle.

So in bland play-by-play style, here we go...
We bused into Seattle together and talked all the way. Upon our arrival, we went to eat some food at the Seattle Center food court and had burritos the size of an infant. We then wandered over to the Key Arena and hung out around the fountain (which is the second time we'd been there and where the first picture of the both of us was taken) before the show started. We went into the show and talked quite a bit before it started (Sara answered tons of questions I had about live sound about array positioning, frequency dispersion, reverberation - direct reflections and more). The show (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) started and it was such a cool experience!

Awesome music played with such expertise and super-super cool lighting! All the while the show was going on we were having a wonderful time enjoying it as well as talking every once and a while about different aspects of the show, ranging from technical to musical, and I just kept thinking about how cool it was to have such a friend to be by my side, someone who I could talk to about the things that excite me (who actually understands me) and share awesome - and not so awesome as well - moments with.

Following the show, we tried to go see FOH on the main floor but were thwarted in our efforts. I then took Sara in a bit of a wild direction to confuse her as I had a (barely planned) surprise in store for her... which was the Space Needle! I think I only have been up there once and that very well may have been when I was only about 5 years old not to mention that we both wanted to go as we are in the process of bidding our adieus to Seattle for now. It was so special going up there as we both were very excited and it actually was quite romantic.

Being up there with Sara reminded me of the many reasons why I'm with her. Among the site seeing and figuring out where everything was in relation to us we talked a lot more just about our lives and the direction that we are going, about us, and something about that moment just made me feel so very close to her.

A beautiful day spent with a beautiful girl who also happens to be my best friend and the love of my life.

Free-writing

2011-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

So I recently attended a Power of Hope camp and a common activity at such camps is free writing. Basically writing whatever comes to your head with out stopping. As one of my goals from coming back from camp was to be more creative, this is one of the ways I'm doing that. So here goes! Enjoy my mind vomit. :P

Synthesized freedom comes at too high a price because what we really want in life is hidden behind the gauze black and dark in front of our eyes. Push through push through I say, break out break free. Free from your judging mind that limits creativitivy and tells you that you can do it. Tells me that I'm not cool enough. You know what mind, fuck you ! I tore up my cool card ages ago! I can do what I want and I am one of the coolest cats I know! Rocking lines on the mic and I don't smoke the dro you know I flow so slow but passionately massivly getting ideas across but only when it needs to be said, I'm not filling the silence with nonsence that no one ever needed to hear. I'm filling it with silence broken sometimes by a thought that was well thought out. Sometimes that thought comes to slow though, after lightyears of conversation have passed and my thought ran out of gas, no longer holds the same meaning. It seems to me people are so speedy in our culture today, no time to slow down, your mind has to think fast or you get left behind. Schools with timed tests, which test only one small part of your brain, that's not intelligence, that's ignorance. Some of the greatest minds in history didn't test well. So you best tell the leaders of our institutions to start rethinking the structure. What if we could incorporate love into the curriculum leading youth to become powerful positive people posing problems for people who pass judgement on the less fortunate people in life. Now that'd be fresh.

----------------
Started out playing: Royksopp - Eple
Now playing: Rjd2 - 2 More Dead
via FoxyTunes

Emailing Print Quality Pictures in Picasa

2011-02-20T22:48:00.001-08:00

Let's say you want to be able to send higher quality prints to someone via email through Picasa so they could print them out if they so wished (and the printed images won't be grainy – assuming that the image was from your camera or something).... here's how!

Click Tools and select Options

Select the Email tab and slide the Size for multiple pictures slider all the way to the right so it says 1600 pixels. This setting should allow a high enough picture resolution to print a 4x6 at good quality.

If the person you are sending the images to needs to print the images in a size larger than a 4x6, you will need to do the following:

Make sure that Size for single pictures is set to Original size
and send the images one by one (one picture per email)

Once you have selected the image(s) that you wish to send, click the email icon at the bottom of Picasa, select your preferred email method/client and send the email as normal.

I hope this helps you in your image sending conquests!

As always, if you have any questions of how to accomplish a certain task, please let me know and I will try and help you out and probably do a tutorial on it.

Windows 7: Disappearing Windows Mystery ~ Quick Tutorial

2011-01-31T21:04:00.001-08:00

A client of mine, recently experienced troubles with her new windows 7 computer where all of her windows would disappear and just show her desktop. It turned out that her mouse was traveling over to the bottom right of the screen and hovering over the "Show desktop" button. (Which by the way is a very handy button to minimize all of your open programs and show your desktop.)

If you are experiencing a similar issue, here's how to fix it. :)

- If you right click the rectangular box at the very bottom right of your screen, it gives you the option to "Peek at Desktop".
- If you uncheck that option, your windows won't disappear when your mouse hovers over it.

Another fun tidbit that's handy to know, on most menus (most typically ones that you right click on) the menu action that is bolded is the default action if you click or double click on it. For instance, if you right click a file, for the most part, you will note that the open command is the thing that is bolded. In this case, "Show desktop" is the default action.

I can haz job?

2010-10-05T03:48:00.000-07:00

Today was a day filled with ups and downs. The biggest one for me was this:
I decided to call in about the paid IT internship that I saw here at my school. The call went well and since I was on campus, I was asked if I could just bring over a copy of my resume...which I promptly did. When I walked into the room, I encountered a geeks dreamland: servers whirring, tons of components in various states of repair including open desktop towers lying around, and much much more. I went back into the technological lair to talk to the person who would interview me.

Fixing my computer outside of its case.

He was a very laid back and very cool man. The interview was part interview/part geek-talk session which made me very happy. Everything about it was awesome and upon my leaving, he asked me to get him my work study paper, which I said I would do. I realized this might be a problem as I finished my financial aid application late and sure enough, it was. I went to talk to financial aid and was told that my request would probably not get processed until the end of the quarter and a long with that, my work study funding. One of the things I hate most in life is getting really excited then being let down, and this majorly happened today.

I decided to email him tonight though and let him know the situation, and upon wonderful suggestion of my godfather, I suggested to the employer that I would work for free until my work study kicked in, yes, this is how bad I want the job...I want it for more than just the pay. I am a techie through and through and I love helping people and this will give me an outlet for both! :)

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I'd love this so much!

P.S. On a techie/helping people note: if you have any tech questions send them my way. I will try to help you and if it's a good one, I may do a tutorial on it. :)

How To Use Twitter as an RSS Reader

2010-06-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

I this tutorial has been helpful to you. I am open to doing more tutorials. If you have anything that you want to know how to do, send me an email at the address mentioned at the end of the video.

Enjoy -DJ Ahren

COMPLETEly Forgot

2009-03-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

This very well may have been THE scariest moment in my life so far.

Have you ever had it happen where you completely forgot something? And I'm not talking about, "Oh I'm so so sorry I like completely forgot our little get together, my bad." I'm talking about where there was something that someone reminded you of and you have absolutely no clue what they are talking about. This just happened to me.

Tonight, we had dinner, and it was a fairly pleasant one at that. Then afterward we are all hanging around, my mom, my brother, and I, and my mom mentions to me, "Ahren, it's Friday night, it's your dishes night." I quickly retorted back, "No it's not, Tuesday's my dishes night." She replied, "Yes, Tuesday and Friday." I didn't know what to say except, "No, my dishes night is Tuesday and then I wash dishes on Sunday morning as well." It was then that my brother chimed in, "No, Ahren, I know you do dishes on Friday because when you started doing dishes on Friday, I switched dishes to Thursday night."

Now sometimes it'll happen where I will forget something and then be reminded of it and then remember or sometimes I will forget something, be reminded about it and vaguely remember what they are talking about. Never have I had an experience, until now, where I was told something and didn't have a clue what the person was talking about. At first, I was confused, then defensive and then I became scared. What is happening to my mind? Is this some sort of sick joke? Are they just trying to get me to do more chores? Out of everything in my body one of the things I value the most is my brain and my intelligence and I've always had a great sense of memory albeit sometimes selective though. This time was not one of those. I have racked my mind over and over and over again trying to remember just the tiniest tidbit, word, even feeling, memory, anything! but I have no recollection of doing my regular dishes on a Friday night.

In all honesty, I'm scared. I don't know what is happening to me or if it's normal. My mom and brother tell me it is but this has never happened to me before. I've always been able to remember something even if it was just a sense of the notion. This is the first time I have drawn a total blank and it scares me so much.

I want a comfort hug.
:'(

Random Writings

2009-03-06T20:12:00.001-08:00

There is a technique in writing called free writing. The concept is that you start writing and don't stop let anything stopyou no matter what (not editing or anything, just letting thoughts flow through your brain onto the paper) until you are done. (you can do it for a timed period or not). I recently was inspired by a wonderful person to write a bit, as he posted a beautifully written blog about writing. I ended up writing this. It's not too spectacular but it's something. Enjoy.

A yawn, a sigh, and "I wish you were here". The world is much to lonely of a place. Companionship and friendship is a force that keeps people alive. We need to be able to live together and love one another. I feel like life is this thing, this thing that is delicate and yet so solid. It's taken for granted. One day we will open up like blossom full of light. Intricate petals with drops of rain creating radiant sparkles in the sun. I long to be that flower giving joy to a small toddler who marvels in wonder at the beauty. The child's eyes reflecting it's image and it's radiance. Marvelous beings these children are who see the world with out judgment or bias. And when the only way to hurt a child is to not hold them, it makes you wonder how hurt we are from day to day. It's one of the reasons I love free hugs. We are able to give people touch in a healthy way, something that so many people are missing in their lives.

My Problem With Blogging

2009-02-27T04:42:00.001-08:00

I speak when there is something important that I feel that needs to be said or shared. I've never been too much for story telling but never the less, I love to share of myself and my knowledge. I just don't see the point in rambling on about the trivial details of my life. There is a whole question that arises (and it's a different answer for each individual) of what is worthy to share. What story or event in my life is blog-worthy and what is something just to pass by. What makes a good story and what is plain boring? Are these rhetorical questions or are they not? Am I trying to slip humor into an otherwise slightly drab blog...or not?

Let me give you a hint.... *WINK*
If this makes sense...then good...if not...I have the excuse of the fact that it's 4:41 in the morning!
Ha!
Ahren.....OUT.

Website Completed: My Life Has Returned!

2009-01-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

Exciting News!
I have a life again!
After a super long haul, my current website project is done. I know many of my friends and family have noticed my almost constant state of stress and depression and hopefully those times are now over. This project was a huge one almost one too big but now it lays behind me for the most part (I still have minor things to do to get everything running and such but the majority is behind me).

The Website:
The website is: http://soulfireproject.com. It is a site that is to gather funding for the film "Connected" by Amy Walker. The idea is that the film is "produced" (funded) by the human community (as opposed to a corporate company) and that it's everyone's project as much as the creator's. Each person who donates (only one $dollar) gets their name in the credits of the film.
Overall I am very very proud of my work on the site and over the process I have learned so much.

Technical Overview:
The page website is built on PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS, HTML and integration with Google Checkout. There is the basic page layout which uses a lot of CSS & JavaScript to display content and create the overall feel of the pages. I'm not going to go into too much detail should this information fall into the wrong hands.

My Standpoint:
I know there are still many things I need to work on regarding client relationsions and this has helped me see that. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity to do this because it has forced me to learn so much and that, I have! I now have what I'd consider to be sufficient knowledge in MySQL & PHP and other web technologies, not that I didn't before just that it was very very limited. I know my overall confidence with webdesign (especially that of the dynamic nature) has expanded leaps and bounds beyond what it was before.

I'm not all too sure what else to say but a BIG thank you to those who have helped me along with this process. I really couldn't have done it without you. There were many times in which I have thought about quitting along the process but I fought to stay in the game and it was because of your support that I was able to. (You all know who you are)

So check out the site and then celebrate with me!
http://soulfireproject.com

Dog House Disappointments

2008-11-16T07:03:00.001-08:00

Ever since I can remember, my family has gone to The Dog House (a local restaurant). It was most-likely one of the first places we went to eat as well when we moved to Whidbey Island over 17 years ago. A while ago (i don't know when exactly) the restaurant and tavern was handed over to new management (I think because the owner died). I had not been to the place since but as luck would have it, the Braeburn (where we were planning on going) doesn't serve dinner and the pizzeria was packed and we had a show to catch so our third option was the dog.
We walked around back like usual to go into the restauraunt part of the building and open the door and there is no-one there...at all. I've never been there when there wasn't a mob of people already there. We find our seets at a table and then I noticed that my favorite funky lighting fixtures had been replaced by "stylized" new ones that don't even fit the rest of the building's look. We recieved our menus from someone who didn't seem at all happy to be serving us and I reviewed mine. There was my favorite thing that I almost always got - the spicy bean burrito. I have so many memories of that dinner. It's what I almost always had, you could count on going to the Dog House with me and I would have the Spicy Bean Burrito and a Cream Soda, now over the years that's changed some but still stayed pretty consistant. I decided that I couldn't break tradition so I ordered my Spicy Bean Burrito.
When the food came though was when I was even more dissapointed. The burrito was TINY! I remember that I would always have trouble finishing my meal and I would always have a to go box. Then one fateful day, I finally finished my burrito in one sitting, I remember being so proud. So then to have this small burrito that didn't even compare to the original one but was $3 more expensive was a total gip. I finished it in a couple bites and then was still hungry. I ended up finishing off a few of other people's dinners and half a plate of mis-ordered nachos from another table. All of it was not anywhere as good as it once was which really made me sad and frustrated. It's the same kind of feeling when you grow up and realize that your parents aren't perfect but in this case, it's not just a childhood fantasy gone awry, it actually got worse.

Set the Default View in Windows Explorer - Windows XP

2008-11-16T06:56:00.001-08:00

It seems to be a common desire to have all of your folders in one specific view in windows. There should be an easy way to set this default view and there is but how is the big question.
Just follow the instructions in my tutorial image below :)

(Click the image to view a large version)

I hope this helps all of you who may have had this question.
Peace from Ahren

Why I love Gmail :D

2008-08-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

This is just amazing and has some wonderful subtle comedy.
The reason why I love it (gmail/google) so much....well because it's unparalleled in its amazingness and usefulness/features and it's built and maintained by people that are totally on my level and don't pretend to be big professional know-it-alls.

<3 Google 4ever

Fun News In Ahren's Life

2008-08-08T15:48:00.001-07:00

I got a didjeridoo.
My mom called the police on me.
I had a whole alcoholic beverage (for the first time).

1. For my mom's 50th birthday we took a trip up to see her dear friend (which she has known since high school). We stayed there for two nights and had a wonderful time. Some highlights were:

making our own pizzas in the backyard professional pizza oven (some of the best pizza I've ever had)
having good adult conversations with intelligent and awesome people
hanging out with a really cool guy named Jim (my mom's friends partner), who I can really relate to in many ways, talking and playing dij
doing a bit of portable recording and sequencing
spending time with my mom on her birthday, going to the used record shop, looking at colleges, and having lunch together
receiving my own didjeridoo.

I got to play a lot in the 3 days that I was there. Didjeridoo is something that comes fairly naturally to me and I guess I impressed Jim by how well I could play and how much joy I got out of it. He actually makes didjeridoos and so when I was about to leave he said that I could take one with me and that next time that we saw each other, he would help me make one. I am very excited for that and in the mean time I get to play one that I have on a semi-long-term loan! :D

2. I was invited to go to my friend's house for a barbecue...the club plans fell through because she did not have the plastic version of her ID yet. Damn :( (but I think this was actually better of a plan since I was pretty tired after driving back from my mom's friend's and didn't totally feel up to go out dancing).
I took a short nap and set my palm pilot's alarm so that I would have enough time to go and get dressed and ready then catch the bus. I had forgotten that I had set my palm pilot to silent the night before to make sure I wouldn't disturb anybody so naturally my alarm didn't go off and when I looked at my watch, the bus had already gone by. So I asked my mom for a ride up to the highway to catch a different later bus going to my friend's work where I was going to meet her. I waited out there for about half an hour but the bus never came. I then decided that I would just go straight to her house and wait for her or meet her there. I rode an altogether different bus as close as it took me then walked the rest of the way to her house (a nice 23 minute and 33 second walk). I got there but there was no one home so I couldn't call anyone and let them know that I was there. (the following details may not be completely true but they are what I have figured must have happened). Naturally when I didn't show up at her work, my friend called my house wondering where I was. My mom told her that I had been dropped off at the bus. My friend then ended up driving around searching for me and when she had not found me she ended up calling my mom again to let her know. My mom ended up freaking out about me and getting worried and eventually called the police. Eventually my friend ended up coming home and I was happily waiting there for her.
I called home and talked to my mom and she was still sort of freaked out and informed me that she had called the police. I was sort of aghast and I thought it was a bit much... This all occurred last night and today when I was in our main little town, I went in to go and get coffee. The woman that was working behind the counter was very thankful to see me and exclaimed something to the extent of "Oh my gosh, Ahren, you are alive!" she then proceeded to tell me how she was at a play audition last night when a police officer came in looking for me and wanted to talk to one of my good friends. She ended up giving me a coffee on the house cause she was so glad to see that I was okay. Also today I was talking to Max who was also at the audition last night and the first thing he said was "The cops were looking for you yesterday. Are you safe?" and then when I asked him to he went on to explain...
"We were all doing vocal warm ups and Ethan got pulled away to talk to a police officer. Evan and I were really confused at first. We thought Ethan got in trouble or something. Apparently the officer saw him outside the theater and followed him in. Anyways, I think Ethan mentioned that they policeman thought his last name was Bader, or something like that. He said he was confused at first as to how they knew to talk to him, how they knew that he was your friend."

It's crazy how these things spread in a small community.

3. All of my life I have never really had any alcohol. Occasionally I will take a sip from my mom's wine or try some of my godfather's beer. All of those times I have never really liked the taste and all of the times I have never had anything more than just a very small amount. Last night however at this barbecue, my friend was making drinks and asked me if I would like one. I replied, "ummmmmmmm" then she asked "If I made you a drink, would you drink it?" and I said I would try it. I ended up drinking it all and it wasn't all that bad. I took my time though and drank it over the period of an hour or more so I don't think I got a buzz off of it at all. It was a really fun nice evening hanging out with awesome people who are all quite amusing.

So that's recent events in the life of Ahren.

Hittin' da Club!

2008-08-06T09:56:00.001-07:00

OMFG I'M GOING TO AN 18+ CLUB TOMORROW WITH VIOLET! :D
SO EXCITED

yay 4 first experiences

Half-Finished Happiness

2008-08-05T00:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day.
I had an appointment with a client and then was going to hang out with my friend but she was supporting one of her close friends. I decided that I was not just going to go home though; I need to get out more. I ended up going into Langley for a few hours. I did not find anyone to hang out with but I did end up taking a walk. My walk led me down to the beach where the tide was way out and so I made my way all the way out to the water.
When I arrived at the water's edge I sat down on a dryer part of the sand bar. Just to be out there with the water in front of me and nothing but beach to my left and right was so peaceful and inspiring. I started to write something while I was out there. It goes as follows:

Seaweed is tumbled by wave upon wave
Water crystals form then are broken again
Current creates crests atop waves then crumbles
The wind winds riddles of unwritten gratitude
While resting on crushed rock; the seagull sits in the sand

Today was a good day.

Published Photography

2008-08-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

Just for fun, I chose to google my name and I came across many things, most of which didn't surprise me at all. Though I came across this one, that was an article from the Marin Independent Journal about my friend, Chris, who worked for the South Whidbey Youth Connection but then moved back to Cali.
The article is a wonderful article about Chris and his connection with nature and his "waterfall spirituality". The article was nice to read and makes me smile to think of Chris (I really should see if I can get back in touch with him) but on top of it all, my photo that I took of him a while back was used for it!

http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_9509392

YAY! My photography has been publicly published!

Hmmm I wonder what the prefix "pub" means and how (or if) public and publish are related to each other and I wonder how a plain old pub fits into all of it...hmmm
OOOH! *Looks down at the button below* IT SAYS PUBLISH! :D

This is a test.

2008-08-01T05:34:00.000-07:00

Question: Does it work?

Answer: Should be self-evident