Visceraman1 - Joshua Lopez

As discussed in previous entries, there is a new layout on the horizon, and yes...there are some boobies present. I unfortunately thought I could deploy this layout earlier than I perhaps should have (I hope my future employer does not look at this in negative light, but rather sighs, and says...."as long as there's boobies..."

THEN, my server was gravitated due the [gs] based server (that's for all you MT host users!), which broke a number of sql paths and completely bewildered me. (I seriously thought I had broken V1 for good - hece odd comment appearances/disappearances.)

Anyway, much to talk about, Indiana Jones, Chandler, Steak sandwiches, trips to Ely, renovations around the workplace, strawberry/marscapone delights for Doodle, Kerry building burro pen to house Joshua and Jeri, Rambo, cigarette smoking, Rainbow 6, GTA IV, new violin pieces to learn, upcoming helicopter ride (?), Kerry baby proofing the burro so Joshua can be left alone without supervision, the wonders of Ambien for sleep (and I think the dreams are better too, not quite like the Nicotine Patch though), and much much more.

Take it way kids..........

Posted by Joshua at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Yes I've put ads on Visceraman1 now. This is just my ploy to get Visceraman1 to pay for itself each month. So far, I'm only lacking about $18.30 or so. I've yet to see any ads appear that might garner some interest in clicking on them, but I'll keep an eye on them and see if that changes. Perhaps after Jeri and Kerry start submitting their entries (would it be easier if I just sent you log in information?) that will change.

National Day of Slayer is quickly drawing to a close, and the only thing I did was listen to Reign in Blood once. Bad fan. Bad.

Posted by Joshua at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I've tended to stay away from any "technical" commenting here, but I was looking through the server report for Visceraman1-Joshua Lopez, and thought some of the search referrals that brought people to Visceraman1 were fairly odd. For the curious:

• how to get out the drippings from the throat
• beard + color
• hairpiece + rug +bad picture
• uneven forearm hair growth
• growing my beard out
• horse poop
• santa claus shot jfk
• a pleasure to make your acquaintance
• real last supper
• worst hairline
• tonya harding honeymoon video
• what are the parts of goatee
• fucki
• carla hogue
• fat bald guy with goatee pictures
• flouride + tucson
• pessin + voss
• growing a full beard
• a ton of chuck norris searches

Posted by Joshua at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Yeah, I fucked things up...again. I had been thinking it was time for a change around here, but this was certainly not the way I wanted to go about it. Changes will be ongoing for the next few hours, I guess this is what I will be doing gaming wise tonight.

Ok, things got a bit out of hand there for awhile, I'll still be tweaking a few things, some obvious and some not. Now that Will has complained about the lack of topics I will have to see what I can do to fix that. Hopefully this will kill the stupid proverbial birds, by forcing Kerry out of the woods and into the Visceraman drivers seat.

Posted by Joshua at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

A List Apart has published their Valentines Day Massacre article relaying the more deplorable aspects of web related function. I couldn't help but grin as some of my favourite things to hate scrolled past.

I agree with Robin Cawser in regards to the idiocy of anything myspace.com, I found the 373 validation errors especially humorous. (How does Visceraman1 stack up....check for yourself. I don't claim to be a designer/standards guru/advocate or other, I just feel that if you're going to take the time to broadcast nonsense about yourself out into the world, you should have the sense to cross your t's and dot your i's. And build it yourself for fuckssakes.

Following was Ian and the lameness of pay per click ads. It cracks me up to see these on obscure, low index sites (gasp...they're on every myspace page also!). These, geocities banners, and flash intros scream for an immediate tabbed window closure. (IE users won't understand that yet)

Posted by Joshua at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I was minding my own business over lunch today, browsing about my usual haunts as I carefully chewed my drab cafeteria food. Normally I find something tasty to eat down there, but the I picked a horrible time to go and the sandwich *line* was way unnecessarily slow. Personally, I blame Ms *My baby is a genius, see how he can blink*, who was too busy chatting with others to pay attention to her order, so I skipped out of line and instead took a stab at a meat patty that had been sitting under the lamp since before I woke this morning.

Now that I've digressed nearly to the point of tedium...I was chewing away and stumbled upon this glorious site.....Dream Anatomy. Since I'm currently in the midst of a hand/forearm dissection (yes, I get paid to play/learn/experiment/frolic/dance/sing/), I see no reason why this, from Govard Bidloo couldn't be recreated; and of course for the Situs Inversus dissection, who could resist this?

Posted by Joshua at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Delicious is obviously having a bit of technical difficulty this morning, which (here's a little side note): since I pull my reading list from there, is causing a bit of lag in my page loading. I should just pull script out of there until they get their shit together, but I have more important matters to tend to downstairs.

Oh, and Will, please don't take offense to the lack of a handshake last night, I don't know what I was thinking. Dinner was quite good, thank you for letting Jeri win a game! Sorry I bored your woman.

Posted by Joshua at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Until Administration had informed me, I didn't realize that comments were being *moderated*. I've asked Administration to draft a memo apologizing to Doodle and Fredoluv. Regarding Ian's comments Fredoluv, I'm not sure where those disappeared to. Inform him that I am remorseful, and that he should return and repost. I do apologize for this, and realize that I have once again brought shame and humiliation to my family.

Posted by Joshua at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Originally I had an elaborate redesign in mind, which was set to coincide with a few upgrades on the server. Instead, I felt it incredibly necessary to procrastinate (my forte!), and then found myself repeatedly drawing blanks. For now, since the cat didn't sell, I leave my faithful readers (yes mother I know...."No one has time to read my stupid blog..") Jeri and her sidekick, the arabian kickboxer Seth. (Is he arabian? For some reason I always thought of him as a latino.) Should Kerry, Gary or Will decide they will leave comments then I will include them next time. (I suspect Kerry's mad because his comment was deleted...it was an accident for fuckssakes, I fucked up a few small files on the server).

Posted by Joshua at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Every month my entries are carefully boxed up, and neatly stowed away in the archives of Visceraman1.com. (And of course, now I've screwed myself, as Administration will no doubt read this, and upon my return home screech *THEN WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU PICK UP YOUR ____________?!* Anyway, that is a small digression, and the faithful v1 readers need not concern themselves with my safety - I am among other things, a highly trained martial artist, boxer, former defensive end, green beret, ghost etc., and can take care of myself.

What does suck about this inherit neatness, is that my page then looks like I've only bothered to write 1 entry, and more importantly, comments can be hidden away. For example:

De-icing(or anti-icing) is the process of spraying a warm/hot glycol-water mixture, not terribly unlike automotive antifreeze, on the control surfaces of the aircraft to keep ice from forming(and to remove ice that has already formed). If things like ailerons, flaps, and rudders "ice up", they don't work too well. And that can be disastrous. Remember that plane that went into the Potomac river 20 or so years ago? That's what can happen. Mind you, that was an absolute clusterfuck, but lack of proper deicing procedures played a part.

Posted by Joshua at 11:31 AM | Permalink

Obviously...changes are underway here Visceraman1/Joshua Lopez. I still have a few things I need to do (new navigation, linkage etc., and what the hell is going on at the bottom?), but I should be able to make quick work of it, famous last words. Off the top, I'd say it's one of my busier layouts, but I don't find that it'ss so busy that it distracts from the rest of the page. You?

Posted by Joshua at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Yes, I have entered my first photoshop contest, over at photoshopcontest.com. My entry specifically is the bird shit on Ozzy's tongue. Make sure you cast your vote, ah never mind, I'll do better on future entries.

**UPDATED:

Included below are the images from the contests...

Continue reading "Putterings" »

Posted by Joshua at 03:32 PM | Permalink

With the exception of my hair growth articles, I haven't posted much of interest in a few days. This is not to say that I haven't been occupying myself, or not participating in activities of interest.

I spent Wednesday afternoon with a very dear friend, Mr. Matthew Voss. It's been far too long since I last hung out with him, and I regret this absence. So much happens in life, and happens so quickly, it seems absolutely stupid not to spend time with people while you can. Sure, now I'll want to spend countless hours fraggin him in Half Life 2, such is life. Actually, anyone whose watched me play Matt knows....wait...only Mr. Balou ever watched...that the scamp could snipe me from 1000 yards.

Within the world of Visceraman1, I've reworked the Projects page. I have to add a few screenshots of the websites referenced, I'll get to that soon, not really that high of a priority. I'll be changing the links on that page to reflect the software, and people I admire for the design, photography, photoshop and coding skills. The front page links will lean towards those who spend more time writing than tinkering, and humoring than coding. Of course, this now means that my little self indulgent projects will no doubt be posted in two areas.

The knitting? It's probably about time I ask Sweet Jeri to snap a few photos of my porky fingers whipping the yarn into shape. I'd been quite frustrated with my work, would cast on a dozen or three stitches, and when I finished knitting the first row, I'd find that my last stitch was a bit too loose. Seeing this as a horrible mistake, I would rip everything apart and start over, only to have the same results. Sure my moms had told me to keep going, but, no, I'd rip and start over. Friday night at the craft store, I heard again, just keep going. So, I kept going. And it worked. The looser stitch isn't noticeable at all - of course, with as many holes as I've made, how could anyone notice anything else? I also made myself learn how to switch colours, and will have to go back to the store for a needle to weave my ends in. Very exhilirating to finally get it.

Posted by Joshua at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

For the shot I chose to use, adding hair to my head will be a bit easier, since I'm outside, wearing scruffy clothes (much to the chagrin of the Italian folk), so it doesn't have to be perfect. Remember the steps needed to create a brush stroke from the previous article, we need to create at least 3 brushes for hair. This of course will depend on the hairstyle you're creating, but mine is simple, with just three brushes needed. Why different brushes? For the left side, right side and the back of the hair. This is easier, and much faster than it sounds.

Continue reading "Growing My Hair Out" »

Posted by Joshua at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was browsing about the Worth 1000 website the other night, and saw that they had a contest that involved adding hair to various items. This picqued my interest a bit. Sure the contest submitters are considerably more advanced, and pretty fucking creative I might add. Instead of focusing on the advanced nature of their skills, I decided instead that I would attempt to add hair. But how? And to what. Ah ha! Among my physical inadequacies, there lies a problem hairline. Not the worst hairline ever, but one that I deemed necessary to remove. I could add hair to myself, and since I have never posted pictures of me with hair, (not to mention, no one reads this site but a select a loyal few), no one would be the wiser. I also thought, instead of just posting the before and after results, I would attempt to show the work in progress. I may miss a few steps, the results may not be perfect, but what the hell. Let's go.

Continue reading "Growing A Beard" »

Posted by Joshua at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A few more diversions from Stumbler:

• Foods affect on poo
• Gods wrath on Visceraman(click mouse on page)
• Chainsawed Visceraman1
• Shit on Visceraman1
• Vaccuum Visceraman1
• Beer Goggles
• Origin of Fuck

Posted by Joshua at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Perhaps this time I'll have learned my lesson in backing up files properly. Yesterday, I thought I would make a few alterations in one of my cfg files, and not only trashed that file, but a few cgi files while I was at it. Shortly thereafter, I could no longer access most areas of my site directories. So I had to file a ticket with mediatemple to see if they could help me out. They did, but at the loss of my entries and comments. Fortunately, I made a half ass copy of my entries/comments, but have found that because I halfassed, there is no easy way to import these files. So, I quietly rebuilt my site, and began rebuilding the entry files. I haven't even begun to rebuild the comment files, that will happen later down the road. So, if you don't see your comment, it's not due to any pesky censorship - just my idiocy. Meanwhile, I backup my databases and files regularly.

Posted by Joshua at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

With recent changes to our policies within the Willed Body Program, I will be making changes to the website. Part of me is thinking, what the hell, go forth with a redesign while you're at it (sure it would be the third one in the past year), but while the site is extremely simple, it's also more frustrating to revamp than this one. It's actually the simplicity that makes it difficult.Most of the potential viewers are going to be of an older generation, with (stereotyping here okay>), less patience to wait for pages to load, slower connection speeds, slower computers in general, and most likely, haven't updated application/browsers in quite some time (if ever). Add the need for larger typeface, lower screen resolutions and you can start to see the dilemma. It's a fairly boring site. And not much room to stretch the walls around it either.Rather than approach the potential redesign with an air of negativity about the simplicity, I should relish it, and enjoy it. Expect an update when it's been modified. (I won't be including any photos of the Dermestid activity. If the anatomical drawings were "too much", I can't imagine what sort of reaction I'd get with those)

Posted by Joshua at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

As seen while using Stumble:

• Scribbler : Simple line drawings morph. Fairly distracting
• An Interesting Look at the War : Regardless of your opinions for or against it.
• Similar to the Hewlitt Packard commercial, a bit more distracting though
• Buddhist Internet Radio : Can't get more specific than that
• Flash Zoom : Interesting Flash zoom project

Posted by Joshua at 11:57 PM | Permalink

I'm really quite enamored with my new web hosting company, MediaTemple. While I never had any trouble with Affinity, my new server is so, so much faster, more responsive. Of course, MT isn't hurting anything either, makes it feel like I'm designing on the fly, rather than waiting for connections, rebuilds and timeouts. I've yet to use any of the email availibility though. I have enough addresses strewn about the internet, and really don't want another. True, I could consolidate, it's not like I use the Yahoo address for anything except catching spam, never touch the gmail, or the lame webmail offered by my ISP. I'll think about it, but don't plan on doing anything for quite some time.

Posted by Joshua at 09:33 AM | Permalink

Audio Stream is up and running, located over there on the right, and will conveniently open in a separate window unlike the last player. A bit faster to change the playlist, since this one utilizes xml rather than simple load. I'm not overly pleased with the load time, should be a bit quicker. I'm not sure how often I should be swapping out the playlist. Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Annually? Currently it holds 8 tracks, almost all are DJ BC, (those were the only tracks that caught my dutiful assistant's attention while working), and a Fear Factory track - oh yeah, that's a shocker.

Posted by Joshua at 09:42 AM | Permalink