I am in Korea, life is good.

I have already changed jobs due to some issues. I have been dating since Feb, and things here just keep getting interesting. I will be doing a few things on the site for work, a few things for teachers resources, and still write the occasional blog post.

To anyone reading this, I hope I get settled in finally and write the freaking blog.

I haven’t really posted on here in a while because at this point I am not sure who if anyone reads this little blog on my site, and I was not sure how certain the possibility of me traveling to the Asian continent. It was something the seemed exciting to me at first. “Hey, I could be in korea teaching english, HAH!”

And then I looked at it seriously. What could I do other than teach there? Could I make a decent amount of money doing this? Would I have fun doing this? Would I be able to do this job?
Snowboard in the winter and surf in the summer, ~$10k+ after paying off my student loans (and on a very comfortable budget), yes!, and yes.

I also enjoy learning martial arts. Asia is kinda known for having a few of those. All of this topped with the fact that I will be able to travel, and learn a third language.

When I may leave is not set in stone, but even if I am not placed to a position and in Korea by the end of August, I will be first in line for positions opening up the first of next year. But it is very likely that I will be leaving Texas behind me within the next 2 weeks. I will miss it a lot, but I will miss my love… well… realistically I am only separated by a few miles now, but it feels like I may as well be in the eastern hemisphere already.

I doubt she reads this thing, so I make my confession now before I may tell her: Not being near or around her is killing me. Even at my happiest, there is a bitter sweetness. I may be going to keep myself from going crazy, as well as to accomplish something in my life that  not only she has set before me as something to do, but close friends have as well. Independence.

I have 100 reasons to go, and only a handful to stay… If me and her were even a possibility at this point, I would have a difficult decision.

Before I go, if I go, I will be attempting to create a few permanent changes to the site so that I may easily access and update it. As far as I know, Rob is still willing to host it, and I am still planning on updating it. (More often than the last few weeks in the first few weeks I am sure.) Among these changes, I hope, will be a story about a box.

I only wanted someone to love
But something happened on the way to heaven
It got a hold of me and wouldn’t let go
And I want you back
How many times do I have to say I’m sorry – Phil Collins

Site:

**Important note for those viewing in IE 7 and other older browsers.**
My sites menu and navigation might not display properly due tot he references to the php used in the CSS script used in the header file. Sorry, but after much deliberation I decided that it was a) Better looking with the current solution, b) more functional with the current solution, c) probably not going to effect many of you, and the majority those who have this problem will not much longer as the market shift to both vista and Windows 7, which comes with newer browsers preloaded.

Thursday July 23, 2009
Added terrain generated in earth sculptor to the portfolio.

Tuesday July 21, 2009
Added and began to work with sub categories.

To do:

1. Organize and allow the registration of users.
2. Add a downloadable content page for sketchup models.
3. Write and organize a few more page sections for this site.
4. Add donation information and link through paypal
5. Develop and add “the town” to a page for downloading and viewing.
6. Add sketchup to the meta data.

No real good news on the job front, and it has been a bit since I even logged in here, let alone posted. I did update my portfolio page with one new image.

This is some basic terrain generation using the two prevalent methodologies.

Math does a beautiful job at expressing nature in most cases, but fails to serve a practical use with out modification, and manipulation to the equations and arrangements of variables. Sure, we can explain a lot of our world using science and math, but there are always unknowns to us, and even after that, you have a few variables that never have a solid answer.

Pi anyone?

The second set of images (that only look better because of the rendering method, and not level of detail) are from a terrain sculpting program that I found. I think it a) produces a better version of what I need, and b) has some more natural looking elements. Why? Because a lot of it was randomly generated, and the rest was artistically sculpted. Meaning: It has flaws.

Hey, I’m not perfect. Is there beauty in perfection? Yes, so long as it is -the- perfect. (God, Jesus, and our selves through Christ)

There is also something to be said about our time and experience here, the imperfect. We live in a world that was calculated down to the most insignificant variables by God to be perfect. In our time here on earth man has continued to slowly throw more chaos into that equation. But as we are here, there is beauty in the imperfection when we try to balance the equation the only way we can: Love.

If you haven”t gotten the chance to keep up with this horrendous bit so far, then please allow me.

To have this discussion even remotely intelligently… Let us review the three branches and their purposes.

Legislative – To write and pass the laws that govern it people.
Executive – To Execute and carry out the laws and policies.
Judiciary – To Interpret the law, highest court in the land.

Definition: Activist Judge – A Judiciary who imposes a personal biased opinion upon a ruling or during a trial proceedings.

The extremely liberal, one track minded, and biased Sonia Sotomayor has been accused of being an activist judge her entire career. That alone should bring up the question: “What is this lady doing sitting as a federal judge?” You would think there would be an outcry to have her removed. There has not been an overwhelming urge to do so, but there has in fact been complaints, and people fighting against her even at her smaller stage.

This lady has even come out and said that her personal life experiences make her a better judge. To quote her on this,

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Newt probably replied to this best.

Judges are to interpret the laws given to them, to the letter, and the best of their ability. The only time that personal experience or opinion should have room to enter into the equation is if it is: a) a Civil matter with very little to no precedent, or b) Something that the law simply was too vague to make a ruling on. (In which case 99% of the time the person should be acquitted and the law revised later by the legislative branch.)

I know how I feel about Sot’y: I don’t think she should be a judge, let alone a judge on the supreme court. And I am saddened when I think about how there are others like her sitting as federal judges.

My real question is, why are the Republicans (The GOP) not fighting this tooth and nail? If they forced it, and I mean -really- forced it, they might at least delay this tragedy. And even if they can’t do that, shouldn’t they at least fight it because that is the right thing to do?

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead – The Beatles

Site:

Added in meta tagging features to a whole host of things on the site via plugins and a few hard coded things.
Added Meta tags to previous posts and pages based upon post and page content.
Added persistant meta tags for the general content and purpose of the site.
Added in advertisements from google Adsense.
Tweaked a few formatting things.
Added popular and recomended site to ping for blog updates to the ping section in settings.

Things still to work out -

1. Organize and allow the registration of users.
2. Write and organize a few more page sections for this site.
3. Sort and assemble a solid media display option.

]]> http://storknineone.com/?feed=rss2&p=215 1 http://storknineone.com/?p=88 http://storknineone.com/?p=88#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:32:06 +0000 Stork91 http://storknineone.com/?p=88 Another post late into the night. I spent most of the day taking care of some things around the house, and most of the night working on site related things.

Site:

Comments figured out.
Established how to change page orders.
Changed the top from being page navigation to category selection.
Upgraded to WP 2.8.1
Added Portfolio Page

Things still to work out -

1. Organize and allow the registration of users.
2. Write and organize a few more page sections for this site.
3. Sort and assemble a solid media display option.

I own it. I liked it in theaters and the person I was with in a store hadn’t seen it, and wanted to see it, so I bought it. I am a fan of Mr. Cash for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being that even posthumously  he still has a ton of recordings being released that rock in a way that redefines his unique niche in musical history.

And then there is this movie… Yeah… walk the line… It is not a horrible movie. I still look at it with admiration for a fine film. And as accurate as points and parts were, it still does not come close to being as half crazy and wild as the real story of what and how it all happened. But, that, is not the reason that I do not like watching it. The pacing of the movie is slow, with really only a star recorded sound track as the means by which we are supposed to have transition from one part of the movie to the next. Johnny’s music was slow and even tempered, paced, and sung. Which means that you even up with a slow, flat, steady, musical movie. Maybe they should have shown more trees get blown up? Or explored one of the thousands of interesting personal relationships the man in black had with the amazing people of his time. The man knew -everyone- who was anyone during that time, and not usually because he wanted to hang with them, but because they wanted to genuinely hang with him.

The reason I still like this movie? It shows his relationship with the love of his life. A true world, real life, romance, that Hollywood couldn’t have written.

I am only probably sick of this movie because everyone who looks through my movies to pick something to watch over the last few years has chosen it, and thus I have seen the movie 5+ times.

Site:

A late post for Saturday, but a post none the less.

I have changed up even more in this wonderful base template that I started with. The top of the blog no longer shows categories, but pages in the site. The categories can still be sorted by clicking them at the beginning of a post, and I really do not even feel that many people use them, so it is not a huge loss.

I have also changed various things the deal with the way things are posted and organized on the site. You will notice that as of this post there is a “Currently Reading,” section on the right side of the page. I may edit that, as well as a few other small layout changes in the days to come, and even then nothing is permanent.

Sadly there is nothing to knock off the list.

Things still to work out -

1. Organize and allow the registration of users.
2. Attempt to understand the comments structure and scheme of wordpress better.
3. Write and organize a few more page sections for this site.
4. Sort and assemble a solid media display option.

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen

Sadly, in my last format, I managed to delete my -entire- music collection. Those that know me would give great testament to the fact that not only do I love music, but that I pride myself on my music collection. I had virtually everything on here. The best of the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s, first half of the 2k’s, and entire collections by bands like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zep, and many more assorted songs from every genre to every type of music.

The weird part about all of this is that I am finding myself to enjoy the silence on occasion. I am actually finding it quite peaceful and relaxing to occasionally hear nothing and have a chance to read and think. I am getting more on track with what it is that I aim to do in the course of a given day and actually get to a place to do it.

That being said, working on things without music, especially tedious and repetitive tasks, gets -really- old -really- fast, and I find myself growing bored with the monotony of mundane tasks while completing them.

If and when I get a job, I do hope there is music involved in some way.

On the business side of things, I finally heard back from a job I applied to! Too bad I read the email at 11:00pm, approximately eleven hours after the email had been sent. So first thing I will be doing on Monday morning is calling in to a lady about a job. The job description for which has now completely changed, and requires some out of state training… They always nail you with the details.

Site:

I have managed to develop a template for my background that I can throw different pictures in behind in Photoshop. This means that I can update what images go into this site’s style and appearance very easily and fast without really effecting the general layout and flow of the site. I may try to attempt to update the look as often as once a week.

For at least this first week of having a blog, I may try to make a new post every day, but the ultimate goal is to update this thing nearer to the tune of 3 days a week. (Possibly a M-W-F schedule)

Things still to work out -

1. Organize and allow the registration of users.
2. Attempt to understand the comments structure and scheme of wordpress better.
3. Write and organize a few more page sections for this site.
4. Sort and assemble a solid media display option.

Music was my first love
and it will be my last.
Music of the future
and music of the past. – John Miles

First Post though, WOOHOO!

Updates should be coming soon and I may actually keep a todo list up at the end of a post to keep people up to date on what is going on with that. Not sure. At the very least the background will be getting a slight makeover, and I may tweak the code some more. I am still waiting on a confirmation and approval from Google AdSense, and that is definately something that will be added asap.

I also intend on posting something on the end for these blog posts. A quote from a person, a song, a joke, something small and italicized.