Bolt of Blue

Um. I’m still alive. Just been majorly busy. And getting a bit sick.

I had to finish this gift I was making by mother’s day for my mom. Work has been incredibly hectic. More than usual right now. So much so, I was not able to take off Friday and go to Jay Leno for Ewan. And because of traffic, I didn’t make it in time to see Ewan leave the studio. Ah well.

I spent most of last week finally redesigning and revamping my Jude Law fansite. This has been something I’ve needed to do for months and months. I came up with several discarded designs until finally coming up with the right one. I also did the entire site in PHP. I recently revamped the JRMfansite using PHP. And my first real stab at PHP was redesigning and restarting Glow. It’s going to be a while before all my sites get going with PHP but I’m very happy I’ve started to get the hang of using it. It makes life so much easier (I’m more knowledgeable and comfortable using ASP but most webhosting servers do not have that capablity). Plus I’ve almost completely changed all of my fanlistings to using either PHP or Megabook. I just need to convert one more… and ahem… I’m signed up for 4 more fanlistings that I need to complete.

Yeah. I’ve got issues.

And to top it all off… Blur are trying to kill me! Well… either that or get more money out of me. According to Pollstar (via Val), they are going to play Seattle June 20 and then Vancouver June 21. (Along with Vegas on June 12.) So looks like I’ll be visiting Remi that weekend. Already got pit tickets for Xfest just to see them. Hot Hot Heat were added to the bill. Just as long as they don’t play at the same time, June 15th will be a radness filled day.

Oh… anyone got details regarding the American Idol final to be held at the Universal Amphitheater?

I’ve decided I’m regressing back to my childhood. Well… with my reading habits at least. I’ve been re-reading some of my favorite books from when I was a kid. I’ve zipped through The Westing Game and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Now I’m working on Lord of The Flies which I have not read in ages and ages. Catching the movie on Bravo the other day made me pull out my old copy.

Ah… Christmas is coming. I have lots of baking to do tonight. I can’t wait. I love baking cookies and other goodies.

So um… was informed about another site that copied one of mine. The situation righted itself quickly but it’s great hearing the lame excuses. Why is it that so often I’m told “a friend” was the one who helped? No one can ever take responsibility for their actions it seems. Is it really that much easier to lie? Doesn’t knowing you copied from someone’s original work (and I mean, outright took graphics and everything — no question about it) make you feel bad in any way? I don’t know… I just couldn’t feel ok with myself. But then, I’m not that type of person. And most people who design sites are not those types of people. It’s still frustrating. I shouldn’t be so surprised anymore… it’s happened too many times already to me and I know to many other people. I guess I try to believe the best of people…

Now I’ll switch to another random topic… my boyfriend is home in Canada right now. I miss him. Of course.

And another… finally saw the Roswell Christmas episode. I had to tape it… loved it. Got emotional. But what the heck was up with Michael and Maria? Since when did they get back together? How come the viewers didn’t get to rejoice in Michael finally telling Maria he wanted her back in his life romantically? And what was up with Maria thinking about marrying Brody? But anyways, it was great to see Michael trying so hard for Maria. And the Max and Liz scenes were great… the Tess/Kyle/Valenti/Amy scenes were nice but what happened to Alex once again?

Actually watched “Dawson’s Creek”. What came over me? The show makes me sick. Joey needs a good kick in the butt. And poor Dawson. He is too good for her and I say go after Pacey’s more intelligent sister. Why pine for an awful friend who uses and abuses you? Ah, it’s just a silly tv show… I don’t care… really!

I really can’t wait for Christmas though… I love this time of year… Ok, enough of this insanely random post… ciao.

Ah… I’m back. Kinda.

Feel like hell. Too tired. But otherwise, pretty happy with the Brilliance redesign.

LOVED Vancouver. It was so beautiful up there. Got lots of cool goodies… it was a fun trip and we saw so much. We even got to see an awesome free concert by Ashley MacIssac at the University of British Columbia. He is this crazy fiddler from Novia Scotia and probably my boyfriend’s favorite musician. He was incredible and funny and played the fiddle like a mad man.

Great fun. Canadians are crazy and I seriously love one of them.

Sigh… stumbled upon a site that completely copied a site design I did. Part of me feels really depressed. The other part is really angry that people think this is ok behavior and that they can get away with it. I used to be patient when I found sites that copied from mine. I am losing that patience. Fast. I don’t want to a bitch about stuff like this and I honestly should not let it get to me… but well, it’s a violation. It sucks. It hurts when all the hard work I do is ripped off.

But I’m going on vacation tomorrow. I just need to keep thinking about the lovely break I’m taking… It’s only for 3 days but I need it.

Stealing is bad. It’s so frustrating when I find a site that is stealing bandwidth or content or layout designs. It makes me feel blue.

I am in heaven.

Duran Duran added all this amazing content to their website. Their photo gallery is incredible. It’s so original and it’s what official sites should be like… they should contain the artist’s vision and style and fill it with their personality and what fans want.

Ahhh….

Hmm… I’ve been wanting to write in here for a while now. Many things have been happening. I’m addicted to watching the Olympics. And I’m super excited about Roswell‘s season premiere this Monday. It can’t come soon enough. I’m feeling much better than I have been though I still think my diet is lacking iron and is filled with far too much junk food. Need to start working out because I’m getting disgusted with myself. Unfortunately my idea of a good work out lately has been playing Age of Empires.

I saw the Bangles twice last week. The crowd was actually cool and filled with true fans for once! A lot less traumatic than the Duran shows. I still don’t know how I managed to survive that… and I did… though barely. The girls sounded and looked wonderful and they seemed to be having a good time. It was so much fun… Susanna Hoffs is absolutely gorgeous. She is so stunning in person… and tiny. They played everything… all their hits and new songs too. They were powerful on stage and very impressive. Can’t wait for the new album that’s due out next year.

Radiohead tickets go on sale this Saturday. I’m nervous. I REALLY want to get tickets. I heard this is their only show they are doing in the States to support their new album. So I’m definitely going to try… since I’ve never seen them live before.

Working on designs for this site… so far, it’s been fun. Can’t wait to get it all finished and ready to upload. Beware… and I went crazy and finally decided on a domain for this place… pop-trash.com. I’ve .org and .net too just in case. I may change the name leo productions to pop-trash designs. What do you think? It was so hard deciding on a domain… but in the end I just had to go for a Duran Duran reference cause well, I can’t help being who I am now can I…

Last night I went and saw a friend sing in this band she is in. I’ve never heard her before and it was so cool to see her up there on the stage doing her thing. I thought to myself she is so brave to put herself out there like that. But that’s her creative outlet… and in a way, while I put myself out to the whole world in a different setting, it sort of has parallels. I see what she does as brave and something I could never do because of fear (and a serious lack of singing ability). What I do on this site and all the writing and personal thoughts I publish on the web where anybody on the entire planet can come across it, might be something other’s see as brave. I don’t know. I can’t put my thoughts down clearly about all this… I’m rambling…

Time to stop before this post gets even more pointless.