March 2007

I finallly decided on changing the name of this weblog, as my birthday nears (that’d be tomorrow for those of you in my time zone, or at least still on 31 March 2007), for a few good reasons.

1. I stopped taking French in 1999. It’s 2007, and I’ve forgotten most of it. I still like the language, but yeah, dead sticks, and all the words they say about them.
2. My initials fit into the title perfectly (JLH, that is).
3. Sometimes, I act like my blog’s name up there. Just like a human, that is.

It’s been an interesting half-decade here, with Eau Salée Lunaire as my blog’s name, but this is more of a “get back to the roots” movement for me.
The content’s not going much of anywhere, and hopefully, neither will I.

Happy Birthday to me, and welcome to my weblog.

Well, today is the last day of our training in the classroom.

On Monday, we will be moved out onto the phone system once and for proper, in our endeavor to assist the members of America Online^W^W AOL with their AOL Software issues.

I expect to get a lot of people who don’t quite understand that AOL isn’t responsible for things such as their cat being lost, or Windows managing to issue them a Blue Screen of Death™ because they moved their mouse, or their beloved World of Warcraft account having all of its stuff looted by a skr1pt k1dd13 (lolol!!!!!1!!1!1).
I expect to be able to direct these members to the appropriate forms of assistance (Local Animal Services, Local Computer Technician, Microsoft, Blizzard, whatever it may be).

As for the ones who have actual issues with AOL, I expect to be able to help them to the best of my ability.

I’m actually ever so slightly nervous about this.

I was reading my email this morning, trying to ignore my instructor’s “musical” choices before 7 am, and I got this email from TigerDirect.com.

In the email, they mentioned that they received a really nice deal:
CA Anti-Virus 2007 with 2GB USB Flash Drive, free after rebate.
I was jaw-dropped when I saw that, because it’s just that nice of a deal.
Spend $50 to get the software and stick, then get that $50 back in rebates.

There are some limitations that apply (Sales Tax is charged if you’re in Florida, Illinois, or North Carolina), and shipping for the item by itself is a relatively modest amount. The offer ends on March 31st, so don’t let this slide past you.

Okay, so I’m all about saving what money I can, given my circumstances.
I also have friends all around the world (Wales, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Australia, and yet more places than I could really name at the moment), and a very special person who happens to stay in Canada that I’d love to talk with on the phone more often.

The only problem is, for me to call Canada on my cellphone, I’d pay 35 cents per minute if I dialed him directly! This is where the guys at Pingo enter the picture.
They offer low calling rates all over the world (including cheap phone calling cards for Vietnam and other countries in Asia, which is important for a lot of people I’ve met recently) with an easy to use service. In fact, Canada’s only 1.8 cents per minute.

Right now, it only costs me my regular airtime to call Canada, thanks to my Pingo calling card.
That’s a huge savings for me!
Now, if only I could time it better to actually stay on the phone with my friend for more than a couple of minutes…

[tags]Pingo, International Calling Card[/tags]

For some odd reason, I decided to sign up for a Twitter account yesterday.

You may find me on Twitter as Xial.
I’m trying to find a working mobile client that I can actually run on my phone, and can actually log in to tweet from.

That would improve my perception of Twitter immensely.

I’ve tried TinyTwitter, and unfortunately, I can’t get the client to accept my credentials, no matter what I do.

The best part about Twitter is, it gives me an appropriate place to fire off my random, short content (140 characters or less — one text message).

Check it out.

http://twitter.com/Xial

Tomorrow begins week three at Stream, and I’m actually feeling eager to go in and work. Between that, and some stuff I’ve seen on CraigsList, as well as the bulletin board at work, I’m beginning to feel rather optimistic about getting back onto my feet.

I’m going to have to wait a little, to see my paycheck, because I would rather know what it will be, so I can make offers, but I know I also want to get into a place that gives me a smooth curve to work with.

$500 a month wouldn’t be bad to pay at all, if it includes utilities. I suspect that not only can I afford that once I start getting paid regularly, but I can also get myself back onto my feet fairly quickly.

Just wish me a little more luck, and let’s see what happens.

Just a short entry to let those of you reading me from anywhere on the internet about a few new features added either to this blog, or done around the entire domain.

1. Zookoda support. — You are now able to subscribe to my weblog by email, and receive a once-weekly update each Saturday morning of what has been posted here.
2. New theme! — I am trying out a new theme for now, which looks fine, but I do need to give it a weather eye about HTML validation (which I will do next week, once I’m done setting things up the way I want it, so I can verify whether it’s the plugin, or the theme at fault, in one swell foop).
3. Yearly Archives! — Don’t go back and read those old things. The LJ entries, I’ve discovered, weren’t imported quite the way I’d expect them to be, so they look like poop (heh heh heh).
4. Gallery2 update! — I finally got with the times, and updated that to the latest stable version. I just need to get in and svnSlim it down, since svn (and CVS, I understand) adds a lot of bloat to any given software package, due to the nature of how svn works.
5. Araiya Light! — Betcha didn’t know I have an oekaki (though it’s pretty much dead at the moment). I’ll see about getting that up to date sometime in the coming week, since I’m sure there must be a new version of the software or the applets involved.

I’ve been surprisingly productive on my own website, despite the fact that I don’t have a permanent connection to the internet. I guess it’s because I know I only get so much time (I’m racing a clock of two minutes right now, for example) to get things done, and get back to the Salvation Army in time, so I work harder and faster, to do things better, and it makes me stronger.

Anyhow, explore around, and feel free to email me if something happens to be wrong on this site. See the About the Author page for contact data.