The Jack Noodle Journal

Happy Friday and happy weekend to you! I was noticing the other day that I keep speaking of the magnificent, sunny, warm days here in the journal and don’t speak of the rainy days at all. I am giving the false impression here that Portland Oregon is a place that is always filled with Sun. It does rain here and is often grey, so maybe I should balance out my happy Sun filled journal entries with a few rainy day entries. I think on the rainy days I’m often interested in a different topic so the weather doesn’t make it in. That will be the code for all of you out of town readers, if I don’t speak of the weather in an entry that means that it was rainy. Today though, was absolutely majestic! It was warm and sunny and everybody here in town was totally happy.

The lovely and beautiful K is now starting to feel a bit better after her week of sickness. I warned her that she should be careful though because the throat evil that plagued me at the beginning of this month, went into remission one evening and then came back even worse the next morning. Take it easy baby! We just returned from dinner at Caldera up on Stark in the Mt. Tabor area. People go and visit Caldera! We like it. The food is very good. The owners and people that work there are super nice. It was very busy there tonight. I had the chicken lasagna it was very tasty.

I am now sitting and relaxing, listening to the new Blonde Redhead CD and drinking some tequila Mr. Baptist gave to me a while ago from Mexico. I just cracked it open tonight. Hold on one second while I put some pajama bottoms on. See, this cycle that I am in now needs some balancing out. I really put the nose to the grind, work hard during the week and then when Friday rolls around I am tired and it is too easy for me to quickly unwind like this, instantly getting out of work mode. I mean it’s totally cool that I can cool off so quickly, but perhaps I wouldn’t have to work so hard if I spread more school work out over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday? Oh God, who cares. I’m doing fine.

What do you cats have going on for the weekend? Our dear friend Mr. Marcy has a birthday some time this weekend I think. Oh yes and the beautiful Martin, Eric and Joel’s super star rock band is playing it’s first show on Sunday. Those guys are going to kick much ass. I have heard some of the practice recordings and I am way impressed. I’ll have to get the show times for you so that you can all show up for their legendary first performance.

I’m sleepy. I really must catch up with the sleeping. I haven’t been sleeping well. When I got home from the office today, I was sitting on the couch, K was talking on the phone to someone and I was totally falling asleep as I sat there just like an old man.

Goodness! April is almost over people! What the heck? Where has the time gone? The month of May will soon be out of the way and the summer is ours to be had! I was thinking on my way home that this summer is going to be the best summer ever! If the weather keeps up like this we’ll be set. Today was gorgeous once again. I’m not sure how hot it got, but it was nice, warm and sunny on my walk to and from work.

What a busy day it was. I had my web scripting class in the morning, then work and then another guest panel discussion back at the school in the evening. The panel consisted of design professionals who were talking about the importance of young designers graduating now days to have a strong understanding of business. I agree with that. The sooner young commercial artists realize that it’s all about the Benjamins the better. It was a good discussion. I had a good day. Hey, that’s it for school this week. Woo hoo! Now it’s one more day of work and then the weekend my friends.

You know, I realized today that I really need to focus more on my last class of the week per term. I remember last term that I felt like I wasn’t spending enough time on my History of Material Culture 3 class that was the last class of the week. Today I was really getting into my web scripting class and regretting that I hadn’t spent enough time on it during the week. I promised once again that I would focus more on that class over the weekend, but somehow I have a feeling that I’ll be saying the same thing again next Thursday. I will really try to pay more attention to that and my multimedia animation class also.

I had a nice time listening to my new CDs at work today. The new selections are quite good. That new Modest Mouse CD is something else. You all should check it out when you get a chance. I think that it might be an early contender for CD of the summer. Although, I did see the video for the new Beastie Boys song today and it was really cool. I can see the B-Boys taking the CD of the summer crown. What makes a CD of the summer you ask? Well I think it’s a CD that you can listen to over and over again during summer break while you are out having fun. It should be a CD that will help you look back and remember the summer when you hear the music in the future. Being able to sing along with the tunes is a good feature of a strong summer CD. CDs of the summer are excellent for road trips and staying in summer beach houses. Summer CDs are usually upbeat. Your sad songs should be saved for the winter when it’s grey out.

Back once again! I’m back kids. Gosh. It is nonstop around here. Well, week number 4 is one class away from being finished up. I didn’t freak out as much the term as much as I did last term’s week 4. I kind of freaked out last week when the hard drive went down but that’s about it.

Today was a good day. I think hat it was pretty nice out but I was in doors most of the day again. I went to the record store and got some music purchases! I got the new Blonde Redhead, “Misery is a Butterfly”, I got the new Modest Mouse CD, “Good News For People Who Love Bad News”, and I got the Bonnie Prince Billy CD, “I see a Darkness”. They are all excellent selections. I am looking forward to listening to them all more closely on headphones tomorrow at work. I was spurred to spend money today because I decided I could afford them since I didn’t buy a new hard drive.

I better head off to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow and finish a web page before I go to my web scripting class in the morning. For how much longer will I be this sleepy?

Hey there! I think this may be a new one for the journal! I am now writing to you in email form. I’m sending myself this journal entry. Yeah, so hey there, how’s it going? I hope that when I get home I don’t think this email is junk mail spam and automatically throw it away. No, I’m sure I remember to read this. When I am a real information architect I will know how to upload my journal entries from anywhere.

I am at school now typing this. I am waiting for a class to get out so that I can go in the lab on work on my avid project. The class officially gets out at 9:45, but I was hoping that they would leave earlier so I could scoot in there and get this stupid project done. I really should have finished it over the weekend, but I was still thinking that I was going to get a different Hard drive then so I held out until deciding that a new hard drive was a waste of money for me now, and I am going to make it work with what I have. Lets keep our fingers crossed that I don’t accidently erase everything again.

Today was a work day. It was pretty mellow. There is a bit of breathing room now in the work load there so we all can relax a bit. At least for this week. The weather was nice again and my walk to and from the office was pleasant. It was actually cooler than it was yesterday. It got kind of windy on the way home. There’s a family of baby geese that live in the slime pond that I pass on the way to work. They are very cute. I should take a picture of them with my camera next time I go in. It is a nice break from a busy schedule to stop and watch the little things.

K has caught a bug and stayed home sick today. The poor dear. I know what it feels like to be sick. I hope she didn’t get my throat illness. That thing sucks. Hopefully she can get back on her feet soon. Us Noodles don’t have any spare time to be sick.

Well, I wonder if that stupid class is out yet? This is a good way to eat up some of the time. I should probably be writing up my paper for Information design that is due tomorrow. I would be ahead of schedule of then and that wouldn’t be like me now would it? Writing an email to myself is only a few steps from actually talking to myself.

I think I am going to head up stairs now and see if that class is done yet.

Well, hello there! How are you all doing? I am doing pretty good today. As far as Mondays go this one was pretty good. Oh my goodness. It was another magnificent weather day here. It is still very sunny now. I couldn’t see much of it while I was inside the school building, but I am looking at it now, believe you me. I feel like I got a lot of work done.

Hey I’m back. I got a little bit sidetracked there. Now where was I? I was going to head back to the school tonight to finish some editing but I decided that I was just too sleepy. K made an excellent tuna casserole and I ate way too much of it. My big full belly made me more tired. I have a video edit due on Wednesday. I think that I can finish it tomorrow night.

The theme that we have been exploring here so far this term has been usability. I think I have spoke a bit about it here already haven’t I? We have been studying how people use things and how well designed products can enrich your life. Usability is a big buzz word in the web design world, because people want to design web sites that are easy for people to understand and use. A successful web site is a web site that effectively communicates and easily passes information on to the web viewing public. The book we are reading in my Information Design class is called “The design of everyday things” by Donald A. Norman. It’s pretty fascinating. Have I already mentioned it here?

Ah yes, It’s time for bed now. I’m a sleepy boy. Tomorrow is a long work day. Woo Hoo! I will actually get paid for spending the whole day somewhere.

I think it’s going to be a good week.

It was so very nice outside today! K bought some cheap, plastic, folding lounge lawn chairs the other day and we were laying out on those this afternoon in the yard. Oh man, it was so nice and relaxing. It was so very hard to force myself up to go inside and work on homework. It has been almost impossible to get anything done. It is just too gorgeous out. The news said that it reach 81 degrees today. There was a slight nice breeze and the temperature was perfect.

Our whole day was pretty relaxing. As we were laying out in the backyard It struck me how really good we’ve got it. Things really could be a whole lot worse. What if I was one of those poor boys fighting over in Iraq now? I do prefer the laying around in the backyard. Life is pretty easy for the Noodle family. I shouldn’t complain as much as I do.

I went to the computer store to try to buy a new 80 gig hard drive to use as a mobile drive and leave the 120 gig one I have at home for purely archiving purposes. Turns out that they stopped making 80 gig drives of the brand I wanted. The smallest is now the 120 and those are like 200 bucks now. I can’t buy another drive for that much. I’m going to have to figure out a way to do my nonlinear editing work without a new drive I think. I am just so shell shocked from last weeks drive fiasco. Perhaps I will just copy my work back and for to the school computer and not use my drive while editing. The projects I will be doing are all pretty short for the rest of the term so that should work fine.

I will be trying to get more inspired this term. I’m starting to feel like school work is becoming such a pain in the ass chore. I think I was feeling far more creative this time last year. Things are getting pretty stale for me lately. I think that I will be in a much more creative place when I return from my Europe trip. I watched some of my Chris Cunningham DVD this afternoon and got a few creative sparks off of that. I’m trying to get pumped up for my animation class tomorrow. I am working on a drumming animation idea right now.

I think I am in a good place now with my creative slump. I kind of feel like I’m about to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can sense some really good ideas and a creative burst of energy beginning to brew in my belly again.

Did you kids see the Simpsons tonight? Oh my, what a good show. They are on top of their game and calling so many shots now that they can have a 5 minute spoof of the opening credits to “Catch Me If You Can” in the middle of their episode. God, it was gorgeous and well crafted. Those credits were nicely done weren’t they? That was good for me to see to be inspired by.

What do you think? Should I type up some answers to some homework questions and type a few paragraphs up for a paper, now or should I go to sleep and do it in the morning? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll do half tonight and half tomorrow.

Good afternoon my friends. Gosh this is a bit early in the day for a post compared to recent entries. One of these days I would love to get back to doing posts in the morning. I find that time of the day more inspiring. I also don’t fall asleep in the middle of typing like I did last night.

I am taking a break now from some serious yard work. I mowed the lawn down good and I majorly cut back the laurel in the backyard. I mean major. We have 4 more feet of yard now. We are in the early stages of fence building and that is our first step make some room and get rid of some yard debris, fence hindering trees and obstacles. I’m only taking a break now because the manly Martin is going to be by later with his truck and we are going to take the giant mountain of leaves and branches that I have created away. I probably shouldn’t have stopped working I’m going to get all relaxed and sleepy now.

It is a gorgeous day to be outside. I think it is the perfect temperature to be working out in the yard. Not too hot and not too cold. Just right. It sure will be nice when we get the fence up. It’s pretty closed off now as it is, but with the fence sealing all the holes up, we will be able to have puppy off leash and running around. I need a folding, lounge, lawn chair that can lay out flat so I can lay out and take a nap in the backyard. The lawn and ground is a bit too lumpy just to lay out on. Maybe after we get the fence up K and I will get some lounge chairs. Naps outside are so relaxing.

I am really going to have to buckle down and do some homework tomorrow. I’m kind of letting school work slide today in favor of yard and house work. There will be no sliding tomorrow though. I am really going to get deep into homework for most of the day. The big things that I need to take care of is a story board and sketches for multimedia animation on Monday and I need to do some video editing for Wednesday. I made a calendar this morning of my school schedule to have everything visually mapped out. I am hoping to be more organized and in control this term unlike last term.

Oh my goodness. I am so sleepy right now! I feel like I could fall asleep at any second here. Please forgive me if I nod off here while typing and stop in the middle of this journal. I should just give up and go to bed.

Yes people! Thank the gods for a lovely little program called Norton’s Utilities, Disk Doctor. I got all of my lost files back! The hard drive is functioning once more! That’s totally crazy. The files were always there, I just couldn’t get to them. I am so glad that I didn’t freak out and reformat this hard drive. So very good to have a years worth of work back. I know I said some harsh things about my media arts classes yesterday, and though I’m not as upset now, I think I did discover a few truths. I do need to focus on my web studies more than my video work.

What a weird World huh? A person can be totally upset because a years worth of ones and zeros has disappeared on him. I was thinking about some things on the bus again as usual this morning. Does anybody remember what it was like before the internet and world wide web? Doesn’t it seem like having the ability to look up an answer to a question you have has been around forever? What did we do before when we didn’t have the internet? Did we actually put on our pants and go to the library for the answers to our questions? I think the internet just moved into our subconscious minds quietly and quickly, making life without the internet impossible to believe.

Ouch! That started to ramble there. I can’t keep my eyes open! The warm puppy has already headed off to bed. I think I’ll join him.

Hey wait a second, am I missing “Friends” now? There’s only 3 more new episodes left you know. One second.

Oh yes. Hey I’m back. Today was a much better day than yesterday. I was pretty busy. I went to my web scripting class in the morning and then in to the office for a few hours after that. After some work I headed back to school to see a guest speaker talk about cognitive science and usability. After that I met the quite beautiful K at the Bonfire for burgers and beer. Now I am winding it down for the evening. I just got a cup of some freshly brewed coffee. Wait, that probably won’t be good for sleep. I can’t help it though, K accidently set the time wrong so it started brewing up in the evening. The smell of fresh coffee is wafting through the air now.

Using television references as parables to teach lessons in life probably started becoming popular with those of us raised in the 70s and 80s don’t you think? So tell me, have you seen the Seinfeld episode that shows Kramer’s day where he is letting himself in to Jerry’s apartment doing crazy things like having parties and having girls over while Jerry is out? Well Jerry finally gets fed up with Kramer taking advantage of his good nature, so he takes his apartment keys back. Well, the wackiness ensues as you can well imagine. For me today, I was reminded of the scene from that episode where Kramer is talking to George about the keys being taken away. He tells George that he was living in a fantasy world, because he was living life in Jerry’s apartment where everything was rosy while he was ignoring the squalor of his own apartment and life.

I was kind of thinking that my catastrophic hard drive failure was like Jerry taking the keys to his apartment away from me. For the last few terms I have been living in a video editing fantasy world where everything is rosy and magical, ignoring my true calling. The reason I am in school again is for web design. I’m an information architect! I’m not a video editor. I think it took this evil lighting bolt from the heavens to get me back on track. I mean, look at the evidence people. I have been devoting most of my attention to the media arts classes and not my web classes. I am always talking video this and video that here in the journal. No more. As of today, I will deal with the squalor in my own apartment and put my web studies first. Nonlinear Editing and Sound design are now moving to the bottom of my priorities list.

Oh yeah, evening coffee is kicking in! Good, now maybe I will be able to stay awake through the DVD we have to watch before turning it in tonight. Hey it’s Thursday! That means Friday and the weekend is almost here! Woo Hoo! The news said it is going to be in the 80s this weekend. That’s good. We have got quite a few yard chores to take care of this weekend.

Oh gosh. One for the history books my friends. Today was an absolutely horrible day. I was in my Nonlinear Editing class today, I plugged my external hard drive in, clicked on my Avid Express file to work on my video project, and the piece of shit Avid program deleted my hard drive! Oh my goodness! I am so enraged! I had a whole years worth of school work on there! All gone. My Phillip movie, my K Bike Riding movie, my Puppy CD project from last term, all gone. Well, now I have a clean slate right? Just like an artist, throw at all of the old work and start new. No this isn’t a good thing. What kind of program deletes your hard drive when you click to open the file? I looked on the internet to trouble shoot this problem but didn’t find any answers. Teacher said that a couple of people’s hard drives were erased last term. I didn’t think it would happen to me though. SUCKS. Hours and hours of work down the tube. I was trying to think of a good analogy while I was waiting for the bus to go home this afternoon. I think I felt the same as a person would who has a passed down watch from a now dead favorite grandfather or uncle that slips off of your wrist, off the edge of a cruise ship and falls into the ocean. That puppy is gone and you watch it slowly fade from sight. You can’t do anything but see it go. That work was my baby!

I did run a recovery program on the hard drive and can see that some of the files still may be there. That’s a bit of hope. The program I downloaded was free to do the analyzing but then charged you hundreds of dollars to actually bring the files back from the dead. I haven’t reformatted the drive in hopes of maybe repairing the disk. I’m going to get the disk repair program at work and try to use that puppy.

Well, I’m tired. Loosing those files made for a sucky day. I don’t have anything else to say. I hope tomorrow is better.