A whole lotta effort

The other day, I had a brilliant idea. Why not revamp my blog again? This time - from scratch. AND create two new blogs... one for my daughter and one for my son. I decided that general things about myself, what I'm thinking and what I'm mad about will stay on my blog. What my kids have been up to (and their photos) will go on their blogs. Fun, huh?

I decided to start with banners. I found some backgrounds I liked and customized them. Took me a few hours of fighting with a program that is NOT user-friendly (VERY much like PhotoShop). I finally did it. I have their blogs up!

Today, I decided to do another project - completely changing my background and customizing a banner. I found a nifty background that I loved but it was WAY too narrow in the center. I decided to do a lot of cut and pasting and widened the borders. So far, so good. This also took me a couple hours of teaching myself HTML through a lot of trial and error. But - I did it. At least I'm coming away from this project with some knowledge. I certainly feel smarter now that I can manipulate stuff on my website (mostly related to column sizes, but hey, it's something!)

I also created a banner (this is what you see at the top of this blog right now) using a photo editing software. I'm lovin' it! BUT there are some kinks that I'm NOT happy with so I decided to totally REMOVE it all and put my original format back on. Ugh! Hours and Hours of work and nothing to show for. Oh well.

In the meantime, I've posted RSS feeds up on the side to my new blogs. If and when I post anything on either one of their blogs, you'll see it here. How cool is that?

I'm off - to write a blog about my son. Check back soon!

Captioning in Movies

If you're like me, you probably check websites every now and then to see if any good movies are showing in theatres with captioning. While messing around and doing some research on how open captions work, I found a website that allows RSS feeds on movies playing. I figured this would be an excellent way to check for updated information without having to check multiple websites.

This also saves me (and you) the hassle of checking back frequently to see if it's been updated. I remember waiting two days to check the website for updated information and finding out that I was 2 hours too late for a movie that I REALLY wanted to watch. That sucked.

I've put in an RSS feed over in the right column on this website for myself and any others who would like easy access to ALL movies playing in ALL theatres - regardless of whether it's OC or RW. Before today, I had to check three separate websites to get the information, so hopefully it'll save my finger from excessive mouse-clicking.

Enjoy.

1 Year and 21 Days Later

This past year has passed by extremely quick for me. I opened my blog and published my first three entries on April 1, 2008. A year of writing has passed me by - and I didn't even notice it until now.

I still enjoy writing and hope to continue writing for years to come. However, my biggest fear is running out of things, or meaningful things, to say. I think I ran out of things to say after my first week of writing. Ha-ha.

I have always tried to force myself to write and to write often... not because I wanted to have lots and lots of entries (well, maybe), but because I enjoy writing and would like to improve my creativity. After a while, I decided that the quantity of entries shouldn't matter - I should be focused on the quality.

Another problem I face with writing is picking something to write about. It's hard for me to decide whether it's meaningful or just random thoughts. Sometimes I might get the urge to write about something particular that's happened to me or something I saw. A few hours later, by the time I get to a computer or have time to collect my thoughts, I decide that it's not worth writing about. Maybe that's my problem. I'm always afraid that whatever I write will be boring to others. So, when in doubt, I don't write.

I've started to try to change my eating habits and improve my physical activity level. For some reason, thinking about that has made me think about wanting to improve my writing - or writing more. For the next year, I will strive to write what I'm thinking and feeling. I will write more about what I am going through. Even if I think it might be boring reading material, it might be beneficial to myself in the future. It will give me something to reflect on.

Trying new things

So...I decided to start a blog. For a long time, I've had a secret desire to start writing but neither had the time, the motivation or confidence to start. I always thought that my first writing assignment would be a short story or even a little book for kids - but then I realized I better start small. Not that a children's book isn't small - I figured I would start by expressing myself rather than coming up with fiction. It's easier that way..

The title for my blog page was inspired by... me, of course! I wish I could be noble and point out that the idea came from a close friend or someone important to me but my writings will be based on my own feelings and experiences in life. There have been many times where I would sit and think about my childhood and wish that life could always be that simple (more on that later). As I get older and take on responsibilities, I have seen and realized that life never has been and never will be simple. Kind of like abstract art. I've always been fascinated by abstract art and wonder what caused the artist to create that particular image. Just like it takes a jumble of "nothing" to create abstract art, it takes a jumble of little things to create who you are. There isn't one event or one person that can define your life; it takes a lot of different things put together to create what you have become or what you will be.

As much as I hope I will enjoy writing blogs, I hope you will enjoy reading them. Visit often and leave comments.