Blog de Jade Rauenzahn

(What's so funny 'bout) peace, love, and understanding?

2005-03-23T23:55:00.000-05:00

I Love that song with a capital L. So awesome.

One of the best things about having TV again is I get to watch my Conan Baby. He's really the only thing I watch on TV, along with the Fox Soccer Channel. But that's getting me down, because the team I support in the English Premiership, Fulham, is biting it hard and could be facing possible relegation, despite being one of the oldest teams in the world and owned by that super-rich man we all know (and love? *shrug*), Mohammed Al Fayed. We just got BACK into the premier league, too, not three seasons ago.

I could rant about that all day, but I don't want this to be a "Jade bitches about football" post. This is a happy post, I'm going back to England in less than three days. To the motherland... my true home. Of all the places I have lived in my life this is the place I felt the most 'at home'. My friend and I are going for museum hopping and all that, it's gonna be awesome. All the museums and art galleries are free (or really cheap).

But this is such a busy week. Now I know what the people who went through the DM program before me were talking about. A week full of all-nighters, Bawls, Starbucks, and good music. I'm handling it... I can do this. It's cake.

Worth A Try, Dunno Why

2005-03-22T11:09:00.000-05:00

Lets see if this will publish, shall we? Nothing has been publishing since Friday. GRRR!

My Final

*crosses fingers, eyes, and toes*

"I promise I didn't scream, Hartigan"

2005-03-20T18:26:00.000-05:00

I keep posting these posts even though they won't publish... Oh well, perhaps it'll work this time around.

I just got Internet at my house. I'm supposed to get digital cable as well, but the slackers at Brighthouse haven't brought it by yet. Grrrr >:-o

Not really much to say... hung out with Marvin and Mila last night, got home really late, woke up this morning and took the final. The very easy final which had the same questions as the first two quizzes. Went out to Don Pablo's with Pamela, Ashley, and Josh (Pamela and Ashley are so funny... "Don't call me Pams!").

I've been spending a lot of my time with my friends recently and I love it. They're so awesome. I'm glad I made such good friends here, even though it took a while.

So lets keep our fingers crossed that this will actually publish.

Is all this stuff really that difficult?

2005-03-19T12:20:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here in lab, my website completely done except for some content (the 'what to type' about Kalamazoo') and I'm completely floored by how much everyone is struggling on their sites.

I learned HTML when I was 11 years old (so, nine years ago), through the geocities "advanced HTML editor". I made a fan site for Jurassic Park, and my web experiences took off from there to create an X-Files fan site, an internationally-known, successful Internet rights protest site, and the top Dark Angel fan site. As I went down the years, I just picked up information bit by bit, to get to where I am today.

But where was I as far as really knowing all of this? Before this class my knowledge-base was 1996 standards. I never had an HTML book, I never had a CSS book or anything other than getting a PHP book when I started coding in that when I was seventeen. All that I knew about HTML and CSS came from right clicking and viewing the sources of the pages I liked. So coming into this class, I have learned so much and totally restructured how I build websites. I learned about standards. I revised my code. I stopped using tables as part of site structure.

But as I am doing this, going through these lectures, having to forget what I thought I knew and learn what is actually correct, I am *understanding* it. Yet I look to my classmates and see them struggle. I wish there was something I could do to help them, and I am trying, but it just seems like they don't *get it*. I know my classmates are very intelligent, but I just don't understand how something as simple as file structure confuses them to the point of yelling.

I wonder what I'd be like if I had to learn this all from scratch.

Coachella is coming... am I going?

2005-03-18T23:11:00.000-05:00

I got a calll from one of my friends yesterday asking if I was going to Coachella Festival in April. For the unkowledgable, Coachella is a 2-day festival with about a hundred bands that takes place in SoCal the last weekend of April (April 30 / May 1)

This is my dilemma: up until now I have perfect attendance here at Full Sail. If I went to Coachella, I'd leave here Friday night and arrive back either Sunday night or Monday morning, bright and early. If our schedule of days stays the same (which it has so far) I'll be missing only one day of school. But do I really want to break my perfect attendance for this festival?

I mean, it's only Bloc Party, Doves, Rilo Kiley, Futureheads, British Sea Power, Kasabian, Wilco, Stereophonics, The Kills, Snow Patrol, Eisley...

wait, I'll never see a lineup like this again.

Crap. I'm so torn!!!!!

Sin City ROCKS

2005-03-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

All thanks to Jason and his comic book obsession for that. Him, myself, Ashley, and Josh were hanging out at Fashon Square yesterday when Jason takes us to the comic book store. The guy there gave us two of these passes, so all four of us saw a private screening of Sin City - the first in Florida. The movie isn't even out for another half-month and we saw it for FREE!

It was so good.

Me No Like The Red Book (Of Doom)

2005-03-17T12:16:00.000-05:00

So this red book really needs a technical editor to make sure the pictures match the code and to make sure there are no typos. Because I spotted three typos and it frustrates me. My aunt writes computer books and she doesn't have typos in her books. Perhaps she's just cooler. Well, I know she's cooler.

But I managed to work through the sludge and make it all pretty in a decent amount of time. Go me.

First Design
Second Design
Third Design

Meaning of Life

2005-03-16T11:45:00.000-05:00

I've been so caught up recently in how every small aspect of life has led me to where I am today. Of course this comes on the one year anneversary of my spring break last year, where I flew to LA on about three hours notice. That trip honestly changed my life. Had I not gone and stayed at the hostel that I did, I would never have met Tony. We had a long discussion on where I was going in life, and he really helped steer me back on course. I mean, I was going to college as a business major! How different is life for me now.

It was because of him that I decided to look into different schools for what *I* wanted to do, not shape what I wanted to do around what the local schools had.

Sometimes this doesn't seem real. Like maybe I'm not really here, learning loads of information, improving my skills as a new media creator and getting really far into debt. Sometimes it just feels like tomorrow I could wake up and this would all just be a dream.

When I told my family that I wanted to come here, they told me I was crazy. It's too far away... it's too much money. They didn't want to support me on it. I honestly don't know how I got the money myself... it took a summer of worrying and my moving down here still not knowing for sure if my finances were guaranteed. It just feels surreal sometimes, how I made it here and I'm doing well when everbody back home was doubting me.

I also wonder about what I will do when I graduate. Will I stay here? I have no real reason to go back to Michigan. I have family ties there, but in all honesty I'm out on my own. Going back home would feel like a step backwards, and I really just don't have a reason to. But I don't really want to stay here, either, so I guess I can go anywhere.

All I have to do is decide where to settle down.

CSS 2

2005-03-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

Exciting title, I know. Here's a link to my CSS2 tutorial:

CSS Rawks

I could edit, but....

2005-03-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

if I make it a new post it'll help fulfill my extra credit requirements.

So, yeah, er... css crash coursing today was kind of fun. Glad I at least knew a bit about it, had I been fresh into that pool I'd have surely drowned.

So here's my wonderful recipe site.

For the Sake of Sanity

2005-03-11T12:06:00.000-05:00

Here's my prepro link... yearh. Blogger was really being stupid yesterday, wasn't it?

PrePro

Have fun, children.

Tutorial #4, or the "I hate Blogger Post"

2005-03-10T12:33:00.000-05:00

Blogger is dumb, and this is attempt number 7456684 to get my forms tutorial to post.

Forms Tutorial, so awesome

I love Harry Potter

2005-03-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

The new cover for the new book is out! Yay! I can't wait until July 16.

Projects

2005-03-08T12:32:00.000-05:00

My Beautiful Recipes
My Awesome Address Book

Microwave Blues

2005-03-07T09:20:00.000-05:00

I need a microwave.

I really do.

I've been cooking food at my new place, I made some really nice Tuna Helper yesterday. Have lots of leftovers. But how do I reheat leftovers without a microwave?

Sad, indeed. :-(

"Weekend"

2005-03-06T15:02:00.000-05:00

My stuff is moved, my things are (mostly) unpacked, and I am left with this beautiful Sunday to relax and enjoy.

For the most part, at least.

Looking around, I see so many things that can be done. I can work on my portfolio website. I can clean my Cabrio. I dislike weekends because I dislike the thought of not doing anything. But then I get so caught up in all the things that I can do and that I should do that I end up doing very little at all.

I did find a wifi network to make this post, however.

Lets see what life has me do next.

Moving Woes

2005-03-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

So I'm making this update with the full, honest, good intention of updating this site five times a week and getting the extra credit and all that, but I think I am going to find that just a bit difficult because of my move.

You see, the good people at Brighthouse cable must be so incredibly busy, fixing down cable lines, doing charity work for the blind, and drinking beer, that they can't make it out to my new apartment to set up cable service for the next fifteen days. Knowing that, I've decided to wait on them setting up my service until I get back from Spring Break, as I leave on the 25th and will not return until the 5th of April. Why pay for sixteen days of service where I can only use four?

For the month, I guess I shall just sneak these posts in during lab time. Yeehaw.

The Deconstructing of a King

2005-03-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

Perhaps not a king, but xanga.com is a very effective use of simplified design.

The site divisions are mostly parallel with a simple yet effective break in the rule for the search engine. The images are far and in between, however, the site retains it's interesting and clean look with the use of background colors in their different table elements. The images they do have are also very simple. They use few images and .gif compression to reduce file size. This ensures that the site runs well on slower Internet connections.

Since this is a blogging site, the rest of the pages vary from the main xanga page, but all of their subsites (blogrings, signing up, recently updated pages) keep with the simple xanga design of tables. The site logo and static navigation always stay the same, but the rest varies.

I like words

2005-03-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

Yes, I like words very much. So much so, in fact, that I commented on my good friend Josh's blog.

It was a deep and meaningful post indeed.

What's a Weekend?

2005-03-03T10:13:00.000-05:00

I bring this post to you with this thought in mind: students at Full Sail really don't really get weekends. Sure, we get a day off here, we get a day off there, but they really are filled with work so it's not really a weekend indeed.

Being as I did nearly nothing last weekend, just sat around and worked on my personal website (www.vwchica.com), I will describe my activities for this upcoming weekend, as it is much closer.

This weekend I am moving. Actually, I move on Friday, but I am sure that the unpacking and purchasing of new items which I will need for life on my own will be filling up most of my time this weekend. I am moving from my current place, a house with three roommates, to a much quiter studio apartment where I will be living by myself. Realizing that I will be without basic appliances like a microwave and a can opener, I am sure I will have to take several trips to the local shops to pick up some items.

So don't be jealous of my weekend, I know it'll be super fun and all, but we can't all live the good life like me. ;-)

Well, hello there! I didn't see you walk in.

2005-03-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

So how is everyone today? Good? Great!

Welcome to my new, fun, spiffy blog. Brought to you by myself, Jade Rauenzahn, Starbucks, Google, and Full Sail Real World Education. And of course from the constant support of viewers like you.

So I suppose I shall list three of my favorite links here, as that is my assignment for class. First, who can forget about the H-to-the-arry Potter? This site, The Leaky Cauldron, is all the news, events, and everything else that you can think of that is even vaguely related to Harry Potter. Neat stuff.

Second, I suppose I shall list the address for my real blog, so people get to know the real Jade. As a person, not as just the best student ever. It's at a blog site called Xanga, and I've been posting there for about a year and a half now. You can reach my blog by clicking on this wickedly cool text.

Since the assignment says list three sites, I've thought and thought about what I wanted to put for my third. This pondering has kept me up for many a night where I was too deep into thought to quench my thirst or satisfy my hunger.

It was a difficult five minutes indeed.

After all that, I decided that I shall pimp out one of my favorite bands in the whole wide world, The Libertines. This strapping young band from London has revitalized the British Punk scene with songs that The Clash would tap their toes to (and they have - Clash guitarist Mick Jones has produced both of their records). Although they have their dramas, and the band may no longer be together (singer/guitarrist Pete Doherty is struggling with his addictions to drugs - namely heroin and crack - as well as his warysome romance with Kate Moss) they still made some amazing music and their fans the world over are crossing their fingers for a Red Hot Chili Peppers-esque reunion sometime down the road.

So, until next time (which will be very soon)...