Timothy’s Brainwaves!

The Apple Store @ Northpark overcharged me by $16 for a Macbook today. We bought the Macbook and I went home and off to school.  While I was at school, mom noticed the pricing error and went back to the store.  They argued with my mom. The person we talked to initially was very rude and got very defensive and then offensive and aggressive.  Mom returned home unable to get the problem resolved.  Later had to bring an internet printout of the price before they fixed it for a total of 3 trips to Northpark.  Our very first experience with Apple was not too good.  (The Macbook was not for me but a friend of my mom’s.  I really want a Macbook now after seeing what it can do!)

My mom’s Compaq computer’s DVD+/-RW drive never worked at burning stuff it only read discs.  Tonight I talked online with one of their techs who was not all there and gave me links to firware upgrades for different parts than what was installed in my system.  It took 45 mins with about 35 mins pretty much just waiting for him to respond.  He was pretty careless in my opinion.  Anyway…here was the chat and to make matters worse he doesn’t even give me a case #.  He just says that’s fine I have your serial number.

On a brighter note.  I did get my USB/Serial adaptor so my Wacom Artz II 6×8 pad now works again!  Yay!!!!

Today I rode the DART to school and back again.  It sure beats driving – I get time to just relax and read my Bible and I don’t have to worry about being stressed out.  The bus stop is just right outside of my school building and it’s only 0.03 walk to the bus stop at my house.  Talk about convenient!  And for $2.50 for a daypass, that’s $7.50 a week – big savings compared to driving 60 miles a day to and from Lancaster.

I’m still prepping for the CompTIA INet+ Certification test.  Found out that if I can take it by October 31, 2006, I can save a bundle and get my certifcation.  Guess it’s back to hitting the books…I’m 46% done with this online course for INet+ and it’s only been like 3 days.  Not bad – thank you Lord Jesus for a good memory.

So, I got ready to goto school, jumped in my car and sped off.  When I got past the schoolzone on Abrams and Whitehurst the car refuses the accelerate.  Started up the car again and within 3 seconds after I hit the accelerator to accelerate a bit, the car dies again.  Tried it one last time before thinking – “Oh no!  I have to get to school.”  I call up my mom and she takes me to school.  We leave the car there for the time being with yield lights flashing.  Upon arriving at school on my way to my first class, I find out that my instructor for my afternoon class is ill and that his class was canceled.  Yay!  Time to go home.  This is the first time that I rode DART all the way somewhere without the use of a car.  Learned that I had to take the 553 from Cedar Valley College to Ledbetter and then take the DART rail going from the red line to the blue line and finally switching onto the 582 to get me to Abrams.  I really enjoyed my ride but I have learned that I need to plan DART trips better.  It took me 2.5 hours to get from Lancaster to back home.  My car (the 1986 Toyota Camry) turned out to have a dead battery and it turned out mom’s car’s battery was nearly depleted as well so it couldn’t jump my car.  Well, everything turned out well and I’m now sitting at home after a yummy meal of hot dog and pizza from Sam’s (takes mom!) getting ready to begin homework.

Hallelujah!  Thank you Jesus for an interesting day.

I finally found my Wacom Artz II tablet!  This thing has been in the closet collecting dust for about 4 years.  Now that I’m getting back into Flash, it’s time to use it again.  Unfortunately, the new Compaq computers do not come with a serial port so I had to go buy a serial to USB adaptor on eBay for $10.  Not a bad price for a good adapter.  I can’t wait to get it.  There’s plenty to animate and learn – I’ve been using SwishMax for the effects but I’d like to learn how to do it in Flash.  At times I think that perhaps doing it in SwishMax and then exporting and using it in Flash may be the ideal solution for complex effects.

Another great tool out there is Sothink’s SWF Decompiler.  You can rip any and every resource from a SWF file and get an FLA file from it.  It’s just awesome!  Great way to rip and learn how to get things done with ActionScript.

I attended the 1000 Guitars of Praise event tonight and to me it was personally disappointing.  The main program where the 1000 guitar players came out and played didn’t start until 8:10pm.  Prior to that it was just worldy music being played (Johnny Cash, etc.).  They claim that God is the main event, but it’s more of a concert than anything else.  The gospel was preached, however it was not the full gospel.  Well all in all, it was still interesting to hear what 1000+ guitars sounded like.

Hallelujah Jesus!  As of 10:23am this morning, I’m now officially a CompTIA A+ Certified Computer Technician.  MCP, here I come!

Got back my exams today.  I made 101 on my Music Fundamentals and a 96 on my Audio Engineering.  Yay!  Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus!  Tomorrow I get to take the OS portion of the Comptia A+ certification.  After passing that I’ll be an A+ Certified Computer Technician!  WOOHOO!  Decided, next thing to go for will be exam 70-210 for MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional).

Finally I’m on facebook after several friends several years ago told me about it, but my college didn’t give out student emails so I couldn’t sign up.  Now that I’m back with DCCCD I can and finally signed up!  2 days on Facebook and I’ve hooked up with 19 friends.  I’m a very blessed person indeed!  From elementary school friends to college friends…this is a great place to hook up!  Internet sure makes the world seem smaller.  Now if only Paul and Silas had the internet back in those days I wonder what would have happened….

Wow!  That was some presentation by Sandro Corsaro today.  For those of you who do not know, Sandro is an animator for Warner Brothers.  He talked about some basics in animation as well as some techniques such as “squash and stretch” which plays on the concept of persistent motion.  He uses a Wacom Intuos 6×8 tablet and draws everything directly in Adobe Flash.  Included in the seminar was a coupon for 15% off of all Adobe products.  Use code: Q406ONLINESEM for 15% off of your next Adobe purchase.  Coupon expires 11/30/2006.