There’s still at least 35 more going into that album, if there’s no other updates I’ll probably just modify this post to let you know.

I also want to share my great excitement because I GOT MY FIRST RAISE and it is just so totally awesome :D Work is going great, today was MADNESS though because I had to play Musical Dogs X-Treme–there was supposed to be about 25 animals coming in between today and tomorrow to board over the weekend (BTW for those who don’t know, I work at an animal hospital) and there seemed to be a crisis in fitting them all so I was running around like a psycho with two lists, a sharpie, and masking tape, trying to sort out where our current animals needed to be moved to and where the incoming ones were supposed to go. MADNESS. And then of course 5 of those animals were no-shows so it almost wasn’t even worth it…that’s the second time we’ve had to play MD though so we’re gonna have to figure out a better system for having a place for everyone and everyone in their place. It’s not that they overbook reservations, it’s just we have some unexpected boarders, some that are always there anyway, and during open hours we have “drop-offs” that take up space too. MADNESS. And it was a dark dreary rainy day which made everything seem even more MAD. Don’t get me wrong though, we all had a BLAST. It’s amazing how much fun we can have while we’re working hard, and believe me, we work HARD. We’re all crazy, the whole office is, but Kennel Techs are a whole other level of crazy since we’re behind closed doors all day hahahaha. Ahhh what good times…

Well I don’t think there’s anything else new and exciting since last time, so I’ll leave you here! :o

[UPDATE July 20th, 2008]
25 more pictures in Botanical Gardens! There’s only like 3 left I have to process but they’re not inspiring enough for me to battle the blindness that is approaching due to excess hours photoshopping…

Alright so today was a total nightmare. If you don’t know anything about Wordpress or MYSql databases, skip the following paragraph because it won’t mean anything to you. If you do, skip it anyway because it’s boring and I’m just ranting…

Once again I had to do a Wordpress update, but I hate doing it manually, and since Dreamhost made changes to their site since I originally installed it using their “One-Click Installs”, they no longer recognized it so I couldn’t just use their handy “Update” button to let them do all the work for me. So to save me time and effort in the future, I spent SEVEN hours today trying to make a fresh installation of the new Wordpress which meant having to backup and take down EVERYTHING in my root directory and all my database information. That part wasn’t a problem, it was PUTTING EVERYTHING BACK that brought on the horror. I had made a regular XML export of posts and such so that I wouldn’t have any database conflictions in importing those, but I was having to go through and change their permalinks, and fixing all my settings, and trying to get my plugins reactivated properly–several of which I had made custom modifications to and they weren’t behaving–and then my stupid REFERRER script. Oh how I love and hate that script. It uses a database to record all its information, and because I’m so SMART I had it mixed in with my wordpress database and since I didn’t know how to separate it out of the file, I had to go to Dreamhost to restore a backup, then make a new backup file with just those tables, then create a new database, but I couldn’t import the data because the file was too big so then I had to figure out how to do it using Putty with SSH, so finally did that, then had to change the names of the tables, then change the database information in the files that access them. UGH. And then of course I lost my most recent changes to my header.php for this theme so I had to go and change that again. To make ALL MATTERS WORSE, my server started getting overloaded, either just because it felt like it or because I was working it too hard (most likely the latter) so then it started going REALLY SLOW as well as all sites on my hosting (Sorry Megs lol) and even stopped working altogether for a short while. Eventually sped up again and is all normal now, and I’ve got everything all up-to-date, and future Wordpress updates will now only ever require the press of a button…*knocks on wood*

I have some bad good news though…now that my mad Photoshop skills have gotten even madder, I’m re-enhancing all my Photography pics. Yes, I said ALL. So now I have that in addition to the ones I haven’t even done yet. That puts me at a total of about…880 pictures I have to work on. I did 30 in about 4 hours last night, so you do the math *sigh* At least they’ll 1. Look much better 2. Have a larger resolution 3. Have a consistent border because I know I kept changing it everytime I added a new set and some didn’t even fit all the text in x.X I’m going to finish the new pictures first though, cuz I know you probably are more interested in that, I know I am ;)

I got new pencils and paintbrushes so I’m going to be doing some traditional art as well…yeah updates are gonna be small and random and scattered haha. It’ll be worth it though. I’m really trying to bring this site back to life. Trying to bring my life back to life too heh.

I cleaned up my affiliates since many seemed to have fallen off the planet, and added a new one:

Well it’s getting late (late to us working people) so I’m probably going to paint for a bit then head to bed…

Thanks for dropping by, ciao!

I. Wanted. To Cry.

The only somewhat recent backup I COULD find was from February, so I told myself, well I was on hiatus for most of the time since so I won’t be missing too much…but if you know anything about us webbies and computer nerds, losing ANYTHING makes us lose sleep. I went ahead and restored what I had so that there was at least a SITE there haha, but then I contacted DreamHost support to see if by any miracle I’d be able to recover the lost information. I knew I was out of luck as far as my PC backup, but I really don’t know that much about web servers and such so I figured it didn’t hurt to ask.

And then I received the most beautiful e-mail of my life:

Hello Jenny,
Actually, there IS hope! Here’s where you’ll want to go:
*link*
Then hit “restore DB”, and you can grab a backup going back as far as 5
days. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Thanks!
Jeff H

I died the most happiest death ever. I did exactly what it said and was able to restore right up to–at most–a few hours before my mishap had occured, leaving me only missing a small amount of affiliate traffic logs which is certainly not cry-worthy in itself.

SO YEY!!

Anyway I actually don’t have anything else exciting to report, as if this wasn’t exciting enough, just wanted to let you know what on earth was going on yesterday and to apologize!

Okay I decided to grace you with the presence of some of the photos I’ve been working on :) Check out my all new Aquatic Scapes album! They’re from the Georgia Aquarium, and in case they seem sort of…out of order…it’s because the first whole time through the exhibits I was having MAJOR camera issues, so I went back around to all of them after I got it working better haha. I had to do a LOT of photoshopping to get some of the intense BLUE out, so I apologize if the coloring seems odd…I figured I’d go ahead and go for style ;)

————————
UPDATED JULY 05, 2008
————————

HA Told you I’d be back. First, here’s a funny discussion shared between my best friend the other day that I absolutely had to share with the world…

Jenny: Oh wait I need to leave my sunglasses here.
Crystal: Why?
Jenny: Can’t wear them into the bank. Or hats or whatever.
Crystal: Oh so you don’t rob it.
Jenny: No, you’re allowed to rob it. They just want to see who you are.

Wasn’t that delightful? Yes, so as for news…

I’m spending as much of my time off from work getting these and several other long-forgotten projects done. Well, at first I spent a bit of time riding a bicycle, my grand total distance so far over the past 2 and a half weeks is approximately 83.26 miles! But yeah, I’ve been working my poor little butt off besides killing it on that bike.

I’m currently in the process of enhancing 450+ photos. Yes. I said four-hundred and fifty plus. They consist of pictures taken at Georgia Aquarium, Georgia Botanical Gardens, Mandarin Park, Silver Springs, EPCOT Center at Disney World, and a couple strays. You may be saying to yourself “Oh please she’ll never get those done” but I’ve already completed 100 in less than 2 days time so fear not.

I’ve also started doing self-portrait photoshoots and I intend on messing with those in Photoshop using all these fun actions I downloaded, and I’ll probably add a whole new category for that.

Enough of what has “not yet come to pass”, here’s my goody for you today: A music video featuring ME. Yup, I made it a little over a year ago, and it’s me lipsynching to Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life” with oustanding precision. Seriously, when I watch it, I myself believe I’m the one actually singing. I hope you’ll watch it, I worked really hard on both the performance and the editing, and please comment!

Oh and one last thing I forgot, I now have a full season skin changer!! Over on the left under Site stuff you’ll see “Change Skin” with 4 thumbnails, so if you click them it’ll change the site skin to Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer, respectively. A project a year in the making! Oh again, and due to all the other stuff I’m trying to juggle, I took down my whole RESOURCES section, including my handful of myspace layouts, because it’s simply not worth the trouble and I was never really into it in the first place–what can I say, I’m selfish :p

And about my gravatar…lol it’s my tribute to children who cry at Disney XD

I am still accepting affiliates and hostees so keep on applying, and all such new additions will be added to the specially marked space below rather than in new posts, at least as soon as I can possibly find time to do so.

[BEGIN SPECIALLY MARKED SPACE]
Hostees:

Affiliates:

[END SPECIALLY MARKED SPACE]

Once again, I don’t know when I’ll ever manage to get any real updates done around here, my Persuasion project has been postponed, and I will most likely not be able to respond to any comments, but I do hope you’ll still come by and not hate me too terribly much.

- moved across the country back to Florida
- had the airport lose the piece of luggage that had virtually all of my clothes and various other items totaling a loss of nearly $2000 for which I had to fill out a Property Loss Claim that’s probably not going to get me any money back anyway (DELTA SUCKS)
- eaten hot buffalo wings
- started playing Wii
- gone to Atlanta to see the World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, and the Botanical Gardens (pictures coming soon, I promise)
- eaten more hot buffalo wings
- nearly died on the way back
- watched lots of movies, many for the first time which I need to add to my Movie Buff list including Stardust, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, and Enchanted, all excellent
- got a job at another animal hospital, working miserable hours, now causing my entire body to ache
- bought the new Super Smash Brothers Brawl for Wii the day it came out (OMGOSH IT ROCKS!!!!)
- eaten more tasty hot buffalo wings
- was made a bridesmaid for my friend’s wedding coming up the 22nd
- decorated easter eggs (many of which came out quite pathetic)
- and eaten lots and lots of hot buffalo wings.

I’ve been lucky to squeeze in showers and sleep with all that, so I’ve had neither the time nor energy to hop on my ol’ faithful computer here (which I’m SO happy to be reunited with because it and my internet are like 10 times faster than what I dealt with for over 8 months in California). I’ve tried to reply to as many of the commentators on my last post as possible, but if I missed you, I’m terribly sorry and I hope you’ll forgive me. I apologize for not dropping by all my affiliates to comment on your sites as well, I might be able to do so later today or on Sunday (work hours REALLY suck). I also received many new affiliate requests, I think I managed to respond to all the ones I was accepting but I gotta go back through my dozens of e-mails again to make sure…anywho I’ll be adding you to this post ASAP I promise! And remember, all new affiliates only show up on my Exits page as soon as they’ve sent me at least one hit because of the script I’m using, so all you have to do is click the link to me from your site once you add it and it’ll be there–I know it’s annoying, I’m sorry.

I also have a new digital painting in progress, another one of Miley Cyrus because YES I’m a Hannah Montana freak, and it’s coming along really nifty :D I still have to touch up all the photos from the Georgia trip which I know isn’t going to be done for a LONG time but believe me, they are AMAZING because they were taken with my brothers awesome 7 megapixel fujifilm something-or-other, instead of my cheap Blackberry Pearl 1.3 megapixel camera or my irksome HP Photosmart 5 megapixel something-or-other that eats a pair of AA batteries every 20 minutes. Really, they’re gorgeous. I know you’re drooling already.

I really need to try and get part-time hours *sigh* this schedule’s going to be the death of my talents if not the death of my sanity first. Many thanks to all who have been coming by here despite my absence. I apologize again and I hope that I’ll have more REAL stuff to share in the near future…

3. New hostee Jonathan with his web design portfolio/services site called Zombie. His first layout is mostly grayscale.

4. New hostee Liz with her blog/portfolio/resource site Cielo Gris, which translates to Gray Sky. It’s not quite finished yet but it looks lovely so far and I know I can’t wait to see it completed :)

That’s pretty much it, just a little quick update, and as for what’s coming soon…given how Miley Cyrus has replaced Britney Spears as the object of my obsession, you’re probably going to see a lot more graphics and artwork related to her, so ye pirates be warned!

Oh speaking of pirates, I know it seems like my whole plot to re-open Swans and Sparrows faded into oblivion but no, since I couldn’t figure out how to set up the poll (me? the evil coding genius? stumped by a silly little poll?) yeah I know it’s sad, but I decided I don’t care how many people are interested in it’s return, I’M GONNA DO IT ANYWAY!!!! MUAHAHAHA!! I still have to pick between Jazzy and Sparrowann for the name, who knows maybe I’ll do Jazzy Spann or something dorky like that haha, but yeah I’m going to start building it like…now…haha, so yeah, mark my words, give it a week maybe two, keep a weather eye out and there will be white sails on that horizon…

[QUICK UPDATE 2-26-08] Two new affiliates!

In honor of my magnificent programming accomplishment, I’ve created a new tutorial (my second ever so forgive me if it sucks) so that other people might be able to do the same. I call it Creating MySpace Layout Previews with WordPress Pages. Original, I know. I’m open to suggestions on changing it. Thanks. If you have any problems with following it–which I’m more than sure you will because even I barely understand it and I wrote it–let me know so I can make improvements and clarifications.

Two cool features that I use are not included in the tutorial because it’s already complicated enough, but if you manage to tackle what’s there already and you’re interested in the bonuses, let me know and I’ll add them as Extras at the bottom of the page. The first is nothing too terribly special, I just have a small thumbnail of the layout being previewed show as the Profile Picture and two Friend Pictures. The second, and WAY cooler, is that if you leave a comment on my root MySpace Layouts page, it’ll show up in the comments section of all my MySpace previews. I know, I’m jealous of me too.

Man I hate MySpace.

If I had a dime for everytime I said “MySpace” in this post…I’d be $.90 richer…

Anyway, I also made new 150×150px “thumbnails” for each of the layouts, which are used on the main page as well. No, I’m not going to say that blasted evil word again.

At least that nightmare is finally over, and I can finally try to finish making my new Heath Ledger layout for said demonic-site-profiles. The problem is I need a brush. One stinking brush. It’s missing one little flourish to give it the feel I want. I’m going to end up putting the layout up with the empty void intact, and if any brush-knowledgeable person happens by it and says “I have/know the perfect brush for you!”, I will cherish you dearly. And your brush.

After nearly 5 hours of trying to get that gibberish tutorial put together, leaving me red-eyed and sleepy-fied at 3:00AM, thank you, you’re welcome, and I am going to bed, goodnight.

[EDIT] OMGOSH AND I SAW THE HANNAH MONTANA 3-D MOVIE THINGY THIS WEEK AND IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!