Forever-Digital is a look inside the life and mind of 
Archive for July, 2006
07.29.2006 | What’s the Point?
I’ve been playing around behind the scenes here for some weeks now trying to figure out how to best configure this site to make it more “grown up”, more user friendly, and most of all, more “with the times”. Let’s face it, I haven’t really spent nearly as much time I should have in the past 4 years maintaining this site and its content. In my cleaning up, I even found active pages with words like “kewl” and “stoopid” on them. Needless to say, those have been updated. But in all of this cleaning up, I’ve had in the back of my mind - “What can I do with this space to make it an ‘online destination’, a place where people check in daily just to see what’s new, a place with some recognition?” It’s been puzzling me for some time now and the answer still eludes me. I’ve made some random changes like the “Amusements” section which is now called “The Web & Other Amusements” because the content that was on it was so obsolete and useless that it wasn’t worth an entire section. The section itself is still in the development stages. I’m trying to come up with much more content for it, but for the time being check out the Feeds I Frequent and the Sites I Frequent pages. They’re a little thin at the moment, but I’ve been adding to them daily as I remember more.
I’ve also lately started to wonder whether I’ve grown out of the whole “personal blog” phase of my life. I’m not nearly interesting enough for people to pop in daily, or even weekly, to see the latest updates. I like the fact that I have a pretty good record of the last 4 years of my life, but at the same time, my day-to-day life isn’t anything spectacular, and could just as easily be chronicled somewhere else where I don’t have to feel guilty for not updating the layout or returning the comments.
That said, I’d really like your opinion. If not my personal day-to-day random thoughts, what would you like to see on this site? What sort of content are you in search of on the Internet but have yet to find a decent source for? I love to write about things I’m interested in, but that varies so much from day to day, week to week, and month to month, that there would be no vein of consistency other than the fact that I wrote them all. Is there anything that I’ve said in the past 4 years, or since you starting coming here, that has sparked your interest? Something you’d like to learn more about?
I would love to keep my blogging in the realm of the Internet, online life, gizmos, gadgets, and other technology, etc, but I worry that it’s a niche that’s been done so many times before and that has so many established “sources” that people follow religiously that my attempts at it would go unnoticed. Not to mention the fact that I’m not nearly as “up” on technology as I should be. I don’t use Linux. I’ve heard of Ubuntu but don’t really know what it is. I’ve never built my own computer. I don’t really know what the latest processors are. I don’t have the slightest clue what the difference between video card A and video card b is. Without such knowledge I would feel like a poser in a world of gurus.
So I guess the question is, where is my niche? What do I have to offer that either doesn’t already exist or that I can put my own unique spin on to make it different, and dare I say better, than what’s already out there? Where do I belong in this great “blogosphere”? I guess that’s more of a question for myself than for you, dear reader, but I do encourage and even solicit and input you may have on the topic. It would be greatly appreciated indeed.
Until next time…
07.26.2006 | 4th Anniversary Edition
I just couldn’t take that other layout any more. It was driving me nuts! Not only that, but now that I’m nearly done with the layout that’s up now (there are still a few kinks to iron out), I’m already sick of it. Don’t you hate when that happens? You spend so long laboring over something to make it just “so” that when you’re done you don’t even want to look at it anymore? This layout was intended to be the layout for my 4th anniversary here at forever-digital, but since it’s less than a month away (on Aug 22nd), I figured it wouldn’t hurt to put it up a bit early and possibly come up with another one between now and then for the actual day. The people who have already seen it (I like to get some input as I develop the page so I know I’m on the right track) seem to really like it, but that was also the case for my last layout. I don’t know, something about them just seems sub-par to me. At any rate, it’s what I have to work with at the moment and it’ll do.
You’ll notice on the sidebar a little random image script with all of the layouts since August 2002. I thought it was a pretty neat idea. I have one other idea that I’ve lately been contemplating whether or not I should hold it off until the 5th anniversary. It seems like a more approriate time for it. I’m trying to come up with some other stuff to put there - possibly a list of the sites/feeds I frequent, possibly not - I don’t know yet. I’d really appreciate your input. I’m really trying to make this site the best it can be all-around, from design to content to usability, so please be honest!
Only 5 days left in my internship. It’s crazy how quickly this summer went looking back on it. It didn’t feel quick at the time, which was good, but now that I think about it, it’s almost August! Overall I think it was a pretty enjoyable summer. Aside from the whole “being isolated at the Jersey shore away from my friends who are either in Bayonne, Pennsylvania, Texas, or basically anywhere but here” bit, I did get a lot accomplished. The internship ended up being a bit shorter than I expected. I started there on July 5th and my last day is August 3rd. I wish I had more time there, I think I could have made even more of an impact, but college calls. I plan to use the two weeks between the end of my internship and move-in day to relax, finish up any projects I started this summer and know I won’t have time to finish once school starts, and get the necessities for my room.
I’m actually kind of nervous about my housing situation next year. I’m in a single, which is going to be weird. I got so used to having Kat (my roommate) there, that it’s going to be weird not having someone else in the room with me all the time. I suppose I’ll get used to it and grow to enjoy the privacy. Amy’s next store though, so at least I’m not too far from a friend. As it stands now, Amy’s the only person I know in my building. Kat and a bunch of other friends are in other buildings that are in pretty close proximity to me, so it should work out just fine.
In totally unrelated news - I was going through my referrals list today, because it’s full of spam crap that I’m trying to minimize (please share if you have any tips on that) and I found out that of you were to do a Google search for jenn, forever-digital comes up as the 6th result, but if you were to search my full name, even in quotes, a link that actually refers to me doesn’t even come up until around the 4th page! You just may be reading the blog of the next Madonna. HA!
Also, to Jake who I uncharacteristally bashed in my last blog: I apologize for my mini rant. However, I do stand by my opinion, but I am open-minded enough to post the link so that other people can not only see what I’m talking about but also formulate their own opinion about it.
That’s about all I have to say at the moment I think. I had something else I wanted to point out when I started this, but I can’t remember now… I’ve got to start writing things down! Thanks for visiting and thanks to my commenters. Enjoy!
Until next time…
07.25.2006 | Nothing in Particular
I’ve been coming back here almost hourly for the past few days in hopes of getting some inspiration for something to blog about. I’ve had a few ideas, but nothing really formulated enough for me to write decently about. So, once again, I’m settling for just a mini update blog with some random things I’ve found during my online travels, some events from the past week or so, and well…whatever comes to mind as I go. That’s right, this blog is going to be totally stream-of-consciousness. So good luck and happy reading!
First of all - I came across these in my browsing today, and they’re SO cute. I mean, how practical is that?! I think I’m going to put them on my wishlist. Even though I rarely find myself having to transport a cupcake, at least if I have one I might have more incentive to bake, right?
Second, and almost totally unrelated, I thought I’d give you a bit of a heads-up on a new project of mine. In collaboration with Natalie (who is currently siteless, I believe), of course, we’ll be embarking on a bit of a journey in a few different senses of the word. I’d prefer not to give away too much at the moment because it’s still very much in the development stages, but hopefully it’ll be something pretty cool and interesting for you to take a look at and participate in. I’ll keep you updated on it, as I’m sure it’ll be consuming a good deal of my time for this year.
Speaking of this year. I’ve been thinking about the upcoming school year. I feel so distant from college right now. It’s been so long since I’ve been there - over 2 months now! I’ve never had a break from school that lasted this long. It’s pretty refreshing, but at the same time, I’m getting used to not having to go to class and stuff. It’s a good thing I have work to keep me in some sort of schedule and to keep my brain from idling totally. ANYWAY, coming back from my tangent, I’ve been thinking about the upcoming school year and all of the things I already have myself committed to. The sad thing is, I can’t really remember what it is that I’ve committed myself to! I mean, I have a general idea, but I’m worried that I’ve totally forgotten about something! What’s even worse is I can’t even remember what classes I signed up for! I can’t even check until sometime in the next few weeks either! I should’ve written it down…
Next year, from what I can recall, I’ve committed myself to being a TA for 3 courses, I’ll either be a teaching or grading TA (not sure yet) for Intro to Web Design and Programming, and I’ll be an administrative TA for Intro to Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series - all 3, from what I hear, are pretty time consuming. On top of that, I have work in the Entrepreneurship office, where I believe they’re also going to try to have me work on the new website for the program. And on top of that I have Class Council, where I’m the Secretary and Webmaster. HOPEFULLY that’s all I’ve committed myself to, because that’s all I can remember, and I think that’s all I’ll feasably have time for. I love being busy, but I don’t want to overload myself so much that I won’t have time to do my classwork. Oh, right… I forgot something. I might be doing an independent study with one of my professors based on the internship I had this summer. Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting semester to say the least. I didn’t even mention the outside-of-school activities I need to put time into, such as eRC where I have to do 4 hours of service and read a book every month. It took me 10 months to even get remotely close to finishing The Google Story last year, and that was without a ridiculous schedule. This year is going to call for some MAJOR time management.
This was posted on LifeHacker on Sunday. BY FAR the MOST STUPID THING I’ve ever seen. I did that with my chopsticks when I was 8 - that was 11 years ago! Dude, you’re no rocket scientist for figuring that out. And did it really require a video? Some people do anything to get on the “blogging map” these days.
This has been all over the news for the past day or so. I think it’s pretty cool, but I don’t know if I’m going to like to play Monopoly as much as I used to. 1/2 of the fun is stacking up piles of money and going “haha” to your opponent! What am I going to do now, show him/her my monopoly bank statement? I might get it just to see what it’s like, but something tells me I’m going to stick to my good ole’ classic edition. You have to give it to them tho, way to be on the forefront of bringing old board games back into the limelight. I love board games and anything that will make them popular again is OK with me. That is, anything but changing all of the pieces in Chutes & Ladders to make it all politically correct. They could’ve just stuck to the little plastic pieces and avoided putting “race” on their game at all. Boy was that a disappointment at Christmas time (yes…my mom got me Chutes & Ladders for Christmas. Mostly because she wanted to play it herself, but it’s also a “thing” in my house to get a new board game for Christmas).
Well, I think I’ve basically exhausted my stream-of-consciousness for the moment, although that blog ended up being a lot more calculated than I had anticipated. I guess I’ll have to work on my randomness skills. I’m about 1/2 way through An Anthropologist On Mars. It’s pretty interesting. I’ve noticed a trend in my reading lately that I’ve been reading a lot of books about different perspectives and ways of seeing the world. Mostly they’ve been about how people with various handicaps/diseases see the world, but also how to change your own perspective. I don’t know what prompted it, but I’m learning a lot. Who knew, you can learn stuff during the summer too! ha!
I added gravatars to my comment system, so if you don’t have one, get one!.
That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting and thanks to my commenters (who, by the way, are plugged in the previous post thanks to my new comment plugger). Check out Dayze-Estelle, my newest link exchange. Oh, and by the way, I have a new “policy”. Anyone who comments on 2 consecutive blogs will be added to my “friends” list, because for reading my blabber, I consider you a friend.
Until next time…
07.17.2006 | so much for downtime…
I guess it’s really true that you should be careful what you wish for. After posting that last blog it seems as if all of my downtime has vanished! True, most of the vanishing act was due to me intense desire to fill up that time, but it was also partly due to my recent surge of new projects.
Not really much has happened in these past few days, but at the same time, so much has happened. Forever-Digital Web Services has experienced a bit of a surge of new clients. Great for me, great for them - it’s win/win :D.
I’ve also done some sprucing up around here. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a little RSS icon at the end of all of my blogs now. I’ve had an RSS feed running for a while now, but I’ve decided to set up FeedBurner to see how many people are actually subscribed. So far 2 - and I’m one of them, so I guess that means 1! It’s a new RSS URL, so if you were subscribed to my feed before last night, please update your feed! Also, if you are subscribed, let me know! I’d love to know who my readers are and give you a shout out! I’ve also been working on the next layout which will be the FOURTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION. I’m debating whether or not to launch it on Aug. 1st as the anniversary month, or Aug. 22nd, as the actual anniversary. I guess it’ll depend on what I get done by Aug. 1. The design itself is done, but a lot of the little features that I want to incorporate are still just in my head.
I’ve been playing around on Flickr a LOT recently. It’s great to look at other people’s photography and be inspired and see the different angles and methods they use. Two Three of my photos have been favorited, which is pretty cool. If you haven’t already, check it out! There’s a little preview of some of my photos on the right over there –> but there are a lot more posted! If you’re on flickr, add me as a contact!
I went on a bit of a shopping spree the other day at Barnes & Noble. I thought I had a $50 gift card, but it turns out I’ve used it before and there were only $27 left on it! OOPS! My bill was WAYY over that anyway. Last night I read Flowers for Algernon. 
Pretty good book. I’m sure it’s something people had to read sometime between 7th and 12th grades, but I never have, so I did. It was funny to walk through the book store and look through the “summer reading” section and realize that over the course of the last 5 years, I’ve basically ready every book there! Ha, I guess going to school can be useful sometimes. I started An Anthropologist on Mars.
It’s pretty interesting so far. I heard about Oliver Sack’s other book: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales in Cog Sci last year and it seemed pretty interesting. I happened to stumble upon An Anthopologist on Mars on my way to the checkout and it sparked my interest, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I also picked up: Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, 1984, Let’s Go 2006 Europe, and Europe by Eurail 2006, 30th: Touring Europe by Train. Like I said - a bit of a shopping spree.
In response to some of the comments on my last blog:
I don’t think that one should sacrifice all of their time just to make themselves available to others. Once the train settles in and we’re on our way, I’ll dig out a book, a sudoku, or my Nintendo DS Lite (yes, I forgot to mention I bought myself a bit of a present last week. I bought it for Brain Age). I’m just too much of an observer to sit back and engross myself in something while there’s so much going on around me. Well, almost too much. I’m probably one of the first people to fall asleep on the train ;). As you read in my last blog, I NEED to keep busy all the time. I can’t sit still. I have to multitask and do a million things at once just to get things done. Even while I’m in class at school, I take notes on my laptop so that I have it with me to get other things done that I need to while I’m at it. So, you would think that while on the train I would be on my laptop, or reading, or doing a million other things at the same time, but for some reason it is one of the few places that I CAN’T. I think it’s the motion or something, but I either get engrossed in a video game or go to sleep. If you knew me in person, you’d know that I don’t sleep much, so getting in a nap on the train is like a miracle! - I kind of forgot where I was going with this, but my point is, depending on the day I’m either wide awake and ready to get a million things done during my commute or I’m still tired and ready to use that time to complete the 8 hours of sleep that you’re supposed to get each night. Personally I’m not sacrificing anything by not listening to my iPod or getting other work done, because I probably wouldn’t get much done on the train. Anyway - is it really that much of a sacrifice? I kind of think that NOT helping another person is a sacrifice. Maybe I’m just too much of an idealist.
I’m sure there’s other stuff that I wanted to mention, but it will have to be saved for another day and another blog.
Until next time…
07.07.2006 | downtime
…I absolutely HATE downtime. I hate not being busy. I hate sitting around trying to find trying to find things to occupy my time. I feel so unproductive and useless. There are so many things I want to do and accomplish that I feel like sitting around is such a waste of my life. I don’t have work on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and I’ve yet to find a way to occupy those days. I don’t want to sit on the computer all day and surf around the web as I’ve been doing these past weeks. I need to do something more proactive!
Other than that, I started my new internship on Wed. It’s great so far. I’m actually doing WORK, unlike my old internship. It’s great because I get to play online all day making web pages and stuff like that. Can’t ask for more. The commute still stinks, but it’s a little less crappy than to NYC. Yesterday on the train this girl sat next to me. Not totally unusual, except for the fact that she started talking to me!! No one ever talks to their neighbor on the train, they just stay in their own world and do their own thing - myself included. Now I hate the fact that it’s like that. I don’t even listen to my iPod or anything just in case someone wants to talk to me. I think iPods and other such devices make people seem unapproachable. Anyway - back to my point - so this girl starts talking to me, and we end up getting into some pretty interesting conversation, from what we’d like to do in life to the US’ foreign policy and NJ’s budget problem . It was cool. I ended up giving her the URL for the eRC site because she said she liked to do service projects and really wanted to better people’s sense of “community”. It’s like she took the words right out of my mouth.
While I’m still on a bit of that “iPods make you unapproachable” tangent - I’ll share another series of related incidents. So, as I said, I never wear my iPod when I’m walking places or waiting around for something. I take the train to and from work every day. Now remember, this is a train that runs to NYC, so anyone who wants to go there for the day from anywhere in South Jersey tends to take it to avoid driving to the mayhem of Manhattan. At least once a day this past week I’ve had someone come up to me looking for help. One person needed to know how to get to Bradley Beach and couldn’t figure out why the machine gave her 2 tickets instead of one, another was a family visiting from France (or Quebec?… i don’t know, they were speaking French though) and they didn’t know how to operate the ticket/turnstile system, another man was from some small island in the Caribbean who needed change for a dollar to call his mother to pick him up from a payphone. He told me he’d never spoken to anyone asking for change before because he has a studder and doesn’t want people to think he’s a beggar. Another woman came up to me asking, in Spanish, if the train was going to Elizabeth. None of these people would have approached me if I had been listening to my iPod like the countless other passengers/drones en route to or from work. Case and point - I had my iPod in 1 especially bad commute day. When we got to the transfer station, a man came up to me to ask me a question, but the second he saw me grab for me headphones to pull em out of my ear to hear him, he said “oh, excuse me, sorry” and walked away to find somone else to ask.
Why this tangent you ask?? Well, 1 - I need something productive to do, 2 - this has been on my mind for a while now as something that just irks me about life in the technology age, and 3 - it seems that since I started working in the City I’ve started to get that “tough” about me, like the typical New Yorker who wants people to know s/he’s no one to mess with and to step back - and I don’t like it. I like looking friendly! How would all of these people who needed to find their way to their destination have found it if everyone on the train platform seemed so unapproachable? It seems so wrong to me that people are out there in need of just a bit of clarification or direction, nothing that would inconvenience me or bother me in any way, yet so many people are so caught up in their own worlds, just going through the daily routine, get on the train, read the paper, check the blackberry, put on the iPod, get off the train, push and shove your way to the door so that you can make your connection, get on the train again, get to work, work, and repeat in the opposite direction. People don’t seem to want to take the time or the consideration to look around them, maybe there is someone who just needs a question answered. Is it really that hard to smile and answer it?
So yeah… that was my little rant. Sorry if it was totally pointless or useless, but it just needed to be said.
In other news, following up on my “get in touch with old friends” mission - the coolest thing happened! Turns out my plea to old friends actually worked! Brandy, one of the people I used to talk to back around ‘02 saw my blog and IMed me! See! It’s all about being approachable and taking the time to reach out to others.
Cell phone news: going to the store tomorrow to see what we can do about my phone. The plan runs out next month, so I just may get the RAZR. I considered the Treo, but I realize that I don’t really have a use for it yet, and it’s not worth the investment.
There are a bunch of new pics in the flickr check em out.
I’ve added some new pages around. Mostly in the “Jenn” section I believe. music and dreamer that I am and there are a bunch of updates on other pages.
One last thing before I wrap this up - WOW, 8 comments? I can’t even remember the last time I had that many!! Thanks guys!! You’ve made my week! Ariel, Brittney, Danielle, Brandy, Kelly, Ellie, Chloe, and Lissy.
So that’s it, that’s all. That was my 200th blog! I hope it was a good one!
Until next time…