Nerfherders
After much research and experimentation I have come to the conclusion that itunes was forged by the dark lord Lucifer himself deep within the seventh circle of Hell with the express dark purpose of wreaking havoc on my pc and slaying the all of the Adobe programs residing there (although thanks to a +50 constitution the manly Photoshop escaped unscathed). Of course the foul program no longer resides on my ailing machine but its malignant influence lingers on, which entails Illustrator and Reader never making it past the first few seconds of loading before freezing up. I've reinstalled them both three or four times now but to no avail. I have tried deleting fonts in case there was just too many for them to load but given that Photoshop still runs fine after loading all 4000 of them and the problem still occurred without them active that suggests that is not the problem. I have also deleted all of the old preference files as advised by Adobe's site but that hasn't worked either, and I really really NEED Illustrator to work RIGHT NOW.
In other news, I got a job 2 weeks ago that for the most part doesn't really fall under the good or bad category, it just kind of "is". It is at a bistro-type set-up in a small upscale specialty grocery store in the nice part of Highland. By no means do I plan to make this a career or anything, but until I can find something decent in my field it will do for paying bills and bankrolling improvements to my "studio". Plus, it has proven to be an excellent motivator when it comes to me sitting down and learning new skills and programs, I have already greatly improved my knowledge of Illustrator this week (too bad I can't get the damn program running so I can use those new techniques).
All in all, its really not a bad job, there are a lot of good aspects to it, some of which are quite unexpected. Almost everyone working there, as in around 86% of them, is either a musician or artist or both, so I have made a lot of good contacts and learned a lot about what's going on in the local scene. I have also made more than a few contacts through some of our regular customers, some of which have offered support in getting my work into galleries or getting me a job with ad agencies and the like whenever something becomes available. Quite often people order something only to change their mind or leave unexpectedly so I get free meals all of the time and the food is REALLY GOOD (the place sales Kobe beef and flies in seafood from everywhere), just the other day I had some amazing crab cakes on a bed of baby lettuce and some sort of horseradish sauce for lunch. The best spice for any meal is definitely it being free. The pay is decent for the amount of actual work I do, $8 an hour plus tips to run a cash register and take orders, and since it is always busy the day flies by so it is 2 o'clock and time to go in no time. Really, the only bad parts about the job is that I have to get up at 5am, that and the part about it not being a job in the art field. Oh well, I guess everyone in art/music/acting/other-creative-field eventually works a restaraunt-type job at some point.
Although the details are not yet planned out, I think we are most likely going to have a "Star Wars Party" whenever the new movie comes out, which will involve getting dressed up and making fools out of ourselves at the theater since this is really the last opportunity to do so since this is the last movie in the series. After attending the premier everyone will then adjourn to the house for watching episodes 4-6 and general relaxing at the house cantina and then depending on how ripped everyone gets maybe watching episodes 1 or 2, which frankly will require a LOT of booze to make enjoyable. It's not that we are such "superfans" of the series, I mean it IS Star Wars and the old ones did indeed pwn everyone and we do love them enough to give the mediocre new movies a try, it's just we want a sane excuse to dress up like aliens and throw a party. If anyone is interested in joining in let me know, the more the merrier on this endeavor and besides, it looks WAY better for 30 greedos to stroll up into a theater than one or 2.
In other news, I got a job 2 weeks ago that for the most part doesn't really fall under the good or bad category, it just kind of "is". It is at a bistro-type set-up in a small upscale specialty grocery store in the nice part of Highland. By no means do I plan to make this a career or anything, but until I can find something decent in my field it will do for paying bills and bankrolling improvements to my "studio". Plus, it has proven to be an excellent motivator when it comes to me sitting down and learning new skills and programs, I have already greatly improved my knowledge of Illustrator this week (too bad I can't get the damn program running so I can use those new techniques).
All in all, its really not a bad job, there are a lot of good aspects to it, some of which are quite unexpected. Almost everyone working there, as in around 86% of them, is either a musician or artist or both, so I have made a lot of good contacts and learned a lot about what's going on in the local scene. I have also made more than a few contacts through some of our regular customers, some of which have offered support in getting my work into galleries or getting me a job with ad agencies and the like whenever something becomes available. Quite often people order something only to change their mind or leave unexpectedly so I get free meals all of the time and the food is REALLY GOOD (the place sales Kobe beef and flies in seafood from everywhere), just the other day I had some amazing crab cakes on a bed of baby lettuce and some sort of horseradish sauce for lunch. The best spice for any meal is definitely it being free. The pay is decent for the amount of actual work I do, $8 an hour plus tips to run a cash register and take orders, and since it is always busy the day flies by so it is 2 o'clock and time to go in no time. Really, the only bad parts about the job is that I have to get up at 5am, that and the part about it not being a job in the art field. Oh well, I guess everyone in art/music/acting/other-creative-field eventually works a restaraunt-type job at some point.
Although the details are not yet planned out, I think we are most likely going to have a "Star Wars Party" whenever the new movie comes out, which will involve getting dressed up and making fools out of ourselves at the theater since this is really the last opportunity to do so since this is the last movie in the series. After attending the premier everyone will then adjourn to the house for watching episodes 4-6 and general relaxing at the house cantina and then depending on how ripped everyone gets maybe watching episodes 1 or 2, which frankly will require a LOT of booze to make enjoyable. It's not that we are such "superfans" of the series, I mean it IS Star Wars and the old ones did indeed pwn everyone and we do love them enough to give the mediocre new movies a try, it's just we want a sane excuse to dress up like aliens and throw a party. If anyone is interested in joining in let me know, the more the merrier on this endeavor and besides, it looks WAY better for 30 greedos to stroll up into a theater than one or 2.