hmatt's blog

Randy sent me a link to this short film. I love the message and I hope to make something just as powerful to watch.

I turned it on today and thought..

Hmm, I wonder how a large black leaf got stuck on the screen…

Then realized that the glass and LCD broke. = ( So much for using to take and share pictures!! = ( So sad yo.

I guess that is the danger of the larger lcd screen.. it is in direct proportion to the fragility of the device.

At least it is still working…..

for now.

I’ve spent most of today catching up on various media.. I watched the latest episodes of Smallville and caught up on Homestarrunner.com, and I just finished the Office.

I’m sick of ‘watching’ though. I want to do my own stuff, but I find it hard to allocate time to write and then follow through with it. I’m usually hit with the writing bug when I don’t have the time.. but isn’t that always the case.

I gave up reading digg.com a while ago because it kept draining my time. Now today is mostly over and I’ve accomplished only a couple things.. (darn nap!)

Now it is time to write I suppose. I want to create rather than consume.

I just realized today that I had left something in my car. The parking garage pass for the parking structure.

Now I have to pay $20.

Ugh.

Today is my little sister’s birthday.. and I called her on her birthday! I’ve been meaning to do that with my siblings for a long time, but I’d remember super early in the day and forget as the day went on.

“Are you excited for your birthday”

“Yeah… Everyone likes birthdays at my school because you get to bring treats. Everyone likes food.”

Yeah. She’s 9. Such a funny little girl.

I’m going to try to treat this month as an experiment.. How can I have a social life without a car in Los Angeles? It took me four hours yesterday to ride the bus to and from where I needed to go..

More on that later.

The mechanic told me that the engine wouldn’t turn over so I’ve effectively destroyed my poor engine. This is probably due to my procrastination to take it to the mechanic for preventative maintenance.

I could get a new engine (a coworker mentioned I could get one for $600 + installation costs) but the clutch will need to be replaced at some point soon (it has the same one from 92), the emergency brake has been broken and the tires are bald.

All this would be a LOT more than what I paid for this car.

Fortunately I take the metro to work and this ‘solves’ the issue regarding lack of parking in my neighborhood… but now I have no transportation for my social life.

Yikes. = (

I can’t afford a car at all. I can’t get a loan to buy a new one. Plus I need to get another job to be able to start paying off my credit debt.

Ugh. Well, I decided a few days ago that I was going to take risks in the month of February.. not having a car in Los Angeles will lead to many risks. Taking the bus all the time, asking friends for rides..

It is odd.. I’ve been praying to improve my patience for things, explore the city, spend more time with my friends.. and this is the result.

I’ve often hated asking friends for rides, but I suppose paying them to take me places is the closest thing I can do for my social life.

Hmm.. now I’ll REALLY have to get a bike.

Isn’t it amazing what we just end up living with? Things will remain broken and we find some way around it instead of taking care of it.

For several months now I’ve had getting my car fixed on my list—

The e-brake has been on since July, My oil date was earlier this month (but I still had 200 miles left) my tires are going bald and the front brakes need to be replaced.

The only time during the week to get a cheap oil change is on Fridays.. I had planned on doing that later in the day yesterday.

I was driving to Culver City to meet up with a friend and … clink clank.

“Hmm”, I thought to myself, “that doesn’t sound like a good sound).

I had my hand on the stick-shift and I could feel a loss of power or control..

“Uh oh.”

I pulled over to the side of the freeway and called AAA. I had my iPhone but it is usually using Edge to conserve battery life, and I can’t use the maps feature at the same time in that mode. I tried explaining where I was, on the 10, near the Museum of Tolerance exit.

To make a long story shorter, I learned quite a few things that day:

-When the metro truck comes, let him at least tow you off of the freeway as it is less dangerous for you & it’s free
-7 free towing miles isn’t very much (I used 8, and would to have to of paid $9 extra, but the guy let me off easy.. because..
-you should always carry cash
-even spanish kids don’t remember how to say orange in spanish (heard this on the bus ride home)
-don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today

So that was my entire afternoon from 1-5

Ah, my new external hard drive came in the mail yesterday. I followed the instructions on http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/500gb-macbook-harddrive-upgrade-for.html and everything was going great.. except I put the hard drive in upside down so it didn’t work.

To make matters worse, the little rubber things inside the walls where the hard drive goes came unglued and then fell off!!

Fortunately, I was at Eric’s house and he suggested that I go buy some superglue. I stopped at the dollar store and bought some superglue and some bamboo skewer sticks to reach the excess gunk that was along the inner parts of the wall.

It worked like a charm after that! I put the 80GB hard drive into the enclosure and then duped the new hard drive from my g-drive that I’ve been booting off of for a while now.

I’ve also a new battery and I’m ready to roll! It’s like having a new computer! I can take the metro or whatever and now I can work on the go.

Great! = ) I just hope that my hard drive doesn’t fail anytime soon, as I’ve voided the warranty I suppose.

Wow. So the US is losing jobs… and fast!

Ugh, it makes for a scary future. I have faith that things will turn out alright. It certainly changes my plans for the next few months. I had been toying with the idea of finding another job, but it looks like the market will be swamped!!

Meanwhile I keep racking up debt.. and I find everyday purchases just keep getting more expensive. I’ve been trying to make ends meet, but there are certain big purchases that I keep making. These purchases are totally worth the extra fees I’ll incur, as they are making my life a little easier to operate.

An example, that quite expensive scanner. I’ve been wanting one for YEARS and I’m so glad I bought it.. but I really can’t afford it.

I also can’t really afford the new harddrive I bought for my macbook. I read http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/500gb-macbook-harddrive-upgrade-for.html and was inspired. I forked over the $120 and I plan on taking it apart on Friday.

It will be nice to have all my info at once. I’ve SO outgrown the 80GB drive. I’ve been running off a 500 that requires external power. Hmm.

The big bummer is that my battery is dead. It only has 100 cycles, but I didn’t follow the suggestions on http://apple.com/batteries so, there you go.

A replacement is another $100. = (

Plus I still need to get a shredder. AND get new car tires, AND get my ebrake fixed. Yikes.

I need to get another job. Ugh, like I have the energy though…. I’ll have to figure out something I can do on the bus on the way to work or something. Or start my own business selling something original. Hmm.