The website went live

It's been a while since my last post so let me catch up on what I've been up to. The biggest thing that happened was that the website I was working on finally went live. I'm glad it did because now I can get back to animating. I'm sort of glad I got to work on the website because I had an excuse to learn PHP and SQL. Now I'm planning on redoing my portfolio site while everything is fresh in my mind. Besides learning server-side scripting, I also learned AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML). If you're not familiar with it, AJAX lets you call functions on your server after a page is loaded, and then update your page without reloading it. I used AJAX to make a live search feature which gives you suggestions for searching while you are typing. My live search is mostly based on Google Suggest.

Since my last post I have also done a couple things to entertain myself. A couple weeks ago I decided that I needed a hat and since I know how to crochet, I decided to make one myself. But, instead of buying a crochet hook, I thought it might be interesting to make one myself. So I went into the woods and found a thick branch and started carving it with a box-cutter knife. It took two evenings and two attempts but, I created a hook. After I sanded it a bit with a nail file I found it was reasonably smooth and worked like a charm. I made a hat with some wool I got from a nearby town. After it was done I decided it looked more like a woman's hat and I gave it to a friend.

Another day I decided to make a Tomato Soup Cake to have a bit of fun. It was a real scavenger hunt when I tried to find all the ingredients I needed. Sugar was especially hard to come by, but I managed to get everything I needed. It was delicious ( tastes like a spice cake).

PHP keeps animation at bay

I've taken a hiatus from working on the animation for a while. It looks like I would be more useful working on updating webpages here. I don't mind because I was thinking I needed a break from painting art all day; plus to make it worth my while, I decided I would trade work with the web designer. She's working on the art while I work my way through pages of PHP.
I'm happy because she's doing a good job, I just hope I can get all these pages under control.

Yesterday I realized an inconvenience of living in a yert. I was taking out my contact lenses with the case on my knee and it slipped off. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal but, the lens fell through the crack between the wall and the floor and landed outside on the dirt ground. It's pretty cold here at night so I had to put on warm clothes to go out and get it and then, to wash it off I had to walk through the woods to the bathroom. I'm starting to have more and more respect for indoor plumbing.