September 2002 Archives

"What is O-Week," the people cry, "and why does it keep Aliotsy from maintaining his site?"


Good question. O-Week actually hasn't been the only thing keeping me busy (as you'll see later in this entry), but it certainly has kept me busy...it's the military-esque (ah, butcher the English language, shall we?) sounding name that Grace Alive! gives Orientation Week, when hordes of freshmen (6000 at last count) descend on Davis. It's easily the busiest time of the year for Grace Alive!, as we try to get freshmen interested in a real relationship with God plugged into our group. To this end, we treat it very much like a military operation...assignments are delegated, talent within the group is recruited, and everyone pitches in to reach out to as many people as possible. We've been preparing for weeks now, and the madness started for me at 3:30am Monday—that's when I got up to go to school and wait in line (for 3.5 hours) in order to reserve a room for Grace Alive! for Fall Quarter. I actually didn't need to go—there were four of us when only one was really needed—but it certainly was a good time. The rest of the day was spent handing out fliers, and we visited interested people in their dorms Monday night...I didn't get to bed till 11pm or so. Today has been pretty much the same so far—minus the 3:30am wake-up time, fortunately.


I've also been working, on top of all of this, so I often choose sleep over updating the site. Apologies.


So why else have I been busy? I have a slew of sites I'm working on at the moment. I designed a new Grace Alive! website, as well as an alternate Flash version. I really like how it turned out. I also made a quick site for a project I will henceforth refer to as Exile—clearly, I've been getting a lot better with Blender.


Finally, I've been working on a new version of TheThousand.net. Honest. I don't anticipate it going up any time soon, but if anyone is interested in checking it out as a work in progress, you can see version 2. Not too impressive, and the diagonal background wallpaper is probably gonna go...my lame attempt at being somewhat trendy. Doesn't really look like much, does it? Still, it fixes a lot of things that have been nagging me with the current version. My current favorite feature: the color. I'm using mostly neutrals, with one highlight color. The funky thing is this: the highlight color gradually changes, depending on the time of year...so right now it's orange, since it's fall, and it will gradually migrate to blue for the winter. The page does it all by itself, using a simple algorithm to generate a color depending on what day of the year it is. Am I proud of my little DOM-utilizing baby? You bet. Am I geek? Definitely.

I chucked hay bales today. Details later. I'm tired.


Mental note: listening to music in a car while watching moonlight envelope the hills is thrilling.

I have a thing for blue drinks. I can't explain it. Blue has been my favorite color as long as I can remember, and there's something about drinking a color that is so unabashedly artificial that I find, well, thrilling. Or silly. Or something.


Not surprisingly, whenever I come across a new blue drink in the supermarket, I can hardly resist it. Which explains why I bought Pepsi Blue this weekend when I saw it in Safeway. My mom rolled her eyes. The cashier swore that he "won't touch the stuff." I drank it, and have now come up with the following evaluation.

I cannot begin to compose words even remotely suitable for the immensity of this anniversary. Even my most eloquent phrasings ring woefully hollow in remembrance of the agony, the numbness, the terror, and, yes, even the wonder of those first few hours, as the world watched a new era ushered in with fire, dust, and twisted steel. TheThousand.net returns tomorrow. Until then, I leave the expression of my thoughts in the hands of One far more capable than myself. God Bless America.




Aliotsy Andrianarivo




"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." II Corinthians 7:10




"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:6-8

This summer, Monday and Wednesday mornings often involved a trip to Fluffy Donuts shortly after getting off work at my first job, a web design gig with a nonprofit organization. Fluffy's is (surprise, surprise) a doughnut shop near Computer Tutor, my other workplace. After chatting with my boss at Computer Tutor for a few minutes, I usually head over to Fluffy's to grab a cup of coffee to help keep me awake during my 2-hour Bio Sci. lecture.


The man behind the counter is quiet and unsmiling, though courteous. He usually has my change waiting for me even before I hand him a bill. Even though I've already been awake for several hours by the time I make my daily visit to Fluffy's, there something about the aroma of vanilla nut coffee filling my cup that wakes me up.


That's why my eyes are a little brighter when I go over to the sugar counter to perfect the drink. My extras are always the same: no milk, a dash of cinnamon, and an obscene amount of sugar. I then tightly slip two lids over the cup—I jaywalk across two busy four-lane roads to get to class, so the coffee usually sloshes around quite a bit as I scramble from sidewalk to median to sidewalk. Most mornings, Fluffy's formica tables and seats are empty, save for a group of grizzled retirees who gather for conversation, coffee, and the occasional doughnut. I like to listen in on their chats while I'm at the sugar counter. Wednesday's topic of conversation: war and politics.


"I heard that Cheney had fourteen deferrals from entering the service," one of the men stated matter-of-factly. At sixty or so, he was one of the younger men at the table, and he nodded in approval as his comment drew head-shaking and murmurs of disapproval from his buddies. Chatter at the table bubbled as they discussed this juicy tidbit.


Another man, old enough to have fought in World War II, spoke up. "What I've always said we should do is get Bush and Cheney, give them rifles and bayonets, and put them on one side of a field." Intrigued, the other men stopped talking amongst themselves and listened in hushed anticipation.


"Then, we get Saddam and whoever his next most important man is and stick them on the other side of the field with guns and bayonets. Then," he pauses dramatically, "we just let them go at it." This brought nods and grunts of approval.


"Problem is," someone else noted, "it would never happen."


The old man sighed, shaking his head mournfully. "Nope."


The group pondered this sad state of affairs in grim silence. I left Fluffy's with a big grin on my face.


Note: I originally scribbled "Fix Bayonets!" down on note paper when I should have been diagramming ribosomal structures in the above-mentioned Bio. Sci. lecture, but I didn't have time to post till today.


In other news the redesign is coming along nicely...which means I've scrapped my original idea, am slaving through a second draft, and am seriously considering scrapping the second draft as well. Why oh why do I have to be a perfectionist when it comes to web design? I tend to be easygoing, but when I build sites I become a pixel nazi. I've also got about a dozen sites to link up, but that will wait till morning.