lal-a [my blog]

I just bought myself another book to read: Designing For The Social Web, it looks REALLY good!

I had a meeting with Jason a few days ago, it was with a client of his discussing their idea for their website.  Basically, they came up with the idea randomly one day and wanted to see if it could be converted into an actual site and give them a return on investment.  Well, the idea went from one minor site to something huge!  It was really exciting.  Jason and I were trying to think of ways to make them money like ads (which weren’t the best), product selling, or having a premium user thing.  It was a very educational meeting, and I’d love to have more with Jason.  The client is really excited with the direction that it’s going!

So here are the books that are currently being read:

• The Definitive Book of Body Language
  Absolutely a great book!  Very informative, but I was told from Jason that the books on the market for body language aren’t up to par.  So the next book I get will focus on facial expressions.  He’s really into books that help you depict lies.
• An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned But Probably Didn’t
  Another great book.  Most my books I read are about web design and I wanted something, besides the above, to make me a more well-rounded individual.  This book really helps!
• Your Marketing Sucks
  Don’t you just love the title?  Amusing!  It’s a great book that really got me into the world of marketing, cause I wasn’t really sure what it was all about to begin with.  Although, I did read All Marketers Are Liars, which also helped me learn more about marketing.  I’m not really a big fan of it yet though.
• Information Architecture
  Interesting read, a lot of information thrown at you, barely any visuals, but I have to get through it if I want to be better at organizing sites in the future.
• Web Design For ROI
  A great read.  ROI stands for Return On Investment, which gets me more into the e-commerce side of the web.  It’s a nice skinny book with lots of visuals!  It’s more my style haha

That’s a lot of books actually!  And I just bought another one!  I have to get these read

Ah and in Jason’s new studio, he’s bringing all his books and magazines over so that’ll give me MORE to read.  But I love reading now.  I used to hate.  I think I read one book in college and 0 in high school so it’s a big step for me.  Plus, I’m getting Craig to read “Don’t Make Me Think“, and he never read a book ever.  Huge deal.

Well, I’m off.  Craig’s coming over and I’m teaching him “Let It Ride” and we’ll play poker.  He’s going to AC with me June 21st and 22nd!!!!!

Things have been going really good with things — with Craig, my parents, job.

But I seem to love to blog when there’s something on my mind… Craig is amazing, very good guy with a lot of surprises around his corners.  However, he has a lot of problems financially.  It’s starting to get me down… I remember being with Matt, and was problem this, problem that.  He was constantly in a jam, and it’s like that with Craig.

I’ve been teaching him HTML/CSS lately and he’s doing great!  But… he keeps downing himself.  And he reminds me that if I leave him, he’s screwed, that he won’t learn it.  That’s just weakness speaking and I hate it.  It’s not that he’s threatening, but he’s giving up.

And he can’t get a job.  He’s collecting unemployment money… he just can’t get a job.  He has no skill, unless it’s labor.  I’m just thinking, lots of thoughts.  Amazing, beyond amazing person, but of course we all find some flaw in somebody.  Well thank God, I don’t have to make this decision now.  Maybe he’ll surprise me and get a job and get his life back together.

Ahhh!  What a relief!  Happiness!  Honestly, I can’t tell you how happy I have been.

It’s been a combination of things; Craig, socializing, working for Jason, getting better at work, and Craig.  Yeah, I said him twice, but he deserves a lot of credit!  He’s just a great, great, great, guy.  I am just… shocked he’s in my life.  I feel like I can connect with him more than almost anyone else.  He’s becoming my best friend.

And getting out of the house, getting away from 16 hours on the computer has been a relief.  It’s really, really great to just be doing different things!

Oh and my parents are getting an online store which is exciting!  They bought a Macbook laptop today and it’s sooo beautiful!  I’m teaching my parents how to use the computer heh.

The only thing that is missing right now is that Craig and I are still hidden to my parents… and I’m trying not to push that one too much.  I want to ease it in.  But that’s the only blah thing.  I’m trying not to think about that and push that issue too much, I don’t want to be too greedy for now.  Once I get greedy and start wanting everything, then it all goes to hell.  But eventually, I hope she accepts him.

Nothing else new with me — I got Massage By Patricia up, for the most part.  I finally figured out sifr!!! I am so using it on all my sites now :)  And if you don’t know what sifr is, look it up lol.  Learn the latest plugins damn you

That’s enough from me, bye!

Me and Craig just had a fight.  He’s been very ill lately, and he went for tests a few weeks ago.  He’s still waiting for test results.  He’s been out of work a lot lately, but lately it seems as if he’s been calling off and then going out later and shooting pool.

So today he called off cause he wasn’t feeling good.  And then he was feeling good at 7pm ish and decided to go out with some friends to shoot pool.  And then it got me thinking… if he’s feeling so “good”, good enough to shoot pool, then why doesn’t he call up work and ask them if they need him?  It’s morals, if anything.  Even though he’s getting paid like a vacation day, I still think it’s morals.  And it makes him look good.

This is what I mentioned to him and now he’s turning everything around.  He said “Okay, fine.  The next time I’m in pain, I won’t call off work, I’ll go in.” That’s NOTHING what I said!  He’s putting words in my mouth!  I hate hate hate hate when people do that.  So I hung up Skype on him.  I’m like “I can’t do this.”

And now I feel blah.  I keep checking my phone, my myspace, I’m invisible on AIM.  Blah.  BLAH!  I wanna message him and say I love him, but I’m still mad at him.  I’m just hoping he doesn’t turn into … a bum.  Like he’s using his sickness as an excuse.  Blah.  But okay, I’ll think positive and believe him for now.  We’ll see how this fight ends.  He’s supposed to come over tomorrow so that should be fun!