Snore. I'm at Kinko's right now, downloading a whole buttload of huge files onto their HD for temporary use. Why? Because I needed a Mac. No one I'm friends with has a Mac. No organization has a Mac to spare. But having to pay $12 an hour for Mac usage is not much for a 30+ hour $40/hour project I'm working on.

People around Marin County know of my skill in computers - I can make MIDIs, make websites, make animations, and diagnose computers in general. So I'm in the middle of a project for this one old artist guy - I'm making a Shockwave Flash animation for him. He uses a Mac, and I worked at his house. All was going fine until the trial period for Flash 5 expired... and I had nowhere to complete the project. I'd do it at my house (I have a "registered" version there), but I've got a PC, and, surprisingly, there's major incompatability between Flash PC and Mac development files. So I'm doing it here. My downloads are almost complete.

What I'm doing is a simple line-drawing animation - but without very complex coding, the only way I can animate a line being drawn is to go frame by frame and draw it. And at 6500 frames, this job is damn tedious. Sigh. Well, I'd better get to work.
8/4/2001 02:30:46 PM

Updates to this site will be in red. For example, I have added the About section, and changed the Midi section a little.

I just came back from a sleepover with my unit in camp, Aleph. I am a CIT (Counselor in Training) for the summer day camp at the OMJCC (Osher Marin Jewish Community Center), and currently I am aiding the supervision of 10 six- and seven-year olds. Yesterday, Aleph took a bus ride to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, where there is a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge. On the way back, I had a great talk with a fellow CIT about teenage attraction and relationship, or "love," as some teenagers foolishly call it. When we got back to the JCC, we had dinner (I tried a tofu dog... uh, yum), and sooner or later, we put the kids to bed, leaving all the counselors to hog the soda and cookies and to order pizza. Yes, kids, that's what your counselors do when you're asleep - party all night!

And now I'm back from camp. Overall, I've been having another great summer.

Now, about that conversation about teenage attraction and relationship. Heh. I've ranted about this subject before at the Midgar Swamp, but I think I've got my position in this issue a bit more figured out.

The CIT I was talking to on the bus asked me a question I answered previously in a CIT-only game of Truth or Dare, or as I like to call it, "Who Do You Like" / "I Dare You To Kiss ____." (Hell, those are the only questions really asked...) So I answered who I thought was the prettiest. I added an obligatory disclaimer before I said who it was, stating that I think this person is the "prettiest," or the most good-looking... NOT who I'd like to date or make out with. The reason I said this was because most teenagers base attraction, or "crushes," solely on appearance... not what is even more important (to ME, at least)... personality.

A few months back, I asked my friends about what was the one thing they were most looking for in a girl. One said legs, one said chest, one said face, and one said personality! Yay! This person who said personality, incidentally, is not that good-looking himself. I mean, he's obese. His own appearance probably affected his position, which is something I'll get to later. Anyway, from this little statistic I'd picked up from my own friends, it led me to believe that the majority of people don't care about smarts or people skills. That saddened me.

But once I'd gotten this message of the importance of personality out, I presented an interesting question:

Say there are two girls. One is an amazing, beautiful girl, and one is a not-so-hot-looking girl. Here's the catch: they both have the same personality. If my friends would pick one girl to be their girlfriend, who would they pick? It wasn't really rocket science; everyone chose the beautiful girl. But then I added a history to these two girls. How did they both achieve this personality? I'd assume it must have been harder for the ugly girl to achieve the same train of thought as the beautiful girl, assuming they're both happy. She must have gone through lots of teasing and being ignored, while the beautiful girl must have had lots of attention, allowing her to achieve her frame of mind more easily. Overall, the ugly girl must have gone through a lot of hardships in her life, and still ended up happy. I then asked my friends who they would pick.

After a little thought, we all still picked the beautiful girl. After all, personality isn't everything.

Ah, such a conclusion makes me want to sign my name.
8/2/2001 04:52:23 PM

Hello. My name is Jeffrey Faden. I'd rather not fully introduce myself here... instead, you'll find out about me within my web logs that I will write here in the future.

I've finished the basic design for my site, with two pages up... the home page and the Midi page.

And about the name: this website has nothing to do with Mario. It's just a "revelation" I've had, so to speak. Well, it's not such a surprise. Just think: a lowlife, fat, Italian plumber eating mushrooms and turning into "Super" Mario... Or eating flowers and spitting fire. There you have it. Mario is stoned.
7/31/2001 05:46:33 PM