I've been running Windows 7 for a while now.  I really like quite a few of it's visual features, and some of them have even helped me save time, or just streamline boring tasks, but I didn't really fall in love with anything in it.  Until this weekend that is.

For a while, I've been looking for a way to cut down on the clutter of my movie collection for quite a while now.  I've tried various solutions for storage, and computer aided indexing, but so far nothing has really been quite right.  Realities of my current living situation (moving from 600 sq/ft to just under 200 of personal space...) have made finding that perfect solution a more immediate concern.

On a whim, I tried Windows Media Center, since I have a nice monitor fit for movie viewing.  The interface was basic but nice, so I dug around and found some posts on a plug-in for it called Media Browser.  This was my nirvana.

Easy sorting of movies, ability to collect data on actors, director, and associated artwork, as well as synopsis.  It wasn't perfect, but it got me interested.  Soon I was on the road to tweaking the setup to get as close to perfect as possible.

 The only real sticking point was when it came to getting actor pictures to display.  That took some mucking about in hidden folders, and editing of lines in a config file after downloading several batches of files for actor pics.

 Still, the whole process was a hell of a lot easier than tracking down all of the metadata myself.  Now that I've tested everything with just a handfull of movies in my collection, I think I'm ready to drop some cash on a couple TB's worth of storage.  Suddenly 600 gigs doesn't sound like so much.

Oh, and try not to judge me to badly on the movies in my collection.

Today was busy.  Picked up a friend, took them to their car, then spent most of the rest of the day working on the shed.  Made some real progress, and only fell once.  I don't recommend the experience.  Construction under high wind sucks.  Common sense would say don't do it, but necessity says not to be such a sissy, the ground is there to break your fall.
Little bit of finish work to be done, and some more to be done on the roof, but I'm not going up their while it blows like it has been today.

Tonight, I'll be sneaking off to some place quiet to get some homework done.  Have a take home test to do for math, and I don't want to leave it till the last minute this time.

My sister hooked my brother up with one of her friends not to long ago.  I don't think it really worked out from the get go, but just thinking about it lately has kind of driven another nail into the coffin of my social(?), or love(?) life.  Here is a person who is riddled with anger issues, has current and serious drug addiction problems, and is under investigation for neglect, and he's the one getting the hook up.  Oh, did I mention he's unemployed?

People have occasionally... very rarely talked of introducing me to one of their friends or acquaintances.  Never once has anyone made good on it.  My sister that made the hookup for my brother was one of those people.  So what can I take away from this?  I see assholes sliding easily into relationships everyday, and now this.  Two things possible.  Girls exclusively go for assholes.  Whether they know it or not, they are wired to find someone that is well equipped to club them over the head and drag them to a cave.  I know some women are like this, but I can't honestly think that about the majority.  Possibility two is that I'm not as compelling choice as societal waste.  I don't even score as high as an asshole.  I'm just not good boyfriend/partner material.  I'm moody, almost always broke, stalled out in my ambitions... I'm pretty much a fleshy placeholder.

That's what I've got.  It doesn't matter how I try, because what's the point?  It's all going to end the same.  Non-starter.  All efforts will yield a zero result.  It's time to accept that and just settle into a mediocre, tiny little life.

Just finished watching one of my favorite movies of my youth: The Wizard of Speed and Time.  I don't know why I get such a kick out of this movie, but I do.  Maybe it's just nice to see a real labor of love brought to life.  You can tell that the people involved with it had a good time with it.

Thanks to the whole interweb thingy, I decided to look some vids up afterwards.  Looks like there is even a following for some of Mike Jittlov's work leading up to the movie.  I'm off to start watching those clips now.

Finally began working on the replacement storage shed this weekend.  Started with my brother and I, ended today with my mother and I.  The sad part is that most of the know how is with my brother, and he just can't see a project through.  While I have no talent for carpentry, I am at least proving capable, and enjoy it.  Which is good because there is much left to be done.  Sheeting for one wall, framing the doors, and *cringe* the roof.  Thats even before siding or shingles are considered.  Anyway, good progress made on it this weekend.  I wish we could have finished everything up to the roof though, because now I know how I am going to spend my birthday this upcoming week... *sigh* Silly me to think that by taking it off I would get to screw around.
 
Picture above is the shed, my mom and brothers backs (picutre shy, fine).  A little more has been done since.

I feel like I'm losing hope again.  No, I am losing hope.  I started going to school again to brighten the outlook of my career, and shake up the patterns of my life a bit.  Once the glow of that wore off though, I'm back to thinking about my future.  Even "educated" I can't think of ever moving past an entry level position.  I did that exactly once in my entire working life, moving up to manage a store only to be fired two weeks later for a guy that had more people skills than I did.  Can't tell you how nice it was to find out that Mr. People Skills was fired later on when he was caught masturbating in the store.  A business that very much deals with families.  That was the guy I wasn't as good as.  Ever since then, I've never been able to move past well liked starting wage guy.  How is a couple of certifications and a Bachelors of so and so going to change that?

Then relationships.  Not just love, completely how I deal with people from top to bottom.  I want to meet a girl, and get a girl friend.  I don't even think about just making a new friend, I just see a potential love interest, and start the awkward up full throttle.  Every opportunity I have had to change this behavior I have failed to do so.  Having recognized part of the issue, I don't really expect any change.  I just don't have the patience to build anything real or meaningful.  It's painful to realize that I'm so shallow.  The bright side is that my emotional equivalent of ADD will have me forget all this eventually, and I'll be able to slip comfotably neck deep back into delusion that I just need to keep on trying.  Hopefully that will be real soon because it's an awful long life to have to live understanding such a glaring flaw in your character.

So really that's about it.  The same two things as always making me depressed.  I didn't change any of my patterns, I just changed some of the scenery

Bugger and hell.  My brother is an idiot.  His children's mother and him got into a bunch of trouble because neither of them have a clue how to deal with each other normally, and now they're not supposed to have contact with each other by court order.  Only, in their infinite wisdom they do.  Him, because he's an idiot addicted to her abuse as any drug he ever had a problem with, and her because she either doesn't know how to live without having her talons in somebodies flesh, or because she realizes that she pretty much screwed herself out of her money train.

So my mom went on vacation to visit my grandpa for the week, leaving my brother and  I to the house.  Specific instructions not to have her in.  Just the second night, I call to let concerned parties that everything is okay, then I walk in the door, and she's in the house.  I know a call has got to be made, but I decide to give the morons another chance, and let him know abso-fucking-letely not.  She leaves immediately, or I make a phone call I don't want to make.

I got surprisingly little resistance, since I'm usually a pushover in these situations.  This time, I had my phone in my hand the entire time, and my best poker face on.  I'd like to think that I made my case clearly, and concisely enough that it was pretty much trespassing, on top of ignoring a court order, but I'm worried that they just intend to go behind my back, and only have her over when I'm at work or class.  They don't realize that their is more than one person keeping eyes open.  People who aren't nearly as soft as me regarding the matter.  Not that I intend to be so soft in the future.  I've already priced out a IP security camera, and may just buy it tomorrow.  Before my mom left, I made sure installing it would be alright with her.

Now I'm feeling kind of down that I gave them a chance that neither deserved.  They've already been given many chances to wise up, to no effect.  It's a lose lose both ways.  See a family completely separated, and see bond money wasted, or let the dysfunctional status quo continue.  Well, hard choice to be made either way, but necessary so...

Okay, so I can be a bit weird sometimes.  I'm very particular about names.  A lot of management training, and even customer service training says to use a persons name to personalize a conversation, or even just a comment.  Nothing annoys me more than a stranger trying to build a rapport with me by using my name over and over.  Okay, that's a bit of a misnomer... lots of stuff annoys me more, but that's irrelevant right now.

I don't like people I don't know calling me by name that much.  To address me once, or to make a comment about me, fine but nothing more.  Putting my name into every sentence (or what feels like every sentence) to give a feeling of familiarity, no.  Absolutely not.  It annoys me.  I have no idea why.  Maybe I've read to many fantasy novels or fairy tales, where to give your name is to give someone power over yourself.  Maybe its just one of a million social malfunctions in my brain.

By extension, I do suffer a weakness of not remembering most peoples names.  People I've worked with for years, or used to go to school with.  Pretty much the only people that are safe from having their names forgotten are close family, and friends.  If your not a friend, I'll probably forget your name unless exposed to it constantly for some time.

Obviously something I need to work on.  If only to fit in better, but honestly if I want to develop a real career, my lack of "soft skills" is going to start biting me in the ass pretty soon.  I can't skate by on my unbelievable devilishly awesome good looks forever (yes, that was sarcasm).