This Weather is Cra-zazy

It's almost 50 degrees outside with the rumor of it reaching about 60 by mid-day. My wife and I are almost done beating the crap out of a cold we were starting to get at the begining of the weekend and now we have to deal with this. We've been pumping ourselves with Orange Juice and Emergen-C drinks all weekend. I feel better this morning than I have the past two, so I have that going for me. I just worry about tomorrow. It's said to be around 35 degrees and rainy. That's when you need to worry about catching a cold, or catching someone elses, when the temp drops so fast like that.

Speaking of tomorrow being cold and rainy, I start a part time job tomorrow in the city. I'll be one of those mysterious people who type out the closed caption words for the subtitle track on TV shows. I really don't know much about it, but it's called "logging" and it pays more than it would if I got a job at our local walmart, and so far I'll only be doing it for two days. I'm not looking incredibly forward to it, but money is getting tight and sacrifices do need to be made if we're going to survive these times.

I'm for serious

I'm mapping out my plans for a complete overhaul of my website, scottstpierre.com. I'm in the severely early stages of learning Flash, but due to the simple requirements I've made for myself, I think I may be able to pull it off with the limited knowledge I've so far acquired. I've narrowed down my website's requirements to 5 key areas.

• News. This would be what most of you are reading right now. A simple link to my blogspot page.
• Links. This would have the tentonstudios.com link and ironically enough, my linkedin.com link as well along with whatever else I want to link to.
• Writings. Right now I'm bouncing around a few different titles for this section, but I think it's important that I start showcasing my writing in a more public forum. With the trouble the publishing world is going through right now, I don't see some giant company coming along and picking up a relative no name to gamble thousands of dollars to promote. Most of the content will be complete stories, but the larger works that I've completed will more than likely just be a few chapters with the full PDF available for sale through Paypal.
• Music. While I know for a fact that any sort of career in the music business is unlikely, I do think some of the songs I've written do have a smattering of entertainment value and that perhaps they might make at least one person smile, if only on the inside. If having a music section of my little ditties can do that to at least one person, then I think having a whole section devoted to it will be worth it.
• Gallery. I like to take pictures. Like most photographers I like to share those pictures with other people. This is the section I would share the pictures I liken to think people would enjoy looking at.

While there is certainly more to my life than being a wanna-be writer who used to write songs but currently enjoys dabbling in photography, I think my online presence is best limited to these things. If something unfortunate happens, like I lose my job, I will most certainly add another section titled "Portfolio" which will be filled with the pretty graphic images I have created for my current job.

The company seems to be doing well and since I've taken over photographing all of the product shots I'm saving them a ton of money when compared to how much the independent photography studio was charging them, so I at least have that value to my employment here. Buying the Adobe Creative Suite (mentioned in my last post) played a large part in increasing my value to this company. I think, in a lot of ways, that showed my boss that I am, indeed, dedicated to my position and would very much like to add value to my skill set. We're currently on a salary freeze, and though I was due for a raise last October, there is little doubt in my mind that I won't at least see my Creative Suite investment given back to me in my wage increase. In the least, it doesn't hurt dreaming. In this economy I'm just happy to have a job. I'll worry about an increase when I start noticing all my co-workers driving shiny new BMW's.

Whereas our hero talks of Adobe CS3 and the possibility of a free upgrade to CS4

After purchasing Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 last early September, I wasn't completely taken off-guard by the announcement of CS4.0's oncoming release. If the ideal situation presented itself I would have certainly delayed my purchase, but necessity took precedence over convenience due to an oncoming project I had to perform for work.
The last version of Photoshop I had used, prior to owning CS3, was PS7. The differences are like leaving someone who you used to love for someone who completely adores you and just wants to hear your whole story. Someone who's so completely willing to make the world an easier place to walk through.
I digress, my father-in-law suggested to give Adobe a call to see if I somehow qualified for the upgrade seeing as how I did purchase so close to the upgrade's announcement. I had already looked into it online and found that others had tried with little success. Hearing David's suggestion out load and not reading it on an LCD display made so much more sense than reading about other people's failed attempts. I decided to give it a go.
I spoke with Jillian, she was delightful, but not from this country. I even called her out on flirting with me. Anyway, she said she could make an exception for me because, apparently, she could peer into the future and could see how great a man I will become. This is merely my assumption as I didn't give her much to run off of in the present. I had to simply procure some proof of my prior purchase and make sure that information gets delivered to Adobe. As it stands currently I'm awaiting Adobe to approve of my documentation and to ultimately ship out my 4.0 upgrade. The question that remains lingering in the back of my head, assuming that they do actually send me the upgrade, is will it be the Retail 4.0 upgrade or the Student edition.
Not sure. I'll be letting you know, world. That's right. I know longer pen these for friends or colleagues, or for America. Scotty gone global, nay, Universal. I'll talk to anyone and am constantly happy to do so.