The Watercolor Test

You Are Highly Colorful

You are intensely alive and very passionate. You are optimistic about the world and about people. You feel very connected to others, and you tend to be a harmonizing force. You are vibrant and receptive. You are ready for whatever the world has to offer you.

The Watercolor Test

Clicking it Old School, Part One

(Note: This will be an ongoing series of posts, though I am not sure how many or how often. Just as often as I come up with something on this subject. I will still be posting other random subjects as I come up with them, as I chose to make this blog about whatever I think to write on)

Finding others online before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter...

It's now been nearly 15 years since the Internet became of wide use to people, and I was in my final year of college in 1996-1997 (I'd had my old Macintosh Performa since Christmas 1995 and would have it for 10 more years) since I actually got into the online world. I can say I've done most of what the Interent had to offer in its original days. E-mail, chat (through chatrooms and AIM), and posting on Usenet first through Deja News then through Google Groups, after Google acquired Deja's Usenet archive in early 2001 (am still posting to some of these groups, especially the one for the group Yes).

One of the first sites I discovered was an e-mail directory called WhoWhere. Remember this? It was immediately one of my most visited sites in the early web days of the late 1990s. I put my then-current e-mail address on the site and would often look for random people, sometimes based on interests. I got a few replies. You were allowed to create a profile containing interests, hobbies, etc, and you could also write a personal message. I remember writing such a message in which I asked anyone I knew from school who finds me to send me an e-mail. Unfortunately, the only time this worked was with someone I never wanted to hear from again--can we please just leave at that? He said "I'm writing as you requested." Ugh, I though when I received this e-mail in 1998. About the only other e-mail I recall receiving from someone through this site was around 2001. I don't remember the subject, but the sender informed that he or she had found me in the "Lycos e-mail directory." Lycos had acquired WhoWhere in 1998. Here's what remains of WhoWhere now. I hadn't viewed the site since about 2002, so when I looked it up sometime ago, I was suprised to see the link above, with the logo that on the site when I first discovered it in 1996.

Another e-mail directory from the early Internet days was Four11.com, which Yahoo used for its people search before eventually buying Four11, relaunching it as Yahoo People search and discontinuing the original site. I used that one less frequently, but did include myself on this one as well. I managed to find a few people I knew from school on Yahoo, a few more than I found on WhoWhere.

And I discovered Classmates around 1997 and added myself to that one as well. It wasn't unitl 1999 that I started receiving e-mails form classmates who'd seen me on the site. One from a classmate who's been living in Minnesota (I live in the central coast area of California) whom I had not thought much about until then and and another e-mail form another classmate who informed me and this other classmate of our 10-year high school reunion that year (our 20th is this year).

This was how you found people you knew on the Internet in the days before MySpace and Facebook. Unfortunately e-mail directories did not get all the publicity that Facebook and MySpace would eventually get. Thus the chances of finding classmates on e-mail directories were hit and miss. Whereas today, about half the people in your high-school graduating class are likely to be on Facebook or MySpace, perhaps both. Classmates is amazingly still around, but I have never been able to afford a gold membership and almost never visit it anymore--come to think of it, I'm not sure how often I visited it in the beginning.

What Bathroom Product Are You?

You Are a Comb

You are expressive and outgoing. You like to experiment with your personal style. You are imaginative and very visual. You like to look good, and you're attracted to beauty. You are creative and design oriented. You redecorate often, and you like to make yourself over. You are inventive and extremely original. You do things differently just because it feels good.

What Bathroom Product Are You?

Almost a whole month with no posting

Only three posts last month and this is barely my first one for May. Is something like this just common, or am I just another blog deserter? Or am I just short on ideas to express--I say this is all I am. I check my blog list each day and don't always see others posting anything new. So I guess I am not alone. I'm the kind of person who likes to write but often has trouble coming up with ideas to write about. But every writer has that trouble. I believe at one point I'd wanted to become a writer, but that never happened and now I envy anyone who has become one and gotten published. I believe it's too late for me. I used to write when I was younger and have no clue what happened to all that I'd written. Only recently did I begin reading more than I once did. Perhaps if I tried, I could begin writing again?

"Twilight" cupcakes???

One blog I regularly follow is Zen Cupcake. I haven't made cupcakes in years--in fact, I'm not sure when I ever last made any! I made cookies recently. Maybe one day I'll attempt some cupcakes. I have a cupcake recipe book I bought from work.

When I saw this post today on Zen Cupcake-Bella Cupcake Couture--I for a second thought it was a reference to Bella from the "Twilight" book series. LOL!!! (I"m reading the final book right now). The popularity of the novel made this seem likely. Someone used "Twilight" as a birthday party theme. When I saw this idea and then saw the cupcake blog post and thought it was a reference to the character form the book, I thought how popular the books have been getting!!! They're becoming a popular theme! Well, I was wrong about the cupcake thing, but the birthday party idea was no surprise!

Two weekdays off from work...

...and what to do? I'm not used to having a weekday off work, let alone two in a row. What could I do? One thing I miss about having weekdays off is trying to get yard work done. After working all week I don't feel up to this sort of work, though I know it must be done eventually! And going to the store is always tough on weekends when half the town is doing the same thing. So I decided this was the perfect time to do some yard work and go to the store, actually to Target to get a phone card, since I need a new one by this Wednesday. I forgot to to then go to Safeway to get milk, but still have enough for tomorrow morning. Looks like a trip to Safeway is on for tomorrow. Most of my day was spent trimming the hedge and pulling out weeds. I'm still not done yet, but I got a lot done today and that's something to be proud of. I didn't get as slothful as I might when weekends are my only time to do such a thing. And every other week, I have to do laundry, so that makes it hard to want to work on the yard. So much work on a weekend gets tiring. I did laundry this past weekend so that leaves this coming weekend open for whatever I decide on.

What Type of Art Are You?

You Are a Drawing

You appreciate things that are simple and elegant. You believe that complexity is mostly used to mask flaws. You believe that art is about leaving more to the imagination. The best art isn't overly showy or flashy. It subtly beautiful.

What Type of Art Are You?