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    Saturday, May 8, 2010

    Mega-Messiness

    This has been another ultra-difficult week. (That's an understatement, though it's difficult, at the moment, to come up with more-accurate diction/copy.)

    On and off, I've been faced with health issues (both physical and otherwise), intense anxiety, and all sorts of other stuff. I'm not going to go into any detail (at least not in this space!), but I do expect (through prayer, changes on my end, and changes in my situation) things to turn around, before long.



    I have like a million things taking place (things were already busy, before starting a [surprise!] full-time job this week), and I seem to continually be low on energy (Starbucks & Red Bull aside) - But I still believe I will get things done, for this course, and otherwise.

    Expect some posts, very-soon, with updates on these course assignments!

    Wednesday, May 5, 2010

    I am on campus, once again, and in Brookens Library... I wish I could work on the pending coursework right now, but it has been such a rough day week, and I'm feeling nasty, even more so this evening. (Am saving this entry as a Draft, as I'm feeling too sick-like to even compose good prose.... Okay well, now it seems decent enough to publish.)

    Will see you again soon! (I hope to be feeling better, very fast... I mean, VERY, very fast!!)

    Wednesday, April 21, 2010

    Where in the Midwest WAS Aakash?

    Please see my last entry (which I just NOW published! #fail #epicfail!!)...

    Those Midwest trips that I've been to (and which I got some video and photos) are:

    The MOCR 2010 Convention in Springfield, Missouri, the weekend before last (April 9-10th).

    Here is a Twitter-'log' of sorts... The marked Tweets are pertinent to this class, because video/media from them was taken (or they were @ the instructor! :-):

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11898163611
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11898412174

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11898922352 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11899002604 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11899338706
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11900543212
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11904252352
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11910400941
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11918507184
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11918610039
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11922313667
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11924179082
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11924383151
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11929625240
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11942898553
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11943062337

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11944807669 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11944953092
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11947839396

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11948058587 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11948058587
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11949284313
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11951105603
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11962223209
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11964445056
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/11967556874



    The ICRF 2010 Convention, in Chicago, Illinois, this past weekend (April 16-17th).

    Although: On Friday night, I got to see Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (a future presidential candidate!) in Lake County, IL. [There is an interesting story about this; Maybe later ;-]


    The Lake County GOP Gala, with MN Governor Tim Pawlenty, and the ICRF 2010 Convention (in Chicago):


    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12279421830
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12297573559
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12301651169
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12301935636

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12302067351 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12318243589 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12318840052 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12319745691
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12323682695
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12323682695
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12328367279
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12329441359

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12329567573 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12329777139 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12331017803
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12331813555

    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12357923922 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12358769769 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12360502163 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12361494417 -
    http://twitter.com/AakashRaut/status/12361522120 -



    Note: Sorry if this seems pointless - It's in large part to help me, as well!!


    As we are having a work period in this class right now (it's our April class meeting this evening!), I need to (now that I've gotten the blog up-to-date, though clearly have a LOT of progress to make, insofar as the assignments!) figure out this iPhoto & iMovie, etc... stuff!!

    Where in the Midwest is Aakash?

    Put my plan here...

    Note: While I saved this draft post (planning to outline this plan :-) weeks ago, I am typing and publishing this entry, while in our April class meeting... Right now, it is Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

    In the last class meeting, for this course, we watched the famous "Where the h*** is Matt?" viral video.

    The instructor went over iPhoto and iMovie, and explained how to use these, to "create a stop-motion video" (Assignment #7). [Note: Looking at that assignment now however, I see that we're to do this, "...from still images"!]

    I am planning to travel, throughout the CRNC Midwest Caucus states, for my current position, and my potential candidacy, this summer. I thought therefore, that I'd do a scaled-down (MUCH, much, much, much... scaled-down!! :-) version of that "Matt" video, with clips from my Midwest travels.

    Events I'm scheduled to be at include:

    MOCR 2010 Convention (Springfield, Missouri)
    Friday, April 9 - Saturday, April 10
    http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=372168568239

    ICRF 2010 Convention (Chicago, IL)
    Friday, April 16 - Saturday, April 17
    http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=265848353595

    WICR 2010 Convention (Madison, WI)
    Friday, April 23 - Saturday, April 24
    http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=336089036058



    At this point (as mentioned above), I've already been to 2 of these 3 events, plus an additional tangential one, this past weekend, while up in northern Illinois. I'll be posting a new entry now, with those updates (and link to some pertinent Tweets!).

    Monday, March 15, 2010

    Before it's over...

    TODAY is the Ides of March!

    BEWARE!!!

    Friday, March 5, 2010

    Retaking the Test!

    Perhaps, considering that this new weblog is for a college course, the title isn't the best! ;-)

    This "TEST" however (and this is only a TEST! ;-) concerns Twitter. [See the prior entry.]

    While it appears that that test failed to generate a Twitter stream, within a blog entry, I think that's because I was using the earlier Twitter "Badge" feature - They've now renamed it a "Widget" (which it was before, as well! ;-), but also it's been redone, with javascript.

    In my Blogger Dashboard (in the "Edit Post" panel, which lists the blog entries), after I've implemented this new Twitter-provided Widget, the entry simply lists some javascript code, beginning with: new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2... yada, yada, yada

    I was very-suprised (pleasantly! :-) therefore, that it actually did work, when I published it, in a new entry on the UIS GOP blog. (I visited that blog, and saw that it did load properly; I immediately deleted that entry there, of course, since it's my personal Tweet stream; we've never even implemented the organization's one.)

    I then published it (that Twitter "version 2" Profile Widget), into a new entry at my main blog - which has been my goal, as I explained in that last entry here... But as I neglected to explain, I have a long-standing policy of [almost] never visiting my main blog, as I don't want my own visits to up the hit count. (Yes, I know that's somewhat OCD-like, but oh well...) Since it did work, when I visited the UISGOP blog, I hope it's loaded properly, at my main blog as well.

    I just realized however, that the UISGOP blog uses post pages, while my main blog still uses anchor permalinks (I actually prefer the latter - and I hope to find a way to implement that [older but better!] feature here; unfortunately, this newer template doesn't even allow that, as an option). The only real reason I switched the UISGOP blog to post pages, is because the permalinks there, from the maystar designs template which I downloaded for it, never worked. (Many Blogger blogs had permalinks that failed, but I'm glad to say that my main blog never had that problem... Well, I won't say never, but that was more an archive-page issue, which was resolved, as soon as Google purchased Blogger, from Pyra Labs.)

    I hope that that fact (that my main blog uses anchor permalinks, instead of post pages) doesn't interfere with that newfangled Twitter Widget loading right. [Even if it does, I'm staying with permalinks there, as long as it's allowed!]

    You can let me know if that Twitter Widget works at my main blog, by checking it out yourself!

    =================================================


    This is only a TEST (but a Twitter Test! ;-)

    This is a TEST. This is the TEST, to see if it's possible to embed a Twitter stream (as is easy to do, on a web page, or blog sidebar) into an actual Blogger blog entry.

    (Unfortunately, even if it works here, that's no guarantee it'll work on my main blog - which is what I'm actually most concerned about, since I hardly get to update that weblog anymore, but do get time to Tweet... and though I do have my Twitter stream in the sidebar there, I'd like it as the top entry! That's because my main blog uses a "classic" Blogger template, unlike here - and I am one who does not like change! cc: Chris Arndt ;-)

    Still, this is a test. This is a late-night test, within my "Web 2.0" world (which I'm glad you've stumbled upon! :-).

    This is only a test.




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