Willo O'Brien

…the last 72 hours have been BUSY!!! I had a rush job come my way that took every little last second of my time. Had me up till 4am one of the nights, and yesterday – crunch time for getting the site ready to launch – I realized around 9pm that I was shaking because all I’d had all day was a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. I forgot to eat!

Needless to say, it’s a rewarding relief to say that it’s done & launched! And lastnight, after putting on the final touches around 11pm… I got to sit on my couch and eat a pizza and watch a movie. :) aahhh… Except the Netflix movie I got was skipping too bad, making me miss all the cute flirty things being said (which is like the best part!), so I stopped it & I’m going to have to return it for one that works. Has anyone else noticed Netflix DVD’s doing that more lately? Maybe I need to clean my DVD player?

::::

It’s been SOOOOO GORGEOUS out!! After the 2 calls I have coming in this morning, I really want to get out & take a hike up Bernal Hill (with my iPod, awww yaaa). However, I have an appt later today, so it’ll cut my workday short – but after all the work I put in over the weekend and the last few days – I NEED SOME SUNLIGHT ON MY FACE!!!!

Tonite is The Futureheads show – WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!

Have you seen the infamous flying pig error page on my site? Well, you would have if you’d ever clicked on a broken link, but let’s hope that’s never happened! :)

Truth is, it’s bound to happen.. hence the fancy custom 404! However, I was always annoyed with my own 404 page because it would totally redirect you to it – and if I had typed in the URL and got it only slightly wrong, it would redirect me and I’d have to type it in aaall over again. Annoying! Thing is, I thought that’s just how it worked! But when I noticed the 404 behavior on another site I work on didn’t do this, I realized what was happening! Turns out in my .htaccess file I had the full URL to my 404 page, instead of just a root relative link. Ah ha!! So I fixed it & now it doesn’t redirect! yay! Ok, geek talk is over.. sorry Sandy & Jem. :)

But, get this! It turns out the URL (to my portfolio, even!) in my email signature was getting sent out with some extra (invisible) character on the end of the URL, causing anyone on a PC to think the link was broken. aaggg!! I say only PC’s (and possibly only certain PC mail clients), because I’ve never experienced the error when I try to click on it using my mac, so I never caught it. Darnit! Thanks a lot Mac Mail! *raises fist!*

Oddly enough, over all this time, I had heard maybe 4 people mention it, and most of them only recently – which made me finally take some time to get to the bottom of it! But wait a second… Only *4* people cared enough to tell me about (fairly major) error, out of all the emails I’ve sent? Man! I send off feedback/fyi emails to websites, that I find broken links and typo’s on, all the time. Speak up people!

And for the record, I would like to personally thank Jeff and Burt out there who have showed exemplary WilloToons QA reporting.. you guys RULE! :)

Today I had to give Rick his LOMO back. He’s headed out on a business/vk to Europe tomorrow, and wants it for that. I’m not even sure where he’s going… I didn’t ask.

It’s so hard for us to talk to eachother now… and I didn’t even want to see him today. I had wished I could have just left it at the front desk. It’s just too difficult and akward. I know it’s painful for us both. Today was no different.

He walked up to the window and put a package down on the seat… and tried to akwardly explain that it had been part of my Christmas present. I barely remember saying Thank you… and looking back I can’t even believe I didn’t open it right there, or ask him if I should open it.. looking back I could hardly think… and just remember feeling like I wanted it to be over because I didn’t know what to say.

blah!!

He got me this really awesome book, Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion, and it looks amazing. I had to come home & start working on this deadline I have been working on all day, but I can’t wait to look through it.

I also need to write him some kind of thank you email. I’m feeling like a big baby about the whole thing… I think it’s just because I wish it would all go away and I don’t want to feel it or talk about it or him anymore. But I can’t… and I just have to wait for it to slowly fade.. or something.

Image credit (and title of this post) goes to: Exploding Dog.

Wow, I haven’t posted since last Wednesday.. yes (Dan, who needs to work on his site! :p), that is unusual for me! Thanks for the reminder… here’s a little somethin for you all.

So last week, on top of lots of work I did manage to go to a show! Surprising, huh? No.. that’s no surprise. That’s all I do! sleep, eat, work, show, sleep, eat, work, show. :) Not such a bad life I lead! Oh, and lately add a few more “eats” (which desperately needs to be balanced out by some “workouts”) and a few movies here & there, too! I’ve decided it’s important for me to up my movie watching quota, and I think I’m doing a great job! yay for me!

Ok.. so the show: Thursday night Jem & I had tickets to Xiu Xiu w/ The Dead Science. Wow, I haven’t even updated you on this yet!! Crap! I need to just start taping what I tell people, because 2 strange guys chatting it up with Lucia & I on Friday night heard the whole story. Quite entertaining, really… here’s the reader’s digest version:

Dead Science: So fucking weird, I loved them. Weird in a “the lead singer is probably a serial killer, but I wonder what kind of serial killing he does? poison? plotting for years, carefully cutting up into little pieces?” way. However, he had this endearing effeminate thing going on that made him a sweet, sweet, serial killer. I wanted to hug him and be his close friend. Maybe smoke a cigarette with him after his first kill? I was inspired! Not to mention the adorable long bang’d bass (even stand up bass, too) player on the right with the big fat polka dotted tie. The tie was big, the dots were small. And colorful. I loved his profile, and his big lips. mmmm. Lately I am obsessed with the lips on the stage. I stand in the audience fantasizing what they’re like to kiss. (why can’t we just kiss everyone?) And with the Dead Science.. I was entranced and giddy with how wonderfully weird they came off.. and that maybe just maybe 85% of the audience didn’t get them at all, but I did.. and I just wanted to hug them!!! Ok, so this is getting long, and probably sounds NUTTY, but you so know I don’t care.. so here’s the end of this grand story:

So after they’re done, I hit the bathroom and on the way out, lo & behold there is the lead singer! Instantly I gave him a little side hug squeeze and told him how much I loved him and though they were great. :) yay! I hardly ever get geeked out on a band like this… and this was a whole different feeling than say, for Communiqué, who I just want to ask the lead singer to come home with me. (oops, did I just write that?) I just really felt like these guys were up there doing what they liked and I liked it and that made me want to hug them and I did!! woohoo! So THEN! I keep walking and boom! “bass player, cute profile, nice lips, fat-colorful-polka-dotted tie” dude is walking towards me and – yup you guessed it! I told him how great he was, too! I didn’t hug him, I gave him more of the “soft loving squeeze on the shoulder”, just so ya know. But the whole thing was synergistic! I felt like I would have never been so geeky that I would have sought them out to say hello and give them my praise.. so it was wonderfully weird all on it’s own that “the universe” put them right in front of me so that I could shine my praise upon theee!!! hahaa

totally NOT readers digest, right there. jeeeshk! I knew it, I missed blogging! :p

Oh & before I forget – Xiu Xiu was really good, too!

UPDATE: Photos uploaded!! I thought I had lost these, but I found em!

::::

Ok…. so then Friday night was Hamell on Trial (opening for Rube Waddell) at (the very cool) 12 Galaxies. My friend Lucia came over for pre-drinkies… how fun is that?! I love pre-drinkies! I gotta start doing that more. It’s fun to get that pre-party action goin, and host friends here in my little home that I’m so often alone in… plus, the drinks are free!! weeeeee!!!

I had a tasty gin & ginger w/ lime – awww yaaa. 2 of em, actually. How’s THAT for savin money!? :) And Lucia had the house special: Bailey’s on Ice. mmmmmmmmmmm!

Hammell on Trial was INCREDIBLE!!! I had heard he has an awesome stage presence and that he does! He’s amazing on the guitar.. seriously mind blowing – and his lyrics are poignant and fast and completely entertaining! Lucia & I loved it & stood up front enjoying every minute of it!! I have some pics and vids – but of course – they’re not up yet. My Walkmen photos aren’t even up yet from a week ago! I’m so behind!!!

Ok, so that was fun – and Rube Waddell was fun. Totally diff than what I expected, even though I could have sworn I had some of their stuff.. but searching my iTunes proved me wrong. I love that I can check so fast! Anyway, the coolest part was that all of a sudden the crowd TOTALLY changed when they went on & we were instantly surrounded by these artsy, creative, bicycle rodeo, burning man types, except some of them looked like they were out of the 30’s or something (which rube waddell’s music lends itself too – prohibition, squeezebox, washboards, trombones and crazy drum set ups.. suspenders, hats, etc) really fun! But we only stayed for a few of their songs & then came back here to finish up the night right with a small after party. Who rocks the party?!

UPDATE: Photos Posted!

:::::::

Saturday I went down to Brisbane and saw an old friend and got to see their “treehouse”. Literally there house is *in the trees* cuz it’s the top floor and set up on a really high hill (and you have to walk about 65 steps up to their door!) Absolutely amazing views! And what did I do? I forgot my camera!!!!! oh well. :) It was still a VERY nice visit, and Sally made us all a very nice little brunch and we ate out on their amazing little deck where you can watch the black squirrels run their little courses from tree to tree.

Oh, bonus is that her boyfriend’s a huge geek like me (actually more, he takes apart iPods & stuff) and even works at the magazine, MacAddict! So we showed eachother our work & shared tips and stuff, and that was fun, too!!

Saturday afternoon I worked and worked until like 7:30 when my friend Jeff came over and brought me a shiny, new SD500!! woohoooo! I’m SO FRICKIN STOKED ON THIS THING!!!! We were supposed to go to dinner, but I wasn’t hungry (and a little out of it and stressed out from a day of work, i think, sorry jeff!). Then around 8:30 Lucia came over (yes, again :) I chose to hang around sweet Lucia all weekend, and I’m glad I did.. she’s so easy to be around and we had a good time!) and we geeked out a little on the computer (err, she watched a little while I finished up work) and then we watched a movie: I, Robot – which was good! Makes you scared about our future though :) Thank goodness we have Will Smith! ha!

:::::

Sunday – work + work and more work, with a small break for a matinee: The Animation Show at the Lumiere. Where I was met by 4 of my incredibly talented artist/illustrator/animator/painter friends:

Brian, Darren, Eric & Taylor

I hadn’t switched the setting before handing it over to an innocent bystander to take this… so it’s in “color accent” mode, that I had just set to blue (pulling it from the sky!) :) Pretty fun… awww yaaa new SD500!! :)

I got a great email from Brian today, who said Eric was joking it was like a version of Elimidate. And Brian added, “except ours was better because nobody threw insults, everyone had fun, and nobody got eliminated.” hahhaa!! They’re all very cool guys that I’m so glad to know. I used to not have any friends that were in the animation/illustration/graph/painting/filmmaking world… and now I do! yay! We all went for (yummy) Victor’s Pizza afterwards, and then I came home & worked some more. :)

UPDATE: Photos posted from some of the new color features on the SD500 & of the “Animation Crew” hittin the Animation show matinee.

::::::

This week is SUPER busy… one deadline after another, so I won’t be able to post too much… but I do have some fun stuff at the end of the week! Thursday night’s show: The Futureheads! Who I LOVE!!! I’m trying to talk my friend Stig into going, cuz I think he’ll like them.. but as it stands now there’s 4 of us going (Ted & Misty, you’re still going right?!)

And then Friday, guess where I get to go to?!?!?! THE PROM!!! And not just any Prom… we’re talkin 80’s baby! Sing it with me: “If you leave… don’t leave now… please don’t take my heart away“… it’s gonna be great! Ted & Misty throw a “Procrastinator’s NYE” Party ever year and it’s here. :) Should be a hooot!! I’m hoping I can fit into Hez’s fall back dress (her & Misty went nuts buying dresses on eBay – which is great for me because I haven’t had time to shop!).

UPDATE – PROM PHOTOS: View Album

::::

Oh, and Sarah‘s coming into town this weekend, too! AND I’m going to try to fit a drum lesson in this weekend since I have to cancel tomorrow’s due to deadlines. But all good stuff.. busy is good.

OK.. back to work! :)

hey there… i’ve been working on updating my search function. and so now it’s working swimmingly and the result links will take you directly to the post page*. just in case you were wondering…

*back through 2004 only… 2003 had to be trimmed back to only take you to the monthly archive pages, because the free search engine I use caps at 750 pages. I wish it did more, as even with how I’ve rigged it up now, I’ve only got about another 150 posts before I hit the max again.

Anyone know of a good search engine tool/indexer that I could install & customize on my servers? Free? And no, I don’t want Google search. Atomz is awesome because I can choose what I want to index, and rescan/update it whenever I want.

Also the search function on my fotki photos is working way better now, too. I figured out how to make it drop you into the album, except I have to keep updating the entry points as I create new albums. Also, I can only get it to search the first page… I mean, I could add all the subpages as entry points, too.. but that would take me waaaay too long UPDATE: I added em!! I’m such a geek.

I love this! the thought project.

Link via dannybunny who wrote a post about me: bunny willo!! so cute! Hi dannybunny! I’m honored, and glad to know a mutual exclamation point fantatic!!!! :) hahhaa

daniel is a web designer, too and just finished this cool site for t-shirts that I am loving! although I haven’t been diving too many times, I absolutely loved it & can’t wait to go again!

This goes out to Kelli, a long time companion and fellow member of Brownie Batter Lover’s Anonymous!! :) And to any of the rest of you who can value the sweet, sweet relief of this chocolately goodness.

Granted, it could also go out to Rick, maybe changing the heart to a broken one. And to Eric, who after having a conversation on the phone lastnight that sorta pushed me over the edge, I promptly decided it was about damn time I made myself some brownies!

And no, I didn’t eat ALL the brownie batter :) I did actually cook some brownies, too! yummm!!

Yes, life has it’s fantastic rollercoaster rides.. and, in my vow to be *fully human*, I ride with my hands up!!! Even if that means going from laughing out loud and smiling from ear to ear, to sobbing like a big fat baby because it’s scary and I WANT OFF!! :) It’s all the journey, of course… and beyond the thick of the mire, it’s a pretty miraculous one.

Noisepop just dug up a lot of feelings for me… reminding me of the last year of great shows. Seeing bands “we” always wanted to see. And the coup d’etat: Seeing Rick twice in 4 days. Mental note: Try to not do that anymore! It’s just still too tough. Out of site out of mind, for a little while more might be the best route.

It is always SUCH a pleasant surprise when I get emails and sweet comments from you all when I post about all the *real* stuff going on in my life. I certainly don’t write it for sympathy, although it does feel SO good to know I’m loved and supported when I feel so down.:) But, as I think you all know, I write here for myself… just to get it out of my head. I am always amazed at how much better I feel after I just give it voice, recognize it, and move on. It’s quite a normal and healthy process really. Some days are just better than others, that’s all! It’s cool though…. I’m riding it out just fine, and already have several dates lined up. Umm… with my couch, Netflix and Kettle Corn popcorn. :)

James hit it on the head by simply affirming that regardless of any wisdom and advice anyone gives another going through times like this, the truth is it just HURTS. Sho’ nuff!

And my Canadian Zazz Twin solidified our soul-sistership when she stated, “it’s easy to mistake the familiar as perfection when looking back on a relationship…” SO TRUE! and “…the lack of that sort of intimacy is such a rough adjustment. it blows.” You can say that again!!

I got a handful of wonderful emails and IM’s from darling friends and readers.. but I have to post this last one for me, me, me… because it just is so darling sweet and makes me feel so good:

“you remind me of all the happiness there is to be had if you only reach out and don’t judge and stay real. i am constantly amazed by your resiliency and pluck and just plain goodness. i am sending you huge hugs, and understanding of the getting-over-it thing. there are so many wonderful things waiting for us humans in the world… willo, i’m happy to say that you will actually deserve them.”

Stacey, do you think you could fit in my pocket? :)
::::

Earlier today I sat out on my sunny porch and took care of some emails, while Kazoobie explored our [extremely overgrown] garden. The rain has finally lifted up a bit and we have sunshine and blue skies! yay!! So in light of that, I will be double dosing the happiness meter by getting my ass to the gym later on for some much needed cardio (mental health pill) that will help lift me out of the thicket! Plus, I get to read my book! woohoo!!

Alright… I best get crackin on all my many many to-do’s… but remember: Hands up, eyes open & ENJOY THE RIDE!

I heart Misty… not only for her *hilarious* sarcasm, punchy show reviews and ability to make me giggle with just a look! (Seriously Misty and I have been at a show, in TEARS laughing over something ridiculous more than once. Usually over the loud music I hear her wrong, and what I actually think I heard her say is completely off the wall & hilarious.. lastnight’s is still making me laugh out loud!)

I love that I’ve found a new girlfriend in Misty who loves music, makes me crack up laughing all the time, and who is always giving me those “are you thinking what I’m thinking?” looks (which is usually followed by uncontrollable giggling).

I heart Misty big time for this super sweet shout out on her (new!) blog. It’s all the way at the end, but you should read through her reviews and the whole post, cuz she knows what the hell she is talking about.

Oh and hech hemm, just in case I haven’t told you… Misty’s [one of the] the bass players in my band. awww yaaaa, that’s right! :p Recently a friend was hearing me talk about Misty and “the band” and all of sudden said, “Wait…. You’ve got Misty, Jem, Hez and Willo?!” hahaaaa. Yes.. we’re all members of The Cool Name Club. Maybe that should be the name of our band. Other ideas I’ve come up with: Spits Out Licks (which was from Jem’s recount about a Dreyer’s Ice Cream taster who does that to save the calories), and other ones that are too dumb to list out here. But feel free to give us some ideas!

Also a big thanks to Jem for being there for me and listening to me go on about Rick here & there. She was closest to us both this last year… and still maintains a friendship with us both. Thanks for being a good listener, Jem, and the best show buddy a girl could ask for!!! xoxoxoxo

Other random stuff:
– I updated my Netflix Q
– If you listen to music all day, sign up on AudioScrobbler and then add me to your Network, so I can see what *you* are listening to! :)
– My friend Sarah is coming back for a visit soon! yay! Recently I updated some of the frames in my house with whatever (actual) photos I had lying around. Not many… I need to do a big Fotki order. But one of them that I did have, was one of Sarah & I that I love… here’s a photo of the framed photo. :)

Ok.. I’m really going to work now.

Awhile back I worked on a Flash project with a guy who lives in New Caledonia (which is a French colony in the South Pacific, in case you didn’t know). So, his native language is French, but he can speak/write some broken English, so we were able to communicate.

After we finished up that project, we kept in touch saying hello on IM every once and awhile. He had started a blog, too, but because is it’s written entirely in French, I couldn’t understand any of it! So I happened to run it through Google’s translator and then bookmarked it, thinking I’d try to pop in every once & awhile and get a glimpse into what he’s up to over there.

Well, as you can imagine the automatic translator can only do so much, and so what comes out is sooo funny! Check it out:

Hop, the next morning, small dej. Ooops, I did not take small a dej. Could I take a little milk to you? Thank you. Some biscuits? Still thank you…
Once the swallowed last, us here is assembling the “ground of volleyball”. Indeed a friend had bought a net of volleyball so that one can be made a “beach volleyball”. But the bag of it contained but much more thing makes, as by exmple of the flags to mark the corners… In short!

And I love this one.. it’s like some kind of alien wisdom:

Do it, take time. One calm moment, or time will not be counted to you in an environment favourable with relieving. Say me in comment if you succeeded in finding your goals and if they correspond to your current life. If so, you are lucky, if not like the majority of us, keep hope…

Read more of Xavier’s life on his blog here (native French)… or translated (which is way entertaining).