June 26th, 2009 by Josh Martin
Now through July 11th, 2009, Microsoft is giving everyone who pre-orders an upgrade to Windows 7 a discount of 50% or more! With the retail price of Windows 7 set at $199 for Home Premium and $299 for Professional, this is going to be huge savings! For this limited time, Windows 7: Home Premium is only $49.99 (58% Off) and Windows 7: Professional is $99 (50% Off).
Retail stores all over the USA are participating in this huge discount event. Some of these stores include Amazon.com, OfficeMax, Walmart, Best Buy, and Costco. For a full list of stores, jump over to Microsoft’s Windows 7 Pre-Order Offer page. I, personally, bought my copy (today) from Amazon.com.
Windows 7 is the newest operating system in the Windows family. It’s older brother, Vista, had a very negative impact on Microsoft due to consumer reviews. Windows 7 will be focused on responding to those reviews and bringing the world something that “just works like you want it to.”
More information on Windows 7
Buy Windows 7 Now
Posted in Blog Updates | 1 Comment »
June 21st, 2009 by Josh Martin
The current state of AbsolutelyGeek.com isn’t something very engaging for the end user. Sure, the website is great for me — I’m documenting my life and the changes that happen to me throughout the years. Interesting for me, boring for you. I want to put the visitors in mind. Why should you be coming to my website and checking back regularly? Should you because you want to learn about my boring life? No! You should because there is valuable information on a website.
In an effort to create something more engaging for the visitor, I will be rethinking the content of the website. I want to bring more tutorials, articles, and informative blog posts instead of the boring life of a young adult. With this movement, I feel it is time to give the website a more interactive feel. The last design was great for a simple blog, but this new design will be aimed at something more pleasing to navigate. Something more fun to be on. Something to be a valuable resource.
I hope this revamp will soon become a bookmark in your web browser, a resource you give to friends, and a place to come when you’re bored, or a place to visit when you are lacking some inspiration.
My long-term goals for AbsolutelyGeek include hundreds of tutorials, downloads, and maybe eventually a community for members to share their ideas.
So please, give me a chance to give AbsolutelyGeek.com a new direction and check back frequently.
Posted in Blog Updates | 1 Comment »
June 3rd, 2009 by Josh Martin
Well… Not having a car is a real pain. So, I’m finally taking the plunge and buying myself a car. I have found a 2000 Ford Taurus SES at a local car dealer here in town. I’ve only been out to see the exterior (Which is very nice — no dings or rust) and I’ve been able to peek in through the windows at the interior. I’m probably going to go out tomorrow morning and see what the interior is really like. The nice thing is that it only has 90k miles on it and he’s asking $2,995 for it. Not too bad, really, considering another dealer in town had the same exact car with 150k miles on it and rust all over it and they were asking the same exact price! I almost got that one too — thank god I didn’t!
Krystal, my girlfriend, got her car there and a couple of her other family members got their cars from this dealer and they have had nothing but good things to say about him. Since I’m not that well educated on vehicles, it makes me feel a lot better that this guy isn’t going to take advantage of that. He sounded like a real sincere down-to-earth kind of guy over the telephone.
So, wish me luck everyone! Cross your fingers that I get approved for the loan and I’m driving my own vehicle in about a week!
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May 27th, 2009 by Josh Martin
I know I never posted this image on my website yet — whoops! — but I have gotten quite a bit of positive feedback on it. From family to friends to coworkers. I had a few people ask me how I did the image. Did I have someone take the photo? How did I get the dramatic lighting? How is it so clear and sharp? Did I use a professional camera? Within the next few days I will be writing up a walk-through on this image. I’ll show you a few secrets that I’ve learned using Photoshop over the years. And to answer that burning question, I used a standard point & shoot camera.
Posted in Portfolio, Tutorials | No Comments »
May 26th, 2009 by Josh Martin
Unfortunately, my vacation is finished and over with. It was very hard coming home. The scenery in San Diego is so beautiful and I already miss my family. It’s just so wonderful out there — it doesn’t even compare to this small little town I’m living in now.
There is always something to do in San Diego and not all of it costs money. A lot of things are free and if they aren’t free, they’re usually only about $1-$5. Nothing expensive. I just wish the vacation didn’t end so soon — but fortunately I will be living there one day. So I will get to see my favorite tree every day and all the beautiful mountains every day. I will have some photos of this trip soon. I didn’t take very many because I’ve seen most of it already. But there will be a few 
Now that the vacation is over, it seems like I have nothing to do now. School is done for the summer (I can’t afford summer term) and I don’t go back until September. Kind of sucks as I know this long summer is going to take forever and I want my BFA now. 
Work is kind of iffy right now. I’m trying to push my own numbers above and beyond what is expected, but it’s very hard. I’m trying so hard and getting no where. Along with that I had to see my two friends from work leave for Chicago. They’re “quite the item” and Nick has a career in Lasers at a place in Chicago so they are relocating to the Chicago area. I saw Nick for the last time yesterday and hopefully I get to see April one last time today when I go into work. She still has to drop off her store keys. It really sucks seeing them leave — it was fun to work with them.
Now it’s the summer time, I figured I would redo the website. Yes — again. I can’t stand looking at the same website every time I come to see whats new on my blog. I’m not sure why — I just can’t stand it. I like change. I thought about finding (or writing) a plugin that allows users to choose what theme they want to see while reading my blog, but I’m not too sure yet.
Anyways, there are some updates from what’s been going on. Since I’m going to have a little more free time during the summer I plan on writing some tutorials and creating some more artwork that are mine and not an outlined piece set out by a school :P
Posted in Blog Updates, College, Personal, work | No Comments »
May 7th, 2009 by Josh Martin
Wow! It’s May already in the year 2009! Crap, this year is going fast! I don’t have much to say in this blog post except one little bitty detail.
I got my drivers license! After years of fighting the license place, I finally have my license. I’m not sure if I ever explained the story here, but if you don’t know the story, you’ll just have to deal with it. I don’t feel like typing out the long story. But, long story short — I have my license!
Oh, right, and as of this blog post, there is only 7 days until I leave for my California vacation! Woot!
Posted in Blog Updates, Personal | 2 Comments »
April 28th, 2009 by Josh Martin
California, here we come! We’re down to 16 days until we board our plane bound to San Diego, CA! I’m very excited to go on this trip because I think both my girlfriend and I are in need of a vacation. We’re both feeling kind of burned out and I think it’s only appropriate for us to go down to California to forget about time, work, school, and other daily stresses.
One thing, however, is starting to scare me and that’s the Swine Flu. There are at least 5 cases in San Diego as of this blog post and I’m really hoping it doesn’t spread anymore. The last thing I need is to catch the Swine Flu! I was planning on wearing a mask on the plane until I get to California. You don’t know who’s been where at the airports, but apparently they have confirmed that wearing a mask does no good at all. So maybe I won’t be wearing a mask. I’ll just have to sanitize my hands constantly I suppose.
A new ‘law’ (for lack of a better word) has been passed which doesn’t let you have a free first bag checked. Everything costs. So, in an effort to save money, my girlfriend and I will be squeezing everything in one suitcase. Hopefully we can manage! Depending on how much of her life she is going to pack, that is. (Love you, dear!)
The only big thing we’re doing in California on this trip is going to SeaWorld. It’s only $60 per ticket, but well worth it. Other than that we’re just going to be relaxing on the beaches, swimming, and just having a fun time laughing with my grandmother. She is the most hilarious woman you will ever meet.
I just thought I would share my excitement with you! I’m so excited for this to happen.
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April 15th, 2009 by Josh Martin
Have you ever wondered why there are only 24 hours in a day? Why can’t it be longer — I have more stuff to do and it isn’t getting done in 24 hours! GAH!
My cat is very sick. She has been acting very unkitty-like lately and one day she started coughing and meowing from pain. I took her to the vet and the poor thing has a throat infection. I’m not sure how she got it, but she has it. She got a shot to cure it up and it was supposed to be improve her health by today (This was 3 days ago.) Turns out, she’s not doing any better. I had to call the vet today and she is prescribing some kitty pain killers to ease the pain. I feel so bad for her. I really hope she makes it through this. You can tell she is just in total pain. I don’t want my kitty to be in pain She is too cute to be in pain.
I’m still waiting on my Instinct that I won from work. I really hope I get it before I go to California on May 15th (Countdown: 29 days). The phone has GPS built into it and I’d rather have some peace of mind going down to the airport. Krystal and I are not that great with directions and we usually end up taking a wrong turn somewhere and it isn’t pretty when we get lost. My Sprint Rep’s boss has it on order — hopefully I’ll have it soon. My Sprint Rep is coming down to visit our RadioShack store tomorrow. Hopefully he will still be here when I go into work. He is coming at 1 and I go in at 3.
I’m doubting myself on Assistant Manager at RadioShack. I have been watching my numbers closely and they just aren’t where they need to be. I don’t have high enough numbers (in my opinion) to be an assistant. Then again, the store has been slow lately. The weather has been getting nice and a lot of people are just out and about having fun in the nice weather. Hopefully the store picks up a little bit more here soon so I can get some better numbers.
I found an awesome game that my mother introduced me to. It’s called Second Life and it’s exactly what it is titled; A second life. It’s amazing — you can do anything in the game. Get a job, design clothes, drive a car, talk to friends, do a hand stand, sing a live concert. It’s very neat. The coolest thing is that you can earn money which can actually be traded in for tactile money. Granted $1 in game is equal to .007 of a penny. But if you get enough going you can actually get some nice money out of the deal. Real neat! Go give it a try! I’ve made a lot of new friends and I feel like I’ve known them forever
My Computer Animation Production progress grades came through today. I have slipped from an A to an A-, so I’m going to have to step up the game and make my upcoming project so kick-ass my teacher will want to hire me for his own studio! Haha! 
I haven’t got my History of Animation progress grade yet but I’m fairly confident it’s going to be a B+. I’m just going to have to accept a B+ in that class — I’m still not very good with history. Some of the tests are very hard and challenging. Which is good, don’t get me wrong, but I have the memory of a dog. I read something and suck it into my brain but if — OMG I am craving a cookie right now.
I hope all is well with my readers I know there’s not many of you out there, but I know there are a few.
Peace!
Posted in College, Personal, Recommendations | No Comments »
April 5th, 2009 by Josh Martin
Okay! It’s time for some life updates. Those are always fun to write about. Boring for you to read. Fun for me to reread years from now.
Got a few issues to deal with lately at work. They’re not bad, but they are indeed issues. First of all, I’ve been offered Assistant Manager multiple times and I have to keep declining. When you become an assistant manager at RadioShack, you become what is called a Manager in Training (MIT). This is where you go through classes and meetings to learn how to become a manager. After you complete these classes you’re offered a store to be manager at. This is a problem for me because I will be leaving soon to live in California. I can’t be offered a store because I’ll be tied to that store and than I can’t move to California. Another problem I have with this is that I can’t become a manager because they work a minimum of 50 hours a week. There is no way I could juggle a 50 hour week job plus part-time college. No. Way. So I’m not sure what I’m supposed to. I think I’d like to become an assistant manager, but I just don’t think I can become a manager. I wish there was just a position that was “Assistant Manager” and you didn’t have to become an MIT.
School is almost to an end and it’s ending fast. This semester is just flying by. Fall 2008 felt like it went forever. I’m already registered for Fall 2009 classes which should be fun. I know one of them is Maya Modeling I, but I forget what the second one is lol. I think I’ll start taking 3 classes beginning Spring 2010. I might even register for a class at the start of Fall 2009 if I know I can handle work with school.
My internet is all screwed up. I thought I had the Conficker virus, but to my surprise I did a scan for it and there was nothing found. Windows Defender is now working and so is Windows Update. A lot of my websites won’t load though. So I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t been able to sign into Windows Live Messenger for a good 4 days now and by the looks of it this is never going to get fixed. So I might as well just start getting used to it.
That’s really all that’s going on. Not much if I think about it. Oh well. Anyway… Til’ next time!
Posted in College, Personal, work | No Comments »
March 20th, 2009 by Josh Martin
Well it’s that time of year again and I am doing my spring cleaning! I helped my girlfriend last night go through a lot of her stuff and we sent a lot to Goodwill and now I just have to work on my own place and we should be done! I have already sent two bags of clothes off to Goodwill so hopefully I can send some more stuff there. It always feels good to donate!
Now who is ready for some updates?! I am! Let’s do it!
I’ve updated some more sections of the website and I think I have my design pretty much completed. I just need to get the search feature done and it should be finished. I know I need to get that done ASAP because it’s hurting the usability of the website! I can definitely tell when looking at my statistics of visitors!
School has been going alright, I suppose. My test scores aren’t as high as I would like them. So I’ve been trying to get them up to par with how high I want them to be. I just had my midterm and I wasn’t very happy with what I got on my Animation History test, but that just means I’ll have to bring the rest of my test scores up to balance out that one low score (C – 74%).
I’m finally getting a full-time position at work! How cool is that? I’m basically listed as a part-time employee at work right now, but I am working full-time hours. So now I’m going to get some benefits which is nice. Hopefully that gets done soon! Also, speaking of work, I won my Instinct Contest! I should be getting a new Instinct within the next few weeks hopefully. The phone is on order!
Was there anything else to say? I’m thinking not!!
Peace!
Posted in Blog Updates, College | 3 Comments »