Last time Coldplay released a video, I kinda said that it sucked… and since I really like Coldplay, I felt bad! They’ve recently released a new video for their song “Lovers in Japan” and it’s awesome. Really! I caught it about a week or two ago when it was free on iTunes (you have to pay for it now, no thanks), but it hadn’t been up on YouTube yet to post it.

I love the effects, seriously. My only complaint is that I don’t think Chris is going to change his clothes (EVER) until they release another album, but hey, whatever works for you. Enjoy!

Guy: This day is just dragging on. Probably ’cause I’ve been here since four.

Me: Four?? What were you doing here an hour early?

Guy: I forgot about the time change. I thought it was tonight.

Me: TIME CHANGE?! *frantically looking for a clock* Wait, what time is it really?!

Apparently, technology is awesome, and my phone automatically adjusted itself at two a.m. like it’s supposed to. My alarm went off at the new time, I had had an extra hour of sleep without knowing it, and when I glanced at my wall clock while getting dressed… I guess I only glanced at the minute hand!

This is all probably a good thing because I always stress about time change. Wait, that was today, right? Did I look at the clock I actually changed? CRAP, what if I’m the only idiot in the world who changed their clock and it’s really NEXT WEEK??

Today I opened it. I’m not going to post the entire thing because some parts are kind of personal, but a lot of it was a pretty interesting look into who I was and to who I hoped to become.

Current
Age: eighteen
height: five six - ish
status: single and not looking… too much.
hobbies: web and graphic design, blogging, writing, crochet, sewing, DANCE

The basics haven’t changed, except now I’m 21 and don’t have time for the crocheting and the sewing very often. I don’t dance as much as I think I used to, either… which makes me kinda sad.

Well. I’m writing to the me three years later. I’m currently eighteen, and stuck between high school and college. I graduated last spring, and I’m planning on starting at the University of Central OK in January. Major? German Education.

This depresses me, because three years later, I’m still stuck. UCO never happened, and I’m more rusty in my German than ever before. And  now that I think of it, I remember making a New Year’s Resolution this year to really get with it when it comes to school… and I haven’t.

I still live at home with both of my parents. Tegan is thirteen and is a complete tomboy. She has a “significant other,” as much as you can at that age, and his name is Caleb. He’s fourteen and goes to the congregation we recently left: B’nai Shalom.

Still living at home, and Tegan’s still a tomboy. Caleb’s just a friend now, and I can’t believe how old we’re all getting. Thirteen and fourteen seems so LONG ago!

Stephen is seven and in second grade, and Abby is five and in kindergarten. Steve is generally quiet, sweet, weird, and more cautious; Abby is loud, bouncy, intrepid… and also weird.

The kids are in fifth and third, respectively. They seem to be still the same kind of people, except my brother has simultaneously grown a little cooler and a little… girlier simultaneously. Abby’s grown a flair for the dramatic, being the baby of the family.

I have three cats and a dog: Zoe, Chloe, Tia, and Dixie… respectively.

Zoe and Chloe are still here. Tia gave birth to Jack, Jamie, and Mouse before she went to live elsewhere. We got another dog, Tobey, and later Dixie ran off. We never saw her again. Most recently, another dog Duke followed my sister home as a puppy and here he stays. Three cats and a dog to five cats and two dogs!

I’m definitely single, and while I have my eyes open, I’m not really looking. Perhaps that’s because I’m not really expecting anything because I don’t want to be let down later. So goes life.

Nothing’s changed here one bit.

My favorite music is anything you can dance to, as well as a lot of christian music. And my Newsies soundtrack.

Now this has seriously changed. I’ve really branched out, musically, in the last three years, and I’ll pretty much listen to anything that doesn’t have awful lyrics. I listen to a lot more mainstream alternative than anything else, and my favorite groups at the moment are probably Breaking Benjamin, Lifehouse, Coldplay, The Goo Goo Dolls, and Shinedown. Dance music is still good, but just for dancing, and lots of the Christian music has taken a backseat; while I still listen to it, it’s nowhere near my top ten. I’ve realized my love for techno/electronic music to an extent, and while Newsies is still on my iPod, it’s mostly played when I’m desperate for sleep.

As for my friends… my best friends as of now are Becky, Lisa, and Ann… followed by (in no particular order) Amanda, Hillary, Jessyca, and Caity. (Sidenote to Me In Three Years: has Caity gotten herself married yet? And has Amanda? As of now, Caity has about three years until marriage and Amanda is waiting for her proposal).

Becky and Lisa still, definitely. Lisa’s actually married now… I guess I never thought that was coming so soon! Ann’s gotten busy, and so have Amanda and Hillary. Amanda is married, by the way, and I think Hillary’s engaged. Jessyca I haven’t heard from in a long time, and same goes with Caity (who is not married, as far as I know). Other than becoming pretty good friends with James, that’s pretty much the friends I have.

A typical day right now is spent scouring the internet for scholarships, working on my yet untitled story, and goofing around with webdesign and such. I love forums; I’m part of too many to think about.

Yikes, I sound so very lazy. I still spend a bit of time on the Internet, but the time is mostly spent running my own forum (though I think I was probably running Hitherston at the time? Was I yet?), procrastinating on redesigning my portfolio, and blog-hopping. That’s still kind of sad, though. Just think… I probably hadn’t heard of YouTube yet. The story, by the way, had been titled soon after, but still isn’t finished… and I don’t think that I ever will.

Now, typical days are spent mostly at work, some Internet time, and whatever comes my way.

That’s really all I can think of right now. I’m sure there is so much more I will have wanted to remember, but it’s so unimportant right now.

Where do I expect to be by the time I read this email? Most of the way through college, pretty much. Still single, of course. How old will I be? Twenty one. Yeah, still single as… well, a lost penny. Or something.

The weird thing is, I do remember writing this last line. I sincerely hoped, as I wrote this, that I would be looking back at my old, single self, thinking “Mel, how could you ever doubt?” in my non-single, smug way. Ha!

More head-shaking on the “most of the way through college” line. I’m kinda disappointed in myself. I thought I would go so far, and here I am standing in the very same place. I feel like I’m mostly the same person, looking back at this time capsule, and that’s really a let-down. I don’t want to be! If I don’t do something drastic and soon… I’m going to be stuck like this forever!!

I’m going to see if that website still takes these time capsule submissions, because I want to do this again. I want another email in 2011, when I’m 24 years old, and this time, I want to be able to blog about some real changes. I want to look back at 2008 me and laugh. I want to think “wow, was I ever there?” instead of realizing I still am.

• Sukkot was terriffic. We went (by ourselves, alas) to a campground in Sulphur OK and just had a nice relaxing time. It wasn’t “exciting” in the traditional sense of the word, but I got off work for six days, got to sleep in, got to stay up late, and I saw the Milky Way for the second time in my life.
• The Internet broke for a while. The good news is, when they sent us a replacement, it came with wireless… and my new computer (unlike the old one) came with WiFi!
• Work is going great. I honestly really love my job, even with all of its day-to-day frustrations.
• Dearma (my grandmother who I’m really close to) is coming down in December and staying clear through Hanukkah into January. Yippee!!
• It’s almost time to open up an email time capsule I sent three years ago, in 2005. Just a few more days! When I open it up, I’ll be sure to post something up here.

So between Sukkot and a broken Internet, you can see why I haven’t been around much. Everything’s working great now, though, so while this isn’t a promise I’ll be around more… I’ll try much much harder.

The lyrics, by the way, are from Cemetaries of London, a pretty darn catchy song.

* you can click with your scrollwheel in most modern browsers to have a link open up in a new tab while you keep reading. I often go through entire articles this way.

Downloads and Resources

400+ High Quality Patterns

Patterns can be found every where. Most commonly we can see them in fabric and wallpaper, but they also make great visual elements for web design. Here is a collection of patterns of all shapes, sizes, and color. Some are images, and some are pattern files for Photoshop and Illustrator.

Fawnt.com

Fawnt is a font resource for designers, developers, and anyone that appreciates the web’s highest quality fonts.

Worn and Torn Edges

A while back I had posted a pack of worn edges on my portfolio site for people to download and use in their designs. Lately, I have noticed that some of them are showing up in designs featured on CSS galleries. Seeing this made me think that they might actually be useful.

BgPatterns

Create seamless backgrounds using a variety of different symbols, textures and colors, or just select one from a gallery of user-created patterns.

Tutorials

ABC To Manipulation (DeviantART)

A lovely 10-part tutorial series on DeviantART which tells you completely everything you need to know to create fantastic manipulations. It includes detailed explanations, large examples, interviews from other artists, recommended brushes and textures, and a complete walkthrough. Link is to part 1.

Create a Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design

Design a simple but nice vintage pop art piece with some wear and tear. I’m not a huge fan of the dog-man-thing, but the texture and effects are pretty cool.

Colorful Glowing Text Effect

This is a wondeful little style that could easily be integrated into any dark graphic design where some upbeat text is needed.

Snail Race Photo Montage

I don’t know that I’ll need a picture of a snail derby, but it’s got a lot of photomanipulation tips that would come in really handy, like matching the coloring between two different stock photos.

Just for the LOLs

Tee Madness - Sketch :: Life :: Sketch - Hilarious idea for a T-shirt, perfect for any designer with a frustration for that monster known as Internet Explorer. I would completely wear it; it had better come in standard geek-fare black.

Garfield Minus Garfield - A classic. Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.

Photoshop Disasters - Some people should not be trusted with a copy of Photoshop. Sadly, most of these people work for magazines and make movie covers.

20 Funniest Newspaper Headlines Ever - “Caskets found as workers demolish mausoleum.” No… really?

Well, that’s all for now. Some of these may be a bit old, but only because this is the first post like this I’ve done. I’ll be collecting all through September, and expect it to be an awesome post. Hope you all enjoy these!

But the actual music video they released for the song ruined it. Ruined the whole song. What the heck were they thinking? The whole thing is so awkward to watch. I’m almost embarrassed FOR them. If they would have made the entire thing look more like the iTunes commercial (since it’s obvious that it was most likely filmed at the same time; they’re wearing the same stuff), it would have been a huge success.

In all fairness, the old laptop is now going to Tegan (my younger sister). and it was a loyal help for the past… oh at least five years. But the hard drive was small by modern standards, the display was painfully cramped when trying to do anything useful (Photoshop, anyone?), the CD drive was about shot… and the dumb thing would overheat unless I had it on a desk, propped up, with a fan blowing directly underneath. No wireless, nothing.

So now I have this shiny new laptop. Three times as much memory, twice as much screenular real estate, huge hard drive, and I’m over the moon. There’s only one setback… Windows Vista.

I’m a complete Mac fangirl and an XP loyalist, so I was expecting to loathe Vista right from the get-go. But you know what? It’s not so bad.

I mean, the “are you SURE you want to run this program??” gets kinda old fast. The sidebar is annoying and the folder structure takes some getting used to. I only opened IE7 long enough to get Firefox fast, but the five minutes I spent in there weren’t as bad as I thought it should have been. Things install quickly. Drivers are found automatically. You can change the background color in Solitaire. Everything is bright, friendly, and looks very polished and well-designed.

So yes, you heard it here, from a girl who swore she’d never switch from XP unless it was straight to OSX… Vista is not as bad as they say.

I also think it’s weird how you can look at your own music and thing “hmm… that’s eclectic. What kind of person am I, anyway?”

Anyhow, all this to say, here’s the top ten most frequently played songs on my iPod. Think whatever you’d like.

1. Blind - Lifehouse
2. Breath - Breaking Benjamin
3. Whispers in the Dark - Skillet
4. Your Guardian Angel - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
5. Viva la Vida - Coldplay
6. 9 Crimes - Damien Rice
7. Black Balloon - The Goo Goo Dolls
8. Broken - Lifehouse
9. Congratulations - Blue October ft. Imogen Heap
10. Things I’ll Never Say - Avril Lavigne

What this says about me? No clue. It says I’ve got a short attention span when it comes to music. Anyhow, you should listen to each and every one of these songs, because they’re amazing in their own right. Go. Now.

Edit: I just realized there’s not an ounce of Relient K in that list. Tastes change, I guess?

Some of you may know that I’ve been the administrator of the semi-official Camp Yeshua Forums for the past… oh, just under three years. As of late, I’ve been sharing it equally with my good friend James. A month or two ago, he called me up to tell me that CYF was starting to look kind of abandoned… buildings were falling down, trees were growing up, and the natives were running amok.

This somehow turned into not only a project to get CYF cleaned up, but to give it a clean slate and turn it into something bigger and better. Which we did, by birthing a new forum in its place. If any of you have been around long enough to remember Transitionalstate… it’s like that. We have such awesome plans for it, though, as this incredible community of Messianic believers from all over the world. In less than 48 hours of it being open, we gained 25 members and over 600 posts. It’s going to be very exciting!

But all that to say… now that it’s up and running smoothly, I may have a couple of minutes to work on this and my portfolio as well. I’m back into this Internet thing running!

And so without further ado, I can present Rejuvenated Generation, or ReGen for short.

Aside being designed so well you want to gobble it up, it was a pretty cool list. Now, some of the stuff you’d never catch me doing (spend the night in a haunted house, blow a month’s wages on shoes), and some of the stuff I have done (make a baby laugh, learn to play a song)… but it’s a long list, and there’s a lot of stuff on there that I think would be really awesome to do (give my lunch to a homeless person, spend a week at sea, give an emo a big sloppy kiss).

Advertisement aside, it’s a lot to think about. We’re not on this earth for long… let’s make the most of it!

Right at the beginning of lunch, this older gentleman came in and just sat at a table. We asked him if we could help him, but he told us no, he was waiting for his partner. About twenty minutes later, I saw him jump up (and I’d say he was probably seventy or eighty, no easy feat) and hurry towards the front door. He had seen his wife pull up and was going to open the door for her.

While they waited for their food, he held her hand across the table. He got their drinks and she got everything set up just how she knew he wanted it.

I don’t hold high hopes of ever getting married, but if I do… and I get old… I hope to still be this much in love.

She came in this afternoon wanting a sundae. She came and looked at every single flavor of ice cream, pondered over every entry on the menu board, and finally, after making me stand there and wait for her to make up her mind, she decides to order Old Reliable: the hot fudge sundae.

“But hey,” she protests as I’m about to start her sundae. “I don’t want no nuts.”

Okay. Maybe I’m a grammar snob. Maybe I grew up a stuck-up Yankee who believes in double negatives. But if you don’t want no nuts, that means you do want nuts.

I resisted. You should be proud of me. But seriously, what do they teach in schools down here? “I didn’t hear nothing.” “She wasn’t using no spoon.” Come on!

We haven’t been able to pull it away from him yet.

He’s not overly tech-savvy, but you had better believe that within five minutes he had iTunes loaded on to his computer, busy importing all of his music files, with the first twenty or so already loaded onto his iPod.

Today he came home and hopped straight onto his computer. “Mel! Come here!”

I went in to his room to see him triumphantly holding up a green card. “What is it?” I asked.

“25 iTunes dollars,” he replied. “Some guy gave it to me when he saw I had an iPod. What can I buy with it?”

“Music,” I responded. “99 cents a song.”

I have never seen my dad so happy. Who says iPods are just for young people and Apple geeks?

In the past, I’ve done a lot of web design work, and wanted some kind of portfolio. This way, someone could ask to see the work I’ve done in the past and I could point them to a URL and tell them to look around. The URL had been Melilyn.com, which housed a blog and a portfolio. In the last couple of months, I’ve hesitated when it came to running people by there. It’s my blog. It’s personal. It’s not necessarily the kind of stuff that boasts “THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL.” This is why I decided I needed a separate portfolio.

This is not that site.

Melilyn.com has actually morphed into my portfolio site, and now Retrophobic is a brand spanking new blog. It’s pretty much a continuation of my previous blog (in fact, I’m devising an archive system for my old Melilyn.com posts), which will hopefully be updated more often. So go ahead, update your bookmarks and your feedreader, and we’ll settle in for what should prove to be an interesting ride.