Last Chance

So I’ve been trying to do this audio player in Flash for the past week. It’s the first time I have ever worked with Flash. Anyway, I was having issues (searched for specific coding, it wouldn’t work, etc. etc.). I came across this forum, FlashMove.com. Here’s my post:

“Hi! I’m very new to Flash, and I have a few questions about an audio player I’m making. I’ve been using Craig Campbell’s tutorials at SchoolofFlash.com, if that makes any difference.

1. I want it to load the songs from the XML file. What’s the code for this?

2. I’m wanting it to show the playlist below the buttons and volume controls, with a scroll bar, so viewers can browse the various songs. What’s the coding for this?

3. For some reason, using Craig Campbell’s tutorials, the volume slider won’t work. Here is the .fla file; would someone please take a look at it and let me know what’s wrong with it?

4. What is the code for previous and next buttons?”

Granted, I didn’t say how long I’d been working on it, but here is a response I got from one of the moderators, M. Allen West.

“So what your saying is.

1. I did not look up anything, research, or try to do any work myself.
2. Will some one do all the work for me.
3. I have code that some one made, but it does work.
4. so will some one write all the code for me, and do all the work for free.

I would say no. If you want help, do some work first.”

Wow, right? I’ve searched and searched and searched, and nothing is working except the parts from the tutorial SchoolofFlash.com. Here’s my response to Super Moderator M. Allen West:

“Are you an ass to all the newbies, or just me?

I have been working on this player for a week now. Nothing I’ve tried has worked, except for the coding straight from the tutorial (minus the volume control). Excuse me for thinking I’d be able to get help in a forum. Apparently that’s not what the newbie forum is for, even though it says it is.

Great job, super moderator! I’ll be sure to tell people to stay away from this forum if they are looking for help.”

So yeah. If you ever come across FlashMove.com and need help, don’t even try.

I also logged a complaint with the administrators:

“Just logging a complaint against one of your moderators, m. allen west. Here’s the thread where I asked for help and he, instead of pointing me to something that could help me, made smart ass remarks: http://www.flashmove.com/forum/showthread.php?p=129976. Granted, I didn’t say I’d been working on this for a week during the first post, but still, his response was uncalled for.

If all your moderators are like this, I feel sorry for the members who stay here for whatever reason. I guess it was too much to hope for that I, a newbie, could get help in a help forum for newbies. My mistake.

I’m deleting my account here after this is sent.”

I’m sorry, but things like that piss me off. I was asking for help in a help forum, and all I got was smart ass remarks.

This is an excerpt from my book, Guide for the Young Single Mother. It’s only the first draft; I’ll be adding to it and re-writing parts of it when I get to editing after I’ve finished the book’s first draft. This is copyright Kiara Joy Gilbert, 2009.

Baby blankets are an important part of your baby items. I like having as many blankets as possible; depending on the number of children you have, it may not be possible for you to do laundry every day, or even every other day. Some days babies will go through three or four blankets; other days, only one is needed. When both my children were sleeping in bassinets of a Graco Pack’n'Play, I would tuck a blanket under the sheet for a little bit more padding. With my second daughter, this was a most; after two years with my oldest daughter, the mat wasn’t very comfortable to lay on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a poem that will be in my anthology of parenting poems, titled Poopy Diapers (And Other Parenting Poems). This is the poem that inspired the title of the book. Poem and book are copyright 2009, Kiara Joy Gilbert.

Poopy Diapers
Oh, poopy diapers!
How I loathe thee; let me count
The ways that I feel.

Hey there. :) So it’s been a while since my last post (over a month!). Life is still good. I’ve had some curve balls thrown at me the past few weeks, but everything is starting to calm down.

Today has been spent playing with my daughters and updating this website. I changed the layout yesterday; it’s the first Wordpress theme I’ve ever created that I am 98% happy with (for some reason, the shadow on top won’t show up). I also changed the radio player from radio.blog to PremiumBeat; in some ways I like radio.blog better. :/ I’ve also put a new page up under ‘About’ titled Projects. This will be where I list all my websites, craft projects, web/graphic design and writing projects. I also added Google Ads (in the sidebar to the right, at the very bottom).

I started writing another book yesterday, titled Mommyhood at 20. It’s about my experiences with being a young single mother and the misconceptions people automatically associate with it. I’ve gotten the outline done, and I’ve started the first draft. I’m also still working on Guide for The Young Single Mother: What You Need to Survive. I’m giving myself until April 2010 to finish it.

I entered Century 21’s The Path to Your Dreams sweepstakes. I’m praying that I win; anything that I could put into a savings account for a house would be fantastic, because then me and my girls could move out of my grandmother’s sooner.

I’ve opened an Amazon.com store here. When people purchase something from my store, a portion of the proceeds will go to me.

I’ve got about thirteen articles I need to go through and edit before adding them to the content section. I may end up completely re-writing some of them, but oh well - it’s good practice, right? :) I’ve also started writing short stories for a children’s book anthology, and poems about the joys and tribulations of single parenting. Once I finish getting the children’s book written, I’ll start looking for illustrater(s).

A week or two ago, I sent an Order of Paternity to the attorney state general of Texas. That one was for Mike on Ariel, and I’ll be filling one out for David on Alex within the next week or two. I’m also supposed to go to court about my dad’s child support; me and my brothers are all over the age of 18, but at least in the state of Texas, if you owe back child support (read: you didn’t make all your payments), you still have to pay it. The Texas Rangers are looking for him to arrest him. If I can get child support started from my father again, and child support from each of the girls’ fathers, as well as making some money from freelance writing and the Amazon store, I can open my baby boutique (Head to Toe) and my as yet untitled organic bath and beauty etsy shop. If need be, I could also get a part-time job. With money from all those things, I’m hoping me and the girls will be able to move out within the next two years. This house is just way too small for three adults and two kids.

Well, life’s been pretty busy lately. Alex will be two months old on the 21, and she’s already acting like a much older baby! Let’s just say, most babies do not sleep through the night this young. She does. I’ve started using that Johnson & Johnson Bedtime Bath stuff with both the girls, and it really does help them sleep easier and better. I love it! I’ve even got the nightly routine down pat (not so easy when you’re a single parent): I give Alex a bath, put her in clothes that cover her from the neck down, give her a warm bottle and asleep she goes! She usually falls asleep about nine, and sleeps until nine or ten the next morning. Since she sleeps so much at night, she’s awake most of the day, which is fine with me. After she falls asleep, I get Ariel bathed, dressed and put down, and she sleeps until an hour or two after Alex wakes up, which gives me a little time to focus just on Alex.

Alex’s father still hasn’t seen her. I always thought Ariel’s father was the biggest jerk, but at least he had the decency - and the balls - to show up at the hospital. Of course, I had Ariel late at night, so most of my friends weren’t at work or in school (like when I had Alex).  It was a friend of mine who called Mike to tell him I was having the baby; I didn’t call David until after they moved me to my room a few hours after I had Alex. But still, he knew where I was. He could’ve showed up.

Anyway, I digress. I have my check up in about a week, so that makes me happy. I’m already doing some light excerising; I’ve decided I want to learn how to belly dance! It’s an awesome workout (have you see the abs on belly dancers??), and it’s low impact, unlike lifting weights or something. I have weak knees, so I needed something like this. I’ve wanted to learn for years anyway, and now I have good incentive - I want to lose ten-fifteen pounds by Mike & Chau’s wedding in August. I picked up a belly dance work out DVD a few days ago from someone off of Freecycle, and I’m picking up some belly dance clothes and some more DVD’s this weekend. I also ordered two DVD’s this afternoon and I  should be getting those within a week or so. I’m going to work out once a day Monday-Friday; every day I’ll do a different DVD, so I don’t get too bored. I’ve been working out while Alex naps during the day, and Ariel stands near me watching - she even tried to copy me today, it was so cute. I’m already a healthy eater, so I don’t need to change anything in my diet.

I got a new cell phone! I have a Blackberry Pearl 8100 now. My Samsung flip phone broke, and I was already supposed to get my sister-in-law’s almost brand new Pearl because she upgraded to the Curve when it came to T-Mobile. I love it! :)

The past few weeks, whenever I wore my foundation, my skin’s been really itchy. I thought I had developed an allergy to it; but no. It was dead skin. After scratching my face a few times, I looked in a mirror and saw that my scratching had caused patches of dry skin to show up on my cheeks. I’m assuming that’s why I was so itchy. I ran out of my normal exfoliating face wash a few days ago, so today I used salt and baby oil.

Yes, you read that right. I got the idea from a spa treatment I learned in massage therapy school (salt and massage oil or lotion). I just put some baby oil in the palm of my hand (I have some that smells like lavendar), added some salt, mixed it while it was still in my palm, then rubbed it onto my face where I have dry skin. The baby oil softens the dead skin, making exfoliation easier, and the salt is what actually takes the dead skin off. Another benefit: if you only wash the salt off, and leave the baby oil on, it moisturizes and softens the skin. This is great for me, since I have really dry skin on my cheeks, around my nose and at my eyebrows; dry skin shows fine lines and wrinkles much easier then oily or normal skin does. If you have oily skin, don’t try my baby oil and salt exfoliating wash - or, if you do, you have to wash the baby oil off COMPLETELY. (Tip: if you don’t know what kind of skin you have, here’s some tips. If you’re skin feels tight after washing, you have dry skin. If your skin looks shiny when you’re not sweating, you have oily skin. If it doesn’t feel tight and you don’t have shiny spots, you have normal skin. If you have both, you have - guess what? - combination skin like me.) Just don’t rub this mixture over your face too hard - trust me, it does not feel good (or look good, ’cause it makes your face red if you rub too hard). If you want, you could use sea salt instead of regular salt. I just used what I had on hand, since I was desperate to stop the itching. Oh, and do I really need to tell you not to put any other mosturizer on if you keep the baby oil on after washing the salt off? I didn’t think so.