~synonymous blue

Like a Frankenstein Monster

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:15:31 GMT

So, I actually had kind of a “real” workweek this past week (ending 03/12), working 7-10 hour days, Monday through Friday. I punched in at 6am or 7am and punched out when I finished what I had to do. Needless to say, 03/12 held a definite TGIF moment for me. It was a rough week, going most days without a lunch (or any kind of) break and getting knocked over Wed. late-afternoon with some kinda demi-flu. Beginning of the day, feeling fine, finishing up the day, I felt like a truck had hit me (and then backed up) with all-over achiness, hot and cold waves and the shakes. I say “demi-flu” because by the time I got up, had some coffee, punched in and got going Thursday morning, all of these symptoms were gone. Freaky.

Anywho, after so much insanity, I decided I needed a little reward on Saturday (my one-day weekend), and decided to recommission my OLD, old PC, the first one I actually purchased myself (a pre-built, yes…). This one got closeted when I built v1 of my rig, and I decided to keep it for the parts and the case. Well, a buddy of mine ( tarheellassie ) had paid me a visit over winter break and brought along her little Asus Eee which sported the Linux-based Ubuntu as its OS. I thought it would be neat to put Ubuntu on the old machine just for kicks. Also, I just wanted to see what I could scrap together from the heap of parts I’ve had lying around forever. Results:

The new build. Not much to look at, but it’s pretty clean. I kept the MoBo that was already in there (an Asus), though it’s fairly old. I had a slightly newer MSI board that I guess I could have used, but don’t feel like swapping out at this point.

The old machine was an HP (probably the only pre-built brand I’d ever buy). Working in a micro-ATX is a little claustrophobic after experiencing a cavernous ATX case!

In went an Intel Pentium 4 chip from the old den/downstairs/main PC that got junked when both the bros finally got their own notebooks and it was no longer needed. Poor thing was faithful to the end. A little rumbly, granted, but with coats of dust, hair and the abuse of getting kicked, electrocuted and left on 24/7, it never quit. Granted, I put in a new MoBo and memory at some point during the course of its life, but that was only because a lightning strike to our phone line fried the stuff. (Sadly, the PC was repaired and the phone line remains all but non-functional.)

I had previously yanked a media card reader out of the machine because I figured I’d use it in my new build, but, of course, the ATX case for my current rig did not have any 3.5” slots, and the front panel was an old-school HP gray-blue, so I just threw it in a drawer. Go figure, I ended up stuffing it right back into it’s housing on the original machine (d’oh).

Also re-secured a too-big CPU fan that I’d added when the machine was still my main PC. The old one died in screeching agony, and (apparently) that particular size fan could no longer be had just anywhere, so I got the next size up and secured it over the heatsink by twist-tying two opposing corners to the heatsink latches. A little too “Red Green” for my tastes, but it stayed put, didn’t rattle and kept the CPU from melting.

I would like to take a moment to thank my sponsor, Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Company, operating since 1939 for all your… no, seriously, if you work with a lot of PCs/electronics and go through a lot of canned air, do yourself a favor and pick up MetroVac’s Electric Duster. You get a strong, steady stream of air that does not fizzle out (or freeze your hand off) in ten seconds. It comes with multiple attachments, it’s small, convenient, and with canned air at $3 a pop, this thing will pay for itself very quickly. You can grab it on Amazon.com for $43 shipped. It’s better than a vacuum because, while your vacuum nozzle may not be able to reach into the tiniest of crevices, a strong blast of air can. This little thing is a whiz. Love it.

Also added an extra case fan to the back. The vent and screw-holes were there, but I couldn’t find the original fan. Four wide screws were just the right size to bite into the plastic and hold it in place. Also stuck my very old, but very loyal Lite-On DVD read/write drive into the expansion bay (it was also returning to its original home). I’d originally bought the drive from Best Buy for that machine. I can’t remember whether it was because I’d just wanted a second drive to fill the bay, or because the original drive that had come with the machine crapped out (whatever HP uses in the builds sucks, they always break), but I’d had it in my current rig. Took it out and gave it back to the old machine, though because the ugly off-white drive looked pretty nasty with my solid black Thermaltake case. The HP case has a clip-on front piece with accommodating tray flaps for the disc drives.

I put an 80GB WD Caviar drive inside (alas, there was only one HDD bay), and partitioned it into two halves… one for WinXP Pro and one for Ubuntu. Also stuck in a D-Link Wireless Ethernet card that is, unfortunately, missing its antenna. A piece of wire is playing makeshift for the time being, but a very anxious-looking single bar network connection is not going to hold out for long. I hit up eBay for a Netgear USB adapter, which will hopefully arrive sometime this week. Also grabbed a $20 Logitech Mouse/Keyboard Combo at the club before heading home today. Upon booting up the machine, I realized I had no keyboard to get into setup (ack! LOL) and had to keep moving my main cordless Logitech model (and its receiver) back and forth.

The only thing I’ve left to get is a new stick of RAM. I couldn’t believe it, but my old machine was running on a single 256MB stick. Don’t know how I managed before, but needless to say… it’s slooooowwwwww now. The board will only support 1GB from what I can tell, so I’ll probably grab a stick off of Amazon. Was gonna go to Best Buy, but FRAG, they’re expensive.

Also had this old 15” Dell monitor. Actually, I had a 17” Samsung that had been my previous monitor before the current 22”, but I’d promised my mom I’d swap out and let her have the 17” since I only needed a “whatever” screen for my old junk PC. (She’d been using the Dell which she’d acquired from a friend.) The Dell suits its purpose just fine. :-) (Note: I’m not in any way endorsing the brand… have never like Dell machines.)

So, that’s been my little pet project this weekend. Gave me something to chill out over after a harrowing week at work. Also, it’s something I’d been meaning to do for a while. The machine is trying to install some XP updates, right now. Multiple attempts at SP3 have failed, and I’m wondering if it’s because of the low memory…?? And I’m not sure which PC that 80GB hard drive had been in (probably the old den comp.), but it’s fraggin’ chatty. Just grinding away, but it seems to be functioning okay, sooooo… hope it lives.

Windows Live Writer

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:01:20 GMT

Well, this is my first post via a little program called Windows Live Writer. Apparently, I’ve had it on my PC for quite some time, but I never knew it existed, or at least never bothered to learn about what it did. Having realized that Windows Live Writer essentially “makes it easy to share your photos and videos on almost any blog service” (to quote their site), I decided to include it in my installation of the Windows Live Bundle and later check it out. Sure enough, as soon as I gave Writer my blog URL, username and password, it gathered all my scheme and design info and plopped it into a screen for me to type out my blog post. Now I am all excited because Writer makes blogging fast and simple, and now I have this absurd notion that this ease-of-posting factor will cause me to blog more often (you can laugh… I am. Or… at least… my more practical side is). In any case, it was the cause for the post you’re reading now, so I guess that’s a step in the right direction.

Yakkity Yak, Just Transact - Is it Rude to Talk on Your Cell Phone While Checking Out?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:56:08 GMT

So... Yahoo! featured a question from Yahoo! Answers on their home page, today, where the inquirer asked users:

"Do you think it is rude to talk on your cell phone while being checked out at the grocery store?"

The best answer chosen by voters shared the sentiments of the asker, feeling that it was, indeed, rude for a customer to carry on a cell phone conversation while being rung up at a store. Most of the follow-up comments tended to agree, and many were from those who worked in the restaurant or retail industries. I, myself, work in retail (a membership/wholesale club, actually), and have to agree that I have gotten that same feeling of being ignored and/or disrespected by shoppers who refuse to cut their--apparently crucial--conversations short (or just put the other party on hold!) for the 2-3 minutes it will take for me to ring them up and complete the transaction. While the comments on the Yahoo! Answers page had been maxed-out by the more expeditious users, the question and many of the answers struck a familiar chord with me, and I could not help but take the opportunity to speak my piece on the matter. If you couldn't care less, or have taken up the life of a hermit and don't maintain the terms "cell phone" or "retail" as part of your vocabulary, you may wish to navigate away from this page and go about your business. However, if you, too, have had this experience (on either end of the transaction) or are simply feeling up to reading a good rant, please, by all means,

When I see you approaching my checkout line and you have that little electronic wonder we've dubbed the "cell phone" mashed up against the side of your face, I can't help but feel a little apprehensive (a Bluetooth device is worse). There are those courteous souls who will make eye contact, smile, and immediately tell the person on the other end that, "Hey, I'm checking out. I'll call you back later." These are the rare and golden few that, with that simple gesture, immediately earn a big smile back and a healthy degree of respect from me. (Yes, I am still polite to those who choose not to be so gracious, but I'm inwardly rolling my eyes at them and hurrying to get them out of my line.) Retail/restaurant customers take note: When you make this very simple and seemingly insignificant gesture to show the person who is checking you out/waiting on you a little bit of courtesy, though they may not say it aloud, I can guarantee you they appreciate it, and, if it means anything, are thinking much better of you for it.

Then, there are those customers who will tell the faceless entity on the other end of their conversation to, "Hold on just a moment, I'm checking out." This is practically the same as ending the conversation altogether, as far as I'm concerned. While the individual on the other end may really prefer to simply end the conversation rather than wait for the shopper to finish their transaction, if whatever scintillating topic they were chatting about was worth resuming, who am I to be reprehensive? As long as the person I am interacting with can hit their mental "pause" button until I've thrown out the ever-popular retail farewell, "Have a good one," I have no complaints.

Thirdly, there are the folks who simply cannot put their chatting partner on hold. (I can only assume that they're going over the route to the hospital where Person B is getting an emergency heart transplant.) Some of these oblivious patrons maintain a shred of awareness/politeness and will look at me, greet me, and answer any questions I need to pose during the transaction. However, despite their half-hearted cooperation, I still cannot condone the behavior because it is very difficult for me, as the cashier, to interact with them when there's an unseen, detached third party involved in the transaction (whether they know it or not). I'm always forced to hesitate when I need to ask about payment methods, or note that the customer has selected a package of leaking meat, because--unless I want to be equally rude--I'm forced to wait for a break in the conversation to speak up. Not only does this waste my time (and theirs, and that of the people who are waiting so patiently in line behind them), it makes me feel as if I'm interrupting, and it's wrong that I should be made to feel as if I'm being rude when, in fact, it is they who are being discourteous. I always stand next to my register belt and watch these people chattering as if their ability to speak flickered in and out like bad wireless coverage and my register was a green zone. I stand there and wonder if people are really that ignorant or if they simply do not care. Some day I'm going to work up the guts to ask one of these offenders and find out.

Last, but certainly not least, are those who simply refuse to even acknowledge your existence. Granted, these are very few and far between... most folks will at least throw out a, "Hey," or a, "Thank you," at some point during the transaction. But those who stand there talking without so much as a smile, slide their credit card, accept their receipt, and coldly whisk away, heading quickly for the exit... these are the people who have succeeded in registering at "Flipping off Mother Teresa" on the rudeness scale. I'm sorry, but there's nothing that you could possibly be talking about that could condone that kind of behavior. Those who feel that service people such as cashiers and waiters should expect and submit to this kind of behavior because, "You get paid to do that job," need to stand on the other side of the register for a few days. NO retail or restaurant worker gets paid enough to put up with that crap. And the issue it not about speaking or not speaking to your cashier. I couldn't care less if you didn't make a peep during the transaction (unless I ask you a question). But don't stand there gabbing away as if I don't exist.

Finally (and this may be a little off topic), unless you're on the phone for a "this cannot be postponed or ignored" reason (emergency, someone needs you to get something while you're at the store), you really shouldn't be talking on your cell phone while you're running errands, anyway. It's dangerous, annoying, and you look really stupid. Just think about how much your awareness level plummets while you're talking on your cell phone. You're sacrificing at least 50% of one of your primary senses (hearing). If I were a purse-snatcher, thief, or mugger, I'd always target folks who were on their cell phones. They'd NEVER hear me sneaking up behind them and with their thoughts occupied with their conversation, they'd be that much slower to react. Seriously, people... think about it. I really don't understand the appeal. Whenever I'm shopping and I get a call that I feel needs to be answered, I always lower my voice and find some remote corner to converse in because I feel so self-conscious about yakkity-yakking on my squawk box out in public. To even imagine carrying on a meaningless back-and-forth about my neighbor's girlfriend's ex-husband's latest money problems is such a mortifying thought, I cringe just imagining doing it.

In closing, those who are guilty of this unfortunate habit, this obtuse discourtesy, next time you are stepping into the checkout line and are in the middle of a conversation on your cell phone, please stop for a moment and put yourself in our shoes. If you ever get into a line and the cashier is deep in rapid-fire repartee with the person at the next register, stop and assess that feeling that comes over you when the cashier says nary a word to you, failing to even acknowledge you with a glance, simply proceeding to ring up your items. Yes, they're still doing their job, yes, it's not the end of the world if they don't give 100% of their attention to you and your transaction while ringing you up, but wouldn't it be nice? Don't you feel more appreciated, as the customer, when you're greeted with a smile, asked how you're doing, given the respectful eye contact and attention when speaking, etc? Well... guess what? That's a two way street. It doesn’t cost you anything to be courteous, but it certainly pays in the long run. Keep that in mind next time you're in the checkout line. I guarantee it will make those few brief minutes more pleasant for everyone involved.

President Obama's "Back to School" Speech

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:46:39 GMT

I agree with the overall message of what President Obama was saying (stay in school), but... seriously. That's all he had to say.

"I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning. I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday - at 4:30 in the morning."

Wow, a plug for home-schooling.

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed."

This is true.

"And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it."

This is not necessarily true. See College Dropouts Hall of Fame.

"You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers."

What!? An education for a military career...? The whole point of joining to military is to have a career WITHOUT getting an education (if we're talking college education).

"And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future. You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy."

In other words, the doctors and lawyers and scientists and innovators of tomorrow are going to need all the smarts and training they can get in order to pull this country out the mess ~~you're not fixing~~ it's still going to be in 5-10 years from now.

"We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems."

Um...? I thought that was what you promised to do if we elected you as President...

"Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork. I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in."

Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right. But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying."

Preach it, Mr. President.

"I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter."

I'm sure the CDC was pressuring him to get in that H1N1 plug...

"I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things."

Twitter was abuzz today as hundreds of rappers, professional basketball players and reality TV stars conveyed shock and anger at President Obama's enormous diss towards their respective professions in his "Back to School" speech...

"But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute."

I know that's right...

"...and you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures."

Like being a failure at, say... school?

"If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave."

Haha, no, seriously... it means you're a troublemaker.

"Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country."

"Because when you give up on yourself, you ~~give up on~~ [end up living on welfare for the rest of your life and leeching off of the (soon to be very) limited resources of] your country."

"The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best."

Only 'cuz nobody wants to hear about quitters, so no one tells that story.

"Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other."

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is an NYU drop-out. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg is a Harvard drop-out. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin did graduate from their respective schools, but isn't is funny how Apple was not mentioned (he was addressing the "iPod generation", afterall). Steve Jobs is a very famous college drop-out. ;-)

"So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?"

Planning on staying in office for 20 years, are we, Mr. President?

"Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions."

Hahahahaha...

"So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down - don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it."

"Kthxbi."

In other news, hundreds of school districts in every state are reporting enormous increases in students' GPAs and test scores for the first term of the 2010 school year. Little Randell Williams of Wakefield, MA reports on just what is behind this amazing upswing:
   "I don't want to let President Obama down. Or the motherland."
   This dramatic increase in students' county and state testing averages mean that the scores of most home-schoolers will now fall at the average or below-average level. However, there is a downside to students' renewed interest in education: many schools are now dangerously over-crowded.
   "So many kids who haven't opened a book in years are suddenly comin' back to school. There's been a 500% increase in attendance since the end of the 2009 school year," said 7th grade Springton Middle-School teacher Lashorna Jones. "I haven't seen this much over-crowding since I worked in corrections."
   School districts are now scrambling to find funding to build the hundreds of new school facilities that will be needed in order to accomodate the surge.
   "I didn't even know there were this many kids in our city. Springton's population literally just doubled overnight," Jones said, shaking her head.

For the full transcript of President Obama's "Back to School" speech, go here.

Wasp vs. Spider

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:04:06 GMT

So, was heading outside to the garage to look for an outlet splitter in which to plug my new desk lamp set ($9.99 from BJ's Membership Club, boo-yeah!):

And I have a couple of spare power squiddies that I could have used, but why waste a power squiddy to plug a lamp and a paper shredder into when a $0.99 3-way outlet splitter from the dollar store or Wal-Mart would suffice? Anywho, was heading out to the garage to try and find one because there weren't any outside, and came upon this massive wasp and spider sitting just beyond the back deck on the driveway. The spider was all in a defensive position with it legs raised like it was ready to fight and this fiesty-looking black wasp with red spots on the ends of its wings was just buzzing and dancing around the spider like a crazy thing. I ran in to get the camera, thinking a fight was about to ensue. Not exactly! Check out the vid below to see what happened!

Here's a better close-up shot of the two...

ROFLOL... there's a pause between the point the wasp pulls its unexpected move and me starting to laugh 'cuz I was all, "WTC!?", haha. What a riot.

Bucket of goodness...

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:55:17 GMT

Just wanted to share a photo of my recent success on Woot.com. Unbeknownst to me, Woot apparently does a BoC (aka: Bag of Crap, Bandoleer of Carrots, Baggy of Camomile, Box of Chorizo, etc.) every year on April 1st, or April Fool's Day. I was right in the middle of playing KotOR (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) when I hear a shrieking from my Wootalyzer and my gameplay window minimizes on its own. Usually, Wootalyzer shrieking indicates the beginning of a Woot-Off, but they'd just had one, so I knew that wasn't it. Lo and behold, there in the photo box for current Woot items was a Bag o' Crap! Those of you familiar with Woot and the Bags of Crap are aware of the frenzied clickety-clickety and the racing of the heart that followed. I won't go into full detail, but apparently the festive spirit of that particular date goes hand-in-hand with Woot's usual antics, and they took full advantage of it. CLICK HERE to see what I'm talking about and you can figure it out for yourself. Needless to say, there was a bit of a delay before the BoCs sold out (normally they're gone in mere moments) and I was able to snag myself one, despite a few setbacks. See below for my spoils:

The Original Lava Brand Fire Fly Lamp
Memorex External 20x Lightscribe DVD Recorder
Buquet Supply, Inc. Pail #4 Bright Red
2x "One Cheer for Broccoli" Woot Tees - Men's Sz. Large

Not a bad haul!

Pretty Flowers and Baby Bunnies...

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:02:06 GMT

Spring is upon us!

A dogwood tree blooming in our backyard, one of the few that hasn't died from some strange disease that's been killing them all off. This is the most any of the dogwoods in our yard have bloomed in years. Click for bigger photo!

Flowers (that didn't get killed during the snowstorm) are blooming, the trees are getting their leaves back, rainy days are coming in droves, and the bunnies... well, they're doing what bunnies do best. Unfortunately for one litter, their mama picked a very bad spot to make her nest. If you look on the far left side of the photo above, you'll see one of those yellow "crossing" signs. It says "Chicken Xing", and is hanging on the corner of our (now unoccupied) chicken yard. The coop, or henhouse, is attached to the left side of the yard, and underneath that is where Mama Coney decided to have her nursery. What she didn't know is that there was a cold-blooded killer living on the same property... bumbumBUUUMMMM...!!
That's Kobe... he's a hunter at heart, probably learned from his days spent wandering the countryside on his own in Chesterfield, SC, before we rescued him. He's got a nose like a hound and will track down any varmint that's dumb enough to come onto his turf. He's gotten chippies (chipmunks... sorry, Dave), squirrels, mice, moles, shrews, and even birds. I know he's had confrontations with a possum at least once, but there's never been any evidence that he killed one. Seriously wounded, yes, but the possums usually take off or are removed from the yard before we can verify expiration. All that being said, you've probably guessed that the baby bunnies hidden under the chicken coop were toast. I don't know if the mama was just "out" at the time, or ran off in fear, but Kobe managed to squeeze himself under the henhouse (raised up on cinder-blocks), and emerged with the little squeakers, one by one.

WARNING: Don't click here if you don't like seeing dead baby bunnies. :-(

Don't know how many were in the litter, but Kobe got three that we know of. Picced the others, but they were... err... a bit more gruesome-looking as they'd been gnawed on a bit. ó_ò Poor things. Though I doubt Kobe would have left any alive, I'd almost feel worse for any sibs that are still under the coop because it's a sure bet that mom's not coming back if she's still alive. Sad, but such is life, and the species certainly isn't on the extinction list. Oh, and not sure if I've posted this one before, but... as a bonus:

Little squirt (that's Rob Roy, or "Woobie", as we call him) ended up with this, though not sure he can claim that he actually caught it. Sorry for the bad photo, it was taken with an ancient cell phone.

Eeeeek!

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:45:49 GMT

So I'm fishing around in the garage, trying to locate some all-purpose cleaning rags and I came across something that kinda creeped me out. Check it out. I was all, "Wha-?" I had my hair cut about a week ago. I get it chopped off above my shoulders every year (though it's usually a little later), and my dad just does it for me. I came home from work one night last week, frustrated with the length and frizziness, and just grabbed a brush and some scissors and dragged him out to the garage to get rid of the pesky locks. I thought he'd tossed the hair out into the woods beside our house, but there it was. Just... lying there. Still felt pretty clean, too, despite sitting out in the damp (it's been raining a lot lately). I just left it. People kept asking after I got it cut if I'd donated to Locks of Love, but I don't think it was long enough. I was thinking they wanted a foot, but it's 10" from tip to tip. Bleh, don't think I could wait for it to get that long. I'm going to try and keep it short this year. SO much easier to wash and maintain. Guess I should go toss the chopped stuff in the compost pile. Heheheh... o_o

Online Advertising: Seen Better Days

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:30:39 GMT

So, Prof. Clemons of The Wharton School of the Univ. of Penn. has done a study basically predicting a steep decline in revenue generated by online advertising within the next 5 years, and written a nice piece about it for TechCrunch.
   While I am aware that there's ~~a lot~~ a whole lot of money being thrown around out there on internet ads, I don't pay much attention to the trends or ups and downs of that business. However, I do consider myself more-or-less an average consumer, and I do at least 75% of my shopping online. RARELY OR NEVER, though, do sponsored links or banner ads come into the picture.
   Most will agree that pretty much every business needs some form of advertising to grow. The oldest and most influential and trustworthy form would be word-of-mouth advertising. Your friend tells you he tried a new barber the other day and had a great experience, loved the service, reasonable pricing, short wait time, etc., that is an enormous plug for that establishment and you will remember that next time you get POed with your regular hair-cutter, but still need a trim.
   "Hmmm... John said that place over on Central was really good. I think I'll give it a try."
   Eventually, every media outlet that comes along (newspapers, billboards, radio, television, cinema, internet, SMS and text messages) will include advertising. Every flat surface in sports stadiums is plastered with logos. Anything that people spend more than a few moments in, around, on, at, or with on a regular basis will be used as an outlet for advertising. That's just the way it works. Supposedly, the more frequently you advertise and the more widespread your advertising (across multiple mediums and location-wise), the more business you will get and the more revenue you will generate. However, because of the ease and relatively low-cost of internet advertising, the practice of drawing in consumers via this medium has become extremely excessive. Though a company may pay out the wazoo depending on where and how often their ads are placed on web pages, the cost to actually place these ads on those pages is next to nothing. Therefore, they're everywhere. Sometimes, the same ad will appear in three our four different places on a single web page, all of them "above the fold"!
   Now, I cannot speak for everyone, but I do not trust any kind of online ad or sponsored link, and there are only a couple of reasons that will ever make me bring my mouse-pointer near them.

By clicking said ad or link, I'm supporting or generating revenue for an individual or charitable organization that I want to help out
By clicking said ad or link, I'll receive some sort of promotional coupon or discount off the price I would have paid had I not gone through the ad or link (for example: my online broker, Scottrade, advertised a percentage off TurboTax e-filing fees if I clicked through the little ad on their site)

Even then, I'm wary. Because most banner ads are javascript-based, they can incorporate all sorts of things into the redirect you get into by clicking on them. I don't trust this and if I do see something advertised that I'm interested in, I will go Google the company or product and pull it up the conventional way (NOT via sponsored links). In this sense, sites that generate revenue based on how many people actually click or open the ads/links on their sites does not work with me (or a lot of people, I suspect). Even worse are those that receive money based on how many people click through and then actually spend money.
   Now, in a different sense, advertising still kind of works because it may be informing you about a product or service you may not have seen before, or saw and were interested in but forgot about. This will either generate or renew interest, in which case the company behind the ad has successfully gotten your attention, and, thus, can potentially make a sale. While you may have nothing else to do with the ad after that, the brand name and/or product are on your mind.
   However, as professor Clemons noted, even this kind of advertising is, in a way, unneeded. In an information age when people carry the internet around in their pockets and have instant access to an unfathomable amount of information, the only real purpose of an ad anymore is to get your name out there. People need merely see a Sony logo next to a new MP3 player model, and can get all the information they want (and then some), by running a quick search on "Sony MP3 player". Instantly, links for customer reviews, tech-expert reviews, online retailers, blog postings, Wikipedia entries and the official site will be displayed, and consumers can pick and choose the information they wish to receive about the product. Gone are the days of 5-10 minute television ads where the product is modeled, tested, reviewed, explained, and even shown throughout its manufacturing process. In those days, that was one of the only means people had for learning about this latest and greatest thing they were supposed to be spending their hard-earned dollars on. Now, you can find out almost everything about anything even before it's made available to regular consumers. Bits of information are leaked throughout the early developmental stages so that you could practically rattle off all the features and tech specs a month before the product has hit the mass market.
   I'm sure everyone's seen at least one or two films set in the "future" featuring cityscapes plastered with various means of advertising. Everywhere you look, flashing signs and giant LCD screens and posters. Ever notice that most of what's featured are simply logos and catchphrases? Companies want their names to be the first thing that pops into Joe-consumer's mind when he thinks about certain products. Keep flashing it at him over and over and over, and that may just do the trick. However, as an informational outlet, or as a means of generating any kind of revenue other that which comes from pointing consumers in your direction (preferably before your competitors) to spend their money, online ads are slowly but surely becoming obsolete.

IE8: Day Two

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:04:22 GMT

So, it's been less than 24 hours since my previous review of Microsoft's new browser version, Internet Explorer (IE) 8, and it's already time for round two! I've noticed quite a few more new and different things since last night (just in my regular daily surfing and whatnot), so here's the latest:

COLOR-CODED TABS

Those that have used IE7 will know that when that version was opening a tab and the page it was loading threw out a pop-up box or request that needed to be addressed before the page could load, the tab would flash orange. Well, those that are used to that feature may initially find the color-coded tabs a bit distracting (especially yellow), as they may appear to be tabs requesting something before their respective pages can load. You get used to this very quickly, but it's a little annoying at first.
It appears that there are only four colors used in a sequence before they start over: yellow, purple, green and blue (they are used in that order). Standalone tabs remain the neutral light-blue used in the browser theme.
Another slight annoyance: when you have multiple tabs open (more than three or four), the color-coding makes it a little difficult to detect which tab you are currently resting on. The only indication is a little bit of white shading at the bottom of the tab to indicate it's your current window, but it's difficult to detect at a glance. You have to scrutinize the line-up to figure out where you are. Check out this screenshot. Browse some of the page content and, without looking directly at the tabs, try to pick out which one you're on. Then move your eyes up to the center of the strip of tabs. See it yet? I couldn't. I had to look at each one to find out where I was so I could close out that tab. Granted, I could simply have used Ctrl+W, but you should ideally be able to pick out your current tab from the line-up as long as the strip is somewhere within your range of vision. Possibly super-saturating the color of the tab you're on or assigning a very visible color to your "current" tab, like red would help out with that.

FIND FUNCTION (CTRL+F)

Changes have been made to Find or "search page" function (Ctrl+F). Don't know about you guys, but I use this a LOT! Used to be, a little box would pop-up where you could enter your term(s) and the browser would locate any/all of that term on the current page, jumping to and highlighting the next occurence either by clicking the Next button in the box or by hitting Enter/Return. IE8, however, has gone all Firefox-esque by opening a new slot underneath the tab strip for entering your "find" terms (though I think Firefox has theirs at the bottom of the browser). Adobe Acrobat Reader does it this way as well. Your "Previous" and "Next" buttons are still there and a little drop-down menu has replaced the checkboxes for the "Match Case" and "Match Whole Word Only" options. On the one hand, this is a nice change:
- The little search box that was used previously had a tendency to remain fixed in place, even if that meant sitting directly in front of a highlighted term. So you'd click the Next button to jump to the next occurence of your search terms on the page and be looking and looking for that little highlighted portion, only to drag the Find box aside and see the term was behind it. (Kinda retarded, no? The whole point of jumping and highlighting is to make what you're looking for absolutely visible, and the freakin' box is just sitting right in front of it!). Moving this function to a strip at the top of the page (and, thus, part of the menu section) makes it impossible for it to obscure any portion of the page content it's trying to show you (what a concept... Firefox had IE cold on this one).
Now, IMHO, there is also a downside to this new design for Find:
- As I mentioned previously, I hate a bloated menu section, and the find slot creates a third bar and, thus, less space for actual page content. If you want it to go away, you have to go up there and click the "X" to close it out. Now, I know you had to do this for the pop-up box that was previously used, but somehow, I just expected that bar to close out or go away when I simply clicked anywhere within the current page. Have no idea where I'm getting that from (Firefox's Find bar must be manually "closed" as well), but on multiple occasions I've found myself clicking the page when I've finished with Find only to look up and realize the bar has not gone away (call me lazy). Would be a nice feature, regardless!
- One more thing I don't like is that (like Firefox), the Find function will begin jumping and highlighting AS SOON as you start typing. So, I'm still entering my term(s) and IE is already doing the hokey-pokey all over the page. I found that pretty visually distracting. I'd prefer to finish entering what I want found and then hit "Run", "Search", whatever and THEN start viewing the results. As it is, IE8's Find function highlights EVERY instance of the term(s) in yellow, and the instance you're currently looking at in blue. Though the yellow highlighting for every instance is actually kinda handy, I'd prefer to run the Find command on my own, rather than having it instantly occur as I type.

SEARCH FUNCTION

On an up note, here's something AWESOME I discovered about the main search box next to the address bar! When you run a search using Google, if your search terms contain a mispelling or typo and you subsequently select Google's "Did you mean?" suggestion in the page search results, not only do you get a corrected search, the terms you initially entered in the main search box are corrected as well! This is a big deal for me, because I often make typos in an initial search, and (though I'd choose Google's corrected suggestion in the results) would forget to change my typo when adding or rearranging the main search box terms to expand or change my results. So, I'd have to take Google's corrected version AGAIN and then have to go up and fix my typo for my next search. So far, it doesn't look like this occurs when using any other search providers, just Google. However, as that's what a lot of folks are using up there about 75% of the time, it's no biggie. (Most of the other search providers I have don't recognize misspellings or typos and offer a correction. For those, you only realize the typo when you get odd or NO results [exception: Amazon recognizes some typos, but they don't correct it in the main search box when you choose their suggestion]).
Another neat thing: when typing terms into the main search box, not only does it use the auto-complete drop-down list of previous search terms, below those in a separate menu is a history of previous searches run with the same or similar terms. So, if you ran a search on "black duct tape" an hour ago via Google, Amazon, and PriceGrabber, and are currently typing into Google search, planning to select PriceGrabber again as your search provider, you need not type the term and then click to specify PriceGrabber. Just key down to the previous PriceGrabber search and bring it up again! Pretty cool.

That's it for now, but I'm coming across new stuff constantly (since I pretty much live in front of my PC when not at work), so watch for additional reviews!

Internet Explorer 8: My Initial Review

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:04:36 GMT

So I was going through my TechCrunch feeds and saw that Internet Explorer (IE) 8 had finally been cleared for wide-release.

I'd heard it was being beta-tested, but didn't pay much heed to that... beta-testing has never been my thing. I'll let everyone else work out the bugs and crappy features and then revel in the final product.
   Now, I've almost always been an IE person. Back when Mozilla's Firefox first got big, I decided to see what all the hullabaloo was about and tried it. (Plus, I needed it anyways as a tester for web page compatibility issues.) I probably used it for about a month and finally threw in the towel and had to switch back to my beloved IE. Firefox was cool in its own way... it was kinda like getting the adventure bug and running away from home to crash with a bunch of older, cooler kids. At first, you're hanging on to their every word and are just idolizing everything about them, feeling you're taking part in this magnificent and revolutionary experience. But after a day or two, you realize that the people you were venerating are basically just a bunch of pot-heads standing around mumbling about Freud, and they've failed to live up to your expectations and you're homesick, so back home you run, embracing it with anxious arms upon arrival.
   Unfortunately, I found there were too many cons and not enough pros for Firefox. It was ugly, very slow, making selections in the menus was a total pain because the buttons were too sensitive (had to move quick or the menu would close out!), sites and pages just looked weird (I can appreciate literal code translation, but EW!), and I did not like that a right-click and "View Page Source" opened the code in some sort of freaky Firefox window with strange, color-coded HTML instead of just plain ol' Notepad. Thus, I went scampering back to IE and have never gone back. Sorry, Firefox ~~freaks~~ fans... can't say I didn't at least try it.
   However, I did not venture blindly into this new territory in a lemming-like fashion, trustingly accepting whatever what set before by the almighty Microsoft... (okay, so maybe I did, but I'd read this Yahoo! Tech article a few days prior, so I was not completely ignorant!). I had my reservations, but trusted that the hard-working and sacrificial beta-crowd would not let me down. So, a few clickety-clicks and a reboot later, I was opening up the sparkling, new IE8 for a first look. These were my initial impressions:

APPEARANCE: WOW... first thing I noticed was that the new appearance was a little bit cleaner and more business. Gone were the super-rounded corners and the bubbly surfaces. The bubble-blue "Back" and "Forward" arrows remained and most of the icons ("Favorites", "Home", "Refresh", etc.) remained the same, but everything seemed more compact and streamlined. It looked like a lot of the margin space had been removed to leave as much room for the actual viewing window and content as possible. When I first opened the browser, the Favorites menu icon and "Favorites Bar" were resting in their own slot between the address bar/search bar and the tabs bar. I moved the Favorites icon back to it's usual spot. However, the "Add to Favorites" icon (the sister star) seems fixed to the Favorites Bar, which, unfortunately, cannot be placed with the main Favorites icon to the left of all your tabs. It can either go above, creating an extra, middle slot, or you can shove it over next to the "Command Bar" (Home, Feeds, etc.). I chose the latter, wishing to retain as much space for actual content as possible. I hate a bloated menu/command section, and don't mind clicking or mousing through several menus to get where I need to go in order to save space.
ACCELERATORS: During the initial setup that IE inevitably steps you through, I was introduced to several new terms and concepts. The most evident was that of "Accelerators". Accelerators, apparently are little menu options that allow you to select portions of web page content and plug them into a desired function with a single click. For example:
- You select a string of text on a web page.
- After you've made your selection, a little blue and white arrow box appears next to your selection (Office 2007 users, think the formatting box that appears when you select text!).
- When you click on the box, a little drop-down menu appears with a list of your default Accelerators in various categories ("Search with Google", "Post to LiveJournal" (woohoo!), "Define with Dictionary.com", etc.)
- You can apply any of these functions to whatever you just highlighted.
There are a lot of practical uses for this.
- Say you're reading something online and come across a big word you've never heard of. You highlight the word, click your blue box and select the Dictionary Accelerator (you can choose from a number of pre-determined dictionary sites). In an instant, a new tab is opened, displaying a definition of the word(s) you selected. (The new tab is nice, as it doesn't interupt your reading or lose your spot on the page!)
- In another example, you come across a street address on a web page and would like directions. Highlight it, blue box, select your default Mapping Accelerator (mine is Google Maps right now because Microsoft has not seen fit to add MapQuest to their list, grrrrrr...) BOOM, a new tab with the street address mapped out for you. I don't know about you, but I usually have to copy the address, open a new tab, go to MapQuest, paste in the address and run a search to get to where Accelerators now get you to with a simple "highlight, click, click". Not too shabby!
There are currently 15+ Accelerator categories, and each one has multiple sites to choose from. Microsoft expands in both areas daily, so if you don't see your favorite social networking site or finance advisor right now, be sure to check back!
SUGGESTED SITES: An equally nifty, but perhaps not as handy function is the "Suggested Sites" button in the Favorites Bar. When you click on it, it generates a short list of recommended sites it thinks you might like based on the page you're viewing when you click it. The links it generates are not terrible exciting, but I'm going to watch for improvements and options for customization. It's one of those things you might get a kick out of when you're super-bored at work and have already canvassed all of your emails, feeds, social networking sites, IMs, blogs and the entirety of YouTube twice-over during the first hour of your shift.
COLOR-CODED TABS: A lovely little option for my fellow taboholics out there is the new color-coded tabs! It's kind of like leaving a little bread-crumb trail to trace opened tabs back to their original source. For example:
- If I'm on the Yahoo! home page and open a news link in a new tab, IE will assign a color (say: yellow) to both the Yahoo! tab and the new tab I just opened.
- If, while reading the article I opened, I see a "related article" that I also want to read and open that in a new tab, it, too, will be yellow.
- Then, if I open a brand new blank tab and go to Google, then run a search open one of the results in a new tab, IE will assign a new color (say: purple) to the Google tab and the one that I opened from the search results.
- At that point, I have two clusters of tabs: yellow (3) and purple (2). I can trace all the yellow tabs back to Yahoo! and the purple back to my Google search results.
Some people may not see the purpose of this feature, and I'm not entirely sure that I do either (yet), but because of my browsing habits, I can't see how it could be a bad thing. (I will peruse an entire page of content boxes filled with news links, not reading anything right away, but instead opening anything that looks interesting in a new tab and resuming my perusal of headlines. When I've completely gone through the news boxes, I'll then methodically go through the long line of tabs that have accumulated, browsing the articles/pages one at a time, closing out each tab as I finish until they're all gone. As you can imagine, I can rack up quite a string of tabs this way, and while many may be from a single page--and, thus, share a single color--I do have a couple of different "mother pages" I'll browse off of.) Plus, a rainbow of pretty colors in your tab bar? I mean, c'mon... you have to admit that's cool.

That is the sum of my initial impression of IE8. Not too in-depth so far, but then it's only been a couple of hours. I'll very likely return to post again as I come across new and cool elements (and will definitely post again if I come across something I dislike!).
Overall, I'd recommend IE8 to anyone who enjoyed IE7 or is looking for a new, slick browser with lots of cool features and is not too picky about heavy customization. IE8 still gets the job done as well as its predecessor with a few new surprises thrown in to improve and speed up your browsing experience. It's also resembles big brother Vista over little bro XP in looks, toning down some of that bright, smooth glossy coat that XP displayed, trading it in for a sharper, more "business casual" appearance. Because this is a brand new version, keep your expectations average, as there are inevitably bugs to be worked out. Don't shy away because of bad reviews, though. Pessimists and haters shout the loudest, and may drown out some of the praise this browser rightly deserves.

My specs so you can see what I'm running IE8 on... again, not slow at all!

It's So Me!

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:46:48 GMT

WOW... I'm definitely one of those people who dislike all the "touching" involved with touchscreens. Touchscreens on your phone, at the ATM, on your MP3 player, on your netbook, everywhere, gah! How can people stand it? Every time they use these devices, they're getting nasty, horrible, greasy, dirty fingerprint smudges and streaks all over the lovely, clear screens. I finally broke down a few months back and got an LG Voyager which has a touch screen on the front (I needed a phone with a QWERTY keyboard). I am constantly wiping off all the darned thing's multiple shiny surfaces, especially the touchscreen. I use my nails or a pen cap whenever possible to make selections. Needless to say, this article intrigued me very much! A "touchless" touchscreen...? Can it be? No vids, but some nice photos and a lengthy explanation of the technology. Sounds like it could have some pretty awesome possibilities for future tech. I shall be keeping my eye on the concept!

SICK PC case...

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:47:00 GMT

WOW... check out this awesome PC casemod. Not bad at all! Here's a preview:

Preeeeetttttyyyyyy...

Some Awesome New Trailers and ASUS...

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:12:56 GMT

So... was just browsing some feeds and found a cool new trailer for Pixar's UP, an upcoming Tim Burton film called 9 (CGI, never heard of it, but Elijah Wood is doing a voice!), and a berry awesome new laptop being released by the very innovative and ever-growing ASUS, which is successfully cutting its way into US markets (much to the delight of American consumers). Check out the links below for content described above!

Pixar's UP!
"9" (looks pretty cool)
Sweet new ASUS package

Enjoy!

SuperBowl Ads

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:56:54 GMT

So... after reviewing all of the Super Bowl commercials (or at least the ones they had available for viewing) on NBC.com, I came up with my Top 10 list for 2009:

Hulu: Alec and Huluwood
NBC: Heroes Football
Transformers 2 Trailer
Star Trek Trailer
E*Trade: Talking Baby
Pepsi: Refresh Anthem
Pepsi Max: I'm Good
NFL Super Ad: Usama Young
Monster: Need a New Job?
Doritos: Crystal Ball

I'm counting the movie trailers because that's the first time they were made available. And sorry to the Budweiser Clydesdales fans... the three Clydesdale ads were cute, but none of them had that heartwarming "awwww" factor this year... not like this one, from the 2006 Super Bowl. I'd post links, but not all of these are on YouTube, and the quality is better on NBC.com anyways. Just go there to view! Disagree with my picks? Comment!

Delicate Balance

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:51:43 GMT

Seems to me like the only "invasive species" here is the humans.

WYSI(no longer)WYG...

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:08:33 GMT

Nooooooooo...!! The days of seeing an item online for $19.99 and paying... *gasp* ...$19.99 for it may soon be a thing of the past. It's not bad enough that I have to pay tax on the "FREE" items of my buy-one-get-one-free coupons at the grocery store? I mean, the coupons says FREE which usually implies ZERO currency or items of value given in return. I still gotta cough up fifteen cents? C'mon Amazon.com and Co. Don't take this one lying down! They already want to start taxing us on how much we drive... If guess if you own a Hummer, this might be a good thing. Your neighbor/coworker who owns one of those bread-box hybrids loved to thumb his nose at you when his gas bill rang up at a third of what you were paying. With the new taxing system, you could (attempt to) do donuts in his postage-stamp-sized yard, and laugh as you accelerate down all the hills. Or you could just cut back on traveling by doing all your shopping online. You don't get taxed for... wait... Crap.

EjectIt.com Good Deals...? Not so much...

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:07:37 GMT

So, after getting me addicted to Woot.com, Bubs further convinced me to download their nifty little Wootalyzer program, which tracks Woots and similar awesome deals on similar awesome sites. One of the other sites is called EjectIt.com. EjectIt is pretty much like Woot in that they have one great deal every 24 hours. There are a couple of differences: You can buy up five of any given item, whereas Woot limits you to three, and EjectIt starts their item out at a random price and then there are periodic random price drops of random amounts until the item either sells out or 24 hours go by. Now, this is a technique that can spin off some pretty sweet deals. Check this out:

Not bad, eh? This would be great for me because I don't like to leave my three-bulb overhead light on at night, but that makes it pretty difficult to see the keyboard when I'm typing (or if I have to glance at a book... whatever). I could snag five of these little guys for $1.63 apiece, or a total of $8.15. Neat little gifts, too. HOWEVER, there is that little catch that is the bane of online buyers: shipping. Whereas Woot charges you a bottom-line $5.00 shipping, PERIOD, EjectIt starts at $5.00 for a SINGLE item and then tacks on $2.50 for each additional item, maxing out at $14.00. Now, I know it doesn't cost $14 to ship five little USB lights. The inflated shipping charge completely ruins what would have been a super deal. You can either pay $6.63 for a single light (no way!) or buy five for a total of $22.15, or $4.43 per light. While this is still an okay buy, it's not the super deal that $2.63 apiece would have been for five lights and $5 shipping. Granted, Woot's $5 shipping deal means that their items are delivered via FedEx's sluggish SmartPost service...

...but Woot obviously does not attempt to hide this fact (see the snail, sir?), and the reasonable price is worth the wait. C'mon, EjectIt, take a smart online business tip from Woot and knock it off with the jacked-up shipping prices. I'd be snaggin' me some serious EjectIt deals if you'd alter that pesky little detail that turns a great deal into "no deal!".

Rest ye well, soldier

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:33:49 GMT

This is just appalling. This man was a WWII POW. He fought to defend our country, our safety, our freedom... and he lay dying on his doorstep in the cold and freezing rain because his neighbors wouldn't get off their duffs to go see what was wrong. If you hear someone calling for help, you need to go check it out, you know? Especially if you know that one of your neighbors is an elderly man with a hip replacement who has to use a walker and lives alone. Seriously.

sniff

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:49:01 GMT

Waaaaahhhhhhhh... *sheds many tears* Hollywood will never be the same!!!

M. Night Shyamalan ruined his career...!

*pause* O_O

*runs over to Shyamalan DVD collection and hugs it* I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean it. Don't let the haters drive you away, too.

Mojave Experiment

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:16:50 GMT

For all you Vista-haters out there: The Mojave Experiment. Sorry, folks, but the truth is... Vista really isn't all that bad. You all just enjoy ragging on Microsoft and love having a reason to complain, especially when it parallels the general consensus. I had UBER low expectations for Vista when I first installed it on my brand new PC. Guess what? Not only was I pleasantly surprised, not a single complaint comes to mind right now about Windows' new OS. I also waited until after SP1 came out. Whoever expects a piece of brand new software to be perfect from day one is mental. There's always gonna be bugs to work out. Vista's here to stay. Learn to live with it and quit griping!

The Golden Compass Movie Review

Wed, 07 May 2008 17:08:43 GMT

So, picked up and watched The Golden Compass on DVD. Reviewed it and, instead of making a real post, thought I'd be lazy and just post my review in here instead. Haha.

I will start off by saying that when I saw in early '07 that they were making a movie called "The Golden Compass" (TGC) and discovered it was based on the first book in a trilogy, I immediately checked out TGC from my local library, wanting to get the backstory before watching the movie. I'd heard the title and it sounded like a good fantasy tale. As soon as I'd started on the book, I immediately regretted not picking up the entire trilogy all at once. I finished in a few days and got on the library's list to check out the second and third books. Upon receiving them, I finished the whole story within a few more days.

It was very obvious to me, without having heard or read anything about the author, Philip Pullman, that the writer of that trilogy was a strong atheist. Sure enough, having finished the books, I look this guy up and the trilogy's strong anti-religion undertones made sense. Now, I realize that the books are fictitious works of fantasy, and that they are based, for the most part, in fictitious, fantastical worlds (though the leading male character in the second and third books is from OUR world, and part of the story does take place there). However, Pullman's casting of "The Church" and all religious figures as evil, dictating overlords who want to take away free will, and bend all the people in all the worlds to their command clearly indicates his stance against religion, Christianity in particular. He has, himself, said that the story is, "...about killing God." I won't go into the whole backstory (see the His Dark Materials Wikipedia entry for all that info), except to say that the good guys are basically fighting AGAINST The Church/God/Heaven, and are fighting to keep, what is for all intents and purposes, sin (Dust) in the world(s). Again, I realize it's all fictitious, but Pullman does allude to real biblical events and figures, subtly tying his story to our own history. For young, impressionable kids (who are the books' and the movie's target audience), these implications may have an impact on their beliefs and how they view Christianity, or religion in general.

That being said, while the movie had great visual effects and CGI, and the actors were very good, the whole thing seemed a little hollow. It was very obviously lacking something. TGC is the lightest book in the series, but there were still some darker elements in the story and most of these had been removed. I understand that keeping all of the heavy philosophical, theological themes in the movie would have caused an uproar, but they really should have just not made the movie at all rather than removing those elements essential to the plot. I don't agree with most of it, but I also don't agree with butchering someone else's work to make it acceptable to the general public. Like most others who have read the books, I was very surprised that the end of TGC was not included in the movie! It is essential to the story, so I can only assume that it will be included in the beginning of the second film. Apparently, the producers did not want to end the first film on a low note. A lot of other stuff was left out of the movie and some events were out of order, but that's to be expected. The film also seemed a little rushed, they could certainly have included at least another half hour.

We didn't see a whole lot of Daniel Craig in the film, though he wasn't in the book that much either. He plays a bigger role in the last book. I thought Dakota Blue Richards did a fantastic job as Lyra, though. Brave, cheeky, and great at bare-faced lying. I really enjoyed her performance. I will keep an eye out for news of the next film, The Subtle Knife, being made. Obviously, having produced a movie based on the first book in a trilogy, it's expected that the other two books will eventually be adapted for the silver screen, but as the story grows darker in the second and third installments, a lot more chopping up of the story will have to be done. I believe the director of TGC had noted somewhere that his intent was to be more true to the books in the next two movies, but we shall see.

All in all, I would recommend that anyone who has not already pick up the trilogy and give it a read. As long as you are able to recognize and filter out Pullman's anti-religion crap (remembering it's all just part of a made-up, fictitious world), it's a good read. You won't be able to put the books down. You'll also realize how watered-down the movie was, but it was fun to see some of the characters come to life.

Woohoo!

Thu, 01 May 2008 03:41:08 GMT

"Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me. Gandalf the Grey. That was my name."

HE'S BACK!!!

Superheroes

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:42:13 GMT

It's all good and well to be able to relate, but superheroes aren't drinking buddies... their original purpose was to be role models! Sure, make 'em seem human. Most of them are, afterall, but a true hero is a hero in every sense of the word.

he·ro [heer-oh] -noun
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal

"A model or ideal"... as in "role-model". Obviously other people cannot model themselves after superheroes by imitating their super-powers, so they have everything else to go by.

38 Barry Pepper Icons

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:07:35 GMT

A 38 icon set based on the talented actor, Barry Pepper. There are: 16 from Saving Private Ryan (in which he plays Pvt. Daniel Jackson, a very talented sniper) 14 from The Green Mile (in which he plays Dean Stanton, a death row prison guard), and 8 from We Were Soldiers (in which he plays Joe Galloway, a reporter)

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