I guess it’s no secret how much I love the Presets, I came in this morning with this note on my desk from my boss:
My coworkers are friggin’ awesome.
Categories: Ennui
I’ve been checking out the Safari 4 beta. Normally I’m unimpressed with Safari, but this one feature grabbed me, called “top sites.”
Basically, it generates a list of the sites you go to most often and displays them in this completely unnecessary 3D grid. It’s incredibly handy to have your top nine sites on your home page, and I found myself using Safari just for that purpose these last few days.
However, I can’t get rid of Firefox. I need del.icio.us integration, the auto-play-in-high-def Greasemonkey script for YouTube, and countless other addons that ease my web experience.
So, I decided to design my own Top sites.
Safari:
My version (available here):
And look, it even validates!
It’s designed for my MacBook’s screen resolution, so it might look blown out on your (probably more massive) display.
Not enough hours in the day, I wanted to finish my 2008 DoAR edition and have it spinning through LuLu’s presses tonight.
But I still have to do a bunch of edits for Josh’s site. I like my new start page, I’m pretty sure it will evolve into something even more awesome. Also, the background is from InterfaceLift.
I’ve started to take glucosamine to maybe somehow help my knee…my health problems seem to be multiplying, my hands hurt 24 hours a day now from typing at work.
However, the one thing I can do is read, which I did at Temple today. Turns out this girl that used to work at True Love is working there now, she recognized me and we had a little chat. I’m loving GEB, and I’m about halfway through.
Frantic call from Kathleen tonight, I think she’s going to be arrested. Apparently some kind of social worker came over and talked to Grammie for five minutes and said that she’s “fine” and doesn’t have dementia. Am I the only person that’s willing to admit that she does? Seriously, if I’ve said it one time, I’ll say it again. And in an h1, nesting be damned.
These people are so devoted to immolating themselves and each other over petty, meaningless bullshit I am ashamed to be included in this family.
I can’t wait to leave Sacramento. This place is a fucking dump.
Categories: Ennui
Can’t type, so I thought I’d do a podcast. Taylor-inspired easter egg at 21:44.
[audio:http://www.retroviral.net/audio/good_news_everyone.mp3]
With thanks to my sample god, freesound.org.
Categories: Ennui
I just signed up with Mint, the online spending tracker…this is really interesting. The chart is for my last four months of spending.
Categories: Ennui
I had SO much fun this weekend in Reno! I don’t really have a lot of pictures, since most of my time there was spent in bars in the middle of the night, but it was fucking epic.
In-bar slot machine at Carl’s.
The trip started on Friday, on Greyhound. Took SEVEN FUCKING HOURS to get there, it was this epic trek through the snow.
Snowy sign in Colfax, where the bus got its chains put on.
On Valentine’s Day, Sam and I headed down to the bar to watch the B-Movie day, we watched Barbarella and Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, which set the tone for the whole rest of the night.
Sam and I got deliciously trashed and laughed our asses off at our jew renditions of fagpop songs (to survive fagpop, replace the word “you” with “jew” and behold the amusing or depressing change of meaning):
Okay, take this piece of shit gay hit, and find/replace the lyrics. It turns this vanilla pop hit
You’ll never see me again
So now who’s gonna cry for you
You’ll never gonna see me again
No matter what you do
to the lament of a Dachau guard:
Jews’ll never see me again
So now who’s gonna cry for jews
Jews’ll never see me again
No matter what jews do
M.I.A., venting her pro-PLO tendencies:
I fly like paper, get high like planes
If jews catch me at the border I got visas in my name[...]
All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!)
And (KKKAAAA CHING!)
And take jew money
And, of course, the most eerie, Dirty Vegas:
Days go by and still I think of jews
Days when I couldn’t live my life without jews
Hi-fucking-larious.
Sam and I also came to the conclusion that every statement can be immediately followed by either the Barbarella theme or the Godfather theme.
Also, we are really rich Italian Satanists.
I didn’t go to Lipstick tonight ’cause it was raining like crazy and I didn’t drive. My dad gave me a ride, or I would have been bussing it. Public transit really fucking sucks now that I’m not in school, because not only is it slow, but it actually costs money.
I drunk texted Taggart while I was there, I’m not quite sure why, I missed getting fucked up in his presence at Lipstick. I need to hook him up to a polygraph next time we hang out. I have problems trusting people.
I should have gone to Lipstick tonight. Right now I’m rocking out to New Young Pony Club while I brush my teeth.
Also, if you are the geeky type, you should totally check out Ubiquity, this amazing Firefox plugin. This video (with a rather cheezy intro) explains it:
Categories: Ennui
and here’s the full WordPress theme
it’s for my friend kevin’s dj site
Started at about midnight, it’s 4:30 a.m. This is the first website I’ve done from sketches to full theme-ization in one sitting. I’m very proud of it.
Categories: Ennui
Today has been the ultimate lazy day.
I sorted through a bunch of my files, and got Boot Camp running. It was really strange sitting through the 10 or so restarts required to get an XP system working.
Okay, so the cat’s out of the bag: I bought OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator. It allows you to play computer games by measuring your brain waves as the interface.
So I set up a boot camp install with a few of my favorite games (okay, only one game, Diablo II). I didn’t realize that it was being shipped from Fresno, so it should be here tomorrow and I only bought it on Thursday.
Well, technically, it is already here… it’s in West Sacramento, it just hasn’t been delivered yet. Huh. I think I’m going to call UPS and see if I can pick it up :)
No such luck, ShaQuanda told me that the distribution centers are closed on Saturday and Sunday. I don’t know, I keep feeling like I don’t live in a first world country anymore.
I knew that I had this pristine box of gardenburgers in my freezer, so this afternoon I went to fix myself one for lunch. The box wasn’t there… which was perplexing since I had only bought it the week before. I found it in the cupboard, smelling all funky. My grandma must’ve taken it out and put it in the cupboard like she always does. She had never done it to my stuff before now though.
While I was doing all the installation and such, I was listening to This Week in Tech (since I can listen to it on my phone, I keep up with it a lot better than computer-based podcasts). They were talking all about how banner ads are dead and the future of advertising… I feel like I’m totally behind in my knowledge of Silicon Valley gossip. Back in Crescent City, I used to keep up on all that stuff like crazy… the highlight of my week was to download and watch DiggNation. I’d load it on my iPod, hook it to the TV, and enjoy.
I don’t even really go to Digg anymore unless I’m really really bored. On TWiT, they were also talking about the revolutionary nature of twitter and how it’s completely changed the way everything works. Apparently even Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have Twitter accounts. Despite the reality that the service will probably be very difficult to monetize, Twitter is just taking off.
I’m so excited to train the nia, I’m freakin’ out. I’m going to be refreshing the UPS tracking page over and over all day on Monday. I may be able to play Diablo III !!!!!!
Categories: Ennui
I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to today. Spent my morning getting my scooter serviced, the drudgery of work, then I didn’t know what to do. I drove aimlessly around Sacramento looking for something… anything… chasing phantoms of past fun.
Started down K, towards true love, but it doesn’t exist any more.
Passed the gay district, a ghost town of hideous lighting. Where would I hang out? I couldn’t just hang out and drink, then I would have to stay for hours and hours. The Merc is campy with friends, alone it’s just depressing.
Left on 15th,
I wanted to go to Quickly because it reminded me of the lady that used to work at the old smoothie shop, Zodiac
I wanted to go to Slices to get some pizza because it reminded me of good pizza times with many people. I wanted to go to Naked Lounge to work on finishing Molly’s novel. I wanted to go to the Kasbah because that’s where I always end up when I’m feeling down. But each time I would approach the place, realize that there was just no way that future was going to happen.
So I ended up at the hospital. I visited my aunt for a bit, she seemed in much better spirits today. I’m glad I didn’t get flowers, there was no table in her room.
There’s just something about driving a motorcycle aimlessly through the dark. My brain just shuts off and I am a machine seeking something, I don’t know what. I was thinking of going to that Starbucks at the end of the Downtown Plaza, coming to the conclusion a few months ago that it would be the most depressing and run-down place I could think to be at and still be in Midtown.
Some awesome things did happen today, Google launched this thing called Latitude. Basically, it’s what I always wanted, a way to say “i’ll be there soon” and have whoever is waiting for you track your progress via GPS. Also, your contacts can see where you are on their mobile so if you’re close you can meet up. Why doesn’t everyone have a smartphone? This shit is so fun!
It’s going to be so much fun going to Sam’s for Valentine’s Day. We are going to get so motherfucking drunk I won’t be sober for a week.
I finally got the pictures downloaded from the N95 and added them to the posts below. Check out the airport ones, they’re great.
Categories: Ennui
I had a lot of fun last night. I went with Christen to her dad’s birthday dinner. It was really hilarious…we were watching this horrible movie about some white guy that finds some staff of power or something…every scene was so obviously green-screened. There was this endless fight scene were this guy fights this chick’s hair. Our waiter never showed up after about 30 minutes, so we got them to send someone over. Our food finally showed up…Christen’s sashimi tasted revolting (it tasted fishy and OLD), the tuna in my spicy tuna rolls was all ground up, lke cat food. The service and the food was terrible, but that just seemed to make everything more amusing.
To top it all off, it was Christen’s dad’s birthday, so the chronically late waiter came out with some kind of chocolate thing with a candle on it, and he very audibly said “oh, great…”
After dinner, we decided to make an appearance at Lipstick, so we had a few drinks and danced it up to “He Took Her to a Movie” and “The Girl and the Sea.”
Hung out in the parking lot for a while with Waylon, then we went home.
This morning I’ve spent at the scooter dealership waiting while they finish my scooter. This one is going to cost a pretty penny, $220. But I have to get it done. Service is expensive but not having transportation is even more expensive. There are so many good concerts in March! I was bitching around December that there weren’t any good shows scheduled, but now there are. Booka Shade, MSTRKRFT, Simian Mobile Disco, Fugiya & Miyagi. I’m fucking excited.
Well, it looks like he’s finishing up my bill, I should head to work. I’ll get Kathleen some flowers and pay her a visit too.
Categories: Ennui
I left work early today to get to the clinic so I could get my knee looked at. Unfortunately, there’s still a ton of drug addicts orbiting the place.
So I’ve staked out a spot at the Starbucks opposite the place and am biding my time. Meh. It’s cold.
I’m trying to decide whether it’s insulting or flattering to be hit on by a fat queeny barista. Preliminary decision: flattering. Some on a white vintage vespa…that’s 10 points. I have to say I’m unapologetically patronizing name-brand coffee houses. True Love was…er…my only true indie
coffee shop love?
The problem with indie coffee shops is that they don’t have the multimillion-dollar campaigns to restore them to hip-ness. True Love had an epoch of cool, but it died out. The last few months, I saw nary a soul there.
I got to name my new drives last night: Neuromancer and Wintermute. :)
This morning I stopped by the hospital to check on Kathy. Turns out she’s going by her married name (who knew, she’s been divorced for countless years). She was in the intensive ward where they have nurses around you the whole time. I came in and her nurse was fussing with her gown and tubes everywhere. She was in one of those neck brace things (she had surgery to remove these broken screws from her spine).
She recognized me, and told me she was glad I came but that she was in too much pain to have visitors. I said I’d come back the next day, and I headed off to work. She looked like she was in a lot of pain, I’ll have to bring some flowers tomorrow to lighten up that place…it looks like a community tomb. This guy was handcuffed to the bed next to her and kept asking me to let him free (as if I had the key or something).
I’m researching some interesting javascript effects for my work website, and I realize I need to think outside the box a bit and move away from the old design. It’s just not usable for a site where we have all our content on it. It’ll still use a lot of the formatting from the Blueprint framework and the same icon set, but the rest needs to go.
Man, my fingers are starting to get cold, and the crowd of drug addicts has evaporated. Clinic time!
Categories: Ennui
