About the redesign: Stone cold silver
As some of you have already noticed, this site has changed dramatically this past week. Not only is this the first “dark” design for this website, but a couple things have been added and taken away from the site structure and content itself, namely:
The sidebar
In the interest of having a design that is simple and cleaner looking, I’ve scraped all the extras a sidebar usually has: latest twitter post, categories, recent posts, etc. In it’s place is a clean, slightly more modern looking descriptive navigation. Also for the first time, the navigation side by side to the content, as opposed to above.
Lifecasting
This is an entirely new feature that has been in the works for a month or two now, only cleverly hidden behind the title of my tumblr. I’ve now integrated it into the rest of the site, giving it the same look and feel, as well as navigation, so can flip between this and the rest of the site seamlessly. My twitter updates are also streamed into here, as text posts. The lifecasting stream has its own RSS feed separate to this blog, and you can subscribe to that here.
They call me smart, but really, I’m just a little brilliant
Some people waste time, and other spend time wondering where they wasted it.
In a series of universally-correct, astoundingly astute observations of myself in my natural habitat, I have formally come to the conclusion that I would get so much more done if I did not have:
- A website to write in.
- A tumblr to do everything in.
- A twitter account to update.
- A facebook account to lurk in.
- A flickr account to post in.
So really, it’s not at all my fault that I’m an easily-distracted procrastinator. It’s the internet’s fault.
That feels so much better.
Celebrating 1.25 years of “You have a what?”
Though I made no reference to it at the time, last June marked the one year annivarsary of this website. Since its conception, I’ve written 104 posts and readers have responded with 1,010 comments. 82.68% of my visitors arrive here on a computer running Windows, and 10.06% are lonely. 60.34% of my visitors are smart enough to use Firefox, and 22.91% are still frolicking with the Internet Devil.
Compared to the millions of other websites, both personal and otherwise, there is nothing special nor impressive about these statistics. But to me, I’m somewhat amazed. People read what I write. People I’ve never even met. People I know nothing about. And perhaps even more astounding than that… I’m not shy when it comes to all that I’ve written, nor do I regret a single thing I’ve written.
This is a new idea for me. I have family members who drop by here, as well as family friends, business partners and offline friends—many of whom I never even mentioned my website to. Under difference circumstances, I would usually go through a certain effort to keep my writings private; I’m not exactly the kind of person who goes about sharing things they’ve written with random strangers… And yet, exactly what am I doing right now?
The best video on the internet, period.
I don’t usually post things like this on here because what I write here is totally supposed to be all SERIOUS! and THOUGHT-PROVOKING!, but this video is just so many levels of awesome hilarity and pure GANGSTA that I just couldn’t resist.
Other worthy runner-ups:
- The Indian version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
- A Bollywood video from the 80s featuring Superman, Spiderman and GOD AWFUL “special effects”
Creative frustration
Have you ever wanted to do something, attempted to do that thing and then found that no matter how hard you tried, you simply couldn’t?
That’s how I feel right now about anything that requires creative energy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat down with a witty idea or two, only to find that those ideas dancing around in my head simply couldn’t find their way out my fingers. Everything feels forced, and definitely not inspired.
For me, the worst thing about creative frustration is (surprise, surprise!) the “frustration” part. Unlike other negative emotions, I have yet to find a way to channel frustration into something positive. When creative frustration hits me, it crashes the whole operating system of my right brain, sort of like what happens when you try working in Photoshop and Illustrator at the same time while you browse Firefox with 50+ tabs open—I can’t write, I can’t draw, I can’t take photos, and I sure in hell can’t design.
Remember when you asked me not to blog about this?
You know you’ve reached a certain point in your career as a pseudo-blogger when your friends start asking you not to blog about certain things:
The tail-end of a lengthy discussion on those who live life superficially vs. those who don’t (also known as CHANEL, YOU THINK TOO MUCH):
The Friend says: (10:37:11 PM)
You drive me crazyThe Friend says: (10:37:20 PM)
And this is just MSNThe Friend says: (10:37:30 PM)
… Please don’t write a blog on this :P
With more and more of my offline friends, family and acquaintances finding this website (which, admittedly, isn’t hard; all you need to do is google me), the subject of my online writings have never come up more often. Specifically, the question of “You’re not going to blog about this, are you?”
To those offline friends, family and acquaintances, and maybe our mailman: I am on the hunt for my next project and new material. Lock your doors. Maybe even close your windows. But be especially careful what you say or do around me, because you never know—it might just end up on here.
Someone you never talk to is now in a relationship with someone you’ve never heard of
Abstract thought of the hour: Facebook is incredibly creepy and stalker-like when it comes to publishing information about your friends’ every online (and in some cases, offline) move.
And while we’re on that topic: Has anyone ever noticed that Facebook’s feeds are a new breed of passive gossip? I’m reminded of one of the first things anyone ever told me about Facebook mere hours after I joined:
When a couple breaks up, Facebook knows about it before they do.
What is the strangest thing you’ve ever learned (intentionally or not) about any of your friends through a social networking site like Facebook?
An open letter to the technologically dependant
Older generation, I have a bone to pick with you.
Look, I understand you didn’t grow up with “The Internet”. Or computers. Maybe they make you a little nervous. Maybe they make you feel completely stupid, because your five year old grandson can use your computer ten times better than you can. That’s okay. I too remember the day my second grade teacher announced that our next assignment was to research something on the internet - it was terrifying, believe me, I know.
But let me explain something to you. You see, the world is changing. The internet is a great place, really… You can shop online, talk to people all over the world, learn about anything (and everything)… and oh my god, you can even do all your banking in your UNDERWEAR. Preposterous, you say? I know.
I understand that the older you get, the harder it (typically) becomes for you to change—and that’s okay. If you don’t want to use computers, don’t. If you still want to send all written communication via fax (what’s that?) or mail, that’s fine. If you still want to do your payroll by hand, that’s dandy. If you still want to run down to the bank before 3pm to pay your bills, more power to you.
However.
If you find yourself desiring to do dirty little 21st century things like sending emails, shopping online, reading weblogs and the likes, don’t rely on “the younger generation” to do everything for you.
The first month: Things I’ve learned about owning a Mac
It’s been just roughly a month since I bought my Mac and officially became part of The Dark Side—Or, as my father would call it, the lonely and caffeinated club.
So far, so good. I haven’t brought my Mac anywhere near a trendy coffee shop, and amazingly enough, my social life has remained as fabulous as ever—But I have picked up a couple things in the last thirty-some days, and I’m here to impart my newfound knowledge.
Behold, things I have learned about owning a mac, in no particular order:
Two things: An experience in geekery
I did two things today, two things I never expected to do anytime in the near future:
- Removed and installed RAM.
- Did a “live chat” with an online HP technician.
The RAM part was a bit tricky. There were bundles and bundles of wires in the way, preventing me from accessing the card - it took about 10 minutes to find it, and another 40 to replace it. I think I’m starting to get an idea why computer repair guys charge insane amounts of money to do seemingly nothing.
The live chat was interesting. “Patmon S.” was clinically polite and helpful, albeit a little too robot-like. I initiated the chat half expecting nothing to happen, like, wow? someone actually does this? It’s the little white guy who lives in my computer! He speaks! OH MY GOD, HE (she?) WILL HELP ME SAVE MY COMPUTER FROM THE REPETITIVE BEEPING NOISE!
And before you ask: I had nothing to do with the breaking of this computer. Honestly.
