Mac Attack

I used to think that I knew what I was doing when I turned on my MacBook Pro. I've always been the guy that my family and friends go to for tech advice and questions like "how do I...?" especially in regards to Mac computers. Since I had first become a Mac user (that sounds like I'm on drugs and in a way...) five years ago I have become very familiar with how the system works and how I can do things quickly and easily with shortcut keys. Its been years since I've drag and dropped files to the trash can, had any hard drive/disk images on my desktop for file navigation and for the most part I try to keep my desktop free of all files and folders. I had even started using new features introduced in OS X.5 Leopard like dock stacks to locate multiple programs into one small location in an attempt to keep my dock uncluttered and organized.

There was one time when a friend of mine and fellow Mac user had an issue with his MacBook that I couldn't fix for him. I tried everything I could think of to alleviate his problem aside from reinstalling the operating system. I thought that there may have been something else that could be done that I was unaware of so we took it into the local Apple store to have a "Mac Genius" diagnose the problem for us. We'd get it fixed and I thought that I might gain some new Mac knowledge. As it turned out all that could be done was to reinstall the operating system and I in fact knew more than the "Mac Genius." So I went home afterward with the impression that I was something of a "Mac Genius" myself and have been living under that assumption ever since, that is until I randomly came across a YouTube video of a fourteen year old kid.

I was so impressed with how much he knew (surprisingly more than what I knew) that I watched all of his tutorial/tip videos and followed many of the links to websites with useful free software to improve my computing experience. I also learned of some tools that would change user interface elements like program and system icons, the dock, and certain applications. So I spent a lot of free time learning new tricks and modifying my software aesthetics. Now I have a clean new interface and a pathetically empty dock, in fact the dock has become almost obsolete now.

While some of the new software I got is very useful and increases productivity quite a lot it's the shortcut/action modifier keys that I am the most pleased with learning. They are all built into the operating system and have always been there to use, so learning a new one that is extremely useful is both exciting for me (so what if that makes me a geek) and very disappointing because I should have already known it. So for those of you that use Apple computers I will be sharing some of the more useful shortcuts for the most common actions later on.


For now I'll show you a screenshot of my current system set up. You may notice that on the desktop there are icons for the hard drive titled Rose (the computer's named Rose, don't ask), a connected server titled mac, and a connected USB flash drive titled Flasher. Normally those icons are not visible on my desktop but I included them so you can see that more than the generic folders have been changed to have a wood finish. Most of the system icons have been changed to a wooden theme. You may also notice the selected program Flock which a web browser built on the same engine as Firefox and has become my new default and the Mega Man icon next to it which is the most awesome application ever. It's called MegaManEffect and if you use a Mac and have ever played a Mega Man game then google it, and download it. That's it for the moment.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Bonfire of the Insanities

It all started innocently enough. We were young and stupid. Well, more stupid than we currently are anyway and attending Allan Hancock College in an attempt to become less stupid. Brett, who welcomes everyone he meets into his fold like a blind retarded sheep invited me to join he and his friends at Oceano Beach for a little bonfire. He said it starts at 5p.m. so I arrive a little early just to be safe. Around six someone else showed up and things got going. Next thing I knew I was one of the gang and we were having bonfires as often as we could.

Then, one by one, we all (well almost all) moved away for school, work, or school and we ended up in Southern California. Since the great migration we hadn't had a true beach bonfire experience but we always talked about getting around to doing it again as soon as possible. Five years later we did.

Over the Winter break we would all be close enough to the legendary Oceano Beach. So we began to plot the flaming end of any number of wood and wood-like substances along with the consumption of carbonated yellow snow, more commonly known as Mountain Dew. We set a date for Dec. 26, the day after Christmas and a start time of 12 noon. One by one we all began to show up, maybe just a little bit late.

And so it begins. Burn baby burn!

A little 007 homage.

A little chicken dancing.

The Mike.

The Mike went for a little swim. Apparently, the ocean is a powerful force.

From light to dark.

As things cooled down we all began to curl up around the fire.

Coraline

So there is a new film from the director of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and it's called Coraline. It looks beautiful with stop motion animation that moves the medium forward. It will be presented in stereoscopic 3D. To see some of what has gone into the creation of this film go to coraline.com and type in these passwords to view the individual clips.

stopmotion
buttoneyes
moustachio
puppetlove
armpithair
sweaterxxs

Lifestyles of the Rich and Tasteless

You wont believe this but I just got home from an LA fashion show. You wont believe this either but I wasn't the worst dressed person there. You may not even believe that it was actually kind of fun. I went to assist the house videography crew "Oh Rio! Productions"
( www.youtube.com/ohrioproductions ) shoot the show and gave myself the title "The Better Boy Grip." Some of you will get that, some will not. We met a few celebrities there and while the big name of the evening was Mandy Moore we also spent a fair amount of time with one of the coolest celebrities ever, Aimee Garcia. If you ever watched the George Lopez show whe played Veronica in the later seasons. It was great fun chatting with her and whitnessing one of the wonders of world culture that is fashion. It's almost as bizzar as I had imagined it to be. I have no photos to share because I didn't have my camera with me. I didn't think that I would be able to use it but I learned that I could have and as I sat in the photo pit durring the show I could have gotten some great shots of scarry clothes on bony models. Next time I'm bringing it. I don't believe I just said "next time."

2+2= -1

This isn't mine but I had to share it.

A lecture about English

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his English class one day.
"In English," he said, "A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."

Nerf Wars

Okay, thank you Ashley for bugging me for not having uploaded any Nerf War photos yet and reminding me that a posting is past due. I've been a bit preoccupied the last couple of weeks, and I'm a bit absent minded to begin with. So here is the one and only photo I took at what was truly an epic Nerf War. It must have lasted close to three hours and darts were flying everywhere.

I had brought the camera with the idea of possibly shooting some photos of the event but when it came time to get down and dirty my hands were busy. I brought two single action guns with me and so even when I wasn't double fisting it I needed the extra hand to constantly reload my gun for the next shot. Jenny's place has proven its self to be the ideal place for such events as there was plenty of cover and multiple rooms to hide and snipe in.

I spent a bit too much time crouching behind cover that day and felt it big time for the next three. I was completely sore and stiff. It took far too much effort to sit down let alone stand back up again.

The only reason I even got this photo was that I had been taking a bit of a beating from both Justin and Dayna (who was getting way too many head shots) and I needed a good offensive strategy to make a quick run and gun attack that would enable me to get a couple good shots in while throwing off their aim. I the realized that I could use my camera flash as a sort of flash bang grenade which has the purpose of stunning the opponent with blinding, unexpected light. It sort of worked. You'll notice that Justin is not shooting at me yet and Dayna has yet to even take aim at me and I managed to hit my target.

That was a fun day. I need more Nerf.

By George

People keep saying I look like George Lucas. I don't see it.