Robot Monkey Pants

This post is entirely inconsequential. Not that most of them aren’t, but this one definitely is. It has spawned the new category of Minutiae, it is so unimportant.

(more…)

I’ve found I have this bad habit of latching onto words and phrases and then overusing them. There are times when I feel like the “ascertain” guy from Kids in the Hall. Now, I’m not that bad, but I certainly do catch myself saying something I feel like I’m saying way too much — typically right after I’ve said it.

I noticed this yesterday when I was writing a document and caught myself typing “not dissimilar” instead of just, simply, “similar”. I recognize there are cases where “not dissimilar” is a good fit, but in this case it was simply me being wordy when I didn’t need to be. It’s just that “not dissimilar” is a phrase that my brain tasted some time ago and thought, “Yes. I like this. I will use this often.” And I have a few phrases or words that fit that description.

This was brought back to my mind this morning when I had the TV on while getting ready for work this morning, and heard the weather guy find a myriad different ways to say the same thing over and over, yet the phrases he chose and used end up being the same ones he uses every day. It reminded me of being back in college radio. Someone at the station (sorry, I don’t remember who) pointed out how a radio DJ is the only person you’ll hear give the time as so many minutes “in front of” an hour. Think about it — it’s not uncommon* to hear a DJ say something like that, but you’ll never hear a schmoe on the street say it. Sure, part of it is an attempt to sound cool or something like that, but I’m sure most of it is driven by a desire to not say the same thing over and over. So instead of “It’s ten minutes to five,” what you’ll hear is “it’s ten minutes in front of five o’clock.”

The thing is, in my observations, it’s what I’d hear all the time. So instead of saying something outside the norm, you create a new norm.

[Cue Doogie Howser epilogue music.]

And so it goes with me. By trying to choose unique or different ways of saying things (because I’m all about changing it up) I wind up creating new ruts. Maybe we all do. Or, more likely, maybe I’m just an idiot.

(* ooh, another double negative.)

I am seeing the Police in Wrigley Field in July!

When I left Newfoundland, I promised myself I would take advantage of the better offerings in terms of concerts that living somewhere other than a remote island province would afford me.  Specifically, I vowed I would move heaven and earth to see Peter Gabriel, REM, and The Police or Sting.

We saw REM on the Monster tour in Minneapolis.  We saw Peter Gabriel on the Up tour in Montreal in 2002.  We saw Sting at the Target Center in Minneapolis, which ostensibly “counted”, but this was in 1996, which meant he was quite middle of the road/easy listening.  It was hardly a Police show.

But I’m going.  The seats are not bad, but could be better.  I’m on the field, stage right.

Woo!

Why is it that I find it so easy to dismiss fans of March Madness, The BCS, or any other big college sports playoff, while at the same time recognize the equal irrelevance of professional sports, and still be a fan of it?

I sometimes pontificate on how I don’t understand why someone who isn’t in college or have a relative actually playing cares about college sports, but how do the Packers or Bears winning a game enhance my life any?

Still. I don’t get March Madness.

Dear Great Big Sea,

First of all, the concert last night in Chicago was a lot of fun — it’s been too long since I’ve been to a GBS show. You guys are amazing performers, accomplished showmen, and I’m always happy to introduce someone new to your music.

And on getting the impressions of someone who was attending her first GBS show, it confirmed something I’d been feeling for a while. She said the first set was, by far, the best part of the show, and I’m inclined to agree. Discussion with my other GBS-loving friends come up with the same end result; lose the drum kit.

I’m not saying lose the drummer. Kris is a great and multi-talented musician. In fact, the small percussion set used in the first set was perfect. Enough to add the right nuances to the songs without overpowering the rest of the band. If you want to use a full drum kit in the studio for the more pop/rock oriented music, that’s fine — the production you do in studio tends to make it blend more. But in a live show, when the drum kit is in use, the music is suffering.

I don’t think I even understand why Séan even bothers playing the bodhrán on songs you’re using the drum kit with. You can’t hear it at all. Meanwhile, in the first set, the combination of the congas along with the minimal percussion lent a nice nuance, while it let the bodhrán shine. And Séan’s a fine bodhran player –
don’t drown him out.

[As a side note, the electric guitar doesn't quite feel right either, but it's used sparingly, which is good.]

Your strength as a group lies with your ability to entertain an arena full of people using nothing more than a couple of guitars, an acoustic bass, a bodhrán, Bob’s retinue of instruments, and your fantastic voices and harmonies.

Why gild the lily?

Note to self, check this out.

[making post public to spread the word]

Along the lines of an earlier discussion here regarding complaining without acting, I came across a post on a blog I’m reading regularly, Violent Acres, called The Government Who Cried Wolf to which I had some mixed reactions upon reading it.

The general gist of it is this — since there’s so much bullshit coming out of Washington now, it’s impossible to know who to believe (this part I agree with), so I’m disengaging from the process (this part I vehemently oppose). Apologies if I’m messing up the message, but that’s what I walked away with.

(more…)

VirtueDesktops is no longer being developed.

The developer’s moving on to other things since with Leopard, Spaces will solve most people’s issues.

I’m a little sad about this. I see this pattern of events:

• Apple releases software.
• Someone notices a glaring omission and starts to write a solution
• Apple sees this (I assume) and decides to incorporate it into its next release
• Original developer abandons project
• Apple’s implementation is never as good (somewhat surprisingly) as the original developer’s idea.

Examples:

• I used to use uControl to remap my Caps Lock key to Control, and remap my “Enter” key on my powerbook to be a second Fn key (since I like to have one on both sides). Along came Tiger with its ability to remap the modifiers, and the original developer abandoned it. Unfortunately, Tiger’s modifier remap ability omitted the ability to remap that pesky and annoying “enter” key to something useful.
• I used to use a package called iScroll2 to allow me to do two finger scrolling on my old powerbook trackpad. But it had another neat feature I could enable — if I laid one finger on the trackpad and clicked, I got a right-click. If I laid two fingers on the trackpad and clicked, I got a middle click. Awesome one-handed three button mouse emulation — I started missing my Thinkpad less. But along came the newer machines with built-in two finger scrolling and some options, but implemented in a way totally useless to me. If I wanted to emulate secondary mouse buttons, I needed to enable tap-clicking. Can I say how much I hate tap clicking? Almost as much as I hate mouse gestures. Neither work when I want them to, and almost invariably trigger when I don’t want them to.
• I could point to Dashboard and Konfabulator, but I won’t since I never really bonded with Konfabulator and it wasn’t free. Also, I hate Dashboard.
• Now, VirtueDesktops, which is thoroughly useful is giving way to Spaces. I’ve not yet played with Spaces, but I’m sure there’ll be some cool things I hadn’t thought of. I’m equally sure a month into it I’m going to miss something really nice about VirtueDesktops.

I’m sure there are other examples of this — I’ve only been part of the Apple world since late 2003.

I now fear that the next to go will be Quicksilver. I’ve no basis for this fear, other than I now rely on it, and therefore Murphy’s Law dictates it should be the next one to go.

I’m not going to have any children.  It’s a decision my wife and I made, and I’m happy about it.  I think the most compelling reason to have a child is because you actually want to have a child.  I also think that if you can’t honestly say that you want to have a child, you really should think long and hard before conceiving.  I never once thought to myself, “Yes, I want to have a child.”  Not once.  At best, I thought “Maybe.  Some day.  Some unspecified day way off in the future.”  And those moments were not frequent.  So I’m comfortable with my choice and happy about it.

That being said, very occasionally, I  have a small twinge of remorse.  Not for me — I’m responsible enough to realize that I’m not responsible enough to raise a child.  I couldn’t handle a dog, there’s no way I could handle a child (and I tend to like animals a lot more than most people).  So, no, not for me do I feel remorse, but for society as a whole.

And, no I don’t feel remorse because I’m depriving the world from the obvious glory that would be my spawn.  Hell, no.  But I do worry that, by and large, those that don’t seriously consider the implications and importance of being a parent are the ones who are most often becoming parents.  The people who I know personally who have had children have thought it out, and that makes me happy.  But I know they’re in the minority.

I dunno, I’m just ranting again.  This article is what made me think of this.  But then, I guess if I don’t have any vested stake in the future of society by way of offspring, perhaps I should just chill and enjoy things.

Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.

With the retardedness that is Daylight Saving Time being brought to the forefront by shortsighted legislation inflicted upon us a couple of years back, it got me thinking.

If we spend 8 months on Daylight time and 4 months on Standard time, why the hell do we call it Standard?

When I was a kid, DST started on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October.  That meant 6 months of DST and 6 months of Standard time.  In 1987 they changed that to the first Sunday in April, effectively adding a month.  (I won’t talk about Newfoundland’s experiment with Double Daylight Saving Time a couple of years later… ugh.)  Now, by adding a week to the end and three weeks to the beginning, we’re spending two thirds of the year observing a non-standard time.  Perhaps the entire country should just shift timezones and be done with it.

Here’s the frustrating bit — if you were going to wreak havoc by changing the rules, wouldn’t that have been a good time to just say “We’re going on Daylight Saving Time and not going off it.”  It hardly seems worth it to drop back an hour for four months.

Oh, and here’s the kicker.  If it turns out this stupid rule change doesn’t result in energy saving, they can reverse to the old rules.  Won’t that be fun?