I've been going on as close to 8 hours of sleep as I can for quite a while now. And it's been working out great! My weekend "sleep till I wake" strategy has done a wonderful job of making up for hours or half-hours that I didn't get on sleep. On days like today, where I stayed up extra late but didn't have any other sleep to catch up on, I slept almost exactly 8.5 hours. That feels pretty good.
So I've decided to try and get my sleep down to between 7 and 7.5 hours a night using the same strategy. As I've said several times before, my goal is to cut down on the total time that I waste sleeping, no matter how good it may feel. I think 7 should be achievable, especially with my weekend budget. Still, it won't be pleasant for a while, but at this point I'm getting used to that transition period. I can't decide if this means that I'll be going to sleep later or waking up earlier. At school my girlfriend prefers to stay up later, so I'm pretty certain that's the way it will work out.
Some other cool stuff has happened recently. First off, I started my Pokemon Crystal nuzlocke run. You can click on the tab titled "My YouTube Channel" to see the videos that I've done so far.
My friend Cole just got back in town, and we've made up for some lost time by cramming in some board game time. He recently purchased Eclipse (no, not the Twilight movie) for over $100. I love me a good board game, but I can't imagine shelling out that kind of money just yet. We're also working hard on making bad food a reality. I won't give away too much but let's just say it'll be big.
Finally, my love of MST3K took me to a movie in the park last night. And it was fantastic. They showed Gamera vs. Zigra. A classic tale of terror and heroics, it kept me laughing to the end. The best part was that they had a live orchestra, live voice actors, and even live sound effects right there. Unfortunately I didn't get any video of it, but these guys come out and dub old foreign films for fun. It's not quite MST3K because they actually stick to the script, but it was amazing. Cole and I both wanted to get the guys from MST3K and have a live riff track also. The way they had it all set up the silhouettes could even show up! It's been a great time having Cole back in town, even though our schedules don't always line up the best.
Here is the website for that movie group. If you have the chance give them some support! http://filmusik.com
Monday, August 27, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Things I Wish Apple would Bring Back
I'm not going to do a full review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion yet, mostly because I just haven't had the time to sit behind my computer recently. I'm currently serving on a grand jury, and as you can imagine, that takes up quite a bit of time. Also, I am just not used to sitting still for 8 hours a day. The worst part? It doesn't start till Wednesday. I only got picked today and was twitching like crazy after about 2 hours. It does not bode well.
But I do feel like I need to put this out there to people who would actually care. Most of my coworkers are big enough nerds that they use some Linux distribution, and then Windows for their gaming needs. I'm actually the resident Mac expert and sometimes have to assist coworkers trying to use Final Cut Pro for their work (the public Mac is right next to me on the same desk). I think I've taught them well, but I'm concerned about how they'll do while I'm out deciding cases.
The big thing that I really, really don't like about Apple is unavoidable. The fanboys came from iOS. To be the hipster, I've been using a Mac at home exclusively since 2000. And before that I can't remember because I was never on the computer, but I do know we had one. My dad uses a Windows machine because of his work and has a personal MacBook. My family has just been running on Macs my whole life. And even before: my parents used the old Lisa.
The change that I want fixed comes from the last properly stable version of OS X: Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 was amazing. Lion was Apple's Vista. It was buggy as all hell and changed too much. All I can describe it as is "candified." It was ugly. The "natural" scrolling or whatever bullshit they tried to sell us on is only useful for one thing: figuring out who starting using a Mac through iOS (aka fanboy) and who actually uses a computer. Launchpad is just atrocious and should be banned. Personally I open every application from the Terminal or Spotlight. Before I knew how to do that the Applications tab in Finder was more than easy enough to find. But what really killed the experience for me was Mission Control.
I could rant about the App Store for days, but I do appreciate the Apple's new target audience just doesn't care. But Mission Control replaced one of the greatest parts of owning a Mac for me: Spaces and Expose. I don't want to be restricted to only one dimensional movement between desktops. In fact, I prefer to have my Desktops stacked and not lined up. I get that Apple didn't want to figure out how to deal with fullscreen apps in multiple dimensions, but they could have just taken a page out of Microsoft's book and done something like the F11 trick: that window gets fullscreened but otherwise acts normal. Brilliant.
But Apple changed the way the entire system worked and now I am significantly slowed down as I try to work. I actually use my old Snow Leopard machine to work whenever possible (even though I can no longer use the internet on it) because it's just so much nicer. Expose makes life so much easier than Mission Control ever could. And Expose was the best thing out there. Now it's just shit with lace on top.
What also bugs me about Apple's operating system as it moves "forward" is how little choice the user actually gets when they try to do things. Menu items that used to be optional in System Preferences are now just gone. Apple even tried to hide ~/Library (thankfully its godawfully easy to get there) to prevent fanboys from messing anything up. I hate it personally, but it works out alright because I don't like using the mouse and so the Terminal (or other place where I don't have to lift my hands from the keys) does most of my talking.
Finally, just a little things that makes me freak out. I don't actually know when this was introduced. I just know that when I used to hide Applications, they would disappear and become the last option in the Command-Tab menu. That makes sense: I hid the little fucker because I didn't want to see him for a while. Now it stays in the same place that it would it you just changed applications to the next one. Pointless. Absolutely pointless.
But this post won't be entirely negative: I really like that Apple has finally integrate iChat and iMessage into Messages. I think the icon should be the same as the iOS one (they changed all the other ones...) but it works out alright. It also means that as I get a text (well, iMessage) from my girlfriend I don't have to lift my hands from the keyboard to respond. Which makes her a whole lot happier, because as I've pointed out, I don't like taking my hands off the keys.
I might do an actual in-depth review at some point, but I'm just very frustrated with Apple's decision making right now and the internet was the only place I could think to rant.
Till next time.
But I do feel like I need to put this out there to people who would actually care. Most of my coworkers are big enough nerds that they use some Linux distribution, and then Windows for their gaming needs. I'm actually the resident Mac expert and sometimes have to assist coworkers trying to use Final Cut Pro for their work (the public Mac is right next to me on the same desk). I think I've taught them well, but I'm concerned about how they'll do while I'm out deciding cases.
The big thing that I really, really don't like about Apple is unavoidable. The fanboys came from iOS. To be the hipster, I've been using a Mac at home exclusively since 2000. And before that I can't remember because I was never on the computer, but I do know we had one. My dad uses a Windows machine because of his work and has a personal MacBook. My family has just been running on Macs my whole life. And even before: my parents used the old Lisa.
The change that I want fixed comes from the last properly stable version of OS X: Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 was amazing. Lion was Apple's Vista. It was buggy as all hell and changed too much. All I can describe it as is "candified." It was ugly. The "natural" scrolling or whatever bullshit they tried to sell us on is only useful for one thing: figuring out who starting using a Mac through iOS (aka fanboy) and who actually uses a computer. Launchpad is just atrocious and should be banned. Personally I open every application from the Terminal or Spotlight. Before I knew how to do that the Applications tab in Finder was more than easy enough to find. But what really killed the experience for me was Mission Control.
I could rant about the App Store for days, but I do appreciate the Apple's new target audience just doesn't care. But Mission Control replaced one of the greatest parts of owning a Mac for me: Spaces and Expose. I don't want to be restricted to only one dimensional movement between desktops. In fact, I prefer to have my Desktops stacked and not lined up. I get that Apple didn't want to figure out how to deal with fullscreen apps in multiple dimensions, but they could have just taken a page out of Microsoft's book and done something like the F11 trick: that window gets fullscreened but otherwise acts normal. Brilliant.
But Apple changed the way the entire system worked and now I am significantly slowed down as I try to work. I actually use my old Snow Leopard machine to work whenever possible (even though I can no longer use the internet on it) because it's just so much nicer. Expose makes life so much easier than Mission Control ever could. And Expose was the best thing out there. Now it's just shit with lace on top.
What also bugs me about Apple's operating system as it moves "forward" is how little choice the user actually gets when they try to do things. Menu items that used to be optional in System Preferences are now just gone. Apple even tried to hide ~/Library (thankfully its godawfully easy to get there) to prevent fanboys from messing anything up. I hate it personally, but it works out alright because I don't like using the mouse and so the Terminal (or other place where I don't have to lift my hands from the keys) does most of my talking.
Finally, just a little things that makes me freak out. I don't actually know when this was introduced. I just know that when I used to hide Applications, they would disappear and become the last option in the Command-Tab menu. That makes sense: I hid the little fucker because I didn't want to see him for a while. Now it stays in the same place that it would it you just changed applications to the next one. Pointless. Absolutely pointless.
But this post won't be entirely negative: I really like that Apple has finally integrate iChat and iMessage into Messages. I think the icon should be the same as the iOS one (they changed all the other ones...) but it works out alright. It also means that as I get a text (well, iMessage) from my girlfriend I don't have to lift my hands from the keyboard to respond. Which makes her a whole lot happier, because as I've pointed out, I don't like taking my hands off the keys.
I might do an actual in-depth review at some point, but I'm just very frustrated with Apple's decision making right now and the internet was the only place I could think to rant.
Till next time.
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