Reason #431,232

To love Macs: Diacritical marks and special characters are super easy to add from the keyboard! On windows you had to memorize multi-numeric codes, like alt+0233 for é, or alt-0231 for ç. And press the function key too, if you were on a laptop.

On the Mac, you just press the option key and the letter you need the accent for. Like é! Comme ça!

¡Olé!

Filed under: computer

worse than me

The nonprofit where I have my second internship runs a film festival every year. It’s in the first week of May, so things are understandably a little crazy these days. I’ve asked them if there was anyhting I could do to help out but so far few takers. Most of them have been there for years so it’s a well-oiled machine, just one that happens to go insane this one month every year.

Still, I feel guilty going into work these days, since most of the tiem I’m just transcoding video files, which involves little more than sitting there, and shuttling a hard drive back and forth between computers every few hours. Plus I’m only there twice a week, 6 hours each day, so I can go home while it’s still light out.

I write emails to my supervisor and get responses as late as 1AM. I just wanna be like, omg go home!

On the other hand, maybe it’s good I’m not so involved. Especially since tomorrow’s COMPS!

Filed under: school, work

stupid tests

The “good” thing about comps is that we don’t get our questions until Friday afternoon. The finished thing is due Monday morning. Which means that there is a very valid excuse for turning in less than stellar work.

And this excuse is bolstered by my history of extreme procrastination, where I’d write entire term papers in about the same amount of time.

Of course, I’ve never had a term paper that was more than 25 pages long. This one looks like it needs to be about 35. So that’s the BAD thing about comps.

That, and the fact that, well, it’s comps!

Filed under: school

order!

augghh

i’m tampering with the original arrangement of my school files in preparation for comps. i had lovely SVN version control on all my directories, which are organized by quarter and where possible by assignment.

now i have to look through everything and figure out what important articles and papers i might need to answer my comprehensive exam questions (which i don’t get til Friday). which means messing up the versioning (not that I can update it anyway because the repository is on my Dell, 35 miles away)

the question in organizing them is this: will it be easier for me to search for articles by their provenance? in which case, disturbing the fonds will have done more harm than good.

except, going through them, they’re so messed up i can hardly figure out what is even there. so i really have to go through everything just to figure out what the file contains. so if i organized them nicely, maybe it would help. and then i could rename them for easier mind-indexing. except for the files that i already know by filename.

i think i’m gonna have to find a middle ground – something neater than what’s there now (a hodgepodge of indecipherable file names and document types), but leaving things where they were in general – ordered by quarter, then class, then assignment.

Filed under: school

movies i would kind of like to see

swann in love
ice pirates
buckaroo banzai
baby

(at my internship last quarter I processed a bunch of files for a certain technical award that’s given out annually in the entertainment field. going through those I kept running across these titles so now my curiosity burns)

Filed under: Uncategorized

Firefox Bug

I get this error in Firefox 3 Beta 5 (Build 2008032619) where if I start a Flash app, sometimes the audio keeps working even after I stop/close the Flash. It happened when I viewed the Tungle demo and whenever I use the old-school Del.icio.us mp3 playtagger

It’s kinda eerie to have the sound going long after you’ve hit ’stop’, not to mention annoying. What gives?

This is on the Macbook, OS X 10.5.2. I’m using Nightly Tester Tools and have Flashblock active, if that matters.

Filed under: computer , beta, bug, firefox, firefox beta 3

At the supermarket: Pacific Natural Foods Almond Milk

For some reason, my body doesn’t deal with soy milk very well. I don’t know why. I can eat tofu just fine. But soy milk makes my stomach truly unhappy =(

So I was a little wary when I my sister suggested I buy this almond milk, since it kind of looks the same, and is located right next to the soy milk in the supermarket aisle. But I love almonds, so I gave it a (cautious) whirl.

And my body is fine with it, and it’s good! So far I’ve tried the unflavored and the chocolate, and both are decent. I would even venture to say it tastes better than soy milk, but I’m not the best judge of that. Surprisingly, I thought the chocolate one was pretty close to regular chocolate milk, only less creamy, of course.

In the end, there is no substitute for real milk, especially the lovely 2% kind. And especially for cereal. Using almond milk to eat cereal with is kinda gnarly, not least because the “milk” is really more like juice, so it’s kind of translucent, and not terribly appetizing.

But as an ordinary beverage I bet almond milk is still way better for you than soda, even though it’s slightly more fattening. And more expensive.

Filed under: food

like shower

das meisterwerk is complete!

you’ll notice it’s another wordpress blog. you’ll also notice that i freaking paid $15 to be able to redo the CSS. and the sad thing is, it was WORTH IT, and i was immediately sorry i’d spent so much agonizing over it instead of just going straight to PayPal.  i guess i am a control freak after all.

now i wish i could sleep, but i keep getting excited thinking about all the things i can do now that this damn thing is done.

Filed under: Uncategorized

it’s like salty endorphins!

i want to cry!

i’m serious! it’s been awhile since i have, so i’m about due.

i’ve come close a few times, but at inopportune moments, like in the car driving, or at a restaurant. but when i’m alone and can cry, nothing happens.

i wish i could, just to get it out of my system! it’s a really good stress reliever.

seriously! try it! you’ll feel a lot better afterwards.

Filed under: life

the business of getting down (to work)

alrighty.

i’ve spent most of last week panicking about my portfolio. i’ve gathered up the materials I think i’ll need, and now it’s time to actually look at my old papers and see how i can best dress them up so they’re ready for show.

at best, i’ll just need to edit them together so the disparate works flow nicely.

at worst, i will have to rewrite and re-research them to fix all the bad crap i wrote.

i’ve been putting it off long enough. the thing is due this friday, and i ahve to prepare it well beforehand so i can print it out and stuff.

so yeah. now it’s *really* time to panic.

Filed under: school