I don’t feel like blogging anymore
I hope you figured this out, since I haven’t updated for close to a year, but I thought I’d make it official.
It’s not that anything’s “wrong”–I just don’t feel like I have anything I need to broadcast to the internets. (Well, except for Twitter, but I’m kinda flaky on that score, too.) I don’t feel like writing rants and I have no desire to share intimate details of my life. And frankly, in the last year or so, I’ve started to dig this IRL thing more.
That said, I do miss the connections and conversations I used to maintain via blogging. I’m still online (way too much, of course), and you can easily reach me via email at tom at underscorebleach dot net. Please do drop me a line.
But now… it’s back to the real world for me!
Chatting sucks
Or possibly I suck at chatting. Or maybe I’ve outgrown it. Either way, I don’t enjoy it.
I tried chatting the other night, and my first problem was that I had no idea where to go. Where do people chat? AOL? IRC? Yahoo? I tried Yahoo chat, and it completely sucked. It was infested by spambots, and the actual people there had nothing interesting to say. Add to that the fact that Yahoo has voice chat, which lets people say stupid things instead of type stupid things, and it’s a truly terrible situation.
I think back to my dark days as a 12 year-old addicted to IRC, and I remember how exciting it was to chat with random people on the Internet. Is anyone still excited by that? Seriously, who the hell wants to talk to a random person on the Internet?
My suspicion is that people today get their fix of superficial, bite-sized interactions via text messaging, Facebook and Myspace messages, and Twitter (guhhh). Have these similar superficial modes of interaction killed chat? If so, I can’t say I mind.
How to play AAC and M4P files without iTunes
iTunes is a piece of shit. I hate it. It’s slow, it’s a RAM hog, and its constant self-updating is both annoying and destructive (as noted by Dennis Kennedy). Of course, this is to say nothing of my disdain for the iPod.
But I do own an iPod, and I did use iTunes to rip my CD collection, so I’d been using iTunes to play the AAC and M4P files–until now.
My favorite little Winamp replacement, Quintessential Player, has a plugin for playing AAC/M4P files. Get it from RareWares. Then you needn’t use Microsoft’s abominable resource hog (Windows Media Player) or Apple’s abominable resource hog (iTunes). You get to use a fast, skinnable little player, and you feel extra special nerdy cool while you do it.
The “man on the street” is an idiot
I don’t watch the local nightly news. It’s a poor way to find out what’s going on: the stories are superficial, the program is interrupted by commercial breaks, and it’s a completely non-interactive medium.
But the worst part about the nightly news is the obligatory “man on the street” interview. This is a classic–and seemingly mandatory–component of any story with a local focus (and some with a national focus–that can make for even dumber commentary).
Consider the following story about luggage falling from a plane at Midway airport. The plane took off, the cargo doors weren’t secured, and two bags fell out. CBS2 Chicago saw fit to interview several passengers (maybe relevant) and area residents (not insightful) about the situation. Here’s Idiot #1, a passenger:
“That’s scary. It should be more secured, more secured than that. Shouldn’t nothing be flying off the plane. Shouldn’t be no doors open. Everything should be secure,” Delta passenger Phyllis Abram said.
“Shouldn’t nothing be flying off the plane?” Ya think?! This is commentary worthy of publication?! How about Idiot #1, an area resident:
“You’d be driving by and luggage hits you… that would be real crazy,” area resident Martin Vasquez said.
Thanks, Martin. Very insightful.
Simply put, the local news team needs to stop talking to the locals.
Chewing gum in the urinal
I’m offended when people do stupid things for no reason. People can do stupid things for stupid reasons, and that’s bothersome. People can do good things for stupid reasons, and that’s fine. But I can’t stand the stupid things-no reason combination.
About 10 o’clock or so each weekday morn, I stroll over to the john to take care of the morning’s coffee. Without fail, each morning I find at least one, sometimes more than one piece of used chewing gum staring back at me from the urinal mat. Why, I ask myself each morning, am I looking at piece of chewing gum? Is the spitter of the chewing gum unaware that:
- a trash can stands a scant 10 feet away, directly adjacent to the sink he’s (hopefully) about to use to wash his hands, and
- some poor guy has to pick that gum out of urinal!
And I guess that’s the problem: there’s no reason to discard chewing gum in the urinal, but for a person to realize there’s no reason, he has to think to think. And that’s where the real problem is. I find it depressing.
How to buy liquor at Jewel when you’re underage: A 9 step guide
- Go to Jewel, preferably during a busy time. Saturday afternoon works well.
- Walk to the liquor section. Select your favorite variety of beer, wine, or spirits.
- Go to the self checkout line.
- Wait for the Jewel employee in charge of the self checkout area to become distracted. This happens regularly.
- Scan the alcohol. The system will say that approval is needed.
- Approval is not needed. Swipe your credit card.
- The system will exit out of the “needs approval” screen and into the “choose your payment type” screen.
- Finish paying.
- Walk out.
I’m 90% certain the system works this way. I’ll try it again next time I’m at the grocery store. Have fun, teenagers.