Omniblog

(Author’s note: Crap, this thing sat in “Drafts” for a week. Whoops.)

I have not been to ACL since 2003, and even then I was a volunteer (both 2002 and 2003). So, this year I decided to suck it up and go and not volunteer for once. Good idea, yes, did anything cooperate, no.

I learned a lot about ACL, and things I forgot about needing since I have not been in so long. These things should have been pretty damn obvious: (The only one I didn’t follow was the chair. I had, or did, everything else in this list.)

1. Take a damn chair. Seriously, take a chair. Yes it’s one more thing to carry around, but your feet will love you for it. Academy sells some for $5.99. They’re perfect for ACL.
2. Be prepared for anything. Even rain, heavy downpours possible too.
3. Watch the weather forecast. Yes, it’s Texas, but any information you can get will help.
4. Get there when you feel like it. I am thinking next year, I might just go for the headliners at night.
5. Take your own hand sanitizer. The ones ACL provides usually stop working around the second day.
6. Taking a backpack to haul any crap you have around is wonderful. (If it’s going to rain, make sure you have some way to cover it. Water resistant is not water proof.)
7. Take your own water bottle.

I went for a long while on Friday, but left partway through Kings of Leon because my allergies acted up about 2 hours after I arrived at ACL (around 1:00). It was bad, but I learned to not forget to use my Flonase.

Saturday: I got there at 12:30-1:00. I was there until 5:00 (did I mention that Mute Math and Flogging Molly totally rock?). I left, went home, got dry and clean, and watched some college football.

Sunday: Didn’t even bother going. Not even for Pearl Jam. Why? The idea of wandering around in the mud, which I later learned more about, just didn’t tickle my fancy. So, I stayed home and watched football. Do I regret not going, no, not really.

All in all, ACL is a fun experience, but be ready for anything when you go. I will admit the idea of moving it to October was a great idea as the heat wasn’t a huge problem.

Some idiot, somewhere, bitched about moving it to a time which was “during the rainy season”. What? Since when does Austin have a rainy season? If we had a rainy season, we wouldn’t be under stage 2 (or 3) water restrictions. Nice try Einstein.

Wow, somehow, yet again, Time has managed to push my buttons for all the wrong reasons.

Why Nondrinkers May Be More Depressed

Let me preface this by saying I don’t drink. I don’t drink for 2 reasons:

1. I can’t for medical reasons.
2. I choose not to.

So, for those of us that do not drink at all, I give you the one finger salute on this article Time. Now, the rant commences.

“But if alcohol can lead to depression, does that mean abstaining from alcohol will make you happier? A new study suggests that the opposite actually tends to be true. In fact, those who never drink are at significantly higher risk for not only depression but also anxiety disorders, compared with those who consume alcohol regularly.”

I call bullshit. I don’t drink and I’m perfectly happy. And my liver and stomach are perfectly happy too.

“The study, which was published recently in the journal Addiction, looked at more than 38,000 people in Norway. Researchers, led by Jens Christoffer Skogen of the University of Bergen in Norway, asked the participants how much they had drunk in the previous two weeks; the research team also asked them various questions to measure their levels of anxiety and depression.”

Do the study in America, the UK or other parts of Europe and I’ll believe it. Granted there are lots of studies and we take them with a grain of salt, but every culture is different, and last I checked Norway isn’t the United States or UK or anywhere else.

“The most powerful explanation seems to be that abstainers have fewer close friends than drinkers, even though they tend to participate more often in organized social activities. Abstainers seem to have a harder time making strong friendship bonds, perhaps because they don’t have alcohol to lubricate their social interactions.”

Wow, I have great friends and friendship bonds. I don’t need alcohol to do anything, and I am probably not the only one. I, again, call bullshit. I could say more in here about people that use alcohol for various reasons, but I will refrain as the purpose of this post is not to insult, but merely point out where Time and the study are on crack.

“So does this mean we should all have a cocktail? Maybe, but [insert stupid researcher name here] says he doesn’t believe his study should encourage abstainers to become drinkers. Rather, he says doctors might want to investigate why abstaining patients don’t drink and explain that in societies where alcohol use is common, not drinking may lead them to feel left out. Sometimes, you should just say yes.”

Are we all a bunch of alcoholics in this country and elsewhere? I mean, really? Do we all have to drink to meet people and have a good time? It sure sounds like it to me.

I know quite a few people that don’t drink and have just as much fun as those that do. I tailgate for UT football games, I don’t drink, and I have a blast every time.

So, find a study done in America Time, then write an article about it. A study done in Norway does not necessarily apply to those of us in the US or anywhere else for that matter. Not to mention, as this was not mentioned in the article, everyone’s different. And I mean everyone regardless of religion, background, race, color, etc.

It’s that time again. Time for a big ass music festival that rocks. And, thank God it’s in October.

It doesn’t look like it’s going to be near 90 the entire weekend. Sweet. Now, I have not been to ACL since 2003 (its second year). I volunteered the first 2 years, but things got in the way and I never really went back.

This should be fun, but that’s not the purpose of this post. This post is meant to show up somewhere in Google for people that have AT&T and a 3G phone (in my case, an iPhone), and they are attending ACL this weekend.

As most of us know, AT&T’s 3G infrastructure in Austin blows donkey wang. I mean, seriously big donkey wang. So, there’s a possible solution that actually never entered my train of thought:

If you are going to ACL, turn off 3G this weekend.

See if it helps. Rumor has it, any major event: UT game, festival, etc, it’s best to turn off 3G if you use AT&T.

Yes, your ACL iPhone App or Facebook or whatever else might run a little slower, but damn you can make calls and send text messages to find your buddies. And in a big ass festival like this, that is quite important.

Happy festivaling! Stay hydrated and cool and I’ll see you around Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon or Dave!

Given some problems I have with ergonomics, and have had for quite some time, when it comes to replacing a mouse I have used for many many years, finding one that is the right fit for me without causing fatigue or other things with my arm, wrist, and hand is very challenging.

However, for once I think I have done it. I think I can finally move on to something completely new.

Behold, for today I give you the Logitech Performance Mouse MX

It’s not only very pretty to look at, but it’s really damn comfortable to use. I have been using it now at work for the past hour with no problems whatsoever. I can usually detect fatigue and other issues within 5-10 minutes.

I primarily bought it to use with my laptop, a MacBook Pro – but that’s another post, at home, but it seems the Logitech software and Mac OS X 10.5 don’t get along since the mouse seems to lose signal and lag a lot. (Logitech says the mouse is Mac OS X compatible.) So, I’ll throw on my other Logitech mouse instead and use this bad boy for my main computer at home.

This sucker comes with a little pseudo-leather pouch for the charging setup and the little bitty Unifying receiver. Oh the Unifying receiver, right. New feature from Logitech where up to 6 (I think) Logitech devices can run off the same receiver. It’s small, and only a few devices are supported thus far, but it has potential. (The keyboard that’s supported looks pretty nifty.) The mouse comes with an extender cable to help position the Unifying receiver in a better location if you are using it on a desktop.

The charging setup is pretty interesting. You can either a) plug a USB charging cable into your computer, and then plug it into the mouse and use it while it charges, or b) plug the USB charging cable into a wall plug and charge it that way. Oh, and you can still use the mouse. This is a departure from the classic Logitech charging stands that came with previous mice.

It also introduces a new tracking technology called Darkfield. It’s supposedly better than Microsoft’s Bluewhatever tracking. So far, it seems to work pretty well. I have a glass table at home, but I haven’t tried to use it on that yet.

It has lots of buttons that can be customized, like other Logitech mice, and runs with Logitech SetPoint 4.80. Oh, and that little lip on the left side for your thumb? Not as annoying as you might think. It’s actually quite nice and comfortable.

So, if you are a Logitech ho like me, and a hardware dork like me, or you just need a new mouse…

I highly recommend the Logitech Performance Mouse MX. The price is well worth it.

Edit: There’s also a random button in the middle of the mouse. This button switches the scroll wheel from free scroll to the typical “click” scroll that we are all used to on most wheel mice. That’s pretty cool.

PS: If you get it soonish, it might be on sale. I think I got mine for $79.99 or something instead of the retail $99.99.

PPS: The only drawback to this mouse is it is not Bluetooth for those systems that support Bluetooth. Eh, who cares. You can support 6 devices with the Unifying thingy. That’s good enough for me.

(You can thank ScribeFire that I mentioned last week for more blog posts from me. I am not sure if this is a blessing or a curse, for those of you that read. But it makes blogging a little easier when I think about something.)

No, I’m not talking about a warlock, I’m talking about Ozzy.

I got the live feed for BlizzCon 2009 for a few things, one of which was the Ozzy concert to close out the convention. I could not get an actual ticket to the event, so I figured I’d do the second best thing I could. (By the way, there’s a Blizzard employee band called “Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftans” that plays almost every BlizzCon. I heard them for the first time, and they were, interesting. They write songs about all things World of Warcraft, which is creative, but at times I think they are really stretching. I will say this: The lead guitar player is pretty awesome.)

I put up the High Def feed on my main computer in full screen mode, cranked the speakers, and rocked out while organizing my pictures on my laptop. For 60+, he’s still got it, folks.

Now, parts of it were a little “yea he’s old” but still, all in all it was not bad at all. Opened with “Bark at the Moon”, at one point he had a 7 year old (yes 7) guitar phenom come up and play with “Crazy Train” I believe.

Oh and of course, a lot of f bombs, but it’s Ozzy!

Dear Adobe and posters on FML,

1. I’m starting to think the “Me and my spouse were having sex, when they stopped so they could harvest their crops in Farmwhatever in Facebook” posts on FML are fake. I mean, sure there are some really stupid people out there, but still, this is a little ridiculous. On the flip side, they could be true, and if they are, then I think my head just exploded.

2. Adobe – You’ve had long enough. Isn’t it about time you released a 64-bit Flash Player? I think Flash 10 is done. So, chip-chop with 64-bit.

Sincerely,
-Me

Thanks to a recent article I read on mashable.com, I found a neat little Firefox add-on called ScribeFire that lets you blog directly from FireFox. Ooh it has all my Entries and Categories, and, and, wow this is neat.

You must enable the XML-RPC setting in Settings -> Writing in WordPress for it to work correctly.

Now, I hope to press the Publish button and have this work. Here goes nothing.

Edit: Hm, my HTML didn’t translate into the blog post like you can do directly from WordPress. I will have to research that.

BlizzCon is upon us again. Where tons and tons of Blizzard fans (Mainly WoW players I think), Blizzard employees, and anyone else descends upon some hapless convention center (this year it’s in Anaheim, not sure if that’s where it always is) to talk about upcoming stuff for WoW, stuff that’s been done recently (See Patch 3.2), and anything else related to Blizzard.

Every year, they give away some cool pet, mount, or what not for World of Warcraft. This year it’s a military murloc. He looks pretty sweet.

The recent rumor is about a new expansion for WoW where Blizzard is really going to screw some stuff up in the old world. Yes, the rumor is the old “Classic” WoW world is gonna get screwed, hard. It’s not called World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for nothing.

There’s a twist this year, you can subscribe to the BlizzCon stream either through the internet, or through DirecTV and still get the in-game pet. Whoa, really? And! The icing on the cake: Ozzy Osbourne.

No, I’m not kidding. Ozzy has been featured, like a few other celebrities, in some WoW commercials, and he is going to close out BlizzCon Saturday night with a concert, which you can also see if you subscribe to a feed.

I’m seriously considering getting the feed just for the expansion announcement tomorrow, and for the Ozzy concert. Sure, it’s not like being there, but I’ll take the next best thing (oh and the pet too).

One year, I will go. I keep wanting to, but things get in the way, like not being able to get a ticket, which is quite the pain in the ass.

One year….

Maybe next year they’ll have Mr T – awesome.

All excited about Windows 7!? C’mon, you know you are! I know I kinda was because it wasn’t Vista.

I liked Vista for a little while, then when I started doing stuff with my photographs, I learned that the Vista file exploring interface can go right to hell, now.

So, I installed Windows 7 Professional in a Virtual Machine, and played with it for all of 10 minutes before I decided:

1. No way in hell am I installing this as a production OS now
2. The file browsing is still stupid
3. If I do install it, I’m installing Home Premium.

If I still hate it after the first service pack, maybe I’ll just get a Macbook Pro (15 inch screen please). If I’m going to keep doing photography as a serious hobby, I need to do it on a Mac, not a PC.

I will still, however, use a PC, with Vista, for my desktop.

But seriously, Windows 7 – Not as impressed as I thought it would be. On the outside, it’s all shiny and new, on the inside it’s a steaming pile of crap, so far.

Tweakers Portable Speakers

3 months ago, I was looking for portable speakers for my newish laptop because I thought the Harmon Kardon speakers in it sucked. Well, 1) I was wrong and 2) see below.

So, I picked up some of these at Office Depot for $20. Charged them, plugged them into my laptop and oh God the ear bleeding crap that came from them. They were horrible.

Then a month later, I picked up a Sony eBook Reader PRS-700.

I love it, I have read most of Michael Crichton’s books on it since I’ve had it. I had not yet tried, of course, the music feature where you can load songs into the internal memory (or on a DUO or SD card, woot!) and listen and keep reading.

Last night was that time. I didn’t have any headphones readily available, so I decided to try the Tweakers again. Oh my God, it was like heaven. They sounded so awesome and rich when plugged into the eBook reader. It was a mini jam session in my office.

So, word to the wise: Don’t judge speakers based on one test. Try them in several devices first. The sound card drivers on the laptop were up to date. So, maybe the sound card blows (which is my guess). I’ll bet if I plugged them into my iPod or iPhone, they’d sound great there too.

I recommend them. They’re very portable and quite awesome.