Button Mashing

A few notes from across the multiverse.

Today I picked up my ticket to see Ben Folds at First Ave on the 25th. I went to Down in the Valley, as they’re an indie shop that has this remarkable deal where you can actually buy a concert ticket for the price of a concert ticket. They don’t do any of that “$6.00 convenience fee” or “$3.00 processing fee” crap, and you can avoid dealing with the soulless twerps at TicketBastard.

The new video iPod is kinda cool, but I’m still waiting until they give it WiFi. It’s only a matter of time until you won’t need your computer at all. Of course, by that point we’ll probably all have iPods injected under our skin or something, but hey, such is the price of progress. I’ll willingly give up a shred of my humanity, if it means I can listen to the new Halloween, Alaska album through wires that vibrate the bones in my skull, bypassing the ears entirely.

Geez. There’s a new My Morning Jacket, a new matt pond PA, a new Blackalicious, a new Nada Surf, a new Atmosphere, a new Death Cab for Cutie, a new Arcade Fire… come on, people! I love each and every one of you, but I can’t afford to feed myself if ya’ll are gonna demand so much attention all the time!

Speaking of ringtones, why do they all suck so bad? My new phone has at least 30 different tones, and every one of them makes me want to leap out of a second story window onto a wrought iron fence. If the art of excellence is too much to ask, how about the art of simply not sucking?

Quicksilver is one of the most useful apps in existence for OS X. I’d describe it as a program launcher on steroids, that silently listens and adapts to the way you use your system. Invoke it, type a few letters, and instantly launch a program, visit a favorite website, view a photo album, open a document or browse a folder. I’m still learning how to use it, but Quicksilver is so fast it’s stupifying, and it sure beats clicking through Finder.

I need to adjust my biological time zone. I’m rockin’ in the Central, yo, but I’ve been living as though I’m Left Coastin’ it. Sleeping, eating or working, I’m consistently two hours behind what any normal person is doing.

You learn a lot about government when you start your own business, mostly that there’s far too much of it. Take government websites, for instance. I am of the belief that a government website needs only one button:

DECLARE WAR

…with another, similar button, right beside it:

UNDECLARE WAR

That should simplify things greatly.