… but will it blend?

Memes aside, excuse me the language but.. what the hell is this?!

Well, I guess I’m supposed to answer my own rhetorical question. That would be the alpha of Amarok 2. Supposedly it’s going cross-platform with the version 2 release, and there’s a ton of new flashy stuff (integrated networking, like the ability to pull artist information from Last.fm and such, nicer artwork, etc.) And naturally, I have to go around being a pessimistic cynic and raise an opposition to the so-called “intuitive” interface. Because you know what?

I hate it.

Sometimes I really wish I could say things in a nicer tone of voice, but I guess bluntness bestows a certain kind of charm to my blog - I don’t look to be controversial, it just sort of happens. Either way, I usually try my best to explain the reason behind my spite, so I guess I owe you all a reason why I believe the new interface sucks, reason(s) being:

It’s cluttered, it’s extranneous, and it pales in comparison to the previous one.

There’s a reason why I picked foobar2000 as my audio player of choice for Windows: it was simple, it was minimalist, and it gave me exactly what I wanted - a playlist. If I want artist information, I’ll look it up on Wikipedia. I don’t want all five of those frame-like panes present in the Amarok 2; I want ONE main pane open that shows whatever the heck I’m listening to, and I want one small side pane to show whatever I want it to show (tab window). Can someone explain why there are tabs along with five panes in Amarok 2? Isn’t that a little extranneous? Which pane (and I use pane to mean one of those iframe-like windows) would the tab open itself in? If only the left pane, why is there a need for three more to clutter up my space? For heaven’s sakes, where is the damn playlist on that thing? I don’t want to construct my own playlists because my tastes are constantly changing day by day, nor do I want to go search for songs indiviually from my collection one-by-one as I finish each of them. I want a large, open area to where I can click-and-drag my files and have them play in rapid succession.

Oh, and have I also mentioned I hate that theme? I first had my run-in with that style when I got KTorrent 3.1 and nearly gagged myself. Am I the only person who thinks it looks like a disgusting cheapass imitation of the Mac OSX style?! Surely there has to be a way to mod the UI. If not, I’m going to stab myself in the eye every time I open or alt-tab over to Amarok. Which, you know, is quite frequently, so I hope I don’t die of an optical hemorrage.

Unlike all the Ubuntu zealots who seem to place attractiveness of their desktop over usability, I must say I favour the minimalist approach - it makes things easier to use and more efficient. The current version of Amarok gives me that efficiency without sacrificing a clean and satisfying interface.

In all seriousity, I hope either the final release ends up being a lot more flattering, or that there will eventually be an option to mod Amarok 2 to look like the current version - not just the style, but the setup.

Aaaaaaaaand there’s my daily dose of spite. Blend well before consuming.

After being successfully stabbed, numbed, drilled, filled, and aimed at with bright blue lights, I climbed back into my mother’s car after an incredibly long and boring cavity-filling dental procedure. I was having a pretty good day so far - no problems with the dentist, an excellent night’s rest, and I had just happened to find that one of my favourite shirts had shrunk just the right amount in the wash to fit me flatteringly.

Then my mother turned to me and announced that late AP scores had come in, and I had received a shameful 2 on my Physics C Mech test.

I laughed. Exactly as I predicted. “What about Macroeconomics, then?” I piped up, anxiously anticipating the 4 or 5 my mother was ready to report.

“Oh that? You just got a three.”

Cue falling of sky.

I punched the pause button on my Zune and yanked the cord of my black earphones, tearing the poor little innocent earbud out and tossing it frustratingly upon the leather seat of the car. “WHAT?!” I screeched. “That’s impossible! I walked out of that test KNOWING I had aced it. I KNEW had every single FRQ correct, and most of the multiple choice!”

I ignored my mother glaring at me through the rearview mirror as angry tears threatened to spill out of my eyes. I didn’t understand. I still don’t. How is it that the one test I studied relentlessly for, the one course I had actually performed best in my class in, had actually understood, had actually loved and felt extremely confident about… how is it that I had received a mere THREE on this test?

I thought back to my 4 on AP Biology, my 5 on English Language and Literature, my 4 on World History. How is it that these tests, which I had not studied for, had not cared about.. how is it that THESE useless tests were the ones I received the highest grades in?!

I don’t want to become the stereotypical CCer, who anguishes over the 4 that they received in AP Physics C, the barely-5 they received on Calculus BC - that would make me extremely hypocritical. Yet I can’t help feeling bitter over the matter. To tell the truth, all I asked for this year was a 5 in Macroeconomics. I wanted nothing else; you definitely didn’t see me close to tears when I discovered I had failed US Government and Physics C. However, it’s extremely frustrating when the ONE TEST I had poured all my energy into was the one I could not excel in.

… sometimes it’s a rather harsh world out there.

Anyways, so to the point of the post: I’d like to apologize to my teachers and my parents. I know my teachers did the most they could to prepare me for the tests, and I feel like I have somehow failed them - all those 5’s on US Government practice tests turned out to be false hope. I remember going into Molacek’s room after Macro and excitedly telling him I had, quote, “owned the test,” and we talked for a good half hour about how well I felt about it. Not only had I given myself false hope, I had done the same for my teacher, and I feel completely and utterly stupid for doing so. My parents, in addition, ended up paying over $350 just so I could prove that I was incompetent at test-taking. I didn’t need 10 AP’s to tell me that - I kind of already knew after my SAT’s. And yet, my record with Collegeboard AP reads:

Biology - 4 (no credit given at MIT)
Computer Science A - 5 (no credit given)
Economics Macro - 3 (needed 5 for credit)
English Literature - 5 (9 credit hours of elective credit)
French Literature - 4 (needed 5 for credit)
Government US - 2 (needed 5 for credit)
Physics C Mech - 2 (needed 5 on both parts for credit)
English Language - 5 (got me out of FEE + 9 elective credit hours)
French Language - 2 (needed 5 for credit)
World History - 4 (no credit given)

Errata: The lovely Karen informed me I -do- get credit for my 5’s in English! Score =)

I’m not complaining about the fact that I got “only” a 3/4 and not a 5 on some tests. Numbers mean nothing to me, and I know there are many who would die just to -pass- a test. I realize that a 4 is actually pretty incredible in some tests like French Literature, and I’m proud that I was able to pass many of them.

What I am frustrated about is the fact that in the end, after countless hours of practice, studying, test-taking, and an input of over $500, I have come out absolutely empty-handed, be it with 5’s in tests I don’t receive credit for, or 3’s in those I had the potential to receive credit for (and simply didn’t get a high enough score on). The one test I cared most about, I ended up doing poorly on, after having the audacity to boast about how I was confident that I had performed well on it. The tests that -mattered- for credit were the ones I failed/didn’t receive a high enough score on, while the tests that didn’t count for anything were the ones I performed well on (yes, I’m looking at you, CompSci A!)

I feel miserable and guilty for wasting my parents’ money just to prove that no matter how hard I try, things always seem to work out in a way I dislike, and I feel really embarassed that I gave myself false hope. Why is it that many of the tests I -didn’t- study for (Bio, FrLit, EngLang, WHist) ended up better than those I -did- study for (Macro, Gov, FrLang)?

After calming down a bit, though, I figure it’s just the first of many walls I’ll hit in the coming years. The only thing I can do is keep my head high and continue to scale it, right?

………

On another topic, to make my already incredibly disgusting day even worse, I was wanna-be-Rickrolled!

Wanna-be? That’s right. Miss Ashley-effing-Tisdale did a ridiculous cover of the great 80’s hit Never Gonna Give You Up…. wow. Just wow. For shame.

The title says it all. I had been talking with a friend about something and trying to help her do some maintenance on her system, and I was suddenly (and very embarassingly) hit with the realization that I don’t remember what Windows Vista looks like.

… I’m also not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.

To help refresh my memory, I dug up an old screenshot of my desktop back from my Vista days (this one was actually taken 2.5 months ago) and stared at the GUI for a few seconds before it all came back to me - the Aero look, the oversized icons (that I promptly reduced in size after getting my laptop), the Calibri font, the Last.fm icon that was eternally present in my systray… it’s weird how only a few months ago this was the interface I had stared at daily and been completely accustomed to, yet nowadays it seems completely foreign and awkward. (And how did I ever live without multiple desktops?)

As I result, I started questioning my own personality - am I really that easily swayed and adaptable? I’ve known for years that I have a photographic memory and have been able to learn things easily. However, be it in regards to operating systems, methods of getting homework done, or anything else, I feel that repetition and imitation are but my mere replacements for true adaptability. For example, when I used to work at the library I was given the job of preparing materials for the summer reading club. What I had to do was stamp bookmarks and put together plastic-bag packages with various items.

Although I started out awkwardly, I eventually became accustomed to the repetition of my actions - stick stamp in inkpad, stamp bookmark, shove aside to dry, fill plastic bags with one each of 5 sheets, repeat until bookmarks are dry, return to bookmarks, collect stacks of 20, rubber-band, wash, rinse, repeat entire process. The same thing happened when I was helping with the new cataloguing, in which I had to scan the barcode (with a very insensitive laser pen connected to an extremely slow laptop running extremely ancient cataloguing software), program the magnetic tab, stick it on an inconspicuous last page, and repeat for each library item. I eventually started feeling like a robotic machine and managed to finish all of the children’s audiobooks, adult audiobooks, and magazines in a mere three hours time (no small feat, FYI - the magazine section is freaking huge). My boss and the other workers exclaimed that I was the fastest worker they had ever seen (and shamefully I believe it too - their speed of work makes it appear as if they were moving through invisible molasses).

Despite being praised for my speed and precision, however, I didn’t feel very proud of myself. As with most things in life, I had once again simply managed to get by using a combination of imitation and repetition. Writing essays? I just use the same flashy techniques that I always do, refined over time. Math problems? Well, it’s just the same principle over and over. Running SnM? Haha, you’d be surprised at the elaborate but repetitive system I have to organize everything. Learning a new OS? Pfft. If I stare at it long enough every day I’ll eventually get accustomed to it, right?

And from the looks of it, I seem to have accomplished that quite well. However, being accustomed to something and actually having a working knowledge of it are two entirely different things, and in my case I feel as if I have too easily used the former to get out of doing the latter.

… er, if anyone’s interested, this is my desktop presently:

I would like to raise forth a modest appeal for the ownership and possession of a compact digital camera.

Ever since I first started a blog, I’ve wondered why my writings were always so boring in comparison to others’. All they would have to do was jot a few sentences, and I’d be interested in what they had to say.. whereas with my blogs, I’d delve into the descriptions, describing the progression of my day in minute detail, painting visual images and all those other fancy-shmancy literary items that your Creative Writing teacher probably lectured about. And yet, my musings never seemed to be quite as interesting.

Now, two years later, I’ve finally humbled myself and allowed the blame to be shoved onto a physical reason - or lack of - for my shortcomings. I blame the absence of concrete images and colourful montages in my entries. That’s right; I’m saying my entries can’t be quite as interesting without photos to document. We live in a highly visual world, and no matter how hard I try to describe the glory of the ruby-washed walls of my favourite local restaurant, or the beautiful Atlanta skyline, or the electrifying effect of dance parties, or the faces of the losers who are my friends… nothing says it quite as nicely as a simple photo. I’m not quite sure whether this is a loss on the part of literature or an advance for the media industry, but what I -am- saying, in non-sugary terms, is that I want a digital camera. Maybe then I can finally show everyone the places I’m visiting, the things I’m doing. Maybe then my entries can finally be as interesting as those I have stalked and admired.

tl;dr - “pics or it didn’t happen” is being taken SRSLY

On a lighter note..!

Steven: Pawn to E4.
Me: That’s not a legit move!
Steven: What? Sure it is.
Me: Well… er, let’s see.. wait are you white or black?
Steven: …is that a trick question?

… we have way too much fun together =P

It doesn’t really help that I find my family to be incredibly annoying at times. Naturally I feel bad for defaulting to a state of irritation, but sometimes I really can’t help myself. The fact that my mother believes myths like “leaving your computer on for days without shutting it off will cause it to error” is already enough to slightly irk me. Add that to the fact that:

1. I am constantly reminded to go pack, pay tuition, fill out forms, etc.
2. I’ve been trying to get Photoshop CS2 to work for the past three hours
3. I -still- haven’t gotten my GM account
4. I can’t get my Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse working under Windows XP (yes, note the irony)
5. I have an extremely upsetting migraine

… and you can probably realize the reason why I’m not having the best of days.