Seems like somebody is listening

Happy New Year, folks! I just got back from a lovely, frigid, relaxing vacation in Vermont, ready to have 2009 sap my newly restored will to live. I just found out that my nephew’s school won’t be opening tomorrow and that he’ll be spending the day with me, so I’m guessing that the sapping will commence pretty much immediately (kidding! I missed my little man when I was gone and am really looking forward to spending some time with him tomorrow).

I was messing around with various programs on my computer, and discovered that 1) I’ve either had another happy accident with this alpha version of Opera, or 2) they’ve actually made it work with Multiclutch. It’s too soon to say for sure whether the problem is permanently fixed, and since I’m so tired and traveled 250+ miles today, I’ve decided not to press my luck by completely resetting Opera and starting from scratch. Still, since I’d previously posted on how unhappy the lack of compatibility made me, I’m going to take this perceived progress as a shout-out. I’ll test it tomorrow, I guess, but I’m stoked that it has worked this well. In addition, I’ll upload some of the pictures from my vacation soonish.

I also registered a new domain tonight and set up the corresponding web site (why? wouldn’t you like to know), and will be talking a bit more about that later.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody! For those who don’t celebrate Christmas, happy Thursday!

Opera 10 Alpha – Peregrine

I’ve been using Opera 10 Alpha since it was released earlier this month. I have always liked the Opera web browsers, but it never made sense to me to pay for a program when there were free alternatives that worked as well, if not better, most of the time (first Netscape, then Firefox; I have never considered IE to be better than Opera). But when I heard of the new release, I decided to give it a try. It has been a few years since I’ve used Opera on a computer, but I’ve enjoyed using Opera mini on my last few cell phones.

I know that this is an alpha release, and therefore should not be assumed to be without flaws, and I have to say that, for the most part, I am really impressed by this release. Opera 10 is extremely fast and responsive, and renders pages at least as quickly as Safari and Firefox 3. I don’t care much about the way a program looks, as long as it works, but the placement of pretty much everything makes sense, and for those who don’t like the look of this interface, I believe that skins are available.

I tried Opera’s built-in mail module to access my primary gmail account, and I am not impressed. I’m giving it time to learn and using the filters provided, but so far, too much mail from my spam folder is ending up in my inbox. You can edit rules, but none of the rules allow me to filter by folder location, which would make removing spam from my inbox here a snap. So that’s not good. I only wanted to use the mailbox feature to see what it’s like, and as there are more than enough excellent desktop programs for accessing webmail, I don’t expect to make Opera my default gmail viewer any time soon.

I’ve grown so used to using Multiclutch, and am really sad that it doesn’t work consistently in Opera 10. It never works immediately upon opening the browser. Then, once I do something, the gestures I’ve programmed work like a charm – I just don’t know what that something is, so I can’t do it sooner in my Opera sessions. In terms of Multiclutch, I’ve just gotten this browser where I want it, and once I get the gestures going again, I’m not going to ever clear this session!

In all, I’m really enjoying trying different browsers on OS X. I think that Firefox has actually become the third place finisher in terms of my browser usage on this computer. Safari is pretty neat, and with the addition of Saft, as close to the perfect browser as I’m likely to experience. I stupidly left Saft in kiosk mode for about a week and could not for the life of me figure out where I’d gone wrong, but once I figured it out (I’m slow, what can I say), it was all smooth sailing again! I am even going to install Opera 10 on my Windows laptop, to see what I think of it there. I’ve used Safari on that computer, and have no desire to install it again, so I guess that the worst that Firefox can do on my Gateway is come in second.

NBC is rocking my world right now

AAH! This week’s Chuck and Life were so excellent, I almost cannot even stand it. I’ve loved Life all along, and so I was surprised when I recently realized that I may actually prefer Chuck to it right now. Of course, that’s like saying I can’t decide between filet mignon and broiled lobster, and really, the one that I choose at any given moment has more to do with my mood than with the object’s innate awesomeness.

I’m really happy that NBC is giving these fine shows a chance, and hopes that it will continue to do so. How good have these programs been lately? TOO GOOD. They have great drama, interesting situations, humor, and not a little moral ambiguity. They don’t tell the audience what to feel, and seem to think that we’ll be smart enough on our own to come to our own decisions (Do you hear that, Heroes??), which I greatly appreciate. I think that maybe in terms of acting chops, Damian Lewis and Yvonne Strahovsky have an advantage over their counterparts (Zachary Levi and Sarah Shahi), but again, when things are this good, quantification isn’t necessary.

I’m just worried about how I am going to be expected to last until freaking February. These shows are really really really really good, and I am going to miss them so much.

Jeez

I go away for a few days and WordPress goes and changes everything…including my avatar, which was formerly a photo of my adorable nephew. Weird. I’m still angry with the Mets right now, and do not prefer to have their logo represent me on WordPress.

I haven’t been doing too much lately. Except for knitting. I’ve been doing a lot of knitting. And frogging. I’m never so OCD as when I’m knitting, and then I get this perfectionist streak that is completely at odds with the fact that I still don’t pay as much attention as I should to what I’m making. That’s because I need to watch something when I’m knitting.

Recently, I’ve seen 27 Dresses, Enchanted, Step Up (I’m a bit ashamed about that one), and I started Made of Honor, but I find the pratfalls a bit much and haven’t yet resumed from Dempsey’s second face plant in a single scene. I finished up the third and final season of Veronica Mars, and I’ve now moved on to Cupid, which I just learned is on youtube. How awesome. I remember loving that show, but the details are blurry at this point. I’m pleased that it’s as smart and funny as I remember, and that the wardrobe and hair isn’t so dated as to be a total distraction. I’ve also been really into Chuck lately, and it’s gotten so good that I even watch it before Gossip Girl! Heroes is still stupid, but not as single-mindedly moronic as it was earlier in the season, so I’ve resumed watching it on Monday, instead of allowing several episodes to pile up and then watching them all at once.

I’m about to be single single again (as opposed to mostly single), so that should leave me even more time to 1) make socks and 2) not make any of the Christmas presents I intended to knit.

I cannot believe how quickly summer/autumn happened, and that it will be winter in just a couple of weeks.

I’d rather have pretty dresses

I love the look of Tracy Reese and Alice + Olivia dresses. They have bold prints, youthful cuts, and just look like so much fun. So why do they look so wrong on me? I’ve tried on several dresses by both designers, and while they have all fit beautifully, they just don’t look good on me. I don’t feel like myself in them. Maybe they’re too au courant? I look better in simple things, and I feel uncomfortable in anything that feels to trendy. I think that discomfort comes through, when I wear things I feel fall into this category. These dresses are on the higher end of what I would pay for dresses, but they’re so cute. Over the last several months, the majority of dresses that I have fallen in love with strictly from pictures have turned out to be from these designers. It’s not that I like the expense; I’d love it if these things were much less expensive. Of course, I’d love it more if they’d just look good on me.

Mistakes were made

I know that I put a facetious, Nixon-inspired title on this post, but I’m actually encouraged by the fact that President Bush can express regrets for negative things that happened during his tenure. He didn’t want to speculate on whether he would still have gone into Iraq if it had been known that the WMD rumors were untrue, but I actually respect that. I feel that regrets and second-guessing really never help at all, and can actually obscure the path that should be taken in the present. Anyway, here’s the article.

I don’t know why

but it seems that the world just sucks today. Horrible things happen all the time, but for some reason, things like this and this have really gotten me down today.

What is wrong with people?

Attacks in Mumbai

Mumbai skyline

As we in the United States go into this day of Thanksgiving, I’d like to send my thoughts and prayers out to those in Mumbai who are facing terrorist attacks of unknown origin. As of 3:45am EST, at least 101 people have been reported dead, with a minimum of another 250 severely injured. Those gunmen who spoke may have asked specifically after those who were American and British, but they also took the lives of people of other nationalities, including fellow Indians.

I found Mumbai to be lovely and inviting, and I find it so difficult to believe that the Taj Hotel, which was amazing in every way, is currently in flames and also housing hostages (according to the Times of India, all hostages in the Taj have been freed). It seems impossible that such a cosmopolitan, international city can have been turned upside down so quickly. The New York Times article on these attacks states that the head of the Mumbai antiterrorism squad was killed, as was a commissioner of police. I hope that whoever carried out these craven acts (and remains alive at the end of them) is made to pay for these horrors, and that there will not be a backlash against Mumbaikars because of this.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, which was hit in attacks (photo from 2007)

Other news sources:
Al Jazeera
BBC
Google News

What’s next? Furries?

I’m watching Private Practice right now, and I understand that this show isn’t doing as well as the network would like, but I think that the current crop of storylines is really making me question (as Nina Garcia would say) the taste level of the writers and producers. So far this season we’ve had patients in the practice who have engaged in incest, bigamy, pedophilia. Also, Addison has had problems with other patients because of their religious beliefs, and has given some questionable medical advice based on her disdain for what people believe (at least suggest another doctor, if you’re that conflicted, right?).

I watched this show on a trial basis last night year, and although I did find some things that i liked, I never really connected with this show. I may have to give it up entirely.