Yes, I know, a little bit of a sensational blog post title, but it's true. I love Greg Barchard. I love his Rapidweaver plugins, and I love his customer support, and I love his genial nature when responding to our sometimes (frequently?) lame questions.
Regarding a recent suggestion for his first iPhone app from a list member, Greg Barchard said, "I would do a universal iPhone and iPad app. I don't like an app that sells multiple copies of itself on the store. It feels wrong." You go, Greg.
Buy Rapidweaver plugins from this guy. Seriously, you won't regret it. He answers questions quickly — even from his iPhone — his Google Groups mailing list is so helpful, and his plugins are cool and constantly being updated and improved.
Is it the first wife who took this guy back after she'd found evidence of his wedding plans with wife #2 on Facebook because he said he loved her and wanted to reconcile and that he wouldn't go through with the other wedding?
Or, is it wife #2 who knows this guy had another wife and child that he didn't mind cheating on and who was dumb enough to post her photos on Facebook, and who apparently believes that she is so special that he would never do the same to her?
Or, is it the scumbag husband who could possibly face criminal charges for fraud for filing taxes, completing insurance claims, etc., under the guise of a married man? [I can only hope.]
Maybe the kids should go live with someone outside of this group completely, someone who is not so stupid.
We try to do right by our kids, get them to eat the right things, get some exercise, stay healthy, and this is what happens when they spend a week with Grandma and Aunt Andy.
Yep, three doughnuts for breakfast from Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, Oregon: one Cap'n Crunch donut, one mango filled, and one Butterfinger doughnut. If that isn't bad enough, after Voodoo Doughnuts, they got brown sugar cinnamon white chocolate mochas.
I'm not impressed with Jay Leno and I thought Conan O'Brien was funny, sure, but I couldn't concern myself too much with the late night wars when my favorite late night host was conducting business as usual. Maybe my humor is a little low brow — okay, for CERTAIN it is a little low brow — but I have had more tear inducing laughter in the past year of Craig Ferguson than I ever had watching Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien combined.
I'm a couple of weeks behind on my recorded Craigs, so I haven't even seen the new Robot Skeleton sidekick yet. What I did just see, though, was John Cusack's awkward pause. I have never laughed so hard at people doing nothing than I do with Craig Ferguson's awkward pauses. This one was especially funny because John Cusack wanted to do it in the middle of the interview [gasp], not at the end. Kind of threw Craig for a loop there. I may have to rank this awkward pause right up there in the top four, along with those of Kristen Bell, Simon Helberg, and Adhir Kalyan. The shoe-tying bit was good with Cusack, but Simon Helberg did the almost-leg-cross followed by the awkward smile. Then again, the entire interview with Adhir Kalyan was hilarious, including the awkward pause at the end. Yeah, good stuff.
For at least two years now, I have been screwing around with my disappearing login items. One day everything would open just fine when my computer booted up, and the next day, they were gone, just disappeared. I started keeping a list of my login items so that I could add them again whenever this happened, which seemed to be several times a month — often enough to make me NUTS! It was a time-consuming pain to keep re-adding the login items.
I tried creating login folders with Tiger Cache Cleaner, then Leopard Cache Cleaner, and MacPilot. I was even creating alarms in AlarmClockPro to open these files after my computer started up every morning. That worked, too, until the login item to start the starters would also disappear!
I Googled the problem and found people having the same issue, but no solutions. I hoped when I upgraded to Snow Leopard the problem would be solved. Nope. Still happening. Not major, in the grand scope of things, but hugely annoying.
Googling the subject again (and again), I found where several people suggested replacing the com.apple.loginitems.plist file. It didn't make a difference, BECAUSE [drum roll, please] it was the wrong file! It turns out it's the loginwindow.plist file, also in the Preferences folder. Once I got my login items the way I wanted them, I duplicated the file and started keeping a copy on my desktop. When I don't see all my icons in the menu bar that should be there, I replace the file in the Preferences folder with a copy of my "good" loginwindow.plist file, reboot, and all is right with the world.
I was reading posts in one of the Google Groups of which I am a member, and interspersed between legitimate, informative posts were some angry messages from a woman on her iPhone who, apparently, was also getting the emails. Of course, we know you don't get the emails unless you are subscribed to the group, right?
She sent these messages:
Stop sending me these emails!!!!!!!!
Please pardon errors--msg sent from my iPhone.
[her name], PhD, LPC
and
Stop these emails!!!!!
Please pardon errors--msg sent from my iPhone.
[her name], PhD, LPC
Okay, she doesn't want to get the emails, but look at her sig line. She has a PhD and is an LPC, a Licensed Professional Counselor, someone who "has advanced training, a graduate academic degree, clinical work experience, and has passed a state-certified licensing examination. Counselors treat all sorts of problems: from alcoholism and eating disorders to relationship issues and depression."
Sounds like a really SMART person, doesn't it? But not smart enough to just remove her name from the Google Group. [snicker]
Where does all the eggnog in the world go on January 1? I’m just wondering, because it seems to magically disappear from every grocery store, every Costco, every Sam’s Club. It’s not even discounted anywhere because the expiration date on the remaining 47 cases of eggnog is January 2 and they are trying to unload it. I would still buy it! I would buy it and freeze it and thaw it out and celebrate Valentine’s Day with it. Yes, I would. But it’s not there. It’s not anywhere. It’s completely gone. Why?
It says on the container that it’s a holiday classic. Why does it have to be a HOLIDAY classic? Can’t it be an EVERYDAY classic? I like to have it every day, that’s for sure. Right, it’s bad for me—I know that, but I want the OPTION of having it every day, and that option is being taken away from me. Eggnog lovers, unite! Let’s demand that we at least be allowed to buy the eggnog that is still … SOMEWHERE!
I bought 6 half gallons of eggnog on December 31 at Costco, and they had LOTS. The checker asked me if it was marked down. I said, “No, but I know if I come back in two days, it will be gone!” The expiration date on these half gallons is February 9. I don’t even have to freeze them! Between my kids and me, this will be gone long before then.
So, what gives? Where has all the eggnog gone? Why is the eggnog gone? I’ll ponder this subject while I drink my own eggnog right now. I lace mine with a little brandy and liberally sprinkle it with nutmeg. Some people like rum in their eggnog. It doesn’t matter what you like in it, though, if you can’t even get it. Bah humbug!
I am a big fan of VisualHub, the excellent Techspansion application whose development was stopped about a year ago. I have the latest version of VisualHub and it still works fine, but one of these days, that's not going to be the case, and I have been hoping something new would come along to take its place. I've just been demoing VideoVangelist from Whimsically Plucky Software, and I think I have found my new VisualHub, which happens to be on sale at MacZotTODAYfor only $5.00. Yeah, no kidding, $5.00. It's only $10.00 at full price! What is this guy thinking!?
With VideoVangelist you simply drag and drop video or audio files to the main window, choose the format you want and click start. There are a few basic settings you can tweak if you want to, some more advanced ones that you may NOT want to. You can convert files for iPod, iPhone/iPod touch, AppleTV, AVI, DV, WMV, XBOX 360, PSP, MPEG and Flash (swf and flv). You can also convert any video or audio file to MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC or Ogg/Vorbis. This comes in handy when you have, for example, a DVD of Robin Williams' Broadway show and you want to listen to it in your car while you're driving. Or how about a Woodstock concert DVD? Convert it for iTunes and get yourself back to the ga-a-a-ar-den.
You can also add URLs and RSS feeds to VideoVangelist and convert those files to the format you need to make them compatible with your iPod. I subscribe to several podcasts that work fine in iTunes, but can't be synced with my iPod. VideoVangelist will take care of that for you. You can even export your iTunes Podcast play list to an OPML file that makes it a piece of cake to import into VideoVangelist. Say, for example, there is a series of training videos on YouTube that you want. Enter the URLs into VideoVangelist and convert them. You can even stitch the files together so that you have one file with all the videos.

The website also says "Generate Flash embed code for easy pasting into HTML documents and iWeb Widgets," but I haven't figured that out yet. There is an in-depth user manual and some really excellent tutorial videos available on the website. You really should watch them to see all the features — or just to get a few laughs. Check out the developer's Rick Roll birthday video to his wife, which doesn’t have anything to do with VideoVangelist, of course, but it's pretty funny.
As for us using VideoVangelist, I was first impressed in one of the videos how the developer seemed to be going from this action to that action, canceling this and starting that over and over without the app hanging up. Even with my beloved VisualHub, I got into the habit of quitting and restarting between projects because it would hang, and canceling didn't always work. I tried a few things with VideoVangelist, and sure enough, I could cancel and move on to another action quickly and easily. It eventually did hang on me one time and I had to quit and restart, but other than that, it's working great and most conversion times have been comparable to my results with VisualHub.
I have read comments on the less-than-sexy GUI, but I was thinking how much I like having most of the options staring me in the face instead of having to search through a lot of tabs and menus. No, it's not the most glamourous interface, but it's kind of similar to VisualHub, and my focus is on how it works.
I have also read some negative comments about the download size of the disk image, which is about 100MB. About 70MB of that is the codec library itself (Popcorn 3 downloads at about 94MB). If you want to convert audio/visual files, you're gonna need that codec library. I had to install them with VisualHub also, and they are easier to keep updated in VideoVangelist by simply going to the Help menu and selecting "Install Codec Libraries." That will download the latest library package and you just double click to install.
Also, the codec library that comes on the disk image might be out of date, because it may have been updated after the latest release of VideoVangelist. That is why the developer added the option to Install Codec Libraries in the Help. You can download and update them whenever you feel like it.
Bottom line: I most assuredly see VideoVangelist replacing my VisualHub, with its additional conversion settings, cool URL and RSS features, and a developer who seems to pay attention to details. Plus, the price is crazy low! I paid about $22 for VisualHub three or four years ago and thought THAT was a steal! For $10 (and $5 today at MacZot), I highly recommend this app.
I ordered some software recently, and it was shipped through the United States Post Office from Phoenix on July 8. On July 11, the package arrived here in my home city, Memphis—three days, that's good. Unfortunately, it didn't actually arrive IN my mailbox. Nope, it was processed through the Sort Facility in Memphis and sent to Denver, where it was processed again on July 12 and sent back to Phoenix. On July 13, Phoenix processed it through their Sort Facility (again), and it was sent to Scottsdale (first time for Scottsdale), who then processed it on July 14 and sent it on to Bell, California (another first). I can hardly wait to find out where it is today, July 16, which I will know tomorrow when the USPS updates their tracking information. Gosh, maybe it's gone all the way to Alaska by now! This is so much fun. I just wish it was my Flat Stanley. The other day, I watched my mail carrier pull into my neighbor's driveway to deliver a box that wouldn't fit in her mailbox. He never got out of the mail truck; just threw the box towards her front step. Gave it a big heave, he did, but it didn't quite get there. It was close enough, though. Heck of an arm on that mail carrier.
I hope I never have to rely on the United States Post Office to ship a kidney or a Faberge Egg.
Smoking Apples (I love smokingapples.com) recently did a round-up on clipboard managers. Lots of good information, but they didn't mention my favorite clipboard app, SavvyClipboard by BlitzClick Software, which can compete with and work circles around some of the apps mentioned in the Smoking Apples article.
While some of these apps have really nice interfaces and are pretty to look at (dangling preposition), they just don't do everything I want or are too obtrusive. I don't want to feel like I'm working hard to use the clipboard. I want it to just be there, with me using mostly key commands to copy and paste. I have downloaded and tried out more clipboard apps then I can count, and the one that works best for me and does just about everything I want is Savvy Clipboard.
SavvyClipboard has one scrollable window with previews of all your clips, up to 100 [buzzz ... I'm wrong about this. Turns out you can enter any number of clips to save. I just saw the presets, and you can select one of those OR you can enter your own number.], which has been plenty for my use, and which can be set lower in preferences. The window can be as narrow as 214px or as wide as you want to stretch it. I usually leave it at the smallest, because it's enough to see the image previews and the first part of the text to know what I've copied.
To paste your items, you can drag them out, or you can click on an item and paste, or use the control key plus a number for the first 9 items and paste. Depending on how you copied an image, it will either drag out in it's original format or PDF. You can also right-click and save items in these formats: TIFF, JPG, PNG, BMP, RTD, RTFD, TXT.
As you copy, each new item goes on top and everything else moves down, unless you have locked an item by clicking in the lower left corner of the preview (a padlock appears). Locked items stay where they are, or you can reorder your items by dragging them up and down. I like to keep my locked items at the top. When I'm done with a locked item, I unlock it and it gradually moves on down the list.
You can paste your text items as plain text or rich text. You can set a default in preferences and then right-click to change it on a per-item basis. You can also right-click and edit your text items, even check spelling and grammar.
Unfortunately, editing items is the one area where SavvyClipboard falls short for me. It does not strip junk/carrots/forced returns text copied from emails. On the other hand, I haven't found any other clipboard apps that do that either, not without going through several extra steps, so I use SmartWrap for that. Also, it would be nice if we could open every clipboard item, and not by right-clicking, but with a double-click [faster for me], for a default action. For example, double-clicking a copied URL would open it in a browser, email addresses would open a blank email, images would open in a predefined image editor, text items would open in a predefined text editor. If you want to do something different than the predefined action, THEN right-click or control click and make a selection. The developers have said they are actually working on adding this feature. One down, one to go. I have read some complaints about the look of SavvyClipboard. I suppose it could be more polished, maybe some black and grey, some glassy looking stuff. I don't know, I'm mostly concerned with how it works, not how it looks, and with some of the clipboard apps hovering at around $30, SavvyClipboard is a steal at $12. You can even occasionally find it at MacZot for around $8.
It’s been a long time coming, but he’s finally gone! I’ve gotta admit, though, that I was a little surprised. I’m thinking the Allison fans may have pulled together, not so much to vote for Kris Allen, but to NOT vote for Danny Gokey. Whatever, it works for me. The judges tell the contestants to let their personalities shine through, but maybe that was a mistake for Danny Gokey. I soon tired of his personality and his seeming arrogance, and also of his late wife and his large, deeply religious family who always made joyful music together (gag). I grew tired of his boring song choices, his glasses, his jewelry, his singing, his screaming ... and finally, the way he was still there when Allison was not— Allison, who could sing circles around Danny; Allison, whose CDs I would buy. I guess it just snowballed until I didn’t like a single damn thing about him. Ironic, really, because after Hollywood week, he was one of the ones I liked best.
All of which is the opposite for Adam. With each passing week, I am more and more impressed by that guy— Adam, whose CDs I would also buy. He can do no wrong, in my opinion. Kris is also very good, and I like him — especially his kind of sexy bar band rock version of “Come Together”— but it’s sort of like baby blue vs. fire engine red, and fire engine red is almost always my first choice.
I am making an effort to wean myself off American Idol. We don't watch the elimination show anymore. We record everything, so we are usually watching Tuesday's show on Wednesday, and when it's over, we just go to Wikipedia and see who bought it.
We can also fast forward through the judges’ comments [“Dude! You can sing!” “Dude! You can REALLY sing!” “You can really sing, dude!”]. With four judges wasting singing time with inane comments, it’s tough to take. I used to think Paula was awful— well, no, Paula IS awful— but I didn’t know there was someone worse waiting in the wings. Note to Kara: Stop. Talking. Just. Stop. Talking.
I’m thinking that since the judges’ gushing favorite is gone, maybe we won’t have to listen to Randy, Kara, Paula and Simon next week. Maybe they won’t even be there! Is that too much to hope for?
Note to self: Do not—I repeat: DO NOT!—buy any more applications in January, February, or March!
There, now all I have to do is FOLLOW MY OWN INSTRUCTIONS. The MacHeist 3 bundle includes 2 applications that I just bought in the last month— 3, if you count EventBox that was included for free yesterday just for going to the site, and which I bought 2 days ago! Sure, one of them (The Hit List) isn’t unlocked yet, but I’m pretty sure it will be. How can you NOT buy this bundle for $39? And, if you did the missions, you get an additional $8 discount. I bought all these apps for $31. It’s like stealing— but legally!
I’m still torqued about the two apps, though: The Hit List ($50) and Little-Snapper ($39), especially since I’ve been mildly displeased with LittleSnapper and have thought a couple of times that I wish I hadn’t paid $34 for it (I had a $5 discount). I think Realmac is lucky that “they got there first” and snagged a lot of buyers. More apps are coming out now that are similar to LittleSnapper, e.g., Webbla (which was part of the MacHeist 3 loot), so that will, hopefully, motivate Realmac to update more quickly, especially now, when the app is new and there are lots of little things that need to be fixed.
The Hit List, I bought less than a week ago (kick, kick, kick). Don’t get me wrong, I love this app, but I wrongly assumed it wouldn’t be in the bundle because it is still in beta. It’s version 9.3.3, and when it goes to Version 1, the price is going up by $20. So, I “saved” myself $20 and bought it last week. Oy!
I know I shouldn’t complain, though, because this is a great bundle. Even if all I got was Kinemac, I would be thrilled. I was tempted to buy it before when it was on MacZot and MU Promo, but at half-price, it’s still a chunk of change. For $31? $31 ... $31... I have to keep saying that to myself because it’s so unbelievable. Acorn is very cool, Picturesque has always interested me. I don’t even know what I will do if BoinxTV is unlocked. Probably annoy my family with new “projects.”
Long live MacHeist ... and MacZot and MacUpdate Promo and all their bundles ... and any other bundles! I love them all!
For years now, I have had an iSight on my computer but haven’t known anyone with whom I could use iChat. About a year and a half ago, I bought my daughter an iMac, and now we can have video chats with each other on iChat and it works great. Really fun, yes, but considering she’s sitting right next to me in the same room, a little unnecessary.
I then met a guy on a list I’m on and we tried to use iChat, him from Pennsylvania and me from Tennessee. It was okay, but the picture broke up a lot and looked scrambled, but we still had sound. Pretty disappointing. He said he communicated with his brothers on iChat, and they had varying levels of picture quality also.
More recently, I started work for a guy in New Mexico who also has a Mac, and we tried to communicate with iChat. It worked for maybe 3 minutes, before the scrambling started, then froze completely, not even any sound. We tried several times and finally gave up.
My sister-in-law in Oregon finally got a Mac, and we were pretty excited about communicating with iChat, letting Grandma see the kids and all— same old scrambling/freezing garbage. When my daughter iChats with her friends here locally, she also has the same scrambling/freezing problems. We are all working with either cable or DSL connections, but none of it works well, if at all. Why? I don’t know.
What I do know is that when Google’s video chat came out, I installed it right away and told my sister-in-law to do the same. We now use it for all our video chats and have had no scrambling or freezing problems whatsoever. It works flawlessly. What is Google doing right that Apple is doing wrong?
It took me two days to finish up the Academy Awards show, which I recorded, because I can’t stay up that late [wimp]. I absolutely loved the new format, the new stage, the closer-in audience. It was like going to a nightclub, more personal, intimate. I also liked how it was all very light and friendly and there were no political jokes.
Hugh Jackman did a good job, and I really like him, but I have to say that when someone does everything— sing, dance, act— there is usually one area that is a little weaker than the others, and I believe that would be his singing. He's fine, but it's a good thing that acting is his day job.
I can still get bugs in my eyes thinking about the five stars coming out to present the major awards. I was seriously choked up when they did the first one because it was just so beautiful and personal, and I feel like it made it so much more special to everyone nominated, but especially to the ones who didn't win, because it’s normally just: read the names, announce the winner. But, with these famous people talking (mostly) directly to the nominees, it was really, really lovely. And, when Shirley MacClaine talked to Anne Hathaway? Whoa! That was almost better than getting the award! And, she told her she had a great voice— she did, surprised me, too— and to keep singing? How cool was that! Anne Hathaway was probably thinking, "Academy award? Huh? What award?"
I also loved how they did the screenwriting thing, where they showed the scene in the script, the actual words/typing and reading it, and then had the completed movie scene running in the background, so we could see how the scene was written and then how it's carried out. Somebody has tons of imagination.
I got choked up again when Queen Latifah was singing I'll Be Seeing You. I love that song, anyway, but when they showed the people who died this past year with clips from their movies, which was really good for the names that were not as familiar to the general public, yeah, serious bugs in my eyes.
Even the usual bandleader, Bill Conti, was missing. Man, there must have been some PO’d good ol' boys in Hollywood this year. I’ll bet the same group of people have been doing it for YEARS, and they finally got some new guys, probably Mac users, to come in and brainstorm, and it was out with the old and inwith the new.
Even the fashions seemed classier this year. I don’t recall seeing anyone who looked atrocious, and there is usually at least one. I noticed there were a lot of single strap dresses this year, not so many strapless as in previous years. Maybe they get tired of tugging them up all the time, or maybe they don’t want to have to worry about someone stepping on their trains and yanking the whole thing down.
Well, I could just go on and on and on ... I hope they continue with this new format. I don't think they need to feel like they have to "top" it every year, just do the same thing. Hugh Jackman can host it each year, as far as I'm concerned. He was the the all around entertainer and host, a class act.
Here it is, January 1, and I am faced with putting my Christmas CDs away for another year, I am thinking of keeping a few out that are just so good that I will actually miss them and want to play them in July, or maybe even March.
I am always on the look-out for new, different, interesting Christmas music, which is hard to do when I already have maybe 100 Christmas CDs and there are probably less than 100 standard Christmas songs. I prefer the usual songs with a lot of variations, but nothing too “out there.” Having said that, though, SheDaisy has a Christmas album called Brand New Year that is a little out there, and it’s one of my favorites. It’s tough to beat Santa’s Got a Brand New Bag (listen here) for an all-out boogying Christmas song.
This year, my newest favorite Christmas CD is Deana Carter’s Father Christmas. It’s not a new CD, actually released in 2001, but I just discovered it and it has received a LOT of playtime in my iTunes. I first heard a couple of the songs through Pandora and I tried to download the album from iTunes or Amazon’s MP3 music, but I could only get it on an actual CD.
The entire album is Deana Carter singing by herself, accompanied only by her dad, Earl Carter, a Nashville session guitarist who has worked with a lot of big names. It’s just beautiful, so understated and also a little quirky at times. There is one part in Winter Wonderland where Earl changes the beat on her and Deana says, “Da-ad!” in that way that kids when they are being teased, and she finished the song without missing a beat. And, man, do I wish there was someone at my house who could play guitar like Earl Carter, even HALF as good! His opening of Silent Night makes me almost want to cry.
I took the CD to a local coffee house the other night where we were meeting friends for some holiday cheer. They played the CD for us over their music system, and it sounded fabulous! A lot of people asked about the artist and title of the CD. I can’t believe it’s taken me seven years to come across it.
While I’m thinking of it, The Gypsy Hombres have an excellent Christmas CD called Django Bells. Especially good versions of You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
I got a $40 Christmas present this year from the nice people who make rooSwitch! Well, they didn’t actually SEND me anything or GIVE me anything, nothing tangible, but they saved me $40 in upgrade fees, and that’s the same thing!
rooSwitch is a wonderful application which easily lets you create different profiles with the data from just about any application. I’m using it currently with iPhoto, where I have four different profiles, and iWeb, with multiple websites, and most recently with DEVONthink Personal 2.
I have been anxiously awaiting the release of DEVONthink Personal 2 for several reasons, but mostly because the blog about the update referred to opening multiple databases, a feature that has only been available in DEVONthink Pro and above, and one which I wanted enough to seriously consider upgrading to Pro for $40. Since that is the ONLY additional feature that I am interested in, though, I haven’t yet justified the expense.
I upgraded to and downloaded Version 2, and was disappointed to see that the multiple database feature is still only available in Pro and above. Nice new interface, yes, but still one database.
Into the void stepped rooSwitch, my $14.95 application that I already own and use. I created a second profile for DEVONthink Personal 2 and voila! A second database! But, no, I didn’t actually get a second database, just a second profile that was still opening the original database. Hmmm ... so, I dashed off a quick message to the feedback email address on the rooSwitch website on December 19, and on December 20— yes, that fast AND during the holiday season, yet— I received a message from the developer with a quick fix so that rooSwitch would recognize DEVONthink’s application support folder and the notation that it will be included in the next update of rooSwitch.
I am now merrily working away with my multiple DEVONthink Personal 2 databases.
Saw the latest James Bond movie the other night, Quantum of Solace. Yes, there was a lot of action, but I’m not sure it was that much more than in Casino Royale. I’ve read that people said there was TOO much action, and I don’t feel like that’s the case. What I do think there was too much of was that shaky camera thing that is popular now, that kind of hand-held look where it seems like someone is running along with the camera, zooming in on this and that and not letting you get a full picture of what is going on. In fact, after the first 10 or 15 minutes of the movie, I thought I might throw up! Way too much movement for me. I like to sit in the middle of the theater, but I couldn’t do it with the opening portion of the movie, and I had to get up and go to the back row. Of course, just playing a 3D video game on the Playstation makes me have to go and lie down, so it could just be me. The shaky business seemed to settle down as the movie went on.
Daniel Craig is scary intense, very realistic as a guy wound tight, trying to keep from crossing the line—very often, anyway. He’s got that Steve McQueen kinda thing going on, and I sometimes wonder if he’s even acting or if he’s like that in real life. I looked up his birthday and he’s a Pisces. What does that tell me? I don’t know, nothing, I guess, but I’m a Pisces, too, so it makes me think he’s a very good actor.
I really like Olga Kurylenko, recently of Hitman and Max Payne. She was more of a kick-ass Bond girl, which I like better than the helpless “Oh, James!” types. The best and toughest Bond girl ever, though, was Izabella Scorupco, who played Natalya Simonova in Goldeneye. Goldeneye is my favorite Bond movie to date. Too bad they can’t bring Famke Janssen back as Xenia Onatopp in the next Bond movie. She would sure give Daniel Craig a run for his money in the intensity department!
I did see a Bond Blooper in Quantum of Solace: there is a scene where he disables a bad guy and takes his ear piece and other accoutrements so he can look at and listen in on the rest of the bad guys. He takes all this stuff and goes into the restroom and drops it into the sink while he puts in his ear piece, etc. The sink is one of those ones operated by a motion sensor and it should have turned on instantly and soaked all his stuff as soon as he put it in the sink, but nary a drop of water appeared.
All in all, another good Bond flick, one which I will most definitely be adding to my DVD collection.
We’ve gone granola in this family and I have been researching and replacing everything we use with green products, no chemicals. It’s hard work, let me tell you, and there are some things that just don’t lend themselves to being green, hair spray being one of them.
If you grew up using your mother’s Aqua Net, like I did, and think of hair spray has a staple item, like I definitely do, then going granola (back to nature, being earth-friendly, more health conscious) can be the source of some seriously bad hair days. I tried not using hair spray at all and my husband thought my hair looked “fine.” Of course, I knew that meant that it looked like crap.
So, I went to the Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database and searched through all the hair sprays, trying to find some that were rated 2 or less — there weren’t that many — and I picked three non-aerosol products: Beauty Without Cruelty Natural Hold Hair Spray, Jason Natural Cosmetics Thin-to-Thick Hair Thickening Hair Spray, and Magick Botanicals Fragrance Free Hair Spray. There wasn’t an aerosol hairspray that was rated 2 or less — so much for my mom’s Aqua Net.
I ordered all three sprays from iHerb.com (love that place almost as much as I love amazon.com) and have spent the last month trying them all under varying conditions. BWC and Magick Botanicals were $6.85 for 6 oz bottles -- but when my order arrived, my BWC was an 8.5 oz bottle -- and the Jason spray was $4.80 for an 8 oz bottle.
The Jason spray was rated 0, and I really wanted to like it, especially since it smells so good, but it’s pretty much worthless as a hair spray. The only thing hair spray-ish about it is that, yes, you do spray it on your hair. It doesn’t hold anything in place and even wetting your fingers and running through you already-sprayed hair doesn’t give it any oomph. Maybe it really isn’t meant to be that kind of a hair spray. But, hey, it smells really good, so I left it in my bathroom to use as an air freshener.
The Magick Botanicals spray is rated 1, so I tried hard to like it best, now that I’d ruled out the Jason spray, and I must say that it is a very close second to the BWC spray. It’s unscented and definitely offers more holding power than the Jason spray, but it just didn’t quite measure up to the BWC spray. It seemed like it left my hair a little bit wetter and kind of separated it more. It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean, but in the end, I just preferred the Beauty Without Cruelty spray. But, having said that, if I couldn’t get BWC hair spray, I would definitely be happy with the Magick Botanicals spray, and you can buy it in gallon containers from their website, so you can refill the spray bottles — a lot less waste.
Beauty Without Cruelty Natural Hold Hair Spray is rated at 2, and I’m not sure they should call it “natural hold,” because that implies to me that it’s probably not going to act much like a hair spray at all. Anyone who uses hair spray routinely knows you need “extra hold” or “ultra hold” in order for it to be good at its job! Having said that, though, BWC is very good at its job, but it doesn’t give you such a strong hold that you can’t get your fingers into your hair after you’ve sprayed it. It’s unscented, but the smell is still familiar to me, like maybe I’ve used a similar product before. I spray it on and have time to rearrange things before it dries, and it holds my style very well. I’m very happy with this product, but I don’t think you could go wrong with either the BWC or the Magick Botanicals spray.
There you have it, another pressing decision made and another item crossed of my huge list.
MacUpdate’s latest promo bundle still has two more days to go. I bought it, of course. Some people collect salt and pepper shakers; some people collect Barbies. I collect applications.
I already own LightZone and Alarm Clock Pro and wasn't motivated to buy this bundle until the day I checked (yes, I check every day, even when I’m on vacation. I check the MacUpdate promo and I check MacZot) and saw that TidyUp was being offered to the first 3,000 purchasers. All of a sudden there was more motivation to buy. I've been waiting for TidyUp to be on a promotion for a long time, a really long time. So long, in fact, that I thought it was never going to happen. So I decided to check out the next most promising app, or the one I think that I would be most likely to use, anyway, Norkross Movie, and I was instantly impressed. I haven’t actually created anything useful with it yet, but I know I will.
I figured at this point, even if I never used any of the other applications, I would still have $89 worth of applications for $49. So, I bought the bundle and am starting to wade into the other applications. I’ve got kids writing school papers, so Bookends and Mellel will come in handy. I’ve been toying with the idea of purchasing MacJournal for a while now, so I can cross that off my list of “Applications to Seriously Consider” (it’s a very long list).
As for LightZone, my 11-year-old daughter has done some amazing things with her photos all by herself. The application is very intuitive and they have great tutorials on their website. It's impressive, it really is. You can set up iPhoto so that the default editor is LightZone. I hope it gets unlocked so more people will use it and spread the word about how awesome it is.
And, Koingo Software is offering a discount to all buyers of this bundle, their Utility Package for only $19.95! That’s a crazy deal! I already owned several Koingo apps, and bought the Utility Package a few months ago when it was on MacZot for half-price. This is even a better deal! The Utility Package includes lifetime free upgrades and licenses to every application on their web site ... AND licenses to any application they come out with in the future! Plus, they have licenses on some of their applications for Mac and Windows. This Utility Package is normally $80, and you get it for $20. Seems like a no-brainer. The offer expires September 30.
Even if you don’t buy the bundle, you should check out the developer videos. They are very entertaining. It’s nice to see that they are people, just like you and me, with kids, cats, not the super humans like I usually think. People who can code, of course, so I guess they are not EXACTLY like you and me. Look at their surroundings in the background— surprisingly tidy. That’s another way they are not like me.
That’s a line from an old Willie Nelson song, "Good Times." It seems apropos right now because that’s what I’m doing, just sitting here. I don’t have the drink, and I can hardly remember what I wanted to post about. Maybe I should GET a drink and that will help jar my memory.
I’ve been meaning to update my website for more than a year now, and one of the things I wanted to do was add a blog. I always have SO much to say and SO many opinions to share with anyone who will listen that I figured a blog would be great. Well, it’s ready now, and here I sit ... thinking ... thinking ... and I’m completely at a loss for something to blog about! I guess it has to come naturally. Something is going to have to make me mad or disgusted or thrilled or pleased or incredulous. Right now, I’m just not feeling it [big sigh]. Better leave the application open so I can jump right on it the minute I’m motivated.
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