Gh0st_Preacher's Stuff

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Life's been busy.  Here's another useless post!

- Allison has moved to Eureka.
- To to Allison's move, I'm moving to a new place in the south of town.
- I finally registered gh0stpreacher.com.  Finally.  As in, it's finally my domain.  The old domain will stick around for a while, but I'll soon deactivate, if I remember and/or care enough.
- Work is busy.
- Trillian Astra still "OMG ROXX0RZ T3H BIG ONE!!!11111"
- I had to get a new battery and charger for the laptop.

Other than that, my life is pretty decent.  Nothing huge going on.  I've done some reworking of the site.  Mostly padding, margins, widths, and font sizes.  I also did some optimizations, so the site should load a little faster.  I'm planning an entire color palette change, but until then this is what you get.

Until next time.

I got accepted into the Trillian Astra public beta tests.  I didn't know they had any slots open, but I was surprised to see I could download it that instant.

I've used it now for about 2 solid days, and I have quite a few things I've noticed about it that get me, well, excited about using a chat client. Go ahead and reread that last sentence.  I'm excited about a chat client.  That means it does one of two things:
1.) It can cook food, do my laundry, and giggle at my jokes.
2.) It's really good at being a chat client and caters needs I didn't know I had.

I think you know which one I'm referring to here.

Trillian Astra is a follow-up to the Trillian 3.x series.  Why the added "Astra" name?  Because they've completely redesigned the product.  Bottom-up.

I've used Trillian for a little over 5 years now, and in that time I've seen it grow from the nifty multi-protocol client with plugin capabilities to a behemoth, slow, ugly, mean-faced app.  But Astra fixes that.  It fixes it because they've reconsidered how I might actually use the application.  They've probably got a couple people who, during UI designs, probably say things like "how do we allow the user to perform x action in under three clicks of the mouse? what about 1?"

The problem that UI designers get into pretty consistently is visual clutter.  Oh, you want to have access to a bunch of features at a moment's notice?  Okay.  We'll slap a button right here.  And here.  And here.  Ooh, we still have some real estate left.  Etc.  But this isn't very helpful at all, because I really care about having quick access, now RIGHT NOW access.  Think about it: I don't want the "sign off" button immediately visible, because I'm clumsy sometimes.  Give me a buffer to prevent me from accidentally clicking it.  Same thing with my context menus.

Remember when I said that they've completely redesigned the product?  They did something I rarely ever see - they redesigned it so well that all of my old habits still actually work.  Want to access preferences?  Cool, just right-click the titlebar of the contact list and navigate from there.  No biggie.  Those are the important choices in a ground-up redesign: how do I allow old users to still utilize the same actions they're used to, while giving them new ways to accomplish them?

The other thing I've noticed is that it's FAST. Boot-up is significantly improved over the 3.x series, as is just about every other action I could do.  Even opening, closing, and resizing chat windows and the contact list is faster.  That's saying something.  Especially for a beta.  Also, the fact that it properly synced up with the previous installation I had was really nice, because it meant that i didn't have to go changing a bunch of settings.  Everything was as it should be.

There's another feature that's been greatly improved upon since 3.x.  Trillian used to do a sort of auto-match where you could start typing a screen name and it would jump to it, but it was spotty at best.  Their fix?  Just start typing while you have the buddy list selected.  it'll automatically filter down to the screen names that contain that text string.  That's a sweet choice that's all ready been put to good use.

I haven't yet had a chance to test out some of the other funky bells and whistles available.  I have been using the Twitter support, however, and it's almost what I want.  It displays a small timeline that goes back however far you want it, and then spawns a new chat window when you want to send new tweets.  This is now big deal, except that what I really want is the entire thing to display in a single chat window.  Make me feel like I'm almost in a chat room.  The XMPP support Twitter had for a while is almost exactly what I'm thinking of.

The only other gripe I have is that the tabs at the top of the chat window containers are huge.  Seriously huge.  If they were smaller (like they were in previous versions), this would not be an issue, but right now, they're a little large for my tastes.  Then again, it's designed so well that the loss in screen real estate really doesn't seem like that big of a deal any more.

After 2 days of using the Astra Beta, I have to say I'm extremely impressed.  I actually will not return to 3.x like I was expecting to, because this is all ready stable enough, fast enough, and feature-rich enough to replace the old one.

If you want to check out more, go hit up the Trillian astra site.  You can find much more information there.

As always, have a good one!

So here we are again, my little happy ponies (what does that even mean?)

Couple of quick updates:

1.) Blog redesign is going to be in the works some time soon.  Not sure when, but soon.
2.) I'm working of fleshing out a few blog posts.  I have some ideas, but I'm not totally sure how I want to run with them.  To make matters worse, I have a few recurring post ideas I've been tossing around, as well.
3.) I've got a new "rig" post coming up, too.  It's changed a bit, and it'd be nice to update.
4.) Go read everyday journalist.  Seriously.  Because Ally is awesome.

Trying to fix right now.  This is just a test post...

UPDATE:

Finally realized what the problem was.  "Server time offset" does something different than what I thought it did.  Oops!

I meant to post this review much sooner, but a lot of things prevented me from having enough time to make this review.  So here it is:

The times are changin', and your business is getting caught in the middle of it - so says Joel Postman in his book SocialCorp.

I'm going to cut to the chase here: this is an extremely well crafted piece.  It does seem, sometimes, to be a little disorganized, but in reality, so is the entire social media landscape, which lets me accept the sometimes relaxed, other times urgent tone presented throughout.

Postman offers us his knowledge of Social Media in the business context through case studies, best practices, sample forms, and more.  And you know what?  It's all really well put together.  So well, I challenge anybody who uses it's concepts and ideas to screw up their core social media practices.  Really.

You can utilize this book as a sort of "manual" for your social media initiatives, and they can be taken beyond just businesses.  If you're interested in branding yourself (consultants should take note here), then you should read this.  If you're a small business looking to get a footprint online, then you should read this.  Even if your company has social media initiatives in place, you should read this,  because it will definitely have information and ideas within that you didn't consider before.

There is one downside to this jewel - Postman points out that you only need to educate yourself enough to be dangerous, but I find that can be a risky proposition, as that can cause friction and misunderstandings about capabilities and requirements.  While I understand that goes out of scope, it still would have been nice to see a little bit more in this arena, or maybe some references to outside resources on the subject (if they exist).

All in all, the book is incredibly well crafted, well worded, and well thought-out.  Joel Postman obviously understands the market, and puts you on the right track to make your company a true SocialCorp.

You can visit the site at http://www.socializedpr.com/.

Until next time, kiddos!

I think it's pretty humorous that I was so hot to get this site going and start writing, but I've neglected it.

YES, I'VE SAID IT.

But in all honesty it had quite a bit to do with my wrist, which is almost done healing.  I've had my cast removed and am now happily typing without contorting my left arm into some weird position.  I've got a script for some physical therapy that I still need to start, but due to some circumstances I haven't had the time.

Regardless, here we are, yet again.  Gather 'round the campfire while I spin a thread revealing my travels as of late.  Or something.

PC GAMING ISN'T DEAD.

I was amazed to find this out.  I know I'm probably the only person who felt that the apocalypse of PC gaming was coming, but that's likely because I'd been so out of touch.  I've found some titles as of late that are really quite impressively done.  They are Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, and if you haven't played either, you need to.  F'serious.

FALLOUT 3 - OR - HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE BOMBS, MUTANTS, AND CRAZY WEAPONS

Fallout 3 is the continuation of the fallout series.  When Bethesda got the rights a few years ago, everybody thought the franchise was dead.  Instead, we got treated to something unique.  Sort of.

See, Fallout 3 is Oblivion with guns.  A couple other tweaks apply, but that's really the long and short of it.

That said, it's fun.  Really fun.  Except it didn't have that "oomph" that could keep me for too long,  Don't get me wrong.  I really enjoyed it.  There's a hell of a lot of content in there.  But I'm a diehard FPS freak, and when you throw me a curveball where you've added in some RPG elements, I'm going to start getting itchy.  It's a great game, to be sure, just not my type.

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSES ARE FUN!  SERIOUSLY!

I'm just going to come out and say it:

Left 4 Dead is a brilliant game and everybody should play it.

This is one of those games where I had high expectations that were high enough to cause me some major heartache if not lived up to.  The formula I had been presented was simple:

Zombie Apocalypse + Co-Op Gameplay + Dynamic Enemy Spawning System + Survival Horror.

And they nailed it.  Perfectly.  I don't think they could've done any better.  It's really an amazing game.  No description of mine can do it justice, either.

But really, go out and get it.  Left 4 Dead is a rare treat that has the ability to have some lasting power.  I know I'll be obsessed for a while.

The radio stream is up at:
http://gh0st.is-a-geek.com:9000

Playing Nerdcore (mostly mc chris and MC Frontalot), as well as a healthy dose of DnB (Pendulum, AntJDB, Squarepusher, etc.).

Tune in and cheggit

I recently made an update to the right rail so it's actually consistent and doesn't go all over the place.  Titles and Content should now line up properly over there.

Also, I need ideas for content.  If you have any ideas, feel free to shoot me an email or comment.

Thanks!

Quick update on the wrist for 'yall - I didn't actually break anything.  Tore a ligament partially, which is scary.  Still getting a cast on Monday (tomorrow), but only for about 3 weeks or so.  I'm going to type this out in oh-so-gimpy fashion with this brace on.

Friday was full of fun festivities, in part because there were good drinks.  At least, drinks that I really like.  Here are a few of my favorites, with one I even made myself!  Feel free to change the proportions.  These are my favorite proportions, but you may like them stronger or weaker.

- Brass Monkey:
Get some Olde English (Old E is a requirement here, as any other malt liquor just doesn't taste right) and some orange juice (good orange juice, none of that shitty stuff), drink the Old E down to the top of the label, then refill with the orange juice.  This sounds revolting, and with bad malt liquor and bad orange juice, it is.  But Old E and Minute Maid (pulp-free, please) are the best.  A variant on this, if you don't have access to the 40's, is to get a big glass, pour it about 1/5 to 1/3 full with OJ, then do the Old E and stir it lightly.  This isn't a true Brass Monkey, but good nonetheless.

- Purple Drank:
That's right, Drank is spelled wrong, and it's spelled wrong for a reason.  Go find grape flavored vodka plus one of those things of "grape flavored drink" (not grape juice, this is important).  You know the stuff I'm talking about.  Kool-Aid or Flavor Aid work here, too.  Do in about even parts and regret your decision in the morning.  This stuff is dangerous, because you're completely unaware of how powerful it is until you've gone through three in rapid succession and your stomach starts turning.

- White Russian:
Get some at least decent Vodka (Svedka, UV, or Smirnoff work well), Kahlua, and Milk (any grade, allthough 2% is best in my opinion).  In a Highball glass with ice, do about 2 parts Kahlua to 1 Part Vodka with about 3-5 parts milk (adjust to taste).

- 7 & 7:
Get some 7 Crown and some 7-Up, and mix,  I usually do this at either even parts or 1 part 7 Crown to 2 Parts 7-up.  Pretty good.  it's basically Whiskey and Lemon-Lime Soda.

- Jack & Coke:
Similar to the above, but with Cola instead of Lemon-Lime soda.

- Scotch & Ginger Ale:
A classic.  Any decent scotch will do.  I'm a big fan of single malts (mixed ones I find funky), all though I'm drinking this right now with Chivas Regal 12.  Pretty impressive for a blended Scotch.  Do it with even parts, or all the way down to 1 part Scotch to 3 parts Ginger Ale.  Changes on the mood for me.

- Scotch & 7:
Again, same as above, but with 7-Up instead of Ginger Ale.

- Dirty Martini:
No Vodka in my Martinis please.  I make my fairly "sweet".  And I shake them when I can, all though stirring is fine by me.  I do 3 parts Bombay Sapphire to 1 part Martini & Rossi Italian (sweet) Vermouth, splash of Brine (that's what makes it dirty) and an Olive or two.  Sometimes I do equal parts Gin and Vermouth.  Very good before a meal with appetizers, or with a good pipe (tobacco, that's what pipes are for, jerks) or a cigar.  Very tasty.

- Lucky 7
This is a bit of a misnomer, but I invented the drink, so I can name it however I like.  It's a bit of a weird drink, but one of my all-time favorites.  Take 2 parts Scotch, 1 part 7-Up, 1 part Ginger Ale.  It sounds weird.  Sometimes I screw with the portions and do 2 parts Scotch, 2 parts Ginger Ale, 1 part 7-Up.  Good to me.

If I'm not drinking good cocktails, I'm drinking good beer.  My top favorite would have to be Sierra Nevada Porter, all though their Stout is incredible, but just a tad too heavy for regular consumption.  Pilsner Urquell is great, but only if you're actually getting it in the Czech Republic.  If not, you're getting a screwed up version with hop extract that isn't nearly as good.  F'serious.  When I need to go cheap, I usually go with Michelob, especially the Amber Bock.  That seems to rock it pretty hard.  If going with Mike's Hard (oh please no), then it needs to be Lime.  If hitting up the wine aisle, I'm looking for Pinot Grigios or Chardonnays, as I heavily prefer Whites, all though Gevurtztraminer have changed that quite a bit, as it's a red that's amazingly tasty.

That's a sneak peek into my boozing habits.  I'm sure I'll make a page some day with all the different cocktails, beers, wines, and others that I've tried over the years, with reviews on brands (if I'm feeling saucy).  I did omit some of the other common ones, like Coke and Vodka, because they're pretty well known for my age group.

All right all, I'm heading off to get the laundry and then go to bed for the evening.  Got to go get the cast tomorrow morning, so that'll be a bucket of fun.

Good night.