I can’t believe I made this.
Taken with instagram
Members of Daniel and the Lion just going right ahead and singing Bon Iver’s Holocene in the street late at night with a xylophone and some guy who lives on the street just walking up and playing sax just like the kind of thing that always happens on streets I’m never anywhere near.
Last week I wrote about how much I missed Spaces in OSX when it was removed in Lion.
I have since gone back to Snow Leopard, and I am so glad I did. I miss absolutely nothing about Lion.
For Mac users who are using any of the non-Lion cats, here is how Spaces can help:
In System Preferences > Expose & Spaces, you can set a grid to contain spaces that behave like virtual desktops. These help you keep applications and windows from competing for screen real estate in one space. So no more moving your email window out of the way to see your iTunes.
For years, I have used a 3x3 grid. Mail is always space 1, Chrome is always space 2, iTunes is always space 3, and so on. This is easy to set up, because you can tell Spaces from the Preferences panel to always place designated apps in designated spaces.
I activate Spaces with my middle mouse button because I don’t use a Magic Trackpad in my office yet (I use one at home and love it, but haven’t gone back to Snow Leopard there yet). So I am constantly jumping between apps by pressing that button to call up my grid, then clicking the space I want.
No more cluttered windows. No more Hulk smash puny screen.
Lion has a similar feature, but the spaces are arranged in one horizontal line. This arrangement makes the spaces much more difficult to recognize quickly. iTunes is space 3 for me, but it is really “upper right”, which is much faster to mentally sort out than “fourth from the left”.
So you can use the time you save to think about how absurd it is that people think periods should go inside quotation marks when the period isn’t part of what is being quoted, and how those people think the punctuation looks like it’s been abandoned outside the quotes rather than realizing that they are abandoning closing quotation marks outside sentences that they decided to end before the closing quotation marks could even do their jobs.
Always put controversial topics at the end of tech tips that nobody reads.
An in-depth look at my experience with iBooks Author:
“Hey, I’m going to write my own textbook for my class and give it to my students for free oh wait you can only view the iBook textbooks on an iPad nevermind.”
Come on, Apple.
The Google Art Project lets you use Street View controls to explore the interiors of famous art museums. Here I am walking around MoMA NYC.
It feels pretty beta right now, and it looked like only a small part of MoMA was accessible.
But I really love this idea.
When You Say: “Do Me a Solid.”
I hear: “I don’t know what to do with words.”
CAN'T YOU READ: Avoidance vs. Bravery
Despite humanity’s continued efforts, there is no emotion that goes unexperienced. A tik tok persists: seek pleasure, avoid pain; seek pleasure, avoid pain; seek pleasure, avoid pain. Without intervention, we are at the whim of chemicals and experiences—ineradicable by any flavor of obsession.
Fear is strong.
And “Don’t be afraid.” is an interesting phrase. It’s a lot like “Don’t be hungry.” when you just ate. This application of logic is a popular technique but logic is the language of neither stomachs nor sentiment. Stomachs speak food. Fear speaks attention.
Fear and those like it are indelible. Distraction placates symptoms but to treat the cause requires confrontation. “Don’t be afraid.” is to turn a blind eye. “Don’t be afraid.” is a rejection—which a heart does not take laying down.
Fear is strong but people are stronger.
“Be brave.” is a different animal. “Be brave.” is the ability to understand that while it may not be known why a fear exists—it does. “Be brave.” feeds the growling of your heart. “Be brave.” is to stand beside a fear, acknowledge its struggle, and propose collaboration and care. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em (and this is one you sure can’t win).
Fear speaks attention. Be afraid, but then be brave.
ONN: "Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized"
This is an Onion News Network video that I wrote and directed 25 years ago, and is finally out. Edited by the incomparable Kelly Hudson.
For some reason, my computer wouldn’t me embed, so feel free to click that link!!!!!
Damn you and your being hilarious, Chris Kelly.
