Babblative

The Enemy of My Enemy

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:05:14 -0500

Switching to Chrome

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:25:00 -0500

Last week my brother mentioned to me that he was considering switching to Chrome. He said that it was because Firefox was a resource hog and Chrome’s themes were better than any Persona or old style theme people could come up with. (Sadly, it’s true. Chrome’s themes are infinitely better than Firefox’s Persona’s or themes. More on that later.) I found myself nodding in agreement, I hadn’t been happy with Firefox for a while and was really just waiting for the extensions to coming out.

So now that I’ve made the switch I’ve got a few observations to make:

Persona’s are ugly; even uglier than the original themes for Firefox, if you can believe it possible. Essentially all they are, are images placed on the browsers chrome. Chrome themes are similar, but a little better thought out, the tabs and browser bars all have separate background colours to distinguish them from the background images or colours.
It’s faster. Firefox was regularly eating up 300mb+ after running for an hour or so. Chrome on the other hand takes up 150mb-, less than half of what Firefox was!*
No restarts for themes or extensions!
I love the Windows style task manager that lets you manage the browser and the extensions. If an extension or tab starts causing problems you simply press ~~Alt+~~Shift+Esc to bring up the task manager.

There are a few cons, I’m a devoted Ubiquity fan and the fact that I haven’t had it since Firefox 3.6 came out is sad; I still find myself pressing Ctrl+Space all. the. time. The browser doesn’t freeze up that often, but when it does, boy does it freeze. At least the task manager lets you take care of it right away. I don’t foresee myself switching back to Firefox any time soon. Not unless the developers make it into the slim, customizable browser that it was 6 years ago.

*I know, I know everyone’s experience is different, but here’s the thing: My computer is ancient. I’m running Photoshop CS2 (version 5 will be out soon, I believe) and my computer wheezes and gasps whenever I try to open that! Needless to say the new features that the developers were piling onto Firefox weren’t allowing me enough room to have a pile of memory-hogging extensions.

Formspring: Ask Me Anything

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:00:00 -0500

Delishuz nostalgia. Ask me any questions you want on Formspring page. And yes, I stole the idea from Sarai.

It's February Already?

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:25:46 -0500

Where does the time fly. I know I’ve been absent from Babblative since December and while I can’t say that I’m in the least bit remorseful for my absence, I can at least say that I’ve been working on content and a new design. I don’t know when you’ll see it, but you’ll see it eventually.

I’m on my sixth or seventh layout draft (I think this one’s a winner, I can feel it), the Textpattern tutorial is… closer to being done than it was and I have a few other things in the mix that I’m not going to mention right here right now.

Partial Christmas List

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:54:53 -0500

Pictures and a full list to follow, probably tomorrow if we ever get sun.

Oh and a few reviews, I got a lot of “as seen on TV” products this year.

Happy Holidays!

Oh penis tree, oh penis tree…

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:26:25 -0500

Oh penis tree, oh penis tree…

Sinkhole? No thanks, I already have one. The Simpsons reference...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:32:00 -0500

Sinkhole? No thanks, I already have one.

The Simpsons reference in the Bones episode “The Dwarf in the Dirt” was completely unexpected and totally appreciated. First we’re treated to Dan Castellanata and then on the x-ray board behind Nigel* is an x-ray of Homer’s head!

*Is that his name? I completely forgot it!

Holy Smut

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:48:36 -0500

Holy Smut:

Who would’ve thought?

Disney Princesses, Deconstructed

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:49:57 -0500

Disney Princesses, Deconstructed

Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:26:17 -0500

Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings:

It looks like your kindergarten gut reaction to kissing might have been correct after all: it really is sick. Or, more specifically, the practice is designed to spread sickness. British scientists say the human habit of kissing evolved for less-than-romantic reasons, but one that is nonetheless important to a healthy reproductive relationship: to spread germs.

Your First Textpattern Theme

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:31:45 -0500

Is coming back soon. I’ve already gotten the bulk of it ready to go, I’m hacking away at the files now.

Ravelry link I finished this a while ago, I haven’t...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:44:00 -0500

Ravelry link

I finished this a while ago, I haven’t bothered to weave in the ends or block it yet. I’m torn between leaving it and finishing it properly or just frogging it and knitting something else.

It was easy to understand, came with both written and charted instructions (charts are definitely my favourite) and was very familiar to me, having cast on and knitted, but not finished, three other shawls. The idea behind a triangular shawl is simple: The shawl is increased evenly, every row on the right side of the work, probably with a yarn over and appropriate decrease.

The main stitch pattern, the body of the shawl, was easy as pie. I didn’t like the fact that the designer neglected to include a garter stitch tab and I wish I’d thought of it before ripping back to redo the cast on seemed more trouble than it was really worth. You can’t see it in the photo, but the shawl sort of dips into the center. It’s fine if you like that look, but a good garter stitch tab would have blended better with the edge stitches.

My gripes lie mostly with the border edging, I don’t think that it blended all that well with the body of the shawl, at least not at first. I followed RiverPoet’s instructions on repeating rows 11/12 three times more. Imagine my frustration when I followed her instructions to a T, or so I thought, and it didn’t turn out! Instead of ripping back I decided to go with it and decreased three stitches on the third row (slip two as if to k2tog, k2tog, psso.) That evened everything out on the following rows and the extra rows gave it a sort of tulip appearance, don’t you think?

Ah well, the point is that it’s done. It was a total bitch to bind off, too.

Which Fingerless Glove Pattern Do You Like?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:44:00 -0500

I want to knit a pair of fingerless gloves. The only problem is I’m fickle, persnickety and can never seem to make up my mind about what pattern I’d like to knit next. If I had a lot of time, money and the inclination, I’d probably say fuck it and knit all three.

Unfortunately I do not have the time, money or the inclination to knit three different pairs of fingerless gloves just cause. So vote, please. I’m leaning towards Spirogyra myself, but the problem is that I packed away all of my old circulars a long time ago and I’m not sure where the hell they all are. My Denise interchangeable needles smallest size is a 3.75mm, the yarn is supposedly a worsted weight that looks rather thin to me (I know, do the WPI, wraps per inch, thing.) I’m going to check my gauge in a moment, but I’m not holding out much hope of finding four pairs of long circulars in the size that I need.

ul>

Fishtail Wristwarmers

Cottage City Mitts

Spirogyra

Edit: I completely fucked up and didn’t include the links, doh! The links are there and Spirogyra is definitely out. I checked my gauge and it’s too off and I can’t find any circs of an appropriate size and length. Bleh.

Book Recommendations?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:22:00 -0500

When I was younger my parents would read to me every night before bed, ten or so books then they’d leave them with me so that I could look at the pictures. I’d try my damnedest every night to squeeze as many readings as possible, but in spite of my very determined 3 year old self they resisted. The solution was clear: Learn to read.

I was one weird kid, I dreamed of being able to read to myself. Books opened up a whole new world where you could go anywhere and do anything. It might sound corny, but it’s true. Goofy, Pooh and Cinderella lived on in books past their movies and television shows. It was, and still is to some degree, a magical world and all I wanted was to be a part of it.

Of course, it’s easier said than done. So I’d pretend to read books, just holding them and looking at them, occasionally turning the page so that I’d look like a sophisticated young lady of the world. That wore thin pretty quickly, though, so I settled in and with my parent’s help I learned how to read.

By the time I entered puberty I had amassed a collection of around three thousand books. That’s not counting the ones in boxes and piles in my room, the basement and scattered around the house. I was fortunate enough to have the exclusive use of a small coat closet in the hall as my personal library. My father built the shelves out of skids and didn’t sand them. I got many a splinter from those shelves. And you know what the crazy part is? I miss them and that little coat closet.

It truly was an awesome feeling having your own library. You can organize them however you want, read them whenever you want and… well that’s it.

Back then I’d burn through huge amounts of books, one was never quite enough. The same is true of today, I’ll check five or six books from the library and finish them all to the tune of a book a day. Of course, they aren’t exactly what you’d call heavy reading, they’re romance novels.

(That’s not saying they aren’t any good, they are good! They’re the chick flicks of the literary world.)

I think that my problem is that I have a safe zone. I like romance, it’s happy and safe and familiar. Give me a nice HEA (Happily Ever After) and I’m in bliss. However, the sad truth is that I’m not really learning anything from these books and even though I love them, it’s time to branch out and explore other interests.

So I’m turning to you guys, what would you recommend?

Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:43:42 -0500

Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean:

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.

The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.

A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region’s future.

A Small Question

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:01:00 -0500

I wonder if Tumblr cuts the posts off in the feed. Let’s see…

Do they?

My Likes Are Now Public

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:54:00 -0500

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you’ll be able to see the posts I liked on Tumblr. The theme is Papercut and you can even have them yourself!

Pat Robertson Flips a Shit Over the Recently Passed Matthew Shepard Act

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:05:00 -0500

Pat Robertson Flips a Shit Over the Recently Passed Matthew Shepard Act:

Just found this blog in my Google Reader recommendations, this was the post that made me decide to subscribe.

In the above video Pat Robertson asks the question, “What’s gonna happen if someone preaches a sermon: ‘Homosexuality is a sin. Here’s what the Bible says. Here’s chapter and verse.’ And all of a sudden, somebody leaves that congregation and goes up, beats up on somebody who is a homosexual. Does that kick back on the pastor? Is he now guilty of a hate crime?”

Well, depending on the chapter and verse, yes. If the pastor spends a Sunday screaming about Leviticus 20:13 (“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”) and then one of the congregation slips out to the nearest gay bar and opens fire on the patrons, the pastor’s hate speech is a direct influence and a direct cause of the attack. And now there is the legal power to prosecute the pastor for his part in the attack.

Classic Cartman.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:52:00 -0500

Classic Cartman.

Halloween used to be a huge thing. Everyone got dressed up to...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:10:22 -0400

Halloween used to be a huge thing. Everyone got dressed up to wander the streets between 6-9pm and beg for free candy. The streets were always jam packed, no one ever drove their cars unless they had absolutely had to, and there was always lineups to get candy.

Not so now. Now the streets were practically deserted, hardly anyone came out to get free candy and hardly anyone was giving it out!

Halloween just isn’t what it used to be.