Four Island

OH MY GOD, it's time for the judging! And..... SALLY COHN WON! YAY :D. :P

Who do you think should have gone on in this week's America's Got Talent? Sally Cohn - 1 vote(s)! Sally Cohn - 2 vote(s)! Sally Cohn - 1 vote(s)! Sally Cohn - 2 vote(s)!

Anyway, I think this week was marginally better than last week. Actually, it was a lot better because I actually posted a longish not-insane post on time-ish. And I'm on time with this post too. Anyway, I'm NOT AT CAMP ANYMORE YAY LIQUIDS and I will be back in New York shortly! WHICH MEANS YOU GET TO READ MORE INSANE THINGS FROM ME YAY- shot

Okay, ignoring that, IT'S TIME FOR YOUR WEEKLY CAPTION'D FIX! :D

Change In "Style"

Hissy Fit

YAY! Anyway, see you next week PEOPLES. COFFEE.

Sorry for the Smiley-worthy pun in the title, but it's here! Another music review by meee! :D And it's coming from basically nowhere: We Are Born by Sia! Let me explain a bit. I am obsessed with Last.fm because I am insane and one day, it suggested that I listen to Sia because I liked Imogen Heap. Well, I mentally noted that, but didn't do anything about it. A few days/weeks later, I was on my iPod when I saw an album called "We Are Born" by "Sia" in the new releases list and I remembered what Last.fm had said. A few days later, while in Australia, I walked into a Borders and heard a couple of songs from the album playing and quickly changed my tact (I had walked in to buy a book and to get a plastic bag) and purchased the album.

Yeah, by the end of two weeks, Sia had entered my top eight on last.fm and actually, as of today, she is now number three with 215 listens. Yes, I'm insane, but I'm not the only one because after not being able to prevent myself from singing a few of the songs while around my friends, two of my friends also became obsessed with it and I lent them the CD. :P SHARING IS CARING- shot

Anyway, this is one of the best albums I have listened to in quite a while and I'm really expecting it to get a good score on my review. Let's do it, then, okay? :P

1. The Fight - The album starts with a chorus of children chanting the album's title and cheering. Sia enters with her distinctive vocals and everything flows very nicely to the glowingly bright chorus. It's a bit difficult to sing in the car (We made it through the darkness to the liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!), but it will doubtless stay in your head all day. 5 stars
2. Clap Your Hands - This song is Sia's only official radio single so far from We Are Born and originally, I didn't like it so much. My favorite part, though short, is definitely the pre-chorus, where the mood of the song darkens a bit and Sia's bright vocals dip into a short ballad on misery. Soon, however, the song lights up again with the chorus, which really has grown on me. 4 stars
3. Stop Trying - One of my favorite songs on the album (and one of the songs that snagged my friends as well), Stop Trying immediately hooks you in by starting out with a dampened version of the unforgettable chorus. It comes back later with spirit later and after hearing it 6 times, you won't be able to stop singing it. I see the song as a plea to stop trying to be someone else because people love you already. 5 stars
4. You've Changed - What's interesting about this song is that is appears to be sending a message that completely contradicts the previous song. Regardless, Sia's bright vocals and a toe-tapping background track will keep you coming back to listen. 5 stars
5. Be Good To Me - I won't hide it, nearly every album (except Speak For Yourself by Imogen Heap and It's Not Me, It's You by Lily Allen) has a dud track. Granted, it's not horrible, and in fact, just listening to it now is making me like it a bit more. Anyway, it's a slow ballad fueled by an almost angry, yet broken Sia. It starts out pretty well with a soothing, yet captivating background track, however, as you get into the song, Sia starts yelling a bit more which just doesn't sound that great from her. 3 stars
6. Bring Night - Like nearly every album has a dud track, nearly every album has a standout and Bring Night is the clear winner of Best Song Of The Album. It begins dark and low with Sia almost muttering the easily to memorize verses and, before you know it, EXPLODES into the chorus which are as cheery and as beautiful as they are thankfully easy to remember (Chase your shadow 'til the sun goes down!). Then, Sia finishes the chorus off with a warbling cry before sinking back into the next verse. But don't worry, the chorus comes back again twice. Bring the night on. You could dance to this song just as easily as you could to any Lady GaGa song. My favorite song on the album, and most certainly the one that hooked my friends. 5 stars
7. Hurting Me Now - An upbeat song with doubtlessly darker undertones, Hurting Me Now is a song about someone who hurts you without even knowing it. Like pretty much every other song so far, the chorus really stays with you. 5 stars
8. Never Gonna Leave Me - Another of my favorite songs from the album. Never Gonna Leave Me starts with more of Sia's upbeat vocals and music before launching into the fast-paced chorus (Now that I've taken your love from above, you're here and you're never gonna leave me!) which, dare I say it again, is bound to get stuck in your head. Oh, what else can I say? LISTEN TO IT. :P 5 stars
9. Cloud - This song starts out very dark and gloomy, like the title of the song. However, Sia soon breaks out into the sun with the beautiful, meaningful chorus (I am a dark cloud swelling with raiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!). You know what I'm going to say. Sing it in the car, folks. 5 stars
10. I'm In Here - We Are Born is mainly upbeat; though that is not without exceptions. I'm In Here is inherently depression, yet beautiful and though it may make you feel sad, it's quite singable. There's also a Piano Vocal version on the CD version of the album, so if you like to play the piano, it may be worth trying to learn this song. 5 stars
11. The Co-Dependant - Returning to the land of upbeat songs, The Co-Dependant is about someone who is so deeply in love that they ignore their partner's faults. It's quite good. Oh, just listen to it, I'm turning into a broken record. :P 4 stars
12. Big Girl Little Girl - Okay, the first time I listened to We Are Born, I was on an airplane. To Australia. Yeah, and it was long and painful and I listened to the album because I thought it would be awesome. It was, but by the end of the album, I was sort of falling asleep and I sort of missed out on the last few songs. Because of this, I didn't really appreciate Big Girl Little Girl (or Oh Father) that much until I started listening to the songs with my friends and I realized that this song is really quite awesome. I'm not going to go rant about the yummy upbeat chorus and all because you can see it coming; let's skip to the end of the song. There's a beautiful, slow repeated block of song that you really have to listen to (You know with every cruel word that you utter / That you bury yourself even deeper every time...). 5 stars
13. Oh Father - This song is the only unoriginal song on Sia's album as it is actually a cover of an old Madonna song. After listening to Sia's beautiful rendition of the song a few times, I decided to listen to the original for comparison and I'm sorry but it doesn't hold up in the least compared to Sia's version. It's so beautifully done and Madonna's is so.... fake? I don't know, it just feels fake in the wake of Sia's heartfelt version. Okay, just.... just listen to the whole album, okay? :P 4 stars

Wow. This is just amazing. If we average my ratings together, We Are Born gets a 4.2 out of 5 stars. That's much higher than the ratings for my other albums. Yeah, this album is good. Go listen to it. Lol, sorry I'm so braindead in this post but I'm a bit busy and a bit insane about other things. LISTEN TO WE ARE BORN! Now. :P

Horray! People actually care about what I write! It's a shock! I never knew! Yeah, um, read the results:

Do my music reviews actually make you want to listen to the music? BUT OF COURSE hums Let Go - 3 vote(s)! WHAT? NO! - 2 vote(s)! You.... review music? - 3 vote(s)! Indifferent - 1 vote(s)!

Yes, I'M SORRY ABOUT THIS WEEK. I HAVE BEEN A FAILURE. THROW FRUIT AT ME. Yes, I know, I'm horrible. But I'm going to be pulling excuses out of thin air again. Yes, IT'S NOT MIDNIGHT YET IN MY TIMEZONE! Please dun kill me! :P Besides, I warned that this month would be a bit wavy. Sorry! Next month will be better! I'm also sorry that I haven't posted my music review that I've been promising yet. I've written most of it, so you may be able to expect it this week! :P

And as for this week's poll, well, it was for the lulz. Sort of. I was being forced to watch America's Got Talent and I saw Sally Cohn, a ~70 year old hand-whistler and she was so heart-meltingly sweet and the act was actually good. Lol, I know I'm a big softy (sometimes), but it sort of killed me when she didn't go through, so I made this poll! Yes, please laugh at me. :P

Anyway, here's this week's Caption'd posts:

Unidentified Globs Of Goooo!

Offensive Odor

So, this week will probably be as bad as last week, but hopefully not! And remember, whatever you do, make sure you vote for Sally Cohn in this week's poll! :P

Let me start off by saying that I don't like soccer. In fact, I don't like sports at all (unless you count competitive typing (98 WPM, YEAH! :P)), but even I know about....

THE VUVUZELAS.

Apparently, they're annoying.

Some of you may be lolling right now, but it's not funny! Those poor people sitting in the stands, trying to watch some stupid ball sport should be pitied! What, the people who don't like vuvuzelas? Heck no, I know a vuvuzela-hater that owes me five bucks. They can go eat pasta with NO BUTTER for all I care.

I mean the poor people who like vuvuzelas! It's so sad to see it happen. Because, they're everywhere. That old lady who walks down the street by the side of the supermarket every day at 2pm? SHE'S A VUVUZELOR! That toddler who pees in your petunias every five minutes? A VUVUZELOR! That high school junior that lives across the street from you? Not a vuvuzelor, but he's a pervert, so you can go stab him if you wish. But you get my point. These poor people have been INFECTED with the CURSE of believing that vuvuzelas are ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

I'm sorry you had to see that. My imaginary cat jumped on my hard drive and ate a cookie. As a result, I can't tell you exactly how the vuvuzelor virus works. BUT BEWARE. Next time you are walking down the street and someone is internally bleeding because they just ripped their larynx out with their vuvuzela, DON'T GET TOO CLOSE! You could catch the virus from their disease-ridden instrument! Or you could lose your aural sense, which would also be pretty bad, BUT NOT AS!

So, buyer beware and welcome to Grammatown. Stay away from vuvuzelas, because otherwise, I'll write another weird story like this. And next time, it'll be about you, your mom and your embarrasing foot rash. Oh-yeah. Pokemon.

The results of this poll have been largely inconclusive due to the fact that not a lot of people have iOS 4 or even an iPod touch/iPhone. However, it seems that the people who so largely like it, and the problems I had with it are slowly disappearing (new versions of Byline and Palringo!), so yay!

How has iOS 4 been to you? Nice, yo - 4 vote(s)! CRASH - 2 vote(s)! I... I don't have it! - 5 vote(s)! Indifferent - 1 vote(s)!

Okay, sorry about the rush again, but due to my current circumstances, I have to use my iPod touch to use the Internet, which I billow ends because I have s big post planned for this week. Anyway, time for Caption'd:

Abstinence Police

Regret

OH MY GOD THIS ONE ANNOYS ME VERILY. Okay, so, do you have any younger siblings or sapient pets that have a VERY LOOSE GRASP ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE? I actually have a couple of those (guess which) and while they are very good as a source of content for my RANDOM ENGLISH RANTs, their vehement denial that their English is incorrect makes me want to take up bulldozing and drop a mastodon on their rooms. Here is their latest English horror that makes me cry:

**Starla**: None of your friends have email?
**Younger Sibling Or Sapient Pet**: All of my friends don't believe in Internet.
*** Starla** starts screaming and shooting
**Starla**: NONE OF YOUR FRIENDS BELIEVE IN INTERNET. NONE NONE DOOMSDAY HAS FALLEN RUN FOR YOUR LIVES- *shot*

While that is a bit exaggerated, my point is sort of clear. While combining "all" and a negative verb like "don't" may actually be grammatically correct as I cannot currently find anything on it, IT SOUNDS QUITE HORRIBLE. JUST SAY NONE. JUST SAY NONE. JUST LIKE YOU WOULD SAY NO TO DRUGS. JUST SAY NONE. IT'S A FEWER NUMBER OF WORDS! ISN'T THAT BETTER OR SOMETHING? JUST SAY NONE. SAY IT NOW.

Here are some practice questions to test your new knowledge. If the sentence is incorrect, correct it, otherwise, write "Correct."

1. All of my friends hate you.
2. None of those potatoes have been washed recently.
3. Coach Z looks fat in that photo.
4. All of those tapes must give us dogs.

Okay, I couldn't bring myself to type THE INCORRECTION, regardless of the fact that I did earlier in that semi-fabricated conversation I had with my younger sibling or sapient pet. Anyway, I hope that by now, I've successfully established myself as a prescriptivist. Thank you for your time.

Lol, fairly varied response to this question, but the resounding opinion is NO! WE HAVEN'T AN INKLING OF YOUR OMNIPUS! :P Whut.

Does Ubuntu 10.04 annoy you too? WHY YES IT VERILY DOES - 2 votes! Um... no... - 0 votes What on earth is that? - 3 votes Indifferent - 4 votes

Yes, anyway, I'm still in Australia and I don't have a very reliable Internet connection (this was typed painstakingly on an iPod), so I'm just going to have to go to Caption'd now. Oh, and you should expect another CD review to come soon :P

Pizza Delivery

Public Reaction

Okay, these appear to be becoming regular, lol :P. Anyway, today's topic is on ABUSED-AS-A-CHILD COMMAS. No, seriously, I mean COMMAS THAT ARE USED INCORRECTLY OR NOT AT ALL. Some examples:

Notice that when the orb in motion comes in contact with a stationary orb, it reduces the counter on the stationary orb by 1. Once an orb's counter reaches 0 it explodes and is removed from play, and you receive 1 point for doing so. This is the only way to earn points.

Jay Is Games

Read that bolded part out loud. Seriously. Is there no pause after the zero? Replace the number with a word and it'll become clearer. "Once an orb's counter reaches zero it explodes." There should be a pause in there because "Once an orb's counter reaches zero" is like the cause and "it explodes" is the result. "Once an orb's counter reaches zero, it explodes." Aw, how lovely. Here's an example of the opposite:

Every widget is derived from GtkWidget. This means, changes to the properties of GtkWidget will effect all widgets. Furthermore many other widgets have "parent widgets". For example properties of GtkButton will also be applied to GtkCheckButton unless it is explicitly stated otherwise.

Gnome Live!

That pause between "this means" and "changes to the properties of GtkWidget will effect all widgets" is ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY!!!! OH MY GOD! brain explosion I'm very sorry, I'm just VERY easily annoyed by what I consider poor English, which may also be considered perfectly normal English by those who aren't insane. Who? Oh, and by the way, it's "affect", not "effect". Pwned.

Yes, Pillowcase Season 3! This poll was good, except for one person who OMG VOTED NO?!?!?!?!? HOW DARE YOU!??!?!? :P

Did you like Pillowcase Season 3? YES hugs - 3 vote(s)! Nah, it was a bust like Season 2 - 1 vote(s)! Season 3 is over?!?!?! - 2 vote(s)! Indifferent - 0 vote(s)!

So, guess what peoples? I AM IN AUSTRALIA. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. It also happens to be Sunday. I didn't have Internet access yesterday and I freaked out when I realized that today was Sunday, but then I remembered that it's still Saturday in America! I'm saved! :P Anyway, here's this week's Caption'ds:

Hypocrisy

Rocket Feet

Anyways, I am very happy to be in Australia, though I am worried about if I will be able to keep up posting once a week, due to my limited Internet access. Hopefully it'll all work out. :)

iOS 4 came out! About two hours after yesterday's post was posted, I believe. Yes. It took another half an hour to download and install the update, but it was pretty much worth it. Check out it's awesomeness!

Home Screen Wallpapers These look REALLY NICE. Seriously! The default ones look really boring in the options menu, but when you put them on, most of them look really nice! I chose the fifth row, second column. The one with the shades of blue. It looks nice!

Multitasking As I ranted about yesterday, this has been a bit of a disappointment because apps have to be updated to support it, but I have seen some of its capability because Wordpress has been updated to support fast app switching! I just switched out and then back in and IT WAS IN THE SAME PLACE!!!! :P Anyway, I just really hope that Byline and Palringo get updated for iOS 4 because that would be awesome :P.

Omg Problems Speaking of Byline, I think the current version conflicts with iOS 4 or something because it now crashes randomly, which is really annoying. Meh!

iBooks OMG! iBooks is awesome and I never thought I would say that because I'm really a "real book" kind of person, just like I'd rather purchase CDs in the store than online, but iBooks is cool because there is a fairly nice selection of free books that you can get that you can just read when you're bored and you don't have a book on you! As we all know, Winnie The Pooh by A. A. Milne (but not the sequel) is available for free (and I'm a huge Winnie The Pooh fan, seriously :D), but there are also some other good books like Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol and The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm having fun! :P (Though I do like to make fun of the large number of names I recognize in the free list from Social Studies class like Adam Smith and Karl Marx and John Locke, lol :P)

Orientation Lock This is very useful. If you're laying down and you want to read your iPod, but it keeps changing orientation, what do you do? Double press the home button, swipe to the left and tap the lock button! Now it's locked in portrait mode! :D It's very useful, but one thing that annoys me a bit is that you can only lock in portrait mode, not landscape. Meh.

Folders Folders are pretty cool. I have so much more space now! :P And it's pretty cool, if you put two apps that have a number on them (like notifications) in one folder, the folder will have a number that is the sum of the numbers inside it! WOW I COULD HAVE WORDED THAT BETTER! :P One thing that annoys me, though, is that the icons for the folders are a bit ugly. It's just a black square with smaller versions of the contained icons. It could've looked better, that's all I'm saying.

Anyway, enough about iOS 4. It's quite awesome and I look forward to my favorite apps coming out with multitasking ability, but there's something else I have to rant about. Remember yesterday when I told a story about how I had to maintain an old version of iTunes on my virtual machine so I could sync my iPod? And how I thought that iOS 4 was out because iTunes 9.2 was out? Yeah, I have come to realize exactly what iTunes 9.2 does, and the thought did cross my mind sometime yesterday, but I dismissed it, hoping that it wasn't true.

It was true. You need iTunes 9.2 to be able to sync with iOS 4. Ouch. Anyway, I have been spending a horribly long time converting my VirtualBox virtual machine to a VMWare one and IT WORKED. iTunes 9.2 worked! I don't know exactly what's wrong with VirtualBox (and I did like it better, VMWare seems a bit slow to me), but I am happy that I can now sync my iPod.

One last thing. While I am happy that I can now sync with iTunes, I did mention yesterday that I would be very happy if I could sync with Banshee. Well, guess what! Someone spent a week hacking Banshee and apparently got libgpod to work, which includes iPhone/iPod touch support! WOOT! It's not out yet, but you can read about it here: http://monotorrent.blogspot.com/2010/06/hackweek-v.html. I hope it comes out soon and that it's as awesome as possible! :)