Four Island

Oh my goodness! So, yesterday, it was my birthday, and I was sitting around feeling sad and stuff and then I logged on to my diary to write a depressing post or something and I saw "UPGRADE TO WORDPRESS 3.0". Ignoring that run-on sentence, WORDPRESS 3.0 IS OUT!!!! On my birthday! Yes, yesterday was my birthday, everyone hug me. But, seriously, this was like a present or something. :P

So, I upgraded my diary to Wordpress 3.0 (which wasn't too difficult, just a standard Wordpress upgrade) and immediately noticed a difference in the administration panel. "What? Everything's gray now! What happened to my color scheme?" Well, as I just figured out, you can easily change your admin panel color scheme back to blue if you like by going to "Your Profile". In fact, I'm not sure I ever set my diary's admin panel to blue, so I may just be insane! lol O_O

Anyway, one of the more exciting things I was waiting for in Wordpress 3.0 was the unveiling of the new default theme, Twenty Ten! And is it a looker! whistles :P It is actually quite a pretty theme, with a nice header image (which you can change; there are some pretty presets there! Or you can upload one :P) and a nice sidebar (for once, the calendar widget looks GOOD :D). My only problem with the theme is that the text of the posts is a bit big, but I'm sure that I can change that by tweaking the stylesheet. :)

Do you know what is exciting? Apparently, you can now set your admin login/password DURING installation. How fancy! I can't wait to set up another Wordpress blog (which I seem to do all the time because I have no life) and not have to create a new user! :P Speaking of cool new features that I haven't used yet, have you heard? Wordpress MU and Wordpress have merged! Omg! Now you can host thousands of Wordpress blogs from one single Wordpress installation! How choclatey! :P I don't see how I'm possibly going to abuse that anytime soon! :P

Isn't this fun? There are many other new things that you can play with in Wordpress 3.0, SO GO CHECK THEM OUT :P. Anyway, Wordpress 3.0 is quite fun and I can't wait to see the various ways that I'm going to abuse all of the new power it holds by creating some god-awful Frankenwebsite. The last one tried to eat my children! Well, if I had any children. Imma... Imma post this now, okay? :P

I love it so when the Yes option and the No option get the same number of votes, because then I gain nothing from the poll! :P Anyway, here are the results:

Do my random English rants make you want to shoot me? Because.... there's more. :P OH GOD machine gun - 4 vote(s)! I love you anyway! hugs - 4 vote(s)! Another option - 1 vote(s)! Indifferent - 0 vote(s)!

I want to point out that while this week's poll may look random, it isn't. Guess what. I GOT AN IPOD TOUCH!!!! :D I love it dearly, and I want to see who else has one. So there. It doesn't infringe on my annual goal. :P Also, despite the name of the post, last week's poll wasn't random. :P

Gah, I seem to have neglected to post frequently this week again! I'm trying! :P I'm collecting ideas and stuff, but I've just been VERY lazy recently. It's quite annoying. Anyway, it's time for Caption'd!

Drugs And Fauns

Stranger Danger

Okay, so, um, hopefully I'll post more frequently this week. And hopefully you won't all stab me for continuing to post random English rants. Because, like last week's poll said, there's more. :P

HEY KIDS, IT'S ME AGAIN!!!! I'm feeling very English-angsty and I have that urge to throw stuff again, so it's time for another RANDOM ENGLISH RANT! Today's topic is LONELY ADVERBS. THOSE LONELY, MISUNDERSTOOD ADVERBS. (Why do I keep misspelling lonely as lovely? Well, adverbs are quite awesome. So they're LOVELY YET LONELY ADVERBS. We can work that into the script. It's okay, subconscious, I'm on your side.)

Nothing gets my "I THINK I'M GOING TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR WAR ON A FIVE YEAR OLD" up like "I didn't do that good on that quiz." NO, YOU DIDN'T DO "GOOD" ON THAT ENGLISH GRAMMAR QUIZ, JOHNNY. YOU FAILED IT. YOU WILL NOW BE DEPORTED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

Grammar lesson, kids. An ADVERB is a descriptive word, usually ending in a telltale "ly", that modifies verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. An ADJECTIVE, like "good", is a descriptive word used to modify nouns and pronouns. Now, let's look at that statement above again, shall we?

"I didn't do (verb) that good (adjective) on that quiz." What is modifying what? If you're an idiot, you may say that "good" is modifying "quiz", in which case the sentence would translate to "I didn't do that good quiz." Are you copulating with that quiz or talking to it? No, good tries to modify "do", or more specifically, how you did on that quiz. But adjectives can't modify verbs, can they?

NO THEY CAN'T.

Here comes my best friend, "well". Why? Because Samara Morgan lives there. No, really, because it's an adverb! Adverbs are lovely. (My subconscious is happy.) It's actually rather sad. Adverbs are far more important (in my opinion) than adjectives, yet they're often shifted off to the side when it comes to parts of speech. Adjectives get their names in headlines (FAT MAN FALLS OFF STEEP CLIFF ONTO IMPORTANT BUSINESSMAN) while adverbs have to be content with living in obituaries (Melinda Jones died peacefully in her sleep, though a chainsaw-wielding madman was just about to sneakily sneak into her room and murderously cut her head off.) Adverbs are great. Just embrace them.

Anyway, using adverbs, that sentence turns into "I didn't do that well on that quiz." HORRAY. I AM VERY HAPPY THAT YOU DIDN'T DO WELL ON THAT TEST BECAUSE IT IS FAR BETTER THAN NOT DOING GOOD ON THAT TEST. Seriously, you could use that as a double entendre because "good" can be used as a noun too, sometimes. "Johnny did good on his test? How, did he recycle it or something?" Loffle. (AHH THUNDER)

This is one of my most commonly heard transgressions in the English language. PEOPLE, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO ADD AN "LY" TO THE END OF YOUR WORDS? "I ran so fast the other day!" Okay, all of my examples so far have been irregular, but you get the point.

Oh god, I'm going to end up as an English teacher. And some kid is going to come in and complain that he did bad on his Math test and I'll throw a textbook at him. And I may possibly have to go to court for it, but if any of that happens, it'll happen on Four Island, which I am the sovereign leader of and have already created a law that allows abuse on the grounds of incorrect grammar. Except if I accidentally does it. That then does count not at all.

Though I sort of just lost all of my English teacher cred by starting a sentence with a conjunction. Oh well.

Wow, varied! And I found this very interesting. Ointment. What? Sorry, WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU.

Do you like it when I post more often? Yes! Everything is good! - 4 vote(s)! Randomness makes me feel ill. Post less, but more. - 3 vote(s)! I dunno. - 1 vote(s)! Indifferent - 0 vote(s)!

No, lol, I was listening to Frou Frou but really, I am very interested in that last week I posted so often and then I put up this poll and didn't post at all :P. Other than the random English rant that I'm afraid scared everyone away from the site :P. No, I know you people are busy, it's okay, just bring cookies when you come back, right? :)

On that particular attractive note, it's time for Caption'd! I think I'm going to post two today instead of one and see how it goes, okay? :)

Prophecy

Mind Reader

Yay! Anyway, hopefully I'll post more frequently this week and... yay! :D

Hey, look everybody! It's time for a Random English Rant! This is a segment in which I see something happen OVER AND OVER AGAIN, and then go a bit insane. THERE I GO AGAIN! ... ... ... ... AGAIN!!!!

Anyway, today's topic is on the fact that....

PREFORM. IS NOT. A WORD.

Well, it is, but it doesn't mean what you think.

Preform is commonly used by people who don't know better as a synonym of perform. In fact, it's probably a typo, but the users of said typo often don't know that it's incorrect. Le gaspez! I myself used to be frequently guilty of this horrible transgression. :P

To perform something is to bring something about. To preform something is to, as it sounds like, form something beforehand. I have never, ever, ever, ever, EVER heard the word "preform" used normally in context. :P So, don't use it! I PERFORMED THE ACT OF MURDERING EVERYONE WHO SAYS PREFORM. I PREFORMED A SWORD SO THAT I WOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO DO THE MURDERING WITH WHEN IT CAME TO THAT.

Sound easy? It is. Or it isn't. That really depends on your IQ. :P

Okay, I probably sound really rude now, so I'm going to leave before I get lynched. And remember, kids! Performing a play is good (as long as you get good reviews), but preforming a play (before you can get those silly copyright use approvals) can get you chased down Main Street by a torch-wielding mob! And we all know which one of those is better for the colon, don't we?

You people were quite split over this! :P In fact, I loved how half of you were extremely blunt! YAY :P

What was your favorite part of Randomlog, while it existed? Pink Panther - 0 vote(s)! Caption'd - 5 vote(s)! Random stuff - 0 vote(s)! Umm.... nothing - 5 vote(s)!

It seems like the only thing there worth retaining was Caption'd, which is coming up soon, so horray! Also, I didn't include My Life Is Happy in that poll, so I'm not quite sure if you like that, but anyway, yay for stuff!

Also, I'd like to mention something: OMG! Last week, I POSTED EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK! This is the first time I've do so all year! In fact, it's probably the first time I've done it since January 2009 :P. Horray! I am going to attempt to keep posting continuously because it's quite fun! Yay!

Anyway, for the the weekly Caption'd:

Hemorrhoids

I'm thinking of possibly posting two Caption'ds a week on Saturday rather than just one, if you think only one a week is too little. What do you think? Comment! :P

Wow, this certainly has been a posty week! I'm going to bring this lovely week to a close with another musical review! The last one was rather fun to do and there's this new album I've been listening to that I've just been itching to force everyone to listen to.

Can you guess who it is? Interestingly enough, the hint is the OTHER suggestion from Blogging About (last time was Haunted by Poe, which has to do with House Of Leaves). That's right, Imogen Heap. But, not really. Sort of. I'm reviewing the album Details by Frou-Frou!

Frou-Frou is a musical duo consisting of Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth. They only released one album (between Imogen Heap's first and second solo albums) called Details, way back in 2002. What I find odd, however, is that my Imogen Heap-fangirlness hadn't pushed me into listening to this album sooner. Quite odd. I actually knew a bit of their work, too: they covered the song "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler (which was placed on the Shrek 2 Soundtrack), which I liked before I even knew who Imogen Heap was, and I started listening to "Psychobabble" off this album at some point last year, but for some reason neglected to listen to the rest of the album.

I think the reason for this is that when I thought of Frou-Frou, the song "Let Go" came into my head. Which is odd, considering that I only the first line of the chorus: "So let go, so let go". For some reason, that line really annoyed me any it probably put me off listening to the album. I finally listened to it, though, a few weeks ago and was so very happy I did. It was like Imogen Heap releasing a new album because, really, this IS her. And it is awesome.

So, like last time, I'm going to make a list of all of the tracks on the album and rate them one at a time. However, this time I'm not going to try to "interpret" them, like I did last time, seeing how badly I failed at that. :P Anyway, here we go!

1. Let Go - As stated earlier, I used to really despise this song. I really don't know why. Perhaps it was because I only knew the first line of the chorus. Anyway, once I started listening to the entire thing, it quickly became one of my favorite songs on the album. The entire thing is rather mysterious and exciting and the last two lines of the chorus (It's so amazing here. It's alright / 'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown) are sure to bounce around in your head for days. 5 stars
2. Breathe In - Another favorite of mine, this song, unlike Let Go, is rather bubbly and effervescent. The chorus is amazing, easy to remember and will, like the "da dayum dun dey" hook that sneaks in towards the end, keep you singing this song for a while. 5 stars
3. It's Good To Be In Love - This song enters with a foot-tapping beat similar to "Get You Off" by Fefe Dobson. Next enters Immi with some beautiful lyrics, which get even better during the pre-chorus and chorus, where the vibrant background comes to a crescendo. The song comes to an end with some vocals, some well-played instruments and a classic fade-out. A great song. 4 stars
4. Must Be Dreaming - An (appropriately) surreal song with verses that give a sense of running out of time, but an abrupt change of direction when it comes to the choruses, which are undoubtedly upbeat and high. Amazing song. 5 stars
5. Psychobabble - As stated earlier, this is the first song I heard off of this album after it was suggested to me by Pandora some time late last year. Because of this, I've heard it quite a lot and, as a result, am sadly quite tired of it. However, with it's dark themes and engaging music, I can't deny that it's a good song. 3 stars
6. Only Got One - A chirpy song about living your life. Shoot, I "interpreted" it. Anyway, an okay song with a repetitive chorus which really engages you at the second verse onward with the supporting beat and the hook "Liiiiife!" 3 stars
7. Shh - A somewhat dark song with jumpy, upbeat verses and opposingly mysterious, yet beautiful, choruses that draw you into the song with their amazing music and equally amazing vocals (Don't make a sound / shh, listen). This song is also similar to "Wild" by Poe in that about half of it is song, and the other half is instrumental with effervescent vocals thrown in. My favorite song on the album. 5 stars
8. Hear Me Out - A moderately slow song that picks up at with it's singable chorus. I say "moderately slow" as if it were an insult, but I rather like the occasional slow song. 4 stars
9. Maddening Shroud - A very upbeat song that relies less on Immi's electonica music style than the rest of the album. The song is saved, however, by the addictingly singable lyrics. 4 stars
10. Flicks - A very electronic song, in contrast with the previous song, that is instead hurt by the fact that I really don't know what's going on in it. 2 stars
11. The Dumbing Down Of Love - Frou-Frou closes the album with a slow, quiet song backed with a piano rather than synthesizers and beats. While not quite my style, the song is quite beautiful and the chorus does have a quality to it that I find quite good. 2 stars

Yay! That was fun! Anyway, if we average the scores together, Details by Frou-Frou rates 3.8 of 5 stars! Wow, that's the exact same score I gave to Haunted by Poe last time. Interesting.

Anyway, Details by Frou-Frou is an amazing and I really recommend to everywhere, especially those who share my taste in music (you know, the OMG IMOGEN HEAP taste :P). I hope you've gained something from this article! Yay! Bye! :D

Yesterday's post on stupid spammers inspired me, for some reason, to do something I've been wanting to do for a very long time: clean out my Gmail inbox. I've had Gmail for about a year and a half now and I've accumulated nearly 2000 emails in my inbox. It just doesn't look good. It doesn't look good at all.

I remember reading a while ago (though my Google searches turn up nothing now) that a good Gmail strategy is to get everything out of your inbox. Like a traditional Inbox at an office, your email inbox is a place where new and action-requiring emails live. Once they've been dealt with, they shouldn't be there anymore.

I didn't simply want to Archive everything, though. Wouldn't it still be unorganized, but rather, just out of the way? Isn't that like cleaning your room by shoving all of your dirty clothes under the bed so that they're out of sight, but not quite out of mind? So, instead, I decided that I'd create a few labels ("Friends", "Four Island", "Facebook"...) and then, working back from the oldest part of my inbox, label emails under all the appropriate labels. Then, I simply archived my entire inbox. There goes my garbage! However, unlike the garbage under your bed, my email was sorted and I could simply click on "Friends" to see emails from my friends instead of having to search through "All Mail".

This was good. So, I've formed a new policy for email checking. Here we go:

1. First of all, and this is fairly specific, but if you use the Google Mail Checker Plus extension for Chrome or any other similar program that not only checks your inbox for new email every once in a while, but also shows you what the new email is, disable it. If you don't want to disable it, at least configure it so that it doesn't show you new email. Make it send you to gmail.com instead. The best way to organize your email is to make sure that you are fully focused on the task, rather than simply waving your hand at something that pops up.
2. Second, create labels for yourself. If you have specific types of email that you get regularly, like emails from your friends or emails from annoying social networking sites, create labels for them. If possible, also create filters that can automatically assign new incoming email to one of your labels. However, if you do this, don't make the filter tell these incoming emails to skip the inbox. You still want all new email in your inbox, ready for you to deal with them.
3. When you have new email, go to your inbox and click the email at the bottom. You should work through your email one at a time to ensure, once again, that you aren't distracted.
4. Read the email. Does it fit under one of your labels? If so, label it. Is it garbage/spam? Mark it as so. Does it require a reply or other further action? If it requires a reply, try writing it right then. If that's not possible, or if the email requires further action, then simply move on to your next email. If you are done with the email, though, Archive it. This will move it out of the inbox and out of your way.

If you follow these steps, not only will your Gmail inbox be deliciously clean, but you will know that the items in your inbox actually require something to be done to them. Isn't that great? I hope you've enjoyed this little mini-howto as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Really, I haven't written one of these for a long time! :P

I've written on my blog about spam before, but then I was really just making fun of some pathetic spammer's attempt at spam. Oh wait, that's exactly what I'm going to do now. Oh well. :P

As some of you know, I use Gmail as my primary email service. My first email address, though, was through Yahoo! Mail. Yes, I've now realized that Yahoo! is terrible, but I keep the address as an alternative address because my Gmail account is really my personal address. Anyway, I was checking my Yahoo! address the other day because I was expecting some email when I decided to check the Spam box. My Yahoo! address seems to get a lot of weird spam, so I thought I'd go ahead and scope it out.

Wow. I have seem some weird things today. Let's start off with a puzzle. Tell me what you see wrong with this picture:

Yes, I find it quite humorous that the email is clearly from someone named Kevin, yet the subject line says "My name is Mariya". Lolwhut. Here's another one:

Who are you? Nicole or Elena? Either way, you're some stranger on the Internet emailing random people. These emails are best seen through when you're not even the correct target demographic. It's pretty funny. :P

Here's an odd thing I've noticed happen several times with spam at my Yahoo! address:

My Yahoo! address is not ".@yahoo.com". Would that even be possible? But I seem to receive a lot of spam that doesn't seem intended for me: the other two spam emails I showed, plus most of the spam I receive at that address, is sent to a slight variation of my address, but is, for some reason, sent to me instead.

That third picture there is from a 419 email, too. Again with the incorrect demographic. Seriously, I am waiting for some 8 year old with an email address to reply to one of those with "Um, okay, I like money, but I don't have a bank account and mommy told me not to talk to strangers so um I guess bye".

Yeah, this post is pretty weird, but I just saw those emails today and wanted to rant. Really, spammers are so stupid! Example:

Is that even English‽ While that is extremely stupid, that's not really what I meant. Well, it sort of is. What I mean is that spammers don't seem to even try to seem valid anymore. The majority of the Internet know what spam looks like and some, gasp, even know to avoid it! I mean, does spam actually do anything for spammers anymore? What with spam filters and users with an IQ over 5 that exist nowadays?

There's also the fact that, due to the Age of Social Networking, email is largely dying out. I don't say this happily, I relish in email. I get giddy when Gmail Checker Plus pops up with a new message, most of the time only to become disappointed when I see that it's from formspring and it's notifying me about a "newly" answered question that I saw 5 days ago. The death of email isn't a topic for this post, however, though I would like to talk about it at some point.

Really, I'm just ranting on how spammers are stupid and often times, the only reason I would ever see a spam email is because I voluntarily go into the Spam box with the intention of making fun of the idiots that spam people. The only possible use I can see for spam these days is DoS, or possibly scamming stupid people with no spam filters on. Regardless, spam is stupid. And that's the end of my rant! :P

The dissolving of Randomlog seems to have resulted in quite a bit of fallout. We continue, today, with another explanation-y post. One day, on Randomlog, an Uncategorized post was published entitled "Get Along Little Moose" accompanied by an extremely strange audio clip. I'll reproduce that here. :P

Click to listen to Get Along Little Moose

It's hilariously weird. For those of you that couldn't really understand it, here are the lyrics:

Get get get along Get get get along Get get get along little moose {x4}

Get along little moose You move way too stupidly We have to get to Mamatown in the north of Idaho! We have 4 head of nose To move way out West But you're moving too slow You are such a pervert!

Get Along Little Moose

What on earth is it? Is it a preview of The Gates Of Sleep's new song? Um, no. It's actually (once again) the result of a combination of MadLibs and my insanity. The other day, I was video-chatting with my cousin and we were doing MadLibs. No, we weren't Pink Panthering, we were putting in randomly insane words in each field. One MadLib I did was called "Westward Ho!" It was.... odd, to say the least, even disregarding my MadLibbial additions to it. It was about two insane children who thought they were cowgirls and were singing songs and stuff. (No, I'm exaggerating, seriously! :P)

The song they sang ended up as "Get along little moose, you move way too stupidly...". In a bout of insanity (where HAVEN'T we heard that before?), I opened Audacity, put the song though a Text-To-Speech program, added some background music, played around a bit with the vocals and.... there we are! Aren't I weird? :P