First Impression is Everything

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Starcraft 2 came out last week on both the Mac and Windows simultaneously. Great news! (If you don’t know, I hate rebooting into Windows for the games I barely play.)

Aside from the performance disparity between platforms, Blizzard needs to polish off the rough edges on the MacOS version.

If you got the game from Battle.net, you’ll have found that the Installer for Mac doesn’t work, unless you chmod a few files. That is pretty sloppy. And I didn’t find the solution to why I couldn’t get the installer working on the known issues list, a giant oversight.

Also, they didn’t include proper strings for their Updater program

And the window controls on the launcher is kind of a joke. (The little chiclets on the middle top left of the window)

But the good news is that they’re using Growl. Steam doesn’t use Growl. Instead it’s some terrible Growl-like notification system.

The Tedious Way

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Earlier this week, I needed to make an animated gif. Needed. If you have ImageReady, it is pretty easy to do. But what do you do if you don’t have ImageReady?

Well I’m here for you and Future Raishad

First things

  1. Get a Mac. (This is for the next step)
  2. Install MacPorts
  3. Install gifsicle (Really, you don’t need a Mac for gifsicle. But since you already got one, let’s continue and you can thank me later.)
  4. Gather your source images. It will be helpful to name them sequentially
  5. Use gifsicle to create your animated gif
    gifsicle image*.gif > animated.gif
  6. Adjust the looping
    gifsicle -l animated.gif > looping.gif
  7. Adjust the delay
    gifsicle -d 30 looping.gif > finished.gif

After all that hard work, you’ll have something as brilliant as this

Disney’s California Adventure Soundtrack

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This last week I was out in Sunny California for Comic-Con 2010. I created 2 playlists. One sort of about California and a more general road trip mix.

The first playlist, I put some thought in to it. I imagined I was a guest on Adam Buxton’s Big Mixtape and I would have to talk about/justify my tracks. For the second playlist, I just threw some stuff together out of the cast offs from the first playlist and stuff that would be fun to listen to while driving.

Playlist 1: reLAX

  1. Phantom Planet – California: There is no other way to start a playlist about California. “Welcome to the O.C., bitch”
  2. The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing: Doesn’t everyone surf in California?
  3. Beck – Burro: Beck’s a twofer, a famous LA musician and a famous Scientologist. This is the mariachi version of “Jackass”
  4. Morrissey – First of the Gang to Die: I’ve always heard that Morrissey has a large Hispanic fanbase. I believe this song was for them.
  5. Bran Van 3000 – Drinking in L.A.: This is a terrible song, but it is sorta catchy and the title fits.
  6. Green Day – Burnout: Green Day’s Dookie was my first CD and my first exposure to the early 90s Californian punk-pop
  7. N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton: N.W.A. is part of Southern California musical history.
  8. Thomas Rusiak – Hiphopper: And as a result of their success, you had the appropriation of hip hop culture by pretty much everyone.
  9. Public Enemy – Burn Hollywood Burn: These next set of songs are about Hollywood.
  10. Hole – Celebrity Skin
  11. The Boo Radleys – Wish I Was Skinny
  12. The Rentals – California: Before it was recorded as “Barcelona”, it was known as “California” in demo form
  13. Katy Perry – California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg): Someone had to do it. And it helps date this compilation. I could’ve only put these tracks together in the Summer of 2010
  14. The Beach Boys – California Girls: Along with the “inspiration”
  15. Tullycraft – Wild Bikini
  16. Scala – Under the Bridge (the Red Hot Chili Peppers)
  17. Young MC – Know How
  18. Art Brut – Moving to L.A.: I would suggest re-recording this song as “Moving to San Diego”. San Diego is perfect.
  19. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – California Soul
  20. Ice Cube – It Was a Good Day
  21. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet – Having an Average Weekend: As well as being the title song for Kids in the Hall, this track is an example of surf rock.
  22. The Fall – L.A.: The first time I’ve ever used The Fall in a compilation. Remember this moment.
  23. Vangelis – Tears in Rain: From the greatest movie about LA, Blade Runner. The 2nd greatest movie about LA, is of course LA Story.

Playlist 2: Calilocomotion

  1. The Kinks – Drivin’
  2. The Clash – Train in Vain
  3. Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix)
  4. Jamie T – Chaka Demus
  5. Denim – American Rock
  6. The Beta Band – Smiling
  7. 달파란, 장영규 – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
  8. Slow Club – Giving Up on Love
  9. Matt & Kim – Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare
  10. The Associates – Party Fears Two
  11. Blink 182 – Josie
  12. Bush – Machinehead
  13. Ozma – Natalie Portman
  14. The Teenagers – Starlett Johansson<
  15. Girls – Lust for Life
  16. Archie Bell & the Drells – Tighten Up
  17. Delphic – Counterpoint
  18. Blondie – Dreaming: For a couple of days last month, this was the greatest song in the world.
  19. The Research – Lonely Hearts Still Beat the Same
  20. Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer
  21. Kenickie – Punka
  22. Afroman – Because I Got High

Lucky Rabbit’s Foot?

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On October 19th, Frightened Rabbit will be playing The Loft in Dallas.

Great news, right?

Well, for you. But not for me. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class this fall. So I’ll be missing Frightened Rabbit again.

For those keeping track at home, this will be the fourth time this year I’ll be missing Frightened Rabbit.

I don’t think it was ever meant to be. Surely, me seeing Frightened Rabbit live will trigger an extinction level event.

Here’s some tour video to keep myself warm

Beaten By The Best

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Joachim Low played Glastonbury on Friday and defeated England on Sunday. It’s been a busy weekend.

Now that England is out, I’m putting all my support behind Germany. I only supported England because they were my team in the World Cup Sweepstakes at work and also I’m an Anglophile (there I said it).

I want Germany to go all the way now. And with the full support of 2D, Noodle, and Russel, they cannot lose.

I’m Losing My Edge

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…but that’s okay, I’m famous.

Famous-ish…

Internet Famous?

________ly known

My name was mentioned on BBC 6 Music by Andrew Collins you see.

The back story: Andrew Collins, 6 Music DJ Sub extraordinaire, announced via Twitter that he was going to play an LCD Soundsystem block. Tonight on 6 Music, from 9pm, LCD Soundsystem in concert, Fad Gadget, Colourbox, Polar Bear, PJ Harvey, Vangelis, The Loft, J Barry, Delta 5

Excited, because I had missed them yesterday, I reply.

@CollingsA i missed LCD Soundsystem last night, so I'm looking forward to the show. And Vangelis too, you're spoiling me

Next thing you know, my name is being pronounced on 6 Music and I’m over the moon. And it was a valiant attempt by Andrew Collins. He noticed the “i” and gave it his best shot. Appreciated.

(aside: I had gotten the dates mixed up. LCD Soundsystem were actually playing the next week. But that’s okay, it still made for great radio)

Beep boop…E-R-R-O-R

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Kidrobot in Dallas is closing at the end of the month. (Sad) news for sure. In the year it’s been open, I never went to the store even though I’ve always meant to. I really wanted to get a case of Futurama blind boxes.

Well after the disappointment of the Lone Star Comics warehouse sale, Long informed me of this and we headed over.

And I can see why the store is closing. It’s a very shallow store. It’s all store front. There is no depth to the store, literally. There is no “back room”, only a “front room off to the side”. Stepping in to the store feels unnatural. You’re put on display like a mannequin. I mean, if i was to see a mannequin that looked like me in a store window, I would head the other direction. Kidrobot should’ve made a test store. That is the lesson they should learn from this.

Anyways, it was now my chance to buy a case of Futurama blind boxes! But unfortunately, they only had 2 individual blind boxes. So I picked them up. You cant go wrong with everything 30% off.

There are 12 characters in the Futurama series. All I really wanted was Zoidberg. He is my favorite character from the show. And you know what, I got him! He was in my second box. In the first box, I got what nerds call a “rare chase” – Sal.

So yeah, if anyone wants to take me to Vegas, I’m on a hot streak.

Give it a day

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Would it be taking things to far, if for your ‘Date with Ikea’ – you had free Breakfast at Ikea?

Big thanks to Slickdeals, Ikea, Mother’s Day and Pavement. Without them, this amazing joke wouldn’t be possible.