Wumbology

I <3 ShoveBox

I fucking love ShoveBox. It’s possibly the best and most intuitive Mac app I’ve found in a while. It really evidences the kind of application you’ll find on the Mac - simple, intuitive, fast, light, and incredibly well designed. The interface is wonderful and it is incredibly efficient.

Its intended purpose is to store stuff - images, links, text notes. It eliminates the need for TextEdit and Stickies. If I think I’m going to forget something later, I just drag it into the ShoveBox menu item and I’m done.

I have taken to using it for notes, though. Schoolhouse, my former notation program, removed the notation feature in version 3 (it’s still excellent though) and left me scrambling for a new free note taking app. I tried Notation Velocity and it didn’t really work for me. ShoveBox, which I got free thanks to MacHeist, works perfect - I can use smart folders to sort notes based on class. And it’s light and hangs out in the menubar - I open a new note page with a shortcut. You type your notes and close the window and it autosaves, and because they’re smart folders it organizes right away based on criteria you can set.

Brilliant little program. It reminds me why I use a Mac.

11/11

You know what. I haven’t posted in a long time. And I have stuff to post about, too.

Sadface.jpg. I’ll post more.

Podcast

First off, Ramses is indeed no longer part of the cast? Why? Well, many reasons. Some of us thought he was bad at the podcast, people on /toy/ bitched about his performance, but the primary reason was that he lacks the level of professionalism needed to run the podcast. That’s my reason, anyway. Ramses was awesome at first, working as a team and making sure everyone was heard. Then episode 3 happened. Episode 3 went great, until part 2. Part 2 was fine at first - a bit boring, but mostly okay. The boringness of it influenced Ramses to jump back in. I thought it would work fine. But he pushed it, his yelling may or may not have broken Skeletor’s sound card (though good attempt with nice gusto, Rams), and the entire thing fell apart. We could have moved on, but then episode 3.5 happened. This isn’t just Ramses, this is everyone who was involved in the decision to make 3.5, but Ramses’s job, as a leader, was to control the situation. Ramses claimed 3.5 was recorded because Dash and Code pushed him, but according to Dash and Code, Ramses never said “no let’s not record.” A proper leader should have said “no, let’s not record, let’s wait until Konata and Shock/Icha are ready and informed.”

Then I asked about episode 4, talked to him. This is Wednesday night. He tells me we’re recording on Thursday night. I tell him I have midterms. Several people are confused abut the ep 4 recording time, but that did happen. What Ramses neglected to mention was that he was bringing NC back - which is fine, we knew about NC, we’re cool with NC - and that he had invited another friend on. With NC, he asked beforehand. Clearly. With Stan? He didn’t ask at all. And was Stan a good addition? Hardly. He’s got a terrible accent and he’s boring. Had he asked about Stan, maybe we would have been cool. But he went ahead and threw him on anyway. Then, episode 4 is posted, and people complain about Ramses’s performance. At that point, Dash and Code wanted a decision made, and at first I was fighting for Rams but then I realized that the Stan decision was unacceptable and unprofessional. We told Rams this - rather, Dash and Code did, I was busy.

Also factoring into my decision to agree with them on Ramses? A couple of tweets Rams had made beforehand. Rams, this is to you - it’s obvious you have a lot of shit going on at the moment, and you have been putting a lot of fucking work into this. I think you should focus on real life for a bit, man - the podcast is great, and I enjoy talking with you, but you’re letting it worry you too much, and I worry for you, because you’re a bro, and I don’t like causing harm to my bros.

Anyway, Ramses was informed that he would still be involved. This still stands - we’re not sure in what capacity yet only because we are indeed completely reforming the podcast and we have to work on that new format. Everything’s going to be standard, there’s going to be a name and a standard record/release time and a standard cast. Ramses is an issue there, but it’s something we’re going to look at last. Plus, Dash isn’t exactly open to negotiation on the Ramses issue yet, and he’s right, we need to focus on the future before resolving the past.

Going forward, I think we need to avoid alliances. It’s obvious some people are supporting the “new” podcast and some people are supporting Ramses, and we can’t have that happen, because then we can’t move forward. That’s what I was afraid of, too - that by burning Ramses we’d be burning a lot of people. That’s evidenced on Twitter - ActionBastard and Ichabod, this is for you. We were trying to handle the situation more gingerly - you’re probably not going to see a cast until November 6th or so, and this whole mess is the catalyst of that. We have the capacity to record now but we don’t because we want things to blow over a bit.

Now, let me explain exactly what the new podcast entails. First off, there is a name - /toy/chest podcast. It links into things /toy/ has done in the past, with Skelet0r’s chest and the /toy/box wiki, and it’s a pretty great brand name. We’ve got a logo and a YouTube channel and everything. Plus, there’s already a podcast called Toycast.

Second off, who’s hosting? Well, we have a 7-slot lineup. Slot 6 is only for guests - if there is no Vangelus-level guest, slot 6 will be eliminated. Possible guests for the future include the return of Vangelus and Plastic Addict. Slots 1-4 are our normal hosts. The hosts for the new cast are: Skelet0r, Konata, Dash The Toy Guy, and MindsEdge. Who the fuck is MindsEdge, you might ask? Well, he posts as Eric on board sometimes, no trip. He’s awesome, opinionated, and most importantly, he has a superb voice. For the “regulars” we were looking for people who had good internet connections and good voices. It’s important that our normal cast has the ability to record a cast without a hitch. These are people that /toy/ knows, that are knowledgeable, that are opinionated, and can speak well (look at me tooting my own horn, yeah)? Next, slot 5 is our rotational slot. We have a lot of people who have been and will be involved with this podcast. We can’t shut people out. So, the fifth slot will go to a different person every week. We’ve got a list of people already - NC, PrimeGuy, Ichabod, Shockguey, Maya (IRC regular, /toy/… sometimes, you might have seen her), Kita… people that don’t necessarily have good voices or connections, but people that are funny, cool, or /toy/ regulars. If you’d like to be on do talk to one of us! Finally, slot 7? How can we have 7 people? Well, the seventh slot is just our announcer, and that will never change. It’ll be a standard “welcome to” and “thank you for listening’ sort of thing, and we’re looking. (Peaugh, Vangelus, help a bro out here)

Third, what are our regular segments? Well, we’ve learned a lot from the previous podcast - news, raging, hauls, that sort of thing. We’ll be doing a much more structured format, and Dash will be editing in a very much improved way. Dash has said that he’d like us to talk at great lengths without worrying about time, and just ramble on. Recording may be very long. In editing, though, he will edit out anything that wasn’t to a certain standard and close gaps and what have you, leaving behind a short 2-hour podcast that contains nothing but the absolute best material. Which is awesome, and should make for a brilliant podcast. Another regular segment that I’m super excited about is our intermission, which will be occupied by our “radio drama,” The Adventures of TONKA. TONKA is a favorite of the IRC, and we will have a different story each week featuring everyone’s favorite smelly nigger. He’ll go around the world and space fighting evil and sexing all the wimmenz. It’ll be amazing. The Adventures of TONKA, since it is a radio drama, will also require VOICE ACTORS. Certainly those voice acting slots can go to anyone interested (if we think they’re awesome), so when we’re ready we’ll put out a call for that.

At the end of the day, you may wonder, where does Ramses fit into this? Why exactly did you kick him out? Well, I hope I did address this, and as for where he fits? Well, there’s the rotational slot, and the voice acting, and all sorts of places where Ramses can return to help us. But we’re not ready to talk about it yet, because Ramses’s role isn’t what we’re focused on. What do I want to focus on involving Ramses? That we all remain bros. No one should feel burnt by this new podcast, they should feel that it is the beginning of a journey forward.

There, no more drama, I have another fucking midterm to study for.

10/21

So I’ve got a bit to write about, which is cool. I was going to do it all as one post, but then I won’t have anything else to write about for the rest of the week. I’ll write about my math thing today and everything else over the next few days. Fun stuff :D

Math’s a bitch. You may remember that I was sick for about 5 or 6 days last week, yeah? Well, I missed a boatload of classes due to that little shitty flu, and one of those was Math 251 last Wednesday. That just so happened to be the day of our test. I presumed, due to the actions of my other teachers, that Professor S. would have a decent policy for test absences. You know, one that mimics that of my Geography lab professor’s: you’re absent, you bring in a doctor’s note, you schedule a time before the next class, you take the test, and you’re done. I got an A on that test.

My math teacher’s policy is a lot more confusing - and the damning part is, when I tell you the policy, you’re gonna be all, “Idiot, this is your fault, stop bitching!” Then I’ll be all, “Well…. well you’re mean. So there.”

The policy is, when you miss a test, you have to schedule an appointment with him shortly after your return to class. At that appointment, you have to show him the completed homework and class notes for the chapter covered by the missed exam. He’ll then evaluate whether or not you were actually prepared for the exam, and if he thinks you were, the grade on the previously-optional comprehensive final exam will now count for the grade missed. Meaning, even in the best of circumstances, now, because I was absent, I have to take a comprehensive final rather than a single chapter exam, and it’ll count for the same credit.

See though, I don’t really have a problem with that, that’s just a peeve. My problem is, I don’t have many of the notes for this chapter, and I hadn’t been doing the homework because I had believed it was completely optional - this is a class of 40 or so people that maybe 10-12 people show up to daily. The “work ethic” does not exist here, and the aggregate work ethic of that class dragged mine down. I have a work ethic now, I learned my lesson.

I’ve been scrambling to finish it all before my meeting with him on Friday, and even with all that effort, there’s the chance that I will fail, thus giving me no way to pass the course. Period. It’s upsetting. I’m just hoping, at this point, that the sleepless nights of working, the honesty I showed Professor S. before and the honesty I will show to him at the meeting will pay off and I won’t have to drop and retake. Because, while it’s an option, it’s one I’d rather not have to utilize. Fuck, it’s already 8 weeks through the semester or around there, I don’t want all that time to be thrown out over a flu. Fuck that. And the worst part is, chapter 2 is the boring shit. The chapter we’re on now? It’s the stuff I enjoy. The stuff that’s just straight up numbers, formulas, and calculations. No drawing, no graphs, no stupid shit. Stuff I can do in my head or with a calculator. Stuff that isn’t tedious as all Hell. But whatever.

Alright, tomorrow I’ll write about Apple stuff. That’s more fun to write about.