So… I might have talked about this to you before but I want it to be public and I want everyone to know.

I love filling out forms. Seriously. It’s like a test and I know all of the answers. First name? Easy! Mother’s maiden name? Yup! Last four digits of my social security number? Got it! Address of the house I grew up in? Oh… crap. UUUUuuuummmm-I remember!

Because of this, I sometimes get into trouble. For example I now have a subscription to Real Simple magazine. (It’s interesting to browse, though I don’t really need a subscription.) I also have a lot of online profiles. Sure I’m a tech-nerd-geek and I like to be an early adopter, but mainly it’s because I’ve run out of forms to fill out so I’m constantly searching for something new. I sign up to new social networks where I don’t know anyone just so I can make a profile and forget about it a week later when I run out of things to fill out.

Today I got home from a movie (Coraline – totally awesome see it!) and had some mail from Citibank. Opened it up and found A FORM! I didn’t even read what it was I just grabbed a pen and started filling shit out. My name, my routing number, my account number, social security, checked “yes i would like to give you all my money” and– wooooah. I caught myself. What was I filling out?! I didn’t even know. It was like waking up, cold and alone on the floor of a dark bathroom, seeing drug paraphernalia scattered around and thinking “my god, what I am I doing to myself?”

Okay, so maybe it’s not that severe, but it’s definitely a problem.

It all boils down to this: Am I alone? Do other people have these problems? Is there somewhere I can find a bunch of harmless forms that can be filled out again and again without ever having to worry about subscriptions and other disastrous consequences? Thank god tax season is almost here, I don’t know how long I can hold out for.

(Just found out that jimmycarter over in LiveJournal-land also shares my obsession.)

So I’ve got a Wacom tablet at work.  And I love the shit out of it.  It’s not like a do a ton of drawing with it, I mostly use it when I’m working in Photoshop (which makes sense) and it adds another layer of control that I wasn’t previously used to.

Another thing, using a trackpad or mouse with my right hand all day is bad.  I didn’t used to notice it but over the last five or six months I’ve noticed a dull pain in my wrist.  This is an early sign of RSI (repetitive strain injury).  As a heavy computer user I’m well aware of this problem.  Wait what the fuck just happened. :B I somehow fell into a PSA about RSI!  Haha, I honestly didn’t mean to do that.

I think my point was that using several different types of input is a good way to vary.  So I use a trackpad, mouse, keyboard shortcuts, and now a tablet.  Apparently you can also add testicles to your mouse a la “MouseBean.”

The main point of this post was LOOK AT THE DUMB THINGS I DO WITH THE TABLET.

Also a secondary point I’d like to make.  I took these screenshots with a program called Skitch.  It’s totally awesome!  I didn’t like it at first but now I do.  You have to register to be able to use it, but don’t fret!  It’s free!

So I had some time to kill today and I really like the “Weirdmotes” smiles set that you can get for Adium.  Now we’ve got them on Shambot!  If you’re using the Visual editor there is a smiles button that you can click.  Other wise it will reinterpret most basic (and complicated) emoticons.  These also work in comments and there are little emoticons to the right of the comment box that you can click on to add them to your comment.

:O :B :A :C :c :E :S :U :0 :[ :L :X :I :F :G :H :} c: C: :/ :J :K :M :N :^ D: :. :} :Q :R :{ :T :q :V :W :, :Y :Z

Next on my list is to add avatar support into the comments!  (no anime, plz :c )

Thoughts?

I meant to post this awhile ago, like… right after Thanksgiving. But it’s still after Thanksgiving so I think it still counts.

While battling my way to the front lines at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade the only thing that should run through a Star Wars nerd’s head was running though mine.

Thanksgiving Parade Battle from Joel Gillman on Vimeo.

Okay, only two really… An some text talky stuff. I think this is just a life update kind of thing.

<<< Dialogue with myself >>>

<<< Address Shambot as a single entity >>>

Kay! So. I’m leaching off of my parent’s Netflix account so I can do the instant watching thing and I found this movie:

Honestly, how is that a movie.

This is part of what I did at work last week! I’m not sure if I put up in a public space who I’m doing it for (though some of you know) so the newsletter’s name has been REDACTED! But it was quite a rush to hit the send button and have a newsletter that potentially has all of my mistakes in it fly off to 74-some-thousand people. GULP!

By the way I got a job. So I’m totally a big shot now (just kidding). The company is called Reindeer – though I’m still unsure if it’s officially Reindeer Company, Reindeer Group or just plane ol’ Reindeer. In any case, it’s a small company, I think I’m the 11th employee. But that’s what I was looking for! A small company where I could really own what I do and do cool shit as well. So far I like it a lot

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Lindsey and I went to the third night of this year’s Blip Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday night! If you don’t know what that is (I somehow didn’t), Blip Fest is “a four-day event showcasing nearly 40 musicians and visual artists occupying the international low-res cutting edge.” All of the artist make music in the “chipmusic” realm which is basically kids who grew up with Nintendo/Sega/Playstations and now make music using the hardware of their old ‘toys.’ They don’t just play games, record the sounds and remix them – they actually hack these systems and program/short-circuit them to make all sorts of bad-ass songs. All of this is accompanied by incredible live visuals projected behind the artist. Thick bass, sharp blips and bloops, decently prices booze, a few ravers and a ton of nerds made this a really enjoyable show.

Sulumi, the guy in the video, is from China and is apparently a big thing. I hadn’t heard of him until we saw him there but now I’m hooked! I bought the only album he has on iTunes but according to his Myspace page he’ll have a new album out soon. Also on the list of awesome artists I didn’t know about before: Bubblyfish (also awesome), Cow’p (okay, kind of a lot of the same thing), Nullsleep (looks like Scott Bowman, crazy intense music), and STU. STU (or Stu?) is from Sweden and is a total badass. He’s super chill, a little nerdy, pretty tall, very Swedish and has fantastic beats, unfortunately I’ve had a hard time finding anything about him online. Though we met two European (maybe French?) people outside the place who loved Stu. I thought the woman was going to flash us but she was just drunk and trying to show us her Stu t-shirt.

(I’ll be posting pictures soon!)

Sorry to double post, but Tim and I had talked about this before. After seeing Star Wars 1-3, what changes in 4-6 with a new perspective? This interesting: Prequel Generation Questions A New Hope. But the following is better – it’s also long but it’s really good.

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO’s memory wiped but not R2’s. He wouldn’t make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy’s top experts at hacking into other people’s systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.
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If you don’t get cable (like me), you probably get the internet! And you can watch the whole thing live on MSNBC’s site!

New Place – East Village from Joel Gillman on Vimeo.