Saving Time

I've been spending far too much time on my computer lately. Probably eight hours of websurfing per day. I need to figure out how to cut that down.

In light of this, I plan to document everything I'm doing online, at ... say, twenty-minute intervals. Or, more accurately, at intervals sometimes approximating but sometimes much longer than twenty minutes. Since the purpose of this is to determine what is eating my time on my computer, I'll only record computer activities, not the others.

I think I'll implement this plan tomorrow, though. I've already checked my Firefox linksfolders of blogs and online comics today, and that's the lion's share.

Desktop Meme

From nanakikun by way of foxberry and nightfalltwen.

01: Take a screencap of your desktop.

To cap a desktop:
1) Press "Print Screen" (prt sc) button (If just Prt Sc doesn't work, try Shift+Prt Sc)
2) Open your graphics program-o-choice
3) Press CTRL + V
4) Save image as a JPEG
EDIT by nanakikun: on Macintosh OS X, you can open Applications, then Utilities, then Grab. It has a picture of a picture and some scissors for its icon. Choose "Screen" from the Capture menu, then click. If you have an older version of Macintosh, you can push the help key and ask the agent what the keys are for it.

02: Upload the screen cap to your image server.

Don't have one yet? Use Photobucket, ImageShack, or some other free service.

03: Reply to this entry with your screencap or a link to your screencap. Along with any explanations you feel are necessary.

04: Post your cap in YOUR LJ along with these instructions.

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So, my desktop (1024x768). Pretty sparse; I like it that way, because it lets me admire my desktop image (click on "souvenir", then download) better. Most of my stuff is hidden away in various places, not least of which my Dock (OSX = pretty decent GUI!).

A Patently Obvious Proposal

Recently, I went to a concert, and got an idea.

At the concert, three pieces were played. The first was the Overture to Leonore No. 3, Op. 72b by Ludwig van Beethoven. I enjoyed it greatly. The second was Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. I did not enjoy it much - too atonal - but I would certainly not claim to criticize it. The third was Roman Festivals, by Ottorino Respighi. It was during this piece that I had my idea.

Roman Festivals is one of those pieces which I think had too many "toys". Toys is what I call them; them in this case being triangles, xylophones, tambourines, and other sundry devices which are occasionally employed by some of the more overenthusiastic inspired artists. Respighi did not stop there, however. He also showed an infuriating tendency to jump from one theme to another, with nary a transition to be heard. It was this final quality that inspired my idea.

That idea is: When you write a piece of music, write one piece of music! Not two, not ten, not one-third of one, but one!

This rule, if applied, would bring immeasurable happiness to my ears. No more would I turn on my radio, hear a fantastic piano introduction, hear the electric guitar leap in, fighting with the piano, bringing up the tension, building something unique and new ... and then sputter as this rising tide drops me in a wading pool of generic 'hard rock'. No more would I change the channel, hear ten seconds of quality chords, percussion, and lyrics ... and then hear the same ten seconds repeating itself with insignificant variations for the next five minutes.

No more. Instead, I would hear music.