things i think i think

So I recently migrated my blog reading to Google Reader which made me realize a few things about blogs and online content. First, content is king. Always and forever. If you don’t have captivating content, fahgettaboutit. What makes Google Reader interesting though is that it aggregates your subscriptions from RSS feeds (in most cases) and thus strips these blog posts of their aesthetic context — meaning that WYSIWIG: content.

Second, I read far too many blogs. By the time I woke up on Monday morning (around 10 AM) I already had 280 some odd new posts from all of my subscriptions to read. By 11:30 I had that number down to about 80 — and that’s filtering through quite a bit of just trite shit. But to have all of my blogs in one place makes it seem far less time-consuming to read them… at least on the surface. So what makes you stand out from the crowd? What makes certain blogs successful and worthwhile? Content, again, is king.

Third, I read many blogs that apparently draw material from each other: Boing Boing runs articles that appear on Lifehacker which becoming trending viral topics on BuzzFeed, which – if it’s a gadget – get mentioned on Engadget or Gizmodo. (And if it’s an Apple product, it’s already all over the place anyway.) So why are these blogs re-reporting everything? Lack of original content. Bingo.

Hello everyone (or no one, considering how infrequently I’ve updated this blog lately)!

Nevertheless, I just wanted to stop by and post about how I’ve established an account on Vimeo, which is a video-hosting service that boasts higher quality output than YouTube — which it does, and this is great news. That said, I’ll be migrating some of my production work over to that channel in the coming days and weeks. To view them, go here. There will also be a link to this account posted on my homepage shortly.

Also, in an effort to gain exposure in a different way (and possibly get a head start on what will inevitably be a difficult and painstaking post-graduation job search) I’ve posted my resume on the homepage as well. Any recommendations or revisions are encouraged — post in the comments or send me an e-mail at aldiskaza (at) gmail (dot) com.

An update on my summer plans/escapades coming soon.

Danger Will Robinson! Danger!

Great. Now who am I going to blame when my orders get f-cked up?

The animators must have been bored when they put this game together — either that or severely underpaid. Watch the ‘intermission’ between rounds closely.

For those who are interested, I’ve recently reactivated my last.fm account and you can check out my profile page here. For those unfamiliar with last.fm, it’s basically a piece of software that tracks your iTunes listening habits and posts them online — it allows you to see what tracks you’ve listened to the most and whomever else in the last.fm community is tuning in to those tracks as well. Pretty nifty.

In a similar vein, I just registered myself on Twitter which is basically an open version of the mini-feed on Facebook: it asks the infamous question, ‘what are you doing?’ and you’re required to provide a response in 140 characters or less. Seems targeted towards an older market — basically those who can’t, or don’t care for, Facebook or (shudder) MySpace.

Welcome to the new WordPress, same as the old WordPress. Well, to all of you anyway.

I spent the better part of the last hour or so backing-up my databases and uploading the new WP files and performing the upgrade to version 2.7 and it’s really quite an improvement. There’s a completely new administrative control panel that keeps everything organized. It’s snappy and snazzy and that’s a plus — it’s a huge overhaul and a magnificent step-up from the jumbled clusterfuck that WP used to be. (And part of the reason I resisted blogging for so long.)

Obviously all of my handy-dandy plug-ins still need to catch up in their developments so that they’ll cooperate with the new version, but that’s just a matter of time. Also, the photo pages are still not working. Dammit. That’s life.

Just posted a big update to my flickr account (accessable from my homepage at aldiskaza.com) which includes the most interesting photographs from my travels in New Zealand and London. Enjoy!

Also, am debating as to whether to upgrade to a Flickr Pro account (unlimited uploads, unlimited sets etc.) for $25 bucks. I’m short on cash right now so I’m not exactly jumping, but it seems reasonable enough – no? Is it worth it?

So I decided to finally bite the bullet and give away (well, sell) my old 2006 Black MacBook. It served me well — could even run Final Cut Pro when it really wanted to, despite what Apple told us. I figured that now would be the best time to do it, considering that the value will only decrease from here on out.

An eBay auction listing and PayPal transaction later, and I’m typing this on my fancy schmancy new aluminum MacBook. I opted for the base model, per my friend’s suggestion, and will most likely upgrade the hard drive in the next few weeks if I can get some cash. It’s hard to believe that 160 GB just doesn’t cut it anymore. Anyways, this is more of a computer for the interim, considering I will most likely need a MacBook Pro for the future — whether that means trading up in 8 months, or two years from now remains to be seen.

Some observations so far: first, it looks fucking awesome. As usual, Apple knows that one of the first things that drives their fanbase batshit is a new case — “enclosure envy” — and this one certainly fits the bill. It’s sleek in every possible way, rounded corners, smooth finish… nice. Not without its flaws though: some slight discoloration on the front (weird purple stain) and my function keys are crooked, which makes the rest of the keyboard look crooked. Oh well, as long as it doesn’t affect performance, I say. When something goes wrong internally, then I can bitch and whine about screwy keys. Overall though, I’m really pleased so far. But the proof, as they say, will be in the pudding.