Category Archives: Articles

Google Non-Functionality

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I think I’m an average user of the software services provided by Google. Perhaps I use a bit more than some people, since I upload Youtube videos, but I don’t have an Android phone, so I think that balances it out a little bit. I don’t really want a Gmail address, because I already have an email address (several), but I do have ads on my website and have used Google to run ads for someone else. And, of course, I’m now forced to have a G+ account that I never use, for statistics-jacking purposes. And, I’ve got to say, for being a tech giant, the set of Google systems I’ve used have been surprisingly lackluster.

Now, I’ve used Android devices, and it’s a fine OS, so not everything they create is clunky, but I’ve used a few clunky systems by them, let me tell you. The first is their most prominent: the back end of Youtube. It’s just a mess, unless one is commenting. Then it works well, until the days when that doesn’t work sometimes (for various reasons, like needing a Google+ account). And that was when they were trying to say that the entire library of Google services could be accessed from one account. Not only is that a bad idea that can only lead to compromises (both kinds) in the future, but it shoves a lot of programs and dashboards in the faces of people who don’t want them, (or a damn Google+ account). But it’s also a lie. Yes, in theory I can access all of my Google services through one login, but there is exactly zero integration for this. From Youtube I can get to G+ and AdSense, but there is no way to get back to my Youtube account. I guess I could frantically mash on the back button until I outrun the page reloading and hope my form didn’t expire.

Still, I can understand them not being able to properly link the back ends of their various sites. But since no one I know of was asking for such a thing to be done, it does beg the question as to why it was done in the first place. And why couldn’t Google just wait until they were able to fully integrate their services to launch such a program?

Google tends to do these things now. Quite a while ago they introduced the annotations system on Youtube (was it owned by Google then? I don’t remember), and never updated it to work on mobile devices, which are the main market for Youtube videos now. Since then, they’ve tried to replace it with “cards” which barely function as more than annotations, work completely differently on every possible platform, and replace the Youtube-styled watermarks, making the Youtube watermarking system useless. They did a great job there, if you ask me. They now work like every Google system: vaguely or not at all. I have no idea if I change one setting in one place, how far reaching that change will be, or if it will even do anything.

They’ve made their living and stake in the consumer experience, which is very good. Viewing Youtube always works, even if it isn’t the most pleasant experience. Their search algorithms are great, their ads always show up and work, their email is nice and stores a lot. From what I can tell, Android is responsive, and almost everything loads fast. But they just don’t put that amount of effort into their creator experience. And I’ve taken to not using most of their offerings. The back end of AdSense just confuses me: lots of buttons that don’t go anywhere and two tabs with words that mean the same thing that inexplicably hold different options make it not worth much time. I don’t know how my Youtube Account(s) attach to G+ and since I don’t use G+ I don’t bother learning. Youtube comments are so broken I can’t keep track of the last time they worked, and the differences between the messaging systems just serve to create barriers between people, not facilitate communication. And AdWords is specifically engineered to make stopping your ads a terrible task.

As you can guess I’m not exactly part of the Google fan club, but I don’t hate them. I just wish I could get a more cohesive and well-thought-out experience from them. I’d expect the kinds of broken and untested systems from a startup company, but not from the giant will billions of dollars. I wouldn’t trust their car if they integrated it to any of their other systems as poorly as they do now.

Really, Google has never made that good of a product, as in one that functions and looks nice. It just makes the best search engine and owns the best online video site, and until there is a competitor, they’ll get to make all the mistakes they want.

Lessons from Board Games – Dungeon! and Social Interactions

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I play a lot of games, some light and some heavy, and for the most part I’m not particularly afraid to jump into something pretty complicated. My group jumped from Risk to Pandemic to Battlestar Galactica in a few sessions, and the Flames of War rulebook is huge (I still haven’t read it all, because I don’t need to learn about artillery and aircraft if I don’t have any).

But still, I don’t mind a simpler game now and then (or 75% of the time) and Dungeon! is quite a simple game. You move, find monsters, roll a die, and either run away or get treasure, then go back to the center. There is almost no skill used in the game, and no strategy beyond the gamble of being at higher levels (which give you better payout but are more likely to kill you), or lower levels (which are easy but don’t give you much. It can be played mindlessly). Turns require almost no thought, just hope.

dungeonfront

Just try not to destroy the components

 

And in my opinion, that doesn’t make it a bad game. Are there better games? Absolutely! But if you’re just sitting around talking, and want to do a little more than talk, it is absolutely the game to go for. Since it doesn’t require much thought, Dungeon! doesn’t impede the conversation. The most interruption it’ll cause is either when you tell someone it’s their turn, or when there is an “epic” battle going on (which the player will almost always lose). In some cases it even helps the conversation to progress: if you have someone who won’t stop talking, they likely will for at least a moment to take their turn, allowing someone else to get a word in while the other can still listen. It also livens up the evening (or any time) by adding in moment of excitement where the players can cheer for either a monster or another player to win a battle, and since most battles are determined by chance, there is very little the “better” gamers can do to make it more likely for them to win.  Everyone’s even, and the stakes are very low, unlike in heavier games, where an aura of tenseness or ill-will can persist near the end of the game. Not that that usually lasts for long, or a grudge is held, but sometimes it’s good to just not have it.

The components got better, but the art isn't as unique

The components got better, but the art isn’t as unique

There are plenty of other games that can fill this role: most dice or “filler-type” games will work just as well. The difference here is that Dungeon! takes a bit longer, which, depending on the scenario, can be good or bad. If you just want to play for fifteen or so minutes and then get to something else (usually a larger game) Dungeon! isn’t the one to go for. But if you have 45 minutes to kill before dinner (supper, lunch, brunch, tea, possibly breakfast) and the conversation, while still going, is a bit down, it works great for that. That doesn’t make it a great game, and just because it works for my group doesn’t mean it’ll work for yours. But I know if I want to have a conversation and play a game with multiple people, Dungeon! is the game I reach for, and I like it for that. It fills a niche I never thought needed to be filled before, and might not ever have intended to fill. So, well done, Dungeon!  My shelf is a bit more well-rounded now.

 

Migraines are a Problem

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Working title: “Migraines are terrible for everything ever”

Yesterday (as of me writing this) I had a migraine, which is all I feel like talking about right now, because it’s all I can feel in my head. I can’t really concentrate on any other article I was going to write. So I’d just like to say that migraines are the worst thing ever, ever.

And they aren’t just headaches. When I get a migraine, I lose vision sometimes, I throw up a lot (and I don’t throw up like an average person, my whole body heaves), I get really cold, I can’t stand light, and my perception of the world is just generally clouded. Sometimes the funk can last for weeks, preventing me from doing any type of work or play because one false move and I’ll go back to feeling like there’s an axe in my head.

I might be exaggerating saying migraines are the worst thing ever. I’m sure there are more terrible things, but don’t underestimate migraines. The main “attack” only lasts less than 6 hours for me most times, but can last up to a week, and the after-effects for much longer. I can’t even begin to comprehend the pain of having a longer headache, let alone what goes with it. It’s one of the most frustrating things, because there is so little you can do to stop it, most medications are hit or miss, and many people are undiagnosed. And it’s made all the more frustrating because the more you get frustrated at it, the worse it gets or the easier to becomes to trigger. And almost anything can become a trigger.

What I’m trying to say is, a migraine isn’t just a “bad headache”. It can be, but very often it is something much more than that, and when someone is having a migraine that they know is a migraine, it is very important to work to help, or accommodate them as much as possible.

I was in a migraine-induced funk for all of February and November in 2014, which lost me two months of work which I still haven’t recovered. Fortunately, I was ahead. I lose about a month of work a year, and more time with friends, (because that involves activity and not being at a desk) to migraines, and for some people it is much worse.

Don’t underestimate their power in some peoples’ lives. They can influence a lot of decisions, and when having a migraine, they can feel like the worst thing that could ever possibly happen to you. I get fear responses when I know I’m close to one. My body gets ready to try and fight it because it knows it can’t run away, of course you can “fight” a headache.

Seriously, they’re terrible! That is my announcement, and all I can think of right now.

Libbey Tumbler “Cities of the World” Glasses

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I like to visit garage sales, and estate sales, and thrift stores, and a bunch of other sales. There are many things I like about these places/events, but one of my favorite is finding interesting things I never even knew existed, especially if I can use or display them in an interesting way.

I found one such set of things at an estate sale. I was generally looking around. There was a lot of stuff, but most of it I wasn’t interested in, though that’s sometimes a good thing because it makes me pay attention to find what I want. I was looking in the glassware, which is something I don’t usually do, and I saw a set of glasses with city names on them, and interesting graphics. I liked a few in particular, but I hate to split a set, so I bought them all.

photo-17

The glasses themselves were interesting, but I couldn’t figure out the theme. I soon started looking for them online. I can’t help but look for stories in what I buy. I can sometimes accept that a Chinese deck of cards has no story, but not glasses like these, even though in this case I could find no information. This is a problem I typically run into (and one I ran into more recently in reverse when I tried to find Chinese chess sets). I just don’t use the right words in my searches. And the glasses (or most items really) provided no information as to what they were.

In these cases I usually resort to Google image search and try to identify what I have visually. I finally came across a helpful blog post (Link) discovered they were Libbey Cities of the World series glasses, the tumbler version of sets that included “Old Fashioned” and goblet versions. But I was intrigued. I don’t like finding out a partial story, and the set of glasses I kept seeing had Havana in it, but my set has Nassau. I did more digging and discovered that the “theme” of the glasses was the world’s fair, but that’s pretty loose, and I ended up digging back through 50’s back issues of the Libbey catalogue (fortunately available online from the company) to find when they came out. I found out the year they came out (I’ve forgotten now: great article, Austin!) and that they did indeed originally have Havana on all three sets of glassware.

photo-18

Eventually, after more digging, and even more (I’m bad at using the internet, so things like this take me a long time) I found that the glass sets waned in popularity late in the 50’s and early 60’s. The non-tumbler versions were discontinued and when the Cuban revolution happened, and Havana was bad press, they replaced the city (with a comparable one). So my set is a “complete” set of the rarer version of a fairly rare set of glassware (really only rare because glasses tend to break). I’ve seen a couple photos of “complete” collections of the early lines, but they don’t have Nassau, and that makes me feel quite special. To have a really complete set of 8, you need 9, but that would make display a little awkward.

So, from one purchase I had an afternoon’s worth of fun sorting through the internet, and I had a fairly unique set of glasses, and now I have an article. I do plan on using the glasses, though not heavily, or at parties like I read online some people did (I couldn’t stand it if they got broken, especially by someone who isn’t me). Not that I won’t let people use them, glasses are meant to be used, just not these ones at parties. And they’ll make a great conversation piece. Hopefully I don’t hear too many opinions about the Cuban revolution because of them. I’d also love to get the full set with Havana, and the other two styles at some point. I guess I’ll just have to keep my eyes peeled. I might even write a little update.

How I use Notebooks (basic)

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Notebooks are a very personal thing, and, many believe, an increasingly less relevant one in this increasingly digital age. Yet some of the large notebook manufactures do claim that as we move to more and more digital media, the urge to use analog becomes greater and greater.

I don’t really care about any of that. I’ve loved notebooks as far back as I can remember. I was always fascinated with pocket books, and I kept all of my old school notebooks to draw in (I wish that had meant my drawing would improve). It used to be that I would just grab and use what was on the shelf at the dollar store, but my tastes and ways of using notebooks have changed significantly.

I do have one problem with notebooks, and I’ve had it forever. I can’t stand having more than one subject for one book. This in the past lead me to cycle through books like nobody’s business, or tear out so many pages that I compromised the book’s integrity. I’ve essentially made up for this now by using each of my books for more general purposes, and letting the very specific topics go into pocket books, like Field Notes.

My main theory on notebooks is that “way too many” is “just about right”. I quite literally have a full shelf of notebooks that I am using currently. That doesn’t mean a lot of use, though:  it just means I started them at some point in the past and haven’t finished with them. Unfortunately for my hopeless system, many of these books will never be finished. The books I do finish are part of my regular system, which breaks down like: Sketchbook (large), Every day drawing (large), Every day ideas (pocket, hardcover), and Pocket (pocket, soft cover). These 4 books generally cover anything I have to do in a given day. From cartoon ideas to grocery lists, they’ve generally got me covered.

If I carry the books I generally carry them in reverse order to what I’ve listed, starting with the pocket book, which goes with me everywhere. And I think it’s very important to have a pocket book go with you everywhere. It’s not only something that I can easily jot notes down in, it’s something that can be easily remembered. When I get home one of the first things I do is empty everything I can from my pockets, and the book is usually one of those things, prompting me to look through it– unlike my notes on my phone, which I keep in my pocket and forget about (though those work in a pinch).

My dedication to carrying a notebook everywhere is aided by the fact that I don’t usually go to non-notebook friendly places (I could use ‘Write in the Rain’ I guess) and that I don’t have a job where my notebooks would get damaged. Mileage may vary on that bit, but I believe it is good to carry a notebook whenever possible. The notebooks that aren’t my pocket notebook go in my bag and can be pulled out whenever I feel necessary, which is generally only during intolerably long wait times, as I, in general, am inclined to sit back and observe before writing in a notebook or diddling on my phone.

When back at my house, notebooks used to be scattered all over the place, but recently I made an attempt to corral them. Now they are generally in one area, that being my desk and the shelf next to my desk. My small living-space allows this quite easily, though at the cost of moving other things (like regular books) farther away from my working area. Still, having a notebook and a pen close at hand is one of the handiest things I’ve ever come across.

For me, the specific notebooks don’t matter. I just have the ones I like at the moment. I do tend to go with cleaner looking, more established company notebooks for my general stuff, though. Moleskines look nicer on the shelf than a bunch of Wal-Mart, dollar store, or even custom-made books do on the shelf, simply because of uniformity, both when being written in, and when finished. And I’ve finished a lot more of my daily writer Moleskine books than my one-of-a-kind, or different-looking books.
So that’s a bit of how I use my notebooks. I’d love to hear how you guys use yours in the comments, and I hope you enjoyed.