This isn’t really too much of a problem for me as much anymore, since I have gone completely invisible on Facebook and thus unless we are currently friends, as far as Facebook is concerned, I DON’T EVEN EXIST, but I’m sure if you are on Facebook you are friends with a lot of people you don’t give a crap about. There are a handful of people who feel the need to become a fan of everything, take every stupid quiz, and somehow are invited to every event happening on this planet and are gracious enough to actually RSVP to all of those events. And then I’m lucky enough to be informed of all this.
It is time to rejoice, however, because today I stumbled upon this post over at lifehacker, which explains how to create a new group over on the left hand column, name it “People I Actually Care About,” add the people you actually care about to it, and then drag this newly created list above the “News Feed” in that left column and then all your news feed items will only be about people you actually care about. I feel kind of dumb for never playing around with the site and figuring this out on my own, I might sit down and actually do this one day. My favorite part of the whole post was how blunt the name of the sample group they created; it was as if they read my mind.
Before I go, here is a cover I actually care about. This group called Run Toto Run took Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead” and made it so sweet and dreamy. I’ve honestly been listening to it at least once a day for the past week, I am so obsessed.
Did you know that if you have a gmail account, any periods in your address that you think are necessary in order for an e-mail to get to you are actually… not necessary?!
I am always surprised by how few people know this.
So for instance, let’s say you meet Jane Jones and she’s like, “Oh yeah my e-mail address is JANE PERIOD JONES AT GMAIL DOT COM!” Whenever I hear someone say that period I get a little chill down my spine because clearly Jane does not realize that all of the following addresses will get to Ms. Jones:
Isn’t that kind of awesome? I remember my undergrad e-mail account had a period that we HAD to use. It’s pretty sweet that Google has done away with this period nonsense in e-mail addresses. Obviously I have no idea if this works for any non-Google e-mail accounts you might have, so you might want to check that out on your own.
One of the biggest changes during the past three years? My switch from Windows to Mac.
As I began law school, I was still using the computer that I had to purchase through my undergrad’s laptop initiative: a crapalicious Dell Latitude (with a bunch of numbers and letters after it). At that point, it was only two years old but seriously began to show a lot of wear and tear. It ran slow as anything, was always as hot as the center of the sun, and worst of all began to develop cracks at the hinges of the screen.
As any law student knows, if you want to be able to take your exams on your computer as opposed to handwriting them, you need to be using Windows. Making the switch to Apple was something I had been hoping to do, but the thought of handwriting a three or four hour essay exam did not sound appealing. My goal was to try to keep the same tired Dell until I graduated and then make the switch. Unfortunately, my Dell had no intention on staying alive for five years.
By the end of my first year of law school, one of the hinges completely broke off and the remaining one was not looking good. It was decision time. I couldn’t handle the thought of purchasing another Windows laptop that I would feel compelled to keep until it broke down, and as important as law school exams are, I’d figure something out… be it handwriting (”Hey, other people did it, why can I?”), borrowing a laptop from someone, or jerry-rigging the Dell when need be. So I took the plunge and haven’t looked back since. In fact, any time I am now forced into using a Windows computer I am usually on the verge of tears.
You may be wondering what I did end up doing for the last two years during exam time. Well… by the time my Fall ‘06 exams rolled around, both hinges on the Dell were GONE so I delicately balanced the screen against my largest textbook propped up for three hours. Worrying about the computer breaking apart during the middle of the exam eventually became more stressful than the exam itself, so I just bit the bullet and wrote out my exams during my third year. My baby is still going strong, although I think he could use a fresh battery soon, and if all goes according to plan he is gonna have a little 3G-powered brother this Friday!
This brings us to Ben Lee’s “Catch My Disease.” To be honest, I haven’t the slightest clue how I originally stumbled upon him since it happened almost three years ago, but I do remember how the song eventually got some more mainstream recognition. While Apple is known for essentially propelling virtually unknown music acts to instant stardom, Dell’s ads from 2006 used this song for a campaign and unfortunately for Ben I’m not sure he experienced the same result. Now call me crazy, but somehow I don’t think a song with the lyrics “catch my disease” is the way to advertise a machine running the Windows operating system notoriously known for being more susceptible to viruses… but that’s just me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the song, but I am not sure if it would be my first choice if I wanted to advertise crapalish computers.
