MacBook Decoration

So I had been toying with the idea of getting my unibody MacBook etched for quite a while. I had my artwork all picked out. But then I lost my nerve. Although I have no plans to sell my MacBook anytime soon, I may want to sell her someday. Etching my laptop will most likely completely ruin the resale value. So I decided against etching.

Instead I had a custom decal of the artwork made. Overall I am very happy with it. I think it looks elegant and gives the same idea of etching. Except of course its completely removable. I'm a fan. <3

Just for fun, here is a second photo of the MacBook alongside my cat Daisy who is sunning herself on my bed...

You can get your own laptop decals made at Lewa's. I highly recommend her. :)

aluminumbirddecalmacmacbooktreeunibody

*Cinema -- RocknRolla

RocknRolla (2008)

• Liked it much more than I thought I would.
  

  
  
  




• Gerard Butler is charming as hell.
  
  

  
  
  




• So were his two friends, Mumbles and Handsome Bob... just loved all three of them.
  

  
  
  




• Idris Elba plays Mumbles. You may know him better as Stringer Bell on The Wire. Best guy in The Wire, also one of the best guys in RocknRolla.
  
  

  
  
  




• You have to love a movie that names a character Handsome Bob.
  

  
  
  




• I found the guy who played Johnny Quid crazy annoying until the last ten minutes. After that he was great.
  

  
  
  




• Not really worth mentioning Ludacris & Jeremy Piven...
  
  

  
  
  




• My favorite scene? When Stella & One Two dance. Retarded but awesome.
  

  
  
  

Automatic Tr.im URL Shortening & Click Tracking with TextExpander

The guys who make one of my favorite applications, TextExpander, posted a great tip a while back to automatically shorten urls that are on the clipboard with the tr.im service.

It works wonderfully, except there is no way to track how many people click your shortened urls because you're not logged into your tr.im account when the urls are shortened. There is a crazy easy way to log in to your tr.im account when TextExpander shortens your urls.

• Add this line as a new TextEpxander snippet and set it as an Applescript. Fill in your username and password where it says username:password.
  

  
  
  




• do shell script "curl --basic -u username:password http://tr.im/api/trim_url.xml?url=pbpaste | tr '>' 'n' | tr '<' 'n' | grep -m 1 -A 1 url | tail -1"

  
  
  
  
  
  




• You can also simply download this TextExpander snippet to add to TextExpander. You still must put your username and password where it says username:password. :)
  

  
  
  




• Set the shortcut to something like "trm" or similar.
  
  

  
  
  

Thats it! Anytime you want to shorten a url in any application, copy the url to the clipboard. Next go to where you'd like to paste the url. Type in "trm" or your shortcut, and it will paste the shortened url automatically.

applescriptautomaticautomationmacshortcutshorteningsoftwaretextexpandertr.imurl

Little Changes

Its not terribly interesting, but I've made a couple of very little changes to the site...

• I finally updated my install of Django from pre-1.0 to 1.0.2. Feels good! Though really anyone else shouldn't notice any difference. I'm really starting to look forward to Django 1.1!
  

  
  
  




• The tree branches that go all the way down the page on the left side now alternate colors... woo!
  
  

  
  
  




• I've made site searching more thorough.
  

  
  
  




• I've done a bit of re-organizing. I've finally gotten rid of the Swag section. I still have the Cinema section. However random reviews of other things (such as tv shows or random stuff) will still happen. Until I can think of a better section for it, they'll just be regular articles that happen to have ratings.
  
  

  
  
  

djangofluffsite

Life Season One

• I should really preface this with the fact that I'm a sucker for crime shows. Seriously I'm willing to watch almost any crime show.
  
  

  
  
  




• Easily one of the cheesiest crime shows out there.
  

  
  
  




• As far as dramatic crime shows go, this one is certainly on the lighter side. In more ways than one.
  

  
  
  




• It is shot in a very light/bright way. Many crime shows seem to have some very dim and dark lighting to them. Even when indoors, this show is still very light. Its a nice change.
  
  

  
  
  




• I enjoy the creative ways murder victims die on this show. Not all the the time, but some of the crime scenes themselves are quite creative. It makes the show fun.
  

  
  
  




• I really like Reese, Crews' partner. Her dark past is a bit cheesy, but I still like her chemistry with Crews. She balances him out.
  

  
  
  

• I find it hard to believe Crews really believes much of the crap he says, but he certainly is a decent person and a good cop.
  

  
  
  




• Ted is also a great character to offset Crews. How that guy ever committed illegal acts is beyond me.
  

  
  
  




• Stark, Crews' previous partner, is an interesting character. He seems like such a cool guy while also being rather creepy at the same time. He also always seems to be around.
  
  

  
  
  




• It is so, so weird to see Robin Weigert as anyone other than Calamity Jane on Deadwood. I don't think I'll ever get used to it.
  

  
  
  




• Once the whole underlying mystery is done (I hope they do get to eventually finish it instead of having it go on forever). I think it can still hold its own as a plan old crime show. So I hope they get to do that eventually.
  
  

  
  
  

lifetv

Recent Mac Finds

I've been trying to be good about saving my pennies, but I must admit that I've still purchased a couple pieces of Mac software recently...

• ShoveBox
  I finally bought this great notes app. I'm very picky about my note applications. The simpler, the better. I think I will always be a Notational girl at heart. I can really write a whole post on different Mac note apps. To make a very long rant short, ShoveBox is overall a very very nice notes app. Its clean, stays in the menubar, supports hot keys, and has a fun "quickjot" function for taking quick notes. It also has a very promising beta iPhone app for syncing.
  
  

  
  
  




• Fontcase
  Easily the nicest looking and one of the must useful Mac font management applications out there. I am not the biggest typophile out there, I tend to stick to a few favorite favorite fonts, but I still find it to be a crazy useful app. It also feels very lightweight to me compared to the other font management apps I've tried in the past. If you ever use anything other than Times New Roman or do anything with design, Fontcase is a must-have.
  
  

  
  
  




• LittleSnapper
  I really didn't want to like LittleSnapper. But over time it grew on me and now I can't live without it. I don't use the website they provide for posting snapshots, but I did (to spite myself) fall in love with the app's concept itself. its very freeing to never have to organize screenshots of all kinds and to no longer have tons of random screenshots sitting on the desktop. Now they're all in one place automatically as soon as they're taken. Once you get used to the workflow you won't look back.
  
  

  
  
  

macsoftware

*Cinema -- Watchmen

Watchmen (2009)

• Yup, it was awesome.
  

  
  
  




• Wasn't nearly as dark as I expected.
  
  

  
  
  




• Jeffery Dean Morgan really did a great job.
  

  
  
  




• Malin Akerman must have one of the most distinctive voices on the planet. I just couldn't get her character from 27 Dresses out of my head. Made it hard for me to take her seriously.
  
  

  
  
  




• I spent the entire time trying to figure out why Carla Gugino looked so familiar. Its because she's been in a ton of stuff, but just as a brunette.
  

  
  
  




• Jackie Earle Haley, who played Rorschach, plays a great crazy dude. He also played a a convicted sexual predator in the movie Little Children.
  
  

  
  
  




• I just realized that Patrick Wilson, who plays Night Owl, was also in Little Children (with a much better haircut). Interesting...
  

  
  
  




• I kind of found it hard to take anything Night Owl did seriously. The dude was a dweeb. Even when he was having some fantastic sex.
  
  

  
  
  




• I was pretty much unfazed by all the blue man nudity.
  

  
  
  




• I would totally watch this again.
  

  
  
  

Quick Desk Shot

Finally took a quick shot of my desk set up... ;)

On it (from left to right):

• 
  Drobo
  



• 
  Airport Extreme
  



• 
  Creature Speakers
  



• 
  2.4 Ghz Unibody MacBook named Venetia on a mStand
  



• 
  My glasses
  



• 
  20" Apple Cinema Display
  



• 
  iPhone 3G
  



• 
  Apple Keyboard
  



• 
  Intuos Mouse & Tablet
  

deskdrobomac

The Wire Seasons One & Two

• Season one was superbly done. Season two was also great.
  

  
  
  




• Season one was just so intense. Season two was a bit less intense, I think its simply because the pace of the season was a bit slower.
  
  

  
  
  




• The parts that upset you really upset you. It can be just plain difficult to watch.
  

  
  
  




• Griggs, McNulty, Bunk, Freeman, Daniels, D'angelo and Omar... just awesome, awesome characters.
  
  

  
  
  




• The amount of drinking on this show matches the amount of cursing on Deadwood.
  

  
  
  




• The 'f*ck' scene in season one was my favorite few minutes in any crime show ever. (I've watched many many crime shows).
  
  

  
  
  




• I hate the show for some of the stuff it does to some of its characters... but I'm sure that all of the crap that this show does to its characters makes me love it even more.
  

  
  
  




• Its just a beautiful show. So engrossing.
  
  

  
  
  

tvwire