Josh Clark's Tumblelog

"But the overriding importance is that the 50,000 words don’t have to be good. They don’t even have..."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:39:41 -0500

“But the overriding importance is that the 50,000 words don’t have to be good. They don’t even have to be spelled properly, punctuated or even tabulated neatly on the page. It’s not important. Practice is what’s important here, because, like your granny once told you, practice does indeed make perfect. Concert violinists aren’t born that way, and the Beatles didn’t get to be good by a quirk of fate. They all put in their time. And so will you. And a concerted effort to get words on paper is one of the best ways to do it. The lessons learned over the next thirty days will be lessons that you can’t get from a teacher, or a manual, or attending lectures. The only way to write is to write. Writers write. And when they’ve written, they write some more. And the words get better, and sentences form easier, and dialogue starts to snap. It’s a great feeling when it happens. And it will. Go to it.”

- Jasper Fforde, on the importance of participating in National Novel Writing Month

Save an easy couple gigs on your Mac

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:54:00 -0500

Save an easy couple gigs on your Mac:

Go to this site, download and run the program Monolingual. If you’re like me, you ONLY need support for the English language on your Mac (and maybe even one or two others). Select the rest of the languages that you will never use and with one click Monolingual deletes every trace of them from your machine. Simple and quick. Cleared 3.5GB of space on my machine.

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today..."

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:19:25 -0500

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…
Almost everything- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

- Steve Jobs, college dropout and CEO of Apple, Inc.

Why Mac

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:12:00 -0400

There was an article at Boston.com recently that rated Apple as #9 in the top 10 most overrated brands. It speculated that rather than product quality and design, consumers bought Apple products because they are “hooked on the hype.” A commenter left his thoughts on this theory:

I only use a Mac because I’m hooked on the hype.

That and it got old reinstalling Windows on my plastic molded hunk of crap every few months just to keep the dang thing working.

What they forget is that the hype exists for a reason: You don’t have to reinstall your operating system every 90 days. You don’t have to install 10 spyware/adware/virus scanning packages/firewalls before you dare plug in an ethernet cable. You don’t have to take tech support calls from your parents because their computer can’t find a USB printer. You don’t have to reboot every time you do almost anything. You don’t have to scour the Internet for tons of little apps and hacks just to get your operating system working like it should out of the box. You don’t have to download extra software to do basic stuff like mounting a disk image, unraring a file, viewing a PDF, or thousands of other tasks. You don’t have to click on a bunch of popups asking you if you’re really sure you want to do what you’re trying to do. You don’t have to update your virus definitions. You don’t have to defragment your hard drive. You don’t have to check several different software firewalls to open a port. You don’t have to scour the net for obscure DLL’s to run programs written for your operating system. You don’t have to clean your registry. You don’t have to close little popup windows in your task bar that keep getting in the way. You don’t have to prove you’re not a thief to download updates. You don’t have to pay extra to watch a DVD. You don’t have to be paranoid about what websites are going to hijack your computer and which ones are safe. You don’t have to use a web browser stuck in 1990. You don’t have to reboot daily. You don’t have to have blue screens. You don’t have to endure obscure error messages. You don’t have to run Windows.

Yea, I guess it’s the hype.

"I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside...."

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:36:01 -0400

“I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stumped by this for many years.
And then I realized, you just say, “Hi.” They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word.”

- Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors

In Quotes by Google

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:25:05 -0400

See what the politicians have actually said about key topics.

http://labs.google.com/inquotes/

Persuade People With Subconscious Techniques

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:20:14 -0400

Persuade People With Subconscious Techniques

"All of life Is in one drop of the ocean Waiting to go home Just waiting to go home"

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:07:14 -0400

“All of life
Is in one drop of the ocean
Waiting to go home
Just waiting to go home”

- Monsoon by Jack Johnson (iTunes)

Swim to France

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:00:46 -0400

#24. Swim across Atlantic Ocean. 3,462 mi

Do more with your Apple Remote

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:24:02 -0400

Ever wish you could do something besides control Front Row with your Apple Remote? Maybe control a PowerPoint presentation or other media program on your Mac?

Check out iRed Lite. It’s an application that will let you control just about anything you want on your Mac.

Plus, it’s free.

Link here

Cell Phone Problems?

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:20:18 -0400

A man in South Korea was upset when his cellphone stopped working. He reportedly called his carrier, SK Telcom, 16 times and visited their service center twice, but got no satisfaction. When a representative suggested that he replace the phone with a different model, the man was ready: he had scrawled “Delinquent SK” across his Mercedes S500 and drove it through the revolving doors at SK’s headquarters.

“Lesson to carriers: do everything in your power to replace your customers’ defective phones after a maximum of 15 support calls,” writes Chris Ziegler of the blog engadget. “Lesson to customers: if you aim for the glass instead of the door, you can probably make it into the building.”

Originally from The New York Times

"Oh the Glory of it all is He came here For the rescue of us all That we may live For the Glory of it..."

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 02:12:00 -0400

“

Oh the Glory of it all is

He came here

For the rescue of us all

That we may live

For the Glory of it all

”

- The Glory Of It All by David Crowder Band (iTunes)

Create large wall posters from any image

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 02:25:38 -0400

Visit Block Posters to print out your own poster in three easy steps:

1) Upload your image.

2) Decide how big you want the poster to be.

3) Download and print out the PDF it generates.

I’ve used this to print out a poster, and some of the user images in the gallery are pretty impressive.

www.blockposters.com

Mac/PC Spoofs

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:53:32 -0400

Some pretty good, professionally-done ones.

www.lauriemcguinness.com

Desktop Tower Defense

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:41:44 -0400

One of those so-simple-yet-so-addicting games.

Don’t click this link unless you have a bit of spare time. Like, a few hours.

Link Here

A Procrastinator's Philosophy

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:48:34 -0500

Sarah: Don't you have homework you're supposed to be working on?
Me: Nothing that's due tomorrow.

Such is the result of a night of procrastination and boredom in...

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:55:33 -0500

Such is the result of a night of procrastination and boredom in the apartment of a few college guys.

Dubbed “one of the coolest things we have ever done.”

No Photoshop involved.

Do-it-yourself (DIY) paint-on chalkboard wall calendar

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:44:41 -0500

Do-it-yourself (DIY) paint-on chalkboard wall calendar