Really? People STILL think this way?

So, Proposition 8. Can you believe this? Why is it even something to debate over? This country needs to realize that their religions are wrong, and that there's nothing wrong with being gay.

Think about it, love is love. Gender doesn't have much to do with it. While marriage is based in religion, and religion is heavily biased against gay people, this isn't even religious-type marriage. It's "I die and you get the house" marriage. Plus, it makes the relationship more official. Why does it bother anyone if gay people get married?

I just find it hard to believe that in today's modern age there can still be people basing their thoughts and beliefs off religion. It made sense in the 1500s when they didn't have science and they needed to believe that all their hard work trying to survive would pay off somehow after they died. Plus it gave them something to live for. Think about it, if religion wasn't so widely believed, it would seem as likely of being true as a fairy tail. Plus, it interferes with the real world way too much. I wouldn't mind it if people left it in their churches because then it wouldn't be a problem. But no, instead people take it with them everywhere, causing tons of problems outside, in the real world. This might cause something as small as a minor conflict or argument in public. But it causes problems as big as Proposition 8 or in extreme cases, wars.

Dedicated religious people are some of the worst people out there. You'd think that someone who spent a lot of time on a religion was a friendly, good person. That isn't the case though. The dedicated-religious people can't stand people living their own lives. They won't let people live without their burden. It doesn't matter how silent you keep it, they simply aren't OK with people living peaceful lives. This brings us back to Proposition 8.

What about gay people bothers them personally? It's just so immature, I can't believe that these are grown adults doing this. Are gay people brainwashing children into believing thousand-year old fairy tails? Are they teaching people to make life hell for people who aren't gay? Do they walk around trying to turn other people gay? Maybe some do, but I haven't heard of that happening. As far as I'm concerned, people being gay or getting married to people of the same gender doesn't concern the religious at all, nor does it interfere with them or their lives. In a way, religion is just another example of how we (as a species) are not done developing. Yes, it served it's purpose thousands of years ago when people needed it to get through the day. It has no purpose anymore. When was the last time any religion did anything other than bother people? That's all it is, all religions are doing anymore is either bothering people or sitting there without doing anything.

By the way, I'm not an atheist. I do believe there is a God, or some kind of higher-being. I just can't see the world without one. However, I don't follow any religion because they all seem to be corrupt, and none of them have yet to show any signs of being true or right, I have no reason to follow any. 

V-Moda Vibe headphones

So I recently decided that I am getting a Macbook. To assist in this, I decided to put my expensive speaker system "project" aside and get headphones. I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but I'd been wanting a pair of IEMs. So I was in the Apple store (this was when I was using the Macbooks) and I figured since I was there, I'd look at headphones. A salesman helped me out, and like all Apple salesmen (or at least the ones I've dealt with), he was pretty helpful. I told him that I was interested in the in-ear ones, and he showed me the Vibes and some Sennheisers, saying he heard good things about both. I looked over both and decided I liked the Vibe pair more. The Vibes were purely in-ear while the Senns wrapped around the ear. There's nothing wrong with that, but for the sake of comfort and portability, I went with the Vibes.

And by "I went with the Vibes," I mean I went with the Vibes the next day since I hadn't brought my wallet with me that day. So I picked them up ($100) and I took them to my house. They come in an attractive box, which shows the headphones (as in the headphones that are in the box, not a picture)through some plastic on a backdrop of some fading colors with a translucent face on them. Opening the box, I found out that the plastic wasn't sitting there, it was one of those awful hard plastic packages that you need a chainsaw to open.

After some hurt fingers and a pair of scissors that were probably dulled from opening it, I had the headphones. They feel as great as they look in the packaging.

The build quality is just great, they definitely feel like something you'd drop $100 on. They come in five colors, which all look good. The TRS connectors are gold plated and the plug is made of aluminum. The splitter on the cord that splits into the actual ear pieces is made of aluminum. The ear pieces are made of aluminum. And the cord is wrapped in a durable yet flexible fabric. All the aluminum is the same color, which is whatever color you got them in. They look very good, and they're advertised as being "fashion headphones" so I suppose that kind of accounts for something.

But looks aren't everything, sound is the most important thing. The packaging and advertising would have you believe that they were "basshead" headphones. You know what I mean, those kinds of headphones that saturate the music with way too much bass. To me, the bass is very even. It seems to be contrasted very well with the rest of the sound, not having too little or too much of it. Bass is very clear and strong though. If you do like it to sound bassy though, you can equalize them. When I got them my iPod was still equalized (I've set all my sources of audio to EQ-off since these seem pretty accurate) and the bass was a little heavy as a result. It didn't lose quality though, it kept it's good-soundingness. All the vocals I've listened to on them so far (which is a lot, I've been using them a lot since I got them) sounded warm and good. I suppose the overall sound quality could be described as "warm," although not too warm.

Ghetto frequency tests (basically I played a sine wave and then listened) show me that the advertised frequency response isn't much to believe. I think it's advertised as 12hz-22kHz, but that's just flat out wrong. They don't hit 25hz. They also seem to fail on the highs (but this hasn't bothered me much, despite this they still sound very good). They don't hit 17kHz properly, and 16kHz distorts. The frequency tests weren't that elaborate, but for whatever reason these frequency dropoffs don't seem to affect the sound that much.

They also hold up well when given noisy music. If you're a Franz Ferdinand fan, you'll probably know that they tend to make loud, busy music. In my experience, a lot of speakers have trouble reproducing it without mashing the sounds together somewhat or downright distorting. These, however, handle it fine. Same goes for Smash Mouth's noisier songs. 

Now that I've covered sound quality, I'll talk about how they fit. At first, they hardly stayed in my ears at all. After hearing them though I wanted to see if I could keep them. This was with the smallest ear gel size. My ears seem to be adjusting to them though, they're fitting and staying in much better now (I got them on Saturday, at the time of this writing it's Tuesday). It seems that the white gels (you get three sizes of ear gels and you get them in black and white) are softer and more flexible, they fit to my ears better. For the record though, my mom tells me that she has small ear canals and can never use in-ear anything because all the gels are always too big. So I might just have small ear canals. My girlfriend says they fit her perfectly, so remember that what doesn't work for me might work great for you. It's just like this with IEMs. I emailed the company to suggest that they start making a smaller ear gel size for people like me and learned that they have plans to in the next few months, so that's good news. I'm still deciding whether or not to keep these (because of the fit, the sound quality is awesome and that's why I haven't returned them already). I'm giving them until the weekend, as I'm told by a friend that this just happens when you buy your first IEMs.

So in conclusion, I would highly recommend these. There's almost nothing bad about them, and for most, the good will outweigh the bad. Go buy some.

Don't worry guys, Starbucks isn't that bad.

A lot of people like to talk shit about Starbucks, but I can't seem to find out why. Yes, their coffee doesn't taste like you might like it. But that's why everyone has a preferred coffee joint. My favorite chain would have to be Gloria Jean's and my favorite nonchain is The Coffee Beanery (considering that one isn't a chain, I mean I've only seen one). They have some pretty good stuff.

Anyway, Starbucks really isn't that bad. I usually get an iced white mocha which is pretty good there. Things do get a bit expensive, but since the only one I go to is in a bookstore I frequent, it's convenient. I don't think I'd go as often without the coffee.

Probably the one thing about Starbucks that takes the biggest hit is their employees. I think we've all had a bad experience in Starbucks. I mean I haven't, but my mom has. Not all the employees deserve your wrath though, in fact the ones in this particular Starbucks that I go to are pretty great. They're friendly, they work pretty fast (my mom tells me of a Starbucks she's been to where it can take that long, not counting the time you spend in line), and they make good conversation. 

There are some things I don't like about them though. There's the prices, but there's also the smell of a Starbucks. There's no coffeelicious smell. What's up with that? Coffee smells much better than it tastes. I love the smell of coffee while I have to fill it with stuff in order to tolerate it's actual flavor (hence why I never get a plain coffee). Plus, wouldn't that prompt people to buy more of it? I just miss that good coffee smell that you would commonly expect in a coffee place. Where does the smell go, anyway? I don't imagine it's easy to deal with all that coffee and still maintain the smell of plain air.

Screw JPG and it's deteriorating image quality

When you save a JPG, it loses a little image quality. What was once a high quality JPG could turn into a blocky mess after it's been passed around a lot. This sucks for everyone, especially those of us on the receiving end of those JPGs. I say, boycott JPG. PNG is better because it doesn't suck. If you happen to see a good quality JPG of an image worth saving, save it and make a PNG copy. You'll be doing good for thousands of people. And if you happen to get that JPG off a Wiki site, be sure to replace it with the PNG version as soon as you finish converting.

So I'm using one of the new Macbooks

Yes, I'm in an Apple store at the moment, posting from one of the new Macbooks. It's very nice. The trackpad is really great. I mention that first because I'm sure at first glance, the first thing most people will think is that it'll be bad without a dedicated button. But actually, the whole thing being a button is very nice. It allows for a lot of productivity since you can click anywhere, and if you don't feel like doing that, you can click in the bottom as if it had a button there and that won't make it strange to use. I like it a lot. It's also very smooth and easy to run your finger on, so you'll probably like it. It's also really big, which is great. The button isn't too hard or too easy to click, so it won't be distracting. I also like the "gestures." It took about one second to get used to all of them and I really like it. For example, the four finger "swipes" to activate Expose is really nice. It's very functional and because of the smoothness, it's just a joy to do. There's various ways you can "secondary-click" (which is the Mac term for right click). One way is to set a region of the trackpad to be your "secondary click" area so that when you click there, you get the menu. Another way (my preferred way, which is very nice and functional) is to set it so that a two-finger tap brings up the secondary-click menu. It's pretty nice and easy to get used to, I really like it.

They include Spore Creature Creator on all the Macbooks in the store so you can test the graphics. I ran it for a few minutes and I'm very impressed. The new Macbook is great, I'm definitely going to get one.

Edit: I've found what some people might consider to be a fatal flaw. There is quite a noticeable amount of blur when things move on the screen. It's not so bad when it's slow, but if you're doing something like dragging a window quickly, it's pretty noticeable. When I dragged a window around pretty fast, icons in that window blurred a noticeable amount. This won't keep me from getting one, but it is kind of annoying.

Let's face it, if pandas looked like the youngest Jonas Brother we would've let them die years ago

For real. If they weren't walking around being all cute all the time, we would've let them die years ago. I mean, they clearly want to die. It's not easy for an entire species to stop having sex forever. If they were ugly like that Jonas brother or the Chrysler Cruiser, we would've let them go extinct as soon as they wanted to. Now we're putting them together in enclosures with perfect sex environments during mating season and letting them do whatever they want and when they still don't have sex, we sedate them and put panda cum in the lady-bear. The only thing keeping them alive is their cuteness.

So how 'bout them Macbooks?

Anyone seen the new Macbooks? Sexy as hell. I'll get one sometime. And then life will be amazing.

Crabapples are the best kind of apple

I remember when I was little and we had a huge crabapple tree in our front yard. I asked my dad one day if they were poisonous since I didn't know what they were. He said they weren't, but just like every other person ever, he said they'd cause a stomachache (I've never had any kind of ache from eating them). I tried one and they are the fucking greatest thing ever. I don't know why people don't like them. They're like candy, but the best kind of candy. They're sour and sweet and they're awesome and they don't cause diabetes like regular candy. There is really nothing not to like. I spent the next week eating every apple on that tree and then I was sad because there were no more. Then when there were more, I was pretty damn happy. I can't wait to live in my own house so I can plant them all over my yard. Let's face it, everyone is vegan for crabapples. Some are just too afraid of what their friends and family will think to admit it.

I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING FOR SPEAKERS

So I initially wanted the Klipsch Promedia 2.1s. But then Klipsch decided to stop selling them everywhere but their online store. I emailed them about how the Promedias had been out of stock on their website for quite some time. And I found out that they wouldn't be in stock 'till January.

There's no way in hell I'm waiting that long, so it's time to look into other systems. For a little while, I had nothing I liked more than the Promedias. Then I found the M-Audio Av 40s. They're powered monitors, used for budget home studios and whatnot. Reviews are very favorable, they should sound as good if not better than the Promedia satellites (probably better due to the MDF cabinet and 4" drivers). I'm going to order those first.

That's dandy, but they have no sub. I can't have no sub. So I've found the Polk PSW10. It's a small subwoofer, ported, with a 10" driver. For comparison, the Promedia sub was ported with a 6.5" driver. I found it via Yahoo! Answered. I asked the question and told what I wanted (at least 30hz, powered, $100 to $150) and the only answer turned up this sub. It's exactly what I need. It's $230 new, but on Amazon it's a lot less, so that's what I'm getting for a sub. I'm gonna have to connect it strangely though. The M-Audios have the amp in the left speaker. Then the right speaker connects to the left one through regular speaker wire, they both use clips for connectors. Well I'm running the left speaker into the sub's speaker-in (it uses speaker clips for input and output, which are for use with amps that don't have a dedicated sub-out) and then going from the sub's speaker-out into the right speaker. That's up until I get the preamp.

I looked on Amazon and found the Gemini PA-7000 preamp. It's $80, and it completes the setup. The setup will be somewhat complex just for a computer speaker system, but it works. It's going from the computer's 3.5mm headphone jack to the preamp's AUX input (using a converter cable for 3.5mm to RCA, which comes with the M-Audios), then one of the preamp's outputs (the preamp I'm using has two) goes to the M-Audios and the other goes to the sub. I do realize that a preamp is going to be somewhat unnecessary, but I want it for several reasons. One, using one will make the most sense for setting up that sub with these speakers. Setting it up the way I will before I get the preamp will be just a bit awkward. Two, I like the idea of having tone controls that are just that available (it has a knob for bass, midrange, and treble). Three, I like that you can plug in multiple sources. If we ever move or if I just move the setup for any reason, I can plug in various sources (like a DVD player and some game systems) and have it work like that. Without the preamp, I'd have to change the cables manually whenever I changed sources. Plus, after the addition of the preamp, I basically have a pretty nice bookshelf system at my disposal.

So in conclusion, I'd like to thank Klipsch for making it difficult to get a pair of Promedias. If they hadn't, I'd have gotten those instead. Don't get me wrong, they're a great pair of speakers and I still have nothing bad to say about them. But if they hadn't made it so hard to get a pair, I never would've had the brilliant idea of getting this setup. I'm ordering the M-Audios soon. Plus, the Promedias are still the best 2.1 system I've heard in that price range. The promedias are still $150, which isn't a lot to pay for a good computer speaker system. At the least, the system I'm getting will end up costing $330, depending on the prices I can get on the sub and preamp when I go to buy them. Good thing I'm getting it in pieces. Expect a blog post for each part as I get it and the whole shebang after I get the preamp.

Update: Looks like the preamp only outputs through TRS and XLR. This may add complication.

Double update: I remembered that the M-Audios also do TRS. All is well, but I'll need some converters to make the sub work.

Even Microsoft likes Apple

Just saying, I think it's kinda funny how parts of their new "I'm a PC" site were made on a Mac. I know it's old news, but still. Look it up on Gizmodo or some other site of that nature for details.

While we're on this subject, who remembers those Xbox 360 demos at E3 that one year running off of PowerMac G5s? I thought that was pretty interesting, especially since they were in such plain sight.

"Cyber-bullying" clogged the bull

Yeah, it's that bad. Cyber bullying is the biggest bullshit since they said smoking was good for you. I don't care if it's causing 11 year olds to kill themselves, maybe they should take a moment to realize that they are being bullied by someone they can't see or hear, who they can block at any time. Or they could get off the internet since 11 year olds don't belong here anyway.

You hear them talk about it on TV like it's the biggest problem ever, but they think about it from a very one-sided standpoint. "Oh no, these awful people on the internet made a kid sad! Clearly it is the internet's fault, let's blame people who use the internet and no one else." That is a summary of every "cyber bulling is bad :(" discussion ever.

Guess what, the world is full of awful people. There is nothing anyone can do to make them go away. The internet connects awful people together and puts them in one place, so they can feel less bad about how awful they are by being awful to everyone. When you're online, you're pretty much in the position to talk to any bad person who uses a computer. Cyber bulling is nothing like actual bullying though. Actual bullying involves a person you can see, who can actually do things that can actually bother you. Anyone who feels sad because of cyber bullying doesn't belong on the internet, because quite simply, if you go on any website where you talk to other people, it's going to happen. Period. Nothing can be done about it. I don't know what causes people to be bothered by it either. Someone bothering you through IM? Block them. Email? Block them. If you're on a message board where everyone hates you, get off it.

Parents, if your kid is online, get him or her off. Kids don't belong online, period. They bother older people with their immaturity, which tends to trigger the cyber bullying in the first place. Then the kid stays on the website for months because for some reason, he or she can't just get off and never have to deal with anyone from it again.

And a lot of the time, the kids are instigating. The door swings both ways. When kids realize that they can say anything they want online and not get a time-out, they go totally apeshit. Every other word is a poorly written swear. Let me give you an example (written myself):

Mature person: "I enjoy listening to Franz Ferdinand. Does anyone else enjoy listening to this band of which is pretty good in my opinion?"

9 year old's response: "what th shit fucking dude tey suck jonas borthes 4ever!!! u r fucking so stupid u ass shit bitch u r so stpuid go suck ur moms cockLOLOL1!"

Anyone who's been on YouTube will probably describe that as accurate. The spelling and grammar of any kid online will bother everyone else, as well as the immaturity. You can argue that cyber bullies say whatever they want in front of the screen because they can't see the person, but would any of the little kids who do this say these things out loud to someone? No. So parents, get your kids offline.

Dear Apple, no one cares about iPhoto

IPhoto is really damn annoying. When you accidentally click on it in the dock (and I keep it there because sometimes I actually use it) it decides that when you go to close it, it'll take a while to do so. Then there's that whole "add to iPhoto" shit in Safari that is right under the "save image" selection in the control-click menu. I click that so often by accident and then I can either wait for iPhoto to finish doing that despite how much I don't want it to or force-quit iPhoto and have Safari sit there and not respond for five minutes until it realizes that iPhoto is not getting the picture, in which case it gives me an error message about it. You can't turn off the "add to iPhoto" thing either. IPhoto would be great if it was out of the way and wasn't so bothersome, but I'm gonna be honest, it is terrible in that sense. And it's not even that great to use. It's not very easy to figure out, and I try to avoid using it as much as I can. There should be some way to make iPhoto have nothing to do with anything on a Mac so I can make it disappear without uninstalling it. That way it will never have to interfere with anything I ever do. You know what? Screw it, I'm taking it out of the dock.