Crtl-shift-e brings up the tabs group manager in firefox. ctrl-shift-w closes firefox. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

After going to a small youth theatre show I’ve been reminded how much I fucking hate stage parents. I also hate most motherfuckers in theatres (live, in this case) because they don’t know how to act right, but stage parents are the worst of them.

Don’t call out your child’s name during the show. They’re not the only person in the cast, it’s not about them, and it’s a distraction to their performance, and everyone else’s. You also aren’t entitled to photograph the performance, with or without a flash, just because your child is in the show. Don’t get up and leave as soon as your child’s performance is over, that just proves you’re a self-centered asshole and probably only there to bask in your child’s reflected glory.

Let’s just go so far as to say don’t yell things out at all. Applaud, and applaud loudly as warranted. But shut the fuck up as you’re doing it.

Shut the fuck up during the performance especially and restrict speech to whispers during scene changes. If it’s anything musical, save your applause until a number is OVER rather than interrupting it.

Don’t start a last clap contest during scene changes just because you think it’s funny. It’s not cute, nobody’s laughing, we just think you and the other guy doing it with you on the other end of the theatre should be punched in the face and removed from the building. This applies to yelling “encore” after a show that isn’t a musical concert as well. What kind of encore is a play going to have? Are they tacking on an epilogue they write in the back? No? There isn’t any? Did you yell that for any reason besides needing attention? Fuck you.

Some days you’re surrounded by aggressive stupidity. Today has been that way.

Some days you’re part of it. This weekend has been that way. I don’t know what’s been going on, but from Thursday night on my brain has not functioned at all. I’ve been on autopilot and doing everything wrong. Forget to put a new turn signal in on my car, forget to wash my laundry, go to bleach out a pair of thermoses, fill the bleach bottle with water instead of the thermoses. Or pour kool-aid powder into the sugar jar.

Topped it all off by checking my pockets before throwing my jeans in the wash, only to miss the watch pocket which had my AceKard in it. So much for my whole “Hey, I can grab an AceKard and not risk losing a bunch of little cartridges at school” theory. Hopefully I did a save backup recently, though it’ll be two or three weeks before a replacement arrives, and I don’t have a DS card reader to transfer saves onto the carts with anyway.

Well, the weekend’s not over yet, let’s see where else I can screw up!

How the hell does one fight one off? I’ve spent today with my brain alternating between Gaga’s “Eh, Eh” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella.” Do you just listen to the song again so you have more than a chorus? Do you think about other songs? Do you sing yourself Yellow Submarine? I wonder if earworms get worse the smarter you get, just for the ability to keep more information in active memory at once. I bet Stephen Hawking hasn’t had a quiet moment in his brain for YEARS.

All I know is none of the songs in my head, currently four to five, are appropriate mental accompaniment for Dead Space 2.

Can we please settle on a USB cable end? For a while it seemed like everything came to a happy resolution at a USB-Mini B. Life was good. Everything was compatible, simple!

But HTC insists on micro-a for some reason, while every other cell phone is type B. I’d care less, likely, if I actually had more of those cables, but I’ve ONE. Give me a USB-Mini B and I’ll say “Dude, I’ve got like, eight of these, just keep it.” A micro-a? “The fuck is this? Shit, it’s the only one I have. I’m going to lose this immediately and thus render the attached device useless.”

Or the approximate odds I’ll hear a circling helicopter on any given night. At least three nights a week, helicopters circle near or around my house, and this is despite the fact I actually live in a good neighborhood. Phoenix’s crime rate is rising, or the ability of its officers to actually make the damn arrest is decreasing. Or maybe Sheriff Joe just wants us to think he’s busy. I’m not sure really, all I know is that when I moved here, helicopters were rare. Two years ago helicopters were rare. Now they’re expected. Is the economy to blame? Phoenix’s culture? The general conditions of the city?

That I don’t know, I just know that Phoenix is on its way to having the crime levels of Detroit without the economic gains.

Now that I’ve got some crap speakers set up, I have to work out what I can “watch” as I’m in bed. There’s a need for a certain familiarity or dullness. For obvious reasons the news is the best. Lightly stimulating, engaging enough to keep my mind from wandering too much, but not so much to really focus on. It’s just the right level, really, for me to sleep to.

Too engaging and obviously I don’t sleep. Not engaging at all and I’m bored or annoyed in bed, and my thoughts drift, defeating the purpose. Too much noise, as well, defeats the purpose.

Now, this isn’t usually an issue with the television, MSNBC is my friend, and when it’s not, usually Comedy or Cartoon Network is. Not always, but usually. When I lack a television and can’t find a good streaming option, however, I’m left with Netflix and Hulu. Both are, by design, more engaging. They also have unique issues of their own.

Option one is Hulu. The commercials can throw me and the choices are much less overall. It does have the queue which keeps playing, a benefit normally. Not so much when I play through it all and have to make a new one entirely, but I could just set up a sleepytime account. The big challenge is finding something neutral enough to knock me out.

Option two is Netflix. The instant queue provides a lot of great options, familiar and light. Futurama, Super Size Me, Super High Me, South Park, etc. Plenty of choices of things that I know well enough or can just listen to and sleep. The downside there is I have to futz with it. Once I’m asleep, a discontinuation of sound can wake me up. It doesn’t matter what it is really once I’m out, as long as it’s coming from the speakers. It’s enough sound my brain relaxes. If it goes off, some primal part of my brain screams “Silence! That’s bad! There’s a big scary predator coming!” and I wake up. It’s also a problem if I’m having a real insomnia night and have to reach over to start another episode instead of it being on the way. There may be a Firefox or Chrome plug-in for this, at least, to autoplay a series or even from the queue.

So far option two has been winning, but my sleep is still losing overall.

It turns out the hardest part of not having a television (due to the sound outputs failing) isn’t not watching TV. Nor is it inconsistent access to one’s console video games, though that too perturbs when the Ace Combat bug bites.

Rather, it’s the silence. Even when I’m playing games on PC I tend to have the TV tuned into MSNBC during the non-Lockup hours, or Cartoon Network/Comedy Central late at night, when a man gets his Futurama/Daily Show/Venture fix. I absolutely Ozymandias when I’m working, and while I can set something playing via Hulu or Netflix instant queue, it’s just not the same. For one, the speakers are a shared resource. For two, I don’t have speakers. Well, I do now, rather had to get them as falling asleep whilst wearing headphones in bed just doesn’t end well. But that means two active sound devices, splitting audio sources, etc. Pain in the ass.

I also keep thinking “It’s too quiet. I’ll turn on the TV”, or I glance over and notice the darkness in the entertainment center, indicating a lack of powered televisions. Then I notice I can see into the entertainment center, indicating there IS no TV, after I reach for the damned remote which isn’t there anymore.

I’m annoyed by a lack of constant news input, but looking for streaming options. I’m more annoyed by the overall silence, which my brain actively protests by constantly reminding me “It’s too quiet. It’s too quiet. It’s too quiet” as I try to work.

I’m not sure who’s to blame, whether it’s a person or a group of programmers, but whoever decided years ago that AOL Instant Messenger is so important a new message window should always pop up and take control must be killed.

It’s been 13 years now since AIM was intially released. I know it’s expected for it to have sucked back then, afterall, it’s AOL. It’s been long enough to NOT do this. But no, despite all the version changes, despite total overhauls of protocols, despite “Triton”, despite the fact now there’s one unified IM window…god help you if you leave AIM on without something already open, because when you’re on a Team Fortress 2 hot streak, when you and Sandvich are destroying everyone assaulting your base, someone will send you a message.

AIM will decide nothing, NOTHING is more important than it is, and it will force any fullscreen app to close and take control of the keyboard.

Whoever made this decision must now be killed, and if I ever experience the joys of time travel, I will use it to prevent this decision from ever being made. Granted, depending on your theory of time travel and time the fact I’m typing this may mean I won’t ever do it, but causality can suck it I say.