A brief update
- I recently found myself some consistent employment working evenings at a candy shop. It’s a lot of fun; (almost) everyone who comes in is happy, because, you know, they’re in a candy shop.
- This weekend I will be moving into my new apartment with three new room mates, one of which is a very old friend of mine, as well as a Modeus Designs collaborrator. The new place will be much closer to campus, and will have a higher bathroom-to-occupant ratio.
- As I was planning out my classes for this quarter, I discovered I wasn’t as finished with my religious studies minor as I thought. I still need to take one more class. Luckily, I should still be able to graduate on time in the Spring. Good thing I double-checked! I’m actually happy about this, because I really wanted to take another religion class this year.
- I’ve been playing with wikis lately. I set up two of my own, and have been learning a lot about how to work them. Now I feel I have something new to add to my resume.
ChaCha
I had a brief stint as a ChaCha Guide, which means answering questions for money. The compensation for entry-level guides is $0.15 a question. I made about $10.00 total. In my admittedly limited experience, it would be difficult to earn minimum wage ($8.07 in Washington state, which is rather high) while striving for quality answers. However, it’s pretty easy work, and often an enjoyable way to pass the time. I learned a lot of odd facts, and I actually got paid on many occasions to tell Chuck Norris jokes. I will probably pick it up again later. All things considered, I think it’s a good, legal way to earn a little cash on the side.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome, Google’s new web browser, is off to a promising start. I’ve been using it all day, and I’m actually really impressed.
- Putting the tabs at the top and eliminating the title bar rocks
- Clean, minimal, intuitive user interface (only two icons for browser menus)
- It runs lightning fast
- The tab/plug-in process segregation is a brilliant move I hope to see adopted in other browsers (this comic by Scott McCloud explains the technical side better)
- After some keyword personalization, the omnibar beats Firefox’s URL bar
- No extensions (yet)
The above counts as at least 20 cons for me, because I’m a pretty big add-on user. That’s right—while Firefox is made great from its fantastic add-on development community, Google Chrome is lacking extensions altogether. For now. TechCrunch reports that Google plans to make it extendable in the future, though. It’s a solid browser, but I’m going to need some extensions before I completely switch. I may use it for casual browsing for now, though.
Netflix
I got Netflix in July. I’m sold. It’s well priced and convenient, and the growing library of videos available to watch online (including the entire original Battlestar Galactica series, Ghost in the Shell, and the first two seasons of Showtime’s Weeds) makes it superb. I have some 200 DVDs in my queue right now, making it the most comprehensive and user-friendly “movies to watch” list I’ve made to date. Plus now when people talk about movies they think I need to watch right now, I can say “I’ll add it to my Netflix queue,” which ends the evangelism much quicker than “I’ll have to rent it some time.”