NOEXTEHO

So, my computer's fan has been working a bit better lately, so I've been catching up on some youtube videos now that my computer is less likely to burst into flame. I was surprised to find that the most entertaining video I watched today was the latest Auto-Tune The News: #10: Turtles. (No, sadly, not referring to this.)

After watching this video (twice), I went back to doing some programming while rocking out to my iTunes library on shuffle. Less than a minute later, I heard something that perfectly complemented (and quite pre-dated) Auto-Tune The News: Sing Along With JFK. Thanks to WFMU's awesomeness, I first heard this so long ago that I had completely forgotten about it until this wonderful coincidence. (My favorite jam is definitely Alliance For Progress Bossa Nova.)

That's all.

Except for this: Another amusing Auto-Tune The News is #8: dragons. geese. Michael Vick. (ft. T-Pain). T-Pain!

I forget what exactly drove me to try it out again, but just a week or two ago I downloaded the latest version of Notational Velocity. I had tried it once or twice over the past few years, but never took to it (no tree?! what?!), but now that I've been adjusting to Evernote's search for about a year, I now know what I want. And Notational Velocity is exactly that. It's actually scary just how perfect it is for me.

There are three sections to the program: the search bar, the filtered note list, and the content of the selected note. The search bar and the note list together are the main navigation interface. Type in the search bar and then use any one of a few different keys to choose which note you want from the note list, if more than one even show up. Then hit any one of a few different keys to move to the content area, where you can edit to your heart's delight. Saving is always automatic, and it remembers where you are in each note.

I know, I know... That doesn't sound very exciting, does it? Well, it's not supposed to be exciting. It's fast. It's productive. It's... effortless. The exciting thing is just how well and how efficiently it works. I honestly can't imagine ever going to another notes program. Ever. (I suppose this means I better look into Linux and Windows clones of Notational Velocity, in case I ever need to use one of those OSes for an extended period of time.)

Also, one final plus: it's an open source program! Hurray!

...

Now, in case you're interested, here's how exactly I arrived at my current note-keeping (and proof of just how picky I am about it):

I take type a lot of notes.

At first, when I started doing this, I was using DOS and plain text files were the norm. I still have such fond memories of Microsoft's EDIT.EXE program! Even into the Windows era, I still kept my notes in plain text files, although instead of a few all over the place, I tried centralizing them into just one file. At first, this worked, but given the amount of notes I take, it quickly got out of hand. But I stuck with it anyways, until the end of my Windows computing experience. My move to OS X was partially due to massive hard drive failure (and no backups, of course!) so I couldn't take my old NOTES.TXT file with me even if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. I was done with that. I was using OS X now... I felt like I had ascended to a slightly higher plane of existance. So, there must be a better way to keep notes, right?

Well, there was. And, in fact, I had been using it. You see, part of that last paragraph was untrue. I'm sorry, it seemed more poetic to lie... The truth is, at some point near the end of my Windows time, I had started using some program whose development had ceased, but it was similar to TreePad, a tree-based notes program. I loved it. I could organize my notes in a hierarchy! I could hide the deeper trees away when I didn't need them! It was pretty nice. So, being the note-keeper that I am, one of the very first OS X programs I went looking for (after Firefox) was a tree-based notes organizer. I had never actively looked for such a program before (having accidentally stumbled upon my previous program), and it was a hard search. There are a lot of names for these programs: personal data assistants, personal information managers, organizers, note-taking programs, note organizers, and so on. With so many names and niches, there were so many programs to choose from: Yojimbo, DevonNotes, DevonThink, OmniOutliner, are SOHO Notes are some that pop into mind right now. Trying to get as close to TreePad-like program as possible, I found JreePad, an open source, muli-platform sort-of-clone of TreePad. Unfortunately, due (I suspect) to its Java base, it was neither close enough to TreePad nor OS X-y enough to please me, instead resting somewhere in between. Yuck. So I settled on Mori from Hog Bay Software (now from Apokalypse Software) because it was the closest to TreePad while still being a wonderfull OS X-y program. And, without any adequate free options, Mori was about half the price of my second favorite choice at the time.

Mori worked great for my first year or so. I was happy with it. I loved it. But after about a year, I discovered that I had to pare my notes from time to time to keep it snappy. And when the developer updated its code for OS X 10.5, I had some lingering issues that no one else seemed to have. And although the developer kindly investigated and fixed some things, the issues were never resolved enough not to bother me. So I began my search all over again. Nothing was simple enough for me, though. Not that I couldn't use them, but they were all overkill, with features I wouldn't use but couldn't hide. And the few simple programs were far far too simple or too unstable. But then I decided to check out a program I had been ignoring: Evernote.

I think I was ignoring Evernote because it was being discussed in just about every blog I read. But upon checking it out, I discovered that the free version would do what I wanted, for the most part, and that I had no reason to pay for the non-free version. So I started using it, and getting used to it. It's a tag-based program, instead of tree-based. But you could sort of make trees out of the tags, and it was really more for searching, instead of tree-navigating. After using it for about a year (I think), I'm still not adjusted fully to it, though... There are little bits that I just can't get over, or little annoyances that I just can't see past. So I've still been keeping my eyes and ears open for other programs. (Which leads to Notational Velocity.)

I should preface this with the fact that I was already a Scout Niblett fan before hearing this album. I had to get that out of the way so that I don't spend this entire post just talking about why you should listen to her stuff in general. So now I can focus specifically on this album. First, some comparisons... This sort of makes me feel the way that a lot of the older, sparser Cat Power stuff does... or some of the mellower PJ Harvey stuff.

Since it's pretty evident that I'm not in my most descriptive mood right now, I'll say that this album has some SICK guitar on it. The opening song starts off with a riff that could have been by Earth (before they went doom-country or whatever it is they do now... which I love, btw). Some of the other tracks, too, have some awesome heavy guitar riffs. And the thing is that they work so perfectly with her melancholy songs. SHIT, DUDE... so perfect.

I think that, right now, my dream girl is one who loves this album as much as I do. Or maybe Ms. Niblett herself. She probably likes her own album, right? So, Emma, where you at? If you're at all into dudes who can't even write a decent album review of your album, you should get in touch.....

I want to eat zucchini bread. But I just finished my loaf.

This radio show I was just working on is called "future-pop" but it's turning more into "evil-future pop." So far, it goes:

(Thanks to Lin Swimmer for turning me on to this tune, long ago.)

First, you must watch this video:

If you made it through that, or at least half way through that without skipping ahead, then you must watch the following video as well:

Well?

In case you need to cleanse your palate after that, feel free to watch this one.

(coincidentally, these are almost all available on Hulu)

Stargate Universe - Not as schlocky as other Stargate shows, except in this case, that's a bad thing. As I've said before, it seems like they're trying to Battlestar Galactica-ize the Stargate franchise. Hell, it's practically blatant... A small group of people alone on a ship with intense struggles between civilian and military rule? Check. Did I mention that they're also constantly struggling with finding supplies to help them survive on their falling apart ship? Come on. The end of SG-1 took a decent dramatic turn, but like Buffy, it was a gradual change from schlocky comedy to drama. This might not be such a bad series were it not for the blatant Battlestar plot points, maybe... Or if they had started schlocky and slowly turned serious. Bah! It still has Robert Carlyle, and I'm still watching it...

FlashForward - Originally, I started watching this just because of John Cho. But I'm sort of into it. Sort of. What keeping me from being a real fan? Logic. I'm going to group this show into the same genre as Lost: a vaguely sci-fi mystery that slowly unravels over the course of the series, providing much drama. And, like Lost, the logic of the characters actions never fails to upset me. Now, the characters in this show do not seem to make as many stupidly illogical decisions, but they also have much less sci-fi mystery to deal with. So, it's a bit disappointing. I'll probably keep watching it at least until they kill off John Cho's character, though. And (not really a spoiler, due to it's vagueness) I was quite proud of the writers for adding the part where the FBI guy jumps off the roof.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - Very, very good. I frequently find myself laughing heartily at this show, and I'm pretty sure everyone else will too. Or everyone else does too, already. Everyone's always talking about how 30 Rock is the best comedy on now, but I beg to differ... This show is the best comedy on now.

The Office - It took me a while to view this as a completely separate show from the UK Office. The UK Office is a really good (if really bleak) comedy... One of the best ever, in fact. This show, however, isn't. This is but a sitcom. A really good sitcom, mind you, but still, quite different. But once you accept that, it's possible to enjoy both.

Parks And Recreation - A similar sitcom style as The Office, but with a slightly different sense of humor. At first, I was quite disappointed, but I've come to enjoy it. Although I'm not sure how much of my willingness to watch this is due solely to Aubrey Plaza.

Community - My friend Jesse wrote a much better bit about this show than I can, and I agree with it completely... a sincere show that is actually good.

30 Rock - I think this show used to be pretty solid, but it much more hit or miss lately. It's unfortunate, since this show has provided some of the best laughs I've ever laughed, EVER. But now I've gone entire episodes with only a couple of chuckles. Bummer.

Better Off Ted - I had never heard of this show until Hulu told me it existed, but I'm glad I know of it. This is a rather sincere comedy, like Community. This show isn't great, but it is always pretty consistent.

Outer Space Astronauts - Another show I had never heard of until Hulu told me. This one is sort of crude (visually and thematically) and rough, but as a pretty big sci-fi fan, it's nice to see such a niche show as this: a show for sci-fi fans that pokes fun at sci-fi.

Dollhouse - I admit: I'll watch anything Joss Whedon puts his name on. I'm quite enjoying this show, even if it has felt a little all-over-the-place. It started out slow, and I was up for a slow build, but then it seemed like they kicked up the pace due to sagging ratings or something. This, too, was alright. Then they had an episode on the 1st season DVD release that took place in a dystopian future (and it was AWESOME), and now that show has changed pace and is rapidly approaching that future. Yet another huge change, but still quite welcome. As long as the show either stays in the place it's at or makes another progressive change, I'll keep watching. It's fun.

Fringe - I figured I'd hate this one, but watched it for the hot girl (and, I suppose, for Josh Jackson). Over time, I've gotten into it. Very X-Files-ish, I think.

Lie To Me - Tim Roth. I'll watch anything with him in it. Some of the drama is too blah, some of the proceduralness is too blah, and the episodic nature is not my thing in a drama. But I'm still watching it. I thing Tim Roth is the reason. His characters always have a darkness lurking underneath (or on top, if the role calls for it), and I think the writers are slowly realizing that and writing some more bad-ass plots for this darkness.

Trauma - When I first saw the adds, I thought it was a joke: someone took all the dramatic tragedies from ER and made a show out of it! But I watched an episode anyway (thanks, Hulu), and now I've come to look forward to this.

V - I can't take waiting a week between episodes. I'm not sure if this is because I really like the show, or because the episodes don't seem to cover enough in each one, or what. I'm digging this so far, although there have already been a few times I've been disappointed with a main characters logic, so who knows.

Mad Men - I just started this. I wish I had it on DVD. My current method of watching it really kills a lot of the visual neatness that I can tell the show has. Maybe I'll take a break until I get the DVDs from Netflix. But I'm digging this so far. Not as much as lots of people in the world, but it's alright.

I was watching Dexter, but I gave up on that once Netflix Streaming didn't have any newer episodes. Same with Californication.

I hear there's another season of Party Down coming... Is this true? That would make me very happy. Also, I'm quite looking forward to the new season of Doctor Who. And I wish there would be a new season of Torchwood, too, but I fear that might be totally dead. Are there any Doctor Who fans reading this who can advise me one way or another as to whether I should watch The Sarah Jane Adventures? The brief cameo I saw of the show in either Doctor Who or Torchwood (forget which) made it look a bit juvenile, perhaps.

Anyone have any recommendations for shows I should watch instead of any of these?