we got all night

Livejournal, you have returned! Except that.... you haven't. I can post but I can't read my flist. Boo.

This week flew by but was also interesting. Since everything I usually do is related to LJ in some way, down to watching TV that isn't live, I was on YouTube finally getting around to watching a bunch of things like A Very Potter Musical/Sequel and Echo Base CA-related videos, like all the guys' VEDAs and most of the music videos.

Let's talk about Starkid for a second. Darren Criss is cool, and I enjoy his dorkiness and creativity, but I don't really enjoy a lot of his original songs outside of AVPS/AVPS. His fans tend to annoy me on Tumblr and Glee is another issue. Joey Richter on the other hand is a beautiful, beautiful man that I prefer to just stare at while he speaks. He sort of reminds me of Samm Levine mixed with Jared Padalecki and a dash of teddy bear. Just look at him:

( Under here )

Ugh, I love.

Also, I am addicted to "Stutter" and Joe Walker's Umbridge. I'm not sure why that's the character I walked away with the most amount of love for, but it happened. I do like Snape and Draco (LAUREN LOPEZ IS REALLY HOT, I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW A WIG CHANGES THAT), too, but UMBRIDGE. <33 And I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but I think the sequel is better if only because the songs are nicer and there are a lot more human moments in it than in the first one, which was sillier. And it is my plan this weekend to learn the dance moves to this:

( Stutter at LeakyCon )

Now wizard rock. I'm really upset that I got this into wizard rock this late. I should've been paying more attention when I started downloading things back in 2007/2008. The Remus Lupins are apparently disbanded now and Alex is now in Ministry of Magic (my favorite group, so not all that bad?) and the Harry and the Potters are still going strong, but I just missed the Con Tour in early July and I feel like all the bands might be stopping now that the movies are over and there isn't more canon to come in any respect (except for Pottermore, maybe?). I mean, I can't even find the MySpaces of some of my older faves. At least I got to see a bunch of them at the Wizard Rock Festival in November and I'm seeing Harry and the Potters tomorrow. And I really wish I could go to wrockstock but it's too far. My consolation prize is that people like Jason Munday and Alex Carpenter are still making nerdcore music, so I have that, if I don't have wizard rock. I wish more fandoms had their version of wizard rock. Doctor Who has trock but I have tried various times to watch Doctor Who and it didn't grab me. I don't even have a major fandom right now, but I would dive into one if there was a music scene, probably. So right now, my biggest fascination is the guys from Ministry of Magic/Echo Base LA and their friends.

I can't even go through all the favorite parts from their vlogs, but basically, here are their Youtube channels:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlexanderCarpenter
http://www.youtube.com/user/sarahsnitch
http://www.youtube.com/user/JasonMundayMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/lukeconard
http://www.youtube.com/user/italktosnakes
http://www.youtube.com/user/jimmy
http://www.youtube.com/user/winterspringpro
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnjnoe
http://www.youtube.com/user/meekakitty < who is also friends with Ray William Johnson of =3? Weirdddd.
http://www.youtube.com/user/mikelombardo

Some of them have channels strictly for their vlogs and/or music.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlexCarpenterTwo
http://www.youtube.com/user/moreJason
http://www.youtube.com/user/lukeconard2

http://www.youtube.com/user/theremuslupins
http://www.youtube.com/user/theoceanicsixmusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/allcapsband

I also watched all of My Drunk Kitchen, finally and now I sort of want to vlog myself cooking. Not necessarily drunk, but she makes it look hysterical and fun...

I've spent today thinking of new layouts for all my social network accounts. I went and found fonts for a logo, color palettes from colourlovers.com, design schemes from various Google searches, the dimensions and size of each image file I'd need.... and now I realize I don't really use Youtube, Twitter doesn't really need a professional background, LJ and Tumblr I just recently re-did and Vimeo doesn't do customizing. :/ So I just made backgrounds for Youtube and Twitter for whenever I decide I need to start using them. I did re-do my about.me page and I'm still thinking of a better, more personal and unique background for that one, so it's just an artsy, hipster background for now.

So everyone's freaking out about Delicious.com going under. Yahoo is really doing wonders for itself, isn't it?

ETA: What's next for Delicious (buuuttt, I think waiting an entire day to speak out is sloppy)

Anyway, here's what I've found so far:

How to export your bookmarks into your favorite browser

6 Solid Alternatives

5 Delicious Alternatives (and if you use Evernote)

(both links above repeat certain ones like Pinboard.in and Google Bookmarks, but the comments add more of a variety)

11 ways to backup your Delicious bookmarks

There's also Wonderpage, but I think I'm going with Diigo for now. It's the same sort of system and supposedly imports the exported delicious file perfectly. They're experiencing an overload of traffic recently (naturally, and I guess that's a good thing because it lets you know everyone is jumping ship to there too?) so mine aren't imported yet but just so you know!

From sugareey: A LJ/social network user you should not befriend.

I need to change this layout but I have no inspiration other than what font and graphic style I want on the header.

Tomorrow I get to hang out with splits_thesky again! And I get to see Rooney in concert again, although I haven't had time to even listen to Eureka all the way through so brb, listening to it in my sleep.

Tomorrow night I will catch up on TV shows. I promise.

When I was younger, I used to get stuck doing quizzes on Quizilla, OKCupid and all those quiz/meme sites for hours. I guess that has been replaced by Cracked.com. I almost never click on Cracked.com links because I know I will be there for longer than I actually have time for, just by going through the random articles at the bottom of each page.

Last night was one of those nights. Here are some of the ones I read.

The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth.
The 5 Creepiest Unsolved Crimes Nobody Can Explain. (The #2 and #1 are the least weird, in my opinion. #1 is obviously some sort of a cult.)
15 Grossly Mis-leading Movie Posters. I just... what.
20 Baffling Foreign Movie Posters.
6 Horrifying Implications of Awesome Fantasy Movie Universes. I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT LOTR LIKE THAT. D:

Also, etymology is one of my interests, so the Online Etymology Dictionary is another time-sucker for me. Most of the time I'll look up a word there and end up clicking on all the related words and their related words.... you get the idea. But the etymology of "fuck" is confusing as all hell.

Enough about last night. Today was the start of E3 (for me--yesterday was Microsoft, but I don't have an Xbox so why would I care?), and my mind is BLOWN. All I was expecting from Nintendo was Zelda and some ridiculous casual games, but we got some amazing games announced. A new Metroid? Donkey Kong Country? KIRBY? KID ICARUS? MARIO HOCKEY?!!? (it's packaged with other sports but I WILL TAKE IT, REGGIE, SIR.) I never played Goldeneye, but if people wanted Goldeneye now, they could just play Halo or COD4. I think people are excited anyway, but it's kind of too late to get people on the Wii. And I have never even heard of Golden Sun, and the title sounds like a Twilight rip-off. *ducks* Next year, Nintendo? I expect some Battletoads.

I was hoping for Beyond Good and Evil 2, but so far nothing. I haven't seen Sony's press conference yet, which is when I'd assume that would be announced, but I'd have heard about BG&E2 through Twitter if it had been announced. Twisted Metal and Killzone 3 is sweet though... I guess.

Speaking of BG&E2, Revision3 is re-launching their site as a sort of social network hybrid. I don't really understand it, but I updated my stuff and started following people. I'm going to add it to my contact entry, but here's my profile anyway.

And now I will go catch up on my TV shows. :)

P.S. Do I usually end up using my Zelda icon for E3 posts? I feel like I do.

Big Bang Theory wasn't as funny as I expected it to be. I kinda saw through the whole fanboy-actor fan service idea and the B-story was almost insulting somehow. Eh.

White Collar, though, was better than I expected, although I'm still wondering how the series will unfold. It reminds me of Leverage and Burn Notice and Neal feels like if Barney Stinson and Shawn Spencer merged.

Onto the point of this post. I cleaned out my computers recently and picked up a few tricks and software along the way, so I thought I'd share a few links. I tracked down two Windows equivalents to two Mac-only apps, although try those at your own risk since I haven't (obviously) tested them. Most of them are shareware, but I haven't run into anything besides reminders to pay.

StickyWindows - Back in the days of Mac OS 9 you could turn your windows into tabs along the bottom of your screen and every now and then I'd still catch myself trying to do this. So now there's an app that brings it back! It keeps my desktop cleaner, while still keeping the windows I need right there.
DiskInventoryX - Scans and then presents the contents of your hard drive in a graphical way, so you can see where the space hogs are hiding.
* Windows: WinDirStat and/or SpaceMonger
Hazel - NEAT MAINTENCE UTILITY. It's gold to have, trust me.
* Windows: RoboBasket
OnyX - Runs maintenance tasks, clears out log files, deleted orphaned files-- all in all, it helps un-bloat your system.
AppCleaner - Generally Macs don't use uninstallers, but sometimes things get orphaned if you just throw out the application (preferences, log files, etc.) There's also AppZapper and AppDelete, but AppCleaner doesn't have restrictions on its free-ness. XD

iScreensaver - Make your own screensaver! Available for Mac and Windows. (I'm using this ripped by File2HD.com)
SaveHollywood - Turn any Quicktime file into a screensaver. I used to use this to play movie trailers before, but I don't download trailers much anymore. Every now and then I'll be obnoxious and set a Weebl's video on there.
FadeText - Displays any text as a screensaver. For a while I had filled this with Shoebox quotes, and then I had the lyrics to "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" by The Beatles. :)

Lia

First of all: RIP Stan Winston. I was pretty shocked to hear this. Hollywood won't be the same without him.






Yesterday was a crazy day all around. I ended up not going to the Rooney concert because I decided that seeing Kung Fu Panda and The Incredible Hulk were more worth my money, especially since Rooney had no new material to perform-- and I'd seen them in November which was relatively recent.

So my sister, nephew, dad and I all went to see Kung Fu Panda, even though dad was like, "I'd rather see the Hulk!" And it was adorable-- better than I expected and funny to boot. I spend most of the time watching animated movies just marveling at how far they have come, both in storytelling and effects. It might just be my family, but a lot of these so-called "kid's movies" are more fun for the adults than the kids. During one particularly fascinating fight scene I glanced over and my nephew was snugged up to my sister, but my dad was on the edge of his seat and leaning on the seat in front of him, lol. Things like that are why I love my dad. He's never grown up, for better or for worse. I would've loved to have been able to by him a PS3 and a HDTV for Father's day like I wanted. But we bought him a power drill... for the home projects that he never does? IDK, it's hard to buy affordable stuff for a selfless man like he is. I hope everyone had a good Father's Day with whoever is their father figure.

Later on my dad and I went back to the movies to see The Incredible Hulk-- and two seconds before we left my aunt called to implore us to go see The Incredible Hulk XD My dad was like, "Actually, we're leaving right now." And it was good, but I wasn't floored by it or anything. I will say that Edward Norton does fit the Ultimates Banner much better and while I still don't see Liv Tyler as Betty, she did great. I'm sure splits_thesky will approve.

In my mind I have this idea that Downey, Favereau, Howard, Leterrier, Norton and Tyler are all calling each other this weekend saying welcome to the club and that congratulations are being sent all around. I think the camaraderie of Twitter has taken its toll. That, or my mind is just thinking in Entourage terms again.

OMG, ALSO. THE CLONE WARS TRAILER. I am uber-excited. Shaak Ti!

Some links I found while clicking around the net:
Transporter 3 French trailer (Frank Martin! ;djks;afds)
First look at DragonBall Z movie (lol, Justin Chatwin)
New Apatow comedy (just look at the cast, you guys: Seth, Jonah AND JASON?)

And I meant to share this when it was on Diggnation ages ago, and most of you have probably seen it by now, but this video is long, yet awesome.

And this story might be of particular interest to sparrowlove, lol.

I'm like, six issues away from the end of Y: The Last Man and I'm scared. And the fact that the director of the upcoming movie wants Shia LaBeouf to be Yorick annoys me. Yorick isn't a stuttering idiot. Shia can act tough, but he can't be tough. Yorick is more Sean William Scott or Bryan Greenberg. This feels like my very own version of the Twilight fandom's frustrations when they didn't get their Edward and Bella.

Lia

So officially, I am back. I got a lot done; regained a bunch of my sanity. Sadly, I'll be losing some of you here, but I will keep in touch wherever you guys do end up. I myself am not leaving. Livejournal and I have not been at major odds and I have been dealt with worse by other journaling sites.

Some links:
LJ Add-ons. I'm sure most of you Firefox users know about this, and if you don't, then you should. It's a great asset. A bit addictive when first installed, but you get used to it.
Sexy Snape. I know I'm late to this, but I was hysterical watching it again last night. Right Said Fred is such a staple of early MTV. I miss my good!MTV. And the random Lockhart is hysterical. I'm going to go rip the songs from the Potter Puppet Pals now, if anyone wants any, let me know.


( Memes )

Anyone up for a friending meme? I was thinking of starting one tomorrow, but now I don't know... with all the fuss over LJ.

Does anyone use GoDaddy? I'm thinking of upgrading to a domain of my own (I need PHP desperately) and I want to base my decisions on something over than Kevin and Alex's fanboying, even as much as I adore them.

I don't think I'm going to bother with Monk anymore. It kind of lost itself for me. But there's still Psych. I need to go "manage" my icons. Because apparently userpics can be unruly.

Lia