Refraction

Happy Pi Day! If I had a little more time on my hands I would have tried to make a pie. 🙂 [/geek]

So remember the part where I’m a Gmail fangirl? Gmail has made me even happier with their new options for labels! I used to keep the labels menu closed by default since I had so many (I’d make one for each course I took…), but now I can keep only the active ones visible. Since I’m out of school, there are only three. 😀 Makes for a nice clean inbox, anyway, and I’m able to easily see just the messages I want.

I’m so glad I got my Gmail account when I did, so that I’m able to use my real name (sans numbers, etc.) Unfortunately, I seem to get a number of e-mails addressed wrongly to me. Some of these are amusing (booty call), some cause me a bit of concern (receipt for a plasma TV), some are oddly helpful (organic produce newsletter).

I can’t quite say the same for Facebook; I was beaten out to my real name (as a username) by someone else with the same name. Ah well. You win some…

I think xkcd has been awesome this week.

Reasons:

1. Um, hello, Firefly?
2. Do you really need any others?

I don’t know how healthy it is to admit that a friend and I sat down today to try and list all 150 (original) Pokémon.

We got up to 144.

Being the Google nerd that I am (although I will admit that I have finally taken them off their pedestal and realized that just having a motto of not being evil doesn’t stop you from… actually doing evil things) I downloaded Google Chrome, their new browser.

It’s slick, I’ll give you that, but I won’t be switching from Firefox anytime soon. There are some interesting features:

1. Homepage with your most-visited sites. I actually dislike this idea very much. Seriously, I don’t need everyone who opens my browser to know that I am a GMail addict and check it frequently. Sites that I need to visit, I’ll visit–otherwise, this is rather useless.
2. No extensions. Yet. I’ve been using Adblock (and no NoScript) for so long that it’s weird to see ads on webpages. I think that since it’s a open-source application, this kind of extendable functionality is just around the bend.
3. Tab control. Reorder your tabs. Drag a tab into a new window. Drag them between windows. Remember those days when tabbed browsing was a new idea?
4. New download manager! I like it better than Firefox’s–it stays in a “status bar”, but you can call up a full (and searchable) list of downloads if you like.
5. Best feature for last: Incognito mode. Basically, any browsing you do while in this mode leaves no traces on your computer. It’s intended to rival IE 8’s “Privacy Mode,” I think. Somehow, though, I doubt Microsoft could get away with this little gem:
   

   You’ve gone incognito. […] Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of:
   […]

   • Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
   • Surveillance by secret agents
   • People standing behind you

   Cute, Google. Cute.

   (Every time I hear “incognito”, I think of that movie I watched in French class. Yes, sad, isn’t it?)

I think the world record thing is kind of hokey, but… it is Firefox we’re talking about, after all. 😀

Help set a world record. Download Firefox 3.0.

EDIT: I enjoy Firefox 3.0. It’s faster, and I haven’t encountered a single bug so far! It’s like Firefox 2.0… but a little older, wiser, and with a few battle scars. I kind of miss my unbeveled menus.

I have never played D&D, although I do have some experience with computer games based on that kind of world. One day at work, one of my co-workers suggested to me that I might be a Chaotic Evil character (please don’t ask how this got started.)

Anyway, here’s a meme to prove otherwise:

I Am A: Neutral Good Half-Elf Wizard/Sorcerer (1st/1st Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-9
Dexterity-12
Constitution-12
Intelligence-17
Wisdom-12
Charisma-11

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Half-Elves have the curiosity and ambition for their human parent and the refined senses and love of nature of their elven parent, although they are outsiders among both cultures. To humans, half-elves are paler, fairer and smoother-skinned than their human parents, but their actual skin tones and other details vary just as human features do. Half-elves tend to have green, elven eyes. They live to about 180.

Primary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, at 7:15 am this morning, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For those of you keeping track: Yes, I have finally pulled an all-nighter. XD

Coincidentally, I enjoyed the book. 😀

I want to play a Dvorak game, sometime before I leave for my new job (I never see you people anymore!) My exams finish on the 13th, and my start date’s the 2nd (if I should pass the security check), so… sometime in between would be good.

I’m trying to decide whether making up our decks or downloading one would be more fun. I’m thinking our own; unfortunately I’m not a terribly witty person and my cards are bound to be boring. I think I would work Domo-kun into there somehow, though. And French. 😀

Okay, so here from the depths of Harry Potter fandom… (and JKR’s official site)

At least that’s one test I know I did well on ;D