Archive for the ‘Random Stuff’ Category

« Older Entries

Sean Hannity Inspires Idiots (Read: Republicans) to Destroy Earth

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

I’ve been on a break from politics these past few weeks but today I decided to turn on my local liberal talk station (WCPT 820AM, 99.9,92.5, and 92.7FM in Chicago) to see what was going on in the world. Well, because liberal talk is underfunded and primarily owned privately (which is a good thing I guess) WCPT can’t afford to stay on air all night so all I got to listen to was crappy techno music. Then I switched over to the stupid conservative talk station (I won’t give call letters or station numbers for this station because conservative radio doesn’t need anymore promotion and should die) and heard the bump for Sean Hannity. I think it was a bump. Basically, Sean signed off to go to a commercial and there was a voiceover guy who said, and I paraphrase, “He eats steaks, doesn’t recycle, and drives a big SUV - this is the Sean Fucktard Hannity Show…”. This was upsetting. Sean is encouraging people to be wasteful.
(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Random Stuff | Comments

Testing

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

This is for Technorati. Here’s your claim, assholes. Technorati Profile

Posted in Random Stuff | Comments

Welcome once again

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Hello everyone and welcome to the fourth incarnation of ‘to the Left of Bill’, the site that started out politically, got into programming and music, widened its horizons and is now what you see today. If you’re confused let me clue you in.

This site is run by me, Bill. I’m a musician by talent, and a programmer by trade (or at least I will be after college). I have three interests: politics, music, and programming. This is the political blog. Look for new posts several times a week.

Enjoy!

Posted in Random Stuff | Comments

The Creativity Cure

Friday, January 16th, 2009

(This post is from another source. Although I do not have permission to reprint this person’s entry, others have done it to me so I figure its okay as long as I give credit. I’m really busy getting ready for school, working on a new design for this site, and working until 2AM so bear with me if I kinda spaz out with the blog.)

I give full credit for this post to Maureen Healy from Psychology Today. The original post can be viewed here

Is creativity curative? Are their more to crayons than meet the eye? Can a sad child communicate via paint, sand play and sound? Is childhood illness rooted in emotional imbalances? Are more and more children highly sensitive? Does creative self-expression provide the perfect outlet to guide children toward wellness? Is creativity lacking in our systems? Such questions have been alive in me for years.

Crayons and Children

Amazing things happen when you gather a group of preschool aged children and crayons together. Drawings spring out of the ethers and stories begin to unfold. Children love to create. Crayons, markers, pencils, glue, glitter, pom poms and ribbon seem heaven sent. Even the saddest child’s mood is lifted a bit by playing with a puppet or singing at my green piano. So does creative expression solely lift mood or more?

More, I believe. At least the potentiality exists for creative expression to assist in exiting negative, stuck emotions from a developing child. Ancient cultures such as the Tibetans and Native Americans believe mental illness is rooted in emotional imbalances. Intuitively, I agree with them. Scientifically we use different jargon but basically agree that emotions underlie all illness. It doesn’t feel good to be depressed, experience language difficulty, have parents divorcing, be ill or experience other traumas in childhood. Such emotions left untreated may disrupt a child’s growing system thus rewiring their brain for less-than optimal development (i.e. MRI studies, IQ tests of traumatized children).

Children are developing so rapidly it is essential that we meet them wherever they are to facilitate “rewiring” their systems for optimum growth. And a child’s world consists largely of imaginative play and creative endeavors. So being able to direct play or creativity along with a cognitive component is a main entrance into building skills of wellness (i.e. resilience, confidence, courage, connection, character and emotional regulation). Especially if we agree that language is often inaccessible in early childhood and emotionally charged events often find their way into ineffable parts of a child’s being.

One example is Aimee, age 7, that has learned when she feels low to use her voice as a medium to exit stuck feelings. She trusts that humming her favorite tune will diminish her sadness. And it does. It is not a magic wand but one tool in her emotional toolbox.

Creative development

Parents are an enormously powerful bunch of individuals on the planet. Often their child’s healthy development is the most important piece of their parenting puzzle. I couldn’t agree more. So what is the role of creativity in a child’s overall growth? I believe great. Using creativity as a medium to facilitate a child’s development is smart parenting.

Children create their worlds each day. Tapping into a creative endeavor to teach emotional regulation, language acquisition, teamwork, fine motor skills, interpersonal abilities and more is engaging a child’s heart and mind. Amy, Amelia, Allie and Matt all visited my Children’s Art Studio last weekend. All together we listened to an expert wildlife rescuer and artist reveal an owl’s story, then each of us painted one using acrylics before we set off to see Solomon, the local Screech Owl wintering in the tree nook. With the average age being 5 years old this was a high-energy, creative cornucopia. Tears were had, teamwork was enhanced, drawing honed, scissors utilized and stories shared to support growth.

Being with each child and encouraging their unique creative expression is a powerful way to teach emotional wellness and build skills (i.e. physical, mental). Allie learned about personal space, Amy created an owl story for us and Mattie painted an owl with his favorite friend, a coyote.

In summary

So much I do not know for sure. What I do know is that creative outlets and imaginative programs serve children in a multitude of ways both medicinally and developmentally. Every child I have conducted therapy with or nurtured their talents of told me more over glue, construction paper and puppet making. It eases their systems (i.e. nervous, physical), calms their mind, allows for insight and empowers their path.

Very interesting stuff over there. Anyway, if I work hard I’ll have the redesigned site up by Monday if not tonight.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in News, Random Stuff, Uncategorized | Comments

Militant Feminism - The Perversion of the Movement

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

A good liberal wouldn’t write this blog. But I’m not a good liberal. Conservatives (AKA, dumbasses), I am not siding with you either. I have found a happy medium on this subject. Here I’ve gone explaining myself without even telling you what I’m talking about. As you can guess from the blog title today’s topic  is Militant Feminism (sorry guys, I know Wednesday is all about songwriting but I had to get this off my chest. Maybe I’ll write a songwriting blog in the morning. Its 2AM right now).

I met a feminist. Feminism is great. Feminism is most certainly a good thing. But this feminist has taken it too far, and has taken it to heart. She turns everything you say into a slight against women.

Feminism is right to question gender stereotypes. I don’t think a feminist is crazy if she breaks gender stereotypes by not shaving her arm pits or her mustache. And let me make it clear, I am not making fun of feminism here. These things, albeit slightly gross, are part of feminism. I think women shouldn’t have to wear pink and other bright colors. They can wear flannel and work in steel mills and be CEOs and chop wood, play sports and go topless at the beach just like men. That last one does not fit into every feminists definition of feminism but its certainly one I would encourage.

Feminists are all about not being victimized. They hate the idea of women being victims and having to rely on men to rescue them as they do in so many movies, TV shows, and even fairy tales. See: Shrek, Rapunzel, aspects of Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on Sex in the City with Big, and the list goes on.

The feminist I met has taken these tenets to such an extreme that she has gone in a circle and ended up on the wrong side of the issue. I work with this woman. She is a bitch. Plain and simple. Yeah, I know, its not sensitive to feminists to call a woman a bitch. I guess its like calling a black person a nigger. But hey, guys are dicks and assholes, so why can’t a woman be a bitch? I think being called a female dog is better than being labelled as an ugly penis or an anus. But I digress.

This woman (who is constantly PMSing [LOL I keep on saying things that are so antifeminists, but I swear I'm all for it]) seems to end up as a victim every five minutes. While working in the kitchen at my job, people come through with heavy pieces of fryers and ovens that are very hot. Whenever a guy comes through at least one person always says “hot stuff, comin’ through!” and no one takes notice. When a woman comes through the same way the same phrase is spoken by at least one person. When Mrs. Feminist comes through and someone says that, she retorts “It figures you would say that to a female”. That makes me cringe. Fuck you, lady. Get over yourself. No one thinks she’s really “hot stuff”. In fact she is just the opposite. She’s hideous. And your a fuck if you try to say otherwise. If someone is ugly then they’re ugly - and if someone is REALLY ugly then they’re hideous. But back to this woman. She took that little quip so personally. The fact that she took it so personally doesn’t bother me as much the fact that when she asserts her feminism with these quips she says them in a manner that screams “I am educated and in a higher social class than you. You are uneducated white trash that is beneath me”. Someone so much better than the rest of us should be out there running the world, not sitting in a fast food joint unclogging a greasy drain. She needs to get over herself. I’m a smart guy, who has a bright future ahead of me. Once I finish with school I’ll be out there working a well paying job that I enjoy (people in IT tech and other programming type jobs, especially analysts, make pretty good money from what I’ve read). Even as it stands now I’m pretty accomplished. In fact I was just looking at my ACT scores today because I needed them to register for classes and I scored higher than 93% of those who took the test when I did - and thats nationwide. I went to Loyola ( and will be going back). I don’t say this because I want to make sure you know how awesome I am. I want to stress that I could go around with an attitude like hers but I don’t. When I talk to people I always treat them with respect so long as I get it in return. I see people my own age in there who have ended up working for this fast foot place as a career. I don’t think any less of them. These are people like me and everyone’s situation is different. We can’t all be brain surgeons. So why does this woman think she’s so great?

I saw her using a squeegee the wrong way and she was obviously having trouble. I went over to help her. I showed her  a better, more efficient way to get the water on the floor into the drain. Instead of being thankful she took it as an insult to women everywhere. She created a victim of herself. She took what I did as me saying “women can’t squeegee floors right, let a real man do it”. I wasn’t implying a women couldn’t do that job. I was certainly letting her know that SHE, as in this particular person regardless of gender, seemed to suck at what she was doing. I would have done the same to anyone. In fact I ended up correcting lots of people’s mistakes, mostly men’s by the way, because it just happens to be my job. But I’m not an ass about it. I just say something like “Hey, check this out. I’ll show you a faster/better/easier/whatever way to do this”.

Does feminism make you better than others? No. But I think this is a fad in her life. Kind of like how there’s those goth kids in high schools all over America. She wants to be a feminist and in her mind she is in an exclusive club that makes her better than anyone else. She has taken it upon herself to educate us imbeciles on how to treat feminists like her better than everyone else.

She has twisted feminism in the way some Evangelicals have twisted Christianity. When it comes to the other girls (I say girls because many are under 18) she doesn’t look out for them like a good feminist. She stares them down. She has an obvious distaste for them. Because they aren’t feminists like her they are lesser life forms. But rather than take it upon herself to talk to them, befriend them, and then lead them to gender equality in our workplace, she just stares down her nose at them because she wants to be the special one. She believes she is someone with special knowledge. The others can’t know what she knows because then she wouldn’t be better than the others. This is total perversion of feminism. Feminism should be brought to the masses. It should not be forced on them by any means. But the least she could do is let them know what she does. Explain what feminism is all about and tell them by what means feminists hope to gain gender equality. 

But she is not a feminist. No. No way. No how. If a real feminist saw her they would be disgusted. She is just a woman who was never popular in high school, has poor social interaction skills, and isn’t very attractive. She perverts feminism in an attempt to make herself feel good about herself. She’s a snotty bitch.

Feminism is a movement meant to advance the cause of gender equality. A good feminist talks to people with respect and educates them on how to be respected as an equal with men. It is definitely not about being better than other people because you are a part of a special club in your mind with secret knowledge only to be imparted upon the truly worthy. Feminism is a cause I support. Being a total bitch in the name of feminism is something I don’t support.

Fuck you, crazy bitch! How do you like that? I called you a bitch!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Enraged rantings on anything, Personal, Politics, Random Stuff, Uncategorized, Zeitgeists | Comments

Ann “the Man” Coulter - Why?

Monday, January 12th, 2009

i was watching the View (a rerun I think, and don’t make fun of me for watching the View) and Ann the Man Coulter was on. This woman is no longer relevant and no one should be shocked by what she says. You should not even care. The only difference between her and any number of schizophrenic homeless guys screaming their governmental conspiracy theories at the top of their lungs on a street corner in Chicago is that she’s on TV… and still manages to look like a transvestite while doing it.

I don’t want to write too much about this woman because she doesn’t deserve to be talked about.

Before I go on, let me give you a paraphrasing of her new book:

“Liberals are whiny pussies because whenever something racist happens they complain. There is no such thing as racism and rich white people are the real victims. I have no children because I am a barren transvestite but I’ll weigh in on single mothers just so I can be provocative. Single mothers are whores or too poor to support their children or they are just bad mothers and their children will run away and commit crimes. We should all fuck the poor and ignore racism and kill the fags and wage endless war against anyone who doesn’t bow to our will and the world will be a better place.”

This is a woman who should be ignored. Its all an act. Do not be shocked and pay no attention. This woman feeds on controversy. If all of the sudden the accepted world view was her own, she would be out there shocking people by going against all that she stood for in the first place. She’s just a contrarian.

I say things to be provocative too. But its not what I say thats provocative, its how I say it: bluntly. Ann Coulter doesn’t do what she does because she believes in anything. She does it to sell books packed with statistics that are dubious at best and proven totally false at worst.

I know no one cares what she says. And I know everyone just wants her to go away. Stop talking about her, stop being shocked, and don’t watch on when she is on TV and she will be gone.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Constroversial Stuff, Enraged rantings on anything, News, Politics, Random Stuff | Comments

I’m a Paranoid Conservative Republican

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

p style=”clear: both”>Hello, My name is Betsy and Bill let me write his blog for him today. He needs to learn some morality and how to love his country so I guess I’ll tell you about myself and how I do everything right all the time always and no one else can correct me because I am right.br />br />I love God. I love God so much that I’m going to spell HIS name in all capitals from now on. Oh GOD! /p>p style=”clear: both”>I think that the media has a liberal bias. The facts do NOT have a liberal bias, its just that those reporters are so liberal, thats all!/p>p style=”clear: both”>I love that Sarah Palin don’t cha know and also too her kids also and also too also I pray to GOD to help fix her retard baby./p>p style=”clear: both”>I love America. America is the greatest country on the planet and if you don’t think so then you hate America and if you think another country does something better you also too hate America and you should go live in Russia you communist!/p>p style=”clear: both”>Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, don’tcha know! Also too he is a terrorist. He comes from a Muslim country and also too he is also a socialist too also and also too an atheist too as well as also a Muslim too./p>p style=”clear: both”>I fly a flag every day in front of my house because that makes me love my country./p>p style=”clear: both”>I follow all of GOD’s rules. I don’t kill babies. In fact, because GOD hates baby-killers I indoctrinate.. err.. umm.. I mean recruit… or wait… I find young enthusiastic young people who are also too Christians to volunteer to strap bombs to themselves and die for all the innocent babies while sending all the baby-killers to hell when they walk through the abortion clinic doors./p>p style=”clear: both”>The military loves America. Do you support the military? If you don’t support the way you hate the troops. You want the troops to die if you don’t support the war. Also too you are also a terrorist too if you don’t support the war./p>p style=”clear: both”>We Christians are not terrorists or extremists like those Muslims and here’s how: We believe that the end of days is upon us and that if we are to go to heaven we need there to be a war in Israel so we support Israel and make sure the government gives them all the weapons they want. With each new war around the world we are one step closer to Judgement Day! God speaks to out leader, George Bush, directly and he told George that HE wanted him to President! Isn’t that amazing? GOD speaks through me too sometimes. When that happens… oh wait, I think its about to happen, hang on…. here it comes…. blaga habalala nabalagaba soo soo urrr krek thooo sssspoooj spoojikaka yama lama gropoppy… Sorry, the LORD had me speaking in tongues there. Where was I now?/p>p style=”clear: both”>Oh yeah, Liberals are pussies. They always want to talk about stuff and make plans and study junk. Eff that S. We Republicans are take charge people. We went into the Eye Rack without enough troops because we knew GOD was on our side. GOD loves AMerica and thinks all other countries are heathens./p>p style=”clear: both”>Being a good Christian is hard sometimes. People really hate you. But those people have the devil in them. Especially thos homos! Homos are awful terrible disgusting people because they have AIDS and have sex in their butts and have sex with three or four or ten other men all at once. Its so ewey. Gross! Those people are going to hell. All they have to do is get saved. They just need to decide to be straight and go against every fiber of being in their body that tells them that being straight is natural for them and then commit suicide because they lived the worst biggest lie. Its better to kill yourself than to be a faggot!/p>p style=”clear: both”>–Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Betsy, the stereotypical Republican. Send all hate mail to her, I didn’t write this blog ;) /p>p style=”clear: both”>I would so love for some hardcore Christian as in Evangelical Republican read this blog. Just this post./p>p style=”clear: both”>Anyway, its Sunday, the other wildcard post day.br />br />/p>p style=”clear: both”>I am sick. Very sick. I feel like a turd on ice, whatever that means. I nod out all day long for some reason. I can be talking right to your face and just nod out. Its weird. I feel werid. The doctor’s office is being very cryptic with my blood work./p>p style=”clear: both”>Anyway, I’m a working man now and I’m also a schooling man too. Pretty soon I’ll be developing software and being a freelance web designer/programmer. I really love the design part of web languages but also the programming part too. I created my own PHP scripts to up date this site. When you go to the Felix pages and any other pages besides the blog and the Feed those are all run by scripts that retrieve information from a database. I even have an admin area that you’ll never see that allows me to log in and create, update, and delete the information on any page. And I wrote it all myself./p>p style=”clear: both”>Its a lot like art. Web design and programming is a very creative process. People think its only for super smart or just plain nerdy people. Its not. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that it attracts highly creative people./p>p style=”clear: both”>Seacrest, out!/p>br class=”final-break” style=”clear: both” />

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Constroversial Stuff, Enraged rantings on anything, Personal, Politics, Random Stuff, Religion | Comments

Is Love Blind?

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Hey everyone. At the time of this writing it is Friday night but this post will appear Saturday afternoon. I got a job so I’m going to be very busy during the next few days.

Today, since Saturday and Sunday are wildcard days, I want to talk about love, relationships and all the sort of stuff that I hate to talk about. I have a character study you might find interesting.

I want to know if love is truly blind. If you are someone who has no problem getting the gorgeous girl and are accusomed to it, can love knock you on your ass and make you change your standars? Or did you just flirt too hard and now you got yourself all hot and bothered?

There are people out there who have the gift of charm. They don’t necessarily use it all the time or on purpose but on the rare occasion they do decide to charm someone purposefully the person being charmed never stands a chance.

I saw this happen today. This guy is usually very reserved and doesn’t go out with the intention of charming anyone. But today he found someone he couldn’t help but put the charm on. And by the way, once he put the charm on not only did his intended “victim” swoon but anyone in his path did as well. It was unbelievable. I observed and studied him very closely to try to figure out how exactly this whole process worked. I believe that when it was all over his charm came back to him with unintended consequences.

He was being trained for a job at the place I now work at. I noticed that when he first came in he wasn’t pleased to be there. He was surrounded by employees who couldn’t have been over 9 years old or so it looked. He had an attitude and became even more smug when he met his supervisor. But then something was triggered in him. All of the sudden it was as if he couldn’t help but try to win over his boss (who wasn’t much older than him if she was at all). He obviously wasn’t trying to make her attracted to him but only wanted to gain favor with her in order to make his time at work a little easier. He obviously got more than he bargained for.

As his boss explained things to him and the other new employees he asked her questions and somehow was able to make it seem as though they were work-related while still extracting personal information from her. It was like he had this all planned out. But he didn’t. It was obvious by the expression that crossed his face for only a split second that some kind of instinct had been activated within him. A latent program for seducing anyone he pleased. Rather than panicking on the inside he decided to go with it, and thats when the trouble started.

Within a frame of a couple of hours he had managed to become as close as two old friends with his boss. She struggled to appear as an authority figure to him and spoke to him as an equal. His charm morphed into subtle flirtation and she responded in kind, getting quite close to him and gazing, not staring or looking, directly into his eyes as she spoke. She would talk with him in a quiet tone, forcing the two of them to get close, seperately from the other trainees yet still right in front of them, often brushing against his leg or touching his arm as she spoke.

She had come in from Florida to help open the new store they worked at and would only be there for a couple of months. She quickly started to move the hours old relationship from an at-work setting to an out of work and personal setting. She tested the waters by asking him what he knew about the Chicago area wanting suggestions and quite obviously hoping he would offer to escort her on a tour of what is arguable the greatest city in America if not the world. They made plans to go ice skating on the frozen over streets once the storm from she learned about on TV arrived.

The two of them had gotten closer than I have ever seen two people get in such a short time. They developed a relationship that showed the maturity of months within hours. When the shift was over and everyone had gone him this guy wasn’t able to leave what happened at work, well, at work. As hard as he tried he couldn’t shake the encounter and brought it with him into his personal life. He was confused. The girl was cute. But she wasn’t what he was used to. She wasn’t that girl in the room that made everyone turn their head and stare. She did have an intangible quality he couldn’t put out of his mind. Her personality shone like the light of a thousand white hot suns and all of the sudden he regretted trying to make nice with his boss.

Sorry for the lame whit hot sun metaphor but I’m tired and can’t think straight. Haven’t slept in a few days plus I’m sick. But anyway, this whole story with this guy begs the question: Is love blind? Obviously it is. Or in this case it is. This is a guy who could have anyone he wanted but was suddenly knocked on his ass by an average, unremarkable but not ugly looking girl with a personality that outshone her appearance by far. This guy has never been shallow. But he has been lucky enough to get girls who are the best of both worlds. He told me that he’s glad she’s only in town for a couple months. He figures that if something develops he has an escape built right into the relationship and if something doesn’t come of this wildly flirtatious encounter then he can put it out of his mind quickly. What I am trying to understand is why he is so confused. He can’t tell me of course. If he could tell me then he obviously wouldn’t be so confused. So what can be the deal? Is it that she’s not America’s Next Top Model? Personally, I think this girl is pretty. There’s nothing ugly about her at all. Maybe he’s just afraid of relationships period. Its been a while for him. Maybe it was how fast the whole thing developed. Or maybe this guy just likes her. Crushes do crazy things to people, especially unintentional ones. Personally, I think it was the crazy flirting that was going on. I mean, I saw him put on the charm but I also saw how surprised he was when she started getting up real close to him in his space. They were talking pretty quietly at times, so quietly in fact that they had to get up right next to each other in order to hear. And the brushing probably didn’t help. I could see how that just knocked him on his ass. Ladies, please understand the power of brushing up against a guy. Especially when you come up to say something to him and you brush your breasts against his arm. I saw that stuff happening and I just laughed inside and rooted for the guy.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Love/Relationships, Personal, Random Stuff, Zeitgeists | Comments

How to Speed Up and Aging Mac

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Today is “How-To” Friday (still keeping myself on schedule after four days)! I know I just posted about computer stuff yesterday but I don’t know how to do much else and I already posted a songwriting tutorial on Wednesday. This tutorial was inspired by a program that destroyed my Mac a couple days ago.

If you’re like me then every so often you feel like you want to start fresh. After owning my iMac G5 for 4 years I felt like I wanted to start over but not have to buy a new computer. Well, a little program called Monolingual helped me do that in an unexpected way. Monolingual erases language and CPU architecture support that you don’t want from all the programs on your system which can save you several gigabytes worth of memory. But if you aren’t careful you can end up with a computer full of programs that no longer work. This happened to me and in the process of restoring my computer to glory I discovered how to get a fresh start without the hassle of starting from scratch.

Over time your Mac will probably gather files and folders that become useless and just take up space. OS X isn’t nearly as bad as Windows in this department and usually your system doesn’t suffer too badly but if you have an older Mac then you might notice a subtle sluggishness of your system.

This is because the Mac’s uninstall procedure (while so much better than Windows’) isn’t as clean as you may think. On Windows every program plants part of itself in as many different folders as it can (or at least it seems that way) and when you uninstall a program there are a lot of files left behind. The Mac isn’t too bad with this but it does do it. You think that all you have to do is drag your app to the trash can and its gone. Wrong. While Mac apps don’t put pieces of themselves in a thousand different folders like Will Smith in “Seven Pounds” giving away organs to a bunch of different people (oops, did I spoil the ending? and was that a lame methaphor?) they do add files to a few key directories. Usually in the Application Support folder and and the Preferences folder. If you look in your Library folder you might see folders having to do with apps you deleted long ago. Your System/Library folder will have some too.

There is also the matter of system preferences. You may have used a program like Onyx or Spring Cleaning or Secrets to play around with system settings you normally don’t get to unlock. You might now regret your decision to do this because you can’t figure out how to change them back.

And finally, your computer might just be running slower than usual. Well, I think you’ve had enough of my technical explanations and now you just want to get to it. Here we go…

What you need…

 

  • You need to get an uninstaller program. The one I like most is called AppZapper. It isn’t free but its cheap and it works great. If you want to go the free route there’s AppCleaner (which is my recommendation for a free app), AppTrap, and AppDelete. 
  • The serial numbers to all your installed programs if any (if you don’t have some or all of them don’t worry, just read on)
  • DVDs or CDs to burn or an external HD or some sort of large capacity or many large capacity USB drives
  • A copy of your current version of OS X (don’t worry if you upgraded from 10.5.1 to 10.5.6, this doesn’t matter in the end) If you didn’t buy the OS separately then a copy of your operating system came with your computer. Find the discs that came with your Mac, thats what your OS is stored on.
  • At this point I recommend making a list of all the programs in your Applications folder in case you lose that folder in the process (which is most likely NOT going to happen) and so that you can follow the rest of these steps
  • You will want a program that frees up hard drive space. I highly recommend Xslimmer for the job. Monolingual is a free alternative but you can end up doing more damage than good if you don’t know exactly how the program does what it does.

The Process…
 

 

  1. Do you have the best programs for the job?

Look over your list of applications. Do they truly work for you or are you just used to them? Go over the list and Google some alternatives for those applications. You may find a lightweight program like Rapidweaver that suits you better than Dreamweaver. Or you may be very attached to your programs and you don’t want to try anything new. That’s fine. Once you’ve acquired your replacement programs either leave them on the disc they came or you downloaded them, back up the installers to disc and in a folder on your desktop or wherever named “To Install”. Leave them alone for now. Do not install them. 

 

  • 2. Backup, Archive, Whatever you want to call it

If you follow the instructions in this tutorial you won’t need a backup but mileage always varies and there is going to be a small (miniscule, really) number of people who will track me down and kill me because something went awry. If you’re going to backup your files (which is always recommended no matter what you do) include all your music, photos, iPhoto libraries, documents… you know what you want to keep.
 

 

  • 3. Uninstall The Space Wasters

Using a program like AppZapper go ahead and uninstall all the programs that you don’t want anymore. Think very hard about what you want and don’t want. Do you really use some of those programs? If not then get rid of them. You should also get rid of programs that you downloaded replacements for in step 1.

  • 4. Re-Install OS X

Insert the Leopard disc (or whatever disc you have, I only know how this works out for Leopard for sure but it can’t be much different for 10.3 through 10.5). When the window opens click the OS X icon to install the OS.
 

Your computer will restart and you will see the installer. Its pretty straightforward  from there. Once you get to the point where you pick which hard drive to install it on you may think you have a problem. The installer won’t let you install the OS because even though you have the same version you added updates through software update and your system is technically newer than the OS you are trying to install. Click on options and then select “Archive and Install”. This will save your preferences and everything within your home folder in a directory called “Previous Systems”. OS X will automatically transfer 90% of what’s in your current Home folder and use it in the new system. When the installer is finished you will log in and see your desktop and everything else just the way you left it. It seems as though nothing happened but it has. Look through the Previous Systems folder located on Macinstosh HD just below the regular System folder. Make sure there isn’t anything you may need from there. Open any apps you believe may have been affected by the reinstall and make sure they work. They most likely will. If after you check things out and the water is fine delete the Previous Systems folder. This is going to free up a lot of hard drive space.

 

  • 5. Install Your New Apps

Remember that folder you made with all those new apps in them? Open up your To Install folder and install your new toys. Go ahead and open everything up and play with your preferences. Get them just right.
 

 

  • 6. Update

Now your Mac should be cleaner, lighter and faster on its feet. But some things like iTunes may not work. This is because you need to update all the default programs installed by Apple. Before going on go to Software Update from the Apple Menu. Once updates are installed and you restart your computer check for updates again. Keep on checking for updates and restarting until Software Update says that your system is up to date. It should take no more than 2 or 3 checks before your system is up to date.
 

 

  • 7. Put Your Hard Drive on a Diet

If you got Xslimmer then you have made a great choice. If you got Monolingual I suggest you be careful.
 

For Xslimmer:
- Use the Genie to find all the programs that can be slimmed down. I suggest you don’t change the protections for protected programs. Once the program has scanned your drive open up the preferences for it and make sure that the backup option is selected. Then choose a folder to store your program backups in. Press the Slim button and watch Xslimmer backup then cut out all unnecessary files from your system. You will most likely save a number of gigabytes on your drive. When it finishes make sure all the programs it worked on still launch. If everything is fine then you can delete everything in the backup folder you selected.

For Monolingual:
- Be warned: If you use this program improperly you can end up having to reinstall OS X all over again.
- You will need to back up every last program on your hard drive manually if you choose to do a backup. Follow the directions and make sure to set the program so that it keeps the languages you want to use. I advise against playing with the Architecture tab. If you do it anyway then whatever happens is on you. But if something does happen remember I warned you. Monolingual deletes one thing at a time. So it will delete the language support first, then you have to go to the next pane and choose your settings and it will delete whatever is next. Architecture files don’t hog much space at all. But if you’re desperate then go ahead.

There you go. Your system should have some more pep now.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Apple, Computers and Technology, Random Stuff, how to, mac, programming | Comments

Palin’s Daughter Gives Birth to a Beautiful Unwanted Child

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Its always the people who shouldn’t procreate who are against abortion and women’s rights. Palin’s daughter has now given birth to a beautiful clean slate that will undoubtedly be indoctrinated into the conservative movement.

What will the boy be called? Will she follow in her mother’s footsteps and give him some random off the wall name? How about Mistake? Mistake Palin. That has a ring to it. I know, I’m being cruel. I do feel sorry for the daughter. Listening to that nails-on-a-chalkboard like voice of her mother’s must be awful. What’s worse is the father of the child. Have you seen his MySpace? I think they took it down now but its basically your typical high school idiot jock mixed with some stereotypical hillbilly flavor. The guy has balls for brains.

I hope Willow’s kid turns out gay. It would serve them right. Try to tell us its a choice then!

I wonder who payed for the hospital? I bet you anything Palin charged it to the state like she does with anything from wiping her ass to living in her own home.

Thats all. I’m done. I have no more insults for the Palin family.


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in News, Politics, Random Stuff | Comments

« Older Entries