Non-eternal questions.

Meeeh! So this past week I've spent so much time working on this new Psychostick DVD. Most of my time has gone to transferring video from tape to hard drive. An hour long video is about 15 gigs, aaaand... yeah I've filled up a 500 gig drive and had to go get another one. I have to do some stuff to our Psychostick myspace page AND .com page to shift focus towards our album fundraiser, so... yeah! Busy.

I did receive a few questions (all within a day!), so I answer them IN YOUR FACE.

"Whats it like to be in a band and what all do you need to begin one? Because we were wanting to start one ourselves. - Justin."

Well, being in a band is kind of like being married. Not that I would know what it's like to be married since I haven't been, though I'm told it's like being in a marriage.

Anyway, being in a band is a very atypical thing to do by society's standards. You know, go to school, get a job, have kids, etc. A band is quite the opposite of all those things in many ways and it's a very strange experience if you're not used to it. It almost feels like you're walking on a different plane of existence from those around you who are not experiencing it.

For me personally it's been a huge learning and growing experience. Your comfort zone gets demolished, at times you want to strangle your bandmates, you find out exactly how you handle stress, but in the end it's more than worth it when you walk on that stage. They way people react to your music, your creation, cannot be described. It can only be experienced.

I hope that helps.

"what do you do, when your ex-girlfriends friends, keep calling your phone, and telling you how awesome her new boyfriend is? - zac"

WOW.

This is tough to answer.

First of all, you're young (it says you're 14 on your profile). Chicks at THAT age can be extremely obnoxious. I find that when dealing with immature actions like that (which can sadly carry on throughout their lives in some cases) you counter with something they don't see coming.

Something that they won't have any way to get the upper hand.

Be humble and positive. Most people don't know how to deal with that. It's AWESOME.

Here's exactly what I would say.

"Really? He's that awesome? You know what? Good for them. I really hope they're happy."

Something along those lines would work. If they can't insult you or make you feel like crap, they'll never win. Not only that, but it'll generally make you feel better for wanting the best for everyone.

And be genuine about it. They might be playing this stupid little game, yet you are above the game by completely dismissing it and hoping for the best for everyone. Don't give in to that crap.

In the end, what you said will carry back to your ex-girlfriend and she'll actually appreciate that, even if you don't want her to. :p

"I need some advice. I've been friends with someone for about 4 years now.  I went to his birthday party last week and I found out he has been a stoner for about 3 years.  this hit me hard because I'm very anti-drug if that makes sense. I did not suspect a thing. What would you do in this situation?  Should I keepin touch with him? - Adam"

You know, I've been in your situation. Yeah! I can actually say that. :)

Several years ago one of my oldest, bestest friends ended up telling me he was a stoner. I couldn't believe it at first because at the time, I was STRONGLY against drugs of every kind.

Thing is, he probably hasn't told you because he was worried about how you'd feel about the whole thing. Personally you can stand your moral ground and still be against it, but make things clear with him how you feel and how you don't want anything to do with it.

I find that when dealing with stoners or druggies in general you can either get angry, hate them, whatever, but that won't stop them from doing what they do. Letting them in your life all depends on how strongly against it you feel, but keep in mind the type of drugs also makes a difference in this choice too.

For example, I refuse to associate with people who are into the "drugs that can kill you," like heroine, coke, etc. Pot is really harmless. I personally don't do any drugs whatsoever, aside from the occasional Advil for a headache. HAR HAR. I've just never had any interest. You wouldn't believe how many people freak out when I tell them I've never tried pot. Very funny stuff.

Also, I find it hard to be around people who obsess with any type of substance, even alcohol. Too much of anything is bad.

That's all for now. More stuff coming as always. Hell yeah!

• Apple/Mac
• Dating
• Video Editing

The woes of Mysql and Leopard.

 Wow, how shocking was this. Right now I'm downloading PHP 5 for Leopard.

"But Rawrb, it comes installed with PHP 5!"

Shut up. It does. But it doesn't have the GD library! WHAT?! Yes, that's right. It's NOT ON THERE. Why would you exclude that? WHY?! So here I am. What a pain. Just for those who don't know, the GD library is an awesome feature that allows you to autothumbnail images on your websites. I use it like crazy. 

But no, that php thing is not my beef for today. No, my beef is MySql for Leopard.

Now at first I read that mysql comes pre-installed with Leopard. Incorrect. It's NOT pre-installed. So yes, I went to download and install it. Ok, cool, it's installed. I install the MySql Admin utility they offer at Mysql's website. It shows it as running. Oh, but wait! The mysql.sock file needs an alias created in the /var/mysql or the /tmp directory. What? Okay... sure. I dig around on the net, and I end up created two aliases without even knowing it, seemingly removing the original mysql.sock file. Ugh.

So I attempt to reinstall mysql, but it doesn't install a new mysql.sock file. Nope. It has a blank my.cnf file that I had to... create? Erase? I don't remember anymore. Blah.

I'm at my wit's end by this time. PHP works (no GD unbeknownst to me). Mysql is not working. After several attempts to find a solution, and posting on Apple's support site, I install the mysql.prefpane thingie that came with the Mysql dmg file downloaded with MySql itself. 

Boom, it works! I reboot to make sure, and sure enough - it's working!

So in the migration to Leopard, somehow they decided to move the mysql.sock location? Why would you do that? Maybe I'm just confused. I'm happy now that I have it working.

Now to reinstall PHP 5. Not something I'm looking forward to. Maybe this time I'll get mod-rewrite to work on my local machine this time without breaking Apache or something. Fuck.

Rant OVAR!

• Apple/Mac
• PHP/Mysql

RSS time approaches.

 Being behind in some techie stuff is... well, hard to avoid with touring and whatnot. I've caught up with a lot of technology related stuff, and RSS is one I'm about to tackle. 

For starters, the RSS feature in the new Apple Mail program is simple yet cool. I get updates without going to the site. Love it. So I'm gonna pop that in Psychostick and Rawrb.com here. I figure it'll help with the traffic thing, plus many people would appreciate updated. Well, one or two here and hopefully many more on Psychostick.com. Yes.

• Apple/Mac
• PHP/Mysql

Those Apple bastards got me.

 Well what can I say. I fell for their marketing ploy. Totally fell. I am now the proud owner of OS X Leopard. I spent all night last night backing up my entire 10.4 Tiger setup, then I proceeded into the Leopard install. The FIRST thing I did after that was install Boot Camp and went over to Steam to get my Half-life 2 fix on. 

So now what? Well how about a mini review? I should totally post a full one on Pluh.com just for shits and giggles.

• Boot Camp - As I mentioned, this was the first thing I installed. The first time around I didn't "properly" format the partition made in OS X, so I had to start over. That was my fault. USER ERRAWR. After that, Windows XP Professional installed just fine and the first initial boot into it gave me a blank (not even lit up) screen. I powered my MacBook Pro down and restarted. Windows booted... FAST. Driver installation was quick and easy with the Leopard DVD, and there I was, looking at Windows XP on my Mac. Feels weird. Cool thing is, Apple made sure to include all the cool little features they have in OS X for Windows. When you hit the volume control, the same graphic appears with the same sounds. I like attention to detail. So yes, Boot Camp is badass. FYI - Half-life 2 runs flawlessly.
• Safari 3 - Now I've been an avid Firefox user since before I picked up a Mac about a year ago. So I decided to give Safari 3 a try. For starters, I haven't even played with the new features yet and I like it already. It's compliant with the CSS I use on my sites, the tabbed browsing works great, AND it runs much faster than Firefox. I haven't decided if I want to use Safari as my default yet. We'll soon see.
• Mail - I ditched mail in 10.4 because it was slow and... boring. Not anymore. I linked up to Gmail using their newly supported IMAP feature, and it's FAST. Very fast. RSS feeds are fast. The to-do feature is handy, and the way it links up with iCal is very cool. Good stuff.
• iChat - Haven't played with this enough yet. I don't really chat it up online much these days, but iChat is nifty.
• Spaces - Love it. I'm using it like crazy now. 4 spaces and NO clutter. NONE. I already feel more productive.
• Time Machine - Haven't used this just yet. I will soon.
• Finder - Liking it so far. The search is retarded fast. Cover flow and the iTunes look that the Finder now bears is quick and intuitive. Loving it so far.
• Quick Look - This... is brilliant. Click on a file. Hit space bar. You're now looking at the file without opening it. *tear* So fast and easy.
• The Dock - Meh. Seems to run slower than 10.4. Plus the stacks feature isn't so great really. It reduces a click I guess, but... it's alright I guess.

Overall a few little bugs crept  up, but so far I'm very happy with Leopard. I'm totally a Mac fanboy now, if I wasn't already. "Rawrb, would you ever go back to Windows again?" you ask.

NO!

• Apple/Mac

Leopard, OS X 10.5

I'm working on a MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHz, and I just added another gig of RAM (bringing me up to 2 gigs of RAM). I'm being told that this new Leopard upgrade should be pretty flawless... but I'm not sure. I have my system set up as a local web test machine (php/mysql), so I worry that it'll muck that up.

Natrually the new finder, Time Machine feature, and 298 other features seem to have captured my interest. That multi-desktop thing they have, spaces or whatever, looks absolutely badass. I could have like 4 different desktops going. One for php, one for graphics, one with browsers, and the last for porn media. I mean jeez, talk about innovation! I'll keep my eye out on reviews and people reporting bugs and installation issues before I try it just yet.

Oh, and boot camp is also part of it. Very cool.

• Apple/Mac