Adium X !5 734 r0x0rz!

Close-up kick-ass-edness
Originally uploaded by The Morningstar.

Holy crap. A Final Fantasy message window skin!

I just recently started looking for an OS X messaging alternative, mainly because I'm tired of having three or more messengers running at any given time. I found Adium X.

Back before I was able to shake the Microsoft curse, I was fond of using GAIM. I'd tried Trillian and DeadAIM as well, but I liked GAIM because it gave me a generally standardized interface, was stable, and it let me run all kinds of lightweight plugins.

I got sick of using MSN Messenger for Mac because, really, I just think it's a piece of shit. More than that, it irked me that I had to run two or three different programs to talk to all the people I know.

So I finally decided to look around and see what sort of messaging alternatives were out there for my Mac. Sure enough, I came across Adium X.

I didn't even bother looking for anything else.

I love this program. I'd go so far as to say that it's the best multi-protocol chat client in my experience, including those I've used on my Windows machine. I'm not saying that's the fairest call considering I haven't tried anything else, but I'm impressed enough with Adium that I'm not even going to waste my time.

I really like the way the community has made so many custom, flexible features. It's possible to change most of the graphic elements, and doing so is really easy to do. One can find pages of skins for their message windows as well as their buddy list. Not only that, but there are also a slew of emoticons and scripts, too.

Beyond all the fluff, it seems to be a pretty solid program. At this point I'm using beta build .76 and my only gripe is that, like with most other alternative chat clients, I've had problems sending files or pictures and vice versa. There also aren't any video or audio chat features built in for MSN, Yahoo, or iChat/AIM. Hopefully all that will be addressed before Adium comes out of beta.

All in all, it's an excellent program. It supports all of the major chat protocols as well as Rendezvous, Napster, Zephyr, Yahoo! Japan (?), among several others.

Work

So I've been lax in drawing much lately, mostly because I've been working like crazy. However, soon I may be collaborating with a local author, possibly illustrating a graphic novel.

I guess this means I need to stop slacking off and working on some new pieces just to keep myself fresh. This is a little somethin' I touched up recently. I'm gonna explore this character some as a practice study.



I'll post updates when I have time.

Here's some other stuff I did not too terribly long ago.

How To Avoid Work Drama 101

Avoiding work drama is relatively easy as long as one follows a few simple steps. Here are a few suggestions.

Do not:

• become involved with anyone you work with.
• say something about someone you wouldn't say to their face.
• volunteer information, however helpful.

Some of these may seem obvious. Nevertheless, people somehow manage to circumvent their own reasoning and self-defense mechanisms on a daily basis. For example, going out with someone you work with ...

It's ALWAYS a bad idea. By always, I mean 99.9999549er% of the time. Yeah, every now and again someone just might actually meet their soul mate this way, but probability says it's not going to happen. It doesn't matter how hot he or she is, their sign, how limber you hear they are, the number of commonalities, etc. Far more times than not, when it all goes up in flames, you're going to regret it. Nevermind the rumor mill, or when someone else starts going out with your fresh ex. I've heard of people quitting perfectly awesome jobs because of scenarios like this. Don't do it.

Another bad idea: talking smack about co-workers, however playfully. I'm baffled by this practice, only because in this dog-eat-dog world, so many people are out to get ahead by whatever means necessary. Since there's hardly honor among thieves, giving your "work friends" ammo can backfire when you least expect it. Most people at one point or another have seen the red-faced victims of this practice. However, if you're one of those people that don't mind it getting back to you, more power to you. I can't say it's the best career move, but if you're calling someone out on something, I've gotta respect that. If you're just talking shit, though, it'll eventually come back to haunt you.

This last point about volunteering info has some gray areas. If one of your managers is, say, cutting up people and burying them inside the bathroom walls, it might be a good idea to say something. If you "heard" something about how some co-worker's girlfriend ran the "midnight express" with two other co-workers, that's the kind of stuff you wanna stay out of. The last thing most people want is someone's baggage train crashing on their front door. Even as entertaining as it might be to continue the rumor blaze, it's worse when the messenger gets swept up in it, too.

Work drama just sucks. It's better to watch it from the outside looking in, dirt-free. Following these simple yet often overlooked tips can keep away that sinking feeling one gets when avoiding common sense backfires. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Valentine's Day? Boo.

If Valentine's Day were a man, I wish Cupid would shoot him right through the face with his pretty little bow.

Allow me to elaborate, though...

"Oh shit. Valentine's Day is coming up already?! I guess I better go out and buy a bunch of ridiculously over-priced flowers, some cheap-ass chocolates, and maybe a meaningless card. I mean, I only have to do this shit once a year, right? Sweeeet."

Wrong. And that's the problem with Valentine's Day. Couples shouldn't act any differently than they normally ought to. A holiday shouldn't be a necessary reminder of love. I mean, that's what things like anniversaries are for.

I'm so sick and tired of seeing people scrambling to do something "special."

Hint: Every day should be special, assholes.

Seriously. In a world where planes suddenly fall from the sky, tsunamis wash away entire villages in the blink of an eye, and people get shot for no reason at all, no one should bank on tomorrow coming, let alone some sappy pseudo-holiday.

Oh yeah.

You know, I know I'd be rich if I could figure out what makes people stupid. Instead, I'll continue to observe these air/space parasites from their native habitat. This study is something of a casual life work, a passive quest fueled more by curiosity than hope for fiscal gain or true enlightenment.

Having said that, I'll take a moment to recount a dangerous brush-in with one of these entities. If you're easily scared by the truth, read no further:

The other day I'm at work, doing my job. That's a pretty tough concept for some people, but others - maybe even you - actually do what they're paid to do. Some people are even good at their jobs. All modesty aside, I'm one of these people. I know I keep the wheels turning smoothly at my place of employment, and I know it because people tell me all the time.

So when one of these parasitic, half-working wastes of time and matter accuses me of doing something I didn't do, I can't help but have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I know that I don't even have to defend myself because my work ethic speaks for itself. And yet on the other, I want to bite this chick's nose off for even wheezing out the words.

I'm not sure what crawled up this particular bitch's p-- (yeah, like anything could survive that journey), but something compelled her to tell people I did something I didn't. Regardless of how trivial the matter was (and it was petty), I was completely innocent. The problem wasn't even under my jurisdiction as far as responsibilities go.

So why point fingers? Why not just say "Um, I have no idea because I'm a dumb fat bitch." Sadly, it didn't have to do with me having slighted her, her trying to get ahead, or her being even jealous. The reason, in actuality, is quite simple, at least in one of those stupifying kinds of ways:

She didn't think before opening her dumpster.

And what gets me is that there are so many people like that. They shamble about pretending to be real people when they're really just fat meatbags unable to be productive or constructive.

These people, you often times can't give them a wide enough berth. They're like little planets of condensed bullshit, pulling a thing like logic out of its natural orbit.

All one can really do is acknowledge they exist and prepare themselves.

Poppin' the fairy ...

... Or something that rhymes with that.

I'm not even sure why I bothered getting this thing. Maybe because blogging is so trendy now I couldn't do without. You know, why not just "hop on that bandwagon". So yeah, I've chosen to abandon originality - if such an elusive thing even exists anymore. Like it even matters. Things go in and out of style so fast now-a-days, black will be the new black in about 12 seconds.

The coolest thing is, I don't even have anything to write about yet! Whooo! I wonder how long I can get away without writing about anything special.

...

So much for that.