Saturday, May 05, 2007
Update And Snap Must Die
My posting frequency is a good indicator of how my writing is going. If I’m posting a lot it means that I’m not getting much writing done. If my posts are few and far between, you can rest assured that it’s because I can’t find the time because all of my free time is being spent writing. I haven’t been posting very much at all. That’s a good thing.
I’m actually forcing myself to take a bit of a break from the screenplay I’ve been working on. It’s been in my dreams, most of my waking moments: driving to work, most of the time when I’m supposed to be devoting attention to my wife, etc. Anyway, I’m almost finished with the first draft. I know exactly where and how it ends, the scenes leading up to it. I figure that I’ll be finished sometime next week. I already know the gist of some of the rewriting that needs to be done, but I’m trying to avoid that for now. What I’ve been doing is making notes when I come up with a solution for a particular problem or scene. It’s everything I can do to not get ahead of myself. So, now I’m finding it necessary to force myself to take a bit of a break from it, at least a few hours. That means I won’t be talking about it …
…
…
Hey, you know, the weather seems to be very typical here for the Intermountain West. Last week it was 88 degrees (31 C for the rest of the world) which required the use of the air conditioner. Right now as I write this it’s 41 (5 C), wind blowing, and snowing.
Ok, enough of the trivial, meaningless bullshit. I’ve tried, but it just rings hollow.
Let’s see, what else can I talk about that is not related to said script?
Ah, I got it. A bitch. When in doubt, bitch about something.
Snap is the most evil atrocity to happen since Al Gore invented the World Wide Web. Nothing is more fucking annoying to the reading experience than stupid windows popping up over every damn link. Snap is particularly insidious because it’s a bell and whistle that a lot of people seem to be installing on their web sites. Usually, when I come across a site that has implemented this disgusting trinket I’ll exit it immediately and never come back. The only exception is if the site’s content is particularly good. It has to kick ass. It has to rock beyond belief. A site with Snap has to be way, way, WAY, WAY good for me to not plunge an ice pick through my skull and run away screaming. Take this site for example. Even though it implements the evil Snap, I find myself crawling back to it like a junkie picking up cocaine crumb off the floor after a two day binge and the junk’s all gone.
The evilness of Snap is summed up quite nicely here.
Snap’s preview anywhere gizmo is ruining the reading experience for millions of people. Its intrusive, obstructive and unuseful in almost every respect and use case. The fact that so many big blogs are using it, big well respected blogs, does not mean that it’s useful, it just means that they, like most bloggers, have all the self restraint of a magpie in a sparkly things factory.
That’s not to say im any better, but it is true. As a group , most bloggers are only a small step away from the flashing, rotating logos of 1997 or the neon pink backgrounds and blaring teen pop auto play bollocks of your average 17yr old MySpace user—and I include myself, though i dont use SPA, im as guilty as the next blogger of “bling envy”.
SPA is not helpful, it’s not cool, and it’s not winning you readers—It’s bling, a silly little shiny thing designed specifically to increase awareness of Snap.com—not bad thing, and certainly a shining example of how to use widgets to gain links and attention, but, come on ladies and gentleman, show a little self restraint, show a little consideration for your users.
Let’s see, what else can I bitch about.
Snowing, did I mention it’s snowing outside?