No, there is no ‘but.’ Beginning your statement with that phrase does not release you from the responsibility of being sexist. (aka “I’m not trying to be sexist but…” Yes, you are.)

Ok, every 20 year old in college loves Dane Cook, ad now Shan is saying intelligent, well written bloggers she reads are clamoring over him as well.

Have you heard this person, folks? He’s really not that funny. Sure, he can elicit a chuckle because of some witty remark or joke he makes, but I’m sorry to say a lot of those are regurgitated Louis C.K. or Steve Martin jokes. Don’t believe me? Evidence of stealing from Louis C.K., stealing from Steve Martin, and more can be found on YouTube.

Louis C.K. even talked about it on radio. And am I putting Dane Cook down because he’s popular? Yeah, sort of. But mainly just because I can’t stand him.

Making fun of Dane Cook is much funnier than Dane Cook.

Sometimes people show me their computers or I work on them and I am just amazed at the amount of clutter or crazy programs people deal with on a daily basis. There are easier, less stress-inducing ways of maintaining your machine, that are actually better for you, as well.

Here’s a few:

• Your web browser: Everyone in the world gets a new computer, and then jumps on the web with Internet Explorer because it’s there and it’s free. Well, you should use it at least once, and that is to go to GetFirefox.com to download a better browser, Firefox (for Windows and Mac, though safari is ok for Macs.) It’s cleaner, it free, it’s easier to use, and it’s open source which means it wasn’t made by a for-profit corporation.
• Email: Don’t bother messing around with your internet provider’s email they give you for free. You can get better, more accessible email for free elsewhere. I recommend Gmail. There’s no ads, there’s unlimited space, and it’s got a clean, easy to use interface. If you don’t like Google stuff, try the new Yahoo mail, which is just as good if not better. But it might be a little more cluttered.
• Maintenance: all you needto keep your computer running smoothly is an antivirus program, and adware program, and a spyware program. 3, that’s it. and look, the 3 best are bundled together by our friends at Google for free, in what is called Google Pack. Lets see what they give us:
  • Norton Security Scan - Free antivirus protection and updates.
  • Spyware Doctor - Detects and removes spyware and adware.
  • Picasa - Excellent photo organizer and editor for Windows (comparable to iPhoto on the Mac)
  • Google Earth - Just download it. You’ll play with it for hours.

  And there’s more like Firefox, Skype and Adobe Reader that you’ll also want to download. It all comes with the Google Updater that automatically updates your ‘Pack programs for you so you don’t have to, and so that you always have the latest versions.

• Google Browser Sync - Download this extension for Firefox, which puts your bookmarks on a server somewhere in space so that you can access them from any computer, and not have to worry about backing them up if you get a new computer.

What else do people do with their computers?

• Work: Can’t afford Microsoft Office? Then try OpenOffice. It’s a free group of software that works just as well as the big boys. Or try Google Apps, a group of online applications for communicating and organizing, document publication, and web publishing. All free. Also, 37signals offers a whole suite of online applications that help organize and keep track of to-do lists, customer info, discussions, and documents.

So this is all pretty nerdy and stuff, but the point is, things can be cleaned up and less cluttery than they most likely are. Those stupid Yahoo and Google and AOL toolbars in your web browser can be removed. All those ads on your Hotmail don’t have to take up your attention everyday. You don’t have to pay $500 for Microsoft office. You don’t need a Web Accelerator or SBC Spam Protection for your internet. They just take up space.

Maybe it’s all easy for me to say, I sort of know what’s ok to delete or remove and what isn’t. And I know how to get stuff back if it is removed on accident. But if you don’t know, you should ask me or someone who does and we’ll help. It will make life a wee bit easier.

There’s a post by Shannon on her website that you should all take a look at, read thoroughly, think about, and then comment on. It’s about women changing their last names to match their husbands.

I’ve commented on the article, so you can read my thoughts there. But I thought I’d send over anyone here that hasn’t read it so you can give your thoughts (I’m looking at you, Scott)

Here’s the link: Doahleigh.com - Last Names: to change or not to change

There’s a few internet services out there that are changing the way people interact (dare I say…LIVE?) with each other. Most of these work best in big cities where there’s tons of people crammed all together and on top of each other (and where everyone’s bound to have a Blackberry or Sidekick or some other sort of ‘texting’ apparatus.) Let’s take a look-see, shall we?

Dodgeball
Perhaps the most popular of the three I’ll be talking about, Dodgeball (owned by Google, btw) is a service that lets you ‘check in’ with your friends and let them know where you’re at or where you’re going to be at. You send a text to Dodgeball saying “@Hunt Club,” and Dodgeball will text all your friends (that you’ve already signed up on their website) saying “Joe (that’s you) is at the Hunt Club, why not stop by and say hello?” You can even be notified if anyone in your group (or friends of friends in your group, or people you have a crush on) are in your general vicinity. Its quite crazy.

Loopnote
Loopnote is a little service that allows you to create your own little group or club or obsession and organize the people in it by sending them messages wherever they may be (provided they have a little electronic device attached to them at the time.) You add people to your ‘loop,’ and then send out a message and Loopnote sends it to your loop. You can start your own loop to say, notify your movie lub that the next showing of this month’s movie will be Friday at 8pm at the Michigan Theater. Or you can go to the website and look for interesting loops to join. More of a glorified mailing list than anything else.

Twitter
This isn’t much but an easier way to do what MySpace and Facebook people like to do, update their status every minute of the day. Text in a message to Twitter saying “In class zoning out” (probably the most popular message) and people on your friend list will be updated with your status. Fun, huh? And completely vital to survival as well? Of course! What else are you supposed to do to pass the time in that boring Biology class?

Crazy stuff, huh. I certainly hope all those parents out there are buying their kids cell phone plans with unlimited text messaging. Otherwise those dimes will start to add up. Well, that’s it for today. I guess I better update my Twitter status with “Just completed blog post,” let my loop know that I’ll be late for class tomorrow, and throw a dodgeball to my peepz to hit me up at the comic book store on Wednesday. Gotta love technology.

Yeah, not really to those last three things. Well, ok the comic book store thing might be true…

Ok, so I acknowledge that I’ve been around and used computers a lot in the last 10-15 years of my life. So obviously I know a lot more than the average person and especially the average person above the age of 40, just because I’ve used them and been around them so much.

But that doesn’t make it any less annoying when people don’t know how to use computers, or more accurately, don’t CARE to LEARN. A lot of people use computers because they’re either trendy and cool, or because they use one for work, or because they’re forced to. THat’s all fine and good, but people, if you’re going to use, here’s some simple tips that you should engrain into your heads to make my life less stressful.

First, clicking things:

1. Don’t click things multiple times! Especially if you have an older computer, this will most likely cause whatever you clicked on to open 80 times and crash your computer, causing you to say asinine things like “C’mon you stupid computer, gosh it’s so slow!” That’s just ignorance, so get over it.
2. General rules:
   • Icons on a desk top need to be double clicked to open
   • Icons in programs usually only need to be clicked once. If that doesn’t work after 5-10 seconds, then try double clicking.
   • Anything, ANYTHING, in a web browser window only needs to be clicked once. ONLY ONCE. Never ever double click something in a browser window.
   • If you hover the mouse over something, and a little border appears around it that makes it look like a button, then it is a button. Buttons only need to be clicked ONCE.
   • Remember what you used (single or double-click) to open something so you don’t get them mixed up.
3. You can double-click files to open them. This saves time.
4. You can right-click icons and files to see what else you can do to them. (You can also do this with links in web browsers to, for example, open that link in another tab)

There’s probably more but after writing all that, I’m not as frustrated as I was before. Thanks, BLOG.

Shan posted a little about the surprising site we saw when hading back from lunch on Sunday. The fact that those people had their kids out there doing their dirty work was just terrible. Okay, fine, I respect your beliefs and your need to express them. I have no problem with that. but at least wait until your children can make up their own mind before you send them out, protesting something that they most likely have no idea about. Especially something like abortion, where most of the grown men can’t possibly know enough, let alone the little kiddies.

Anyways, I just wanted to say a little something about that.

Besides that, let me officially announce a new feature here at Breathingfire.com. I’ve alwasy wanted to post movie reviews, and now I have. On the front page, and maybe on an upcoming ‘Movies’ page, I’ll list all of the latest movies I’ve seen plus a rating from 1-10 stars. And I’ll probably write a little something if it’s deserved. That’s it.

Edit: It’s now on it’s own page!

Ok, come back soon!