melissa's livejournal

Also...

the new gmail UI is driving me NUTSSSS. I currently have a single old gmail window open, but I really am getting to a point where I can't deal with it.



old = left, new = right


Let's see....
-Where are my contacts? I still haven't found them. Where is my "move to" functionality? I can't find that either.
-The Ads are now UNDER the buttons, making the more integrated into the UI and more difficult to ignore. Sneaky....
-THE BUTTONS! I hate icon only buttons. A lot. And having to hover over the buttons to learn meaning is also really annoying/requires another step. You can kinda turn on labels, but it requires using a menu option/non-default option.
-really bad contrast w/ the backgrounds and text. In one area of the window there is blue text on a slightly darker blue background. The "boxes" are now transparent, which makes reading text more difficult. What? Seeing text superimposed on trees doesn't make it easier to read? How weird.
-user pictures integrated into email threads - uhh. I recognize people by the name/email address, not their picture, that can change on a whim and takes up more space.
-things that disappear and reappear on mouse hovering, like scrollbars, button names and auto-expanding and than shrinking windows.
-having to click to switch between gmail chat and the calendar.
-tons of other things like the stars moving to the right side of the UI, losing the clear boxes around the buttons and emails in a thread, losing "reply to" options in an email thread without having to scroll to the very bottom of the thread or, once again, clicking on shit.

I really don't like having to keep on clicking shit to show options I use regularly. It's like putting the cap on my pen and putting it back into a cup on my desk between every word that I'm writing in a letter. Does that make sense? No? Then why is gmail doing this to me?!?!?!

GAH. Maybe this is what QA brain does to me, but a lot of these changes do not make my user experience better. I keep telling people I'd rather use pine at this point, and I'm actually serious. I can't deal with this new gmail UI. I gave feedback every time my window was switched to the new UI and I kept switching back to the old style, but it still looks like poop.

At this point, I am seriously considering not using gmail anymore because I can't really install different clients on every box I ever use to customize my experience beyond tweaking account options.


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..... and not that this sort of validation was necessary, but it's bad when google employees don't like the new UI either.....

yum!

I've been craving biscuits and gravy so I came up with this very satisfying substitute that's also somewhat similar to creamed dried beef:

Following the basic directions for a bechamel sauce, I added in some sliced mushrooms and onions while melting the butter and before I added in the flour. I also added a chicken sausage cut into chunks to warm it. I also used whole wheat flour vs. white flour and served it over whole wheat toast! Yum!

oh man. so I've had a scanner for a while, but just got around to setting it up. I decided to scan a little bit of the stuff I make, since I make tons of stuff in addition to doing photography.




encaustic collage! it smells like honey, redwood and birch! not completed


( lots of other stuffCollapse )

pumpkin waffles!!!


used this recipe with a few more spices and olive oil instead of butter. served with fresh farmers market strawberries and butter
http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2010/11/whole-wheat-pumpkin-waffles.html

(Oh livejournal world, will you eventually grow sick of my Burning Man talk? Possibly... I kinda do not care, however)

While going through day 4 pics from Burning Man, I came across pictures of the temple I took early one morning. I suddenly realized how the temple is powerful to people. I know for a while I understood that some people like having ceremonies to let go of things and the temple, writing on it and watching it burn was part of the ceremony. Today I realized it's not just the ceremony, but the actual physical manifestation of the idea that beautiful, seemingly perfect things that were built with much personal effort and time are temporary. The temple helps people with the temporary. A girl sitting next to me that was eager to hold hands during the burn of the temple told me that she couldn't wait for the moment when everything we were looking for turned into ash. She had come to Burning Man the previous year and specifically felt like the temple is what brought her back this year. I think her offering was more focused on something she wanted to see disappear, she wanted to let go...Still a focus on the temporary, but it's an understanding of the temporary badness vs. goodness in life.

Personally, being somewhat obsessed with nature, I have noticed cycles for a while and the impermanence of things. Photography really helped me with that as well when I realized if I missed that moment it would likely never be exactly the same again. It makes you appreciate things and combined with nature you see beautiful things disappear only to make space for cycles to complete and shift. But I realize not everyone sees those same things... much of that comes from enjoying simply walking outside often and being in nature.


And even though I didn't offer anything to the temple (Burning Man had already worked some motivational magic before I got there and has done plenty since... I think I went for different reasons), I couldn't help but to still want to be close to others that did have way more involved in the burning ceremony and sucked into the odd silence on the playa and intense heat of the fire as it burned, the discomfort that comes when overcoming the emotion that was stopping you from letting something go. And then it is gone and you go on with life.... or something like that.






















































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last 3 commercials on local tv:

-Up next on the news... Tainted ground turkey sold all across California!

-Carl's Jr new Turkey Burger

-Jennie O's ground turkey