It makes you sound really douchey. And that's pronounced douchey, not dou-shay.

[chibirhm]

A few quick things!

ONE: My laptop's fan is misaligned again and keeps hitting something and sparking, unless I keep it on a totally flat surface and do not move it. Which happened around this time last year, too. I could send it in to Lenovo to get it fixed, but the last time I did that it took them nearly two weeks to do, which is totally unacceptable. I can't live without my laptop for two weeks! And the thing is, you can track your comptuer's progress online, it took them a day to fix it, most of those two weeks were "processing and shipping". Well fuck that shit. I could drive to the hardware-fixing headquarters in Indiana, watch them fix my baby, and get it back sooner if I did the shipping myself, by carrying it on my person. Does anyone know of a place that would do hardware fixes I could just drive it to and get it back at the end of the afternoon? Like, a chain? Or somewhere in the Boston area? This is the one area I will concede Macs are superior. They drive me crazy and I hate everything about them, but damn if that genius bar in every mall isn't convenient and efficient.

TWO: Last night we had leftover lentil soup so I left some lentils for Gus, but when I looked in the cage a little later, Charlie was eating one! HURRAH, CHARLIE. YOU'RE SUCH A BRAVE GERBIL.

THREE: Everyone who didn't link me to the Ooh Commander McGarrett comic is fired from life. I will never tire of fandom adaptations of this comic. Never!

FOUR: So, this year's United States of Pop mashup came out:

For those of you who missed the extreme privilege of this last year, this is basically a guy who takes the top 25 pop hits of the year (as determined by Billboard) and mashes them all together into one SUPER SONG.

Now, the thing is, I'm a dork. I can't just listen to this song, I have to start thinking about it. And I was thinking, these things are actually a kind of interesting from an intellectual point of view. I mean if you think about why people listen to music, it's not just because it's catchy, it often has to do with it having some sort of deeper meaning for them. I don't think it's exactly a disputed fact that the arts are reflective of the state of the society it comes from. So what if I compared it to last year's? Because there are definite trends that changed visually in the music videos, and in the lyrics, and in the whole damn tone of the thing. It's like a mini-zeitgeist! It could be so cool!

On the other hand, it's really super pretentious. It is like I am purposefully peeing on the mindless pop parade. I was asking puckling about it and she was like "you used the word 'zeitgeist'. If you need to use the word 'zeitgeist' to explain your concept, it's pretentious."

But... I kind of want to be pretentious! I don't know, is this interesting to anyone else but me? PLEASE ANSWER THIS POLL AND TELL ME.

[Poll #1662070]

FIVE: I entirely blame cherrybina for this, but I am obsessed with Google Analytics. I installed it on this LJ and it's kind of the greatest thing ever. I'm fond of the fact that aside from searching for my username, people find me most often by googling "bradley and colin in love". Which I did, and I'm the second result. With a lot of sub-results. NOT GOING TO LIE, THIS IS KIND OF AWESOME.

But I think my favorite part of doodling around with Google Analytics is the map overlay. I have people visit this site from so many cool places. Now I know where a lot of my LJ friends are from, so I can look at a dot and be like "okay, that's so and so", but some of the places are really surprising. Like, did you know I'm popular in Glasgow? I've gotten sixteen hits from Glasgow. Glasgow! Who the frack is in Glasgow? Apparently someone(s) who thinks I'm awesome, that's who. Another place I'm randomly popular is in Tampere, Finland. At first I thought that must have been whisperwords from when she went to visit her family there, but no, it was after she got back that someone there started visiting my site once a day. Do you see what I mean by cool? SO COOL. Though I think the coolest is that I have two people who have returned and so clearly they're reading, who are from Calcutta, India. India! THIS IS SO INDESCRIBABLY BOSS.

My only problem with Google Analytics is that I don't know how to filter out my own IP. Is there a way to do that? Because between answering comments and reading my friendslist, I am skewing the data like crazy. I am a quarter of my own hits, for serious. Which makes sense, but I don't care about how much time I spend at my own journal (answer: TOO MUCH, CLEARLY). HELP, SAVVY PEOPLE?

Comments

[hermette.livejournal.com]

DUDE, GOOGLE ANALYTICS FREAKS ME OUT. D: I do not want to know how many people are reading my journal. The last time I checked my LJ toys I got the shakes and uninstalled it.

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

BUT... CALCUTTA!

Also, a lot of my traffic comes as a referral from your LJ. HMMMMM I SAY. HMMMM.

[hermette.livejournal.com]

ahaha, does it really? that's awesome. :high five:

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

*FIVES!* Yours and Bina's, yes. CLEARLY YOU TWO ARE THE COOL ONES AND I AM JUST POPULAR BY ASSOCIATION.

[hermette.livejournal.com]

YEAH I THOUGHT I FELT YOU BACK THERE ON MY COATTAILS.

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

HOW ELSE DO YOU THINK I GET SUCH A GREAT VIEW OF YOUR ASS?

[hermette.livejournal.com]

:SHAKES IT:

[cherrybina.livejournal.com]

I don't look at any of the numbers because I get all like lkadhjglksghj THAT IS A LOT OF PEOPLE OMG D: In fact, I don't look at anything except the keyword searches because they crack me up. When someone finds my journal because they were searching for sugar assfucking it makes me think the world is a magical place :D

[hermette.livejournal.com]

BINA!!! :POUNCES: DID YOU GET THERE SAFE AND SOUND?

ALSO, THAT DOES SOUND AMAZING, BUT I HAVE SEARCH RESULTS MINIMIZED FOR MY JOURNAL, SO IT DOESN'T SHOW UP IN GOOGLE SEARCHES AND SUCH. I FEAR I WOULDN'T GET ANY GOODS LIKE SUGAR ASSFUCKING. :(

[cherrybina.livejournal.com]

I AM HERE I AM HERE! IN THE SOUTH! I HAVE ALREADY BEEN CALLED MA'AM A BUNCH OF TIMES :|

[cherrybina.livejournal.com]

I am sorry about your laptop, bb. I have to say that I love every single thing about my Mac and would not trade it for the world ♥

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you do! And I'm glad for people who like Macs, they just drive me bonkers. I grew up using both and every time I used Macs, I'd just come away with a headache.

But damn if I don't want a genius bar right now.

[cherrybina.livejournal.com]

The genius bars are awesome. ALSO V.V. SHINY.

I have not really looked at the map thing. I really only look at the keyword searches because they're hilarious. EVERYTHING ELSE IS KINDA CREEPY D:

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

THEY ARE! Though the wait is ridiculous. Whenever I've had to take my iPod in it's like an hour wait to have them take one look at it, decide to recycle it for parts, and give me a new one.

[ninja-orange.livejournal.com]

Do you trust yourself to do it on your own? You can probably unscrew the laptop casing and check the fan. If it's just stuck on something or a screw came loose that's an easy fix. If it's bent or needs to be replaced, finding a replacement might take a few google searches but they're probably out there.
This might void your warranty, YMMV, etc. but it's immediate and you don't need to pay anyone.

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that but honestly, I don't. I have a habit of screwing these things up and I think my parents would (rightly) punch me a few times. D'you know anyone you'd trust to do it in your circle of nerds? Because there's got to be someone in the Boston area who could. I mean, I do have a warranty with Lenovo, but that's more for if something catastrophic happens, as far as I'm concerned, where I have to be separated from my baby. (Or if the power cord breaks again - that was the worst.)

[ninja-orange.livejournal.com]

Especially if you want to keep the warranty valid I wouldn't hand the laptop over to anyone I know. I'm sorry I don't know of any legit business that does repairs but I bet they exist...

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Hmm. IDK how to answer this poll, because I hardly ever watch music videos. But you know I am a bit of a dinosaur so don't listen to meeee

Google analytics is crazy fun. I used to use it when I was doing SEO stuff at this one company I worked for, and it was interesting to play around with.

I'm sorry to hear about your laptop! I have no good solutions, sadly. I'd let you borrow my netbook but I am going away tomorrow afternoon and won't be back until late Sunday night. :( but if your laptop can wait and you want to borrow it next week let me know!

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

DUDE WOULD YOU DO THAT? BECAUSE IF SO HEARTS. IN. MY FREAKING. EYES. Though I am worried if I have to do the interview for work how I'm going to do it without my laptop. D: I think I'm gonna keep my baby on a flat surface until at least the holidays are over, and then see how it is and if I know any interview dates and what's going on. BUT I WILL KEEP YOU IN MIND, MY GORGEOUS LEMONDROP. <3

[austen.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to try Google Analytics for this LJ but I am confused about how to install the code? Oops. But I am a curious nerd!

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

If you go sign up for Google Analytics, they give you a code, and then there's a place on LJ where you can put that code in and voila! The only thing is you need a paid account for it to work.

[sheswatching.livejournal.com]

I have actual thoughts on this entry, but at this point all are overridden by the voice of that kid who says "charlie bit my finger" and imagining that he said this "HURRAH, CHARLIE. YOU'RE SUCH A BRAVE GERBIL." too. CAN'T UNHEAR.

I hope you get your laptop fixed bb. The only reason I could live without mine (though not when school's back omg never) is because we have 2 desktops and an iPhone and an iPod touch, so I think I'd mostly survive.

I used to do google analytics on my site, back when I hosted Merlin eps there, but then people just reposted the link and my bandwidth went KABOOM and I had to stop before everything got shut down.

United State of Pop 2009 is so much better than 2010. And also - why wouldn't you use 2008 for this, if you were looking for any sort of trends... /enabler

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

I am guilty of squashing Charlie's face and going "LET'S GO TO CANDY MOUNTAIN, CHARLIE!" which he does not appreciate.

IDK, I just didn't think before 2009 was as thoroughly... mashed together? Like it seemed way more choppy and less I HAVE MELTED EVERYTHING TOGETHER INTO THE CONDENSED VERSION OF THE YEAR.

[sheswatching.livejournal.com]

Aww, poor Charlie!

You're right, 2008 was definitely less coherent in some ways, but you could probably still use it. The ~academic~ (lolololol okay there) in me is all OMG LISTEN TO ALL THE SONGS. WRITE DOWN ALL THE LYRICS. DO SEARCHES AND WORD CLOUDS! But the lazy part of me (read: all of me) is like...lol nah. But I do think it's a cool project to undertake and would love to see the results.

Also - just realized how 'cool story, bro' my previous comment was. Sorry =x

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

....but I like cool stories, bro!

[alba17.livejournal.com]

Google Analytics is fascinating, a little freaky, and totally a time sponge. Um, but which part tells you what search terms people are using to find your LJ? Is that "key words" or something like that?

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, key words! The other that's popular is like HOW TO STOP BEING SAD AND MOVE ON WITH MY LIFE or something, which is... weird.

[alba17.livejournal.com]

Wot? That's how people are finding your LJ, through that phrase?? That's um, completely weird. I look on there occasionally to reassure myself that people are actually looking at my stuff. LOL

[alba17.livejournal.com]

I decided to take a look at those key words for my LJ, out of curiosity, and someone found my LJ by searching for YOU. Not sure how that happened, but it amused me. They spent 0 minutes there though, since OBVIOUSLY I'M NOT YOU.

[puckling.livejournal.com]

It can be both cool/interesting AAAAAAND pretentious at the same time. But yes. Zeitgeist. No way of escaping that one yo.

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

I'VE BEEN READING JGL'S TUMBLR TOO MUCH, CLEARLY.

[hmittens.livejournal.com]

You know what.. i'm from Tampere, Finland, but sadly it wasn't me who's been on your account that many times :D

[staraflur.livejournal.com]

GOOGLE ANALYTICS IS TOO MUCH FOR ME MAN

ALSO PLEASE GET YOUR COMPUTER FIXED I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE ;_____;

ALSO YAY MANGLE BRAVE MAN CHARLIE EAT DEM LENTILS

also i almost never listen to mashups I AM MEH ON THEM THE END

[sonicbookmark.livejournal.com]

I PICK SO PRETENTIOUS AND RIDICULOUS I WANT TO FEED YOU A COOKIE.