Metric, Metric, And More Metric

A week ago today, on April 17 2008, I went to my fourth Metric concert and have yet to post a review. This is partly because I have been a little obsessed on trying to find more photos or videos of that awesome night. Plus, I have been busy with a few other things but here it comes.

The last time I saw Metric was two years and sixteen days prior, to be exact. Which may not seem that long to wait for some other bands but there was a time there I was seeing Metric roughly every six months. Needless to say when I heard the announcement on the radio for the show I was pretty excited, and maybe had a moment of uncontrollable shooting.

The day started like any other, as I still had to go to work. Most of the day was counting down.

• Till the end of work – which I actually got out of early.
• Till I had to go get the rental car.
• Till the time I had to leave my apartment.
• Till the opening band came out.
• And finally till Metric actually came out onto the stage.

Which was a pretty long count down. Did I mention I had been waiting for these for over two years? Oh yeah I did …

When I got there I was welcomed by a lovely line-up around the block. Which was right when doors open. I was a little surprised as the only other time this has happened was when I saw them the second time at a earlier all-ages show. Luckily I was still able to get one of the final front row spots. Which I really wanted!!

The opening band wasn’t that bad. The bassist was awesome! When he was playing, he was dancing, and when he wasn’t playing, he was for sure dancing. And he didn’t just play the bass, oh no. He had a small keyboard on the floor in front of him – which gives the band a total of three people possibly playing a keyboard. At one point he was adding extra beats to the drum as the drummer was play. Finally he went over to the other keyboard guy and was playing around with a sound effect thing on his keyboard as he played. The drummer had this really cool shirt that lit up based on the sounds around it. So of course when they were playing it was well lit up.

They soon ended their set and the removal of their equipment happened and the set up for Metric began!! It was a little weird that the Commodore – which is known for it’s great vantage points -  has now set up two screens on both sides of the stage which showed five different camera angles (3 still and two guys filming). Really is this necessary at a smaller venue?? And the Commodore none the less?

These is how it all went down … I got the set list off the Metric fourm, it looks about right.

They opened with a new song called “Freddy” – YouTube Video Here. I am really enjoy these new songs and can’t wait for the album to come out. After that song, they lead into “Poster of a Girl” which is a crowd pleaser for sure.

Now I am pretty sure I saw Kevin a.k.a. k-os at the side of the stage. I know he is also a big Metric fan but what is he doing in Vancouver?? Could this mean we are also going to have a new k-os album too?! Then again, maybe I was having a little deja vu as I saw him their before, during the first metric show I went to. Where he took a stage dive into the crowd, pretty awesome. But anyways after “Poster of a Girl” they played a classic “Dead Disco”. Emily went over to Kevin and sang a little bit to him which kind of makes me think it probably was him.

After that they went into yet another new song “Cupid & Psyche”. Emily said this was the second time they played it live – playing it the night before in Victoria. Aren’t we special? Hear and see it for yourself at YouTube right here. I think this song was the one  with the sick bass.

Then they played one of my favorite songs “Empty”. I love how it starts off slow and then totally speeds up and everyone goes crazy then slows down a bit again. Emily also does the whole hands on hips and shakes he head.

Then they lead into “Hustle Rose” which is a typical song they like to play live and always a good one.

After, that they played the third of the four new songs ”Satellite Mind”. Emily gave a little speak at the beginning of the song about how they like to come play at the Commordore. They got to open up for a band once and thought it was such a great venue to play. Then they got to headline there and how awesome that was. It really made me think how things have really changed for them in just the past three years. Selling out shows in no time … lines around the block.  I am happy for them, yet kind of scared for the future. Listen to Emily’s speech and “Satallite Mind” at YouTube right here.

Now outside of the new songs that they played they were all typical live songs you are going to hear in any set. But then they played “Rock Me Now” and “Calculation Theme”. Those were really awesome to hear because your not going to always hear those ones at every show. I also really enjoy “Rock Me Now”. I really wish they would play a song or two more from “Grow Up and Blow Away”.

After that brief moment of something different they went right back into a classic fan pleaser “Combat Baby”. Which is a great song live or not. The fans were totally into it and so was the band. Near the end of song Emily came down from the stage to visit with the fans. I didn’t notice until she was in eye range. Everyone had their hands out to get a touch. My hand was up but not straight out like everyone elses. All of a sudden hear free hand came up and held my hand. It was a completely surreal moment that I wasn’t expecting at all. It felt much longer then it probably was but she had to have stood there for 10 to 30 seconds holding my hand with her singing … me singing … and everyone else around us singing.

She then moved to the person beside me and held her hand. I was so excited and in disbelief she had just done that!! I kept singing and then she came back in front of me and pointed the mic to the crowd. She put it in front of my face for a couple of seconds I was totally shocked. Check the YouTube video out and see if you can hear my voice at the end …

Finally they ended with a lovely acoustic “Live It Out” leaving only Emily and Jimmy on the stage. Hear and see it for yourself at YouTube right here. For a very high energy song it is pretty great slowed down too. Once they finished that they left stage but we sure weren’t done with them yet. The chanting, hand clapping and foot stooping happened and of course they came back. They played another crowd favorite “Monster Hospital”.

Sadly they only played one more song after that, a new song called “Stadium Love”. This has to be my favorite new song I have heard so far. I saw a video of this song before I went to show on YouTube. Loved it then, and couldn’t wait to hear it with my own ears.

I have to say that Metric is for sure my number one favorite band! Not to say that they weren’t before this show. They were probably tied for first but there is no doubt they desever first place in my heart.

More photos here … enjoy!

– Andrea

A Browser That Works With You …

A few years ago, I was look at the different browsers available. I tried Netscape and Opera but it wasn’t a seamless transition and I always seem to go back to using IE.  When I tried Firefox it ended up being a prefect match and I still use  Firefox as my main browser today. I really enjoyed the tab browsing – these was of course before IE 7. I didn’t have to think about what I was doing, which wasn’t the case with Netscape and Opera. Then with all the possible add-ons to choose from it took my web surfing to a new level.

Well I think my love for Firefox is going to grow with the release of Firefox 3. A big flaw in any browser is the favorites/bookmarks section. It is up to the user to organize their bookmarks so that they will be easily able to find the bookmark at a later date. Which is the whole point of bookmarks in the first.

Now being a web developer I save a lot of bookmarks to archived sites, tutorials, articles and many other things. I try my best to organize them so I will be able to actually find it when I need it later. I haven’t done too bad of a job but I still have A LOT! And some of them still end up going  missing.  It also takes a lot of cleaning up and re-organizing to keep my folder system working. It ends up being a real chore, sometimes worse then cleaning my desk.

So it was about time for a browser to step up to the plate and admit that they may have over looked how much some of us were really going to be using the bookmarks/favorites. Then supplying use with the proper tools to keep track not only of our bookmarks but previously viewed websites.

I read this article — http://www.dria.org/wordpress/archives/2008/04/22/629/ — about Firefox’s new development to help bookmarking and finding a hell of a lot easier and faster. Hopefully a lot less time re-searching for that website I found about that thing a while back … dammit what was that website again?

I can’t wait for this to come out … I am highly considering getting the beta version myself!!

Soon to come my Metric review!!
– Andrea

Am I Obessed?

Signs that I might be obsessed with design

• I keep business cards for what they look like, rather than for the business details.
• After I complete a household chore, I find myself wishing I could ctrl + S.
• It goes without saying, that washing, eating, and sleeping are a waste of valuable time.
• I consider my bookmark collection as literally priceless; a limb wouldn’t pay for it.

Sounds familiar

I was reading a blog post “Pay Me Please: A Freelance Web Designer’s Guide to Billing and Price” which really got me thinking. It has some nice helpful tips that I might use myself. But what really got me was when I started reading people’s comments to the post. I read the last one and I thought I would share it because it sounds a lot like people we have to deal with at work.

The story starts:

I was hired for a straightforward case of web design; this person approved of the work; she discussed ongoing maintenance and requested that I upload the site and supplied the account info in order for me to do so. The agreement to maintain the site was made on my part only in exchange for the unused disk space on the server, and free of charge; basically an act of good will and the best intentions on my part; she also requested to pay half at that point, half after upload; here is when things got interesting.

Something I have learned is that “acts of good will” are only good if you know the person. And even then it could go hairy. This is how easily someone can take advantage of you. It is really sad that you have to think twice about being nice. We actually prefer to have the sites stay on our serves. Not to gain money from web hosting, but so that we know what’s going on with the site and have direct access.

Although my policy is work first, pay later, upload last; on the assumption that I would be maintaining the site I foolishly thought I could trust her. This person never paid half first but I went ahead and uploaded the site. Agh. A few days later she informed me that the site was “funky” and had reverted seemingly by itself to its previous state, which was a generic template that she had made using the template builder provided with the web host. Hmm.

It is really sad that we can’t trust people anymore. We let things slide with people to be nice and they just turn around and take advantage of you. What bugs me the most is letting people have access to their site when they don’t know what they are doing. Then they turn around and screw things up. Then lie about touching. Then blame you for it. Come on people just be honest about it, I promise I won’t kill you for it.

This time she made a $50 payment, which was 1/2 of the ‘half first’ or 1/4 of the total payment; requesting me to again upload the site, and informing of the new password to the account, which had inexplicably been changed. Ok-?

In an effort to be helpful I stated the obvious in asking this person whether she had used the template builder, which still had the old copy of the template stored, which the client denied as if being accused of something. It was only a few days later when no further payment or instructions appeared from the client that I realized what was happening. She had waited for me to upload the site, then promptly changed the password to shut me out. The client then stupidly attempted to use the template builder to modify the new website, inadvertently reinstating the old one by mistake. I sent a two-page email, which went unanswered, patiently explaining the differences between the template editor and alternative means to edit the site, something I had contacted her about two weeks earlier, requesting to set a time when we could put our heads together to implement a customized solution; a request that also had gone unanswered. I then wrote another two emails over the course of two days patiently explaining my position in our agreement, all the things I had done and were willing to do for the benefit of her website, and explaining that the agreed upon fee for the site was more than $50.

After a few days this person responded. This time I had apparently crossed the line and been irrevocably disrespectful in some way with my ‘smart comments’; and no further pay would be forthcoming. Sadly, it is apparent that THIS CLIENT NEVER INTENDED TO PAY ME. It is unfortunate that so many take advantage of Craigslist’s open market system to cheat and connive their way through the system.

It’s stuff like these that makes starting up a new business really hard to do. You are just trying to pay the bills and hey maybe put food on the table. It’s one thing to dick around the big companies. You have to have some respect and understanding that these people are just trying to make it. If you can’t afford it then you shouldn’t get it

Need A Desktop Wallpaper?

You have come to the right place!! I have found some sites that have some really great wallpapers that everyone should check out. Credits to CSS Drive and Smashing Magazine for doing all the hard work.

• Wallcoo Wallpapers
  Hundreds of beautiful high-quality wallpapers from China. Stunning!
  
• Rabbit Wallpaper
  1280×960.
  
• Oh Lolliop! It’s a desktop wallpaper
  A wallpaper coming in 6 resolutions: from 1024×768 up to 1900×1200 px.
  
• Top 10 Gaming Wallpapers
  All at 1920×1200 HD resolution, and a stunning image quality.
  
• Simpsons OS X Wallpaper
  Homer seems to be pretty hungry. Simpsons Mac Os X Wallpaper, Aqua.
  

Full list –> here …

Happy Wallpapering!!
Andrea

What will it cost??

Let me start off by saying that I have added a bunch of stuff to my deviantART that I mentioned last post!! Shocking I know, it surprised me that’s for sure. So if you haven’t already looked at my deviantART check it out at momentsstolen.deviantart.com

I have also been working on an identity for my work to go under. Over a year ago I came up with the name “Open Box Creations”. A couple weekends ago I worked on making up a logo that goes with that name!! I have put it up as my avatar on deviantART and will be putting it in my Identity gallery on deviantART.

I just ran across an article talking about what it would cost to develop a website. I thought this would be a good post for the blog. Hopefully it will also help explain a little more about where the name “Open Box Creations” came from.

Each project has a different set of requirements, requires different resources and varying levels of expertise, and takes a different amount of time to plan, execute, and deliver.

If you can appreciate the value of a custom built website, then I should be able to work with you to create something we both like. That is what “Open Box Creations” is all about. Nothing is pre-packaged, it is custom built to what you need. No two projects are exactly the same and are created with you and your visitors in mind.

What makes each project different? Number of pages, complexity of custom programming, and advanced features are all factors that can increase the price.

These days, having a content management system (CMS) integrated into your website is becoming more common because it allows you to update the content of your website without having to contact your web developer or have any web experience or programs. I would say that if you are going to want to make changes to your site monthly or more frequently then this is something you may need.

This is going to also add more complexity to the development of the website which in turn does cost more. It also depend on how much of the site is going to need to be maintained by you. If you simply want a what’s new area on your home page that isn’t going to cost as much if you want the whole website maintained by you.

Are you interested in selling a product or service on your website? I don’t create “shopping carts” but I have built forms that can help you sell your product or service online. Sometimes this will have to work hand in hand with such companies like paypal so  you can collect money via credit card from your customers. Once again this is increasing the work load on developing the website.

Those are some of the basics things to keep in mind. The more you want the more it will cost. Why is that? Because the more complex things get the more time it will take for me to build it. You are pretty much paying for my time and my headaches .

Think of your website as a car. The more you want in your car like automatic transmission, cruise control, anti-theft system that is going to cost more. Once you have your car you are going to have to maintain it. Some people are going to be able to change their own oil and some people will pay a professional to do it.

Don’t expect to get everything for nothing!! Don’t expect to get a Corvette for the price of a Jetta!

Moments Stolen

I really need to start posting more … I know I said I would. I also said that I would start posting some of the websites that I have done as well. And this post I am actually going to do it!

I have started a deviantART to post some of the websites that I have done. Only tell I actually get around to building my own website – [eye roll] yeah right [/eye roll]. I am also going to be posting other stuff I have done like: photography, photoshoped stuff and indentity/logos I have done for clients.

Take a look at my website gallery for some website I have worked on in the past year. I will hopefully get around to post some more in the next few weeks but at least some of my stuff is there for now. I have also put a few things in my identity gallery as well, so have a look there too.

My deviantART … more to come.

Andrea

‘Tis the Season

For today I will bring you my Christmas wish list. (Like I said I am having trouble focusing on things so it’s not as big/good as I planned but there should be some good ideas)

Movies I’d like to have:

• Donnie Darko
• National Treasure
• Russell Peters: Two Concerts…One Ticket
• An Inconvenient Truth
• Memento
• Hot Fuzz
• Shaun of the Dead
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Serenity (Because I’m not getting my copy back – eye roll -
  

Books I am interested in getting:

• The Photoshop Channels Book by Scott Kelby
• Photoshop Classic Effects: The Essential Effects Every User Needs to Know by Scott Kelby
• The Principles Of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird

Things that I could use:

• Stuff for the kitchen/baking (I could use almost everything)
• Organizing stuff for the home or in the office.
• Head phones and/or a micro md card for my phone (Nokia 6275i)

Things I would like:

• Stuff for my camera (Canon Powershot A520)
• Camera bag (a big one that fits lenses and other accessories)

Stores I shop at:

• Old Navy
• Future Shop / Best Buy
• Rogers Video
• Linens ‘n Things
• Home Outfitters
• Winners

I glanced at the calendar and I see that there is only 3 weekends till Christmas. I am a little shocked and a little stressed. I don’t think that Christmas has come so fast before for me.

I don’t see why I’m not in the Christmas spirit yet. In the past week I have done a lot of shopping and even started wrapping!! I have also decorated the office which includes a tree, and even finished doing the office christmas card. I was also in a winter wonderland – well at least for a few hours.

There is still more to come … this weekend I am going to be decorating the apartment building and my apartment! I don’t think I have ever done soooo much Christmas decorating.

I think that I’m not in the mood because I am more excited that I have a week off of work then Christmas itself. It’s been really hard focusing on getting things done lately. My mind seems to be somewhere most of the time. I just don’t want to be there.

It happens to all of us at one point…

Has your computer ever had spyware? How about a virus, trojan, rootkit or malware? Have no clue what those things are? Don’t know how they got on your computer in the first place?

Well you are in luck because that’s what this post is all about today!

First let’s learn what those things are … (definitions from wikipedia.org)

Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent.

Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent.

A Trojan is a piece of software which appears to perform a certain action, but in fact, performs another.

A Rootkit is a general description of a set of programs which work to subvert control of an operating system from its legitimate operators.

A Virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user.

Now that we know what we are dealing with and hopefully know why we don’t want them on our computer in the first place. Let’s talk about how to deal with them if we do think we have one on our computer.

I think one of the best free sites out there is geekstogo.com. Most of the site is a web forum but they have lots of useful information on there.

One thing I use a lot when my computer isn’t performing right is their Malware Removal post. Follow each step to check and remove malware and other threats from your computer. Follow each step because no single program removes every threat.

If you find that your computer still has malware after the forth step you can post a hijack this log to their forum. One of the geeks will let you know if you have any hidden malware or other threats on your computer the scans couldn’t find or remove. As well they will tell you how to remove them from your computer. It’s all free and very helpful.

I would say if you are going to post a hijack this log you should have a little bit more then basic knowledge of how to use your computer. If your VCR is blinking 12:00 or you barely know how to turn your computer on then … follow the steps up to step four before posting a hijack this log. If you computer is still not performing very well take it into some one and pay them to fix it for you.

So hopefully one way or another you have gotten the malware and other threats off your computer. But how did they get their to begin with and how can you stop them from getting back on your computer? Geeks to go also has a post on that too … Here is some of the stuff they say …

1. Watch what you download!! If you are not cautions about what you are putting on your computer then you are almost asking to get these threats. If it’s not a well known source it may not be safe to put on your computer – even if they say it is safe it may not be.
2. Make sure that Windows has installed ALL High-Priority Security Updates listed. And if you are unsure if they are then open up internet explorer go to tools > windows update (> and maybe products updates after that). You will be sent to the Microsoft update site … scan for any updates.
3. Set up a firewall on your computer. A firewall keeps a computer secure from intruders. It allows or blocks traffic into and out of a private network or the user’s computer. Try ZoneAlarm, Kerio and Sygate and not the built in one on Windows – it doesn’t block everything that may try to get in.
4. Always use an Anti-Virus product. Easy-to-use free A/V programs are AVG, Avast, and AntiVir. DO NOT install more than one anti-virus program. They will conflict, and provide less protection, not more.
5. For more information … Check out the full post here: How did I get infected in the first place?

That’s pretty much it … now you can fight back!!

Change the way we think …

Have you very found some new product that would change the way we do things. While here are a few I have found …

Alarm Ring (to the right) is a vibrating alarm designed for people who hate the loud blaring sounds of a typical alarm. The charging cradle is where you set what time you want each ring to go off. The ring fits over the tip of your finger and when that opportune time arrives, it vibrates. Putting the ring back on the dock shuts off the alarm.

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FlatWire (to the left) is thinner than a business card and yet flexible enough to bend to any angle required for a customized installation. This technology has the same or better performance as conventional wiring.

Most uniquely, when FlatWire is installed correctly, it becomes virtually INVISIBLE.
FlatWire will forever change the way we think about wiring, decorating, redecorating and even new construction. We no longer have to compromise our vision of a room based on the location of outlets or how easily we can move them.