Give XP a facelift

I’m not sure where I get this from but I like all my computer to be special. I don’t like to be like everyone else. It would drive me nuts if I had to look at the desktop background that shipped with my computer.

I need custom desktop wallpapers, themed browsers, to design my own websites… you get the idea. And I like things to be quick and simplified. I want shortcuts to my most used folders at my fingertips and tiny little background apps that will give me information at a glance without eating up all my RAM.

objectdockEnter wincustomize.com’s ObjectDock. ObjectDock is a program that enables windows users to organize their shortcuts, programs and running tasks in a cool animated taskbar replacement. There are lots and lots of skins (and you can even make your own) and docklets (plugins) to even further customize this cool tool. It took me a little time to figure out how to manage the icons and themes (either I’m overlooking it or documentation isn’t plentiful) but once I did I was hooked.

If you have the RAM to handle it, I strongly suggest checking out all the goodies at wincustomize.com. There are tons of apps to customize the way your PC looks and functions.

Ready for turkey

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and much to my joy, my parents have decided we’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner at their place rather than all of us running around to all the obligatory family dinners. It sounds evil, I know, to say that I don’t want to go see these people on the holiday… but it’s just so exhausting trying to make all the stops and being obligated to eat everywhere we go. And to top it off, it prevents me from getting to spend quality time with my parents and my brother, which is what I really want to do.

So this year, Mom and I will are going to cook. I can’t wait! I love to cook but it’s not something I do very often now that I’m single. For one thing, cooking for one is just difficult. Most recipes serve four at minimum which leaves me either eating the same thing for practically a week or throwing food out. Second, my “kitchen” is small. And when I say small I mean ridiculously small… it beats not having a kitchen, but to prepare a meal there would be almost impossible.

We’re going to start early on Thanksgiving morning in my parents kitchen and we’ve already started on the menu. We’ll have all the traditional Turkey-day goodies from turkey and dressing to cranberry sauce to macaroni and cheese. Okay, I have to stop now. This is making me hungry.

Pumpkin Carving WoW-style

pumpkinI’m a sucker for a holiday. It’s probably because my mom always did such a great job of making them fun for us when I was growing up. I especially remember this one time that she dressed up with us on Halloween. She was “a bum” complete with overalls, a faux beer belly fashioned out of old clothes stuffed into her overalls, a straw hat and a blacked out tooth. Trick-or-treating that year was extra fun because Mom was in the spirit and was having as much fun as we were.

The folks at Blizzard do their part to make holidays fun for WoW players. From special holiday-themed quests to decorations to special season loot and every Halloween… a pumpkin carving contest. Most of the submissions are true works of art. Seriously, the skill and attention to detail that brought about these wow-themed jack-o-lanterns is astonishing.  It’s funny to see that many of the winners have won in previous years. I guess the cool prizes are worth the effort and once you know you have the skills you may as well get your name in the hat.

It seems like I am always wishing I had more time to do things like this… it’s ironic that raiding in WoW monopolizes the majority of my “free” time and prevents me from entering a WoW-themed contest. When I start making resolutions for 2008, maybe “Raid less” should be one of them.