On Apps and Other Distractions

It's depressing to know my complete inability to accomplish anything viz all the problems with my new computer is an age-related phenomenon (a nice way of saying "because I'm old"). I read somewhere that aging is fundamentally an increased resistance to change. That's me. I have spent the past five days trying to get my new computer to function exactly like my old one did, a perfect recapitulation. This is impossible since the (multiple) upgrades (?) in the OS have eliminated some of the features I used previously. Mostly they have been improved rather than removed but the question of whether these qualify as improvements seems ligitimate to me. Mostly they are just differences.

One of the improvements to my OS that I actually consider an improvement is the App Store. I have deliberately kept the number of apps I have DLd to a minimum - trying to learn and evaluate each one as I go. Most seem like great ideas but I don't use them because I forget I have them. Others, like 1Password, are great ideas that can get me in a shitstorm of trouble if I'm not careful. The one unambiguously great app I've started using is Alfred. The developers describe it as a butler for your computer. I don't know that I would call it that but it is simple, doesn't fuck shit up, and I use it frequently.

For example, I search the IMDB all the time. If I type "i" in the address bar on Chrome, it autoloads the imdb url. That's good but with Alfred I made "i" the key that would prompt for a search. So I hit the key combo to launch Alfred (alt+space), type "i", hit enter, type the search term and Alfred opens a new tab with the search results. You can get it to do that for any searchable site - from wikipedia to wookiepedia (the Star Wars wiki), and everything in between. It also has about a billion features I will never use but every couple of days I open it, read some more of the help manual, and figure a new feature out.

Because of Alfred it only took me 5 seconds to learn the name of the actor who plays Det. Kimball Cho is Tim Kang. Cho deserves his own entry because he is one of the best TV character of the last ten years, certainly the most under-rated. I could write a thesis for a pop culture degree on Cho. There are some minor or ensemble characters (a very few) I think are better than the shows they're in - Cho from The Mentalist, Masi Oka from Heroes, Yang from Grey's Anatomy. Actually, that last one is kind of a different category. Grey's Anatomy is a guilty pleasure of mine and one of the only reasons I'm willing to admit that is Sandra Oh.

For some reason Oh is often relegated to minor parts or under-used in major ones. Her IMDB listing includes parts like "Fourth Fired Employee". Her big break was 1994's Double Happiness but my personal fav is 2004's Sideways - Sandra Oh and Paul Giamatti. Completely different character in a relatively small movie but she's so good in it. And hot as hell. Giamatti is as great as he always is. Actually, I think I'm going to watch Sideways again, despite the odious presence of Thomas Hayden Church.