Strange thing to blog about, I suppose, but this is my fourth day straight being alcohol free - not a single drink. In all truth, I doubt that such a streak has occurred in the last three years.
I have no intention for this little experiment to run for the long term (this, I fear, would be social suicide - although I would predict a rebirth in some form…), but my customary self-indulgence was beginning to feel as if it was being imposed upon me from without, and I do not wish to surrender my internal freedom to an external master if I can avoid it.
In any case tomorrow is Friday and my abstinence is scheduled to end, but I’m quite pleased that I was able to last the week (to say it again, it’s been a long time). The multitude of beer halls and liquor dispensaries in my neighborhood conspired to make my trek home from work a labyrinth of temptation, and there were moments I nearly caved. But the week has passed and I’m fully sober.
This is my first AppleScript creation, so if you take a look at it in Script Editor and see some places to make improvements or add to it or whatever, I’d love to hear what you think.
Quick update: I’ve had a couple of requests to create a Camino version of the script. Here it is!
Here is a quick video of the script in action (quality is terrible! But it took an hour to make so I’m posting the damn thing anyhow…):
(As you might have guessed, this was also my first time using iMovie! I found the iMovie app incredibly difficult to use, to tell the truth. Nothing seems intuitive on it, and the outcome is nothing like I intended it to be. Ah well!)
How to use this baby:
Option 1: Put the Search mp3s script in your scripts folder and map it to a system wide Quicksilver trigger. (If you know what I’m talking about, then I don’t need to explain.)
Option 2: Open AppleScript Utility (in Applications > AppleScript) and check ‘Show Script menu in menu bar.’ You’ll see a little script icon show up somewhere beside your clock. Then drag the the ‘Search mp3s’ script into ~/Library/Scripts. ‘~’ is your user name (for instance, my user name is ‘themurderouspeterverkhovensky’ - yours will be different). For those of you as obsessed with taxonomy as myself, you can create a new folder in here if you like and call it ‘Safari,’ but it really doesn’t matter. Now you should be able to access Search mp3s from your menu bar.
Option 3 (my favorite): install SafariScript (tricky on Leopard!). Run it from there.
To make the script I cobbled together code and knowledge from at least two sources. For the search syntax itself, look to this post at Lifehacker. A good article - you’ll probably learn something you didn’t know. Secondly, I used bits and pieces of applescript I found at this Mac OS X Hints article (if you use a Mac, this blog is rockering - but you probably already knew that…).
Ughh - Don’t steal music! Or whatever…
If you don’t have a Mac and therefore can’t use the script, copy and paste the following into Google:
Play Caribou’s 2007 Andorra at a party - your guests eyes will widen as the waves of formless precision wash the atmosphere and drown the feeling of individuation.
One morning as Gregor Samsa woke from anxious dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, vaulted abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections.
From this height the blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.
