Alright, not much going on these days. It's the same ol' same ol' Everyday is Exactly the Same kind of lifestyle. The main purpose of this journal is to merely to restore my journal from a Quiz Board, but to an actual journal.

Not much I have to say, I was out for a week of school. everything there is a blur.

My favorite game ever, Assassin's Creed, I found out has a gorgeous producer O_O wow, and from Assassin's Creed II I have gained some inspiration for artwork so there may be some new things rolling out of the woodwork.

I have a big project I'm in currently, that I'm calling "Alchemy" It's based on a photograph of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) in a lab, it's going well, but I have ran across some difficulties when dealing with lighting, but all in good time, I work on it whenever I have the time.

Lighting with the figure within the manipulation, and with this astral looking light, but that's solely creating it, there's nothing really set to make such objects. Either in Photoshop or GIMP.

I'll get it eventually, in due time. All in due time.

Another picture I have in mind is something called "Genesis" Should be quite interesting, not going to spoil all of the surprises though.

So the artistic wave is coming back around.

Also, Ubuntu 10.04 is going to be a huge ass fucking release unlike any other. New applications and everything. It's a long term release so it's understandable, but huge changes.

PiTiVi is a movie editor, it will be included by default in this next release, and all I can say is...there better be some advancements in this program before they implement it. These were my exact thoughts on Empathy, and they went ahead with that.

Empathy is the new default Instant Messenger cilent in Ubuntu, like Pidgin, it can do a lot, a lot of the same basic functions. Just it can do Audio Video Chat, and even that isn't exactly...refined. I'll stick to the perfectly working Skype for that. Point being, Empathy, is reflecting this again, and Empathy is more like a stripped down Pidgin, and I feel as though they comprised so much for so little.

PiTiVi is a good movie editor, it has no features whatsoever and just does what it does. It's just not ready yet, if they throw effects and transitions and what the fuck ever in there, then fuck, be my guest, put it in there.

I personally never...well extremely rarely edit/make movies I just don't see it as a big add to concern myself with. iMovie or Windows Movie Maker kinda battle I guess. Canonical lashing out to drown the whole "there's no movie editing on Linux" Myth. I really don't know, but the program has potential, I don't have a problem with adding a movie maker, just perhaps one that's more...err...well featured [OpenShot, Kdenlive, c'mon now.]

They're also putting a music store into Ubuntu, with US copyright laws preventing the preinstallation of multimedia codecs, for such things like *.mp3, etc. it'll just makes things a tad interesting. To my dismay, I read that this will be an extension, a webbrowser extension into a website in which you shall purchase the music. This isn't bad, Songbird does this, and is very good at it.

My concern is, what will they be using? Rhythmbox still? If that's the case. Fuck. That. Shit. I'll be sticking with my Banshee...which they SAID would be default replacing Rhythmbox in 9.04...didn't happen. Rhythmbox is VERY refined for what it does, but it's primitive in native and just can't stand to Banshee no matter what. The Only reason other operating systems' media players beat Ubuntu is because of shitty old lack-of-current-development Rhythmbox, and people have admitted, this would be different if Banshee was default.

Banshee is great, it's refined, sure, I can criticize it, but that's to other Open Source projects such as Songbird, and Songbird is great, it's Mozilla based, large and kinda slow and doesn't blend as nicely as I'd like it to into the system, I still use it to get music and from time-to-time, add-ons make it GREAT, but as I said, Large and slow.

All I can say is, Banshee...please, and fix the goddamn iPod issue Canonical, they still work, just you have to jump through another hoop to get Banshee to recognize it, though Rhythmbox picks up on it still.

Banshee by default, then figuring out the music store? Good luck, maybe Banshee will slip it in with enough talking. Those are my criticisms so far, people would be happier with Banshee, and that should seal the deal. Way better interface really.

I understand this is to take on iTunes and whatnot, best of luck. The Codec thing will be a little weird, it's an easy install though.

Another thing I'd like to see is, the removal of Evolution, and replacing it with Thunderbird. Thunderbird is made by Mozilla, the same people who make the fucking awesome Firefox Webbrowser (Ubuntu's Default) so you know it's good just at that. Add-ons let me sync my Google Contacts between the App and Gmail and vice-versa. It already works flawlessly with Ubuntu, so I think it'd be a nice move, and it's more user friendly and has easy configuration for common email types like Gmail.

Things like Evolution and Tomboy...why? Really, I just don't understand why they're there. No common user will ever use this...or at least before considering other alternatives. I would honestly just say remove it and save yourself some space on the Install Disk. If you are dead-set on weird office productivity, drop them, and include something normal people will use, like Parcellite, the clipboard manager that takes Copying and Pasting to a whole new level, as well as fixes that fucking annoying Copy-Paste thing that no Linux distro has thought to fix (though I'd imagine it to be simple.)

Another thing, make the login thing after the Xsplash look better, then make the Software Center look professional and crisp. The Software Center makes installation in Ubuntu even easier and even more secure, so make it look good as you do it. Round the edges.

Also, they will be removing GIMP in the next release, it'll still be in the Software Center so no trouble, though I personally won't like that, it'll take seconds to install it, so no worries. I see their point, an actual valid one. The average user won't need something so powerful, GIMP is for the pros, and not everyone is a Graphic Designer, and if they were to do something, it'd be for Photos, and not doing anything too insane. -looks over at my gallery-

F-Spot needs to be shot. I hate the application. Photomanagement made easy within an application, made into HELL in the file browser, unlike superior photomanagement tools, it just indexes the photos and keeps them in their locations, but no, F-Spot takes it, reorganizes it in its terms and the UI is confusing on top of that...all-in-all, I hate the app.

There's my thoughts on it all.

It's 3 in the morning here, and I gotta get some sleep, goodnight.