Disable two-finger swipe through history in Safari

With OS X Lion, Apple introduced the concept of swiping through your browsing history in Safari (or swiping through pages of a document in preview). Although this is potentially a cool feature, the default way of activating it is a two-finger swipe left or right. This is the same way you scroll left or right on a web page, so I routinely find myself scrolling left on a web page and all of the sudden I have scrolled right off the page and gone back in my history... this is devastating if I am working on a state-dependent page like a form and I lose the data I was filling in.

Here is how to disable the history swipe or change it to a 3 finger gesture:

1. Apple menu > System Preferences... > Trackpad > More Gestures
2. Either uncheck the box next to "Swipe between pages" to disable the feature or use the drop-down menu to change the gesture that activates this feature.

If mercurial could be used in real life

Moving into a Portland Apartment!

A friend and I finally (well, we haven't been looking THAT long) found an apartment to move in to and we applied for it and we are first in line! We applied to a couple other places before this one but were second to apply. It is not right in downtown, but it is only 4 miles out.

We got a tour of the place and saw a room that is really similar to the one we will be in (same layout) but I forgot to take any pictures. What I do have is a floor plan (see below)! We move in on the 15th of September.

Story time 1

When you get your first Leatherman (multitool), you carry it with you everywhere. You have probably bought it in anticipation of some particular event in your life when it would be especially useful. Then, over time, you stop carrying it. You realize that you almost never need it when you are going out for food with a friend or getting a haircut, so you only carry it in certain circumstances. For me, those circumstances are outdoor activity. I now bring my Leatherman on outdoor adventures such as going hiking and rock climbing, and almost nowhere else.

Today, I am going on one such adventure. So, I woke up, got dressed, put my Leatherman on my belt, and went to the bathroom to clip my fingernails. This is when something magical happened (bear with me, it takes a certain kind of person to find the following "magical"). I was reaching for the nail clippers in the medicine cabinet when I knocked an open safety pin into the sink.

Safety pins, for those who haven't seen one in a while, are pins with one pointy end, a springy 180 degree bend, and the other end which is attached to a bulky head that you can lodge the pointy end in so no one gets hurt. They are often used to attach name tags to shirts.

Anyway, there the safety pin went, into the sink, and head first down the drain. The pointy end of the pin and the springy bend remained exposed, but the head was out of sight. I grabbed the pointy end and tried to pull it out, but the head was stuck on something below sink level. After a couple of seconds I realized there was no way I could get the leverage I needed on the safety pin to jostle it just right and pull it out. Then I remembered I was carrying my Leatherman! I pulled it out with my free hand and, using the pliers, I had the safety pin free moments later.

Maybe I am making too much of the situation, but here is the magic: I clip my nails about once a month, so I have clipped them many times in my life. I have never before had my Leatherman on me while clipping my nails, nor have I ever knocked a safety pin down the drain. The single time that I accidentally put my self in a situation to need a Leatherman while clipping my nails, I happen to have one on me!