My head is going to explode.
My new mp3 player, as much as I love it is being a pain in the ass. Besides my original complaints about it playing back in what amounts to random order, now there’s this:
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Recommendation
Review
Ok, so M got this killer mp3 player and I was so jealous of it. So I got one for xmas, yay! I actually love it to death, it is so small, so tiny, has 128mb built in, takes SD cards (recently Wal-Mart had 128mb SD cards for $23!), has a display, comes w/ an armband, etc. It’s really great.
Except for one tiny thing: it plays songs in what amounts to random order. That’s fine for music, I guess, but not for the book-on-cd that I ripped to mp3! Books kinda have to be read/listened to in order!
Well, thankfully, all houses have their own high-end expert degreed genious professional computer programmer living in it, so I was able to have a custom GIU program designed that will allow me to select mp3 files and copy them over to the player in such a way that they will play back in order.
But, if you are not planning to need the songs to be played in order, it’s a REALLY great mp3 player. And coupled w/ the Koss Plugs, the sound is amazing.
I have to say, I was unhappy w/ the volume of my new mp3 player, so I went looking for a volume booster, but they were too big (especially considering how small my mp3 player is) and then M told me that different headphones are louder than others, and when you look at the specifications, you want the highest “sensitivity” you can get. So I went to Best Buy and the headphones (well, earphones) that had the highest sensitivity were the Koss: The Plug ones. Holy shit are they good! They are like earbuds, but they have these really soft rubber cones that go in your ears and I swear they sound as good as the best headphones out there!!! I say, if you are looking to improve the sound of your mp3 player (or cd player or walman or whatever), get these earphones!
Ever have one of those days where everything goes wrong, where everything you attempt fails, where everything you touch breaks? Today absolutely sucked.
I love Fark‘s “Photoshop This” threads. This one got me in painful laughter (some are hilarious, alot are stupid):
Isn’t it wrong to put one thing on the box and another thing inside? I bought this christmas dvd knowing nothing about it except what the pictures on the back showed. It was a somehwat childish christmas special put on dvd, SUPPOSEDLY all different christmas animations… and it had photos on the back of what I ASSUMED was stills from the movies inside. There was one photo that was directly out of a children’s book I had when I was a kid, and feeling nostanglic, I picked up the dvd hoping that somebody had made a video short out of the children’s story. Nope. NOWHERE anywhere on that dvd was ANYTHING even remotely related to that photo or children’s book. In fact, of all five or so photos on the back, NOT ONE of them was from what was on the dvd. So, they basically put random photos on the dvd package, and put unrelated crap on the dvd (like vomit-inducing interviews with little very little children discussing love and christmas and santa and their dead grandmother… “I miss her at christmastime…”) AW, RETCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m taking the fucking thing back… [thoughts of the wal-mart return-line the week after christmas...] Nevermind.
Apparently, weblogs.com thinks I’m addicted to blogging. 
The MT auto-ping responded:
“Ping ‘http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2′ failed: Ping error: Thanks for the ping, however we can only accept one ping every half-hour. It’s cool that you’re updating so often, however, if I may be so bold as to offer some advice — take a break, you’ll enjoy li”
It got cut off so I don’t know what it went on to say, but that’s funny. 
I don’t know what goes thru the minds of the people that design stuff. I got a christmas gift which I just LOVE, I had wanted one so badly, this teeny tiny mp3 player for the gym. It ROCKS! It’s TINY. But, the thing is, it plays songs in random order only. Oh, the manual SAYS it plays it NOT in the order of filename… but in the order which the files were placed on the player (NOT timestamp). I did a select-all on the files for my book (I want to listen to a book-on-cd which I ripped to mp3) and dragged them over, and the player WILL NOT play them in order! It absolutely CANNOT play files in filename order. Oh, the OLD firmware did that, but they “improved it” buy making it now SUPPOSEDLY play files in the order in which they were placed on the player. But it doesn’t actually DO that! It is so assinine I want to hunt down the bastards that designed it and pummel them. I mean… when u pick out an mp3 player from the bunch, you look at internal memory, memory card options, does it have a display, etc. etc. You never look for, nor do the boxes SAY, “plays songs in order”. I mean, DUH! How STUPID of me to make such a niave assumption that the device would actually play songs IN ORDER! And since they don’t advertise this feature of randomness on the box, the only way to fix this is to return it, get another one, take it home, try it, take that one back, get another one, take it home, try it, take that one back, etc etc… And people got PAID good money to design that thing! If it weren’t for that one little feature of randomness, it’d be perfect, it’s TINY, it has a display, it sounds great, comes with an armband for the gym, it’s uber-stylish, i love it i love it I LOVE IT! Except that I can’t use it for what I bought it for, but I guess that’s minor, right?
/rant
I’ve got that song in my head, the one from south park… “hey there mister shintoist, merry fucking christmas”.
Oh well.
Christmas was good. For not getting too into it too soon, and for not getting too caught up in the material aspect of it, it was fun.
We stayed up last night until 4:30am drinking and watching tv and surfing and wrapping presents and stuff. Then we slept ’til noon, went to see family and had dinner around 4pm.
So by 10:00pm we were hungry again having had our only hot meal six hours before… so we were like “lets go to Denny’s!” but they didn’t answer the phone. So M goes “… and I’m sure you won’t want to go to waffle house…”, and I was like YEAH!!!!!! So M calls and not only are they open but they sound like they are havin’ a party – “sure we’re open, come on down and join the party!” So we grabbed our sweaters and headed out. It was fun! It was PACKED! It was alot of fun, sat at the counter and made some new friends. Talked to our counter-buddies and joked and gave them my business card. The staff was lively and jovial. We really had a good time and we think we’ll make it a new tradition! Sounds crazy, I know, but you gotta have fun! It was that or break into the pumpkin bread and sit in front of the tv watching Tivo’d shows.
Nala’s post got me thinking about our christmas card from last year: [see the cover of it here]. Ahahahahah!
We still have not done an xmas card yet this year (note the date of this post), so if we do one at all it’ll be late and we’ll just call it a “holiday card”. Xmas just snuck up on us this year… feeling the power of the marketing machine and just not really into it this year.
But we should do a card, otherwise everyone on our card list will think that they were the only ones not getting a card this year. *sigh* Just feeling so uninspired… and disorganized (I don’t even have stamps!).
Warning:
You are about to see a side of me that you will rarely ever see. Watch reverantly, gossip little, for here I present to you…
my domestic side.
I am making Punkin’ Bread! I do it pretty much every year around Christmas. It’s my own little tradition. I got the 
years ago from a very nice man. I worked with him and he promised to get the from his wife for me. He went to the dentist, had a tooth pulled, they found cancer and he was dead in 2 weeks. While in the hospital he asked his wife to get the to me. I mean, of all the things, he even remembered my little request.
Incredible story about a retiree from Florida who fell for the ol’ Nigerian email scam and still refuses to belive that his Nigerian friends are criminals. [story]
link via fark
Excerpts:
“Authorities say the cons… have become the fourth- or fifth-largest industry in Nigeria.”
“Sometimes the threat turns physical.
At least eight Americans have been held against their will after traveling to Africa to get their money. Fifteen people have been killed, including one American whose burned body was dumped outside a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria.”
Top astronomy images of 2003
(link via fark)
Ah, the beauty of procrastination! We got an xmas tree for only five dollars!
The perverts start young…
http://laserone.textamerica.com/?r=246587
Thanks to Christine for this terrific link! I had NO idea Google could do this. To quote Christine, cuz she sums it up better than I could:
“Did you know you can use Google to track your packages? Type in FedEx, followed by your tracking number, and you’ll get results. Type in the UPS number, you’ll get results.”
Well, not getting to Toronto this xmas. We think we’ll go up in February instead. So I won’t get to see Nathan Phillips Square all done up in xmas lights. No biggie, I’ll live. At least it’ll still be winter in February, I love winter. I hope to meet up w/ some people there, maybe even some new friends… go to some meetup.com meetups, go hiking, shopping, etc. But I’m really looking forward to the meetups. It’s hard to meet new people/friends in my one-horse town. Meetup.com meetups are quite popular in Toronto, so it’d be great if I could go to a few… which ones depends on when exactly I am there. A Lomo one would be fun, or just photography.
Some interesting headlines on sci/tech this week:
Record Industry May Not Subpoena Providers – “The recording industry can’t force Internet providers to identify music downloaders, a federal appeals court said Friday in a major decision shielding online privacy while undercutting the industry’s anti-piracy campaign.”
Downloading Lawsuits Cost Getting Higher – “The recording industry can still bring civil lawsuits against people who download music illegally, but Friday’s court ruling will make that more expensive and time-consuming.”
Court: Kazaa not responsible for swapping – “AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The makers of Kazaa, the world’s most popular computer file-sharing program, cannot be held liable for copyright infringement of music or movies swapped on its free software, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled Friday.”
Today was a fun day.
I slept in a bit, got up, went to the gym (we joined a gym last Monday), then later on I met a new friend for coffee and a movie (can you guess which one?). We saw Love Actually (for me, that’s… 8? I’ve lost track.) It’s STILL good. A fantastic movie. Then M and I went to dinner and after that I just melted into the couch and caught up on Tivo (Buffy and Angel).
Not much to report, really.
Recommendation:
Now that I’ve made a major purchase and it went well, I can highly recommend Musician’s Friend… (MusiciansFriend.com).
I wanted a Digital Piano and the one I wanted was $1600 in town. Musician’s Friend had it for $1199 with FREE SHIPPING! (and digital piano’s are HEAVY!) It came in a matter of days by FedEx and we paid not a single penny in shipping!
I was nervous having never heard of them before, but when M inquired w/ a friend of his (who is an avid musician) about buying online, (but not mentioning Musician’s Friend), M’s friend recommended Musician’s Friend on his own, saying that he’d purchased an expensive guitar from them and the transaction went perfectly.
The salesman in town at the local piano shop tried to warn me that alot of online places “bait and switch” you, getting your credit card number and then telling you they don’t have it in stock but they can give you a different one (a lesser one) instead. Using this excuse the place here in town would not price match or even BUDGE a little bit on the price. But Musician’s Friend did not do any of these things. We ordered online and it showed up a few days later in perfect condition, not a penny in shipping. Yay!
*Belch!*
Too many carbonated beverages tonight.
Went to hockey game tonight, an ECHL game. Brought my camera phone. Now I’d like to see if I can get tix to a Maple Leafs game either here or in Toronto (I hope to go to Toronto in February).
I swear to god, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are fucking geniuses! I don’t know HOW they do it! Not only do they come up with ingeneous stuff, but they manage to do it in like 48 hours!!! Saddam’s capture hit headlines, what, Sunday? And already, for tonight’s episode they have a whole epic based on The Wizard of Oz (which ironically just aired this past weekend) where at the end, it’s Saddam behind the curtain, beard and all, with a cartoon-rendition of the hole he was hiding in. They even had his quote down pat. I don’t know how they do it but they are geniuses! AHAHAHAH I laughed so hard I’m still hiccuping.
P.S. I love their interpretation of Canadians and Canada. M being from Canada we both find it gut-wrenching hilarious!!!!!
UPDATE: Sorry, the image looked better on my camera-phone screen. I’ll try to get a better pic.
Got a better pic w/ my Sony Cybershot Dsc-U60.
Ibis birds walking around a neighbor’s yard.
Canon D60
In my backyard today:
Canon D60
It’s cold and windy out today. I looked out into my backyard and all at once I saw a Little Grey Heron, a Great White Heron and a Wood Stork.
http://santa.textamerica.com/
http://xmastree.textamerica.com/
http://halloween.textamerica.com/ (not working right now) 
http://camphone.textamerica.com/
http://sushi.textamerica.com/
http://bath.textamerica.com/
http://fire.textamerica.com/
http://thebird.textamerica.com/
http://drive-thru.textamerica.com/
http://weather.textamerica.com/
http://numbers.textamerica.com/
http://mydesk.textamerica.com/
http://christmas.textamerica.com/ (I don’t think this is a public one.)
UPDATE: More public moblogs:
http://yourart.textamerica.com/
http://dogblog.textamerica.com/
Textamerica does it again. They screwed up my moblog! My moblog is broken and that makes me sad. It’s all white, no graphics at all, and there’s this innane incorrect message on it that says:
“This white box is here becuase you removed the [$links] token. To get rid of this box, re-enstate the [$links] token” which is BULLSHIT incorrect because I did not TOUCH my moblog! They changed servers today and now it’s all screwed up my moblog is broken and that makes me sad. I can’t even email my blog, the emails bounce back. They better get their act together! Gee, I really wish they’d fix it! It’s a freakin’ mess! My blog is really messed up and I noticed that alot of others are too, but I’m sure it’ll fixed eventually.
Update: As of 11:30 this am it seems to be getting better. The moblog is rendering right and my emails to it are not bouncing back. The thumbnail on laserblog.com is not rendering, nor are the “favorites” thumbnails, but I hope in time it will.
Update:: Original post edited to be more politically correct.
New public moblogs for the holidays! Moblogs are websites where you can email photos directly from your camera phone and post them on the web for free. You can get your own moblog at textamerica.com. “Mobile blog” = “Moblog”. Public moblogs are moblogs that anyone can post to and there are many, here are some for the holidays:
Share camera-phone pix of your christmas tree:
Your Christmas Tree – http://xmastree.textamerica.com/
Have you seen santa? If so, click ‘im and post!
Have you seen santa? – http://santa.textamerica.com/
Merry Christmas from TextAmerica: Post all your Christmas-related camera-phone pix here:
Merry Christmas from TextAmerica.com – http://christmas.textamerica.com/
Recommendation:
I like this program for ripping MP3′s:
Easy CD Ripper
From their website:
“Easy CD Ripper is an all-in-one music tool for ripping and converting. As a piece of famous CD Ripper software, it extracts audio CD tracks to audio formats MP3, WAV, WMA, VQF, OGG, APE with excellent output quality and high ripping speed.
“It also supports converting MP3, WAV, WMA, APE, VQF, OGG from one format to another.
“Besides professional ripping functions, it can clone CD bit by bit perfectly and supports MP3 ID3 V1/V2 edting, Free CDDB Submission, beautiful and changable skins, professional and user-friend interface, and much much more …”
Well, this link was working earlier, so if it comes back, check out this short news story about hungry elephants in Thailand who learned how to hijack trucks full of sugarcane!
This was also on ‘countdown w/ keith oberman’.
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