Music

Maybe A New iPod???

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I have been pondering purchasing a new iPod. I like the one I have, but I am running low on disk space. Unfortunately I don’t use the iPod as much as I would like to, but sometimes it is a life saver on the train. I am trying to figure out if it is worth it to upgrade. I would make a few $$$ on my old one, and the new one would have a bigger hard drive.

I have over 9 GIG’s of music now. In order for me to get everything I want on my current iPod and still have drive space for other stuff I need to filter playlists in order to keep the music under 8 GIG’s.

I am starting to use the iPod as a portable hard drive. it is nice to drop stuff on it, and plug it in at work and use it. As a portable hard drive it is a bit expensive, but as a music player / personal storage, it is nice.

Instead of buying the new one, I am also looking at spending AMEX points for one. Not sure if I want to waste points on gear. A decision is forthcoming…

The Many Uses Of An iPod

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I am seriously thinking about using my iPod to shuttle data back and forth from home to work. It saves me from bringing a laptop home if I don’t want to one day. I need to see if my iPod that is setup to use a Mac will work as a hard drive if I plug it into a PC. I don’t think it will.

It would be cool to use it as a drive. I have about 2 gigs free, and if I filter what music I put on it, I can free up more room.

iTunes For Windows

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So like allot of people I downloaded Apple’s iTunes for windows when it came out. Actually it was a few days after it came out since I was sick and didn’t read about its release for a while, but you get the point. It looked great, exactly like iTunes for Mac. The problem is that when I run it on my Thinkpad T40 it brings the system to a crawl. I cannot click or move the iTunes window when it is running. I am not sure what is wrong. I installed it twice to make sure nothing went wrong with the install. Still no dice. I am going to try it on another machine at home and then decide if it is worth the trouble. It just works on my mac!

I think that ends my bitch session about recent technology that I have dealt with…

Relating Music To The Real World

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So if you read the last blog entry you noticed the tag at the end of it. I can (actually I always could have using Kun-Log) insert a tag saying what I am listening on iToons while writing. Actually just what I was listening too at the end of the blog.

It is ironic what I was listening to at the end of that last message. Pink’s just like a pill. Actually being cooped up sick you tend to notice things you don’t normally. The two perfect songs to listen to while sick that are in my music library are that song and Matchbox 20’s Unwell. I actually liked both songs before this week, but you need to really sit and listen to the music. I first listened to the entire lyrics of Unwell Friday. It was amazing how I was living most of that song. Or it felt that way at the time. I found it kind of funny. I am actually listening to it now again. You just relate to some music. I thought it was interesting enough to mention.

Written while listening to Matchbox 20, Unwell… &
Written while listening to Alanis Morissette, Hand In My Pocket…

Ipod is drained

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I went to grab my trusty iPod when I booted up my powerbook so I could listen to some music while I did this blog. To my dismay I found it drained of power. Turns out I really need a case for that thing. After a drunk night getting home from the bar I lost the case while on the LIRR listening to music. Without the case the keys get pressed and the iPod runs and drains its power. I know there is that lock switch but if you forget to press it you have an iPod without power. Thankfully for now I am using the powerbook to listen to music. I found headphones that work in the bottom of my luggage. Oh, thanks apple for making the iPod headphones not work in regular headphone jacks.

I am on Amtrak right now. Like I always say I do allot of my best writing on the train. I just passed the Tapanzee bridge on the way to Kingston. This trip is always relaxing, as long as you don’t get all wound up about traveling like I do sometimes. So far this has been a restful trip. As Gus would say, I am getting rid of all my negative energy and centering my Chi. Eh, something like that.

Not sure how hot it is today, but it looks beautiful outside right now. Being so busy recently I am trying to stop and take notice of stuff like that.

I will not buy a new ipod

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My ipod is less than 6 months old, and I will not buy a new one. Gus‘ ipod is awsome. And now Howard is thinking of getting one. I said that I would buy his 20 gig ipod that is like mine, but now I am having second thoughts. I may be running out of space on mine, but I can free some up by filtering what I put on it. I am trying to cut back on what I buy. I have a really new mp3 player, I don’t need another one even if I can sell mine. I am trying to be good about it!

iTunes music store

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The problem with blogging is I don’t remember what I have talked about and what I wanted to discuss. I go back over my previous entries but sometimes miss stuff. Not sure if I discussed this before, so here goes.

Last week I tried out the iTunes music store. I mentioned I was looking into it, well I did. I ended up buying the latest Stroke 9 album online. I liked their last album and figured it was as good an album as any to buy. So I forked over the $10. I gotta say that so far the music service is not bad. I haven’t tried to move the songs anywhere, but I did put them on my iPod. The sound quality is awesome. I can’t tell the difference. I will use the service again if I find I want to buy any new music. I don’t think I want to buy any more CD’s. the flip side is I can convert a CD to any format if I own it.

Now I am finally I little bit sleepy, so I am off to bed. More tomorrow, or later, or whenever!

Lazy Saturday’s

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I am being lazy today. I need to get a mothers day gift for my mom, but that is all I have on my agenda today. I slept late, and I am just hanging out now. My idea of laying low is very geeky. I am installing VMware 4 workstation on my desktop computer. I want to get red hat 9 on it so I can use windows xp and red hat on the same machine. If it works it will be awesome. Right now it is installing red hat.

My mom instructed me that she wants some pocket book or something. I will give her money and she can go get it for herself. That way I don’t have to get the wrong thing. I was also instructed to get flowers. I just love the surprise involved in this day.

Since Gus fixed my linux box I now have a choice. Should I leave my site on Red Hat or move it back to Windows? As of right now I have a copy on both. My friend jayson is letting me use his box to host my site, and I still have a copy on my Red Hat server. I am thinking I am going to leave the blog on red hat and have the rest of the site on windows. That way I don’t have to mess with taking the front page extensions out of the site. I was trying to deal with that for a few weeks and so far have gotten nowhere. I just don’t have the time. For now I will leave everything in both places. Unfortunately I don’t have the photo site up at all during this transition. it is 800+ megs and I don’t want to deal with it right now.

I have been following the apple music store since it was announced last week. I have a mac. I like it allot. I also find I use iTunes over winamp 99% of the time nowadays. I also went out a few months ago and got an ipod. That also kicks ass. So I am in a position to use this new music service. 99 cents is not bad for a song. I am still unsure if it is worth it. I saw an entire album I want to maybe buy and see if the service is any good. Limewire and the gnutella clients, and kaza are tempting. I am on the fence right now. The file format is supposed to be better, but I still like MP3’s. I was not sold on Microsoft’s windows media format, and now I am skeptical of this new AAC stuff. What is weird is that Microsoft comes across as more evil big company like, and Apple is the underdog hip company. In fact they are probably both just as evil. Right now for work I of course an clearly a Microsoft guy, but for home I am a apple guy. All this rambling boils down to eventually will buy stuff on this music service. If anything I want to know if I am missing out on something really good, or just saving my money.

Def Leppard still rocks!

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As I have discussed before I have not written in a few days because two friends came down to visit from albany. One of my good friends from college steve and a friend of his tom came to visit. I know tom through steve, but he is really cool. They both came down to goto some def leppard concerts. We went to the thursday & friday night concerts. They actually made great time thursday and showed up early. I went up to meet them at a brew put right by the beacon theater where the concert was. I still am queasy about drinking after last week so I didn’t drink. I had some “healthy” cheese sticks and hung out and caught up with steve. The concert was awesome. we sat in the next to last row on the upper level, but I didn’t care. Tom had a floor seat since they didn’t get 3 tickets together for the first night. they played over half the songs from the hysteria album. I was very pleased. got to hear my favorite song live twice, it was nice. If anyone needs to know my favorite song is Animal by def leppard. I have others songs that I like allot but I still consider that my all time favorite!

So it turns out that tom had problems with his seat. he and another guy had the same ticket, so for the first few songs they thought that someone was running a scam. he was pissed since he went to ticket-master for the tickets. He ended up having to stand at the side of the stage the rest of the concert because they gave the other guy the seat. it was funny, but really stupid. Steve & my seats were fine.

We went back to my place afterward and just hung out till like 2-am before going to bed.

I actually got through most of friday without dealing with work. it was nice. I just had to call Keith about 1 problem with a backup. Other than that and him calling to try to mess with my head once work was non-existent.

Friday, Steve, Tom, & I went into the city at like 1:30 after eating lunch at the omega diner. To save on parking we took the rail road in and bought the unlimited ride fun pass’s for the day. We went to the trade center site since neither of them saw it before. I swore I wouldn’t go again with them, but we had nothing going on. I got a chance to goto J&R computer world, so I wasn’t complaining. then we went up to time square area and walked around for a while. We needed up spending like 2 hours in the virgin megastore just looking at the dvd’s. the guys from albany were amazed at the selection. I was pretty impressed myself. we ended up eating (and having happy hour) at planet hollywood. I was fighting a migraine all day so I didn’t drink. I ended up having to take a bextra at lunch, another at dinner, and then 2 furiset’s (aka butabital). I COULD not get a migraine during this concert. I called my dad and he said I could mix the bextra and furiset. I was worried. I didn’t eat because my head hurt too much. I am thankful to say that the drugs finally kicked in and I was fine for the concert. I also got ear plugs so that helped. I liked the first concert better, probably because of the drugs and headache, and the ear plugs drowning down the music. Steve and Tom liked the second one better. Def leppard played an extra song in the encore, and it turned out to be one they have only played once before since 1996. I never heard it so I didn’t really care. Either way I had an awesome time both nights. it was also good to see steve. I am thankful for tom putting up with our “old college stories”. he also gave me some steve hight school stories so I had a good laugh.

Steve and tom took off early today (9-am). I woke up long enough to say by, and hear them leave. I went back to bed till like noon. I was zoned out till like 3pm and then started working on my new linux box (see previous post). Not sure what is in store for tomorrow. more later!