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Tune out
I'm going to cancel my tv service next week. That's right, ALL of it. Of my cable/internet bill, $90 goes to digital cable, movie channles and a Tivo-like device. I sometimes go weeks without sitting down to watch a single show and think it's time I finally get rid of it.
I'll definitely miss having TechTv on in the background once in awhile. The only other thing that I might miss are the HBO shows next season and those all come out on dvd anyway.
In game news, I'm totally addicted to this. I had to stop on level 16 because my eyes started going crazy.
The Screen Goes Down on First Avenue
Man, I can't believe that First Avenue is closed. I know that the it was a business and that these things happen, but I never imagined a day when a club like that would go under.
Jeremy has a post about it and was thoughtful enough to record their answering machine message on the day the club went dark. MPR has a detailed account of what is happening with the club, so I'll leave that for you to read if you want to know more.
Incomplete list of shows I've seen at First Avenue
- Bjork (1995)
- Built to Spill
- Golden Smog
- Son Volt
- Sleater-Kinney
- Big Star
- Cracker
- The Wallflowers
- Kid Rock (before I knew who he was)
- Monster Magnet
- Slayer (lost some hearing at this show when I was 16)
- Motorhead
- Wilco
- Ryan Adams
- The Stills
- Elliott Smith
- The Jayhawks
- Soul Asylum
- Liz Phair
- Kool Keith
- LL Cool J
- Modest Mouse
- Ben Folds Five
- Cake
- 764-Hero
- Goldie
- Morcheeba
- Cheap Trick w/ Aerosmith as surprise guests
- Lots of local shows
Wilkerville
I'm super tired tonight. I've been staying up way too late all week taking care random stuff and working on sites. I plan on going to bed shortly and getting a good night's sleep.
I'm so excited for tomorrow. Two of my friends, Meghan and Jeremy are getting married!
I got a haircut, my suit is dry cleaned and I'm going alone. Ladies, get in line.
Spending wisely
I don't usually download a lot of music, but this fall has been a big exception. There has been so much stuff coming out and getting posted to those nasty little places on the web that I can't help checking it all out. Most of the time I end up buying the music that I download.
When I heard that First Avenue closed it really hit me that I need to start thinking about where I spend my money and who I'm supporting. Today I went through my folder of downloaded music, picked out the stuff that I really like and went to the Electric Fetus and made a big purchase. Best Buy or iTunes would have been cheaper and more convenient, but like I said, I need to think about what kind of businesses I support. Not that I have a huge problem the big retailers (other than Walmart), but I felt the need to support an independent store, rather than just assuming that they'll be around forever.
Here's some of the music I've been into lately:
The new Talib Kweli is amazing. The new Dosh is really good, Mos Def's new cd is good and different than a lot of stuff out there. I've also been WAY into the new Green Day. I've never been a fan of theirs and was skeptical of this album, but after one listen I can say that I think it's one of the best rock albums I've ever heard.
What else...oh, the new Eminem is pretty solid. It's not out yet, but I've listened to it many, many times and I'll buy it when it comes out. Don't sue me.
If you're like me and haven't been following John Frusciante, now is a good time to start. I recently discovered his Ataxia project and it's a great listen. Very dark, heavy and trance inducing.
Mix Master Mike's latest is surprisingly good. I don't usually have much of an attention span for scratch artists, but this one is a good listen. Plus, I can't work to music with vocals, so I've been playing it a lot at the office.
In the jazz department, I've been checking out a lot of John Zorn's new stuff. The Electric Masada cd is killer! I've also been getting back into Uri Caine. Dark Flame isn't terribly new, but his stuff is always impressive.
Finally, if you're up for an audio book, Sean Penn reads Dylan's Chronicles Vol. I, which is fascinating.
Software Updates
I can't express how excited I am for Delicious Library. It should be available sometime on Monday and I'm bringing my iSight with me to work so I can try the scanning feature out right way.
Also, the "lemon" iPodder team has released version 1.1 of their software and it's much improved. Lots of new features, improved stability, etc. Just go download it.
Delicious Library
The wait is over. Delicious Library for OS X is out and it is nothing less than amazing. This application was so hyped and anticipated that I was worried that it might not live up to my expectations. I shouldn't have been concerned. I'm blown away. I woke up at seven this morning, downloaded the demo and purchased it after only a few minutes of use. It's that good.
For version 1.0, the guys at Delicious Monster really created something to be proud of. It's fast, stable and looks amazing. And yes, the iSight scanning really works as well as I hoped. I added over 100 dvd's and games in under a half hour. It took a few tries before I got used to lining up the barcode scanner, but after that it was smooth sailing.
They say that they'll be adding support for iTunes in the future, which will be great. I'm also hoping that they'll take advantage of the Netflix RSS feeds to give me the option to view my Netflix history and rental queue. I emailed them with this request and will let you know if I hear back from them. I'm sure they're swamped today.
Cool Features
An import/export utility. It's simple, but it works. I'm hoping that in the future they add some options for different exporting formats. Perhaps that's already there and I've just missed it.
Voice searching. That's right, just speak the title you are looking for and Delicious Library will find it.
Ipod syncing. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm excited that they included the functionality.
I also love that you can keep track of borrowed items and who has them. Steve, there's nowhere to hide now!
Finally, the license code that I got after purchase is the BEST. LICENSE. CODE. EVER. I know it's a geeky thing to notice, but they are pretty clever with this and if you purchase it, you'll know what I mean.
Two Problems
First, there were a few times that the barcode scan did not return any results. They use Amazon.com to find information and claim that some newer items may not show up. I found that it wasn't able to find a couple of my older video games, but I was able to search for them by title and add them that way. This was a minor inconvenience.
Second, the application did crash once while trying to find Tony Hawk's Underground for Xbox and I lost the last few items that I had entered. Again, this wasn't a huge problem and the built in error reporting is really good, so I'm sure they'll be on top of this.
The Verdict
Don't hesitate. If you have OS X and an iSight, buy it now.
Problems
I had couple problems today. Nothing major, but life's little annoyances seem a lot bigger after working a few 12 hour days in a row.
First, Jones Soda was sold out of their Turkey Soda holiday pack just minutes after it was released for sale. I was really hoping to get some of it this year. It's already going for two to three times the retail price on eBay.
Next, I upgraded my G4 to OS X 10.3.6 and am having some audio problems. The level out of the headphone and line out jacks are increased and distort my speakers unless I have my system volume down to about 60%. Zapping my PRAM did not solve the problem as it has for others, but unplugging and plugging my speakers back in solves the issue. Unfortunately, I have to do this every time I reboot. Boo!
My day did end on a high note when my boss let Steve and I take his Volvo S60 R on a run to Taco Bell. Man, that car was so fun to drive.
DreamReal
I just want to give a quick plug to my friend Dave over at DreamReal. He's helping me out with a logo for a project I'm working on and produced some of the most creative comps that I've seen. He's so talented and easy to work with. If you need a logo, I highly recommend working with him.
Free Cable
What's the best way to get free cable? Call up and cancel. That's right. On Monday I called to cancel my TV service completely and ended up getting three free months of my current plan free!
I'm not sure if every cable provider has secret deals like this, but Time Warner scared that one up for me. At first the rep offered $20 or $30 off my bill (I can't remember which). I said no and that I asked to cancel completely. He put me on hold and after a few minutes found a "e;special"e; promotional deal for current customers. Whatever. I'm going to cancel as soon as the three months is up.
Scoot! Magazine, page 26
Sweet! The Winter 2004 issue of Scoot! Quarterly is out. Page twenty six features a review of Skooter Du 5. What's awesome is that six, yes SIX of my photos are featured along with my name AND web address.
I'm pretty excited because this is the first time any of my photos have been published, not to mention that this is a full color, national magazine.
At lunch I went over to Scooterville with Steve from work and bought a few issues. I'm going to email the publisher it see if it's okay to scan and post the page here. Until then, you can check out the gallery of all the photos I took at the scooter rally.
Let's get Sirius
Last night I bought Sirius satellite radio for my home and car. It's something that I knew I'd get into ever since Howard Stern announced his deal with them. His Letterman appearance Thursday night got me really excited for the future of the medium and even more excited to disconnect from the FCC controlled airwaves. If you didn't catch it, I'd urge you to head over to your favorite torrent site and try to find it. If you can't, email me and I *might* be able to hook you up.
Howard Stern aside, what got me most excited was hearing that Mel Karmazin joined Sirius as the new CEO. Wow, they're not playing around. As soon as I read that headline I made the decision to get Sirius. I spent Friday night doing some research about the different hardware and ended up deciding on the Sportster receiver with the home and car kits.
So far, I love it. There's so much great stuff to listen to and I get a pretty good signal without having to put the antenna outside. My favorite feature so far is the fact that I can turn off the NFL splash screen (THANK YOU!).
Having never dealt with anything satellite related, I was a little worried that setting it up would be a problem. It wasn't. Everything went exactly as described in the manual and I was listening within 20 minutes of opening the box.
Here's a good list of the Sirius lineup.
Update
I installed the car kit this afternoon and am blown away. The sound quality kills FM radio and it's nice not having to sit through commercials. If there's one problem so far it's that there are too many good options. I feel like fiend and can't get enough of most of the stations. Sirius rocks!
Quick Monday Update
Today was one of the worst Monday's that I've ever had. I went to bed with a headache last night and woke up feeling like shit. I was positive that I didn't sleep at all. I'm never going into work sick again. Today was brutal and I hardly got anything accomplished.
To make things worse, I got a call at around 5pm that my dad is back in the hospital. There's some sort of complication and I think he might have an infection. I'll know more tomorrow.
On a positive note, I signed up for a gym membership today. I'm looking forward to being a little more active again. Now all I have to do is get on a regular sleep schedule and stop binging on breakfast cereal.
Tired. Going to bed.
Home sick/RSS photo feed
I was home sick today with a terrible headache. It was so bad that I broke out a pill from the emergency stash my doctor gave me. It took care of the headache fairly quickly, but it made my heart race and stomach nauseous.
Before I went to bed last night I managed to create an RSS feed for my photoblog.
Friday Update
I had to work today. I think this is the first holiday that I've worked since I made minimum wage. The funny thing is that I really didn't mind. Maybe that's not funny. Maybe it's sad. Regardless, it was a pretty relaxed day and I took a break at lunch to go to the gym for the first time in years.
My "workout" was great. I checked out a racquetball court and hit the ball around for about a half hour. I forgot how sweet it is when you shut the door and are in that huge room all alone. I'm going to sneak my camera in there tomorrow and see if I can get a few shots off.
It was a pretty good workout. I was really winded at the end, but it was fun. I think I'm going to do that for awhile to get used to being active before I start hitting the weights and treadmill.
I need to give a couple of quick updates on my experience with Sirius satellite radio. I'm still loving it. I got an extension cable for my home antenna and now have the receiver at my desk, since that's where I spend most of my time. I also got a docking station for my desk at work so I can pretty much listen to it all the time.
Yesterday I got a chance to spend a few hours in my car listening to Sirius. It was so cool to be able to listen to the same programming with no interruptions. For me, satellite radio might be the iPod killer.
Oh, one last thing:
Dear comment spammers,
Please stop it. I'm on to you. Seriously, all you're doing is helping to improve my php skills.
