Category: tunes

Music. Bands. Songs. Concerts.

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other than that, i’m out


So disinterested tonight, I just want to sleep. I fear I’m coming down with something, as I’m not typically this tired all the time. This weekend, I just wanted to sleep. And now, I swear I could go to bed and yet it’s only 7pm. Sharaun seems to be stricken with the same affliction, maybe we’ve both caught mono or something. Maybe I’m so tired because I’ve been reading all these gushing reviews of the new Joanna Newsom album that I just can’t get into. I mean, this thing’s done been leaked ever since I wrote this, and it still hasn’t gotten any better.

So, I don’t have much tonight… spent a good amount of time uploading pictures and movies to Keaton’s gallery. If you’d like, you can view said media by clicking this link.

Other than that, I’m out. Goodnight.

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i am not voting for that dickface


Didn’t write yesterday, wasn’t in the mood. Also wasn’t in the mood last Thursday night, which explains Friday’s non-entry. So, after my long weekend, I thought I’d better get some words on paper. Had a great weekend, though, nice winesoaked dinners and rewarding fits of yardwork, some daddy-daughter time on Saturday and some manfire-stoaking metalworking with a freakin’ plasma cutter and mig welder. It was good, for sure. Let us, though, friends, get our heads out of the past and move forward into the here and the now. Three, two, one…

Today is vote-day. I know where I stand on the major state ballot issues, and the house, but I decided today that, rather than abstain from voting for the many ham-and-egger offices (school board, water rights, sanitation, etc.), I’m instead going to vote for whichever of the candidates I saw the least amount of roadside campaign vomit for. I’m serious, one of these dickfaces had supporters put literally hundreds of campaign posters along the road from the highway to our house. I am not voting for that dickface, just for that.

Remember all my hesitation about the new Shins album? Yeah, that turned out to be quite unfounded. All it took for me to hit the fainting couch with every falsetto croon was a deep-listening session afforded me while mowing the lawn Sunday afternoon. Since the album is a scant 40min, I was able to cycle through it twice and then some (found myself pulling weeds and trimming hedges just to get some more ear-time). The Shins’ music always sounds to me like it would be at home in the mid-sixties, and I like that. I love the way the Shins-singer-guy “turns” his melodies, always trilling up and down where you least expect it, sliding up the scale unexpectedly, it makes for interesting listening.

Continuing on the music tip, I’ve recently re-started (once again) my efforts to digitize my entire CD collection. Re-started is really the wrong term, since it’s been an ongoing thing… it just languishes when the wind’s not in my sails. Last week I did a big “rectify,” comparing everything I’ve ripped thus far to what I have – just to get a better assessment of what’s left to do. Oh, yeah, I have a spreadsheet for that which I was supposed to use and keep updated… but I also stopped updating that regularly enough during my last ripping bout. So, I cleaned everything up and took a fresh look at my progress. Seems I only have about ~100 discs left to rip, not too bad.

Well the, that’s enough too call it a proper entry, I do believe. Before I go though, I also got caught up on Keaton’s gallery, posting her latest pictures – you can check them out here.

Goodnight beasties.

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it’s the little things


Wednesday night. I have a terribly boring blog tonight. A little about changing brakes, and a little about iTunes. Neither of which is that interesting. Sorry about that.

Saw a link for the new version of iTunes while browsing Digg today, and installed it immediately to see if it might rectify my iTunes 7 artwork issues. First off, why the heck is the iTunes installer 35MB? All it is is a shoddy add-on to QuickTime, which is a piece of software I hate for the fact that it offers me nothing and hooks into my system more than I want. 35MB of what? SharePod does essentially the same thing and is only 580KB – you’re telling me iTunes adds 34.5MB of “goodness?” I don’t think so. Anyway, about 5min into the thing’s ridiculously long installation time (you’d think I was installing a Windows service pack for as long as the thing takes), it pops up and tells me that I need to close Microsoft Outlook because it’s using some files that need to be updated. What?! iTunes is updating files that Outlook is using? Why in the world would it be doing that? I mean, I’m sure it’s some standard Windows/IE DLL thing… but still, that software is totally parasitic if you ask me.

Anyway, on a whim I plugged in the iPod, navigated to the Music setup screen, and did the famous “Display album artwork on your iPod” un-tick, apply, re-tick trick. Before iTunes 7 went to the new single-file artwork database structure, this used to fix artwork issues on individual misbehavers. But with previous versions of the 7.0 family, you were stuck if you 1) had embedded artwork in your MP3 files, and 2) manually managed your iPod (i.e. you drag and drop to get tunes on/off the iPod rather than using the library sync feature).

After some 20min of “optimizing artwork,” I unplugged my iPod and, with some anticipation, pulled up a track with known embedded artwork (a track whose artwork used to display perfectly prior to iTunes 7 and firmware xxx). You’d think that, after spending nearly 20min doing something, there might be some noticeable change, right?

(Note: While iTunes was “optimizing artwork,” I did a branch-predict and wrote the following paragraph. However, once you get through this paragraph and onto the next, you’ll see that my predictive writing was, happily, in vain).

Wrong! Stupidass iTunes just churned for the sake of churning, because not a damn thing changed. I still can’t see the album artwork which is embedded in my MP3s on the iPod itself. Oh sure, it still displays fine in iTunes, but not on the iPod. What I hate most about this is that it used to work fine, it was perfect… Talk about frustrating. Apple, are you listening? Fix this!!

(Now, what actually happened.)

Right! As I pulled up that first track (Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”), I was thrilled to see my artwork displayed proudly to the left of the ID3 information. The artwork is back! I can’t believe it, way to go Apple! Oh, and I’m sorry about that speculative paragraph above – but I just didn’t have a lot of faith that it would work.

Kudos for giving us manual users their embedded artwork back on their iPods, it was missed while it was gone. Let’s change subjects now, OK? OK.

This evening I changed the rear brakes on the truck. See, the truck’s been making awful, awful, grinding noises from back there – and a visual inspection the other day led me to believe that badly worn pads were the cause. I knew I needed back brakes anyway… but I didn’t think there were as bad as they were. And oh… were they bad. On the tire making the noise, I was actually into the steel on the pad, way past the squealer thing and way past the rivets. It was baaaaad. Being only the 2nd unassisted brake job I’ve ever done, not to mention really the only larger-scale maintenance I know how to do on a vehicle (aside from things like putting air in the tires), I’m no expert at what bad brakes look like. But even me, an auto idiot, could tell this was not good. So, I slapped on new rotors and pads, put the tires back on, and fired up the truck for a victory lap around the block.

The noise was ten times worse than before.

Crushed, I pulled back into the garage. I’d noticed while putting on one set of pads that I kinda bent the little squealer thing, and I thought maybe I’d bent it too far inward and it was rubbing. But, despite my best efforts to try and see without taking the tire back off, I just couldn’t tell. So, up went the truck on the jackstand and off came the tire. Turns out the squeal tab was fine, but being able to see the caliper assembly I immediately ID’d the problem. There’s this little “clip” thing, two of them actually, that sit where each brake pad clamps in. I don’t know what they’re for, they’re tiny little thin things that serve no immediately recognizable purpose to me. Anyway, I must’ve unseated the bottom one, and it had gotten lodged between the rotor and it’s housing. Off came the caliper, on went the “clip” thing, and the whole thing went back together.

The next victory lap was blissfully silent and smooth. Success.

Goodnight.

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gremlins


Halloween this year was ultimately frustrating. From the moment I got home, things went wrong. There were literally (literally!) a group of kids running around my yard a good 30min before dark, just projecting that Halloween anticipation.

And it was with that example of youthful expectation fresh in my mind that I set about getting things dialed in just right for the evening’s parade of candy-whores. First up, I had to fix the dangling blacklight that illuminates the crank ghost, as it had fallen (for the billionth time) off of it’s ceiling-mounted screws. While up on the ladder in the fading daylight, I noticed that the crank ghost herself had gotten wrapped up in her motor pretty badly – so I untangled the mess and set her straight. Next it was off to get the witch turned around to face her spotlight, as the wind had spun her around and had her facing the wall. A witch’s back is a lot less scary that her wart-nosed profile.

Next up, PicoBoo’s connection to my speaker was touchy and every once in a while would vibrate loose and emit an unbearably loud buzzing. Fixed that, and came back out to find the ghost – now working under motorized power – had spun herself right up into knots again, and with the motor driving, had completely bent her rotating puppet arm. Beyond repair, I unplugged the motor and settled for a static prop. Finally, after about the 3rd sortie of trick-or-treaters, the string controlling the ceiling dropper snapped right in two. I had no option but to clumsily break out the ladder and attempt to do nighttime repairs while the kids were forced to maneuver around me. After several minutes of cussing and swearing and sweating, I had a rough working fix that would have to suffice.

But despite all the drama and prop-fallout, things went off OK. Once again, we had a pitiful turnout, handing out candy to what I’d estimate was about 25 total trick-or-treaters, and that’s a generous accounting. So, the night itself was somewhat of an anticlimax… but I still enjoy the holiday. Moving on from Halloween then…

Lately, I’ve become quite enamored with the “Deep Tracks” channel on XM radio. I don’t pay for XM, but I get a pretty sizeable chunk of their offerings as some freebie piggyback on top of my DirecTV. My old buddy Kyle has been telling me now for two years that “satellite is the future of radio, Dave,” and maybe he’s right. Still though, I don’t want to pay for radio. And even though my “free” XM doesn’t come with anything as hip as Sirius’s “Left of Center,” I’m really into the unique tracks they seem to play on “Deep Cuts.” No, I wouldn’t pay for it – but to hear things like a Leon Russell cover of George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness” is kinda refreshing.

Goodnight.

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buy her a lottery ticket


Happy Halloween friends! Welcome to another mundane Tuesday where, in real time, I’m likely already sitting at my desk lamenting the eight or so hours of work that lay before me. At least tomorrow I can, for a short time, escape the stupid humdrum of work and experience some happier times while scaring kids and giving out candy. Then, I take it all down… the motorized ghost, the coffin, the tombstones… I take it all down and store it away for another year. After that, I’ll focus on Thanksgiving and Christmas… because, after all, I guy has to have something to look forward to. Now then, let’s get around to this blogging business, shall we?

Keaton’s second tooth is just crowning, and I think it’s causing her to be a little cranky. She’s also spending a lot more time “scooting” around the floor and “raising up” onto her knees – like she’s showing us she’s almost there, teetering on the edge of mobility. I get so excited when I see her move herself around, but I also get kinda sad to think she’s changed so much from when we first met just a few months ago. I mean, we’ve not even had the pleasure of each other’s company for a year yet and she’s changed more than anyone I’ve ever known. She sits up, she ba-bas and ney-neys and ma-mas, she eats food… she’s too big.

Last week, mostly due to the furious preparation for our Halloween party, I forgot to mention to Sharaun that Jeff had told me he’d read in the paper that tickets for Justin Tenderlegs’ upcoming show here in town were going on sale this past Saturday morning. (Is that a run-on?,sure seem like a run-on…) Anyway, she’d been wondering, and had been checking daily online to ensure she wouldn’t miss the onsale. Well, she did miss it, like I said, because we were both preoccupied with party prep, and she was completely bummed. Now, for me, missing a Tenderlegs onsale wouldn’t sting at all, but for her it was a source of profound grief. The situation became worse when it was revealed I had know, and neglected to inform her, of the early morning post-party onsale. Moving forward though, she tuned into one of the local radio stations to see if they were giving away tickets; they were. About three hours later, she had, of course, won a pair by being the designated caller. This win brings her 2006 radio contest tally dangerously close to the-IRS-might-wanna-know earnings. Concerts, shopping sprees, iPods, Xboxes… you name it she’s won it. I don’t know quite how she does it, but I think it’s awesome.

Figured out my stereo-only-on-the-right-speaker thing tonight, turns out I’ve got a dodgy connection on the back of the TiVo. A little plug jiggling and all was well. All that for a loose connection. And to think, I almost went out and bought a brand new 60″ flatscreen because of it. Glad I didn’t, because the rear brakes on the Ford (the ones I didn’t ever change even though I’ve been planning to for weeks now since I changed the front) are making some God-awful scraping sound in both braking and non-braking situations. I have no idea what this is, but the sound tells me it’s not something good. I plan to at least change the brakes and see if that helps, but if not… who knows. And, now that that’s all over with…

Don’t forget to pop over to the Halloween costume contest leaderboard and see who’s ranking highest… If you’re not happy with the results, go and change ’em by casting your own vote.

Goodnight.

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feeding at the trough


Good Monday morning to you, readers. This was a heck of a weekend. My parents in town, Keaton’s first night away from mom and dad, and our 4th annual Halloween bash. We had a great time, and the party seemed to go off swimmingly – a rousing success by my standards. And, since it’s now 11pm on Sunday night, it feels like midnight, I’m still on the hook for posting Keaton’s regular weekly updates, and I want to get the costume contest gallery up for the party – the entry is gonna be lean today. This paragraph, which only serves to setup the links to the Halloween and Keaton galleries, and then the little one below about my fortuitous Saturday evening e-mail surprise, and that’s it. So, sorry for the slim pickins, but I did what I could, and here’s the bulk of it:

Halloween 2006 Costume Contest. Use the voting stars to rank your favorites, and don’t forget to comment.
Keaton’s week thirty-three gallery. No voting, but a whole lotta cute baby.

In closing, I checked my gmail account Saturday night and was thrilled nearly to Christmas morning tears to see in my inbox an invite to one of the underweb’s best-kept tunes-downloading secrets. And even though I’ve mentioned it here before by name, becoming a member has encouraged me to use discretion. Anyway, some kind user had taken the time to toss an invite my way, and I immediately used it to setup an account. Now, I must say that, due to the skyrocketing visibility of what is probably the scene’s most prolific private tracker, I am a bit leery of even using the account. Honestly, the whole nature of trackers and IPs and whatnot is scary to me – but the content is just sooo good. I suppose I’ll use it, y’know, here and there…

Until tomorrow, then. Look for Halloween candids later in the week as I get downloads from various cameras. Goodnight.

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so long, long weekend


Sunday night coming off an extremely short-seeming four-day weekend. Shame, really, I enjoyed myself so much at Ben and Suzy’s wedding that the time flew by. Saturday was largely spend loafing around the house catching up on a night of little sleep and letting my stomach recover from fried food, wine, and clove cigarettes. It’s Sunday morning now as I write, I’ve got a Twilight Zone episode playing on TiVo while Keaton plays on her blanket on the floor and Sharaun’s getting ready for church. After she gets out, I’ll strip the baby down and take her in with me so we can both get cleaned up for the week. Gameplan for today is short – work on the finishing touches of the new Halloween prop and maybe grill some burgers if the weather holds.

Today I finally bugged Sharaun enough that she let us all sit down and attempt teaching Keaton to feed herself some small solid food. Sharaun is deathly paranoid of her choking, and I think if it were up to her we’d hold off introducing small solids until she had a mouthful of molars. But, in the face of my prodding, she relented and we laid out a smorgasbord of cheese bits, sweet potato puffs, and smooshes of pear on her highchair tray. While she’s good at picking up most everything and putting it into her mouth, she didn’t show much interest when it came to things actually edible. Instead, she pushed around the food, picked it up and looked at it, and nudged it around the tray. Finally, I helped her by plopping things into her mouth, all of which she dutifully chewed and swallowed with nary a gag or cough. It was cool – that baby is getting biiig.

Speaking of Keaton, I just barely managed to not get her week thirty-two photos up before heading off to dreamland sometime after midnight – but (much to your pleasure, I’ll go ahead and assume) I’ll pledge now to get them up tomorrow night just as fast as I can. Apologies. To tide you over, go ahead and reminisce with me as we look at just how much she’s grown up since her internet debut.

It’s been a massive couple weeks for music, a virtual opening of floodgates, the amount of new and potentially exciting stuff to listen to being almost too much to handle. But, some how, I’m managing… pulled on my waders and walked right into the deluge to sort the flotsam and jetsam for the good stuff. So far, I’ve been digging the Fratellis, Malajube, and with the recent Shins and Mogwai leaks it’s shaping up to be an awesome year-end rally. I’m especially looking forward to sinking my teeth into the Shins album, and with it not seeing the streets until January, I should have plenty of time to form an opinion. For now, though, I’m completely hung up on the Malajube album… it’s simply outstanding, even if every word is in French and I can’t understand what’s being said.

You guys see Obama’s verbal dance around his previous assertions he wasn’t considering an ’08 bid? Seems he’s changed his mind, and I find this extremely interesting. Spent some time last night wading through the Digg comments on the news to see what other “young hipsters” had to say about the whole thing. If any crowd represents the tuned-in youth of today, it’s Digg, although that’s honestly quite a small percentage of voters (remember the digital divide?). Anyway, check out the comments yourself if you’re interested – I, for one, think it’d be a heck of an interesting race of he did officially cast in his lot.

Well folks, I’m off to bed – that’s enough for “an entry,” even though it’s less cohesive than that one glue that those 3M scientists accidentally invented while trying to invent a “super” glue that was so weak it was deemed useless until one scientist started using it to temporarily stick notes around the office and was then subsequently marketed as PostIt Notes and made millions.

Goodnight.