In Thanks. . .

I really didn't ever intend to for this blog to be a bit of an obituary column, but there are times when a passing causes a moment of reflection. So I've decided to frame these more as tributes to the life of someone who has had a contribution that we all can appreciate.

So today I would like to pay tribute to Jeff Raskin. If you've ever clicked a mouse, pay a visit here to find out more about him.

And if you're feeling particularly into it, try bringing up a DOS prompt and type in some commands for old times sake. Then come back and appreciate Raskin's contribution all the more.

In Celebration!

To mark the new iPod anouncements, an iTunes survey meme

How many total songs?
5410

Sort by Song Title
First: . . .Baby one more time: Bowling for Soup (from the Freaky Friday Soundtrack)
Last: Zydeko: Cirque Du Soleil

Sort by Time
First: The Unsuccessful Dutch Missionary: Swirling Eddies 0:08
Last: Blind/Frail (Hidden Track) : Jars of Clay 27:15

Sort by Album
First: This is How it Happened : !Hero: The Rock Opera
Last: You're My Little Girl (Single) : Go Fish

Sort by Artist
First: .Rod Laver
Last: Van Morrison

Top Ten Most Played Songs (my daughter skewed this a bit)
1. Beetlejuice Main Titles : Danny Elfman
2. Gump : Weird Al
3. Tea And Sympathy : Jars of Clay
4. The Second Day : Kendall Payne
5. Since You've Been Gone : Weird Al
6. Phony Calls: Weird Al
7. Fortress : Ace Troubleshoter
8. Gave it all away : Big Dismal
9. Unpack Your Adjectives : Daniel Johnson (School House Rock cover)
10. No Love :Deliverance

Find "sex," how many songs show up?
0

Find "death," how many songs show up?
27

Find "love," how many songs show up?
188

Pod ina Soc --- Third time's a charm

My friend Andrew got a 20Gig iPod this week (and some iPod socks as you can see). He bought direct from Apple and had it engraved, and when you do that they give you a tracking number so you can watch it coming over to you. He watched as it left China and landed in Alaska, then on to the lower 50, and then to his door step (which he saw here at work much to his dismay, because he wasn't home to accept delivery obviously).

This is actually Andrew's third iPod. He's had a bit of a rocky history with the little machine. The first one he got must have had some sort of problem or he wasn't doing something right, because he said the sound quality was upsetting to him and the battery life was dismal. So he sold it on eBay. He never got any complaints, which is good, because he's not one who would knowingly saddle an individual with a broken gadget.

But when he sold it he was wise---you see, he didn't just sell the whole thing as a package. He sold each component separately (headphones, unit, dock) and as a result he got more back after his sales than he paid for it originally! Apparently there is an under-exploited iPod parts market out there and he benefited from it.

Then later on he reconsidered and decided that this first experience wasn't typical, so wanted to give the iPod a second swing –so he got another one. But it wasn’t long in his possession either. This time I think it was buyer’s remorse---he started to question whether this investment was worth it. Did it really enhance his listening experience $300 worth? Well, it looks like he decided in the negative because it was back to eBay --and another profit as it turned out.

I was telling him that he'd stumbled onto something here. He wasn't making a ton of money, but pull this off with 10 of the things and he'd have a free iPod, essentially. He didn’t jump on that idea though.

But, third times a charm. He's now got his cozy little iPod number three and he's quite happy with it this time. And it's engraved so he can't return it, and that would probably make it a little more difficult to sell (maybe not, who knows). He's warming up to the joys of the shuffle function this time too. Previous to this, he was an entire-CD-play-through man, which added to the perceived lack of value with the iPod #2.

He's also augmented his player nicely with a set of Bose Triport headphones. He brought them to work to give me a listen, and, dude, those things are brilliant. A company that makes products as beautiful as Bose is a perfect complement to an Apple product. Had me drooling a bit, I must confess.

So now Andrew is a Pod People too.

Andrew: happy new iPod daddy!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 IS FREE MOJTABA AND ARASH DAY

Bloggers Unite:

Free Mojtaba and Arash!

What does the future hold?

I contributed this little tidbit in an article following a MacNET2.com article on the future path of the Mac OS. The article and the following comments were all revolving around the thought of a possible release of OS X on Intel processors because of a comment Steve Jobs had dropped casually in an interview with Fortune about being approached by 3 PC manufacturers to license the operating system because of complaints people had about the vulnerability of Windows --- and they were looking for possible alternatives.

Everyone seemed to be ignoring the largest speculation, in my opinion, and then a poster designated as Mcloki brought up the recently announced Cell proscessor.

I wrote: "Thank you Mcloki for being the first to bring up the Cell processor in this whole discussion. I agree that the x86 port isn't a good idea but not so much for the considerations expressed here so far, but because that technology is history. Apple has never been one to look back, or even at the now, they always see it coming before anyone else does. If the Cell processor is as good as it's said to be, then Intel's reign is done. And it's conveniently based on PowerPC and not tied to a specific operating system. Now the discussion I've seen about the Steve Jobs quote just says that 3 PC manufacturers were speaking to him, but nothing about x86. And interesting that there are 3 developers of the Cell processor that all have a PC manufacturing segment: Sony (on-stage with Jobs exciting the rumor mill with where that is going), Toshiba (happily making as much Flash memory as it possibly can to handle the demand for the Shuffle), and IBM (granted it looks like they've sold off their PC business, but how convenient to get rid of their Wintel operation on the eve of something like this perhaps). Just enough stuff floating around right now to make a person connect the dots and say Hmmmmmmmmmmm."

Any thoughts, anyone?

And does anyone have any details as to when the iPod announcement is going to happen today?

More Firsts (A little more Mac History)

I actually like it that I'm still learning new anecdotal things about the Mac and Apple. I'm more technical than some but not as much as a lot of other people who like to get into the code and minute engineering of things -- so a lot of the real heady geek stuff can get overwhelming for me at times. But I like the stories, and there is so much drama to be had in the tech sector.

I was selling computers while the stuff mentioned below was happening and I guess I was just so much in the thick of it that I missed the milestones. At that time (mid to late 90s) Apple was getting a beating by peoples attitudes. Yet, even then they could still innovate, even though everyone discounted their strides as just something Apple was doing, with a sneer (till they quietly copying). Of course all that talk started to change when the iMac burst on the scene.

Anyway, here are some tidbits:

APPLE POWERBOOK 100, 1991: Never mind the Apple versus PC debate: Until Apple unveiled this 5.1-pound machine, most "portable" computers were curiosities for technophiles with superior upper-body strength. But the PowerBook 100's greatest and most lasting innovation was to move the keyboard toward the screen, leaving natural wrist rests up front, as well as providing an obvious place for a trackball. It seems like the natural layout now, but that's because the entire industry aped Apple within months. The first PowerBooks captured an astounding 40 percent of the market, but more important, they turned notebook computers into mainstream products and ushered in the era of mobile computing that we're still living in today.

APPLE POWERBOOK 500, 1994: "The PowerBook 500 wowed the notebook market with a long string of firsts: The first touch pad; the first stereo speakers (with 16-bit sound); the first expansion bay -- and the first PC Card slot; the first "intelligent" nickel metal hydride battery, with a processor that communicated battery status to the operating system; and, last but not least, the first curvaceous case, with gratuitously swooped edges and corners instead of the boxy angles of previous notebooks. Make no mistake, this notebook set the agenda for the following 10 years of portable computer design."
Got those quotes from here. It's a fun list about excellent gadgets through the past 50 or so years. If you're looking on that list for the Mac stuff, scroll down. They start at the bottom of the list, and the Apple stuff is near the top (as it should be -- although the credibility of the hierarchy of the list is a little strained when the Abacus, Sextant and the compound microscope fall below the Etch-A-Sketch, the Speak & Spell and the Fuzz Buster. Oh well, the history still holds).

So daddy got a new toy

Now I are a Pod People! Granted I'm in there only just barely, not with any high end version anything, but I'm still loving it.

On Thursday night I went to a store called Wild Oats to pick up some hair spray (Wild Oats is a health food and natural products store---my wife is allergic and can't used standard store brand stuff) and there was a Best Buy next door. So of course, me being male, it was impossible for me to avoid the sirens call.

Actually, I had been thinking about a Shuffle for a while, and the tax refund had just arrived, so I was on the prowl. Even though I've read the headlines of the scant availability of the things, I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder".

I went in and asked a clerk to see if there were any available because the case was empty (including not even having a display model on the floor---only pricing signage with a handwritten note "limit 3 per customer". The other flash MP3 players were all abundantly available). He asked a guy, who asked another guy, who asked a third --- and it was this third guy who noticed a skid of boxes in the isle. He opened one, and lo and behold, there was that beautiful green box.

Now you have to understand something, ever since the iPod premiered I've had the deepest desire to see this "music catalog in your pocket" come into my house. But it's price kept it out of reach. Then that summer I went looking for flash MP3 players, and they were always too expensive (in my estimation) for the amount of storage they offered. I didn't care about all the voice recorder and other stuff that it did--I just wanted something that played my music. So I tried burning an MP3 CD and buying a inexpensive MP3/CD player---but they proved to always be to fumbly when I was on the run.

Then I got a USB flash drive and was sold on that whole concept. Plug it in, get lots of storage, drag and drop---no fuss, it just works. And one afternoon in summer while I was mowing the lawn and trying to keep reception for my little FM radio I was trying to listen to, I called out to the heavens---"Please, all I want is for somebody to put a headphone jack and a play button on a flash drive. Just let me put music on it and then play it back. Why is that such a hard concept. Please, somebody---Anybody!"

I wasn't even thinking Apple. In fact, I was sure at that point that Apple never would. They had said that they had no interest in the flash players. I was perfectly content to use another company's unit until I could get the big dog. I tell you that I've never been happier that someone went back on their word. When the iPod Shuffle showed up, it was everything that I asked for because it's not loaded down with extra junk. It plays my music and does it wonderfully.

The sound quality is great. It sounds just as good as when I listen to music on iTunes through the computer. And the button layout is a bit of hidden beauty that I don't hear any of the reviewers talking about. If you're like me and want to be able to control your players (tape, CD, whatever) without looking at the buttons and have ever accidentally hit a forward when you just wanted to pause, or blasted your ears out when were trying to find the volume to turn it down, then you'll love these controls.

Play and pause are the same button in the center of the circular control (no stop button, becasue for all intents an purposes, play and stop are the same thing). Then the volume and forward/reverse functions are not on separate buttons as much as they are on a solid ring going around the play button. And the ring and center button aren't flush with each other, they are contoured so that you know just where you are by feel. All you have to do is press the correct edge of the ring to make it do what you want it to do. It's so slick that poking around blindly is a thing of the past.

Another thing I've never heard mentioned is that when you first plug in your new Shuffle, an iTunes music store page pops up that give you access to a free new music album to download. I'm front and center every Tuesday at the iTunes music store for the weekly "free download of the week", and now here is a extra 16 tracks just thrown in out of no where. Bonus! It just keeps getting better.

I did have an odd experience when I first plugged it in. I put it into a USB hub that I have and it didn't show up on iTunes. I couldn't figure that out, so I decided to restart the computer so it could find the player from scratch. After the computer started back up, suddenly I couldn't get any of the peripherals to work. The monitor wouldn't wake up from sleep mode. The keyboard and mouse weren't sending signal. I couldn't figure out what was happening.

Then I unplugged the hub and everything sprung to life. I looked in the manual and it had a note which said that if the operating system is previous to 10.3.8, you would need a powered USB port. The hub is powered so I though that would count, but apparently not. I plugged the Shuffle directly into the tower and it worked like a dream. I may have to invest in a PCI card to put some more USB ports on my tower.

Anyway, so now I'm off to the races. My next suggestion, in case someone on the inside is listening, would be to put Bluetooth in these things----so we can have a wireless headphone connection. How cool would that be! I'd never take it off at that point!

Next thing to figure out: how to get Podcasts into my computer.

Everybody Sing Along. . .

I'm an admitted Burn-a-holic. A compulsive mix-tape maker, only now it's on CD. I have always loved finding new ways to put songs together back to back to achieve a new feel or effect. Of course, back in the eighties it was with the painstaking method of the dual tape deck---cuing up both tapes so they were just right and then pressing play on one side and record on the other (and the ensuing frustration when a click or some other mechanical noise ruined the transitions between the songs). I became so frustrated with all the hassle back then that I gave it up.

Enter the digital age---now it's just drag and drop, click and burn. I'm having a great time with it. I've been giving out mixes to my friends, my kids, my nephew, my friend's kids, my kids' friends, the kids in our carpool to the schools in the morning. If you make me think of a bunch of songs that would go good together, I'm on it. And with the iTunes "unlimited burn" clause, I'm doing it guilt free! In fact, it almost feels like an obligation---I'm leaving money on the table if I don't. Going through the iTunes music store, I'm paying for the rights, why shouldn't I use them.

Now enter the iPod Shuffle! Everyone has be extolling the virtues of the shuffle function for months, even years now, so I won't bore anyone----but I've been a big fan of the shuffle function on my home computer for all this time, and now it's been extended. A handy little gadget that makes the shuffle it's primary function. And I can take it one the road.

Have a peek at what the shuffle, using Autofill of course, has served up for me today (iTunes linked to let you see what strange and wonderful combinations it has created, if you like).

The last 24 tunes, in order:

Sixpence non the Richer--Us
Blue Man Group --- Above
Simon & Milo --- Get a clue
Dead Poetic ---- Dimmer Light
Shania Twain --- Rock this Country
David Bowe/Queen --Under Pressure
ZOEgirl --- Anything is Possible (Madame Lapulse Mix)
The Rasmus --- In the Shadows (Radio Edit)
Tracy Byrd ---- The Truth about Men
Shania Twain --- Man! I feel like a woman
Donny & Marie --- Deep Purple
Falling Up --- Symmetry
Michael Giacchino & Greenskeepers --- Is that Incredible
Olivia the Band --- Shut it Out
Simon & Milo --- Lonely American Nights
Phil Collins/ N*SYNC --- Trashin' the Camp (from Disney's Tarzan Soundtrack)
O-Zone --- Ma Ya Hi (Valentin Club Mix)
Raven --- This is My Time (from the Princess Diaries II Soundtrack)
P.O.D. --- Image
Oingo Boingo --- Weird Science
P.O.D. --- Hollywood
Lateef & The Chief --- Don't Stop
Chopin --- Minute Waltz
Barenaked Ladies --- Another Postcard

You have got to be kidding. . .

Does this mean our culture's vanity has now officially driven it insane?

Sad Loss

I am sometimes very effected by the passing of people I've never met. In the past I have felt a robbed when the frailties of being made of flesh and blood have stolen away profound contributors to our culture. People not only with tremendous achievement and fame, but that have also put heart and soul into the human experience. These have included Dr. Seuss, Charles Shultz, Norman Rockwell, Mother Teresa, Lady Diana, playwright Samuel Becket, Gregory Hines, Fred Rogers, and for me most notably, profoundly and untimely, Jim Henson.

Today marks another passing that I feel creates a void that will not be filled, as playwright Arthur Miller is no longer with us. I have always felt like his plays were not only great works, but important because of the way that they capture a vision of modern America that has the feeling of both loving correction and sage warning. There is a lot of good theater going on, but I haven't seen anything that has the mythic scope that his plays could carry. They were a specific story of specific people, and at the same time allegories of the everyman that people could identify with across the years and across cultures.

He leaves a profound legacy of work, and will be missed.


(If anyone knows any playwrights currently creating works that carry the weight of Miller, please let me know---and Sam Sheppard doesn't count).

Bookwormin' it! ---Unfinished business

Well, this may be my last Bookworm for a while---Brandi is taking a break because things are getting overwhelming with school and work and everything. It's actually a couple weeks old but still fresh!

1. We've all heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Have you ever picked up a book based solely on the title or the picture on the cover?

I used to when I was heavy into reading sci-fi and fantasy back in my teens. Some of that cover art was just the coolest. But I stopped doing that after I got burned a couple of times. I got a couple of books that were so bad that it was obvious that's why they had the most excellent cover art---it wouldn't have sold otherwise.

Once, in Jr. High, I did actually check a book out from the library because I thought the girl on the cover was cute. It wasn't a "hottie" picture or anything like that. Just an illustration of a girl about the same age I was back then, who was digging in the top shelf of her hall locker at school. But I was kind of crushing on her---even though I knew she was just a painting probably not even based on a real person. I don't even remember the title of the book, but I checked it out because I wanted to get to know her.

It was a good read, but it was kind of weird too. It was one of those "almost romance" books. You know, the kind where the two people are so attracted to each other but they just can't get together and so at the end they never do. I hate those. I also hate the "I-love-you-but-I'm-dying" movies and stories. I need the payoff with romantic things. My real love life has a history of enough tragedy.

2. Along the same lines, do you ever look at whichever book someone else is reading in public or whatnot, and based on that make a snap judgment about their character or literary taste?

I don't really make over all judgments, but I am baffled by people who read cheap romance novels and stuff like that. I know, I know. . . people have tried to explain it to me. I guess I've just gotten so busy that I can't just do something that feels like I'm blowing my time. I want to have some richness to the experience or I feel like I should be doing something else all the while I'm reading it.

I did used to read books like that myself when I was younger. I read a large part of the Conan the Barbarian series at one point. I just don't think I could read stuff like that now without feeling like I was wasting moments of my life that I'd never get back.

3. Do you buy books online? If so, where is your favorite place to find them?

Amazon and eBay. I bought a book once from Overstock.com. I also book online with mail order book clubs: Quality Paperback Bookclub (QPB) and Book Planet Book Club. I love doing the book clubs online---no sending back the cards in the mail. Just reply online.

I don't know why but I'm just not interested in using the websites from brick-and-mortar book stores, although I love the stores, like for Barnes and Noble and Borders. But it looks like Borders is in bed with Amazon right now, so it's kind of hard to see where one ends and the other begins there.

4. From someone who's had more than her fair share of library fines... what is the largest late fee you've ever incurred at a library for returning a book past the due date? Have you ever borrowed a book from a library and never returned it?

Not really sure--about $5.00 or $6.00 probably. Most recently I had fines for books on tape that I was using when I was teaching a class. I've done that three years in a row now with these same tapes. I probably should have just bought them. But other than that, the late fees I pay now are mostly for my kids' fines. We're working on that. I want them to love to use the library but I don't want to go broke either.

I've never had a library book that I never returned (that I know of). It would be like the Tell Tale Heart, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

5. What is the first book that you can remember reading by yourself as a child?

I don't remember what the first book that I could read by myself was, but the first book I had a passion about was a book I discovered in our basement in a box of old books. Thinking back, it must have been an outdated school reader type book, but I was fascinated that here was a book that didn't just have one story---it had lots of stories. And illustrations by different artists so the styles changed with each chapter. It was just mesmerizing.

I have a vivid memory of going over to spend the night with some cousins but I didn't even want to play with them or interact on the drive over. I just wanted to look at that book. Their folks were generous on the drive and kept the back dome light on so I could read while we traveled in the dark. The world just became a little bigger for me that night because of that book.

Take Five

Below I've done this Month’s "Five photos on the Fifth of '05" Meme; five photos on the fifth of each month during 2005. Last month I posted pics of my real babies, this month I thought I post pics of my other babies.

I never set out to collect computers, but they grow on you. Mostly Macs, of course, but we do have a couple of Windows machines. Not pictured are my daughter's HP Vectra that I got for her when the computer lab that I was working at upgraded---it's about 10 years old, a Pentium I 75mhz, but it still lets her type her papers and play some games. She also had a 1400 Powerbook I bought for her off of Ebay, but that got dropped so it's not doing so good. The battery didn't hold a charge so she always needed it to be plugged in while she was using it and one night during a sleep-over one of her friends tripped over the cord, knocking it to the floor. We haven't be able to boot it up since.

I also have a closet with some headless Macs; a Centris, an LC III, and a Performa. I do have aspirations. I'd like to collect a representative from every distinctive Mac design that Apple has done: an original iMac shape (I'd prefer blueberry), a Cube, a Luxo iMac, the G5 iMac, of course the Mac Mini, and the coup de grâce---a 20th Anniversary Mac. But this collection will have to wait till all the kids are raised or I get a serious raise.

Enjoy.

Five on the Fifth of 05--#1; Compy and Lappy

Here are my work horses--one of the first models of the G4 tower and my TI Powerbook. I do video editing on occasion so you can see my decks in there as well.

And yes, Compy and Lappy are references to homestarrunner.com. We're big fans.

Five on the Fifth of 05--#2; Duo

This is my first love---the first computer I ever owned. It's a design that won awards for Apple---called a Duo Dock. That laptop slides into a slot below the monitor to become a fully functioning desktop computer. A two in one!

That's a Quicktake (digital camera) pictured there beside it---one of the first styles of digital cameras (from Apple of course). Picked that up on eBay for cheap. Doesn't take very impressive images by today's standards, but it was quite the gadget in it's day.

Five on the Fifth of 05--#3; Gizmo

This is my little pet computer. I rescued this one about two years ago from the basement of a guy that I worked with. Saved it from the junk heap.

These were the computers that I had to sneak into the Journalism department to write my papers on in grad school. I couldn't stand using the DOS based things that they had all over campus and the only Macs on campus were in the area where the laid out the school magazine. It took some extra effort and a little brass, but it was worth it.

My kids love coming down to my office and playing some simple games on it that I downloaded off the Internet (Shufflepuck is the favorite). It is also a good chess partner---I can beat Gizmo!

Five on the Fifth of 05--#4; The Kids Computer

This is the computer that I have in the kids play room. Got it on eBay for next to nothing (love that eBay). With the abuse that it gets, that's a good thing. You can kinda see the marker on the front. Someone decided it needed some decoration. And I think I have finally convinced the little Bear (my 3 yr old) that food does not make a good screen cleaner.

It is futile to try and name this thing, because the label always ends up getting changed to "fj;laksdjfas;lkdfja;lsadf;" when they accidentally click on the icon that gets it to the name change mode.

I'd like to call it Bob after the beat up old robot on the Disney film The "Black Hole". It sure is beat up but keeps on working (or maybe I should call it Timex).

Five on the Fifth of 05--#5; The Dozer

To show that I'm not entirely an elitist snob and exclusively Mac oriented, I have owned a Windows machine in my past. But I never gave it a name. I just never felt inspired to do it. It's kind of like people name boats and planes and cars---things they have a romance with. People don't name lawn mowers or vacuum cleaners --No matter how much the like the way they get the work done.

I recently read a comment that I think applies here: "Jason Snell, the editor of Macworld magazine, says is the essential difference between Windows people and Mac people: Mac people love their computers on a personal, emotional level. Windows people, on the other hand, prefer to think of their machines as office tools, gadgets no more special than the stapler." And for me it wasn't just the way I loved my computers--I had that kind of experience with Macs. I just didn't ever feel the connection to this laptop no matter how much we went through.

I've christened it Dozer as of this posting (which a nickname off of the term "Windoze" that Mac users in the Mac forums are so fond of using in reference to the Microsoft product).

I originally got it because Gateway (it's a Gateway) had a real good reputation at that point and were much more customizable than they are now. I was able to pick a DVD drive (for watching movies at work) when that was far from a standard feature, and a disk drive that took regular floppies as well as "Superdisks" that held 120 MB. I still use this one as a scanning station (because it has Visioneer Paperport software on it which I love) and when I need to do a Windows program or something (which is almost never).

When I use it for scanning, I put the images on a superdisk and move it over to the Mac and it works seamlessly. This is because, besides being fabulous machines, Macs also play well with others.

And yes, that's my sweet little girl on the wallpaper there. I made that a few years ago with a picture of her in a Halloween costume---she was a beautiful butterfly.

Mac my Ride!!

Dude, this is the ultimate. A couple of days ago when I posted about my dream chair, Marc dropped in the comments something about a car mod that people were planning to do, puting the iMac mini in thier car.

Now that sounds serious cool. My dream car is a tricked out Mini Cooper ---and you know what my first mod after the factory will be (there is a crazy amount of options right off the site to customer build your Mini). Forget the rims, the ground effects, the body kits----just install that iMac mini!

Why? BECAUSE I CAN! (do I need any other reason?) You can keep you Mt. Everest, all I want is a Mac on wheels.

And it's dropped---some guys have finished the first installs. Check out pics of the first Mac Auto Mods here. (with video!) The first car to get it---A classic Chevy Nova. Very nice.

Soundtrack for my life

Well, seeing as this week (on Feb. 1) in 1949, the RCA Record Company released the first single record which played at 45 revolutions per minute, I thought I'd talk a little about music. You may have guess that I love my tunes with all my iPod talk. I found this music meme on Kat's site and thought it looked fun.

So, on with the meme. I've linked these to iTunes so if you have that installed on your computer you can listen in to what I'm listening to. If you want.

If you don't have iTunes yet, what are you waiting for? Download it here --- its Free!

Random 10 (iTunes shuffle)
1. One Thousand Miles --Vanessa Carlton
2. Spy Hunter --- Project 86
3. I Am Understood? --- Relient K
4. Through the Black --- Demon Hunter
5. Over It --- Halo Friendlies
6. Untitled, Anonymous --- Everyday Sunday
7. Under the Sun --- The Swift
8. Hindsight --- Pillar
9. Beautiful Glow --- Rock 'n' Roll Worship Circus
10. Ordinary --- TFK

What is the total amount of music files on your computer? 17 GB and another 1.5 GB on my laptop that I still have to move over.

The last cd you bought is: UmHmm by Relient K (As an iTunes Music store purchase)

What is the last song you listened to before this message? SmashMouth from the Shrek soundtrack - I'm a Believer (on LaunchCast)

Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:
I took these off a list I made of the songs that most remind me of my wife. I'll explain the stories behind each choice below---if you're interested.

1. REO Speedwagon --- Can't fight this feeling anymore
2. Van Morrison --- Moondance
(This link is to the right song, different artist. iTunes didn't have Van Morrison.)
3. Enya ---- Storms in Africa
4. Randy Travis ---- Forever and ever, Amen
5. Stryper --- Holding On

Here are the stories:

1. This one was kind of funny. I met my wife in high school when I was a junior and she was a senior. We weren't romantic or anything in high school, she was my best friend. But my other good male friend and I were kind of in an unspoken competition to win the favor of her affections. This, even though she had, at that time, a long distance boy-friend out of town.

On my wife's 18th Birthday, this friend of mine decided we could organize a surprise birthday party complete with importing her out of town boyfriend and spring him on her at the party. He was still trying to get on her good side and seemed to think that getting her together with her boyfriend would make her so happy that she would like him better. Strange strategy, I know. But we pulled off this birthday plan just like that and she loved it.

While her boyfriend was in town, he took us out cruising in his cool muscle car that he drove into town with. At one point this REO song came on the radio and my friend and the boyfriend started singing it at the same time under their breath. It was my impression that they were both quietly singing it to my future wife. Then it was like they realized that the other one was singing it, and so not to be out done they both start singing louder and louder. Finally they are both wailing this song out opposite open windows of this cool car cruising around the square, seemingly so the other won't realize what they are actually singing for.

I just sat beside her in the back seat and marveled at all the goings on. She was oblivious to the whole thing, she tells me.


2. Moondance made the list because one summer night when the temperature was just perfect after dark, my wife came home from shopping for groceries. She rushed into the house and grabbed me and took me back out to the driveway. She said that this song was on the radio and she wanted to dance in the moonlight. So we put up the hatch on the back of the mini-van and danced in the combined light from the moon and the van's domelight, right there in the drive.


3. The month after we were married we moved in together in my wife's apartment in the basement of this old converted house. We had just purchased this Enya CD and really liked it so we listened to it every night at dinner. This song will forever remind me of the love of being newly married, the evening slant of sunlight through the windows, and Rice-a-roni.


4. This was a song that I learned the words to so I could surprise my wife and sing it to her as we had our first dance as a married couple at our wedding reception. She was very touched because I'm not a country music person as a rule. But the lyrics were completely true for me and still are to this day.


5. This was my wife's sweet concession to me for our wedding. After we were pronounced man and wife, this was the music we came back down the isle to. It's an 80's hair band metal power ballad. If you don't click on anything else to listen to it, click on this one just to see how inappropriate it was to be screaming through this proper church filled with it's wooden pews and long robes. But man, it was sooooo cool.



AND NOW. . .A RANT (for those still listening)

Since the inception of the iTunes music store there has been a bit of a controversy about the idea of buying music by the song. It is the concern of bands who have in essence boycotted iTunes by keeping their music off the service. They have justified their stance saying that musicians are artists whose artistic efforts will be undermined by the masses and not allowed to produce albums that are tailored as a whole entity, not just a collection of songs. On this week, with the 45rpm record turning 56, I like to ask if this segment of the industry has forgotten that the best concept albums came out in the 60s and 70s when the buying of songs as "singles" was at it's height? Were the last 20 years such a brainwash that they have lost track of that part of music history? And all their combined efforts have not produced albums as cohesive as say a "Yellow Submarine" or "The Wall". So what I have to say is stop whining and get your music on iTunes. What are you, allergic to money? You're spurning a distribution channel. Wake up! (Yeah, like they're listening) And what is up with this? People befuddled by youth wearing headphones? People have been doing that since the premier of the Sony Walkman, for crying out loud. Some people need to really re-assess what's new, what new and what they just need to learn to put up with. At least we're not seeing Boom-box wars on the street like in the 80s, where the biggest, loudest portable speakers prevailed. Those have moved into cars.

Dream Chair??? (You got that right!)

I've never really had a "Dream Chair" before. Dream car--yes. Dream computer set-up----always. Dream video system, car audio system, home entertainment system---check, check and check. But while others men were drooling over a leather lazy-boy or some such piece of furniture, it always failed to trip my trigger. Untill now (hee, hee, hee) . . . .

Check this out!

And in enough advance notice of Christmas that my family (and probably all my living relatives---they didn't publish a price on this yet) can begin saving.

Let the drooling begin.