October 2003
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Aug   Nov

Back Again

Hi! Okay! Go here! 

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Still here. Maybe a new look soon? Stand by... 

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Had a very nice and relaxing 4th of July, with a bit of everything thrown in: spending time with both sets of families, shopping, eating, napping, eating, reading, eating, Advance Wars-ing, eating, iPodding, eating, and internet browsing. And there was no work involved. Now that's what I call a holiday!

Had one of the best burgers apart from In 'N Out and Kua`aina over at a family friend's place for a 4th of July BBQ dinner. It was our Uncle Mike's specialty: Lamburgers. You read it right, burgers made from lamb. Uncle Mike got some lamb chops and put them through the old-school hand-grinder himself. Lamb can sometimes have an overpowering "lamb-i-ness" to it, but it was tempered with the right amount and combination of spices. Delicious.

Jessica and I are now fasting. 

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Jessica's Post-It Sketch #1

What do I look like? Here's a drawing Jessica did on a post-it:

 

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Hooked

I'm hooked on Advance Wars 2, Christopher O'Riley's "True Love Waits (Christopher O'Riley plays Radiohead), and Advantage Bars.

Meanwhile, Jessica is hooked on Advance Wars (the first one), MTV's Surf Girls, and exercise.

Hi! I know I've been gone for a while, but all's well, and I hope to be up and writing on a regular basis once again (now how many times have we heard that one?).

I've been M.I.A. for a number of reasons, the main one: laziness. I keep thinking of many things to share and write about, but they somehow can't manage to get themselves into my laptop without me pulling my hair out.

You know, it's hard for me to write, more so on a daily basis (one of the goals I had in setting up this site). And to top it all off, I'm paranoid and anal about the words I write. I'm a perfectionist, so I often write, edit, re-write, edit, then sit on a piece a few days only to re-write the thing. Then I may not put it out at all and then I'd get depressed because I feel I can't write for shit, but... oh well. "It's only a honking blog, you idiot" you're probably thinking, "with only a handful of people reading it on a regular basis anyway." Yes, that may be true, but we're talking about the internet here, the world wide web. I want to put out something that I can be proud of and besides, I don't want to show up at the party with a booger hangin' on my nostril.

Anyway, after all my hemming and hawing of my writen word, I've defeated the whole purpose of getting things "out" in a timely manner, with the immediacy of a blog format all but lost.

So here I am, back at it again. Like I said, there were many factors for my absence: personal problems here, the lack of motivation there... oh well. At least Jessica and I are sound and healthy, with regular exercise at 24-hour Fitness and a mad flirtation with the Atkins diet (more on that later).

In the oven: that Tunecast & iRock comparative write-up. Also, some quick notes on the Gameboy Player.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July! 

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In Brief:

Movies: Saw Finding Nemo last weekend and had a blast. Great story, great visuals, great voice acting. An all-around winner from Pixar. Jay will still get to watch pristine prints of old films at the state-of-the-art theatre at his workplace.

iPod: I've lived with my new 30GB iPod for about a month now, and it's by far the best Walkman/Discman I've ever owned. The thinner size actually doesn't feel bulky or out of place in a pocket, the new AAC compression codec sounds great, and I'm finally getting used to the very touchy touch-sensitive buttons. Also, at Jon's request, I'll be posting my experiences with the iRock and TuneCast wireless transmitters. Which is better? Why? Should you even care?

DVD: Two of my favorite Coen brothers movies recently dropped on DVD: Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink. Miller's in particular looks amazing, miles better in sound and picture quality than my old full-screen laserdisc. Plus, the movie stands up very well; it's a stylish and classy mob flick that dwells on character and atmostphere, dropping you into a twisting and convoluted story of hidden motives and loyalty among men. With hats.

Music: Two fairly new releases are floating my boat, and both happen to be produced and mixed by one of my favorite record producers, Brendan O'Brien: The Thorns, a supergroup made up of Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge, and Shawn Mullins, and Train's new one, My Private Nation.

Videogames: Haven't been playing much videogames lately, except for 3-player NBA Street, Vol.2 with Jessica and her sister Jackie. Very fun game. Also, rented Mario Party 4, a decent and enjoyable multi-player. 

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freeform: Starbuck/Towers

I normally get a mocha from Starbuck (as Mom would call it, without the "s" at the end, which is similar to how my friends and I call Tower Records "Towers," this time with an "s") on Fridays to help me get through what is normally the busiest day of the week. I only get the mocha once a week because those things will add poundage to the girth, lightness to the wallet and other health unpleasantries when you take in something unhealthy on a daily basis.

Jessica and I carpool into work, and since she had to get into work early today, there's one thing that's missing if I get to my office early, and that's coffee. Usually one of the receptionists makes a pot, but it's not until 8:30 or so, and since I felt like a lazy ass and didn't want to make coffee for me and the whole office, I decided to just go to the Starbuck/Jamba conglomerate right around the corner and grab a cup.

I don't mind the usually insane line at Starbuck, I just get whatever free publication is sitting nearby and read it, tuned out to my iPod while standing in line. Initially I was just going to get a cup of coffee since it's not Friday, but the line was super long today and I couldn't justify waiting in line (albeit enjoying it whilst listening to my tunes and catching up on the state's weekly periodical) and not getting something more than a cup of coffee. Also, I checked my schedule today and it looked to be quite busy. So I got the mocha and said to myself I wouldn't get one tomorrow; hopefully I won't need it as much as I normally would. 

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Share, no like share

The latest software update to Apple's iTunes (4.0.1) "only allows music sharing between computers using iTunes 4.0.1 or later on a local network (in the same subnet)."

In other words, the new iTunes doesn't allow one to share their iTunes across the internet anymore.

Apple was starting to get some heat from record industry insiders because some enterprising hackers found a workaround to actually download another's music through this sharing feature in the previous version (4.0).

I was never hot on the idea of the sharing feature anyway, and not because I'm selfish and didn't want to bring something to the party. The main reason is because I don't keep much music on my computer anyway. It's all on my iPod, with iTunes being used for downloading songs to my iPod and making the occasional CD for the car or friends. Once I've ripped songs from my CDs and transfered them to my iPod, I'd then burn the AAC music files on my computer onto CD-Rs and store them away, erasing the files to free up space on my hard drive.

But it would've been cool to log on to a friend's iTunes playlist across the sea and check out what they're listening to (or what they want me to listen to). And I would be more inclined to leave a rotating playlist of my own for others to listen to as well.

Guess it was only a matter of time 'til the bigwigs nixed that one. 

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