Archive for April, 2003
I finally took my first serious browse of the “iTunes Music Store”:http://www.apple.com/music/ last night and actually bought my first song, Barenaked Ladies: Alcohol for a lowly $.99.
For $.99 I could have purchased an utterly nasty McDonald’s under a buck menu item. Take your pick, they’re all gross and I’m vegan so it’s not an option. I could buy a bus trip on S.F. Muni, but they don’t go anywhere I need to be and frankly, I’d rather walk. I could have gotten one “Odwalla “:http://www.odwalla.com/ bar (my daily snack), but it would have only lasted 2 minutes as I would inhale it.
Instead, for $.99 I bought a song that I enjoy. Something that I can keep forever by burning it to a music cd, backing it up on a DVD, and listening to it on my soon to arrive iPod.
For some people that’s just not good enough I guess. What really chaps my hide about the new iTunes Music Store is the damn whiners that have now popped up all over complaining that it costs to much or the quality isn’t good or even “they don’t have the songs I want”. Do I care? I’m buying music for me, not for you. If you want to spend all night trying to download a good quality illegally ripped mp3, go for it. You’ve got way more spare time than I.
Which brings me to a “great article about the pros and possible cons”:http://nslog.com/archives/2003/04/29/itunes_music_store.php from “NSLog”:http://nslog.com/ about the iTunes Music Store. I’m in agreement with about 99% of the article and would much rather you read his thoughts than bore you with my sleepy ramblings.
Speaking of which I just heard “Aiden”:http://www.snapturtle.com/gallery/aiden01.
April 30th, 2003
Sorry “Naaman”:http://footinmouthdisease.blogspot.com/2003_04_27_footinmouthdisease_archive.html#93428307, but the time has come for me to purchase my first “iPod”:http://www.apple.com/ipod/. I just hope you don’t hate me because I’ll enjoy using the new docking station or the on-the-go play lists. It’s ok, you still have the “17 inch Powerbook”:http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html.
Come Friday (hopefully), I’ll be enjoying my mobile music library on a new 15GB iPod. In order to get ready for the big day I decided to reorganize my music collection. Oh brother, what a big pain in the ass that will be. I don’t even have a very large one at the moment, about 6 gigs, but trying to make sure each MP3 has the correct tag information is going to take awhile… on top of that I still have a ton of CDs to rip.
I guess I can’t complain, I’m finally getting an iPod and I’m damn excited about it. Just today using my 10 year old Sony CD Walkman at work when people would interrupt my “programming zone”:http://www.snapturtle.com/archives/000031.php, I’d have to pause the player. No big deal right? It is when the damn player beeps every second to remind you it’s paused! So, in order to stop the beeping you’ve got to stop the playback of the CD. What does that do? It causes the CD player to start from the first track, losing my place in the current song. How’s that for 10 year old technology? *Lame*.
Of course with an iPod, pausing in the middle of a track isn’t a problem, the song will just restart where it left off when you’re ready to continue.
*Sweetness*.
April 29th, 2003
At three months, Aiden is learning about sports and who to cheer for. Thanks to Aiden’s Grandma, he has his own King’s outfit. He actually likes watching the games too. (I think he just likes t.v. in general, but don’t tell Grandma… oops, too late!)
Go Kings!
April 28th, 2003
And so it goes.
Apple released their new line of “iPod”:http://www.apple.com/ipod/ MP3 players today to coincide with their new “iTunes Music Store”:http://www.apple.com/music/store/, which allows for rights free downloading of music for $.99 per song. Not bad.
The new iPod has a slimmer redesigned shell, more capacity to store songs, and new software to allow for the playing of AAC files for use with the iTunes Music Store. The pods cost $299 (10GB), $399 (15GB), and $499 (30GB). The 15 and 30GB models also include the new recharging dock, protective case, and remote control with headphones.
I’ve been waiting for this for quite awhile, by following the “rumor sites”:http://www.macrumors.com/, knowing that this day was coming so I kept holding off from buying one. Of course, all this is fine and dandy if I were able to purchase one now. But, due to bills, food, baby clothes, and more bills, I won’t be able to get one for awhile.
Honey… purty please?
April 28th, 2003
Boy am I tired. Not sure why, slept about as much as I do during the week. Heck, even Aiden slept all night! He was awoken by daddy pushing into him… oopsie.
Today we hung out around the apartment, then went out and did some shopping. We picked the sale racks at Gap, got Aiden some cute clothes, even picked up a nice outfit for Autumn. Of course, I visited the video game store. But this time I actually traded in some older games in order to get credit for a new one. I traded in Dynasty Warriors 3 (XBox), The Sims (PS2), Haven (PS2), Ooga Booga (DC), and Pen Pen (DC). Only netted $56 dollars but so what, more than enough for a new game. I couldn’t decide between “Def Jam Vendetta”:http://cube.ign.com/objects/492/492822.html or “NBA Street Vol. 2″:http://ps2.ign.com/objects/496/496562.html. Both are really good games, Def Jam being developed by famed Aki, developers of hit wrestling titles like NWO/WCW Revenge (N64) and WWF No Mercy (N64). NBA Street Vol. 2 is the follow up game to the original NBA Street which was a very fun over the top street basketball game. Since I think I’d play more NBA Street, I picked up Vol. 2 (very good btw, I highly recommend it.)
After that we headed over the Target, picked up some junk and came home. Now it’s raining, as it has been since about 4pm. I’m tired and ready for bed.
*ZzZzZzZz*
April 27th, 2003
Ted has brought back some memories of years past when together we would ride our mountain bikes until we’d both fall over. The following photo was taken July 29, 1996 (I removed the date stamp with Photoshop) by Ted while I was “trying” to look cool. Ha ha!
I have a ton more photos from those days where we’re attempting to be mountain bike racers and all that jazz. Oh yes, I’ll post some, don’t worry. I even have photos from my first ever race where I bonked hard due to lack of training and energy. Maybe the Mammoth Lakes 10,000 foot peek was the problem? Or maybe it was getting my front wheel stuck in lose dirty on a tight corner which caused me to flip over the handle bars.
Those were the days… *sniff sniff*.
April 26th, 2003
Found this gem of Autumn at age 8 months while going through some old scanned slides. She loved to eat “noodles” and still loves them to this day.
Notice she doesn’t have any hair which she didn’t have until about age 2 years!
April 25th, 2003
I’m getting quite sick of this “crap that game publishers”:http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=1575 are dishing out these days:
Speaking to UK trade paper MCV, Nintendo UK general manager Andy Williams commented that “Nintendo is monitoring the situation closely and is prepared to take legal action against importers and retailers should the number become significant. The games currently on sale are not intended for sale within the EEA.”
Why shouldn’t gamers in other parts of the country import games? What is the difference? The publisher *STILL* gets their damn money, why do they care if someone buys the US version instead of the European version. So what if I want to buy the Japanese version of a game that will NEVER be released here in the states. It should be my choice as a consumer.
I’m sick and tired of reading about these stories were the three major hardware vendors and software publishers, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft; strong arming small businesses into not selling imported games. That’s total crap. They’re getting their money just the same. Heck, in some cases, I purchase both versions so they’re getting paid twice!
Usually only the hardest of the hardcore import games since they know how to get them to work and have the patience to wade through gobs of foreign text. If these companies are so concerned about importing, I suggest they get off their collective asses and start making games for all three major countries at the same damn time.
Grrr.
April 25th, 2003
I’m not sure what to say today. More than likely it could be due to some of the “sad things in the news”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/04/24/national1121EDT0569.DTL, being stuck inside all day working, or maybe it’s just the “rain”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/04/24/BA252186.DTL causing me to feel blah. So, with that in mind, I think I’ll just ramble on about “stuff”.
“Giftpia”:http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/ggfj/index.html for Nintendo Gamecube was released today in Japan, today being April 25th in Japan. Giftpia is a very odd game, similar to “Animal Crossing”:http://www.animal-crossing.com/news.jsp, but even more weird, wrapped in cell shaded graphics. Sweet! I’m a big fan of cell shading, recently acquiring “Naruto”:http://cube.ign.com/articles/393/393291p1.html, a cell shaded fighter for Gamecube.
I’m awaiting the UPS man to deliver the latest additions to the DVD collection, the “Miyazaki 3 Pack”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008UA4E/, which contains Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Spirited Away is the top grossing movie of all time in Japan and was released in theaters here in the states last year by Disney. There are some comments on Amazon from customers that the Disney version isn’t “true” to the original, which if true, will bother me as I like my movies whole. Plus, Disney always likes to mess with “stuff”. The other two movies I’ve read are also very good, I’m looking forward to watching at least Kiki’s with “Autumn”:http://www.snapturtle.com/gallery/autumn.
“Aiden”:http://www.snapturtle.com/gallery/aiden01 turned three months today. Seems like yesterday that he was born and I had three paid weeks off… wishing. The time sure does fly when raising children. It still amazes me that I have a 6 year old daughter who will be turning 7 shortly and 3 days later I’ll turn 29… ugh. Ever so close to that 30 mark.
I’m sorry, but being 30 isn’t something I’m looking forward to. I enjoy being in my twenties, albiet late, but still. I can still “get away with” playing with toys and video games. I feel like once I turn 30, I’m going to need to “grow up” which just isn’t going to happen because I really don’t want to grow up. I like playing video games, skipping around the city, and acting like a 6 year old. Yeah, yeah, leave me alone to be grumpy about 30 will ya!
Maybe I should go play “cards”:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030424/ap_on_re_us/iraqi_playing_cards&cid=519&ncid=1478. Hmm…
April 24th, 2003
Been adding a lot of photos of the children over the last few days. Added the photos from Easter weekend as well as building up Aiden’s April 2003 album. Hard to believe that tomorrow Aiden will be 3 months old…
“Aiden’s April 2003 Album”:http://www.snapturtle.com/gallery/album13
Autumn holding Aiden and damn proud of it.
“Aiden & Autumn”:http://www.snapturtle.com/gallery/album03/2
“Photo album from Easter weekend”:http://www.snapturtle.com/gallery/album14
April 23rd, 2003
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