Hypocrite.

Okay, I realize I made a post awhile back about how I didn't want to have to use a piece of Apple software to listen to and watch some of the podcasts I had found, but I admit now... I was wrong. Being the christmas season and all, I got caught up in the moment, and bought a 30GB iPod video, originally with the intention of selling it on eBay. I looked around at prices, and they were only selling for at most 50 bucks more than retail, so I decided not to sell it, but ended up not taking it back because it just felt like it had too much potential. I opened it up, and good lord, it is beautiful. To use it, you have to use iTunes, which I thought at first to be bad... but after using it, it actually isn't too bad a program. The coolest thing thus far about the iPod is the ability to watch videos on it, although you do have to convert them to mp4 files with a third-party program to be able to watch anything not specifically made for itunes/ipod. Watching Diggnation is definitely a plus for it, I love that show. Secondarily, I do not download songs illegally anymore, haven't for about 2-3 years probably, when they started shutting down all the good programs anyway. I downloaded 2 cd's from iTunes, each with about 14-16 songs, for $9.99/ea. Generally this was better than paying $0.99 a song, but still pretty expensive for freaking files. Recently, however, an insanely wonderful site was brought to my attention... that I had heard about before a few months ago, but didn't care about since I didn't have an mp3 player. My manager at RS told me he had been getting songs from it legally for almost a year on only a $50 credit. It is called Allofmp3.com. It is a russian site, but they have an american version that loads automatically anyway. You pay per size of the file, and I don't know the formula they use, but a 192 Kbps encoded file at 4:39 length and 6.54 Mb size costs $0.13! It is insane! You can download an entire album for a little over $1 most of the time. To make a long story short, I put $10 of credit on my account, and have downloaded at least 7 albums now, as well as random songs I wanted by themselves. Woot! If you are looking to stay legal with your songs and want a great place to get em from, definitely check it out. ^_^

The House.

Today I went to Loogootee to say goodbye to Grandma's house. It probably will be the last time I will see it before the sale is finalized on Tuesday. It was really sad... I wish that I had some reason to keep it... a family, or something... but it was too big for just one single guy. Also, regardless that it currently belongs to me, I never could have thought of it as anything other than Grandma's house. Well anyhoo, I took about 100 pics of it, so I will never have to forget it, or her... and will be keeping them in digital and printed form for years so I can show my kids (eventually) and just remember how great of a home it was. I shall post a few of the more interesting ones for you all to see.







I didn't say they were exciting... but they mean something to me. :)

The glory of podcasts.

Okay, I know I am somewhat behind the times here, but I just found out how great podcasts are. Using the extreme lazy power of GetRight, I can now get new podcasts downloaded automatically every day. Woot! These are the ones I found as of yet... I just wish I had a way to play .m4v files WITHOUT a piece of Apple software. :/

this WEEK in TECH
The Laporte Report
Infected
Diggnation

I think I am addicted...

Oh yeah.

Forgot by the way, to mention I am back working at Radioshack for the time being. Last weekend they called me and told me one of the people there just stopped showing up, and wondered if I would come back to help out. I was getting pretty bored from not working, plus since they are all good people, I missed working with them too. I decided to go back, at least temporarily, to help until about a week after new years or so... and I might decide to stay on for awhile after that, I haven't made up my mind yet. The nice thing is that if I do decide to leave this time, I will actually put in my 2 weeks notice, and be rehireable if I want to work there again. It all works out, and I am actually enjoying being back too, so everything seems to be going decently.

New Look.

Okay, I got bored and decided to change the look of the blog today... been thinking about it for awhile, and kinda like this new one. I am extremely lazy though, because I choose the template ones they have available, rather than doing the work of figuring out the HTML to do one myself... but oh well. ^_^

On a second note, having my blog as my homepage got Jeremiah reading it, and I got him registered on here, so he now has a blog. The link to it is over on the right side in my links section, so everyone needs to go over there and leave comments for him so he will continue blogging.

On a third note, bought a new camera today, a nice 4 megapixel Fuji FinePix S3100. I have only had a cheapo 3MP kodak with no optical zoom up to this point, and I believe I lost that one on the move from Loogootee anyway. This new one has 6x optical, and was originally $350, but it was on insane clearance at Radioshack for just $90. Naturally I bought it, and got my discount, and for some reason it gave me an extra $30 RS gift card too, so basically I paid $60 for a $350 camera. I plan on taking some good pics and posting them on here... I just need to find stuff to take pictures of now... ^_^

I gots tagged, yo.

Well I was reading Erin's blog... and she had a little thing about listing favorite songs and posted hers, at the end "tagging" me and a few others... so I feel obligated to list mine... plus I am bored so it works out. Here are the instructions she had listed... apparently from a livejournal thing: "List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to."

1. Kirari Seera Doriimu - Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon theme song.
2. November Rain - Guns n' Roses
3. I Will Remember You - Sarah McLachlan
4. Walk Through The Fire - Buffy The Vampire cast
5. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 - Coheed & Cambria
6. Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
7. You Learn - Alanis Morissette

Now I realize my music taste is insane, I am alone in alot of my tastes, and 7 songs don't even begin to show it... but I don't care. I like what I like, so nyah. As for the "tagging" 7 other people... Kade, Amanda, Scott's would definitely be interesting, Jeremiah... uh... dunno who else. I assume Ian has been "tagged" by Puma Rumor, but if not... him too.

Now YOU know how it feels.

Okay, went to see "Just Friends" tonight, and I have to say... that movie was hilarious. Sadly enough, I identified with it on too many things though. It was above all things a comedy, but it also showed things and situations that I have been in and am still currently in... it was actually pretty eerie. I am definitely always in "The Friend Zone" and never seem to pull myself from it. Dammit but that movie made so much sense to me... but the only thing that detracted from it, from a reality stand point was the ending. Typical Hollywood happy "guy gets the girl" ending. Obviously that never happens in real life, otherwise I would be the happy guy. Oh well, other than that... I loved the movie and will be purchasing it when it becomes available. Damn, I mean honestly... my feelings about something have never been so perfectly portrayed in movie form... it was insane!

Patience.

What is patience? I believe it to be the ability to wait and bearing the uncertainty of what lies ahead. I recently began the process of getting over something deeply rooted inside myself, that has been choking my happiness for years. I am really nowhere near being completely finished with it, but the process has actually begun to start, and reality finally has begun to sink in. The basic problem with it is, however... that I feel almost like I have ended a 4 year relationship, even though I have been single all that time. All my friends and family think I should just go cold turkey, and cut it all off now... never look back. I don't want to do that though. I just want to get myself to a place where I don't have to not be around this person. I want to laugh and have fun and do things with this person, without that constant hope, or lack of hope always around darkening my mood. I want to be happy enough with myself and my situation that I don't sabotage a great friendship for selfish idiocy. I assume I am not really meant to be alone all my life... there has got to be a girl out there for me, that will look at me with the same love in her eyes that I know is inside of me, just waiting for the opportunity to get out. The thing is, I know I have to be patient, to just go on, continue moving... finding where I belong and what I want, and it will happen. All the actual relationships in my life began out of pure circumstance, so I assume the BIG one will too, if I am just patient. I just wish that the person that I am currently still stuck on, will realize that she needs patience too... that time is hard to deal with, especially when feelings are involved, but time also can heal wounds, and make you a better person. Regardless of what everyone says, I don't really ever plan on dropping this person from my life forever... I just need to get to the point where I can say with full and complete certainty... "You were right, we are better as just friends." Currently though, that is going to take a whole hell of a lot of patience... from both of us. A real friendship can survive anything, in my opinion.