The West Wing

So Bravo runs two episodes of The West Wing every morning. 8am - 10am. Which means I've been tending to get into work at 10:15 or so. Friday just finished out the series, so I was hoping I could shift my schedule a bit earlier. But here I am, watching season 1 ep1 and ep2.

Mind you, I own the entire series box set on DVD.

iTunes

I recently merged the music libraries from the several computers we've owned over the years onto Erin's laptop. As may be expected, there was quite a bit of overlap between them, and iTunes isn't quite smart enough to realize it's got two of the same song, so you wind up with "Paranoid Android.mp3", "Paranoid Android 1.mp3", "Paranoid Android 2.mp3" all in the same directory. As a result, I'm been going through track by track checking for repeats. On the one hand, it's a great way to remember all the music I forgot I owned (or "owned", as the case may be). On the other hand, we're talking about a library of 6,600 tracks, just about 27.5 GB, so it's going to take a while. Honestly, I would have left it as is, but our iPods are both only 30GB, and between the music, podcasts, and video, it just wouldn't fit. Since I'd have to go through the whole of it anyway to pick what I didn't want synced, it can't hurt to clear out the trash on the way.

Notes along the way:
Most frustrating part of this task - incorrectly formatted ID3 tags (mostly the title of the song containing " - "). Worse yet - the same, plus the artist bit is wrong. I mean come on, The Beatles did not sing "Love Potion #9". Barenaked Ladies did not sing "Buddy Holly". Worse yet - the same, but I can't figure out who the correct artist is. Most in this category seem to be listed as Dave Matthews songs. I mean damn, they did alot of coversongs, c'mon!

Must... Resist urge... to delete all of Erin's Creed tracks...

I still have a copy of my all time favorite holiday song. It's got some competition this year though.

Guilty Pleasure #1: Fall Out Boy. After going to see them back in Summer '07, and realizing the then current Pop Punk/"Emo" movement was this decade's answer to Boy Bands, I stopped listening to them altogether. But the few tracks they have on Rock Band piqued my interest in them again, and damn if their tracks aren't catchy as hell. Fun Fact about that show in 2007 - they did a cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It", and I'm pretty sure Adam, Erin, and I were the only ones in our section who knew what song it was, or even that it was a cover.

No many how times I tell it not to "ask me this again", iTunes insists on double confirmation before deleting anything.

I have been slowly amassing a large quantity of Greatest Hits CD's. Yes, I know, Greatest Hits albums are for housewives and little girls. A partial list: ABBA, Aerosmith, Alice in Chains, The Beatles, Billy Joel, CCR, CSN, Bowie, The Doors, Electric Light Orchestra. That's A through E.

OK, 312 duplicates removed, that's enough for today. Library size now 26.21 GB

Election running too long

I tried to stay up to see the Prop 8, GA, and Franken results, but it's too damn late. Also, AK and OR, your races are far closer than they have any business being. I expect satisfaction by the time I wake up in 7 hours.

Obama-rama live blog?

Short but powerful. The next year is going to be interesting as hell.

Whiskey refill, yes we can!

I suddenly feel like I'm in church.

Yes We Can!

Only took him 10 minutes to start talking about re-election.

It's going to be nice to have a well spoken president again.

Obama's stage is just far more impressive than McCain's.

That's a lot of flags.

I've never done this live blog thing before, and it's not like anyone's reading this, I'll give it a shot anyway.

Jameson 12 year

My bottle is running low. I'm at 250 ml or so left of 750 ml. I'm leaving out some, I'm sure, but the following are my reasons for consumption:

Bachelor Party
Wedding's Eve
9/11 (more or less annually)
Getting pay bumps/promotions
Moving to SF
Obama wins

Looks like I may need another jigger, as Prop 8 might be failing, but you can't win them all. I'm thinking of replacing it with a bottle of 18 year when it drains out, but that's a hell of an investment.

Also, Erin is drunk on Amaretto. I don't have a problem with this. She tastes like Hazelnut!

GObama! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Make Sure You Get Your Riboflavin

Crystal Spring

I noticed as soon as we moved out here that google maps were more accurate, which does make sense, we live about 15 minuets away from the google campus. But I came across something today while searching for a bakery that really impressed me.


View Larger Map

It's the clouds, reflected in the water. I've driven past that reservoir before, and when it's still, it does have that mirror finish. The aerial view is something else, though.

I really should make a post that doesn't rely on Daily Show videos some time, but I just love it when Jon Stewart gets mad. Like, really mad. Wild untamed rage starts at about 6:15.

I should have posted this yesterday

but now's almost as good.



"The view from my apartment was the World Trade Center. And now it's gone. And they attacked it. This symbol of American ingenuity and strenght and commerce. And it is gone. But you know what the view is now? The Statue of Liberty. The view from the south of Manhattan is the Statue of Liberty. You can't beat that." - Jon Stewart, 9-20-2001

My last view of the towers was from Jersey, flanking the stage of Liberty state park on one side with the Statue of Liberty on the other. I'll never forget that. I'll also never forget my first trip back, on the Greyhound, going though Jersey and not seeing the towers. I'll never forget that day, the numbness, the not knowing.

I just realized I'm unintentionally using the "never forget" meme that has long been scornfully associated with those who experienced this tragedy from afar, and I'm almost tempted to edit it out. It's not that I mean to look down on what they felt from this. I know that everyone was affected in some way, and I know many were affected more than me. I've just listened to David Cross to many times, and it doesn't feel right speaking about this without being as expressive and eloquent as possible. This was the most important shared event of our lifetime, and to fall back on "Never Forget" and "United We Stand" seems a disservice.

Anyway.

An inch one way or the other, a butterfly's wing flap as it were, and the effect on my life would have been far greater. I still can't think about it without feeling empty. I'm... I'm going to have a glass of 12 year now.

PAX: the short version

It's been a while since I've posted. I've got a slew of stuff from this weekend - but no pictures! we forgot the camera. It all boils down to: we're going next year, and to PAX East in Feb 2010. This is the high point of the weekend: