ipod.debaser.net
I’m been using my LG VX8100 cell phone as an mp3 player for the past couple of months and it’s just not cutting it. With a 1GB mini-SD card, I can hold a decent amount of mp3’s. The volume is nice and loud from the speakers on the phone but when using headphones, it’s significantly lower. It’s really hard to hear my music when there is alot of external noise, like when I’m mowing the lawn. And because the phone doesn’t have a way to lock the buttons, I was constantly having problems with the pause and volume buttons getting pushed while in my pocket.
After going back and forth between the various iPod models, this past weekend I ventured out during the busiest shopping week of the year and bought the iPod 30GB from Best Buy. I was actually able to get in and out of there very quickly as the booth that sells the iPod’s wasn’t very busy. After using it for a week, I love it, tho I do have a few complaints. The biggest complaint is that fact that it is very prone to scratches and fingerprints. After using it two days, I already had two small scratches on the back of it. I’ve got a silicon overlay on order from iStyles which should help protect against any further scratches. The other thing that was really annoying is that I bought the black iPod and when I opened it up, I find out that Apple gives me a white USB cable and white headphones. What the hell is up with that??? Why would I want a black iPod with white cables?
Another thing that irked me was that I couldn’t move files from my iPod to another computer. I’m sure Apple did this for obvious copyright issues. But what if your computer crashes and your only copy of your music is on your iPod? Well, basically your screwed as the next time you hook up your iPod it’s going to ask you to reformat it. After a little searching, I found a great little app called PodUtil which lets you copy the mp3’s from your iPod to any computer. You can copy your whole library or just select mp3’s, videos, etc. You can also install the software on your iPod so when you hook up your iPod to a friends computer, you can just run the app right off the iPod. Very slick!
Marie & I both gave ourselves early Christmas presents this month. Why you ask? Well, because we can! Marie got herself a new puppy who she has named Phoebe. Phoebe is a jack russell terrier/chihuahua mix. She looks like a miniature version of our dog Hailey. Marie has been wanting a small dog for awhile now and when Marie’s mom was fostering a litter of puppies recently for Vicky’s Pet Connection, Marie just fell in love with her. She’s adjusting really well with our other animals. She just loves Ethan and is always trying to play with him. Ethan doesn’t really appreciate all the licks to the face tho they do have a good time playing tug of war with her toys.
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When Marie & I bought our current home almost 3 years ago, I instantly fell in love with it because it had a huge basement that would accomodate my arcade game collection along with a dedicated home theatre room. This blinded me from realizing that every fall I would spend several weekends raking up all the leaves that would fall into my yard. Today I finished up the last of this years collection - and it only took me 10 trailer loads to the local yard waste dump site to do it. What a friggen relief to have that done. One of these days I’m gonna have to invest in a riding lawn mower with a big ole bagger. My little push mower with bagger just chokes on the volume of leaves that wind up in my yard. If anyone’s looking for any Christmas ideas for me, there ya go.
So I did something I never thought I would do - I ordered a MacBook Pro to replace my PC laptop. I’ve never been a fan of Mac’s but now that they are using Intel CPU’s and with a little program called Parallels, I can run OS X, Windows XP and FreeBSD - all at the same time. The new MacBook Pro’s are very slick (other than the fact that they get hot as all get out) and OS X just works like you’d expect an operating system to. I was hoping to have it before the Thanksgiving break but Apple just notified me that it’s back ordered and would not ship until sometime after Thanksgiving. If it wasn’t for the ‘educational’ discount we get online thru Apple, I would have just went to the local Apple store and picked one up. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait.
Ethan started walking about a month ago. His primary means of transportation is still scooting but from time to time he will stand up and take a few steps. I’m sure it won’t be long before he is walking all over the place. On a not so pleasant note, he had the mumps about two weeks ago, which included a fever for almost three days straight. After the third day, he got little red bumps all over his body. That lasted for about two days and after that he was back to his old self. It’s so hard to see your child in such agony. He would be fine for a few minutes at a time and then all of a sudden he would start crying and screaming at the top of this lungs. When Marie brought him to the doctor, they thought he might have strep throat since his throat was so red (probably from all the screaming) but the throat culture showed he was fine. Marie recently taught him how to “gimme five” and it cracks me up every time he does it.
BTW, Cedar Point last month was a blast. It was definitely one of my favorite visits to the Point yet. Staying until 11pm on Saturday and going to the haunted houses was fun. Even better was Kellie getting singled out by every person dressed up in a costume. It was almost like she had a sign on her that said “Scare the crap out of me!”. I actually found myself getting a little freaked out on some of the rides - which made the experience even better! I guess that can happen after not going for 7 years. I felt like I was going to fall out on a couple of the rides, like the Skyhawk. And believe me, Marc didn’t let me forget it. Top Thrill Dragster was a riot and I’m proud to say I kept my hands up from start to finish on that bad boy. So take that Marc!