Major Distraction
Posted on | February 21, 2008 at 11:20 pm | 8 Comments
Got my PlayStation 3 today. I rushed right home after work to set it up, and I’ve been playing with it all evening (aside from a break to watch tonight’s Lost, which had another didn’t-see-that-coming ending). What an amazing machine! I haven’t even really done much with it yet gaming-wise (aside from testing out Motorstorm), and even without the gaming I can tell it’s worth it. The built-in WiFi is really nice, as I was able to download and apply the system update through that right away. That also makes it automatically connect to the Internet, so that it can (for example) display the artist/album/song information of a CD you stick in it to play – just like a regular ol’ computer hooked up to the Internet. I haven’t tried the browser yet.
The bluetooth wireless controller works great, and I was also able to plug in a USB keyboard and use that right away. That really saved a lot of time when signing up on the PlayStation Network.
As I mentioned before, one reason I got the 80GB unit was because it could play SACDs. I have a significant investment in SACD discs, as well as that other Advanced Resolution format, DVD-Audio. The SACD playback works perfect and the discs sound great. Too bad the PS3 can’t play those DVD-Audio discs too, but all DVD-Audio discs I’ve got have a DVD-Video Dolby Digital surround/multichannel mix, and it plays those just fine. I’m more interested in multichannel than Advanced Resolution anyway (at least I can get both from the SACDs). Now I can ditch my combo SACD/DVD-Audio player. The other cool thing about SACD playback is that the multichannel SACD sound is through the digital HDMI connection instead of an analog one like the combo player.
But where it really shines is as an upconverting DVD player and a Blu-Ray player. I put one of my DVDs in it and it looked sharper than when played on my other players. I took out the Lost Season 3 Blu-Ray set that I pre-bought a few weeks ago and played with that too. The picture does look better on my 1080p plasma TV than the original HD broadcasts. And oh… the sound! That’s much better too. I could really tell the difference with the uncompressed PCM.
So, see you guys in a month or so. Who has time to post blog entries now when I’ve got games to play and discs to watch?
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 30°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Hammer In Your Eyes” (Robert Pollard)
- “Star On Wheels” (The Maggies)
- “Goodnight Sweet Night” (Jason Falkner)
- “Shockwave” (Ash)
- “Rattlesnakes” (Lloyd Cole)
- “Fight” (Art Brut)
- “Under The Paving Stones” (The Like)
Latre.
Glasmost
Posted on | February 20, 2008 at 9:53 pm | 4 Comments
Did you know CD’s from Russia are really cheap? I had been looking for some import CDs (more on that in a future entry) and found an eBay seller that had them for $5 each. The e-mail address was a co.uk one, so I assumed the CDs would be coming from the UK. Imagine my surprise (or don’t) when they showed up via Registered Mail with a Russian return address and customs sticker.
Of course, the shipping was $8 per CD.
But still, it was a bargain! Especially when compared to what other sites wanted for them.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Girl Scout cookies. And this whole “look good naked” fad. I don’t want to look good naked.
Latre.
Skyrockets In Flight
Posted on | February 19, 2008 at 10:59 pm | 5 Comments
Apparently, the US Navy is going to try to shoot down that wayward satellite tomorrow night. It’s the start of Star Wars! Let’s at least hope the shuttle Atlantis is down by then.
I got nothin’…
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 29°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Don’t Be Shy” (The Libertines)
- “X-Ray Eyes” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Do You Wanna Make It” (Big Star)
- “Take Me Down (Too Haloo)” (Loud Family)
- “Madonna of the Wasps” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “Shim Sham” (Imperial Teen)
- “That’s What You Always Say (live)” (Steve Wynn)
Latre.
The Pie Is A Lie
Posted on | February 18, 2008 at 6:25 pm | Comments Off
Not much going on here. N and I watched the DVD of Waitress last night. We both liked it. Interesting combination of comedy and pathos, without overdoing either one. Some really nice cinematography. And some great looking pies. It starred local girl Keri Russell, and Nathan Fillion (whom I’ll watch in anything). The movie was written by, directed by, and co-starred Adrienne Shelly, who was cut down in her prime. Who knows what more great stuff she could’ve accomplished?
The only things I didn’t like about the movie was that Jeremy Sisto’s abusive husband character was a bit too over-the-top evil, and I didn’t really understand the choice to make Nathan Fillion’s character an adulterer. I think the story would’ve worked fine if he wasn’t. I understand where they wanted to go with Keri Russell’s character in regards to him, but I think think they could’ve done that anyway. Okay, maybe they didn’t want to have an all-good man, since they already had an all-evil one, but I’m sure they could’ve showed some of his flaws without giving him a wife to cheat on. In fact, it seems like everyone in this movie was cheating on their spouse. That’s Hollywood for ya – no morals! (Just kidding.)
Latre.
i and the Tunes
Posted on | February 17, 2008 at 6:08 pm | 9 Comments
Been saving this one for a rainy day. Behold, the iTunes Meme, which I heard about from Foma*. Keep in mind that iTunes now stupidly puts number and symbols after letters in sorting order instead of before like everything else does.
How many total songs?
19857 songs, 55:20:05:55 total time, 87.76 GB
Sort by song title – first and last…
“A-11″ (Richard Thompson)
.
.
“[ ]” (Trotsky Icepick)
Sort by time – shortest and longest…
Four way tie for shortest, all four seconds long:
“Untitled 3″ (Belle Da Gama)
“Unknown” (Bif Naked)
“The Sky Is A Harpsichord Canvas” (Olivia Tremor Control)
“(Four Seconds Of Noise)” (Hot Hot Heat)
Longest is difficult, since iTunes seems to have miscalculated the length on a number of songs that I downloaded from eMusic. It has the bitrate at “32 kps” and has the time as like 4 times longer than the actual number of minutes. Albums with this issue include Steve Wynn’s Static Transmission and Stan Ridgway’s Holiday In Dirt. Maybe I should re-download those. Anyway, if I don’t count those obviously messed-up tracks, then the longest song is “A Long Day” (The Polyphonic Spree) at 36:30.
Sort by Album – first and last…
Abort (Tribe)
.
.
75% Less Fat (Chris Mars)
Sort by Artist – first and last…
Abba
.
.
The Zutons
Top five played songs…
I’m not answering this one, since I don’t really use iTunes to listen to music, and I don’t sync the iPods often enough. And even if I did, my iPod listening is all either random or is of new eMusic downloads.
Find the following words. How many songs show up?
(Note that this includes songs where the word is part of the artist or album name)
Sex: 58
Death: 102
Love: 1070
You: 2094
Home: 171
Boy: 447
Girl: 321
(Weird that there are more “boy” songs than “girl” songs. That appears to be because I have more bands with “boy” in the band name: Pet Shop Boys, Soft Boys, Echoboy, Waterboys – and lots of album titles with “boy” in the title. Artist Ad Frank gets double album title honors with In Girl Trouble and The World’s Best Ex-Boyfriend.)
First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle…
“Cheap Debbie” (Wanker)
“Trouble Breathing” (Alkaline Trio)
“They’re Coming for You” (Pete Shelley)
“Clap Hands” (Beck)
“Ceremony” (New Order)
That’s it!
Tomorrow: What’s in my medicine cabinet!
Latre.
Soft Pretzels For Lunch
Posted on | February 16, 2008 at 4:27 pm | 3 Comments
For those of you who haven’t seen Cloverfield and want to know what the monster looks like, check this out. Yeah, kinda underwhelming as a toy, but it does show more than in the movie. It’ scarier in the movie, although it also had a kind of softness and pathos to it there.
More on yesterday’s Blu-Ray/HD-DVD hoo-haa – it looks like Toshiba is definitely giving up on HD-DVD. So the format is really, truly dead. Man, I’m really glad I didn’t buy one of those players when they had that one Cheap Friday blowout back before Christmas. I was even tempted to buy one after that. Good thing I resisted. Now I’m just waiting for my PS3 to arrive. I wonder how many Blu-Ray players sold this weekend?
Anyone hear of this Bell X1 band? Their album Flock is being released this week, and I’ve been listening to some of it streamed. Sounds pretty good. Too bad it doesn’t look like it’s going to be on eMusic, but you never know.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 38°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “David Charles” (Trotsky Icepick)
- “Billy Radcliffe” (Frank Black)
- “More Than This” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “I’m Not Really a Spring” (Loud Family)
- “Faith” (Violent Femmes)
- “TV Baby” (Magazine)
Latre.
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