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In My iPod: Belle & Sebastian's "Books"

Before DJHens left for Paris, he told me to get my hands on this EP.  I had to order it off of Amazon, but it was certainly worth the wait.  I have to admit that I was a little preoccupied last week and didn't listen to this album immediately--but when I finally did, I was totally enamored by "You're Cover's Blown."

Before I ordered the CD from Amazon, I tried to find a free download (which I nearly never do) from the internet.  I obviously didn't find it for free, but what I did find was page upon page of B&S fans bowing down to the glory of this song, most deeming it their favorite song of 2004.

At first listen I already know what they're raving about. 

27 play counts later (and climbing), I can't get enough of the catchy beat, the instruments, this boy's voice (it drives me wild)...  My favorite part of this song is how it feels like a winding creek: instruments revealed and then they disappear as soon as they've come, a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth voice melody...  No two verses sound the same.  My favorite backup vocal happens just before the breakdown and well after the first refrain: "ooh bop bop bop" may be my very most favorite background vocal ever invented.

The general mood of the song twists and turns as well.  It starts out as a power ballad from the '70s.  It winds up into a breakdown that could fit seamlessly into any Quentin Tarantino flick (if you need an example, think of the Kill Bill Vol. 1 commercials featuring Tomayasu Hotei or take your pick from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack), then climaxes into a hauntingly deep and melodic epiphany where you realize this song is worth a second listen, with the lyrics in front of you.

That'll Do: Godiva Chocolatier's Limited Edition G Collection

If you know me at all, you know I'm not a chocolate fan. And if anyone in the world other than Don bought me a shit box of Whitman chocolates, I would give them to Don.

In light of this news, it's ironic that I've recently immersed myself in the world of designer chocolates.  Last year's first annual champagne holiday party was celebrated with a bottle of Perrier Jouet, 16 Vosges' finest, and a sizable box of La Maison du Chocolat's champagne truffles.  Recently, AJ and I hosted the second annual champagne holiday soiree with a half bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and a fairly large assortment of Vosges.  A week later in Las Vegas, Don was appalled when I AMEXed another $200 Vosges tab, only to settle down after I broke him off a piece of the Naga candy bar.

It's a popular misconception among humans that all chocolate is good chocolate (you know I'm right, AJ).  Obviously, there are $10 boxes of twenty and $100 boxes of twenty; I'll demand the $100 box every time.  While the word "chocolate" melts some people instantaneously, people like me need more than just a caffeine and endorphin kick: we need quality, we need it to be without chemicals, and we want it to be special.

Holidays have been invented around the tradition of giving chocolates; chocolates are an acceptable gift at birthdays, the winter holidays, and, most famously, Valentine's Day.  Both Vosges and Godiva are releasing special heart-shaped boxes of truffles for Valentine's Day (along with every other chocolatier in the free world), and while picking up some chocolate covered strawberries (for all the vitamin C, of course!) at Godiva last week, I decided to try their new, limited edition G truffles.

iPod Shuffle

I just received my iPod Shuffle Saturday (really Friday, but people from FedEx don't know how to leave shit on my doorstep no matter how many times I sign the release).  I've had some time to tinker with it and am posting my review.

Year in Review

While I'll be out of town for the holidays, exploring the Grand Canyon and Rocks of Red, others with televisions and internet access will be remembering the year 2004.

This week I was going through my RSS feeds and came upon an intersting link.  As you well know, I love the aggregation of data in forms and lists.  So, naturally, I would love this next link.  AOL threw together a list of all their most searched for 2004.  I love that they give you categories galore.  From Celebs to News to Shopping to (my personal favorite) Destinations!

I wish they had thrown a technology and gadget area all up in this mo fo, but because they didn't, I guess I'll just have to throw one together myself.

‘Tis The Season

Alright kids, it’s that time of year again.  The time of year where you all scramble to buy me presents that I try to return after I realize I don’t like them, only to find that you received them as gifts last year and needed someone to recycle them to.  This will be the first year that I’m totally addicted to Christmas shopping and researching the best new gadgets.  I’ve chosen to go the gadget route ever since I bought a TV for my parents as a thank you for letting me and AJ use their villa in Miami for a week this August.  So now I think everyone needs gadgets.  This notion was certainly helped along with the first Leoville Press release from Leo Laporte, the 2005 Gadget Guide.  If you’re a regular blog reader, then you know what my feelings on that book were.  And, lastly, my greatest surge of gadget-powered motivation was one fateful Monday, when Don called me after his computer class and told me that for the first time in his life, he was finding that he really liked computers and was interested in purchasing his own laptop.  I, of course, convinced him that he needed a Mac and I knew just the person to help him pick one out—ME!

So the point is, I added PC Mag’s RSS feed on new product reviews and am seriously considering adding a feed from MacCentral to my daily read.  The feed I am most satisfied with this holiday season is my new Wired Top News Stories feed.  It’s where I found a twelve, yes, twelve page article on the coolest geek gear of 2004.

I’ll take you there because they took me there.  I’m picking the one product from each page that I just may not be able to live without (or at least what I think looks the coolest) so that you pepole have no trouble finding gifts for me this year.

Let us begin.

I’ll be more than a jukebox, and I don’t think you’re ready…

An article about buying digital music online: Pros and Cons
27 November 2003

Unless you don’t watch the news (even the fake news on MTV and Comedy Central), don’t have kids, don’t have social skills/friends, or are dead, you’ve heard about these little devils called mp3s. I wrote an article about how to get the best selection of “free”/illegal mp3s without having spyware crash your pc.

Well get ready, because I've recently taken up a private challenge to review several of the top digital music vendors.

Please rest assured that everyone's favorite, the classic CD, is still the best of the best. But read a little further and discover an emerging world of digital media: why you're interested, why you will appreciate Apple when you own a PC, and why it all boils down to how much money you have to waste in the end.

Someone Stop that Pop-Up!!!

An article on how to fight the internet’s ugliest demon…
03 April 2003

Months and months and months and years and years and years ago I started using the internet. Back in 1994 web programming was pretty limited. There were no JavaScript links. There were no ads in your Yahoo! Mail account. No one was snooping around in your hard drive. There was no spy ware. There were no such things as pop-up ads.

Last year I bought this laptop from Dell. Last week I bought a new desktop from Dell. Last month I downloaded a little program called Ad Aware 6.0 from Lavasoft software.

In today’s day and age it is nearly impossible to surf the web and not be accosted with a plethora of little windows—each window an advertisement. Web cams? Casinos? I’ve won a free trip to Cancun? Who even knows what these ads mean anymore? When was the last time you clicked on one? I think that all we know how to do anymore is right click on the toolbar and move to close. All we want to do when we see these stupid little windows is click on that X in the corner and shoot that sucker down.

So when I was blessed with the gift of cable internet some nine or eight months ago, the first thing I knew was that I couldn’t stand the flood gates of pop-up ads descending on my helpless Dell Inspiron. I downloaded Ad Aware as soon as AJ recommended it. It works like a dream, but it’s not what this article is about.

This article is about how you can force the internet to do your bidding instead of it being the other way around. I’ve taken the time to review six ad blocking software packages. Some of them were good, some of them were great, some of them locked up my computer (and not in the way that tells me it’s time for a new one). Let me share what I’ve learned with you and I promise that we’ll live happily ever after in information superhighway bliss.

By the way, all this information is up to date as of April 2, 2003.

Things That Go *Share* in the Night…

An Article on the Latest Breed of P2P File Sharing and What It Can Do For You
22 February 2003

Virtually everyone in the world has heard of Napster. But after Napster’s graceful dissolvement in 2001, virtually everyone who was addicted to Napster’s easy navigation, thousands of gigabytes of information, oh yeah—and the fact that it was free—was also looking for a new file sharing software. Something free. Something easy. Something that wouldn’t be dissolved like Napster.
This longing for the perfect Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing suite has brought about dozens of programs. Some of these programs are pretty looking; some are plain. Some programs are certainly free; some bother your privacy with ad ware, spy ware, pop-ups, and sometimes all three. So what’s a Napster mourner to do?

Here’s what I did: I opened up Google and did a search for “file sharing” the day that Napster verdict was announced. The results were limited to this program called BearShare and this other one called Morpheus. So then, logically, I downloaded Morpheus because I knew that I didn’t want pictures of bears all up in my computer. It was a good choice then, and I didn’t even know it.

Back in the olden days, Morpheus was nearly ad-free and there was no spy ware. Things changed as more people started to download the software and things got out of hand. You couldn’t even search for files because the spy ware was bogging down your system. And of course we did it all to ourselves because we kept downloading the damn free upgrades, that’s all.

So I started to shop around again in mid-2002. I found that the P2P markets were growing. More people had upgraded to high-speed internet. More people were looking for ways to utilize their new-found internet freedom. But after all the blogs are read, after all the shopping is done, after all the porn sites are visited, what else is really left? Everything illegal, that’s what.

I caught a hot tip about this program called WinMX. I downloaded it without question. I started using it and soon I deleted Morpheus. I’ve been using it ever since.

And now that you know a lot about my P2P history, I’m going to get down and dirty. I’ve taken the liberty to review six P2P softwares currently out on the market.

And there you have it: