The Annekenstein Monster

Jerry Orbach has died.

Rest in peace, Lennie.

I feel ridiculous and petty and self-absorbed posting on such a frivolous topic as this, in the wake light of the incredible and horrific tsunami disaster, but…

I must add my name to the list of people who love their iPod.  But it wasn’t love at first use.  I quickly discovered that it’s not so easy to keep your 20G iPod updated when you have 21+ gigs of music on your computer.   You can’t just let it automatically synch with the song files on your computer (well, you can but it’s too random in the selection of songs it picks and chooses to upload).  So, I spent the first while manually synching; going through my collection, picking and choosing 18gigs of files to upload.  At first, that worked okay, but I realised it’d be too much work to have to keep manually uploading new songs/removing old songs.  There must be a better way.
And I found it.  Now I’ve instructed iTunes and iPod to automatically synch only the playlists/smartlists I have checked off.  Here’s what I’ve done:

I created a smartlist called "My Favourite 6G’s".  This is a playlist that contains 6gigs of songs that have either a 4 or 5 star rating.  I’ve selected this playlist to be synched between the computer and iPod.  This way, I always have loads of my favourite songs ready to roll.

I also created a smarlist called "Least Played 2G’s" to synch as well.  This is a list of songs that, as the title suggests, are the least played songs in my collection.  This way, it ensures that songs I haven’t heard in a long time will also be rolling through my shuffle.  Then, when these least played songs get played, they automatically are removed from that smartlist at the next synching and are replaced by other ‘least played’ songs.

I also have a smartllist called "Last 150 Songs Added".  As it suggests, this list keeps track of those songs I’ve recently imported to iTunes.  This way, I have access to all the latest songs I’ve added.
I have a few other usual lists too, specific to genre, mood, etc., and these get synched as well.

Basically, it means that I have loads of great songs, a bunch of songs I haven’t heard recently, and the latest additions, all ready to go on my iPod everytime I synch it with iTunes.  My iPod is now just a little over half-full (about 10gigs), with just under half of my total music library.
Had I known about this feature, I probably would have given serious consideration to getting a 4G iPod mini, rather than a 20G version.  It would be no problem to tweak those playlists to smaller sizes, say 2 gigs of Favourites,  1 gig of least played, the last 50 songs added, etc….

If you’re thinking of getting an iPod (Matt), you might want to think of this approach, and save yourself some money by getting a mini.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

It’s Musical Pi

Well, now I finally know how Gus comes up with all those jingles.

I kid!

Merry Christmas Everybody!!  Smiles!!!!

I believe it was 1971.  Maybe ’72.  December 25.  Christmas Day at the MacDonald Home.  What’s the reason for the happy faces?
Well, a certain yellow-pajama’d someone was fortunate enough to receive an original, metal Slinky for Christmas (not to mention the Spirograph in the bottom left corner of the photo), and that same certain someone absolutley refused to let any of his 4 brothers even touch it.
Truth be told, they were all a bit too old for such a childish toy as a Slinky.  Don’t you think?  Wasn’t that little yellow-pajama’d boy perfectly within his rights to hissy-fit at the very notion of someone else playing with his Slinky?  And aren’t those other 4 men a bit to old to be sulky and petulant?
From left to right:  Boots, Rob, Dids, Fritz and Earle.
I think Earle’s sour look to me is the only clue that indicates I might be the cause of the morosity and grief.  Otherwise, this could easily be the photo taken just after we all found out our grandmother died.

From the CBC

I didn’t know whether to go with:

A national sex offender registry is now in effect.  So make sure you have your firearms and sex offenders registered.

or

The sex offender registry is now up and running.  I’m registered at Afternoon Delight, for those thinking of gifting.

In the end, I decided to go with neither.

I hope I never become one of those recherche people who use ‘recherche’ in a sentence.

or

Still-stunned quarterback, to his linemen:  Wha’ did zhat recherche as he hit me in zhe head an’ knocked shree of my teesh out?

I hope I never become one of those recherche people who use ‘recherche’ in a sentence.

or

Still-stunned quarterback, to his linemen:  Wha’ did zhat recherche as he hit me in zhe head an’ knocked shree of my teesh out?

How far would you last before being eliminated, in Michael Ondaatje’s Elimination Dance (link to text)?

Me?  I’d have to get a judge’s ruling on the second item: "Those who have resisted depravity."  If I got past that, I’d definitely be gone by the 7th item down:  "All actors and poets who spit into the first row when they perform."

Here’s a Zed link to Bruce MacDonald’s short film based on the poem.

‘Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the house
Cam sleeping, K reading, Rob clicking the mouse;
When up on the rooftop, a growing consternation,
Water was landing, Boomer calls it "precipitaiton".

"Oh no" yelled my wife. I asked "What’s the matter?"
"Water!" says she.  "It’s dripping, pitter patter."
I sprung from the ‘puter to inspect where it dripped
And with each falling drop, panic more tightly gripped.

I ran up the stairs to the second-floor crawl space
But it was 11 o’clock and darkness covered the place.
"Where is the flashlight!?" I yelled to my dear.
"Cameron was using it.  It could be anywhere!"

I entered his room and stepped on some Lego,
Then muttered some swear words that will make me to Hell go
I turned on his light, the room illuminated
But no flashlight was there, a fact that I hated.

I ran down the stairs, to the basement so quick
And brought back a work light to elucidate the attic.
Into the space, past clothes and boxes I fighted
Until to the drip-source I finally had lighted.

Ah to hell with it.  Long story short:  We have a leak in our roof, I think from where a couple of shingles blew off.  It drips down a water-soaked rafter, onto some water-soaked support beams and right down into the middle of our livingroom.  It’s difficult to catch, because in the crawl space, it doesn’t drip anywhere, it just travels down the rafter.  It’ll be repaired in a day or two.  Hopefully before any significant rainfall occurs.