Archive for the 'Life' Category

iTunes: Operation Rate

Published
by
Austen
on May 3, 2008
in Life, Music and Technology
. 0 Comments

I don’t rate my iTunes music as much as I should, partially because I don’t listen to the majority of my music. I’d say that approximately half of my music is (was) rated, and that it’s about that much I have actually listened to. Then, only about a quarter of my library do I actually consider even thinking about listening to on a daily basis.

Then, today, my ratings were lost when iTunes had a hiccup and I had to re-import all of my music. No problem, I just had to tell iTunes where all my files are again. But I lost all my playlists and ratings. (This is like the 10th time this has happened to me, and this time I’ve actually found a backup solution… to use for next time.)

So I am going to re-discover my iTunes music by going down the list and listening to and rating everything in my library. Starting with “Take on Me” by a-ha and ending with “Valerie” by The Zutons. I figure that if I listen to two albums, or approximately 30 songs a day, it will take… 2083/30=69.433333333333333 days.

That’s a little over 2 months, and I won’t do it completely some days so I would give this 2 or 3 months until it’s finished. Of course, in order to make this work I can’t add any new music so I won’t be distracted. So I won’t be done until the end of July. Wow. School’s almost over, yay!

I figured that if I posted this public self-promise on my blog and spent the time photoshopping the picture above I might actually do it. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Tribeca Film Institute Film Program

Published
by
Austen
on May 1, 2008
in Life
. 4 Comments

I submitted an application, burned a DVD with my movies, and went to an interview and now I’ve finally been accepted into the Film program at the Summer Arts Institute, which is an arts-focused summer camp type of thing. The NYC Department of Education has partnered with the Tribeca Film Institute specifically for the Film part, so I’ll be making movies with professional cameras and stuff this July.

Yay! The program is very instense, from what I’ve heard, but I’ll be making movies so it’ll be fun! Only a handful of students get picked from the many who apply, so I’m happy that I got in, even though I’m not really sure how many people are the “many who apply.” Still, yay!

Braces

Published
by
Austen
on April 20, 2008
in Life
. 1 Comment

Well, I’m a little late (like, 4 years late) but this last weekend I got braces. I’ve known for a while and had been going through the pre-brace stuff (mouthpiece, etc.) but now I’ve got them on the top for real, and next month on the bottom. So for the next year and a half to 2 years my mouth is going to be full of metal. I’ll spare you the picture.

To tell you the truth, I really don’t mind that too much. Okay, yeah, it’s annoying and makes me look 10% more ugly but whatever. And you know what? I can live without gum. I don’t mind that. The absence of gummy candy is where I start to get a little worried. I mean, that means no gummy bears, no sour patch, no gummy candy whatsoever. But… *deep breath*… I can handle that. Yeah, it sucks but whatever. What really gets me is the other foods I’m not allowed to have. NO POPCORN. NO SODA. NO CRUNCHY FOODS.

WHAATTT???? No POPCORN???? POPCORN IS THE BEST!!!! How can they do this??? This is the stupidest thing ever. But no, it gets even worse… I can’t have SODA?? What!? Since when? I’ve never heard of this! No gum, no gummy candy, no popcorn, no soda???!!!!! How am I supposed to live? Like, if I go to see a movie, what do I buy? All they have at movie theaters is popcorn, soda, and gummy candy! On top of that, bagels are really hard to eat and for the past week I could barely even eat anything because my teeth had to move and chewing with them hurt a lot.

So yeah, I need to find a new favorite food, quick. One that isn’t gummy or crunchy, and that doesn’t get stuck in braces, and tastes good, too.

Oh, and one other thing. When they asked me what color I wanted for the braces, one of the choices was glow in the dark. And I chose it. But guess what… they don’t even glow in the dark! Trust me, I held a flashlight to my mouth for like 10 minutes and then went into the closet. Nope. Not a speck of light. Can I sue them for that?

2 and a half weeks… whoops

Published
by
Austen
on April 19, 2008
in Life and Netsua.com
. 0 Comments

Ouch. I just noticed that I haven’t posted here in over two weeks. Since April 1st! Well, I didn’t exactly mean for that to happen. I guess it just… did. But I was very busy, I promise! Very, very busy. With school, and, like, school and stuff.

I’ll have a few posts coming up about what exactly has been going on recently. Sure, I could just list it all here in this post, but then I’d just have this one huge humongous post about 5 different things, when I could have 5 regular posts that take up 5 times as much space!

So I guess the point of this post is me saying “Hey, hello! Hi, yeah. I’m still here. Just a bit busy. I’m going to talk about nothing for this post, but I promise more posts will follow!”

I hope I didn’t just jinx it.

Switching Back

Published
by
Austen
on April 1, 2008
in Life and Technology
. 2 Comments

I’m fed up. This is stupid. I can’t stand it anymore. I’ve had crashes almost daily now, and I’ve had 2 instances where I’ve had to re-install the OS on my computer. This is stupid. For the first 3 months, everything seemed fine, but then it just all screwed up.

My Macbook Pro is flawed and I’ve found that all mac software is over-priced, buggy, and there isn’t much of it. Sure, it macs have the pretty eye candy and shiny buttons but it gets old really quick. I’m selling my mac.

You can bid on the laptop or “Buy It Now” on Ebay for $1,900 if you want. I’m using the money I’ll get from this sale to buy a reliable Vaio laptop from Sony. Goodbye Apple, and thanks for the horrible time!

Continue reading ‘Switching Back’

It’s been a while…

Published
by
Austen
on March 25, 2008
in Life and Netsua.com
. 3 Comments

It’s been a while, I know. But now I’m back and hopefully secure (thanks Aaron.)

Anyway, it’s been over a month since my last post, which I am very sorry for. But, life took over and I just didn’t have the time to put the site back up. But now it’s back up, and I’m running the newest, shiniest version of Wordpress which is, by the way, great.

What else is great?

  • The GrApple theme for Firefox, which makes it look 99% like Safari.
  • Firefox 3 Beta 4
  • Matchbox 20, specifically their album “Exile on Mainstream”
  • My grade in History (once the extra credit gets counted, that is)
  • Coversutra (which I got in the Macheist bundle)
  • My new chair!
  • My new haircut! (ok, not so great, but still)
  • My new dual-hinge phone! (It flips BOTH ways!!!!!!!)

That’s all for today.

 

I voted!

Published
by
Austen
on February 5, 2008
in Life and Politics
. 1 Comment

Well, okay, technically I didn’t vote. I’m not exactly 18 yet. But then again, technically I did. I turned the switch and pulled the lever so I did vote. Only, well - it was in my mom’s name.

But, hear me out! I still voted! You see, my mom couldn’t choose between Obama and Clinton (for the democratic primary of course) so she let me decide for her. After careful consideration (of course) I chose my candidate and went inside the booth with my mom and voted. Yay.

So, sure, maybe officially I didn’t vote. *wink* *wink* My mom did, but it was my decision, and I pulled the lever and everything so technically I voted for her. Yay. I feel smart. Now that vote had better of made a difference. OBAMA!

6-Team Bomb Squads in NYC Subways

Published
by
Austen
on February 2, 2008
in Life and Politics
. 1 Comment

From the New York Times:

In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.

Mr. Kelly’s plan to heighten security and monitor a subway system that carries nearly five million people a day along 656 miles of tracks reflects the city’s continuing concerns about a possible attack.

Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.

I struggled to find a word to describe these 5-person teams, and all I can think of is “bomb squad.” Technically, it means a team that’s there to defuse bombs, but it’s really the same difference here. So… to wrap this up:

These 6-person teams are going to stand around on the subways with these guns:
Subway Guns
…and a bomb-sniffing dog. And of course, this is all in order to protect us - too bad it took them over 6 years to implement a realistic long-term plan like this! It’s hardly realistic anyway. All it’s gonna do is scare the crap out of people and make them afraid to take the subway. And if something does happen, how many armed men does it take to shoot a terrorist? 1? 2? 3? 4? 5? 6? And a dog?

They need to rethink the security plan that took them 6 years to think up.