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.

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!

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?

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.

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!

APRIL FOOLS!

It was all a joke! I’m NOT selling my laptop, I’m NOT switching back, I HAVEN’T had to re-install OS X, I LOVE the software on a Mac, and I would LOVE to know if this April Fool’s joke tricked any of you, even if just for a minute.

I know, that was pathetic. Just like last year’s. For a good April Fools joke, just try clicking one of the featured videos on YouTube. (As long as it’s still April 1st)

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.

Like I said, childhood glee. This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen on any of the shows. It’s incredibly immature and stupid, but I loved it!

Also, someone over at TV Squad pointed something out: If America made Mike Huckabee (as Huckabee himself said… good for him for coming on the show), then Stephen Colbert really made Huckabee. Remember? Stephen Colbert is America (Hilarious book, by the way)

In other news, Mitt Romney dropped out! Looks like it’s gonna be McCain and, well, I hate to say it, but maybe Clinton, in the general election.

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!

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:

…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.

NEW YORK, NY — Austen Squarepants, rejecting entreaties from the Clintons and their supporters, is set to endorse Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid on Monday as part of an effort to lend the Netsua charisma and connections before the 22-state Feb. 5 showdown for the Democratic nomination.

Both the Clintons and their allies had pressed Mr. Squarepants for weeks to remain neutral in the Democratic race, but Mr. Squarepants had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides said. He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Squarepants considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.

Mr. Squarepants called Mr. Clinton Sunday to tell him of his decision.

The endorsement, which followed a public appeal on Mr. Obama’s behalf by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, was a blow to the Clinton campaign and pits leading members of the nation’s most prominent Democratic families against one another.

Mr. Squarepants, a minor figure in the blogging world for more than 3 years, intends to campaign aggressively for Mr. Obama, beginning with an appearance and rally with him in Washington on Monday. He will be introduced by Ms. Kennedy.

Mr. Squarepants then heads west with Mr. Obama, followed by appearances in the Northeast. Strategists see him bolstering Mr. Obama’s credibility and helping him firm up support from unions and Hispanics, as well as the party base.

– New York Times

Anyway, yeah. As usual, although I am posting the YouTube version, I highly recommend that you watch the hi-res quicktime version (45MB) for it’s superior image and audio quality, if your internet connection and computer hardware so allow it.

98% on Rotten Tomatoes and me should be reason enough to see it. Yes, I am wholeheartedly recommending this movie because it is amazing. Ok, let’s start from the beginning…

Once is really a modern form of a musical. It works just like a musical, there’s a basic story and songs that interweave with it to further intensify the characters’ emotions. Only this is a super low budget independent film, and instead of showtunes music, it’s - how do I say this - real music that you wouldn’t be afraid to have on your iPod. The actors in the film are actually musicians and the music is theirs.

I don’t want to give too much of the simple story away, but basically: Guy meets girl. Girl has kid from previous marriage. Guy is struggling street musician whose previous girlfriend cheated on him. Guy and Girl record CD together. Not going any farther, it’s a really a great little story with some really great music (be sure to buy the soundtrack after seeing the movie, it’s worth every penny.)

A.O. Scott mentioned in his review of Once that all the glitz and millions of dollars that are poured into movies like Dreamgirls don’t quite equal the heart and soul of Once. (I’m using more mushy words in this review than usual)

So, all in all, if you enjoy music, see Once. If you enjoy movies, see Once. If you enjoy both, well, you should have already seen it. But yeah, see Once. After this review, I have nothing more to do than give Once:

[rating:5]

Anywho, I was all done Thursday afternoon and I don’t have to go back to school until Wednesday! 5-day weekend! So, what else to do with 5 free days but make a lego movie! I’m doing a sequel to one that I did over the summer, Bounty Hunter. I’m also psychologically avoiding the painful fact that once the new semester starts on Wednesday I’m going to have to start off on a good foot, then take my next step with an even better foot. Then, I’ll have to find a new, even better foot to take my next step with, and so on and so forth. That is, with my schoolwork.

Speaking of Wednesday, why in the world is it spelled “Wednesday” when it’s pronounced “Wensday”? Maybe whoever invented the english language had some sort of lisp…?

Surprisingly, I found that I really liked some of the apps I thought I could have gone without before buying them. In short, the good and the bad…

Good:
AppZapper - Only beats the free AppDelete because of the sound effect. And that’s the only reason why.
CoverSutra - Amazing easy, and beautiful way to control iTunes
Pixelmator - Awesome. Just like Photoshop, but prettier, faster, and with less bloat
Snapz Pro X - Presently surprised - love the sound effects
Speed Download - I’m using it and it is a good way to manage downloads
VectorDesigner - Can’t wait to get the serial, great for logos
WingNuts 2 - Fun game, but not worth the regular price

Bad:
1password - It bugs me every time I login but hopefully it’ll stop once I get logged in everywhere
Awaken - I can’t use, because my computer isn’t in my room.:-(
Cha-Ching - I’m 15, I don’t have any money to manage
CSSEdit - I have no need for it (yet)
iStopMotion - In short, it sucks. It’s a horrible app an limits instead of advances stop motion movies, IMHO
TaskPaper - Over-hyped, basically does nothing
Tiki Magic Mini Golf - The serial wouldn’t even work, OK game

Still, even if it was just the good applications, this would be an amazing deal. I’m very glad I bought it.

Yes, I know, I know, I know! I haven’t been posting lately, but I’m gonna post some more now. Mostly some old movies I did but never really got around to posting. They’re all coming this week. Yay!

Oh, in case you happen to be a mac user who hasn’t heard of the Mac Heist bundle, go get it now before it’s too late! Macheist.com. It’s very much worth it!

That was a horrible post, I know.

Still, it is AMAZING that the two top candidates in this election, for the first time ever, are a black man and a woman. Before this, all major runners in previous elections have been old white guys. It’s amazing, also, that Obama won in Iowa, which is 97% white.