After my airport duty I walked around the Mall of America. Yes I’m still looking at computers so I had to check out the Apple store to play with a MacBook Pro. I recently saw a demo of the new things the mouse pad can do; I even remembered a few off the top of my head, so I tried them. Fun! I also saw the Macbook (Nike) Air. Wow, that is one skinny computer. I felt like I would crack it just by typing hard.

After the mall the next destination was Guitar Center off of France Ave. By this time it was 5pm…rush hour with downpouring rain. Mall of America is right off 494 exit 2. France Ave. is exit 7 off 494…so I had to travel 5 miles. That was the longest 5 miles ever, for what turned out to be a waste. G.C. is pretty much a disappointment these days (I used to love that store).

Next stop was driving back east on 494 to Best Buy off Lyndale Ave., which is about 3 or 4 miles from the France Ave. exit. This took even longer. It’s always a good feeling when you’re listening to KDWB and they have the traffic report on only to mention that “494 east is the slowest moving part of the city. But once you pass Lyndale you should be fine”. Ugh. It was slow enough that I was able to eat a bag of cookies and the leftover pieces of pizza I had.

I went to Best Buy for 3 things: Paramore CD, Flight of the Conchords CD, and look at the Dell XPS 1530. Upon walking in the store I saw a Fender USA made Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul with a Line 6 halfstack…more on that later. I found the CDs so off to the computer dept I went. After looking at a few Gateways and an Asus I found the Dell section and tada…an XPS 1530. One problem: it didn’t work. the 1530 comes in numerous screen resolutions so I asked an employee what screen resolution this one was, since I couldn’t get ‘properties’ to come up. He couldn’t make it work either and restarted it. And then he restarted it again…until he finally said they were having problems with the Dells crashing over and over. hmmmm.

I played with a Dell Inspiron since the XPS was dead. I noticed the mouse trackpad was jumpy and nearly impossible to control. I then tried an HP…same thing. I then tried Toshiba and a Gateway…all the trackpads were difficult to control. I have two theories: either vista uses so much power it causes it, or the program loaded by Best Buy for their in store demos is using heaps of power (the employee trying to fix the 1530 said the Best Buy demo program took forever to load and start). I do think something was wrong because every single computer, all different brands running Vista at Best Buy were hard to control. Of all the computers I played with today I liked the MacBook Pro the best.

After the computers I walked around the store wondering where those guitars and the amp came from. I found a special “instruments” section in the far back left of the store. These aren’t the normal $80 guitars for kids. This was a full music shop with it’s own cash register and guitar strings behind the counter, and an entire room with a sealed door for acoustic guitars, plus a couple drumsets and keyboards! They carry a full line of BOSS effects and have many top level Gibsons and Fenders…SGs, Les Pauls, American Strats and Teles, even the Eric Johnson Strat. To be honest I was amazed. It was like a mini-sized Guitar Center.

Anyways, the drive home was awful due to huge amounts of rain. I don’t normally mind rain, but it slowed me up enough that I missed the beginning of LOST. booo…

For awhile now I’ve had Kasabian’s song “Empire” as my ringtone, the chorus part. In the past I’ve used the intro to Bloc Party’s “Banquet” and a couple other songs. For a couple days now I’ve been wanting to use one part of the last track on Battles’ album. So I opened Phone Tools. Oops, updates, so click yeah.

While updates are installing I get a nice little message saying software isn’t confirmed by Microsoft and if I continue it will harm my computer now or in near future. Choices are continue anyways, or stop. I clicked stop…the installation kept going. huh? oh well.

Updates installed, connect phone, find song on computer, crop song…good. Save cropped mp3 to computer: NOPE. file is invalid (or something like that). So I try skipping the save to computer part, I’ll just transfer the file to phone. ERROR…invalid codec. umm codec what? So I tried another approach. Save the cropped file as a .WAV, then go into the file transfer part of Phone Tools and transfer it to phone. For some reason saving as .WAV works fine. Next, transfer to phone. Ugh, files must be mp3, not wav.

After about an hour searching Motorola’s poorly designed help sections I learn a lil bit about codec and that there are many kinds. It says Phone Tools relies on codecs from Windows Media Player. If I’m having problems, make sure WMP is up to date. So next step, I check my WMP expecting to find updates I didn’t know about available. What do I find? “All updates and codecs are up to date”. hmmm, if I have the codecs, and Phone Tools uses codec from WMP, why won’t the program work?

After searching through help forums for the majority of the night (about 5 hours) I gave up. I still don’t know what I’m looking for, or where to find the specific codec I need. What’s really frustrating is that I’ve used Phone Tools before and it worked. Then I remembered the updates.

In a last ditch effort I uninstall the updates. Program still doesn’t work. So why not, I uninstall Phone Tools and reinstall the whole thing. Still doesn’t work and now half of the menus don’t even appear. Crap, things aren’t getting better, they’re getting worse. Ahhh another idea…the HP.

I remembered I put Phone Tools on the HP desktop computer. I sent my original mp3 files to myself on email to transfer them to HP. Open Phone Tools. Install updates? NO THANKS…continue. Find my song, crop song. Save song. What? Yep that’s right, worked first try. Next I click “transfer to phone”. No error comes up…brilliant. A simple window appears for me to name my file and within 3 seconds my new ringtone is on my phone. Hooray!

The main problem here is 1. I primarily use my laptop. 2. the one computer Phone Tools won’t work on is my laptop. 3. I have no idea how to fix the problem.

/rant

1. First there was the band Kill Hannah. Now a band named I Hate Kate. If I were to name a band after a girl I’m upset at, would I keep changing the band name as the years went by? On the other side of things, at least the Bouncing Souls have a song titled “Kate is Great”.

2. Which would you rather have: a guitar that is known throughout the industry to be the ’standard’ for which everything else is judged (Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul for a few examples), or would you rather have a high-quality instrument that noone else is likely to have which you’ll probably end up describing to everyone that “it has the clarity of a Strat but with the fullness of a Les Paul, yet retains that trebley jangley sound of a Tele”?

3. Formula 1 is about to start. Driver lineups have changed at nearly every team (except BMW Sauber and Red Bull). It will be a great season no doubt. I just remembered I forgot to write my annual Preseason preview. I still have a day or two to do it…

4. When will Yamaha release sound clips of their new Pocketrax 2g mini recorder? it looks so nice and small and portable. Yamaha, are you really going to make me wait until April for sound reviews? booo. It’s still the Pocketrax vs Zoom H2.

5. My computer sounded like it was about to blow up tonight the fan was running so hard. Then it started working super slow. Makes ya wonder when I’ll break down and buy a new machine.

6. Thanks to the WIAA state basketball playoffs last week I still haven’t watched last week’s episode of LOST. I’ll bet $100 it won’t be aired again tomorrow thanks to the girls WIAA basketball. blah.

7. DIY effects pedals seem so fun at the moment. Too bad the easy-to-build pedals are a bit useless to me….boosters and fuzz pedals. How bout a DIY phaser, flanger, or delay…but make it easy to build. I guess that’s why there are pedal companies that build pedals haha.

8. NRL (rugby league) starts this weekend too. My Warriors travel to Melbourne to take of the Storm…who just happened to win the title last season. To make matters worse, one of Warriors’ key players got injured during a preseason game and is out for the season to recover from surgery…and the season hasn’t even started yet. It will be a long season.

9. Keeping with sports, Premier league is getting towards the final part of the season. Fulham better start winning…NOW.

10. That’s all for now. Just as I’ve said every other time…photos and new features etc etc are coming soon haha.

1. I got the window seat on the plane on the way out and the way back. Special bonus: both trips, noone was sitting in the middle seat. YAY

2. Back in the day I loved the Trailblazers. I still remember Buck Williams, Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter (a UWSP alum), and Kevin Duckworth. I think I even remember their jersey numbers (52, 22, 32, 00…if I’m wrong don’t blame me, I didn’t even google it). While there PDF and I watched the Blazers narrowly lose in OT to Denver Nuggets. Curses to Iverson. Nevertheless, the game restored my love for the Blazers. And I learned that a nickname for Portland is Rip City (thus the title).

3. Visited the coast at Oceanside, OR again. It’s amazing how different it looked from just a few months ago. It’s still a fun drive too.

4. I got to try a few music items. I love the Orange Rockerverb 50. Now I just have to try a Laney VH100R and L20R first. I didn’t care much for the E.H. Flanger Hoax. Yes, it’s cool, but how many of the sounds are useable? My dreams of a possible Jazzmaster purchase were dashed by a poor-playing demo. I shouldn’t have to raise the action a mile high just to bend strings. I now have my eyes set on a different guitar, the Galaxy 4 by DiPinto.

5. It was fun playing with PDF, Chris, and Will. An amazing session. And thanks to recording setups, I can listen to what we actually played.

6. Stash tea is based in Portland area. Stash tea is great. yum.

7. I finally got a pair of magic shoes. haha.

8. LOST season premiere was on while I was out there. Brilliant, again.

9. Check out pics from the trip on flickr. Yeah, that’s right…I’m actually uploading pics to flickr.

2. In the month of December I was at MSP airport 4 times and never boarded a plane, or even set foot in the airport for that matter.

3. The Electro-Harmonix POG effects pedal is brilliant. It really makes you rethink the way you play. And it’s not just for guitar players.

4. I’m finally getting closer to having new songs recorded. If only I could figure out how to set my Tascam to record in stereo with my MC-505.

5. I’m able to open photoshop without getting an “error” and having the program closing on me. This means I can now resize photos for my Flickr account I have yet to use.

6. Speaking of programs back from the unuseable dead…Dreamweaver is now working. Look for some website updates soon (starting with BG colour).

7. Even with #5 and #6, I’m still looking at new computers. Although, forget Dell…PDF and matches have me sold on Apple. word.

8. I got my snowboard ready to ride and found my boots and goggles thanks to the loads of snow recently. Sadly it rained today and the snow is now crap.

9. I’d like to get this list to 10 items, but I can’t think of anything else to write. I’ll stop now.

-Three more CDs to add to the never-ending collection.

-a nice new comfy chair.

Hooray for short productive trips. Now back to programming drum machine…

For awhile I considered making the switch to Apple via either a MacBook or MacBook Pro. Now there are a few reasons I’m leaning against Apple. For one: internet browsers. Apple doesn’t have IE, which is the browser I usually use. I also use Firefox, Safari, and on occasion Netscape, and when I can get it to work, Opera. If getting an Apple, Safari and Firefox would be my browsers. I like Firefox, except my current computer has trouble running it sometimes, which is why I tend to stick with IE. I like the looks of Safari, but there are a couple small things that bug me. One example: when you click in the address bar the current address doesn’t highlight which would allow you to just type new address in without deleting the old one first. With Safari, I must click and drag over the address to highlight the whole thing, then type the new one in. Small issue? Yes. Picky? Yes. Another bothersome thing: it takes forever to load java based games while IE and firefox load quickly…is that Safari, or just the windows version of Safari?

The other thing about Apple is I’m a sucker for Microsoft Office stuff. These days I’m not sure what Apple has that compares with office programs…maybe they have a full Apple version…I dunno. And yes it’s true, I don’t use Office programs very frequently. But I compare it to this: I don’t ride skateboard very often anymore, but I’d still feel naked if I didn’t own one.

There are currently two computers I’m debating between, both made by Dell. First is the Dell XPS M1330. It’s small, fairly light, available with a great looking LED screen. Being an XPS it has it’s own dedicated Dell support team. It has a full size keyboard and slot CD/DVD drive. To be honest, the only thing I’m worried about is that it only has 2 USB ports in poor locations…one on each side.

The other computer is the Inspiron 1520. Many of the features are the same. It may have a slightly worse screen, but in trade off has 4 USB ports…two on the near the back right side and two in the back…better locations than the M1330. The problems with it: it’s over an inch wider than my current laptop. The other problem, it’s not one of the exclusive XPS series computers, but rather one from the general, much advertised Inspiron series. booo.

One more factor…price. Equally equipped the 1520 is roughly $500 cheaper than the M1330. The 1550 has a 256 video card available while the best only video card for the M1330 is 128. After reading reviews I’m not too worried bout that though, given that the M1330 doesn’t need the bigger card due to its smaller screen.

All in all I guess I must decide what’s more important…2 extra USB ports or a smaller overall size. And if having a “cool” looking laptop is worth an extra $500. Ugh, I hate decisions.

Friday I went to the Twin Cities. Reason for the trip? To pick up the old Kalamazoo Reverb 12 amp I took to Savage Audio for repairs. Yep, that’s right. Somehow I found a way to add to my usable gear collection without buying new stuff…simply repair the old stuff that didn’t work.

I bought the amp along with a guitar from a kid at high school over 10 years ago for the whooping price of $30. Total cost of repairs for the amp at Savage? Over $300 with tax. Being that these amps usually sell on ebay for $200-$250 I think I’ll be keeping it. I’m just happy the amp seems to be quite good now. I did a quick playtest at the aunt’s house before leaving MN and it seemed fine. After the first night playing back home, I’m satisfied with it…lets hope I keep that opinion.

Before leaving the Cities I couldn’t resist driving downtown to Lyndale Ave. to find Twin Town Guitars. It’s a small shop with a fair amount of used Fender and new Vox and Marshall amps. The guitars are mostly the slightly less main-stream brands, like Hagstrom, Burns, and DePinto. The store also has loads of effects pedals, from the mass marketed Boss and E.H. to small private companies. My reason for going? Red Witch effects pedals.

Red Witch is a small company out of New Zealand. They make analog pedals, which like many small private companies, means they cost alot. I couldn’t resist leaving without the Fuzz God pedal. I never paid $215 for a pedal before. So after a night of playing, was it worth it? I’m not sure yet. It is a cool pedal that can make some weird sound effects. The bad thing is I’m not sure how regularly it’s sounds can get worked into songs. But then again, isn’t that the problem with all effects pedals…they all seem like “must have” pieces, only to actually be used not too often.

Men’s soccer world cup is slowly gaining popularity in the US, but compared to the rest of the world it still doesn’t exist. Most people that somewhat follow sports will know that the women’s US soccer team has much more success at World Cup events. Now, how many of you know that the women’s soccer World Cup is taking place right now?

There are other World Cup events in the world of sports. There’s even one going on right now in France (no, not the soccer World Cup). The Rugby World Cup is on a roll in France right now. Yes, the US and Canada are represented. Neither of the North American squads will advance out of the pool stages, but at least they got there.

The Rugby World Cup will be determined by about 3 or 4 teams. New Zealand All Blacks are favourites to win it all. Another strong team is the Wallabies of Australia. The third team capable of taking the cup in my opinion are Springboks, the South Africa team. If you’re looking for a fouth team, Argentina’s side is playing well and the Pumas could possibly decide the fate of a few of the other favourites to win.

England are the defending champs, but this year they are in danger of not even advancing, thanks to a strong Tonga side. Of the U.K. teams, Scotland seems to be the top team, followed by Wales, with England and Ireland having disappointing performances. Even Wales is in a battle with Fiji to advance.

You can be sure I’ll be cheering on the All Blacks to win. No, I don’t like them just because they are good…there’s a certain kiwi that gives me a pretty good reason for All Blacks to be the team I cheer for.

In any case, rugby isn’t very popular in the US. Maybe someday it will grow in popularity, but probably not in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy all the World Cups the world has to offer, whether the US media covers them or not.

1. It’s been so long I forgot how to log in to write posts. Thanks to PDF you’re reading this.

2. Drove out to Portland to deliver a bass cabinet. What was supposed to be a 10-day stay turned into a month. Highlights included jamming with Will n PDF, watching Trainband practice, seeing the Navy ships from the MAX during fleet week, and the drive to and from was kinda fun.

3. Things bought in Portland due to no sales tax: portable HD, Apple iPod Hi-Fi, more clothing than I’ve bought in years, another pair of shoes, and a CD or two. No new amp though. booo.

4. I’m really into NRL now…which is National Rugby League. Following the league is really easy via the website (even provides links to listen to the games via aussie ABC radio feed for free). That said…Go Warriors!

5. New guitar amps. I’ve mentioned it a few times…the front runner is the Mesa/Boogie Mark IV, which I’d get with custom finishing. Another option is still the Fender Twin Reverb and then buying loads of effects. And then there’s still the Laney TT100.

6. I’ve finally decided to buy a new computer. The apple MacBook Pro 15-inch nonglossy screen to be exact. I’m tired of my computer freezing and going dead 4 times a night. That decision is being helped right now as I try to type but can’t because my computer can’t handle me typing and downloading a PDF file at the same time. booo. Now it’s just a matter of ordering the thing. Yes I like my comp but I’m getting more frustrated with it every time I use it.

7. Still no new recordings. Yes I know I’m a slacker.

8. Nil for site updates as well. I swear pictures are coming soon as I know have a flickr account. But I’d like to resize them before uploading, and well, computer can’t open photoshop anymore. ugh.

That’s about it…hopefully I’ll post again soon. cheers