Who dey!

Thanks to a good friend, this is where I will be tomorrow night! I don't make it to many Bengals games, and when I do I'm typically in the nosebleed section. However, for the big Ravens game I will be at the 50-yard line in row 10! To psyche yourself up for the game, check out the latest effort by Ryan Parker on YouTube.

Silver lining...

My drive to work today stunk! I was running a little late, left home at about 7:15 a.m., and knew I was in trouble when I hit traffic while still in my neighborhood. It turns out there was some sort of accident that closed Route 42--the street that gets me to the expressway. It took about 45 minutes of winding through an alternate route to get to the interstate, where I was greeted by an ARTIMIS road sign that said there were multiple accidents and to expect delays. I finally arrived at the office at around 9:00 a.m.

In retrospect, though, it could have been worse. When I first saw the traffic I considered coming home and going into the office at 10:00 or so; however, I learned later that this would not have been a good idea as the highway was closed later due to a bomb (see story here). The highway was closed, and some people were evidently stuck for up to 6 hours! The lengthy drive also gave me a chance to listen (twice) to the new Chris Daughtry album (yes, iTunes still calls them albums) that I bought last night. In case you don't remember or aren't a fan of American Idol, Chris is the very talented singer who should have won last season. If you're a fan of rock, I'd recommend the album. It's got sort of a Nickelback sound, but with a much better singer and not nearly as redundant (almost all Nickelback songs sound the same to me).

Fun with iTunes

As I posted earlier, we are now using an iPod as our main music system at home. Because my musical tastes differ somewhat from Annette's (we both like Billy Joel, but she's not a big Linkin Park or LL Cool J fan) I have been creating some playlists that weed out some of my music that she wouldn't appreciate hearing. It's been kind of fun grouping songs in various lists--playlists for certain moods (depression, joy, etc.) and playlists for certain time periods (the 80's list is my favorite).

I've also been working on a playlist that lists my favorite songs in order (I always wanted to be Kasey Kasem). With nearly 3,000 songs on the iPod, this may take a while. When I was a kid, I used to organize my cassette tapes in order from my favorite to least favorite. I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and switch the places of two tapes--for example, Night Ranger's "Dawn Patrol" with REO Speedwagon's "Hi Infidelity". I think I can probably trace the roots of my current sleep disorders to this activity.

Flickr Tag Browser

As I've posted before, I use a free product called SimpleViewer to display photos on my website. The company that makes SimpleViewer has some other cool, free stuff on their website. One such item in the Flickr tag browser. Check it out.

Windows XP

For the most part I like Windows XP; however, I've always thought that it is kind of ugly. The default "Teletubbies" wallpaper is awful, but at least you can change it. Then there's the big green Start button, which is a bit tougher to change. The silver color scheme is a bit better than the default blue, but still not pretty. While mindlessly surfing the 'net after watching Heroes (which is off to a promising start, but I'm worried it's going to pull a 'Lost' and never answer any questions) tonight, I ran across the Royale Noir theme. It's an improvement.

MyTunes

Despite the fact that I don't have any musical ability, music has always played an important role in my life...and recent events have validated this fact.

I am constantly listening to music--at work, at home, in the car. I even like to fall asleep to music at night. I may not be actively focusing on music--for example at work I have music playing while I am testing software but I might not even be aware what is playing. One day my CD player was set to "repeat 1 track" and the same song played the entire day without me realizing it. But if the music had stopped, I would have noticed.

Our 6-disc CD changer at home had been acting strangely for the past year or so, and recently it finally officially bit the dust. I tried listening to the radio, but the commercials were annoying and none of the stations played a good variety of music so I wasn't happy. Then the owners of my company were kind enough to reward us with a shopping trip. At first I planned on buying a replacement CD changer, but upon further reflection decided that compact discs are probably soon going the way of the 8-track and the dodo bird so I instead bought an iPod.

Now to get to my point...the next step in setting up our sound system was to rip the music from our CDs onto the computer and eventually to the iPod. Going through my CDs was strangely like going through a photo album. It was amazing to me how certain CDs and songs are connected to significant events in my life--going to my first concert (Kool & the Gang) as a 14-year old during Little Sib's weekend at Miami, thinking all of my sister's friend were gorgeous, and deciding that was where I would go to college...Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" always reminds me of my first date with Annette...sitting in my dorm room listening to George Winston's "December" in the glow of my roommate's stolen giant polar bear Icee light while agonizing over the decision to change my major...any Beatles song makes me think of my good friend Tom (the inspiration for Chris' middle name) who passed away several years ago...the soundtrack to "The Lion King" was playing during Ben's birth...sitting on the floor in the hallway of Mercy hospital singing James Taylor songs to newborn Maria for hours because it was the only thing I could do to stop her from crying and I wanted Annette to get some sleep...the list goes on and on.

Starbucks

After an off-site meeting at work today, Steve wanted to stop at Starbucks to pick up some sort of green tea/soymilk concoction that he likes since he's allergic to all normal food and drinks. There was a lady in front of us who placed her order without taking a breath. I don't remember the exact words, but I did count that it was 16 syllables. It was something like a "grande latte mocha no foam low caff supremo gold coast blend". I thought she was making a joke, but the lady behind the cash register -- to my amazement -- nodded her head and repeated the order word for word to the coffee-maker guy in the back, who again repeated the order. It was an impressive display of memory and diction. Our turn came, and I felt a bit inadequate ordering a "hot chocolate" (which has a measly four syllables, and that's only if you really enunciate the "choc-O-late") so I just walked away.