1) Because I'm cheap. Just wanted to get that out of the way right in the beginning.
2) Because as a single person, I tend to think of weddings as funerals because they actually have a lot in common. Your whole family is there. Your friends come. People cry. There's food. More often than not its at a church. And most importantly, when you are single, you'll never see those people again until you are on the other side.
3)Wedding presents are for married people to give to newlyweds to welcome them to the neighborhood of married couples. They're always excited to get some new blood in to teach that high school aged Sunday School class and inform them of what kids are up to these days. Always looking for potential new couples to invite over for shared dinners and whatever else married couples do for fun.
For a single person, its really a going away party. You don't give presents at a going away party, generally, at least I don't. You wish them luck and promise to stay in touch, although that doesn't happen too often. Honestly, people getting married ought to give presents to their still single friends. First, as a consolation prize for still being single, but secondly, which of us single folks couldn't use some new dishes or a new set of towels. I could use a crockpot just as much as a newly married couple could. I thought the point of getting married was so that one of you could cook for the both of you. I don't have anyone at home fixing me dinner for when I get home.
So if you didn't get something from me, don't worry. Its nothing personal.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
A glimpse into my private madness
Just thought I'd share a little story about me and my love for organizing my iTunes music library. The whole time that I've been an iTunes user (coming up on 2 years now) I had issues with the way that iTunes handles multiple artists on the same song. For example, "Over and Over Again" by Tim McGraw and Nelly. iTunes only allows you one line for Artist, so do you put "Nelly & Tim McGraw", "Tim McGraw & Nelly", "Nelly ft. Tim McGraw", etc.? Lots of hip-hop music lately consists of a main artist with at least one guest artist taking a verse, so its been an issue I've faced many a time. I even sent an email to iTunes asking for multiple artist fields for each song, although I can see how that would open a whole different can of worms. Multiple genre assignments is another change I could see being useful.
Anyway, all this time, I've been putting Artist information as "Artist A ft. Artist B", and I've noticed that a lot of places (GraceNote, iTunes Music Store) were handling the "ft. Artist B" part in the Title of the Song, which really is not something that sat well with me. I mean, its not part of the name of the song. Its information about the Artist, right?
Well, even though its not right, I recently decided to give this alternate classification system a shot for a couple reasons. #1: All the different A ft. B's were taking up a lot of space in my list of Artist in my iPod. #2: Having A ft. B as the Artist meant that if you wanted to look for a specific artist just by their name, you could find them, but then when you want to their albums some tracks would be missing, because they were classified under A ft. B, rather than just A. (Anyone lost yet?) #3: The iPod display scrolls the Title information through the entire Title, but not through the entire Artist information. Thus, if you put the ft. B part in the Title, you can still see it scroll by eventually as you look at the iPod display. If you put the ft. B part in the Artist, all you ever see is "Artist A ft. .... " when the full Artist information is too long to fit on the screen all at once.
The main drawback that stands out to me (other than the obvious semantic blasphemy of putting Artist information in a Title field) is that now the featured Artist's names don't show up at all in the Artist field for those songs, which might make it harder to find a specific duet, and also makes creating Smart Playlists for specific artists a little clunkier, but still doable.
Anyway, I'm pleased to report that this new system has been a smashing success for me. I feel like my library is more concise and that its easier than ever to find what I want. Despite the drawbacks listed above, and having to deal with compromising the semantic integrity of my library, I've been very pleased with the way its turned out.
And anyone who is still reading at this point must be really bored or really nerdy.
Anyway, all this time, I've been putting Artist information as "Artist A ft. Artist B", and I've noticed that a lot of places (GraceNote, iTunes Music Store) were handling the "ft. Artist B" part in the Title of the Song, which really is not something that sat well with me. I mean, its not part of the name of the song. Its information about the Artist, right?
Well, even though its not right, I recently decided to give this alternate classification system a shot for a couple reasons. #1: All the different A ft. B's were taking up a lot of space in my list of Artist in my iPod. #2: Having A ft. B as the Artist meant that if you wanted to look for a specific artist just by their name, you could find them, but then when you want to their albums some tracks would be missing, because they were classified under A ft. B, rather than just A. (Anyone lost yet?) #3: The iPod display scrolls the Title information through the entire Title, but not through the entire Artist information. Thus, if you put the ft. B part in the Title, you can still see it scroll by eventually as you look at the iPod display. If you put the ft. B part in the Artist, all you ever see is "Artist A ft. .... " when the full Artist information is too long to fit on the screen all at once.
The main drawback that stands out to me (other than the obvious semantic blasphemy of putting Artist information in a Title field) is that now the featured Artist's names don't show up at all in the Artist field for those songs, which might make it harder to find a specific duet, and also makes creating Smart Playlists for specific artists a little clunkier, but still doable.
Anyway, I'm pleased to report that this new system has been a smashing success for me. I feel like my library is more concise and that its easier than ever to find what I want. Despite the drawbacks listed above, and having to deal with compromising the semantic integrity of my library, I've been very pleased with the way its turned out.
And anyone who is still reading at this point must be really bored or really nerdy.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
39 Things About Me
1. I'm bad at starting new habits.
2. I find that I am fascinated by bizarre things like place value and number systems.
3. I am a staunch supporter of Utah athletics.
4. If I'm not careful I can spend a very long amount of time on the internet.
5. I'm think that generally I am a lazy person.
6. Because I am generally lazy, I have come to appreciate those things in my life that inspire me to not be lazy, like church, being in school, and girls.
7. Either I am great at being in Elder's Quorum Presidencies or I really need to learn something from being in them, since I've been in 4 different ones in the last 4 years, in 3 different wards.
8. I was born in New Orleans, but moved when I was 3, so I really feel no attachment even in the wake of Katrina. Other than wondering if I'll ever be able to see where I was born.
9. One summer I was in charge of feeding fruit flies and collecting their larvae.
10. My first job was at McDonalds. I worked there for 2 years, and was friends with people who I never would have met otherwise. This item deserves its own blog entry.
11. I once spent the morning in a mosh pit and the evening at a musical.
12. I consider myself a frozen pizza connoisseur.
13. I am never sure how many kids to say there are in my family. I have a brother that died, and I sometimes feel like its not right to not count him. But I don't really want to have that conversation with just anyone who asks how many people are in my family.
14. I cheer for the Minnesota Vikings football team, because at the time I decided to choose a team to root for I really liked purple.
15. From 1st grade to 4th grade I ate the same lunch every day. Peanut butter and honey sandwich with chocolate milk.
16. I enjoy being in plays, but really can't sing, so I always was relegated to bit parts in the musicals I was in, except when I was Tevye in 7th grade. I don't know whose great idea that was. Maybe because they needed someone tall. They make do with what they can find in middle school.
17. I currently own 3 iPods.
18. and 3 computers.
19. I won a state championship in football playing Left Tackle on the Offensive Line.
20. I own every DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince/Will Smith album.
21. My mom lied about my age to get me into a reading contest as a child, because I wasn't old enough. I won. I'm pretty sure I still have the plaque.
22. There were approximately 100 people in my graduating class.
23. I have strong libertarian leanings, except for the stuff about legalizing drugs. And I wonder if that means I shouldn't let the government pay for my schooling. Not sure where they stand on that one.
24. Growing up we had a baby-sitter who taught us how to play Dungeons & Dragons and even left us his 20-sided, 12-sided, 8-sided, and 4-sided dies. And also helped us learn words like charisma, hit points, and cleric.
25. I competed twice at the state geography bee, each time losing in the opening round.
26. I once grew a goatee long enough that I could put the end of it in my mouth.
27. I speak fluent Argentine.
28. I've never gotten a speeding ticket, although I have been pulled over a few times for speeding. I never try to talk my way out of it, I think I just get pulled over by cops who are bored, but then think better of ticketing me for going 10 over.
29. I drove a 1987 Toyota Minivan until I was nearly 24.
30. I get creeped out by most insects.
31. My iTunes music library is in pretty great shape. Being passionate about music and passionate about organizing/classifying things, iTunes is pretty much a perfect storm of things I'm passionate about.
32. I've never had stitches, unless you count the ones that I had when I got my wisdom teeth out that dissolve on their own.
33. I've never had a broken bone.
34. I did, however, dislocate my pinky finger once.
35. I once was a box of french fries for Halloween.
36. I've had 24 roommates in my time in Salt Lake, practically all older than myself, and as far as I know only 6 of them are married and only 2 of them have gotten engaged while living with me.
37. During my middle school years, a friend and I kept track of all the games in our basketball league and awarded post-season honors for MVP, first-, second-, and maybe even third-teams and Rookie of the Year. I can't remember if we had a Coach of the Year, but I'm pretty sure we didn't have a comeback player of the year or an all-defensive team.
38. Growing up there was a channel on our TV we called channel U. Only years later did I realize that this was the UHF setting for the top knob and the knob down below was set to channel 20, I think. We just assumed it was called Channel U.
39. The bedroom I grew up in now has a space heater in it, now that its the guest bedroom at my parents' house. Apparently its too cold in there. Maybe thats why I like to sleep with the window open in the winter. And why I start to sweat when the temperature hits 72.
2. I find that I am fascinated by bizarre things like place value and number systems.
3. I am a staunch supporter of Utah athletics.
4. If I'm not careful I can spend a very long amount of time on the internet.
5. I'm think that generally I am a lazy person.
6. Because I am generally lazy, I have come to appreciate those things in my life that inspire me to not be lazy, like church, being in school, and girls.
7. Either I am great at being in Elder's Quorum Presidencies or I really need to learn something from being in them, since I've been in 4 different ones in the last 4 years, in 3 different wards.
8. I was born in New Orleans, but moved when I was 3, so I really feel no attachment even in the wake of Katrina. Other than wondering if I'll ever be able to see where I was born.
9. One summer I was in charge of feeding fruit flies and collecting their larvae.
10. My first job was at McDonalds. I worked there for 2 years, and was friends with people who I never would have met otherwise. This item deserves its own blog entry.
11. I once spent the morning in a mosh pit and the evening at a musical.
12. I consider myself a frozen pizza connoisseur.
13. I am never sure how many kids to say there are in my family. I have a brother that died, and I sometimes feel like its not right to not count him. But I don't really want to have that conversation with just anyone who asks how many people are in my family.
14. I cheer for the Minnesota Vikings football team, because at the time I decided to choose a team to root for I really liked purple.
15. From 1st grade to 4th grade I ate the same lunch every day. Peanut butter and honey sandwich with chocolate milk.
16. I enjoy being in plays, but really can't sing, so I always was relegated to bit parts in the musicals I was in, except when I was Tevye in 7th grade. I don't know whose great idea that was. Maybe because they needed someone tall. They make do with what they can find in middle school.
17. I currently own 3 iPods.
18. and 3 computers.
19. I won a state championship in football playing Left Tackle on the Offensive Line.
20. I own every DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince/Will Smith album.
21. My mom lied about my age to get me into a reading contest as a child, because I wasn't old enough. I won. I'm pretty sure I still have the plaque.
22. There were approximately 100 people in my graduating class.
23. I have strong libertarian leanings, except for the stuff about legalizing drugs. And I wonder if that means I shouldn't let the government pay for my schooling. Not sure where they stand on that one.
24. Growing up we had a baby-sitter who taught us how to play Dungeons & Dragons and even left us his 20-sided, 12-sided, 8-sided, and 4-sided dies. And also helped us learn words like charisma, hit points, and cleric.
25. I competed twice at the state geography bee, each time losing in the opening round.
26. I once grew a goatee long enough that I could put the end of it in my mouth.
27. I speak fluent Argentine.
28. I've never gotten a speeding ticket, although I have been pulled over a few times for speeding. I never try to talk my way out of it, I think I just get pulled over by cops who are bored, but then think better of ticketing me for going 10 over.
29. I drove a 1987 Toyota Minivan until I was nearly 24.
30. I get creeped out by most insects.
31. My iTunes music library is in pretty great shape. Being passionate about music and passionate about organizing/classifying things, iTunes is pretty much a perfect storm of things I'm passionate about.
32. I've never had stitches, unless you count the ones that I had when I got my wisdom teeth out that dissolve on their own.
33. I've never had a broken bone.
34. I did, however, dislocate my pinky finger once.
35. I once was a box of french fries for Halloween.
36. I've had 24 roommates in my time in Salt Lake, practically all older than myself, and as far as I know only 6 of them are married and only 2 of them have gotten engaged while living with me.
37. During my middle school years, a friend and I kept track of all the games in our basketball league and awarded post-season honors for MVP, first-, second-, and maybe even third-teams and Rookie of the Year. I can't remember if we had a Coach of the Year, but I'm pretty sure we didn't have a comeback player of the year or an all-defensive team.
38. Growing up there was a channel on our TV we called channel U. Only years later did I realize that this was the UHF setting for the top knob and the knob down below was set to channel 20, I think. We just assumed it was called Channel U.
39. The bedroom I grew up in now has a space heater in it, now that its the guest bedroom at my parents' house. Apparently its too cold in there. Maybe thats why I like to sleep with the window open in the winter. And why I start to sweat when the temperature hits 72.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Wish I had more to say on the matter...
First off, not sure how Google image search works, but apparently as of October my blog has climbed way up the ladder in terms of image search results, as my number of daily views has approximately doubled (were not talking huge numbers, so doubling wasn't that hard to do) since the beginning of the month, with nearly all of the new visits coming from referrals from Google images.
Secondly, those of you who aren't here just to look for bugs bunny images are probably wondering what's the deal with the possibility of me upgrading the threat level from yellow to orange. Sadly, I'm in the same boat with all of you. I'm at that stage of wondering what's going on. We've been on 3 dates, and as far as I can tell she's had a good time, but its just the little things that make me think that she's not really interested in more than just going on dates right now. And I'm wondering if I should say something, or just wait and see what happens. There's pretty much only one night this week that I could even go on a date, but I'm not exactly jumping at the chance to take her out again right now, since I don't feel like our last date contributed anything to me figuring out what's going on.
Granted, as I write that, I'm thinking, "Well, maybe you should go on a date just to go on a date, and it doesn't have to be a step toward figuring out what's going on." And that's probably true. But if that's the case, then maybe I should find someone else to take out this week, unless something happens here in the next few days to make me think that she'd actually want me to ask her out this week. So for now, we're leaving the threat meter at yellow. No need to start barricading your homes with duct tape and plastic for the time being. In the event that there is a change in status, you will be notified via this same channel.
P.S. What kind of built-in blog spelling dictionary doesn't include the words blog and Google (isn't Blogger owned by Google?)? Talk about ironic.
Secondly, those of you who aren't here just to look for bugs bunny images are probably wondering what's the deal with the possibility of me upgrading the threat level from yellow to orange. Sadly, I'm in the same boat with all of you. I'm at that stage of wondering what's going on. We've been on 3 dates, and as far as I can tell she's had a good time, but its just the little things that make me think that she's not really interested in more than just going on dates right now. And I'm wondering if I should say something, or just wait and see what happens. There's pretty much only one night this week that I could even go on a date, but I'm not exactly jumping at the chance to take her out again right now, since I don't feel like our last date contributed anything to me figuring out what's going on.
Granted, as I write that, I'm thinking, "Well, maybe you should go on a date just to go on a date, and it doesn't have to be a step toward figuring out what's going on." And that's probably true. But if that's the case, then maybe I should find someone else to take out this week, unless something happens here in the next few days to make me think that she'd actually want me to ask her out this week. So for now, we're leaving the threat meter at yellow. No need to start barricading your homes with duct tape and plastic for the time being. In the event that there is a change in status, you will be notified via this same channel.
P.S. What kind of built-in blog spelling dictionary doesn't include the words blog and Google (isn't Blogger owned by Google?)? Talk about ironic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)