Digital Bliss: In my last posting (Sunday) I shared that I had just ordered a new iPod 30GB. This afternoon it arrived! Kudos to the good folks at Priority Club. They stated that the thing would arrive in 2-3 weeks, it arrived in 3 days. Wow, what service! So now I am sitting here blogging and jamming to Steve Miller Band on my iPod. So many songs, so little time!

My iPod strategy is to have a dozen really good podcasts that I regularly listen to (only have one I like so far) and have some great playlists. I have been working on the Top 1000 classic rock songs of all time and I think that I will now focus a little harder on completing that collection. Click the link above and there is a link to a spreadsheet that I have created so that you can work on your own collection. I am also going to do the same with the top jazz songs. Started a Top 1000 Country/Western Songs, but couldn't find more than two songs.

But, the beauty of the iPod 30GB is that it can do video. So, I am going to make it my personal project over the coming weeks to get a couple of my favs converted for the iPod Video. The top movies will have to include "The Hunt for the Red October" and probably the Lord of the Rings collection (and Star Wars and Indiana Jones and....)

Stoked!: I have been battling internally for months as to what to get, the new Microsoft Zune or the Apple iPod. Most people who know me know that I am a very loyal MS user of nearly all of their consumer software. In addition to the regular MS Office suite I have Project, Visio, and MapPoint. I use Frontpage for my web site, Excel for my scheduling, and Word for everything. The Zune appears to have a lot of features that the ubiquitous iPod doesn't such as a bigger screen and the ability to share songs wirelessly. So tonight I took the plunge and got an iPod.

What? You just said that the Zune has better features right? Right! But Priority Club just put the iPod on sale and I have enough points to pick up a 30GB iPod (black of course). Now, if they had featured the Zune for the same points I would have certainly made that the selection of the night, but they didn't and I am tired of being this big time geek without an iPod. I have a 1GB MP3 player which doubles as a USB thumb drive, and I have a CD/MP3 player. I even have one built in to my Suburban. But, how great it will be to finally after 5 years get on the bandwagon of iPods. The best part is that it is free, and it will be here by Christmas.

Movie Review - The New World: I catch a lot of crud from my family as to my choice of movies. If I suggest "2001: A Space Odyssey" (won an Academy Award, nominated for a few more) I get moans. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (Won an Academy, nominated for eight more) and they claim mutiny and walk. So when my wise family decided to treat me to "The New World" I decided to let them have their pick. Colin Farrel, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale - how could you go wrong.

Well, they did it. They ruined a potentially good movie. This was by far the worst movie I have ever seen in my life - and I watch a lot of movies. It was simply horrible. The musical score was such a distraction that we collectively groaned every time the orchestra started their songs which sounded more like a tune up before a concert. The script was short, I think that it could have fit on one or two pages. Can we claim it was good on artistic front? Not a chance. Even the cinematography was bad!

But the biggest disappointment was the historical inaccuracies. People should go to jail for writing such drivel.

Massive Streams of Data!: I have been hampered with an inability to download stuff at the office lately and it baffled me. So I rebooted the router and the data is now flowing nicely. I have a current data stream of about 138kbps flowing from my torrents. Incredible.

Ugh, another night of torment. I hate to face the facts, but I stink at code. I messed with trying to get XML to work on the site - failure. Then I messed with MySQL and getting PixelPost up and running - failure. I copied some scripts to the site and called it a night.

CoolPhotoBlogs.com: I found a great new photo blog site, CoolPhotoBlogs.com. This site is a little different than PhotoBlogs.org in that it allows users to be ranked (I just joined so I am ranked rather low). The site is exclusive to a small degree. Once I submitted my site it took several days to be accepted. I am sure that there was a good reason for this, but I couldn't find it. I took a look at several of their "top photoblogs" and there are good reasons why some of them are ranked so high. As I write I am something like 817 of 1760 photoblogs, so I am "average" right now. I am sure that there are some cheats on how to rank higher, but I just want to produce better images and let it stand on merit.

I need a vacation. I have so much that I want to do with my site, with my photography, with my family. I just don't have the time. I was in the state capital this week and the weather was horrible for picture taking. I am traveling to Land Between the Lakes next week and some place in Illinois on the Ohio river, so I am hoping to add a large catalog of pictures to my gallery.

Great Site for Photography: I must take a moment to endorse a cool site called "Photo Friday". The have a weekly contest (on Friday's) and photographers from across the globe submit their pictures. The week has a theme. As I write the theme is "Light" and everyone submits their best photo on that subject. They have a "Link Viewer" tab that allows you to scroll through all of the photos. Today there are some amazing shots. I look through a bunch and feel that I am right up there with them, then a great shot slips in and I am humbled. Take a look, you will love the perspectives.