Ah, another day. and six more days until the arrival of what everyone considers the best mp3 player on the market, the iPod. I admit that I have been beating this one around so much; in fact, it is said that within three months time, I will find it obsolete. To clear that up, I can get a firewire hard drive and a mp3 player in one with this deal. Both items will have life in themselves, and they will sure as hell last more than three months. I believe they'll last as long as firewire does.

Interestingly, Mikey inquires on how mp3 players work. This in turn makes me inquire if he has one, or plans on getting one in the near future. In any case, my Mac-knowledge-fueled assumption is that you turn it on, and you set it up to play according to your taste at the time. Of course, you organize your playlists with the program that transfers the music to your player first. Then you transfer your music to the player, and it works from there. The only question is how to get the music from the player to your computer if necessary. On my front, I've been visiting this site, learning all that others go through. I have come to these conclusions:
1. Download a program that transfers music from iPod to Mac.
2. MusicMatch Jukebox + iTuner = great music encoding combination
3. 10GB and better is the way to go.
I kinda find it funny that I might spend $400 for a firewire drive that only holds less than 10GB of music, when I can spend $300 for a 20GB USB hard drive that serves the same purpose. But when I think about that 'ole & slo' Zip 650 CD burner and the fact that I haven't used my firewire ports since I bought my iMac DV+, I think $400 is well worth it.

Ah yes, before I forget to mention it, my semi-new firewire burner just came on Wednesday, and it freakin rules!! I've burned 3 CD's (one mp3, two regular audio) since it's arrival, and it was fast (14 minutes for all three CDs to burn, that's fast for me!) I remember it would take 37 minutes to burn one CD! Those were dem dayz, days that will not be missed!! QPS makes some noisy and loud, yet fast and sleek, drives! Long live eBay!!!
And what a way to complement my new burner than with some new CD labels! TDK has some glossy ones, 20 for $10.99 at J & R, which I thought was a pretty decent deal; so decent, I bought two. Making CDs isn't the problem anymore, it's creating cool labels on Photoshop which is the hard part.

Speaking of Photoshop, my experimenting with 6.0 has increased my knowledge and expertise a little bit, and just enough to pass on to some MEDIA 180 students in the ICS room. Though ICS lacks Eye Candy plugins, I was still able to help create some new advertisements based on the current ones available. For example, this lady walks in the Mac section of the ICS room, and notices that I'm sitting at the Mac with the scanner. Automatically thinking I work there (I call it the ScannerCurse, because everytime I sit in that spot, I automatically "assume" the duties of someone who works in the ICS Mac Labs), she asks me for help in scanning an ad of JLo's new perfume "Body." I performed the task thinking it that would've been it; but no, now she needs help rearranging the picture and creating a brand new ad. I jokingly say, "well, there should be some fine print that says 'great body sold separately'!" Thinking of it as a pitch, the woman starts typing "If you want my body, buy my 'Body'," with the fine print stating "extensive diet plan and Ben Affleck not included." Now that's advertising...

Okay, in response to Mikey's $30 and less gift ideas, all I can say is, it depends on who you are getting it for. Aside from the GAP turtlenecks, CD's, video games, and other tops that one can acquire for less than $30, there really isn't much left. Unless you are talking about Crate & Barrel for Christmas shopping, which isnt so bad, that's another story. Perhaps at C & B, you can buy mugs and holiday dinnerware for your parents or something. Maybe a nice little Christmas ornament, but that's as far as my imagination wants to take me right now. Perhaps I'll stop buy when I'm not working and give you some more ideas.
Until then...

...we are at 20 days until Christmas, 14 days until the big 2-1, 8 days until Nemesis & the last day of class, and only 6 days until the iPod! Happy December!