andrew dodson

We made it home safely (thanks to Rick and Jeremy’s good driving).

The crowd that didn’t go skiing today went shopping in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. This was my purchase for the day:

The little numbers on the face aren’t there all the time. You can choose several different settings, but they all have “Matrix” effect. I’ve never owned a watch this nice (or this funky) before. It has an 11-year warranty, so I’m not worried about breaking it. I’m worried about losing it…

How about this? Our hotel has a wireless network installed.

Our plans for today: some people are going skiing, some people are just hanging out in Gatlinburg today. I’ll be a part of the “hanging out” crowd. We’ll grab dinner at some point tonight and head back home. See you in Frankfort!

Ok, I admit it. I’m addicted to the MP3 player shuffle craze. “Shuffling” (as it sounds) is when your MP3 player randomly cycles through a selected playlist, or your entire collection.

A couple of weeks ago, I created a “CLS” playlist on my Creative Zen. It’s named “CLS” because it includes music that I’ve deemed “work safe.” Don’t get me wrong - it’s not like I listen to inappropriate music. However, some of my musical tastes can be classified as “weird” by a great majority.

In response, I created the CLS playlist that includes more of the upbeat, enjoyable portion of my music collection. I think it’s worked great so far. I’ve noticed several customers humming along to a recognizable tune, or even commenting on the music in the past couple of weeks. Not only that, but I’ve enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s like having your own personal radio station that plays nothing but music you enjoy.

This has led to spending more time “MP3-ing” some of the more popular music in my CD collection. Tonight, I dug up a collection of CDs from my days at Georgetown College. They are CDs I put together during the Napster craze. The days when a college student’s daily routine included at least two hours of browsing Napster and illegally downloading all of their favorite songs (I’m not joking about this - it was nuts). This led to the buying of my first CD burner. I went through a spindle of 50 CDs the first month I owned the burner. But, I digress….

Artists that are back in the rotation include Nine Days, Default, Evan & Jaron, Fastball, Shawn Mullins, Duncan Sheik, Silverchair, the Matthew Good Band, Jimmy Eat World and more.

I’ll be heading down to Gatlinburg this weekend. Be on the lookout for audio posts from my cell phone.

From the August 15th entry of Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost For His Highest:

To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning.

The challenge: put to use my supernatural powers.

I traveled to Lexington this afternoon and my Creative Zen Xtra is back in my possession. This is a good thing.

I stumbled across a “hack” driver for my Creative MP3 players that will make them work on my Mac. I’ve given the driver a try, and it seems to work like a charm. I’m able to transfer files between my MP3 players and Mac with no problems. I might be selling my PC after all…

I’ve given up on trying to make the iPod work. It’s too much of a hassle. I’m meeting up with the original owner sometime tomorrow to get my Creative Zen back.

In a strange twist…

I plugged my Creative MuVoTX FM (my 256MB MP3 player - what I take to the gym with me) into my iBook tonight. I was just taking a stab in the dark, not expecting the iBook to recognize it. To my surprise, it mounted in OSX as an external drive. Fully readable and writeable. How about that?

I kind of thought this would be a neat idea. Here’s the rules: I’m going to post my regular, daily routine. After you’ve read about a typical day in my world, post a comment with your daily routine.

7:00am - wake-up, shower and eat breakfast
8:00am - arrive at CLS, begin daily meeting
8:30-11:30ish - sit in front of an Apple iMac G4 creating art work for t-shirts in Adobe Illustrator CS. Answer phone calls, wait on customers, and write-up new orders in File Maker

Proverbs 6

6:1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
2 if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
3 then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
4 Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,
points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil,
continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24 to preserve you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26 for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,
but a married woman hunts down a precious life.
27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
31 but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
he will give all the goods of his house.
32 He who commits adultery lacks sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy makes a man furious,
and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
35 He will accept no compensation;
he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

.
11:30ish-12:00ish - lunch
12:30ish-5:00 - create more art work, answer more phone calls, wait on more customers
5:00 - leave work
5:15ish-6:00 - normally spent eating dinner and watching The Simpsons on Fox 56.
6:00-8:30ish - boot up one or both of my computers and begin working on websites, recordings, checking email, or surfing the web. I normally have iTunes playing through my MP3 collection or I’ve got the TV on in the background watching Seinfeld, Friends, evening news, etc.
8:30ish-9:30ish - my usual gym time, if I happen to feel like going.
9:30ish-11:00 - resume computer activities, practice drums, make phone calls, play PlayStation

in a perfect world…..

11:00 - get ready for bed, read my Bible, etc.

what usually happens….

somehow, I ‘lose track of time’ and before I know it, it’s 12:30 or 1:00am and I’ve stayed up way too late…again.

anywhere between 11:00 and 1:00 - go to bed

Hmm… it turns out, I’m having the same problems with the iPod as the person I got it from. It lets me load around 300 songs and then freezes. It won’t let me add any more. Supposedly, this is an extremely regular problem with iPods. I’m quite surprised that Apple has yet to release a “fix” to take care of this problem. I’m going to fiddle around with it for a few more days. If I’m still not having any luck by the weekend, I’m meeting up with the former owner and getting my Creative Zen Xtra back. Anyone out there know how to fix this?

2 down, 1 to go…..maybe.

While searching for iPods on eBay tonight, I came across one being sold in Lexington. It’s a 3rd generation 20GB. As it turns out, he’s a PC-user who can’t get the iPod to work on his computer. I emailed him offering a trade - my PC-friendly MP3 player for his Mac-friendly iPod. The result? He ended the auction on the iPod, emailed me back and let me know he’s interested. I’ve emailed him back. If all goes to plan, I’ll own an iPod in the very near future.