Organizing principle

Tech

Now that my iPod is “like-new” again, I did some playlist maintenance on it. I don’t like manually selecting albums to listen to most of the time. I want it to just serve up, semi-randomly, my favorites, with some oddities mixed in here and there. And, thanks to Apple’s Smart Playlists, that is in fact possible. But only if the music collection is suitably organized.

Smart Playlists can collect songs based on almost anything, and as many different criteria as there are, well, criteria for organizing music. Genre, Artist, words in the title or album, words not in the title or album, my rating of the song, the type of file, the date it was last played, the number of times it’s been played… all that and more.

Since I prefer to listen to full CDs, in the order they were recorded (I. Hate. Shuffle.) first I set up a playlist of all my non-album songs (individual downloads from back in the day before I was so enlightened to only listen to full CDs, mostly).

Then I set up a playlist for all my 2- and 3-star rated songs, and excluded anything that was on the “non-album” playlist.

Then I set up a playlist for all my 4- and 5-star rated songs, with the same exclusion.

Finally I made a smart playlist combining the two above playlists.

Seems like a lot of work? It’s not, really. Took me about 5 minutes (since I’ve already compulsively rated and tagged all my songs — yeah, organization is a bitch, which is why it’s a good habit to have).

At any rate, here are the 5 CDs I’ve listened to so far today:

These are all great albums… and I probably wouldn’t have picked “Sea Change” or “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” on my own, so props to DeadSexy for choosing them…

Breathe (if you can)

Smacky

I’m very sad.

It seems apparent now that I have been having an allergic reaction to Smacky. It may be something else, possibly my new apartment, but since the time between moving in to my new place and getting Smacky was only a few months, it’s hard to tell which may be the cause.

The symptoms have been a persistent nasal drip, congestion in the chest and throat, itchy eyes and throat… all the typical symptoms. The symptoms have been affecting my regular exercise and running. I haven’t been able to run as fast or as far while being unable to breathe. Strange, huh? (Sarcasm alert)

At first I thought it was a cold but it hasn’t gone away, and I notice it far more when I’m at home and particularly around Smacky.

I don’t recall ever having a reaction to cats like I’ve been having, though. I’ve been avoiding thinking about it, because I do not want to have to give Smacky up. But in researching it (thank you, InterWeb!) I’ve discovered that I chose exactly the wrong kind of cat — turns out male, dark-colored, shorthair cats produce the strongest allergic reaction.

Well, that’s not entirely true — unaltered males produce the least amount of allergic reactions. So I’m going to finally get Smacky neutered. He’s not going to like it, but it’s necessary. Even if I give Smacky away, I’m going to get him neutered. Shelters won’t take him otherwise. But hopefully having him altered will decrease my reaction to him to the point where I can keep him.

Other things I’ll look into are changing the cat litter I’m using. I do notice a strong reaction around his litterbox. I’ll see if I can find another type.

The worst part is, I now need to clean my apartment waaaaaaaaaaay more often than I’m used to! That sucks. But I suppose it’s a benefit, too. Bleah.

Other online suggestions I’ve found are replacing carpets with wooden flooring and using air filters. I’ll think about getting a filter for the bedroom. I have started keeping Smacky out of the bedroom, which is also sad.

I have been bathing him regularly but I understand there are specific shampoos for reducing the amount of allergens cats produce; I’ll try one of those, too.

If anyone has any tips, post ’em on this comment.

Why I write (or not)

fear, General

I should be writing.

OK, I am writing, I’m writing in my blog, but what I mean is that I should be writing, working on the two or three or whatever novels that are sitting, fallow in my brain. I can picture them in there, hard-bound books with no dust jacket, the words existing in some kind of indeterminate state, waiting to become actual. They’re laying in plain sight, on a shelf right where my mental homunculus paces back and forth in the mental library where he spends most of his time.

No pressure, they seem to say (since, even though they’re mental images of future goals, they aren’t bound to the same rules as actual books), no hurry, just write us when you’ve got the energy and time… say, you’re aren’t doing anything right now, are you? Maybe you could just spin out a chapter or two…? No? Maybe work on the outline a bit, flesh us out? No? Well, we’ll just wait here, then while you finish whatever it is you are working on. Yes, it’s certainly been a long day, hasn’t it? Long year, more like. We can see that you’re tired. Just go rest a bit, and we’ll wait here… still waiting…

Yeah, my mental images of my goals are really good with the guilt. They probably learned that from my mother. Heh.

Resolutions for 2005

General

Resolutions for 2005:

  1. Learn a musical instrument (carried over from last year)
  2. Write two novels *
  3. Pay off my credit cards and loan, then never carry a balance from month to month.
  4. Save no less than $2600.00
  5. I don’t think I’m ready for a marathon, but I will attempt a half-marathon this year.

* I decided, after talking it over with my friends, that if I make a resolution to write a novel, I might put it off all year and then end up with not enough time to finish it. On the other hand, if I determine to write two novels, I’ll have to get cracking in order to get them both done… clever, yes?

DeadSexy update update update

Tech

I finally got the correct battery for my iPod, and replaced it. It wasn’t trivial, but it wasn’t too difficult, either. Hard part was lining up the tiny connector for the hard drive, and figuring out what to do with the extra wire on the replacement battery. The original battery has just enough wire to reach the connector; the replacement has about three times that length. It’s all good, though.

Today I did a full-on test… although not the test that Apple recommends. I did a test of the way I use the thing — long playlist, cycling through my favorite CDs on shuffle.

Even then, it managed nearly 8 hours — 7 hours 52 minutes 13.08 seconds, to be exact. Yay!

See? I was right and the Apple Store “Genius” was wrong. The battery was depleted.

Now it’s DeadSexy again.

Group hug

General

Group hug is a site for confession. Anonymous confessions about things people think, or do, and regret.

Makes for fascinating reading.

Money thoughts

General

End of year stuff. Been working on my financial fitness…

I have two credit cards and one loan (the loan for my iBook — yeah, it’s still not paid off). I compared the balances on each of them from the start of the year to now, and I found that my total indebtedness actually increased by $0.50. Depressing, huh? In other words, I managed to essentially pay off only the interest for the year.

What’s a little more interesting is the amount of cash that flowed through each account, because I’d pay them down a bit, then I’d use them back up to the limit, then down again. I made $3840.95 worth of payments against the three accounts! Wow. That’s a lot of money. Since the in-flow was almost exactly the out-go, it’s apparent that I didn’t actually need to use my credit cards and loans and cash advances…

And when you look at what the money cost me, in terms of interest, overlimit fees, draw fees, etc., those total up to $963.83. So I managed to turn $3840.95 into $2877.12 worth of goods and services. Obviously not a wise decision, since it’s apparent that (since the payments were made) I had the money to use, and therefore didn’t have to incur the extra fees associated with the cards and loan.

That’s not even looking at the actual purchases I made. I’m not going there. For the most part those purchases were two trips I made during the year, and the occassional cash advance.

(What’s even scarier is when I add in all the ATM fees, overdraft fees, and associated charges in my checking account. Those are also things that I could avoid paying entirely, simply with better planning. Including the above $963.83, that brings the total “fees I could avoid” up to $1586.87. Yeah, I bounce checks quite a bit… owie.)

So, for next year, this is my goal: I’m going to pay them all off. I’ve got the money to do it, and once they’re paid off completely I can still get the benefit of using them (for instance, the miles on my Alaska Airlines Visa for purchases) without incurring the penalties (interest and etc.)

I’ve got a plan and I’m going to stick with it. I should have them paid off by summer. I think I can also stick some money in savings. I’m expecting a modest tax refund this year, maybe $600 dollars between the Feds and Oregon. Well, at least $500 from Feds, I can’t estimate the state refund yet. That will help quite a bit.

My end of 2005 goal is: no outstanding debt and at least one month’s salary in savings. To that end, my Christmas gift to myself was an actual savings account, which currently holds the princely sum of $300.

Grow, little savings account… grooooooooooow…

In-between two slices of bread

General

I wasn’t feeling very adventurous for lunch today. Just thought I’d get a sandwich, no big deal.

Went down to Big Town Hero, a local chain. On the way there, I rolled around the different sandwiches I’ve had there, trying them out mentally to see which one sounded good. With the holidays almost past, I thought that their “Very Berry” turkey might hit the spot. Cranberry sauce and turkey. Only thing missing would be some dressing…

So I went, and ordered my sandwich… and after I’d put in the order, I saw a little standee on the counter announcing their “Panini” grilled sandwiches. Including a grilled Reuben… damn. Pastrami, swiss cheese, sauerkraut… Mmmmmm (am I supposed to capitalize the “s” in “swiss cheese?) I came –> <– this close to changing my order.

Anyone have any experience with the BTH grilled sandwiches?

And what’s up with all the sub shops playing catch-up with Quiznos, anyway? Do they all have to offer toasted/grilled/heated-up-in-some-way sandwiches now? Is that what the sandwich-buying public is demanding nowadays?

Nearest book meme

General

My friend Jake posted this a while back (I’m just now getting to it since he only told me where his blog was last night):

  1. Grab the nearest book.
  2. Open the book to page 123.
  3. Find the fifth sentence.
  4. Post the text of the sentence in your own bulletin…along with these instructions.
  5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

So… here’s what I found:

My new mantra.

Yeah, that’s it. That’s the fifth sentence on the 123rd page of the book I’m currently reading, which is “Radiant Cool” by Dan Lloyd. It’s a murder mystery and an introduction to a theory of consciousness.