iTunes is finally coming around

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I have finally either figured out how to convert m4a files within itunes to mp3 or they just added the feature. Either way, it's was the deciding factor on whether I would give into iTunes.

I know can keep my music in the format that works in the car, home, and mp3 player.

I bought my first downloaded CDfrom Christianbooks.com
The CD was from FM Static. I love Christian Rock. 12 stones, Day of Fire, Big Dismal, etc.

Anyway, every file was in WMA format. That was absolutely useless. I should have just bought the CD and ripped it to mp3s myself.

I then had to spend the next four hours trying to find a free wma to mp3 converter. There are free ones, but they are only free until you install them. Then they want money. I love that marketing ploy. I don't care if it's the world's best converter. Don't lie to me.

So I finally give up and use a trial base converter just to get this one cd done. once it's done I will uninstall the program.

So now it's converted. Whew.

for those of you who don't know where to do your mp3 conversion in itunes, try the following:
go to Edit/preferences/advanced/importing and change the "import using" setting to mp3 encoder. now it will rip your cds in mp3 and you can right click on batches of m4a iTunes files and convert them all at once. Damn smart.

Enjoy your tunes and please pay for them!

Christmas - 364 days and counting

Well it never fails.

Everyone feels it for a slight moment. That sadness of no presents under the Christmas tree and the realization that it's all over.

You turn off the Christmas music. Your stomach is about ready to burst because you had to much turkey or lasagna or whatever your family pigs out on. Half the relatives are asleep on the couch and the other half are planning what they will do tomorrow.

Tomorrow is interesting. People will be once again flocking to the stores as early as possible to exchange a gift for something else, or something better or something bigger since they gained 15 lbs. in the past 48 hours.

I really was surprised to get an XBOX 360 for Christmas. As you remember from my earlier blog, my son waited all night for xbox 360 and the person in front of him got the last one. The wierd thing is that the person infront of him didn't have enough money so the manager gave him 10 minutes to go to the bank and didn't let my son buy it. Well the story gets stretched from here on out. I was told that the guy came back with 3 minutes to spare and we didn't get the xbox 360. What really happened was that the guy didn't make it back in time and my son got to buy the last one. Then he watched his old man almost cry when I opened up the present this morning. He got me good.

There is something to say about holding the most saught after gift of the year, knowing that thousands of people want it and have the money to get it, but it's not available.

So back to the fact that it's over. I wonder what next year will bring. Maybe it will be a Furby that speaks spanish. We could use one of those here in California. That would sell better than Dora the Explorer. Or maybe the Playstation 2.5 since we all know that the PS3 won't be ready when they said it will so they will once again redisign the Playstation 2 and call it 2.5.

By the way, the xbox 360 is amazing. it's crystal clear HD images are absolutely amazing. My son and I partnered up and played "Perfect Dark Zero". We played for three solid hours and it felt like 20 minutes. We kept saying, "okay. we will stop here and play more tomorrow", but then we kept starting a new mission.

I miss Christmas already, but I also can't wait to huck my tree out the front door and get back to same old life I had before Holloween.

I will be staying in a cabin in Big Bear for the New Years. I will tell you all about it when I get back.

Please be safe and have a safe and Happy New Year!!!

Happy Seasons Holiday Merry Grettings

WHO DECIDED THAT EVERYONE SHOULD BOYCOTT THE WORD CHRISTMAS?????

I grew up with Merry Christmas. What is wrong with that? Oh yeah, they got rid of the ten commandments on buildings, and they are trying to get rid of "In God We Trust", and they are trying to remove "one nation under god" in the pledge of allegiance, and now they are trying to get rid of the word Christmas.

I have two questions:

1. Who are they? Who are the people that are trying to remove our most precious historical phrases and replace them with generic BS.

2. I know it's because it has a religious meaning, but my second question is this. If you don't believe in god, then why would you care?

My mom is an atheist and yet she refuses to stop saying Merry Christmas. It has been Christmas all her life and all her kids life and that is what it says on the calender.

Target refused to use the word Christmas in their ads, Walmart didn't put one decoration on the outside of their store and didn't use the word Christmas anywhere in the store. Lowes went as far as calling their Christmas trees, Holiday Trees. What the hell is that!

Walgreens also refused to use the word Christmas. Same with Sears/Kmart. Not that I care what those two stores do or say anytime of year. Sears is to expensive for the crap they sell and Kmart just sells crap.

The good news is that the American Family Association has organized people to protest these stores and it worked. Target is using the word Christmas, Walgrees apologized and said they will definitely do things differently next year. Lowes has changed their sign back to Christmas trees and Sears even went all out and printed the words "Merry Christmas" on a white piece of paper and taped it to every door. Wow, Sears! I had you all wrong. You are an upscale store that prints out signs on regular pieces of paper and posts them for the public.

I truly believe that those people, whoever they are, that want to remove God from everything, have a major guilt problem with their life. I believe they just don't want to be reminded that God is there and that we are all being judged by our life styles. They would rather get drunk, gamble, and go to the movies and watch gay cowboy stories (Brokeback Mountain is the name of the movie for all you people who didn't get the dig)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Well, really the chinese don't call January 1st a new year. So how about Happy Janaury 1st.

Of course, the majority of California is Hispanic even though they get minority benefits still, so Happy Uno de Enerjo.

It's all rediculous. Leave it along and stop looking for something to complain about.

Xbox 360 disaster

I started this blog to rant about things that bug me and I never really got into it....until NOW!

Let's talk about the horrible way Microsoft partnered with Best Buy and did the worst product launch in history.

November 22 was a fiasco. I won't even speak about that. I am more concerned with the BS that went on at Best Buys on December 18th (the second major delivery of xbox 360s)

We called Best Buy in South Coast Plasa, Costa Mesa, CA (the heart of orange county). They tell us that people have already began lining up at 12 noon December 17th. They also tell us that they will hand out numbers about an hour before they open on Dec. 18th until all the 360s are accounted for.

So we show up at Best Buy at 7pm on Dec. 17 and no one is in line. Yeah, baby! A dream come true.........NOT!

It seems that South Coast Plaza (the snobs that they are) don't allow people to be on the mall premises after it's closed. So Best Buy gives out the tickets for all the xboxes at 6pm on Dec. 17th and they are now sold out of them. They didn't give the tickets out an hour before opening. They didn't give them out even before they closed at 11pm. They hand them out in the middle of the day, about 12 hours before the Sunday ad comes out telling the whole world to come and buy your xboxes.

So now we call Best Buy in Fullerton, CA and they have about 60 xboxes. Not 60, but about 60. These idiots can't even count. They never ever tell you at any store exactly how many are there. It's always about 60 or about 53. That makes about as much sense as a $273 carpool violation fine. Why not $275 or $270.

Back to my living hell. So, my son and his buddy are going to wait up all night for a chance at one of the "about 60" xboxes. Not me. I would have fallen asleep and woke up sometime after the store had opened and everyone in line went home. I would be lying on the side of the building all by myself.

HERE IS THE BEST PART: My son calls me at 8am and tells me that the guy in front of him gets the last xbox 360 and he goes to pay and doesn't have enough money, SO THE MANAGER LETS HIM LEAVE THE STORE TO GO GET SOME MORE MONEY AND COME BACK AND BUY THE DAMN THING. MY SON IS LIVID. HE HAS THE MONEY AND CAN'T BUY IT.

I read other horror stories at other Best Buys where they opened the doors and let everyone come in before telling them that they were sold out, but the had a great deal on a compaq laptop for $499. If that isn't a bait and switch, I don't know what is.

Best Buy is an amazing store. They just never answer their phones, never are around to help you in the store, and charge you a 30% reshelving cost which is a big rip off.

There is a fine line in making sure the xboxes sold out and not having enough product in the marketplace to make a difference. If they want to take away some of Sony's 70% market share they are going to have to start moving more product fast.

I can't wait to get all my xbox 360 games for Christmas and have nothing to play them on. Thanks Microsoft. Have a Merry Christmas. OOOOPS! Sorry, for all you politically correct scrooges, Happy Holiday or Seasons greeting or whatever other BS thing you have renamed for no reason and tried to cram down our throats. Now, now. I must save that rant for another posting.

It's illegal. No. It's legal, but it's still illegal!

Here I am recovering from 4th of July. My shoulders are burnt from the sun, my son's chin got burned slightly due to a stray hot cherry from a sparkler, my street looks like a war zone.

In lovely Buena Park, CA they outlawed any and all fireworks and that really pissed people off. I thought it was great. This way I didn't have to worry about my house burning down because of some punk kids misusing the fireworks.

then people signed a pettition and the fireworks were allowed again. Friggen lovely. So Now we are back to worrying. I am over a friends house when I see smoke billowing up from a house on the next block. I know this is not a firework. It was pure thick black smoke and it was huge.

I drive over to the next street and thank god there were people already there putting the fire our. A firework landed in the back yard and fire started in a pile of plastic and wood.

So now we put the fire out and we are driving home. I must have seen 400 illegal fireworks shooting up into the air from all streets in all direction. Not just bottle rockets. I mean exploding in many different colors.

Then I get home and there are tons of people I don't know on our street because their town doesn't allow them to set off fireworks. Now people are lighting fireworks and tying them to ballons and letting these burning flames fly over homes.

There must have been 1000 illegal fireworks by our house. Any way you look you saw the sky exploding. It sounded like Iraq.

the noise didn't stop until about midnight. While everyone was asleep a fire was burning in the city of valencia. Right next to Six Flaggs Magic Mountain. I hope all is all right this morning.

To top off the whole miserable night I come to find out Barry White passed away yesterday. May he rest in peace.

See you soon, Barry.