wooooo it's been about a month.

within about the last month and a half lauren, alayna and i haven't posted on our blogs. lauren didn't wanna post when she was away from school with seemingly nothing good to bother with, and alayna didn't think anybody was really reading it. me, i was just too lazy to post i guess. what we really should do is pair our blogs with an rss feed to let everybody know that we've posted something new. looks like hoang basically quit his old blog, but he's apparently got a new one going.

in the process of throwing down close to $700 goddamn bucks for a new distributor/ignition for my integra. i figured a 52k mileage car wouldn't need a new distributor, but i guess since i don't really have to do that much maintenance to it overall i've been in pretty good shape. although it is sorta curious that in the 2 years alayna and i have been dating my car's been in the shop for repairs (radiator, tires, distributor...) more than her '90 buick, heh. i was in the mood to throw a bit more money around on random techy shit but after having to spend on the car i don't entirely feel in the mood. at least i get paid this friday... although rent's also due this week, so that's not gonna feel like the biggest gain.

work continues to just be completely off & on regarding workload. i still have way too much time to keep up with websites and just sit and surf. sure it's nice to sorta get paid to surf part of your day, but the bottom line is the day's a lot more fun when at some point you look down at your watch and say "whoa shit, it's [x] o'clock already?" now and then it'll happen, but not often enough yet. i think i'm gonna see how things go till the end of the year and then if things haven't really picked up i might try to put in for something else in my dad's organization. i've been working for close to 3 months, and i still can't really say i like my job. i mean i think it's secure and i'm lucky to have it but it's pretty easy to say 2 or 3 days out of every week i just don't really wanna be there. i've made a few friends up there that make things much better, but i learned a while back that you can't depend on good work friends to make your job worthwhile, people are just too busy to keep you entertained 100% of the time. in 3 months i haven't really formed too many significant bonds with other people, but admittedly i haven't exactly been laying it out there on the line. i dunno, like i said, i'll really just hafta see how it goes. i've been so used to leaving a job after just 3 months (co-op), it'll be interested to actually keep going here into september (something i haven't done since 1999).

i decided i needed a better dvd player for my bedroom, something that could play dvd-r and rw's, since i burn those a lot now. sure you can get dvd players that'll do that for a good $70 or so these days, but i figured since ps2's can play those and are only $150 now, hey why not? so after a few days of searching locally i was able to snatch one up, and ordered a modchip the following day. so i've got a load of burned games just waiting for the modchip to come in for installation. sure, i didn't need a more games to *not* get around to playing, but i liked the idea of a gaming system in the bedroom, something to sorta motivate me to at least get in bed earlier. so for now i'm stuck with my $9 used copy of gran turismo 3 until the chip comes in. oh well, GT's still a great series.

lately i've been on pikmin (yes, pikmin 2 just came out...) and mario golf for the cube, which are both relatively easy but nice laid back type games. i've also been onto halo for the pc, haven't really played too much doom 3... kinda too hardcore for my current "gaming mood" heh. so yeah everything i'm playing has been out for a few years, but i don't really care.

let's see... finished up big brother 4 australia, which was terrific. been watching [rewatching] episodes of the office and a few season 1 eps of reno 911!, as well as watching futurama, family guy and coupling episodes for the first time. still got a couple episodes of samurai champloo that i keep meaning to knock out, and i add seasons of chobits and full metal panic! to my inventory. still plenty of other tv to go back and watch...

still not sure what to do regarding several possible purchases... i might go ahead and buy a joggable mp3 player to help motivate me to run a bit more often, and presumably have more fun when doing so. that model's got an expandable SD/MMC slot so i like the fact that i could take a memory card usually used for my pda and use it for extra music. as far as my "main" portable music player... damn, i really don't know what to do there. i've got several options, but none of them really seem perfect for me... the leading candidates...

-- the ultra-trendy ipod... i consider these sex-on-a-stick type design, but the battery life is what kills me about 'em. i've already tried a 20gb portable format with my old first generation creative nomad, and i've discovered it's just too much music to have on you at one time, it's fun to have so much at your disposal, but you just don't need it, nor is there a situation (that i've come across) where you need your entire music collection away from home for long enough to enjoy most of it. so i wouldn't even consider the 40gb model really... i like the ipod mini for its size, but it's not economical at all really.

-- sony's new network walkman... man it sure is fuckin sexy, but it's that native ATRAC3plus format that just makes me (and thousands of other fanboys) cry. basically it can play mp3's, but it has to convert everything to ATRAC3plus format to play, which is sony's proprietary format, not all that widely accepted. the battery life is triple what the ipod's is, which rocks, but that format and the $400 price tag is what would hold me back.

--sony's high-end HiMD player... also fuckin sexy with terrific battery life... but the HiMD format's an even bigger risk than ATRAC3plus encoded files. sure you can store 8 hours of quality music on 1 disc, but the biggest drawback to me is sony's complete lack of support for automobile HiMD solutions so far. i think it'd be great if you could just unload the HiMD out of your portable and play it in your car, sorta like a CD, but with more space and durability. looks like that was just wishful thinking on my part, cuz nobody has heard *anything* about HiMD car decks.

--rio's new limited edition carbon... kind of an ipod-wannabe with better battery life and no cult following. this just came out, so nobody knows too much about 'em, but they look promising. small hard drive, but like i said before, 20gb is just too damn much, 5gb could be okay.

i'm basically using my iPaq right now for portable music/video, which isn't very often, just been a few plane rides so far. i still feel like i need/want a good portable music solution, and i'm not completely sure using the pda for it is the best solution. it has ~okay~ storage using SD cards, but using such a high end unit just for mp3 playback is... kinda dumb in some ways. what i'd really like is the sony network walkman's sexy chassis with an LCD remote and pure mp3 playback with about 20 hours of battery life. i'm looking into an upgraded audio system in the car and i'm finding more and more that mp3 has NOT advance into the automobile like it has into portable settings. the phatnoise system still looks rather promising, but there's really no way to conveniently sync it with any portable or home mp3 collection, which could be rather time-consuming. picture it like this, all of a sudden you get a brand new album you really like, you put it on your home setup, copy it out to a portable device, maybe onto a workout-ready portable, AND a car audio setup? shit man that's really starting to complicate the idea of just bringing the same CD to your car or walkman. right now i'm unfortunately leaning towards some kinda medium-level head unit that can play mp3's on cd-rws, which i think is kinda messy, but might be the most configurable. my cd-changer has held up well over the years (in a lowered car with low-profile tires, yes) but i'm so damn sick of burning full albums only to play 2 or 3 tracks on each CD, makes for too much work while driving.

between that, some bluetooth equipment (cell phone, usb key, stereo headphones, etc...) and the usual high-tech shit i'm researching, should be an interesting few months leading up to christmas. ;)

suppose that's enough out of me for now...

--justin