I HATE iTUNES 11!

I hate iTunes 11...

Bring me back iTunes 10. They fooled me once - I updated to 11 when it first came out, and within 3 hours I had that sucker uninstalled and had 10 loaded on again. Until now.

Seems I needed to upgrade my mac system software up a couple notches so that I could stay Adobe CC compatible with some remote location colleagues (I am NOT on Mavericks yet - when the reviews are evenly split between 5 star and 1 star, with hardly any 4,3, or 2 stars, I know something's up). So when I updated the system software it secretly snuck that damn iTunes 11 in there, after 2 years of keeping it at bay.

I'm not 14 years old. I don't need my computer programs to look like my iPhone, only bigger and clunkier. I make a lot of mixes for people, for parties, get togethers, compilations, and the main feature was to have separate playlist windows open so that I could mix and match/make sure I had no duplications/swap songs with relative ease.  GONE.

Coverflow, GONE

I used to be able to collapse the full view window the mini viewer with the click of a button. GONE. To get the mini player now you have to hold down 3 or 4 keys to get it to appear, and then it floats around on the screen while your redundant main redundant window is redundantly still open with all the same redundant controls as the mini player.  STUPID.

That's enough bitching for now.  WTF, Apple???

Love Is Three Months Salary

In an online forum, of which I've been a member of for roughly 19 years (Back before the Flash Player, even!), someone brought up the subject of TV ads designed to make us feel guilty - because we're not spending enough money on gifts and vacations for our family and loved ones. Disneyworld, anyone? New cars for Christmas and Valentine's Day? It brought up a memory of the De Beers diamond company and there -oh-so-rich-beautiful-people commercials back in the early 1990s. An old friend of mine, Bob, and a friend of his (can't remember the guy's name - maybe Chuck?) started this riff on the commercial when I was visiting Bob one weekend up in the High Country of Western North Carolina. I never forgot the basis for it, thought it was brilliant, and repeated/sang it often for friends afterwards. And when I finally began to write it down and make it match the commercial (thanks, YouTube!) I had to add a few elements to the ending section to make it fit the music. Hope Bob and Friend don't mind... 

Sing along if you like...



Ten Thousand Bucks
And Maybe More
Ten Thousand Bucks
And Maybe More

Ten Thousand Bucks
And Maybe More
Ten Thousand Bucks
And Not A Penny Less

Then when they get through with you
they take you in the back room and they
sit you down and make you sign your
life away and empty out your
bank account and tell you that
forever more your life and soul
belong to them and then you know you're
toast and that your now it debt for
three months salary - three months salary - three months salary - three months salary - three months salary - (fade out)

A Groundhog Day Meta-Moment

Earlier this week my wife, who normally stays up past my bedtime, stated she was tired and was going to bed around 9pm. I used the opportunity to catch up on some of my DVR'd shows. I got through one show, but then my bedtime was fast approaching, so I gave up on catching up, as I didn't want to fall asleep halfway through the next show. So for the consolation prize, I flipped through the guide and found 'Groundhog Day' had just started on The Sundance Channel. Love the movie, perfect to fade out to on the couch.

I probably got about 40 minutes into it (Murray kidnapped the Groundhog and headed out to the mine quarry in the old pickup truck - you know the scene). I dozed off.

I woke up at 1-something AM, looked up at the TV, and Murray was finishing his newscast, kidnapped the Groundhog in the pickup truck again, and drove out to the mine quarry. WTF? Was I having my own Groundhog Day?

Then I realized Sundance was just repeating the movie for a second time. Wonder if that Deja-Vu all over again happened to anyone else that night?

Icons of Extraordinary Size (IoES)

Dang, I've got to start posting more than once every three or four years.

Recently some of my work colleagues were looking at a web design that featured the biggest icon buttons I've ever seen. We laughed and derided the skills (or lack thereof) of the designer, and then went back about our work.

Few minutes later the idea of a new Big Icon meme rolled around in my head and so I used a portion of my lunch break to do some quick photoshop ideas. It was a fun throw-away idea, and my ideas for memes never get picked up anyway.

Big Icons, bitches!