Busy busy at work right now, and home too! Thought I’d throw a little entertainment your way. From the Clear Channel conglamerate, check out “STRIPPED - Raw and Real“.

Okay, stop blushing… it’s not what you think! Clear Channel has not gone down that road (yet).

Stripped is an “exclusive in-studio performance series created for artists who thrive on performing without the typical studio and video embellishments. Just music, raw and real!”

There are some really cool artists on this site, with some great “unplugged” type music. It’s really good stuff. The downside is, I’m not sure how you can obtain actual copies of these tunes (or song versions), unless you capture the bitstreams. Not that I’d ever advocate such a thing… =)

After several weekends travelling around for one event or another, we finally got a weekend to stay at home and relax. And since all of our favorite TV shows have wrapped up for the season and we have caught up with what’s on Tivo (or at least Emily has… I still have like 25 episodes of Supernatural and History Detectives to watch), we finally took the opportunity to rent a couple of movies this weekend. So, with a gift card and free rental coupon in hand, I headed for Blockbuster.

Let me just say that it has been quite a while since we’ve actually rented a movie. Despite being 8:30 on a Saturday night, I quickly found at least six movies that I wanted to watch and that I knew Emily would be game for, as well. I phoned her and we settled on The Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith) and The Good Shepherd (Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert DeNiro, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin, lots of others).

Although both of these movies were nominated for Oscars, Happyness makes it clear that there is a lot of mileage between “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Will Smith as Chris Gardner) and “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (3 people) . Will Smith also received a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal as the hard-luck driven Gardner. We thoroughly enjoyed Happyness, which is best described as a heartwarming tale about chasing your dreams, not giving up, and standing by your family when times are tough.

The Good Shepherd, on the other hand, was 160 long minutes of us going “What’d he say?” and “What year is it now?” The story jumps between events of the early-mid 40s, and events of the 1960s. It’s a dark movie about the early days of the CIA, but there is little action to keep you tuned in. In fact, if they had made a movie about the early CIA agents doing their paperwork, it might have been just as exciting. The only thing I drew from this movie is how difficult it must be to live a life so full of secrets that you trust no-one and no-one trusts you. Emily did not finish this movie, and I only did because I can’t stand to start a movie and not finish it, regardless of how bad it may be.

PS. Don’t forget to please Register with this site! =)

I have long despised the concept of DRM (digitial rights management) tagged music. For those not familiar with it, DRM generally locks the music that you have purchased online (such as via iTunes) to a particular player or device and/or limits the number of computers that can play the tracks. Once you’ve exceeded the quota on devices, etc., you’re out of luck. The thing is, you can purchase a CD from the store today, rip it, and have DRM-free music AND a hard-copy. That is why I rarely (if ever) buy full albums online. Not to mention the low bit rates (sound quality) of the tracks, which are usually slightly lower than CD quality. If I can buy a DRM-free CD at Target and rip it at any bit rate I want, why can’t I purchase my music online in the same format?!

Well… now we can! I just read an article that Apple has started selling DRM-free music on iTunes! Woohoo!  Additionally, the new non-DRM tunes are encoded at 256Kbps, which is twice the usual 128kbps bit rate. The only difference is the DRM-free tunes are priced at $1.29 each, which is 30¢ more than usual. You can still buy the cheaper tunes with DRM, but why? Additionally, there is no difference on album prices between DRM-free and with-DRM music. You can also upgrade your existing music inventory to DRM-free versions for 30¢, or $3 per album. I don’t see myself doing that too often, however, as it would get a little pricey. Also note you need iTunes v7.2 for this.

Regardless, this is a GREAT move by Apple! For once they’ve done something I really admire. While they will certainly make more money from it, the fact that consumers once again have control of the music they purchase is awesome. Props to them for taking the first step in the right direction!

Hey folks… sorry for the slight gap since my last post. I was on-call at work last week, then went out of town for the weekend to attend a funeral. Made for quite the long week!

Of course, I DID manage to slide a little fun into the week by paying a visit to Churchill Downs last Wednesday afternoon. For the sake of anonymity, I won’t disclose how we got the box seats or who attended. I will say that I had my absolute worst day at the track ever. Well, in terms of betting, that is. Don’t get me wrong, I only lost about $35, but I absolutely hate losing money. Usually I win enough to break even or take a few extra bones home. Not this time! It seemed like every race my pony was leading into the final turn, only to suddenly drop to the back like they were doing it on purpose. Who knows. Otherwise it was a great time!

In other news… watched the movie “300” the other night. It was a bit bloody, but overall a pretty cool movie. The effects were pretty cool… kind of like “Gladiator” meets “The Matrix”. It was about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. I’m sure it would have looked great on the big IMAX screen, but the DVD version was pretty cool too (note to sue-happy movie people: I know it’s not out yet, but it was not my copy and I plead the 5th!).

What I wouldn’t give for this to have been an extended weekend. Not only is it a nice day out, but I could use some catch-up sleep. Emily and the kids and I spent the weekend at the “Stewart House“ on Lake Malone in Kentucky. It was relaxing for the most part, if you consider we were there with 12 other people (that would be my wife’s parents, siblings, children, and foster children). lol! When Emily was a kiddo, her grandparents owned some property on the lake, and she and her family used to visit there often. I believe the original plan was to stay at her grandparent’s old place (now owned by her uncle). Nice as it still is, it’s a good thing we didn’t try that because it was significantly smaller than where we were.

Anyhow, the “Stewart House”, owned by Bill & Geraldine Ewing, is a great place to escape for the weekend. The “cabin” is large and cozy, with ample room in the common areas and outside for everyone to move around without constantly falling over one another. It also had three full bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and a game room with a pool table and pinball machine. It was right on the lake, and we were able to rent their “John Deere” pontoon boat. Despite being “out in the sticks”, the house had a large living area in the basement with a fireplace, TV with satellite, wireless Internet, bar, ”stocked” kitchen. Outside, there were two sizeable decks, a really neat campfire pit, and a somewhat steep path down to the lake. My only complaints are that the path could have used some better footing, as it was slippery from the rain, and fishing could have been better (but I guess that’s subjective).

All said, it was a pleasant weekend and an excellent place to “get away” for the weekend. I’d prefer next time to go for maybe one more day, as it felt we were packing out just as we got settled in. Something to keep in mind for the future, though. Thanks go to my in-laws for the weekend getaway! =)

I’m so mad at FOX right now, I may never watch another one of their shows! For the SECOND time in this TV “Season”, they’ve cancelled a show I’ve gotten into before it ended. The first time it was “Vanished”, which ironically vanished from the air about 10 episodes into the show with no warning. FOX later released the final four episodes on their website, but I never caught them. Who wants to watch four hour-long episodes on their computer?!

Now they’ve gone and cancelled “Drive” 4 HOURS into the program! That’s one two-hour special, and two other episodes. They didn’t even give the show time to find an audience. Admittedly, the character development was weak but the concept was interesting. It wasn’t going to win any Emmy’s, but it was intriguing enough for me to tune in. But when I went to tune in tonight, I find out it’s been canned! But hey, stay tuned, the website says… the final two episodes will air this summer! Whatever.

If it weren’t for “King of the Hill” and ocassionally “The Simpsons” (which could retire any time now), I wouldn’t even watch FOX. And I’m guessing if it weren’t for “American Idol”, no-one else would either. But as far as new shows, they’ve lost me as a viewer until they’ve proven they’ll quit wasting my time and leave a show alone long enough for people to watch it.

Well, I’ve had some time to play around and use Office 2007. Thus far I like it. Microsoft has really made it more friendly and logical for the “every day” user, although it has taken time to adjust to where they’ve moved things.

In fact, I only have two complaints thus far. First, Microsoft Access was NOT backwards compatible for an Access 2003 database I use at home! This was very frustrating. I tried several variations and attempts to upgrade my database, but it acted as if it could not read the data. Additionally, it did not want to run the VBScript that I’ve used for certain elements. This resulted in me re-installing Access 2003. Of course, the upgrade process had hosed the data. Luckily I had a backup. Thank goodness for backups!

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