Over the hill to a sprawling city

13 Mar 2006

Em’s 18th

12 Mar 2006

Too tired for writing but feel like I should post something, so photos will have to do :-)

(Even though Kim will probably post better photos on Flickr in the next day or two!)

Karaoke…

Bad Karaoke… (note Matt Harris in background ;-))

Obligatory crowd shot…

More Karaoke…

Balloons! (Photos aren’t good for conveying the influence of helium ;-))

Some sibling of Em’s whose name eludes me (and cake). He was hilarious in a way that only small kids can be!

Cake (I didn’t like cupboards in the background, so this photo got a bit butchered in editing. Meh!)…

It was a really good night… the karaoke definitely made it! Happy birthday Em!

Yellowcard: Silent Lights and Sounds

07 Mar 2006

Stupid DRM. My computer, of course, gets around the copy protection on this CD instantly. My DVD player (which I use as a CD player: shut up Steve, CD players don’t sound a-few-hundred-dollars better, so I don’t care! ;-) ), on the other hand, can’t play the damn thing. As of right now I’m ripping it to my computer (losslessly with FLAC) and will have a prestine, non-DRM copy on a burnt CD for my use in a matter of minutes.

And if a friend ever asks if they can borrow my Yellowcard CD (bought on a whim knowing only one of their songs, I’ll add), I’ll be sure to lend them the version that works better: The one I burnt myself, without your stupid-arse software all over it.

Oh, yeah, and I’ll hesitate to purchase EMI CDs in the future. All other DRM-encumbered crap I’ve bought in the past has at least had the courtesy to work in my DVD player (this one made detection take ages, then picked it up as a VCD with wierd timecoding) — this is the barrier at which point it becomes infinitely easier to use Peer-to-Peer than buy things that look like they might be interesting in a CD store.

With physical media, I can (read: should be able to) toss it in anything and expect it to work instantly (no ripping required, etc.).

And, you know, if I wind up using Peer-to-Peer for this kind of stuff, my lossless (yeah, that’s CD quality, not MP3 junk) audio collection will be shared back with the rest of the world. Yes, even the CDs you make it harder for me to use legitimately. I will figure out a way to get them onto my computer (or someone else will with another CD), and I will use sharing networks if scumbag content providers provide me with sufficient impetus to do that.

(Incidentally, if anyone wants to borrow a non-DRM-encumbered Yellowcard CD…)

Loving about uni

07 Mar 2006

One thing I’m loving about uni already is the complete lack of commercial intrusion. With the exception of wannabe-activist-emulating advertising (you know the kind… CommBank “Free is Good” advertising in the form of chalked stairways, badges, etc.) and prolific party postering, I can wander around the USyd campus for a day and not feel the need (née ‘want’, the aim of marketing being the transformation of ‘wants’ into ‘needs’) or compulsion to spend money on anything. Well, except books. I’m still feeling guilty I don’t own all the books for all of my subjects yet… but *cries* they’re expensive and if I wait I can get them secondhand!

Stupid English went and prescribed editions but hadn’t really made that terribly clear on the course outline online… so bleh, time to sell some books back! Greek (yes, I’m doing Greek… has this story been told here? Probably not. Whatever. I’m learning Classical Greek right up until when I fail miserably and drop out! Non-Latin-alphabets scare me.) cost… too much. Was about $90 or something I think for two texts… so I can’t quit now, which is good I guess. I’m getting some Classics texts from TextbookExchange.com.au (so good! go sign up!) which is nice. Philosophy, mercifully, only has a reader (but that was like… $32 or something, which is kinda expensive for a bunch of photocopied stuff (I think) but saves so much hassle it was readily handed over).

Then there was an amusing incident with purchasing readings online but not being able to find where the online-only queue was. I saw the line at the UCC was absolutely massive and assumed there must be a double queue for online/prepay (I have a Visa card now, yay. Trying not to ever actually USE it, heh.) and so I joined the line so I wouldn’t be queue jumping. Hah. I got to nearly-the-end-of-the-line and saw a sign saying “Pre-paid/online orders” and quickly switched lanes. Ah well :P Lesson rather decidedly learnt! Mind you, the normal queue is more intimidating than it is actually long. Moved really quickly. So I might pass on the online-ordering next time and save myself 50 cents or whatever the card charge is, heh.

Another really interesting thing has been seeing who’s doing various subjects. Peter (Notarus? I can never spell his last name…), for example, was in the same Classical Mythology lecture as me this arvo. Just didn’t really think of him as an Arts person, I guess… heh, he thought the same of me though ;-) I’m finding myself semi-regularly apologising (in jest :-)) for being an IT person who’s interested in… more interesting things! (another wink here… typing lots of emoticons in blog posts is bad!)

But it’s cool. I haven’t encountered anyone who hasn’t been nice/has been judgemental yet. It probably helps that everyone in all of my subjects seems a little bit lost around the place… up to and including a bunch of third- and fourth-year students in my Classical Greek course whom I encountered whilst equally lost looking for the room for our first lecture. Four of us met in ad-hoc fashion outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office (because that was where–logically–the room should have been! *abandons trying to deduce order from room numbers/names*), and wandered aimlessly around the Quad for a while (we knew what building, just not what section!) before finally finding a sign marked “Greek Room”. It was reassuring to know I wasn’t the only lost one!

Philosophy and English presently feel the most interesting of what I’m doing, but I take it that could be in part because I know what to expect from both (to an extent) and could probably hold my own without too much guidance in both. The other two (Classical Greek and Mythology) I’ve fairly literally flung myself into with a conception that either/or could be interesting and/or beneficial to study, but with very little idea as to either their content or their method. I got to see Tori for half an hour today and laughed inwardly as she expressed her frustration at people who didn’t get stuff in her Chinese tuts, thinking “That’s going to be me as soon as we start tutorials for Greek next week!”. So so completely lost. Anyway, on that note, I should probably go and look over some stuff. My Yellowcard CD re-construction finished… *retreats to bedroom with music and readings and books and stuff*

DVD audio playback (Yellowcard followup)

07 Mar 2006

Steve writes in with the following gem after my little jibe at him about using a DVD player for CD-audio playback:

I worked with someone the other day who tried to use a DVD player for audio CDs at a show and I made them drive back to the warehouse and pick up a real CD player on the spot.

It’s just not good enough. Their insides and processing isn’t suited to reading and decoding CD audio, and they DO sound different (in a worse way).

*giggles*