mhs | magdiel hiram sarmiento

I have an iTunes playlist called my “Wishlist” where I have previews from the iTunes Music Store of songs that I’d like to purchase at some point in the future. (It’s currently at 158 songs, so that’ll probably be later than sooner.)

The only problem is that when I play the playlist, iTunes stops after playing only one song, meaning I have to double-click each song if I want to hear the entire playlist…umm, not going to happen. Thankfully, I found a little program (Mac only) called iTunes Music Store Player 0.1 that does just what it’s name suggests: it plays previews from the iTunes Music Store automatically so you don’t have to sit there and double-click! It’s not perfect, but it does the job.

You might think, “Well, how is this useful?” One user suggested using it to listen to the songs on the Billboard Charts in iTunes…kind of like your own 30-seconds-a-song radio station. If you have a “Wishlist” playlist like me, you can enjoy all the songs without having to tediously go back to iTunes when a song ends.

Toshiba released a statement today stating that they will cease production of HD-DVD products, which effectively means that Blu-Ray has won the format war. I am thankful that all the bickering and fighting is now over, but in the end, will the common person go out of their way to purchase a new system? In the days where video on the iPod, on computers and on other portable media devices is ever so popular does high-definition content even matter?

I remember hearing a radio show a while back where technology experts were talking about the current generation and their attachment to the smaller, more personal screen. These kids are the ones that are going to choose the format for the movie industry to distribute their films. The experts were talking about how this current generation doesn’t care for high-definition, what it wants is portability and easy access. The days of the physical disc as a form of distribution are limited, according to them.

Although I do agree with them to some extent, there are still those of us who would like to benefit from the newly ended war. Some consumers haven’t switched to HD because of the instability of the market. Now that the problem is solved, we should begin to see an increase in the number of households that are HD equipped. We’ll only have to wait and see what the fate of the physical disc is.

I finally got to attend the free Saturday morning classes at the Pasadena Roving Archers‘ range this morning. I first heard about the classes about two years ago, but I had never gone. I tried going last week, but I got lost, which made me late. By the time I arrived, the classes had already been closed. Today was my day, though!

I got to shoot a few arrows, and I think I’m really liking it. I’m considering going often and maybe taking the six-week class that they offer. It’s a lot harder than it seems, and I realized that I need to work out my arms and shoulders to be able to pull the bowstring far enough! Regardless, I was able to get a few arrows close to the center of the target.

I heard about Improv Everywhere a few weeks ago and the little stint they did at Grand Central Station. They got a group of people to all freeze at the same exact time for five minutes leaving onlookers curious and some workers aggravated. The reason I remembered them is because I saw an interview today with Charlie Todd, the founder of Improv Everywhere, on ABC News.

Here is a video of the Grand Central prank; it’s really amazing to watch!

Jakie turned 20 years old today! There are no more teens in the family; I wish I were still a teen, though! We celebrated by inviting Nivel Cielo over to church tonight and by having a gelatin party—all the desserts had some sort of gelatin in them. The music was awesome, the desserts were great, the people were cool…it was a good night. I hope you had a good day, Jakie! (Sorry you were sick. :( )