So as a going away present, my dad got me a 40gig external hard drive! Thus the CD ripping. He also ordered two webcams, one for me, one for them. That way we'll be able to chat and see each other in real time while I'm in Japan. Which is cool because I was planning on getting one anyway, as I told my Angel she should too so that we can chat in real time seeing each other as well. Other computer stuff includes uninstalling Norton as I no longer really need it since I have and regularly use both Spybot and Adaware. I had to keep it for college, but I'm not there anymore. Ha. I'm looking forward to uninstalling it as it's a large system drain. And once I get my music all transfered over, I'll effectively free up many gigs of space on the laptop itself. I should probably leave some on the laptop proper, but the idea was to get most of it onto the external hard disk to free up space for programs. After that we'll be loading both Quicken and Power Point onto my system. One problem, though: the hard disk supports USB 2.0, yet my damn Belkin USB 2.0 adapter card thing is apparently a pieca shit as it refuses to work with the hard disk, thus making file transfering take that much longer since I have to connect the hard disk to my USB 1.0 ports. Bah.
On the plus side, since I have now more than doubled my storage capacity, I have space to rip my Japanese CDs! And since I found out that Audiograbber is now freeware and updated it, I was able to get around the damn Labelgate copy protection on them. The Avex copy protection still sucks though. On the whole, though, I got all but two CDs ripped, minus about two or so tracks on a couple that just would not rip. But that's a lot more than the previous none, so I'm happy about that. Also figured since I'm transfering over stuff it would be a really opportune time to go through all of the information on each mp3, deleting the IDV 1 (since it's smaller and redundant) from all of the files, as well as my name next to the "encoded by" section that I had entered like a dumbass a long time ago. And after realizing I'd been ripping at only 56Kbps last night *slaps head* I got up this morning, found the Lame encoder, installed it, and re-ripped the first six or so CDs at 128Kbps where they ought to be. But man, going through all of my ripped mp3s is going to take forever. I looked and realized I have 100+ full CDs ripped. *cringes* Oh well. I may just move enough over and delete the old to free up a significant amount of space before uninstalling and installing programs. The other nice thing about doing this is how it'll make all of the files on my iPod searchable, which will be nice.
In other news, I went through my bookmarks the other day and stumbled upon the link to D.I.. I rarely use my bookmarks that aren't up in the display bar at the top, so it was neat that I did, because since I'm back home with highspeed and no college firewall and/or punks downloading humongous files thus making the network suck, I can actually stream the trance now. It's really good, too; several kinds to chose from, and ads are very rare. Supports Windows Media Player and Winamp, which is the downside. So you mac people are kinda screwed. Send them angry e-mails. It annoys me slightly, too, because one of the reasons for going through my mp3s is to make them nice-nice for my iPod. And since I have an iPod, I must use iTunes, at least minimally. I was thinking that once I got everything all nice-nice, though, how I might start switching over to making iTunes my main mp3 player. But I won't be able to get D.I. if I do that, so it's not like I'll uninstall Winamp. I dunno. I've basically had my laptop as an oversized mp3 player, e-mailer, and means of using the glorious internet, and for all of those purposes it's been working fine. Though it could be better if I put the time into organizing things that way, so I'm in the process of doing that. I have aversions to new hardware and software, though, as it takes me awhile to get used to it, and new hardware never seems to work like it should. Oh well. C'est la vie I guess.
The past few days my friends have stopped by, which has been cool cos I was able to give everyone their presents I'd bought for them when I was in Ireland and hanging out was nice, too. Drove around with
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wulgar the other day, and I remembered to take my camera to take pictures of Ukiah. Oh yippy skippy. Heh. At least they're not for me; they're for my students and whoever else will be interested in them when I get to Japan. Which reminds me, I have a list of stuff that I need to do before I leave going, and I need to get back to tending it. Bleh. I've done a few things already, though. Like yesterday I finally wrote a mass e-mail to all of my Japanese friends, host families, and teachers telling them that I did actually get accepted into JET and where I'll be, etc. Even already heard back from about three of 'em, too, which really made my day. ^_^ Also got an e-mail off to my supervisor which was something else I was meaning to do.Oh wow, I just realized how long it's been since I last posted! So earlier this week I got a packet of stuff from the high school in Japan where I'll be teaching. Enclosed were a tuna t-shirt (I love t-shirts; t-shirts kick ass), a letter from both the school's president and one from my supervisor, the Aomori Rough Guide (useful handbook dealy put together by JETs who've been there/still are there with all kinds of cool information and tips), and a CD with pictures of my apartment! Holy crap it's like, huge. Well, by my experience of Japanese apartments and dorm rooms anyway. It's two-story, even has a little backyard, and in the letter from my supervisor, I was stold they're evening furnishing it for me. Included will be: a "washing machine, television, telephone, fridge, gas stove, bed, heater, table and charis and so on." Hellz yeah! It even has a nice little one-person ofuro (Japanese-style bathtub). I'm sure I'll get to be good friends with it considering it's an older apartment and how Japanese housing generally lacks insulation anyway. Did I mention I'm moving to snow country? Heh. I'm really stoked about my apartment. ^_^ Oh, and it gets better, too: it's only a two-minute walk from the school and the rent is only ¥10,000 (~$100!) a month.
As it turns out, my principal has been to both Portland as well as Lewis & Clark College! What're the odds? *L* He seems like a cool guy from his letter. In the fourth sentence he tells me I don't look like a "mug shot guy." Heh heh. But yeah, so I'm really looking forward to going now that I've finally been finding out more information. I'm also waiting to hear back from my supervisor since I asked her a few questions, like if there's a pizzaria anywhere nearby, etc. But it's probably good I'm not leaving just yet, as I still have a lot to do.
What's on the list? Let's see:
Look over/read through the JET Japanese textbook (heh, I've been sooo bad at putting this one off, as well as studying/reviewing in general... though, since I've been ripping Japanese CDs I've had a bit of useful practice; that counts right? Heh heh...)
Figure out forms for taking my meds with me (geh, really should do this, but I've been slacking, though I do have at least a month's worth of sample packs...)
Buy candy, gifts,
Nice clothes shopping (I need a suit as well as just general business attire; Mom's supposed to take me shopping sometime, though she's been sick lately...)
Take pictures of family, house (kinda been working on this one; took several of the surrounding area the other day, as well as two of my friends)
Find out how much I need and then convert $ > ¥
Uninstall Norton, install Quicken,
Contact Adelphia to see about how to access my adelphia e-mail account online, since I'm trying to get away from using POP3s
As well as the usual exercise, etc., which has not been happening lately mostly due to the heatwave. Blech. It's been in the 100's lately, and it can quit anytime now. It's supposed break soon, but we'll see. Despite this, I will go play DDR next cos I'm getting nutty from sitting in front of my laptop all day long doing data entry and grinding in FF Tactics.
Well... I think that's it for now. And this post is I'm sure long enough already as is, anyhow. Will post more later. Hope everything's going well for all of you, too.
