Last night proved to be a productive evening for work, but a disastrous evening for catching up on sleep. The hotel was packed and people were slamming doors, running up and down the halls, and being overall obnoxious well past 2:00am. I remain dumbfounded as to why people act like such inconsiderate assholes at hotels... I am paying money so I can get some SLEEP!
After dragging my exhausted ass out of bed, I was heading back to work when a parking enforcement scooter went zipping by me, lights blaring. At first, I was curious as to what would constitute a parking emergency, but all that vanished once I saw the model name of the vehicle...
INTERCEPTOR?!? At what point has anybody ever needed to "intercept" a PARKED CAR? The first laugh of the day is always the sweetest.
Lunch, no surprise, was once again an orgasm-inducing pizza experience at David's. This time I tried a new photo composition, laying the Stewart's Orange Cream Soda on its side and flipping the pizza 180°. No matter how you shoot it, it still tastes amazing...
After lunch I had some free time, so I stopped by The Comic Book Shop to see what's new. Nothing could prepare me for what I found there...
ESSENTIAL DAZZLER?!? Dazzler? Seriously? I always thought that the character started out as a joke. A sad attempt to capitalize on the fading popularity of disco music at a time when disco backlash was gaining momentum. Redemption finally came when Jim Shooter retooled Dazzler in the now infamous Marvel Graphic Novel #12... "Dazzler: The Movie." Outed as a mutant and unemployable as a singer, Dazzler finally came into her own and ultimately joined up with The X-Men in a series of fairly good stories. By the time she ended up with my favorite Marvel character, Longshot, I actually ended up liking her a bit (she was, after all, one of the few people to escape disco alive). I was afraid to even touch Essential Dazzler out of fear that I would have disco flashbacks and go insane.
After work, the three-hour drive home was uneventful, as usual.
But when I got there, my new toy was waiting for me... an ION iTTUSB 05 USB Turntable!
It's kind of weak in construction... just a big heap of lightweight plastic... but for $99, I'm not complaining. The important thing is that it actually works. The included Mac/Windows "Audacity" software isn't very intuitive (and only rips into WAV format), but I did manage to rip a few of my vinyl albums and 12-inch maxi-singles with decent results. I am most pleased. Now all I have to do is find the time to rip my entire collection, and I'll finally be able to have the last bit of my music in digital format. Sweet!
Well, it's now 10:15 and my DVD of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle just ended (how frickin' hilarious was Neil Patrick Harris in that flick?), so I'm off to bed early.
Hopefully to get some sleep this time.
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Dazzler never did it for me.
A turntable with USB? That I like.
He’s brilliant in that movie alright. Can’t wait for the new season of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ to start.
If I remember correctly there’s a way to add MP3 support to Audacity. You may need version 1.3.3 Beta and not the latest stable version though, however the beta does work much better on Macs.
I thought iTunes had a wav to MP3 converter built in to it?
Ultimate Dazzler is actually a pretty cool character, too.
Thanks for my first laugh of the day, you are right… what need is there to intercept a parked car? That pizza indeed looks scrumptious.
I’m glad to hear the usb turntable works, I’ve been considering one myself.
Anyway, I really enjoy your blog. Thanks
Did you rip any Disco?
Hmm, dunno what version of audacity you have there but you can go into the preferences and switch the “uncompressed export format” to aiff. It can export straight to mp3 but you have to download libmp3lame.dylib from such a place as http://spaghetticode.org/lame/. Again in preferences somewhere you can point it to the lib.
I guess things a bit messy format wise because it’s GPL’d and all that.
I really want that orange cream soda.
There are only things I could recall about Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle: NPH and girls flashing their boobies.
I’ve always wanted to get one of those vinyl converter thingy for Troy. Haven’t seen one of those yet in Canada. I’ve only seen them online. $99 is a sweet deal!
I was so close to buying the USB turntable for my dad for Father’s Day. But I knew my mom would complain about having more crap taking up space in the house.
Nuts. Why do I still let her boss me around like that?
Nice to see the turntable to digital technology is now here, and affordable. This six years after I sold my entire old vinyl collection for pennies. How did I not know this was coming?
I think I’ll have a few Cream Sodas with vodka and contemplate it…
OK, now I’m pissed. MY Ion cost me $169 at Christmas and it didn’t have a dustcover. Basturds.
What does Stewarts Cream Soda taste like? Is it like Fanta or richer somehow?
For audiorecording I recommend Audio Hijack Pro! It´s a great app.
Agreed. Prior to that I would never have imagined that Doogie Howser could do comedy.
Nice turntable! How does that software handle “pops” and “hiss”?
On a pop culture scale of 1-10, how bad is it that I have no idea who Dazzler is (keeping in mind that I am 25 and spent most of my girlhood dressing up in pink frilly things)?
A USB turntable?!! I guess I’m very out of the loop, here. MUST HAVE. Also, that pizza. Must have.
Is Interceptor maybe just the name of that wee vehicle? I can’t imagine there’s actually a need to intercept a car.
Unless it’s a Transformer. In which case, keep your iPhone camera at the ready.
Whit… Dazzler did it for Longshot though! 🙂
Anthony… Is HIMYM showing in Ireland? Love that show, and am anxiously awaiting new episodes myself. I am especially hoping that Wayne Brady comes back as his brother!
Neil T… The version I have has an option for MP3, but you have to install LAME to rip to MP3, and so I just went with WAVE and had iTunes convert to ACC.
Kapgar… Well, ACC, yes.
Avitable… I have never read a single Marvel Ultimate title. Even Spider-Man, which is written by Bendis, one of my favorite authors. I never understood why Marvel didn’t just have the balls to reboot their entire universe if that’s what they wanted to do, rather than fracturing everything in half with “ultimate” versions. To this day, I just don’t get the concept. Maybe I’ll pick up a couple of trades and see what’s what.
Paul… The USB turntable works surprisingly well. I honestly thought that there would be a major decline in music quality, but everything has turned out pretty decent so far!
Delmer… Don’t own any. 🙂
MRK… Yeah, that’s the way they have you do it. I’ve just been exporting to WAV (since that’s native) and converting to ACC from there.
Mooselet… Stewart’s is hard to find, but we’ve got a few alternatives here in the valley. Thomas Kemper is probably my favorite. I don’t know what you have as far as Orange Creme in Australia.
Firda… Which just proves what an awesome actor Neil Patrick Harris is, considering he’s gay. When he was snorting cocaine off the stripper’s ass… well… I think he should have won an Oscar.
Diane… Yeah, but after all the music has been ripped, he can get rid of it!
Bogup… I will continue to hold on to my vinyl after ripping it because many of the pieces are collectible. Besides, I miss album artwork… CD’s are too small to appreciate it!
Rick… I think that this is a new version, and doesn’t have quite as many features as the turntable you got.
Göran… It’s orange soda with vanilla added to it. Quite delicious, actually! I own Audio HiJack Pro, but hadn’t thought to use it… I’ll give it a try, thanks!
Bombshell… I keep wondering if Neil Patrick Harris got the role of Barney in “How I Met You Mother” because of his appearance in “Harold and Kumar.” They are fairly similar in tone… but without the drugs! 🙂
Jeff… I dunno. I haven’t come across any pops or hisses while recording yet! I think it’s supposed to handle them just fine.
Bre… Well, she’s kind of a comic book geek thing, so don’t feel too bad! 🙂
Erik… Yes, Interceptor is the model name, which is why I find it so ridiculous… it’s job is to intercept PARKED cars.
“Essential Dazzler” sounds like the name for a very pretty and sparkly sex toy, if you ask me. As in, “tonight I have a date with The Dazzler!”.
I need to get a turntable too before all my vinyls turn to mush. My wife has some super-uber-rare Duran Duran 12″ picture disc singles that I’d like to save off.
Hotels have become the thorn in my side. If I can spend as many nights as I do in them, I can do anything. I almost dread the noise sometimes. Kids and families and bachelor parties have ruined The Spirit more than once. I’ve got my own list of naughty tricks to play back on them, though. Paybacks are a real bitch, believe me. Speaking of Spokane hotels, I once had bicycles being ridden up and down the hallways in the middle of the night at the Doubletree Convention Center.
The Ultimate Universe is pretty fun. I see it as something similar to DC’s Elseworlds. Just fun stories they can tell. You really should think about checking out volume 1 of The Ultimates just to see a very fun take on the Avengers.