iTunes and random computer musings
Mood:  cool
Topic: Computer musings
I did some upgrades to my computer today, including a new data hard drive (the ones with my ripped-from-legally-purchased-cds- hard drive died), and that went ok. Next, I opened iTunes to start re-ripping aforementioned legally purchased cd's, and I got a message to update. No problem.

Um, problem.

Every time I tried to rip a cd, I would get a disk access error message. If I clicked ok, it would go away and leave me alone, and let me rip the mp3s properly. So, several hours later, I had just about 10 cd's ripped. Well, I was distracted, I'd bought the 10th anniversary Xena collection and was watching that on my little DVD player while doing all this.

Then, I decided to burn an MP3 disk to play in my truck. Problem. It wouldn't recognize the cd in the drive. I then thought to myself, "Self, when has this happened before?" And self answered, "When you needed a firmware upgrade for your dvd/cd burner. Silly."

So, I googled my brand/model of burner, found the firmware upgrade, and went about the business of updating it. This time, iTunes happily burned my cd of mp3s without a hitch.

Hooray!

JS Stephens

Oops
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Random musings
Looks like I haven't blogged here in quite some time.

Xenafiction.net seems to partly be down, but you can still get to my stuff directly here.

The Patriot act passed. Crap.

I really haven't thought about writing lately. I've been busy, my parents recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, which meant a big party. Pretty nice, actually. My partner started a new job, so there's the "I have many weeks of vacation time now and you have none" dilemna.

I really should blog here more often, but my creativity these days is sucked away by the mundane stuff of life.

JS Stephens

Patriot Act
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Random musings
If you want to see a really good collection of posts and links about the Patriot Act, go to bespacific.com. Here's a link to the Patriot Act category.

Censorship
Mood:  sad
Topic: Random musings
Maybe not truly censorship, but YA author Julie Anne Peters reports in her blog that a high school student was beaten up for doing a report on Julie's book, Keeping You a Secret, a lesbian love story.

That just sucks. This is like libraries being forced to hide gay/lesbian/bi/trans/etc. books behind locked cabinets so kids won't get ideas. Heaven forbid that we actually let people read what they need to read! Anyway, how this is censorship in my mind is that the others censored the girl for daring to attempt to open their minds about l/b/g/t issues. That just sucks.

JS Stephens

Good post on Free Range Librarian
Topic: Random musings
K. G. Scheider had a pretty good entry on libraries stocking gay and lesbian literature (see post). I'm pretty sure there wasn't any a million years ago when I was in school, but I sure found it in graduate school. Yup, in library school was when I discovered Naiad Press books in the fiction section. Oh, Lawdy, I was in heaven. Sometimes it would take me a week or more to finish a book as I snuck it off and on the shelf during lunch, between clases, etc.

Hmm.

Slipping into the new year
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Random musings
Weird weather here lately, seen upper 30's to low 80's on some days. We need rain - desperately.

But, it could be worse. I have my health, my partner, our cats, and my parents are celebrating their golden anniversary this year. I've been put in charge of pictures. Wow. I promise not to do anything rash, like put my head on Xena's body

Anyway, hope all 1 or 2 readers out there will have a happy new year and that your wishes will come true.

Posted by jsstephens at 7:28 PM CST

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Traffic - ack!
Topic: My boring life
Why is it that the person behind you in extremely crowded conditions has to be so hard on your bumper that you can't see their headlights? Especially when all you can see for a mile or more is a sea of taillights? I swear, people are driving worse and with more anger than ever. ARGH!

Winter weather
Mood:  cool
Topic: Random musings
Let me just start by saying I hate sleet, ice, snow. Where I live, we get this type of precipitation about once a year, sometimes we get to skip a few years. It does seem that we've had more sleet storms in the past five years than in the preceeding ten years.

As you might imagine, it means our highway department has fewer resources to cover highways, so they concentrate first on bridges and overpasses. I think I have about 20 bridges or overpasses between me and my bus station, then the bus has to go over a bunch more. It's pretty scary.

If that were not enough, we get people from the eastern seaboard who say, "hell, I can drive in this, what's your problem?" Oh, only that we're not used to it, and we don't have the equipment or tires to deal with it.

It's not even forecasted until Wednesday and I'm already worried.

Did I mention that I hate this type of winter weather? Cold? No problem. Sleet? Ice? Boss, can I stay home?

JS

Life, new truck, etc.
Topic: Random musings
I still like my new baby truck, she's quite nice. The gas milage sucked on the last tank, but maybe that's due to the horrible traffic I endure to/from work. When you're averaging 20 MPH or less for over 15 miles, then finally get up to 40-45, then the fuel economy is gonna suck.

Anyway, I did have something else to say. Nope, can't think of it now. Stories? What stories?

Can it be possible to have cold flashes instead of hot flashes? My GF had some hot flashes this summer, and now I'm experiencing times when I'm so chilled that I can't get warm. It was that she was always cold and I was always hot, so this is weird. Really weird. Anyone else out there ever get cold flashes? The temps are still hitting the 60's, although the winds have been pretty fierce.

Well, off to play with the cats.

JS Stephens

Posted by jsstephens at 9:18 PM CST

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Well, life is strange
Mood:  rushed
Topic: My boring life
The night after my last entry, I was in a wreck. No one was hurt, but my truck was totaled. After the long process of the insurance claim (which, due to who my insurance company is was pretty painless), it was decided that I needed to get a new truck.

Now, some people might holler at this, but I chose another Ford Ranger. It's blue. Sonic Blue. Looks kinda purple at times. She's sweet, lots of pep. Only my third vehicle in nearly 16 years - I tend to keep them for 150-200K miles. Anyway, my friends all razzed me for not buying a Toyota or Nissan, but look at it this way: Ford asked Melissa Etheridge to compose a song for their sponsorship of the Susan Koman Race for the Cure. Read more about it at http://www.fordvehicles.com/thecause/index.asp.

That's all for now.

JS