Andy Laub

All I can say is that someone with extremely questionable taste must have borrowed my computer, I swear:

1. Spin – Lifehouse
2. 100 Years – Five for Fighting
3. Mandy – Barry Manilow
4. Toxic – Britney Spears
5. Trouble – Pink
6. Na-NaNa-Na – Nelly
7. La La – Ashlee Simpson
8. Little Girls – Oingo Boingo
9. Livin La Vida Loca – Antonio Banderas & Eddie Murphy (Shrek 2)
10. Invisible – Clay Aiken

Terrible music aside, I Twittered recently that it would cost me $135 to upgrade my purchased iTunes music to iTunes Plus. In news that’s both depressing and reassuring, that number has since climbed to $153. Imagine my relief when I read today that iTunes is now offering a la carte upgrades, so I can upgrade the stuff I’m actually glad I bought the first time without having to deal with the guilt that would stem from paying yet again for the shitty songs.

As a bonus, I’ve been able to recover a few songs here or there that managed to lose themselves in my computorial transition last year. The ol’ Powerbook was easily confused and ended up occasionally trying to put music on its internal drive instead of the external where it belonged, and that music was lost when I formatted the machine. I was able to recover a good portion of it either from CDs or off of my iPod (SHHH IT WILL BE OUR SECRET) (also this is why I demand an iPod that will hold my entire library), but upgrading filled in a couple of the gaps that still remained.

I think… I’ve seen a couple between Nelly in the Flap Your Wings video and Carmelo Anthony on Cribs. I guess it makes sense – it exudes that same sort of badassence that the Escalade did in a more compact package. And damn, they look good in black. Now that I think about it, G-Unit had one of them in one of their videos, or maybe just the 300C. That’s pretty cool. My mom still thinks they look like a hearse, though, but she also laughed when I told her I liked the Infiniti FX. Speaking of parents and cars, my dad is now the owner of a charcoal Honda Accord V6. I am so proud. One more thing: I predict that at some point in the near future, both Saturday Night by Ozomatli and Steriogram’s Walkie Talkie Man will hit the top of the iTunes chart due to their appearances in iPod commercials.

Well, at least that is what someone I know likes to say. I’m not sure I really feel that way. Granted, it is relatively more almost Christmas than it was, say, a month ago, but I don’t think it warrants decorations or anything. As a matter of fact, Christmas decorations should be held off until 2 weeks before, if not completely banned. There’s nothing worse than Christmas lights still up in August. Well, OK, there are worse things, but it is still pretty bad. Anyway, we were in the Twin Cities last weekend for some good old-fashioned enjoyment.

We went to malls and IKEA and bought some things, nothing exciting (shirts!). I saw the Porsche 997 which really, really is gorgeous. Other cars of interest included (but were not limited to) a couple new Acuras (the 05 RSX, TSX, and TL), Volvo V50 (I sat in one, which I haven’t had a chance to do since the car show in February), the new Subarus (just got a chance to more closely examine them), and finally, in a parking lot for Toys R Us of all places, a Lotus Elise. I don’t know if I’m getting more excited about it than I should, but it’s the first one I’ve ever seen and it was totally unexpected. The Porsche was a pleasant suprise, but it was a fairly prestigious dealership so I probably would have been disappointed had they not had it. The Lotus, though, that is a nice little package. Which reminds me, we also looked at the MR2 Spyder, another nice little package, albeit less unique (and half the price).

You may have also noticed the new “music” category on the right. I signed up for the iTunes affiliate program to see what the deal is, so we’ll see what comes of it. I would highly recommend In The Shadows and Two Way Monologue (the song more than the album). And of course, Walkie Talkie Man is the song in the new iPod commercial.

Lord, won’t you buy me an Acura TSX?

Homestar Runner .com has some very nice features right now, including not only a Decemberween in July special, but also a video they did for They Might Be Giants, who I guess have a new album out. I think I might get it, but I want to see if it’s going to be on iTunes first.

I am continually trying to convince myself that I do not need a car. There are so many nice ones out there, and some of those are actually affordable by someone in my position. I actually am leaning back toward good ol’ Honda, with the Civic Si and the Acura RSX. Both of these are reasonably-priced with good-sized engines for their small statures (same as Abe’s El..er, CR-V). I am very fond of smaller, low-down cars. I drove a Nissan Murano on Friday and while it had more than adequate power (Nissan’s 3.5L V6), it was verging on being uncomfortably high. It’s not a bad car at all, but the dealership we were at confirmed my beliefs – Nissan is great at design, but not at build quality / resale value. Hondas have some of the highest resale out there which is great if you buy new, drive little, and sell early.

There’s also a new iPod.

This will be the last time I mention Grand Theft Auto until the inevitable comparison to Driv3r in June. I decided to pick up the PSX GTA Collection since it was cheap and I thought it’d be good to have. I also finished both GTA 3 and Vice City. It is a nice feeling, owning Miami and all.

The weather was awesome today but that will all be over tomorrow. Big shock.
I picked up the Kill Bill DVD and the iTunes update today. The free weekly download idea is interesting, and the WMA conversion is clever.

And…Abe is an uncle as of this morning.

AS of last count I’m currently in possession of over 100 Ben Folds/Five songs. This is rather exciting and I’m willing to go so far as to name him my favorite artist. I am infatuated by his piano skills, and all his music is darn fine in my book. I got Ben Folds Live today, much to my surprise (I ordered it on Friday) and enjoyment. I bought it off of Half because, rather Cheap Oakley surprisingly, it was less that it would have been from iTunes. But iTunes – have I mentioned how much I love that program? I hate to sound like an ad (well, not really), but everything clicks with the iPod and iTunes, something that absolutely could not be said about MusicMatch. It’s not a bad program (yes it is) in and of itself but there’s just no comparison. As usual, I probably thought I was going somewhere with all of this but I am, once again, out of stuff to say (no I’m not).

Interestingly, or perhaps not, it snowed yesterday, all day. That was real fun. I probably would have been way more upset about this if I still had my 45-minute commute to Point, but fortunately, those days are behind me, and so I can be happily apathetic now. I would imagine that, were I still in school and taking the classes I registered for, I’d be really strung out and frustrated. But alas, it was not to be, and so instead I sit here with nothing to do but write (yes! yes! yes!).

First of all, Abe is right – Maroon 5 really does sound kind of like Jamiroquai. But that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. I’m thinking right now of pictures I could post but I got nothin’. I don’t remember whether this was mentioned or not – I like iTunes for Windows lots after using it a bit, and I’ve become a Music Store addict. I’m sure other stuff is happening. I may end up being a dog later but I don’t really know yet.

PS: I still like CSI.