Low 40' with drizzles in the afternoon my ass. It's snowing outside my window right now. Ick.

When it comes to my preferred software for organizing my (kinda large) music collection, I do not turn to iTunes. I'm a Winamp girl, have been for a very long time. So, seeing that for the first time *ever* I've got a CD player in my car, I figured I'd re-create my old box of "car music". (Once upon a time, it was an actual shoebox filled with cassettes).

No big, right? I've used Winamp to rip and burn disks for ages, and never a problem, until today. It simply will not burn a disk, and I'm blessed if I can figure out why. All the hardware is working fine, I've upgraded to 5.5, I've double checked all my drivers, and still nothing. iTunes, on the other hand, is burning disks for me with nary a complaint.

This means I have to *deal* with iTunes, which feels more like I'm babysitting a five year old who's trying to be "helpful".

Yes, you can find my music.... NO, do NOT move my music, just find it. I spent a long time organizing those directories just so. No, I do not want to go to the store. No, do not copy my music to the iTunes directory. It's fine where it is. No, you do not need to copy those .wma fles to .aac format, I won't be playing them here anyway. Yes, there are nice things in the store but that's not where we need to go right now. No, I don't need to look at the album art. Yes, I'm sure the album art is pretty but no, we don't need to look at it right now. We're going to burn a disk with 2/3 of my Tom Petty tracks. No, we're not going to burn two disks, just the tracks I'm selecting right now. No, a "smart playlist" was not what I wanted. No, put those extra tracks down now! Ok, see, we're burning the one single boring disk. Thank you. No, we're still not going to the store.

My job = a big box
Everything I'm supposed to do in a given day = balls of clay the get put into the box.

Problem 1: we can't fit all the balls of clay into the box
Solution 1a: Make some of the balls of clay smaller
Solution 1b: Change the shape of other clay balls so that they fit more compactly

Problem 2: solutions 1 and 2 have been applied, and we still have leftover clay balls
Solution 2: Decide which clay balls have the lowest priority, and take them out of the box.

Problem 3: Supervisor dissagrees on what should be considered "lowest priority"
Solution 3a: Sneak the balls back into/out of the box. (passive-aggressive, but effective)
Solution 3b: Get into a fight with supervisor over job priorities. (semi-effective)
Solution 3c: Strangle supervisor (effectiveness unknown)

To anyone calling my house in a commercial or telemarketing capacity:
When I ask what company you are calling from, the correct response is NOT to ask me if I am authorized to make decisions about a specific acccount. The correct response is to tell me who you are calling from, and why.

I'm going to trust you with my account info when you won't even tell me why you're calling? Am I missing something?

Inbox Zero is a nifty concept. I'd be more impressed if I hadn't been doing this very thing for the last *eight years*. Possibly longer, but I can't remember if I had custom storage folders set up at school when I was using Pine. (Does that make me old? Probably.)

Me: Typing up a proof for customer....
Label stock - White Gloss
Ink Color - Brown (PMS 469)

Customer: So, will the label be brown?

Me: ::tears hair::

Dear customer #1:
When I say I need to know the name of your company, I am not asking for a detailed description of your logo or your packaging needs. I am asking for your company name specifically because that is how I file every piece of art that gets uploaded to us. Until I get that one piece of information, I will not be able to pull up and review the logo you are so lovingly describing to me.

Dear Customer #2:
The words "I'm not very computer literate" will not allow me to magically intuit your packaging needs, thus freeing you from the burden of going though our website and making your own decisions as to what you need to purchase from us.

grumpily yours,
Me.

Had a great barbeque with Bonnie, Mark, et al yesterday. Got home sorta late and so tired my eyes were crossing. On the way home, got stuck in the post concert traffic from the Slayer/Manson gig at PNC. Middle aged and tipsy Slayer fans are a wee obnoxious, but harmless.

This morning, on the other hand, I woke up feeling monday morning crappy, and haul my ass into work. But the internet is down. Then we find that the whole network has taken a dump. Then I find that I have to rebuild my PC damm near from scratch. As of 5:00, I was 3/4 of the way finished with that.

Screw leaving the house. I shouldn't have gotten out of bed.

This started as a comment in 's journal, but it took on a life of it's own. (I thought unsubbing from would allow me to ignore the exploding stupid. Not so.)

Frankly, I think the entitlement problem (ie - right now, someone IS paying for your "free" speech) is what will eventually kill fandom. Like, kill it dead. Because the people with real power in the real world will soon, or are in the process now, of looking over at this little corner of the world. If all they see is a bunch of children demanding that some non-existent rights be protected by persons and corporations with no actual obligation to do so, they will take the issue seriously why?

If fandom-at-large is unable to present itself to the world (or at least the US government) as responsible and cognizant of what the real laws in the real world (or the portion of the real world covered by the US) are, fandom at large will not win this or any other fight, because fandom does not exist on it's own special planet. (No, LJ is not your own special happy fairy land where nasty mundane concerns cannot enter.)

It was fine when the worst legal problem fen had to worry about was copyright. Copyright in the general sense, and the production and enjoyment of deriavitve works, is a big honkin gray area with thousands of angles, billions of opinions, and lots of leeway and wriggle room. The current debate over depictions of underage sex, childporn, and corruption of minors in general has NOTHING to do with that.

The current debate is an hyesterical witch hunt and for the love of any god ever, LJ is not the enemy here! America (fucked up country that we are) needs a good, jucy, relentless witch hunt every so often. Salem. The red scare. HUAC. Satanic day care workers. Now it's anything to do with sex and children, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. This is real, this is bad, this is not going to go away, and it's very likely going to get worse before it gets better.

LJ is every bit as concerned about that big torch bearing (and frankly, dangerious) mob as fandom-at-large SHOULD be, if fandom-at-large weren't too busy threatening to hold it's collective breath 'till it turns blue and faints 'cause OMG, we're bein' OPRESSED and MISTREATED by THE MAN! (ie, every single threat to flee to GJ, JournalFen, etc...) Right. Because this is all about you.

No, actually, this has NOTHING to do with you. Fandom, you are not that special. You do not count for a hill of beans in this fight, because you are not fighting. You are demanding that other people fight for you. You are demanding that someone else pay for your free lunch. You are insisting that your rights are more important than anyone elses.

Fandom, you are full of shit. Get off your asses, and look around at the world we are living in, and realize that you are stuck here with the rest of us.

I hate upgrading my computer... it's a big, expensive hassle I'd have been happy to put off for another year. But old Bessie decided to kick the bucket yesterday (the RAM might have imploded, but I'm not sure.) and I've spent the better portion of the weekend setting up her replacement.

For the record, Vista is not thrilling me. The auto handwriting recognition doodad has. to. go.