Playing around with Vimeo

There's one thing I think people can agree with in general and that's YouTube is great for content, but bad when it comes to video quality. Because of this, I decided to play around with an alternative service called Vimeo.

The above video is some shots of the Blue Angels practicing while I was staying in Pensacola in March 2007. It was my first time back in my hometown in 11 years, so I was doing pretty good to have these guys flying directly over my head on my first full day back in town.

But anyway, hit play an you'll see what I mean when it comes to video quality.

Don't mind my drooling...

There's a day in January where I stop everything and block out all the really important things in life. That would be the day Apple CEO Steve Jobs gives his yearly Macworld keynote speech.

Last year, this was the stage Jobs used to announce the iPhone. That gadget (which I still miss very dearly) won Time Magazine's "Invention of the Year". I could almost see that as an understatement having actually used one.

I love Apple. I officially became a switcher about two years ago, after I bought my first-generation Intel-based iMac two years ago. That product was also unveiled at Macworld in 2006. In short, something will be announced today, and only Steve Jobs himself knows what it is until it spills out of his own mouth onto the masses of eager Mac-loving puppies waiting for their treats. So, expect updates later, after I've had an opportunity to watch the keynote about two or three times on Apple's website.

I just wish I didn't have class today.

Japanese Blogging

I’m a subscriber and loyal watcher of the Washington Post’s HD video podcast, which I love because it looks at ordinary life from different perspectives. I was actually drawn to it when I got an email from Apple showcasing some of their HD podcast, which of course means higher picture quality. I like getting the best when possible, so, why not? Besides, it’s free like all podcasts.

Well, one episode I watched recently talked about today’s blogosphere (that’s the world of blogging) and how most blogs are actually written in Japanese, not English. This is actually fairly surprising given the population of Japanese speaking people compared to the larger English speaking population. What I also found surprising is how the general Japanese population blogs.

Where most American bloggers blog to stand out, Japan blogs to fit in. In America, a lot of bloggers will thrust their political views, opinions about life, and many other sometimes harsh sentiments out for the world to see, often in an attempt to draw attention to someone or something. I’ve done this a few times myself. Rarely in Japan will you see a petition drive on a blog. Instead, they often blog about boring everyday life. You know, like how the train ride was to work (as in everyday) or how they met a new friend; things a lot of Americans tend to not deem important.

This got me thinking about a couple of things. First, it occurred to me how hostile of a culture we have at times over here. We tend to wear our stress on our sleeves and blurt it out when possible without regard of how others would like their social environment to be. Japan apparently doesn’t do this, declining to express their stress.

Secondly, this gives me the impression that Japan treats life as it should be treated; as a gift. Again, we treat every day life as ordinary and as a result we tend to miss some of the small things. Japan blogs in an open journal kind of way, willing to let you in to one’s personal life without being extra personal. Really, it’s very similar to the way I use Twitter, a service that simply asks, “What are you doing?”. Seems like a redundant thing, until you actually start using it.

My dad has gotten really good at this kind of writing. Often, I’ll get emails concerning his lunch and how he shared it with his cat, Pixel. I enjoy reading these emails for the way my dad has for describing the simple intricacies of life.

Maybe we should all take a look of life like this?

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Zzzzzzz!!!

Today was one of those days where my time was absolutely wasted... at least for the most part. Being that it's Thursday means that today was a class day. So, I make the trip to my 8 o'clock class, 15 minutes late, only to find the classroom dark and empty upon arriving there. Obviously, I didn't get a memo about there not being class that day. So, I went to the Mac lab where all my stuff goes on in my program of study and hung out for about two hours before going to find lunch.

I walk 20 blocks over to the gateway Mall area, thinking I can get something at Runza, since McDonald's wasn't at all appetizing to me. Problem is, Runza only takes cash, and the ATM inside the mall wanted to give me no less than $20 and I'm pushin' broke. With that, lunch ended up being chocolate covered raisins and green tea from Walgreens.

I get back to the college in time for my Digital Video Production class, where I expected to see the deadline pass for a music video project I'm supposed to be working on. Luckily, nobody showed up, but for a few people. Too few to hold a class and do show and tell. But, while I get more time to work, I also had another 2 hours to burn, since I don't drive. If it wasn't for my personal internet radio station I set up on the Mac at home and the fact that this was a good time to register, I would have gone nuts or simply fell asleep.

So um, how was y'all's day?

Looking for the perfect mix

Those that know me know I'm extremely particular in my playlists and my tagging when it comes to my digital audio files on iTunes. Not only do I do the usual genre tags, I take it a step further and use the grouping tags to fill in sub-genres for each song. For example, with the R&B/Soul genre, I use the grouping field to designate Contemporary R&B and Neo-Soul, since there is a difference in the two. Beyond that, I make sure every file is rated upon entry to my collection.

What this does is allow me to create self-updating "smart playlists" that give me exactly what I want when it comes to genre, sub-genre, and rating. But after finding an article about creating playlists that filter music in and out according to how often they're played and how they're rated, I decided to do more research into creating smart playlists on iTunes.

What I found was a response on another blog that used ratings as more of a priority. It went like this:

5-star (any song rated 5, not played in the last 3 days)
4-star (any song rated 4, not played in the last 2 weeks)
3-star (any song rated 3, not played in the last 6 weeks)
2-star (any song rated 2, not played in the last 6 months)
New (default setting in Itunes)
Unrated (any unrated song, not played in the last 4 weeks)

I then make a “hit radio” playlist, that just plays these 6 playlists mixed together. Perfect mix. When a song plays, you can then adjust the rating as required, it is easy to pick up on a song that you hear too often and drop it a star, or promote a great song you haven’t heard in a while.

You can also adjust the “last played” factor on each level to adjust to your preference & music library size.

You could easily add a “music playlist only” modifier to each rule playlist, but I just pre-emptively mark anything that I know I dont want in a music playlist as a 1-star. (comedy & spoken word stuff, as well as horrible songs that I don’t want to delete)

If that's at all confusing to you, each individual line of rules is a separate smart playlist. Since I obviously don't like music rated with one or two stars, I immediately phased that out, keeping the rules for 5,4, and 3 star ratings as well as my own personalization for new music. To take it a step further, I added a genre setting for each of these list so that they only play R&B/Soul. Then, I made a smart playlist combining the smart playlists I created.

What I have now is a very pleasing mix of songs, with the flexibility to change ratings on the fly to enable me to keep songs in rotation that I'm feelin' at the moment and to lower the rotation on songs I'm not in the mood for at the moment. Lists like these also work nice for people who own iPod Shuffles, such as myself.

So, don't be afraid to go deep into your music tags on whatever player you use on your computer. This will help you create better playlists in the future.

B.E.Z.