Does that make me too normal for you?

[cyrano]

I am so fucking TIRED of getting lost in my own back yard. After an appointment in Los Gatos this morning, I tried to get to work without the aid of a computer, which was obviously a big mistake. Because I ended up deep in some thicket of posh little homes on a hillside in what I later found out was Cupertino. I had to call the office to ask for directions from wherever I was, and that still didn't keep me from getting lost once more where I failed to specify whether I needed the north or south freeway. I need a fucking GPS. I've known this for some time, but I've kept putting it off. If I'd had the time, I would have driven to .... Radio Shack or Frye's or Best Buy or wherever the fuck they sell the things, and picked one up.

However.

I have a new desktop, complete with my upgrade to Windows XP. This will let me do things like watch Netflix Instant Movies, and a few other things that demand an XP OS. In order to move stuff like my music, my playlists (all 101 of them), my software, I think I need an external drive.

Last night at the gym, my little 256MB mp3 player gave up, and the audio jack can't keep music going stably to both ears. So I need an mp3 player, before I get on an aeroplane. And I looked at the Apple website at iThings and found a couple within my price range.
And neither of them work unless I'm running XP.

I'd budgeted to buy one new toy this month--the external drive. I might be able to swap out the GPS device. However, the mp3 player is essential to going to the gym, and is pretty important for anything involving airports. I can try to find a non-Apple mp3 player and continue to fight with iTunes when I shuttle music around, but I'm getting tired of that. And I haven't checked to see if other mp3 players need the XPlove as well.

If I need XP then I think I need the external drive. Because I am not manually recreating over 100 playlists. But it means I'm over budget. And I've already planned November's unneccessary spending. So there.

Comments

[mostuff.livejournal.com]

No. You're still not normal. Not normal at all.

Thank god.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

You're such a sweetheart. (:

[tersa.livejournal.com]

The iThings will work perfectly fine on the iBook as-is, and I have an external drive you can borrow if all you want to do is migrate your music from the desktop to the laptop (I can't dedicate it to you as it's my own backup drive, but it can do emergency service). La.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Can I put music from the bedroom through the iBook onto the iThing? But yeah all I really need the drive for is for exporting iTunes information. (I should probably make sure I know how to import it too.) The 'for archival purposes' bit can wait, and is not as immediate.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Not directly, no.

You'd have to copy the mp3 files onto the external drive and import the files into iTunes on the iBook, thereby copying it onto the iBook hard drive. But you can use iTunes on the desktop to create playlists and import the playlist into the iBook iTunes.

This is essentially what I've been doing a lot recently with the mixes I've been making, just on a grander scale.

(Edited): If you want me to show you this on a limited test run this week, I can.

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

Are you looking for an external drive as a temporary measure to move things, or as a permanent storage place to prevent having to move them ever again? If it's just a temporary thing, I can bring a USB external drive (500 GB, but some of that is in use with my own stuff) when I come out, or I can mail you an 8GB SD card and a USB card reader that would also work, albeit with a bit more effort on your part if you have more than 8 GB to move around.

I purchased a Sansa mp3 player for my mother (which I then inherited back when she died), which was less expensive than a comparable iPod, and I'm quite happy with it. I just plug it into the USB drive and treat it like a flash drive, and it copes with it just fine. It's also smaller than the comparable iPod, which is good for a gym environment (but bad if you plan to watch movies on it; planning ahead will save you long-term headaches). I've also had a very small non-Apple mp3 player for years (Rio? Dunno. Tiny capacity, though), and it also worked fine without iTunes.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if it weren't for the lack of access to playlists, I'd be perfectly happy to buy another cheap little (whatever 'little' is today) player. The SanDisk has served admirably for years.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

Got lost in his own museum

If it's any comfort, Marcus Brody is awesome.

Also, at dinner with some random people after the LARP, was this unprompted bit of conversation: "Who was that guy who played Gally? He was funny." "Yeah, he was great."

There are like 3 photos of it, taken by Karen, and you're in one of them...

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

They liked me! Yay! Especially since I didn't feel particularly funny--I wasn't a prankster, I didn't have out the razor tongue, I was just the helpful friendly uncle.

[murdoch.livejournal.com]

I can lend you GPS. I kept forgetting to put it in my car...

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to try it out. (: