Everyone's A Star

I was looking at some more YouTube videos. I've been checking the "Recent Videos" list, in order to get in on the brand new ones and to notice the ones that will probably remain more obscure.

Like kids singing to records, staring in the camera and giving it their best shot.

I heard a Lady Gaga cover today, "Let's Dance," by a young lady with a guitar that was terribly out of tune. But she gave it a good effort.

Then tonight I saw some others, including one where she started singing, then settled in for simply staring at the camera. I didn't see the whole thing. So if she got back to the song, I didn't see it.

Everyone's definitely a star (of sorts) on YouTube.

Watching "Spinout"

I finished off "Double Trouble" and proceeded to pop the DVD of "Spinout" into my player. Elvis movies, of course.

I like "Spinout." I've seen it a couple times, but still I forget some things about it until it comes along again. I think Deborah Walley was as cute as can be. She plays Elvis' drummer. The rest of his band is two guys who each play guitar and horns when needed. They're not really playing, of course, but they don't really look convincing on TV as a fake band.

I think the band is called "1+2+½." I don't know who's who there. Is Elvis the 1? And the two guys the 2? Leaving Deborah Walley to be ½? That doesn't sound right.

There's some good songs on "Spinout." And it is really really cute seeing Deborah working the drums. I like watching her about as much as watching Elvis.

I looked her up on Wikipedia one time and as I recall she died of something.

The Guy Who Doesn't Know Letters

A guy walks in to the driver's license station, and needs to take the vision test.

"Read line four, please."

Somehow he knows which one is line four. But he doesn't know letters, so he has to describe them to the satisfaction of the nice person listening.

"A straight line with two boobs, the right side of a square, a line standing upright, a line with a flat roof, a lightning bolt on its side, a straight line with an arrow pointing at it, a straight line with a boob on top playing footsie, a second line standing upright, half a square with an upper and lower deck, and a curly letter with a shelf."

"That's very good, sir."

(If you can't decipher all that, it spells BLITZKRIEG.)

The Hallmark Store

I went to the Hallmark store yesterday to buy gifts for someone I know whose birthday was today.

I couldn't find anything that looked like a good gift. I did find a nice card. I don't mind buying cards like I used to. I've gotten to the point where I will accept their versification as an adequate substitute for my own feelings. By and large I think they do pretty good. I envision a panel of psychologists at the company with rooms full of focus groups, to make sure they're getting it right. But if that's what it takes, it seems to be working.

I found the card in pretty fast time, only having to look at about four different ones. But then, to walk around the store, and to see all the crap they sell, it was tough. And truthfully I'm a guy who has a sensitive side, so it's not like I haven't got the mental equipment to see something decent if it was there.

We were just in that store a week ago and she was telling me how many nice things she saw. But she didn't give me a clue which were the nice things. Then left to myself, none of it looked nice. I called her, but by now she was grumpy and said "Don't get my anything." I stayed and insisted on looking some more. I saw some nice wool mittens, so I messaged her about her size in mittens. She responded, "You're kidding, right?" I wasn't, but I took that as a clue that she wouldn't want mittens.

I paid for my card and left the place.

A Scene In Double Trouble

I just saw the perfect setting for an AFLAC commercial in a movie.

It's in the movie "Double Trouble," starring Elvis Presley and a red-headed young woman whose name escapes me. Suffice to say it's an Elvis movie.

Elvis and Jill (her name in the movie) are sitting on the back of a red pickup, with the driver driving them through the countryside toward a town. The driver is a farmer going to market and he has a bunch of cages with chickens and at least one goose in it.

Elvis is singing, etc. Then right at the end of the song Elvis and Jill kind of part and a goose sticks his head in the scene. And I'm thinking, right there! That's the AFLAC commercial. Since they could easily overdub the goose or duck's AFLAC word in that spot.

I don't remember exactly which kind of bird AFLAC's bird is ... but it looks sort of goose-ish.

Exercising Tonight

I went to the exercise club tonight. People must still be in the grip of their New Years' resolutions, because there was a ton of people there. Trying to slim down to a half ton.

All the ellipticals were taken, a rare occurrence for me. So I worked out on the treadmill. I probably shouldn't even say "worked out" because I was only up there 10 minutes. Then I wanted to get home. So I figured some was better than none. A good philosophy.

It was funny. I was listening to my iPod. Then I remembered something I saw on YouTube and wanted to watch it (mostly listen to it) while treadmilling. So I was trying to type it in with the little keyboard and couldn't get two letters in a row right. I was trying to type "Bing Day," but I got Bo ... Bu ... Then Bjng, so I had to back up, and finally I got Bi and accidentally hit the enter button and it started searching for whatever would've come up with Bi. I went back to the music!

It was a decent time. I worked up a sweat.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

We all remember the song by Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams." It's a great one. I've got it on my iTunes and am listening to it right now.

I've also got classical CD called "Sweet Dreams," put out on the CBS label. It is a variety of gentle stuff, like lullabies and various nocturnes. I've heard part of it but not all. I guess I have it on iTunes also. But it doesn't come around very often in the shuffle.

It's almost my bedtime and I love my sweet dreams. When they are sweet. A couple nights ago I was dreaming about scanning a bunch of documents and was all confused about double-siding them. That's no fun for a dream, since it's just repetitious and frustrating.

The best time about bedtime, assuming you can get to sleep easily, as I usually do, is that part of thinking and meditation while you're about to doze off. I use it to burrow in, trying anyway, to burrow into good spiritual places with God. It's just too bad that I haven't been able to have dreams to match, but it definitely is a highlight of my sleep experience!

Then 5:30 a.m. will come and my cell phone alarm will go off. My alarm tone is called "Voice of the Nature." I'd be nice if it was called "Sweet Dreams," although that would be a contradiction to the idea of an alarm.

May all your dreams be centered right in the middle of you. And may my dreams be that tonight.

Ripping 45 RPM Records -- Part 2

My American Audio TT Record failed again today, although it could be there's just something wrong with the connection that the little memory card makes in its sheath. I can't diagnose the situation really without having another one to try.

It failed like this. I had it plugged in, I recorded a record, I checked it on the computer and there was nothing there, just a couple of approximately 42K files, not the much bigger files that should've resulted.

Anyway, enough of that. So I went to the extra effort to see if I could plug it into my computer directly. I wasn't overly familiar with the microphone jack controls, and actually hadn't seen them before, so I don't know where they came from all of a sudden. The long story short, I got it all plugged in and it worked. I was recording from the record player directly into the computer. Now I could monitor the recording process ... because I could see it.

I did a handful of records successfully, but haven't had much time to get them worked around. But I know it worked.

If I were going to buy something to do this with again, I would probably try one of the Sony turntables. I haven't checked them out but I usually have pretty good luck with Sony. I don't remember them being available when I bought this system. If they were, then I just missed them.

Facebook, Hurry Up And Do It!

I keep getting this notification:

ALERT: Facebook is eliminating app-to-user notifications. Click here to...

OK, you keep promising. Hurry up and do it. I'm sick of being "warned" about something I want!

It's Tough To "Rip" A 45 RPM Record

How easy it is to rip CDs and come up with hundreds of tracks for your iPod or to play on the computer. It's quick and relatively pain free.

But try doing a 45 rpm record. It's free music, since you've already had the record for years, but it takes real effort. Today I did maybe 13 or 14 records.

One thing that's a headache is the record player I use to record these. It's a cheap model that you used to be able to get at Amazon. It's called an American Audio TT Record. There's no way to monitor it that it's actually working. So things can go wrong. You can think you're recording something, then you get the SD card to the computer and there's nothing on it. That happened a couple times. I don't know if it's really sensitive or what the problem is.

I've definitely got in the habit of double checking, making sure the record button is on. So that's not the problem.

But let's assume it works, which it usually does. Just recording the record on the card is only the beginning. It has to be edited, popfixed, amplified, one thing or another, then all the MP3 tagging, a cover picture, etc. It's like an endless process, as opposed to CD ripping. To rip 27 or 28 songs off a CD is a matter of minutes. To record the same amount off records is hours.

Of course you have to listen to the records in real time. It'd be nice to be able to record them 48x, then slow the track down (or have the computer do it for you). What would that be like? It'd be wild.

Once you get them done, it's a good thing. But getting them done is painful!