In an attempt to get some higher-bitrate rips of my Beatles catalog into iTunes, but fool the program into thinking that the files weren’t new, just updated versions of tracks already in its database, I managed to delete the 45MB file that contained all of my ratings and play count information. Well, not delete it– that would be recoverable. Rather, I managed to overwrite the file. I consider this the same thing as entering a fugue state and erasing all annotations from the margins of my books. Well, I would, if I wrote in my books, but it drives me batty to write in books even though I know it would be a good thing for me to do. Of all of the lame OCD traits to end up with, I get one that could one day significantly hinder my progress as a poet.

–David Ignatow

So much for blogging that much more with Performancing.  I haven’t opened this blog in days.  Hrm.

I took a couple other tips from Lifehacker about sorting e-mail and what not.

• Filter incoming messages by cc:– if it ain’t to me, I don’t need to know about it as urgently.
• Filter all listservs out.
• Filter out “public-face” e-mails.

I fucking hate being covered in poison ivy.  The calamine shit that I spread all over myself does not make for clean clothes.  I swear to God, you don’t realize how much your arms brush up against things until you cover them in orangy-pink goop.

Horrible news!  Where the hell am I going to eat lunch when I don’t know what I want to eat?  This is no fun.  No fun at all.

I fucking hate being sick.  I could not sleep last night.

Looks like my fishing trip is canceled.  Thompson has an out-of-town guest coming. 

Performancing is a super-awesome Firefox plugin.  So is Sage.  I am happier when I have great tools.  I’ve been reading Lifehacker and I want to be better about managing information, time, resources.  I have been feeling very weighed down recently, feeling like I am a victim of persistent partial attention.  I’ve found myself opening an application and then not knowing why I opened it when it’s finally opened.  This is happening a lot more.  Reading Tony Hoagland’s book yesterday was so nice because I think it was the first time in a while that I was able to concentrate on one thing, just one thing.

I’m hoping that using Performancing will help me to log some of those little thoughts a bit more effectively.  I sometimes think about blogging and fail to do so because I only want to get down one or two thoughts, and then I think that it’s not worth an entry. 

I think I may have just spent the last half hour with The First Wives Club playing in the background.  Christ.

Stupid firewall. All this time, I have been having trouble syncing the Windows Mobile machine to the home PC, and it turns out that Zone Alarm was blocking the home PC– it read the remote device just fine. Bah!

Reception to the announcement about the press has been awesome since I started sending stuff out about it a few days ago. That’s awesome… I hope people will jump on board.

Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law next week that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality–the Internet’s First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn’t have to outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your computer.

If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites–including Google, eBay, and iTunes–must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why these high-tech pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress’ effort to gut Internet freedom.

You can do your part today–can you sign this petition telling your member of Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%7C3275014-izjCztyuRtikHVyY7hg0HA

I signed this petition, along with 250,000 others so far. This petiton will be delivered to Congress before the House of Representatives votes next week. When you sign, you’ll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep the heat on Congress.

Snopes.com, which monitors various causes that circulate on the Internet, explained:

Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site’s traffic has precedence over any other’s…Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend’s MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user’s web browser with the same priority. In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane.

If companies like AT&T have their way, Web sites ranging from Google to eBay to iTunes either pay protection money to get into the “fast lane” or risk opening slowly on your computer. We can’t let the Internet–this incredible medium which has been such a revolutionary force for democratic participation, economic innovation, and free speech–become captive to large corporations.

Politicians don’t think we are paying attention to this issue. Together, we do care about preserving the free and open Internet.

Please sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Internet freedom. Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%7C3275014-izjCztyuRtikHVyY7hg0HA

Thanks.

I just downloaded Minefield, which I guess is the clever way of saying “Hey this is Firefox 3.0 but it doesn’t really work yet.” I’m not really having any problems thusfar, but is anyone else out there using it, and if so, are you having problems?

My only beef is that most extensions haven’t yet been updated. I can live with it. though.

I’ve complained before about Acrobat Reader. Man, do I hate that thing. So, when I saw PC World’s daily update today, I was a happy, happy dude.

I went ahead and did some tinkering and set up a second monitor, so it’s geekland for me.

My next geek project, and you will be handsomely compensated with lavish praise in this blog if you can help me in this endeavour: Figuring out how the php which allows the user to skin my site works. It’s there, and I have the skins folder ready to go, I just need to know how to point the user to the correct folder that contains the skin.

I would like to beat the staff at Walgreen’s to death. I waited for almost an hour for my prescription to be filled, and was assured several times that I was next, only I never seemed to be next. Finally, they figured out that they had filled it almost 30 minutes previous and no one noticed. During my one-hour wait, I heard them present many, many excuses to many, many customers, which individually sounded plausible, but which, in combination, sounded like a pack of big, fat lies. If you had a prescription filled, I’d look real hard at the pills to make sure you got the right meds. Otherwise, you may end up ingesting an anal suppository.

Ultimate Comics has opened a second store just in front of Eastgate on 15-501. It’s very nice. You should check it out. My visit on the way to the pharmacy today may be the last time I go into a comics shop and don’t spend any money. Ever.

I keep iTunes playing consistently on shuffle, with higher-rated songs played more often. At night, I do not stop the music, I just mute it.

The song “A Long December” by Counting Crows, which has a five-star rating, is the only song in my top 250 not played since November 2005, which means that it was never played through the entire month of December.