Category / Entertainment

by Greg

Free Stuff at iTunes?

iTunesYou may not be aware of this, but iTunes has been offering songs and videos for free for… well, perhaps since the iTunes Music Store made its first appearance! Well, not long ago I discovered a page that has all of the (updated weekly, or more) content at the iTunes store! Just thought I’d share here. It’s usually updated on Tuesdays.

This week, I grabbed the song Lonely By Your Side (haven’t listened yet, it’s just the free single of the week) and the president’s State of the Union address. There are more songs and shows and stuff up there. Not a great selection this week, but defintely a link to hold onto.

So, without further ado…

Here’s the link!

by Greg

So Far, So Good

I may have mentioned here, but I know I have mentioned elsewhere, that this week is going to be totally insane. I have lots of open projects for Basic Web Design & Graphics, and we are also doing a Christmas Concert Blitz this week! Concerts every night from Tues-Friday, and then two on Saturday! Fun!

Last night we sang at Fairport Village Coffee. The first time we sang there was Christmas of maybe 1999? Could it be?? Whoa. Seems like so long ago. There were only a few people there when we got started, but several more came throughout the night, including Jen’s brother! We hardly ever get to see him and his family, so that was great. It was a nice relaxed visit (we got to chat in between songs, sets, and even during a song or two! Ha!) and definitely a highlight of the evening. We also got to chat with several other folks about anything from Apple computers to life with God and his church.

And, they liked the music, to boot. 🙂

Tonight was much of the same. Though, tonight the people working there didn’t know we were coming! Ha! That’s always funny. 🙂 We sang at Earthtones Coffee House in Webster tonight. Another place we have played quite often, and for a long time. Jen’s mom came over this afternoon and stayed with the kids, so even though we were “working”, with the 40 minute drive and set up time and the two hours of singing… it’s a nice evening with my wife. We also stopped for a late-night snack at McDonald’s on our way home. Quite nice.

This time, no one came that we knew, but that allowed for some nice conversations with several people who were there. The music was well received again (one lady, whose favorite song is O Holy Night, had many compliments for Jen’s rendition of the Christmas classic! That was awesome!) and we even sold several CDs and a book! Quite nice.

One of the workers tonight came over to the table after we had been singing a while, and was checking out my There’s The Steeple… Here’s The Church book. When we finished the song, she asked a question about it, and we ended up talking at length (actually, throughout the rest of the night, too) about church, and God, and life lived with him. Neato! Then, at the end of the night, we met another musician from the area and got to chat with him a bit about music and gigging and all. It was a great night, I’d say.

So, I actually started this with the intention of writing it during the second half of Superman Returns, which I started last night… but… that wasn’t happening. 🙂 The movie’s over now, so I can finish this.

I think I just did.

by Greg

Where Has The Time Gone?

This has been a stange week.

It started (as every fall weekend begins) with a Bills game on Sunday, followed by some show prep, followed by the recording the Buffalo Bills Review, followed by (a little later) a few hours of editing and updating websites. My Sundays are usually 9am or so to 5am or so. Yikes.

So then I had scheduled a meeting to help a client with some nagging e-mail issues for Monday morning at 10:00am in Rochester. (Only time she could do it.) That meant I had to get up at 8:30 at the latest. I did. I was very confused when the alarm sounded. 🙂 I made it there at a reasonable time, and continued with a normal Monday from then on.

By the time Monday night rolled around, I decided to watch the first of the three X-Men movies … starting at Midnight. Yes folks, working on just under four hours of sleep, I popped in a movie just after midnight. Fascinating. But, the good thing is, I liked the movie, so I made it through all but 30 minutes of that. I awoke at 4am to the main menu screen playing the sound effect over and over again. That was fun.

Tuesday began at around 8:37 when I woke up and, staring at the clock, remembered that Ian has a piano lesson at 9:00am on Tuesdays. He was still sleeping. We all were. So, Jen got up and took him to his final 9am lesson. 🙂 (We had to change that…)

By this point, after a full weekend, a full week prior (it was Alex’s birthday week!) and now these two crazy days, I felt like it was already the middle of NEXT WEEK. Certainly not just Tuesday!. It was a full day in the office Tuesday, working on some stuff for a bunch of new clients, as well as continued maintainence for current clients… lots of fun.

Oh! Add to this that I have been posting a ton of stuff this week to the Bills website. Lots of Bills fans are not so happy with the Bills loss at Chicago, so I have been doing my civil duty as a Bills fan with a blog on the Bills website, and performing some fairly intense damage control. Stop by and check it out if you like.

Probably the coolest part was when I decided to start watching X2 last night at about 11:45. Especially knowing that the movie was roughly two hours, AND that I play basketball at 8am on Wednesdays. Yeah. That was cool. 🙂

So, after a 7:30am wake up this morning (following probably a 3:30am bedtime last night)… I’m a bit tired, and unfocused. You’re probably picking that up from the barrage (or, is it barage, like, garage?) of blog postings today on random topics of nothigness? 🙂

I have one more movie to watch tonight… and no reason to awake before 9:30 tomorrow morning. So… perhaps I’ll get a little sleep starting tomorrow morning.

We’ll see.

I really just need to figure out a way to add about 6 or 7 more hours to each day. I could use about a 30 hour day, I’d say… 🙂

by Greg

Books & Blogs vs. Movies & TV

I haven’t ever landed on a firm position or any sort of “stance” on what I think of TV or movies or that sort of entertainment medium. I enjoy it. I don’t like current TV. Most any TV we watch is via Netflix DVDs of cool shows from the 80s and 90s. Lots of Star Trek for the wife and I. (That was awesome. Not sure I’ve ever used the phrase, but it just kind of flowed freely from my fingers there… “The wife and I”…) Movies? Jen could care less… I go in spurts, to be sure. We only see 1 or 2 in the theater per year.

Yes, he said year.

But for some reason, often times visual media (like TV and movies) and printed media (which is arguably still “visual”) are mutually exclusive for me. I’m either reading, and usually writing, or… I’m watching movies. Right now, it’s movies.

Last night I finished X-Men 2. At the recommendation of a friend who saw the third X-Men movie in the theater this year, I decided to watch the triology once the X3 movie was out on DVD. It is, so I got two from the library, and one from Netflix (the latest one) and watched the first on Monday night, the second last night, and will conclude the trilogy tonight. I like watching multi-part movies that way. I watched Lord of The Rings that way, and the Matrix. There’s definitely more apparent symmetry to the plot and everything if you watch it all at once. At least I think so…

Last week I watched Batman Begins. Saw it on the DVD shelf at the library and figured I’d give it a try. It was good. Liked seeing the “behind the scenes” look at Batman. 🙂

So.. I know it’s just a matter of a limited amount of time to do stuff, but I just find it odd that I’m either all TV related media and no books/print or… vice versa. I imagine it won’t be long before I’m back to books. Problem is, I’m really quite busy juggling a BUNCH of different little things at the moment… it’s hard to really give time to anything extra like that.

Recently though, there have been a few nice books I’ve been picking up. I have been reading a book about the Spanish-American War (late 19th century) called “Turning Point For America”. Fascinating. I think history is even more fascinating as an adult because I have seen history unfold (our “current events”) and so I can relate more to the stories of what happened in the past. It really is not all that different from what is going on today, with our current “war on terror”.

In addition to that book, I have enjoyed a series with my boys called “Stories to Solve”. They’re little two or three page stories involving clever riddles or tricksters, and the writer poses the question to the reader at the end of each one… “So how did [insert amazing outcome here] happen???” The boys love it, and I love reading with them. 🙂

So, the media consumption continues. As time allows I might post more thoughts one the specific shows/books as time goes on. Stay tuned for more… I’ve only just begun today….

by Greg

The Penguin Game

Remember this game? I posted a link on the blog here a long time ago. I also posted my high score in the comments. I rediscovered the game tonight and could not get more than 323.3! Give it a try if you dare. I think this game is the most addictive video game I have ever played. I sat down to take a few swings and played for 20 minutes!

Enjoy 🙂
The Penguin Game

by Greg

WEBoggle

Many of you who know me, know the affinity I have for word games, most of all Boggle. Well, to this point there has been nothing (that I have found) for our Macintosh computers that officially carried the name Boggle.

Now there is! Well, it’s not Mac Only… it’s an online game. And, you compete against other players. New games start every 3 minutes. You can play the 4 x 4 board (Boggle) or the 5 x 5 version (Master Boggle). Pretty nifty.

So, check it out:

weboggle.shackworks.com