My First Full Album Purchase off iTunes

I'm going to admit that my first full album purchase (ie - not a single song) was Rick Ross's "Deeper Than Rap" album. And I got the deluxe version, lol.

It was about 6 months ago that I really started thinking about just how sweet it would be to have all of my music on my computer (well actually on an external drive connected to my computer) and the ultimate possibility of having an iPod with every song I have ever purchased or downloaded in my pocket whenever I feel like it. I've got about 90Gbs of music on my external drive and that could fit onto a classic iPod pretty easily. And the prospect of that makes me smile much more than it makes me nervous.

Some people I've spoken to seem to think that it's dangerous to have all your music in "one place". But what they're missing is that all the music isn't necessarily in a single location (in this case, the iPod). It's more of a distributed model with the iPod being one single device through which you can access the music. And with that said I'll give my plan for my musical archive...

The first thing I did was take all the CDs that I own and ripped them to my computer. That took me about a month to do (I had a crapload of CDs) on a when-I-had-the-time basis. From there I realized I was eventually going to run out of space on my hard drive (and relatively soon at that) so I invested some money in a portable 200Gb external hard drive. In hindsight this probably wasn't that smart of a move as I could have gotten a media server and not have to have the worry of carrying the external drive with me everywhere I take my labtop. Or I could have searched for a router with a USB port and turned the external hard drive into a psuedo-network attached drive (essentially achieving what a media server would but it's more of a hack than a proper media server implementation). The router I have doesn't have a USB port but it probably wouldn't be too difficult to find one with a USB port.

So next I'm going to buy a 1Tb media server (ie - 1000 or 1012 Gbs, depending on how nerdy you want to be), connect that to my network at home, and make my music library accessible from anywhere on the planet that I have my labtop. This will allow me to have access to my music at work, at home, or anywhere else with an internet connection. Not to mention I'll still have the option of saving everything on my iPod and I can take that instead of my labtop whenever it's more convenient to just have an iPod. The only issue that this "plan" presents is that it's subject to the speed of my internet connection and ultimately the reliability of my internet service provider. And that might just might turn out to be the downfall of this plan. But until then I've got hopes that I'll have a music archive set up that is optimized for my lifestyle and for accessibility.

All I Want For Christmas is...

The Blackberry Storm



I haven't gotten it yet but I'll have it in my possession by February of next year. Per LC's advice - and the fact that I am about to drop a grip on my vacation in a couple weeks - I am waiting on all the problems with the first issue to be discovered and then I'll buy the updated version (or just buy it and get the software update, LOL).

iPod Classic



This is a necessity for any music fiend such as myself. I've already got like 80Gbs of music. Wait until I start getting video files.

1 Terabyte NAS



Yes, terabyte. Why go for the 100Gb, 500Gb, or 750Gb external hard drive when you can go for the 1 terabyte network attached drive that you can access from anywhere, anytime? Ah, the joys of technology.

Rocawear 9IX cologne



I rubbed the magazine sample all over myself and fell in love (have fun with that one). I refuse to wear Diddy or Usher's colognes just off general principle. But I do recognize that women seem to enjoy the Diddy cologne. Dahwell!

Chanel Allure cologne



My favorite cologne of all the times.

Burberry Touch cologne



Touch, along with Jean Paul and Issey Miyake are the staples of any guy's cologne collection (well at least most guys I know). It never lets me down so I never stop buying it.

Ermenegildo Zegna cologne



One of my secret colognes. Fellas, consider this a give-away.

Mosaic Kit



If you've been by my place lately, you know I have a collection of 40+ bottles in my basement that are going to be smashed (literally) and turned into a couple of "artsy" mosaics for hanging around my house. Fellas, consider this an artistic give-away.

Edge Trimmer



Plain-and-simple, I have a very small front yard so I use an edge trimmer to cut my grass and not a bad-azz kid from my neighborhood lawn mower. But, I broke the last one I had the last time I cut my grass so I need a replacement.

Intake manifold gaskets for my car



This is the most important thing I need at the moment. My d@mn car is on the outs and I need these gaskets in order to get it fixed. As most of you probably know, the problem with car fixes oftentimes is not the price of the parts but the cost of the labor. Well, picture this...

Intake manifold gaskets (upper and lower) - Roughly $20 each

Cost to take apart the engine, replace the old gaskets, and put the engine back together - ASTRO-FOCKING-NOMICAL!

Price of knowing better than to buy an American car - PRICELESS!

Christian Dior Black Tie Sunglasses



My man Laf keeps trying to get me to step up my sunglasses game but I just haven't done it. This would be a step in the right direction.

Gucci 1561 Sunglasses



Step 2. LOL.

I'm sure it's a shock to many of you (shot out to Laf) that there are no shoes on the list.

Santa, this is it!!! And for the record, I've been naughty AND nice.

I <3 the Internet

I've been searching for about 3 weeks now for a way to fix my ipod nano. I wasn't sure what happened to it but iTunes just stopped recognizing it. I was upset about it but I didn't really care all that much because it still played the music that was on there and I had a few nice playlists. But in the back of my mind I couldn't help but fear what might happen if I didn't have any NEW music for the vacation I'm going on at the end of the month. It's one thing to have a few playlists you've been listening to for a couple months, but when I go on vacation I like to create a playlist specifically for that trip and put in on my ipod.

So after search the google for ways to do a hard reset and then thinking to myself: "I know somebody has to have put the solution up on youtube! I'm not the only person who has had this problem, I'm sure." I went on youtube and did a search for "hard reset ipod" and as nature would have it, I found the video below and now I have a restored, working ipod.


Thank you InterWeb and thank you daxmaximum.

P.S. - My next post is # 1,000!!!