I haven’t read a Star Wars book in over a decade.  I used to obsessed with them.   Up until 1998-1999ish I would say I had owned and read every single book that had come out.   I can’t tell you why I stopped reading them, just that I did.   It wasn’t lack of interest, but more likely a lack of effort as the Star Wars extended universe exploded.   I did just jump in yesterday with the New Jedi Order.   Unfortunately I was a couple chapters in before I realized I was in the wrong book of the series.   I’ve now started the proper first book, so we’ll see how it goes.   The New Jedi Order series was one that friends were excited when a new one came out, so that’s why I started back in with this series.

The Star Wars books have always jumped all over the timeline.   In one book Han and Leia are married, and in the next book we read about their courting period.   Being dropped into the middle of the action is something a Star Wars reader is used to.   This is why I didn’t realize I didn’t start at the first book.   This series happens further in the future than anything else I think I’ve read, happening around 20 some years after Return of the Jedi. Here are some things that I noticed:

1. Luke and Mara are still together, this of course it not surprising since they were dating when I left off.
2. Jacen and Jaina are full-bore Jedi now.  This I can say screwed me up the most.  The idea of Jacen in a light saber battle alongside Luke or Jaina piloting an X-Wing just blows my mind.  They were always kids that were just old enough to have their little brother Anakin be around five or six.   Beyond that they were trapped in a time bubble, eternally that age.   Seeing them mature as adults blows my mind.
3. Luke has a kid.   I didn’t get far enough to see what his son’s name is, but that screws with my head also.

Ahhhhh – the joy of iTunes.   When it is tuned and working well, everything is a blessing.   When it is not working well – you can definitely want to slit your wrists with broken glass that has been fermented in a one week old diaper, but I’m not bitter.   Moving into the Apple ecosystem has had its challenges, and I have overcome most of them (until I got the Apple TV).  In our household we have 2 old hard drive based iPods, 3 iPhones, and one Apple TV.  Until Apple TV came along I used iTunes for music, podcasts, and syncing my idevices.  For the defenders out there, this worked well – no real issues.   Then the Apple TV came along and changed everything.  We wanted to play video from the hard drive on the Apple TV – so I convert it all to MP4 and then import it into iTunes.   This is where I started to notice issues.

1.  Why can’t you specify the media you are importing.   If I am importing two seasons of a TV show, why does it automatically place video files under movies?   Why can’t I specify that I’m importing TV shows instead of making this a two-step edit process?

2.  Automatic name detection and metadata updates on video files.   This is a huge pain in the butt to update all the album art on these files.  I would understand for videos that iTunes knows nothing about – but I have videos that are also available in the iTunes store.  Those files should be able to update their album art the same way audio files do.   At this point I would be happy if Apple did at least one.

3.  No differentiation between  e-books and audiobooks.    Ever since they released iBooks this has been a huge pain.   Watching from a cover art perspective you can’t tell the difference between the two types.   These are two completely different types of media that are consumed in two completely different ways.  If iTunes can give iTunes U it’s only little subsection why can’t these two media types?

4.  Music Videos have the same problem as the books.   They are filed under “Music”.   These are video files and consumed visually.  They should also have their own subsection.  They are not only filed under music, when you import them – they show up under movies and you have to change the type.   Please see number 1 again.

You can see my problems are in the amount of time it takes to edit metadata and keep the library groomed.   My music files are meticulous.   This year for my music files (if I ever finish the video files) I plan on getting the bpm field filled in on all my music.   All my tracks have artist/track information.  All my albums have cover art.   Pristine and clean so I wouldn’t have to do it again.

Why can’t video’s and books have it as easy?  If video wasn’t such a big push with the Apple TV I might understand this more.

I talked about writing this post months ago and just now got around to it.  Give me some time and I’ll come up with more.

I had started a year in review for 2009, I was going to write-up a link to all my stories of a personal nature over the last year.  Highlight becoming a father, etc., etc.  It’s now two weeks into the new year and I never got the story completed.   Instead of giving up completely, I decided that the year in review was going to be just like Shermer, Illinois.  On a side note – have you notice that no matter how many times you write out Illinois you need to spell check it?  Anyways if you don’t understand the significance of comparing a year in review to Shermer, I’ll let Jay and Silent Bob’s little scene from Dogma explain it to you.

I don’t have too many face shots that are taken head on enough for this to work – so the one I used was about as good as it was going to get. The one of Lex was one I considered the most elf like. Enjoy!

Yes, that is me from 9-10 years ago – Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Just cause I have pants on my head doesn’t mean I don’t want any candy!!!!

I snapped this photo yesterday.   I am just wondering, what the heck happened to summer.   I know quite a few people in Ohio are saying that, but seriously – where was summer?

On second thought, maybe they aren’t me.

So earlier this week I had tweeted that I finished “Free” by Chris Anderson.  I was talking about it with a friend tonight who knew I was reading the book (and who also happened to know it was freely available online) and he called me lazy in not so many words.   I was told he was interested in reading the book, but wasn’t going to bother to put it into google to find it.  If I had place the link in there he would have chased it down and read it.   Basically the whole point of this post is so I can perform the extra steps to give him an easy location to find it.   So below is the link to the text on Scribd, and the whole book is also embedded below (this is what I have to do to get sticky readers folks a boy has got to eat).

All that aside, the book was a great read that dealt not only with the new “Free” economy, but the history and psychology behind the concept.  While people will value something paid over free in some circumstances, there are dynamic mental choices we make.  For marketers this is a great book, for people on the modern web this is a great book, for people that want to understand people, this is a great book.

If you can devote a few hours of your life to reading and completing this book, I’m sure there is something in it that you will find interesting.  Chris has a nice writing and nice cadence that flows throughout the book.  I don’t feel that it ever dragged on, it was just long enough.

UPDATE – GAH

Sorry I just realized that the scribd link had expired. It seems the web book and the ebook was only for a limited time. However, and this will make who this article is targeted to happy. On this page the audio book (unabridged) is available to download.   It is 285 megs, and it’s worth the space to give it a listen.   I bet some of you who read this are more likely to get this now that you don’t have to read through it, but listen to it to pass the time.

Sorry for the mixup – I’ll pay closer attention next time.

Though he might be actually laughing at my bad camera work……

Just a bad iphone picture from today that I thought I would share.

Actually this video is a few months old, but I haven’t posted it. This all started when I was mock throwing a shirt at Lex, and he found it funny. It led to one of his first laughing fits. Enjoy.

Some people think I am joking when I say that playing at home upsets the baby. Let this video be proof for the rest of you.

Found this video over at Mashable, so if you are curious you can also check out their article on the video.

Found this on a mashable story which has more information.

I’m working through Pride of the Yankees (and yes I know how it ends), so far it’s a pretty good movie. So I thought I would share with all of you through the magic of Hulu.

Direct Hulu Link here

I originally found this video over at Boing Boing via RSS, but clicking the link led to a page not found error. It seems to have disappeared from there articles. In case it shows back up the original story was located here.

Either way, hope you enjoy it.

I don’t know why this toy annoys me, I just know that we are being careful when choosing how many of the Christmas presents we are going to be buying take batteries.