With iTunes 7.5 and the new iPhone software 1.1.2, MakeiPhoneRingtone works again! And the best part, it’s FREE! What this software does is automate the process of adding your songs (no longer than 40.04 seconds) into the iTunes ringtones folder, thus making them available for use on your iPhone when you sync it.

The program will take your AAC file, send it to your iTunes Music sub-folder “Ringtones,” and add it to your ringtone playlist. The only thing you have to do is make the ringtone. I use Sound Studio 3 to cut my songs.

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Get ready for my 10 part series into why Wal*Mart is evil and why China wants to kill all of us. Still working on part 1. You’d be happy to know that a helpless Wal*Mart worker told me “you don’t like it here, go somewhere else.” This was an answer to my question “how many of the items you sell here are made in China”? Not off to a good start. More to come.

RANT: I’m so sick and tired of thin, cheap, and almost useless Home Depot shopping bags. If the bags could get any smaller, I don’t see how. If the bags could get any thinner, I wouldn’t think it physically possible. WTF? — Me

I love shopping at Home Depot. The products are diverse, the prices are great. However, one thing has always stuck in my craw– those f*@#$%g lousy bags! No matter how big the product, or how much it weighs; rest assured that it’s going to pop through the bag, starting a series of events that will ultimately land your new merchandise on the parking lot blacktop.

Why?

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UPDATE (11.17.07) - Apple’s new iPhone software 1.1.2 allows you to add your own songs as ring tones. It’s not as “Apple-like” as it should be, but easily accomplished in a few easy steps. First, use an audio editor (I use Sound Studio for Mac). Create your ringtones (less than 40 seconds), fading in/out as you wish. Then save them as AAC (I prefer 256 Kbps). Once saved, rename them to *.mpr. Then open your iTunes music folder, and find the “Ringtones” folder. Drop all your *.mpr files in. Then, from that folder, open each one (make sure the mpr extension is associated with iTunes), and the songs will magically be added to the iTunes ringtone folder. I don’t know if this is a mistake on Apple’s part or this is what they are planning, but it works great and I don’t need iToner now.

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It’s the bye-week. The Patriots are 9-0. They clearly are the best team in the NFL this year, and definitely the last decade. But can they do something so special that will forever allow them to shout a collective “F-U” to the rest of the league and sports world? I think so.

These aren’t your daddies Patsies. This team is dedicated to winning and proving to the rest of the NFL that “spygate,” or whatever you want to call it, was so meaningless in the grand scheme of things, that just the mere mention of it only provides to solidify their intentions to roll over every team they play.

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It was 40 years ago today. Oh how I remember that day like yesterday… well, not quite– I was -9 then. Even still, that year is very important in my mind’s timeline.

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Blah-Blah

Musically speaking, so much great music came out that year. The Beatles released ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour’. Jimi Hendrix put out ‘Are You Experienced’ and ‘Axis: Bold As Love’. The Doors released ‘The Doors’ and ‘Strange Days’. The Byrds released ‘Younger Than Yesterday’. Love gave us ‘Forever Changes’. The Velvet Underground released ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’. And who can forget about ‘The Who Sell Out’ by The Who? You get the picture… a lot of great music came out in 1967.

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Kurt Cobain would have been 40 on February 20, 2007. When I saw that, I had to go and make sure there wasn’t a typo. 40? What? It seemed like yesterday he was just 27, having ended his life by his own hand. I don’t know where the time went, and I don’t even want to go back and figure it out.

With music having such a big part of my life, Kurt Cobain was a breath of fresh air back in 1993. 1993 was the first year I found my own music. Up until then, I had my father’s music, which was great, but I finally had something for myself. I had something I found. So, some 13 years later, it’s hard to go back and relive those few moments of pleasure I had with Nirvana and Cobain. It was too short. Too quick.

I had just received my first computer back in March, 1994. Sadly, within a month, I was reading news article after article of Kurt Cobain’s death. I saved a bunch of them, along with some pictures. These are the oldest files I have. I’ve saved them all these years, from computer to computer. I have included one such article.

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Waaaaaaay back in the early 1980s I remember watching a TV commercial.

Well, it was more of a public service announcement about the dangers of prescription drugs, specifically when dealing with small children. In short, the commercial tells kids that pills are not candy, and they should stay away from them. The commercial was very simple, with four hand puppets as pills. There was nothing special about the way the commercial looked… BUT the song the pills sang was probably the best jingle I have ever heard in all of my life!

For some years now I’ve been wanting to find info on it. After not being able to dig anything up, I forgot about it again. Last night, for some reason, I was searching again. This time I found audio only of the commercial. I couldn’t stop smiling. This was it! This was the song I used to love over 20 years ago. I would never change the channel when this commercial was on.

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Do I need any other examples of George W. Bush’s failed war on terror? No, not after today. I am resigned to the fact that my civil liberties will be eroded to the point where I don’t realize I’m free anymore. And by the way, this is his war. The American people do not share his feelings on this one.

Today I was surprised to see my USPS Priority package come back to me, returned from the Post Office. It seems that they are on some kind of “heightened alert” and all packages weighing in at over 16 ounces must be presented to a retail clerk. What they should have said is that for being a good citizen, not breaking the law, you have to stand in line for 30 minutes rather than placing a stamp on your parcel and quietly, easily dropping it in the box.

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You want to know the bottom line? The Patriots won again. Period.

So after the game, one which plenty mistakes were made on both sides, and one in which one team capitalized just a little bit more on those mistakes, I was shocked to see the demeanor of LaDainian Tomlinson. After the game, Tomlinson yelled and pointed at a Patriots player, upset that some Patriots were dancing on the Chargers logo at midfield after they had silenced the crowd.

“I would never react in that way. I was very upset,” Tomlinson said. “When you go to the middle of our field and start doing the dance Shawne Merriman is known for, that is disrespectful. They showed no class and maybe that comes from the head coach.”
–LaDainian Tomlinson

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