I had a small handful of things I wanted to do with my day off, and here it is 2:30 and I've only just--- no I haven't even got that working right! arg. I'm trying to find a way to rip cds into mp3 format. This seems like such a simple task, but, no. I found a way to add in mp3 encoding the Ubuntu's preferred cd ripping program, but, on trying to play things back in Amarok, all I get is staticy blips. aaaaaarg. Having tried about five different things, I'm currently toying with switching to Banshee instead of Amarok (since I've found that, like others, the tree directory setup of Amarok was not going to work for me once I get all my music in there - I need to be able to sort by artist or whatever I want, like iTunes). I think I've got all the random plugins (the good, the bad, and the ugly - literally, that's how they're classified around here) this thing could possibly want, and it lists mp3 as an option for cd ripping now.. and hey! yay! it's playing my cd! That's much better than where I started out. Alright. Letting Banshee try to import it now.

While that's going, more interesting news:
EMI is letting all their music be DRM FREE ONLINE EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dances* Thank freaking goodness. Steve Jobs has actually been poking at all the major record labels to stop using their DRMs, because, as he voiced the rather obvious point, what the hell good does it do to prevent people from bouncing their digital files around wherever, when you have no restrictions on the 90% of what you're selling - cds. (Things downloaded through iTunes, of course, have their own restrictions.. but they are fairly generous, and I'm wondering if they're not going to be scrapped anyway themselves.) On a related note, there are talks in progress, and more than a few blatant hints that, the Beatles' music will soon be available online, finally.

okYAY! Banshee will rip my cds to mp3 and play them and granted it crashed when it finished the cd, but maybe that won't happen the second time. *crosses fingers* Let's make sure it's sending info to last.fm alright... damn, I don't think it's working. Time to poke at that...
The program's not as sleek as Amarok, which is nowhere near as clean as iTunes, but, the file access is better, so we'll see. Anyway, I'm not going to do serious re-building of my music stash until I decide what I'm doing about a second harddrive.. if I'm going to change the format of my C drive, if I'm going to force Ubuntu to read another ntfs drive, or if I'm just going to spend like $50 to get something larger than a 40gb drive in there. (Because, really, a 40gb drive is so five years ago. ;p) I did get my federal tax refund today, WOO! $400 and some odd, because I make like no money. So that's very exciting, especially given that my checking account has fallen below $100, thanks to paying rent. bah. I'm feeling much more comfortable now. Half that is going right into savings, so I have a bit more cushion in case of some random doom, the other half is.. well, going toward my store credit at work (which I always forget to bring in a check for, so it's piled up a little), and upgrading Lawrence. I've toyed with the idea of a new digital camera, but a) I haven't quite given up on mine yet b) Tom's letting me use his c) it's nice out now so I can break out the good ol' SLR and d) good lord it'll take me like a year to decide on something. Also thought about finally getting a midi keyboard - music composition is so ass-backwards trying to input notes via mouse or keyboard, but, I think I'm going to hold off on that a bit as well, just because I have no real idea of what I'd be looking for. And, really, getting Lawrence a little more up-to-date is a bit more pressing.

Once I get this last.fm thing sorted out on Banshee (or give up for the time being), I'm getting away from my freaking computer awhile, it's all sunny out and I have more productive things to be doing. Hmm...