I just bought the new Britney Spears CD, "Britney", as well as a new CD by Jennifer Paige, "Positively Something", and Martina McBride's "Greatest Hits" DVD, all from Tower Records. The battle against shoplifting continues, as now the little metal strips that trip the detector are inside the CD, in the back cover where the back insert is placed. Makes it a bit hard to get out once you have the CD. These have to be inserted during packaging, so I guess they are industry standard metal strips, otherwise different record stores would need different strip types...

That's pretty neat. I'm converting the CDs to MP3s with iTunes2 and there's a "play music while converting" option which I have on. Cool thing is, it keeps going even when you eject the CD, which means it's using the MP3 stream to paly the music. Then when you convert another CD, it'll start playing those songs once the songs from the first CD are done. It's those little usability things that make Apple the cool company it is...

So I'm watching a drug commercial, for some product or other. At the end there's the inevitable and required disclaimer: "the only side effects with a greater occurence than a placebo were x, y, z". So if you get any other side effects it's all in your mind. I wonder what percentage of the placebo group felt better just because they believed. The mind can be a powerful influence on your health...

You know, I don't know what I'm going to get Dave for Christmas. It's one of those weird little things of mine that I tend to give him gifts I don't think he would get himself, and gifts that reflect my interests more than his. It's like I'm living through him. Since he's interested in making a movie I thought some digital videomaking magazine would be good, but I have no knowledge of them so I don't know which one to pick. Then I thought a Star Trek magazine, because those are cool. But it's got a weird payment system -- either buy 11 issues and pay once or buy 13 issues and pay in three equal installments. I'd rather buy at least a year's worth and pay all at once, thank you very much...

Occasionally I remember something from long ago and it bothers me a bit, like it did back then. Usually if something bothers me but it's not important I let if go and forget about it until it pops into my head again. It was a late night at work and Dave came over. I was showing him around a bit and mentioned the QA Girls. At that point Dave looks at me funny and comments that he never thought to hear a sexist remark from me. Excuse me! What freaking culture are you from?!? Here we have a guy who is always talking about how hot women are and how they all love him. I know he doesn't really mean it but it's so constant that it really starts to bug me at times. Meanwhile I say one borderline thing and he's all taken back. Shesh! Some people...

You know, every time I decide not to set up my VCR it comes back to bite me. So last week I decide that I should set up my VCRs for two days taping and take a pillow and extra shirt to work. That way I'm ready in case I need to stay overnight. That lasts for a day and then I stop. Now usually I don't tape anything after 23:00, since I figure I'll be home by then. And today as I was setting up my VCR I looked at the schedule and thought that I should tape these two things in case I come home really late. But what's the chance of that happening, so I didn't. So now Dave calls me and says that we're all going to Dave and Busters tonight, which probably means that I'll be home late enough to miss these things that I could have easily covered with my VCR. Aargh! I'm so stupid sometimes...

Last week I got this apartment insurance coverage plan, saying I'm covered for a year and thanking me for my patronage. I don't recall signing up for this. Maybe someone else did it as a joke, in which case I'll do something when I get the bill. But meanwhile it's not enough trouble for me to call them and cancel this insurance thing. Well, they didn't use my regular credit card to pay for it. Maybe they used another credit card and I'll get the bill that way, in which case I'll contest it...