This is not the first time I have done this, but this attempt was certainly more demanding.

In July I listened to every song in my iTunes library at work. Back then the challenge was 3873 songs and seemed like such an easy task compared to the 9000 that were laid before me now.

In August the hard drive to my Mac Mini, which I listen to music on at work, crashed. In doing so it took all of the previously stored play counts with it. I took this as an opportunity to bring in my collection of music from home and do some necessary pruning, updating of tags and adding album art.

I am not sure how many songs I brought in with me back in August, but I figure for every two albums I removed I added another in the last seven months. iTunes was kind of like a revolving door and as it stands now the song count is 8997.

August 27, 2008 at 8:38 AM my first song was listened to and on February 13, 2009 at 10:45 AM my final song on this journey was played. Five and a half months later my mission was complete.

Unlike my Playcount Zero challenge in July I did not end on a meaningful or important song, I was simply trying to get through it. There are some songs that really need a mood to listen to. And the full discography of bands I have (The Beatles, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Who) are great and each album offers something different, but it can be so tedious at times.

Now that my library has all been played at least once, I will take this time to enjoy the liberty of my playlist and listen to songs without feeling the guilt of neglecting other un-played songs.

When I go periods without updating seagurs I usually have something to show for it at the end. Perhaps I was busy at work, out of Internet range or on vacation, but none of that applies here. This is essentially a ‘nothing is going on’ update and I’m ashamed to say my pockets are empty and I have no stories to tell.

… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

I have also noticed my Twitter activity has decreased in that span. I was under the impression that Twitter was responsible for bloggers having less to write about, not that both would both see the same lack of updates. I am trying to be a little more conscience of what I tweet and that may have affected my decline as well.

However, I was one press conference away from the perfect storm of television. This is when every show I watch, which is currently on the air, had a new episode. It would have been a monster week but now it seems that will have to wait until next month.

Stay tuned for something to happen, because I know I will.

George: You think she would care about the red dot?
Jerry: It’s hard to say.
George: I don’t even think she’d notice it. Can you see it?
Jerry: Well I can see it.
George: Yeah, but you know where it is.
Jerry: Well what do you want me to do? Not look at it?
George: Pretend you didn’t know it was there. Can you see it?
Jerry: It’s hard to pretend because I know where it is.
 
seinfeldscripts.com

Once you see something it is hard to un-see it. This was the case for me over the weekend when I was editing photos taken from a wedding on Saturday. In the lower right corner of the photos was a peculiar red dot. I know what a dead or stuck pixel looks like and all the photos taken on Saturday had the dot in the exact same spot throughout.

I changed lenses on the Canon Rebel XTi, tried a different camera setting and the red dot persisted. I went back to photos taken from Revelstoke and did not see the blemish. It is entirely possible that I wasn’t using a high enough image quality at Revelstoke to see the dot or it developed in the span of the week, but I was immediately heart broken.

Click here to view an uncompressed 2MB file with the pixel outlined.

I did some research and came across a very helpful blog post on dead pixels on a XTi here. Reading through the comments an update was posted from the author about a potential fix, via Flickr, was uncovered:

1. Put on a lens on your camera and set your camera to take RAW+L (raw & jpeg) photos on your camera.
2. Go into a dark area and take a few photos with varying ISO and shutter speeds, possibly even going as long as ISO 1600 with a 30 second shutter speed.
3. After you take the pictures press the menu button, the right arrow button and go to the “Tools 2″ setting, far right. Now select the “Sensor cleaning” setting — generally set to “Sensor cleaning:Auto”. Click on it and select “Clean now”. The sensor cleaning takes a few seconds. Wait 30 seconds.
4. Take another pictures in RAW+L (raw & jpeg), compare the pictures to those take in #2. Your hot or dead pixel should be gone.

I followed these steps exactly, returned to a dark room to see if the fix was successful and saw even more dead/hot pixels than before. You can click here to view the JPG version of the original 10MB RAW file that shows the pixels in question. I did the best I could to troubleshot this so I returned the camera to where it came from, and fortunately such a problem was covered under the extended warranty.

To continue my string of public service announcements, I am posting this in hopes that someone may try the sensor cleaning/dark photo steps if they come across a hot, dead or stuck pixel in their DSLR.

This is more of a public service announcement than anything, but thinking about the history I had in the last twelve months I wonder why no one noticed anything before. This is the story of my Petro-Points MasterCard.

I signed up for the Citibank MasterCard in 2005 and it came with a four year shelf life which expired January 2009. As we entered January I still had not received my replacement card and called MasterCard’s customer service inquiring about the status of my new card. I was told not to worry and that it would be delivered by the middle of the month.

Last week, the final week of the month, I still had not received my new card so I called MasterCard again and confusion abound. The agent I spoke with said that a replacement card was not sent because the last card they sent me was in 2008.

What?

In the last twelve months I have made several calls to MasterCard for various things (out of country usage, etc.) and they called me when some large items were charged (wedding reception) and no one, at any time, mentioned anything about a card being sent out in the beginning of 2008 or that I was using a card that was to be replaced.

The agent I spoke with did not provide any help or comfort in this matter, no explanation other than that it would take 7-10 business days for my new credit card to arrive. As it was the end of January I would not receive the replacement until February.

Normally this would not be a bad thing, I’m sure I can go weeks without using my credit card but when you are physically without it you do not realize how many things are tied to your credit card: iTunes, Amazon, PayPal, monthly renewals for products and gas to name just a few. All of those rely on a card that is now void and expired and I have no replacement.

I would have canceled my card with MasterCard at this point but I have developed a fairly nice credit limit and was afraid what would happen to my large collection of Petro-Points if I did.

Of course, over the last four years I have found no use for Petro-Points because they either have promotions not available in Alberta or only limited to participating locations.

I have been left fairly scorned by this whole experience, and this is not the first time a company has failed to send me a replacement card (Alberta Treasury Branch). I will wait patiently for another week and hope this is the last sour experience from MasterCard/Citibank as I will not hesitate to drop them and whatever redeemable points I have at Petro Canada.

Mortars, MRE’s, Kraut, foxholes, oscar mike, Easy company and Hitmen Victors have been my lingo for the last month. In that time I have watched Band of Brothers and Generation Kill. One has been touted as one of the best mini-series ever made and the other was ignored during this years award season.

Band of Brothers had been recommended to me by several people and I decided to see what made this show amazing. Halfway through the first episode I realized what was so great about this show. The characters had distinct personalities and there was something that made me immediately connect to them and want to know more.

As I went through the series I was amazed by the production value and emotion that the story evoked. There were several times I had to remind myself that this was a mini-series and not a movie because the visuals were outstanding. Before I was even completed watching the series I bought it on Blu-ray thanks to an Amazon Deal of the Day.

Generation Kill was based on the book of the same name which is about Marines during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At first I wanted Generation Kill to be more like Band of Brothers, and while the premise is similar, that is where their similarities end.

Generation Kill reminded me of Jarhead for the first half of the series because the Marines we follow are not seeing any action. Most of them just want to fire a round in combat and never get the chance because they are not being utilized properly and are put in bad tactical situations. The story is neither pro-war or anti-war, instead it does a fantastic job of describing what a soldier goes through in a time of combat and how management of troops can be almost as deadly as the enemy.

While Band of Brothers was a remarkable display of visuals Generation Kill created a tension and uneasy feeling by showing the companies progression to Baghdad and questioned if they were doing a ravaged Iraq. I am glad I took the time to watch Generation Kill but there were many times something reminded me of a Band of Brothers episode and a characters action would remind me of someone from Easy Company.

I would easily recommend each series but with heavy emphasis on Band of Brothers because what it created is more of art than it is television.

My Tube Challenge

In light of the world downturn, layoffs locally and abroad, you can’t help but wonder what life beyond your current situation would be like. For the last week I have been thinking about a quote from one of my favorite movies, Vanilla Sky.

Julie Gianni: What is happiness to you, David?

The question is simple enough but to answer it honestly requires some thought and personal insight. I know what I enjoy doing with my time but is any of that able to sustain me and grow into a career? I have taken that thought one step further and wondered what would make me utterly happy in a career. What is my perfect career?

What would offer me growth, happiness and money? Unless you are an entrepreneur or self employed and in control of every aspect of your job can you expect to obtain all three?

Should you just be content getting by with what you have, enjoying what your current job affords you or do you sacrifice a piece of the triangle for the other pieces of the pie? Obviously growth and enjoyment outweigh money, but overall happiness has to play into the delicate work-life balance.

At the age of 26 I thought I would be able to answer such questions easily but the truth is I don’t know. The fact that I am unable to answer this makes me wonder if I am apathetic toward the whole thing, and if I am just floating through life, which is a concerning and scary thought.

And still it all comes back to: What is happiness to me?

Nearly six months to the day I saw The Dark Knight in IMAX again. Since last July I have also seen The Dark Knight in a regular theater and twice from the comfort of my living room, and one of those was on Blu-Ray. Yet nothing can beat the feeling of seeing it on the six story high screen, even for a second time.

While watching it yesterday I had a realization that made me a little sad. During the scene where Harvey Dent is being transported by the GCPD and Joker and his “Slaughter House” truck track him down, I realized that this may be the last time I see this in IMAX. No matter what home theater I possess, my favorite scene in the movie would never be presented as beautifully I was witnessing then.

For the movie to get a second engagement in theaters is special but I don’t think this is something they would do again and it made me savor the remainder of the movie that much more. Because I was given another chance to see The Dark Knight how it was truly meant to be see I urge anyone who liked this movie enough to buy it, or had heard about it but never made it out to a theater, to see this before it rides off IMAX and into the darkened streets of Gotham City for good.