I seem to have solved my GarageBand issues.  I moved my file from the thumbdrive I was running it off of (which I realize was probably the original problem) to my hard drive where GB saves everything.  I also updated QuickTime and, because I read this in a GB forum, moved all movie files from my Movies folder.  I also ran my maintance scripts (repaired permissions, etc) and I didn't have any problems tonight--no crashes, no freezing up and no lost sound files.

I have about 5 minutes of the first episode recorded and I'll admit this is taking WAY longer than I thought it would--but, part of it is due to me still learning the whole process.  Heck, I spent a good ten minutes just deciding what music to use for a new scene. I honestly think that once I've done a few of these I'll start cranking them out faster, because I won't be wasting too much time trying to figure stuff out.

And I finally messed around with WordPress today, which is what I'll use to overhaul magicofeyri.com and make it a podcasting/blog site.  I was sneaky and installed WordPress over on themagicofeyri.com, which I'm glad I registered: it gave me a way to test out WordPress without jacking up my other sites. You can go there if you want, but there isn't anything worthwhile, as I'm just using it as a test dummy. I originally bought that domain just to redirect if something thought to type in 'themagicofeyri.com' and also magicofeyri.com just sounds better.

I'm still having fun, and that's the important thing...even though part of me thinks I'm going to make myself go crazy by doing all these different voices for characters (well...crazier).

Well the recording of my first podcast episode took a nasty turn today.  I opened my GarageBand file and right away I'm greeted with a message about some kind of Region Error.  Then I notice that some parts of my narration track are out of order.  I fix everything, GarageBand crashes, so I reoopen it and get another error message that it can't locate one of my Recording files.  So now parts of my narration track are totally gone. I rerecorded them and GarageBand gave me more messages (or crashed).

Ugh.

So, I'm thinking I may stick with recording everything in Audacity--which took me some time to figure out how everything works.  Nothing against Audacity, but I just like GarageBand more, however if GB is going to keep crashing then I'm not gonna waste my time with it.  I may try recording everything in Audacity, exporting the final parts and putting it all together in GarageBand.  I can do that in Audacity as well, but tweaking things in GarageBand is easier.

I'm still in the early days of this so I realize this is just part of the learning process, but I'm still not happy.  this is why I wanted to record stuff on my iBook instead of my eMac: my iBook has more prosessor power (1.4 Ghz instead of 700-something Mhz). Once I get my H2 Zoom recorder I can start recording stuff on my iBook and perhaps give GarageBand another go (which would be my preference).

I got the one thing I really wanted for Christmas, the Netflix Roku player ($99)--you can stream movies (on demand) from Netflix's website to this player and watch them on your TV.  I've wanted this for a while, since I have pre-Intel Macs and can't watch stuff on my laptop or eMac via their site.  And besides, being able to watch them on a 27" TV instead of a 14" laptop is a huge difference.

The way it works is you set up your Watch Instant queue on the Netflix site, then you turn on your Roku (which is either connected to the 'net via wireless or an ethernet connection).  The Roku finds your queue (don't know yet how that works as I have not set it up yet) and bam! you zap what's on your queue to your TV.

This of course means I can watch any of the Watch Instantly stuff whenever I want, including such classics as Ben-Hur, Dr. Who episodes and Ernest, Scared Stupid.  You can't watch everything on Netflix, but I was looking for things last night and there are tons of stuff available--and with it being on demand, I'm more likely to just take a chance with things I wouldn't nomrally want to wait a couple days to get a DVD of (I added a bunch of 1970s Blaxplotation films to my queue for this reason...why not?  I've always wanted to see Shaft and Super Fly.)

I think devices such as this--as well as cable on demand--is (are?) the future of TV and movie channels.  I'm paying $14.99 a month for two dvds out at a time with unlimited rentals -- and I get unlimited on demand viewing too.  Combine that with the $43 I'm paying for cable internet (and "broadcast basic" cable) and I'm getting a pretty good deal. Full cable packages with Internet tip the scale around, if not over, $100.  One of the things I hate about "full cable" and pay channels is that most of it I wouldn't watch, so I'd be paying a lot of money for stuff I don't want to watch.

With Netflix, I'm paying for what I want to watch.  Not an extra 40+ channels of crap I could care less about (and most of it boring, uncreative reality TV).

Oh wow--you can watch seasons of Air Wolf instantly too!  See you in the Spring.

I smited (...smoted?) my router last night and solved my Internet problem.  Reading the Trouble Shooting portion of the manual was a big help...who'd a thunk it?  All I had to do was unplug my modem for 3 minutes (with the router still on and connected) and then plug it back in.  BAM.  Internet, ahoy!  Hello again, Lolrus--I missed you.

I came back from holiday to find that my Belkin Wireless G Plus MIMO router ain't working. Not fun. The problem is not my cable internet, as I ran a line straight out of the modem to my computer and that was fine--it is something with the router and as the tree said to the lumber jack, I am stumped.

I reset the modem (several times), reset the router both by unplugging it and telling it to reset via my control panel. Nothing. Reinstalled the latest firmware update. Nothing. Restored the router back to factory defaults. Nothing.

Ugh. The weird thing is that in my eMac's control panel is that it says it is connected to the Internet--but if I open Firefox (or any other browser) nothing happens. And if I go to the router's control panel in a browser, that says I am not connected. What gives? I am very much considering buying a different router, as I've had other problems with it. Prior to leaving for the holiday, I would lose my connections off and on while online. On my ibook this meant just reselecting my network but on my desktop it meant closing my browser, waiting for a few seconds and then reopening it. Perhaps this was an omen of what was to come.

But the thing is on, and lights are flashing. So I have no idea what to do. I'll do some research tomorrow, but I am at a loss.

The irony of this is that up until about 9 months ago i was against having wi-fi at my place. I just didn't wanna do it. Well, I changed my mind and now I can't live without it (or play Wii games online).

Seriously, what can you trust these days? Conan's daddy tells us:

Good news--downloaded instrumental version of the Ghostbusters theme from iTunes (along with Savin' the Day).

Bad news--my iPod had a massive heart attack over the weekend. I got the dreaded Exclamation Point Folder icon. Thats bad, but thankfully not as bad as the terminal Sad iPod icon.

Being able to play music is an important part of my costume, and the whole reason I bought the battery powered portable speakers from Big Lots (which are actually pretty dang good to be honest), so if I can't get this figured out I'll be a very sad Ghostbuster.

All is not lost though--however all of my music on my iPod is, but that's a whole other post--it looks like I can try and fix it up. I did a Restore on the iPod, which resets all the software and erases all of the music, hoping that'd be the quick fix. It might, but after a bit of reading I figured out I need to fully charge it. I had run the thing down to almost nothing--which was the reason I plugged it into Girlfriend's MacBook, to charge it. It was fine for awhile, I even put music on it. But then I noticed on the desktop that the iPod icon had changed to a removable drive icon--that ain't good.

iTunes then proceeded to freeze up on me, as did the whole computer. I had to do a forced shutdown (holding down the power button on the laptop until it shut off), and the iPod still showed the Do Not Disconnect icon. Eventually I got the Folder icon and started to panic. I reset the iPod a few times before finally caving and doing the Restore. Ugh.

Hopefully I'll get this figured out. I really don't want to have to add $249 for the cost of a new iPod to my costume budget (but on the positive side, I'd have a 120 iPod instead of just a 20 gig).

Other options are: just using Girlfriend's iPod or buying a cheap iPod Shuffle and getting a full size one later (I wouldn't be against this, as a shuffle would be easier for me to take running).