I'm currently attending some new employee orientation for UVM. We're watching the inauguration (I guess we're on break), but this morning we went over a few things, also took a trip around campus, did some UVM history stuff. It wasn't really that fun, although I learned a few neat things about the history of UVM. How that'll help me perform my job better, I don't know.

I actually got an email about the orientation last week or something, but some how it got lost. Trust me, being an IT person, I definitely felt like an idiot. Last night I was scrambling around to figure out when and where this thing was. This morning I finally got it all taken care of. I was like 30 minutes late to the thing, but whatever...I didn't miss the most important parts.

This weekend I went down to see Keith. I also got a new iPhone (since the silencer switch snapped off mine) and to get the topcase on my black MacBook replaced. Definitely was nice to see him. Last time I had seen him was when I went to do consulting with him at Yellow Stain, I mean Steel. What fuckers haha. The drive down was nice, I finally got through some Diggnation episodes, although not enough to really make a dent in my 700+ unlistened podcasts lol. There were cars off the road all over the place. I actually saw some lady go flying off. She blew by me, and in my mind I thought, "Yep see you in the ditch lady..." and sure enough 500ft down the road there she was. Sitting in a snowbank, haha. I made really good time though, considering the roads were crap.

So Monday, we went to the Apple Store, got all my stuff switched out. I think the girl who helped me, also helped me back in the Spring when my 8GB 1G iPhone crapped out. Keith works at this store too, so that made it a bit nicer too. I would much rather travel down there then deal with the AT&T Stores up here an/or Small Dog. Our Unicel stores just turned into AT&T stores so I have a feeling they wouldn't have the iPhone as a service part yet (but I could be wrong), but it's my best friend and seeing him is a lot of fun!

After my Apple Store appointment, I came home, hit up the barn first to get my stalls cleaned and then went back home. Emilie and I then went over to my parents, did some laundry and got some food. I also got a bunch of goods from my mom, some bacon, yogurt, granola, and some raviolis. I love going there, my parents are awesome.

This morning as mentioned was filled with some chaos as I had to figure out all this orientation crap. Since I'm full time now, I guess I've really got to hold up to my responsibilities, I've really gotta do well too cause I really like being able to work for the university and I am definitely going to take advantage of it. I'm hoping to take a bunch of classes, maybe this summer if not then, definitely in the fall. While I definitely DO NOT see myself working in the department I am currently in, I know I do not want to, I'd end up killing myself. So yeah, there's a master plan, there always is, and I believe this step into full time here, is just one of the steps that will get me to a higher and better place at some point. I've just got to do what I've been hired too, and all will be good. There just seems to be an overwhelming amount of things I've got to do, and rules and protocols to follow. I think I might be blowing it up a bit more then I should though. I am sure everything will be fine. :) It's just a lot for me all at once, it'll settle down :)

Last night after Emilie and I got back from my parents, we just put on our PJs, snuggled into the warn bed and started watching Gran Torino. I had no idea what it was going to be about. I'm probably 3/4th the way through the movie though. We ended up falling asleep, so I'll probably finish the rest when I get home.

So during this entry, President Obama is now really the president, someone who knows me messaged me on iChat, I have no idea who they are...I've filled out some health/dental insurance forms...

I am hoping this orientation isn't very much longer. I think the lady said something about the forms taking about an hour to fill out and then I hope that's the end. I then plan on getting some food and I'll probably just head home haha I might go back to the office, but I really just don't feel like dealing with these people haha

I've been listening to a lot of Asian Kung-Fu Generation lately. But I'd really love to get into some more JROCK bands and stuff. Does anyone have anything for me? Send me stuff!! :)

I AM SOOOO HUNGRY!!!!

I just purchased a demo video iPod from Small Dog Electronics. It's got a couple scratches but hey, it's a demo unit, I cannot really complain. It's in pretty good condition, as a matter a fact I think I am the one who tested and made sure this iPod works, so now I really can't complain! It's 30GB and black.

The reason I bought this was because I was testing another video iPod and I actually was watching Aeon Flux on it. I know many people were complaining about how small the screen in and crap like that, but it's really not that bad. I have had a Sony PSP for about a year now and even though that screen is noticibly larger then the video iPod, I can manage watching full length movies on here. Poo poo on the people that complain it's too small. If it's too small then don't watch movies on it, don't buy one, stop complaining, jeez.

So the reason for buying this was to obviously watch movies. In order to do that I have to convert them into a format that can be read by the iPod! I know when the iPod video first came out that a bunch of Apple sites ran articles on which programs to use for this sort of thing. Of course the searches provided on those sites/blogs are horrible so I wound up using good ole' Google. I came across one application which is 100% and works great called, iSquint. You can view the programs home page here. it converts tons of different video types without the need of installing the extra codecs. It took me about 1 hour to convert The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe AND The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on my PowerMac G4 1.25GHz DP machine. So I am pretty psyched about that.

But what if I have a DVD that I want to convert to something usable by the iPod. Whenever I've done a DVD-RiP I have used Handbrake. It has always created the best rips for me and it is so simple to use. Click, click, wait, done! So I searched up Handbrake on Google and found their home page. Apparently they have a nice little program which is based from Handbrake but converts just for iPod and Sony PSP!! It's called Instant Handbrake and works mostly like the original version but makes video files just for the iPod and PSP. So now I am ripping Seabiscuit and it says it's going to take 3 hours which seems a little much. Usually it only takes and hour to do this...so we'll see.

Overall I am very impressed with the video iPod. It's great for on the go or just watching movies at my desk here...even at the retail price of $299 for the 30GB it's a great gadget. Now I can watch video podcasts too!

Update: I've been getting some videos from Gamespot.com and they're all in WMV format which doesn't really play nice with Windows media files. I tried to use iSquint to convert it since the iSquint website said it worked with WMV files, but it really doesn't so don't let that fool you. Maybe it's just the WMV9 codec or something, who knows. So I went through 10 other Mac based applications that said they would work with WMV files and they didn't. So I figured well, maybe Microsoft Windows would play nice with its own types of files.

I borrowed my girlfriends Dell with Windows XP SP2 and installed this application called WinAVI, which was free and quite easy to use. It worked perfectly fine and then I put the videos on my iPod.

Now there is one non-free program for Mac called Flip4Mac and it says it can convert WMV files into something the Mac can better read, but I believe it costs about $30 that I don't have...plus most of my movies aren't WMV format.