So in addition to the iPod that I recently bought (then lost, and had returned to me), I’ve bought a few other new tech toys recently. 

One of them is a new phone, a Verizon Wireless XV6700 (see right).   As you can probably guess from that image, it’s a phone/Pocket PC. It’s got a side-keyboard (which is basically QWERTY keyboard) that slides out from behind the phone when you want to use it, and is hidden behind the phone when not needed; the screen shifts from portrait to landscape view as necessary. Very cool. Initially, I found I liked it much more as a Pocket PC than I liked it as a phone; I couldn’t seem to get the volume loud enough for my liking. Through googling, I did discover some registry hacks that enabled me to boost the volume a bit; I remain puzzled, however, why it wasn’t easier to adjust it manually.  Sure, there’s a volume control, but even at its highest setting, I wasn’t previously satisfied with it.  Now, I’m okay with it, though it still isn’t a *great* phone.  Overall, it’s a great *gadget,* when you factor in all of its capabilities though. Having the integrated Pocket PC is very cool, as it ensures that I’ll never be without something to read. And it’s got full mobile-web capability, meaning I can not only check my email, I can also actually surf the web, though of course many sites are all but unreadable on mobile browsers.  Still, it’s handy. It’s also got integrated bluetooth, so I got myself a bluetooth headset to go along with it; that I’m not too happy with. It *really* isn’t as loud as I need it to be; or, rather, it’s not loud enough when you need it most (i.e., in the car). 

Speaking of bluetooth, when I bought my iPod and continued to get my earbud cord tangled on things, I wondered why in the hell Apple hasn’t made an iPod with integrated bluetooth for wireless headphones.  Well, there still isn’t any such thing, but there are bluetooth iPod accessories, such as the iMuffs bluetooth headphones (which conveniently also works as a bluetooth phone accessory).  Haven’t gotten this one yet (it’s on its way), but it sounds pretty awesome.

And speaking of wireless things in general, the other day I got myself a wireless laser mouse, which is way cool too. I’m not sure what the difference between a laser mouse and an optical mouse is exactly, but the box claims that the laser mouse (or this one anyway) is 20x more accurate than an optical mouse (not that I ever had any accuracy problems with my old corded optical mouse).  When I bought my current PC, I opted for the wireless keyboard option, which came with a wireless mouse too, but the mouse that came with the keyboard was such a featureless piece of crap, I couldn’t bear to give up my optical mouse.  I’d grown accustomed to the handy back and forward buttons located on the sides of the mouse, and the one that came with my keyboard didn’t have them (so into the Big Box of Computer Peripherals I’m-Not-Currently-Using-But-May-Someday-Want in the basement). 

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I’ve never had to buy actual living room furniture before, so I’m not sure how much this stuff should cost. I was browsing this furniture store today, which is going out of business and so has clearance sales, and I found a couple love seats I liked (which is really the only thing I’m looking for). What I really want is a love seat that also has the leg rests that pop up like in a recliner. At this store, they had several of those to choose from, ranging from around $800 for leather models and $600 for fabric models. Is it just me, or does that price seem kind of high for something that’s on clearance? I could be totally off-base, and this might be a good price though; as I said, I have no experience in this realm. Any advice?

I’ve seen inexpensive love seats elsewhere, but none that had the foot rests I want. I’m figuring this love seat will be my primary television-watching seat, so being a comfortable item is muy importante.

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This is an interesting idea: Jeff VanderMeer just released a special edition of his collection Secret Life, which is being called the “Select Fire Remix.” I can’t say I’ve seen a collection remix before, but the idea intrigues me. It says here on the letter enclosed with the book:

This remix contains new material (including graphics), edited original material, and a far greater sense of play. It also excludes five stories that [VanderMeer doesn’t] think hold up under scrutiny (although they are still present in a way).

In addition, the story notes have been greatly expanded, the title story now snakes its way through the whole narrative, and [they’ve] added a meta story on what traditionally would be blank pages.

The letter also promises other changes that the editors will leave it up to the reader to discover.

While on the subject of remixes, I’ll go ahead and blather on about metal for a bit. Trivium recently released a new album, whose title track, The Crusade, is a virtuoso instrumental piece with brilliant, complex guitar work. But. My only gripe with the song is that instead of concluding, it merely fades out, which felt to me like a complete let down. The reason I bring it up in relation to remixes is that this is a song that could really be remixed — if only to change the ending. And the thing is, I think the right ending is right there in the song; there’s one part of the song that, if brought back around at the end, seems to me like it would have been a perfect return to what I think is the best part of the song, and would be a way to conclusively end the damn thing, rather than trailing off. I’m tempted to play around with it in Audacity, to make my own remix, but I fear that it’s probably pretty complicated and would only frustrate me.

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Another thing I’ve neglected to post recently is the fact that Subterannean Press has made the John Scalzi-edited cliche issue available as a free PDF-download [PDF]. That issue includes my article on cliches, “It Came From the Slush Pile.”

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God bless the men and women who work at the Hampton Inn Austin-NW/Arboretum. The maid who cleaned my room did find my iPod and set it aside in the lost and found. I imagine my room was somewhat confusing, as I actually left quite a bit of other stuff in there–a few books and pamphlets from World Fantasy that I didn’t want to pack and take with me (and also the broken strap of my watch band), but of course the iPod was not just a really good tip. The fact that I’ll be getting the iPod back restores my faith in humanity.

I’m not really sure why the hotel didn’t call me immediately once the maid cleaned the room, to inform me that I’d left some stuff in there, but I can’t complain about the end result!

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I don’t know why I never thought to google the phrase “transcription software,” but it occurred to me today, and up came the website for Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software. It looks like it used to be shareware, but is now freeware. I downloaded it and played with it a bit, and it seems to be pretty great. It has an audio player built into the same program as a text editor, so you can play your audio file, transcribe in the same program, and use the function buttons to execute transcription commands, such as the most essential one of all: rewind. And you can even set how far back it jumps each time you hit rewind — 5, 10, 15 seconds, whatever works best for you. It also has a rather useful feature that slows down the audio speed, so that when transcribing interviews, it’s easier to type what the subject is saying. I’ve used something like this before, but this is much superior to anything I’ve tried, as it manages to slow the speech down, yet has very little distortion.

If you have need of such a thing, I highly recommend checking it out. Not only does it seem to work pretty great, but the price is also right: free.

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Get out there and vote today, people. Well, Democrats that is. Democrats vote today. Republicans are supposed to vote tomorrow. No, really.

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Just got back from World Fantasy, and will likely post a wonderful con report like thing tomorrow, but I wanted to just quickly, before passing out from exhaustion, put out this notice that I seem to have misplaced my iPod, and so if anyone at the convention happened to have found one, to please let me know. It’s a brand new 80 GB black video iPod, in a black Marware case. If you take it out of the case, it’ll be obvious it’s mine, as it’s got my name and phone number engraved on the back of it.

I’ve called lost and found at the hotel I stayed at, at the con hotel, and the rental car place, but all of their lost and found departments were closed for the night, so it’s possible it’ll turn up at one of these places. No need to check the airline, as I checked no luggage, and it was on the plane that I discovered it was missing. But if anyone has any other ideas, please speak up! It would be quite sad if I’ve lost it; I only just bought it like a week or two ago.

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Ralan just posted the winning stories of the 2006 Grabber Contest. My friend Amy Tibbetts won for her story “Builders of the Bone Castle,” which you can read here. The second and third place winners (and honorable mentions) can be accessed by the buttons at the top of the page; initially, I didn’t notice them there and was looking for links in the main Table of Contents page, so that’s why I point it out. Congrats to Amy, and to the other winners!

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Oh my god! Someone stole my tub!

Originally uploaded by slushgod.

Well, actually, they just took it and left it in the back yard. For more photos of the destruction, check out this photoset.

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