Tag: mp3 player

Out Singer-Songwriter Justin Utley Released 2nd Studio Album ‘Nothing This Real’ 11/11/11

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay, It Gets Better, Music1 Comment

I believe that music touches the heart and soul.  Music inspires creativity and broadens our minds so that we can be great people.  Music derives from a Greek word “Mousike” which means “art of the muses” so it’s no wonder why it gives us inspiration.  Music has always been a part of my life.  When I was a teenager I listened to music all day long to drown out the real world, I guess that is where my creativity came from.

Every year before Spring begins, I seek out new music to add to my mp3 player so that I can listen to something that will get me through my 2 1/2 hour bike rides.  Today I got to listen to an openly-gay country/folk singer named Justin Utley.  He is a New York City based singer-songwriter and he released his first full-length studio album in 6 years entitled “Nothing This Real’ on November 11th.  I really enjoyed listening to his album because I love his voice and his singing style.  He isn’t bad to look at either.

I don’t know what it is about his music but it’s soothing to listen to.  Every song tells a story and every song I listened to I was able to relate to in one way or another.  I guess that is why I know I’m going to love listening to him.  I believe that he has a true “It Gets Better” story.  I found this information about him.

“An Ex-Mormon raised near Salt Lake City, Utah, Utley is perhaps the only openly gay performing artist to have survived ex-gay therapy, a practice that he vocally opposes. His experience coming to terms with his sexuality and religion have emerged as strong themes in his songwriting and on-stage storytelling.

“I’ve been asked if I could take any of it back, you know, what I’ve experienced.  I wouldn’t,” says Utley.  “Its part of me, my story, and its been a hell of a journey.  And I’m here to share that.”

I was a member of the Mormon church when I was a baby and again when I was a teenager.  I wasn’t as involved in the church as he was, but I believe that if we were more involved I probably would have been.

This is actually something that I have come to terms with in my life as well.  I wouldn’t take any of it back because it is what made me who I am today.  Intolerance towards me instilled my ability to be more tolerant towards others.  I was taught hate, but it ended up teaching me the opposite.  It seems like he has the same attitude.  It made him a strong person and that is what I like about him.  When you know an artists story, it makes you connect with them on a deeper level.

“Released in 2005, Utley’s first album Runaway received critical acclaim from audiences and critics in the LGBT community and created a dedicated online following.

“The lead single has been announced as Great Escape and was premiered by New York publication Next Magazine on their website on November 1st. It debuted on Sirius-XM’s OutQ radio channel following Utley’s interview with the Six Pack show on November 2nd. A music video for the single is scheduled for production in early 2012.”

It is too bad that I didn’t know about him back in 2005, but I’m glad to know him now.  Better late than never eh?

His single “Stand for Something” won the 2011 award for Outstanding Country/Folk song of the year by the LGBT Academy of recording arts.  That’s something to be proud of.  He has also acted; he played the lead role of Tommy Dautry in the New York musical “Our Country” which I also didn’t know since I live in Bakersfield.  He also won best actor at the Planet Connections theater festival in 2010.  That is something to really be proud of.

His latest album was released on 11/11/11 and is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon as well as his website and Facebook.

For more information including booking and interview requests, contact Dan Maierle – dmaierle@gmail.com.

Justin Utley is someone who I am going to be paying serious attention to.  I will definitely be buying his music to add to my mp3 player.

‘Meet Justin Utley’ EPK Video:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm4kc6zmfwI

My Computer is Back to Normal

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, TechLeave a comment

I have finally finished installing all the useful programs back on my computer. I decided against some programs that were too slow and not very helpful and downloaded some free programs that seem to be more help than the others.

I am not going to use Adobe Photoshop Elements v1 anymore which I got it for free with my camera many years ago. I found a new program that has way more features called Gimp. Gimp is free and it has so many cool things in it so I’ll be using that from now on. I went to the Adobe website to find out what the new version of PhotoShop is and it’s CS5 and it’s $600 so um… no thanks. $600 is a lot of money to be able to fix the red eye in my pictures lol.

I’m going to be using Google Picasa to download the pictures off of my SD card via my printer where I can straighten the picture, fix the lighting etc but I will use Gimp for other daunting tasks like creating banners for my blog or whatever it is I feel the need to do that doesn’t cost $600 lol.

Before I reformatted my computer, I discovered a bunch of new free programs like Gimp that I could download to replace all my old software. But there were some programs that I didn’t have and now I do.

There are a couple of video programs that I am finding useful now such as WinFX Video Converter which does what it’s name suggests. You can convert videos to different formats like for your PSP, cell phone or mp3 player. That helps for me because I like to put my edited home videos on my PSP because sometimes when I play them for people on their DVD player, the DVD doesn’t play right and they can’t see it. They can see it on my PSP if the DVD doesn’t work.

When I turn my edited home videos into DVD files in the past, I had to use a program that added watermarks to my videos because I couldn’t afford to pay the $50 for the software but then I found Free DVD Creator. I haven’t used it yet so I’m not completely sure it’s what I want but it makes menu’s and turns my videos to DVD files for free and that’s all I can afford. Since I haven’t used it yet, my worst fear is that it will put my videos out of sync but I will have to do a test soon to see how it works out. I hope it doesn’t disappoint.

I’ve been using Wordpad for years to type letters, not that I type many letters but it’s the only word processor that comes with Windows for free. But, I found Open Office has a bunch more options than Wordpad and it’s free. I’ve actually known about it for quite some time but I never really tried it until now. I love it! I will definitely be using this from now on. Especially for my book. I’ve written a few chapters so far and now that I have Open Office, I can finally write them with a good spell check since I downloaded the add on called “After the Deadline” which is actually a plugin I use here on my blog.

Look, I’m not a cheap skate who refuses to spend money on software, I just can’t afford the high prices that these companies charge. Like take Adobe for example. They keep coming out with upgrades for their software that costs $600. Who can afford to keep buying the upgrades at $150 a pop every time they have a new version? Not me! Even a $50 program is out of my price range. If I have $50 it’s going towards groceries, you can bet on that.

Anyway, I didn’t install everything that I used to have because it’s too much on my computer and it was making everything so slow. Why have all this useless software on my computer that I never even use? So… it’s gone. Finally. Now I can go on with my life with a faster computer again.

New iPod Touch

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gadgets, MusicLeave a comment

When I was 11 years old I got my first walk-man which played audio cassettes (and sometimes ate them). That was in 1981. In 1989 when I was 19 years old I bought my first CD player walk-man. It was big and bulkier than the cassette version but it was pretty darn cool and I was paranoid to let anyone see it for fear of it being snatched.

In the late 90′s I remember seeing the first mp3 player, I think it was the Rio(?).  It only stored a few cd’s which to me is bogus for the price but whatever. Then the iPod came out and that was pretty darn cool.

In 2005 I got the Dell DJ but I wish that I had gotten an iPod instead.

What a long way we have come that we now have an mp3 player that not only plays music but also video games, records HD video, views websites and now has a new thing called FaceTime which allows you to have a live video streaming phone call with someone. And it’s not even an iPhone either, it’s an iPod, a music player. The walk-man of the 21st century if you will.

Amazing!  What will they come up with next?

Leggo my ebook

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, NookLeave a comment

I feel so stupid for waffling so much on this issue. I want a Kindle real bad because it’s the iPod of the e-book reader world. When I got my mp3 player I bought the Dell DJ but I was stupid, I should’ve gotten an iPod. Now, Dell doesn’t support fixing the Dell DJ. Heck, they don’t support anything with that product anymore. They won’t give you software updates, firmware updates, nothing. Not even tech support. They won’t even help me get a battery that works. I’m on my own with that and I can’t even find a company that will send me one that fits. I bought one in July and it still hasn’t shown up. I did get a refund though.

I got a tweet from Sony when I asked someone on Twitter if I should get Kindle or Nook and Sony said to get Sony Reader. So I thought ok I’ll check out their website. I did look at the Sony Pocket reader and although they have a good e-book reader it’s not as good as the touch BUT I did see some video reviews on that and they say that you can barely read the screen because of the touch feature. Also I can just see the screen getting so marked up from using that stylus pen that I won’t be able to read anyway. You know I’m gonna be drawing on it all the time on the books and on the drawing screen.

The Sony touch is what I really want BUT I wish they had an online store that I can buy books wirelessly through the reader and not have to plug it in every time I want to buy a book. I don’t want to be visiting family and have to use their computer to buy a book and have to install the software on someone elses computer. Ya know?

In their tweet, Sony told me about being able to check out library books and so I downloaded their software to check it out and went to the library link and they said I can only check out library books if I have a library card which I do for the Kern County Library which unfortunately is not in their system. So that feature is 100% useless for me.

The review I watched, the e-book reader was flawless but then when I watched another video, the Sony touch was slow to turn the page. He would swipe the screen and the page didn’t turn at all. He had to swipe again and other times he swiped the screen and it took 10 seconds to turn the page. I am way too impatient to wait 10 seconds for the page to turn.

Also, they said that they do supply a USB for it but that’s it. No A/C adapter for charging. Hello? They said that is a $30 accessory. What? Seriously? Although I did read that it uses the PSP power cable which I do have but I find that ridiculous that they are charging so much money for an e-book reader and they won’t even supply you a freaking a/c adapter.

The Sony touch has some good and bad and the bad outweigh the good for me.

I really want a nook or kindle because of the wi-fi feature and online store. I don’t care about 3G, I really don’t. I just want to be able to connect with a WiFi connection at home or at a friend’s house using their WiFi or if we’re out and about then I can use the public WiFi at a Starbucks or McDonald’s.

The Nook has the lend feature which is totally useless to me as well. I don’t know anyone who has a Nook and I highly doubt that me buying a Nook is going to bring me Nook buddies. Also the little screen on the Nook is too slow for me.

Although, the good thing about the Nook is that if I have an issue with it I can just bring it to a Barnes and Noble and maybe they can help me with it. I do want to go to a Barnes and Noble to play with one to see how fast or slow it is. Not just the color screen but page turns and startup and all. I want to be convinced with a in store demonstration.

If I don’t like it then I will go Kindle. But, there are still 2-3 weeks to waffle er um I mean decide.

The Next PSP

On By Michel McDonaldIn PSPLeave a comment

Sony ready to unveil it’s PSP Go at E3 tomorrow | Dvice

PSP Go Video Game, E3 09: Conference Footage 2

Ok so here we go, they have a new PSP out which is their 4th gen called PSP Go.  This PSP is smaller, same widescreen but it flips up so you can use the control buttons below the screen instead of on the sides of it.  It then closes so you can watch movies or TV shows or even use it as an mp3 player and not have any buttons pressed while it’s in your bag.

The PSP Go has a 16GB flash memory as well as a Memory Stick Micro slot which is a different name from the one that is currently in the PSP which is Memory Stick Duo so no you can’t use the one that you already use in your current PSP.  They took away the UMD slot so all those games that you bought you can’t use anymore.  You have to buy all your games via the PlayStation store online.

It also has Bluetooth Support.  I don’t know what that means for the PSP though.  When I think of Bluetooth I think of a cell phone earpiece.  What does Bluetooth mean for a PSP Go?

On the video (which is the 2nd link above) at the E3 the guy talks about how people like to buy the actual physical product.  There will be a new media manager for PC so I’m guessing that maybe you plug your PSP 2 or 3 into your computer via the USB and it probably converts the UMD into files that you then upload to your PSP Go.  But that is just what I think that means, I don’t know for sure.  Who knows, but he did mention something about being able to buy the UMD even though you can’t use it in this thing.

I don’t know about this one.  I like my PSP 2000.  I didn’t upgrade it to the PSP 3000 when that came out because the only upgrade it had was a mic on the front so you don’t need a headset to call people with Skype and it had a more matte finish on the screen so you don’t get glare from lights or the sun.  With a $250 price tag I’m still not convinced that I need to upgrade to the PSP Go.

I kinda prefer having a UMD and being able to put it in the UMD slot when I want to play a game which of course means searching for the game I want but that’s perfectly fine by me.  I don’t know if I want to fill my 16GB flash memory with games then have to use a memory stick to add more.  Call me old fashioned lol.

Bad CD

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

On Sunday, the day before we left for San Diego, I burned a bunch of CD’s from music that I bought online (mp3’s for my mp3 player) so that we have some good music to listen to during our ride and I was totally disappointed when one of the CD’s didn’t play at all.  It was the latest Backstreet Boys CD called Unbreakable.  The 2nd song played fine but all the rest of the songs didn’t play at all.  I don’t know what happened.

I also burned the Charmed Final Chapter CD which I love personally because the songs remind me of the show which I miss.  Darrin wasn’t into that CD though and there were 2 Buffy the Vampire Slayer CD’s that I put in the cars CD player (it holds 6 discs) and I didn’t bother playing those because if he didn’t like the Charmed one then forget about the buffy ones hehe.

I think I’m going to start up the thing with Yahoo where you pay $15 a month and you get unlimited music downloads as opposed to having to pay $15 and get 15 songs from iTunes.  I will most likely only get a few CD’s here and there and not that often but who knows.

PSP GPS

On By Michel McDonaldIn PSPLeave a comment

WOOHOO I just read at www.pspfanboy.com that the GPS for PSP is coming to the US in 9 months YAY! I can’t wait. If the GPS is coming in 9 months the camera and tv tuner wont be too far behind. You know what this means don’t you? That will make the PSP the ultimate device.

As it is the PSP is a mp3 player, a picture viewer, movie player, game machine, website browser, cell phone and internet radio player. All we need now are the GPS, Camera and TV tuner. The PSP already has the camera option in the pictures menu so we don’t need to worry, just plug in the camera and were set.

EDIT: Ok, I just read some more news, the camera for the PSP will never see the US so you have to buy it from an asia website and unfortunately it’s back ordered lol.  But I have a camcorder with a SD card that I can do video on mini DVD’s as well as take pictures with the SD card so I don’t care about that but the good news is that the GPS hardware is coming this holiday season which is faster than 9 months.  It’s more like 4 or 5 months which is awesome.  I can’t wait because when we take trips I have to use my laptop for our GPS and it gets hot sitting on my lap and if I have the GPS for PSP I can just get a mount for it.

Safe Holidays

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, Holidays, PSPLeave a comment

I just wanted to wish everyone very safe holidays. There isn’t really much going on here. I’m knitting stockings for Christmas and I want to make some ornaments for the tree which by the way we haven’t decorated yet hehe. I put it up but it hasn’t been decorated.

I want to buy a PSP for myself because I deserve a treat, however, I can’t find one anywhere, not even on the internet. I don’t want a used one because my neighbor told me his has a virus, yes a virus. They can go to websites and you can catch a virus from a website so if you go to a website with a PSP you can get a virus and I’m sure used ones are at risk. I have a 50/50 chance of buying an infected PSP so I just feel I might as well buy a new one.

The Core ones which are $165 or something. The ones that come with a game are $199. I could buy a Nintendo DS but those don’t go to websites nor do they play movies or let you view your photos or work as a mp3 player. I also saw a PSP with GPS capabilities, I assume you can buy the GPS for any PSP. I will have to wait until after the holidays to try to buy one. I’m sure they will be on sale after Christmas and/or New Years Day.