Today’s lesson: When someone smarter than you gives you advice, take it.
For years now, John, my computer guru, has been telling me to mind my metadata — tags, labels, genres, playlists. Take the time, when you download music, e-mail, photos, to put it where it belongs, or at the very least, slap a digital sticky on it. And remember to delete the crap you don’t want anymore. On today’s giant hard drives, single files can knock around like lost children in Calcutta, and someday you’ll need to find them, and where will they be? In Calcutta, that’s where.
Did I listen? Only with half an ear. And then, today, I accidentally deleted my “purchased music” playlist, and now all my iTunes Music Store tracks are at large in the Calcutta of my music library, which is a vast and crowded place, let me tell you. For reasons that have to do with the personal radio station of my iPod, WNN-dot-C, playin’ the sets that only one insane person would assemble, the ones that bump Tyrone Davis up against It’s a Beautiful Day and then hop to some Funkadelic and maybe some tango jazz from our Buenos Aires trip to take us to the top of the hour — to do this, I need my Purchased Music playlist, now vaporized.
One thing John has taught me, however, is how to solve my own problems (“Always happy to help, Nance. Really.”), so right now I’m figuring out a way to fix it. I’m sorting them by the iTunes proprietary file suffix (.m4p) and reassembling it.
Jeez, what a pain in the ass. Why do I have to learn everything the hard way?
Don’t answer that.
In the future: Mind your metadata, people. You’ll thank me.
(By the way, does anyone else have a K-tel album in their iPod? I do, now: “K-tel Presents: The Vogues and the Equals: Back to Back.” And to think, all I wanted was “Five O’Clock World.”)
Hump Day in Winter Break Week. I may yet go insane.
jcburns said on February 21, 2007 at 10:56 am
step 1: New smart playlist > match the following rule > kind contains ‘protected’…there is no step 2.
when you can snatch this ipod shuffle from my hand, grasshopper, THEN you will see.
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Connie said on February 21, 2007 at 10:59 am
If anyone has any advice on how to remove the 200,000 plus invisible temporary internet files from my hard drive…..I’ve tried everything!
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nancy said on February 21, 2007 at 11:01 am
Genius.
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Danny said on February 21, 2007 at 11:08 am
Master Po, this is wisdom.
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Danny said on February 21, 2007 at 11:10 am
Wow, my computer is a time machine. I can see what Master Po will post in the future. Which reminds me. A handy tip from Jack Handy:
If you are every travelling backward in time and you see someone travelling forward, it is probably best to avoid eye contact.
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jcburns said on February 21, 2007 at 11:40 am
Nancy’s blog was for some reason set to Atlantic Standard Time. Now it’s on Motown Standard.
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LA mary said on February 21, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Aretha did all her best work at Atlantic; much better than when she was on Motown.
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nancy said on February 21, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Not only that, Aretha lives in a big house in Bloomfield Hills, whereas Detroit proper is full of former Motown stars who got very little to show for it other than a bunch of 8-by-10 glossies.
Good career move.
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MarkH said on February 21, 2007 at 1:30 pm
jc – thanks, it’s about time (oops); I posted awhile back that the displayed time was only good in the nether parts of Maine and Nova Scotia.
Connie – I assume you’ve already tried MS disk clean-up? You have Norton SystemWorks, or some other protective device and have tried it already?
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MarkH said on February 21, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Really, Nance? “Five O’Clock World”? Jeez, I was in the 8th grade when that was a hit, and I’ve got at least five years on ya. Good taste, though…
Dorothy — care to pinpoint where the Vogues are from?
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Dorothy said on February 21, 2007 at 2:17 pm
TURTLE CREEK PENNSYLVANIA!!! My first zip code after I got married, mind you. 15145!
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brian stouder said on February 21, 2007 at 2:21 pm
My first zip code after I got married, mind you.
I’m pretty sure there’s a pun in there somewhere, too….
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nancy said on February 21, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I love crime fiction because the best of it is a better reflection of life at the moment than most literary fiction. And I love the two-minute hit single because it’s a direct line to certain simple emotions. “Five O’Clock World” = how good it feels at quittin’ time, when you can be with your beloved. It’s genius.
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LA mary said on February 21, 2007 at 4:51 pm
And it has that Jay and the Americans sound in parts.
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brian stouder said on February 21, 2007 at 5:12 pm
it’s a direct line to certain simple emotions.
here is an article that simply makes me mad.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17260399/from/ET/
I read an earlier version, wherein the “victims” are quoted more extensively, and it was one of those articles that makes you utter expletives out loud as you feel the hooks of the story (hot hot day, 6-month pregnant sister having contractions, traffic slowing to a crawl, sh1theads cutting you off – swerving in and out of your lane…and back IN again…and then their simmering self-righteousness…..
arrrrggghhh!!!
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Joe Kobiela said on February 21, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I always thought The Drew Carrey Show did that song proud.
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Anthony said on December 19, 2007 at 2:37 am
Can anyone tell me if “FIVE O’CLOCK WORLD” on that particular album (“K-tel Presents: The Vogues and the Equals: Back to Back.” ) is the original recording? I’ve downloaded several versions of it, but NONE are the original??? And, am I the only one who cares that there’s a difference?
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