Monday, December 16, 2019

MP3 Players, FLAC Files, Black Christmas & Santa on a Flatbed Truck

Once again this was not too terribly exciting a week. I imagine people don't want to hear about me visiting a few local stores so I'll just mention that when I was at Lucky's Market one evening, I had dinner there along with purchasing several items; it was a sandwich I had. Thus, I will talk about one ordeal instead of getting into specifics on Monday through Thursday. I ended up getting a pair of new MP3 players... one for me and one for my mother. You see, she has an ancient iPhone Touch a few generations old that I am surprised still works. Unfortunately, because the songs on there were mostly burned on iTunes on an old computer she does not use anymore... when I tried to help her out by adding some Christmas CD's to the iPod Touch that were physically bought in a store that I had to rip on iTunes on a new computer... it would not accept that music because Apple in general is pretty terrible and I have thought that way of iTunes and their other products for YEARS now, despite the protests of many.

For the most part, you have to buy MP3 players online so I made that purchase; I won't get into why I need a new one. You could spend a LOT of money on one of those but instead I picked one at random which had a low price and a nice set of features. It has 32 GB of store and can accept up to 128 GB of a microSD card... it can record from other sources via an AUX chord, and can play a variety of file types, including a few lossless types. Thus, I was able to add a variety of different files I have in other places along with burning some CD's in the FLAC format... while that MP3 player will be listened via devices that are not top of the line in quality, I will still take advantage of being able to use FLAC files as they are quite superior to MP3 files. For my mom, I had to use a program to extract the iPod Touch music to the computer and then add them to her MP3 player. I have no idea how long they'll last as they are random products from a random Chinese company but there's been no problem with them.

To be specific, the reason why my mom needs to use an MP3 player is for her car because the CD player does not work properly anymore. Unfortunately, because of Apple being terrible, if you hook up the player to the car via USB, the data appears on the entertainment system and it does work... except that the old iPod songs are are all in one file while the new music just added does display properly and is properly separated. After Christmas I will have to get a USB to AUX connector as their vehicle does not have an AUX connection but what a rigmarole this entire things has been, all due to a lousy company that many people love and I am happy not to love.

Anyhow... Friday evening I went to Winter Garden Village and that experience was not out of the ordinary, except... on the road right by WGV, going the other way was a police escort, and they were accompanying... a Santa Claus in his sled which was actually on a flatbed trailer being towed by a big pickup truck!? A parade was not happening; I presume it was going from or to a parade, but Santa was waving to drivers... hopefully that distraction did not cause any accidents on this night. Sunday, the Chicago Bears losing to their rival Green Bay Packers... I only saw a few highlights of what sounded like a miserable game; rather, I was at a very busy Disney Springs to see a movie. I've viewed the original Black Christmas (from 1974) before and that is very good; even now it is intense and full of suspense. The 2006 remake I understand is bad but it has to be better than the new 2019 version. It is very “woke” and “SJW” and “feminist”, which was not the problem. The awful story, the lack of any scares and it terribly delivering its message in the most ham-fisted heavy-handed manner... that was the problem. And the explanation for what's going on is SO preposterous that ruins any point the movie tried to make. Of course, something starring young adult women and the director/writers also being young women probably will work better for that audience... then again, maybe not as most people are ripping it to shreds and I imagine even young women will think it is poorly made & the message is laid on way too thick.

Oh, and I had to view it in the Dine-In section of the AMC. That is where you order then eat food while watching the film. I had only been there once before, and dessert was the only grub I had as it was late at night. I received what I ordered in maybe 5 minutes and tasted as “good” as something which either was heated in the microwave or was under heating lamps. This was unfortunate; the Cinepolis that does this gimmick and any Studio Movie Grill offer much better food. Anyhow, I actually won't post anything new here until likely the end of the very year, because... reasons. I'll explain it when I return in about two weeks or so. I will have plenty to discuss.

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