MP3 encoding tips, portability vs. quality ►

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That's a title which may be better than the log entry you're getting. The 'posing nude'—you'll be glad to know—didn't involve me. This time. Stella was supposed to be appearing in Bizarre magazine #75, but apparently wound up in the issue after that. She definitely turned up at www.bizarremag.com shortly afterwards. They've moved onto other Bizarre Beauties now, so here's the saved page. It's not any more pornographic than Loaded (or some equivalent publication which isn't exploitative and crap) and is considerably more tasteful... *waves* Hi to Stella and Glyn! :)

The 'booze' bit stems from my not having summed up my haul from Poland yet, which ran to: a litre of absinth, a sword (replica, but no stainless steel rubbish), a Prague t-shirt, an Iron Maiden "Number Of The Beast" shirt, a sheep (or most of one, at any rate—it's a massive jumper), an illustrated guide to Poland (from camp), a plaster skull (which Mom seems to have adopted; not that she isn't welcome to it), a variety of small presents for immediate family members, a bendy kendo stick, two CDs of death metal MP3s, and some very pleasant memories.

I've since cleaned up the sword with some oil, a three-tone copper ring I bought in Llandovery (copper is a softer metal than steel, but harder than rust flakes) and light application of a metal pan scourer. Tarty smart, as the caveman in DinoSaw said.

Which leave 'tunes', and me reaching the conclusion that good music is worth spending a few minutes setting up equipment and buying some inexpensive cables for. I've switched my Sony boombox (still rather nice piece of tech) for my sister's older Bush system, which is great at copying onto tape. I've actually hooked the speakers up to the really cheap Alba player I bought in Llandovery, though, as the Bush system doesn't play CD-Rs, and I like making mix CDs of stuff I have elsewhere. Sound quality is pretty good, especially at the relatively low volumes I like to listen to music when working. Tracking down cables was surprisingly difficult—eBay being the first place I usually look for electricals, trying to convert "3.5mm stereo jack extension cable to female phono connectors" into a search string was miserably ineffective, and I don't think it's a common enough requirement to shift on eBay anyway. I was more successful at CyberMarket, which I think I found via a Google advert. The convertor, plus a jack-to-jack extension cable and a socket inverter was relatively inexpensive and much simpler than a trek to a Radio Shack or Maplins in this area, even assuming you can still find one of the former type of stores. Finely-controlled volume levels and a personally favoured bass balance are now mine, plus the speakers will now hook up to anything with a headphone socket and sufficient output. I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this feature-rich and happily space-saving arrangement, and suggest it to anyone with similar equipment lying around. Versatility > chasing new technology...

I'll leave you with a Jerry Springer style soundbyte: A neat collection of CD folders with individually protected discs is a wonderful thing, but still nothing beats having a stack of easily sifted CD-Rs next to the CD player. When they get too scratched to play, as they will, replacement is simple. That's all for now, and take care.

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