Well, apparently Pixxel has no intention of blogging even though he said that he would (see: …And We’re Back!). Oh well… What do you think I should do to him?-l8r EBP 

While my first post on getting albums with different artists to group will work for most songs you try to group, I have found that it doesn’t work all the time. My album is the beatmania 8th Style soundtrack, a two disc set with a total of 57 songs. It made sense that both Disk 1 and Disk 2 wouldn’t go into the same group, because they had different album names, but I was surprised that iTunes would group it by artist even when I tried to group them into their respective discs. The internet provided no answers for me this time, and I was left to play around with the settings myself.

After hours of frustration, I was almost ready to delete iTunes forever and then format my hard drive so as to make sure the disease wouldn’t spread. That’s when I noticed something new to iTunes 7: album artist. This field was left blank, and since I had tried everything else, I put “Various Artists” in the information of both CDs. Amazingly, that was all it took to get iTunes to realize how retarded it was being, and quickly displayed the groups like they should be.

I should note that it isn’t a perfect solution, you now have two groups of one album. From here, there are two solutions: take off the disc 1 or 2 ending and have all the album names the same, or just let it be two groups. The one you choose is just based of personal preference.

-Pixxel

There’s no excuse for me neglecting to post for 2 months - I simply got too lazy. But laziness no more! This blog is back in action and it’s going to be better than ever, starting with a more in-depth look at iTunes album grouping. Also, there may be a surprise in store in the near future

-Pixxel

It’s 2:30PM. I’m supposed to go to my brother’s school when it gets let out at 3:00, because my mom won’t get there on time and they can’t be left alone out there. I decide to take my bike. Things start out fine, until I turn to go down a rather steep hill, and my pedal suddenly comes off. I stop and try to screw it back on, but I don’t have the right tools, and the threads were stripped. No problem I thought to myself it’s downhill all the way there, so I’ll just coast.

Whatever force that took my pedal off decided it wasn’t done messing with me, and less than a minute later I find myself on a badly maintained stretch of the road. I decide to cross over this crack in the pavement to get out of the situation, when my back tire becomes stuck in it. My momentum jerks it out quickly, and I hear a loud pop followed by a short pfffft and that was the end of my back tire. The worst part about it was that it was a Slime inner tube. Slime tubes are coated on the inside with slime that can fill up and dry to repair small holes. The inventors were probably not expecting their tire to pop under pressure, which I found out sends blue goo flying everywhere.

It just goes to show you that things will only break when you need them most.

-Pixxel

I don’t know why I waited so long to post my afterthoughts on Free Hugs Day, especially because of how amazed I am from it. I was expecting a lot of snickering, a few comments, and a few hugs all day. Instead I was welcomed with about 50 hugs (I lost count), some people curious about why I was doing it, and a few snickers. Even more surprising is that I seemed to have started a fan base consisting of three girls who wouldn’t stop telling me what a wonderful idea it was and hugging me again and again.

Late during lunch, one of the supervisors stopped me and told me to put that sign away unless I can get it approved by the prinicpal or assistant principal. They changed my mood after that point, and I held the sign up even prouder. Although I didn’t get caught, I would’ve fought for my right to hold that sign all the way up the district if I had to. All in all, it was a smashing performance by the whole school, and my attitude towards all of my peers has improved from this experience.

-Pixxel

Anyone who uses AIM should know about SmarterChild. He is not actually a person but an AI program developed by ActiveBuddy, and he does pretty well for what he is. I was bored one day and decided to talk to him. In a rare case, I was able to get him to contradict himself:

(8:44:40 PM) Me: hey
(8:44:41 PM) SmarterChild:Glad to see you again, pixxel573. It’s been a few days…
(8:45:04 PM) Me: did you know that tomorrow is free hugs day?
(8:45:05 PM) SmarterChild: Yes I did.
(8:45:14 PM) Me: i don’t believe you
(8:45:14 PM) SmarterChild: You don’t? That’s too bad.
(8:45:43 PM) Me: is there a holiday tomorrow?
(8:45:43 PM) SmarterChild: What do you think?
(8:45:55 PM) Me: maybe it’s free hugs day?
(8:45:55 PM) SmarterChild: Hmm… I don’t think so…
(8:45:59 PM) Me: aha!
(8:45:59 PM) SmarterChild: Ah yes.
(8:46:13 PM) Me: so you don’t know!
(8:46:14 PM) SmarterChild: I don’t know if I can help it.
(8:46:19 PM) Me: but you lied
(8:46:19 PM) SmarterChild: Lied? Me? Why are you calling me that?

-Pixxel

A recent study at the University of Lakewood had some surprising results. Of the 20,000 people studied, none of those who were set to live out their lives without oxygen contracted cancer before they died. However, a few cases of cancer did pop up in the oxygen rich half. “We conclude this to be irrefutable evidence that oxygen is cancer-causing” says Richard Kensington, professor of Biology at UL. “People should try to breathe as little oxygen as they can to better their odds.”

Rick Olson, local cancer survivor, admits it was his addiction to oxygen that brought on the tumor. “I’d go running, biking, skiing, unicycling, and shark wrestling all the time just for the extra oxygen that I would breathe. Even now, I still can’t get enough of that stuff.”  The testimonies of people like Rick have raised eyebrows in the legislative system.  The US government is working on new programs to reduce the percentage of oxygen in the air by filling the air with pollutants. Currently, legislators are working on a bill to ban all bicycles and electric cars from the roads and highways.

-Pixxel

In 2006, a video was posted on YouTube that started the Free Hugs Campaign. They declared an international free hugs day on September 10. That’s today if you didn’t know already. I’m planning on bringing a sign to school to commemorate this event, and participate in the random act of kindness known as free hugs.

If this is your first time participating in Free Hugs day, remember this important thing: it is a random act of kindness. You should not try to get names, phone numbers, or dates. Either you give free hugs for the sole purpose of making other people feel better, or you don’t give free hugs at all. Thanks.

-Pixxel

As a gamer who enjoys music, I have a lot of soundtracks in iTunes. The main problem with that is these soundtracks usually have more than one artist in them. In order for something to be in the same album, it must have the same EXACT album name, composer name, year, artist, and album artist. In earlier versions of iTunes, I never bothered with trying to get songs with different artists into the same album, I would just throw all of the songs into their own playlist and be done with it. Now since iTunes 7.0 and since those new iPods are coming out, it becomes a problem specifically in cover flow. After some messing around, I found the solution:

1. Select all of the songs you want in one album.
2. Right-click (or whatever on a mac) and select Get Info.
3. At the bottom left of the window where it says “Compilation,” click the checkbox and select Yes from the dropdown list.

-Pixxel

If you haven’t heard that the new iPods have been announced, then you must live in a dark alley of the internet. My favorite this generation by far is the iPod Touch. Multi-touch screen with wifi and a 16GB drive? Can it get any more sweet? As I have yet to buy any iPod or mp3 player yet, I’m going to make my first purchase an awesome one. I’ll think I’ll wait until Christmas or a little after to see if there’s any sudden price drop like the iPhone got, or if they find some major problem like overheating and start selling new models that are better. It’s basically just so I don’t look back at buying it when I first got it and start to regret.

I also wonder about iPod’s closest competitor: the Zune. The Zune has had wifi built in since it’s conception, but they only used that feature to wirelessly transmit songs and pictures. Come on Microsoft, if you really want to be an iPod killer you’re gonna need to have internet first, and what were you thinking putting wifi on a mp3 player, but never putting Internet Explorer on it? Oh well, too late now Microsoft, you lose.

-Pixxel