September 26, 2007

Once Again Amazon Rocks My World

This time literally, with their new MP3 Music Store. But what makes this different from every other online music offering is: the files are DRM-free, in standard MP3 format and not from obscure artists! You can buy tracks from people like Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Crowded House, The Chemical Brothers, Sublime, Fall Out Boy & Snow Patrol! And they're only $0.89 per song and even cheaper if you buy the whole album, around $9 US. I don't even own an audio CD player anymore, so not having to pay for the CD media and case is brilliant.

However, that isn't what I'm excited about, oh no, it's the behind the scenes bits. I've just bought one track to check it out and they're LAME 3.97 encoded VBR's using [I believe] -V 0 quality, i.e. the software/settings recommended by the audiophiles at Hydrogenaudio!! The average VBR bitrate of their files according to the Amazon docs is 256kbps, so I'm pretty sure it's -V 0. The files also have beautiful crisp album art at 600x600px, which looks like it comes from the original files, rather than a scan of the CD cover.

I'm never buying a CD again, thank you Amazon you've made my day!

Great hall locations: Music  |  Talked about by: 0 Fraggles

September 23, 2007

2007-08 Season

I'm just starting training again for the 2007-08 Triathlon season. This year I'm planning on doing two races. The first is in Rotorua on the 11th of November, which about 6½ weeks away and then the Whangamata race again on the 10th of January.

The Rotorua race is a lake swim, so this should be a bit easier than the ocean swim at Whangamata, though the bike leg of the course is quite hilly so that might be a bit of challenge, followed by a forest run which looks really cool. Whangamata is the exact same course as I did earlier this year, I'd like to see if can improve my time there as well. Both races are approx 400m swim, 16km bike and then a 5.5km run.

I've been running for a couple of weeks now and went out on the bike for the first time on saturday. Surprisingly I found my fitness level on the bike was only slightly down on March. Tomorrow I'll hit the pool for the first time, swimming is my weakest link so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. This time around I'm not planning on training quite so hard, since towards end it became a bit of a chore. So I'm going to take it easy and enjoy myself, which really the only reason for doing it anyway ;-)

Great hall locations: Triathlon  |  Talked about by: 0 Fraggles

September 22, 2007

New Bedding

Over the weekend I've finally found a new duvet cover that I actually like. I'd been looking on and off for some time, but nothing had really appealed; most were either too flowery/girlie looking or too little kid, though I did momentary contemplate the Harry Potter one, lol. Pictured is the duvet cover that I bought from Freedom Furniture, along with 500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets which weren't exactly on the list but I figured what the hell and damn are they nice. I also got new pillows and a mattress underlay. So it's almost like sleeping in a different bed, lol.

Great hall locations: Miscellaneous  |  Talked about by: 0 Fraggles