Looking for a local aikido dojo. Preferably one in a location central to Palm Harbor and Rocky Point so both Chris and I can attend conveniently.
Via aikiweb’s search page, the best I’ve found location-wise is:
Saint Petersburg Aikikai
13256 66th Street N
Largo, FL
33733-1813
John Messores, 6th dan
727-536-0801
MW 0930-1030; MWF 1900-2030; TuTh 1930-2030
sensei@theaikidodojo.com
www.theaikidodojo.com
Style: Akikiai
Affiliation: ASU
Today I finished reading The Spirit of Aikido by Kisshomaru Ueshiba, the son of the founder of Aikido.
Terrific book and wonderful translation from the original Japanese.
I faxed in sick today. The answering machine wasn’t picking up.
I’m at home bored and feeling crappy. I’m sure I’ll feel better by Monday. I don’t even feel like ripping some CDs onto my iPod. =(
Chris has a blog. Check it out.
Found Ron Jeremy’s blog today. I haven’t seen any of his films, but I’ve definitely heard of him the last two years.
Interesting blog. I entertained myself for about ten minutes.
Current iPod track count: 1636
Another iPod note: I used it to record a technical specification pow-wow today. It’ll be great if we have any questions down the road about exactly what was discussed.
Someon from Austin, TX emailed me asking:
> So, what do you think of the EM3s?
Here is my reply:
Very happy. Recommend them to all my friends. Have some friends who are musicians who are now excited about in-ear monitors as well.
Where did you find me?
Details:
Bass response: great.
Detail: Very good.
Separation: Terrific
They really shine when you listen to something with serious detail in it, like Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind album.
Very immersive. I would buy them again.
Let me put it this way: I expected to notice a HUGE difference when I upgraded to these from my normal earbuds. Well, I did. But even more remarkable is the difference when I DOWNGRADE back to my old earbuds. The sound is so bad, I can’t stand it.
So there’s a great, noticeable difference on upgrade. But you’ll REALLY notice the difference when you try to return to your old life of mediocre $10 earbuds.
I listen to an eclectic mix of music. But I listen to mid-90’s rock the most, which I think is where these headphones excel. If I was listening to mostly classical music, I’d buy something from Shure or Etymotic.
I’d buy these again in a minute.
Oh, and people at work don’t even think I’m listening to headphones, if they notice them at all. They think they’re earplugs. Good!
And the cable is the perfect length for me. I can run it down the front of my shirt and have it connect at the iPod hanging from my belt. It’s just the right length for me. I can even run it down my shirt and back up to the iPod if it’s on the desk.
And they don’t get tangled up at all, unlike ALL my other earbuds.
Also, if I was a jogger (I’m not) I wouldn’t use them because they do reproduce the sound from the cables rubbing on my clothes. But since I just sit and walk with them, it’s fine.
I’m never going back.
How’s that?
//sig
P.S. Oh, I forgot:
I didn’t like the case they came in. It was soft, I wanted hard. So I put them in a little mint case (about half the size of an Altoids can) that I picked up at a tradeshow. Fits perfect!
//sig
I ripped a CD at 192kbits that I had already ripped at 128kbits. I have compared the filesizes, but not the all-important fidelity delta.
I’ll post my detailed results and opinions if I remember.
Current iPod track count: 1539.
A few days ago, perhaps a week now, I decided to start ripping my MP3s at a bitrate of 192 instead of 128. I was going to do some filesize and fidelity comparisons, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
I used to note my ripped CDs by putting a blue dot (with a Sharpie-brand magic marker) on the spine of the CD case. But now that I threw away my CD cases and moved the CDs to soft carrying cases, that won’t work. So I started putting a blue dot on the top of each disc, at the edge, at about four o’clock when I ripped them at 128kbits.
For the first few CDs I did at 192kbits, I put a BLACK dot at the same clock position. But I didn’t like that so I switched to a blue dot at about eight o’clock.
Current iPod track count: 1441
