Remote for my Boombox

I have had this boombox for a while that I use constantly because it will play MP3 discs. I have been making collections of artists & groups, and putting them on as few discs as possible to condense my CD collection. But the problem is that I can only do certain functions, including basic things like repeat and random. But there are other things that I want to be able to do like display CD text, and it also has a track search function which is handy at times. My MP3 discs will typically have 100+ tracks on average, so not having the remote has put a damper on the reason I purchased the boombox I did. I finally found the place I can order a new remote for it, but after shipping it would cost me over $50. Ridiculous! So I am putting this on my blog in hopes that someone out there is wanting to get rid of there remote for this after the main unit has gone bad. I put all the specs below for anyone typing in model numbers and such for search terms.

It is listed on Amazon HERE. The ASIN is B000GFB86Y. The only places I have found it for sale is there and at Target.com HERE. Both places are out of stock, and I think it is discontinued. If I could get it, I probably would, because the new unit would only be $20 more, and I would have spare parts if needed.

The specs for it are this:
Emerson PD3689 Portable CD MP3 player with digital tuner, SD & MMC card reader & USB port.
The remote is RC-3689.
UPC 025806027051

If anyone has this, or has had it and still has the remote, please reply to my blog and tell me. I will make you a deal if it is less than what the company parts replacement department wants for it. A reasonable offer would not be refused, and if the unit you have is broken, what are you going to do with the remote anyway? Why not make a few bucks!

Least Popular Holiday Songs

Thought this was great, so I am re-posting it.
I know it is a little late, but they just reran the episode on Letterman, so I was inspired.
The video of the Top 10 list is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv80tjuzMps

10. (Sung as the 5th day)
On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Absolutely nothing
Because of the bad economy.

9. Amy, the red-nosed Winehouse
Will need a new liver soon.

8. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
But Al Gore tells me we're all screwed.

7. Biden might
Do all right
If his hair plugs
Stay in tight

6. Dr. Tannenbaum,
Dr. Tannenbaum,
Is Cialis right for me?

5. Deck the halls with illegal payoffs
Bla-bla-bla-bla-bla
Blagojevich.

4. Ahmadinejad
Ahmadinejad
Ahmadinejad
You set our heart aglow
like a spent fuel rod.

3. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
1929.

2. I have an irregular heartbeat
Pah-rump-puh-puh-pum-pum.

1. Joy to the World
George Bush is Done.

My inauguration speech response.

I just think that it is strange that being on campus in a public area due to being in between classes I have to be televised by someone (or several people for that matter) to show my response. Because I am in public, does that make me more or less enthusiastic?

The last inauguration that I remember was surprisingly Reagan's due to it was my first I witnessed on television. I was about 6 or 7 years old.

Now I am 34 and realize the significance of this event. It seems that more people are there then my first memory. Barack seems so anxious and humble at once. And the audience members seem so inspired by what is taking place. You can see in his facial expression that he is ready to be a leader in his future actions.

The pastor's annunciation of "Sasha" reminds me of Bush's annunciation of "Botswana".

Now while Aretha sings, Barack seems statuesque.

Biden is now taking his oath of office.

The CNN crawl seems ridiculous. "what's happening now", "Up Next". Just watch and appreciate. If you are that uninformed, you deserve to stay that way. Sorry.

Oh great, here comes Wolf Blitzer commentating on the whole thing. Am I watching the play by play of a sporting event? Shut up. Let me appreciate the composition of John Williams performed by very notable musicians. It's rude to interrupt assuming we think your information is more important. Just let them give pause to this moment in history.

Barack is ready. His stutter is human. The union erupts.

I didn't want to type while he gave his first speech as president. The two things that struck me most are the fact that people will judge you on what you can build, not by what you can destroy. Very inspirational. It makes me want to act and on contribute to society in a positive manner. Whether it is noticed or not is insignificant. The simple fact that it is done is what matters.

The other is that he took notice of not only the country's diversity, but also his own in the personal experience of not being served in a local restaurant many years ago, and how now he is taking the most sacred of oaths. What a country of change. He is a poet of sorts and a skillful wordsmith. He lets me live vicariously through his words.

The presidential poem was a distraction for many at the union, and that insults me a bit. I realize that Obama is done speaking, but he made the decision that he wanted this to be included as part of the ceremony. Do not deprive yourself of it and learn why he chose this to be a part of it.

He will be a good informant on what he feels needs to be done, and what directions need to be made. It gives me faith that this nation's people are more educated than I once thought in the recent past. The fact that Bush can not only be elected beforehand, but re-elected after his first term actions amazed me on the ignorance of the American public. Now my faith has been restored in them in the present day. Let's see where that takes us.

Lowdown At The Lake

Hey everyone-
I wanted to create a post for the sweet get together that Rob & Chas had on the last weekend of August this year. What a crazy night. There was a ton of planning that had to be done, but everything was well worth it. So many people that I had not seen for years!! From what I know what we went through, it was over 150 lbs. of meat, 4 kegs, 20 bottles of Crown, and 12 of Morgan. There was much more, but that is just to give you an idea. It was estimated that we had around 400 people over the course of the night. I took some pictures and a few videos during the night, but didn't get nearly everyone that attended. I will post them here periodically or put up a link to where they will be located soon. There is talk of this being an annual event, but it will no longer be a free event. Will let everyone know when this is decided.


"Heyride" Jam w/ Timmy laughing at my second note...



Cornerstone Dub w/ Marcelo Arevalo

what.cd invite wanted

The same goes for this site as my previous post on Demonoid. Although I am a bit leary of this site, due to them being hacked by some of their former members, they have much of what I am looking for. If I am unable to find certain torrents elsewhere, I would like to have this as a resource.
Thanks!!

Waffles.fm invite needed

Same goes for this site as my previous Demonoid request posting.

demonoid invite code needed

I know everybody and their dog wants these codes, and they say so on hundreds of blog entries, but I figured if somebody searches for this I might get lucky finding someone generous. On sites I use, I always keep my ratio at 1.00 or higher. If you do have an invite code, please email me at (email removed) and I will do whatever I can to return the favor.

Disregard this request for this site, I now have a code for Demonoid, so thanks!

Portfolio Website Update

The website has been finalized for now, and is now located at www.abates.net/portfolio. The links to my resume & my first flash created site are also included. This address is a little different than the first, just because I wanted to get all the kinks worked out before I used this URL. I will be adding and/or revising my work posted on it each semester at the very least. Currently, I am enrolled in Intermediate Photography and Life Drawing studios, as well as a Art History and Spanish course. Next semester I will definitely have a Graphic Design class, such as another Typography, or Adv. Graphic Design. I am also trying to decide between the next sculpture or painting course. Any comments for improvement on it would be greatly appreciated.

Selling My CD's (sad but true)

I also wanted to give a "Heads Up" to those of you that I know, and I will be passing the word along in an email in the future, but I am going to sell my ever-growing CD collection in it's near entirety (only keeping a select few) in around a month. I have already calculated what all of my CD's are worth on Amazon, which is where I plan to sell most of them. The storefront I have on there has already been started, but only a few things are listed (none of my purchased CD's). For future use, my Amazon store is located HERE. So if any of you out there reading this know of a particular CD of mine that you would want, let me know before I list it so you can get first crack at it. Chances are I will cut you a deal since I will know whoever is reading this blog. The main reason for doing this is not only is my collection getting larger than I can handle to move, but I see everything in the music industry going digital. Very sad to me since artwork, liner notes, credits, etc. kind of get lost in the process. I think vinyl is kind of getting a resurgence also due to this, but also because of many analog recordings that are not available otherwise. I may also sell a few to the shops here in town, but they don't really give you a good deal, and I need college cash very badly. Help a professional student out!!

Personal Webpage

Just wanted to post on here that around 10 days ago I officially launched my new personal webpage. It is www.abates.net. The purpose of getting this rolling is to have a online portfolio of my artwork so when I look for new job opportunities for design related employment, this gives potential places of employment a way to see my actual work instead of just having a resume and cover letter pleading my case. I think it also helps that just in itself creating and loading a webpage shows my knowledge of several programs, and hopefully that is obvious from visiting the site. The only part that is active now is www.abates.net/portfolio2, and it will be updated pretty much on a constant basis until I decide to go a different direction. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to send any comments, criticism, and suggestions my way.

Picture & Video posting from 2006 Vegoose, Lollapalooza, & Wakarusa festivals

Just wanted to let everyone know that after gathering and posting all of the Vegoose pics & flix from this year, it inspired me to look at all of the festival stuff I have captured from years past. So I am slowly adding pictures and small videos to my Photobucket page from Vegoose 2006 & 2007, Lollapalooza 2006, Wakarusa 2006 & 2007. For the videos larger than 100MB, they will go on my YouTube account under Kiedis1616. It is pretty cool to relive all these festival experiences, and hopefully even better will be added in the future. I have had such a good time at all of these festivals with good friends & music, I hope the tradition lives on for many more years.

theNEWDEAL website

Just wanted to say that I was searching various band sites for logo ideas for my typography class, and realized that this would be a good example of a flash site. I think it has a very good use of animation and sound, without overdoing it (so it doesn't load slowly). The band is called theNEWDEAL, and there website is here: http://www.thenewdeal.com/. Not to mention, I really like their music too, but they are from New York, and I don't think they have ever toured in the midwest other than Chicago. I don't feel like travelling 8 hrs. to see them, but maybe a festival soon? Hope so.

While I am at it, I think a bad example of flash use is the My Coke Rewards site. It is extremely slow to load, and they use flash in areas where it is unnecessary. I don't think it ever completly loads due to all the little promos they try to pack on the home page. The only reason I found this site is because I enter my codes from 12 packs and bottle caps here for various things. Kind of like how Camel Cash and Marlboro Miles used to be when I was a smoker. I quit, and they quit.

Architecture Portfolio Pages

I wanted to post my portfolio submission for third year admission. This was for the College of Architecture, not graphic design, so the emphasis is a little different. Any suggestions on what to keep, change, get rid of, add, etc. (with reasoning) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Holiday & Birthday madness

This is the crazy birthday month for me. My brother's (who I have already talked about), is midway through October, and it is just a warning that holiday madness is about to ensue. After his, we get Halloween, then Nov. 2nd is my mom, my roommate, and one of my good friends I have known since 7th grade. We just went out for my dad's b'day on the 12th, and I will go out again for my friend Mike's on the 18th, and I am sure I will get crazy on my own on the 24th (or the closest Sat. night to it). Don't forget about turkey day. Not my birthday this year, but it has happened on 4 different occasions. I am only 2 days off in 2007. Then it gets even more nuts because we have to x-mas shop, visit with everyone that comes back to Lincoln to stay with family for the holidays, and then Christmas & New Year's in one week. I also have a buddy I have known since I was 1 yr old (our families are friends) that has a b-day on Dec. 26th. So we celebrate that at the Grapevine at the stroke of midnight, or last call, whichever we hear first.

Vegoose Videos

Just wanted to put a link to the longer videos I had taken from the Vegoose weekend. I still need to add a few as of now, but that will probably be done over the weekend. Enjoy! I personally like the Thievery Corporation video the best out of what I have posted. Wish I could have captured a longer Daft Punk, but I have lots of short ones.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kiedis1616

These are not all of the videos I took at the festival, there are also shorter ones within the Photobucket account. So if you don't see the band you are looking for, go to the blog prior to this and click on the picture of Rob to get the rest.

The Vegas Trip pics

Here are the pics and slowly accumulating short video clips from our huge Vegas trip and the Vegoose festival. I put all the band pics in a subfolder called "Vegoose pics". Keep in mind, I am pretty sure that I didn't spend a completely sober moment the entire 4.5 days we were there. I even took a tall margarita flute thing with me on the plane as a carry-on. Needed lots of recovery time afterward!! In order to see all of the pics I posted, you gotta ask for the secret password. Otherwise, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Photobucket Album

Vegas Summary

My trip was so much fun. The best thing about it was that I got to see 17 of my good friends for 5 days straight. We lived it up like we were all rock stars.

The first night we just got to party in a posh hotel suite on the 30th floor of Planet Hollywood. The picture window wall overlooked the strip towards MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Luxor, and many other attractions. Good catching up with the out-of-towners, and those people in our group that I haven't talked to in a long time.

The next night we all suited up and went to a club at the Mirage called Jet. We had a table big enough for 8 or so, but we had a good time none the less. I think we went through 7 bottles. Each bottle is at least $300, and we rode in limos there and back. What a bunch of drunk fools. Got lots of hilaroius pics.

The next two nights were when the Vegoose festival was happening. Very cool to see lots of bands I have not seen before. Daft Punk, Muse, Public Enemy, Iggy & The Stooges, and many others that I discovered shortly before I left via MySpace.

Will post many pics/vids when I get home and I have time to organize all of them. I have about 2 gigs worth of stuff from the trip overall. Very anxious to look at & share it.

No Time

All I can focus on this semester is how little time I have for anything. Sounds kind of ironic coming from someone who just got back from a 5 day vacation, but it is very true. That is the only time I have had to relax, and I am not sure if it was worth the cost. I tried to bust ass getting things done before I left, and now that I am back, I feel like I am behind again. It is just a matter of taking to much credit wise at once, but it is beginning to wear thin. My work I feel is falling short of what I am capable of doing, but I have no extra time to invest in getting it where I want it to be unless I want to sacrifice sleep or income. I only work one day a week at each job, but it adds up to between 15-20 hrs. a week. Everyone thinks you have all kinds of time over the weekend, but NOT TRUE!!! I work a double on Fridays, and a 10 hr. shift on Saturdays. Sunday is the only true day I have off, and during my non-class time during the week, I have about 6-8 hours to take care of everything else daily routine wise. I admit I am a procrastinator, but I truly have had no choice this semester. I am ready to explode. Come on turkey day break.

Fall Break?

I put a question mark because I really don't consider it a break for me yet. Although I do not have any classes to attend at UNL this Mon. and Tues., I still have my Espanol to go to at SCC downtown. That is rather hectic right now due to all of the homework needing to be done by martes de medianoche for the examen on miercoles. Like my broken spanish? You gotta let me slide, cause I think I am only cuatro weeks in at this point. It's the verbs that are giving me problems.

But the real reason I don't consider it a break is that I am trying to get caught up or ahead in all of my classes at la universidad as well over the break due to the Vegoose trip I leave for on Thurs. afternoon. We don't come back until very late Mon. night, and I am very anxious because all of the costume gear is in, I got to try out my new camera I just purchased on Fri. night at the Chicago Afrobeat show at the Zoo, and it is SWEEEEET. I can do so much with this bad boy. It even lets me record audio in stereo for over 2 hours on a 2GB card. I can also take snapshots while in the middle of shooting a video w/o interruption to it. I am sure I will have plenty to share after the extended weekend trip.

I made a very good dent in Spanish homework and Typography layouts today. Martes en la manana (Tues. in the Morning), I am going to try to finish some sketch work for drawing that I need to make up, and hopefully a little flash for publication afterward. I have Wed. night for that also, so it might get put off until then just cause of the intense workload.

Wish me luck.

OK, now I have been slacking on the blog entries. But I will try to make up for it.

First off, I felt bad because it was the first birthday my brother has had a few days ago that he hasn't been in town to celebrate it with the fam. He moved out to San Diego late last year, and has been loving it. However, my sis was there for it. It was her first time out to visit, so I am the only one left that hasn't gone out to see him yet. I am broke, what can I say?

I am jealous of the fact that he gets to surf in his leisure time quite a bit. I think that would be such a fun hobby to take up. Just something about just you and the huge amount of water. Being able to somewhat harness the power of nature has got to be amazing! I have heard from various documentaries that it has been getting quite crowded in the last decade, so that could become a buzzkill.

Anyway, that's all for now. Tell my bro happy belated B-Day.