I spent about 2 days time after getting my new laptop trying to make my TiVoToGo transferred files into DVDs. I tried every faq and how-to I came across. I tried the "official" software. I tried Nero. I tried everything. It all sucked. Either it didn't work at all or I was looking at hours to burn a single movie.

My end solution - don't buy software. Don't buy Roxio, or any of the other conversion programs in any of the how-tos. Instead, buy a DVD player that plays MPEG-2 files. We bought the Phillips DVP5140/37 for $50 from Amazon.

Then, download Directshow Dump -- if you have Vista, use this post for install instructions (it's a bit of a pain, but worked flawlessly). It's freeware, and it takes only a few minutes to transfer .TiVo files to .mpg. It only takes an additional few minutes to burn (at least with an 8x DVD burner) a data disc. The longest part of the process is the transfer from the TiVo to the computer!

Another bonus is that if you only have a CD burner, a 30 minute basic quality show will burn to that, or you could possibly convert the .mpg to .avi (or just use TVHarmony rather than Directshow Dump for a slightly slower conversion but more options, including .avi) for a smaller file. Great for that one exercise or DIY show you want for reference - or your Grandma on the news.

It might seem silly to buy a new DVD player but it actually costs less than the Roxio software suite TiVo wants you to buy to burn, and it takes almost no time to do so. Plus more fits on a data disc, so you may end up saving money on that bit in the long run.

I've been doing something a little new with my camera.

See, I've had my digi camera for going-on five years. It's out of date, to say the least. And I'm bored with it (sorry!). It's a good camera, but it's too bulky to be convenient without having the quality of my much-lusted-after D80.

So I'm doing more and more with the manual functions. And not doing anything in Photoshop besides resizing. And I'm deleting anything I don't like (much like I would prints that I had to pay for). I'm trying to see what the camera can do. And trying not to be bored or bloat my drive with pics I don't really care for.

I've pondered cutting down the resizing step by setting my camera to smaller pictures, but there are those occasional shots I've pondered printing and framing. I'm limited to fairly small prints by the 4.1 megapixels as it is.

I need to take some new pictures of myself. I haven't in a year or so and I'm getting tired of the one I've had up as my avatar. But it's so dull. It's so much more fun to take pictures of everything else.

I've also dug out my semi-manual film camera and I've taken some shots with that. I've pondered buying a nice manual film since we can't afford a new digi right now. But I know me. I'll never get the film developed. Maybe if I had space for a darkroom, or money for supplies...

Ah, well. It's something to do.

This news is a couple weeks old, but -- the Atlanta Bread on 19 by the Home Depot and Jo-Ann's finally reopened!

There's nothing yummier than bringing home one of their sourdough bread bowls, filling it with organic creamy tomato soup, adding a little cheese, heating it up, grabbing a couple spoons, and sharing it with your love.

Mmmmmmm.

Hancock Fabrics on South Missouri in Clearwater (near Largo) is going out of business - everything is at least 30% off.

I eschewed buying any fabric -- everything I wanted was 40% off which I can get pretty much any time at Jo-Ann's with coupons. But I did grab some 50-60% off yarn, pattern books, needles, along with a 40% off mini glue gun.

There wasn't a lot of yarn left -- I only picked out four balls of Lion Cotton because of the lack of selection and Hancock's relatively high retail prices. But there was tons of cheap Lion Wool-Ease if you're looking for that. They had some pretty, pretty colors - but I hate the feel of wool. The Clover bamboo needles being 50% off really is a great deal, though.

This weekend we're supposed to go back to see if they've lowered prices any more to see about getting me a sewing machine. I doubt there will be any left, or that they'll be any cheaper if they are, but I can always use the opportunity to pick up some more needles if not.

When I was born it cost 15¢ to mail a letter. Starting May 14th it'll be 41¢ -- a 273% increase.

Makes me wonder if rapid inflation is why we all feel so bloody old.

The forever stamp is a nice idea and all, but I think I'll stick to buying 39¢ and some 2¢ stamps for now. I'll go through them before the next rate hike, and hopefully there'll be more selection. The only current forever stamp design is, well, boring.

These are a few spots I've come across lately that might be of use to someone.

IconBuffet is a social design-related site. There are many free icon sets up for grabs. You are awarded "tokens" to receive icons and "stamps" to send them out. Different sets cost different stamps and tokens. You can also earn badges and points, but these don't seem to do much. Tokens come in lots of 10 a month for free members, and 30 a month for VIP members ($6/month or $48/year, which also gives you $25 off all their pay-for icon sets). As with most social sites, there's friend adding, comments, and message boards (called "blog forums"), but there's the bonus of being able to trade icons until all your friends have all the sets, and receive icons until you've collected them all as well (or at least the sets you want).

RSS-to-Email sites: I've tried a few of these lately. I started out with RMail. It was... okay. Quick, easy to subscribe via OPML, and easy to find everything you're subscribed to. The bad is no grouping. RssFwd has daily grouping... IF you have gMail. It's also slower for those not grouped than RMail and there's no obvious way to see all your feeds (only a link at the bottom of the emails you receive). Currently I've landed on xFruits thanks to Sarah. Their RSS to Mail feature could use an OPML to Email equivalent, but their service is pretty nifty in its variety (including RSS/OPML to Mobile features). The main downside is sometimes their group emails (you can group by hour or day) don't include a link to the original article.

What I really want in RSS-to-Email? A way to see all my subscriptions, and a way to mass edit them. Import AND export of OPML. Links to the articles. A way to group by hour, day, week, or individually.

Money-Making sites: domystuff is a site where some users post things they need done (oil changes, dry cleaning picked up, pets watched, a trip to the grocery store, etc), and others bid on those tasks. It's a great concept, but poorly executed in that you can't search by city. There is a Google map for "new tasks", but since it says "new", I'm not sure if it includes everything. If it does, the only person in the Tampa Bay area needing something done is someone in New Port Richey wanting their lawn mowed. Hopefully with time it'll grow into something more useful.

Etsy is a place to post things you've done rather than things you want to do. If you're an artist or artisan and want a place online other than eBay or your own webstorefront to market your wares, etsy is "it" from what I've heard. I haven't created a shop yet since I've nothing to post (yet). I'm still in the "need a pattern to make stuff" stage of my current arts, and too lazy to go through my old ones to post anything. I did reserve ambertides as a username, though, in hopes of motivation.

Food journals: For many people I think these are highly destructive, and this is really only directed at people who use a journal anyway, or use them for experimental reasons rather than weight loss reasons. Lately I've been using the Daily Plate to try and gauge my metabolism and how well my medications are working, while ignoring all the weight loss junk on the site. It hasn't changed my eating habits, only created a record of them, which is a pretty amazing thing for me. In the past I've used FitDay. My main complaint about FitDay was that it didn't allow for users to add to the foods database, only to their own personal account. I spent so much time adding in my foods to make sure of accuracy that it drove me batty. The Daily Plate allows user content (including personal recipes), meaning usually someone else has put in my exact food. On the other hand, unless you're a paying member, you lose a lot of functionality that comes with FitDay -- custom nutrition goals, seeing what nutrients you're getting enough of, and which ones you aren't, etc. It also doesn't allow for conversion of serving sizes (amongst things like cups, ounces, tablespoons, etc), so if, for example, you have two tablespoons of walnuts, you have to calculate how much that equals in quarter cups -- FitDay does that for you, where Daily Plate does not. If FitDay would allow for user content, it'd be the much better service, but until it does, The Daily Plate trumps because you spend much less time on the site, especially if you eat a widely varied diet, use their "meals" function, and skip putting in when you ate whatever.

A couple others, briefly:

• Manga Takeout: Akin to the Netflix model, only for manga rentals. You can rent anime DVDs in place of one of your manga if you'd like. It's a bit pricey, especially as I doubt they have many distribution centers.
• Give Away of the Day: A software give-away site. From their front page -- "Every day we offer licensed software you'd have to buy otherwise, for free!" You have to be careful of adware/spyware but you might snag something nice.

I've loved Tsubasa from the beginning. Even the anime that so many don't (the second season not so much as the first). And the first soundtrack, well, I've listened to it hundreds of times, easily.

Finally, after learning about Bee Train losing the contract for season three, and that if there even ever is a season three, it'll be autumn at least, I caved and read the scanlations of the volumes/chapters that haven't made it to Del Rey yet. We own through volume 11, and I've read 12 at B&N (waiting for e-rewards to open up the Borders Bucks reward to buy it, since I've got almost $60 built up through them).

Everything from volume 13 on is just incredible. As much as I loved the series before, it's much deeper, into an obsession, now. I fear we've lost some of the humor, that it might not be able to come back, and that might be why Piffle world was so very full of brightness and sillies. But it's one of those stories that I just get caught in, to the point that I'm reading message boards and fan fiction just to try to wear out the excitement. It's also made me realize that Kuro is far and beyond my favorite character (okay, well, except for Mokona).

I've been thinking a lot about the inherent metaphors within it. Especially how we can come into a relationship empty, or new, and some of us grow from the relationship -- the other person fills us, holds up mirrors, and holds us, so we can find ourselves. And sometimes we don't grow. And there's no rhyme or reason to how or why one goes one way and one goes another. Or about how the coldest of us on the outside have the most soft hearts that if someone's listening, will see that.

There's just so much there beneath the surface between all of them, and I love that. I love how it's not spelled out. I love how things are left to either imagination or inference or deduction. I love the underlying archetypes and metaphors. It's just so good.

We'll have volume 13 in the States at the end of May, 14 at the end of July, and 15 at the end of October, supposedly. I'm looking forward to seeing how the official translation differs.

The last two chapters (150 & 151) make it seem a little like we're nearing the end, but everything I've read elsewhere says we've 8 more volumes to go. Part of me wants it to go on forever, part of me wonders how they're going to fill that much more story after everything that's happened.

Mostly I wish I had someone to fangirl with about it. Ah, well. Dear Blog...

PS: I've lost my season one Tsubasa discs, along with my Loveless and Peach Girl discs. OMG shoot me.