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As promised I just gave Amazon’s MP3 Download store a run. I wanted to purchase The New Pornographers Challengers. Here was the steps I had to go through to purchase it:

1. After arriving at the web site I found the album

2. I downloaded Amazon’s Downloader. It’s nothing more than a download manager application. Doesn’t do anything fancy

3. On the album I clicked the “Buy MP3 Album with 1-Click”. Although I am not an avid 1-click user it appeared to be the only option for purchasing the full album.

4. I was prompted to verify my purchase, which I did. I was then given an error message which indicated that payment could not be processed. It didn’t surprise me since I probably didn’t have my Amazon.com 1-click settings configured.

5. I configured my Amazon.com 1-click settings and proceeded back through the same checkout process.

6. I received a different checkout error indicating that I needed to update my credit card settings.

7. I went back into my account and removed any old credit cards. As a bonus I also cleared out all old shipping addresses.

8. I proceeded back through the same checkout process. I was given the same checkout error indicating my credit card settings were wrong.

9. Getting pretty fed up, I went into my Amazon.com 1-click settings and turned it off.

10. I marched through the checkout process again. This time because my 1-click settings were off I was given the option to choose a credit card to bill to. I selected the only one on the list (a valid one mind you) and was able to successfully complete my purchase.

The only option for purchasing a full album is a button on the site called “Buy MP3 Album with 1-Click”. But I was able to purchase an album without using the 1-click settings. It seems a little confusing to me.

The download process was seamless. A file is sent from the browser to the Amazon Downloader application which aptly handles the downloading of the files. A nice touch is the automatic import into iTunes. The downloader adds the songs to your iTunes library automatically.

The MP3 quality is 256kbps which sounds good. I have the track Myriad Harbour in both Mp3 and AAC . From what I can hear the songs are identical.

All in all, to save a few bucks and get the tracks without DRM I think the initial headaches of Amazon will fade. The interface is so-so for the Amazon store. It similar to the rest of Amazon, functional but not aesthetically pleasing.

UPDATE: Upon purchasing a second album the checkout process was only a 2-step process of clickin ghte “Buy MP3 Album with 1-Click” and then verifying the purchase. It would appear that after the first purchase 1-click is automatically set up.

I recently gave up on CDs. I have been a staunch supporter of my local music shops for many years. But I finally became fed up after struggling to find even local music at the local Cheapo. I would pack up Riles and hop in the car on a Sunday and drive to Cheapo to just be let down when they didn’t have the music I came looking for.

So, instead of CDs we converted to buying online at iTunes. The DRM issue has always kept me at arms length with Apple. But the convenience of having music at the push of a button overrode my fear. I also hoped the switch would help me spend my money a little more wiser. In the past I’ve bought a flurry of bad albums. There has always been at least one good song on every album I bought, but sometimes it was *just* one. While 99 cents may not be the perfect price for a track, I realized using the old school route I was spending way more than that for just one song.

About once a week Courtney and I hop online to spend a few bucks on music. One night after a racking up the tracks Courtney said, “Oh, I better stop. I’m spending too much money.” In reality she had only purchased 8 tracks costing us much less than if she had bought every album for just the single track.

Amazon launched their MP3 store today. I’m a little torn now. I can get my music without the DRM for a little bit less than what I pay at iTunes….but then I wouldn’t be using iTunes. Half of the ease of online music purchasing is due to iTunes. There’s also this feeling of betrayal. We’ve come to love our iTunes shopping sprees. Will Amazon be the same?

So tonight Courtney and I will probably give Amazon a whirl. See how it works. See if we get the same satisfaction from it as we do from iTunes.

p.s. – The love of Apple carries over to Amazon. As of this writing Fiest’s song 1234 is Amazon’s #1 track for today.

A few years ago we learned a hard lesson about our street block. The southern end tends to flash flood in heavy rain. We learned the hard way and had to have $1500 worth of carpet repaired in our old Honda.

I arrived home yesterday during the torrential rain last evening to find no less than 4 cars in various predicaments at the end of the street. I felt bad for them but they had already gone in too deep. There wasn’t much they could do except push their car out and wait for it to dry out. Unfortunately they too had to learn the hard way.

In a panic I called Courtney, who was following me home, “DO NOT COME HOME FROM THE SOUTH!” I shouted on her voicemail. About 10 minutes later she arrived home with her car just fine.

I count calories…well, sort of. I like to attempt to count calories. I try my best to eat right but I’m always cutting corners. Calorie counting helps keep me honest. With that said, I cheat a lot.

I like to try out various websites that help with calorie counting. It’s hard to find a single site that has everything I eat. My recent test-drive has been with Calorie Count Plus, a site provided by About.com. I like that it goes above and beyond just counting calories. It has a decent community side to it as well as a bountiful amount of information about food and general health.

I’m on day 2 of my attempt to count how healthy I eat. I’m not claiming any success, I’m just sayin’.

Last night I was recording what I had for dinner. I crunched the numbers and ran the food log report. 2 out of 7 items were healthy. The rest were given grades of a C+ or lower.

I pondered this for awhile, assessed the situation and proclaimed to Courtney, “Yep. I see my problem. It was the DQ Buster Bar and the mint ice cream that did me in.”

Courtney raised an eyebrow. “The Buster Bar and ice cream? You needed a website to tell you that.”

Apparently some of us know this information off-hand.

Last night when I arrived home Riles was in a stellar mood. Court had been watching him play on the floor by himself for some time. As the night progressed we noticed that he was being quite pleasant all night. During dinner he sat politely and ate. We happened to notice while he ate his eyes were half closed. Riles isn’t typically a tired child, he’s on the go all day long.

We started running the stats and something wasn’t adding up. He was focused and played alone, he ate without incident and appeared tired. Court gave him the ol’ Back-0f-the-hand thermometer test (much more pleasant than the official rear-end check). We debated for awhile whether he was warm or not. But by 7pm it was quite evident that he was running a temp. He was quite tired and ready for bed. There wasn’t much we could do except give him some ibuprofen and put him down for bed.

When we started this whole parenting thing I was quite afraid of knowing when was the right time to do something with Riles. How was I to know when he’s hungry? tired? sick? If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that I will never know when any of those things happen.

Over time I think we’ve learned that our best guess is probably good enough. There’s no point with struggling to get an exact temp when the forehead test will suffice.