Here come the ABC's...but not for five more days

I went ahead and ordered the Here Come the ABC’s CD and DVD from Amazon, and they say the estimated shipping date is the 22nd. I realize that it might well ship before this, and that there’s no real hurry anyway, but why such a late estimate? Is it just me, or is Amazon constantly getting slower?

On a different (but still music-related) note, when I have to put the information about a CD in Musicmatch, I’ll often mix up the “album” and “artist” fields. I think it’s in the reverse order from what I would expect, and that confuses me.

I’m participating in a mix CD swap over at the Frank Black Forum, and here’s the tracklist I’m going with:

Stream Running Over – Apples in Stereo
Under Easy – Posies
Trouble Sleeping – Fastbacks
Churches Off The Interstate – Laura Cantrell
Fuzzy Slippers – Carolyn Mark and the Room-Mates
Burning With Optimism’s Flames – XTC
The Philosopher – Hypnotic Clambake
I Am The Cancer – Sloan
It’s Not My Birthday – They Might Be Giants
Happy Birthday To Me – Cracker
Retrieval Of You – Minus 5
La Petite Mort – Erin McKeown
Brainiac’s Daughter – Dukes of Stratosphear
Reprehensible – TMBG
Guided By Wire – Neko Case and Her Boyfriends
Atari – Muckafurgason
Sun Goes Gold – Sugarplastic
Chick Habit – April March
Sittin’ On A Pitchfork – Young Fresh Fellows
BJ Don’t Cry – Moxy Früvous
We Love You – Camper Van Beethoven
Meaningless – Magnetic Fields
Blow – Lincoln
Complicated Game – XTC

I hope people will like it. I sometimes get the idea that most of the people on that forum listen to “harder” stuff than I generally do. My musical tastes are generally more in the eccentric-but-upbeat category (if that IS a category). Oh, well. It doesn’t really matter. Since I’m burning copies of this CD anyway, if anyone who reads this wants a copy (or even a different mix, for that matter), let me know.

I'm not done talking yet

There were a few things I wanted to write about in my last entry but forgot, so here's another entry. I probably should start taking notes about what I want to write about, but I'll often think of possible topics when I'm driving or otherwise unable to write, so I don't know that that would really work. So here we go:

1. I'm thinking that maybe I should go ahead and download iTunes, since I can use it now, and there are a few exclusive songs on there that I wouldn't mind having (mostly Frank Black stuff). Is it true that iTunes uses its own format that isn't compatible with anything else? If so, is there any way to convert iTunes tracks into more typical formats (MP3 or WAV) without burning them to a CD and then ripping them? Just curious.

2. I saw that Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie trailer that people have been talking about. (If you haven't seen it and you want to, it's up on Amazon.) I thought it actually looked pretty good, although I'm not sure about Zaphod Beeblebrox having one head under the other, or however that was being handled. I thought his most significant physical trait was that he had two easily visible heads. Oh, well. I also found it interesting that his first name was pronounced with a long A. I've heard people pronounce it that way, but I thought it had a short A when I first read it. I haven't heard the original radio plays, though, and I'm assuming the movie staff has, so I suspect that they're right and I'm wrong, as far as the pronunciation issue goes.

3. Yesterday, I had problems with my Gmail account not receiving messages. I didn't get my LJ comment notifications, or replies from bethje. I've since received them, but I wonder what was up. The annoying thing is that Hotmail was also having problems, so I didn't really have a reliable e-mail account. They both seem to be working now, but who knows what could go wrong?

4. It's snowing outside. I hope it doesn't accumulate or anything. So far it doesn't seem to be doing so.