One Abnormal Girl

So I’ve been using foobar2000 as my music player for about two weeks now. After months of agonizing–yes, agonizing–over what to do about my regrettable dependence on iTunes, I finally mapped out what I’d need to do to break myself out of it and still be listening to my music collection the same day. I detailed the steps and predicted difficulties out on paper while I was supposed to be studying for the GRE, of course. (Does anybody else avoid stress this way?)

I was originally using this foobear skin, which was really the skin that enticed me into foobar to begin with, but I didn’t like that it didn’t have a lyrics panel. (For anyone unfamiliar with foobar, the base player offers customization up the @$$, and of course, offers a lyrics panel if you install that plugin. When you start installing certain all-controlling skins, though, you lose some of that customization, and are restricted to what the skin is built to show you.) So I moved on to this one (but with the “compact” option), and I’ve been pretty pleased so far.

I think I’ve got it to the point now where anything I got from iTunes, I get from foobar, and, of course, much more. Here’s a rundown of everything I have installed on it and what it does. It’s as much a list for me as for–well, for just me, unless you too are interested in foobar, but need assurance about leaving the other players behind. (more…

It feels like I’ve been working all day, and yet I didn’t get so much done.  I did however conquer a few tasks on my list, of both “have to do this” and “want to do this” types.

•  Sent OSU recommendation forms to my recommending professors after a long and un-victorious fight with my black ink cartridge.  A new cartridge will print about 10 pages of text before it mysteriously prints nothing at all, or just a few streaks here and there.  A soft cleaning does nothing, and the printer doesn’t report an ink shortage.  Its inconsistent behavior leads me to believe it’s not the cartridge drying out, but a driver, or some other piece of the hardware.   But that makes less sense when you consider that it prints fine when you replace the cartridge.  I’d just rather not have to pay $15 for 10 pages of text.
• E-mailed about 10 professors at other schools to beg  ask them if they’d work with me if I were admitted.  Not looking forward to those responses; should have done this at the beginning of the process rather than somewhere in the middle.
• Took my music out of the iTunes library, set up a sync between music on my harddrive and music on my external drive for backup purposes (and so I can play it from the desktop or laptop), and added it all to foobar instead.  Feeling somewhat crippled now but mostly freer.

Using this flavor of foobar.

Now I can watch some Dexter, actually eat something for the day, and get some sleep before I have to accost my mail man for what happened to the mail I didn’t feel like bringing in for a few days.