I’ve finally found a software that enables me to export my music list from iTunes in html - so feel free to check out my over 6000 mp3s here!
If you ask nicely, I might just upload songs you’d like to hear to YSI… 
I’ve been surfing around on this portal for bands from my home town - and, while I also found that the label ‘indie’ or ‘pop’ and the fact that it’s been done by local people doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll like something, I also discovered a band that I really like: Valiumspeed.
The cool thing is that they’ve got a very nice acoustic version of ‘Beautiful’ (written by Linda Perry, best known as performed by Christina Aguilera), which is downloadable - plus five full songs from their latest album. I’d call it angsty indie-pop and recommend them to everyone, really.
Here is the bio from their website in English, and here’s some more information, as well as the possibility to purchase their 2003 album “Ain’t Love Grand”.
Download from YSI:
Beautiful (with Vreni Stadelmann, from 2003’s ‘Digitalfolk’, a self-produced acoustic EP)
Close to You (from ‘Evergreen Ballroom’, their 2004 album)
And if anyone would like to buy me one of their CDs for Christmas, feel free to do so… *g*
You know, I could really live without spam. Weeks seem to go by with hardly anything landing in my inbox - and then, all of a sudden, it just keeps coming. LEAVE ME ALONE, FUCKERS! Umm yeah.
I haven’t been online all that much lately, although I do try and keep up with things more or less. It’s not that I’m depressed - although I do have down-times and some problems sleeping - but there always seems stuff waiting to be done, and this blog is one of the things that suffer. But I finally finished my internship report, so I figured it was time to show up again…
So, to bring you up to speed, last weekend I attended a bellydancing workshop from uni sport. It was my first time trying Oriental dancing, and it was a lot of fun. Hard work, too, though - especially on Saturday I could hardly walk anymore. I could see myself doing this regularly very well, if it wasn’t for the money issue - uni sport was cheap (advertisement for the instructors), but regular classes are expensive.
In other news, I’ve been enjoying pre-holiday things like putting together lists for Christmas cards and sending out gifts. I’ve spent way too much on gifts already - and I haven’t even started on the ‘real’ gifts for my closest friends and family yet. But I just love picking things out that I think will make someone smile, so the money doesn’t really matter (much). And I got my Christmas bonus from work, so I can kind of justify it. *g*
And before I forget - this week’s Unconscious Mutterings:
Today is a very grey day, which always makes me feel kind of slow and lazy. Think I’ll go relax for a bit before heading out to class.
I got the following email last night, and it amuses me for some reason. I wonder how the heck they found my little corner of the web - but I’m obviously flattered! 
Subject: We dig chocolate too
We like your site a lot, as do some of our users. We like chocolate. We’d love to do a link exchange with you, and maybe exchange some traffic.
We’re at http://www.shakeitupbaby.com
Here’s a recent article about us in the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002078285_jibjab01.html
Keep up the good work!
Naturally I added a link to them, because it’s a very cool site - as affiliates and on my random link list…
Today started quite bad, with a phone call from work because someone got their knickers in a twist, but home again after uni I’ve decided to leave the bad mood behind me. Of course I’m still disappointed that for some reason De-Lovely (which I’d been dying to see with Sandra tonight) was cancelled from theatres here after only three weeks, but I won’t mope. I just have to wait till it’s out on DVD…
Oh, and have I mentioned that my Big Fish DVD arrived?
Outside the sun is shining - but it’s freezing cold, a real winter day. Might go for a walk in a bit. Everything but finish my paper… *g* I have the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that there’s something else I’m supposed to be doing as well, but I can’t for the life of me remember what. Well, it’ll come to me eventually, I guess.
Also, Cindy just posted some photos from her visit last week - Basel Herbstmesse.
I’ve been using Mozilla for ages (and before that, Netscape Navigator), but now Firefox 1.0 has been released, which should be even better! Trash IE, make the switch… *g*
Oh, I’ve also completed tweaking of the new layout, so you’re looking at the finished product… The first fandom-related layout I’ve ever used here, but hey - it’s so pretty and summery! And Lost kicks some serious ass - the first series that I’m d/ling every week…
Edited to add: Huh. For some reason the times on my blog were totally off, although I entered the correct time zone. Well, now the time zone is wrong, but the times should be right… Weird.
New header graphic made by poetic_, inspired by the new TV show Lost, featuring Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) and Claire (Emilie DeRavin). Just thought a warm layout would do me some good as it gets colder and colder outside…
There still has to be some tweaking done with the css and code, but it’s quite pretty, isn’t it?
Thanks to Ria I found another one of Kitten’s practical plugins - the Comment Killer. It automatically deletes all comments that land in the moderation queue, so it’s exactly what I needed.
The only thing is - if you post a genuine comment and it matches my blacklist for some reason, I have no way of stopping it from being deleted or even knowing that it was posted. So if your comment doesn’t appear on the entry, get in touch with me and let me know, okay?
I’m getting spammed like crazy - I’ve had to delete about 40-50 comments this morning alone. And they just keep coming, it’s so annoying! I mean, the spam filter works, none of them show up on the blog - but I keep having to go and delete them from the queue manually.
Is there any possibility to automatically block spam comments, they way it works with MT blacklist, for example?
I didn’t do any US election posting, not because I didn’t care, but mainly because I was sick. The result definitely worries me, as I think American politics are going into a dangerous direction, at least from my leftist point of view, not to speak of my personal opinion of Mr. Bush. But this article by Mitch Albom (the guy that wrote Tuesday with Morrie) mentions some important points to keep in mind, I think.