Well, I'll be packing my bags very soon for vacation. We are heading north for a few days to a resort and then off to a friend's cottage for  and visiting with my family for the balance of my time away. So you won't hear a peep from me between the 14th and 26th of August.

I'll be recharging my batteries before the fall semester begins. I plan to read (new Harry Potter novel ready to go), relax, partake in a few of my favorite beverages and shoot lots of photos.

It's been an exciting August so far, what with the announcement of Studio 8. I hope you've all had a chance to check out our Sneak Peeks, and they've got you as psyched as me. 

Here's a wish to all of you that the rest of the summer is full of fun, happiness and lots of new clients who pay quickly.

Take care, all. 

Well it's finally happened; I'm turning into an iPod junkie - and I don't even have my iPod yet!

Let me explain.

About two weeks ago, I won a 20 GB iPod in a contest. It should be arriving at my door any day now. This is cool for many reasons:

1. My laptop has the same storage capacity as my iPod (ok, that's not cool, it's just sad)
   
2. I rarely win ANYthing
3. I was planning on buying an MP3 player this summer
4. My coolness factor at college should increase even more (hard to imagine getting cooler than my shirts, but it can happen)
   
5. I can download images while on a photo shoot
   

But yesterday, I thought I should investigate this whole iPod phenomenon a bit more, considering that I don't own any other Apple products of any description. I immediately went to the Apple web site and started poking around. One of the first things I found was FREE software in the form of iTunes. I'm a sucker for free software (even when you need it).

I watched a couple tutorials about importing music. I have a CD collection of over 250 discs, and wanted to make sure I could import them (yes, yes, all you iPod veterans, laugh at the noob).

So with instructions memorized, I started gathering a few CD's to make my first compilation. I wanted to be good to go when my new toy arrived.

Several hours later, I have imported almost 300 songs - over 20 hours of music - and I only just broke the 1 GB ceiling!

Rush, Pink Floyd, Boston, The Killers, Alan Parsons, Evanescence, Steve Miller Band, Billy Joel, B 52's, Enya, The Cars, Bare Naked Ladies - and much, much more - all happily sharing the same space.

I'm stoked. And severely hooked on iTunes. What a great app!

I even bought a couple songs off iTunes for the heck of it.

So, when I head off to the cottage this August, I can bring along more tunes than I'll even have time to listen to.

Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have another 100 CD's to rifle through. The work just never ends . . .