DCO, sked crash, movies sold by the D, and yet more iTunes cleanliness

I’m in the midst of putting together material for Debate Coaches Online for MB (who is either Maggie B and/or Mike B, which is a great way to save money by having everyone have the same initials). I’ve come to my conclusions, and now I’m passing them along to what is the ad hoc group for doing something about them (including telling me I’m totally off the mark). It’s going to be long and complicated. I’ll keep you posted, but it’s on to them first, as soon as I finish it.

One of the big issues of the coming season, and apparently an irresolvable one, is the pileup that will be occurring the weekend before UPenn (AKA the artist previously known as the weekend before Harvard). I’ve alluded to this in the recent past without giving the specifics, but they’re out there now. Emory, of course, has scheduled for two weeks before UPenn, i.e., the weekend of Jan 30, so everybody in the northeast seems to be reuniting on the weekend of Feb 5, but at different locations: Scarsdale (always the weekend before Harvard UPenn) and Newark (always the weekend after Emory) and, to the west a bit, Pennsbury (always the Newark weekend). I have talked to various and sundry, and it looks as if no one can do much about it. Those of us who don’t go to Emory will, apparently, be getting a weekend off, which is about the only bright side of it. Those of us with big squads and assistant coaches to burn can split and go in a couple of directions, but the rest of us are stuck with the less Solomonic solution of picking one or the other, a dilemma from which no one benefits. [Sigh.]

On the tech front, I’m really curious about Google Wave, but I gather the explanatory video is an hour and a half long. I mean, that’s half a Star Wars movie! Speaking of which, I went to the movies last night and saw Up in 3D (which, I learned, costs extra—choose your dimensions wisely, young padawan). Very good, of course, and one is starting to get tired of the fact that Pixar movies, no matter what they’re about, no matter how unlikely they seem, are all wonderful. Damn you, John Lasseter. We know you’re up to some evil plan. Out with it! Anyhow, this being my first (modern) 3D movie, I was surprised at how painless the experience was. It’s well beyond the technology extant at the Disney parks, not to mention Bwana Devil. I’m in now for the duration. What’s that, Mr. Welles? Your movie has only 2 D in it. Well, you can take your sled and just let it burn. Call me when you get another D or two.

And finally, when you let iTunes handle the artist and album names, you often get different artists for the same album, and in sets, different album names (not to mention calling people Paul McCartney and Paul Simon, say, rather than McCartney, Paul and Simon, Paul, which is the way my brain works). Using Remote makes this look like duck soup (or the weekend of Feb 5). So I’ve been cleaning that up, and I’m almost done, and if I never see iTunes again it will be too soon.