iPod Speakers

Apparently someone in my family is getting me something off of my Urban Outfitters wishlist for Christmas. Maybe it will be the Air Curve iPod Speaker that is just a block of plastic with airways in it.

If not, then I guess I could make my own DIY paper cup speakers! I found this article on NoiseAddicts. I haven't made these yet, but it looks simple enough.

Pandora

I have cable and there is a section of music stations on my TV. I used to put it on a lot (before I got a radio for my living room) while I was cleaning the house or at parties, etc. Today I discovered that they have replaced the musicals station with something called "Stage and Screen." When I went there it was playing Jessica Simpsons' "These Boots are Made for Walking" from the soundtrack of The Dukes of Hazzard. Not exactly what I was looking for. So I changed to a station called "Retro Rock" thinking it was going to be music from the 50's and 60's. It plays music from 1991.

And so, I went to Pandora. If you don't already know about Pandora, it is an online radio station made just for you. You create stations based on bands, songs, or genres you enjoy and it plays just that music and music like it! You can even set it to "Quickmix" and it will play random selections from all of your stations.

Pandora also has a free iPhone app! I wrote about it a few months ago (here). It's a must-have.

Here is a list of songs that played on my Quickmix this afternoon:

1) HooDoo: Muse

2) Beware of Darkness: George Harrison

3) Rain: The Beatles

4) A Must to Avoid: Herman's Hermits

5) Eleanor Rigby (Live): Paul McCartney

6) Drive: Incubus

7) Come Together: The Beatles

8) Never Let You Go: Third Eye Blind

• I don't actually like this song, but OK.

9) Get it On: T. Rex

• Ditto this one. Still better than Jessica Simpson.

10) Yellow (Live): Coldplay

• "If you stand up we'll buy you all ice cream."

11) I Want You Back: The Kooks

• I've never heard this before, part of the fun of Pandora radio.

12) Revolution (Love Version): The Beatles

• "ALL RIGHT!"

13) Can't Explain (Live at Leeds): The Who

14) Float On: Modest Mouse

• So THAT is what this song is called...

15) Superhero (Live): Stephen Lynch

16) I'm On a Boat: The Lonely Island

17) The Wind Cries Mary (Live): Jimi Hendrix

18) Trouble: Coldplay

• Why so much Coldplay today? I don't even have a Coldplay station.

19) The Song that Goes Like This: Spamalot

• I don't care about Spamalot, but I do think this song is cute.

20) Loro: Pinback

• I've also never heard this before. It came up on my MGMT station.

To be honest, I did use all six of my skips. :)

A couple of my friends have a beef with Pandora that it almost never plays female artists unless you are on a female artist themed station. They have a point - except for half of "The Song that Goes Like This" none of those songs were sung by women. The twenty-first song was "Over and Over" by Rachel Yamagata care of my "This Never Happened Before" station, though. (It's my only station inspired by a song instead of a band). That is a pretty good song, too. I think I'll add a Rachel Yamagata station. Go women!

iXpenseIt

iXpenseIt is an iPhone app (available in both a free "lite" version and a $4.99 pay version which allows more than 200 expense records and no ads) that helps you keep track of your monthly budget.

Since today is November 1st, I've decided to start today and keep track of all of my spending so I can make a budget. It's a bit sad to see that almost exactly 3/4 of my paycheck is gone after the first day (I pay all of my bills except my phone, gas, and electricity bill - plus I put money in savings and pay much more than the minimum on my credit card and car payment).

The cool thing about this app is that it is on your phone, so you take it with you wherever you go. No more saving receipts and trying to add them all up at the end of the day when you get home to your computer. Plus, you can add notes on the things you bought and even take pictures! I'm especially interested to see how much I end up spending on food and entertainment.

Instead of waiting for 2010 to make a New Year's resolution to keep better track of your finances, why not start now so you have all the data to make an educated decision about your budget for next year? Let's get out of debt and take the recession into our own hands!

Fruits and Veggies

Since I wrote about coffee and donuts in the last post...

I recently found these two websites while reading an article about how to save money at the grocery store.

The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides (here) has a list (here) of which vegetables and fruits are the worst when it comes to pesticides. How does this save you money? You buy organic for the worst offenders on the list (#2 is apples) but for those lower on the list you don't need to spend the extra money. They also have an iPhone app! Search "Dirty Produce" in the app store.

Fruits & Veggies: More Matters (here) is a site that, among other things, tells you what kinds of produce are in season when (here). Fruits and Vegetables that are out of season cost more.

The fruit you should probably always buy organic, or at least skin before you eat it? Peaches. Something you probably never have to buy organic? Onions. And what about grapes? Domestic grapes are fine, but if they are imported you should go organic.

Speaking of fruit, if you haven't seen it yet you MUST watch this video on how to open a banana like a monkey (here) on YouTube - it will either change your life or reinforce how awesome you already are. (I just noticed that the guy in the video is wearing monkey pajama pants).

(The photo above is from tornatore's Flickr page. Yay for creative commons)!

An Open Letter...

An open letter to the guy in the red baseball cap and the white T-shirt with his arms folded outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre when Paul McCartney was performing atop the Marquee for the Letterman show:

Dude. What is your problem? You are watching Paul McCartney. He is playing "Get Back" on a rooftop in New York City and you are there - in what is basically the front row. Why do you have your arms crossed and why do you look so stern? Chill out! How often is life going to be this good? Just enjoy it. I would say you were bumming me out, but I was having a good time and I wasn't there! I was watching it on my iPhone via YouTube. Dude, seriously, chill.

Lori

For more from someone who actually enjoyed herself seeing Sir Paul from the front row, see my post about Coachella 2009 (here).

My New iPhone

I know it's been a week since Coachella, but it's still filling my thoughts. I did get something else on the same day - my new iPhone (my only regret from Coachella is that I wasn't able to bring my iPhone and at least take a picture of Sir Paul to use as my wallpaper)!

I've had my iPhone for a little over a week and I'm still obsessed with it. I am new to AT&T, but I already had an ipod touch, so I was familiar with most of the aspects of the iPhone - apps, etc.

The biggest change is that I can check my e-mail and access the Internet from my phone now - anywhere. I was at dinner with my friends on Friday night and they were talking about American Idol (I don't watch it) and I was able to look something up on Wikipedia that they were wondering about.

The apps are probably the most fun thing about the iPhone, though. Here are a few that I would recommend and why:

Facebook (free): It's not really the same as the real facebook, but you can still see what your friends are up to.

Pandora (free): It's the radio station that only plays music you like!

Flashlight (free): This is pretty much just a white screen, but it comes in handy. I have used it more than once.

Wikiamo (free): Makes it easy to check Wikipedia by formatting it to fit the iPhone screen.

Google (free): Similar to Wikiamo, but for Google searches. Google Earth is also cool.

iChalky ($0.99): Chalky is a little chalk stick figure that moves around as you tilt your phone. He also dances if he hears music (though, for some reason it won't let you use the music from your own iPhone). The best part is that you can use photos to change Chalky's head into that of one of your friends (or enemies).

Koi Pond ($0.99): This is on most of those Top 10 Apps lists. If you shake your phone, it feeds the fish. If you touch the water, the fish swim away, and (in a kind of creepy way) if you leave your finger on the screen, the fish will come and "nibble" on your finger, complete with vibrations. It's supposed to be relaxing and zen, and it's actually pretty nice.

Remote (free): Use your iPhone as a remote for playing songs from iTunes on your computer. This is cool.

Midomi (vs.Shazam) (both free): Midomi and Shazam are two programs you can use to figure out the title/artist of a song. Let's say you like the song in a certain commercial - you hold your iPhone up to the TV and Midomi will tell you the title, artist, and allow you to buy it on iTunes, if you wish. I prefer Midomi because it has a feature where you can sing. It's actually kind of entertaining because you can listen to random people singing (and this is coming from someone who doesn't like American Idol).

Pac-Man ($5.99): Most people prefer Crash Kart (which I also have) but this is my game of choice. You can set it so that swiping your finger makes him move (try to beat my high score of 146,860).

SmackTalk ($1.99): Talk into the phone and a squeaky-voiced Guinea pig (or puppy, kitty, etc.) repeats after you. This is more fun than it sounds - a big hit when I show my new phone to friends.

I use pocket guitar and some chords and tuning apps, too.

Oh, it also makes phone calls. :)