Birthday week in my material world

Posted by & filed under music, the internet, and life.

Breathe by Nikki McClureI’ve had a very materialistic week.

My actual birthday was quite delightful. I woke up to a phone call from my mom. She lovingly sang me the birthday song. I had completely forgotten it was my birthday and would probably have started obsessing over my tasks for the day. Instead, the greetings kept rolling in all day, surrounding me with love and good wishes. I think I was on cloud 8; maybe not quite 9 but pretty close. Then I left work early and went shopping. I almost never go shopping. I got some cool clothes, this beautiful Nikkie McClure poster for the Pubs office, and a bunch of cards and valentiney stuff.

Love wheelI got a few of these wheels that teach you how to say “I love you” in 50 languages, including Pig Latin. In Java you would say “Aku tresna sliramu.” Seems like a mouthful to me; I wonder how often people say it to each other. Anyway, I love stuff like this.

Today I got really frustrated because I am still going to suffer more iPod Touch trials and tribulations. It was bad enough when my new Touch turned out to be defective. Then it took several phone calls and a long wait to finally get the special package to ship it back to Apple in. Now they send me email that says they “could not duplicate the problem” and are going to send it right back to me. I’m sorry, but how could they not duplicate the lack of ability to play any music or videos??* I doubt they even tried! I am bummed to get such poor customer service and double bummed that it’s Apple that’s the culprit. I am used to profoundly trusting Apple and now our relationship will never be the same.

Maybe some time in the future I will transcend these petty pleasures and sorrows. Not this week though.

I should mention that last week, my friend Anne had the best dance party ever. If I could go to a party like that every week, I could transcend anything. Dancing for 4 hours in the living room to disco and funk with your favorite goofy loveable friends is as good as it gets.

*The headphone jack can’t hold on to a plug; thus, no music or video playback.

Delayed iPod Touch gratification

Posted by & filed under music, the internet, and life.

My iPod Touch was delivered yesterday. At first I was so excited! Before you get all happy for/envious of me, though, it stopped working after a couple of hours. I’ll have to send it in for repair: the headphone jack is so loose that nothing will stay plugged in, and so I can’t play any music. Oh well. I’m also waiting to upgrade to Leopard (I’m waiting for SuperDuper!) so I’m in delayed gratification mode anyway.

Unfortunately, I spent an hour or two bookmarking all my favorite YouTube videos, and all those bookmarks will be lost when they reset the iPod, as I’m told they always do. I’ll have to redo them, wahh.

However, before it crapped out, I was able to send an email to Brian and ask how he’s doing up there in the cold(er) north. It may take a while to get fully up to speed on the tiny virtual keyboard, but I’m catching on.

The integration between apps is very good. For example, you can go from a contact to their address on the map, or vice versa – add a map location to a contact.

Since I’ve stopped using iCal and now rely on Remember The Milk, I also coughed up 25 bucks and signed up for Remember The Milk Pro so I could access their very nice iPhone/Touch interface.

Remember The Milk for iPhone/Touch

Calling all bike (or pedestrian) commuters

Posted by & filed under music, the internet, and life.

From a story in the SC Sentinel:

Police spokesman Zach Friend said the department receives funding from the state Office of Traffic Safety to run pedestrian safety operations cracking down on drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. The department also addresses jaywalking during these operations.

Friend said that people who want to report these type of issues or to suggest locations for these operations are encouraged to call the department’s Traffic Section at 420-5860. And stepping on the gas is actually a very bad idea, now that I think about it.

Did you get that number?

420-5860

I plan to suggest the intersection of Soquel and Branciforte. Just about every evening I cross Soquel to get to Branciforte. I push the button and wait for the walk light, I often dismount from my bike and walk across the crosswalk, with my bike lights blinking if it’s twilight or later, and still, still, so many drivers act like they’re actually trying to hit me, or at least, like I’m invisible and the crosswalk is too. They like to hunker down right on top of it.

Anyone else know of trouble spots that should be reported?

Cat Power: Jukebox

Posted by & filed under music, the internet, and life.

Cat Power: JukeboxA little bird told me that Cat Power’s new album Jukebox, due out on January 22, is going to be very good. Jukebox will probably appeal to both old and new Cat Power fans.

Most of the tracks are covers, although you should expect the unexpected; you may hardly recognize the songs, transformed as they are. Song to Bobby is a new original; that’s Bobby as in Dylan.

I recommend this very interesting review. And of course I recommend getting the album at the soonest possible moment.

Here’s the track list:

1. New York
2. Ramblin’ (Wo)man
3. Metal Heart
4. Silver Stallion
5. Aretha, Sing One For Me
6. Lost Someone
7. Lord, Help The Poor & Needy
8. I Believe In You
9. Song To Bobby
10. Don’t Explain
11. Woman Left Lonely
12. Blue

As a bonus, here’s a video of Cat in the studio (after the jump):
(more…)