Yesterday morning I woke up, booted up the laptop, and when it was time to write, I wanted to listen to Tchaikovsky. How weird is this? Let's just say that my classical music collection is practically nil and that that I had nothing by this composer at all. Anywhere.
BTW, I blame my vampire heroine for this. She was listening to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake during her story. And in a second aside, I have a title for this short now. I don't know if I'll get to keep it, but it works so well for the story on a couple of different levels. I'll share it when I know for sure I get to use it.
Okay, so back to Tchaikovsky. I needed him to write to and that was that, so I went to Amazon and browsed their MP3 collection. I ended up buying Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker Suite. Can I just say how much I love being able to buy MP3 music online and instantly download it onto my computer and iPod? In somewhere around five minutes, I had Tchaikovsky going in iTunes and I was writing.
I'm so into this instant gratification thing. :-) Whatever I'm in the mood for, if I don't already own it, I can go buy it and have it in minutes. Too cool! I know people say it's trading sound quality for convenience, but to my great sadness, I don't have a good musical ear and I don't hear an appreciable difference between CD and MP3 track. Not enough to ruin the experience for me. Call me a Philistine, but I'm good with it. :-)
Showing posts with label ipod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ipod. Show all posts
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Don't Know Much Geography
I didn't get much geography education in school, but then I couldn't see why I needed to memorize state capitols anyway. Who cares, right? Somehow I ended up with a fairly decent idea of geography despite this and it ended up being a good thing when I went to work for an airline. I'm still not perfect, especially on the continents that we don't fly to--but I have a general idea of what's where. And that's what I thought geography was.
This summer, I downloaded a class from iTunes U (free!) called Cultural Geography from Stanford. I didn't expect it to be too interesting--it was geography--but I was surprised. It was fascinating. The first half of the course looked at linguistics and geography and country borders in relationship to language. I learned a lot about some places of the world that I didn't realize before and I was riveted while I was learning--two really important things for me. I love to learn new stuff, but I want to be entertained, too. I was.
The second half of the 10 week class was on religion and geography. I wasn't quite as into this part, but it was still interesting and gave me a different, more knowledgeable perspective on the world. I was actually disappointed when we finished up the course and I wanted more. Off I headed to iTunes U and found the same professor had another geography class up--Geopolitics. The more amazing thing is that I already had 9 of the 10 weeks on my iPod. I downloaded the final week and the third geography class that was about geography and the elections. I started the geopolitics class this week.
Nerdiness--I have it. But I think this is part of what attracted me to writing--my interest in learning new things and finding the quirkiest things fascinating. Not that geography is that strange, but I did flip on an hour show on The Discovery Channel about container ships and watched the whole thing, riveted. :-)
I have always been like this even as far back as junior high school when I checked out every book the library had on sharks and read them one after the other. Or in college when the journalism school abetted my eclectic range of interests by setting up a program that required we take classes across the university. Makes sense since a journalist never knows what they'll be assigned to cover and a little bit of knowledge helps, but it had me flitting all over the system. I graduated with 240 credits and I only needed 180. No minor. No second major. I was just that scattered in my course selection and I loved it! Astronomy, theater, political science, economics, American history, philosophy, you name it, I probably had it--unless it involved math. :-)
This is why iTunes U is such a wonderful thing for me. Now I can continue taking university classes without 1. spending money or 2. having to take tests. Yea!
This summer, I downloaded a class from iTunes U (free!) called Cultural Geography from Stanford. I didn't expect it to be too interesting--it was geography--but I was surprised. It was fascinating. The first half of the course looked at linguistics and geography and country borders in relationship to language. I learned a lot about some places of the world that I didn't realize before and I was riveted while I was learning--two really important things for me. I love to learn new stuff, but I want to be entertained, too. I was.
The second half of the 10 week class was on religion and geography. I wasn't quite as into this part, but it was still interesting and gave me a different, more knowledgeable perspective on the world. I was actually disappointed when we finished up the course and I wanted more. Off I headed to iTunes U and found the same professor had another geography class up--Geopolitics. The more amazing thing is that I already had 9 of the 10 weeks on my iPod. I downloaded the final week and the third geography class that was about geography and the elections. I started the geopolitics class this week.
Nerdiness--I have it. But I think this is part of what attracted me to writing--my interest in learning new things and finding the quirkiest things fascinating. Not that geography is that strange, but I did flip on an hour show on The Discovery Channel about container ships and watched the whole thing, riveted. :-)
I have always been like this even as far back as junior high school when I checked out every book the library had on sharks and read them one after the other. Or in college when the journalism school abetted my eclectic range of interests by setting up a program that required we take classes across the university. Makes sense since a journalist never knows what they'll be assigned to cover and a little bit of knowledge helps, but it had me flitting all over the system. I graduated with 240 credits and I only needed 180. No minor. No second major. I was just that scattered in my course selection and I loved it! Astronomy, theater, political science, economics, American history, philosophy, you name it, I probably had it--unless it involved math. :-)
This is why iTunes U is such a wonderful thing for me. Now I can continue taking university classes without 1. spending money or 2. having to take tests. Yea!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Down Melody Lane
Before I get started, I wanted to let everyone know that I'll be a guest on Thursday, October 16th at the Midnight Moon Cafe blog. You can read my interview and enter to win a copy of In the Midnight Hour, book 1 in the Light Warriors series. I'll post again to remind y'all.
Now on with today's blog:
I guess music has been on my mind a lot lately. Probably because I'm listening to it so much more often now than usual. What can I say? Boring project at the Evil Day Job (EDJ) and I've hooked my iPod up to my car stereo, so I can listen on the commute. Anyway, on Sunday evening, I decided to go through my old music and buy the MP3 versions so I could have them on hand. It was a very enlightening endeavor.
Before I began, my expectation was that I would have a ton of music I'd need to buy. I was wrong. Part of it was because I already had the songs I really loved, but the biggest reason was how much my musical taste has changed. This was something I already kind of knew. There are songs/groups I hated when I was younger that I actually listen to now and enjoy, but I guess I was kind of stunned by how many songs I looked at and went, ewww! :-)
An even bigger surprise was how many songs I had no memory of ever hearing. Wow. These songs are from back when I could remember conversations verbatim six months after having them. I can still sing commercial jingles from my grade school days even though those ads haven't been on television in years. And I amazed my young cousin years ago when we were at a wedding and I could sing along with every single song the DJ played. :-) Despite all this, I'd look at a song and go, huh?
After sorting through everything, I ended up with a small selection to look for, maybe 10% of the total. I was able to find eight of the songs available on Amazon. I like buying music there because it's DRM free, and after I was unable to load songs I bought on my new iPod because they were locked to the wrong format, I have become an advocate of DRM-free files. :-)
There were songs, though, that I couldn't find and/or some of them were by pretty big artists. Smuggler's Blues by Glen Frey and Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon are the two that immediately come to mind. TBH, I was completely shocked that I didn't already own a CD with Smuggler's Blues on it--I have a ton of 80s compilations.
My next stop was iTunes. I discovered a week or so ago that some of their music is exclusive only to them. I found four more from my list there including the Carly Simon song and Lulu's To Sir, With Love, but that still left me with half my list unfilled. Why isn't Marrs' Pump Up the Volume out there? Why can't I find Glen Frey for heaven's sake? I would have thought that I'd be able to buy any song I wanted, after all, I did find the theme song from The Banana Splits Show. This was truly a WTH moment for me.
I ended up putting these songs away, unfound and unbought. I suppose after a while, I'll dig them out again and see if Amazon has them for sale at that time, but it was hugely disappointing not to be able to buy them and listen to them again.
Now on with today's blog:
I guess music has been on my mind a lot lately. Probably because I'm listening to it so much more often now than usual. What can I say? Boring project at the Evil Day Job (EDJ) and I've hooked my iPod up to my car stereo, so I can listen on the commute. Anyway, on Sunday evening, I decided to go through my old music and buy the MP3 versions so I could have them on hand. It was a very enlightening endeavor.
Before I began, my expectation was that I would have a ton of music I'd need to buy. I was wrong. Part of it was because I already had the songs I really loved, but the biggest reason was how much my musical taste has changed. This was something I already kind of knew. There are songs/groups I hated when I was younger that I actually listen to now and enjoy, but I guess I was kind of stunned by how many songs I looked at and went, ewww! :-)
An even bigger surprise was how many songs I had no memory of ever hearing. Wow. These songs are from back when I could remember conversations verbatim six months after having them. I can still sing commercial jingles from my grade school days even though those ads haven't been on television in years. And I amazed my young cousin years ago when we were at a wedding and I could sing along with every single song the DJ played. :-) Despite all this, I'd look at a song and go, huh?
After sorting through everything, I ended up with a small selection to look for, maybe 10% of the total. I was able to find eight of the songs available on Amazon. I like buying music there because it's DRM free, and after I was unable to load songs I bought on my new iPod because they were locked to the wrong format, I have become an advocate of DRM-free files. :-)
There were songs, though, that I couldn't find and/or some of them were by pretty big artists. Smuggler's Blues by Glen Frey and Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon are the two that immediately come to mind. TBH, I was completely shocked that I didn't already own a CD with Smuggler's Blues on it--I have a ton of 80s compilations.
My next stop was iTunes. I discovered a week or so ago that some of their music is exclusive only to them. I found four more from my list there including the Carly Simon song and Lulu's To Sir, With Love, but that still left me with half my list unfilled. Why isn't Marrs' Pump Up the Volume out there? Why can't I find Glen Frey for heaven's sake? I would have thought that I'd be able to buy any song I wanted, after all, I did find the theme song from The Banana Splits Show. This was truly a WTH moment for me.
I ended up putting these songs away, unfound and unbought. I suppose after a while, I'll dig them out again and see if Amazon has them for sale at that time, but it was hugely disappointing not to be able to buy them and listen to them again.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Watch It Online?
I downloaded a preview for a PBS series called Carrier. There'd been other shows on aircraft carriers that I'd seen, but those were an hour long and this one is ten hours and follows members of the crew from the moment they're deployed until they come home. The preview was fascinating and I knew I wanted to watch the series. It looks like a good resource for someone who writes military heroes and/or heroines or paramilitary characters.
Unfortunately, the preview had come out in April and a search of the PBS website said that it wasn't going to be replayed in my area within the 2 week search parameter. Maybe they'll replay it later, but I couldn't bet on that. PBS did have all the episodes available on their website. Great, I thought, I'll download them to my iPod and watch when I have a few minutes here or there.
As it turned out that wasn't going to work. The episodes are not downloadable and I wanted to watch them I'd have to sit at my computer. The other alternative was to buy the series and I figured I'd just do that sometime and watch it at my leisure--although I'll confess that I wasn't real keen on spending the money for that.
Then it dawned on me. Netflix! I don't know why I was so slow to think about it. Maybe because I've had my last movie on top of the entertainment center since like, well, July. Sure enough Netflix had it available, but I could also watch the episodes on my computer from their website.
Okay, is it just me? I don't want to watch television or movies online. For one thing, I'm usually on my computer doing something while I have the TV on. If I'm writing, I'm watching something with the sound muted and if I'm not writing, I'm probably researching online as I watch or catching up on notes or searching for a picture of one of my characters. I'm multitasking which I can't really do online if I'm also streaming a movie or show.
For another, even if by some odd chance I'm not using the computer for something else, I don't want to watch online because--frankly--I spend enough time staring at the screen and if I actually have turned off life support (AKA my laptop), I don't want to turn it back on again. I'm on the computer all day at the Evil Day Job and I'm on the laptop when I get home to write. If I'm taking a break from it, there's usually a reason.
I'm beginning to feel alone, though. I know there are a lot of people who don't mind staring at the screen for an extra couple of hours. It's not as if my screens are small either--my desktop has a 24" monitor and my laptop is a 15.4" wide screen--I just don't want to do it.
And to be totally weird, I have no problems watching shows on my iPod and it's got an itty bitty screen. I think the difference is that the iPod makes me mobile. I can watch while I'm in line for license tabs or while I'm waiting to see the dentist. The iPod is about convenience, but watching on the computer just feels onerous to me. Am I the only one who's resisting the online streaming thing?
Unfortunately, the preview had come out in April and a search of the PBS website said that it wasn't going to be replayed in my area within the 2 week search parameter. Maybe they'll replay it later, but I couldn't bet on that. PBS did have all the episodes available on their website. Great, I thought, I'll download them to my iPod and watch when I have a few minutes here or there.
As it turned out that wasn't going to work. The episodes are not downloadable and I wanted to watch them I'd have to sit at my computer. The other alternative was to buy the series and I figured I'd just do that sometime and watch it at my leisure--although I'll confess that I wasn't real keen on spending the money for that.
Then it dawned on me. Netflix! I don't know why I was so slow to think about it. Maybe because I've had my last movie on top of the entertainment center since like, well, July. Sure enough Netflix had it available, but I could also watch the episodes on my computer from their website.
Okay, is it just me? I don't want to watch television or movies online. For one thing, I'm usually on my computer doing something while I have the TV on. If I'm writing, I'm watching something with the sound muted and if I'm not writing, I'm probably researching online as I watch or catching up on notes or searching for a picture of one of my characters. I'm multitasking which I can't really do online if I'm also streaming a movie or show.
For another, even if by some odd chance I'm not using the computer for something else, I don't want to watch online because--frankly--I spend enough time staring at the screen and if I actually have turned off life support (AKA my laptop), I don't want to turn it back on again. I'm on the computer all day at the Evil Day Job and I'm on the laptop when I get home to write. If I'm taking a break from it, there's usually a reason.
I'm beginning to feel alone, though. I know there are a lot of people who don't mind staring at the screen for an extra couple of hours. It's not as if my screens are small either--my desktop has a 24" monitor and my laptop is a 15.4" wide screen--I just don't want to do it.
And to be totally weird, I have no problems watching shows on my iPod and it's got an itty bitty screen. I think the difference is that the iPod makes me mobile. I can watch while I'm in line for license tabs or while I'm waiting to see the dentist. The iPod is about convenience, but watching on the computer just feels onerous to me. Am I the only one who's resisting the online streaming thing?
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Gadgets, Gizmos and Doodads
I checked out the new Apple products today when I got home from work. They had a big presentation today, which I only know about because I follow Mac Rumors on Twitter, and unveiled all kinds of stuff. No new computers, I guess, at least I didn't see any on their home page, but I did see a movie demonstration of the iPod Touch.
If I tell you I drooled, will that give you an idea how much I want one? ;-) TBH, I want an iPhone, but there is no way on this earth that I'm paying that monthly fee. Not unless I win the lottery, and really, how often do people who don't buy tickets win? Anyway, the iTouch is a viable alternative although I would have to be someplace with wifi to use the internet. I can live with that.
Gadgets, gizmos, anything computer related and I want it. Never mind that I might not get a lot of use out of it, I just like the shiney stuff that does things.
But I run into another issue which kind of reins me in--I hate to buy something, say a new computer, when I know something better is on the way. I need a new laptop. There's nothing really wrong with the one I have now except that it's developing a few hiccups that are minor annoyances, but it's 3.75 years old and it's showing it's age. I've been monitoring its potential replacement for a few weeks now, but I haven't bought it even thought it's tempting. You see, I heard there's this new chip on the way and that it's appreciably better than what's available now.
I know that there's always going to be something better coming in the computer world, but it's so hard to commit when you know it's out there. Waiting until I'm locked in to something else. It's happened before. I bought a desktop computer like a month before USB ports were introduced. If you don't think that became a problem, you'd be wrong--I keep my desktops 6-8 years before I replace them.
I suppose it could be worse. I could be into cars, and as expensive as gadgets and gizmos are, cars are worse. But it's so hard to watch these demonstration videos and not want to pull out the credit card. Ah, well.
Just an update to my last post. My agent read the synopsis and passed it along to my editor without my needing to revise it first. Hurrah! I've started in on the story now, but it's hard to really get into it when I know I'm supposed to have revisions on the last book this week.
If I tell you I drooled, will that give you an idea how much I want one? ;-) TBH, I want an iPhone, but there is no way on this earth that I'm paying that monthly fee. Not unless I win the lottery, and really, how often do people who don't buy tickets win? Anyway, the iTouch is a viable alternative although I would have to be someplace with wifi to use the internet. I can live with that.
Gadgets, gizmos, anything computer related and I want it. Never mind that I might not get a lot of use out of it, I just like the shiney stuff that does things.
But I run into another issue which kind of reins me in--I hate to buy something, say a new computer, when I know something better is on the way. I need a new laptop. There's nothing really wrong with the one I have now except that it's developing a few hiccups that are minor annoyances, but it's 3.75 years old and it's showing it's age. I've been monitoring its potential replacement for a few weeks now, but I haven't bought it even thought it's tempting. You see, I heard there's this new chip on the way and that it's appreciably better than what's available now.
I know that there's always going to be something better coming in the computer world, but it's so hard to commit when you know it's out there. Waiting until I'm locked in to something else. It's happened before. I bought a desktop computer like a month before USB ports were introduced. If you don't think that became a problem, you'd be wrong--I keep my desktops 6-8 years before I replace them.
I suppose it could be worse. I could be into cars, and as expensive as gadgets and gizmos are, cars are worse. But it's so hard to watch these demonstration videos and not want to pull out the credit card. Ah, well.
Just an update to my last post. My agent read the synopsis and passed it along to my editor without my needing to revise it first. Hurrah! I've started in on the story now, but it's hard to really get into it when I know I'm supposed to have revisions on the last book this week.
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