iThings?!?
Do I need one? No. Not right now. But I know I’ll need one at some point, once my current one’s battery bites it due to too many walks in freezing cold weather. I was worried that Apple would discontinue their iPods due to the fact that their phones do everything that the iPods do and more. But as this article points out, iPods are good for the demographic that can’t afford the phones and/or don’t want to deal with smart phones but still want a music player that can connect to wifi.
So yay! I’m glad there’s at least one more iteration.
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW (sorta)
Hello there.
So it’s the start of a new month today! That means trading out a few of the old things that I’ve been using for a while and starting with some new.
1. New backpack.
This actually isn’t something I’m just starting to use today, but that’s only because the old one was literally unable to be used in its final state and I needed some sort of backpack before today. But it’s new enough, so I’m counting it.
2. New shoes.
Look at these gorgeous Kinvaras! They’re so bright and festive and soon-to-be-demolished-by-my-walking.
3. New iPod!
The iPod I’ve had since February 2012 is finally to the point where it won’t hold a charge long enough to last one of my walks. It’s also to the point where its storage is completely full of music. So I got a new one with double the storage and a new healthy battery. I was also able to find an owl case for it, so that’s really good.
WOO!
iPod Appreciation Day
Well hi there.
It’s my birthday, blah, blah, blah.
(It’s also Mayor Nenshi’s birthday, though, which is much cooler!)
But EVEN COOLER is the fact that I’ve owned my little iPod Touch now for a total of 5 years. That’s a long time for me to have an electronic, and a long time, in my opinion, for an iPod of mine to last, considering how many walks I’ve taken it on and just how much it gets used.
It gets used a lot. In hot weather, in Tucson’s version of hot weather (100 or so), in cold weather, in Calgary’s version of cold weather (-15 or so), in rain, in Vancouver’s version of rain (never-ending torrential downpour), in snow, on the bus, in the gym…and currently, it’s running with its screen on for anywhere between three and four hours per day (for the iTreadmill app to be tracking).
I don’t know the exact mileage because the universe ate my 2012 walking data, but just a rough guesstimate based on 2013-2016 puts my total mileage on this iPod well over 6,000. That’s pretty impressive for a little device like that.
So yeah. I just wanted to acknowledge the awesomeness of my iPod.
And to remind myself that while we tend to overlook it just because it’s a pretty constant and common thing in our lives, technology like this is really pretty damn amazing.
Fitbit vs. iTreadmill
Yo, people! So as I mentioned on “Fake Christmas” day, My dad got me a Fitbit ‘cause he knows I’m obsessive about tracking stuff (also I think he got one for himself, too, ‘cause he used to have a Nike one awhile back that’s probably dead by now).
Anyway, I decided to go for a walk today and compare what Fitbit said to what my iTreadmill app said.
So here we go!
Mileage
iTreadmill: 11.00
Fitbit: 11.01
Steps
iTreadmill: 24,240
Fitbit: 23,473
Time
iTreadmill: 175 minutes
Fitbit: 207 minutes
Calories Burned
iTreadmill: 702
Fitbit: 2,420
The mileage and steps aren’t too different from one another, which is surprising, ‘cause I can’t calibrate Fitbit to my stride (but I’ve done so for the iTreadmill app). The time for the Fitbit is longer because it doesn’t shut off when I stop moving. The iTreadmill app does (which I kind of like better, ‘cause then I know how much time I actually spent moving rather than just standing at intersections, in line at the grocery store, etc.). The calories are the biggest difference, but that’s because the Fitbit tracks “resting” calories burned as well, so the 2,420 is what it thinks I’d burned up until the walk, and then on the walk itself (I don’t think I burn nearly that many calories in a day. My body doesn’t manufacture it’s own heat, dude).
But the best part about the Fitbit is that it tracks your heartrate, which is something the iTreadmill can’t do. So if I’m not going to use it as my “official” tracker for steps/mileage, I can at least use it to track my heartrate.
YAY!
Reparations
My awesome owl iPod case has been with me since February 2012, when I bought this iPod down in Tucson. It’s done surprisingly well, considering I’ve walked about 4,000 miles with it. However, this afternoon I noticed that there was a huge tear in the silicone which would render the case useless if it tore all the way through.
So tonight Nate and I went to a Micheals to get something to repair it. After about an hour, we realized that the best course of action was to just get some duct tape and use that.
So I did.
Now he’s got a badass belt.
[insert nonsensical keyboard mash here]
It’s time for the not-quite-semi-yearly “Claudia feels materialistic” blog post!
(Note: I don’t actually need any of this, I just like to look at pretty things.)
Ready? GO!
iPhone 5s. I’m on the fence about getting a smart phone (not any time soon; when I can afford it, that is). I want one because they’re cool and useful, but I don’t want one because Claudia + constant access to the internet = disaster AND because I would probably damage it somehow within a month or so of getting it. Even so, I’m keeping my eye on the iPhone 5s as an option. I want the iPhone 4 because I love the shape, but no one sells them anymore and the software probably doesn’t even update anymore, either (that’s happening with my 2012 iPod, at least). So if I DO get a smart phone, the iPhone 5s is where it’s at.
The new iPod Touch. I don’t need one (and hopefully won’t for a long while), but I’ve had my current iPod since February 2012. Probabilistically, with all the walking I do (I use it as a pedometer and keep it in my back pocket), it’s going to get broken one of these days. Which would be sad. But if/when that happens, I’d like to get one of the new models. Probably in silver (since I’d just be covering it in a case, anyway). Of course, if I get an iPhone before that, I’d probably just use that as my pedometer, though I’d be really paranoid about breaking it.
I guess the one thing on this list I kind of need is a new desktop computer. Mine died like a month ago—which is okay, considering it survived like 7 moves around the continent and is old enough to still have Vista on it—but I need a new one. Preferably one that can run Fallout 4 once it comes out.
Rainbow socks! My old ones got holey a long time ago and I need replacements.
These two books on the history of statistics.
The end!
Random iPod things
I guess it’s one of those days where it’s snowing upside down.
LOL LONGEST WALK EVER I’MMA GO EAT A CAKE!
(This is what happens when I just barely start my walk to the bus and my iPod battery bites it ‘cause I hadn’t charged it in forever.)
Yes, I took that picture on the 26th, not on the day I’m talking about it in my blog. Deal with it.
Anyway.
Matt, these shoes reminded me of you, so I thought I should bring them to your attention.
That’s all for today.
iBlog
Woohoo, I finally have money! That means only one thing: new iPod!
My new sleek white iPod Touch is 32 GB in size, which means it’ll probably last me about two more years until it’s completely full, haha. Hopefully it’ll last longer than that; my “download a new song a day” thing is bringing in about 2.3 GB of music a year. Add random videos and such that I dig up and add to my iTunes library and hopefully we’ll still be okay for a bit.
OH, and check out this badass case:
How freaking cute is that? I love it.
TWSB: Do the Hustle! Er, Shuffle. Do The Shuffle. iPods. This post is about iPods.
So I found this NPR transcript this afternoon discussing a listener’s question about the “shuffle” feature of iPods. Specifically, what the mathematics behind the shuffle feature are. After all, the listener notes, it sometimes seems like the same songs keep coming up while many others are never played.
Keith Devlin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford, answers the question. The shuffle, he says, is meant to be random and in fact actually behaves as a random event. Mr. Devlin explains that people have difficulty recognizing randomness because of the simple fact that one of the features of truly random selection is the repetition of patterns. He uses the example of coin tossing. If you toss a coin twenty or so times, you’re very likely, he says, to get streaks of the same side coming up, like a streak of five heads or something. We tend to see such streaks as non-randomness, though, because such patterns surprise us (after all, it does seem intuitively weird to see five heads in a row when you’re tossing a coin when you know that both sides of the coin have an equal probability of occurring. The magic of independent probability!).
Mr. Devlin concludes, “so, assuming that Apple have designed a really good randomizer in the iPod, then you are going to start getting repeats of songs and you are going to find that some songs don’t come up seemingly for a long time. That’s the way random behavior is.”
Cool, huh?
30-Day Meme – Day 15: A poem you wrote.
I wrote this poem for my grandpa the night before he died of a rare cancer. I remember reading it to him and watching him slowly fade in and out of consciousness. Everything in this poem is totally true of him. You rocked, grandpa!
A Grandpa is someone you can count on in a mess
Though with woodworking and painting he is easily obsessed
Not a job too tough
Not a place too rough
For this daring man of a ripe old age
Who has lived in the past and seen the future.
Can re-fix a shoe with a single suture.
No need to ask for directions
Full of funny imperfections
This daring man of a ripe old age.
Whether zooming to the store for his lottery ticket
Or checking the numbers—did he win it?
Doesn’t complain
Need I explain?
The daring man of a ripe old age.
The daring man of a ripe old age.
iBlog
Today was freaking horrible. Therefore, I shall focus this blog on three things that have nothing at all to do with my life at the moment.
1. Seriousness: Steve Jobs
I credit Steve Jobs with the initiation of my love of music.* The second generation iPod mini (with colors silver, blue, pink, and green) came out in 2005 and I remember my dad asking me if I wanted one. I pretty much had no interest in it. I had a grand total of five music CDs and a rockin’ portable CD player decorated in stickers. Why would I want to change that?
He got me one anyway, though, for Christmas 2005. Enter iTunes plus a $50 iTunes gift card for my birthday two months later and I was suddenly introduced to the fact that I now had the power to find ALL THE OBSCURE SONGS I’D EVER LOVED. It took like two months for my meager 40-something-song library to grow to 400+. The portability factor—along with the fact that I could now purchase songs individually and therefore didn’t have to weigh the pros and cons of buying a whole $15 CD for just one or two songs—made me want to listen to music.
Haha, and now look where I am.
So I thank you, Mr. Jobs, for your business sense, your inventive mind, and your desire to continually make/improve portable media products for gadget lovers like myself. If I had any extra money at this time, I would upgrade my current iPod (I need a bigger one, haha) in your memory. But that will have to wait until I’m not dirt poor.
RIP.
Found on Imgur.
2. Creepiness: Googol
So remember when I blogged about Google’s Profiles and how it was freakishly similar to the product Google Face as I described in my NaNo Googol written last year (last part of this blog)?
Well, if Google merges with or takes over Apple within the next year or so, then I FREAKING CALLED IT AGAIN.
What I wrote:
“After the death of Steve Jobs in the early 2000s, Google’s founders felt there to be no other option but to approach Apple with a merger deal, offering them almost any stipulations they desired in exchange for being able to essentially mix the two companies into one giant hyper corporation that would push the limits of the known size of any company that had ever been in existence. […] Of course, prior to his death, Jobs had anticipated Google’s future moves. He knew that the corporation in charge of providing internet goers everything from facial recognition to “street views” of Pluto to basic search would not be so quick to pass up a merger opportunity with any company they thought was and would continue to be a successful internet partner. […] He knew a merger with the giant that was Google would most likely require sacrifices on the part of his own company. These sacrifices, however, he was not too willing to make. The impression Clarke gathered from the literature was that Jobs, in a somewhat secret move several years before his death, had created and documented several heavy handed stipulations and bargains that would have to be met in order for any sort of posthumous merger to take place.”
Including, as I go on to describe, a redesign of the Googleplex to match more the style of Apple.
Fun times.
3. Silliness: I Gotta Feeling
I’m not into hating specific types of music and I actually like this song, but this review is pretty great.
30-Day Meme – Day 6: Your favorite music video.
Oh crap, that’s tough.
I love The Music Scene by Blockhead because OMFG COLORZ:
But I think my favorite music video has to be for White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. Watch this and tell me it’s not the most beautiful, sad thing ever:
I could watch that over and over and over and over.
That is all.
*Actually, such a statement is a bit of a misnomer. I’ve always loved music in the sense that I’ve loved playing it…I guess I should say that Mr. Jobs initiated my love of listening to music in general.
Rome was actually built in a day and a half.
When I’m not carrying anything and feel like I could run five miles, I get to the bus stop just as the bus is pulling in.
When I have 50 pounds combined of backpack and groceries and it’s windy and cold, I miss the bus by about 30 seconds.
SUCH IS LIFE.
Anyway.
One gripe I’ve had with my iPod Touch is the fact that, unlike the Nano, it doesn’t have a pedometer. I love Nano’s pedometer ‘cause I’m that type of obsessive person who likes to track progress and estimate changes in my daily patterns and just generally be a number watching weirdo.
But today I found probably the coolest “you’re obsessive so you’ll love this” app: iTreadmill. I will utilize this tomorrow on my walk to whatever the hell mall I decide to go to, but I calibrated it this afternoon and can already tell it’s awesome.
It tracks:
- Steps
- Steps per minute
- Time
- Average pace
- Average speed
- Calories
- Distance
It keeps track of your history and gives you graphs! You can create a playlist to listen to as you go (I just put my whole “Favorites” playlist to play), you can enter your weight to get an accurate calories estimate, and you can set step, calories, distance, or time goals and set alarms to sound for certain milestones to your goals if you like that kind of stuff (I do). It also pauses automatically after 5 seconds of inactivity so waiting at stoplights and such won’t lessen your average speed.
HOW COOL IS THAT?
Download it, dudes.
Also, they should just make this a static claim on CTV weather for Vancouver:
Earlier today when they still had Saturday’s prediction up they actually had words (“light rain,” “rain,” “more rain” (seriously), “rain and snow”), but I guess they ran out of synonyms.
SUCH IS LIFE.
App-tacular
Okay, I promise I’m not an Apple whore, but I absolutely love this app.
It’s called Measures and it contains conversions to so many freaking units for so many different applications. The following measurement categories are included: length, area, weight, volume, temperature, time, fuel consumption, data storage, speed, currencies, acceleration, pressure, energy, power, force, torque, angle, charge, density, luminance, SI prefixes, flow, radioactivity, magnetic flux, magnetic flux density, clothes sizes and shoe sizes.
Seriously.
And like I said, SO MANY UNITS. For example, I now know that I am 0.86805556 fathoms tall, weigh 29,166.67 pennyweights, am 8,021,280 moments old, and wear a size 35 shoe in Brazil.
It’s also super easy to use. Here’s a review of it.
I don’t know how many of you have Touches/iPhones, but I recommend this not only because it’s useful, but because it’s ridiculously entertaining.
99 cents, people. Get it.
Today’s song: Better by Regina Spektor
Are invertebrates not allowed to drink Orange Crush?
So I impulse-bought an iPod Touch off of eBay this afternoon for no other reason than “hey look, this auction has 31 seconds left and I have money in my bank account!”
Who does that?
I now have THREE MOTHERFUCKING IPODS. I don’t even have the correct number of ears to justify that. What sane human being needs three iPods?
And I don’t even consider myself an Apple whore. I’ve never personally owned a Mac, the whole iPhone thing seems over-hyped to me, and I still don’t know what the hell the iPad actually is (aside from “a magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price”).
I’d sell Ye Olde iPod Classic, but it’s 80 gigs (SIZE OF OLD VAIO WTF) and it’s the only one compatible with my little car stereo plug-in thingy (meaning it charges as it plays). Plus it’s dented all to hell and I don’t know how I could convince a buyer that it works fine when it looks like a fat dude threw an elbow into its stainless steel.
Shiny new golden Nano is obviously staying, ‘cause I bought him less than a month ago and I adore the color. Nano also works best on the bus ‘cause he’s small and easy to deal with when I’m also carrying book/purse/umbrella/groceries.
And selling new Touch would be dumb.
Best plan of action: wait till Touch gets here, fondle the ever-living hell out of it and its Wi-Fi, then determine what Xbox games I should sell to compensate for my lack of restraint. I need to get rid of that old copy of Fallout 3, anyway.
Well, at least I don’t impulse-buy houses (that would make me my mom).
Today’s song: Mozart’s Mass in C Minor: Kyrie, performed by The Hungarian Radio Chorus
Apple stores are goddamn scary
Now I’m all for interactive electronics stores. If I’m allowed to fondle your merchandise before buying, I’m 60% more likely to buy and 100% more likely to fondle.
But holy lord. If your name is Steve Jobs and you’ve crapped out dozens of things that play music, come in pretty colors, have touch screens, and allow handheld access to the internet, you must realize that there will be no building large enough to house the throngs of people who swarm to shove iPhones (or, for the ladies, iPads) down their pants in Wi-Fi ecstasy.
Seriously.
I went to the Apple store in the Oakridge Mall this afternoon ‘cause old Nano finally died. The sheer amount of nerdy Mac people in there was frightening enough, but when I saw one lady trying to teach her young daughter how to say “app” and some dude purchasing four Macbook Pros, I just wanted to sprint to the back counter, get my Nano, and sprint the hell back out of there. Not to mention the people who were talking on their iPhones while playing with the iPad displays.
I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or start picking out baby names that start with the lower case letter “i.” But hey, I got a new Nano. It’s yellow, because the 5th generation yellow looks astounding whereas the 5th generation orange looks too brown for my taste.
Today’s song: Don’t Turn the Lights On by Chromeo
Dear Lord: thank you for YouTube
This is like 4,000 times funnier than it has any right to be.
Desire to get an iPhone just for this app = high.
Today’s song: Could It Be You (Punk Rock Chick) by Hwood
Yo blog title, I’mma let you finish, but this entry holds one of the best blogs of all time
iTunes Hates Canada and All Who Move There (And So Does PayPal): a True Story
Today I will narrate to you the scenario I experienced a few days ago when I tried to make a truce between iTunes and Canada. I log on to my iTunes account and notice that I’ve finally almost used up all my gift card money. The rest proceeds rather “nicely.”
Me: Oh hey, it looks like I’m down to 78 cents on my US iTunes account. I guess I’d better credit my account with more money.
iTunes: We can’t process your payment.
Me: Why?
iTunes: I’m not going to tell you.
Me: I’ll go check what PayPal has to say about this, then.
Paypal: Don’t ask me, it takes me five to seven business days to process anything. And it’s Friday, so good luck with that.
Me: Fine, I’ll just credit my account with my bank here.
iTunes: Wait, you’re using a Canadian bank account.
Me: No shit.
iTunes: You can’t do that unless you’re in Canada.
Me: I AM in Canada!
iTunes: But you’re not in iTunes’ Canada store.
Me: Okay, then I’ll switch my country on my profile.
iTunes: You can’t do that.
Me: Why??
iTunes: Because your current account is using a US bank account.
Me: So…I can’t use my US bank account because I’m in Canada, but I can’t switch to the Canadian store to use my Canadian bank account because my current account is linked to a US bank, even though my US bank won’t work for payment anymore?
iTunes: Makes perfect sense to us.
Me: Then I’ll make a new iTunes account with my Canadian bank account.
iTunes: Are you sure? You’ll have to use the Canadian iTunes store.
Me: I JUST WANT MUSIC.
iTunes: Okay, let me just process your info. Oh, and by the way, Canadian iTunes blows.
Me: Thanks.
iTunes: It looks like I can’t process your payments from your Canadian bank account.
Me: WHY.
iTunes: I’m not going to tell you.
Me: Ugh, FINE, I’ll make my old PayPal link to my Canadian bank.
Paypal: Welcome to Paypal.ca! Would you like to set up a new account?
Me: Oh screw this.
So I just quit and am downloading from justmusicstore.com until Paypal gets off its butt in nine to twelve business days (that’s the conversion to Canadian days from US days, in case you were wondering).
You think they wouldn’t make it so complicated for me to pay them money, but I guess not.
Today’s song: Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson
To the nice person who now has my iPod:
I just want to take a moment to thank the person who decided to take my iPod this morning. You were correct in thinking that I didn’t accidentally leave it on the floor next to my chair in Belief and Reality. I actually left it there for somebody to take, so that they could enjoy all the music I paid for. It’s a good thing it took you less than five minutes to find it and decide to keep it, or else I would have run back from math to retrieve it before you could have enjoyed it.
I hope you like how new it looks. It’s only a couple weeks old. Not a scratch. I also hope you enjoy the engraving on the back: “Happy 21st birthday! Love Mom.” This had no sentimental value at all; I told her to have it engraved so that you would have something to read while you were enjoying my music.
I also hope you like the earbuds. They cost about $30 since they are noise-cancelling with an adjustable volume gauge on the wires. They’re really nice.
There’s a video on there that one of my friends gave me, too. It got erased from my computer, but it’s still on the iPod. I was hoping to transfer it back to my computer later this week, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy an inside joke between my friend and me more than I ever could.
Oh, and one more thing to make your day a little bit easier: if you go down the hallway from that classroom, take a left, and then follow the stairs to the area above the commons, you’ll find the Information Desk for the TLC. That’s where the lost and found is. It’s where people who have found others’ possessions drop them off so that the owners can retrieve what they’ve misplaced. I just thought you’d like to know, in case you ever lose that nice new orange iPod nano, that you can go to that desk and inquire if anyone has returned it there.
Well, that’s all. Have a nice life, and enjoy your new iPod!
Asshole.
(One-ish year later edit: nope, never got it back.)
Songs at work
So I’ve noticed this weird trend with my music when I’m listening to it at work…even though I keep my iPod on shuffle and even though we never go the same places in the same order, there are certain songs that only come up when we’re at certain places. Examples:
- Apocalyptica’s Farewell always comes on in the GSR parking lot.
- Battles’ Atlas comes on when I’m sweeping; I think there’s only been one occasion where it’s come on when I was doing something else.
- Love Rollercoaster (by the Ohio Players) has never been played outside of the van.
- Valdres March only comes on when I’m cleaning the AC vents in GSR.
- Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz? Always in the parking lot for South Hill Vista.
- I always get two Metro Station songs in a row. Always.
My iPod scares me.
That’s the one good thing about standard deviates—they’re never mean
Well, my iPod bit it. So I will buy myself a custom-colored one.
Problems: it’s expensive and only holds 2,000 songs (right now I’ve got 1,195). So I might just buy a regular video one like I had before.
Pfft. Who knows what I’ll do?
Sure, he wrote it, but the Grammy is MINE!
My iPod’s shuffle is a good songwriter for an iPod’s shuffle. I put my songs on shuffle and pulled the first line out of each song. I got this:
I never knew
Been so long since I met you,
See I don’t know why
I told another lie today.
I tried my best
I would like to reach out my hand.
Looking at your picture from when we first met
I can’t remember the last time that we kissed goodbye.
You’re a song,
It’s all because of you.
My iPod is talking to me!
It tells me to shake my booty, tells me it’s addicted to me, explains to me the sound of silence, and blames me for things I haven’t done (“Look what you’ve done,” it says to me!), among other things…
…help me…
(Note: I’m avoiding talking about the math final I took today.)
Eigenblogger 