Mona's Friends Playlist

Mona picked out songs that all talk about friends. So here is her playlist of songs about friends.
Here are some links to the lyrics.
You've Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman
Thank You for Being a Friend
Friend Like Me
You've got a Friend

I'll be Around
Why Can't We be Friends
I'll be there for you
Make New Friends

The cloud in your pocket

Every once in a while I browse Amazon and find things I didn't even know existed. Today I found a thumb drive that has Wi-fi. I thought to myself - who wants that?

Then I read the comments on the reviews. The wi-fi thumb drive is a way to add storage to devices that do not have SD card slots, or USB ports but DO have the ability to connect to wifi. And the answer to my question was - I want that. Now!!

Both my iPhone and Fire could play movies, except I have to keep downloading the media to the devices. (I hate downloading) I could stream from the Internet, but I am not always in free wifi. With these devices I can stream movies from my own local mass storage to these two devices that have no USB ports.

I have 64 gig iphone which is nifty except for the the fact I had to use iTunes to transfer. As I mentioned before, I find using iTunes as pleasant as sticking needles in my eyes. So now I can watch on the iPhone without transferring, and the Fire - at the same time.

Can't wait til it gets here.

Burn CDs and record music with your computer - from a thumb drive

Every few years the tools for burning CDs and recording get better and better. Since I seem to switch computers every few years whether I want to or not, I spend a lot of time re-installing software.

My new preference is to use "portable" apps that run from a thumb drive. These do not need to be installed, so you can carry them with you. You simply unzip the applications to individual folders on your drive, and then execute (run) them from the thumb drive. I carry an alternative to Acrobat Reader (PDF-Xchange), portable Skype, and a few music tools. Here are some of my favorite music tools.

• Cd burning Click here to down load Tinyburner.
• Record audio Click here to down load Streamosaur, to record anything playing from the Internet or coming through your soundcard.
• Tag and rename audio Click here to down load Tag Scan, which will help you rename your files and tag them with track and album information. The tag information helps you choose which songs to play on your portable device.
• Edit audio Click here to down load Wavosaur, which allow you edit audio. This can be used to combine tracks, shorten, or create clips.

More free music

http://cantorion.org/music/3412/Lola_Habanera

Sugar Plum Fairy

My new ambition is to learn how to play the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.   Did you know you can find free sheet music for piano and flute?  The link below takes you there.   They also provide midi file.   Isn't technology amazing?

Free sheet music

Tchaikovsky, Piotr Ilitch Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy + MIDI / VideoFlute and Piano Classical Art Libre Powered by Free-scores.com

A Tale of Two Communities

Last summer I attended Blogher for the first time and it was a confusing, but eye-opening experience.   There was so much more to the blogging community than I had realized, and it would take me some time and effort to tap it.

So I started sorting through the various bloggers communities I joined Mom Spark, which was about parenting and blogging and seemed to be a friendly group.  I enjoy the posts, and the content, and do not resent the precious moments of my day it takes to keep up.

On the other hand, I also "applied" for Clever Girls Collective.   I'm clever, the content seemed interesting.  The application requirement was a little weird, but perhaps they wanted to some info to tailor their content to my interests.   At the end of the application I received a stiffly worded email that my application would be evaluated for its merit.  Yikes!  Apparently I had applied for the membership in the bloggers mean girls club.   Sure enough, several days later my official rejection arrived.   I was unworthy of the collective.

Then, I started getting spam from the Clever Girls Collective.  Apparently, though my membership was rejected, they felt free use my email address to hawk their sponsors.

Are they kidding?    Why would I support an organization that feels I am not worthy of membership?  Apparently clever isn't the same thing as smart. 

Mom Is A Geek and Gadget Girl for the holidays

Over on Gadget Girl's blog, you can see a list of the latest gadgets for the 2010 holiday season.   Momisageek is teaming up with Gadget Girl to get all of these new electronic toys working, and finding the easiest and best ways to use them.

Check out all the new  technology, and come see us for help setting things up.    You're plenty busy during the holidays, and Momisageek can provide the tetchnology assistance to make sure everything works on Christmas morning.