Jami and Music to Birth By

Okay, so I got the new laptop finally all synched up and happy with iTunes and Stanley. I've got a few months until this baby's lease is up and I'll have to evict him, so I'm thinking about a few playlists which I might enjoy while turning my body inside out. I'll accept suggestions for: 1. Faster paced, pep-me-up kind of songs for when I need a little motivation to keep moving 2. Soothing music for when I am resting, or need to be calmed. 3. Tunes with a nice steady beat for walking the halls. Thoughts?

Jami And the Fun Music Meme

Thanks to PaperbackWriter who always seems to find these fun things : Soundtrack to the Movie of Your Life 1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, lime wire, pandora radio, etc) 2. Put it on shuffle 3. Press play 4. For every question, type the song that's playing 5. When you go to a new question, press the next button 6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.. Opening Credits: Skin is Burning - Burlap to Cashmere This is a little known group that I love, a very "world music" meets rock sound. Good to start it all up. Waking Up: Dr. Laura Program for May 1 - Dr Laura Schlessinger Could be the alarm clock setting? First Day At School: Lucky Ball and Chain - They Might Be Giants This one was also on PW's post, but more appropriately located. Falling In Love: These Thousands Hills - Third Day Not at all a love song. Fight Song: All in My Head - Shawn Mullins Very interesting . .. . Breaking Up: Home - from the Broadway Musical Beauty and the Beast. more of a pre-falling in love song, but okey-doke Prom: Song for the Asking - Simon and Garfunkel Definitely not played at my actual prom Life's OK: Polkarama - Weird Al Finally one that is totally accurate. Mental Breakdown: All Fall Down - Grits That's a good one Driving: Who Needs Love Like That? - Erasure Yes! Flashback: O Holy Night - Point of Grace Apparently I flashbacked all the way to the birth of Christ. Getting Back Together: We Want a Rock - They Might Be Giants hmm. Birth of Child: Hooch - Everything Well that's just wrong. Although if I was in labor, I might be looking to pass the freshy-freshy, I guess, if legal drugs were unavailable Wedding: You Picked Me - a Fine Frenzy Ha! Final Battle: Waterloo - ABBA Now that's just silly, in a weirdly correct way. Death Scene: Everybody Hurts - R.E.M That's a pretty good choice. Funeral Song: It's Alright - the Pet Shop Boys What? No it isn't!! End Credits: Amazed - Lone Star Oooh, now that's a good closing credit. Must have been a great movie. So there ya go, for whatever that's worth. I am not at all sure what it's supposed to mean about me, but it was fun to do.

Jami's Friday Feast

Feast 171 Appetizer What was the last game you purchased? Mah Jongg for Poddy. We don't get to play much, but it's nice to have for when I have a few minutes. Soup Name something in which you don’t believe. I don't believe in having kids and then putting them in daycare for the majority of their waking hours. Salad If you could choose a celebrity to be your boss, who would you pick? Sandra Bullock. She seems to have her head on straight and I've heard she's a really nice person. Main Course What was a lesson you had to learn the hard way? There are a limit to the number of second chances you should give someone. Dessert Describe your idea of the perfect relaxation room. It would be very warm, probably in the mid 80s, humid, very dimly lit. There would be a large soft bed with warm fluffy covers, a big comfy recliner, with warm fluffy covers, tea and diet Coke available, a big screen TV, a selection of my favorite books, a white noise machine (for when I'm not watching the TV) and a masseuse.

Jami Versus Science

Ah, Science, my old nemesis. Actually Math was pretty much my arch-enemy, but Science was up there, too. I am frequently perplexed by sciencey things, and here are few. Maybe one of my brilliant readers can explain some of these to me, keeping in mind that 1. I am science-challenged and 2. I haven't had a science-themed class in more than a decade. First - I don't get sound recording/playback. It just doesn't make sense. How can the contents of my iPod make the same sounds as a bass guitar, a piano or Brett Michaels? TV I get; it's totally logical. The little pixels make the colors, and the way they are arranged makes it look like pictures and that the pictures are moving. Totally clear. But the sound - I don't get it. I can't take a piece of metal and plastic and then shake, bang or rub them together in a way that makes a sound like a trumpet. How is that possible?? And don't say that it's just replaying sound waves because that is TOTALLY my point - how can something make the same sound waves as something it isn't? Speaking of sound waves, even having worked in radio, I can't tell you how that works. If there are sound waves rushing around in all the different frequencies, why don't I ever walk into a stream of sports talk or oldies? Sure it's all in the "translation" of the radio, but for that, see point one. As a former FCC licensed (when they still required that) on-air personality, I can explain to you the difference between AM and FM (which I won't here, but I do know it) but I can't for the life of me understand what it means and why you can send sound on different frequencies and they sound the same. Lastly, electricity. So, I get that it comes through the wires into the house and up to the light fixture. I get that if there isn't a bulb in the fixture, the electricity doesn't fall out onto my head, because there's really nothing there to conduct it. But, if there's a burnt out bulb in there, what is happening to the electricity? The bulb is conductive, obviously. How does the electricity know to stop going into it? I know it does because I've broken light bulbs (unintentionally) and the pent up electricity never comes shooting out. So where's it going? If it's not going, how does it know??? My poor brain is tired. We prefer the soothing intellectual things, like a good nonfiction book or science like on Forensic Files where it's very cut-and-dry (no pun intended, but that was a good one). My best guess for the three concerns above is "magic". Clearly sound from a box is magic and electricity isn't a solid, liquid or gas, so that leaves Supernatural Entity, right? This is why my degree is in Communications . . ..

Jami and Beloved Stanley

I never did announce it, but I named my iPod. His name is Stanley I. Poddy, though his close friends call him Poddy. I occasionally call him Beloved Stanley because I adore him. I had been wearing "real" headphones with Poddy, because I don't really like earbuds and for the life of me, I can't get them to stay in my ears. I think I just have malformed ears. Unfortunately, my real headphones were super-cheapy-free-with-purchase ones I'd had for awhile and they died. Very sad. I've taken to wearing the earbuds, since I didn't have anything else, and I've found a way to wear them that suits me. Basically, I run the cord up behind my ears and rest the buds on the top of my ears, like tiny speakers broadcasting from my head. Not only does this keep the buds in place more effectively, it also gives me a vaguely alien appearance, like I have antennas that I just didn't quite manage to hide. And that makes me silly-happy. Every time I catch my reflection with my little white antennas, I just grin. Just one more reason I love Poddy. Then, on the Simpsons opening a couple weeks ago, Bart wrote on the blackboard "There's no such thing as an iPoddy." Of course, Stanley is an "I. Poddy" but still. We were incensed. Even Eddie is familiar with Poddy. He calls it "Mommy's pod-pod" and will listen to one of the buds, if I let him. If it's music, he'll dance a little. If it's talk, he'll bring the bud down to his mouth and say "Hi, mommy's people". He's brilliant. Just think, he'll not remember a time before iPods. And so, Eddie, the Husband, Joxer, Stanley I. Poddy and I all wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. Go forth and eat much. PS - I had originally written that I had alien-like antennae, but when I double-checked the spelling, I learned that the plural for the mechanical kind is antennas whereas the kind on animals is the -ae plural. Since mine are mechanical, even if they are on my very own human head, I went with the -as plural. Any English majors want to chime in on which of those is more appropriate?

Jami, By the Numbers

Today, I am 33 years old, and, in honor of my changing to that numbers, here are a few more about me: Birth date: 9-5-1974 Height: 5'7" Weight: Um, let's see, I was 100 lbs when I started college, let's figure I gained 1 pound a year, so 115. Married: 1 time, 1 guy, on 10-12-1996 Children: 1, age 2 Siblings: 1, age 28 Jobs I've Held: 14 (includes baby-sitter and Mom, excludes unpaid internship) Longest Friendship: 23 years, with M Newest Friendship: Probably Lexi and Heidi, about 5 months Cars I've Owned: 3 Houses I've Owned: 1 --Mailing Addresses: 7 Trips out of the US: 5 Types of Pets Owned: 5 (dog, fish, gerbil, bird, hermit crab) Oceans I've Been In: 2 Arrests: 0 Traffic Accidents: 2 --Where I Was At Fault: 1 Jury Duty: 4 --Picked for Jury: 0 Companies Sold or Closed While I Worked There: 2 Movies Appeared in: 1 --Payment for Appearance: $40, plus free lunch First Big Purchase (over $100): $150 - 13" TV for my dorm room, still going! Remotes In My Living Room: 6 --That Work: 4 Trips to Vegas: 3 Fillings: 3, I think Age I Got My Driver's License: 17 --Tries it took: 1 Toilets in My House: 2 grown-up toilets and 1 training potty --Bathrooms in my house: 1 Types of Milk in my Fridge: 3 Songs on my iPod: 291 Phone Numbers Stored in my Cell: 57 --Numbers I Deleted While Counting for This: 3 Email Addresses I Check Regularly: 5 (including the Circle of Friends one) Fruit/Veggie Servings I've Had Today: 0 Cans of Pop I've Had Today: 2 Blog Posts as of Today: 354 (on this blog) --"Blog Friends" I've Made: 3 --Friends I Had Before I Started Reading Their Blogs: 2 Well, that's about all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope you enjoyed this numerical picture of me. If you want, feel free to pretend I "tagged" you with this and pass it on, making me finally, finally immortal.

Jami's iPod Ups and Downs

I spent the day bopping around to the iPod. Not to steal a quote from McDonald's, but I'm lovin' it. The burning question I know you're all dying to ask - what was the first song on the new iPod? Well, those who know me have probably already guessed . . .. Dancing Queen - of course! I AM the Dancing Queen, young and sweet only seventeeeeeeeennn! It's going to take longer than I'd hoped to get all the music onto Poddy (iPod's current and possibly temporary name). I don't know what I expected - of course, I have to put each CD in separately, I guess I'd kinda hoped Poddy would sneak into the CD collection and gobble all the music up, but somehow that didn't happen. I hate earbuds, but I already have headphones I like so we're cool. Does anyone love earbuds? Maybe my ears are misshapen, but I can't get them to stay in unless I keep my head perfectly still and that's just not something that happens all that much. I have a friend, and if you're reading this, you know who you are, who has the tiniest ears in relation to her head. I wonder if she can even put earbuds in. Maybe I'm dense, that's always possible, but my iPod has the 30GB, which means I can put that much on it, right? Okay, but do I have to put the stuff on my computer on the iTunes thing, first and if so - how is that going to work? I don't have 3O gig on it, so that won't work? I have to say, the "instruction booklet" that came with it wasn't as helpful as I might hope (it basically said, "Download iTunes. Plug in your iPod" and that's about it. Apple's basic online guide didn't answer that question. And lastly, I may be click-wheel impaired. I run my thumb over it, nothing. I run my thumb over it again in exactly the same way, it jumps down 6 places. I'm assuming this is just a lack of experience thing, right? RIGHT?? Lest you think I am not happy with it, let me say I love it. I love having the mix of music I want and I love having it follow me around the house. I look at all the many accessories for Poddy and I daydream of buying them all so Poddy can have all he ever desired. I love that I am going to be able to (as I save up to afford it) subscribe to and download the radio shows that I want to listen to and never get to. I can't wait to get some good video on Poddy and maybe a game or two. So here I am, finally joining the 21st century with my iPod. It's nice to be here.

Jami Can't Talk - Playing with New Technology

That's right, got my iPod. And it's a beauty. When I can put it down long enough to take a picture and upload that I will. Until then, I'll take podcast recommendations and song suggestions - what belongs on the beautiful, sleek, new iPod?