Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

Thank you all for such adorably cute replies to that last post, you truly know how to warm a gal’s cockles (and I have it on good authority that mine were not the only cockles affected).

While I’m on a happy roll, here’s something else going great.  Remember last year’s Financial Marathon?  My big plan to double my income by June 30th?  Well, the due date came and went and I was a bit embarrassed for having stated such a goal publicly and coming up short.  Then in December, it was back on thanks to that big voiceover project.

I didn’t expect to hit my goal so quickly but as it turned out, only 2 weeks after posting that entry, my monthly income had indeed doubled and hasn’t gone down since…a major moolah PR!!  Being a pragmatic soul, however, I kept it under wraps because I figured this was just a tease and that once the job was over (it’s winding down right now), my finances would revert pretty close to what they were before the big job.

Not that I’d be the poor church mouse again, voiceovers are coming in from other sources and my websites and headbands are doing ok, but when you’re self-employed you just never know when the next dry spell will be.  I was bracing myself for the end of the party.

So what an unexpected and wonderful surprise when on Monday, I go to narrate some ophthalmology thing and discover that it’s only the first in another huge multi-session project!  It’s like a gift; the timing couldn’t be better. Life is pretty kick-ass right now.

My Cool New iPhone Dock
I’m loving my new iPhone like crazy and the TuneIn Radio app has me once again listening to new music, something I had let go in the past couple years.  There are so many wonderful alt and indie stations (my favorite at the moment is NME – New Music Express) but of course, the iPhone speaker is pretty lame.  So check out this great dock I got last week.

Altec Lansing iMT620 iPhone & iPod dock

The sound on it is fab, especially for such a small, light thing and it simultaneously charges the phone when on AC power.  But the neatest feature is that it has its own rechargeable battery so it can amplify the iPhone (or an iPod) for about 5 hours without electricity.  This is cool!  I love being able to plop it in another room without having to unplug and replug the power cord.  The remote is handy, too.

Some of the reviews said that when playing streaming music (ie TuneIn Radio or Pandora), it’d turn off after 5 minutes because it wasn’t sensing the iPhone working but they’ve apparently fixed the firmware because I haven’t had a single erroneous auto-shutdown.  Worth the dosh, even at $89. Edit: just noticed the price went down to $82 w/shipping…oh well, I got to use mine a week earlier.

Tomorrow marks 4 years of running, a milestone my younger self would have had a great belly-laugh over if given an inkling of the future.  “Huh?  I’m going to do what?  And love it?  You’re shittin’ me, give me my money back.”

What was I doing before I ran?  Who was I?

All I remember is that I had lots more cellulite and didn’t care too passionately about anything.  And while I’m slightly embarrassed by how much this simplistic activity owns me, I’d now be a bored, ugly blob with nothing to look forward to had I not found it.

Instead, I have a wide circle of real and imaginary friends who share my passion, I’ve reasons to travel, goals to shoot for, an excuse to write, a little extra money in my pocket, a crazy good sense of well-being and an unsated urge to find out what’ll happen next.  There’s actually more stuff than that but the sentence was getting too long. 

All this, just from putting one foot in front of the other. I’ll never be less than amazed by it.

Information Overload?
Apparently not.  According to the comments on my last post, the majority of you do read the splits and other data, so I’ll keep on with it as usual and let the skimmers skim and the skippers skip. Thanks to all who piped up. Wish I had you people’s patience. :-) So now let’s all cross fingers that the numbers I post this year have some sort of downward trend.  If not, I’m going to start skimming over my own numbers.

I bought an iPhone
I was tired of saying “I suck at texting” due to my lame hunting/pecking skills and the idea of having a keyboard with actual punctuation at my fingertips was a dream I could no longer deny.  Not writing like a 12-year old  (Ill call u 2morrow) was imprtnt 4 me 2.

I did have a lot of back and forth between Droid or iPhone but in the end, battery-life, not having to root the phone (which I would have done because I’m always compelled to mess with such things) and some specific apps made iPhone the winner.  I LOVE this thing, even if I do have a deep disdain for all things Apple.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of apps already.  The Zipcar one rocks, I can now lock and unlock a Zipcar with my phone and do other useful Zip things, but my favorite is TuneIn Radio that lets you search any radio station in the world by genre or location.  Yesterday I was listening to Alternative music stations in Paris, Sydney and London.  You can even pause, rewind or record. Way cool.

Also excellent is the Netflix app since I already have a streaming account.  This makes me want to have more dentist and doctor appointments so I can watch movies in waiting rooms.  Just because I can.

An FE!
This last Sunday, I had the pleasure of having an FE (Forum Encounter, where you meet a forum friend in real life) with my long-time MRT 3:20 posting buddy, ESG/Ron.  This was the second time we’d met, the first being last year at the Boston Marathon when he hosted a wonderful pre-race party for the 3:20 crew.

On Saturday, he completed his first Ultra (woohoo, Ron!) and had a few hours of layover in Philly.  So I stole him away from the airport to share some cheesesteak goodness at Tony Lukes.  No surprise, the conversation was easy and overflowing as if we were well used to seeing each other in real life.  Good times, good times.

New Boston Marathon Qualifying Standards and Sign-Up Process
The running world was abuzz  yesterday when the BAA published its updated qualifying process for the 2012 Boston Marathon and AG qualifying times for 2013 (5min. less per each AG).  The new sign-up for process for 2012 will go in “waves” according to how fast you are.  Faster runners get to sign up first followed by a 2-day spread for the subsequent waves.  Here’s the full link.