Discovered via twit.tv/ipt episode #93
Postagram is a free app available for iPhone and Android from Sincerely.
This app is such a great idea. Once you sign up for a free account, the app will allow you to use the photos on your phone and you also have the ability to sync to your Instagram account and Facebook for additional photo options. You choose a picture, customize the message, add a recipient, and for .99 the company will print and mail your postcard.
The really great part of these postcards is the ability to pop the picture out of the card and keep it. You can put it in a photo album or hang it up on the wall, fridge (with magnet), in your office, at home … wherever. The idea is you have a printed photo of a digital photo. Now this of course is not something new, you can make prints of digital photos just about everywhere and for less than .99 a photo. The unique part of this is the postcard mailing. It’s just nice to get things in the actual mail these days and for .99 a piece this is a pretty fun way to make that happen.
Pros: It’s a unique way to get a physical copy of a photo taken on the iPhone, or from facebook and Instagram. It’s very quick and easy to choose the photo, edit the message, and send, all for .99 a piece.
Cons: I wish there was an easy way through the app to view past orders. I sent three postagrams the first night I downloaded the app, and there was no easy way for me to show my friends later. I like to show apps to the people I work with and couldn’t find a way to show them past orders on the app.
If your goal is to create a physical copy of a digital photo, this isn’t the best choice. If your goal is to send a unique item to friends and family this is a pretty great way to do it.
I love this app. It’s one of several that I access almost daily on both iPad and iPhone. They also recently announced a new android app. Best news ….. It’s FREE!! Gotta love that.
Zite is a personalized magazine. You choose the topics you are interested in, either from the list provided or type in your own categories. You can also add your twitter and google reader accounts. The app then searches the web and brings information you are interested in to you. It is a great way to find new content, new ideas, new people or sites to follow. Flipboard, a similar magazine style reader, is excellent for viewing content you are already subscribed to via your twitter account, Facebook, instagram etc, but Zite excels at bringing you content you may not see elsewhere.
As you read articles you have the option to thumbs up or down, click to get more articles similar to a particular topic, and one click access to sharing to other networks. I use the instapaper, Facebook, twitter, and email options all the time. The truly great behind the scenes aspect is how Zite learns what you like in order to improve the content they deliver. I highly recommend taking the extra second or two to thumbs up or down articles.
App: Zite by Zite, Inc
I love the internet!!! I found my new music this week from Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl fame. She has been posting a Friday Mixtape for the last few months as she strives to reach her Life List goal of listening to 1000 new songs (she’s up to 362!). Most of the artists she highlights are people I’ve never heard of before, some I like, some are interesting but not quite my cup of tea. I was therefore a bit surprised to see Eddie Vedder highlighted today.
I clicked through to the video and discovered that Eddie sings the soundtrack to “Into the Wild”. Now, Into the Wild is a book that I’ve had on my to-be-read shelf for about 2 years. I haven’t read the book yet, and haven’t seen the movie, although after reading the description on iTunes for the soundtrack, and watching the first video clip below, I now know the story line.
I absolutely love this music, and I have the feeling the book will jump to the top of the stack to be read. I usually like to read the book before watching the movie. After listening to this music I’m dying to watch the movie and see how it interrelates. Therefore – I foresee some reading in my future this weekend!
Eddie Vedder – Hard Sun (Into the Wild soundtrack)
Eddie Vedder – Society (Into the Wild soundtrack
I’m creating an iTunes playlist of my 101 favorite songs….
This is very different from my other favorites I’ve posted here. I think I first saw this concert video at my parents house. My daughter fell in love with it and watched it over and over again. The absolutely stunning backdrop of Slane Castle just adds to the beauty of the whole thing. I wish the youtube video was a little better, but if you want to see the entire concert, Amazon sells it here. After many years of research, my mom’s family tracked our ancestry back to Ireland, and then tracked that branch of the family tree forward to the current generation. Two years ago, my mom and uncle went to visit some of our distant cousins there. It turns out two of them were at this concert. We haven’t found them in the crowd shots yet, but my daughter keeps looking!
We were able to see them in concert during a trip to Florida last year. The universe brought everything in line to allow my brother and his girlfriend, the kids and I, our mom & dad, and Aunt & Uncle to all be at my parents house in Florida at the same time Celtic Women had a concert in Tampa. We drove up for the concert, and with the exception of my son, everyone really enjoyed it. Their voices are amazing!
Celtic Woman: Caledonia
I love the Fourth of July, it’s one of my favorite holidays. We have a family tradition of heading to my aunt’s house (formerly Grandma’s) to walk to the parade route, have dinner, then watch the fireworks. She has one of the best lawns in town to watch them.
She always invites a bunch of people who all bring some kind of food to munch on. This year, she made homemade gumbo which was awesome. Her friend Jamie brought a sweet onion pie that was to die for … seriously amazing!
The weather was perfect this year (last year was foggy and cold – fireworks bombed big time). The video below was shot from my Aunt’s front deck – filmed by Eric Davis. It’s best to view it from YouTube directly – HD and full screen. Beautiful!
Here’s a random assortment of pictures, in hindsight, I didn’t take nearly enough!
1. My baby boy, who’s not so much a baby anymore (daughter decided to watch the parade with friends across the street). 2. It’s not often you see a snow groomer at a Fourth of July parade. 3. Beautiful float from my favorite farmer’s market. 4. And a very sleepy puppy!
Wow! It’s Friday already – where did the week go??
I’m scrambling a bit trying to find some new music for this week. I’m still obsessed with Mumford & Sons from last week. Add to that the recent downloads of Jack Johnson and Jakob Dylan and I find I’ve been listening to a lot of already posted New Music this week.
All that being said, I’m choosing something a little different this week. I’ve heard this song before (actually I own it already), but I haven’t seen the video before – so it’s kind of a New Video Friday instead.
Michael Tolcher: Speed Feels Better
During my YouTube searching, I found this video – which is pretty darn cool. If you click through to YouTube to watch it, the uploader says this was a “private little show for my 21st b-day back in 2006.” Can you say totally jealous? I haven’t heard this song by him before, but I’m trying to track it down for my library. Love it! (hey what do you know – it is a New Music Friday!!)
Michael Tolcher: Give Me Your Hand
Update: I found it – it’s available on iTunes on his See You Soon – EP – released August 05, 2008
I am an iPhone fangirl, no doubt about it. I’ve had a 3G phone for almost two years now and use it constantly. All that being said, this post is not about how the iPhone is better than your particular mobile phone. The items I think are fantastic about the iPhone may be available on other phones as well … so no comments about why the iPhone isn’t all that, and the HTC is so much better!
1. The new Retina display is GORGEOUS! I never thought my previous phone had a bad display, or was unclear or blurry, but the crisp sharpness of the new display is unbelievable. This picture doesn’t even remotely do it justice, but the subject is pretty darn cute. 🙂
2. Voice Control – I don’t know if this is new with the 4.0 or if it was new with the 3GS, all I know is I didn’t have the ability to do this before on the 3G (and if I did and just didn’t know about it, please don’t tell me – I would be devastated!). I played around with this feature last night. “Call Robyn” and the phone says back “call Robyn Rakoniewski” (and even pronounced it correctly …. almost), then asked me if I wanted to dial the home, mobile or work numbers and I said mobile, and it started the call. I may have played with it a few too many times since Robyn’s no longer answering my calls (whoops!). It also recognizes the music I have on the phone. “Play songs by Jack Johnson” and sure enough, Jack Johnson music starts playing. Pretty darn slick!
3. Multitasking – I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy this aspect of the 4. It hit home last night as I was flipping back and forth between a safari webpage and my wordpress app. Before, anytime I quit safari I would have to wait for the page to reload when I opened it up again. Not anymore! There’s also the ability to listen to Pandora while surfing the web, or working on a blog post etc. All very good.
4. Camera – There are a few items to the Camera that are pretty cool. First, there’s now a flash so I can actually see pictures I take in low light situations! Second, HD Video!! I now have a video camera in my phone – no more porting around the Flip, or forgetting to bring the Flip, or forgetting I actually did bring it and have it in my purse but not realizing it, therefore no video. I haven’t played around with it very much, but I imagine it will be a big hit with the kids. The Facetime application is pretty intriguing. It won’t be of a lot of use to me until more people I know get iPhone 4’s. And it’s limited to wifi use only (not over cellular).
5. iOS4 – I love the upgrade to the operating system. I downloaded iOS4 on my 3G phone so have been playing around with the Folders feature, and ability to sync multiple exchange accounts. My google calendar is now available on the actual calendar! I’m intruiged with the iBooks app, although I can’t see it replacing my Kindle app. I have too many books on Kindle that are available in too many places, to limit myself to just reading on the iPhone. Since I was on a 3G previously, I wasn’t able to take advantage of the multi tasking, or background wallpapers.
My old phone was also getting …. well… old. It seemed very slow switching between applications. There was a huge pause each time I opened Safari, or Tweetdeck, or Facebook, or just about anything. That pause is gone on the new phone. Everything seems to work much faster which makes me very happy!
I’m very pleased with my new phone. I haven’t noticed the dreaded yellow dots that have been mentioned online. I also haven’t noticed the bar drop issue when the phone is held a certain way (and I tried to make the bars drop). That being said, I’ve had it for less than 24 hours so we’ll see how it all turns out.
I started a virtual vision board last month. Continuing on the theme, and adding to the list, I give you the Vision Board (continued).
1. Mumford & Sons – my latest music obsession. I really want to see them perform live.
2. Bonnaroo – another “new” discovery of mine (yes, I’ve been living in a cave). Also where, through the help of the NPR Music app, I discovered Mumford & Sons.
3. Running – I really really want to get in shape. My brother is an amazing runner (Boston Marathon under 3 hours!). I don’t know that I will ever have the passion he has, but I would love to be able to run a 10k without dying! (and no … not me in the picture!)
4. Sunflowers – Isn’t this a beautiful picture? (photo credit: Louise Gale) After seeing it I immediately decided I want to grow something beautiful like this. I planted Peonies earlier this summer that will hopefully present something beautiful next year. (if I can manage to keep them alive!)
5. World Cup 2014 – after spending probably too much time watching World Cup the last few weeks, I find myself really wanting to experience it live. Since it’s in Brazil in 2014, maybe I can add in a side trip to Machu Picchu to knock off another item on my vision board. *fingers crossed USA qualifies!*
6. The world is full of people who will go their whole lives and not actually live one day. She did not intend on being one of them. – I love the phrase, the art, and the store it comes from. By far one of my favorite stores – The Happy Woman Store. The name just kind of says it all!
I’m making an iTunes playlist of my 101 favorite songs…
There’s a trend I’m noticing in my favorite songs – they’re all easy to sing along with. They also tend to have a story to them. I have an emotional connection to most of these songs. Some remind me of past experiences, some make me hopeful, some make me happy, some make me sad, some make me want to get up and dance in the kitchen, but all of them make me feel something. Which is the whole point I guess?
Death Cab For Cutie: I Will Follow You Into the Dark
I have a glorious seven weeks off from school where I will be spending much time reading for pleasure instead of necessity. I have many books on my to-be-read shelf, one of the reasons why I started my Drowning in Books blog awhile ago. Inspired by Inspired Canoe, and 
in the interest of reading the books I actually own and maybe curtailing the purchasing of new books until these are read (yeah … probably not going to happen), I’m challenging myself to read these ten within the next seven weeks. The massive tome on the bottom is over 700 pages, and yes the Da Vinci Code is still in my to be read pile (how long has it been in print??).
So … Wish me luck! 🙂
From Amazon:
The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell: The Alliance has been fighting the Syndic for a century-and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is Captain John “Black Jack” Geary-a man who’s emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief. Now, he must live up to his own legend. Average review 4 stars from 145 reviews.
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley: Grade 7 Up—A novel set in an alternate contemporary world. Viewing dragons as fire-breathing, non-sentient animals with gigantic appetites for livestock, humans have hunted them for centuries, and now they survive only in a few wilderness havens. Jake Mendoza has grown up at one such haven, the Smokehill National Park in the American West, and has inherited his scientist parents’ commitment to the park’s secret inhabitants. When he rescues an orphaned baby dragon, he sets in motion a cascade of events that may eventually save these top predators from extinction. Readers will find the book to be less about the joys of the human-dragon bond and more about the challenges of raising an infant and communicating in a vastly different language. As an exhausted Jake explains, he is the first human in history to find out that a marsupial baby dragon out of its mother’s pouch still expects a round-the-clock source of food, warmth, and company for over a year. Also, their telepathic communication gives Jake and his fellow Smokehill residents debilitating head-aches, and no one on either side is ever entirely sure they’ve got the message right. Once readers get through Jake’s overdone teenage diction in the first few chapters, they will be engaged by McKinley’s well-drawn characters and want to root for the Smokehill community’s fight to save the ultimate endangered species.—Beth Wright, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT Average review 3.5 stars from 58 reviewers.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history.
A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only Neveu’s grandfather’s murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England, and history itself. Brown (Angels and Demons) has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown’s hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture’s greatest mysteries–from the nature of the Mona Lisa’s smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown’s conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. Average review 3.5 stars from 3991 reviews.
Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine: The first two novels in the New York Times bestselling Morganville Vampires series together for the first time in a new trade paperback edition.
Morganville is a small college town in the heart of Texas—not a place that exactly screams “hotbed of creatures of the night.” But college freshman Claire Danvers is about to discover why, in Morganville, you should never, ever stay out after dark…
Glass Houses
College freshman Claire Danvers moves off campus and into an old house in the small town of Morganville. Her new roommates have her back when the town’s deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood…
The Dead Girls’ Dance
Claire may have a great roommate and a new boyfriend, but when she’s invited to the Dead Girls’ Dance all hell breaks loose—literally. Because this time, the living and the dead are ready to tear up the night…
Average review 4.5 stars from 8 reviewers (more reviews for the individual books)
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: If you’ve ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein’s third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny’s old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny’s bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama. Average review 4.5 stars from 903 reviewers
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan: Pollan (The Botany of Desire) examines what he calls “our national eating disorder” (the Atkins craze, the precipitous rise in obesity) in this remarkably clearheaded book. It’s a fascinating journey up and down the food chain, one that might change the way you read the label on a frozen dinner, dig into a steak or decide whether to buy organic eggs. You’ll certainly never look at a Chicken McNugget the same way again.Pollan approaches his mission not as an activist but as a naturalist: “The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.” All food, he points out, originates with plants, animals and fungi. “[E]ven the deathless Twinkie is constructed out of… well, precisely what I don’t know offhand, but ultimately some sort of formerly living creature, i.e., a species. We haven’t yet begun to synthesize our foods from petroleum, at least not directly.”Pollan’s narrative strategy is simple: he traces four meals back to their ur-species. He starts with a McDonald’s lunch, which he and his family gobble up in their car. Surprise: the origin of this meal is a cornfield in Iowa. Corn feeds the steer that turns into the burgers, becomes the oil that cooks the fries and the syrup that sweetens the shakes and the sodas, and makes up 13 of the 38 ingredients (yikes) in the Chicken McNuggets.Indeed, one of the many eye-openers in the book is the prevalence of corn in the American diet; of the 45,000 items in a supermarket, more than a quarter contain corn. Pollan meditates on the freakishly protean nature of the corn plant and looks at how the food industry has exploited it, to the detriment of everyone from farmers to fat-and-getting-fatter Americans. Besides Stephen King, few other writers have made a corn field seem so sinister.Later, Pollan prepares a dinner with items from Whole Foods, investigating the flaws in the world of “big organic”; cooks a meal with ingredients from a small, utopian Virginia farm; and assembles a feast from things he’s foraged and hunted.This may sound earnest, but Pollan isn’t preachy: he’s too thoughtful a writer, and too dogged a researcher, to let ideology take over. He’s also funny and adventurous. He bounces around on an old International Harvester tractor, gets down on his belly to examine a pasture from a cow’s-eye view, shoots a wild pig and otherwise throws himself into the making of his meals. I’m not convinced I’d want to go hunting with Pollan, but I’m sure I’d enjoy having dinner with him. Just as long as we could eat at a table, not in a Toyota. Average review 4.5 stars from 625 reviewers
The Maze Runner by James Dashner: Grade 6–10—Thomas wakes up in an elevator, remembering nothing but his own name. He emerges into a world of about 60 teen boys who have learned to survive in a completely enclosed environment, subsisting on their own agriculture and supplies from below. A new boy arrives every 30 days. The original group has been in “the glade” for two years, trying to find a way to escape through a maze that surrounds their living space. They have begun to give up hope. Then a comatose girl arrives with a strange note, and their world begins to change. There are some great, fast-paced action scenes, particularly those involving the nightmarish Grievers who plague the boys. Thomas is a likable protagonist who uses the information available to him and his relationships (including his ties to the girl, Teresa) to lead the Gladers. Unfortunately, the question of whether the teens will escape the maze is answered 30 pages before the book ends, and the intervening chapter loses momentum. The epilogue, which would be deliciously creepy coming immediately after the plot resolves, fails to pack a punch as a result. That said, The Maze Runner has a great hook, and fans of dystopian literature, particularly older fans of Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember (Random, 2003), will likely enjoy this title and ask for the inevitable sequel. Average review 4 stars from 191 reviewers
Eight Days to Live by Iris Johansen: Although billed as an Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller, neither Eve nor forensics plays a big part in Johansen’s latest. Instead the focus is on Eve’s adopted daughter, Jane MacGuire, who has a successful art show at a Parisian gallery. But a painting titled Guilt has drawn some unwanted attention: the religious cult Sang Noir wants Jane dead. When the cult starts going after those closest to Jane, she turns to two strong, dangerous men: Jock, a trained assassin, and Seth, a hunter with psychic powers. Friction ensues between these two strapping guys as they fight to protect the globe-trotting Jane while she travels from Paris to Switzerland to Jerusalem in an attempt to find out why Sang Noir is so determined to kill her. She’s fighting an intense attraction to Caleb, even as she disapproves of his methods of extracting information, and when Eve’s life hangs in the balance, Jane finds herself crossing lines she never thought she would. Readers interested in hard forensic science will want to look elsewhere, but those receptive to paranormal abilities and religious mysteries will find much to enjoy in this page-turner. Average review 4 stars from 17 reviewers
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris: Still reeling from the deaths of her fairy cousin, Claudine, and many others in 2009’s Dead and Gone, Sookie Stackhouse struggles with paranormal politics in her entertaining if slow-moving 10th outing. When Claudine’s triplet, Claude, appears at her doorstep, Sookie reluctantly allows him to move in. The government threatens two-natures with mandatory registration, and tensions run high in the local Were pack. Then Eric’s maker, a Roman named Appius Livius Ocella, arrives without warning, bringing along Alexei Romanov, whom he rescued from the Bolsheviks and turned into a vampire. Though the action often builds too slowly, the exploration of family in its many human and undead variations is intriguing, and Harris delivers her usual mix of eccentric characters and engaging subplots. Average review 3 stars from 749 reviewers
The Passage by Justin Cronin: Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin’s engrossingly horrific account of a post-apocalyptic America overrun by the gruesome reality behind the wish-fulfillment fantasies. When a secret project to create a super-soldier backfires, a virus leads to a plague of vampiric revenants that wipes out most of the population. One of the few bands of survivors is the Colony, a FEMA-established island of safety bunkered behind massive banks of lights that repel the virals, or dracs—but a small group realizes that the aging technological defenses will soon fail. When members of the Colony find a young girl, Amy, living outside their enclave, they realize that Amy shares the virals’ agelessness, but not the virals’ mindless hunger, and they embark on a search to find answers to her condition. PEN/Hemingway Award–winner Cronin (The Summer Guest) uses a number of tropes that may be overly familiar to genre fans, but he manages to engage the reader with a sweeping epic style. The first of a proposed trilogy, it’s already under development by director Ripley Scott and the subject of much publicity buzz. Average review 3.5 stars from 278 reviewers
Random Scribblings 