That Not So Fresh Feeling

So, about 2 years ago, I wrote a post wondering:

I’ve decided what I really need in life is a little application that runs on my laptop that’s hooked up to my stereo. This would make iTunes think that my laptop was an Airport Express, and my laptop would show up as remote speakers in iTunes.

There were a handful of random Sourceforge projects, but nothing that hit reality or worked. Which kinda sucked.

Then I’m dorking around looking for cool Mac stuff this evening after filing my taxes, and what do I find but this gift from the heavens: Airfoil 3.

There’s a Mac version and a PC version, as well as a little app called Airfoil Speakers. That’s the magic bit. I could download Airfoil Speakers, run that on my MacBook Pro, and hook that up to my stereo in my bedroom. At the same time, I could run Airfoil 3 on the PC, and broadcast music–in sync–to my laptop.

Badass. Now, the one downside, of course, is that it’d be $25 x 2 (that’s $50!) for me to get both the Mac and PC versions. I could probably get by with just the PC version (since that’s where my music is), but it’d be cool to have the Mac version as well (though without a second Mac, I really don’t need it). Pretty awesome.

Now, if Rogue Amoeba can create some Airfoil Windows Speakers, then I could take my old laptop out of the closet, have it sit on my stereo, and be a permanent receiver for my iTunes. That’d be pretty darn slick.

Anyway, thanks Rogue Amoeba. One of my most popular post was that fake AirTunes post, which still picks up residual search traffic every week. Maybe if I throw a sale or two your way you’ll hook me up? Really? That’d be great! Thanks so much. You’re the best.

So, I’m trying out MarsEdit, to see if I’ll post more (which I really want to), if I move to using a local editor, rather than always trying to do things through the WordPress web interface.

I have to say that, so far, I’m impressed. It does a nice autoconfigure to get you set up. Then, it knows that if you’re inserting a link, it’s probably on your clipboard, which is pretty bad-ass. Plus, I can do stuff like emphasis and bold with your typical hotkeys. Kinda hot.

It automagically knows my categories, so I can quickly tag this appropriately. That’s pretty cool too.

Note the use of hot and cool to mean nearly the same thing. I’m nothing if not confusing.

There’s also some cool Flickr integration, where I can quickly grab images I’ve uploaded to Flickr and include them in my post. Like this:

Apparently you can also make it use your real blog style for the local preview. I’m going to have to muck around with that.

The only disappointing thing is that being a Mac user now costs me money. All the cool apps cost a little dough. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to shell out the money for this because I’ll post a whole lot more using this interface. Damn you MarsEdit!

Edit 1: The default Flickr bit linked right, but didn’t have a visible image. I had to fix that.
Edit 2: Editing a post is darn easy. I like this.

Happy New Year.

I’ve got a podcast coming soon with my fave songs from ‘07. I hope to do that this week. In the meantime, here are some pics I took with my new camera. (Yay! First new camera since 1999. Thanks Christmas money and giftcards!)

I’ve been super lazy about posting, mostly because I’ve been ridonkulously busy with work and the holidays and all that fun stuff.

But, I try to update my Twitter (if you care). And I’m going to try to post a bit over the next few days of my vaca (top music of ‘07! the drizzling shits that is affiliate marketing! something else!). In the meantime, hope your holidays rocked as much as mine did and the jolly fat man (or whatever the representative of your holiday might be) brought you Jelly Bellys.

I should spend sometime update my del.icio.us links too. Merry Festivus.

I’m waiting to get on a red eye back to NY (and then on home to Boston). When checking in, I saw a boat load of teens heading off to go somewhere.

I hoped to hell they weren’t going to be on my flight, since I’m hoping to sleep.

I’m not going to sleep. Fun.

On the bright side, I’m at least watching some TV I missed this week thanks to fox.com.

Vacation means I do stuff.

Like changing the theme on my blog (thanks http://www.blogohblog.com/).
Updating plugins.
Writing.
Other stuff.

So, if anything is broken, let me know.

I’m Twittering Game 4. At least a little bit.

Almost exactly one month ago (maybe closer to five weeks), I started feeling just a little ill. Back pain and general overall soreness, just enough to make me feel uncomfortable. About a week after the pain started, I added a ~101 degree fever to the mix. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I’m laying on my couch trying to figure out what’s going on and if I need to hit the hospital. I’m pounding ibuprofen like they’re candy (and I’m not big on taking any sort of medicine), just trying to keep the fever down and the back pain from causing me to want to punch walls.

After about 3 days of the fever, I got into the urgent care clinic to see a doctor who did some quick work, ran a couple of tests and diagnosed me with a kidney infection. It explained all of my symptoms. So, he prescribed some antibiotics and sent me on my way. Things seemed to work. Within a few days (all of which I spent at home, as I was unable to head into the office), my fever was generally gone, I had almost no back pain, and generally felt ok.

Except for a sore throat. My throat started to feel, for lack of a more scientific term, “icky” pretty much as I finished the antibiotic run. It started to swell, and I could see the trademark white spots that indicate strep throat.

Perfect.

So, on a follow-up visit, my doctor checked my throat. Could be strep, but it seemed unlikely. Could be thrush, my body’s reaction to the antibiotics. Or, very unlikely, it could be mono.

Mono would explain everything, but I hadn’t been tired and the symptoms had come serially, not at the same time. It would, at least, be an odd case of mono.

A day later I found out it was an odd case of mono.

So, for another 8 days or so, I dealt with the sore throat. There’s nothing they could prescribe. I probably took somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 ibuprofen and two full bottles of NyQuil/Tylenol stuff (to soothe my throat and keep a cough down) over that week or so.

Finally, I had a few days of being tired, sleeping 10 hours of night and waking up wanting to sleep some more. But, I was able to rejoin normal life — playing a little softball, going out a few times, even taking in a concert (Dear Leader, yay!).

So, that’s why I’ve been MIA from my wonderful blog. I’ve been getting my ass kicked by mono. But, given all the research I’ve done, I’ve held my own. Most mono cases seem to be a bit more ass-kicking than mine was, and generally last a bit longer. It’s been just about a month, maybe a week longer, from start to finish. I’d say, at this point, I’m at almost 100%. The last two days have seen the last remnants of my cough go away, and I’ve been able to exercise and even run without feeling too bad. Later this week, I’ll have an ultrasound to make sure my spleen is normal size. If it is, I’m good. If not, well, who knows. I’m betting that I’m given the all clear.

Hopefully, I’ll settle back into a more regular writing schedule. Being sick, combined with work, combined with some other “real life” stuff has taken up some time that I’d normally devote to blogging. But, hopefully I’ll get energized to write again and be a bit more prolific. I’ve got some interesting work stuff, some tech stuff, and hopefully some music stuff to write about.

In the meantime, here’s my mea culpa for having been MIA. Won’t happen again. Promise.

Today I have turned Old -1. But, so far, so good. All body parts still in place. Some really sweet birthday wishes from my friends.

I guess next year, when I turn Old, it’s kind of a bigger deal.

I guess it’s better than getting like a foot of snow, but this miserable 3 day long driving rain storm is starting to annoy me. I don’t really mind the rain, generally, but I’d love it, you know, if the sun came out. And maybe if it got warm enough that I could run outside. That would be fantastic.

The only good thing is that everyone who has today off and was going to enjoy the whole Patriots Day festivities of watching the Sox and the Marathon are going to be stuck inside like the rest of us suckers. Serves them right for taking off a fake holiday.