Jess, thank you.  You had a great Take It Bake It party, and you forced me to figure out something to cook for 50 people (that could also be frozen and reheated).  I chose a springtime Asparagus/Leek cream soup, and ended up taking that home with me along with 5 other fantastic dishes.  My freezer is happy, and soon my tummy will be too (again).

I’ve been reading a lot of food blogs (well, not a ton, but more than I used to), and here are some of my faves (ymmv, yada yada yada):

• hogwash — well, it was Jess who reminded me that there is more to blogs than just geeky stuff and celebrity gossip (which was the majority of my feeds).  Also, she’s a great writer — solid writing, great sense of humor, and yummy recipes.
• Accidental Hedonist — I think this was one of my early blogs that I subscribed to.  I like the writing with a scientific spin, and she always keeps me posted on trans-fat and HFCS and stuff like that.
• Megnut — Meg has been around for a while (8 years now), and was one of the early founders of Blogger.  She’s also married to Jason Kottke, who is tops in my feed list too.
• Voracious — local Seattle food blog from the Seattle Weekly.
• Ruhlman — I like him, but I read specifically in case Tony B posts.

Ok, so what am I missing?

Categories: Food
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I’ve been scared reading about the copyright/internet radio legislation that is in the works, and so I’ve been listening to a lot of music off the web while it’s still legal.  Here’s what I’m currently listening to:

• Radio Paradise has been a long-time favorite, and I’ve donated on a number of occasions to them.
• Pandora is another great place to hear new music, especially if you make a couple of stations from artists that you like, and then use those to create a combo-station.  Nice!
• Critical Metrics is new, and shows you the most popular tunes across a number of music review sites.
• Hype Machine is not new, and shows you a ton of tunes across a variety of mp3 blogs.  I like the Flash player.

Of course, I still use MusicIP Mixer to create playlists of the music I already have locally, and sometimes will use Orb to stream music from my home server.

What are you using?

Categories: Music
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So, I took the plunge and installed the new ROM for my Cingular 8525 (a ROM is like an OS upgrade for your computer). Although the ROM install went smoothly (thank you HTC), due to the inherent nature of the upgrade, all of my apps got deleted and needed to be reinstalled. In a way, this is a good thing, since it made me go through the list of what I used to have installed, and choose only the ones that I really use to reinstall. So, here’s my new/current list of apps for my PPC (kind of in order of how I would recommend to install):

• HTweakC — install this first, run it, and choose Security->Allow unsigned apps before you install the rest of your apps. It will save you many minutes of responding to install prompts, since most/all of the apps you will install are unsigned…
• Magic Button - although the new ROM has added functionality to change the behavior of the “X” button (it used to just minimize, now you can set it to close apps), Magic Button is still a must-have for me because it shows all of the open apps you have running, overlaying the title bar with mini app-icons. It also adds a Home icon so you can always jump back to the Today screen.
• Batti — still the best battery meter around, given it’s size and usefulness. The new ROM supposedly increases battery time, so we shall see…
• SK Tools — this is one of the 2 apps that I have actually purchased for my device (with so much good stuff as freeware, pay programs have to be excellent). It gives you a ton of options for optimizing, cleaning, and performance testing your device. If you’re a geek like I am, this is definately worth a look. You can get a 15 day trial to test it for yourself.
• Spb Diary — this is the other app that I have purchased. It’s my current Today screen, and shows me my Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, etc. Download it and get a full feature trial to see if you like it too. (NOTE: I also tested Spb Backup and Spb Phone Suite, but chose not to purchase those [SK Tools will do backups, and I didn't use the functionality in the Phone Suite app], although I recommend Spb Software House as a great place to look for apps for your PPC phone.
• WiFiFoFum — it’s a WiFi hotspot scanner for your PPC. I never got MiniStumbler going, but this works a treat.
• vxUtil — a swiss-army-knife networking utility. ping, nslookup, tracert, ipconfig, etc.
• Total Commander — a File Manager replacement that also handles zip/rar files.
• TCPMP — a replacement video player for your PPC. I like this better than WMP, but ymmv. Both seem to work with Orb.
• MortPlayer — a replacement music player for the PPC. Lot’s of skins available, and a lot easier to use than WMP. I also like how it locks the screen when you’re playing music, so you can use your PPC like an MP3 player.
• Google Maps — Hey, it’s Google Maps on your mobile. Lifesaver.
• Windows Live Search — Maps are good, local info is better than Google maps.
• StopTime and Ephemeris — a stop watch and a sun/moon thinger. Trust me, it’s good stuff.
• Kevtris — Tetris for your PPC. Fun stuff!

Whew! I think that’s it. Of course, please let me know if you have any must-have apps too. I’m always looking for new toys…

Categories: Geek
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