oh yeah, and that’s Eddie Izzard (from The Riches) by the way…

The program kicked off on Tuesday, June 10th and will feature a new weekly promotion for the following 8 weeks, beginning with the Vinyl Starter Kit - buy a new turntable, get a free record!  So, basically, you have no excuse for not rekindling your own personal long-lost love affair with the vinyl record.

The Insound Summer of Vinyl line-up can be found HERE and is as follows:

June 10th:
Vinyl Starter Kit
(Buy a turntable and get a free record!)

June 17th:
Best of 2008
(10% off our picks for the best of the year so far)

June 24th:
Vinyl Box Sets
(15% off ultra-deluxe vinyl)

July 1st:
Turntable Accessories Sale
(15% off select vinyl accessories)

July 8th:
Who Knew That Was on Wax?
(10% off titles that you might not expect to be available on vinyl)

July 15th:
Insound’s All-Time Favorite Records
(10% off the vinyl our staff can’t live without)

July 22nd:
7″ Favorites
(10% off select 7″ titles)

July 29th:
Essential Vinyl
(10% off hand-picked crucial titles)

I’ve bought my fair share of albums from Insound, and I’ll be the first to say that there service is amazing: fast shipping, perfect product.

I mean, seriously, who doesn’t love vinyl?  If you answered “Me!”, then you’re a punk.  End of story.

Ever since I read this collection of poetry (I was recommended this book by my friend Jeremy about a year ago), I fell in love with the entire thing– literally, in love.  And now that Jeremy is gone, I read this book over and over again because it’s the closest thing I can find to having a conversation with him.  There are many books I lean on for this same purpose, but none of them really quite fit like And Her Soul Out of Nothing. This book of poetry just encompasses everything I can ask for in a good conversation.  It’s quirky with a nice combination of many of life’s dichotomies (joy and suffering, light and dark,  love and hate, etc.), all of which make life exactly as it is.  You love it an you hate it, either way, we keep on kicking.  Simply put, I could re-read this book every week for the rest of my life– and be happy, or content, or in love… I’m not sure which.

A couple sample (short) poems:

Hey Precious, Listen

Now that my heart has stopped
screaming it is just a tired ambulance
parked on the left side
of a highway six lanes thick.

The driver is thinking.
The driver thinks tragedy is a joke.
He thinks: No accident, this.
He starts thinking about a place
where wingspan is not
a flip of a coin,
where birds pass themselves
off as doorbells,
where you don’t have to choose
between calamity
and light.

It’s Shaped Like A Fork

This house is a mess
of solid notions
that keep turning into objects:
this simple sadness
that’s shaped like a fork
and the vague fear that crusts
these dishes. I’m vacuuming
over this grass-like pain.
Emptying pockets for teh wash:
such a burden: not just wrappers
but keys and mints, those sticky
and sorry-coated stones.
And this larger grief
that always needs to be folded.

All day I’ve been chewing
on my own acrid gloom,
trying to put away
the things you keep carrying
home from work: the possessions
of children and women
and drunks, stolen or cheated,
the tasteless unhappiness
of others into jars labeled:
Heartbreak, Injustice,
Just-Plain-Bad-Fucking-Luck.

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

Jeremy also recommended me this book about a year ago, and, as with the one above, this one was extremely comforting after his death.  Painful really, but comforting.  Not only were there many things in this book that reminded me of him, but there were also many excerpts that I wanted to share with him, discuss with him, love with him.  I wanted this mainly because I knew he would appreciate them more than anyone.  This book is an extremely well written piece of creative writing about a homage to all things lost– love, life, work, etc.  If you’ve ever read anything by Jonathan Safran Foer, then you’ll definitely recognize the writing style.  Surprisingly enough and despite the likeness in styles, Krauss and Foer are now married but didn’t meet until after their first books were finished.

An excerpt (one of my favorites):

“My heart is weak and unreliable.  When I go it will by my heart.  I try to burden it as little as possible.  If something is going to have an impact, I direct it elsewhere.  My gut for example, or my lungs, which might seize up for a moment but have never yet failed to take another breath.  When I pass a mirror and catch a  glimpse of myself, or I’m at the bus stop and some kids come up behind me and say, Who smells shit?–small daily humiliations–these I take, generally speaking, in my liver.  Other damages I take in other places.  The pancreas I reserve for being struck by all that’s been lost.  It’s true that there’s so much, and the organ is so small.  But.  You would be surprised how much it can take, all I feel is a quick sharp pain and then it’s over.  Sometimes I imagine my own autopsy.  Disappointment in myself: right kidney.  Disappointment of others in me: left kidney.  Personal failures: kishkes.  I don’t mean to make it sould like i’ve made a science of it.  It’s not that well thought out.  I take it where it comes.  It’s just that I notice certain patterns.  When the clocks are turned back and the dark falls before I’m ready, this, for reasons I can’t explain, I feel in my wrists.  And when I wake up and my fingers are stiff, almost certainly I was dreaming of my childhood.  The field where we used to play, the field in which everything was discovered and everything was possible.  (We ran so hard we thought we would spit blood:  to me that is the sound of childhood, heavy breathing and shoes scraping the hard earth.)  Stiffness of the fingers is the dream of childhood as it’s been returned to me at the end of my life.  I have to run them under the hot water, steam clouding the mirror, outsides the rustle of pigeons.  Yesterday I saw a man kicking a dog and I felt it behind my eyes.  I don’t know what to call this, a place before tears.  The pain of forgetting: spine.  The pain of remembering: spine.  All the tiems I have suddenly realized that my parents are dead, even now, it still surprises me, to exist in the world while that which made me has ceased to exist:  my knees, it takes half a tube of Ben-Gay and a big production just to bend them.  To everything a season, to every time I’ve woken only to make the mistake of believing fora  moment that soneone was sleeping beside me: a hemorrhoid.  Lonelineness:  there is no organ that can take it all.”

Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

I picked up an ancient, dilapidated Laurel Poetry Series book of Whitman’s about four years ago in a used book store here in Jackson, and I’m pretty sure I’ve carried this book with me (literally, on my person) ever since then.  It’s my own little piece of wallet-sized literature.  I always liked Walt Whitman, but I never owned a copy of his works until I bought this book.  Needless to say, it was worth the buck I paid for it.  There’s just something so candid about Whitman’s writing that I find extremely comforting, for some reason.  He praises nature, while also emphasizing human’s role in it– without diminishing the importance of either of these two things.  Although like many brilliant writers, Whitman wasn’t exactly widely accepted during his time, I think he’s pretty deserving of praise.

An excerpt:

from Song of Myself

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps,
And here you are the mothers’ laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July

This book is a collection of short stories by none other than Miranda July.  Miranda is a performing artist, writer, filmaker, musician, actress, all around awesome person.  Seriously.  She makes me laugh all the time.  There is just something so quirky and childlike about her skits and her writing (yet somehow serious and adult in theme at times) that really amuses and entertains me.  It is really hard to pick a favorite story from this book, but I would have to say that “The Swim Team” and “This Person” are definitely two of my favorites.  Also, Miranda inspired me to start The Coalition for the Proliferation of Praise (still in the works) with an article she did with Becky Stark, lead singer of Lavender Diamond.  I think she put the motto simply:  everyone loves to be praised, no matter what the praising may be.  It’s pretty much the whole elementary “gold star” concept overflowing into adulthood.  And true it is.

A couple of excerpts:

from the Swim Team

“You seem incredibly faraway to me, like someone on the other side of a lake.  A dot so small that it isn’t male or female or young or old; it is just smiling.”

from The Sister

“Some people are uncomfortable with silences.  Not me.  I’ve never cared much for call and response.  Sometimes I will think of something to say and then I will ask myself:  Is it worth it?  And it just isn’t.”

from This Person

“Someone is getting excited.  Somebody somewhere is shaking with excitement because something tremendous is about to happen to this person.  This person has dressed for the occassion.  This person has hoped and dreamed and now it is really happening and this person can hardly believe it.  But believeing is not an issue here, the time for faith and fantasy is over, it is really really happening.  It involves stepping forward and bowing.  Possibly there is some kneeling, such as when one is knighted.  One is almost never knighted.  But this person may kneel and receive a tap on each shoulder with a sword.  Or, more likely, this person will be in a car or a store or under a vinl canopy when it happens.  Or online or on the phone.  It could be an email re: your knighthood.  Or a long, laughing, rambling phone message in which every person this person has ever known is talking on a speakerphone and they are all saying, You have passed the test, it was all just a test, we were only kidding, real life is so much better than that.”

from Something That Needs Nothing

“She was just some girl who had tied me to her leg to help her sink when she jumped off the bridge.  Then I blinked and was in love with her again.”

Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters - Arthur Rimbaud

I took a class on Arthur Rimbaud when I lived in Pontlevoy, France in 2005.  There were all of four people in the class, but I must say, for many reasons, it was probably one of my favorite classes ever.  There is just something so powerful about Rimbaud’s writing, and the amazing way it seemingly effortlessly translates into English.  Don’t get me wrong, poetry is always better in it’s original language, but for those of you that don’t speak French out there, don’t let that keep you from reading this poetry.  Arthur Rimbaud was a brilliant kid yet a restless soul, and amazingly enough, he wrote most of his work between the ages of sixteen and nineteen.  “The Drunken Boat,” written when he was only seventeen, has to be one of my favorite poems of all times, hands down.  There’s just so much knowledge and depth in his work that I can’t ever seem to let this book rest; it shall never get dusty.

A couple of my favorite poems (in English, for your reading pleasure):

from lluminations

Phrases

When the world is recuded to a single dark wood for our two pairs of dazzled eyes–to a beach for two faithful children–to a musical house for our clear understanding-then I shall find you.
When there is only one old man on earth, lonely, peaceful, handsome, living in unsurpassed luxury, then I am at your feet.
When I have realized all your memories, when I am the girl who can tie your hands–then I will stifle you.

When we are very strong, who draws back? or very happy, who collapses from ridicule?  When we are very bad, what can they do to us?
Dress up, dance, laugh.  I will never be able to throw Love out of the window.

Comrade of mine, beggar girl, monstrous child!  Hwo little you care about the wretched women, and the machinations and my embarrassment.  Join us with your impossible voice, oh your voice! the one flatterer of this base despair.

A dark morning in July.  The tase of ashes in the air, the smell of wood sweating in the hearth, steeped flowers, the devastation of paths, drizzle over the canals in the fields, why not already paythings and incense?

I stretched out ropes from spire to spire; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance.

…

The Sleeper in the Valley

It is a green hollow where a river sings,
Madly catching on the grasses
Silver rags; where the sun shines from the proud mountain:
It is a small valley which bubbles over with rays.

A young soldier, his mouth open, his head bare,
And the nape of his neck bathing in the cool blue watercress,
Sleeps; he is stretched out on the grass, under clouds,
Pale on his green bed where the light rains down.

His feet in the gladiolas, he sleeps. Smiling as
A sick child would smile, he is taking a nap:
Nature, cradle him warmly: he is cold.

Odors do not make his nostrils quiver;
He sleeps in the sun, his hand on his breast
Quieted. There are two red holes in his right side.

I just got a new bike (birthday present from my mom), and I must admit, it’s bad to the ass… absolutely perfect.  I’m trying to tone up again and possibly train for a triathlon, and I’m hoping that she (my bike) will get me there.  That is, either to the toning or the triathlon.  I’m really not picky about which one.  Anyway, it’s a Trek 7.2 FX and you can see it a bit closer at the Trek website: here. I really do love biking, and I’m hoping that this will keep me in motion.  Plus, it’ll be great for when I move back to NYC in September. Yay!

 Rosie Thomas - If Songs Could Be Held

So, I recently re-discovered this album.  I think I lost it when my computer crashed two years ago, but I recently was reminded of it while watching Bones.  They used the song “It Don’t Matter to the Sun” on one of their episodes, the same song that originally made me purchase this album the first time around.  Anyway, it’s basically a perfect album, convering many topics that we deal with throughout our lives:  love, loss, good memories, etc.  I seriously never get tired of this album, and I’m not sure that I ever could.  Her voice is just so soothing, and her lyrics are just as good.  But, you don’t have to take my word for it.  Check it out for yourself (buy it here at Insound!).

Here are two of my favorite songs, “It Don’t Matter to the Sun” and “Let It Be Me,” a duet with Ed Harcourt.

Download audio file (ItDontMatterToTheSun_RosieThomas.mp3)
LetItBeMe_RosieThomas.mp3">Download audio file (span>LetItBeMe_RosieThomas.mp3)

This post is nothing huge, but it’s for my friends and the people who knew Jeremy Lespi well.  His headstone came in last week (picture courtesy of his mom), and I just wanted to share it with you guys.  I think it’s pretty fitting or him, better than I could have hoped for.

 Quotes:

“O mort vieux Capitaine. Il est temps. Levons l’ancre” - Baudelaire

(French translation:  O death, Old Captain.  It is time.  Raise the anchor.)

“I always made an awkward bow.” - Keats

A Good Start - Maria Taylor

Download audio file (AGoodStart_MariaTaylor.mp3)

What better way to start the list than with “A Good Start?” I’ve always been a huge fan of Azure Ray, Maria Taylor’s former band. So, when I heard that she was releasing a solo album, I was pretty excited. It definitely lived up to my expectations. Well, everything but that one random rap song which was just a very, very, very bad idea. End of story.

Grey Room - Damien Rice

Download audio file (GreyRoom_DamienRice.mp3)

This was Jeremy and I’s song of sorts. I mean, we had many that we shared love for, but this one is special. So, I guess that’s why I listen to it a lot. I’m a masochist and I love pain. It’s not all painful though. I guess it’s just bittersweet, as many of Damien Rice’s songs are.

One - Johnny Cash

Download audio file (One_JohnnyCash.mp3)

I’ve never really been a huge U2 fan (so sue me), but this Johnny Cash Cover of their song “One” just blows me away. The message is amazing, and Johnny, in my opinion, just gives it and edge and a feeling that Bono could never hope to create. It’s just different, in a good way.

Grey - Ani Difranco

Download audio file (Grey_AniDifranco.mp3)

Ani Difranco rocks my world, daily. This song is a bit sad, but I can definitely relate to it. This is definitely an emotional song of the moment. It will probably stick for a while.

It Ain’t Me Babe - Bob Dylan

Download audio file (ItAintMeBabe_BobDylan.mp3)

I love Dylan. Period. So this is just one of the many obsessions.

The Last Time I Saw Richard - Joni Mitchell

Download audio file (Richard_JoniMitchell.mp3)

There’s something about Joni Mitchell that I absolutely love, and Blue has to be my favorite album. The entire album just feels like love, or something. Seriously. Some people hate her. I love her. And I think this entire album is amazing. “The Last Time I Saw Richard” is my Joni Mitchell favorite of the moment.

Chelsea Hotel N.2 - Leonard Cohen

Download audio file (ChelseaHotelN2_LeonardCohen.mp3)

It was hard to choose just one Leonard Cohen song, but I decided to go with Chelsea Hotel N.2. I just like Cohen’s style. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because it’s poetry. Maybe because it’s raw. Who knows.

Sad Eyes - Bat For Lashes

Download audio file (SadEyes_BatForLashes.mp3)

When Bat for Lashes released their first album, I was definitely intrigued. So, needless to say, I gave it a listen, and it’s a really good album. I especially like this song because it’s so powerful, and so meaningful to many people, i’m sure. Everyone can relate to it in some way or another.

Easy/Lucky/Free - Bright Eyes

Download audio file (EasyLuckyFree_BrightEyes.mp3)

There is always a Bright Eyes song that I’m obsessed with. Always. Currently, it happens to be “Easy/Lucky/Free.” This song just kind of hits home at the moment, and I’ve always loved Connor Oburst’s lyrics. They get me every time. Here’s a bit from this song:

“I never really dreamed of heaven much
Until we put him in the ground
But it’s all I’m doing now
Listening for patterns in the sound
Of an endless static sea
But once the satellite’s deceased
It blows like garbage through the streets
Of the night sky to infinity

But don’t you weep
(Don’t you weep for them)
Don’t you weep
(Don’t you weep)
There is nothing as lucky
Honey, don’t you weep
(Don’t you weep for them)
Don’t you weep
(Don’t you weep)
There is nothing as lucky
As easy
Or free”

Lost Someone - Cat Power

Download audio file (LostSomeone_CatPower.mp3)

Cat Power just released another covers album entitled Jukebox. It’s a compilation of covers of some of her favorite songs along with a cover of one of her old songs, “Metal Heart,” which is most definitely one of my favorites ever. “Lost Someone” is short and sweet and to the point.

Stay Golden - Au Revoir Simone

Download audio file (StayGolden_AuRevoirSimone.mp3)

I was introduced to Au Revoir Simone about six months or so ago, and I just absolutely love how atmospheric their music is. I think that’s a good word for it, atmospheric. It just seems to resonate so well. I dunno, maybe that makes absolutely no sense.

Hymn - Hello, Blue Roses

Download audio file (Hymn_HelloBlueRoses.mp3)

I can’t even remember what made me get this album by Hello, Blue Roses, but here I am. I haven’t listened to the whole thing all the way through just yet, but I really like “Hymn.” It’s kind of cheesy, but in a good way.

don’t forget the flowers…

Jeremy Lespi was an amazing person, inside and out.  He was (and still is) my heart.  He had a beautiful soul and made me a much better person every single day.  I could talk about him all day, but I don’t want to ramble on with my feelings.  He was also an amazing poet.  You can read some of his older poems here.  Also, we recently published a small book of his poetry and it is available for sale.  If you like what you see and you want a copy of his book then just hit me up (all proceeds go to the Jeremy Lespi Scholarship Fund at the University of Southern Mississippi, so it’s for a good cause).

I’ll try to write a lighter post soon.  Maybe about music or art or love (wait, that wouldn’t be light).

Until then…

Anyway, here are the two deals that I noticed:

• Pick any 10+ items from their Top 100 CD Sellers of 2007 and get 25% off those items PLUS free ground shipping. Plus, they’ll wrap ‘em and send ‘em in their special Indie-Rock-In-A-Box.

• Also, Pick any 10+ items from their Top 50 LP Sellers of 2007 and get 25% off those items PLUS free ground shipping. And as a special free bonus, they’ll ship your records in a cool Insound tote bag.

Does anybody besides me not think that 25% off is a super sweet deal? It’s like giving away music, which is always a huge plus in my book. Plus, their LPs seem to be very well priced.

I, myself, just ordered a few amazing LPs:

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2xLP)
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan (2xLP)
The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
Dirty Three - Cinder
Dirty Three - She Has No Strings Apollo
Cat Power - Jukebox (2xLP) (Pre-Order)
Cat Power - Moonpix
Mirah - C’mon Miracle
Tegan and Sara - The Con
Azure Ray - Hold On Love
Cat Power - What Would The Community Think
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Dirty Three - Horse Stories (2xLP)
Amy Millan - Honey From The Tombs
Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Superwolf

These purchases made me really happy. No lie.

Basically, what I am saying is BUY MUSIC (and, buy it at Insound!) because music is happy. And I want everyone to be happy!

1 - Finder - (obvious)
2 - Dashboard - (again, obvious) a couple of widgets i enjoy, however, are hula girl (i tend to have her set as a dancing jesus which sways nicely to my iTunes), the junior mint widget (for website tracking), chuck norris facts (always a good time), flappie (i kill him all the time… by accident, of course), istat pro (just a little monitoring), and, of course, the exploding dog widget (my daily dose of happiness).
3 - Stickes - (one again, obvious) - i generally keep a stack of these minimized in the top left corner of my screen. they include anything from random ideas to movies i want to watch. it keeps my scattered mind organized, like a moleskine for my computer.
4 - i think i shall keep this one to myself (it’s my own personal secret - if you’re in on my secret, good for you… if not, i’m sorry)
5 - GarageBand - i don’t use this program as often as i’d like, but i must admit, it’s pretty fun to play with from time to time
6 - iPhoto - considering i’m lacking a digital camera at the moment, this program is being neglected. but generally, it’s an easy way to store photos. it’s not fancy; it’s not awesome, by any means. but, it gets the job done.
7 - Toast Titanium - for those of you that don’t already know, this is the ultimate application for burning CDs and DVDs on your Mac. if you don’t have it, get it. enough said.
8 - pzizz - this is a piece of software i got a hold of recently due to my sleeping issues. basically, it’s a piece of software that creates audio soundtracks that help you to nap during the day or get to sleep at night. and, it’s fully customizeable. you can decide the length of the track you want, how loud the voice and music are, etc. i’ve only used it a couple of times so far, but it looks promising. maybe if i used it more often, i wouldn’t have these insomnia issues that i’m suffering from.

9 - Tangerine! - this is a nifty little piece of software from Potion Factory that “creates magical playlists.” it does so by analyzing the BPM and beat intensity of your music in iTunes, helping you more easily create playlists that fit the exact mood that you are looking for. it also integrates very nicely with iTunes, allowing you to save created playlists directly into your iTunes. the software itself is also only $24.95, which is a bargain if you’re a playlist fanatic, as i am. hell, it’s a bargain no matter what. so get to purchasing.
10 - Skitch - i’ve posted about skitch before, but, to put it simply, skitch is an screen-capturing software with some fun options, such as drawing on images, annotating images, etc. it really is a pretty neat program. it also has a myskitch feauture which gives you your own personal web space to display your images. i’m not sure if it is still not open to the general public, but if not, i still have one invite left, so if you want it, just holla at me and i’ll hook you up.
11 - Azureus - put simply, azureus is the best bit torrent client that i know of. if you don’t know what bit torrent is, then i’m truly sorry. look it up. if you do, be sure to check out this application. it’s free. yay.
12 - Soulseex - soulseex is a file-sharing application (used mostly for music)
13 - Adium - i’m pretty sure i’ve written about adium before, but it’s most definitely the best instant messenger application out there, allowing the integration of pretty much every time of instant messenger account available. also, it’s very customizable, which i enjoy. as you can see, i currently have my icon dressed as Les Paul (Slash Adiumy).
14 - Firefox - the best browser. period. kicks IE’s lame butt. if you don’t already know this, that makes me sad.
15 - iTunes - (another obvious mac app) i am currently using the DockArt plugin which displays the current album’s artwork as the icon (the one seen is Tiny Vipers - Hands Across The Void, which i highly enjoy).
16 - Journler - i’ve been using this journal application ever since it was released. i really enjoy all of the features (sound recording, video recording, ipod notes, etc.), amazing integration with other mac software, and it’s simple beauty. this software can be used for journaling specifically, or it can be used simply for organizing notes and such. also, development of this software is top notch, keeping it in with the times. and, at $10.00, it’s a steal. honest.
17 - Mail - although this is a standard piece of Mac software, i’ve always been a fan. it’s simple, easy to use, and integrates well with other IMAP and POP accounts. all of my mail in one place… instantly.
18 - Photo Booth - the perfect app for the easily amused (aka me)
19 - Cyberduck - i realize that there are a lot of FTP programs out there, but ever since i downloaded this program a couple of years back, i haven’t even attempted to search for a new or “better” piece of software. it’s easy to use, straightforward, and the icon is awesome. simple as that.
20 - VLC - this is a cross-platform media player. it’s free, simple, easy to use, and pure brilliance. and once again, the icon rocks.
21 - Cha-Ching - this is an easy to use money management software. it has a nice interface and is extremely straightforward. so far, i’ve been happy with it, although it does take time. you have to sit down and take the time to type in all of your separate expenditures, although regular bills can be scheduled and update automatically.
22 - AppZapper - this is an application that, in my opinion, every Mac owner needs. it’s simple and easy to use, and it eliminates those application files that you may not know ever existed, thus giving you true application removal. also, it has smart protection for those files and programs that might damage your computer if deleted, which is always nice. plus, it looks like a little toy gun and makes a fun little zappy sound when used. awesome.
23 - ViddyUp! - this program is a simple way to make video files (such as .avi) integrate with iTunes and, thus, playable on your iPod video. it’s extremely easy to use and very efficient. if you’re computer is cluttered with .avi files or any other file that isn’t compatible with iTunes, i definitely recommend you picking up this application. i’ve been using it almost daily since i got it.
24 - Podcast Maker - admittedly, i haven’t exactly used this application yet. i will say, however, that it looks hopeful.
25 - Snood - this has been my favorite computer game for years. it’s simple, easy, and fun. my favorite part about it is that it still looks the same way it did many years ago (tacky backgrounds and all). the support for it is awesome, but the graphics never change. that’s okay, though. not everything has to be perfectly beautiful.

Ever since I bought my new 15″ MacBook Pro, my dock has become larger and larger. I’ve got more screen space, man. Although I don’t really like clutter (I’m a bit of a control freak), I’ve left it as is for now. However, there is a program called Overflow, which I’ve written about before, that helps free up space on your dock (or as they say, “put your dock on a diet”). I haven’t gotten around to purchasing the license yet, but I’m sure I will in the near future. It’s very helpful, especially if you do a lot of work on the computer and need a good deal of programs regularly.

Anyway, that’s my shpeel for the day. Hope you enjoyed it. If not, I apologize. Well, not really because it was your choice to read, but even still.

don’t forget the flowers…