andrew dodson

I’ve owned my iPhone for a few months now, and I absolutely love it.  While the camera isn’t quite up to par with my high (read: picky, anal, etc.) standards, I love having it with me in a pinch to get photos.  Here are my favorite photos from 2009:

(click on a picture to load the Lightbox gallery in a pop-up window)

It’s no small secret that I’m a music lover.  I listen to a lot of music, and wide range of styles.  My digital music collection is slightly insane by most standards.  I have the 120GB iPod, and not even that can hold my entire collection.  You get my point – I own a lot of music.  Needless to say, I’ve tried a lot of the online music services that have popped up over the last few years.  Here’s my review of the ones I’ve tried, and keep in mind that I am picky when it comes to these types of services.

Pandora

Pandora is a mostly free service that tailors radio stations to your tastes – either by genre, or a particular artist.  Rating the songs with a thumbs up or thumbs down helps define your likes and dislikes and determines what songs the station plays.  I say that the service is mostly free because of two conditions:

• You are limited to listening to 40 hours of music per month.  If you hit the 40 hour threshold, you’re asked to pay $1 to listen an unlimited amount the remainder of the month, or…
• Pay $36 per year to listen unlimited with no ads.

For my money, I’ll just pay the $1 whenever I hit the 40 hour threshold.  The ads aren’t too annoying or overbearing, and I’ve only hit the 40 hour threshold once since I’ve been a Pandora user.  While I love to have control over what I listen to, Pandora is great for discovering new artists, or for rediscovering artists I haven’t listened to in a long time.  It is also great for days when you want to listen to music but don’t want to think about it too much.

Another plus is their iPhone app, which is awesome!  I am able to use the app in my car while driving and listen seamlessly to my stations, even if I’m on the Edge network.  Very impressive.

GrooveShark

My best friend swears by GrooveShark.  He loves it.  It’s a free streaming service that has a large collection of music.  You simply search for an artist or song, and – if they have it – start listening.  The key phrase there is “if they have it.”  I’m picky about these types of services.  The same reason I keep 120GB of music on my iPod is the same reason I’d use one of these services.  I want to be able to go from listening to one artist to another, one style to another, and not be hindered by the song, album or artist not being available.  This is where GrooveShark falls short for me.  Far too often for my liking, my searches came up empty, or an album was only partially available.  It might be a good service in a pinch, but I won’t use it too often.

Mog

Mog looks interesting.  They certainly aren’t modest.  They claim they’re the “best new online music service” on their site.  Their unlimited listening plan is only $5 per month.  I signed up for a free trial and gave it a spin.  Immediately, I was disappointed.  Newer albums, and even albums that have been out for at least six months, have yet to be added.  But, for the most part, they had a far greater selection than GrooveShark offers.

eMusic

eMusic offers several different subscription plans that give you different amounts of downloads each month.  I have been a subscriber for over a year now, and I have enjoyed this service.  eMusic is different from other services in that they specialize in independent artists.  You won’t find a great deal of mainstream music on eMusic.  But, in the past year, I’ve also witnessed eMusic grow.  They struck a deal to add Sony’s back catalog – albums that were released at least two years ago and older.  I have no basis for this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future they struck a deal with the other major labels along these same lines.

I pair my eMusic subscription with Pandora.  Chances are, if I hear an obscure artist on a Pandora station that I like, eMusic will have that artist’s music.

Rhapsody

I joined Rhapsody a few months ago.  For $15 per month, I’m able to stream music from a very large selection.  While I have run across a few albums or artists here and there that are unavailable on Rhapsody, their selection, compared to the services in this post, is by far the largest.  They also offer an iPhone app, which is a plus for me.  The app does not do well while driving in a car, but works great otherwise.

Rhapsody has been an awesome service for me to “try before I buy.”  I’m able to stream albums to see if I’d actually like to spend money on the entire thing.  Even still, most of my music listening happens in my office at work.  I usually pass on buying the album and just listen to it while I’m at work.

Conclusion

For my tastes, the combination of Pandora, eMusic and Rhapsody has saved me a lot of money.  In the past, I’ve spent as much as $100-200 in month on music, only to be disappointed if the entire album wasn’t great (yes, I’d rather buy the entire album instead of just singles).  Over the last few months, I’ve spent $35 per month on these services and it’s been rare for me to buy albums through iTunes, Amazon or in stores.  I can basically listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, so I haven’t needed to purchase as many albums to put on my iPod.

Wordpress has released the next version of their popular blogging and content management software.  The 2.9 release, named “Carmen,” continues their series of releases named after jazz artists.

So, what’s new in 2.9?

The biggest feature improvement is the ability to edit images after they are uploaded – cropping, rotating and resizing are all available options.  This is a huge feature for Wordpress users that may not have image editing software on their computers.

Another popular improvement is the ability to embed media into posts or pages by simply copying and pasting the link to the media (video, photo gallery, etc.) into the post or page, using the oEmbed standard.

Wordpress has also introduced a trash feature, enabling a second level of deletion of posts, pages and media.  Now, in the event you accidentally get rid of a post, it goes to the trash,  instead of being permanently deleted.  Users can then empty their trash later, when they’re sure they want to delete its contents.

These three features are on top of many other improvements and bug fixes.  To read more about the 2.9 release, please read this post on the Wordpress blog.

Linus teaches us what Christmas is all about.  Enjoy the season, everyone.

My co-worker at 524concepts, Chris Thurman, has launched a new creative media blog – Visual Swirl.  Be sure to check it out.  The blog features articles on video, web, print, and more.  It’s a must-read for all creative types.  There is also the possibility that I may contribute from time to time, which may or may not help in getting traffic to the site!

In two weeks, I will get married.  Eighteen months ago, I would’ve called you crazy if you told me I’d be getting married on New Year’s Eve 2009.  But, here we are.

Since our engagement a few months ago, we’ve been planning, preparing, going to showers, taking a marriage prep course from my pastor, and booking a honeymoon.  I’m glad we decided on a short engagement because it has forced us to get stuff done quickly.  I’m a bit of a procrastinator (okay, maybe a huge one), so having to tackle the planning quickly has been good for me.

Though, I will say, I have not done half the work that Julie, her mother, my mother, and Julie’s aunt have done.  I can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done.  With Christmas thrown in the mix, the next two weeks will be slightly insane.

I’ll be posting more updates on andrewandjulie.net in the next week or two – catching everyone up on the past month or so of wedding planning and activities.  Until then, enjoy Amos Lee singing “What’s Been Going On?”

This month, Christian Audio has selected John Piper’s Desiring God as their free audio book of the month.  It is one of my favorite books, so I’ve already downloaded my copy.  I would highly recommend you do the same!

As a side note, you can also read the book for free through Desiring God’s website.

This past Saturday, Julie and I ventured out to Cove Spring Park for our engagement pictures.  We asked Kari McGrath to do our photos because she is amazing!  We’ve seen a few sneak peeks of our photos and we’re very excited about how they turned out.  We can’t wait to see the rest of them!

I took the Flip along and got some video of the day.

Ok. Let’s try this again. I haven’t blogged in quite a while, but I have plenty to blog about.

First, I’m engaged! Julie said yes to my proposal last Saturday at Evan’s Orchard in Georgetown. We will tie the knot on New Year’s Eve.

I finally caved to pressure and joined the cult of iPhone owners. My Verizon contract ended, so it was a good time to jump over to AT&T. So far, I’m loving the iPhone. I’m typing this post using the WordPress app.

More to come in the next day or two.

I guess I’ve been on a money-saving kick over the last month.  As mentioned in my previous post, I’m considering canceling cable and internet.  I’ve already changed my cell phone plan to save $40 per month.  I’ve also canceled my gym membership to save $30 per month.

While saving $30 per month is nice, the ultimate reason for canceling my gym membership was because I never went.  Over the last two years, my gym attendance has been extremely sporadic.  I couldn’t muster up enough motivation to get my stuff together and drive to the gym.  I’ve always thought it would be nice to find a way to workout at home.

A few months ago, I found out about P90X.  It’s an intense 90-day workout routine, but it doesn’t require a lot of equipment and can be done at home.  I was able to borrow the DVD’s from a friend, but I can tell you I’m already thinking about buying my own.  I’m really enjoying it so far.

I’ve elected to do the “lean” version of the workout first.  It involves doing more cardio and less weight training.  Since I’m trying to get back in shape, I figured this would be the best way for me to jump into P90X and not kill myself.  After 90 days, I’ll move on to the “classic” version, which is the normal P90X routine.  The next stage is “doubles” which is more intense than classic and involves more cardio (recommended for athletes trying to get back in shape for the season, or people that want to die from working out, I guess).  Even though it’s a 90-day workout, it can be repeated over and over again.  If it gets boring or easy, there are ways to challenge yourself to do more.

I mentioned P90x requires only a few pieces of equipment – a pull up bar, and dumbbells or resistance bands.  Optional equipment includes a yoga or exercise mat.

So far, I’ve purchased a Perfect Pullup bar (found a great deal on one for $20), a set of Perfect Pushup handles, and a set of resistance bands.  I already owned a set of 30lb. adjustable dumbbells.  Along the way, a friend of mine was getting rid of a great exercise bike, so I picked that up as well.  Even though I’ve spent a decent amount of money on this equipment, owning it will save money in the long run.

Happily, I’ve turned my small apartment into my own home gym.  I don’t have to bother with going anywhere.  I can exercise whenever it’s convenient.  I don’t have to worry about getting outside when it’s blazing hot, raining, or in the dead of winter.  It seems I’m finally motivated to work out on a regular basis for the first time in a few years.