Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I recently posted two lists on Twitter:

1. iPhone Photo Apps I Like: CameraBag, Hipstamatic, QuadCamera, AutoStitch, TiltShift Generator, Cross Process, Best Camera, Incredibooth (iPhone4 only)
2. Best ToDo Apps: Appigo, Zenbe, Nozbe, Google Tasks (part of Google Apps), Reqall (speak to text). Best = Toodledo < < syncs with everything

Here’s the rest. If I mention them, I like them. If you want to know more, find them in the App Store:

• AppAdvice – For news and reviews about the best apps!
• MoodAgent – Scans your music and creates playlists based on certain moods, tempos, etc. Hard to describe, but COOL!
• Instapaper – OMG, so many kinds of awesome. Reformats articles from anywhere for easy reading on your iPhone.
• Remote (for iTunes) – Control iTunes on your main computer from your iPhone.
• Rowmote (for Hulu) – Control Hulu from across the room!
• Reeder – The slickest RSS reader for iPhone I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot!)
• Cleartune – Tune your guitar!
• Shazam – Find out what’s playing right now (SoundHound is good, too.)
• Kindle for iPhone – Read books you buy on Amazon on your iPhone. There’s iBooks, too, but I’m a long-time Kindle fan.
• Recorder – Much better than the native recorder. Trust me.
• AudioBoo – Record sound snippets and upload to Facebook or Twitter instantly.
• AT&T MyWireless Mobile – Pay your bill right from your iPhone. Check your usage.
• DailyBurn – Watch your weight if you watch calories. There’s a matching app for scanning food in using bar codes!
• CarbsControl – Watch your weight if you’re a low-carb person.
• Delivery Status Touch – Input packages you’re expecting and get notified when they will be arriving.
• Charlie – A Flickr app you don’t hear much about. I hate the Flickr app for iPhone. I usually check Flickr using Safari for iPhone (the mobile site), but for uploading, this is nice. It’s not bad for checking, either.
• CardStar – Instead of all those cards on your keychain, make them scan your iPhone instead. Yes, it works.
• Evernote – If you use Evernote, the app is awesome.
• foursquare – The more popular location check-in app.
• Gowalla – The BETTER location check-in app (because the icons are like a MILLION times cuter, and when I get back from a trip, I like to see that set of icons!). Plus, you can “drop” random crap and pick things up, and how fun is that?!
• Google Mobile App – Gmail, Reader, Google Earth, Google Voice Search, it’s all here.
• Dropbox – If you use it, then you should be using the app. Access any of your files any time from anywhere and share them with anyone. Awesome!
• GoodReader – Connects with Dropbox and any site where there are PDF’s to be found. Basically, you can download entire PDF’s and keep them stored on your phone. Then later, you can look at them, even if you have no service. Once you work out the ways it’s useful, there are a MILLION ways to use this.
• Grocery Pal – I used to be a big fan of a different grocery app, but this one has a REALLY nice feature that trumps all the rest. It connects to the specials at my local Harris Teeter, so I can quickly see everything that is on sale there and add those things I want to the list without having to check the specials online in some other way. It’s VERY handy!
• How to Cook Everything – The entirety of the How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman in an app. Very thorough, and there are timers built into the app!
• Last.FM – Great site. Great for listening. You can check your gig calendar.
• Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals – This app takes up a lot of space. It’s filled with video and beautiful photography, a grocery list maker, WONDERFUL recipes (I’ve made several), and it’s just a masterful thing to behold. Kind of the state of the art when it comes to apps. Totally worth it’s slightly higher cost.
• Movies by Flixster – I’ve always found Flixter to be evil, but this app won me over because of its integration with Rotten Tomatoes. Also, I can keep a list of movies I want to see.
• Period Tracker – If you’re a woman and for any reason, you want to track your menstrual symptoms (moods, cycle, physical symptoms), this is a really impressive app. You are even reminded to backup your data, which is easily done by clicking a button. You end up with a text file you can print and bring along with you to the doctor’s office.
• Skype – Got people you need to talk to in other countries? Get Skype. Spoke to a friend who was in China once while I was sitting underground at Foundation bar. Have you been in there? It’s all stone. We had WiFi only. It’s like THE FUTURE!
• Trip Journal – This didn’t work at all on my 3G because my GPS was borked, but it’s a REALLY nifty little app to track where you’ve been with pictures and little notes, and you end up with cute little maps. It’s fun if you’re traveling.

I just did some things on Facebook because of their recent fall from grace with regards to respect for privacy:

• Went to my Profile page
• Under Friends on the left, I right-clicked on the number of friends I have, and opened that in a new tab
• In the new tab on the left under Lists, I can see Pages with a little yellow flag. Clicking on that shows me an interesting list: (1) Everything that used to just be a narrative of interests in my profile, but was recently changed to clickable links that I “Like” a few weeks ago, including movies, musical artists, etc. So since I’ve done that, bands I “like” who have pages have started popping up in my stream – This morning, Regina Spektor posted a cute picture of herself in Tokyo. While this was a cute picture that I enjoyed seeing, I want control over what content like this I see. (2) Everything I’ve clicked a “Like” button for during the past few weeks. I think “Like” or “Pages” are the new “Groups” … or something like that.
• I want to choose who markets at me and who doesn’t.
• I’ve now added all these “Pages” to a personal list of mine – also called Pages. I’m going to change the permissions on this list so that those Pages cannot see any of my information. I mean, there could be a million other people who like, say, the movie 500 Days of Summer. For all I know, Facebook is making it possible for anyone in that group to click over to me from there. I am assuming they aren’t, but JUST IN CASE, I’m taking some precautions.
• In some rash moments, I’ve “Liked” some things like “I don’t feel like folding my laundry so I just restart the dryer.” I can probably just leave that Page and feel all the better for it.

I get a lot out of Facebook. I am not ready to leave. I am MIGHTILY annoyed by them for making me work so very hard to keep my privacy, but I’m not ready to bolt – not even close, because of the good I get from it. I’m loyal to a fault sometimes, but I feel like they will eventually get this thing straightened out to a level I can deal with.

Because I was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus during the 1995-1996 season, I was lucky enough to be a performer in Opening Ceremonies of the Atlanta Summer Olympics. I found a video of Celine Deion singing “The Power of the Dream” on YouTube. There was a discussion about whether she was performing live or not. I knew a little bit about this, since I was there and knew just enough to be able to answer the questions the commenters were posing.

The whole experience was really cool. When you watch the video, you’ll see that I’m one of the people standing behind Ms. Deion (Hahaha!) in a choir robe on the ramp. It was quite the vantage point. At this time in the proceedings, Mohammed Ali had already lit the olympic torch, and the parade of nations was complete. It was an incredible place to be, and despite the cheesiness of the Babyface/Foster music (which we recorded in Symphony Hall about a month prior), watching this video this morning made me cry. Just because being in such a place at such a time amidst such an incredible confluence of energy was overwhelming. I love people. I love being where the action was. And on that day, in that place, that was the place to be. Watch it, and at around 2 minutes, listen and imagine how cool it all was for me.

Below the video, you’ll see my responses to the commenters queries about what was live and what was prerecorded.

OK, this is crazy, but I’m actually one of the performers in this. I sang in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus during this time. I am one of the people in a choir robe on the ramp behind Celine Deion. We prerecorded everything so that no matter what technical things went wrong, there would be something to play on air.

What I recall is that those recordings of us (the chorus) were blended with the mics that were on us in the actual stadium. For the soloists, however (Celine Deion, Jesse Norman, etc), the recordings were only in reserve for use in case the mics were failing to feed into either the stadium or to the live feed.

It all went as planned, and so I believe what you are hearing is, in fact, live Celine. What you are hearing from the orchestra and chorus is all recorded, but inside the stadium, it was both the pre-recorded stuff and the live performance.

This is my second year doing solos with the North Carolina Master Chorale for Carolina Ballet’s Messiah production. This year, Jake used my iPhone and a capsule mic I bought recently to record me singing. Here ya go!

Rejoice Greatly

I Know That My Redeemer Liveth

If God Be For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?

40th Birthday Candle/Cake Situation from abbyladybug on Vimeo.

Five days before my birthday, I wrote the following paragraph, but I never posted it. Now I have a video to share, and it seems that this would be exactly the kind of reason to go back to the blog. So here’s how I was feeling 5 days before I turned 40. Now I’m 40 and 1 day, and I feel like the same Abby I did last week. Go figure!

So I started this blog over 5 years ago when I was living in Memphis. I had just moved away from all my friends and wanted to keep in touch. It’s been a wonderful thing for me – having a place to share all the things that have meant something to me. On Sunday, I will turn 40. To me, blogging has been the stable force amidst so much instability: moves, relationships, jobs. And today, at age 39, 11 months, and about 25 days, I feel like I may finally be experiencing some stability. I have a private practice in a lovely building in downtown Raleigh. I have a 3-minute (on foot) commute to my apartment. It’s in this historic neighborhood – so pretty, and it has a great vibe. I’ve got a great boyfriend who loves me, challenges me, and is pretty much more fun than anyone I’ve ever met. Even though I lost Maggie this summer, I’ve got my hilarious Jeep, who (despite forgetting I’ve fed her within about 2 minutes) is an utter delight. Do I still need this blog? I don’t imagine I’ll shut it down, because here, people have me in their feed readers, and if I DO have something to say, this seems a fairly good place to stay it. But life has changed in the past 5 years for me, and a slightly more private online environment (like Facebook) seems a better place to share the “bloggy” topics I used to share here all the time. If you’re still reading, then thanks! Stay signed up, but don’t hold your breath. If you want to see me doing my thing, the better place to check is always Flickr. My photostream is how I communicate to the world now. I tend to save my writing for reports. But like I said, if I have something to say, I’ll be back around. As with most things, my output comes in waves, and right now, it’s ebb-time!

One more follow-up thought: I have some wonderful people in my life. Jake’s planning and generosity this weekend knocked me off my feet. Shannon and Brian are awesome as always (and not just because of Ham Dip, Beer, and DJing). My friends who came are awesome. Lalitree made me Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Pamela gave me the prettiest necklace and took a buzillion awesome pictures. Holden gave me a fun quad camera – the REAL kind that uses film. Robert and Elise got a babysitter and made the trek from Durham. Jake’s parents, Nancy and Barry, opened up their home and put on the charm. I could go on and on, but the more I go on, the more I need to talk about every single guest, and I’m sure you’re already bored by now! I am a lucky, lucky woman!