Tag: acura

happenings, mixed media, music musings, shiny stuff

ipod in the muthafucking car… finally

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After having several crappy FM tuners, and basically giving up the dream of being able to play my ipod in my car with decent sound, I have, ladies and gentlemen, WON the battle.

From the time I got my first ipod MANY years ago, I have always loved having my entire music library at my fingertips; in fact, I am rarely without one of my many ipods. The damn things are so handy. If I didn’t have to use iTunes to update them, they would be perfect; but that is a different post for a different day. In my old car, I had a tape player, so I used the cassette adapter with much success, but I was forced to bid it farewell when I upgraded to my fancy new Acura; leading to much dismay and disappointment when said FM tuners turned out to be complete and utter shit.

Cut to last week, when I finally decided to take the plunge, give up XM, and get the iSimple installed. I bought the kit, and set up an appointment, and started to say my bittersweet farewell to XM, all the while convincing myself that I wouldn’t miss it anyway. It was like turning my back on a child, so as to make them hate me, so they would leave for their own good. But here’s the kicker, I WAS MISINFORMED.

What is that you say? Someone working at Best Buy gave me blatant misinformation, which is no more useful than a off handed guess?! Say it isn’t so! Well, ladies and gents, it is true; the iSimple allows you to keep XM, and adds the ipod functionality; which is controlled through the radio, and displays the name of the track and artist information right there in your factory radio display!!! I honestly would have bought this thing YEARS ago if I would have known, but because of some dumb half-wit that worked in the audio section of Best Buy and touted themselves as an audio “expert”, I have written off this product for all of this time.

Shame. For real shame.

Now, I have the power to use my ipod in my car with crystal clear sound, sweetly coming from my speakers. Needless to say, I LOVE this feature, and even though iSimple’s interface is a bit wonky and hard to get used to, I am just pleased as punch that I have something that I have wanted for years back in my life.

Hear me Best Buy; I win this round. I WIN.

"pointless", all about me, flickr, the catch-all-egory

a friday free-for-all!

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I am all over the place today! So, in the spirit of that “all over the place” mentality I am currently afflicted by, I thought I would share! Why not, right?! I knew you would agree.

First of all, my car starting making a noise this week. Not a good noise either, it was a “metal on metal” scraping noise coming from the wheels. Shit. Of course, I am a proactive person when it comes to car care (I always get the oil done on time, and I rotate tires and that kind of stuff), so I called Acura and made an appointment for this afternoon. Turns out, it is something to do with brake pads and the rotors, and so I have to have the back ones fixed… the front ones are covered by the warranty for whatever reason. It’s going to be $165, but at least I have two things going FOR me here; the vibration and that awful metal on metal noise when braking will go away, AND, I luckily got my tax return money this week. So, I guess things could be worse. I just can’t wait to see how it drives when it is fixed, especially since they let me borrow a BRAND NEW RDX to drive while I am waiting for my car. That car is NICE, but really, the only thing about it I would want, is the MP3 CD capability, and the audio in jack for my ipod… my car doesn’t have either of those features. Other than that, I am very happy with Bianca, and can’t wait to get her back.

Second, to preface this next thing, let me start by saying that my tattoo guy had me on a stand by list, in case of a cancellation, in order to fix my ankle tattoo. Apparently, this was the quickest way to get in, because he has a massive waiting list (which is totally understandable, because he is amazing)… but I didn’t expect that they would call and be all, “um, can you come in tonight?”. Well, needless to say, I said yes, because I don’t want to have to wait that much longer; especially considering the main reason I went to Russ in the first place, was to get my ankle redone… and I ended up with a half sleeve!!! I probably want to do more with the sleeve in the future, but for now, we are doing ankle work ONLY. I can’t wait to see what he can do with it. The man is a genius with a needle and ink. The appointment tonight shouldn’t be half as painful as my last one (which was all inner arm work, ouch!). I just hope James isn’t too shaken by the sudden change of plans… he doesn’t deal well with that, but in this case, I didn’t have much of a choice. Oh well, I guess we’ll see!

a daffodil's view

Finally, my good friend Deb has talked me into getting a kick ass lens for my camera, because it is pretty much one of the best deal lenses for the Canon EOS cameras… it is a 50mm with f1.8, and it should allow me to enhance the bokeh in my shots (bokeh is the effect in the shot above, where the main object of the photo is sharp, but the background is blurred and softened… but this lens can make it much smoother and more soft). This is the effect in photography that I have learned, and one that I love the most, and I can’t wait to see what this lens can do, because the one that comes with the camera is pretty limited when you want to do more specific and advanced things like this; plus, it is a cheap lens (as I mentioned). I am completely loving this camera, and I am SOOOO glad that I got it. It was totally worth the wait, and I know that I am gushing about it, but I really can’t help it. Mama likes her electronics, kids!!! Also, keep in mind I waited over a year and a half to get this camera, so a little excitement is in order. Be sure to keep an eye on my flickr page, because I can assure you, things are only going to get more interesting. Well, at least I am going to posting a lot more… I have fallen back in love with flickr!

I hope that everyone has a great Friday (what’s left of it), and I hope everyone has a great weekend as well! Expect some commentary on the Oscars on Monday… GO JENNIFER HUDSON!!! WOOO WOOO!