Happy New Year to All

I'd like to wish all visitors to Bruce's Journal a happy and healthy new year. This journal averages about 20 hits a day, so whether I know you or not, thanks for coming by. I use an anecdotal approach to share my experiences and interests with my readers at http://www.bruceslutsky.com and on Facebook. I am always interested in getting comments for readers. I get very few on this journal, but many on Facebook. I hope to see you back in 2010.

Mellow Yellow by Donovan

I think I have discussed the Ipod nano and iPhone enough on this journal. I could talk about the movie It's Complicated that I saw this afternoon, but instead I'll post Mellow Yellow by Donovan, one of my favorite singers. Facebook friends can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCCjv2OiTxE

Ipod Nano vs iPhone

From what I understand there are Ipods that hold up to 160 Gigs of music. My Ipod nano and iPhone each have 8 gig disk drives. The Nano inlcudes only music recorded by Bob Dylan or covers of his songs. I really like using the shuffle feature and hope that I get a good blend of covers and original recordings. I only have 557 songs on the nano with about 2.3 gigs of space left.

I found out that the 8 gigs on the iPhone must hold the apps and music. I would rather save the disk space for the apps, so the playlist will only includes Beatles songs or those by John, George, Paul, and Ringo after the group split. I think I know the basics of how to use the iPhone. It will likely take me time to learn the idiosyncracies of te device. Again I hope my readers will send me apps that they think are useful.

Big Radio Day Today

Since I work for a university, I get the time off between Christmas and New Years. I spent time doing one of my favorite things, listening to the radio. I listened t0 several stations of different formats with various devices. Here goes:

• WCBS-FM - Oldies (or should I say classic hits)
• WFUV - Adult Album Alternative in radio jargon.
• WBGO - Jazz
• Sirius XM 50s on 5 - oldies
• WMTR - Oldies
• KMPS - HD2 - Seattle - Classic Country
• WPYX - Albany Classic rock
• BB King's Bluesville Channel on Sirius/XM
• WFAN - Sports
• WPLJ-HD2 - True Oldies Channel

I may not be finished. It is only 8:20 PM

Here are the devices that I used:

• Accurian HD Radio
• Bose Wave Table Radio
• My laptop
• GE Superradio
• My car radio
• iPhone

I have other radios in the house that I did't use today. It's nice to do things you enjoy

Ipod Dock for the iPhone

I am still getting adjusted to the new iPhone today. I expected there to be a learning curve involved with a new gadget. I visited my mother for a little while this morning and she was not impressed. She had gotten a cell phone a few years ago, but hardly used it and returned it. I have seen plenty of senior citizens using them over the years. I bought the Ipod dock as seen above so that I can hear Sirius/XM and other radio programs on the iPhone in other parts of the house. There are different attachments for different products sold by Apple. It also worked with my iPod Nano.

We found out that there is a little switch on the left which can turn off the ringtones completely. You can assign a different ringtone for each person on your list. When I get more adjusted to it I'll have to try to download ringtones. Maybe I should surprise Karen and have Like a Rolling Stone as my ringtone.

A Hearty Mazel Tov To Me - I got an iPhone Today

I few weeks ago I said that I was going to get an iPhone right after Christmas. I didn't waste anytime. Today is December 26th and I have my iPhone after months if not years of indecision. Although it was raining today, we walked over to downtown Flushing to the AT&T store. We told the salesman that I wanted a 3G iPhone for $99. We also got a contract with 200 text messages a month for $5. I think that will be enough for me. The salesman took our old phone and transferred the contacts to the iPhone.

When we got home it was time to figure out how to use it with the thought in mind that Rome wasn't built in a day. It will take me time to learn how to use it. I first figured out how to make and receive phone calls and text messages. I then added the voice mail message.

The next step was to start to download apps for it. Your truly, the big radio enthusiast chose to download the Sirius/XM apps first. The next ones were Radio@aol which includes the CBS owned stations. I also got the app for the Cheap Channel (Clear Channel) stations. WFUV had its own app but was also included in the NPR radio app. I then downloaded the apps for Facebook and Twitter and experimented with entering data into those two services. Finally I downloaded ESPN for sports scores and ABC News. It is now about 5:10 PM, so I will put the phone aside until about 8 PM. I think I will upload some of my CDs.

If any of my readers can recommend some apps or offer an advice on using the iPhone, please let me know.

Resting at Home Today

I drove to Cunningham Park this morning with Lee. We knew that snow would still be covering the basketball court, but we would just walk around. The Parks Department plowed a path on the concrete area so people could walk or jog.

We walked over to the local multiplex to see Avatar in 3D. I was really surprised to see the theater was so busy on Christmas Day. I would think that the kids would stay home and play with their new toys, but I guess people want to get out of their houses on a cold day.

When we got home we dug out some out videos of one of the 7 things that keep the Slutsky family together. We saw a few episodes of Car 54 Where Are You? Lee was laughing like crazy at his favorite TV character Gunther Toody. Readers of this journal may remember that a few years ago I sang the Car 54 theme over the radio. This clip is about 4 1/2 minutes, but my singing comes in at about 1:15 http://www.4shared.com/file/47202439/a22e983a/Car54.html

You can hear the offical version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnVdaTlQNMU