Mind the Gap - Aaargh!!!

So, if you know enough to read my blog, you probably know I'm an ersatz aerobics instructor. You may not know that for a year or so now, I've been using an iPod to play my workout music at class, rather than drag around 20 very expensive CDs.

There's a minor problem with this - yes, it really is minor - that's gotten my back up now thanks to some merciless teasing from Apple. You see, an Aerobics CD is mixed to have each song blend seamlessly into the next, with no pauses and exact 32-count phrasing. The minor problem is that if you just digitize the CDs, iTunes (or probably any other software), can't help but put a small gap in each track. This RUINS aerobics music. I'm not kidding. Toss a little hitch into otherwise evenly phrased music, and an entire class of spandex-clad workout maniacs will fall like dominoes. It ain't pretty.

So the solution, which has been satisfying until two days ago, is to rip the entire CD as one long track. That works fine, as long as your CD is exactly as long as your class. This option keeps music seamless, and the limit is just that you can't jump to the next track, go back, skip one, or re-order the tracks. I've been OK with this so far and I've actually gotten pretty good at fast forwarding the exact right amount of seconds if I need to.

So what happened two days ago? Apple Inc's advertising machine ran up, bit me on the ass, and ran away giggling, knowing I had been infected. How? Well, when I loaded iTunes to get my latest podcast episodes, iTunes offered to update itself to the latest new version.

The new version featuring GAPLESS PLAYBACK. Yes, that shiny white one-mouse-button-only interface informed me that the latest step in iEvolution had happened. I could now play my continuous CDs continuously, without sacrificing my track-by-track control!!!!

Well, this seemed to good to be true, but I tried it. I re-ripped one of my workout CDs and gave it a try - YES!!!! iTunes does indeed play the CD with the lovely smooth mixed-in transitions between tracks. No one-extra-beat in the last phrase. (No lawsuits agains aerobics instructors for injuring a whole class).

A few hours later I had most of my Aerobics CDs re-encoded.

Then the bomb dropped. When I moved them to the iPOD, as opposed to iTunes, the GAPS are BACK. Oh, yes... "the gap came back, the very next day, yes the gap came back.....".

It turns out, iTunes, being the "first one's free" gateway product to the ever-addictive iPod, gets new features but they can only be used with the NEW iPod. Er, that would be the NEWEST new iPod, the one Apple released 2 days ago. It's kind of an iPod 5G-and-a-half. iPod video with bigger battery, brightness control, and GAPLESS PLAYBACK.

I only have an iPod photo (4G). Now, it does a great job. It does the same great job it did 3 days ago, and I still have 45 of its 60 GB capacity free. But just like you feel disappointed when the option package for your new car gets 3 improvements the month after you bought it - well, there ya are. Now that I know the holy grail of digitized aerobics music CAN be had, I am both covetous of the new innovation, and quite resentful because really, Apple should be able to release an update for the older iPod to do this.

If I ever meet Steve Jobs, I may hug him but I'll kick him in the shins, too. Just not sure what I'll do first.

Me, Dr. Who, and Arthur Dent...

What do the three people in the title have in common?

Well, OK, YOU may have thought of something weirder, but what I was going for was the not-infrequent cravings for a lovely cup of tea. I've been a tea-fancier in general since I was kid, starting my coffee habit much later.

Lately, I've been aided and abetted shamelessly in feeding my tea addiction by the most adorable little shop down the block from me, Distinctly Tea. Their URL is http://www.distinctlytea.com, share it around, I want their upcoming online launch to succeed so I can get more cool tea stuff close to home.

Distinctly Tea carries several hundred varieties of teas, all of which can be purchased loose in varying quantities. They can stock you up on all kinds of tea brewing paraphernalia, and the staff are walking encyclopediae of tea lore.

In the past year or so I've learned:

That you should never boil water for green, white, or oolong teas - use hot water but below the boil (80-90 degrees C).

That one of my favourite teas, Lapsang Souchong, comes from ONE mountain in China.

"Chai" means "tea" in Hindi and other middle-eastern languages. "Masala Chai" is the proper term for the spiced teas marketed as "chai" in North America

Rooibos is not a tea, per se - it is its own thing, the leaf of a bush from South Africa (as "tea" is the leaf of a bush from the orient).

Longer brewing is not the right way to make stronger tea. Use more tea, infuse for a short time.

That tea in a tea bag from a store shelf is almost intolerably poor quality.

Yes, that's it - I'll admit it, I'm now a tea snob, and I'd probably give the Doctor or Arthur Dent a good run in brewing the perfect cup nowadays.

Check out Distinctly Tea, though. If you'd like any, let me know.

A little bit of "glad"ness in the rain...

I did something yesterday that I used to do frequently in Guelph (when I lived across the road from the Farmer's Market there) but don't have as much opportunity for here.

I bought myself flowers. Gladiolas, to be specific.

I love gladiolas. I have thought they were the brightest, happiest flowers ever, even when I didn't know WHAT they were. For the longest time I couldn't find them, then in Guelph, there was a vendor who always had truckloads of them, mid-July to mid-September. When I could spare the $5, I'd buy a dozen a week, and they'd usually last for two, so I'd rotate them all summer.

I had no idea where I'd picked up this affinity for these flowering bulbs, until a few years ago, a couple years after my grandmother died. I was visiting the ole' family cottage and noted that my aunt who is now its custodian always had them on the table. "They were your grandmother's favourite", she told me. They were often planted around the cottage. Without ever having taken note of that memory consciously, I realized that was where I had often seen them. Childhood summer weekends at Grandma and Grandpa's summer place. Even though many of those days have now faded from memory, I can't help but feel sunshine and a fresh breeze off Lake Erie when there's a bucket of Gladiolas around.

Happy day, yesterday, when I wandered up to St. Jacobs Market, crowded despite the rain, even before 10 am. I picked up some cheese and nice bread, blackberries and a coffee, and on the way out passed a soggy flower vendor's tent - with the gladiolas in those plastic buckets, tucked in the back, $6/dozen.

I don't care if it's rained all weekend, the plumbing in the building is shut down, and we can't wash or cook. I've got two vases full of the happiest flowers ever.