I haven’t been thinking much about posting lately; mind focused elsewhere, and all that. Facebook and Twitter get my status updates, so here’s a heavily-linked mishmash of my recent activities: (more…)

I’m lovin’ my recent birthday present from my wife: a shiny new iPod Touch. It’s quite a step-up from my 2nd gen iPod (which served me well for six years, despite its monochrome display, bulky form, dwindled battery life and lack of a dock connector).

It’s handy to check email, news feeds or the weather from (almost) anywhere, in addition to having music, pictures and movies at my fingertips. Browsing for music and apps without needing my laptop is also convenient, albeit a temptation to splurge (since I buy much of my music from Amazon MP3 rather than iTunes these days, it’s not quite a one-stop-shopping experience).

Some of the free apps I’ve found useful so far: Facebook, Exposure, Evernote, Twitterific, Remote, WeatherBug, Othello, Wordpress, BoxOffice, Last.fm, Pandora Radio.

Someday I hope to get an iPhone 3G, but for now the iPod Touch is my perfect PDA.

I recently discovered (through The Onion AV Club’s New Cult Canon series) Lynne Ramsay’s film Morvern Callar. Samantha Morton plays the title character, a young Scottish woman whose humdrum life is overturned by her boyfriend’s suicide. Following her initial paralysis and avoidance, Callar places her name on his unpublished manuscript and sends it off to a publisher. Collecting his assets, she sets out on an impromptu holiday to Spain. The film’s soundtrack—featuring music by Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Broadcast, Ween, Can, Stereolab and the Velvet Underground—punctuates her existential journey of clubbing, random impulsiveness and quiet confusion. By the end, Callar seems to find solace from her soul-searching and inherited success.

While other sites are unveiling their exhaustive, best-of-the-year lists, I thought I’d offer a few of my favorite things from 2006*, in no particular order:

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