A Few of My Favorite Things.

Tonight Julie and her Mom took the hour-and-a-half drive up to Strong, leaving both Becca (my 8-year-old sister-in-law) and Amelia in my care.  Although I would not normally categorize this as “one of my favorite things,” we actually have been doing alright.  Becca and I played a lot of guitar hero while Amelia bounced around, screaming with a newly discovered high-pitched shriek.  She totally flips out (in a good way) when Becca is around.

Here are three awesome things from the last few weeks.

Number 1: wp-simpleviewer.  This is WordPress plugin for using the free flash image gallery SimpleViewer. I have started implementing WordPress as CMS on a couple sites, and have been able to quickly and easily add a sweet-looking image gallery with this plugin. Check it out in action over at my dad’s site and for a community outreach event.

Number 2: Quicken personal finance software.  After a few years of struggling with two versions of Microsoft Money and basically resorting to Google Spreadsheets, I have finally figured out Quicken.  I first bought it last October, and it has literally taken me this long to understand it to the point where I use it exclusively.  I tried out the “Home & Business” demo, but was very disappointed;  The PDF invoices it generated were corrupted and unreadable, and when I tried to edit the layout of the invoice, I received a “page not found” error.  Although I have found it to have a surprisingly high learning curve, I am really enjoying it.

Number 3: Pandora internet radio. Give it an artist’s name and it generates an eclectic and pleasing mix of artists with similar sounds.  It has determined that I enjoy “subtle use of vocal harmony, extensive vamping and minor key tonalities.”  I added John Reuben and MuteMath, and listen to this almost exclusively when at the computer.