Breaking The Silence

Hi folks!

It seems I've been slacking on the blogging front lately: A meme post on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, nothing on Wednesday (I was taking a little 4th of July break), nothing on Thursday (usually a quiet blogging day for me anyhow) and only a Top Five on Friday today. I think it's time I give you a little more.

Today, I bought a Belkin FM Transmitter for my iPod. It works, but that's all I can say about it. It works, but not as well as I hoped. You really have to find a clear signal to make it work right, and you have to position it just so. It's not as loud as I was hoping, so you have to blast the mp3 player and still turn up the radio volume. If you do that, you can hear the music with a little static mixed in. Workable, yes, but not perfect. I wonder if this is a case of "getting what you pay for." I'm going to try it on my mom's car stereo before I make a decision about keeping it or not. If anyone has recommendations for GOOD FM transmitters, let me know in the comments.

What I'm most excited about lately is Zeitgeist, the upcoming Smashing Pumpkins album. It arrives on Tuesday, after months and months of buildup. I can't believe we're finally getting a new Pumpkins album. I really like the first two singles from it, and I've heard mixed reviews about the other songs on the album. Very few of the songs have a consensus like or dislike. What that means is I'll have to listen for myself and make up my own mind. By the way, I'm buying my copy from my local independent store. If I really feel like it, I'll buy another copy from Target for the bonus track.

When last I was at said independent record store, I saw a used copy of The Chieftains' Santiago for only $6. I really hope I didn't make a mistake by not buying it. I also hope it's still there when I go in on Tuesday. If it is, I'm buying it. That would make 4 CD purchases for this month, but it's worth it to get a cheap copy of a wanted album.

In other news, I've started a new feature at my Last.fm journal. It's called "Random Tracks," and what I will do is put my iPod on shuffle. Whatever comes up first gets a journal written about it. Even if I don't have much to say about the song, I'll write something.

That's all for now. I'll do a Flickr Fun Saturday tomorrow, even if it means doing it very late at night.