Cassiopeia

To say that Chris is awesome is an understatement:  He gave me a portable digital recorder that works amazingly well, the Zoom. I hardly write reviews of any kind, but since I have began recording a lot, I’m going to hope that some of you will find this useful.

Why I love it

Incredibly user friendly interface: The most obvious buttons are right where they need to be while the more obscure (but still useful) functions are tucked away in a neat little menu.

Great look and feel: Slender, sleek, fits in my tiny palm. It even comes with a desktop stand, and a clip adaptor so you can use the device hands-free.

Great sound quality: Yes, it does look as professional as it sounds. You can adjust the mic directions for surround sound, 90 degrees, or 120 degrees. 

Easy to import files:  No hassle importing. 

It was made for musicians:  It comes with a guitar tuner, converts .wav files to mp3s, and comes with earbuds so I was set to record right away! They made it almost too easy for me!

What I Mildly Dislike About it But Don’t Mind Putting Up With

 The volume level:  It’s not as good at picking up sound as it should be. While this is a problem which can be remedied by Audacity -> Effects -> Amplify, it’s not too great for reviewing a piece on-the-spot.

Noise:  With the previous being said, I seem to pick up a little more noise than I want to. Definitely nowhere near ’studio’ quality, but it’s still amazing.

Record button: This little sucker is sort of in an odd place so you can hear me handling the device before and after I hit record. Minor issues. Maybe someone someday will point out the fact that there exists a record-delay option.

To Sum It All Up

For the price? It’s a must-have. I absolutely love it to bits and am taking it everywhere!

Here’s a vocal recording of Thelonious Monk’s Round Midnight that I made using the Zoom. There has been no edits to this vocal track so you can hear what the device is fully capable of. Enjoy!

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I love Albert Camus. Even though I can fall asleep quicker by reading his works than by popping a Nyquil pill, I still manage to indulge myself in his mindful curiosities here and there.  Last night, he reminded me of such: An intellect is someone who mind watches himself.  It was from that which I realized I’ve been seriously lacking.

So, here are my 43 things to helping me enjoy the finer things in life. (Oh, and there really are only 10 things, but ignore that part for now)

1.  Document a trek through the Annapurna Circuit. Nothing too special. Just a video tutorial and gorgeous images of the Himalayan winterland. Bring back stories of natives: their hopes, their dreams, their courage, their fears… Images, sound clips, etc…

2.  Fly into Dubai and hang out there for a bit.  Then take a train into the city of Agra to visit the Taj. 

3.  I want to meet Jacqueline Novogratz from Acumen Fund.  It’s going to happen.

4.  And since I read 90% of my media digitally, I think it’s about time I  finish writing my e-book and learn the ropes of selling something of that nature. 

5.  I love visualized data. Did I mention that already? Probably. If there was any reason for me to program, that would be it. I know exactly what I want to do with it too.  Thanks Hans Rosling!

6.  Be a better girlfriend. Smoaky just stayed up for two days straight trying to figure out all this startup payments business. And I told him that this is slowly starting to piss me off. I probably owe him his first trip to Disneyland and a beer. 

7. Aim higher, all the time. If there’s anything I am great at, it’s taking the path of least resistance or instant gratification. I often forget that it’s OK to take two steps backwards, and instant monetary gain is probably going to be less worthwhile than, say, a bigger project that only promises exposure. This is perhaps my biggest flaw.

8.  Read daily. Since I don’t have time for fiction novels (sobs), I’m going to stick to purely top-selling or anything that helps w/analytical thinking. 2 books a month. Today, I start with from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. Smoaky also lent me Founders At Work. Seems like a good one to read in parallel.

9. Record more.  Covers to be made: ‘Round Midnight, Creep (piano version), and 100 years (also on piano). I love Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of Round Midnight. Ah, aspiring to new heights, yes!

10. To grow, indefinitely. Why’s that so hard for everyone to understand? I want to be a little bit outside of my comfort zone. I like unease, and I welcome it. No big deal.

I believe Henry David Thoreau predicted the financial crisis, 9/11, and other major disasters when he said the following:  it requires more than a day’s devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day. More than two decades after the 1980’s recession and our government still has no idea how to prevent a major financial crisis caused by major bluffing. Or maybe they do and they turned a blind eye, but I doubt they expected things to get this bad.

Anyway, I’ve been shy about updating lately. One, because I didn’t want to add to the “noise” that is the blogging voice, and two, because I barely feel like this is a worthy update. But who gives a damn. So here’s what I’ve been loosely into: visualization of data. Of what? Well, of none other than my glorious unemployment. 

A graphical version of unemployment rate exists on NYT and is current up to 1/08/10.  The parallels are as striking as the fact that the rate of unemployment outpaces that of the rate during the 1980s — a clear indication that the average american today is relatively ill-prepared for job loss.

Here’s another interesting look at it from a micro-view.  A lot of the job loss happening affects minorities without an education — people who need the money the most.  While Asian women between the ages of 24-44 have an average unemployment rate of 6.7%, African American males with the same qualifications see an average unemployment rate of 16.7%. If you don’t have a highschool diploma, that rate jumps up to 48%.

So, happy 2010 everyone! Here’s to keeping your job! And if you can’t do that, you’re welcomed to travel to Nepal with me.

Other cool links to unemployment data:

Employment Outlook for the state of California  [Excel format]

A method for graphing employment data by job [via Flare w/Minnesota as an example]

Tutorial on how to compile national data [via Python & BeautifulSoup library from Excel file] // btw, this is from the FlowingData website which I have to send incredible accolades to.

And a special thanks to Alex for helping me procrastinate by linking me to most of these sources. *unappreciative yay*