Fresh Air

Until about a month ago, Eli managed my iPhone.  Which means he put all the music and podcasts on it.  Sometimes I told him what I wanted -- but not usually, because mostly he knows what I want to listen to). 

And then I decided that I wanted to listen exclusively to podcasts when I was at the gym or running.  Which meant that he had to update my iPhone a lot and I started to feel badly about asking him to do it.  I decided things had to change when -- one Saturday -- I was coming home from the gym and realized that I'd listened to every single Moth episode he'd loaded the night before all in one day. 

So I set out to download some podcasts myself. 

I don't need to tell you this as I'm sure you manage your own iPhone, but it turns out that it's quite simple. 

It even turns out that they make little recommendations for you -- if you like, for example, This American Life (the best ever), then you might like Stuff You Missed In History Class.  Why yes, I do, thank you very much whoever you are that can read my thoughts and knows how to use iTunes better than I do. 

This post is much longer than it needs to be.  So, I will get to the point:  now I listen to Fresh Air and Stuff I Missed In History Class for an hour each day. 

I love it.  I have learned very interesting things (my favorite example).  BUT, I also spend more of my day googling topics I've listened to and this normally occurs while I am at work (because I don't want to distract myself while re-watching Friday Night Lights in the evenings).  Fresh Air = less productive at work.  The problem is compounded this week because last's week issue of the New Yorker was a double issue (the annual Valentine's Day reprieve, during which you are meant to catch up on past issues, I think?), so I have been listening to Fresh Air on my commute as well as at the gym. 

Will they block my access to Wikipedia, do you think? 

To make up for the boring post, I will slip in a cute picture of Lulu I took this morning as she tortured her big brother (she is holding her brother's very favorite thing in the world:  Lightening McQueen):