Author Archives: cosmichomicide

Creating a Playlist in Windows Phone 8 (with Zune Pass Content)

06 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by in Stuff that Works

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

First, I love my W8P.  I loved my W7P.  The Nokia 9xx series is terrific.  That said, my experience trying to get my (carefully crafted) walking/running playlists (much if which is Zune Pass music) on my new 920 has been nightmarish and I decided I needed to save it so I wouldn’t have to figure it out again and to possibly help someone else going nuts.  First, I have the “old” Zune Pass – 6 devices (3 computers, 3 phones) and 10 song credits per month.  It’s a great deal, I love it and I’m not giving it up.  But the Zune app doesn’t work with WP8 and the WP8 app for PC (W7) doesn’t sync DRM content or playlists, WMP won’t sync DRM content and the W8 Metro app still isn’t quite there.  So….

Stupid that this should even be necessary, but playlists a.) do NOT import from Zune (and I’m not giving up my 10 credit 6 device legacy Zune account), b.) don’t allow for (get this) editing and c.) practically require a master’s degree in stupid to create.  It is unnecessarily convoluted and awkward.  But hey, it’s possible, just irritating.  I suggest testing out your playlist in the (beloved and sensible) Zune app or Windows Media Player (just change the .zpl extension to .wpl) to make sure you have it right (sigh) first.  Note: If all the songs you want are DRM free, you can create a WMP list and sync it but at this time Zune DRM is apparently not compatible with Xbox Music DRM for some unfathomable reason.

And crud – it appears that, no matter how carefully you add the songs, you are going to get alphabetical.  Le sigh.  Well, the instructions still let you set up a playlist.  I’ll keep following updates and see if there is a way to “fix” the order somehow – perhaps fiddling with WMP…

  1. Clear your History.  It’s easier this way.  Can’t be done “on purpose” in the W8P app, though you can helpfully (accidentally) clear your Now Playing by starting a new song while in the middle of this process or clicking a different album in History, causing you to have to start over.  Get a 3rd party app like Stop Music (free).  There are a bunch of them, pick your favorite.
  2. Go into the Xbox Music app and play the FIRST song you want on your playlist.  You can’t reorder them, so make sure you start with the first one.  (This will make it the only thing in your History and the only thing on your “Now Playing” list.)
  3. Go to Music ==> Songs and click the Select button (looks like a list).
  4. Select the songs you want in the playlist *in order* by clicking the checkbox next to each song.  Be careful, you can’t add or remove later without creating a new playlist.
  5. Click the ellipse (…) and choose “Add to Now Playing”.
  6. Press the up or down volume arrow (gets sillier, doesn’t it) and click the artist in the dropdown.
  7. Click the name of the now playing song under the album art.  (This will take you to the “Now Playing” list – no, there’s not a logical or simple way to do this.)
  8. Make sure all the songs you want are there, otherwise go back and select more – you can’t add later.
  9. Click the Save button and name your playlist.

Can you edit it?  No.  Can you add or delete songs?  No.  Can you sync with anything else you own?  No.

I hear you can do playlists with the new improved W8 metro app – but it still won’t sync your Zune DRM music unless you redownload.  I gotta admit, I would have tried to figure out how to keep my W7P if I’d known – music is a huge deal for me on my phone and this has been a shocking display of poor planning and horrific integration in the name of “better serving me”.  Meh.

Bucket List Item – Complete a 5K

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Bucket List, Health

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

Yeah, it’s only a little over 3 miles.  Still, lots of people think about doing a race (even a short one) and never do.  I decided to do the Speed for Children in Need 5K at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on December 11, 2011 and I dragged the consort along with me.  I decided from the start that I was going to walk the race as finishing was the priority and I had developed some pretty painful shin splints along the way while getting ready for it.  The race started at the drag strip, went up and over the pedestrian bridge, down and through the tunnel and then finished on the track.  It was frankly pretty cool though the up and down and sideways walking (that track is SLOPED) caught us by surprise.  We finished within the race time (and weren’t dead last).  I’ve done several 5Ks since then and finishing is always pretty neat, but I have to admit the first one (slow as it was) was the biggest rush of accomplishment.  And it got me to add a 10K to the list.  I didn’t do this race last year, but I think I’ll do it this year.  And run this time.

The Rest of the Year

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Changes & Progress, Health, Home

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I was going month to month and even though I was slack on posting it, I had it running in my Outlook To-Do list.  So, to somewhat stay on track, here’s the “rest of the year” to set the tone for upcoming articles.

Home:

  • Paint the exterior – scheduled for early August, hiring a contractor for that one
  • Paint the porch – to expensive to use a contractor, so that’s on us
  • Master bathroom – needs painting, grout cleaning and plants over the tub
  • Kitchen – needs painting (walls & cabinets), countertop repair, new microwave (done), tile cleaning, sink resurfacing, curtains
  • Back hall – needs painting, floor refinishing
  • Halls & stairs – painting, floor refinishing (upstairs hall)

Career:

  • ITIL Service Operation
  • ITIL Continuous Service Improvement
  • Upgrade MS MCSA
  • Upgrade MS MCSE
  • Renew MS MCT – complete in April
  • Update Resume & LinkedIn

Finances:

  • Update wills
  • Comparison shop insurance – home & car
  • Cut food & dining spending
  • Increase retirement savings – (2% contribution increase in May)
  • Comparison shop wireless – switched to T-Mobile ($360/2 year savings, blogged)

Health:

  • 3 5Ks – Rock ‘N’ Run (August 10th)
  • Endomondo – develop a habit
  • Kinect – develop a habit
  • Weight – 135 goal
  • Stress Reduction – streamlining, reading goals
  • Visit somewhere new – bucket list

The War on the Food Budget

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Health, Home

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Yep, we spend way too much on food and eating out.  I mean way too much.  This is the biggest and easiest way for us to save money.  The harsh truth is we used to eat out once a week as a family night, now we do it because we just don’t feel like cooking.  And it’s costing us.  As in about $600 per month which is ridiculous.  And a good chunk of that isn’t even on good food.  So… July we revert on the eating out, August we tackle the grocery store spending.  Beginning with this upcoming week – 1 (good) family meal out per week, no fast food, 1 lunch out at work.  Monthly dining out budget we’re starting at a 50% cut to $300 (yes, it should probably be less, but let’s see how it goes).  That should save $3600/year which puts us on the road to that $12000 per year goal.

In June we saved $180/year with the cellular provider change.  This should move us to $3780/year.  We might see some increase in the grocery bill as an offset, but I expect that would do nothing but improve the quality of what we are eating, so it’s a fair tradeoff.  Then again, eating at home may well make us more efficient at the grocery store as well – but that’s for another month.  My bank provides Quicken FinanceWorks as an online service, so I’m setting the “Dining” category limit to $300 and will be checking our progress every week.  This afternoon we’ll have a family discussion on which night we want to reserve for eating out and how food that comes through a window isn’t really food. 😉

January Update – Taxes & Paper

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Minimalist, Paperless

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

More updating of completed stuff plus some new things added in along the way.  Back in January, I set out to get the finances in order to make tax preparation (and everything else) easier.  Traditionally I was sitting in the midst of paper in April dreading sorting, totaling and organizing so that my taxes would be fast and (relatively) painless.  This year, believe it or not, I succeeded.  The January goals were:

Finances – Tax Preparation

  • File all 2012 receipts, bills, etc. for tax filing. – done
  • Shred all unnecessary old records by schedule. – done
  • Set up 2013 file folders. – modified
  • Save online statements as needed to archives.  (No paper) – done

Last year I went mostly paperless.  This year I was nearly 100% with the exception of medical bills and I still haven’t figured out a way to get those digital nor do I think I ever will without a complete overhaul of the insurance and medical system.  As a result, there was nearly no filing other than to put the supporting documentation for what went on the tax form into the “tax binder”.  Every year I start with a 1/2″ binder labeled for that tax year – deductible receipts and “important tax information” goes into it as it is received.  What I discovered is that I didn’t actually need the majority of my 2012 folders, nor did I need to set up 2013 folders – I did have to set up a CD to save off critical tax records and put a CD sleeve into the tax folder.

Shredding is always fun, but I’ve been consistently shredding for some time – the key thing is to know what records to keep and what to nuke.  Most people keep things that just aren’t necessary.  Example – unless you are claiming a home office, why are you keeping your utility bills?  Unless you are running a kennel or showing and breeding dogs is your occupation, why are you keeping vet receipts (other than rabies certifications and pedigrees)?  I’m down to one filing cabinet and working on emptying it with the goal of eventually having nothing but my safe deposit box, home fire safe and a collection of CD/DVDs with cloud backups.

Truth is – paper is time.  You have to organize it, file it, staple it, sort through it, think about it.  If no one has asked you for your vet bill from 5 years ago, they aren’t going to – get rid of it.  Find an online guide to retention schedules and use it – ruthlessly.  Feel sentimental about a piece of paper?  Scan it or take a picture.  Lighten your load and make it easier to find what you actually need.  Free up the time to analyze what you need to do.  Paperless is truly excellent – save what you need, let someone else send the reminders (or, if you can afford to, set auto-payments – I do love auto-payments) and focus on how to reduce or eliminate the bills instead of how to store them.

In any event – this goal seemed correct in light of previous years, but turned out to be nothing more than a day of shredding and scanning and an afternoon of filling out, signing and mailing the tax returns.  I am setting as a follow up goal for later this year to put each major expense category into a month and use that time to check competitors and analyze bills for ways to save money – I’m pretty sure I’ve not squeezed everything out of my bills yet, though I did refinance and change cellular providers this year, which saved substantial amounts and let me pay off two loans and my credit card balances.

The major long term goals are to make sure that my son can go through college without coming out with massive debt and that I can retire with a paid off house and a living income.  And that still needs some work.  Like finding about $1000 per month either through increased income or reduced expenses.  Which will be the topic of the next post as I start looking for the soft expenses to cut.