Making Your Own Cell Phone Ringers

Be forewarned, this is a technology tutorial. I'm kind of awesome at technology ;) -

So I don't really use my phone to store full-length songs onto, since I have my iPod, but I like to have a lot of options for ringtones and I like to be able to text people funny sound clips from movies and TV shows. I like to have the closest people to me on specific ringers, so then I know who is calling me right when the music starts. I have my sister on Tim McGraw's Where the Green Grass Grows because that is sort of her theme song, I have my brother-in-law on Steve Miller Band's Jungle Love because he used to always do the whistle from that song so it makes me think of him, I have my brother Logan on the theme song from the X-Men cartoon, and so forth. You can hardly ever find the songs you want through the regular ringer download process and if you can find it, it is always the wrong part or bad quality or in an elevator music style. Plus if you get way too bored with one ringtone and like to have a lot of options, like I do, it can get pricey. So, I set out to discover how to make my own. It isn't free, but in the long run it sure beats paying for crappy versions of songs and is worth the flexibility. This is how:

1- You need to get a membership at http://www.freeringers.net/. There are other programs that may work as well, depending on what phone you have, like http://www.bitpim.org/, but freeringers is the best and most organized option that I have found. It's only like $10 for a year membership and it has been totally worth it. (You can also send images to your phone through this site if you want a particular picture for your backdrop.) Once you sign up you will type your phone number and carrier and specifications into your profile. I believe you can add up to four phones to one account, but make sure you type them in correctly, because you can't edit after the fact. On the website it directs you to download a free music file converter, http://www.dBpowerAmp.com/.

2- Once you have it downloaded, click on the dBpowerAmp icon that should now be on your desktop and find the Mp3 that you want to make into a ringer, then choose the Wave option in the drop-down at the top. Some of the settings need to be changed to a lower quality so that it doesn't take up all of the storage space on your phone: 16 Bit (CD), 22050 Hz, 1 'Mono,' mark the 'Volume Normalize' and un-mark the 'Preserve ID Tags,' set it to save to the folder of your choice and then hit 'Convert.'

3- Now for the actual editing part. For this you will need to have editing software. (It's possible that you can find something like this for free online, but I haven't really looked because I already had a program.) It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something really basic and simple that will maybe be $15-$20 bucks at any computer type of store. The one I have had for years is called Audio Studio 7. (You can do a lot of other editing stuff too, like muting out curse words or splicing songs together or enhancing the bass or whatever). Basically all you have to do is cut find the chorus or whatever part of the song you want as your ringer, and cut it down to less than 30 seconds. (The icon for this typically looks like a pair of scissors.) Now save the shortened Wave.

4- Go back into your dBpowerAmp and find your edited Wave. Now choose the Mp3 option in the drop-down and make sure the settings are as follows: Bit Rate 32 Kbps, Channel Mono, Frequency 22050. Choose your Output folder and hit 'Convert.'

5- Finally, go into your freeringers account and go to the "Real Music Ringtones" option, upload the newly edited Mp3 and hit send. It will text the song right to your phone where you can save it as a ringer. Done and done. It may sound like a long process, but once you get the hang of it it's a piece of cake. I have made enough ringers at this point that if I already have the song in my files it only takes me a few minutes to make it into a ringtone. (Unless it has a really long chorus and I have to strategically edit to keep it under 30 seconds, but that's not process, that's just pickiness ;)

Now I know this may all seem extremely complicated and maybe not worth the hassle, but I promise that just like any other technological task, once you are over the intimidating unfamiliarness of it, it is fantastic. But, sigh, if you are a lazy, lazy bum of a human, and if I really like you... just tell me what song you want and I will make it for you and text it to you. Sorry folks on Sprint or T-Mobile though, because I don't think I have ever gotten them to work on a Sprint phone, and T-Mobile phones are hit and miss. They seem to work great when I send them to AT&T phones or other Verizon phones though.

Maybe I should start a business. How much should I charge per ringer? Hmmmm ;)

Show Tunes: Big Manly Ballads

So, look you guys. I love show tunes. I am headed to NY in a few weeks and will be going to some shows, so in anticipation of that I am posting about show tunes. If you didn't grow up watching musicals (movies and/or live) and you are thinking, 'what the hey, people bursting out into song and prancing about? Awkward. Where is the appeal?' Well, my friends (wait, are we friends if you don't get musical theatre? J/K) if you aren't used to it then it may be an acquired taste and you need to actually experience some great musical theatre because it's not all just a bunch of pansies, okay? Music in general has a way of seeping into your soul, but when it is a song attached to a character and a storyline it makes it that much more powerful.

I couldn't just pick one favorite Broadway artist, or one favorite show, or even one favorite composer to post about because there are just so many and they are all so wonderful, so 'Show Tunes' is being broken up into multiple posts ;) This particular post is an ode to the Big Manly Broadway Ballad. Some sweet, some lovesick, some inspirational and some that move me to chills and sometimes even to fits of the vapors (that means tears, duders). Here are some personal favorites:

I literally get a catch in my breath every time I hear the final chords of BSM singing this. How could you NOT be moved by the hope and desire of something so pure?

The Impossible Dream
Brian Stokes Mitchell in The Man of La Mancha


Sappy, true, but how lovely to have someone think this much of you and to be happy simply being in the vicinity of where you might be-

On the Street Where You Live
John Michael King in My Fair Lady


Okay, so, to me Robert Goulet is mostly a joke now because of the Will Ferrell SNL skits about him: "I'm Robert Gouleeeeeeeeeet! La da da de, da da do!" But the man really could sing and was the original Lancelot (to Julie Andrews' Geunevere) on Broadway. He knows the right thing to do is to leave her, but he just can't-

If Ever I Would Leave You
Robert Goulet in Camelot


What could be a more manly ballad than one for your lost friends and war comrades?-

Empty Chairs & Empty Tables
Michael Ball in Les Miserables


This play is based on a true story and this is the final song of the terminally ill lead. To be able to look back on your life without regret even though you know you've made mistakes... a beautiful thing-

Once Before I Go
Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz


All the man wants is a simple life and a family and a good woman to love. He comes so close to his dream and then believes he has lost it-

This Nearly Was Mine
Paolo Szot in South Pacific


We all know the story of course, thanks to Disney if we didn't know it before, of how the Beast has to learn love to have the curse reversed so that he can be human again. I particularly like this song because I feel like there is a slightly double meaning. Not only is she his last chance to break the curse, but also, if he can't love her. As in, she is so wonderful, if I can't love her then there is definitely no hope for me-

If I Can't Love Her
Alasdair Harvey in Beauty & the Beast

So... in the story this particular 'moment' doesn't exactly pan out quite as planned, making this song slightly bittersweet, but it's sill a moving thing to have the faith in yourself and your goal to take that courageous step into the unknown-

This is the Moment
Robert Cuccioli in Jekyll & Hyde


I loooooooove this example of the transcendence of love. You don't have to understand what he is saying to understand what he means-

Il Mondo Era Vuoto
Matthew Morrison (the teacher in Glee) in The Light in the Piazza


If you don't know the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel (and shame on you if you don't ;) our leading man spends the majority of it believing that his new wife who he adores is actually a traitor and an accessory to murder. This is the moment after he finally discovers that she was used and she has actually been true and brave the whole time-

She Was There
Douglas Sills in The Scarlet Pimpernel


Forever a classic. The mystery, the romance... who wouldn't be flattered to be the muse of a genius and to have them sing this seductive song just for you? (Okay, so in this particular case said genius may have developed some homicidal tendencies, but, whatev)-

Music of the Night
Michael Crawford in The Phantom of the Opera


A single, serial dater, is having his 35th birthday, and we go through the inperfect romantic stories of his closest friends, all couples. In the end, he finally pieces together what love is and that it's important to have someone to share your life with and that despite the inevitable dissagreements and frustration and jealousy and compromise... he wants that -

Being Alive
Raul Esparza in Company

Glee is Here! (And That is What I Feel)

Today is a beautiful day. Not only is the new season of So You Think You Can Dance starting, but so is Glee!

I loved all of the hype this show got in the Spring and throughout the Summer and I loved the premiere episode they aired back in May and I love the cast and premise and everything about it. The minute I saw that there was a show with both Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele, both people I know from Broadway shows (not to mention the brilliantly funny Jane Lynch) I knew it was going to be up my alley. I wasn't completely thrilled with the leading man at first because I don't really think he is vocally up to par with Lea, or cute enough, for that matter, but his subtle acting style is growing on me. I think this show will definitely replace my much-missed Pushing Daisies as my humorous, whimsical, guilty-pleasure program. Not only is there singing involved, but it is witty and well-cast and just ridiculously entertaining. I am soooo with Lea's character Rachel: "There is nothing ironic about Show Choir." ;) The below version of my dearly loved Journey's Don't Stop Believin' is the ring tone I have been waking up to all summer. I can't remember the last time I saw such an amazing closing sequence of a Pilot episode:

I am officially a Gleek. I will NOT stop believin' any time soon.

You can check it out on Fox on Wednesday nights or on http://www.hulu.com/ or on the right-hand sidebar of my blog ;)

Swiss Days - Follow Up

I think the following images best sum up how Kirst and I spend Swiss Days:

Hot Dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pie & Ice Cream

Swiss Chicken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cotton Candy & Snow Cones

Kettle Corn & Cinnamon Roasted Almonds ...

My favorite booth that was there, and the only time that I was really tempted to purchase something (that wasn't edible) was Red Horse Signs: Vintage Designs. I love vintage posters/images anyway, and this shop sold vintage pictures painted onto wood. None of them are exact copies of actual old vintage posters though- the owners of the shop do the designs themselves, and they have a couple of my McCall!

Other things I did this weekend: Picked apples (I will not be held responsible for the pose- Kirst popped her knee and, you know, for symmetry sake, I followed suite), I hung out with my brother Logan and his wife Sara's family and shot cans with wooden rubber band guns bought as Swiss Days, I watched Logan, a Recreation Management Grad, set up an obstacle course for the cousins with his own set of plastic tubes (how random is he?), went hiking in Park City, ate yummy burgers at the Heber bowling alley (I have been hearing how good the food is there forever), watched movies and just relaxed.

All in all a fabulous weekend. I think a tradition has begun.

Oh, and I did get Eva a new purple nightgown that I will be mailing this week.

Most Embarrassing Moment

My darling friend Elisabeth just posted about a hilarious and embarrassing moment that she recently experienced, so I felt inspired to reveal (for those of you who didn't get to witness it first hand) an extremely embarrassing (and extremely painful) moment of my own:

About a year and a half ago I was at my cousin’s Bridal Shower and, luckily, it was with the early crowd before the party had actually started and pretty much just my own family was there when this happened. Anyway, everything in this house was absolutely spotless to a fault, and it was a nice sunny day outside. I wasn’t wearing my glasses, but I could see that my sister was arriving and heading towards the porch. To me, it looked like the spotlessly clean glass door was actually no door at all. Not only did I bash into it face first, I literally took a running leap into it. Yeah, spotless no more. My face was now imprinted on it. At a freaking wedding shower. In front of everyone. My sister was the only one who actually got to see my face splat, but I am pretty sure that my Grandma peed more than a little from laughing so hard. It was such an intense collision that I still can't believe that I didn't black out for a while, because I could certainly only see blackness in my vision for a few seconds afterwards. It would have been easy to just not talk about it once everyone else arrived, but I smacked my face so hard that I was bleeding from the bridge of my nose and my lip was getting fatter by the minute because I had practically bitten right through it and so I was holding an ice pack to my face the rest of the time. Repeated explanation was unavoidable. For the remainder of the shower everyone kept throwing me less than subtle glances and chuckling as I attempted to avert my face from attention. Yeah. . . awkward.

Swiss Days = End of Summer

Aaaaah it's Swiss Days this weekend.

Delicious Navajo Tacos and crafty booths to walk through with a cozy, small town feel. My sister Torry and her family lived out there for several years before moving to Texas last January. It won't be as fun without them this year, but I have other family and friends I will be spending the weekend with out there and I'm excited. My sister had started a tradition of getting my niece Eva a nightgown every Swiss Days at a booth called Little Lady Lingerie. Super cheesy. Super adorable. So, it is up to me to accomplish the task this year and pick out a cute one to send to them.

Swiss Days sort of ushers in the Fall for me. Labor Day weekend is the first post-Summer holiday, everyone is back in school and Fall shows start up next week! I do love the Fall (though I hate that it turns into Winter). My favorite Fall snack is cinnamon roasted nuts, which I can usually find as Swiss Days- the cinnamon flavor always gives me too-early pangs for Christmastime though (despite the fact that Christmas this year may actually end up pretty lame for me, but more on that later...) I love the changing leaves and cooled off weather that make accessorizing with cute scarves and jackets comfortable again ;)

The Fall does make me miss school (and being able to afford back-to-school clothes, sigh). I always think about Grad school but there isn't one thing that I am so sure that I want to be or do that it's worth the time and money to get another degree. I envy all of you people who always knew you wanted to be a teacher or a doctor or something. There are lots of things that I am passionate about, but no one thing that I have ever been able to say, 'THIS is what I want to do.' My brother Logan and I used to joke that we wished there was a Renaissance Man Major at College that instead of being one major is was several minors and you could sort of be a jack of all trades. They would probably have to all be semi-similar, like, all within Fine Arts or all within Physical & Mathematical Sciences or something.

Anyways, enough of my schmaltzy blather- everyone have a lovely end of Summer!