Anthea Whittle

How to scrobble to Last.fm from your NZ iPhone

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:06:33 +1300

The Last.fm iPhone app isn’t available available in New Zealand (even for subscribers!), no doubt due to sticky licensing drama. In fact, unless you’re in the US, UK or Germany you’re out of luck.

Even though I can’t change my blasted username, I like to scrobble what I listen to - so I can track it, compare it, recommend it, see, touch and taste it… Well, maybe not taste it.

Fortunately, the ex.fm app for iPhone is available in NZ.

The ex.fm app allows you to listen to music you already have on your phone via the ingeniously named “iPod” feature, and it also scrobbles what you listen to if you connect it to your last.fm account (needs wifi or 3g, duh).

Make sure you dig into the other super awesome features of ex.fm - the Chrome plugin will scout pages you visit, collating MP3 URL’s into your own little streaming library. This is then available to stream on your phone too. More about that in my previous post.

Oh, and add me so I can judge your taste in music.

Some other ways to scrobble:

Pretend you’re American.
If you’re an Air NZ Airpoints member with a OneSmart account, your card counts as an American Credit Card - opening the door to all sorts of internet joy, including an American iTunes account from which you can download all the good stuff.
Use another app.
Rdio is now available in NZ with a 1 week free trial. It has a pretty limited catalogue available, again, probably due to licensing and probably because you will be given the option to actually store the media onto your device (there are different rules if you can stream but not store). Rdio scrobbles to last.fm, and I’m sure there are a handful of others that do similar - hit reply and let us know if you use any.

Did you know I have a second Tumblr blog? It’s where I...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:19:00 +1300

Did you know I have a second Tumblr blog? It’s where I indulge my girly obsessions with beauty products and especially nail polish.

This is one of my most epic manicures yet!

sparkledepartment:

The Langham Manicure

The kind folks at Langham Auckland gifted me a bottle of their limited edition Langham Pink OPI polish so that I could recreate their signature wallpaper look in a manicure.

Boy, those floral designs are complicated! I followed the basic shapes and curves of the flocked pattern with a tiny paintbrush.

I painted my own real nails plus one fake nail which I used as practice to start - that was a new experience, I was able to prob the falsie in the perfect position for me to paint. So simple! Now I understand why so many people just paint false nails and stick them on, but I still think it’s cheating!

Three coats of the Langham polish got the nice opaque pink, a solid slow design in Orly gold finished the pattern. The result is super delicate and pretty, with a subtle shimmer from both polishes. Delightful!

Laksa I like to cook “interpretations” - where I...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:33:19 +1300

Laksa

I like to cook “interpretations” - where I read a recipe or two, and then do what I feel like based on what’s in my kitchen and what I think will taste good.

This tasted damn good.

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons crushed/grated ginger
1 tbsp red curry paste
Rind of half a lemon
1 tbsp canola oil
2 cups vegetable stock
3/4 cup coconut cream (small tin)
2 cups skim milk
4 tbsp fish sauce
1tbsp brown sugar
Chilli flakes (dried) or fresh chopped chilli to taste
4 cored, diced tomatoes
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
5 fresh snapper fillets, cut into 2cm strips
2 cobs boiled corn
1 small capsicum, diced
1/2 carrot, julienned
2 spring onions, chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Method

Heat the oil and add the garlic, ginger and rind on a med-high heat in a large saucepan that will hold all your ingredients. Fry briefly and add the curry paste and stir until the curry releases it’s fragrance.
Add the stock, stir. Add the coconut cream, milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, chilli, tomatoes and coconut, stirring continuously. Heat thoroughly, but pay attention because if it starts to boil it’s likely to escape your pot.
Lastly, reduce the heat to low and add your fish. It won’t take long before the fish is cooked.
Ladle into serving bowls. We topped ours with corn boiled and cut from the cob, fresh capsicum, fresh carrot, spring onion and coriander.

I’d like to say this recipe would serve five, but we definitely had to (because it was delicious) go back for seconds.

Laksa is meant to be served over udon noodles (yum!) but we didn’t have any, and the starchy corn was enough. I’d say this would feed more people with noodles.

I kinda want to go back to school so I can doodle during class.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:28:51 +1300

I kinda want to go back to school so I can doodle during class.

Sometimes I spend so much time intellectualising music delivery...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:31:57 +1300

Sometimes I spend so much time intellectualising music delivery and access that I forget the most important part - how you feel when you listen to an epic song, a song you love, regardless of how you’re listening to it.

You know you have a girly taste in typefaces when one of your...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:05 +1300

You know you have a girly taste in typefaces when one of your favorites is used in a campaign for tampons.

Took these snaps of Auckland spots using Streetview...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:27:29 +1300

Under Hopetoun Bridge

Three Lamps, Ponsonby

Auckland Museum

Shipright Lane - Parnell

Under Grafton Bridge

Sky Tower

Victoria Park

Franklin Rd

St Matthews in the City

Took these snaps of Auckland spots using Streetview Stereographic. How many do you recognise?

Locations:

Under Hopetoun Bridge
Three Lamps, Ponsonby
Auckland Museum
Shipright Lane - Parnell
Under Grafton Bridge
Sky Tower
Victoria Park
Franklin Rd
St Matthews in the City

The Future Belongs to the Curious - Skillshare (found via Amber)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:19:17 +1300

The Future Belongs to the Curious - Skillshare

(found via Amber)

The Montana House, by the Hussin brothers of the America...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:54:06 +1300

The Montana House, by the Hussin brothers of the America reCycled project.

I’ve experienced the butchering of sheep, cows, chicken and of course, fish… But a black bear and a deer are shown in this clip as I’ve certainly never seen them before.

Is commune a dirty word?

NYE

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:31:00 +1300

NYE

hellogiggles: thank you Jezebel for this. Love

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:52:06 +1300

hellogiggles:

thank you Jezebel for this.

Love

Esther Williams and Ben Gage on their wedding day in...

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:08:11 +1300

Esther Williams and Ben Gage on their wedding day in 1945.

Can’t get over some of the awesome photos on Old Loves

Photo

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:02:05 +1300

This is the last 25 minutes of my drive home to Papa Aroha,...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:23:59 +1300

This is the last 25 minutes of my drive home to Papa Aroha, Coromandel. Making a time lapse video on the drive home has been on my projects list for ages, so very glad to check that box - even if it does make me a little carsick to watch.

Will be doing the same thing in darkness this Friday night, perhaps I should make a clip of that too?

Last week I completed a six week course in calligraphy. We...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:32:41 +1300

Last week I completed a six week course in calligraphy. We learned the foundational hand, and italic roundhand. Jan, my tutor was awesome.

In the second to last class, I mentioned an interest in Copperplate script. Jan gave me a few pointed nibs to try, and so I cranked them up last weekend.

Pretty satisfied with how far I progressed by myself in three hours. Copperplate is supposed to be more slanted, but to me it’s been feeling more natural with this vertical tendency.

Expect to see me covered with ink and gauache in future.

I’m stalking letters. (This is from Grace Edmands...

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:36:58 +1300

I’m stalking letters.

(This is from Grace Edmands Calligraphy)

Laura made herself a website, and she put up the typeface she...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:24:41 +1300

Laura made herself a website, and she put up the typeface she designed for me.

If you know of any jobs suiting a recent Massey BFA grad in Wellington, she’d be delighted to hear of ‘em!

Almond Rose Cupcakes It’s incredible what people can do...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:31:22 +1300

Almond Rose Cupcakes

It’s incredible what people can do with a piping bag and some frosting. After I worked out the “petal cupcakes” style of “rose” (it’s super easy), I was up for a more realistic looking version.

I also blame days of beng sick, sitting on the couch watching too much food TV.

YouTube is wonderful for learning things. How to make fancy nail art, how to cast on your knitting, how to crochet a magic circle… How to pipe roses!

If you’re really lucky, you’ll find an enthusiastic asian man with bad sound and crazy overlays on his video, demonstrating how to pipe a rose. Nutty, but effective.

This calls for a trip to the homestore for baking supplies. You’ll need a Wilton 104 flower tip for your rose petals, I also got a flower nail but don’t actually think it’s necessary for cupcakes.

I warn you, this cupcake recipe is incredibly good. The cake isn’t too gloopy or too dry, has a nice crumb and delicate flavour without being bland. Nice texture from the almond. It was a happy mistake too - who measures oil in weight? Surprise.

Almond Cupcakes

100g Canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp almond essence
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I used skim milk)

Beat the oil and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla essence and almond extract and beat.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in ground almonds with a fork.

Add a third of the dry mixture to the wet mixture, beat. Add half the measure of milk and continue beating.

Add half the remaining dry ingredients, beat to combine and then continue to beat in the remaining milk. Finish adding the remaining dry ingredients and beat together.

I found the mixture was quite wet, and although I usually hate to beat my batter so much for fear of it getting tough, this turned out just fine.

This amount should be plenty of batter for 12 cupcakes. Load up your cupcake cases and bake them at 180°C for about 25 minutes (test with a skewer).

Because I was super impatient to get my icing on, I shoved my cupcakes in the fridge to cool faster.

Buttercream Icing

I usually do about 150g of softened butter and really roughly two cups of icing sugar, beaten until smooth.

Then, if I’m doing two flavours I separate it in half, putting half in a second bowl.

Bowl the first: For the raspberry flavour I used raspberry flavoring (FYI - cordial doesn’t really work) and some red food colouring for the pink.

Bowl the second: For the espresso icing, I made a shot of espresso coffee from espresso ground beans in my coffee machine, and let it cool. I then scooped the crema and coffee off the top into the icing - about two or three tablespoons full.

(Sans coffee machine, I’d suggest dissolving 1.5tsp of instant coffee into 2tbsp of warm water and using that.)

Add about half a teaspoon of ground beans for a little bit of extra colour and prettiness, and beat together. Insanely delicious icing.

—

Don’t forget the handy glad-wrap-piping-bag-filling trick. It works so well, and means you can use the one reuseable bag for two flavours of icing without the pain of washing in between.

Although the video tutorials for roses mostly use nails, I piped my roses directly onto my cupcakes, without the “base cone” that you’ll see demonstrated in most videos.
(I admit, I flat out forgot that part)

Extra for experts: this chrysanthemum flower is pretty easy and forgiving to create too, also demonstrated by our enthusiastic and crafty asian friend.

The most important part in this process is being a massive showoff, and sharing your cupcakes with as many friends, colleagues and family as are lucky to snaffle one. xx

Giving in and actually pasting this everywhere. Think...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:01:19 +1300

Giving in and actually pasting this everywhere.

Think it’ll help?

Way You Are Single by Kris Orlowskishared from exfm

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:14:21 +1300

Way You Are Single by Kris Orlowski

shared from exfm