S. Worthen | Weblog

This weekend, C released version 3 of one of the Android apps he's been working on in his spare time. And so I am finally getting around to telling you about it.

Expense Clam is an expense tracking app for Android which has features such as photographing receipts, data export, and automatic currency detection of whatever country you have just traveled to. There are two versions. Expense Clam is free if you are willing to put up with ads after 30 days, and if not, there's the paid version, which costs all of £1.70.

If this might be of use to you - and you have a device running Android* - they are both downloadable from the Android Marketplace.

* Unlike me at this point. Also, yes, the logo could use major improvement, but the rest of it looks pretty good, I think.

Edited to add: If only it were a different kind of shellfish, he could use something like this. But I don't have any Playmobil clams.

fjm has just started a community for discussing non-fiction about science fiction: nonficawards. If you're at all interesting in the subject, go and participate.

Via fs_appetizers, I read of Tim Hanni, a major wine advisor to restaurants in the states. He's an advocate of an unusual system, which suggests wines based on peoples' sensitivity to taste. As someone who comes out as borderline sensitive/hyper-sensitive to tastes and prefers sweeter wines, I thought this an idea worth pursuing. Click a few boxes and tell me how accurate the Budometer was for you?

Thanks to j_bluestocking, I have encountered Jonathan Coulton, a musician whose career is based around his online success in self-promotion, including blogging. He gives away his songs, or sells them for a US dollar each. I recommend especially "Re: Your Brains" and "Skullcrusher Mountain". (I've linked to videos made by fans with these songs, but you can listen without the distraction of images from the composer's site.) But the song of his actually stuck in my head is the one j_bluestocking linked to in the first place: the closing theme to the game Portal, "Still Alive".

Iowa, in the race to stay first in the nation among caucuses, is having its caucus ludicrously early on the third of January this year. If the weather cooperates, I'll be here for it.

Although it's possible to stand as undecided at the caucus, there seems more point to it if I have a candidate to support. In England, I've really not been following the race at all, so I made up for it this week with visits to four of the contenders for candidacy. (Clearly, any candidate who is not so obliging as to spend Christmas week campaigning in Des Moines doesn't have their priorities straight.)

As the state with the first caucus, we're coddled here in Iowa. They all come to us, and they come to us so frequently that it's possible to meet with them practically at one's convenience and get to know them at relatively small events. When my sister texted a friend of hers in D.C. that she was going to see a candidate speak, the friend texted back "Cheer loudly!", implying that that's the only that the candidate would hear her. Here, it's eminently feasible to shake hands with and exchange at least a few words personally with all the candidates of either major party, if one can be bothered.

I could have gone pheasant hunting with Huckabee yesterday. Instead, I checked out two more (Democratic party) candidates here in town, bringing to four the number I've seen in person. Not bad for being home for a week.

( Two days, four candidates... )

Edwards and Kucinich aren't in town this week, and I missed a Dodd event today. This means I go back to being a normal voter whose information about the candidates is gathered through the media.

MnMs have done a nice job of promoting their dark chocolate MnMs with a Bosch-inspired interactive painting game which incorporates clues to the titles of 50 "dark"-themed movies. I really don't watch horror or suspense movies, but deduced 8 titles on my first attempt. Those of you who are fans of those genres will likely do far better. (via la_monday)