featuring technology tips and music recommendations with a personal touch

Ever since my post about my secret to productivity (automation), I’ve been meaning to compile and present the complete list of all my automation tools and tricks. In that post, I’ve mentioned briefly some of the things that I automate in my desktop and browser.

This time around, to celebrate the relaunch of the blog, I’m starting a 24-day post series (the biggest I’ve ever embarked upon) with 24 ways you can use to automate your digital life.

With “digital life”, I mean your daily interaction with your PC, including the desktop operating system and the browser. So essentially the tips in this post series are categorized as either Windows- or Web-related. It’d be interesting to see how many of the Windows-related tips can be applied to the Mac. However, all Web-related tips should be relevant to anybody using any popular operating system.

Every one of these automation tips is explained in dead simple terms with a step-by-step procedure for implementing it. Non-tech savvies as well as geeks should find this material useful and come out with at least one or two automation tricks under their belts.

So what do I mean by automation and what’s in it for you?

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BONUS: Bryan Adams & Sarah McLachlan

Well I’m back with one last installment for the fabulous Canadian musicians series: a duet song by two of the artists we featured previously: Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan.

Truth is, I’ve been playing lots of Bryan Adams songs lately ever since I wrote about him. I couldn’t get enough so I went looking for more material and I stumbled by this soundtrack he composed for the animated film that was released in 2002 called: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

So I went ahead and watched the movie. It’s a pretty decent one that I highly recommend because it’s one of those few movies that (as a reviewer puts it):

In a time when Hollywood is making money by showing our weaknesses, despair, crime, drugs, and war, along comes this film which reminds us the concept of the "Indomitable Spirit". If you are feeling beaten down, this movie will free your mind and set you soaring. We all know how tough life can be, sometime we need to be reminded that persistence and courage will get us through. That’s what this film did for me and I hope it will for you.

Honestly, for me, the soundtrack is also what made this movie even more entertaining. Bryan Adams did an amazing job writing the songs of the movie along with Hans Zimmer. The song I’m featuring today was played in the ending credits along with Bryan’s famous Here I Am. It features background vocals of Sarah McLachlan, who also does a wonderful job of giving the song a much-needed feminine touch.

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Day 7: Celine Dion

When I do something, I do it all the way. I’ve been in show business so many years. I’ve achieved a lot of things.

Wow, I can’t believe I made it! What a wonderful week it’s been featuring hit songs from fabulous Canadian musicians. It’s our last day and as you can see, I’ve saved the best for last!

Whether Celine Dion is your favorite one among the other 6 artists we featured this week or not is up to your personal taste, but there is no denying that Celine Dion’s success has spanned space and time, making this Grammy and Juno award-winning pop singer the best-selling female artist in the world!

To me, Celine is an idol. Not that I aspire to be a pop singer, but because she sets an example in following your dream all the way through. In fact, today’s featured song, Immortality, is all about that.

If you take a look and read through Celine Dion’s biography at Wikipedia, you can see how she was persistent working her way up the ladder of fame. She never sat around dreaming of a big hit that would make her instantly famous, she actually worked hard on her voice, look, and even learned English to pursue this career to its full potential. Of course, she had faith in her god-given talent, but that didn’t stop her from putting in the time and reasons to be successful; and boy, has she archived success!

Immortality is a 1998 song that was composed by the Bee Gees brothers especially for Celine Dion. You can hear their voices in the background, adding depth and texture to the chorus. The song deals with having to leave your loved one in order to pursue your dream in life:

Cos I have found a dream that must come true,
Every ounce of me must see it through,
But you are my only
I’m sorry I don’t have a role for love to play,
Hand over my heart I’ll find my way,
I will make them give to me

I don’t know about you but I can totally relate to this and it scares the hell out of me to think that, one day, I’m going to have to leave everybody I know behind and start a new life somewhere else in order to pursue my career passion. However, the song ends with a beautiful verse that puts those feelings at ease:

I keep the memory of you and me, inside
And we don’t say goodbye
We don’t say goodbye
With all my love for you
And what else we may do
We don’t say, goodbye

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Day 6: Bryan Adams

Thoughts are things; they have tremendous power. Thoughts of doubt and fear are pathways to failure. When you conquer negative attitudes of doubt and fear you conquer failure. Thoughts crystallize into habit and habit solidifies into circumstances.

We’re drawing near the end of our week of fabulous Canadian musicians. It’s been a wonderful ride with only two more to go.

I’m really ecstatic today to feature one of my all-time favorite rock singers, Bryan Adams. I can’t quite explain what listening to his music makes me feel, although if I had to narrow it down to one thing, I would say it would be his extraordinary voice which just seems so authentic and real.

Heaven was the song that got me hooked to Bryan’s music. It was (and will always be) an inspiring song that I’ll never grow tired of listening to. However, for our featured song today, I was looking for a less popular (yet just as amazing) song that some of you folks may have not heard yet.

My choice came upon a song from his 1998 album, On A Day Like Today, called Where Angels Fear To Tread. This is chilled-out song with simple yet touching lyrics.

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Day 5: Shania Twain

I really feel like life will dictate itself. You should allow it to unfold as naturally as possible. Just go with the flow. When you’re really desperate, you say a few prayers and hope for the best. That’s the way I’ve always lived my life.

I’m really loving this whole fabulous Canadian musicians week-spanning series, especially since it’s the 5^th day of the week and the feedback and attention I’ve been getting are very positive. You guys rock just as well as those musicians do :)

"Would you like that song in red, green or blue, sir?" Wouldn’t that be a fun and odd question to ask?

Well, I thought this would a fun way to introduce today’s song (read on for more about that) from the one and only Shania Twain. I said "one and only" for a reason: Shania Twain (a Canadian country and pop singer) is the only female artisit to have released an album considered to be the biggest-selling album of all time by a female artist and best-selling one in the history of country music!

Numbers don’t lie. If that many people fell in love with Shania’s music, then there has got to be something fantastic and addictive about her music. This is exactly true, especially with her 2002 album, Up!, which is a classical favorite of mine.

What’s really interesting about this album is the number of colors (or variations) in which it’s been released. There are three of them, "green" disc for country style, "red" disc for pop style, and "blue" disc for international style. Since blue is my favorite color and it goes well with my site’s look, I’m going to present today’s featured song, Forever and For Always, in this "color" :)

Forever and For Always was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2004, Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Furthermore, the song was named Song of the Year at both the 2004 BMI Country Songwriter Awards and 2004 European BMI Awards.

However, so many awards don’t do this song justice. Suffice it to know that when I heard this song the first time during my college days, I played continuously for 11 hours (including the time I was sleeping at night!). This song was an instant addiction and the video was just as amazing and heart-warming.

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Day 4: Sarah McLachlan

If you love large, you’ve got to hurt large. If you’ve got a lot of light, you’ve probably got an equal amount of darkness.

We’re on our fourth day of fabulous Canadian musicians week. I’ve already featured fabulous songs from Michael Bublé, Avril Lavigne and Chantal Kreviazuk. If you’ve missed any of them, go check them out right away!

Today’s featured musician, Sarah McLachlan, needs no formal introduction, because she’s one of the world’s most popular and influential female musicians. She is best known for founding the concert tour that ran from 1997 to 1999 under the name of Lilith Fair, featuring a lot of female musicians. At each Lilith Fair venue, one dollar for each ticket sold was given to a women’s charity in that community.

Sarah’s most notable musicial quality is the emotional sound of her ballads. If you’ve listened to any of her bigger hits, like Angel or Fallen, then you would immediately recognize this very aspect which gained her a massive appeal worldwide.

To illustrate this, today’s featured song is by far the most touching love song I’ve heard in my entire life! I’m not exaggerating that by a single bit! You’ve got to listen to this song to really feel the love that flows through the wonderful lyrics, sung with an ambient, soft voice. If this one doesn’t get you, no other love song will!

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Day 3: Chantal Kreviazuk

I think it’s important to really press on with the song writing and just go with it. There’s no code, there’s no craft… it’s just let yourself shine through your music. If it’s meant to be loved and heard, it’ll happen.

It’s the third day of our fabulous Canadian musicians week and I hope you’re enjoying the music we’ve posted so far.

Today I’m featuring an artist who’s a good friend and have worked closely with Avril Lavigne, whom we featured yesterday. Her name is Chantal Kreviazuk, a Canadian singer-songwriter of rock and pop music.

Perhaps what I like most about Chantal are her two songs which I’ve played countlessly for as long as I can remember: Feels Like Home and Leaving on a Jet Plane. That’s why I was keen on checking out her newest album that came out in August last year, called Ghost Stories. The album, produced entirely by Kreviazuk’s husband at home, does not have a single guitar on any of the tracks. But then again, who needs a guitar with such beautiful piano score!

Speaking of piano, I think you’re going to love today’s featured song: All I Can Do. The piano riff in this standout song emerges first and provides a foundation for an utterly captivating melody. With great lyrics that she delivers with greater emotions, it’s no surprise that this song was chosen to be the lead single for the album, and received mass radio playback that put Chantal back on the map after her 4 years of absence.

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Day 2: Avril Lavigne

I think, you know, my parents really saw that I was really into music and that kinda caused I get a bunch of instruments. So growing up I had drums around, guitar and piano and I learnt how to play all those.

For the second day of our fabulous Canadian musicians week, Avril Lavigne is taking the stage with a song from her latest 2007 record The Best Damn Thing, called Innocence.

Although she is a very successful artist having won numerous awards during her relatively short career so far, I somehow can’t force myself to be into this whole pop-rock or punk act that dominates most of her work. However, that’s not to say that I completely despise all of her work. I have several favorites that I will always love listening to when the mood strikes me.

That’s actually the nice thing about Avril. In every record she releases, you’d be sure to find a song or two that are really on the "easy-listening" side.

I think Innocence here can be classified as one. With this song, Avril is trying to paint a picture of a life one would have if one day she wakes up and returns back to childhood-like innocence. This kind of life is characterized by focusing on the little things that make life so great. I think the message here is that we should slow down every now and then and take a moment to appreciate those little things and the "state of bliss" they bring along.

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