1. I am happy to provide this information, but you have to use it at your own discretion. I am not responsible for any problems you may encounter with your computer, your iTunes, your iPhone, or any other electronic device even surrounding said items.
2. I am not your tech support. I will answer questions (if there are any posted in the comments) to the best of my ability a) if I know the answer and/or b) if I feel like it.
3. I tested this on my MacBook Pro using Leopard, iTunes 8, and my original iPhone ((no iPhone 3G for me 🙂 )) I also tested these steps on my PC using XP and iTunes 8.
4. No animals were hurt during this process.

The Steps

Step 1: Paging Captain Obvious! Step 1 is to determine what song you want to use. NOTE: This process will not work for songs actually purchased through iTunes. If you ponied up the cash for a song in iTunes, pony up the additional $1 to create a ringtone.

Step 2: While listening to the song, note the start and stop times of the snippet you’d like to use. You’ll need to keep this gem shorter than 40 seconds.

Step 3: When you’ve determined the length of your ringtone and are armed with the start and stop times, right-mouse click on the song in iTunes, select “get info” and then the “options” tab.

Enter your start and stop times in minutes:seconds (like 00:10) and click “ok”.

Step 4 ITUNES 8 OR OLDER: Right-mouse click on the track again and select “create AAC version”. This will create a new file with just the snippet of time you selected. It does not modify your original in any way.

Step 4 ITUNES 9: With the music track selected, click on “Advanced” in the menu bar and select “Create AAC Version”. This will create a new file with just the snippet of time you selected. It does not modify your original in any way.

Step 5: When the “duplicate” file appears in your iTunes, right-mouse click on it and select “delete”. Click on “remove” for the first pop-up asking if you are sure you want to remove the song from the playlist. Then click on “keep file”. DO NOT send the file to the recycle bin.

Step 6: Now you need to find the new file, which was saved in the same place as your original file and has the exact same name, with a few exceptions. ((The fact that you’re following these steps leads me to believe you know a little somethin’ somethin’ about your computer and where your files are stored. 😉 If not, leave a comment and I’ll try and help.))

1. The new, snippet version will have a file extension of .m4a.
2. If you are using a song that you ripped from a CD using iTunes and all of these files have the .m4a extension, don’t fret. Your snippet is the one with a 1 appended to the file name. 😀

Step 7: Once you’ve located your new snippet .m4a file, change the extension to m4r. You’ll be warned this will self-destruct your computer. Do it anyway.

Step 8: Only 6 more steps to go. Kidding! Now just double click on your .m4r file and it should open in iTunes under ringtones, and be ready to sync.

Step 9: Sync.

These steps actually work. ((At least they did for me and Topsurf!)) I hope someone else will find this handy. Now go forth and (ringtone) prosper!

Thank you to duchesssa at stock.xchng for the fabulous dancing girls. 😀

Ah, the meme. Bloggers love them (Okay, many bloggers love memes, other bloggers abhor them and avoid them like the plague.) For personal blogs, a meme is great for a variety of reasons.

• It’s guaranteed original content–and if it’s not, I’m sure the police are looking for you, what with all the stalker laws we have these days.
• Memes are self-important. Since we all know bloggers really just blog to “hear” themselves talk, memes give us an opportunity to wax poetic about ourselves.
• Not only is a meme original content, it’s content. Having blogger’s block? Post a meme!
• Even though we generally blog for ourselves, we want people to read. And face it, we’re voyeurs at heart. We want to know all those crazy things about you!

Personally, I do like memes. I enjoy reading them, and I enjoy doing them. Especially ones I haven’t seen before, like…

5 things I own

Each question is pretty self explanatory.

Name a book you own that you don’t think any of your friends own.

Hmm, I have quite a few options here. I could go with something geeky and technical, but a lot of my friends are geeky and technical so that wouldn’t be a challenge. I could list a cheesy romance, but that would give away my cheesy, romantic side. I could also totally cheat and list one of Zachary or Jonah’s books. 😛 But I’m not a cheater. So, a book I own that I don’t think any of my friends own is “Causewired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the Word“. I received it in the mail last month as a surprise gift for participating in Blog Action Day 08. ((Uh-oh, this means that some of my eFriends may have this book.))

Name a movie you own that you don’t think any of your friends own.

I can say, without a doubt, a movie I own that none of my friends own is “Penny Serenade“. Chris bought it for me years ago, knowing that Cary Grant is one of my all-time favorite actors. This is not one of his well-known movies, but it is one of his best. It’s a moving story about life and love, and comes from an era when movies had an actual plot and actors gave everything they had to every role. If you have a chance, check it out.

Name a CD you own that you don’t think any of your friends own.

This one is a little tricky. Who owns CDs anymore? So, I’ll change the “rules” a little. This can be a CD and/or a full album on MP3. 🙂 I also think this will be a super easy one to answer since 1) I have a very extensive music collection due to my love of music, and 2) with the availability of music from everywhere, online, it’s not difficult to pick up an exotic album that no one else around you has. So now I just have to pick the one that makes me sound the coolest!

I’m going to say that an album I own that I don’t think any of my friends own is “Savage Night” by The Blue Hawaiians. They are a totally cool surf-rock band from LA. They have a hip, smooth, cool, lazy, über sound and I completely dig ’em! Being the internet diva I am, I found them online years ago. I love the internet!

Name a place that you have visited that you don’t think any of your friends have visited.

This one is a toughie for me since I’m not really well-traveled. I would guess that the majority of the places I’ve been to, someone I know has been there too. There are a few places, though. One of them that I’m sure none of my friends has visited is backstage at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. I had the pleasure of seeing opening night of Miss Saigon there, and was escorted backstage after the show where I had my picture taken with the helicopter. Afterwards, I attended the opening night party. What a blast–theater people really do know how to party!

Name a piece of technology or any sort of tool you own that you don’t think any of your friends own.

I’m going to have to invoke the “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine” rule on this one. Since I’m such a techno-geek, I have a lot of techno-geek friends. This means they probably have the same tools and gadgets I do. Because of that, I’m going to say that one piece of technology that I own we own is Chris’ U2 edition, black and red iPod with the band’s signatures engraved in the back. I think I can claim it here, since I bought it for him a few years back for Father’s Day.

This iPod is old school. No color screen, no graphics. Straight-up gray screen, text with the old click wheel and only a 20G hard drive. How sweet is that? 😉

And there it is–my latest meme. I’ve told you five things I own. Now you tell me. What is one of the five things above that you own?

This post was generously brought to you by PDAs. I wonder if the iPhone considered a PDA…