Last night I found the remains of a blog I was in love with about 13 years ago. It was a lot of fun reading those old posts and remembering how personal, casual and how much like a conversation blogging used to be. There was no niche to fill, quota to make or editorial calendar to prostrate yourself to. It was fun.

I miss that fun. I miss the spontaneity of “I gotta blog this.” So, It decided to be a little proactive about it.

Meet Fanny Pack Mafia. My new personal weblog. It’s about whatever comes into my mind at any point in the day or night. Comments are open. There’s no agenda or posting schedule  There’s no Twitter account or Facebook page. It’s me talking out loud. Take off your shoes and relax. Sit down. Blogging can be fun.

Why “Fanny Pack Mafia?” It was the dumbest thing I could think of.

“We discovered that Airbnb apartment rentals cost 21.2% less than staying at a hotel. And if you’re on a budget, you can save 49.5% if you decide to stay in a private room at a host’s house instead of staying in a hotel.”

There’s a lot more to this interesting study, which you can read here.

Randolph West shares this great photo if the iconic Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Shot with an iPhone 5.

Travel iPhoneography is a weekly series of photos of our beautiful world, taken with an iPhone. If you have one you’d like to share, let me know at [comments at 52tiger dot net]. I’d love to feature it.

I hope he’s wearing a money belt.

AR-Media is developing augmented reality apps that let travelers use their iPads and iPhones to look into the past. Here, a young man is viewing an virtual overlay of Rome’s Colosseum on his iPad.  He’s also saying, “My pockets are fully accessible and all my attention is on this iPad.”

Maybe skip that app.

EatWith is like Airbnb for food, and that’s freaking awesome.

For around US$35 – $50 per head, travelers can book dinner in the kitchen of a native who’s looking to meet new people and do the cooking to boot. You’ll get regional dishes that typically aren’t available in restaurants, plus tips that aren’t found in guide books and maybe even make a friend.

Food is such a pronounced and vital part of a culture, and eating with someone is such an intimate, social act, that I’m blown away by how ingenious this is. I’ve often said that I want to know a culture’s real cuisine, as in, what does someone cook for their family on a random Tuesday night? Here’s a chance to get the true answer. The real deal.

Flying – an iPhone app for all your air travel from Flying on Vimeo.

Flying for iPhone, still in public beta, wants to be on my iPhone so badly I can hear it whispering, “Install meeeee.” This seriously good-looking app shares information you’d expect like departure and arrival times, terminal and gate info (both sides) and weather. It’s also a bit playful, presenting your route data in a fun, novel way (see the video above).

The social aspect looks great, and reminds me of the bits of Gowalla that I enjoyed so much. You can receive “stamps” for achievements and share/compete with your traveling friends. For example, “You crossed the Atlantic Ocean!” Who among your buddies has racked up the most miles?

I don’t have any flights planned in the immediate future (I *might* go to Florida in a few weeks), but I’ll try out Flying as soon as I do. It looks great.

Well, look at that. Newsstand can be placed in a folder in iOS 7. No more hacky hacks that break things.

This bottom-up shot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France was shot by yours truly with an iPhone 4.

Travel iPhoneography is a weekly series of photos of our beautiful world, taken with an iPhone. If you have one you’d like to share, let me know at [comments at 52tiger dot net]. I’d love to feature it.

Now that you’ve rented a private jet with your iPhone, why not rent a luxury car? Silvercar rents Audi A4s exclusively, and the whole arrangement can be handled via its free iPhone app. Since Slivercar only rents one make and model, there are no questions about which car to get or what the price will be. It’s the same for everyone.

The service is currently available at three Texas airports only (DFW, Love Field and Austin), but the company expects to be in seven different markets by the end of 2013. According to the app’s description in Apple’s App Store, you can “…exit the plane, and walk directly to your silver Audi A4.”

Just don’t lose your rental agreement, or you’re…well, you know.