KYO's Benoît on downloading music

You can listen to Ben's comments here.

OK, it's in French, but what he's saying is that the downloading of music is "drowning the development of new music", and that people who download music do not have any respect for the artistic process. I can see where he's going with this (he obviously thinks it's stealing, although I didn't hear that specific word in there).

As a musician myself and a former download addict, I do think that online radio and places to "audit" songs (for example, pandora.com) are the way to go to discover music that you really like when you're of an age and maturity to actively search it out (look at the demographic that radio generally appeals to, and you'll see that my observations are right).

And for the respect thing, I totally respect Ben and KYO -- I know that when I was their age, I could never do anything like that. I do wish that thrie music was more easily accessible here in the USA.

---

On another note, I just heard Emma Daumas' song that she collaborated with Ben on. Wow. It's more of a standard pop song, but between this song and her work with Hanson on "Someone", she is going to be a pop force to be reckoned with for at least the next five years.

Assessing.

Scored a 65 on the Clean Sweep assessment today. I know it's the second time I've taken it, but for the life of me I don't know if this is an improvement or not.

Found out what "1066" was (the Norman Conquest). Besides that, I have all the other dates down well. I will continue to work with the list and relieve myself of any ignorance.

Random observation(s)

I think that living in my apartment complex has turned me into an old man. Yesterday some kids were playing outside, and I yelled at them to stop playing in the laundry room. Of course, they're not supposed to be playing in the laundry room, and one of the kids was terrorizing the other two with a small dog, but still. The look those kids gave me was the most incredible look of disdain I have ever seen.

It makes me wonder why I would even want to get into education, if kids are like that.

Signed the lease on the house on Tuesday evening. Can't wait to move in there.

Reading the book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. It's a phenomenal read, however, since there are standards to measure myself against, I'm a bit worried. :-) The appendix is "What Literate Americans Know", and it's just a list. I'm interested in seeing what the list entails and how I stack up. I can tell you right now, the first item is "1066" and I have no clue what on Earth that is.

A columnist from Sports Illustrated used the word "ripe" instead of the word "rife." I don't know what's worse, the fact that someone is misusing an expression, or that the editor didn't catch it.

This ultra-smart playlist thing that I set up is really cool, but it's not weighted towards new music as much as I would like. I also don't know how to "reset" the smart playlists so the new music makes it into the mix sooner. For example, I have put 4 new CDs on the computer today, and I am still having to deal with all the Elvis Costello that was loaded on last week and sitting in the playlist. Actually, they're coming up pretty soon, which I shouldn't complain about, but I can't wait to get to the point where it's more of a MIX.

Goals, Week Ending 4/1/2006

Man, first week of April already!

1. Complete 1 Corinthians.


2. Have everything that is mine, in the bedroom, that is not clothes, packed in boxes or in the file cabinet, ready to go.

I'm not expecting much out of myself this week, and as you can see, the novel isn't even on there. With the doctor's appointment on Monday, that will probably be a "make-or-break" point in the week, and it's a shame that it's coming so early, but it's also a blessing as well, since the whole week won't be shot if it's good news.

Word of the week: "statusfaction"

STATUSFACTION n. What one feels after acquiring a large amount of material objects in order to make their friends and neighbors think more highly of them.

Week in Review, 3/25/2006

1. I read the Bible.


2. I am still working on the ultra .MP3 tagging project of doom. The good thing is, it's getting a lot easier... I realized that iTunes will do many of the things that Tag & Rename will do, which is a good thing, beause I was able to set up queries (read: smart playlists) to determine songs that I still needed to tag (with either year or genre). Still working on that. iTunes gets the import CD right more often than CDBXP, and I can tag the files as I import them.


3. Didn't happen. I'm going to have to take a different approach if I want to get the novel finished. I found an eHow on "How to Create a Convincing Villian" the other day... looks like I should read that. Also, you know, come up with a plot. That's really the one thing that the mystery is lacking. I have good format ideas, and the basis for some of the characters, but without a story, everyone's just going through the motions, and there's not much to write about when that happens.


4. Paperwork is next to the file cabinet, it just needs to go inside the file cabinet. Yeah, that's it.


5. Both the bookshelves and linen closet are almost packed. So, perhaps, it's a goal completed by attrition.

Other things happening this week that made this week rather busy and unconducive to accomplishing goals. I even tried to keep them short and sweet... oh well. We'll see how next week goes.

Another Update on the "500 Greatest CDs" Project

Number of CDs listened to so far: 53
Number of CDs on hold at the library: 1
Number of CDs reserved for checkout: 0 (whoops! How'd that happen?)
Number of Bob Dylan CDs: 7 (Missed one last time I counted)
Total CDs audited: 54
Number of CDs remaining: 439
Percentage complete: 12.2%

Hey, not bad! With the exception of not having ANY on hold, one to pick up (that I wasn't even aware of), and the 14 on my desk -- some of which I have yet to listen to, this isn't bad progress in a week. If I keep this kind of progress up, I will be done in just over 17 weeks (assuming 5%/week progress). This is not counting CDs not available at the library -- I don't know how I'm going to get those taken care of, because there are already some issues with that.

Time to get reserving!

Whatever became of the Get Smarter Guide?

I'll tell you what happened... the crossword puzzle I chose to do from the "Big Book O' Crossword Puzzles" SUCKED big time. Lame, obscure clues that didn't mean anything. I remember reading somewhere that the New York Times crossword puzzle was the best in the business, and sure enough, since it's reprinted in the Tucson Weekly, I gave it a try, and it is much better. I still haven't completed it (started it yesterday), but it is challenging and stimulating without being, well, stupid. I'll try to rearrange it so I'm not doing any major physical activity on a Sunday, and so I can do the crossword puzzle on Thursday (when the Weekly is distributed).

Goals, Week ending 3/25/2006

1. Read Romans 3 - 1 Corinthians 1.


2. Finish the ultra .MP3 tagging project of doom this week.


3. Finish outlining week 1 of the novel.


4. Collate and file all outstanding paperwork. Update budget to reflect what day of the month payments fall on (since they are all regular payments) so that can be better kept track of.


5. Pack either the bookshelves in the living room or the linen closet.

The Get Smarter Guide, Day 2

Yesterday worked out fairly well, as I got used to brushing my teeth left-handed by the end of the day. Well, I shouldn't say I "got used to it," because it was still very difficult, but I didn't have any qualms or incidents surrounding it.

Today's task is "[d]o the crossword or Sudoku puzzle in your Sunday paper and take a brisk walk." I don't have today's Sunday paper, but I do have last Sunday's. I'm not sure if the solution would be available anywhere, though, so I am going to rely on the Big Book O' Crosswords that I have lurking about somewhere.

The brisk walk, in the interests of keeping the Sabbath day holy, will be postponed until tomorrow.

Week in Review, 3/18/06

1. I did finish reading the scriptures shortly after blogging.


2. Desks have been swapped. I like the modern, sparse feel of this one quite a bit. Haven't heard from Collin since last week, though... I sent him a reminder e-mail on Thursday but nothing. Hopefully he will call this afternoon.


3. Virtually no work on the novel took place.


4. Most of the computer desk and entertainment center are packed, however, nothing got filed. It's in a box next to the filing cabinet, though.


5. Haven't had a chance to work on the song, either. Had the Priests over twice this week for Killer Bunnies, and then was over at friends' houses for two other days this week. Busier than I thought it would be!


6. Thought about that a bit last Sunday, and I would like to know about the career paths open to someone with a Master's of Library Science. I know I've made fun of that before, but I need to do something, and the interesting thing is that it's more about information retrieval and collating, and things like that... which is something I'm very interested in. Go fig.

What else this week... been working on the budget for the remainder of this month and next month, and things are looking well, even though we're paying two rents next month. Guess paying tithing is helping out after all. :-) I'm certainly not complaining, and more importantly, very grateful.

Also been working on getting my music files organized on the computer, with the intention of setting up a series of playlists in iTunes which will help me keep my music organized, but will also help me listen to all of my music instead of just the flavor of theday/week/month that I have been prone to for the past few months (KYO, Imogen Heap, etc.). This is important to me since I am acquiring a whole slew of music through the "500 Greatest Albums" project that I am working on.

Fixed Rosie's computer for her this week, and that turned out very well. She's happy with it, and I'm happy because I put a whole bunch of useful free alternatives to commercial software on there. I feel good about spreading the word about open source utilities and such.

The Get Smarter Guide

Found an article here (through Lifehacker) about "Simple ways to make yourself more clever." It sounded interesting, and as it goes a week, I thought it would be interesting.

Today's tasks: Take a shower with your eyes closed, and brush your teeth with the 'wrong' hand.

So far, so good -- as I am ultra-paranoid about getting shampoo in my eyes and thus wrecking my contacts, I would take a good portion of my shower with my eyes closed anyway. The interesting part was taking the rest of it eyes-closed as well. Since I had to keep my eyes open to adjust the water temperature, I went until I was completely dried off and my towel hung up to re-open my eyes. It was pretty interesting, and I can almost feel myself getting more clever as we speak! If only I were more productive... I need to pack up the living room, not blog. :-)

Update on the "500 Greatest CDs" Project

Number of CDs listened to so far : 28

Number of CDs on hold at the library : 6

Number of CDs reserved for checkout : 2

Number of Bob Dylan CDs deleted : 6
(This includes the one I listened to and didn't like, but not the one with the Band)

Total CDs audited : 36

Number of CDs remaining : 458

Percentage complete : 7.2%

Wow, that's not a lot at all. Looks like I've gotta step it up and go with the "15 Maximum" reserve list, just coming home and reserving in order of appearance on the list. I also need some sort of note indicating that they're not available through the library; I've had some issues with that already, and I'm not even out of the top 20!

Goals, Week ending 3/18/2006

1. Read Acts 18-Romans 2. NOTE: This is the first time I have said to do this, and not have it done when I blogged it.


2. Clean off and swap the computer desk, as Collin is picking up the old one next Sunday afternoon.


3. Outline the first week of the novel in KeyNote.


4. Get the paperwork which is lurking on the old computer desk and the new computer desk filed, and get everything else packed.


5. Get the VST plugins working to satisfaction, and build a drum track for the cover song.


6. Think of what careers would be satisfying to me, and how I can get to them. Examine course paths available to me with the goal of going back to school in the fall.

That's a big list; I better quit while I'm ahead. :-)

Week in Review, 3/11/06

1. The show went off fairly well, despite a lot of confusion and no soundcheck. Kent is supposed to provide us with .MP3s of the performance so we can evaluate it. All I have to say is, turn up the bass!


2. Even though reading the Bible was not #1 last week, it was still the first thing I got done.


3. The prologue to the novel was already written when I made the goal, whoops... so I spent some time developing the first chapter. I am making a timeline of the first week of the novel, and really exploring KeyNote's editing capabilities. It is a very sweet program.


4. The computer desk will be picked up on 3/19.


5. I downloaded some tabulature for the cover song, and installed Cubasis on here with the VST plugins, but I still have to actually learn to play the cover song and figure out what I want to do with the instrumentation.

All in all, not a bad week, although I could have been more productive in certain areas, I feel. There were other things happening -- Sister Curtis did get us a house and we are moving in a month, yikes. Michelle is sick with something, don't really know what. The Priests have come over twice to play Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot and had fun. This week hopefully will be less busy, although there will obviously be some other things going on.

Goals, week ending 3/11/2006

1. We have a show on Friday night, and rehearsal on Tuesday, so after a week "off", it's back to being busy busy busy.


2. Read the Bible -- Acts 7-17.


3. Write a prologue for the mystery novel to try and re-capture the "excitement" I had about writing in the first place. My excitement has been replaced by doubts as to whether or not this is a worthwhile project to begin with.


4. Contact the potential buyer(s) for the computer desk with answers to their questions and hopefully it will get sold (already had a couple of offers)


5. Start working on that cover song I want to do.

That's it! Short week this week.

Week in Review, 3/4/06

Busy week! Let's get to the goals...

1. Read the Bible. I'd just like to reiterate that it feels good to read the Bible every Sunday morning, even though I'm not "studying" it per se, it's a good thing to do.


2. I DID get KeyNote and the mystery file over to my work computer... just didn't get a lot of work done on them.


3. Got the majority of the bookshelf in the bedroom packed up. There is a LOT more stuff on there than I imagined, and I never thought it would take 2 boxes to get it done.


4. Did the bookmark thing at work... and then e-mailed the file home to match it at home, as well! Awesome!


5. We decided to go month-to-month and see what happens... there is a guy at work who may be renting ahouse at the end of April for $710/month, which we can afford, and it's a nice house in a good area. But we will see how that goes, and we're not going to give up on Sister Curtis either.

That's it for the scripted goals, now here are the unscripted goals...

• Had an eye appointment on Saturday, and scored two new pairs of glasses! It's so nice to have been able to do that, and Michelle was able to get glasses, too. NICE glasses.


• Moved the super sound card into this computer. The living room has been put back into its original configuration, and the piano is back in here. This way, we have freed up space in the bedroom for boxes, and maintained my ability to fart around on the computer musically when I want to... which has been often recently, but with the computer shenanigans, almost impossible.


• Came up with a Great Borrowed Idea(tm)... instead of having paper everywhere, have a scanner hooked up to scan all the important stuff, and keep it handy on the hard drive. WOW! What a great idea! This would keep a lot of the clutter out of our apartment, and make it more easy to pay bills on time, because we're still struggling with that. Unfortunately, the scanner I have doesn't work all that well... we'll see if Mom hasn't any ideas, since she's the one who gave it to me.


• Reading the Book of Mormon every day and I feel GOOD. 'Nuff said.

The Boggle project and the Mystery project somewhat stalled... I did some work on the mystery novel, but it was hard to be motivated this week, as there were so many other things on my mind. The problem is, the writing part feels like WORK since I am outlining the characters, still. I wonder if I can get by with writing a prologue and a first chapter, to make myself feel good about it... and maybe the last chapter as well?