jon_chaisson | Entries tagged with downloading

I've been pretty good since I left the Former Day Job, actually. I've severely cut down on spending, considering the lack of paycheck on my end. Most of it has been for groceries and household needs. Buying stuff only when we actually need it.

I've been especially tight with the music buying...which I've been doing a LOT of cutting back on anyway. I'll listen to the streams on Amazon Music (one of the best stream payers for bands outside of bandcamp, I've heard) and decide if I *really* want to download the album. Most often, that comes with the first few listens...whether or not it sticks in my brain or if it just fails to be memorable. Writing Session Soundtracks get a few more listens before I decide. This is much better than a few years back when I just went crazy and DOWNLOADED EVERYTHING! I've gotten a lot better. I don't need to buy everything. and I've learned to be a bit more discerning in my tastes.

But yeah, right now I'm still at the 'feeling guilty for buying music on a budget' but I'm being good. Instead of buying weekly, I'll create a shopping list, cull it, and then purchase them once a momth or so. And I know I'm definitely saving money: I've gone from $70 a week in 2012 to about $50 a month in 2020.

So yeah, I'm still listening to a crapton of music on any given day, no change there. I'm just no longer obsessive about needing to own it on New Release Day!

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: Spare Oom
Current Music: Tennger, 'Nomad'

It's a windy Saturday here in San Francisco, but it's also clear and nice. A and I went to the De Young Museum in the park to see a few exhibits (Cult of the Machine, a look at the machine age in art in the early 20th century; and Weapons of Mass Seduction, a look at WWI and II propaganda posters and art), and after that went for a walk through the arboretum. All in all a nice three mile walk! Then back to our boring world of buying groceries and then spending the afternoon doing not much of anything else. I just went through a month's worth of political fliers that were mailed to us, ripped off our address and shredded that bit (the rest can go into the recycling). We'll most likely hit the farmer's market tomorrow and do a spot of vacuuming.

Now? I'm downloading the all the folders of the 2018 Hugo Packet. I tell you, when they came up with this some years back it was a brilliant idea. They work with all the participating publishers and provide us with e-books of the nominated items. It gives me tons to read for the next month or so! [Plus, it gives me e-books of stuff I already have that I enjoy reading too!] I'm still trying to find time to make good on my idea of reading more e-books, especially including self-published items, but now that I'm mostly caught up with my To Be Read Pile, I should have more time very soon.

And with that...not much else this weekend! I'm trying to keep it minimal, because I have to head to Concord on Wednesday, and then we have the weekend trip to Mendocino/Ft Bragg next weekend. Between that and squeezing in my writing and my blogs, I'm always kind of busy. A *good* kind of busy, but busy nonetheless. The mini-vacation will be a nice respite.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! :)

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: Spare Oom

Me, sixth grade, reading the sheet music for ELO's Face the Music during inside recess:
Teacher: That's a great album!
Me: Yes, I like their stuff.
Teacher: Do you know what 'face the music' means?
Me: ...standing in front of a stereo?
Teacher: ...

Actually, I knew what the phrase meant by that time. I just couldn't pass up a good, painful joke. :)

So yes, music. There was a LOT of it this past week. Lots of new albums released that I couldn't wait to download. Interpol's El Pintor, Robert Plant's Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar, Sloan's Commonwealth, and my friend Dae's Digital Scars (under her new band AnaDaenia--seriously, go check it out), for starters. And of course the surprise release of U2's Songs of Innocence, which I think is probably my favorite of the lot so far. [And amusingly enough, I recreated two further new releases--the Icon collections of John Lennon and Ringo Starr--via the mp3s I already have!] I also grabbed a earlier releases via eMusic, such as the Scruffy the Cat anthology.

And speaking of 80s-90s Boston bands, I made the mistake of ordering a few used cds from a third party vendor through Amazon. I grabbed two Raindogs cds from 1990-91 I've been looking for, and two Cavedogs cds (more on that in a second), plus a few non-Boston early 90s releases. The mistake lies in the fact that Round3 has to be the worst third-party vendor I've ever used...cracked jewel cases, a wrong cd in the case (one Cavedogs album had a Bobby Fuller greatest hits in it instead), lack of tracking, and missing another cd I'd ordered, which they said "oh, it got lost in the mail", which I'm pretty sure is bullshit. Ah well...lesson learned.

In other music news, yay, I finally figured out (sort of) how to play the "Dear Prudence" riff! Okay, I'm nowhere near playing it exactly like John does, but still...I've at least figured out a variation of the chord fingering! The trick now is to teach myself the fingerpicking style. It's gonna be hard because it's definitely not the style I'm used to. Some fingers are plucking the low notes while the others are plucking the highs as a counterpoint. This will take a bit of time, I fear.

In writing news...currently working on the second chapter of Two Thousand. It's a bit of a chore because I'm still not entirely sure where this particular scene is going. That's not to say I'm making it up as I go along...more that I have a very vague idea of what I want the chapter to do, but I currently have no roadmap on how I'm going to get there. I'm pretty sure this is going to cause problems down the road, so I think what I'll do is what I did with the trilogy, and map ahead a few scenes and/or chapters, just so I know where I'm going. Yeah, I know, this is Novel Writing 101 and why didn't I do this already, yada yada. But this is often how I start novels: the first chapter or so spills out and is completed, just to set the mood and get the plot rolling, and only then do I sit down and preplan the rest of it.

So! Busy weekend awaits! Hope everyone has a relaxing time! :)

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: @home

I haven't used iTunes in about three or four years, I don't even remember what I last downloaded. The software says it was sometime in 2010.

I'd completely forgotten that someone gave me a few iTunes gift certificates a few years back, and I'd put them on my account just so I wouldn't forget. I've had the amount on there ever since, waiting to be downloaded.

Fastforwarding to today, I decided I'd cash the gift certificate out, burn my purchase onto cd, and get rid of the account.

Easier said than done:

1) Had to update my account settings because they're old. Had to type in my password to access it.

2) Account setting saved. Had to update my payment settings because they're old as well. Had to type in my password to access it.

3) Everything updated. Went to purchase the remastered version of The Beatles' Anthology that came out last year. Had to type in my password to verify I wanted to download.

4) Finally says it's about to download. I walk away and have dinner.

5) Come back after dinner (about 20 minutes later) and find that the download has stalled for no reason. Didn't have to type in password, had it retry.

At this moment I'm waiting for it to finish downloading.

So...other than that, why am I getting rid of iTunes?

--I have a stupidly large music collection, and every time I try to update the music library, it crashes on me.

--It doesn't accept certain formats like .wmv and certain others.

--I'm authorized to play these unique downloads on my PC and one other PC--I'm assuming they're referring to my old PC that I don't have anymore, because I don't have it set up on my laptop or Emm's. I assume (in an overly optimistic way) that if I downloaded the iTunes software to either of those and logged in, I could then play them.

--I'm authorized to copy these tracks to 5 different platforms, and only 5. Six is right out. This I have issues with, because all my old iTunes downloads from 2004 to 2010? I can't play them anymore because I don't have authorization.

--I'm authorized to burn these tracks a limited number of times too, before that gets locked down as well.

Look--I understand that this is to stop illegal copying, I get that. But when you're making mobility a big pain in the ass for non-Apple users, you're losing half your audience right there.

So yeah. Gonna download this here album, burn it to CD, move it to my external, and play it on my trusty Media Monkey, which can play pretty much any damn thing you put on it.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Spare Oom
Current Music: The Sun and the Moon, "Peace in Our Time"

Okay, so this month's mass downloading from eMusic? Most of the early albums of Yes! I'm surprised I don't have more of their stuff. Say what you will about overblown 70s prog-rock, I have a soft spot for it and these guys are fun to listen to. :)

Current Mood: entertained
Current Location: Spare Oom
Current Music: Yes, "Close to the Edge"

Yes, that was an ELO reference. Why? Because the other day I realized I had two days before my monthly 50 eMusic points expired. Strangely enough I was just thinking I was woefully missing a lot of Electric Light Orchestra, a band that I grew up on. Out of the Blue is still on the list of one of my all-time favorite albums, and one of their best. I now have nearly everything they have--I ran out of points before downloading three of their albums and their remaster release extra tracks. I'll be doing that this weekend.

That said...

(The famed DAICON IV opening night animation. ELO's "Twilight" (said reference in subject line) starts at 1:30. Further proof that either ELO and anime is awesome, or I'm definitely an otaku. :p ) (Oh, and this video is why I love GAINAX so much. :) )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: ELO, "Twilight"

Hey all!

I need suggestions for stuff to download from eMusic.

Yes,

maps_or_guitars, I'm looking in your direction, but anyone can join in.

Thing is, I'm looking for old stuff. Not suggestions for new bands, as I usually get my fix on that from other sources. What I'm looking for is old-school college radio stuff that I grew up with, stuff you'd hear on WAMH or WMUA or whatever college station you listened to back in the 80s (and maybe into the very early 90s, but I'm focusing on the 80s mostly), stuff that's obscure but classic, stuff that's necessary to someone's collection.

Bands from any genre, but I'm leaning towards "college rock" of the day. I was obsessed with The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, New Order, Wire, and anything from 4AD from that period, so I think that kinda gives you a bit of a clue as to what I like...but I also like Swans, The Fall, Severed Heads, the early German industrial of the day, and a lot of the less-poppy bands as well, so I'm open to anything.

Give me suggestions! I've got a connoisseur rank on eMusic (that is, I can--and easily do most times--download 100 songs per month), so albums as well as tracks are worth it. I'm sure I'll already have some suggestions that come my way

Of course, if it's not on eMusic, suggest it anyway--I want to see if I can find some of this stuff online or in the bins at Amoeba!

Current Mood: curious

OMG.

head58, I blame you for making me waste nearly all my free eMusic downloads because they have this album.

An album that has been out of print since 1989 or so (I did have it on vinyl, but have since gotten rid of it, despite my best intentions...), and I have not been able to find it anywhere.

On the plus side, I have decided to give them money after all, as I know I'll be snagging all sorts of songs from them. I did get the primo version, but if I find I'm not using it nearly as much I'll switch down if I can. Will let you know about that!

PS to h58: I downloaded a version of "Blue Monday" by Flunk that I'd heard on LaunchCast some time ago. Think Johnny Marr, a drum machine, and Bjork singing. Quite good. :)

Current Mood: SQUEE!
Current Music: Stump, "Charlton Heston"

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jon_chaisson

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Page Summary

Listening and purchasing habits
Weekend Update Does Some Downloading and Cleaning Up
Weekend Update Faces the Music
[Music] The Downside to Downloading
Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember
[Music] It's either real or it's a dream, there's nothing that is in between
[Music] It's Like Sifting Through the Dollar Bins...
Lights! Camel! Action!

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Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Who am I, and what have I done with me?

Entries tagged with downloading

Listening and purchasing habits

Weekend Update Does Some Downloading and Cleaning Up

Weekend Update Faces the Music

[Music] The Downside to Downloading

Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember

[Music] It's either real or it's a dream, there's nothing that is in between

[Music] It's Like Sifting Through the Dollar Bins...

Lights! Camel! Action!