Beauty From Pain

Spotify

I just started using Spotify and I love it.  It is a music player that lets you search and select songs and make playlists.  There is a free version or you can subscribe for a fee to avoid advertisements.   I love how it can connect with facebook so I can share songs, albums or playlists I like with friends.  I was worried it wasn’t legal at first but then I read more about it and found out it is supported by major record companies.  Apparently, every time I listen to a song the artist gets paid.  My son was trying to explain to me that Spotify is a “peer to peer” network but I had to look up this webpage for a better explanation on what that was.  This page is called “how Spotify works for Dummies” and it explains it really well.  It just makes it easier for you to get your music quicker and without delays.

The only problem I had using Spotify was resolved with a little tinkering.  I could listen to a song and a few seconds of the next and then silence…… I would get this annoying error displayed across the top in yellow “There was a problem storing temp files on the hard disk,  Maybe the hard disk is full”.  Well I know I don’t have much space on my C drive and that is why I have an external hard drive that I use for most everything.  I use chrome though so I had to figure out where my temporary files were being stored and see about moving that folder to my external drive.  I watched this video on youtube that explains how to change the location.

He does have a bit of an accent but I figured it out and it works!  I did have to restart my computer first but now I don’t have any problems at all.  You can also go to Edit – Preferences and then change the setting for “cache”.  I have mine set to use no more than 10% of free disk space.

Spotify is very much like itunes except you don’t have to buy the songs.  Most of the time I still do go and buy the song so I can add it to my mp3 player.  That makes me feel better, especially since I like supporting new artists.

I’d love to hear if you have any opinions, concerns or thoughts about Spotify.  I am just curious- I don’t work for them or anything LOL

Oh, Happy Day!

I’ve been up all night listening to music.  Since I woke up at 6 pm there is no way I could go to sleep.  I’ve been making my way though all the music on my computer that was labeled “other” and there is still a chunk left.  This is all the music from everyone in the whole house by the way.  When my other laptop gave up the ghost my husband got me another one and dumped ALL of the music onto it.  So I’ve been painstakingly weeding out the stuff I don’t like and now and then finding something new that I do like.  I get sidetracked occasionally and listen to something else but I’ve gone through a lot of random music and given it a classification.  I also make sure each file has all the details because I think I’m a little OCD and can’t stand to leave out a detail or leave a blank unfilled.   I double check the dates too and if a file is a greatest hits album I research and find out when it was originally released.  That way when I sort my music by decade I get what I want.   I did go through all of the RAP music which took me all of 2 seconds.  I selected it all and hit delete.  I do NOT like RAP!  I can’t believe someone in my family downloaded that in the first place.  Of course I’m only deleting the music from my laptop so I’m not permanently deleting anyone else’s music. Next I have to go through all of the music labeled “unknown”, “genre”, and nothing at all….  Once I get those sorted I can go through the known genre’s without worrying about duplicates hiding somewhere or downloading something I already have.  Funny thing is I’m actually enjoying this.  I love researching and reading about the bands on Wikipedia.

I just found a song  from an album my older brothers used to have.  It was “Life’s Been Good” by Joe Walsh from the album “But Seriously, Folks…”  I had some major flashbacks going on and now I have to download the rest of that album.

When I was younger… not sure how much younger exactly but I’m thinking 10 or 11 maybe….  I remember sitting on the floor in this old van my brothers had and listening to 8 tracks and cassette tapes while waiting for them to do odd jobs I believe.  The van had an 8 track player and they had a extremely large “boom box” for cassettes.  I loved this and never ever left the van or got into trouble because I love music and at home I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything except choir music, “preaching” on tape and sometimes some old country music.  It seemed like the time went by so fast when I was listening to music in that van.  I never got lonely.

Anyway, guess what?  I got an award!  From my buddy Sabrina at http://www.muchneededadvice.com.  Isn’t that cool?  There are some rules though so I have some work to do.

The requirements of my accepting this award are:

• I share 7 completely random pieces of information about myself.
• I nominate 15 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
• I inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

So I’m going to start with my list of 7 random facts about myself…  Let’s see if I’m as interesting as Sabrina LOL

1. I love fish.  I have a 55 gallon fish tank in my living room in the prime (central) spot of the living room where most people have a TV.  Some of my fish have names depending on their character.  Did you know fish have character?  I have a plecostomus (algae eater) that is the tank bouncer and his name is Bubba.  If anyone starts a fight he whips them into shape.
2. I live in Alaska and hate snow.  Ironic huh?
3. I actually like bugs and am always trying to save their little lives.  My mom was scared to death of everything that moved and if she saw a spider she would start screaming and stomping and swatting wildly.  I would scoop it up – with my hand even – and take it outside before it was smooshed into spider jelly.  Now that I’m older and know that some spiders bite, I don’t usually pick them up with my hands.  Alaska spiders are really small but there are some poisonous spiders here.  If I find a caterpillar or other interesting bug I like to put it in a jar and research online to identify it.  If I can’t, I go to the cooperative extension at the university.  My kids used to love doing this with me.  Of course, I always let the critters go afterwards.
4. I love plants and growing things.  I have a perennial garden in my front yard that my mom actually helped me plant a few years before she died.  Sometimes I fill in a few annuals but mostly I love the perennials.  In the backyard I have my vegetable garden and I usually grow herbs too.  I have several house plants and when one starts to look ill or dies I actually morn like my dog died.
5. I got my belly button pierced once.  I did it at the fair because of a dare.  My husband and a bunch of friends were teasing me because I could never get a tattoo or a piercing because I was afraid of needles.  I really was/am afraid of needles but now I’m a little better.  I’ve learned it isn’t so much the needles that I need to fear but the nurses that are bad at using them.  I had both of my children without an IV because I out-right refused one.  Anyway, these people were teasing me and DARED me!  So I did it.  I figured one poke was better than a zillion and piercings can be  removed later.  I actually kept it in for a long time.
6. I’m allergic to nickel and can’t wear a lot of jewelry.  I actually have a wooden watch my husband bought for me because of this.  The back is also made of wood so I don’t have to worry about it causing a horrible rash that can scar.  I have a heart shaped scar on my chest from a necklace I fell asleep on.
7. I HATE oatmeal with a capital H A T E.  I actually start to feel nauseated at the sight of it or of someone eating it.  My parents made me eat it when I was younger and I buried mouthfuls of it in my mom’s plants.

There, how was that?  Interesting enough?  I could keep going actually.  That was rather fun.  I’ll have to take some time to think of 15 websites to grant the award to.  Then I’ll post them here.  Wow, that’s a LOT!

1. http://marteandkristin.wordpress.com/
2. 1
3. 1
4. 1
5. 1
6. 1
7. 1
8. 1
9. 1
10. 1
11. 1
12. 1
13. 1
14. 1
15. 1

The day after Nyquil

I’m really sensitive to some medications especially anything containing a decongestant.  I usually take Dayquil and it usually makes me tired.  Well, I ran out of Dayquil so I took maybe two-thirds of a dose of Nyquil.  I woke up at 6 pm!  I don’t think I’ll do that again.  My husband did go to the store and bought me some more dayquil while I was out cold.  I took that when I woke up with my stuffy head and sore throat.  I feel so much better after taking that!

I’ve been listening to some more music categorized as “other”, which means everything apparently.  I did find a couple of songs though that I could understand why they couldn’t figure out the genre.  They are those songs where a band goes completely out into the great beyond and plays something completely out of character and it doesn’t seem to fit anywhere.  There is a song by Empyrium which according to Wikipedia is a folk/doom metal band (which is not my thing at all).  There was a couple of songs by them and I deleted all but one which is called, “The Sad Song and the Wind”.  I love that song.  I’m still trying to think of where to put it.  Wikipedia says they draw their inspiration from nature which sounds like something I would like but when they sing it makes me want to turn it off as fast as I can.  I am never fast enough.

I’m almost ready to start my tatted earrings but I have the problem of not having two shuttles that are not already attached to a project.  I have one and its too late to go buy another one right now.  I could make one like I did before with a tide bottle but I would still have to wait for the glue to dry.  The one I made works great though and I do have a tide bottle to mistreat.  Things that make you go Hmmmmm……

An alarm just went off on my phone to remind me that next week is spring break and it scared me out of my skin!  I’m so used to my reminders all having the same tone but this one was very high pitched and different.  I almost hit the roof I jumped so high and my oldest son is still laughing.  I have to go hit him.  TTYL

Easy Saturday’s at home

Sometimes the best thing to do on a cold Saturday is to snuggle in and take it easy.  I tinkered around some but mostly I listened to music.  I’m still organizing my itunes.  After my other laptop died my husband put all of our music together (to avoid duplicates) and then he set up my new (to me) laptop with itunes and dumped it ALL in.  It’s all in a shared holder on another hard drive so if the wireless cuts out my music stops working.  Anyway, I have every song everyone in the house has downloaded or uploaded- EVER!  Many of the songs are from CD’s we had.  He copied them all to itunes so we wouldn’t need the CD’s (or a player) unless we lost our music on the computers.  Well, I don’t like having all of this extra music and all the crazy genres!  That is my biggest pet peeve… there are so many different genres that the music is all over the place.  Half will be labeled one thing and have another so sometimes I buy a song thinking I don’t have it.  ERrrgh!  So I’ve been sorting and putting things back in order (my order).  I’ve deleted a lot of crap too.  I can’t imagine how anyone could consider screaming music.  It makes me wonder how they even know what the lyrics are or even what song they are listening to.  Hmmm… things to ponder.  Or not.  I just deleted it.

Yesterday and today I have been listening to some old rock music.  Some people (who live here but who shall remain un-named) like to label it as classic rock, old rock, soft rock, other, a very descriptive “genre” or oldies.  As I see it, if I remember the song it cannot be considered an “oldie” or “classic”.  If I live to be 100 maybe but not just yet.  I prefer to label music as the genre it is or was at the time.  I have smart playlists set up in iTunes to sort music by dates depending on the decade and then from there I can sort by genre.  That makes “the best of” albums a pain in the keester.  I have been looking up the actual dates for each song so they go where they should.

Anyhoo, yesterday I listened to the Beatles all day.  I forgot how much I loved their music!  Hey Jude is one of my favorites.

This is a song I had started to learn on the guitar and it makes me want to get it out and try again.  I do have more time now and a really nice guitar that deserves to be played more than dusted.

Today I listened to a little Jimi Hendrix and a lot of Eric Clapton and Cream.  I have to admit that some of this music is actually older than I am but I still love it.  I think once you label something “classic” it gets shelved and listened to less.  I really think we should take another look at what we used to call music and compare it to what we have today.  It is sounding a lot less like music to me!

How about a little “sunshine of your love?”  I love listening to the guitar music in this.

Here is another good one

How sad that such a wonderfully talented musician died at such a young age!  27 I think…..  That happens way too often.

I would have liked to meet that guy and shake his talented hand.  Maybe some of it would rub off on me.  😉

Have a wonderful restful right and beautiful Sunday!