I haven’t felt like blogging much lately. Sorry to all faithful readers and blog-wanderers for leaving you hanging. All is well, I’m still alive. Check out this band I just discovered… pretty awesome:
Today you should listen to…
Four Day Hombre Three Years
Yesterday EMI Music, the company I work for, restructured and layed off 20% of it’s North American workforce. Crap. There’s no good way to say that. In Nashville we lost almost 30 people in our company of 200.
I feel like Treebeard, one of the Ents from Lord Of The Rings, when he stumbles out of the forest into a clearing and sees all of his young trees chopped up and lying on the ground, and says, “…many of these trees were my friends….” So sad. Work was just not the same today without them.
Some of them had been working at EMI for 10 to 15 years. Some for just a few months. It was like a tornado coming through… a few people here, a few people there, and then they’re gone. It was odd, awkward, and very very foreign. In the midst of it all I almost feel guilty still being here. I just happened to get hired into a division that was growing in sales two years ago, so here I am. As much as work frustrates me many days, I feel very blessed to still have my job.
The fact that the music industry is suffering, and that people are illegally downloading music, became very real yesterday. The growth in sales at services like iTunes is not countering the decline in CD sales. People are getting their music off the internet and burning it from their friends CDs.
And yesterday it cost 30 of my friends their jobs.
Today you should listen to…
Future Of Forestry “You And I“
Ah yes… Saturday night we all piled into the car and headed down to the local bowling alley to roll a few rocks. Good times. In truth I’ve never been that great of a bowler. I always feel very accomplished when I break 100, and topping out at 125 the other night made me feel pretty good. Steph has invented a style of bowling all her own… maybe we should call it “trot, hop, drop”. It’s kinda cute actually. I worked with her a little bit to smooth the release down a bit, but then she ended up doing worse, so I let her go back to “trot, hop, drop”. Whatever works right?
Of course this all leads up to me making fun of our favorite local blogger, Uncle Tim. Do you all know that he was quite the bowler back in his day? A competitive bowler I might add… the whole family actually! He was one of those guys who had his own bowling ball, along with it’s cute little bag and polishing cloth. He always harrassed me because my trumpet in highschool was so shiny – trumpets are supposed to be shiny – but I could actually shave in the reflection of his bowling ball. Amazing.
Tim the bowler. League and everything – had the jersey, had the shoes. Was even on the highschool team (and I’ve got yearbook photos to prove it). Rumor has it he was the anchor though. Tim was actually seriously considering bowling professionally. I remember sitting in physics class with him actually reviewing his college choices based on the performance of the school’s bowling league.
Oh what’s that Tim? You wanted me to update my blog? Ok, here you go.
Go Colts!
Today you should listen to…
Damien Rice “Grey Room”
On Tuesday our favorite company whose name begins with Apple announced the debut of their highly anticpated iPhone, a “trademarked” name which has since come under fire in a lawsuit filed by Cisco yesterday… but I digress.
So the iPhone. Say what you want about Apple, Macs, and such, but this is one heck of a beautiful product they have created. It’s an iPod, a cell-phone, and internet communication device all in one. It’s widescreen. It’s wireless. It’s thin. It’s about as small as you could make it with all of the things it is capable of. A modified version of OS X is actually built into the thing. It automatically shifts from portrait to landscape mode based on the way you hold it. It automatically shuts off the buttons when you hold it to your ear so you don’t accidently hit a key while you’re talking to someone. It’s all touch-screen… I’m pretty sure there is only one actual “button” on the whole thing. It’s web-capable like no other phone before it. It will change the landscape of music devices, cell phones, and PDAs from this day forward.
A $600 price tag and two-year Cingular Wireless contract aside, you gotta just admire the sheer genius of it. Spend some time on the website (also one of the most beautiful websites I’ve ever seen) and check this thing out – if you’re a fan of iPods and electronic gadgets, the iPhone will blow your mind. Seriously.
Today you should listen to…
La Rocca “Goodnight“
(while a little disjointed, this is such a good album… hard to choose one song)
This is ridiculous. It’s January 5th and 64 degrees outside. Normally I would blow it off as, “this is Nashville… it’s warm all year here.” And it generally is, and I deal with it, and whatever. But for the love of pete, I was back home in Minnesota for a week and a half over Christmas and there was NO snow at all (well, except for a couple inches on New Years Eve, which in the end was irrelevant).
I’m sick of all this warmth all the time. Nashvillians claim that they are blessed with 4 seasons in the south…I have yet to distinguish a difference between fall, winter, and spring down here. Meanwhile, I see a headline yesterday that they predict 2007 to be the warmest year on record which means another unbearable summer of ridiculously high heat and 197% humidity.
Look, I know all of you that live up north get sick of the cold too in the winter. I’m not wishing the Arctic on you. I’d just like to see a little snow a few times a year.
I’m going to move to Alaska.
Today you should listen to…
The Album Leaf “Thule“
3,491: This is the number of miles driven in the last 12 days.
58: This is the number of hours driven in the last 12 days.
We do this to ourselves every year. I don’t know why we have chosen to live so far away from every stinking member of our family. From Nashville to Minnesota, to northern Minnesota, to Nebraska, to Kansas, to Nebraska, to Minnesota, and back to Nashville. The holidays become this strange caffeine-induced blur of dotted white road lines interspersed with segments of the traditional family griping about politics, religion, and why the kid working at the grocery store can’t keep his hair cut a decent length… the gall.
So, another Christmas season in the books. It was good to see all of our family and friends, and it was worth the 3,491 miles. We got my parents an iPod nano… spent several days instructing them on the intricacies of digital music. My grandparents got a couple DVDs, so we spent some time instructing them on how to use their DVD player (again). Many family board games enjoyed, much chocolate and cookies consumed, some good gifts received. And I love the Midwest – I get claustrophobic with all of these hills around me all the time. It finally snowed New Years Eve… would have enjoyed the snow a week earlier, but it will have to work for this year.
I just put new tires on the car two weeks ago. It’s time for a rotation and another oil change.
Today you should listen to…
U2 “New Year’s Day”
I just want everyone to know that this is my last day at work before Christmas vacation… woo hoo!!!
Today you should listen to…
Chris Botti “The Christmas Song“
Ok, fine, fine… FINE! I’m a sappy sentimentalist and I like “It’s A Wonderful Life”. I watch it every year during December. Last night was my annual viewing, and yes, I enjoyed it. So go on you naysayers, you cynicists, you apathetics, make fun of me… see what I care. I will continue to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” every year, and I will continue to be encouraged by it’s simple, yet profound, look at human nature and will be reminded once again that Christmas is a holiday to celebrate the higher things of love, relationships, and life. I happen to think it’s a fantastic movie, and it’s one of my favorites.
Today you should listen to…
Ray LaMontagne “Lesson Learned“
I feel it is nothing less than my duty to offer my thoughts about the lastest MP3 player to pop up on the market. With the Christmas season in full swing, some of you may be considering what MP3 player to buy for your mom, or brother, or dog this year, so you can consider this insight. Being that it is my job to work with the digital music accounts on behalf of my company, I guess I have some sense of authority on the subject… or something…. I doubt it’s worth too much…
Anyways, good ol’ Microsoft. I almost feel guilty dedicating a blog to them, but since they have burst into the market this year with the self proclaimed “iPod Killer”… well, they’ve brought this upon themselves.
So the brains in Redmond, WA all sat around a table one afternoon and said to themselves, gosh, we need to get into this digital music business. Forget the fact that they already had a digital music store called MSN Music that failed miserably… it pretty much sucked.
The brains of Redmond decided to call their new invention Zune. It rhymes with “tune” I guess, which is kinda like iTunes. So, Zune it is. They spent months upon months planning the great “iPod Killer”. Throughout the whole thing I wanted to keep an open mind, because you know competition is good and I wished for them the best. So the Zune was created in top secrecy, utilizing I’m sure absurd amounts of money that has been collecting dust in an aircraft carrier parked in the Pudget Sound.
At first glance, the Zune looks decently cool – it’s got a nice big, color video screen, it’s about the same size as an iPod, yet it has some sense of character that places it on it’s own. It comes with a built in FM radio and has a wireless sharing function.
Then you pick it up.
When I first held the Zune about three months ago, my initial thought was, “my gosh, it feels like a toy.” One of the other guys at my label joked, “yeah, they should just stick a Fisher Price sticker on it”… ouch. But there’s truth in that. I pick it up and it just has this clunky feel to it. I shake it… dear heavens, there’s things rattling in there. Yikes.
I turn it on.
Now here’s one of their biggest mistakes. Obviously they didn’t want to remove themselves to far from the iPod design, so they included a scroll wheel… except the scroll wheel doesn’t scroll. It’s a four directional button in the shape of a circle! They would have been better off putting an old four-arrow Nintendo controller on it.
The big video screen is cool I guess, but the resolution is about the same as the video iPod, which means in terms of quality, the iPod has the better screen. The buttons are so small, spaced so awkwardly at the bottom of the device that it almost forces it to be a two handed player… unlike my iPod which I can simply hold in one hand and operate with my thumb while I drive down the road. On top of the buttons being small, they don’t light up so you can’t see them in the dark, and they’re also difficult to press, so after a while your fingers just get tired.
The thing is really hard to balance – in fact, I would say it is off balance, which means that when holding it in your hands it feels awkward, and you’re more prone to dropping it. At this point, a drop may do it some good. There’s already stuff rattling around inside so it probably won’t hurt anything.
The Zune comes in three colors: white, black, and poop. It comes with a little bag that is so tight at the opening you can hardly get the thing back in there. The wireless sharing function… leaves a lot to be desired. If you want to simply send a song to someone, it stops the music you’re currently playing. Same when you receive a song. And all the potential the wireless function has to be cool is lost because you can’t “request” a neighboring Zune for a song… you have to go physically ask the person for them to send the song, and then you can receive it… that would be like me having to call you on the phone to ask you to send an email.
As I was discussing with my friend the other day – the difference between an iPod and a Zune is this: Apple designed the iPod… Microsoft engineered the Zune. And you can tell. It’s all function OVER form, and I think that’s a mistake when it comes to “social electronics”.
MP3 players are more than just a functional device – the lend insight to your way of life and they are a fashion accessory. They are interwoven into the way you live your life and become integral to the way you experience entertainment. For as much as Zune is promoting the “social” aspect of their new device, I feel they’ve really fallen short on making it something people want to engage in a social setting.
If the Zune is the “iPod killer”, then they’ve gone into battle with nerf guns.
Two years ago my friend Ashley was diagnosed with cancer… again. When she was in highschool (before I knew her) she had already had a bout with it, but with a lot of cemo came through it ok. But this time was really bad. It had gotten into her bones and was affecting her spine and the base of her tailbone. I don’t know a lot about cancer, but I know that when it gets that deep it’s not a good thing. Medically they were out of options.
The doctor’s gave her three months to live, and we braced for the worst.
Ashley is one of the sweetest, most caring, Godly girls I know, and like it always does with people like that, it just pains you to face the reality that they could die very soon. I remember in those first few weeks I was so diligent about praying for her. I took it upon myself to be her prayer warrior (as many did I’m sure). There were days I would pray multiple times, begging God on her behalf to heal her in the midst of such a tragic outlook. Other days I would be really rushed, but would not fail to pray at least once, even if just for a few seconds. It was a good experience to be so closely and purposefully tied to something I was praying for – a lot times I feel my prayers are meaningless, and drifting off into empty space. But praying for someone’s life wasn’t meaningless. I remember feeling good about myself as I prayed daily for her – one month turned into two, which turned into three.
Summer rolled around, and I figured she was living on borrowed time. I was grateful for that, for her sake – more time to spend with her family and such. And as the weeks drew on, my habitual praying eventually slowed down and then altogether stopped. It’s weird how that works. The first few months I was in such a driven, almost panicked state, but then as time goes on the sense of urgency dwindles.
Over the summer Ashley and her mom started looking into some alternative treatments for the cancer. They looked into a lot of nutritionally based stuff, and some really advanced radiation treatment. Some stuff seemed to help, but it was hard to tell. Ashley’s mom would send us email updates from her clinic in Houston, and you know how those are… she tries to stay really positive but you can read between the lines and know things aren’t going all that well.
Time goes on. Six months turns into a year, which turns into a year and a half… in October we get an email saying that the most recent scans show that the tumors have spread and grown. One is pushing against her pancreas. Another is located at the base of her neck – not a good place for a tumor. And while I want to stay positive, and stay faithful, deep down I know it’s just a matter of time. They’ve been doing some pretty invasive cemo on her, and I know it’s getting her down – emotionally, physically, etc.
And now it’s December. I haven’t heard an update from Ashley in quite a while, which honestly is typical… when things aren’t going all that well, the updates are a lot less frequent.
So I’m walking out of my house this morning and I get a text from my friend Brian that says, “Ashley is healed! The cancer is gone!”. WHAT! I call him up and get the full story – it’s true, the cancer is gone. Ashley took a step of faith a couple months ago and decided to stop the radiation for the time being… and what do you know, the girl doesn’t have one trace of a tumor in her. They did a full CT scan last week and she’s completely clean! Amazing.
I’m awed and amazed. I’m so happy for Ashley. I’m disappointed in myself for not continuing to have faith throughout the whole thing. I can’t comprehend the power of supernatural healing, but I’m glad it still happens.
Merry Christmas Ashley.
