Havasimy

Okay, as I posted at some point not too long ago, I subscribe to eMusic for both music and audiobooks. The plans I am on get me 75 tracks and one audio book per month. I've decided to post my choices each month. eMusic contains no major label artists, which means I often have to research artists I've never heard of and put time into my choices. Also, when when I don't have much time, I often go towards familiar names, like James Taylor, Maria McKee and Great White. And the eMusic tracks I've listened to most are without a doubt the ones from Scott Blasey's solo album "Travelin' On". The familiar names, though, seem to bring me to two categories: Country and Comedy. But my downloads span a wide range, from Vince Guaraldi to Anti-Flag. Lately, I've been really in to Billy Joe Shaver. You might not have heard of him, but he's written song for some of the all-time great country stars. He's as important a name to the outlaw style of country music as the names Cash and Haggard. With that, I give you my downloads for this month (Just the album name if I download the whole album):

- "Grown Up Christmas List" by Rissi Palmer (two tracks) - It's a little late for Christmas songs and I didn't really need both versions of this song, but I loved Rissi's first album and want to support her. Also, I got to see her perform live before the Steelers/Jaguars playoff game as well as halftime. It would be really cool to see her in a full concert.
- "Get Thee Behind Me Satan" by Billy Joe Shaver w\ John Anderson (one track) - Billy Joe's new single. Great song. Seen the video on tv a few times. Disappointed they only have the single and not the entire new album available. Hopefully they'll put it up soon.
- Another Way To Go - Radney Foster (13 tracks) - Always liked his stuff when I heard it but never owned any of his stuff, so saw this album, recognized a couple songs and decided to get the whole album.
- Austin City Limits: Live From Austin, TX by Richard Thompson (15 tracks) - A guy I worked with at my last company who I occassionally hung out with always talked about how great Richard Thompson is, so I decided to finally add some of his stuff to my collection.
- Outtakes and Demos: 1975-2003 by Joe Grushecky (30 tracks) - What can I say? I want some more Grushecky in my collection. For those who don't know, Joe is a friend of Bruce Springsteen and was described in a national article as what Bruce would be if Bruce hadn't become rich and famous. In other words, a great blue-collar, bar band rocker.
- Storyteller- Live at the Bluebird 1992 - Billy Joe Shaver (14 tracks) - More Billy Joe. In this one, he's performing live with his son Eddy (who has since passed away) and I believe another guy in a acoustic performance where, as the title suggests, he tells stories about the songs. The stories are as good as the songs.

Those are my music downloads for the month. I haven't made my audiobook download just yet. If anyone has any eMusic recommendations, especially for music tracks, let me know. Thanks.

Labels: emusic

It's funny. I have blog postings all done in my head, but forget what I wanted to write about when I get in front of my computer at home. So I'll just write what comes to mind while I try to think of what I wanted to write about.

My apartment building has switched over to Comcast cable from a small cable company. Now I am in no means a fan of Comcast. Since I don't have an HDTV and am not big on features, I did not look forward to paying more for stuff I didn't want. Well, I signed up on Saturday. It's actually cheaper for the first six months. After that, I'll have to get rid of HBO, which I do watch regularly, and the second tier of Comcast service, which only has one station I watch, to get back to the old cost level. One plus of the whole thing is that my internet is a whole lot faster.

The whole being a Comcast customer thing didn't get off to the best start. It started when I realized that the guy I signed up with didn't take my modem's # when I signed up. So I got a hold of one of the guys, gave him the modem info and he said he'd set up the account. He did, but when I connected, the only page that would come up is the Comcast setup page. When I tried to do the setup download, which shouldn't, and I didn't want to download anything. The download stalled and I finally called Comcast customer service. I repeatedly hit the "0" button until I got to a customer service tech person. Unfortunately, she couldn't help me since I didn't have my account # since I just signed up. So I was transferred to a standard customer service rep. She found my account number. All the while, I didn't particularly hide my feelings towards Comcast. Of course, coming home and expecting to use the internet and having all webpages being forwarded to a Comcast-branded page did not put me in the best of moods. So when the rep got my account number and put me back to a tech support rep, she put me through to a too-friendly, very patient tech rep. He set me up my internet without having to download any crap. I actually had a positive experience with Comcast. This is either a sign of good things to come this year or a sign of the apocalypse. I'm guessing the latter.

Yeah, I still can't remember what I had planned to write about. Next time I think about it, I'll have to write it down.

Labels: Comcast, customer service call

I swear I'm going to start blogging more regularly. Christmas was not a good time for me. Following the holidays, I made two trips out of town. And for the most part, I don't usually turn my computer on at home. I tried to sign up for the mobile blogging, but I don't get any response when I send the email from my phone to sign up. I'm going to have to figure this out. It'd be alot easier to blog from from my phone, especially now that I have a cellphone with decent internet and typing capability.

I guess I should do a 2007 recap. I didn't do as well on the goals I set last year, but it ended up on a optimistic note. My goals results were:
1. Complete failure, but so far it's been better the first month of this year. I'm holding this goal over for this year.
2. I'm in as bad of shape as I was at the start of last year. I have cut back on my Mountain Dew and pop in general intake. Also, I'm feeling more motivated after spending time hanging around a marathon. I'm also holding this over for this year. I thought about making this a more specific goal for this year, like being able to run a 5K, but I'm keeping it general.
3. This was completed. I only went to one new state, Delaware, which is only minutes away from my new job. But I did go there for the first time and I've actually been there a few times since for various reasons. I'm going to keep this goal again and I won't have a easy nearby state to fall back on. And all of my planned trips this year are to states I've been to, although I might be able to sneak up to Kentucky when I'm in Tennessee.
4. This one was also completed. My trip to see the Pirates play in Philly didn't count because I've been there before, but my trips to Arizona to see the Pens play the Coyote and the Steelers play the Cardinals. I'm keeping this goal for this year. I'll be aiming specifically for the Steelers game against the Eagles here in Philly this fall.
5. Didn't make it to Vegas. For six months in the middle of the year, I was a contractor meaning I didn't get paid time off. By the time I was offered a full-time position, it was too late to make plans. Besides, I just had too much crap going on in December to rush a Vegas trip. This goal is being pushed off to 2008. I'm already making tentative plans to tack on a Vegas stop to a trip out to the west coast for other reasons.
6. I did go to the Jersey shore the week before Labor Day. So another goal officially completed. So I'm changing this goal for 2008 to more trips down to the shore, including Atlantic City. I made one trip to AC last year, which means two trips total to the shore. So for 2008, I'm thinking three trips to AC or any places along the north Atlantic shore. So I'm including even Delaware and Maryland shore.
7. I never really worked on this. I couldn't even come up with three new things. The only I could think of was walk across the Ben Franklin bridge. And I didn't do that. If there was any new things I did last year, they wouldn't be anything I would talk about. So this goal gets carried over til next year.
8. This goal I actually completed easily. Completed this goal, in fact, on my birthday. And got to the point where I stopped keeping track of number of dates. So for this year, I can't make a goal be more dates than last year. So for 2008, this goal is to go out on dates with more women than last year. So I'll consider this goal complete if I go out on dates with three women. I'll also consider it complete if the first or second date ends up becoming a relationship, thus eliminating a need to go out with more women.
9. Another complete failure. My apartment got better, if only slightly, when I was seeing Megan. Then went to complete hell during the Christmas time. So, yes, this goal gets carried over.
10. I did finish 5 novels. More so if you include audiobooks, which I do include. However, didn't make 150 movies. I even stopped documenting the movies I watched. But the main reason was that when I was home, I was always watching tv shows on dvd. If you counted the dvds I watched and converted them into the movie equivalent, then I would have hit surely 150. For 2008, I'm scrapping this goal completely. I'm replacing it with trying to achieve the last paragraph on this page. That's right, I'm going to try and visit 25 different Hooters this year before December 25th. I'll replace the current movie list on the side of this blog with the status of this quest. I'm currently at two, which is right on the necessary pace of one every two weeks.
Anyway, an unofficial goal of mine is going to be to blog more. So hopefully there will be more updates and, in return, more comments.

Labels: 2007, 2008, goals, review