Hi! I am writing you today for several reasons that will remain unnamed. Where do I even start? That will remain undisclosed as well.
Ted Update
I have been getting used to my new job which has been cool but also not, but I think it is fine. They say I am doing great and helping a lot which is so nice. I just had a meeting with another budding UX designer who was looking for advice? From me?? Kinda funny but it is true that I have some valuable insights at this point, and she said it was so helpful so I will maybe do some more of that.
I have not had any alcohol for about 9 months now and it is REALLY cool. I’ve probably said this before but I definitely feel a lot more sane and in-control of things, and also smarter and more healthy. I do miss the garbage taste sometimes, so I drink non-alcoholic beer sometimes — you may have seen Athletic Brewing around, it’s a really good alternative for golden ales and IPA stuff, and Budweiser Zero is good for a nice cheap thing. There is also this really good Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher that is 0 calories, 0 carbs, 0 alcohol, etc. It is basically a hop soda and it satisfies that taste-craving. There are also some other brands that make a similar thing.
I have been getting back into building stuff, trying to get back into hobbies after not really being into doing much since I quit drinking. I’m also getting out there more and doing stuff which feels good. It is still basically winter up here but the forecast says it will be sunny starting on Tuesday! Spring will soon be sprung!
Thoughts on Spotify
Before Spotify (and Apple Music, but I’m just going to say Spotify for brevity) took over the world, music was in a bunch of different places. I had like 2,000 songs in iTunes that were downloaded from Bandcamp, ripped from CDs, and from filesharing programs. Growing up I had a computer at my mom’s house and a computer at my dad’s house and each had different iTunes libraries, and I had an iPod with one of those computers. Keeping it all organized was a fun challenge, but annoying. Poor me:( It was also the generation of the aux cord which has given way to Bluetooth and wifi.
Enter Spotify, which gives you instant access to millions of songs on virtually any device at any time, and has a decent ability to show you new artists of any genre based on your listening. It also has fun social networking features. It is criminally cheap, about the cost of one CD per month.
I listen to music a shidload of the time, even while I sleep. For almost all of my use cases (in my office room, bedroom, living room, garage, car, other people’s houses), Spotify makes more sense than CDs, tapes, vinyl, mp3 players, and whatever else. I use Bluetooth/wifi speakers with my phone in different rooms and in the car, and my computer doesn’t even have a CD drive. This means that I got in the habit of using Spotify for like 90% of my music listening. In its early days I didn’t use it because a lot of my music is pretty niche and it wasn’t on Spotify, but that is not the case now.
Spotify is a great deal for the user, and for the company itself, but is a horrible deal for the artists. Artists only get a fraction of a cent for each stream. A lot of fantastic artists are intentionally not on Spotify for this reason, which makes sense — why give it away for basically free when so much work has gone into it? There is also something cool about exclusive releases that are exclusive to a certain format.
Another thing: some bands that were around before the streaming boom but are since defunct simply don’t have a reason to put their music on streaming services, so some of their music is only accessible via physical media, Bandcamp, or YouTube. In some cases, all their physical media is sold out and will not be restocked. This is also the case with rare records that will never be re-pressed, including a lot of old punk and rockabilly compilations that are some of the best releases I’ve ever heard.
The only solution seems to be to buy music and merch directly from artists while you can. The problem for the user is that this can get expensive real quick, and if it’s not all on one platform, the user has to remember the band and find their music on whatever platform it’s on when they want to listen to it.
As an artist, and as a member of the Glaze Music Collective, I frequently ponder this predicament. The simple solution would be that Spotify would pay artists their fair share, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. What might happen is that with enough demand, a new and more woke streaming service will come up and sweep the market, that would be real cool. I think Tidal tried to do that but I’m not sure it’s working.
In the meantime, users of music streaming services have to remember to keep an eye out for Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, and physical releases, and keep track of them all to make sure they stay in our listening rotation. And also keep buying stuff from artists. I have been trying to remember things I loved years ago on these other platforms and it has been a lot of fun rediscovering them, but I worry about releases I won’t remember or can’t find again.
Long One-Syllable Words
I was up in the middle of the night one night and wondered something: what are some of the longest one-syllable words? The results will shock you!
Screeched
Schlepped
Scratched
Scrounged
Scrunched
Stretched
Straights
Strengths
There is also a Wiki page for this but I don’t think that a lot of them are real words.
Cauldron of Life EP Out Now!
Speaking of music, I released my debut solo EP last month! Check it out !!! I am still learning guitar so I was tuned to open D the whole time and I’m still learning song structures lol but I think it turned out pretty cool. I also did the recording, mixing, mastering, and cover art. I do have some ideas brewin’ for my second release 😈😈
A New Workspace
The house I’m living in right now came furnished, so I had my mattress, bedframe, couch, and a bunch of other shid in the garage. Last weekend I hired some help and moved a bunch of it to a storage unit to make room for a workspace in the garage, and this weekend I set up a new workbench from a kit. I haven’t built anything in like a year so I’m gonna set up my tools and get back to it! Just gotta think of some projects 🤔 but that shouldn’t take long once it’s all set up. Bussin’!
The Playlist
Thar she blows! I really like making these n hope you like them too:)
Cleo’s Corner
My hairy donkey has been enjoying life as usual. The other day she was out on the deck and another gray cat came to the deck and Cleo made such crazy sounds. They didn’t fight but I broke it up anyway because I didn’t want anything to happen. The gray cat has huge testicles and I have seen him around. What a week!
That is all for now. Have a good week! Unless…🥺?